Cakes and Puddings Archives - Page 27 of 46

Coconut Cake Minis With Blackberries And White Chocolate

19|03|2016

Berries are fabulous with coconut flavored desserts and so is white chocolate! I’ve been wanting to make a blackberry based cake for a long time but since I only had a small punnet of them at home, I decided to make mini cakes instead of a large one. Individually portioned desserts have their own appeal and are easier to decorate. Before I was the owner of a multitude of baking pans, my baking equipment was limited to a round cake pan, a muffin pan and a few ramekins. I got those 4 ramekins as part of a creme brule set and I put them to good use by baking miniature versions of all the bigger cakes recipes I knew at that time. So, I decided to go back in time and bake these coconut cake minis with blackberries in ramekins. They were then dipped in melted white chocolate and shredded coconut.

Another reason I like the pairing is because together they are kind of monochrome to look at. They offer a lot of textural drama to a photo which I’ve been dreaming up to create on a grey backdrop!

In other news, it has started to feel a bit like Autumn! The chill, the early sunset and the receding stone fruits. It’s certainly a relief after the soaring temperatures and humidity in March. But you know what, I would have loved Autumn a bit more if it didn’t come after summer. It marks the end of summer, the end of my favorite season. I am excited though for the people on the other side of the world. I’ll enjoy your spring and summer:-)

Coconut Cake Minis With Blackberries And White Chocolate
Makes 6

90 g butter, softened
1/2 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/3 cup shredded coconut
100 g greek yogurt
200 g blackberries
1 cup white chocolate divided, roughly chopped.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C( 160 degrees C for fan forced). Lightly grease the bottom of 6 ramekins.
Process the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and yoghurt in a food processor until smooth. Fold in blackberries and 1/3 cup white chocolate. Divide between the ramekins. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cakes are cooked through. Remove from oven. Leave aside for 2 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack.

Meanwhile, place the remaining white chocolate in a heat proof pan that is placed on a saucepan of boiling water. This is done to gently melt the white chocolate. Once melted, remove from heat. Place the shredded coconut on a plate.

Dip the tops of the blackberry cake minis first in the white chocolate (let the extra fall back in the pan) and then in the shredded coconut. Place on a wire rack to dry.

Easy Chocolate Cake With Raspberries

9|03|2016

I think it’s important for everyone to have a great, reliable and easy chocolate cake recipe in their kitty that they can pull out when the situation calls for it. There are always birthdays and special days when you just want to skip the bakery and bake your loved ones a homemade cake. Or maybe a chocolate craving or just something nice for the weekend. This one is my go to chocolate cake. I visit it time and again, adjust the weights according to the number of servings required and tweak the recipe a little bit depending on the flavors I am looking for.

This is a cake that is moist, firm and very choclatey despite being made with a few pantry ingredients. The chocolate fudge buttercream is totally decadent and glossy just the way I like it. If I am after a chocolate orange cake, I add orange zest to the cake batter and the frosting. For a mocha cake, I would add a teaspoon of coffee and so on. Basically, it’s a versatile and easy to make cake. I’ve made it in 3, 6 inch pans for this recipe but I’ve also made a single layer cake earlier using the same recipe. If you are not confident about your piping skills, spreading the frosting into rustic swirls looks equally amazing on this easy chocolate cake.

It’s officially Autumn but there are no signs of it. We are a bit fed up with the consistent warm temperatures but I am equally glad that the summer produce hasn’t left us yet. Hence the excuse to use up some beautiful raspberries for the cake.

Easy Chocolate Cake With Raspberries
Makes a 6 inch, 3-layered round cake or an 8 inch single cake

1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup boiling water (125 ml)
125 g unsalted butter, softened
11/4 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup plain flour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease 3, 6 inch baking pans and line the bases with non-stick baking paper.
Mix the cocoa powder and boiling water form a smooth, thick paste. Leave aside.

Use an electric mixer or by hand,beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence together for 1-2 minutes or until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until combined,

Sift together the flours. Use a large metal spoon to fold the flours into the butter mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture, in 2 batches each, until well combined. Divide the mixture equally between the 3 prepared pans. Smoothen the surface with the back of the spoon.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Stand for 3 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Once cooled completely, frost with chocolate fudge frosting, either by spreading the frosting with a spoon or piping it onto the cake layers. Decorate with fresh raspberries.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

120 gms unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup (150 gms) unsalted butter, room temperature
11/3 cups (160 gms) icing sugar sifted
11/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy(about 1 min). Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy(about 2 min). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy (about 2-3 min).

Ice Cream Lolly Cake

6|12|2015

This is another cake I am posting on request by many on Instagram and Facebook. I am truely overwhelmed by your support and sweet messages to me. I wish I could make a cake for each one of you on your special day and sit by your side to enjoy it.

For others, who are seeing it for the first time, I made this cake for the twin’s 6th birthday in November. We had booked a mini golf centre and the boys had an awesome time with their friends. It threatened to rain in the morning which is so typical cold-after-warm kind of Sydney weather. Therefore the highlight of the day were the 28 little fellows in bright colored raincoats (that were supplied by the golf centre) running all over beautifully landscaped gardens with golf clubs in hand. The previous day was boiling hot and I did not want to risk making a buttercream cake. My fridge was already housing two store-bought cakes for the party so I opted for an ice cream cake instead. The boys loved the idea especially since it would have lollies and ice cream. I loved the idea of a make-ahead cake that was so simple to put together. Win win!
There’s no hard and fast rule here. Play around with the ice cream flavours if you want to. Go crazy with the cookies and candies. It tastes great anyway.
It was such a pleasure to see the little faces light up at the sight of this cake on their birthday.

Ice-cream Lolly Cake (inspired by Ice cream cakes from the Family Circle magazine)
Makes a 19 cm round cake that will serve 6-8 people

200 g chocolate cookies
70 g unsalted butter
1 packet (200 g) milk chocolate Tim Tams
6 Ferrero Rocher chocolates
6 Oreo Cookies
12-14 Maltesers
1 litre Vanilla Ice cream (store-bought), slightly softened
1 litre Chocolate Ice cream (store-bought), slightly softened
Lollies, candies, cookies to decorate

Chocolate Glaze
75 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
50 g butter

Line the base of a 19 cm round Spring-form pan with baking paper.
Place the cookies in a food processor. Process until fine crumbs. Add melted butter and mix to combine. Alternatively, you could crush the biscuits with a rolling pin inside a zip-lock bag. Using your fingertips, press biscuit mixture over base of prepared pan. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes or until firm.

Meanwhile, fill up a large zip lock bag with the Tim Tams, Oreos, Ferrero Rochers, Maltesers. Seal and crush with a rolling pin or an heavy object till the candies/cookies are crushed into big and small pieces (We don’t want fine crumbs). Add the crushed mixture to a large bowl along with a vanilla ice cream and fold in till just mixed (do not allow the ice cream to melt fully). Drop large spoonfuls of this mixture into the prepared springform pan alternating with softened chocolate ice cream. Cover the pan with cling film. Freeze overnight. Before serving, pour the chocolate glaze on top. Decorate with lollies, chocolates and candies. To stick them onto the cake, use a bit of the glaze underneath the cookies/candies. The lollies can be inserted directly into the cake.

To make the chocolate glaze, melt the chocolate and butter together in the microwave or in a small saucepan under low heat. Stir to mix. Remove from heat and leave to cool to room temperature. Don’t let it solidify before pouring.

Cranberry Swirl Cake

27|11|2015

I promise, I made cranberry sauce to go with some kind of meat. I have no idea how it ended up in cake:-) This was the first time I made a cranberry sauce at home. In fact, this was my first time cooking with cranberries. Until now I did not even know that we could buy frozen cranberries in Australia. We are always using the dried cranberries for everything. So, when I discovered it in the freezer section of my local supermarket, I wanted to jump. It was nice to see them outside the Internet, in my hands. Oh hello, Cranberries!

Making the sauce was easy, just like any other jam or chutney. The problem happened when I was looking up protein combinations to go with the sauce. I came across pages that talked about ‘using up leftover cranberry sauce’. Some mentioned Cake. Distraction!

Now I only wanted to make cake. Maybe the leftover sauce could go into savory food. The definition of leftover still remains the same? Anyway, I was glad that I made the cake because it was delicious. The tangy sweet sauce made it a delight to eat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a frosted bundt cake. Why not…I thought to myself! Well, I need to tell you the real inspiration behind the look of this cake. A few weeks ago, I watched the movie Burnt at a theater. I was literally waiting for the movie release as you can imagine…it was all about food, passion and restaurants. Beautifully plated and styled food. I did not enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed glimpses of the food. And I just could not forget the cake, Chef Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) served to the little girl on her birthday. That cake was far, far more beautiful than this one but I had no idea what and how it was made. When I saw the shape of my cake as I turned it out on the wire rack, I thought I might get it to look a bit like the cake in the movie.

You could make your’s in a bundt pan or a normal 7 inch pan. I’ve used whipped cream frosting to keep things easy and the sauce went into the frosting as well. The consistency of my cranberry sauce was quite thick, like jam so it blended well with the cream. You could use store bought cranberry sauce as well.

Here’s a little dialogue from the movie
‘Cooking should be consistent in experience, but not consistent in taste. I want people to sit at the table and be sick with longing.’ -Chef Adam Jones

I can’t agree more with you Chef!

Cranberry Swirl Cake
Makes an 8 inch bundt cake

120 g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups plain flour
220 g Greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
11/4 cup cranberry sauce (home-made or store bought)

Cranberry Sauce
3 cups frozen cranberries, thawed
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp grated orange or lemon zest

Cranberry Whipped Cream (makes about 2 cups of frosting)
1 cup heavy cream/double cream/thickened cream, cold
11/2 tbsp castor sugar (more as per sweetness desired)
1/3 cup chilled cranberry sauce
few drops pink food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (16 degrees C for fan forced)
Beat butter and sugar together until smooth and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time until bleneded. Mix together dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture alternately greek yogurt. Add vanilla. Grease well, an 8-inch Bundt pan. Spread a layer of batter in the bottom of the pan, then scatter 1/3 of the cranberry sauce. Swirl with a knife. Repeat layers of batter, then cranberry sauce, swirling each layer with a knife. Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until fully cooked (a skewer inserted into the pan should come out clean).

Leave in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack. Once cooled, frost with whipped cream or enjoy plain. I’ve used a large star tip to make the pattern

To make the Cranberry Sauce : Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Continue boiling for 5-10 minutes or until the cranberries become a soft mush and sauce has thickened. Cool to room temperature. Por into a clean jar and refrigerate until needed.

To make the cranberry whipped cream , Place the mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for about 15 minutes before whisking the cream. Place the cream and sugar in the bowl and whisk only until very soft peaks form. Then add the cranberry sauce, food colour and beat just until stiff peaks form. Add more sugar or puree as needed. Refrigerate until needed.