A traditional cake but still one of my favourites, it’s good for feeding the masses too!

Ingredients:

225ml sunflower oil

3 eggs, large

120g golden syrup

150g soft light brown sugar

240g self-raising flour

1½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp allspice (if you don’t have allspice you can just leave it out!)

½tsp ground ginger

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

300g grated carrots

½ Quantity of Cream Cheese Frosting – recipe here

Orange and green sugarpaste for carrot decorations (optional)

Makes 1 x 8″ Square cake.

Prepare your tin lining the base and sides with baking paper.

No, I didn’t buy this tin because it’s pink.

Okay, I did.

(but it was reduced )

Preheat the oven to 160c (fan)/180c/Gas Mark 4.

Measure out the sunflower oil in a jug and add the eggs.  Whisk them together to break up the eggs.

Now weigh out the golden syrup and set to one side.

In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients – flour, spices, sugar and bicarbonate of soda.

Yes, I’m using a casserole dish, I couldn’t lay my hands on a mixing bowl…..don’t tell me you don’t do that….?!

Add the oil, eggs and syrup and give it a good old mix up.

Now grate the carrots, it’s about this many… (if they’re piddly little ones like mine).  Peel them first but keep the tops on – something to hold whilst you’re grating.

Officially I hate grating carrots but I hate hunting for the food processor attachments even more.

I’ve seen this which looks kind of nifty, and I reckon it wouldn’t take up any more room in the cupboard than the grater – what do you reckon?  If you have one, let me know if they’re any good! (Tefal Fresh Express)

Add the carrots and stir it up, pour it all into the tin.

Bake it in the oven for 45-50 minutes, check its done inserting a skewer and making sure it comes out clean.

Transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mix up the frosting, you only need a ½ quantity of this recipe – so 35g butter, softened 100g cream cheese and 200g icing sugar following the instructions.

Spread over the top of the carrot cake and squiggle with a fork.  Cut into 16 pieces, more if you’re feeling stingy.

To make the carrots take the sugarpastes and roll them into fat sausages.

Cut each sausage into even slices – that way all your carrots will be the same sizes.

For the carrot body roll each piece into a ball

then taper the end to a point

Using the end of a paintbrush poke a hole in the top.

Carrot tops – roll a small ball of green, taper the end and then flatten the ball part with your fingertip.

Using a sharp knife make three or four cuts to separate it into leafy bits.

Poke the pointy bit of the carrot top into the paintbrush hole in the top of the carrot.

Using the knife score some lines gently down the body of the carrot.

Add a cute little carrot to each piece of cake (and then cry when the children pick them off before eating the cake – all that hard work!)

Because of the frosting this cake should be kept in the fridge but allow it to come back to room temperature before serving.

Carrot Cake

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire

This is the perfect recipe for cream cheese frosting.  It’s pipeable, spreadable and will set just nicely for you without running all over the place, but there are a few things to remember.

Full fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese is reliable.  Other cheeses are available and may be cheaper however they don’t perform quite the same when you work with them.

This recipe was originally posted with Red Velvet Cupcakes but as I use it a lot for all sorts of things I thought it deserved it’s own post!

Ingredients:

70g butter, softened

200g cream cheese

400g icing sugar sifted

The cream cheese needs to be cold, chilled in the fridge and kept there until you need it.
Drain off the liquid from the pack and discard it.

Beat the butter so it is super soft and ready to go, if it isn’t soft enough let it warm up a bit .  If you use it still too cold you’ll never get it to combine in the next stage, leaving you with flecks of infuriating butter!

Add the cream cheese and beat them together until combined.  Don’t over beat it (that’s important) – cream cheese loosens and becomes more liquidy the more you beat it so less is best.

Sift in half the icing sugar and beat together, add the remaining half and mix again.

If you have overbeaten it (weren’t you listening?) and it’s too sloppy bob it in the fridge for half an hour to start to firm up again before using – don’t be tempted to add more icing sugar!

Use it for piping swirls on cupcakes, spread on carrot cakes the world is your oyster.

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire

Black Forest Berry Brownies – care to join me??

These are my Nanna’s favourite and I often make her some up and trip round with them – she slices it up and then bobs it in the freezer.  I once made these and went to snap a pic on my phone before baking and dropped my phone right in it – I think I’d like to dive in headfirst too!

Anyway, I’m waffling on…You can find the recipe here and it brings me to why I’m regaling you with Brownie stories…

Next week I’ll be doing a Baking Q&A on all sorts of baking and brownies over on the Lurpak Facebook Page

Thursday 17th May 2012 12.00-13.00 if you fancy bobbing over to join us?

Lurpak have teamed up with Last.fm and launched Foodbeats – An online music tool that generates and streams recipe-based playlists to bake (and cook) along to!

So in celebration I have five sets of the following to giveaway to you lovely Pink Whiskers,

A Lurpak tea towel, a limited edition Stuart Gardiner tea towel, 3 Lurpak vouchers and 3 Lurpak bread baking tins!

To enter just leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite bake-along sound track!

 Giveaway closes at 4pm Thursday 17th May 2012, five lucky winners will be chosen at random from all the comments received and will be contacted directly shortly after closing.

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire

Zingy fruity cupcakes packing a taste of sunshine and perfect for adorning with your own Pineapple Flowers.

Makes 12.

Ingredients:

200g butter, softened

100g soft brown sugar

75g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

200g self raising flour

140g fresh chopped pineapple

80g raspberries, frozen

1 x batch of Cream Cheese frosting recipe here

12 x Pineapple Flowers to decorate – instructions here

Preheat oven to 160c (fan)/180c/Gas Mark 4.

Cream together the butter and sugars.

Add the eggs and half of the flour and beat well.

Fold in the remaining flour.  Don’t overbeat it at this stage otherwise the cakes will be tough – you want to keep them as light as a feather.

Chop the pineapple into small pieces and gently crush the frozen raspberries.

Fold the fruit through the mixture.

Divide the mixture between 12 cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 35 minutes until golden.

Because they are packed with fruit the cupcakes can feel fairly moist.  It’s important to check that they are fully cooked by testing with a skewer which should come out clean.  If not bake for a further five minutes and check again.

Allow to cool for five minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mix up the cream cheese frosting as per the directions here.  Fill a piping bag fitted with a large closed star nozzle.

Pipe a ruffle of frosting onto the tops of the cupcakes and top with a beautiful pineapple flower.

Pineapple and Raspberry Cupcakes

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire

How beautiful do these look?  They taste great too!

I won’t lie they’re a bit of a faff – okay quite a lot of a faff but they certainly have the wow factor and if you fancy spending an afternoon messing with a pineapple then these are just up your street!

Here’s how to make your own pineapple flowers.

Obviously you’ll need one of these to start.

Top and peel the pineapple.

Hollow out the eyes using the end of a peeler or small scoop – I used a metal 1/2 teaspoon measure.

Line two baking trays with baking paper and preheat the oven to 120c (fan)/140c/Gas Mark 1.

Slice really really thin slices of pineapple – this is trickier than you’d imagine but after the first couple you should have a feel for it.

If it helps slice all the way through the fleshy part until you hit the core.  Turn the pineapple on the board and slice thinly all the way around the core leaving the centre intact.  Finally cut through the central hard core to release your thin slice.

Place the slices onto the lined trays.

Bake them in the oven for 40 minutes.

Flip the slices over, the tops should have dried out but the bottoms will still be moist.

Return to the oven for a further 20 minutes and then check to see how they’re doing.  You want them to still have a little moisture left in the centre so you can shape them into flowers but not so much that they wouldn’t hold their shape.  Try shaping one and seeing how it is.

They could be practically dry but they could also need much longer depending on how thick your slices are and how juicy the pineapple.

If they aren’t ready to shape return to the oven and check them every 15 minutes.

To shape each pinch the centres and fold the slice into a flower. Then open them out again.

Transfer them to the recesses of a cupcake tray and then back in the oven to dry out further for another 15 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container until you’re ready to use them.  Dried pineapple flowers will keep for upto 5 days in an airtight container – make sure they are in a single layer otherwise they could stick together.

You can also make all sorts of coloured pineapple flowers by mixing a little gel paste colouring (the super concentrated stuff I’m always banging on about) in a jug of water.  Simply soak the slices until the colour has been absorbed.

These can be done by soaking the slices in a jug of beetroot juice for a couple of minutes before draining and drying as before.  You can’t taste the beetroot when you eat them either!

Tips:

Although I have given times for drying out these pineapple flowers it will completely depend on how thick your slices are and how juicy the pineapple is.  Out of the three pineapples I have tried it with one took much much longer (as in all afternoon).

Allow yourself plenty of time and be patient.

These will keep well in an airtight container so prepare them well in advance of when you need them.

You will have some slices that are too thick to use or are only half slices where the knife has gone through in an attempt to keep them super thin.  Cut out and discard the cores from these pieces and roughly chop the flesh.  Store in the fridge, either for eating or make the Raspberry and Pineapple Cupcakes – recipe coming up!

How to Make Pineapple Flowers

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire

Another of our family favourites to share with you –  the recipe that is,  unfortunately there’s only crumbs left in the tin here!

These chocolate chip cookies are chewy, oaty and soft in the middle.  I can promise you one is never enough.

Makes 24.

Ingredients:

110g butter, softened

110g caster sugar

85g light soft brown sugar

1 egg, large

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

¼ tsp salt

180g rolled oats

200g chocolate – chips, chunks, white, milk, dark – whichever you and your lot prefer!

Preheat the oven to 190c (fan)/200c/Gas Mark 5.

Line a couple of baking trays with non-stick baking paper or grease well.

Cream together the butter, caster sugar and light brown sugar.  Because there’s more sugars than butter it forms a thick paste type consistency.

Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well.

Now mix in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

Tip in the oats and mix again.   If you’re making by hand you’ll need a wooden spoon and a strong arm as the dough gets more difficult to mix!

Finally add in the chocolate – I tend to use a mix of whatever sort of chocolate is in the cupboard – up to a total of 200g.   Chop up bars of chocolate into chunks, use chocolate chips, steal children’s Easter eggs and use those – did I really say that?  It’s okay, my boys don’t read the blog!

Milk, dark, white chocolate, fudge chunks, raisins they all work. You can replace some of the chocolate with nuts, pecans are delicious in these lovelies.

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies?   100g of each will do the trick.

You get the gist – you can make these cookies whatever flavour you like, raid the cupboard and chuck it in.

Okay so mix in whatever you’re mixing in!

Now roll the dough into balls using your hands  - 1½” in diameter and then set onto the baking trays well spaced apart.  You don’t need to flatten them they’ll do it themselves in the oven!

Bake in the oven for 8 minutes until lightly golden around the edges.

Remove from the oven but leave them to cool on the tray for ten minutes, they’ll be super soft and will fall apart if you try and move them now.

Once cooled a little you can then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.

I suggest you ration the children/husband/wife/colleagues with these otherwise your tin will be empty and you’ll be back in the kitchen making up another batch before the washing up is done!

Choc Chip Cookies

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire

Well, it’s just a fortnight until my book hits the shops.

 ’EEEEEEEEEEK!!’

So it’s definitely time to fill you in on all the ins and outs of where you can nab a copy, or get me to sign it for you…..

If you’d like a sneaky peek then head to Amazon where you can do the whole ‘look inside’ thingy….

Whilst the cheapest place to buy The Busy Girl’s Guide to Cake Decorating is looking like Amazon I have had several requests from Pink Whiskers  for signed copies.  

You can order your own signed copy directly from me – all the details are here and if you order it now I should be able to get it to you before it hits the shops (perks of being a Pink Whisker!)

 

I’ll be in the Authors’ Area (another EEEEEEK of terror!) at Cake International – The Cake Decorating and Baking Show at ExCeL London 27-29 April 2012 – you’ll find me in a cloud of icing sugar where I’ll be signing copies and chatting  so if you’re at the show please stop and say hello (and treat yourself to a signed copy too of course!)

Not only that, I’ve got five pairs of tickets to the show to giveaway, valid for any one day. So if you fancy winning yourself a pair of tickets just leave me a comment on this post.  Giveaway closes at 1pm Thursday 19th April 2012, five lucky winners will be chosen at random from all the comments received and will be contacted directly shortly after closing.

COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED

Winners of the tickets are:

Debbie – Leigh on Sea

Tori – Essex

Joanne – East Yorkshire

Linda – Oxfordshire

Jocelyn – Newton

Each of the winners has been contacted directly.

See you soon – I’ll be peeking at you from the shelves of your local bookshop!

Ruth x

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire

 

This is a really unassuming cake, looks like nothing but tastes amazing.

It’s not often my boys ask me to make something in particular but the other half will beg for this cake.   I see some bribery tactics up my sleeve….

Ingredients:

200g caster sugar

125g butter, softened

2 eggs, large

1 whole orange

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

250g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 180ml water.

200g dark chocolate

Makes 1 x 8″ cake

Preheat the oven to 160c (fan)/180c/Gas Mark 4.

Prepare an 8″ tin by lining with baking paper.  I’m using a paper liner, because I’m a lazy oik.

Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the water and set to one side.  Good ol’  jug!

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well until fully combined.

Add the flour and salt to the mixture and fold through until you have an even consistency.

Take the whole orange, remove the brown stalky bit if it has one.

Chop it into rough chunks by hand and then blitz in the food processor, skin and all.

Don’t puree it too finely so its dissolves to mush just until the pieces are like a chunky marmalade.

Add this to the cake batter along with the water and bicarbonate of soda and stir.

Don’t say it, I know it looks vile…

Chop the block of chocolate into fairly large pieces, about 1/2cm squares.

Finally add the chocolate and stir through to combine.

Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bob it in the oven to bake.

An 8″ cake should take 45-50 minutes to bake, however it’s really important to test it by inserting a skewer which should come out clean.  If the skewer still has cake mixture clinging to it return it to the oven and check further every ten minutes.

I normally like to give really accurate bake times for my recipes but depending on how big (and how juicy) your orange is will affect the baking time.  Occasionally I have had one of these cakes take just over one hour to bake so do check your cake!

Once baked right through remove from the oven and allow to cool fully on a wire rack.

Serve with a big mug of tea!

Chocolate Orange Cake

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire

The total of my shopping was the grand total of £86.56 and inside was….

Alan Silverwood Multisize Cake Pan £28.99

Extra Dividers £8.99

Ultimate Lakeland Clingfilm £5.79

Ultimate Lakeland Foil £10.99

50 Pink Cupcake Cases £1.99

50 Green Cupcake Cases £1.99

50 Lilac Cupcake Cases £1.99

50 Yellow Cupcake Cases £1.99

100 Spotted Cupcake Cases £3.29

Oven Thermometer £5.79

Yellow Sugarpaste £1.49

10 Disposable Foil Trays £3.99

Small Self Seal Bags £3.29

A Wilton Cake Marker £5.99

Total £86.56

The closest guess below the total was from Pauline who has won a duplicate set of goodies from Lakeland – well done! xx

PS. The winner has been contacted directly by email.  Thanks to everyone who entered Xx

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire

Three ways to use this dough – as a loaf, whirls or the traditional buns – who could resist?

Ingredients:

Dough

315g strong plain white flour

1/2 tsp mixed cake spice

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp dried fast action yeast (or 1 sachet)

25g caster sugar

205ml milk

1 egg, large

zest of 1/2 and orange

100g currants

Filling

60g dark brown sugar

1 1/2tsp cinnamon

A little water icing to glaze (optional)

Makes 1 x 1lb loaf, 10 whirls or 8 buns

Place the flour, mixed spice, salt, caster sugar, orange zest, yeast, egg and currants in a large bowl.

Gently warm the milk until it is lukewarm.

Pour  into the bowl and bring the dough together.  I’m letting the mixer do it for me but it can also be done easily (if you have some muscles) by hand.

The dough then needs to be kneaded by hand for ten minutes until it is smooth.  Avoid using any extra flour on the worksurface,  if it is too sticky to handle use a drop of sunflower oil on your hands and that should stop it sticking. For me of course there’s washing to be put in so I’ll let the mixer with the muscles knead it for ten minutes!

Lightly oil the inside of a bowl and place in the dough, turning to coat.

Cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm spot for an hour and a half to rise.  You are looking for it to double in size.

If you’re making the loaf version (my favourite) grease the tin well.

Roll the dough out with a rolling pin into a rectangle with a depth of about 5mm.  Aim for the width to be just slightly less than the length of your tin.

In a bowl mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon for the filling.

Scatter this as evenly as you can over the top of the rectangle of dough.

Start to roll up the dough from one end.

Roll it right up into a log and pinch together the dough at the seam.

For the loaf version this needs to be placed seam side down into your loaf tin.  Cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm spot until doubled in size.  It should take about one hour.

For the whirls take a sharp knife and lightly grease the blade with a little more sunflower oil.  This will stop the dough from sticking to it as you cut.  You may have to regrease it half way through.

Cut the log into 2cm thick slices.

Cover with clingfilm and leave to rise for an hour somewhere nice and cosy.

To shape traditional type of hot cross buns split the dough into 8 and roll into balls.

Mark a cross on the top with a sharp knife.  Place them on a lined baking tray, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise for an hour.

Mix up 100g plain flour with a little water (2-2 tablespoons) – you’re aiming for a thick pipeable consistency similar to toothpaste.  Beat it well until there are no lumps.  If you’ve added too much water and it’s too sloppy add in an extra spoonful of flour.  When the buns have doubled in size pipe the flour paste in the cross marks you made earlier.

Preheat the oven to 180c (fan)/200c/Gas Mark 5.

Once your loaf, whirls or buns are ready for the oven, in they go!

The whirls will need 12-15 minutes to bake, buns 20 minutes and the loaf will take 35 minutes.  Keep an eye on the top of the loaf and if it’s getting too dark cover it with a piece of foil.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  The buns like to be glazed with a little warm apricot jam or honey as soon as they are out of the oven for the ultimate sticky bun!

Drizzling them with a little water icing is completely optional – I couldn’t resist!

The whirls and buns are best eaten the same day (or can be frozen once cooled before icing),  the loaf will keep upto three days.

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire