Sweet New Zealand

You may have expected a nod to Halloween from some of this month’s Sweet New Zealand entries, but surprisingly there was none. To be honest, I hadn’t given much thought to it myself relying on a long driveway in the middle of the countryside as a deterrent to any trick or treaters (I had no sweets or lollies for them, you see). My assumptions were correct and no witches, warlocks or ghosts crossed my path – at least not whilst I was awake...

Whilst they may not have run with the scary theme, our New Zealand food bloggers did a magic job conjuring up their own potions and spells for October’s Sweet New Zealand and in no particular order, here they are.

First out the cauldron was the serene Sue from Couscous & Consciousness with an Apricot, Date & Pistachio Loaf. I am always up for a fruit loaf and Sue says this delicious loaf full of dried fruit, seeds and nuts was so good she can’t wait to make it again. I can’t wait to try it, Sue.

Sue's Apricot, Date & Pistachio Loaf from Couscous and Consciousness

Not one to rest on her laurels, Sue was back in the kitchen to whip up a second entry for Sweet New Zealand and I, for one, am eagerly awaiting apricot season as this Roasted Apricot Frozen Yoghurt sounds mouth-wateringly good. If, like Sue, you have a supply of frozen apricots in your freezer (why didn’t I think of that?), then what are you waiting for? Try it now – the sun is out as I speak.

Another delicious entry from Sue at Couscous and Consciousness - Roasted Apricot Frozen Yoghurt

Next up is Genie from a super little blog called Bunny Eats Design. Genie celebrated National Nut Day on 21st October (which along with Halloween also bypassed me) with these Sugar and Spice Candied Nuts. I love taking little bowls of snacks such as these to book club – especially when you’ve made them yourself.

If you love lemons as I do, then you will probably like lemon curd (and all its amazing possibilities). You’ll be glad then that Amanda from Move Love Eat has created a Healthier Lemon Curd that is also gluten free and paleo friendly! Lots of ticks there. It must be good - Amanda has been making triple batches to keep up with the demand.

A healthier Lemon Curd from Move Love Eat

If you’re looking for a moist cake that’s a bit sweet and a bit spicy, look no further than this Sticky Prune Cake from Frances at Bake Club. Just the thing to have with a cup of tea.

Sticky Prune Cake - courtesy of Frances at Bake Club

Doing things a little differently is Sweet New Zealand founder, Alessandra. Whilst in Japan she developed her very own Tiramisu di Alessandra. (She’s Italian, so if anyone can mess around with an Italian dessert, she can.) Hers is made with cream, instead of mascarpone. The topping is Italian ground coffee, not cocoa and she finds a good quality whisky makes all the difference. Well of course it does. Salute! 

Tiramisu di Alessandra - from Sweet NZ founder, Alessandra Zecchini

My own entry is this Citrus & Almond Cake with Yoghurt Drizzle. 

That's it from Sweet New Zealand this month.  Enjoy what is left of your weekend.

Yours truly's Citrus & Almond Cake with Yoghurt Drizzle

Citrus + Almond Cake with Yoghurt Drizzle

I keep making these type of cakes and then forgetting which recipe I used or where I even got it from. This makes it frustrating when I'm trying to recall my favourite (and I know there is one!). Losing one's marbles was not the only calamity in the kitchen this morning.  My attempt at making a yoghurt icing saw it start off creamy and end up runny - fail!  So it transformed into a yoghurt drizzle. Ah well, in the end we still got to eat cake and sometimes that's all that matters, as Marie Antoinette was wont to point out (maybe?).

I was given a lovely homemade present of a jar of brandied kumquats (thank you, Penny) and used the last of them in this cake, making up the difference in quantity with some homegrown oranges.  I am sure the liqueur in the kumquats adds greatly to the taste (hic). Now I get to keep the leftover liquid for six months until it has reached a thick, sweet syrup - can't wait to try it.

Before you start this recipe, bear in mind you will need to boil the oranges first and let them cool before you start baking.

Citrus & Almond Cake with Yoghurt Drizzle

Approx. 3 smallish oranges (375 grams)
6 eggs
225g sugar
250g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder

Place the whole oranges in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil then simmer for one hour. Drain and leave until cold.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Butter and line a 20cm cake tin.

Cut the cooked oranges in quarters and remove the pips. Place the whole fruits in a food processor with a metal blade and blitz until finely chopped. Add eggs and sugar and process until well combined. Finally add ground almonds and baking powder and pulse until just mixed.

Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. If the top of the cake starts to brown too much, cover loosely with tin foil.

Remove from the oven and leave in the tin but place on a wire rack to cool.

Once cool, dust with icing sugar or a lemon glaze or the yoghurt drizzle below.

Yoghurt Drizzle

1 cup Greek yoghurt
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup icing sugar, sifted
100g cream cheese

Whisk (by hand or electric) the ingredients together until smooth. Keep refrigerated until required. Spoon or drizzle over the cake.

I decorated my cake with some edible flowers (well the pink one on the left may not be edible but the others are) and freeze-dried raspberry powder.

This will be my October entry for Sweet New Zealand which I am hosting here.

Sweet New Zealand

This month, it's my turn to host Sweet New Zealand. So, I am on the lookout for sweet recipes from our NZ food blogging community. You can be a New Zealander living here or overseas. You can be from overseas and living in New Zealand. Just give me something sweet, please. Take it away - I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Rules

Sweet New Zealand is open to all food bloggers living in New Zealand (even if you are not a New Zealander), as well as all Kiwi food bloggers who live overseas.

You can enter with anything sweet - cakes, cookies, desserts, or even drinks. 

You can submit as many entries as you like and they don't have to be new blog posts. 

Your entry must contain the phrase Sweet New Zealand and have the Sweet New Zealand badge (you can copy and save the one on this page).

Your entry must link to the host (me!) and to this post. If you're submitting an old post remember to update it with the phrase, badge and links.

Enter now

Email your entries to me at flatwhite233(at)xtra(dot)co(dot)nz by 30 October, with the following:

Your name

Your blog name

A link to your blog

A link to the blog post you're entering

A photo from the post

The name of the recipe and a brief description

Sweet New Zealand - September

Here's a link to last month's Sweet New Zealand round up at Mummy Do It

Chocolate & Hazelnut Caramel Slice

Chocolate & Hazelnut Caramel Slice 

Well, here I am on my wonderful work-free Friday.  Work, that is, in the paid sense.  The other unpaid kind is what’s eating away at my day today.  That, and the incessant pull of social media just in case I’m missing something interesting. I often wonder how I get more done when I have less time at home but I already know the answer. So I’ll just call it pottering and look upon it as a form of relaxation.

I’ve been listening to a radio discussion on Retired Husband Syndrome (RHS) that made me laugh out loud. A study has found that many women with a retired husband at home suffered stress related symptoms such as insomnia, headaches and depression (and presumably extra work cleaning up after the husband’s “bright ideas” or projects?).  As I was chortling away (in my defense, it was presented in a humorous tone), a certain thread of trepidation crept in, making me realize I too would find it difficult not to have my cherished “home alone” time. It’s a long way off but I am thankful then to have a large shed where he can mess around until his heart is content and I won’t be setting foot in or cleaning it.  Whew!

One thing I did achieve today was making this slice.  I’d been thinking of driving 20 minutes to experience a similar one at a local café but decided to stay put, brew a good coffee and make this using some leftover chocolate ganache and sweetened condensed milk I had in the fridge.  I’m glad I did.

The recipe comes from the Little & Friday cookbook given to me as a Christmas present last year. Eight months later, I hadn’t baked one single thing from it so it was time to change that. 

It’s a wonderfully gooey, fudgy, chocolate slice.  I expected it to be similar to Millionaire’s Shortbread (my recipe here) but the chocolate base and caramel & hazelnut filling are both different and gorgeous and I love the hazelnuts. Not surprisingly it’s an “in demand” best-seller for Little & Friday.

I'm entering this for Sweet New Zealand, hosted this month by Munch Cooking.

Chocolate & Hazelnut Caramel Slice 

Base

175g butter, softened

2 cups icing sugar

½ tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

½ cup good quality cocoa

1½ cups plain flour

½ tsp salt

Filling

2 x 395g tins sweetened condensed milk

200ml golden syrup

100g butter

1 cup roasted hazelnuts*, chopped

Topping

¾ cup chocolate ganache

*To roast hazelnuts, heat oven to 180°C.  Place hazelnuts on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.  Leave to cool.  Rub hazelnuts briskly in a tea towel to remove the skin and chop into about quarters.

Method 

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Grease and line a 25cm square tin (leave an overlap of baking paper lining for easier removal from tin).

Place the butter, icing sugar and vanilla in a cake mixer and beat until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and beat until well combined. Sift the cocoa, flour and salt together and add to the mix, again until well combined.

Press the mix firmly and evenly into the base of the baking tin.  Bake for 10-15 minutes in the centre of the oven.

While the base is cooking, prepare the filling by combining the condensed milk, golden syrup, butter and hazelnuts into a saucepan.  Heat slowly over a low heat then pour over the cooked base. 

Return the base and filling to the oven and cook for a further 15 minutes or until set.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Once cool, spread a thin layer of hot chocolate ganache over the top.  I removed the base and filling from the baking tin before I spread the ganache on top.

Once the ganache has set, use a sharp knife to cut into squares or slices. Dip the knife in hot water and wipe off with paper towel between each cut for easier slicing.

Ganache (makes 1 cup – use ¾ cup for above recipe) 

200g good quality dark chocolate (I use Whittaker’s 72% Dark Ghana)

½ cup cream

Gently melt the chocolate and cream in a metal bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (the water should not touch the bowl).  Stir until melted and smooth.  Leave to cool and thicken. 

Leftover ganache can be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks (or eaten by the spoonful if you are so inclined!).

Dutch Ginger Cake

Last month we were having book club at the great baker’s house and I was eyeing up what I thought was an apple cake. Turns out it was a Dutch Ginger Cake made by the host (not Dutch) and it was lovely.  She muttered some of the ingredients – almonds, butter, ginger.  I don’t know why but I didn’t ask for the recipe.  I think there was too much conversation going on at the time.

I hadn’t heard of this cake before, although I have seen something similar packaged as cake fingers or slices in specialty Dutch shops.

Later, I googled it and found this recipe by one of my favourite cooks, Maggie Beer.  She is such a delight on television exuding warmth and such enthusiasm.

I thought I had preserved ginger in a jar in the cupboard but it turned out to be stem ginger. I drained it and used half as much as was called for in the recipe.  That turned out to be perfect. Whew!

The cake is dense, rich and buttery.  When I pressed the raw dough into the tin I thought it was too buttery and it was just a tad but not enough to detract.  The ginger and almonds absolutely make this cake and I would definitely make it again.

One more thing. This cake is quite shallow (in height, not personality) which isn’t evident in the photo above so don’t be expecting a tall cake.

I think I've just made the deadline to get this into Sweet New Zealand which, this month, is hosted by the lovely Sue at Couscous & Consciousness.

Dutch Ginger Cake

60g whole almonds

185g butter

1 ¾ cup standard flour

¼ tsp salt

2/3 cup (145g) caster sugar

75g stem ginger, drained and chopped

1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (fan bake).

Grease and line the base of a 22cm shallow round tin. (I used a not-so-shallow cake tin.)

Place the whole almonds in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain then squeeze the skin off.  The nuts should slip out easily.  Set aside.

Melt the butter and allow to cool slightly. 

Sift the flour and salt together.  Add the sugar then stir in the chopped stem ginger.

Set 1 teaspoon of the beaten egg aside (to brush the cake).  Stir in the remainder of the egg into the flour, salt, sugar and ginger mix.  Add the butter, mix well into a dough.

Press the dough into the greased tin.  Brush the top of the dough with the teaspoon of egg.

Scatter the almonds on the top and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until golden and firm to touch.

Leave to cool in the tin. 

You can leave as is (I did) or dust with icing or caster sugar to finish.