Category: cakes

cakes · cooking · recipe

A Homemade Treat for The Family

Joanne9 Comments

“Time goes by so fast, people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you”. ~ Author unknown.

Is it just me, or are the weeks disappearing faster than ever these days? The more I spend my time enjoying my days and the busier I become, the faster the weeks are over.

It’s official ~ time really does fly when you’re having fun!

When the weekend arrives and my family have the opportunity to spend more time relaxing at home, without the pressure of work or school, I like to bake a treat for them to enjoy.

Last Sunday afternoon I baked the most delicious carrot cake ever! My family devoured it in no time at all, firstly whilst still warm from the oven, taking slices to work and school, as a snack when arriving home and it has even been enjoyed as a ‘dessert’ after dinner!

You’d be hard pushed to find a cake more popular than that!

So, here is the recipe for my most popular cake of all time, as voted by my family…

Carrot Cake

3 cups of flour

2 cups of caster sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1 cup of undrained, canned crushed pineapple

2 cups of grated carrot

4 eggs

1 ½ cups of salad oil

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup of chopped walnuts

Sift the flour, sugar, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl, add the crushed pineapple, grated carrot eggs, oil and vanilla essence. Beat all ingredients together until well combined.

Stir in the chopped walnuts. Spoon the mixture into either one large square cake tin, or two loaf tins (it is quite a large cake, so can be divided into two).

Bake in a pre-heated 180 degrees C oven. One large cake will take around 2 hours to cook, and the two loaf tins will cook in about 1¼ hours. Check the cake with a cake tester to make sure it is cooked through.

Although the recipe calls for walnuts, I used pecan nuts, from my own garden. We still have a bucket full to use of this year’s bumper crop.

Treat your family, and enjoy! 🙂

cakes · Mum

A Passion For Cake Decorating

Joanne3 Comments

It would come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, or who has read these blog entries, when I reiterate my love of cooking. Spending time in my kitchen relieves any stress I may feel (almost as surely as when I’m gardening!)

Oftentimes, such traits are passed on from generation to generation as was the case with me.

My mother could whip up a meal for the unexpected multitudes, in no time flat, even from a seemingly bare fridge and pantry. She just simply had the “knack” to make anything happen…as her daughter, I’m convinced she possessed magic powers!

She was fascinated by the art of cake decorating. Although she had never had any formal training, Mum bought books on the subject, (as I recall, books on cake decorating were actually the only books she ever did buy!) in an effort to learn all she could about her passion.

Going through some old photo albums, I have discovered photos of a few of the cakes Mum decorated over the years. She particularly enjoyed icing and decorating wedding cakes and I recall her planning the designs she would be working on for days in advance, often travelling long distances to purchase her required supplies for the upcoming task.

These two wedding cakes, both from the 1960’s, were among her first attempts at decorating.

Although simple in design, her ideas were very effective and produced beautiful results.

This photo shows not only a wedding cake made by Mum, but also a doily she crocheted, on the table under the cake.

Mum was never idle and was very artistic and talented, although she claimed herself to be “a jack of all trades and master of none”.

I, for one, remain as proud as ever of my amazing, imaginative mother. She and I were like chalk and cheese in our personalities. Perhaps that’s why we had such a close mother daughter relationship….we admired each other’s unique talents and accepted the striking differences between each other in our personalities.

She taught me so much. What a wonderful woman my Mum was….

birthdays · cakes · cooking · daughter · Mum · recipe

Coffee Sponge Cake

Joanne3 Comments

For my birthday last month, my youngest daughter made a beautiful coffee sponge cake.

I love it that she has always enjoyed cooking with me. Even as a toddler she would climb up on a little stool to see what I was making and would “help” by stirring the contents of the bowl occasionally.

As she has grown, (she is now 17 years old), she has made her own choices of new recipes to try out, adding interest to sweet treats the family enjoys.

When my Mum was here, she had a theory; it was a very rare person who could make both a light sponge and a good batch on scones. She was the sponge maker in our household of years gone by; I was the scone maker, so it worked out well for us.

Now, we have discovered that my daughter is an excellent sponge maker! She has whipped up a sponge many times, with such great ease that I envy her talent, as I did my own mother’s.

Well, today being my mother’s birthday, I decided it would be a very appropriate day to share my daughter’s recent sponge treat, made for my special day.

Happy birthday, Mum….

Coffee Sponge Cake

4 eggs, separated (at room temperature)

Pinch of salt

1 cup of caster sugar

1 tablespoon coffee essence

1 cup of plain flour

4 teaspoons of arrowroot

1 teaspoon of baking powder

4 tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon of butter

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease and baking paper line two 20cm round cake tins.

With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and salt until soft peaks form, then gradually add the caster sugar, beating continually.

Add the egg yolks and continue beating the mixture until it is light and creamy. Add the coffee essence and combine into the mixture.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and arrowroot. Repeat the sifting process three times. (My daughter assures me that the triple sifting is what gives the sponge its “lightness”).

In a small saucepan, heat together the milk and butter. Carefully fold the butter and milk into the sponge mix.

Pour half the mixture into each of the prepared sponge tins and bake for 20 minutes.

Decorate as desired.

cakes · cooking · Mum · nostalgia · recipe

Parkin

JoanneLeave a comment

Staying with the same theme as my last food post for Eccles Cakes, I have another recipe from England, also my mother’s recipe and another recipe that I enjoyed making as a child and teenager myself.

In fact, as a teenager, I would often make Parkin on the weekend to take to work with me during the following week for my morning tea each day.

Parkin is at its best two or three days after baking, by which time the flavours of the ingredients have had time to “marry” and the flavour of the ginger is intensified. It will keep for two to three weeks, stored in an air-tight container.

The history of Parkin is of interest to me, as it originated in Yorkshire, England and is also widely eaten in Lancashire. Although my mother came from Cheshire, her mother’s (my grandmother’s) family came from Yorkshire. Which leaves me wondering, did my grandmother pass this recipe on to my mother?

Parkin is traditionally served on bonfire night, known as Guy Fawkes Night in England. It was at a bonfire night that my parents first met.

With so much personal history associated with Parkin, is it any wonder that I love it so much myself? 🙂

Parkin

110g self raising flour

220g fine to medium oatmeal

110g brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon cinnamon

80g butter

220g treacle

1 egg

5 tablespoons milk

Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees C.

Mix together in a bowl the flour, oatmeal, ginger and cinnamon.

In a small saucepan, heat together the butter, treacle and brown sugar. Stir over a low heat until the butter is melted.

Add the treacle mixture to the dry ingredients along with the milk and egg.

Beat together until you have a smooth batter.

Place the batter into a greased and lined 18cm x 28cm baking tin.

Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until the cake is firm. Leave in the baking tin to cool. Cut into serving sized squares a day or two after baking.

birthdays · cakes · chocolate · cooking · recipe

Chocolate Cake, For Any Occasion.

JoanneLeave a comment

This Easter just passed, rather than let the family eat Easter eggs all weekend, but still staying with the chocolate theme, I made my favourite version of good old fashioned chocolate cake.

During all of my years of hosting children’s birthday parties and a multitude of various other family events I have yet to find anyone who doesn’t enjoy a slice of chocolate cake. If it isn’t the number one choice of preferred cakes, it always runs a close second.

Although I have many chocolate cake recipes, this is the recipe that I invariably choose, time and time again…in fact, I first made this particular cake when I was roughly fifteen years of age and living at home with my parents!

Served with a hot cup of coffee, this cake is close to perfection!

Chocolate Cake

90g butter, at room temperature

Chocolate Cake

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 eggs, separated, and at room temperature

1 tablespoon rum or water

1 ¼ cups self-raising flour

Pinch salt

¼ cup cocoa

½ cup milk

Grease a 25mm ring tin and pre-heat oven to 190 degrees C.

Beat the butter and sugar together, add the vanilla essence and continue to beat the mixture until it is fluffy and light in colour.

Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, then add the rum or water.

Sift together the flour, salt and cocoa and measure the milk.

Using a large metal spoon fold the sifted dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, alternately with the milk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix lightly but thoroughly.

Beat the egg whites until they are firm and stand in soft peaks. Carefully fold the egg whites into the cake mixture.

Bake for approximately 35 minutes.