It all started one rainy day. I think I probably had a fever from a horrendous infection in my face - throat, nose and ears all badly affected. I definitely wasn't well in the head. I was off work, splayed miserably on the sofa and fiddling around on my laptop when I came across an article describing a cake baked in an eggshell. My germ-addled brain took to the idea like a horse to water and determined to try it out as soon as I possibly could.
Eggshell cakes...
125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
12 eggs (3 for the mixture)
125g self-raising flour
Vanilla essence
- Preheat oven to 180˚C and line the holes of a muffin tray with bits of tin foil to keep the eggs secure
- Gently pierce the bottom of each egg with a nail and then peel away a hole about the size of a 5p piece. Shake out the contents - either very carefully so you can split it into whites and yolks, or all in one bowl - then submerge the egg shells into warm salty water. Make sure they are really well cleaned inside and then rinse the salty water off.
- To make the batter, cream the sugar and butter together with the vanilla essence, beat in the eggs then fold in the flour gently until you have a thick, fluffy mixture. Place the egg shells into the tin-foil lined muffin tray and spoon the mixture into a piping bag. Carefully pipe the mixture into the egg shells to about three-quarters full. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.
- When you take the cakes out of the oven they will have over-spilled out of the egg shells. DON'T PANIC!!! Let the cakes cool down before you takle the spillage. Try and pick as much off as you can with your fingers, then take a small knife and gently scrape off the rest.
- To eat, bash them on the table and peel like a boiled egg.
Yum yum yum.
