After my last post lamenting the lost tradition of afternoon tea, I received many of your lovely comments and emails about your thoughts and stories of bygone afternoon teas. It seems like I'm not the only one that missed the simple ritual of coffee, cake and conversation. Some stories were heartfelt, some were a laugh but all thoroughly entertaining to read. So a thousand thank yous to some of you for sharing. Many warm fuzzies were felt in the past few weeks.
It's moments like these that reaffirms exactly why I love blogging. It has nothing to do with popularity, traffic or the number of comments because reality check, not everybody is going to give a toss about or read my posts. It's all about sharing awesome recipes and photos and with it, a part of myself. The bonus of relating to a small handful of readers (so much so that they would take time out to 'talk' to me) is enough to put a breeze up my blogging skirt and keep it flying up.
In light of recent ramblings about the same old topic of blogging/PR ethics blah-blahs and while I'm in a ranty mood, I want to get a few things off my chest before I stick my head back into the cake batter. This blogosphere is big enough for all of us and each one of us humble souls blog for entirely different reasons and motivations. So my friends, rather than publicly launching on those who do things differently to your standards, how about tuning out and taking a chill pill (I could do with plenty in my daily life, believe me!). To the rest, do what you're comfortable with and to hell with the others. Frankly these blogging issues have been discussed ad nauseum and it's now apocalyptically boring so time to move on to newer and better things. Now pass around the olive branch and lets have some cake dammit!
Why hello lover!
Afternoon tea and cake go hand in hand and this one's a doozy. Provided you like peanut butter of course (me! me! me!). Because oh! that buttercream! I'm a huge fan of smooth cake frostings that don't need the grittiness and intense sweetness of icing sugar. This one is like eating out of the PB jar but minus the sticky, stuck-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth gumminess. Awesome.
Pile 'em high and pile 'em thick!
Not that the cake was worth forgetting, as it was amazingly soft and moist with a slight kiss of spices, but if there ever was an appropriate time to discard your cake and eat the frosting by itself, this would be it. And there's only one way to do this... pile the buttercream nice and high on top of cake, admire it, take a spoonful out of it for the road, then proceed to spread to the best of your icing abilities.
Oh dear, what ever am I going to do with this leftover frosting...
Can you imagine just how sinfully good this peanut buttercream would be with a chocolate or banana cake? Oh my word, here comes the breeze again...
Peace and love, my friends (cue hippie flute music)
xx
Spiced Cake with Peanut Buttercream
2 large eggs
160ml buttermilk (2/3 cups)
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
200g of cake flour (or 170g plain flour with 30g cornflour)
200g caster sugar
1.5 tsps Dutch processed cocoa powder
3 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsps ground cloves
113g (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
Method
Preheat oven to 175°C and grease and line a 20-21cm round cake tin.
In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, 3 tablespoons of the buttermilk and vanilla extract until lightly combined.
In a mixing bowl, mis the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, salt and ground spices until combined. Add the butter and remaining buttermilk and cream together on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the speed and beat for 1.5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally.
Gradually add the egg mixture in two parts, mixing well after each addition by beating for at least 30 seconds, making sure to scrape down the bowl. Pour batter into cake tin, level the surface and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the middle of the cake springs back when lightly pressed.
Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes and turn out to cool down completely on a wire rack.
Peanut Buttercream
1/2 cup or 130g smooth peanut butter
115g cream cheese, softened
55g unsalted butter, softened
2 tsps sour cream
50g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
In a food processor, combine all the ingredients and process until buttercream is smooth making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally.
When the cake has completely cooled, frost the top and sides.
Print this recipe!
Recipe lovingly adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum.
