Monday was a bank holiday in Ireland and we had invited friends over for coffee and cakes. The Danish Pastries (1) and the Ambrosia Cake (2) I had made the previous evening. On Monday morning I baked the Salmon Quiche (3) and Pumpkin Pie (4) for both of which I use the same type of crust so I made a double batch and got a crust for each in one go. About an hour before our guests were to arrive I deep-fried and sugared the Donuts (5). The dough I had made a couple of hours earlier and let it raise properly before baking the donuts.
Cake #66 - Ambrosia Cake
Sunday Traditional Cake - Ambrosia Cake.
Sponge
2 eggs
150 ml granulated sugar
150 g butter, melted
200 ml plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
50 ml fresh cream
Filling and Icing
50 ml orange jam
400 ml icing sugar
juice of two oranges
dried orange peel
1. Preheat oven to 175C / 350F and grease and flour a Ø 23 cm cake pan.
2. Beat eggs and sugar until white and fluffy.
3. Fold in flour together with melted butter and cream.
4. Pour into pan and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.
5. Let the sponge cool a little before removing from pan.
6. Cut the sponge into two layers and moist both with fresh orange juice. (about half of the juice)
7. Mix the rest of the orange juice with the icing sugar and add some water if needed.
8. Spread orange jam on the first layer together with 1/4 of the icing.
9. Place the second layer on top of the first and spread the icing all over on top and sides of the cake.
10. Decorate the cake with dried orange peel.
Salmon Quiche
Crust
150 g butter
300 ml plain flour
1-2 tbsp cold water if needed
Filling
150 g smoked salmon, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped and sauteed
3 eggs
200 ml creme fraiche
150 g grated cheese, I used Mozzarella
1. Crumble together cold butter and flour.
2. Add some water if too dry and make a ball of the batter.
3. Let the batter rest in the fridge for half an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 175 C / 350 F.
4. Roll the batter to match the size of your pie dish, about Ø 28 cm in diameter and place into the bottom and sides of the pie dish.
5. Mix all ingredients together for the filling and pour on the batter.
6. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
7. Garnish with fresh dill, lemon wedges and, for example, cherry tomatoes.
8. Enjoy with salad and pickled cucumbers while still warm.
Pumpkin Pie
Crust
150 g butter
300 ml plain flour
1-2 tbsp cold water if needed
Filling
300 ml pureed pumpkin
200 ml creme fraiche
100 ml fresh cream
50 ml granulated sugar
100 ml (dark) syrup
3 eggs
pinch of salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
½ tsp nutmeg
1. Crumble together cold butter and flour.
2. Add some water if too dry and make a ball of the batter.
3. Let the batter rest in the fridge for half an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 175 C / 350 F.
4. Roll the batter to match the size of your pie dish, about Ø 28 cm in diameter and place into the bottom and sides of the pie dish.
5. Mix all ingredients together for the filling and pour on the batter.
6. Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes.
7. Let cool a little and enjoy with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Spooky Danish Pastries
Dough
300 ml cold milk
50 g fresh yeast
3 eggs
100 ml granulated sugar
½ tsp salt
2 tsp ground cardamom
about 900 ml plain flour
350 g cold butter
1 egg for glazing
Filling
300 ml vanilla creme (you can find an easy recipe
here)
250 ml orange jam (or any other jam which can be baked in the oven) - I used both orange jam and apricot jam
icing sugar and black food colouring to make black icing
orange sugar (or Halloween sprinkles, maybe)
1. Dissolve yeast in cold milk.
2. Add sugar, salt, cardamom and eggs and mix well.
3. Start adding flour gradually until your dough is not sticky any more but still soft.
4. Roll the dough into a square about 5 mm thick and cover it with thin slices of butter. Then fold the dough to 1/4 of the original square, wrap in cling film and put into the fridge for about an hour to raise.
5. Preheat the oven to 225 C / 430 F.
6. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll again into a square about 5 mm thick.
7. Cut the square into small squares, mine were about 60 mm x 70 mm in size.
8. Fold the corners of each square to make them octagons.
9. Glaze the pastries with egg, then fill them with jam and pipe some vanilla creme around the jam.
10. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
11. Let the pastries cool down before decorating them with black icing and sugar.
Sugar Donuts
Dough (makes about 30)
5 dl lukewarm milk
50 g fresh yeast (or 2 bags / 15 g fast action dry yeast)
100 ml granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
150 g melted butter
about 1 kg plain flour
2 litres oil for deep frying
sugar for coating
1. Dissolve yeast in warm milk.
2. Add sugar, cardamom and egg and mix well.
3. Start adding flour gradually.
4. After you have kneaded in about half of the flour, add melted butter.
5. Knead in more flour until your dough is not sticky any more but still soft. It is better to leave the dough a little too soft than make it too dense so the donuts will be fluffier.
6. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place until double in size, for about half an hour.
7. Divide the dough into 25-30 little balls.
8. To get ring donuts, make a hole in the middle of each ball by stretching the sides
9. Leave the rings to raise for about half an hour.
10. Heat oil in a thick pan (unless you have a deep-fryer) until it is 170-180 C. (I do not have a thermometer so I just check the temperature with a piece of toast - when it takes about a minute for the bread to become golden brown, the temperature is fine).
11. Deep-fry your donuts in oil about 2-3 minutes per side and put on plate covered with kitchen tissue so any extra oil will come off.
12. When the donuts have cooled down, dip them in sugar so that they become fully coated. I usually put sugar in a paper bag (an empty flour bag works great - I always save them for this purpose), then put two or three donuts in the bag together with the sugar and shake well.
13. If you do not eat your donuts the same day, no not coat them with sugar but freeze them right away and coat only after defrosting.
