Have your cake and eat it!

I can't claim that this chocolate cake is a health food, but it is a special cake indeed. All too often, cakes that are trumpeted as being low in fat, are sadly also lacking in taste. But not this one! This chocolate cake is fudgey and very chocolatey, yet it manages to be lower in fat than a usual chocolate cake. 

A small slice of this cake comes in at 10.4g fat compared to a standard 49g bar of Dairy Milk which weighs in at 14g of fat. Now don't sneer at a small slice - as this cake has a fudge-like depth, you wouldn't want a big slab of it. Every little helps... 

Want to know the secret to this tasty, slightly healthier chocolate cake? 

Butternut squash - I kid you not! 

Wanna test it out? Get in touch and order it!  

Cookie Love - Update

A while ago,  I posted about a cookie cutter set I bought in New York and this weekend I managed to play about with some ideas using the cutters. I wanted to use a reliable cookie recipe that would produce a dough that can be rolled out easily and is not too sweet. I'm happy with the results, but still feel there's room to play around with different cookie recipes to suit the mood - sometimes I like a light, crisp cookie, other times I'd like a more 'short' sort of biscuit, like shortbread.

These cookies are very adaptable as I can change the messages to suit the occasion - for my practice cookies, I used the star cutter and the message 'You're a star', the heart cutter with 'I love you' and the scalloped edge rectangle cutter with 'Becky Bakeswell' and 'Keep calm carry on.' However, the messages can be changed easily, so I thought they would come in handy as wedding favours with the names of the couple stamped into them, birthday cookies or maybe baby shower cookies.

Looking forward to using them again!

Banana Breakfast Ring

A quick little post about a naughty breakfast treat! Sunday mornings are sometimes spent making banana pancakes, but last Sunday, I didn't have quite enough milk to make up the batter, so used this as an opportunity to make this cake from Nigella Lawson's book Feast. I had been meaning to make it for a couple of years, but felt guilty at the idea of eating cake for breakfast - illogical I know considering I don't mind eating pancakes, but I delude myself into thinking they're ok if I eat them with fruit!

This cake is lovely while it's still warm from the oven, with a cup of tea and it's easy to make. It's also useful because it's actually better when it's made with bananas that are past their best and the ingredients are also ones you will likely have lurking in your kitchen - perfect for a Sunday morning when the last thing you want to do is traipse to the supermarket for ingredients!

Ingredients

450g (3 medium) ripe bananas
60ml corn oil or other oil
3 eggs
Zest and juice of a lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
325g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade/ 350 Farenheit/ Gas Mark 4.

1) Grease a 24cm/1.5 litre ring mould ( I tend to use spray oil as I find it gets into the decorative crenelations of the ring mould more easily).

2) Mash the bananas in a roomy mixing bowl, add the oil, eggs, lemon zest and juice, vanilla and sugar.

3) Whisk everything together and then fold in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

4) Pour the cake batter into the oiled ring mould and bake for approx 40 mins. I have a fan assisted oven and found that my cake was done in 35 mins, so check at 30 mins to be on the safe side.

5) Let the cake sit for about 5-10 mins before turning out.

6) Make a cup of tea or coffee, release the cake from its mould and cut a generous slice. Sit back and enjoy your weekend!

Hints and Tips

• I love ground almonds so I replaced 25g of the flour with 25g ground almonds. It gives the cake a lovely subtle almond flavour and a soft, slightly damp texture perfect for a plain cake. 

• My ring mould is a silicon ring mould from Morrisons supermarket. I think the cake ring was about £6.00. You can use a bundt ring cake tin though - they are available from Lakeland  http://www.lakeland.co.uk/13324/My-Kitchen-Cook-and-Bake-Fluted-Cake-Ring or I have seen them from time to time in TK Maxx. You can also buy them on Amazon for a reasonable price if you are reading this and live outside of the UK.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Faringdon-Collection-Bakers-Non-Stick-Fluted/dp/B0000BVFHV/ref=pd_cp_kh_1

• If you don't have a cake ring and you want to make this without one, you could try making it in a loaf tin, as long as it's roughly the same capacity - 1.5 litres (I think this is a 2Ib loaf tin if you work in imperial measures). You will need to keep a closer eye on cooking times though - might take slightly longer as the mix will be in a deeper tin.