Scandilicious Baking

Scandilicious baking by Signe Johansen arrived last Monday when I was not feeling my best, to say the least. My friend Kuka and I had pre-ordered it months ago, so to have it show up and brighten my sick day was absolutely perfect. I had to satisfy myself with pouring over the recipes until Friday when I finally felt well enough to give one a try...but where to start?

The book is packed full of breads, cakes, buns, tarts, biscuits and even some savoury treats, such as Crayfish filo bites. But I couldn't go past a good old dose of Scandinavian spice and decided on the Cinnamon bun-cake.

   

OMG! I haven't been so excited about baking in a long time. This was a taste-sensation...and really easy and quick. The house smelled amazing, and I swear it made my cough better.

I'm pretty certain I will end up making everything in this book...and I've never done that before! This book is a breath of fresh baking air to me. Spicy, fruity, intoxicating baking air.

Next on my to-bake list are:

• Toscakaka - caramel almond-topped sponge
• Chocolate and orange marmalade loaf cake
• Musli bread (packed full of Scandi fruit and nut goodness)
• Santa Lucia sour cherry and saffron buns

...and the ultimate Australian test Pistachio pavlova with boozy cherries, which is cooling in the oven right now as a birthday desert for Mr Hausfrau.  I'll let you know how it goes.  

Signe is gracious enough to acknowledge Australia as the home of pavlova in the book - so I love her even more now...and by the way she has no idea I'm writing about her book.

If you're interested she has another book Scandilicious, Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking.

I'm off to order it tonight! 

suzy xoxo

My creative space - Strawberry Friand slice

My creative space today is a bit of baking. Remaking a recipe that proved too fantastic to try only once and shared here as promised to some crafty peeps when I made it for the first time a few weeks ago.

AWW's Strawberry Friand Slice

6 egg whites

155 g unsalted butter, melted

2 tabs milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups ground almonds

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup SR flour

250 g strawberries, sliced thinly

1/3 cup flaked almonds

icing sugar, extra

Preheat oven to 180 deg celsius. Grease 20 x 30 cm rectangular pan, line base and long sides with baking paper, extending over long sides.

Place egg whites and extract in medium bowl and whisk lightly with fork until combined. Add butter, milk, ground almonds, sifted icing sugar and flour. Stir until combined.

Pour mixture into pan, top with berries.

Bake for 15 minutes, remove then sprinkle with almonds. Bake further 25 minutes.

Stand slice in tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool. Dust with extra icing sugar, cut and enjoy.

Pop over here to enjoy more creative spaces

Happy days,

suzy xoxo

Cake Friday

This year I'm making a cake every Friday and joining along with one of my favourite bloggers .

This week's cake is Apple & Cinnamon Teacake. Committed to memory from my Grade 8 Home Economics textbook, Everyday Cookery.

Baked, taken outside and enjoyed on the swing by the wee girl this very afternoon.

Apple & Cinnamon Teacake

2 eggs. separated

pinch of salt

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

2 cups SR Flour

2 tabs melted butter

extra cinnamon and sugar

1 cooking apple, peeled and thinly sliced

Whisk eggs whites with the salt until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar. Add in eggs yolks and milk, mix well. Alternately, fold in flour and melted butter. Pour into cake tin, arrange apple slices over top, then sprinkle with extra cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 55-60 minutes in a moderate oven.

Always best served warm, with a nice cuppa tea!

Cake Friday (on a Monday!)

A couple of weeks ago I decided to join one of my favourite bloggers for Cake Friday. Which is essentially a rather good excuse for me to indulge in compulsory baking. And I seriously did bake it on Friday, as those that follow me on twitter will attest.

So to the cake. It is from a book by Gretta Anna, who was unknown to me until my MIL introduced me to her wonderful Christmas cake. She appears to have been Australia's answer to Julia Childs - who knew???? I sought out her cookbooks at a Lifeline Book Fair a couple of years ago and struck gold with two pristine copies.

This week's choice was easy - the most lush and moist carrot cake I have ever tasted...even if I do say so myself.

Gretta Anna's Carrot Cake

1 cup of grated carrot

200g tin of crushed pineapple (half a tin)

1 cup plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

5 tablespoons oil

1/4 cup walnuts (optional)

Strain the juice from the crushed pineapple. Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the eggs and oil and mix thoroughly. Stir in the carrot, pineapple and walnuts. Bake at 175 degrees Celsius for 35-40 minutes and cool before covering with cream cheese topping.

Cream Cheese Topping:

Place 3tabs butter, 3tabs cream cheese, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 250 icing sugar in a mixing bowl and beat well.

Happy Baking,

suzy xoxo