Coffee and Almond Cake...

For a while now, I have been wanting to make a coffee and walnut  cake that was featured in an old 1970's magazine that belonged to my Mother, but the elaborate icing was just not my thing! Last week whilst going through a new book called 'Cardamom Trail by Chetna Makan', I came across a recipe for an Almond and Coffee Cake that sounded so good. This is my version...

Espresso and Almond Cake

Ingredients:

250 grams caster sugar
250 grams butter, softened
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond meal
220 grams cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons Baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
60 ml milk
4 tablespoons instant espresso powder
2 tablespoons  boiling water

Preheat the oven to 180° C. Grease a 10 cup bundt tin.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and flour. Add the eggs, be at a time. Add the almond meal. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and cardamom together. . Fold into the butter mixture. Lastly,, fold in the liquid ingredients. Pour the batter into the greased, and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer come, out clean. Remove from pan, place the tin on a wire rack and leave to cool. Once cool, turn the cake out of the tin.
If desired, drizzle with the ganache.
Note: due to the almond meal, this cake will keep well for a few days.

Ganache:
50 grams dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
100 ml fresh cream

Heat the cream in a microwave safe bowl, until just starting to come to a boil. Add the chocolate and stir until melted and silky smooth.

If You Make One Thing This Week...TEATIME!

Hi everyone, this is Adilah.m here! The past few days have been really hectic. I had promised to post some recipes last week and I've finally managed to catch my breath and get down to it! I have two recipes for you today, a Lemon,Almond and Thyme Cake and a Walnut, Orange Streusel Cake.

So,without further ado, here goes...

Lemon, Almond Thyme Madeira Cake

 125 grams butter, softened
3/4 cup castor sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
About 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
1/2 cup flaked almonds
2 tablespoons castor super, for topping

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Grease a large loaf tin and line the base with baking paper.
Cream the butter and sugar together, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the thyme, lemon rind and juice. Fold in the flour alternately with the milk. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of castor sugar over. Sprinkle the almonds and the remaining castor sugar over. Garnish with a few thyme leaves and bake for 30 minutes. You may have to place a sheet of foil over the cake if it browns too quickly. Keep an eye on it! The cake is done when a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
Remove from the tin and cool completely.
Please note, that I have used just 1 tablespoon of thyme as I was just experimenting...You may adjust the thyme to suit your tastes.

Walnut Orange Cake

For the streusel:
40 grams butter
30 grams soft brown sugar
75 grams cake flour
5 ml cinnamon powder
75 grams roughly chopped walnuts
Finely grated zest of 1 orange

Melt the butter, then add the remaining ingredients and mix to form a crumbly mixture. Set aside

Cake:
175 grams walnuts, coarsely ground
225 grams butter, softened
230 gram castor sugar
4 large eggs
125 grams cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
 Zest and juice of 1 1/2 oranges

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Grease a large loaf tin with butter and line with baking paper.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Sprinkle the walnuts over then sift in the flour and baking powder. Mix in lightly. Stir in the rind and juice. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and level the surface.
Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly on top. Place in oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes , until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes, then remove and cool on a wire rack.

For the icing:
Combine 1 cup of icing sugar with 1-2 tablespoons of orange juice, to make a thick, pourable mixture.
 Drizzle this over the cake.

Note:
You may replace the orange with mandarin or Clementine if desired. Walnuts are also interchangeable with almonds or pecans.
Ensure that all ingredients are at room temperature.
I have used cake flour in both the recipes.

If You Make One Thing This Week...Lamingtons

Everything is just better gift wrapped...

I made these babies for a friend recently and they tasted as good as they looked! Received loads of oohs and aahs! They are quite easy to make, though a little time consuming but the results are well worth it!

Cake

125g of butter

3/4 cup of caster sugar

3 large eggs

1 and a half cups of flour

1/4 cup of cocoa powder

3tsp of baking powder

1/2 cup of milk

1tsp of vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180•C and butter mini loaf cake tins.

Cream the butter and caster sugar together. Add the milk and eggs one at a time. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Add the vanilla extract and beat for 7 minutes.

Divide the batter between the cake tins and bake for about 30 minutes or until done. Allow to cool. 

Chocolate coating

125g of butter

1 cup of water

2 cups of icing sugar

2tblsp of cocoa powder
Desiccated coconut

Method

Boil all the ingredients together. Do not allow the coating to become very thick. 

Dip the cooled cakes into the hot coating and immediately dip into the desiccated coconut.Tie each cake with ribbon and decorate with paper roses.