Lamingtons

Lamingtons. We love them. Really love them. An iconic Australian cake, and popular with most Aussies.

In our house here in the UK, they are simply our favourites. I always have the idea to make a batch, keep a couple out to eat, and then freeze the rest so we can enjoy them for longer. It rarely happens as we just can't resist them!

Anyway, I am going to give you two cake recipes here - choose the one that suits you the best; they both make good lamingtons but one makes them egg and dairy free (& soya free if needed too) and the other is a standard sponge using egg and butter.
Regardless of the recipe you choose, the procedures are still the same.

Lamingtons
Makes approximately 20 cakes

Vanilla Cake

Ingredients:

150g butter, softened

200g caster sugar

125g plain flour

250g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bi-carb soda (baking soda)

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

200ml milk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C and then line the bases of a 20 cm x 30cm tin with baking parchment.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - this will take about 10 minutes so that it is very pale. This adds essential air into the mixture. Sift the flours, baking powder and bi-carb of soda together into another bowl

3. Add the eggs, one at a time into the mixture, beating well after each one. Adding a spoonful of the flour mixture helps prevent curdling.

4. Once all the eggs are incorporated, add the rest of the flour and mix gently until it is all just combined.

5. Pour in the milk and vanilla and mix slowly until it forms a batter consistency.

6. Gently measure equal amounts into the two tins, flatten it out very carefully and then cook for 20-25 mins. Check they are cooked by lightly touching the top- it should spring back. You can also insert a probe - if it comes out clean your cake is cooked.

7. Remove cakes from the oven and allow to cool slightly in the tins. Tip out onto a baking rack to cool completely.


Egg/Dairy Free Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups self raising flour + 2 heaped tablespoons
1 cup caster sugar
pinch salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 cup water

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius. Grease and line a 20cm x 30cm tin with parchment paper.
2. Sift dry ingredients together.
3. Add wet ingredients and mix on high until smooth. Pour into the tin.
4. Bake for 20-25 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.


For both cakes, cool completely and then cut into 4cm x 4cm squares (approximately).

Coating

3 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar), sifted
3 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup milk (or soya/coconut/almond milk - any non dairy milk if choosing that option)
50 g unsalted butter (or dairy free alternative)
2 cups desiccated coconut - use 1 cup at a time.

1. Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a medium sized bowl.
2. Warm the milk gently in a small saucepan and add the butter. Stir until melted.
3. Add to the icing sugar and stir thoroughly to remove all lumps. The chocolate mixture should be runny - you might need to add more milk to make it thin enough to coat the cake without running off the sides completely. This takes a bit of trial and error to get right. You might need to try a cake square to gauge the consistency and adjust accordingly. If it is too runny, add a small amount of sifted icing sugar to thicken it. Be careful, only use a small amount at a time.
4. Using two forks, dip a cake square into the chocolate mixtures, coating completely. Lift and allow excess chocolate sauce to drip off the cake, then roll in the coconut, coating thoroughly on all sides.
5. Place onto a wire cooling rack - place some baking paper underneath to catch any drips. If your coating is too thick, you'll get more drips than if it is thinner and the excess has run off before adding the coconut.
6. Repeat for all cake squares.

Lamingtons are best eaten after being allowed to rest and set for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.

This week I made one giant lamington cake for my husband -same principle but coating in chocolate required me to use a tray to soak it in the chocolate sauce. I made it a bit too runny, so the chocolate coating wasn't as thick or as sweet as it should have been.

This one is made with the vanilla cake recipe.

This is the vegan (egg and dairy free) cake.

These are an incredibly popular cake - I highly recommend giving them a go!

Kris x

Marshmallow Bunnies

This is my final Easter bake for this year - sadly, as I love Easter baking. This is a recipe we have made for the last few years, and my son and I love making it together. This marshmallow recipe doesn't require any boiling sugar, so it's much simpler and safer with children. The resulting marshmallow is really light and fluffy - YUM!

I have had the large mold for years, but I had to source the small baby bunnies through eBay Australia - they weren't available anywhere else!

The marshmallow stores well for quite a while, so no pressure to eat this in one day!

Marshmallow Bunnies

Ingredients:

2 cups caster sugar

1 cup water - boiling

2 tbsp Gelatine

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 cups desiccated coconut (unsweetened)

pinch of salt

Green food colouring

Method:

1. Dissolve the gelatine in the boiling cup of water.

2. In an electric mixer - add the sugar to a clean bowl, and pour in the gelatin mixture.

Beat on the highest setting for approximately 10 - 15 minutes or until the marshmallow is really thick and white.

3. Add the vanilla and the pinch of salt to the mixture while it is still beating.

4. Meanwhile use a spray oil to grease your bunny molds and a lamington tray (square or rectangular tray about 20cm x 20cm or similar). I would line the tray with parchment paper and oil that.

5. Spoon the mixture into the bunny molds, make sure you try and press the marshmallow into all the nooks and crannies.

6. With a smooth knife make the marshmallow flat on top and place the molds in the fridge for about an hour.

7.  To do the grass, add a small amount of green food colouring to the remaining marshmallow, and beat it in until it is evenly coloured. Scrape into the tray and flatten the top with an offset spatula to make the top flat and even. Chill in the fridge for an hour.

8. While the marshmallow sets, take half the coconut and place into a ziplock bag. Add a couple of drops of green food coloring and massage the coconut so that it becomes green too. It happens easily, and will be a little patchy but I think that adds to the charm.

9. Cut the set marshmallow into squares using a hot knife, and toss into the green coconut to coat all sides.

10. Gently remove the marshmallow bunnies from the moulds, cover in plain coconut and place gently on the grass. the coconut will adhere to the bunnies easily, just pat it on.

11. Using a cotton bud or end of a match/toothpick, dip in food colouring and colour the ears, eyes and nose. If you prefer, you can do they face/ears before adding the coconut - I haven't done it this way but it may be easier than colouring the coconut as well.

12. Keep covered until ready to eat.

An alternate bunny from another year

Orange and Cranberry Hot Cross buns

After my first attempt at these earlier in the week, I have been thinking about, researching and contemplating how to improve them. I am so incredibly happy with these today and I honestly think they are the best ones I have ever eaten!

To top it all off, I knew I was having some Moose Maple Butter delivered this morning, so I wanted them out of the oven so I could slather it on them. This butter is absolutely delicious.....butter mixed with maple syrup and a touch of sea salt and it simply is the perfect accompaniment to the buns. For fairness I did also have a half with normal butter; it was good too, but the Moose Maple butter elevated it to another level.

For this recipe, I based it on Paul Hollywood's classic hot cross buns (from the BBC website - the one in his book is quite different), but made my own adjustments, so I will add my recipe below.

If you have time before Easter, do give these a go. Be aware though, they do take a few hours as they need to prove twice for an hour each time.

In my mind these are the best thing I have made this week!

Orange and Cranberry Hot Cross Buns

For the Buns:

300 ml milk

500 g strong white flour

75 g caster sugar

1 tsp salt

7g sachet fast-action yeast

50 g butter - melted

1 free range egg, beaten

150 g dried cranberries (not fresh ones)

2 oranges, zest of both and juice of one.

1 tsp mixed spice

sunflower oil for greasing the bowl

For the Cross:

75 g plain flour

5 tbsp water

For the Glaze:

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp boiling water

METHOD:

1. Bring the milk to the boil and then take it off the heat, transfer to a bowl and leave to cool down until it reaches hand temperature. This is very important. Hot milk will kill the yeast, so make sure you let it cool to a just warm temperature.

2. Zest the oranges into a small bowl. In another bowl add the cranberries and the juice of one orange, leave them to soak until step 6.

3. Mix the flour, spices, salt, sugar, yeast, butter and egg together in a bowl and then slowly add the warm milk, mixing until it forms a soft, sticky dough.

4. Tip out the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough for about 5 mins or until is is smooth and elastic. You can of course use the dough hook on an electric mixer, but do the final part out on the bench so it becomes less sticky.

5. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size. 

6. Tip the dough out of the bowl onto the bench top and knead it to remove any air bubbles. Flatten it out into a rectangular shape and sprinkle the drained (and patted dry) cranberries and orange zest onto the dough. Fold the dough over to incorporate the toppings, and knead so they are well combined.  If you add the fruit into the first knead and prove, I have found it stops the dough rising so well. So adding it in just before the second prove seems to work better.

7. Divide the dough into 12 even sized pieces, and roll each piece into a smooth ball on a lightly floured surface - you shouldn't need much flour at this stage. Also, it's okay to knead these pieces a bit more to shape them. Arrange them onto a tray lined with baking parchment, leaving enough room so that they just touch when they expand and rise (about 1-2cm apart depending on their size).

8. Set aside to prove for another hour. At this stage I placed the tray into a clean plastic shopping bag rather than covering in cling film.

9. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

10. For the cross, mix the flour with 5 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Add the water a tablespoon at a time, so that you get the right consistency for a thick paste. Spoon the paste into a disposable piping bag (or ziplock bag) and trim off the bottom of the bag - a small opening is all you need. Pipe along each row of buns in one direction only, then come back and do the opposite direction to make crosses, all in one go. Don't do individual buns, it will look messy and take so much longer.

11. Bake for 20-25 mins on the middle shelf in the oven, or until golden brown.

12. Mix the caster sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves, and then when they buns are straight out of the oven brush them liberally with the glaze so the tops are all covered.

13. Gently rip the buns apart to eat and enjoy!

 

Utter, utter deliciousness!

Happy Easter everyone!

BUNNY BARK

I've dabbled with bark before, not very successfully, but it never matters when things go wrong, as long as you can think through how to improve. This is a lesson in life that I emphasise with my students....reviewing your work and seeing how to improve is so valuable.

So this Easter, I saw this cute Bunny Bark made by Kerry Cooks. I knew I had all of the ingredients already in the house, so I had a go. It was as simple as melting the chocolate and sprinkling on the extras - the Cadbury Hoppy Bunny Chocolate bars out at this time of year, the Smarties Mini eggs, and bunny/carrot sprinkles that I bought last week. I didn't add Cadbury Mini Eggs as well, as even I am overloaded with chocolate already, and Easter weekend hasn't even arrived!

In the future I think I would definitely make the effort to temper the chocolate to get that extra crunch when breaking it up, but I didn't this time.

I'm not going to add a specific recipe here as it really is common sense. But so you know, I used 300g Sainsbury's Taste the Difference White Chocolate - a mix of Swiss and Belgium - inadvertentl. Any good quality chocolate will do. If you want it thinner, use less. I poured it into a square tray lined with aluminium foil and then placed the chocolate squares on first, then the mini eggs and then sprinkled the rest. In hindsight, I would leave the chocolate to set a little before adding any of it, as the tiny bunny and carrot sprinkles sunk in a little bit. 

Regardless, it still tastes delicious! The broken pieces packaged into clear cellophane bags makes a lovey Easter gift.

Happy Bunny Barking!

Kris x

UPDATE: Kerry has put this on her blog now - view it here.

Foodie PenPals

This is my first time joining in the Foodie PenPal monthly swap and so I was really excited to be involved.  It basically works so that you get paired up with two people - one to send you a parcel and a different person that you send to. You contact your person to find out what they like, then shop for their goodies, looking for the unusual or thoughtful items they might like. There is a £10 limited plus postage.
This month I said I would like to try cooking without refined sugar if possible. This goes against my actual blog but I wanted the challenge.

Emma, my partner put so much thought into the things she bought me. See the photo below.

Emma sent me:

• cranberries (I used those to make some hot cross buns),
• walnuts,
• poppy seeds (for texture),
• dates for natural sweetness (I used those to make a refined sugar free, avacado chocolate mousse type dessert); and,
• agave syrup (an alternate to sugar).

I haven't used everything yet, but I will do. Thank you so much to Emma from Something New Each Week. Go and check out her blog too.

On the other end, I had to send a parcel to Teresa from Rocksprings Crafts - and she preferred cheese and cheese flavoured things. I hope I managed to meet the brief!

If you would like to be involved, you can opt in and out each month, which is fabulous as some months are just so busy I wouldn't be able to manage it. Carol Ann at Rock Salt organises it each month. Check out her page if you are interested in participating.

Kris x

Creme Egg Cookies

Easter Week! I love it. I love Easter baking and finding new things to make each year. This year I have used Cadbury's Creme Eggs more than usual and this recipe is one of the best I have ever had. I can't take any credit for this recipe, I got it from the Queen of Creme Egg baking, Kerry at Kerry Cooks. Go and check out her whole site, there's some fabulous bakes on there.

I'm not going to add the recipe here, instead go straight to her page for it - click here.

Preparing to go in the oven.

Mine look a little different and I can only reason it being that my dough was quite wet - not sure why as I followed he recipe precisely, but it did firm up in the fridge. Oh, I did cook mine for an extra 2 mins too,The final cookie is light yet gooey in the middle, and utterly delicious! 

Go out and make these today...or tomorrow! Satisfaction guaranteed!

Kris x

Swedish Chocolate Cake

I simply HAVE to blog this recipe; it is absolutely amazing! I can't take any credit for it as I have used the recipe from one of my favourite bloggers, Linda over at Call Me Cupcake, a Swedish baker and food photographer. Go and have a look at her blog, and be prepared to be wowed!

The original recipe has no flour in it, but I did add two tablespoons of plain flour. It looks really dense in the photos, and I expected it to be very dense like a brownie, but honestly, it is as light as a feather! Truly, truly light, airy and gorgeous. It might be my new favourite...and so incredibly easy to make!

SWEDISH CHOCOLATE CAKE
Adapted from Call me Cupcake  

8-10 servings

 Ingredients

• 250 g butter
• 250 g coarsely chopped dark chocolate (70%)
• 1/3 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp (100 ml) strong coffee or espresso (or water)
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 180g sugar
• 2 tbsp plain flour (all purpose), optional
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar or 1/4 tsp vanilla powder
• pinch of salt

To serve

• Powdered sugar
• Whipped cream
• Milk chocolate curls
• Raspberries

Directions

1. Heat oven to 175° (350F). Grease a spring form pan (22-25 cm / 8-10 inches) and cover the base with baking paper.

2. Gently melt butter and chocolate in a saucepan on low heat. When mixture is melted and smooth, stir in coffee, then set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whip eggs, sugar and vanilla until very light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.

4. Add flour and then stir chocolate mixture into egg mixture with a spatula. Stir until smooth. Add a pinch of salt.

5. Pour batter into the prepared springform pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Let cake cool before removing it from the pan. I prefer the cake when it's been in the fridge for a couple of hours. Dust powered sugar on top.

6. Whip cream with some powdered sugar (to taste).
7. To make the chocolate curls, put milk chocolate in a warm place for a few minutes, then use a cheese slicer to make curls.

8. Alternatively, garnish with raspberres - the classic accompaniment to chocolate.

Creme Egg Chocolate Bundt Cake

I really love Cadbury's Creme eggs and with the invention of the mini ones, life is even better. Everyone seems to be making creme egg themed bakes at the moment and so I thought I'd do one too. It's not overly creme-eggy, only on the top, but combined with a really light, but stable chocolate bundt recipe, it was a winner.

I made this for a charity bake sale last week at my school. I'm pleased to say every single slice sold very quickly. Kids love things like this!

Anyway I have used a favourite cake recipe, added a simple icing sugar/water icing and the eggs on top. Very simple!

You're probably tired of me banging on about my Nordic Ware tins over the last few months. I just love them. Such high quality tins (wonder if they want to sponsor me!?) and produce the most beautiful looking cakes.

Chocolate Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (220g) unsalted butter      
• 2 1/4 cups plain (all purpose) flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon bi-carb soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream    
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:                 

1. Make the cake: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan, or I use a cake release spray - it works perfectly every single time. I usually find this makes a bit too much for the Heritage tin I have, as you should fill no more than 3/4 full, so I put the extra into another smaller tin (mini) as a little extra treat cake!
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, bi-carb soda, and salt. Mix milk and sour cream in a glass measuring cup.
3. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition; add vanilla. If the egg mixture looks like it is having trouble combining properly, you can add a tablespoon of the flour mix to help it come together.
4. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the milk mixture and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until just combined.
5. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top with an offset spatula.
6. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 55 minutes. (40 mins is using the smaller 6 cup tin).
7. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely. 
8. Make the icing: Mix together 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar with a tablespoon or two of water - add the water slowly to gauge how much you need. You want it runny enough to drip down the sides, but not so thin that it all runs off. Add yellow food colouring, again a tiny bit at a time.
9. Add cut up mini creme eggs on the top.
10. Cake can be stored at room temperature, in an airtight container for 2-3 days - if it lasts that long!

Luscious Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

I have made this cake a few times now and it is absolutely delicious every single time. Usually I make it as a chocolate peppermint cake with crush candy cane on top, but this weekend I thought I'd add some orange blossom extract instead. I love the combination of chocolate and orange; it seems a popular one too.

I seemed to have become obsessed with my Nordic Ware Bundt tins and haven't used any other tins since I got them. They are seriously just so easy to use and look fab.

Anyway here is the recipe for this cake - I encourage you to have a go, it's easy to make and guaranteed to pleased!

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Dark Chocolate and Orange Ganache

• Servings: 12
• adapted from Brooklyn Homemaker

For the Cake:

1 1/4 cups water
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons bi carb soda (baking soda)
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup sunflower oil - or a similar neutral oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted

For the Orange and  Dark Chocolate Ganache:

200g best quality dark chocolate, chopped (I used Sainsbury's dark cooking chocolate as it is dairy free and I simply like it)
3/4 cup double cream
1/2 teaspoon of orange extract

1. Place an oven rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 180 degrees C.

2. Liberally butter a 10 to 12 cup Bundt pan and set aside. I actually use cake release spray and it works a dream every time.

3. Whisk water and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and let come to room temperature.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, mix together sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs and egg yolk on low for just one minute. Add the milk, oil and vanilla extract and mix on low again for another minute.

5. Add the flour and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes more.  Add the cooled cocoa mixture and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. The batter will seem quite loose and liquid.  Pour into the prepared cake pan no more than three quarters full and bake for 55-65, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. If you have extra mixture because your tin is smaller, then pour into another cake tin and cook it as an extra bit of cake.

6. Let the cake cool completely in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack. Once cooled you can trim off the uneven top to make it level, or just leave it as I did this time.

7. To make the ganache, heat the double cream in a heavy pot, just until it begins to simmer. Remove from the heat and add it to the chopped chocolate. Let the chocolate melt for a a few minutes or so, then whisk to combine. Add the orange extract.

8. Drizzle ganache over the cake while it’s still warm and liquid. Garnish with raspberries. Let the ganache set for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

10. Store in an airtight container - this will stay fresh for about 10 days, if you can resist it for that long!

Notes:

If you wanted a more intense orange flavour in the actual cake, add the zest of an orange into the wet mixture.

Valentine's Chocolate Mousse

Happy Valentine's Day! A quick post to share the pudding I made tonight for Valentine's Day; it's such a simple yet scrummy dessert. And the best bit, it's totally vegan so even my son could have it. I wanted to make something that wasn't cake based and required very little effort. I knew I had a can of coconut milk in the fridge, so this immediately came to mind. It takes a whole 5 minutes to make, I kid you not.

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

1 can coconut milk - chilled in the fridge overnight

200g chocolate - milk or dark, your choice. I used dark.

1 dsp icing sugar

1/2 tsp orange extract/essence

Raspberries

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments until smooth and glossy.
2. Carefully remove the solids out of the coconut milk tin into a medium bowl, discard any liquid.
3. Using a hand held electric mixer, whip the coconut milk solids with the icing sugar and orange essence until fluffy. Scrap the sides occasionally, this step takes only about 2 minutes.
4. Pour the melted chocolate into the bowl and beat together using the mixer until it is combined and still fluffy. If you over mix, as I did tonight and it hardens, this is very easily fixed by putting the bowl into the microwave for 10 seconds to loosen it up again.
5. Pipe into bowls, or just spoon in if you prefer. Top with raspberries.

Notes:

• This is best made just before serving, or if making it into a pie (as I have posted on my fb page) then allow to set in the fridge.

• You could add peppermint extract instead of orange if you prefer.

• I tend to leave a can of coconut milk in the fridge at all times for occasions such as this. Go for a band that has at least 60% coconut solids in it, 70%+ if possible. You get more solids in your recipe then!

• This is quite rich, so smaller portions are advised, but it is soooo light, honestly, it's like eating a cloud. A chocolate one!