Fighting the Urge

Lately, I have been sooo fighting the urge to bake all the time. Now you might be saying to yourself, "How is this a bad thing?!". Well, let me tell you it is right now. Not only are James and I trying our hardest to lose some weight, but also we are feeling the pinch with the cashola these days. So I have been baking to take the edge off, but trying to only use stuff I already have in the house.

Here we go.....

Strawberry Shortcake

(Makes One 9-inch Cake - 10 Servings)

For the cake:

2 cups plain flour (all-purpose flour)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda (baking soda)

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 large egg

For the filling:

400ml double cream (heavy cream), whipped

strawberry compote (see recipe below)

For decoration:

punnet of strawberries, washed and topped

icing sugar

50 g dark chocolate, melted with 1/2 teaspoon oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180/400. Lightly grease a 9 inch round cake tin. Shift together the flour, 1/2 cup of the sugar, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the buttermilk, oil and egg. Combine together the buttermilk and flour mixture, and stir with a fork just until combined. (Don't over-work the batter or your cake will turn out dense.) Empty the batter into the pan and spread evenly with the back of a spoon. (This can be quite tricky as the batter is very sticky. You are trying to make sure the batter is spread out to all sides, not perfect on top. ) Bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 18 to 20 minutes. Cool in the tin on a wire rack about 5 minutes. Remove the cake from the tin and let cool completely on the rack.

Using a serrated knife, cut the cake in half horizontally. Place the bottom layer on a serving plate and spread evenly with the whipped double cream. Next pour the strawberry compote into the centre of the whipped cream and spread outwards evenly. Cover with the top shortcake layer.

Cut several of the strawberries in half and push them into the whipped cream around the sides of the cake. (Make sure they are snugly set into the cream or they will fall out.) Dust the top of the cake with icing sugar and place a few sliced strawberries in the centre. Drizzle with cake with the melted chocolate.

Strawberry Compote

Ingredients:

200g strawberries, chopped

1 large orange, zest and juice

2 tsp caster sugar

100ml champagne (cava)

Directions:

In a large frying pan, heat the strawberries with the orange zest and juice and the sugar.

Add the champagne and cook down until the liquid volume is reduced by half. (I found this to be about a half an hour.)

Tah Dah!

PS - Juno was good, but I wouldn't say it was Oscar worthy. Sorry...