coconut sweet-slice

Originally this was intended to be Caramel Slice from my Kitchen Classics Picnic Hamper cookbook, but due to impatience and decidedly not enough coconut, I created my own desert. Hah.

125g / 1 c. self-raising flour
90g / 1 c. dessicated coconut
115g / 1/2 c. superfine sugar I used standard sugar
125g unsalted butter, melted

Filling
2 tins of sweetened condensed milk
20g. unsalted butter
4 T. honey
40g. dessicated coconut

Topping
approx. 1 c. toasted coconut

Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a shallow tin of your choice and line with baking paper, leaving thepaper hanging over the two long sides.

Sift the flour into a bowl, then mix in the coconut and sugar. Add the melted butter to the bowl and stir thoroughly. Press firmly into the tin and bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until lightly coloured. Allow to cool.

To make the filling, put all the ingredients into a saucepan over low heat. Slowly bring to boil, stirring constantly, and let slightly caramelize. Quickly poor over the cooled base, spreadin evenly. Bake for 10 - 13 minutes. Meanwhile, toast the coconut in a frying pan over low heat, stirring constantly. Set aside. Remove tin from oven, top with coconut and place in fridge to set for at least 30 minutes.

When ready to serve, lift the slice form the tin and cut into pieces.


***this is so rich that a domino sized-slice is MORE than enough. VERY coconutty, sweet and goopy...delicious.

Blueberry Soured Cream Cake

Blueberries bake very well into cakes, as their purple skins keep in their juicy centres!

175g butter, softened
175g sugar
3 large eggs
225g self-raising flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. vanilla essence, 1 t. almond essence
4 T. soured cream (preferably 14% m.f.)
1 c. blueberries, fresh or frozen.

preheat the oven to 300F. Butter the base of, depending on what you would like, two standard cake tins for a 2 layer with shallower cakes, or 1 standard cake tin for a full, one layer cake.

Put the butter, sugar, ggs, flour, baking powder and essences in a bowl. Beat for a few minutes untill pale and well mixed. Beat in the soured cream and blueberries.
Tip the mixture into tin(s) and level. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes until firm to the touch and a fork inserted in the centre comes out clean.

For the frosting
1 packet of cream cheese
1 lemon, zested and juiced
icing sugar, to taste.

soften the packet of cream cheese and place in bowl. Beat with lemon zest and juice until smooth and add icing sugar to taste until desired sweetness is reached. Frost.

Cake Flour Substitute

From the Zaar, recipe number 87689. I think Erin's had some success with this one but I have to tell you that it caused me some serious problems with Cathey's cake. I ran out of the Bulk Barn cake flour and thought I'd give it a whack. I ended up having to add at least another half cup of milk and two or three extra egg whites to get the consistency to where I was used to it.

I might not have noticed if I hadn't made that white cake recipe roughly a dozen times in the last two weeks (it feels like). I don't know if it would have been a problem if I had done it by weight though because I suspect that my flour is wicked dry. I don't think I want to try it again though because that's just more stress than I needed right before that cake was due because the first one fell apart and I was seriously running out of time for the base cake at that point.

Erin, did you try it with a cake that you had made with regular cake flour previously?

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know that we've all got our favourite recipe for chocolate chip cookies (or maybe that's just me) but Erin's Cake Odyssey has peaked the interest in baking by weight. Meag's got this British cookbook that I got her for Christmas a couple of years ago and she wanted to make these cookies for Graham out of it. They turned out like little puffballs and, you guessed it, a little bland. Well, subtle anyway.

150 g unsalted butter
1/4 c soft brown sugar
1/3 c caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 c self-raising flour
1/2 c dark chocolate bits
1/2 c milk chocolate bits

Beat wet together. Add flour and 1/2 of the chocolate bits and stir until just combined. Use your hands to press the mixture together to form a soft dough.

Roll lever tablespoons of the mixture into balls. Press the remaining chocolate bits firmly onto the tops of the balls. Bake for 15 minutes or until crisp and lightly browned and then cool on the trays.

Like I said, little bubbles but they looked really cute when I put them back to back, wrapped them in cello and a twist for the bake sale table at Irish Fest. They looked like a little candy. Shame about the flavour, I expected something a little richer.

Rhubarb and Orange Cake

So here is your third installment of cakes from the 101 Cakes and Bakes - I made a few mistakes (noted in brackets) and didn't get a chance to photograph the cake. However, it was tasty enough to try again sometime - so I will post any further tries with pics!

I have to say that I am facinated with using oranges - particularly the zest. The flavour is quite intense, and new somehow - at least in cakes - at least for me.

We ate this cake pretty much straight out of the oven, with no icing sugar dust. We also ate it more like a hot pudding, some table cream on this would be exceptional!

350 g prepared rhubarb, cut into 1 1/2 inch lenghts (mine were shorter and frozen)
200 g of golden caster sugar (I used darker sugar here)
finely grated zest and juice of 1/2 small orange
140 g butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp baking powder
85 g self-raising flour
100 g ground almonds

for the topping:
25 g butter, melted
25 g light muscovado sugar
finely grated zest of 1/2 small orange
50 g slivered almonds
icing sugar for dusting

1) Mix the rhubarb with 50 g of the caster sugar and the orange zest. Set aside for 1 hour, stirring once or twice. ( I accidentally added all the sugar, and used dark brown instead of the golden sugar - when the time came, I had to really strain the rhubarb mixture, and of course there is a flavour difference)

2) preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter and line a 9 inch pan. ( I buttered and floured the pan - I only have an 8 inch pan, so it was kinda too much for the pan)

3) Cream the butter and remaining caster sugar (150 g) Add the eggs, baking powder, flour and ground almonds. Beat gently, but do not overmix. Stir in the orange juice. Spoon into the cake pan and level. ( I always use my stand mixer, I don't think it is that gentle, but the cake was good anyway!)

4) Drain the rhubarb and spoon over the mixture. ( I used some of the juice and drizzled it over the fruit and cake - think crispy bits of a crumble - mmmmmmmmm)

5) Bake for 25 minutes. In the meantime, make the topping by combining the sugar, zest and almonds. (I forgot to melt the butter before I added the almonds and zest, so I just mushed it up with my fingers and spread it on the top of the cake, also, I think I used shaved almonds instead of slivers, might used slivered next time to see if there is a difference)

6) Reduce the oven to 325 and sprinkle the topping over the cake and return it to the oven for another 15 - 20 minutes - or until firm.

7) Cool in the tin, transfer to a rack and dust

Raspberry and Almond Madeira Cake

My cake did NOT look like the one in the book. In fact, going into the oven, it looked somewhat garrish. But ended up tasting quite nice! Not an ordinary flavour, as Colin remarked, "It's quite ambitious!"

Ambitious, but tasty! Here it is: again, from the Cakes and Bakes Book from the BBC;

175 g butter, softened
175 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs lightly beaten
50 g flaked almonds
grated zest of 1 orange
100g plain flour
100g self-raising flour
2 Tbsp milk
200 g raspberries fresh or frozen (I used frozen and a bit more than called for)
icing sugar to dust

1) pre heat oven to 325 butter/spray oil pan and flour it
2) cream butter and sugar, then add vanilla and gradually add eggs (I did all this in the stand mixer)
3) set aside a few almonds and crush the rest (in a baggy with a rolling pin) then stir them in with the orange zest.
4) Fold in the flours and milk, then fold in all but 8 of the raspberries (I did not do this)
5) Put in the tin and sprinkle remaining almonds and raspberries on top

bake for 1 hr and 15 mins. cool in the pan for 5 mins and then on a rack. dust with icing sugar!

Yummy! ;-)

Whole Orange Cake

That's right, you heard it, the WHOLE orange. It's VERY GOOD and easy too. This is another cake from the Good Food Mag and BBC Books book that Katie got "101 Cakes & Bakes". Both cakes I have made from this book have been super! It's a by weight recipe, so get out your scales boys and girls.

The thing I really like about these cakes is that they are not really sweet.

1 small orange
140 g sugar
3 eggs
85 g self-raising flour
100g ground almonds (bought some at Bulk Barn and the self-raising cake flour too)
50g butter, melted

FOR THE ICING

85g icing sugar
the juice of 1 small sweet orange - I just used OJ from a bottle - unsweetened
creme fraiche to serve (0ptional)

1) Put the orange in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 1 hour. remove the orange and cool (I left it overnight)
2) preheat oven to 350 F butter and line an 8 inch deep cake pan ( I buttered and floured it insead of lining - it worked out fine.)
3) take cooled orange and roughly chop it - discard pips - whiz in the food processor until smooth.
4) wisk the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy and melt the butter (in the microwave)
5) sift flour and ground almonds on to the egg mixture. Using a large metal spoon, fold gently and then add orage puree and melted butter. Fold in gently until just mixed. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes until the cake is brown and springs back. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then ice and serve with creme fraiche. - I served the cake iced with tea- it was amazing!!

ICING

mix the icing sugar and just enough OJ to make a drizzley icing. I tried to do a chantilly lace pattern , that is what the pic in the book did.

Make this for tea some day soon - you won't be disapointed!