Cardomom, Saffron & Lemon Yogurt Cake

Ok - so this involved some playing around.... with a couple of new mould designs (due for release in March), a sponge cake recipe and then the cakes themselves.

Well - with small castle cakes, playing with the actual cakes became irresistible and simply had to be done ! From the minute I saw these, I was intent on making a cake to be played with and destroyed. Yes.... like most kids I was told not to play with my food, and have often found myself saying the same to Oliver. For once however, playing with food was actually encouraged !

The cake recipe should fill a large bundt / tube ring form. I used it to make 6 x round turret style cakes (like the one above) and 4 x more typical castle style ones that you can see further below. Each cake was probably plenty for 2 > 3 people to share and we had plenty fun reducing a few to crumbs.

It's lovely and moist and a rather delicate sponge. It could stand up well to some glace icing or buttercream perhaps. It managed to stand up to some rigorous play and destruction ! The saffron didn't do much. I hoped it would add another little twist of interest and perhaps a good injection of colour - but I don't think I used enough of it for that. I'll give you the recipe as I used it - but this cake was more about the annihalation !

225g butter

1.1/2 cups of sugar (my cup was 250ml volume)

6 eggs

4 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp lemon extract

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 cup of plain yogurt

pinch of saffron infused in a tablespoon of boiling water

1 tsp of salt

3 cups of self raising flour

Crack eggs and separate yolks and whites.

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks. Alternately add 1/3 of sifted self raising flour, yogurt and egg whites until all incorporated. Add lemon juice, lemon extract and the saffron strands plus liquid they have infused in.

Grease and flour a large bundt ring mould (or two small castle / turret moulds) with a hard fat such as butter and tap out any excess flour. Put on a baking tray for support.

Small castle cakes baked at 170deg C Fan (about 190deg C normal) for approx 30 mins.

Allow to cool until just warm before carefully turning out.

Let your battle commence !

The two new moulds for these round turret and castle cakes will be available around the end of March.

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemmoulds.com - January, 2012

Customers Creations ....

These little celtic cross cakes were made using this mould by Inese. Pretty - aren't they ?

Inese also made these stunning cookies and moulded them will our mini cakelet / petit fours mould.

Also from Inese are these little filled pastries - made using our mini crystal / gemstone silicone baking mould tray.

The photos in this post are all used with the kind permission of their creators and credit has been given (unless specifically requested otherwise). Links to websites are also there if they have been provided.

Photo by Zurin - from http://www.cherryonacake.blogspot.com/ - chocolate mud cake using our Say It With Cake words moulds.

I am a cake decorator and these are the first things I made using these moulds - piccy attached. I have plans for other things to make from these , and will update you as I create them. These are lime and coconut cake with lime buttercream , covered in 2 different colours of sugarpaste. Jill The Cake Maker - http://www.cakemaker.org.uk/

Jill has used our 6 cell 1/2 round (semi sphere) silicone baking mould. These are very seasonal and I'm sure any kid would be delighed with one of these pumpkin / lantern cakes !

My daughter asked me if I could make round wedding cakes.

I bought 4 of your molds last year and did a couple of practice runs. They made great Christmas baubles!

I eventually decided Madeira cake worked best. I made 36 for the reception cake and a cake tower for the evening party.

I just had to let you know how good they were and show you the pictures.

Regards, Mary Tornabene

Aren't they absolutely amazing ? Mary used the 6 semi sphere silicone bakeware mould.

Talented Edhouard has been busy with his creative take on lemon meringue pie using our 6 semi sphere silicone bakeware mould too !

please find enclosed my last realisation with the Semi Sphere / Half Round Silicone Soap Mould:

1/2 sugar crust pastry (not sure about the english term)

1/2 meringue

Lemons (green & yellow) - orange blossom cream

Lemons whipped cream

You can of course use the pictures for the website !!

Edhouard

 A towering tiered stand of layered cakelets made by Sara Bear of Bear Neccessities Cake Company for Andrew's 30th birthday party last year.

A pretty chocolate rose party cake - also from Sara Bear !

sesame seed cookies made using 16 oval silicone mould - ideal for lovely little tasty treats - including mini friands. from Cosmic Goddess - http://www.cosmicgoddesblog.blogspot.com/

Unbaked, raw food creations beautifully and lovingly made by Cosmic Goddess of http://www.cosmicgoddessblog.blogspot.com/ - I could eat the lot just looking at the photos ! Strawberry tart is using the large black heart silicone cake mould.

Here is a picture of the final birthday cake for my daughter's party. Hardly of a professional standard but I was immensely proud that I could make this - so apologies for the urge to share it with you!I have never considered myself a cake baker as such but this has totally inspired me and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Thank you for the service,recipe s& advice! Hopefully contact you again in future for further purchases now the baking bug has bitten!

Love from Glasgow, Hanlie.

Hanlie used our large butterfly silicone mould.

Hope you enjoy - we certainly enjoyed the cakes !!!!  Hayley

Hayley used our mini victoria sponge mould for these little beauties ...

Jill of http://www.jillispaiges.blogspot.com/ has made some really lovely fondant filled chocolates - and some awesome boxes to match. You'll find various ones if you trawl her blog !

Jill used our 15 flower chocolate silicone bakeware mould for the above chocolates.

Janet White made these pretty white, milk and plain layered pyramid chocolates with our 15 cell pyramid chocolate mould

Hana Trundova at a coffee shop in Norwich (name withheld) has been using our 40 cell extra deep mini muffin mould in their small commercial oven.

Another stunning cake creation from Zurin at http://www.cherryonacake.blogspot.com/ - this time carrot cake with a cream cheese icing. Made using our C A K E word mould.



Rustic Pistachio cake above is from Zucchero e Farina - see blog here



A chocolate and vanilla marble cake from Gordon ... made in one of our silicone bundt rings and baked in one of our halogen ovens ! 

Last but not least - a seaside castle cake made by Lorraine for her kids. Love the little people !

Many thanks everyone for allowing me to show off your photographs. If any other blog readers have photos of things you have made in our silicone moulds and are happy to let us show off your photos... please do let us know. It's fantastic seeing all of your creations !

Dutch Apple CASTLE Cake !

This is a post for loads of people out there who are still waiting to see what all our new moulds are.

 I'm sorry it's taking me so long.. it's SUCH a big job at the moment as there are so many new silicone bakeware moulds and other items just in.

This CASTLE mould is an absolute cracker, and such fun too ! There are so many things you could do with it. Using a vanilla mix, the cake should retain a pale colour and look fab decorated with lots of sweets / candy - or just leave it as a plain and unadulterated cake. No sin in that.

It would look totally awesome as a chocolate cake simply dusted with icing sugar for a wintery seasonal feel.... I fancy making an icecream castle too. Or even for a giant rocky road as one of our shop customers has in mind. I'm looking forward to seeing how creative some of the purchasers are.

Anyway - for this cake, I made a Dutch Apple Bundt Cake originating from http://www.allrecipes.com/ - but tweaked it to suit. The cake mix produces a moist and dense cake. Refrigerated, it should keep well after baking. I found rises very little and one batch is no where near enough. Yup - this was my second cake of the day and the mould was still short by a couple of spoonfuls if I'm being really critical. As this cake has got so much apple in it, it also comes out quite a dark colour.

The original recipe was to fill a 10" bundt ring, but as mentioned, I've tweaked it and added 50%. I also decided to grate the apple instead of slice, added some bicarbonate of soda and increased the liquid a little. By the way - I'll warn you - you need a big mixing bowl !

Ingredients

6 apples (or 4 large cooking apples) - peeled, cored and grated
1/3 cup of white sugar
6 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 teaspoons ground ginger

4.1/2 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
3 cups white sugar
6 eggs
1.1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup of orange juice or milk

Add the first lot of sugar and the spices to the grated apple and mix. Set aside whilst you prepare the rest.

Sift dry ingredients together. Whisk eggs and wet ingredients (except apple) to the dry. Mix with a wooden spoon to combine and then stir in the apple.

Pour into your greased and floured castle mould set on a baking tray. Put into a 170deg Fan oven for approx 1hr 10mins until cooked and a cake tester comes out clean.

Allow cake to cool for 15 mins or so before turning out on to a wire rack.

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ / http://www.naturalheating.co.uk/ - July 2010