Archive | Sweet Treats

It’s my dear friend’s Alex’s birthday today! So for this occasion I have baked Spiced Date Brownie Cake from Abel&Cole book “Veg Box Companion”. It went a treat! Apparently this recipe originated from “Tartelettes” cakerie – nice! I especially love Vicki’s idea to make the “pretend” candles that are made out of toothpicks stuck with picture of little lights. Cute! Here is the recipe:

SPICED DATE BROWNIE CAKE

• 300g stoned dates, finely chopped
• 2 lemons, zest only
• 500ml freshly brewed strong black coffee
• Crushed seeds from 12 cardamom pods
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 4 tbsp honey
• 4 tbsp black treacle or more honey
• 250g dark brown sugar
• 150g unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• 150g mixed nuts
• 4 tbsp sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds
• 400g plain wholemeal or spelt flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 4 tbsp apricot jam (optional)

1. Line a large rectangular baking dish (approx 30 X24 cm) with baking paper
2. In large saucepan, add the dates, lemon zest, coffee, spices, honey, black treacle, sugar and butter. Simmer and stir till combined. Let cool fully.
3. Preheat your oven to 180C .
4. Beat the eggs in large bowl. Add flour, baking powder and cooled date/coffee mix. Chop half the nuts and add them to the mix. Stir everything together.
5. Pour into the lined dish. Scatter the seeds and remaining nuts evenly over the top.
6. bake for an hour , or till a skewer poked comes out with just a few tiny moist crumbs stuck to it. Cover with a large layer of baking paper or foil after 30min, to stop the nuts from burning.
7. To give it a stunning gloss, warm 4 tbsp of apricot jam till syrupy. Brush over the top.

I must admit that I used black current jam as I did not have any apricot one. This made the cake look odd as black current jam coloured everything purple so I had to scatter few more fresh nuts and sesame seeds to “fix” it. So use apricot jam or nothing at all! But other than that it was really delicious :b

Rasa :)

After coming back from San Francisco where I tasted sooo many interesting ice-cream flavours I have been experimenting with it myself. Green tea and elderflower flavour has been my favourite!

Here is the recipe…

GREEN TEA AND ELDERFLOWER ICE-CREAM

Ingredients: 8 egg yolks
200g sugar
250g milk (full fat)
250g double-cream
250g elderflower cordial
2tsp matcha green tea
1.First, prepare egg cream by mixing egg yolks with sugar and whisking until it becomes pale.

2.Put double cream and milk together into the sauce-pan and heat it up, but don’t let it to boil. Then reduce the heat and add egg yolk mixture into the pan. Cook it on the small heat (don’t let it boil) and mix continuously until it becomes thick (about 10 min).

3. Cool the mixture down by placing the pot in the cold water.

4. When the mixture have cooled you can add the rest of the ingredients: elderflower cordial and matcha. Pour the mixture into the plastic container and put it into freezer.

5. After two hours scrape off the sides of the container and mix it with the fork. Repeat this after three hours and after that you can let it stay there until it is completely frozen or the time when you want to have a cool sweet treat.

Have a great week!

Rasa :)

As promised here I am sharing the recipes for bakes that I took on my Peak District road trip. To bake Sweet Potato And Pepper Tortilla I used my all time favourite GoodFood website (to get the recipe click here), I added whole roasted peppers into the tortilla instead of making the sauce out of it. For Onion And Bacon Tart I used this really really simple recipe! And finally the Elderflower And Poppyseed Cake was our favourite! It was so light and refreshing (but not too lemony), try it for yourself!

ELDERFLOWER AND POPPYSEED CAKE  (adopted from Peyton and Byrne “British Baking” book)

• 165 g butter (softened)
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 30g poppyseed
• finely grated zest of small lemon
• 1 tbsp elderflower cordal (recipe is here)
• 1 tsp orange essence
• 200g flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 140 ml milk

(for decoration)

• 50g icing sugar
• 3-4 elderflower cordal
• poppyseed
• Elderflower blossoms (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Butter a 900g loaf tin and line the bottom with baking paper.

2. Beat the softened butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at the time, mixing well after each additions.

3. Add the poppyseed, lemon zest, elderflower cordial and orange essence and mix through. Gently fold in half of the flour, followed by half the milk, and then the remaining flour and milk until it is all incorporated. Spoon the mixture into your prepared loaf tin.

4. Bake in the oven for 40-45min or until the cake is firm to touch and skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave it to cool down.

5. Make the glaze by mixing icing sugar with the Elderflower cordal and brush it on the cooled cake. Sprinkle it with poppyseed and Elderflower blossoms.

I am sure you will enjoy this cake!

Rasa ;)

I am especially pleased with the table setting! Marked roads on brown paper, traffic signs on toothpick and cars worked really well together as a theme. Although I must say that the kids loved this more than their dads :-)

I baked these lovelies,”Rolo” peanut-butter cupcakes! The recipe is bellow.

Makes 12

For the base (adopted from Peyton and Byrne “British Baking” book)

• 100g dark chocolate
• 110g softened butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 140g plain flour
• 1.5tsp baking powder
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 100ml buttermilk (or 50ml milk mixed with 50ml yogurt)

I tasted this cake at the time when I was working at the French Patisserie and I fall in love with it. Now when I was looking for something to bake for Christmas I accidentally came across this blog with the recipe! As I was reading I realized that the blog author has experienced the same: first watched it being made on the TV and then later found the recipe in the magazine. I sure agree with Bree that this cake is magical not only because of the taste, but also because of the baking process. You see… the cake base floats up and exchanges with the flan without any mixing! Try it for yourself… it might be too late for Christmas, but there is always time for your New Year’s party ;)

 

• 120g caramel/toffee sauce
• 75g cup flour
• 40g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 110g bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 85g butter, melted
• 120ml buttermilk
• 110g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

For the flan:

• 2 (395g) cans sweetened condensed milk
• 600 ml whole milk
• 175g cream cheese
• 6 eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Spray a Bundt cake tin with baking spray. Pour caramel/toffee sauce into the bottom of cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Place chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl, heat until melted, 2 minutes at 50% power. Whisk buttermilk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla into chocolate until incorporated. Add flour mixture and stir until combined. Pour batter over caramel.
3. Add sweetened condensed milk. milk, cream cheese, eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla to a blender, Blend for one minute, or until very smooth. Slowly pour over cake batter.
4. Place the cake pan in a large roasting pan. Pour boiling water halfway up the sides of the pan and bake for 75 to 90 minutes, or when a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Transfer to refrigerator and chill for at least 8 hours.
5. To unmold, place the bottom of the cake pan in hot water for 1 minute. Place a cake plate over the cake pan and flip over. Slowly remove pan and serve.
6. Visit BakedBree for the instructions with pictures.

***Merry Cristmass ***

Rasa :)