Two recent cakes that have gone down very well

I have been quite busy baking recently.  Here are two recipes that went down well with my testers: the St Mary’s Finedon choir and my ex- NCT working mums’ group. They are both extremely easy.  Enjoy!

Torta Caprese – a delicious Italian chocolate cake which is gluten free. The recipe is courtesy of Sophie Grigson – one of my favourite food writers (along with her mother Jane).

 

Line the base and sides of a 23 cm spring form cake tin with baking parchment and pre-heat the oven to 180 C (slightly lower for a fan oven like mine).

Process 200g of dark chocolate in a food processor until finely chopped. I used an Aldi version with 50% cocoa solids… no need to spend a fortune.

Separate four eggs. Beat the yolks with 175g caster sugar in a large bowl using a Kenwood Chef or electric mixer until the mixture is pale and thick. Fold in the chopped chocolate, 250g ground almonds and 200g of butter which has been melted and cooled somewhat and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Whisk the egg whites in a Kenwood Chef – or with a hand electric mixer until they form stiff peaks and fold into the chocolate mixture.

Spoon into the prepared cake tin and bake for about  50 minutes until just firm. Cool in the tin. Dust with icing sugar before serving with a blob of crème fraiche or single cream.

 

Banana and fruit cake

This recipe was torn out of a newspaper where it was entitled “a picnic cake”… I can’t credit the source. It is delicious.

 

Line a 20cm spring form cake tin or 1kg loaf tin with one of those clever baking parchment liners (from Lakeland or John Lewis). Preheat the oven to 180 C (slightly lower for a fan oven like mine).

Beat together in a Kenwood Chef three ripe bananas (mashed); 225g SR flour; 100g soft margarine (I swear by Stork); 2 eggs; and 150g caster sugar until very light. Then stir in a total of  225g of mixed dried fruit. I used 50g of cherries, 50g of mixed peel and the rest a mixture of cranberries, currents and sultanas… just use whatever you have.

Spooj into the prepared tin and bake for about an hour until a metal skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.

Remove from the tin and dust with icing sugar once cool.