Plenty of work travel and lack of Internet at home have led to my disappearance from this blog. If blog-shaming.com existed, I’d be a regular.
I do, however, have a lush chocolate and courgette cake recipe (and photos to share) but seeing as it is Friday, and Valentine’s day all at once, it will have to wait a little longer.
Until then – a cheerful little video which always cheers me up!
P.S. I may or may not have had this video on repeat for the last 2 days.
Strawberries have started popping up at the supermarket – joy! Especially for the converted cake eater I share most of my life with (besides when I am in the kitchen when he knows well he is to leave me alone!). Now, when we first started dating, he would never eat cake but would demolish any quantity of chocolate chip cookies you are stupid enough to give him access to. Whether the smells coming out of the oven have enticed him over time or my constant requests to try this and that and tell me if he likes it have changed his mind, I don’t know. But recently he has started voluntarily eating cake. Not all types, of course, but as he says: baby steps.
Seeing as it was his birthday yesterday (and his work colleagues had ‘gently’ hinted they are expecting cake, those greedy chops!), on Saturday I asked him what he’d like me to bake it. It didn’t even take 3 seconds for him to decide he wants his favorite strawberry and white chocolate cupcakes. I owe the recipe for the base to the Marks & Spencers book Sensational cupcakes. The addition of the strawberries and chocolate was a lucky hunch which has proven to be a success. I did two batches of the batter – one I transformed into a Giant, and the other turned into actual cupcakes. So behold, first a picture of the finished Giant which birthday boy took to work, and then the recipe!
For the batter (makes either 1 Giant or 24 cupcakes):
For the cream cheese frosting:
Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (fan oven: 150 degrees) or gas mark 3 1/2.
Mix the milk, egg whites and vanilla together in a medium sized bowl till fluffy and set aside. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients to blend. Add the butter to the dry ingredients (I prefer to melt it before as it makes it easier, especially in winter when room temperature is significantly lower) and half the beaten eggs. Mix slowly till everything is moist, then beat vigorously for 1 minute. Add the remaining eggs and beat again. Add chocolate and strawberries. TIP: Gently cover the chopped strawberries with a little flour – this will keep them from sinking to the bottom. Spoon the batter into cupcake cases which you have put in your cupcake tray (or fill kind of equally in a Giant cupcake mold which you have first buttered then sprinkled with flour) – you would need to fill the cases 3/4 as these won’t rise as much as others. Bake cupcakes 25-30 mins or Giant cupcake about an hour or even sligthly more, till they are golden and a skewer comes out clean.
Frosting:
While the cakes are in the oven, beat the cream cheese on a high speed till smooth yet fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add vanilla extract and beat for a bit again. Then put the mixer speed down and slowly add icing sugar until the mixture has the proper frosting consistency (or you think one more sugar dust and you risk diabetes). Leave in fridge for at least 40 mins to set.
Once the cakes have cooled down, take the frosting out of the fridge and decorate. Voilà!
This weekend we were incredibly lucky with the weather on the Rock. Sun, no wind and temperatures of around 18 degrees Celsius. What better way to enjoy such ‘winter’ days but with a cake picnic!
I baked the recently mentioned award-winning courgette cake with cream cheese frosting, made some cookie cupcakes (which were a fail in some ways and not a fail in others, but more on that later), and brought coffee, tea and soft drinks. Close friends and family brought their cake appetites and we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at the southernmost point of Gibraltar, Europa Point. On a non-windy day (like yesterday) this is the perfect place for a picnic with its beautiful views of the lighthouse, Africa and the actual Rock.
I even took some photos – the quality isn’t great but I was too busy soaking up the sun and eating cake to spend more time with the camera!
You should know I am a bit of a celebrity.
Saying a bit since it is only in Gibraltar and I am not all that famous but I did enter a local TV baking competition and even won it! I don’t even have a picture of the trophy to show you – you see, the programme was filmed a month in advance and I didn’t want to spoil my family’s surprise by bringing the prize home! I will justify this as soon as I collect it from the TV station.
Anyways, let me tell you a little about the competition. There were 5 contestants, 2 judges and 2 rounds of baking. For the first round we were all given the same ingredients and no recipe, and had to bake a traditional Victoria Sponge cake. We also had to make our own jam!!!
The horror… While I am good with complicated tasks, I often fail simple tasks. Underestimation leading to poor concentration is my biggest enemy! Needless to say, my sponge was burnt on the outside. The jam I was so worried about received high praise but I didn’t put enough, and my cream was a miserable resemblance of what whipped cream is supposed to be. I came fourth out of five at the judging…For the second round, we had to bring our ingredients and create our own Christmas centerpiece. The conditions were that the cake contains at least: 1 nut, 1 fruit and 1… wait for it… vegetable. Carrot seemed the obvious choice, therefore it was instantly discarded. Beetroot and sweet potato were other options but trial and error kicked them out of the running too. So I settled for a courgette, apple, pecan nut, sultanas and cinnamon cake. Since I do not like eating fondant, I decided to finish off the cake with a cream cheese frosting and only use fondant for a couple of figurines. I also created dainty Christmas trees out of rice crispies and melted white chocolate which I dyed green.
The other contestants were creating extremely elaborate designs – one of them was a model of the entire Rock of Gibraltar, with the crazy runway we have and all. This, combined with the outcome of the first round, didn’t give me high chances of winning but I thought I’ll just enjoy the round and do my absolute best and leave the rest to the judges.
So imagine my surprise when the winner was announced and it was me and no one else! I wish I could include cake tasters on the blog but technology is not quite that advanced yet so I will just show you a picture of the final creation. You’d have to imagine the (pretty amazing) taste!ImageWatching the show on Boxing day with my family, who were all blissfully unaware of the results, was such fun! I had (somehow) managed to keep it a secret from all of them so seeing their faces was the best Christmas gift this year. I also didn’t know which bits and bobs will be included in the actual show, and hadn’t heard the ‘behind the scenes’ commentary of the judges. I was well pleased to hear myself being called an ‘accomplished baker and a pleasure to watch at work’!
So far no one has stopped me on the street to ask for an autograph but there is time for this too. Until then, I am happy to be the Cake Queen of my friend’s and family’s circle!