Cola and chocolate cake

For this month's Stamford Clandestine Cake Club, the theme was 'Quench your thirst' - beverage bakes. I wanted to stay away from alcohol, knowing that a lot of my slightly alcoholic cake club members (not really! Well, maybe) would be using booze. Instead, I researched and found a recipe for a chocolate cake using cola.

Once this was baked, I was very worried that it would be really sickly and far too sweet. But I was surprised - it was sweet, but very moist and fluffy, and not sickly. It was rich, yes, but it a good way. It went down very well at cake club, with only one slice left by the end of the night.

250g self-raising flour
300g golden caster sugar
3 heaped tbsp cocoa
pinch bicarbonate of soda
250g margarine
250ml cola
125ml milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping

100g butter

2 tbsp cola drink

2 tbsp cocoa

200g icing sugar

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan).Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.Melt the butter and cola gently in a pan then add to the dry ingredients, together with the milk, eggs and vanilla.Mix gently but thoroughly and tip into a buttered, loose based cake tin (24cm/9½ in diameter).Bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.Remove from the oven and leave for about 15 minutes while you make the topping.Put the butter, cola, and cocoa into a pan and melt slowly. Bring the mixture to the boil and then pour on to the icing sugar. Beat until smooth and pour over the cake while still warm. Cool the cake in the tin.

I have to admit to a bit of a caketastrophy with this one. The batter was very runny, and after pouring it into my loose-bottomed cake tin, it promptly starting coming out of the bottom. I placed the tin on a baking tray, bunged it in the oven, and hoped for the best. Towards the end of baking time I started to smell that all-too recognisable burning smell. When I took the cake out of the oven, there was a thin layer of burnt cake filling the baking tray, going underneath the cake tin too. The cake itself was fine - albeit a little smaller than it should have been due to the spillage! I don't know whether this was because the mixture was too runny, or whether I need a new tin... I'll have to keep my eye on that. 

I decorated the cake with cola bottle sweets, which I think might have been more popular than the cake itself... 

Green tea and white chocolate opera cake

At the April meeting of the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club, one of our male bakers (we have a few!), Simon, made a green tea and white chocolate opera cake. He has kindly shared his recipe with me. He advised that he doubled the recipe to make his masterpiece. Warning - it's a bit of a marathon!

(Also, please note, the cake is not yellow, despite how the photos look - it is green, the lighting in the pub was terrible!)

 

Ingredients:

3 large egg whites (room temperature)

43g granulated sugar

236g ground almonds

236g icing sugar (sifted)

43g matcha green tea

3 large eggs

59g cup all-purpose flour

22g tablespoon unsalted butter (melted and cooled)

Directions:

1. Line a 32cm by 40cm baking tray with  (with shallow sides) parchment and grease it with butter.

2. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until they form soft peaks.

3. Add the sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy.

4. Beat the almonds, icing sugar, matcha and eggs in another bowl until light and voluminous.

5. Add the flour and beat until the flour is just combined.

6. Fold the meringue into the almond mixture.

7. Fold in the butter.

8. Pour the batter into the pan.

9. Bake in a preheated 220C (200C fan) oven until lightly browned and just springy to the touch, about 6 to 10  minutes.

10. Run a knife along the edges to loosen the cake form the pan.

11. Cover the cake with parchment paper, flip and unmold the cake.

12. Peel off the parchments paper flip and cover the cake while it cools.

Green tea buttercream

Ingredients:

120g sugar

43g matcha

2 large egg whites

170g cups unsalted butter (at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Mix the sugar and matcha in a small bowl.

2. Whisk the sugar and matcha into the egg whites in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until the mixture is hot to the touch, about 5 minutes. (The sugar should be dissolved and the mixture should look like shiny marshmallow cream.)

3. Remove the bowl from the heat and beat until the cream is cool, about 5 minutes.

4. Beat in the butter one stick at a time.

5. Beat the mixture until it thickens and becomes smooth, about 5-20 minutes.

White chocolate ganache

Ingredients:

200g white chocolate (chopped)

35ml double cream

120ml Double cream

Directions:

1. Melt the chocolate into the 35ml of double cream in a double boiler.

2. Set the ganache aside and let cool completely.

3. Whip the rest of the double cream in a large bowl.

4. Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate ganache.

5. Refrigerate until used.

White chocolate glaze

Ingredients:

85g white chocolate (chopped)

60ml double cream

Directions:

1. Melt the chocolate into the heavy cream in a double boiler.

2. Let cool for 10 minutes and then pour over the opera cake.

Assembly 

Directions:

1. Work on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

2. Cut the cake into 4 equal pieces.

3. Place 1 sheet of the cake onto the baking sheet and moisten with syrup.

4. Spread 1/2 of the buttercream over the cake.

5. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the buttercream and moisten with syrup.

6. Spread the white chocolate ganache over the cake.

7. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the ganache and moisten with syrup.

8. Spread the remaining buttercream over the cake.

9. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the buttercream and moisten with syrup.

10. Pour the glaze over the cake and smooth it out.

11. Refrigerate until it sets, about 30 minutes.

12. Trim the sides to get a smooth finish.

Click here for more about Clandestine Cake Club!

Stamford Clandestine Cake Club - beverage bakes

On Monday, April 8th, 22 members of the Stamford CCC met with 19 cakes based on the theme 'Quench your thirst'.

This month's event, held at the Bertie Arms country pub, in Uffington, just outside Stamford, was sponsored by Yorkshire Tea. We were privileged to receive Yorkshire Tea tablecloths, a teapot, lots of cups, and a massive bag of teabags. What better way to celebrate a beverage-based bake than with a refreshing cup of tea!

Our beverage bakes were a triumph. We might have shown ourselves as somewhat alcoholic bakers (there were 11 alcohol-based cakes versus 8 non-alcoholic) but each and every baker put a lot of effort into their cakes. Here's a list of our bakes:

Coke and chocolate cake - Sophie
Ginger and lager cake - Steve
Stout cake - Mel
Cider cake - Anthea
Green tea and white chocolate opera cake - Simon
Beehive black cake (Guinness) - Rhoda
Mocha marble cake - Vic
Amaretto cake - Amanda
Cider fruit cake - Vicky
Margarita cake - Lisa
Snake bite and black cake - Johannah
Earl Grey and orange cake - Lucie
Raspberry milkshake cake - Judith
Pina Colada cake - Becky
Earl Grey and lemon cake - Esme
Red wine chocolate cake - Kelly
Lemonade cake - Natalie
Coffee cake - Sarah
Coconut and rum cake - Monika

Highlights of the evening had to be Simon's spectacular many-layered green tea and white chocolate opera cake, Lisa's margarita cake (if you had a whole slice you'd be over the limit, thanks to the delicious tequila frosting!), and Amanda's amaretto cake was a popular choice, despite her thinking it was a complete disaster. Comedy moments were shared by Mel's delicious creation of 'cake fudge' (you can make that again Mel!) and Vic's beautiful mocha marble 'biscuit cake' - "It's really nice dunked in a cup of tea!" said Vic.

We all shared disaster stories, a bit of a Q&A session for those caketastrophies we've all had, and much cake was eaten by all. As enjoyable as the night itself is the morning after, catching up with everyone's Twitter feeds about 'cake hangovers'.

Thanks to everyone who came and shared the Stamford cake love. It's a brilliant place for turning strangers into friends, for finding new recipes, and taking lots of delicious cake home.

Click here for more about Clandestine Cake Clubs. 

 

Pistachio and strawberry cake

The March meeting of the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club had the theme 'Surprise!', inspired by the venue's Garden of Surprises - we met at the spectacular Burghley House.

I was really lost with this theme (even though I came up with it) and in the end my cake was completely made up. I wanted two flavours that you might not put together and that had different colours, so in a conservative mood I plucked for pistachio and strawberry. Not marmite and celery or anything so adventurous. I decided that the main 'surprise' element of the cake would be the overall design, with a jack-in-the-box type presentation.

The first layer was strawberry sponge. I researched a lot of strawberry sponge recipes but couldn't find the right sort. I really wanted a light sponge that was pink in colour. Most pink recipes used powdered jelly, and that just doesn't exist in Deeping I'm afraid. A lot warned against using just strawberries as the flesh can make the cake unstable. In the end I made a jammy syrup and added that to a normal sponge mix. It looked pink in the bowl, so I didn't add any food colouring - but it wasn't very pink when baked, so colouring would help.

6oz butter
6oz caster sugar
3 eggs beaten
6oz self-raising flour
About 3tbsp strawberry syrup (I heated hulled strawbs with a tbsp of sugar, then sieved)

Beat the sugar and butter until really pale and fluffy.
Add the eggs and beat.
Sieve in flour, then add the syrup.
Bake at 180 (160fan) for about 30 mins.

For the pistachio layer, I added green food colouring, but to be honest I think it was green enough with just the nuts.

250g butter
250g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
Zest of one lemon
1/2tsp vanilla paste
120g pistachios, ground
100g almonds, ground
40g plain flour

Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs and beat.
Add the zest and vanilla.
Stir in the flour and nuts.
Bake at 160 (150fan) for about 45 mins (to be honest I lost track of time and it may have had a little longer!)

I sandwiched the layers together with strawberry buttercream, made using some more of the strawb syrup.
I then glazed it all over with melted apricot jam, then covered with ready-to-roll royal icing - my first attempt at a square cake. It didn't go too well and there was quite a lot of patching up!

I designed it as a jack-in-the-box with layers of icing peeling back, painted red and green to hint at the strawb and pistachio underneath. Topped with a home-made teddy holding a 'surprise!' sign.

The strawb layer didn't taste as much of strawb as I'd have liked, but it was nice and fluffy. The pistachio layer worked well and was surprisingly moist. I think I'd do the pistachio again, perhaps with a fluffy buttercream with cream cheese. The strawb might be nice as cupcakes, with more strawberries - perhaps topped with fresh cut ones.

Chocolate macaroons

I attempted to make macaroons tonight. My first try at these little buttons of deliciousness. I can't say they were a great success.

I won't repeat the recipe as I don't want to inflict it upon anyone. I got the recipe from the Good Food website, which I thought would be trustworthy. I knew as soon as I mixed the egg whites in that there weren't enough of them (just two egg whites). The mixture looked thick and lumpy. Piping the dots looked like a baking tray of tiny poos, not to be gross. I tapped, and let them rest, then baked them.

They look hard and rubbish. They taste a bit hard and rubbish. Won't be repeating that recipe again. Have been told the Italian meringue technique is much more reliable. Will try again another time.

Disappointing.