raspberry almond cake

 I made this cake for myself for my birthday.

It was a lovely cake, but I think it needs to be served with something.

Whipped cream and/ or a chocolate ganache would be my first choice, unfortunately being gluten and dairy free I would have to go to my second choice of a dairy free ice cream either vanilla or chocolate or a raspberry sorbet.

Raspberry and Almond Cake

2 C frozen raspberries, thawed, juice included

6 eggs

1 C sugar

255g almond meal

Preheat oven to 160C

Puree raspberries with their juice.

Beat eggs and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy, add puree and almond meal.

Stir well, pour into a greased 22cm cake tin (I used a springform tin, lining bottom and greasing the sides) and bake for 60-70 minutes.

As you can see from the photo I dressed it up by putting flaked almonds on top before baking and dusting with icing sugar once cooled.

The note in the book says you can swap raspberries for apples, bananas, oranges or mandarin. 

Topped with cream cheese and sprinked with poppy seeds, this cake is beautiful.

flourless chocolate cake

This is a delicious moist cake perfect to serve for dessert or that special occasion.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

4 eggs

1C caster sugar

200g butter

250g dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180C.

Separate eggs, add half the sugar to to egg yolks and beat well with a mixer.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy then add remaining sugar gradually, beating until soft peaks form.

Melt chocolate and butter over hot water stirring regularly.

Pour into egg yolk mixture and fold.

Once combined fold in egg whites.

Line a cake tin with greaseproof paper and pour in mixture (I used a springform pan with paper on the bottom and greased the sides)

Bake for 40 minutes in the lower third of your oven. 

This cake will collapse on cooling because it has no flour

I dusted with cocoa powder and icing sugar, can be served with whipped cream for a special occasion.

orange almond cake

This cake is just beautiful.

I have had the recipe longer than I have had children, I can remember serving it to work friends over for afternoon tea.

Now being on a gluten free diet it is my go to special occasions cake.

When I used to make it I just bought ground almonds from the baking section in the supermarket, but now I am using almond meal that is made from almonds with the skin on.

I think the skin makes it a little denser and not as sweet.

Next time I make this I think I will add a little extra sugar to counteract the skins.

Here is the recipe as is.

Serve it with Vienna cream and a chocolate ganache for those extra special occasions.


 Orange Almond Cake

2 large oranges

250g sugar

250g ground almonds

1t baking powder

6 eggs

Boil oranges in water for 1 1/2 hrs. 

Drain off water and blend oranges in the food processor. 

Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly with orange pulp. pour into a buttered 23cm springform tin and bake in a pre- heated 200C oven for 1 hour. 

I have taken to covering the top with flaked almonds before baking and dusting with icing sugar when cool.

Chocolate Ganache

200g dark chocolate

200ml cream

2 T Grand Marnier (optional)

over a gentle heat melt the chocolate and cream together. add liqueur, mix and serve warm on the cake.

gluten free dairy free sponge cake

This sponge cake turned out beautifully, I have been making sponges for a while now- well since I got my kitchen aid and except for once when I didn't whip my eggwhite for long enough before adding the sugar they have all worked out really well.

In this recipe I combined the ingredients from the 4 ingredients gluten free cookbook with the method from my tried and true sponge.

Gluten Free Sponge

4 eggs separated at room temperature

3/4 c sugar

1C gluten free self raising flour

dash vanilla essence

Their method:

Preheat oven 200C. 

Beat egg whites until nice and stiff. 

In a separate bowl beat egg yolks, gradually add sugar and vanilla until pale yellow in colour. 

Spoon egg whites into egg yolk and fold together. 

Add flour and fold in with a whisk (helps keep mixture aerated). 

Pour into a lined 22cm tin  and bake for 30 minutes.

My method:

Preheat oven to 200C. 

Beat egg whites until stiff, gradually add sugar beating each time until sugar is dissolved.

Add yolks one at a time and mix well add vanilla.

Slowly add flour, either by hand or on mixer very slow, using whisk attachment.

Pour into lined tin and bake for 30 minutes.

It came out beautifully light and fluffy. I topped it with icing made from berry juice and icing sugar and topped it with some more berries and a sprinkle of icing sugar. 

If you are not dairy free you can top it with jam and whipped cream.

I really like passionfuit icing but didn't have any passionfruit on hand that day so used the berries instead.

gluten free date loaf

This is another recipe from The 4 ingredients Gluten Free Cookbook,

again super easy and super yummy!

I have eaten this for breakfast with some butter spread on it, but it is nice without butter too.

Date Loaf

375g pkt dates

2t instant coffee

1C GF self raising flour

1/4 C flaked almonds

Add coffee to 1 C boiling water and mix.

Pour over dates and soak overnight.

Stir in GF flour.

Pour into a loaf pan lined with baking paper.

Sprinkle with flaked almonds and bake for 45 minutes at 160C

Shared at:

orange cake with chocolate icing

VCH was home on Wednesday so I thought I would whip up the orange cake and ice it with chocolate icing.

It was delicious. 

I love the combination of chocolate and orange.

This was a simple cocoa powder, icing sugar and hot water icing.

On Friday we had two lots of visitors, some for morning tea and some for afternoon tea, so I made this cake again but cooked it in two smallish loaf pans.
I then made a chocolate ganache.

Heat 200ml cream- do not let it boil and then add 200g dark chocolate and stir until dissolved, it thickens as it cools.

For the first cake I just put some on like icing when it had cooled a bit.

For the second cake that I served in the afternoon I reheated the chocolate and put it in a jug. 

The cake was then served with the chocolate sauce poured over it and whipped cream.

Just delicious!

Served like this it would make a lovely dessert if you wanted be be a little decadent add some Grand Marnier to the chocolate.
My next experiment with this cake recipe is to use one of the tangelos that VCH was given last week.

my new favourite cake recipe

Yesterday on one of my favourite blogs was this recipe for an easy orange cake.

As oranges are in season at the moment and I got a box at 69c a kilo the other day at the fruit and veg I thought I may as well try this cake.

It is made using a whole orange and the food processor- too easy!

Yesterday I made it and just dusted it with icing sugar. 

It was so yummy that I made another one today.

Today I was a little bit more fancy and iced it with an orange butter icing and even made some candied peel to go on top.

I was feeling a little bit Masterchef after watching Donna Hay on there last night!

 I have never made this before but as I was about to make some lemon butter I noticed the recipe on the opposite page and thought I would give it a go.

I think next time I make this I might make a chocolate ganache to go on top. 

Orange and chocolate together are one of my favourite food combos!

 As we have heaps of lemons at the moment courtesy of our tree I thought I would also make a lemon version. 

I added 1/2 cup extra sugar to sweeten it a little more. 

It too was delicious - it is a lovely moist cake.

I now have plans to make candied lemon slices to grace some further cakes.

Some lemon with your tea, dear?

(This beautiful cup and saucer set are for The Girl - a little inheritance from my aunt and the table cloth was my grandmother's.)

mazurka cake

This is a Polish Easter Cake. 

When I was in Year 11 our Home Economics teacher wanted us to make something a little less traditional than hot cross buns for Easter and found this recipe in a magazine. 

It blew the home ec budget providing 250g of almonds per cake for 15-20 of us.

I have made it just about every year since- it is thus the longest of our family's Easter traditions.

I usually serve it as dessert or for afternoon tea on Easter Day.

It has no raising agents and was probably traditionally served as part of Passover by Jewish families.

It is also gluten free - which is a bonus if you have any guests who can't eat wheat.

I usually make it on Good Friday while I'm waiting for the hot cross buns to prove.

It keeps quite well and freezes well if you want to get a head start.

Mazurka Cake

Ingredients:

4 eggs separated

grated peel of one orange

3/4 C caster sugar

3T sour cream

250g of hazelnuts or almonds toasted (I always use almonds)

pinch salt

Method:

1. Grease a small spring form pan (I also put baking paper in the bottom).

2. Preheat oven 180C/ 375F.

3. Beat egg yolks and orange peel until thickened in a large bowl. 

4. Gradually add caster sugar, beating constantly with an electric mixer until very thick and creamy.

5. Beat in sour cream.

6. Place nuts in blender or food processor and process until finely ground, fold into cake mixture.

7. In a medium bowl beat egg whites and salt to soft peaks.

8. Gently fold into cake mixture until no white streaks remain.

9. Pour into prepared tin.

10. Bake for 35-40 minutes, it is cooked when top springs back when pressed lightly with fingertip.

11. Cool slightly before removing from tin, cool completely

Topping:

1/2 C cream

1T icing sugar

1T dark rum (I use whatever I have on hand it was Kahlua  this year)

Whip together and serve with cake, either spread over the top or serve with dollop at the side.

You only need a small slice each, we served 10 and still had some left over.

lamingtons

As today is Australia Day I thought I would cook some of our national dishes if Australia truly has national dishes - we are such a multi-cultural nation.

So today I made lamingtons with B3.

First I made a sponge, using this recipe for sponge cake in a large rectangular pan, in Australia these are known as lamington tins.

Because I was a little slow off the mark- I actually was supposed to cook the sponge yesterday, because a fresh sponge is too soft and crumbly, I cheated and put the sponge in the freezer for a couple of hours.

Then I cut it into rectangles, I put these back in the freezer while I made the icing.

Lamingtons

1 x day old sponge cut into rectangles

Chocolate icing

250g icing sugar

1/4 C desiccated coconut

10g butter

1/4 C milk

Sift icing sugar (I used mixture) and cocoa into a heat proof bowl or top of double saucepan. Add softened butter and milk. Mix well. Stand over hot water and stir until butter is melted and icing is a good coating consistency.

Take your sponge squares and dip them first in the icing then roll in coconut, place on a wire rack to dry.

This is really a job for two people, one for the chocolate and one for the coconut..

My recipe says to use a 2 pronged fork for dipping in the icing and I usually do this, but with my fresh sponge I wasn't taking a risk so I just used my hand. I think this worked better even if it was a little messier- but I did enjoy licking my fingers when I was finished!

.

When the lamington is cut you can see how the icing has soaked in slightly and the sponge in the middle.

I am making damper for tea and Aussie kangaroo burgers with this beetroot salad.

sachertorte

This is the Sachertorte that B2 made for his dessert - come morning tea to conclude our study of Europe.
This has been sitting in my draft folder for weeks and I hadn't got around to publishing it.
I was going to include the recipe but when I looked at it it is all in grams which I find annoying and I can't remember what the cup measurements were when we went through it as it was too long ago.
It was nice but I think I would add more cocoa powder, as I don't think it was really dark enough.

easy sponge

When I got my stand mixer I was determined to master a sponge cake.
I searched through cook books and the internet and came up with several recipes to try.
This was the first one I tried as it was simple and easy, didn't have fifty different ingredients and it worked well. I have used it since.
I did try a different recipe not long ago but while I really liked the texture the rest of the family did not. So I will stick with this recipe for the time being.

Sponge Cake:

Ingredients:
4 eggs, separated
1 C sugar
1 C SR flour
1/2 C warm milk

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Beat egg whites until very stiff, slowly add sugar while still beating, then add yolks, and lastly add warm milk
3. fold in flour gently and pour into 2 lined sandwich tins and cook in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.
4. Cool and serve at room temperature.

To serve: I usually fill with jam, lemon butter (as in the picture) or passionfruit butter and Vienna cream (whipped cream with icing sugar and vanilla added). Place other half on top and dust with icing sugar or if you use passionfruit butter you may like to ice this with passionfruit icing.

easiest cake ever

This would have to be the easiest cake I have ever made and it is so versatile. Whenever I take it somewhere people want the recipe.
It is so easy I can just tell them and off they go, you don't even need to write it down it is that easy!
It came from another Home Ed family many years ago and I have been making it ever since.
It is the cake that I start all my kids off cooking by themselves.
I put this into one of B3's work boxes on Monday morning for him to make for morning tea.


There are lots of ways to vary it.
My favourite is to add 2 T cocoa powder, it sort of tastes like a lamington.
Yesterday when B4 made it with me for morning tea, we doubled the mix and added 4 T cocoa powder and put them into muffin tins (as in the photo).
A can of drained crushed pineapple makes a nice tropical cake.
Lemon icing is a nice touch if you want something fancier. I have made this with all sorts of sugar (brown, white, raw) and flour (wholemeal, gluten free, white) and milk (cows, goat, soy, rice) and it always turns out well.
So here it is - are you ready?

Coconut Cake
1 C SR flour
1 C sugar
1 C milk
1 C coconut

Put all ingredients into the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon or whisk and put into a lined loaf tin, bake at 180 C for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

That's it! I told you it was easy- go bake and enjoy!

patty cakes

These are one of my standbys that are great for a last minute thing or entertaining, I often take these if I have to take a plate for morning tea, particularly for a large number of people.
These are also known as cup cakes, but I still call them patty cakes because I think of cup cakes as being slightly larger.
This recipe makes 24 -30 and if I double it I usually get almost 3 batches, but it will depend on the size of your pans. I love all things passionfruit, so passionfruit icing is a must. Here are some pink ones as well because B4 insisted on helping and wanted pink. I used cochineal which is a natural colour, but you could use some raspberry juice or other red coloured fruit.
You can make these into fairy cakes by cutting the tops off and adding jam and cream to the hole, cutting the top in half and replacing it so it looks like wings, dust with icing sugar to finish.

Patty Cakes:

125g butter melted
1 t vanilla essence
3/4 C castor sugar
2 eggs
1.5 C SR flour
1/2 C (125ml)milk

1. Line patty pan trays with paper patty cases
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are combined.
3.Then beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth and changes to a lighter colour. Drop a heaped tablespoon of mixture into paper cases.
4.Bake at 180 c for 15-20 minutes, turn onto a wire rack to cool.
5. Ice or decorate as you wish.

Icing: I like a hard icing on my patty cakes, so I usually just mix icing sugar and hot water together until I get a spreadable consistency.
For passionfruit use pulp from a passionfruit instead of water.
You can add lemon rind and juice for lemon icing, or orange rind and juice for orange icing
add some carob or cocoa powder to make chocolate icing.