Maryam's Sunshine Cinnamon Rolls

Soft, sweet cinnamon rolls covered in a sticky cream cheese and orange glaze. 

Read more »

Harissa Buttermilk Brined Fried Chicken

Succulent and mildly spicy fried chicken.

Read more »

Guest Post from La Tour de Force: Chocolate & Cinnamon Baked Donuts

As-Salaamu Alaykum,

Ramadhan is less than a week away, excited? anxious? me too. 

Now, who doesn't like doughnuts? I especially enjoy one at breakfast alongside a strong cup of tea.

Here are some beauties baked by the lovely Aiza from La Tour de Force who kindly accepted my invitation to guest post on the blog. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more »

My Imperfectly Fondant Topped, Bursting With Sunshine, Lemon Cupcakes

As-Salaamu Alaykum,

My first time EVER working with fondant. Don't get me wrong I've had fondant intentions before then I always end up breaking snack size chunks off and eating straight out of the container or packet. Am I the only one that has ever done that?

Read more »

Chai Spiced Chocolate & Tahini Pancakes

As-Salaamu Alaykum

Today I'm guest posting over at umm imran, Anisa's blog Passing Through This Life. Check it out here

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes With Orange Blossom Glacé Icing

As-Salaamu Alaykum,

Apologises for my lack of posting in recent months.

Here are some yummy cupcakes to re-break the blogging ice.

Read more »

Fudgy Brownies (chocolate cherry)

As-Salaamu Alaykum,

Baking in recent months has taken a bit of a back seat but that doesn't mean I've lost my passion for it, no siree!

These chewy crusted, rich fudgy Brownies engrained in me that yes you can be pushed for time, with children pulling at your apron strings (metaphorically speaking) and still make a really tasty treat in less than an hour.

Read more »

Swiss / Jelly Roll

Read more »

'Angel' Food Cake With Lemon Curd #GBBO

As-Salaamu Alaykum,

Angel food cake with lemon curd is a must bake from this years series of The Great British Bake Off

Read more »

I'm Taking A Blogging Break & Black Tea Cupcakes With Honey Buttercream

Read more »

My First Chiffon Cake - Peppermint Chocolate

As-Salam Alaykum,

As with all firsts it didn't go according to plan and I've learnt another valuable baking lesson, more on that in a tick, first what is a chiffon cake?

Chiffon Cakes are also known as Mayonnaise Cakes as they contain oil, water and eggs unlike Angel Cake which are made using no fat and can be rather dry Chiffon retains  it's moisture which in my book means they are better.

They are made by first whisking oil, egg yolks and water together, sifting cake flour and sugar into the oil mix and beating for 1 minute at high speed.

To give the cake it's light airy texture the egg whites are whisked separately to stiff peaks with more sugar i.e. a meringue then slowly folded into the first, denser oil/flour mixture.

Valuable Lesson - Fold meringue into the oil/flour mixture in 4-6 stages not in 2!

I didn't fold my meringue into the oil/flour mixture well enough, thinking I would knock all the air out of the cake if I folded in the flour in many stages I tried to do it quicker in 2 but it didn't work when I poured the batter into my silicone cake pans there was still quite a lot of the denser oil/flour mixture at the bottom of the mixing bowl which I scraped out and put into the center of one of the pans and gave it a quick stir in hoping for the best!

As I made two cakes the one you see below ended up being more dense in 'spots' where the batter hadn't been mixed / folded in properly Alhamdulillah it was still edible just not worthy of being frosted so I sprinkled it with icing sugar and put it to one side for second best bites.

Chiffon Cakes usually are baked in tube/Bundt pans as this helps the cake rise evenly and as they tend to sink once removed from the oven they are baked in ungreased/floured sided  pans and inverted (onto such things as the bottom of a flower pot) upon removal from the oven and left to cool totally inside the pan.

I haven't got any tube pans (they are on my long shopping list) so I resorted to my round silicone pans and still inverted them, onto a cooling rack lined with baking paper however, as silicone is non stick they started to slide out and stick to the baking paper, ooops! So I do recommend you use metal cake pans for chiffon cakes. It wasn't such a disaster after all, as once the cakes had cooled completely and been unmoulded from the silicone pans I peeled off the baking paper without causing too much damage to the surface of the cakes and kept those sides face down :)

The need to make the buttercream icing green and blue for this cake apart from it being peppermint flavoured of course, was that my 4year old son asked me for a green monster cake.

He got a green and blue frosted chocolate cake without a monster in site (depending on how you view this cake that is lol) I intended the blue to be a rose in the center, but I used an unfamiliar open star tip (not the wilton 1M which is my favourite for piping roses) and ended up going for a swirly circle?!

Next time I make this cake, I will dare to slice the fluffy pillow in 2 and fill it with a lighter buttercream, say Italian meringue or even whipped cream would go well as the cake is so delicate it deserves a filling to match.

Here is my cake recipe, using self raising flour instead of the more traditional cake flour.

The cakes flavour and the texture (lots of air holes) reminded me of a mint aero chocolate bar!

Peppermint Chocolate Chiffon Cake(s)

Adapted from Chiffon Cake Recipe found in the book, The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg.

Recipe makes 2 x 23cm cakes but the recipe can easily be divided by 2 to make only 1 cake. I highly recommend you make just 1 cake if like me, it is your first time baking this type of  sponge cake. Folding in a 4 egg white meringue will be much easier than one made using 8.

Ingredients

2/3 Cup (160ml) Vegetable Oil (I used sunflower)

8 Egg Yolks

1 Cup (250ml) Water, room temperature

1 Tablespoon Peppermint Oil

336 Grams Self Raising Flour

85 Grams Cocoa Powder

400 Grams Caster Sugar, divided (see method)

8 Egg Whites

Method

Pre-Heat Oven to 375F/190C /170C (fan)

Beat Egg Yolks, Oil, Peppermint Oil together and stir in water.

Sift Flour, Cocoa & 130 Grams sugar into egg yolk mixture and mix in. Beat mixture at high speed for 1 minute (2 if doing by hand with a spoon - it's hard work!) and set aside.

In a separate grease free bowl whip your egg whites at high speed (I recommend using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or an electric hand whisk) until frothy then gradually add 270 Grams sugar and continue to whisk until stiff peak stage.

Fold Meringue into your cake batter in 4-6 stages, I used a tablespoon to do this but ideally you need a bigger metal spoon or a rubber spatula.

Divide final cake mixture equally between your 2 cake pans and bake in the center of your oven for 25-30minutes or until the center springs back slightly when pressed with a finger.

Remove from oven and invert pans onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Fill and decorate your cake with your favourite icing, whipped double cream, jam, layer of fruit etc..

Chocolate & Date With A Hint Of Orange Blossom, Star Shape Brownie 'Cupcakes'

As-Salaamu Alaykum,

These 'cupcakes' aren't really cupcakes at all but rather mini star shaped brownies!

Read more »

Chocolate & Coconut Cupcakes

Read more »

'Southern' Sweet Potatoe Bread

Potatoe VS Potato? I guess really i should have labelled my photos with 'Potato' as it's an american recipe.

Read more »

1975: Burger & Chips Followed By Tulumba

As-Salaamu Alaikum, Greetings blogosphere,

Read more »

Very Vanilla Cupcakes With Vanilla Buttercream Roses

As-Salaamu Alaykum,

If you follow me on instagram you have already had a sneaky peak at these very vanilla cupcakes i baked for my twin sister.

Read more »

Brown Eyed Baker's Burger Buns

Read more »

Orange & Raspberry Cupcakes

Read more »

Pistachio Chocolate & Rose Water Cupcakes

Read more »

Lemon Meringue Pie/Tart

Salam Alaikum / Hi

ABOUT MERINGUE

Food historians tell us the precursor for meringue was an Elizabethan-era
dish called  "Snow". (aka snow eggs). What
exactly is meringue and who is credited for the discovery?


"Meringue...an airy, crisp confection of beaten egg white and sugar. The word
probably entered French from German, as did many other French words ending in
-ingue. It first appeared in print in Massailot [1691], although earlier recipes
for the same thing but without the name had been published. The name travelled
to England almost at once and first appeared in print there in 1706....It seems
to have been only in the 16th century that European cooks discovered that
beating egg whites, e.g. with a whisk of birch twigs (in the absense of any
better implement), produced an attractive foam. At first the technique was used
to make a simple, uncooked dish called snow, made from egg white and cream.
However, cooking such a foam would not have resulted in meringue, for any fat in
the mixture, as represented by the cream, prevents the egg whites from taking on
the proper texture...When true meringue made its appearance in the 17th century,
it still lacked its name and was often called "sugar puff.""

---Oxford
Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
197)

A dear friend 'Sugar' gave me the recipe for this delicious lip smacking pie/tart the other week, without my weighing scales i had no option but to wait and it was totally worth it.

I finally set my mind to bake it this morning. After around an hour and half it was finished,  ready and waiting for when dh woke from his slumber.

Note: In future Asmaa, don't think about pastry baking when in england a heat wave is in progress!

My version became more a tart than pie, as the layers were skinnier than normal. This is in no way a fault in the original recipe but to myself by not using a 19cm flan/tart/pie tin, i used my one and only 23cm petal shaped loose based tart tin.

The on-going problem i have with baking in my pretty petal tin is the tart always sticks and never will come out in 1 piece (the tin is supposed to be non stick and i still butter it very well)  Any tips/help would be greatly appreciated.

Ingredients

Pastry

225g plain flour

25g sugar

100g butter

¼ tsp salt

1 egg

*Note this is probably Enough for two 19cm flan cases or 1 23cm tart tin with a but left over, it can be frozen.

Filling

Juice of 3 lemons

Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

3 tbsp corn flour

150ml water

75g sugar

2 egg yolks

15g butter

Meringue

2 egg whites

115g sugar

Method

1. In a food pprocessorpulse flour, sugar and butter to fine bread crumb consistency add in beaten egg and pulse until you have a dough, may need little water. Chill for at least ½ hour. Do prep work i.e. zest lemons,weigh sugars and butter etc for filling/meringue.


2. Preheat oven to 180deg C Fan/ 200deg C/400 deg F/gas 6. Roll out dough to line your chosen tin, best if quite thin but it is fragile to work with especially in the heat of the morning sun! Patch where necessary. Prick pastry and line with paper and baking beans, bake for around 12 mins and then take out paper and beans and bake for further 5 mins, maybe longer depending on how well done you like pastry.


3. Reduce oven to 130deg C/ 150deg C / 300deg F/ gas 2, For filling put lemon juice and zest in pan, mix water and corn flour together and add, slowly bring to boil and stir until thickened, remove from heat, add sugar, let cool so you don’t scramble egg then mix in egg yolks. Stir in the butter, spoon into pastry case.


4. For meringue, whisk egg whites until stiff then gradually whisk in the sugar, until thick and glossy. Spoon it over the lemon, spreading with spoon and then swirling it with a skewer / cocktail stick. Bake for 15 mins( 23cm tin) or 30-35 mins (19cm) OR until meringue is golden and crisp

Thank you sugar for the recipe.