Super easy microwave chocolate coconut cake

Got this recipe off a colleague who got it from a friend whose kids have the worst egg allergies. So yes this is a great egg free recipe and its all ready in about 15mins! Thanks Geoff!

125gm butter

1cup milk

1cup sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

Microwave above ingredients for 2 minutes

Add to the following and mix

2 cups self raising flour

1 cup coconut

2 tablespoons cocoa (heaped if you want it chocolatey

1 cup cold tea with 1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in (I used earl grey)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Microwave 8 minutes at 800 watts in large microwavable cake pan (I used a silicone pan)

Stand 5 minutes then turn out

Decorate with your choice of frosting once cooled.

Strawberry Cupcake

We went strawberry picking a while back and I had so many strawbs, i knew i couldn't use them all at once. so i set about hulling them and popped them in ziplock bags and in the freezer. I'm slowly getting back into baking and so used these frozen strawbs today to make the most delicious strawberry cupcake - a recipe i found on marthastewart.com.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 1 dozen.

• 2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 2 large egg whites, room temperature
• Strawberry frosting

• DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.
2. Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree, add a few more strawberries if necessary or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree; set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
5. With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
6. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

Strawberry Frosting

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup whole frozen strawberries, thawed

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold

Pinch of coarse salt

3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Place strawberries in the bowl of a small food processor; process until pureed. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed and slowly add confectioners' sugar; beat until well combined. Add vanilla and 3 tablespoons strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use); mix until just blended. Do not overmix or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense and creamy, like ice cream.

Christmas Cake

350g prunes, scissored or chopped
250g raisins
175g currants
175g soft butter
175g dark muscovado sugar
225g (175ml) honey
125ml Tia Maria or other coffee liqueur (i used 100 ml dark rum and 25 ml strong coffee instead)
juice and finely grated zest of 2 oranges
1 teaspoon mixed spice
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 eggs, beaten
150g plain flour
75g ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2 and prepare a 20cm x 9cm deep, round, loose-bottomed cake tin by lining the bottom and sides with a double layer of baking parchment, as for the Traditional Christmas Cake on p.172 (though I find that if you use one layer of that tough, reusable silicone baking parchment, my beloved Bake-O-Glide, it does the job well enough, and as the cake is so dark, you don't see if it catches a little).

2 Put the fruits, butter, sugar, honey, Tia Maria, orange juice and zests, spice and cocoa powder into a large, wide saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring as the butter melts.

3 Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

4 When the 30 minutes are up -- it will have cooled a little, but you can leave it for longer if you want -- add the beaten eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula to combine.

5 Pour the fruit cake mixture into the prepared cake tin. Place in the oven and bake for 13/4--2 hours, by which time the top of the cake should be firm but will have a shiny, sticky look. If you insert a cake tester or skewer into it, the cake will still be a little gooey in the middle.

6 Put the cake, still in its tin, on a wire cooling rack -- it will hold its heat and take a while to cool; once cool, take it out of the tin and, if you don't want to eat it immediately (like any fruit cake it has a long life), wrap it in baking parchment or greaseproof paper then in foil and store in a cake or other airtight tin.

7 You can also poke holes in the cake with a toothpick and feed the cake some brandy/rum, till its ready to be iced.

Makes at least 10 generous slices

To decorate:

500g marzipan
750 gms ready to roll icing
2 tbsp apricot jam or marmalade or honey diluted with 1 tsp of hot water

1 Unwrap your cake from the paper and foil you've been storing it in and set it on your worksurface.

2 See whether it is level, if it isn't, you'll need to level it with a knife. use a large serrated knife for this.

3 Prepare your cake board/plate and position your cake on it so that the cut side is downwards.

4 Check that you're happy with your levelling and adjust if necessary.

5 Using a pastry brush paint the outside of the cake with a thin layer of jam/marmalade/honey (avoiding any bits!).  So now the cake is nice and sticky and will be ready to glue on the marzipan layer.

6 500g is enough marzipan to coat an 8" cake.  If you love the taste of marzipan you can make this layer thicker but you will need more to do so.  Knead gently on your worksurface to 'warm' the marzipan which will make it easier to work with.

7 Take half of the marzipan and shape into a rough sausage shape.

8 Dust your worksurface with icing sugar and roll out the sausage into a long strip to reach around the outside of the cake.  Measure with string to help you know how long it needs to be.

9 Again with the string measure how tall your collar of marzipan needs to be and cut to the right height.  It should be 5mm above the top of the cake.


10 Position around the outside of the cake and trim neatly where the two edges meet.

11 Gather together the trimmings and the remaining half of marzipan and roll out to about 5mm thick on your worksurface.

12 Using the tin you baked the cake in as a template cut out a circle for the top of the cake.

13 Place the circle on the top of the cake, gently sealing together the edges where it meets the marzipan collar.

14 Use your hands to smooth the seanms of the marzipan.  Smooth the top and the sides working out any major lumps and bumps.

15 Now you need to leave it to one side to dry a little - 24 to 48 hours.

16 Once the marzipan has set, you can work with the ready roll icing.

17 Dust the worksurface liberally with icing sugar.  Knead the sugarpaste to warm it up making it much more pliable.

18 Measure across the cake with a piece of string from the board, over the top and back onto the board again and cut the string to the right size.  Dampen the marzipan with a pastry brush dipped in a little bit of water.

19 Begin to roll out the sugarpaste making sure you have plenty plenty of icing sugar on the worksurface, once it sticks it's gameover and you have to start again.

20 You can turn the sugarpaste when rolling but don't flip it over.

21 Measuring with your piece of string keep rolling out, into a rough circle until the sugarpaste is just over the right size.

22 Polish the top of the sugarpaste with the flat of your hand to smooth it out.  Take any rings or watches off first as they always catch and rip up your hard work.  You will feel what I mean as you polish - the sugarpaste takes on a shine and will be super smooth.

23 Place the rolling pin in the middle of the rolled out icing and flip it over.   Use the rolling pin to lift into position on the cake. Flip over the sugar paste and remove the rolling pin.

24 Starting on the top, ignore the sides for now, polish the top of the cake with the flat of your hand again.  When you are happy with the top start working the way down the cake with your hands, smoothing the sugarpaste into position.  Go slowly and work from the top of the cake down towards the board.  If the sugarpaste starts to crease lift it away from the cake and smooth from the top down again.
If the sugarpaste begins to crack you can 'polish' out the start of any cracks with the palm of your hand.

25 Eventually you will have worked all the way down to the board. With a sharp knife trim off the excess sugarpaste at the base of the cake.  Wrap up the excess in clingfilm and save it for now.

26 Set your cake to one side and leave overnight to firm up.  Again this is important before we start adding the decoration as the icing is soft it is really easy to nick and mark it with your hands.

27 Once the icing has set, you decorate it any way you like. I put some red colour in a bit of the left over icing, rolled it out and cut out red stars. I also rolled out some plain icing to get white stars. these I fixed on the cake by wetting the base of the stars with some water.

28 I also set some silver cachous on the cake and drew a snow flake design on the white stars with some chocolate fudge icing.Finally, I wrapped some ribbon around the cake and held it in place by brushing on some water where the edges of the ribbon would sit on the cake.

Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson's "Christmas". 

Chocolate Guinness Cake

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE
250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter
75g cocoa
400g caster sugar
1 x 142ml pot sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

FOR THE TOPPING
300g Philadelphia cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double or whipping cream

METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line a 23cm springform tin.
2. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter – in spoons or slices – and heat until the butter’s melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
3. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
4. When the cake’s cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Recipe from www.Nigella.com.

Little lemon raspberry swirl cheesecakes

Ingredients:
40g butter, elted
½ cup frozen raspberries, thawed
2 Tbsp icing sugar, sifted
375g traditional cream cheese
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs (size 6)
finely grated rind 1 lemon
1 cup finely ground gingernut biscuits (about 11) use any other hard biscuit if you wish
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method
Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 12-muffin pan with paper or foil cases. Mix the finely ground gingernuts and butter in a bowl. Divide mixture among the paper cases, pressing down firmly. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from oven and cool. Turn down oven heat to 125°C.

To make the raspberry purée, mash the raspberries to a pulp with the back of a fork then strain through a sieve into a bowl, pressing down well with the back of a spoon to get as much juice as possible. Discard seeds. Stir icing sugar into purée.

Place the cream cheese and caster sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat just until the mixture is smooth, light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until combined after each addition – you may prefer to do this with a hand whisk, to avoid overbeating. Finally, add lemon rind and vanilla essence.

Pour the cheese mixture over the biscuit bases, filling right up to the top of the cases. Place small drops (about ½ tsp) of the raspberry purée on top of the cakes and, using a wooden skewer, carefully swirl it through the cheese mixture. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until just set and no longer wobbly. Open oven door and allow the cakes to cool completely in the switched-off oven. They do shrink as they cool, but that is perfectly normal.

~ Recipe from Taste Magazine.

The best ever chocolate cake!!

This chocolate cake is a sure fire winner! its moist and rich and absolutely divine! Its the only chocolate cake recipe you'll ever need!

Ingredients:
110ml sunflower oil
150ml Plain Greek-Style yoghurt (any thick yoghurt will do)
100ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 cup warm water
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup baking cocoa
2 cups plain flour
2 cups castor sugar
Pre-heat the oven to 170°C.
Whisk together oil, yoghurt, milk, vanilla, coffee powder, warm water and eggs until foamy.
In a large bowl sift together baking soda, cocoa and flour and add the sugar.
Add the yoghurt mixture and whisk together until smooth.
Pour into a greased 9-inch cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes.
Dust with icing sugar or ice with your favourite frosting and serve.
I used chocolate ganache:
400gms dark chocolate chopped
11/2 cups cream
Heat cream in a heavy bottomed pan.
Bring it to a boil and pour it over the chocolate.
Wait for 1 min and then stir slowly with a spatula.
Be careful not to stir any air into the mixture. mix till it looks satiny.
Cool and then spread it on the cake.
Serve with a dollop of greek yoghurt on the side.
Enjoy!


-source: www.cuisine.co.nz

Coffee Walnut Cupcakes

Makes approx 24, keeps 2 days, freezes before icing 2 month.
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
200 g butter softened
1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract
2 tbsps instant coffee granules
1/4 cup boiling water
11/2 cups chopped walnuts
Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees C. Line 2 12 hole muffin trays with cupcake paper/butter the moulds.
Sift together the flour and baking powder and keep aside
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter for about 2 minutes. add half the sugar and cream for 2 mins, then add the remaining sugar and cream again till light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time and beating after each addition for 1 min or until mixture is light and fluffy
Add vanilla and beat until combined
Add half the flour mixture and beat slowly until combined.
Dissolve the coffee in 1/4 cup water and add this to the mixture, mixing carefully.
Add the remaining flour and mix till combined. do not over beat as this can toughen the mixture.
If using walnuts, fold them into the mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcake moulds and bake for 18-20 minutes or until fine skewer inserted comes out clean.
Remove from trays immediately and then let cakes cool for 30 mins before icing.
Coffee buttercream icing:
200 g butter softened
2 cups icing sugar (recipe asks for 8 but i didn't need 8!!)
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp coffee granules
1 tbsp hot water
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Cream butter till light and fluffy. Add the icing sugar 1 cup at a time and cream.
Add milk and vanilla and mix till smooth.
Dissolve the coffee in the water and add to icing mixture.
Mix till the mixture is evenly coloured.
If mixture is too dry, add some more milk, and if its too wet, add some more icing sugar.
Ice the cakes and top with silver cachous and icing flowers or any other icing decoration of your choice.
Enjoy!
Note: You can also make a large cake using this recipe. I made one using a bundt tin but you can use any old tin depending on the shape you want.

-source: the crabapple cupcake book - Jennifer Graham