Toffee Apple and Pumpkin Gingerbread Cake

We had quite a lovely autumn this year.  The colours of all the trees around here were just stunning!  I really wish I had thought to get a picture of the view coming into the village before the truly horrible weather set in.  It was seriously pretty with the trees and the church and the local restaurant lit up with its fairy lights.  Especially when the sun is giving off that nice warm glow you only get when it's low in the sky.  Ah well.  It didn't occur to me until too late and now everywhere is wet and grey and most of the leaves have been blown off the trees.

Anyway, since it's autumn I felt like baking with some autumn flavours.  I was determined to include pumpkin, as I have several tins of it in my cupboard from bulk buying it last year.  However, I then started going a bit mad with wanting to add all sorts of flavours so I also ended up using apples, toffee and ginger.  I used a combination of two recipes for my autumnal experiment.  Well, actually, I used three as originally I was going to include cinder toffee too.  I scrapped that, though not until after I made it.  The cinder toffee turned out well but tasted ever so slightly burnt so it left a bitter after taste.  I didn't think that was right so I figure I'll try that again another day.  The cake was fine without it anyway. 

I made this cake twice as the first one did not turn out the way I wanted.  It was far too dense in the middle.  It still tasted good but it annoyed me because I knew it should have been more cake-y.  Turns out I over mixed it.  I got too carried away with my lovely mixer.  Oops.  So the second time around I made sure to do the barest minimum of mixing for each stage and folded in the flour.  The result was much better so I was happy.

It's not the most attractive looking cake.  But I think that seems to be common with fruit baked on the top.  I never think upside-down cakes look particularly appealing unless you've used pineapple.  Cooked toffee and fruit and dark cake can look overdone, even though it isn't.  It probably would look a bit better if my apples were a bit more evenly cut.  Ah well.

This cake was scrummy.  Nice and moist with a distinctly apple taste and a ginger note at the end.  Drizzled with leftover toffee sauce is a necessity and this would go well with warm cream. 

Recipe - inspired by Sophie Thompson (via A Mummy Too) and Very Best Baking by Nestle

Toffee Sauce:

• 100g/3.5oz butter
• 100g/3.5oz muscovado sugar
• 150ml/5fl.oz double cream

Cake:

• 245g/8.5oz plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1.25 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (see here to make your own)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 115g/4oz butter
• 115g/4oz granulated sugar
• 45g/1.5oz brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 a tin of canned pumpkin (about 215g/7.5oz)
•  3-4 large green eating apples (like Granny Smith)
• 60ml/2fl.oz treacle 

1. Start by making the toffee sauce.  Put the butter, sugar and cream in a saucepan together and set over a low heat.
2. Stir the mixture until it is bubbling and golden.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. Line a 23cm/9inch round, spring-form or loose bottomed cake tin with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
4. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
5. Cream the butter and the sugars together in a separate bowl until fluffy.
6. Add the eggs one at a time and beat in after each addition until just incorporated.
7. Peel and grate half an apple and add it, the pumpkin and treacle to the mix.  Beat in.
8. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients.
9. Spoon half the cake batter into the prepared tin and smooth out.
10. Peel half of the remaining apples and cut into thin slices.  Arrange the slices in a spiral pattern inside the tin.
11. Drizzle with about 1/3 of the toffee sauce.
Repeat steps 9-11 with the remaining batter, apples and toffee sauce (you should have some sauce left over for serving).
12. Bake the cake in the oven for just over an hour (a skewer inserted through the middle of the cake should come out clean).
13. Allow cake to cool in the tin for at least 45 minutes before unmoulding then finish cooling on a wire rack.
14. Serve with remaining toffee sauce. 

Baked Chocolate and Pumpkin Doughnuts

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Have I mentioned work is back in swing?  Because it is.  Last week there were three consecutive parents nights to do! That, on top of an already hectic schedule and a cold that had resurfaced with a vengeance, meant that I was completely shattered when Friday finally came to a close.  I slept most of Friday evening and the majority of Saturday.  Luckily this seems to have helped deal with the cold.  That or the Hubby has caught it.  Either way, I am on the mend and the week ahead is less hectic as half of it is inservice days with no teaching (just courses).  Admittedly, there is an observed lesson to do today but that should not be too bad.  I hope.

Anyway, I am already missing my holidays so I feel like reminiscing about some of the fun I had this October break.  One such thing would be seeing my lovely Jess, who I had not hung out with since the wedding back in July!  Work made it hard to arrange things during term time so when my holidays came I jumped on the chance for a jaunt with my Jess.  Hence we went off to Edinburgh for lunch, shopping and a catch-up.  Lunch was lovely, though I lament the fact that the Pizza Hut has disappeared from the Omni Centre!  We enjoyed our Frankie and Benny's though, despite our somewhat creepy waiter.  Shopping was such fun, finding pieces for Jess's Hallowe'en costume, though I spent way too much on baubles in John Lewis.  I have such a weakness for Christmas decorations!  And cuddly toys, since I also ended up with a Toothless plush from Build-A-Bear!  Such frivolity!  As for the catch-up, it was riddled with work related ills from both parties.  It was an unfortunately short jaunt due to the awkward train schedule on a Sunday but a fun one nonetheless.  I am very much looking forward to the next one at the end of this month.  We are going to see Wicked! along with Jess's other friend Ameera.  

Now, a jaunt would not be complete without me bringing some form of baked goods with me!  And, as usual, I wanted to try something different.  I admit, there's been a bit of a gap between making these and writing about them so I can't quite remember how I settled on chocolate and pumpkin doughnuts but I did and here they are!  I do know they started out as just pumpkin in the recipe and adding chocolate was my own idea.  Possibly because chocolate and pumpkin has been a successful combination before on this blog.  I may have also been in a bit of a festive mood a la Hallowe'en.  The glaze was supposed to be orange, it just doesn't show up against the dark doughnuts, and I spent ages separating out Hallowe'en coloured sprinkles from my pot to decorate with. 

Making these reminded me that I really should make doughnuts more often.  The baked sort often take no time at all, and these were no exception.  It is one of those mix together dry ingredients then add wet ingredients recipes and the bake time is very short!  I did have to make my own pumpkin pie spice, as that is not a thing over here in the UK, but even that is done in a couple of minutes and now I have a mini supply to hand in a cute magnetic spice tin (another acquisition from my Edinburgh jaunt of which I intend to get more of) ready for any other pumpkin bakes I make.  Really, the hardest bit was the separating out of all those sprinkles and that's just something I decided to do and is not essential to the recipe.  My Hallowe'en ones did not arrive in time.  Hence why the sprinkles here are a bit sparse.  If I'd just had the colours I needed, these doughnuts would have a generous layer of sprinkles on top.  Alas, maybe next time?

Pumpkin Pie Spice - adapted from Betty Crocker

• 3 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp ginger
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1.5 tsp all spice
• 1.5 tsp ground cloves

1. Combine all spices together.  That's it!  So easy.

Recipe - inspired by RainbowJewels via AllRecipes.com
Makes 6

Doughnuts:

• 100g/3.5oz plain flour 
• 30g/1oz cocoa powder
• 55g/2oz brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (see above)
• 1 egg
• 120g/4.5oz pumpkin purée
•  30g/1oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• 2 tbsp milk

Glaze:

• 100g/3.5oz icing sugar
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 30g/1oz butter, melted
• Sprinkles to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 and grease a six cavity doughnut pan with butter.
2. Put the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt, bicarbonate of soda and pumpkin pie spice into a bowl and mix together.
3. Add the pumpkin purée, butter, egg and milk and beat until batter is smooth.
4. Spoon into doughnut pan, or pipe in using a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle (the latter is much easier).
5. Bake in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, or until doughnuts are springy to the touch. 
6. Leave in the tin and make the glaze by combining the icing sugar, melted butter, vanilla extract and water together in a bowl.
7. Dip the warm doughnuts in the glaze to coat the tops.  Shake off any excess.
8. Dip in sprinkles and then leave to set on a wire cooling rack.

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Pumpkin Mocha Brownies

Warning: This turned into a really long blog post with much gushing.  Brownies don't even get a proper mention until paragraph...7.  

So.  Back in...I want to say early March, I was on of my jaunts in Edinburgh with my bestest bean Jess.  As is customary on our jaunts, we visited Waterstones and I came away with two books (because buy one get one half price), one of which was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.  I had heard the name mentioned here and there on the Internet but had never actually investigated.  However, Fangirl's cute cover intrigued me and the premise even more so.  Fanfiction?  And a nerdy, shy girl?  And cute romance?  I thought it might be just my sort of book.  

It was.  I LOVED the book.  The way the characters are written and the relationships and the geekery!  It was so nice to see things I associated with in a book.  Growing up my interest in anime and fanfiction and such was not something the majority of people I went to school with shared.  I felt a bit...weird.  I never liked to talk about my interests because no one I knew got it.  I lived on the internet and talked about this sort of thing with internet friends instead.  It didn't help that I was a bit restricted in what I was allowed to do after school finished for the day so I never felt my relationship with my school friends was as good as the ones they had amongst themselves.  Not that I was a particularly social person.  Still am not really.  But I will say I did notice a difference in how close I felt to people once I went off to university (the first time around anyway) where there were people who liked the things I did and I could talk about them.  Two of those people are still my friends now, despite leaving university 3 years ago (I didn't stay in touch with anyone from highschool), and I'm marrying the third one in two weeks!

Okay, I went off topic a bit there, didn't I?  My point was that I really connected with the book and it cemented Rainbow Rowell as one of my favourite authors: one who I would immediately buy any book they released.  I only have three such authors (Jasper FForde and Gail Carriger being the other two).  The fiancé did buy Attachments and Eleanor and Park for me after I finished Fangirl and would not shut up about wanting to read more, and I preordered Landline soon after that.

Right, now I bet you're thinking, well that's all well and good, Becca, but what does any of that have to do with brownies?

Well, you see, back in April it was announced that Rainbow Rowell was coming to the UK to do a book tour.  Usually I do not get my hopes up as such tours rarely ever make their way to Scotland but would you believe it, the first stop was Glasgow!  Now, I'm in Fife so it's not exactly local but it would be completely possible to do a two hour train journey to Glasgow!  It was also in July so I would be on holiday and thus completely able to go.  I was so excited!  I invited Jess along because she lives near-ish to Glasgow and it is so much more fun to go with a friend.  I subsequently got her into Rainbow Rowell's books so that was a bonus!  So that's where I was on Thursday night: in Waterstones in Glasgow enjoying an awesome author talk and signing session from Rainbow Rowell.  It was so amazing and funny!  It was made even more fantastic for me because I won the Fangirl selfie competition for this event so I got a limited edition sparkly Fangirl necklace made by Tatty Devine.

You're still waiting to know where the brownies come in, aren't you?  Okay, okay, I'm almost there, I promise!  Right, so, leading up to the event I started getting the idea to be really nerdy.  This began with wanting to reproduce the shirt Cath wears in the book, which is a Keep Calm and Carry On t-shirt (because the fanfic she writes is called 'Carry On, Simon') and has a picture of Simon and Baz on it.  I couldn't find anything that specified colour (I may just be being blind) so I decided to use the colours to match the book: mint and pink.  It turned out very well, despite me dropping the brush twice and therefore having to spend a couple of days removing unwanted paint stains.  And Rainbow certainly seemed to like it.  But then the desire to be nerdy got worse.  This is where the brownies come in.  If any flavour and scent is associated with Fangirl it is that of the pumpkin mocha lattes from Starbucks.  Admittedly, I have never seen, smelt or tasted such a thing.  This may be down to 1) I don't go into coffee shops and 2) I don't know if that's a thing they have in the UK.  As I've said before, pumpkin seems to be a really popular flavour in the US but not here.  Anyway, I had the idea that I could bake something for Rainbow Rowell, which I could give her at the signing.  And whatever that something was, it would be pumpkin mocha, which I extrapolated to be something that had pumpkin, coffee and chocolate in it.  And this ended up being brownies.

Yes, finally we get to the brownies.  I've been in a bit of a tray bake mood of late.  In part because I am completely enamoured with my adjustable cake pan.  It is going to be the pan I use to make all my cake layers for the wedding cake and so any chance to practice with it is great.  It's wonderful for making brownies in as I can set it up to be the right size and it is really deep so there is no issue with overspill during baking and makes building layers really easy.  

Okay, I seriously need to stop talking about anything but brownies, even if the pan is tangentially related.  Right, pumpkin mocha brownies.  Like I said, after researching what went into a pumpkin mocha I knew I had to get coffee, pumpkin and chocolate in there, along with spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.  At first I thought that I wanted to combine all those flavours into one thing.  So, initially I looked at how people made pumpkin mochas at home, which involved flavouring milk with pumpkin.  But no brownies I could think of were made with milk.  Then it occurred to me that it would much easier if I made a marbled brownie.  One part would be a chocolate and coffee brownie and the other a pumpkin brownie.  Both would have the spices in and I would mix them up in the tray so there was a bit of both in each slice after it was cut.  From there it was just a matter of finding (and slightly adapting) recipes for each part.  The Hummingbird Bakery came to the rescue there as I ended up modifying the brownie part of their S'mores brownies for the mocha and their pumpkin cake for the pumpkin part.  This meant adding in coffee and spices where there were none, more flour to compensate for added liquid and removing leavening agents because otherwise you end up with cake, not brownies.

I ended up with two mixtures of slightly different consistency, which made them slightly tricky to marble.  My original plan was to alternate each type when filling the pan but since the mocha was runnier, I decided I would put the denser pumpkin on the bottom then cover it with mocha.  I still attempted to marble and it sort of worked but possibly not as well as it could have done.

Ah well, the end result still turned out really well!  There's definitely some of each type in every piece of brownie, which was important.  It's possibly not as dense as it could be but that's not that big a deal.  The coffee flavour is subtle and the pumpkin lightens everything up so the chocolate isn't too heavy.  The fiancé and his family certainly liked them so I really hope Rainbow did too! Update: 14th July 2014 - She liked them!

@BeccasBaking THEY WERE DELICIOUS.

— Rainbow Rowell (@rainbowrowell) July 14, 2014

So I'm just ecstatic about that!

Recipe - inspired by Home Sweet Home
Makes 20

Mocha Brownie:

• 60g/2oz butter
• 60g/2oz dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp coffee granules
• 4 tbsp boiling water
• 100g/3.5oz light brown sugar
• 65g/2.25oz caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 2 eggs
• 100g/3.5oz plain flour

Pumpkin Brownie: 

• 2 eggs
• 125ml/4.5fl.oz sunflower oil
• 180g/6.25oz light brown sugar
• 215g/7.5oz pumpkin purée
• 170g/6oz plain flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3 and line a 20x30cm/8x12inch baking tray with foil, making sure to leave overhang on two sides to help lift the brownie out when it is ready.
2. Start with the mix for the mocha brownie.  Put the chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of barely simmering water (without letting the bowl touch the water) and melt together, stirring occasionally, until smooth.
3. Meanwhile, mix together the boiling water and coffee granules in a small cup until the granules have dissolved.
4. Once the chocolate mixture is completely melted, add the coffee and mix to incorporate before pouring the mixture into a large bowl.
5. Add the sugars, vanilla extract and salt to the chocolate mixture and stir thoroughly to combine.
6. Add the eggs and beat vigorously until the batter is smooth and shiny.
7. Sift in the flour and spices (crush the cloves beforehand) and stir until just incorporated.  Set aside.
8. Make the pumpkin batter by putting the eggs, oil, sugar and pumpkin purée into a large bowl and whisking together until well combined.
9. Sift the flour, spices, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the batter and then mix well until you get a smooth, even batter.
10. Pour the pumpkin batter into the prepared tray and spread smoothly so it covers the base.
11. Pour the chocolate mixture on top, making sure to cover all the pumpkin mix.
12. Take a butter knife and marble the two mixtures together by reaching down to the bottom of the mix and turning it over to bring some pumpkin to the top.
13. Bake for 35-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out almost clean and the top is slightly springy.  Leave to cool in the tin.
14. Once cool, remove from the tin and cut into squares using a plastic knife (that's a new trick I learned! The brownie doesn't stick to a plastic knife like it does a metal one and you get nice, clean slices).

Pumpkin Sandwich Cakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

It's the second Thursday of the month so it's time for the Lady Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge.  This month's ingredients were pumpkin and cream cheese.

Well, I was seriously considering not taking part this month.  I had no experience with either of the ingredients and had no idea what I would make and who would be willing to eat it.  Pumpkin seems to be a very American thing to bake with and is not very common over here in the UK (from what I've experienced anyway).  You can't get it in canned form in the supermarket, only in fruit form, and I really didn't feel like trying to scrape out the filling from one of those.  However, leave it to Pinterest to start giving me inspiration.  Just opening up the Food and Drink section started yielding several different pumpkin recipes as early as the start of September.  Clearly the stuff is even more popular over in the states than I initially thought.  But with so many options just staring me in the face I decided I would have to give something a go.  As to who would eat it, I figured if I could get them made before the autumn half term started, I could give whatever I made to the lovely ladies at Markinch Primary School via the fiancé's mum.

I originally planned to make pumpkin fudge because it sounded really interesting to do.   Plus I want to try making more confectionery. However, I attempted it three times and all three times I failed.  The first batch burnt; the second seemed to be working until I added the final ingredient and it turned into this crumbly powder; and the final batch, whilst better than the other two, just didn't have the texture of fudge.  It was rather disappointing and I ended up with saucepans with burnt, failed fudge adhered to their bases.  It took several days to clean them all completely, which made dinner tricky since we only own 3 large-ish pots.  Really I've been needing a proper, heavy based pot for confectionery making.  Good thing I got to go to Ikea at the weekend and acquire a lovely cast iron casserole pan for half the cost one that size would usually cost then.  I cannot wait to test it out.

Sorry, I got a little sidetracked there.  So I scrapped the fudge idea and went looking for something else I could do.  I liked the idea of biscuits but I like to make crunchy biscuits and adding wet pumpkin to it would likely not yield such a thing.  Then it hit me: whoopie pies!  They seem to get classed as biscuits (or a 'cakey cookie') but I'm leaning more on the side that they are cakes.  Cookies are not cakey.  Cake is cakey!  Hence why I've called these sandwich cakes, despite the recipe I was using referring to them as cookies.

After the fudge disasters, this recipe ended up being really simple.  I ended up getting canned pumpkin from a seller on Amazon (who provide excellent service by the way).  The batter turned out nicely though it was a bit of a pain to get onto the trays.  I went to the trouble of smoothing them all over to make sure they came out nice and even on top, since reviews in the original recipe had complained of lumpiness.  I also made a decision to try and make them look pumpkin-like.  It was a complete experiment and I did not know if it would work.  I tested one by drawing the lines into the uncooked mixture first, putting in a clove stalk and then baking.  That worked okay but making the lines was quite fiddly.  So then I tried drawing them in after by running the sharp end of a skewer through the top just after they came out the oven.  It also worked but looked quite messy.  Finally I realised that since they were still quite soft when they came out the oven, I could just press the skewer into the top to make the pattern.  It worked really well and with the little clove stalks they made quite adorable pumpkins.

As for the filling, cream cheese was very easy to work with and pipes really nicely.  I ended up with double the amount I needed though.  Maybe the baker of the original recipe is just really generous with their filling?  Ah well, I saved the leftovers and used it in another batch later in the week since I needed to use up the remaining pumpkin too.

These went down really well with everyone who tried them.  I admit I was surprised since it is a bit of an out-there flavour combination but I guess the fact that it is so unbelievably popular in America should have tipped me off. 

Recipe - adapted from Land O' Lakes

Makes about 18

Cakes:

• 280g/10oz plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• Whole cloves
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 200g/7oz light brown sugar
• 170g/6oz canned pumpkin
• 60ml/2fl.oz milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Orange food gel (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line 2-3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Remove the buds from the whole cloves, setting the stalks aside, and then crush the buds.  You want make about 1/8 teaspoon of crushed cloves.
3. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, crushed cloves, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
4. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.
5. Add in the pumpkin, milk, egg and vanilla extract and beat together until well mixed.
6. Add the flour mixture, and food gel if using, and beat until smooth.
7. Drop level tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the trays, spaced well apart.  Try and have an even number on each tray.  Use a spoon to make sure the dough is shaped into a neat circular mound.  Use a wet finger to smooth over the tops of each mound.
8. Bake for 9-10 minutes until set (a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean).  I would recommend baking them one tray at a time since you have to do the 'decoration' straight from the oven and if they cool too much it won't work.
9. Immediately after removing a tray from the oven, use the side of a bamboo skewer to press eight lines that point towards the centre into the top of each of the cakes.  Place a clove stalk into the centre top of half of them.
10. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Filling: 

• 200g/7oz cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
• 30g/1oz butter
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp milk
• 600g/21oz icing sugar, plus extra for dusting

1. Combine the cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, vanilla extract and milk in a bowl and beat until the mixture is well combined and smooth.
2. Add a the icing sugar in four parts, beating well after each addition until it is nice and creamy.
3. Spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe generous swirl on the underside of the cakes that do not have stalks in.
4. Top each one with a stalked top piece.
5. Dust with icing sugar.