I didn’t mention last Sunday that I was having a bit of a hard time (read: sheer panic. Utter despair. Tears. Hopelessness. Ha) with myoven last week. My beloved old oven broke in a mysterious way and I got it replaced but this shiny new one is such a twat :D. Shall I mention carob brownie charcoal soup and six (SIX) batches of soggy muffins that found their home in the bin. Maybe not.
But you don’t mess with birthday cakes. So magically, when the moment came to bake my colleague Matt’s birthday cake, the monster behaved. And a Sunday-baking-session later, baby Bakewell cake was born, properly cooked and everything. Thank you, monster oven, for dismantling my self esteem no more.
And here it is. It’s a Bakewell cake because it’s kind of like a Bakewell tart except it’s not a tart, it’s a cake. Ehe. It’s sweet and moist and nice and fluffy and you should totally make it for a very English birthday. Or a Japanese or a Peruvian one, the cake doesn’t mind.
Aaaaand many moooreeee.
Notes: This
recipe makes two 10 cm/4” mini cakes (which I sandwiched), but you can double
the recipe (for both cake and icing) and adjust the cooking time to 30-35
minutes if you want to make a bigger cake. Big cakes also rule.
BAKEWELL SANDWICH CAKE
Adapted fromMs Cupcake – Bakewell
tart cupcakes
200ml (3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon) soya milk
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
180g (1⅓ cups) self-raising flour
20g (1/4 cup) ground almonds
200g (1 cup) caster sugar
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
¼ salt
80ml (1/3 cup) sunflower oil or other
flavourless oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
Filling:
Raspberry jam!
Icing:
60g (1 cup) icing sugar
1 teaspoon soya milk or other non-dairy
milk or water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and
lightly grease your cake tin(s). First mix together soya milk and cider vinegar
and set aside for 10 minutes to curdle. In a bowl, sift in the flour then add the
ground almonds, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix
well. In a separate bowl, mix together oil, vanilla extract and almond extract.
Add the curdled soya milk and the rest of the wet ingredients to the dry
ingredients then quickly mix together with a spoon until just combined. Pour
the batter into the tin(s) and bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted
into the centre comes out clean. Leave the cakes in their tins on a cooling
rack until completely cool. Once cool, spread the jam on top of one layer, then
place the other on top and move on to the icing. Mix together icing sugar, soya
milk and lemon juice and pour over the cake. Top with flaked almonds and/or
glacé cherries for the Bakewell look.