tropical hummingbird cake

tropical hummingbird cake

25 Aug 2014

Hi Every-one, I hope you all had lovely weekends. Saturday was another wet day here in Sydney and when it rained most of day, I thought this poor cake would be spending another week in the frosty depths of the deep freeze. I adapted and made this Pineapple Crush Cake recipe from Belinda Jeffrey's book, Mix and Bake, 3 weeks ago now. I ran out of time to decorate the cake and I was out of town last weekend, so it's been stored in the freezer since then. Yesterday I woke to sunshine so I took out the butter and cream cheese ready to make the passionfruit cream cheese icing.

When I looked through the pineapple crush cake recipe in 'Mix and Bake' it looked very much like a Hummingbird cake with some tropical elements added like the macadamia nuts. I added passionfruit to the cream cheese icing and adjusted the proportions a little to fit my special little spring form tin. As always if you double the ingredients it will make a 23 cm/9inch cake and the cooking time remains the same.

I decorated the cake with some macadamia nut brittle adapted from a recipe in the the Ottolenghi Cookbook and a few wisps of toasted shredded coconut.

When the rain stopped falling, I decided to take the cake outside for it's photo shoot and yes I did put the cake up on a pedestal. I have no idea where the pedestal came from but it's been a feature of our back yard for about 2 years now.

Here's the recipe for you.

Tropical Hummingbird Layer Cake, adapted from Belinda Jeffery’s Mix and Bake. 

Makes a 16 cm cake 

Ingredients 

¾ cup SR flour 

¼ cup Plain flour 

pinch salt 

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 

pinch ground nutmeg 

25g roasted macadamias, coarsely chopped 

1 egg 

⅔ cup caster sugar 

½ cup vegetable oil 

½ teaspoon vanilla extract 

⅓ cup canned crushed pineapple in natural juice, undrained 

⅔ cup mashed banana 

Passionfruit Cream Cheese Icing 

60g softened unsalted butter, diced

125 g softened cream cheese, diced

2 teaspoons passionfruit juice 

2½ cups icing sugar mixture, sifted  

Optional - Macadamia Nut Topping 

75 g macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped 

50g caster sugar 

1 tbl water  

Method 

1) Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Grease and line the base of a 16cm round cake tin with baking paper. Lightly dust the tin with flour. 

2) Sift the flours, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl. Stir in the chopped macadamia nuts. 

3) In another bowl, beat the egg lightly with the sugar. Whisk in the oil and vanilla extract until well combined. Add the pineapple and mashed bananas and mix thoroughly. 

4) Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir them together to form a batter. If the batter is too thick, add a little more pineapple juice. 

5) Bake for 50 – 60 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Cool the cake before turning out of the tin. 

6) To prepare the nut topping, scatter the nuts over a baking sheet and roast in the oven at 140ºC/275ºF for about 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and set aside. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan with a thick base. Heat the sugar mixture gently until it turns into a golden-brown caramel. Do not stir the mixture at any stage or the toffee may crystallize. Carefully add the toasted nuts and mix gently with a wooden spoon. When most of the nuts are coated in caramel, pour them on to the lined tray and leave to set. Break bits off and chop them very roughly with a large knife.  

7) For icing, put all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment beat the mixture until it becomes light and fluffy, 8-10 minutes. 

8) Using a serrated knife, halve the cooled cake horizontally. Sandwich the two cakes together with about a third of the icing. Spread the remaining icing on top of the cake. 

I decorated the cake with macadamia nut brittle and a tablespoon of toasted shredded coconut. If you like, you could just drizzle the iced cake with some passionfruit pulp.

The cake is really moist as it's studded with nuggets of pineapple, banana and macadamia but I found it a bit too sweet. I'm sure I'll be making it again so maybe next time I'd cut down the sugar just a little or ditch the the macadamia nut brittle. It's such a sunshiney cake though, I'm glad I could finally photograph it outdoors.

See you all again next week,

Jillian

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split pea and israeli couscous soup

split pea and israeli couscous soup

18 Aug 2014

I've just flown back to Sydney from Brisbane and the weather here in Sydney is absolutely revolting - cold, gray, wet and windy. I'm in the process of sprucing up my place and should be looking at furniture shops but instead I came home to put on some warm clothes and to make a pot of warming soup.



Growing up I would never eat split pea soup. It was something about the grainy texture I didn't like so I felt pretty brave attempting this recipe for split pea and israeli couscous soup. The recipe comes from Colin Fassnidge's book, Recipes from Four Kitchens.





Living in Sydney I'm lucky enough to have eaten at both the Four in Hand and at Four Fourteen, two of Colin Fassnidge's restaurants and the food has always been delicious. I made this soup for the first time a few weeks ago and it's really tasty, though I did use chicken rather than vegetable stock. Best of all, I've managed to track down the recipe for you.

Split pea and israeli couscous soup - serves 8
Ingredients 
1 carrot, peeled and diced 

1 onion, peeled and diced 
1 celery stalk, sliced 
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped 
100ml white wine 
200g Israeli couscous 
300g green split peas
2 litres vegetable stock (plus more if you like) 
splash of olive oil 
thyme leaves, to serve

Method 

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the vegetables and garlic, and sweat until soft but not coloured. 

Deglaze with white wine then add the couscous. Add the split peas and stock. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat slightly and cook uncovered for 30 minutes or until the vegetables, couscous and peas are tender. Add more stock as it cooks if you like, but it is supposed to be a thick and chunky soup.

Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and serve sprinkled with thyme leaves.

Don't stress if you can't track down the israeli couscous, any small pasta like risoni or ditalini will do.

I hope you enjoyed your weekends despite the rain. See you all again next week with a tropical cake which is presently languishing in the freezer waiting until the sun returns before it can be photographed.

The ironing needs to be done so I better go and get that done.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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spicy chicken burgers on a light brioche bun

spicy chicken burgers on a light brioche bun

11 Aug 2014

I don't usually buy take away but when I'm on holidays I've been known to order the occasional burger. I'm quite partial to a chicken burger and this month's Gourmet Traveller featured a tasty looking chicken burger recipe from Pinbone. It contained fried chicken, which I can't eat, so when I spied a Curtis Stone recipe for oven fried chicken  I thought I'd give that a go instead.



The list of ingredients I needed was quite long so I went in search of hot sauce, panko breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, onion and garlic powder. 

I was going to buy the bread rolls but when reading one of my favourite food blogs I discovered this New York Times recipe for light brioche burger buns. I simplified the technique considerably, put the dough into the fridge to rise overnight and made these at lunch time.



I already had cheese in the fridge but I needed some lettuce leaves and tomatoes. I bought some mini ox heart tomatoes because they're so sweet and juicy! I thought the perfect accompaniment to the burgers would be some of my faux fries.



Here are the simplified instructions for the brioche burger buns using a stand mixer. I also cut the sugar content considerably.

Light Brioche Bun 
Adapted from Hidefumi Kubota, Comme Ça, Los Angeles 
Time: 1 hour, plus 2 to 4 hours’ rising
Ingredients 

3 cups bakers flour 

1/3 cup plain flour 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt 

2 teaspoons dry yeast 

2 teaspoons sugar 

35 g softened butter 

1 egg, beaten 

1 cup warm water 

3 tablespoons warm milk 

Topping 

1 egg 

1 tablespoon water 

Sesame seeds 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the flours with the salt, dried yeast and sugar. Add butter and rub into the flour.  

Using the dough hook, mix in the beaten egg and the warm water and milk to form a soft dough. Mix for 8 - 10 minutes before shaping the dough into a ball. Lightly grease the bowl and return the dough to the bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours or you can place the bowl in the fridge overnight. The next day bring the dough to room temperature before proceeding to the next step. 

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Divide the dough into 8 - 12 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange 2 to 3 inches apart on the tray. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let buns rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours. 

Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F with rack in centre. Set a large shallow pan of water on the oven floor. Beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon water and lightly brush the top of the buns. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake, turning the tray halfway through baking, until tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Transfer to a rack to cool completely. 

Yield: 8 - 12 buns.

I have to say these burgers were absolutely delicious. I followed Curtis Stone's instructions to the letter using chicken thigh fillets which I'd brined overnight. The buns came out really well and they were soft and tasty. I used the toppings suggested in the Pinbone recipe - cheese, tomato, lettuce, mayonnaise and hot sauce. These little burgers are so good, I think the Colonel may be in trouble!

P.S Here's my final Delicious Bites column for decor8, a recipe for Petal Cupcakes. As the column won't be running anymore what would you think if I renamed my blog Delicious Bites? It would just be a redirection so my current readers wouldn't have to change a thing. It would give me an opportunity to get a new logo and a new look for the blog. 

I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of my idea.

See you all next week,

Jillian

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chewy triple ginger cookies

chewy triple ginger cookies

4 Aug 2014

I have a confession to make and as my work colleagues don't read my blog, this secret will stay just between you and me. I don't take all my baking into work. Sometimes I'm selfish and I'll bake something just for the biscuit tin which is what I did last weekend.




For those of you who've been reading my blog for a while, I'm still looking for the perfect ginger biscuit recipe. I read through this chewy triple ginger cookie recipe from August's Australian Gourmet Traveller (AGT) magazine, checked my fridge and cupboards and apart from the Demerara sugar, I had all the ingredients required. I figured I could use some old fashioned coffee sugar crystals instead of the Demerara sugar so I rolled up my sleeves and put these together. The most time consuming part of the recipe was the ginger grating and juice squeezing part, but even then that wasn't too onerous.



The recipe indicates it will make 18 biscuits. I used the cookie scoop I bought in New York a few years ago, which holds about a tablespoon. Well I made 24 generously proportioned cookies and I still have dough left over which is in the freezer, so I figure 36 is closer to the mark.





Chewy Triple Ginger Cookies - makes about 18
160 gm softened butter
110 gm each dark muscovado sugar and raw caster sugar
60 gm honey
1 egg
330 gm plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½ tbsp ground ginger
½ tsp each ground cinnamon and ground cloves
40 gm fresh ginger finely grated
40 gm candied ginger, finely diced
pinch of salt +/- white pepper
Demerara sugar, for coating

Preheat oven to 180°C. Beat butter, sugars and honey in an electric mixer until fluffy and pale (3-4 minutes). Scrape down sides of bowl, beat in egg, then sieve over dry ingredients and stir to combine. Squeeze as much juice as possible from fresh ginger into the dough (discard solids) add candied ginger and a pinch of salt (and white pepper if using) and stir to combine.

Roll heaped tablespoons of mixture into balls, flatten slightly then coat in Demerara sugar. Place on oven trays lined with baking paper, leaving 5cm between each to allow for spread. Bake swapping trays halfway to cook evenly, until dark golden around the edges (10-12 minutes). Cool on trays, then store in an airtight container until required. Cookies will keep for 5 days.



I have another confession to make. I love dunking my ginger biscuits into a hot cup of tea. Once these were photographed, that's exactly what I did and I had not one, but two. These cookies are nice and spicy with some added crunch from the coffee sugar crystals. I'm always tweaking recipes so I added a pinch of white pepper to the dough just to bump up the spice factor a bit more.

I still have quite a few biscuits left in the tin so once this is written I'm off to brew some tea and get dunking.

See you all again next week,

Jillian

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