It's only drizzling

Easiest cake ever but it's SO GOOD. Just substitute the lemony bits for orangey bits and you have orange drizzle cake which is also SO GOOD.

Lemon Drizzle Cake:

• 225g butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g self-raising flour 
• 4 eggs
• A pinch of salt
• The rind of one lemon
• The juice of one lemon (watch out for the pips)

Pre-heat oven to 180c. Mix the butter and sugar together really well until it's nice and creamy, then chuck in the rest of the ingredients. Tip it all into a loaf tin and bake for about 40 mins. For the icing just slowly add teaspoons of lemon juice to a pile of icing sugar until you have a nice consistency and drizzle it all over the cake once the cake has cooled. C'est super facile, non?

Voila. I used the wrong sugar in the cake (due to not being able to read the writing on the packets in the super market) so it was a little grainy but not a complete disaster - first cake made in a Paris kitchen!

A cake for the birthday princess

The piping bag burst about four times so it's looking a little messy but here is a raspberry sponge cake with chocolate buttercream and nutella swirls.
Happy birthday Sylvie!

Crumble cake

As the fact that I'm going to be off to France for a whole scary year in about two months starts to feel a bit more real (one-way flight has now been booked - agh!) I decided to make a deliciously English cake.

Blackberry Raspberry Crumble Cake

• 190g butter
• 190g plain flour
• 190g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 30ml milk 
• Half a teaspoon of cinnamon
• 150g of raspberries and blackberries (frozen or fresh)
• 50g walnuts or pecans (chopped up)

Pre-heat your oven to 170c and grease a loaf tin. Whiz your butter and sugar together for ages until it's nice and fluffy - it is best to use an electric mixer but if you're braving it and doing it by hand then I salute you. Mix in the three eggs one by one, then chuck in the dry ingredients and milk and mix really well. Add the fruit and the chopped nuts - the recipe I was using asked for pecans but I only had walnuts (we all know the walnut is inferior to the glorious pecan) but in the end the walnuts worked really well so the choice is yours! Little warning: if you're using frozen fruit you may need to leave your cake in the oven for a bit longer because the frozen-ness of the berries messes up how quickly your cake cooks.

Lovely Crumbly Topping

• 20g butter
• 50g plain flour
• 50g soft light brown sugar
• 30g chopped up walnuts (or pecans)

Rub together the butter and flour with your fingertips until you have little breadcrumbs and then rub in the sugar and the nuts. Sprinkle this over your fruity cake and then pop it in the oven for about an hour. When it's done you should be able to stick a knife right into the middle of the cake and it should come out clean.

Leave it to cool a little bit before tipping it out of the tin - your lovely English cake is done!

You're on your way out mister

ew.

When your bananas start to look like beaten up giraffes there is no way you're going to eat them, no matter how many times your mum tells you that they're sweeter like this. Instead of throwing them out it's definitely time to put your apron on and make a really moist and lovely banana cake. This recipe doesn't have any butter in so it's got way less fat than other ones, if you want to make it even better for you then skip on the frosting - it's such a moist cake it doesn't really need it (BUT the frosting is really good so I advise you to just go for it).

St Lucia Banana Cake

• 350g self-raising flour
• 2 teaspoons mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 175g light muscovado sugar/soft light brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 200ml sunflower oil
• 2 large or 3 smaller sad-looking bananas (properly mashed up with a fork)
• 100g crushed pineapple (or chop up some pineapple chunks into teenier bits)
• Zest and juice of 1 orange
• 100g walnuts roughly chopped/bashed around a bit

Pre-heat your oven to 170c (fan oven) and grease up two 20cm cake tins. Sift all your flour, spices and sugar together and then, in a separate bowl, whisk your eggs and oil until they're nicely mixed up. Tip the eggy mixture into your floury mixture and chuck in the rest of your ingredients and stir really really well. Split evenly between the two tins and bake for 45 minutes until they're firm and spring back when your prod them.  Let them cool completely because otherwise the frosting will just slide off.

I make so much mess when I'm baking

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 400g medium fat cream cheese (this is about two normal sized packs, don't use the extra-light stuff because you're frosting will go really liquidy)
• 200g icing sugar
• handful of banana chips (you don't need these but they're delicious and look quite good)

Sieve your icing sugar to avoid lumps then mix it really well with the cream cheese, shove it in the fridge to set a little. Once your cake is completely cool divide the frosting between the two cakes, then put the best looking one on top of the other one and sprinkle with banana chips - done! 

went down a treat with my gorgeous girlies