cobnut, apple & cinnamon cake

i used my cobnuts to make an apple and cinnamon cake. the recipe i used was a nigel slater one for moist plum cake (see here for a cherry & almond version, including the recipe which you can adapt if you fancy giving this a try) which uses a mix of flour and ground almonds.

i blitzed the cobnuts in my food processor and used this in the place of the almonds. a teaspoon of cinnamon into the mix and pieces of apples on top of the cake mix and that’s it. the cobnuts added an extra depth of flavour, similar to hazelnut. because i used the nuts fresh they were quite coarse which added a really nice crunch to the cake texture.

rose-drenched lime and yoghurt cake

 

i’m still craving cake, cake and more cake! after last week’s chocolate fudge cake and given the beautiful sunshine we’ve intermittently been enjoying, i decided that something lighter was needed. a friend recommended diana henry’s rose-drenched lime and yoghurt cake.

this has similar flavours to my much-loved pistachio and orange cake with lemon rosewater icing but is much more delicate, both in flavour and texture, and i was glad that i’d upped the lime zest content of the cake itself. it’s incredibly moist, both because of the yoghurt and the lime and rosewater syrup which is poured over the still-warm cake and would be a lovely cake to serve after meal.

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chocolate fudge cake

i’ve been having really strong cake cravings for the past few weeks. it’s probably because despite many of my friends having birthdays in the first quarter of the year, there has been a real dearth of cakes, so any expectations i have had for a sneaky slice have been dashed with surprising regularity. the other factor has been the jar of caramel syrup which has been sitting in my kitchen since i made the november daring bakers caramel cake with caramelised butter icing. this was a great cake and i’ve wanted to make it again but haven’t managed to as people have requested different cakes (this pistachio and orange cake with lemon and rosewater icing has been particularly popular recently).

anyway, the long and short of it is that i have finally got round to making a cake which i knew would tick my cravings box. sweet icing and a not-too-sweet cake to balance it out. chocolatey but with a nod in the direction of caramel and fudge. the cake was very easy to pull together and is definitely best eaten on the day it is made.

the icing tasted lovely (be warned, it is very sweet) but didn’t look as good as i’d hoped – despite sieving the icing sugar into the melted chocolate/butter mix i still ended up with very tiny white specks in the icing. perhaps i should have creamed the butter and icing sugar together and then added the melted chocolate? any tips or ideas welcome.

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baileys brownies

sticking with the chocolate theme, have some baileys brownies...

i used to make these brownies years ago but, in recent years, have neglected them in favour of their denser, more chocolatey and chewy cousins. these are quite light when it comes to the world of brownies – the chocolate content is low and they are sweet as the sugar content is high. a “brownie lite” perhaps, except the liteness means that the baileys flavour comes through which is a very good thing. extra baileys plus ice cream for serving makes them even better.

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daring bakers: mint chocolate valentino

it’s that daring bakers moment of the month again! the february 2009 challenge is hosted by wendy of wmpe's blog and dharm of dad ~ baker & chef who tell us that “we have chosen a chocolate valentino cake by chef wan; a vanilla ice cream recipe from dharm and a vanilla ice cream recipe from wendy as the challenge.”

i was quite excited by this recipe – a flourless chocolate cake which we were able to flavour however we liked. i decided to go with mint for mine and used a 50:50 mix of dark mint chocolate and milk chocolate (dharm had warned us that the lack of sugar might make a cake made only with dark chocolate too bitter)

so, how did i get on?

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