Apple & ginger cakes with lemon icing

Cakes or muffins were on the baking list for school and I just get so bored with making the same things. Chocolate, chocolate chip, apple and cinnamon etc etc. I know the kids eat those flavour combinations but I wanted to do something a little different. I thought about trying apple and ginger. Why not? As it turns out, it was absolutely beautiful.

I left some plain for the lunch box and some were iced for home.

I was lucky enough to receive some of the new range of Coles Create & Bake ingredients and accessories to try. The box of lemon icing contains two packets of icing with instructions on how to make a standard icing, a lemon drizzle or a cream cheese icing. This icing mix would be just like having icing sugar on hand but already flavoured with a hint of lemon. Lemon icing works well with most cakes.

There is a huge range of sprinkles to choose from but I thought

http://1947partitionarchive.org/node/830

these green and white ‘dinosaurs’ matched the dark green cupcake paper, also part of a vast array of different coloured cupcake papers now available at Coles.

Apple & Ginger Cakes with Lemon Icing

• 1 and half cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 grated Granny Smith apple, peeled
• 1 tbs ground ginger
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 6 tablespoons oil (I use canola)
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• half teaspoon salt
• 1 packet of Coles Lemon Icing Mix (make up as per direction on pack)
• sprinkles

1. Turn oven to 180 C (375 F). 
2. Prepare cupcake papers.
3. Put the flour, grated apple, sugar and spices in a bowl. 
4. Add  vinegar, oil, baking soda and salt. 
5. Mix with beaters until smooth. (Mixture is runny.) 
6. Pour into the cupcake papers. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. 
7. Decorate with icing and sprinkles.
8. Makes 12 large or 24 smaller cupcakes.

Disclaimer:  I was not paid for this post but did receive part of the Coles Create & Bake range to try. All thoughts, photos and opinions are my own.

Pear, Thyme & Ginger Cake with Ginger Custard & Walnut Praline

So, this is the dish I cooked for the Gourmet Garden Best Blogger-Come-Chef competition a fortnight ago in Noosa. After I won my heat back in November last year and once the dust had settled, I set my mind to what I might cook come May. You all know how I love to bake and I wanted to show how versatile herbs could be in sweet dishes. So, what to cook?

I didn’t have any brief, like what equipment was available, how long we had, did we have an oven, could we do a sweet, blah blah blah. I had visions of a savoury cheesecake, a baked pastry plait, tropical tapioca puddings featuring herb infused tropical fruits. My mind was working overtime. I’ve always known pear goes well with thyme as I’ve had it in fruit loaf my Nanna cooked. I experimented with a few different recipes and all worked well in the oven but what if I didn’t have access to an oven? Two weeks out from the competition, we found out we had 45 minutes to cook and an oven between 11 of us so I figured I’d steam the cake instead. A bit of tweaking to the recipe and the above cake was born. My son and I tried it about half a dozen times, so about 6 kilos later, after experimenting with ice cream, custard etc, I decided on the custard and walnut praline additions.

I would rather this cake be baked in an oven and served with a side of double cream and I will whip one of those up in due course (once I get through the overflowing supply of pear cakes in the freezer). The recipe would be slightly different should you want a baked cake. I did bake this recipe in the oven and although okay once straight out of the oven. It goes quite hard when cold but could easily be zapped in the microwave to soften up.

Here’s the recipe, for one cake but could easily serve two. (It might seem like a lot of components but they work pretty well together. You could just make the cake and serve with ice cream.)

Pear, Thyme & Ginger Cake

• 1 egg
• 2 tbs milk
• 1 tbs oil
• 1 tsp Gourmet Garden thyme (or 1 tsp fresh or 1/2 tsp dried)
• 1 tbs Gourmet Garden ginger (or 1 tbs grated fresh or 1 tsp powdered)
• 2 tbs sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ c SR flour
• 1 pear
• extra butter for greasing dish

Caramel Sauce:

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbs butter
• 1/4 cup cream

Ginger Custard:

• 300ml milk
• 1 tbs cornflour
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tbs Gourmet Garden ginger (or 1 tbs grated fresh or 1 tsp ground ginger)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Walnut Praline:

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1 cup sugar

1. Put saucepan with steamer insert (or wok with bamboo steamer) filled with water onto boil.
2. Mix together egg, milk, oil, thyme, ginger, cinnamon and sugar until well combined.
3. Sprinkle flour on top and mix well.
4. In a small saucepan, melt together 1/3 cup brown sugar and 2 tbs butter.
5. Peel pear and dice. Add half diced pear to cake batter and other half pear to melted brown sugar/butter mixture and remove from heat.
6. Grease a suitable container well with butter. (I used a large round tea cup.)
7. Spoon a couple pieces of diced pear into greased container.
8. Spoon over batter, cover with foil and put in steamer and steam for approx 20 mins.
9. Cake will be done when a skewer is inserted and comes out clean.
10. Toast walnuts in an oven or pan until warm to touch.
11. In a pan, sprinkle sugar for praline and do not stir. Move pan around to finish melting all the sugar. Pour over walnuts and spread out on a baking dish lined with baking paper. Will harden in a short time.
12. Add cream to brown sugar/butter mixture and return to heat to warm through.

Custard:

1. Add a little milk to the cornflour in a saucepan.
2. Add egg yolk, ginger, sugar and vanilla and mix well.
3. Add remaining milk and stir over a medium heat with a wooden spoon until thickened or it coats the back of the spoon.

To assemble:

1. Spoon caramel sauce on the plate where cake will be placed.
2. Carefully place cake on top of caramel sauce. Add custard to a serving bowl.
3. Take 2 or 3 sugar coated walnuts and place on top of cake.
4. Finely chop remaining sugared walnuts and place on the side of the cake and on the plate.

It might seem like a lot of ingredients and a lot of processes but honestly, its quite simple to put together. Trust me, I wouldn’t want to put myself under any unnecessary stress!