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Monday, July 07, 2008

WTSIM - Baked Raspberry and Nectarine (pan)cake

Raspberry & Nectarine cake

Oh hello there. I bet you're wondering which hole I just crawled out from? ;) I must be a very rare species to be coming out of hibernation so late in the northern hemisphere summer.

Please, allow me to introduce myself. I am from the 'lost my blogging mojo' species. Have you ever heard of us? We hide behinds our (notebook/pc) screens daily, pondering on what we should post on, while stalking everyone elses blog for inspiration. What do you mean you've never heard of us? You mean I'm the only one of a kind????? ........

Hmm.. it is rather pathetic isn't it? Can't believe it's been over 2 months since I blogged and I even missed my own blog anniversary - 2nd one too, I might add. My only saving grace is that I have been planning a big long post about what I've been up to. However, that isn't quite ready to be published yet. So you'll have to be content with this for now...

I also realised that I've not participated in any blog events since Menu for Hope, Peabody's House Warming Party and WTSIM back in November when I arrived in London. Not sure I could even call this a food blog anymore. :P

I think that it's only fair that my first post in a while be something that is food related. After all, it's been a freakin long time since any food related posts graced this blog. So, for now, please accept my humble offering of an adaptation from Bill Granger's latest cook book, Holiday.

Bill made a Baked Apple Cake by caramalising some apples with butter and brown sugar in a oven proof pan and then adding the batter onto the pan and baking the whole thing (fruit/cake/pan and all!) in the oven.

I didn't have any apples around but had some pretty ripe nectarines and threw in some rapsberries for a good measure. I also didn't have an oven proof pan so this went in an oven proof dish instead.


Raspberry & Nectarine cake

Baked Raspberry and Nectarine (pan)cake
adapted from Bill Granger's Holiday

Ingredients:

1 large knob of butter
2 tbsp of brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 nectarines, cut into 1/8th
1 punnet of raspberries
1 tbsp flour (for dusting)

3 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
3/4 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp of caster sugar

  1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
  2. Sift baking powder, salt and flour together into a large mixing bowl.
  3. Add in the caster sugar.
  4. Using a whisk, slowly mix in milk and one egg at a time until the mixture is just combined (do not over mix). Once combined. Set aside.
  5. Melt butter and brown sugar in an oven proof pan.
  6. Once butter is melted, add in the the nectarines and cook for approximately 5 minutes.
  7. Add in 1/3 of the raspberries towards the end of the cooking time and turn off the flame.
  8. Toss the remainder of the raspberries in the flour.
  9. At this stage, if you are using an oven proof pan; scatter the remainder of the raspberries into the pan and pour the batter on top of the fruits. If using oven proof dish, transfer the nectarines and berries into the dish before pouring in the batter.
  10. Bake in the oven for 15 - 20mins until set.
  11. Serve with vanilla ice cream or for a breakfast/healthy option, serve with greek yoghurt drizzled with honey.

The verdict:

For various reasons, this didn't come out the way I thought it was going to/should taste:-
  1. Perhaps the oven dish didn't conduct the heat as well, because I ended up having to increase the cooking time as the middle of the cake wasn't quite cooked.
  2. I didn't have enough nectarines so it ended up being a bit on the tart side because of the raspberries.
  3. At first it tasted almost pudding like, but later on the batter tasted like a thick gooey pancake - not very nice...
  4. It looks heaps better than it tasted.
Overall, the berries and nectarines tasted really good and both fruit and cake went well with vanilla ice cream but I must admit I was a little disappointed. Bill's recipes are generally well liked (by this household) and usually turn out quite well so I am quite surprised at the outcome of this. I must try this again to make up for the disappointment....

perhaps.. the failure was just my own self justification for being out of practise in the kitchen.... ?

Raspberry & Nectarine cake

For a late entry to Waiter, there's something in my berries... this month hosted by the up and coming media star - Cooksister, Jeanne.

18 comments:

K and S said...

nice to see you back :)

Manggy said...

Hmm, let me think if I'll forgive you... Kidding :) Of course your beautiful pics and food are always welcome. It's just too bad this first one didn't work out-- not the best way to get back your mojo. But it still does look good and I'm sure you've plenty of successes to come. Did Granger have a picture of this? Maybe it didn't get quite thin enough to really cook through well. Many cookbook authors can be quite a pain. "Place in a swiss roll tin..." Huh?! How big is that?! Or worse, "Place in a cake tin" I have a 6", 8", 9" and 12". Although I've encountered "prepare a 6"x8" rectangular tin.." That is virtually nonexistent, haha!

NJ_La said...

how did i miss out on that? =(

Jen said...

How funny, I missed my blog's 2nd birthday not long ago too! I know what you mean when you feel like all your inspiration has dried up. Don't worry, it always comes back at some point.
Another thing, we'll be in London in a mere 4 four weeks. Moving there for a good two years! Got any idead for cheap eats?

ilingc said...

Kat: Thank you! Hopefully I can pick up the game a little! :D

Manggy: Ahh you are too kind. Thank you for accepting my tardiness :) Granger did have a photo of this, he used a 20cm frypan. It was a little bigger and admittedly probably conducted heat a lot better than my oven dish not to mention the resulting cake wasn't as thick as mine. I sort of figured that was the case when it took me a lot longer than I anticipated to bake it.

Ange: Coz you didn't come over for it. Linda had some though. Hehe

Jen: I'm hoping to make a come back to blogging this month. LOL. *Fingers crossed* OOooh, it's coming up so quickly already? Your move to London. I'll shoot you an email this weekend :)

Anonymous said...

WOw, really nice photos - what kind of camera do you use?

IronEaters said...

I always enjoy ur pics.back to the food,the cake looks good, altho u said it didnt taste as good..neway, welcome back. to myself too.lol.

Anonymous said...

I'm Haley, Key Ingredient's Chief Blogger. We would like to feature this recipe and photo on our blog. We realize it is taken from another source, but we'll be sure to note that...we just feel you've done a great job putting this meal together! Please email haleyglasco@gmail.com if interested. Thanks :)

Haley

Jeanne said...

Hello!! I owe you the LONGEST e-mail - promise to get round to it tomorrow...

I the meanwhile thanks for this *stunning* entry for WTSIM! Love the colours and can only imagine how good the taste would be. I will post the roundup in the next half hour or so, if yuo want to have a look.

Anonymous said...

Nice combination for summer bounty. Looks excellent.

Chibog in Chief said...

welcome back dear!! i heard you had a great time with you vacation :-) this recipe just proves it!! i just love the idea of raspberry and nectarine together!!

Mama Bee Simple said...

this looks gorgeous! if only pictures were eatable! xD

great post & take care - thanks for sharing!

Hope to hear from you,
Monika

Anonymous said...

Again, I really love the top down shot of your baked raspberry and nectarin cake!

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

You might be interested in meeting restauranteur Paul Mathis at The Hive next week - details at http://www.thehive.org.au.

Cheers, Ross

Jeanne said...

So... which exotic destination are you visiting now, seeing as all is quiet on your blog?! I know I owe you a LOOOOONG e-mail, but just quickly wanted to let you know that I tagged you:

http://www.cooksister.com/2008/07/forty-things.html

:)

Anonymous said...

Wow nice blogs.Nice photo also.

iGurman said...

Interesting, very nice. I am from the Slovak Republic. I am also a site for recipes for cooking. Only it be translated through Google translate.
http://www.irecepty.com

Rebeca said...

Yesterday I made Banana Oat Pancakes for breakfast. My husband loves banana pancakes. So, i think he should like this pancake. Thanks for the recipe.