A Spot of Baking - Blueberry and Pecan Muffin Cake

Trust Delia to invent a giant muffin that's big enough for you to share with other people. Ideal. Lovely for a teatime cake or a dessert and with all the fruit and nuts it's bound to be a little bit healthy! You can use any fruit or nuts you want.

Ingredients

275g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
170ml milk
75g (golden) caster sugar
2 eggs
110g unsalted butter
350g blueberries
1 tablespoon demerara sugar
75g pecan nuts (chopped roughly)

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees and cover the base of a 20cm cake tin in greaseproof paper.

2. Melt the butter over a low heat. 

3. Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

4. Whisk the milk, caster sugar, eggs and butter together. Sift the dry ingredients from the other bowl into this bowl (if you can be bothered with double sifting it's good for the muffin texture).

5. Using a large metal spoon, fold the ingredients together quickly. Do not stir! It won't look too pleasant but that's fine. Quickly fold in 275g (approx) of the blueberries and spoon mixture into the tin.

6.  Sprinkle the remaining blueberries over the top followed by the demerara sugar and then the chopped pecans.

7. Bake cake in the centre of the oven for an hour and take it out when it feels springy in the middle. 

Chocolate Easter Cake

Easter, obviously, requires chocolate cake. I opted for Mary Berry’s Chocolate Fudge Cake and instead of the ganache she uses, I made a chocolate butter icing. I put all the mixture into a 20cm cake tin and cut the cake in half once it had cooled instead of faffing with two tins. It was very quick and easy to make and, like any good chocolate cake, can be made for all occasions. It definitely seems to please so if you’re a baking novice, this is worth a try!

Ingredients

50 g (2 oz) sifted cocoa powder
6 tablespoons boiling water
3 large eggs
50 ml (2 fl oz) milk
175 g (6 oz) self-raising flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
100 g (4 oz) softened butter
275 g (10 oz) caster sugar

Chocolate butter icing

50g good-quality dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)

100g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

milk

To Decorate

Mini Eggs

Edible pearls

Yellow Sprinkles

Method

1 Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Grease a 20 cm (8 in) cake tin then line the base with baking parchment.

2 Blend the cocoa and boiling water in a large bowl then add the remaining cake ingredients and beat until the mixture has become a smooth, thickish batter. Divide the cake mix equally between the prepared tins and level the surface.

3 Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25–30 minutes or until well risen and the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed with a finger. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack. Then cut carefully in half so you have two layers to sandwich together with butter icing.

4 For the butter icing melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. (Do not allow the base of the bowl to touch the surface of the water.) Allow to cool. Beat the butter in a bowl until soft, then gradually beat in the icing sugar. Add the vanilla extract and beat again. Fold in the melted chocolate until completely incorporated (add a few drops of milk if the mixture is a little stiff).

5 Use half the butter icing to fill the cake and sandwich the layers together. Then use the remaining icing to cover the cake - top and sides. Finish by decorating how you wish, I have used mini eggs, yellow sprinkles and edible pearls.

Cake recipe is from Mary Berry's Baking Bible by Mary Berry, published by BBC Books, £25. Butter icing recipe from BBC Food.