Chocolate & Clementine Marble Ring Cake

Whilst rich fruit cakes are hugely popular at Christmas, they are not to everyone’s taste. I love Christmas cakes laden with fruit, but I also think that it’s nice to serve an alternative. Children in particular, can find traditional fruit cakes too rich and given that you can never go wrong with chocolate, I quickly decided that I wanted to create something that had chocolate in it. Each year I bake a Chocolate Yule Log, but for this cake I was keen to include a fruity element.  I also did not want to ice the cake with buttercream or glacé icing… I actually wanted quite a simple cake which was all about the flavours used.
 

Chocolate and orange are two flavours that go so well together, but I decided that I would use clementines along with the chocolate because they are a fruit that is closely associated with Christmas!

Clementines are a variety of mandarin orange, so called because they were first discovered by Father Clément Rodier in the garden of the orphanage that he ran in Misserghin, Algeria. Clementines have many desirable characteristics, not least of which is that they are seedless. They are also easy to peel and have citrusy sweetness that still retains a zingy freshness on the palate.

Rather than flavour the chocolate element of my cake with the clementines, I opted to keep the flavours separate and decided to make a marble cake where the chocolate and clementine flavours mingled but also remained distinct from each other.

 

I was determined to create something that was also very Christmassy looking and taking my inspiration from Christmas wreaths which adorn many a door during the festive season, I chose to bake my marble cake in a ring tin and decorated it with drizzled chocolate to emulate woody twigs.

 

I am very pleased with the effect that I achieved and think that it does look very Christmassy.  It was a very easy cake to make and the chocolate and clementine flavours went so well together.

     

Ingredients:

225g butter, softened
225g caster sugar
275g self raising flour1tsp baking powder4 large eggs, lightly beaten2 tblsp milk
25g cocoa powder
2 tblsp boiling water
Grated zest and juice of 2 clementines
To finish:

125g melted dark chocolate
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/ Gas Mark 5. Grease a 25cm ring cake tin generously with butter and then dust the buttered surface with a couple of tablespoons of flour, shaking out any excess. Set aside until required.
2. Mix the cocoa powder and boiling water together, in a small bowl.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using a hand held electric mixer. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Sieve the flour and baking powder together and add to the creamed mixture gradually, add the milk once approximately half of the flour has been mixed in. once all the flour has been added, mix for a further minute.
4. Divide the mixture evenly between two bowls.

5. To one bowl add the Clementine zest and juice and mix well with a spoon to incorporate.

6. Add the cocoa powder mixture to the other bowl, again mixing well to incorporate.

7. Alternating between the two, spoon blobs of the chocolate and clementine flavoured mixtures into the tin and gently level the surface.

8. Place in the pre-heated oven to bake for approximately 35-40 minutes until the cake is well risen and springy to the touch.

9. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly for ten minutes, then turn out of the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

To finish:

10. Melt the dark chocolate in a small bowl over a pan of water. Spoon the mixture into a small disposable piping bag. Snip off the end of the bag and drizzle the chocolate over the cake.

11. Allow the chocolate to harden. The cake can also e decorated with chocolate holly leaves or as I have done by placing a few clean pine cones in the centre of the cake.
 

Serves 8-10.
      

Maltesers Cake

I am quite fussy about what I want from a chocolate cake. I like a chocolate cake that has quite a dense crumb but is still quite light. I like them to be moist but not damp and most importantly I like them to taste of chocolate! Chocolate cakes are often too sickly sweet or, at the other end of the spectrum, are often far too bitter. What I have been looking for is a good basic chocolate cake that can be used as the basis for the various celebration cakes that I am called on to bake from time-to-time. I have baked scores of chocolate cakes over the years, but never quite achieved the taste/texture/chocolate combination that I was looking for.

That was until I made this cake. I am delighted with it. It IS rich, but is deliciously chocolatey and relatively easy to bake.

Over the years I have found that the way to achieve an intensely chocolate taste is to use both cocoa powder and melted chocolate when making the cake batter. You could use a chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids (i.e. 70%), but I find that it makes a very rich cake, which doesn’t tend to appeal to children. I like to use Cadbury’s Bourneville, which gives me the balance that I am looking for.

The addition of golden syrup gives added sweetness, but more importantly it helps create a moist cake.

I toyed with the idea of covering the cake with a chocolate ganache, but again I felt that this might be too rich. Instead I opted for a fudgy, chocolate buttercream, which I think works very well.

Once the cake is sandwiched together and iced, you can then decorate however the fancy takes you. To be honest, Maltesers were on special offer in the supermarket, so I bought a large box and spent a happy quarter of an hour studding my cake with them. Of course the basic cake could be decorated in a number of different ways; using different sweets… let your imagination run riot!

Ingredients:

200g butter

210g light muscovado sugar

140g golden syrup

4 eggs, separated

300ml milk

300g plain flour

60g cocoa powder

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

200g dark chocolate

Fudge icing:

175g dark chocolate

250g unsalted butter

275g icing sugar

1tsp vanilla paste

To finish:

1 x 450g box of Maltesers

 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Grease and base-line 3 x 20cm round sandwich tins with removable bases.

2. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and leave aside to cool slightly. Cream the butter, sugar and golden syrup together until light and creamy. Add the egg yolks and mix well together to incorporate.

3. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder together and add to the butter and eggs mixture in three lots, mixing well after each addition. Slowly mix in the milk. Next add in the cooled melted chocolate and mix well.

4. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form and then fold in gentle to the batter.

5. Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and smooth the surfaces. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about ten minutes before removing completely from the tins and allow to cool completely on wire cooling racks.

When completely cool sandwich together with the fudge icing.

Fudge icing:

6. Melt the chocolate in a bowl sitting over a simmering pan of water. Set aside to cool slightly.

7. In a separate bowl beat the butter until it is very soft and creamy. Sift the icing sugar into the butter and slowly beat into the butter mixture. Add the vanilla paste and melted chocolate and mix again until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

8. Use two thirds of the icing to sandwich the cakes together and then use a small palette knife to smoothly spread the remaining icing over the sides and top of the cake.

To finish:

9. This is the fun bit. Basically all you need to do is gently press the Maltesers into the icing to completely cover the cake!

 

 Serves 8-10.
 

Hazelnut Cake

I have been experimenting with hazelnuts again! Ever since I managed to get my hands on a bottle of Frangelico, an Italian hazelnut flavoured liqueur, I have become more than a little obsessed with all things to do with hazelnuts.
 
Yesterday was cold and gloomy yet again and SHOCK... HORROR, the weather forecasters were predicting a strong likelihood of light snow falling in parts of the country. We are definitely in winter now! However, there is a lot to recommend this time of year, not least of which is a ready excuse to try out and to develop new recipes that I have been meaning to get to for quite a while. To be honest, it’s too cold and dark outside to do much else in the evenings.

 

Like a little squirrel, which had accumulated a rich store of nuts to sustain themself through the season when Winter disdainfully stretches out her icy fingers, I set to preparing the hazelnuts for the cake that I had decided I was going to bake.

 

I quickly decided that I did not want to include chocolate in the cake that I was going to bake. I wanted it to be about the hazelnuts in all their glory. There is no doubting that hazelnut and chocolate is a marriage made in heaven, but I wanted to focus on the hazelnuts alone.

 

I used whole hazelnuts, which had already been skinned. I have previously spoken in another post about my hatred of certain culinary tasks and skinning nuts is at the forefront of this list. So I decided to spend a little extra and buy ready-blanched nuts. I roasted the nuts on a baking tray in a hot oven for approximately 7 minutes until they had darkened in colour and the kitchen had taken on their sweet, nutty aroma. You do need to watch the hazelnuts carefully, because they can burn very easily. It is worth roasting the nuts because it really brings out the flavour of the nuts.

 

When the nuts had cooled completely I whacked them into my mini food-processor and ground them until fairly fine, but still retaining some texture. If you over-grind them, the oils in the nut are released, resulting in a type of hazelnut butter which is not what I wanted in this recipe.

 

I made a basic Madeira-like sponge cake recipe and folded in the nuts at the end just prior to baking. I wanted to achieve a cake that had a close crumb, but was still had a lightness about it. I felt that anything too spongy with a very aerated crumb would conflict with the texture of the hazelnuts. (You will note that I did not use any raising agent in the cake but I made sure that I creamed the butter and sugar together until really light and fluffy and I also sifted the flour twice). I also chose to include some vanilla paste as I thought that the floral notes in the vanilla would complement and accentuate the hazelnut flavour I wanted to achieve.

 

I thought a little about whether to ice or glaze the cake and if so, what to use. I decided against using a buttercream this time, and instead opted for a caramel glaze which I then sprinkled with some roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts. Caramel has a natural affinity with all nuts and this was certainly the case here. Next time, and there will be a next time, because this cake was so delicious, I think I will split the cake into three layers and sandwich the layers together with a hazelnut praline buttercream but I will still cover the cake in the caramel. If you want a simple cake, just follow the recipe that I present here. It really is yum! I am going to try out the buttercream idea and will report back.

 

Postscript: I have now made this recipe twice; once with standard plain flour and once with Tritamyl Flour, which can be consumed by coeliacs. There was very little difference between the two, but if I was pushed, I would say that the latter did not rise quite as much. Both cakes were lovely!

Ingredients:

Cake:
200g butter, softened

200g caster sugar

200g plain flour, sifted

4 eggs

½ tsp vanilla paste

125g ground hazelnuts

Caramel Glaze:

100g caster sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

3 tblsp water

125ml double cream

To finish:

1 tblsp of roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/Fan Oven 150C/Gas Mark 3. Grease and line the bottom of a deep 23cm round cake tin with baking parchment and set aside.
2. Place the softened butter and caster sugar in a large bowl and using an electric hand-held whisk, beat together until light and fluffy. Take your time doing this to ensure that they are well mixed.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating ensuring that each egg is well mixed I before you add the next. Add the vanilla paste and mix thoroughly.
4. Next add the sifted flour and the hazelnuts and fold into the egg and sugar mixture. Once thoroughly mixed, pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin and place into the pre-heated oven for approximately 50 minutes. Check the cake after about half an hour and if it looks like it is browning too rapidly, cover with a little aluminium foil.
5. To test whether the cake is cooked through, insert a thin skewer. When withdrawn the skewer should not have any raw or undercooked cake batter on it. Remove from the oven and allow cool in the tin for about ten minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove from the tin and allow cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the caramel glaze:

6. Place the sugar, lemon juice and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over a high heat. Stir continuously. After a couple of minutes a caramel will start to form. Allow it to turn a dark caramel colour and then remove the pan from the heat.

7. Carefully and slowly pour in the double cream, still stirring until you have a smooth caramel. Be very careful when adding the cream as the mixture can splutter and bubble up furiously.

8. Allow the caramel to cool in the saucepan for about five minutes and when it has thickened slightly, but still liquid, pour it onto the top of the cake and smooth out with a small palette knife so that the top and sides of the cake is evenly coated. Sprinkle a few roughly chopped toasted hazelnuts over the top of the cake and allow stand at room temperature for 2-3 hours so that the glaze can set.
 

Serves 8-10.

Traditional Battenberg Cake

I am delighted with the Battenberg Cake tin that I recently purchased. The tin has removable dividers that easily create the different coloured/flavoured strips that are required when baking a Battenberg.

The tins are manufactured by Silverwood and can be purchased online from www.alansilverwood.co.uk but I bought mine in Kitchen Compliments – a kitchen supplies shop located on South Anne Street in Dublin.

Battenberg Cake is believed to have been originally made to celebrate the marriage of Queen Victoria’s daughter to Prince Louis of Battenberg in 1884. Essentially Battenberg Cake is a light sponge cake, which may or may not include ground almonds in the cake batter. The cake is covered in marzipan and when cut into slices displays the distinctive pink and pale yellow checkerboard pattern for which it is famous. This pattern is achieved by sandwiching contrasting layers of coloured sponge together with jam. Strictly speaking apricot jam should be used throughout, but I prefer to use raspberry jam to sandwich the layers together because I like the more defined cross that is created by the darker jam and which separates the coloured sponges, but I do use apricot jam to help the marzipan stick to the outside of the cake.

Battenberg Cake is one of those cakes which have an instant visual appeal, but all too often shop-bought versions are disappointing and cloyingly sweet. Home-made versions really are far superior.

Being a fan of almonds, this cake really appeals to me with its thick coat of marzipan. The recipe that I give is for a cooked marzipan, but many recipes for Battenberg Cake also use uncooked almond paste. The reason I use cooked marzipan is because I find that it is less crumbly and easier to roll out and mould against the cake. Alternatively, you can use shop bought marzipan, but it often has quite an artificial taste. Any left-over marzipan can be stored for up to a week wrapped in cling film in the fridge, but I tend to use it up immediately to form small little discs about 4cms wide which I dip in dark melted chocolate and then allowed to cool to create little sweets to treat myself with.

I have recently been thinking of variations to the basic Battenberg theme. I am quite intrigued by the idea of making marzipan using different nuts and I have mentioned elsewhere that I am keen to experiment using the Frangelico – a hazelnut flavoured liqueur that I recently bought. I would love to make a hazelnut and chocolate sponge variation and introduce a pear flavour somehow. I also think that a pistachio marzipan encasing an orange or lemon/pistachio sponge combination could be interesting.

Ingredients:

Cake:
175g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175g self-raising flour
½ tsp vanilla paste
A small amount of red/pink food colouring paste
6 tblsp raspberry jam
Marzipan:
225g granulated or caster sugar

75ml water

175g ground almonds

½ tsp almond extract

1 egg white lightly beaten

To assemble:

6 tblsp apricot jam, warmed and sieved

A little icing sugar to dust your work surface

 

Method:

Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan 170C/Gas Mark 5.
2. Base line your Battenberg tin with some baking parchment cut to size. Grease with a little of the butter and then lightly flour, shaking out any excess.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and a paler colour. Add the eggs a little at a time and beat well to fully incorporate. Add in the flour and mix again briefly until just combined.
Remove half of the batter to a separate bowl, using a scale for accuracy if you wish and add the food colouring. Fold into the batter until combined.
4. Spoon the plain batter into two sections of the Battenberg tin and the coloured batter into the remaining two sections, smoothing out evenly. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 20-25 minutes until the sponges have risen and are shrinking back slightly from the edge of the tin. Allow to cool in the tin for about five minutes and remove from the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
5. You should have four strips of cake; two plain and two pink. When completely cool trim, if necessary so that they are all a similar size.
6. Warm the raspberry jam in a small saucepan and then pass through a fine sieve into a small bowl to remove the seeds and smooth any lumps.
7. Brush the long side of one of the sponges with jam and sandwich together with a sponge of a contrasting colour. Do the same with other two sponges. Sandwich the two pairs of sponges together to achieve a checkerboard pattern and set aside whilst you make the marzipan.
Marzipan:
8. Put the sugar and water into a medium sized, heavy based saucepan and bring to the boil. Allow to bubble until the mixture reaches the “soft-ball” stage (116C on a sugar thermometer). Remove the saucepan from the heat but continue stirring the mixture for another minute or two until it turns cloudy. Tip in the ground almonds, almond extract and egg-white and mix well until all the ingredients are well-combined. You should have a very stiff past-like mixture at this stage. Allow to cool completely and then knead briefly into a ball. Cover with cling-film and refrigerate until required.
To finish the cake:
9. Lightly dust your work-surface with icing sugar and roll out the marzipan into a rectangle approximately 40cms x 20cms, about 5mm thick – it should be large enough to wrap around the cake completely, leaving the ends exposed. Lightly brush the outside of the assembled sponges with the prepared apricot jam and place on the marzipan. Carefully wrap the marzipan around the cake, pressing the edges where both edges of the marzipan meet so that they firmly encase the cake.
10. Turn the cake over so that this seam/join is on the bottom. Neaten the ends of the cake by trimming a thin slice off each end. Place on serving plate.

Makes 1 cake.

Apple and Almond Cake



Home-grown apples are abundant at this time of year and can be used in so many ways in both sweet and savoury dishes.

This cake is nicest served warm (not hot) from the oven with a dollop of whipped cream. It stands up as a cake in its own right, but is also lovely served as a dessert and is particularly delicious eaten with custard.


The apple and almond combination is lovely. I can’t remember where I first stumbled across this recipe, but it’s one that I bake again and again because it is so reliable, incredibly easy to make, but most importantly it is SO tasty! 

 

Ingredients:

225g self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
225g caster sugar
2 large eggs
½ tsp almond extract
150g butter, melted
250g cooking apples, peeled and cored
25g flaked almonds

Method:

1.                  Preheat the oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Lightly grease a deep 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin.
2.                  Measure the flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, almond extract and melted butter into a bowl. Mix well until blended, then beat for a minute.
3.                  Spread half this mixture in the prepared tin. Thickly slice the apples and lay on top of the mixture in the tin, piling mostly towards the centre. Using 2 dessert spoons, roughly spoon the remaining mixture over the apples. This is an awkward thing to do, but just make sure that the mixture covers the centre well as it will spread out in the oven.
4.                  Sprinkle with the flaked almonds.
5.                  Bake in the preheated oven for 1¼-1½ hours until golden and coming away from the sides of the tin.

Serves 8.