Week 50 - Windsor Mess

Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you've all had a lovely break? Me, I had lovely few days relaxing at my Mum's, thankfully I managed to shake off the cold I had & my appetite returned to something resembling normal. I hope you were all good this year & Santa brought you lots of lovely things? I had an early Christmas present on Christmas Eve, the local paper published an article about my year long baking, blogging challenge! The article also invited readers to send in suggestions for my final recipe...it is only 2 weeks away, yikes! I extend that invitation to you too, if you think I've missed an essential recipe, or you have a favourite you'd like to suggest I'd love to hear from you. Just leave a comment on this post or send me an email at rebeccabakescakes@hotmail.com. I was quite chuffed with the article, although having my photo taken in my kitchen was a little stressful! Click here to have a look at the online version of the article.

So this weeks recipe is a dessert rather than a cake, but after copious amounts of Christmas cake, mince pies & Christmas pudding over the last week, I thought this might be a welcome change. It's my twist on the classic Eton Mess, as I live just a hop over the bridge in Windsor, I thought I'd call it a Windsor Mess (apologies if this is already copywritten or in existence!) Eton Mess is made with raspberries & for me tastes like Summer, my version uses spiced oranges & tastes altogether more wintry & Christmassy! I also added orange rind to the meringue which gives a really subtle flavour.

For the meringue
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
Grated rind of 1 orange

For the orange sauce
40g butter
120g demerera sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tbps water
3 large oranges

Pot of whipping cream

1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, add half the sugar & orange rind then beat some more until they go stiff again. Finally fold in the other half of the sugar with a spoon. Line a baking sheet with baking paper, place dollops of the mixture onto the tray & pop in the oven at 130c/GM1 for a couple of hours until they have dried out & are crisp. My batch made 6 meringues.

2. To make the orange sauce, place the butter, sugar, spice & water into a pan. Heat gently until melted together, then bring up to the boil & bubble for a couple of minutes, take off the heat.

3. Top & tail the oranges, then carefully slice down the sides to remove all the skin & pith, then cut into small chunks. Stir the oranges into the caramel sauce & leave to cool completely. Finally whip the cream until it forms soft peaks.

4. Now for the construction! I used my martini glasses, but a sundae dish would be just as good. Take 1 of the meringues & break it into small pieces, place a spoonful of oranges in the bottom of the glass, then sprinkle over half of the crushed meringue. Add a layer of cream, the some more oranges & a couple of spoonfuls of the sauce. Finally sprinkle the rest of the meringue over the top.

I really liked this combination of the tangy oranges with the sweet caramel sauce, meringue & cream. It's perfect if you have people over for dinner as you can make everything in advance & just throw it together when you're ready to serve, well it is meant to be a mess!

All that's left for me to do is wish you a very Happy New Year, Rebecca x

p.s. don't forget to suggest a recipe for my final week!

Week 45 - Cherry Upside Down Cake

Evening everyone! Hope you're all well? I'm trying to relax (with a glass of red!) after a rather stressful day at work. I had a minor meltdown when I thought I'd lost my 3 year marketing plan presentation I'd been working on for weeks, with only an hour to go before I was due to present it to the whole company...arrgghhh! I was dealing with it quite calmly, but panic quickly set in & my poor colleague who I share an office had to deal with tears which could have quickly descended into a full on tantrum! Turns out our delightful IT system had saved it in a completely random place (to be honest that could have been me, it was late when I left the office last night!) & the presentation was safe & sound. Big sigh of relief, but man alive today has been a long day.

Anyway enough about work, can you believe it's only 31 days until Christmas? I have finally given in & made a start on my Christmas shopping at the weekend. To say thank you for the blog support I've had over the last year, I bought an extra gift which I'm giving away this week. Click here for details. The other thing I need to start planning is how I'm going to decorate the Christmas cake. I think it's ready, there's enough brandy in it, I realised the other day it's been fed the best part of half a bottle! I did say it usually comes with an ABV rating.

So this weeks recipe is my alternative take on a pineapple upside down cake. I love cherries & think they work really well in cakes. I've used my latest find, frozen sweet dark cherries, which I bought from Sainsburys. They are delicious & I've taken to adding them to desserts, yoghurt, as a garnish...anything really.

100g butter
225g self raising flour
100g caster sugar
175g frozen cherries
1 beaten egg
1/2tsp vanilla essence
75-150ml milk

1. Rub in the flour & butter until you get fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, then the egg & vanilla & enough milk until you get a soft dropping consistency.

2. Grease a loose bottomed cake tin & spread the cherries over the base of the tin. Pour over the cake batter & spread our evenly. Bake in the oven at 180c/GM4 for 1hour - 1hour15 until golden brown & firm to touch. (I'd recommend putting a baking tray on the shelf below in case the cherry juice leaks out!)

3. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out carefully onto a rack to cool.

The cherries sink into the cake mix, producing a delicious gooey topping & the cake itself is quite dense & rich. It goes really well with a cup of tea, but it would work equally as well as a dessert served warm with either a good lashing of custard or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream! Hope you enjoy, have a good week & don't forget to enter the giveaway, Rebecca x

Week 34 - Rhubarb & Orange Crumble Cake

Hello! Sorry this is going to be a bit of a short post this week. I'm on a bit of a European tour with work this month & as much as I could ramble on about coffee & my numerous trips to Belgium & Holland, I'm going to just keep it all about the cake!

So last week I mentioned that my good friend had been inspired to bake up a feast over the bank holiday weekend. One of the cakes she made was so delicious, I promised I would make it this week. The recipe came from an old Good Housekeeping recipe book & is made with rhubarb from her own garden (which I think makes it taste even better!) Anne gave me a good tip for preparing the rhubarb so it keeps its shape & doesn't go too mushy. Wash it & cut it into chunks, place it on a baking tray, add a little water, then pop it in the oven on 180c/GM4 for around 15 minutes. Lift it out & leave it cool, then drain off the excess water. Then it's ready to use.

For the cake
125g butter
125g caster sugar
125g self raising flour
2 eggs
Finely grated rind of 1 orange
200g rhubarb (prepared as above)

For the crumble
60g butter
125g plain flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Cream together the butter & sugar, gradually beat in the eggs until light & fluffy. Fold in the flour & orange rind. Pour the mixture into a loose bottom cake tin, then spread the prepared rhubarb over the top.

2. To make the crumble rub together the butter & flour until you have something that looks like fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar & cinnamon. Spread the crumble over the top of the rhubarb.

3. Bake in the oven at 190c/GM5 for around 45-50 minutes until the crumble has just started to brown. Lift out & leave to cool before lifting out of the tin.

I served this as a dessert, warm, with a good dollop of cream. It would probably work just as well with custard, or cold with a cup of tea! It's hard to believe I've only got 18 weeks left to go in my baking challenge, the weeks are whizzing by! I hope you're still enjoying all the cakes? Thanks for all your comments, I love hearing from you! Have a good week, I'm off to unpack, then pack again. Take care, Rebecca x

Week 23 - Strawberry Shortcake

Happy days cake fans! It's a gorgeous summer evening & I'm only writing this weeks post in the park! Bit later than usual this week, but what with all the football & Wimbledon (oh & that small inconvenience called work!) it's been tricky to find time to write. Thankfully, my love of cake always wins through & somehow I squeeze in the baking!

So, how do we fancy the chances of our, ahem, 'great', sporting nation bringing home a trophy of some sort this summer? I must admit I think there is something distinctly British about the way we follow sports which I love! We're passionate about it & will come up with the most creative excuses for our teams under performance. So far I've heard England's world cup performance put down to a new ball type, poor turf quality, altitude sickness or the fact the WAGS aren't there. Could it not just be we're actually just a bit rubbish? One world cup does not a great team forever more make! But, it seems the boys have bucked themselves up & actually won this afternoon, so we're through to the knock outs, but second behind the USA...who would have thunk that?? Fingers crossed for Sunday! Anyway, enough about football, maybe I'll share my tennis wisdom with you next week :-)

This weeks recipe is partly to celebrate Wimbledon, but also that it looks like summer has finally arrived. Strawberries are one of my favourite fruits & one thing I will get really fussy over. I'll only ever buy British strawberries when they are in season & if I can get to a pick your own, even better! This is an adaptation of a recipe card I picked up from a Safeway supermarket (remember them?) years ago. It's become one of my staple desserts & always goes down a storm. With all the delicious fresh fruit flavours, it tastes like summer!

120g butter
120g caster sugar
1 egg
120g plain flour
120g SR flour
200g strawberries (the riper the better!) sliced
1 apple, peeled & grated
Zest of an orange
2 tbsps strawberry jam
Sugar to sprinkle

1. Cream together the butter & sugar, then beat in the egg until light & fluffy. Sift in the flours, then combine until you get a soft dough, pop it in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes

2. Take half of the dough & squish it into the base of a loose bottom cake tin so it's even. Next spread the jam over the dough, then add the grated apple & orange zest. Finally arrange the sliced strawberries over the top.

3. Take the other half of the dough & roll it out so it roughly fits over the top of the fruit. It doesn't have to be perfect, so you can try & flatten it with your hands instead. Sprinkle a good shower of sugar over the top & bake in the oven on 180c/GM5 for around 50 mins until golden brown on top. Leave to cool completely before taking out of the tin

There are several different ways you could serve this, warm with vanilla ice cream or cold with double cream. My favourite is warm with a generous dollop of marscapone cheese, delicious! If you follow the serving suggestion on the original recipe card, it should be enjoyed with a bottle of Lambrusco!
Enjoy the sport, but if you're really not a fan why not take to the kitchen & bake yourself a cake, with 23 weeks worth of recipes I hope you'll find some inspiration here! Keep cool, Rebecca x

Week 21 - Black Forest Gateau

Aloha cakies! How are you all? I'm so excited, I'm off to the south coast this weekend to attempt to learn to surf! I've never even so much as body boarded before & have a serious case of wet suit fear...I mean how on earth do you get yourself into one? Thankfully I'm a fairly strong swimmer so I'm hoping I won't drown myself, but I think there's probably only an outside chance of me actually getting upright on a surf board. But you never know, I might take to it like a duck to water & transform myself into a surf babe worthy of a part in Blue Crush! It's going to be a lot of fun with a packed schedule, we've got surf lessons & yoga, think I might need another holiday to recover!

So, it's been a while since I've baked what I'd call a proper cake, so I thought I'd have a crack at a 70's classic, Black Forest Gateau. It ended up being a bit of a feat of engineering to construct, but I hope you'll agree it looks impressive (if not a little hap-hazard!). I think the original recipes suggested using tinned cherries, but I really struggled to find them. Instead I made my own cherry compote, it takes a bit of time but is well worth the effort. I didn't want to buy Kirsch so sneaked in a little bit of brandy to give it a kick!

For the cakes
225g butter
225g sugar
4 eggs
225g plain flour
25g cocoa
2 tsp baking powder

For the filling
300g cherries
100g soft brown sugar
50ml brandy (optional)
50ml water
300ml whipping cream

1. Cream together the butter& sugar, then beat in the eggs until light & fluffy. Sieve in the flour, cocoa & baking powder, fold together until all combined. Grease 2 sandwich tins & divide the mixture between them. Bake in the oven at 190c/GM5 for around 20 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin, then tip out onto a rack.

2. Cut the cherries in half & remove the stones, this is a bit fiddly & you will end up with pink fingers! Keep a few fresh to decorate the top with. Put the stoned ones in a small pan with the sugar, water & brandy, give it a good stir. Put it on a gentle heat & bring it up to the boil. Simmer until the mixture has reduced by half & the liquid has thickened into a light syrup. Put to one side to cool.

3. Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, then slice each of the cakes in half, I find it easiest to use the bread knife to do this. Now starts the construction! Place a base layer of cake, drizzle a little of the syrup over the top, then add a layer of cream, a scattering of cherries & another layer of cake. Repeat this pattern until you pop on the top, then add a final topping of cream & a few more fresh cherries to decorate.

This is a delicious gooey tower of chocolate, cherry & cream. For the full effect I feel like I should be presenting it on a hostess trolley! Only problem is I'm wondering how I'm going to fit it into the fridge? Oh well, might just have to eat it instead! Maybe this could be the first in a series of Euro inspired cakes? Germany can't be the only one with a famous cake? Well for now, auf wiedersehen, wish me luck for surfing & I'll see you all next week. Take care, Rebecca x

Week 19 - Paradise Cake

Hello! How are you all this week, hope you survived the mini heatwave! I'm struggling a little bit with the heat at the minute. Some of you may know I live in a loft apartment (ooo...makes me sound very SATC!), only problem is heat rises & my flat is quickly turned into a sauna. Now seeing as I spent most of the winter complaining how cold it was in the flat, you'd think I'd be happy...but no, I'm British, it's genetic that I have to complain about the weather! Never mind, saunas are meant to be good for you no?

So this weeks recipe is another one rescued from my Mum's scrapbook, she's raved about it for as long as I can remember, but I only ever think she's made it once! I've no idea where this recipe came from & I've never seen it in any other cookbooks, turns out it's a traditional Scottish recipe & that was about the sum total of Googles insight. That makes sense though, as both sides of my family are from the North East & I grew up pretty close to the borders. It's simple to make although I have to admit to taking a shortcut!

Now I know I've always said that baking is easy & cake mix shouldn't come out of a box, but LIFE'S TO SHORT TO MAKE PASTRY!! I have tried many times to make it & it always ends up a complete disaster. The first time I tried to blind bake pastry I didn't have any baking beans, the recipe said you could use rice instead. What I failed to notice was it said to wrap the rice in something first, I didn't, so ended up with uncooked grains of rice embedded in the pastry! I still haven't bought any baking beans & have come to terms with the fact that Jus-Rol can do something I can't & that doesn't make me a bad baker :-) Here goes...

250g shortcrust pastry (ready made or your own if you're feeling brave!)
100g butter
100g caster sugar
1 egg
60g glace cherries chopped
60g walnut pieces
60g ground almonds
100g sultanas

1. Grease a pie tin approx 18cm across. Roll out the pastry to line the tin, then trim off any excess

2. Cream together the butter & sugar, then beat in the egg until light & fluffy. Next stir in all the other ingredients & spread the mixture evenly into the pastry case, no need to blind bake!

3. Bake in the oven at 180c/GM5 for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin completely before tipping out

That last point I share with you from first hand experience, I got a bit over excited & tried to tip it out early! Lets just say you're lucky there's a picture this week, it took me a good 15 minutes to reconstruct it. But as I've always said, my cakes are not supermodels & it still tastes fantastic, I can see why Mum has gone on about it so much!

Have a good week, I hope the sun stays with you. We're fast approaching half way in my baking challenge & I'd really love to include some more of your requests, so please send your ideas my way. Ta ta, Rebecca x

Week 14 - Moscow Mule Cheesecake

Hola baking buds! As you read this I am on holiday, hopefully soaking up the sun & sipping a Margarita by the pool. So in the words of Blue Peter, here's one I prepared earlier! Sorry it's a bit short, but between packing & painting my toenails, I just about squeezed in enough time to write this up. Normal service will be resumed next week!

This is the final creation in the series of cocktail inspired recipes & I have to say it is far more successful than the last one! The combination of ginger & lime is delicious, enjoy...

200g ginger nut biscuits
50g butter
1tbsp golden syrup
250g marscapone
200g cream cheese
2 limes

1. Crush the biscuits into fine crumbs, ginger nuts are tough cookies, so it's best to do this in a food processor. Melt the butter, stir in the golden syrup, then add the crushed biccies. Tip the mixture into a loose bottom tin & press down well using the back of a spoon, pop it into the fridge while you prepare the topping.

2. Mix together the marscapone & cream cheese, then add the juice & zest of the limes. Smooth this mixture over the biscuit base & stick it back in the fridge for a couple of hours to set. I like to add a couple of ribbons of lime zest to the top as decoration. To do this, only zest 1 1/2 of the limes & use a veggie peeler to peel ribbons off the remaining half.

This makes a great dinner party desert, really fresh & light, & something you can just magic out of the fridge at the end of the meal! Right better get back to the packing, I think I have a few too many shoes....we are only going for a week. See you next week, Rebecca

Week 7 - Banoffie Pie

Hello baking buddies! So we're 7 weeks in now & it's been a lot of fun so far, there's only one drawback, my weekly calorie intake has gone up as a result of all this baking! So I thought I'd tell you about the other challenge I've taken on for 2010 which hopefully should balance out all the cake I'm consuming. On 15th May 2010 I will be taking part in my first Playtex Moonwalk for the Walk the Walk organisation, supporting breast cancer charities & organisations all over the country. We set off from Hyde Park at midnight on Saturday & will walk through the night covering 26.2 miles...yikes! Training is well underway, the only bit I'm not sure about is the tradition that you walk the event in a decorated bra!


Lots of cake + walking marathon in bra = 1 bodycon, slightly nervous Rebecca!

If you would like to you can sponsor me at

www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/rebecca_hodgson_mw

Your support will be most appreciated x


So, back to the cake & when I chose this weeks recipe I was oblivious to the fact that this week is actually British Pie Week http://www.britishpieweek.co.uk/ The debate is if it actually counts as a pie seeing as there's no pastry involved, but it's a pie by name, so I think it counts! This is the first time I've ever made a Banoffie Pie & I must admit my previous encounters were with frozen versions that looked a bit too perfect. My pie is gloriously haphazard & as we say up north, a bit of a mullock, (for my Southern friends, that means it looks a mess!) But I think that's how it should be, the rich caramel oozes over the biscuit base, the squidgy nanas sink into the caramel & the whole thing is topped off with swirls & swirls of whipped cream, (sorry have been watching Nigella re-runs!)


200g digestive biscuits
50g butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 can Carnation Caramel (you can find it with evaporated & condensed milk in the supermarket)
3 ripe bananas
300ml double cream
Cocoa powder to finish

1. Crush the digestive biscuits, either pop them in a bag & bash them with a wooden spoon, or blitz them in the food processor. Melt together the butter & golden syrup, then stir in biscuit crumbs. Press the mixture into a lose bottom tin & chill in the fridge for around 20 minutes.

2. Once chilled, spread the caramel all over the biscuit base. Next, slice the bananas & arrange them to cover over the caramel.

3. Whip the double cream until it forms soft peaks. I used a piping bag & nozzle to add swirly cream to the top, but you could just as easily spread it with a spatula or knife. Finally add a dusting of cocoa powder to finish.

This is so simple to make but delicious to eat. It's best if you keep it in the fridge until you're ready to serve as it is very gooey. Hope you like it! It's back on with the trainers for me, I've got 20 miles to cover this week! Enjoy, Rebecca