Chocolate Marble Cake

I was craving for a small slice of chocolate cake but if I went to a cafe I know jolly well it would be more than just a slice of cake. Instead I walked to the supermarket to get the ingredients I needed to bake a cake and decided to share it with Daniel’s colleagues. Everyone’s happy this way!

By now you’ll know that I’m a big fan of BBC Good Food recipes. That’s where I got the Chocolate Marble Cake recipe from. With 222 reviews and so close to obtaining a perfect 5-stars rating, I’ll only have myself to blame if it didn’t work out.


The cake was moist and fluffy. It also had just the right amount of sweetness so it didn’t hurt the teeth. As suggested by the recipe, I alternated the plain and chocolate batter before giving it a swirl at the end.

Before I cut into the first slice, I was filled with excitement! I wondered if my marble cake would look good. I’m always envious of bakers who are confident of the cakes they bake for others. They’ll never have to steal a slice before serving it.

I always make sure I taste the cakes I baked before sharing with people. I don’t think I can deal with the embarrassment of treating others to an undercooked, terrible tasting cake.

As you can see, I had more chocolate batter than plain one hence the cake looked more chocolatey than having a proper marble effect. However, it was still mouth-watering! It was so delightful to have a slice to indulge in after dinner. Very heavenly!!!

Little Coffee Cakes

Happy midweek everyone! Hope you have had a smooth first half of the week and are looking forward to a great weekend wherever you are.

To kick start my weekend (I do start early, don't I), I found a really good Little Coffee Cakes recipe. These mini cakes are really moist and rich in flavour. They are incredibly delicious and I can’t promise you that you’ll stop after one little cake!

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There is no bitterness to these little cakes and they are surprisingly light too. This is the first time I've succeeded in making proper icing however I still need to work on swirling it properly so it does not taste only yummilicious but also looks fabulous!

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It does look devilish, doesn’t it? The recipe was superb. Even Daniel, who isn’t a fan of icing, finished two little coffee cakes at once! Here's the adapted recipe for these wonderful little cakes.

Ingredients

• 50g golden caster sugar
• 70g butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 70g self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp instant coffee mixed with half tbsp water

For the icing

• 100g butter, softened
• 80g icing sugar
• 1 tsp instant coffee mixed with half tbsp water
• 25g plain chocolate, melted

Instructions (Baking time 17 minutes) 

1. Heat oven to 170C. Line 18 holes in 2 bun tins with fairy cake cases. 
2. Beat the sugar with the butter until light and creamy. 
3. Beat in the eggs, one by one, adding 1 tbsp flour at the same time. Beat in the rest of the flour along with the coffee. 
4. Spoon into the cake cases and bake for 17 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.  

Instructions for Icing

1. Beat the butter until pale, then gradually beat in the icing sugar, followed by the espresso and the melted chocolate.
2. Decorate the little cakes with icing when they have cooled.

Tips

Unless we're really desperate to wake ourselves up, we don't drink espresso. That hardly happens so I don't have any at home. I didn't see the point of spending a few Euros on a bottle when the recipe calls for less than 2 tablespoons of espresso so I used oridinary coffee powder which works just fine. As with all the recipes you'll find here, I always put less sugar than what's stated in the original recipes. 

If you could resist digging into these little coffee cakes immediately, I recommend chilling them for a couple of hours before serving. The icing would have set a little more by then. Unlike some cakes which get dry after refrigerating them, these stay moist even after keeping them for two nights. 

 

Midsummer Swedish Kladdkaka Cake

Happy Midsummer everyone!

Actually I’m not sure what people say to each other on this day. Midsummer is celebrated in Europe (particularly in the Scandinavian countries) and it takes place around the same time as summer solstice. As Singapore is a tropical island located near the equator, we have pretty much quite the same number of daylight hours throughout the year. In Europe, summer solstice occurs on the day when we have the longest daylight hours.

Source: Robert Nyman’s website

Before living in Europe, it was hard to imagine that it would still be bright at 10pm in England. I thought Daniel was trying to impress me (who knows why this would be impressive?) when he told me this fact years ago. But I don’t remember him telling me about the long, dark winters. CHEATER BUG!!!

Here’s a BBC picture of the Brits mark summer solstice at Stonehenge.

 

Source: BBC News 

And since I love the summers in Germany (on days that actually feel like summer) I looked up online on how to bake Kladdkaka which is a Swedish chocolate cake with a gooey centre. I baked it today and I must say it is officially my favourite chocolate cake. It’s soft in the centre which melts in your mouth when it’s warm.

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If it’s your first time baking this cake you might wonder if it’s actually cooked through. Unlike most cakes, if you poke a stick through its centre it will NEVER and SHOULD NOT come out clean. It is meant to be gooey, sticky... NOT DRY.

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Here is the brilliant recipe from it from All Recipes. 

Ingredients

• 60g all-purpose flour
• 20 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1g sale
• 2 eggs
• 240g white sugar
• 15ml vanilla extract
• 115g butter, melted

Instructions (Baking time - 35 to 40 minutes)

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Lightly grease an 8 inch tin.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Set it aside. 
3. Stir the eggs into the sugar until smooth. 
4. Add the flour mixture, and stir just until combined. 
5. Pour in the vanilla extract and butter. Stir until it is well combined.
6. Pour mixture into tin.
7. Bake in the lower tray of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes until the center has slight set.
8. Allow cake to cool before serving.  

Tips
This recipe has been tested by many and received a high rating overall. I followed the recipe exactly (word for word) and it worked out really well for me. The only thing I might change on hindsight perhaps is to reduce the amount of sugar used since I sprinkled icing sugar on the cake before serving.

Don't worry if this cake doesn't rise just like other ordinary cakes. It is meant to be a little flat and dense. But I assure you, it is DELICIOUS. 

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So, here we are wishing everyone a good week ahead and Happy Midsummer!