Coffee Cake

One of my favourite cakes are coffee cakes, I love the icing and they are so versatile, you can add walnuts or pecans, use the mixture for cup-cakes adding a pecan to each one, put colourful icing around it and make it into a birthday cake or put white icing on the top with coco sprinkles and make a cappuccino cake.

Jamie Oliver uses espresso and almonds, Merry Berry uses muscovado sugar and has 4 layers, I initially used a recipe from "the great british book of baking" which accompanies a old series of the great british bake off but I choose to add just a little bit veggie oil as it makes it moister. Firstly for the coffee icing which I also use for the filling... 125g unsalted butter 300g icing sugar 3-4 (depending how strong you want it) tablespoons of coffee granules dissolved in a little boiling water 5 tablespoons of double cream Heat the butter in a pan until it starts to bubble and turns light brown, pour the hot butter on the (sifted) icing sugar then quickly add the dissolved coffee and cream, beat well until very smooth then stick in the fridge to set. The sponge is much a normal sponge mix but with some dissolved coffee again. 175g unsalted butter 175g caster sugar 3 eggs at room temperature 175g self-raising flour ½ teaspoon baking powder 1-3 (depending how strong you want it) tablespoons of coffee granules dissolved in a little boiling water 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (add some pecan or walnut pieces if you like but chop small so does not sink to the bottom of the mix) Put sugar and softened butter into a bowl, use an electric whisk or wooden spoon light and creamy. slowly mix in the eggs then the flour, baking powder and dissolved coffee. Ensure all is combined well scraping any flour down from the sides of the bowl.

Divide mixture evenly into 2 21cm baking tins. Place in pre-heated oven (180/350/gas mark4) for 20 to 25 mins until golden brown and springy to touch. Remove from tins and allow to completely cool on a wire rack before spreading with the filling and icing then customising as you wish.

below is an example of one I made for a friend's birthday with pink filling and icing around it....

The Greatest Speech Ever

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible- Jew, Gentile, black men, white… We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others’ happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery ,we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say “Do not despair.” The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder! Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men—machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it’s written “the kingdom of God is within man”, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!