Passion Fruit Yoghurt Cake

It has been quite a while since I made cake.  I don't count brownies as cake so technically this is the first cake of the year and the first cake-y thing I have baked since October, when I made Pumpkin Sandwich Cakes, and the first big cake I have made since September, when I made my birthday cake.  Wow, I hadn't realised that it had been so long.  I've been terribly biscuit obsessed of late.

Anyway, I do believe I have ventured into a new territory with this one.  I have a vague recollection of expressing a desire to try making a yoghurt cake.  It may have been here, it may have been in conversation with someone else or even a random declaration to myself.  I am not sure.  I am just sure I said it somewhere.  However, I hadn't gotten around to it until I stumbled upon this recipe (through Pinterest).  The thing that caught my eye was actually the passion fruit bit.  I've not used passion fruit before and it's been ages since I baked with fruit that wasn't lemons or dried cranberries.  Whilst it wasn't going to appeal to me, I had a sneaking suspicion it would appeal to the lovely ladies at Markinch Primary.  It had been a while since I had sent something their way and they provided me with the perfect excuse to try this recipe out.

For the most part, it was fairly easy to follow.  The thing that really gave me trouble was the baking since the timings in the original recipe didn't work for me.  I am thinking this is down to the dimensions of my pan though.  The size of loaf pan is not stated in the recipe so I made a guess that it was a 1kg/2lb tin I should use but I am aware that my tin is narrower and deeper than others.  Or it could be my oven.  The temperatures seem to have gone a little wonky of late.  Or even my mixing.  I believe I overbeat my mixture somewhat, which is also why it sank slightly after I removed it from the oven.  That annoyed me since it had been looking so lovely and risen before that happened.  Ah well.

Despite the sinking, and the slightly close crumb I ended up with, my giftees enjoyed it and it was promptly devoured on Monday.  They said it was lovely and moist and would make a really great dessert if it was served with ice cream.  The only criticism was that finding a seed can be a bit scary when you get to a certain age because you worry it might be a tooth!  That part of the cake is optional though.  I just thought it looked nicer with them in and figured it would be fine since people do eat that bit when they eat passion fruit.

 

Recipe - adapted from Simply Delicious


Cake:

• 250g/9oz plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml/9fl.oz Greek yoghurt
• 200g/7oz caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 125ml/4.5fl.oz rapeseed oil
• 6 to 8 passion fruit

White Chocolate Drizzle:

• 115g/4oz white chocolate
• 1 tbsp warm water
• 2 passion fruit

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line a 1kg/2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. 
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and set aside.
3. Remove the pulp and seeds from the passion fruit and strain through a sieve to remove the seeds.  You want to end up with about 125ml/4.5fl.oz of pulp.  If you want, you can add 2 teaspoons of seeds back in afterwards.
4. Put the yoghurt, caster sugar, eggs, oil and passion fruit pulp together in a medium bowl and mix until smooth.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold in until just combined.  Be careful not to overmix.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin.
7. Bake.  Timing will likely vary depending on the dimensions of the tin in use.  It will range somewhere between 45 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes.  Test the cake is cooked through by inserting a skewer into the middle of the cake and pulling it back out again.  If it is clean when it is removed, the cake is done.
8. Transfer to a wire rack but allow the cake to cool completely in the tin before removing.
9. When the cake has cooled, make the drizzle by chopping up the white chocolate and putting it in a heatproof bowl with the water and pulp from the passion fruit.  (You can strain out the seeds if you want).
10. Set the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, without letting the bowl touch the water, and allow the chocolate to melt.
11. Once melted, stir the mixture to combine.
12. Remove cake from its tin and place on the wire rack with a sheet of greaseproof paper underneath.
13. Drizzle the white chocolate mixture over the top of the cake.
14. Allow to set slightly before serving.

Vanilla Bean Chocolate Chunk Cookies

 

Why yes this is another chocolate chip cookie recipe.  There have been a few of late haven't there?  But I like them and I like trying out new recipes for them because there are so many out there!  Besides, these were to take in to share with a group during a project meeting and I figured most people would like this sort of cookie.  And if not then I could happily eat them myself.

The original recipe looked very tempting, especially as it used vanilla bean paste.  However, I don't have any of that. What I do have though, is 9 vanilla beans, so I thought I'd make use of one of those instead.  Then decided to add just a smidgen of extract too, just for an extra boost.  It worked out lovely.  I also used chunks instead of chips because that is all the local shop had but that was for the best.  There was so much chocolately goodness in each cookie as a result.  The only other thing I changed was the cooking time.  I kept them in just a bit longer than the original because I prefer some crunch to my biscuits.  They still had a slightly soft middle but not too much.

They were amazing cookies!  So so yummy.  Quite a good size and the amount of chunks in them was great.  Plus, since there was no chilling, they were made and baked rather quick (or as quick as I can go with one tray of 6 in the oven at a time).  Everyone who had one really liked them.  I will say though, I thought they tasted better the day after they were made.  They had firmed up just a little more by then and it was really hard not to keep eating them.  I had to be really restrained around my group.  Not so much after I got the leftovers home!

Recipe - adapted from The Domestic Rebel
Makes about 30

• 340g/12oz plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 170g/6oz butter
• 125g/4.5oz light brown sugar
• 45g/1.5oz granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200g/7oz milk chocolate chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Mix the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cornflour together in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. Beat the granulated and brown sugars together with the butter in a large bowl until smooth and creamy.
4. Remove the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to the sugar butter along with the egg and the vanilla extract.  Beat until well mixed.
5. Add the flour gradually, beating in after each addition.
6. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
7. Roll heaped tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place on the trays spaced 5cm/2inches apart.  Flatten slightly.
8. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are starting to turn golden brown.  Rotate halfway through to ensure even baking.
9. Allow to rest on the trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

White Chocolate and Lemon Truffles

 

I know you came here for delicious truffles but I'm going to sidetrack for a moment first.  It's still blog related but more on the social side rather than the baking.  It won't take too long and then we'll get to the chocolate-y lemony goodness! (Though if you'd rather, you can skip to that.  It starts after the next photo).

I am a shy person, even on the Internet.  Hence I am not the most social of people.  This isn't so great when you are trying to grow an audience for your blog.  I have been slowly trying to raise my game a little by little (fancy new layout, purchasing the domain name, joining a blog challenge) and it has helped quite a bit.  However, there's still lots that I could be doing.  So, first off, I have added a 'Connect With Me' section to my blog.  It's over in the sidebar on the right.
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So you can follow this blog on Pinterest, its RSS Feed, or its brand new Facebook page.  I have only just joined Facebook.  I am a social media recluse who is behind the times.  So I'm still getting the hang of things over there.  I have also installed a handy dandy contact form so you can ask me something without having to leave it in the comments.

Secondly, a couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Gourmandize.co.uk for an interview about this blog.  It went out on February 6th and can be seen here:

Exciting, no?  Well, I was excited.  This blog is starting to go places!  But anyway, enough babble about my social exploits.  On to truffles!

So Friday was Valentine's Day.  As I said last year, Valentine' Day is not really something the fiancé and I pay much mind to.  We're not big on going out and doing stuff, especially not for what is essentially an ordinary day.  That's not to say we never go out but we usually have a better reason for it, like there's a movie we want to see or we just really want pancakes!  But Valentine's Day was basically just another Friday.

However, as is our small tradition, we did make each other something edible again.  Once more, the fiancé attempted fudge.  Unfortunately it didn't turn out like he hoped and he got depressed.  I did try and point out that fudge is hard to do and even I haven't managed to make it the "proper" way yet.  And it does taste nice.  It's just not really fudge.  I, on the other hand, went for something new.  I love excuses to do that because then there's something to write about.  I went for truffles again since they are nice and easy.  And these would be easier than last year's (because last year I made two presents) since there was no coating in chocolate to do.

These were so lovely and simple too!  Aside from the 4 hours chilling time, they are actually really quick to make.  And whilst they still felt soft when I removed the mix to shape and coat in sugar, they were still easy to work with and they firmed up a bit more by the time I presented them to the fiancé.

So his verdict?  Criminal.  Yes, he called them 'criminal'.  The reason?  Because he just wanted to keep eating them.  He says the tang of the lemon hits you first, followed by the melty creaminess of the white chocolate and it is amazing!  Personally, I did not like them because I could taste the cream and I'm not so keen on that.  But I didn't make them for me so the fact that the fiancé enjoyed them is really the only thing that matters, isn't it?

Recipe - adapted from My Baker Lady

Makes about 18

• 100ml/3.5fl.oz double cream
• 2 lemons
• 250g/9oz white chocolate
• Pinch of salt
• 60g/2oz unsalted butter
• 85g/3oz caster sugar

1. Put the cream and zest of one lemon into a small saucepan (preferably not aluminium) and set it over a low heat.
2. Bring the cream to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and then remove from the heat.  Cover tightly and let it sit for about 20 minutes.
3. Put the chocolate, salt and butter in a medium sized, heat proof bowl.
4. Uncover and reheat the cream until it comes to a simmer once more.
5. Pour the cream through a fine meshed sieve into the bowl with the chocolate.  Press down on the lemon zest left in the sieve to strain out as much liquid as possible.
6. Place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (water should not touch the bowl) to melt the chocolate.  Stir the mixture regularly and remove from the heat just before the chocolate has completely melted.
7. Stir the mixture until the chocolate has all melted and the mixture is smooth.  
8. Juice one lemon and add 3 teaspoons of juice to the chocolate mixture and stir in.
9. Transfer to a small bowl and chill for at least 4 hours.  When the mixture has turned cold, cover tightly with clingfilm.
10. When the mixture has gone into the fridge, mix together the caster sugar and the zest of the other lemon, cover and set aside.
11. After 4 hours, remove the mixture from the fridge and use a teaspoon to scoop out balls of mixture (you can roll them into a better shape with your hands if need be) that are about 2.5cm/1inch in diameter.
12. Roll the balls in the lemon sugar until they are completely coated.
13. Store in the fridge in an airtight container.

Cola and Cherry Cookies

 

Baking is seriously good for my soul I think.  It had been nearly a month since I last got a chance (or the energy) to bake something and once I managed to get myself into the kitchen and under way with this bake it felt wonderful.  I have not felt so great in quite a while.  There has been a lot of serious de-motivation going on.  Very serious.  Which then leads to brooding and lack of doing anything.  Not good.  So!  Nothing like a baking challenge to get your groove back, even if just some of it.

Well, being the second Thursday of the month, it is time for the Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge!  The ingredients: Cola and Cherry.

Okay, so this time it wasn't entirely new territory for me.  I have done something with cola before, but not cherry.  However, I remember it being a very popular combination.  A lot of the cola recipes I saw back when I did the Float Cupcakes were cola and cherry.  And of course it is a flavour sold by Coca-Cola.  So I was up for the task of creating something with the flavours.

Since I have made cola cakes previously, I did not feel like doing that again for this challenge.  I wanted to do biscuits!  But how to combine the two flavours?  Why, by making sandwich biscuits.  I decided I wanted to make something similar to my Pink Freens, with a layer of flavoured fondant icing sandwiched between two biscuits.  I knew flavouring icing with jam worked rather well so that would be the cherry bit.  The biscuits would then be cola flavoured.  And since these would be coming out close to Valentine's Day, I figured I could add a little holiday twist by punching a heart shaped hole in the top for the pink fondant to be seen through.

Having made a decision I went looking for ways to make cola cookies.  My initial thought was to find a sugar cookie recipe that I could add the cola flavouring to (either in the form of actual coca-cola, or cola syrup).  Really though, this was overcomplicating things.  I did find a few recipes that involved boiling cola down into a syrup for flavouring but a lot of them recommended using Mexican coke, which has cane sugar in it for its sweetener and I wasn't sure how to go about acquiring that.  Plus there seemed to be mixed reviews on just how cola flavoured the final result was.  Ideally, I wanted something that made use of the cola syrup I already had (though in the end I had to buy a new one anyway since it was out of date) and used a good quantity of it because last time I used it the flavour did not come through very strongly.  And that is exactly what I found over at Sweet Hope Cookies!  Even better was the fact that this dough would not require any chilling time!  I love dough I can use immediately.

It was an amazing dough!  It came together wonderfully after a little trial and error with ingredient amounts (since I was halving the recipe and some ingredient amounts did not halve very easily).  It wasn't too sticky or too dry, it rolled great and it cut great.  It barely spread during baking and the end result was a cookie bursting with cola flavour!  

The fondant bit took a little longer to get right as I wasn't sure how much jam I needed to make a really nice, cherry flavour.  So I kept having the fiancé test it until he was satisfied.  Really I think it depends on the quality of your jam and how strong you want the flavour.  So the instructions in the recipe are to keep going until you are happy with the taste.  Of course, if you have access to cherry extract it will probably make you life much easier.

All in all, I thought these came out really well!  The fiancé calls them indulgent because they are quite thick biscuits but are not too hard or too soft and do not skimp on the fondant.  Plus they taste like cherry cola, which is what I was aiming for.

Recipe - makes about 18


Cookies - adapted from Sweet Hope Cookies

• 400g/14oz plain flour
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 1/3 tsp baking powder
• 115g/4oz butter
• 85g/3oz granulated sugar
• 85g/3oz light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 60ml/2fl.oz cola syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line some baking trays with greaseproof paper (I ended up with about 5 lots of 8 cookies per tray but only own 2 trays of which I can cook one at a time so...tray number is up to you).
2. Sift the plain flour, salt and baking powder together into a bowl and set aside.
3. Beat the butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy.
4. Add the egg and mix in until incorporated.
5. Add the vanilla extract and the cola syrup and beat until well blended.
6. Add the flour mixture a little at a time, beating well after each addition.  Towards the end you may need to use your hands to bring it all together into a nice smooth dough.
7. Sprinkle a clean surface with a little flour and roll out the dough to 0.5cm/0.25inches thick.  Use a 6.5cm/2.5inch circular cookie cutter to cut out an even number of circles.
8. For half the circles, use a small, heart shaped cutter to cut shapes out of the centre.
9. Transfer cookies to the prepared trays and bake for about 12 minutes.  
10. Allow to cool on the trays before transferring to a wire rack.

Fondant Filling:  

• 200g/oz ready-to-roll fondant icing
• Smooth, seedless cherry jam
• Lots of icing sugar

This is a bit of a trial and error bit.  It really depends on your jam and if you are happy with the flavour.

1. Knead the icing on a clean surface dusted with icing sugar until it is nice and soft and easy to mould.
2. Put 2-3 tbsp jam into a saucepan and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until it has thickened.  Allow to cool slightly.
3. Flatten the icing out slightly, place the jam in the centre and add 2 tbsp icing sugar.
4. Fold up and knead to spread the jam throughout the icing.  Add more icing sugar if necessary to make the icing less sticky.  You want to get back to how it was before you added the jam.
5. Taste the icing.  If you think it needs more flavour, repeat steps 2-4 until you are happy with the result.
6. Roll out the fondant to just less than 0.5cm/0.25inches.  Cut out circles using a 6.5cm/2.5inch cutter.
7. Turn the biscuit circles without the holes in upside down. 
8. Place a fondant circle on top of each biscuit and then cover with a holed one.  Squeeze together gently to bind the cookies and icing so they do not fall apart.