Olympic Velodrome Cake

There are only 10 days left until the opening ceremony of the Olympics and I for one am EXCITED! Often called the Greatest Show on Earth, this is once in a lifetime opportunity to watch an amazing sporting spectacle.

I love a bit of cycling and I shall avidly watching events in the velodrome, so this cake seemed to be a perfect bake. It's actually a coffee cake made in a 10 inch Savarin/ring mould with coffee icing on top and some cute little resin cyclists. It was a light cake with only a hint of coffee.

As well as being suitable for the Olympics, this would also be a great cake for any cycling fans out there who are celebrating a birthday. It was simple to make and the resulting cake is quite fun!

The cyclists are available from a variety of online cake stores. Although this cake is best suited to cycling, the principle could also be used for athletics by adding little resine athletes instead...and maybe even some green or orange icing to represent the running track!

I did have one little mishap when making this, it's my second cake in the last week to spill out of the tin, so having just cleaned the oven after the White Chocolate and Cherry Loaf cake incident, it's oven cleaning round two. The velodrome in the recipe picture did appear to be a lot deeper but nonetheless, it turned out ok and was quite tasty!

The theme for Calendar Cakes this month could only be the Olympics, so this is my first entry. For more details of how to enter click here. My co-host for Calendar Cakes is Rachel from Dolly Bakes and Rachel's entry this month is a Olympic stadium bundt cake, so it seems between the two of us we're attempting to recreate the whole of the Olympic park in cake!

Ingredients

450g unsalted butter
450g caster sugar
8 eggs
4-5 tbsp strong espresso coffee
450g flour

Coffee icing

300g icing sugar
3 tbsp strong black coffee

White icing

50g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4. Grease a 10 inch/24cm savarin tin and line the bottom. I used Wilton Cake Release and didn't line the bottom and the cake came out perfectly.

Cream together the butter and sugar until it's pale and fluffy, ensure the butter is softened to start. Then one by one beat in the eggs. Make up the espresso coffee but ensure it is sufficiently cooled before adding to the mixture. Finally, sift and fold in the flour. Spoon into the tin and bake for around 40-45 minutes. It's probably worth checking after 30 minutes and then if it's browning too much, loosely cover in foil. The cake should be cooled in the tin before gently easing out onto a plate or serving board.

To create the velodrome effect, you should make small marks around the top of the cake about 2cm in from the outside edge, then make more marks about 3cm down the inside, from the inside edge. Gently cut on an angle between the two to give the sloping velodrome effect.

To make the coffee icing mix the coffee and icing sugar together. It should be a fairly thick consistency but you should be able to drizzle it over the cake. The icing should cover the whole of the inside circle and there should be a few drizzles down the outside of the cake. Finally, make up the white icing with water and spoon into a piping bag. When the coffee icing is dry, pipe three circles around the inside of the cake to represent the lanes. The finishing touch is the addition of the cyclist!
* Adapted from the BBC Food website

Weekly Bake-Off: Hokey Pokey Coffee Cake

This Hokey Pokey Coffee Cake is my entry into the Weekly Bake-Off...an homage to the great Mary Berry herself. Each week a different Mary Berry recipe challenge is set, with all participants baking the same recipe and then submitting their results.

When I saw that the recipe was Coffee Cake, I wasn't sure that this recipe would live up to my fail-safe Delia recipe. However, I must say I've been proved wrong...Mary's cake was utterly delicious, everyone thought it tasted great and the hokey pokey certainly elevated it above your average coffee cake. It also had a fabulous rise, making for a very impressive cake! So it's definitely a recipe to keep and make again.

The only thing I would say is that maybe there could be a bit more advice on how to make praline for the uninitiated. The recipe doesn't mention the fact that whilst the sugar is dissolving you should only stir it once or twice and then once you get past this stage and it starts simmering you should never stir it as this will lead to a praline catastrophe. At this stage you should really only swirl the pan occasionally. It also doesn't mention that this process can take quite a while, probably around 20 minutes.

Interstingly, the recipe also refers to the walnut praline as Hokey Pokey which is well known in New Zealand. However, a friend who is from NZ always refers to honeycomb as Hokey Pokey, so I googled it and it is indeed honeycomb...but who am I to argue when the cake tastes this good!

Ingredients

225g butter
225g caster sugar
4 large eggs
225g self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee in 1tbsp hot water
75g chopped walnuts

Walnut Praline

2 tbsp water
50g caster sugar
50g walnut pieces

Butter Icing

75g butter
250g icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp instant coffee in 1 1/2 tbsp hot water

Heat the oven to 160c/140c fan/gas 3 and line two 8 inch sandwich tins. This cake is easy to make, just put all of the cake ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly before dividing between the two sandwich tins and level the surface. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool in the tins for a minute or two before turning out on to a wire rack.

The cake was the easy bit now for the praline! Place the sugar and water into a pan and put over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved, the solution should go clear. You should then continue until the praline turns a deep amber colour (watch very carefully during the whole process as it can burn). Once ready, take it off the heat and mix in the nuts. This should then be poured out onto non-stick baking parchment.

Once the hokey pokey is cooled it can be broken up. Large bits should be kept for the decoration on top, with the remainder being broken up and added to the icing which will be sandwiched between the two cakes.

To make the icing, the butter and sifted icing sugar should be placed in a bowl, along with the coffee and then mixed to give a light and fluffy coffee buttercream. Finally, take the two cakes and place the least attractive one upside down on the serving plate. Spread the icing with the hokey pokey in on this cake and then place the other cake on top. To finish icing the top cake and cover with the remaining butter icing. The finishing touch, lovely pieces of hokey pokey decorating the top.

* Adapted from 100 Cakes and Bakes by Mary Berry