[Christmas Bake] Cranberry Almond Shortbread And Christmas Donuts

Christmas is just another 4 days from now and I am sure most of you are busying with the festive bakes such as Christmas Fruit Cake, Fruit Mince Pie, Gingerbread Man, Christmas Stollen and etc to share as gifts for friends or serve them together with the festive feast. Here with our recipe collaboration with Bake King, we have another two Christmas Bake ideas which might comes in handy for your last minutes bake too.

Shortbread is one of my favourite cookies to enjoy with a cup of freshly brewed tea and in order to make some good quality of shortbread it is very important to use quality butter and pure vanilla extract to enhance the taste. Furthermore you can have different flavour and texture by adding cocoa powder, espresso powder or lemon zest plus a small amount of cornflour to the all-purpose flour to achieve that melt-in-your-mouth shortbread.

Our Thanksgiving Feast - Roast Chicken With Cranberry And Macadamia Stuffing plus Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is a time of the year where everyone in the family to get together to have meal and give grateful for things like family, friends, food and etc. To be frank this is my first year preparing Thanksgiving feast for the family and instead of the usual baked “turkey” I decided to swap with something smaller. So for this year, I prepared Roast Chicken with Cranberry and Macadamia Stuffing together with medley of colourful vegetables. And I also made our all-time favourite Pumpkin Pie with buttery crust for dessert.

I am thankful that this feast was able to complete and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner as planned. It was because during the preparation (if you have read about the mishap (here) on my Instagram (@cuisineparadise)) my old build-in oven (12 years) actually fused off while I was preheating it for the bakes. But thanks God with my Samsung microwave convection oven I am still able to prepare the dishes with slight changes or else I won't be able to know what to do. 

Longan And Cranberry Yogurt Cake

Chinese New Year (CNY) usually cannot go without some auspicious cakes like Kueh Lapis Legit (千层糕), Kueh Baulu ((鸡蛋糕), Walnut Cake and etc. This year, I have come up with a something new apart from the usual CNY cake using "orange zest, dried longan, cranberry, chia seeds, yogurt and Cointreau" to bake this Longan And Cranberry Yogurt Cake for Chinese New Year.

Orange Pound Cake With Cranberry And Raisin

When I shared this pound cake photo over at facebook and instagram, some readers actually enquire what's the different between "pound and butter cake". To simplify it, Pound Cake is usually dense with only liquid from the eqqs and the flavor is mainly butter or extra citrus rinds or vanilla extract. Whereas for Butter Cake contains fat (butter, margarine, shortening) and leavener such as baking powder or self-raising flour for their fluffy texture and flavour.

Banana Chocolate Cake With Cranberry

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Banana Cake is always an old-fashioned family favourite when comes to tea-time or gatherings. I love it's unique fragrant release from the cake that kept lingering in your mouth after eating as well it also contribute extra points to the texture of the cake.

We also have quite a few of our favourite banana cake recipes such as "Banana And Oreo Muffin ", "Spongy Banana Cake" and "Cranberry And Banana Walnut Cake" which you might be interested to take a look too. 

BANANA CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CRANBERRY

(using Happy Call Pan)

After the two cake recipes that I have tested using Happy Call Pan(HCP), I decided to try whether I could apply normal cake recipe using this pan instead of oven. So I made this Banana Chocolate Cake with Cranberry which inspired from the latest banana cake recipe(HERE) that I have shared a few weeks back. Although the cake did not rise as high as what I expected compared to oven bake but the overall texture and taste of this cake is very well-received. Many who tried (during the blind taste test) didn't even realise that this cake is actually bake using HCP instead of oven.

(Makes: 30 x 25cm | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
225g All-Purpose Flour(plain flour)
170g Unsalted Butter, room temperature
170g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs(55g each)
2 Large Ripe Banana, mashed
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Salt
30ml of Milk
100g Dark Chocolate, chopped
60g Dried Cranberry
2 Tablespoons of RUM
1 Extra Banana for topping, optional

Method:-

1. Soak Cranberry(roughly chopped) with 2 Tablespoons of RUM for about 10 minutes. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

2. Cream soft butter and caster sugar using a electric beater or hand whisk till pale and creamy.

3. Add one egg at a time together with vanilla extract, beat till combined before stirring in the mashed banana and cranberry mixture. Mix well.

4. Using a spatula, fold in sifted flours in 3 batches alternatively with milk till well combined. Lastly stir in the chopped chocolate.

5. Slowly scrap mixture into the lightly greased Happy Call Pan(grease 1 teaspoon of oil on both side of the pan using hand or paper towel). You can also add some banana slices on top of the batter before baking to enhance the look and taste.

6. Bake on low heat for 12 minutes, slowly shift the pan towards right side so that left side (1/2 of the HCP) of the pan is on the heat, bake for another 6 minutes. Next shift the pan back towards the left side so that right side(1/2 of the HCP) of the pan is on the heat. (the purpose of doing this is to even out the baking as well as give the cake a nice brown colour on the surface when flip over)

7. Lastly, flip the HCP over and bake for another 6 minutes(3 minutes left, 3 minutes right) to have a nice brown top.

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FOR OVEN METHOD:-
1. Follow steps 1 - 4, pour cake batter into a greased 7" square or round tin.

2. Bake in preheated 180° Celsius oven for about 40 - 50 minutes or when a skewer inserted in the center and comes out clean.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BANANA CAKE

(Preview)

Lastly here is a snack preview of the Double Chocolate Banana Cake made using similar recipe above with a slight twist.Will update more recipes on my HCP bakes and dishes soon. Stay tune.

Cranberry And Banana Walnut Cake

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Last Friday we kick off our 1st Photo Friday with Pineapple Upside-down Cake which i adapted from "Just One Cookbook" and for this week I would be sharing this delicious Cranberry And Banana Walnut Cake from Wen's Delight who is also the host for January Aspiring Baker event on Auspicious Dishes for CNY(Jan 2012). If you need more inspiration for Chinese New Year dishes you can take a look at the roundup HERE.

I get to know Wendy's blog on Wen's Delight a few year back through blogs hopping. She is very generous on sharing recipes of her wonderful bakes and I have indeed tried a few recipes on her blog too. Last week since I have some extra banana and cranberry in the panty I decided to try out this recipe as her cake look so yummy on her post.

CRANBERRY BANANA CAKE

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This recipe is quite a standard method with creaming butter and sugar till light and creamy before adding one egg at a time and beat till combine. Whereas the mashed banana and dried ingredients are to be fold in alternatively till the cake batter is well mixed. If compared the outlook and internal texture of the cake wendy's version is definitely much better than mine as my seems to be a bit over mixed/baked with bits of crumbs falling. 

Recipe adapted from Wendy of Wen's Delight, HERE.

(Make: 7" Square Tin | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 50 minutes)

Ingredients:
230g Unsalted Butter, soften
2 Tablespoons Honey (optional)
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
4 Large Eggs
140g Castor Sugar
270g Self-raising Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
240g Ripe Bananas, mashed
50g Chopped Walnuts
2 Tablespoons Dried cranberries, roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon of rum liquor

You can refer the steps on making the cake at Wendy's post HERE.

Wendy has a large collection of cake recipes (about 124 recipes) for you to take your pick so if you are keen to try out more recipes from her site. You can refer to this link HERE. Till then have a great weekend everyone!!!

Fruit And Muesli Muffins

Before this post, I have only seen and read "Muesli" in supermarkets and recipe books. It is only until I try out these wonderful "cereal" from VOGEL's which consists of uncooked rolled oats, real dried fruits and nuts that I totally fell in love with them. In fact I have replace my usual breakfast cornflakes to these yummy muesli for my milk, cooked oats, yoghurt and bakes.

Here I am sharing a 3 Steps:- Stir, Mix and Bake wholesome Fruit And Muesli Muffins recipe which you could bake anytime of the day and keep the extra in the freezer for up to 3 months. But if you love fruits and nuts, I promise these muffins would gone even without you notice them.

These Muesli are made mainly using ingredients such as grains, fruits, nuts and seeds from New Zealand which are free from artificial flavours or colours. VOGEL's mueslis combine the natural, less processed ingredients with those that pack essential healthy boosting components such as antioxidants, fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals.