the hungry mum

Our rosemary bush is a beast of a thing – large, unwieldy but capable of producing the most fragrant and delicious tasting leaves. No matter how much we use or give away there is always more, more, more taking over our herb garden.

Looking for another way to use it I stumbled across the mistress of original cooking concepts, Nigella Lawson. My well-thumbed copy of ‘How To Be A Domestic Goddess’ provided the answer with this luscious cake.

I was going to start this post by writing everyone loves banana cake but that’s so not true. My mum abhors bananas in any way, shape or form. The poor woman often peers hopefully into my cake tin when she comes over, only to firmly replace the lid when she discovers the baked good is banana cake/bread/muffin.

Red velvet anything is my favourite. I don’t have an overly sweet tooth but when I am in a bakery/cafe/ on Pinterest and see the magical words ‘red velvet’ I am hooked.

I thought I would mix up my red passion for black with this recipe for black velvet cupcakes. Fun fact for those who don’t know – black velvet is a cocktail made from Guinness and champagne. Interesting, huh? I’m absolutely #TeamChampagne (see my pink champagne recipe here https://thehungrymum.com/2015/06/04/pink-champagne-cake-from-scratch/) and The Hungry Dad is partial to a Guinness come the colder months but the two combined doesn’t float my boat. Having never tried it, however, maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh in my judgment.

In any case, when I saw a black velvet baking recipe on the BBC Good Food site I knew it would be a perfect recipe to make for Sydney’s cold weather. I transformed their recipe…

This blog should rightly be called The Hungry Mum Who Bakes Quick & Easy Cakes. Yes I’m hungry and yes, I’m impatient, dammit! I want cake and I want it now. Often the baking urge arrives right in the middle of cactus hour or trying to put the kids to bed so I need a no-fuss recipe that can be bunged into the oven.

This caramel cake recipe, courtesy of the kitchen goddess at the Australian Women’s Weekly & their book ‘Quick Mix Cakes’, is so quick and simple. Baking it in a bundt tin & dusting with copious amounts  of icing sugar makes it look fancy with all the faffing around of icing.

These beautiful photos were taken by Anna Warr [annawarr.com], a photographer who has an eye for detail & patience by the kilo…

GATHER:

185g softened butter, cubed

1/2 soft brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups…

A confession before we continue: I did not make this luscious looking creation. Rather, The Hungry Dad and Miss7 whipped it up for a family lunch at my mum’s house recently. I’m lucky – I married a man who is a great cook and our first born also loves cooking (especially desserts!).

They chose this recipe from my ever-present copy of Australian Women’s Weekly ‘Bake.’

It is no exaggeration to say this pie was the hit of the lunch – everyone was full of compliments for my hubby and daughter. So proud!

GATHER:

½ cup cornflour

1 cup caster sugar

½ cup lemon juice

1 ¼ cups water

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

60g butter, diced

3 eggs, separated

½ cup caster sugar, extra

pastry

1 ½ cups plain flour

1 tablespoon icing sugar

140g cold butter, diced

1 egg yolk

Approx 2 tablespoons iced water

LET’S GET TO…

Once again my trusty AWW bible, Bake, has provided me with a delicious, easy, can’t-stuff-it-up cake. I present the buttery and moreish raspberry butter cake that can be made with fresh or frozen berries [I always use frozen but never defrost them before use].

Thank you to the wonderfully wonderful Anna Warr for the gorgeous photos [http://www.facebook.com/AnnaWarrPhotography]

GATHER:

125g diced butter, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup raspberries

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a round 20cm cake tin.

Butter butter and sugar in bowl of electric mixer until light and fluffy and then beat in eggs one at a time.

Stir in milk and flour in two batches.

Fold in 1/4 cup raspeberries.

Spread 3/4 of cake mix into pan and sprinkle with remaining berries then spread remainder of…

My love of choc chips in baked goods is well known so when I came across recipe for a chocolate cake with choc chips I was sold. I found the recipe on the allrecipes.co.uk site but the original didn’t specify how much milk so I had to guesstimate. I think I guessed correctly! This isn’t a fancy cake but I bet it will be gratefully received by your guests.