{"id":7597,"date":"2018-10-23T19:11:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T19:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yousaytomatocooking.com\/?post_type=recipe&#038;p=7597"},"modified":"2023-02-13T18:44:32","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T18:44:32","slug":"the-easiest-and-most-useful-cake-i-know","status":"publish","type":"recipe","link":"https:\/\/cookwithgem.com\/recipe\/the-easiest-and-most-useful-cake-i-know\/","title":{"rendered":"The easiest and most useful cake I know"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h2>Easiest cake I know recipe<\/h2>\n<p>I don&#8217;t like to follow too many rules but with baking you have to. That&#8217;s why I love this cake, because it breaks quite a few of the rules that we&#8217;re meant to follow and also gives you the freedom to play around with flavours. It truly is the easiest cake recipe I know so read on to get the recipe and all the ways you can make it.<\/p>\n<h3>Make it quickly and easily and use the easiest cake recipe in so many ways<\/h3>\n<p>It takes less than 10 minutes to measure and mix and cooks in about 25 minutes so it is perfect for those days when the need for cake or a dessert comes unannounced.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the different types of cakes and puddings I make using this recipe:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cupcakes or fairy cakes<\/strong> (divide between paper cases and cook for 10-15 minutes)<\/li>\n<li>As the base for a <strong>children&#8217;s birthday cake<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>As a <strong>Victoria Sponge<\/strong> &#8211; filled with jam or lemon curd and cream or buttercream<\/li>\n<li><strong>With fresh fruit<\/strong> &#8211; figs, berries or peaches baked into it<\/li>\n<li>As a <strong>jam or syrup sponge pudding<\/strong> &#8211; just put a few spoonfuls of jam or golden syrup in the bottom of the pan before you put the cake mixture in. Perfect after Sunday lunch with custard or ice cream.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<p>The idea for this cake came from a Nigella Lawson recipe but I&#8217;ve tinkered with it. I&#8217;m sure she&#8217;d approve. I credit her with making me brave enough to use my food processor to make this. If you don&#8217;t have a food processor, I&#8217;d really recommend getting one (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/shop\/gemcwade\/list\/2TD43VI31HYUI?ref_=aip_sf_list_spv_ofs_mixed_d\">here are the ones I recommend<\/a>) as I use mine almost every day to make sauces, slaw, pesto, breadcrumbs and dips. If you&#8217;re still not convinced or can&#8217;t wait to get one, you can use the ingredients below for a traditional sponge method which I&#8217;ve described below.<\/p>\n<h3><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"636\" height=\"899\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9250\" src=\"https:\/\/cookwithgem.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/easiest-cake-1.jpeg\" alt=\"easiest cake\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cookwithgem.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/easiest-cake-1.jpeg 636w, https:\/\/cookwithgem.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/easiest-cake-1-212x300.jpeg 212w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3>A word on grams vs. cups<\/h3>\n<p>If you reading in America and\u00a0are more used to cup measurements when baking, I&#8217;m unapologetic in recommending using a digital scale and grams for this recipe. Weighing in grams is more precise and gives more consistent results &#8211; especially for lighter cakes like this.\u00a0It also means you only use one bowl to weigh everything and don&#8217;t need to dirty lots of different cups. You can find the scales I recommend in my shop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Ingredients for the easiest cake I know<\/h3>\n<div>Makes 2 x shallow 20cm\/8 inch cakes &#8211; you can easily cut these ingredients in half to make one but I always make one to eat and one for the cake tin\/freezer.<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>225g (8 oz) salted butter, very soft but not melted (microwave for a few seconds if need be)<\/li>\n<li>200g (7 oz) unbleached golden caster sugar (superfine in the US)<\/li>\n<li>1 teaspoon vanilla extract<\/li>\n<li>4 large free-range eggs at room temperature (pop them in a bowl of warm water for a minute if they&#8217;re cold)<\/li>\n<li>200g (7 oz) self-raising flour (or use 185g all purpose\/plain flour mixed with 2 teaspoons baking powder)<\/li>\n<li>25g (2 tablespoons) cornflour (cornstarch in the US)<\/li>\n<li>1 teaspoon baking powder<\/li>\n<li>A pinch of fine grain sea salt<\/li>\n<li>3 tablespoons milk<\/li>\n<li>Plus your choice of fruit &#8211; in the photo above I used 2 fresh figs, quartered.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<h3>Equipment<\/h3>\n<p>You can now buy the equipment I use in this recipe through\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cookwithgem.com\/shop\/\"><strong>my shop<\/strong><\/a>. I\u2019ve spent years testing my favourite bits of equipment so rest-assured that whatever I recommend is the best tool for the job and will give you great results without cluttering your kitchen with unused tools. I receive a small affiliate fee from Amazon if you buy via my link. The products don\u2019t cost you any more. These small fees help me keep creating all the free content I share.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>digital scales<\/li>\n<li>measuring spoons<\/li>\n<li>medium bowl<\/li>\n<li>two\u00a0shallow 20cm\/8\u00a0inch cake tins or pie dishes<\/li>\n<li>parchment or silicone liner<\/li>\n<li>food processor or electric cake mixer<\/li>\n<li>silicone spatula<\/li>\n<li>cooling rack<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How to make the easiest cake I know<\/h3>\n<p>1. Pre-heat the oven to 180\u00b0C (160\u00b0C fan) \/ 350\u00b0F (325\u00b0F convection).<\/p>\n<p>2. Use the butter wrapper to grease two\u00a0shallow 20cm\/8\u00a0inch cake tins or pie dishes. If you want to turn the cake out use a loose-bottom cake tin and line the bottom with a circle of parchment. If you are serving this as a dessert straight from the pan,\u00a0you can use any metal or glass dish &#8211; there is no need to line it.<\/p>\n<p>3. Mix the cake batter:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><em>a. In a food processor:<\/em><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Put all the ingredients except for the milk into a food processor, using the standard blade that sits at the base of the bowl. Pulse until you have a smooth batter, you may need to scrape down the side of the bowl with a spatula half way through to make sure everything is incorporated. Then add the milk through\u00a0the funnel before pulsing together again.<\/p>\n<p><em>b. Traditional method:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Use an electric beater to mix the sugar, vanilla and butter together until pale and fluffy. Then add the eggs one by one, adding\u00a0in a tablespoon of the flour and mixing\u00a0before adding the next egg. Fold in the rest of the flour along with the\u00a0salt and baking powder until combined before folding in the milk.<\/p>\n<p>4. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins\u00a0and gently spread to the edges before gently placing the fruit on top. Press the fruit\u00a0in slightly.<\/p>\n<p>5. Put the cakes onto the middle shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes. Check after 20 minutes and if the cake springs back when you touch the middle it will be fine. You can pop a skewer in the middle too but it is unlikely it will be underdone.<\/p>\n<p>6. Leave to cool slightly before dusting with icing (powdered) sugar and cutting into wedges to serve. Any leftover cake should be kept in an airtight tin for a couple of days or can be wrapped in foil and frozen when cool.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Easiest cake I know recipe I don&#8217;t like to follow too many rules but with baking you have to. That&#8217;s why I love this cake, because it breaks quite a few of the rules that we&#8217;re meant to follow and also gives you the freedom to play around with flavours. It truly is the easiest&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","recipe_category":[2587,2585,2580,2573,2572],"recipe-tag":[2963,2964,2965,2956,2957,2958,2959,2960,2961,2962,2864,2868,2778,2770,2701,2691,2649,2635,2634,2568,2553],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.0 (Yoast SEO v22.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The easiest and most useful cake I know - Cook with Gem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I love this cake, because it breaks the rules that we&#039;re meant to follow and gives you the freedom to play with flavour. 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