Website for Ijays’s Cakes

http://www.ijayscakes.co.uk

Click on the link above to see what I’ve been up to. 🙂

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One Chunky Birthday Cake (and it 100% Vegan)

Someone ordered this for a birthday party today and I’ve got pics!

Enjoy mes amis.

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Pictured Thursday (featuring luscious Vegan cakes…yep, Vegan!)

Almond and Blackcurrant Drizzle Cake

Another day, another cake? Mais oui!!

Yesterday a friend of mine came for a slice of cake and brought with her a punnet of blackcurrants that had arrived in her fruift and veg delivery box. “Ijay, these came in my box, I thought you’ll know something nice to do with them”. I had a little taste and thought, “wowww that’s tangy” and when in doubt? Bake a cake, bien sûr!

So these are her blackcurrants and they are now sitting in a rather delicious cake. You know sometimes you bake a cake and you’re like, “Ohh that nice” but this, now that’s what I call REALLY REALLY nice. If you’ve got blackcurants, oh may I introduce you to this luscious number. Bake it!

Enjoy.

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For black currant syrup:

Almond ‘n’ Banana Pudding Cake with Blackberry studs (Vegan)

Still in the bid to use up ingredients in my kitchen and make simple cakes, today we have a pudding cake from the bananas in the fridge.

So moreish on the inside it deserves a generous amount of cream to go with it. The best bit are these tart blackberries atop the cake that help to cut through the sweetness of the bananas. What’s not to love?

Remember if you live close by and wanna take some home with you, hit me up on Facebook and I’ll save a slice (or more) for you. A girl can only eat soo many cakes!

Thank you all.

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Recipe? You’ll need

Plain and simple Lemon ‘n’ Almond cake (Dairy-free)

It may be plain, it may be simple but it’s ohh so delicious.

We’re moving houses and so looking to use up bits and bobs we’ve got lying around. So I’ve devised a plan, I’m just gonna go on a baking spree and advertise out there if anyone wants a cake, they can pop by our place and get some! That way, I get to bake! you get fed and I use up all the stuff in our kitchen! Win win? Mais Oui! 🙂

Yesterday, it was this Lemon and Almond cake! The Goddess Nigella sorted me out for this recipe and I modified it a little because I made it dairy-free. As opposed to butter, dairy-free spread has got some water in it so i tend to increase my dry ingredients just a little otherwise it can be too soggy.

Blessings to u all. If you live close, pop in for a cake! No, we don’t have to sit and chat unless you wanna. So just come on down, knock knock, here’s your slice, kiss kiss and bye bye. First come first serve…until it runs out

Love love,

Ijay

For the cake, you’ll need: 

Lemon and Lots ‘n’ Lots of Blueberry Swirl cake (Dairy-free)

  Truth….I had a craving and it had to be lemon!  Light, fluffy, tangy, absolutely scrummy…’nuff said.

Summertime and lemon…do ya know of any better combo? (Whispers quietly, actually lemon any day of the year always hits the spot for me 😉 ). And now we have lucious blueberries in season so we get homegrown stuff which makes it all even better and tastier…ahhhhhhh

Plus, found out I need to improve my hand at ‘swirling’ things into cake. Read on to see how mine came out and promise not to laugh 🙂

Ok, enough talk let’s bake.

No-bake Energy Truffles

Yesterday evening, we had a women’s gathering at my Yoga School. It was Devi Puja where we got to celebrate the divine mother, Durga. The Maha goddess, the Life energy within us that calls us to remain rooted in the heart and be true no matter what life brings our way. It was a powerful gathering and beautifully set up too….just magical! I would post the pics but I don’t have any with me. If I get a hold of it I’ll attached them here.

So for our gathering we were encouraged to bring prasad (blessed food) to share with everyone and I made these babies. Decadent-looking but the easiest thing you’ll ever make. Hidden within the cocoa and melted chocolate exterior is nothing but…..**drum roll**…….Energy bites! I know right!. Mikeala, I was so thinking of you when I made these.

It was a pleasant surprise for the women at the gathering.

Conversations sounded like this:

-‘ohh I shouldn’t have one. I can’t have truffles now, I’ve eaten too much’

-Just try it

-Ohh no I shouldn’t

-C’mon go for it, you’ll be surprised.

-Hmmmm, ok then

*one bite* yum yum yum

-Looks like it’s bad but ohh sooo good for you!

-yeeeee haaaaaa 😉

Ok shall we?

For this, you’ll need:

Yummy ‘n’ Nutty No-Bake Balls

  Together with the sticky ginger nuts I posted yesterday, I also made these no bake balls for the guests at the event. This recipe was given to me by my sister, Mikeala. Whenever we used to gather for wekends together she always brought these with her and they were just too good I had to ask for the recipe.

So the original recipe is from Ali here: http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/no-bake-energy-bites/  But you can totally jazz ’em up as you wish. For instance you can add sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chocolate chips, use other types of nut butter, add agave instead of honey, omit some ingredients, add a few more…it’s just really very versatile and that’s one of the many reasons why I love it so. Wanna give it a go?

For this I used:

Ginger ‘n’ Honey Sticky Nuts

  Went to an event yesterday to talk to pregnant women about my work as a Doula and I made these to take with me. They were a total hit and oohh soo yum! Let’s get to it.

You’ll need:

• 250g of Cashew nuts
• 1tsp sunflower oil
• 1Tbsp ginger infused honey
• 1tsp ground ginger

Shall we?

• Put the nuts in a pan to roast for about 5mins on medium to high heat,
• Drizzle in the oil when they start to get a bit o’ colour on ’em,
• Fry for another couple of minutes,
• Add the honey with the ginger and toss it all around on high heat. Watch your spoon because it’ll begin to get gooey and sticky,
• Take off the heat once it starts sizzling and all caramelised,
• Let cool and crunch away!

Pictured Thusday

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Pain d’Epices or Spicy gingerbread cake (Dairy-free)

We had a family gathering yesterday with food, music and the much Love in the air, You know when you think, if I get any more relaxed now, I’m gonna melt…this was like that. For the gathering, I came along with this yummy number.

‘Twas originally supposed to be a carrot cake until I had a look in the fridge to find the carrots had gone bad. So I brought out a whole bunch of cake ingredients from the cupboard and asked google what to do with lots of ginger. I came upon the great Nigel Slater’s recipe and it just hit me in the head with inspiration. You can find Nigel’s lovely recipe is here: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/nov/23/foodanddrink.shopping.

But for this diary-free version with date syrup, gingerbread spices, orange soaked sultanas, less sugar and still lots and lots of ginger, read on.

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You’ll need:

SPLL Soup

Pack lunch for the hubby..Ooo yah

Beautiful rainy day, still in your jammies, cozy inside, some’in to warm your cockles? Try a bowl- full of this yumminess, it’s worth getting out of the sofa for.

❤

Oh my, what does SPLL stand for? 😉

You’ll need:

Berry Lemon muffins (dairy-free)

Hello ‘ello,

For the weekend, this happened upon a special mama as a gift (although part of this ‘gift’ was eaten before it was packed, by whom? you ask, I wonder). Mmmmm berry berry yummy indeed ;-).

The original plain dairy-full recipe is by this yummy mummy over here: http://mostlyyummymummy.com/2010/08/03/lemon-muffins/

Let’s get to it shall we, Enjoy!

❤

For this version, you’ll need:

Smokey AuberDip

All you’ll need

We had Aubergine in our delivery box last week so I had to use it to do something when the week was running out. End of the week, feeling a little knackered to cook anything for dinner but want something yummy all the same? Grab these ingredients and you’ve got yourself a super smokey, super easy, super yummy and super duper dip.

I got the inspiration from the sweet Abel and Cole’s cookbook but have changed it as there isn’t any garlic, tahini, lemon but thought to add the onion and tomato instead. Et voilà, just these few ingredients and you’re good to go.

Enjoy dipping.

For this, you’ll need:

• A whole Aubergine
• A whole tomato, cut in half
• Half an Onion
• 1/4 tsp of smoked Paprika
• Glugs of Olive oil
• Salt to taste

To make:

Not-your-ordinary cream cheese frosting on a Carrot Cake

‘Twas about 2 weeks ago when Ben and I had to go away on a weekend course, and so we were looking for someone to look after our baby.

After much searching and a little panic, my sweet Lord brought us lady Rebecca. We didn’t know each other much but she saw a post I had put in Facebook and contacted me saying she wanted to help. I felt an awful lot of gratitude for this woman. Moreso because when I went in to see her, she had a 6 month old baby on hip!! and a 2 year old running about and still she was like, ‘yeah, I’ll be fine, just bring her!”. You know when you meet these people that make you think they could easily mother the whole world and still be kool. That’s what I felt with her.

So we got to talking and I said, I need to offer you something for this m’lady and after, “ohh noo, don’t worry about it, you don’t have to”, we found out she likes cakes! And my heart went..Oooooo yah!!!! So carrot cake it was and when I was making this I thought she’ll probably think I’ll show up with a cake in a standard loaf tin but ohh boy was she in for a surprise!
So this one is dedicated to m’lady Rebecca for just being superb and a God-send.

Here we go guys, a yummy and super moist carrot cake with not-your-average cream cheese frosting.
This recipe was inspired by the Carrot cake in the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook with some changes and additions to the original recipe.

For this, you’ll need:

Birthday man and Tarte aux fraises

I know it’s been a while my dears and my phone is filled with pictures of things I should be posting here. So we’ll start from the most recent and work our way back ok. T’was hubby’s birthday this weekend and Tarte aux fraises was a yummyily invited guest. Hubby requested it for his day, so I got joyfully baking. My pastry godfather (Michele Roux Snr), lent his precious hand in this very classic French recipe for Strawberry tart in his book, Pastry. And if you don’t have the book, the online recipe is here: http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/upload/pdf/Strawberry_Tart_by_Michel_Roux.pdf. It’s legendary!…as is Michelle too. Here are some pics from the weekend. Enjoy!

Apples ‘n’ Hazelnuts (in a dairy-free cake)

 

Crunchy yummy nuts shell for a yummy spicy cake!

First of all, excuse the quality of the pictures here. I only decided this will be fab to share when I was in the middle of making the cake so had to use ‘zee phone….but not bad ehh?.

I had some sisters come over with their babies about 2 weeks ago and yet again it fell on me to do the dessert…surprised? Yeah me too 😉 :-D. I wanted to make some’in cozy and warm and spicy and Autumn-like and thought, apples just scream Autumn!, don’t they? So I decided to go for it. Here we have a spicy apple cake, packed full of apples with a generous hazelnut top. The hazelnut top was an inspiration from a BBC good food on their Apple Cake in a nutshell shell recipe. A really good recipe that.

Warning: This cake is seriously nutty, light, delicious and just fills your mouth with spices that remind you of Christmas.  A bit too yummy that I didn’t get to take the picture of a proper piece until I got to the very last one in the tin.

There is a seeded version of this (for those allergic to nuts) at the bottom of the cake page so keep reading :-).

Yuuummmmmmmmm mmmm mmmm, ok here we go!

Journey of a Wedding Cake….in pictures!

A week before the wedding, used modelling paste to make these…2 black birds sitting on the wall…k.i.s.s.i.n.g

About 6 months ago, one of my friends asked, no, texted actually, if I could do her the honour of making her wedding cake and I was like…Yaaaa haaa!!! the honour is all mine. So together we planned it all out, threw some ideas together and came up THE cake, all covered in colour coordinated buttercream icing and LOTS of fruits. Thank God for sister Etomby for lending me fridge space to store this big baby <3. So last Saturday was the wedding and the cake made it all the way to Dorset in one piece…well, different pieces all assembled on site.  It was a 3 tiered wedding cake starting with 12″ Lemon sponge mama resting at the bottom to support everyone (covered in a slap-in-the-face-when-you-take-a-bite lemon buttercream), followed by a 10″ choco orange cake (covered in intense orange buttercream), then sitting on top like feather is the lightest 8″ Victoria sponge cake (covered in Vanilla bean buttercream). I promised pictures and here they are:

Boards with red ribbon round the edges

the baked yummies..12″ lemon sponge, 10″ choco orange, 8″ Vicky sponge

Cake aux fruits (dairy-free)

….aux fruits!

With all the cake baking going on this week, hubby’s sweet tooth was starting to grow so he asked me to make him a cake. One from his childhood that his grand-pa (a true great chef) used to make. When it’s a cake from his childhood, especially from his grand-papi, I’m always very reluctant to make it as it’s always not quite right and I’m being compared to a family legend.

Anyway, after a bit of huffing and puffing, I went ahead and agreed to it. Then he says…’I want it in a loaf thin, don’t forget the cherries, you know the cherries I mean?, the glacé cherries, grand-pa always had cherries, he always baked it in a loaf tin, the big fat round cherrries, yes, leave it whole in the loaf tin, I like the cherries like that in a loaf tin…did you find the cherries, go ahead and add lots of cherries, don’t worry, I like it full of cherries’…….and I’m like, if I hear cherries or loaf tin one more time, I’m gonna chuck this batter and loaf tin at him.