Pineapple upside down cake

I needed to bake a cake for Jin Xiu's birthday and I found a recipe for a cheesecake which would take 2 days to make. 

I had to find another recipe which was quick and something less sweet and chocoloately that he might like. 

He  LOVES butter.

He LOVES pineapple.

Perfect. 

An easy peasey quick upside down pineapple cake. 

It is rich and dense rather then a spongy texture. I think the buttery flavor is a winner for this one. 

I was using a spring form pan so just be aware that if you do, make sure you wrap the inside bottom with layers or baking paper, and have the cake pan on a tray just in case the caramel will start oozing out. Which it did. 

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1 cup of dark brown sugar

1/2 cup of unsalted butter

1 can of pineapple slices

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

6 tbs cake flour

6tbs ground almonds

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 sugar

240g butter

4 eggs

1tsp vanilla extract

3/4 sour cream

salt

1) To make caramel topping. Melt brown sugar and butter in saucepan on medium heat until mixture is bubbly. (Stop stirring when sugar starts to melt). Pour mixture into a pan (with high sides). Arrange pineapple slices in a single layer on top of the caramel mixture. Leave aside.

2) Preheat over to 160C.

3) Whisk flours, almonds, baking powder and salt. 

4) In a separate bowl, beat sugar and butter until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla and add dry ingredients alternately with sour cream in 2 additions. Beat well after each addition. Pour cake batter gently over caramel and pineapple in pan.   

5) Bake cake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or till skewer comes out clean. 

6) Cool pan for 10 minutes. Turn cake onto a platter. Serve warm. 

A happy birthday boy!

And we had it with ice cream. Jin Xiu's cookie and cream fav flavour! Weird but delish!

Passionfruit Cake

I was passing along Victoria Market when I noticed that they were selling 6 passionfruit for $2!

Better news, Bianca was popping along and I needed to bake her a cake. 

I found this recipe off bestrecipes.com  and tweak it a little as usual. I don't like too much of butter and sugar so I tend to cut them to a third anyway. 

The recipe requires 4 pulp of passionfruit which including the seeds. Surprisingly the seeds gave a crunchy texture and we all enjoyed it.  

This cake has icing on the top. 

And if you don't like icing, I think with just the cake and have a passionfruit coulis will do a great trick too. 

Passionfruit Cake

125 g butter

1/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

2 cups of self-raising flour

1/2 cup milk

4 pulp of passionfruit (with seeds)

Icing:

1 tablespoon of butter

1 1/2 cup of icing sugar

2 pulp of passionfruit, sieved  (without seeds)

1) Preheat oven to 180 C. Brush a round 20cm cake pan with butter and line the sides with non-stick baking paper. 

2) Cream butter and sugar. Add in the eggs to combine. 

3) Add in sifted flour alternating it with milk. Then add passionfruit pulp until all combined.

4) Pour in cake pan and bake for 40 minutes or until skewers into cake comes out of clean. 

5) To make icing, Whisk butter and icing sugar till combined. Then add sieved pulp.

6) When cake comes out from the oven, using a skewer, poke around the cake. When icing is poured on the cake, this will help the icing absorbed into the cake easily. 

sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce

winter comes along and I crave for sticky date

I find it really hard to hunt for a good pudding. 

some will be to floury or too dense that half way through your slice, it gets overwhelmingly rich.

My mum flew over the other day with a kilo (yes! 1 KILO!) of dates. 

I have been telling her on the phone that I needed some dates- having the dates here in Melb are dry and not as juicy as the one we have at home. Little did I know that she had hauled in 1 kilo of dates for me. So now, I have dates all over my fridge. :(

So here it is, a slight adaptation. I have reduced the sugar slightly. 

Sticky date pudding

270g (1 1/2 cups) deseeded dried dates
312ml (1 1/4 cups) water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
60g (1/4 cup) butter, roughly chopped (we use salted butter)
2 large eggs (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
188g (1 1/4 cups) self-raising flour
150g (2/3 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar

Butterscotch Sauce
180g (3/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons, firmly packed) brown sugar
300ml (1 cup plus 2 1/2 tablespoons) cream (35 to 40 percent fat)
25ml (1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon) golden syrup
25g (1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon) butter (we use salted butter)

Place dates and water in a small saucepan over high heat. When the mixture starts to boil, add bicarbonate of soda and 60g butter, and remove from the heat. Stir and then set aside for 25 minutes (the butter will melt during this time).

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 Celsius fan-forced). If you are not using a fan-forced oven, adjust the oven rack to the lower half of the oven so the top of the pudding will be in the centre of the oven.

Grease a 20cm diameter (top inside measurement) round springform pan and line the base and side with baking paper.

Place cooled date mixture in a food processor. Pulse mixture a few times to form a chunky paste.

Add eggs and vanilla to date mixture and pulse a couple of times until just combined.

Stir flour and 150g (2/3 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar together in a medium bowl. Use the back of the spoon to break up any lumps of brown sugar. Add date mixture to the flour mixture and gently fold the ingredients together until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

If, when baking, the pudding starts to overbrown, loosely cover it with greaseproof paper.

Begin making the sauce (see instructions below) about 10 minutes before the pudding has finished baking.

Bake the pudding for about 50-60 minutes, or until it springs back when lightly pressed in the centre. A thin-bladed knife or wooden skewer inserted into the centre of the pudding should come out without any batter attached.

Leave pudding in the pan and allow it to cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Using a skewer, pierce several deep holes in the pudding. Pour about 125ml (1/2 cup) of the hot butterscotch sauce over the pudding. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before removing from the pan.

Reheat sauce if necessary. Serve pudding with hot butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream.

Store leftover pudding and sauce in the refrigerator or freezer (we freeze the sauce separately). Suitable to reheat.

Butterscotch Sauce

Place sauce ingredients in a small saucepan. Stir mixture over medium to medium-high heat until the mixture comes to the simmer. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove sauce from heat and set aside until required. 

maple glazed crispy bacon

bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon baconbacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon 

That is all I have been thinking about these few days.

A good friend of mine gave me this mind blowing choc a year ago- bacon with choc. And I just love it! sounds weird all together but was amazing! bitter sweet from the choc and salty bacon bits from the bacon was a perfect combo exploding in your mouth!

So I have decided to make crispy bacon instead :)

Maple glazed Crispy Bacon

500 g sliced bacon

4 tbs maple syrup

1 tbs cinnamon

- Preheat oven to 200 C. Mix together maple syrup and cinnamon. I like a lot of cinnamon. I love the smell around the house. 

- Spray oil on rack & Line bacon strips on it. I prefer having the bacon fats drips to the bottom rather then swimming with the bacon. 

-Using a baking brush, glazed the bacon with maple mix. Pop it into oven.

-Every 15 mins continue to glazed the bacon until crisp. I like mine crispy, so I had it in for about 40 mins. 

-Remove bacon from rack and serve it hot! - and with cold cider of course.

lamb cutlets with mango salsa

lamb cutlets are my favourite cuts
the meat is tender
its thin and quick to cook.
mango is one of my favourite fruits
so yup I have decided to put them together as an experiment
lamb cutlets+mango=delicious!

Lamb cutlets & mango salsa

6 lamb cutlets
herbs
olive oil
salt & pepper

1 large ripe mango
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp palm or brown sugar
1/3 cup coriander leaves (torn)

1. For salsa, peel and chop 1 large ripe mango and place in a bowl with 1 small red chilli (finely chopped).
In a separate bowl, combine 2 tsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp lime juice, 1 tsp palm or brown sugar and stir until sugar has dissolved.

2. Pour dressing over mango and chilli mixture and toss to combine.
Add 1/3 cup coriander leaves (torn), stir and set aside.

3. Brush both sides of 12-16 lamb cutlets with olive oil and season with salt and cracked black pepper.
Cook on a preheated hot barbecue or chargrill 2-3 minutes each side or until cooked as desired.

4.Serve cutlets topped with mango salsa.

And I made ice cream cake for Xiu's bday! LOL

lamb shank with creamy mash potatoes

I have always promised Xiu that I will be making shanks for him... one day

but never did. :(
When it ws his birthday I decided what better time to do it.
even though it just hit summer,
knowingly Melb weather is alway mixed up,
its was cold and wet in December.
I haved used this recipe a few years ago.. funnily it was around this time with Ben, Pin and Gary
It turns out great and it still did after a few years later.
This lamb shank recipe is definately a keeper.
Its easy but its not a quick one.
Takes 3 hours to wait but I didnt need to do anything much.
Leave in the oven and wait for the 'im falling off the meat' and 'then melting in your mouth' experience
and it is worth it.
The only work that you need to do
is rub a dub dub ur tummy after the meal.
Enjoy.

Creamy mash potato
4 medium size potatoes, cleaned & cut in quaters- yes skin on!
80g butter
60ml milk
salt &pepper
paprika powder

1. Placed potatoes in simmered water. cook till you can poke a fork through.
2. Drain the water out. pour in milk and toss in butter. With a potato masher, mash the potatoes till its nice and smooth.
3. Season the mash.


Lamb shank

4 lamb shank
1 cup plain flour
olive oil
1 large red onion
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, peeled & chopped
1 red capsicum, seeded & chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2x 400g tin diced tomtoes
1 cup (250ml) red wine
1 cup (250ml) beef stock
2 bay leaves
3 springs thyme
salt & pepper
2 tbsp chopped parsley, to serve


1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Coat the shank in the flour, dusting off any excess. Heat olive oil in a deep dish casserole. Add the shanks and cook until brown (not cooking the inside). Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Add more olive oil and toss in onion, celery, carrot, capsicum & garlic. Top with the browned shanks then pour over the tomato, wine, stock and herbs and season. Make sure you cover the shanks with all of the ingerdients. I would add more stock or wine to do so.
3. Cover with aluminium foil or a lid and transfer to the oven for 2-3 hours ( the longer the better).
You would know when shanks are ready when the meat is soft and is easily falling off the bone.
4. To serve, spoon some mash on and place shank on top. sprinkle some chopped parsley on top.

Untie Pat's foolproof brownies

I made some brownies for Bianca's coktail party

its easy
its fast
its adaptable-you can throw in whatever you want in it
and most importantly its idiot proof

Untie Pat's Brownies

142g cooking choc (you choose-dark/milk)
115g butter
2 eggs
150g caster sugar
85g self raising flour
1teaspoon vanilla essence
salt
Optional: nuts/fruits/choc bites of your choice


1. Melt choc with butter bran marie over low heat
2. In another bowl, beat eggs until thick then add sugar
3. Stir in the cooled melted choc
4. Add vanilla

5. Stir in sifted flour and salt
6. Add your optional ingredients

7. Pop in the oven- 180C for about 20 mins




I ended up making 4 different kinds of brownies that night
one with sliced almonds
one with pecans
one with dark choc bites
and another with dried blueberries that Amy got from Cosco for me
That night i used milk choc-because that is what i had in my cupboard
but i find that when i do use dark choc with milk choc bites
it turns out way way richer