Honey and Almond Cake with Lemon Buttercream Icing

Honey and Almond Cake with Lemon Buttercream Icing

I wanted to come up with a cake that would be tasty, comforting and satisfying to my sweet tooth alongside a nice, hot cup of tea on a cold and bleak wintery day.

This is it.

Honey and Almond Cake with Lemon Buttercream Icing


Ingredients: 


For the cake:
12oz butter (softened)
12oz light brown sugar
12oz self raising flour
6 eggs
6 oz ground almonds
8 tbsp honey

For the lemon buttercream icing:
6oz butter (softened)
12oz icing sugar
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
8 tbsp milk

Method:

To make the cake:


Preheat oven to 180°/350°/Gas Mark 4.

Grease and line two 10" springform cake tins.

Whisk the eggs in a small bowl.

In a separate, larger bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy and light.  Add the eggs and honey and whisk the ingredients together well.

Sift the flour into the mixture, add the ground almonds and then mix thoroughly making sure it is all combined.

Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for approximately 25 minutes.

Once baked, allow to cool slightly in the tins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Whilst waiting for them to cool you can get on with making the buttercream icing.

To make the lemon buttercream icing:

Mix together the icing sugar with the butter.  Add the zest and juice of 1 lemon.  Keep mixing, adding the milk one tablespoon at a time until you have reached a fairly thick but spreadable consistency.  It shouldn't be so thick that you can't spread it easily.  Set it aside until the cakes are cool enough to put together.

Once the cakes have cooled completely, spread a generous layer of lemon buttercream icing onto your bottom cake, then sandwich the second cake on top.

Spread another generous layer of icing onto the top cake.  To finish, drizzle with a couple of teaspoons of honey.

Make a cup of tea.

Cut a big slice of cake.

Eat and enjoy.


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Banana and Raisin Breakfast Muffins

Banana and Raisin Breakfast Muffins are a great recipe idea for toddlers

Oliver, at two years old, has plenty to be getting on with.  Eating and mealtimes just get in the way of his busy life.  He tends to graze at the moment, preferring to walk about with a bunch of grapes or a handful of cherry tomatoes to chomp on, rather than sitting at the table for any length of time.

He isn't a big eater at breakfast time nor lunch times and though he doesn't look any worse for wear, my mother instinct still feels like I have to fool him into eating something I feel is substantial enough to give him a good start to his day.  I wanted a healthy breakfast recipe.  This is where breakfast muffins come into play.

Breakfast muffins contain the good ingredients that reassure me that my toddler is getting enough nourishment and everything he needs to get his day off to a good start.  Breakfast muffins are also a great option for fussy toddlers and picky eaters.   They are a healthy breakfast recipe for toddlers who, like Oliver, are too busy to sit still and he is happy because he just think's he's eating a cake!

Don't be fooled by their name though because breakfast muffins are certainly not just for breakfast!

Banana and Raisin Breakfast Muffins
(makes 36)

Ingredients:

10oz plain flour
10oz porridge oats
2 tbsp baking powder
8oz light brown soft sugar
4oz raisins
4 bananas
20fl oz milk
8fl oz sunflower oil
4 eggs

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.

Grease muffin tray or line with cases.

Sift plain flour into a large bowl with baking powder.  Add porridge oats and sugar and stir well.

Mash bananas well, then add to dry food mixture along with the raisins.

In a separate bowl whisk together the milk, sunflower oil and eggs.  Pour into the dry food mixture and mix.

Fill the muffin cases almost full with the mixture.  Bake in oven for approximately 20 minutes or until muffins are risen and lightly browned on top.

The muffins can be stored in an airtight container and can be warmed up by heating in the oven for 5 minutes at 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2.


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Baking inspiration for the uninspired (or in my case, the just plain lazy)

As you are probably aware by now, I am in the last trimester of my twin pregnancy.  I'm tired much of the time and finding it harder to do the things that need to be done.

As you might also know, we tend to bake and make a lot of our own goodies.  However, tiredness (or laziness, call it what you will) tends to result in baking taking a back seat on my list of priorities.

We then have a problem in that we still want something nice to eat.  We like to try out cakes, biscuits and goodies in general.  Who doesn't?  So in order to satisfy my sweet tooth I needed to find something quick, easy yet yummy.

I spent far too much time procrastinating on Baking Mad's website, looking at pastry recipes, cakes, biscuits and everything else before finally settling on making their Bitesize Chocolate Brownies.  This recipe took less than the estimated ten minutes to whip up although I did have to quadruple it to make enough for our family.

I am now waiting for my groceries to be delivered so that I can have a go at the Low Calorie Apple Strudel recipe  in order to get through the glut of apples our neighbour had gifted us.  In fact, there is no shortage of recipe ideas that I have seen here that I want to try out.

If you find any recipes (preferably which are short on prep time) that you would recommend do let me know.  The one thing I don't seem to be tiring of is eating.

(This is a sponsored post.)

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Fruity Scones

I had been craving scones for a while since seeing Jam and Clotted Cream's Twitter page.  Craving I tell you.

Last week Caitlin offered to make a batch or two one afternoon.

She never did.  

Apparently she decided she "couldn't be bothered in the end".

She is now grounded for a week. (Only kidding!).

(Or am I?)

I did what mums do and sighed and muttered "I'll do it myself then" under my breath and went and baked a batch myself. 


(Actually, it took five days before I could be bothered to actually get on with making them myself, but that didn't sound as dramatic.  I do think that scones with cream and jam might call for a little drama beforehand, in order to truly savour the final product served on a china plate with tea served in a teacup with a saucer in the peace and tranquility of a country garden*).  

Fruity Scones (makes approximately 48)

Ingredients:


200g butter, diced
1kg plain flour
4 tbsp baking powder
1tsp salt
120g sugar
200g dried mixed fruit
600ml milk
Beaten egg diluted with a little water for glazing.

Method:


Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6
Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl.
Add diced butter and rub in with fingertips.
Add sugar and fruit and stir well.
Pour in milk and combine until it all comes together.
Roll out to a thickness of approximately ¾" and cut with a 2½" round cutter.
Place on a greased baking tray and glaze with beaten egg and water mixture.
Bake for approximately 10 minutes until risen and slightly brown.
Cool on a wire rack.
Serve split in the middle with generous servings of whipped cream and jam, or just have it plain. Whatever takes your fancy.

They're really yummy and simple to make if I do say so myself.

Oh, and I am still deciding whether to share with my daughter.

Decisions, decisions...



*Or, in our case, a gaggle of noisy kids and a scrabble of grubby hands pointing out the largest scones of choice in a cluttered kitchen full of equipment and bags of flour.

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Saturday

Saturday.

We've looked forward to it all week.

Where shall we go?

What shall we do?

Now it is here and it's just... glum

So, children, we shall stay home.

And get the Magimix out of storage.

And set ourselves up at one end of the kitchen.

And bake.

While dad sets up at the other end of the kitchen

And works on something he's been promising me for a long time.

Can you guess what it is yet?

Saturday.

How are you spending yours?

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