Baking for Nightshift- Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

This is one delicious banana cake. I have to say I am not a big fan of banana cake at all, in fact it's my least favourite flavour. However I have made this a few times since I found this recipe. What I like about it is that it's a pure and simple and unadulterated banana cake with no frills, spices or additions. AND it tastes great....that could have something to do with the fact that sitting on top is a layer of cream cheese icing maybe? It makes a big cake which is made in a tray tin so although it isn't tall it's certainly big enough. You can find the recipe here. The girls at work that night loved this cake and one of them adores banana cake so surely that has to some sort of endorsement?

Baking for Nightshift- Chocolate Mud cake

In the last Canvas magazine was a selection of Chocolate cakes by Donna Hay. So far I have made two of them (the next one to be posted once I photograph it). I find her recipes a bit hit and miss sometimes. I love her photography and food styling however so still subscribe to her magazine on the ipad even though I rarely cook from them. Both of the cakes I have tried have been right off with the timing. In fact this one I baked for a full 20 mins less and I feel it was still a little overcooked. It was, however, rich and delicious and very easy to make. It's probably more suited to a dessert as it could have done with some cream on the side but the girls still managed to eat it all over the busy night shift we had. As you can see in the photos above the ganache was still pretty runny but who cares....chocolate is chocolate is chocolate!

Chocolate Mud Cake

250 g butter, chopped
200 g dark chocolate, chopped
1 1/3 c milk
1 1/2 c caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 c plain flour, sifted
1/4 c self raising flour, sifted
1/4 c cocoa, sifted

Preheat oven to 150C and lightly grease and line a 22 cm non stick pan.

Place butter, chocolate, milk, sugar and vanilla in a pot over a medium heat and stir until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

Add eggs and whisk to combine. Pour into a large bowl and add the flours and cocoa and whisk until smooth. Bake about an hour but check after 50 mins or so until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool completely in the tin.

Either dust with extra cocoa powder or else ice with ganache for an over-the-top chocolate hit.

Baking for Nightshift- Chocolate and Banana Brownies

I haven't been baking much for night shift as I have been so busy with just living life and being a working mum. When I have baked it has been something I have made before so I haven't blogged about it or else I have taken photos and then waited so long I have forgotten where the recipe was from. I saw these on a blog I follow called Baking Makes Things Better which is  NZ run blog now attached to Food TV. The site is not too bad....mostly I find it's a bit basic, but I sometimes find a recipe I want to give a go and this one I saved a while ago for when I had motivation and some over ripe bananas. I'm not a huge fan of banana cake and I often have lots of ripe bananas due to the fact that in our household three out of the four of us will only eat a banana when it's almost green. As soon as it goes yellow we aren't interested. Thank goodness for the Yonanas!

Anyway this is yummy. It has a rich chocolate taste and a slight banana flavour. Delicious and easy to make and well worth making again. 

Chocolate and Banana Brownies

175g dark chocolate
175g butter
150g brown sugar
2 medium sized bananas
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
100g self raising flour
2 teaspoons cocoa
¼ cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

Preheat your oven to 180°C.  Grease and line a 20cm square tin with baking paper.

In a large saucepan over a medium heat, melt the chocolate, butter and sugar together, stirring until smooth.  Once melted and mixed together, remove from the heat.
In a bowl, mash up the bananas roughly with a fork (I like to have chunks of banana in the brownie).  Add the eggs, bananas and vanilla into the chocolate mixture and stir until well mixed.

Sift in the flour, cocoa and chocolate chips (if using) and mix well.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30 – 35 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin before cutting into squares and serving.

Baking for Nightshift- Chocolate Mocha Cake

More chocolate I know and there is still more to come. I loved this cake. It was light, full of flavour, not too coffee flavoured (I'm not too keen on too strong a coffee favour in my food) and the praline on top just completed the whole thing. This recipe came from the Foodtown magazine and is well worth making. Delicious!

Chocolate Mocha Cake
2 tsp coffee granules 
1 c warm water
1 3/4 c caster sugar
2 eggs
1 c buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 c flour, sifted
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c cocoa, sifted

Icing
150 g butter, softened
1 1/2 c icing sugar
1/2 c cocoa sifted
1 tsp vanilla
2-4 Tbsp milk
1 tsp coffee, dissolved in 1 Tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 160C and line the base of a 20cm springform tin.

Dissolve coffee into the water and set aside. Place sugar, eggs, oil, buttermilk and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until combined.

Fold in flour, baking soda, baking paper and cocoa. This is a runny batter. Pour into the tin. 

Bake about 50 mins (it may need a bit longer) until cooked. Cool in the tin.

To make the icing put the butter, icing sugar and cocoa into  mixer and beat until combined. Add the coffee, vanilla and enough milk to get the right consistency. 

Cut the cake in half and spread 1/3 icing onto the bottom layer. Ice all over the rest of the cake with the remaining icing. Sprinkle over the pistachio praline (this is optional).

Pistachio Praline
Place 70g pistachio nuts onto a baking paper lined baking tray. Place 1/2 c water and 1/4 c water into a small pot over a medium heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and bring to the boil.Boil until it goes a golden colour then pour over the nuts and set aside to harden. When it cools break it up, put it into a food processor and whizz up. Make sure you do NOT touch the hot toffee....unless you want 3rd degree burns....

Baking for Nightshift- Annmarie's Chocolate Brownie

I know I know I know! I say I'm not going to fall behind in my posts and then life happens and my blog suffers. It's not that I haven't been cooking or baking because I have done plenty of that carry on..... probably more than I should even say. I do have a fair few photos in my albums but now I have the added problem of trying to remember where the heck I got the recipe from! Luckily this recipe is an easy one. In fact this gives a whole lot of bang for your buck! I tried these brownies when we were doing the Easter raffles for our ballet scholarship fundraising when Annmarie brought it over to have with our.....wine.....And a mighty fine mix it was too! They might not look like much and the original recipe doesn't even have chocolate in it however they taste so so so amazing. Like you have used a ton of chocolate...and they have the right amount of gooeyness like a good brownie should (use a decent cocoa though...avoid Cadburys at all costs). I did add some milk chocolate drops and this is the added beauty of this recipe....you can add or leave out extra chocolate and it would still be good. So without further, and much deserved, fanfare here is Annmarie's recipe....

Annmarie's Chocolate Brownie

200 g butter, softened
1 1/2 c caster sugar
3/4 c cocoa (I use Homebrand which is rich and dark and similar to the expensive brands)
1/2 c plain flour
3 eggs
Chocolate drops if you want an even bigger chocolate hit

Preheat the oven to 150C and grease and line a smallish slice tin.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add in the cocoa and flour and chocolate drops if using.

Bake about 30 mins....don't overdo it though.

Baking for Nightshift- Salted Caramel Bundt Cake

My final post for this flurry of posts (especially difficult because I have only had 30 mins sleep since yesterday afternoon!), is this cake. I made this for my first night shift on Friday night. I love anything caramel and anything salted caramel just elevates it to a more sublime level. This cake had a tender crumb and the icing just made it even better. I have to say it wasn't overly caramel but I think that was ok as it wasn't too too sweet which can be a little overwhelming with caramel sometimes. I got a few cupcakes out of the mixture too and I can tell you that this cake keeps very very well. 

Of note I made 1 1/2 times the recipe so I got a bigger cake out of it and it definitely increased well. Make sure you pour the icing over as soon as you make it as it sets on the cake quickly (as you can see) but it doesn't set hard so you break your knife cutting the cake! I thought my icing looked better than the one in the recipe I found as it seemed to have more colour to it...this could be because the sugar there is different to the sugar here? Also for the syrup I used glucose syrup instead of corn syrup but you could probably get away with not using it at all. You can find the recipe here.

Gooey Cinnamon Cake

I spotted a recipe for Gooey Butter Cake ages and ages ago and in typical form when I tried to remember where and what it was exactly, I had a real mind block. I only knew that it was gooey and caramelised on top but that was it. I searched and searched (going more and more crazy), my blogs and the internet but got it totally wrong instead looking for a recipe which had condensed milk in it. How wrong I was, there is no condensed milk in this and when I finally spotted this version on David Lebovitz's blog, I knew immediately that this was my lost cake. I made it for night shift and I have to say it was delicious with a cup of tea. I liked it's simplicity but it's caramelised topping which gave it a bit of oomph! The cinnamon only added to it's yumminess. f you want to find this recipe you can find it here. I have to say though, I most certainly did NOT grind my own cinnamon!

Baking for Nightshift- Delice au Chocolat Brownies

I can almost hear the groaning of 'not another brownie recipe' and one that looks like a basic chocolate cake too! However do NOT underestimate the total deliciousness of this brownie. I got the recipe when a mum brought a piece for the other mums (that was me too) who were sitting nervously waiting while our babies were in their Grade 2 ballet exam. At first I declined it as I had just had a yummy muffin for my breakfast, but she insisted I give it a try telling me it was pretty good...and OMG it really was. The texture is really like a mousse cake and when you see the recipe you can see why. 

When I woke from my very busy nightshift yesterday I thought that we would deserve a treat if my next night ended up being as frantic as the previous one, so whipped this up before work that night. This would make a wonderful dessert as it really tastes more like a dessert cake than a cakey brownie. Trust me when I say to try this recipe because I know you will not be disappointed and while you might curse me for the calorie load, the flavour and texture will make it all worthwhile.

Delice au Chocolat Brownies

250 g dark chocolate (I used Whittakers dark 62% but the recipe giver uses 72%)

175 g unsalted butter (I used salted)

1 cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 eggs separated

125 g cream fraiche (I used sour cream)

2 tbsp of flour or ground almonds

Pinch salt (I omitted this as I used salted butter)

Icing sugar to decorate

Preheat oven 150 C. Grease 20cm square baking tin (the recipe said a 23cm tin but I liked the height the smaller tin gave me). 

Melt chocolate and butter in pot. In separate bowl beat sifted icing sugar, egg yolks and vanilla essence till mixture turns white and creamy. Add the melted chocolate and butter and beat. Add cream fraiche then fold in the flour or almonds ground. Beat eggs whites with pinch of salt till stiff. Fold delicately into chocolate mixture. 

Pour into tin and bake 35mins. Cool in tin and put into the fridge for about 4hrs. Cut into squares but rinse the knife with hot water in between slices to keep them neat. Dust with icing sugar and indulge.

Baking for Nightshift- Orange Blossom Water Butter Cookies

I also made these yummy little biscuits to take last night and to put into Gaga's container. I found the recipe in Allyson Goftons Cookbook "Bake' but ended up zhooshing them up with a drizzle of icing which I think made them look less plain and more pretty. Orange blossom water gives them a delicious Middle eastern vibe and the biscuits themselves had a nice crunch and a texture. I got about 30 biscuits out of this dough.

Orange Blossom Water Butter Cookies

250 g butter, softened
1 c icing sugar
grated rind of 1 orange
2 tsp orange blossom water
2 1/2 c sifted flour

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a couple fo baking trays with baking paper.

Beat the butter and icing sugar together until very light and fluffy. Beat in the orange rind and the orange blossom water.

Gently mix in the flour until you get a nice firmish biscuit dough.

Roll teaspoonfuls into little balls and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Bake about 12 mins then remove to a rack to cool.

Drizzle with an icing made with icing sugar, some orange blossom water and a bit of hot water to get the right consistency.

Baking for Nightshift- Chocolate Raspberry Brownie Cake

Last night for work I whipped up a couple of things so I could return my lovely Philipina friend's container to her. Ning (or Lady Gaga as we call her), brings me in the most most amazing Philipino food. My favourites are Adobo or Pancit so the other night I got a container of chicken adobo and rice which I had all to myself for the dinner the next night....to say this dish is delicious would be a gross understatement!!! Anyway I thought I would return her container filled with biscuits which was why I made a couple of things.

This recipe was one that I tore out from the Listener. I liked the look of it because anything chocolate and raspberry has got to be good and it also didn't have any chocolate in it. You do have to use good rich cocoa and while she recommends Valrhona, I used the fantastic Equagold cocoa which to my mind, is as good as Valrhona. This was delicious. Mine took about an extra 10 mins to cook but that was because my tin was only 20 cm square instead of 22 cm. However I'll be glad to have this on my list of quick, easy and lots of bang-for-your-buck recipes.

Chocolate Raspberry Brownie Cake

200g butter
400g caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten
75g cocoa
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
1 c fresh or frozen raspberries
Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 170C and grease and flour a 22 cm square tin (I lined mine with baking paper too.

Cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs a little at a time with the vanilla and beat well.

Sift the dry ingredients together and fold into the butter mix carefully.

Put half the mixture into the tin, top with half the raspberries then top with the remaining mixture before topping the lot with the rest of the raspberries.

Bake about 45 min until a skewer comes out pretty much clean (mine still had crumbs on it and those pieces we yummy), and coming away from the tin. Dust with icing sugar once it has cooled.

Baking for Nightshift- Ripe's Esmeralda Slice

Ripe is a fantastic Deli-like cafe located in Grey Lynn. They specialise in amazing homemade baking and beautiful salads and takeaway meals as well as the usual coffee. Awhile ago the owner Angela Redfern put out a cookbook which, for those of you who don't have it, is well worth the purchase if only for the salads and slices alone. This recipe, however, is not in the cookbook. Like many other passionate home cooks and one who love recipes, cooking magazines and cookbooks,I have (or had) and enormous pile of cut out recipes all piled into a box. I dragged that box out the other week and left it on the dining room table knowing that if it was there I was more likely to get onto the task of sorting them all out. Well I finally did get around to it. An enormous pile was ruthlessly thrown out and the recipes I knew I was likely to make now fit into the previously overflowing box. As well as that I managed to find a couple of recipes I had made and loved and then lost again. This recipe I cut from a newspaper of some sort and then had stashed it away in the bottom of the recipe box. 

Well today I made it and I think it will be perfect for my night shift tonight. If you like coconut and caramel this is the recipe for you. It is most certainly NOT low fat...in fact I think any cardiologist might have a small MI looking at the ingredient list. But hey, surely night shift is as good an excuse as anyone could want or need for a little indulgence.... It is easy to make and makes a good amount of slice. Make sure you use your larger slice tin for this recipe.

Ripe's Esmeralda Slice

Base
250g soft butter
2 Tbsp golden syrup
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 c dessicated coconut
1 tin caramelised condensed milk (either make your own or buy a tin as I did)

Cream the butter, golden syrup, vanilla and sugar together. Add the flour, baking powder and coconut and mix until well combined. Press into a lined slice tin.

Spread the caramelised condensed milk over the uncooked base.

Topping
2 c dessicated coconut
2 eggs
6 Tbsp condensed milk
4 Tbsp melted butter 
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and spread over the base and caramel.

Bake at 170C for about 40 mins until puffy and golden.

Baking for Nightshift- Rhubarb and Custard Cake

I tried to post this the night I made it to take to work but this silly laptop was playing up and the photos weren't loading. We are sort of lucky said laptop didn't end up out the window with an accompanying temper tantrum! Does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with their computer? I hate mine with a passion at times but these days they are a necessary part of life and we can no longer do without them! Very frustrating!

As you can see by the tile of this post I made this cake to take to work on Monday night. I found it in a magazine and earmarked it immediately because if it has custard and rhubarb in it it must be good! I was right, it was delicious and a make-again cake. I used the ready made Thick and Creamy Custard, so even that part of it was easy. However you could whip up a batch of the good old Edmonds custard if you really wanted to. You could also change the fruit depending on what is in season. Apricots or peaches would be delicious! So to get to the recipe as we are taking Harry to the RNZBC's performance on Cinderella tonight and I still have to get ready and get some dinner sorted before we go.

Rhubarb and Custard Cake (Real magazine)

250g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 2cm pieces
1 1/4 c caster sugar
Grated rind of 1 lemon or 1 orange (I used an orange and it was perfect)
200 g butter
3 eggs
1 3/4 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 c store bought custard

Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease and line a 23 cm tin.

Toss the rhubarb with 1/4 c sugar and the zest. Set aside.

Cream the butter and remaining sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each. Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold into the butter mixture alternately with 1/2 c custard.

Spoon about 3/4 mixture into the tin and sprinkle the rhubarb over the top. Dot with the remaining custard (I think I actually used about another 1/2 c because I love custard), and then spoon the rest of the mixture on the top leaving some of the rhubarb showong.

Bake about 50-55 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 15 mins then remove to cool. Dust with icing sugar. Lovely served with more custard.

Baking for Nightshift- Lemon Madeira Loaf

Anyone who lives in Auckland (and beyond) will probably have heard of, or been to, a cafe called Little and Friday. Kim Evans who owns it wrote a cookbook not so long ago and I think it has been very very popular. As someone who buys a lot of cookbooks, I tried to resist this one telling myself that I didn't need it, and that I probably wouldn't use it anyway. I manged to hold off....a bit BUT then I made the clinching fatal error and finally went to Little and Friday. OMG this place really is phenomenal and it is worthy of all the accolades it has received. Even though I had just had breakfast I felt obliged to try the extremely popular doughnuts. I mean all good Kiwi's love a good doughnut. I was brought up with those school lunch doughnuts which I still have very fond memories of....those ones with the mock cream and dab of the fake tasting jam.....YUM!!!! However L & F's doughnuts are in a whole league of their own. They are hard to describe except to say they would have to be the best I have ever ever had....ever!!! The book was effectively sold the minute I tried my hardest not to stuff that delicious doughnut down my throat. I NEED to make these! Look for the post where I actually do give them a go.

Anyway last week I was actually on a day shift....shock and absolute horror! As I usually bake for my first shift I thought I might as well bake for our morning tea so decided upon this recipe. I love Madeira cake and this one is made that little bit more special with the addition of a lemon syrup (I just made a simple sugar syrup with lemon juice added) and then adorned the top with a lemony glaze to make it look pretty. In the book she makes a simple syrup with 1 cup of sugar to 1 c up of water and the juice of 2 lemons. She brings it to the boil until the sugar is dissolved and then pours it over the hot cake. In the photo the topping looks really sugary but mine never looked like that and when I think about it how could it? Therefore I think a sugary mix of sugar with some lemon juice is probably the way to go. The ground almonds really gave this cake a good texture. I have already made it again and successfully halved the recipe for afternoon tea at a friends house yesterday. I would strongly suggest you give this recipe a go. It's easy and well worth it. I think it would keep well but I never got the chance to try this theory out. As the recipe makes 2 loaves try not to freak out about the amount of butter in it....you get 2 for 1!

Lemon Madeira Loaf

350g butter, softened
1 1/4 c caster sugar
6 eggs
zest and juice of 3 lemons
1 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 c ground almonds

Preheat the oven to 170 C and grease and line 2 loaf tins.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add the lemon zest and juice and mix to combine.

Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold through the egg mixture with the almonds. Don't overmix.

The tins can be filled to 1 cm from the top but mine were both a bit smaller than that as my loaf tins must have been a bit bigger.

Bake about 50 mins or until cooked. Put the glaze on or else a nice lemon syrup...it's up to you.

This would be delicious with lemon curd, whipped cream or yoghurt.

Baking for Nightshift- Ginger Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream and Praline

After having had such a busy and full on last couple of months, I'm really trying to getting my baking and blogging mojo back. Even though I have still been baking, it has been some of the tried and true recipes that I have already blogged about so I didn't want to bore you with repeats. I still have quite a few stockpiled photos to blog BUT half of them I'm struggling to remember where I got the recipe from. This is the story of my baking/cooking life. I'm sure for those of you who have stupid amounts of cookbooks, cooking mags, tagged favourites and numerous blog to follow as I do, that you can relate to this! I thought I would pull my finger out this time and post these delicious cupcakes that I made for night shift on Friday.

After a day away from home (I actually took myself to the movies for the first time in months), I wanted to whip something up for the girls who were working. Our unit has been crazy busy lately with a high acuity so everyone has been frantic and working very very hard on every shift. Baking really does equal love so I really wanted to share some of that. I defaulted to one of my favourite cupcake books 'Celebration Cupcakes' by Tamara Jane. Let me tell you, if you want a cupcake book where the recipes work, then this is the one you want. I found a recipe for Gingerbread Cupcakes but as I didn't have any crystallised ginger (and in fact I can't bear it anyway), I left that out. They were delicious....gingery and light. I made a Vanilla Bean buttercream (using some of that fantastic Heilala vanilla paste) and topped it with some praline. I got the idea for the praline from a recipe for Kumara cupcakes in the Viva a few weeks ago. The praline really added a bit of va-va-voom to them so I'll remember that for a cupcake party trick next time.

Ginger Cupcakes

300g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
150g softened butter
400 g caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
160ml (2/3 c) sour cream

Preheat the oven to 170 C and line 24 muffin tins with cupcake papers.

Sift the flour, salt, soda and spices together.

Cream the butter for a couple of minutes then add the caster sugar and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each (this really helps to keep the cupcakes light so give it a minute after each). Beat in the vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream but don't overbeat.

Bake 20-25 mins until cooked, then remove from the tins to cool on a wire rack.

Ice with a buttery buttercream and top with crumbled up praline.

Praline
1/2 c caster sugar
1/2 cup blanched almonds (I use almond slivers)

Heat the sugar over a medium heat. Do not walk away from it and do not stir it. Swirl the pan to get the melted stuff away from the edges so the rest of the sugar can melt. Don't worry if there are lumps because it will all melt. Also don't have the heat too high or it will burn around the edges. Once it is melted and brown, add the nuts swirl them to coat in the caramel and pour immediately on to a baking paper or non stick foil lined tray. Once it is cool, pulse in a food processor to crumb up. 

Baking for Nightshift- Red Velvet Cupcake Swirls

So in my last post I said I had made two things for nightshift on Friday. I think I was feeling a bit bad because I have been so distracted lately with the house things so overcompensated and made two things. As well as that I really enjoyed having some time in the kitchen again. I'm on the last leg  of house stuff now....and quite possibly the worst leg. This time I have to empty all the rooms of pretty much everything so the new carpet can be laid. When I look around the house through post nightshift, no-sleep eyes it all seems very overwhelming as there is only a smallish lounge to put it all in. Luckily they will move the furniture but everything else has to be done by me. No wonder people don't get carpet laid all the time because it is almost (and I say almost) not worth it. 


Anyway I digress once again.... clearly I'm a little preoccupied! These cupcakes were ok. I'm not sure if I overcooked them a little or if I should have done the swirls a little differently. They tasted ok but I missed the tenderness of a good Red Velvet Cupcake and the cream cheese layer could have been more cheesecakey. The recipe was from Marion Keyes 'Saved By Cake' but I'm not sure that I will post the recipe as I don't think I will make them again. If you do want the recipe let me know and I'll edit this post to include it. 


Well I'm off again to relook at all the work I have to do....I'll be back in my more normal capacity in a week or so......

Baking for Nightshift- Blueberry-Lemon Buttermilk Bundt Cake

Wow it has been so long since I posted anything significant on my blog. The whirlwind that has been my life for the last month is slowly getting less ferocious as the house stuff is almost finished, my torn calf muscle gets better and better, and the effect of the school holidays wears off. Granted our house is looking lovely but it has been a marathon effort and one which has left me in awe of those people who embark on a huge renovation....and even more amazing who live in the house while it is happening. And we have most certainly NOT been doing anything too major but if I ever mention that I'm about to paint something, remind me of the nightmare that it is and how I said right here that I would NEVER EVER do it again......weeeeelllll maybe after the bathrooms and toilet is finished in the very distant future......! Once the carpet goes in in a week or so, I will be able to totally relax and bake my heart out.


But today I treated myself as a post-last-room-painted treat to baking some things for nightshift tonight. I made two things and will post about the other thing tomorrow if I can. As you might know I love love love bundt cakes. I love the tins and the shapes and they are deceptively easy to make for the high visual impact they have. As everything has gone by the by, so has keeping up with all the blogs I follow. I starred this recipe more recently so when I was looking for something to make found this at the top of the page. I had frozen blueberries in the freezer so used these instead of fresh. Here in NZ it's winter so it was lovely to get a bit of summer with this cake especially while looking out at the brilliant blue sky (even though it was pretty cold) outside. I tasted a small bit of this cake in the interests of this blog of course, and I can say that it has the most lovely light texture and the flavour of lemon is delicate but also not shy... if you know what I mean? I love rubbing the lemon zest into the sugar as it really does give it a whole new lemon vibe. Try this recipe and you will not be disappointed. You can find it here.

Sticky Date Cupcakes with Toffee Cream Cheese Icing

The very lovely Meredith on her last night shift

The other night at work was Meredith's last night so was an excuse to eat lots of yummy food and celebrate/commiserate the next step in Meredith's life....namely the BIG OE! Meredith is a truly lovely person. While she is young she is able to relate to a huge range of people. She has a huge amount to offer not only in a professional context but in a personal context too. While everyone is thrilled that she and her partner Paddy get to see the world and have lots of new experiences, I think it's fair to say that we have lost an amazing nurse, work colleague and friend...and I have lost one of my baking mates/students too. Have a fantastic time away Meredith. I really hope you and Paddy have a fantastic time and that you stay safe and happy.


For Meredith's last night, I decided upon these cupcakes which I saw on a lovely NZ blog I follow called Baking=Love. Anyone with English heritage would know what a Sticky Date/Toffee Pudding is. It is a delicious pudding made with dates which have been chopped up and soaked in a mix of boiling water and baking soda. So while you might say that you don't like dates, you don't end up with a datey kind of flavour. It is always topped with a toffee or caramel sauce which only adds to it's decadence and richness. YUM!!!


The mix for these cupcakes is very, very liquid. I was sure that I had done something wrong but they ended up being tender and soft and just perfect once they had cooled. For the frosting I added 2-3 c icing sugar to make it more pipeable as I found the recipe just made it too soft. As well as that I omitted the cornflour as it just didn't seem right. The salt just makes the topping even more delicious and I used Fleur De Sel sea salt which has an almost floral flavour to it...I mean anything salted caramel HAS to be good doesn't it? I used a can of caramel condensed milk as because I was in the middle of night shift I had neither the time nor the inclination to watch over a simmering pan of water for a few hours.


So give these cupcakes a go and whatever you do make sure they aren't lying around or else you might just be tempted to eat them all up yourself.