Espresso Almond Butter Cake

When you see someone posting their recipe post and indicated "Highly Recommended", would it motivate you to try it out?  Well, I do.   

 Victoria Bakes has somewhat been so diligently baking her cakes away and it seem that most of her posting she has this "Highly Recommended" recipe post ~ oh dear ... I can't seem to catch up trying out her "HR" recipes if she keeps going with her "HR" post! And if you have been following her post.... all her cakes seems to be so captivating with the print on the cakes...so lovely and cute.

Back to my post today, I have bookmarked this Espresso Almond Butter Cake when Gert of Kitchen Snippets posted hers, I thought I could bake it at my soonest, so went seaching for sour cream but can't seem to find any at the supermarket shelves.  Wanted to substitute for yogurt instead but.....aigh....  And so, until Victoria Bakes posted hers last month that really get me going to make mine yesterday.

ESPRESSO ALMOND BUTTER CAKE
Recipe adapted from My Kitchen Snippets

Ingredients
227 gram butter (at room temperature)
3 tbsp sour cream
250g caster sugar
240g plain  flour
1/4 tsp salt
120g ground almond
1 tsp baking powder
4 medium eggs
120ml warm milk
2 tbsp instant espresso coffee powder 

Method 
Line and greased an 8” x 8” square baking pan or round baking pan.

Dissolve the espresso powder to the warm milk.  Set  aside to cool down.

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Sift the plain flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 
Add in the ground almond and give it a good mix together. Set aside.

In your mixer with medium speed,  cream the butter, caster sugar and sour cream till  light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Scrapping the side of the bowl occasionally.   Add in the eggs, one at a time until well combined.

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk espresso mixture in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until well combined.

Pour batter into the baking pan, smooth out the top and bake until the top of the cake springs back when gently pressed with your fingers and a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. It will take about 50-60 minutes.

Cool the cake on the wire rack for 10 minutes, invert and unmold the cake and let it cool completely before cutting into it.

If you love butter cake, and if you love coffee, and....if you love having ground almonds in your bakes..... this is the cake for you.  And yes, I highly recommend you to try this out too.

I'm linking this post to :

     Cook & Celebrate Christmas 2014 hosted by Bake For Happy Kids, Eat Your Heart Out  

and Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

Mini Christmas Pudding

In less than two weeks from now we will be celebrating Christmas.  Have you done your shopping and plan your Christmas menu or baking any goodies to be given as gifts?

As usual, though I don't really celebrate Christmas, to get into the Christmas mood, I be baking my favourite Christmas Cake or you can called it mixed dry fruit cake or Christmas pudding, or even steam fruit cake.  They are all the same to me.

This year, I have made few batches earlier and all were distributed out to families and friends.

I have also try making it some into small mini moulds which was supposed to be given away for my reunion friends get together but unfortunately I have been unwell so I have to cancel my trip back to my hometown.

                    I think this mini ones looks nicer and presentable in serving too.


If you intend to make this, you can follow the recipe here (Christmas Pudding) or here (Steamed Fruit Cake).  But, instead of going into the steamer for 4 hours, you can choose the bain marie method (steamed bake) to cut short the cooking time.

Oh, please note that I usually will macerate my mixed dry fruits in brandy (you can use Rum) overnight.

Once the cake is cooked, and, let the cake aged for at least a day or two before consumin as to let the flavour mature.  As I have read in the internet, it is more better to make this Christmas Pudding two months before the big day or at least one month ahead.....or the earlier the better! 

Well, for me....once my cake been done and matured for two days ....it will be gone in just a few days!  Don't think I am able to let it mature more than a week.....LOL.  It is just toooo delicious.  Unless someone help me to hide the cake where I don't know where of..... 

                             If only I have some custard to go with it.......and that would 
                             be so perfect!!

Almond Biscotti (Delia Smith)

Have you tried baking Biscotti before?  I love biscotti especially with lots of almonds inside.  
Biscotti is used to describe as a long, dry, hard,  twice-baked cookie with a curved top and flat bottom meant for dunking into coffee or wine.  The traditional biscotti recipe uses no form of yeast or fat (butter, oil, milk) as I have read. 

I have baked biscotti years ago (here ~ Almond Biscotti), and in fact that recipe I have tried for a few times just because I wanted to achieve in cutting the biscotti in thin slices.  Believe me, it is no easy task cutting into that thinly slices. 

I wanted to bake that recipe again for giving it as a gifts but on second thought, I should try out other recipe too.  There are tons of recipes to choose from the internet .... some uses whole egg, some with butter, some with vegetable oil, and some with egg whites. 


And while searching for a simple recipe, this recipe from Delia Smith caught my attention as ground almond was part of the ingredient.  So I have no hesitation to try this out and what is great about this is, it makes for a small portion to try out first.  

ALMOND BISCOTTI

Ingredients 
110g plain flour
3/4 tsp level baking powder
pinch of salt
25g ground almond
50g whole almonds, skin on (I added 80g)
75g golden caster sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Few drops of almond extract

Method
Preheat your oven to 170°C.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl, then add in the ground and whole almonds and sugar. Give it a good mix, then add the egg and the almond extract, and mix it together with a wooden spoon and then using your hands to bring the mixture together to form a smooth dough.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and, using your hands, roll it into a log about 28cm long. Put it on the lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Transfer to a cooling tray and leave till completely cold.

Reduce the oven temperature to 150°C.
Using a serrated knife or a very sharp knife,  cut the biscotti into slightly diagonal slices about 1cm wide. Then place them back on the lined baking tray and bake for another 15 minutes on each side until pale gold and crisp. 

Transfer them to the cooling tray and when cold, store in an airtight container.

Yields about 15 pieces

Original recipe from Delia Online

                      

  I am linking this post to the Bake Along event # 72 created by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours,  Lena of Frozen Wings and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids

 

I'm linking this post to :
Cook & Celebrate Christmas 2014 hosted by Bake For Happy Kids, Eat Your Heart Out and Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

An InLinkz Link-up