Do you make your own Christmas cake?

I have once. It was a right faff. Totally worth it though in terms of how smug I felt come Christmas day, presenting the cake I’d been liberally soaking in brandy for what felt like about two years. Plus once I’d trimmed off the burnt bits and covered it all in marzipan and icing, it tasted pretty good too.

It went nicely with my display of intricately decorated Christmas gingerbread cookies:

Christmas gingerbread cookies

Haha! Not really. Can you even imagine?!

Still, when you think about it, it’s cake plus alcohol, so what’s not to like about that, regardless of how it looks?

Christmas of course is not just about cake and booze.

(Seriously?! That’s disappointing.) View Post

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Today my very funny and clever daughter Bee is guest posting for me. (I’m not just saying that so she’ll keep making me apricot and almond cookies. Honest). If you enjoy these, try our chocolate and peanut butter cookies.

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I am quite good at baking. I also really want people to like me. Luckily the two go hand in hand – as Homer Simpson says, “you don’t make friends with salad”.

As I’m quite new to baking things other than sloppily made fairy cakes, I’m finding I don’t have a lot of the right equipment or ingredients needed for some of the more advanced bakes. I don’t even have a cooling rack, I have to take one of the shelves out of the oven, wait for it to cool down, and then use that.

However, I have found one product that gives great results every time. We were sent a parcel from Whitworth’s that contained all the types of sugar I could think of and more. I was starting to feel like a real baker, with at least 8 different types of sugar in my baking cupboard. View Post

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This week Bee has been baking – baking with the One Direction cake toppers that Father Christmas so thoughtfully left in her Christmas stocking.

At the moment she is doing a thing where she is avoiding processed foods as much as possible, so whipping up a batch of small cakes is a really quick and easy way for her to have a tasty treat. Baking is wholesome right?

She used a classic small cake recipe, with 2 eggs, 4 oz of flour, 4 oz of butter and 4 oz of Whitworths soft brown sugar. She used brown sugar she said because she ‘thought it would taste more like chocolate’. (Sweet). She also added her own special surprise ingredient, which will be revealed in her pictures.

Of course a cupcake isn’t a cupcake without lashing of butter cream, so she topped her small cakes with a mix of 200g of Whitworths icing sugar, 110g of butter and a splash of vanilla essence. And then of course her 1D caketoppers.

Cupcakes for a cuppycake.

"One Direction cupcakes"

"One Direction cupcakes"

"One Direction cupcakes"

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Ginger and pear cake recipe in association with Whitworths

Is it OK to have cake for breakfast? I’m not sure, but I just did it anyway, because I’m a grown-up and I can.

Ginger and pear cake

Ha!

The cake in question was the Whitworths’ ‘Scrummy Ginger and Pear Cake with Toffee Sauce’. I made it last night, so if tomorrow you want to be having cake for breakfast, here’s what you need to do:

Ginger and pear cake – Ingredients

  • 150g ready to eat dates
  • 250ml boiling water
  • 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 150g Whitworths for baking fine caster sugar
  • 50g Whitworths for baking dark soft brown sugar
  • 125g butter at room temperature
  • 1 large egg
  • 225g self-raising flour
  • 1tsp ground ginger
  • 3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into 2cm pieces

For the toffee sauce:

  • 100g Whitworths for baking light soft brown sugar
  • 100g butter
  • 150ml double cream
  • Whitworths for baking twist and sprinkle icing sugar

Ginger and pear cake – Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. Line a round 22cm cake tin with non-stick baking paper. (Or if like me you realise you don’t have any, greasing the pan and then covering it with flour works well.)

Coarsley chop the dates, place in a heatproof bowl and add the boiling water and bicarbonate of soda. Set aside to cool and then coarsley mash with a fork.

Beat the caster sugar and dark soft brown sugar and butter in a large bowl until pale and creamy. NB This takes longer if you can only find one of the whisks:

"Pear and ginger cake"

Add the egg and continue to beat for one minute.

Sift the flour and ground ginger into the bowl with the date mixture and pears. Using a large metal spoon fold until well-combined.

"Pear and ginger cake"

Pour your ginger and pear cake mix into the tin and bake for one hour ten minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Check the cake after 50 minutes and if the top is browning too quickly cover with a piece of foil and continue to cook.

"Pear and ginger cake"

For the toffee sauce:

Place the cream, light soft brown sugar and butter into a small saucepan over a medium heat. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve the warm cake with a drizzle of toffee sauce and decorate with icing sugar. Or simply on a plate with a cup of tea at 9am.

Delicious!

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