Mango yoghurt pound cake & Honey Lemon Madeleins

Lately, there were plenty of honey mangoes going on sale in the groceries. Somehow mango is the one fruit that I can never resist on buying...especially when it is on sale! After finishing up a couple mangoes 2 weeks back, we got some again last week...and seeing how fast it is ripening worries me a little. I decided to bake something with these aromatic mango fruit to enjoy it in a whole new way. :) So I baked a Mango Yoghurt Pound cake, a recipe which is adapted from my Passion Fruit Pound Cake. Result? Delish!

I realized that I haven't post any loaf or pound cake recipe for a relatively long time...a year? I guess sometimes we tend to forget the simplest cake recipes, which perhaps is something that we enjoy very much without much fuss. In fact I made this cake in an hour, including the baking time...neat right?

Ingredients for Mango Yoghurt Pound Cake:

110g unsalted butter, room temperature

140g caster sugar

2 large eggs
1 ½tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt
160g Cake flour, sieved
75g of plain yogurt

100g fresh mango fruit, peeled and pureed

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter and line a loaf tin with parchment paper and butter it again. (I used a 7" by 3.5" loaf tin )
• In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar together till light and fluffy.
• Add eggs, one at a time till well mixed in.
• Add in yogurt and stir till incorporated. Then add in the mango puree and mix well.
• Add in cake flour, baking powder and salt and stir till just blend in.
• Pour the cake batter into the loaf tin and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or till the cake tester comes out clean.

The cake is tender, moist with fine crumbs with the right amount of sweetness, plus a hint of mango in each bite. My perfect afternoon tea treat. :)

Another simple cake/cookie which I want to share with everyone is Honey Lemon Madeleines which I made quite a while back. It's such a nice recipe that I figured it'll be such a waste if I don't post it up. These tender French classic confection has a whole new character when honey and lemon are introduced to it. Be sure to use a quality honey like wildflower or Lavender honey that has a more assertive scent so these little cakes can have a more outstanding flavor.

The lemon zest in these cakes brightens up the flavor and counteracts the buttery taste which makes it not at all too heavy to down even when you reach the fifth one, hohoho...dangerous! (^o^)

Ingredients for Honey Lemon Madeleines (makes about 12) (adapted from "The Last Course")

85g unsalted butter

2 large eggs

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 tbsp wildflower honey

62g all purpose flour

28g cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

zest of a lemon

• In a heat proof saucepan, place the butter in and heat over medium low fire. Continue to cook the butter until some white milk solids fall to the bottom of the skillet and turn into a rich haxelnut brown, about 5 minutes. Strain the browned butter through a fine sieve into a small bowl.
• In a mixer bowl, beat the eggs, both sugasr and phoney until very pale in color and triple in volume.
• Sift in both flours, salt,aking powder over the egg micture and use a rubber spatula to gently fold in.
• Lastly fold in the brown butter. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours, or overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 200C. Liberally butter the madeleine molds. Spoon or pipr the batter evenly into the molds. Bake for 5 to 7 mins, until golden brown. Transfer the pans to wire rack to cool for 5 minutes, then unmold the cakes and let them cool completely on the rack.

I notice not all of my madeleines has that distinctive "bump"....and those that has it was because I scooped more batter into that mold. Seriously, I'm not sure why some are particular about that "bump"....does it shows how the texture of the cake is? Anyway, I think as long as your batter is at the right consistency, it will yield a good texture.

Hope these 2 wonderful cake treats will motivate you to bake them for your love ones soon. Seize the day, bake a cake, lol!

Okay all, have a great week ahead!

Earl Gray Macarons with Passion Fruit Buttercream

It was my sister's birthday a couple weeks back and we only managed to meet up recently to have a dinner together. Since we are all busy with our own life, it's always nice to be able to just come out, and have some quality time and catch up a little. And since our last gathering, we had this really delicious dark chocolate macaron tower compliments from my sister as a Christmas gift which she bought from a well known bakery here. We enjoyed it so much and at some point, I told my sisters that I will make some for them as well. And so I did. (^_^)

Since I wanted to try a new recipe as from what I did earlier. I went ahead to try out the recipe from Swee San plus a different filling. Passion fruit buttercream to be specific, since my sisters love passion fruit flavor very much.

I have to say this time round the shells did turn out better then the previous time. I guess whenever you try out recipes this delicate, its best you follow to the DOT. It's pretty devastating if it turns out cracking or no "feet"...been there, done that. And you bet if I did preparation work, aging the egg whites in the fridge, reading up the recipes, making the filling ahead...just to be sure I don't mess up. :P

Super thrilled when I see this going on the oven...happiness! I guess no matter how many times you had baked macarons, you will still have that anxious feeling whether it will turn out well.

I will post up the recipe here for easier reference in future. Thanks so much to Swee San for the great recipe. :)

Ingredients for Earl Gray Macarons (makes about 25 cookies)

100g Almond meal (I ground mine from whole blanched almonds)
100g icing sugar
2 sachets earl grey tea
38g fresh egg whites (about 2 egg whites)
pinch of salt

100g caster sugar
24ml water

38g aged egg whites (about 2 egg whites)

• In a blender, finely ground the almond powder and confectioner's sugar together till powdery like. Then pour it into a bowl and add in the Earl Gray tea leaves. Then mix in the egg white and salt. Stir and mix well. Mixture will be thick.

• In a saucepan placed over medium fire, heat up the sugar and water. Once the sugar has all melted, place your candy thermometer in and monitor it till it reaches ~108C. Once it reaches 108C, beat the egg white at high speed till it reaches soft peaks, which by then the temperature should be close to 118C.

• Slowly drizzle the sugar syrup into the egg white while the mixer is still at medium speed. Once all the syrup is in, continue to beat till the meringue is glossy.

• Fold in 1/3 of the meringue into the almond meal mixture. Since the almond mixture is thick, you'll need to stir harder to incorporate it well. Repeat the other 2 portions and fold in gently.

• Scoop the batter into a piping bag with an 10mm nozzle. Pipe out on a baking tray lined with baking parchment paper. Let rest for 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 150C with fan off.

• After 10 minutes, bake the cookies in the oven for 14mins.

• After baking, remove from oven and let cool completely before peeling off. 

Passion Fruit Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

Juice from 2 passion fruits, about 1/3 to 1/2 cup

100g Swiss Meringue Buttercream

 

Simply mix both ingredients together till smooth and creamy. Chill in fridge until needed.

The only down side for me is the cookies are a little sweeter then the chocolate version. I guess the cocoa powder does tone down the sweetness. I went ahead to pair it with passion fruit buttercream and it was still a little sweet to me, lol! Anyway, it's suppose to be sweet isn't it?! Live a little and enjoy that sweetness. ;)

Overall a satisfactory result. I am already looking forward to attempting my next macaron venture! Perhaps a hazelnut flavor instead of almond? We'll see. ;)

I'm happy to submit this post to this month's Aspiring Bakers #17: March Macaron Madness! (Mar 2012) hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies. Thanks for hosting this month Alan!

Thanks for staying on with me. Hope you have a nice and wonderful day!