Passionfruit cake with passionfruit sauce

Ever since I ate my first passionfruit I was in love with it. There is nothing as sweet (in my mind) as a ripe passionfruit. You may have to go through a couple before you hit the one with the perfect sweetness, but, oh the joy. Granted I can still eat the tart ones and totally enjoy them as well while making the most squeamish faces ever!

Passion fruit does have seeds and they look lovely. Unfortunately here in Atlanta we do not get fresh passion fruits all year round. I generally make do with the frozen passion fruit pulp that I get from the farmers markets. It is much more tart and its minus the seeds. The seeds do look lovely when you use them.

I also decided to make a simple glaze for the topping to make up for the lack of seeds. It did go quite nicely.

Ingredients

For the cake

• 4 eggs separated
• 330g caster sugar
• 100g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 300g all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 250 ml passion fruit pulp

For the syrup

• 60 ml passion fruit pulp
• 100g castor sugar
• 125 ml water

Method

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a Bundt ring cake pan. It is really important to brush all the nooks well with butter. I use a pastry brush to do this. Lightly flour and tap our the excess flour.

Use the an electric wire whisk to beat the egg yolks, sugar and butter for 6 minutes or until mixture is pale and fluffy.

Sift flour and baking powder together. Fold in a third of the flour into the egg mixture making sure it is all incorporated, followed by half of the passion fruit pulp. Again making sure it is all incorporated. Repeat ending with the flour.

Beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Fold in a quarter of the beaten whites into the mixture to lighten it. Then fold in the remaining beaten whites.

Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for 45-55  minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan.

For the syrup

Put the passion fruit pulp, sugar and water into a small saucepan. Heat on low stirring until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and bring to a gentle boil and cook for 5 minutes or until thick and syrupy. Let it cool completely before drizzling over cake. Use the leftover syrup to pour on slices as you cut them.

Roasted butternut squash, brown butter sage and garlic sauce

I got a Kitchen aid Spiralizer and was pretty excited about it. I have made spiralized zucchini noodles with my oxo kitchen tool and it was pretty good. I so enjoyed them that I got the upgrade. So today I came home all set to make spiralized noodles but ended up just making julienne slices of the butternut squash. I must say my cutting skills came into pretty good use as I made a quick job of slicing the squash into strips. It just goes to show that while they did not look like noodles you can get short spaghetti like strips.

This is a really good and healthy dish to put together and as long as you are quick at cutting it comes together in a cinch.

The easiest way to peel the butternut squash is to cut at bulb off from the straight part. Then use a potato peeler to peel the skin. Slice the stalk into two half’s. Slice each half into strips. Make julienne slices of the strips. For the bulb portion, cut it into half’s use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Then slice in the same way.

Ingredients

Prep time: 10 minutes, Cook time: 15 minutes, Serves 2-3 people

• 1 medium butternut squash (peeled, cored and sliced into julienne strips)
• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter
• 18 sage leaves (washed and dried)
• 6 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt
• shaved parmesan

Method

Preheat your oven to 350F. Toss the julienned slices of butternut squash in olive oil on a roasting tray. Roast the slices in the oven for 15 minutes.

Put the butter into a  deep pot on medium heat. Once the butter melts keep a watch on it. You will get a lot of froth. Keep it on the heat until you get brown flecks in the butter. Lower the to medium-low and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sage, the butter will froth up. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the sage starts to get a little crispy.

Take the butternut squash out of the oven. Divide it between your plates. Top with a little of the sauce, then the parmesan cheese and sprinkle with salt.

Let me know how you enjoy it.

Coffee Meringue, Red wine mousse, White chocolate drizzle

Following on the heels of my last meringue that was such a hit. I decided to do a different take on them for another friends birthday. Since he likes red wine, I thought I would do a take on that and hoped that the coffee meringues would pair well with the red wine mousse. The combination did turn out very well and they were the talk of the party. They were gone in a jiffy!. Thankfully I did save one for the birthday boy. I will say these are very adult ones even though they have very little red wine. You can make a different mousse, chocolate or coffee or just use sweetened whipped cream and top with your favorite fruits!

Ingredients

Makes 30
Prep time 30 minutes
Cook time 40 minutes

For the meringue

• See this recipe

For the white chocolate drizzle

• 12 ounces white chocolate chips
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

For the red wine mousse

• 300 ml heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup red wine

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F. Using a ramekin or any other method of your choice draw round circles on parchment paper and place it on a cookie sheet.

Using the meringue recipe, make the meringue batter. Once your batter is ready put it into a piping bag with a 1 cm nozzle, if you have one. If you do not have nozzles put it in your piping bag or a Ziploc bag and just snip the end off  to a about 1 cm.

Start by piping discs and then build up the sides of the nest. Turn down the oven to 230F. Using oven mitts put the baking sheets in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes and then swap the bottom and top trays and bake for another 35 minutes. Turn the oven off and let the meringues stay in for another 1/2 hour and then remove them.

For the Red Wine Mousse

Pour the cream into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment whisk the cream starting on slow and slowly increasing the speed to medium high. Once the cream has started to thicken about 3 minutes start to add the sugar in a steady stream. Once you have added all the sugar whip until you get to the soft peak stage (when you lift the beaters the cream lifts to a peak and but does not hold the peak. Add the red wine and gently fold until its all incorporated. At this point you can add more if you like – just do not add too much as you want your cream to hold shape.

For the White chocolate drizzle

Heat the heavy cream in the microwave for a minute in a heat proof container. Add the chocolate and let it sit for about 3-5 minutes and then start to stir and keep stirring until its all melted.

Assembly

When you are ready to serve, spoon the mousse into each meringue. Drizzle the white chocolate on top and serve.

 

Olive Oil cake, Lemon glaze

I am always looking for new recipes and ideas. I found this from one of my magazines on my travels. I decided to try it. It was simply delicious and can be adapted to a number of different  flavors.

This cake is popular in many parts of  southern Europe. The stronger the virgin olive oil you use the more pronounced the flavor. Its really easy to add a citrus (orange, lemon) flavor and use the zest in the batter to enhance it, and then drench it in syrup to go over the top. Drench it in syrup instead of the glaze. If you use pure olive oil you can even drench it in a rum syrup – for a very adult version.

For a very different take you could use a little ground up fresh rosemary and then serve the cake with sweetened whipped cream. Its all up to your imagination and your palette.

Ingredients

For the cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs (room temp)
• 1 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup whole milk yoghurt

For the glaze

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 tablespoon whole milk yoghurt

Method

For the cake

Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour your Bundt (I used a heritage Bundt) pan. I use the Pam butter and flour spray and then use a pastry brush to make sure that I have all the edges and crevasses well greased.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Using a stand mixer whisk the eggs and sugar until light and frothy mixture is play and frothy. Whisk in the oil and yoghurt until well blended. Fold in the flour mixture until combined.

Pour the batter into the pan. Tap the pan gently on the table to settle the batter. Pull the batter gently up the sides of the pan. This will prevent a big rise in the center of the cake.

Bake the cake for 40 – 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it rest on a wire rack for about 10-12 minutes. Then gently tap it out of the mold. Let it cool completely before glazing. If you are going to use rum you would brush it on right after you tap the cake out.

For the glaze

Whisk the lemon juice and sugar together until smooth. Add the yoghurt and whisk till blended. Add more lemon juice if you need the glaze to be a little more pourable or you need a more lemony flavor

Pour the glaze over the cake before you are ready to serve.