Banoffee Pie (Wheat Free)

There are a few things in this life that are as good as a classic dessert, like this one: banoffee pie!

Banoffee Pie (originally spelled 'banoffi') was invented by Nigel Mackenzie and Ian Dowding in the early 70s in their resaturant The Hungry Monk, East Sussex, England. Originally it was made with a pastry shell, but over the years a cheesecake style biscuit base has become more popular.

I have never actually, despite it being a classic, made a banoffee pie. I've always though of using it as an element of a dessert mashup, like a banoffee cheesecake or banoffee millionaire's shortbread, but have never got around to making an actual straight-up pie. I was asked to make one for my companion's sister's birthday, and it served as a great excuse to give it a go.

The first one I made was an alright first attempt, but the biscuit base was too thin, and the toffee too chewy; also, the bananas sweated under the warm toffee (I had put them on the bottom) and make the dessert awfully runny. It tasted okay, but the presentation lost it a good few marks in my eyes.

I thought I'd make another one, because Pentecost Sunday was just around the corner, and it is also one of my eldest brother's favourite desserts. Take two was infinitely more successful, with creamier toffee and a thicker biscuit.

I used bought biscuits (a mixture of digestives and gingernuts), and you could too, but if you can't get wheat free biscuits, this recipe includes a recipe for making biscuits from scratch for the base.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts
☑ Eggs

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:
Makes one 8 inch (20 centimetre) round pie:

For the base:

• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) light brown sugar
• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) butter, at room temperature
• 5 ounces (140 grammes) 
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) ground cinnamon

Alternatively, you could use 14 ounces (400 grammes) of shop bought biscuits: digestives and gingernuts work best

• 5½ ounces (150 grammes) butter, at room temperature, to mix with the crushed biscuits

For the toffee layer:

• 7 ounces (200 grammes) evaporated milk
• 7 ounces (200 grammes) soft light brown sugar
• 2½ ounces (60 grammes) butter
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt

For the topping:

• 4 small bananas, not too ripe but not green
• 6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) whipping cream
• Optional: 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) icing sugar
• Cocoa powder, grated or shaved chocolate, for decoration

METHOD

First, prepare the biscuit crumbs for the base,

• If you have a blender, pulse the oats and flour together until it has become evenly blended. If you don't, this part isn't necessary.
• In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together with your hands, rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients, until you have a crumbly mixture. Spread the crumbles and clusters onto a dry baking tray and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, tossing the mixture three times throughout baking.
• Once cooked, allow to cool on the tray completely. 

Then, prepare the biscuit base,

• Put into a plastic bag and smash into crumbs, as you would with normal biscuits. You could also put the crumbs into a blender to make very fine crumbs for the base.
• Put the crumbs into a bowl and add the room temperature butter. Mash the butter into the crumbs by hand. I prefer doing it this way instead of using melted butter because the resulting mixture is more mouldable, like play dough.
• Press the mixture into the bottom and sides of a round sandwich tin, lined with clingfilm. Chill for about 30 minutes.

While the biscuit base is chilling, prepare the toffee,

• Mix all the ingredients, except for the vanilla essence, in a medium saucepan. Cook gently over a low heat until the butter and sugar have melted together fully, then bring to the boil. Boil gently for about 5 minutes, until the mixture thickens into a creamy saucy consistency, and darkens slightly.
• Allow to cool in the pan to room temperature, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin forming.

Now, assemble the masterpiece!

• Pour the toffee into the biscuit shell, and spread out evenly with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
• Thinly slice the bananas into discs and place them on top of the toffee to fill the rest of biscuit base. Cut and layer one banana at a time, because you may not need all four.
• Whip the cream (with the icing sugar and vanilla essence, if using) to soft peaks and spread on top the bananas, swirling in a decorative way. Alternately, you can put the cream into a piping bag and pipe it on top of the pie to decorate.
• Decorate with a dusting of cocoa, or chocolate, either by grating or shaving curls onto the cream.
  
  
  

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties

THIS TIME IN 2013: Orange Bourbon Creams (Wheat Free)

Super Moist and Rich Chocolate Cake

There are very few things in this life as delicious as chocolate cake, especially when that chocolate cake is super dark, dense, moist, and rich. This weekend I researched a lot to find recipes for a lovely moist chocolate cake, and adapted my already existing one-step sponge recipe to something a little more decadent.

A lot of American style dense chocolate cakes are old fashioned hand-me-down recipes, and as such rely on the combination of baking soda and buttermilk to rise them. Baking powder is about four times more powerful than baking powder, but takes longer to act, which makes it a more suitable for wet cakes mixtures that need a long time in the oven. Cakes containing baking soda rise slowly but consistently, rarely having big domes.

Of course, baking soda alone doesn't leaven anything, it needs an acid to react off: enter sour dairy products! Traditionally, buttermilk is used as the other reactive ingredient, as it gives extra moistness and richness while providing acidity. I personally have always avoided using buttermilk recipes, as I don't want unused buttermilk hanging around in my fridge getting sourer and sourer, so I use yoghurt.

Yoghurt is also a sour dairy product which is much thicker than buttermilk, so I water it down. It means that I can use an ingredient which I already have in my fridge without worrying about having unused ingredients going wrong in my fridge.

Now. This is some seriously rich chocolate cake going on here: it used quarter of a pound (115 grammes) of good dark chocolate and a good dose of dairy. This is serious break-up or PMS medicine.I slather it in dark chocolate fudge icing, and I've included the recipe, You can use your favourite icing though, too.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts
☑ Eggs

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS
For one standard loaf (1 lb; 455 grammes), or one 7 inch (18 centimetre) round cake,

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cornflour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch of salt
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) brown sugar
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) dark chocolate, melted
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil
• 2 medium eggs
• 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) natural or greek yoghurt
• 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the icing:

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) milk chocolate, broken into pieces
• Alternatively, you can use all dark or all milk chocolate, or even white if you like
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, at room temperature, cut into cubes
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) milk

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 170ºC (325ºF/Gas Mk. 3), and grease your chosen tin.
• In a jug or small mixing bowl, melt together the chocolate and oil. You can to this in the microwave on the 'Defrost' setting in one minute intervals, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, leave aside to cool.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix together the spelt flour, cornflour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, caster sugar, and brown sugar together, making sure to break up the sugar clumps. Use a spoonful of this mixture to dust your cake tin, returning the excess to the bowl.
• Beat the eggs into the chocolate and oil mixture, one at a time, and then add the yoghurt and the water. Beat until smooth and well combined.
• Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly until completely smooth.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and put in the centre of your preheated oven. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, and DO NOT open the oven before at least 45 minutes have elapsed.
• After 50 minutes of cooking, start testing. It is done when a cocktail stick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out mostly clean, maybe with one or two crumbs attached.
• Once cooked, remove from the oven and loosen the edges with a palette or table knife. Cool in the tin for 10 to 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing,

• Heat the sugar and milk in a saucepan over low heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Once dissolved, bring to the boil and cook for about a minute or so.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and chocolate, mixing thoroughly until completely melted.
• Allow to cool to a spreadable consistency, stirring once every so often to prevent crusting.
• Spread on top of the cake, or you could even split and fill the cake instead. Decorate the icing however you please.

This, like I said earlier, is serious stuff. Enjoy in moderation!

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: Coconut Custard Creams (Wheat Free)

Zingy Lemon Gâteau (Wheat Free)

Happy Monday all! This weekend was my mother's birthday, and so I made her a lovely cake, based off her favourite (which is lemon drizzle cake), which turned out to be this delicious lemon gateau!

This is a three layered lemon flavoured sponge, with a lemon curd filling, and a lemon scented white chocolate icing, and it was rich and zingy at the same time. The lemon curd filling is not made in the traditional way, but with cornflour, making it easier and a little bit more like a melted lemon Turkish Delight. Instead of making three separate cakes, as you can see, I made one big cake and cut it into three layers.

I've been getting so much use recently out of this new way of making sponge cake, and to be honest I don't know why I haven't been using it all the time. The cakes rise perfectly and have a lovely flat top with no dome, and the crumb is so delicate and light. They are a bit tricky to work with though when it comes to icing: if the icing is too thick, it will tear chunks off your cake as you're icing it. Make sure everything is at room temperature when icing. 

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Eggs
☒ Gluten
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS
Makes one deep 7 inch (18 centimetre)

For the lemon sponge cake:

• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) cornflour
• 1½ teaspoons (8 millilitres) baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 3 medium eggs
• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sunflower oil
• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) milk
• 2 to 3 teaspoons (10 to 15 millilitres) grated lemon zest
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) vanilla essence

For the lemon curd filling:

• 4 large lemons, juiced
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) grated lemon zest
• 2½ tablespoons (30 to 40 millitres) cornflour
• 1 ounces (55 grammes) butter

For the white chocolate icing:

• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) sugar
• 3½ fluid ounces (100 millilitres) milk
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter
• 7 ounces (200 grammes) white chocolate, chopped into pieces
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Yellow food colouring

To decorate,

• Block of white chocolate, for shaving

METHOD

To make the cake,

• Preheat the oven to 170ºC (325ºF/Gas Mk. 3) and grease and flour a 7 inch (18 centimetre) deep round cake tin, or you can use a silicone one which doesn't need greasing or flouring. Alternatively, prepare three sandwich tins of the same width.
• Make the sponge cake according to the method in my Fondant Fancies post, adding the lemon zest to the egg yolks.
• Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until risen, golden brown, and springy to the touch. If you're making individual sandwiches, cook for about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. 

To make the filling,

• Zest then juice the lemons, and then top up the lemon juice with water to make up 8 fluid ounces (240 millilitres) of liquid.
• In a saucepan, cook the lemon mixture, lemon zest, and sugar together over a low heat until the sugar melts. Once melted, bring to the boil and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.
• In a small cup, add the cornflour, and then take a few tablespoons of the lemon syrup from the pan and mix into the cornflour to make a slurry. Add this to the saucepan and then mix thoroughly.
• Bring this mixture to the boil, and cook until thickened and translucent, about 2 to 3 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla essence until smooth and shiny. Pour the curd into a bowl and cover with cling film, making sure the film touches the surface. Chill until completely cold.

To make the icing,

• Heat the sugar, lemon zest, and milk together in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook for about a minute or two.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, chocolate, and vanilla essence, then return to a low heat. Stir continuously until completely melted, smooth, and consistent.
• Pour the icing through a sieve into a bowl to remove the lemon zest for a smoother icing. Add enough yellow food colouring to get the shade of lemony yellow you want.
• Allow to cool and thicken, stirring occasionally, until a spreadable consistency, which should take about 3 or 4 hours.

To assemble,

• Cut the cake into three even layers, and divide the lemon curd into two, spreading half on the bottom layer and the other half on the middle layer. Allow to set for about 30 minutes.
• Using a few dollops of the icing, ice the cake with a thin crumb coat. If the icing is tearing the cake, you can melt it slightly to make it easier to spread. Allow to sit for 30 minutes.
• Ice with the remaining icing, making a back and forth pattern on top of the cake. If you like, you can shave some white chocolate curls onto the cake using a vegetable peeler.

So there you have it: rich yet light and zesty cake, ideal for the summer months. I ate two slices because I'm naughty, but it was so worth it...

THIS TIME IN 2014: No blog due to family difficulties
THIS TIME IN 2013: Experiment: Homemade Sprinkles

Peppermint Ice (Totally not a rip off of Kendal Mint Cake at all. I promise)

My companion and I were having a conversation about my sugar crafting abilities recently, and Kendal Mint Cake came up in conversation. As such, I made a a batch, that he ate promptly and reported to his sister. She also wanted some, so I obliged.

Kendal Mint Cake is a glucose sweet flavoured with peppermint oil that originates from Kendal in Cumbria, England. It is popular among climbers and mountaineers as a source of energy. It is based on a traditional recipe known as mint cake, peppermint tablet or peppermint ice. It is also a standard part of the 24-hour ration pack issued to the Irish Defence Forces.

There are a few brands of this kind of sweet, all made in Cumbria, and some are covered in chocolate or made with brown sugar. This, however, is the good auld traditional way.


INGREDIENTS

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar
• About 4 or 6 tablespoons (60 to 90 millilitres) water, for dissolving
• 1/4 teaspoon of white vinegar, lemon juice, or cream of tartar
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of natural peppermint essence, depending on how strong you want it

METHOD

• In the saucepan, add the water, sugar, and vinegar (or lemon juice or cream of tartar). Over a low heat, gently stir and dissolve all the sugar in the water until it's a clear liquid. Make sure that no little grains of sugar stick to the sides of the pan.
• When every little grain of sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and bring the syrup to a rough simmer, just about boiling. If you have a sugar thermometer, attach it to your pan now, and cook to 115ºC/240ºF. If you do not have a thermometer, you will need to do traditional cold water testing.
• After 5 minutes of cooking, you can begin to test the syrup in cold water. Take a teaspoon of the syrup and drop it into the cold water: if the syrup sets enough to pick up and roll into a little squishy ball, the syrup is read. If it's still to runny, cook for another minute or two and test again. Keep cooking and testing until the texture is right.
• Once you have got the right texture, remove the saucepan from the heat and leave to cool until the syrup forms a skin and the pan is cool enough to touch.
• Add in your peppermint essence, and then stir the mixture with a spoon quite vigorously until it turns cloudy and thickens a little. Working quickly, pour the mixture into the tin, scraping the edges of the pan as little as possible; if you don't work quickly enough, the mixture could seize up into a big, solid lump.
• Allow the mixture to cool and set up completely, about 1 or 2 hours. Take out of the tin and break into pieces.

NOTES
If you plan on making mint cake often, I would recommend buying the organic peppermint essence from the health food shop, which comes in 100ml bottles and is about €8. It will last for ages, and is made using natural essential oil of peppermint, mixed with a flavourless carrier oil. However, the peppermint essence in little bottles from the supermarket will do if you're making this recipe once off, but I prefer not to use it because it's artificial and the flavour fades over time into a nasty plastic taste.

THIS TIME IN 2014: Variations on a Theme: Lemon Curd Sponge (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2013: A Cautionary Tale on the Dangers of Novelty Cakes: The Dinnersaurus

Battenberg Birthday Cake (Wheat and Dairy Free)

As of today, my blog has 7000 views! I am super pleased, and a big thank you goes out to everyone who reads and makes use of my recipes. This is yet another thing to celebrate this weekend, as it was my companion's birthday yesterday, and also the big day out with my youth group. And celebrations need special cakes: say hello to the Battenberg Gateau!

Through a lot of surreptitious questioning and hinting, I discovered that my companion's favourite cake it Battenberg: a delicious rectangular loaf of almond flavoured sponge, arranged in a checkerboard of yellow and pink, apricot jam for gluing, and a marzipan coating, traditionally scored in a crosshatch pattern.

Now, mine was different in a few ways: a) because it is round and not a rectangular loaf, and b) because I used raspberry instead of apricot jam. It still used the traditional combination of natural and pink sponge with marzipan, but I held off on luminous yellow colouring for the marzipan.

So, let's start with the sponge itself. I made two 7 inch (18 centimeters) almond flavoured sponges in the same way I made the sponge for my Fondant Fancies; for each I used 3 medium eggs and scaling the rest of the ingredients up accordingly, and added ½ teaspoon of almond essence, and tainted one of the cakes pink with some red food colouring. I baked them each for 35 to 40 minutes at 170°C (325°F/Gas Mk.3); bigger cakes take more time on a lower setting.

This recipe makes a super light and fluffy cake, which is just like the cake found in a commercially made Battenbergs. You can, however, use which ever sponge cake recipe you like.

Once cooked, each cake was a little over 2 inches (5 centimetres) tall, and gave two 1 inch (2½ centimetre) slices, with the dome coming off the top. If you measure up from the bottom and then cut the slices, the dome will just be left behind. 

I then used the same concentric circles technique as I did for this checkerboard cake when arranging this, cutting each slice with a 4½ inch and a 2½ inch (12 centimetre and 6 centimetre) round cutter of some kind, or cut around bowls or glasses that are the same size. I used three layers in total, and as such I had a slice left over for nibbling.

I fused the concentric rings together with sieved raspberry jam, sandwiched all the three layers together with the sieved raspberry jam, and then spread jam around the outsides of the cake, too. I coated the cake with marzipan, which I rolled out to a quarter-inch (half centimetre) thickness, gently scoring the top with a crosshatch patter; I then used the excess to cut some decorative shapes.

You can buy marzipan from the shop is you like, or you can make your own, which is done by mixing equal quantities of ground almonds and icing sugar, bound with enough water to make a dough. To coat this cake, I used 3 ounces (85 grammes) each of ground almonds and icing sugar, but in hindsight, I think 4 ounces (115 grammes) of each would have made a better, thicker coating, as mine was just under quarter of an inch, as you can see in this picture.

This was really delicious, and I'm already considering making another one just for me to have at home, because the big one was demolished by the guests at our impromptu celebration for my companion's birthday.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts
☑ Dairy

CONTAINS
☒ Eggs
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS
Makes one 8 inch (20 centimetre) gateau

For the natural sponge cake:

• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) cornflour
• 1½ teaspoons (8 millilitres) baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 3 medium eggs
• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sunflower oil
• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) water
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) almond essence

For the pink sponge cake:

• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) cornflour
• 1½ teaspoons (8 millilitres) baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 3 medium eggs
• 4½ ounces (130 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) sunflower oil
• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) water
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) almond essence
• A few drops of red food colouring

For the marzipan and assembly:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) ground almonds
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) icing sugar
• About 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) of water to bind, only more if necessary
• Few drops of almond essence
• Sieved raspberry or apricot jam, for assembly

THIS TIME IN 2014: American Style Pancakes... also known as drop scones, ssh. (Wheat Free)
THIS TIME IN 2013: Cake Pops, a Maiden Voyage: Jaffa Cake Pops

Vanilla Fondant Fancies (Wheat Free; Dairy Substitute)

Happy Friday all!! As of today, I'm up to 185 likers on my Facebook page, and thank you to each and every one of those people who follow my blog and try my recipes. And as I promised, here's a nice weekend baking project for you: Fondant Fancies!

When you buy the branded fondant fancies in the shops, from a baker who makes exceedingly good cakes, they are little fluffsome squares of sugar overload. Their daintiness is their appeal, not necessarily the quality of how complex they are flavour-wise: they do exactly what they set out to do, and that is provide you with a nice sugar hit.

They sound like a simple confection. However, the skill of making 'fondant fancies', also known as petits fours glacés in their native land of France, has eluded me; glazing is a difficult art form, as is getting the right level of fluffiness in the sponge cake itself. So, I decided to experiment with my usual go-to cake recipe, as I did a few weeks ago when I found that it could be done just as nicely with a one-bowl method.

I have found from my new method of making cheesecakes, where I separate the eggs and beat the whites, produces cheesecakes that are still deliciously rich, but not so heavy, being a little bit more light with the inclusion of whipped egg whites. I applied the same thinking to this recipe, and it yielded fantastic results! I think the sponge for this batch of fancies was one of the finest cakes I have ever made.

It's probably hard to tell from the above picture, but the texture was super light and fluffy, and the crumb was delicate. However, it wasn't so light that it was a nightmare to cut, which can sometimes happen with these super-whipped sponges. I always add a little oil to super-whipped sponges anyway because it sort of helps keep them moist and keeps them a little more flexible and less brittle.

 Once I had cooked the cake, I split and filled it with some simple vanilla buttercream (in the true spirit of focusing solely on the sugary sweetness of the confection) and then cut the whole cake into small square cakes, trimming the crusty edges off the cake. Traditionally, these are glazed with a boiled sugar fondant, but that is unnecessarily complex for a home baking scenario; these are glazed with a simple glacé icing, made with icing sugar, water, and a little melted coconut oil or butter.

 Half way through the glazing process, I tinted the icing pink so I could have two different colours. If you liked,you could do what I did in my spelt doughnuts video, where I dipped a third of the dough nuts in white, then tinted the icing pink and dipped another third, then added some cocoa powder to the icing for the last third, giving my a sort of Neapolitan batch of doughnuts. It really is up to you, and you could of course change up the filling and the flavour of the cake!

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy (dairy substitutes can be found in italics)
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS
Makes eighteen 1¼ inch (3 centimetre) cakes

For the sponge cake:

• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) white spelt flour
• ½ ounce (15 grammes) cornflour
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 medium egg
• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) sunflower oil
• 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) milk, or water
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

For the filling:

• 1 ounce (30 grammes) room temperature butter, or margarine
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) icing sugar
• 2 or 3 teaspoons (10 to 15 millilitres) room temperature milk, or milk substitute, or water
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

For the pouring 'fondant icing':

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) melted butter, or coconut oil
• 2 to 4 tablespoons (30 to 60 millilitres) warm water
• Silver dragees, hundreds and thousands, glace cherries, chopped nuts, or small sweets for decorating

METHOD

First, prepare the cake:

• Preheat the oven to 170ºC (325ºF/Gas Mk. 3) and grease and flour a 4½x8 inch loaf tin, or you can use a silicone one which doesn't need greasing or flouring.
• Separate your egg, putting the yolk in a jog or small bowl, and the white into a mixing bowl. Add the oil, milk or water, and vanilla essence to the yolk and mix with a fork until fully blended.
• Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and the pinch of salt together until soft peaks form. Add the caster sugar gradually, about a tablespoon at a time, beating all the time, until the egg white is glossy and stiff.
• Take a spoonful of the egg white and mix into the egg yolk mixture until smooth. Pour the egg yolk mixture back into the white, and fold gently but thoroughly with a balloon whisk or spatula until there are no streaks left.
• Sieve the flours and baking powder into the egg mixture, folding gently but thoroughly until the flour has all dissolved.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and spread out with a spoon. Tap firmly on the work surface about two or three times to even out the surface and release any trapped air bubbles.
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until pale golden brown, risen, and springy to the touch. Run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake, then allow to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack.

Next, fill the cake:

• Make the buttercream according to the method found here. Carefully cut the cake in half horizontally, gently flipping the top off. Spread the buttercream on the bottom layer, and then sandwich the top back on. Allow to set for about 30 minutes.
• With the assistance of a ruler, trim the crusts off the cake until you have a 3¾ by 7½ inch (9.5 by 19 centimetre) oblong cake. Mark into 1¼ inch squares, 6 lines along the wide side and 3 along the short side. You will get 18 little cakes (you can nibble on the trimmed edges, if you're not worried about your waistline)

Now comes the glazing:

• To glaze, you will need a wire rack and a large roasting dish to put the rack on. This is so the icing that drips off the cakes can be collected and re-used.
• Make the icing by mixing the melted butter or oil and water into the icing sugar in a small bowl or jug to get a flowing consistency, but still thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. This might take all the water required, maybe a little more, but only add in the water a teaspoonful at a time to avoid wrecking it.
• Put three or four little cakes at a time on the rack, and pour a copious amount of icing on each one, paying particular attention to the corners and the sides. Make sure to drench them, using nearly all of the icing, because once they've finished dripping you'll be scooping up the excess icing and reusing it.
• While the icing is still wet on the top of the cakes, sprinkle on some decorations if you like. I used silver dragees for mine, but you could use anything you like.
• Once the icing has finished dripping off the cakes, gently remove the rack and scoop back into the bowl or jug. To restore the flowiness, pop into the microwave for a few seconds, or dip the bottom of the jug in a bowl of hot water and stir.
• When the first lot of cakes has set enough to move, about 5 or 10 minutes, pick them up with a palette knife or fish slice and move them to a plate or chopping board.
• Repeat with all the cakes. Half way through the process you can colour the icing to have a two tone batch of cakes, if you like.
• Once the cakes have all set enough to pick up, about 30 minutes, put each cake in its own little case. Standard fairy cake sized cases are ideal for these, not mini cases or muffin cases.

These were delicious, and quite a hit with the mother and sister 'in-law', and with basically everyone else who ate them. I was super pleased with how they turned out. I think my next batch will be a coffee flavoured one...

THIS TIME IN 2014: Minty Mint Brownies of Mintiness, with Marbled Glaze (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2013: How to Use and Abuse Royal Icing, and Wholemeal Gingerbread (Wheat Free)