Orange and Poppy Seed Cake

I've never made an orange and poppy seed cake before, though I've certainly eaten them. I ate one last week and it inspired me to make my own. This is an incredibly simple cake, so there's not a lot to go wrong. Making the batter takes around 10 minutes and then it's just a matter of popping the cake in the oven and wandering off to an hour. The cake then rises beautifully and does it's thing. Easy.

This cake definitely needs to be made in a deep sided tin because it rises so much, I can only imagine the awful mess you'd end up with if you used anything shorter than 10cm (4") in height. There's nothing worse than making delicious cake and then having to leave it sitting on the bench, teasing you, while you scrub out the oven. Yuck.

This cake is very simple, both in technique and flavour. That's not a bad thing but it does require the syrup to bring it do life. Without it it's just too plain. If I make this again, I'm going to try putting some honey into the syrup, mmm.

Gingernuts

We're not big Christmas people in my house, I think if it weren't for the decorations covering the shops we'd probably forget about it entirely. That said, there is one thing I go out of my way to embrace at Christmas time; that thing is gingerbread.

Gingerbread is without a doubt my favourite biscuit. There's something utterly filling about it. The spices tantalise the taste-buds and leave me completely content. The combination of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and whatever else you put in them is delicious.

Everyone seems to have the own preference for gingerbread. There seems to be no agreement about how they should be. Some like them soft; others like them crisp. Some like molasses; others can't stand it. Some use fresh ginger whilst others use ground ginger straight from the container.

The gingerbread I made today are more gingernuts to me, they're very crisp and sweet. No decorative shapes or royal icing. They have a hint of molasses but it doesn't dominate the other flavours. They're simple and delicious. That said, this recipe is quite versitile, for more bread-y gingerbread roll the dough thick.

Chocolate Earl Grey Shortbread

I have never liked Earl Grey tea so I'm not sure what drove me to make these. I suppose they sounded nice in theory and I was curious as to how they would taste. I knew that I should have trusted my gut instinct and listened to the voice that said "you know, you don't like Earl Grey one little bit" but I didn't. Instead, I went out and bought Earl Grey tea explicitly for the purpose of making these biscuits. Maybe I thought these biscuits would convert me. Well, they didn't. I still can't stand Earl Grey tea.

However, these aren't all bad. The texture is amazing though not at all the like shortbread I normally make. These little biscuits crumble a bit when broken and also dissolve in the mouth. I know I would love these if it weren't for the Earl Grey tea in them, so if you like Earl Grey you'll probably adore these! I fully intend to make them again without the the tea.

White Chocolate and Macadamia Biscuits

If there's one thing Australia has brought to the world it's the macadamia nut. The macadamia nut is without a doubt my favourite nut; it's buttery and tasty without being overwhelming. It also goes amazingly well with white chocolate. Actually, it goes amazingly well with pretty much anything.

As a child we had a macadamia tree on our property in upper northern New South Wales. The macadamia tree is one of the two things I miss about living up there; the other is the mulberry tree. As I child we would climb the macadmia tree and pick of the nuts. I distinctly remember a large portion of the nuts being rotten when we cracked them open but when we did find good ones it was completely worth it!

Unfortunately neither macadamias nor mulberries grow where I now live. Luckily macamdias can easily be purchased and I do so regularly. Mulberries are less easy to find and, when I do find them, too damaged looking to buy.

(Vegan) Cranberry and Almond Biscotti

I'm not very good at vegan baking, in fact every time I start to make something vegan dairy ends up sneaking in in some way or another. I'll accidentally use milk instead of soy milk, I'll choose chocolate with milk in it, I'll make a frosting with butter - you get the gist. I'm not a vegan so it's not really a worry to me.

I've been seeing a number of recipes for vegan biscotti in various books and on various websites recently. In my mind biscotti is something that has to contain eggs, so when I saw a recipe for vegan almond biscotti I decided to give it a shot. I even used soy milk, though I can't stand the taste myself. Once baked, you'd hardly know it was there.

Are these biscotti in the usual sense? I'm not sure. They're thicker and less crisp than traditional biscotti. Are they nice? Yes, quite. Would I make them again? Yes, actually.

Wholemeal Rosemary Butter Rounds

Sometimes I think I have an addiction, I don't like to go for too long without cooking. So even if I'm completely out of time, working too much, and behind in my uni work I'll force myself to find the time to make something. I might not be able to find the time to finish my assignments but I can always find the time to bake.

These biscuits were made during the fews few hours I had off this morning, so they're very quick and easy. They're also somewhat odd tasting, it's not a bad taste just a strange one. In my mind rosemary belongs on crispy, golden potatoes. Rosemary in baked into biscuits isn't something I'm too familiar with. Nevertheless, it turns out that rosemary and oranges do in fact belong in biscuits together. The flavour almost fills up your mouth, it's nice but unexpected.

Homely biscuits are good when you're stressed, they relax in the way something fancy can't. They're unpretentious and you don't feel bad if you eat more than one of them. You can almost convince yourself that they're good for you.

Chocolate, Raspberry, and Macaroon Tarts

I actually made these quite a while ago but I figure there's no harm in adding them to the blog. I've been a bit sick over the last week so I haven't had a chance to cook, let alone photograph anything. I do remember these being delicious so I think they're worth sharing. There's no harm in sharing things for the past, right?

I'm a sucker for coconut and I'm always surprised when I meet people who don't like it as much as I do. I'm not sure what it is about coconut that I find so irresistible but if something has coconut in it, I'm there.

I'm also a sucker for chocolate and raspberries despite only having had fresh raspberries a few times in my life. I adore anything with frozen ones in it, so I can only imagine how good fresh ones are!

These tarts turned out quite different to the picture in the book, in the book they've sunken and collapsed in on themselves. They look good both ways, so if yours sink it's not a big deal.

Cramming the macaroon mixture into the cases was quite hard, I think the tart tins I own are shallower than the ones used in the book but I didn't realise this until after cramming all the mixture in. I'll never quite understand why books don't specify the height of tart tins, so if you're using 2cm (2/3") tart tins you'll probably end up with 7 tarts. You can cram the mixture into 6 tart tins but it's not really worth the effort. If you're using 2.5cm (1") tins you should be fine, though I haven't tried it.

Vanilla Rice Pudding with Cinnamon Apples

There are many things I've never made. For instance I've never made an omelette,a sponge cake, a baked cheese cake, or rice pudding. That's right, I've never made rice pudding. That isn't to say I've never eaten rice pudding because I certainly have; in fact I love rice pudding. It's just, until today, rice pudding has always been made for me or bought from the packet. I've been developing a major addiction to that packaged rice pudding you see everywhere here that's been branded to suit whatever location it's bought from. Most recently I ate "Bondi" rice pudding which I have a sneaking suspicion came from the same factory as the rice pudding I buy from the local fruit shop.

This nicely packaged, pseudo homemade rice pudding isn't the cheapest or even the nicest rice pudding in the world. So today was my day to face my addiction head on and make my own rice pudding. My homemade rice pudding isn't the cheapest either but it sure is delicious!

Chocolate Ganache Tarts

Sometimes I just love an excuse to bake and often I'll hunt for the tiniest excuse to do so. Luckily, just the other day I had a real, actual excuse with more depth than "the cream was on sale at the supermarket". Really, a real reason: picnic time! Spring is (kind of) in the air; there are flowers and grass (!). Unfortunately the weather isn't quite warm enough for fruit based dessert but it's always the right temperature for chocolate.

I tend to forget that most people don't like dark chocolate as much as I do, so these are incredibly rich. I also tend to forgot that at picnics everyone brings sweets and so I really should make something savory to counter it. I never remember and by the end of the day I'm overloaded with sugar and wanting nothing more than an apple.

Pear and Almond Tart

I started this last night after having a real hankering to poach pears, as well to retry the French tart dough recipe by David Lebovitz. I only managed to poach the pears last night, and worked on the tart crust before breakfast this morning. The tart crust works very well, but it's unfortunately not the prettiest thing in the world. Luckily, taste trumps looks any day.

I'm a big fan of pears, which is funny because in the past I would never eat them. Recently I've been wanting to bake pears into everything. There's something wonderful about baked pears that, for me, apples lack. So I headed out, bought some almond meal, and began my adventure. This tart isn't the prettiest in the world, I mostly put it down to my lack of experience so maybe someone else can do better? It's not really a worry though because it still tastes rather good!