Baking some thank you cakes

Apologies that I’ve not been on here for a little while but sometimes life gets in the way of the things that you enjoy doing most. Just because I haven’t been able to make the time to post doesn’t mean that I haven’t been in the kitchen though. 

We’re still nursing my partners elderly mother back to health and last week we had a real sign that things are moving in the right direction when she felt well enough to venture out to her hairdressers for the first time since she’s been with us. She’s been going to this hairdresser for years now and they sent flowers and a card when they heard that she wasn’t well. In return she asked me if I’d bake some cakes that she could take with her to say thank you. It was one of the first times that i’ve baked for an audience that I know nothing about and it made me far more nervous that I’d anticipated. I don’t think I’ve ever nursed cakes though the baking process quite so much and equally never worried quite so much about the final taste. Thankfully all came out well and I’m told that they were enjoyed.

The request was for two types of cakes so I opted for a batch of dark chocolate & vanilla cream cupcakes and a white chocolate and raspberry cake that could be cut into squares to make it like a blondie. The cupcakes were a repeat bake, the recipe is in my Baking Advent Calendar day 14 post, but the white chocolate and raspberry cake was a new one and the recipe is below if you’d like to try it.

Ingredients

• 200g butter.
• 225g plain flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 75g light brown sugar
• Zest of two lemons
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 1tsp baking powder
• 125g raspberries
• 100g white chocolate

Method

• Preheat the oven to gas mark 4
• Butter a square baking tin. The one I used was 20cm by 20cm.
• Cream the butter, sugars, lemon zest and vanilla until pale and fluffy. I used a stand mixer but you can do it with a hand held. It does help if you get the butter out of the fridge to soften for a while before you want to do this. I’ve lost count of the times that I’ve forgotten to do that.
• Beat in the eggs one at a time.
• Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder and salt. With the mixer on a slow speed gradually add the flour mix to the butter & sugar mix until it is all incorporated.
• Chop the chocolate into small pieces and fold it through the batter. I don’t chop it too small as I like finding bits of chocolate as  I bite into the cake.
• Spread the batter into the prepared tin using a spatula.
• Press the raspberries into the mixture. If the batter is quite deep in your tin press some to the bottom and leave some partially exposed at the top,
• Bake for 30 minutes until golden and cooked through. If you have used a smaller tin the bake time may need to be longer as the cake will be deeper.
• Leave to cool before turning out of the tin and cutting to whatever size squares you want.
• If you want a final flourish the squares can be dusted with icing sugar.

One of my favourite bakes since I last posted was an apple and tarragon cake and I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow. It might sound like an unusual flavour pairing but it really works.