My New Blog!

For the last few weeks I've been sharing the bakes I've made for my Monday night craft session with friends, on my papercraft blog and Facebook, and have often been asked for the recipes, so I decided to start this blog to do just that.
The first recipe I'm going to share is this one for Sticky Toffee Cake, which tastes as good as it sounds and is really easy to make.

Equipment -
A 25.5cmx20.5cm cake tin, base lined with baking paper

Oven temp -
180C / 350F / gas 4

Ingredients -
For the sponge -
200g stoned dates, chopped
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300ml boiling water
80g unsalted butter
160g light brown muscovado sugar
2 large free range eggs, at room temp, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
175g SR flour
pinch of salt
75g walnut pieces

For the frosting -
100g light brown muscovado sugar
75g unsalted butter
100ml double cream
4 tbs mascarpone
pinch of sea salt
walnuts to decorate (optional)

Method -
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
To make the sponge, put dates in a saucepan, add bicarbonate of soda, pour over boiling water and simmer over a low heat for a minute.  Remove from heat and set aside for 15 mins.

2. Put butter in a mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until creamy.  Add sugar and beat until fluffy, then gradually add eggs, beating well after each addition.  Beat in vanilla.  Sift flour and salt into the bowl and fold in.  Add the date mixture and walnuts and fold in.

3. Transfer mixture to prepared tin and spread evenly.  Bake for 25-30 mins until sponge feels springy when gently pressed in the middle.  Cool in the tin for 15 mins then turn out and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

4. For the frosting, put the sugar, butter and cream in a saucepan and heat gently until melted, then increase heat and simmer for 3-4 mins until sticky.  Remove from the heat and let cool completely.  Beat mascarpone until smooth, then mix in caramel and salt.  Swirl over the top of the cake and decorate with walnuts if you like.