Vanilla Layer Cake | Anne of Green Gables

The cake did rise, however, and came out of the oven as light and feathery as golden foam. Anne, flushed with delight, clapped it together with layers of ruby jelly, and, in imagination, saw Mrs Allan eating it and possibly asking for another piece!
Anne of Green Gables
L.M Montgomery

I dived into Anne of Green Gables for the (what I thought) first time recently - I found a very scraggly copy at a local bookstores sale and had the price knocked down to a mere $2 based on the fact that the back few pages had basically been cut off. The further I got into it's pages, the more familiar it seemed and I realised that I had actually read this book before. It must have been when I was quite young, young enough to have no solid memory but enough that small pieces came back to me the further in I read.

Like many children's books, there's an abundance of cosiness and quaintness throughout the pages, bringing forth images of cottages, spring time and, of course, baking. I tried my hand at the cake Anne so desperately wants to impress Mrs Allan with, an attempt that fails when she accidentally replaces the necessary vanilla with medicine instead. This cake is luckily fluffy, delicious and very full of vanilla.

Though don't make my mistake and bake is during a quarantine as you will be forced to either eat it all yourself, or force it onto a roommate or partner.

Vanilla Layer Cake
Ingredients
Cake
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cups milk
620g plain flour
450g raw caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch sea salt
Frosting
100g vegetable shortening, softened
250g butter, softened
500g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch sea salt
Jam of your choice

1. Preheat oven to 180C, and prepare three 8” cake tins - greasing the sides and bottoms well. I recommend putting a circle of baking paper at the bottom as well, it’ll help get them out better.

2. Combine the vinegar and milk and let it sit to the side to curdle - will take about five minutes or so. If it gets a bit chunky - perfect!

3. Combine the flour, baking power bi-carb soda, sugar and salt together in a large mixing bowl.

4. Add the oil and vanilla extract to the vinegar and milk and add to the mixed dry ingredients. Mix until everything is combined but make sure not to over-mix.

5. Divide the batter between the three prepared tins and bake for about 30 - 35 minutes or until the tops are golden and a skewer inserted int he middle comes out clean.

6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about ten minutes before removing the cakes from the tins. Turn them out onto a cooling rack and wait till they are completed cooled before frosting. You can pop them in the fridge to rush the process along a little if needed.

7. While the cakes cooling - prepare the frosting. Combine the shortening and butter in the bowl of a mixer and cream until fluffy.

8. Add in the vanilla, salt before gradually adding in the icing sugar a little at a time until it has all combined. It should be fluffy and easy to spread.

9. Sandwich the three cake layers together with a good layer of the jam and frosting between - depending how skilled you are at cake frosting, either decorate the sides of the cake or have it as is! Either way will be delicious, and I guarantee even if this cake isn’t the prettiest at the end, it will still be delicious.

10. Enjoy!

Lemon Rosemary Bundt Cake | The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

The room filled with the smell of warming butter and sugar and lemon and eggs, and at five, the timer buzzed and I pulled out the cake and placed it on the stovetop. The house was quiet.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Aimee Bender

I turned 30 at the beginning of this year. It was an interesting milestone, that assumption that one should be filled with dread at the prospect of their thirties, the end of their carefree twenties. There's a slightly different feeling I have about it though, because in all honesty I think I probably had the mentality of someone in their thirties for the last six years. Declining any big nights out to instead stay in with a new television show, a book or a particularly delicious take away meal.

My 30th wasn't much different. After an incredible 10 course dinner at a local restaurant, my night was spent greedily watching reruns of Buffy (I forgot how amazing that show is) and scoffing slices of the lemon rosemary bundt cake I'd made earlier that day.

The inspiration for the cake came from a book that I surprisingly had many people recommend to me, insisting I'd find many meals I'd be wanting to recreate from its pages. Well, I had already read it and they were correct. I'd been wanting to find an excuse to make a lemon cake, I much prefer to the tartness of it compared to other cakes, and the glimpse of my copy of the book as I wandered past the bookshelf was enough to have me bundling up lemons at the local farmers market, and picking twigs of rosemary from a neighbours front yard.

This cake is quite delicious, enough so that between myself and my partner we practically demolished it within the day.

Lemon Rosemary Bundt Cake
IngredientsCake
2 1/4 cups plain flour
2/3 cup raw caster sugar
Zest of one lemon
2 sprigs of rosemary, stripped from the trig and diced very finely
1 tbsp vinegar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bi-carb soda
1tbsp cornflour
1/2 tsp salt
115g butter, softened
190ml milk
3 tbsp yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Glaze1 cup icing sugar + extra just in case
Juice of one lemon

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180C and prepare a 22cm bundt pan (if you have a different size one - it'll likely be totally fine) by greasing the inside thoroughly and then sprinkling a light scattering over flour throughout.

2. Combine the vinegar, yoghurt and the milk, leaving to the side for five minutes or until the milk curdles into buttermilk.

3. Sift the flour and cornflour together into a large bowl, adding in the bi-carb, baking soda, diced rosemary and salt.

4. In a seperate bowl cream together the butter and raw caster sugar until light and fluffy. Adding in the vanilla, zest and curdled milk, combine until well mixed.

5. Slowly add in the flour, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go and transfer into the prepared cake tin.

6. Bake for around 40 - 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave in the pan for at least 10 minutes before gently transferring it onto a cooling rack. Leave to cool completely before glazing.

Glaze

1. Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice into a bowl and mix until it is a firm glaze. You may need to add a little more icing sugar or a little more liquid - depending on how runny you want it to be.

2. Drizzle over the the cooled cake. You can garnish with some sprigs of rosemary, lemon zest or lemon slices - what ever you want. Enjoy!