Sweet Tooth Experiments

Monthly Archives: November 2018

Cauliflower Chocolate and Coconut Cake

Posted on Posted in Cakes .

Cauliflower Chocolate and Coconut Cake

Cauliflower Chocolate and Coconut Cake

Recently I have gone cauliflower rice crazy (the current fav is with stock, coriander, mint, olive oil, falafels and tahini paste…yum!). Why I bring this up…savory dishes weren’t my only thought for utilising the cauliflower rice.

You will know that I have made many cakes with grains and vegetables as a core base ingredient, from pumpkin, zucchini and potato, to millet, quinoa and polenta. As cauliflower is a new one for me I of course had to start experimenting with this veggie in a sweet bake.

Using a past quinoa recipe as a base I started to test and learn with flavour and ingredient variations.

To keep on the ‘healthy’ theme I opted for a ‘sugar free’ frosting where I took my sticky date pudding recipe, coping the date prep and blitz with a loooot of cauliflower, cocoa powder and a little coconut oil for richness.

This cake is so moreish, in fact most people that trialled this cake saw it as more satisfying than a mud cake, with a better texture, taste and product.

Cauliflower Chocolate and Coconut Cake

Cauliflower Chocolate and Coconut Cake

 

Ingredients:

Cake:

  • 350g cauliflower
  • 100ml plain yoghurt
  • 100g coconut oil
  • 180g brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 250g self-raising flour
  • 80g cocoa powder
  • 1/8 tsn salt
  • 1 tsn lemon juice
  • 180ml coconut cream

Frosting:

  • 40g cocoa powder
  • 50g coconut oil
  • 140g dates
  • 70ml water
  • Pinch salt

 

Method:

  1. Pre heat the oven to 175c degrees and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.
  2. Cut the cauliflower into chunks. Place cauliflower into a bowl and cover with hot water.
  3. Cook the cauliflower in the microwave until just soft, drain and leave aside to cool.
  4. Place the yoghurt, oil and sugar into a bowl and beat with electric beaters until pale and fluffy.
  5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition.
  6. In a separate bowl sieve the flour, cocoa and salt, stir to combine.
  7. Place the cauliflower into a food processor and blitz until almost pureed.
  8. Spoon 110g of the puree cauliflower, lemon juice, coconut cream and flour mix into the egg mix.
  9. Fold all ingredients until just combine.
  10. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
  11. Place the cake on a cooling rack until completely cooled.
  12. Meanwhile, place the dates and water into a saucepan on a high heat until the water is absorbed and the dates have broken down, leave aside to cool.
  13. Make the frosting by place the remaining 240g cauliflower, cocoa, oil, dates and salt into a food processor and blitz until silky smooth.
  14. Cut the cake horizontally into 2 layers.
  15. Place a cake layer on a plate and top with half the frosting.
  16. Top the frosting with the second cake layer, then top with the remaining frosting.
  17. Enjoy!

Cauliflower Chocolate and Coconut Cake recipe

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Date Strawberry and Chocolate Avocado Cake

Posted on Posted in Cakes .

Date Strawberry and Chocolate Avocado Cake

Date Strawberry and Chocolate Avocado Cake recipe

Many many times I have used avocado as the base to a healthier alternative frosting for cakes. Additionally, I have made mousse, tarts and pies with avocado as the core filling ingredient. But, what I haven’t really experimented with is using avocado as a key ingredient within the cake itself.

Sour cream, mayonnaise, yoghurt, varieties of cheeses, even cordial have featured as a wet ingredient in my past baking experiments but avocado surprisingly was a new one for me.

To come up with an avo based recipe I played around with a ridiculous number of cake flavor combos. And by a number I mean 14 different variations from sourcream & onion chips with chocolate to rosemary chocolate & orange blossom, even vegemite & chocolate.

The outcome of chocolate was def a winner. The experiment of flavor profiles of strawberry and dates resulted in the standout cake, delivering a rich chocolate strawberry treat.

As avocado is full of good fats, omitting the amount of bad fat I thought it would be an interesting direction for the recipe to completely replace sugar via dates and jam (yes I know jam has sugar but majority of the sweetness is through the strawberries) and chocolate replaced by means of raw Dutch cocoa powder.

The end result is a satisfying and suprisingly addictive sweet treat.

Date Strawberry and Chocolate Avocado Cake recipe

Cake:

  • 150g pitted dates
  • 1 tsn bi-carb of soda
  • 45g butter
  • 100g avocado flesh (2/3 of 1 avocado)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsn vanilla essence
  • ¼ tsn salt
  • 65ml milk
  • 180g strawberry jam
  • 225g self-raising flour
  • 60g cocoa powder

Frosting:

  • 130g avocado flesh (1 avocado)
  • 20g cocoa powder
  • Pinch salt
  • 1/2 tsn vanilla essence
  • 70g strawberry jam
  • 100g butter, softened

Extra:

  • 130g strawberry jam

 

Method:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.
  2. Place the dates and 190ml water into a saucepan on a medium/high heat.
  3. Once mix boils stir through the bi-carb of soda, set aside to cool completely.
  4. Place the dates, butter, avocado, eggs, vanilla, salt, milk and strawberry jam into a food processor and blitz until well combine and smooth.
  5. Transfer avocado mix into a bowl, sieve the flour and cocoa into the mix.
  6. Fold all ingredients together until just combine.
  7. Spoon the mix into the cake tin and place in the oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
  8. Place the cake on a cooling rack until cool.
  9. Meanwhile make the frosting by placing all of the frosting ingredients into a food processor and blitzing until combine and fluffy.
  10. Once the cake is cooled cut in half horizontally, place a cake layer on a plate cut side up, and spread with half the extra jam. Use the back of a spoon to push the jam into the cake. Repeat for the 2nd cake layer, leaving the layer on the bench, jam/sut side up.
  11.  Top the jam on layer 1 with 1/3rd of the frosting and repeat with the second layer. Sandwich the 1st cake layer with the 2nd cake layer, jam side down to have an unfrosted cake top with all frosting and jam in the center of the cake.
  12. Top with the remaining 1/3rd frosting and enjoy!

 

Date Strawberry and Chocolate Avocado Cake recipe

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Passionfruit Orange Blossom and Pineapple Custard Pots

Posted on Posted in Custard .

Passionfruit Orange Blossom and Pineapple Custard Pots

Passionfruit Orange Blossom and Pineapple Custard Pots recipe

Sometimes it is quite difficult for me to write up what inspired a recipe you see on this blog, this recipe being no exception.

Ultimately, I had a ton of passionfruits and wanted to make something that centered on this fruit as (a) I rarely experiment with passionfruit and (b) I cannot let food go to waste.

I have attempted passionfruit and chocolate cake in the past in which the end learning was that passionfruit is much better paired with a similar acidic toned profile. Orange and Pineapple both work together well, additionally they are complementary to passionfruit, not surprising that the 3 work perfectly together.

As I eluded to I have experimented with different passionfruit pairings which resulted in cakes that were not to my expectations so this time around I opted against a cake and looked at a pudding, custard and flan alternatives. The winner, that would be the custard pots.

A delicious, quick and easy, low fat, lowish sugar treat.

 

Ingredients:

Milk:

  • ¼ tsn salt
  • 500ml milk
  • 1 piece of orange peel
  • 6 passionfruits
  • 1 tsn orange blossom water
  • 30ml pineapple juice

Custard:

  • 3 eggs
  • 45ml sugar
  • 45g corn flour
  • 45ml butter

Syrup:

  • 60ml pineapple juice
  • 30ml sugar
  • Pineapple pieces

 

Method:

  1. Place all milk ingredients into a saucepan on medium heat until the milk mix is boiling (the milk will curdle due to the acid in the passionfruit, this is fine). Once boiling, remove off heat and leave aside for 15 minutes to infuse and cool.
  2. Once cooled remove the orange peel and blitz the milk mix in a food processor until smooth and creamy in consistency.
  3. Place the milk mix through a sieve to capture any remaining passionfruit seeds and leave the milk mix aside for later use.
  4. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks, sugar and flour with electric beaters for 10 minutes or until light and fluffy.
  5. Slowly pour the milk mix into the egg mix while stirring with a spatula until completely combine.
  6. Pour the mix back into the saucepan on a medium heat and whisk with a hand whisk for 10 minutes or the custard is thickened to a curd/aioli consistency.
  7. Take off the heat and whisk in the butter until well combined.
  8. Pour the custard into 4 glasses and cover with plastic wrap.
  9. Once the custard is at room temperature place the glasses in the fridge to set for at least an hour.
  10. Meanwhile, make the syrup by placing the sugar and juice into a saucepan on medium heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved.
  11. Leave the syrup to boil until it thickens to syrup consistency, remove off heat. Allow the syrup to cool before placing it into a container, them into the fridge.
  12. When you are ready to serve pour the syrup over the top of the pots evenly and top with pineapple pieces.

 

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Aniseed and Chocolate Biscuit Cake

Posted on Posted in Cakes .

Aniseed and Chocolate Biscuit Cake

Aniseed and Chocolate Biscuit Cake recipe
This recipe is an interesting one, while being so super easy and oh so delicious. The inspiration came from none other than chocolate bullets (chocolate covered licorice).
I was looking for new flavours to pair with chocolate that were a bit unusual but complemented each other and though I could steal the flavour profile of chocolate bullets.
For the cake style and format I took influence from my Ginger and Date Biscuit Cake.
Outcome, a really delightful cake that took a whole of 15 minutes to make and contained only a few ingredients that are supermarket stables.
Cakes don’t get much easier than this!

Ingredients

  • 300ml thickened cream
  • 2 + ½ tbsn icing sugar
  • 1 tsn vanilla essence
  • 10g cocoa powder
  • 1 + 1/3 tbsn white Sambuca
  • 125g chocolate ripple biscuits

 

Method:

  1. Beat the cream with electric beaters until soft peaks form.
  2. Add the icing sugar, vanilla, cocoa and Sambuca to the cream until combine and firm peaks form.
  3. Spoon a line of the cream mix onto a plate in a line.
  4. Spoon ½ tbsn of cream mix onto a biscuit and sandwich together with another.
  5. Place the biscuits long side up onto the cream.
  6. Continue to spread ½ tbsn cream onto a biscuit and push into the biscuit on the plate, cream side first.
  7. Continue until all the biscuits are used up.
  8. Spread the remaining cream over the outside of the cream biscuit log.
  9. Place cake in the fridge for 6 hours to set.
  10. Dust with cocoa powder and serve.

 

NOTE: If you dont have Sambuba you can replace with Ouzo instead or any aniseed flavoured liquor.

 

Aniseed and Chocolate Biscuit Cake recipe re

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