I was in the UK a while back and saw this recipe in a magazine so of course I took pictures and once I got home, gave it a go with sweet Irish strawberries. I picked up a punnet of King Strawberries which I hadn’t seen before. Huge fellows and very sweet!
It’s a big cake and will easily feed 12/14 people so it’s perfect for a gathering and can be dressed up a bit to make it fancy, shmancy 🙂
This lovely light and very tasty cake will give your morning or afternoon cuppa an upgrade to something a little special. It’s quick and easy to make and lasts for a week in a cake tin and that’s a bonus!
There’s something so comforting about a lovely piece of fruit cake with your morning or afternoon cuppa. The only thing about most fruit cakes is the time they take to make so the perfect solution is a boiled fruit cake which takes much shorter time to make and will keep for well over a week in an airtight container.
I replaced some of the original ingredients and reduced the sugar and amount of dried fruit which I found worked well. I’ll reduce the sugar further for the next time I make it.
This really is the ultimate decadent chocolate cake and truly fit for a special occasion. The chocolate ganache covering just lifts it up from a chocolate cake to another platform of chocolate heaven!
It’s actually easier to make than the finished product looks. It was my first time using my Nordic Ware very fancy bundt tin and I learnt a few things along the way which I’ll outline in the method so you have a perfect result.
This particular type of bundt tin has very sharp edges and just needs a little bit of pre baking love to have a perfect result. I had a few of the narrowest bits stay behind in the tin but I know what I did wrong and that’s why I try out each and every recipe first before putting them up here. I filled the centre of my cake with fresh raspberries, both as a cover up (sneaky) and also because I really like the contrast of chocolate and raspberries.
Anything with citrus is always a winner at ours and I’ve been wanting to make a Key Lime Pie for a good while now. My son has been asking for one. He doesn’t eat many desserts so when he asked, I decided to bite the bullet and make one.
It’s full of zingy lime and has a lovely buttery base. Both only need a short time in the oven and some fridge time to be ready. It’s rich and indulgent so I’ll leave that there with you!
We’re not big fans of cream so I was asked to leave it off but finishing this off with a flourish of whipped cream and decorating with some grated lime zest would make it a wonderful centerpiece.
I really can’t resist anything that says lemon and then they add blueberries and what do you know, another favourite, honey! Had to be made! It’s a simple and quick to make loaf cake and it’s so moist and full of fresh blueberries and yet you can still taste a hint of honey throughout. Really nice!
You can dress it up as much as you like depending what you want it for. I brought it to a coffee morning so I added a lemon icing drizzle and used edible flowers. Equally you can just sieve a bit of icing sugar over the top and serve with a bit of fromage frais if you prefer.
A delicious and light sponge cake with both an elderflower buttercream and lemon curd in the middle and topped with a simple lemon icing glaze. The secret to creating such a moist and Mmmmm response in every bite is the lemon and elderflower syrup which is drizzled over the cake while it’s still warm and let soak through.
Originally this is a Stork recipe and I found I had to change some of the proportions of ingredients to get the taste I felt was perfect. It’s a quick and simple recipe with the added bonus of only using a wooden spoon to make, even for the buttercream!
I spotted this lovely, traditional style loaf cake on the front of the Easy Food magazine and it immediately caught my attention. Topped with fresh cream and delicious strawberries, it’s perfect for a summer tea.
I took a quick peek inside to see how they made the cake and was delighted to see they used layers of fresh strawberries in between the batter mix which gives such a lovely red and cream marble effect when you cut slices. It’s a dense enough sponge cake so it will take an hour in the oven to bake.
This recipe originally called for a chocolate coating (it was a variation of the traditional) but it was so light and delicious that I felt it would have ruined it to cover it completely with chocolate and that you might miss out on the lovely citrus kick. You can make this as the traditional Lemon Drizzle Cake but it works really well using orange for a change 🙂
A few suggestions before you start baking:
I love how versatile this recipe is and it’s so easily adapted to suit your own personal taste. It’s originally from BBC Good Food and I’ve made it with chocolate chips, with pecan pieces, walnut pieces and for a more decadent taste, with cut up dates. Just delicious!
If like me you prefer to reduce sugar quantities in your bakes, then make sure your bananas are really, really ripe – black actually as they will be so sweet that you can easily reduce the sugar content and it won’t be noticed. The original recipe had a substantial sugar content and I found it extremely sweet so that the banana flavour was almost lost.
If you are looking for a gluten free option, just search the gluten free category for another delicious banana loaf recipe which will impress!
This fantastic recipe comes from the legend that is Mary Berry. Her sponge cakes are one of the best I’ve ever made. The secret to a wonderful sponge is not so much the ingredients as the method. There are a couple of things to do and they will result in a lovely light sponge that rises beautifully. What else could you ask for?!
This is a lovely light sponge cake and can be made in the “all in one” method. Personally, I still like to give the butter and sugar a separate beating first but with this great Mary Berry recipe, you can add the rest of the ingredients and just mix really well. A hand mixer is fine too.
As I was going to be adding buttercream in the middle and the top, I felt this light chocolate cake was a better choice than a rich, dark one. Instead of all buttercream filling, I used my cream cheese filling in the centre to combat the sweet buttercream around the edges and on the top. It worked really well too.
I made some rippled meringue kisses so used those to decorate plus a few Lindt Strawberry filled chocolates and finished with freeze dried raspberries.
