Cakes and Puddings Archives - Page 37 of 46

Golden Apple Tart

15|10|2014

I believe that names of most (if not all) people have a meaning. Most likely in their own language. When I found out that I was expecting twins I was faced with the exciting but quite complicated task of finding names for them. For a first time Mum, it can be quite daunting going through the multiple permutations and combinations. Two little personalities you are just starting to know and you are about to give them an identity for life. My children were born in my native land, India, where sex determination is a crime. So you can imagine my plight when I was in the dark till the very last-minute if they were going to girls, boys or one of each. I had 3 spreadsheets worth of names on my laptop that I continued to update as days came closer. Finally when they were born, quite premature I did not even look at those spreadsheets that I had been filling up so religiously. I did not have the time nor the stamina. Their names just happened. My own name has no meaning in the English language but going back to my roots, it means golden.

In real life I have no yearning for gold…neither literally nor figuratively. However, when it come to food, golden to me spells ‘delicious’. Whether a golden brown crust, gold dust on a cake or dessert, liquid forms like caramel, dulce de leche, honey or just golden syrup, the lustre in my eyes go up by 10 folds.

Remember my Chocolate Treacle Tart? Apparently, you guys loved it and so did I. So it was time to recreate the magic whilst tweaking things a little bit. This one has the golden syrup again with a hint of spice and fresh apples to adorn the top. In the filling, I have used breadcrumbs, almond meal, dessicated coconut along with golden syrup. The amazing thing about the filling is that it tastes quite like frangipane, actually better but is easier to put together. The flavours are lovely, almost like toffee apple. If you have used golden syrup before you know what I mean. If you haven’t, I highly recommend giving it a try. You may fall in love with it like me. If you ask me, it is quite easy to put together a gorgeous tasting dessert with golden syrup if you (partly or wholly) substitute it for sugar in a recipe. The pastry has a bit of nutmeg added to it so you can smell all those warm comforting flavours as the tart is baking.

So tell me now, do you believe that names have anything to do with one’s personality? Did you ever wish you could change your name or are you pleased with it?

Golden Apple Tart (slightly adapted from here)

Serves 8-10

For the pastry
1 2/3 cups plain flour
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted, plus extra, to dust
125 g cold unsalted butter, finely chopped
1 egg
2 Pink Lady apples

For the tart filling
400 g golden syrup
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
150 g fresh white breadcrumbs (about 4 slices of bread)
1/2 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
1 tsp cinnamon
3 egg yolks

Place flour, nutmeg, sugar, butter and a pinch of salt in the bowl of your food processor and process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add egg and 1 tablespoon chilled water and process until mixture just comes together. Shape dough into a 1.5cm-thick disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface and line a greased 23 cm tart pan. Trim sides and refrigerate for 30 minutes

Preheat oven to 190°C. Line tart shell with baking paper, fill with rice or beans and bake for 15 minutes. Carefully remove paper and beans, then bake for a further 10 minutes or until pastry is dry and golden. Cool.

For filling, place golden syrup, zest and juice in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until just liquefied. Whisk in remaining ingredients. Pour into tart shell

Quarter apples, core and cut into 2-3 mm-thick slices. Starting at the edge of the tart, arrange slices in concentric circles. Bake for 35 minutes or until firm to the touch (cover loosely with foil if pastry is over-browning). Cool for 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature dusted with extra icing sugar.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake + Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting + Candied Beetroot Leaves

11|10|2014

In my previous workplace, I had two awesome friends. We were a group and since we always hung out together, most of the other colleagues called us ‘The Three Musketeers’. Perhaps for lack of a creative or better expression. I guess if there’s three of you, that is the most likely thing that comes to one’s mind. Nevertheless, going to work was fun and so were the long lunches, group meetings, gossips and just being able to connect with two people who were completely different personalities and you still got on like a house on fire. So even though the nickname wasn’t cool, our friendship was. Let me tell you what else is cool when three personalities come together. This cake.

Gingerbread meets chocolate cake meets beetroot. Sounds complicated. Well, it really isn’t. This is hands down the best chocolate beetroot cake I have ever tasted. You don’t taste the beetroot. What you taste is rich chocolate flavour which is intensified by the addition of treacle. Golden syrup and maple syrup will work too but treacle gives it strong flavour and rich colour. It is truly a treat! You know by now that my kitchen is nothing short of a test kitchen and I am constantly trying out different things. But in this case the stakes were high. I mean sky-high. I made this cake for my husband on his birthday who is not a big fan of sweet things. The only sweet treats he would like are the ones that have bittersweet chocolate, not overly sweet. Once he had a taste of my ginger cupcakes and asked me ‘What’s in there? Something strong that I cannot quite figure out but it tastes good’ He was obviously referring to treacle. So this was the excuse for me to combine the two. But I also needed an extra something to complement the two that would give body and moisture to the cake. The ginger cakes/cupcakes I make are quite moist and sticky and I didn’t want a sticky birthday cake.

The cake was everything I wanted and more. Luscious, moist, chocolate-y and now it was time to try out a gorgeous frosting that was not going to be buttercream. I love liquid and whipped ganache but I am beginning to get a bit bored with it. Enter this 2-ingredient, 5-minute chocolate frosting which I was dying to try out since months. I had come across something similar on Epicurious. I made a few changes and it worked. Wow! A fabulous addition to my frosting repertoire. I know this is one recipe I am going to use over and over again. It is not too sweet and has a great consistency. Spread or dollop or sandwich between your creations.

The man loved the cake. He was surprised when I told him there was beetroot in it. I decorated the cake with berries and candied beetroot leaves. Isn’t the colour amazing? I love candying things..it makes them look and taste lovely. I was a bit concerned if the beetroot leaves would bleed into the egg whites and spoil everything but they didn’t. In fact they were irresistible. We kept munching on them even before I put them on the cake.

Do give this cake a try with the frosting, candied leaves et al. It cannot get simpler than this. You are going to love it.

Notes :Please do ensure that you use a Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder or else the colour and flavour will not be the same. Do not grate the beetroot too finely or it would just get lost in the batter. While candying the leaves ensure that all the excess egg white is scraped off or they will take forever to dry up.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake + Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting + Candied Beetroot Leaves (minimally adapted from here, here and here)
Serves 8-10

For the cake
1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil
1 cup (220 g) firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (125 ml) treacle (can be substituted with maple syrup)
60 g dark chocolate (70%), chopped
250 g (around 2 cups) raw beetroot, coarsely grated
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups (225 g) self-raising flour
1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
Chocolate sour Cream Frosting, to frost
Fresh fruits or berries, to decorate
Icing sugar, to dust
Candied beetroot leaves, to decorate

For the Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting
150 g dark chocolate (semi-sweet)
50 g milk chocolate
1/2 cup sour cream (do not use the lite version)

For the Candied Beetroot Leaves
1 egg white
1/4 cup castor sugar
12-15 small beetroot leaves

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease and line the base of a 18 cm round cake tin with baking paper and set aside.
Warm the oil in a medium size sauce pan on very low heat. Add the brown sugar, treacle and chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat. Add the grated beetroot. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl and then add them to the sauce pan. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together and stir into the beetroot mixture. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tin, before turning out and cooling completely.

Once cooled, dollop the frosting (recipe below) on top. Decorate with fresh berries/fruits. Dust with icing sugar and decorate with candied leaves.

Make the frosting: Melt the two chocolates in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat. Cool for 2 minutes. Add the sour cream and mix till smooth. The mixture thickens as it cools. If it sets faster than you want, warm slightly again before using.

Make the candies leaves: Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place the egg white in a small bowl and the castor sugar onto a small plate. Make sure the leaves are dry before you start. If not pat dry with a kitchen towel. Working one at a time, dip each beetroot leaf into the egg white (scrape off excess against the bowl) and then dip into the plate of castor sugar, turning it to ensure an even coat on both sides. Lay the leaves in a single layer on the tray lined with baking paper to dry out. Leave aside for 24 hours, turning once in between.

Upside Down Chocolate Trail-Mix Cake

9|10|2014

Life is not always magical and not all days are the same. There are days when you will run out of brown sugar by as little as a quarter of a cup when you have every other ingredient to make your favourite chocolate cake. You will then make your way to the shops to get some as the cake has to be made that day and you don’t want to compromise. (Please don’t tell me that you will substitute with castor sugar…that doesn’t make me happy!) Then just when you think that everything is going well, the cake sinks in the centre leaving you wondering where you went wrong.. There are days when you will swear that your bathrooms scales are inaccurate and your mobile network will tell you ‘you are not connected’ when you so want to see the response to your latest post on Facebook. There are days when you will splurge for a little ‘feel good’ and end up regretting every purchase you made. Everyone has these days. Perhaps changing perspective helps or even better a bar of chocolate. Then why not cake! Yes, cake all the way for me.. So here is a cake to turn your frown upside down. An upside down chocolate cake!

There are no fresh fruits in this cake unlike the usual upside down cakes. But there are dried ones along with nuts. You can pick any nut of your choice or leave out the dried fruits. I found it very easy to use Trail mix as the assortment is prepped, mixed and ready to pour into the cake pan. Mine had whole almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, cranberries and raisins. I experimented with this cake without cocoa, the first time. My family liked it and I took photos. But for some reason, the urge was too strong to give it another shot for a chocolate version.

I love the simplicity of this cake. So delicious like a good chocolate nut cake. Fabulous texture, rich chocolate flavour and a caramelised nutty topping. Coming to think of it, you can achieve the same look my topping a regular chocolate cake with trail mix. But there is a difference. The toffee sauce in the bottom of the cake pan gives the nuts a luscious caramel like flavour and much of the sauce is soaked up by the raisins and cranberries that become plump with toffee.
Making the cake is a breeze but you will need to ensure the cake is thoroughly cooked at the bottom and centre before turning it upside down.

Upside Down Chocolate Trail Mix Cake
Serves 8

For the topping
75 g butter
1/3 firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup trail mix (or nuts and dried fruits of your choice)

For the cake
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
2 tablespoons plain flour, sifted
1 1/3 cups, firmly packed) brown sugar
3/4 cup milk
125 g butter, cubed
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, sifted
3 eggs, lightly whisked

Preheat oven to 160 degree C. Grease the base and sides of a 18 cm round cake pan and line the base with non stick baking paper. Heat the butter and brown sugar over low heat in a small saucepan till mixture is smooth. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle trail mix over the mixture to evenly cover the base of the pan.

Place the two flours together in a bowl. Place the sugar, milk and butter in a large saucepan. Add the cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into the pan. Place the pan over medium-low heat and use a whisk to stir until the mixture is smooth (don’t boil the mixture). Remove the pan from the heat and set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Add the flour mixture in slow additions gradually whisking to mix. Add the eggs and continue to mix till well combined. Pour slowly on top of the trail-mix mixture in the prepared pan. Smooth surface with the back of a spoon. Bake in the oven for 45-55 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Set aside for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on the side..

Parmesan and Blueberry Pound Cake with Lemon Icing

1|10|2014

For many years, on the last day of September I partied hard. I put on my brand new outfit, painted my lips, let my hair down and danced. Well actually, I did no such thing. Yes, I partied. With all my favourite people. I woke up to deep love, the sort of selfless affection that can come only from family. I got to hear familiar voices on the telephone that I wouldn’t normally hear all year round. I came back from work with flowers and presents that would fill up the entire backseat and boot of my car. I ate my favourite breakfasts, splurged on lunches and dinners were a thing to commemorate in the precious folders of my memory forever. I expected…and I received. Basically, I was spoilt.

In the last few years, since I became a mother, so much has changed. Yet a lot hasn’t. My birthday is still a day I start with the brightest of faces, the warmest of hugs, fewer phone calls but more heartfelt wishes. I eat what we all love as a family. My brand new outfit, matching shoes and lip colour have been replaced with comfortable wear that allow me to chase two little boys around the house. Instead of flowers, the backseat of my car is occupied by car seats where the two of my most precious beings sit, loudly singing ‘Happy Birthday’ for me in the cutest of voices. Thanks to technology, messages flow in from various different apps. I make sure I have checked all of them and replied. Some of them need an upgrade which I realise only at that instance. I still feel very celebrated, pretty overwhelmed and reflective in the last few hours of the day. But there is a difference. I don’t expect. I understand..appreciate and acknowledge. I feel gratitude more than ever, with each passing year. Quite a few times I tell my husband ‘I don’t believe it’s the same ‘me”. He nods understandingly.

There is no birthday without a cake. Though this really wasn’t the cake I ate (I mean, my birthday cake), I made it because I’ve been meaning to for a long time. This was my second attempt at making a parmesan cake. The first time, the flavour wasn’t strong enough and I baked it in a bundt cake pan. So I increased the parmesan, added blueberries, a lemon icing and honey drizzle this time. This is a fun cake. Quite easy to make but the flavours are a play on your senses…sweet…savoury…sweet…savoury..tart! Parmesan adds an extra something which is hard to describe. A hint of cheesy goodness and a slight acidity to the cake. If you are a fan of the sweet-savoury combination in food, this is a must-try. The lemon icing and honey drizzle balances out the acidity. You may want to cover the entire cake in icing if you don’t enjoy the saltiness in the cake. Overall, it is a delicious cake and best enjoyed warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice-cream on the side.

Parmesan and Blueberry Pound Cake with Lemon Icing
Serves 6-8

11/2 cups plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
75 g parmesan cheese, finely grated
180 g unsalted butter, room temperature, roughly chopped
3/4 cup castor sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (I used a mix of both) Lemon Icing, to drizzle
Honey, to drizzle

Lemon Icing 1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted (another 1/4 cup if you want a thick icing)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Butter and line the base the of a 19 cm round cake pan with baking paper. In a medium bowl, place the flour, baking powder and parmesan cheese and mix gently together. In the bowl of your electric mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the butter till soft and fluffy. Add the sugar, little at a time till fully incorporated. Add the vanilla essence and eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and beat on medium speed till mixture is smooth and well blended. Gradually fold in the frozen blueberries with a wooden spoon. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with the back of the wooden spoon. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove carefully from the oven. Stand in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once the cake has cooled down, drizzle or ice with lemon icing (recipe below). The icing thickens on cooling.

To make the Lemon Icing, place the ingredients together in a bowl and stir until combined.