Oct 18

Cookbook 51: Cakes & Slices Cookbook

This week I cooked from one of my favourite cake cookbooks, the Australian Women’s Weekly, Cakes and Slices Cookbook (available second hand in places if you look for it).  I wanted to steal my mother’s copy of this book when I moved out of home I loved it so much, but she wouldn’t let me.  Instead she bought me my very own copy, my mum rocks.

I love the way this book is divided into common ingredients, such as chocolate, banana, or dried fruit, or ways to cook such as mix it all together at once, or using a food processor.  The instructions in this book are clear, the ingredients easy to find, and the results are delicious.  I give this 4.5 stars out of 5.

Cinnamon and Walnut Syrup Cake

Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4 cup castor sugar
  • 3/4 cup self-raising flour
  • 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 185g butter, melted
  • 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Syrup

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup water

Method:

  1. Grease a 23cm square slab pan
  2. Beat eggs in a small bowl with electric mixter until thick and creamy, gradually add sugar, beat until dissolved between each addition.  Beat in sifted flour and cinnamon in several batches, beat in butter, stir in walnuts.
  3. Pour mixture into prepared pan, bake in moderate oven (180C) for about 30 minutes.  Stand 5 minutes, turn onto a wire rack, leave upside down.  Place tray under rack.  Pour hot syrup over hot cake.  Serve cake warm or cold.

Syrup:

  1. Combine sugar and water in saucepan, stir constantly over heat without boiling until sugar is dissolved, bring to the boil, reduce heat, simmer uncovered 5 minutes.

Notes on this recipe:

  • Pre-heating the oven really should be the first or second step in this recipe
  • It doesn’t really need the walnuts, so if you’re allergic to them, you can easily leave them out of this recipe without much difficulty.  I never understood why cinnamon and walnuts are put together anyway.
  • The cake is very tasty.  I’d not made this one before, and it turned out really well and was quite easy (though don’t start playing a board game halfway through making the syrup like I did.

Ginger Banana Cake

Ingredients:

  • 90g butter
  • 2 tablespoons golden syrup
  • 1/4 cup castor sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2/3 cup mashed banana (2 bananas worth)
  • 1 1/2 cup self-raising flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 tablespoon milk

Lemon Frosting

  • 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
  • 30g butter
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup chopped glace ginger

Method:

  1. Grease a 20cm ring pan, line base with paper; grease paper
  2. Cream butter, golden syrup and sugars in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add egg, beat until combined, them beat in banana.  Transfer mixture to large bowl, stir in sifted dry ingredients and milk.
  3. Pour mixture into prepared pan.  Bake in moderate oven (180C)  for about 45 minutes.  Stand 5 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.  Spread cold cake with frost, sprinkle with ginger.

Lemon Frosting:

  1. Combine sifted icing sugar with butter and enough juice to mix to a spreadable consistency

Notes on this recipe

  • Again the preheating of the oven should be the first or second step in this recipe
  • I don’t have a ring pan so I baked this in a loaf pan – which worked perfectly.
  • I also didn’t use glace ginger because it gives me heartburn.  It wasn’t really necessary, the lemon frosting nicely offsets the ginger in the cake mixture.  All in all, this cake is awesome.

Frosted Choc-Orange Cake

Ingredients:

  • 125g butter
  • 1 tablespoon grated orange rind
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
  • 1 1/2 cups castor sugar
  • 1/2 cup cocoa
  • 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 1/4 cup water

Choc-orange frosting:

  • 60g butter
  • 1 tablespoon grated orange rind
  • 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa

Method:

  1. Grease a deep 19cm square cake pan, line base with paper; grease paper
  2. Combine all ingredients in large bowl, beat on low speed with electric mixer until ingredients are combined.  Increase speed to medium, beat for about 3 minutes or until mixture is changed in colour and smooth.  Pour into prepared pan, bake in moderate oven (180C) for about 1 hour.  Stand 5 minutes before turning on to a wire rack to cool.  Top cold cake with frosting.

Choc-Orange Frosting

  1. Beat butter and rind in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy, gradually beat in sifted icing sugar and milk.  Divide frosting in half, stir sifted cocoa into one half, mix well.  Top cake with spoonfuls of orange and chocolate icing, swirl icing with knife to give a marbled effect.

Notes on this recipe:

  • Again, preheating the oven should be earlier in the recipe
  • This recipe is nice and easy because it’s pretty much, put everything in a bowl, blend, enjoy
  • I had run out of icing sugar for this recipe, so my frosting was a bit watery and only just covered the cake.  Which didn’t matter because it was still amazing.