Butternut recipes

Chicken with rocket and red pepper pesto

10 minutes

Fruity dessert

Caramelised fruit with vanilla coconut milk

10 minutes

Cocktail recipes

Honey-and-coconut roast peaches

20 minutes

Jelly recipes

Cucumber salad with fat-free dressing

Preserves and

Cucumber gazpacho with smoked trout

Cake recipes

Easy naked chocolate and basil cake with cream cheese icing

35 minutes

Easy naked chocolate and basil cake with cream cheese icing

By Abigail Donnelly

Serves 10

Difficulty Easy

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cooking Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

225 g cake flour
350 g caster sugar
85 g good-quality cocoa
1½ t baking powder
1½ t bicarbonate of soda
2 free-range eggs
1 cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 t vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
4 T basil, finely chopped, plus extra to garnish

For the cream cheese icing:

2 cups cream cheese
4 T icing sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Place all the ingredients for the cake, except the water, in a large bowl. Mix using an electric mixer to make a thin batter. Slowly mix in the water by hand.

Pour the batter into a 20 cm x 10 cm greased baking tin and bake for 25–35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool in the tin slightly, then turn out onto a wire rack.

To make the icing, beat the cream cheese and icing sugar for 1 minute using an electric hand-mixer.

Halve the cooled cake horizontally to make 2 even layers. Place a large spoonful of icing in the centre of one of the layers and carefully spread outwards using a palette knife.

Sandwich the iced cake with the remaining layer, pushing down gently to secure. Dip the palette knife into hot water and dry before smoothing the remaining icing around the sides of the cake. Decorate the cake with basil leaves.

Discover more cake recipes here.

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Marshmallow s’mores

Honey-and-coconut roast peaches

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Cucumber gazpacho with smoked trout

Easy naked chocolate and basil cake with cream cheese icing

Easy naked chocolate and basil cake with cream cheese icing

Ingredients

Method