Never Fail Chocolate Cake

Ok Keda, here it is!

I have been making this cake since I was about 6yrs old and as the name suggests, it never fails. It originally came from the 1980 St Gerards Primary school cookbook (the school next to my primary school) and was contributed by a Mrs Gwen Ilic, bless her. The page is covered in chocolate cake, which is further proof of what a favourite it is. It is incredibly easy and makes a beautifully moist rich chocolate cake without being too heavy or sickly, allowing you to go back for that second or third cupcake hehehe. The mix makes enough for two cakes to be sandwiched or a deep round or probably 18 cupcakes. Next tasting will be at the kids 3rd birthday party, unless Keda whips one up first ;) .

2 1/4 cups S.R Flour
1 tsp bi carb
2/3 cups cocoa
1 3/4 cups castor sugar
5oz butter (141g) that's how old the recipe is
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

Sift dry ingredients into mixer bowl. Add softened butter, water and vanilla. Beat on med for 3mins. Add eggs, increase speed for further 3 mins. Pour into well greased tin/s and bake in mod oven. Enjoy!

Nigella Lawson's Easy Almond Cake

I'm going to cook this cake up the coast at my mums place over the Easter weekend. I decided on this cake because it's easy, I've made it before (and have marzipan in the fridge) and it's a counterpoint to Easter chocolate. It's also a cake that lasts a few days very nicely. Since my mother claims not to like sweet almond dishes, but loves friands and various other sweet things with almond in them I'm going to have to make the cake with Michael, keeping the recipe a secret til they are eating it. I'm also going to replace the vanilla essence with the zest of an orange as per Nigella's suggestion, and I might even replace the almond essence with some orange flower water, but I'll decide on the day.

INGREDIENTS
250g softened unsalted butter
250g marzipan
150g caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond essence
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 large eggs
150g SR flour

25cm springform tube pan or patterned ring mould, buttered and floured

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 170C
Chop the butter and marzipan and put them into the bowl of the food processor with the sugar. Nigella asks for the double bladed knife attachment to be fitted to the food processor.
Process til pretty smooth and add the essences and extracts
process again and add the eggs, one at a time, down the funnel of the processor, processing between each addition.
Add the flour and process and then scrape into the prepared tin
Bake for 50 minutes, checking after 40 - the tester doesn't need to be completely clean - and cool in the tin.

I have a sneaking suspicion we don't have a food processor up there, but I know we have and industrial sized stick blender, and with a little ingenuity I think we can make it work. I'll try to post pictures if it all works, because it could be amusing!

Apple and Honey Cake

This recipe is adapted from a recipe in the the SMH, but it is on a little bit of paper without a date so I can't reference it properly. I made it in two loaf tins so that Sanjay can take one to work tomorrow and I can take the other to show off to Mothers' Group. I like this cake because it uses things that I often have hanging around the house so although this is the first time I've made it I can see it becoming a staple.

Apple and Honey Cake
Preheat oven to 180C and grease a 20cm cake tin (or two loaf tins).

Ingredients
3 eggs
100g caster sugar
70g honey
80g softened unsalted butter
300g sifted self-raising flour
1 level tsp ground cinnamon
3 apples, peeled and cored and cut into 1cm pieces (I used 300g of apple, after it was all prepared, which was 3.5 very small granny smith apples)

Method
Beat together the eggs, caster sugar and honey until the mixture is pale and fluffy. a Beat in the butter (it looked fabulous until I added the butter, but seemed to flatten and reduce dramatically in volume) then stir in the sifted flour, cinnamon and apple pieces.

Spoon the mixture, and it's a bit hard to deal with, being almost all apple, into the cake tin (I think it'll look better if I sprinkle a bit of demerera sugar on the top) bake for 40-45 minutes (test til a skewer comes out clean). Cool on a cake rack.

(Posted the day after baking, after I had a chance to sample and get feedback about it - my verdict is it was a little dry and a tiny bit more honey in the mix or some cream to serve it with might be nice)