Cakes
I’m generally not a fan of eating the icing on cakes, but I am partial to cream cheese icing on carrot cake! The downside is that the cake then needs to be kept refrigerated because of the cream cheese. I usually take the cake out of the fridge about half an hour prior to serving as I find it more pleasant …
Cakes
Like my Vanilla Cupcakes, these Chocolate Cupcakes are a gluten-free adaptation of my grandmother’s sponge recipe. The cakes are moist and keep well for several days in an air-tight container. Using standard size baking cups, I usually get 12 cakes from one batch. For a special occasion, I ice the cakes but otherwise I serve them as they are or …
Cakes
Since posting my recipe for Chocolate Almond Slice, I have been pondering the possibility of a cake that contains neither butter nor added oil. The result is this Hazelnut Coffee Cake in which moisture is provided by the oil in the hazelnuts. I should acknowledge my work colleagues who were (probably unsurprisingly!) more than happy to taste test each version of …
Cakes
When I was growing up, we often used to make Queen Cakes. These days, Cupcakes are very much in vogue but in essence, they are the American version of English queen cakes. Bought cupcakes seem to be defined by their topping which is often quite elaborate and usually at least as deep as the cake itself! Personally, I prefer less …
Cakes
When my mother was growing up, her mother ran a home bakery in Napier. This is her sponge recipe that she used to make sponges and lamingtons. She would start baking in the early hours of the morning with only two small household ovens and no electric mixer at her disposal! The sponges and lamingtons were so popular that by …
Cakes
I use the word “moist” in the name of this cake because so many madeira cakes I have tasted over the years have been, in my view, heavy and dry! This one is light and moist, which is exactly how I like my cakes to be! I adapted it from a Butter Cake recipe, but since I use no butter …
Cakes
The first recipe in this post is gluten-free gingerbread. The original recipe (included at the end of this post) on which this one is based was given to me many years ago by the mother of one of my school friends. Often when I was at their place we would have hot gingerbread fresh from the oven smothered in butter. The melted …
Cakes
This chocolate cake recipe was given to me many years ago by one of my cousins. True to it’s title, I have never had a failure with it! The mixture is runnier than many cake batters but the baked result is light and fluffy. I have created a gluten-free version which I now bake more often than the original. (The …
