The White Ramekins

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Lamingtons…The Aussie Petits Fours

May 14, 2012 by TheWhiteRamekins

Lamingtons, these Australian miniature cakes have me completely smitten this time. Small genoise cubes dipped in chocolate icing and covered with snow-appearing shredded coconut. These mini bites are quite adorable, so much so that I like to call them the petits fours.

Their small size makes them perfect for a tea time snack. Plus, you can enjoy their choco-latey flavor without worrying much about the calorie intake. And the nutty flavor of coconut wedded with bitterness of dark chocolate is totally divine. It reminds me of those small Bounty bars, having oodles of sweet syrupy moist coconut trapped inside a milk chocolate.

In order to mimic the same moist texture, I thought of using a recipe from The Cake Bible, which I recently bought. And fortunately, this one is the first recipe {of a genoise/biscuit}, from this book which I have tried. Rose Beranbaum’s small tips and tricks helped a lot in achieving that extra bit of moistness. And why shouldn’t it be, after all those wonderful and important tips are from the veteran herself.

I iced them with the chocolate icing made of bittersweet chocolate and the cocoa powder. Cocoa added to chocolate perked the flavor of icing. And for the coconut, I went an extra mile and do the job of peeling the hard coconut and shredding it’s tender white flesh {got my finger hurt while doing that}. But trust me, store brought desiccated coconut wouldn’t have done that job, which the fresh one did. And that effort paid off well.

Genoise/Sponge Cake:

6 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup (175 g) cake flour {i substituted this with 1 cup plain flour and 1/3 cup corn starch}
70 g melted clarified butter, at room temperature

Chocolate Icing:

170 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped
40 g unsalted butter
3/4 cup milk
2 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
2 tbsp boiling water
200 g unsweetened shredded coconut

Instructions

  1. For the genoise, butter and line a 9 inch square pan with parchment paper and keep aside {i used two 9 x 3 inch loaf pans instead}.
  2. In a clean bowl, beat eggs with sugar at high speed for 10 minutes, till you get a ribbon like texture. {I did this by hand wire whisk}.
  3. Add vanilla and mix well.
  4. Using a fine mesh strainer, sieve the flour and corn starch over the egg mixture and mix well, without beating too much and taking care not to over mix. Otherwise all the air entrapped will be lost.
  5. Scrape the mix into the pan and bake in preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius for 30 minutes or until the sponge pulls away from the sides of the pan.
  6. Take the cake out of oven and after 10 minutes take that out of the pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
  7. For the icing, mix the chocolate, milk and butter in a bowl and heat in microwave till the chocolate gets dissolved.
  8. Sift in the cocoa powder and icing sugar and mix well.
  9. Cut the sponge carefully into two halves horizontally.
  10. Apply the chocolate icing over one half and sandwich the other half and cut into 16 small cubes.
  11. Add the boiling water to the remaining icing and mix well.
  12. Carefully holding the cakes, dip them into the icing and then roll all the surfaces over shredded coconut, taking one at a time. Let them stand on a wire rack for some time till the icing firms up.

Filed Under: cake Tagged With: australia, cake, chocolate, coconut, genoise, lamington, sponge cake

Carrot Walnut Cake {Egg less}

March 25, 2012 by TheWhiteRamekins

I have been thinking of baking something for my Granny from a long time and something which does not have eggs in it as she doesn’t eat eggs. I remember those childhood days when me and sister used to spend our summer holidays of around a month duration at her home. I remember her baking fresh tandoori Indian breads {savory and sweet both} at home. The memories of having those hot tandoori breads smeared with homemade white butter, dipped in Mah Ki Dal {lentils and red beans slow cooked together in a creamy base} are something which can never be replaced by any kind of flavor. I get nostalgic of thinking about it.

And this cake was a treat for her recovering from an injury she suffered a few months back. The courage and patience she’s been showing all this time is commendable and is worth a reward. And this is something which I could do least for her.

So I decided to bake this carrot and walnut cake. I was initially a bit hesitant and less confident considering my forte in to baking a cake without eggs. But trust me when I saw the results I couldn’t believe it that a cake without eggs could be so moist and flavorsome. The cake didn’t last long {everyone enjoyed it to the last bit}.

I got this recipe from this blog. Thanks to the blog owner for sharing this recipe and making my life simpler. And surprisingly the lady from this blog also had the similar reasons to bake this egg less cake. And I was lucky enough to find out this recipe.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely grated carrots
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
  2. Mix the dry ingredients and spices until well blended.
  3. Add grated carrots. Stir until thoroughly blended.
  4. Add wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly.
  5. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 to 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
  6. Dust with icing sugar using a stencil {i used a butter paper to draw out some patterns and cut outs}, if you like.

Filed Under: cake Tagged With: cake, carrot, egg less, walnut, without eggs

Wholesome Hearty Apple Banana Oatmeal Muffins

February 25, 2012 by TheWhiteRamekins

Here comes the weekend and I am filled with some extra excitement and joy, partly because the long working week has ended and partly because I get enough time to bake and shoot and of course indulge. I am sure it happens with all of us. This Saturday I got up early, as opposed to my plans to be in bed at least till eight. Even I had asked my house maid to come late for the domestic help. But the chirping of the pigeons in the balcony, and the early sunrise (as the winters are departing now) moved my lazy bums and urged me to go down and have a walk. It was partly cloudy when the sun was rising. The bright and crimson color of sun and the flowers made me invigorated.

After I was back from the half an hour jog, it was time to feed my hungry tummy. I looked around the kitchen counter and saw these lovely red apples. I didn’t want to have the boring-weekday-cereals-breakfast, so thought of making these wonderful wholesome, hearty apple banana and oatmeal muffins, the recipe of which I came across a few days back. This was the second time I was going to bake them. They were really good the very first time, so definitely they had to make en entry on my blog.

The best part of these muffins are that they contain very less amount of refined flour (almost 1/4th of the flour, rest all is whole wheat flour and the oatmeal). Definitely good for your kids. Especially, when all of us are getting conscious of minimizing our daily intake of refined flour.

The recipe yields 16 medium sized muffins. They taste so well because of the sweet and juicy apples and the aroma of bananas and cinnamon. To add some fun to it, I mixed in some milk chocolate chips, which can be avoided too.

They can be enjoyed with a glass of warm milk in breakfast or with vanilla ice cream in dessert (kids will love it a lot)

Ingredients

2 very ripe bananas

1 egg

1/4 cup oil

1/3 cup milk

150 gm sugar

2 apples (peeled and chopped)

60 gm wholewheat flour

60 gm refined flour (all purpose flour)

150 gm rolled oats (quick breakfast type)

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup walnuts

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1/4 cup milk/dark chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Lined muffin pan with muffin paper cups.
  2. In a bowl combine bananas, milk, oil, sugar and egg.
  3. Add dry ingredients, flour, oats, cinnamon and baking powder and whisk until well incorporated.
  4. Fold in apples, walnuts and chocolate chips.
  5. Spoon one spoon of the mixture evenly into muffin cups.
  6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
  7. Make sure you remove muffins immediately after they are done. Let them cool on a wire rack.

Filed Under: cake Tagged With: apple, banana, muffins, oats, wholemeal

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Hi! I'm Himanshu - a home chef who loves to cook, bake, style and photo shoot... Read More…

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