Hi there! I hope that you are all having a great holiday season, and best wishes for a prosperous and happy 2016!
Please enjoy this delicious raspberry loaf cake with lemon glaze - it's moist, easy and tastes amazing!
Recipe adapted from: Liv for Cake
Ingredients - 11 x 21 cm (4 x 8 inch) loaf
85g butter
210g white sugar
2 eggs
30g almond meal
105g flour
1/4 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 tsp salt
65g sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp lemon juice
2/3 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (I used frozen)
Ingredients - glaze
250g icing sugar
4 tbsp lemon juice (or more if you want a more runny glaze)
Method - cake
1. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F).
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. One at a time, beat the eggs into the butter mixture.
4. Mix the almond meal, flour, bicarb soda and salt together.
5. Mix half the flour into the batter, then all of the sour cream, then the rest of the flour.
6. Add the vanilla essence, lemon zest and lemon juice to the batter and mix until combined.
7. Finally, gently fold the raspberries into the batter.
8. Line a loaf tin with baking paper and pour the batter in, spreading it evenly with a spatula.
9. Bake in the preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs.
10. Cool the cake in the tin for a few minutes, then take it out and cool completely on a wire rack.
Method - glaze
1. Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together until smooth and of a pourable consistency.
2. When the cake is cool, drizzle the glaze over the top.
Enjoy!
Who loves Nutella? I do, and I hope you all do too!
This Nutella/vanilla swirl loaf is super easy to make - and it's moist, delicious and of course full of (and covered in) Nutella. I baked this for a family dinner and it was very well received.
It's quick and simple so this is one to keep in your repertoire and whip up when you're in a bind!
Recipe adapted from: Taming Twins
Ingredients - 11 x 21 cm (4 x 8 inch) loaf
225g butter
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
225g flour
2 tsp baking powder
200g Nutella
Ingredients - topping
100g Nutella
75g hazelnuts
Method
1. Preheat your oven to 160C (320F).
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between additions. Mix in the vanilla essence.
4. Fold the flour and baking powder into the mixture gently.
5. Take one third of the batter out of the bowl and set aside. With the remaining two thirds, add the 200g Nutella and mix until smooth and combined.
6. Line a 22 x 12cm loaf tin with baking paper.
7. Pour the vanilla batter into your lined loaf tin, try and keep it on one side of the tin. Then pour the Nutella batter onto the other side and swirl them around with a knife. Don't swirl too much because you don't want the colours to get too muddy and messy.
8. Bake the cake for about 50-60 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs. While the cake is baking, you can toast your hazelnuts in a frying pan to give them more flavour and crunch!
9. When your cake's done, let it cool in the tin.
10. When cool, place your cake on a serving plate and spread the 100g Nutella over the top. If your Nutella's a bit stiff, microwave it for a few seconds in a microwave safe bowl to make it a bit more runny.
11. Roughly chop the hazelnuts and sprinkle them over the top.
Enjoy!
This cake is so good, it's ridiculous. The chocolate cake is dense and moist, the icing is incredible and the browned butter taste really comes through. Plus, the cookie dough part of things doesn't have any raw egg!
Recipe adapted from: Bright-Eyed Baker
Ingredients - 3 tier 15 cm (6 inch) cake
500g white sugar
250g flour
75g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp salt
115g butter
2 eggs
240g buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla essence
225g hot coffee
Ingredients - browned butter brown sugar icing
400g butter (you will brown this)
165g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
350g icing sugar
20g cream
Ingredients - cookie dough icing
25g butter (you will brown this)
55g brown sugar
1 tbsp cream
40g flour
Method - cake
1. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F). Butter three 15cm cake tins (or equivalent) and line the bottoms with baking paper.
2. Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, bicarb and salt in a mixing bowl - I used the bowl of my stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
3. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool slightly.
4. Mix the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and melted butter into the flour mixture until smooth.
5. Add the hot coffee and stir into the batter. It will be very liquid.
6. Evenly distribute the batter between the three cake tins and bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs. It should still be moist.
7. Let the cakes cool in the tins for about 15 minutes then invert the cakes onto wire racks to cool completely.
Method - browning butter
1. Both the cookie dough and icing use browned butter, so you can do both at the one time - however, if you like, you can do it separately.
2. Place the 25g butter for the dough and 400g butter for the icing in a saucepan. Heat the butter over medium-low heat until the butter starts frothing, whisking it occasionally. Keep it cooking while whisking until the butter turns a golden colour and brown flecks form on the bottom of the pan. It will smell really amazing!
3. Remove the butter from the heat and transfer it into two bowls, splitting the amounts into approximately 25g and approximately 400g amounts (keep in mind that after browning the weight might have decreased, so eyeball it a bit!) I recommend using something metal as you are going to put this in the freezer and you don't want your bowls to crack from the temperature change.
4. Take the larger amount of butter (the one you'll be using for the icing) and mix the 165g brown sugar into it. Leave the smaller amount of butter with no additions.
5. Freeze both the browned butter bowls until the butter is firm (but not completely hard)
Method - brown sugar icing
1. Using the larger amount of browned butter that you mixed the brown sugar into, and place it in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. The butter shouldn't be rock hard, but you can use a knife and cut it a bit to make it easier to beat.
2. Beat the butter with the vanilla essence until fluffy.
3. Add the icing sugar (sift it for a lump-free icing!) and beat until light and fluffy.
4. Finally, add the cream and beat. The cream just makes the icing smoother, more spreadable and takes away some of the gritty sugar feeling that buttercream can get.
5. Set the icing aside and make your cookie dough!
Method - cookie dough icing
1. Take the smaller amount of browned butter, beat the 55g brown sugar into it until light and fluffy. Since there was such a small amount I just used a wooden spoon.
2. Mix the cream in, and finally the flour until you have a smooth paste-like dough.
3. Take about a cup of the brown sugar icing and beat it into the cookie dough for an amazing cookie dough flavoured icing.
Method - assembly
1. Place one (completely cool) cake layer on your desired serving plate and top with a third of the cookie dough icing.
Add the next cake layer, another third of the cookie dough icing and finally the last cake layer - top this with the rest of the cookie dough icing.
2. Ice the rest of the cake with the remaining brown sugar icing.
3. Decorate as you please or just dig in!
This pumpkin cake is beautiful with a great texture, and great colour! I've found that with pumpkin cakes you really can't taste that there's pumpkin in them, it just gives the cake a nice small crumb and keeps everything moist.
This cake goes well with cinnamon, caramel or chocolate icing. Check out how Sweetapolita styled this cake with drippy salted caramel, cream cheese icing and chocolate icing.
Recipe adapted from: Sweetapolita
Ingredients - 3 layer 20 cm (8 inch) cake
265g white sugar
160g brown sugar
4 eggs
240mL vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
400g pumpkin puree (you can used canned puree, however I cook and mash fresh pumpkin)
345g flour
1.5 tbsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1.5 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 175 C (350 F). If you're using fresh pumpkin, cook it and mash it up (I just chop the pumpkin up and microwave it with some water, then mash with a fork). Set it aside to cool. Skip this step if you're using canned pumpkin filling.
2. Beat the eggs, white sugar and brown sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Add the oil and vanilla, beat until combined. Add the pumpkin and mix until combined.
4. Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt - then gradually add these dry ingredients to the rest of the batter. Mix until everything's combined.
5. Butter three 22cm cake tins or equivalent, and line the bottoms with baking paper.
6. Evenly distribute the cake batter between the tins and bake for about 25 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
7. Let the cakes cool for about 10 minutes then invert the cakes onto wire racks to cool completely.
Finally, assemble your cake with the icing of your choice. I baked some in friand shapes and left them plain (the texture of this cake is just so amazing!) - I've also made this cake in layers with cinnamon buttercream (see below), and I've made it with dark chocolate ganache too.
It's a great versatile recipe, I hope you enjoy it!
Carrot cake is a staple recipe and it's so, so good. The cake itself is moist and absolutely delicious, with the slight crunch of walnuts throughout, and topped off with classic cream cheese icing. I find that carrot cake is a universally liked dessert so it's great to have in your baking repertoire!
Ingredients - one layer 23 cm (9 inch) square cake or two layer 20 cm (8 inch) round cake
250g brown sugar
3 eggs
250mL vegetable oil
230g flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
Pinch of cinnamon
250g carrot (2-3 carrots)
Walnuts to taste (I usually use about a cup - this step is optional!)
Ingredients - cream cheese icing
60g butter (room temperature butter works best!)
350g cream cheese
350g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Optional - walnuts for garnishing
Method - cake
1. Preheat your oven to 180C (356F). Grate your carrot. If you're using walnuts, chop them up roughly.
2. Beat the sugar and eggs, then mix the oil in.
3. Fold the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and cinnamon into the mixture.
4. Finally, fold the grated carrot and chopped walnuts into the batter.
5. Line a baking tin (23cm square tin) with baking paper and pour the mixture in. Bake the cake for 1 hour, an inserted toothpick should come out clean.
6. Let your cake cool for a bit in the tin, then transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Get started on the cream cheese icing!
Method - icing
1. Beat the butter and cream cheese until combined.
2. Add the icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Finally, add the vanilla and beat until combined.
4. Once your cake is completely cool, ice it to your preference. It looks great decorated with walnuts.
The great thing about carrot cake is that you can make it look as 'rustic' and 'homey' as you want it to. If you're doing it in layers, you can just ice between the layers and on top and leave the sides icing-free; you can put walnuts anywhere you like; and you can make the icing smooth or messy-looking. There's lots of room for experimentation!
I like to ice the whole cake (because more icing is better!), chop walnuts up and put them on the sides. Another method I often use is placing walnut halves around the edge of the top of the cake.
Carrot cake is also great in cupcake form!
This cake is a favourite in our household. It's sweet, syrupy, and moist, but not too heavy. The pumpkin gives the cake a great texture.
Recipe adapted from: Women's Weekly Cakes & Slices Cookbook
Ingredients - 23 cm (9 inch) square cake or equivalent
250g butter
2 tbsp orange zest
2 tbsp lemon zest
195g caster sugar
3 eggs
310g flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 cup mashed pumpkin (about 350g)
Ingredients - syrup
6 tbsp orange juice
6 tbsp lemon juice
500g white sugar
Method
1. Preheat your oven to 180C (355F) and line a 23cm square pan or equivalent with baking paper. I also prepare my pumpkin at this point by chopping it up and microwaving it with a splash of water until it's cooked, then mashing it with a fork and setting it aside to cool.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and zest until light and fluffy.
3. Separate the eggs. Beat the egg yolks into the butter mixture. Put the egg whites in another bowl for use later.
4. Mix half the pumpkin into the batter, then half the flour. Once that's combined, mix in the rest of the pumpkin and the flour along with the baking powder.
5. Whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Mix a spoonful into the pumpkin batter to lighten it, then gently fold the rest of the egg whites into the batter.
6. Spread the batter into your prepared cake tin, and bake for about an hour. An inserted toothpick in the middle of the cake should come out clean.
7. Make your syrup! Combine all the syrup ingredients in a saucepan. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes, without stirring. Make sure you keep a sharp eye on this as it can tend to boil over!
8. Once the cake has been baked, pour the syrup over the cake in the tin. You can also poke some holes in the top to let the syrup really get in there.
9. Invert the cake onto a serving plate once the syrup has soaked in. Then, pour the remainder of the syrup onto the cake.
This cake is glorious when served warm!
This cake is definitely a winner - the cake itself is so moist and the icing is lighter, fluffy and delicious. It's definitely one I'll make again and again!
Recipe adapted from: Sweetapolita
Ingredients - 20 cm (8 inch) cake
285g flour
470g caster sugar
90g cocoa powder
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
300mL buttermilk
180mL coffee (I use instant granules and hot water)
160mL vegetable oil (I use canola oil)
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla essence
Ingredients - Nutella icing
565g icing sugar
340g butter (room temperature)
280g Nutella
180mL sour cream
330g dark chocolate
1 tbsp vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
Method - cake
1. Preheat the oven to 175 C (350 F). Butter three 21cm cake tins and line the bottoms with baking paper. Using more tins helps your cakes bake quicker and more evenly.
2. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, caster sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt) in an electric mixer with the whisk attachment.
3. In another bowl, combine the rest of the cake ingredients (buttermilk, coffee, oil, eggs and vanilla). Beat them gently, make sure to break up the egg yolks.
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix until fully combined. The batter should be pourable and runny.
5. Separate the batter between the cake tins (if you're using three tins, each should have about 600g of batter) and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs.
6. Let the cakes cool in the tins, then invert them onto wire racks.
Method - Nutella icing
1. This is seriously easy. Melt the chocolate, when once it's a little cool, put all the icing ingredients in a food processor. Process until the icing is smooth.
2. Refrigerate the icing for about 15 minutes, until it's a good spreadable consistency.
Method - assembly
1. On your desired cake plate, layer up the completely cooled cake layers with a generous helping of the Nutella icing in between each layer.
2. Finish off by completely icing the outside of the cake, and decorate to your tastes (or leave it plain - that looks good, too!) I decorated this cake with silver and blue cachous, as well as small silver sprinkles.
Enjoy!
I can hardly believe that it's almost Christmas again. It's been a pretty huge year for me on a few levels, so I'm quite happy and relieved that it's coming to an end so that I can refresh myself.
The things that have been baking in my house around Christmas are, as always, stacks of gingerbread (here's my recipe post from back in 2010!). Mum and I have made close to ten gingerbread houses and so many cookies (mostly trees and reindeer); all the recipients of the cookies have been very appreciative. I brought some in to my new workplace and that was a great conversation starter!
For Christmas day itself, we have a long lunch with our family and we're usually in charge of dessert. This year, I'm making a mud cake and Mum will whip up some pavlovas in addition to a big gingerbread house.
If you're still looking for something to bake for Christmas (or just for general snacking!), I would highly recommend this lemon tea cake. It's beautifully moist and fluffy, as well as nice and simple to make - and most importantly, it tastes divine.
Have a lovely holiday season, everyone, stay safe and eat lots of yummy food!
Recipe adapted from: The Australian Women's Weekly Cakes & Slices Cookbook
Ingredients (26 cm (10 inch) round cake - 1/2 a batch makes one 20 cm (8 inch) round cake)
250g butter
Zest of two lemons
500g caster sugar
6 eggs
350g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
200g sour cream
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170 C (340 F). Grease a 27cm round tin with butter and line the bottom with baking paper.
2. Cream the butter, lemon zest and sugar until light and fluffy. I use the whisk attachment on my Kitchenaid for every process in this cake.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
4. Beat in half the sour cream, then half of the flour.
5. Beat in the remaining sour cream, then the remaining flour and the baking powder. I use the whisk attachment on a low setting for this to ensure that everything is combined.
6. Spread the batter into your cake tin and bake for about 1 1/2 hours or until the top of the cake is golden and an inserted toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs.
7. Let the cake cool in the tin and then invert onto a wire rack or your desired serving plate.
8. To serve, you can simply dust the cake with icing sugar...
...or for a bit more flair, make up a glaze with lemon juice and icing sugar. I recommend placing the cake on a wire rack and glazing it before transferring it to your serving plate so that the drippy glaze doesn't run everywhere.
Ever since my mother requested that I make cake batter ice cream, I'd been on the lookout for a perfect recipe. Every one I came across either used boxed cake mix, milk powder or some other ingredient that wasn't readily available to me. Then I came across a recipe that didn't need any out-of-the-ordinary ingredients and was super simple to make!
Let me tell you, it is perfect. It tastes just like cake batter, and has an amazing creamy texture. Just be aware that this dessert features raw eggs, so if that's something you want to avoid, unfortunately this recipe is not the one for you. I figured that with the amount of cake batter and cookie dough I've eaten in my lifetime (a lot), some more raw eggs would not do any more damage (thankfully, they didn't)!
Recipe adapted from: Foods of Our Lives
Ingredients
375mL thickened cream
250mL milk
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
115g flour
185g white sugar
Method
1. Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Sifting the flour may help with lumps, but the few small lumps I found in the blended mixture were not noticeable in my finished ice cream.
2. Pour into an ice cream maker and churn according to your maker's instructions. I did mine for about 30 minutes. (I have a Cuisinart 2L ice cream maker of the freezer-bowl variety).
3. Once the ice cream is done churning and you are happy with the consistency, transfer it to a receptacle of your choice and put it in the freezer. Alternatively, serve it straight away.
Enjoy! I hope you love this as much as I did!
Next mission: gingerbread ice cream...
