Scary Cake

I was really worried about this cake, not worried about the outcome or if the recipe would be easy to follow, oh no I was worried by the amount of very unhealthy stuff in it.  Now I know cake is not deemed a healthy option but this Nigella cake seemed to be really scary!  I had some lovely white chocolate to use up from my sister and a some raspberries from my parents garden so I set about finding a recipe.  I have not made many Nigella recipes in my time usually due to the large quantities of butter/cream/sugar......etc.  Anyway I thought I would give this one a go, I actually halfed the quantities (an even number of eggs always makes this easier!) and then used less sugar, about 40g less I think and it worked really well.  I over cooked it slightly having not taken into account the lesser quantinty but I just about got away with it, 10 minutes less and it would have been moister.  I served it with fresh raspberries and creme fraiche as I thought the white chocolate ganache may be a little too much.  Scary but very very tasty!

Choca Mocha

I have fancied doing a mocha cake for a while now and with the in-laws arriving I had my chance!  Its another Hugh F-W recipe, and they always seem to work.  The only change I made was not marbling the two mixtures as quite frankly I dont think its a good look!  I just added the coffee and cocoa into the main mix.  It was lovely.

Honey Cake...thanks Jen!

For my birthday, my friend Jen adopted a beehive for me.  Another hobby of mine is gardening and although I'm pretty new to it I think I am doing OK.  As all gardeners will tell you "the honey bee is our friend" and I am hoping my new hive pack will teach me much more about them.  One of the things I am growing this year is lots of flowers to brighten the place up, attract the bees but mainly edible flowers I can decorate my cakes with!  This gift was in many ways very appropriate! 

So back to honey....In my adoption pack was some lovely honey from the Chain Bridge Honey Farm on the Scottish borders/Northumberland (my parents neck of the woods!).  It tastes divine and needed to be used well so I turned to my trusty River Cottage Cakes book and set about making Gills Honey Cake.  Easy to make and cooked in exactly the 45 minutes it said it would, RC has not failed my yet!  It tasted lovely...the honey forms a sugary crust on the top with the crunchy almonds and the whole things tastes very spring-like somehow.  Handy hint...its a big cake but I reckon it can easily be halved as it has equal amount of eggs and this smaller quantity will fit nicely into a loaf tin. 

PS The hive pack also came with some wild flower seeds that have be duly planted and as soon as I get blooms I will post some pictures!  Thanks Jen x