You'd better come on down

And meet, the nicest kids in town (not that I'm biased at all)

Also, there actually is cake in this post. Quite a lot of cake

I was trying to work out what order these next few posts should go in. Should we go with the most recent camp backwards to the fundraising, or the other way around? Does anyone else really care? In the end my need to be ordered won out and we're starting with the fundraising. This year's cafe was to raise funds for the girls centenary adventures, and whilst we raised less money than previously, the cafe was buzzing, the girls had an amazing time and there was a lot of cake.

See, a lot of cake. And you can't even see the cream teas that we were serving from the kitchen as the scones were being baked freshly.

The Rocky Road that I had trialed previously went down a storm - although it's a family cafe, something based in chocolate is obviously going to be popular! As well as the rocky road, I made a victoria sandwich using Nigella's recipe and cupcakes to the Magnolia Bakery recipe that I've posted about previously. I used blue vanilla buttercream to frost them, and in honour of our centenary sprinkled them with white chocolate stars. Sadly the photograph doesn't do them justice - let's just say this, lots of little hands got them out of their box and put them in the stand.

Victoria Sponge

Since my food processor went to the big, dusty cupboard under the stairs in the sky, I did this old school style - something I haven't done for a while. It takes more elbow grease than I remember! When using the procesor I add extra baking powder.


This is from Nigella's How to Eat, a book that I use more than I think going by the mucky pages strewn throughout. It was actually the first cookbook I read from cover to cover before actually using it as a cookbook.

Ingredients (as always, my notes are in italics)

200g self-raising flour Nigella doesn't sift hers, but I do - old habits and that. I have visions of my formidable Home Economics teacher turning up in my kitchen, peering over my shoulder and demanding that I redo it

25g cornflour
225g caster sugar
225g very soft unsalted butter - so soft that should you want to you would be able to squish your finger in it. Try this with a knife, not your finger though
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2-4 tablespoons milk - Nigella specifies full fat milk, but as I never have this in the house I use skimmed

Method


Preheat the oven to gas makr 4/ 180
Butter and flour 2 sandwich tins (I only have one - I'm sure at some point I had two, but alas, no longer)
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
Add the eggs, beating in one at a time, alternating with a spoonful of the sifted flour
Add the vanilla extract
Fold in the rest of the flour gently (add the baking powder and cornflour to the rest of the flour when I'm weighing out my ingredients)
Stir in the milk

Divide between your cake tins and bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes. Mine take slightly less time as we have a fan oven, but test with a skewer to be sure. Cool on a wire rack and sandwich together with jam. I used an apricot and amaretto jam that I had bought from Kavey of Kavey Eats when she had a stall at Covent Garden, it was amazing and I did think I could have added some almond extract or (if I had the processor) some marzipan to take that amaretto-ey flavour further through the cake. I would have used that in place of the vanilla extract.
Dusted with icing sugar, taken to the Guide hut and sold for 75p a slice I think.


No pictures of my cake I'm afraid as by this time the camera had been donated to an older Guide and I was to be found in a corner inhaling a cream tea and a coffee (a contradiction there I'm sure, but hopefully you know what I mean?)

Marshmallow treats


Rice Krispie cakes

And finally... a small story for you as an aside. One of my Brownies came to help her sister who is one of my Guides out at the cafe. It's always great to have an extra pair of hands on board and Georgie has sales skills that Alan Sugar would envy. Faced with customers she would point to the cake below and explain that "this is my Nonna's cake. It's Italian. You're lucky to be allowed to eat it. That's one pound please" (it was supposed to be 50p a slice, but who am I to complain) Genius. I think everyone bought pieces of Nonna's cake. I am also holding out for the recipe, it was that good. Also note the chocolate cupcake that had managed to become unpeeled during her sales pitches... clever girl that Georgie!

If you seek perfection in sugar confection well there's something new on the scene

I'm sure you weren't expecting to hear from me again so soon. But alongside the bread, I also made Promise cake this week.

Promise cake is a very important institution at both the Brownies and Guides I volunteer with. When a girl is ready to make her promise she does so in front of the rest of the unit, and we welcome her into the Sisterhood of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. To celebrate this occaision, as well as going into uniform for the first time, and getting her promise badge, the girl also has a Promise cake which everyone shares. Reminding us that we're all part of a family that celebrates together.

To be honest - and this is just between you and me - the cake is nothing special. It's Nigella's recipe for a Victoria Sponge, it's in How to Eat and Domestic Goddess

225g unsalted butter, very soft

225g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

200g self raising flour

25g cornflour

3 - 4 tablespoons milk

2 x 21cm sandwich tins buttered (I only have one of these, and every time I'm somewhere where I can buy one, I look and get entirely confused about what size I already have!)

Nigella says that you can whack all of this in the food processor and add a teaspoon of baking powder and blitz it to a batter. I'm afraid I'm old school, so I do it the way I was taught in Home Ec, and cream teh butter and sugar, add the eggs, alternating with a spoonful of flour and then the vanilla. Sift and fold in the rest of the flour, cornflour and add the milk until the mixture is a dropping consistency.

Bake in a 180 degree oven for 25 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

At Guides we've had it filled with raspberry jam, lime curd, and whipped cream and strawberry jam. All very popular, although apparently not "as good as Brown Owl's"! Not that I'm competitive or anything, but I shall spend the rest of my days honing this recipe until I at least achieve equity with Brown Owl! I normally let the girls top the cake and we try to replicate our Trefoil with silver balls, icing or icing sugar over a stencil. One day we'll get one that's successful. Alternatively I could learn to actually ice a cake!

To my mind, the important part of a promise ceremony, and the accompanying cake is that we share it, together, we celebrate together, and the girls remember that our unit is part of the wider Guiding family. As you can't see the girls' faces I've added a picture of a recent promise below.

Oh and thanks must go to Virna for today's title, as musical references to cake were beyond my reach today. So thank you Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Virna!

Part One: Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Or so the song goes anyway. This weekend I’ve been trying to bake my cares away. With a certain amount of success it has to be said. There is an amount of satisfaction to be derived from the creation of things for others to eat, especially when one’s appetite is absent without leave as mine is at present. That said, I’ve done an admiral job of polishing off two slices of cake this morning – only cause my antibiotics must be taken with food you understand.

My Victoria Sandwich cake is a Nigella recipe, and as a rule I fill it with Tiptree strawberry jam. I fell in love with this brand (well they stole my wholehearted affection from Bonne Maman) on discovery of their Victoria Plum conserve which is amazing. Sadly because Tiptree will only make their conserves with what is in season, until such time as we have a relatively dry summer (seriously powers that be, I’m asking here!) I’m out of luck. Until that time strawberry fills the hole, raspberry is not so good on account of the pips, but bramble jelly works especially well with cream scones. Please excuse the tangent. Jam is important to me, and I think something I’m going to conquer, having mastered the art of pastry *cough* well, most of the time anyway.

So the cake, well my Guides loved it – we have a tradition of Promise cakes that I blatantly stole from my Brown Owl, so promise ceremonies are much hoped for. Last term heralded no less than 8 promises, and we are waiting on another new member, with much whispering in the back of “cake! Cake!” And that’s just the leaders.

Anyway, so Nigella’s recipe for a Victoria Sandwhich is as she promises, easy. It can be made in the food processor, or as I choose with a hand blender (less washing up that way). And far from my memories of endless creaming of butter and sugar that come from having a sadist of a Home Economics teacher it’s a case of chuck it all in and bake. Wham, Bam thank you Ma’am. Or something along those lines.

For a two layer cake (2 x 21cm, 5cm cake tins)

220g self raising flour (I do bend to tradition and sift the flours and baking powder)
25g cornflour
2 tsps baking powder
225g butter
2 – 4 tblsps milk (Nigella says to use full fat, but with all that butter I’ve never noticed a problem with the milk being skimmed)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (if you plan ahead and have vanilla caster sugar – which I’ve just used up – to hand, leave this out)
225g caster sugar (I picked up the wrong packet and used light brown soft sugar yesterday, it affected the colour of the cake but nothing else) plus extra to dust over the top.

I beat the softened butter and sugar together until pale and creamy then add the eggs and flours, and finally the milk until I get a soft batter. I whisk using a hand blender on low and remember to scrape my bowl down on a regular basis.

The cake gets baked for half an hour at 220° in two tins, or if like me you’ve lost one of your sandwich pans (where? I don’t know, I swear our cupboard eats bakeware) then in two batches, ad cool completely on a wire tray.

When cool sandwich together with jam, or for more discerning audiences that Guides, jam and whipped cream, or whipped sweetened mascarpone. Simple, the first thing I ‘learnt’ to make at school, and I am still doing so 21 years later when my Twilight DVD skips for no reason and I'm home alone on a Saturday night.

Oh and by the way has anyone else tried Nigella's Basic bread recipe from How to Eat? Pages 31 - 32. It needs at least double the amount of yeast she suggests and less kneading? Am I right? All contributions and suggestions gratefully received.