So.... I'm so in love with my Rachel Allen book right now. CAKE by Rachel Allen is filled with wonderful cake recipes, all kinds of cakes. Rustic, simple and incredibly tempting recipes that make you want to sit in your kitchen all day and put the oven on overtime mode. Oh sister, how I love thee; for you thought of the perfect gift for me.
So yes, I wanted to bake a cake a day, if only. As I started reading it, I began putting my post it notes on every other page, my must try list and it was sooooooooooo difficult to settle on one. The decisions in life I tell you. So one of the recipes I selected was this recipe for Sticky toffee date cakes and boy am I glad I did. These lovely cakes didn't disappoint at all. Easy to make, a little effort and a super easy sauce for the topping. These cakes taste great even without the sauce, but this lovely caramel sauce takes it from simple date cakes to a heavenly addictive dessert. My verdict, don't ditch the sauce. It's hardly any effort and has great results.
Let's get started then.
150 gms pitted dates, roughly chopped.
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g butter
100 gms powdered sugar
2 eggs
150 gms flour
1 tsp baking powder.
And this is what we do:
Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a muffin tray with paper cases. This recipe makes about 12 cakes.
Though you only need to roughly chop the dates, make sure you don't have any large chunky bits. Once you've chopped the dates, put them in a saucepan with 200 ml water and bring to a boil. Take the pan off heat and stir in the bicarb.
In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar till creamy. Add the eggs one by one and sift in flour and baking powder. Then add the dates along with any water in the pan. Really , this is how simple it is.
Divide the mixture between the cases. I find using an ice cream scoop very helpful to spoon the batter into the cases. Bake for about 20 -25 mins till they turn a shade of deep golden.
While they cook in the oven, make the sauce simply by mixing 125 gms butter, 125 gms brown sugar, 75 ml cream.(I used Amul Cream) Bring this mixture to a boil and then let it cook for a further 2 minutes and remove from heat. Don't worry if the sauce isn't too thick, it will thicken as it cools. Cook on a medium flame and don't let it burn.
Spoon over the warm sauce over the cooked cupcakes.
While any left over sauce can be stored in the fridge for a few months in a n air tight container, I truly found it hard to let any sauce remain...
So you know the right thing to do: Bake...................
Let's get started then.
150 gms pitted dates, roughly chopped.
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g butter
100 gms powdered sugar
2 eggs
150 gms flour
1 tsp baking powder.
And this is what we do:
Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a muffin tray with paper cases. This recipe makes about 12 cakes.
Though you only need to roughly chop the dates, make sure you don't have any large chunky bits. Once you've chopped the dates, put them in a saucepan with 200 ml water and bring to a boil. Take the pan off heat and stir in the bicarb.
In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar till creamy. Add the eggs one by one and sift in flour and baking powder. Then add the dates along with any water in the pan. Really , this is how simple it is.
Divide the mixture between the cases. I find using an ice cream scoop very helpful to spoon the batter into the cases. Bake for about 20 -25 mins till they turn a shade of deep golden.
While they cook in the oven, make the sauce simply by mixing 125 gms butter, 125 gms brown sugar, 75 ml cream.(I used Amul Cream) Bring this mixture to a boil and then let it cook for a further 2 minutes and remove from heat. Don't worry if the sauce isn't too thick, it will thicken as it cools. Cook on a medium flame and don't let it burn.
Spoon over the warm sauce over the cooked cupcakes.
While any left over sauce can be stored in the fridge for a few months in a n air tight container, I truly found it hard to let any sauce remain...
So you know the right thing to do: Bake...................
Ron, I need a non bake desert recepie. Send one my way soon please
ReplyDeleteComin up sooon..... Promise............... You can try these for now
ReplyDeletehttp://chefonduty.blogspot.in/2011/10/chocolate-cream-pudding.html with a store bought chocolate cake
or this http://chefonduty.blogspot.in/2011/08/biscuit-log-with-whipped-cream-and.html
and this is as simple as it can get http://chefonduty.blogspot.in/2012/02/fruit-trifle.html