Sunday 4 March 2012

Spring Victoria Sponge Cake (and a few other bits n bobs)

Now that the decision has been made to postpone the purchase of new cooker in favour of a holiday I've been experimenting with my knackered old oven, trying to adjust times and temperatures for baking purposes....sometimes it feels like everything just gets chucked in at Gas 4 for an unspecified amount of time, with fingers and toes crossed that it comes out properly cooked...  so I put this to the test with a few bakes.

Victoria sponge layer cake, fresh cream and lemon curd (wee butterfly sponges as well)


Soured cream and cherry sponge cake - recipe below

Raspberry macarons


So far, so good, all were delicious. although these macarons were a second attempt...the first ones fell victim to my over zealous approach to egg white whisking....not pretty.  These are far from perfect but I was pleased with my beginners effort.

Here a few pics from the rest of my foodie efforts:

Brunch!  Scrambled eggs with serrano ham


Tom Yum Soup with Prawns




Pan fried mackerel with homemade horseradish cream



Mozzarella, basil and parma ham tart


Thai chilli beef with spicy spring onion and mushroom noodles
The soured cream and cherry cake was a particular triumph and is the easiest wee cake to make...
 
You will need:
 
225g self raising flour
175g of caster sugar
175g soft butter
1tsp baking powder
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g soft fruit - blueberries. raspberries etc  I used a Lidls jar of cherries in syrup - what a bargain...
4/5 tbsp soured cream
 
Preheat oven to gas 4 or equivalent.  Line the bottom of a 20cm tin with parchment.
 
Either by hand (if you are strong) or with a mixer beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.  Add half the flour, the baking powder and two of the eggs...beat again.  Add the rest of the flour, the vanilla and the last egg and beat until smooth.  Fold in the soured cream with a large metal spoon until completely incorporated.  Fold in the fruit and spoon into the tin.  Bake for 50 mins or so until the top is golden and springy and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
 
Leave to cool in the tin, it will likely sink a little, thats okay.  I didn't ice mine but I guess you could...I just munched it slightly warm with a dollop of creme fraiche....yum yum yum!