Random update and a recipe

I know, I know! I've really, REALLY neglected this blog, but I have a good excuse right now as my husband and I have just bought our first house, and most of my time has been taken up with house searching, viewing, packing and moving and now I'm sitting surrounded by boxes! I do have a pretty good wedding cake I did for some friends that has Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy on top. I am so, so proud of it, and my husband even videoed walking around it if I can work out how to post that here, so look out for that!

Well, just so this isn't an entirely pointless 'update' I'd like to share a 'recipe' of sorts, as I made it today, and I thought I'd share!

Well, what do you do if you decorate a lot of cakes and you have all sorts of cake trimmings? You know, all the off cuts from the cakes that get cut to shape. All the burnt edges, and odd shapes you can't quite sandwich up into some sort of cake to present to anyone, ever? What about the extra left over buttercream, or even slightly stale cake bits?! Well... I have the answer!

What I do is something my Mother In Law and me invented once (but is most likely invented by someone else at some point). We call them truffles as they are quite truffley.

Get all the leftover bits of sponge cake (I've not tried it with fruit cake, but it could possibly work, not sure about fruitcake and buttercream though!) and crumbs and buttercream and whatnot. Plop the lot into the bowl of a mixer (I have a Kenwood Chef I love, but you could possibly use a hand mixer) crumble up the biggest bits of cake so it's not too hard on the old thing, and then whizz the hell out of it in the machine. If the mixture looks a bit dry, add some butter, if it looks a bit wet, add some icing sugar and/or cocoa, in fact it's best to add some of all of those things unless you had a lot of left over buttercream. If you want to add extra indulgence, melt some chocolate, and pour it into the mixture. For grown-ups only, a splash of booze is really good.

Once this concoction is whizzed into a big cakey gloop that sort of holds some shape, take gobs of it out, roll it in your palms into a ball, then roll in either icing sugar, cocoa powder or both, and plop on a baking sheet/big flat plate or something with baking parchment on it and chill the lot.

Wahay! A use for left overs! RECYCLING FTW!

Try to remember that what you are eating that can be gone in seconds is essentially a ball of cake with added sugar and fat, so it's not a good idea to eat lots of them on a regular basis, but it's a fabulous way to use up bits that would be scrap otherwise and just get binned.

I just made some of this earlier today, and it was looking too runny, and my husband said "just pass me the bowl and a spoon.." so this is also an option if you are feeling a bit greedy!

Diabetic Friendly Apple And Carrot Cake Recipe

Well there's a lull in cakes at the moment before the mad rush of Summer weddings, which is just as well really, as we had such heat last week, I know anything I had to make would have melted into a sticky heap.

So, in lieu of pretty cakes to show you, I have here a recipe for a Diabetic Friendly cake that I have baked for both my husband's grandmother, and my dad who are both diabetic.

Diabetic Friendly Apple And Carrot Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

280g self raising flour

120g Margarine

1 tsp Cinnamon (I missed this out in my dad's cake as he is sensitive to all spices, but it does add a nice flavour)

125g Walnuts, chopped (or equivalent in fruit if you have a nut allergy like me!)

100g Raisins

2 average sized dessert apples or pears, peeled cored grated

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

Grated peel of 1 orange

2 large Eggs,

4 tbsp Fresh orange juice

Obviously as with anything for diabetics that has any kind of sugar in, it should be eaten in sensible portions and in moderation, but it doesn't contain those horrible fake sugars like Splenda, just flavoured with fruit. Be sensible, and don't eat it all in one sitting as the fruit contains fructose which is still sugar!

1. Line and grease the base of a loaf pan with 4 cup capacity.

2. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3/175 degrees centigrade/350 degrees Fahrenheit

3. Place the flour in a bowl and cut in the margarine and stir in the cinnamon.

4. Stir in the walnuts (or extra dried fruit), raisins, apples/pears and carrot.

5. Add the orange peel, eggs and juice, then beat well until thoroughly combined.

6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top flat

7. Bake for about 1 1/4 hours, or until the cake is well risen and firm to touch.

8. Turn out on a wire rack to cool

9. Omnomnom.

I have hashed this recipe together from an American recipe that was all in cups, so hopefully the measurements are accurate enough, but on the whole, if a cake mixture is too runny, add more flour, if it's too dry add a splosh of milk or similar. It's not rocket science! It's good to remember this as sometimes eggs are bigger than others and make a cake wetter or drier than a recipe may require. If you bake regularly you'll be able to tell what consistency the cake should be.