Maple Pecan Bundt Cake

I am designated supper maker for our Toastmasters meetings. I have made a variety of different sweets and taken a few savoury things along. I wasn't sure what to make for the meeting before last. I went through all of my magazines but nothing grabbed me so I turned to my cook books. It really is terrible, I have so many cook books but don't seem to use them any more. It is about time that I started cooking. I don't think I had ever made anything from Kitchen by Nigella. I found this wonderful looking cake. I got so many compliments for it. In fact I was told that it was the best thing I had ever made for them. I also got two orders for the cake, so it must have been good. 

I was going to wait until I made it again and was able to cut it and show the inside but I really don't have any idea on when that is going to happen so here it is now. You will just have to make it to see what the inside is like, and it is definitely worth it. 

Maple Pecan Bundt Cake

from Nigella Kitchen

Ingredients
Pecan filling

75g plain flour
30g soft unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150g pecans (or walnuts), roughly chopped
125ml maple syrup


Cake

300g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
125g soft unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
250ml crème fraîche or sour cream
1–2 teaspoons icing sugar, for decoration
Flavourless oil, for greasing
1 x 23cm bundt tin


Directions

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Using flavourless oil (or a squirt of cooking spray) grease your bundt tin, and leave upside down on newspaper for the excess oil to drain out.

Make the filling for the cake by mixing together the 75g flour and 30g butter with a fork, till you end up with the sort of mixture you’d expect when making crumble topping. Then, still using the fork, mix in the cinnamon, chopped pecans (or walnuts) and maple syrup, to form a sticky, bumpy paste. Set aside for a moment.

For the cake, measure the 300g flour, the baking powder and bicarb into a bowl.

Now, cream the butter and sugar (i.e. beat well together until light in texture and pale in colour), then beat in 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture, then 1 egg, then another tablespoonful of flour mixture followed by the second egg.

Add the rest of the flour mixture beating as you go, and then finally the crème fraîche or sour cream. You should expect to end up with a fairly firm cake batter.

Spoon just more than half the cake batter into the oiled bundt tin. Spread the mixture up the sides a little and around the funnel of the tin to create a rim. You don’t want the sticky filling to leak out to the sides of the tin.

Dollop the maple filling carefully into the dent in the cake batter, then cover the filling with the remaining batter. Smooth the top and put the tin into the oven for 40 minutes, though it’s best to check with a cake tester after 30 minutes.

Once cooked, and the cake tester comes out clean where it hits the sponge (obviously, any gooey filling will stick to the tester), let the cake cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes in its tin, then loosen the edges with a small spatula, including around the middle funnel bit, and turn the cake out onto the rack.

When the cake is cold, dust with icing sugar by pushing a teaspoonful or so through a tea strainer.

October 2005 - Baby Spinach, Avocado & Pepita Salad

I have had a busy day making cakes and cake decorations for my next birthday cake. The cakes turned out excellently and I am really pleased with the decorations. It was my first time using a silicone mould. It worked really well, although dusting with cornflour was definitely necessary to get the decorations out without having to gouge them out. The addition of gum tragacanth to the fondant made it a lot easier to work with. I was surprised at the cost of it though. It was very expensive from online stores, once I added postage it was about $22 for 20 grams! Instead I went to my local chemist and got them to order some in for me and I got 100g for $45. However, I really don't need that much, so I am considering packaging some up and selling it on ebay. I figure that I can put it in ziplock bags and it will be pretty inexpensive to post. Although if I do end up getting some orders then perhaps I will need it down the track. 

I had initially planned on making the Crumbed chicken on roast kumara salad in issue #43. However on the evening I was going to make this I decided that I really needed to use some of the amazing amount of leftovers that I had in the fridge. So I decided to re-heat some of the Harissa roast pork belly I had a small amount of the carrot & walnut salad left, but not nearly enough. So I had a quick look through this issue and came up with Nigella's baby spinach, avocado & pepita salad. It was quick, easy and very good. I love avocado in salad and pepitas gave a lovely crunch to the salad. I even used my own home-grown spinach in it. 

Baby spinach, avocado & pepita salad 

Serves 6 

Ingredients:

• 250g baby spinach leaves 
• 1/2 c (80 g) pepitas (pumpkin seeds) 
• 2 small avocados (400g), flesh chopped
• 1 tsp pumpkin-seed oil (I used walnut oil)
• 2 tbsp peanut oil (I used walnut oil) 
• Zest & juice of 1 lime

Method: 

• Combine oils, zest and juice and set aside. 
• Combine spinach, pepitas and avocado. 
• Add dressing and toss to coat.

July 2004 - Chicken Tikka with Hot Red Onion Relish

Sorry to be absent for so long. I was a bit clumsy last weekend and injured myself. I managed to fall down my back steps and scrape my leg and knees, getting some colourful bruises in the process. Then still a bit shaken up I managed to burn my hand while taking a pan of muffins out of the oven. I think that I am starting to turn into my accident-prone father. I have also come down with a case of shingles, so I am feeling pretty sorry for myself at the moment. Hopefully all will be healed up and cured soon. At least I am back typing without too many problems now.

While going through issue #29 for something to make I came across Jill Dupleix's Greek Rice Pudding that was also in the June 2009. I guess that it is hard not to repeat. Plus it was a very tasty rice pudding so I would recommend it. Not that I was going to make it again for a blog post. I considered Jill's Ma Po Beancurd. I had almost everything for it, including a package of tofu in the fridge. The only thing I didn't have was dried cloud-ear mushrooms. I know that I used to have some but I am not sure how long ago or where they went, perhaps I used them all. I will definitely get some more and give this recipe a go as I just love ma po tofu.

Bill Granger's focaccia looked really nice, and I think that this recipe had also featured before. Although it may not have been a Bill Granger one previously. I really like focaccia and I have tried to make it before and not been successful. Although, I had always hand kneaded before but after reading about Phe.MOM.enon's 1 bowl 1 hour perfect dinner rolls I started using my KitchenAid. It makes me wonder why I never used it for yeast doughs before. I highly recommend those dinner rolls, they are so easy and very tasty.

In the end I decided to make Nigella's Chicken Tikka with Hot Red Onion Relish. Since I was having one Indian dish I decided to make a bit of a theme of it and made Aloo Palak (Spinach with Potatoes) and Indian Spiced Eggplant and steamed rice to go along with it. It was all very nice even though I burnt some of the aloo palak and slightly overcooked the chicken tikka so it was a little bit dry. I think that it would actually have been better if I had used chicken thigh fillets. The flavour of it all was just terrific and it would make a lovely banquet for entertaining with some type of kulfi for dessert.

Chicken Tikka with Hot Red Onion Relish

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 chicken fillets
• 2 tabs of unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
  

Marinade

• 2 garlic cloves
• 5cm piece ginger
• 2 small red chillies
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp of ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp of tumeric
• 1/2 tsp of garam masala
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup of plain yoghurt

Hot onion relish

• 2 small red onions
• 1 or 2 tomatoes diced
• 1/4 cup chopped coriander (I used parsley)
• 1/2 tsp of dried chilli
• Juice of a lemon

Method

• Make the marinade by whizzing the garlic, ginger and chillies until finally chopped.
• Then add the rest of the marinade in the processor until it looks like a smooth mushy paste.
• Place chicken fillets in a bowl and cover with the marinade.
• Cover the bowl and refrigerate it for at least 4 hour, over night is best.
  

• For Relish - slice up the onions into moons and then add the coriander, tomatoes, lemon juice and chilli. Give it a good stir, cover and refrigerate. Remove from fridge 30 minute before serving.
  

• Remove chicken from fridge for 30 minutes before cooking.
• Melt the butter is a fry pan and cook the chicken over a medium-low heat
• The marinade will disappear as you cook it ( but not all the taste). You should end up with fillets that are nicely browned and crispy on the outside.
• Serve with rice and relish together with the aloo palak and indian spiced eggplant.
  

May 2005 - Polenta Senza Bastone

I started this post two days ago and only got as far as inserting the picture of issue #38. I was at a bit of a loss for words but I think I have them back now, at least for a while.

My first choice for something to make from this issue was Curtis Stone's parmesan-crusted veal escalope and crispy potatoes. It has a nice citrusy sauce with it as well. I have done parmesan-crusted chicken fillets in the past and they have always been very nice. I haven't eaten a lot of veal. I find that it is a slightly bland meat but it is usually nice and tender and I think that is what is required here. In the end I decided to make something else.

I considered making Jill Dupleix's Green Pea & Mint Frittata for a nice lunch but frittatas are very hard to make smaller. I have a few different fry pans, oh and I added a couple of Swiss Diamond pans to my collection recently. However I don't really have one for cooking an individual frittata. I do have one small cast iron one that belonged to my mother and while it is the right diameter it really isn't deep enough. It is the perfect size for making a single fried egg though. I didn't really want to have a bunch of left over frittata so I moved on.

While trying to decided what to have with the meal I was making from the May 2006 issue I decided to see if there were any side dishes in this issue that would work with it. I ultimately decided to go with Nigella's Polenta Senza Bastone. I love polenta both soft and firm polenta. It is a wonderful side dish and I think that I will continue to make it Nigella's way. This involves baking it in the oven rather than standing over and stirring it for ages getting spat at with hot bits of polenta. It was just as good as if I had stood over the stove stirring and went with my meal perfectly.

Polenta Senza Bastone

Serves 4 - 6

Ingredients:

• 1.8L chicken stock
• 350 g polenta
  

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 190C
  
• Grease oven proof dish. (I made half a recipe and used a small lasagne dish)
  
• Bring stock to the boil.
  
• Whisk in polenta and stir continuously when it starts to thicken change to a wooden spoon.
  
• Boil for 5 minutes.
  
• Pour into prepared dish, cover with buttered foil.
  
• Bake for 1 hour.