Author: cozebakes

Sticky Gingerbread Bundt Cake

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A spiced, sticky ginger cake which is one of my favourite! This very simple bundt cake recipe is flavoured with ginger and cinnamon and has a wonderful sense of the festive season about it. I do have a bit of a thing for bundt tins but you can use a standard 20cm instead 🙂 

I decorated it with white dripping icing and pomegranate seeds as it was made originally at Christmas, but as the season changes, you could make a coulis from raspberries and pour it over while saving some whole ones to decorate. Once it gets closer to summer, using Passion Fruit to drizzle over would make a great taste combination and the colour would look fantastic. 

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Viennese Shortbread Mini Cakes

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These sweet, pretty bakes are a lovely buttery and delicious shortbread biscuit which are made in paper cases for a different look from the traditional Viennese Whirls. You can use strawberry, raspberry or apricot jam in the center. They are quick and easy to make and look so pretty presented together dusted with icing sugar.

Little bites of melting heaven …. For a Festive feel, spoon some delicious homemade mincemeat in the centre 🙂

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Chocolate Courgette Cake

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We all love something a little sweet with our morning or afternoon break; maybe when we have friends over for Afternoon Tea but don’t want to go the full OTT or just because it’s a Sunday!  The fact you’re going to include one of your required 5 a day is a bonus?!

Adding courgette to this lovely light chocolate cake gives it added moistness as chocolate cakes can sometimes turn out a little dry. Spelt flour is used also for easier digestion and those with a high wheat intolerance and finally agave syrup for sweetness instead of refined sugar …. sure it’s positively healthy! 😉

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Halloween Surprise Cake

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There are so many fun ways to bake at Halloween and this surprise cake featuring a hidden pumpkin is one of them.

There are 2 cakes to be made; one coloured and one plain. You need to plan ahead as they can’t be made at the same time. I tend to make my coloured one in the morning, get my jobs done and then get the second one made later in the day. It can be decorated the same or next day.

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Toffee Apple Cake

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Ooooh where do I start??! It’s a delicious take on a traditional Toffee Apple and adding the toffee sauce just sends it into another dimension. A wonderfully moist and spicy cake which is surprisingly easy to make.

If you don’t like dates, don’t worry. You can’t taste them. They add moistness and that great sticky toffee flavour.

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Banana & Cranberry Gluten Free Muffins

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These delicious muffins are perfect for an on the run breakfast or midday snack as they are low sugar and full of goodness. You can make them dairy free if you need to and I’ve put those options on the ingredients list.

I’ve used dried cranberries because they are a firm favourite in our house and they are sweet enough to greatly reduce the original sugar content in the recipe, but you can use other dried fruit options too. Pecans or walnuts would also be a great addition.

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Bakewell Cherry & Raspberry Buns

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I’m a sucker for Bakewell Tart, the combination of almonds and cherries will win with me every time! This is such a quick and easy alternative to the original tart recipe which still retains all the lovely bakewell traditional flavours. The only problem …. they are way too tasty but I work around that by eating one only and putting them away till the next time 😉

The recipe makes a dozen fairy bun sizes but you can use muffin cases too but will probably only get about 8. I used a mix of glace cherries and fresh raspberries with raspberry jam for the centres but you can decide what you would like based on what you have and your personal taste. I would recommend you give the cherries a good wash before using them to prevent them sinking.

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Battenberg Cake

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There’s something very special about those pink and yellow squares when you cut into a Battenberg that brings you back to being young. It was such a treat to get and always felt like a special occasion when a Battenberg was produced on the table.

It feels like a lot of work but honestly, it’s not. The cutting and joining of coloured sponges can be a little sticky and rolling out the marzipan a little messy but the result is definitely worth it and always impresses when it’s homemade!

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Spiced Apple Cake – Gluten Free & Low Fat

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This delicious and low fat cake comes from the Hairy Bikers. It contains low fat milk and sunflower oil so no butter and for a large 23cm cake, only uses 100g of demerara sugar which you could substitute for an organic variety which is less refined.

I converted it to a Gluten Free version so everyone at home could enjoy it and it worked really well. The other bonus of this lovely recipe is that it freezes well so you can cut in half or in slices and keep for when you desperately need a slice of cake to help sort out the woes of the world. Defrost thoroughly and heat up in a low oven or in the microwave. It’s perfect served hot or cold and will keep fresh for several days once you wrap it in tin foil.

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Berry Muffins

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One of the easiest recipes on the cozebakes blog has to be for these Berry Muffins. No special equipment needed and they are made in no time. I filled mine with 100g each of raspberries and blueberries but there are lots of options and I’ll list them in the ingredients.

I used tulip cases to make large muffins and got 10 from this quantity.  If you use traditional muffin cases you should get about 15.

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Strawberry Crumble Cake

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I was in the UK a while back and saw this recipe in a magazine so of course I took pictures and once I got home, gave it a go with sweet Irish strawberries. I picked up a punnet of King Strawberries which I hadn’t seen before. Huge fellows and very sweet!

It’s a big cake and will easily feed 12/14 people so it’s perfect for a gathering and can be dressed up a bit to make it fancy, shmancy 🙂

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Gin & Tonic Cupcakes

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I have a house full of G & T fans, it’s not my tipple but it’s my son and his girlfriend’s favourite drink and as it was her birthday, I decided to make these cupcakes.

I opted not to use a recipe which incorporates gin into the batter as I felt it would be a very wet mixture and the time to bake could result in a tougher cupcake rather than a light, moist one. Using the lemon drizzle method, I opted instead to brush the baked cupcakes with the gin for it to sink in and flavour the entire bun. There’s also gin in the buttercream (of course there is!) so it’s a treat for gin lovers.

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