Category: Sweet things

Gluten free orange and almond cake

Orange and almond cake

This week has been a very busy week, and I woke up this morning feeling like I was starting to come down with a cold. After a quiet morning, resting to try and keep the cold at bay, I felt the need to bake something. And oranges are good when you have a cold, right?

Browsing through some new magazines, I came across this recipe for a gluten-free orange and almond cake. I’ve wanted to cook one of these cakes for quite some time. Usually, they involve cooking a couple of oranges whole in water for 1-2 hours before blitzing them for the cake (seeds and all). This recipe interested me as you cut up the oranges, removed the seeds and cook them for only 30 minutes , so I decided to give it a go.

If you have a stand mixer and food processor, this is an easy recipe to prepare. The result is a beautiful moist cake. Serve it hot with some orange syrup and ice-cream for a dessert, or cold as a nice cake for afternoon tea. If you want to add more moisture or sweetness, drizzle it with orange syrup when it is out of the oven.

Orange and almond cake

Click here for the recipe

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Pastry making class week 2 – Lemon tart (and apple rose tarts)

I have been looking forward to the Australian version of the Great British Bake Off ever since I heard it was being filmed. However I am starting to wonder if, when they advertised that it would air after Easter, they meant Easter 2014!

While waiting, I have been revisiting the original British version and discovering the blogs of some of the past contestants. One of the things I have wanted to try for some time are Mary-Anne’s (Season 2) apple rose tarts. I found Mary-Anne one of the most interesting contestants on The Great British Bake off, with her recipes utilising unique techniques based on a lot of research and historical recipes (and a collection of over 900 cookbooks, which puts my 200 to shame). I thought these tarts were beautiful so I decided to try the apple rose component today while I was making a batch of Lemon Tarts from my second pastry making course (with Sarah Brigden from babyCakes).

Lemon tart
Lemon tarts

I won’t repeat the instructions here, as they are already provided so well by Mary-Anne on her site Time To Cook – Online. As I just wanted to try the roses today, I made the sweet pastry that I learnt in class, and a crème patisserie recipe that I had previously learnt from Sarah (which I will post in a few weeks). I followed Mary-Anne’s instructions to make the apple roses (although without returning them to the oven to bake). Although they are a little fiddly, they are very effective and I’m sure they get a bit easier with practice. I quite liked the freshness of the apple after poaching them in the apple syrup and not baking them further.

As long as you chill the pastry well before rolling it, I think this pastry is quite easy to work with. I like adding some orange or lemon zest to the pastry for an extra citrus hit. The citrus filling is beautifully creamy and tangy and I certainly recommend giving these a try. And the apple rose tarts look beautiful and very effective, and are not too difficult to achieve. Next time I will give Mary-Anne’s apple custard filling a go as well and bake the apple roses.

apple roses

Click here for the recipe

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Anzac slice

Today here in Australia (and New Zealand) is Anzac day. Anzac day falls on the 25th of April and commemorates the first major military action fought by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at the Gallipoli peninsula during the First World War on the morning of 25 April 1915.

The action was not a victory and both sides suffered heavy casualties. The event had a significant impact on Australians at home. In Australia and New Zealand today, Anzac day is one of the most important national occasions and is a day where we remember the sacrifice of those who died in military operations.  Lest we forget. One of my great grandfathers was one of the first on the shore at Gallipoli and while another was with the field ambulances. My family was lucky – they both survived.

Dawn commemorative services are held on Anzac day across Australia, at the time of the original Gallipoli landing. Later in the day, from big cities to small towns, commemorative marches are held across the nation. I remember going to school Anzac day services and local marches with my family, wearing the service medals of grandparents.

Also associated with Anzac day is the Anzac biscuit. These biscuits do actually have links to World War One. Family, friends and communities would send food to the soldiers fighting in the war. Due to the time it would take for the food to get to the front, the food had to be long lasting without refrigeration while retaining nutritional value. Thus the Anzac biscuit (originally called the Soldiers’ Biscuit, with the same basic ingredients then as today) was born.

Instead of Anzac biscuits (see here for recipe), I decided today to make an Anzac slice. The basic ingredients (and the smells that filled the house while it was baking) are the same and the result tastes the same as an Anzac biscuit. The edge of the slice has the crispness and chewiness I usually associate with an Anzac biscuit, while the centre of the slice is softer and moist.

Anzac slice

Click here for the recipe

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Nanna’s cookbook – Lemon and coconut slice

When I started this blog, one of the things I wanted to do was work through my Nanna’s handwritten cookbook, which is full of recipes she collected throughout her life. Her handwriting however is quite difficult to decipher and there are minimal instructions, so it is quite a big task.

Nanna's cookbook
Nanna’s cookbook

I was reminded of this the other day when I was browsing through other people’s blog posts and came across a recipe for lemon and lime coconut slice by Daisy and the Fox. Instantly I thought of my Nanna’s lemon slice and knew I had to make her recipe this weekend.

My Nanna was a very important part of my life and one of my first cooking memories is making pikelets with her. She also taught me how to spin, knit and crochet. I am so lucky to have had her in my life and I often think of her and miss her.

After she retired, she moved to be closer to us (my brother and I were her only grandchildren). We often stayed with her on weekends and over the holidays. She also often picked me up after school, and looked after me when I was home sick. For my first two years of high school I went to a private school that was about 45 minutes from home (longer with public transport). Often the bus wouldn’t pick us up and I was having issues with my health. Nanna started driving all the way there and picking me up. She always had an afternoon snack waiting for me, like this slice.

I was thinking about this and other memories of my time with my Nanna while I was making the slice. Isn’t it wonderful how food can remind us of the people we  love and evoke memories of them and our time with them?

Nanna's original handwritten recipe
Nanna’s original handwritten recipe

Click here for the recipe

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Hummingbird cakes with coconut crust

I am a fan of pineapple as an ingredient in both sweet and savoury dishes. I’m not ashamed to admit that my favourite pizza topping is simply ham, cheese and pineapple, and any sweet and sour dish has to have pineapple in it for me.

So when I saw this recipe, I instantly wanted to try it. Added to that, my freezer is starting to fill up again with overripe bananas, so it was a great way to use up a few of those. The recipe also uses oil instead of butter, which I prefer as I find cakes cooked with oil are always moist without any buttery aftertaste.

I liked the idea of the coconut crust on top. However, it made the cakes a bit too sweet for me. Next time I think I will put only a very small amount on top to retain the texture element, but reduce the sweetness.  Although on tasting these again the next day, they tasted less sweet so it may have just been because they were a bit warm, and I prefered these the day after cooking. This is a very moist cake, due to the bananas, pineapple and oil, with a caramel sweetness from the brown sugar both in the cupcakes as well as on top and a hint of spice from the ginger and cinnamon. There wasn’t quite enough pineapple evident in the final cake for me, so I may add some pineapple pieces next time rather than just crushed pineapple.

Hummingbird cake with coconut crust

Click here for the recipe

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Hot Cross Buns

Although I love cooking and baking, bread making is a skill I have not yet attempted to master. The only bread I have ever made at home is naan bread. And while it worked quite well, I’ve only made it once and that was probably seven years ago.

In an attempt to correct this omission, I have enrolled in a bread making class at Matters of Taste. However this class is still a few months away. So yesterday, given it was Good Friday, I decided it was time to make a start and give hot cross buns a try.

Most people probably think that hot cross buns, with the cross representing the crucifixion, are solely a Christian tradition. However, apparently (thank you google) the ancient Greeks marked buns with a cross. There may also be connections to the goddess Eostre (Easter – get it?), who is the namesake of the festival of Easter and is where the custom of bunnies (hares) and eggs is thought to have come from.

Anyway, I went looking for a recipe to try and really liked the sound of these hot cross buns (recipe by Paul Hollywood from The Great British Bake Off) with the addition of orange zest and apple. I left out the citrus peel (I don’t candied peel) and added some mixed spice. Don’t be put off by how sticky the dough is to start with. A dusting of  flour and a few minutes of kneading and it all comes together. I have to say I was very proud of my first attempt at hot cross buns, although I now know I need to place them closer together next time, and I think baking them at home on Good Friday is an Easter tradition that I will continue.

Hot cross buns

Click here for the recipe

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