Random cake recipe

[bunn]

This cake is a random 2 layer nut chocolate and spice cake.

Step 1: standard sponge recipe:
2oz butter
2oz sugar
4 oz self raising
Egg
mix butter and sugar, then flour, add egg and water till it makes a sort of thick batter.

Look at it.  Think: that looks a bit dull. Add a couple of spoonfuls of cocoa powder, some cinnamon, some vanilla essence and a bag of mixed chopped nuts that have been lurking at the back of the cupboard since 2004.

Put mixture into greased cake tin.  Realise that mixture is a bit on the small side for a tin of that size.  Put cake tin on side and consider options.

2oz more butter
2oz golden syrup for a change
4 oz plain flour (run out of self raising)
4 teaspoons of baking powder
Egg
Mix randomly together, add water till it looks about right again.  Decide it looks a bit dull.

Add
- 2 teaspoons ginger powder
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- some vanilla essence
- a tablespoon of black treacle.

Would have added some crystallised ginger only we didn't have any.
Pour on top of the first lot of (uncooked) batter: if the consistency is like mine, it won't mix. Spread out on the top a bit.

Bung in oven at 210 degrees.

LICK THE BOWL.  That's the best bit after all.

Wander away for about 20 mins, I think, though might have been a bit longer.  Basically, until you come back and  poke it and it's not gooey in the middle

You can then ice it, if you feel the urge.  I didn't.


 

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I liked it.

Strangely, so did Sumatra, who was happily licking the crumbs off the plate after I had a large piece last night after you'd gone to bed. I took it off him because I wasn't convinced that he should be eating it.

[clarienne.livejournal.com]

Mmm - that does sound nice.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

That sounds like the Pellinor method of baking. Except that his wouldn't be so precise as to bother with weights and measures, and would replace all the "4 oz" and "2 oz" entries with "a bit", and "some". It annoys me greatly that he makes cakes with such vagueness, but they end up perfect, while mind follow all the rules and fail miserably.

Sounds nice, though, apart from the nuts.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

My grandmother has said something similar about her sister's method of baking.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I can do that, but the results are a bit more erratic. I was actually aiming for something that I could record and reproduce, because I seem to be on a bit of a cooking lucky streak at the moment. Haven't had anything turn out really weird and unfortunate for quite a while now.

If you had been eating the cake, I'd have made sure we had some crystallised ginger in to substitute for the nuts. Or maybe fruit. Cant' remember if you eat ginger now, it suddenly seems like one of those things you might not.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I eat ginger. Like it a lot, actually. :-D

[chainmailmaiden]

Sounds nice :-) I've been doing some experimenting with cakes recently, still haven't got the results I want, but the testing has been fun :-D

Sometimes I use maple syrup instead of sugar, it's a very expensive substitute but tastes very nice!