Don't ask me why I decided to bake this. I'll say this much - I rather enjoy reading through the recipes on smittenkitchen, and I had a punnet of blueberries sitting in my freezer (because a colleague told me frozen blueberries are delicious and insisted I try it, and I did, and frozen blueberries are indeed gorgeous and infinitely better than the normal room temperature or even refrigerated variety!).
Yes, it is actually a raspberry cake, but didn't you know berries are interchangeable? :)
Verdict: Yum! Even though I did end up with a layer of blueberries at the bottom, I suspect because I put more than 1 cup of blueberries in...
Score: 9/10
Ingredients
1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (56 grams) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup (146 grams) plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
1 large (57 grams) egg
1/2 cup (118 ml) well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup (5 ounces or 140 grams) fresh raspberries (maybe even try a bit less than 1 cup...)
Method
Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup (146 grams) sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. Add egg and beat well.
At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter (see Note) raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) sugar. (I actually used demerara sugar rather than caster sugar for the sprinkling)
Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.
(and to make your own buttermilk - add 1 tbsp of lemon juice to 1 cup of milk)
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
coconut bread (bill's)
I came across a recipe for bill's (of the granger variety) coconut bread, and felt compelled to try it, even though I'm not really a huge fan of anything coconut.
Verdict: Not bad, rather bready, it's times like these I wish I had a toaster as I think it would toast rather well :)
Score: 7/10
Ingredients
2 large eggs 1 1/4 cups milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 1/2 cups flour, more for dusting pan 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 cup superfine sugar 5 ounces flaked coconut (about 1 1/2 cups) 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Method
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla. 2. In a medium bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Add sugar and coconut, and stir to mix. Make a well in the center, and pour in egg mixture. Gradually mix with dry ingredients, until just combined. Add melted butter, and stir until smooth. Do not overmix. 3. Oil and flour an 8 1/2-by-4-inch loaf pan. Pour batter into pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Cool in pan 5 minutes, remove bread from pan, and finish cooling on a rack.
Verdict: Not bad, rather bready, it's times like these I wish I had a toaster as I think it would toast rather well :)
Score: 7/10
Ingredients
2 large eggs 1 1/4 cups milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 1/2 cups flour, more for dusting pan 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 cup superfine sugar 5 ounces flaked coconut (about 1 1/2 cups) 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Method
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla. 2. In a medium bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Add sugar and coconut, and stir to mix. Make a well in the center, and pour in egg mixture. Gradually mix with dry ingredients, until just combined. Add melted butter, and stir until smooth. Do not overmix. 3. Oil and flour an 8 1/2-by-4-inch loaf pan. Pour batter into pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Cool in pan 5 minutes, remove bread from pan, and finish cooling on a rack.
banana cake
I quite like this banana cake recipe because it uses an extra egg white, which means I get to use the spare egg yolk for this choc chip cookie recipe (which yields a pretty awesomely chewy cookie). It also happens to be delicious.
I've used this recipe a few times now, and on my most recent occasion I did have a couple of fundamental deviations (unintentional) from the original recipe - but this didn't affect it at all. Firstly, the recipe asks for 1 cup of mashed banana, however I only had 2 smallish medium bananas which didn't come up to 1 full cup, and I thought I could have done with another banana at the time. However it still had a good banana flavour, so I'd say it doesn't have to come up to 1 cup as long as you have good quality tasty bananas. Secondly I accidentally baked it in my loaf tin instead of the round cake tin (that's what happens when you plan to cook many cakes in one day I guess...) but I just added about 10 minutes to the cooking time, and ended up with something that looked like banana bread :)
Verdict: Great recipe if you have enough ripe bananas
Score: 8/10
Ingredients
1½ cups (210 g) flour 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon ¾ cup (150 g) sugar 2 tablespoons (55 g) melted butter (salted or unsalted) 1 large egg white 1 large egg, at room temperature 1 cup (250 ml) banana puree, made from about 2 very ripe medium-sized bananas ½ cup (125 ml) sour cream, regular or low-fat ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1/3 cup (60 g) chocolate chips or 3 tablespoons (30 g) cocoa nibs (I omit these, might try adding them one day though!)
Method
Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) square pan and line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350F (180 C). 1. Sift together in a bowl the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix in the sugar. 2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter, egg white, egg, banana puree, sour cream, vanilla and espresso, if using. 3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and stir in the wet ingredients with a spatula until almost mixed. Add in the chocolate chips or cocoa nibs and stir until just combined, but don’t overstir: stop when any traces of flour disappear. 4. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until the center feels lightly-springy and just done. 5. Cool on a baking rack.
I've used this recipe a few times now, and on my most recent occasion I did have a couple of fundamental deviations (unintentional) from the original recipe - but this didn't affect it at all. Firstly, the recipe asks for 1 cup of mashed banana, however I only had 2 smallish medium bananas which didn't come up to 1 full cup, and I thought I could have done with another banana at the time. However it still had a good banana flavour, so I'd say it doesn't have to come up to 1 cup as long as you have good quality tasty bananas. Secondly I accidentally baked it in my loaf tin instead of the round cake tin (that's what happens when you plan to cook many cakes in one day I guess...) but I just added about 10 minutes to the cooking time, and ended up with something that looked like banana bread :)
Verdict: Great recipe if you have enough ripe bananas
Score: 8/10
Ingredients
1½ cups (210 g) flour 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon ¾ cup (150 g) sugar 2 tablespoons (55 g) melted butter (salted or unsalted) 1 large egg white 1 large egg, at room temperature 1 cup (250 ml) banana puree, made from about 2 very ripe medium-sized bananas ½ cup (125 ml) sour cream, regular or low-fat ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1/3 cup (60 g) chocolate chips or 3 tablespoons (30 g) cocoa nibs (I omit these, might try adding them one day though!)
Method
Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) square pan and line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350F (180 C). 1. Sift together in a bowl the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix in the sugar. 2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter, egg white, egg, banana puree, sour cream, vanilla and espresso, if using. 3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and stir in the wet ingredients with a spatula until almost mixed. Add in the chocolate chips or cocoa nibs and stir until just combined, but don’t overstir: stop when any traces of flour disappear. 4. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until the center feels lightly-springy and just done. 5. Cool on a baking rack.
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