The Queen of Sheba

Happy 2nd Birthday Alice! 

My youngest niece turned two a short while ago and we all celebrated her birthday.  Alice had a wonderful time and was a little overwhelmed at all of the attention, particularly when it came to cutting the cake.  

My sister, Catherine, had made a fantastic spider cake, pictured here.  All Alice wanted to do was pat it which she did very carefully and fortunately after we had all taken photos of it.  Disaster was swiftly avoided. 

The cake itself was delicious. It is from a recipe for a Queen of Sheba cake.  Pretty much equal parts egg, sugar and almond meal.  Such a quick and easy cake to make.  This cake has been a regular visitor to our family's table for a number of years and it is always a winner.

Queen of Sheba Cake (Reine de Saba, as it is a French cake)

120g of unsalted melted butter

120g of caster sugar

120g of ground almonds

120g of melted dark chocolate

4 extra large eggs, separated

a pinch of salt

Melt the butter and chocolate together and cool together.

Mix in sugar, egg yolks and almonds.   My brother, Tim, recommends that you can add vanilla, orange rind or almond essence to flavour the cake but this is not necessary, it is entirely delicious on its own.

Beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until stiff.  You can can reserve some of the sugar and beat it in here once they are stiff.

Mix in a quarter of the whites to lighten the chocolate mixture, then fold in the rest.

Pour into a greased mould (20-23cm) lined on the bottom with baking paper.

Bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes until the edges come away from the sides and a cake tester comes out clean.

Let the cake sit in the tin for a few minutes before turning it out to cool on a wire rack.

Serve the cake dusted with sugar, accompanied with whipped cream or coated with ganache or chocolate icing.  It is entirely up to you.  

Bon appetit! 

Rockin' Red Rocket Cake

Last week a friend of mine, Danny, turned the ripe old age of 30-something and I decided, along with my other half, that it would be a fun idea to bake him a birthday cake with a difference! Hence the Red Rocket Cake.

I got the idea from a couple of kid's birthday cake recipe books, namely the famous Womans' Weekly Children's Birthday Cake book from the early '80s that I know I wanted many a cake from as a child.  
Children's birthday cakes these days are far more professional looking than the ones that we all had as kids.  Gone are the days of the Vienna Icing coloured with Queen food colouring from the supermarket.  These are now replaced with the ready to roll icing that is coloured expertly, using paste colours and a great number of tools.  
When investigating these more up-to-date ingredients and methods, I decided that I would stick to the 'old fashioned way of doing things'.

The cake that I baked to shape the rocket out of, was my mother's chocolate cake recipe.  This was a tradition in our family where she would bake the cake in a very 1970's ring mould and ice it.

I made a single batch of cake batter which allowed to me to make two small round cakes, these I fashioned into the shape of the rocket.  Frankly the icing could have turned out better, but for a first try and really making it up as I went along, I think that it was a pretty good effort.  And besides, it was delicious!

My Mum's Chocolate Cake

185g of melted unsalted butter
3/4 cup pure cocoa
1/2 cup of hot water
1 cup of milk
1 & 1/2 cups of white sugar
3 eggs
2 cups of gluten-free self-raising flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon of gluten-free baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream the butter and the sugar, add the eggs one at a time.  Add the hot water to the cocoa in a jug and mix until smooth.  Add this to the mixture.  
Add the salt, soda, cream of tartar to the self-raising flour and sift together.
Add the flour to the mixture alternating with the milk.  Remember to finish the alternating with the milk for easy combining.

Bake in two large sponge tins in a moderate oven for 20 - 25 minutes.

I had a template to cut the base shape of the cake out from, then using chocolate ganache, I stuck all of the pieces of the cake together, cutting the shape of the rocket as I went.  I then coated the cake in the ganache.  This ganache is basically chocolate and cream melted and mixed together.  Leave it to cool before using or else it will be too runny.

Once the cake was at this stage, I let the ganache set whilst I made the Vienna Icing with a lot of red food colouring - not one for the kids!

Decorate the cake as desired with the icing and gluten-free goodies and enjoy!