Monday 27 July 2009

Cappuccino Bars with Cinammon

The eating machine in my life loves a bit of cake. I am more than happy to oblige as I like a wee bit of cake myself and I do enjoy making them. I tend to stick mostly to the same sponge recipe with variations in flavour and toppings. I occasionally break the mould but this is not one of those occasions. I am not fond of making round cakes. Difficult to store in my already overflowing kitchen cupboards. I make them in loaf tins which makes life simple or, as in this case, a swiss roll tin and cut them into squares. I have a terrible time with cup cakes/buns. I look at them on other blogs and they always look so lovely and I am green with envy. Mine are woeful and that is probably an understatement. Slicing a slab of sponge into squares bridges the gap for me. A cheat's cupcake. The original recipe for this comes from 'Good Food 101 Cakes and Bakes'. I was well pleased as it was basically the recipe I use. I tweaked it just a little. Lovely combination of flavours.


Ingredients

Cake

1 teasp cocoa powder plus extra for dusting
2 rounded tablespoons instant coffee granules
225g/8oz softened butter or margarine
225g/80z soft brown sugar
225g/8oz SR Flour
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons warm water
A little cinnamon powder for dusting

White Chocolate Frosting

100g/4oz white chocolate broken into pieces
50g/20z butter
3 tablespoons milk
175gms/6oz icing sugar.


Method

Preheat your oven to 180.C/Fan 160.C/Gas4/350.F
Line and grease the bottom of a 9 1/2" x 13"/24cm x 33cm shallow sided baking tin.

Mix the cocoa and coffee granules into the warm water.
Now put that and all the other ingredients into the food processor and whizz or if you don't have a food processor just mix everything together in a bowl with a hand held mixer.
Tip into the lined baking tray and spread evenly. I leave a little indentation in the middle so it doesn't form a peak when rising.
Bake for 30 -35 minutes until risen and the top is firm to touch.
Cool in the tin then turn it out onto a chopping board or similar.

For the frosting, melt everything together in a bowl over simmering water. It is better if you bring the water to the boil then remove it from the heat and then put the bowl on top to melt the ingredients. White chocolate can clump if it is over heated.
Remove the bowl and beat in the sieved icing sugar.
When it is smooth spread over the cake.
Dust with a little bit of cocoa powder then a little cinnamon powder.
Cut into 24 squares and pop into paper cases.

Enjoy.




18 comments:

arista said...

These look lovely. What problem do you have with cupcakes etc? Your strawberry muffins looked great.

Rhyleysgranny said...

@ Arista Muffins seem to be OK. It's the small variety that gives me problems. They look bad taste bad and are just bad LOL

Gloria Baker said...

I love these cappuccino bars with cinammon, I love the spices, and this look so yummy ,xoxoxoGloria

Rhyleysgranny said...

@Gloria Thank you x

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Mmmhhh, those bars look and sound extremely good! What a fabulous combo!

Cheers,

Rosa

Mary said...

These bars look fantastic , i agree with you on using the same recipe for the sponge if you see that it is always successful.

Grannymar said...

My mother hated making 'feckies' the name she gave to Queen cakes,or as we call them today cupcakes!

Her most used tins were shallow rectangular swissroll tins. Like you every other recipe was adapted and made in these tins for cutting into squares. A much better idea with a large crowd of hollow legged children to feed!

She often lined the tin with pastry and a layer of jam before finishing with the 'cake' layer.

Rhyleysgranny said...

@ Grannymar I love that name 'feckies' I shall be using that one all the time now LOL I have done the pastry and jam and also lemon curd......must make that again

@ Mary Yes I have had many disasters appear from the depths of my oven. This has worked since school days. I won't give it up now. It's fun trying different ways with the one base.

@ Rosa Thank you :)

Clabby said...

'The Eating Machine' - Ha ha ha - I have two of those! Those look delish - one would just be perfect with a cup of coffee right now.

Rhyleysgranny said...

@ Clabby LOL I think it is a fair description of the average man especially Irish men :)

Maria♥ said...

Brenda, I've seen this recipe in my 101 Cakes and Bakes and loved the sound of them! Yours look amazing and I must try this recipe soon.

Maria
x

Rhyleysgranny said...

@ Maria It's a grand wee book isn't it? I got it after finding the strawberry cheesecake muffins on Rosie's blog

Nickki said...

These look absolutely gorgeous Brenda! Beautiful picture as always. I was only just reading 101 cakes and bakes this morning! So many lovely recipes in there. x

Rhyleysgranny said...

@ Nikki Thanks Nikki about my pics :0 I am also going through some of the charity recipe books I have. They were also great wee books especially for tray bakes but you don't see so many around now which is a pity.

Pity said...

i am a cinnamon addict so i am already you fan....i love your blog and this bars will be in my stomach very soon....

thanks for the recipe,

pity

Rhyleysgranny said...

@Pity How nice to see you here. Just love to see new faces.I hope you will return. Enjoy the bars. I will visit your Blog later Cheers

arista said...

I have to admit that apart from muffins I don't actually see the big appeal with cupcakes, and now I come to think about it I very rarely make them. Give me a slice of cake any day! ...and a nice cup of tea too, please!

Rhyleysgranny said...

@ Arista I have to agree. I'd rather have a bit of vake to. Maybe we'll just shelve the cupcakes? :)