It's A Piece Of Cake

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday April 24, 2001

Donna Hay

Get out the wooden spoon - it's the only mixer you'll need for these easy cake ideas.

If you ask me, that Marie Antoinette was really onto something when she said: "Let them eat cake." OK, OK, so cake-making isn't that simple, what with all the pain involved in creaming the butter and the sugar, separating the eggs and beating the whites. But I've come up with four recipes for easy-peasy cakes that don't require a weightlifter to help you get your mixer out of the cupboard and won't take you hours to prepare and bake. They're simple.

Pop the kettle on, warm the pot for afternoon tea and make room for a divine carrot cake, a melt-in-the-mouth banana cake, a naughty chocolate cake and a rich pear cake.

The most equipment you'll need will be a wooden spoon and some elbow grease to simply mix loose ingredients together in a bowl, pop the mixture into a baking tray (no spoon-licking, please) and voila, as Marie Antoinette would have said. The best bit is, unlike the French bird, with these cakes you won't have to lose your head.

Banana cake

Sweet banana mashed into a light sponge.

1 3/4 cups self-raising flour, sifted

1 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup mashed banana

125 g butter, melted

3 eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 180C. Place flour, sugar, brown sugar, banana, butter, eggs and sour cream in a bowl and stir until combined. Spoon mixture into a 25 cm fluted ring tin and bake for 40 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool cake on a wire rack and ice with caramel icing.

Serves 8-10.

Carrot cake

If there are carrots in it, it must be healthy.

1 3/4 cups self-raising flour, sifted

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 cups grated carrot

1 tsp ground cinnamon

180 g butter, melted

Preheat oven to 160C. Place flour, sugar, eggs, carrot, cinnamon and butter in a bowl and mix until combined. Spoon into a greased 26 cm x 8 cm loaf tin or 22 cm round cake tin. Bake for 50 minutes or until cake is cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on a wire rack and ice with glace lemon or orange icing.

Serves 8-10.

Upside-down pear cakes

Rich, delicious and fruity treats.

100 g butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 tbsp water

2 firm pears, peeled, cored and sliced

Cake

1 3/4 cups self-raising flour

1 cup caster sugar

125 g butter, melted

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180C. Place butter, brown sugar and water in a frypan over medium heat and stir until the butter has dissolved. Add the pears and cook for 3-4 minutes each side or until soft and coated in the caramel. Spoon the pears and some of the caramel syrup into the base of 6 x 1 cup capacity non-stick muffin tins. Reserve the remaining caramel syrup for serving.

To make the cake, place the flour, sugar, butter, eggs and milk in a bowl and mix until combined. Spoon over the pears in the tin. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in tins for 5 minutes and then invert onto serving plates. Serve the cakes with the extra caramel syrup and thick cream.

Serves 6.

Melt and mix chocolate cake

The world's easiest chocolate cake.

125 g butter, chopped

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 180C. Place butter, milk, sugar and cocoa powder in a saucepan over medium-low heat and stir until smooth. Place flour, bicarbonate and eggs in a bowl and add the cocoa mixture. Stir until smooth. Pour into a lined 20 cm square cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool cake in tin, remove cake and then ice with the smooth chocolate icing.

Serves 10.

Icings on the cake

Lemon or orange glace icing

Place 1 cup sifted icing sugar in a bowl. Mix in 1 tbsp of warm water and 2 tsp of finely grated lemon or orange rind. Spoon over cake and allow to set.

Caramel icing

Place 1 cup cream, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 30 g butter and 1 tbsp water in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved then allow the mixture to simmer for 5-7 minutes or until thick. Cool until icing is thick and then spoon over cake.

Smooth chocolate icing

Place 200 g chopped dark chocolate in a saucepan with 2 /3 cup cream. Stir over low heat until chocolate has melted. Cool for a few minutes to thicken and then spoon over cake.