Recipe // Fruity Tea Loaf

As today is Mother's Day I decided that rather than buying the usual flowers and chocolates for my mum, I would make her a cake. I chose this recipe as it's deliciously moist, and packed with all my favourite fruits. I used this BBC Good Food recipe, deviating slightly from the recipe by omitting the orange peel (as I'm not a fan), and adding a wider selection of fruits (semi-dried apple chunks, cranberries and dates). I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and my mum has asked me to bake another for her Bring and Buy sale next weekend.

Ingredients

300g mixture sultanas, raisins, dried cranberries, dried dates and sweetened apple
225ml hot tea
juice 1 orange
50g butter
100g light brown sugar
1 egg
225g self-raising flour
4 tbsp demerara sugar

Method (in words)

1. Place the dried fruits in a bowl and pour over the hot tea, orange juice and zest. Cover with cling film, then leave for at least 4 hrs or better still overnight.
2. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of a 2lb loaf tin. Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy, then beat in the egg followed by the flour. Carefully stir through the fruit mixture. Spoon the mixture into the tin, then smooth over the surface with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle all over with a thick layer of demerara sugar.
3. Bake for 1 hr or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out, cut into slices and serve.

Method (in pictures)

Have your ingredients to hand. I chose to use a wider variety of fruits in this cake than the recipe called for. You could also add nuts such as walnuts or pecans to give it a crunch. Preheat your oven the 160 degrees.

Pour the freshly squeezed orange juice and hot tea over the fruits, using a spoon to ensure all the fruit is covered.

Cover with clingfilm and leave to soak overnight. I left mine to soak for about 16 hours to make sure they were very moist.

Cream the butter and sugar. This will take a long time with an electric hand whisk, and you may find the mixture clumps together. If this happens, use a metal spoon to soften the butter a little by hand. Once the sugar and butter are well mixed and softened, whisk in the egg, followed by the flour. You will be left with a heavy dough-like consistency.

Add the fruit mixture to the dough mixture a little at a time. Make sure you add all the liquid from the bowl, as this will cake the cake its moist texture.

 Place in the centre of the oven and cook for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Once it has cooled, carefully lift the loaf out, remove the grease proof paper and place onto a cake rake to allow the bottom to dry out a little.

If stored in a sealed and dry container, it will keep for a week. Enjoy with a hot cup of tea! 

Recipe // Naughty Chocolate Fudge Cake

A few weeks ago, my brother asked me to make a cake for my nephew's 5th birthday party. As a keen baker I was happy to oblige, and quickly decided to use this BBC Good Food recipe for chocolate fudge cake, as it's been a perennial favourite in my house for quite some time. It's a really easy recipe to make, and goes down a storm with kids and adults alike.

Ingredients

175g Self raising flour

2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

1 Tsp Bicarbonate soda

150g Caster sugar

2 Eggs Beaten

150 ml (1/4 pint) Sunflower oil

150 ml (1/4 pint) Semi skimmed milk

2 Tbsp Golden syrup

For the Coating and filling

75g Unsalted butter

175g Icing Sugar

3 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

Drop of Milk

Method (in words)

1. Pre-heat oven to 180ºC/350F/Gas Mark 4 (less for fan ovens). Grease and line two 18cm (7 inch) sandwich tins.
2. Sieve the flour, cocoa and Bicarbonate of Soda into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.
3. Make a well in the centre and add the syrup, eggs, oil and milk. Beat well with electric whisk until smooth.
4. Spoon the mixture into the two tins and bake for 20 - 25 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from oven, leave to cool before turning out onto a cooling rack.
5. To make your butter icing, place the butter in a bowl and beat until soft. Gradually sift and beat in the icing sugar and cocoa powder then add enough milk to make the icing fluffy and spreadable.
6. If the cake has risen a little too high then use a serrated knife to even off the top, now sandwich the two cakes together with the butter icing and cover the sides and the top of the cake with more butter icing.

Method (in pictures)

Make sure you have all your ingredients to hand.

Weigh out your ingredients. Here I've already combined the flour, cocoa powder and bicarb. It doesn't matter if you are slightly over/under.

Sift your flour, cocoa powder and bicarb into a large bowl. Try and sift as high as you can to get air into the mixture - this will make your sponge light and fluffy.

Add your sugar and mix well into the mixture.

Once you've added your wet ingredients, mix well with an electric hand whisk, or an electric mixer (if you're lucky enough to have one). Make sure you check that every but of dry mixture is added (glass bowls make it easier to see this).

Carefully pour your mixture into your pre-lined tin. Place into the centre of a preheated oven and keep a close eye on it! My first cake burnt because I was too busy painting my nails!

Whilst the cake is cooling you make can your buttercream icing. Simply combine butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder and a drop of milk. This butttercream will go hard fairly quickly, so make sure you keep stirring it whilst it's in the bowl.

Finally, decorate your cake. My nephew is hugely into Star Wars so I used a pre-made icing sheet transfer to decorate it, surrounded by a sea of chocolate buttons. 

Have fun baking!