Tat Eftby describes herself as the “arch procrasti-baker’’ - someone who will bake to avoid everything from doing the dishes to writing a will.
She does not recommend it as a life choice so in her book Bake Your Sweet Time is endeavouring to provide recipes that fit around daily life.
So each chapter is based on a favourite flavour or bake - think chocolate fudge cake, lemon drizzle, rhubarb and custard, carrot cake - and each recipe is graded on the time and effort needed to create them - from a quick 15-minute bake to a medium-timed foolproof recipe to a “wow” bake where a baker can take their own sweet time.
For example, in the lemon drizzle chapter is a quick lazy loaf, a medium-time cream pie and long-time focaccia.
Eftby is a cartoonist and former advertising copywriter, known as The Caketoonist on social media, who was rejected by The Great British Bake Off many times so she took to social media with her bakes, garnering more than 6 million fans.
“Without your sustained and emphatic rejection of my charms, I wouldn’t have got cross enough to fully commit to my pudding pusher calling. It all goes to show, everything happens for a raisin,’’ she says in the book’s thank yous.
The book
Bake Your Sweet Time by Tat Effby,
photography by Mowie Kay.
Murdoch Books RRP $49.99.
Lazy lemon drizzle loaf
This crunch-topped, moist-middled lemon loaf has to be one of the lowest effort cakes to yield some of the highest praise.
Just don’t tell anyone it requires no creaming, no beating, no sifting, because it definitely tastes like you’ve slaved over it.
It’s moist crumb comes from using oil, so there’s no need to get butter to the perfect consistency.
Just throw everything into a bowl, whisk it all together and bake. You can have it out of the oven in 45 minutes and you can even transport it warm in its tin - perfect when you remember, slightly late, that you promised to bring the cake.
It’s certainly saved my bacon on many an occasion, and there’s not even any bacon in it.
Serves 8-10
Ready in 1 hr 15min
Cake
2 large eggs
150g mild olive oil, sunflower oil or any other flavourless oil
150g full-fat plain yoghurt
170g granulated sugar
Grated zest of 4 lemons
¼ tsp salt
200g plain (all-purpose) flour or gluten-free plain flour + œ tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
Topping
110g-120g lemon juice (from 4 medium lemons)
150g granulated sugar
Method
Set the oven to 175°C fan. Line the loaf tin with a single piece of baking paper, scrunching and then unscrunching the sheet to make it easier to form it to the shape of the tin.
To a medium bowl, add the eggs, oil, yoghurt, sugar, lemon zest and salt. Mix with a balloon whisk or fork until blended. It may look curdled, but that’s normal, so don’t panic.
Add the flour and baking powder and mix again, stopping as soon as the batter is evenly blended and there are no dry patches. If using gluten-free flour, combine the flour, xanthan gum and baking powder before adding.
Scrape the batter into the lined loaf tin. Bake in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes, nearer to 45 minutes for gluten-free, or until a metal skewer comes out clean. The cake will bake more quickly in a loaf tin with a wide base than in a tin with a narrower base as the batter will be shallower.
While the cake bakes, juice the lemons and set aside for later. Don’t add the sugar to the juice now: the secret to the cake’s crunchy top is adding the sugar last minute, so the grains don’t dissolve.
Once the cake is out of the oven, leave it to cool for five minutes before using your skewer to poke holes all over the top. Now add the sugar to the lemon juice and mix to a wet paste. Spoon this paste over the hot cake, poking extra holes as you go to help it all soak in.
Using the paper, lift the loaf out of the tin and on to a wire rack to cool completely before eating.
Black Forest Cookie Cups
I’ve called these cookie cups because their base is a cookie dough, but I think of them as mini pies. But as Black Forest pies sound like they should contain rabbit, and they don’t, I went with cookie cups.
The double chocolate cookie dough holds a boozy whipped chocolate ganache and a cherry, which is topped with a generous dollop of mascarpone cream and an extra cherry. Sorry to disappoint if you were hoping for rabbit.
Makes 12 cookie cups
Ready in 1h 15min
Cookie Cup dough
150g salted butter, softened
150g granulated sugar
60g unsweetened cocoa powder
200g plain (all-purpose) flour or 240g gluten-free plain (all-purpose) flour + ½ tsp xanthan gum
4 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
80g white chocolate, chopped into small chunks
2 tsp vanilla extract
60g / 4 Tbsp water
Chocolate filling
150g milk chocolate, chopped into small chunks
3 Tbsp cherry brandy, syrup or kirsch from a jar of cherries
110g double (heavy) cream
12 pitted fresh cherries, frozen cherries or cherries in kirsch
Mascarpone Cream
100g mascarpone
200g double (heavy) cream
20g granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
To decorate
20g milk chocolate
12 pitted fresh cherries, frozen cherries or cherries in kirsch
Method
Set the oven to 175°C fan. Lightly oil the cups of the muffin tin. Cut 2cm-wide strips of baking paper, 15cm long. Lay one strip in each cup to hoist the cookie cups out after baking.
Start with the cookie cup dough. To a large bowl, add the soft butter, sugar, cocoa powder, flour (and xanthan gum, if using gluten-free flour), baking powder and salt. Mix briefly with a hand mixer to a sandy texture.
Add the white chocolate, vanilla and water. Mix briefly until clumps of dough just start to form, then pull into a large ball, but don’t overwork it.
Scoop up 60g of the dough, roll it into a ball and drop it in a muffin cup. Using the end of an oiled rolling pin or a shot glass, push it into the centre of the ball, forcing the dough up around the sides to form a cup. Repeat until all 12 cups of the tin are filled with cookie dough.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes or until the dough puffs and starts to lose its cup shape.
While the cookie cups are baking, make the chocolate filling. To a microwave-safe bowl, add the milk chocolate, cherry brandy and double cream. Microwave in 15-second bursts to slowly melt everything together, then mix until blended. If you don’t have a microwave, sit a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot water to melt. Chill in the fridge.
Remove the cookie cups from the oven and press the oiled rolling pin or shot glass into the puffy dough to re-form the cookie cup. Leave the cups in the tin to set for at least 20 minutes before removing with the paper strips to cool completely on a rack.
When the chocolate filling has set firm, beat until it goes lighter in colour and mousse-like in consistency. Spoon 25g of ganache into each cooled cookie cup then press a cherry into the centre of the filling.
In a large bowl, break up the mascarpone with a spoon. Add the cream a little at a time, mixing the two to smooth out any lumps of mascarpone. Add the sugar and vanilla, then beat until the cream thickens.
Pipe or spoon the mascarpone cream over the chocolate filling. Create curls by drawing a vegetable peeler along the side of the chocolate block. Tumble the curls over the cream, then finish with another cherry.
Blackcurrant Meringue Bars
Packing a tremendously deep sourness alongside a slightly unexpected whiff of tom cat, I’ve never identified more with one of my five a day.
The easiest way to get your hands on blackcurrants is to grow your own. The plants are low maintenance and difficult to kill; even I’ve not managed it.
Alternatively you can be very nice to someone who grows their own, buy them frozen online or use different, readily available berries.
Blackberries or raspberries will give you the sharp, fresh contrast with the rich biscuit base and the light sweet meringue.
Makes 12 squares
Ready in 1hr 50min
Shortbread base
200g plain (all-purpose) flour or 250g gluten-free self-raising mix
1¼ tsp baking powder (omit if using gluten-free flour)
50g cornflour (cornstarch, omit if using gluten-free flour)
85g granulated sugar
Large pinch of salt
150g salted butter, melted
Blackcurrant curd
400g fresh or frozen blackcurrants
300g water
150g granulated sugar (plus extra, if necessary)
40g cornflour (cornstarch)
2 egg yolks
Method
Set the oven to 165°C fan and line the brownie tin with baking paper.
Make the shortbread. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, pour over the melted butter and mix to bring everything together as a dough.
Press the dough into the lined tin and level with the back of a spoon.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes until the surface is lightly golden and crazed with tiny cracks.
Put the blackcurrants in a food processor or blender with the water and blitz to make a watery puree. Pass that puree through a sieve (strainer) into a heavy-bottomed pan. You will need 580g of sieved puree, so add water to make up the weight if you don’t have enough. Add the sugar to the pan and stir into the puree.
In a small bowl, mix together the cornflour, egg yolks and a few spoonfuls of the puree from the pan, stirring to make a smooth slurry, then stir that back into the rest of the fruit. Don’t start cooking the fruit curd until about 5 minutes before the shortbread comes out of the oven. It needs to be poured over the base as soon as it’s ready so it doesn’t set in the pan.
Put the pan on a medium heat. Keep stirring while it comes just up to the boil, then remove from the heat once the first big bubble pops in the mixture. Taste the curd and add more sugar if needed. Pour the curd immediately over the baked shortbread base and level it out. (The shortbread doesn’t need to cool, it can be covered straight from the oven.)
Drop the oven temperature to 150°C fan.
Using the quantities given here, make the French meringue. Spread the meringue over the blackcurrant curd, pulling peaks up with a spatula so there’s more surface area to crisp up in the oven.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes. The meringue should develop a very lightly golden crust.
Leave to cool and then cut into squares. These are best eaten within 48 hours, but I doubt that will be a struggle.
French meringue
I’m not a fan of meringue for meringue’s sake. Sorry, no offence, meringue, whatever nationality you are, but I find you just too sweet.
However, as a component part of a recipe off-setting a sharp fruit curd in a meringue pie, lightening a rhubarb mousse or topping a minty ice cream your billowy clouds of sweet air are perfect, and very welcome.
As a general rule, for every egg white you need to use 55g of white caster (superfine) or granulated sugar, a tiny pinch of salt and a pinch of cream of tartar.
The cream of tartar helps keep the whipped meringue stable.
Ready in 20min
Makes 12cm x 5cm diameter meringue mounds
Ingredients
2 large egg whites
Pinch of salt
⅛ tsp (or a large pinch) cream of tartar
110g white caster (superfine) or granulated sugar
Method
To a clean, grease-free stand mixer or a large bowl, add the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar.
Start beating the egg whites. As soon as they hold stiff peaks, begin adding the sugar, one teaspoon at a time, using an actual teaspoon rather than a teaspoon measure.
Leave 10-15 seconds between each teaspoon. With each addition, you’ll see the meringue become thicker and glossier.
When all the sugar has been added and the meringue is holding stiff peaks, use as the recipe requires.
