3 for the price of 1

It's been a little while, so I apologise firstly if you have stopped by, only to find that nothing has been added. Well just like waiting an age for a bus, then 3 come along at once - here are 3 cakes in 1!

Coffee and Walnut Cake

It's safe to say we don't like coffee cake in this house so Charlotte and I approached this cake with very little enthusiasm. Oh well, Harry will like it I'm sure. So off we go. Kitchen aid is prepped (Charlie is now a confident Kitchen Aid user) it was either share it with her or my Kitchen would of had two before very long - she had already started saving her pocket money and even I couldn't take the shame of having to admit to the fact my poor daughter had to save her own pocket money because her mummy was too mean to share a food mixer! Sad, but true

The good book calls for 2 x 7 inch sandwich tins - I don't have those, but I'm sure 8-inch tins will be fine. I have to be honest Charlie was not convinced but I persuade her it would be okay and she sets about creaming butter and sugar. The recipe says put everything in at once but we've discovered that if you use a food mixer you can over mix the flour which gives rubbish cakes - so this is my first hot tip - if you use a food mixer, ALWAYS cream the butter and sugar until very pale and light then add the eggs in one by one. Whisk the mix until really light and almost mousie, then add the flour on a low speed but only mix together till just mixed.  I don’t care what the recipe says, trust me this works and you then don’t over beat the flour.  They come out really light and as long as you don't leave your cake too long in the oven, they will be moist and yummy.

A very poor effort

Anyway back to our cake - I left it in the oven too long, so it was a bit "well done" around the edges. Charlie was totally unimpressed. I think it was due to the fact she had made the coffee butter cream whilst holding her nose and gagging at the smell only to find that due to the tins being too big, the cake was thin and crispy - whist great on a pizza, not so great on a cake. She decorated the cake and we appraised our effort - rubbish! We couldn't possibly give it away - poor Harry might crack his teeth so Charlie, being the brave trooper that she is, said she would try it - apparently, as far a crispy cakes go, it tasted pretty foul too.  Needless to say, down the waste disposal it went - sorry Harry, but I'm sure the next coffee cake will be better. 

So what did we learn from this?  If you don’t have the right sized tin – it does make a difference so you will either have to adjust your cooking time or your ingredient quantities – in Mary’s book, she gives quantity adjustments for different sized tins in the Victoria Sandwich recipe – use them it really really does matter.

Harry has a Request…

Whilst Charlie and I were ruining a perfectly good Coffee and Walnut cake, Harry popped round.  His 7^th Grandchild was having his 1^st Birthday and could Charlotte make him a cake for the party.  There would be all the grandchildren, their parents and of course Harry and his wife Rikki – Charlotte was delighted to accept the order and she wandered off to my cookbook shelf. 

 I like most women, have a multitude of cookbooks, which I have rarely opened let alone used.  One book I have is a Debbie Brown’s 50 Easy Party Cakes.  This is a great book for the armature cake decorator – perfect for Charlie and me.  Charlie flicked thru the book and found the “little blue train” this should be ideal.  Firstly it’s a blue train, which is great for a little boy and also its covered in liquorice All Sorts. If you have ever met a Dutchie, you’ll know they absolutely love liquorice.  It’s called “Drop” and comes either sweet or salty and the local supermarkets have every type you could imagine.  All Sorts are called “Engelse Drop” so we know we can get them.  All we need to do is bake a cake, cover it in fondant and stick the sweets on… easy right?

We made a simple vanilla sponge and baked it in a square tin (7in) and when it was baked and cooled we cut it in half.  The first half was then cut into three to form the 3 carriages and the second half was cut into two, one slightly larger than the other which will form the engine.  Everything was covered in butter cream and we set about kneading the fondant.  Fondant needs to be kneaded to make it soft and pliable if you don’t knead it enough, it will crack and give you a terrible finish.  Turns out Charlie is a natural Fondant kneader!  It was lovely and warm and easy to work with.  So we covered the engine and the carriages – this is a first for us so if I’m making it sound easy, it wasn’t! It was the blind leading the blind but the book gives really clear instructions so we were still confident.  It was my job to cover the engine and carriages, which was quite tricky.  It just didn’t seem to stick and wouldn’t go smooth even with a smoother.  Then the butter cream kept coming out of the bottom….Ace of Cakes or Cake Boss doesn’t have this problem!  I think this is the problem with watching too many cake programmes – they make it look so simple and it really isn’t.  I guess this is because they are trained and qualified and we are just having a go.  

Anyway I managed to cover the train in blue and Charlotte set about sticking on the All Sorts over the carriages along with the liquorice wheels with Sugar Glue.  The wheels kept falling off! So we resorted to butter cream to stick the jellies on the wheels and the wheels on the cake.  Luckily it worked, and didn’t look too bad – not quite as neat as the book, but we’re happy.  The carriages however are a work of art thanks to Charlie – she did a great job and they made the train look amazing. 

When we finished we assessed our work – not quite as good as the one in the book, but we were very proud – wonder what Harry will think?

Harry and Rikki were delighted – they had never seen a cake like this before and it was not what they were expecting.  The party was the following day and Charlie and I kept our fingers crossed that the wheels didn’t fall off before the cake got to the party – we shouldn’t of worried, the following day we received an email with lots of photos of a very happy little boy and really positive comments that they all loved the cake and especially the “drop”.

 

We really enjoyed making the cake, but I don’t think that we’ll do another.  I have a lovely friend who makes this sort of celebration cake and I have a re-newed admiration for her skill and patience – there is a link to her blog from here its Baking for Shoes – check her out – she has make some fantastic cakes.

Cappuccino Cake

Oh no another Coffee Cake. 

I think the reason we haven’t been that busy in the baking department is that there have been too many coffee cakes for our liking.  Oh joy, another one.

There’s a lovely picture in the book for this one so we know what we should be making.  The ask for 2 x 8inch tins – great, we’ve got those.  This is basically a very rich chocolate cake with a coffee whipped cream filling and topping.  So I sit down with a cup of coffee and read out the quantities while Charlotte is busily weighing out and whisking away.  The cocoa powder is mixed with hot water to form a paste and the butter and sugar are creamed into that.  Charlotte creamed them all until the colour went quite pale and then added the eggs one at a time.  All the dry ingredients were then added and it was poured into the tins and baked.

The best bit

Charlie then tootled off and watched the football with her daddy while I watched the cake – after the last time, I’m feeling a little under pressure not to leave it in too long.  My oven is, I think, 20 degrees hotter than it says, and cooks 5 –7 mins quicker than the recipe says.  Now this isn’t a problem once you have worked it out as you can make allowances for it, but I’ve had the oven for 5 years and its only since Charlie and I have been baking that I have noticed it.  So if you are having problems with your cakes, it might be worth either turning down your oven or buying an oven thermometer to check what the temperature actually is in there.  Ooohh I think that was another hot tip! (Pardon the pun)

The cake was ready 7 mins early! But wasn’t over cooked at all thank goodness – I really can’t take the look of disappointment on Charlottes face when I let her down. 

When the cake was cool enough, Charlotte whipped up half a pint of whipping cream with some coffee essence (very little) and spread it between and on top of the cake.  We sprinkled it with cocoa and assessed our cake.  It looked lovely, wonder what it tastes like?  Should we give it to Harry or try it ourselves?  Sorry Harry – there’s chocolate in that cake, we’re trying it!  Oh my goodness! It was fantastic.  If you are not sure about Coffee cake, this is the one to try.  The Chocolate cake is very light and moist but tastes really Chocolaty because of the coffee and because we didn’t add too much coffee to the cream it has only a hint of coffee – everyone loved it in our house – poor Harry didn’t get a look in, but another time I’m sure it will find its way to him.

Next time its Battenburg cake – I definitely don’t have a tin for that!