Baked Things

I'm not gluten intolerant but I do love this cake. It's a little heavy being denser than flour.  But the syrup makes it nice and moist. The orange flavour develops after a day or two, which personally I prefer.

The trick is to boil the oranges, whole, twice. Cover the oranges with water in a pot, bring them to the boil and simmer for 15min. Rinse and repeat. More cold water and another 15min simmer. Blast them under a cold water tap to stop them cooking and making them easier to handle.

Now roughly chop them and remove any seeds. And blitz them in a food processor. I don't have a food processor so I use a nutribullet type thing. You could use a magic wand, or chop the sh*t out of them, they may end up a little coarse but personally I'd like it.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together. Then add the orange pulp, almond meal and baking powder. Mix gently until just combined. The key to most baking (bread aside) is to not over combine.

While thats cooking you can make the syrup. The scond orange is optional, but I like the bitter orange taste, so I slice the second one up and put it the mix. Plus it makes a great garnish. You need to soften the rind and optional second orange slices. Place in a pot, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 min until soft. Make sure you have the right water quantity at this point and mix in the sugar and stir until disolved. The more water the mositer the cake. Roughly half a cup suits me. Set the mixture aside to cool while the cake bakes, then spoon over the cooked cake.

Orange Almond Meal Cake

This is my really novice approach to bread baking... theres loads of room for improvement but even still I love the outcome.

I'm undecided yet if this step if necessary. But I like to awaken the dried yeast by placing it in lukewarm water. Either use the water you'll end up using. Or as I did in the photo I used 160ml (about half the total water) of warm water from the tap and a tiny pinch of sugar as food for the yeast.

Here I barely combined the ingredients. I attempted kneading for about 1 min. Then it was too sticky and I didn't want to do what I did years ago when I last attempted making bread which was adding more and more flour. So I stopped and let it rise. They say it should double in size. I'll find out in time how to knead properly but you know what, this worked.

Once it rose I smooshed it with my hands to push the main gas from the yeast out. Then popped it in a bakeable casserole pot. Then let it rise again.

This pot baking is one trick I do know. By cooking it in a pot it keeps the moisture from the bread around the dough while it bakes. This steam gives it an awesome crust. Fancy pants bakeries have steam ovens. House holds have casserole pot ;)

The result is at the top. I should have included a photo of the bread slathered in butter while still steaming after the bake... I'll do that next week while baking.

Basic Bread Recipe

Simple bread recipe to make in a kitchen aid

4 cups (500g) strong, high protein bread flour

https://kitchenaid.com.au/blogs/kitchenthusiast/classic-white-crusty-bread-0

Kitchen Aid Basic White Bread

I found this recipe on YouTube. Made it a couple of times and the recipe is solid! Produces a wonderfully soft sponge cake. Perfect for decorating. I doubled it for a larger cake size

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRPDzRkFsDo

Basic Sponge Cake

100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar

60ml (1/2 cup) golden syrup (or honey also works well)

Mix butter and sugar together well. Add the reset of the ingredients and combine. Cover in plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge for 30min to let the dough reset. Preheat over to 180C and bake for about 10min.


Baking time is depending on the thickness that you've rolled the cookie dough at. You'll see the edges start to brown which is an indication of readiness.

If the dough is a little dry add another egg yolk.

Ginger Bread

This was the first time I've made scones and I was pleasantly supprised how easy they were to make. 

Combine the dry ingredients, sifting the flour if nessasary. Gather the wet ingredients together then combine with the dry. The trick is to not over work it, don't knead the mixture, just stir until combined.

Apple Cinnamon Scones

I found this recipe on Alexandra's Kitchen. A wonderful site with lots of great recipes. https://alexandracooks.com/2021/06/26/how-to-make-ciabatta-bread/

50 grams (about 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour

2 grams (1/2 teaspoon) instant yeast, SAF is my preference

50 grams (about 1/4 cup) water, lukewarm or room temperature

360 grams (about 1.5 cups) water, lukewarm or room temperature

12 grams (about 2 teaspoons) salt, kosher or sea salt

450 grams (about 3.5 cups) bread flour, see notes above

Mix flour and yeast together and let sit for a few hours.

Mix in the rest of the flour and water until combined. Leave for 30min and come back every 30-40min to stretch out the dough. Once stretched a few times, pop in a bowl with a tea towel on top and pop in the fridge over night to let flavour develop.

In the morning let it come up to room temperature. Pop on the oven at 220C fan forced. And bake for 25-30min. 

TIPS: I pop in a bowl of water in an oven proof dish or ramekin to give it extra crust. Use wet hands to deal with wet dough, stops it sticking 😉