Hummingbird Bakery Apple Streusel Cake

Apple streusel cake is a three layer cake consisting of Victoria sponge, layered apples and a crumble topping. What's not to like?

The first step is to make the 'streusel' which is the crumble topping. Rub the sifted (70g) plain flour, (1 1/2 tsp) cinnamon (I prefer to use mixed spice instead) and (40g) cubed butter together to form breadcrumbs before adding in the (70g) light brown sugar. 

To make the sponge; cream the (60g) butter and (100g) caster sugar together until pale and fluffy, then add the egg and (1/2 tsp) vanilla essence, followed by the (140g) plain flour, (1 tsp) baking powder, (1/8 tsp) salt and (80ml) milk - this last part is added in two halves.

 Then you can move onto the apples by peeling, coring and slicing three granny smiths into quarters and then into 3/4 slices, depending on the size of the apples.

Then comes the fun bit, layer the cake by evenly spreading the cake mixture on the bottom, layering it with apple slices and then sprinkling on the crumble topping.

Place it in the oven at 170c for between 35-45 minutes, until golden brown and crunchy on the top. To check it is baked the whole way through, insert a skewer (or end of a teaspoon) and if it comes out 'clean' (no trace of raw cake mixture), it's done.

Then all that is left to do, is to get the cream out of the fridge and put kettle on.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Carrot cake cupcakes are perfect for any occasion, this occasion being Christmas of course! I used the Hummingbird Bakery Carrot Cake recipe for these which I separated into individual cupcake cases.

Unlike usual cupcake recipes, which use butter, carrot cake requires (sunflower) oil. So to begin; add the oil, light brown sugar and eggs together. Once combined, add in the vanilla extract and dry ingredients (plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger & salt). Followed by the grated carrot.

Then place them into the oven until they are golden brown, and leave to cool before icing. 

The carrot cake frosting is taken from Lorraine Pascale's carrot cake recipe which is made using icing sugar, butter, lemon zest, vanilla extract and cream cheese. I also tend to add in some of the lemon juice too for extra flavour.  

Once combined, you can begin spreading the icing on top of the cupcakes before adding the decorations. Normally I would decorate them with miniature white chocolate carrots (which you can find in Sainsburys), but as it is Christmas, it only felt right to use a few santas and reindeers instead.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I'd never actually tried red velvet cake before making this batch of cupcakes, but I'd seen a number of different recipes online. So I thought I'd try it out...turns out they are delicious rich cupcakes with a chocolatey aftertaste. In fact they were so delicious...I forgot to take any other photos than the one below (once I'd taken a bite first).

I used a Hummingbird recipe from the Goodtoknow website to make this batch. I noticed a number of the reviews were from people questioning which brand of food coloring to use as some didn't give a deep enough (red) color and some didn't taste as nice as others. I personally found the Silver Spoon red food coloring to be the best as it gave the perfect colour but with no added taste.