lime yoghurt and raspberry bundt cake

lime yoghurt and raspberry bundt cake

25 Aug 2024

This cake wasn't on my list of things to bake until I saw an episode of the Cook-Up which featured Natalie Paull. Natalie made a one bowl lime yoghurt and blueberry cake and she used cake goop to grease the bundt tin. Whilst I'd heard about goop, I'd not used it before.

I decided to make some cake goop with which to grease my bundt tin. I adjusted the recipe a little to fit my 5 cup tin; swapped the blueberries for raspberries, which is what I had in my freezer, visited 5 fruit shops trying to find some limes and once that was done, away I went.

To say I was disappointed with the cake goop was an understatement. I use this bundt tin all the time and when I butter and flour the tin, the cake always comes out cleanly. When I used the cake goop, the top layer of cake and quite a few raspberries were left in the tin. I reattached the still warm raspberries to the cake and as I'd always planned to ice the cake I knew the icing would cover up a multitude of sins. Next time I make a bundt cake though, I'll go back to my tried and true method.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes a small 5 cup bundt cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. The cake keeps well but the icing doesn't, so if you decide to ice the cake I would ice the cake an hour or so before serving.

Lime, yoghurt and raspberry bundt cake – Natalie Paull
Ingredients
50g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
50g vegetable oil
1-2 limes, finely zested
30g lime juice
150g Greek yoghurt, room temperature 
75g whole egg, unshelled (approx 1 and 1/2 )
180g caster sugar
160g self-raising flour
pinch fine sea salt
85g frozen raspberries

icing sugar (to dust)

Cake goop
10g butter, very soft
10g vegetable oil
10g plain flour

Lime icing (optional)

75g sifted icing sugar

pinch sea salt

1-2 tbs lime juice

To decorate (optional)

2 tbs freeze dried raspberries

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. To make the cake goop, in a medium bowl, blend the ingredients together to form a smooth paste, then brush the inside of a 5-cup bundt tin with the goop mixture.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the melted butter, oil, lime zest, juice, yoghurt, egg and sugar until well combined. Sift over the flour (reserve 1 tbsp for later), then whisk well with the salt. In a medium bowl, toss the raspberries lightly with the reserved flour (this will prevent them from sinking to the base of the cake), then add to the batter and gently fold through until just combined. Transfer the cake mixture to the prepared cake tin and place on the centre rack of the preheated 170°C, conventional oven.

Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a skewer comes out with a few crumbs (or 95- 98˚C internal with a digital thermometer). Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes before unmoulding (this reduces the chance for the cake to collapse or crumble when released!). When ready to remove the cake, invert the tin and tap it sharply onto a serving plate. When completely cold either drizzle the cake with lime icing or just before serving, dust with icing sugar.

Lime icing

Mix the icing sugar with a pinch of salt then add enough lime juice to form a very thick but pourable glaze. Pour the icing onto the top of the cake and use a spoon to tease it over the edges so it drips down the side. Allow the icing to set a little before decorating with a few freeze dried raspberries.

Thankfully the cake tasted great despite the cake goop debacle but whilst making it, I had a sense of deja vue. The cake felt very familiar and when I looked back through the archives I'd made a whole blood orange and olive oil cake a few years ago, using the same one bowl method and the same very new and shiny bundt tin. Now I'm tempted to adapt that version, so watch this space.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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lemon almond poppyseed loaf

lemon almond poppyseed loaf

18 Aug 2024

A few weeks ago while I was grating some cheese, a small piece of plastic broke off the lid of my elderly food processor and without it, my food processor wouldn't work. As the food processor was so old, spare parts were no longer available so off I went to the shops to buy a new one, with a tape measure in hand because the food processor needed to fit into a kitchen cupboard. In the end only 2 food processors would fit the cupboard dimensions so I went with the most powerful model I could find. 

The food processor has been in the cupboard for a few weeks now and when the time came to take her on her maiden voyage, what was I to make? I decided to make a lemon almond poppyseed cake and used the food processor to make some almond paste. Almond paste is tricky to find in the shops and if you buy it online, the cost of the delivery is greater than the price of the goods. It's very easy to make in a food processor so after I figured how to get the lid on and off my new machine, 2 minutes later I had almond paste.

This recipe is adapted from the Crystal Almond Pound Cake recipe by Flo Braker, from her book The Simple Art of Perfect Baking. The recipe then reappeared in the Tartine Cookbook by Liz Prueitt and popped up again on Edd Kimber's blog. This version is closer to Edd Kimber's reimagining of the cake. Edd swapped the crunchy sugar glaze for a simple lemon syrup, iced the cake with lemon glace icing before topping it with candied lemon peel and a few poppyseeds. The finished cake looked so good, I decided to do exactly the same thing.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a small loaf cake and I used a 4 x 9 inch tin. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Lemon almond poppyseed loaf - makes 1 small loaf cake and the recipe uses 3 lemons

Cake

65g plain flour, sifted (plus some for preparing the pan)

½ tsp baking powder
pinch salt

135g almond paste, at room temperature
135g caster sugar
150g unsalted butter, at room temperature (plus some for preparing the pan)
3½ eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 lemons, rind grated
14g poppy seeds (plus extra for decoration)

Lemon Glaze
75g lemon juice (the juice of 2 lemons)
75g caster sugar

Candied Lemon Peel
1 small lemon
¼ cup (55g) caster sugar, plus extra, for dusting
¼ cup (60mls) water

Lemon Icing
100g icing sugar, sifted
pinch of salt
juice of 1 lemon

Candied Lemon Peel
Remove the zest in wide strips from the lemon, making sure there is none of the bitter white pith attached. Slice it into very fine strips. Drop the strips into a saucepan of boiling water and leave them for 30 seconds, then drain them in a sieve.
 
Place sugar and water into a small saucepan. Heat over high heat, stirring all the while until the sugar has dissolved. As soon as it has, stop stirring and bring the mixture to the boil. Tip in the drained lemon zest strips and reduce the heat to low so the syrup bubbles gently. Cook the zest strips for 10 minutes, then remove the saucepan from the heat and leave them so cool in the syrup. Once cool, drain them through the sieve again.
 
When the zest is well drained, tip some caster sugar onto a plate and toss the strips of zest they’re coated in the sugar. Lay them onto a sheet of baking paper to set- they don't become brittle but remain pliable. Use them as you need them and store any leftover strips in a small airtight container at room temperature for up to a week
 
Cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Lightly grease and line a small rectangular loaf pan with baking paper.
 
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, combine the eggs and vanilla and whisk together just to combine.
 
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the almond paste on low speed until it breaks up. This can take up to a minute, depending on how soft and warm it is. Slowly add the sugar in a steady stream, beating until incorporated. If you add the sugar too quickly, the paste won’t break up as well.
 
Cut the butter into 1-tablespoon pieces. Continue on low speed while adding the butter, a tablespoon at a time, for about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Then turn on the mixer to medium speed and beat until the mixture is light in colour and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. With the mixer still on medium speed, add the eggs in a very slow, steady stream and mix until incorporated. Stop the mixer and again scrape down the sides of the bowl. Turn on the mixer again to medium speed and mix for 30 seconds more.

 
Add the lemon rind and the poppyseeds and mix in with a wooden spoon. Add the flour mixture in two batches, stirring after each addition until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl one last time, then spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with an offset spatula.
 
Bake on the centre rack of the preheated 180°C, conventional oven until the top springs back when lightly touched and a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes while you make the glaze.

 
Glaze
Add the lemon juice and sugar to a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat for a couple minutes until the juice has come to a simmer and the sugar has dissolved. Turn off the heat and set aside.
 
Carefully turn the cake out onto a wire rack set over a sheet pan or a piece of greaseproof paper. Brush the syrup all over the top and sides of the cake. Allow the cake to cool completely on the rack. The cake breaks apart easily when warm, so don’t attempt to move it.

Icing
Mix the icing sugar with a pinch of salt then add enough lemon juice to form a very thick but pourable glaze. Pour the icing onto the top of the cake and use a spoon to tease it over the edges so it drips down the side. Top the cake with some of the candied peel then finish with a little sprinkling of poppy seeds. Let the icing set before serving. Kept covered, this cake keeps particularly well, at least 4 days.

I took the cake into work and it was gobbled up in a trice. Edd also made a blood orange version and, now that blood oranges have appeared in the shops, I think I'll do the same. Maybe I'll do the crunchy glaze next time.

Look at that perfect crumb!

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen. 

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate buttermilk layer cake

chocolate buttermilk layer cake

12 Aug 2024

My next door neighbour, Minnie, recently celebrated a birthday. Now Minnie is the neighbour that doesn't like fruit, so I knew her birthday cake had to be a chocolate cake. As you know, I am not much of a chocolate cake fan, hence the large number of chocolate cakes I've made in an effort to find 'the one'. This time I made a version of Claire Saffitz's chocolate buttermilk cake, which I topped with my own chocolate cream cheese icing.

We've been experiencing a polar blast in Sydney recently, so I had all kinds of trouble making the icing in my unheated flat. The melted chocolate hardened whilst I was whipping the cream cheese; then the remelted chocolate hardened during the mixing process making a kind of chocolate chip version of the cream cheese icing, which though tasty, wasn't my goal. In the end I gave up and went with what I had and iced the cake with it's slightly lumpy icing.

The cake you see had been at room temperature for more than an hour, but it was still pretty firm when I sliced it. Look at those layers though!

Here's the recipe for you adapted from a Claire Saffitz recipe which makes a 3 tier 16cm layer cake. It will also make a 2 layer 17cm cake but it will take a little longer to cook and you won't need all the icing. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate Buttermilk Layer Cake 
Cake 
150g plain flour 
1 tsp baking powder 
Pinch sea salt flakes
1 tsp bicarb soda
85g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped 
1 teaspoon instant coffee dissolved in 60mls water
25g Dutch process cocoa powder 
80g buttermilk at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
85g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar 
30g vegetable oil

1 egg and 1 yolk at room temperature

Icing
115g dark chocolate, broken into pieces 
30g Dutch cocoa powder, sifted
150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150g pure icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g cream cheese, at room temperature

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and flour three 16cm cake tins and line the bases with baking paper, smoothing to eliminate air bubbles. Set the pans aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and bicarb soda and set aside.

In a separate heatproof bowl, combine the chopped chocolate, coffee, and cocoa powder. Set the bowl over a medium saucepan filled with about 1 inch of simmering (not boiling) water and heat, whisking occasionally, until the chocolate is melted, and the mixture is completely smooth. You can also do this step in the microwave oven. Remove from the heat and whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla. Set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, caster sugar, brown sugar and oil and beat on low speed until smooth. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat, scraping down the sides once or twice, until the mixture is very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Reduce the mixer speed to medium and add the egg, followed by the yolk beating well after each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides. Add about one-third of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the flour has almost disappeared. Add half of the cooled chocolate mixture, mixing just until incorporated, then add the remaining flour in 2 additions, alternating with the remaining chocolate mixture. When the last traces of flour disappear, stop the mixer and remove the bowl. Use a flexible spatula to scrape down the sides and fold the batter several times to make sure it's evenly mixed and no chocolate streaks remain.

Divide the batter among the three pans (if you have a scale, weigh out approximately 255g of batter per pan), smoothing the batter into an even layer. Transfer the pans to the oven, placing the tins onto the centre rack, staggering the pans so there is one at the front and 2 at the rear. Move the position of the tins every 10 minutes, moving the cake at the front to the back and the cake on the left side of the oven to the right to ensure an even bake. 

Bake until the cakes are risen and just starting to pull away from the sides, the top is firm to the touch, and a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the centres comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the oven and let cool completely in the pans. Use a small offset spatula or paring knife to cut around the sides of the pans to release the cakes, then invert the cakes onto a wire rack and peel off the parchment paper. Be patient here. If the layers are even the least bit warm, the butter in the icing will start to melt as you try to frost them, and the whole cake will slide around.
Level the layers, if necessary, to create a flat top for easier stacking and assembly. If the cakes have just a slight dome, you can leave them as is. While the cakes are cooling, make the chocolate cream cheese icing.

Icing
Place the chopped chocolate into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high in 30-second bursts until melted. Set aside to cool before making the icing. 

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cocoa powder, butter, icing sugar, vanilla, cream cheese and a pinch of fine sea salt and beat on medium-low speed for 10 minutes until light and fluffy. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Pour in the cooled melted chocolate and stir to combine.

Place the first cake layer on a cake round, serving plate, or cake stand upside down (also cut-side down if you levelled the layers) and slide several strips of baking paper partially underneath and all around the cake to cover and protect the plate or stand during icing. 

Using a small offset spatula, spread ⅓ cup of the chocolate icing over the cake in an even layer all the way to the edges, then top with another upside-down cake layer and cover with another ⅓ cup of the icing. Place the third layer on top, upside down, and cover the top and sides of the entire cake in a very thin, even layer of icing. This is the "crumb coat," which is just a base layer of frosting, so don't worry if the cake shows through in several places. Refrigerate the cake until the icing has hardened, 10 to 15 minutes, then cover the top and sides with the remaining icing. (Originally I'd planned on making a naked cake, hence the generous top layer of icing, then I changed my mind. Next time I'd go with the naked version). Slide the paper strips out from underneath the cake before cutting into slices. 

Allow the cake to come to room temperature before serving. I cut the cake with a thin bladed knife, which I placed in hot water, then wiped clean between each cut.

I took a few slices of cake next door and Minnie said it was the best chocolate cake ever. I took the leftovers into work and I'm pleased to report that in our superheated work environment, the cream cheese icing softened to a delicious consistency. The cake is super rich, so I'd recommend seving it in small slices.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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claire saffitz strawberry cornmeal layer cake

claire saffitz strawberry cornmeal layer cake

11 Aug 2024

I've had my eye on this Claire Saffitz Strawberry Cornmeal Layer Cake recipe ever since her first book, Dessert Person came out. I looked through my copy a few weeks ago and reminded myself how many recipes I'd bookmarked but hadn't yet made. As strawberries are in abundance, the time had finally come to make the cake so I assembled all the ingredients and set to work.

Claire's recipes are so well written I knew the cake would turn out, but a few people mentioned the cake wasn't very sweet so I added a little extra sugar to the batter. The batter also seemed a little thick so I added a little extra buttermilk to the mixture, about 2 tablespoons.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes a 17 cm layer cake, adapted from here. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Claire Saffitz Strawberry Cornmeal Layer Cake
Ingredients
40g yellow cornmeal/polenta 
125g room temperature buttermilk 
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g plain flour 
1½ tsp baking powder 
¼ tsp bicarb soda
pinch salt
100g caster sugar 
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
75g room temperature unsalted butter
1 large egg

Assembly
300g strawberries, hulled 
30g sugar 
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup (250mls) thickened cream 

Method
Grease and line the base of a 17 cm springform pan and set to one side. Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional.

Soak the cornmeal in the buttermilk for 20 minutes to allow it to soften, then mix in the vanilla extract. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt into a large bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the sugar and lemon rind and massage the rind into the sugar with your fingers, until the sugar is fragrant. Add the butter and mix on low speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until fully incorporated. Add the flour in thirds followed by half the cornmeal mixture and mix to combine. Give it a final mix with a spatula before pouring into the prepared tin smoothing the top of the cake with an offset spatula.

Place the tin on the centre rack and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden and the cake tests cooked with a skewer. Place on a rack and cool completely.

While the cake is baking, prepare the filling. Reserve 5 large strawberries and trim until they’re of equal height and slice the rest. Place the sliced strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and set to one side to macerate. Gently whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, and it holds its shape.

Unmould the cake and slice horizontally into 2 even layers using a bread knife. Place one layer on a serving plate and using a pastry brush dab some of the strawberry syrup over the cake. Place the reserved whole strawberries around the cake and one in the centre to act as supports, then layer half the strawberries over the cake followed by half the cream. Gently place the reserved cake layer on top, then dollop with the remaining whipped cream followed by the strawberries. Drizzle the remaining syrup over the cake. To serve, cut with a serrated knife.

This cake is best assembled just before serving. The cornmeal cake can be baked the day before and stored in an airtight tin.

My neighbours loved the cake as did my workmates but I found the cornmeal flavour a bit too pronounced for my taste. I have a raspberry and cream filled Victoria Sponge on my to-do list which I suspect might be right up my alley.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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