Baking

The Great British Bake Off series is back!

Now I must say right now I am not a baker - in fact we don't eat much "baked" stuff! Yes I had a bread maker at one point but when there are just the 2 of us there is only so much bread we can eat in one day. Jon always has toast with his breakfast - and an occasional sandwich for lunch and that will be it! Say 3 slices in one day! I may have 1 slice with poached eggs around 11 but no more bread that day. So...the bread maker was not a good idea for us - as it encouraged us to have vast amounts of fresh bread in one day. Oh and the thickness issue was another - when I made my own bread - courtesy of a bread maker - the bread was cut like doorsteps - so well in the region of 4 slices per portion!
So I buy bread from our local baker - in fact the bakery itself is next to Jon's workshop. One small sliced loaf lasts us a few days. All fresh, local and the slices are appropriate!

BUT........the thing is with cooking programmes they entice you into the web of "I can try that!" which is what happened this week.
During the programme the contestants had to perform 3 tasks - cupcakes, batten burg and 2 tier cake.
Now I have made all these in shape or form - no we didn't have cupcakes - but we did have butterfly cakes  but what the programme brought back to me was the memories of my cake icing successes in my O level domestic science course.

When we are out and about on our biking adventures Jon occasionally has a slice of cake with a cup of tea - but cake is something I don't really "do".............not being a sweet person! As a result of watch ing the programme I decided to make some cakes - Jon said he does like chocolate fudge cake - so the next day I set to and made 2 cakes and 12 cupcakes - they tasted delicious I am told, in fact Jon said "They taste just like the real thing!"

I googled the recipe and this is the one I found which had so many good comments and positive feedback.

Ingredients

175g Self raising flour

2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

1 Tsp Bicarbonate soda

150g Caster sugar

2 Eggs Beaten

150 ml (1/4 pint) Sunflower oil

150 ml (1/4 pint) Semi skimmed milk

2 Tbsp Golden syrup



For the Coating and filling



75g Unsalted butter

175g Icing Sugar

3 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

Drop of Milk

1. Pre-heat oven to 180ºC/350F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two 18cm (7 inch) sandwich tins.

2. Sieve the flour, cocoa and Bicarbonate of Soda into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.

3. Make a well in the centre and add the syrup, eggs, oil and milk. Beat well with electric whisk until smooth.

4. Spoon the mixture into the two tins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from oven, leave to cool before turning out onto a cooling rack.

5. To make your butter icing, place the butter in a bowl and beat until soft. Gradually sift and beat in the icing sugar and cocoa powder then add enough milk to make the icing fluffy and spreadable.

6. If the cake has risen a little too high then use a serrated knife to even off the top, now sandwich the two cakes together with the butter icing and cover the sides and the top of the cake with more butter icing.

I have made another one today (Saturday) as we have friends coming for supper.....
watch this space!