Pink lime cake with cream cheese frosting

I've been longing to try this cake for some time, after seeing it on Linda Lomelino's blog last year. It's just so beautiful (her photographs are always stunning as well), and looks so yummy. So there was a birthday coming up, and I seized the opportunity to try it out. The cake is baked in quite a small tin, making it really tall and slim, which I thought was quite exciting. Decorating with real flowers is something I haven't tried before, but this went down very well with the guests, and was no trouble doing! All in all a very fun cake, that I'd happily do again. Who's birthday is it next?

The recipe is as follows:

Pink lime cake

Time: About 2 hours incl icing

Oven: 175C/Gas mark 6/350F

Tin: 15cm/6in

Ingredients

For the cake

3 large eggs

240g caster sugar

1 dl milk

180g flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Zest of 1 lime

Pink food colouring

Heat oven to 175°C (350F). Butter a 15 cm cake pan and layer the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper (the paper around the edges should be taller than the pan itself). Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Heat milk and vanilla slightly in a saucepan and carefully mix with egg mixture. In another bowl, mix flour and baking powder and sift into bowl with wet ingredients. Add lime zest and pink food colouring if desired and stir until combined. Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake 50-55 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

For the icing

100g butter

300g Philadelphia Cream cheese

150g icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese and beat until combined. Add remaining ingredients and whip until smooth.

If frosting is too loose, put the bowl in the fridge for a while.

Decoration

Fresh roses (Pesticide-free and washed)

Cake assembly

Divide the cake into 3 parts. Put the top third on a serving tray, and spread a generous dollop of cream cheese frosting over it, covering out until the edges. Do the same to the other layers, finishing with the bottom part, which goes upside down to form a flat top. Cover the whole cake with frosting. Set in the fridge to cool.

Decorate with fresh roses. (I wrapped mine with greaseproof paper before inserting them into the cake.)

That's it!



Finally, and most importantly, make sure the dog does not get hold of the cake

Asparagus, lemon & ricotta tart

When I'm home from working late, I struggle to find the motivation to make food, wether it's dinner, or something ambitious like lunch for the next day. This tart recipe is really easy to do, and can give little munchies like me, a good lunch and dinner for a couple of days.

In the spirit of time and money saving, I have used ready-roll shortcrust pastry in this recipe.

Ingredients
1 Pack pre rolled shortcrust pastry
3 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
300ml double cream
1 lemon, zest only
300g pack of asparagus, ends trimmed
140g ricotta
handful mint leaves, chopped

Method
Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Roll out the pastry over a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin. Press the pastry into the sides, then prick the base with a fork. Blind bake for 10-15 mins. Beat one of the eggs. Remove baking beans and brush with egg wash. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until golden. Leave to cool.

Reduce the oven to 180C/fan 160C/ gas 4. Whisk together the remaining eggs, then gently mix in the cream and lemon zest until all combined. Season with salt. Pour the cream mixture into the tart case, then arrange the asparagus spears on top. Dollop over teaspoonfuls of ricotta and sprinkle with the mint, then carefully slide into the oven. Cook for 25-30 mins until the quiche is set with just the faintest wobble in the middle.

Leave to cool for 10 minutes and serve warm, perfect with a fresh salad.

Great for keeping in the fridge for lunch the next day.

Carrot and pistachio cake

For my first blogpost I'm posting a cake I made for work this week, to celebrate St. Patricks Day. Or so was my rationale for making a cake mid-week anyway. It's a recipe from BBC Good Food, where I find a lot of good cake recipes, and I decided to half it to not be too overwhelming for a Tuesday. I also put it in a smaller tin (7inch/18cm) to make it look neater. I switched walnuts for pistachios to keep to a green theme, and added green food paste colour to the icing. Both of these are optional for an everyday cake of course, like an un-St.Patricks Day Wednesday.

Carrot and Pistachio cake

Time: About 2 hours

Oven: 160C/325F/Gas 3

Tin: 18cm/7inch

Ingredients

For the carrot cake

200ml vegetable oil

200g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

275g sugar

3 free-range eggs

1/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

260g carrots, grated

75g shelled pistachio nuts, chopped

Handful pistachios for decoration

For the icing

150g caster sugar

100g/3½oz butter, softened

200g/7oz cream cheese

(This is enough to ice the entire cake)

Preparation method

For the carrot cake

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line a 18cm/7in cake tin. Mix all of the ingredients for the cake, except the carrots and pistachios, together in a bowl until well combined. Stir in the carrots and pistachios.

Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the cake from the tin and set aside to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Meanwhile, for the icing, beat the cream cheese, caster sugar and butter together in a bowl until fluffy. Spread the icing over the top of the cake with a palette knife. Decorate with pistachio nuts.