A Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Cake...

And some good news!

Shall we get the news out of the way first?

We have finally exchanged contracts and in a little over weeks time we will be in our new home. I had got to a stage where I never believed it was going to happen so I’m definitely wearing my happy pants this week. Smiles all round are the order of the day! And maybe even a cake to celebrate.

So now for that cake.

It's time again to join in with the Cake Slice Bakers (all the details are below). With the house taking up so much time I didn't manage to join in last month and almost didn't this month - this post is already three days late. I remember why I took a break from joining in with the Cake Slice Bakers last year... much as I love baking I often find the choices too complicated for my busy life, with too much frosting and frequently too sweet. And then I'm never that good at writing a post in time and doing all the links etc. But there was one cake this month that sounded too good to miss. Simple to put together, no fancy assembly required, no elaborate decorating. It's an everyday cake, good to eat at anytime of day and far too good not to share the recipe. The only downside is you are likely to eat too much of it in one sitting... a second slice is so tempting!  It is packed full of luscious jammy blueberries, flavoured with a subtle hint of lemon and the ricotta makes it unbelievably light. I don't think I have ever used ricotta in a cake before... who knew!

Blueberry  Lemon Ricotta Tea Cake

300g fresh blueberries

2 tbsp cornflour

227g softened butter

200g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste

zest of 2 lemons

4 large eggs

250g tub ricotta cheese

250g plain flour, sieved

48g ground almonds

4 tsp baking powder

icing sugar for dusting.

1. Preheat the oven to 170 deg C (150 fan) and grease and line a 23 cm springform pan
2. Wash and dry the blueberries and toss them in the cornflour. Set aside
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time with a little of the flour and beat until well mixed. Finally whisk in the ricotta to give a creamy batter.
4. Combine the dry ingredients together and fold into the batter. Finally add 250g of the blueberries, folding them in
5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, levelling the top and scatter the remaining blueberries over the surface
6. Bake the cake in a preheated oven for about an hour - this is how long it took in my oven but the book says bake for 80 - 90 minutes so do check to see if it is done by inserting a skewer and checking it comes out clean.
7. Cool in the tin for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar.

This is best eaten warm, although still very good cold the following day (ask me how I know) and a dollop of creme fraiche on the side doesn't go amiss either! It is definitely one I will bake again.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesteruk.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

Our choices for June 2019 were ~

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Tea Cake

Raspberry Cremeschnitte

White Chocolate Raspberry Pistachio Mousse Cake

Tiramisu Cake

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Tea Cake

Karen's Kitchen Stories

My Recipe Reviews Needs update

Sweet Sensations

Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Raspberry Cremeschnitte

Amandie Bakes 

Tiramisu Cake

All That's Left Are The Crumbs

A Day in the Life on the Farm

White Chocolate Raspberry Pistachio Mousse Cake

Note - this cake was not chosen by any group members

A Marbled Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

I'm joining in with the Cake Slice Bakers again this month baking from The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesteruk

A couple of the choices seemed really complicated but I was immediately drawn the the Marbled Chocolate Orange Bundt cake as a chance to use my beautiful Rose Bundt tin, which has languished unused in the back of the cupboard. And being the Easter weekend chocolate seemed a good choice.

The photograph in the book shows a simple glaze that shows off the beauty of the shaped cake and I was anxious whether my cake would turn out quite so beautifully.

 

I greased and floured my tin well. The actual cake was straightforward to make, it baked beautifully and  turned out of the tin like a dream... I just wish I had taken a photograph at this stage! I then made the glaze according to the recipe and didn't really clock that it seemed more like an icing than a glaze. I poured it liberally over the cake but instead of sinking in and leaving just a touch of frosting as in the book it just sat and looked gloopy all over the surface! Not an attractive look!

I almost didn't share these photos! It's definitely not my best effort and it is hard to believe I used the same glaze recipe as the book, but I did! Fortunately my chief cake tester is not that discerning thought it looked just fine.

 

Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating... and it tasted okay but for me it was neither one thing or another. Not quite orangey enough to be an orange cake, yet not overly chocolately either. So I'm not sure I'll be making it again, although if I do the glaze will be replaced with an orange drizzle... or I would bake it in a plain tin.

 The recipe should you want to try it for yourself:

Ingredients

227g unsalted butter, softened

200g caster sugar

4 large eggs

1 tspn vanilla essence

1/2 tspn orange oil

Grated zest from one orange

227 ml milk

250g

plain flour

4 tspn baking powder

100g white chocolate, melted

100g 72 % dark chocolate, melted

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C (160 fan) and grease a 23 cm bundt tin. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, along with a spoonful of flour with each addition and beat in well. Combine the flour and baking powder and fold into the batter with the zest, vanilla, orange oil and milk. Divide the mixture into two bowls and stir the white chocolate into one and the dark chocolate into the other. Gentle fold the two together to give a marbled effect and pour into the prepared tin. Bake for approximately 55 mins until baked through.

Cool in the tin for 15 mins and then turn out and cool completely. Combine 50 ml double cream with 125g icing sugar and the zest of an orange and pour over the cake for a nice gloopy topping!

**********

My other chocolate offering this weekend was a Mint and Pistachio chocolate fridge cake from Ottolenghi's book Simple. This is not hanging around and will definitely be made again!

Wishing you all a happy Easter and I hope there will be chocolate for you too!

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesteruk.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

Our choices for April 2019 were ~

1. Poppy Seed Smetanik

2. Rhubarb Strawberry Tea Cake

3. Opera Cake

4. Marbled Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

Poppy Seed Smetanik

Amandie Bakes - Amanda

All That's Left Are The Crumbs - Felice

Marbled Chocolate Orange Bundt

Karen’s Kitchen Stories - Karen

Fan My Flame - Gina

A Little Bit of All Right - Kim

My Recipe Reviews - Susan

Rhubarb Strawberry Tea Cake 

Culinary Adventures with Camilla - Camilla

The Cake Slice Bakers - March

I’m two days late... assuming I finish writing this on Friday, but I have been baking once again with The Cake Slice Bakers. Exchange of contracts is imminent and despite weeks of sorting out, the house looks as though we have barely started clearing so the last thing I should be doing is baking cakes and writing about it... but I never was one for getting my priorities right, especially when there’s cake involved!

 

We are baking this year from The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesteruk and the choices this month were

1. Creme Brulee cheesecake

2. Triple-Citrus Mousse Cake

3. Austrian Pound Cake

4. Toscakaka Torte

As ever it was hard to choose and the cheesecake was very tempting given that if ever we eat desserts out, which isn't often, Stewart will always choose cheesecake and I will have Creme Brulee. However I wanted to make this for dinner guests and didn't want to risk something completely new so I chose the Toscakaka cake, a Swedish caramel almond torte. I own up, I have made this before from a different book with a slightly different recipe where it was just called a Tosca cake, so I knew I would be on to a winner. The combination of light caramel soaked sponge with a topping of caramel and crunchy almonds is delicious.

The cake itself is easy but the tricky part is making the caramel sauce which starts with boiled sugar. I let my first batch get too dark and it tasted burnt so I had to start again.

But second time around it worked and the resulting cake didn't disappoint. 

It went down well with our dinner guests as dessert but it made a good cake for afternoon tea too!

Ingredients for the cake

• 170g unsalted butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 118 ml dulce de leche (thick caramel sauce)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 118 ml full fat milk
• 188g plain flour, sifted
• 50g ground almonds
• 3 tsp baking powder

Ingredients for the topping

• 200g granulated sugar
• 60ml water
• 118ml double cream
• 60g unsalted butter
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 110g toasted flaked almonds                  
•  

1. Preheat the oven to 170 deg C (150 fan) and line a 23cm spring form tin with baking parchment

2. In a large bowl beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla and dulce de leche until light and fluffy Add the eggs one at a time with a spoonful of flour with each addition, beating until smooth. Combine the flour, almonds and baking powder and gently add in two additions alternating with the milk until everything is just combined.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes. The sides should be set but the centre just under baked.

4. While the cake is baking prepare the caramel sauce. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar melts. Bring to the boil and let it cook until it turns a golden amber colour (not dark brown like my first attempt!) Remove from the heat and whisk in the cram, butter and vanilla. Be careful as it will splutter. Continue to whisk until it is smooth and the butter has melted.

5. After the cake has baked for 35 minutes remove from the oven, pierce the top with a skewer and pour the caramel sauce over the top. Sprinkle with the toasted almonds and return the cake to the oven for a further 15 mins.

6. Remove from the oven and let it stand for 15 minutes before releasing the spring form. Eat warm or cold!

I served ours warm with a dollop of creme fraiche and a compote of honeyed figs.

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Cake Slice Bakers - February

Thank you for all the comments on my last post. I couldn't reply for a while for reasons unknown. Replies to comments just disappeared into the cloud, but today they are being published. It's a mystery! Anyway, it seem that Marie Kondo creates quite a difference of opinion, as does the whole subject of decluttering and moving house. I don't think it will be my last post on the subject. But today I'm writing about cake!

For a little while I stepped back from the Cake Slice Bakers, a worldwide group of bakers who each year bake from the same book once a month and blog about it on the 20th of the month. It was a combination of not finding the time to bake and write a blog post about it regularly and also I wasn't enjoying the the last couple of books we were baking from. The books were American baking books and as a general rule American cakes tend to be a lot stickier, sweeter and heavier on the frosting than British or European cakes  and not really to my taste. So when I spotted the book choice for 2019 was The European Cake Cookbook I was tempted back. The author Tatyana Nesteruk is Ukrainian, brought up in Italy and now resides in California. The book even claims that the cakes are less sweet than their American counterparts.

However, having seen the four choices for February I wasn't convinced! All consisted of several layers and were thick with frosting, a caramel honey cake, a lemon meringue cake (tempting!), Esterhazy cake, and a banoffee cake... definitely special occasion cakes rather than the sort of thing you would have in a tin to go with a cup of tea or coffee at anytime of day (I'm quoting from the back cover of the book). But as it happens we had a big family meal a couple of weeks ago and it was a good excuse to make one of the cakes for dessert so I chose the Caramel Honey Cake although I think all the choices would have made good desserts.

The cake itself was a fat free sponge baked in three tins and with the use of my trusty mixer it took no time to mix up and get in the oven.

The cake layers were soaked in a syrup of condensed milk and cream, which I thought would make it really sickly but in fact it just made the layers really moist and flavourful. Although I did opt to change the frosting slightly and used only half the amount specified. Instead of cutting each of the cakes in half creating six layers to be separated with frosting I just kept to the three layers, which automatically reduced the amount of frosting required. I think this was a good decision as it gave a good proportion of cake to sweet icing.  I like a butter cream as much as the next person I do think it needs a good proportion of cake to go with it... and this was just right. If I had gone with the recipe it would have been far too sweet for my taste. And it still made a very tall cake. The only other change I made was I toasted the pecans lightly before using them as I think it brings out the flavour.

And the verdict... everyone loved it and I would definitely make my version again, not too rich and full of flavour.

When our two year old grandson saw it he tipped his bowl containing a little malt loaf onto the floor and pushed his plate towards this towering cake instead!

My Version of the recipe:

Caramel Honey Cake

for the cake:
9 large eggs
150 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
118 ml of runny honey (1/2 cup)
250g plain flour
100g ground almonds
2 tsp baking powder
125 g toasted chopped pecans

for the syrup:
118 ml condensed milk (1/2 cup)
118 ml double cream (1/2 cup)

Frosting:
227g unsalted butter
250 g icing sugar
200g dulce de leche (caramel sauce)
1 tsp vanilla extract
125g chopped toasted pecans (reserve some whole ones for decoration)

• Pre heat the oven to 350 F, 180 C (160 fan) and grease and line 3 20cm round cake tins
• For the cake, place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl (preferably a stand mixer) and whisk on high speed until pale and almost doubled in volume (About five mins). Add the honey and whisk for another minute. Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl and fold gently into the egg mixture in small additions so not to get pockets of flour. Finally fold in the pecans.
• Divide the cake batter between the three tins and bake for  25 - 30 minutes until completely set. Allow to cool in the tin briefly before turning out to cool completely.
• Combine the condensed milk and syrup together and brush over the cake layers until it has soaked in thoroughly.
• For the frosting, whisk the butter until light and fluffy. Add the caramel sauce and vanilla and whisk until combined. Add the sugar and whisk again until well mixed and fluffy
• To assemble, spread a layer of the frosting between each layer of cake and then cover the sides and top with the frosting. Use the remaining nuts to coat the side and decorate the top with some whole pecans

You can check out what everyone else has made hereby clicking on the link below... I think!

An InLinkz Link-up

A Saffron-Orange Bundt Cake

What is this I hear you cry... a post about cake only two days after I tell you I'm cutting back on sugar. But in my defense... this was made last weekend (before I started the new regime), it was a special occasion and I am once again joining in with The Cake Slice Bakers.

It has been a long time since I made a cake with this group but they have kindly let me stay a member. Each month the Cake Slice bakers, a group of bloggers who enjoy baking and eating cake, are offered a selection of recipes from a chosen book for the year. We choose one of the recipes to bake and then on the 20th of the month we blog about it. There are very few rules but the main one is that we have fun trying new recipes and baking cakes.

This year it is slightly different as our book, The Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen (I'm imagining this is a bit like our Good Housekeeping Institute in the UK)  hasn't been published yet so we cannot actually see the whole book and we are only given access to the choices for that month. Also we have been asked not to share the recipes on the blog... but I can show you pictures!

I chose to make a Saffron-Orange Bundt cake. It was easy to put together, no complicated techniques and it baked beautifully at the temperature indicated and for the stated time... something that never happened with our last book. It also smelled wonderful as it baked. I think my only gripe was that as with all American books the ingredients are measured in cups and sticks... really... who on earth decided on sticks of butter as a unit of measurement! I dug out my American measuring cups and reweighed everything into grams so I had a recipe I was happy to work with.

I don't think I'm giving too much away if I say there was one unsusal ingredient that I have never added to a cake before and that was turmeric. It was a tiny amount and I can only imagine it was there to enhance the golden colour of the cake as any contribution to the flavour would be minimal. There was however a whole teaspoon of saffron which could make it an expensive cake, but I still have a pot that Joe brought me back from Morocco.

The icing was described as a glaze but for me a glaze is something that lightly coats a surface as with a lemon drizzle cake but this was a thick glace icing. This is not a complaint just an observation as it was delicious and added just the right amount of sweetness.

And the cake? Well it was lovely even if I say so myself... delicately flavoured with just the right amount of orange and saffron, it had a dense even crumb a little bit like a Madiera cake. I was worried it might be a little dry but it was perfectly moist and very well received by everyone last weekend. We happened to have Stewart's son James and his wife Elizabeth staying with us for a couple of days en route from Australia before they started the next stage of their adventure in Cape Town and as it was James's birthday on Monday it was a good excuse for a cake.

You can see what the other bakers have made by following the link:

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

An Olive Oil Cake

After a bit of a break I have been tempted back to join in with The Cake Slice Bakers this month. Each month, the bakers choose a cake from a choice of four from World Class Cakes by Roger Pizey. The choices this month were a Hummingbird Cake, which sounded a lot like a carrot cake but with pureed pineapple, M'hanncha, a nutty filo 'snake' filled with sweet nut mixture, a Strawberry & Marjoram tart and an Olive Oil cake. I admit that I could have quite happily made all four they sounded so good, but in the interest of our waistlines I stuck to the Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Peaches.

As I happened to have them in the house I used nectarines rather than peaches which I'm sure made no difference to the outcome. In fact I think any stone fruit like plums or apricots would also work well. I also opted for a light olive oil rather than anything too heavy and fruity but then changed my mind once I got all the ingredients ready and used half light oil and half extra virgin olive oil.

It was incredibly quick and easy to put together and I had high hopes at this stage!

But when I tested the cake after the recommended 40 minutes it was nowhere near cooked. I kept checking every 5 minutes but the skewer kept coming out still covered in wet batter until it had had almost double the time in the oven. I know that my oven is pretty accurate but think the problem is that I baked the cake in the recommended 7" tin whereas I think it would have worked better in a larger tin, resulting in a shallower cake but one that cooked in the recommended time.

It looked good and had a lovely crumb, but unfortunately it was just too dry from having spent too long in the oven and didn't deliver on the lovely light texture promised.

The flavour however was excellent and it was certainly good with a large dollop of creme fraiche to add some moisture.

Should you wish to try it yourself I have given the tin size and cooking times as specified in the book but I would definitely use a larger tin if I made it again and might even be tempted to add an orange drizzle.

Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Peaches (adapted from World Class Cakes)

You will need  a 7" round springform tin, greased and lined (although I would use at least 8"). Preheat the oven to 180 deg C (160 fan), 350 deg F

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• 250g caster sugar
• grated rind from one large orange
• 140g plain flour, sifted
• 140g self raising flour, sifted
• 125 ml olive oil (1/2 cup)
• 85 ml whole milk (1/3 cup)
• 2 peaches or nectarines, sliced
• 2 tablespoons of apricot jam, warmed and strained

Method:

•  In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar and orange zest until pale.
• Whisk in the flours in three batches alternating with the oil and milk
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for ten minutes
• Remove the cake from the oven and carefully arrange the slices of peach on top of the cake.
• Return to the oven and bake for a further 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
• Cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out brush the top of the cake with the warm apricot jam and serve warm or cold.

I optimistically had a slice for my breakfast this morning, hoping the texture might have improved overnight but unfortunately it was still a little on the dry side and I couldn't help thinking it would be greatly improved doused in sherry at the bottom of a trifle! But it has been fun joining in with this lovely group of bakers again and I hope to bake more regularly with them in future... having said in my last post there would be a shift in focus in my life from cake to more textile art! The plan is for more sewing today but that is after I have finished the scones, granola bars and cakes for the coffee shop! Do check out what the other bakers have made.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up