Tropical cake

I love baking banana bread so when I saw this banana bread tin in America I knew I had to buy it.  As soon as I got home, I bought some bananas to ripen. However, I was too impatient to wait for them to ripen as I was so excited to use this tin! Plus my brother was making an unexpected visit and said if I wanted to bake a cake (he knows me so well!), he would take it with him and share it with his colleagues.  Of course I couldn't say no - I'm always looking for someone to eat my bakes and it was the perfect opportunity to try out my new tin. 

This tin inspired my cake which I made up as I went along. I wanted to use ingredients that I had and that had a tropical feel as that's what this tin says to me. Admittedly, I had to buy the mango and dessicated coconut (as I don't like coconut) but I had everything else at home. 

The cake was moist and flavourful and smelt very tropical.  It's a bit like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates - you never know what you are going to get next. Each bite of the cake had a different taste of the fruits - the first bite, I tasted banana and coconut, then pineapple and then mangoes.  I used a lot of fruit in this cake and I would recommend halving the fruit amount and increasing the flour if you prefer less 'bits' in your cake.  It also made a lot of cake as I managed to get 1 fancy cake as shown above and another medium sized bundt cake. 

I am entering these to simple and in season hosted by Ren from Fabulicious food 

and again (I know!) to my own AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes this month as the letter is M .... for mangoes!

PS apologies for the awful lighting in the photos - didn't realise until it was too late to fix!

 my brand new tin 

 banana, coconut milk, pineapple, dessicated coconut and mango 

 love the bright yellow colour and it smelt amazing! 

 adding the white ingredients - coconut milk and dessicated coconut 

 ready to go in the oven 

 hurray it came out of the tin like a dream

 love the detail :)

 'extra' batter which made a mini bundt cake 

 you can see the chunks of fruit in the cake 

An original recipe by bakingaddict 

125mls vegetable oil

200g brown sugar (increase this if you prefer a sweeter bake)

1 banana, mashed

1 mango - peeled and chopped into chunks 

260g pineapple, chopped into chunks (you can also use fresh pineapple)

3 eggs

100g dessicated coconut

250g self raising flour

165mls coconut milk

variations - you can add some spice (nutmeg or cinnamon would go well I think) or some nuts for crunch but reduce the fruit amount otherwise there will be no batter! 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• In a large bowl, whisk the oil and sugar.
• Whisk in the eggs, one at a time until well mixed. 
• Mix in the yellow fruits - banana, mango and pineapple.
• Then the white ingredients - the coconut milk and dessicated coconut and mix well.
• Finally fold in the flour.
• Pour into prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for approximately 45-55 minutes (large tin) or 30-35 minutes (small tin).
• The cake should be golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. 
• Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Weekly Bake Off : Apricot Swiss Cakes

It's been a while since I've baked with the Weekly Bake Off where the aim is to bake a recipe chosen at random by Amy our lovely host, from Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes. The chosen recipe is announced on twitter (@weeklybakeoff) every Monday and you have until Sunday to send in a picture of your bake via twitter. 

Apricot Swiss Cakes were chosen this week. I decided to make these late at night after a particularly stressful day as I needed something to cheer me up.  They were quick and easy to whip up but I do need to practice my piping skills! The cakes retained some of the 'swirl' shape which I was pleased about. I didn't have any apricot jam so I used strawberry and raspberry jam which is what is used traditionally.

I would call these biscuits rather than cakes as it has a really soft, buttery and crumbly texture similar to shortbread and absolutely delicious with the jam in the middle. You can use any type of jam with this. I am definitely making these again as they are really easy to make and taste great! Plus they look really cute and are perfect with a cup of tea. 

 pipe the mixture into the paper case 

 slightly overcooked... oops! 

 add a small teaspoon of jam in the middle. I forgot to sprinkle icing sugar! 

To see all the excellent entries to the weekly bake off, click here

Recipe is from Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes page 71 

Mint Oreo Fudge Brownies

The first thing I baked when I got back from America were these amazing Mint oreo fudge brownies. I don't understand why they don't sell Mint Oreo's here - they are amazing! I debated about using these in a cookie or a cupcake but decided a brownie was the best way to use up my precious supply. I adapted the recipe from one I found online on 6 Bittersweets which is a pretty cool blog full of delicious goodies. 

These brownies are probably one of the best I've ever eaten. You can taste the mint clearly and the brownies were fudgy with a crisp top! One of my colleagues took a bite and said "I'm in heaven!".  Another one is still talking about it days later so I think I will have to make another batch with the remaining cookies. If you really like your mint and chocolate combination, I would suggest adding a teaspoon of peppermint extract to the batter. 

As it's an "M" bake, I am also entering these to AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes this month and myself on alternate months. 

 melt butter and chocolate...

...until smooth.stir in sugar, salt and vanilla extract. 

 whisk in the eggs one at a time, followed by flour and cocoa powder to create a lovely fudgy batter ...

 I had to test one first of course :) 

 chopped up mint oreo cookies 

 ready to go in the oven

mmmmm......

Recipe adapted from 6 bittersweets

200g butter, chopped into smallish cubes

375g sugar

170g chocolate, roughly chopped

165g flour

80g cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs 

approximately 17 Mint oreo cookies (plus extra to munch on whilst baking), roughly chopped.

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a medium sized pan, melt the butter and chocolate.
• Then whisk in the sugar, salt and vanilla extract. 
• Continue mixing until you get a smooth mixture then remove from heat and set aside for a few minutes.
• Whisk in the eggs one at a time and then the flour and cocoa powder until you get a fudgy mixture as shown. 
• Stir in 12 of the chopped mint oreos, reserving the rest to sprinkle on top.
• Pour the mixture into a square baking pan and sprinkle the remaining 5 chopped mint oreos on top. 
• Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes until the top is crisp and the edges are cooked. 
• Allow to cool in the pan. 
• Slice and enjoy!

Baking goodies from America

If you don't already know, I recently went on a fantastic holiday to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I love going to America for many reasons but mainly because I get to stock up on baking supplies. This time, I really excelled myself in the shopping and would like to share with you the loot I managed to carry back home. I have never spent so much just on baking supplies in one go but I'm sure they will ALL be put to good use :)  Some of the pictures are not very clear but you will see them again in detail when I get round to using them. 

I will also be posting some foodie pictures from the trip later on - I have about 600 photos to sift through at the moment so please bear with me! In the meantime I have already baked with some of the stuff you see below so do check back this week as you won't want to miss it! 

Ok are you ready? I have to say I got so excited gathering them to photograph as it reminded me of everything I have... I can't wait to use them all!! You will notice a lot of Williams-Sonoma , Wilton   and Nordicware products here and the obvious American candies. 

PS this post was not intended to make anyone jealous!! I have had quite a few requests to share my baking shopping so here they are :) 

 L to R from back: message in a cookie cutter, russian doll measuring cups, checkerboard cake pan, banana bread tin, mini teacake pan and miniature bundt tin

 back row L to R: Mint oreo fudge creme cookies, momofuku milk bar cookie mix (can't wait to try), coloured sanding sugar underneath, reese's mini peanut butter cups

Middle row L to R: Mint oreo cookies, hershey's kisses, peanut butter m&m's and pastel sanding sugar

front row L to R: petit pie mould (it was on sale for $4!), reese's peanut butter chips

 not really for baking but kitchen gadgets from Williams-Sonoma where I spent many happy hours :) 

L to R: vegetable chopper and measure, avocado dicer, lemon juicer, strawberry slicer and an ice cream scoop (I have an obsession with these and already have 3 different sized ones - great for making cookies and cupcakes and scooping ice cream of course) 

 whoopie pie pan (again it was on sale for $6 - how could I not?), cake pop pan and mini doughnut pan

I think you can pretty much guess what I will be baking for the whole year! There's a few others that are not here but I'm sure you will see them sooner or later :) 

Pistachio and rose Madeleines

Well it's back to baking full swing in my kitchen. I will post some pictures soon about all the baking goodies I bought from America and the yummy cakes I had plus a few others. Today, I want to share a simple pistachio and rose madeleine with you. I bought a whole bag of pistachios hence the consecutive pistachio recipes. There may be yet another one as I don't want to waste them! 

I knew I wanted to make a madeleine for AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes as the letter for this month is M. I also wanted to use pistachios. I remember bookmarking a recipe ages ago from one of my all time favourite blogs Not Quite Nigella (I've probably bookmarked her whole blog!) She has adapted this recipe from Nigella and it worked a treat. Nigella says it makes 48 mini madeleines or 24 regular ones. Not Quite Nigella managed 12 regular ones but I only managed 10 (one was smaller as I didn't have enough batter). 

They smelt really fragrant from the rose water and tasted delicious! I'll definitely be making these again as they were quick and simple and bake, looked pretty and tasted amazing. Will remember to make a double recipe next time. 

I am also submitting this to Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes 

 grind pistachios and icing sugar..

 ...to a fine powder 

 mixing into the egg and sugar mixture

 add chopped pistachios to the top 

Recipe from Not Quite Nigella

1 large egg
40g caster sugar
pinch of salt
25grams unsalted pistachios + extra to sprinkle on top (optional)
2 tablespoons icing sugar
50g unsalted butter, plus 1 tablespoon for greasing pan
45g plain flour
1 tablespoon rosewater

• Preheat the oven to 220ºC 
• Butter and flour the madeleine pan. 
• Grind the pistachios with icing sugar until it resembles a fine powder. Roughly chop the extra pistachios if using (approximately 1 handful)
• Melt the butter and set aside to cool. 
• Beat the egg, caster sugar and salt until it triples in volume. 
• Add in the flour, butter and rosewater. 
• Spoon the batter into the tins and bake for approximately 6-8 minutes. 

Pistachio and chocolate macarons

Hello everyone. I'm back from my travels and slowly getting back to baking and blogging. It was an awesome trip and I had an amazing time! I was quite jet lagged on return and it has taken me quite a while to get back into the swing of things which is why things have been quiet on my blog and twitter.  I will post a few pictures from my travels when I get my photos organised but for now it's back to baking!

As it's St Patrick's Day I wanted to make something green and decided to tackle my baking nemesis... macarons. I've never made them before but I did attend a class recently with my AlphaBakes co-host Caroline which you can read about here.  I've always had a fear of making them having read many horror stories and I'm afraid this is not a success story :( 

I used the recipe that we were given in the class (which produced great results).  Basically you need egg whites, sugar and pistachios.  I used fresh eggs as I didn't have time to age the egg whites but added a pinch of cream of tartar and salt to the eggs.  The macaronage looked good and I had high hopes before they went in the oven. I let them sit for 30 minutes and they actually formed a skin. After baking, they looked slightly brown but some of them had "feet" and I thought success!! Then I tried to peel them off the silicone mat and they literally fell to pieces :( I'm not sure if I was meant to grease the mat first and I notice that Caroline had similar problems with her mat. The ones I piped freehand onto a baking sheet turned out ok - they're nowhere near perfect but they are passable.  I suspect my macarons were undercooked but they were getting quite brown or perhaps my oven temperature was wrong. They are quite fiddly little things!

So I decided to try them again but made them greener this time. However, I initially put grape violet colour instead of green as I saw the "G" and assumed it was green!! You can see a few purple streaks but I'm sure you would not have noticed if I didn't tell you.  I also decided to use the other side of the macaron mat to make mini macarons. This time, I could peel them off the mat easily but they didn't have feet on them! 

The plus point was that they tasted really good as you can really taste the pistachio in the macaron shells and it paired well with chocolate. I will definitely attempt these again (probably not for a while) so watch this space! Hope my baking mojo returns :) 

I am entering these to AlphaBakes as the letter for this month is "M" 

and also to We Should Cocoa hosted by Chocolate Teapot as the theme this month is green

 silicone mat 

 egg whites 

 pistachios blitzed with icing sugar - you can't really see the green but it was definitely a light green. 

 slightly overzealous piping! 

 "freestyle" as I ran out of space on the mat 

 result from round 1 (these were from the shells I piped on the baking sheet

 i'm pretty sure those are little feet! 

 

broken shells from my first attempt and some from the second attempt 

 round 2 - greener!

  reverse side of the mat 

 mini macs ready to be filled

 final result 

I made a chocolate ganache for the filling - heat 4 tablespoons of cream and add 100g chopped chocolate and 25g butter and stir until mixed and smooth. Sorry forgot to take a picture of the ganache!