Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing - Jamie Oliver

ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g light brown soft sugar
• 5 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic, separated
• zest and juice of 1 orange
• 170g self-raising flour, sifted
• 1 slightly heaped teaspoon baking powder
• 100g ground almonds
• 100g shelled walnuts, chopped, plus a handful for serving
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
• a pinch of ground cloves
• a pinch of ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 250g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
sea salt

for the lime mascarpone icing:
• 100g mascarpone cheese
• 200g full-fat cream cheese
• 85g icing sugar, sifted
• zest and juice of 2 limes

method

This carrot cake is an exceedingly good cake made all the more pleasing by the twist of lime mascarpone icing. It’s delicious, it works and it’s better than any other carrot cake I’ve tried. I would normally bake this in a square or round cake tin, but for the picture I used a lovely old loaf tin and it came out looking gorgeous.


Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Grease and line a 22cm-square cake tin or a round equivalent with greaseproof paper. Beat the butter and sugar together by hand or in a food processor until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, and add the orange zest and juice. Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder, and add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices and grated carrot and mix together well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them into the cake mix. Scoop the mixture into the prepared cake tin and cook in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes until golden and risen. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick into it. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky, it needs a bit longer, so put it back in the oven. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out on to a rack and rest for at least an hour.

Mix all the icing ingredients together and spread generously over the top of the cake. Finish off with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts.

Honey Chocolate Cake - Nigella Lawson

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE: 

• 100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 275g light muscovado sugar
• 225g soft butter
• 125ml runny honey
• 2 eggs
• 200g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 250ml boiling water

FOR THE STICKY HONEY GLAZE

• 60ml water
• 125ml runny honey
• 175g dark chocolate
• 75g icing sugar

FOR THE BEES

• 25g yellow marzipan
• 12 flaked almond

  
  

  METHOD

  Serves: Makes about 10 slices
  1. Take whatever you need out of the fridge so that all the ingredients can come to room temperature. While that's happening, melt the chocolate from the cake part of the ingredients list in a good-sized bowl, either in the microwave or suspended over a pan of simmering water. Set aside to cool slightly.
  2. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line a 23cm springform cake tin.
  3. Beat together the sugar and soft butter until airy and creamy, and then add the honey. Add one of the eggs, beating it in with a tablespoon of the flour, and then the other egg with another tablespoon of flour. Fold in the melted chocolate, and then the rest of the flour and the bicarbonate of soda. Add the cocoa pushed through a tea strainer to ensure you have no lumps, and last of all, beat in the boiling water. (I don't suppose there's anything to stop you doing this all-in-one in the processor, blitzing everything except the boiling water, and then scraping down the batter and pouring the water down the funnel with the motor running.) Mix everything well to make a smooth batter and pour into the prepared tin. Cook for up to an hour and a half, though check the cake after 45 minutes and if it is catching cover the top lightly with foil and check every 15 minutes.
  4. Let the cake cool completely in the tin on a rack.
  5. To make the glaze, bring the water and honey to a boil in a smallish, though not tiny, saucepan, then turn off the heat and add the finely chopped chocolate (I use my mezzaluna or 70 per cent cocoa solids buttons), swirling it around to melt in the hot liquid. Leave it for a few minutes then whisk together. Sieve in the icing sugar and whisk again until smooth.
  6. Choose your plate or stand and cut out four strips of baking paper and form a square outline on the plate. This is so that when you sit the cake on and ice it, the icing will not run out all over the plate. Unclip the tin and sit the thoroughly cooled cake on the prepared plate. Pour the icing over the cold honey chocolate cake and smooth it down the sides. I should warn you that the glaze stays tacky for ages (this is what gives it its lovely melting gooeyness) so ice in time for the glaze to harden a little, say at least an hour before you want to serve it. You can then very gently slide out the strips of baking paper to reveal a clean plate. Keep the pan of icing, and don't wash it up, as you will need it to make the stripes on the bees.
  7. Divide the marzipan into six even pieces and shape them into fat, sausage-like bees' bodies, slightly tapered at the ends.
  8. Using a wooden skewer, paint stripes with the sticky honey glaze left in the pan. About three stripes look best, in my not enormously considered opinion, and then very carefully attach the flaked almonds at an angle to make the bees’ wings, two on each one (unsurprisingly). They might snap as you dig them into the marzipan bodies, so have some spare. I have to admit that, I also like to give them eyes by dipping the point of the skewer in the glaze and thence on the bees: they look more loveable with an expression, but this is where the Disney effect comes in. If a more imperial dignity is required, forgo the dotting of the eyes and present this as your Napoleonic Chocolate Cake.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieqeYrqgQn0&feature=player_embedded

Traditional Blackberry Muffins

About this recipe

Healthiness : (22 votes) 

Difficulty:  
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Number of servings: 18
This is a vegetarian recipe

Ingredients

• 250g (10oz) butter
• 200g (8oz) sugar
• 5 eggs
• 250g (10oz) plain flour
• 10g/3 level tsp baking powder
• 75g (3oz) blackberries

Equipment

• Weighing Scales
• Mixing Bowl
• Bun Tin
• Muffin Cases
• Sieve
• Metal Spoon
• Wire Rack
• Airtight Container

Making and cooking it

 Always wash your hands before preparing food.

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºf/Gas Mark 6, put muffin cases into the holes in a bun tin
2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl using an electric whisk or wooden spoon 
3. Beat the eggs and gradually add to the butter mixture. (If the mixure starts to curdle add a spoonful of the flour)
4. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl  
5. Using a metal spoon, gently fold into the mixture 
6. Divide the mixture into muffin cases, filling each case no more than two-thirds full 
7. Push a blackberry into the middle of the mixture in each case 
8. Put the bun tin in the oven
9. Bake each batch for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden 
10. Remove from oven and place individual muffins on a wire rack to cool 
11. Store in an airtight container

Gingerbread House Video

To watch Rachel Allen bake a simple, delicious Gingerbread House with People, click on this link : http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/610040/displayVideo/Hi

Rachel Allen - American Frosting

 This delicious soft icing is a little tricky to make, so follow the instructions exactly. Quick and accurate decisions are necessary in judging when the icing is ready and then it must be applied to the cake immediately. If the icing is not cooked enough, it will still taste good, but will not dry out properly on the outside. If cooked too much, it will be difficult to spread over the cake.

ingredients

 

·         2 egg whites

·         425g (15oz) caster or granulated sugar

·         100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) water

1.  Ensure your cake is ready before you start, as this icing begins to set very quickly. Bring to the boil a saucepan of water large enough to hold a heatproof bowl. Place the egg whites in the bowl and whisk with a hand-held electric beater until very stiff.

2.  In a separate saucepan over a medium-high heat, dissolve the sugar in the water and boil for 5-10 minutes until the liquid is thick and syrupy and has reached the 'thread' stage - when the last few drops that fall from a metal spoon dipped into the syrup come off in one long, quite thick and syrupy thread.

3.  Pour the boiling syrup over the stiffly beaten egg whites, whisking all the time with the hand-held beater. Place the bowl in the saucepan of simmering water. Continue to whisk over the water for 10-15 minutes until the icing is snow white, very thick and meringue-like.

4.  Spread quickly over the cake with a palette knife, regularly dipping the knife into a jug of boiling water. The icing sets very quickly at this stage, so speed is essential.