Books for Baking

There are lots of cookbooks out there, for every type of food, ingredient and cooking style imaginable.

Cookbooks about baking always catch my eye, but I do find some more helpful and inspiring than others. The types of baking books that you are drawn to will mostly depend how often you bake and how confident you feel in the kitchen. I have long moved on from books that focus on the basics, however they were once the books I looked to all the time.

The cookbooks about baking that I am drawn to now, are ones that provide inspiration around flavour and use of ingredients, have a cohesive story behind them and give guidance on more technical aspects of baking.

The books below are ones that I turn to for inspiration, technical advice, comforting recipes and honestly, they are all just nice to sit a have a look through with a cup of tea.

1.The New Way to Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi - The book is small and unassuming, but is packed full of cake recipes you won’t find in every book about baking. Benjamina’s book is divided into chapters around flavour, and flavour is what really drives this book, and sets it apart from many others. In short, there are no boring recipes in this cookbook!

2. Aran by Flora Shedden - From a bakery in far away Scotland, comes a series of recipes that are nod to traditional Scottish baking, but that also have quite the modern flair. Again I really enjoy the use of flavour in these recipes, and the unfussy nature of them too. 

3. The Pastry Chef’s Guide by Ravneet Gill - If you are wanting to get more into the technical side of baking and patisserie this is the book for you. Ravneet covers all the basics, both the simple and complex ones, all wrapped up in a small pretty pink book. 

4. Now for Something Sweet by Monday Morning Cooking Club - I spoke about this book recently, and I have to include in this list as it is a great addition for bakers of all levels. You are sure to find a comforting bake to make in this book, whether its something fairly quick and easy, or a little more complex and time consuming. 

5.The Violet Bakery Cookbook by Claire Ptak - Every time I look at this book I seem to find something new. Claire’s use of ingredients and flavour really surprised me when I bought this book a few years ago, and I feel like I have learnt a lot from her in that time about the use of different types of flours, sugars and the like for their contribution to flavour and texture in a bake. You can read more about my experience with this book here.

Links to books on Booktopia removed 15/07/2024.

Easter 2015

For this post I wanted to do a little re-cap of the Easter weekend, particularly the baking! Any recipes mentioned will be or are posted on the blog. 

This year I made it my mission to try as many different types of hot cross buns as I could. I didn’t get to every bakery I wanted (fingers crossed for next year), but I tried a few, as well as making my own. 

Homemade Hot Cross Buns - Recipe Here

I went to Black Star Pastry at the Powerhouse Museum a couple of times, and tried their Frankincense glazed hot cross buns. They were full of fruit and flavour, and well worth the walk to get them! 

Some Easter eggs and the Hot Cross Buns from Black Star Pastry.

I also bought a few from Baker’s Delight, because how could you not? These are probably my favourites, as while they have fruit in them, they are not quite as jam packed with it, which I prefer. I think I also like them because they are very easy to go and buy! 

On Easter Saturday, whilst braving the shops with every other person in this part of Sydney, I managed to get some of Jamie Oliver’s Stem Ginger Hot Cross Buns from Woolworths. I had heard about these, but had never managed to get any. They were nice, and I’m glad I got to try them! I found the ginger quite subtle whilst I eating the bun, but then after the spiciness of the ginger really hit me! 

Hot Cross Buns from Baker's Delight (left) and Jamie Oliver's Stem Ginger Hot Cross Buns from Woolworths (right).

Over the Easter long weekend I decided to make some Easter biscuits. I had a couple of Easter themed biscuit cutters, that I had never used, so I thought it was time to use them! I had also not long been gifted the book ‘Cookies’ by Peggy Porschen, so it was also a great chance to continue with my cookbook challenge! 

The recipe for the biscuits and icing will be posted over on the blog soon. 

Easter Biscuits.

I also adapted my favourite scone recipe (originally posted here), and made them into ‘hot cross scones’ for Easter. The full post and recipe can be found here. 

Hot Cross Scones.

Here are a few snaps from the long weekend, including one featuring the newest addition to the cookbook collection, thanks to the Easter Bunny! 

Hope everyone had a lovely long weekend.

All baking, styling and photography for this post by Kathryn Vincent of Kulinary Adventures of Kath.

Hot Cross Scones

Having made hot cross buns last year and posted the recipe here, I was slightly at a loss as how to celebrate Easter with baked goods (which is clearly the only way I celebrate anything). Not being able to eat chocolate, also messes with the whole Easter/Easter baking thing too. 

However, inspiration struck last weekend, whilst out with friends. My friends and I are regulars at The Tea Salon in Sydney Westfield. We love it, and nine times out of ten we will end up there when we meet up in the city. We were there in February, and they had a scone of the month which was rose and white chocolate, to celebrate Valentine’s Day. It was so good, that I now actually look at what the specials are! 

While we were there last weekend, one friend immediately saw the new scone of the month, and pointed it out to me. The scone was a ‘hot cross scone’ to celebrate Easter. In that moment, I suddenly thought, I could make something like this! This could be exactly the Easter baking I had been looking for. 

I ordered the hot cross scone, and needless to say it was great. It was served with orange marmalade, which although I’m not a fan of marmalade, a very small scraping of it definitely complemented the spices and sultanas in the scone. 

On the train journey home all I could think about was how to recreate this scone. I decided on merging my favourite scone recipe (recently posted here) and the hot cross bun recipe I like to use.

They are quite quick and easy to make, and would make a nice last minute Easter baking treat. Without the cross piped over the top, they become less hot cross scones, and more spiced sultana scones, making them great year round. Once cooled they freeze well in a zip-lock bag. 

Ingredients: 

4 cups self-raising flour 

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup pouring or thickened cream 

375-400 ml milk 

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp orange zest 

120 g sultanas 

Ingredients for the Cross: 

75 g plain flour

1/2 tsp sunflower or vegetable oil 

105 ml cold water 

butter or margarine, to serve 

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees Celsius, and line a large baking tray with baking paper. 

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, spices, zests and sultanas, then add the cream and 375 ml of the milk. Stir using a flat bladed knife or icing spatula to form a soft dough, adding more milk if the dough is too dry. 

Dust a work surface with flour, and turn the dough out. Lightly knead until the dough comes together. 

Press the dough out to 2cm thick. Using a 5 cm (approx.) round cutter, cut out scones from the dough and place onto the prepared tray so they are just touching. Pull dough scraps together and press out to 2.5cm thick. Cut out remaining scones, and continue to use the scraps (adding .5cm to the thickness each time when pressed out), if necessary. 

In a small bowl mix together the oil, flour and most of the water to form a smooth, slightly runny paste. If the mixture is too dry gradually add more water and mix well. 

Spoon the paste into a piping bag, and pipe a cross over each scone.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Scones will be risen and golden when ready. Serve warm with butter or margarine.

References to original versions of both recipes can be found in earlier posts, linked in above text.  

All baking, styling and photography for this post by Kathryn Vincent of Kulinary Adventures of Kath. 

Easy Passionfruit Loaf Cake

This recipe came about when I wanted to use up some passionfruit leftover from the sponge cake I made a little while ago. I do find it funny that whenever we have leftover or almost over ripe fruit in the house we use it to bake with! We’d probably be better off just eating it, rather than adding sugar and butter to it, but that wouldn’t be as much fun though would it? 

The base of this loaf cake is one I use often for cupcakes and whole cakes as well. It is quite versatile and has featured on the blog in the past in different forms. You can substitute the margarine for butter, the golden caster sugar for caster sugar, and the buttermilk for regular or skimmed milk. You can even use vanilla extract if you don’t have any vanilla bean paste. This loaf cake is that easy - you don’t even need to have all the right ingredients for it to be great! 

I apologise if anyone is throughly sick of seeing recipes for cake that involve passionfruit from me. Unfortunately, when there is something I like, I keep using it! And when I get an idea for a cake or recipe, I find it hard to think of anything else until the idea has been brought to life! So be prepared for a few more slightly repetitious cakes in the next little while! All of which however, can be altered to suit your tastes or what you have available. This loaf cake for example, would be just as good using lemon juice in the icing. 

On another note, the size of the loaf cake my look a little deceiving in the photos. This is because about half of it had already been eaten by the time I could take photos! 

Ingredients: 

125 g canola based margarine

3/4 cup golden caster sugar (raw caster sugar)

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 eggs 

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup buttermilk 

For the Icing: 

1 1/2 cups icing sugar 

3-4 small passionfruit  

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius, and line a loaf tin with baking paper. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the margarine, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. 

Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add half the flour and half the buttermilk and mix. Add the remaining flour and buttermilk and mix on medium speed until well combined. 

Transfer the mixture into the loaf tin, smoothing the top. Bake for 1 hour, or until the cake springs back when touched lightly and a skewer comes out clean. 

Cool in the tin for a few minutes then transfer to a cooling rack, leaving the baking paper underneath the cake (this will prevent the cake from sticking to the rack, and catch any runaway icing later). 

Once the loaf has cooled completely, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the pulp of 3-4 passionfruit gradually, mixing after each addition. Stop adding pulp when the icing is a nice smooth consistency. Drizzle the icing over the cake, allowing it to fall down the sides. Leave for 2-3 hours to allow the icing to dry before storing in an airtight container, or eat straight away!

All baking, styling and photography for this post by Kathryn Vincent of Kulinary Adventures of Kath.

A Pink Tinged Birthday Cake

This cake was made early last month for my birthday. Yes, I made my own birthday cake! I had seen this recipe in the Australian Women’s Weekly book ‘Indulgent Cakes’ a few months earlier, and never had a reason to make such a big cake. So when it came to deciding what to make for my birthday, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to make it. 

This cake combines two things that I really love - raspberry and rosewater. You may have noticed I use these two ingredients a lot, particularly together. I actually have to try and not use them so much now, so my blog isn’t just a how-to on using raspberries and rosewater! 

The icing of this cake is marshmallowy, and the cake itself is pink. Also two things I love. Marshmallows and anything pink. This cake was definitely the right choice for my birthday! 

I made the cakes the day before and stored them between baking paper in air-tight containers overnight. The icing needs to be made then used straight away. It is also best to assemble and ice the cake just before you want to serve it, as the icing is at its best straight away. 

This cake can (and should) be stored in fridge, and will last a couple of days (the icing will start to dissolve away however). 

Ingredients for the Cake: 

250 g unsalted butter, softened

6 egg whites

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups caster sugar 

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 cup buttermilk

2 tsp bicarb soda

2 tsp white vinegar

3 tsp pink food colouring

Ingredients for the Filling: 

185 g raspberries 

1 tbsp rosewater

300 ml thickened cream

1/4 cup icing sugar 

Ingredients for the Icing: 

3/4 cup caster sugar 

1 tbsp glucose syrup 

2 tbsp water 

3 tsp rosewater 

3 egg whites 

fresh raspberries, for decoration

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line two 20cm round baking tins three times. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Then add the buttermilk, egg whites, sugar, flour and vanilla extract. 

In a separate bowl combine the white vinegar and bicarb soda. This mixture should become foamy. Add the pink colouring to the vinegar mixture. Then add the vinegar mixture to the main cake mix. Beat on a low speed until everything has combined, then beat for a couple of minutes on medium speed until the mixture turns a paler colour. 

Divide the cake mix evenly between the two prepared tins, and bake for 45 minutes. Test cakes with a skewer to ensure they are cooked through. Allow the cakes to stand in their tins for a few minutes, then turn them onto baking paper lined cooling racks (top side of cake facing down). 

Once the cakes are cool, carefully cut them in half. Place one of the layers on a serving plate, cake stand or board. Set aside.

To make the filling, lightly squash the raspberries in a small bowl with the rosewater. In a separate bowl beat the cream and icing sugar until the cream forms stiff peaks. Fold the raspberries into the cream. Spread one-third of the cream onto the base layer of the cake, and top with the next layer. Repeat with the remaining layers, finishing with a final layer of cake. 

To make the icing, place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixture. Then place 2/3 cup of the sugar, water, glucose and rosewater in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring mixture to the boil, and allow to boil for 3 minutes, or until a small amount can be rolled into a soft ball once dropped in cold water. If you have a sugar thermometer, the syrup should be 115 degrees Celsius at this stage. Once the syrup is boiling, start beating the egg whites until soft peaks form. Then beat in the remaining sugar. 

Remove the syrup from the heat and allow the bubbles to settle. With the mixer running, add the syrup to the egg whites in a thin stream. Beat on high speed for about five minutes, by which time the icing should have thickened and cooled.

Use icing immediately, trying to ice the top and sides of the cake evenly. Decorate with fresh raspberries. 

Recipe originally from, The Australian Women’s Weekly ‘Indulgent Cakes’  (2014, Bauer Media Books), pp.140-145.

All baking, styling & photography for this post by Kathryn Vincent of Kulinary Adventures of Kath. 

Raspberry & Rose Pavlova (Gluten Free) + Christmas 2014

This year for Christmas I baked a lot! We don’t have a big family, so we decided to make food the focus for Christmas Day. While the heat and humidity of our Sydney Summer provided a few challenges to my baking efforts, I really enjoyed having the time to bake and cook whatever I wanted, with Christmas being the ‘excuse.’ 

I made four batches of gingerbread, using this recipe, which remains my favourite. A made a gingerbread house, with varying levels of success. I was concerned about is structural soundness, however after just over a week of standing upright and remaining standing once a meat mallet was taken to it, I feel these concerns were slightly unfounded! Mostly, I would have liked it to look prettier, however for my first ever attempt, it’s probably not so bad. 

A few tarts were made as well. All of them stemmed from using up lovely summer fruits that we had bought. Using the same case and filling recipe as the white cherry tart I made in my last post, I used raspberries and peaches, which was so good, then just plain raspberry, then I used up the last of the Christmas cherries to make a cherry tart for New Years Eve. I also just made a plum upside-down cake to use up the last of the plums. It’s safe to say that this holiday season has not been short of cake and sweet treats! 

Peach & Raspberry Tart

Cherry Tart for New Years Eve

On Christmas morning I had prepared some of Sophie Hansen’s Buttermilk Jam Scrolls, which we ate with tea and some lovely fresh fruits. For Christmas Day lunch my Mum made a glazed ham, turkey wellington and a pear and goats curd salad. I made my favourite Summer Iced Tea. For dessert I created an Epic Pavlova. I call it epic as it was just something I thought I would try and see if it worked. And it ended up being the best pavlova I have ever made! I changed some of the ingredients from my Grandma’s original recipe, after looking at lots of other pavlova recipes. I wanted it to look a little festive, so I decided to decorate it with mostly red berries, and was particularly excited when I found red currants in the green grocer (first time I had ever seen them!). 

Breakfast

Christmas Lunch

Dessert!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take many photos of the pavlova, as when I was assembling it, the Christmas Day weather began to turn bad. Thus there was no good light to shoot in. The shots I got were taken at a doorway to the balcony, door open to get as much natural light in as possible, rain coming down just beyond where the pavlova sat! 

Here is the recipe for my pavlova. I used up some of the remaining egg yolks to make the frangipane fruit tarts (substitute one whole egg for two yolks), otherwise you could make some gingerbread or maybe some custard. The quantities for the fruit to decorate are just guides, as you can put as little or as much as you would like, there are no rules! Lots of different fruits are great for pavlova, however I would stick to things that complement rosewater for this recipe. 

I made the pavlova layers on Christmas Eve and left them to cool in the oven overnight, and assembled just before serving on Christmas Day. 

Raspberry & Rose Pavlova

Ingredients for the Pavlova: 

8 egg whites 

500 g caster sugar

2 tsp raspberry vinegar 

1 tsp rosewater 

40g cornflour

To Decorate: 

450 ml cream 

1 tbsp rosewater 

1-2 punnet raspberries

1 punnet blueberries

seeds from 1-2 pomegranates

1 punnet red currants 

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line two large baking trays with baking paper, and trace a circle on each, approx. 26 cm in diameter (I used a dinner plate). 

In a clean dry bowl, beat the egg whites for 5-6 minutes, whilst gradually adding the sugar. Add the raspberry vinegar and rosewater and beat until the mixture is stiff and glossy. 

Sift cornflour over the mixture, and gently fold to combine. 

Place half the mixture on one tray, using the circle as a guide. Push the mixture around to form a circle, leaving a small border around the edges. Repeat with the remaining mixture on the other tray. 

Turn the oven down to 125 degrees Celsius, and cook undisturbed for 1.5 hours. 

After 1.5 hours, turn the oven off and leave the pavlova layers to cool completely in the oven. 

When ready to assemble the pavlova, whip the cream and rosewater together. Spread half over one of the pavlovas and sprinkle with half the pomegranate seeds, half the raspberries and half the blueberries. Place the remaining pavlova shell on top. Fill the top layer with the remaining cream, and berries, using the red currants to form a border around the fruit on the top layer. 

What did you make during the festive season? Let me know in the comments below!

For more recipes showcasing the best of rose, check out my eBook Baking with Rose by clicking the link below!