Blood Orange Poppyseed Loaf

I'm gonna enjoy the blood orange season for as long as it's here (which is not long, considering I live in Malaysia and we get it imported from the States - so it's really touch and go) so I hope you guys really don't mind that I'm posting yet another orange based recipe. I mean, come on, these things are bloody gorgeous! 

So what are blood oranges? As my mum and various aunts have asked (we really don't see them around these parts), I feel we could all use a trip to Wikipedia (one of my top 5 favourite places in the world):

The blood orange is a natural mutation of the orange, which is itself a hybrid, probably between the pomelo and the tangerine,^[4]Within Europe, the arancia rossa di Sicilia (red orange of Sicily) has Protected Geographical Status.^[5] In the Land of Valencia, it was introduced in the second half of the 19th century.^[6]

Also, it's not ALL aesthetics: 

Blood oranges have a unique flavor profile compared to other oranges, being distinctly raspberry-like in addition to the usual citrus notes.

Ah, the reason we don't see it around these equatorial parts:

Blood oranges may have originated in either China or the southern Mediterranean, where they have been grown since the 18th century. They are now the primary orange grown in Italy. The anthocyanins which give the orange its distinct maroon color will only develop when temperatures are low at night, as during the Mediterranean fall and winter.^[3] Blood oranges cultivated in the United States are in season from December to March (Texas), and from November to May (California).

Interesting.... well, maybe not to you, but I now have 7 other tabs open linked from that one Blood Orange wiki page. It's a slippery slope... could easily spend hours going down this wikipedia rabbit hole.

Okay, now that I have wasted enough of your (and my) time, here's the recipe for my new favourite thing. Also, let's be honest ... 

... you can totally do these with normal oranges. I have, and I will - when the season ends. But for now... let's just enjoy the colours. 

Blood Orange Poppyseed Loaf

Slightly adapted from The Whole Bite blog

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup natural yogurt
• 2 tsp blood orange zest
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds
• 1/3 cup fresh blood orange juice
• 1 tbsp confectioner's sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare a loaf tin by greasing and lining with non stick paper
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the yogurt, orange zest and sugar until combined, then add the eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil and beat well
3. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and fold until all the dry ingredients are just wet, and stir in the poppy seeds
4. Pour the batter into the tin, top with thinly sliced oranges (optional) and bake for 50 - 55 minutes
5. When done, remove from the oven and prepare the orange glaze (whisk the orange juice and confectioner's sugar together to form a paste), pour this over the warm cake and let it sink in

That's it, hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Give the recipe a go this weekend, it really doesn't require a lot of hands on time and it's always nice to have something a bit extra for tea time. Lots of love,

x Nabs

Upside-down Orange Almond Cake

One of my colleagues sells fresh fruits that he sources from his various contacts at the market, and when he recommends a specific produce to me I always say yes cos I know they'll be amazing. So last week when he told me he had Cara Cara oranges in stock, I said "how many?". Fast forward to the weekend (after I've had quite a few fresh slices as well as OJ), I still had a lot left over.

So I went on a bit of a baking binge over the last 24 hours, and made not one - not two - but three different recipes featuring oranges! First of all, I'd like to share one of my dad's favourite afternoon tea treats:

Upside-down Orange Almond Cake

• 2 cups almond meal
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 320g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 tbsp natural Greek yoghurt
• Zest of 2 oranges
• A thinly sliced orange

Butterscotch:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter 
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 180C, and line a 9" springform tin with non-stick paper
2. For the butterscotch: In a heavy saucepan, combine the butter and brown sugar over a medium-low heat until it turns into a sandy like texture, then slowly whisk in the cream and salt until the mixture thickens. Pour the butterscotch on the bottom of the prepared tin and line the bottom and sides with the thin slices of orange (starting in the centre and working your way around)
3. For the cake batter: 
4. Combine the almond meal, flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. 
5. Whisk the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, then beat the eggs in one at a time. Add the yoghurt and orange zest and beat until thoroughly combined, then fold in the dry flour mixture until everything is just wet. Pour batter over the orange slices, level, and pop in the oven for 60 - 70 minutes. 
6. Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the tin for about 10 - 15 minutes before upturning onto a wire rack to cool completely. 
7. Serve with tea :) 

I also apologise for the lack of good-quality photoes but I realise that between my job and family obligations... I don't really have all the time I used to for setting up the perfect shots despite how much I want to. I feel that I keep using that as an excuse to not post anymore. I miss blogging, really, just the seemingly senseless activity of talking to myself. So I hope you guys don't mind... I just really love having this outlet.

Much love, hope you enjoy the recipe and cake!

Ghirardelli Chocolate Orange cake

What? Is it really the 12th of December already? Where did the year go? How did this happen? Without me looking, it's been a year since I've started my new job, 7 months since moved into my own place in the city and well... the biggest thing of all, 4 months since Riz proposed! 

It's been a year filled with just doing, doing, and more doing. I haven't really had time for my massive introspective moods, recipe dreaming and the such. But I maintain that it's incredibly important to bake when I get the time to do so... every little bit helps to recharge. 

Last week, the future in-laws came to my parents' for a full on Sarawakian lunch, cooked by my epic Aunty Betty. It was the perfect time to try a recipe I had just pinned the week before - Ghirardelli's flourless chocolate cake with a chocolate orange mousse topping. It was crazy delicious! I can't wait to make it again, and am adding it to my Christmas dinner menu immediately. 

*Recipe can be found here. 

Orange Poppyseed Muffins

It's Chinese New Year, and everyone's on holiday (or to be more precise, everyone has been on holiday since Christmas). I'm flying off to Switzerland on Friday night for a ski trip, the same one I went on last year with my brothers' school, and I don't know if I'm super excited about it or just dreading the physical exertion (come on, I'm a baker with a full time office job and working out for me means walking up the stairs of the carpark to my car at the end of every day). Also, I'm of the old school holiday-means-sleep-and-rest set, so I'll probably need a holiday after my "holiday".

What's with this griping? I love skiing, really, and I can't wait, I just also wish I had the option to sleep in while I'm there. But nope, it's a school trip, and I'm an adult "chaperone", which means I have to work and earn my keep. The school bunch is loads of fun though, so I'm quite looking forward to catching up with the teachers I met last year. Also, skiing is so exhilarating when you've figured out how to do it, so I'm definitely jonesing for that rush when we go down the steeper slopes. 

Anyway, in honour of the Lunar New Year celebrations, I made Orange Poppyseed Muffins for work earlier this week. I also made Lemon Poppyseed Muffins.... and a beetroot chocolate cake covered in thick chocolate ganache. But, let's focus on the Orange. I've been spoiling my colleagues this week with daily treats, and like I said in my previous post: how selfish of me! I get to bake, which I love, then I don't even have to eat the stuff and make my friends take all the calories instead! You see, guys, that's my ultimate diet plan; make everyone around me bigger in comparison while I stay the exact same size. 

Here's to a week of binge eating (for those of you celebrating the Lunar New Year)! Happy holidays, much love and see you when I get back (hopefully in one piece and slightly slimmer for all the exercise). 

Orange Poppyseed Muffins

Makes 14 regular sized muffins

• 175g caster sugar
• 225g all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp poppy seeds
• Zest of 1 orange (or lemon)
• 2 eggs
• 50ml freshly squeezed orange juice (or lemon)
• 50ml natural yoghurt
• 125g butter, melted
• 50ml vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line your muffin tray with pretty paper
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, poppy seeds and orange zest. 
3. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the eggs, orange juice and yoghurt, then add it to the flour mixture
4. Stir in the melted butter, then the vegetable oil and vanilla
5. Pour the batter about 2/3 of the way up each muffin mold and bake for 20-22 minutes
6. Remove from the oven when ready and allow to cool completely. When cool, you may choose to drizzle some orange glaze over the tops of the muffins for a full orangey experience. Or leave them bare for a "healthier" option

Orangey Passionfruit tarts

Do what you love and love what you do. That hackneyed mantra of my fellow Gen Ys rings in my head as I bake up my little treats, force feed my family and friends, and type up these blog posts. Sometimes I wonder just how selfish I can be when I do this, as most of the time the desserts are foisted upon my unsuspecting friends whether or not they want it. And all for what? Just for my personal pleasure of seeing them enjoying something I laboured over with love. I'm a brute. A narcissistic, selfish member of the Gen Y.

Sometimes I feel that our loving and doting parents might have done us wrong in constantly telling us to reach for the stars, that nothing is beyond our abilities (latent they may be), and that they will suffer through the rat race so that we may want for nothing and so that we may have the dreams they never dared to have. I won't generalise, but personally, all of that just made me impatient, discontent, and selfish. Some may call it ambitious and driven, but we are just two sides of the same coin.

I honestly don't know why I started talking about this. Must be the word "Passion" in the recipe I'm about to share with you now. So many people talk about doing what we're passionate about, to chase the thing that we would love to do, and not waste our time sitting in a 4x4 cubicle with no direct sunlight on our skin. Yet, to do that, we'd HAVE to be financially dependent on another. Do our parents then have to suffer more to ensure we get to do what we love? Do we continue to leech on their goodwill? I'm being weird, my apologies. I usually save these mad rantings to my personal journal, but there seems to be a spillover tonight. I'll spare you all the lecture and just hand you the recipe.

Passionfruit Tart
(Makes 12 mini tarts, or 1 8" tart)
For the crust:

• 185g all purpose flour
• 55g icing sugar
• 30g ground almonds
• 125g butter, cold and cubed
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Combine the flour, icing sugar, and almonds in the food processor and whizz to mix. Pop in the cubed butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add in the egg and vanilla and pulse a few more times until it comes together. Tip the batter onto a well floured surface and knead a few times until it comes together. I like to just then roll the crust out and put it into my prepared mold (either 8" tart tray, or a mini tart pan) then freeze for 30 minutes. Freezing the crust means I can skip the pie weights when baking the crust as it holds the shape longer. Anyway, preheat the oven to 180°C and then bake the crust for 20 minutes then remove to cool.

For the filling:

• 160ml passionfruit pulp (I used 3 regular sized passionfruits)
• 300ml cream
• 110g caster sugar
• 4 eggs

I like to prepare the passionfruit filling in advance as I find it allows the flavours to steep and it sets a lot better when you bake. Strain the passionfruit pulp and discard the seeds, then whisk the juice together with the cream, sugar and eggs in a medium sized bowl. When ready to bake, pour the filling into the baked tart crust and bake for 35 - 40 minutes (for a big tart) or 25 - 30 minutes for mini tarts. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely, then refrigerate overnight or up to 2 hours so it sets beautifully. Remove from the pans when ready to serve. 

For the topping:

• 150ml double cream
• 1 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice
• Orange zest

Whisk the double cream until soft peaks form, add the orange juice and continue to whisk until stiff peaks have formed. Then transfer the cream into a piping bag with a tip of your choice and pipe the cream out over the top of the tarts. Finish by grating the oranges (make sure you wash those babies) over the cream. You can also just dollop the cream on top of the tarts if you don't feel like piping; what matters here is flavour, not aesthetics. 

Cranberry Orange Scones

The first thing I ever baked without mum's supervision, at the age of 18, were scones. Up until that point in my life I never took an interest to baking, but for some reason I was drawn to a picture of scones in one of my mum's cooking magazines and I just wanted to try it. For about a year when I was in college, I made a variety of scones (cheddar and apple scones, buttermilk scones, currant scones, low fat raisin scones, etc.) for various reasons (dad's Monday morning sales meetings, mum's coffee mornings, study group, etc.) but never thought to make anything else.

I don't know why I started baking obsessively, or when exactly I started identifying myself as a baker, but at the end of the day all that matters is that baking makes me happy. Friends often ask if I plan on opening a bakery some day and to be perfectly honest with you, dear readers, I don't. I have no desire to own a bakery and work in the kitchen from 5 in the morning (or earlier) on the same recipes over and over again for the rest of my life. I enjoy baking, I love trying new recipes, and I love taking on the challenges of the occasional order for custom cakes.

Here's one of the things I love about my hobby: fresh, home made afternoon snacks with my flavours of choice. Today I'm going to share this recipe for American scones with you, sweet and fresh with a great hit of citrusy goodness to satisfy the mid-afternoon snack craving. Check out this article on Slate.com for an explanation of British vs American scones. I like both types depending on the occasion; proper plain British scones for tea, and American scones when I'm feeling generous with myself (sugar!).

Cranberry Orange Scones
For the scones:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp caster sugar (plus about 1 tbsp for sprinkling on top later)
• 5 tbsp butter, cold and cubed
• 1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2. I did it the lazy way and used my food processor, so put the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in the food processor and whizz to combine. Drop in the cubed butter and pulse until it comes together (about 1 round of singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in your head). Transfer the mixture into a bowl and hand stir in the heavy cream, orange zest, and vanilla. Then fold in the cranberries. Once the dough has come together, transfer it to a well floured surface and knead a couple of times. Flatten the dough into a round disc (roughly 9" in diameter, around 3/4" thick) and let it rest for 10 minutes. Then move it to your prepared baking sheet and using a butter knife, just cut across the disc to form 8 wedges. Bake for 18-25 minutes or until it turns golden. Remove from the oven to cool 

Orange glaze

• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

1. While the scones are cooling on a wire rack, stir the sugar and orange juice together in a bowl. Once the scones have cooled almost completely, drizzle the glaze over the tops and let it harden before serving

If you don't have a food processor, simple combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Then crumble the butter in with the flour mix with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Continue as above instructions with the rest of the ingredients.

Orange Pecan Brownies

Some nights I come home and all I want to do is bake. This usually follows a particularly slow day at work, when I need to get the creative juices unstoppered and just get it out there. Last night was just such a night, and despite the fact that my parents are hosting some fancy dinner party today (and I got volunteered into preparing the pudding), what I really wanted to bake was brownies. Simple, comforting, delicious brownies. 

A colleague of mine referred me to Jamie Oliver's brownies recipe when she brought a batch in recently. They were the most luscious brownies I have EVER had, and I think I scarfed down 4 squares that day. Not  my highest point, I assure you... but I've been practicing more restraint since then. 

I made some accidental tweaks to the recipe as I read it wrong last night, but they turned out well regardless, so I'm going to keep making them that way, and I'll share the recipe with you as I made it. Here is the link to the original recipe, in case you want to do a comparison. 

Orange Pecan Brownies
Adapted from Jamie Oliver's Bloomin Brilliant Brownies

• 250g unsalted butter
• 200g dark chocolate, broken up
• 2 tsp instant coffee
• 50g chopped pecans (optional)
• 80g dark cocoa powder
• 65g all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 250g brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• zest of 1 orange (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tin with butter and parchment paper
2. Melt the butter and chocolate over a bain-marie, and stir in the instant coffee granules
3. Combine the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl 
4. Once the butter and chocolate have melted evenly through, pour the mix into the flour mixture, add the chopped pecans and stir to combine
5. Beat the eggs in one at a time, then stir in the orange zest
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove and cool completely (or just dive right into it, cos really... what's better than fresh, hot brownies?) 

If you're familiar with this blog, you would know that I adore the chocolate and orange combo. Throw in pecans, and coffee and you have a good handful of my favourite things. I dropped these off at the office today, and handed another batch out to my clients, literally sweetening everyone up for the rest of the week. But now I want to bake another batch for home! Do you think brownies are an acceptable dessert for what is apparently a gourmet dinner party? 

Maybe if I swirl in some mascarpone...

Happy Wednesday friends

x Nabs

Waiting for Thursday

Wake up in the morning feeling like J Lopez...

That's right. Or at least, I woke up this morning feeling like what I think Jennifer Lopez feels like: Amazing.

I received an email from a friend about doing wedding cakes for a wedding that she's planning. We're still in negotiating mode, so I'm not entirely sure if it's confirmed yet. However, I am really excited about this gig! Cupcakes, cute ruffled cake in adorable wedding colours and well... who doesn't love wedding decor, right? Spent the morning discussing wedding cake designs and colours with her, and there's a chance that I may be doing another wedding too...

*fingers crossed*

I'm also going to be on leave for the next few days as I'm flying off to Miri for my cousin's wedding. Definitely can't wait for that as mum and I have sorted out a spa day for ourselves, and I'm going to find a way to visit Boat Club for their amazing margaritas and sunsets.

Before we get on to my recipes today... I have a random tidbit to share with you. You see, I've developed a rather bad habit:

I think it's starting to get out of control... I'm obsessed with coming up with random names, and a few of the ones you see in the picture above are surprises my friends and colleagues have given me on the days that I've been too lazy/prissy to walk out in the heat (as you can imagine, those days are plenty where we live).

I'm running out of names to use though, and have resorted to using some rather unremarkable names. Give me your name lists, friends!

I was going to share a savoury recipe with you today, but upon reviewing the pictures, I realize they're really dark and grainy, so I'm going to have to re-do those before sharing the recipe. So for today, I dug up an old recipe that I haven't shared:

Orange Chocolate Chip cookies

• 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp orange extract
• 1 tbsp orange zest
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line your baking trays with parchment paper
2. Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside
3. Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time
4. Beat in the vanilla, orange extract, and zest
5. Stir in the chocolate chips
6. Spoon up a dollop of batter onto the baking trays, 2 inches apart and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges turn golden. Then cool on the tray for 5 minutes before allowing the cookies to cool completely on a wire rack
7. Serve warm with a glass of cold milk. Yum! 

xx Nabs

Happy Birthday, Ellebug!

I thought long and hard about the cake I would bake to celebrate one year of blogging, scratched many designs and flavours, and last night... I finally just did it. Instead of doing fancy buttercream designs like I had intended to, I decided to keep it simple and homey, very much what I like to think I am.

Some may beg to differ, but I'll talk to you lot later.

Anyway, I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who reads this blog, to my family and friends who have supported me, and also helped me move the ever-growing stock of desserts off my refrigerator shelves. I love you all. This past year has been so special for me; I found something I actually really love doing, a great combination of writing and baking, and it's just helped me so much.

I first started baking intensely after my first actual heartbreak, and I started blogging about baking after my second. I never realized until this past year how important it is to just take time for myself, to get to know who I am, to listen to how I feel and think about things; just quality time with myself, you know?

I'm in this place right now where I'm so happy with who I am and enjoying the fact that I've given up pretending to be somebody everyone else thinks I am or should be, and I have Ellebug, or The Happy Hufflepuff (hehe), to thank for it.

So here's to a year of baking, and hopefully, many more to come!

Isn't the Ellebug Cake the cutest thing? ;)

Favourite Flavour Combinations

Chocolate was made to be eaten with oranges. At least, that's something I have always believed, considering how the  flavour combination sort of explodes in my mouth. Chocolate and oranges, or chocolate and raspberries, just perfection. 

For some reason last week I was craving Jaffa Cakes, but since I didn't feel like giving into it... I scoured the internet for some good chocolate orange combo recipes. I found this amazing gluten-free recipe by Nigella, but since I don't have a problem with gluten, or more to the point - I didn't feel like spending money on almond meal, I figured I'd just substitute it with all-purpose flour.

It took me a week to complete this cake, including planning time, prep work, and procrastinating. But boy-oh-boy, was it worth it! Think I may have to make another one, as this was wiped out almost immediately after I'd snapped my pictures. Mini cakes, and I'll hoard one for myself... 

Chocolate Orange cake

Adapted from Nigella's gluten-free recipe

• 1 1/2 cups orange puree*
• 6 large eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Puree the oranges ahead of time (do this the night before): in a large saucepan, cover two medium sized, thick-skinned oranges in water and bring to a boil. Then allow to simmer for two hours, or until the oranges are suuuuper soft. Then slice the oranges into quarters, remove seeds, and blend in a food processor (skin and all). Pop this in a refrigerator until ready to use
2. Preheat oven to 180C, and butter and line an 8-inch round pan with parchment paper
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients until just incorporated then pour into the prepared pan
4. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer poked at an angle comes out clean
5. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove onto a cooling wire rack to cool completely

Chocolate orange ganache

• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1/4 cup thickened whipping cream
• 1 tbsp confectioner's sugar
• Zest from 1 orange

1. Chop the chocolate finely and mix all the ingredients in a medium bowl
2. Pop in the microwave for 30 seconds, then stir with a spoon until you achieve a smooth, pourable consistency
3. Allow to cool (or do as I did and put it in the fridge for 5 minutes) until when a spoon is run through the mixture, a space stays for at least 3 seconds
4. Pour over cooled cake (make sure you've covered the bottom of the cake with parchment paper) and carefully direct the ganache over the sides with a spoon