blue suede cake

for last week's bake i decided to go crazy with the food colouring. as it was burns night i thought it would be good to go for a blue and white theme, combine this with my recent love of blueberries i thought i would tackle a variation on the red velvet bake and make it blue. and with it being blue i decided to change the fabric to suede and so i present you with the blue suede cake!

this is the recipe i used, from the blog bake bake bake - but maybe don't read this until the end because the picture may give you unrealistic expectations! as the number one thing i learnt (or reaffirmed) during this bake is that english food colouring just is not the same as american, as you will see.

as with a normal red velvet cake, this recipe required buttermilk so remember the trick to make your own - one cup of milk mixed with one teaspoon lemon juice, left to stand for 10-15 minutes will be a fine substitute.

 being by creaming the butter and sugar - then add your eggs one at a time

then in a separate bowl you want to make the blue suede part by mixing together the food colouring and coco powder. if you're using a liquid food colouring this will seem a bit strange at first because the two ingredients really separate - you'll have a layer of coco powder with the food colouring underneath. there will be a sciencey explanation for this i'm sure, but if you mix it hard enough (use a creaming action) they will eventually come together

 you can just about see the blue coming through in the right hand photo

reading back over the recipe now, i feel like i might have freestyled from this point onwards - but it came out fine so no fear! you want to alternate adding the milk and dry ingredients (flour, baking powder) to the sugar mix so it never goes too dry or wet.

 you want a nice fluffy mixture - mine went super glossy which made it hard to resist

then came the fun part of adding the food colouring mix in. as you can see, this went rather more green than blue - i kept adding more food colouring in but i don't feel it made that much difference and it does begin to add a weird taste so try to resist doing this!

 my super glossy, but rather green mixture

 then it is in to the oven for baking, when it comes out it's hard to tell what the final colour is. you can get a hint through the cracks but the big reveal is saved for later.

while the cake is cooling you want to make your cream cheese frosting. personally i find cakes completely smothered in this too sickly, so i decreased the quantity and 'just' iced the middle and top (i say just, this was still three thick layers)

ice your bottom layer, then add a covering of blueberries. then ice over these - i decided this was easier than icing and flipping over the other cake layer, that just seemed like a recipe for disaster.

then place the next cake layer on, ice and decorate with any leftover blueberries.

this cake did turn out to be a bit of a monster!

now if you aren't put off by the sheer size of this cake, you will be rewarded by cutting in to it and getting the colours and layers.

  

i think it's really cool to get the blueberries running through the centre, and they add a much needed zing against the sweetness of the cream cheese frosting.

have you made any unnaturally coloured bakes recently? perhaps it's time to crack out the food colouring to add a little pizzaz to your normal bakes!

next time it's back to brownies (not again i hear you groan but, trust me, these are worth it). until then bakers!

love,

nen

x

cat-got-the-cream carrot cake.

as i write this i am still riding the high from watching beyonce's half-time superbowl performance, ah-maz-ing! seriously, if you haven't seen it go and watch it then proceed to dance around your room to her hits!

but now onto a more cakey note... this weekend april and i furthered our baking adventures and made a carrot cake (to kid ourselves that if was perfectly acceptable to eat two slices of it a day...)

this is a cake i discovered later than most other types, because like most people the idea of a vegetable based cake was not top of my list. however once i discovered it i was an instant convert - it's so moist and light and then there's the cream cheese topping... (insert drool here!)

surprise surprise this was another hummingbird recipe, from the first book though as i think the one in cake days looks a bit fiddly.

ingredients and recipe book all ready to go

the use of oil rather than butter means this recipe has much less fat than most cake recipes. it also makes the sponge lighter, which is great combined with the texture of the chopped walnuts.

use a long bladed knife for chopping nuts. place the tip in the centre of the board and, resting your palm on the top of the blade, lift up and down without lifting the point from the board. work from side to side and occasionally rotate the board.

mix the grated carrot and walnuts in by hand so as not to overwork the mixture.

the recipe book said to bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes which, before we even started, seemed hopelessly optimistic. it took much closer to an hour. remember it is important that the cake is cooked! if the tops are catching turn the oven temperature down and cover them with foil. similarly it is best not to cook cakes on the top shelf as they are likely to catch.

another tip is to buy cake tins of the same size! makes constructing the cake much easier...!

while the cake is in the oven it's a great opportunity to make the cream cheese frosting (which does still have butter in it!)

(please excuse the scruffy hair)

once again this is a hummingbird frosting recipe so it makes sooooo much! similarly it's a nightmare to make without a cloud of icing sugar enveloping everything (including hair, clothes and glasses...)

stirring in the cream cheese

all ready to go (minus a few 'tasters'....)

another note: wait for your cakes to cool! (yeah we were impatient again!) this is important, especially with frosting and even more so with cream cheese in it. we did hold out for longer this time but the frosting between the two sponges definitely melted a bit...

the finished product







the cinnamon and chopped walnuts sprinkled on the top make a great finishing touch

going quickly...

first slice (complete with melted frosting, but hey sacrifices can be made for warm cake...)

this has definitely been one of my most popular bakes to do (i'm looking at you jamie...!) and it was claimed to be the best carrot cake someone had ever tasted! you can't ask much better than that, and it has been demolished in two days.

i'd really recommend this as something slightly different from your standard vanilla or chocolate sponges - it is so different from what people expect and i'm sure you could create a few converts!

have a good week everyone!

love,

nen

x