Pumpkin Chiffon cake

More pumpkin stuff...

Ingredients:

Egg 4

Flour 50g

Sugar 80g

(Sourdough Starter 20g)

Pumpkin puree 100g

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This is a variation of my sourdough chiffon cake. It's as light and airy as the original sourdough chiffon cake. But with a bit more moisture, and of course, the sweet pumpkin flavour and pretty colour. ;D

We had it with my recent favourite, hazelnut praline cream. Pumpkin and hazelnut went really well. It was another 'wow' moment... ;)

Sourdough Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins...

They get their prime spots everywhere this time of year, don't they...:)

Lots of pumpkins around means... I'm making lots of pumpkin breads and cakes! :D

To begin with, I made mini sourdough pumpkin loaves.

Ingredients:

Strong flour 250g

Starter 125g

Salt 4g

Brown sugar 20g

Butter 20g

Milk 160g

Pumpkin puree 100g

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Butter and cinnamon sugar for topping

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When I make pumpkin breads or cakes, I use Japanese pumpkins called Kabocha. It has natural sweet flavour and nice fluffy texture that are perfect for baking.

My pumpkin loaves came out with bright yellow colour and had a nice light texture. The cinnamon sugar on the top made them taste warm and it felt kind of festive... it was just how I wanted...;) 

She loved it too! Great way to make your kids eat veggie!

Hazelnut Praline Rolls

Hazelnut Praline paste never disappoints me, it did it again.

The other day I made these scrumptious rolls with my remaining hazelnut praline paste.

Ingredients:

- Rich dough -

Starter (I used lemon starter this time) 130g

Very strong flour 250g

Butter 40g

Sugar 30g

Egg 2 + Milk =155g

Oil 1tsp

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Hazelnut praline paste (see the recipe here)

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They were like cinnamon rolls but with even richer, nuttier, and deeper taste. 

This brioche type rich sourdough takes more time to prove. But, that long proving time and patience definitely pay off when you bite into the nice soft roll.

Praline paste going through the bread with perfection...

Is it a bread or cake...? Whatever they are, they are awesome... :D

 

Purple Sweet Potato & Chestnut Sourdough Bread

This is a variation of my Purple Sweet Potato Sourdough Bread.

I wanted to make something Autumny so I added sweet chestnut paste in this pretty pink rolls.

At the final shaping I put the chestnut paste in the middle of the dough and kind of shaped the bread around it so that the paste was sealed in... But then, I scored the top... to let the paste out...?, hum..., I sometimes (or often) don't know what I'm doing...

Anyway, the caramelised bits of chestnut paste on the top and some on the sides were the nicest bits!

We discovered cheesy toasts with this bread work too. The sweet paste and the saltiness from cheese went very well. (They were too good that I ate them all before I had a chance to take picture...)

You can of course make this bread with your usual white bread too.

Here is the recipe for Chestnut Paste. :D 

Choux with Hazelnut Praline Cream

Attetiooooooon, everyone!!

This is one of the best cakes I've ever had, and by far the best cream puffs I've ever tasted in my life!

...Ok..., sorry about my over excitement and praising myself this much, but seriously, you've got to try this Hazelnut Praline Cream!

Andy kept telling me how great the cream puff he had the other day was. He told me that some sort of hazelnut butter cream thing was in a big choux pastry... Hummm, sounds yummy...

So, I decided to recreate this amazing sounding dessert.

First I made the hazelnut praline paste. It's very simple.

Ingredients:

Hazelnut (roasted and shelled) 200g

Sugar 200g

Salt pinch

1. Heat up sugar on a low-medium heat until it's golden.

2. Take the pan off the heat, add hazelnuts to coat them well with the sugar.

3. Pour 2 onto a baking sheet and leave to cool down.

4. Blitz the sugar coated nuts in a food processor until it's smooth.

Here is my step-by-step choux pastry recipe.

I mixed this hazelnut praline paste with my favourite double cream (custard and whipped fresh cream). I filled the choux pastry with the hazelnut cream until the cream was oozing out. ;D

Looooook at that!

The light choux pastry is a perfect match to this sweet rich cream.

One thing was I made only three of them and that was NOT enough!

Cakes for Tinny's house warming

Last weekend Tinny invited us to his house warming party. And as you expect... I brought some cakes!

Fudge-like chocolate & raspberry cake and Strawberry shortcake.

I guess I didn't need two cakes. But because I was little too excited to visit his new house and meet his girlfriend and the bump for the first time, I made two... (ok, I'm very indecisive too.)

Thanks again, Tinny and Alina, for inviting us. I looooooove your flat and can't wait to see your little man! Oh, and I hope you didn't mind having a few extra slices of the cake for dinner...! ;D

Happy 70th Birthday!!

Happy 70th Birthday!!!

Last Saturday was a big day for us... It was my dad-in-law's 70th birthday and we planned a surprise party for him. With three weeks of careful planning (or maybe it was a bit suspicious...), the party was a great success. :)

We managed to contact his cousins and friends, and invited them to come and celebrate his 70th birthday. We did this all in secret....

In the end about 50 people gathered together for his big day. So..., when he came home and saw all those people in the garden singing '♪Happy Birthday♪', it must have been a total surprise to him.

Pete, I'm sorry that we lied to you, and I promise there will be no more surprise party... ;D

The barrel cake was rum soaked fruits cake. The middle tree stump was lemon, and the bottom grass was chocolate. 

This surprise party was one of the biggest events ever at the World of Sweets kitchen too. 

Not only did we make the birthday cake, we also catered most of the food ourselves including the breads for sandwiches. (Yes, of course, 100% my sourdough breads!)

It was such a great day. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did!

Once again, Happy Birthday to Pete!