Pumpkin and Ginger Slab Cake

This delicious cake is full of rich golden pumpkin and aromatic spices and is a cake that will be perfect for your Easter table, to offset all of the other Easter treats coming your way. It is also a large mixture, which will last you throughout the entirety of the Easter holidays if kept refrigerated in a covered container.

Salmon, Spinach and Leek Quiche, it's low in calories and carbs and is delicious

This low calorie Salmon and Leek Quiche will be perfect to enjoy over Easter, to balance out all of the other delicious chocolate treats which will be on offer. It can be eaten hot from the oven with a large leafy salad,  or as a cold healthy lunch. You can also add some extra vegetables if you wish.

Easter Chocolate Fudge Cake with Malted Buttercream

This fudgy chocolate cake with a decadent Malted Buttercream icing is the real deal for an Easter extravagance. It's not too late, this cake doesn't take long to make. I've previously posted this Chocolate cake with Nigella's Coffee Buttercream, and because I am absolutely smitten with this cake, I am posting it again with the Malted Buttercream. 

In My Kitchen April, 2023

The Easter Long Weekend starts tomorrow, and as I write this, I am under the lifesaving ceiling fan, as the Northern tropical heat hasn't abated like it's supposed to over Easter. I am in beautiful Cairns, in Far North Queensland at our daughter's home, and I know there is lots of chocolate "hidden" in the refrigerator waiting for Easter Sunday to be enjoyed by all of us. I the Easter bunny coming to your house? Delicious chocolate goodies and Hot Cross Buns are the theme of foodies and food bloggers around the world leading up to Easter, there's so much Easter excitement. However, my go-to fudgy, double layered Chocolate Fudge Cake will be our baked chocolate indulgence of choice over Easter. It will be the third time I've baked this beauty over the last few weeks. Whether it's iced with Malted Buttercream, or with Nigella Lawson's Coffee buttercream, it's a winner. 

This is my April submission to the #IMK series hosted by the wonderful Sherry from Sherry's Pickings. Each month food bloggers from around the world gather to share what is new in their kitchen.  I don't buy a lot of new merchandise for my Kitchen, just mainly food ingredients, but I love cooking and baking. This is a sample of what I've been very happily cooking In My Kitchen.

Chocolate fudge Cake with Nigella Lawson's delicious Coffee Buttercream

Mr. HRK prefers Nigella's Coffee buttercream version for icing. I also love a chocolate cake with just the old-fashioned chocolate icing which is so easy and very heat tolerant. It was almost Death by Chocolate when I made the Malted Buttercream version of the Chocolate cake for Jenny's birthday recently, so delicious, chocolatey and fudgy, and slightly challenging to transport in the North Queensland heat but we made it. Buttercream needs to be refrigerated, so as soon as I iced this cake which is the photo at the top of this post, it was in our frig, and she stayed there until it was transported very carefully over to Jenny's refrigerator to be eaten for dessert that evening. Here's the link to the Chocolate Cake and Coffee Buttercream recipe, and I'll post the Malted Buttercream recipe shortly.

On a more Savoury note, I made these cheesy vegetable muffins four days ago and I am thrilled with them, not only for how they tasted when first baked, but how after being refrigerated for a few days and now being reheated in Cairns for morning tea they are still light and fluffy in texture and even more improved in flavour. If you take a look at the recipe, you will see the various vegetable combinations that are possible for these muffins.

I baked a few loaves of sourdough bread in the morning and made Herbed Mushrooms with Goats cheese for lunch which was delicious on toasted sourdough.

I found a silver Beetroot server when I was in Brisbane shopping at my favourite Antique shop in Annerley. It's perfectly designed for serving Pickled Beetroot allowing all the beetroot juices to drain through. Let's face it, beetroot juice can be very messy. Here's a batch of my Pickled beetroot which is infused with cinnamon. It was really tasty.

And on a cooler, rainy day at home I made chicken soup. Here's a photo of the stock in the soup pot.

I think of Boiled Fruit Cake as contingency baking. If there's a boiled fruit cake in the pantry or the refrigerator there's always cake on hand to have with a cuppa for surprise visitors. 

This Cherry and Brandy Fruit cake recipe makes two 20 cm cakes. One has travelled to Cairns with us, and the other one is in the refrigerator at home. It'll be there on our return. I've made this cake so many times, as whole round cakes and muffins, it's my friend Mr. P's Mothers recipe and is a real goody. 

Sometimes it's handy to have a retro recipe up your sleeve, and Salmon Rissoles or fishcakes are very retro, but these have a couple of optional surprise ingredients. Anyhow they were really good, coated in egg and breadcrumbs and pan fried and very crispy, what's not to love. Besides being tasty, retro food generally also stretches the budget, that's pretty important right now don't you think?

Those of you who know me well will be expecting a new Traybake in this edition. Here it is my friends, Moroccan Baked Chicken with Fennel and Chickpeas.  Very tasty.

Creamy French Tarragon Chicken transported me to France, which was my intention and this dish lived up to expectations. I'm hoping the airlines do the same for me in a couple of weeks. I'm off to France, to visit our son and my beautiful grandchildren, and hopefully sample some delicious French cuisine while I'm there. Did you know Cuisine is the French word for cooking? Seems obvious, doesn't it? 

Mr. HRK gave a couple of little visitors a tour of our beehive. They loved it, morning talk about bees coming up. We're hoping there will be fresh honey to harvest in Spring. Usually our bees are quite placid, no gloves needed, however they didn't appreciate being visited at 4 pm in the afternoon and were quite angry for some reason. Mr. HRK was stung twice, once on his face and on his hand. His hand really swelled up for a couple of days. Thankfully the girls were well covered and were standing right back from the hive. After all, bees are wild insects.

Gracing my daughter's dining area, is this newly acquired and endearing painting and drawing of an owl gifted to her for her birthday, by a talented friend. Aren't the eyes just full of so much expression? 

Mr. HRK picked these flowers from the garden this morning while he was pruning. Tropical flowers are just so colourful.

Hoping you have a very special, restful and meaningful Easter. Safe travels if you are travelling.

Warm wishes,

Pauline

The Freshest Coconut and Lime Ceviche for Easter

 

This Easter, if you like to enjoy Seafood on Good Friday as we do, why not make some   Ceviche for a seafood treat, it's fresh fish with a zing. Ceviche is typically made from very fresh raw fish which is "cooked" or cured in citrus juices such as lime or lemon. With other ingredients added such as fresh herbs and spices, it is a delicious, light and zingy starter for any meal, or can stand alone with a fresh salad as the delicious main meal. We used a very fresh fillet of Kingfish, about 500g, trimmed and cut into 1 cm cubes. The fillet needs to be at least 1 cm thick. However any firm white-fleshed fish could be used. With this recipe, the actual cooking of the fish is the easy part, as the acidulant in the lime juice  “cooks the raw fish.

Homemade Chocolate Ganache Cake

Over the Easter break the only kind of cake that I want to make is a chocolate cake, and with lots of icing. It was our lovely friend's birthday yesterday, which was also Easter Sunday, so for her birthday I made this rich, moist cake with luscious frosting which we all enjoyed  at home after lunch accompanied by Mr. HRK's special espresso coffee. This was my first attempt at making chocolate ganache. Normally I make traditional chocolate icing, but this was a birthday celebration and Easter Sunday as well, so I thought ganache would be quite  special. It's also nice to decorate chocolate cake with raspberries don't you think, however it's not essential. I also placed some chocolate coated ginger around the edge of the cake because the birthday girl loves ginger.

When I saw this recipe in Silvia Colloca's recipe book, Love Laugh Bake!, I was captivated and had to try it. I'm on a mission to find the best chocolate cake to add to my baking repertoire, and my friends it's tough going. This one just might be it, and would be fine served just with whipped cream, traditional icing or the ganache frosting from this recipe. It's a cinch to make, and whilst not every chocolate cake needs to have dark chocolate in it's list of ingredients, yes sometimes just good quality cocoa powder will do, I think that for an elegant touch, and one that warrants becoming an impressive birthday centrepiece, this rich, moist chocolate cake is a winner. 

Let's Bake:

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

 180 g  dark chocolate chips

200 g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the tin

250 g brown sugar

4 eggs

350 g (2 1/2 cups) self-raising flour, sifted (or plain flour + 5 teaspoons very fresh baking powder)

3 tablespoons Cocoa powder, sifted

200 ml buttermilk

125 g (1 cup) raspberries

Ganache Frosting

300 ml thickened cream

300 g milk chocolate chips

100 g dark chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat your oven to 160 deg. C. and grease and line a 22-23 cm round cake

Melting the chocolate and butter:

Select a medium sized pyrex bowl that fits over a saucepan ensuring there is no space between the bowl and the rim of the saucepan. Place the chocolate and butter in the pyrex bowl, set approx. 3 cm of water in the saucepan to simmer, and then place the bowl over the simmering water. The bowl mustn't come in contact with the water, and steam mustn't enter the bowl or the chocolate may separate. (Sorry to sound bossy about this but it has happened to me.) Set aside to cool.

Mix the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy using your electric mixer. 

Remove the bowl from the mixer. 

Sift the flour and cocoa together and add to the beaten egg mixture. Then add the buttermilk, and the cooled melted chocolate and fold this mixture to combine.

Pour the mixture into the lined baking tin and bake for 35-40 minutes. Just to be sure, test with a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked.

Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, and then ease onto a wire cooling rake to cool completely. Cut the cake in half horizontally using a serrated knife, so that it can be filled in the centre with ganache a bit later, but this isn't essential.

Making the Ganache:

Pour the cream into a small saucepan and bring to simmering point on a low heat, small bubbles will start appearing and light steam will rise from the cream. Remove from the heat, then add the chocolate to the saucepan and wait for it to melt into the warm cream. 

Whisk the mixture lightly until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl, cover very tightly with cling wrap and place in the refrigerator for 60 minutes to set to a spreadable consistency. If you leave the melted chocolate in the saucepan it will take longer to set. I left the ganache in the frig for a whole morning, and it was perfect to spread on the cake in the early afternoon. Mine took longer to set than 60 minutes. We are still experiencing humidity here so the ganache started to soften quickly after being removed from the frig. and was great to work with. 

If you have cut your cake into two halves, place the bottom layer on a cake stand cut side up. Spread one-third of the frosting onto it, and scatter with half of the raspberries. Place the top layer of the cake over the raspberries, and spread the frosting over the top and around the sides. Scatter the remaining raspberries over the top of the cake.

We don't buy each other Easter eggs or chocolates anymore at Easter time, especially when we have chocolate cake to look forward to. However we managed to have some chocolate eggs delivered to our grandchildren in the Falkland Islands as part of a special grocery hamper for our sons 40th birthday just before Easter.  They all loved it. More about that story later.

Mr. HRK and I  hope you have enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing Easter with family or friends or both, wherever you are. 

Warm wishes,

Pauline

 

Hot Smoked Salmon Kedgeree

 

On Sunday we ate this dish of hot smoked fish fillets and spiced rice for lunch, however it is also perfect eaten for breakfast with the addition of softish boiled eggs. Or you can take it up a notch for an easy Sunday night dinner by adding some thawed frozen peas, some more spice or curry powder if you like, and serve it with mango chutney or a relish. Easy peasy! It's a riff on my Friday Night Special, which is a family favourite, still very fishy, and is made on canned tuna or salmon. 

Gorgeous German Plum Cake

Ripe blood plums are in season at the moment, however in North Queensland unfortunately they aren't available for long.  Inspired by a delicious Plum cake we ate at the Groove cafe in Annerley on a visit to South Brisbane, and because I was entertaining my Mahjong friends who love a good cake, I made this very special plum cake. The recipe was originally created  by Stephanie Alexander, and she called it Mieze's Plum Cake, after a German friend of hers who introduced her to this cake. I think this would be a perfect cake to bake over Easter, for a special meal.

This is a large mixture, capable of serving 12 people for dessert, if it is baked in a 28 cm spring form tin. If you aren't feeding a crowd, just halve this recipe and use a smaller spring form tin.

The less cake mixture in the base the better, so only filling the cake tin a quarter full with the cake mixture is the preferable way to make the cake. It rises so well. I have also baked this in a smaller 23 cm tin and used the extra batter to bake a smaller cake for Mr. HRK. That kept him happy until the other one was served up a day later.

Ingredients:

275 g softened butter
250 g sugar
200 g plain flour
200 g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
100 ml milk
1 cup ground almonds or fresh breadcrumbs
20 ripe blood plums, halved and stoned

TOPPING

125 g butter
200 g sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 180 deg C and lightly grease a 28 cm spring form tin. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in flours and salt. Add eggs and milk to make a soft dough ( the mixture should drop easily from the spoon.) Spoon batter into prepared tin (it should not fill more than a quarter of the depth of the tin as the cake rises a great deal) then sprinkle over the ground almonds. Arrange the plums, cut-side up, on top,starting around outside edge and working towards centre. (Have one yourself as they are delicious.)

To make the topping, melt the butter and stir in the sugar and cinnamon, then allow to cool. Whisk eggs well and stir into cooled butter mixture. Spoon over and around plums on top of cake. Bake for 1 hour, and test with a skewer that the cake is cooked in the centre.

Serve warm with cream or ice-cream. Any leftover cake can be warmed up, wrapped in foil in the oven at 180 deg. C for 15 minutes. There won't be much left over though, I assure you.

Thanks Stephanie Alexander, this is a brilliant recipe.

Best wishes

Pauline

Reviving the Prawn Cocktail, drizzled with Marie Rose Sauce

  When done right, a Prawn Cocktail is the perfect starter for Christmas lunch or dinner, Good Friday seafood brunch,  or just anytime. Combining a delicious seafood sauce named Marie Rose with a small salad of crunchy Iceberg or Gem lettuce, might be a bit retro from the 1970's, but it is still one of the most delicious ways to serve freshly cooked prawns, or rock lobster, a perfect Summer starter. 

Happy Easter to all my Friends and Family Far and Near

Happy Easter everyone, wishing you peace, love and happiness.

Life seems to have been pretty busy in our neck of the woods. How about you?

The bees continue to thrive and Mr. HRK is feeding them their sugar and water syrup every few days to keep their energy levels in top gear. It is heart warming and reassuring to see them flying around and feeding from the flowers and bushes in our  garden, but they are also flying off early each morning in search of the local flowering native trees. That's where the real magic happens.

We were invited to a beautiful 40th birthday party lunch, on Thursday at the Ocean International Hotel in Mackay and this was the birthday cheesecake and dessert. I thought it looked amazing, but it tasted even better. The fresh mint was a nice touch. Local tropical bougainvillea in flower just set off the visual effect perfectly.

Mr. HRK, whilst a guest,  was also part of the entertainment for the birthday party, and here he is second from left, next to Bill, our host and the Harmonica player, strumming his guitar. Everyone enjoyed a good old fashioned sing song, song sheets with the words were provided.

We have been conducting an experiment over the last week with two of our home grown vanilla beans. The yellow one was ready to harvest, but was the only one, so I also picked a green one from the vine to see if I could also ripen it by the sun and sweating method, although most of the articles I have read about it suggest that they can't be ripened effectively unless they are turning slightly yellow at the tips or on the bean when picked. The difficulty being that with a small crop of vanilla beans they aren't all going to ripen at the same time, are they?

Below is a photo 7 days later, of the beans after being left out in the sun for four hours a day, and brought inside to sweat overnight in an esky.The lower one is ready I think and just needs to be aired now for a couple of weeks. It possibly had a little bit too much sun. The top one seems to be browning so perhaps it will be ok as well, however it doesn't have the full vanilla aroma that the darker one has. If anyone has any experience with curing vanilla beans I would love to hear from you, but I have learned a lot just with this simple experiment.

We have been spending sometime in the garden over the Easter break, there are always enjoyable things to do. It rained this morning and that is perfectly timed as we have just planted some radish seedlings and alyssum seeds. The next one on the list are silver beet seedlings. Other areas of the garden were looking a bit dry, so there is no need to water now.

I have also been enjoying doing some reading, and planning some sewing and doing some decluttering.

There is a large pot of homemade chicken soup on the stove, I made the stock yesterday,  so that will be a delicious, easy and nutritious meal for our dinner. I hope you have enjoyed a relaxing time over the break.

Happy Easter and thanks for dropping by.


Pauline