I’m still having a blast with my new food processor!
Here’s our lime and almond cake, which Pete has now declared to be the best non-chocolate cake I’ve ever made, baked in a Wilton Queen of Hearts bundt pan. The icing was decorated with lime zest…
We were off to the markets and needed something quick and easy to feed the stall holders, so I tried baking a very basic chocolate pound cake in a roasting tray to see if we could turn it into a slab cake. It worked a treat! We took some to the markets and our sons demolished the rest while we were out…
This simple and unpretentious chocolate cake is made special by its icing. I love that the pound cake recipe is so easy that I can make them from memory – even when I mess about with the ingredients! The instructions are here…
- 250g (8oz) unsalted butter
- 185g (6oz) self-raising flour
- 65g (2oz) sifted Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 250g (8oz) castor (superfine) sugar
- 4 large (59g) free range eggs
The batter was baked in a 23cm x 33cm (9″ x 13″) parchment lined pan in a preheated 160C (320F) fan-forced oven for 30 minutes, then topped with icing while still warm and popped into the fridge to set. Allow the cake to come back to room temperature before serving. To make the icing, stir and melt the following ingredients together in a double boiler..
- 100g (33/4oz) dark chocolate callets, or finely chopped chocolate
- 100g (33/4oz) unsalted butter
- 100g (33/4oz) icing sugar, sifted (it’s important to sift, or you’ll get lumpy icing)
- 60ml (¼ cup) milk
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Making hot chocolate mix in the old food processor used to be hard work, but our new Magimix blitzed it up in record time. I made two kilos (a double batch) using our favourite recipe…
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A dollar’s worth of dried chick peas was turned into a large vat of Syrian hommus. We ate a little of it for lunch, with pita bread and grilled eggplant…
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And finally, using the small bowl and blade of the Magimix, I turned the last of our cayenne chillies…
…and a few of the bishops’ crown chillies…
…plus a handful of spearmint…
…into a small jar of harissa. I’ve been smearing it on toast for breakfast!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Looks lovely! What a need bundt pan! Wonderful pictures as well :)
Thank you! I love that bundt pan! I have quite a few now, and that’s one of my favourites!
Do you ever just sit down?
You have twice the energy I do- I can’t get over all the baking, cooking, making, shopping you do! Thanks for sharing,
Celia, at least I can READ about all your activities in record time! :D
Heidi, it’s not really that frenetic – this was all over the space of a week or so! :) xx
Fantastic! The cakes look beautiful and I love those little chillies. I am soon to blog a harissa recipe too. Great minds!
Lizzy, great minds indeed! Sorry I haven’t had a chance to catch up on everyone’s blogs, it’s been hectic here the last few weeks!
The coolest chillies ever! I’m so jealous of your food processor too. What a beautiful cake at the top, Celia. So lovely.
Thanks Nick! You need to let your dad know you’re on the hunt for a food processor, I’m sure he’ll track one down for you somewhere! :)
What a beautiful almond and lime cake and didn’t it come out of the cake tin perfectly! I had madarin and almond cake on the weekend (but it wasn’t presented as beautifully as that). And your bishops peppers are stunning. And I love how you make your own harissa. I needed some for a recipe earlier this week and not one shop at my local shopping centre sold it so we had to go without. I’ll have to be like you and make my own! xx
Charlie, thank you! Harissa is so easy to make, I hope you get a chance to play with the recipe. We love it!
I don’t know which I like best! But, I must say, the lime and almond cake has huge appeal — I have an embarrassment of limes.
An embarrassment of limes! Oh how I wish I could have that one day – we’ve just bought Tahitian and Kaffir lime trees (one of each) to replace all the apple trees that don’t seem to thrive in our yard!
I’m glad your having so much fun with your new toy!
It all looks so yummy, but the hot chocolate mix looks sublime! Before they figured out I was lactose InTolerant I had to have a cup of warm milk before bed for the extra protein. The resulting itching, tummy aches and terrible nightmares finally put a stop to it, but I would have put up with a lot worse if I was getting a cup full of this instead :)
Becca, I’m heading out to buy some soy milk, I’m finally getting used to the taste of it, and I want a hot chocolate tonight as well! :)
Oh, Celia.. I need that Queen of Hearts pan!!! It’s calling out to me now!! And now I know what harissa is!! And.. that simple cake for the crowd will be perfect for my work at the hospice tomorrow!! Thank you so much! xoxo
Smidge, you are such a kind soul working at a hospice. I’m sure it must be both demanding and rewarding at the same time. The Queen of Hearts pan should be easy to track down – my friend Dan found Wilton pans at her local Walmart. Here’s the link if you need to order it, plus I think you can buy it off Amazon too!
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E31858A-475A-BAC0-522858249A0B137A&killnav=1
More. Cake. Torture. Love those peppers.
Are you complaining, or begging, Greg? More. Cake. Torture. Please? ;-)
Hehe you feed the stallholders too? Does everyone swoon when you go their way? :P
Nah, but they do look at us in anticipation as we approach.. ;-)
You are certainly putting the processor through it’s paces, that cake looks amazing and love the pic of the chillies – so vibrant!
Sue, thank you! I’m putting it through its paces and it’s holding up well – only annoying thing is that we’re not supposed to put the bits and pieces in the dishwasher…
That hummus looks dreamy!! I adore my food processor and use it constantly. So great to see all these uses for it!
Thanks Sarah Kate! I’m sure there are squillions more uses – I haven’t even tried pastry or bread in it yet!
I’m always pleased to see recipes that can be baked in a bundt tin because I have a few, not a collection like yours I might add, and there are not that many recipes about that are suitable for them, at least I haven’t come across them . I love the look of your almond and lime cake,must try it soon.
Jeannette, I’m very proud of myself, I haven’t bought one in ages! Mind you, my husband was getting cross – they’re very hard to store, and they don’t stack very well! The pound cakes seem to work exceptionally well in the bundt or ring tins – lets them cook a bit more evenly in the middle…
What a busy bee you are. The lime and almond cake is stunning. Love the shape of those chillies too.
Sally, I had a little manic food processing episode. I’m much calmer now.. ;-)
You’ve taken the pound cake to the stratosphere. !!. and your harissa looks brilliant. A woman with a food processor is a force to be reckoned with….
http:www.mykitchenstories.com.au
Thanks Tania! I don’t recall using my old food processor nearly this often! :)
This all looks fabulous as usual Celia, I am especially loving the slab cake and the hommus. The lime cake is a work of art! Happy weekend my friend :)
Thanks Jane! It was a hectic weekend – full of dinners and a wedding! The slab cake was very simple, but quite nice, and I suspect quite kid-friendly!
Now I feel hungry again after looking at your wonderful foods! I’ve been having a craving for hummus the past week and keep glancing longingly at that can of chickpeas in my pantry. I’ll have to try making that harissa when I get some spearmint planted. It sounds like a spread hubby and I would love. Your spearmint plant looks very healthy.
Mel, it works really well with regular mint as well, but we don’t seem to have that in the yard at the moment. It’s one of those recipes that tends to use whatever we have at hand! :)
I really like the hommus as it’s less oily than most. It keeps really well in the fridge too!
I never leave empty handed when I visit your blog Celia. Harrissa on toast for breakfast reminded me of a young Asian woman I was talking to many years ago in Byron Bay who had her own general store in which she also sold some
really good homemade products. She had a small market garden which she worked on very early every morning; she said every morning, in her market garden, she ate five birds eye chillies and she never had a cold! I told her I didn’t think I, let alone a cold germ, would survive that. I’m going to make the Harissa for my Pete – it is exactly the kind of thing he would love for breakfast and I’ve never thought of it before.
I can’t imagine anyone eating five birds eye chillies every morning, Jan! I wonder if she could taste anything for the rest of the day? I hope your Pete likes the harissa – I’m a huge fan. Some recipes use cinnamon instead of the paprika, but I find that just a bit too perfumed for my tastes..
What fun…I like the lime and your pictures are so beautiful…Love kitchen toys…
Hope you and yours are well. I have been busy, but I try to catch up…
I tried to leve a comment and did not show. Any way..love the post..the lime bunt is delicious and your pictures are gorgeous…
Got both your comments, thank you! The lime bundt was delish, I must make it again, because it’s always eaten so quickly!
What a cute bundt pan! Wonder if there are any like that over here?
Manuela, they’re an American product, so I’m sure you could track one down! You could probably mail order one if you don’t find it in the shops…
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E31858A-475A-BAC0-522858249A0B137A&killnav=1
A mouthwatering post! And I’m still hankering after some of those beautiful chillies :)
Thanks Claire! We’ve been having fun with the new machine! :) The bishops crown chillies are still going strong, even this late into autumn!
I am so glad you are cranking it up with your food processor – obviously with beautifully stunning delicious results too :D
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thank you! It’s been great fun! :)
Which one is the most beautiful I can’t decide… They are all so beautiful and sounds so delicious too. Thank you dear Celia, with my love, nia
Thanks Nia! :) xx
You sure are having fun using your new foodprocessor! Yeah for you & for us! ;) That cake with the icing & drizzles over the top looks just so beautiful, wonderful & must taste divinely! ;) Yum Yum Yum! And that rich chocolate cake looks just stunning! Really! ;)
Thanks Sophie! I really AM having a ball with it! :)
Hehe Celia, you are putting your food processor to good use – what a lot of goodies have come out of it. Made me laugh that you have Harissa on toast for breakfast – I use my chilli sauce for the same purpose. The hummus looks wonderfully smooth – I get a really lumpy consistency with my ancient old food processor and it’s just not the same.
Choc, I think to get really smooth hommus, you need to soak dried chick peas and then boil them up until they’re very soft – I never get a smooth result using tinned chick peas. I’m almost out of harissa, and I’ve been willing my chillies to ripen so I can make some more! :)
No, my food processor just isn’t up to it, even when cooking chick peas ourselves. It used to work a treat in my mother’s high powered liquidiser – never mind, one day! Hope your chillies get on and do their ripening.