Mini Coffee Cakes!

I bought a new bakebook and as I wanted to bake something easy and summery this weekend, I decided on this mini coffee cakes recipe which looked tasty and walnutty. Although the recipe asked for the walnuts to be chopped up finely, I decided to leave them as pieces to have the walnut look in the cakes. The icing consists of icing sugar and butter which makes a lovely butter icing. Despite 3 tbpns of strong coffee, the cakes do not taste of coffee at all and I wonder if I should try to mix it up a bit more by adding raisins or something else next time.

Anyway, the Husband pronounced it 'ok'. :) These cakes are really good with tea or coffee and have been happily consumed for breakfast at the office. They were finished in 2 days.

Caramel Apple Loaf Cake!

To keep to the summery theme, a light fruit cake seems appropriate. I found this caramel apple loaf cake online on one of my favourite websites and it looked delicious. I have never used a toffee topping before and this recipe seems like a good way to try something new. Apples and walnuts is also a new combination for me. I do not usually like to use apples in my baking as it usually requires grating and grating apples is hard work. In this case, the apples just needed to be cut into chunks and mix into the dough before baking. The walnuts are also used as the topping rather than mixed into the dough which I think helps to make it a proper apple loaf.

This has been a surprise hit in the office with comparison made to Pret's apple cake which I think is a compliment if it tastes as good as commercially-sold cakes! It was finished in 2 days which is quite impressive considering there were also mini coffee cakes and the team in the office was half the usual size this week!

Orange Cake with Sour Cream Icing!

After 2 weeks away, the Husband told me that a request for a wee cake has been made. As I was still pretty jet-lagged during the weekend, I did not fancy making anything that require much chopping and grating, so I found this lovely orange cake recipe in my collection that looks tasty enough. The topping was meant to be toasted almonds but I substituted them with blueberries instead to give a bit of colour to the cake. The icing was a combination of sour cream and icing sugar which gave the cake a tangy taste.

The Husband said the cake 'was ok', which he said was high praise from him. :) The cake took 2 days to finish in the office.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies!

I knew the Husband would want something to nibble on despite knowing there is cake for Monday, so I found this simple peanut butter oatmeal cookies recipe. Due to the peanut butter and oatmeal content, I almost managed to convince myself that they are vaguely healthy. These are very peanut-butterish so I will only recommend them if your guests are true peanut butter fans. The Husband unfortunately was not but he tried them anyway.

I suspect most of the office are also not such big fans as there are still some cookies left after 2 days. They are tasty enough but probably would not be repeated unless requested.

Mini Egg Caramel Slice!

This is absolutely one of the stickiest treats I have ever baked. I am quite a fan of mini easter eggs so I bought 4 packets of mini creme eggs and 200g of Lindt mini eggs during the Easter egg sale. I was thrilled when I found this recipe as I think eating a pudding with mini eggs baked into it should not count as actually eating the easter eggs. And yes, I know it does not really make sense but it makes me feel better than scoffing 20 mini eggs in a row!

This is a really sinful treat due to the 395g of condensed milk and 500g of mini eggs as stated in the recipe! Due to the lack of mini eggs, I only used 455g of chocolate. I was also slightly nervous about using so much condensed milk so I reduced it to 300g. The eventual result smells great although slicing it up was a nightmare due to the stickness of the condensed milk, chocolate and coconut combination. The first slice ended up in pieces which the Husband dutifully ate up.

Lesson learnt - if the recipe tells you to line the baking tin with greaseproof paper with 2 cm overhang, you line the tin with greaseproof paper with 2 cm overhang. I learnt this lesson the hard way as the chocolate egg, desiccated coconut and condensed milk topping bubbled and melted and dripped right through the removable base onto the oven floor. Cleaning was a nightmare with the oven and the baking tin!

This was a surprise with everything eaten in a day! A colleague who is really into chocolate actually asked for the recipe so that he can get his sister to bake them for him!

Chocolate Brownie Cake aka 'Ugly Cake'!

I baked this chocolate cake for the office sometime ago as it looked quite delicious. Despite its sunken appearance, the cake was a huge hit especially after 10 secs in the microwave to get it warmed up. The Husband is a huge fan of the cake and last November, suggested it as a birthday cake for his brother.

As the whole family are big fans of chocolate including the children, I was happy to oblige. However, I was quite upset at the look of the cake with its sunken middle which I do not think is what a birthday cake should look like, so I decided to bake another cake, a blueberry and lemon drizzle cake, as well for the occasion. I brought both cakes for the dinner party and they were both well-received. Hence, from that occasion, this cake was dubbed the 'Ugly Cake'.

This time, it was my sister-in-law's birthday. I know she is a fan of chocolate so the Husband once again recommended the 'Ugly cake'. To be honest, I think he just wanted a slice as throughout the process, he was asking if we could give a cake with a quarter slice missing although I do not think he was serious. :) As a treat, I made a full-sized cake as well as 2 muffin-sized mini ugly cakes. He was very happy when I gave him the mini ugly cakes.

We brought the cake over on a Saturday morning and only a slice was left by the end of the morning. Success!