If you’re hosting a coffee morning this September in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, these recipes will certainly hit the spot
Mary Berry’s red velvet sandwich cake recipe
(Serves eight)
This double-layered chocolate sponge is iced with vanilla buttercream and is descibed by TV cook Mary Berry as ‘an impressive, but easy cake’.
‘Use a professional food colouring paste, if you can; a natural liquid colouring won't work and may turn the sponge green," she recommends.
‘For a particularly elegant finish, you could make extra icing and crumb coat the sponge before applying the top layer of icing.’
Ingredients:
Butter, for greasing
250g (9oz) plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
250g (9oz) light muscovado sugar
200ml (? pint) buttermilk
150ml (1/4 pint) sunflower oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp red food colouring gel or about 1/4 tsp food colouring paste
2 large eggs
8 white chocolate truffle balls, to decorate
For the buttercream icing:
250g (9oz) butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
300g (101/2oz) icing sugar
250g (9oz) full-fat mascarpone cheese
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line the bases of two 20cm (8in) sponge sandwich tins with non-stick baking paper.
2. Measure the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and sugar into a bowl and mix well.
3. Mix the buttermilk, oil, vanilla, food colouring and 100ml (31/2fl oz) water in a jug. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. The mixture should be bright red; it will get a little darker as it cooks. If it's not as vivid as you'd like, add a touch more colouring.
4. Divide the mixture evenly between the two prepared tins and level the surfaces. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until well risen and shrinking away from the sides of the tins. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out, peel off the paper and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
5. To make the buttercream icing, place the soft butter and vanilla extract in a large bowl and sift in half the icing sugar. Mix with an electric whisk until smooth. Sift in the remaining icing sugar and mix again. Add the mascarpone to the bowl and gently stir with a spatula until smooth (don't beat with a whisk as it may split). Put a fluted nozzle in a piping bag and spoon about 150g (5oz) of the buttercream into the bag.
6. To assemble the cake, sit one of the sponges on a cake plate and spread a third of the buttercream over the cake, then sit the other cake on top. Ice the cake by first spreading a thin layer of icing - a crumb coat - over the whole cake before chilling for 30 minutes. Then pile the remaining icing from the bowl on top and spread over the top and around the edges to completely cover the cake. Make sure that the icing is smooth around the edges before starting to create lines up the sides. Using a small palette knife, make wide lines up the sides and swirl the top. Pipe a rope design around the edge of the top of the cake and decorate with the eight chocolate truffles to finish.
Mary Makes it Easy is published by BBC Books, priced £28. Photography by Laura Edwards. Available now.
Gennaro Contaldo’s carrot and almond cake - Torta di carote e mandorle recipe
(serves eight)
‘Delicately light and healthy, this easy carrot cake would be perfect with a morning coffee or at teatime,’ says Gennaro Contaldo.
‘I like to use the Italian raising agent known as Paneangeli, with its delicate vanilla flavour, and it should be obtainable from Italian delis and international shops. Otherwise, regular baking powder will work just fine.’
Ingredients:
4 eggs, separated
225g caster sugar
130g plain flour, sifted
2tsp Paneangeli baking powder, sifted (or regular baking powder)
150g ground almonds
275g carrots, grated
A little icing sugar, sifted
Handful of flaked almonds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/180°C/gas mark 4. Grease a 20cm round springform cake tin and line it with baking paper.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together for about 10 minutes, until nice and creamy. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff.
Fold the flour, Paneangeli (or baking powder), ground almonds and grated carrots into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the stiffened egg whites.
Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin and bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes, until risen and cooked through. If you insert a wooden skewer, it should come out clean.
Remove from the oven, then leave to cool completely before carefully removing it from the tin. Place on a plate and dust the top with icing sugar and a handful of flaked almonds, before serving.
Tip: This cake is best eaten fresh, but will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.
Gennaro's Verdure: Big And Bold Italian Recipes To Pack Your Plate With Veg by Gennaro Contaldo is published by Pavilion Books, priced £26. Photography by David Loftus. Available now
Nadiya Hussain’s milk fudge flapjack recipe
(makes 12)
‘This includes two of my favourite things and I have made their worlds collide,’ says former Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain.
‘Flapjack – sticky, sweet and oaty – topped with a spiced Indian milk fudge. Why have one world when you can build a bridge between two?’
Ingredients:
For the flapjack:
250g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the tin
180g golden syrup
180g caster sugar
500g porridge oats
2tsps almond extract
For the milk fudge:
60g unsalted butter
200ml double cream
60g caster sugar
6 cardamom pods
100ml condensed milk
250g semi-skimmed milk powder, blitzed in a processor to remove any lumps
100g toasted almond flakes
Method:
For the flapjack, start by putting the butter, golden syrup and caster sugar into a pan and warming it all through until the butter has melted and sugar dissolved. Take off the heat.
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/180°C/gas mark 4 and line and grease the base and sides of a 20cm square cake tin.
Add the oats to a bowl, pour in the melted butter/sugar mix and add the almond extract. Stir the mixture till everything is well combined. Tip into the prepared tin and flatten, making sure to pat down so everything is well compressed.
Pop into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. When the flapjack is ready, it will be golden around the edges and lighter in the centre. Take out and leave to cool completely, then chill in the fridge so we have a firm base for our fudge to sit on.
For the milk fudge, put the unsalted butter, double cream and caster sugar into a pan and mix till the sugar has dissolved.
Crush the cardamom pods, remove the husks and crush the black seeds. Add to the sugar mix. Stir in and then add the condensed milk and semi-skimmed milk powder. Bring to a gentle simmer over a medium heat and keep stirring till the mixture is thick and coming away from the sides of the pan.
Spoon the mixture right on top of the flapjack and press into an even layer. Sprinkle over the toasted almond flakes and press them in.
Leave to cool in the tin and then leave to chill in the fridge. Cut into squares and they are ready.
Nadiya’s Simple Spices by Nadiya Hussain is published by Penguin Michael Joseph, priced £26. Photography by Chris Terry. Available now.
