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Hi, I'm Helen, the owner and baker extraordinaire and this is my blog: Cakeylicious!
I have over 30 years of food and baking experience and here, I will share all of that knowledge and insight, with you.
I have always worked with Cakes, Bread and Pastry, and learned to bake watching my Nan on a Sunday morning.
I am also a bit of a food science geek so as well as some great recipes, you will get the science behind them too. Don't worry, nothing too technical!
It's all fun here, we will just learn some great stuff too.
Welcome to another quickie.
You've got your kid's friends coming over for a play after school, they're going to be hungry and grouchy. You want to make them cookies but you remember that they take time, and kid's won't wait when they're hungry and tired. You have been at work but you've only got an hour before you have to go and pick them up from school.
This is the recipe for you.
10 minutes to prep, 25-30 minutes in the oven, cooled down by the time you get back, perfect.
Every year, as the days get shorter, I feel the need to make an apple cake. I find that apples are best eaten wrapped in either pastry or cake!
I love Apple Pie, Apple Crumble, Apple Cake, Apple Auffins (probably in that order too!), so you can imagine my delight at discovering that you can have cake and crumble at the same time.
This wonderful cake is packed full of your favourite apples, cinnamon and topped with a crumble topping.
It's best when it's served warm with custard (my personal favourite), icecream or cream, or you can simply eat it as it is. Eat it cold the next day and it will be a great accompaniment to your afternoon cuppa.
The Apples. There's a lot of advice out there when it comes to which one to use. I use eating apples, although some will scoff at the idea. It's currently apple season in the UK so I would choose a Cox's apple as it's sharp but not too sharp (it's an eating apple after all), but you can use the variety you prefer.
Make the crumble ahead of time. Use room temperature butter as it's easier on your fingers when rubbing it into the flour. It's going into the fridge anyway. Store the crumble in the fridge in a ball. This is to allow the butter to firm up again. Then you can break it up into bigger clumps than you would do for a crumble. The idea is to have bigger pieces of crumble that have been allowed to go extra crispy on the top.
Peel & chop the apples. The joy of this cake is that you can have big chunks of apple, if that's what you are in the mood for, or slices of your favourite apple. If you like the peel left on, then do that - it can make a nice contrast in the cake. The easiest way to core the apples, without an apple corer, is to cut them into 4 and then cut around the core with a small knife. Watch your fingers though!
It's an apple lovers dream cake. Every bite is filled with chunks of cinnamon dusted apple.
It's cinnamon & brown sugar crumble is to die for! I love my crumble to be crispy and having big chunks of it on top of this cake is another level of bliss you have to experience for yourself.
Cake! This should probably be first for me, after all I am addicted to the stuff. I usually use baking margarine when I bake cakes but some of them just have to be made with butter - this is one of them. The use of light brown sugar adds a lovely caramel twist to the whole cake.
It's easy. When you read through the recipe for the first time you probably think it's a bit of a faff, but honestly, when you start it's not, it's just so easy.
Make the Cinnamon Crumble topping. This part is simply rubbing butter into flour, sugar & cinnamon.
Prepare the apples. Peel, core and then cut the apple into the size of chunk you want. If you are leaving the peel on then just core and chop or slice. Toss the apples in cinnamon and a couple of tbsp of Demerara sugar, and leave to one side.
Make the batter. This can be done using the all-in-one method so it's super quick and easy. Either use an electric whisk or a free standing mixer.
Assemble and bake. This cake is made up of 5 layers - Cake:Apples:Cake:Apples:Crumble, baked in a deep 8" round cake tin.
Spread the base with half of the cake batter. Add half of the apple chunks or slices (try to distribute them evenly over the batter). Top with the rest of the cake batter. Add the remaining apples. Generously cover the whole thing with the crumble topping.
Bake.
Store the cake in an airtight container for upto 1 week (if you can resist it for that long!)
The most important thing to get from this recipe is to just enjoy it.
I'm just dropping in with this quickie of a recipe. I made them at the weekend and just had to share it with you.
These biscuits are a cross between a Vienesse whirl (without the piping!) and a melt in the mouth Shortbread.
Traditionally made using Raspberry jam, I substituted this with Strawberry, but you can use whatever flavour you prefer. I also had to try them with chocolate spread too. You have your favourites so use that one.
Just be careful when adding the jam that you don't put too much in as it will bubble out everywhere.
And a safety warning: Don't eat them straight from the oven, that jam is moulten hot!
Enough rambling from me, here's the recipe:
I've given you instructions to make these by hand but they can easily be made using a free standing mixer, just mix slowly, don't beat the dough within a inch of it's life!
