Cakes & bakes with juliet sear

Hello Bake & Decorate friends! I hope you’ve had a fabulous summer filled with lots of gorgeous cakes and bakes, but we didn’t get as much sun as usual this year did we? Now we’re approaching autumn, the cooler shorter days are upon us, so I’ve got some cosy bakes that I’m sure you’ll love to make for your friends and family. Talking of cakes and bakes, I’ll be at The Cake and Bake Show this autumn, making lots of lovely recipes. It’s such a fun show to attend if you love baking with lots to see, new things to discover and lots to taste, so if you’re free I’d love to see you there and please pop and say hello if you come.

Onto my recipes for our autumnal issue! First up, a comforting cake made with one of my favourite combos and it’s a huge favourite with my kids too, my luscious peanut butter and chocolate cake. The dark chocolate fudgy sponge pairs so well with the creamy peanut frosting. It’s a great one for birthdays too as it looks special with the glossy chocolatey drips. Let me know if you give it a try!

Next up, a banana loaf cake but made extra special because it’s packed full of pecans and, with an optional added caramel drizzle, it goes so well with the banana and nut flavour. You can have it simply plain, just as is sliced, with a cuppa without any toppings as it is so moist and delicious, but, for a luxury touch, add some extra whole pecans, banana chips and lashings of toffee, caramel or dulce de leche sauce – I’m getting hungry just thinking about it! My daughter made this recently and used Biscoff as a drizzle and that also worked really well. That’s the thing I love about baking: you can always switch frostings, toppings, drizzles etc to make them more to your own taste. Your bake your rules!

I hope you’ll enjoy baking this month. Get in touch if you have any baking related questions or any photos of your bakes to share. You’ll find me on Instagram @julietsear and on Tiktok@julietsearbakes Happy Baking!

Happy Baking!

Juliet xx

Chocolate peanut butter cake

SERVES 8-10

For the sponge cakes

280g softened room temperature unsalted butter
325g light muscovado sugar
280g plain chocolate, melted and cooled
4 free-range eggs and 4 egg yolks, beaten together
2tsp vanilla bean paste
200g soured cream (full-fat is best)
250g self raising flour
50g cocoa powder
½tsp fine sea salt

For the peanut butter frosting

350g smooth peanut butter
200g soft