raspberry crumb cake

I had a punnet of raspberries and an orange sitting in the fridge (can you guess what's about to happen?) because Tesco had their usual 2 for £4 offer on raspberries (and I only managed to use one punnet) and the orange was purchased for the purpose of making orange buttercream or perhaps orange flavoured macarons - as it turned out I made only one flavour of macarons (cocoa) and I had way too much raspberry buttercream to be even thinking about making another batch. So, what to do with an orange and raspberries? I wasn't sure that it would be possible to combine the orange and raspberry flavours - they're both rather dominant and I thought they might clash. However a search through the vast internet brought up some orange and raspberry results, although not many. But not many was enough to convince me that it could work. Eventually I settled on this recipe, which actually uses lemon zest. But I thought I'd substitute the lemon for orange and if the flavours really turned out disastrous at least the crumble would save it. Luckily I didn't have to rely on the crumble to save the cake as it really did work! It probably would have worked better with lemon, but I had an orange and not a lemon in my fridge :)

Verdict: Who would have thought orange and raspberries could actually go well together?
Score: 9.5/10

Raspberry Crumb Cake

Ingredients

Crumble topping:

* 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp flour
* 3 tbsp sugar
* 3 tbsp brown sugar
* 1/8 tsp salt
* 5 tbsp chilled butter

Cake batter:

* 2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen (not thawed)
* 2 cups plus 2 tsp all-purpose flour
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 2/3 cup sugar
* grated zest of half a lemon
* 3/4 stick (6 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 2 eggs, room temperature
* 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup buttermilk

Method

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter an 8 inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.
2. For the crumb topping: In a food processor, pulse flour, salt and sugars. Cut butter into 1/4-inch cubes and add to the flour mixture. Pulse until the butter is pea-sized and coated with flour. Do not let the dough come together in a ball. Set aside at room temperature.
3. For the cake: Using your fingertips, toss the raspberries and 2 tsp of flour together in a small bowl just to coat the berries; set aside. Whisk together the remaining 2 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Working in the bowl of a stand mixer, rub together the sugar and zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic. Add the butter and, with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the sugar with the butter at medium speed until light, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, beat for about 1 minutes after each addition, then beat in the vanilla extract. Don’t be concerned if the batter looks curdled-it will soon smooth out.
5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately, the flour in 3 parts and the buttermilk in 2(begin with the dry ingredients). You will have a thick, cream batter. With a rubber spatula, gently stir in the berries.
6. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top gently with the spatula. Pull the crumb mix from the refrigerator and scatter over the batter.
7. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden and thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool just until it is warm or until it reaches room temperature.

chai cake

There was another birthday at work the other day, two in fact, so one of the girls offered to buy a cake and I offered to make one too. As one cake was being purchased I knew it would be a standard flavour and guaranteed to be yummy and edible, so I felt I could be a bit more adventurous in my choice of cake. I was originally planning on a spiced apple cake (ok not that adventurous) but then I stumbled upon this chai cake recipe. Chai flavoured cake? The recipe looked like it would work (ie ingredients looked like they were in the right proportion and the method didn't look too out there) so I decided to give it a go. Having said that, I didn't fully trust the method, so I modified it a bit, which you will see below. I also opted for maple icing (from this recipe) instead of the honey icing as it looked ridiculously sweet - not a problem for my sweet tooth, but probably a bit too much for normal people. The result was a deliciously fluffy spicy chai-y cake.

Verdict: Yum! A winner!
Score: 10/10

Chai Cake

I halved the recipe, but I don't think you'd end up with too much cake if you made the whole amount

Ingredients
* 2/3 cups milk
* 4 chai tea bags
* 2 whole eggs
* 1 egg yolk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 3/8 cups all purpose flour
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 4 ounces unsalted butter, room temp

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Line the bottom and sides of the pans with parchment paper.

In a small saucepan bring the milk to a simmer over low med-low heat. Add the tea bags, careful not to let the paper tag fall into the milk. Remove from heat and allow the tea to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the teabags and squeeze out the milk. Let the chai milk cool completely.

In a medium bowl mix the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and 1/3 cup of the chai milk. Whisk together. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture and beat until incorporated. Next alternate folding in the flour and milk (ie flour, milk, flour, milk, flour). (I did add some of the milk to the eggs but I'm not sure that this is necessary with my method - didn't seem to affect the outcome though :) I divided the batter evenly among 2 8-inch (? I think they were 8 inch - I must check...) tins, but I think this would be good for one slightly larger cake.

Bake the cakes for 26-28 minutes (longer if you're baking in one tin), or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from tins and peel off parchment paper. Cool completely on a wire rack.

apple cake

I had some sour cream left in the fridge from making this spiced apple cake recipe. Not wanting to let the sour cream go to waste, I found this recipe which I thought would be able to use up the remainder of my sour cream (when halved). Note that I think buttermilk and sour cream are interchangeable. It's a tasty and moist apple cake, and a bit quicker to make than the spiced apple cake as this recipe doesn't require the apples to be stewed beforehand. The recipe comes with maple icing, but I thought it was perfectly scrumptious without.

Verdict: It reminds me of the apple cinnamon muffins from Muffin Break :)
Score: 8/10

The halved recipe below.

Apple Cake

Ingredients

# 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
# 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
# 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
# 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
# 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
# 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
# 1/4 cup (2 oz) unsalted butter, softened
# 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
# 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
# 1 large egg
# 1/3 cup buttermilk
# 1 cup Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped into 1/3-inch pieces

Method

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Grease and line the bottom and sides of a small loaf tin (the original recipe asks for a 9-inch square baking pan, but that would be for the full amount, not the halved recipe).

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, baking soda; set aside.

Beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar and beat at medium-high speed until well blended and light, about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla extract, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Using a spatula add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating it with the buttermilk in two additions and mixing just until blended (flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour). (The original recipe says to beat the flour and buttermilk however I believe in mixing these ingredients by hand.) Stir in the chopped apples.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, until it is golden and toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake completely in the pan on a wire rack.

yoghurt loaf cake

I did a search for Dorie Greenspan recipes, and this was one of the recipes that came up and caught my attention. Yesterday I decided that since I had a lemon and a tub of unopened yoghurt waiting to be opened this would be the perfect opportunity to try it. For some reason the cake browned very early on and very quickly, and the crust came out rather tough (the oil perhaps?) but it was still very yummy, especially the next day. As with oil based cakes, the result is a rather spongey cake rather than a 'crummy' cake that you get with butter based cakes. I also opted to use vegetable oil, even though this recipe specifically calls for extra virgin olive oil, because I think olive oil makes cakes a bit heavier than vegetable oil, and I'd rather dunk a good piece of crusty bread in my precious extra virgin olive oil than use it in a cake.

Verdict: Rather yummy and moist, excellent super quick and easy cake
Score: 8.5/10

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* Pinch of salt
* 1 cup sugar
* Finely grated zest of 1 lime
* 1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt
* 3 large eggs
* 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup EVO (extra-virgin olive oil)

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Generously butter an 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch loaf pan, place the pan on a lined baking sheet and set aside. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and keep near by.

Put the sugar and zest in a medium bowl and rub the ingredients together until the sugar is fragrant. Whisk in the yogurt, eggs and vanilla. When the mixture is well blended, gently whisk in the dry ingredients. Switch to a spatula and fold in the oil. The batter will be thick and shiny. Scrape it into the pan and smooth the top.

Bake the cake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until it is golden and starts to come away from the sides of the pan; a knife inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then run a knife between the cake and the sides of the pan. Unmold and cool to room temperature right-side up.

cookie addiction - choc chip cookies

I've been on a bit of a hunt for the perfect cookie recipe for the past year or so. The hubby thinks I already have found it with the white choc and macadamia cookie recipe (still to post), but I'm not entirely convinced... I'm still searching.

I tried this recipe today. I wouldn't go so far to say they're extraordinary, but they are pretty yummy. Nice and chewy too. But not quite the style of chewy I was looking for - more of a soft chewy rather than chewy chewy - if you get what I mean. But that might have been because the cookies needed an extra minute in the oven - next time I'll remember that's what the second tray is for - to experiment with baking times :) I think the key to my perfect cookie recipe lies in the ratio of caster sugar to soft brown sugar (in fact I'm beginning to wonder if my style of cookie needs any brown sugar at all).

Verdict: Nice soft chewy cookies
Score: 8/10

I halved the original recipe - hence the odd sugar measurements.
Makes about 24 (leaving just enough cookie dough to be eaten on its own)

Choc Chip Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 cups butter, softened
1/2 + 1/8 cups granulated sugar
1/2 + 1/8 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Method
1. Heat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. In large bowl, beat butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed or with spoon until light and fluffy. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in chocolate chips.

2. On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly.

3. Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool 1 to 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

spiced apple cake

I have been very bad at this blogging thing, but I'm going to give it another go (or just start blogging again and ignore the fact that I haven't blogged for months). I haven't stopped baking, not at all, but spending all your spare time baking means there's no time left for blogging. I also had this notion of coming up with a better design for my blog, but after many months I've accepted that that will not happen for a while, and so I will follow the advice of a colleague, and just post recipes, and hopefully polish up the commentary and design later.

I baked this gorgeous apple cake a few weeks ago - it's actually not a very sweet cake, and stewing the apples beforehand means the apples come out soft and full of flavour once the cake is baked. I also topped the cake with demerara sugar which gave it a lovely crunch, but I think it would probably taste just as good without it, if you wanted to be a bit healthier :)

The original recipe can be found here

Verdict: Delicious! Make me again!
Score: 9/10

Spiced Apple Cake

Sauteed Apples

2 tart apples (about 1 pound)

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons sugar

Cake

12 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

4 egg yolks, at room temperature

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon clove

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon sour cream

1/4 cup raw sugar (or granulated if you don’t have raw on hand)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place a rack in the center of the oven. Butter and flour an 8-inch spring form pan and set aside.

To sautee the apples: peel, core and dice the apples into 1/4-inch cubes. Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat until butter beings to bubble. Add the diced apples and cook for one minute, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add the sugar and continue to cook for 2 minutes. Turn the heat to low and cook the apples, uncovered for 4-5 minutes until they are softened. Remove from heat and allow to cool. You’ll only use the sauteed apples for the recipe so you can discard any liquids that may have accumulated.

To make the cake: cream the butter, sugar and spices in a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment until light in color and fluffy. This may take 6 to 8 minutes. Stop the mixer occasionally, to scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue beating until mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the egg yolks one at a time and continue beating until fluffy and glossy.

Measure out the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. With the mixer set on low speed, add half of the dry ingredients to the batter. Mix until no flour streaks remain. Add the sour cream all at once and incorporate. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until no traces remain. Fold in the cooked apples with a rubber spatula. The cake batter will be thick.

Spread the cake batter into the prepared pan and distribute evenly. Take a knife and run it in a singular circular motion through the batter 1-inch from the edge of the pan. This will help the cake to rise evenly. Sprinkle the cake with the raw or granulated sugar and bake for 60- 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the sides of the spring form pan.

banana cake, with yoghurt

I happen to work at a company that generously supplies a very ample amount of fresh fruit to its employees, including bananas. A colleague of mine often forgets about the bananas he's collected, and every now and then I end up with one of his very ripe bananas. Obviously the banana that is too ripe to eat is ideal for further ripening to turn into banana cake. On one of these occasions, I had some plain yoghurt in the fridge, so sought out a recipe that claimed to be moist, and also had yoghurt in its list of ingredients. I found quite a few promising recipes, but eventually settled on this one because it would be nice and quick (as no creaming of butter and sugar was required). It did not disappoint - in fact I think it is one of my favourite banana cake/bread recipes now. You get a wonderfully moist, banana flavourful cake with this recipe (although the great banana flavour in any banana cake is usually more down to quality bananas rather than the recipe).

I didn't think I had enough bananas (I even had to supplement the work banana with 2 bananas from our trip to France) so I halved the recipe, and right now, in the process of transcribing, I have realised I forgot to halve the amount of butter! Which would explain how it came out soooo moist, however one wonders what the texture would have been like if I had remembered to only use half the butter... I won't bother to try though, as there really was nothing wrong with the cake I baked! As a result, the recipe below has the amount of butter I would use to make a very nice, moist banana cake :)


Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 oz unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Grease and line a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

Preheat the oven to 175 C

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda together in a large bowl.

Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

chocolate cake #2 - simply delicious

When you do a search (google of course) for chocolate cake, a version or reproduction of Nigella's chocolate cake recipe will invariably pop up in a number of results. I had some sour cream to use up one day and so I thought I'd give it a go. The original recipe calls for mixing the ingredients in a food processor; I don't have one, so I modified the method slightly so that I could make the cake using the usual electric hand beaters method. The result was a deliciously scrumptious chocolate cake, a little bit more moist than chocolate cake #1, but not by much. It's also possibly a little bit on the sweet side when you add the icing, but that's not necessarily a bad thing is it?

Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

For the cake
200g (8 oz) plain flour
200g (8 tbsp) caster sugar
5ml (1 tsp) baking powder
2.5ml (½ tsp) bicarbonate of soda
40g (1½ oz) best-quality cocoa
175g (6 oz) soft unsalted butter
2 large eggs
10ml (2 tsp) real vanilla extract
150ml (¼ pint) sour cream

For the icing
85ml (3 oz) unsalted butter
175g (6 oz) best-quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g (10 oz) icing sugar
15ml (1 tbsp) golden syrup
125ml (4fl oz) sour cream
5ml (1 tsp) vanilla extract

Method

Heat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4 and line and butter two 20cm sandwich tins with removable bases.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat the eggs and vanilla essence in.
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa.
Mix the flour and sour cream into the mixture, alternating between each addition.
Pour the batter into the prepared tins and bake for about 35 minutes (but start checking at 25 minutes).

To make the icing, melt the butter and chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water.
While the chocolate and butter are cooling a little, sieve the icing sugar into another bowl.
Add the golden syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla, and then, when all this is combined, whisk in the sieved icing sugar, with the motor running.
When you’ve done, you may need to add a little boiling water, say a teaspoon or so, or more icing sugar. It depends on whether you need the icing to be runnier or thicker; or indeed it may be right as it is. It should be liquid enough to coat easily, but thick enough not to drip off.

How to ice the cake
Choose your cake stand or plate and cut out four strips of baking parchment to form a square outline on it (this stops the icing running onto the plate). Then sit one of the cakes, uppermost (i.e. slightly domed) side down. Spoon about a third of the icing onto the centre of the cake half and spread with a knife or spatula until you cover the top of it evenly. Sit the other cake on top, normal way up, pressing gently to sandwich the two together. Spoon another third of the icing onto the top of the cake and spread it in a swirly, textured way (though you can go for a smooth finish if you prefer, and have the patience). Spread the sides of the cake with the remaining icing and leave a few minutes till set, then carefully pull away the paper strips.

chocolate cake #1 - quick and easy

I've been on a bit of a mini mission to find a good chocolate cake recipe. I say mini, because it's something that sits in the back of my mind, rather than an overwhelming desire to go out and find a fantastic chocolate cake recipe, and hence bake one. I stumbled upon this during my usual browse through the smh website, and the 'everyday chocolate cake' recipe really is a quick and easy recipe if you're after a good chocolate cake. It's not overly moist, nor is it dry; it's not a dense cake but more of a light and fluffy cake. If this is the type of chocolate cake you're after, then this is the recipe for you!

Everyday chocolate cake

Ingredients
150 g dark bitter chocolate
125 g butter
3 eggs
150 g sugar
150 g self-raising flour, sifted
half tsp vanilla extract

Method
Heat the oven to 180C. Lightly butter a 20 x 10 cm loaf tin.
Break the chocolate into pieces. Combine the chocolate and butter in a heat-proof bowl fitted snugly over a pot of gently simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat.
Beat the eggs and sugar together with an electric mixer until pale, thick and creamy, about 5 minutes.
Lightly fold in the sifted flour, vanilla extract, and the slightly cooled chocolate.
Pour into the tin and bake for 40 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely.

another madeira cake?

I just found this recipe. It looks delightfully promising - so I thought I'd post it here as a reminder to myself to try it one day (perhaps soon...)

madeira cake?

I've had a bit of a craving for madeira cake for quite a while now. Every so often while grocery shopping in my local Tesco I would oh so casually find myself in the aisle that stocked cakes, so how could I not wander over to the madeira cake and gaze slightly longingly at it just sitting there, looking so deliciously moist and dense and sweet? I always somehow managed to resist the temptation to buy it though. Even with J on numerous occasions catching me red-handed and then exclaiming "why don't you just buy it??". I think it helped that I expected that one day, I would be able to satisfy my craving on my own and not have to rely on the supermarket version full of unwanted preservatives and other unknown substances. It is a little strange that I have been craving madeira cake at all, given that I despise butter on its own, but stranger things have happened.

Since my failed attempt a few months ago I was beginning to wonder if it was actually possible for me to bake a satisfactory madeira cake, especially since most madeira cake recipes online talked about adding lemon. I decided that this was a big no no - if I want a lemon cake, I'll make my own lemony lemon cake. So then I thought that maybe I should be looking for pound cake recipes. I was going to try Martha Stewart's recipe, but I had buttermilk to use and I figured could find a recipe that used buttermilk. I settled on this, and decided to make just half the quantity. But while I was halfway through measuring all the ingredients (having already put the sugar and butter in the bowl) I realised that I had halved the sugar, but not halved the butter. And then I realised that the recipe in its current proportions would most likely not have yielded me a moist, dense madeira cake at all! So I set about modifying it and hoping for the best. Surprisingly, the end result was a decent madeira cake - it actually tasted fantastic to me when I ate it freshly baked (but then what baked good freshly removed from an oven doesn't?). However when I ate it the next day, I found the taste of butter to be rather overpowering. But J assured me that it was perfect just the way it was, so here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
225g butter
1 3/4 cups caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between after each addition.
Mix in the vanilla essence
Gently mix in flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.

I found this was enough mixture for 1 loaf tin (approx 9 x 11 inch) and 1 round 18 inch tin.

Bake for 40 minutes.

And something I discovered as a result of baking this cake, and the chocolate cake (not yet blogged) - buttermilk makes the tops of cakes very crusty.

choc chip cookies - m&s style

The perfect cookie is very subjective - some like their cookies hard and crunchy, some like them soft and chewy, some like them thin and crispy, I'm sure there are many more variations. For me, the perfect cookie is soft and chewy and perhaps a bit sweeter than most normal people would prefer :). I think the best example would be the cookies you find at Millie's Cookies, and the best example of the perfect choc chip cookie would be the ones from the M&S bakery.

Last year, I decided I wanted to recreate the M&S choc chip cookie at home - how difficult could it be? Easier said than done. I think I tried 3 or 4 different recipes - one batch turned out thin and crispy. Another batch came out chewy but the mixture had spread out so much during baking so they were almost paper thin. After trawling through the internet I found this site which has some fascinating information about how to get the style of cookie you want. From here, I found the recipe for the perfect thick and chewy choc chip cookie.

Now, I baked the cookies following this recipe, and was very impressed with how close they came to the M&S perfection. My big mistake however was not noting down the method I used, because it seems as though I did not follow the recipe to the letter! As can be evidenced from my post here. Using soft brown sugar instead of golden caster sugar yielded me a cookie that was more cake-like, which is more of the Ben's Cookies style - not my preferred style of cookie (although I do know people who rave about Ben's).

So here is my recipe for producing choc chip cookies, that are *almost* as good as the ones you get from M&S.

Choc chip cookies
(makes about 24)


Ingredients

• 125g butter


• 3/4 cups golden caster sugar


• 1 large egg (I may toy with using a medium egg next tim)


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1 1/4 cups plain flour


• 1/2 tsp baking soda


• 1 cup choc chips

Method


Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and brown sugar until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda. Stir or beat into butter mixture until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop dough in 1-tablespoon portions, 2 inches apart, onto lined baking sheets.

Bake in the oven until cookies are lightly browned, for about 6 to 8 minutes.

With a wide spatula, transfer cookies to racks to cool.

banana cake

I have been very quiet of late. This is mostly because I put myself on a baking hiatus, after realising that my dedicated visits to the gym were not making much of a dent in my expanding waistline. And when you stop baking, you lose interest in blogging about it. However, I have started running again (fingers crossed I can keep running), and so I am very tentatively emerging from my self-imposed hibernation.

A group of us at work have been celebrating our birthdays by organising a cake and card for the happy birthday girl (or guy). So we've only had 2 so far, but I'm sure it will continue! I missed out on the first one, due to being insanely ill, but for the second one, one of the girls asked if I'd be able to buy the cake. Now, why buy a cake when you can bake one...? :)

We'd already had chocolate cake, and while another girl and I knew Sarah would love a carrot cake, I figured that after already having force fed the girls two different types of carrot cake, that I should probably not go for it a third time. So I decided on a deliciously moist banana cake with white chocolate frosting instead, which I found here.

You'll notice in my photo below that I also made my first attempt at cake writing :) Not a bad first attempt, ignoring the fact that I had fully intended to write 'happy birthday Sarah' and not 'Sarah happy bday'... Anyway, the photo was actually taken before I smudged some of the letters while trying to make space for the cake in the fridge, so if any of the girls are reading this that would explain why it may not look *exactly* how you remember it :)

Ingredients

2 very ripe bananas (of large-ish size)
125 ml sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
170g caster sugar (or soft brown sugar)
125ml vegetable oil
200g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Method
1. Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
3. Sift together the flour, salt and leavening.
4. Mash the bananas and mix in the sour cream and eggs, with electric hand beaters.
5. When the mixture is smooth, beat in the oil and sugar. Then add the dry ingredients and beat on high speed for 2 minutes.
6. Pour the mixture into the pan, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the cake tests done.
7. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a wire rack.
8. Frost.

And for the white chocolate cream cheese frosting...

Ingredients
200g full fat cream cheese
200g white chocolate

Method
1. Melt the chocolate and cool slightly.
2. Stir in the cream cheese.

(for the letters I made a cone out of baking paper, cut a hole in the tip of the cone, melted some dark chocolate, added some icing sugar, spooned some of the chocolate into the cone, and hoped for the best!)

lamingtons!

So, of course I'll take any excuse to bake. It was Australia day a few days ago (the 26th to be exact) and I decided to try lamingtons this year. I thought I'd make enough for me and hubby to bring to our respective workplaces, which meant I'd be allowed to make one batch of sponge-cake-based lamingtons, and one batch of madeira-cake-based lamingtons, right? :) In truth, that was just an excuse for me to also try baking madeira cake too... and it didn't quite go according to plan, as it turned out that one sponge cake produced enough lamingtons for both me and hubby, and the madeira cake recipe I eventually decided on ended up being a fake lemon cake. But the sponge cake lamingtons turned out well enough, and we will conveniently forget about attempting the madeira cake (although I think I will keep searching for the elusive perfect madeira cake recipe...)

I found my recipe for the sponge cake base here (the latest amazing food blog I've stumbled upon - love the photography and recipes here), which I've reproduced below:

For the sponge cake

Ingredients:
3 large eggs
190g butter, room temperature
190g granulated white sugar
160g plain flour, sifted
40g potato starch, or corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbinate of soda

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 22.5cm square cake tin with butter.

The original recipe says:
In a large bowl, mix everything together on a slow speed with an electric hand mixer, until combined.

I didn't actually believe mixing everything together would work for me, even though the pictures in the blog told me it would! So I mixed the butter and sugar together until combined, then added the eggs, then the remaining ingredients.

When combined, transfer the mixture to the tin. Smooth the top and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, and then turn out onto a wrack. When cool slice as needed.


For the chocolate coconut coating, I adapted the recipe from here.

Ingredients:

20g butter
400g icing sugar
200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
120ml milk
about 300g desiccated coconut

Method:

Put the coconut into a shallow dish.

Put the icing sugar, dark chocolate, butter and milk in a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir constantly until melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the pan of hot water so the mixture stays liquid.

Dip each piece of sponge into the chocolate mixture so that it is covered in chocolate. I found the best way to do this is to plop the sponge into the bowl with your fingers, use a large spoon to turn the sponge piece around to ensure it's completely coated, and then use a fork to scoop out the piece (not pierce it) so the excess chocolate drips off, before placing (or in my case dropping) the chocolate coated piece of cake into the coconut. But you can use whatever method works best for you. The end result will always be a mess of coconut and chocolate and cake crumbs, as well as lamingtons :)

Gently toss in the coconut so it is completely covered.

Place the lamingtons on a plate until completely set.

lamingtons of a less guilty size

lamingtons of a more photogenic size

hmmm

So J's last day at UBS was yesterday. When I finished up at my last place, I received a card full of baking references, and even my farewell gift was baking/cooking related. This was to be expected. J received a farewell card yesterday, and surprisingly this card also contained references to baked goods... I would never have thought that I could make it into someone else's farewell card! (even if I happen to be married to that someone else)

perfect mulled wine

Don't worry - this will be the last Christmas post for a while. Well, until December (if I can keep this blogging up until then).

I've used Delia's mulled wine recipe in the past - with Delia you usually can't go too wrong. I grew up watching a variety of cooking shows, which included an awful lot of Delia so I've grown attached to her. But I happened to stumble upon The Guardian's 'how to make perfect...' series in December, which included mulled wine and it looked very enticing. I gave the recipe a go, and it unfortunately beats Delia's recipe hands down (sorry Delia!).

You'll see the recipe in The Guardian includes cardamom pods - I thought this would be a little too weird for mulled wine, so have left it out in my version below.

Ingredients

• 1 orange
• 1 lemon, peel only
• 75g caster sugar
• 5 cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 bottle fruity, unoaked red wine

Method

Peel and juice 1 orange, and add to a large saucepan along with the lemon peel, sugar and spices. Add enough wine to just cover the sugar, and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, stirring occasionally. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 – 8 minutes until you have a thick syrup.

Turn the heat down, and pour the rest of the wine into the saucepan. Gently heat through and serve. You can use orange segments studded with cloves as garnish.

perfect mince pies

Most people would blog about Christmas in the lead up to Christmas. But I can't wait 11 months to post my mince pie recipe, and it's not yet a month from Christmas, so I figure it's not too ridiculous a notion to post it now.

I first made mince pies the year before last, our 3rd Christmas here, using Delia Smith's recipe for the mincemeat filling and pastry. Don't worry - I don't put actual meat in my mincemeat and I only use vegetarian suet (although I have toyed with the idea of using beef suet...). The mincemeat filling was perfect, but while the pastry was surprisingly easy to make it didn't have that 'wow' factor - the amazing mincemeat was being let down by the average pastry, which I wanted to be sweeter and crumbly, instead of dry and flaky.

Last year, I wasn't intending to make mince pies at all. Something to do with feeling lazy. But then my brother-in-law left us some mini mince pies that looked very cute and delicious. The pastry lived up to expectations, but the filling was pretty awful. After that disappointing experience, I kept thinking I must be able to make mince pies better than that. I already knew I had a killer mincemeat recipe, so surely I would be able to find the perfect mince pie pastry recipe?

After trawling through the internet, I decided on a recipe that looked promising and gave it a go. The result after the first attempt was what can only be described as shortbread filled with mincemeat! Pretty much a mince pie :) The reason why the pastry turned out more like shortbread was because I didn't believe the pastry would hold as I was pressing the dough into the muffin tins so I left it rather thick, and I didn't want the mince to burst through the pastry so I only filled it about 2/3 full - this resulted in more pastry than filling. Delicious though. I still had 3 jars of mincemeat left so made a larger 2nd batch a few days later with 2 jars, this time pressing out the dough to be quite thin and being more generous with the mincemeat. The result? The perfect mince pie... :) Just the right thickness of pastry with just the right amount of filling. With my final jar/batch I added slightly too much butter to the pastry and I think this caused the pastry to be a little difficult to press into the tins. I also pressed out the pastry too thin so the mince pies came out a little fragile... (at least I know now how far the pastry will let me take it!) But despite all that, the mince pies from the 3rd batch still satisfied my (or perhaps even anyone's? :) mince pie craving.

In my search for a pastry recipe, I also found many promising alternative recipes for mincemeat, but I figure why change when I know that what I have works? So below is the recipe for the mincemeat (from Delia Smith's Christmas) and the recipe for the pastry, which is reproduced below with some editing, was found here. (Note that I've halved the quantities for both recipes - if I left them as the original quantities I'd be drowning in mince pie heaven!)

Mincemeat

Ingredients

• 225g Bramley apples, cored and chopped small (no need to peel)
• 110g shredded suet (I think the expensive organic suet from Wholefoods actually results in more superior mincemeat than when using Atora suet from Tesco...)
• 175g raisins
• 110g sultanas
• 110g currants
• 110g whole mixed candied peel
• 175g soft dark brown sugar
• zest and juice of 1 orange
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 25g whole almonds cut into slivers
• 2 teaspoons mixed ground spice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• nutmeg, grated
• 3 tablespoons brandy

Method
Combine all the ingredients except for the brandy in a large mixing bowl.

Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and leave the mixture in a cool place overnight or for 12 hours, so the flavours have a chance to mingle and develop.

After that pre-heat the oven to 120 degrees Celsius, transfer the mix to a tin (I use a cake tin), cover loosely with foil and place it in the oven for 3 hours.

Remove from the oven. As it cools stir from time to time; the fat will coagulate and instead of it being in tiny shreds it will encase all the other ingredients. When the mincemeat is cold stir in the brandy.

Pack in clean dry jars, cover with wax discs and seal. It will keep in a cool, dark cupboard indefinitely (but probably best to eat within a year).



Mince Pie Pastry

Makes about 10 mince pies

Ingredients

• 110 cold butter, diced
• 175g plain flour
• 50g golden caster sugar
• 1 jar mincemeat (my jars are of the chilli bean sauce or black bean garlic sauce variety :)
  
• 1 small egg, beaten (optional)
  
• icing sugar, to dust

Method

To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour, then mix in the sugar and a pinch of salt.

Combine the pastry into a ball - don't add liquid - and knead it briefly. The dough will be fairly firm, like shortbread dough. You can use the dough immediately, or chill for later.

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6/fan 180C. Line about 10 holes of a 12-hole muffin tin, by pressing small walnut-sized balls of pastry into each hole. Spoon the mincemeat into the pies. (Don't worry about greasing the muffin tin as I think the butter from the pastry will prevent the pies from sticking. Also you only need to make sure they come up about halfway to 2/3 of the way up the muffin tin.)

Take slightly smaller balls of pastry than before and pat them out between your hands to make round lids, big enough to cover the pies. Top the pies with their lids, pressing the edges gently together to seal - you don't need to seal them with milk or egg as they will stick on their own. (The pies may now be frozen for up to 1 month).

Optional - brush the tops of the pies with the beaten egg.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden.

Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack. To serve, lightly dust with icing sugar.

They will keep for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container.

friands

Living in this part of the world, you don't see any friands around. If an Australian were to crave one, the closest thing to a friand would be the financier. Even if you manage to get your hands on a decent financier, they will never be enough to satisfy because even if it was dense and moist, how can something so shallow and rectangular ever be the same as a friand which is oval-shaped and three times as tall? They're just not the same.

However, I started baking friands not because I was craving them, but because on numerous occasions I would have a bunch of egg whites leftover from making custard or ice cream, and I needed to find another way to use my egg whites as I often didn't have the time to make macaroons, or the inclination to make pavlova. And now I bake friands when I have leftover egg whites, as they are incredibly easy to make and take hardly any time at all. I started off with raspberry, made blueberry ones a few times, and the latest incarnation have been lemon and poppyseed.

After several attempts, I have learnt -

• My friands get mistaken for cupcakes or muffins (depending on whether I make 12 or 6) because I am missing the all-important oval shaped friand tin.
• Wash the berries before use, but make sure they are very dry before adding them - my first batch of raspberry friands turned out rather soggy.
  
• Don't beat the egg whites until foamy, as most recipes I've encountered so far instruct; I found the friands came out too light and fluffy (and far too indistinguishable from normal muffins/cupcakes). To get that heavy denseness, just add the egg whites unadulterated to the dry ingredients.
  

Below is a recipe that has worked for me. I've adapted the original recipe (which can be found here) slightly to suit my preference :)

Ingredients

• 100g butter


• 4 large egg whites


• 45g (1/4 cup plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) plain flour


• 140g (1 cup) pure icing sugar


• 85g (2/3 cup, lightly pressed into the cup with the back of a spoon) ground almonds (or almond meal)


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• Extra icing sugar, for dusting

and for the variations

• About 40g (about 30 large) blueberries or raspberries if making berry friands


• Zest of 2 lemons if making lemon friands


• 1/4 cup poppy seeds if making lemon poppy seed friands
  

Method



Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Celsius fan-forced). If you are not using a fan-forced oven, adjust the oven rack to the middle position so the friands brown evenly.

Grease a six hole (1/3 cup capacity holes) non-stick oval friand pan, or six individual 1/3 cup capacity friand pans. If you don't have a friand pan, you could use a muffin pan with 1/3 cup capacity holes.

Melt butter and set aside to cool to lukewarm.

Put egg whites, vanilla extract, flour, icing sugar, ground almonds (and lemon zest if using) in a bowl and stir together until just combined.

Add the melted butter to the bowl and stir until just combined.

Divide mixture evenly among the holes of the prepared pan.

If using berries, place a few in a cluster in the centre of each friand.

Bake for about 25 minutes (or roughly 17 minutes if making 12 friands in a muffin tray) or until the friands are a light golden colour and spring back when lightly pressed. A thin-bladed knife or wooden skewer inserted into the centre of a friand should come out without any raw-looking batter attached.

Remove friands from the oven and allow to stand in the pan for five minutes.

Remove friands from the pan and dust with icing sugar to serve



(pictures to come)

lemon cake

I had a really strong craving for a really nice, moist, lemony lemon cake around September last year. After searching for recipes online, I decided on a lemon cake recipe which I had noted down some years ago, but had never gotten around to trying, until then. I don't need to look anywhere else for a lemon cake recipe - this is it. I did increase the amount of lemons used to 3, as I didn't think the original quoted amount of zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon would be sufficient to meet my ultra lemony requirements.

Yoghurt lemon syrup cake

Ingredients

• 125g butter, softened
• 200g (1 cup) caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• zest of 3 lemons
• juice of 1 lemon
  
• 200g (1½ cups) self-raising flour
• 200g (3/4 cups) natural yoghurt
• 1/3 cup water
• 150g (3/4 cup) sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line 20cm round tin.

Cream the butter and caster sugar until pale and light.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time. It may look a bit curdled but don’t worry, it will be fine.

Gently fold in the lemon zest and flour and then fold in the yoghurt.

Use a spatula to scrape into the cake tin, making the centre a little lower than the edges. (You might be able to tell from the picture below that I paid no attention to this step, as mine came out quite cracked and dome-shaped)

Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

About 5 minutes before the cake is ready, heat the water, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes. When the cake is cooked, leave it in the tin, poke a fine skewer all over the top (about 30 times should do it) and spoon the hot lemon syrup over. Try to do this so the syrup soaks evenly into the holes.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin.

(Unfortunately I can't quite remember where I found this recipe, but I suspect it was smh related...)


















that huge gaping hole in the cake is what hubby and I managed to consume as soon as the cake was cool enough to eat

the first step is acceptance

I am a bakeaholic.

Being a bakeaholic is not only bad for my waistline, but I'm also running out of excuses for bringing in baked goods to work... which means I will soon appear to be a bit of a baking freak at my new place of employment.

One of my friends at work said I should blog about my baking, and I initially thought that that would be nice, but I just have no time to do it because blogging does take quite a bit of time (and because I'm too busy baking in all my spare time!!). And just look at my archive in my other blog - enough said. But today, I decided that maybe I will give baking blogging a go. Maybe it will be another way for me to expend my copious amounts of baking energy. At the very least it would be nice to have a centralised location for all my favourite recipes :)