Love Cake July 2014 roundup

There are some things in the UK that we have done better this month than France. Bigger and better crowds for the three stages of the Tour de France. Better weather with sunshine and scorching temperatures. Could we take inspiration from them and bake better cakes for this month's French themed Love Cake? Let's take a look...

First up was Caroline from Caroline Makes... and her shortcut Mandarin Éclairs. Needing an excuse to use her new éclair tin Caroline decided to have a go at this French classic. One thing she found out was that you do still need to pipe the choux mixture rather than spooning it into the moulds. A quick compote made from fresh mandarins and some whipped double cream and they were ready to eat.

This month's French theme was perfect for Francophile Phil in the Kitchen from As Strong As Soup. He took his recipe for one of his favourite French cakes and gave it a new twist for Lemon and Cardamom Nonnettes. These are perfect little honey and spice cakes of which the town of Dijon makes a claim for their invention. If you have a look through Phil's blog you will find recipe after recipe of delicious French cakes.

Laura at I'd Much Rather Bake Than... was wondering if her Double Chocolate Cake Pop Truffles would sneak in as a type of Petit Four. As your Love Cake hostess I researched 'Petit four' and found they should be small oven-baked cakes with 'four' actually the French for oven. Linguistics aside these are delightful little treats made from some leftover (leftover?) chilli chocolate cake.

I keep coming up with different themes for Love Cake and somehow Kate from The Gluten Free Alchemist keeps devising amazing gluten free recipes for them. This month she has given us Rhubarb and White Chocolate Éclairs. The addition of rhubarb gives this French classic a tangy twist.

I went for a another individual sized French treat in the form of Chocolate Madeleines. I say individual but after you had one of these it was very hard to stop having another of these super light sponges. Make them extra special with a dipping of melted chocolate.

Merci beaucoup to everyone who joined in this month. There's going to be something a bit different for next month's Love Cake. Can you stand the suspense?!