Lemon cake with Passionfruit glaze

I made this cake weeks ago to bring to a friend's house over Chinese New Year. For a while I wasn't sure if I was gonna share the recipe, but I revisited it the other day as my dad's quite a fan. Also, as I'm going through my Passionfruit Period, I have quite a store of the fruit in my house I needed to use up. I think this may be the last passionfruit recipe I share for a while (or maybe not).

This cake is soft and light, with a sweet and slightly tangy passionfruit glaze on top to give it a twist. Perfect for afternoon tea with a bitter black tea or coffee. It's also a super easy recipe to whip up at the last minute for a friend's do. I don't remember where I got this recipe, but have had this in my book for ages now... if anyone knows it's origin, please leave a comment and I'll edit it in. Thanks!

Lemon Cake

• 125g butter, room temperature
• 220g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 250g natural yoghurt
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 300g all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and line an 8" round baking tin with butter and baking paper and set aside
2. In the large mixing bowl of your mixer, cream and butter and sugar until incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
3. Then in one go, dump in the remaining ingredients and beat until well mixed, but take care not to overbeat the batter as this will result in a dense cake
4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake at an angle comes out clean
5. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes before taking it out and letting it cool completely on a wire rack

Passionfruit syrup

• 2/3 cup passionfruit pulp
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup water

1. Place all the ingredients for the syrup in a heavy bottomed saucepan over a medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. When the mixture comes to a boil, lower the heat and let the mixture reduce to a thick syrup
2. Drizzle the syrup over the cake with a spoon, tease it around the top of the cake to fall gently off the sides and trickle down til it almost touches the cake plate 

I would recommend serving this cake fresh upon the day of baking, as it's soft and moist still. I've baked this in the past for my dad and mum put it in the fridge overnight, which of course just resulted in drying it out. I'm not a fan of refrigerating cake unless absolutely necessary. 

Passionfruit Macarons

I've said it before, that I'm not a fan of macarons. They're too sweet, and I don't really like the texture of the shells... but they are so much fun to make! Baking to me is a sacred art, one that removes me from this realm and takes me onto another plane of peace and calm and sugar and happiness. So on a particularly bad day, I tackle the most complicated recipes. 

A lot of my baker friends ask how I have the patience to work on macarons, but really... it's so calming. The fact that you need to be 100% focused on the task, and then to have all the conditions around you at just the right state... and after all that concentration, when you peek into the oven after 10 minutes and see the little "feet" forming... it's like pulling off magic. 

I made these little pink macaron shells to fill with passionfruit curd and leftover passionfruit cream cheese frosting. They followed a particularly difficult work week, and I realised how completely stress free I had become while snapping pics of these little delights. I might have to make more macarons tonight. 

Macarons

Makes around 20 macarons (about 40 shells)

• 100g aged egg whites (I simply left them uncovered on the counter for 48 hours, though I've read that this is unnecessary) 
• 1 tsp meringue powder (optional)
• 110g ground almonds
• 200g icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 50g caster sugar

1. Line two baking trays with parchment paper
2. Run the ground almonds, icing sugar, and salt in the food processor for roughly 30 seconds, then set aside
3. Whisk the egg whites and meringue powder in your large stand mixer bowl until soft peaks have formed
4. Gradually add the caster sugar to the egg whites, and continue to whisk until stiff peaks form
5. Here's the tricky bit (but easily overcome by watching a few youtube how to vids): dump the dry mixture into the meringue, then with a spatula, just fold it in. I really cannot give you definite instructions for when to stop, but I stopped when the batter was softly oozing (like the lava in that film, Dante's Peak), and when a dollop over it blended into the rest within 30 seconds (just watch this video, maybe?)
6. Once you've possibly achieved the correct consistency, transfer the batter into a piping bag, snip off the edge and then pipe out 1" circles onto the baking trays, roughly 1" apart
7. When you've piped everything out, bang the trays on the counter 3-5 times
8. Leave the trays out for 30 minutes to an hour, and then bake in a preheated oven at 150C for 18 minutes
9. Let the mac shells cool completely before removing them from the paper or they will peel and break off from the bottoms
10. Pair the shells up with similar sized ones, then pipe in your filling and sandwich them together

Vanilla & Passionfruit Cake

One of my closest and dearest friends celebrated his 25th birthday last week, and I was asked to bake a seaside themed cake for him. He's a diver and loves the beach, so why not? The thing is, this turned out looking like a baby shower cake! Considering he's one of my babies, I don't see anything wrong with that. 

Dearest Leslie, hope you had a great birthday week surrounded by family and best friends. It's been a while since our last holiday together, so lets go diving in May! Or rather, you go diving with E and I'll go sit on the beach with a cheesy historical romance novel with the rest of the FFs. 

This blog post & recipe is dedicated to one of the sweetest, kindest, and most protective friends I have. I'm so glad to have you in my life. 

Vanilla Bean cake with Passionfruit filling, covered in Passionfruit Cream Cheese frosting

• 440g all purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 240g butter, softened to room temperature
• 400g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• Seeds from 2 vanilla bean pods
• 1 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, line 2 8" round baking tins with butter and parchment paper
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until combined, then add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Dump in the seeds from the vanilla bean pods and stir to get it mixed
4. Add half the flour mixture and beat until combined, then pour in all the milk and stir until it's incorporated in the batter, then add in the rest of the flour. Don't overmix, just ensure all the ingredients are evenly coated, be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl
5. Divide the batter between the two baking tins and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted at an angle comes out clean
6. Cool the cakes in the tin for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely (do this top side down to get flat, even layers)

Passionfruit cream cheese frosting

• 2 tbsp strained juice of a passionfruit
• 42g butter, softened
• 114g cream cheese, cold
• 2 1/4 cups sifted icing sugar

1. Beat the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of your stand mixer until thoroughly combined. Pour in the passionfruit juice and continue to beat for another minute or so
2. Add the icing sugar in one go and just beat until light and fluffy (you may need to stop and scrape the sides of the bowl), for about 5 minutes. Do not beat for too long as that will make it too runny

Assembling the cake
Place one layer top side down on a cake plate, and pipe a circle of cream cheese frosting around the edges of the cake. Fill the middle with passionfruit curd (I used about 1 cup of curd as I piped a thick layer) and place the second layer of cake on the top, bottom side down.
Apply a thin crumb coat and allow it to crust for about 15 minutes before frosting the rest of the cake. I chose to go with a simple frosting design this time around, placing the cake on a revolving cake stand and just running my offset spatula along the side, tilted at an angle while I spun the stand. I should try to make a tutorial video to show how I blended the colours... 

The beautiful seaside themed cake toppers you see in these pictures was made by Zurisha over at Tinytype: Propfolio, a local designer who takes orders for themed cake toppers and the like. If you're in the KL area, you can contact her at tinytype.propfolio@gmail.com to order some or check out her instagram page @TinyType to see her work. I'm definitely looking forward to getting more of these to go with some of my upcoming dessert spreads.

Passionfruit Curd

I seem to have a newfound obsession with passionfruit this year. Last year I couldn't get enough of raspberries, but it looks like 2014 will be a year of this gorgeous, tangy and tart fruit! My current favourite thing is this gorgeous passionfruit curd I whipped up in 15 minutes on a weeknight last week to act as a filling for a friend's birthday cake. I overdid it though (as I am wont to do) and made too large a batch, so I've been spreading this beautiful curd on toast, rolling it in my pancakes, and dolloping it on fresh vanilla cupcakes. Certainly doesn't do a body good to have jars of this stuff lying about...

Anyway, here's sharing what is likely to be the base of many recipes to come.

Passionfruit Curd (or butter)

• 200g passionfruit pulp
• 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 large eggs
• 140g butter, diced
• 200g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cornflour

1. Strain the passionfruit pulp to get the juice from the seeds, set the strained seeds aside in a bowl for later
2. In a heavy saucepan and over a low heat, combine all the ingredients and gently stir until the butter has melted, then continue to whisk over low heat until it thickens. Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to thicken. 
3. Remove from the heat, pop into a bowl, swirl in about 2 or 3 tbsp of the reserved seeds (this is optional, you can do without the seeds) and cool before storing in airtight jars and containers in the fridge

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. 

Berry Passionate Pavlova

Berry Passionate Pavlova & the long stretch of desserts

The last few days have been amazing for me as an aspiring baker; I did my first full on dessert table order for a friend I made over the internet (yay, internet buddies!). She rang me around a month ago to say that she was throwing an engagement party for 60-odd guests and whether I could do a dessert table for her. So me being the over-achieving consultant that I am, said yes immediately! Only to think of the time it would take to actually execute (lol execute, I really am a bloody consultant, aren't I?) the items in the order much later.

Regardless of the fact that I am under resourced (hahahaha funny, it's really just me and my amazing Kakak who helps me separate egg whites and line my baking pans... yikes...), it was so much fun! A wonderful experience, and one that I am really looking forward to do again. Except this time, I may be more realistic and not bite off more than I can chew. 

the lovely couple & an incomplete shot of the dessert table

The dessert table that the lovely bride-to-be requested included the following items:

1. 1 small two-tiered cake (beetroot chocolate with my new favourite cream cheese frosting)
2. 3 6-inch cakes (vanilla cake with strawberry champagne filling, hummingbird cake, strawberry cake)
3. 24 mini tiered cakes (chocolate cake with swiss meringue buttercream)
4. 24 mini pavlovas (strawberry pavlova with freshly whipped cream, and a passionfruit syrup topping)
5. 24 cupcakes (earl grey tea cakes with aforementioned new favourite cream cheese frosting)
6. A tray of chocolate brownies (the recipe of which I have yet to share)

Out of these items, I have chosen to share the recipe for the Berry Passionate Pavlova with you lot (yay!). It's really simple to make, and just takes a little bit more effort and time than I usually prefer. I do hope you give it a shot, or if you're too lazy and live/work around the Kuala Lumpur area, then please do drop me a comment and I'll swing by with a box of these lovelies for you. Heeeheee shameless plugging. 

Berry Passionate Pavlova

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 2 tsp distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp strawberry extract (I used a clear extract, then coloured with a drop of Wilton's Dusky Pink gel colouring)

1. Preheat the oven to 150C, and line a few baking trays with parchment paper
2. Beat egg whites in a free standing mixer using the whisk attachment until stiff peaks form, start at the lowest speed and gradually (but rather quickly) increase the speed to medium-high. This should take around 5 - 8 minutes, depending on the humidity of the room you're in
3. Then slowly add in the sugar, I like to allow it to trickle into the bowl while it's mixing 
4. Once the sugar is incorporated, add the cornflour, beat for a bit more, then add the vinegar... beat a bit more
5. Then finally add the strawberry extract and colouring / OR you could just not and have plain meringue pavlovas
6. To make mini bite-sized pavlovas, transfer the meringue mixture into a piping bag and pipe onto the baking trays. I used a Wilton 1M tip to create a rose effect, however you may also just do dollops in a bag or with a spoon (whatever is easiest for you, you don't need to go out and buy tools and tips if you don't have them). 
7. Pop them in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes. Start watching them around 35 minutes cos the smaller they are, the faster they bake, and you want to retain a marshmallowy centre with a crisp outer shell. At this point, what I do is just tap the sides with the back of a butter knife to see if they are hard and crisp. If they are, then I like to take them out at that point

WOW long winded instructions, lol but these are REALLY surprisingly darned easy to make
Then once the meringues have cooled, you may choose to enjoy them as is or top with freshly whipped cream and fruits. I chose to drizzle some passionfruit syrup over it that I had leftover from previous recipes.

Enjoy!
xx Nabs

Kiwi & Passionfruit Pavlova

Ever since my trip to New Zealand at the end of last year, where our gracious hostess had left a homemade pavlova in our fridge for our Christmas pudding, I have been tempted to recreate the recipe. And as the pavlova is NZ's national dessert, there was an abundance of recipes in most of their souvenir and curio shops (such as a very cute apron with the recipe embroidered on the front that my aunt bought). Yet, as friends may know, I have always been a bit wary when it comes to working with egg whites (as in whipping or separating them).

Last weekend though, I felt like it just needed to be done. I just had a craving for that crispy crunchy shell, and the icky-sweet marshmallowy centre, with tangy cooling fruits over the top... Mmmm! Besides that, it has also been a while since I've challenged myself with a recipe.

So being the paranoid baker that I am, to prepare the kitchen for whipping meringues in an incredibly humid country (we live on the Equator), I drew all the curtains in the house, put the air-conditioning and de-humidifiers on, and shooed my sister out (body heat, ya know? LOL) of the kitchen. After a good half hour of house conditioning, I felt it was safe to begin...
Pavlova recipe
from an embroidered apron bought in NZ

• 4 large egg whites, room temperature 
• 220g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cornflour, sifted
• 2 tsp white vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 150C
2. In your thoroughly grease-free large mixing bowl, with the whisk attachment, whip the eggwhites (with a pinch of salt) until stiff peaks form (roughly 8-10 minutes depending on the climate)
3. Add sugar slowly, whisking well as you go
4. Add the cornflour and vinegar, whisk until just combined
5. Shape the meringue onto non-stick paper on your baking tray
6. Reduce the oven temperature to 120C, bake for 1 hour 20 minutes, after which you prop the oven door open with a wooden spatula, and allow the pavlova to cool in the oven with the oven

Toppings

• 150ml whipping cream, refrigerated
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• 1 kiwi fruit, sliced thinly
• Passionfruit seeds

1. Pop your mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for up to 10 minutes, then when you're ready, whisk the whipping cream, vanilla and salt until fluffy (about 8 minutes, do not overwhisk as this will turn into butter)
2. Gently (I am telling you three times, gently) pipe or cover the top of the pavlova with the cream, then drizzle over with the passionfruit seeds, and arrange the kiwi slices as you like

Caution: this recipe is VERY sweet, though the texture turned out perfectly! I was so surprised that it worked on my first try, as I fully expected it to only work on the third try. My new oven is a godsend, I swear. My aunt mentioned a way to make it less sweet while retaining that texture... I'm going to give that a shot this weekend, and if it works, I'll definitely share the recipe with you.
Lots of love,
Nabs