BRUNEL BAKES

I have a little weird extra job at the moment. I am making cakes for the Brunel Museum's cafe. Business has dropped off a bit due to the inclement weather over Christmas and the New Year, but I was called to make 'cakes for 60' by the man that runs it, Robert.

And here they are:

Apparently they went down very well.

So I thought I'd share my recipes for them. The chocolate one is apparently Robert's favourite.

Double Chocolate Sandwich Cake

So you need:

2 x 21cm sandwich tins generously buttered and lined

Then you need:

225g unsalted butter that's very soft

225g caster sugar

4 large eggs

225g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4tbsp cocoa powder

50g dark chocolate, grated

And for the filling:

200g full fat (of course) cream cheese

100ml double cream

4 tbsp cocoa powder

4 tbsp icing sugar

And white and dark chocolate to decorate.

So start by creaming your butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time, with a spoonful of flour between each to help the mixture bind. Fold in the rest of the flour and add the chocolate and cocoa powder. Easy as pie. Divide the mixture between the two sandwich tins and pop into a preheated (to 180degrees) oven for about 25 minutes. The cakes will be coming away from the edges of the tin slightly and should spring back up when you touch them.Remove them from the oven and allow to cool in the tin on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before turning out.

Allow to cool completely before adding the topping and filling.

To make the filling... whip the double cream to soft peak and fold it into the cream cheese along with the icing sugar and cocoa powder. Beat all this together to loosen the mixture slightly. Taste to see if anymore icing sugar or cocoa is needed. Just add more to taste.

Spread two thirds of the mixture onto the top of one sponge and place the other on top. Top this one with the rest of the remaining mixture and grate a combination of white and dark chocolate on the top. Blimey. Chocolate fest.

And here's the finished product:

Next up is my store cupboard pineapple upside down cake

Here she is...

This is a store cupboard cake as it uses tinned pineapple. In two of its guises.

So you need:

1 23cm springform tin, buttered and lined

And for the cake you will need:

1 tin of crushed pineapple

1 tin of pineapple rings

250g self-raising flour

150g ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

250g softened unsalted butter

250g light brown caster sugar

4 large eggs

a bit of vanilla extract if you fancy

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the eggs one at a time adding a spoonful of flour between each to help combine. Mix together the flour, almonds and baking powder and fold into the mixture along with the crushed pineapple.

For a camp flourish, drain the pineapple rings, and place them, artist-fashion, in the bottom of the buttered and lined spring form tin. Any arrangement will be nice. Carefully pour the mixture into the tin, being careful not to disturb the arrangement. Then bake in the oven for about an hour, though check after 45 mins. It could take up to an hour 15 mins, but that will depend on your oven.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin. I decided to brule the top of mine so after it was cook and removed from the tin and inverted, I sprinkled the top with golden caster sugar and popped under a hot grill for a minute or two to 'brule' the top.

NICE.

Finally for my MASSIVE traditional Victoria Sponge:

The basic recipe is the same as the chocolate cakes, just minus the chocolate and cocoa powder, and doubled. I used a 23cm silicon sandwich tin for this. It'll take about 30 mins in the oven.

To decorate, you will need:

300ml double cream

5 tbsp icing sugar

Good quality fruit jam, strawberry or raspberry is fine or anything that takes your fancy

A mixture of fresh fruit

Whip the cream with the icing sugar until you a have a stiff peak in the cream. Smear this over the top of one of the sponges. On the bottom of the other sponge, smear with any amount of jam you like! Arrange the fruit on the layer of cream, making sure they're not too near the edge. Place the other sponge, jam bottom down, on top of the fruit. For an extra flourish, cover the top in cream and artfully arrange strawberries on the top. Lovely.

This cake will serve between 16 and 20, depending on how greedy they are.

And for all this baking, I made £74.62. Nae bad.