It’s Red Nose Day on Friday 24th March and as usual there are lots of fab ways you can join in and make the world a better place as part of this great British institution. But of course one of the most scrumptious is by holding a bake sale. And so if you ARE thinking of rolling up your sleeves and baking up some goodies, I’ve bagged two lip smacking recipes to share with you from The Hairy Bikers and Nadiya Hussain to get you started!

Oh and psssst if you’re a keen baker, the iconic fashion and portrait photographer Rankin has partnered with HomeSense to create exclusive aprons for Red Nose Day 2017 and help people living incredibly tough lives across Africa and here in the UK. The apron is part of a Red Nose Day 2017 range of products available in HomeSense stores nationwide.

So grab an apron, whip up some treats and have a bake sale. Easy as pie!

The Hairy Biker’s coffee & walnut sponge

A deliciously moist, old-fashioned Coffee and walnut Cake is one of our very favourite treats and we like to make it with Camp chicory and coffee essence. If you can’t track this down in your local stores, use very strong black coffee instead. Make sure the walnuts you use are nice and fresh.

SERVES 12

65g walnut halves

225g softened butter, cubed, plus extra

for greasing

225g caster sugar

4 medium eggs

225g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp Camp chicory and coffee essence

Icing

150g softened butter, cubed

300g icing sugar, sifted

4 tsp Camp chicory and coffee essence

12 walnut halves

Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5. Butter two 20cm loose-based sandwich tins and line the bases with discs of baking parchment. Put the walnut halves in a food processor and blitz them into fairly fine crumbs, but don’t worry if there are a few larger pieces remaining. Tip the walnuts into a bowl.

Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and coffee essence in a food processor and blend on the pulse setting until well combined and creamy. You may need to remove the lid once or twice and push the mixture down with a rubber spatula. Take care not to process for too long or you will end up with a heavy sponge. Add the blitzed walnuts to the batter and mix until just combined. If you don’t have a food processor, finely chop the nuts, tip all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl, then beat like hell!

Spoon the mixture evenly into the greased and lined tins and smooth the surface. Bake on the same shelf in the centre of the oven for about 25 minutes or until the sponge is well risen and just beginning to shrink back from the sides of the tin.

Remove the tins from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before running a knife around the edge of the cakes and turning them out onto a wire rack. Peel off the baking parchment and leave to cool completely.

To make the icing, put the butter in a food processor, or mixing bowl, then add the icing sugar and coffee essence. Blend until the icing is smooth and creamy. Add a little more coffee essence to taste if you like.

Place one of the sponges on a plate or cake stand and spread with half the coffee icing. Add the second sponge and spread the remaining icing over the top. Use the back of a spoon or a rubber spatula to create soft swirls and peaks. Decorate with the walnut halves. Leave to stand for at least an hour before serving if possible to allow the icing to become a little firmer.

Recipe from ‘Mums Still Know Best’ by The Hairy Bikers, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Photography by Cristian Barnett

*****

Nadiya Hussain’s Her Majesty’s cake

A smaller, simpler version of the classic drizzle cake flavoured with oranges instead of lemons made by Nadiya for the Queen’s’s 90th for you to try at home!

For the cake

700g plain flour, sifted

4 teaspoons baking powder

500g unsalted softened butter

diced 500g caster suga

8 medium eggs

3 tablespoons lemon juice

zest of 3 oranges

For the buttercream

400g unsalted butter

softened 800g

icing sugar sifted

zest of 2 oranges

4 tablespoons whole milk

For the fondant drizzle

150g white fondant, grated

25ml water purple food colouring

For the orange drizzle

juice of 3 oranges (you need about 200–300ml)

150g caster sugar

For decoration

white sugarpaste roses, varying sizes, or real roses edible glue or glucose syrup edible silver glitter

Prep: 50 minutes to 1 hour Cook: 1 ¼ to 1 ¾ hours

Sponges can be frozen before decorating and drizzling

For the cake, line and grease 2 x 20cm spring form tins. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C. Add all the ingredients to a bowl one by one then, using a handheld or stand mixer, mix everything together for 3 minutes till you have a smooth batter.

Divide the mixture between two tins and level off the tops. Bake for 1½ hours to 1¾ hours, but check it after 1 ¼ hours as it will depend on your oven.

While the cakes are cooking you can get on and make the buttercream and drizzles. To make the buttercream, add the butter to a mixing bowl and mix on high for 2 minutes. Add the icing sugar a little at a time and mix on a medium speed. Add the milk and orange zest and mix on a high speed for 3 minutes until you have a light and fluffy buttercream.

When the cakes are golden brown, with a slight peak at the top, and a skewer inserted comes out clean, they are ready. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin. Turn out and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Cut the domed tops off both sponges and level them off. Carefully slice both cakes across into two, giving you four sponges.

To make the orange drizzle, add the orange juice and sugar to a jug and mix well. The sugar will not dissolve completely. Spoon the mixture equally over the 4 sponges.

Lay the four sponges out, making sure that one of the two with crusts faces down and one faces up. Then generously cover the top and side of each with the buttercream. Put the crust-side-down slice on a cake base or plate then carefully place the other layers on top, finishing with the crust-side-up slice. Place the whole cake in the fridge or in a cool place for about 15-20 minutes until the buttercream has crusted over.

Now make the fondant drizzle. Add the grated fondant and water to a pan and heat on low to medium, stirring continuously, until it has melted and become and liquid. Add the food colouring a little at a time until you have a vibrant purple colour. Transfer into a bowl and leave to cool completely. Add a drop or two of cold water to loosen if needed.

Pour the cold purple fondant over the top of the cake, drizzling it gently down the sides. Then finish off the decoration by brushing the tips of the sugar paste roses with edible glue and dipping them in glitter. Arrange them in a crescent shape around one edge of the top of the cake. Or simply decorate it using real white roses.

Nadiya’s Kitchen by Nadiya Hussain is out now (Penguin, HB, £20) Photographer: Holly Pickering 

Mmmmmm drooling yet? The most delicious way to do good ever.

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The post Get your apron on! Scrumptious Red Nose Day cake recipes appeared first on Motherhood: The Real Deal.