Recipes — The Boy Who Bakes (2024)

One of the best recipes you can have in your arsenal, that recipe that you whip out when you don’t have a lot in the house but need a special cake, is a classic pound cake. My ideal version is a very vanilla forward cake, laced with sour cream. The cake is so simple the vanilla should be very present, this is the time to crack out the vanilla pods, and in fact this recipe uses both a vanilla pod and vanilla extract for a double dose of the good stuff. The cake has no frosting so the texture needs to be the right amount of moist (dont come at me with your hatred for the word moist, it’s useful and I cannot be persuaded to stop using it) and the sour cream ensures a velvety crumb that is a joy to eat without any adornments.

Very Vanilla Sour Cream Pound Cake
Serves 15-16

340g unsalted butter, room temperature
450g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
5 large eggs, room temperature
325g plain flour
50g cornflour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
240ml sour cream, room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan).

First we need to prep our Bundt pan. Because the pans have nooks and crannies this is especially important. My favourite method for this cake is to lightly spray the inside of the tin with a non-stick baking spray (this is the one I use) and dust the inside of the tin with a little extra flour. When spraying the tin the area I find most people overlook is the core, this is likely where the cake will stick the most so make sure this is fully coated before adding the flour. The flour coating wants to be super thin so once every part of the tin is coated invert the Bundt pan and tap it on the worksurface to remove any excess.

When a recipe calls for room temperature butter that can be a little vague, everyones kitchen is a different temperature after all. What this actually means is the butter should between 15-20ºC but no warmer. If you don’t have a thermometer the best way to test this is to press your finger into the butter. Your finger should easily leave an impression without being coated in a layer of greasy butter, the butter should still feel a little firm, it shouldn’t completely give way to a little pressure. This is the ideal temperature for butter to be whipped and for it to hold on to lots and lots of tiny air pockets, making for a nice light cake. We also want to make sure that by this point the eggs and sour cream are also at room temperature. I never keep my eggs in the fridge but to ensure you batter doesn’t curdle, if you do chill your eggs, you’ll need to get them out well in advance of baking to bring them to temperature.

So to make the cake place the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, along with the seeds scraped for a vanilla pod, and on medium speed beat together for about 5 minutes. To test this mixture is ready you’re looking for the butter and sugar mixture to have gone from a dense looking, very yellow in colour, mixture, to a light and fluffy, almost white in colour, mixture. With butter starting at the right temperature this normally takes 5 minutes.

Add the eggs to a large jug and briefly whisk together to break them up. With the mixer still running add the eggs a little bit at a time, mixing until the egg has been fully combined before adding more. This slow addition of the egg, along with the proper creaming of the butter and sugar, ensures a good emulsion and will stop the batter from curdling. Whilst a cake batter that has curdled is worth baking the resulting cake will not be as light as it could have been. Meanwhile add the flour, cornflour, salt and baking powder to a large bowl and whisk together. Once all of the egg has been combined add a third of the flour mixture and mix briefly just until combined. Mix in half of the sour cream and the vanilla. Continue alternating like this until everything has been added.

Scrape the finished batter into the prepared Bundt pan, trying not to get any up the sides of the pan. Spread the mixture into an even layer and then bake in the oven for about 75-85 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remove the bundt from the oven and set it on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting it onto the wire rack and releasing it from the pan. With Bundt cakes this timing is important. I find if you try and turn the cake out immediately after baking the structure of the cake may not be fully set and the cake is more prone to breaking. If you turn the cake out much longer than 10 minutes after removing it from the oven, the sugars in the cake can make it adhere to the pan, I find 10 minutes is the sweet spot for most recipes. Allow the cake to cool fully before serving. Whilst this cake is wonderful on its own I love serving it with a dollop of creme fraiche and roasted rhubarb. Kept covered the cake will keep for 3-4 days.

This post is sponsored by Doves Farm Organic Flour

I have been writing about food, and specifically baking, for 10 years now and if I am correct I don’t think I have ever published a recipe for a muffin. It’s not that I don’t like them, I think they can be wonderful. Truth be told I have no idea, no excuse, no reason why but here we are, 10 years in, and this is the first muffin recipe I have posted. Thankfully it was worth the wait, these spelt rhubarb muffins are incredibly easy but also jam packed with flavour.

What is Spelt Flour

This is another recipe in my series on baking with ‘Ancient Grains’ with Doves Farm Organic Flour and in this recipe I am using their ‘Stoneground Wholemeal Spelt Flour’. Now spelt is maybe one of the easiest grains to use when you want to swap out regular wheat flour and because of this and its flavour it has become an incredibly popular ancient grain. When we talk about ‘ancient grains’ it is easy to think this means we’ve been using it for hundreds of years but the truth is much more impressive. It is said that spelt has been cultivated since around 5,000/6,000 BC. Over the years, wheat flour became the dominant grain which we bake with and spelt was, for many years, relegated to animal feed. Since the 1970s ancient grains have been re-introduced to UK soils however and thankfully now it is among one of the more popular ancient grains. Milling historic, heritage grains since 1978, Doves Farm has led the way in this and was the first in the UK to grow and produce flour from spelt

There is, however, a lot of confusion about what spelt actually is. Many think of it as a gluten free option, or that it has less gluten, or less ‘bad’ gluten and strictly speaking none of these are accurate. Rather than less gluten it actually has a different formation of gluten, which for those who suffer gluten intolerances (not coeliac or allergic reactions) can be an easier form to digest. Without getting into too much technical detail, gluten is made up of two proteins and one of these gives stretchiness and the other gives strength and structure. Wheat flour is viewed as having the perfect balance between the two proteins and is why it became the most commonly used grain for baking. The gluten in spelt has more of the stretchy type of gluten which means breads with lots of spelt tends to rise less and spread more and it also means you should avoid kneading spelt doughs too much as it can cause crumbly breads, in fact when you work with spelt bread doughs you’ll find they become incredibly stretchy much quicker than when made with regular wheat. Flavour wise, I like to compare the grain to wholemeal flour, but sweeter - no real bitterness is present, it’s a great taste that suits a wide variety of flavours. As it is also a soft flour, it makes for particularly tender recipes.

How To Use Spelt Flour

For many recipes spelt can be used as a straight swap for regular wheat flour. When making breads it tends to spread out, more than rise up, so I personally like to use it as a portion of the flour if baking a free form loaf or if I want a higher percentage of spelt in the bread. Baking it in a tin ensures the bread holds it shape. When substituting regular wheat flour for spelt flour I happily start by replacing 50% of the flour, in cakes and breads, and for things like biscuits and pastry, recipes that don’t rely on the gluten for structure, you can use a higher percentage of the grain. If you’re not following a recipe that was specifically designed for an alternative grain then when making flour substitutions it is always a good idea to start by subbing out smaller percentages so you can see how the recipe reacts to the alternative grain. With spelt the benefit is you can generally start this at a relatively high level. With a lot of recipes you’ll find using spelt as the sole flour is absolutely possible and absolutely delicious. The one thing to note about using spelt is that it has a higher rate of absorption so it’s often advisable to reduce the amount of liquid called for. I find this particularly true when making spelt breads, and find a 10-20% reduction is advisable.

Muffins

Because of the type of gluten in spelt these muffins tend to rise flatter than is normal but it’s a really good way to start baking with spelt as the muffin cases ensure structure as the batter clings to the paper cases rather than spread out. So if you’re not ready to try breads, this is a great recipe to test the waters. For the muffins I wanted something easy and really packed full of flavour. The base of the recipe is a courgette cake which is similar to carrot cake but the courgette gives less of a flavour which means it’s a great option if you want to use flavours that pair less well with carrots. For its main flavour I added rhubarb, because it’s in season and I will never not be excited to use it in more recipes, and topped the muffins with a little white chocolate because it tastes so good with the rhubarb. I also included some complimentary spices - cinnamon for a background flavour that really bring outs the flavour of the spelt, cardamom which is dream with rhubarb, and finally a little pepper which really gives everything a boost and a bit of liveliness.

The recipes makes between 12 and 15 depending on the type of muffin case you use. If you use tulip muffin cases then it’ll make 12 large muffins but if you use regular muffins it’ll make 15. With the spelt, but also just because you’re making muffins and we don’t want to work the gluten too much, make sure to fold the batter just until the flour disappears.

Doves Farm Organic Stoneground Wholemeal Spelt Flour is available from ASDA, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsburys and Tesco. You can also buy direct from Doves Farm

Rhubarb and White Chocolate Courgette Spelt Muffins

Makes 12-15
200g courgette, coarsely grated
175g rhubarb, sliced lengthwise and diced
175g caster sugar
75g unsalted butter
250g Doves Farm Organic Stoneground Wholemeal Spelt Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
3 large eggs
275g natural yoghurt
75g white chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC). If you are using regular muffin cases line two muffin tins with 15 cases, if you are using tulip cases line one muffin tin with 12 cases.

Place the courgette onto a clean kitchen towel and use to squeeze as much liquid out of the courgette as possible. The courgette has a much higher level of moisture than carrot so to make it behave in the same way we need to get rid as much water as possible.

Take about 50g of the rhubarb and place it into a small bowl with about 1 tsp of the sugar. Stir it together to coat evenly then set aside for the moment. Place the remaining sugar and rhubarb into a large bowl and similarly mix together. Place the butter into a small pan and heat over low heat just until melted. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Place the Doves Farm Wholemeal Spelt Flour into a large bowl with the baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt, whisk together so everything is evenly distributed. Add the eggs and yoghurt to the bowl with the majority of the rhubarb and mix together until everything is thoroughly mixed. Make a well in the dry goods and pour in the liquid goods and add the courgette. Gently fold together just until the flour has just about been absorbed, a few spots of flour is fine. The key thing with muffins is mixing as little as possible, you don’t want a tough muffin.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin cases, you should be filling the cases about 2/3-3/4 of the way. Sprinkle over the reserved rhubarb and the white chocolate. Bake in the preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes or until the top of the muffin springs back to a light touch. Remove from the oven and allow to set for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Kept sealed the muffins will keep for about 2-3 days.

Now as the book is a lot of rectangles and I worked on it for the best part of a year you would think I would be excited to bake in different tins, making round recipes after a year of rectangles, but one of the first things I baked this year, after all the edits were finally submitted , you guessed it, another rectangle. It was even in the same 9x13 tin. Obsessed. But the recipe had been sat at the top of my extensive ‘to bake’ list for months and it had to be made. When I tell it you the resulting recipe was incredible I’m not joking, not exaggerating, I loved these bars so much. The recipe comes from my friend Shauna Sever’s wonderful book Midwest Made, a fantastic book that explores the wonderful world of baking from the American Midwest and what a world that is to explore.

The midwest has a fascinating history and its baking is influenced by its different waves of immigration with German, Scandinavian, Polish, French and Italian immigrants all making their homes in the Midwest over the years. From my, obviously limited, experience and knowledge of the midwest the book does a great job at digging into the areas culinary past and presenting a fascinating array of recipes, everything from classics from German Lebkuchen to modern interpretations of classics like a Raspberry and Rhubarb Swedish Flop. I devoured the book on receipt and there are so many recipes bookmarked to be made at some point, but the one recipe that jumped out to me, the one I have been dying to make for months, is a bar recipe called ‘Chocolate-Espresso Revel Bars’. To me a revel is a brand of chocolate buttons, that had its heyday when I was a kid in the 90’s, not a homemade recipe. These bars start with a simple oatmeal cookie laced with chocolate chips and topped with ribbons of espresso chocolate ganache before a final coating of the cookie mixture. It may be two simple elements layered together but the flavour you get is a pie joy, these give me the comfort I get from a chocolate chip cookie but that sense of nostalgia that seems somehow intrinsic to an oatmeal cookie. In the book Shauna explains that the recipes seems to credited to an edition of the Iowa based Better Homes and Garden magazine back in 1968. Shauna took that idea and reduced the sweetness a little (the original was made with a condensed milk mixture) and added espresso to add a new dimension. The Revel Bar might be a midwestern classic and as far I am concerned they’ll become a classic in my house too, it’s a true baking love affair.

I have always loved Shauna’s work but this book is a particular triumph, I know how much work must have gone into the research for this book not to speak of the work that goes into developing these recipes for a modern audience, updating classic recipes for modern palettes and reinventing ideas that we had long forgotten. Whilst the recipes are historically linked they feel as exciting to me today as I’m sure they did to the midwesterners who created them all those years ago.

Espresso Revel Bars
From Midwest Made by Shauna Sever
Makes 12-24

Filling and Assembly
120g double cream
50g caster sugar
3/4 tsp instant espresso powder
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
170g dark chocolate (60% cocoa content)

Dough
300g old fashioned rolled oats
225g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp instant espresso powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
225g unsalted butter, room temperature
395g light brown muscavado sugar (see note)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
85g dark chocolate chips

Note: the recipe in the book calls for dark brown sugar but from experience British dark brown sugar has a much higher molasses content and might not be the best fit for this recipe so I used light brown muscavado which seems more in line with American dark brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC fan). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch light coloured baking tin and line with a strip of parchment paper so the excess hangs over the long sides of the tin.

For the filling, in a small saucepan, add the cream, sugar, espresso powder and salt and over medium stir together and cook until it reaches a bare simmer. Turn off the heat, add the chocolate and let sit for 1 minute before whisking until smooth and glossy. Set aside to cool.

For the dough add the oats, flour, espresso powder, baking soda and salt to a large bowl and whisk to combine. In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute, or until creamy. Add the brown sugar and vanilla and beat for about 1 minute more to until smooth and lightened a little in colour. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing until fully combined. Reduce the speed to low and gradually mix in the oat mixture until fully combined. Transfer a rough 1/3 of the dough to a clean bowl and set aside for the moment. To the remaining dough stir in the chocolate chips.

Spread the chocolate chip laced dough into the prepared pan, pressing into an even flat layer that coats the entire tin. Pour the ganache filling over the base, drizzling it in thick ribbons - no need to smooth it evenly. Using your fingertips pinch off generous tablespoons of the remaining cookie dough and drop them randomly over the ganache filling.

Bake in the preheated oven for a out 35-40 minutes or until the top is golden and the bars are beginning to pull away from the sides of the tin. Let cool completely in the tin, set atop a wire rack, for about 2 hours before using the excess parchment to lift the bars from the tin (you may need to use a knife to tease the bars away from the shorter sides of the tin). To make cleaner cuts refrigerate the bars for an hour after removing them from the tin. Stored in an airtight container these will keep for at least three days.

Doves Farm Organic Wholemeal Buckwheat Flour is available from Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose. You can also buy direct from Doves Farm

Chocolate Buckwheat Torte with Roasted Rhubarb and Creme Fraiche
Serves 10

Chocolate Torte
150g dark chocolate (65-70% cocoa solids)
175g unsalted butter, diced
5 large eggs
100g light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
75g Doves Farm Organic Wholemeal Buckwheat Flour
50g cocoa powder

Roasted Rhubarb
175g rhubarb
25g caster sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
Seeds from 1 vanilla bean (or 2 tsp vanilla bean paste)
Creme fraiche, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and lightly grease a loose bottom (or springform) 9-inch round cake tin and line with parchment paper.

Place the butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water and cook, stirring occasionally until everything is melted and smooth. Remove from the pan and set aside for 10 minutes to cool.

Place the eggs and sugars into the bowl of an electric stand mixer (or large bowl using an electric hand mixer) and whisk on medium speed for about 8 minutes or until pale and almost tripled in volume. In a separate bowl whisk together the Doves Farm Wholemeal Buckwheat Flour and cocoa powder. In two or three additions fold this flour mixture over the mixture and fold together to combine, trying to keep the mixture as light as possible. Add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture in three additions, once again folding together lightly to keep as much air as possible. Scrape the finished batter into the prepared tin, spreading out in an even layer

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the top of the cake is just set. Remove from the oven and set aside at room temperature for about an hour before serving.

As the cake is cooling prep the rhubarb. Cut the stalks into small roughly 1-inch long pieces and place into a bowl along with the sugar, orange juice and vanilla beans scraped from the pod, tossing together to make sure everything is evenly coated. Tip this mixture out onto a rimmed baking tray and bake in the oven, still set 180ºC (160ºC Fan), for about 15-20 minutes or until the fruit is softened but still holding its shape. Remove and serve along side the cake with a dollop of creme fraiche.

I like to serve this cake whilst still just a touch warm with the creme fraiche chilled from the fridge and the rhubarb served fresh from the oven.