Etsy List: Get your bake on!

Another year, another series of the Great British Bake Off. We never get fed up of following it – we’re hooked! We’ve already got a favourite baker and decided on the one we think will win.

Mel & Sue are a great double act and there’s such a chemistry between Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood.

We think the people who enter the competition are very brave. The heat, the pressure and the high standards and withering looks of the judges. Not to mention the ultra-critical public – no thank you!

Get your bake on!
Curated by H is for Home

Gimme Five! Cake domes

I love baking and make a cake about once a week. With it being just two of us (Fudge isn’t included when it comes to cake!), having just a slice each each day, a normal cake lasts us at least 4 days. We need an attractive cake dome to keep it in. What I’m after is a glass or pottery plate with a glass dome so you can see the cake through it. Here are the prettiest ones I found on the internet…

Orla Kiely multi stem cake dome, cream: £85, John Lewis
Black Toast glass comport dome: £45.50, Emma Bridgewater
LSA Vienna glass plate and dome: £64, Selfridges
Anchor Hocking Monaco cake set & ribbed dome: £26.99, Amazon
Sweetly Does it traditional 25cm glass dome cake stand: £30, House of Fraser

Cakes & Bakes: Pear and ginger cake

Temperatures have fallen this week and the local sycamore trees are getting the tell-tale tar spots on their leaves. Two clues to the onset of autumn. Autumn makes us crave more warming, hearty foods – porridge for breakfast, shepherd’s pie for dinner. This week’s Cakes & Bakes item falls into this category. It’s Rose Prince‘s pear and ginger cake taken from a recent issue of the Telegraph Magazine.

Pear and ginger cake

Those who know Rose Prince's cake-making will be accustomed to the boiling method that she uses for fruit and spice cakes – it ensures an edge with a lovely chewiness and a soggy inner crumb. Eat this cake with mature cheddar cheese, after a long Sunday lunch.You will need a 20cm square cake tin with a loose base, or a similar 25cm round tin. Prepare the tin by buttering it well, then lining with baking parchment and buttering it again – generously.

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Ingredients

2 tbsp demerara sugar
2-3 pears depending on your pan, peeled, cored & halved
180 g unsalted butter
180 g soft brown sugar
90 g golden syrup
90 g black treacle
2 level tsps ground ginger
3 eggs beaten
270 g ground almonds
90 g plain flour
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170ºC/340ºF/Gas mark 3½
Sprinkle the demerara sugar evenly over the base of the cake tin, then place the pears, core facing down, in the tin. Set to one side while you make the batter
Put the butter, sugar and both the syrups into a large saucepan together with two tablespoons of water and bring the mixture to the boil. Boil over a medium heat for 3 minutes then remove the pan from the heat and set it aside to cool for 10-15 minutes
Mix in the ground ginger, then the beaten egg, and beat well
Stir in the ground almonds
Sift in the flour together with the bicarbonate of soda
Mix everything together well, then immediately spoon the mixture into the cake tin over the pear halves, without disturbing their arrangement if possible
Bake for 50-70 minutes, until the cake feels firm when pressed
Turn the heat down to 160ºC/320ºF/gas mark 3 if the surface or edges begin to look too dark
Allow to cool, then turn out on to a board or flat plate/platter
Serve cut into thick slices

Cakes & Bakes: Lemon & polenta berry squares

This week, I attempted a cake (or more rightly, a bake) that I’d not done before – lemon & polenta berry squares.

It’s taken from 1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats. It turned out really well, the berries kept it lovely and moist and the polenta gave it a bit of a crunch.

Here’s the recipe:

Lemon & polenta berry squares

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Cook Time 45

Total Time 45

Ingredients

175 g/6oz butter plus extra for greasing
175 g/6oz caster sugar
3 large eggs lightly beaten
100 g/3½oz ground almonds
150 g/5½oz polenta
2 tsp baking powder
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice
300 g/10½oz frozen small berry fruits such as cranberries raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants (I used a mixture of bluberries and strawberries sliced in half)
icing sugar to decorate

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Grease a 23cm/9inch shallow square cake tin and line base with baking paper
Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together until light & fluffy, then gradually beat the eggs into the mixture until smooth
Add the ground almonds, polenta, baking powder, lemon rind and juice and stir together until well mixed. Stir in the fruit of your choice
Spoon the mixture into the tin and spread out evenly
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely
Sift icing sugar lightly over to decorate and cut into squares

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: cakes

Etsy List: Get your bake on!

Gimme Five! Cake domes

Cakes & Bakes: Pear and ginger cake

Pear and ginger cake

Ingredients

Instructions

Cakes & Bakes: Lemon & polenta berry squares

Lemon & polenta berry squares

Ingredients

Instructions