Yellow Cake - THE Basic Sponge

Finally! It's been so long since I've made a birthday cake, I was worried I'd have forgotten how! it's all go here today, I'm only able to type this up because I'm waiting for everything to cool! Kate's Bakes, my little baking business, has finally kicked off and I have two commissions due today; a raspberry pavlova for a wrap party and this yellow cake for a 22nd birthday.

This yellow cake is the most reliable recipe I've ever had, it always produces a moist, tender cake that tastes buttery and delicious; perfect filled with jam and cream and dusted with icing sugar for a simple afternoon treat or dressed up with frosting or fondant for a more statement cake.

Yellow Cake

Makes one 9" sandwich cake

• 225g butter
• 350g sugar
• 360g plain flour
• 4 eggs
• 300mls milk
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 tsps vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 175 C, grease and line 2 tins

combine flour and baking powder in a bowl

In a larger bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla

Alternate adding milk and flour to this mixture and mix well

Bake for 30-35 mins, turning once halfway through

Cool completely then decorate

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Sorry for the long time between posts, I'm still not 100% and I've been tirelessly preparing for my college finals...(so scared, so very very scared)... I know immediately what you're thinking, yet another chocolate fudge cake to add to the multitude already out there. But before you lose interest this is a really fantastic chocolate cake. It has yet to fail me and always produces a rich, fudgy cake that still somehow feels light when you're eating it (if that's possible). The aroma of the chocolate is rich and thick and the sponge is fudge but still retains a light spring to remind you that you're actually eating a cake, not a giant sandwich brownie!


I typically fill my cake with plain whipped cream, chocolate cream and crushed raspberries or if that's just too much chocolate raspberry cream (I'll stick this one in a post when I can remember/ work out the measurements) :P


This cake is perfect for kids parties because it's simple and relatively quick. Actually it's a good cake for getting the children involved in baking and decorating...if you don't mind the sprinkle and dragée explosion that will be your kitchen afterwards... :P


It's also a good cake for carving as it doesn't crumble under the knife :)


Chocolate Fudge Cake
Makes 1 9" sandwich cake

• 175g self-raising flour
• 125g plain chocolate (see Note)
• 125g butter
• 200g light brown sugar
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp greek yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 190 C

Melt chocolate over a bain marie

Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy

Add vanilla and 1 egg at a time, beating after each addition

Stir in chocolate and yoghurt

Sift in flour and fold in

Divide the mixture into 2 9" sandwich tins 

Bake for 25-30 mins

Cool for 10 mins in the tins then turn out onto a wire rack

*Note: I use 39-70% cocoa chocolate depending on who the cake is for. Like for children I use the lower cocoa chocolate.

Chocolate cream

• 250 - 500 mls ready whipped fresh cream (depends on how much filling you want)
• 3-5 heaped tbsp icing sugar
• 2-3 tsps cocoa powder

Mix all of these ingredients and spread generously over your bottom cake layer, then stick the top cake layer on top and you're done :)

I used plain cream for the one in the picture because my brother requested it  :)


Also, I didn't bake this today, I cheated a little and used one I baked a few months ago before I even had this blog

x

Orange and Raspberry Cake/Pudding/Yumminess

This is my first slight baking mishap in a good while (new record!). I wanted to make an orange pound cake so I found myself a pound cake recipe from years and years ago in my mums recipe box and set to work. On my hunt through the kitchen for yoghurt I found some raspberries that needed to be used before they were claimed by the grey fuzz lurking threateningly in the corner of the punnett.

So I made up the recipe and folded in the gloriously pink and pretty raspberries, transferred it into the tin and baked for the required time...then a bit more....then even more because the centre was still quite raw and squishy... it has to be because of the raspberries though because mum said the recipe works perfectly otherwise. All was not lost however. We simply served it as pudding with a scoop of vanilla ice cream :D

Anyone have any advice for me on how to stop this happening again? I'm gonna post up the recipe anyway so that anyone who knows how to deal with the devilish little raspberry can make this totally yummy cake/pudding. Or, you can leave it as I did and have it as a gooey, heavily scented, summery pudding

Orange and Raspberry Pound Cake

• 114g butter, Softened
•  170g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 190g flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 oranges, Zested and Juiced
• 160g Greek Yogurt
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 400-500g raspberries

Preheat oven to 175 C

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

Stir in eggs and orange zest

In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder

In a third bowl, combine the orange juice, vanilla essence and yogurt. 

Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and mix gently (just enough to combine without over-mixing) 

Add the yoghurt juice muxture and stir gently.

Mix in the remaining dry ingredients and gently fold in the raspberries

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 55 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before slicing.

I baked this for around 75 minutes in an effort to make sure it was cooked through and as I already said it still came out quite gooey...the resulting pudding with cream was heaven!

If anyone has any advice about making it work as a cake I'd really appreciate it :)

x