Cakes and Puddings Archives - Page 11 of 46

Raspberry and Yoghurt Cake

13|08|2019

A moist, super simple yoghurt cake bursting with the flavour and colour of raspberries. Irresistible with a cup of tea or coffee.

Since the start of this month, I have been baking at least one cake every day, either due to client work or a celebration or simply to test out new flavour combinations. I am really enjoying myself. On one hand we have the beautiful promise of spring popping up in every corner of my neighborhood (hello cherry blossoms). On the other hand, the cold shows no sign of going away. It is probably the coldest winter I’ve experienced in Australia. So it is the perfect excuse to bake though you may notice a lot of pink in my posts.

This cake is a keeper. So simple yet absolutely fabulous with it’s soft dense texture and juicy raspberries in every mouthful. The original recipe called for some lemon zest which I skipped and used vanilla instead. It also includes a glaze which is beautiful but this cake was so good by itself that I decided to skip it.
I love the texture so much that I am planning to make it again with blueberries this week. Stay tuned!

If you love raspberries, here are two desserts you will love.
Easy Chocolate Cake with Raspberries
Raspberry Ganache Tart

Raspberry and Yoghurt Cake
Makes an 8 inch round cake

125 g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup greek yoghurt
1 cup raspberries, I used frozen
Icing sugar, to dust (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees C for fan forced). Grease the base and sides of an 8 inch round cake pan and line the base with baking paper.
Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gently fold in the flour and yoghurt until well combined. Fold in a quarter of the raspberries.
Pour the batter onto the prepared pan. Dot the remaining raspberries over the top of the batter. Bake for 35-45 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven. Leave in pan for 5 minutes, gently turn on to a wire rack. Enjoy warm or at room temperature with a side of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate and Strawberry Cake with Aeroplane Jelly Chocolate Dessert Mix

4|08|2019

Disclaimer –This post is brought to you by Aeroplane Jelly. As always, all opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

The last few weeks of winter! It’s funny how our seasons are diagonally opposite to the rest of the world. The great thing though is that it gives us the chance to whip up cosy, indulgent treats while the rest of the world is enjoying a berry smoothie. Now, would you rather drink a berry smoothie or eat a slice of this indulgent tower of chocolatey deliciousness?

I’m always looking for creative, new desserts with chocolate. It’s especially fun to experiment with different flavour and filling combinations when you have a trusty, go-to chocolate cake recipe. I decided to enhance my layered chocolate mud cake with another level of decadence. Sandwiched between the layers of chocolate cake, is a Chocolate flavoured Dessert Mix that not only makes life easier as it is so easy to make and use, but it gives the cake a more decadent finish. Oozy layers of pudding like chocolate accompanied by fresh winter strawberries and rich mud cake. Need I say more?

If you live in Australia, you already know the quintessentially Aussie favourite, Aeroplane Jelly. I mean, hasn’t every Aussie kid grown up with Aeroplane Jelly and have their favourite memories of brightly coloured birthday treats involving their favourite flavour of jelly? But then is it really just kids? I can vouch for the number of jelly fans simply by the way people react when my desserts involve a jelly component in them. So when I discovered the Chocolate flavoured Dessert Mix, I already knew it was going to be a life changing find. Think, trifles, tarts, and fillings for eclairs, toppings for pancakes and waffles, dip for your churros or just by itself with your choice of fruit. Such a handy mix to have in your pantry.

Coming to this cake, it is as simple to put together as it looks. No fancy ingredients or equipment, just a showstopper that can easily turn your celebrations into a memorable one.
If you’d like your chocolate filling to be sweeter, add a few tablespoons of castor sugar or honey according to taste.
If you do not have 6 inch pans, you could go for larger pans and two layers instead of three. However, please keep in mind the baking time would increase in that scenario.

Chocolate and Strawberry Cake
Makes a 6 inch, 3-layered round cake

1 Aeroplane Jelly Chocolate flavoured Dessert Mix
250 g unsalted butter
200 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
100 ml milk
1 and 2/3 cup self-raising flour
¼ cup Dutch processed cocoa
1 cup castor sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup sour cream
1 punnet fresh strawberries, hulled, sliced
dark chocolate, shaved

Method: Prepare Aeroplane Jelly Dessert Mix according to package instructions. Add sugar if you like it sweeter (I added 2 tablespoons of castor sugar). Store in the refrigerator until needed.
Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (140 degrees c for fan forced ovens). Grease the base and sides of three 6 inch cake pans and line the bases with baking paper.
Place the chocolate, butter and milk in a medium saucepan and cook over low heat. Stir occasionally until butter and chocolate have melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat, leave aside to cool to room temperature.
Meanwhile, sift flour and cocoa into a large bowl. Add the sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Gradually fold in the chocolate mixture and sour cream and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.

Divide the batter between the three prepared pans. Bake for 40-45 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs but no raw cake batter. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool in pan, then turn out gently onto a wire rack to cool to room temperature.

Once cool, place a layer of cake on a cake stand or a plate. Spread half cup of the dessert mix with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Arrange sliced strawberries as displayed in the pictures. Place the second layer and repeat the process. Cover with the last layer and decorate with sliced strawberries. Decorate with shaved chocolate. Enjoy!

Orange and Chocolate Bundt Cake

5|07|2019

Guys, June was such a roller coaster of a month for me, On one hand I was trying to finish projects and embrace the end of financial year plus school holidays like a whizz (talk about balancing motherhood with work), on the other hand I had exciting news to share.

I have been nominated for an AusMumpreneur award that celebrates Australian Mums in business. While I’m being evaluated in the Judges’s category, I need YOUR votes for the People’s Choice awards.
When I started my blog in 2013, only a few months after I came to Australia little did I know that one day this would become my greatest happiness and my source of earning a living. With two sleeping toddlers and 9 pieces of luggage we came to this beautiful country to start a life from scratch. From a life of comfort to a new life filled with uncertainty and adventure. Prior to that I was heading an unit in a multinational bank where I had worked for 7 years. Needless to say, the initial years were tough, trying to adjust to a new lifestyle while balancing parenting with no help. Sugar et al. became my personal fight for survival, my medium of creative expression, my hope of financial independence. When my twins slept, I baked. Before they woke up, I would practice photography. I would watch videos on YouTube and read books when I could find time and try to apply them until I had good grasp over it. I didn’t even realize when I fell in love with food styling and photography.

Soon my humble blog started to get recognition from he media, brands and publications and I started to get paid opportunities for photography. My blog is my labour of love but most importantly it stands for something that I’d like to share with everyone. Hope! Never to give up when life throws challenges at you. And over and above everything never underestimate yourself. Often, we don’t believe in our own capabilities but when we do, magic happens!
If you like my work and believe in my journey, please click here and vote for me. You will find my name (Sonali Ghosh) under the Influencer Award (no 4). It would mean a lot to me.

Regarding this awesome cake, I was cleaning my cupboard and found my old bundt cake pan that was gathering dust for a few years. With citrus season in full swing in Australia it was not hard to pick flavours for the cake. My favourite part though is the glaze. So silky and delicious!
My pan is a large one so my cake turned out to be shorter in height than I would expect. But it still looked impressive and tasted amazing.

Orange and Chocolate Bundt Cake
Serves 10-12

225 g unsalted butter
1/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa
1 cup water
2 cups plain flour
1 and 3/4 cup caster sugar
1 and 1/2 tbsp baking soda
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tbsp finely grated orange zest
2 tbsp orange liqour (optional)

Orange Sour Cream Glaze
1 and 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
orange food colour (as per your desired shade)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees C for fan forced ovens)
Grease the inside of the bundt cake pan really well. You may want to flour it as well (I did not need to do this as my pan is of a great non-stick quality)
In a medium saucepan, place the butter, cocoa and water together and warm over low heat until butter is melt. Stir and remove from heat to cool to room temperature.
In a separate bowl, place the flour, sugar and baking soda. Mix to combine. Add the melted butter mixture gradually while whisking to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time and whisk till blended. Add the sour cream, orange zest and orange liquor (if using) and whisk until smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes (depending on the size of your pan) or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake come out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then slightly loosen the sides and the centre with a blunt knife. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, glaze with orange sour cream glaze.

To make the sour cream glaze, sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add sour cream and orange juice. Stir until well combined. Add the food colour and mix till fully blended.

Pistachio Cake with Rosewater Buttercream

26|06|2019

Who else is not a big fan of winter? This year it has been especially cold in Sydney and the rains haven’t made it any easier. I can’t wait for Spring and it’s abundant produce. Meanwhile, there are apples, oranges, pears, pomegranates and persimmons that I’ve already baked with (you may have seen them on Instagram) and now I’m turning back to my favourite cosy flavours. Pistachio and Rosewater. I have a few different cakes with the same combo already on the blog but seriously it’s always so good and there is always another new version waiting to be created.

This cake is an absolute celebration of pistachios. There is a lot of it in the cake, hence the natural green hue. Also it can be easily made into a gluten free version by substituting plain flour for gluten free flour.

The buttercream is not essential but adds a nice, creamy and floral touch to the dense cake. My husband avoids the frosting so he scrapes it off but said that he still loved the cake just the way it was.

Pistachio Cake with Rosewater Buttercream
Makes a 7 inch round cake

220 g unsalted butter
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp castor sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
120 g almond meal (ground almonds)
120 g pistachio meal (ground pistachios)
50 g (approx 1/2 cup) plain flour
1 tbsp grated orange zest (optional)

Rosewater Buttercream

125 g unsalted butter
1 and 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp rosewater
pink gel food colour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees C for fan forced ovens. Grease the base and sides of a 7 inch round pan and line the base with baking paper.

Beat the butter an sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the ground nuts, flour and orange zest. Stir well to mix until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven, leave aside for 5 minutes, then gently turn the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cool, pipe or spread with rosewater buttercream. Enjoy!

To make the rosewater buttercream, Using an electric mixer, beat butter in a bowl until pale. Gradually add icing sugar mixture and milk, beating constantly until combined.
Add the rosewater and pink food colour and mix till uniform.