Birthday Cakes - Part 3 - Rose and pistachio sandwich cake

This rose and pistachio sandwich is a simple elegant cake, not crying out for attention but effortlessly pretty. Very fitting for Carly's birthday cake! Pistachio and rosewater is a cake flavour combination I’ve been wanting to try out for a while. But, although I’m a big fan of rosewater I'm also aware that there are many who aren’t and so I was a bit apprehensive about how it would turn out, hoping I’d get the balance of rosewater right; not overpowering, but still present in a pleasant sort of way. If you are not a fan of rosewater, I would recommend reducing the quantity to about 1 tbsp in the cake and then it will be almost non existent.

INGREDIENTS:

Cake:
225g unsalted butter, cubed and softened, plus extra to grease
225g white caste sugar
3 tbsp rose water
4 eggs, beaten
225g self-raising flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Pistachio Brittle:
100g golden caster sugar
65g chopped pistachios

Buttercream Filling:
80g soften butter
115g icing sugar

METHOD:

· Preheat oven to 180C/gas 4. Grease and line the bases of 2 round 20cm sandwich tins.
· Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until pale and fluffy. Mix in the rose water.
· Gradually mix the beaten eggs into the creamed mixture. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt with a large metal spoon until just incorporated.
· Evenly divide the cake mixture between the 2 cake tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, until golden and cooked through.
· Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. In the meantime you can make the filling.
 · Gently melt the sugar in a nonstick pan over a medium heat, without stirring. When the sugar is a golden caramel, sprinkle in the chopped pistachios and quickly pour into a lined baking tin. Leave to cool. Bash the pistachio brittle so you have a mix of big chunks and finer bits.
 · Cream the softened butter and sifted icing sugar with an electric mixer or spatula until you have a smooth, creamy butter cream. Add a splash of rose water and beat for a further minute. Taste and add more if needed; the strength of rose water varies a lot.
 · Place one cake on a board, gently spread with the rose buttercream and sprinkle over the pistachio brittle. Top with the second cake and dust with icing sugar.

Biting into this cake, with it’s hint of fragrant rosewater and crushed pistachio nuts, I really did feel like I was having afternoon tea in a garden of roses!

Charlotte x

Birthday Cakes - Part 2 - Sticky stem ginger cake with lemon icing

I recently made this cake for my Gran’s birthday; a huge lover of ginger cake. In the past I have always ended up with ginger cakes tuning out slightly on the dry side but with this cake, wow, it was so moist and tasty - it’s definitely a winner!

The recipe is listed on BBC Good Food, here.

I mostly followed the recipe spot on except I used semi skimmed milk instead of whole. I also reduced the amount of treacle used and substituted with syrup from the stem ginger instead. The recipe states to grate the drained stem ginger but I just chopped this and added a little extra. I was worried by how wet the combined mixture is and suspected it would leak out of my loose bottom tin, as comments left on the site also mentioned this, so do make sure you have a good tin that doesn’t leak - I placed a tray under my cake tin to catch the few drips and will look to buy a better cake tin soon.

I iced the following morning after baking and the lemon was such a nice contrast to the ginger, it did not last the day! Both my Gran and husband, who is not a keen ginger cake lover, loved this!

Catherine x

Birthday Cakes - Part 1 - Lemon, lime and white chocolate mud cake

For my mum's birthday this year, I was keen to find a lemon cake which is her favourite but with a twist. The Women's Institute of Australia's lemon, lime and white chocolate mud cake certainly provided that - Link here.

The method itself was a little unusual in that you had to melt in a pan, the butter, sugar, white chocolate and lemon and lime rind. I would definitely advise good quality white chocolate here and to stir regularly to avoid the mixture splitting. To cool it down so it could be mixed with the eggs and flour in good time I cooled the mixture in a larger bowl of cold water. The cake itself was a triumph, moist, sticky and delicious. I used smaller tins than recommended cutting each half to make a four layer cake.

Buttercream filling wasn't needed in the original recipe but I just made a simple buttercream using butter and icing sugar and added some of the passion fruit syrup that Cat and I discovered at the recent food festival. I followed the white chocolate and coconut ganache which made a delicious but sickly topping. I could only get hold of solid coconut cream which wasn't easy to work with. I would recommend using the liquid version if possible. To change the texture I added dedicated coconut which I think added to the presentation.

Overall I was very pleased with the result and a great variation of a lemon sponge!

Carly x