Cakes and Desserts

Pistachio Cake with Lemon Glaze – Fistikli, limonlu kek

By Ozlem Warren on May 8, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts 9

Pistachio & almond cake with a lemon glaze

This delicious cake is originally from the River Cafe cookbook, and the authors run the wonderful Italian restaurant, River Cafe in London. The cake combines my favorite ingredients; pistachio, lemon, vanilla bean and almonds, which are commonly used in Turkish cooking too. It is a wonderfully rich cake, a real treat with tea or coffee.

prep time: 25 minutes bake time: 50 minutes

100 gr/2 sticks unsalted butter, plus additional for greasing pan, at room temperature
1 lemon, preferably Meyer lemon
1 vanilla bean
6 1/2oz/1 cup sugar
60gr/2oz slivered almonds
90gr/3oz shelled unsalted pistachios
4 large eggs, at room temperature
60gr/2oz all-purpose flour
Glaze
50gr/1 3/4oz shelled unsalted pistachios
45gr/1 1/2oz sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F

Grease bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with some butter and line bottom with a circle of parchment paper.

With a zester, grate the lemon peel (reserve lemon). With the tip of a sharp paring knife, split the vanilla bean down the center and scrape out the seeds. In a food processor, pulse the sugar with the peel and vanilla bean. Transfer to a bowl. In the same processor bowl, pulse the almonds and pistachios until finely ground, but do not let go to paste.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and lemon-vanilla sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides the bowl between each addition. Beat in the lemon-vanilla sugar, then with a spatula fold in the flour and the nuts. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and shake to even it, but do not worry about smoothing the top. Bake until a skewer comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Set on a rack to cool for 10 minutes, then loosen edges of cake with a kitchen knife and remove sides of pan. Invert cake and remove bottom of pan and peel off parchment paper, then invert right side up on a serving plate.

For glaze, squeeze juice from reserved lemon. Roughly chop pistachios by hand. In a very small pot, bring the lemon juice to a boil with the sugar and cook until syrupy. Stir in the pistachios and pour over the cake. Cut into wedges to serve.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Sticky Rhubarb and Ginger Cake

By Ozlem Warren on April 12, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorised 2

Well, this is not a Turkish recipe, but something I couldn’t resist to share. Living in England, I get to enjoy the wonderful English cakes and puddings, which I absolutely adore. And this rhubarb and ginger cake is no exception. I love the tartness of rhubarb and its combination with ginger and brown sugar is divine. Fresh rhubarb is widely available now in the UK and I hope, even if you can’t get the fresh version, you may get them frozen.

This wonderful, moist cake is an adaptation from a Jamie Oliver recipe. I used a little less ginger than the recipe asked for; feel free to add more, if you are a ginger fan. This lovely cake is wonderful with custard, crème fraiche or with some fresh strawberries and blueberries.

Serves 8-10
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 1 hour and 20 minutes

200gr/7oz butter, plus extra for greasing the flour
250gr/8 1/2oz rhubarb
100gr/3 1/2oz caster sugar
30ml/2 tablespoons stem ginger syrup
150gr/5 1/4oz dark brown sugar
30ml/2 tablespoons golden syrup
150ml/7fl oz full-fat milk
2 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic
300gr/10 1/2 oz self-raising flour
5ml/1 teaspoon ground ginger
2-3 balls stem ginger, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F/ Gas 4

Line the base of a 20cm (8″) round cake tin with greaseproof paper, then butter and dust the sides with flour.

Slice the rhubarb into 4cm (a little less than 2′) lengths and place in a pan with caster sugar, 3 tablespoons of water and the stem ginger syrup. Bring to the boil then poach over a low heat for 5 minutes, until the rhubarb is soft but still holding its shape.

Meanwhile, melt the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup in a pan over a low heat. Once melted and combined, set aside to cool. Whisk the milk and eggs together, and then add the cooled butter mixture. Stir in the flour and the ground and chopped ginger.

Pour the cake mix into the prepared tin. Carefully arrange the rhubarb slices on top of the mixture, reserving the remaining syrup for later. Bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes until risen and golden. If it looks as if it might catch, cover the top of the cake with tin foil for the last 15 minutes of cooking. To check it is cooked, insert a skewer into the center of the cake – if it comes clean, you’ll know it’s done.

Remove from the oven, spoon over the reserved rhubarb syrup and leave to cool completely in the tin before serving. Delicious with a dollop of custard, crème fraiche and some fresh fruit.

Afiyet Olsun!

Vanilla Sponge Birthday Cake with Icing – Dogum Gunu Pastasi

By Ozlem Warren on February 2, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorised 0

I love making cakes but I must admit, never really felt confident enough to make birthday cakes with the fancy icing – somehow I feared I could never be able deliver those amazingly decorated cakes with the children’s favorite characters. Until I saw the birthday cake recipe at Rose Prince’s brilliant cookery book, Kitchenella. I gave it a try to her Vanilla sponge and was inspired by her Smarties studded icing. The result was impressive and the birthday boy was very happy 🙂 Indeed a love letter to your children, as Rose says.

Vanilla Sponge (from Rose Prince’s Kitchenella)

A great basic recipe, ideal for a base birthday cake or fairy cakes.

Makes enough to serve 12-14

280gr/10oz unsalted butter, softened
280gr/10oz caster sugar
5 eggs
5ml/1 teaspoon vanilla essence
280gr/10 oz self-raising flour
30ml/2 tablespoons ground almonds

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4

Prepare your cake tins – two shallow sandwich tins or a 12 hole muffin/fairy cake tin – greasing with butter and dusting with plain flour or lining with paper cases.

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy-textured (an electric beater is helpful). Beat in the eggs, one by one, each with a teaspoon of the flour, then the vanilla essence. Fold in the remaining flour with the ground almonds.

Put into the tin(s) or cake cases and bake. Shallow sandwich tins will need 30-40 minutes; loaf tins about 1 hour and 5-15 minutes; fairy cakes about 15 minutes. Test the cake near to the end of cooking time by sticking a skewer into it. If the cake feels firm and the skewer comes clean, it is done.

Sandwich the cake together with raspberry or strawberry jam, and then decorate with the icing.

Butter Icing

140gr/5oz butter, softened
280gr/10oz icing sugar
1-2tablespoons milk

Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add remaining icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk. Beat again until creamy and smooth. Beat in more milk to loosen if necessary. Spread the icing over the cake. You can add sparkles or Smarties as decoration over the top.