Blood Orange Chiffon Cake & A New Kitchen

As soon as blood orange season arrived, I had recipe ideas swimming around in my head. I buy them about once a week, from the shops near where I work, only three or so at a time so they are easy to carry home after work. Then, come the weekend, I use some for baking things like this cake, then I juice the rest and freeze the it to use later on. My freezer is now quite full, along with the copious amounts of varying berries, homegrown mandarins and so much bread, the zip lock bags and small containers of blood orange juice are artfully placed in small gaps and spaces ready to be used once the weather gets warmer and ice blocks become necessary. 

The base recipe of this chiffon cake has been adapted from my favourite chiffon cake (of all time), the Custard Chiffon Cake which can be found in the Monday Morning Cooking Club’s first book. This chiffon cake was the first I ever tasted or made. Now it still remains my favourite, however adaptations such as this Blood Orange Chiffon are amazing and a great way to mix things up a bit and show off some lovely fresh produce. Not to mention I always love a cake with pink icing! Any excuse for pink icing!!

I have also added a few before and after photos of the kitchen to this post - just in case anyone was interested to see what I kept going on about for 4 months! As I mentioned in my last post, I am spending as much time as possible in the kitchen now, and am really enjoying being able to bake again. Making something like this Blood Orange Chiffon wasn’t at all possible for a while there, and I am so so happy it is all over and done with now! 

Click on the gallery below to check out the old kitchen vs the new kitchen!

Old Kitchen

New Kitchen

Old Kitchen

New Kitchen

Old Kitchen

New Kitchen

Old Pantry/Food Storage

New Pantry

Blood Orange Chiffon Cake

Ingredients: 

175 g self-raising flour

35 g plain flour

1 tsp cream of tartar

6 eggs (large), separated

345 g caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

finely grated zest of one small/medium blood orange

170 ml blood orange juice, strained of pulp

80 ml vegetable oil 

3-4 springs of rosemary

Ingredients for Icing:

2 cups icing sugar, plus extra

juice of 1-2 blood oranges 

sprigs of rosemary (with flowers if possible), for decoration

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Have an angel cake tin ready and nearby but do not grease it. The tin should not be a non-stick tin as the cake needs to cling to the sides of the tin as it cooks. 

Place rosemary into the oil, and leave to infuse. If you have time, leave it for as long as you can. Mix it about and squash into the oil to release some more flavour. 

In a small-medium bowl, sift the flours and cream of tartar three times. 

Using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with 1 cup of the sugar, until pale and creamy. If you have a free standing mixer with a paddle attachment, use this attachment for the egg yolks and save the whisk for later. Once pale and creamy, add the vanilla and blood orange zest. Remove the rosemary from the oil, and discard. Place the oil and blood orange juice in a jug and along with the sifted flour mixture, add to the yolk mixture while the mixer is beating on a low speed. Beat only until just combined. 

Using a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites using an electric mixer until soft peaks have formed. Add the remaining sugar, and whisk until the peaks are stiff (but not dry). 

Gently fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites with a metal spoon, a third at a time. Continue to gently fold until the mixtures are just combined. Do not over mix. 

Transfer the mixture to the cake tin and bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. 

Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven you must invert the cake (stand it upside down). Using the hollow centre of the cake tin, place the cake upside down on the neck of a bottle and leave to cool. This process will stop the cake collapsing. This is also the reason for not greasing the tin, as you don’t want the cake to slide out at this stage.

Once the cake is completely cool, use a small serrated knife to cut the cake out of the tin. Start with the outer sides then lift the cake out using the bottom of the pan. Then carefully cut the cake off the base of the tin. 

Carefully place cake on serving plate or cake stand. In a medium bowl, sift in the icing sugar. Gradually add the juice of 1 blood orange. Stir until well mixed and add more icing sugar if the mixture is too wet, or more blood orange juice if it is too dry. The consistency shouldn’t be too thick, as it should be able to run down the sides of the cake, and not weight the top of the cake down. Gently drizzle/spread the icing over the cake and arrange the rosemary sprigs around the top of the cake. 

When serving, cut the cake with a serrated knife. 

Reference: ‘The Monday Morning Cooking Club’ by Merelyn Frank Chalmers, Natanya Eskin, Lauren Fink, Lisa Goldberg, Paula Horwitz and Jacqui Israel (2011), p 35.

A Winter Pavlova + How to Poach Quince

After 17 weeks, many frustrating meal times and far too many toasted sandwiches, our new kitchen is done! At the 17 week mark we were able to put most things back in the kitchen and use it (finally!), and after a few more weeks the last finishing touches and changes were done. Now all we need is another coat of paint and the longest kitchen renovation will be officially complete! I have been immensely enjoying being back in the kitchen. Not being able to bake for 4 months was almost like torture for me! Now I am trying to spend every spare moment in there, baking all the things I have been thinking about since late February, and making the most of seasonal produce I have been so desperately wanting to cook with. 

Such seasonal produce, includes quince. Since finding some good poaching recipes last year, my enthusiasm for cooking (and eating) homemade poached quince has only increased. When June arrived, and our kitchen was still in renovation mode, I did begin to panic that I may miss quince season all together and have to wait another whole year to enjoy them. Luckily the renovation finished just in time and I have poached three lots of quince (on a new gas stove none the less!). 

Grandma's Pavlova

I have some stored in the fridge, with extra poaching liquid to use for whatever takes my fancy. Though served with ice cream and a drizzle of poaching syrup makes a nice simple dessert, and topping pancakes with them turn lazy weekend breakfasts into thoroughly gourmet affairs. 

After the publication of Country Style’s Heirloom Recipe Cookbook, in which my Grandma’s pavlova recipe was featured, I decided to go back to this favourite family recipe and give it a Winter twist. I also was keen to see how a familiar recipe fared in our new oven! Every oven seems to be different and it takes a little while to adjust. I am finding I’m needing to turn the recommended temperatures down at least 10 degrees in our new oven, and for this recipe I ended up baking the pavlova at 110 degrees Celsius (after the initial pre-heating). I have left the oven temperature in the recipe the same as my Grandma’s original recipe, however if you can smell the pavlova cooking too quickly (it will start to smell like the beginning stages of caramel/burning sugar), turn the temperature down accordingly. 

Country Style's Heirloom Recipes cookbook

Note: Both the poached quince and the pavlova base can be made in advance. The pavlova can be cooked the night before and left in the oven overnight to cool. 

Poached Quince

Poached Quince

Ingredients: 

6 Quince 

900g white sugar

1.2L water

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 cinnamon quills 

Method: 

Peel the quince and cut into quarters, removing the cores. Wrap the peel and cores in muslin. In a large pot place the quince and the muslin containing the cores and peel. Add the sugar and water, and cook covered over low heat, allowing the water to simmer, for 1 hour. 

After one hour check the quince by pricking a couple with a fork to check how tender they have become. The quince should become quite tender and soft, however remain whole and not break up. If the quince are not tender enough keep them on the heat, checking again after twenty minutes or so. This process should take between 1-2 hours total. 

Once the quince have become tender, add the vanilla bean paste and cinnamon quills to the pot. Gently stir everything together, then turn off the heat and leave to cool with the lid on. 

Once the quince have begun to cool, sterilise a couple of medium/large jars, by washing them in hot soapy water then placing in the oven for 20 minutes on a low temperature. Transfer the quince into each jar, then cover with as much poaching liquid as will fit. You may want an additional jar to store any remaining poaching liquid. Store in the fridge for up to a month. 

Mascarpone Cream

Winter Pavlova

Ingredients: 

4 egg whites

125g caster sugar

125g golden caster sugar 

1 tsp white vinegar 

1 tsp vanilla bean paste 

20g cornflour 

To decorate: 

200g mascarpone (I used Pepe Saya) 

150ml thickened cream

1 tsp vanilla extract 

35g icing sugar

8 quarters of poached quince, approx. 

Poaching liquid, to serve

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a large baking tray with baking paper, and trace a circle approx. 26 cm in diameter (I used a dinner plate). 

In a clean dry bowl, beat the egg whites for 5-6 minutes, whilst gradually adding the sugar. Add the vinegar and vanilla and beat until the mixture is stiff and glossy. 

Sift cornflour over the mixture, and gently fold to combine. 

Place mixture onto the tray in the middle of the drawn circle. Push the mixture around to form a circle, leaving a small border around the edges. Try to keep the edges a little higher than the middle so any filling can sit comfortably in the middle later. 

Turn the oven down to 125 degrees Celsius, and cook undisturbed for 1.5 hours. 

After 1.5 hours, turn the oven off and leave the pavlova to cool completely in the oven (or overnight). 

Just before you are ready to serve the pavlova, place the mascarpone in a medium sized bowl and whip until it has thickened and soft peaks form. Gradually add the cream, vanilla and icing sugar until all ingredients have combined and stiff peaks form. 

Spread the mascarpone cream into the centre of the pavlova. Drain the quince of syrup and sit them on top of the cream. 

Serve with the quince poaching liquid. 

Winter Pavlova with Poached Quince

Reference:  Jamie Magazine, Issue 63 November 2015 p.31.