Cakes part 2 ... the Recipes

Orange Muesli Cake

Use the Victoria sponge recipe and add the grated rind and juice of an orange and up to 3 oz or 75g of muesli for each 4 oz of marg etc. I like with a lot of muesli and it makes a pleasantly moist but dense cake. And of course, it is very good for you - all that fibre!

Fig & Marzipan Cake (2 x 2 lb loaf tins)

Chop the figs and either place in base of tin or put in a layer in the middle of the cake mixture. Usual cake recipe with the marzipan mixed in. Bake 150°C / gas mark 3 as this burns with having the extra sugar from the marzipan.

Chocolate & Orange Marble Cake (2 x 2 lb loaf tins)

Make the usual recipe and split the mixture into two parts. Add orange rind to one and sift the cocoa over the other mixing in with a little liquid. Then comes the fun part - spoon alternating blobs into your tin and then take a knife or skewer and squiggle the colours together. Bake at 180°C / gas mark 4 and just wait and see how spectacular it looks when you cut it!

Double Chocolate and Cherry Cake (2 x 2 lb loaf tins)

Make usual recipe blending the cocoa in with the fat and sugar. Add everything else and bake 170°C / gas mark 3 and a bit. This has to be one of my personal favourites.

Cherry & Marzipan Cake aka Smiley Cake (thanks to BBC Food)

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 160C / Gas 3 / fan oven 140C
  2. Grease a deep 8in tin and line base and sides with greaseproof paper
  3. Put butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy, 2-3 minutes. Pour in the eggs a little at a time and beat well after each addition. Mix in the flour one third at a time.
  4. Fold in the cherries, ground almonds and almond extract until mixed evenly.
  5. Spoon half the mixture into the tin. Roll out the marzipan to fit and lay on top of the mixture. Cover with remaining mixture. Level and cover with almonds.
  6. Bake in the oven for 1.5 hours, covering with foil after 1 hour if it shows signs of burning. The cake is ready when it shrinks away from the side of the tin and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
  7. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and leave to cool completely.

I have made this with and without the ground almonds. It keeps better and is richer with them, but perfectly acceptable without. To make this into smiley cake you obviously have to bake it in a loaf tin. I double the recipe and use two 3 lb tins which I got very cheap in IKEA. Adapt to suit whatever tins you have.

Date and Ginger Loaf (thanks to BBC Food)

Method:

  1. Break up the dates into a large bowl. Sprinkle with bicarbonate of soda and pour over boiling water. Leave to soak for about half an hour.
  2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C / 350F / Gas 4 / fan oven 150C. Line the base of a deep 9in square tin with greaseproof paper. Put the dates and soaking liquid in a food processor or blender and process to a rough pulp.
  3. Cream margarine and sugar together. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the flour and dried ginger. Stir in the date puree and glace ginger. Mix well and pour into tin.
  4. Bake for 1 hour 20 mins - covering with paper half way through cooking - until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out to cool.

A word of warning here - put a cloth over your processing when blitzing the date mix - it explodes! Again I make these in two 3 lb loaf tins. By far the best version I made was by adding 150g of Julian Graves diced ginger in syrup. It sank, but was just fantastic - worth the shame!

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