Blood Orange Polenta Upside-down Cake

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It has been a (relatively) long time since I last baked a cake. Baking is one of those things that you need to be in the right mood for. It's not just a matter of following the recipe, but you also need to put in a lot of love into what you're baking. And no distractions! I've been holding on to this recipe for a while now. I actually bought some blood oranges a few weeks ago with the intention of making a blood orange chocolate tart, but I just didn't have any craving for a dark rich chocolate dessert. And then, the recipe for this polenta cake came along, and I finally made it today. What a slice of heaven! The cake is tender and moist, and the polenta gives it just a slight grittiness that complements the chewy but juicy candied blood orange slices. The oranges lose most of their tartness in the caramelization process and takes on a bittersweet tang, without being cloyingly sweet. This cake is absolutely fabulous either eaten on its own, or served with creme fraiche or whipped cream.

Chocolate Orange Brioche Pudding

This easy variation on bread and butter pudding tastes great when served hot with vanilla ice-cream. It has a hint of citrus flavour that goes perfectly with the oozy dark chocolate (and the ice-cream!).

Pear and Raspberry Cake

This is based on a recipe for Dutch Apple Cake by Rachel Allen, and I have made the apple version a number of times before. It's a light sponge-like cake embedded with a generous amount of sliced apples, and so delicious with whipped cream. The pear and raspberry version of it is just as good, its flavours accentuated with some freshly grated orange rind. The pear has a mildly sweet flavour that is complemented by the tartness of the raspberries. And of course, it goes really well with freshly whipped cream. This is definitely a family favourite that will please even the littlest ones!

Dutch Pear and Raspberry Cake

Adapted from Rachel Allen

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 175g (6oz) caster sugar, plus 15g (1/2oz) extra sugar, for sprinkling
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 90g (3oz) butter
• 75ml (2 ½ fl oz) milk
• 125g (4 ½ oz) plain flour
• Finely grated rind of one orange
• 2 ¼ tsp baking powder
• 2 small pears
• 100g frozen/fresh raspberries
• 150ml thickened cream, softly whipped, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 200ºC (400ºF). Line the sides and base of the cake tin (20 x 20cm (8 x 8in) square cake tin) with parchment paper.

Using an electric whisk, whisk the eggs, 175g (6oz) caster sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until the mixture is thick and mousse-like and the whisk leaves a figure of eight pattern (this will take about 5 minutes).

Melt the butter in a saucepan with the milk, then pour onto the eggs, whisking all the time. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold gently and carefully into the batter so that there are no lumps of flour. Don't overmix the batter. Fold in the orange rind. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.

Peel and core the pears and cut into thin slices, then arrange them over the batter. They will sink to the bottom (this is meant to happen!). Scatter raspberries on top. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar and quickly put in the oven to bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 180ºC (350ºF), bake for a further 20–25 minutes or until well risen and golden brown.

Allow to cool in the tin, cut into squares and serve warm with softly whipped cream.

 

Blueberries, Milk and Oat Crumble Bar

I remember having a most delicious blueberry crumble at Lake Agnes Teahouse over at Lake Louise in Banff National Park many years ago. It was a generous portion with a sweet and luscious blueberry filling sandwiched in between crisp and light oatmeal crumble. It made the long hike up to the Big Beehive worth it.

Here is a recipe for Blueberry Crumble, although not exactly the same as the one I remembered, but still delicious. Smells like butterscotch! It's a recipe that is easy enough for the kids to help out with.

Blueberries, Milk and Oat Crumble Bar

Adapted from Celebreaty4recipes

Ingredients

Filling:

3 cups fresh/frozen blueberries
1/2 cup  sugar
2 tbsp orange juice

Finely grated rind of one orange

1 tbsp tapioca starch (or substitute with cornflour)

Crumble:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup plain flour
1/4 cup milk powder
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
120g butter, melted

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 9 inch square pan with baking paper. Lay out the rolled oats on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 4-5 minutes.

Combine filling ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes or until the mixture reduces to a thick consistency.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients for the crumble. Then, add melted butter and mix with a spatula until well combined. Spoon one third of the crumble mixture into the baking pan and press firmly to form a crust. Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and spoon filling evenly over the crust. Sprinkle the top with remaining crumble mixture. Bake for 25 minutes or until brown and crisp. Cool before cutting into squares. Dust with icing sugar if desired.

Jammy Orange Almond Cookies

So much for the long weekend, we didn't get to go to the Sydney Aquarium like we planned to, due to rain that is forecast to continue until the end of the week. I had to keep the kids occupied with something other than TV and computer games at home, so I decided that we would make cookies together. That gave me a chance to try out the new car and dinosaur cookie cutters that I bought last week.

I still had the AWW Cookies cookbook that I borrowed from the local public library, and found a recipe for orange and almond shortbread cookies. Perfect! It was just a matter of combining all the ingredients together, chilling the dough, followed by cutting out the cookie shapes. The kids had a fun time making these cookies, although I must add that the cleaning up after that took 3 times longer than usual, compared to making them myself.

The cookies turned out great, and managed to keep their shape (and not melt into a flat amoeba-looking blob on the baking tray). The kids devoured them like little cookie monsters and just couldn't get enough of them! Z and I both like the ones with a drop of strawberry jam in the middle. The cookies themselves aren't really that sweet, so the jam, which is sticky and slightly chewy (from baking) provides a nice contrast and balance to the flavours and texture. We'll be making more jammy cookies from now on, and not only on rainy days! :)

Classic Flourless Orange and Almond Cake

Orange and almond cake, brushed with an apricot glaze

This is a lovely cake, which I found is best eaten cold 1-2 days later. It keeps well in the fridge for up to 1 week. Here is the recipe, adapted from Belinda Jeffery's cookbook, which is actually based on Claudia Roden's "A Book of Middle Eastern Food".

Classic Flourless Orange and Almond Cake

Ingredients

2 large navel oranges
250g almond meal
250g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
6 large eggs

Glaze:
3/4 cup apricot jam
2 tbsp water
Blanched almonds / Almond flakes

Method

1. Place oranges in a large pot of boiling water and boil for 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until soft enough for a skewer to go through with ease. Top up the water from time to time so as to keep the oranges fully submerged. Spin the oranges around occasionally so that they cook evenly. When ready, drain and leave to cool. Chop them coarsely, skin and all and puree finely in a food processor.
2. Preheat oven to 170C. Grease and line base and sides of a 22cm round cake tin with buttered baking paper. Dust the tin lightly with flour (or almond meal) and set aside.
3. Whisk the almond meal, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl for half a minute or so.
4. Using an electric mixer, whisk/beat the eggs on medium-high speed for about 6 minutes until light and fluffy. Turn off the mixer. Pour the orange puree and almond mixture into the eggs. Mix on low speed until just combined. Pour into prepared tin.
5. Bake for 1 hour or until the top of the cake is just firm when pressed gently. Cool the cake in the tin on a wire rack. Once cool, invert the cake onto a serving plate and remove paper. Pour the apricot glaze over the cake and brush it all over evenly. You can coat the almonds in the glaze and decorate the cake with them.
6. To make the glaze, boil the jam with 2 tbsp water for about 5 minutes until it becomes thick and syrupy. Pass it through a sieve and it's ready for glazing.

The texture is somewhere between a cake and a pudding, moist with a bittersweet orange tang

Navel oranges that have been boiled until soft, and then pureed finely. These are combined
with eggs, almond meal,baking powder and sugar. No butter or oil!