Category Archives: Traybakes and Cakes

All recipes relating to traybakes and cakes

Lemon Loaf cake


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I have this thing for lemon at the moment, it may possibly have something to do with the large number of unused lemons I found in the fridge… Anyway, I found an old madeira cake recipe and altered it slightly to get this. It is a heavy madeira style cake with a full on lemon flavour, perfect with grapes and cheese.


Ingredients

  • 250g butter (room temperature)
  • 250g caster sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 250g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 large unwaxed lemons

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade and butter and flour a 2lb loaf tin.
  • Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
  • Add the eggs one at a time, beating until they are completely incorporated.
  • Sieve in the flour and baking powder and gently fold in.
  • Finally, stir in the grated rind and juice of the 2 lemons.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for approximately one hour. A cake tester should come out clean.
  • Leave in the tin for 5 minutes before removing it and placing it on a wire rack to cool completely.

Raspberry and freeze dried strawberry muffin – recipe


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The problem that I have with the majority of fruit muffins is that they are too sweet. Rather than just cutting down the amount of sugar in my recipe I have incorporated yogurt instead of some of the butter; this gives them a more rounded finish.

Ingredients
185g caster sugar
75g butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
225ml natural yogurt
375g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
225g frozen raspberries
10g freeze dried strawberries
Method:
Preheat your oven to 190 degrees centigrade and line a 12 cup muffin tin with either butter or muffin cases.
Using a small whisk, whip together sugar, butter, eggs and yogurt.
Sieve together the flour and baking powder and fold into the wet ingredients.
Finally fold through the raspberries and strawberries and fill the muffin pan.
Bake the muffins for 25-30minutes. They should be turning brown on the top and a cake tester will come out clean.


Indulgent Chocolate Brownies


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These brownies are chocolate heaven. I have forgone the usual nuts and berries and added mixed chocolate chips to the batter. As far as I am concerned this makes them the ultimate chocolate treat.

Ingredients
340g dark chocolate (minimum 60% cocoa solids)
225g butter
400g granulated sugar
4 eggs
225g white bread flour
½ tsp baking powder
300g mixed chocolate drops

Method
Preheat your oven to 190 degrees centigrade.
Meanwhile warm the dark chocolate and butter together in a bowl over simmering water. When the chocolate has completely melted, take off the heat and leave to cool slightly.
Line a 12 x 7 inch traybake pan with baking parchment.
Whip the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy, then fold into the cooled chocolate mixture.
Sieve the flour and baking powder into the batter and mix until just combined, then fold in the chocolate drops.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Leave in the pan to cool.


Honey and lemon cake


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honeycomb pan This recipe is altered slightly from the one that came with this Nordicware tin. You may notice that the cake itself is not made with honey, just the glaze. This is not an oversight. The flavour of the honey comes out a lot better when used in the glaze than when it is baked into the cake.

Ingredients
Cake:
450g plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp table salt
250g softened butter
350g caster sugar
4 eggs
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
300ml soured cream

Glaze:
4 tbsp honey
75g icing sugar
Juice of 1 lemon (2 ½ tbsp approx)

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade or equivalent.
Butter and flour (or use cake easy spray) a bundt pan. You can use 2 large loaf tins if you don’t have a bundt tin.
Sieve the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
Then, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time beating between each addition until the egg is fully incorporated into the batter.
One third at a time, fold the flour mixture, soured cream and zest into the batter.
Pour into the pan and bake for 45-50 mins, until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the pan for 10 mins, meanwhile make the glaze. Simply, add all of the ingredients into a pan and warm gently until all of the sugar has dissolved.
Turn out the cake onto a wire rack and, using the skewer/cocktail stick, make small holes in the recesses of the cake, about 2/3 of the way down. Then, pour the glaze all over the top of the cake so that the glaze goes down into the cake.
Leave at least 20 more minutes before eating, if you can wait that long!
honeycake image


Apricot and Pecan Flapjacks – recipe


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I have yet to find a flapjack recipe that ticks all the right boxes with me. This one comes very close but not quite there. If anyone has any ideas for another one I will only be too pleased to hear about it!

Ingredients
150g butter
150g light muscovado sugar
30ml maple syrup
200g rolled oats
50g pecan nuts, chopped
50g dried apricots, chopped (my preference is the Forest Fruits ready to eat variety but that is not essential)

Method
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees centigrade.
Butter and/or line a 7 inch round cake tin (you can use a square 7 inch pan if you like, I like the disposable 7 inch tray bake moulds as I am just lazy)
In a heavy bottomed large pan melt the butter, sugar and syrup together until all the sugar crystals have dissapeared.
Remove from the heat and stir in all of the rest of the ingredients.
Tip the mixture into your chosen tin and press it down into the edges.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until it is golden brown on top.
Leave to cool in the tin.