50th Birthday Chocolate Cake

Also known as Numbers cake or letter cake or Alphabet Cake. This cake is super trendy on Instagram in 2018. Usually is a tart based cake with delicious mascarpone cream, decorated with fresh fruits, meringue, flowers and more. This cake is perfect for birthday or any special occasions.

I decided to make a chocolate cake for this occasion.

 

Vegan Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake

This easy Vegan Apple Cake is made with fresh ingredients that come together quickly. No need to fuss with frosting.....a simple sprinkle of cinnamon sugar is all the bling it needs!!

Light and fluffy vegan apple cake. Packed with fresh apple flavour and absolutely divine served warm with vegan pouring cream or vegan ice cream.

It has all those gorgeous fall flavours like cinnamon and nutmeg and it's topped with a cinnamon sugar combination that creates the most delicious caramelized crust on top of this cake.

Ingredients:

For the Apple Cake:

• 312g  (2½ cup) plain flour 
• 300g (1½ cup) light brown sugar 
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• 240ml (1 cup )vegan buttermilk ( 1 tbsp lemon juice + soy milk)
• 80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp applesauce
• 188g (1½ cup) granny smith apples, peeled and chopped

For the Cinnamon Sugar Topping:

• 100g ( ½ cup) granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 15g vegan butter, softened

Serving:

• vegan pouring cream or vegan ice cream

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160ºC. Grease a 9x13 dish and set aside.

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add in the brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix together.

Prepare your vegan buttermilk by adding 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice to a measuring cup then adding soy milk up to the 1 cup line. Leave it for 5 minutes to allow it to curdle.

Add the vegan buttermilk, oil, vanilla, apple cider vinegar and applesauce to the mixing bowl and mix well. The batter will be thick.

Add the chopped apple pieces and fold in.

Prepare the cinnamon sugar topping  by adding the sugar and cinnamon to a bowl and mixing together. Then add the softened vegan butter and mix it in until well combined and the mixture is crumbly.

Sprinkle over the top of the cake.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Serve warm with vegan pouring cream or vegan ice cream.

Lemon Chiffon Cake

Chiffon cakes are not only tall, light and airy but they are also incredibly rich and tender. The height comes from the whipped egg white, and the moist crumb is the result of a few egg yolks and vegetable oil.

Chiffon cakes are some of the most beautiful cakes you will find in a bakery case. They may not have multiple layers or fancy frosting, but they are classic cakes that are always crowd-pleasers. That makes this delightful lemon chiffon cake recipe the perfect addition to your baking repertoire.

The key to a successful chiffon cake is perfectly whipped egg whites. When you lift the beater from the bowl they form peaks that yield with gravity. Once you have these beautifully whipped egg whites, make sure they retain air as you incorporate them into the rest of the chiffon cake batter.

Like an angel food cake, which is very similar in appearance, this lemon chiffon cake is baked in a round tube pan. The pan should be degreased, allowing the cake "to climb" the sides of the pan as it rises. Once baked, the cake should stick to the sides of the pan. When you invert the pan and allow the cake to cool, it won't fall out of the pan. When ready to ice and serve the cake, simply run a knife along the outside edge of the pan and it will release itself beautifully.

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs, separated ( about 50g each w/o shell)
• 120g sugar, divided
• 3 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
• 2 lemons, zested and juiced
• 75g cake flour*
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp icing sugar, for sprinkling on the cake

Method:

You will need a 7" chiffon cake pan.  Do not grease the mould.  Preheat oven to 170ºC/160ºC for fan assist oven.

Separate the eggs to yolks and whites. Egg yolks in a large bowl and egg whites in the stand-mixer. In the bowl with egg yolks add half of the sugar and whisk until pale yellow.

Add 3 tbsp vegetable oil and zest of 2 lemons. Add 4 tbsp lemon juice to the egg mixture and whisk well.

Sift 75g cake flour and 1 tsp baking powder into the egg mixture. Whisk until totally incorporated and make sure there are no lumps.

In a stand mixer, whisk the egg whites on medium low speed until opaque, foamy and bubbly. Increase the speed to high and add in the sugar slowly in small increments. It takes about 2-3 minutes until stiff peaks form. To check on stiff peaks, pull up your whisk and see if the egg whites go straight up and just the tip is soft enough that it folds over.

Using a whisk, fold in 1/3 of the egg whites in the batter until the mixture is homogeneous. Fold in the rest of the egg whites in 2-3 increments and mix gently until the mixture is homogeneous.

Pour the batter into the ungreased 7" chiffon cake pan in the same location to prevent from forming more bubbles.

To prevent or remove air pockets before baking, run a skewer or spatula through the batter and then drop the pan gently on the kitchen worktop a few times.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean and the top of the cake springs back when gently pressed. 

As soon as you take out the cake pan from the oven, drip it gently on the kitchen worktop to stop shrinking. The cake must be cooled upside down in its pan so that it stretches downward instead of collapsing. Let it cool completely.

To remove the cake, run a thin sharp knife around both the outer and inner edge of the cake. Remove the cake from the pan and run the knife on the bottom. Move onto a serving plate.

Dust with icing sugar on top, if you like, and enjoy!

Note: For home made cake flour:

For every 1 cup of plain flour, remove 2 tbsp of plain flour

Add 2 tbsp of cornflour for every 1 cup of plain flour. Basically you are replacing the 2 tbsp of plain flour taken out.

Sift 4-6 times and it is ready-to-use cake flour

1 cup cake flour =120g

Sourdough Blueberry Crumb Cake

This sourdough blueberry crumb cake is one of my favourite ways to use up sourdough discard. It's easy and delicious!. It's pretty easy to make and it's perfect when you need a sweet addition to breakfast, or something delicious to take to a gathering.

This is such a fabulously tasty way to put your leftover starter to good use-you will not believe how delicious this coffee crumb cake is.  

You can also use other fruit in place of the blueberries, such as raspberries or blackberries.  Make sure to add this cake to your sourdough discard recipes!

This is an easy cake using the "all in one" method. You can use a hand mixer or a stand mixer to make the batter.

Ingredients:

Streusel Topping:

• 6 tbsp plain flour
• 6 tbsp demerara sugar
• 70g cold butter, cut in to cubes
• 2 tsp cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling over cake
• pinch of salt

For the cake: 

• 240g plain flour
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 200g sugar
• 115g butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 230g sourdough starter
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 200g blueberries, divided
• 2 tbsp demerara sugar to sprinkle

Glaze:

• 100g icing sugar
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

For the streusel crumb topping: Put the flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. use your fingers to rub together until the mixture looks like crumbs. Squish some of the crumbs together to make bigger clumps. Set aside while you prepare the cake.

To make the cake: Preheat oven to 170ºC/160ºC for fan assist oven. Lightly grease a 9 inch square cake tin and line with baking paper.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir together to mix the dry ingredients.

Add the butter, eggs, sourdough starter, milk and vanilla extract. Start beating on low speed the increase speed to high and beat well until the batter is smooth. make sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with spatula halfway through.

Spread half the cake batter un the prepared cake tin. Scatter with half the blueberries and a little demerara sugar. Top with the remaining batter, carefully spreading over the fruit and levelling.

Top the cake with the crumb topping and scatter the remaining blueberries. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar and sprinkling of cinnamon.

Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, tenting the cake with foil if it is browning too quickly. The cake is ready when well risen and golden and the crumb topping is crisp.

Cool the cake in the tin for 20 minutes then lift onto a wire rack to cool completely, lifting by the overhanging paper.

To make the glaze: Mix the icing sugar and juice of half lemon in a bowl, adding more lemon juice as needed until you have a pourable glaze the consistency of maple syrup or honey. Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the cake.

Slice the cake into squares and serve with a cup of coffee or tea. You can also serve warm with a little whipped cream, custard or vanilla ice cream for dessert.