A quick cake : the banana bread

With my friend A. we decided to meet for dinner at the last minute. We have to plan a party in a few months and the best moment to discus for us is around a meal.

A. got the idea to bake a cake which is very popular in Australia and he already had old bananas in the kitchen.

His kitchen is nice but missing the weighting scale. With this important piece missing we arranged to make our own weighting. Needless to say this was very approximation. The cake was delicious however so there you go, easy AND no particular cooking skills needed.

Ingredients:

200 g of white flour

1 tsp of baking soda (we used a sachet)

1/3 tsp of salt (a big pinch)

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 ripped bananas
1/2 pack of butter (125 g) unsalted, melted
150 g of sugar
2 eggs
A pinch of Vanilla

Pre-heat the oven at 180C /gas 6.

First in a bowl reduce to a pulp the bananas, add the butter, eggs and vanilla.
Time to add the dry ingredients: the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

We blended everything together and it was looking good to us. We poured the dough in a backing dish.

Place in the oven for 60 minutes.

Check after 45 min just in case. It is ready when the knife comes clean after being inserted in the middle of the cake.

We added a scoop of ice cream.

With such a desert you can only take good decisions when planning your next party.

M

ps : The original recipe Classic-banana-bread

THE Lemon Cheesecake

We went to Paris for the weekend, see friends and families and greeting a new baby girl to the world. A very nice break, full of great food and as you can see on the picture, some cooking.

Inspiring myself from my Aunt and Godmother M-L, and working on this recipe for years, I give you the lightest and more umami lemon cheesecake ever. No sourness, no thick, compact and heavy mouthful.

The tangy and zesty taste of lemon, combined with the softness of cream cheese and the sweetness of the crust. This is to die for.

I usually write long articles before the recipe appears but it would just be cruel in this case!

So here it is.

Ingredients:

600g of cream cheese. I use St Moret as it is slightly salty

300g of speculos/bastogne

90g of butter (that can be replaced easily with coconut oil but I haven’t tested)

170g of unrefined ugar

2 organic lemons

4 eggs (yolk separated from the white)

2 large pinches of salt

 

 

 

1.       Heat up the oven at 160°C on traditional oven function.

2.       Crush the speculos/bastogne.

3.       Melt the butter/coconut oil.

4.       Mix the butter with the speculos/bastogne and 20g of sugar.

5.       Butter/oil a high sided pie dish and spread the speculos mixture at the bottom. Use a glass to press the crumbs. Press well or they will mix with the dough.

6.       Keep in the fridge while you prepare the rest.

7.       Grate the zest of the two lemons.

8.       From then onwards I use a mixer but you can also do it by hand. Put the egg yolks, 100g of sugar, the cream cheese and the salt in the mixer and mix until all the ingredients are blended together. Add the lemon zest and mix a little more.

9.       Whip the whites until stiff and foamy. During the whipping process add the remaining 50g of sugar little by little. This will help keep the whites stiff.

10.   Move the creamy preparation from the mixer to a large bowl and slowly incorporate the egg whites one large spoonful at a time. I use a wooden spoon and bring the creamy mixture on top of the egg white until they are fully blended in. Don’t wait or the whites will fall down and melt back to a liquid!

11.   Once you have your light and creamy preparation, pour over the speculos bottom, in the pie dish.

12.   Cook for 40-45 minutes.

13.   Once out of the oven let the cheesecake cool down before removing the dish.

Devour cold, garnished with fruits. Strawberries, raspberries, red currants depending on the season. You’ll notice I used raspberries which are not exactly in season yet but I just couldn’t resist… 

This cheesecakes gets even better after a day or two in a sealed container in the fridge.

Let us know what you think once you’ve tried it!

R.

The Orange Cake

It’s this time of the year again when the night falls fast, the temperature goes down and Christmas is over. We don’t know about you but we love winter. It’s all about being cosy at home, cooking comfort food and getting plenty of vitamins and minerals from seasonal fruits and veg. 

To keep it entertaining we’ve just used our oranges from this week’s box to make an orange cake. The first time we did it we made a mistake and put salted butter… and it was just delicious. We have now come up with a more balanced version:

·         4 large oranges

·         170 g of butter at room temperature (half salted and half unsalted)

·         130g of sugar

·         3 eggs

·         150g of flour

·         2 tbsp of baking powder (1 sachet)

·         125g of icing sugar

Pre-heat your oven to 160°C (Mark 5).

Grate the zest of two of the oranges; keep for later.

Mix the butter and the sugar until you obtain a homogenous dough. Add in the eggs and mix well.

Mix the yeast and the flour separately and add to the butter mixture slowly while mixing with a whip vigorously.

Include the zest and the juice of 1.5 oranges. You can modify the amount of juice depending on the consistency as the dough should not be too liquid, but you will need the juice of at least one orange.

Butter a cake pan and pour the dough. Put in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Check with a knife that it’s dry inside.

Once the cake is cooked and cooling in your kitchen, resit a bit longer!

In a pot, pour the juice from the remaining oranges and the icing sugar. Mix well until the sugar has dissolved in the juice. Bring to a boil and keep boiling for at least 7 minutes, until the mixture becomes a bit syrupy. You can test that by putting a bit of the icing on a spoon and cooling it. If it’s sticky, it’s ready.

With a ladle, pour gently over the entire surface of the cake, ensuring that the cake absorbs the syrup. Decorate with a few orange slices. 

Tuck in and enjoy!