RECIPE | CINNAMON AND VANILLA CUSTARD CRUMBLE CAKE

I have created a masterpiece! My latest cake invention is perhaps my best yet.

Combining the warming sponge laced with cinnamon, a thick vanilla custard and a crumble topping, the Cinnamon and Vanilla Custard Crumble Cake is born.

Ingredients:

Cake:

175g Caster Sugar

175 Butter

3 Eggs

1 1/2tsp Vanilla Essence

175g Self-Raising Flour

1 1/2tsp Baking Powder

3tsp Cinnamon

2tbsp Milk

425g Custard

Crumble Topping:

110g Plain Flour

80g Butter

1tsp Cinnamon

3tbsps Demerera Sugar (and a little extra to sprinkle on top)

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease and line an 8" loose bottomed cake tin.

2. Cream the sugar and the butter until light in colour and fluffy in texture.

3. Add to this the eggs, vanilla essence and 2tbsps of the custard and mix until combined.

4. Fold in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon to form the cake batter - loosen this with the milk if needed.

5. Place the cake batter into the cake tin and spread evenly.

6. Pour the rest of the custard over the cake batter and spread evenly to form a thick layer.

7. In a bowl, add the flour and the butter for the crumble ingredients and rub the mixture together until it resembles small breadcrumbs (this can take a good five minutes). Add the sugar and the cinnamon to this mixture and then scatter onto the top of the cake with an even coverage.

8. Sprinkle the cake with some extra demerera sugar and bake in the oven for 50 minutes.

It is delightfully good served warm with extra custard or ice cream, but is just as nice as a a slice on its own with a good cup of (Yorkshire) tea.

LIFESTYLE | MORE BAKING AT INKWELL...

I had another afternoon of fun and baking at Inkwell last Friday, this time with my baking buddy David! We bake on the Friday afternoon so that there are cakes to sell in the Cafe the next day. Last week's cakes were a MAJOR success so I was asked back to bake this week!

To learn more about Inkwell visit my previous post HERE.

We made some nut and seed flapjacks...

Some peanut butter and banana muffins...

...and some smaller versions with cinnamon buttercream frosting.

(This was our first attempt at using a piping bag - please forgive us!).

Also in the kitchen was some delicious home made roasted red pepper soup...

...and some carrot and chickpea veggie burgers!

I love being able to experiment and get creative in the kitchen and it's great to know that we can do it for a good cause too. I'll be back again next week with some vegan cakes and a few more wonders.

Do you like my hat (and my flapjacks)?

RECIPE | WALNUT CINNAMON BUTTER

So we thought we'd jump on the nut butter wagon just to see HOW good home made nut butter actually is.

IT'S PRETTY DAMN GOOD.

WALNUT CINNAMON BUTTER

Ingredients:

200-400g of Walnuts

1/2 a teaspoon of Cinnamon

Sugar / Syrup (or sweetener of your choice)

Instructions:

1.  Place the walnuts into a food processor and process them on full power. This will take you about 10-15 minutes in total depending on how MACHO your food processor is (our's decided to heat/oversmoke after about 8 minutes!).

2.  The nuts should start to become finely ground and bind together. Everything will look like it has gone wrong as the nuts start to clump into a dough-like consistency!

HAVE NO FEAR.

3.  This is where your desired piece of cutlery (we chose a knife) comes in handy and saves the day.

In between every 2-3 minutes of processing you should stop the processor and scrape the nutty/doughy mixture from the sides of the container and then continue to process again.

You will soon start to become bored of nothing happening and think...

WHAT THE HELL HAVE I DONE WRONG?

WAIT.

WAIT IT OUT.

4.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the nuts will start to ooze their natural oils and the mixture will form into a smooth paste. At this point add your cinnamon and preferred sweetener. Then continue to process until the nut butter reaches your desired consistency.

...et voila!

VERY simple and easy 100% natural home made nut butter.