recipe

Chocolate cake

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Cake!

Yet another cake post. It’s starting to look like all I do is eat cake! I assure you it’s not the case.

These cakes were for a special occasion – one of my “pod mates” at work had a birthday recently. Not just any birthday, but his 65th birthday! He is the loveliest person, so I couldn’t let his birthday go by without cake. Everybody deserves cake for their birthday – particularly for such an important one!

Chocolate cakeLime and poppyseed syrup cake

I had thought that the chocolate cake would be more popular, but surprisingly, the rather large lime and poppy seed syrup cake disappeared first. The recipe for the lime and poppy seed syrup cake came from (surprise surprise) the Australian Women’s Weekly’s “Bake”. It has become my baking go to book, but I’m making a resolution to use some different books for a while.

The chocolate cake recipe came from a colleague at my previous job. The recipe is brilliant because it’s the easiest cake in the world. All the ingredients are mixed up in a bowl, and then it goes into the oven. The only thing you need to be aware of is that it can take a while to bake as the batter. But for so little effort, it’s a great cake. It looks like it might be dry, but it’s surprisingly moist and with a light texture. It’s also not too sweet, which I really like.

With the cake pictured, I topped it with chocolate ganache, but it’s just as good with just icing sugar sifted over.

Chocolate cake


Easy peasy chocolate cake

200g self raising flour
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
250g brown sugar
125g butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
160mls water

Preheat oven to 170°C. Brush tin with butter and line 20cm round cake pan.

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and beat for 2-4 minutes or until mixture is pale and smooth. (I’m not sure whether the butter should be melted, or just softened – I normally melt it and it turns out okay).

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50-55 minutes.

Peanut brittle cookies

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Peanut brittle cookies

Starting the apple, dried cranberry, and almond loaf got my baking mojo flowing, so I harnessed that energy to make something else.

I felt like making biscuits and flicked through the Australian Women’s Weekly “Bake” (you may have noticed that I have been using it a lot lately!). I came across a recipe for peanut brittle cookies that sounded good.

First I roasted peanuts to make the peanut brittle. I already had the loaf in the oven, so I popped the peanuts in with it. Then I wandered away to do something else, getting distracted and by the time I remembered the peanuts, they had just gotten past the stage of roasted. They weren’t burnt, but were very, very close and tasted darker than I would’ve liked.

Next was the caramel to pour over the peanuts. I was vigilant and stayed at the stove to watch it. It took about 10 minutes for the sugar to deepen and become golden brown – once it started to colour it happened very quickly.

Peanut brittle cookies

After the brittle was made, it was a quick process to get them the cookies into the oven. 12 minutes in the oven resulted in a soft cookie. I found that the peanut brittle melted in the oven which gave it the cookies a cracked kind of appearance – quite attractive, I thought – but it did make me wonder about the worth of making the brittle! I think I would have preferred a firmer cookie with bits of crunchy brittle, but I can’t figure out how to do that without the caramel melting. Any ideas?

Peanut brittle cookies


Peanut brittle cookies

From Australian Women’s Weekly Bake

Makes 18-24

125g butter, softened
1/4 cup (70g) crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup (100g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 & 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Peanut Brittle
3/4 cup (100g) roasted unsalted peanuts
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
2 tablespoons water

Make peanut brittle: Place nuts on a baking paper lined oven tray. Stir the sugar and water in a small frying pan over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved; bring to the boil. Boil, uncovered, without stirring, until golden brown. Pour mixture over nuts; leave until set. Crush coarsely in food processor.

Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced. Grease oven trays; line with baking paper.

Beat butter, peanut butter, sugar and egg in small bowl with electric mixer until combined. Stir in sifted dry ingredients and crushed peanut brittle.

Roll heaped teaspoons of mixture into balls with floured hands. Place about 5cm apart on oven trays; flatten slightly (and top with extra crushed brittle if desired).

Bake cookies for about 12 minutes. Cool on trays.

Apple, dried cherry/cranberry and almond loaf

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A couple of weeks ago, the Good Food and Wine Show was here in Melbourne. Like we do most years, Bro and I went along. This year seemed quite good, and there were some new products/stalls that I hadn’t seen before. Previously there were lots of stalls with cheese and yoghurt – and there were hardly any this year. I’m not sure what that means, but I found it interesting.

I had a good time, and came home with some souvenirs, which included heavy show bags and 13 blocks of Lindt chocolate! My lovely Bro helped carry the heavy bags home without complaint <----- that is a lie! He complained the WHOLE TIME! But I better be careful or he won't carry them next year... love you, Bro! ;)

One of my souvenirs was a Bill Granger DVD that had a few snippets from his cooking show. Alastair and I watched it last week while we had breakfast (crumpets with butter and honey if you’re interested). The first recipe was for an apple, dried cherry and almond loaf.

Apple, dried cranberry and almond loaf

The loaf he made looked pretty good, so I decided to turn on the oven and do some baking. Dried cherries aren’t a pantry staple of mine, but I had a pack of dried cranberries that I used instead. Apart from the cranberry substitution, I basically followed the recipe outlined here on lifestyle food.

I read recently that if you’re measuring honey, you should oil the measuring cup/spoon. (Clever bakers may know this already.) The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of honey so I got to try it out – and whatdoyouknow! The honey slid straight out!

After the loaf had baked I was sooooooo patient and waited until it had cooled completely before slicing and tasting it. It was good – not too sweet, but with bits of tangy fruit and nuttiness from the almonds and oats.

Apple, dried cranberry and almond loaf

It’s not a very moist loaf though, and the next day it seemed to have dried out. In the DVD, Bill suggested toasting it and eating it with ricotta. I tried toasting a slice and found that it helped revive it (plus it smelt amazing). Worth a try if you’re after something for morning/afternoon tea. Or maybe even breakfast!

Lime coconut syrup cake

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Lime coconut syrup cake

A few years ago we lived in Fitzroy, in a little house with a little courtyard. There wasn’t much to the courtyard out back: a few bushes, brick paving, and a lime tree. We never looked after the tree – didn’t even water it – but it seemed to thrive on neglect. When it fruited, there were so many limes I couldn’t get rid of them fast enough. I kept forcing limes on people; bags and bags and bags of the bloody things.

At our place now, I have another lime tree, but mine hasn’t fruited yet. So it’s back to buying limes for us. I bought a bag the other week, and haven’t found much to do with them apart from putting wedges in a drink. To ease my guilt over having so many limes sitting around, I decided to use up a few in a cake.

The cake is a fairly simple butter cake with lime syrup poured over it while still warm. While some of the syrup is absorbed, I think it would’ve been better if I had poked some holes in the cake first. I also think it would’ve been better if half of the syrup had been reduced down further to be used as a glaze. Ho hum. We went over to our friends’ place for pizza and took the cake for dessert. Everyone seemed happy with it. I left the rest of the cake there, and I was told later that a piece was eaten for breakfast. Hearing that made me strangely happy!

(The garnish on top is shredded coconut tossed in a few drops of red food colouring. The plate that the cake is sitting on was a Xmas present from my boss a couple of years ago. It’s a beautiful plate, but when I took it out for the cake I saw there was a scratch on it. Boo.)

Lime coconut syrup cake

Lime coconut syrup cake

From Australian Women’s Weekly Bake

Serves 8

125g butter, softened
1 tablespoon finely grated lime rind
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups (260g) self raising flour
1 cup (90g) desiccated coconut
1/2 cup (125ml) yoghurt
1/2 cup (125ml) milk

Tangy lime syrup
1/3 cup (80ml) lime juice
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) water

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease 2cm baba pan well.

Beat butter, rind and sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in sifted flour, coconut, yoghurt and milk, in two batches. Spread mixture into pan.

Bake cake about 45 minutes or until cooked through. Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes; then turn out onto a wire rack over a tray.

Make the tangy lime syrup; drizzle hot syrup over the hot cake.

Tangy lime syrup: Stir ingredients in a small saucepan over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Simmer, uncovered, without stirring for 3 minutes.

French onion muffins

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Cold weather always makes me crave soup. I have a couple of soups on rotation during the cold months and one of those is an easy, peasy pumpkin soup.

It basically involves softening some diced onion and garlic in a bit of oil. Then I add peeled and diced pumpkin to the pot, add just enough water to cover the pumpkin, plus a couple of teaspoons of vegetable stock powder. This gets simmered until the pumpkin is soft. Then I mush everything up with a stick blender, season with salt and pepper and add a teaspoon of curry powder (just enough to give it a slight flavour – not too much). We normally eat the soup with a bit of sour cream on top.

The hardest thing about making this soup is peeling the skin off the pumpkin. It’s such a tedious job but made easier with a sharp knife.

French onion muffins

To go with the soup, I usually make French onion muffins. The recipe that I use comes from a little muffin book that I bought from a discount shop a few years ago (back when it wasn’t as easy to find recipes online). The book cost me $1! Onion muffins are the only muffins I’ve ever made from the book, but it’s still been $1 well spent!

French onion muffins

French Onion Muffins

From Marvellous Muffins by Robyn Martin

Makes 10

2 medium onions
2 tablespoons oil
50g butter
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup grated gruyere cheese

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Peel onions and cut into thin rings. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry onions over medium heat until golden. Add butter to pan and melt. Remove from heat and set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients. Lightly beat eggs and milk. Add onion and egg mixtures to dry ingredients. Add the grated cheese, reserving some for sprinkling on top of the muffins. Mix quickly until just combined.

Three quarters fill greased muffin pans with mixture. Sprinkle over the rest of the cheese and bake for 15 minutes or until cooked. Eat warm.

Middle eastern orange cake / flourless orange cake

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Flourless orange cake

This flourless orange cake is really quite amazing. The cake is unbelievably moist and has a wonderful, deep orange flavour that is quite surprising. Once the oranges have been boiled, it’s very quick to put together (The recipe says to boil the oranges for two hours. I only did about one, and they were fine).

Flourless orange cake

Rather than making a big cake, you can see that I made little cakes. Half of the mixture I poured into heart shaped moulds, but the bases stuck when I turned them out and they all broke! Damn delicate things!

On top of the cakes is candied rind (recipe below). Unfortunately, I had too much of the pith and the rind was quite bitter. Well, at least it looked cute.

Flourless orange cake

Claudia Roden’s Middle Eastern Orange Cake

From Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion

2 large oranges, washed
6 eggs, beaten
250g ground almonds
250g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder

Boil oranges, barely covered with water, in a covered saucepan for 2 hours. Allow to cool, then cut open, remove pips and chop roughly, including the rind.

Preheat oven to 190°C and butter and flour a 24cm springform tin. Blend oranges and eggs thoroughly in a food processor. Mix ground almonds, sugar and baking powder in a bowl, then add orange mixture and whisk to combine. Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour. If cake is still very wet, cook a little longer. Cool in tin before gently turning out.

Candied citrus peel and syrup

From Donna Hay’s Modern Classics 2

Place 1 & 1/2 cups (12 fl oz) water and 1 cup sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add 1/2 cup shredded orange, lemon or line rind, increase the heat and boil for 6-8 minutes or until the rind is glossy and transparent. Use the rind on its own for decoration or pour over with the warm syrup for deliciously moist cakes.

Banana Cake

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Bananas are breeding in my freezer.

Looking inside my freezer recently, I realised I had almost a dozen ripe, blackened bananas in there. The problem is, I don’t like eating bananas once they have passed that perfect yellow stage. So they get stashed in the freezer.

After I realized that bananas were taking over, I had to make something with them. After a pot roast one Saturday night, I made this banana butterscotch pudding for dessert. I read through the recipe quickly and had in my head that it was a self saucing pudding. After pouring the liquid topping over the batter, I suddenly had second thoughts. Had I read the recipe correctly? Was it a self saucing pudding? Or was it a cake with syrup poured over to serve? Uh oh. I had already closed my laptop at that stage (and I had poured the liquid over already!) so I threw it in the oven and hoped that my memory wasn’t failing me.

Banana pudding

Fortunately, the ole memory held up and it was a self saucing pudding. Unfortunately, it was so so sweet that we couldn’t eat much of it. It would’ve been good if we had cream or ice cream to cut through the sweetness, but we didn’t have anything of that sort in the house. It was a bit of a shame – if it hadn’t been so sickly sweet it would’ve been really good!

Banana cake

My stash of frozen bananas also yielded two banana cakes. The first one I made for us, and we (mostly I) enjoyed it for morning tea over a few days. The second one I took into work. We constantly have morning tea at work – any excuse will do – staff leaving, staff starting, staff getting engaged, staff having babies, staff having a birthday, and even staff going on leave (seriously!). So my colleague and I decided that we would bring in cake one day – just because. Our pod got a lot of visitors when people slowly realised that there was cake on offer!

Banana cake

The recipe that I used is from Donna Hay’s Modern Classics 2. It’s probably the cookbook I’ve used the most. Not all the recipes in there are good – in fact, I have made a couple that are absolute duds – but the banana cake recipe is brilliant. The cake is soft and moist, with a pleasant banana flavour and a hint of cinnamon. I always reduce the total amount of sugar to 1 cup, but have left the recipe below as is.

Banana cake

Banana Cake

From Donna Hay’s Modern Classics 2

Serves 8-10

125g (4 oz) butter, softened
1 cup caster (superfine) sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup sor cream
1 cup roughly mashed banana (about 3 medium bananas)

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Place the butter, caster sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift the flour and baking powder over the mixture. Add the cinnamon, sour cream and banana and stir to combine. Spoon the mixture into a greased 26cm (10 in) fluted ring tin. Bake for 40 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Blacksmith’s tea loaf

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Blacksmith's tea loaf

This so called loaf is basically a cake. It’s pretty quick since all the ingredients get thrown into a saucepan before being baked. Chock full of dried fruit, it’s very moist, rich and rather sweet. As you can see, mine looked like it was rather dense, but it didn’t taste heavy, possibly due to all the fruit.

Blacksmith's tea loaf

You could use any dried fruit – I used a mixture of apricots, sultanas and dried apple. I didn’t have any mixed spice either, so used a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

I took some to work, and popped them into the sandwich press before spreading the slices with butter. It smelt SO GOOD and was a great morning tea snack, particularly with a strong cup of tea. I thought the loaf was a touch too sweet, but spreading on loads of butter helped!

Blacksmith's tea loaf


Blacksmith’s Tea Loaf

From Linda Collister’s Quick Breads

Makes 1 medium loaf

300ml strong black tea
115g unsalted butter
350g mixed dried fruit
2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
100g light muscovado sugar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
225g spelt flour or plain wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 450g loaf tin.

Put the tea in a non-reactive saucepan that is large enough to hold all the ingredients. Add the butter, fruit, spice, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Set over medium heat and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes.

Add the flour and baking powder to the pan and mix briefly, then stir in the eggs. When thoroughly mixed, scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.

Bake for about 40 minutes until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let cool, then turn out and remove the lining paper. Cute into thick slices to serve.

Best eaten within 4 days. Can be frozen for up to one month.

Sticky chicken wings

Sticky chicken wings

I made these chicken wings the other night for a quick and dirty dinner (dirty because Bro and I gave up using cutlery and chowed down on them with our hands!).

The recipe is simple and easy – pop the wings in a marinade for a couple of hours and then roast them until cooked. The only variation I made to the recipe was to add some Tabasco sauce. I thought the wings were a touch sweet though and would leave the sugar out next time.

The recipe is from Taste.com.au here.

Little orange poppyseed cakes

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Little orange poppy seed cakes

I had a free health check at work today. There was good news and bad news. The bad news is that my height was 3cm less than I thought it was. Some might think that’s not really bad news, but when you’re not very tall, every centimetre counts!

The good news is that, along with my glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol being normal, I was also a couple of kilos lighter than I thought I would be. I’ve been eating a lot of cake recently, so this was a surprise.

I actually think that I may have been under measured and under weighed, but I can’t decide which outcome I’d prefer – to be taller but heavier, or shorter but lighter. Hmmmm.

Little orange poppy seed cakes

The other week I felt like cake. Did I mention I’ve been eating a lot of cake recently? I went and bought a slice of poppyseed cake and felt very under whelmed as it seemed to have a nasty, chemically sweetness. It inspired me to do better! A google search unearthed a diabetic recipe for orange poppy seed cake (or so the website said). I made a few adaptations to the recipe, and rather than a big cake I baked several little ones.

My little cakes were strangely compelling. They weren’t too sweet, nor too orangey, and the texture wasn’t particularly cakey. In fact, they reminded me of scones. And they were SO moreish – I found myself eating a couple at a time because one wasn’t enough!

Little orange poppy seed cakes


Little orange poppy seed cakes

Makes 12 regular sized muffins

Adapted from Fitness and Freebies

½ cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
3 eggs
¾ cup unsweetened yoghurt
Zest from one orange
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
2 cups cake flour
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180° C.

In a large bowl, beat sugar and margarine until smooth and fluffy. Beat in eggs, yoghurt, orange juice and orange zest until smooth.

Mix in the cake flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until just combined.

Grease a 12 cup muffin tin. Pour batter into the moulds and bake for about 15 minutes, or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

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