Little Box Brownie

A Baking Blog from Melbourne, Australia

Cake

Strawberry Friands

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Time to pack a picnic and head to a park with open fields or head to the beach and curl your feet into the sand and relish in the spring sun. Grab a friend or two, perhaps a special someone and get out there and do it. Take a little treat with you, these little friands would do very nicely. I love them and their something a little bit special than just a muffin, after all their french, oh la la. So go on hop to it, get baking.
Strawberry Friands
 
1 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup plain flour
1 cup almond meal
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
150g butter
7 strawberries
 
Pre heat oven to 150C
 
Sift the flour, icing sugar and almond meal into a bowl, then stir through the egg white and vanilla essence. Melt butter in the microwave, and then stir through the mixture.
Chop the strawberries into slices and reserve 8 pieces to decorate. Stir the strawberries through and pour into a friand tin or muffin tray. Place a reserved strawberry on top. Bake for 15 minutes.
 
Makes 8

The Biggest Baddest Chocolate Cake Ever

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Ok so this past week I have been pretty quiet on the blogging front, the truth be told I have been living in denial, you see last week, last saturday to be precise I turned the big Three Zero. My plan was to let my thirtieth birthday slip away quietly, I had planed on a quite night with a bottle of wine and some take out. That however was very far from what was about to happen. You see little did I know my sister had planed a surprise birthday party for me. She must have spent days planning it, she had made and assortment of cupcakes, biscuits and cakes. She said she wasn’t letting me hideout that my thirties had to be celebrated with a bang. So thank you to all the wonderful people that came and helped me see out my twenties and celebrate the beginning of my thirties.

I had always thought that 30 year olds had there life’s together, but now that I have hit this milestone I can say its not the case, well certainly not for me. I don’t feel like I’m 30 I don’t feel like I have it altogether yet, I need more time!! My brother gave me some good advice, he said you can’t go backwards so you better enjoy what you have and embrace life, embrace your thirties and do what you want to do. So for the next decade I plan on doing just that embracing my thirties. And what better way to start than with the biggest baddest chocolate cake ever, made by my Mum who doesn’t bake, just for me, well maybe not just for me I promise to share some.
Chocolate Mud Cake
 
250g butter
250g dark chocolate
185ml hot instant coffee
550g white sugar
150g self-raising flour
150g plain flour
60g cocoa powder
1/2teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil 
125ml milk
 
Frosting
 
200g butter
300g sour cream
3 cups dark chocolate
4 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons brandy
 
Pre heat the oven to 140C
 
Place the butter, chocolate, coffee and sugar into a saucepan and heat on a medium temperature until the chocolate and butter have melted, set aside.
 
Sift the flours, cocoa and baking soda into a bowl, and make a well in the centre. Combine the eggs oil and milk and pour into the flour mixture and stir to combine.
Pour in the chocolate mixture and stir through, then pour into three lines 23cm cake tins. Bake for 1 hour and 30minutes or until cooked, test with a skewer.
 
 
 
To make the icing, combine the butter and sour cream together with an electric mixer. 
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave and then pour into the butter mixture white still beating. Sift the icing sugar in and fold through, pour in the brandy and combine.
Ice the cake when cooled

Celebration Chocolate Cake

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This past year has flown by, one year ago today Little Box Brownie was born. I started the blog with no idea how it would go, how long it would continue or where it would head. In fact the first 6 months I kept Little Box Brownie to myself as I was unsure about the whole idea. It wasn’t until the start of this year I actually started to tell people the blog existed and put it out there into the big wide world for others to see. I am so overjoyed to see how people have responded to Little Box Brownie and how they have embraced it. I wanted to say a huge thank you to each and everyone of you for all your support and words of encouragement over the past year. If anyone anywhere is thinking of starting a blog all I can say is go for it!! It has been so rewarding. I know the whole idea is daunting and you think wow how could I ever put myself, my words and my work out there. But really its amazing how people respond and where your photos pop up in the world wide web. One step at a time, is all it takes, all you have to do is start.
So I leave you with this decadent little chocolate cake to celebrate our 1st Birthday. 


Chocolate Cake

2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups white sugar

 

1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 cup hot instant coffee
 
Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder together add the sugar and stir through. In a separate bowl combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, essence and coffee. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Pour into two lined 20cm cake tins, and bake for 40minutes or until cooked.
 
250g chocolate
200g butter at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
 
Heat the chocolate in the microwave until melted, then leave to cool slightly.
Place the butter in a bowl and beat with an electric beater, sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder and beat until smooth and fluffy. Pour in the chocolate and beat until smooth. 
 

 

Caramelised Banana Cake

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I had great intensions of eating these bananas when they where young, yellow and beautiful yet once again I have let them wilt, turn brown and die only to be reborn as an amazing out of this world banana cake. I’m sure you are with me when I say whoooo hooooo banana cake.
The cake is really moist and quite light and fluffy. The cake itself is not overly sweet but the caramel topping makes up for that, it gives the cake an amazing warmth, just what you want in time for winter, mind you it would be perfect all year around. I have to say I am quite impressed with this cake. It was after all a throw anything in to the mixture cake and I think it turned out pretty Supercalifragilisticexpialidociously well, I think the sour cream I added in to the mixture just for the fun of it really worked a treat. Ok so I’m proud as punch go on give it a go.

The trunk that I photographed the cake on is an old trunk that sits in the front of my studio. It was my dad’s old school trunk, it has K Purvis stamped on to the front of it. I’m not quite sure how he moved it cos it weighs a tonne, but he would cart this thing off to boarding school with him back in the day when he was a wee lad:) He said he also took it to sea when he was a cadet engineer, so this trunk has quite literally been around the world. Oh the stories I’m sure it could tell. 🙂

Caramel Banana Cake
 
Topping
 
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup of cream
2 bannans
 
Cake
 
100g butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 ripe bannans 
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 eggs
2 cups self raising flour (gluten free or plain)
 
Pre heat oven to 190C
 
To make the topping, sprinkle the sugar into a 20cm round cake tin, then pour over the cream. Cut up the two bananas into pieces about 3mm thick and lay them over the cream and sugar. Set aside
To make the cake, cream the butter and sugar together. Mash up the banana’s with a fork and add along with the sour cream, vanilla essence and eggs then stir through. Sift in the flour and stir until well combined. Pour over the bananas and bake for 40mins or until cooked.
 
Serve hot straight from the oven.