A Rose Pound Cake

Many apologies for my almost month long absence from here. It’s funny (or scary, rather), how quickly time can pass you by. I have a few recipes up my sleeve to share, and they all revolve around cake. So in an attempt to make up for my absence I am presenting you with not one, but three cake recipes! All is forgiven now, right?! 

The first cake (shared in this post) is a rose pound cake, and in a separate post I will share two amazing recipes from the book ‘Tasty Express’ by Sneh Roy. If any of you follow the Sneh’s blog ‘Cook Republic’, you’ll know that these cakes will be good! 

. . .

This pound cake from Trine Hahnemann’s ‘Scandinavian Baking’ is the first thing I have made from this book. I had been wanting her book for quite a while, and once I finally got my hands on it, this rose cake jumped out at me. 

The original recipe says to ground your own almond meal from whole almonds. As I have been trying to get through my (almost) life time supply of almond meal, I just used that. But feel free to use which ever is easiest for you. I also had to use rose syrup instead of rose jelly in the icing, which I think is why my icing as particularly runny! If you don’t have any rose jelly/jam, I would suggest using a rosewater based glaze icing like the one used here. 

Ingredients: 

250g butter softened, plus extra to grease the tin

200g almond meal 

250g caster sugar 

4 eggs 

150g plain flour 

2 tsp baking powder

100ml milk 

Ingredients for the Icing: 

6 tbsp rose jelly

200g icing sugar

Pink food colouring 

Unsprayed rose petals, optional 

Method: 

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 1.5 litre loaf tin with butter, and line the base with baking paper. 

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 

Sift the flour and baking powder and mix with the almond meal. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture with a spatula. Add the milk and mix to combine. 

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for one hour. 

Leave to cool for 10 minutes then turn onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely. 

Make the icing by gradually adding the icing sugar to the rose jelly until the icing is smooth. Add a little pink food colouring if you want the icing to be a brighter pink. Add a little water, and whisk until the icing is smooth, and not too runny. 

Place the cake on a serving dish and spread the icing over the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Top with unsprayed rose petals if using. 

Original recipe from ‘Scandinavian Baking’ by Trine Hahnemann (Quadrille Publishing Ltd, 2014), p.135.

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

How to bake with Quinces

I have loved quinces for quite a while now. We always buy Maggie Beer’s quince paste to have with cheese and biscuits, but I have to admit for quite a long time, I really didn’t know what quinces were. 

When you actually see the fruit, they look nothing like you’d expect, sort of like large lumpy pears. They aren’t a fruit that is eaten raw however, slow cooking is the only way to go for quinces. 

I have attempted cooking quinces three times now. Only once successfully. The key as I have now found, to the deep and rich ruby colour is to cook the quinces with the cores, and remove them after. Apparently lots of pectin is in the cores, which helps the quinces turn that lovely ruby colour. I have also found that poaching them in the oven, is much easier than doing it on the stove.

To me, slow cooking and poaching feels like such a Winter-y thing to do. Probably because here in Australia, having the oven or stove on for hours at a time in Summer just isn’t practical! The fruits that lend themselves to such methods of cooking are also in season in the colder months. Though it seems few fruits and vegetables aren’t available almost year round. Quince is one of the rarities that only appear in green grocers or farmers markets once Autumn starts. Which to me is a very clear sign that Summer has come to an end, and it’s time to get Winter baking! 

I found this recipe for Quince Butter via Sophie Hansen of Local is Lovely, who never fails to impress me with snippets of country life and delicious recipes that can be found on her blog. When I saw the recipe, I just knew it would work much better than my last attempts. And it did. I didn’t follow the recipe to the end, just until I had poached the quinces. Though I don’t doubt that quince butter would be as tasty as it sounds! 

I used some of my poached quinces to make a frangipane tart (based on this recipe), then used some to make quince and vanilla muffins. I added four tablespoons of the poaching liquid to the muffin mixture, along with an extra quarter cup of self raising flour, one teaspoon of vanilla bean paste, topped each muffin with small pieces of poached quince and sprinkled them with raw sugar. 

I froze the muffins after they had cooled, and we are still enjoying them. The frangipane tart however, is long gone! 

Any left over poached quinces can be placed in a jar with the poaching liquid and stored in the fridge. 

Donna Hay’s Harissa Chicken with Gremolata

Now that the weather seems to have truly turned to Winter, warming and comforting dishes are in high demand. This recipe for Harissa Chicken by Donna Hay, fits the bill perfectly. The spiciness of the harissa warms you to your bones, while the gremolata subtly cools the kick and adds a wonderful depth of flavour to the dish. 

This dish is also quite easy to make, which is always a winner when you want warmth with minimal effort. 

The original recipe stipulates the use of mixed olives, but since my obsession with dried black olives remains unwavering, I used those. Either work well, just use whatever you like or can easily come by. 

Ingredients: 

8 x 220g chicken thigh fillets, bone in and trimmed

8 cloves garlic, unpeeled

1 cup mixed or dried olives

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 tbsp harissa paste 

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 cup chicken stock 

sea salt and black pepper

400g truss Roma tomatoes (still on vine if possible) 

Ingredients for Gremolata 

1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped

1/2 cup coriander leaves, chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp shredded lemon zest 

2 garlic cloves, crushed 

Method: 

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place the chicken, garlic, olives, tomato paste, harissa paste, sugar and chicken stock in a large baking dish, trying to evenly distribute the tomato and harissa pastes amongst the chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with aluminium foil and roast for 1 hour. 

Whilst the chicken is in the oven, make the gremolata by combining the all the gremolata ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside. 

After the chicken has been roasting in the oven for 1 hour, increase the temperature to 200 degrees Celsius and remove the foil. Add the tomatoes to the baking dish and cook for a further half an hour, or until the chicken is completely cooked through.

Serve with the gremolata. 

Original recipe from ‘The New Classics’ by Donna Hay (Fourth Estate an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2013), p. 145.

Cook Republic Workshop - May 15,2015

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of attending a Cook Republic Workshop with Sneh Roy of Cook Republic and Katrina Meynink of The Little Crumb. The workshop was on how to pitch, write, style, photograph and publish a cookbook. 

My obsession with cookbooks is probably well known by now, so it might not come as much of a surprise that I would love to someday have one of my own. 

Lots of great and really useful advice was given by both Sneh and Katrina, and it was great to hear about both their experiences around publishing their cookbooks. I did find myself becoming memorised at the prospect of beginning such a project, and partly because I was sitting directly in front of Sneh’s enviable bookcase, all filled with cookbooks! I kept noticing books I hadn’t seen before, or ones that are on my ‘to be bought (at some time in the future) list.’ There were also carefully decorated corners of the room, so photogenic I sat there making a mental list in my mind of all the photographs that could be taken in this amazing space. 

By the end of the day all the advice, stories and ideas were swirling around in my mind, and it felt like I was walking away better equipped to tackle my own cookbook project sometime in the future. 

If you ever get the chance to attend one of the Cook Republic Workshops, do! It was a lovely day filled with extremely useful advice, warming cups of tea and wonderful food. All in all, a day well spent in my opinion! 

Thanks again to Sneh and Katrina for a wonderful day!

Easy Breakfast’s from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Live

Back in late March, few friends and I went to Jamie’s Food Revolution Live at the Opera House. It was great. We had so much fun, and Jamie was so great to see live and witness his passion for good food in person. 

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Live, Sydney Opera House (March 29, 2015).

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This pancake recipe is Jamie’s idea of a simple, and better for you, breakfast. He cooked them at the Opera House, and served them with different combinations of fruit, yoghurt, honey, ricotta and maple syrup. The whole idea behind this recipe is to start the day with something that will keep you full, whilst avoiding processed foods and sugars. Putting oats in pancakes might seem a little strange, but you honestly can’t notice them once the pancakes are cooked. They also help keep you fuller for longer. Jamie recommends using wholemeal self-raising flour and skim milk for this recipe. I used buttermilk the first time I made them, and it make the pancakes nice and fluffy.  They are however, just as nice with skim milk. 

Jamie also said to cook them on a non-stick pan, so as to negate the need for cooking with any fats. Our non-stick pan isn’t so non-stick anymore, so I used some margarine to cook the pancakes. 

While they are simple, I find cooking them in advance (the night before), the easiest way to tackle breakfast before going to work! I can’t say I feel like cooking pancakes, or anything for that matter, at 6:30 in the morning, so being able to just heat them up and top with some berries and maple syrup, is the quickest way to go. I find they last a few days in the fridge once cooked. 

This recipe makes about 6 pancakes, and is easily doubled to make more (about 12).

Some smoothie recipes were also demonstrated at Jamie’s Food Revolution Live. The recipe below is my interpretation of those, based on the flavours I like. The recipe is adapted from a berry yoghurt ice cream from ‘Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals’. If you won’t be using all the berry and yoghurt mixture in one go (it will make a few smoothies), put it in a container and freeze it for another time. Otherwise, halve the recipe so there is less leftover. 

Easy Pancakes for Breakfast

Ingredients:

1 cup self-raising flour (preferably wholemeal)

1 cup buttermilk or skim milk 

1 egg 

1/2 cup oats

margarine, for cooking (if needed)

maple syrup and berries, to serve 

Method: 

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients, and using a whisk, mix well. 

Heat a non-stick pan to medium-high heat. 

Place a couple of spoonfuls of the mixture onto the pan and cook for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked through. 

Serve warm with maple syrup and fresh berries. 

Reference:  ‘Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Live’ Sunday March 29 2015, Sydney Opera House, Australia. 

Berry Breakfast Smoothie

Ingredients: 

500g mixed frozen berries

3-4 tablespoons runny honey

500g natural yoghurt 

milk

Method: 

Put the yoghurt and honey in the bowl of a food processor and process to combine. Add the berries and process until combined. 

Add some milk and process until combined. Add as much or as little milk as you like, depending on how thick you would like the smoothie to be. 

Divide smoothie amongst a few glasses, or serve in a large jug. 

Reference:  ‘Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals’ by Jamie Oliver (Penguin Group, 2010), p.182.

Glenmore House

Here are a few snaps from my visit to Glenmore House this past weekend. It is such a lovely place to visit, and the stalls organised for the open garden were so good (the cakes in particular!). If you ever get the chance to go, take it! 

Glenmore House - Website 

Previous Post at Glenmore House - Slow Living Workshop, Sydney. 

Some of the Stall holders at Glenmore House Open Garden: 

Cooks Co-Op

The Cooking Tree 

Ovvio 

Patio Plants

Food and Words