Author Archives: The Cooking spoon

Pistachio Loaf Cake

When you are looking for a delicious loaf cake with an unctuous texture that’s even better the next day. This is the cake for you.
Pistachios are my favourite nuts so I wanted to create a loaf cake with an intense Pistachio flavor and a hint of spice.

Pistacious give the loaf cake a buttery nutty flavour, the hint of cardamom adds just a little bit of warmth. The lemon juice in the icing adds just enough “zing” to balance it all out. .

Adding olive oil ensure that the cake stays nice and moist and it will keep for 4 days but I can assure you it will not last that long.

This is the perfect cake to make in the weekend to have with tea or coffee and even as breakfast

For this recipe I used unsalted (shelled) pistachios and placed them in a blender and blitz them a few times until fine crumbs, like almond flour consistency. Don’t over grind the pistachios because you might end up with pistachio butter.

INGREDIENTS:

Dry:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1 cup pistachios shelled then ground to flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. kitchen salt
1 1/2 tsp cardamom

Wet:
2 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup mild flavour olive oil
1/2 cup natural unsweetened yogurt
2 tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Glaze:
1/4 c icing sugar
2 tsp lemon juice or water

Optional: edible rose petals or other flowers.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Pre heat the oven to 180C/350F. Line a loaf tin with parchment paper.
In a large bowl add the dry ingredients and stir well to combine. Add the wet ingredients to a jug and beat together. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir to combine.
Pour the batter into the tin.
Tap the tin a few times on the kitchen counter to remove any air bubbles.
Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out just dry.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely before icing.
To make the icing, combine icing sugar with lemon juice and mix until smooth.
Pour over cake in zig-zag pattern and sprinkle with dry (edible) rose petals. The rose petals are optional but look beautiful and also taste great with the pistachios.
Enjoy!

Baked Oatmeal pots with banana, chocolate chips and a hint of spices.

2 Replies

These individual Banana baked oatmeal pots are actual heaven. There is nothing like a warm breakfast now that the temperatures are dropping.

I have added banana slices and a few chocolate chips (bc yolo) and a hint of cinnamon and cardamom to give it a warm and cozy flavour. You can completely customize these, by adding your favourite ingredients. The little pots are topped with a drizzle of maple syrup before they go into the oven or airfryer so that the top caramelizes, it gives that creme brulee-like crispy top. You and your family will love them.

INGREDIENTS:
For ONE pot, multiply for more.
Dry ingredients;
1/4 cup oatmeal flour*
1 scoop vanilla protein powder**
1 tsp. Psyllium husk powder (optional)***
1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Stevia (or add sweetener of choice)
1/8 tsp. Cardamom
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tbsp. Chocolate chips
Pinch of salt
Wet ingredients;
2 tbsp. Yoghurt
3 tbsp. Milk of choice
1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1/2 banana, peeled and sliced

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat airfryer to 160 °C / 320° F. or
Preheat oven to 200°/ 400 ° F

Add all the dry ingredients to a small bowl. Mix well and add the wet ingredients. It should have a cake batter consistency, add a little extra milk if needed.
Stir to combine and add the chocolate chips and banana slices. Gently stir one more time to distribute evenly. Place is a ramekin of about 11×5 cm / 4.5″ x 2″. Top with a drizzle of maple syrup.

Place in airfryer for 12-14 minutes or until set and golden crispy on top.
Or you can bake these in a pre heated oven placed on the middle rack for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and serve straight away as is or with some thick yoghurt.
Enjoy

to make oatmeal flour, simply place regular dry oatmeal in a blender or food processor and blend until flour.

** I like to add extra protein, if you do not want to or do not have it, substitute for an equal amount of oatflour.

*** You can omit the psyllium husk if you do not have it, although it does give extra lift to the baked oatmeal and extra fibre.

Crispy Nori Summer rolls with Lime Soy Peanut sauce

INGREDIENTS:

16 rice paper sheets
2 Nori sheets, each cut into 4 pieces
32 small cooked shrimp
50g. / 1.5 oz dried thin (rice) noodles
2 cup finely shredded cabbage
1 cup carrot sticks, or (bag) of shredded
1/2 cucumber cut into stick, seeds removed
Fresh basil and chopped cilantro
2 tbsp. neutral oil for frying

DIPPING SAUCE;

3 tbsp. peanut butter,
2 tbsp. soy Sauce
1 tbsp. Sesame seed oil
2 tsp. fish sauce (nam pla)
Fresh ground pepper
1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
1/3 cup water or more
1 tsp. garlic powder*
1/2 tsp crispy chili (in oil) or sambal oelek

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cook or soak your noodles according to package directions and set aside.
Cut your veggies unless you are using store bought pre-shredded which is a great idea if you are in a hurry.
Make the dipping sauce by mixing all the ingredients and set aside.
Place a large pan over medium heat and add the cabbage with half a cup of water, place a lid on the pan and bring to a boil. Cook for one minute, drain a place cabbage on a plate. Do the same with the carrots.
The quickly fry the shrimp for a minute or two until just cooked.
The basil leaves and koriander are also in the line up.
Get a deep plate and fill with water, have a working board ready to place the soaked rice sheets on.

Now soak a rice sheet for 10 seconds in water, place on board. Place nori sheet in the middle and slightly at the bottom of the circle. Layer your ingredients in your favorite order, finish with koriander and basil leafs.
To roll, flip one side towards the middle, then the other, start rolling from the part nearest to you, all the way up until you have a tight roll.
Lightly grease a plate a place roll on it. Continue with the remaining rolls.
To fry, add one tablespoon of vegetable oil to a large frying pan**, and fry rolls on all sides for about 7 minutes or until light golden and crispy. Repeat with the remaining rolls.

**you can also use two frying pans to cook all the rolls in one go.

Enjoy!

White Velvet Cake with custard buttercream and Raspberry filling.

2 Replies

This is the cake of your dreams. Velvet is the perfect word to discribe this cake. It is soft and pillowy and light. The velvety smooth buttercream, rich in vanilla, melts in your mouth and complements the cake perfectly. There is a layer of smooth raspberry jam that adds just the right amount of tang to balance it all out. Try it, you will not regret it. Perfect for any celebration.

INGREDIENTS:

For the cake:

3/4 c / 170 gr. soft unsalted butter
1 1/2 c. / 300 gr. granulated sugar
3 c. / 300 gr. Cake flour*, spooned, leveled, and sifted
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. kosher salt or (1/8 table salt)
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 tbsp. / 15 ml. pure vanilla extract
1 1/8 c. / 270 ml. whole buttermilk, at room temperature

For the velvety Buttercream:

4 egg yolks
1 c. / 200 gr. sugar
1/2 c. / 118 ml. Water
2 c. / 450 gr soft butter
2 tsp / 10 ml. vanilla extract

to make your own cake flour, replace per 1 cup flour, a 1/4 cup of the flour with corn starch.

For the smooth Raspberry filling:

1/2 c / 100 gr. Raspberry jam
1/4 c / 60 ml. Water

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line 2 x 9-inch/ 22 cm. round cake tins with parchment paper. Lightly grease pans and parchment and dust with some flour to cover all surfaces then tip out excess flour.

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Increase mixer speed to medium, and beat until light and fluffy, 4 to 6 minutes, scraping the sides as needed.
Beat in egg whites, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition.
In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients
Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a separate jug.
Gently add in flour and buttermilk mixture into butter mixture in the bowl in three times mixing gently on the lowest setting, after each addition, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides in between to make sure all is mixed well.

Transfer batter to prepared pans.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove cakes to wire racks and cool completely.

For the velvety Buttercream:
In a bowl beat the yolks with a hand mixer until pale.
Meanwhile melt sugar in a pan with the water until sugar is completely dissolved, do not stir! You can gently swirl, as soon as it boils remove from heat.
In a steady stream, beat syrup into yolk mixture still beating, make sure syrup does not hit the beaters or syrup will fly everywhere.
Add in the butter gradually.
Ready to frost your cake.

For the smooth Raspberry filling:
Heat jam and water in a small pan, strain thru a sieve to remove seeds. Let cool.

To assemble cake.
Place first cake layer on plate, spread with raspberry filling.
Pipe buttercream all over and smooth out with spatula.
Place second layer on top.
Frost the entire cake with the remaining butter cream. You can add a little of the raspberry jam filling to the buttercream for a pink hue or dab jam on xake to create more deeper pink in certain places. Decorate and serve.
This cake is best on the day it is made. You can freeze the cake layers before frosting but I find it impacts the texture and the cake looses the lightness.