C is for Cake - Blogging from A to Z April Challenge

One of my loves other than writing is baking. I love to cook and especially to bake, so I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite cake recipes and why I like them. Since I have posted most of them in various places online already I will link to those and just tell you what is so good about them in this post.

Click the titles of the recipes to visit the full details.

Mimi's Pound Cake

There are few recipes I have found that are as versatile as this one, or as delicious. It makes a large, dense cake that keeps well and will feed many, many people, because you can only eat a little bit at a time.

The one in the picture is a vanilla pound cake with a caramel icing, which is delicious, but I love this recipe because it is so easy to play with.

Replace some of the flour with cocoa and you have a chocolate pound cake.

Divide the mixture in half, and replace some of the flour in one half with cocoa, then marble the two together to get a variegated cake.

Add some coffee in and you have a wonderful coffee cake, or replace the vanilla with lemon extract. You can do just about anything you want with this cake and you end up with a wonderful delight everyone will love.

Double Chocolate Fudge Cakes (Gluten Free)

Now these little beauties are simply delicious. They are gooey and moreish and simply wonderful. What's more, they're gluten free, so they are a nummy treat even for those with an intolerance or allergy.

They use cornflour or arrowroot and ground almonds instead of normal flour and it makes them very rich and soft.

I haven't found anyone who didn't like these, well as long as they liked chocolate that is :).

Banana Cupcakes

This is a very versatile recipe which makes delicious and moist cupcakes or (as seen in the picture to the right) a giant cake.

The secret to this recipe is to have very ripe bananas. Make sure you ripen them well, because if they are a little green the flavour just doesn't come through as well.

They are absolutely lovely with vanilla icing, as in the recipe link, but I have also made them with chocolate icing and vanilla icing with a drop of banana liqueur. If you use ripe bananas you really can't go wrong with this one.

Giant After Eight Cupcake cake

Now this one is decadent :). If you like chocolate and mint you'll love it.

For those who don't know what an After Eight is, it's a thin mint cream covered in dark chocolate, which is the principle of this cake.

The main cake is dark chocolate with a hint of coffee that uses chopped up After Eights instead of regular chocolate chips. Then the icing is a cream cheese based icing with peppermint essence or peppermint oil to give it a good kick.

If you don't have a giant cupcake mould you can make it any shape you want, just be aware you will probably need two tins.

Chocolate Blackout Cake

Last but by no means least, this is Chocolate Blackout Cake. It is an American recipe from the "America's Best: Lost Recipes" book which my darling husband brought back from the US for me.

In the recipe I have noted alternative ingredients for us UK cooks who can't get some of the things on the US ingredients list.

This cake is squaggy and delicious, but can also look very sophisticated when served with fruit as a desert.

It is not an easy recipe, but it is well worth the effort.

I have many other recipes I enjoy, but these are my favourites. Please drop me some comments and tell me about yours.

If you would like to see what all of my posts will be about in advance, click here to see my theme post.
My twin and I are also doing the A to Z Challenge over at our fantasy erotica blog: http://fantasyboysxxx.blogspot.co.uk/