Very moist lime cake

After the last weekend's party, we had a lot of limes and cream left over from making cocktails and mocktails. So, I decided to use them up in my cake as usual;)

This time it's a variation of my "non butter cream cake". I've changed lemon to lime and quantity of eggs. I also made lime syrup to brush the cake to give it as much lime flavour as I can. :D

I've left the cake in the fridge overnight to let the syrup properly soak in. When I took the cake out of the fridge the following morning, I smelt of lovely citrus flavour, and as soon as I bit into it, the sweet and tangy taste of lime spread in my mouth... Humm, heavenly...

It's nice to eat soon after the cake is cooled but it's better wait until next day so that it becomes really moist and juicy, just how I like it!

Ingredients:

Plain flour 200g

Baking powder 1 tsp

Double cream 250g

Sugar 150g

Egg 2

Lime juice 3 tbsp

Lime zest 1 tsp

1.Sift flour and baking powder together. Preheat the oven to 180ºc.

2. Combine double cream and sugar in a bowl and mix to just before "soft peaks".

3. Mix in eggs, lime juice and lime zest to 2.

4. Fold in flour and baking powder.

5. Pour the mixture into a cake tin. Bake in the pre heated oven (180ºc) for 40 minutes.

6. While the cake is in the oven, prepare the syrup. Combine all the ingredients for the lime syrup in a bowl. Put in the microwave for 3-4 minutes. (Be careful, it gets really hot!)

7. When the cake is done, pour the syrup over the cake while the cake is hot.

April fool's day dinner

It's been more than a month since April fool's day and I know it's a bit late to talk about it but I did make April fool's dinner (in fact I made it and we enjoyed it the day before) just like I did last year (Seen my fish?), but it was kind of put aside in my head BECAUSE I went into labor on that very day! Anyway, before I forget..., here it is, this year's April fool's day dinner, "Premium steak platter" with beer. And of course, all the things are sweet!

So this is what we had...

Well-done steak - Dark brown sugar cake cut into a steak-like shape and coated with treacle sauce.


Creamy mashed potato with black pepper and gravy sauce - Cream cheese with poppy seed. caramel sauce for the gravy.




Sausages and fried prawns with tomato sauce and tartar sauce - Dark brown sugar cake shaped into sausage and prawn. Fried prawns are coated with icing and walnuts. Pink icing for the tail of the prawn. Raspberry jam for the tomato and cream cheese for the tartar sauce.

Runny fried egg and veges - Milk jelly with apricot jam on top. Coloured marzipan for the veges.

Ice cold beer.
- Apple jelly topped with frothy milk.

To be honest, I felt slightly sick from all the sugary stuff. But, well, I was very pleased with how realistic it looked:)
Can't wait to try more of fake savory dinners!

My little assistant - House warming & Wet the baby's head party -

We had a "house warming & wet the baby's head" party this weekend. And here she is..., my little cake assistant, Skyla! Isn't she lovely? :)

She did a great job helping me decorate the cupcakes. We made funny faces on the cupcakes as well as topping them with colourful sugar animals, balls and marshmallows. By the time we finished, we tasted 2..3..4 of them (... can't remember how many...) and we both had sticky hands with icing;)

Oh and, I thought Skyla was a real chef because she asked me "can we try the cupcakes? Because we need to know how they tastes before we serve them, don't we?" I was like... "Sure, yes!"

Well done and thanks, Skyla;D

Miso cake (味噌ケーキ)

So..., I bet that most of the people will think "What?! Miso in a cake?" Believe it or no, it works! This traditional Japanese ingredients commonly used for "Misoshiru (みそ汁, miso soup) gives a depth of flavour to the cake. (Oh, that sounded like Master Chef judges...)

Although it's a little hard to find a good quality miso paste in England, Asian food shops or large supermarkets will have quite a few choices. 

This time I used "Mugi miso (barley miso) that has good bits of barley in the paste and tastes salty but a little sweet from the barley at the same time. Combined with dark brown sugar and browned butter, the cake smelt nice and rich even before I put them in the oven. 

...By the way, I always think it's a good sign when the cake mixture smells good when I'm tasting a recipe;)

Ok...so..., the verdict is... "simply good". Initially you can't taste the miso but you'll notice a subtle unique flavour and real richness. I liked it even better on the following day when the cake was well rested and more moist.

If you like a bit of "Japan" in sweets, why not try adding some savory Japanese ingredients in your cake;D

Ingredients:

Flour 100g

Dark brown sugar 100g

Egg 2

Butter 100g

Miso paste 2 tbsp

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Brown butter.

2. Combine flour and sugar in a bowl and mix well.

3. Beat eggs and mix into 2.

4. Add miso paste to 3.

5. Fold in browned butter into 4.

6. Pour the mixture into a cake tin. Bake in the preheated oven (180ºc) for 20 minutes.

Non sugar, Non flour flapjack

It's not that I'm particularly watching my waist line and I love my sweet sugary cakes too much to give them up, but sometimes I fancy a healthier snack. And today was one of those days.

I decided to make oats cookie without sugar and flour. However, it came out as a flapjack... Oh well, it tasted great and so addictive that
I kept going back for more and it was gone before tea time...;D

As a sweetener I used date syrup and added dried prune and raisin to give it more natural sweetness. Knowing the amount of margarine added into the recipe, I'm not quite sure if I can call it a "healthy snack", but at least there is no sugar in it and it has oats and prune that are a good source of fiber.

I guess this flapjack works with other dried fruits too. I'm going to try apricot or blueberry next time;)

ingredients:

Oats 150g

Corn starch 30g

Margarine 100g

Date syrup 5 tbsp

Raisin 100g

Dried prune (chopped) 100g

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Cream margarine and date syrup together.

2. Mix  oats and corn starch into 1.

3. Mix raisin and prune into 2.

4. Spread the mixture on a baking tray. Bake in the preheated oven (180ºc) for 10 minutes. When the flapjack is cooled , cut it into the size you like.

Raisins & Oats bread

A variation of my previous post, Super easy bread. This time I used oats and raisins to give the bread a nice bite to it. It worked very well.., just as I wanted. :D Every mouthful I could tasted the sweet raisins and feel the bits of oats.

Toasting and spreading a nob of butter really brings out the flavour. Yum yum yum..., baking those breads really makes me realise again how much I love making breads!

Ingredients:
Strong flour 400g

Oats 100g

Sugar 40g

Water (lukewarm) 350g

Dried yeast 7g

Salt 5g

Margarine 50g 

Raisin 3-4 handfuls

1. Put strong flour, oats, sugar, salt and yeast in a standing mixer with a dough hook attached.

2. Pour lukewarm water over yeast. Turn the mixer on and knead for a minutes.

3. Add margarine into 2. Keep kneading for 10 minutes. Add raisin and knead another few minutes.

4. Cover the dough with cling film and rest it until it has doubled in size.

5. Punch the dough to let the air out. Rest for 10 minutes.

6. Grease a loaf tin with oil, place the dough and rest it until it has doubled in size.

7. Preheat the oven to 200ºc. Bake for 30 minutes.

Super easy bread

As a baker I'd rather make a loaf of bread than buying a cheap crappy bread that I think is not even a "BREAD"... Especially when a loaf is this simple and easy to make and tastes great, and I know exactly what is in it, I'm definitely making one myself.

Oh and.., just to assure you how easy to make your own bread, I've got a 10 days old baby and I can still make this bread around my baby schedule:)

So, the recipe is...

Ingredients:

Strong flour 500g

Sugar 40g

Water (lukewarm) 350g

Dried yeast 7g

Salt 5g

Oil 2 tbsp

1. Put strong flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a standing mixer with a dough hook attached.

2. Pour lukewarm water over yeast. Turn the mixer on and knead for a minutes.

3. Add oil into 2. Keep kneading for 10 minutes.

4. Cover the dough with cling film and rest it until it has doubled in size.

5. Punch the dough to let the air out. Rest for 10 minutes.

6.Grease a loaf tin with oil, place the dough and rest it until it has doubled in size.

7. Preheat the oven to 200ºc. Bake for 30 minutes.

Here are some tips to make the job easier...

• I use Kenwood kMix to knead the dough.
Quite literally, this machine has changes my baking life... My best friend in the kitchen;D

• To quicken the rising process, I turn the oven on to something like 180ºc while preparing the dough. When the oven gets warm (not hot hot), turn the oven off and put the dough covered with cling film in the oven to rest and rise it. It'll take only 20 minutes or so for the dough to double in size.

I used strong brown flour this time, but strong white flour or whole meal works just as good. This loaf is great when it's toasted with spread of butter. It was so tasty that we found ourselves finishing half the loaf at once... ooops... ;)