Baking Days

Yesterday it rained and it didn’t stop. Today it’s still bucketing down, and the forecast isn’t looking good for the rest of the week. So it looks like we’ll get to do a lot of baking over the next few days, rainy days are baking days after all!

I asked Ross if he could bake any kind of cake today what would it be? His answer was a chocolate cake with toffee in the middle and icing on top. That would probably be my answer too if I was eight.

So we gathered all of the ingredients and got started.

After we’d mixed the cake batter, and the cake was in the oven, we started on the toffee sauce.

When the chocolate cake was baked and had cooled down, we poured the sweet gooey toffee into the middle… Mmmm. Then it was time to decorate. With chocolate buttercream icing and chocolate buttons of course. Ross likes chocolate, can you guess?!

Now for the best bit…

Here’s the recipe:

CHOCOLATE CAKE (Serves 8)

8oz (220g) butter, at room temperature

8oz (220g) caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

8oz (220g) self-raising flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 170°C.

Beat the butter and the sugar together in a cake mixer or with a spoon.

Add the eggs slowly. Followed by the vanilla extract. Mix until combined.

Finally add the sifted flour, baking power and cocoa powder until just mixed through, do not over beat.

If the mixture doesn’t easily drop off a wooden spoon when tapped on the side of the bowl, then add 1 - 2 tablespoons of warm milk and mix again.

Divide the mixture between two tins lined with greaseproof paper. Bake on the centre shelf of oven preheated to 170°C for 30 minutes. When cooked leave to cool before decorating.

TOFFEE SAUCE (Makes 700ml)

275g golden syrup

275g light brown sugar

100g butter

225ml cream

½ tsp vanilla extract

Put all the ingredients into a saucepan on a high heat and boil for 4 minutes until they are combined.

Remove to a jug to cool.

Serve with anything you want to pour delicious toffee sauce onto!

This toffee sauce keeps for weeks when stored in the fridge.

Source: Rachel’s Food for Living, Rachel Allen

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM ICING

100g butter, room temperature

200g icing sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp cream or milk

Put the soft butter into a bowl. Sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder to ensure there are no lumps in your icing. Add the cream to loosen to an easily spreadable consistency.

Et voila, done!