ANZAC Cake

 

Today is ANZAC Day, marked by dawn services, parades and other tributes to service men and women. The traditional “food” made to mark the day is ANZAC biscuits, made with oats, coconut and golden syrup.

Helen Goh published a recipe for ANZAC Cake, incorporating the flavours of ANZAC biscuits in cake form. The cake looked delicious, so that is what I made as an alternative this year.

Here’s my cake, decorated with rosemary to commemorate the Gallipoli landings in World War I,  and shown with my new Brooch the Subject slouch hat brooch:

I loved the look of this cake (I made a half recipe in a small loaf tin), with its shaggy coconut topping:

The cake is soft and moist, and is complemented by the sweet, textured coconut topping:

I paired my cake with coconut yoghurt, continuing on with the coconut theme:

To make this cake, you will need:

Cake

100g rolled oats

200ml coconut milk

170g plain flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking sofa

Pinch of salt

120g butter, softened

100g brown sugar

100g golden syrup

2 eggs

Topping

75g salted butter

95g brown sugar

95g shredded coconut

60ml cream

Pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 195 degrees Celsius and grease and line a 20cm loaf tin.

Put the oats in a food processor and pulse a few times to create an uneven texture. Place the oats in a bowl with the coconut milk, and stir to combine.  Leave to soak while you make the rest of the cake.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

In a food processor, mix together the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup until light and creamy.  One at a time, blend in the eggs, then scrape down the bowl. 

Add the oats to the food processor and blend until just combined. Add the flour mixture and pulse a couple of times.  Using a rubber spatula, fold the ingredients together until just combined.

Scrape the cake batter into the prepared tin, and bake for 45-50 minutes or until cooked through.

While the cake is in the oven, make the topping by putting all of the topping ingredients into a saucepan and stirring over low heat until the ingredients are combined and the butter has melted. Set aside.

When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and spread the topping carefully and evenly over the top.  Put the cake back in the oven for 12-15 minutes until the topping is golden brown.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve dusted with icing sugar if desired.

Peach and Walnut Chutney

If you like a fruit chutney and you can get your hands on some peaches, I have the recipe for you! The recipe is for Peach and Walnut Chutney, and comes from The Veg Space.

I love this chutney - thick and fruity and savoury, with nice texture from the walnuts.  It is so good - I wish I’d made a larger batch.

This chutney is good spread on bread with meat and salad, and would make an excellent accompaniment to roasts or in sauces.

 If you would like to make this chutney, you will need (for a full batch):

6 onions, finely chopped

14 peaches 

Zest of 2 lemons

720ml cider or white wine vinegar

700g sugar

175g chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 teaspoon chilli flakes

2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger

First, skin the peaches by putting a cross in the top and bottom of the skin of each peach, covering the peaches with boiling water for a minute, then draining the peaches and pulling off the skins.  Remove the stone from the peaches by cutting each one in half down the middle and twisting out the stone (or cutting it out for clingstone peaches).

Roughly chop the peaches, and place them into a large saucepan with all of the other ingredients. Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn the heat down and allow the mixture to simmer, stirring regularly to stop it from burning onto the base of the pan, for around 90 minutes or until the mixture is thick and jammy. The mixture stinks a bit because of the vinegar, and it is a bit of a time investment, but the end result is worth it.

While the chutney is simmering, sterilise 5 or so jars by either boiling the jars and lids in a pot of boiling water for ~20 minutes and drying them out in the oven, or running the jars through the hot cycle on the dishwasher.

Spoon the cooked chutney into the jars until nearly full  and seal immediately.  I find that turning the sealed jars upside down for a few minutes helps to create an airtight seal (you will hear the button on the lid pop in when the seal has been created). Allow the chutney to cool completely in the jars before storing in a dark cool place.

Leave the chutney to mature in the jars for 4 weeks before opening.

TWD - Matcha-White Chocolate Mads

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Matcha-White Chocolate Mini Mads. I made full size madeleines as that is the tin I have. I ended up with 12 mads and 2 “Aberffraw cakes”.

The mads reliably got their trademark hump in the oven:

 The lovely green colour from the matcha made these especially pretty madeleines. I couldn’t really taste the white chocolate or the lime zest, but that’s ok.

To see what everyone else made this week, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Caramilk Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Cadbury Caramilk chocolate has been all the rage since it was resurrected a year or so ago.  You can now buy Caramilk baking chips, and to promote them, the local Woolies catalogue featured a recipe for Caramilk Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Caramilk is on the sweeter side, and these cookies are quite sweet when the Caramilk is combined with brown and white sugar.  They are sweet in a good way, but if you are not a sweet tooth, these are not likely to be your thing.

If you'd like to try out these cookies with the new Caramilk baking chips, you will need:

125g unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 egg

1 1/4 cups self-raising flour

1 tablespoon cornflour

130g Cadbury Caramilk baking chips

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the softened butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla and the lightly beaten egg, and beat to combine.

Sift over the flour and cornflour.  Beat together on low speed until just combined. Fold through the baking chips.

Roll tablespoons full of dough into balls and place on  2 lined baking sheets, leaving an inch between each ball. Place biscuits in the fridge  to chill for an hour.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Place the trays of biscuits in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until golden at the edges, rotating front to back and top to bottom at the midway point of baking time.

Remove the biscuits from the oven and allow them to cool on the trays.

Cassata

 Recently, it was my friend Vanda's birthday, and a group of us went to her place for a birthday feast.  Vanda's family are of Italian origin, so I wanted to make an Italian dessert.  For ages, I had wanted to make cassata.  Someone else was bringing a cake, so I decided to make the icecream version of cassata. For the uninitiated, cassata is an icecream dessert comprising three layers, one of which is chocolate, and one which is flavoured with candied fruits and nuts.

There are many different recipes for cassata, and the more traditional ones I suspect are those that contain ricotta and marscapone.  However, I chose a recipe by the Australian Womens Weekly, which uses only cream.  The recipe refers to using a round tin, but the photo accompanying the recipe features a loaf tin, so that is what I used.  The only adaptation that I had to make is to make the layers in reverse order.

I think it turned out beautifully, and Vanda loved it:

To make your own cassata, you will need:

Almond layer

2 eggs, separated

1/2 cup icing sugar

125ml pouring cream

1/2 teaspoon almond essence

Chocolate layer 

2 eggs, separated

1/2 cup icing sugar

125ml pouring cream

60g melted dark chocolate

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 1/2 tablespoons water

Fruit layer

250ml pouring cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg white, lightly beaten

1/3 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons red glace cherries, chopped finely

3-4 tablespoons candied fruit of your choice, finely chopped

(I used candied clementines, pear and figs)

30g roasted flaked almonds (I just used roasted chopped almonds) 

Line a loaf pan with cling wrap, as smoothly as possible.

For the fruit layer, beat the cream and vanilla extract together until firm peaks form.  In a small separate bowl, beat the egg white to soft peak stage, then gradually beat in the icing sugar.  Fold the egg whites into the cream, then fold through the fruit and nuts.

Spread the mixture into the bottom of the lined loaf tin and smooth the top.  Freeze until firm (~1-2 hours).

For the chocolate layer, beat the egg whites together until firm peaks form.  Gradually beat in the sifted icing sugar.

In a separate bowl, beat the cream to soft peak stage, then fold the cream into the egg white mixture.  

In a cup, blend together the cocoa and water.  In a small bowl mix the melted chocolate and egg yolks together.  Stir the cocoa mixture through the chocolate mixture, then fold the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture.  Spread the chocolate mixture evenly over the top of the fruit layer in the loaf tin, and freeze until firm (~ 1-2 hours).

For the almond layer, beat the egg whites together in a small bowl to firm peak stage, then beat in the sifted icing sugar.   Lightly beat the egg yolks and fold them through the egg whites.  

In a separate bowl, beat together the cream and almond essence until soft peaks form.  Fold the cream through the egg mixture, then spread the almond mixture over the top of the chocolate layer in the loaf pan and smooth the top.  Freeze the cassata for a further 1-2 hours until firm.

To serve, unmould the cassata, fruit side up, onto a serving platter, and carefully remove the cling film.  Cut into slices, and enjoy!

 

TWD - Fennel-Orange Shortbread Wedges

Today's Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Fennel-Orange Shortbread Wedges.  As the name suggests, these shortbread biscuits are flavoured with orange zest and ground fennel.

I made a half recipe to get eight wedges:

I am not a massive shortbread fan, but these biscuits were nice.  They won't be on my high rotation list, but if shortbread is your thing, then you may enjoy this fennel-orange flavour riff.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Bunny Cupcakes for Easter

 Happy Easter readers!  I hope that you are having a great day.

To celebrate, I made Bunny Cupcakes (down the rabbit hole).  The recipe comes from this week's Woolworths supermarket catalogue.

Instead of making marzipan bunny feet, I used white marshmallows, cut in half, and painted them with red food colouring.  These are really nice cupcakes.  There is no coconut in the cakes - the coconut is used strictly for decoration. 

To make your own Bunny Cupcakes, you will need:

Cakes

125g butter, softened

1 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup wheaten cornflour

2/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

2 egg whites

2/3 cup sugar

Icing and decorations

1 1/4 cup icing sugar

75g butter, softened

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup shredded coconut

12 white marshmallows

red or pink food colouring

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake papers.  

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.  Add the whole egg and the vanilla and beat until combined.  Add a third of the sifted flours, and beat until just combined.  Add half the milk and beat until just combined.  Repeat with the remaining flour and milk, ending with flour.  

In a separate bowl, beat together the two egg whites until they form soft peaks.  Fold the egg whites gently into the batter with a rubber spatula.

Using an icecream scoop, divide the batter evenly between the 12 cupcake papers.  Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden on top and cooked through when tested with a skewer.

Remove the cupcakes from the oven and unmould them from the muffin tin onto a wire rack.  Allow them to cool completely.

Once the cupcakes are cool, make the icing - Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until pale and creamy.  Gradually beat in the icing sugar, then beat in the milk and vanilla.

Spread the buttercream over the top of the cupcakes, leaving a small hump of icing in the middle of each one to form the bunny tails.  Sprinkle the shredded coconut over the top of each cupcake.  Cut each marshmallow in half, and arrange the two halves of of a marshmallow on the top of a cupcake near the tail to form "feet".  Using a small paintbrush dipped in food colouring, paint on the bunny's paws, as shown.  

I also made Easter marshmallow rabbits again this year:

You can find the recipe here.  The recipe makes one large rabbit or 6 junior rabbits. 

Happy Easter to all!