Wouldn't it be great to have cake for breakfast?I am sure we would all love to but guilt always holds us back. Well this recipe will quiet that annoying voice in your head, even if just for a few hours. Despite its not so attractive appearance this cake will please.
Wholemeal Dark chocolate hazelnut cake
Wholemeal Dark chocolate hazelnut cake
Wholesome and filling, sweet enough to be breakfast yet savory enough to be a meal. It goes great with a hot drink or a tall glass of milk and keeps really well too. Wholemeal Dark chocolate hazelnut cake 175g butter 175g golden granulated sugar 3 beaten eggs 2-8 tbsp milk 175g wholemeal flour 2.5 level tsps baking powder 200g dark chocolate, chopped up into little bits 110g ground hazelnuts 25g chopped hazelnuts Oven: 180c, gas mark 4 Grease and line a deep round cake tin about 18cm in diameter. ( I used a square 9 inch)
Method:
Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs a little at a time and fold in the flour and baking powder.
Add 1/3 of the the chocolate and all of the ground hazelnuts, Fold. Then add the milk a
tablespoon at a time till the mixture drops off the spoon when you tap it on the side of the bowl. It will be a fairly firm mixture.
Put the mixture in the tin, smooth the top and sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts and balance chocolate over the top.
Stick it in the oven for about 1.5 hours – you’ll need to check it after an hour and put a sheet of grease proof paper over the top if the nuts are getting too brown. Let it cool in the tin for about 15 minutes before you turn it out.
I LOVE thekitchn.com and loved them even more when i bit into a slice of this heavenly cake. I haven't always been a huge fan of lemon cakes but this gorgeous baby has converted me!
This recipe is meant for a bundt cake mold but if you don't have one ( I didn't the first time I bake this), just used a 9 inch square or round tin. This is a great cake to keep in the fridge or freezer, it doesn't not dry out at all! even after sitting in the fridge for over a week it was still moist and fresh. Do yourself a favor and bake this cake this weekend. You will thank me for it later.
For the cake: 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 2 cups granulated sugar 4 large eggs 2 large egg yolks 2 tablespoons lemon zest 1/4 cup lemon juice 1 cup ricotta 1 1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds
For the glaze: 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted 2 tablespoons milk Sliced almonds, to top
To make the cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a bundt pan extremely well. Sift together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
With an electric mixer, beat butter on high until light and creamy. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. With the mixer on medium-low, add the eggs one at a time. Add in the lemon zest and lemon juice, followed by the ricotta.
Stop mixer and scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Stop the mixer and fold in the poppy seeds.
Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester or skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean or with just few crumbs.
Let cake cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, or until you can comfortably touch the pan. Use a flexible rubber spatula to release the edges of the cake from the pan, then invert the cake onto a large plate or cooling rack. Cool completely.
→ Make-Ahead: Once the cake has completely cooled, you can cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for a few days or freeze it for several weeks. Allow the cake to thaw in the fridge before glazing.
This Cream Cheese Pound Cake is a definite winner and will be a recipe I will be keeping and using for a long long time. The cake has a wonderfully rich buttery cheese flavor and is soft and delectable. Needless to say this was a hit amongst my office mates.
The original recipe required a bunt pan, I didn’t have one so I used a cake tin. To ensure this cake turns out perfect, do make sure that the eggs, butter and cheese are at room temperature, which basically means let it sit out for about 15mins.
What you need:
3 cups (390 grams) all purpose flour ( I used self raising)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (340 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-8 ounce (226 grams) package cream cheese, room temperature
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter and flour a 10 inch (25 cm) bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, in three additions, beating well after each addition. Continue beating on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 - 5 minutes).
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla and lemon zest and beat until incorporated.
5. Add the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
6. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely. (The cake is cooled in the pan first for about 20 minutes so the cake has time to set. The cake may collapse if you try to remove it from the pan too soon.)
I made this a while back. I had never eaten sugee cake before but friends of mine kept requesting for it. I looked around for a few recipes and decided to use this one as it seemed the easiest and required the least amount of eggs and fat.
The outcome was absolutely amazing! I strongly urge all of you to give it a try. It’s a little trickier compared to the other cakes I have baked before but it’s worth the effort.
What you need:
·220g unsalted butter, diced and softened slightly at room temperature
·120g caster sugar
·3 tablespoons milk or water
·100g semolina (sugee) flour
·3 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks
·120g caster sugar
·2 teaspoons vanilla essence
·80g plain flour (all-purpose flour)
·1 teaspoon baking powder
·¼ teaspoon salt
·120g ground almonds
·50g finely chopped almonds (almond nibs)
Putting it together:
1.Cream butter and 120g sugar in a mixer for about one minute at medium high speed. With the mixer still on, add milk gradually, followed by the semolina flour. Mix till combined. Switch off the mixer and let the mixture stand for an hour. This allows the semolina to absorb moisture.
2. Preheat oven to 180°C. Use cooking oil or melted butter to lightly grease the bottom and sides of a round cake tin measuring 7 inches (17.5cm) in diameter. Line the bottom of the tin with greaseproof paper.
3. Beat eggs and egg yolks in a mixer till frothy. Add 120g sugar gradually and beat at medium high speed for a full five minutes till pale-coloured. Stir in essence.
4. Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Add ground and chopped almonds. Mix well.
5.Add half the egg mixture to the butter mixture. Fold gently till almost combined. Then add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture and fold.
6.Add remaining egg mixture and flour mixture alternately. Fold till all ingredients are combined. Do not overmix.
7.Pour mixture into cake tin and smoothen the surface with a spatula.
8.Bake for 45 minutes. If the top of the cake starts to burn, remove the cake from the oven after 35 minutes, cover the top of the cake with aluminium foil, then bake for another 10 minutes. The cake is ready when an inserted skewer or satay stick comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes at room temperature before removing it from the tin. Run a knife round the side of the cake and overturn it onto a wire rack to cool.
Some notes: • Milk adds richness and flavour to this cake. If not available, replace with water but expect a slight loss in flavour. • The extra egg yolks add moisture and richness to the cake. • It is important to beat the eggs well. This incorporates air into the mixture, which helps the cake rise during baking. • It is not necessary to toast the almonds before use in this recipe. • Chopped almonds add flavour and some crunch to this cake. Do not omit. • Buy ready ground almonds and chopped almonds to save time and effort. • Plain flour gives the cake structure and should not be entirely replaced with semolina flour. • When folding the flour and egg mixture into the butter mixture, do not overmix as this will result in a heavy and dense cake. • Sifting icing sugar over a baked cake does wonders to its appearance. Or spread whipped cream and sprinkle toasted chopped or sliced nuts. Refer to cake decorating books for more ideas.
A trifles is an ol-school desert. It is made up of layers of plain sponge cake, sliced fruits, custard, cream, jelly and of course the alcohol. There are many variations to this dessert and most old families have their own signature style. The D'cruz family trifle i learnt to make when i was in my teens. This however is not the family recipe, I made this Peach trifle for a recent birthday party. I stuck to the usual basics of cake and fruit, but gave it a little twist. If you are tired of birthday cakes, give this a try..
Peach Trifle
Ingredients
fruit cocktail - drained and separate juice
peaches – drained and sliced.
sponge cakes
All purpose whipped cream
Sherry ( or any wine or brandy would do)
Handful of chocolate shavings for decoration.
Putting it together
Crumble up the cake in a bowl until it resembles fine bread crumbs
Whip the cream and set aside.
To make the base, first off, use about 1/3 the cake crumbs and spread it out on the bottom of the dish. If you are using a very large dish you may need more. Press the crumbs down and pour half of the sherry and syrup from the canned fruit so that the cake crumbs hold. The base of the trifle should be about half inch thick.
Arrange about 1/3 of the fruits on top of the cake.
Spread a layer (about half inch thick) of whipped cream over the fruit.
Repeat with cake crumbs, fruit and cream….and ending with cream.
Once done, stick it in the fridge for about 20-30 mins to chill then serve.
I have not provided exact measurements here because it really boils down to how much trifle you want to make and how big your dish is. Mine was about 9inch round bowl and I used about 2 cake loafs. Give this a try…
Almost everyone i know loves a good plain and simple butter cake. It is pretty simple to make and once you manage to nail down your signature, it can be your base to a whole plethora of unique variations.
There were a so many different recipes out there, but some how i settled on this because it required the least amount of ingredients and work.
To make this cake you will need:
100g Plain Flour
80g Self Raising Flour
110 Caster Sugar
4 Eggs
250gm Butter
1tsp Vanilla Essence
Putting it together:
1. Preheat over : 180C
2.Sift the flours together and set aside.
3.Cream butter and sugar till it becomes pale and creamy. Add in eggs, one by one, beating well. Add the Vanilla Essence.
4. When the mixture is all mixed well together, fold in the flour. ( This is where you add your chocolate chips)
5. bake cake in a lined and greased pan for about 20 - 25 minutes until the cake is nicely browned at the top. Use a tooth pick to insert to make sure it comes out nice and clean.
I didn't have plain flour so i used 180g of self raising. It didn't effect the end result. The first cake i made i used the original recipe. And the reviews were fabulous. Unfortunately i didn't take any pictures of the first cake. The second i made ( pic) i added 2 hand fulls of chocolate chips. The chocolate made the cake even more yummier. Alternatively you could also add raisins, cranberries or nuts..
A little note about the chocolate chips. I learnt this trick from a fellow blogger. As you can see from the pic, all the chocolate chips sunk to the bottom creating a chocolate base effect. The same thing happens with raisins. If this works for you, then you may disregard this tip. However, if you want the chocolate chips to be blended into the cake base, you should toss the chocolate chips in a tablespoon of flour before adding them into the batter.
You can also use this recipe to make marble cake. Scoop 1/3 of the batter into a separate bowl, add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and mix well. To get a beautiful swirl effect, layer the greased pan with half of the yellow batter, then pour in all the chocolate batter, then cover with remaining batter.
I decided to name this cake Indulgence because of its contents. If you are a chocolate lover,or even if you are not, i bet you will love this. The combination of dark chocolate, hazelnut creme and chocolate ..one bite will take you into an orgasmic high...
The cake itself is a rich dark chocolate cake which i have been baking since my high school years. The recipe is an original which i have fine tuned and tweaked to perfection. My best friend Nicky loves this cake.
I separated the batter into two equal portions and baked them the night before. The next day i sandwiched both cakes with Nutella and frosted it with regular melted chocolate. As this was supposed to be a birthday cake i used simple M & Ms for a bit of color.
Apologies but i am unable to provide the recipe of this cake. But if you want to order it do give me a tinkle..
This was indeed one of the best cakes i have ever had. I got the recipe for Chefspiration.
Please do drop by her page and check out the wonderful goodies she makes. Truly inspirational i must admit, because every time i visit her blog i immediately start a list of things to buy for my next kitchen adventure.
I've always loved carrot cakes. The combination of carrots, nuts, raisins in cake is just heavenly. And eating it gives you that feel good feeling because it supposedly nutritious. So i decided to try making one over the weekend with my little helper Nic :)
Since I've started baking, I've always tried my best to make things at least a little less fattening and nutritious. But of course not skimping on the good stuff.
I looked high and low on the Internet for a proper carrot cake recipe but could not find one. All recipes i found used oil instead of butter (something i didn't like) and white flour. Alas finally at 2am on Sunday morning i sleepily tumbled upon the Perfect Carrot Cake from this lovely site. Yeah it still used oil, but at least it also used brown sugar and wholemeal :)
I didn't have self raising whole meal flour so i just used he regular kind.. and i didn't include the ground ginger and nutmeg cos i don't fancy these spices...
Ok ok..i messed up, i dont have a pretty photo to show because i couldn't wait for the cake to cool before i frosted it. :P Which explains the lack of pictures.
This cake turned out fabulous. Brought it to work the next day and got rave reviews... aren't my colleagues the luckiest ..
So i decided to start this blog because i started baking recently and wanted to share my experiments with the world like so many of you do.
I started baking in high school, my ex-classmates will attest to this. I started off with a simple chocolate cake recipe, twisted and tweaked it to suit my fancy, played around with the ingredients and ended up with my signature chocolicious cake.
To kick this blog of i have a recipe which is a spin off from my signature chocolate cake. I made this cake at my aunt's house in KK during the Christmas holidays. Hope you like it. Festive Fruit Cake with Baccadi
What you will need 1 pack fruit mix
1 pack raisins 1 cup Baccadi (you should actually use Brandy which we ran out of)
**soak these in an air tight container for at least 2 days. The longer the better though
2 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup coco
1 Tspn baking powder
1 Tspn Vanilla essence
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1 Tbspn coffee
Making it work:
Pre-heat over at 180C, Grease a 8 inch baking tin and line with baking paper.
Sift the flour, coco, baking powder and set aside.
Separate eggs.Whisk Egg whites till stiff. ( this means till it turns white and fluffy)
In a cup mix coffee powder with milk.
Cream the butter and sugar. When it turns pale add in one egg yoke at a time. Then finally add the vanilla essence.
Next, fold in the flour and milk, fruits which were soaking in bacadi and nuts if you want more bite to your cake.
Lastly fold in the egg whites.
Spoon mixture into greased baking tin and if you wanna get creative you can decorate with pecans or almonds.
Bake for 40-50 minutes. insert a skewer (or toothpick),if it comes out clean, your cake is done. Let it sit in the over for about 5 minutes then take it out and let cool for another hour.
Options You can add a hand full of chopped peacans, sliced almonds, and macadamian nuts for a bit of added crunch to your cake.If you are in a hurry, its ok to not pre-soak your fruits, simple dump it all into the batter mix and add in about half a cup of Brandy. If you prefer the Halal version, just use fruits and nuts!Happy Baking
xoxo
