dessert Archives - Page 20 of 57

Chocolate And Earl Grey Pots De Creme

27|01|2017

There goes an entire month. It’s no longer a New year! Our boys enjoyed an almost two month vacation and will be finally back to school next week. These two months seem the longest to me. From the time vacations kick off to the onset of the new class, (which is basically 2/3 of an Australian summer) there is non-stop action on the home front and work turns out to a bit of a struggle. When your home and office are located in the confines of the same space, time is no longer the factor that determines when you switch off and when you resume. It is you who decides. If you’re like me, you won’t stop. You go on and on. You push your limits till you reach the absolute brink of exhaustion. With young kids around, the distraction is crazy. And to make up for that, the hours in the night are precious. Sleep takes a backseat. You are low on energy and the creative juices stop flowing. Ha! All this rant to tell you that when you can’t think of anything new, you turn to your favourites. Good old chocolate and Earl Grey. Always a hit! Always delicious. Always.

Pots de creme is like a feel-good dish for me. Lesser steps than a mousse but pretty much similar in taste. Slightly more intense, but that’s what you need sometimes. Less fuss and more decadence. Chocolate, tea, cream (I love cream), sprinkles and berries. What is not to love about this?

Chocolate And Earl Grey Pots De Creme
Serves 4

1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
2 Earl Grey tea bags
100g good-quality milk chocolate, roughly chopped
4 egg yolks
2 tbsp. castor sugar (more if you require it sweeter)
Berries to serve

Slowly heat the cream and milk in a saucepan until very hot, but not boiling. Remove from heat and add the tea bags. Let steep for 30 minutes. Press down with the back of a spoon to extract more flavour. Discard tea bags and warm the cream-milk mixture gently to a slight boil (do not boil). Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Leave undisturbed for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl until well combined. Pour the warm cream-chocolate mixture over the egg yolk mixture, little at a time whisking constantly until smooth. Take care not to add the entire cream to the eggs together as it can overcook the eggs resulting in scrambled eggs.

Divide the custard into four lightly-greased, ramekins or ovenproof cups. Place in a deep baking tray. Pour boiling water into baking tray until halfway up sides of ramekins.

Bake custards, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until just set (while the centres are slightly jiggly when shaken). Remove from the oven and take the ramekins out of the water bath. Leave to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Serve with berries or fruit of choice.

Red Velvet Bundt Cake

20|01|2017

Nordic bake-ware has its own rustic charm! I owned one of those bundt cake pans years ago but hardly ever bake with it now. Too much of design in the exterior results in the cake sticking to the sides despite greasing well and has almost always resulted in a disaster. Also, the kind of cake being baked is equally important. Moist, sponge like cakes are best to be avoided whereas butter cakes are certainly a better choice. However, finding this cake pan (the ones used for this cake) which was of a far greater quality (from Williams Sonoma) made me re-think bundt cakes. It is no secret how much I love Red Velvet Cakes so I thought about that first. But then Red Velvet Cakes are soft textured cakes so I knew that would be a challenge. After looking through a few recipes, I found this one and tweaked it slightly to get the desired results.

The cake came out perfectly. No sure if it was the pan or the cake or maybe both. The inside of the cake was still quite soft while the outside nicely held it’s shape. The flavour was there, though not as much as would be in a regular Red Velvet Cake. The cream cheese glaze was delicious and more than made up for it. Owing to the shape, most of the glaze slid down the edges but when I served it to my friends, I add an extra generous drizzle to the slices on the plate and that went down a treat with everyone.

Red Velvet Bundt Cake
Makes a 8.5 inch bundt cake

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tbsp red food coloring
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 3/4 cups castor sugar
1 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

Cream Cheese Glaze
225 g (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
5 tbsp unsalted butter
21/2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and flour bundt pan.

In stand mixer or with an electric mixer, combine oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla. Mix well. In a separate bowl sift together dry ingredients. Gradually add to wet ingredients (slowly at first). Beat until smooth.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven. Leave aside for 10 minutes. Slowly loosen the sides and turn onto a wire rack for 30 mins to cool completely. Once cool, spoon the cream cheese glaze on the top.

To make the cream cheese glaze, combine the butter and cream cheese in stand mixer (or with an electric mixer). Gradually add sugar and vanilla at low speed to combine, then whisk at high speed for three minutes.

Orange Almond Cake

4|01|2017

This recipe was meant to be shared before Christmas last year. As some of you already know that I am travelling and despite having everything ready to go, issues with Internet connectivity delayed it by a whole year:-) I thought I was well organised for my holidays this time but some things are just meant to be. Maybe it was meant to for a 2017 post. Happy New Year to all my dear readers! I hope each and every one of you have great experiences this year and are able to embrace what life throws at you without fear or regret. It is hard but this is something I am trying to learn at a personal level. I’m trying not to dwell on things…what should be..why they shouldn’t and so on. Life only moves in one direction…forward. Unless you let go of the old, there won’t be room for the new. This may be a good start. Also this year I wanted to make a few tea cakes. While frosted, layer cakes allow room for creativity and visual appeal, some of us would rather go with a simple one layered, uncomplicated treat for many occasions that one can mix and bake in minutes. This Orange Almond Cake is one such cake.

I swapped the milk in this cake with a delicious orange juice for for an extra orange kick. The warm orange syrup makes the cake moist and really delicious.

Orange Almond Cake
Makes a round 6 inch cake

160 g butter
3/4 cup (155 g) caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup (150 g) self-raising flour
1/2 cup (55 g) almond meal
2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
Pinch of ground cinnamon
1/3 cup (80 ml) unsweetened orange juice (freshly made or store bought) (I used Daily Juice)

Orange Syrup

1 cup unsweetened orange juice
1 tsp grated orange zest
1/3 cup castor sugar
1 stick cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease and line the base of a 6 inch round cake pan with baking paper.

Use an electric beater to beat together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition until combined. Use a large metal spoon to gently fold in half the flour, almond meal, orange zest, cinnamon and juice until combined. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture (do not over mix or the cake will be tough). Spoon the cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside in the pan for 2 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack over a baking tray.

Meanwhile, to make the orange syrup, combine orange juice, zest, sugar and cinnamon in a saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to the boil. Boil, occasionally brushing down the side of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water, for 5 minutes or until mixture is syrupy. Remove cinnamon and discard.

Spoon the hot syrup and orange rind over the warm cake. Set aside for 30 minutes to cool. Decorate with flaked almonds and orange segments.

Coconut Cranberry Cake With White Chocolate Buttercream

19|12|2016

I think cranberries are slightly overlooked in our part of the world during Christmas while the rest of the world are including them in every other recipe. That is because it is summer over here and we are totally spoilt for choice with the abundant summer fruits and berries. I have never seen fresh cranberries in my life, only frozen (and dried of course) but they are good enough. The sour taste is so perfect to go with white chocolate. as if they were made for each other to create the right balance of flavours. Since it is Christmas, I thought I’d make you a Coconut Cranberry Cake before I start sharing the more summery recipes. Coconut cakes have a nice bite to them and this one is quite light and refreshing. I added a teeny tiny amount of nutmeg to the white chocolate buttercream to elevate it to a Christmas Cake category. I’m glad I did because it really works. The Raffaello chocolates were a last minute addition and yes, they work well too.

I have tried to keep things simple so its not hard for someone to replicate it. Seriously, there is so much going on around Christmas that simplicity is the best way to go. If you are not living in Australia, it might sound strange to you but we’ve been going to a number of barbecue get-together-s and pool parties and it can get quite overwhelming.. I’ve been forcing myself to take breaks as I can easily get stuck between a recipe idea and trying to bring it to life. But I’m done for now. My holiday starts tomorrow. I’ll keep posting but probably in a different frame of mind. No impending deadlines and no briefs. Just thinking about that makes me so excited. As I write this, I’m surrounded by suitcases and last minute things to stuff into my bags. What a mess but a happy sight though! In the last few days of this year I want to reflect, think and express my gratitude to all the wonderful people in my life. It has been a good year!

Coconut Cranberry Cake
Makes a 3 layered, 6 inch round cake

180 g butter, at room temperature
1 cup(215 g) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups(225 g) self-raising flour
3/4 cup (55 g) shredded coconut
200 g yogurt
1 cup fresh/frozen cranberries

White Chocolate Buttercream
150 g White Chocolate, roughly chopped
180 g unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups icing sugar mixture
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 tsp powdered nutmeg

To make the cake :Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees C for fan forced ovens). Grease and line the bases of 3, six inch pans with non-stick baking paper. Process the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, coconut and yogurt in a food processor until smooth. divide Divide the batter uniformly between the prepared pans.

Arrange the cranberries on top of the cake batter in each pan and push down gently with your fingers. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. Bake until light golden brown or a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and leave aside for 10 minutes. Turn on to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the White Chocolate Buttercream : Place the butter and icing sugar in the clean bowl of electric mixer. Beat on low speed to combine, then increase speed to medium and beat for 4 minutes. Add vanilla and milk, and beat for a further 2 minutes or until mixture is very pale and fluffy.

Add melted chocolate to bowl and beat on low speed until combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for 1 minute or until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the nutmeg and mix till blended.

To assemble: Once the cake layers are completely cool, start assembling..
On a cake plate or stand, spread a little white chocolate buttercream frosting in the centre and place one layer of the cake (so that the cake does not move about while frosting). Spread about 1/2 a cup of the buttercream. Place the second layer. Repeat. Place the last layer upside down (so you get a flat top). Spread frosting on the top and sides. If you want it to look like a naked cake, a thin layer of frosting is good enough.
Decorate the top with more buttercream. Top with cranberries, Raffaelo chocolates and rosemary leaves.