Macadamia Marmalade cake

I have been guarding my prized stash of Macadamia nuts for almost a year now. I found these delicate creamy nuts in Sugarland last year when Indira took me on a foodie tour at the Whole foods market. I had bookmarked several recipes using Macadamia nuts to be tried. Somehow I never got around trying any of those and the nuts continued to lurk around in my freezer.

I hardly make resolutions, but this year I have resolved to use up all the ‘treasured ingredients’ I have been collecting from my various trips to different places; now it was the turn of the Macadamia nuts. The blog has been starving for quite some time now and needed some food. Life has been a roller coaster for the past few months and to add to that a few health concerns, sick little ones and the last straw –my old haggard camera dying on me! I have been handicapped photographically for the past 2 months and have resorted to ‘phonography’ for the time being. So please pardon the pictures in this post- they have been taken from my cellphone!

I have been toying with the idea of investing in a good DSLR camera for some time now (read 2 years) . Left with little choice now the DSLR has been ordered and will be with me in a couple of days! You know what they say-Every dark cloud has a silver lining!

I also thought a baking partner would be fun and a great motivation to return and feed the blog. Who better than my friend and a fabulous food blogger Aparna to bake together? Aparna too was game for it.A few messages later we were set to make this delectable ‘Macadamia Marmalade cake’. Apart from our fascination for Macadamia nuts the tangy Marmalade also attracted both of us to this recipe. We gave ourselves time till today to bake the cake and so I had to post it even if it meant taking pictures with my cell phone 🙂

I made this cake when we were visiting our friends for a casual weekend dinner at their place last night. The cake was light and has a fabulous crumb. The zesty marmalade added a lovely citrusy tang to the mildly sweet cake and the creamy ,delicately flavored nuts the required crunch.

I served the cake with vanilla ice-cream for dessert but you can have it as it is for a tea time snack.

Here’s the recipe for the Macadamia Marmalade cake:

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup semolina
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 180g butter  (I used Amul)
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk  (I substituted with ½ cup milk and 1 tsp vinegar)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup marmalade (I used orange)
• 100g macadamias, chopped

Method

Grease a 17cm x 27cm x 4cm  tin(I used 17 x27x3 cm)) Line base and sides with baking paper. Preheat the oven to moderate, 180ºC.

Sift flour into a large bowl.

Add the semolina and ground almonds. Make a well in the centre.

Melt butter and sugar in a bowl in the microwave or on the stovetop in a pan. The sugar does not need to dissolve completely. Cool slightly. Pour mixture into the well.

Add the buttermilk and eggs. Stir to combine.

Pour mixture into the prepared tin.

Heat the marmalade in a bowl in the microwave or on the stovetop in a pan until warm and slightly runny.

Stir in the macadamias.

Spoon marmalade mixture over the surface of the cake. If the marmalade is too hot, it will sink into the cake mixture.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the centre.(Mine took 45 minutes)

Leave cake in the tin to cool.

This cake will keep for up to two weeks stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Mine already got over! 🙂

See Aparna’s eggless version of the cake here

 

Am Back….with a Peach and Almond Cake

It’s been ages since My Foodcourt saw any activity.  Here’s a long post to make up for the absence.

Firstly, Thank you all for your lovely wishes .The little one has settled in perfectly- just like the last piece of our little jig-saw puzzle. It’s a pleasure watching her grow day by day along with her hero- her dada (elder brother).

As you can guess life after the little one has been an exciting roller coaster ride; had not imagined life with 2 very active kids + a full time job would be soooo hectic.

I have been surfing through some of my favourite blogs, have been tweeting sporadically too, but could not find any time to take pictures of the food that I have been dishing out or to blog about it.

From Rainbow cakes for the 6 year old’s birthday to a Peach and Almond cake (recipe follows) for A’s birthday, I have been quite adventurous in the kitchen. But the chaotic schedules did not permit any photography or posts.

2011 also brought a few Foodie adventures for me. In February this year, I visited Sugarland, Houston on a work trip. There I got a chance to meet the Fabulous Indira, of Mahanandi. Indira has been one of my earliest food-blog friends and in ways a trigger for me to start blogging. So it was just like a dream come true for me to meet her and that too my first time meeting any food blogger. We went for a small shopping spree at the Whole foods market in Sugarland, buying foodie things from Macademia nuts to Bamboo steamer to mini ramekins or just chatting over some fabulous Indira- recommended cheese and desserts (tasted the Tres Leches cake for the first time) and coffee.

Another work trip in April took me to Singapore where I met the gorgeous S from Served with love. I had recently discovered her blog. A few tweets and mails to and fro and we met one evening to discover some fabulous foodie things at ‘Cut the Mustard’; the most prized being a lovely bottle of dried Lavender. I also found my way to a tiny little shop (recommended by S) called ‘Bake it yourself’- a paradise for bakers.

Currently I am armed with lots of foodie ingredients and weapons, collected from different continents and hope I find time in my frenzied schedule to blog about recipes using them. July -August bring some blogging inspiration to me (My Foodcourt was started 5 yrs ago in August) and I am hoping they will also bring back my blogging mojo. Fingers crossed.

Here’s a recipe for a simple yet decadent Peach and Almond cake which I made for A’s birthday.

The recipe is from a Book called BAKING-Simple cookery series. I have tweaked the original recipe to accommodate the available ingredients. The original recipe uses Apricots, but I had a can of Peach halves, which was waiting to be used up and so I used peaches instead of Apricots. I also added some in-season fresh cherries to add that extra zing.  Also, I used some Tutti- Frutti instead of chopped dried apricot as recommended in the recipe.

Peach and Almond Cake recipe:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Demerara Sugar

25g flaked almonds

400 g can peach halves drained (original recipe lists apricots)

225 g butter (I used Amul butter)

225 g caster sugar

4 medium eggs

200 g self-raising flours

25 g ground almonds

½ tsp almond essence

50 g Tutti-Frutti (original recipe lists chopped dried apricots)

3 tbsp clear honey

3 tbsp roughly chopped almonds, toasted (I used almond flakes)

~1/2 cup pitted halved cherries (not listed in the original recipe)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180^oC.

Line a 8 inch square pan with parchment paper or grease with baking spray (am armed now with both these baking must havesJ).

Sprinkle sugar and flaked almonds uniformly in the pan. Then arrange the peach halves, cut side down.

Arrange the cherries in between the peach halves.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl till light and fluffy.

Gradually beat the eggs into the butter mixture, adding a spoonful of flour after each addition of egg.

When all the eggs have been added, stir in the remaining flour and ground almonds and mix properly.

Add the almond essence and Tutti Frutti and stir well.

Spoon the mixture into the pan taking care not to dislodge the peaches.

Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until golden and firm to touch (it took about ~ 55 mins for me)

Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly for ~ 15-20 mins.

Turn out carefully, discard the lining paper and transfer to a serving dish.

Pour the honey on top of the cake, sprinkle the toasted almond flakes and serve.