Cakes and Desserts

I love making cakes but I must admit, never really felt confident enough to make birthday cakes with the fancy icing – somehow I feared I could never be able deliver those amazingly decorated cakes with the children’s favorite characters. Until I saw the birthday cake recipe at Rose Prince’s brilliant cookery book, Kitchenella. I gave it a try to her Vanilla sponge and was inspired by her Smarties studded icing. The result was impressive and the birthday boy was very happy 🙂 Indeed a love letter to your children, as Rose says.

Vanilla Sponge (from Rose Prince’s Kitchenella)

A great basic recipe, ideal for a base birthday cake or fairy cakes.

Makes enough to serve 12-14

280gr/10oz unsalted butter, softened
280gr/10oz caster sugar
5 eggs
5ml/1 teaspoon vanilla essence
280gr/10 oz self-raising flour
30ml/2 tablespoons ground almonds

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4

Prepare your cake tins – two shallow sandwich tins or a 12 hole muffin/fairy cake tin – greasing with butter and dusting with plain flour or lining with paper cases.

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy-textured (an electric beater is helpful). Beat in the eggs, one by one, each with a teaspoon of the flour, then the vanilla essence. Fold in the remaining flour with the ground almonds.

Put into the tin(s) or cake cases and bake. Shallow sandwich tins will need 30-40 minutes; loaf tins about 1 hour and 5-15 minutes; fairy cakes about 15 minutes. Test the cake near to the end of cooking time by sticking a skewer into it. If the cake feels firm and the skewer comes clean, it is done.

Sandwich the cake together with raspberry or strawberry jam, and then decorate with the icing.

Butter Icing

140gr/5oz butter, softened
280gr/10oz icing sugar
1-2tablespoons milk

Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add remaining icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk. Beat again until creamy and smooth. Beat in more milk to loosen if necessary. Spread the icing over the cake. You can add sparkles or Smarties as decoration over the top.

We Turks love pistachios. Turkey produces some of the best pistachios in the world, around the Gaziantep region at the southeast part of Turkey, and they are absolutely to die for. We also love cherries and are lucky to produce wonderfully flavored fresh cherries at home. So when I saw this recipe on Food and Travel magazine, it was irresistible to try (I slightly changed it using a little less sugar and butter). And the outcome was wonderful too; delicious brownies bursting with fabulous cherry and pistachio flavors, a real treat.

Serves 6-8
Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 35-40 minutes

300 gr/2/3pound dark chocolate (75% cocoa solids)
310gr/11oz caster sugar
230gr/8oz unsalted butter
70gr/2 1/2oz sour cherries (1 packet)
4 medium free range eggs
100gr/3 1/4oz pistachio nuts
60gr/2oz cocoa powder
90gr/3oz plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt

To serve:
Icing sugar and ice cream (vanilla would work well).

Preheat the oven to 190 C/370 F

Break up the chocolate into pieces. Cut the butter into small cubes and melt with the chocolate, either over a bain-marie or in the microwave.

While the chocolate mixture is cooling, whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence. Stir in the cooled chocolate mixture, and then sift in the cocoa powder, plain flour and bicarbonate of soda. Finally add the nuts, cherries and the pinch of salt, mix well.

Line a 10in x 8 in baking tray or brownie tin with baking parchment. Slightly grease the parchment and pour the brownie mixture evenly. Cook in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool, then slice and dust with icing sugar. You can enjoy it plain with tea or coffee or treat it as a dessert and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Afiyet Olsun!

I very much enjoy Nigel Slater’s recipes – wholesome and delicious, aiming to use the best possible produce at their peak and not doing much to it. And he has a thing for cakes like I do too. This Demerara Lemon Cake recipe is from his brilliant cookery book The Kitchen Diaries. I am a huge fan of lemon and the caramelized lemons over this cake won my heart at the first sight. The original recipe serves the cake as a dessert with a lemony syrup spiked to the top of it with a skewer, after it’s cooked. In my version, I took away the syrup addition and adopted it in a way to enjoy it as a lovely, moist cake. Indeed almond cakes keep moist for several days, so this cake is a perfect treat to bake at the weekend (or any week day!) and enjoy through the week.

Something really satisfying about baking on Sunday; delicious smells from the oven fills the air and for me, it somehow relaxes the day, brings serenity – a little slice of it with tea or coffee and you think all the jobs can be done, no rush..

Serves 8
Preparation time: 25 minutes Cooking time: 45-50 minutes

200gr/7oz unsalted butter
220gr/8oz demerara sugar
90gr/3 1/4oz plain flour
90gr/3 1/4oz ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Zest and juice of a large lemon
4 large eggs

For the topping:
1 lemon, thinly sliced
30ml/2 tablespoons demerara sugar
60ml/4 tablespoons water

Preheat oven at 160 C / 325 F

Line a loaf of baking tin with baking parchment paper and grease the paper with a little olive oil.

To make the topping, slice the lemon thinly and put it in a small saucepan with the sugar and water. Bring to the boil, and then watch closely for five minutes or so, until the water has almost evaporated and the lemon slices are sticky. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar together in a food mixer till they are light and fluffy. You can expect it to take a little longer than it would with caster sugar. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl weigh the flour and almonds and mix them with the baking powder. Add the lemon zest and the lemon juice and mix well.

Break the eggs and beat lightly with a fork, then add them to the creamed butter and sugar a little at a time. Then gently fold in the flour, almonds, the baking powder and lemon to the mixture with a large metal spoon (a wooden spoon would knock the air out).

Scoop the cake mixture into the lined tin, and then lay the reserved lemon slices on top, overlapping them down the centre of the cake. Bake for about 45-50 minutes, till risen and golden. Insert a metal skewer to see if it is ready. If it comes clean, then the cake is done; if it has mixture sticking to it, it needs a few minutes longer. Remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool.

You can enjoy the cake with some fresh fruit (raspberries, sliced mangos or ripe/poached apricots would go well) and perhaps a spoonful of double/heavy cream by the side.

Afiyet Olsun!