Beautiful Cakes

I love baking cakes, and I get lots of compliments when I do, but I've never been one to make fancy decorated cakes. This isn't because I don't like them, it's only because I find the whole idea of them very intimidating because I don't consider myself very artistic! One day I'm going to try my hand at decoration, but for the moment I'll content myself with icing and a few carefully placed adornments - like the odd sugar flower or some shiny chocolate discs.

My cousin Esther on the other hand, makes and decorates the most amazing cakes.  When we had our tenth anniversary party nine years ago, Esther made us an anniversary cake that was tastier and even more beautiful than the one we had at our wedding.  One time when we visited for a family dinner there was a beautiful cake spread over the dining room table of her Mom's house, all decorated with gorgeous sugar flowers. The only thing that has stopped her from turning her cake making into a business so far is a lack of time, but she does occasionally make cakes to order for customers in the Sarnia and Bright's Grove, Ontario area. Here are a few of her creations:-





Check out these cupcakes - yummy!



And the pièce de résistance - a 16th birthday cake complete with a hand made iPod Touch!



Esther is really generous with her recipes and shared this recipe for her chocolate and banana cake with me a few years ago. It’s one I make quite regularly as it is keeps so moist and delicious. It even freezes well (without icing).  I tend to freeze slices as opposed to the whole cake as then you can just thaw a slice or two at a the time. 

I have played around with the recipe a bit, as some of the ingredients – like Crisco - are not easily available in England.  No matter what I do though, this cake is always delicious.  Esther recommends you frost it with your favourite chocolate icing which is fabulous, although when I’ve been pressed for time or wanted to freeze some of the cake, I’ve just sprinkled it with icing sugar. It’s very tasty that way too.
 
Esther’s Amazing Chocolate and Banana Bundt Cake 

1 cup Crisco or softened butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup sour cream
(I have used crème fraîche when unable to find sour cream - and I use the low fat variety as well so I am sure you could use low fat sour cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/3 cup cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup boiling water
 
Preheat oven to 160ºC or 350ºF.   Grease and flour a Bundt or tube pan.
 
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cocoa and salt.  Set aside. Cream together the Crisco (or butter) and sugar in a large bowl.  Add eggs, one at a time, and continue creaming.  Add bananas, sour cream and vanilla.  Blend well.  Now add the dry ingredients you set aside earlier and stir until mixed.  Carefully pour the 1 cup boiling water over the entire mixture.  This sounds silly, but it really does work!  Blend the water in.  The batter will be quite loose, but that is okay. 
 
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes until just starting to brown and a cake tester comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 20 minutes in the pan before attempting to remove the cake.  If you are planning to frost the cake, or dust it with icing sugar, be sure to allow it to cool completely first. 

The 21st Century Housewife's© Chocolate and Banana Snack Cake

I’ve been working on developing some easy to make, delicious cakes that can be served without icing in an homage to the “Snackin’ Cakes” Betty Crocker marketed in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. I think this is my best one to date - and my very willing taste testers all agreed!

You probably already have everything you need to make this in your store cupboard and fridge. Don’t worry if you don’t have buttermilk; I do like the tangy flavour it gives, but ordinary milk works just fine.

To read more about my “snack cakes”, the history behind them, and for another snack cake recipe, check out the entry just before this one!

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup cocoa (not drinking chocolate)
1 tablespoons baking powder
1 cup white sugar
2 generous pinches of salt
½ cup chocolate chips
1 egg, lightly beaten
⅓ cup sunflower oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 mashed bananas

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar, salt and chocolate chips.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg, oil, buttermilk and vanilla . Stir in the mashed bananas.

Add the egg and milk and banana mixture to the flour mixture. Stir thoroughly until well blended, but don’t beat. Pour the mixture into a greased and floured (or lined) nine inch square pan.

Ovens can vary quite radically so you’ll probably need to watch this the first time you bake it. I bake mine at about 350℉ or 170℃ for 20 to 25 minutes or until a piece of dry spaghetti inserted into the middle comes out clean (ie. with no batter clinging to it).

This cake really does not need any frosting and it is easy to pick it up and eat it with your fingers. (Far too easy in my experience!) However, a little dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of good vanilla ice cream does go really well with it if you want to serve it as a proper dessert.

The 21st Century Housewife's© Marble Cake

Tomorrow is my son's birthday, so today we are making birthday cake. I love making all kinds of cakes - from plain and simple white cake to chocolate extravaganzas - but as far as my son is concerned, the only cake that is really a birthday cake is a marble cake.

I had forgotten about marble cake for years, until we had one when we were visiting the US when my son was little, and I was reminded how much I had loved them myself as a kid. I developed my own recipe when we got home, using one of my vanilla cake recipes and going from there. A few years have gone by since then, and both the cake and I have evolved a bit, but it is still my (now nearly grown up) son's favourite.

I've photographed a single layer of the cake un-iced, so that you can see the pretty pattern on the top. The pattern runs right through the cake, so it looks gorgeous when it is cut. My recipe makes a two layer cake, and I always sandwich it together with vanilla icing - either homemade or Betty Crocker, depending on how much time I have. Then I ice the top and sides and decorate it with Hershey's Kisses or other chocolate candies. I like how the chocolate candy against the vanilla icing hints at the mix of flavour and colour inside.

You really do need an electric mixer for this one, unless you have extremely strong arms and lots of stamina!

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 and 1/2 cups white sugar (superfine or caster sugar if possible)
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 and 1/4 cups milk (reserve 2 tablespoons from this)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350℉ or 160℃. Grease and flour two eight inch round pans.

Using the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Gently blend this mixture into the buttery eggy mixture on very low speed. Now add the the milk - EXCEPT the 2 tablespoons you have reserved. Blend the mixture on low speed until it is smooth and then beat for on a higher speed for about a minute.

At this point, remove about 5 generous spoonfuls of batter from the mixture and place in a small bowl.

Add the vanilla to the batter in the large mixer bowl and blend thoroughly. Divide this batter between the two baking pans.

Now take the batter in the small bowl and sift the cocoa powder into it. Add the reserved 2 tbsp of milk. Stir to blend together well.

Using a spoon, dollop the chocolate batter over the top of the vanilla batter in the baking pans, about three well-spaced dollops per pan. Gently run a knife from one side of each pan to the other, cutting the chocolate and vanilla mixture together. You want to see streaks of chocolate through the vanilla. Be careful not to over-blend.

Place the pans in the oven and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until a piece of dried spaghetti inserted into the centre of the cake layers comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans for about ten minutes. Carefully remove from the pans and cool on wire racks. Allow to cool completely before icing and decorating.