cake – Page 3 – Baking with Gab

Egg hunts and ten essential Easter recipes

Easter is a fantastic time of the year. No matter how much a person may dislike religious celebrations or the hype that supermarkets create months beforehand, nobody can argue with days off and an excuse to eat life-endangering amounts of chocolate.

I don’t think I could possibly rate my favourite holiday (I don’t discriminate, I love them all), but Easter is pretty great. Every year, regardless of location or participants, my family holds an Easter egg hunt. It started when my brothers and I were little – we would go to our cousins’ farm in Orange and the Easter bunny would visit in the night. Easter morning, all the kids would wake up bright and early, line up and wait for permission to begin the race, much to the delight of the adults.

My cousins’ farm was the best place for the Easter bunny to secret away little chocolate Easter eggs; there were gnarled tree branches, lavender bushes, paving stones, fence posts and garden beds. We spent every Easter at the farm pretty much from when I was born until I was about 18.

Clearly the tradition continued way past our youth, because nobody wanted to give it up.

In recent years, we’ve not been able to go to the farm, so we’ve started an Easter egg hunt in Sydney. Now, thankfully, there is a new generation of kids who can partake in the Easter egg hunt, and while I’m slightly jealous of them for being able to join in the hunt, I love their enthusiasm and wild-eyed bemusement at seeing that Easter eggs have been delivered, and scattered throughout the garden by the Easter bunny.

Last year’s Easter was adorable (I spammed my Instagram followers with all of the cuteness), I can only assume that this year’s Easter, which is going to be at the farm again, will be equally as cute.

If you’re not excited about Easter yet, maybe I can entice you with some delicious Easter-appropriate recipes.

Simple Sunday cinnamon scrolls

Easter pavlova

Vanilla fig tarts

Honey jumbles

Caramel egg brownies

Citrus hot cross buns

Traditional hot cross buns

Nutella raspberry puffs

mess

Crème eggs

Chocolate blueberry friands

Happy baking, and happy Easter!!

Honey pear cake and oversupply

This post came about because of an over supply of two things.

Pears and honey.

So I created a honey pear cake.

Makes sense, right?

I was lucky enough to receive another delivery of free pears last week (I spoke about the first delivery here.) I’m currently trying to find more ways to use these babies up, because I’ve eaten about 50, poached close to a dozen, given away what seems like bagfuls, and I’m still left with a bowl of them which are threatening to go bad on me. Continue reading “Honey pear cake and oversupply”

Guinness cake and contrast

My nan used to drink Guinness. She was a tiny, white-haired sparrow of a woman, and I like to think that the occasional glass of Guinness represented her strong, independent streak. She wasn’t a big drinker. In fact, a 440ml can could last her a week or more (and was often thrown out by my mother!)I remember this vividly, because my brothers and I would vie for nan’s affections to try and win the floating widget that bobbed about inside the can. Continue reading “Guinness cake and contrast”

Chocolate cardamon pear cake and Autumn

I’ve still got a crazy amount of pears to work my way through. And it’s glorious. I wrote about being given too many pears last week and I’ve not yet run out of things to bake with them!

The weather in Sydney turned pretty dismal this week, so I’ve been poaching and baking and snuggling up with Norman at every opportunity.

It’s also the first day of Autumn today! This cake is perfect for Autumn because it’s not quite heavy enough for a Winter’s pudding, but it’s not too Summery either because of the almondy hints and the caramel notes created by the brown sugar. The chocolate and cardamom mingle beautifully to create warm, rich little mouthfuls, while the pear brings a lovely moistness to the cake.

Best served sprinkled with icing sugar, as it needs very little accompaniment. If you’re feeling especially indulgent on a dreary, rainy day, serve warm, with a dollop thick cream.

Chocolate cardamon pear cake

180g butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup almond meal
1 cup self-raising flour
¼ cup milk
1 tsp ground cardamom
100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
2 pears

Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease and line a 21cm cake tin.

Cream together the butter and brown sugar until pale. Add in the eggs, followed by your almond meal. Sift in the self-raising flour and add in the milk to thin out the mixture. Mix the cardamom into the batter thoroughly, then fold the chocolate chunks in as well.

Peel and core your pears, then cut them into thin wedges. Arrange the wedges around the cake in whatever fashion you like, pressing them in slightly. I tend to organise them so that they fit neatly into slices once the cake is cooked.

Pop the cake in the oven for 50 minutes. Remove when a cake inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool before removing from the tin – this cake is delicate, so needs a little extra care.

Lemon pistachio cake and stories

I had such a lovely day. I explored a suburb near my home called Newtown – I went with friends and we tried a new café, explored a graveyard and went antique shopping. These are all things that everybody should do more often!

I loved that Brewtown Newtown served their tea on wooden boards shaped specifically to hold the teacup, teapot, creamer and spoon. The space was off King Street (the main road in Newtown), so things were a little bit more relaxed, and we were able to stay at our table long after we’d finished our meals and swap gossip. Continue reading “Lemon pistachio cake and stories”

Blackberry jam cake and being away

This post was done in advance. I’m in Cairns and I will have been instagramming like mad (check here to see all of the photos), but I made sure I wrote up this cake recipe before I left. It is pretty divine. It’s full of spices and sweetness in just the right measures. It’s super moist too – it’s kind of like a really fragrant sticky date pudding.

I bought the blackberry jam when I was away in Mudgee recently. I still haven’t blogged about Mudgee yet, but I loved it.

Continue reading “Blackberry jam cake and being away”

Raspberry and walnut crumble cake and rain

This rainy weather is quite persistent.

It’s torrential, inhibiting and makes me want to stay inside. I got soaked walking from the car to the grocery store, even though I’d parked right out the front!

Luckily, however, I’m still unemployed (actually, the luck of my unemployment is debateable), because I have no need to go outside!

The soaking that I received in my brief trip to the shops was worth it, because I bought mushrooms for a recipe which I’ll post tomorrow. It’s hearty and warm and full of flavour, which is perfect in this weather. Continue reading “Raspberry and walnut crumble cake and rain”

Spooky spider cupcakes and witches

Even though I’ve never trick or treated, or had clusters of kids roaming my streets in dress-ups, I love that there are parts of the world which are neighbourly enough for this to happen! I’ve got some pretty decent neighbours, but I know that there are a few grinches on the street as well… my brothers and I used to think that one elderly woman who lived next door was a witch!!

We’re yet to see evidence to prove us wrong.

She used to hoard our tennis/bouncy/basket/cricket balls when they went over her fence – she’d line them up so that we could see them from the top of our steps, as though goading us into knocking on her front door. Then when we ran out of balls, we’d play scissors, paper, rock to determine who would knock on her door. Continue reading “Spooky spider cupcakes and witches”

Perfect icing and more unbirthdays!

If you read the last post, all about the unbirthday party I threw, you would have seen the cake that I posted. I’ve put up the recipe for the the cake before (here), but I haven’t posted the Swiss meringue buttercream recipe for some reason. This buttercream is gorgeously silky in texture and makes your cake look super professional.

This recipe makes enough to generously cover a sandwich cake – it will fill the gap in between the two layers and then cover the cake entirely. Continue reading “Perfect icing and more unbirthdays!”

Lime and raspberry cupcakes and unbirthdays

I know too many people who were born in the last three months of the year, October is particularly packed. Lots of people, including the Boy, must be celebrated in such proximity to one another that I decided to throw another unbirthday party. It’s not that I dislike birthdays (quite the opposite, actually), it’s just there are not enough days to celebrate people properly!

The last unbirthday party I threw was mainly for one person, whereas this one was aimed at three people. It is worth noting that anyone can claim an unbirthday – as long as their birthday doesn’t fall on the say that it is celebrated!