Chocolate Orange Zebra Cake (eggless)

Hi everyone!

Sorry it has been such a while since my last post, I’ve been getting all doctor-ified! Yes, you read right – I have finally graduated from my PhD! Woohoo! You can call me Dr Cake now. 😉

Chocolate & Prune Cake

For most of my life, there has been one thing, and one thing only, that I associate with prunes. Can you guess what it is?! 😉

Fibre. Yep, prunes have always been strongly associated in my mind with the gut, and getting things moving. So when I noticed that two of my newest cookbooks contained recipes for Chocolate Prune Cakes, I was intrigued. Could I really eat prunes without it being for dietary reasons?

Mix & Match Ricotta Cake

I recently discovered a recipe that I loved so much, I made it twice within the space of three days! I found it in my newest cookbook, Honey & Co: The Baking Book. The moment I laid eyes on that glossy, glorious, fruit and nut-laden cake, I knew I had to give it a go. I’m not the hugest fan of heavily iced cakes, so cakes that are stunning without icing really appeal to me.

The book delightfully compares this recipe to a game of Chinese whispers, in that it changes with every person who it passes through.

Recipe Challenge: Ruske Kape (Russian Hats)

Hullo and velcome to my blog! (I hope you read that in a Russian accent)

Today’s post is my entry into Lina’s recipe challenge for February, which was cakes from around the world. What a fun idea! I picked Ruske Kape, or Russian Hats, which are adorable little individual cakes, which kind of resemble (surprise surprise) Russian fur hats. According to Wikipedia, they are from Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. They consist of two layers of spongey chocolate cake, sandwiched together with buttercream, decorated on the sides with coconut and topped with chocolate. Yum!

Now, I have to admit, this WAS indeed a challenge.

Chocolate Lamingtons

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Mine has been lovely, catching up with lots of friends and attending our second wedding of the summer. Love is in the air!

This week I’ve had a real hankering for lamingtons, so I decided to make some with the help of my new recipe book, Treats From Little and Friday, kindly donated to me by my supervisor (her favourite recipe bookmarked, look out for Chocolate Brioche, coming soon!).

Crazy Chocolate Cake

As an avid baker with a father with a severe egg allergy, I have baked many a Crazy Chocolate Cake in my time. I guess the reason it’s called ‘crazy’ is that the recipe is dairy-free and egg-free. In today’s world it probably needs to be gluten-free too, to cover all bases.

The recipe I’ve used for most of my life came from a hospital fundraising cookbook, and was okay, but nothing too special. I recently stumbled upon this recipe from Chelsea Winter and was intrigued. Balsamic vinegar? Would using dark cocoa powder make a difference? And… how good does that glossy chocolate icing look??? I had to give it a go.

Gluten-free Carrot Cake

Hello all!

Long time no blog! My apologies, I’ve been travelling and sciencing.

In August we went to the USA for two weeks to attend the wedding of a good friend. We spent our time in Boston, New York and Maine. It was wonderful to get a holiday, to catch up with family and friends, and to get a taste of the warm weather again!

Feijoa and Coconut Cake (gluten and dairy-free)

Well, we truly are in the throes of autumn. While it’s sad to farewell the sun, autumn yields some amazing fruit as a consolation. I am delighting in feijoas, persimmons and tamarillos. This truly is my absolute favourite thing about autumn – the daily gorge of seasonal fruit. Yum!

Gluten-free Lemon and Orange Cake

Do you ever put your cake in the oven with a heavy heart, certain that what you’ve made is a disaster, only to be pleasantly surprised when serving up?

Last week I was baking a cake for my hubby’s birthday. He’d requested lemon. “Great, I love lemon cake.” I thought to myself. However, it turned out things weren’t going to be as simple as I hoped.

Sticky Date Cake

Hello everyone.

I adore Sticky Date pudding. Whenever I go out for dinner/dessert, if there is Sticky Date pudding on the menu, I will almost always get it (unless of course there is Lemon Merengue pie… in which case I panic and blurt out whichever comes to mind first).

The other night we went around to some friends’ place for dinner, and I was bringing dessert. The impression I get from these friends, is that they eat a very healthy diet, which always makes me feel a bit guilty. So I thought, why not be a great friend and corrupt them with a sweet and sticky pud? They can’t not eat it, if I brought it…. right? Right.