Cakesperimentation
Philmophlegm requested cupcakes. I took this as an opportunity to cakesperiment.
I'd decided that some of the cakes would be chocolate cakes, and I've recently made several times a chocolate beetroot cake recipe, so I adapted that. But I didnt' want to make a whole big cake, so I cut the quantities by roughly a third:
1 cooked beetroot
60ml sunflower seed oil
65g self raising flour
1/3rd teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
85g sugar
couple heaped teaspoons cocoa powder
liquidise the beetroot, sunflower oil, and egg until you have a terrifyingly pink goop.
put all the dry stuff apart from the cocoa into a bowl, and poor on goop.
Stir together until you have an alarmingly pink batter.
If you wanted to make some cakes that aren't chocolatey at this point, separate off half the batter and stir in the cocoa to half of the batter. Otherwise just stir the cocoa in to all of it, dollop into cupcake cases in trays and cook at 180 degrees.
I did this because I wanted to see if the cakes would come out bright pink if cooked without chocolate (the pink is defeated by the brown once you put cocoa in). Disappointingly, the beetroot colour is lost during the cooking process, so you end up with a cake that is just slightly browny-greenish. Beetroot cake without cocoa is still quite deliciously moist and tasty though.
-----------------------------------
I also made a standard sponge and mixed half of the mix with chopped ginger and cinnamon, and the other half with grated lemon rind and lemon juice. But I've done that before so it's not really a cakesperiment.
Here are the United Colours of Cake before icing :
-----------------------------------
There still seemed to be ingredients left, so I made some Custard Cakes. I've made these before, but they came out a little too sweet and didn't rise very well, so I adjusted the recipe a bit this time.
100g custard powder (I used Birds)
200g butter
2 eggs
140g sugar
100g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
milk to mix
Do not sling all the ingredients in together randomly. The butter will go lumpy and it will take ages to get the lumps out, even with a whisk. Trust me, I speak from experience here.
Mix the butter with the sugar or the custard powder first, then stick the wet stuff in and then add the flour. I'm pretty sure that will be less work.
Bake for 20 mins at 160 degrees C and they should look like this :
The custard powder gives them an interestingly creamy flavour, and they were nice and light and not too sweet this time.
Finally, I iced them. The pink ones are beetroot icing, the yellow is lemon buttericing, the pale brown is cinnamon (with some sliced ginger on the top) and the dark brown as you'd expect is chocolate fudge icing.
Rather tragically, while I was busy making cakes, Philmophlegm was coming down with what looks like a rather nasty little gastric bug, and hasn't been able to eat any of them!
I'd decided that some of the cakes would be chocolate cakes, and I've recently made several times a chocolate beetroot cake recipe, so I adapted that. But I didnt' want to make a whole big cake, so I cut the quantities by roughly a third:
1 cooked beetroot
60ml sunflower seed oil
65g self raising flour
1/3rd teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
85g sugar
couple heaped teaspoons cocoa powder
liquidise the beetroot, sunflower oil, and egg until you have a terrifyingly pink goop.
put all the dry stuff apart from the cocoa into a bowl, and poor on goop.
Stir together until you have an alarmingly pink batter.
If you wanted to make some cakes that aren't chocolatey at this point, separate off half the batter and stir in the cocoa to half of the batter. Otherwise just stir the cocoa in to all of it, dollop into cupcake cases in trays and cook at 180 degrees.
I did this because I wanted to see if the cakes would come out bright pink if cooked without chocolate (the pink is defeated by the brown once you put cocoa in). Disappointingly, the beetroot colour is lost during the cooking process, so you end up with a cake that is just slightly browny-greenish. Beetroot cake without cocoa is still quite deliciously moist and tasty though.
-----------------------------------
I also made a standard sponge and mixed half of the mix with chopped ginger and cinnamon, and the other half with grated lemon rind and lemon juice. But I've done that before so it's not really a cakesperiment.
Here are the United Colours of Cake before icing :
-----------------------------------
There still seemed to be ingredients left, so I made some Custard Cakes. I've made these before, but they came out a little too sweet and didn't rise very well, so I adjusted the recipe a bit this time.
100g custard powder (I used Birds)
200g butter
2 eggs
140g sugar
100g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
milk to mix
Do not sling all the ingredients in together randomly. The butter will go lumpy and it will take ages to get the lumps out, even with a whisk. Trust me, I speak from experience here.
Mix the butter with the sugar or the custard powder first, then stick the wet stuff in and then add the flour. I'm pretty sure that will be less work.
Bake for 20 mins at 160 degrees C and they should look like this :
The custard powder gives them an interestingly creamy flavour, and they were nice and light and not too sweet this time.
Finally, I iced them. The pink ones are beetroot icing, the yellow is lemon buttericing, the pale brown is cinnamon (with some sliced ginger on the top) and the dark brown as you'd expect is chocolate fudge icing.
Rather tragically, while I was busy making cakes, Philmophlegm was coming down with what looks like a rather nasty little gastric bug, and hasn't been able to eat any of them!