Classic Carrot and Pineapple Cake, perfect for a Springtime celebration or just anytime

 

Look carefully, as yes there is a delicious Carrot and Pineapple Cake hiding under all of the edible flowers, fruit, foliage and cream cheese icing. Let's celebrate the arrival of Spring in the Southern Hemisphere on the 1st September, with cake, dressed up in time for the Spring carnival. It seems like Spring here already, with the warmer weather, hence I am sharing this with you a few days early.

Peach and Sour Cream Cake

This really is the perfect afternoon tea cake to eat with Chantilly Cream, and is also suitable as a luscious dessert served with Crème Diplomat. You could say I'm feeling peachy that I persevered and that after two baking sessions I baked this cake to my complete satisfaction. The cooking notes below will give you some explanation of what happened with the first attempt, but I was over the moon that this cake was absolutely delicious after I made a couple of changes to the original recipe. 

Nigella's Apricot Almond Cake with Rosewater and Pistachio

There's only one Nigella Lawson, and this delicious, fragrant and beguiling cake is one of my all time favourites of her many cakes. With the apricots shining like jewels on the surface along with the chopped Pistachios, and the beautiful flavours of Rosewater and Cardamon within, this cake could proudly be served as the finishing touch to a Middle Eastern Banquet, or as an afternoon tea treat.

Coffee and Walnut Streusel Cake with French Coffee Buttercream

This Coffee Sponge Cake has two delicious toppings, a crunchy walnut streusel and a coffee buttercream. The toppings join the two sponge layers and ice the top cake as well, so really that is four layers of toppings, bliss. Toppings like this should be mandatory for all coffee cakes. This was our very special Easter cake.

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.

Nostalgic six minute Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake

 

This classic Apple Tea Cake was perfect to bake one wet weekend, and is a cake I've been meaning to make again for quite a while. It doesn't need to be raining either by the way to bake this one. Tea cakes are meant to be made very quickly, in 6 minutes in fact, when visitors are on the way, popped into the oven for 30 minutes and be ready to enjoy with them while still warm. Once again, apple and cinnamon are an amazing combination. If you have apples in your crisper, this cake isn't far away.

Chai-spiced Pear Cake

Emelia Jackson in her latest book, "First, cream the butter and the sugar" has developed this glorious chai tea flavoured cake, it's a Chai spiced Pear Cake. It's absolutely delicious with a very tender crumb, and was a pleasure to make this week. I'm delighted to be able to share the cake making process with you, at last. Thanks Emelia.

Carrot Cake and Cream Cheese Bundt with Lemon drizzle icing

This Cream Cheese Carrot Bundt Cake designed by Donna Hay, is filled with an irresistible cream cheese frosting, the same frosting which is generally reserved for icing the cake with and which everyone loves. Instead, we have baked it in the middle of the cake, where it transforms into the dreamiest, lemony cheesecake filling. Combined with sweet, grated carrot and chopped pecans or walnuts, and generously spiced with ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, this cake will also make a delicious dessert. 

Orange and Lemon Syrup Cake

 

A luscious orange syrup drizzled cake is perfect just served with a dollop of thick yoghurt. The sweet, sour, and refreshing flavour of fresh citrus fruits absolutely infuses this cake.  These are the flavours of our Summer and will brighten up any Winter blues in the Northern Hemisphere as well. This cake is happiness on a plate. Why not bake it this weekend?

In My Kitchen February 2024

January has flown by, and now I am mentally collecting inspiration for cooking events for February. We are still experiencing the peak of the tropical heat of Summer here, and this determines a lot of what I am preparing and cooking. However, let's start on a sweet note and there a few recipes in this post that I haven't yet shared with you. 

Lemon and Blueberry Yoghurt cake

 Lemon and blueberry yoghurt loaf cake can be the sweet and tangy ending to a meal, served warm with yoghurt, blueberries and a drizzle of honey, or served as the sweet component of a morning or afternoon tea with lemon icing or a dusting of icing sugar. It's versatile and delicious.

Spiced Pumpkin, Orange and Prune Cake

 
This cake is full of golden pumpkin, aromatic spices, orange juice and half a cup of our home produced honey. Whilst we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving here in Queensland, we are planning for Christmas already, and we know that it will be Thanksgiving in the Northern Hemisphere very soon. This cake will be nice and comforting to bake and have on hand as part of the Thanksgiving celebrations. The aromatic spices combined with orange juice and honey are wonderful flavour enhancers in this cake, and nobody will even guess that the cake contains pumpkin, well perhaps at Thanksgiving the adults will, but the children won't. Pumpkin is such a versatile vegetable.

Rhubarb, Meringue and Almond Celebration cake

Just Sweet Talking about Rhubarb

My Rhubarb, Meringue and Almond cake just out of the oven

This is a really delicious German cake with layers of rhubarb, ground almonds and meringue, and I urge you to bake it. Rhubarb, a very inconsequential yet colourful stalk before it is cooked, almost a red celery look alike, comes into its own in desserts, and when this cake is served by the slice, the rhubarb provides colour and it's wonderfully unique flavour. 

Very Smart Strawberry Streusel Cake

 

A highlight of my sweets baking recently is this very smart Nigella Lawson Strawberry Streusel cake, marbled with beautiful strawberry puree,  a combination of fresh strawberries and strawberry jam.  Why is this recipe very smart? Because besides the very easy strawberry layer, one dough does double the work, it becomes the cake batter and the streusel. This isn't the kind of cake that I would tackle at the end of a long day at the office. This cake requires a calm mind with my favourite music playing in the background, a clear head,  and plenty of time at my disposal. Cooler weather also helps to keep the butter chilled. Whilst strawberries are in season, this cake will be on rotation in my kitchen and will be quite simple to make next time. I can't wait. This recipe was also featured in the New York Times.

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

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Coffee Buttercream

"If the answer is chocolate, who cares what the question is."

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Coffee Buttercream

I'm in "Chocolate Heaven" with this cake. I might have mentioned previously that I've been working through chocolate cake recipes in my quest to find what I think is the perfect chocolate cake for all occasions, my go-to no fuss chocolate fudge cake, my signature cake. This is it for now, my perfect chocolate cake. MasterChef Winner Emelia Jackson says that this cake will always produce the same amazing result, whether it be for a birthday party, or a casual get together with friends where dessert is required, just decorate it accordingly. Dress it up with a heavenly ganache or go simple with a dusting of cocoa or icing sugar, and a serving of cream. Bake it into cupcakes, use it in a trifle, loaf cakes, there is no limit to how you can bake it or use it. Instant coffee is the secret weapon in this cake, it enhances the flavour of the chocolate without adding its own coffee flavour. I also like that there's no melted dark or milk chocolate in this cake batter, just rich, dark Dutch cocoa.

I have been debating whether or not to post this recipe just yet as there is another buttercream that I would like to fill and cover this cake with, and hopefully that is coming when the weather continues to cool down. I'll let you know when that happens, because Emelia's Malted Buttercream that I'm talking about looks like a real showstopper for a special occasion. This cake recipe is extracted from "First Cream the Butter and Sugar", by Emilia Jackson, and I can't wait to try some more of her recipes, because I love this cake. Needless to say, I couldn't wait and had to share the recipe with you.

Mahjong table setup in the air-conditioning and waiting for my Mahjong friends to arrive.

I chose to make Nigella Lawson's Coffee Buttercream this time because I love it, and I've made it before with a different chocolate cake recipe. I was in a bit of a rush because I'd made this cake for the Mahjong afternoon tea at home, it comes around quickly, and I wanted a buttercream that I could depend on when made in advance. Even though the air-conditioning was on at home the day I iced this cake, there were a lot of other things going on around me. Aren't there always though?

Ingredients:

Makes a 20 cm two tier cake 

380 g light brown sugar

250 g cake flour (store bought or see tip below for making your own)

100 dark Dutch cocoa powder (I used Plaistowe premium Dutch processed from Woolworths)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon fine salt

2 teaspoons instant coffee powder

200 ml boiling water

100 ml neutral-flavoured oil, such as vegetable or canola

200 g sour cream

4 eggs

chocolate shavings to garnish (optional)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160 deg. C (140 deg. C fan forced)

Line two 20 cm round cake tins with baking paper

Whisk the brown sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt to ensure that there are no lumps. (No need to sift)

Dissolve the coffee in the boiling water in a largish jug, then add the oil, sour cream and eggs and whisk until thoroughly combined. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. Fold until just combined. We want a lovely tender cake, with a good crumb, overmixing will prevent this from happening.

Split the batter between the cake tins and bake for 50 minutes. This was perfect for my oven but test it with a skewer inserted into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked.

Leave the cakes to cool for 15 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Pauline's baking notes:

Adding coffee to the cake batter enhances the flavour of the chocolate. You can't taste the coffee.

What I also love about this cake is that it doesn't sink in the middle as some do.

Cake flour: After making this cake, I am really on board with using cake flour, for a superior and tender cake crumb. Cake flour is a low protein flour that creates a very tender fluffy and light cake. You can make your own. Just measure out 430 g plain flour, then add 70 g corn flour and sift together. By adding the corn flour, the gluten content in the plain flour is reduced from 11 per cent to between 7 and 9 per cent. (Emelia Jackson). I've started making it in a large batch so I am always prepared for a cake making session.

For medical reasons the only nuts I eat now are walnuts as they are the softest nut, so I didn't add any chopped nuts to the photo of the cake. However, it looks and tastes lovely with chopped pistachios on top of the buttercream.

Nigella Lawson's coffee buttercream

Generally, when I make icing for a cake, I just do it the traditional way as I have always done and add the ingredients until it looks, feels and tastes right. However luscious Buttercream is a different story so I followed this recipe.

Ingredients:

350g icing sugar.
175g soft Unsalted Butter. softened
Instant Espresso Coffee Powder, 2 1/2 teaspoons, dissolved in 1 x 15ml tablespoons just-boiled water
(All of my tablespoon measurements are 20ml and that is what I probably used in this recipe with no problems)
This icing is a cinch to make in a food processor. Because it is warmer and more humid where I live than where this recipe was probable tested, I thought I might have problems with the icing melting all over the cake, but it held its consistency beautifully.

Method:

• Pulse the icing sugar in your food processor a few times to remove any lumps but make sure the feeding funnel on the lid is covered so that icing dust doesn't fly everywhere:)
• Add the softened butter and blitz to mix, scraping down the bowl once or twice.
• With the motor running again, pour the coffee down the funnel of the processor and quickly blitz. Remove the blade carefully and scrape down the blade with a spatula.
• Place one of the cakes on a serving plate or stand, flat side up. It is probably better to place the highest cake as the base. Spread the lower layer generously with half the coffee butter cream, then make a sandwich with the second layer, with the top of the cake facing upwards.
• Pile the rest of the buttercream on top and use a wide icing knife or spatula to spread the icing, over the cake. Nigella uses the word "swirlingly" to describe this technique which I love.

The bottom layer of the Chocolate Fudge Cake is iced. 

One iced layer of the cake might be enough for morning or afternoon tea, so sometimes with a double layer cake I freeze one of the layers for another occasion.

This is a different chocolate cake recipe that I made a few years ago when I used the Coffee buttercream as well.

Cake bakers say that money can't buy happiness, but a divine chocolate cake can. Decorate as you wish. I sometimes use smashed pistachio nuts, or you could use chocolate covered coffee beans as Nigella Lawson did or white chocolate buttons for contrast. It is your choice.  There is so much to choose from.

I think I need to tell you all that I'm not a chocaholic, in fact I rarely eat chocolate at all, however I love a delicious chocolate cake. How about you?

Warm wishes, 

Pauline

In My Kitchen, March 2023

February has always had a special zing to it for me because it's my birthday month. I mightn't feel a day over 25, but I hope that I am a lot wiser than I was back then. My friends really spoiled me this year with beautiful birthday cakes. Jennifer arrived for dinner one night just before my birthday when husband P was away, with a dozen beautiful Butterfly Cakes which she had made that day, which are nostalgically reminiscent to me of school fetes, church fetes, and splendid old fashioned afternoon teas. I was so appreciative as there is quite a lot of fiddly work involved with these. Each cake either had homemade strawberry jam or lemon curd dolloped into the middle under the cream. I froze a few of them, and they kept beautifully in the freezer. We've eaten them all now. Gosh they were so good.  I'll bake some one day and share the recipe with you. Thanks so much Jen, you are a very thoughtful friend.

Perfect with a cuppa

Chris, my dear friend of many years and who lives nearby, was hosting Mahjong on the Tuesday afternoon after my birthday and baked this spectacular Sponge cake, with a candle on top as well. Three of us share a birthday during the same week in February, so that's three Aquarians in the one group, that means a lot of laughter and chatter. 

The cake was absolutely divine. What is it about a sponge cake with lots of cream and fresh strawberries that sets it apart from most other cakes. If you look closely you can see a few Mahjong tiles to the right of the photo. It was so lovely to eat birthday cake for afternoon tea which someone else had made for me. I was very spoiled.

Before my birthday I made a Pear, Chocolate and Walnut cake for friends, which would also be perfect for dessert, as Mr. HRK keeps reminding me. Surprisingly though he said he would prefer sultanas instead of the Chocolate chips in it. He never ceases to amaze me. What would you prefer?

I had some homemade Scottish Shortbread leftover from the February Book club meeting which was here at home, so I added a piece to the slice of Pear cake on the plate. The rich red flowers are edible Dianthus from our garden. They've been growing for a couple of years now which has really surprised me.

Corella pears were perfect in the cake

I bought a new Zyliss brand Apple Corer and used it to core the pears for this cake. I originally bought it for apples and it is fantastic to use. So much stronger than any others I have ever had. I've broken a few apple corers over the years. It was a little bit more expensive, but it does the job, and it even has a lock on it to lock in place the moving parts. It removes and discards the cores beautifully. 

This cute tea towel says it all, except perhaps that I also need a great kitchen, and lovely family and friends.

Not surprisingly, we were all caked out for a week or so after my birthday, but I've managed to bounce back well, hee, hee. Continuing on with the sweet theme, I made French Style Pears as baked in Savoie.  The pears were absolutely delicious. Mr. HRK was over the moon about them and I have more pears in the crisper of the refrigerator so that they keep crisp enough for this dessert later in the week. The pears were baked in a luscious syrup, minus any alcohol. Honestly they didn't need it. Remnants of the Vanilla pod can be seen in the photo.

I've just pickled some beetroot. The flavour and colour of beetroot pickled at home is much more intense than what we can buy in a tin.

Four large beetroot made two large jars of pickled beetroot, one of beetroot wedges and the other sliced. The slices will be perfect for sandwiches and burgers.

A fun tea towel gift from special friends. They know me well.

I also feel quite blessed that one of my Cattleya Bowringiana orchids was out in bloom for my birthday. The two in the photo flowered slightly later and I can see them from my kitchen window which is lovely. I started off with one pot of these Bowringianas from my Mum in Rockhampton over 15 years ago and now I have 4, and I've given some plants away as well. They always herald the beginning of Autumn for me. 

I just love this tea towel which my daughter bought for me recently during a wonderful holiday we all had up at O'Reilly's Resort, in the Lamington National Park. The birdlife there was just phenomenal. I keep meaning to frame or hang this tea towel. The beautiful King Parrots were feeding out of our hands on the patio of our "Glamping" tent.

I baked some Cheesy Broccoli Fritters which were delicious on a meat free day.

A traybake of Moroccan Baked Chicken with Fennel and Chickpeas was healthy, tasty and very easy to put together.

Coriander Pesto and Pea and Sorghum Spaghetti was a delicious and very different midweek meal to make. My interest in using sorghum products for cooking was piqued during a recent road trip along the Burnett Highway, an inland rural highway in Queensland, where the broad acre agricultural fields were mostly rust, orange or red sorghum. Sorghum in general has a diversity of uses, from livestock cattle feed to human food, so I was interested to see this sorghum spaghetti in the fruit and vegetable shop, even though the country of origin isn't Australia, but Bolivia in South America. In Bolivia they grow organic white sorghum for flour.

Freshly washed coriander for the pasta.

Savoury Yeast flakes replaced cheese in the Sorghum Spaghetti recipe which was interesting. I've never used it before. Now I need to find a way to use the rest of it.

There are just so many ways to use Pomegranate syrup, and the sweet variety was delicious on cooked barley that we ate with my Moroccan Baked Chicken.

This is my March 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, mainly food ingredients, but I love cooking and baking. 

I hope you have enjoyed a visit to my kitchen this month. Cheerio.

Warm wishes

Pauline