Apple Cake

Apple Cake

This is a favourite in our household and helps to get a bit of extra fruit into my children.

First butter is melted into a mixture of brown sugar and syrup.

 

It is best to keep stirring until they have come together to form a smooth mixture – if the butter is separated from the sugar and syrup keep stirring!

 

Next add some grated cooking apple and some eggs.

 

And then add some self-raising flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon.

 

Mixing together to form a fairly runny batter.

 

Pour this batter into lined loaf tins.

 

Bake at 150C for about 90 minutes or until cooked through.  These could have done with a few minutes longer as they were still a bit stodgy at the bottom but I had to get them out of the oven to go to work….

 

Blackberry and Apple Cake

 

There are still lots of blackberries on the bushes and when I go for a walk I feel as if I have to pick them – it would be wasteful not to!  So going for a walk yesterday resulted in me making this blackberry and apple cake.  It is based on a recipe from the BBC Good Food site.

First I rubbed some butter into some plain flour and then added some light brown muscovado sugar.

 

I then put a little of this mixture to one side to use for a crumble topping adding some cinnamon and demerera sugar.  To the main bulk of the mixture I added some baking powder.

I then grated some apple and mixed it with egg and orange zest.

 

The egg and apple is then folded gently into the flour mixture to make a soft dough.

At this point most of the blackberries were added.

 

However, to prevent them sinking to the bottom of the cake I tossed them in a little flour first.

 

I then gently folded them in to the cake batter and put the batter in a lined 2lb loaf tin.

 

The remaining blackberries were sprinkled on the top of the cake.

 

Followed by the crumble topping.

 

The cake was then baked in a cool oven for about 1 1/4 hours until it was golden and cooked through.

 

This recipe is also lovely made with raspberries, apple and lemon or blueberries, pears and orange.

 

 

Chocolate Fudge Cake

This is a cake for my son’s birthday.   He loves chocolate fudge cake and this looks impressive but is deceptively simple to make.

First cocoa is mixed with boiling water then all of the rest of the cake ingredients are beaten in (butter, eggs, self raising flour, sugar, baking powder and milk) until a smooth batter is achieved.

Bake in two cake tins and then when cooled warm some smooth apricot jam and brush on top of each half to help prevent crumbs mixing with the icing.

The icing is just double cream heated in a bowl over a pan of boiling water with some dark chocolate.   When the mixture has cooled it becomes stiff enough to spread.  I put about 1/3 inside the cake and 2/3 on the top.

As this is for a birthday and decorated the top with Maltesers (the more chocolate the better!) and birthday candles.

In the past I have made half as much cake mixture and twice as much icing and made a 3 layer cake which was also iced down the sides.

Lemon and Blueberry Drizzle Cake

I made this delicious cake to take on a holiday and share with friends.  It is a traditional lemon drizzle cake with added blueberries (from the garden) which add a bit of interest.  I forgot to take photographs when I was making it but basically butter and sugar are creamed together along with the zest from 2 lemons, then eggs are beaten in and flour folded in.  The blueberries are added at the last minute and just gently folded in – if you toss them in flour first it stops them all sinking to the bottom.  The cake is then baked.  I made it in a very large loaf tin – about 30cm x 15cm.  The juice from the lemons is then mixed with icing sugar and, whilst the cake is still hot, holes are poked in the cake with a skewer and the icing is poured over.  The resulting cake was very popular and lasted only one day!

Chocolate Brownies

These are a favourite of my children.  My youngest one is finishing primary school this week and goes to an after school club there.  He wanted to take some brownies to share with the other children and also give to the teachers for a gift.

First I creamed together soft, light brown sugar and butter.

Then I beat in the eggs and folded in some plain flour, baking powder and cocoa.  Once these were all well combined I added some chopped up dark chocolate for extra flavour.  If you prefer you can add white or milk chocolate, dried cherries, fresh raspberries or a combination of these.

On this occasion I made extra mixture so I had enough for one big tray of brownies and 3 smaller ones to give as gifts.  The trays for the smaller gift brownies are made of coated cardboard and can be used to bake the brownies – they are excellent.

The finished brownies have a glossy slightly crunchy top with a moist sticky inside – yum!