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Cake

Postby Joanbunting » Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:13 pm

The French think of cake as something quite different to us Brits and no doubt other nationalities.

I recently invited some local friends to Sunday lunch next weekend. Their reply was they would lovw to come, especially if you make your famous gateau with carrots and nuts.

They meant my recipe for Passion Cake which is basically a carrot cake. It has prooved extremely popular with local friends who are intrigued by the fact that it contains carrots, no butter and is frosted with cheese! I love making it because it is very quick and can be made a couple of days ahead and kept, unfrosted, until the day.

What is your "Party piece", your go-to recipe for cake/gateau.

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Re: Cake

Postby Gillthepainter » Tue Mar 13, 2018 2:11 pm

2 cakes I'll have to choose from if going out with a chum for tea n cake.
Carrot cake, or coffee and walnut.

One cake I make at home is Jose Pizarro's (friend's) apple cake, with custard.
I make it either as a pudding.

Image

Or cut it into bite sizes cake pieces, if doing a buffet or pick nick pick n mix.

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Re: Cake

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Mar 13, 2018 2:58 pm

It always amuses me that in French a "moule a cake" is a loaf tin

I have a number of cake moulds - and some loaf tins too!

I have made the infamous French cheese and ham savoury cake a few times, intrigues the Brits

Hugh F-W's version is probably better than some of the recipes floating round the internet

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/09/savoury-cake-recipes

I once made a cherry and almond cake for an elderly Polish neighbour, he was happy

The cakes I have made most over the last few years are the Yummy Scrummy Carrot Cake

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3229/yummy-scrummy-carrot-cake

And Mary Berry's little lemon drizzle cakes, but I make them as cup cakes (makes 14 - 16 and there are advantages in making cakes this sticky in paper cases)

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/r80565/Mary-Berry%27s-Little-Lemon-Drizzle-Cakes

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Re: Cake

Postby Badger's Mate » Tue Mar 13, 2018 3:37 pm

Tessa Kiros' apple cake

Fergus Henderson's madeleines

Mary Berry's friands

FH's Eccles

White chocolate & Bailey's cheesecake (off the Nigella website)

HF-W's chocolate & Chestnut truffle cake

All depends upon the season I guess

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Re: Cake

Postby Suffs » Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:00 pm

My current favourite is a version of Dan Lepard's Stone Fruit Yoghurt Cake ... I like using a combination of nectarines and raspberries ......... but OH has just reminded me that his current favourite is the River Cottage Cardamom Cake.

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Re: Cake

Postby Lizzie-47 » Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:19 pm

Excellent topic! My go-to cake changes a lot, but at the moment, it's Queen of Sheba cake, to please a gluten-intolerant friend. I also love Mary Berry's lemon drizzle cake.

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Re: Cake

Postby scullion » Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:30 pm

cruel people!
i now want - no, need - cake!

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Re: Cake

Postby DEB » Tue Mar 13, 2018 9:42 pm

Hi

I also have a great love for Mary Berry's tray bakes. They all are of the type put everything in a bowl and mix. In this house the Marmalade is particular favourite being not to sweet.

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Re: Cake

Postby Alexandria » Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:04 am

Joan,

Lovely idea for a thread .. :clap

Cakes (Depending on Season, occasion and / or if it is just us, my husband and I or invited guests ):

1) A Provençal lemon cake with lavender cream .. ( My French mother in law´s recipe ) - The floral notes of lemons meld with the lavender in a most heavenly way in this light golden moist sponge
and loose billows of lavender honey cream .. :thumbsup

2) A Spanish Bizcocho with lemon zest .. ( We sometimes like a slice with our early morning Espresso ) .. :thumbsup

3) Italian Cantucci (Florence, Italy): An almond, honey sugar glazed loaf tart which is sliced into individual pieces, the size of a canapé .. :thumbsup

4) Classic Tiramisù : With home made Lady Fingers .. ( a favorite during the Christmas Season ) .. :newhuggy

5) Carrot, Almond Cake .. Torta di Carota .. A recipe which we obtained many years ago in the Trentino Alto Adige, South Tryol region which is simply a delight and extraordinarily light .. :yum

6) A Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake called a Torta di Ricotta which is made with home made Ricotta of both goat and cow milk obtained from a tiny farmer up in Cadaquès, where my parents, twin sons, daughter in laws and 2 grandsons ( 7 and 8 years old ) and in laws reside .. :yum :yum

7 ) "Black Out Chocolate Crumb Cake" .. :yum :yum

Have a lovely evening ..
Barcelona, soulful & spirited, filled with fine art, amazing architecture, profoundly steeped in culture & history, and it engages all your senses, and food fancies.

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Re: Cake

Postby Renée » Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:00 am

What a great thread, Joan!

I rarely make cakes these days, but did make a lemon drizzle cake and a courgette loaf for my friends when I stayed with them in the Lake District.

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Re: Cake

Postby Pommes » Wed Mar 14, 2018 3:22 pm

I make a cake for our Bridge group each week, with members taking it in turns to choose. Can't have any sort of coffee cake, although it would be my first choice, but the most requested is iced Frangipane tart. Have to admit that I cannot stand almond essence so I add HM elderflower cordial in the filling & mix the icing with it too.

In answer to Joan's OP, it always surprises me that for Christmas in France the boulangeries sell 'Pain d'épices' = spiced bread. But it is nothing more than ginger cake.

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Re: Cake

Postby Joanbunting » Wed Mar 14, 2018 4:00 pm

The pain d'epice sold at Christmas - and other times too - is mostly to have with foie gras. I often has dried figs therein.

One of my favourite local specialities in Almondine - no flour but eggs, sugar and ground almonds and topped with pinenuts. It is very forgiving as it keeps moist for ages. We often serve it for visiting Brits accompanied by nougat glace.

Savoury cakes are quite bif here too - served as an appero, usually based around ham/cheese and or olives.

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Re: Cake

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Wed Mar 14, 2018 7:15 pm

I don't have a go-to cake, but I use tend to use an all in one recipe wherever possible. It's normally Mary Berry's one, but occasionally it's a Nigella Lawson or one from BBC Good Food magazine. Anything that's not too sweet usually floats our boat at home. When it comes to my workplace, everything I've made so far has gone down well, but I think my marmalade cake will be particularly popular, especially with a few of my colleagues. I normally use Nigella's Marmalade pudding cake recipe from her 'Kitchen' book. One of my colleagues requested this for her birthday cake last month.

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Re: Cake

Postby jeral » Wed Mar 14, 2018 8:16 pm

Favourite cakes that I buy once in a blue moon (no sweet tooth) are:

- Granny cake (light fruit cake with crystallised sugar on top)
- Iced almond frangipane tart
- Lemon Drizzle sponge

I make a sort of extra-gingery simnel cake sometimes; not often as I'd scoff the whole thing hot from the oven.

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Re: Cake

Postby Joanbunting » Wed Mar 14, 2018 9:44 pm

At least a couple of you have mentioned a tart as a favourite cake. Sorry I just don't get it. A cake is a cske but, in France sometimes would be called a gateau. A tart is a tart in either country - pastry not involved.

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Re: Cake

Postby jeral » Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:23 pm

Fair point, Joanbunting.

I tend to think of gateau-style cake as having layers of buttercream filling or frosting, which isn't for me, but in the spirit of cake, I'll swap frangipane tart for date and walnut cake, or cherry Genoa, both of which I also make occasionally.

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Re: Cake

Postby karadekoolaid » Thu Mar 15, 2018 2:05 am

My favourite cake is a Chocolate and Beetroot Cake, with a blackberry coulis and Vanilla ice-cream.

The reason is very simple.

It´s the only one I know how to make :crying1 :gonzo :gonzo

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Re: Cake

Postby Sakkarin » Thu Mar 15, 2018 3:35 pm

Mention of a carrot cake got me fancying one, so I thought I'd try Joan's Passion Cake, and in the meantime had a look at a few other recipes for it. I had to laugh at this comment on Felicity Cloake's "perfect" version in The Guardian:

Oh Felicity, Felicity
You fill me with electricity
With you I'd love to bake
That fabulous Carrot Cake
Our love would know no borders
If it wasn't for my restraining orders.


Joan's is great, surprisingly delicate texture, although I would put slightly less sugar in the topping, and maybe sprinkle crushed nuts on the top rather than use whole walnut halves as my teeth ain't what they used to be. I used half the recipe in a 6 inch tin.

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Re: Cake

Postby Joanbunting » Thu Mar 15, 2018 3:48 pm

Looks good Sakkers. I also reduce the sugar sometimes and like you, thing choppled nuts are rather more "today"

Our French friends love the fact that there is no butter !

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Re: Cake

Postby Lizzie-47 » Thu Mar 15, 2018 4:51 pm

Joan, I am curious, why do the French prefer cakes without butter?

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