Free From Friday - Date & Cinnamon Cake (Egg Free)

Salam Alaikum sisters & Hi to all my readers,



This delicious date and cinnamon cake is anything but dry, which is what most of us associate with egg free cakes/biscuits.



The dates are the secret in this cake as they add sticky sweetness, which also means the cake remains moist and rest assured it won't be around long enough to dry out. 



The pink fondant was purely to give it a bit of umph! even the best tasting cake can look unappealing being one shade of brown! Next time i make this tasty treat i won't be adding the fondant unless a request comes from dh or son for blue or green fondant lol because seriously the flavour speaks for itself.



Recipe adapted from Treat & Trick

Makes: 1 x 20cm round cake

which is around 6-10 servings depending on how you ration sweet goods in your household



Ingredients

1.5 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 cup water

1 cap full of rose water (optional)

60g  butter

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup chopped dry dates

1 tsp cinnamon



Method

1. Preheat oven 180C/160C (Fan)/350F/Gas Mark 4, grease and flour a 20cm spring form baking pan.


2. Sieve flour, baking powder and cinnamon together in a medium size bowl


3. Place water, butter and dates in a saucepan. Heat the mixture on medium heat until butter has melted. Turn off heat then add rose water, if using.


4. Stir in brown sugar, stir well until it dissolves, while still warm mix in the rest of your dry ingredients from step 2, combine until well incorporated.


5. Pour the batter into prepared pan and bake for 22-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.


6. Let sit in the pan for 10-20 minutes, transfer onto rack to cool

If you want to go ahead and decorate your cake as i did, you will need



250-300grams fondant icing sugar

10-15ml cold water

X amount of food colouring OPTIONAL (depends what shade you want to achieve and type of colouring your using, i used a colour paste so a little bit went a loooong bright way!)

Handful of flaked almond (can toast these but i forgot) to scatter on top of the fondant

1. Place fondat icing sugar in a pan with 10ml water along with food colouring (go steady, remember you can always add more but you can't take away!)


2. Turn on heat to low and stir together until the icing is a thick consistency that still runs off the spoon.


3. Pour onto the center of your cake and watch as the icing glides over and sometimes down the sides of your cake.


4. Whilst the fondant hasn't set scatter flaked almonds on top.

Enjoy!

Pistachio Chocolate & Rose Water Cupcakes

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Giant Lemon Cupcake - First Attempt

This was my first attempt at a GIANT lemon cupcake. It didn't all go according to plan but i'm sure there will be a next time to perfect my cupcake creation, maybe EID inshaAllah.

So here is what went wrong:-

•  I undercooked the top of the giant cupcake even i tested it with a scewer and it came out clean! This was evident when i tried releasing it from the silicone mould, it didn't come out in one piece and was mushy in the center.


• The filling insert that fits on top of the base popped up at one side during the baking process, result - filling cavity wasn't directly in the center/ uneven border.

Next time i must remember to:-

•  Bake the top/lid of the cupcake for an extra 5 minutes and leave it to cool 80% in the mould before releasing.


• Make sure the filling insert is properly secured on top of  the base before baking.

I kinda used this cake as a canvas to practice my buttercream roses using the wilton 1M tip, they would have looked more 3D/ realistic if piped onto the lid, inshaAllah some other time (sighs)

I would prefer the filling insert to be deeper so that the cake to filling ratio would be more balanced however all in all this oversized, zesty, lemon cupcake filled with whipped cream and a layer of sliced strawberries was really tasty you know i would say that, as i'm a sucker for anything using my favourite coloured fruit.

The recipe for the cake & buttercream can be found here, i used about 150ml whipped double cream and 4 small strawberries, sliced for the filling.

Date & Almond Loaf Cake

Collage

I wanted to use up the remaining almonds i add left sat in the fridge from when i made my bakewell tart and i'd also been wanting to use my new loaf pan so this cake is what i came up with.

loosely adapted from insing

Ingredients

Butter, unsalted & softened - 150 grams

Caster Sugar - 120 grams

Self-raising flour - 120 grams

Eggs, medium size - 3

Dates, dry/preserved, stoned and chopped - 80 grams

Rose water (Orange Blossom would work too) - 1 tablespoon

Water - 3 1/2 tablespoon

Vanilla, seeds only - 1 teaspoon

Almonds, ground - 45 grams

Almonds, flaked - 60 grams

Syrup of choice for soaking (optional), i used homemade vanilla rose syrup - 1 ladel

Equipment: 10 x 30cm loaf pan, stand mixer with paddle/beater attachment or equivalent i.e. bowl & wooden spoon, palette knife, tablespoon, teaspoon, greaseproof baking paper, selection of bowls.

Method

Pre-heat oven to 350F/180ْC/160C (fan)/Gas mark 4 and grease and line bottom of 10cm x 30cm loaf pan, set aside.

Weigh out & measure all ingredients, Cut dates and spoon rose water and water over them. Set aside covered for 10 minutes.

Remove seeds from vanilla pod, add to butter and sugar then beat together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well in between each addition.

Fold in dry dates, ground almonds and flour.

Pour into greased loaf pan, scatter almond flakes (i missed this step and added them with all the other dry ingredients above....ooooops!)

Bake cake on middle shelf of oven for 30 minutes or until skewer inserted in the centre of cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven, Prick cake all over using skewer and whilst still hot drizzle over no more than 1 ladel of syrup if using, leave in pan to cool completely.

The cake if you choose to soak in syrup is best eaten the day after you make it, this gives the syrup chance to penetrate but in my house cake can't be left till the next day and don't be alarmed when the cake doesn't rise anywhere near the top of the loaf pan it's not supposed to....well at least i hope it's not because i really loved this rather dense loaf cake, alhamduillah.

Bakewell Tart

Like many a British classic before it, how the Bakwell tart was first concocted no one is 100% sure of. I'm inclined to believe it came about by accident as the following story tells.

In 1820 Mrs. Greaves the landlady of the White Horse Inn, Bakewell Town Invited friends round for dinner. Mrs.Greaves was busy entertaining and asked her inexperienced cook to make a pudding.

The instructions were, mix an egg mixture with a secret ingredient into a pastry case and spread strawberry jam on top. The cook was inexperienced so misunderstood the instructions, poured the egg mixture onto the jam instead, therefore making a tart, not a pudding!

The tart was still served to the guests and as they praised the dish, Mrs Greaves ordered her staff to continue making them that way.

This tart consists of a thin sweet shortcrust pastry base layered with raspberry jam, frangipane and topped with flaked almonds. It is quite simple to make when you organise yourself well I promise! and even though my oven (fan) kindly over browned the top of my tart, it still tasted great.

The recipe i followed can be found here

Homemade Baguettes

Most authentic French baguette recipes I come across on the internet or in my baking books take far longer to make and bake than this one I’m sharing today. My husband being from Algeria, the French influence on the culture and cuisine of his home country is evident even 50 years on from the country’s independence.

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Coffee & Walnut Cake

Coffee and Walnut cake is a favourite in my home and I hope it will be in yours now too.

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Watermelon & Rose Water Ice Lollies

Salam Alaikum sisters / Hello everyone,

So this isn't baking but i'm sure you can figure anything sweet i like!

Ice lollies are so quick to make (minus the freezing time) that you will wonder why on earth you haven't been making ice lollies before, I know i felt like that too.

Watermelon Rose Water Ice Lollies

You will need: Ice lolly mold, Blender or Food Processor

Ingredients

1/3 Watermelon, diced
3/4 tsp Rose Water

Method

1. Blend watermelon including the seeds but not the green skin, until smooth. Add rose water and blend for another few seconds to distribute rose water evenly.


2. Fill  ice lolly mold, leaving the smallest gap at the top of each and then pop on your lolly sticks and place in the freezer until frozen, mine took 10-12 hours.

Mini Halal Toad In The Hole

Now you know i will actually go out of my way just to bake using my cupcake/muffin tins!



Toad in the hole - A traditonal english dish usually using pork(Haram/impermissible for muslims to consume) sausages in a Yorkshire pudding batter. Origin of the name is disputed but i think you can guess it's supposed to look like a toad peeking it's head out of a hole! I only managed to have three that even remotely resembled the description, all the rest were engulfed by the rising yorkshire pudding. Tip for next time* Only just cover the sausage with yorkshire pudding batter to ensure the toad poaks out of the whole.



Recipe adapted slightly by using Halal spicy chicken sausages (you could use lamb or beef merguez) and a tiny pinch of salt in the yorkshire pudding batter. Makes 12. Serve with vegetables and gravy.

Free From Friday - Gluten Free Black Seed & Honey Oat Bars (flapjacks)

Salam Alaikum Sisters & Hello to all my other readers,

This cereal/breakfast bar not only contains oats  , almonds, sesame seeds but also black/blessed seed/Arabic حبه البركة ḥabbat al-barakah & honey which are significant in Islam, both are highlighted in the Quran and/or the Sunnah of our last & final prophet, Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم‎ ṣall Allāhu ʿalay-hi wa-sallam

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Flapjack / Cereal Bar - Recipe Template

This template is back from my school days when i studied food technology/home economics, we were tasked with designing a healthy cereal bar. The baker in me was graded a B and although i was keen on baking back in the day, i never thought of pursuing it as a career choice as i was also a bit of a science geek too,Which is funny because people say baking is a science!

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Top Tip Tuesday - Yeast

I found this useful video to share through become a better baker . All about the different types of Yeast and how to substitute one for another in a recipe.

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