Cake – A Bit of This A Bit of That

May 16, 2020

Easy peasy lemon squeezy cake

Around 10 years or so ago, my mother in law gave me this awesome recipe and I used to make it all the time. Then for some reason I stopped making it, no idea why. Then last week, Ro asked me for the recipe and I decided why not make it myself.

It definitely stood the test of time and is one of my favourite recipes of all times.

But dont take my word for it, try it for yourself.

The easiest yummiest cake recipe ever!

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Course: Dessert

Keyword: baking, cake, lemon

Author: Gina

Ingredients

Cake

1 box vanilla cake mix
1 packet vanilla pudding
4 large eggs
¾ cup oil
¾ cup water

Icing

1 cup icing sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

Cake

Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare a square or oblong baking dish
Mix all the ingredients together until the batter is smooth
Pour the batter into the prepare dish and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
Remove from the oven and using the toothpick, poke small holes all through the top of the cake

Icing

Immediately after you take the cake from the oven, mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice until smooth.
While the cake is still hot, pour the icing over the cake.
Wait while the icing sinks into the cake and the cake cools before serving

Recipe Notes

The cake can be eaten hot with custard or ice cream or if you prefer a cool cake, I suggest you make the cake a day before and let the icing sink into the flesh of the cake, this makes it sticky and gooey all the way through.

An alternative to vanilla and lemon is chocolate and orange. Substitute chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding for the vanilla and use orange juice instead of lemon (be sure to strain the orange juice so it is clear and free of any pulp).

August 2, 2013

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I got a hankering to bake dessert for tonight and to make something I had never done before.

I found a tin of diabetic friendly pineapple pieces and voila! Pineapple upside down cake was googled.

I found a really really easy recipe on Nigella Lawson‘s site. You can see the original recipe over here.

I adjusted the recipe a little since I wanted it to be totally diabetic friendly (and also milk free).

Ingredients

Butter (for greasing) – I used spray and cook
2 tablespoons sugar – I used Simply Delish Suki Sweetener that I bought at Dischem
6 slices canned pineapple in juice (plus 3 tablespoons of the juice) – I had the tin of diabetic friendly pieces.
11 glace cherries – I just used enough to make it look nice
100g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100g soft butter – I used dairy free margerine
100g caster sugar – again, I used the Suki sweetener
2 large eggs

Method

Heat the oven to 200°C and coat a 23cm cake tin with the butter or Spray & Cook. Nigella says not to use a springform or loose base tin. I only had a larger silicone ‘tin’. Next time I will use a smaller tin.
Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar or Suki on the greased base, I sprinkled it around then swooshed the tin around so it was spread evenly.

Arrange your pineapple slices on top of the sugar and place a cherry inside each piece and in between slices. I mosaic-ed the pieces of pineapple and dropped cherries randomly between them.
Place flour, baking powder, bicarb, butter, remaining sugar/Suki and eggs into a bowl and beat until smooth.
Add the 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice to the batter and mix well.
Gently pour the batter over the pineapples and cherries, it really will only juuuuust cover them so be gently when you spread it around.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and immediately ease a knife or spatula around the edge of the cake, place a plate or cake stand on top and quickly turn it upside down.

Enjoy!

June 30, 2013

Chocolate fudge cake

Holy moly!

This is the second time I have made this cake and it is phenomonawesome!

Ingredients

½ cup margerine, softened
2 cups sugar (I used a sugar replacement so this is supposedly diabetic friendly)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup cocoa
2 ¼ cups flour
1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups water
1 box chocolate chips (the original recipe didnt have this but I thought, what the hell, I have them, lets see what happens)

Method

Heat oven to 180°C.
Cream marge and sugar.
Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
Add cocoa and baking powder and salt, mix.
Add half a cup of water, mix.
Add 1 cup flour, mix.
Add half a cup water, mix.
Add 1 cup flour, mix.
Add remaining water and flour and mix well.
Add in the choc chips and combine gently.
Pour into a greased large springform tin.
Bake for 30 – 40 minutes. The longer you bake the less gooey the middle will be.

December 17, 2012

A birthday cake

Faith had a small family party this year and I didnt want to buy a cake, I wanted to make one.

Then I saw this post by The Cupcake Lady aka Angel on the new Pillsbury range and fell in love with the Funfetti cake mix.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find the Funfetti one when I went to the shops but I did improvise 😉

Ingredients

1 x box cake mix
½ cup rainbow vermicelli (if you didnt get the Funfetti box mix)
Extra ingredients as per the box mix
Icing sugar, butter and food colouring (as needed)
Fondant icing (I bought lilac and pink ready made Nicoletta fondant from Yuppiechef)

Method

Mix cake as directed.
Add the vermicelli.

Fill two 20cm cake tins with the batter and bake for 30 minutes.

Once cooled, remove from baking tins and allow to cool down completely.
Once cold place one of the cakes upside down on your board or cake stand.
Mix your butter icing and coat a layer of icing on the flat side of the cake.
Carefully place the second cake, flat side down on top of the icing covered base cake.
Carefully spread the rest of the icing over the top and sides of the layered cake.

(At this point I should have smoothed the butter icing a bit in preparation for the fondant but I forgot until it was too late).
Roll out your fondant and carefully place over the top of your cake, make sure the butter icing is still a bit wet, so that it sticks nicely (thanks for the tip Angel).
For a cake this size I would recommend two packs of Nicoletta fondant, I rolled my lilac one quite thin and it wasn’t quite enough to cover the whole cake, it could probably have been a bit thicker too.

Once you have your fondant in place choose an alternative colour fondant and roll it out, cut shapes or mould pretty decorations. It was quite easy to use and not scary at all.

Once you have your shapes or decorations use a little bit of warm water to stick them to the cake.

And there you have it 🙂

July 9, 2012

Peanut butter icing

The amazing Tanya made what looks like amazing icing this weekend!

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This weekend I was craving cake. But it had to be vanilla sponge cake and peanut butter icing. I’ve never made peanut butter icing. As luck would have it, I had a visit from a friend of mine, who is a pastry chef (check out her site which is soon to be updated: http://www.schweetemporium.co.za/) and she gave me a recipe for icing!

As for the cake… I discovered this box cake a few months ago and I am in love. So easy (obviously) and so divine! Just add water, oil and eggs!

So I made this delicious cake (it says to make a 2 layer cake, but I only have one springform tin, so I always just make one cake.)

Then, onto the icing… obviously my friend makes this in bulk, so she halved the recipe for me, and I still had WAY too much – but you can freeze it!! Which I did…

This is the recipe I used, But I may just halve it again when I need more… I had enough for 3 cakes.

INGREDIENTS:

375g Wooden Spoon White Margarine (it is apparently important to use this brand)
900g icing sugar
2 eggs
Vanilla essence

… this is where her regular recipe ends – but as I wanted peanut better icing, she said to just add as much as I wanted until it tasted good. I ended using about

1 cup smooth peanut butter.

METHOD:

With an electric mixer, blend chopped up butter, icing sugar and eggs. Blend, blend, blend for a long time, until light and fluffy and white.
Leave icing for 15-30 minutes.
Add peanut butter until you are happy with the taste… blending as you go along.

And that’s it!

My icing:

Once the cake (or cupcakes!) are cooled, ice as desired! My icing skills are non-existant and this doesn’t look like much – but my tummy loves it!

Eat and enjoy… this really hit the spot! This box cake is light and fluffy and moist and has such a deliciously delicate vanilla taste – I love it!

As for the frozen icing… according to my chef friend, you just microwave it for 10 seconds or so, until it is back to the normal consistency!

May 18, 2012

Vanilla Sponge Cake

I have never ever made a proper ‘from scratch’ sponge cake but I decided that for mothers day that is what I would be making.

I scoured the web and found this recipe from the Clover site.

I adapted it ever so slightly.

Ingredients

4 eggs
300ml (250g) castor sugar
500ml (280g) cake flour
15ml baking powder
250ml milk
100g margerine
5ml vanilla essence

Note: I measured everything out precisely using my kitchen scale, something I have never really done before. It must have worked because the cake was delicious!

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Beat eggs and caster sugar together (I used a hand held electric beater for about 3 minutes).
Sift flour and baking powder and fold into egg mixture.
On the stove, melt the marge in the milk on a medium heat, do not let the mixture boil.
Add the vanilla essence to the flour and egg mixture and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a pre-greased springform tin and bake for 30 minutes.

This was the only photo I had, it was gone before I could get a photo of the whole cake!

I covered my cake in a Pick n Pay Finest chocolate ganache. Let me stop here and just say O.M.G! You have to get your hands on this stuff, its divine!

May 15, 2011

Have your cake and eat it!

Aaron has been asking to make a cake the whole week so I looked into the cupboard and found that I didnt have my trusty Moirscake mix, I did have flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and milk so I figured I would try making a cake from scratch. Aaron wanted a chocolate cake so I found some cocoa powder too.

I found a recipe for a chocolate butter sponge in an old International Goodwill Cookbook (7th edition). I made a few small adjustments but it turned out really well.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla ( I just poured in a splash)
1 ¼ cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt (I threw in a ‘pinch’)
2 teaspoons baking powder (I use 3 teaspoons but I know in my kitchen I have to increase baking powder)
1 heaped tablespoon cocoa
½ cup milk
45g butter

Method:

Beat eggs, add sugar gradually, add vanilla and beat with a hand held beater for 3 minutes.
Sift dry ingredients 4 times (at this point I have to ask whose socks the creator of this recipe was smoking, I sifted the flour once, straight into the wet ingredients, that was it!), and stir into egg mixture, blending thoroughly.
Bring milk and butter to the boil and add to mixture.
Mix well with an electric beater.
Pour into 1 large or two small tins and bake at 180°C for 40min (large tin) or 25min (small tins).
Allow to cool before icing.

For the icing I decided to make a ganache. Mainly because I had some bitter sweet chocolate from Pesach and I wanted a really chocolaty icing. Unfortunately I didnt have any cream so I used margarine (purist dont hate me, I know its not even BUTTER!!!) instead.

Ingredients:

250g bitter sweet chocolate
250g margerine
icing sugar to thicken

Method:

Break chocolate into pieces and place in a microwavable bowl.
Add margarine.
Place bowl in microwave for about 1min depending on microwave strength.
Mix the icing until the chocolate is melted into the marge. You may need to nuke it a bit longer.
Once the icing is melted add a bit of icing sugar and mix.
Keep adding icing sugar until you reach the thickness you want.
This icing will also thicken/harden as it cools, so you may want to leave it to cool down before adding any icing sugar.
Once its ready layer it onto the cake, starting in the middle and spreading it towards the sides.
It may drip over the sides or you may need to spread it depending on thickness.

Eat and enjoy!

: Chocolaty goodness!!

May 15, 2011

The easiest yummiest cake recipe ever!

I have to thank my mommy-in-law for this one!

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What you will need:

Cake

1 x box/packet vanilla cake mix (I use Moirs)

1 x instant vanilla pudding (again Moirs but any brand will do)

4 x large eggs

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup oil

1 x mixing bowl

1 x Pirex or glass dish (oblong bakes more evenly than round)

Icing

1 x cup sifted icing sugar

4 tablespoons lemon juice

1 measuring jug

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How to make the cake:

Heat the oven to 180C

Pour dry cake mix and dry pudding into the mixing bowl, add the 4 eggs, add the water and oil.

Mix until smooth and there are no lumps.

Oil/butter/Spray&Cook your glass dish.

Pour batter into dish and bake at 180C for about half an hour.

Cake should be brown and springy to the touch.

While the cake is baking, sift the icing sugar into the measuring cup and add about 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and mix.

The mixture shouldn’t be too runny.

As soon as you take the cake out the oven pour the icing over the cake and spread it around so that it covers the whole cake.

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July 31, 2010

The easiest yummiest cake recipe ever!

I have to thank my mommy-in-law for this one!

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What you will need:

Cake

1 x box/packet vanilla cake mix (I use Moirs)

1 x instant vanilla pudding (again Moirs but any brand will do)

4 x large eggs

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup oil

1 x mixing bowl

1 x Pirex or glass dish (oblong bakes more evenly than round)

Icing

1 x cup sifted icing sugar

4 tablespoons lemon juice

1 measuring jug

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How to make the cake:

Heat the oven to 180C

Pour dry cake mix and dry pudding into the mixing bowl, add the 4 eggs, add the water and oil.

Mix until smooth and there are no lumps.

Oil/butter/Spray&Cook your glass dish.

Pour batter into dish and bake at 180C for about half an hour.

Cake should be brown and springy to the touch.

While the cake is baking, sift the icing sugar into the measuring cup and add about 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and mix.

The mixture shouldn’t be too runny.

As soon as you take the cake out the oven pour the icing over the cake and spread it around so that it covers the whole cake.

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April 11, 2010

Happy (belated) Birthday RoRo

On April 1st was RoRo’s birthday, it fell smack bang in the middle of Pesach and as such we could have a cake.

So, I promised that I would bake a cake as soon as Pesach was over. After eating the most divine red velvet cupcakes from Angel I decided I would try out a red velvet recipe I found at Bakerella.

We started off great!

And then it went downhill… My cakes didn’t rise! I was so upset I couldn’t even take photos!!

So instead of wasting cream cheese icing on two flat cakes I just made some plain icing.

I also decorated with these fantastic silver balls and silver coated chocolate buttons!

Lets just call this a warm up round… I promise RoRo, I will make a better cake during the week!