On your marks, get set… it’s nearly Bake Off time, and to celebrate, we’ve got a recipe for you this month from the show’s first ever champion, Edd Kimber, who released his new book, Small Batch Bakes (Kyle Books, £18.99) late last month. Primarily sweet, the recipes include cookies, cakes, tarts and bars as well as desserts, with a sprinkling of savoury breads, buns and pies, and they’ve been designed for those who love to bake but can’t face eating leftovers for weeks. Edd says: “Made with melted butter so that the batter comes together in a flash, this is the cake you whip up when guests unexpectedly announce their imminent arrival. The joy in this cake, beyond the ease with which it is made (no bread dough required), is the cinnamon butter that you swirl into the batter, creating little pockets of spiced goodness in every slice.”
Ingredients
50g unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing | 100g caster sugar | 1 large egg | 65ml double cream | ¼ tsp vanilla bean paste | 100g plain (all-purpose) flour | ¾ tsp baking powder | Pinch of fine sea salt
For the cinnamon butter
25g unsalted butter, at room temperature | 25g light brown sugar | 2 tsp ground cinnamon | Pinch of fine sea salt
For the glaze
50g icing (powdered) sugar, sifted | 1 tbsp whole milk | ¼ tsp vanilla bean paste
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180º (160ºC Fan) 350ºF, Gas Mark 4.
- Lightly grease a 23 x 13cm loaf tin and line with a strip of parchment paper that overhangs the long sides, securing it in place with metal clips.
- First make the cinnamon butter: place all the ingredients for it in a bowl and beat together until a very soft paste forms. Set aside.
- To make the cake, melt the diced butter in a small pan over a medium heat, then set aside. Place the sugar, egg, cream and vanilla in a bowl and whisk together until smooth and combined. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk again, just until a smooth batter forms.
- Pour in the melted butter and stir gently with the whisk, just until fully combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and spread evenly.
- Spoon little dollops of the cinnamon butter over the batter, then use a skewer or chopstick to gently swirl them in. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the cake springs back to a light touch and is just starting to come away from the sides of the tin. Turn off the oven and set the cake aside for 15 minutes, before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool.
- When the cake is cold, reheat the oven to 180º (160ºC Fan) 350ºF, Gas Mark 4. Combine the glaze ingredients in a bowl and mix together until smooth and pourable. Drizzle the glaze all over the cake, then return it to the oven for a couple of minutes, or until the glaze is set.
- Serve thin slices of the cake alongside big mugs of coffee. Once sliced, it is best eaten that day, but the slices can also be frozen for up to a month.
