Honey Beer Bread

We hosted another dinner party last night. It was so much fun – not least because it was officially this season’s first Glühwein night!

The sad thing was that I was NOT in charge of dessert, so it looked like there was no baking occasion for me. It’s not like I don’t love cooking, and I like to think that both my Middle Eastern pumpkin soup and the lamb tagine were a real success. But still. Me wants baking.

So I thought … if my friends are going to keep me from baking a cake for Friday night, I am baking bread for Saturday morning! They all stayed the night at our place anyway. (Remember I mentioned Glühwein? ;)

Never having baked bread before I was intrigued by an incredibly simple and yummy sounding recipe I found on my wanderings through various food blogs.

Honey Beer Bread

The bread is wonderful; I really like the taste. I did a trial run on Wednesday, and this second time round I have changed the recipe only a tiny little bit. Now I really want to try out different variations of it though!

Honey Beer Bread

Ingredients
300 g flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp honey
355 ml beer
60 g butter, melted

Method
Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt; then stir in honey and beer – you may want to microwave the honey for a few seconds because that makes it easier to stir it in. Spoon half the melted butter into a loaf tin and use some of it to lightly grease the sides of the tin. Then add the batter and finally the second half of the melted butter. Spread it on top of the batter with a brush or the backside of a spoon.
Bake at 180° C for about 55 minutes.

Wasabi and Sesame Towers

 

The other day, I found wasabi paste in a shop, which made me think of … HOT WASABI MINI MUFFINS! And as you can see from the picture and the title of this blog entry, that’s EXACTLY what I made.

I cannot give you a recipe but here’s a really useful plan:

Step 1: Make up recipe for Hot Wasabi Mini Muffins. Prepare your mini muffin tin.

Step 2: Bake a batch of Hot Wasabi Mini Muffins. Be disappointed with the result. Revoke the capitalisation and set your hot wasabi mini muffins aside.

Step 3: Add sesame to the remaining batter, spoon the mixture into a baking tray and bake it.

Step 4: Combine the leftover wasabi paste with cream cheese, a few drops of green food colouring for good measure and a few spices to make a nice and spicy topping for your Wasabi and Sesame Squares. Cut the tray bake into said squares. Try one. Be disappointed with the result. Set aside your wasabi and sesame squares, but not as far aside as the muffins.

Step 5: Ponder.

Step 6: Combine squares to make little towers, sprinkle with sesame. Be slightly less disappointed.

Step 7: Take pictures, write your blog entry, serve them to your mates as squares nevertheless (because there aren’t enough to make a nice number of towers), and never bake them again.

Enjoy!

 

PS: They weren’t that bad. Just not as exciting as I had hoped. My mates still liked them, and the mini muffins are edible, too. Again, just not that exciting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Savoury birthday cake

My third baking project this weekend was my most daring one. It was my friend’s birthday yesterday, and because she’s a really talented and passionate bakesteress ;) she made the cakes herself and had asked me to bring something savoury for the party. At first, I was  bit unhappy because I wanted to make a proper birthday cake. But then I realised that this was an awesome challenge: a savoury birthday cake. I love challenges.

Ta-dah!

The base is a rather mild courgette*, ham & nut cake, which basically tastes like a nutty bread of sorts. For the topping I used one of my favourite foods, an Austrian bread spread called Liptauer. It’s very paprika-y and rather spicy (at least in my version), which goes perfectly with the savoury courgette cake. As muffins, this would make for awesome picnic food. And as mini muffins… I’m getting carried away!

This is the recipe; the Liptauer recipe is a traditional one while the cake recipe was made up by yours truly. Note the detailed instructions!

Cake:
125 ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
220 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
200 g grated courgettes
100 g ground hazelnuts
75 g sunflower seeds, chopped
75 g ham, diced
1 tsp chives
1 dash sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together until as well combined as it gets. Spoon into a baking tin and bake at 180°C for 50 minutes.

Cream:
50 g butter
250 g fromage frais
1/2 onion
50 g gherkins
1 1/2 green chillies
1 1/2 tbsp paprika (hot)
1 tsp hot mustard
1 tsp tomate puree
1 tsp chives
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper powder
1/2 tsp ground garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Chop the onion, the gherkins and the chillies. You want to get really tiny pieces for the cake cream so it looks nicer.
Beat the soft butter and the fromage frais until well combined. Then add all the other ingredients. The mixture should have a nice orange colour. (The photo above doesn’t do it justice!)

Once the cake has cooled completely, spread the Liptauer cream all over the cake. You can use an icing bag to decorate the cake with the cream; please note that you’ll need a very big nozzle for the icing bag unless you’ve spent too much time chopping the veg. Or have used a food processor, in which case you’re cheating because I don’t own one so nobody should be allowed to use them.
I’ve sprinkled my cake with chives; alternatively you could use grated cheese, roasted onions or ham bits for example.
If you have too much Liptauer, eat it on bread. It’s lovely. And Austrian! :)

* Has anybody noticed that I really love courgettes yet? If not: I do. I truly do.

Hot Madras Mini Muffins

Inspired by an Indian meal I cooked for my friends yesterday, I have created Hot Madras Mini Muffins. And I think I have fallen in love with the general idea of mini muffins and mini cupcakes. They’re so cute! And it’s fun to pretend you’re a giant when you’re eating them.

These are the first spicy muffins I have ever tried. I really like the idea, and I like that it will come as a surprise to most people. Unfortunately, they are a bit on the dry side; I think I left them in the oven for too long. But no worries, hubby can take this batch to work tomorrow. His workmates will eat anything! ;) For the next ones, I’ll adjust the baking time, and I may add some chilis or tiny veg. I can just see myself standing in the kitchen for ages, dicing peppers and courgettes… Fun!

This is the recipe in its current state:

Ingredients
3 eggs
150 ml buttermilk
6 tbsp Hot Madras curry paste
200 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
salt, pepper, spices to taste
2 tbsp butter
chopped parsley

Method
Beat the eggs for about 3 minutes, add the buttermilk and beat for another minute. Then beat in the curry paste. Sift in the flour and the baking powder, add generous amounts of salt and pepper (and spices and everything else you can find in your kitchen that looks like it should go in your mini muffins), stir well.
Spoon the mixture into mini muffin moulds lined with mini muffin paper cups. Enjoy the mini muffin mixture alliteration while doing so.
Bake at 160°C fan for about 15 minutes.
Melt the butter. Dip slightly cooled mini muffins into the the melted butter and decorate with chopped parsley. I have also sprinkled them with a little bit of curry powder and cayenne pepper. Because I can.

 

 

Old: Cheeserassic Park

AND THEN I TURNED 30.

To help me cope with the shock, I baked cheesy dinosaurs. And made a sloppy photoshop job sign. And then I was happy again!