Mixed Berry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

I had some leftover sour cream from making Beef Stroganoff, so I found a cake recipe in my BBC Good Food 101 Cake Bakes book that had sour cream as one of the ingredients. The original recipe was Blueberry Soured Cream Cake, but I didn’t have any blueberries, so I used a pack of frozen Black Forest Fruits from Tesco. The pack contains 4 different fruits, but I only used the blackberries and blackcurrants and not the cherries and red grapes because I didn’t think they would work very well in the cake.

For the frosting I used a recipe by Leila Lindholm from her basic cupcake recipe. The frosting was yellow because of the butter and I didn’t like the way it looked. I didn’t want to add food colouring to change the colour. Then I remembered I’d left the unused cherries and grapes in the fridge and they’d defrosted and left a lovely pool of juice. So I added about a Tablespoon of the juice to the frosting and it turned it a lovely pink colour and added a great fruity flavour to it as well. The recipe for the frosting makes quite a lot, I only used about half of it and have kept the rest in the fridge. I guess I will just have to make some cupcakes to use it up!

I’m really pleased how the cake turned out as I’d never made it before and the frosting was a bit of a gamble (the last time I made a cream cheese frosting was for Rachel Allen’s Carrot Cake and it wasn’t all that well received!).

Unfortunately the fruit did sink to the bottom of the cake, even though I’d tossed it in some flour before mixing it in. I think it’s because the fruit was frozen and also because the cake batter is quite a runny consistency, so it didn’t have the body to suspend the fruit. It still tasted delicious though, as the cake is really moist from the sour cream. The fruit is lovely as it is slightly tangy and is offset by the sweet frosting.

It was lovely to come back from a walk down the park with Steve and eat this cake with a nice cup of tea!

• Serves: 10
• You will need: a 9 inch (22cm) round cake tin
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C

Ingredients:

• 175g soft butter
• 175g soft brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 225g self-raising flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 Tablespoons soured cream
• Blackberries and Blackcurrants taken from a frozen 350g pack of Tesco Black Forest Fruits

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

• 60g butter, softened
• 100g cream cheese (I used Tesco Value)
• 300g icing sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• approx. 1 Tablespoon of juice from leftover defrosted fruits

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C and butter and line the base of your round cake tin with non-stick baking paper or reusable Magic Non-Stick Liner.
2. Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla extract into a food processor and whizz for 2-3 minutes until lighter in colour and well combined. Fold in the soured cream and the blackberries and blackcurrants.
3. Tip the mixture into the tin and spread it level. Bake for 50-55 minutes until it is risen, feels firm to the touch and springs back when lightly pressed.
4. Cool for 10 minutes, then take out of the tin and leave to finish cooling on a wire rack.
5. To make the frosting: in a large bowl beat the butter, cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon juice until smooth and creamy. Add the fruit juice and mix in well. Spread over the top of the cooled cake (don't be impatient as the frosting will melt if the cake is too warm).

COOK’S NOTES:

• Can be frozen un-iced.
• The cake will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. Bring it to room temperature for about an hour before serving.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I bought a couple of Non Stick 12 Cup Mini Muffin Pans from Amazon as they were only £4.89 each and I just couldn’t resist how cute the cupcakes would look!

The pans are really well made and although the non stick coating is good, I prefer to use paper cases rather than cooking directly in the tin. I bought 700 mini cases off Ebay for only £2.45 plus £1.99 postage, which is incredible value! The cases looked a little small when I put them in the tin, as the tin has a base diameter of 3.5cm and the cases have a base diameter of 2.5cm. But once I’d filled them with cake mixture they came out fine.

I made these for my brother’s birthday recently and he liked them! I love the mini cakes as you can just pop a whole one in your mouth! They took 10 minutes to cook at Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C.

The recipe for the cake is the Dark Chocolate Cupcakes one that uses sour cream. So I thought I’d try a different frosting that also uses sour cream, which makes a very smooth frosting with a slight tang to offset the sweetness of the cakes.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 142ml (small pot) sour cream
• 2-3 Tablespoons light muscovado sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting Directions:

1. Gently melt the chocolate, sour cream and sugar in a small saucepan, stirring until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth icing.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
3. Chill in the fridge until firm until to swirl or pipe onto your cakes.

As the weather was so hot, I kept the cakes in the fridge after I’d iced them, but the cakes do taste better at room temperature so I recommend taking them out of the fridge about an hour before devouring!

Beef Stroganoff

I had lots of sour cream to use up so I thought a stroganoff would be perfect. I found this recipe on the foodnetwork website and it's by Rachael Ray which is one of the cooks I liked to watch when we had a TV in our hotel in SF! Click on the recipe title to go to see Rachael Ray's original recipe.

I have tweaked her ingredients to suit our taste and I've altered her method so you only need one frying pan! Although her recipe says it feeds 4 people, Steve and I like a lot of sauce so it comfortably fed us 2. Delicious served over fluffy white rice.

Serves 2 who like it saucy!

Ingredients:
Enough steak to feed 2 (I used 3 small thin frying steak pieces, but use better quality if you can)
Salt and pepper
1/2 small onion, sliced
4-5 mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup sour cream, eyeball it
1 tablespoon extra-virgin or vegetable oil


Directions:

1. Heat a large frying pan or skillet until smoking hot, then add a little oil. Season your meat with salt and pepper. Add the meat to the pan and quickly sear on both sides, then remove from the pan and set aside on a plate. Don't worry that the meat is still undercooked at this point as you will add it back to the pan later. When the meat is cool enough to handle, slice it in thin strips.
   
2. Next saute the onion and mushrooms for 3-4 minutes in the same pan you seared the steak in. You want the onions to become a nice golden colour and the mushrooms to be cooked through. Remove from the pan onto the same plate as the steak.
3. Now make the sauce in the same pan - you will get all the nice flavours from the meat and veggies. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and add the flour and cook for 1 minute stirring constantly to make a roux. Whisk in your chicken stock and simmer for 1 minute until nicely thickened. Stir in the mustard and sour cream and continue to simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.
   
4. When your sauce is ready add the steak, onions and mushrooms back to the pan. Simmer for another couple of minutes until the meat and veggies are heated through (I'd say 1 minute max to keep your steak rare)
   
5. Remove from heat and season sauce with salt and pepper.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

I can’t take the credit for this recipe as my friend found it on a website and passed it onto me, but the measurements were all in American cups so I have converted it and tweaked some of the ingredients to make it easier to make.

These cupcakes are really moist due to the sour cream and the icing is really creamy and luxurious. Alternatively you can use Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge icing which is really good.

• Makes 12 cupcakes if using muffin cases
  
• Oven shelf position: upper
• Oven temperature: preheat oven to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C
  
• Baking time: 18-20 minutes
• You will need: 1 small bowl, 2 medium bowls, saucepan, 12 hole muffin/fairy cake tin
  

The Cupcakes - Ingredients:

• 1 stick (110g/4 oz) Unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup (50g/2 oz) Dark chocolate (I used Bournville), broken into pieces or use chips
• 1/2 cup (40g/1.5oz) Dark cocoa powder
• 1 cup (110g/4oz) Plain all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda (Baking soda)
• 3/4 teaspoon Baking powder
• 2 large Eggs
• 3/4 cup (150g/5oz) Caster sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional but apparently brings out the flavour of the chocolate)
• 1/2 cup (small 142ml pot) Sour cream

The Cupcakes - Directions

1. Line baking tin with paper cases (I used muffin cases in a tin used for normal fairy cakes).
2. Melt the butter, chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan shallow-filled with simmering water (do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water). Whisk until smooth and combined, then set aside to cool, until just warm to the touch.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a small bowl.
4. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl to combine; add the sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk until fully incorporated.
   
5. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and whisk until fully combined. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture into the mixture and whisk until combined. Then add 1/3 of the sour cream and mix in. Alternate adding and mixing in the flour and the sour cream until you end with the remaining flour mixture and whisk until the batter is homogenous and thick (it will be like a thick gooey mousse).
   
6. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases - should be about 2/3 full.
7. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.
8. Leave the cakes to cool in the tin on a wire rack.
9. Cool to room temperature before icing, about 30 minutes.

Vanilla icing - The ingredients

• 1 stick (110g/4 oz) Unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (175g/6oz) Icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon Double cream

Vanilla icing - Directions

1. In a medium bowl beat the butter until smooth.
2. Add the icing sugar and beat until the sugar is incorporated.
3. Scrape down the bowl and beat until mixture is light and fluffy and a pale yellow.
4. Add vanilla extract and double cream and beat until light and fluffy.
   
5. I have reduced the quantities of the ingredients for the icing just to give round numbers. You can store any leftover icing in the fridge or freezer, just allow it to thaw before attempting to ice your cupcakes.

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