All Things Nice & Cinnamon Spice
A BUMPER collection of cosy recipes, including a Mississippi Mud Cake, Cinnamon Bun Brunsviger, Chai Spiced Apple Crumble Bread Pudding & a Chocolate Fudge Loaf with Malt Whipped Cream & Blackberries.
Hello Friends!
I hope you are all well this week? I am going to aim to keep this intro short and sweet because boy, oh boy, we have a big old bumper selection, collection and concoction of carby deliciousness that will see you through the weekend. Whether you are after something low key and chill, I have got you. If you want something that takes a bit of time, I have got you. And if you are after something that hits that sweet middle spot. You got it. I HAVE GOT YOU. And if none of what is on the menu this week tickles your pickle, we have had some cracking bakes in the past newsies if you have missed them, including my:
Honeycomb & Chocolate Tiramisu (Italy don’t hate me, there is no coffee in this one tee hee)
Triple Chocolate & Pistachio Ice Cream Sandwiches (for anyone still holding onto summer for a little longer)
My news is that amongst trying to pack my life up into as little boxes as I physically can (one is dedicated to my stand mixer and stand mixer alone), look for a new home (why is buying a home SO STRESSFUL???!!), bake delicious things (I have had many, many, MANY a mistake bake over the last two weeks hence the lack of insta content), write engaging newsletters (sorry this is going to be a LONG one), prep for a launch of something VERRRRRRY exciting very soon, it has come to light that a fake Facebook profile of me has been made and a man is going on Live every single day, just staring at the camera. SO…that’s fun?? Sorry if any of you follow me/that man over on facebook but please know, I do NOT use facebook and please do report it for me if you do come across said man just sitting there staring at the camera endlessly.
The funniest bit about it is…this guy has amassed more followers for ‘me’ over there, than I have done on my own holding page. Should I be mad or should I ask him to transfer the page to me so I can take advantage of his hard work? Lol I joke (mildly) but did want to bring it to your attention as I do not condone any creepiness in any kind of way and feel like he *may* be damaging my brand to those 56K followers he has duped over there.
Ohhhhh ya gotta laugh, am I right? RIGHHHHHHT?????
Anyway, in more fun news, there is none. Lol. Oh, I chortle. Oh, I chuckle. Ohhhh I do jest. No but seriously. I was out walking Milo yesterday in the pouring rain and realised…I haven’t done anything fun for myself in a very long time? I can’t even remember when I last went out to eat somewhere new, tried a different activity or did something that wasn’t work related. This isn’t me asking you to pull out a tiny violin and form a pity party, this is me asking you to hold me accountable to…gulp…having fun in relation to something that doesn’t involve me baking a cake? Who have I become? How has disinfecting the entire kitchen been my highlight of the last 2 weeks? WHO AM I?!!!
Before I spiral into a mid-thirty crisis, let’s get to what you’re actually here for.
We have got a big old newsy on the decks for today so I hope you are sitting cosy, with a cuppa, feet up (someone massaging them would be fab but entirely optional), and ready to slobber, salivate and drool over some deliciously cosy, autumnal bakes. Let me tell you folks, AUTUMN IS WHEN I COME ALIVE, so expect nothing up straight up carb heaven from here on out. We are broaching layer season baby, and I don’t just mean when it comes to clothes, I also mean when it comes to carbs. Why have one when you can have four? Five? Six? We are adults damnit, if I want multiple starches, that I shall have. Truly don’t know why I am ranting so early (and at who??) or why I am fighting (with myself??) but lemme show you what we’ve got for today.
As an FYI, all the below (bar the Mississippi Mud), are just exclusives for you all here on the newsy. They won’t be shared on Instagram or tiktok at any point (maybe just a pic of the choc cake at max). Reserving all the goodness for you, and for you only.
First up, as always, we have the latest Around the World cake. I wasn’t so convinced about the entire make up of this cake HOWEVER it does have a nice chocolate sponge and frosting recipe. It’s a solid recipe for someone who likes chocolate but doesn’t necessarily want to be whalloped in the face with it (weird flex but okay). This Mississippi Mud Cake took me by surprise at how high up on the list it features but also because it oddly has a layer of baked marshmallow on top. It’s a crowd-pleasing bake, one that is fairly easy and quick to make and would no doubt go down a treat at a large gathering…just sans marshies, but that’s just me.
Now time to get SERIOUS about the yums on offer this week. We are hitting it HARD with my Glazed Chocolate Fudge Loaf with Whipped Malt Cream Cheese and Blackberries. Need I say more or have those words said enough? Like??? Likeeeeeee????????!!!! It’s a little bit cheeky, a lotta bit naughty and a slice of this, I am SURE, will solve 87% of the world’s problems (world peace may be a stretch too far, even for this cake). It comes in the form of a loaf but also plenty of info on how to make this a single layer sponge and cupcakes too. One cake batter but she is WORKING.
Cause beige is all the rage, we have a Chai Spiced Apple Crumble Bread Pudding. I mean bread pudding at the best of times is good but teamed with a spiced apple compote and finished with a crumble top? Now we are talking folks! The spiced apple compote on its own is delicious enough to make to top your morning porridge, use as a base for a crumble, add to cake batters or sit on top of a bed of granola, with a dollop of fresh Greek yoghurt on top for a cheeky brekkie alternative. Oh, and did I mention it has croissants in it? Yup, brioche AND croissants. We are using up any carb we have left over in the cupboards for this slice of spicy nice.
Finishing up the menu this week with something that ain’t pretty but she is divine – it’s my Brown Butter Cinnamon Bun Brunsviger. The Brunsviger featured on the 80 cakes list a while back, but I have worked on the recipe, improved the dough by a million and drowned it in a cinnamon bun & choccy sugar butter on top and finished it with a veryyyyy light, thin powdered sugar glaze. Dunked into tea, served up alongside a coffee, eaten hot or cold, she is comforting, delicious and oh, so moreish.
Let’s dig into the first bake of the week, with our latest Around The World cake, a Mississippi Mud Cake. We are making some almighty headway with this list and are edging ever closer to the 20’s, which quite frankly is thrilling and scary all at the same time. I have somehow made cake my entire personality so slightly worried I will have an identity crisis once we hit number 1 lols. But anyway, therapy session aside, we are back in the United States with the next bake but before we dive into it, I just wanna come at you with a pre-emptive apology to anyone who A) loves this bake, B) loves marshmallow or C) is from Mississippi.
Considering we are edging closer to the 20's (waaah what will life be when this series is over? Who will I become? What will I do with all this free time? Will people still like me if I am no longer the random cake lady??? SEE I TOLD YOU IDENTITY CRISIS INCOMING), the expectation levels are high and I am expecting nothing but damn right delicious every single time. We have had some great cakes before this, a special shout out to the Brooklyn Blackout Cake, Persian Love Cake, Danish Dreamcake, Swedish Princesstarta and Brazillian Carrot Cake. These cakes all live rent free in my head and quite honestly, there is barely a day that goes by that I don’t think about at least one of these cakes. Sigh. They were the days when I didn’t realise I had it SO good.
On top of that, we have had some mega choccy cakes on the list before (black forest & the brooklyn black out) so this one left me feeling a little...meh. Whilst the sponge is pleasant, easy to make and texturally light and moist, I wasn't mad on the additional layer of marshmallows which took the sweetness levels up a notch too high, even for me. My personal advice would be to make the sponge, skip the marshmallows, poke holes throughout the top of the sponge and soak it in the warm chocolate frosting instead...which would then make it more Texas Sheet Cakey than Mississippi Mud Cakey so at the risk of not p*ssing off two American states, I am going to zip it for now.
The below is adapted and slightly tweaked (why are cups a form of measurement still?!) from a very well rated recipe online I found, from Tastes Better From Scratch.
Recipe Makes: 1 x 20 by 30 cm / 8 by 12 inch cake tin
Recipe Serves: 16 or 20, depending on your portion sizing
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Sponge
240 g Plain Flour, sifted
300 g Caster Sugar
100 g Light Brown Sugar
75 g Cocoa Powder, sifted
2 tsp Baking Powder, sifted
1 ½ tsp Bicarb, sifted
¾ tsp Sea Salt
170 ml Neutral Oil
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
70 ml Whole Milk
205 ml Soured Cream
235 ml Boiling Water
Topping
300 g Marshmallows
115 g Unsalted Butter, diced
90 ml Whole Milk
3 heaped tsp Cocoa Powder, sifted
300 g Icing Sugar, sifted
Pinch of Salt
M E T H O D -
Preheat oven to 150C Fan/170C/350F/Gas Mark 3. Lightly grease and line a 20 by 30-cm / 8 by 12-inch baking tin.
In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugars, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Into another bowl, add oil, eggs, vanilla, milk and sour cream and mix until smooth.
Pour the wet mix into the dried and use a balloon whisk to mix until combined. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and base of the bowl to ensure there are no flour pockets remaining.
Pour the batter into your lined tin and bake for 32 to 35 minutes until the top of your sponge is bouncy.
Remove cake from oven and sprinkle your marshmallows all over the top of the hot cake, completely covering it.
Pop the tin back into the oven for 4 minutes, until the marshmallows have expanded slightly and gone puffy.
Leave the cake to one side to completely cool.
Once the cake is cool, make the frosting by adding the butter to a pan and placing it over a medium heat to gently melt.
Pour in the milk and add the cocoa powder and stir well until smooth. Continue to cook for a further few minutes, continuously stirring to ensure the mix doesn’t catch on the base.
Remove from heat and stir into a bowl with the icing sugar and pinch of salt. Use an electric hand whisk or balloon whisk to mix until smooth.
Drizzle the warm frosting immediately over cake. Pop the tin into the fridge to set and bring out to room temperature 1 hour before serving.
I know I have shared my fair share of chocolate cake recipes with you over this past year but I don’t think we have had one where we have loaf’ed it yet…have we?
Originally this recipe started as a bundt cake. I’m not sure what it is about a bundt I love so much (emphasis on the T, if you know you know) – maybe it reminds me of the scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (that was the if you know you know) where the Mum is given a bundTTTTT and pops a plant in the middle (a very feasible use) or maybe it’s cause it’s easy to serve up and slice ORRR maybe it’s because I will inevitably drown my bundt in some sort of drizzle, icing or glaze which then in turn makes the middle like an accidental fondue, WHICH my friends, is quite frankly the only way I want to do fondue (come to think of it, I am not sure if I have ever actually cheese fondue’d – is it worth it??).
I had good intentions, made two iterations, only one got very nearly precariously stuck to the tin but I left gravity do it’s thing...and then realised – does everyone even have a bundt tin?? I know I have several but not many are I and not everyone is as bake, cake and sugar mad as I am SO I thought a loaf pan is probably more common?
Anyway that whole ramble is totally redundant because whilst this cake isn’t a cake fondue (I’ve said this word so many times now, it is starting to look weird), and it’s no longer a bundt, we are glazing the loaf with a milk chocolate ganache and we are taking each gloriously moist, purposefully underbaked slice, topping it with a malt and vanilla spiked whipped cream cheese and finishing it with a drizzle of soaked sloe gin blackberries.
This my friends is my Chocolate Fudge Loaf with Whipped Malt Cream Cheese & Blackberries. She’s low maintenance and fussy at all the same time and I truly love that for her. Nothing makes me more sad (dramatics intended) then a sad, dry, flavourless chocolate sponge. A good choccy sponge served up as a dessert, and not as a stacked cake, should be sitting at medium on the scale of well doneness. Something that is teeters the edge between pudding-y and cakey, can be served up with a cup of tea but at the same time as this air of sexiness that also makes it perfect as a post dinner dessert.
Because I love a good versatile bake, I also tested this batter in muffin cups to see how we could scale this up or down, which worked perfectly and at a fraction of the bake time for the loaf. The below ingredients will give you slightly more than you need to fill a 2 lb loaf tin, so either split between two tins for two loaves, in 1 8-inch cake tin for a single layer sponge or as 1 loaf and the rest cupcake/muffins. Does that math make sense? I hope it makes sense. It’s quite literally the only sort of math’s I can math.
This is SUCH an EASY recipe to make. If you aren’t a confident baker, I promise you, you will be able to nail this one. I GUARANTEE IT.
Recipe Makes : 1 x 2 lb loaf tin PLUS 6 to 8 cupcakes
Recipe Serves : a LOT or a LITTLE depends on how generously you serve this up
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D –
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