Blackberry Bakewell Cake (BBC Goodfood recipe): Friday Challenge!

I can’t believe I have gone from only making a very small handful of un successful cakes to now baking good cakes every week! Is it because I have more patience now to follow a recipe? or because I really want to learn this time? Whatever it is I am really enjoying it and have a feeling it may be something I continue to practise, especially over the christmas period! (I know I did it – September and I’m thinking about christmas!)

The cake before being sliced to reveal the fruits

So this cake is actually named “Raspberry Bakewell cake” but I have a freezer full of blackberries from my garden so it seemed this was a perfect opportunity to use them. I think the cake was delicious with blackberries, slightly less sweet than a raspberry maybe but a lovely subtle match to the almond flavours. You can get the recipe by following this link

It uses a mix of self raising flour and ground almonds to give it a more crumbly texture and a lovely almond flavour then it is topped with flaked almonds to give it a little crunch. I had thought the flaked almonds would burn on the top of the cake however they came out just lightly toasted which was a relief.

Once sliced in to you can see the layer of fresh blackberries in the middle of the sponge

What I liked about this cake was that the outside was a little crunchy and the outside layer of cake went abit crispy, then the inside is beautifully moist and crumbly with the sweet fruits giving so much flavour. I really think this is be far the best cake I have made so far!

It is very simple to create this layered fruit effect, simply make a cake batter and pour half into a lined cake tin, cover the mix with a single layer of fruits and then top with the remaining cake mixture, top with flaked almonds and bake in the oven. The main difficulty I had was trying to spread the cake mixture over the top of the berries without moving all the berries or ending up with some berries on the top. Some poked out of the side but when I looked at the original picture they had the same effect so I’m happy!

It’s a natural way to bring colour to a cake and it would look beautiful served at any tea party. I’d like to try it with pears or apricots or apples with a toffee sauce, the ideas are endless!

Soo pretty inside the cake!

What I have learnt about Cake?
You can mix different types of flour with ground almonds to create a more crumbly texture with a slightly more natural rustic flavour. Also adding fruits such as berries in the middle of the cake mix makes it moist but not as wet as the courgette cake I previously attempted.
I was also really happy with the effect of the flaked almonds, I have loads left over from this recipe so I will definitely be using those again soon!

Oh I also really really liked the lack of icing in this recipe, I’m not a fan of icing at all and would rather get the sweetness from fruits as done in this recipe

Lemon, Lime and Orange Polenta Cake (Accidental Vegetarian cookbook): Friday Challenge!

Ok so being a novice at baking to begin with I was completely nervous about making this cake! I decided to make it because the whole point of this is to push myself to try new things and cook outside of my comfort zone. The recipe for this cake can be found here. It is from the “Accidental Vegetarian” cookbook by Simon Rimmer which has some interesting ideas in it but just not enough pictures I think (I’m a very visual person)! I’ll just point out that the recipe in the book did not include the sauce so I added some orange slices to garnish but the sauce does look amazing so will make that next time.

The first thing I did was cream the butter and sugar. Luckily me and the hubby had made cupcakes a few days before so I now knew that this could just be done in a big bowl with a hand held eletric whisk. I started off slowly and unfortunately got a little carried away and it went everywhere. Literally. It was on the ceiling, the fridge, the cupboards, the floor, the sink, the window and of course all over me. It has been quite funny because since then we have found hidden little splashes of sugary butter dotted around. Anyway don’t worry because I saved enough to still make the cake.

Next I added the almonds and then cracked in the eggs and I started to doubt whether this was going to work because it was so gooey but I trusted the recipe and carried on. which was a good thing because it turned out great in the end.

Unfortunately it was only when pouring the cake mix into my cake tin that I realised my take tin was only 20cm not the required 30cm so I filled it then poured the rest into cup cake cases. I didn’t want to ruin my oven timings so I cooked the cake on its own first – but because it was smaller it must have needed a different temperature as it was dark brown on the outside before it was cooked in the middle. The cupcakes however turned out perfectly after 25-30 minutes in the oven.

Usually I would remake something if I felt it wasn’t perfect (my fault not the recipes) however this cake feeds 11 people….theres only me and my husband…. and were on a diet… so no more cake baking in this house for a few weeks untill its all been eaten!

What I have learnt about Polenta:

Polenta is a great alternative to use in cakes for people who are Gluten free/ Celiac as teamed with the ground almonds there was no need for flour. It resulted in a denser cake but still very delicious.
I don’t think I’m confident enough to try my own version of a polenta cake but I will definitely have another go at this recipe in the future, with a bigger cake tin!