BakeBakeBake

I'm making a white cake and frosting the outside with almond Italian meringue buttercream. I'm looking for a recipe for a creamy raspberry filling for the cake that's not too sweet. Maybe something with cream cheese? Or a mousse?
Any suggestions?

This is a lovely and fairly easy dessert which can be made in advance and frozen - I made it today for Sunday lunch, when we have family coming over. Sliced peaches work well because they can be arranged so nicely, but it would be very easy to adapt to almost any fruit. The frangipane filling is from this recipe and to my almond-crazy family (you should see the amount of marzipan on my aunt's Christmas cake) is pretty much ambrosia. I like mine with the peaches set into the frangipane, but if you want them more arranged on top add them on after the tart has already baked for half an hour or so.



( Recipe under cut )

This was my first time properly baking bread, so I thought it would be good to ease myself in with something not requiring long rising times or complicated preparation (it's based on this recipe, which is supposed to take half an hour, although they aren't quite that quick). The rolls came out well - quite dense and flavourful, and very good toasted. The tomatoes can be replaced with sundried tomatoes if you prefer, and the amount I've given for the chilli pickle should be subject to variation based on how hot yours is; I used a pretty spicy one and three teaspoons gave a flavour that was noticeable but not that hot.



Ingredients
- 450g wholemeal bread flour
- 300ml warm water
- 75ml olive oil
- 2 sachets/tablespoons dried yeast
- 2 tsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 3 tsp chilli pickle

Instructions
- Combine the water, oil, sugar and yeast and leave to rest for 15-20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 200°C.
- Use a dough hook to mix in the (sifted) flour, salt, egg, tomatoes and chilli pickle and knead the dough for five minutes with the mixer on medium speed.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured chopping board and shape it into 12 balls.
- Place them on a lightly oiled baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes, until risen and slightly crisp to the touch.

For all of us that remember neapolitan ice cream - this cake is those tastes, only in cake form. Brownie bottom, Strawberry Cheesecake filling, Vanilla Bean cake top.

For the recipe (it's long, but not complicated), including a .pdf of it, head on over to my blog. Or, continue reading.


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Oh my, these are delicious! The crust is buttery and crunchy with oats.
The filling is full of rhubarb and topped with crystalized ginger.

Lots more photos and info at The Alchemist.


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Hi fellow bakebakebakers,

I'm planning to make lemon-poppyseed muffins for a uni meeting on Thursday but time will be short then. So I was wondering if it works to make ahead the batter tomorrow and then put it into the fridge until I bake it the next day.

I'm also a bit worried the lemon juice or rind might turn it bitter after some time. Could this happen?

If you've tried this with a muffin batter before and have some experience, I'd be glad to hear your advice.

Thanks a lot.

xx Sun

So in my post on apple fritters I mentioned that this past semester I cooked, as a part of a team, Sunday brunch for the members of my co-op. Because Sunday is traditionally a day for several members of the house to sleep in or be hung over we only had to prepare a buffet for about half the house, say 30-35 people. At the end of the semester several people complimented us saying that Sunday brunch was the best meal of the week. One of the most common reasons they said that was because of the apple turnovers I baked about every other week. Well I can tell you I was doubly flattered. These turnovers are bit time consuming to prep and are easiest to assemble quickly with at least two people but they are very tasty. Once again the recipe the recipe was modified from one on allrecipes.com and is scaled to produce 45 servings, that way people at my co-op could have seconds if they wished.

Also keep in mind that because the co-op kitchen is designed to feed between 70-80 people three times a day it is basically an industrial kitchen. We even get inspected twice a year. (This past February we earned a 97). Therefore the baking sheets and ovens are rather oversized and I can do things like put 45 turnovers in the same oven at the same time. Heck I could double the recipe and do 90 if I used our second oven. This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you make the full recipe you'll probably be able to put 9 turnovers per standard sized baking sheet and one sheet per oven so you'll need to do about five full trays. Granted because they cook in about 10-12 minutes it's not totally horrible but still, I thought people might appreciate a heads-up.

Now that I've finished blathering, here they are.


( Apple Turnovers )

Okay, as soon as I read this month's theme was South America I had to post something. I have many ideas and I think I'll be posting them too, as soon as I make them, but I posted a recipe for a South American dish on a blog I had last year and I am sharing it here now. 

Originally posted by foodstory at Aidina's carrot cake for my granny