Pumpkin Yumkin

This month's WCC#21 theme is Halloween. Halloween isn't really a big holiday here although the supermarkets stock up on pumpkin, coloured corn and candy for the expatriate community.

I've only ever gone trick or treating once when I was a kid. I went with my cousin who lived in a neighbourhood with many American families. The only reason we went around knocking on doors was for the candy (of course). However, we needed to at least look the part and dress up. The only thing available so last minute was an old orange tablecloth of my aunt's.

So we 'borrowed' it, cut 2 holes to fit out heads through and walked around the estate in our giant poncho. I don't know what we were suppose to be but it must have been rather comical to watch us move in a coordinated direction lest we strangle each other.

Hence I've always associated the colour orange with Halloween. I wonder if my aunt ever found out what we did with her tablecloth.


I'm sure there are a plethora of pumpkin recipes for Halloween and I'm going to add to it. This one is adapted from The Pastry Queen, another of my good reads. The author, Rebecca Rather, describes this recipe which she found among her grandmother's things as a cross between a muffin and a cupcake.

I didn't have a can of pure pumpkin so I used a pumpkin pie mix. Dried dates are also all over the supermarket shelves here since we're in the midst of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Chopping them up was a bit of a pain since they were all so sticky. I wonder if a mezzaluna would have helped... or maybe I should have oiled my knife?


Pumpkin Yumkin
makes 12-15 cupcakes/muffins

1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1 15oz can pure pumpkin or pumpkin pie mix
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup pecans

Preheat oven at 350F. Cream the butter until pale before adding in the sugar and beating until fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla until well combined then add in the pumpkin. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the sifted mixture in and mix well before folding in the dates and pecans. Scoop into liners, about 3/4 full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the yumkins are firm to touch. Cool before frosting.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
100g or 3 oz cream cheese
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp orange juice
1 orange's zest

In a mixer bowl, combine all the ingredients, adding more orange juice to get the desired consistency if needed. Coat the tops of the cooled yumkins.

Verdict: The pumpkin taste was not distinct enough, probably because I didn't use pure pumpkin. However, these yumkins are versatile. Left plain, they're lovely as muffins. Dressed with frosting, they're very pretty cupcakes. But then anything tastes good with cream cheese frosting!

Update (6 Oct): I tried this again with the pure pumpkin and the taste is much better!

Apple Cake

A request for an apple recipe sent me back to my books and I remembered flagging a couple of them in More from Magnolia.

The recipe made quite a lot of batter and since I was bringing these to work, I made these in cupcake size. I topped half the batch with 1 cup of walnuts and the other half with cinnamon sugar (2 tbs sugar + 1 tsp cinnamon).


Apple Cake
makes 36 cupcakes or 2 9-inch layerrs

1 cup or 2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 tap vanilla extract
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
3 apples, chopped

Preheat oven at 350F. Cream the butter until pale before adding in the sugar and beating until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time until well combined then add in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the sifted mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions. Fold in the chopped apple. Scoop into cupcake liners or lined cake pans. Top cupcakes with walnuts or cinnamon sugar.
Bake for 25 minutes if making cupcakes or 40-50 minutes for 9-inch cakes. The original recipe recommends icing the cooled cake layers with Butterscotch Cream Cheese Frosting.


Verdict: The cake is light and fluffy as promised. The taste of the apple was definitely present but not overpowering and it was also nice biting into the soft juicy chunks. Will try it with the Butterscotch Cream Cheese Frosting next time.

Daim Macadamia Fudge Brownie

The BrownieBabe challenge is back and since I was so inspired by the entries from the last round, I wanted to make one of my own- a brownie recipe that would include my favourite things with chocolate.

Daim is the best thing to take home from Ikea and since they've come up with little sweet wrapped portions, I've been able to pace myself better in consuming it. Otherwise, its a bar each time and that's totally hazardous for my throat.

Macadamia is one of my favourite nuts and these ones were given to me by a thoughtful colleague. They've been languishing in the fridge because I've been saving them for such a recipe.


I adapted Magnolia Bakery's Fudge Brownie recipe to get the following:

Daim Macadamia Fudge Brownie
makes 16 3-inch brownies

Brownie:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
12 oz or 350g unsweetened chocolate
1 cup or 2 sticks butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 tbs vanilla extract

Topping:
40 Diam pieces, whole or crushed, optional
1 1/2 cup macadamia, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven at 350F. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate with the butter, stirring until smooth. Cool for 10 minutes and transfer to a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar, eggs and vanilla extract before adding the flour mixture. Combine well then pour the batter into lined or greased pans. I split my batter into two 11" x 7" pans. It can also be baked in a 18" x 12" jelly roll.
Bake for 25-28 minutes until a cake tester inserted in the center of pan comes out clean.

Verdict: Love the crunchy nutty top, fudgy middle and sometimes chewy bottom where the diam pieces had melted. Especially good with ice cream - had mine with Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey.

Banana Walnut Cake

Still on the theme of A Taste of Yellow, I made this cake for my father's birthday on Saturday. We got a bit of a scare last year when he tested for some cancer markers during his annual check-up. Fortunately, an operation took care of that and we're praying that he continues to enjoy good health so he can keep playing his beloved golf.

My father is the quiet type and I take after him more so than my sister. We're both happy to let the other more vocal members of our small family air their views. We both enjoy strong tasting food and game meat. He's a simple man with simple needs so I didn't need to dress the cake up. I know he'll enjoy it with his coffee and he'll toast the leftovers for later in the week.

One of the first recipes I flagged when I got Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours was her Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake (except that the English teacher in me mentally corrected it to Many-Ways Banana Cake).

I was taken by how many permutations there could be given the allowances made in the recipe for the variety of milk (whole milk, buttermilk, coconut milk, sour cream, yogurt) and dried fruit (shredded coconut, apricots, prunes, cranberries, blueberries, cherries) plus the option of adding alcohol.

I adapted the recipe and made mine in loaf pans because they're easier to store in the fridge. The recipe instructs that the dry and wet ingredients be added in an alternating manner, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. I'm not shy to admit that I'm lazy and I haven't been able to detect a discernible difference when doing it my way.

I also take shortcuts like when I sift the dry ingredients directly into the bowl or lining only the the loaf pan only on the long side because its just easier to cut the paper. So far it works and the cake came out beautifully.

Banana Walnut Cake

makes 2 loaves (8 x 4.5 in)

3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

4 bananas, mashed

2 2/3 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven at 350F. Cream the butter before adding the sugar. Mix in all the wet ingredients and bananas then sift in the dry ingredients and mix. Separate batter into 2 lined loaf tins.

Bake for 60-70 minutes, loosely covering with foil after 40 minutes to prevent burning the top of the loaves.

Verdict: A moist cake, not airy light but not dense either. I love the crusty top and the tasty middle. The next time I will probably make these in muffins so that I get more of the crusty surfaces.

Moist Lemon Almond Cake

Finally, I had the time to try Nigella's Damp Lemon Almond Cake yesterday. I've renamed my adaptation of the recipe because here in the tropics, "damp" invariably brings on visions of mould.

Another reason why I have tried more and more lemon recipes is due to the Microplane Fine Grater, zesting is such a breeze now! It great for hard cheeses too.


The original recipe called for the cake to be baked in a 21-23cm Springform tin for about an hour, loosely covering with foil for the last half of the baking time. However, I decided to experiment so I divided the batter to fill 2 mini loaf tins while the other half filled 12 cupcake cases.

Moist Lemon Almond Cake
makes 4 mini loaves or 24 cupcakes

2 cups or 225g butter
2 1/8 cups or 225g sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup or 50g flour
2 1/2 cups or 250g ground almonds
1/2 tsp almond essence
2 lemons, juice & zest

Preheat the oven at 350F. Cream the butter and sugar until almost white. Beat in the eggs then the sifted flour and ground almonds, mix well. Lastly, stir in the almond essence, lemon zest and juice.
If using mini loaf tins (6 x 3 in), bake for 35-40 minutes, cover loosely with foil after 20 minutes. For cupcakes, bake for 25-30 minutes, covering with foil after 15 minutes or so.
After cooling, the cake will shrink from the sides of the tin or cupcake liner.

Verdict: The cake is moist and very crumbly. Its got a bite to it due to the ground almonds and while the almond taste is apparent, its not overpowering. Its very fast to put together and I love it! Will definitely do it again.

Update: The cake tastes even better today after being fridged for a day. Can I say again how much I love this cake?