Category: baking

Cinammon, coconut, apple cake

This cake combines so many things I love: crunchy cinammon topping, icing glaze, moist cake and coconut-flavours.

Easily a dessert if served with whipped cream/sour cream/ice-cream….or just delicious on its own with a cup of tea!

Cake Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

1 pink lady apple, 1/2 roughly chopped and 1/2 cut into,thin slices

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1/2 cup plain yoghurt

1/2 cup coconut oil or any vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cinnamon topping:

1.5 tablespoon butter melted

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar

Icing Sugar Glaze:

1/2 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven 180 degrees Celsius, line an 8 inch cake tin with baking paper.

2.in one large bowl whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda sugar, salt and dessicated coconut (all dry ingredients), add chopped apple and mix gently through.

3. In another bowl whisk eggs, then add oil, yoghurt and vanilla extract.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together until just combined, do not over mix.

5. Melt butter, add to brown sugar, white sugar and cinnamon mixture until just combined

6. Pour batter into cake tin, place sliced apples creatively on top of cake, cover apples with cinnamon topping.

7. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes until firm and skewer comes out clean.

8. Allow to cool totally, mix milk with icing sugar to create glaze. Drizzle cake with glaze, then sprinkle liberally with extra icing sugar.

9. Serve with or without cream or sour cream.enjoy!

June 23, 2024June 23, 2024

ShanthiniLeave a comment

Curry Puffs with mince and peas

These easy to make curry puffs are a great starter for any festive occasion. So popular i almost missed getting a photo of them before they were gone at our Christmas lunch today.

Using the same filling as my samosas. But much quicker and easier to make using store-bought puff pastry.

They are delicious wrapped in the buttery goodness of puff pastry too.

A sure fire winner as an appetiser.

I make them into bite-sized parcels of deliciousness but you can vary the size and shape to your liking.

Use the filling recipe from the samosa recipe below:

Durban-style mince and pea Samosas with spring roll pastry

December 25, 2023December 26, 2023

Shanthini3 Comments

Easy Whole orange (rind and all) and mint cake

This easy whole orange cake (rind and all) recipe is perfect for lazy bakers like me!

You just boil a couple of whole oranges for a long time, then chop and process them in a food processor, along with 4 other ingredients and pop in the oven for an hour or so!

Place a flat bowl or plate on top of the oranges to keep them submerged.

I was too lazy to swop out the water too many times, so I just boiled the oranges for half an hour, with a flat bowl placed on top, to keep the oranges submerged. Then I did it once more for another half an hour. This process removes the bitterness from the rind so is important, but doesn’t require much attention or effort.

Slice the oranges and allow to completely cool

I love using a food processor to make this cake, as it really is a one bowl cake with little washing up and no fussing. Definitely a very easy cake to make!

Whizz the cooled chopped oranges until a smoothish purée forms

Turned out my fan forced oven is probably a bit hotter than others so next time I’d probably heat it to 150 degrees Celsius and cook it for about an hour an ten minutes so it doesn’t get as dark on top. Mind you it still tasted great the way it turned out!

The resulting moist cake full of orange flavours and a slight hint of mint is delicious! I made this and took it to work today and it disappeared in a jiffy. Orders for more have already been placed.

I used this great recipe from Recipe Tin Eats but added a small handful of very finely diced up fresh mint leaves to the batter right at the end to add the minty zest. Totally optional though.

Thanks Recipe Tin Eats for the very easy and delicious recipe!

February 6, 2023

ShanthiniLeave a comment

Happy New Year #2022 #NY2022 #cheesecake

Happy new year from Sydney and thank you all for following and supporting freespiritfood.net since I started my blog so many years ago.

Mini baked cheesecake with hints of ginger

How the world has changed in the last two years? Rather than being able to travel the world, or even go to restaurants and places in Australia, I have been relying on my foodie memories and experiences to inspire my cooking at home.

I hope you have enjoyed my attempts to try new recipes and create different dishes. As with the rest of life, some ideas have worked better than others!

To finish the year for desert tonight I created these mini baked cheesecakes, made in a muffin tin, with a ginger biscuit base and shavings of uncrystallised ginger on top. Made in just 3 hours from start to finish, they have been given a tick of approval by our family.

I will post the full recipe but wanted to share a small foodie experience with you from the last day of 2021!!

Jimmy Buffett might say “there’s a little bit of fruitcake in all of us”, but I prefer “a little bit of this cheesecake”!! 😀

December 31, 2021

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#Puff Pastry #Pissaladiere #goatscheese #onionjam #anchovies #olives

Through this week, it came to our attention that we had an over abundance of soft goats cheese.

This brought on visions of onion and goats cheese tarts, and memories of the traditional French Pissaladiere which we had first enjoyed in Nice. Decided they would be great with goats cheese as well.

The original Pissaladiere: a much more structured version without goats cheese like the ones we enjoyed in Nice, France

Rummaged through our very well stocked holiday home pantry and found olives and a tin of Ortiz anchovies! Bingo!

Made 2 versions …both a lot more “unstructured” …both first smothered in store bought good quality onion jam. One version just onion jam and goats cheese, one with anchovies and olives. Both sprinkled with fresh rosemary and thyme. Both delicious with some fresh rocket.

These would be great to take on a picnic too once cooled to room temperature. We enjoyed them with our leftover couscous salad and some bbq sausages for a relaxed summer lunch.

Prep time: 30 minutes incl defrosting pastry cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

3-4 sheets puff pastry
1 egg beaten
Small can anchovies
6 pitted green or black olives
4 tablespoons soft goats cheese
6 tablespoons onion jam
Black pepper
Fresh thyme and/or Rosemary

Method

1. Defrost puff pastry according to packet instructions

2.Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees Celsius

3. Cut pastry into half to make 6-8 lengths, crimp edges to form shallow rectangular cases

4. Brush bottoms and edges with beaten egg

5. Prick bottoms of cases with a fork to stop them puffing up.

6. Spread onion jam across the base of each case, then add anchovies and olives to half the cases. Crumble goats cheese on all the cases, then sprinkle thyme and/or rosemary and black pepper.

7. Bake in hot oven for 10 minutes or until pastry is golden and crisp.

8. Slice as you like and serve hot or at room temperature.

December 25, 2021December 28, 2021

ShanthiniLeave a comment

#Christmas #pavlova

In my book, the best pavlova has a crispy, crunchy outer and a pillowy soft marshmallows centre.

Our Christmas Pavlova this year ticked all those boxes and more with delicious ripe mango, berries, juicy passionfruit, and a topping made of sweet whipped cream and marscapone .

Absolutely delicious, thank you Ashley!