cake Archives - Page 19 of 30

Orange Almond Cake With Rhubarb Streusel

9|07|2015

Before I experienced what school was like in Australia, I had a rough idea how the school holidays were. I was not raised here so my stint with this system is as old as the time my boys have spent in school. Probably less than 6 months. But I would generally guess the school holidays going by the reduced traffic on the roads and the queues at the zoo and the museum. I would make a mental note of complying with these practices when the time came aka. queue up with my kids at various educational and historic locations around the city.

So far I’ve encountered 2 holiday breaks and but I have done none of that. Honestly. it never occurs to me (please don’t judge me) except on two occasions…when I see or hear someone taking their kids to these places and when I remember their school homework. Which is about writing down all the things they did during the holidays. But hey, I have a justification…okay, excuse! Getting a 5 year old to write…and write anything that makes sense is quite a thing.
‘Hold you pencil correctly…
…finger space please..noooo..between the words not letters..
Gosh..that was meant to be a full stop not a flower…don’t chew the pencil…
‘the red car flu to the moon???!!!’
Oh hello..where’s the paper….are you sitting on it?

Sigh! How do you expect them to spell museum then? Well, they can spell farm so farm is where I took them. This time it was the orange farms. We all love the outdoors so this was our perfect holiday outing.

The sunshine was abundant, the trees drooping with the weight of their ripe bounty and our buckets were full in no time. We gave away quite a bit to friends but they just don’t seem to get over. I utilized the zest of three oranges to make this cake. It has mild orange flavour, predominantly tasting of almonds. I had rhubarb at home which can be seen at our markets pretty much round the year. The tart rhubarb was a great addition to the dense almond cake and the sreusel gave the cake another level of texture. The cake recipe is easy where you mix everything together in a large bowl. Then you layer the streusel, rhubarb and the flaked almonds on top.

Orange Almond cake with Rhubarb Streusel (concept slightly adapted from here)
Serves 8-10

350 g young rhubarb stalks
240 g (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar
50 g (1/2 cup) plain flour
finely grated zest of two oranges
125 g almond meal (ground almonds) (or any other nut meal)
185 g unsalted butter, melted
6 egg whites
1 1/2 tablespoons demerara sugar

For the sreusel
40 g (3 tbsp) caster sugar
60g (1/2 cup +1 tbsp) plain flour
40g unsalted butter, softened
60g flaked almonds
Finely grated zest of 1 orange

For topping, combine sugar and flour in a bowl, then rub in butter until mixture forms clumps. Rub through the orange zest until evenly combined.

Trim leaves and ends from rhubarb and discard, then cut into 2 cm lengths.

Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a 20 cm round cake pan and line the base with baking paper. Place sugar, flour, orange zest and almond meal in a large bowl, then stir in butter and egg whites until just combined. Spoon into tin, scatter with half the crumb topping, then rhubarb, then remaining topping. Sprinkle with sliced almonds and demerara sugar and bake for 50 minutes or until firm. Cool in tin for 10 minutes.

Best served warm or at room temperature with ice cream on the side.

Chocolate Cake With Salted Peanut Chocolate Ganache And Chocolate Meringue

17|06|2015

Let’s celebrate! Celebrate what? Nothing…something…everything? Today I want to celebrate nothing. That nothing is wrong with me or my loved ones. That my life is extremely ordinary, normal…chaotic and beautiful. That I have a lot to delight in and plenty to fret about. That I am able to eat, sleep, run, laugh, argue, feel, plan, hope and dream, like anyone else. We don’t realize but when we plan, hope and dream, in some ways we acknowledge that life will still be somewhat the same or perhaps be better. A virtual certainty! But tomorrow could be different. Life could change in moments! What we have is today and NOW! We do take life for granted, don’t we? It is so easy to get caught in the flow of our daily grind and forget to appreciate life for what it is. But life sometimes, has it’s own way of jolting you upright. Like speed bumps on the way. Sometimes you see them coming and sometimes they sneak up on you. And your otherwise smooth ride turns into a bumpy, messy experience.

I recently found myself on one such speed bump and my world turned upside down. A casual health checkup throwing up certain abnormalities, never ending tests, sleepless nights, an anxious family and me, living in denial for most part of it. Successive tests very very thankfully and to my utmost relief did not confirm any of it. I have the last few to go but I am hopeful. I have a strong support system around me and I couldn’t be more grateful. Amidst the chaos, I braved myself to stay put and lead a normal life to the extent possible. I continued to post though fewer posts and my photos and words definitely reflected my state of mind. I apologize if I have disappointed you lately. This blog, baking and most importantly your time and visit to my space means the world to me. This blogging community and my blogger friends mean the world to me. Staying away from this is hard for me as much as coming here and sharing a difficult situation with you. I’ve always liked it to be a happy, vibrant place filled with positivity and colours.

So I made a chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache and salted peanut filling. Something different. Don’t be surprised if you see that combination come up soon again because I am pretty obsessed with the salted peanut thing at the moment. I covered the cake in chocolate meringue (cocoa infused) and that made for a light, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth frosting, mildly tasting of chocolate. The cake is moist, chocolatey and intense with the presence of coffee in it and this totally complements the frosting. You will need a blow torch to brown the exterior which in my opinion is an inexpensive but good investment if you are into baking and desserts.

I hope to bake more and flood my blog with decadent treats in the forthcoming weeks. Thank you for bearing with me and giving me a reason to come back:-)

Chocolate Cake With Salted Peanut Chocolate Ganache And Chocolate Meringue.
Serves 8-10

Chocolate Cake (recipe adapted from Food And Wine)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease two 7-inch round cake pans and line them with baking paper. Dust the pans with flour, tapping out any excess.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the flour with the sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt at low speed. In a bowl, whisk the buttermilk with the oil, eggs and vanilla. Slowly beat the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients until just incorporated, then slowly beat in the hot coffee until fully incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then invert the cakes onto a rack to cool. Peel off the baking paper.

Salted Peanut Chocolate Ganache Filling

150 g dark chocolate
1/3 cup thickened cream
1 cup salted roasted peanuts

Place chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds with a metal spoon or until smooth. Alternately, place the ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in intervals till smooth and blended. Add the salted peanuts and mix.
Stand at room temperature until thickened (or pop it into the fridge for 10 minutes, if you are in a hurry)

Chocolate Meringue (adapted from the Food network)

3 egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup granulated, superfine sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch process cocoa, sifted

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and granulated sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Beat until the egg whites are stiff and shiny and the sugar granules cannot be felt in the whites. Beat in the vanilla, reduce speed to low and add cocoa until combined

To assemble, place one cake layer on a cake stand or plate. Spread a thick layer of the chocolate-peanut filling. Place the second cake layer on top. Cover with meringue frosting. Brown the frosting with a blow torch.

Purple Carrot Cake

9|06|2015

A visit to the Farmer’s markets inevitably results in two, sometimes more salads at home. I don’t know about you but I get completely blown away by beautiful, fresh produce. I may go looking for something and come back with a lot more. Most often the ‘more’ will have add-on-s (leaves, stems, branches attached to them) and I will struggle to push them into my refrigerator. I always have the option of discarding the unwanted stuff but I am food blogger…there is nothing called as ‘unwanted’. Of course I need the purple carrots with their tops on for my photos.

My favorite farmer’s market is located about 20 kilometers from home. Yet I’d go there every weekend if I can. Before we left this time, hubby told me ‘I am not having salad tonight!’
‘Well, then let’s move next to the farmer’s market’ I replied convinced that a long trip needs to be justified with a substantial buy.
In the process every time, we end up buying a lot, eating a lot and by evening all that one has room for is a salad and dessert (that’s because I bring them back too…like the gorgeous quince frangipane tart I bought this time:-))

Even though I planned a golden beetroot salad for dinner and I had my stash of tarts and slices, I quickly baked this purple carrot cake as soon as we got back home. This is a healthier carrot cake with wholemeal flour, buttermilk and honey. I have used this recipe earlier from Taste to make healthy carrot muffins. It is not too sweet and as I suspected ,the kids didn’t seem to enjoy it plain. A little butterscotch sauce on top and it went down quickly with them. We adults enjoyed the cake as it was with cups of coffee. Just so perfect for a winter afternoon. The purple carrots don’t taste any different than their popular counterpart but they do add a lovely hue to the interior. This is different than a beetroot cake where the entire cake takes up the deep reddish-brown colour.
Given a choice, I would prefer this unique speckled look.
The recipe can be totally adapted to use regular carrots and makes a great, healthy lunchbox treat.

Purple Carrot Cake
Serves 6-8

1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
1 cup plain self-raising flour
1/3 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
11/2 cups grated purple carrot
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C (170 degrees C for fan-force) Grease and line the base of a 19 cm round cake pan with baking paper.

Sift flours and spice into a bowl. Stir in sugar and carrot. Whisk honey, eggs, buttermilk and oil together in a jug. Add honey mixture to flour. Mix gently until just combined (do not over-mix).

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar.

Double Chocolate Banana Cake- Easy Mother’s Day Dessert

5|05|2015

I was sitting at the conference table at my office 5 years ago looking at our performance reports when I received a text from my doctor’s office. ‘Your first ultrasound scan is scheduled for next Friday’. I called them back. ‘What do I have to do…what happens during the ultrasound?” You will get the first glimpse of your baby. Drink lots of water’ the assistant told me
‘What..really?’ I thought to myself picturing an angel face with chubby hands and feet.

I was so nervous the following week when I reached the clinic. ‘Do you see the movement of the baby?’ the doctor pointed at the large monitor in front of her. All I could see were black and white patches on the screen and a tiny little thing..probably the size of a pea moving slowly. ‘Would you like to hear your baby’s heart beat?’ ‘Yes’ I suppressed a scream. After that, what I heard might have made my heart stop beating f0r a moment. I was speechless! It was a big surprise that I was not prepared for. But what I was about to hear next was probably the surprise of my life yet. ‘Wait, there is something else!’ She ran out to call another senior doctor. They told me they could see another fetus which may or may not survive. It was early to confirm and they couldn’t make out the heart beat yet. I was to go back in a couple of weeks. I spent the two weeks in anxiety, unable to concentrate at work or anything else. At times, I would imagine what it would be like to hold two precious babies in my arms. At other times, I would wonder what it would do to my beloved career.
Two weeks later, I was told ‘You are having twins. Baby number 2 has survived’
My head reeled at the impact of those words. I knew my life was about to change. Change…it did! In every little and big way. And that was when I really understood what it meant to be a Mother. Motherhood is the birth of a Mom as much it is the birth of a child. It is the birth of a relationship. Predictable in many ways, and not in most ways. Always, giving and forgiving.

I am constantly asked by my friends for an easy cake recipe. Something anybody can whip up at any time and tastes good enough to be shared with people. This one ticks all the boxes. It has a strong banana flavour whilst also being chocolatey enough to satisfy all your cravings. A hint of cinnamon completes the balance. My favorite part are the chocolate chunks that feel like bits of melty gooey goodness encased in rich banana cake. I have opted for a chocolate ganache frosting that is simple to make and can be easily applied on the cake. Add a few toasted hazelnuts or berries and the cake is all set to impress.

I have two more simple desserts to share with you for Mother’s Day. We want to keep things easy while totally making Mommy’s day. Mommy deserves that little extra effort and time to make her something at home. Let’s go for it!

Double Chocolate Banana Cake
Serves 6-8

50 g butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 medium sized over-ripe bananas, mashed
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 3/4 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped into big and small chunks

Chocolate Ganache
150 g dark chocolate
75 g milk chocolate (or use the entire weight of dark chocolate, 225 g)
1/3 cup heavy or thickened cream

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. (160 degrees C fan forced). Grease and line the base of a 19 cm round cake pan.

Beat butter and brown sugar together until pale and creamy. Add banana, egg and milk. Beat together until well combined. Add flour, cocoa, cinnamon and choc chunks and stir until well combined. Spoon into prepared pan and level top.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted at centre comes out clean and top is golden brown. Stand for 5 minutes in pan, then transfer cake to a wire rack to cool.
Once cooled completely, frost with Chocolate Ganache.

To make the Chocolate Ganache : Place chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds with a metal spoon or until smooth. Alternately, place the ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in intervals till smooth and blended.
Stand at room temperature until thickened.