Spring has sprung in Sydney and I’m dusting off my recipes for little cakes perfect for afternoon tea. Berries are plentiful and cheap, so perfect to pop into a small cake and top with a lemon icing.
The recipe is an all in one food processor recipe too. Easy!
One of the issues I have experienced with my little cakes is the problem of cakes sticking to the molds and coming out in pieces.
I picked up some advice that buttering the molds and flouring them, freezing for half an hour then buttering again, gives you a pretty good chance of the cakes coming out whole. So that’s what I would advise that you do.
Here are two recipes, both based on the same basic cake mixture, one for blueberry, lemon and almond cakes, and one for raspberry and almond cakes.
Blueberry, Lemon and Almond Cakes
Ingredients
65g self-raising flour
60 ground almonds
125g caster sugar
125g butter
2 large free-range eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tblsp milk
125g fresh blueberries
Lemon Icing
2 tbsp lemon juice
Enough sifted icing sugar to make a thick but spreadable icing
3 blueberries for little cake for decorating
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C fan forced. Butter, flour, freeze and butter again your chosen molds. I used popover molds, but muffin molds would be fine. You will get 6 cakes from the popover molds, probably 8 from the muffin molds.
Put all the ingredients except the milk and the blueberries in a food processor and blitz till smooth. Add the milk while pulsing the food processor to get a mixture that is not to stiff and of dropping consistency.
Carefully fold the blueberries into the mixture with a spoon.
Spoon the mixture into the molds, making sure you don’t fill more than 3/4 of the mold.
Place the molds in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the cakes are cooked and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Once the cakes have cooled for about 15 minutes, carefully up end the molds and ease the cakes out of the molds. Cool on a wire rack.
For the icing, mix the lemon juice with enough icing sugar to make an icing that will drip over the cakes. Ice the little cakes, adding 3 blueberries on the top of each cake for decoration.
Raspberry and Almond Cakes
Ingredients
65g self-raising flour
60 ground almonds
125g caster sugar
125g butter
2 large free-range eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tblsp milk
3 raspberries for each cake mold
Lemon Icing
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 or 3 pureed raspberries
Enough sifted icing sugar to make a thick but spreadable icing
1 raspberry for little cake for decorating
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Butter, flour, freeze and butter again your chosen molds as for blueberry cakes.
Put all the ingredients except the milk and the raspberries in a food processor and blitz till smooth. Add the milk while pulsing the food processor to get a mixture that is not to stiff and of dropping consistency.
Spoon the mixture into the molds, making sure you don’t fill more than 3/4 of the mold. Carefully pop 3 raspberries into each cake mold.
Place the molds in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the cakes are cooked and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Once the cakes have cooled for about 15 minutes, carefully up end the molds and ease the cakes out of the molds. Cool on a wire rack.
For the icing, mix the lemon juice and pureed raspberries with enough icing sugar to make an icing that will drip over the cakes. Ice the little cakes, adding 1 raspberry on the top of each cake for decoration.
It’s the last couple of weeks for blood oranges in Sydney. Nothing beats the flavour and colour of blood oranges – I await the arrival of these ruby red gems eagerly each year and try to include them in lots of delicious recipes. I made these mini cakes a year ago, and, looking over blood orange recipes, thought I would repost this one again, just in time for the last of the fruit.
The Quirk and the Cool 