The Power of Cake

A long week at the office has now found a cure; L’eto Caffé just around the corner from my work in Mayfair, London. It’s Friday, and motivation is somewhat lagging- we felt like we deserved a reward. Now whilst I’m not adverse to daytime cocktails, I can imagine my bosses wouldn’t be too pleased with a slightly tipsy office. There was only one thing for it- CAKE.

Recommended to me by Dan Hawkes who works in my office, I found this tiny little café but 2 minutes walk from the office. Light and clean, with huge windows displaying all the treats, it invites you to look; and once you’ve looked, its game over. Rows and rows of beautifully decorated cakes, slabs of chocolate brownies and light fluffy meringues just beckon you to come inside. In the other window, the lunch on offer for the day is set out clean, fresh and dazzling in true Mediterranean fashion. Although this blog isn’t about lunch, and I didn’t get to try the savoury food, it is definitely something on my ‘to do’ list.

Back to the cakes; we peruse the selection for a while, unable to decide and wishing we could buy them all. In the end the 3 of us chose: a chocolate torte topped with chocolate ganache and a fresh raspberry, a tropical layered carrot cake with fresh mango drizzled with mango syrup and the most stunning blackcurrant and dark chocolate delice. Each cake was different, and we shared them so we got to try some of each. The delice was super refreshing and tangy, with the slick of dark chocolate on top adding a lovely richness and the pistachios crumble adding just the right amount of crunch. The carrot cake was gloriously spicy and sticky, freshened and sweetened by the textures of mango. However it was concluded that the winner of day was the chocolate torte; rich, melt in mouth, heavenly- the kind of moment that only a really amazing chocolate cake can offer. Whilst it was super rich, we did not have any problems finishing it.

So our Friday was instantly brightened. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to discussing baking and desserts in the office, swapping recipes and advice whilst putting a huge smile on everyone’s faces. Alex was even inspired to make her boyfriend a chocolate torte that evening, which meant the joy of these cakes was extended beyond those who ate it.

And so I give you; the power of cake!

Rachel x

Le'eto Caffe

Cook Book Eye Candy

Lily Vanilli's beautiful book Sweet Tooth, building on the success of young Lily's bakery in east London, is an absolutely lovely baking book with sugary delightful photography to convert anyone into a sweet tooth. I bought this book for my Mum for her birthday, firstly because we still haven't had a chance to visit the bakery yet and i wanted a slice (ha) of the action already, and secondly, it matches our green kitchen cupboards.
Judging from what i'd seen and heard on her bakery i didn't think i would ever be able to attempt any of her recipes for fear of nervous breakdown over my kitchen aid but the beautiful photography and surprising simplicity of the layout of the recipes has inspired me that i may just be able to do it!
For now heres some sparkly images for you to see and when i get a chance to start trying her recipes at home i'll photograph some more pages of the book along with either a) me crying into a Cath Kidston oven glove or b) a successful attempt at a tasty cake!

Lily Vanilli's Sweet Tooth published by Canongate RRP £20

Lily Vanilli Site

Lily Vanilli Instagram

Holly x

Rachel's Devil Food Cake

By nature, I am a savoury cook; give me roast dinner for 10 over baking cupcakes any day. However, a combination of my boyfriend’s sweet tooth and my desire to master this art that has long escaped me, I’ve recently started trying to get over “the fear”. And so in this blog you will be able to see me recreating certain recipes to some disastrous consequences- although hopefully getting better. Bored of seeing fancy multi-tiered baked goods that look like they’ve been crafted by Michelangelo himself? Then come and have a laugh at my first attempts!
First off, and my boyfriends favourite; Devil’s Food Cake.

*280g Plain chocolate

*100ml milk

*50 g cocoa power

*180g unsalted butter

*140g light Muscovado sugar

*3 eggs separated

*8 tbsp Crème Fraiche

*200g plain flour

*1tbsp Golden Syrup

*1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

200g icing sugar

1.     Preheat oven to 160 Celsius; grease two 8 inch cake tins and line with non-stick baking paper. Top tip: Follow Delia’s guide to lining cake tins to ensure the edges are smooth here: Delia's how to line a cake

2.     Melt 140g chocolate with milk and 2 tbsp of cocoa powder in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water until smooth. Remove from heat.

3.     Beat together 140g butter with the muscovado sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the egg yolks, crème fraiche and melted chocolate mixture.

4.     Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda, and then fold this into the mixture lightly and evenly.

5.     Beat the egg whites into firm peaks, and then fold this into the mixture lightly and evenly.

6.     Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and smooth level- DO NOT PRESS DOWN otherwise the cake will be too dense. Cook for 35-40 minutes.

7.     Once cooked, leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks.

For the frosting:
melt the rest of the chocolate, cocoa powder, crème fraiche, golden syrup and butter with 4 tbsp of water in a saucepan over a low heat until smooth. Remove from the heat and sift in the icing sugar, constantly stirring. Set aside to cool.

The mistake I made here was not to let it cool enough- it needs to be thick and gloopy, otherwise it will just run off the side of the cake and look messy (Like you can tell from my pictures!)

9.     Cut each cake in half horizontally, and sandwich the cakes together with some of the icing, then spread the remaining icing over the top and sides. This is easier if you have a palette knife, but if not use anything with a smooth side.

So this cake was absolutely decadent; moist, chocolatey and light. Just the presentation that needs some work I think! To mix it up, trying adding raspberry puree in the sandwiched layers, or make white chocolate icing; in these cases you can probably withhold a bit of the icing sugar as these components are sweeter.

Certainly looks like my boyfriend enjoyed it!

Recipe from The Big Book of Baking by Love Food

Rachel x

The Exploding Bakery

Sounds messy! But luckily this little exeter bakery was very much in one piece when we visited. We stopped by this bakery upon more recommendations for my regional special piece, sadly it didn't make the final cut but it's defiantly a must if you are in the area.
For a start the coffee was excellent, they usually brew the very trendy (and very tasty) Monmouth coffee but the weekend we visited they were serving a different brand however it was still strong and went well with our baked-on-site cakes! Everything is baked in their open plan kitchen- very similar to Royal William Bakery however its much smaller and more of a take-out service than a sit down and chill out for hours type place. The general vibe i gathered whilst there was that they take a very relaxed approach to the baking biz- from stating on their website that the foccacia is "f***ing good", to the fact we were served by a very nice barista who was happy to make us lovely coffee even though they were minutes from closing!
We enjoyed coffee's and vegan chocolate banana bread which was absolutely divine. I have never tried vegan cake before (shocking considering i eat any cake placed in front of me no matter the ingredients), but it wasn't lacking in flavour in ANY way, it was still moist and gooey like banana bread should be, in fact it was so filling and sweet i had to save half and eat it later in the hotel! Yummers.

Best for: coffee and fresh treats to go
Best day: first thing- its right next to the station, perfect for a coffee commute
Exploding Bakery

Holly x