Black Forest Gateau

I'm posting this well in advance of the weekend so you can use the week days to gather the ingredients. Because you will very much want to make this when you have a spare hour or two.

I never really knew what was going on with a Black Forest gateau. It sounded like a very dated 70s dessert to me, something you bought in the frozen section for a Sunday roast dessert. I don’ t really know where I got that impression from.

Because it’s basically a super chocolatey cake with booze and cherries and cream. It’s like a darker/autumnal version of a Victoria Sponge. The Germans do know what they’re at when it comes to chocolate, so I thought I would give it a go for my annual Eurovision party. Germany, represent!

I’ve basically gone with my favourite chocolate cake recipe for the sponge and altered it with the flavours of the Black Forest. Traditionally, the Germans love a stiff drink, so kirsch is the booze of choice. I didn’t have any of that, and I didn’t want to blow anyone’s head off, so I decided to substitute in what I had. Ginjinha is a sour cherry drink which is common in Lisbon, with lots of little places selling shots of it for a euro. It’s sweeter and less alcoholic than kirsch so it seemed like a nice introduction to the boozy cake.

If you’re doing a dry thing or making it for kids and don’t want to add booze, just substitute in more cherry juice.

You could also make this as a yummy set of cupcakes, I had leftovers of everything and so it was easy to whip up a couple..

Bakewell Crumble Muffins

On a cold wintery Sunday, these are just the ticket.

I am particularly proud of these bad boys. I was feeling in the mood for something a little almond-y, a little sweet, a little fruity.. And well hello here is something to tick all the boxes.

Crumble is the best invention. It’s amazing with custard, but that’s not an “on the go” snack. This is my version of a portable crumble with a bakewell twist and I’m rather pleased with myself for having concocted it.

Yummy surprise jammy centre!

German Biscuits

German biscuits are a staple in Northern Irish bakeries, along with other such classics as snowballs and coconut fingers and fifteens.

They’re a very important part of my childhood, and whenever we would head to a bakery, my sticky little fingers would reach for this sweet round shortbread biscuit,with jam oozing out the sides and barely-set white icing dolloped in the centre.

As I've said, the classic combination is jam and white icing, so the caramel in half of these isn’t strictly “canon” but I had a little bit of caramel left over from another baking project so I thought I’d mix things up. It was delicious, as adding caramel to things normally is. If I had to choose, I think I have to favour tradition and give my thumbs up to the classic jam-filled ones, mainly because I'm a sucker for nostalgia.

You will note that the icing on top is a little.. slapdash. But that’s the way it is meant to be. A beautifully and finely piped topping of icing is great.. but it’s not quite right for these. So dollop away!

Strawberry Cinnamon Birthday Cake

I am post nights, so my sweet tooth is appearing! That kind of thing tends to happen when you've been awake for 24 hours. Restraint becomes.. difficult and cake becomes ambrosia!

My boyfriend is very patient. I was really sick during his birthday. Really, really sick. So the cake that I had planned carefully to make him didn’t happen. And he got no cake on his birthday at all. It’s pretty much the worst case of me dropping the ball.

But this story has a happy ending.. One week later, I was all better, and there was cake!

So, I could make the cake I’d been planning. My boyfriend loves fruity cakes, and my strawberry crumble is his absolute fave. But it is FAR too hot for crumble. Since summer is a cake season, I decided to reprise an old favourite- the strawberry rosette cake, giving it a twist from my crumble flavours. I added a little twist of cinnamon, some ground almonds, and played around with the decoration. I really love decorating cakes, but I’m working on it. I wanted to do like a cascade of roses, and little mini rosettes, but it wasn’t the effect I quite wanted. Maybe I should have added glitter. Glitter always helps.

Strawberry Rosette Cake

The best way that I can think of to try to hurry spring-time along! I finally felt the grip of winter release a bit this week - I haven't worn a winter coat for 3 days in a row.. And I think it might have something to do with this little cake.

It is one of my absolute and utter favourites, and I think that is mainly due to the fresh flavours and the easily-achieved look of the cake.

Rosettes are my new favourite way to decorate a cake – simple but utterly effective. They turn an otherwise rather ordinary looking cake into a thing of beauty, and while I am of the opinion that the taste matters most of all, it is a completely lovely bonus when it also looks as good as it tastes!

Now, I have said before that pieces of fruit have no place in dessert. And I will stand by this opinion come hell or high water! There is nothing worse, for me, than seeing an otherwise lovely cake smothered in berries and stuff. Just eat a fruit salad for dessert if you love fruit that much!

Having said that, we all know that even the best rules have exceptions. And to me, the exceptions are this cake, which only has a minimal fruit aspect (jam doesn't count), and banoffee. Of course banoffee.

Coconut Baby Shower Cupcakes

New year, new life.. And one of my friends is having a baby!

So, I decided to make a few little cupcakes for a mini baby shower. She doesn’t know what she’s having, therefore I decided to keep them very neutral, and I wanted a nice plain-coloured cupcake which still packed a lot of flavour.

Everyone knows I LOVE a bit of coconut, and coconut and jam are just best buds in my kitchen, so I did half little coconut cupcakes and half larger coconut muffins with a surprise jammy centre! These turned out sweet, super-duper coconutty and utterly gorgeous. I will make these a lot more.

Packaged up for transport!

Sidebar: because I am great at planning my life, the battery to my camera failed at the very end of this recipe, so the last few photos are courtesy of my nexus 5.

Big Tall Victoria Sponge

I had a minor disaster a few weeks ago – my oven BROKE! Well, the glass door shattered for some reason, and rendered it completely unusable. Unfortunately it happened over the weekend when no one was around to come and fix it.

It was a tense 2 days with no oven, but then a very nice handyman came and installed a new one and all was right with the world! I’m still trying to work out how this oven bakes, so for its maiden voyage I decided to bake something fairly classic and simple (but that I had NEVER made before, great!).

The sponge here is actually the *second* thing I baked in the oven, because the first Victoria sponge didn’t turn out so well – there is enough batter in the mixture to make three good tiers, but I had initially baked it with only 2 tiers so the cake layers had their own little muffin top. I mean, the taste was good but the cake was NOT cute.

The only thing I would slightly change in this cake is that I think I put too much filling in, so the layers preferred to slide around a little bit (I have reduced the quantities here). But it tasted goooooood!

Jammy Muffins

I am currently on my jolly holidays in Belgium! It is great here - I can't wait to make waffles and proper frites when I get home! I have also been stuffing my case (and face) with enough chocolate to live on for a year. I really don't see anything wrong with that.

But enough about chocolate, this post is all about the above delicious muffin donut thingys, Let’s first address the name of these little morsels. They’re a bit like a muffin and a bit like a donut. But Doffin sounds dumb and (for me) evokes the unholy combination of a dolphin and a puffin. And the less said about Muffnut the better..

This is one of the recipes that I love. It is quick, simple, uses ingredients I always have hanging around the kitchen, and most importantly they look and taste pretty impressive.

I was really happy with how these turned out- perfect little sugary domes of deliciousness with a surprise of sweet fruity jam inside. An absolute winner.