Happy birthday to me! and a chocolate-orange celebration cake

Actually that should read happy birthday to us as my husband and I are lucky enough to share the same birthday! Being Sunday we had to get up early to get the kids to swimming for 8am and also do some more packing and cleaning in preparation for our move. But after lunch we got to relax a little and we had family over for birthday cake for afternoon tea and Indian takeaway for dinner (I refuse to cook dinner on my birthday!).

Now some people might think it's a bit sad having to make your own birthday cake but as a baker I really enjoy it and bonus, I know exactly what's in it and can tweak the recipe to suit our needs.

Chocolate and orange is one of my all time favourite combinations and after much (much, much) thought I decided to make a chocolate cake, sweet orange curd, orange jelly and a chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. Wow it sounds decadent when you write it out like that!

We are mostly sugar-free (fructose-free) in this house and while I wanted this cake to be special I didn't want to go overboard on the sugar. My sweeteners of choice these days are rice malt syrup (which although processed is fructose-free and a great alternative to honey and golden syrup) and coconut sugar (which does contain fructose but is unrefined). I also wanted to use spelt rather than wheat flour and no dairy other than the grassfed butter we use everyday.

I made a few small changes to the recipes I found and was really happy with the result. Everyone loved the cake and it was certainly impressively tall! It had all the flavour I was hoping for and it wasn't too sweet.

I popped the cake in the fridge for an hour or so which was a mistake as it seemed to dry the cake out a little (I know it was really moist before that as I got to eat the trimmings - cook's privilege!).  It would be much better to simply assemble the cake as close as possible to serving and leave it at room temperature until ready.

I especially loved this cake and it will become my go-to spelt chocolate cake from now on!

Spelt Chocolate Cake
Slightly adapted from Bake with Spelt
makes 2 x 8 inch cakes

230g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
2 ts vanilla extract
300g white spelt flour
40g raw cacao
1 tbs aluminium free baking powder
80ml (1/3 cup) rice milk

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius fan-forced. Grease and line the bases of 2 x 8 inch round baking pans.

Using a stand mixer, thermomix or electric beaters, beat together the butter and coconut sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in the vanilla.

Sift together the flour, cacao and baking powder then add to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk until the mixture is smooth and well combined.

Divide the batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 25-35 minutes. The cakes will have pulled away from the sides a little, spring back in the middle and a skewer inserted into the middle will come out clean (mine took 31 minutes).

Leave in the pans to cool for 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.


Sweet Orange Curd
Adapted from Tenina

200g rice malt syrup
zest of 2 oranges and 1 lemon
200g fresh orange juice
240g cold butter, cut in cubes
1 ts corn flour
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks

Place butter into the thermomix bowl and chop 5 seconds / SP 5.

Add all remaining ingredients and cook for 10 minutes / 80 degrees / SP 5.

Cook for a further 3 minutes / 90 degrees / SP 6.

Pour into sterilised glass jars. Place in the fridge once cooled.


Fresh Orange Jelly

500ml fresh orange juice, strained to remove the pulp
1 1/2 tbs gelatin powder (I use Great Lakes)

Grease and line the base of an 8 inch round cake pan.

Place the orange juice into a small pot over low heat. Once the juice is just warm to touch, turn off the heat and sprinkle over the gelatin, whisking continuously until it is completely dissolved and there are no lumps.

Pour immediately into the prepared pan and refrigerate until needed.


Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Slightly adapted from Thermomix Recipe Community

85g egg whites, at room temperature
170g coconut sugar
pinch of salt
340g unsalted butter, very cold and cut into cubes
100g 85% dark chocolate, melted and cooled

Make sure the thermomix bowl is completely clean, dry and free of grease.

Weigh in the coconut sugar and mill for 1 minute / SP 9.

Weigh in the egg whites and salt and mix for 3 minutes / 60 degrees / SP 3.

Check that the sugar has dissolved by rubbing a small amount of the mixture between your thumb and finger. It should be completely smooth. If not, repeat for another minute or so.

Insert the butterfly and whip for 10 minutes / SP 4 until the bowl is only slightly warm and the mixture is glossy and has double in volume.

With the machine running on SP 3 for 6-8 minutes, add the butter a few pieces at a time. Once it is all incorporated, pour in the melted and cooled chocolate and whip until light and fluffy.

Use immediately or keep in the fridge until required (bring back to room temperature and re-whip with the butterfly on SP 4.

To assemble the cake

Choose your favourite large cake plate or stand and place a small dollop of the buttercream in the middle to secure the cake.

Trim the tops from each cake if they have domed and then slice each cake evenly in half horizontally so you have 4 layers.

Place one half down on the plate and top with 1/3 of the orange curd. Spread evenly to the edges. Top with another cake half and press down lightly. Smooth over a tablespoon of curd and then carefully place on the prepared jelly. Top with another tablespoon of curd and another layer of cake. Repeat with another cake layer and 1/3 orange curd.

Top with final layer of cake.

Cover top and sides of cake with buttercream icing.

Best assembled close to serving and kept at room temperature until ready.

Serves 12 (at least)

So there you go!! A marathon recipe but none of the components are too tricky and best of all, I was able to keep it free of wheat and refined sugar!

Saffron and Cardamom Sweet Buns (SRC)

It's Secret Recipe Club time! We are now officially halfway through the year, can you believe it??

This month for SRC I was assigned the fabulous Lavender and Lovage by Karen. Karen is truly living the dream, dividing her time between the UK and the South West of France where she runs her own cookery school! I've long had a love-affair with France, learning the language in high school and enjoying a 3 month homestay with a family in Brittany when I was 17. So as you can imagine I had a great time on Karen's blog this month, reveling in some truly delicious food and stunning photography.

Being the middle of Winter here I was drawn to some hearty and traditional dishes like her Provence Beef Casserole and Chicken, Sausage and Vegetable Hotpot, and I have bookmarked her Victorian Epiphany Tart with 9 different types of jams and preserves to make at Christmas time. I was also really tempted by her Cauliflower Pizza Crust as it is the nicest looking version that I've seen.

In the end though I simply couldn't go past her Saffron and Cardamom sweet buns, which are baked in Sweden (and Scandinavia) to celebrate St Lucy's day and the Winter Solstice on the 13th December. Now before you wonder why I would choose to make this recipe when it is nowhere near December, it actually makes perfect sense: here in Australia our Winter Solstice is in June and this year it coincidentally falls today on reveal day (at 2.39am to be exact!).

Clearly it was meant to be!

I baked these just yesterday and it was a perfect Winter weekend baking project as they take a few hours to make. If you've made any sort of bread you would have no problems making these. And just look at that gorgeous sunny colour! The saffron was a real splurge - my tiny 1 gram container cost $11!! but I didn't use all of it and now need to think of something suitably special to make with what's left.

And the verdict? We LOVED these! So delicious, not too sweet and with that beautiful fragrance from the saffron and cardamom. My 6yo declared that I was 'a chef and should work in a bakery.' High praise indeed. In all seriousness these were sensational and I will definitely be baking them again, although perhaps saving them for the festive season as they are a bit of a luxury.

Lussakatter - St Lucia Saffron and Cardamom Sweet Buns
Recipe from Lavender and Lovage

300mls milk (I used rice milk)
1 ts saffron threads
500g strong white bread flour
7g sachet dried yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g golden caster sugar
10 cardamom pods (seeds removed and crushed in a mortar and pestle)
75g butter, melted
1 large free-range egg
1 small free-range egg (extra, for the glaze)
24 raisins

Grease 2 large baking sheets and set aside. Place the saffron threads and the milk in a small pot and warm gently over low heat. Remove from the heat and cool to tepid.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and cardamom seeds. Make a well in the middle and add the saffron milk, beaten egg and melted butter.

Stir together before turning it out onto a floured surface and kneading for 10 to 15 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Grease the bowl you already used before returning the dough, covering it with a clean tea towel and leaving it to prove in a warm place for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

Knock the dough back and turn out onto a floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Take each piece in turn and roll it out into a long sausage shape before twisting it tightly into an ‘S’ shape.

Place the shaped dough onto the prepared trays, cover with a tea towel and leave them to prove in a warm place for approximately 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C / 400 degrees F during this time.

Once risen, brush the tops with the extra beaten egg and then push a raisin into the middle of the scroll on each end – 2 raisins per bun (see photos).

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until dark golden brown and sound hollow when tapped from underneath.

Cool on a wire rack before serving. Best eaten the same day.

Makes 12 buns.

Thank you Karen for a truly special recipe and a wonderful month!
 

An InLinkz Link-up

Best Ever Brownies with Aztec "Hot" Chocolate Ice Cream

It was Father's Day here in Australia yesterday, so belated good wishes for all the amazing dads out there!

We didn't really have the best weekend, with 3 out of 4 of us coming down with a bad cold and cough, and poor Charlie had conjunctivitis as well. Needless to say there were no fun father's day activities to be had, unless you count hubby and Oscar going to the library and to Coles to pick up a few essentials. Oh well, there's always next year!

In spite of feeling like crap I still cooked up a storm, doing toasted ham and cheese croissants for breakfast, this creamy prawn curry with naan for dinner and of course a yummy dessert.

You really can't go wrong with chocolate for my husband. He is the ultimate chocoholic! So what better for a decadent Father's Day dessert than these amazing fudgy brownies topped with a spicy chocolate ice cream?

I spotted this ice cream recipe in The Perfect Scoop on my first read flick through. It is a Philadelphia style (no eggs) chocolate ice cream with cinnamon, chili and brandy to give it some kick. I also added the zest of an orange to ramp up the flavour.

The taste test ...

Sensational! Incredibly smooth and luscious but with a bit of a fiery kick at the same time. Hubby said it tasted like Christmas. Adding alcohol to ice cream stops it from setting too hard and I definitely think that's what made the texture so luscious. Served on top of a fudgy chocolate brownie this was a chocoholic's dream. Success.

If there are any chocoholics in your family then you should definitely make these!

Aztec "Hot" Chocolate Ice Cream
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz p 29

560ml pure cream
50g cocoa powder
150g sugar
85g dark chocolate, chopped
310ml full cream milk
1 ts vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 ts cinnamon
1/2 ts hot chilli powder
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
2 tbs brandy

In a large saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the cream, sugar, orange zest and cocoa until it comes to a full rolling boil. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, whisking until it is completely incorporated. Stir in the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, chilli and brandy. Pour the mix into a blender or food processor and blitz for 30 seconds or until completely smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the fridge and then churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Makes approx 1 litre.


Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours, p 91

1 cup plain flour
1 tsp salt
250g butter
120g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
60g milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (160 degrees fan-forced). Line the base of a 9 inch square baking pan with baking paper and place on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour and salt and set aside.

Place a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, put the butter and chocolate in. Stir frequently until the ingredients are just melted-you don’t want them to get so hot that the butter separates. Add the brown sugar and whisk gently just to incorporate it, then remove the bowl from the pan of water. Stir in the vanilla and transfer to a large bowl.

Put the remaining cup of sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer or a medium bowl and whisk in the eggs. Switch to a rubber spatula and little by little add half of the sugar-egg mixture to the warm chocolate, stirring very gently without stopping-you don’t want the heat of the chocolate to cook the eggs.

With the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer beat the remaining sugar and eggs on medium-high for about 3 minutes, or until they double in volume. Using a spatula and a light touch, fold the whipped eggs into the chocolate, stopping just short of blending them in completely.

Sprinkle the dry ingredients and the nuts over the batter and delicately fold them in, working only until they disappear. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with the spatula.

Bake for 25-28 minutes, or until the top looks dry. Use a thin knife to check for doneness - the brownies should be only just set and quite gooey. (Mine took about 40 minutes to reach this point so just keep an eye on them and keep checking regularly).

Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into pieces while still in the pan. Makes approx 16.

White Choc Honeycomb Mudcake

In one of those freaky but awesome coincidences my husband and I have the same birthday. So happy birthday to us today!! While he unfortunately is off to uni as usual, I have the day to myself with Oscar off at daycare every Monday. As soon as I drop him there I am off to the hairdressers.

Tonight we are going to the lovely Bretts Wharf for dinner. For the Aussies out there, you may know head chef Alastair McLeod from Ready Steady Cook.

This year I told hubby to choose whatever sort of cake he wanted and we would make it together. After a little searching he came up with the truly gluttonous sounding White Chocolate Honeycomb Mudcake from taste. Now if that doesn't sound like a celebration cake I don't know what does!


White Choc Honeycomb Mudcake
Recipe from taste.com.au

Mudcake:
250g butter, chopped
180g white chocolate, roughly chopped
1 cup milk
1 3/4 cups caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 3/4 cups plain flour, sifted
1/2 cup self-raising flour, sifted
2 x 50g Violet Crumble chocolate bars, chopped

White chocolate ganache:
180g white chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup thickened cream

Grease a 6cm-deep, 22cm (base) round cake pan. Line base and side with 2 layers of baking paper. Place butter, white chocolate, milk, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until smooth. Set aside for 25 minutes to cool. Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced.

Whisk eggs and flours into chocolate mixture. Fold in half the Violet Crumble. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours or until browned and a skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out with crumbs clinging (cover cake loosely with foil if over-browning during baking). Cool in pan.

Make ganache. Place white chocolate and cream in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high (100%) for 1 minute, stirring with a metal spoon halfway during cooking, or until smooth. Set aside for 15 minutes to cool. Whisk ganache gently to thicken. Spread over cake top. Sprinkle with remaining Violet Crumble. Serve.

(I left the honeycomb pieces out of the cake and used them to fill it instead.

I used 220g white chocolate and 300ml thickened cream to make enough ganache to fill and ice the cake. Chop up the chocolate and place into a heatproof bowl. Place the cream in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until almost boiling. Pour over the chopped chocolate. Leave for 30 seconds then stir until smooth. Refrigerate until cold. Using an electric beater, whip the ganache until soft peaks.

Slice the cake in half. Place about 1/3 of the ganache mix into a small bowl and fold through some chopped violet crumble. Use this to fill the cake.

Smooth the remaining ganache over the top and sides of the assembled cake. Scatter over more chopped violet crumbles and serve.)

The verdict? ... Delicious but sooooo sweet. I mean seriously SWEET. If I were to make this again I would cut the sugar by half and use plain whipped cream to decorate rather than a ganache. The recipe says it will serve 12 but I think it would be more like 20+. Still a success overall though!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake

Let me just say, I loved this cake. LOVED. So a big thank you straight off to Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes for picking it this week!

The name 'Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake' really doesn't do this cake justice. To me it was a cheat's version of a Black Forest Cake (which I adore) just without all the fuss. Ok and without all the booze too.

I made a half batch in an 8 x 4 pan and it still took 50 minutes to cook. I was glad for the chance to use my Wilton layer cake cutter but somehow still managed to end up with wonky layers. Sandwiched together with black cherry conserve, smothered in fabulous chocolate-sour cream frosting and topped with fresh cherries, it didn't matter in the slightest. This was delicious!

The cherries were a bit of an indulgence as it is definitely not cherry season here. These were imported from the USA and about $16 a kilo.

I'm so glad I only made half the recipe. As it was I ate 3 slices.

Great pick, Amy! You can find the recipe at Amy Ruth Bakes under today's date.

Daring Bakers May - Croquembouche!

I have been in love with the croquembouche as long as I can remember! And really, what's not to love? Choux pastry filled with smooth vanilla cream and smothered in crunchy, sweet caramel.

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

This month's challenge brings me full circle, as my very first Daring Bakers' challenge was chocolate eclairs. It was my first time making choux pastry and I definitely had a few dramas. This time around I'm happy to say they were worked perfectly.

I made just 10 cream puffs and half the caramel glaze. I was keen to try the spun sugar effect but I had just 20 minutes of Oscar-free time so after assembling my 'tower' I just poured the remainder over the top.

The result?

Amazing. Just as good as anything I've tasted elsewhere for surprisingly little work. When I have more time and a special occasion to bake for I will definitely be making a full size croquembouche with spun sugar. But for now, this hit the spot and I can cross it off my to-make list.

Thanks for a fabulous challenge Cat!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

This week Becky of Project Domestication chose a recipe I have long been drooling over ... Burnt Sugar Ice Cream! This is pretty much caramel ice cream on steroids.

I had no real problems making this apart from letting my custard cook a little long. See I was at the crucial 'stir until it thickens' stage when I realised I hadn't converted the 180 degrees F into celsius and so had no idea what temperature I was waiting for. By the time I yelled for husband to google it my custard had reached 92.5 degrees C, a smidgen too hot, but at least there can be no complaints about raw eggs!

My only other issue was trying to take a photo without someone sticking his little fingers into it!

I topped mine with crumbled anzac biscuits for an extra sugar hit and some texture.

Thanks for a great pick Becky! You can find the recipe on Becky's blog or for much better photos than mine, check out the TWD blogroll.

In other news today is our 2nd wedding anniversary! While we're not doing anything special today (other than eating burnt sugar ice cream of course) we had a lovely night away on Sunday while Oscar stayed home with his nanna. It was our first baby-free night! Did miss the little monkey though :-)

Oscar's 1st Birthday Roundup

Hard to believe but my baby is 1 today! The past 12 months have been amazing but it's all gone by so quickly. He's going to be starting school before I know it.

To celebrate we had a party on Sunday down at the waterfront at Manly. We thought the weather was going to spoil it but it turned into a gorgeous day.

38 adults, 7 kids, 1 dog and a ton of food. Sounds like a party to me!

Where's Oscar? Nath worked hard to blow up all these balloons but they didn't last long in the wind

Not too sure about the hat!

Yay, cake!

Hmmm, do I like icing?

Fingerprints in the icing

Who cares about presents when there's bark to play with!

Mummy and Oscar looking a little worse for wear

The car's loaded up with presents. Time for a nap

After spending most of the weekend cooking and baking I didn't even get a photo of the food!

We decided to keep it simple and just have a sausage sizzle, potato salad, pasta salad, green salad, bread and cake.

What you didn't see in the photos are the 48 cupcakes I made. This is one of the 3 leftover that we took home:

I used Nigella's basic cupcake recipe which always works for me. You can find the recipe here. I made a test batch a few weeks ago so felt really confident making 4 doz for the party. But this time I used foil cupcake wrappers and they seemed to cook a lot faster than normal. Mine were done in 13 minutes, not the 15-20 Nigella suggests in the recipe.

I also made a very simple buttercream icing and decorated each one with a freckle.

Buttercream Icing

125g soft butter (I always use salted butter)
3 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 ts vanilla extra

Using the paddle attachment in your mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Turn the speed to low and add the icing sugar in one go. Beat until combined. Add the vanilla then turn up the speed and beat for about 3 minutes. The icing will be thick, white and shiny. Yum!

Oscar's cake was a giant cupcake made using the Wilton pan. I bought this probably 8 months ago and always planned to use it for his first birthday. I was a little worried how it would turn out (there are lots of horror stories of it sticking etc online). I used a packet cake mix for this, figuring it would be easier. I had just 1/2 cup mixture left from 2 boxes. The tin was greased and floured well, the cake baked for 45 minutes and after a 10 minute rest, out popped 2 perfect cupcake halves. Success!

All in all it was a wonderful day and totally worth all the hard work. A big thanks to Nath's mum Di for her help babysitting and cooking on Saturday :-)

Daring Bakers February - Tiramisu

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge was called 'heaven on a dessert plate' and boy was it ever!

The official lines - The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

I've never really been a fan of tiramisu but I know now that's only because I hadn't tasted the real deal. Apart from the light-as-air ladyfinger biscuits the filling for this version contains four different elements - homemade marscapone, zabaglione, vanilla pastry cream and whipped cream. Whew. No wonder it tastes so good!

The homemade marscapone was a revelation. Never again will I buy marscapone knowing just how easy it is to make and how delicious. We're not keen on marsala so I flavoured the zabaglione with coffee which resulted in a wonderful latte coloured cream. The hint of lemon in the pastry cream worked beautifully with the coffee flavours.

The taste test ...

Oh. My. God. Absolute perfection. I think I uderwhipped the cream so the filling was a little soft but otherwise this truly was heaven on a plate. I won't bother ordering it at a restaurant, I don't think it could ever match up to this!

Thank you Deeba and Aparna for a wonderful recipe this month. I think this is my favourite DB challenge so far!

Individual Rum Christmas Cakes

I have to confess, I am one of those people. Those people who actually like fruitcake! There is a lot of anti-fruitcake sentiment out there, particularly at this time of year, but around here we are in fruitcake heaven.

In addition to making the full size cakes I make every year, I decided to try a new recipe and make some smaller cakes to go in our gift hampers. These little beauties are rich and moist and fragrant. And oh yeah, they are also packed with rum!

Individual Rum* Christmas Cakes
Recipe source TBA

840g mixed dried fruit (apricots, cherries, figs, raisins, currants, cranberries, sultanas or whatever takes your fancy)
3/4 cup rum
250g unsalted butter, chopped
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup treacle
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
2 ts ground nutmeg
2 ts ground ginger
2 ts ground cinnamon
12 tbs rum, extra

Chop all the dried fruit into small pieces. Place in a large bowl with the rum and mix well. Cover and leave overnight (I left mine for a week), stirring occasionally.

Preheat the oven to slow (150 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 x 1 cup muffin holes and line the bases with a circle of baking paper.

Beat the butter, sugar and treacle in a large bowl until just combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the soaked fruit mixture, pecans and then the sifted flours and spices and mix well.

Spoon the mixture evenly into the tins, smoothing the surface of each with wet fingers. Bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hours, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cover the tops of the cakes with foil if over-browning. Once cooked and still hot, brush the tops the cakes with half the extra rum, cover with baking paper, then seal firmly with foil and cool completely in the tins.

Once cool, remove from the tins, brush with remaining rum and wrap firmly with cling film and leave for 2 weeks before decorating.

Decorating Options

1. Soft Icing - Roll out 100g of soft, ready made white icing the the size of each cake. Brush the cakes with warmed apricot jam, then lay the icing over the top and smooth down. Decorate with ribbon.

2. Royal Icing - Beat 1 egg white with a wooden spoon, gradually adding 2 cups of pure icing sugar, beating until smooth. Drizzle in 2-3 ts lemon juice until the icing becomes a little runny. Spread a tablespoon of the icing over each cake, allowing it to run down the sides a little. Top with holly and berries before the icing sets hard.

* The original recipe called for bourbon. We're not big bourbon drinkers in this house so we used good old Bundy Rum instead!

Tuesdays with Dorie: All-in-One Holiday Muffins

This week Britin of The Nitty Britty chose Dorie's All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake, an awesome looking cake packed with festive flavours. But sometimes a whole cake can be a bit intimidating. People get scared to take the first piece. So when I needed to bring something to a get-together I decided to make it as muffins - much friendlier!
Yet again there were no cranberries to be had so I used cherries and almonds but kept the rest of the flavours the same. I got 18 full size muffins from this recipe.
The taste test ...
Delicious! Really, really moist and full of flavours I love - ginger, cinnamon, cherries. Couldn't really taste the pumpkin here but it added a lovely colour. I served mine with a maple syrup glaze and a scattering of chopped almonds and it made a perfect afternoon tea. I will definitely be making this again as a bundt cake.
Thanks Britin, great pick!
All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake From Baking from My Home To Yours
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
 Pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger (or 1 tsp ground ginger)
150 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
1 large apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1 cup cranberries, halved or coarsely chopped
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
Icing sugar, for dusting or maple syrup icing (see note)
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / 160 degrees C fan-forced. Butter a 9- to 10- inch (12 cup) Bundt pan.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and ground ginger.
Working with a stand mixer or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and both sugars together at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the pumpkin, chopped apple and grated ginger, if you’re using it-don’t be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Still on low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. With a rubber spatula, stir in the cranberries and pecans. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with the rubber spatula.
Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto the rack to cool to room temperature.
Just before serving, dust the cake with icing sugar or drizzle it with maple syrup icing.
To make the Maple Syrup Icing - Sift 6 tablespoons icing sugar into a bowl and stir in 2 tablespoons maple syrup. Add up to another ½ tablespoon of maple syrup little by little, until you have an icing that runs nicely off the tip of the spoon. Place the cooled cake on a sheet of baking paper and drizzle the icing over the top. Let the icing set for a few minutes before serving.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate-Caramel Chestnut Cake

Today is my dad's 60th birthday and to celebrate we had a big family bbq on Sunday. You can't have a birthday party without birthday cake and this week's TWD pick was perfect!

Chestnuts aren't at all common in Australia. My only experience with them prior to this was in Paris as a 17 year old, and what an eye opener that trip was for a budding foodie! One freezing cold day while wandering through the streets we came across a street vendor selling roasted chestnuts in paper bags. I still remember the rustle of the bag, the warmth and delicious taste of those chestnuts.

Here I had to make do with tins of chestnuts and unsweetened chestnut puree (which I sweetened by blitzing it with 3 ts vanilla extract and 3 tbs of sugar) sourced from a local deli.

This cake is definitely not for the faint of heart, with 1/2kg butter, 1/2 litre of cream and almost 3 blocks of chocolate. It didn't rise as much as I expected so I only sliced it into 2 layers instead of 3. Still managed to use all of that delicious ganache though!

The taste test ...

One word - RICH. Dorie said it serves 16 but I think you could double that easily. There aren't too many times where just 1 piece of cake is enough but this was it. The flavour of the cake itself was absolutely sensational and I will definitely make it again, just without all the chocolatey excess.

It was the perfect finish to a fabulous lunch of roast pork loin cooked on the bbq, lots of salad, breads, cheese and drinks. We just didn't eat much else for the rest of the day.

Thanks for a great pick Katya! You can find the recipe on her blog here.