A Weekend of Baking...A Trio of cakes

I was asked to make a trio of cakes for a Birthday, and odly I was looking forward to making something familiar and not decorated and designed to the nines for a change! Sometimes it's nice to strip a cake back to what's underneatch and produce something simple and rustic, but still gorgeous and delicious.

 

Victoria Sponge Cake - Filled with vanilla buttercream and fresh strawberries and finished with a fresh strawberry and a dusting of icing sugar

The brief was for a Victoria sponge and two loaf cakes, one of which had to be lemon and poppyseed and the other was left to my decision! I decided to go for a Mocha marble loaf cake that I made for my dad's birthday one year. It has a mixture of vanilla and coffee chocolate sponge mixtures with chocolate chunks, and a white chooclate ganache topping. I had never made a lemon and poppyseed cake before but Nigella offered the answer. To a basic Madeira cake mixture I added extra lemon zest and two tablespoons of poppyseeds. I wasn't sure what they would add to the taste of the cake, but from trying  little bit of the batter, it seemed to give a nutty flavour to the cake. Once it had cooled I made a basic lemon icing and drizzled it over the top, which I thought was a nice contrast to the tempting long crack accross the top.

Front: Lemon and poppyseed loaf cake with lemon icing

Back: Mocha marble loaf cake with white chocolate ganache icing and cocoa powder

A tip when making white chocolate ganache is to mix some butter in with the chocolate and cream, as this will help it to set. White chocolate ganach takes a long time to set in comparison with it's milk and dark chocoalte versions. Ideally make it the day before you need it and put it in the fridge to harden, otherwise you will have a very runny liquid that is impossible to pipe or spread and will not stay on anything! Mine had reached a thick pouring consistency, and although the cake was completely cool the ganache still dripped down the sides (Which I quite liked!) I put the cake somewhere cool overnight and by the morning the dribbles had hardenend up sufficeintly to be able to transport. A light dusting of cocoa powder was all it needed to finish it off.