Kerry-Anne’s Hot Milk Sponge
A lovely vanilla sponge, firm enough to be used with fondant. Bakes with a flat top.
Ingredients
- 125 g butter or margarine
- 1 cup milk
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 cups flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180° C and prepare your baking tin.
- Bring butter and milk to the boil then switch off.
- Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla essence to the egg mixture.
- Sift flour and baking powder into a separate bowl.
- Add the flour and baking powder to egg mix and fold in with a metal spoon.
- Add the hot milk mix to egg mix and blend well.
- Bake for about 30-45 minutes or until knife comes out clean (cooking time depends on the size of your tin) usually between 30-45 min.
Notes
Julie! Hello!
A big thank you for great recipes on your page! I needed to make a cake for my niece’s first birthday (no pressure - I’d only promised months in advance!) and had had little success with a couple of test run recipes from elsewhere. I risked it and made a new recipe for The Big Day - your hot milk sponge recipe. Incredible! What a perfect sponge cake. I cut into it and even I went WOW when I saw the perfectly even layers (I made four layers - two batches of the recipe into 23cm cake tins). Exceptionally delicious too. I’m sitting here thinking about getting another slice from the kitchen… Anyway, thought I’d let you know, because it must be lovely to hear how and where your recipes are being used!
Perfect Moist Chocolate Cake
Moist and delicious, keeps for at least a week
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ¾ cup cocoa
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 tsp coffee powder
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup maas
- ½ cup sunflower oil
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
Instructions
- Prepare two 23cm cake tins OR two 15cm cake tins by greasing wellThe cake does not rise very high (each layer about 4cm).
- Preheat the oven to 180°C
- Sift together all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
- Boil the kettle and prepare 1 cup of coffee from the water and coffee powder
- Lightly beat the eggs, maas, oil and vanilla together.
- Add the maas mix and the coffee to the dry ingredients and mix with a whisk.
- Divide the mixture into the two tins and bake for 35-45 minutes until the cake is baked through. Test by inserting a knife into the cake, it should come away clean. The baking time will depend on the cake tin size you used.
- Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Notes
I tried this recipe out - just to see …… I have a new favourite chocolate cake recipe. Rises flat on the top, is moist and my family loved it.
Kerry-Anne's Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
Kerry-Anne brought us the vanilla hot milk sponge and now a recipe for cupcakes - oil-based with buttermilk to ensure maximum moisture!
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla essence
- 1 cup oil
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat until foamy and pale.
- Mix in the oil and beat lightly again.
- In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt.
- Gently, with a metal spoon fold in the flour a little at a time alternating with the buttermilk, ending with flour until all the ingredients have been added.
- Spoon the mix out using a 1/4 cup measure into paper cases.
- This mix makes about 24 large or 36 medium sized cupcakes.
- Bake in a hot oven 180° C for approximately 15 minutes.
Notes
Mixture can be halved or doubled.
Aneeka's Red Velvet Cupcakes
Perfect red velvet cupcakes but this recipe can also be baked as a cake
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 2½ cups cake flour
- 1½ cups sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp cocoa
- 1 tsp bicarb
- 1½ cups oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 4 eggs
- 3 Tbsp red food colouring Moir's Crimson recommended
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla
For the icing:
- 100 g soft butter or Wooden Spoon Margarine if you want it to be white-white
- 125 g cream cheese Philadelphia recommended because it is nice and firm and not watery, which can cause the icing to split
- 2 cups icing
- 1 t lemon juice/ a little squeeze of a lemon to taste and/or 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180° C, and prepare your muffin tin, by lining each with a paper case.
- In a bowl sift together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, cocoa and bicarb) and set aside.
- In another, larger, bowl mix all the wet ingredients (oil, buttermilk, eggs, food colouring, vinegar and vanilla).
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and combine.
- Spoon into your cupcake cases, filling each to 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
For the icing
- Beat the butter and cream cheese together in an electric mixer until combined (about 3 minutes).
- Gradually add the icing sugar, beating all the while until it forms a smooth icing.
- The add the lemon juice and/or the vanilla to taste.
Deluxe Christmas Cake
Perfect dark and boozy fruit cake
Ingredients
- 250 g cake mix
- 200 g currants
- 50 g prunes pitted and coarsely chopped
- 250 g dates coarsely chopped
- 250 g glace cherries
- 100 g mixed peel
- 100 g glace ginger
- 200 g nuts I use pecan but any will do – roughly chopped
- Zest and juice of one lemon
- Zest and juice of one orange
- 80 g chunky marmalade I sometimes use apricot jam here
- 100 g treacle sugar
- 125 g butter
- 200 ml water
- 3 eggs
- 50 ml espresso or 15ml instant coffee dissolved in a little water
- 250 g cake flour sifted
- 15 ml cocoa powder
- 5 ml baking powder
- Brandy for soaking
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease and line a 23cm baking tin, make sure that your lining comes up the sides about 5cm above the top of the tin.
- In a big pot mix all the dried fruit, cherries, mixed peel, ginger and nuts. Add the zest and juice of the orange and lemon, marmalade, butter, sugar and water.
- Bring to the boil and give it a good stir to mix everything. Then let it simmer for 5 minutes.
- Leave it to cool, you should be able to hold the pot in your hands comfortably (or leave it overnight and finish off the following day). Once the mixture has cooled add the eggs and espresso and mix well. Sift the dry ingredients in and mix well again.
- Spoon the mixture into your tin and bake for about 2 hours. The cake should feel firm to the touch and a skewer should come out clean. If the cake I getting a bit dark on the top and not cooked through yet, cover the top with foil and turn down the heat slightly.
- When you take it out of the oven splash a good amount of brandy over the top while it is still hot. That should soak in quite quickly, after that you can remove it from the tin. You can eat the cake as is then, but it is definitely better if you keep topping up the brandy over the next few weeks.
- Wrap the cake in foil and plastic wrap and once a week 'water' it with another healthy splash of brandy (as much as it can soak up at a time), each time turning it over to get even distribution. After a couple of weeks you will see that it has become quite moist and can’t really absorb any more brandy. I usually know when it is done because it kind of puts out a dark sticky syrup at the bottom.
Notes
For a non-alcoholic version soak with apricot juice, however this does not preserve the cake so that eat within a couple of weeks. Happy cooking!