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Monday 14 April 2014

Spring Clearning and Coffee Walnut Loaf Cake


I've been doing a bit of a spring clean this weekend. I was clearing out my kitchen cupboards and was shocked at how many things had passed their use by dates and had to be thrown away. I hate throwing things away, so now i'm on a mission to make sure I use everything else. One of the things hiding at the back of my cupboard was some Camp coffee essence which I bought last year for a Cappuccino Cake and haven't used since.



I also bought myself the latest Sainsburys magazine over the weekend which came with a cute little recipe book and as luck would have it, there's a Coffee Walnut cake recipe which has coffee essence in the recipe.



The recipe was for a traybake but I decided to make it into a loaf cake instead and didn't add the icing in an attempt to be ever so slightly healthier (I know, who am I kidding?). The cake turned out really well, definitely one I'll make again.

Ingredients

225g Stork
225g light muscovado sugar
275g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp Camp chicory and coffee essence
75g chopped walnuts

Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 160C (fan) / Gas 4. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.
  2. Put all of the ingredients, minus the nuts, and beat together in a large bowl until well blended. Fold in the chopped walnuts. Pour into the tin.
  3. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until you can insert a skewer into the centre and it comes out clean. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.
  4. Slice and serve. 



Sunday 13 April 2014

Easter Baking

Easter is a great time for baking. I've not decided what I'm going to bake for the weekend yet but here's some of my favourite Easter themed bakes from the last few weeks:


Chocolate bundt cake / egg nest
I made this bundt using my favourite Chocolate Guinness Cake recipe. I think it looks a bit like a nest so filled it with my favourites Cadbury's creme eggs.


Hidden inside Easter egg cake
I baked a plain sponge, coloured it and cut out egg shaped using a cookie cutter, I then baked the cake shapes inside another plain sponge to create a hidden inside cake. 


Apple, cinnamon and sultana hot cross buns
These don't look that pretty but they tasted really really good, I loved the addition of apple and cinnamon. 




And from a couple of years ago, some Easter cupcakes.