BBC Good Food

22 July 2011

Tested

"I have made this cake several times now- it has turned out really well, which is great as my previous sporadic attempts at brownies have been disappointing. It is very rich so I make it in a larger 25cms tin so that the slices are thinner. I omit the nuts. Serve it hot or cold with some raspberries and/or raspberry coulis - great combination with chocolate! "

31 March 2010

Tested

"I would agree that cutting the cherries in quarters is better."

31 March 2010

Tested

"I made this cake today - but I saw the recipe having already started to soak some sultanas and raisins in 100mls Amaretto which is a variation of Nigella's marzipan cake recipe. I love ginger so when I saw this recipe I decided to do a variation of the 2 recipes for our Easter 'simnel' type cake. I didn't make the marzipan but used bought, and I used 100g cherries instead of currants (and no tea as the fruit has soaked overnight already!). I than added the syrup to the fruit and warmed it slightly for 20 seconds in the microwave to melt the syrup so that it would mix properly. I left out the ground ginger but added about 50g of ground almonds. I followed the recipe from there and cooked it for most of the time with the foil on as I always seem to burn the top of fruit cakes despite using the baking parchment layers etc - but that helped a lot. Looking forward to this one when marzipaned and iced."

31 March 2010

Tested

"I made this today as individual bakewells to eat as cakes rather than a pudding or dessert. Having read all the comments I: 1. added 200g ground almonds, 2. intended to (but forgot) to add almond essence 3. Used shop bought dessert pastry which worked fine. The mixture filled 24 fairy cake (not muffin) sized pastry cases and I was concerned the mixture would overflow, but it stayed in the cases OK despite me piling it on! (No need to smooth the top as it levels itself.) Quite fiddly as individual tarts with the blind baking etc but worth it as my husband has enjoyed several already (!) and I hope the children will get a look in tomorrow! The cakes took around 30 mins in my fan oven at 150C."

30 March 2010

Tested

"I've made these cakes several times since the recipe was first in the magazine. I love marzipan and almond flavour. I find they freeze well so I've made a batch and will get them out just before Easter to ice and put the chocolate eggs on top!"