Tag: Bakes

Last-Minute Fruit Cake

This fruit cake can be made anytime during the year. It is especially useful if you need to bake a cake at the last-minute and have not much time. I baked 2 fruit cakes this Christmas. One was a last-minute cake to give as a gift to my Neighbor and relatives. The other was a traditional brandied Christmas cake.

I put a lot of time and thought into planning my recipe for both the cakes weeks before Christmas. It was worth the effort. Someone asked if the cake was store-bought. I was happy to tell them that it was, in fact, homemade!😇. I feel motivated to post more recipes here when I get good compliments on my recipes. I credit everyone of you for making this happen. Please share your thoughts. Tell me how you spent your Christmas this year. Leave a comment below if you can spare a minute of your time.

Thank you and have a Happy New Year! 😊💫☃

 

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hr 10 minutes

Need: 20 cm / 8 in round deep cake tin or spring-clip tin greased and lined (or use a ready made cake liner)

 

Ingredients

Dried FruitsRaisins – 100 g

                     Black currents – 20 g

Candied Cherries – 10 pieces, halved

Orange juice – 3/ 4 cup, of 2 large oranges

 

Unsalted butter, softened – 200 g + extra for greasing

Brown sugar (fine) – 200 g / 1 cup

Plain Flour / Top flour – 225 g

Large whole eggs – 4, at room temperature

Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Ground cinnamon – 1 tsp

Nutmeg – 1 tsp

pinch of salt

 

Nuts:

Cashew nuts – 70 g, chopped

Almonds, slivered – 20 g

 

 

Directions

  1. Place the dried fruits like raisins and currants together with cherries, orange juice into a deep pot. Bring it to a boil on high heat. Turn on the heat and simmer for approximately 15 minutes.
dried fruits

Leave it to cool or if you have time leave it overnight or as long as you can. Coat the nuts in 3 tbsp of all-purpose flour and set it aside.

IMG_9523

Preparing the baking tin:

2. In the meantime or on the day of baking, butter a 20 cm round cake tin. Then line both the bottom and the sides with baking paper. Make sure the paper peaks over the top by about 5 cm.

Butter again the base and the sides. Set aside.

IMG_9535

Preparing the cake mixture:

3. In a large bowl, combine sugar, butter, flour, eggs, and vanilla. Then add baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt except for dried fruits and nuts.

Start by mixing with a wooden spoon to combine everything gently. If you use a hand mixer too soon, it can cause the flour to scatter. This will create a mess.

IMG_9524

Now use the hand mixer and make sure to mix everything really well, around 1.5 – 2 minutes on medium speed. Once its mixed well enough, detach the beaters from the hand mixer and remove any cake batter on it.

IMG_9525

4. Add the dried fruit mixture along with its syrup. Mix with the wooden spoon. Then mix in the nuts coated in flour. Give a good mix.

IMG_9528

Nuts Coated in flour | Fruit Cake

Preheat the oven to 140°C/Gas Mark 1 or for 10 minutes.

5. Spoon the cake mixture into the cake tin. Level the top using a spatula. Bake in the Center of the oven for 70 minutes.

If using a convection oven, place it on the lower rack. Check once after 45 minutes.

IMG_9536

It is cooked when a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. I do this without removing the cake tin out of the oven. Do not worry if it has turned light brown on top and needs more time to cook.

If the top turns dark brown in color before it’s cooked, cover it with parchment paper.

Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin. If you wish to decorate the cake you can do so after its completely cooled.

IMG_9538

IMG_9546

Packing as gift. Forgive me for my bad photography skills.

IMG_9544

 

 

 

(more…)

Read More

Moist Cassava Cake (or Tapioca Cake)

Cassava cake is one of my favorite snack with a light, delicious, aromatic flavor. It is one of the traditional tea time snack that looked inviting to me at the local bakeries in Singapore. It might look simple but once you taste it the texture of the cake is supremely addictive. Tapioca cake in Malay is called as Kuih Bingka Ubi.

Tapioca is extracted from Cassava root. The flesh can be chalk-white or yellowish. Hence, the color.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cook : 1 hr 30 minutes

 

Ingredients

Round baking pan 25 cm

Parchment paper

Grated tapioca – 1 kg, at room temperature (1.4 kg when I bought it before peeling.You can use a store bought grated tapioca or manually grate it if not available).

Eggs – 2

Granulated Sugar – 1 cup

Salt – 1/4 tsp

Undiluted coconut milk – 375 ml

Water – 1/4 cup

 

Directions

For Grating the tapioca

If you have grated tapioca that’s bought from the market skip these steps.

 

+ Peel the cassava root.

Cassava root, tapioca

Tapioca, Cassava

 

+ Grate the tapioca with a grater as shown below.

Grated tapioca

 

+ Once the grating is done, use a 15 inch long cotton towel. Place the grated tapioca at the center of the towel and get the ends of the towel together in your palm and squeeze the juices (or tapioca starch) from the grated tapioca until dry. (I did this part by part so it gets easier to squeeze excess liquid from them).

Tapioca starch

+ Place the liquid-starch aside. In about 15 mins – 30 mins you will notice a white powder settling at the bottom.

 

 

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius (350 degree F) for 10 mins, grease the pan with parchment paper.

Round baking pan, parchment paper

2. Carefully pour in the liquid ( liquid-starch ) into the grated tapioca leaving behind the white starch at the bottom. 

Tapioca Starch

3. In a separate bowl combine eggs, sugar and salt. Mix until the sugar is partially dissolved. Pour this to the above mixture.

eggs, sugar

eggs, salt, sugar

4. Add coconut milk and water. Mix well.

coconut milk, Ayam brand

grated tapioca, sugar,salt,eggs

5. Gradually, pour the mixture into the baking tray. Tap the edges to settle any unfilled gaps.

baking tray, tapioca

 

6. Bake for 1 hour at 180 degree Celsius. Insert a skewer into the center and make sure it comes out clean. (I baked it for 1 hr 30 minutes to get a nice color at the top).

 

7.  Remove it from the oven and let it cool completely.

Cassava cake, tapioca cake

Tapioca cake, Cassava cake

Storage:

+ Store in airtight container in the fridge.

+ Reheat and serve.

 

 

 

Read More