Baked

How's your week so far? I'm doing fun things like my tax and H.S.T. returns. Heaps of fun! Of course, one shouldn't leave one's tax return for the last minute. I've also joined Poppytalk Handmade, and I'm really excited about that. I'm working on a new series of images and note cards to add to my "table" soon.

I made lamingtons over the weekend. They're an Australian tradition and delicious. I drizzle chocolate over each piece of cake, rather than dipping it in chocolate, as I'm not too keen on a whole coating. Everyone seems to have a different spin on these!

Lamingtons - makes one cake cut into 15 pieces.

125g softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup berry/caster sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, sifted
1/2 cup milk
1 cup shredded coconut (to sprinkle over chocolate coated cake)

Chocolate Icing:
10g unsalted butter
250g icing sugar
100g dark chocolate broken in pieces
60ml milk

Preheat oven to 320f/160c. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well. Add the flour and baking powder and mix until well combined. Fold in the milk. Pour batter into lightly greased  7"x11"x2" pan, lined (on bottom) with parchment paper. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until skewer inserted in centre comes out clean. Allow to cool completely, then cut into 15-18 pieces.

To make the icing, put the icing sugar, chocolate, butter and milk in a heat proof bowl and place over a simmering pot of water. Stir constantly until melted and combined. Drizzle chocolate over each piece of cake (keep chocolate over pan of hot water, but turn off heat, so it doesn't harden), then sprinkle coconut over top. Stand iced cake on a wire rack until completely set.

Have a great day! Back soon.
janis

Baked

Slowly but surely, I'm making changes to my blog. A new banner, you can now subscribe to new posts, and google translator (for you Flo!). I plan to change up the images, in the banner, every season. What do you think?

To celebrate that I finally made some changes, I made a very labour intensive cake! I guess it's not too bad but, if you make it, set aside a good amount of time....like an entire day (probably just me). It's worth it though. Delicious.

Coconut Cream Cake
1 1/3 cups fresh shredded coconut*
* to make shredded coconut, pierce softest eye with metal skewer (I used my awl) and drain out liquid. Bake whole coconut on rimmed baking sheet in a 400f/200c oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Break shell with hammer (loved this bit). Using point of a very sharp and strong knife, pry out flesh. Pare off husk and cut into 2-3 inch pieces. Using a vegetable peeler shave edges off coconut. Arrange in a single layer on a wire rack until dry and slightly cured, about 24 hours.

1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/3 cups sifted cake and pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk

Coconut pastry cream:
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
4 teaspoons butter
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

Icing:
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup whipping cream

Ok, here we go....
Grease sides of two 8" round cake pans, and line bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
To make the cake: In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir dry mix into butter mixture alternately with milk, making three additions of dry ingredients and two of milk. Divide batter between cake pans, spreading evenly. Tap pans gently on work surface to remove any air bubbles.
Bake in centre of oven at 350f/180c for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in centre, comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Coconut Pastry Cream: in a saucepan, heat milk until bubbles form around the edge. Meanwhile, in a bowl whisk together eggs, sugar, flour and cornstarch until smooth. Gradually add milk. Return to saucepan over medium heat, whisking, until just bubbly, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer gently, whisking all the while, until thick enough to mound on spoon, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and coconut extract. Scrape into bowl and cover with plastic wrap (directly on surface of cream). Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.

Icing: in a bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Alternately beat in sugar and cream, making 3 additions of sugar and two of cream.

To assemble: Cut cakes in half, horizontally (this made me nervous!). Place one bottom half and plate and spread with one third of the pastry cream. Top with one top half, then spread half the remaining cream on top. Top with remaining top half layer, and spread with remaining cream. Top with remaining bottom half, bottom side up!
Spread a thin coat of icing all over top and sides of layered cake. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Spread with remaining icing. Press small handfuls of coconut onto icing to cover cake, gathering and reapplying any that doesn't adhere.

There it is. If you make this cake, please let me know how it turns out!

By the way, I did a guest post today over at Good Good. There are several guest posts by a variety of bloggers and it's all about summer. Ahh, summer.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day. Back soon.
janis

Baked

I received the Tea at Fortnum and Mason cookbook from a friend in London, and it does not disappoint. This cake was so good! Pretty easy too. Here's the recipe....

Chocolate and Orange Marble Cake - serves about 10 
200g unsalted butter, softened
200g golden caster/berry sugar (used regular berry sugar)
3 large eggs
200g all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
Zest and juice of one large orange
45g cocoa powder, sifted

Icing:
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
35g unsalted butter, chopped

Preheat oven to 190c/375f. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin with parchment paper.
Use an electric mixer to beat together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and cream. Gradually add the eggs, then fold in the flour, baking powder, orange zest and juice using a large metal spoon.

Put half the mixture in a separate bowl and fold in the cocoa. Drop a spoonful of each mixture, alternately, into the tin then run a skewer, or knife, through both to create swirls.

Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer, inserted in centre, comes out clean. Lift out of the tin and cool on a wire rack.

Once the cake has completely cooled, decorate it. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl resting over a pan of simmering water, making sure the base doesn't touch the water. Once melted, stir them gently together. Drizzle the mixture over the cake and leave to set for about an hour. Store in an airtight container for up to four days. (I can promise you, it will never stick around for more than two days.)

Enjoy! If you try out this recipe, I'd love to hear about it.

Have a great day. Back soon!

Baked on Monday - Oat Spice Cake

I hope you all had a nice weekend. If you turned your clock back an hour, did it throw you off? I have to say I'm a fan of "falling back". Zzzz.

After a weekend of work, it's nice to start off the week with a little baking. I've made a delicious cake from the Rebar Modern Food cook book. Rebar is a great little restaurant in Victoria, BC. I've had this book for about a decade, and it's probably our most used cook book (hence the greasy marks all over it).

Oat Spice Cake - makes one 9" cake
(fyi, this isn't a typical cake, in texture. It's more oatmeal like. Make sense?)

2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup softened unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup unbleached, all purpose, flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 whipping cream (you don't need to actually "whip" it ;) )
2 cups toasted coconut
1 1/2 cups roasted cashews

Preheat oven to 350F/180c. Lightly grease a 9" spring form pan. Combine the oats, butter, sugar, and boiling water and blend thoroughly and set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and spices. Add dry mix to the wet mix and fold together gently. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a skewer, inserted in centre of cake, comes out clean.

To make the topping, toast the coconut in a pan until lightly golden and fragrant (so it smells like you're on a tropical beach). Keep your eyes on it, as it can burn, instead of "toast", rather quickly! Combine all of the topping ingredients in a saucepan and heat the mixture until the butter melts and all is well blended. Pour the mixture over top of the baked cake while it's still in the pan. Carefully place the cake under the broiler for about 2 minutes, until the topping turns golden brown. Keep a close watch on it, as it will (and does!) caramelize very quickly. Cool, serve and enjoy!

I'll be back soon. I've got a little give away coming up too. Keep you posted!

Have a good Monday (or Tuesday)!

Baked on Monday - Cheese & Chili Cornbread

I don't know why this is called cornbread when it really is more like corncake. Either way, it's delicious and moist. I find some cornbreads are kind of on the dry side, but this one is not at all dry. I love the kick of the chili too.

Cheese & Chili Cornbread - makes on 9" round cake

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
2 jalapeno chilies, chopped
1 1/4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 375f.
Sift the flour and baking soda into a bowl, then stir in salt, cornmeal, sugar, chilies, and cheese.

In another bowl, beat together buttermilk, melted butter and egg. Pour into the dry ingredients fold in until no flour pockets remain. Spoon batter into greased 9" round pan (or 8" square pan). Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a skewer, inserted in centre, comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack until completely cool. I can't wait that long, and I start to eat pretty much immediately.

Perfect with coffee and post production.  I can't stop eating it. So much for sharing.

Have a lovely day! Back soon.

Baked on Monday - Coffee Cake

Good Morning everyone! Hope you all had great weekends.

I'm in a rush this morning, as I have a shoot to go to. Today I offer up Coffee Cake, as it was pretty easy and fast.  For this particular morning, I also call it "breakfast".

Coffee Cake

Batter:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 melted butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Filling:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon melted butter
1/4 chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350f/180c.  Grease and flour a 20cm round cake tin.
To make batter, beat eggs until light in colour. Add sugar slowly, one tablespoon at a time, and beat well. Stir in melted butter.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add 1/3 to the batter mix. Continue adding dry ingredients and milk alternately until all ingredients are combined.

For filling, combine brown sugar, sifted flour, cinnamon, melted butter and chopped walnuts.
Pour half the batter in cake tin, then sprinkle half the filling over the top. Pour remaining half of batter on top, followed by the remaining filling. Bake for about 40 minutes. Serve warm!

 It went quite nicely with an iced coffee this morning.

Have a lovely day!

Baked on Monday - Plum Cakes

Hi all! To my American  blog friends, I hope you had a perfect and fireworks filled 4th of July!

I can smell the plum cakes baking....mmm. These are so easy to make. You just dump all the ingredients together in a bowl, mix, pour into cupcake tin, and top with the plums. Done. I guess I should give you the actual recipe now...

Plum Cakes - makes 12

3/4 cup all-purpose/plain flour
2 cups icing sugar
150g (5 1/4 oz) almond meal (finely ground almonds)
180g (6 1/3  oz) melted butter
6 egg whites
6 plums, halved

Preheat oven to 320f/160c. Place flour, sugar, almond meal, butter and egg whites in a bowl and mix until well combined. Spoon the batter into a well greased 12 hole, 1/2 cup, muffin tin. Top with halved plums, cut side up, and bake for 30-40 minutes or test with a skewer.  Cool on a wire rack.

These go well with a little real iced tea! Enjoy.

Baked on Monday - Cinnamon Teacake

It's Victoria Day here in Canada, so it's a holiday Monday. Hope you're all having, or had, a great weekend!

I had planned on sharing this recipe with you last Monday, but that didn't quite pan out due to the serious illness of my computer while in NY.

My niece came by the day I made this cake, so she joined me in an impromptu tea party. I'm always up for one of those. It's a pretty delicious, spongy cake. Hope you enjoy it too!

Cinnamon Teacake (This is a Donna Hay recipe)

2 eggs, separated
1 cup berry sugar (a.k.a. caster sugar/superfine)
1 cup milk
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder, sifted
60g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the cinnamon topping:
25g unsalted butter, melted
2 tblspn brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 320f (160c). Place egg whites in a bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Slowly beat in the sugar until thick and glossy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well to combine. Gradually add the milk, then flour, baking powder, butter and vanilla and beat until smooth. Line two 6" cake tins* with parchment paper and grease sides of pans with a little butter. Divide batter evenly and pour into cake tins. Bake for about 35 minutes or until baked when a skewer comes out clean. Turn out onto wire racks. While the cakes are hot, brush with melted butter and dust with combined brown sugar and cinnamon. Have a piece while still warm - delicious!!

* I didn't have two 6" tins, so I used my 8" tin and the extra batter made a few cupcakes.

Enjoy your day!

Baked on Monday

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm starting a new thing today. Each Monday I'm going to post a recipe of a baked treat. I bake a few times a week, and eat most of it myself while sitting at the computer. It's got to slow down. Now, I'm going to bake on Mondays and spread out the cookies, cake, scones throughout the week.....and I may share some too. I find cookies, cupcakes, etc., pretty photogenic as well. Maybe that's what attracts me to baking. Hmm.

Lemon Cakes - makes 12

125g (1/2 cup) butter

1 cup extra fine sugar (we call it berry sugar here in Canada)
plus 1/4 cup extra (for lemon syrup)

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup milk

1/4 almond meal (finely ground almonds)

Grated rind and juice of 1 large lemon

Preheat oven to 350F (about 180C). In a bowl cream butter well. Add 1 cup sugar and beat again.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add sifted flour and salt. Add almond meal, lemon rind and milk and mix together.

Grease a 12 hole cupcake tin and spoon an even amount of batter in each hole. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer, inserted into cakes, comes out clean.

Combine lemon juice and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a sauce pan and heat until sugar dissolves. Pour syrup over cakes while cakes are hot. When cool, dust with icing sugar.

Try to wait until they cool down a bit before eating otherwise, ouch. Enjoy!