Flour-Free Chocolate & Beetroot Cake

This is another recipe from the wonderful "Live, Bake, Nourish by Amber Rose" and it's surprisingly delicious and light and very chocolatey! If you like alternative bakes or are looking for recipes that use less flour, are gluten free or sugar free then I would highly recommend this book! I have only ever used carrots in cakes and so I was keen to try a beetroot bake and see how it enhanced the flavour of a cake and how it contributed to the texture. Along with this recipe being flour-free and also low in sugar it certainly was a new style bake for me and one I would definitely make again. The beetroot adds an earthiness that compliments the depth of flavour from the dark chocolate and the natural sweetness of the honey.My husband can't stand beetroot and yet he loved this cake, so it goes to show that the beetroot enhances the flavour rather than overpowers it. We enjoyed this lovely bake with a dollop of creme fraiche on top!

Ingredients

300g Cooked, unseasoned Beetroot, peeled and pureed
4 Eggs
4 tbsp Honey
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp Cocoa Powder (plus extra for dusting)
1 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
125g Ground Almonds
125g 70% Cocoa Solid Dark Chocolate 
4 tbsp Olive Oil

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 180'c and grease and base line a 10 inch cake tin.

2. In a large mixing bowl beat together the beetroot, eggs, honey, vanilla, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt with an electric mixer. When these are thoroughly combined fold in the ground almonds.

3. Now its time to melt the chocolate. Amber Rose melts her "bain marie" style over a pan of water, whereas I used the microwave for speed. Once melted mix in the oil and then gently stir this chocolate oil combination into the rest of the mix until well combined.

4. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 

*I checked on mine after 25 minutes because when I baked my Flour-Free Orange, Almond & Pistachio Cake (also from her book) it baked much quicker in my oven than what was suggested in the recipe. It was the same with this bake, it was indeed ready after 25 mins, and so I would recommend checking on your cake around the 25 minute mark.* 

5. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for a while before turning out onto a cooling rack. Once the cake is completely cool, dust with cocoa powder and serve either on its own or with a dollop of creme fraiche. 

Coconut Cake

I absolutely love coconut, I love the smell, the texture and the taste but coconut cakes can often be disappointingly dry. It was my Nan's 80th birthday last September and she was having a big family party at my Mum's and I was tasked with making her birthday cake. Her favourite cake is lemon, which I did for the bottom tier but her favourite smell and taste, like me, is coconut. So I really wanted to make a coconut cake for the top tier but one that was moist and flavoursome. After trialling many I finally struck gold on a website called "Sally's Baking Addiction" and found a recipe for the most delicious coconut cake, one that is moist, light and fluffy but equally packed a punch with coconut flavour - mainly down to the fact that it has 3 types of coconut based ingredient in it! It is really easy to make and worked well with my light coconut buttercream icing. My Nan absolutely loved her cake and so many people commented on how much they loved the coconut layer. Makes two 7 inch sponges.

Ingredients

275g Plain Flour

170g Butter

330g Granulated Sugar

2tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1tsp Salt

240ml tinned Coconut Milk

5 Egg Whites

120g Sour Cream

2tsp Vanilla Extract

1tsp Coconut Extract

80g Desiccated Coconut

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 170'c and grease and base line two 7 inch cake tins. Sift together the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt into a bowl. 

2. In your mixer beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg whites,vanilla, coconut extract and sour cream. At this point the mixture will look curdled but don't panic! 

3. Then on a low speed gradually add the dry mixture and then the coconut milk. Lastly fold in the desiccated coconut and mix until well combined. 

4. Split the batter between the two tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to rest in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

5. I decorated my Nan's cake with a coconut buttercream, using coconut extract for flavour and tinted it a lavender colour. I then topped the cake with a white chocolate drip and then, in line with the pastel "vintage tea party" colour theme of the decorations, I topped the cake with homemade mini meringues, party rings, marshmallows, pink fudge pieces and wafers daisies and butterflies. 

Rainbow Cake

I have always loved the look of a Rainbow cake, when you cut that icing and inside are beautiful bright layers of sponge - its so pretty! For Christmas I got a set of rainbow cake tins and, after a few practise runs, my first project was to do a Paw Patrol themed cake for my youngest sons 2nd Birthday. I decided to do 6 layers, one for each characters colour, and used a simple vanilla sponge recipe as I didn't want to risk flavours tampering with the bright colours. When it comes to colouring the sponge I found it doesn't really fade during baking so whatever shade it is in your bowl will be the colour it comes out.Also don't use liquid food dye as you would have to add too much to get the right colour and then the sponge would be too wet. Use gel or paste colours. When the cake was cut I was so happy to see 6 bright layers of sponge revealed and I had one very happy little boy with his paw patrol birthday cake. This recipe will make a 6 layer 7 inch rainbow cake.

Ingredients

20oz Margerine
20oz Caster Sugar
10 Eggs
20oz Self Raising Flour
3tsp Vanilla Essence
3.5 tsp Baking Powder
3.5 tbsp Milk
Food colourings

How To Make

1. Preheat your oven to 180'c and then grease a baseline 6 tins.

2. Cream together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a little flour each time. 

3. Gently fold in the flour and baking powder and then mix in the vanilla and milk. Split the mixture evenly between 6 bowls and then colour each one to the desired strength. I chose pink, yellow, blue, green, red and orange. 

4. Place into the prepared tins and bake for 20 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. 

5. Once the cake has completely cooled assemble the layers using buttercream between each layer. Once its assembled ice the outside however you wish. I covered mine with white fondant and then decorated with fondant paw prints and a spray that I also made myself. 

Good Old Vanilla Sponge

Vanilla sponge, the simplest and probably one of the most baked cakes! Everyone has their own recipe and this one is mine, passed down from my Mum and adapted slightly by me. I could bake this with my eyes shut I think and it makes a wonderful light, fluffy sponge every time! This is my go to sponge for birthday cakes, cupcakes and classic Victoria Sponge. This recipe makes two 7 inch round cakes or approximately 18 cupcakes or 24 fairy cakes. The pictures on here all used this recipe for the actual cake itself. You have Banana Split Cupcakes that I made yesterday, vanilla sponge with Banana Split flavour buttercream icing (icing sugar available from Sugar & Crumbs). A Salted Caramel Drip Cake that I made last year for my Husbands birthday, vanilla sponge with Salted Caramel Buttercream Icing (again Sugar & Crumbs), caramel drip and topped with homemade meringues, honeycomb, dark chocolate shards and popcorn. And also my Flower Topped Cake (my first attempt at my own flower-paste flowers) that I made for my Mum's birthday this year, a vanilla sponge cake topped with vanilla buttercream and homemade sugar paste flowers. 

Ingredients

6oz Self Raising Flour
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Butter (I use Stork)
3 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Powder (if making cupcakes)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract (not essence!)

How To Make

1. Preheat your oven to 170'c and grease and line two 7 inch cake tins (or whatever size cake it is you're making).

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then, one at a time, beat in the eggs adding a tablespoon of flour with each egg to prevent the mixture curdling. 

3.Then fold in the rest of the flour, baking powder (if making cupcakes) and vanilla and once combined give the mixture a quick beat so its light and fluffy.  

4. Bake in the oven for about 20mins until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in its tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. 

Chocolate Cake

This recipe was given to me by my friend Becky Miles, who is an amazing baker and has her own cake business called Fondant & Frosting. I had been after a really moist, chocolately sponge cake recipe and so when she passed me this little gem I had to try it out! I did wonder at first if it was going to be worth it after buying all the ingredients but once I tried a slice I knew it was worth every penny! It's dark, rich, moist and oh so chocolatey! I now only ever make this recipe when making a chocolate sponge. The other perk of this recipe, apart from the amazing taste, is that it makes a lot of batter. This mixture normally gives me two deep 10 inch sponges and a loaf cake, or two deep 7 inch sponges and 2 loaf cakes or a tray of cupcakes. It freezes really well too and so the extra cakes are great for popping in the freezer for another day. Icing-wise anything goes, I have tried it with white chocolate buttercream, milk chocolate buttercream and also fondant - as you will see in the pictures below of my eldest sons birthday cake and also my sisters Giraffe birthday cake. But one of the best toppings - and a bit of a cheat - is spreading a loaf cake with Nutella and then letting my boys garnish it with sprinkles and smarties galore! 

Ingredients

325g Plain Flour
325g Butter (I use Stork)
325g 70% Cocoa Drak Chocolate
50ml Strong Coffee (I use Espresso)
1.5 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
475g Light Brown Soft Sugar
5 Eggs
284ml carton of Sour Cream

How to Make

1. Heat the oven to 160'c and grease and line your cake tins. Melt the butter and chocolate over a low heat and then add the vanilla and coffee and remove from the heat.

2. In a mixer combine together the bicarb, baking powder, flour and sugar. Beat the eggs and sour cream together and then add this to the dry mix.

3. Pour in the melted chocolate mixture and stir together until smooth. Pour into the tins and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until firm and a skewer test comes out clean. 

4. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. 

Coffee Cake

Coffee cake is a new bake for me, I made it for the first time last year, we were having a party for my youngest sons first birthday and I was providing hot drinks and cake for refreshments. I wanted a traditional sponge that had icing but equally wasn't too sweet and I know lots of family and friends who love coffee cake. After researching online I settled on this one by Mary Berry because it sounded so straightforward being a "throw it all in" mix. It comes out lovely and moist, with a lovely coffee taste that isn't over powering but equally still has enough flavour for coffee lovers. I don't have instant coffee at home and so I used 1 shot of espresso from my coffee machine and that works absolutely. This cake is delicious on its own but even better with icing,  I topped mine with a Vanilla Latte icing (icing sugar from Sugar and Crumbs) and that blended well with the cake, adding a sweet almost fudge-like flavour. Recipe makes two 7 inch cakes.

Ingredients

8oz Butter
8oz Muscavado Sugar
8oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
4 Eggs
4 tsp Instant Coffee (or 1 shot espresso) 

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 160'c and grease and baseline two round cake tins. Mix together all the ingredients, apart from the coffee, until blended. 

2. Gently stir in the coffee and then divide equally between the two tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean.

3. Once the cake has cooled on a wire rack you can ice it. 

Gin & Tonic Loaf Cake

My friends all know I love to bake...they also know I love gin! So when my friend Kim saw this recipe online she tagged me in it straight away! This recipe is from The Craft Gin Club website and its very straightforward to make, like a classic lemon drizzle but with a sneaky bit of gin added in. The cake came out lovely and lemony and smelt divine! However, when it came to the drizzle it seemed so much liquid that I triple checked the recipe to make sure I was reading it correctly. I decided to omit the tonic, for fear of drowning my cake, but even without that my cake was still sat in a small puddle of liquid when I removed it from the tin after cooling and it completely overwhelmed the cake, leaving it soggy in the middle. Upon tasting I thought the cake was lovely and moist and had a lovely fresh lemony taste, with the gin adding a touch of sweetness. The general feed back was a bit like marmite - people either loved the addition of gin or they hated it but I think gin can be divisive like that anyway! I would happily make this cake again, but with HALF the liquid in the drizzle and then I think it would be spot on! 

Ingredients

3 Eggs
240g Butter
240g Caster Sugar
240g Self Raising Flour
2 Lemons
200ml Gin 
25ml Tonic Water (I left this out)
130g Granulated Sugar

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 180'c and grease and line a loaf tin. Cream together the butter and caster sugar until light, fluffy and pale. 

2. Beat in the eggs and then fold in the flour and the grated zest of both lemons. Stir through 100ml of the gin and the juice of 1 lemon. Pour into your loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer test comes out clean.

3. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool while you make the drizzle. Mix the remaining gin (here I would only use about 30ml next time), tonic water, granulated sugar and the juice of the second lemon in a bowl. Prick the cake all over with a skewer and then pour over the drizzle. 

4. Leave the cake to cool in the tin. Once cool and the drizzle has soaked in and the sugar crystallised on top, remove from the tin and serve!

Gin & Tonic Cupcakes

Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and Gin & Tonic one was one of them. I adapted my lemon sponge recipe to incorporate the Gin and once baked and iced (I tinted mine yellow) I decorated them with a slice of lemon and a shot top filled with gin and tonic. Makes 12. 

Ingredients

6oz Stork
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
Zest of 1 Lemon
1 tbsp Gin

For the icing...
200g Stork
400g Icing Sugar
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Gin

How to Make

1. Preheat the oven to 160'c and place 12 cupcake cases into a muffin tray.

2. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then gradually add the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour to prevent curdling.

4. Fold in the rest of the flour and the lemon zest. Lastly stir through the gin. Spoon the mixture evenly between the 12 cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer test comes out clean. 

5. Leave them to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled make the icing. Beat the butter until soft and fluffy and then mix in the icing sugar, lemon juice and gin. Pipe onto the cupcakes and decorate however you wish.

Prosecco Cupcakes

Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and one of them was a Rossini, which is Prosecco and strawberries. I used my vanilla sponge recipe and subbed the vanilla for prosecco and for the strawberry element I soaked some fresh strawberries in prosecco and popped them in the middle of my cupcakes as a little surprise. I topped them with vanilla buttercream, freeze dried strawberries, wafer butterflies and a prosecco shot. Makes 12. 

Ingredients

6oz Stork
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
150ml Prosecco plus 2 tbsp 
12 Whole Strawberries

For the icing...
450g Icing Sugar
200g Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
2 tbsp Milk

How To Make

1. Soak your strawberries in 150ml of prosecco. Preheat the oven to 160'c and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases. 

2. Cream together the butter and sugar. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time with a spoonful of flour. Fold in the flour and stir through the 2 tbsp of prosecco. 

3. Spoon into the cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.

4. Once the cakes have cooled, cut a strawberry sized hole in the cakes (I used a cupcake corer). Pop a strawberry into each one.

5. For the icing, cream the butter until soft and then combine the rest of the ingredients. Pipe over the cupcakes and decorate as you wish. 

Baileys Cupcakes

Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and one of them was Baileys, I know its not strictly a cocktail but with a chocolate sponge I thought this would go down a treat at the party and it was a nice contrast to the two other flavours I had devised. For this one I used a recipe on Bakingmad.com which makes 24 fairy cakes but I used it to make 12 cupcakes. I decorated them with chocolate covered coffee beans and a baileys shot.

Ingredients

40g Butter
140g Caster Sugar
100g Plain Flour
20g Cocoa Powder
1.5 tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg
50ml Baileys
80ml Whole Milk

For the icing...

125g Butter
500g Icing Sugar
15ml Milk
45ml Baileys

How To Make

1. Preheat your oven to 170'c and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases. Mix together butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder and baking powder until it resembles breadcrumbs.

2. In a jug mix together the egg, baileys and milk. Then add slowly into the mixer to combine. Divide between the cupcake cases and then bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden. Transfer to a rack to cool.

3. For the icing mix together the butter and icing sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs. Then add the milk and baileys and pipe over the cupcakes. Decorate as you wish.