Browned butter, Yuzu and blueberry madeleines

Yuzu is a citrus fruit originating in East Asia. It is commonly used in Japan and has a tart citrus flavour similar to a grapefruit. I've tried yuzu sorbet previously in Japanese restaurants and really liked it. I've never tried cooking or baking with it so when Yutaka asked if I wanted to review their Yuzu citrus seasoning I thought why not?

I looked online for recipe inspirations and there were lots to choose from. It's commonly used to make sorbets, creme brulee and cakes and also as a salad dressing or in savoury dishes. I shortlisted a few recipes and then decided to create my own. The inspiration came from my favourite combination of lemon and blueberry. I spotted my madeleine tin under the table which has been neglected for a while hence these yuzu and blueberry madeleines. I remember attending a French glace cherries masterclass where we used browned butter to make financiers which I thought would work well with these so I gave it a go. The results were surprisingly good. The browned butter added lovely flecks of browned butter to the madeleines and gave a nice, slightly nutty flavour. The yuzu complemented the blueberries well and the madeleines tasted light and refreshing.

It's almost impossible to get fresh yuzu fruit in the UK so this yuzu seasoning is a great alternative. It has a lovely aroma to it and is beautifully presented in a little bottle. It comes with a little recipe booklet and there are a few other recipes on their website. 

 

 browned butter 

 you can see the flecks from the browned butter 

 add 4 bluberries per madeleine 

 dust with icing sugar before serving 

 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

Makes 20

2 eggs
100g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
100g caster sugar
100g butter
2 tablespoons yuzu seasoning
80 blueberries

• Preheat the oven to 160C.
• Place the butter in a saucepan and heat gently until brown.
• Leave to cool slightly.
• In a bowl, mix the eggs, flour, baking powder and caster sugar until smooth.
• Stir in the yuzu seasoning (you can add more to taste).
• Finally add in the browned butter.
• Fill a madeleine tray about 2/3 full with the batter.
• Place 4 blueberries in each madeleine.
• Bake for about 8-10 minutes until it's golden brown. 
• Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely. 
• Dust with icing sugar before serving. 

Disclaimer: I was sent a bottle of yuzu citrus seasoning for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions are my own. This is not a paid post. 

BBC Good Food Bakes and Cakes Show

I love BBC Good Food magazine. It's one of my favourite magazines and recipe website. I've tried countless BBC Good Food recipes and it's never failed.  The BBC Good Food Bakes & Cakes Show, sponsored by Lexus, launches at the beautiful Business Design Centre in Islington, London from 25-27 October 2014. The show will be packed with baking, bread-making and cake-crafting demonstrations, free master classes, and hundreds of products to get you baking like a pro. 

Every full day adult ticket includes a seat for the Bakes & Cakes Theatre, where you can watch your favourite baking stars in LIVE demos. It's a great line up of familiar faces - who are you most excited about watching?  I definitely can't wait to see Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood again as well as John Whaite and Tim Kinnaird. 

  Mary Berry will be appearing every day! On Saturday she will be joined on stage by her assistant of over 20 years Lucy Young, and for the first time ever on Monday she will be joined by her daughter Annabel Hunnings.

 John Whaite - John will be sharing the secrets of his success on the Bakes & Cakes Theatre on Saturday, and visiting the show on Sunday and Monday too.

 Lisa Faulkner - Lisa will be hosting the Bakes & Cakes Theatre on all three days, plus she will be doing her own demonstration on Saturday.

 Paul Hollywood - Paul is going to be showing off his baking skills on the Bakes & Cakes Theatre on Sunday and Monday!

 Jo Wheatley - See Jo at the show every day as she demos and hosts.

 Mich Turner - Catch Mich Turner on the Bakes & Cakes Theatre and Interview Stage on Saturday!

 Phil Vickery - Phil will be on the Interview Stage and will be doing book signings on Monday.

 Tim Kinnaird - Tim will be doing a step by step masterclass on macaroons and will also be appearing on the Interview Stage.

So what are you waiting for? Tickets are now on sale and I have a special offer for my readers allowing you to save 25% off tickets.  Just quote EBPAR1 when purchasing to receive 25% off tickets before 30th June 2014.  I hope to see you there!

Disclaimer: Images and some of the text are from BBC Good Food Bakes and Cakes Show. I was offered press passes in exchange for this promotional post. This is not a paid post. 

SRC: Cranberry Cornbread

It's the fourth Monday of the month which means that it's Secret Recipe Club Group D Reveal day! I love the Secret Recipe Club and look forward to reveal day every month. The concept is simple each blog is assigned another blog in secret and the idea is that you choose a recipe to make from your secret blog and reveal it on the same day. 

My assignment this month is Fried Ice and Donut Holes written by Melissa who is a teacher by profession. She loves to cook and bake and started her blog back in 2009. The story behind the name of her blog comes from her grandpa telling them to behave or they would have fried ice and donut holes aka nothing for dinner! 

She has a lovely blog full of wonderful recipes so do head on over to say hi and to check them out. I shortlisted a few recipes to make including Citrus Kissed Honey Buttons, Peanut Butter Bars, Salted Caramel Cashew Bark and Irish Coffee Cupcakes. In the end I decided on this Cranberry Cornbread as it sounded really interesting and look really tasty. 

It's a really simple recipe and the results were amazing. I love the coarse texture of the polenta and the sweetness of the cranberries. I usually think of cornbread as savoury so it was good to try a sweet version. Everyone at work really enjoyed it as it was different to normal cake and it felt quite healthy to eat! 

 buttermilk, sugar, flour, polenta, dried cranberries, eggs, butter 

 wet ingredients and dry ingredients 

 stir in dried cranberries

 ready to bake 

 love the golden colour 

Recipe from Fried Ice and Donut Holes

70g butter, melted
250mls (1 cup) buttermilk
225g polenta or cornmeal
85g flour
110g sugar
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
170g dried cranberries

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Whisk the butter, eggs and buttermilk in a bowl. 
• Mix the polenta, flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in another bowl.
• Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
• Stir in the dried cranberries. 
• Pour into a cake tin (I used a 23cm round cake tin but you can also use a square tin) and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

An InLinkz Link-up

White chocolate and cardamom cake with rose, strawberry and yoghurt filling and a giveaway

One day I had the urge to bake a layer cake. I've been baking a lot of biscuits and small treats recently and I was craving cake. Proper cake. I was sent some spice drops from Holy Lama to review and I started thinking about how I could incorporate them in a cake. I chose flavours that I knew would pair well and came up with this recipe for white chocolate and cardamom cake with a rose, strawberry and yoghurt filling. I used my usual 'weigh your eggs' sponge method and added in cardamom spice drops, sour cream for extra lightness and chopped white chocolate as I was too lazy to melt the white chocolate. Plus it adds a different texture to the cake and everyone enjoyed the white chocolate bits.  I was initially going to fill the cake with a cream and mascarpone cheese filling but decided to use low fat greek yoghurt instead to cut back on the calories and preparation time. 

The spice drops come in a lovely box which clearly labels the spice. The spice drops themselves are easy to use as it has a pipette and it's easy to measure drop by drop. The cardamom flavour was strong in smell, taste and intensity. The box said that 1 drop ~ 1 cardamom pod so I used 10 drops. The rose spice drops smelt absolutely amazing and I used 5 drops for my filling which in hindsight was perhaps a little too much. These are a great alternative to grinding up spices and it's so easy to use. I can't wait to try the other flavours! 

The cake itself was very well received. The flavours worked really well together and visually it looked beautiful. The sponge was light and you can clearly taste the cardamom. The rose and strawberry filling was light and fragrant and helped cut through the 3 layers of cake. I'm glad I chose a yoghurt filling as a cream filling might have been too heavy but would definitely be indulgent. 

I'm sending this to Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers. The theme this month is Floral so I hope the rose extract counts. 

As strawberries are in season, I'm also sending this to Simple and in Season hosted by Ren from RenBehan. 

This also fits in nicely with Celebration Cakes & Bakes hosted by Jenny from Mummy Makes Cakes.

I'm also sending it to Four Seasons Food guest hosted by Tina from the Spicy Pear this month. The challenge is usually run by Anneli from Delicieux and Louisa from Eat Your Veg. The theme this month is The Colour Red and there's a lot of red strawberries in this cake! The rose extract is colourless but roses make me think red too. 

It's also my entry to the Rix Aga Inspired Recipe competition where the theme is strawberries. 

I have a Baker's Spice Drop Kit to giveaway to 1 lucky reader which contains 

• Vanilla extract
• Cinnamon extract
• Cardamom extract
• Ginger extract
• Nutmeg extract

Terms and Conditions

Entry is via the rafflecopter widget below. 

This giveaway is open to all readers over 18 with a postal address in the UK.
Closing date is 14th July 2014 at 12 midnight GMT.
The winner will be chosen at random via Rafflecopter and will be contacted by email.
I am running this competition on behalf of Holy Lama Spice Drops who will be sending out the prize directly. By entering you are giving me permission to pass your email address on to them so they can contact you for delivery of the prize.
All entries will be checked and verified.

 white chocolate, self raising flour, caster sugar, cardamom spice drops, rose spice drops, eggs, fat free greek yoghurt, sour cream, strawberries 

 adding in the sour cream and cardamom spice drops (dark green) 

 adding in chopped white chocolate 

 For the filling - fat free greek yoghurt mixed with strawberry jam and rose extract 

 adding in the strawberry jam to the yoghurt 

 spread filling on top of the cake  

 add a layer of strawberries - I used the ends and smaller strawberries for this, reserving the rest for the top layer decoration 

 repeat with the next 2 layers 

 decorate with fresh strawberries on top 

 add a sprinkling of icing sugar 

 The cake held it's shape after a slice had been cut 

 delicious 3 layer cake 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

For the cake

weigh your eggs in their shells and use the same amount of butter, sugar, flour. My eggs weighed 265g (4 eggs) so my recipe is

265g butter

265g caster sugar

265g self raising flour

4 eggs weighing 265g in their shells

200g white chocolate, chopped

10 drops of cardamom spice drops (you can use 10 cardamom pods) 

150mls sour cream 

For the filling

500g fat free greek yoghurt

3 - 4 tablespoons strawberry jam (adjust to taste) 

5 drops of rose spice drops (you may want to use less - adjust to taste)

For the decoration

Fresh strawberries

Icing sugar for dusting 

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Grease and line 3 x 20cm sandwich tins.
• Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition.
• Stir in sour cream and cardamom spice drops.
• Add chopped white chocolate.
• Divide batter evenly into 3 cake tins (I weigh mine to make sure they are the same size)
• Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Turn out on a wire rack and allow to cool completely before decorating. 
• To make the filling, stir the yoghurt in a bowl.
• Add in strawberry jam and rose extract and swirl it gently.
• Spread between the cake layers, adding a layer of fresh strawberries on top.
• Decorate the top with more strawberries and a dusting of icing sugar. 

Disclaimer: I was sent the spice drops for review. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a paid post. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cornflake Chocolate Chip Bites

This month's Treat Petite Challenge has the theme of 'Childhood Memories'. I had a very happy childhood and I have lots of wonderful memories so it was difficult to pick something that encapsulates it in a bake. It's quite a broad theme and it will be interesting to see what everyone else comes up with.

I was looking for something the other day and I found an old notebook of mine which contains recipes that my mum has passed on to me. I've not seen this book in years so it was good fun looking through it and seeing old recipes that I've not made in recent times. This cornflake chocolate chip bites is one of them and it's something that my mum used to make a lot for us. It's really quick and easy to make and it's highly addictive. I honestly could have eaten the whole lot myself but I didnt! 

As mentioned I'm sending this to Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from the Baking Explorer. The theme this month is Childhood Memories.

I'm also sending it to Family Foodies hosted by Louisa from Eat Your Veg and Vanesther from Bangers and Mash. The theme this month is Barbecues, Picnics and Outdoor Eating. These little treats are quick to put together and easy to transport. They are guaranteed to impress and the kids will enjoy them as much as the adults. 

 cornflakes, chocolate chips, honey, sugar, butter 

 melt butter, sugar and honey 

 stir in cornflakes and mix then add the chocolate chips 

 ready to go in the oven 

 delicious! 

Mum's recipe

90g butter

85g caster sugar

1 tablespoon honey

125g cornflakes

100g chocolate chips

• Preheat the oven to 160C. 
• Melt butter, sugar and honey in a medium sized saucepan. 
• Pour in the cornflakes and mix well. 
• Allow to cool slightly.
• Stir in chocolate chips. 
• Spoon into petit four cases and place on a large baking tray.
• Bake for about 10 mins.
• Enjoy!