Marble Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Icing

MARBLE CAKE WITH STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM ICING

Sorry it's been 2 weeks since I posted but it has been a CRAZY few weeks. Working everyday and every night I had my student show, "The Words of Others". 19 of my teen students were in a show I wrote and directed about self acceptance, bullying and how the words of others effect us. The show was a great success and I was very proud of every single one of my kids.

Now during the rehearsal process, one of my students, Chanda, had her birthday. The actual day of her birthday we had a 4 and a half hour rehearsal in the night. It felt I had to give her a cake to make up for it. I always have a massive amount of bookmarks for recipes on my computer, so I looked through and remembered a recipe I found on the cadbury kitchen website for a marble cake. I knew I'd found my cake with the addition of some buttercream icing.

It's funny how this cake looks like it would be hard to make, but is really quite easy. This is a great cake to make and take somewhere - people will think you're a baking wizard. Have a go and remember to send me your pic - I love to see what people have done with the recipes.

Cake originally from:

http://www.cadburykitchen.com.au/recipes/view/chocolate-marble-cake/2/

INGREDIENTS:

Cake:

125 grams Unsalted Butter, softened

3/4 cup Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 cups Self Raising Flour

3/4 cup Milk

2 tablespoons Cocoa, sifted

1 tablespoon Milk (extra)

Pink Food Colouring

Icing:

125 grams Unsalted Butter, softened

80 grams Icing Sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon Strawberry Essence

Pink Food Colouring

Silver Decorating Balls

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat the oven to 180°c and grease and line a round springform tin.

2 - Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3 - Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.

4 - Fold in the flour alternatively with the milk.

5 - Divide the mixture evenly into three bowls. Add the cocoa and extra milk to one, the pink food colouring to another, and leave one as is.

6 - Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, layering the colours.

7 - Bake in oven for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

8 - Cool for 10 minutes in pan before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

9 - For the icing, cream the butter and icing sugar until creamy.

10 - Add in the essence and colouring and beat until evenly distributed.

11 - Liberally spread across cake and sides and add the decorations.

12 - Serve and enjoy.

Catch you again soon for my most popular muffins.

Wayne

xx

Oatmeal Raspberry Muffins

OATMEAL RASPBERRY MUFFINS

I do love a good muffin, especially now I bake my own. Before I would only have them at cafes or make horrible packet ones. Since I've discovered they really are the easiest thing to bake, I prefer to eat the ones I make at home. I also love experimenting with loads of great flavours. This is one I've been making since the beginning of the year and is pretty special. I may have been at a friend's place and was looking through a cookbook and saw this recipe and took a snap with my phone. So I apologise for not knowing the original source!

The reason I made these muffins was for auditions for my new play, a double header playing at Revolt in Kensington, Victoria, in late November. My good friend Cas was helping out for the day, so I thought I'd do her some muffins. The photo below shows a muffin in the audition room.

Now these are moist and tasty - raspberries are such a wonderful ingredient. And with the addition of rolled oats, it makes me feel like they're healthy! Almost. So have a go, they are certainly ones to be tried!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Rolled Oats

1 1/2 cups Milk

2 cups Plain Flour, sifted

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 Egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup Honey

60 grams Unsalted Butter, melted

1 1/4 cups Raspberries (frozen are cheaper)

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat oven to 190°c and grease 12 cup muffin tin.

2 - Put the oats in a bowl, stir in the milk and set aside for 5 minutes.

3 - Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre.

4 - Put the egg, honey and butter into a bowl and mix well.

5 - Pour the egg mixture and oatmeal mixture into the flour well and stir quickly until just combined. Don't overmix, the batter should be slightly lumpy.

6 - Gently fold in the raspberries.

7 - Spoon the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

8 - Cool on a wire tray.

9 - Enjoy!

Wayne

xx

Banana Bread

BANANA BREAD

Banana bread is something I love to eat. Toasted in a cafe with some coffee and I am a happy man. I have an amazing recipe for banana bread muffins which I make often, but have never made traditional banana bread. That changed last Sunday. I had a shit of a day and came home and needed to release some tension. I had bought a whole bunch of cheap bananas and saw they were getting ripe, so thought baking may help my mood. (And had some wine, it was a good help). So I made this recipe and it was pretty damn fine. I cut pieces every day and took it to work, gave some to the boyfriend as well. It was pretty tasty, and was a good mid morning snack. It is SOOO simple to make and will be a great morning tea for the kids, for you or if you're having people around.

Now I have just included the standard recipe, but you can add other things. Next time I make it I'm looking forward to adding raspberries. Raspberries and bananas are a favourite combination of mine, in fact dessert tonight are those two with vanilla yoghurt. So try that, or other fruits, or maybe if you're feeling naughty, some choc chips. Get into some banana bread folks.

Original Recipe: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/3118/banana+bread

INGREDIENTS:

265grams (1 & 3/4 cups) Self-Raising Flour
1/4 cup Plain Flour
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
140grams (2/3 cup) Brown Sugar, firmly packed
125ml (1/2 cup) Milk
2 Eggs, lightly whisked
50g Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled
3 overripe Bananas, mashed

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat oven to 180°c. Spray a loaf pan with canola spray and line with baking paper, allow it to overhang.

2 - Sift both flours and the cinnamon into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre.

3 - Place the milk, eggs, melted butter and banana in a medium bowl, and stir until well combined.

4 - Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Don't overmix.

5 - Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.

6 - Bake in oven for 45-50 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside for 5 minutes before turning onto wire rack.

7 - Serve and enjoy.

Wayne
xx

Monte Carlos

 MONTE CARLOS

For this installment I have pulled out a classic. A classic biscuit, and one I have been making for a while and still get requests from friends for. In fact, these pictures are mostly from all different batches. I haven't made these for a month or so, but thought I'd share the recipe as many people have wanted it.

Monte Carlos were always a favourite for me in the Arnott's Classic Creams, I'd always try and claim those when the Tunks family opened a packet. I never realised it included coconut, of course when I found out it seemed obvious. Now I promise if you make these, your friends will be happy. Whenever I do, they go quick. Super quick. I even made some to go with Christmas presents last year. This is one of my favourite recipes - and I hope it's one of yours.

If you make them, please let me know how you go!

INGREDIENTS:

185g Unsalted Butter, softened
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 cups Self-Raising Flour
3/4 cup Plain Flour
1/2 cup Coconut

Raspberry Jam, for filling

Filling:
60g Unsalted Butter, softened
3/4 cup Icing Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 teaspoons Milk

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat oven to 180°c and line 2 baking trays.

2 - Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well.

3 - Add sifter dry ingredients and coconut and mix well with a large spoon.

4 - Roll teaspoons of mixture into balls and then shape into ovals and place on lined baking trays. Rough up the surface with a fork.

5 - Bake in a moderate oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

6 - Cool on a wire rack.

7 - For the filling, cream the butter and sifted icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat well. Add the milk gradually, beating well.

8 - Put a teaspoon of jam in the centre of half the biscuits and a teaspoon of filling on the other half of the biscuits.

9 - Press both halves together and enjoy.

Wayne
xx