Cake | The Mindfulness Kitchen

Almond, Blood Orange and Raspberry Cake

By Emma Hawkins | March 7, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Blood oranges are the delicious ingredient that I think is about to flood the food world and hit the mainstream. They have a very unusual flavour – sort of the classic orange taste with a fruity kick similar to strawberries in the background. This makes it a perfect partner for almonds and raspberries, which when all mixed into a cake tastes delicious! They also have an incredible natural pink colour – this icing is just blood orange juice and icing sugar, no food colouring!

Depending on the size of orange you use the mixture has the potential to end up very wet. If this happens there’s a chance the cake could take too long to cook and end up burnt on the outside and raw in the middle. Therefore, if this happens, I’d recommend adding a couple more tbsp of flour to the mixture to thicken it up – it’s not really the done thing in the world of baking but it works for me. If you’re unsure if your mixture is too wet or not you can check it using the v test. Take a blob of mixture on the wooden spoon you’ve been mixing with and sharply shake the spoon once to drop the mixture off it. If the mixture hanging off the spoon is a v shape it’s ready!

Recipe

Makes 1 cake

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

250g Butter
200g Caster sugar
60g Clear honey
4 Large eggs
140g Greek Yoghurt
1 tsp Almond extract
250g Self-raising flour
100g Ground Almonds
1tsp Baking powder
200g Frozen raspberries
Zest of 3 Bood oranges
Juice of 2 Blood oranges

To decorate:

1 Blood orange
200g Icing sugar
A sprinkle of Freeze dried raspberries
25g Flaked almonds

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Take a rectangular pound cake tin and line with butter and baking paper.
Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy. Add the honey, eggs, yoghurt, and almond extract and whisk together to combine.
Sift in the flour, ground almonds, and baking powder and whisk into the mixture until smooth.
Add the orange juice, zest and the raspberries into the mixture and fold with a spatula to combine.
Pour the batter into the lined tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for around 55 minutes, until it’s risen, starting to brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Take the cake out of the tin and leave to cool completely.
Meanwhile make the icing. Cut the blood orange in half and juice one of the halves, setting the other to one side for later.
Put the icing sugar into a bowl and pour in the juice. Stir to make a smooth icing.
When the cake is completely cooled drizzle the icing over the cake. Slice the remaining 1/2 orange into chunks and arrange then on top of the cake. Finish with a sprinkle with the freeze dried raspberries and flaked almonds. Serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Kladdkaka (Sticky Chocolate Cake)

By Emma Hawkins | December 6, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

This is a Swedish cake which, from what I’ve read, is probably the most popular cake in the country. It looks like a normal chocolate cake, but somehow it turns out really gooey and light – almost like a softer, but just as sticky version of a brownie. I’m not sure how it works out like this, but it does. It’s also insanely easy and quick to make. Just put all the ingredients together, whop it in a tin, bake and boom!

This cake is in cafes all over Sweden, but as it’s pretty plain in appearance and as it’s deliberately underbaked it can make it come out pretty fragile, so I’d recommend serving it as a dessert, rather than as an afternoon tea cake. When I first made this I hadn’t planned to make it, I’d just had the recipe for a while, realised I had all the ingredients and decided to give it a go. As it’s so quick to make, and doesn’t require any unusual ingredients you could make this as a last minute dessert to finish a dinner party – and it’ll probably be quicker to make than a trip to the shops to buy a dessert (it’s really that quick). I’ve found that it tastes best when it’s warm from the oven and served with vanilla icecream.

Recipe

Serves 8

Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

100g Unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
2 Medium eggs
210g Light brown sugar
1 tsp Vanilla bean paste
150g Plain flour
3 tbsp Cocoa powder

Method

Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Grease and line a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin with butter and baking paper.
Put the butter into a small pan and melt gently. Leave to one side to cool.
Put the eggs, sugar and vanilla into a bowl and whisk with electric beaters until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).
Sift the flour and cocoa into the mix and fold together with a large spatula or metal spoon. Pour in the butter and then fold together until smooth.
Pour the mixture into the lined tin and bake for about 15 minutes. It’s ready to come out when a light crust has formed on the top, and there it’s still slightly undercooked in the middle (you want it to be underbaked so take it out about 5 minutes before you would a normal cake).
If eating later, leave the cake to cool in the tin and then turn out onto a plate. If eating immediately, turn out and serve with berries and icecream!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

The Almighty Sticky-Apple-Ginger-Praline Cake

By Emma Hawkins | November 5, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

This is the third cake in our trio of big cakes – and I think I’ve saved the best till last! This kinda snowballed until it became what we see here, which is why I’ve named it ‘the almighty…’ – as it’s jam packed with flavours and textures. As always it began as just a simple ginger cake. Then I thought why not add apples and dates to make it extra sticky and moist. Sticky cakes work really well with crunchy pecan praline, so that got added in, and then some sparklers were clearly needed to put the cherry on the top.

That said, I did have bonfire night in mind, and I wanted to make a cake which encompassed all flavours of the occasion. From warming ginger to caramel apples, this cake is everything you could want for a cold autumnal evening. If you don’t have a crowd to feed, and trust me this cake will feed a crowd, you can use 2/3 of the cake mix and do a two layer version which will work just as well. Similarly, if you want a cake that’s easy to transport and share you can use 2/3 of the mix and do a large tray-bake, or even make cupcakes, so that you can distribute it easily.

Recipe

Serves 14

Time: 2 1/2 hours

Ingredients

For the sticky apple and ginger cake

500g Chopped dates
500ml Water
6 Large eggs
300g Light brown sugar
75 Dark brown sugar
50g Golden syrup
3 tsp Vanilla extract
300g Butter, melted
4 Medium cooking apples, peeled and cored (about 600g)
525g Self raising flour
5 1/2 tsp Ground ginger
3 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Pinch of salt

For the icing

140g butter
400g cream cheese
1kg icing sugar

For the pecan praline

100g Sugar
75g Pecans

To decorate

1 Granny Smith apple
100g Caster sugar
1 Can of Carnations Caramel (about 375g)
Sparklers (optional)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Then line three 7.5inch tins with butter and baking paper.
Put the chopped dates and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for 5 minutes and then take off the heat and set aside.
With an electric whisk, whisk the eggs, sugars, syrup and vanilla together until pale and fluffy. Then, whilst whisking, slowly pour in the melted butter.
Using a large spatula, fold the date mixture into the egg mixture. Then grate the peeled and cored apple into the main bowl and fold this in.
Sift the flour, ginger, bicarb and salt into the wet ingredients and fold with a large spatula until fully combined.
Pour the mixture into the three lined tins and bake for 35-45 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cakes.
Turn the cakes out onto cooling racks and leave to cool completely.
Now make the cream-cheese frosting. Put the butter into a large bowl and beat until smooth and soft. Add the cream cheese and half the icing sugar an beat again until smooth. Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat again until smooth. Leave in the fridge until needed.
To make the pecan praline put the sugar into a saucepan with 60ml of water. Put the pan over a medium heat and bring to the boil, without stirring, and leave until a golden brown colour has developed.
Put the pecans onto a baking sheet, pour the caramel over them and then leave to cool completely.
Once cooled, break the praline up, either with a rolling pin or by hand. Then put it into a food processor and blitz into a coarse crumb.
Now start to build the cake. Put a dollop of the icing onto the board you’ll present the cake on, and put the base sponge onto this blob – this will stop the cake moving around. Spoon some of the icing onto the cake and spread over, making the side slightly more raised than the centre. Sprinkle ½ of the praline into the centre of the cake, and then put the second sponge on top. Repeat the icing and then praline on this second cake, and then top with the final cake.
Using a palette knife, spread the frosting over the cake, trying to make as smooth a surface as possible – this is called the ‘crumb-coat’. I find putting a big blob on the top of the cake and then working it over and round the sides a good way of getting the icing on. Keep enough of the icing to do another coat and to pipe rosettes on top (about 1/3 – 1/2 of the original amount). Put the cake in the fridge until the icing has set slightly.
Meanwhile make the apple decorations. Quarter the apple and core it. Then slice each quarter into 3 to make 12 apple segments. In a pan put the sugar and 50ml of water, like you did above for the praline. Bring to the boil and heat until a golden caramel forms. Add the apple segments and shake in the pan to coat fully (don’t stir as this may crystallise your caramel). Turn the apples out onto a greaseproof sheet, and leave to cool completely – if you can separate them before they cool this will make it easier later!
Take the cake out of the fridge and make a second coat of icing, making sure it’s really smooth as this will be on show. Heating a palette knife slighting under hot water or with a blow torch can be a good way to get a smooth finish. Leave in the fridge to set.
Pour the caramel into a bowl and heat in a microwave or pan until just starting to loosen. Stir to make an even consistency, and then pour into a jug or pipping bottle – anything that’s easy to operate and will give you control when pouring.
Pipe the caramel around the edge of the cake so that it just drips over the edge. You want the drips to be slightly uneven, so you can vary how much is squeezed over the edge in various places. Fill the middle of the cake with the rest of the caramel and then leave in the fridge for 15 minutes to set.
Take the pipping bag with the frosting and pipe rosettes around the edge of the cake. Sprinkle the rest of the praline into the centre and then top with the caramelised apples. Finish with some sparklers to bring some extra bonfire magic!

Thanks for reading and happy bonfire night!

Emma x

Chocolate Orange Celebration Cake

By Emma Hawkins | October 29, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

Time for another flamboyant cake! I’m always excited by the prospect of making something big and elaborate, and this one was no exception. Today is my sister’s 21^st birthday, and so it followed that a super kick-ass cake was needed for the occasion. This one looks pretty fancy, but it’s actually not too complicated, so it’s a good one to try if you want to turn your hand to big cakes for the first time.

When looking for a flavour combo to go for this was the first that came to mind. It’s my sister’s favourite, and a total classic, so it’s hard to get wrong. We have two chocolate sponges, one orange sponge, lots of chocolate orange buttercream and some Terry’s chocolate orange segments to top it all off. If you know anyone who loves chocolate oranges, you need to make this for them!

Recipe

Serves 10

Time: 2 1/2 hours

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake

170g Unsalted butter
100g Dark chocolate
240g Plain flour
280g Caster sugar
3 tbsp Cocoa powder
1 tsp Bicarb
2 Large eggs
142ml Greek yoghurt
142ml Milk

For the orange cake

175g Butter
175g Golden caster sugar
175g Self-raising flour
3 Large eggs
1 Orange, zested and juiced
1/2 Tube orange food colouring (optional)

For the chocolate orange icing

300g Unsalted butter
675g Icing sugar
1 tsp orange extract
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 Tube orange food colouring
150g Dark chocolate, melted and cooled

For the decoration

1 Terry’s chocolate orange

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180˚C. Grease and line three 7.5inch cake tins.
First make the chocolate cake. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water.
In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, bicarb and cocoa together.
Whisk together the egg and yoghurt. Add this mixture, and the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture, along with 100ml boiling water. Whisk quickly until combine and then pour into two of the lined tins.
Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean once inserted. Leave the cakes to cool for 15 minutes before turning them out onto wire racks and leaving to cool.
Now make the orange cake. Put the butter, sugar, flour, and eggs into a bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon or whisk until smooth and fully combined. Add the orange zest, juice and colouring, and mix again until it’s all combined.
Spoon the mixture into the lined tin and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Check if it’s cooked through by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean it’s ready. Leave to cool for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream icing. Beat the butter, 600g of the icing sugar, orange extract and orange zest until smooth. Spoon 280g into a bowl, mix in the orange food coloring and the other 75g of icing sugar, and then set to one side.
In the main bowl add the melted dark chocolate and mix with a spatula until fully combined. Spoon both icings into separate piping bags, fitted with round nozzles.
Now you can assemble the cake. Pipe a small blob of the chocolate icing onto the board or plate you’ll present the cake on – this will stop the cake from sliding around. Put one of the cooled chocolate cakes onto your board. Pipe blobs of chocolate icing onto the cake and then top with the orange sponge. Repeat the piping of blobs on the orange sponge, and then top with the chocolate sponge. Pipe alternate blobs of chocolate and orange icing over the top of the cake and then finish with segments of Terry’s chocolate orange.

Thanks so much for reading! This is the second in a trio of big cakes, so look out for the final one coming out in a week’s time. Meanwhile, the next post is going to be bonfire night themed, so get your sparklers at the ready!

Emma x

Chocolate Mint Chequerboard Cake

By Emma Hawkins | October 8, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

It’s mint, it’s chocolate, it’s massive, and it’s cake! What’s not to like? This one is an impressive center piece and will bring a touch of fun to any occasion. Four layers of chocolate and mint sponge, put together in concentric rings to make the stunning chequerboard effect. Smother it in some green icing, drip some chocolate glaze over the edge, pile high with chocolate mints, and you have yourself a winner. Despite it’s large size, it’s also surprisingly light. The chocolate cake is made using yoghurt, so it’s really moist sticky, and then the mint cake gives a beautiful refreshing flavour to partner the rich chocolate. So all in all you end up with a big slice of choco mint heaven, which slips down very nicely.

The decorating is also really fun as you can top it with pretty much any chocolate you wish. Whenever I’m about to make something like this I have a field day in the supermarket, wandering up and down the isles trying to work out what to pile on top of the cake. Generally speaking it’s a good idea to have a range of textures, tones and sizes in your toppings (my inner art student is coming out!), but apart from that go crazy. This is the kinda cake where you have a full excuse to go OTT, so make the most of it.

Being four layers tall, I can guarantee that this cake is HUGE. Therefore I’d recommend not doing what I did and make it on a casual weekday for household of three. Instead, either scale it down to just two layers (so halve the cake mixtures), or wait until an occasion, party or large gathering of people to show up – otherwise you’ll be shipping it out to anyone and everyone you can before it goes stale (I speak from experience). That said, when the time comes, take it. Go full out and make this extravagant cake, top it with whatever your heart desires and slap it (or probably gently place it, as it’s very heavy) in the middle of the table.

It does take a lot of time to make, so I’d recommend either putting aside a day to pull it all together, or make the cakes the day before you assemble it all, otherwise you’ll have a breakdown and I’ll be named responsible. You also need to know a little of what you’re doing for this one, so if you can’t crack an egg, maybe wait a day or two before attempting this. That said, you don’t have to be an expert. I make a lot of cakes, but I’m more of a cupcake gal, so a four layer monster like this was a little daunting. But follow the steps, use your common sense and you should be absolutely fine. On with the recipe!

Recipe

Serves 12

Time: 5 hours (plus chilling time)

Ingredients

For the Chocolate cake

170g Unsalted butter
100g Dark chocolate
240g Plain flour
280g Caster sugar
3 tbsp Cocoa powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
2 Large eggs
284ml Greek yoghurt

For the Mint cake

350g Butter
350g Golden caster sugar
350g Self-raising flour
6 Large eggs
1 tsp Peppermint extract
2 Tubes green food colouring

For the Butter Icing

850g Icing sugar
400g Butter (if using dairy-free spread use another 100g of icing sugar as it’ll be less stiff)
1 tsp Green food colouring

For the Chocolate drip icing

150g Good quality dark chocolate, chopped
100g Unsalted butter

To Decorate

Mint chocolate decorations (e.g After Eights, Aero balls, mint sticks, mint leaves, mint Oreos…)

Method

Preheat oven to 180˚C. Grease and line four 6 inch cake tins (or two if you only have two, but you’ll need to wash them out half way through to re-use them).
First make the chocolate cake. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water.
In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, bicarb and cocoa together.
In another bowl whisk together the egg and yoghurt. Add this mixture, the chocolate mixture and 100ml boiling water to the flour mixture. Whisk quickly until combine and then pour into two of the lined tins.
Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean once inserted. Leave the cakes to cool for 15 minutes before turning them out onto wire racks and leaving to cool.
Now make the mint cake. Put the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and peppermint into a bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon or whisk until smooth and fully combined. Add the green food colouring and mix again until it’s all the same colour.
Spoon the mixture into the other two lined tins. The exact weight will vary depending on the size of your eggs, but you want about 700g in each tin. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Check if it’s cooked through by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean it’s ready. Leave to cool for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream icing. Beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Then slowly add the green food colouring, mixing between each addition, until you have your desired colour. I like quite a soft green, but you can make it any shade you like.
Once the sponges are completely cooled you can begin to assemble the cake. Take a 4-inch and a 2-inch smooth, round cookie cutter. In all four cakes, cut a circle with the 4-inch cutter in the centre of the sponge. Then take the 2-inch cutter and cut another circle out of the middle of the 4-inch circle. Take the rings out of each other, so you end up with 4 sets of 3 consecutive rings.
Now is the fun bit. Take the medium size ring of the mint cakes and put them into the now empty large rings of the chocolate cakes. Then take the small chocolate rings and put them in the centre, so you have a cake which looks chocolate-mint-chocolate.
Then take the leftover medium chocolate rings and put them into the empty rings of the large mint cakes. Take the small mint rings and put them into the centre of the medium chocolate rings, so you have two cakes which look mint-chocolate-mint.
Now it’s time to make the chequerboard. Take one of the cakes which goes chocolate-mint-chocolate, and put into onto the board you’ll display the cake on. Spread some of the butter cream over the cake with a palette knife. Then take one of the mint-chocolate-mint cakes and place it on top. Spread this layer with buttercream as well. Repeat this again so the next layer is chocolate-mint-chocolate, and then the final layer is mint-chocolate-mint, with buttercream sandwiching each layer. From the side the cake should have layers of chocolate, mint, chocolate, mint.
Take a palette knife and blob half the butter icing onto the top of the cake. Smooth the icing out and push it round the sides. Use the palette knife to smooth out the icing in a not-too-thick, smooth layer. Leave the icing to set in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
Take the cake out of the fridge and do another layer of butter icing over the first, making sure it’s really smooth, as at the end as this layer will be on show. Dipping the palette knife in warm water before smoothing can be a good way to get really smooth icing. Leave in the fridge to set until needed.
Now make the chocolate ‘drip’ icing. Put the chocolate into a heat-proof bowl (glass or metal) and put over a pan of gently simmering water. Once the chocolate is melted, take off the heat and throw in chunks of the butter, a little at a time – stirring to melt and mix.
Using a thermometer, record the temperature whilst adding the butter chunks. Once the butter is melted and the mixture reaches 30˚C you can use the glaze.
To prevent the glaze from melting the icing put it into a jug and then into the fridge for 3 minutes. Any more than this and the glaze will set so be careful. If this does happen, put it into the microwave for 10 seconds to loosen it up.
When ready, spoon the glaze into the centre of the cake. Using the back of a large spoon, spread out the glaze so that it just drips over the edge. You want the drips to be slightly uneven and not to drip all down the cake, so carefully push the drips over in different amounts.
Leave the glaze to set for 5-10 minutes. Then take the mint chocolates and decorate the top of the cake. I went for KitKats, Malteasers, Mint Aero balls, Mint Aeros, chocolate buttons, mint matchsticks, Mint Oreos, and mint leaves. Now you can serve!

Alternative:

Not a big fan of mint? Not a big fan of chocolate? Apart from needing a sanity check, this isn’t a problem. Why not try making a coffee and walnut chequerboard? Or cherry and almond? Simply make both cakes using the mint cake recipe, but instead of adding the green food colouring and mint extract, add chopped nuts, coffee, glace cherries or ground almonds and almond extract.

To get the defined chequerboard it’s a good idea to go for two contrasting colours in your sponges. So in the coffee and walnut one, for example, make sure that the coffee sponge is dark brown from rich coffee, and then leave the walnut sponge pale, by folding chopped walnuts into the cake batter. Then cover in plain or coffee buttercream and decorate however you want (e.g nuts and Fereero Rocher?).

Thanks so much for reading! Any comments, questions or requests don’t hesitate to ask. Next post coming soon…

Emma x