Spiced Plum and Honey Cakes - Kids in the kitchen

I arrived home a few days ago to my daughter Poppy (10 years old) having made this plum cake. My hubby has been trying to educate our family to work more with seasonal ingredients and it's something the children are taking part in with great enthusiasm. Grandma Kiwicakes plum tree was raided for this cake.

The smell upon entering our home was incredible. Poppy tells me this was the most complicated recipe she's ever tackled. She said nothing was hard, but for her there were a lot of steps.

Poppy decided to make a cinnamon honey whipped cream to go with it. She tells me she "just added cinnamon and honey to whipped cream, until it tasted right". By the time I arrived home the cake had already been sampled, however Poppy had taken photos for me.

The recipe is from my recently purchased book Love, Bake, Nourish by Amber Rose. It's been a great find. Amber Rose offers great tips on the health benefits of many of the ingredients listed. A lot of the recipes exclude sugar and refined flours and there are great gluten free options too.

Recipe reproduced with permission from Love Bake Nourish by Amber Rose, with photography by Ali Allen. Published by Kyle Books and distributed in New Zealand by New Holland, RRP $45.00

Spiced plum & honey cake

This cake works particularly well made with smallish dark red plums that are really sweet. The plum season comes just as the evenings start to get shorter and you can feel a chill in the air. I really enjoy this time of year, when the leaves turn a golden amber and dew-laden spiders’ webs line the woodland pathways. It’s the onset of the season for comfort food and best-loved jumpers.

serves 8–10

180g white spelt flour, sifted

2 teaspoons baking powder

130g ground almonds

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cardamon

½ teaspoon ground star anise

5 large free-range eggs, separated

240g unsalted butter, softened

210g honey

400g plums, halved and stoned

Unrefined icing sugar, for dusting (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour a 22cm loose-bottomed cake tin.

Start by mixing all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks, butter and honey with an electric hand mixer until thick and smooth. Gently fold in the dry ingredients.

In a separate, very clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold them, a third at a time, into the cake mix, ensuring that they are thoroughly incorporated.

Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface with the back of a spoon or a palette knife. Place the plums cut-side down on top of the cake mix. Transfer to the oven and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before carefully turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Dust with icing sugar, if you like.

As a tea cake this doesn’t seem to need anything else, but if you are eating it as a pudding, it’s very good with a little cream or Greek yogurt sweetened with honey.

Caramel Crusted Rhubarb Pudding

Wondering what to do with all the rhubarb, this is a wonderful crunchy dessert option. So good with custard or cream or dusted with icing sugar.

As a child I detested rhubarb yet I’m not really sure if I ever tried it. I think it's likely to my mothers horror, I declared I didn’t like it, without even tasting it. As an adult I discovered it tasted like berries, apple and lemon all rolled in to one and now I love it, in fact I may spend my adult life trying to catch up with all I never ate as a child. This dessert is equally lovely in summer & winter. My rhubarb variety (above) is more green than the the red you might be used to seeing, however the taste is the same.

Recipe is reprinted with permission from our friends at Chelsea Sugar. (Photo above from Chelsea)

Ingredients

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup Chelsea white sugar

100g butter melted

4 cups diced rhubarb stalks

3/4 cup Chelsea soft brown sugar

1 Tbsp cornflour

1/4 cup boiling water

Method
Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add rolled oats and White sugar, then mix in melted butter to make crust mixture. Put diced rhubarb into a greased ovenproof dish, such as a small lasagne dish or deep pie plate. Sprinkle crust mixture evenly over rhubarb. In the discarded bowl, combine Brown sugar and cornflour. Spoon over the crust mixture. Carefully pour the boiling water over the top. Do not stir. 

Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C.

Pina Colada Mousse cake for Grandma Kiwicakes birthday

Last week was Grandma Kiwicakes' birthday. She asked for a birthday cake with tapa and pineapple. However at the time she didn't know I'd planned to make her a pina colada mousse cake using a recipe I purchased online in support of the Helping Sweet Kate charity drive. The recipe is from the lovely Jo at Ciccio cakes. A mousse cake doesn't really lend it self to decorating in the usual manner. I didn't let that stop me and set out to give Grandma Kiwicakes what she asked for. This cake was a whopping 12'' in diameter.

Layered with 2 layers of pina colada mousse and another thin layer on top. The pineapple decorations were marzipan and the tapa design was pastel yellow Satin Ice fondant

To make the pineapples I coloured some marzipan yellow and green using progel

Using a pineapple plunger cutter, I cut out lots of little pineapples, the design was a bit one dimensional, so I added green tufts to the top of each one.

Using a fondant cutting wheel, I sliced randomly from the outside edge, as I wanted the ragged edges left on my tufts.

The marzipan sticks to itself when pressed, so no edible glue is needed. These are so quick and easy to make. In less than 20 minutes, I had enough for the whole cake.

The tapa design was made using this mould. I made two strips to go around the circumference of the cake. It is over dusted with lustre in a coppery tone. The pineappples rest on the ledge of the tapa surround. The Kiwicakes girls declared the cake delicious and this huge cake was spread around many people, each with a piece to take home. It was fun to do something a little different for a change.

Note: Mousse cakes needs to be refrigerated, so ideally this should be decorated shortly before serving.

My family recipe journey - Our Family Christmas Trifle

It seems Christmas 2013 I became the official trifle maker for my family. Grandma Kiwicakes rues the day she ever discovered this trifle in a magazine back in about 1980, it's now the only trifle my brother and I ever want. We deem it "Our family trifle". Poor Grandma Kiwicakes cannot make any other, unless she makes this one too (she hankers after her own mothers trifle which had cherry jelly in it). I've actually tried a few different trifles in my time. My mother in laws trifle is in fact very nice, but as she opts for pineapple, I think of it as pineapple pudding not trifle.

I'm not sure why my brother and I are so opinionated about our trifle being changed, we don't have problems trying different versions of other foods. Maybe it's because we only ever had it once a year on Christmas day. And of course Boxing Day trifle tastes even better. The recipe is in fact so simple, many would struggle to see what we find so attractive about it.

Here's my trifle from Christmas Day 2013. Mum always put a crushed Cadbury Flake bar on top. I see now, looking at her little old recipe book the original had apricot halves on top. It's been made in this same etched crystal bowl every year for the last 30+ years.

Ingredients

1 Swiss jam roll

1 can apricots halves in juice

2 Tbsp Sherry or Brandy

4 Tbsp custard powder

1 pint milk (600ml)

2 dessert spoons of Caster Sugar (I prefer Chelsea)

To decorate

Whipped cream

1 Cadbury Flake bar

Slice swiss roll & arrange in dish. Sprinkle with sherry and some of the juice from apricots. Arrange the apricots over the top of the swiss roll. Make custard according to directions from brand. Cool slightly, then pour over fruit & swiss roll. When cool cover with whipped cream and crumble a flake bar over the top.

Pupcakes - food for dogs - Kids in the kitchen

My daughter Poppy (10 years old) loves baking for our crazy little papillion dog, Bilbo. She made him these "pupcakes". The recipe is reprinted with permission from SPCA Cupcake Day website. It makes quite a lot, so she visited some of the neighbourhood dogs and gave some away. She even used SPCA cupcake papers which you can buy from the SPCA store here.

Ingredients:
·  4 cups wholemeal flour

·  ¼ cup oats

·  1 teaspoon baking powder

·  1 cup dried apple pieces(you can also use fresh fruit)

·  2¾ cups water

·  ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce

·  ¼ teaspoonvanilla

·  1 cage free egg,beaten slightly

Icing
 a few dog biscuits for decoration on top
1 potato cooked and mashed
low fat cream cheese

1. Preheat oven to 175°c degrees. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray.

2. Mix all wet ingredients thoroughly. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients slowly, scraping well to make sure no dry mixture is left.

4. Pour into muffin tins.

5. Bake for 1 ¼ hours. Insert a toothpick into the centre of a pupcake and if it comes out dry, they are ready to come out of the oven.
6. frost with low fat cream cheese mixed with mashed potato

Wait until cooled before serving one to your pup. Store leftovers in a sealed container. Makes around 12-14 pupcakes.

Makes 12 cupcakes or 24 mini-cupcakes.

Chocolate Moulds Make Decorating Easy - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Working this past year at Kiwicakes I've been amazed at the selection of literally hundreds of chocolate moulds available in NZ. They really are such a simple way to mass-produce technically perfect mini decorations. Some moulds even create stunning 3D objects. 

Some of my earlier blogs using chocolate moulds include snowflakes, surprise boxes, hairdressing set, lollipops and chocolate bars. Read up for tips on melting and setting.

These racing cars were made from black and blue candy melts. Imagine the delight on the faces of little people given one of these to eat!

These cowboy boots look quite different depending on whether you make them light with white candy melts or in a darker shade. They would make neat themed party cupcake toppers or on a farming or western style cake.

I painted accents on the moulded chocolate shapes using various shades of Metallic Food Paint. There are over 20 colours available in bright hues, such as spring green and royal blue.

Next time consider using moulded chocolate in your cake decorating project!

Mini Pavlovas for Grandma Kiwicakes

I have a shocking secret to reveal, I had never made pavlova before this week, it's one of those things Grandma Kiwicakes is famous for, so I've never felt the need. My recipe is Grandma Kiwicakes own recipe scaled up to make 8 mini pavlovas (and altered just a wee bit). When served they fit perfectly on a bread and butter plate

Ingredients

6 egg whites

2 cups caster sugar (I like Chelsea)

1 heaped tablespoon of cornflour

1 Tbsp of vinegar, I use white, but malt works well too.

Vanilla essence (or other flavour you may refer)

4 Tablespoons cold water

Preheat oven to 180C degrees. Place all ingredients in your stand cake mixer, turn on medium speed and leave to mix for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, the mixture should have lovely stiff peaks, if your turn the mixer whisk upside down, the peaks should hold in place.

To make pavlovas of a similar size, I draw 8x 10cm circles on the back side of baking paper (you don't want pen transferring on to your pavlovas). Using a large piping bag without a nozzle fitted pipe your meringue mixture so that your circles are as tall as they are wide (they will flatten and widen as they bake). Don't put them too close together, or they will spread and join together when baking.

When you place your pavlovas in the oven, be careful not to slam the door, immediately drop your temperature down to 120C degrees. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. Once time is up, turn the oven off, but leave pavlovas in the oven until cool. (If you want to bake as one large pavlova, bake for 3 hours, then leave in oven switched off until cool)

These can be baked ahead of time, as once stored in an airtight container they will keep for at least 3 days.

I served with whipped cream and an edible pineapple flower. See how to make edible pineapple flowers here

Dried pineapple flowers

I first saw these dried pineapple flowers in an issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine more than 13 years ago. I've always wanted to try them. I decided as it was Grandma Kiwicakes birthday this week to give them a go on top my mini pavlovas I was making for her birthday dinner (recipe for pavlovas to come tomorrow). These elegant flowers are very easy to make.

Preheat your oven to 120C degrees. Take one whole pineapple and cut the outer rind off.

Remove the eyes with a sharp kitchen knife (this also creates variation in the edges of the flowers)

Cut thin slices and arrange on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Bake 30 minutes one side. Remove from oven, flip over and bake 25-30 minutes on the second side.

Be careful to make your slices all the same thickness. As you can see from my photo above, I burnt one, before the others were quite done, as it was thinner than the rest.

I placed them in tin foil circles I had squished in to shape using my hands, this allows them to dry with a nice fluid shape, rather than dead flat. You can make these up to three days ahead of when you need them. Refrigerate until required. I kept mine in the fridge in a container resting in their tin foil forms.

Amaretto liqueur with Amaretti cookie ice cream

This ice cream, which is more like a gelato, was made for Grandma Kiwicakes birthday. I adore Amaretti cookies, you can find them at most good delis. However, here in Whangarei we can usually only get them at Christmas time when our supermarket gets them in. I always grab some.

This year I decided I wanted to make something with them. I received an ice cream maker for Christmas so this seemed an obvious choice. I started researching Amaretti ice cream recipes, I didn't find anything that suited my needs, so I decided to create my own.

The recipe looks a little tricky, though no part on its own is hard, you just need the luxury of a little time. For me it was the perfect Sunday afternoon activity.

Ingredients:

4 cups of milk

1tsp vanilla bean paste

1/4c sugar

6 egg yolks

pinch of slat

2 Tbsp Amaretto liqueur

12 Amaretti cookies (this fills 1/2 cup when crushed)

Make sure your ice cream bowl has been in the freezer for at least 24 hours. Then you need to cook your custard base. In a saucepan add your milk and vanilla bean paste, heat on medium-to-low for a few minutes. It should be hot, but not simmering.

In the mean time you can whisk together your sugar and egg yolk. The yolks should become paler in colour. It usually takes about 2 minutes.

Remove your milk mixture from the heat. Take 1/2 cup of milk mixture and add this hot milk to your egg mixture, whisking quickly the whole time until all the hot milk has been added to your eggs.

Return everything to the saucepan and heat again on medium to low until it thickens in to a nice custard. Stir every now and then to ensure it's not catching or burning. Aprx 15 mins.

Once your custard has thickened, remove it from the heat and strain through a sieve. Allow to cool before adding a pinch of salt and Amaretto liqueur. Refrigerate to chill for a couple of hours. (You cannot put hot mixture in your ice cream maker, it will not work).

Add your chilled custard to your icecream maker and follow the instructions according your manufacturer. My ice cream maker is a Cuisinart brand, my ice cream took 20 mins to churn.

When there is 5 minutes left to go on your timer, add the crushed Amaretti cookies.

When it's finished churning, place in a container and freeze overnight. Serve with crushed Amaretti cookies. You need to remove this from the freezer 5-10 minutes before you want to scoop it, it sets rock hard, so cannot be scooped straight from the freezer.

Vanilla Cupcakes with raspberry buttercream icing - Kids in the kitchen

Many of you who follow my blog regularly will know my ten year old daughter Poppy loves to bake &  cook. These school holidays she's been taking every opportunity to get into the kitchen. The cupcakes above were made solely by Poppy, the only exception being I took them out of the oven for her and I was there to offer a small amount of advice (but only when asked!)

She seems to have a knack for subbing in-and-out ingredients and a good eye for when things are properly cooked. Although she started with a recipe, it's been changed along the way to suit her idea of what she wanted to achieve.

Poppy chose this recipe because Daddy likes vanilla and his favourite icing is raspberry. Our small boysenberry bush we've not long planted provided three berries to top the cupcakes (which were reserved especially for Daddy)

Ingredients:

Cupcakes
150g butter, softened 1 1/2 cups Caster Sugar 2 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla essence 2 1/2 cups self raising flour 1 1/4 cups milk
Buttercream Icing 100g butter, softened 2 1/2 cups Icing Sugar 6-8 raspberry flavacol 3 Tbsp milk

Sprinkles of your choice.

Cupcakes Method
Preheat oven to 175C. Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light & fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until fully combined. Add the sifted flour, milk and vanilla, beat until smooth. Half fill cupcake papers (supported in a cupcake pan).

Bake for 15 minutes until golden or until they spring back when lightly pressed. Allow to cool while you make your icing.

Buttercream Icing Method

Beat the butter until it is pale and fluffy with an electric mixer. Add the icing sugar, flavouring & milk until you have a light, fluffy mixture. Spread or pipe icing over cupcakes and top with sprinkles as desired. 

Pillow shaped dummy cake tutorial - made from rice krispie treats

Early in 2013, I spent three days with Debbie Brown from the UK particpating in three different cake workshops. The kitten cake workshop I did called for a pillow cake or cake dummy. Unable to find a cake dummy in NZ, I decided to make my own using rice bubble treats. 

I used this recipe for rice bubble treats from the manufacturers of the Marshamllow fluff  a batch of mixture in to the 10 inch Wilton pillow pan from this set of cake pans (which I had lined with plastic wrap). I allowed it to set for a few hours.

I removed the half pillow from the pan and repeated the steps above to make a second half. I pressed the first half of the pillow down on to the second half of the pillow so that the two halves would set in place together forming a 3d pillow.

Once the pillow had finished setting, I covered the entire pillow in white chocolate, so that when the fondant covered the pillow, the surface would be nice and smooth.

I was very happy with my finished pillow shape. It was a lot easier to work with than a pillow shaped cake.

Here it is covered in fondant, part way through my workshop with Debbie Brown.

Here's a lovely photo of Debbie part way through hers. She used actual cake and carved it. I hadn't wanted to deal with all the cake mess during class, hence why I opted to take along a ready made dummy cake.

Grandma Kiwicakes makes Black Bun for Hogmanay

Grandma Kiwicakes has been busy, she's made Black Bun for Hogmanay (the Scottish word for New Years Eve) When I was growing up my Grandad made dumpling for Christmas and Black Bun for Hogmanay. It needs a little time to improve (in the same manner a Christmas cake does), hence it's made some weeks before.

Usually we make it in one square cake tin. See my earlier post here for recipe and full size version  However this year as my older brother is overseas, Grandma Kiwicakes made them in loaf tins, so she could post one to him. It should be arriving in the mail in the USA right about now.

Rocky Road - with freeze dried strawberries & raspberries

This Rocky Road could not be simpler and it tastes better than any Rocky Road I've ever tried. In a bowl simply place one bag of mini marshmallows (if you buy the gluten free ones, this entire recipe will be gluten free). Add nuts of your choice, I used two handfuls of walnut pieces. I used half a bag of Freeze dried strawberry slices or raspberries per batch. My silicone baking pan is aprx 28x18cm but any size will do. Melt 500g of dark or milk chocolate over a double boiler and stir through your dry mixture.

Allow to cool at room temperature. I reserved some of the prettier slices of freeze dried strawberry for the top of my strawberry batch, I placed them on top before the chocolate set. For my raspberry batch (below), I used some of the crumbled pieces from the bottom of the packet, to sprinkle over the top.

For my strawberry batch I sprinkled over edible gold glitter.

All packaged up ready to give as gifts for Christmas, but they would make lovely gifts all year round.