Cranberry Orange Walnut Cake Recipes

There is abundance of fresh cranberries in the market now and I just bought a big packet without knowing what to do with it. It has been sitting in the fridge for nearly two weeks until I finally used it to bake some cakes to be given away as Christmas gift with the cookies. The orange juice and the zest in the cake compliment the cranberries very nicely. The fresh cranberries are tart and refreshing, while the cake is sweet. This loaf will be great for breakfast, afternoon tea especially during the holiday season.

Ingredients:

1 stick/113 gram soft butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp of orange zest
½ cup orange juice
½ cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
½ cup walnuts – toasted and chopped

Glaze:

½ cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

1. Line and greased a large loaf pan or two medium size loaf pans. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree F. Shift the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and set it aside. Combined the orange juice and sour cream. Mix well and set it aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy for 5-6 minutes. Add in the eggs, one at a time and beating continuously until well incorporated. Slow down the speed of the mixer and slowly add in the flour in 3 batches alternating with the orange juice – sour cream mixture. The last edition should be the flour. Do not over mix.
3. Stop the machines, using a spatula fold in the fresh cranberries and walnuts. Mix well. Pour into the baking pan and bake for 55 – 65 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let it rest on the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out on the cooling pan.
4. Let it cool completely. Combined the glaze ingredients and spread it over the top of the cake. Cut and serve.

Note: This cake improves in texture and taste after a day or two.

Apple Cranberry Tea Ring Recipes

Weather is so cold and snowing outside and the best way to warm up the house is doing some baking. But it is definitely not a good idea to make bread. Wrong move on my part and because of the cold making this loaf of bread took me over 6 hours from start to finished baking. It just refused to rise. I even stick it into the warm oven to help with the proofing. The end results, I would prefer it to rise a bit more and softer. Nevertheless, it tasted good. I think this tea ring will be great for Christmas breakfast or brunch.

Ingredients
Dough recipe adapted from Taste Of Home recipe book.

3/4 cup warm milk (70°F to 80°F)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons water (you might not need it)
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3-1/3 cups bread flour
2-1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

FILLING:

1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp of sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup of chopped fresh apple
1/2 cup dried cranberry
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Egg wash

1 egg -beaten

Glaze

1/2 cup confections’ sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

1. Place all the dough ingredients except for the water into a mixer attached with the dough hook. Mix the dough until comes together. If it is too dry add in the extra water a tablespoon at a time.
2. Continue to knead until the dough is smooth. Place it in an oil bowl, cover it with a cling wrap and leave it in a warm place to rise double in size for about 1 to 2 hours (depend on the temperature of your environment)
3. For the filling, combined sugars, cut in the butter until crumbly. Stir in the dry cranberries, raisins and walnuts and set it aside.
4. When the dough is done, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll into a 20” x 10” rectangle, sprinkle with the sugar mixture and top it with the chopped apple within 1” of the edges.
5. Roll it up tightly like a jelly-roll, starting with a long side; seal ends. Place in a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan; bring both ends together, seal it to form a ring.
6. With scissors, cut from outside edge two-thirds of the way toward center of ring at 1-in. intervals. Separate strips slightly; twist to allow filling to show. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour. Brush it with egg wash.
7. Bake in a preheated at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and let it cool complete on a cooling rack. Mix the glaze and drizzle it all over the ring.

Note: To prevent overbrowning you can cover it with foil during the last 10 minutes of baking.

I am submitting this bread to Yeastspotting

Orange Scented Pound Cake Recipes

This is the perfect cake for breakfast, tea or even after dinner dessert. It is wonderfully moist, not too sweet with a nice aroma of orange. If you let the cake sit for a day or two it taste even better.

Ingredients:

2 stick/226 gram softened unsalted butter
4 tbsp. milk
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour
¼ tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. grated orange zest

For the glaze:

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9 x 5” loaf pan or two small loaves pan with some butter.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and set it aside. Beat soft butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add in eggs one at a time until well incorporated into the butter. Add in the orange zest and vanilla.
3. Slowly fold in the flour and milk into the mixture. Mix well. Pour into the loaf pan and bake until skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool on pan for 10 minute before turning it into the cooling rack.
4. For the glaze. Combine sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Reduce glaze by half. Brush some of the warm glaze over top of cake.

Prickly Pear Chiffon Cake Recipes

Now what is this exotic Prickly Pear?? They are known to few, the fruit of the nopales cactus (cacti with beaver tail-like paddles), are actually edible. Called prickly pears, these vibrant magenta color fruits are delicious,they taste like a cross between watermelon and pear. The best way to eat this is just cut it into halve and use a spoon to scoop out the flesh. The juice is often used to make jam or candy, but works wonders in cocktails and used in vinaigrettes for salads. I've seen people used the juice to flavor cream cheese frosting for cakes and have seen others boil it down with a bit of orange and lemon juice to make a sauce for fruit salads and cheesecakes.

We used to have one huge cactus plant at my mom house and there were plenty of these fruits on it but during that time we have no clue that they are edible. So the birds had a field time eating the sweet fruits.

Many Mexican markets, farmers markets, and some natural food supermarkets carry prickly pears, but you can find these mostly in California, the Southwest and Mexico. You can imagine my excitement when I saw these prickly pear fruits at our produce place as it is not easy to find them here in PA and without any hesitations I grab a few of it. It cost me quite a bit of money too.

Here is what I made out of the beautiful fruits. The juice of this pear gives a really beautiful pink color to the batter but after baking it kind turn into bright orangey color.

Ingredients:
(A)
1 ¾ cups Self Rising Flour
1/8 tsp of salt

(B)
6 egg yolks
1/3 cup of sugar
3/4 cup Prickly Pear juice (you need 4 prickly pear to get the juice)
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

(C)
3/4 cup of sugar
6 egg white
1 tsp of cream of tartar

1. Cut the prickly pear into halve. By using a spoon scoops out all the flesh. Put it in a food processor and give it a few pulses. Strain out the juice to get rid of the black seeds. Set it aside.

2. Pre-heat oven to 325 degree F. Sieve all the (A) ingredient in a mixing bowl until well combined. Mix ingredient (B) until well blended and then add in ingredient (A) and mix until smooth. Set it aside.
3. Whisk ingredient (C) in mixer over high speed until stiff peak. It should not fall out when you turn the mixing bowl over. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolks mixture and continue to do so until egg whites is finish. Remember to fold in gently until well mixed.

4. Pour batter into ungreased 10" tube pan and bake for an hour or used a bamboo skewer to test the cake. Just insert the skewer into the center of the cake and it should come out clean.
5. Invert cake and let it cool complete in the pan. When is cool, loosen the edge of the pan and remove cake.

Note : Be warned though, while the ones in markets have been cleaned of the tiny hair-like thorns, the ones fresh off the cactus plant are covered with them, so be sure to handle them with heavy leather work gloves and scrub them hard to ensure all the painful little barbs are off. Also the juice might stain your clothing too. Either way, please handles them carefully.

I want to wish eveyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and hope you all have a wonderful time with your family and friend.

I am submitting this second chiffon post to Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cake (Nov 2010) hosted by Small Small Baker

Stone Fruit Tarts Recipes

The last batch of peaches I bought tasted like potato. They were not juicy and tasteless. I was pretty upset with it as I bought it from Wegmans. Normally they sell the top quality produce but I am not sure what happen to this batch. I even went back to Wegmans to complaint about it and they were pretty apologetic about it. Anyway, since we won’t be eating it fresh I decided to make some tarts out of it with some leftovers plump and nectarines. If you are looking for a quick and easy dessert to serve up, this tart is for you. You may use any stone fruit for this recipe like plums, cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches, etc.

Ingredients for the dough

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
10 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
some ice water

1. Mix the flour, salt, and sugar together in a bowl. Cut in the butter by hand or using a mixer with a paddle attachment, leaving some pea-sized chunks.
2. Sprinkle the ice water over the top by the tablespoon and toss it with the flour mixture until you can bring the dough together into a ball. 3. Press it into a disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Ingredients for the fruit filling

2 cups of sliced and chopped stone fruits
3 tbsp sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp of cornstarch

1. Mix all the ingredients together and set it aside. Greased the muffin pan or tart shells.
2. Roll out the dough to about 3 mm thick and line it on a muffin pan or tart shells.
3. Put about 1 ½ tbsp of filling in it. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 25 min until golden brown.
4. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Steamed Fruit Cake Recipes

Christmas is still a long way to go and why am I a baking fruit cake? Oh well, I am trying out one or two recipes now and if I like it I will bake it for the coming Christmas. I will usually use my old fruit cake recipe but I am a bit bore with it so I want something different this year. Today I tried out the famous CMG Kek Kukus Buah Buahan or Steamed Fruit Cake . I aged this cake for a few days before cutting into it. This cake is really moist and full of caramel flavor but a bit too sweet for me. If not it will be perfect. So the next time I make this I will cut down on the amount of sugar. I have another half of the cake left and will try it out in a few weeks time and see if there is a different in taste.

Ingredients:

375 g mixed fruits (I used raisins, currants, cranberries, pineapple, papaya and apricots)
250 g butter
150 g brown sugar (I used light brown sugar)
3 large eggs
¼ cup almond flakes (I used walnuts)


Sieved together:

300 g  flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp of nutmeg (I omit this)

For the Caramel

150 g sugar

1. Line and greased a square or 9” round baking pan. Prepared the steamer. Sift all the dried ingredients and mix in the dried fruits and set it aside.
2. Cream brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time and beat well. Slow down the mixer and add in the flour and fruits. Mix well and turn off the mixer.
3. In a small saucepan and over medium heat melt the sugar until it turns golden brown. Turn on the mixer again to slow speed and slowly drizzle in the hot caramel into the cake mixture. Mix well.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and cover the top of the pan with aluminum foil (to prevent water from dripping into the cake while steaming). Steamed over high heat for 4 hours (I steamed only for 3 hours). Remember to check the water level of your steamer every now and then and please add only hot water to the steamer.

Note: Please be careful when you drizzle in the caramel as it is very hot. If you are using dried apricots, pineapple and papaya you have to chopped it up first.

I would like to this opportunity to wish all my Muslim friends and readers “Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri” Hope you all have a joyous celebration with your family and friends back home. Most importantly, drive safely to your destination.

Plum Galette/Plum Crostata Recipes

We’ve got plums coming out in abundance now. I bought a big bag of it the other day and it just cost me $1.98. I left it on the counter to ripen and they were so sweet and juice. With the leftovers I made this free-form crostata or gallette, it is the easiest way to make a pie. You don’t need a pie pan, no elaborate edge crimping, and no lattice weaving. All you have to do is roll out the dough and fold it up over the fruits of your choice. This rustic plum galette is bright, delicious and a great way to finish up all the plums that you has at home.

Ingredients for the pastry:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
10 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
some ice water

Mix the flour, salt, and sugar together in a bowl. Cut in the butter by hand or using a mixer with a paddle attachment, leaving some pea-sized chunks. Sprinkle the ice water over the top by the tablespoon and toss it with the flour mixture until you can bring the dough together into a ball. Press it into a disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling it out.

For the filling:

6 plums – core and cut into thin wedges
2 1/2 tbsp of sugar – for sprinkle
1 egg – beaten for egg wash

1. To form a galette, roll it out on a lightly floured counter into a 13” circle about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough into a line baking pan.
2. Arrange the plums all around the dough leaving about 1 ½” away from the border, then sprinkle the 2 tbsp of sugar on top of the fruits.
3. Fold in the edge of the dough to cover the outer rim of the plums. Brush it with some egg wash and sprinkle the remaining ½ tbsp of sugar all over the pastry.
4. Baked in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until fruit is tender and pastry golden brown. Let the galette cool on the baking pan for 10 minutes before transferring it to the cooling rack. Serve warm or cold.

Note: The amount of sugar needed depends on the tartness of the plums.

Banana Upside-down Cake Recipes

This is a new take on pineapple upside-down cake . I made this cake using my Peach Upside Down Cake recipe. Instead of peaches I replaced it with banana and very slight changes to the ingredients. I just love the sticky brown caramel sugar dripping down the side of this moist banana cake. This cake will be great for entertaining or just have it for afternoon tea.

Ingredients for topping:

4 tbsp butter
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 bananas - peeled and sliced


Ingredients for the cake:

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup or 113 grms)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large egg
2 tbsp sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 ripe bananas - mashed

1. Line and greased an 8” round pan or a square baking pan. Prepare the topping. Melt the butter and brown sugar. Pour it to the base of baking pan. Arrange the sliced bananas over the base. Set it aside.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree F. Cream butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Beat in the egg one at a time until well combined.
3. Add in vanilla and sour cream. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Slow down the mixer and slowly add in the flour. Mix until combined and lastly fold in the mashed banans.
4. Spread the batter over the bananas and bake the cake for 45 - 50 minutes or until golden brown. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverting it to a serving plate.

Stone Fruit Tea Cake Recipes

When I saw this cake at Wendy’s blog it strikes my interest right away. I thought it look like a pie or a tart but was a cake. I think it was a cross between both of them. Since summer is here we are able to find all kinds of seasonal fruits like berries, peaches, nectarines, plump, apricots etc. I like using it in my dessert. For this cake I used cherries, fresh apricots and blueberries since I have it in my fridge.




Wendy sticks the dough into the freezer for half an hour but the lazy me decided not to do that. I just spread the sticky dough evenly onto the baking pan right away. After tossing the fruits in, I dropped the rest of the dough on top with a spoon. When the cake was in the oven I only realized that I forgot about the brown sugar. I think Wendy sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the cake.
The cake turns out really nice with moist cakey layer at the bottom, luscious tangy sweet taste of the fresh fruits and crunchy on the top. Carlos ate two slices of it while watching the football game between Argentina and Greece. Argentina won 2-0. Yeah!!!

Here is the recipe adapted from Wendy’s at Table for 2 . Thanks Wendy for sharing this great recipe.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter (for greasing pan)
150gm all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
100gm sugar
80gm butter
1 + 1/2 eggs (I used 2 eggs)
1 tbsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp brown sugar
4 fresh apricots - removed the stones and cut small
1 cup blueberries
1 cup cherries - halve and removed stones







1. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. With a mixer, cream the sugar and butter together on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition, then stir in the orange zest and vanilla.
2. Add the flour in 2 or three shifts, mixing just until a smooth dough forms. It will be pretty soft still. Dollop it out onto two pieces of plastic wrap, making one mound of dough slightly larger than the other. Wrap the dough blobs in the plastic and form them into flat discs. Place on a baking sheet and stick them in the freezer for 30 minutes. While waiting, prepare and cut your fruits.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degree F. Butter a shallow, 8-inch baking dish or tart pan. Take the slightly bigger parcel of dough and press it down onto the bottom of the pan. Scatter the fruit over the dough. Break the second disc of dough into tsp size balls and scatter them over the fruit.
4. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until lightly golden and firm. Cool for 30 minutes before serving.


Note: You can used any type of fresh fruits you like for this cake.

Cranberry Oatmeal Bars Recipes

I love eating oats and baking with oats. Beside my favorite Oatmeal Raisin Cranberry Cookies I thought I change it a bit today and made it into bars instead of individual cookies. I used cranberries in these bars but it could be made with almost any dried fruits. These little bars are great to snack on and pretty nutritious too.


Filling:

3/4 cup of strawberry jam – you can replace it with any type of fruity jam
1 cup of dried cranberry – you can replace it with any type of dried fruits

Ingredients for crust:

1 ½ cups flour
1 cup of roll oats
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 stick/113 grm/1/2 cup melted butter

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree F. Line and greased an 8” x 8” square baking pan.
2. For the filling mix together the jam and the dried fruits. Set aside.
3. For the crust, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Stir in the oats and walnuts. Add the melted butter, egg and vanilla and stir until incorporated.
4. Using your clean fingers, lightly press half of the crust mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the filling over the crust leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge of the pan. Cover the top with the remaining crust mixture and gently press to flatten it up.
5. Bake until light golden, about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool for 1 hour. Cut into bars and store in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.

Coconut Filled Lemon Cake Recipes

Summer is just around the corner and we have bountiful of citrus fruits here. The lemons that I bought that day were huge and I used it to make this cake. I got this recipe from King Arthur Flour website. This cake is perfect in many ways. It has golden brown crust, fine crumbs and the coconut filling is a nice surprise. If you don’t fancy coconut you can just omit the filling and have a lemon cake instead.

Ingredients for the Filling:

2 large egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp salt
½ cup powder/confectioner’s sugar
½ tsp of coconut flavor or 2 tsp vanilla (I used vanilla)
2 tbsp flour
2 cups shredded sweetened coconut (I used only 1 ½ cups)

1. In a clean mixing bowl, whisk egg white, salt and cream of tart until soft and fluffy. Add in the powder sugar and continue to whisk on high speed until stiff. Stir in the vanilla.
2. Toss the coconut with the 2 tbsp of flour. Add into the egg white and mix well. Set it aside while you make the cake.

Ingredients for the Cake:

2 stick/1 cup/226 grm unsalted butter – room temperature
2 cups sugar (I used only 1 ½ cups)
1 tsp salt
4 large eggs
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups flour
1 cup milk
Zest of two lemons

Glaze:

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
¾ cup sugar (I used only 1/3 cup)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" to 10", 9 to 10-cup capacity Bundt-style pan, or a 10" tube pan. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and set it aside.
2. Beat together the butter, sugar, and salt, first till combined, then till fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl after adding each egg.
3. Add in the flour alternately with the milk, starting and ending with the flour. Mix until smooth. Stir in the grated lemon zest. Mix well. Spoon about 1/2 of the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula.
4. Distribute the filling atop the batter, centering it within the ring of batter so it doesn't touch the sides of the pan. Pat it down gently. (I put the filling in a piping bag and pipe it to the center of the batter) Dollop the remaining batter on top, again smoothing it with a spatula.
5. Bake the cake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. While the cake is baking, make the glaze by stirring together the lemon juice and sugar. Set it aside.
6. Remove the cake from the oven, and set it on a rack. After 5 minutes, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen, and turn the cake out onto a rack. Poke the hot cake all over with a cake tester or toothpick. Stir the glaze to combine, and immediately brush it on the hot cake, Let the glaze sink in, then brush on more glaze, continuing until all the glaze is used up. Allow the cake to cool before cutting into it.