Cake Friday

One of the children I look after goes to a secondary school where they employ this brilliant idea:

Cake Friday

Each Friday, three children in the tutor group bakes enough cakes for 1 per pupil, so everyone gets 3 cakes.

Last week, it was our turn to bake, but it was a bit of a last minute thing, and tagged on to the end of an afternoon of baking these and these. So this is what we cobbled together:

Chocolate Honeycomb Crunch
Ingredients:
225g / 8oz butter
225g / 8oz caster sugar
200g / 7oz self raising flour
25g / 1oz cocoa
3 eggs

For the Icing:
50g / 2oz hard margerine (comes in 250g block form - I use Stork)
200g / 7oz icing sugar, sifted
25g / 1oz cocoa
2 tbsp milk
1 Crunchie Bar, crushed


1 :: Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4
2 :: Place 24 cupcake cases in two 12-hole muffin trays (if you only have one, just bake in two batches)
3 :: In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy
4 :: Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
5 :: Sift in the flour & cocoa and fold in with a metal spoon. (If you want to be speedy, just carrying on mixing with electric beaters)
6 :: Put 1.5 heaped dessertspoons of the mixture into each cupcase
7 :: Bake in the preheated oven for 15 - 20 mins, then leave to cool on a wire cooling rack.

For the Icing
1 :: Melt the butter in a saucepan
2 :: Remove from heat then add the sifted icing sugar & cocoa, stirring gently with a wooden spoon. At this stage, the icing will not look like a great consistency, but don't worry, the milk changes that.
3 :: Add the milk and beat until a smooth, shiny consistency is reached.
4 :: Using a knife, spread a generous amount of the icing onto each cooled cupcake.
5 :: Sprinkle a little bit of honeycomb-Crunchie goodness onto each cake.


Sidenote: I often find that the fat separates from the sugar - I haven't yet worked out why this is but the solution is to add a little more milk. It works like a dream.

Cake Count :: 558