Another Pistachio and Rose Cake

Another pistachio and rose cake. I promise this one is a bit different to the rest. 

Pistachio and rose is a flavour combination I will never tire of, and since I am still enjoying my new found like of buttercream, I decided a rose buttercream would be worth a try. 

I have used freeze dried raspberry powder to colour my icing, however any pink food colouring will also work well. I find the rose flavour comes through really well the day after this cake is made, so if you wanted to make it in advance you definitely could, I would just leave the final decorations till the day you wished to serve it (if using any kind of edible flowers). 

Unlike the last few pistachio cake recipes I have posted here, this cake only needs raw pistachios blitzed to a crumb/meal, rather than a ready made pistachio spread. Which I hope makes this cake a bit easier to make and more accessible ingredient wise too. 

Another Pistachio and Rose Cake a.k.a Pistachio Cake with Rose Buttercream

Ingredients: 

150g pistachios

175g unsalted butter, softened

2 tsp rosewater

100g light brown sugar

75g caster sugar

3 eggs

150g self raising flour

Ingredients for the Icing: 

150g unsalted butter, at room temp 

1.5 tbsp rosewater

190g icing sugar, sifted

Pink food colouring/2-2.5 tsp freeze dried raspberry powder, optional

Edible flowers fresh or dried, to decorate (optional)

1 tbsp slivered or roughly chopped pistachios, to decorate

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and grease and line a 20cm round springform cake tin.

While the oven is heating up, place the pistachios on a lined baking tray to gently toast. Remove the pistachios once the oven has pre-heated or after 3 minutes or so. 

Allow the pistachios to cool down a bit, then place in a food processor and blitz until a fine crumb/meal forms.

In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter, rosewater and sugars using the paddle attachment. Beat until light and fluffy. 

Then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Gently mix in the blitzed pistachios until combined.

Add the self raising flour and gently fold by hand using a spatula in until combined.

Transfer the cake batter into the tin and smooth the top. 

Bake for about 50 minutes or until the cake is springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake. 

Leave the cake to cool before removing from the tin. 

Once the cake has cooled, place it on a serving plate. 

Then make the icing by beating the butter and 1 tbsp of the rosewater in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat for about 1-2 minutes, or until the butter is nice and fluffy. 

Add the icing sugar and 2 tsp of the freeze dried raspberry powder (if using), and beat again until the icing is soft and fluffy, about 1 minute. 

If using food colouring, add that in now, starting with a small amount and adding more as needed. You can also add in the extra 1/2 tbsp of rosewater if you would like a stronger rose flavour, and if using the freeze dried raspberry powder, add in the additional 1/2 tsp to deepen the colour of the icing if you wish. 

Evenly spread the icing over the top of the cake, then decorate with any edible flowers you may have, and some slivered or roughly chopped pistachios. 

Serves 8-10. Will keep for a few days at room temperature in an airtight container.

ANZAC Biscuit Inspired Fruit Crumble

This recipe idea came to me not long after I woke up today, and since I actually remembered the idea after I had properly woken up and got ready for the day, I just had to make it.

This crumble is based on the Weeknight Strawberry and Apple Crumble from my cookbook, Everyday Bakes. It’s a pretty flexible recipe and makes enough to generously feed four people. 

I always like using apples as the base of my crumble, very finely sliced. You can play around with what other fruit you would like to add. I find a punnet of strawberries goes well, and this time I also added in some already cooked rhubarb I had. You could add berries, pears, stone fruit, or poached quince if you have some already. The quantities for the fruit don’t need to be exact, just make sure you don’t overfill your baking dish or you may end up with any fruit juices overflowing from the dish during baking. 

The crumble topping is inspired by ANZAC Biscuits, using oats, brown sugar, coconut and golden syrup, which I’m sure many of us are thinking about making this weekend. I hope this crumble will be a nice thing to make and enjoy this long weekend, along with a batch or two of ANZAC Biscuits.

ANZAC Biscuit Inspired Fruit Crumble

Ingredients:

40g unsalted butter, softened

50g rolled oats (not instant oats)

50g plain flour

50g brown sugar

20g shredded coconut

1 tsp golden syrup

x2 small apples (I prefer Pink Lady apples) 

250g strawberries

Cooked rhubarb*, optional

2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.

In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, oats, flour, sugar and coconut until everything is well combined. You can use your fingers to rub everything together. Once well combined, add in the golden syrup and mix with a spoon until it is fairly well incorporated. 

Finely slice the apples (no need to peel them!) and hull and quarter the strawberries. Place the fruit into a 1.25L/5 cup capacity baking dish - one that is wider and shallower instead of narrow and deep will work better for this recipe. 

If you have any cooked or stewed rhubarb you can mix some of that in now as well, just enough so your baking dish is not overly full and you still have ample room for the crumble topping without everything spilling over the sides. You could also add in any other berries (approx. 125g), one stone fruit that is finely sliced, a finely sliced pear or an additional apple if you wish. 

Toss the vanilla into the fruit and press the fruit mixture down a little so the crumble topping has a relatively even surface to sit on. Then top with the crumble topping so it evenly covers the surface.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown.

Serve warm with ice cream or cream.

If there are any leftovers, allow the crumble to cool down then cover and keep in the the fridge.

Serves four, generously.

* I used some pot roasted rhubarb I had made from Sophie Hansen and Annie Herron’s new book Around the Kitchen Table. I used the cooked cut up stalks (about 15 individual pieces of varying sizes), and allowed most of the cooking juice to drip off before adding to the crumble. 

Carrot Cake with Quince Syrup and Spiced Buttercream

I love a good carrot cake. The recipe is always easy, no need for a mixer, and can be adapted quite a lot too. 

This most recent adaptation came about when it suddenly occurred to me that quince syrup could be substituted for the usual honey/golden syrup often used in carrot cakes. I buy sticky quince syrup from Singing Magpie Produce, and I’m not sure if there is anyone else who produces a similar product. 

While I highly recommend buying from Singing Magpie Produce, if you are outside Australia or wish for another alternative, date syrup/molasses can be used instead. In fact I’m sure many other fruit based syrups/molasses could be trailed in a recipe like this. I just wouldn’t try pomegranate molasses, as it would be too tart. 

Using a product such as quince syrup rather than honey or something similar, allows the cake to be less sweet - though the buttercream here makes up for that! However the combination is quite nice as they compliment each other. This is also a nice cake without icing too if you want to keep it as it is. 

You could make this cake an Easter carrot cake by decorating with small Easter eggs or similar. 

Carrot Cake with Quince Syrup and Spiced Buttercream

Ingredients: 

75g panela or brown sugar

125ml canola or vegetable oil

125ml quince syrup (I use this one)

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

225g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarb soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground cardamom 

3 medium carrots, grated

For the icing:

150g unsalted butter, at room temp 

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

190g icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cardamom 

Method: 

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and grease and line a 20cm round springform cake tin.

In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, oil, quince syrup, eggs and vanilla.

Then add the flour, baking powder and spices. Sift in the bicarb soda and whisk together until combined.

Then add the grated carrots to the cake mixture and mix to combine. 

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spatula. 

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the cake is golden, springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean.

Remove the outer edge of the cake tin and allow the cake to cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, beat the butter and vanilla in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment for at least 1 minute, or until the butter is light and fluffy. 

Add the icing sugar and spices and beat for a further minute or two, or until the icing sugar is well combined and the icing is light and fluffy. 

Spread the icing over the cake.

Serves 8-10. 

Birthday Cake Cookies

After buying the Birthday Cake cookies from Butterboy last year (read more about that here) I have been thinking about how I could recreate them. 

‘Birthday Cake’ is a strange name for a flavour to me as it gives no real indication of what it actually is. I know ‘Birthday Cake’ may mean something to those who’ve grown up in the US, as I think Birthday Cake is considered a type of cake/flavour there. Like a few other flavours that seem to have originated in the US - Red Velvet and Snickerdoodle come to mind - the name of the flavour or type of cake or cookie, doesn’t give me much idea what to expect when I might actually eat one of these things. 

I still remember over ten years ago, being in the US and trying to work out what exactly a Red Velvet cupcake was. Like what does red velvet actually mean? What flavours should I expect to taste when I bite into one? Everyone we asked gave us some iteration of the answer ‘Well you know, it’s just red velvet?!’. To two Australian’s who had never tasted anything red velvet, that was completely no help, as no, we didn’t just know! It wasn’t till we met up with a fellow Aussie that she said she’d seen her flatmate make red velvet cupcakes and she was sure they had chocolate in them. Once we finally tried a red velvet cupcake, we instantly knew it was chocolatey, and I guess heaped with food colouring to make it red! Finally an answer to our question. 

As for ‘Birthday Cake’ flavoured things, sprinkles seem to be a must. And maybe some element that makes the baked good taste like cake, when it’s not actually a cake. I’m not sure if ‘Birthday Cake’ and funfetti cakes are one and the same, or slightly different in some way, maybe it doesn’t really matter. In the end if you add sprinkles to something it’s instantly more fun and birthday-like even if there’s no birthday to celebrate.

For these cookies I have followed closely my inspiration from Butterboy and added malt to the dough. I think this is the ‘cake’ flavour element and it works well. I’ve also used Caramilk baking chips as not only do Butterboy use caramelised white chocolate in their cookie, but Caramilk makes every cookie excellent. You can also use regular white chocolate chips or white or caramelised white chocolate that is roughly chopped. 

Birthday Cake Cookie from Butterboy

Birthday Cake Cookie Cake from Butterboy

Birthday Cake Cookies a.k.a Cookies with Sprinkles, Caramilk and Malt

Ingredients:

120g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

290g self raising flour

2 tbsp malt powder

3.5 tbsp large sprinkles (aka. Jimmies) 

120g Caramilk choc chips or roughly chopped caramelised white chocolate

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and three large baking trays with baking paper. 

Melt the butter over low/medium heat, then allow to cool slightly.

In a large bowl whisk together the butter, sugar, vanilla and egg.

Then add the flour, malt powder, sprinkles and the Caramilk choc chips, and mix to combine with a wooden spoon.

Place bowl in the fridge to allow the dough to firm up a bit (at least 15 mins).

Roll medium sized balls of the dough (about a generously heaped tablespoon of dough per cookie) and place well spaced out onto the prepared trays.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown, rotate the trays in the oven about halfway to help the cookies bake and brown evenly. 

Allow to cool on their trays or on a wire rack.

Makes about 16 cookies.

Cookbooks Worth Waiting for in 2022

This time of year always makes me think, ‘I can’t wait till we get to March’. Not only as I hate Summer, and I have hopes that it might cool down in March, but it’s that month that we always see new cookbook releases flooding on to the shelves. 

March seems to be a popular time of year to release a new cookbook - something about it’s proximity to the lead up to Mother’s Day maybe? - but whatever the reason, I really enjoy having something to look forward to. And as you can see by my list below, most of the titles I think are worth waiting for this year come out in March.

All of these titles are by authors whose previous books I have very much enjoyed, so I highly recommend their previous works as well. 

I have linked each book to the listing on Booktopia. This is not sponsored or an affiliate link, that is just where I mostly buy cookbooks from. Links to Booktopia removed 15/07/2024.

Let me know in the comments below what cookbooks you are looking forward to this year.

1. Cinnamon and Salt: Cicchetti in Venice by Emiko Davies (30th March) - I love Emiko’s books. They are filled with stories as well as recipes, that transport you to another place, and sometimes to another time. I also really enjoy Emiko’s photography and the design of her books as well. And I suspect this next book will be no different. 

2. Around the Kitchen Table by Sophie Hansen and Annie Herron (29th March) - Sophie’s cookbooks are favourites of mine, with her recipes always being the kinds of things I really want to eat. And that combined with the calm reassurance of her Mum Annie’s guidance to all things drawing and creativity sounds like perfection. 

3. A Good Day to Bake by Benjamina Ebuehi (2nd March) - Benjamina’s first book, A New Way to Cake, is a favourite of mine for interesting and flavourful cakes. I really enjoy Benjamina’s use of flavour in her first book, and the fact that it wasn’t a baking book that resembled so many others. I am really looking forward to this new book and some new recipes from Benjamina. 

4. The Year of Miracles by Ella Risbridger (31st May) - I think we all loved Ella’s first book, Midnight Chicken. So naturally I want to see what Ella’s next book contains. Unlike many cookbooks, photography doesn’t play a part in Ella’s books, but her writing will be what transports you to her kitchen and give you a comforting and real look at how food and cooking has supported her in life’s hardest moments. 

5. Nistisima by Georgina Hayden (29th March) - Although this book is full of vegan recipes, which is not my usual go to, I trust that this book will be the exception to my general distain for all vegan cookbooks. Georgina has collated and researched vegan recipes from parts of the world where fasting from animal products for periods of time is part of the religious year. This to me makes the book so much more interesting, and I am really looking forward to seeing what types of recipes Georgina has in store for us. 

The Best Cookbooks of 2021

2021. Probably a year many of us would like to forget, and a year that we thought would go differently than it did.

Despite everything that year threw at us, there were still new cookbook releases. And so many good ones at that. These are my top picks for the best cookbooks of 2021, though there are more that I really enjoyed. 

The titles I’ve listed below are ones that I feel bring something more to the table, whether it be the quality of the recipes, photography, stories, themes or the fact that they brought something to my cookbook collection I didn’t know I needed. 

What would you add to the list? Let me know in the comments below.

Together by Jamie Oliver - I am really enjoying this new book from Jamie Oliver. I like that it doesn’t have a restrictive theme like some of his previous books, these recipes feel a bit like old school Jamie in a comforting way. The premise of this book is bringing people together, after being isolated for so long. Whilst bringing people together may still not be possible for many of us, the recipes look achievable and tasty and well worth trying even if you aren’t able to share it with many.

In Good Company by Sophie Hansen - I love Sophie’s books, and this one is no exception. The combination of Sophie’s recipes and photography is an utter joy. And while similar to Jamie Oliver’s book, the theme revolves getting people together which may feel a bit premature to some (I suppose we all hoped the pandemic would be firmly in the past by now), this book should be on your bookshelf and in your kitchen. The garlic, honey, rosemary roasted chicken pieces (p.76) has become a firm favourite in our house, and I have made the rhubarb and vanilla jam (p.157) about four times!

Home by Stephanie Alexander - This book really does what the title says, it feels homely and comforting. I really like Stephanie’s writing in this book, and the book is a mix of recipes with shorter and extended written pieces. I am rather ashamed to say this is the first book I own from Stephanie Alexander (please don’t judge me!), I know so many who consider her book The Cook’s Companion a staple in their kitchen. However, if you are now beyond the basics, I think Home is an excellent place to begin your Stephanie Alexander collection.

Middle Eastern Sweets by Salma Hage - I bought this book after someone recommended it to me. It was on my wish list, and it seemed all I needed was a small nudge to purchase! I love the flavours that are traditionally used in Middle Eastern sweets, such as rose, pistachio, dates etc, so I knew I would like this book. The recipes by Salma have been influenced by her family and upbringing in Lebanon, but also from the wider Middle East outside of Lebanon via Salma’s travels and food experiences over the years. There are so many things I want to try from this book, starting with the first recipe in the book for Barazek (Syrian Sesame and Pistachio Biscuits) on page 14. 

Advent by Anja Dunk - This book is filled with mostly sweet recipes that are enjoyed during the Christmas period in Germany. It’s interesting how different nations and cultures celebrate the festive season, and I am thoroughly enjoying learning more about how it’s done in Germany. I really like the design of the book, and the linocut prints that separate the chapters also created by Anja. There are now quite a few recipes I will need to add to my list for Christmas 2022, though I may not be able to wait that long!

Istria by Paola Bacchia - This book fascinated me as soon as I came across the preorder listing online. The area of Istria that, with the changeable land borders over history, has encapsulated parts of Italy, Solvenia, Austria and Croatia. Istria was an area I had not heard of and instantly wanted to know more about. This book is based on the recipes and stories of Paola’s father who was Istrian, and it’s filled with family history and thoughtful memories. The recipes have an Italian vibe, but with distinct influences from Austria, Solvenia and Croatia making the Istrian cuisine quite unique.