(In jealous tones) oh, so you UKer's are posting cakes to each other now, is that it? Well! How very nice!

I got a slice of the choccie cake too! I must say I wish I worked in Sundae's school! I can't stand kids but it'd be worth it for the cake!

:D

Coffee and walnut cake.
This broke a new record as the fastest moving cake I have made.

I am definitely going to make one for the May Fayre.
Carrot cake too, despite the faff, because I was proud of it. Althought I will buy some little icing carrots for the top. Because some lilies need gilding.

Challah.

This one rose more, having been frozen, then defrosted overnight in the fridge.
I then gave it a few hours to return to room temperature. All as advised.

It's more tidily plaited than the last one - which will tell you something about the last one :) Then again I went for three strands not the more ambitious six.

It went down exceptionally well with the children and our graduate trainee!
As we were re-enacting a shabbat - I also brought in red grape juice to stand in for wine. Compliments all round. I was asked by more than one child if we would be having it again next week. Only one lad refused it, but he will not eat anything offered (Miss N's chocolate/ vanilla cake was also refused a few months ago).

If I thought there was more of a request for it here at home I could see me making it every month. As it is, this batch of two might be my only foray into Jewish baking.

Oh and I couldn't find poppy seeds anywhere!

Oh my heavenly FSM! They both look absolutely deeeeelish!

Oh, man!!!!

Sundae will you pm me with the recipes????

You may not want me to when you see my Lemon Drizzle Fail :(
Although I am bilingual when it comes to cooking instructions (thanks to the Cellar) the coffee cake is in metric weights, not cups. The Challah recipe I will send though.

So - lemon drizzle. I admit I was careless from the off but I think my two biggest fails were using oil not butter to grease the tin and trying to remove when the cake was still too hot.

As you can see it fell to pieces.
It was also far too sweet, although that is a fail of the recipe, and if I ever dared make it again I'd rectify it.

Monster was right to warn me of the difficulty of using moulds, but this is honestly my first real fail. I need a deep 20" cake tin I think. My 20" sandwich tin would have overflowed.

Still taking it into school. I'm not wasting four eggs! Especially as I had six gifted to me by my chicken-keeping colleague. They can eat it with spoons. Mum has already had all the slivers and crumbs she could sneak off it. I said she could. It's Mothers' Day here afer all. She agrees it's too sweet, but can't stop eating it. I'd say at least a 1/6 has gone...!

Oh and also shown is my cake carrier. Ta-daaaa! After all that eBay searching I found one in big Tesco. Much cheaper than those I had looked at online.

So.
Today I discovered that perhaps you get what you pay for.
I walked into school and was faffing about at a bin, putting some rubbish in while trying to switch the bag on my shoulder and move the cake carrier from one hand to another. Somehow I must have clipped the catch on one side of the cake carrier. I was previously concerned about how easily they opened, but put it down to paranoia.

Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean that your Lemon Drizzle Cake won't end up on the ground.

Cake came tumbling out, smashed to pieces.

I salvaged the bits on top which I didn't think had made content with the pavement, then picked the rest up and scattered it over the verge - let the birds get cavities, why not indeed.

However, the good news is that although I wrote a note explaining why it was a dis-assembled cake, and warning that I could not 100% guarantee that it was safe ("eat at your own risk" I puts) 2/3 of it was eaten, and I was complimented very highly by Mrs W who said every cake of mine got better and better and this was the best yet, despite the exploded serving fashion.

She also assured me that Lemon Drizzle cake should be sweet. Go figure.

Oh and they never got to see the mess it was in before it was dropped and I got lots of sympathy AND praise for my stoicism. I guess it won't work every week though.

Some people drop names, you drop cakes. ;)

btw, that bread (Challah?) looks positively foodgasmic!

I love your cake stories.
(I wish you would send me a slice of every one. I'll refund the P&P costs if you like.)

(My) Cakes
(My) Cakes
(My) Lovely Lady Bakes










-- to Black Eyed Peas "My Humps" if you din't git it first time round

Haggis!

Yes! This is what I hear every time I see the thread title.

Sundae, your challah looks amazing. I can't believe how generous you are with your coworkers. I would kill for a colleague who brought in a delicious cake every week.

Wow.

I've no appetite now due to being sick, but these pictures still make my mouth water in anticipation. Bravo!!

I have a large, round cake carrier that has a strap that acts as a handle and secures the bottom to the top. I feel your pain on the drop, though.

For a shaped cake, you definitely want to both butter and flour your pan, let it cool 15 or 20 minutes after it comes out of the oven, then flip it over after poking around a bit with a knife to release the cake. Even with that I've still lost bits on the bottom, but hey, that's what frosting or drizzle is for.

The important question, though is, how did the lemon drizzle taste? If it tasted good it's not a total fail. It's important experience for the next time!

I never thought of strapping it.
Good plan, Wolf-ma'am.
Just adding an old bungee cord (I don't know if that's the real name, but we have them around) will give me the security I need.

Well as I said, Mrs W liked it lots.
I'd add less liquid to the drizzle next time - I think I added too much icing sugar to offset it. That's what made it so sweet.

And yes, I'll be much more observant when preparing my shaped moulds in future.

The staff don't know it, but I'm using a packet mix this weekend.
It's in the cupboard from last month and I just add oil and an egg.
Next term it won't be a cake a week, fun though it's been. I know what I'm cooking for the May Fayre now, so I'll scale down again.

Still, packet mix cakes get eaten anyway.
And I have the most fun in decorating them.

don't forget what happened last time you used a packet mix and didn't come clean. ;) lol

Oh crikey I forgot that!
Well this time I will admit if asked.
Lesson learned.

Sundae: Wonderful cakes! Pity I don't work at your school to try them all. :D I have a question concerning your coffee and walnut cake. Is it a coffee cake or coffee flavored cake? If it's coffee flavored, can I please have the recipe? I like the idea and would love to try it. Thanks!

Coffee cake means coffee flavored to a Brit. Imagine how disappointed I was the first time I had coffee cake here :( I just make a regular sponge cake and add a few spoonfuls of extremely strong coffee. You can also just substitute a tablespoon of the flour for instant coffee powder in a basic cake recipe. Or you can get Sundae's recipe which is likely to be much yummier.

Hi Lola Bunny, long time no see. :waves:

So what is a coffee cake in America?

Perhaps a cake you eat with coffee?

I can't take any credit for my cake, it was from a recipe website.
saying that, it was a damn good recipe.
Off to bed now, but promise to link tomorrow.

Yup. Usually quite plain, often cinammony, very sweet and drizzled in sugary stuff. Bundt-type or sometimes loaf-style.

Hmmm...why do the yanks have to change the name for things so that they sound like something they're not. Why make life harder for everyone. lol

If someone says coffee cake here, you are right to assume it's a cake that tastes like coffee.

Cinnamon swirly cake, usually with a crumb topping. At least in my neck of the woods. Different, of course from a coffee roll, which is more like a German schnecken, only covered in glaze, second cousin to a donut, only baked, not deep fried. Although I guess you could deep fry one ... and then there's cinnamon rolls, which are again different. Rolled up dough with sugar and cinnamon coated on them and dusted over them so that it all becomes a lovely, gooey, runny mess.

Brit coffee cake would probably be called a mocha cake or something like that. Oh crap. Now I want one.

Our next lesson will include bear claws and elephant ears.

Bake me a cinnamon roll, please Wolf!

Here is the link to the Coffee and Walnut cake recipe I used.
It's a BBC website so it's reliable and SFW.

Shown below too.
I read through most of the comments and made amendments.

Ingredients
125g butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 heaped tbsp coffee, dissolved in 100ml water
100g walnut halves

ICING
200g butter
2-300g icing sugar


1. Heat the oven to 170C/fan 150C/fan 3. Line a deep 18cm loose-based or springform cake tin. Beat the butter and sugar together with electric beaters and then beat in the eggs, flour and baking powder.

2. Beat in 1 tbsp of the coffee mixture and then add up to another tbsp little by little until the mixture drops easily off the spoon. Keep the rest of the coffee mixture for the icing.

3. Stir in half the walnuts, snapping them in half as you drop them into the bowl. Spoon into the tin, level the top and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly. Cool.

4. To make the icing, beat the butter until soft and then beat in 200g icing sugar followed by the remaining coffee mixture, little by little. Stop when you have a depth of colour and flavour that you like. If the icing looks a little soft, beat in extra icing sugar.

5. Cut the cake into 3 slices horizontally and then sandwich the layers together with some of the icing, you need a reasonably thick layer. Ice the top of the cake with the rest of the icing and decorate with the rest of the walnuts.

Amendments.
I upped the 125g butter, flour and sugar to 200g.
I then split into three 18cm pans, so that I could assemble more easily.

I smashed up the walnuts in the cake - they were there, but just not in big bites.
I kept the ones for decoration as halves of course.

I added the coffee to the cake as recommended, but added an extra teaspoon to the icing. I wanted a good coffee taste.

The cake was a little crumbly.
But easily held together with icing.
It's an impressive cake while still looking home-baked, so I didn't worry too much about appearance.

Having thought this through, I understand that the above may be inaccessible to the majority of American readers.

I found this online - Brie Barton's blog on a wing and a prayer
She references the Hummingbird Bakery, of whom I am also a fan.
So this recipe is different, untested by me, but will probably be easier to follow.

2 tbsp instant coffee granules (espresso powder makes a great rich taste!)
450 g (2 cups) unsalted butter at room temperature
450 g (2 1/4 cups) caster sugar (white sugar)
6 large eggs
450 g (3 1/2 cups) plain flour (all-purpose or cake flour)
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup of walnuts crumbled, plus half walnuts to decorate (optional)

1 quantity frosting

250 g (2 1/4 cups) icing sugar, sifted
80 g (5 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature
25 ml (2 tbsp) heavy cream
a few drops of vanilla extract
1 tbsp instant espresso mixed with 2 tbsp boiling water


25 cm ring mould (known as a bundt pan in north america)

to make cake:

to make 'coffee essence' put instant coffee and 170 ml (3/4 cup) of water in a small sauce pan, bring to a boil and reduce by half. set aside to cool completely.

preheat oven to 170 C (325 F)

beat together butter, sugar and coffee essence. add eggs one by one, mixing well and scraping the bowl down as you go. beat in flour, baking powder and cocoa powder, mix until batter is light and fluffy. fold in crumbled walnuts.

pour mixture into prepared mould and even with spatula. bake for 40 minutes in preheated oven or until the sponge feels firm to the touch. (do not open oven door during early cooking or you will collapse the the cake). cool slightly in mould before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

to make frosting:

beat icing sugar and butter until mixture comes together. in a small bowl combine cream, vanilla and instant espresso. add wet ingredients to sugar and beat until light and fluffy (5 minutes).

cover top of cooled cake with frosting, decorate with walnut halves

We call ring moulds a tube pan. A bundt pan here has shapes formed into it. A ring mold is something that you use for Jello. There is always room for Jello. Actually a ring mold would be used for fancy jello with fruit in it, and some sort of whipped topping or frothy parfait would get spooned in the middle. Parfait is extra-fancy frothy Jello, usually with some regular Jello pieces in it of the same or complimentary flavor.

OK that's pretty much exactly how I make coffee cake/any sponge, except I weigh the eggs then use the same weight of the other ingredients. And I don't bother with baking powder/whatever, i just use self-rising/raising flour. And I beat in the eggs then fold in the flour.

You know how I make my cakes? I go to Kroger and buy them.
very sluttish of me, I know. All you Martha's put me to shame.
Now Bruce will never love me!

He will if you show him your norks.

:) hope!

For him? Or for you?

For me!

:lol: You ladies cheer me up. I got 4 hours sleep tops and have to drive to Ohio today. And I haven't even started packing. I'm grumpy. I needed that smirk/almost giggle. Norks.

There's no shame in buying cakes. :) Or having them brought home from the bakery for free by your son who happens to be on a close shift on a saturday.

Usually it means there'll also be pies and sausage rolls for the freezer. Vanilla slices (my personal fav), hedgehog slices, cherry ripe slices, apple charlottes, caramel slices. Pretty much anything they sell in a bakery, you will find on my kitchen bench by about 4.30pm this arvy, and the only effort it will have taken me is to go pick the big brat up from work. :)

Thanks, Sundae!

I agree with you, Ali. There is no shame in buying baked goods. I buy them all the time. Just that sometimes what you make at home (if you have the time) tastes better and cheaper too.

Hi there, BigV!!! :D How are you doing?

I have no snobbery about bought cakes I promise.
But it's great to enjoy making them, and have them appreciated in the staffroom.

If I bought them a cake every Monday, I would be seen as a toadying creep.
Making them however is acceptable :)

Talking about buying things being cheaper.

I have been thinking about going into the cookie making business, but when I sat down and actually worked out how much each cookie costs me to make, I started to realise that it would actually be cheaper to just buy cookies instead of making them.

The choc chip ones I make are pretty special and they have lots of choc chips and nuts etc, but still, at over $1/pc, that's going to make it hard to get buyers if I want to add a profit margin in there somewhere.

I'm still thinking on it. Sourcing bulk ingredients to cut costs etc, but the idea has hit a stumble right from the start.

People have suggested I sell my cakes. But exactly as you say, Ali, I would have to price myself out of the market in order to make a profit.

In large cities there are gorgeous little chi-chi shops selling extravagent cupcakes, but they have committed on a large scale. I don't have the nerve or the drive, and Aylesbury is more of a Greggs Bakery location.

Mmmm Greggs.


Greggs bakery do the nicest Manchester tart...

Their hot food isn't hot enough.
I'm sure it's to do with sue-ability, but if I buy a cup of coup and a sausage roll I do not want them tepid and lukewarm.

They do nice bread & butter pudding though.

I miss Page's, Jacksons' and Geo Ort's - the independents I grew up with.

I thought Dana was the Manchester tart?!

;)

FTFY ;)

Amendment to my post above.
I do not foment a coup when I make a purchase from Greggs.
I simply buy a cup of soup.

I felt that needed clearing up.

Cake made, but will be assembled tomorrow.
Sounds complicated, but it's not really. I just wanted to give it a fresh cream filling. Mum says fresh whipped cream only lasts a few hours before it goes runny. I'm not sure this is correct. But I am not prepared to gamble against the knowledge of 67 years to my 39.

So I'll whip the cream tomorrow, then frost it. And decorate with Cadbury's Mini Eggs. If there are any left. MUM!!!!
(S'okay, have a big pack of Cadbury's Buttons bought on sale because they're in Christmas branding).

Large, high end cookies go for a couple of dollars apiece here.

If they're that good, people will buy them.

Don't know about kitchen industry in Oz, but over here it's very difficult to maintain the food safety standards in a family kitchen. You really need a commercial kitchen.

Cake-mix cake went down very well at school.
Wish I could have taken you a photo (sob, sob - okay, labouring the point now).

Whipped cream inside, glossy icing on top - it looked teh yummeh.
I had enough Mini-Eggs and some to spare.
I was complimented on how light and moist it was.
A polite slice was left until lunchtime. People do often feel bad about taking the last slice.

I was particularly pleased as there were some shop bought goodies left over from the graduates leaving on Friday, so no-one was desperate for sweet treats.

May Fayre will probably be the next outing for me and (my) cakes.

why don't you make two identical cakes, and let one be sliced and served as you're doing now, and have the other on display for a fair price. Say on a card, if you like the slice, you can have the whole cake for $X. This will help me make more cakes. You have a customer/fan base captive at the school and maybe you can get your avocation subsidized.

:eek:
That would be considered so rude.

When Mrs G asked for a contribution for the eggs she routinely brought into school - after a fox attack she wanted her fence electrified - people stopped taking them. The embarrassment was palpable.

She has her fence now, and there is no request for a donation, but people are still hesitant about taking them. They saw them as surplus before, nature's bounty. Now they are a commodity.

I think this is a very British attitude. Entrepreneurs here have to genuinely not care about people's opinions and forge ahead. Or care more about their ambitions than what colleagues think. Good for them - they succeed and the country needs them. But although I admire their attitude I can't emulate it. Not for the small amount of money I would make.

I certainly intended no offense, and I apologize if I did offend you.

I suggested it only as an idea for consideration as a part of a business plan.

I dont think Sundae was offended V.

Oh goodness, no.
I was merely explaining the reaction I would genuinely expect here.

Not offended at all and in another place and for another person it would be great advice.

I would give some thought to how much you might charge to make a particular cake, in case somebody asks you for one ... we had that happen recently at a meeting. A fellow brought in these scrumptious lemon cupcakes his wife made, and before the end of the meeting someone had booked her to make a cake for an upcoming celebration.

If that happened I would cost it out.
They'd probably be surprised though. Supermarkets make them much cheaper (of course).

I heard Limey talk to a jewellery maker on Arran about why she will not take commissions.
She will give gifts, but she cannot factor in her time, the wool and the expertise and still reach a reasonable price. She is far more talented at what she does than I am, but she does it for the same reason. She enjoys it, she can afford it, and her life is more fun because of it.

Of course I am going to flatter her unashamedly for a while because I expect her to make a complete layette for twin boys.















(that is very much a joke - although I expect a set when I get up the stick of course)

:D
I'm open to trades on the knit/cake front
:yum:

This is what the cake I made this afternoon should look like.
I don't think my version will bear close scrutiny.
Something weird happened with the vanilla and the caramel layers, they cooked at the outside but not in the middle (oven too hot?) so they were a bit shrunken and came away from the tin at the sides.

I was also a little haphazard in the splitting of the batter, which can't have helped.

Still, I'll take a pic of it iced and sliced.
And no, I am not making it again, unless I am begged on bended knee.
The caramel in between the laters is uber-sweet and I can't believe anyone will really enjoy it. I thought carrot cake was a faff, but at least I could eat a slice of it.

And from beginning to end it took 4 hours.
Okay most of that was baking and cooling as opposed to work, but only have 2 sandwich tins of the right size meant a lot of waiting around. And having Diz creaking at me from outside the kitchen.