Cakes

Ah you just can’t have enough hazelnuts. Well actually you can but when they come in crispy sweet praline they are rather difficult to resist. It being Lazy Sunday, we decided to make a few buns to pass a rainy morning.

This recipe is adapted from Susannah Blake’s Cupcakes with some lazy tweaks. The cupcakes are very nutty, not too sweet with a faint coffee taste lurking in the background.

Coffee, Praline and Nutella Buns
~ 12 buns

• 80g caster sugar (praline)
• 80g hazelnuts (praline)
• 40g caster sugar
• 115g butter, at room temp
• 2 eggs
• 80g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water
• 3 – 4 tbsp Nutella to decorate

1. To make the praline, put the sugar in a small saucepan and heat gently until pale golden brown. Stir in the hazelnuts working quickly as this sets unbelievably quick. Spread out onto a sheet of greaseproof and allow to harden. This is sooo good so once it’s cooled to eating temp, be sure to have some.

2. Grind the praline in a food processor or in batches in pestle and mortar. You can leave some big-ish chunks so there is crunch in the bun and the topping.

3. Preheat to 180C and line a bun tin (12 hole) with paper cases.

4. Cream the sugar and butter. Then stir in all but 3 tbsp of the praline.

5. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Sieve in the flour and baking powder, folding gently.

6. Finally stir in the coffee. Fill the bun cases 3/4 full and bake for approx 15 mins.

7. Allow to cool on a wire rack before decorating.

8. Now for the tricky bit (not!). Spread each cupcake with some Nutella, then sprinkle over the ground praline.

Click over to The Good Mood Food Blog for photos of a wonderful Chocolate Cake (recipe from BBC Good Food). I made it last night and had it for breakfast this morning. It is moist, chocolatey and definitely the recipe to use this weekend. All that is left is to pick out some of HoneyB’s favourite Peppa characters to decorate the top. Maybe next year I’ll attempt creative Mise’s train cake.

I didn’t change the recipe bar from using full fat milk and doubling the icing quantities so that I could make a 4 layer cake complete with top and side icing. Now madame, would you like some cake with your icing?? What drew me to the recipe was the sunflower oil and the golden syrup. These are sure to keep the dry crumbliness at bay.

On recommendation from Celia at the delightful foodie blog Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, I rather reluctantly make Stout Cake from Green & Black’s Unwrapped recipe book. I know, I know, stout and dark chocolate go well together, but I am not a fan of mixing my chocolate with alcohol.

So having looked at the ingredients I forged ahead and half way thru decided to rename this: the monster cake. This is not one for a small household; it’s one for a small army. The resulting cake rose to fill a 10″ cake tin! Huge … wasn’t I lucky it tasted nice!

There is not a huge amount of chocolate considering the size of the resulting cake  (100g cocoa, 150 dark chocolate) so the Guinness does play a very important role. It adds a ‘depth of flavour’ (as them on the MasterChef would say) giving a rich (a finger slice will do) indulgent cake, with a beautiful taste of chocolate (bittersweet rather than sugary). Just a few notes:

• Use the best cocoa available
• Chop the chocolate in chunks so you can come across them later in the cake
• Do not try and slice this cake horizontally to add layers of buttercream etc. It is a fragile beast. Best to ice the top and leave it at that.
• Any decently chocolatey icing will do here but it does need icing or a sprinkling of cocoa/icing sugar to hide the surface.
• Anyone who has tried to mix cocoa with cold liquid will know that it is not an easy task … so to mix 100g with Guinness is a step that put me off. But, Celia to the rescue … just add the sieved cocoa with the flour. Phew, messy cocoa mixing avoided

This photo is not the greatest … I should have taken a picture when the cake was bursting out of the tin … the monster.

• 225g/8oz unsalted butter, softened
• 350g/12 oz soft dark brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 225g/8oz plan flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 400ml Guinness – yes there will be a little left in the can for the cook :-0
• 100g/3 1/2 oz cocoa powder
• 150g/5oz dark chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat the oven 180C, butter & line a 9″ or 10″ deep springform tin.
2. Cream the butter & sugar.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa and bicarb into a separate bowl.
5. Add the flour and Guinness alternately to the egg mixture, stirring between each addition, until combined. The cake batter will be quite soft.
6. Stir in the chocolate.
7. Pour into the tin. Bake for 1-1 1/4 hours until skewer comes out clean. Cover with tinfoil toward the end to stop it from burning.
8. Leave to stand for 10 mins before turning out.
9. Cover with any icing you wish. I used Jamie Oliver’s recipe (below) recommended by Fig Jam and Lime Cordial (thank you!); worked well but I think to make this a ‘death by chocolate’ experience, a ganache topping is called for.

• 100g dark chocolate
• 100g butter
• 100 g icing sugar, sieved
• 3 tbsp milk

1. Add everything into a microwave bowl. Heat on medium in 30 sec bursts, stirring in between, until smooth. Spread over the cake, allow to set for say 30 mins. Enjoy!