Katrina's polenta cake for Nicky

January 11, 2011

Katrina made a real tangy polenta cake for Nicky's birthday. Was delicious with yoghurt.

250g butter, softened
Finely grated rind of 2 lemons
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup lemon juice
150g (1 1/2 cups) ground almonds
1 cup fine polenta

Syrup
1/4 cup each lemon juice and sugar

Preheat oven to 160C. Lightly grease and line a 20cm round cake pan.
Beat the butter, rind and sugar, until light and fluffy. Slowly add the egg yolks, beating well. Stir in the
juice, ground almonds and polenta.
Whip the egg whites, until soft peaks form. Carefully fold into the polenta mixture.
Spread the mixture into the prepared pans. Bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre
comes out clean.
Meanwhile, boil the lemon juice and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Spoon evenly over the
hot cake.
Excellent served warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or yoghurt. Also great with
Limoncello liqueur poured over it.

Recipe by Pat Churchill.
(Tried to contact you Pat, but couldn't access your email address)


 

Frances's first macarons - rustic as!

December 28, 2010

Here they are, my first attempt at the fancy French macarons. They look pretty rustic with their cracked surfaces. I didn't have time to leave them for 20 mins before baking, hence the crackling, but you know what - I like this look. And it didn't affect the taste, it was still an intense sugary buttery mouthful. I followed the same recipe as Ginny used except I used lemon instead of lime and only put basil in the filling. Not as tangy but I still have plenty of ground almonds so will be mak...

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Mama Chan classic: brandy snaps

December 28, 2010

Mama Chan always makes brandy snaps for Xmas. But this year after our Xmas dinner we just had pavlova and fruit salad, which was absolutely fine as we all had food comas anyway. Then as we were cleaning up she said, "Oh, I forgot the brandy snaps!", and spent the next ten minutes trying to remember where she put them. No cupboard was left closed or cake tin unopened in the quest to find the elusive snaps. They were under a table in a see-through container with brazil nuts (so she thought it w...
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Ginny's Brooklyn brownie - alright already!

December 27, 2010


From Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

(sorry about the imperial measures, but you can figure them out!)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 oz dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
8 oz unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. ...
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Frances makes ugly but good - brutti ma buoni

December 24, 2010

I made these GF cookies for our Bake Club meet. The recipe is from my friend Sarah, via Ray McVinnie in the NZ Herald, thank you, and I used a technique from another recipe re heating up the egg whites. I bought bulk ground almonds from Davis Trading in Mt Wellington - very reasonable price for 1kg. I forgot to dust icing sugar on top. I think that's why they became sticky by the end of the day. But still tasted great.

1 c ground almonds (or hazelnuts. You can also finely chop instead of using...
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Alessandra's cute calissons and fab frittata

December 23, 2010


We were very lucky to have pro chef and food writer Alessandra and her family join us at our second Bake Club meet. She made gorgeous calissons (marzipan-like ground almond bites), petit fours (sponge dipped in chocolate, topped with raspberries) and a super soft spongey frittata with homegrown zucchini and zucchini flowers. Step-by-step pics and more info on her blog here. Yep, she definitely deserved her Bake Club badge!
Bake Club is going through a gluten free phase at the moment so we real...
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Nicola vs Nigella - the rhubarb polenta cake bake-off

December 22, 2010

What a huge and beautiful cake Nicola made for our second Bake Club meet. Extra points for the black and white plate and bourgainvillea decoration. Nic noted that last time she made it she used homegrown rhubarb which infused the cake with a stunning pinky colour. Rhubarb is out of season at the mo so the bought rhubarb didn't produce the rich colour, but the cake was still v soft and delicious.

Rhubarb & Cornmeal Cake from Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'

500g rhubarb
300g caste...

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Our first banana cake on Bake Club - c/o Ginny

December 20, 2010

I have adapted this from a recipe given to me by a student in my department, it was her grandmother's, originally (the student was considerably older than me), and makes a damn fine banana cake, I think perhaps the best I have tasted. I don't like bananas, but in cake like this, that's a different story. easy, fool-proof one could say. works well in a round or a ring tin, but then bake for slightly less time. I would just say if using chocolate it probably pays to line the base of the ...
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Frances's self-crusting quiche cake

December 20, 2010

At the 2nd Bake Club meet I made a quiche in a fancy cake tin.

4 Free Range Eggs
1C Milk
1C Rice Flour
1t Baking Powder
1C Grated Cheese
Salt & Pepper
Any vegetables you like cut into small pieces. I used mushrooms, asparagus, tomatoes and purple basil

Mix together eggs, milk, salt and pepper, then add flour and baking powder until just combined. Add in vegies and cheese. Pour into 20/23cm greased tin and bake at 220 C for 20-25 mins. Leave 5-10 mins before turning out.

Recipe f...


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Ginny does Nigella's lemon polenta cake

December 15, 2010

Ginny says: I would recommend NOT doubling the cornmeal, which I did not paying attention to quantities. Made it crunchier than I would have liked.

This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. It is a good marriage: the flavoursome grittiness of the polenta and tender rubble of ground almonds provide so much better a foil for the wholly desirable dampness of the drizzle than does the usual flour. If you were to try to ima...


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WELCOME 2 BAKE CLUB -
MAY THE CAKE B WITH U

EST. 2010

Frances C loves to bake. She's also a freelance editor and DJ. She shares some of her adventures, culinary or otherwise, on Instagram.


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CAKE — THE FINAL FRONTIER

Special thanks to Kat Wade of 6twenty.com for our Bake Club cake monster logo.
 

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