Clandestine Cake-A-Long -

Giant Zesty Lemon Fondant Fancy: Clandestine Cakealong

By Helen | June 11, 2013 - 7:12 am | Aardvark Cakes, Baking, Cake, Cakes, Clandestine Cake-A-Long

I think I’ve found my new favourite cake (I’m also sure I’ve said this before!) No, seriously, I made a discovery yesterday that will change my ‘go-to’ cake whenever I have to take a cake somewhere.

The Lemon Fondant Fancy is one of those cakes that looks impossible to do but is really quite easy. It does help that the base cake is only 6″ square so when it comes to covering it, it isn’t too difficult to get neat.

I made the buttercream (for the bump) with more icing sugar than usual to make it extra hard. I was worried that with it being so hot at the moment, the weight of the covering might squash it down. But that didn’t happen.

I did cover the cake and the bump with marzipan before covering with the yellow fondant icing as I love the taste of marzipan and I wanted a really neat finish. I suppose if you didn’t like the taste of marzipan, a thicker covering of just fondant would do just as well.

The recipe is the brainwave of Jini Mulukutla, who I will try to have interviewed in the next few days. Jini’s recipe says to spread lemon curd in the centre of the cake and to stick the fondant down with the curd also. I was lucky enough to be sent some marmalades and jams from the lovely people at Mackays last month though, and wanted to see what would happen if I used marmalade instead. I thought that maybe it would be too tangy – I think I had convinced myself from being a child that marmalade was too bitter a taste. How wrong I was! It added just the perfect zesty taste. I am definitely going to be using marmalade as a substitute for spreading jam on a cake from now on. I also have another marmalade recipe coming up in a couple of days … watch this space!

We had some very tasty looking bakes from our last Cake-a-long – The Torta Columbina Cake.
Victoria Murray gave us this very neat example.

Source: Uploaded by user via Victoria on Pinterest

Rhonda Kirby gave hers a bit of bling with some purple sprinkles

Rhonda’s sparkly Torta Columbina

Katy Hough had so much more success with her sugar topping than I did.

Katy’s tasty looking Torta Columbina

And last but not least is Cassandra’s delicious looking bake. Cassandra forgot to put on her topping and sugar beads. I love this as that is just the sort of thing I do. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to put a cake in the oven to find I’ve forgotten to add sugar or eggs!

Source: Uploaded by user via Cassandra on Pinterest

Our bake for the next fortnight (and I promise it will be a fortnight) is the Father’s Day Spiced Ale Cake. This is my lovely friend, Deb Connor’s cake and I’ve actually tasted this cake. Hope I can do it justice when I bake it for Dermot for Father’s Day this weekend. I will be back with the roundup and the next bake on Monday 24th June. Happy Baking!

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Clandestine Cake-a-long Returns – Torta Columbina & Homemade Orange Curd Recipe

By Helen | May 9, 2013 - 11:38 am | Aardvark Cakes, Baking, Clandestine Cake-A-Long, Recipes

4 Comments

We’ve had a few weeks break from the Cake-a-long but its back raring to go! It seems that with every cake I’ve made from the Clandestine Cake Collection, I’ve learnt a new skill and developed a new addiction.

This time it is a delicious orange curd – when I came to make the Cake-a-long bake I discovered I didn’t have any orange curd in so undeterred made my own. Delicious! And so easy in the microwave. All the way through, I was convinced I’d mess it up, my eggs would curdle and it would taste awful – but NO – IT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS! We are now eating Homemade Orange Curd with everything – the kids might draw the line at Orange Curd Tuna Pasta however.

I’ve never heard of a Torta Columbina before – I have googled and found Tarta Columbiana which sounds very similar. This cake was the brainwave of Euan Greig who blogs over at Signor Biscotti, a lovely blog that will have your mouth watering. Euan’s version of the cake looks so much better than mine and you can find the recipe here. I’m going to try to interview Euan in time for the next round up in 2 weeks to find out more.

The cake itself was not too complicated – I did seem to end up with far too much egg white mixture for the topping though and had to crack it to make sure it was cooking. I personally would have liked a stronger orange flavour but I’m sure this is just me. I loved the addition of the almond flavouring too – it really added an interesting aftertaste. I’ve spotted Millie dipping into the cake over and over again which is a sure thumbs up!

Homemade Orange Curd Recipe

Ingredients

2 egg yolks
4 eggs
Finely grated rind of 2 oranges
175g caster sugar
Freshly squeezed juice of 2 oranges
125g butter, chopped into small pieces

Instructions

Whisk the eggs in a large microwave bowl
Add the orange rind, sugar, orange juice and butter
Microwave on high at 30 second intervals for at least 8 minutes
I whisked after every 30 second period so the butter was properly mixed in.
The curd will thicken and form a thick coating on the back of a metal spoon.
Taste and be transported to a delicious place!
Transfer to either one big sterilized kilner jar or small sterilized jars and allow to cool fully.
Keep in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.

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So there is the Cake-a-long for this fortnight. I will do a round up on Monday 20th May (the linky will be open until approx 8PM on Mon 20th May) and the new Cake-a-long will start on Tuesday 21st May. It is never too late to start joining in with the Cake-a-long. If you would like to suggest a cake for us to make, please feel free.

Our next bake will be the Giant Lemon Fondant Fancy on page 231 – Eek! Be brave with that fondant!

Featherlight Cake: Clandestine Cake-a-long 3

By Helen | March 26, 2013 - 7:25 am | Baking, Cake, Cakes, Clandestine Cake-A-Long

8 Comments

Helen Jones, you are a genius! This cake is a revelation. A fat-free sponge that comes together ultra quickly and feels somehow luxurious but not guilt ridden to eat. (even with a shed load of fresh cream in the middle). Our cake for the Cake-a-long this fortnight is the magnificent Featherlight Cake on page 15 of the Clandestine Cake Cookbook.

We actually made and ate this cake early last week for a late Mother’s Day treat but it has taken me forever to get to the laptop to post about it. Never fear, the Cake-a-long is back on track – I actually was away with Millie’s synchro this weekend and I didn’t want to advertise to the whole world that the house was empty. Back now – burglars, you snooze, you lose and all that!

I’m sure that this recipe will be one that I will go back to over and over again. I can’t stress enough how refreshing this cake was to an ordinary sponge. I was tempted to add a splash of vanilla extract but decided not to mess with Helen’s design. It was fine without the vanilla in the end but I may try experimenting with other flavours in future. I’m thinking lemon rind and lemon curd would be amazing.

I know a couple of people have already baked this cake in preparation for this week -if you haven’t made it yet, it would be a fantastic alternative to all the stodge of Easter chocolate. I will hopefully post more information about the recipe creator, Helen Jones in the round up post.

So, go ahead! Let’s see your creations – Is anyone planning on filling with anything different to the suggested jam and fresh cream? If anyone is struggling with putting their photo on pinterest, please feel free to email me and I will do my best to help.

Our next cake will be the Torta Colombina by Euan Greig on page 116 – a Italian Easter inspired cake with an orangey taste – Can’t wait!

The linky for the Feather light cake will remain open until next Monday (1st April).

Toffee Shock Cake RoundUp: Cake-a-long 2

By Helen | March 18, 2013 - 10:23 pm | Aardvark Cakes, Baking, Cake, Cakes, Clandestine Cake-A-Long

Lime & Pistachio Round-Up: Clandestine Cake-a-long 1

By Helen | February 26, 2013 - 11:30 pm | Baking, Clandestine Cake-A-Long

3 Comments

Source: picmonkey.com via Helen on Pinterest

Wow! What a fabulous start to the Clandestine Cake-a-long. Our first bake seems to have been a great success with many more people saying they hope to take part.

The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook was published almost 2 weeks ago now and everywhere I go people are talking about it. I came across it in Costco last week when I was shopping with the 3 mini Costellos – we may have left it open on my recipe page for all to see ahem!

Anyhow, back to the Lime and Pistachio cake – I thought it would be an idea to do a round up of all the bakes submitted to the Cake-a-long. I have added them all to the Clandestine Cake-a-long Pinterest board too. Feel free to visit the pics and leave comments.

For our first recipe, we had bakes from Katy Hough, Rhonda Kirby, Cassandra Simpson and Victoria Murray. We have had a fortnight of getting to grips with Pinterest aswell as a new recipe so we’ve all learnt something. I hope to add a Clandestine Cake-a-long Facebook page in the next few days to make it easier for FB diehards to add their bakes too.

Thanks to everyone who joined in – Our next cake is the wonderful, Julia England’s Toffee Shock Cake. Mine is cooling as I type so the post will be up tomorrow. Happy Baking!

Clandestine Cake-a-long Episode 1: Lime & Pistachio Cake

By Helen | February 12, 2013 - 7:15 am | Clandestine Cake-A-Long

15 Comments

Cor, what a cake to start with! For those of you who haven’t read last week’s post – I’m embarking on a new mission to bake my way through the fabulous new Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook. Every fortnight I will hopefully be joined by other crazy bakers as we show our attempts at the cake choice of the fortnight.

I have been in contact with many of the contributors of the book (many of whom have said that they are also up for the challenge of baking along too) to find out more about them.

This week, I am starting with Lynn Hill, Founder of the mighty Clandestine Cake Club. I’ve not actually met Lynn yet but I feel like I know her well following several phone calls and email exchanges over the past 2 years. (One of my sisters has been in Lynn’s house for a Secret Tea Party so that makes us nearly relatives?!)

Lynn lives in Leeds, where she set up the very first Clandestine Cake Club. In order for us to get to know Lynn a little better, I posed some questions for her to answer:

How did you get into baking?
My mother baked and cooked at home and I loved the cookery classes at school.

What is your favourite cake?
I love citrus flavoured cakes but I also love a good layered sponge cake with a nice filling and topping.

What is the last cake that you made?
The last cake I made was the crispy lemon cake on page 130 of the CCC Cook Book

You have friends coming round for the evening, which cake would you bake them?
I’d make the Finish Lemon Mothers Day cake on page 194 of the CCC cook book.

What famous person (past or present) would you like to bake a cake for?
Mrs Beeton. I’m sure she would love to see what we bake in the 21st century.

How many CCC events have you attended?
In 2 years I must have organised quite a few but never counted them so I’m not quite sure how many.

What recipe out of the CCC book do you fancy baking the most?
I’d most like to make the Lingonberry White Chocolate Cake on page 106 because the author of the recipe actually sent me some Pomerans and dried Lingonberries that are generally not available in the UK. The recipe suggests using cranberries and orange zest as an alternative.

Thanks Lynn – You sure do like your citrus cakes!

For the first recipe for the cake-a-long, I thought it only right to choose the cover cake. The Lime and Pistachio Cake. An imposing cake, with 3 layers and several cooking techniques. This cake features on page 141 of the Clandestine Cookbook.

The recipe includes sections on baking the sponges, making a lime syrup, a lime curd, pistachio encrusted chocolate and lime frosting. Phew! I have to say that I completely loved making all the different elements of the cake.

The sponges were so much quicker to prepare than I thought they would be. The lime syrup was incredibly easy and just divine – I am definitely going to use this again for other baking projects.

I hit a bit of a stumbling block with the lime curd – I never seem to be able to gets curds thick enough although all the ingredients were easy enough to prepare. No matter, even though the curd was still fairly liquid, it was absolutely gorgeous – and sooo tangy!

And then it came time to assemble the cake together…Hmmm, perhaps my frosting needed to be thicker. To say I had a minor disaster is a bit of an understatement – My husband might have uttered the words, ‘Cake Wrecks’ at this point. Didn’t stop us eating it though! Completely gorgeous taste, very tangy but balanced by subtle nutty flavour and the creaminess of the frosting. Just need to do a ~~bit~~ lot of work on my presentation. Considering it is February and my valentines flowers haven’t arrived yet (hint) I didn’t bother with the rose petals.

So how did you get on? I so wish I could have posted a successful picture of my first Cakealong attempt but here it is, faults and all. I loved the cake and the experience of preparing all the different elements.

If you have baked the lime and pistachio cake, add your picture or blog post url to the linky below. The link up will remain open until Monday 25th February. The Clandestine Cake-a-long pinterest page can be found here

Our next Cake-a-long will start on Tuesday 26th February and will be Julia England’s Toffee Shock Cake on page 227.

Clandestine Cake-A-Long

By Helen | February 5, 2013 - 7:38 am | Baking, Clandestine Cake-A-Long

45 Comments

Calling all bakers! Do you fancy joining in with a new Cake challenge? Let me introduce to you the Clandestine Cake-A-Long. I will be baking my way through the new and fantastic Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook and would love if you joined me.

A fortnightly baking group where we all bake from a set recipe – All the recipes are from the fabulous new book – The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook.

The book itself is jam-packed full of 120 cake recipes all from members of the Clandestine Cake Club. I’ve talked about the Clandestine Cake Club many times before – a chance to get together with other cake lovers whilst eating and talking about cake.

The book arrived on my doorstep last week and I was delighted to be included as one of the recipe contributors (Page 242 Oreo Rosette Cake if you’re interested!) I cannot wait to get started on baking my way through the book – there are sooo many that I want to do NOW!

I have been chatting with the Clandestine Cake Guru, Lynn Hill this week about my plans to bake all of the recipes in the book. We would also like to focus on each organiser behind the recipes and will be interviewing them (in a friendly cake related way) during the fortnight that their recipe is in the spotlight.

So how can you get involved?

I’d love it if people wanted to join in and bake with me – You don’t have to do every recipe but it would be great fun. If people want to blog about their bake, I will include a linky that you can add your URL to – if you don’t have a blog, feel free to add a picture of each cake you bake to the Clandestine Cake-A-Long Pinterest group that Lynn has set up especially for our challenge. Your Pinterest pic can then be added to the linky instead. The link will be open for the next 2 weeks.

If you would like an invitation to the Pinterest group, please click here

So when does it start?

The first Cake-A-Long will start next Tuesday 12th February 2013 and will remain open until Monday 25th February.

Which Cake is first?

Pistachio and Lime Cake! Page 141.

(The wonderful looking cover cake – I’m not promising mine will look that good!)

I thought it only right to start with our illustrious leader, Lynn. Lynn has agreed to be interviewed. I will be contacting the other contributors in the coming weeks to see if you would like to be included.

I will organise the next few bakes as soon as possible to give plenty of notice.

If I blog, can I include the recipe?

No, only the original contributor is allowed to publish their recipe on their own blog. If you have done so by the time it is your fortnight, then I will happily link back to you.

Do I have to bake every single recipe to be included?

No, but it makes it so much more fun if there is a lot of us doing it.

Disclosure: I take no responsibility for any waistlines that grow or jeans that shrink during this project

If you do not own a copy of the book and would like to join in, you can buy one Here

To find out more about attending a Clandestine Cake Club event, visit the website