Tag Archives: cake

Carrot Cake

This week, we had a ray of light, among all the alarming news, celebrating a special colleague and friend’s baby-shower. She requested a carrot cake and this finally forced me to attempt making one! I’m not a fan of nuts, especially pecan nuts, so this was really made with so much selfless love 🙂

Happy to report that this is lovely moist cake, easy enough to whip up, no fancy equipment needed and you can make it in advance, can I get a whoop-whoop!

Ingredients:

260g chopped toasted pecans (keep half for decorating)
300g brown sugar (I used the Natura Sugars Light Demerera sugar)
100g caster sugar
240ml oil
4 eggs
3/4 cup crushed pineapple (drain most of the sauce)
1 tsp vanilla extract or essence
312g flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp’s ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups carrots, grated

Method:

Preheat the oven to 177°C. Prepare either two or three round cake pans, by greasing them then lining with baking paper, finally greasing the baking paper too.
In a large bowl, whisk the sugars, oil, eggs, crushed pineapple and vanilla together in a large bowl until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together until just combined. Finally fold in the carrots and half of the pecans.
Pour the batter into the cake pans evenly and if utilising three cake pans then bake for 20-24 minutes and if using two pans, bake for 30-35 minutes. Test the cake by inserting a skewer, if it does not come out clean, continue to bake until it does and be sure not to over bake the cake. Do not over-bake. Allow cakes to cool completely in the pans before transferring to a cooling rack.
Assemble the cake by layering with cream cheese frosting. You can find my legit, no short cut cream cheese frosting recipe here 🙂 Top the cake with the leftover toasted pecans. To keep the cake nice and firm, pop it into the fridge for about 30mins before cutting and serving. Enjoy 🙂

Vanilla Madeleine

Mmmm…Madeleine’s! The thought of these plump little sponge cake French cookies always makes my think of Transporter when Lai serves a fresh batch…

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Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

August 5, 2013
Sadie
0 comments
cake, caramel, Chocolate, Eid, Halaal, Ramadaan, salted caramel, salted caramel chocolate cake

With Eid just a few days away I knew I had to share a few recipes to serve as ideas or inspiration for the infamous Eid desserts.

Before we get to the recipe of the oh-so-different Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake, I’d just like to take a moment to scream WOOP WOOOOP! It’s Sadie’s Bubble of Yum first birthday today! Yippidee doo daa! Can’t believe it’s been a year! My resolution for the next year is to post more frequently (I know I’ve been really bad…sorry!) hehehe Shukran and thank you to everyone who has read my posts, attempted the recipes, left a comment or simply gave me encouragement to keep blogging. High 5 to you!

With that said, I think it’s quite fitting that I share this recipe. If you’re looking for something different, divine and damn delicious then I’d recommend the Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake. With the chocolatey moist texture of the cake and the surprise of the caramel and the second surprise hint of salty deliciousness, this is a sure winner!

Just a heads up, I’ll be posting a white chocolate and strawberry tart recipe tomorrow in keeping with the Eid-spiration (taking a bow for that one) and my first year resolution 🙂

Happy baking!

xxx

Ingredients:

For the cake:

200g chocolate (dark or milk – depending on your preference), roughly chopped
100g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
150ml milk
4 eggs, separated
125g golden castor sugar
100g flour

For the caramel:

225g digestive biscuits
300g castor sugar
2 tbsp water
100ml cream
100g salted butter, plus extra for greasing
2 pinches of sea salt

For the chocolate glaze:

200g chocolate (again, depending on your preference), chopped
200ml cream

Method:

1. Start with the caramel biscuit. Grease 2 x 22cm diameter cake tins and line the bases with baking paper.

2. Whizz the biscuits in a food processor until fine crumbs. Put the sugar and water into a heavy-based saucepan and dissolve over a low heat. Increase the heat and cook until it forms a caramel.

3. Remove from the heat and carefully stir in the cream, followed by the butter and salt. Stir the biscuit crumbs into the caramel.

4. Divide equally between the tins and press down with the back of a spoon. Place in the freezer to set.

4. To make the chocolate cake, preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a deep 22cm diameter loose-bottomed cake tin and line with baking paper.Melt the chocolate, butter and milk together in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the surface of the water does not touch the bowl.

My improvised version of a double boiler 🙂

5. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together using an electric hand whisk until pale and fluffy. Stir in the chocolate mixture, then fold in the flour. In a clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, then gently fold into the chocolate mixture.

6. Remove the caramel biscuit discs from the freezer and remove them from the tins, discarding the lining paper. Place one of the discs on the bottom of the prepared loose-bottomed cake tin and spread with half of the cake mixture.

helloooo chocolate and caramel goodness!

7. Lay the other biscuit disc on top and cover with the remaining cake mixture. Bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes until the cake is just cooked – it should be almost undercooked for extra gooeyness. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

8. To make the glaze, put the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Put the cream into a saucepan and heat to simmering point, then pour one-quarter over the chocolate. Leave for 1 minute until the chocolate starts to melt, then gently stir in the rest of the cream until smooth and glossy.

9. Cover the cooled cake with the chocolate glaze and chill it in the refrigerator until set before serving.