Tea Time Treats - Cherry Bakewell Cake

My inaugural entry in Karen's Lavendar & Lovage and What Kate Baked June Tea Time Treats blogerific challenge is: Cherry Bakewell Cake!

This month's challenge was 'berries' and how could I not enter this yummy cake, which I've been using to cheer up and inspire all of my cake-loving friends lately. This weekend I made this cake for a hen party, which included a life drawing class (very fun but very odd...) followed by High Tea. Lots of people make cakes, but most were cupcakes (see this brilliant rant about cupcakes) - but I was very happy to see that most hens went straight for the cake - sharing and enjoying a slice is so much more enjoyable than a cupcake at a party like this I think.

Anyway, back to the berries and cake. Here's the recipe... It makes a very moist, very berry, very morish cake.

200g margarine
200g golden caster sugar
100g ground almonds
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp almond essence
4 large eggs

Put everything in a big bowl and mix together (it helps if the marg is nice and soft to start with). Pour into two 20cm cake tins, and bake at 180 degrees (160fan) for about 30 - 35 minutes. The cake will be quite soft and spongy when cooked, but a skewer should come out clean.

I did find the cake very delicate and difficult to handle when getting it out of the tin, and a little did fall off. But it survived. When you're putting the layers together, make sure the one on the top is upside-down, so it's nice and flat to spread the icing on to.

When cool, spread one layer with cherry conserve. Place the second layer on top, and spread over some icing (icing sugar & cooled boiled water - I never measure icing amounts!). It's nice to get the icing to dribble stylishly down the side of the cake - but I'm not great at that sort of thing so it looks a bit lumpy. I think I need to go to a cake decorating course... Finish off with a sprinkling of toasted flaked almonds.

I love the cherries in the cherry conserve. They're so chewy and squidgy, jammy and gooey, and tart while sweet and delicious. I wish I could say I made the jam myself... but unfortunately I didn't.

Perfect with a cup of Earl Grey (or whichever tea you prefer... but not chocolate tea) at tea time.

Summer berry USA flag traybake

For my second Cake Club meeting, I made a lemon sponge traybake, decorated with strawberries and blueberries in an American flag design - the theme was 'Born in the USA'.

Can you guess what it is yet?

It took me a while to think of a cake themed to our cousins across the pond. I've visited America loads of times, but I have to admit that I can't remember eating cake there - at least, none so good that it's stuck in my memory. Doughnuts, yes, plenty... Lots of pie... Loads of cookies... But I couldn't think of the sort of cake that would sum up my experience of America. Should I make a bundt cake (a la Dolly Bakes)? They eat them 'over there', and I certainly have a lot of recipes to choose from. But then someone said the clue in the name was that they were German, not American, so I scrapped that idea.

Everyone I canvased opinion from simply replied with Mississippi mud pie, or key lime pie, or apple pie... It's a CAKE CLUB, I retorted!

I set on the idea of using the American theme in the decoration, having seen a similar idea with the Union Jack for the upcoming Jubilee. I had been considering it for our Jubilee party, but instead decided to turn it into the Stars & Stripes.

The Stars & Stripes

I used a simple yet fluffy and light lemon sponge recipe, topped with buttercream, with blueberries and strawberries in the flag design. I even counted the number of stripes.

I have to admit, this was one of the best cakes I've ever made. The buttercream was delicious - the creamiest, smoothest, loveliest buttercream. I used my Kitchenaid for the buttercream this time, which I normally don't bother with, but I always will in future. I heeded Eric Lanlard's comments on a recent episode of Baking Mad where he explained how to cream the butter and ensure the result wasn't too grainy, by making sure the sugar was properly dissolved into the butter. Yum.

My first traybake

100g marg
175g self-raising flour
50g ground almonds
2tsp baking powder
4 eggs
225g caster sugar
125ml Greek yogurt
zest of 2 lemons

Put all the ingredients in a bowl. Mix them all together. Job's a goodun.
Pour into a traybake cake tin, 30cm x 20cm - I treated myself to a new tin just for this bake.
Bake in the oven at 180 degrees (160 fan) for 30 minutes.

I used about half a pack of butter and about 300g ish of icing sugar (but I never measure buttercream!). After laying out the stripes, I thought about laying tiny white marshmallows inbetween, just to crank up the American-ness of the cake. But I didn't like how it looked, and preferred the simplicity with just the berries.

Everyone at Cake Club was impressed. Mine certainly was the most attractive cake. I have lots of berries left over, so I might yet make a Union Jack version at the weekend.

A delicious use of summer berries

Cake Night - Cherry Bakewell Cake

Cake really is made for sharing.

Tonight I had Cake Night with my friend and colleague, Kelly, a talented journalist so full of ideas she doesn't know what to do with them. But although she's mastered the art of words, she isn't so great in the kitchen (we had to explain how to make scrambled eggs not so long ago).

Cherry Bakewell Cake

So, we arranged Cake Night, a bit like a school cookery lesson, but time to chat and relax together too. We baked a Cherry Bakewell Cake, something quite simple but with great results. I was proud of Kelly's first cake...

200g margarine
200g golden caster sugar
100g ground almonds
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp almond essence
4 large eggs

Put everything in a big bowl and mix together (it helps if the marg is nice and soft to start with). Pour into two 20cm cake tins, and bake at 180 degrees (160fan) for about 30 - 35 minutes. The cake will be quite soft and spongy when cooked, but a skewer should come out clean.

When cool, spread one layer with cherry jam or conserve. Place the second layer on top, and spread over some icing (icing sugar & cooled boiled water - I never measure icing amounts!). Finish off with a sprinkling of toasted flaked almonds. 

Make sure to grease your tins and use baking paper. We didn't have any baking paper, and so a little part of the cake fell off as we were trying to turn them out, but the icing soon covered that part up - and it tasted great even if it wasn't the neatest.

Slighty wonky part...

It was lovely to spend time with a friend, chatting and baking together, and then being proud of something we made together. There's something so fulfilling of slicing up that cake you'vev spent time perfecting, sharing it out to friends and family, and enjoying watching them tell you it's delicious.

This cake was ideal for a beginner, as you just bung everything in a bowl, mix, and hope for the best. The taste is beautiful - the tang of the cherries, the sweet icing, the scrumptious almonds... It really is like a cherry bakewell tart in a cake.

Delicious and just like a cherry bakewell tart