Toyologist (Guest) Review: Keter Handz-on

This review is another guest post by Keris, whose website is here. Keris writes in various places across the internet and has just had her second book published. You can read all about her and her blog by visiting her website. Keris was sent the Keter Handz-on to try out and here she reports back on how she and her son Joe got on with it.

The arrival of the Keter Handz-on Creativity Desk was greeted by 2-year-old Joe hopping up and down next to me, yelling, "Open! Open!" While I went to get scissors, he actually started ripping open the box with his bare hands.

I emptied the pieces out of the box and looked at the assembly instructions, but they really weren't needed - it was pretty straightforward. It all just clicks and slots together and I had the whole thing built in, I'd guess, less than a minute.

And as soon as I had, Joe sat down and yelled for paper. And he hasn't stopped playing with it - and yelling his demands - since. And this is not a child who sits still easily or, generally, willingly.

Silent Sunday

The "art" of baking - part 2. The Helen Chocolate Cake!

If you read my other post at the weekend, you'll know I'm on a bit of a mission to convince you that baking is not difficult. This post is about the other cake I made at the weekend for the school summer fair (which, incidentally, raised over £1200 for the school, which is excellent). It's chocolate cake.

Now, I always thought that chocolate cake was difficult, until I met my friend Helen, that is. Helen is a mum that joined our local NCT branch and one day turned up at a fundraising event with the most amazing looking chocolate cake. It looked gorgeous and it disappeared really quickly. Helen's cake soon became a fixture of our fundraisers when we were providing cakes. For me, therefore, this will be forever "Helen Chocolate Cake".

Helen started responding to requests for the recipe. I think she did it in the hope that other people would take on the mantle of making "Helen's Chocolate Cake". Sadly, for her, every time we are needing cakes, she gets asked  "Helen, can you make a chocolate cake?" and if she complains, we remind her that her version is the original and best.

I succumbed to obtaining the recipe last Christmas, when I first was contributing to school's other main fundraising event, the Christmas fair. Helen offered to send me the recipe when I mused about making chocolate cake, but have always been scared that it would mean melting chocolate and faffing around - even tho I know, having done it a few times over the last few years, that it is not that technically difficult to do.

Good to her word, the recipe arrived in my inbox within a day or two. As Helen said herself, it's very very quick and easy tho you might find that you need to make it a few times to get it totally to your liking. Personally, I think the oven temperature is set too low and after a few goes at this, I now set my oven hotter and the cake has been fine.

The good news is that there is actually no chocolate at all. The cake uses cocoa powder so it mixes in with the dry ingredients and needs no special treatment. Simple, this most definitely is. I would also use margarine as recommended. The flavour won't be affected but the margarine keeps the icing softer and the cake less dry.

Here's the recipe for "Helen Chocolate Cake".

For the cake

225g/8oz self raising flour

275g/10oz caster Sugar

175g/6oz soft tub margarine

3 eggs

1tsp vanilla essence

175g/6oz low fat natural yoghurt

50g cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the icing

50g/2oz soft tub margarine

50g/2 oz cocoa powder

3 tablespoons milk (I find it needs more than this)

350g/12oz icing sugar

12 walnut halves to decorate (optional – you can add anything you fancy)

you will also need a 32cm/9 in spring form cake tin and some non-stick baking paper. 

 Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 170^oC/325^oF/gas 3. Grease the tin. Line the base with non-stick baking paper. Dust the inside of the tin with a little flour, then tap out the excess. 

(Note - Helen reckons a 20cm/8 in tin will work fine as well.I reckon using 180C/gas 4 works better)

2. Beat the caster sugar and margarine in a mixing bowl until smooth. Beat in eggs, vanilla essence and yoghurt. Sift in flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda. Stir until fully combined. Spoon mixture into prepared tin and level the surface.

3. Bake cake for 40-45 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Put tin onto a wire rack, cool for 5 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack to cool completely.

(You may need to do a bit of trial and error on this one - for me, 180 C for 50 mins gives a good result.)

4. For the icing, melt the margarine in a saucepan - a milk pan is ideal. Stir in the cocoa. Heat gently, stirring, until combined. Remove from heat. Stir in milk and sifted icing sugar until mixture is smooth and blended. (Extra milk is definitely needed for this but add in spoonfuls. If you add too much, you'll need extra icing sugar).

5. Spread or pour (pouring probably works better and gives a smoother result) icing evenly over top and side of cake. Arrange walnut halves, if using,  around top edge. Leave icing to set for 10 minutes before serving.

Here is the finished article: 

I have made this cake for Monkey's 5th birthday party back in March and for that, I got a personalised Ben10 icing cake topper from eBay to complete the look. It was actually really easy to do and looked great. He was very proud that his mummy had made him a proper cake. I have also made this cake and the children asked for leftovers for breakfast. As an one off, I let them and have never seen such well-behaved children in the period between getting up and going on the school run.

This is a great cake to make with kids and actually Missy Woo helped me make this one. Licking the bowl is great too, because the minute you add the cocoa, it all starts to taste very chocolatey and it's heaven for little ones to to lick. The icing is a mummy only job, thanks to the fact we're using a pan on the hob. 

So, what do you think? Fancy trying to make a Helen Chocolate Cake and telling me how you got on? I'd love to hear. You will love this cake and you'll become extremely popular with friends. They will think you're extremely clever. But your secret will be safe with me. :)

The "art" of baking - a beginner's guide. (Coconut Cake)

If you've been following me on Twitter this week, you'll know I've baked a couple of cakes. These were for the school summer fair for which the PTFA had asked for cake contributions for their "tea room". Mine went down extremely well - by the time I got there, the last piece of one of the cakes was disappearing off the table so I never even got to try them! However, it turned out that a lot of the other cakes were shop-bought, which is always disappointing as they just don't taste the same. It turned out there had been a very poor turnout of cakes this time.

It does seem to me that baking is a bit like maths. People like to say they are rubbish at it and it's cool to be that because it's perceived to be "hard". The thing is that, like maths, it often isn't as bad as people think it is and they really just need to have a go. It's easier to get someone else to do it for you, but ultimately, that's never as satisfying.

I bake cakes. I don't do it all the time or I'd be the size of the house. The cakes I make taste nice. I just can't make them look all that pretty. Don't ask me to make fancy sugarcraft or owt, it'll look a shocker. When I make a nice cake, people tell me "oh, you're so clever" but I always reply that the cakes I make are easy. And it's true. The two cakes I made this week are not technically challenging but they look impressive, even with a klutz like me icing them. I thought I'd share them with you, one at a time. I'm going to start with the easiest of recipes which is basically an all-in-one - otherwise known as "bung it all together and mix". ;)

Before I move onto the recipe, I'll share with you a few simple golden rules of baking. If you remember them, your baking will be more successful and, therefore, more rewarding.

1. Measure your ingredients fairly accurately. Baking is not "bung it in and hope for the best" cookery. It is relying on reactions for success that require reasonably strict proportions to be maintained. So use those scales, even if they are rubbish. At least they will be consistently bad. Cheap digital scales can be bought cheaply if you really want to invest.

2. Try and use the right size and shape of cake tin as specified in the recipe. This is particularly important when you're starting out. If your recipe says use a 9" diameter tin, use it. You can use a smaller tin but it will take longer to cook than stated in the recipe; a square one might take more or less time to cook. Cake tins can be bought fairly cheaply if you don't do a lot of baking - springform ones or those that have a loose base make for getting cakes out of tins far, far easier. And remember to prep your tins. Greasing and lining the tin as per the recipe also helps. A lot.

3. Get all the ingredients out before you start. This helps to get the mixing bit done as quickly as possible, rather than having to root through your cupboards. If you're using butter, it may need to be soft so get it out of the fridge in advance and if it specifies softened and it's midwinter, be prepared to zap in the microwave for a few seconds. It'll save hours of trying to mix in block butter.

4. Don't substitute too wildly. Use the right kind of flour as specified - tho you can convert plain to self-raising if you know how - and be careful with your sugar; there are so many different types. I often use caster sugar where they specify golden caster and that's OK. Using icing sugar or soft dark brown sugar isn't! I am the queen of substitutions normally, but even I try to stick to the right ingredients unless the recipe suggests it.

5. Finally, be a slave to the recipe. Follow it word for word. If something does go wrong, try and scribble on the recipe so you know for next time if it doesn't work properly for you. Ovens are variable, and sometimes recipes do contain errors. If you think it needs more of something, try that next time.

So, here is one of the cakes I made this week. It's a coconut cake. Coconut is a favourite flavour of mine but I know it's one of those things that people either love or hate. If you're the latter, sorry - I'll blog the other recipe soon.

I found this recipe in one of those little booklets you sometimes get with BBC Good Food magazine. It must be some years ago now and I can't find this exact recipe on their website. I have made this cake several times for NCT branch events and when people aren't drawn to the chocolate cake that I'll blog about next, they try this and love it, yet it is ridiculously simple. I even made this for Monkey's first birthday as he was enjoying the flavour of coconut at the time and then of course, he wouldn't touch a piece. Still, I was not unhappy - I was baking another baby already by then.

I have found over the years of making it that you get the best results by getting proper coconut cream. I used to make it with sachets of creamed coconut but the cake was slightly dry and the icing very stiff, which made it hard to ice. I discovered little cans of Waitrose Coconut Cream and it transformed the cake from "good" to "amazing" and the icing is much more easy to put as well as look pretty. Even I can do attractive swirls in it now.

Coconut Cake
(Serves 8 - 12)

Ingredients
For the cake:
175g/6oz self-raising flour
175g/6oz golden caster sugar (ordinary works fine)
175g/6oz butter, softened, plus some extra for greasing
1.5 tsp baking powder
3 eggs (I use free range but that's your decision), beaten (tho I never do beforehand)
50g/2oz desiccated coconut
2 tbsp  coconut cream, or single cream (better with coconut cream)

For the filling and topping:
280g/10oz icing sugar
100g/4oz butter, softened
3 tbsp coconut cream or single cream (again, far better with coconut cream)
5 tbsp raspberry jam (seedless or no bit varieties best but not essential)

You will also need 2 20cm/8in sandwich tins and some greaseproof paper.

1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan160C/gas 4. Butter the two tins and line the bases with the greaseproof paper. Place the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and eggs in a food processor and mix for 2-3 mins until smooth. Add the coconut and cream and mix again briefly. (If you don't have a food processor, a hand mixer will do. If you don't have that either, you could just mix all together with a fork or a hand whisk. Or you could mix the sugar and butter first, then add the eggs, then the flour and baking powder and finally, the coconut and coconut cream, mixing after each addition.)

2. Divide the mixture between the two lined tins and smooth the tops. Bake in the oven for 25 mins until evenly golden and firm (they will spring back when lightly pressed). Loosen the edges of the cakes and leave in their tins for 5 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Peel off the lining paper when cool.

Here are my cakes cooling on the rack:

3. Make the icing  - beat together the icing sugar (I always sift it so you get fewer lumps), butter and coconut cream until smooth. Spread one of the cakes with the jam. Top it with just under half of the icing and place the other sponge on top. Swirl the remaining icing on top of the sponge. Try to resist eating the whole thing right there and then.

Here's my effort from yesterday:

Doesn't it look yum? I can't believe I didn't get to eat any of it, *sob*. It is blooming lovely. The coconut and raspberry are a great combination of flavours and the cake is lovely and moist. It makes your house smell heavenly whilst it is cooking, and I think you can really taste the butter in the cake so it's really worth using that over margarine. I find that I sometimes need a little more than 3 tbsp coconut cream in the icing to get a smooth and spreadable icing and if you use too much, you can always add a little more icing sugar.

So, now, you've not got any excuses - it's not only easy, it doesn't take up lots of time (another reason people give for not baking). This cake takes 5 minutes to mix and get in the oven. You can be doing something else whilst it cooks and cools. It takes another 5 minutes to make the icing, and then, as you can see, only a couple of minutes to "decorate" the cake (well, the way I do it. ;) ). It tastes miles better than anything you'd buy in a shop, you know what's in it and it's probably cheaper too. Cake may not be the healthiest of things but making your own with lovely ingredients has surely got to be the best way to indulge the occasional treat. Hasn't it?

Go on, you know you want to! And if you do, particularly if you are a first-time baker, I'd love you to comment on this post and let me know how you got on and how the cake (and baking) was for you.