Cakes, Slices and Biscuits « Leave Room for Dessert

Cakes, Slices and Biscuits

Strawberry Roulade and Lemon Cream

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

roulade1

When I think of a strawberry roulade, I’m mainly thinking about the strawberry jam and cream rolls I used to eat when younger, or the little rolletes that come in the packets at the supermarket. This is unlike any of those bought rolls, with the beautiful cream contributing so much more to the flavour and experience than expected.

roulade3

When I saw this very grown-up berry roulade recipe in the Marie Clare Magazine, I tore the page out and waited for an opportunity to make it. I decided to use only strawberries, as they looked lovely and fresh at the time I made it. The addition of a sweet lemon cream was fantastic and I know I could have just eaten the whole bowl of cream by itself.

Roulade with Fresh Berries and Lemon Cream
Recipe from a Marie Clare Magazine recipe

Serves: 6-8

2-3 punnets of berries, such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries
1-2 tablespoons kirsch (fruit brandy – optional, I didn’t use this)
Melted butter for greasing
4 eggs
¾ cup caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2/3 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
50g ground almonds
Sugared almonds to serve (optional, I didn’t use this)

Lemon Cream
300 ml thickened cream
½ cup caster sugar
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
Juice of ½ lemon, or to taste

Place berries, ¼ cup of caster sugar and kirsch in a bowl and toss well. Set aside for at least 30 minutes (or while you prepare the rest of the roulade).

Strawberries in sugar

Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a 20 x 30cm swill roll tin (I used a 25 x 37cm tray) and line with baking paper (cut a piece too large for the tin so paper hangs over edges). Beat eggs, ½ cup caster sugar and vanilla until thick, pale and creamy. Sift together flour and baking powder and, using a metal spoon, gently stir into egg mixture along with ground almonds. Pour batter into tin, making sure it fills the corners. Bake to 10-15 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch.

Remove and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Sprinkle a clean tea towel generously with extra caster sugar. Invert cake onto tea towel, then gently peel paper from back of cake. Using the tea towel, carefully roll the still warm cake up from the short end and leave for at least 10 minutes.

Rolled up cake

Lemon Cream
Whip cream together with caster sugar, lemon zest and juice. Set aside for 10 minutes for flavours to infuse, taste and add more lemon juice if necessary.

Lovely Lemon Cream

Carefully unroll cake, but don’t flatten out too much or it will crack. Spread thickly with lemon cream and top with half or more of the berries, then carefully roll up again. Sprinkle with extra caster sugar and sugared almonds. Slice and serve with remaining berries.

Ready to go - I'm trying to keep it tight by resting it against my sugar container

Note: You are able to leave the roulade in the fridge for a few hours before serving, to stop the cream melting.

Ready to eat

roulade4

roulade_sliced

Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Dessert, Recipes | 5 Comments »

Chocolate Chip Friands with Cinnamon and Almonds

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

friands

Can you believe after that mammoth feast for my Mum’s birthday, consisting of Butter chicken pie with vegetables and rice, home-made trifle for dessert and a poppy seed cake for the birthday cake, that there would still be time to make, and people to eat, some lovely friands?

Well, not really… there was enough time for me to make these friands, although almost no one had enough room to fit in even a quarter of a friand.

If it weren’t for my bad timing (chosen due to the left-over egg whites from the custard in the trifle), I’m sure these would have been gobbled up by my family… alas… I was ‘forced’ to take most home – with a couple arriving with me at work with the remaining poppy seed cake.

Choc Chip friands with Cinnamon and Almonds
(adapted from Lynne Mullin’s recipe in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living Winter + Food Magazine May 2008)

Makes: 12

6 egg whites
185g butter, melted
125g (1½ cups) almond meal
240g (2 cups) pure icing sugar, sifted
75g (heaped ½ cup) plain flour
100g coarsely chopped dark chocolate
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
25g (1/4 cup) slivered almonds, chopped
Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 200°C. Whisk egg whites in a medium bowl until frothy and small peaks form. Add melted butter, almond meal and icing sugar and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Add flour, chocolate and cinnamon and combine well.

Egg White beaten until frothy and starting to form small peaks

Divide mixture evenly between a 12-mould friand tin. Sprinkle with chopped almonds and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and cooked.

Sprinkle with chopped almonds

Rest in pan for 5-10 minutes and the carefully turn onto a cake rack or use a spoon to lift out of moulds. Cool friands and then dust with icing sugar before serving.

friand_cooked2

friand_cooked

friands2

Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Chocolate, Egg Whites, High Tea, Recipes | 11 Comments »

Vanilla Poppy Seed Cake with Orange Frosting

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

And then there was cake…. as my Mum’s Birthday meal continues…

poppyseedcake

This is one of the first cakes I learnt to make and one of my (very many) favourites. It has no fake orange flavour that you will generally taste, and I very much detest, in many of bought orange and poppy seed cakes. Instead this cake has a lovely vanilla and poppy seed cake with a subtle orange flavour in the icing.

I tend to often forget about the soaking of the poppy seeds, although once they’re in the bowl soaking in milk, there’s plenty of time to get the rest of the ingredients together. Once the poppy seeds are finished soaking, it’s just a case of adding everything else, mixing then baking – very easy!

Poppy Seed Cake
(Not sure of original source of recipe – Sorry)

1/3 cup poppy seeds
¾ cup milk
185g butter
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
2 cups self-raising flour

Combine poppy seeds and milk in a medium bowl, soak for 1 hour.

Soaking poppyseeds

Grease one large bundt tin or a ring tin. Preheat oven to 180°C. Add butter, essence, sugar, eggs, sifted flour to poppy seed mixture. Beat on low speed with electric mixer until combined, then beat mixture on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until mixture has lightened in colour.

Mix all ingredients together and beat until mixture lightens in colour

Pour into prepared pan. Bake oven for about 40 – 50 minutes. Stand 5 minuted before turning on to wire rack to cool.

Cake is golden on top and coming away from the edges of the tin

Leave to cake to cool

Orange Frosting

60g butter
1½ cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice

Beat butter in a small bowl with mixer until light and creamy. Gradually add sifted icing sugar and orange juice, beat until frosting is spreadable. Decorate with orange rind, if desired.

Orange frosting on the cooled cake - ready to eat!

Enjoy!

Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Recipes | 8 Comments »

Cherry Compote, Vanilla Bean Custard and Vienna Almond Cream Trifle

Friday, March 20th, 2009

trifle_finished

My mum’s favourite dessert ever is trifle. A combination of cake, alcohol, fruit, home-made thick custard and cream can’t go wrong. My idea of a trifle is probably a bit different to my mum’s and I already have a recipe lined up and waiting to make for my trifle – hint: it involves a lot of chocolate :P. Although on my mum’s birthday I can’t be selfish and make my trifle so I’ve endeavoured to find a great trifle to satisfy her trifle needs.

I have previously made only one trifle, so planning for this one was a bit difficult, especially since I had chosen a recipe using fresh black cherries which were already going out of season here. I decided to use bottled Morello cherries in syrup for the base, fresh made sponge, vanilla bean custard and Vienna almond cream.

This produced an extremely lovely dessert, which looks very beautiful when layered in a lovely trifle bowl to show off all the layers. I also love food that can be prepared beforehand leaving a dinner party much more relaxed.

Cherry Compote, Vanilla Bean Custard and Vienna Almond Cream Trifle
(recipe adapted from Trifles with friends by Trish Deseine)

Serves: 8-10

Cherry Compote:
¾ cup caster sugar
700g jar of Morello cherries, with 1 cup or all liquid reserved (or pitted black cherries, if in season)
1 lemon, squeezed

Custard:
300ml milk
300ml cream (thickened or whipping)
1 vanilla pod, split
4 egg yolks
2/3 cup (125g) caster sugar

Sponge:
6 eggs, separated
1½ cups (350g) caster sugar
1 1/3 cups (175g) plain flour
1/3 cup (40g) cornflour

5 tablespoons Marsala wine or Sherry
300ml cream, thickened or whipping
50-75g Vienna almonds, chopped
25g toasted flaked almonds

Cherry Compote:
Mix the sugar, lemon juice and liquid from the cherries in a medium saucepan. Turn heat up to medium and stir until sugar dissolves. Once dissolved, bring to the boil and keep an eye on the mixture to make sure it doesn’t boil over – leave at a heat where it is boiling but not going to overflow. Continue to boil until mixture has decreased to less than ¼ its original size and become thick and syrup like (this may take a while, so you can continue on with other parts of the trifle). Add cherries at end and pour into another bowl to cool.

Boil cherry liquid and sugar until reduced and thickened

Cherry Compote

Custard:
Place the milk, cream and vanilla pod in a medium saucepan, bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. While this is occurring, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light and fluffy. Once the cream mixture has come to the boil, pour into the egg yolk mixture, mixing constantly. Pour custard mix back into the saucepan and heat on low until mixture thickens. Do not allow custard to boil. (I found this custard did not thicken a much as I expected – like the Portuguese custard tart custard I’ve made).

Custard before thickening

Thickened custard

Sponge:
Preheat oven to 180-200C. Mix the egg yolks with half the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add the remaining sugar and beat to combine. Fold the egg white mixture into the egg yolks. Sift the plain flour and cornflour together and fold through the egg mixture gently, in three batches. Pour into tray, cake tin or individual tins, greased and lined with baking paper. Cook for 20-30 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Stand for 5-10 minutes, then remove and leave to cool.

Egg yolks and sugar beaten until light and fluffy

Egg white and sugar beaten

Fold through plain flour and cornflour

Golden cooked sponge

Assembly:
Once cooled, place the cherry compote in the bottom of the bowl(s). Cut or tear sponge to fit into bowl and place on top of cherries. Sprinkle Marsala wine or Sherry over the sponge and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Pour custard on top of sponge and refrigerate overnight.

Place sponge on top of cherry compote layer

Layer custard on top of soaked sponge

Before serving, whip up cream until thickened and add chopped Vienna almonds. Layer cream mix over the custard layer and scatter toasted flaked almonds on top. Serve (you may serve with ice cream, but it doesn’t need it).

Fold Vienna almonds through whipped cream

Layered Trifle - sorry about the light for the photography

Layer Trifle with cream

One big scoop for man...

...one small scoop for my mum 🙂

🙂

Tags: Cherry Compote, Trifle
Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Dessert, Egg Yolks, Recipes | 6 Comments »

Molten Baby Cakes – Soft centered Chocolate Puddings

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

MoltenCake
I visited the Arthouse Hotel near Town Hall station quite a while ago and had to try their soft-centered chocolate puddings. One mouthful and I wasn’t very keen to let Nick have a try… ok… so I let him have one… maybe two bits…. Not very generous of me I know… but that’s what happens when you’re going out with a dessert and chocolate lover, if you want to eat a lot of a chocolate dessert – get your own 😛

So… this led me on one of the many missions I take. Searching the internet I found a couple nice recipes, here is one of them (I use the recipe quite often, as the other recipe I have uses egg yolks and I often don’t end up using the egg whites and I don’t like being wasteful).

So here it is, I found it on Nigella Lawson’s website, and it can also be found in her lovely book “How to be a Domestic Goddess”. The one tip I have, is that as all oven’s are different, it’s important to trial this out as you may either get a fully cooked cake or a thin layer of cake with a large amount hot uncooked cake turned into sauce (not that you’d complain – it still tastes great!). It is ideal to probably half cook the cakes, to get a reasonable amount of sauce (just remember that the sauce is uncooked cake mix which would contain uncooked eggs – which are not recommended during pregnancy). It is also very easy to make these up beforehand, which is great for a dinner party! Just mix all the ingredients, pour into the moulds and put them in the fridge before cooking. Take them out and cook for a bit longer than the recommended time (remember to test out the times in your oven beforehand – I will never complain about testing these).

Molten Baby Cakes

Serves: 6

50g soft butter, plus more for greasing
350g best dark chocolate
150g caster sugar (heaped ¾ cup)
4 large eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g plain or Italian 00 flour (heaped 1/3 cup)

Unless you are making these up in advance, preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6, putting in a baking tray at the same time. Lay 3 buttered pudding moulds or ramekins on a sheet of doubled baking parchment. Draw round them, remove, and then cut out the discs as marked. Press them all into the base of the tins or ramekins.

Melt the chocolate and let it cool slightly. Cream together the butter and sugar, and gradually beat in the eggs and salt, then the vanilla. Now add the flour, and when all is smoothly combined scrape in the cooled chocolate, blending it to a smooth batter.

Mix the slightly cooled chocolate into the egg mixture

Divide the batter between the 6 moulds, quickly whip the baking tray out of the oven, arrange the little tins on it and replace in the oven.

Pour the cake mix into the ramekins

Cook for 10-12 minutes (the extra 2 minutes will be needed if the puddings are fridge-cold when you start) and as soon as you take them out of the oven, tip out these luscious babycakes onto small plates or shallow bowls. Serve these with whipped or unwhipped double cream, crème fraiche, crème anglaise or ice cream.

Beautifully cooked cakes - although maybe not fully cooked

Yes... Not fully cooked - but still tastes FANTASTIC!

Yes... Not fully cooked - but tastes FANTASTIC!

Cooked around the edges with a luscious velvety chocolate centre

Tags: cake, Chocolate, Molten Cake, Nigella Lawson, pudding, Soft centered
Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Chocolate, Dessert, Recipes | 9 Comments »

Portuguese Custard Tarts

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Portuguese_Custard_Tarts

Fresh home-made creamy thick custard with flaky buttery pastry… who could resist? I doubt many people at all (except perhaps my brother). Even people who wouldn’t normally like custard, probably because they’ve only had the runny bought custard, love these tarts.

I was only recently introduced to Portuguese custard tarts, first at work and then I decided to make my own as there aren’t any places near my house or work that sell them. I’ve tried a few variations, including the one from “Sweet Food” which I made the pastry and custard from scratch. Unfortunately the pastry turned out too crunchy and not as crispy and flaky as I would have liked and the custard was a bit too sweet.

I searched and searched for a reasonable recipe for pastry with Portuguese custard tarts, although most recipes use store-bought puff pastry and in the end this worked out best.

I made some of Bill Grangers Portuguese Custard Tarts for my Kitchen Tea a while ago and many of the guests liked them. So I have stuck with this recipe. They are tasty both warm out of the oven and cooled down.

This recipe is adapted from the UKTV site with the recipe from Bill Granger.

Portuguese Custard Tarts

Makes: 12-18

3 free-range egg yolks
115g caster sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
230 ml double/thick cream
170 ml milk
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1-2 sheets ready-rolled puff pastry

Put the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a saucepan and whisk together. Gradually whisk in the cream and milk until smooth.

Egg yolks, sugar and cornflour whisked

Milk and cream combined with egg mix

Place the pan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Thicken custard

Transfer the custard to a bowl, cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin forming and leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375F/Gas 5.

Lightly grease one or two 12-hole (80ml/2½fl oz) muffin tins.

Cut the pastry sheet in half, put one half on top of the other and set aside for five minutes. Roll up the pastry tightly from the shorter-sided end and cut the pastry log into twelve 1cm/½in rounds.

Pastry rolled and sliced

Lay each pastry round on a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll out until each is 10cm/4in in diameter.

Rolled pastry slices in muffin tin with cooled custard

Press the pastry rounds into the holes in the muffin tin. Spoon the cooled custard into the pastry cases and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the pastry and custard are golden.

Portuguese_Custard_Tarts_cooked
Leave the tarts in the tin for five minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Portuguese_Custard_Tarts_Rolled

Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Dessert, Egg Yolks, High Tea, Party Food, Recipes | 14 Comments »

Carrot Cake

Friday, March 6th, 2009

Happy Birthday Nick!

Carrot Cake - HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!

Nick loves carrot cake. So when I asked him last year what cake he would like me to make for his birthday, he replied “A carrot cake, please”. This year I again asked him, what cake would you like for your birthday, and again I received the same answer, perhaps with a tiny bit of reluctance this time. For some reason he thought I may not want to make another carrot cake. It’s been one year since I made one and I certainly don’t think that’s too short a time between carrot cakes.

I have tried a few carrot cake recipes, although the brown sugar, cinnamon and golden syrup in this recipe produce a lovely flavour in the cake. I was a bit reluctant when I saw how much oil went into the cake, although it helps make the cake very moist.

I also added ½ cup of roughly chopped walnuts (another request from Nick). The walnuts suited the cake nicely, although there is much to be said about my icing… I am in need of practice and a few tips too.

One of my first attempts in icing a cake

This recipe is from Taste.com.au – a website which I am constantly visiting or directed to when searching for recipes.

Carrot cake

Serves: 12
Olive oil, to grease
2 or 3 (about 300g) carrots
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (80g) brown sugar
3/4 cup (185ml) oil
1/2 cup (125ml) golden syrup
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Icing
250g spreadable cream cheese
1/2 cup (80g) icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease a 20cm (base) round cake pan lightly with oil, and line with non-stick baking paper. Peel and grate the carrots, and set aside. Sift the flours, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon into a large bowl.

Put the brown sugar, oil, golden syrup, eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl. Use a balloon whisk to mix until combined.

Mix the eggs with the oil, brown sugar and golden syrup

Mix the oil and sugar mix in with flour mix

Pour the oil mixture into the dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to stir gently until just combined. Stir in the grated carrot.

Mix in the grated carrot and walnuts and pour into prepared pan

Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 1 hour. Set aside for 5 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Nice and golden

To make the icing, place the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl. Use a wooden spoon to mix until well combined.

Lovely and Moist

Spread the icing over the cake.

Part of Nick’s birthday present from me was a lemon tree, to be planted in the lovely gardens of our first home, when we move in very shortly. Hopefully we’ll get a lot of fruit from it to use in our cooking – savouries, sweets and drinks too.

Nick's Eureka Lemon Tree

My sister also wanted to get Nick a tree, their tree was already bearing the most fantastic fruit of all: A chocolate tree…

Nick's Lindt Chocolate Tree - all ready for harvest

Posted in Cakes, Slices and Biscuits, Recipes | 1 Comment »