Ricotta Apple Cake

I was meant to do a bit of a brownie experiment this weekend - had planned it out perfectly except for one thing... I forgot to buy eggs. What the hoohay? So I had only 3 eggs on hand and a hankering to bake this evening and quickly pivoted from the brownie experiment plan to make this stunning cake I had seen on Food52's instagram. It's called Louisa's Cake, an elegantly simple recipe to pull off yet yields such wonderful results.

It's made with just a small bundle of ingredients, and chances are you will only need to run to the shops to get just two items - a fresh crunchy green apple and a tub of ricotta. It's also so easy, that I made two this weekend! One for Kak Yati's birthday, and another to bring to dinner at my sister-in-law's place.

I'll save the brownie experiment for another night this week, and I'd really still like to do it before I fly off this Thursday for my 30th birthday weekend getaway. Oh well, who needs sleep? I'm still in my 20s, I'm sure I could pull it off! Hehehe

Recipe for Louisa's Cake or a Ricotta Apple Cake
From Food52

• 117g butter, room temperature
• 225g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250g fresh ricotta
• 1 large green apple, peeled and shredded (and squeezed of excess moisture)
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 160g all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 9" springform tin with parchment paper 
2. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy, then add the eggs in one at a time while mixing on low speed
3. Add the vanilla then beat in the ricotta, apple and lemon zest and continue to beat the mixture until combined (1-2 mins on low speed)
4. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and fold in with a spatula until the dry ingredients are just wet then pour the batter out into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes (fan) 
5. Cool the cake in the tin for about 10 minutes then move to a wire rack and cool completely before dusting with icing sugar and then cutting a slice out to "photograph" but really it was just in time for the hot mug of coffee you just made. 

Rustic Apple Galette

The monsoon season is well and truly underway here in my cosy corner of the world, and on a particularly wet Sunday afternoon last week, I popped in the LOTR: The Two Towers DVD and got to work with my hands. There's something immensely comforting about the smell of baking on a lazy day in while watching your favourite epic fantasy film; especially the smells of butter, cinnamon and the wonderful vanilla bean pods the boyfriend brought back from a recent work trip to the African continent. 

A galette is basically the lazy person's go-to pie or tart, and is so easy to remember that it's the perfect recipe to have in your repertoire for those occasions when you want to bake but have no access to your cookbook or the internet (you know... like a short weekend visit to your grandmother's place). You can use any fruit you have on hand, the riper the better, and I just happened to have a bushel of green apples that are starting to get a little bruised looking. 

Rustic Apple Galette

• Basic pie crust recipe (I used roughly a tennis ball sized amount of leftovers from a standard batch)
• 3 green apples, cored, peeled and sliced
• Juice of 1/4 lemon
• 1-2 tbsp raw honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• Seeds from 1 vanilla pod (or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste) 

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Roll out your pie crust dough to the size of your baking sheet (so long as it fits the width) and place on the baking sheet, then set aside
3. Core, peel and slice the apples then toss in a large bowl with the lemon juice to keep them from browning. Mix in the honey, cinnamon and vanilla seeds to coat the apples
4. Arrange the apples around the centre of the prepared crust, leaving around 2 inches of crust around the edges. Fold over and pinch the dough to seal the mixture in, then brush the crust with milk and sprinkle on some sugar 
5. Bake the galette for 40 minutes, then serve as soon as it has cooled enough to eat

Apple Crumble Cake

Freshly baked cake, sweet and tangy fruits, cold ice-cream. Is that not one of the most comforting combinations you can imagine? If you're like me and find comfort in the act of baking (and then enjoying the spoils of that well spent afternoon), this is one recipe you should try. It's easy enough to whip up in less than 15 minutes, but takes up enough of your energy that it works perfectly to shut down the background noise going on in your head.

I've baked four of these cakes in the past 3 days (one for an order, one for an office potluck lunch, one for my mum, and another for an aunt) and have gotten to enjoy approximately 3 bites of it. Sometimes I wonder if I bake because I love desserts, or if I bake to distract myself from myself. I'm not entirely sure what I'm feeling right now, and to be honest, I'm not too keen to confront it just yet. Work has been fantastically rewarding lately, pushing me to my known limits of existing knowledge and making me learn a lot more as I go along, and I'm loving every single second of it.

You know, I should probably edit this entry to talk of something more meaningful, but you're not here to read about my life. So I'm going to just give you the recipe you came for.

Apple Crumble Cake
adapted from Valli Little's recipe on Delicious. au
Preheat oven to 180C and line a 9" springform tin with baking paper and butter

The cake:

• 145g softened butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1tsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup cream
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced

The crumble:

• 50g cold butter, cubed
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamo

1. For the cake: Pop the butter and sugar in your electric stand mixer and beat until fluffy, then add the eggs and vanilla bean paste and beat until incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, baking powder, cream and milk in one go and beat with the paddle attachment until fully incorporated. Transfer the batter into your prepared cake tin and arrange the apple slices on top. 
2. The crumble: Rub the butter and flour with your fingers until they resemble coarse crumbs. Stir the sugar and cinnamon through the crumble with a fork. Pour the crumble over the apples and cake and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool slightly and serve with ice-cream!

The Happiness Initiative

Mountain bread wheat wraps with beetroot hummus, tuna & apple, tomato salsa, and lentil salad

My good friend and colleague, Alena, (hello, it's been a while since she's been mentioned here) and I have decided to follow our other healthier, fitter friends' footsteps towards clean eating. We're really into food, desserts, and cooking though, so we're going to take things one step at a time. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go all health-freak on you and stop with my cakes completely. This is about making a sustainable lifestyle adjustment, it's not a crash diet, and I hope that it becomes something I can maintain for the rest of my life. I just enjoy food far too much to cut out a lot of it, so instead of a clean eating initiative, we have decided to call it The Happiness Initiative. 

What are the guidelines of THI, you wonder? Well, I'm glad you asked, buddy, cos here they are:

1. Eat well prepared food made of the best ingredients
2. Do something fun and artsy (check out the local music scene, paint a table, I dunno, anything!)
3. If you're going to have dessert, bake a friggin cake and have a bite 
4. Don't sweat the small stuff. Adopt our mantra: It's NACHO problem, you don't have to TACO bout it
5. Wake up, and smile at yourself in the mirror even if you're hungover
6. Oh yea, have a drink every now and then, but don't push it
7. Let's get physical, physical, I wanna get physical (walk, ride a bike, swim, play tennis, have sex, tickle your siblings, dance to corny music) 
8. Do at least 2 things you've never done, in 2 places you've never been in a year
9. Treat yourself, have something to look forward to every month

Easy, right? lol this is by no means a list to follow, this is simply our list of how to be happy. I'm a strong believer that you don't chase happiness, you simply have to be happy, and so these are just a few things I do to make myself happy on a daily basis. 

For our first week of putting the THI into motion, we prepared a few dishes that we can store in the office fridge for our lunches and daytime snacks. Thank the stars for a good pantry, by the way. These recipes are SO easy, and takes about 15 minutes to prepare so it doesn't take anything to whip them up the night before and bring them in to work the next day. Hope you give them a shot! 

Beetroot Hummus

Tahini:

• 5 cups sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 cups of olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, toast sesame seeds for 5-10 minutes (do not let it burn, a golden brown will suffice)
2. Blend the tahini and olive oil until you achieve a pourable texture

Beetroot Hummus:

• 1 16oz tin of chick peas
• 1/4 cup liquid from the chick peas tin
• 3-5 tbsp of lemon juice (or to taste)
• 1 1/2 tbsp tahini
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium sized beetroot, peeled and cooked

1. First, peel and chop the beetroot into small 1cm and cook in a saucepan over a low heat. I just brushed the saucepan with olive oil. Cook until soft, so about 30 mins? lol sorry
2. Blend all ingredients for 3-5 minutes on low speed until thoroughly mixed and the texture is smooth

Apple & Tuna salad

• 1 can tuna flakes in water, no salt added
• 1 Granny Smith green apple, cut into cubes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon
• Pepper
• Pinch of sea salt flakes

Hello! Just mash it all up in a small bowl, you can eat it as it or use it as a filling for wraps and sandwiches

And a recipe contribution from Alena:

Tomato Salsa

• 3 large tomatoes, remove pulp, chopped into cubes
• Handful of coriander
• Dried oregano
• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar
• Sea salt
• Pepper

Once again, just mix it all up in a bowl and chill in the fridge

Sorry for the radio silence lately, but so much has been happening and I simply haven't found the time to type up posts worthy of you readers. I'll try to get some time in this weekend, but between a concert on Saturday and fancy dinner cooking party on Sunday, I'm not sure when I'll be able to do it. But no worries, I am a miracle worker, I'll have a post up in a week.

Much love, be happy, and enjoy this amazing painting done for me by the lovely and talented Alena:

Alena is a very talented painter, and she's taking commissions now, so if you're interested in owning a piece of her art, drop her an email at alena.murang@gmail.com