Cake #173 - Avocado and Lime Cheesecake

Monday Mood Cake - Avocado and Lime Cheesecake.

Spring!! Sunshine!

Avocado and Lime Cheesecake

Crust:
150g Digestive cookies, crumbed
75g butter, melted

Filling:
3 avocados, mashed
300g  cream cheese 
150 ml granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
8 gelatine leaves
juice of 2 limes
3 egg whites
green food colouring

1. Mix the digestive cookie crumbs and melted butter.  Press the mixture into the bottom of a spring form cake pan, base covered with baking parchment. Let the crust cool and rest in the fridge while you make the filling.
2. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes.
3. Mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla sugar.
4. Heat up the lime juice and melt the soaked gelatine leaves in the hot juice and pour the smooth liquid into the cheese mixture. Mix well.
5. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them very gently into the cheese mixture trying to keep it ‘airy’.
6. Divide the cheese mixture equally into three bowls.
7. Take the first bowl and add half of the mashed avocado and mix well.
8. Take the second bowl and add the other half of the mashed avocado and a few drops of green food colouring and mix well.
9. Pour the darker green filling on the crust and spread evenly.
10. Spread the lighter green filling on the darker layer very carefully and evenly.
11. Last, spread the white filling on top very carefully and evenly.
12. Chill the cake in the fridge for at least four hours until firm.
7. Remove the firm cake from the pan very, very carefully on a serving plate and decorate it with grated lime zest, small avocado cubes or green sprinkles.
8. Enjoy!

Cake #172 - Lemon Drizzle Cake

Sunday Classic Cake - Lemon Drizzle Cake.

Lemon Drizzle Cake is one of the most fool-proof cakes to bake. Lemon is always a sophisticated choice for a cake and for me, personally, it even beats a chocolate cake.

For a fool-proof cake, use this recipe.

Valentine's Day - Avocado Pound Cake

Valentine's Day, Cake #170 - Avocado Pound Cake with Lemon Icing, Physalis and Blueberries.

Valentine's Day baking does not need to be all pink and hearts, it can be an ordinary cake made more festive.

Avocado Pound Cake

400 ml plain flour
100 ml medium cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
50 g butter, softened
400 ml sugar
4 ripe mashed avocados
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 ml buttermilk

Icing
300 ml icing sugar
a few drops of lemon juice
a few drops of yellow food colouring (optional)

Berries and fruit of your choice

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
3. In another bowl beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add avocado and beat until mixed.
4. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
5. Add half of the flour mixture, then the buttermilk and the remaining flour mixture.
6. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 1 kg loaf tin and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. Let cool in tin for 20 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.
7. Make icing and spread on the cake.
8. Decorate with berries or fruit of your choice.

Valentine's Day - Lemon Meringue Cake goes Valentine

Valentine's Day 2015, Cake #171 - Valentine's Lemon Meringue Cake.

I love this Mary Berry Lemon Meringue Pie recipe. To make it go Valentine, I added a few drops of red food colouring into the filling to make it pink. When spreading the meringue on top of the filling, I placed a heart-shaped cookie cutter on the filling and spread the meringue around. After baking the meringue, I carefully removed the cookie cutter hoping that the sides would not collapse... and they did not! Just before serving I decorated the cake with red heart sprinkles.

Grandpa Alex's Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies (makes 6 dozen)

250 g butter
250 ml brown sugar
250 ml granulated sugar
2 eggs
250 ml smooth peanut butter
750 ml plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ ts salt

1. Cream butter and both sugars together.
2. Beat in eggs.
3. Mix in peanut butter.
4. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt.
5. Let batter rest in fridge for half an hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 190 C.
7. Shape the batter into small balls. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and press with fork. Leave room for expansion (see *tip below). Dip fork in flour as needed to prevent stickiness.
8. Bake cookies in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

For peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, add 300 ml chocolate chips.

*Tip: Bake a test cookie to see how much it expands and see if you are happy with the texture. If the cookie expands too much, add some more flour to the batter. Usually the amount of flour in the recipe is perfect but as different flour brands may act differently, it is worth while baking a test cookie.

Valentine's Day - Red Velvet Cupcakes

Valentine's Day 2015, Cake #169 - Giant Red Velvet Cupcake and Small Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream and Dark Chocolate and Strawberry Hearts.

Red Velvet Cupcakes 
makes 12 cupcakes and 1 giant cupcake ( Ø 15cm)

350 g self-raising flour
250 g granulated sugar
300 g soft butter
4 eggs
2 tbsp drinking chocolate
2 tbsp dark cocoa powder
100 ml water
2 tbsp red food colouring

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175C.
2. Beat butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Beat in eggs.
4. Mix together all dry ingredients and add to the batter together with water and food colouring. 
5. Spoon half of the batter into a greased and floured Ø 15 cm cake pan and divide the other half equally into 12 paper cups placed in a muffin tin.
6. Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes and the giant cupcake about 30 minutes.

7. Let cool before icing and decorating the cakes.

Chocolate Hearts
Melt 100 g dark chocolate and pipe hearts on a silicone mat. Let set in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.

Strawberry Hearts
Cut strawberries in half and using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out hearts. You need either huge strawberries or a tiny cookie cutter! I was lucky to have both.

Vanilla Icing

150 g butter

300 g icing sugar

1-2 tbsp cream 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Beat butter and icing sugar in a bowl until soft and creamy. 

2. Add vanilla extract and then cream drop by drop to make sure the mixture does not become too loose.

Valentine's Day - Chocolate Cake with Rum and Raisin Fudge

Valentine's Day 2015, Cake #168 - Chocolate Cake with Rum and Raisin Fudge.

On the plate, instead of a cake, I was supposed to place cute little rum and raisin fudge hearts in cute little paper cups. I made the fudge in the morning but for some reason it just didn't set during eight hours at all. It did not even freeze - except the raisins. Luckily the mixture looked like it could work out as cake covering - and it did! On a chocolate cake which was supposed to be something else than chocolate cake covered with rum and raisin fudge... 

Oh, well. Win-win. The chocolate cake covered with rum and raisin fudge tasted heavenly. 

So, hopefully better luck next time with f-u-d-g-e in cute little papercups.

Rum and Raisin Fudge Cake Covering

100 g raisins, chopped

2 tsp rum essence

500 ml double cream

450 g demerara sugar

150 g butter

150 g white chocolate

2 tsp red food colouring

1. Sprinkle the rum essence on the chopped raisins and let set while you cook the fudge.

2. Mix together cream, sugar and butter and boil on medium heat until the mixture thickens, about 15 minutes.

3. Remove from heat, add chocolate and food colouring and mix well.

4. Fold in the raisins and put the fudge cake covering in the fridge to set while you bake the cake.

Chocolate Sponge
175g self-raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp soda
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs
150 ml sunflower oil
150 ml milk
2 tbsp syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F and grease and flour a Ø 24 cm round cake pan.

2. Sieve flour, cocoa and soda into a bowl. Add sugar and mix well.
3. Make a well in the centre and add syrup, eggs, oil and milk. Beat well until smooth.
4. Spoon the mixture into the pan and bake for 35-40 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely before spreading the fudge.