Spiced Christmas Cake Revisited!

Am really getting into this gluten-free business. Except for the waffles on Christmas Eve, the last two cakes I've baked over the Christmas period have been without wheat flour, and I reckon they taste better than cakes with wheat.

This is basically an adaptation of the 'Spiced Christmas Cake with a flourless twist' from last week, otherwise known in my family as "Signe's new favourite cake"! All I did differently was replace the spices, with 4 tbsp cocoa powder to the butter while it was melting, and instead of whisky, I used the equivalent measure of brandy. Oh, and a bit more coffee (closer to half a mug). You could leave the spices in of course, if you like that Germanic Christmas cake flavour, but I went for the chocolate bonanza!

So, here's a redacted version of what is undoubtedly my new favourite cake of 2008! See below for how to make the icing...

Mocha Glaze:

• 80g icing sugar, sifted
• 80g butter, melted
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 2 tbsp strong coffee
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Simply place all the ingredients in a bowl, stir til it looks like a glaze, adjust ingredients to taste - I like mine quite strong, not too sweet - and then glaze the cake in as messy a fashion as you wish...

Celebrating the Stars & Stripes

What a week. I know this is a blog about baking, but news from across the Atlantic has captured the imagination. You'd have to be a curmudgeonly old cynic not to have felt at least a tinge of excitement by the result of this week's U.S.presidential election - suddenly America's beacon is shining bright again, and not a moment too soon. It astonished me on Wednesday morning how, in spite of so much worrying economic news, everyone on the tube sat and read about the election result with a smile on their faces. OK, this is London, so the smile was more like a bemused, understated look bordering on a smile. But there's a real sense of optimism in the air, a renewed faith even...

Of course it wouldn't be the weekend if there wasn't a spot of baking on the agenda, and one can't blather on indefinitely about world events on a baking blog! As the daughter of an American mother (with an Americaphile Norwegian father) I have a particular penchant for American cakes, muffins and cookies. This recipe, for red velvet cake, originated in the deep South. Perhaps a mischievous choice for celebrating the week's news but I reckon this cake has symbolic value, not to mention some seriously schmaltziness. Indeed, this was the election when comediennes reigned, so in the spirit of SNL's Tina Fey and Sarah Silverman (of "The Great Schlep") I decorated this cake to look like the American flag. Needless to say, it looks hilarious, however let me reassure you this is actually a delicious cake for tea-time or with a steaming cup of Java Joe (that's coffee to tea-drinkers) and as you can see, a great excuse to play with food colouring - as if one ever needed an excuse.

Ingredients:

• 200g plain flour
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g melted butter
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 100ml milk, with a teaspoon of lemon juice in it 
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• a lot of red food colouring - I used an obscene amount, 50ml!
• pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180 celsius. Lightly grease a 20cm square cake tin

In a medium bowl, sift all the dry ingredients. In a second medium bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. Curdle the milk by adding the lemon juice (this helps activate the bicarb: acid + alkali = well-risen cake). Add the dry ingredients to the eggs, give the mixture a few folds with a large spoon, then add the milk, the butter and food colouring and stir through until the mixture is evenly blended.

Pour this into a square cake tin and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for 35-40 minutes.

The icing:

• 150g softened butter
• 150g cream cheese
• 6 tablespoons icing sugar
• splash of vanilla extract
• food colouring...ahem! tubes of already coloured icing also work well...

Cream the butter and then add the icing sugar, followed by the cream cheese and vanilla. Separate into three bowls and add the appropriate food colour

ing - needn't be red, white and blue obviously ;-)

p.s. this 'hope-inspiring' cake is dedicated to my favourite American chica, Kaitlin, who was my partner in crime constructing a similarly goofy cake many moons ago - only we decorated with blueberries and strawberries for the full stars & stripes effect. Slightly more organic than my abovementioned food colouring bonanza...

Matcha Green Tea & Chocolate Marble Cake

It's national chocolate week! As if we needed any reason to scoff, devour and drool over chocolate (good chocolate that is) then events all over the UK are taking place to remind us what's out there. And there's a dizzying array of chocolate to be sampled, it seems a veritable chocolate revolution has taken place these last few years, so go and try some of the fantastic choccies available. Here's the website detailing where all of this week's events will be: 

www.chocolate-week.co.uk

In the spirit of chocolate week, and a couple of chocolate tastings I've been going to the last few days, I made a Japanese-inspired matcha green tea and chocolate marble cake, which is a delightful mix of dark, brooding chocolate and quirky Kermit-the-frog green derived from the addition of matcha green tea powder. The playful contrast between the green and brown aside, marble cakes can be quite dry so I countered any prospective dryness with a good dose of yoghurt and quite a lot of ground almonds. Otherwise the recipe couldn't be easier, simply mix dry and liquid ingredients together add your matcha and cocoa in separate batches, mix again and bake.  

So there you have it: matcha green tea and chocolate marble cake, fabulous, as you might have guessed, with a cup of steaming green tea...

Ingredients:

• 200g plain flour
• 100g ground almonds
• 125g melted butter
• 125g plain yoghurt
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 3 tbsp cocoa
• 2 tbsp tbsp matcha green tea powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180ºC, lightly grease a rectangular loaf tin

You'll need a few bowls handy as the mixture gets divided into two. In one small bowl, crack the eggs, whisk briefly and then add the yoghurt, whisking again to create a smooth mix

In a large bowl sift all the dry ingredients, except the cocoa and matcha powders. Stir through to distribute the raising agents and then divide the dry ingredients in half - placing one half in another bowl (doesn't have to be large, a medium one will suffice) and leaving the other in the original large bowl. 

Add the cocoa to one bowl, stir through, and repeat with the matcha powder in the second bowl. Now add half the liquid ingredients to one bowl, and repeat with the other. Using a large metal spoon, fold the liquid ingredients into the dry until the mixture is fairly smooth (a few lumps here and there won't offend anyone)

Then place your chocolate mixture in the loaf tin, followed by the green tea matcha mixture. This is the fun part - using a fork, swirl through both mixtures back and forth, in figures of eight, whatever you fancy.

Once you're done swirling, place the loaf tin on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 1 hour...

Choccy Muffins

It always surprises me when I meet someone who professes a dislike or indifference to chocolate. Yet they drink coffee which to my simple mind seems much more unpalatable and 'toxic' in flavour. Yes, there is bad coffee, and bad chocolate aplenty, but I'm definitely in the chocoholic camp and would rather have cups of tea than coffee any day. That's not to say coffee can't lift rich chocolate flavours - a shot of espresso in your brownie mix does wonders for the aroma of those little squares of gooey chocolateness. Ditto if you add some coffee to butter icing when decorating a chocolate cake. Not so toxic you say, to which I would counter, "quite right, but that's because all those bitter coffee compounds have been tempered by butter and sugar"!

Anyway, I digress. Few foods - other than fish, cheese, homemade bread, and summer fruits - lift the spirits as much as chocolate. If I were a scientist and looking for a research grant (not difficult, apparently the sciences are awash with money, to the ire of us in the impoverished humanities) I'd definitely choose chocolate as my subject of investigation, and there's already evidence of the beneficial health effects good, dark chocolate confer when eaten in moderation. Therein lies the catch: whilst dark chocolate may be good for you, hoovering an entire 150g bar probably won't be, although I tried it once with a Lindt 70% before an exam and it worked wonders for my concentration before the sugar and caffeine high plummeted to a magnificent low - thankfully towards the end of the exam.

So, these choccy muffins may have health-boosting dark chocolate in them, but the butter and sugar unfortunately somewhat mitigate the health benefits. If you can eat these in moderation you're certainly a more virtuous foodie than this Scandi chocolate fiend...

Makes 12 small muffins

• 125g self-raising flour
• 125g butter, melted
• 125g caster sugar
• 125g sour cream
• 30-40g cocoa (depends how rich you like you're chocolate flavour...)
• 30-40g chopped dark chocolate
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt (up to 1/4 tsp if using unsalted butter)
• 1/8 tsp baking soda (helps lift the muffins)

optional additions: frozen raspberries, walnuts, pecans, macademias, a bit of orange zest, spices such as cinnamon or extracts such as peppermint

First, preheat oven to 180ºC. Lightly grease muffin tins

In a large bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Make a well in the middle and add the liquid ingredients, then using a large metal spoon simply fold the ingredients together to form a moist, but not sloppy mixture. If it's really dense, add a few splashes of milk, water or, ahem, coffee to loosen the mix.

Once it looks even, spoon the mixture into the muffin tins and bake on the mid-top shelf (ie. not near the grill, but not totally in the middle) for 25-30 minutes.

These muffins freeze exceptionally well, and can be tarted up with an icing at a later date...

Something to please chocoholics and passionfruit-obsessives alike!

Following Wednesday's feature on passionfruit and its many virtues, here's an addendum: throw the pulp & seeds from a passionfruit in with your brownie mix. Or anything with chocolate for that matter, provided the chocolate is dark as the tartness of passionfruit exposes the sweetness of milk chocolate, whereas it marries happily with the bitterness of dark chocolate. Have a super-duper weekend!

The recipe from today:

• 200g butter
• 5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 150g 72% chocolate - I used Green & Black's cooking chocolate
• 320g caster sugar
• 125g self-raising flour
• 30g ground almonds
• 4 eggs
• 1 passionfruit
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180ºC, line a 20x30cm cake tin with baking parchment

In a medium saucepan, bring 3cm of water to a simmer, and place a large heatproof mixing bowl (pyrex is good) on top of the saucepan. Turn off the heat, then add butter, chocolate and cocoa powder to the mixing bowl. Allow this to melt, stirring occasionally, while you weigh the other ingredients. In a small bowl, break up the eggs with a fork and set aside. When the chocolate and butter has melted and looks smooth, take the large mixing bowl off the saucepan and allow to cool for a minute or two before adding the ground almonds, sugar, vanilla, eggs and finally the flour. Fold everything through and pour into the prepared cake tin. 

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30-35 minutes. Keep an eye on the brownies - insert a skewer to see if the mix is cooked. If some wet batter still comes out, put the brownies back in the oven for another 5-8 minutes. Don't overbake them otherwise the brownies will be dry and cake-like :-) 

Baking with Wine....

Lest you think I'm a dipsomaniac baker capable of whacky 'Swedish Chef' style antics, this feature is about baking cakes with wine, and hilarious as tipsy baking might be, I'd advocate a judicious splash of wine in sweet things to bring a bit of sparkle to your baking sessions - whilst enjoying a heftig glass of the stuff - afterwards, of course. 

Baking with wine is not unheard of, after all Claire Clark, head pastry chef at Napa Valley's French Laundry, has a recipe for chocolate red wine cake in her excellent baking book Indulge: 100 Perfect Desserts (Absolute Press), and there is such a thing as wine flour in Canada which sounds intriguing

This chocolate red wine cake recipe is inspired by one I tasted on a recent press trip to southwest Germany's wine regions - it's a classic buttery, Victoria sponge-style formula. The wine adds depth of flavour to the cake, rather than an overt 'wine' flavour...

Serves 12 

• 125g self-raising flour
• 125g butter, softened
• 125g caster sugar
• 125ml red wine - any will do, although save the good stuff for drinking!
• 125ml sour cream
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 75g dark chocolate chips (a decadent addition, not obligatory)

Preheat oven 180ºC, lightly oil a scalloped 'bundt cake' tin, or just an ordinary 22cm round cake tin

Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy, add the egg one at a time and beat after each addition. Add the sour cream, then the wine and beat together. This will look like a rather unappetizing mess, persevere though, it will be worth it

To this mauve-ish mixture, add your spices and salt, then sift in the flour and cocoa powder, adding the optional chocolate chips at this stage. Fold through with a large metal spoon until the mixture looks even (it will be quite moist), then spoon into the cake tin and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30-35 minutes. It should have risen, be firm to the touch and if in doubt, insert a skewer to check there's no uncooked mixture left - it should come out clean

Allow to cool, dust with icing sugar and serve with redcurrants, chopped peaches and perhaps a glass of Pinot...

Norwegian Langpannekake

Not as exotic as it sounds, Norwegian langpannekake translates as "long pan cake"! This is a classic, moist chocolate cake which was always served at childrens' birthday parties when I was growing up in Oslo. I love it because of the desiccated coconut on top of the cake (and all that cocoa flavour of course!), but obviously one could use toasted almond slivers, seasonal berries or sprinkles instead of coconut...

serves 16 

• 300g plain flour
• 300g butter
• 300g caster sugar
• 150g sour cream
• 3 eggs
• 6 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180ºC, line a 20cm x 30cm rectangular cake tin with greaseproof paper/baking parchment

In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients except the sugar and stir well to evenly distribute the baking powder.

In a medium bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until pale and fluffy (ca.3-5 mins), then add the eggs, one by one, and beat quickly to incorporate each egg. The mixture may look split, but don't worry. Add the sour cream, beat one last time, and then make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Work quickly as the raising agent in the baking powder is activated by contact with liquid

Blend the wet and dry ingredients with a large metal spoon until the mixture looks even and then spoon into the long cake tin. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25-30 minutes, the cake is done when the surface feels springy and dry to the touch, if you're uncertain, use a skewer to test if there's any wet mixture remaining - the skewer should come out dry

Allow to cool on a wire rack while preparing the glasur (icing)

• 200g icing sugar
• 125g melted butter
• 3 tbsp strong coffee or 1 shot espresso
• 3-4 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g desiccated coconut

Stir the cocoa, coffee and vanilla into the melted butter, sift the icing sugar and add to the butter mixture - if you don't want it too sweet, start with 3/4 of the suggested amount of sugar and then add incremental spoonfuls. When the glasur looks glossy and even, pour on the cake and allow to set a little before sprinkling coconut on top

Enjoy with a steaming cup of coffee, or an ice cold glass of milk!

Cocoa-rich Brownies with Raspberries

A chocoholic's dream: dark cocoa-rich brownies and tart, seasonal raspberries. Growing up in Norway, we always baked cakes, muffins and brownies with unsweetened cocoa powder - an economical, under-rated ingredient which adds a dark, bitter chocolate flavour to baked goodies. I find using cooking chocolate can make these brownies too rich, but some prefer brownies that way. At any rate, these brownies are perfect for summer when raspberries are at their ripest, of course during cooler months one could always use frozen raspberries...

Serves lots of greedy chocoholics

Preheat oven to 180ºC, line a long, 20cmx30cm rectangular cake tin with greaseproof paper/baking parchment

• 400g sugar
• 250g butter
• 150g self-raising flour
• 7 tbsp cocoa powder - green & black's is great
• 4 eggs
• 2-3 tbsp strong coffee or 1 shot espresso
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 150-200g raspberries

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, sift in the cocoa powder and stir until fully incorporated. Add the coffee/espresso and vanilla and set aside

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until pale and fluffy (ca.5-8 mins). Fold in the cooled cocoa-butter into the eggs, stir through briefly with a large metal spoon being careful not to knock all the air out. Sift the flour and salt in to this mix and stir through until it looks even

Finally, add the raspberries and stir 2-3 times to distribute them. Spoon the mix into the long rectangular baking pan and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The surface of the brownie mix should feel slightly soft to the touch, and have a dry, paper-thin crust. If you're uncertain, check with a skewer to see if any wet mixture remains, if not the brownies are ready. Resist the temptation to bake the brownies for too long otherwise they dry out and become rather hard

Allow to cool before slicing into squares. Eat as they are or serve them with a dollop of fromage frais, creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream. These also freeze well for future use...