Tag Archives: Cake

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!

White Velvet Cake with custard buttercream and Raspberry filling.

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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.

One Bowl Vanilla Cake

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One Bowl Vanilla Cake
The simplest and easiest vanilla cake you can ever make. Just add all the ingredients to a bowl and give it a good mix and bake!.
An any occasion fluffy cake, perfect on it’s own or with your favourite frosting. The cake is very light and has a tender crumb so you can serve it for dessert too without it being too heavy.
The great thing about a vanilla cake is that you can add any flavor frosting, and everybody loves vanilla.
This is the recipe I always use when I need a cake in a hurry. These basic ingredients are usually in your cupboard and fridge, so you don’t need planning in advance.

The basics…

Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F.
Grease two 20cm/ 8 inch round baking pans.
Line with parchment paper, grease again and I like to give them an extra dusting of flour. This will ensure the cake will come out completely without a trace left behind.
Measure all ingredients into a large bowl.
Mix until well incorporated and the batter is smooth.
Pour into your prepared baking pans.
Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes on the center rack or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Once baked, let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then remove and cool completely before frosting. If you’re in a hurry place them in a freezer while you make your frosting.

INGREDIENTS:

For the Cake:
1/2 cup/113gr/ (one stick), very soft unsalted butter room temperature
1 cup/200gr. White caster sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups/200gr. sifted all purpose flour
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
3/4 cup / 180 ml. Milk
2 tsp./10ml. vanilla extract

Vanilla Bakery Style Buttercream Frosting:
1 cup (225 g) butter (1 stick) unsalted, room temperature
2 ½ cups (300 g) Powdered sugar
1 tbsp. /15 ml. vanilla
Pinch of Salt
1 to 2 tbsp. milk to softer consistency

NOTE: at this point you can add flavorings for filling the cake, separate about half a cup of the frosting and add your preferred flavor, like instant coffee, some cocoa, caramel, strawberry jam. Just add in small amounts so that the frosting doesn’t become too thin. This can now be spread on the cake layers for filling.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cake:
Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F.
In a large bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer, place the butter and sugar and start beating on medium-high until fluffy.
Set mixer to medium-low and add the eggs one at a time.
Now add the flour, baking powder and salt. As it is mixing/combining pour in the milk and vanilla in a steady stream.
Mix until dry ingredients are well incorporated and no lumps remain.
Pour into your prepared baking pans. Bake for about 25-30 minutes on the center rack or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Once baked let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
Cream butter for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla and combine well.
Finally, start adding the powdered sugar one cup at a time with the mixer on low.
Once all the sugar is in – whip the buttercream on a higher setting, for a good three minutes until light and fluffy. Add a little milk if you want the frosting softer.

Assemble:
Spread some frosting on each layer.
Use a spatula to frost the outside of the cake.
Pipe any leftover frosting if desired.
For a naked look – scrape off frosting from sides of the cake.

Cakey Sweet Potato Brownies

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Let’s have a chat about these Brownies, these super soft and cakey Brownies.

They’re so unbelievably good that I don’t even know where to start. I’m not kidding either, they taste like Chocolate Birthday cake, and that’s not even my own comment. Someone actually said that while eating one of these babies. Very soft and chocolaty and pure indulgence. But…the most amazing part is that they are fat free, and I made them sugar free too. I have made them at least 9 or 10 times the past month and we just can’t get enough of them. I honestly don’t know what magic happens when you put sweet potato mash in a brownie recipe but believe me, it’s real magic.
I microwave a medium sweet potato in the morning (after piercing it with a skewer a few times) and forget about it until I am ready to bake. You could even do this the night before. For a video click here.
Then you mash the peeled sweet potato and add it to the batter, instead of butter. If you don’t want to bake with Stevia you can omit the applesauce and Stevia and substitute it for 1/4 to 1/3 cup Maple syrup or regular sugar.

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs
1/4 cup apple sauce * see note
1/2 cup Greek yoghurt
1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
2 tsp. liquid Stevia extract * see note
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup small chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS

Pre heat the oven to 180C/350F
Line a square tin 20x20cm/8″x8″ with baking parchment and oil lightly.
Pierce the medium sized sweet potato a few times with a skewer and microwave on high for about 3 minutes, turn the potato over and microwave for 2 to 3 more minutes until soft.
I always place the potato on a folded paper kitchen towel.
Let cool completely, remove the skin and mash.
In a bowl beat the two eggs, add the yoghurt, the apple sauce, stevia, vanilla and mix until combined. Add the sweet potato mash and mix well. Now add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. You’ll notice the batter is quite thick, but spongy, this is good.
Pour batter into the prepared pan and place on a rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes. Test with a wooden skewer to see if the brownies are done.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely before cutting into 9 squares.
These are best kept in the refrigerator if not eaten the same day. I have roughly calculated the calories in one square and they are about 100 calories each. Awesome right? If you make them with maple syrup or sugar they will be a bit more, but still very OK.

Enjoy!