Zucchini and Lemon Cake with Sugar Frosting

I've been wanting to try my hand at a courgette (sorry zucchini) and lemon cake for ages, but have always been tempted with other things or not had the correct ingredients available. Well this week I set off to make such a cake, my first hurdle was finding the correct recipe. I wanted a cake which wold be fresh with plenty of lemon and has the kind of topping which crunches under your bite.

Nothing, I cold find really was just what I was looking for and then I stumbled upon David Lebovitz blog and decided to use his recipe as my base. In fact it was not his recipe but one he had adapted from Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the babbo kitchen.

The Recipe - Zucchini Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze from David lebovitz
For the cake:
1 cup (135g) almonds, pecans, or walnuts, toasted (I used walnuts)
2 cups (280g) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 3/4 (350g) cups sugar (I reduced this to 270g as I tought it looked like it might be a little too sweet)1 cup (250ml) extra-virgin olive oil (I used 50% olive oil, 50% walnut oil)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups (300g) finely grated zucchini
For the lemon glaze:
1/4 cup (60ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup (65g) granulated sugar
1 cup (140g) powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
I also added the zest of a lemon to the cake mixture for extra zing

The Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease a 10 cup (2.5l) bundt or tube cake pan* with non-stick spray or butter, dust with flour, then tap out any excess.
2. Pulse the nuts in a food processor until finely chopped.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs, 1 3/4 cup (350g) sugar, and olive oil for 3 minutes on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Stop and scrape down the sides of the mixer, then add the vanilla.
5. Mix in the dry ingredients, scraping down the sides of the mixer bowl to make sure everything is mixed in well, then beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.
6. Stir in the chopped nuts and zucchini, this is when I add the lemon zest as well.
7. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan, smooth the top, then bake the cake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the cake has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan.
8. During the last few minutes of the cake baking, make the glaze by whisking together the lemon juice, 1/3 cup (65g) granulated sugar, and powdered sugar.
9. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes, then carefully invert it onto a cooling rack. Brush the glaze over the cake with a pastry brush and let the cake cool completely. 

This cake was amazing and everyone loved it. Fresh, moist and with a delicious crunchy glaze. I will definitely be making this cake again  and with all that zucchini I can also kid myself that this cake is healthy, surely it must count towards my five a day :)

Blood Orange Cake with Polenta and Rosemary

I've had many a chance to try orange and polenta cake at various different restaurants but have never been interested in trying any, so why this recipe caught my eye, I  have no idea, perhaps its was the blood orange factor as I have never made anything with blood orange or perhaps it was the addition of rosemary as I wanted to try this in a cake. I love the fresh taste of rosemary and was curious to find out what it tastes like in a sweet dish.

It was a bit of a mission to make this cake with all of the juicing and other steps, but resulted in a beautifully moist and fresh flavoured cake. the only thing I wasn't sure on was the syrup which you top the cake with as I think I reduced mine a little too much, as it didn't sink into the cake, rather sat on the top as a kind of glaze.

The Recipe - Blood Orange Cake with Polenta and Rosemary from the KitchenAid cookbook
2 blood oranges
6 eggs
250g sugar
125g polenta
125g ground almonds
2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
1 tbsp baking powder
fromage frais to serve

Honey Syrup
8-12 blood oranges
200ml acacia honey

The Method
Was the 2 oranges and place in a pan, cover with water and cook gently for 1 hour, or until the oranges are tender. Drain the oranges well, then halve them and remove any pips, Put the oranges in a blender and process at puree speed.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 20cm springform tin. Whisk the sugar and eggs in the mixer with the wire whisk on speed 6 until pale and thick. Change to the flat beater and mix in the orange puree on speed 2. Then mix in the polenta,  almonds, rosemary and baking powder. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until well-risen and firm to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin.

Meanwhile, make the honey syrup. Squeeze the blood oranges with the juicer on speed 6 until you obtain 400ml. Place in a pan with the honey and bring to the boil, then reduce to a syrup. Prick holes all over the surface of the cake with a skewer. Slowly pour over the syrup and leave to soak. Turn out the cake once all the syrup has been absorbed. Serve with fromage frais.

The cakes unusual flavour made you want to go back for more.

Melt and Mix Chocolate Cake

The lovely girls at work bought me a perfect gift for my birthday a new Chocolate cookbook!! Its called Chocolate a Fine Selection of Sweet Treats by Murdoch Books and I've been eager to try one of the beautifully laid out and photographed recipe's. As usual I spend more time trying to decide on what to bake than actually baking it. I decided on a cup cake recipe so that I could take it into work to share.

The Recipe - Melt and Mix Chocolate Cakes
Makes 12
150g unsalted butter, cubed
230g soft brown sugar
185ml freshly made espresso coffee
2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly whisked
125g self raising flour
30g plain flour
60g unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp bicarb of soda
icing sugar sifted for dusting

chocolate butter cream
250g icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
60g unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp hot water

The Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. line a 12 hole standard muffin tin with paper cases.

Combine the butter, sugar and coffee in a saucepan over a  medium heat. Stir until the butter has melted  and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Whisk the eggs into the butter mixture. In a separate bowl sift together the flours, cocoa and bicarb. Stir half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture until just combined. Add the remaining of the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Transfer the mixture to a jug and poor into the prepared tin. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer  comes out clean once inserted into the muffins. Allow the cakes to cool in the tin for 3 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the chocolate butter cream, place 125g of the icing sugar in a large bowl, add the cocoa and water and beat wit electric beaters until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the remaining sugar and beat until the butter cream is thick.

Spread the butter over the cooled cakes with a spatula or a flat bladed knife.

the un-iced cakes will store in a airtight container for up to 5 days or up to 2 once iced.

This recipe was dead simple, I love the kind of cakes  you can make in a pan, they always turn out alight and delicious and are not a problem when beating by hand like always used to.

Chocolate Balls of Goodness

For a treat over the weekend I asked my new hubby what he would like me to bake, he chose profiteroles so I used a cookbook he gave me for Christmas one year (Hotel Chocolat 101 Best Loved Chocolate Recipes) and made Terry Laybourne's Profiteroles with Hot Chocolate Sauce. It was a dead simple recipe with an impressive result.

The Recipe Terry Laybourne's Profiteroles with Hot Chocolate Sauce from Hotel Chocolat 101 Best Loved Chocolate Recipes

for the choux pastry

125ml water

125ml milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

100g unsalted butter

150g strong plain flour, sifted

4 eggs, beaten

for the filling

500ml vanilla or pistachio ice cream

for the chocolate sauce

100g dark chocolate

75ml milk

1 tbsp double cream

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp softened butter

The Method

To make the choux pastry, put the water, milk, salt, sugar and butter into a medium saucepan. Bring to the boil, take off the heat and immediately add all of the flour in one go, stirring well. return to the heat and beat vigorously until smooth. Continue cooking over a medium heat for a minute or two until the paste leaves the sides of the pan. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 3 minutes.

Weigh 200g of the beaten eggs. begin adding the egg to the mixture a little at a time, beating well between each addition. Once it is all incorporated, the choux pastry should be smooth, shiny and thick enough to pipe.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and grease a large baking tray. Put the choux pastry in a piping bag with a 12mm plain nozzle. Pipe 18 small mounds onto the baking tray, spacing them well apart. Bake for 10 minutes, lower the heat of the oven to 140 degrees C and bake for a further 20 minutes. transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For the sauce, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. put the cream, milk and sugar into a pan. Bring to the boil. pour onto the melted chocolate, stirring well. return to the pan and bring just back to boil, take off the heat and whisk in the butter. Keep warm.

To assemble cut each choux bun in half and return to the oven for 3 minutes. Divide the choux bases between serving plates , allowing 3 per portion. Put a ball of ice cream on each base and top with the lids. Spoon hot chocolate sauce over the profiteroles and serve immediately.

I actually used fresh cream instead of ice cream and the turned out beautiful, the sauce is rich and delicious. I will be making this one again. I made my profiteroles slightly smaller and got more like 30 out of them.

Granary, Honey and Walnut Bread

I've somewhat neglected my blog the last few weeks but within reason. My other half decided that whilst in England we should get married so in a hurried 12 days we organised a wedding in a castle for 60 guests. It was fantastic but quite a lot of organising and I am still in my happy post wedding bubble. To make things even better my new hubby bought me a KitchenAid and so today I had to try it out. I made Honey and Walnut bread from the KitchenAid cookbook.

The recipe - Granary, Honey and Walnut Bread by KitchenAid The Cookbook

150g walnuts

1kg granary flour

1 tsp salt

7g dried yeast

2tbsp walnut oil

5tbsp honey

525ml lukewarm water

makes 2 loaves, prep 15 mins, cook 2 hrs)

The Method

Toast and roughly chop the walnuts. Mix the flour, salt and yeast in the mixer with the flat head beater on speed 2. Mix together the walnut oil, honey and  water. Change to a dough hook and gradually mix in the water mixture to the flour mixture, knead for 1 minute on speed 2. Please the dough in a greased bowl and cover with oil. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Mix the walnuts into the dough with the dough hook on speed 1, continue kneading the dough for 1 minute. Add a little flour if the dough seems sticky. Divide the dough into 2 portions and place in a 1kg loaf tin and leave to rise for 1 hour, or until the dough has risen to the top of the tin.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C and bake the loaves for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 200 degrees C. Bake for a further 30 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the base. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

This recipe was really good, the bread was tasty, dense and nutty. It was a cold day in my house and I was too impatient to let my dough rise enough, I think this would have lead to a lighter airier bread. I would also use a little more salt and a little less honey in my next attempt, and there will be a next attempt as it's pretty tasty bread.