#fall cake

Autumn’s Cake

Ingredients: 12 + servings

For the cake:

560g plain flour

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

220g butter, softened

400g caster sugar

10 tablespoons brown soft sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

360ml milk

800g pumpkin puree

For the icing:

800g icing sugar

500g butter

dash of milk

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For pumpkin decorations / cake toppers:

orange and yellow fondant icing

green / brown fondant icing for stems

brown gel food colouring

fondant tools or small kitchen knife

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Sift together the flour, spices, salt and baking powders into a bowl and set aside.

In an electric mixer, blend the butter and sugars until they are light in colour and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time and stir in the milk and pumpkin puree.

Add in the dry ingredients from the other bowl until it’s all just mixed together but try not to over mix it.

Grease the sides and bottom of three 20cm cake trays with butter and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Top tip: you can also use these handy baking belts to bake perfectly moist and level cakes without cracks. Simply soak in water and add to the outside of the tins before they go in the oven.

Divide the batter equally between three lined cake trays. These non-stick pre-cut baking parchment rounds are really helpful.

Bake for 30 mins or until they spring back and a knife/toothpick comes out clean.

While the cakes are baking, make the icing by adding the butter and milk to the mixer and blending until smooth. Then add the icing sugar a little bit at a time until it is all mixed in and lighter in colour.

Add in the vanilla and beat until it’s fluffy and combined.

Remove cakes from the oven. Once they are cool to touch, transfer to wire racks and allow to cool completely before icing.

Place the first cake on a cake card or turntable ready for icing. Using a palette knife, spread an even layer of buttercream icing over the top until covered, or using a round ended piping nozzle and piping bag, you can pipe evenly around the cake in circles to ensure a nice even layer.

Layer the second cake over the top and repeat the buttercream icing step.

Top with your final layer and apply a crumb coating (a thin layer of icing using a scrapping tool) around the whole stack of cakes, filling in any gaps. Once smooth, refrigerate for 30 – 45 minutes before applying a final layer of icing to the whole cake. You can leave this as a completely smooth effect, or add swirl in the icing.

Now it’s time to make the little pumpkin toppers. Tear off a small piece of orange fondant and roll into a ball. For slight variations in colour, you can also combine yellow fondant with orange and roll together for different pumpkin hues.

Starting from the bottom, use the dull side of a knife or a fondant carving tool to add the pumpkin lines, turning the ball as you go. Push down the centre of your pumpkin slightly where the lines meet to make a small well for the stem.

Roll out a tiny piece of your brown/green fondant for the stem (you can also use cloves if you prefer) and apply on top, squeezing the orange fondant snug around it.

Using a paint brush and your brown food colouring, mix with water and paint on in between the lines of the pumpkins to add more depth and real-ness to them.

ko_lo_man

“Sharlotka” is a classic Russian apple cake. In some parts of the world, it’s known as the French Apple cake and it is best described as an apple sponge cake. This cake is packed with apples😍 Unlike traditional apple pie, which is heavy on the crust, this cake makes apples the star of the show. This results in a cake that is airy, soft and beautifully simple. Feel free to use any apple in this cake.

Soooo, you need:

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cornstarch

4 large apples

powdered sugar for dusting

Wash, peal and dice apples into one inch pieces. Using a mixer, beat eggs with sugar, until it’s three times in volume. Using a spatula, fold in flour by thirds, add 1 tsp of baking powder and 1 tbsp of cornstarch. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Cover bottom of the pan (I use 8 inches pan/20cm) with some cake batter, lay out the diced apples, cover apples with cake batter, shake the pan a bit, to spread batter between each apple piece. You have to do two layers of apples and cover the top of your cake with cake batter. The main thing is that the cake batter has to be not too thick and not too liquid.

A simple peach-pecan snacking cake for your Labor Day celebration.

In the United States Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers. What it has also come to represent is a long weekend in September that unofficially marks the end of summer. As a kid raise don the east coast, this meant the last hurrah before the new school year began. Although I have been on the west coast for many years, and my boys have been in school for…