Baked Vanilla Doughnuts with Blood Orange Icing

Since I really enjoy reading other people’s favourites lists, I thought I would start my own and post some here on the blog or in my newsletter now and then. I find I discover new blogs, recipes, books and podcasts through other bloggers lists, or through similar round ups on podcasts, so I hope you can find the same here! 

• This new blog post from Beth Kirby of Local Milk - I love Beth’s honesty, and acceptance around the fluidity of her blog and it’s changing focuses over time, and her talk of slow living as “deciding what really matters to you and saying no to everything else”.

• This Carrot Cake from My Name is Yeh - I made this (sans tahini) for my Dad’s birthday last month. It is now my favourite carrot cake, as the combination of the hawaij spices, carrot and caramel were just perfect!

• A Bookish Baker’s blog post on why she is no longer niching her blog - In all the noise around monetising blogs, being an expert on one thing and there only being one path to follow for all this to be successful, sentiment such as that expressed in this post are so welcome and necessary.

• Courage & Spice Podcast: The Podcast for Humans with Self-Doubt - This is a fairly new podcast from Sas Petherick, who has done extensive research on self-doubt. I am loving hearing Sas’ advice and interviews so far, they often feel like they are great personal pep talks letting me know that self doubt isn’t just something I experience, and there are things I can do to alleviate these feelings and start to boost my confidence.

• ‘Not Just Lucky’ by Jamila Rizvi - I can’t stop recommending this book (sorry to those who have already heard my insistent arguments on why they should read it!). If you are female you will probably be able to relate to this book. Jamila focuses on women and the work environment, and I can honestly say I related to so much more than I ever thought I would. There were so many moments where I thought, ‘Oh other women feel this way too?’, ‘I’m not the only one?’, and ‘OMG it’s like Jamila knows me’. It’s good to know you aren’t alone in how you feel, particularly in the work environment, and Jamila gives some great advice on how to deal with the gender inequalities that plague our workplaces.

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But now on to the doughnuts (or donuts? 🤔I never know which). They are extremely simple to make - they take about 10 minutes to cook, which makes them not only slightly healthier than the traditional fried doughnuts but also much quicker to make. To intensify the vanilla flavour a little, you could use some vanilla sugar instead of the white sugar. I used blood orange juice in the icing, because I love the colour, and I still have lots of blood orange juice frozen from last season!

Baked Vanilla Doughnuts

Baked Vanilla Doughnuts with Blood Orange Icing

Baked Vanilla Doughnuts with Blood Orange Icing

Baked Vanilla Doughnuts with Blood Orange Icing

Baked Vanilla Doughnuts with Blood Orange Icing 

Ingredients: 

135g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarb soda

65g white sugar

60ml milk 

60g Greek yoghurt

1 egg

40g margarine/unsalted butter, melted

2 tsp vanilla bean paste 

canola oil spray

For the Icing: 

200-250g icing sugar 

2 tbsp blood orange juice, approx. 

selection of sprinkles, 100s & 1000s, dried edible flowers etc, to decorate 

Method: 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and spray a 12 hole doughnut pan with canola oil spray. 

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and sugar. If your bicarb soda is a bit lumpy, sift to remove the lumps - there’s nothing worse than biting into a baked good to find a lump of baking soda in there! 

In a jug, whisk together the milk, yoghurt and the egg. Ensure the egg has been fully mixed into the other ingredients. Add the melted margarine and the vanilla bean paste and whisk until combined. Pour this into the flour mixture and mix until just combined - don’t over mix. Similar to muffins, these will toughen up if over mixed. 

Place a medium/large piping bag or zip-lock bag over a large glass to it is easy to fill. Spoon in the batter, then pipe into the donut pan, ensuring you only fill each about three quarters the way up - there is plenty of raising agent in the batter so they will rise and expand, and if each doughnut is overfilled the hole in the centre will disappear! 

Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the doughnuts are slightly golden and spring back to the touch. 

Allow the doughnuts to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack, using a small icing spatula to gently prise the out if necessary (don’t use a knife as you may scratch your tin in the process). 

Once the doughnuts have cooled, make the icing by mixing the 200g of the icing sugar and 1 tbsp of the blood orange juice together. If the icing is too runny add more icing sugar, if it is too dry add a little more blood orange juice. You don’t want to the icing to be very runny or it will all run off the donuts, and take any decoration with it! 

To ice the doughnuts, dip the top side of each (the side that was facing down in doughnut pan), into the icing and twist to ensure it is evenly coated. Remove and allow any excess icing to drip off. Leave each doughnut to sit with the icing on for a minute or two, then decorate with the sprinkles etc. 

Baked Vanilla Doughnuts with Blood Orange Icing

Baked Vanilla Doughnuts with Blood Orange Icing

Reference: ‘Sally’s Baking Addiction’  by Sally McKenney (Race Point Publishing, 2014), p.27. 

Baked Vanilla Doughnuts with Blood Orange Icing

Baked Vanilla Doughnuts with Blood Orange Icing

Market Day & A Rhubarb Galette

A couple of Friday’s ago I drove over to the Beaches Markets. Held in Warriewood every Friday morning, they are brimming with fresh produce. I had wanted to go there for two reasons. First I had placed an order with Silvia at the Lost & Found Department, and opted to collect my order at the markets. This was mostly so I could look at all of Silvia’s wonderful wares in person! I also wanted to get some fresh rhubarb so I could re-create the rhubarb galettes made by Beth Kirby at the Slow Living Workshop the previous weekend. 

I came away from my morning at the markets with my order from the Lost & Found Department, plus some of Silvia’s famous muesli, some bagels from Brooklyn Boy Bagels, some fresh rhubarb and mixed baby tomatoes. 

On the way home I stopped off at the Antique and General Store in North Narrabeen. I have been visiting this shop (sometimes unwillingly) for a good twenty years now. My Mum loves antiques and this is a favourite shop of hers. I remember going there when I was little, and sometimes making out that I hated it, when actually I had begun to quite like looking at the old wares and antiques.

I re-created Beth’s rhubarb galette once I got home, using this recipe from her website. I soaked the rhubarb in sugar and a little rosewater. I added rosewater, as I like how it adds a sweetness to the otherwise earthy taste of the rhubarb. It is nice served soon after removing from the oven with some double cream.

Originally Posted September 23, 2014.

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

Slow Living - A Practical Workshop, September 6 & 7

This is my first non-recipe related post. Apologies if you were hoping for a new recipe. However, I attended this amazing and inspiring workshop on the weekend of the 6th and 7th of this month, and can’t possibly not write about it! Oh, and there are photos! 

The workshop was hosted by Luisa Brimble, an amazing Australian photographer, Beth Kirby of Local Milk Blog and Rebekka Seale of Camellia Fiber Company. The calibre and expertise of these three women meant that an opportunity to spend two days with them just couldn’t be missed. 

The workshop was held at Glenmore House. A perfect location for such an event, as everywhere we turned there was a moment or object waiting to be shot. The workshop also involved a handful of other women, all talented, creative and inspirational in their own right - Stacey Clark a witty and talented stylist from Perth, the generous Sneh Roy of Cook Republic, and the tasty and photogenic food for the weekend was provided by Hetty McKinnon of Arthur Street Kitchen, Anna Simamora of The Floury Baker and Claire Dickson-Smith.

The workshop focused on photography, blogging, natural dyeing, food and styling. On the first day Rebekka showed us how to dye linen and cotton with natural dyes and served as our in house model for shoots (thank you!). On both days we got to watch styling master Beth in action, as well as gain invaluable advice and experience from Luisa on photography. I got so much out of these two days, and I certainly don’t look at photography or styling in the same way as I did before the workshop. I feel just a little more confident in my abilities, especially in my ability to be creative. Being creative isn't something I would have attributed to myself in the past. However, being around like minded people has had this wonderful way of being an inspiration and catalyst for all the things brewing in the back of my mind.

As I had only bought my camera a couple of days before the workshop, I still had a lot to learn about it. On the first day I used my 14-42mm lens, and felt slightly frustrated about how my photos were turning out. I kept thinking, oh I can figure something out when I’m editing them. Then on the morning of the second day, I used up my first memory card and when I was swapping it over for another, I thought, why not change the lens as well? As soon as I started using my 40-150mm lens, I was suddenly getting some great shots. So now I am kinda kicking myself for persevering with the 14-42mm lens for so long, but everything is a learning process I guess. 

Thanks again to everyone who organised and ran the weekend, particularly Luisa, Beth and Rebekka. It was an honour to spend a couple of days with you all, and I hope another chance to spend time taking photos and learn from all of you comes my way again soon.

- day one - 

- day two - 

Originally Posted September 19, 2014.