Hey all!
Sorry for the late post! Busy doing assessment tasks for Uni today… and tonight having a break and heading out with my study group friends (the mates that got me through my specialist exams 8 years ago, with dinners, study, grit and a helluva lot of wine).
I have actually MADE Poh’s pandan chiffon cake today but it is still in the tin cooling – so I don’t have a pic to post of it yet. I suspect it will look a bit like a “Pinterest fail” (was meant to NOT use a non-stick tin but I only had non-stick) but the kids SMASHED the pandan chiffon cupcakes I made with the excess cake batter. They were SUPER ugly, but really delicious – so light and fluffy! Recipe and pics to come NEXT week.
So instead today I’m going to share with you a recipe that I sometimes use at Christmas time in place of Christmas cake (I cannot STAND fruit cake – blecchhh).
The photos from this cake are from Christmas 2 years ago.
It is not an original recipe… but I cannot remember where I got the recipe from I’m afraid. My memory suggests maybe a Woolies catalogue? Not sure.
Anyhoo, here t’is.
INGREDIENTS
- 250g unsalted butter
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups of SR flour
- 1/3 cup premium cocoa
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 tsp red food colour gel
Buttercream ingredients:
- 125 g softened unsalted butter
- 125g cream cheese (soft)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups pure icing sugar (sifted)
- 2 punnets raspberries
- Sliced strawberries and cherries to garnish
METHOD
- Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Grease and line an 18cm round baking tin with baking paper
- Beat butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric beater for 10 min until pale and creamy. Add eggs, beat well between each addition.
- Sift flour and cocoa together. Fold in egg mixture in batches, alternating with buttermilk until combined. Stir in food colour
- Pour into cake tin and smooth top.
- Bake for 50 min, until skewer comes our clean. Cool in the pan for 10 min, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
- Buttercream: beat butter, cream cheese and vanilla together using electric beaters until pale and creamy
- Gradually beat in the icing sugar. Set aside.
- Cut the cake to form 4 layers. Level the top layer and turn upside down for a flat top.
- Spread 1/5 of the buttercream icing on the cut top surface of 3 of the cake layers. Tear about half of the raspberries and arrange over the buttercream.
- Stack the layers on top of one another on a cake stand.
- Use a pallette knife to spread the remaining butter cream over the top and sides of the cake.
- Decorate with fruit
I try to do a different Christmas cake every year and my family are usually pretty honest if they like it or not (especially the nieces and nephews). This one was a hit.
Sorry for the late food post today peeps! Next week I’ll try to get ahead with the pandan chiffon cake post… BUT you need to promise to to laugh at my “Fail” pics!!
Catch you Monday for a brand new article on dealing with high school exam stress!!
Have a great weekend!
xxDr Megs
