Orange Yoghurt Cake

To be honest, this post was meant to hold a good ol' South African dessert. Only fair after the All American post before it but not all is fair in pregnancy and cravings and so the Local is Lekker post will have to wait.

Don't you worry though, this post is full of sweetness just right for the winter season. The perfect cake to bake if you don't want to spend too long out from under the covers and ready so quick you could probably bake it just before guest arrive for coffee.

Let em take you back to Tuesday afternoon. After checking with the whole family what the plans were for supper I was left with "make something" and my porridge brain shut down and no ideas other than "spaghetti bolognese" would come up. There was no mince and what I really wanted to do was curl up under a blanket and stare blankly at the TV screen. The latter won and I was delighted that "up next" on the Food Network was Ina Garten. Aha! I thought, she will definitely have something that will inspire dinner.

I was wrong, between the Baked Salmon (I don't like salmon, yes yes I know) and the Oriental noodle salad (Don't get me wrong, it looked good...and summery) nothing really caught my eye. Why do I bring up her show then? Well her dessert, lemon yoghurt cake, did. Off I ran to get pen and paper and rewound the segment to copy down ingredients and instructions and then rushed off to the kitchen, forgetting the warmth of the blanket and the vapid calm of watching TV

Into the kitchen I dashed and checked the fridge. Plain yoghurt...hmm just 1 small tub but I did have some leftover inkomazi/maas (Leben or sour milk), that should work. Then turn to the fruit bowl to check for lemons...plenty but the oranges...ooo. With that a cake was born.

A perfectly easy cake and one I have never baked before so perfectly fitting for Tandy Sinclair's  competition to win Le Creuset competition (click the link to see their amazing range)

What you need: (adapted from the Lemon Yoghurt cake by Ina Garten)
For the cake:
1.5 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2/3 cup plain yoghurt
1/3 cup Maas (Leben or sour milk. You can also use a whole cup of yoghurt)
1 cup sugar
3 Jumbo eggs
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp orange zest
0.5 cup vegetable oil
For the glaze:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup orange juice

What to do:
Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a 24cm springform pan. Sift all the dry ingredients together. In a separate combine the yoghurt, maas, sugar, eggs, vanilla and zest. Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined and then add the oil. Mix till all is combined but do not over mix. Pour into your pan and bake for 30-35 min checking to see if it baked through. While it cools slightly (too cold and it won't soak up the glaze) heat up the sugar and juice until clear. Pour over your cake.
Serve with a couple of slices of orange and a dusting of icing sugar.

Oh, I ended up making potato and leek soup for supper, wonderful how a little baking can get the creative kitchen juices flowing.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

When I first discovered this recipe I was completely taken aback. I thought I could never get it right but I decided to try them anyway. While the resulting images were no where near as good as they could be the taste was phenomenal and I have made red velvet cupcakes and red velvet cake several time since. I love red velvet cake so much I had it as my wedding cake (although it was "blue" velvet for that occasion) and even TheHusband has a great fondness, I know this because he only requests 2 things by name, "Hummus im basar" (Hummus with lamb) and these beauties

The first couple of times I made them I used a chocolate buttercream icing. It wasn't bad but these babies were made to go with a cream cheese icing (and also apparently boiled icing which I haven't yet tried to make...yet). They are essentially chocolate cup cakes but with so much more decadence. Fun to make to as you throw the baking powder into the vinegar and watch it all fizzle.  

If ever you need to start sifting your dry ingredients it's with these beauties. The more air the batter has the more velvety it is and trust me you want them as velvety and light as possible. This however also means that the cake is a delicate one and doesn't do well will too many layers (perfect for cupcakes though).

What you need for the cupcakes:

½ cup butter

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tbsp cocoa

2 tbsp red food colouring

1 tsp salt

2 ½ cups flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp vinegar

What to do:

Preheat oven to 180°C and line your cupcake tray. Cream the butter then beat in the sugar gradually.  Add the eggs - one at a time -beating well after each addition.  Make a paste of the cocoa and food colouring and add to the creamed mixture.  Add the salt, flour, vanilla extract and buttermilk, beating well after each addition.   Sprinkle the baking soda over the vinegar and then pour the vinegar over the batter.  Mix well. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cupcakes bounce back.

What you need for the icing:

• 448g cream cheese, softened
• 115g butter, softened
• 250g sifted confectioners' sugar
• 5ml vanilla extract
• 
  

What to do:

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy(I gave me a hearty mix so that it got as white as possible). Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

I decoreated mine with some Vanilla Man Vanilla Coco Grinder

Guest post by Homemade Heaven

I am loving my guest post slot. I get to feel a certain sense of pride that my tiny little blog gets to host some of the best bloggers in the industry. My next gust is no exception. Rosemary from Homemade Heaven was someone who I discovered in the food24 stable, I always admired her cooking and baking and she was one of the blogs I missed most when I stopped reading the food24 blogs. Happily I get to follow her again and enjoy her kitchen skills as well as her inspirational trips to Namibia.


Here she is with some more chocolaty goodness:

When I was asked to write this guest blog post, I couldn't help but think about how I got started in blogging.

I was remembering the months before of reading other food blogs and the inspiration I felt reading about other people's cooking and life experiences.

The most difficult part for me was the writing part. As an infamously bad speller (even with spell check), appallingly bad grammar and very little creative style, I knew that I was always going to have an uphill battle.

All this said, I embarked on my first blog post on 29 August 2007. I am very happy to say that while I still battle with all my short comings, I have managed to post over 300 posts in 3 years. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing everything from baking cakes to hiking the Namibian mountains!

The most rewarding aspect of blogging has certainly been the people I have met and most not even in the flesh. I have grown to love my blogging friends and have really enjoyed sharing the ups and downs of their's and my life. I have learnt so much about writing and photography over the last 3 years, especially after attending the Cape Town Food Bloggers Conference in February.

I hope that my blog will remain a true reflection of who I am and the beliefs I have.

I am sharing my recipe for mint chocolate chip muffins, as it is by far the most popular treat in my home. As a naturally lazy person, I love recipes which are simple to make, with maximum pleasure and these muffins certainly meet all these requirements.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 Eggs
240ml of Buttermilk
120ml Oil
200g Sugar
250g Self Raising Flour

120g Cocoa Powder

1 Teaspoon Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
100g Mint Aero Chocolate

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Muffins bake for about 25 mins.
In one bowl mix all the wet ingredients together.
And in another bowl mix all sifted dry ingredients together.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir roughly.
You must not beat until it is smooth.

Taking inspiration

As I mentioned on Friday, when you read Marisa's blog you just HAVE TO make the food she shows in it. A couple of weeks ago, the urge was greater than my willpower and so I set off to make these cupcakes. Mistakingly I didn't check my fridge where I was sure I had a tub of cream cheese and so baked the cupcakes and then discovered that I didn't have a tub of cream cheese in the fridge.

The next day I set out to buy all the ingredients I needed and decided I was too lazy to ice individual cupcakes and with that the cake above was born. The recipe is here I only changed a few small things. The good strong coffee I have is from Israel and has cardamom in it so the flavour was probably slightly different and of course, I did it in a spring-form tin :)

I think I took the cake out about 5 minutes too early so it came out very dense and rich, although that didn't stop my guests from devouring it :)

Say Goodbye to Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty - My first adventure into baking for pay

So as the times are what they are and I am confident in my skills in the kitchen I decided to offer my services for money. Luckily some one responded :) I was asked if I could do a "Hello Kitty" cake. I said I could try and this wonderful person offered to pay full price for both the trail AND if she likes it the real deal.

I looked around for a good recipe for the sponge and decided on a hot milk and oil sponge my good friend browniegirl posted a while back. You can find the recipe here (minus the orange zest) and you can find browniegirl in her new home here. Not only does she make the most delicious looking food, she helped me a lot yesterday with cutting the cake in half without making an oopsie.

It was an adventure, especially with me not being able to find a "Hello Kitty" cake tin and having to be creative :)

The good news is, with only a few changes (jelly beans for eyes, pink icing, diffrent icing recipe), I am making the cake again!! Thank you browniegirl for the recipe and the cake and my good friend Cricket for ordering the cake.

With much further ado here it is:

Milk Tart (a traditional recipe)

For Christmas J's mom gave me the most thoughtful and beautiful gift. A note book in which she stuck in some of the families traditional recipes. From brown pudding to koeksisters and of course J's great gran's Melktert. The story is that this Milktart is so good, it was eaten in parliment.

That is why I am not giving you the recipe. I will put here a recipe for a milktart, just not THAT milktart...sorry but some secrets stay in the family :)

What you will need -

For the crust: 

2 cups Flour
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
125 g butter
pinch of salt

For the filling:

4 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 tablespoons cornflour
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
pinch of salt
2 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
big spoon of butter

What to do - 

For the crust:

1. Cream butter and sugar well together and add eggs, beat well.

2. Add all ingredients, making a stiff dough. 

3. Press into two or one round cake tins/pie dish and bake in moderate oven untill light brown. (180 deg)

For the filling:

1. Let milk boil

2. Beat eggs well and add sugar, flour, cornflour and salt.

3. Mix well

4. Pour boiling milk on this mixture and stir well.

5. Return to stove and stir well until mixture thickens.

6. Add butter and vanilla essence and now pour into cooked shell.

To decorate – sprinkle with cinnamon

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