baby cakes, hearts and an ant
My kids like having "something sweet" for afternoon tea.
We all sit down, at our outside table (where we eat most every meal at the moment), and share our treats, an afternoon coffee, or warm milk, and some conversation. Talking over our day, or trying to decide on our dinner (every day, the thing of trying to decide what to make for dinner).
Yesterday we baked some little cakes. Some for Ari to take for school lunch. And some for us to have for afternoon tea.
Very easy to make, very delicious, and quite good for you - in the scheme of chocolate cake.
As you can see, they don't last very long. These photos were literally taken click, by click, by click - my camera could barely keep up with the little hands disappearing cakes!
Recipe (if you're interested) goes a little bit like this* :: Chocolate Beetroot Baby Cakes
Cream together 50g butter + 50g soft brown sugar (you can also melt it together in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water, if your butter is too hard - like ours was!). Stir really well, to cool it down a bit, then beat in 2 eggs. Add 75g cocoa powder, 100g finely dessicated coconut and 1-2 finely grated fresh beetroots. Stir well. Then add 2T plain yoghurt and 1 cup milk. Gently stir in 100g self raising flour. You want a fairly wetish (but not totally runny) mixture, that is easy to transfer to your cup cake cases. So add more yoghurt if it's too dry, or more coconut if it's too wet.
Spoon into little cupcake cakes, and bake until nicely cooked. (Our old oven is so unpredictable, I can't honestly tell you what temperature it bakes at; but most little cakes take about 12-15mins in 179 degrees C, oven. I do so so so miss our beautiful new oven, at our other home, and can't wait until we buy our own home again so we can have a beautiful kitchen!).
We bought these heart shaped cupcakes, at the insistence of Mishi - she wants them for her birthday party. (The little round ones have been in quite constant use for a long time). I've been using silicon cupcake moulds for quite a while now (year or so?), and while I guess the plastic isn't a fantastic thing to be using, I have never had any cakes that haven't unmoulded with ease, and don't have to use papercases all the time. (I have, in the past, had big issues with metal cupcake tins not unmoulding easily, and having half cakes fall out inside of the whole cake slipping out easily - I do recommend these little silicon baking cases, if you're having those issues).
*baking with two smalls means that measurements are never quite accurate, and stirring is a bit erratic. And given my personality, I never follow a recipe, making the cake and quantities up as we go along.
{can you see the little ant who was enjoying our tasty cakes, too}.