Blueberry cream cheese butter cake

Its been ages since I updated the blog, and even longer since I posted a cake recipe. I have half written posts in my drafts and loads of reviews to be done, but somehow my days have become really busy..ever since I started working part time. I love my job and its opened up a completely new world of baking and cooking and such for me. More on that later.

I am not going to ramble today, yes, time constrained, so I'll go straight to the recipe. Like I said before, I hadn't baked a cake in a looong time and so on a day I felt the need to eat something seriously unhealthy, cake was what came to my mind. My usual Google searches led me to this fab recipe, tried by 3 of my fav bloggers and so I knew it was going to be a winner. 

Loads of butter, loads of sugar and loads of cream cheese is what nice things are made of. So by no means think that this is a low calorie cake...which I think is bull shit any way. There is nothing called low calorie cake. If you want to eat cake then go all out and eat the real thing is my motto! Which is also probably why I need to go on a crazy diet :O

I usually don't like to bake with butter, more so because the whole creaming it with sugar etc etc is messy and time consuming, as opposed to oil which is soo cool, you just pour it into the batter (and also I can be a teeny tiny happy its a bit better than butter). But once in a while I don't mind going all out and, although I cringed at the amount of ingredients needed, that's exactly what I did with this cake! The outcome was delicious. I mean really, really delicious. Its so moist, like melt-in-your-mouth moist, and the blueberries break down the sweetness at intervals. It so versatile, you can definitely make this cake plain or add any other flavouring like orange or lemon and it would be great. TRUST ME!

Recipe adapted from here (makes an 8 inch loaf cake + an 8 inch square cake)

Caster sugar- 1 cup

Butter- 250 gms, softened

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Eggs- 3, medium at room temperature

Cream cheese- 250 gms

Milk- 1/3rd cup

Self-raising flour- 2 1/4 cups

Blueberries- 150 gms, fresh or frozen (I used fresh)

I didn't have self raising flour so I made my own by sifting together 3 1/2 tsp of baking powder with 2 1/4 cups of plain flour. The ideal measurement is 2 tsp baking powder to 1 cup plain flour.

Pre heat the oven to 160C and line an 8 inch loaf pan and 8 inch square brownie  pan with baking paper

Beat together the sugar butter and vanilla extract in a free standing mixer, using the paddle attachment, till soft and fluffy. You can use your hand beater as well.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Change to the whisk attachment and add the cream cheese and milk. Whisk till the mix turns lump free and you get a smooth batter.

Add the flour and whisk just until mixed.

Using a spatula, fold in the blueberries.

Pour the batter into the lined pans till about 1/4th full and bake for about 50 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. My brownie pan took only 40 minutes to bake.

Once done, cool completely on a wire rack and before eating either dust with some icing sugar or have it plain.

Notes: Original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Even for an ardent sugar lover I thought that was a bit too much, so i reduced it to 1 cup. It was pleasantly sweet.

I changed to whisk attachment half way through because i noticed that the cream cheese was still in lumps and not smoothening out with the paddle attachment. The whisk worked like a charm.

The cake keeps well in the refrigerator for about a week. I cling wrapped it properly and refrigerated it. It also freezes well.

Replace the blueberries with any berry of choice.

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Honey chocolate cake

First of all, how incredibly pretty is my cake stand???? Searched high and low for something like this and finally found it for a 7 quid steal. I cant stop gushing about it. Ok, on to the recipe now...I have this ongoing relationship with honey and honey based recipes desserts/cakes...at least for now. One fine day I could wake up and just flip it around and would never want to see or even be called honey, for that matter!!! I was so obsessed with it at one point that I used to search for honey based desserts and cakes, make it, bin it, struggle with it, and on the very rare occasions savour it. Yes, most of it were disastrous, but that's how a food blogger rolls right? No don't answer that, I'd just be upset if that's not how you guys roll.

Anyhoo, two of my favourite recipes to this day when it comes to cakes (and honey) is the Jewish honey cake and this honey chocolate cake by none other than the Domestic Goddess Nigella. Say whatever you want, but I love Nigella and her super duper, throw-in-whatever-you-can recipes. I have tried loads of her recipes and its always a hit, except for the one time I tried a banana butterscotch muffin and that wasn't a fav, but that could be because I bought wrong butterscotch and the bananas weren't ripe enough. 

 

I have made this honey chocolate cake quite a few times and its never failed me. I cant believe it took me this long to post it on my blog, its simply because I've not had any left over to take pics. I realised that honey and chocolate is a match made in heaven and it pairs so beautifully. There is a faint taste of honey when you bite into a piece, and the chocolate just takes it to a whole different level. Sorry about being dramatic about this..but being pleasantly surprised by how chocolate paired with something can make it likable..is worth mentioning, especially to someone who doesn't think chocolate makes the world go round. Yeah, I'm talking about myself!

Its a dense, moist cake, rather than a light airy one which makes it perfect as a dessert/ party cake if you do all the glaze and stuff. But it work just as fine if you omit the fancy stuff and just bake the cake on its own for a tea time accompaniment. I've tried it both ways and personally, I would chuck the glaze and just serve the cake with a dollop of ice cream and a generous splash of Kahlua. ITS DIVINE! trust me. 

I am only giving you the recipe for the cake and not the sticky honey glaze. Also, feel free to halve the cake.

Recipe adapted from here

Dark chocolate- 100 gms, broken into pieces (more than 70% cocoa preferred)

Dark Brown sugar- 275 gms

Unsalted butter- 225 gms, softened

Honey- 125ml (runny)

Eggs- 2, medium

vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp (optional)

Plain flour- 200 gms

Baking soda- 1 tsp

Cocoa powder- 1 tbsp

Boiling water- 250ml

Kahlua (coffee liqueur)- 3 to 4 tbsp (optional)

 

Place the chocolate chunks in a large bowl and melt over a pot of simmering water till smooth and keep aside to cool slightly. You can also do this in the microwave by heating it in bursts till all the chocolate melts. 

Sift/ mix together the flour, baking soda and cocoa powder and keep aside.

Into a large mixing bowl add the sugar and butter and beat together till light and fluffy, either using a hand beater or the paddle attachment of a free standing mixer. You can also just use a strong whisk to do this.

Add the eggs, one after the other beating well after each addition, followed by vanilla extract (if using).

Fold in the melted chocolate with a spatula, making sure its all well mixed.

Tip in the flour mix and mix well, making sure there are no lumps.

Finally add the boiling water and beat well to get a slightly runny batter, but smooth and without any traces of flour.

Pour into a 9inch baking pan which has been buttered and lined with baking paper, and bake in an oven pre heated at 180C for about 1.30 hours.

Check the cake after about 45 minutes and if you think its browning on top, cover loosely with foil paper and continue baking. Keep checking every 15 minutes or so to see if its done.

Once a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, you can take it out of the oven and cool on a rack.

While still a tad hot, poke small holes in the cake using a skewer and pour over the Kahlua so it soaks up well. Alternatively, you can just do as I'd mentioned above.

 

Notes: Original recipe calls for light muscavado sugar, but brown sugar works perfectly fine.
Use good quality honey.

Nigella's procedure is slightly different from the one I have mentioned, both methods work fine, I just prefer to do it this way because its more organised (that's right, I said organised).

She also says you can blitz together everything except the boiling water which you can pour down the funnel with the motor running. Haven't really tried doing that, but if she says it works, IT WORKS!

Replace Kahlua with coffee for an almost similar taste.

The cake stays for about 3 days at room temperature, provided you can manage to keep it that long.

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Baker Days (review)

Recently an aunt of Ro's based in India, asked if we could get a birthday cake delivered to a cousin here and we went on a frantic search online for bakeries that did home delivery. Either they wouldn't deliver outside London or the rates for delivery was almost as that of the cake which made us wonder if it was ever possible to deliver a cake to someone special if required.

While highly leaning towards the 'not possible' mark, I received a mail asking if I could do a review for Baker Days, who sends personalised cakes for any occasion, anywhere in UK. I decided to give it a go and so went about checking out their website. With waaaay too many options to choose from., I was quite confused- Birthdays, Engagements, New Baby, Bon Voyage, and heck there is one for even passing your driving test. If that's not good enough then you can design your own cake by uploading a picture you like and getting than imprinted on the cake. 

 

So without wasting much time I went about ordering my cake. The website is pretty easy to navigate around and its as straight forward as it can get. You can select either the Letterbox size which would easily serve 2 to 3 people or the Medium party cake which should get you around 8 to 16 portions. Since it was just Ro and me, I opted for the Letterbox version, and also because I sooo badly wanted to see what they meant by this. You then go about selecting the flavour- plain, carrot, lemon or fruit and if you are gluten intolerant, there is an option for that as well. 

The husband being a chocolate addict, I had to order the double chocolate chip cake and since I didn't have a personalised message to put in, I left that, but it was really sweet of them to include those wordings on the cake :)

You then check out, pay for it and wait till it arrives. And when it did arrive, it was perhaps the cutest lil cake I'd ever seen. It comes neatly wrapped and snugly fit in a tin, so no cracks and such possible. Along with it in the box were balloons, candles, a party horn and a card. I thought that was indeed a great addition and quite considerate.

 

Taste wise, the cake was excellent, I mean super duper moist and chocolatey with those nuts in between, and both of us managed to finish the cake in no time. I seriously wonder how they manage to make them so moist in spite of it being packaged and sent. If there was one fault, well not fault really, but something my taste buds didn't quite enjoy was the icing which came across as a tad too sweet. But on my really good days, I'm sure even that sugar high wouldn't bug me. Also a couple more flavours like red velvet and caramel and fudge would have been a great addition.

Cake cost starts at GBP 14.99 and depending on the flavour and preference, rates increase marginally, but not exorbitantly high. There is also no delivery charge, unless of course you need speedy delivery or something to that extent.

I was thoroughly impressed with Baker Days and am pretty sure I'd be a regular. So next time you want to order a cake online and get it delivered to anyone, anywhere in UK, you know where to go right? Well, all my UK friends watch out, you may be the lucky one to taste one of these awesome cakes :)

With thanks to Baker Days for sending me a cake to review

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