All posts tagged: bakes

Halwa Spiced Carrot Cake with Condensed Milk Icing & Gold Leaf

Published by

Styled and shot by Lauren Miller (www.laurenmiller.co.uk) (@millerisere) and Faye Wears (www.forksknivesblog.wordpress.com) (@forks_and_knives) Halwa is the most amazing Indian dessert – it’s a carrot-based, nut ridden version of our rice pudding made with loads of condensed milk, saffron, cardamom and golden sultanas. I thought how amazing it would be to have all of the flavours that make halwa taste so fab baked into a  light, spongy carrot cake. So I tried it. And it worked a dream! My fool proof carrot cake recipe has taken many forms in my kitchen (usually depending on what dried fruit and nuts I have in my cupboards) but this version is very special. It has a bold, aromatic taste that works really well with sweet carrots and orange zest. If you can’t get hold of cardamom powder, you can use ground cinnamon or allspice instead. Condensed milk is an essential ingredient in halwa, and here it gives a lovely shine and gooey texture to the icing, which trickles beautifully down the sides of the cake. It’s a perfect wintery treat Ingredients For the …

Blackberry Marble Cheesecake

Published by

More fool you bakers! This ‘no bake’ cheesecake looks like it has taken ages to prepare, but in reality it takes 20 mins to put together and 2 hours to set in the fridge. Try it now while blackberries are in season and free on the roadside! Sit down and watch this week’s Great British bakers struggle to work their ovens while you tuck into ‘no bake’ cheesecake heaven. Serves 6-8 people in an 8 inch loose based tart tin For the buttery bisuit base: 100g butter 250g disgestive biscuits 100g soft light brown sugar For the cream cheese topping:  180g/ 1 tub of cream cheese 300ml double cream 200g icing sugar For the blackberry marble drizzle: 250g blackberries 1 lemon 50g caster sugar mint leaves Reserve 10 blackberries for garnish later and add the rest to a small pan with the juice of half a lemon and the caster sugar. Heat until bubbling then simmer for 10 minutes until the berries have broken down and the sauce has thickened. Then leave to cool. Gently heating the butter in a small …

Cooking with matcha

Published by

I have recently rekindled my love of green tea after discovering matcha – a powdered green tea made from specially selected green tea plants, which are shade grown for a few weeks before being ground up. The result is a clean, smooth-tasting tea that doesn’t have that horribly bitter after taste that first put me off regular green. It’s really easy to drink and has helped me through many a starvation lull on one of my fast days, as i’m currently trialing out the intermittent fasting (or the fast diet) in an attempt to (pun-alert) have my cake and eat it too (sorry.) But I’m more interested in matcha being used as an ingredient in cooking. The first time I tasted matcha was in a life changing dessert at So Japanese, Soho. This place was recommended to me by an ex colleague for its unbeatable sushi (and at a reasonable price for sushi) but I would also highly recommend the Japanese desserts. The Matcha & White Chocolate Cake with Black Sesame Ice Cream & Fruit Mousse   This was ordered …

Shortbread Jammy Dodgers

Published by

My first memory of cooking is making salt dough decorations. If you’ve never made salt dough with kids it’s so much fun. The recipe is basic: 2 parts flour, 1 part salt & 1 part water. Mix into a dough, roll and cut into whatever shapes you want. Pierce each with a pen so you can string them up later. Bake in a low oven at 100˚c for 3-4 hours until they are completely dry. Cool, then paint and hang with string. Note: do not eat! You will be sick. Now, the only biscuits I really enjoy baking (and can be trusted to make) are ones where all the ingredients are mixed up in a food processor, rolled and cut with my retro cutters, just like salt dough. The shortbread recipe I use is from Adam Stokes on Great British Chefs. It’s tried and tested and i’ve made them so many times – it makes light buttery biscuits that are lush and soft in the middle with a short snap. I’ve taken the vanilla and cinnamon from the recipe …

Real Cinnamon Pretzels – I don’t know about you…

Published by

I don’t know about you but when I’m traipsing through a shopping centre I always walk a little slower past the Mr. Pretzels stand, hoping they will start offering tasters. That smell of warm bread and cinnamon as the staff swing ropes of dough in the air like gymnasts puts me in a trance. So when my cousin got engaged and a Bavarian theme was decided for her Hen Do I got really excited. The perfect texture for a soft pretzel is crisp on the outside, soft and chewy in the inside. Pretzels, like bagels, are steamed in bicarbonate of soda before baking which creates a firm crust and keeps a fluffy middle! I referred to a wonderful recipe from thingswebake.co.uk, for tips and picture demonstrations. My version is an adaptation of this recipe: My own Mini Cinnamon Pretzels are lovely and spiced, bite-sized, with a chocolate dipping sauce to dunk them into. I have upped the cinnamon and sugar so they are even more like those classic shopping centre pretzels! For the pretzel dough: 140g plain flour 140g bread flour 1/2 packet quick yeast …