SLIDER

plum tosca cake

1 Feb 2025


Every year when plums are in season, I make plum cake. 
My dear friend Liane, who passed away 2 years ago, loved plum cake so I now make a plum cake every year in her honour. Sometimes it's my usual recipe and sometimes I'll try another recipe. 



This year while searching for recipes I came across a recipe for a Plum Tosca Cake by Rachel Khoo. It looked enticing so I decided to make a version with my own plum cake recipe as the base topped with the almond toffee mixture.


My cake almost overflowed in the tin while it baked
, so I made a second cake which I baked in an 8 inch tin. I needed more plums and more topping, but that's not a bad thing. I usually make my cake batter quite soft so the plums sink to the bottom during the bake but it was clear from the photos the plums stayed on the surface so I reduced the liquid in my recipe accordingly. Rachel also suggests using apricots or cherries or other soft fruit to top the cake, so next time I make a tosca cake I might use blackberries. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 20cm cake although the photographs are of the 17cm cake I made. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 



Plum Tosca Cake inspired by a Rachel Khoo recipe.
Ingredients
8-9 plums, halved and stoned then quartered and topped with 1 tbs sugar
100g caster sugar
the grated zest of 1 lemon
100g room temperature unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 1/4  tsp baking powder
a pinch of fine sea salt
150g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk or yoghurt

Topping
50g butter
50g caster sugar
100g flaked almonds
3 tsp rum (optional)
2 tbs plain flour
45 mls cream
a pinch of sea salt

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Line a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper.

Half the plums, then remove the stones. You can use plum halves but I used plum quarters so I could squeeze in more plums. Top the cut side of the plums with 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and set to one side.

For the cake, in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar and lemon rind until the sugar is fragrant. Add the butter and mix until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add one egg at a time, beating to incorporate.

Sift the baking powder, salt and flour into a separate bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, along with the vanilla extract and the milk. You should have a thick soft batter.



Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin. Level the mixture with a palette knife, then lay the plum quarters on top of the cake. If you're using plum halves, place them skin side down. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cake is still slightly wobbly in the middle. While the cake is baking, make the cake topping by first melting the butter. Once melted, take off the heat and mix with all the other ingredients until combined.



Take the cake out of the oven and turn the oven up to 200°C conventional. Spread the topping evenly over the cake and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and crisp. Immediately loosen the cake with a knife when it comes out of the oven to prevent the topping from welding itself to the tin. Cool for 10-20 minutes before unmoulding from the tin then let the cake completely cool on a wire rack before serving. 



The cake will keep for a few days in an airtight container but is best served the day it's baked as the topping will still be crisp. Even with a soft topping, the cake is still very good a few days later. 


I recently went to Melbourne for a family wedding and as I was staying in St Kilda, I visited the Monarch Cake Shop where I bought a slice of their famous plum cake. I carefully transported the cake back to my accommodation where I enjoyed my slice with a nice cup of tea.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian





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strawberry all in one pavlova

27 Jan 2025



It's the Australia Day public holiday today, so I decided to make a pavlova topped with whipped cream and some fresh strawberries. I've been making pavlovas my whole life using the tried and trusted method of slowly incorporating 60g of caster sugar for every 30g of egg white before adding a little bit of vinegar, cornflour and vanilla, that was until last year when I saw Adam Liaw make an all in pavlova on The Cook Up.


It was a revelation. There was no gradual adding of caster sugar, instead he used icing mixture instead of caster sugar and just put all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and whisked it for 8 minutes and hey presto, he had meringue. As i
cing mixture already includes starch, there's no need to add any extra cornflour, you just need egg whites, a pinch of salt and some vinegar and vanilla extract. 


Since then I've made a batch of meringues and and a pavlova using this method but I found the pavlova very sweet so I've reduced the sugar a little in the recipe. It's still a struggle baking a pavlova in my gas oven. It doesn't have a temperature option below 160
°C. It just has 'minimum' and it took 3½ hours in the oven at minimum before the pavlova was cooked enough to remove it from the baking paper.


Here's the recipe for you which makes a 16cm pavlova. If you'd like to make a bigger pavlova just increase the quantity of egg whites and icing mixture. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 



All in One Pavlova
90g egg whites, from approximately 3 egg whites 
Pinch of salt
135g icing mixture 
¾ tsp white vinegar 
¾ tsp vanilla extract
 
Topping
200mls thickened cream, whipped to soft peaks
1 punnet strawberries, washed, hulled and dried
Icing sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional. Line a flat baking tray with baking paper and using a 16cm tin as your guide, mark out a circle on the paper. Flip the paper over and use this as your template. Place the paper onto the baking tray.

Place the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer with a pinch of salt and whisk on low speed until just combined. Add the icing mixture to the bowl and beat at high speed to form a glossy stiff meringue. This will take about 8 minutes. Gently fold through the vinegar and vanilla extract.




Spoon the meringue onto the baking paper to form a 16cm circle with a slightly flattened top. This will subside during the baking process creating a well for the cream. Place the pavlova in the oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 130°C, conventional, or the lowest setting for your oven and bake for 1¼ - 1½ hours or until the pavlova is dry and very lightly coloured. Turn the oven off and allow the pavlova to cool for a further 1 1⁄2 - 2 hours in the switched off oven, wedging the door open very slightly with a chopstick.



When cool, remove the pavlova from the baking paper and store in an airtight container. Just before serving, top the pavlova with the lightly whipped cream and berries and a dusting of icing sugar. 



This pavlova didn't make it into work. I shared it with my neighbours who were very pleased that I did. It was simply delicious. 


See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian
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fig and earl grey victoria sponge

12 Jan 2025


Last year, when figs were in season, I made a batch of fig and earl grey jam using this
recipe because I planned to make a 
Fig and Earl Grey Sponge Cake. Before I had a chance to make the cake, figs disappeared from the fruit shop and I completely forgot about the 2 pots of jam which I'd stored under my bed.


I've had nothing but good results making my version of Nicola Lamb's Victoria Sponge cake recipe, so I knew I would use that as the base for my recipe when I rediscovered the pots of jam at Christmas time. As soon as figs appeared in the fruit shop I bought a punnet and off to the kitchen I went to make the cake. Of course you don't need to make your own jam, store bought is fine, and remember to steep the cream with the tea leaves the night before you decorate the cake.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17cm cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 


Fig and Earl Grey Sponge Cake
Cake 
135g unsalted butter, soft (20°C is great!)
3g (½ tsp) sea salt flakes
165g caster sugar
45g cream
2 whole eggs 
1 egg yolk 
1 tsp vanilla extract
60g whole milk
165g plain flour
10g baking powder (around 2 tsp)
2 tsp sugar for a crispy top

Filling  
300mls thickened cream
1 tsp loose leaf earl grey tea
½ cup fig and earl grey jam

Topping
Fresh figs
Berries
Icing sugar, for dusting

Method
The night before you plan to bake the cake, pour the cream into a bowl and add the earl grey tea leaves. Leave it to cold steep overnight. 

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C, conventional. Grease, flour and line the base of a 17cm tin with baking paper. Set aside.

Cream the soft butter with salt and sugar for 2 minutes on medium speed using a stand mixer. This is enough for the butter and sugar to aerate slightly and become a little paler, but not so much that it is whipped. 

Mix together the cream, whole eggs, egg yolks, vanilla extract and milk.

Sift together the plain flour and baking powder. Set aside. Starting with the liquid, alternate adding the liquid and dry ingredients into the creamed butter and sugar, in around three batches, scraping down as necessary. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the sugar.


Bake for 45 minutes on the centre rack of the preheated 190°C oven , then check if the sponge is golden and bouncy, and pulling away from the sides slightly. Bake for additional 5 minutes if seems underbaked. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on a rack. When completely cold, use a long serrated knife to slice horizontally through the centre of the cake, separarting the cake into 2 layers.

Filling
Strain the cream, then whip to soft peaks and bring the jam to room temperature if it is kept in the fridge. 


Assembly
Place one of the cake halves onto a serving plate spreading jam all over the base. Spoon 2/3 of the cream onto the jam layer and spread to the edges with the back of a spoon - leave a 1-inch border if you don't want it to splurge too much! if you want, you can top the cream with a few fresh fig slices. 
As a splurging insurance policy, you can pop your cake in the fridge or freezer to firm up the cream a bit. 


Smooth the cream a little, then add the sugared sponge layer. Add a small dollop of cream to the top of the cake, then add slices of fresh fig and a few berries. Dust with icing sugar and serve. 


The cake will keep in the fridge for 3 days, stored in an airtight container.




No surprise, the cake was absolutely delicious.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian
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The Violet Butterscotch Blondies

11 Jan 2025


Happy New Year and welcome to the first post for 2025. I'm easing myself back slowly into the kitchen after a mammoth 2 months of baking. I decided to make some blondies using a Claire Ptak recipe. 
The day before I returned to work, I made the caramel shards then quickly but the batter together. By the time the blondies had cooled I'd lost the light so I put them into an airtight container and returned to photograph them a few days later.


They're delicious but even though I reduced the sugar in the recipe, I found them very sweet. To take the sweetness down a notch I've dropped the sugar in the batter even more. I could have taken the caramel a bit further which would have taken the edge off the sweetness and instead of milk chocolate, dark chocolate pieces would also help.

Here's the recipe for you, adapted from here, which makes 8 brownies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 


The Violet Butterscotch Blondie – Claire Ptak
Caramel shards
15 ml water
75g caster sugar

Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the tin
1 egg
125g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp fine sea salt
60g milk chocolate, broken into small pieces

Caramel
Have a sheet of greaseproof paper ready on a heat proof surface. Measure the water into a heavy-bottomed pan. Cover with the sugar and place over a medium-low heat until the sugar starts to dissolve. Resist the temptation to stir the pan as this can cause crystallisation. Once the sugar starts to dissolve, turn up the heat to medium-high until the sugar is a dark golden brown. Pour the caramel onto the greaseproof paper in a thin and even layer. Leave to cool, then use a sharp knife to chop into smallish shards. Be careful, as the caramel can be quite hard.



Blondies
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Butter a 17 x 17 cm baking tin and line with baking paper.

Gently melt the
125g butter in a small, heavy-bottomed pan and set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar and vanilla until frothy, then whisk in the melted butter.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl then add add to the egg and butter mixture along with the milk chocolate pieces. Mix until just combined.




Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and smooth the top with a palette knife or spatula. Sprinkle 40g of the caramel shards over the top and bake for 30 minutes. The centre should be puffed and set but still a little gooey.



Leave to cool completely in the tin, then cut into 8 thick but smallish pieces.


These will keep well for more than 3 days in an airtight container.


A perfect bite sized treat served with a nice cup of tea.

See you all again next week with some more baking for my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian



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christmas cookies 2024

22 Dec 2024


I wasn't planning to post anything today as I'm feeling a bit baked out and ready for a holiday. I managed to find a second wind though and baked some cookies for my neighbours before I leave for my Christmas break.

I was only going to make 3 kinds of biscuits but at the last minute I decided to make a batch of chocolate crinkle cookies. I mostly made cookies I was familiar with but also popped in a new one, a marbled shortbread cookie, to please my fussy next door neighbour, who will not eat fruit. Here's what I made. 

A batch of sour cherry amaretti and you can find the recipe here.


A batch of hazelnut and almond thumbprint cookies which I filled with blood orange marmalade or some berry jam and you can find the recipe here.


I made a batch of my ever popular chocolate crinkle cookies, and here is the recipe for you.


And the final cookies I made were these marbled short bread cookies by Nicola Lamb. They were pretty easy to make but I could have been a bit more adventurous with my marbling. Next time.


Here's the recipe for you which I found here which makes 20 shortbread cookies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

Marbled Shortbread
Ingredients
160g unsalted butter, softened
80g caster sugar
75g fine semolina
170g plain flour
10g cocoa powder
½ tsp sea salt flakes
1 tsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (or use ½ pod, seeds scraped out)

Method
For the chocolate shortbread, in a mixing bowl, cream 80g butter and 40g caster sugar with an electric whisk for 1 min, until pale. Add 35g fine semolina, 85g plain flour, the cocoa powder, ¼ tsp sea salt flakes and the milk; stir to form a stiff dough.

For the vanilla shortbread, in a separate mixing bowl, use the whisk to cream the remaining 80g butter and 40g caster sugar with the vanilla extract or seeds for 1 min, until pale. Add the remaining 40g fine semolina, 85g plain flour and ¼ tsp sea salt flakes; stir to form a stiff dough.

Tear off a sheet of baking paper. Divide the doughs into small blobs and alternate them on the paper to build a 25 cm x 5 cm log. Gently squish it together, then roll back and forth until smooth. Wrap in the paper and chill for 2 hrs until firm.

Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional. Slice the log into approximately 20 x 1 cm rounds and arrange on a lined large baking tray. Bake for 15-17 mins, until golden at the edges; leave to cool fully on a rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.







I'm long overdue a holiday so you won't be seeing me for a few weeks so until then, I wish all my readers the best over the holiday season and a happy new year. 

See you all again on Monday January 13 2025 with some more baking from my kitchen. 

Bye for now, 

Jillian
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xmas week 2024 - sticky gingerbread bundt cake

17 Dec 2024



Is it even Christmas if you don't make gingerbread in some form? This year rather than gingerbread men or a gingerbread tree, I made a gingerbread bundt cake, because I really wanted to test out the cake goop I had stored in the fridge.


Gingerbread usually contains some form of sugar syrup that when baked welds the cake firmly to the cake pan. Trust me I know because I've had any number of baking disasters in the past. For the recipe I turned to Belinda Jeffery and a recipe that I found in a Delicious magazine many years ago. 
It's a triple ginger cake because it contains both ground ginger, fresh ginger as well as crystallised ginger. I'm not a huge fan of molasses so I diluted it's flavour by the addition of some golden syrup to the mix. 


Thankfully the cake goop worked a charm and the cake unmoulded pretty easily however if you're not in the mood for a bundt cake, this makes a 17cm square cake.



Here's the recipe for you which makes either a 5 cup bundt cake or a 17cm square cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make an 8 inch cake, you can find the recipe here.



Sticky Gingerbread Bundt Cake - Belinda Jeffery
Ingredients
150g plain flour, plus extra to dust
Pinch sea salt flakes
scant 
½ tsp bicarb of soda
1¼ tsp ground ginger (as fresh as possible)
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
pinch ground nutmeg
5 small lumps crystallised ginger, chopped, plus extra chopped to serve
85g 
room temperature unsalted butter
105g brown sugar
105g molasses/treacle or golden syrup
1½ (75g) eggs
2½ tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1¼ tsp finely grated lemon zest
60ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon-Butter Glaze
80g icing sugar
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
15 g unsalted butter, melted and warm
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp warm water

To decorate
Crystallised ginger, chopped, to serve

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Grease and flour a bundt pan then place in the fridge until needed. If using a square tin, grease then line with baking paper.


Sift flour, soda and ground spices into a large bowl. Stir in the crystallised ginger, then set aside. Place butter and brown sugar in another bowl and beat with an electric beater on medium speed for 3-4 minutes until fluffy. Add molasses/treacle and beat until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition – don’t worry if the batter looks curdled, it will smooth out when you add the flour. Mix in fresh ginger and zest, then gently beat in the flour mixture. Add buttermilk and vanilla and beat on low speed until just combined.

Scrape into the prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top feels springy and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then carefully loosen around the sides and invert onto the rack to cool completely.

Lemon butter glaze
Sift the icing sugar and cinnamon into a small bowl. Add the melted butter, lemon juice and water and mix with a spoon until smooth and the consistency of  honey. Ice the cake and allow the glaze to set before serving. If liked, you can top the cake with the extra crystallised ginger. 



Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or in the fridge for up to 10 days, if you prefer it stickier.

This is one of those cakes that tastes better as it matures and it's a recipe I will certainly be adding to my repertoire. It was, as Belinda described it, a really good gingerbread.





See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Xmas week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian



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