Browsing Archive: May, 2011

Slow Food Waitakere - Japanese cooking class

Posted by Frances Chan on Monday, May 30, 2011, In : food blog

Our end result: bento lunch boxes
I joined Slow Food Waitakere this month and on Sunday 8 May went to my first event: a Japanese cooking class held at Pine Valley B&B in Silverdale, hosted by Kazuyo Friedlander.

Our hosts, from left: Kazuyo, Eri, Chikako

First, Eri did a soy milk and tofu-making demo.

Eri strains the boiled soy beans through a cloth then puts the mixture in a mould.

Then Chikako showed us how to make several dishes:
Buttercup and bacon croquettes
Daikon radish ume...

Bake Club reaches 100 recipes!

Posted by Frances Chan on Thursday, May 26, 2011, In : food blog

Congratulations to us! There are now more than 100 recipes on Bake Club since our launch in August 2010. Thanks to all the contributors – 19 of us so far! I am very proud of the little website that we created and look forward to posting many more pics and recipes from you, your friends and family, and anyone out there who would like their baking creations archived on the world wide web. The recipe index is looking mighty healthy. Keep ‘em coming and happy baking to all.

Mama Chan’s Chinese sponge

Posted by Bake Club on Thursday, May 26, 2011, In : small cakes

Mama Chan got the special flower-shaped sponge tins from Hong Kong a while back. So her sponges look just like the ones you’d buy at a Chinese bakery.

½ c sugar
2 eggs
whisk until pale and creamy

fold in:
1/2 c flour
2 Tb cornflour
1 tb oil

Pour into greased tins. Bake at 190 C for 12-15 mins. That little bit of oil makes these sponges a different texture to other sponges.

Frances makes proper lentil pie

Posted by Bake Club on Thursday, May 26, 2011, In : savoury

What to do with leftover cooked lentils and ready-rolled pastry? Make a good ol’ pie with bottom and top crust.
I blind baked the bottom crust for about 20-25 mins at 180 C.
I made the filling by sautéing these finely chopped veges:
1 onion
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 carrot
1 stick celery
1 pepper
few sundried tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander powder
salt and pepper

To the cooked veges I added 2 cups cooked brown lenti...

Dark chocolate and feijoa cake by Frances

Posted by Bake Club on Monday, May 23, 2011, In : big cakes

This is my attempt at Alessandra Zecchini's chocolate and fig cake. She used fresh figs, which looked beautiful and pinky, but I didn't have any on hand. The feijoas aren't so aesthetically pleasing but it still tasted good; the tart feijoa contrasts well with the chocolate.

250 g bar of Whittaker's Dark Ghana Chocolate
100 g butter
3 eggs, whites beaten into stiff peaks
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
3 tbs self raising flour
10 feijoas peeled and cut in half

Melt chocolat...

Tricia’s carrot cake

Posted by Bake Club on Monday, May 23, 2011, In : big cakes

Frances does Jamie’s honey and pistachio semolina cake

Posted by Frances Chan on Saturday, May 21, 2011, In : big cakes

I quite enjoyed Jamie Oliver's TV series travelling to different cities. In Athens he whipped us this cake and I recreated it with success using homemade yoghurt.
5 eggs
225g yoghurt
225g caster sugar
75g ground almonds
zest of lemon and orange
150g plain flour
200g polenta or semolina
2 tsp baking powder
200ml olive oil

Syrup:
100ml honey
juice of lemon and orange
150g toasted, chopped pistachios

Mix all the ingreds and pour into 20-22cm cake tin greased and floured. ...

Mama Maria's apple (or pear) cake

Posted by Bake Club on Friday, May 20, 2011, In : big cakes

3 eggs
7 apples (or pears)
1 ¼ c vegetable oil
1 ½ c sugar
2 ½ c flour
pinch salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp
cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 c raisins

Turn oven to 350 deg F.

Peel and cut apples (or pears). Put aside. Put flour in a small bowl. Mix in cinnamon and baking soda.

Mix oil and sugar together in another bowl. Add 1 egg at a time to bowl, then vanilla. When mixed in add apples, raisins and flour mixture.

Pour into a 20cm ring tin and cake tin. Bake for 1 �...

Ginny makes Nigel Slater's chocolate hazelnut cake

Posted by Bake Club on Wednesday, May 18, 2011, In : big cakes

Below is what Nigel says about this cake ... I can't find fault with him, in any way. It was delightful.

However: I bought pre-toasted hazelnuts and accidentally put a mix of nutmeg and cinnamon into the cake (because I didn't read the spice jar label... it wasn't a disaster!)
I left the cinnamon out of the icing, and I dressed it with pomegranate. Yum!!

CHOCOLATE CHIP HAZELNUT CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE CINNAMON BUTTER CREAM by Nigel Slater

I like birthday cake. I love maki...

Super Size Me 5 – Taking bites of the Big Apple

Posted by Frances Chan on Tuesday, May 17, 2011, In : food blog

Spring has sprung in NYC - tulips at the Rockefeller Center; view from the Top of the Rock

My final instalment of this trip is about our five holiday days in New York. Accommodation hassles and pounding the pavement tired us out somewhat, so we sought solace in good food, and weren’t disappointed. We arrived at Greenwich Village on a spectacular sunny Sunday and Bleecker St was buzzing. I had a hankering for comforting Italian and we fortuitously came across the original Ra...

Feijoa and lime muffins by Ginny

Posted by Bake Club on Monday, May 2, 2011, In : small cakes

From Lauraine Jacobs in the Listener - makes 10 muffins.

3 juicy limes
60g butter, melted
2 large eggs
200g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
100g sugar
1 cup peeled and diced feijoas

Preheat oven to 180C; line a 12 muffin tray with paper cup liners (don't decide not to, they go sticky!)
Use a zester to strip the zest of 1 lime, then juice it and the other two. reserve the zest aside for the top of the muffins.
Add the lime juice to a bowl with the butter and eggs, and whisk u...
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