Mission: Find the Perfect Brownie

I have been dreaming of a brownie, a dense, chocolaty, fudgy, maybe a little cakey, thick, yummy brownie. I have to confess that I have a favourite and go to recipe for almost every dessert or cake but I don’t have one for the humble brownie.

Don’t get me wrong I have made some pretty tasty, delicious brownies but I am yet to find the one that I can give my whole heart to.  And so I have embarked on a mission to find that brownie that can fill this gaping hole and I’m going to chronicle this little mission. Let the brownie games begin!

Attempt no. 1: I found a well recommended recipe on Pinterest (No Pics…) and it did prove to be chocolaty and fudgy and richly delicious. It just wasn’t what I’m looking for.

Attempt no. 2: I found this recipe through the Brown Eyed Baker website, in fact there are a few recipes on there. Again this made amazing rich, fudgy, chocolaty  pieces of brownie heaven and everyone was pretty happy. Needless to say these didn’t last very long, they were pretty much wiped out as a testament to the tastiness.

These were epic, delicious and like a warm chocolaty hug, however still not the brownie I’m looking for. The top was cracked and inviting and the brownie itself was thick, fudge richness. I used this French Chocolate Brownie recipe and I would definately recommend it to anyone! In fact it will probably make an appearance here soon!

So if anyone out there has a great brownie recipe for me to try leave a comment. Also I want to add that going on a mission to find the perfect brownie is a great idea, even if I don’t find what I’m looking for I still get delicious brownies to console me.

 

 

Lemon Blueberry Cake

January and February is a month of birthdays, anniversaries and other general celebrations. This mean’s one thing, festive cake is pretty much in order every week for atleast the first two months of the year. It’s definately one way to start every year!

For my Husbands birthday this year I made him a scrumptious lemon and blueberry cake with lemon cream cheesed frosting. Blueberries are really only becoming popular in South Africa recently and they are really expensive. It is really hard to resist using all the colorful berries when they’re in season but the price is a huge turn off. A birthday however is a perfect excuse to go all out on fresh berries.

This cake is really moist and tasty, the lemon flavour isn’t overwhelming but gives the cake a great citrus flavour and the general rule is the more berries the better!

The flavour combination of lemon and blueberry is timeless and can we all agree that cream cheese frosting is the future of everything.

All I can say is that this cake is definately worth the time, it’s light and refreshing. On a totally seperate side note, holding off on eating dessert and cakes in order to take pics for the blog is way harder than you’d think.

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Recipe: Lemon Blueberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

For the Cake:
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon pure lemon juice

2 cups fresh blueberries

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
250g cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
3 cups icing sugar

For Filling between layers:
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180C and make sure th erack is centred. Butter two 9 x 2 inch/ 23 x 5cm round cake pans and make sure to line the bottom of each pan with a round of greased baking or wax paper.
2. For the Cake:

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk together the buttermilk and egg whites in a seperate bowl.

Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub the lemon zest into the sugar until it releases a citrus scent and the sugar is moist.  Add butter to the sugar and lemon mix and then using a hand mixer or paddle attachment, beat until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the lemon juice.

Combine all ingredients: add one third of the flour mixture into the butter and sugar mixture whilst still beating on medium speed. Then add half of the milk-egg mixture, Continue this process untill all the remaining ingredients have been incorporated. The batter should be smooth and creamy. Give the batter a final mix to ensure that it is mixed well. Add the two cups of blueberries and gently fold into the mixed batter with a spatula. Divide the batter between the greased pans and tap the pans on a surface so the batter levels out.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cakes have risen and a knife comes out clean.

Place the cakes on cooling racks and cool for about 10 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, and remove cakes from tins, peel off baking or parchment paper. Allow cakes to cool completely before frosting

3. Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a mixing bowl combine cream cheese, butter and lemon zest. Beat on medium until creamy, light and fluffy. Gradually add 3 cups sifted icing sugar. Mix until frosting is light and creamy.

4. Assembling the cake:

Using a large serrated knife cut the slight domes off the top of each cake round. A great alternate option at this point would be to split each cake round in half and make a 4 layer cake, I however went with two substantial cake layers. Seperate, 3/4 cup of cream cheese frosting into a small bowl. Warm raspberry jam for 30 sec in a microwave until warm but not hot. Mix the warm jam into the 3/4 cup of cream cheese. Use this mixture as the filling between layers of the cake. Place bottom layer of cake onto a plate and then scoop the filling mix onto the top of the cake spread until even. Place second cake round on top. Ensure cake is level on top. Then spread or frost the cake using the cream cheese frosting. Decorate cake with leftover blueberries (that you haven’t eaten whilst baking…)

Quick Classic Scones Recipe

I had a happy “kuier” (visit) with some good friends yesterday, and even though I knew they were coming I didn’t think to make something yummy until they got here.

It’s for that reason and those moments when you’re caught by surprise that classic scones are the perfect rescue! They’re delicious, quick and generally all the ingredients you need should be at hand so with minimal effort you have tasty treats.

There are numerous recipes for scones available and I love making different variations of the original such as lemon-blueberry or chocolate chip but as mentioned this is the quickest surest thing! There are numerous variations of the traditional scone recipe and I have tried a few, the recipe that I use is a combination of a few attempts and various recipes.

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Recipe: Quick Classic Scones

Prep: 10 min           Cook: 15 min

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cup self-raising flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup butter, cut into cubes
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon juice

To Serve:

• Butter
• Jam
• Whipped Cream
• Grated Cheese

Method:

1. Heat oven to 180C/200C. Mix flour with salt, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl. Using a grater, grate butter into mixture. Using your hands mix the butter into the flour mixture until it’s crumbly.
2. Put the milk into a cup and add vanilla and lemon juice.  Make a well in the middle of the flour mix and combine the liquid using a fork. The mix will initially be a little sticky.
3. Scatter additional  flour into the bowl and fold the dough over a few times until the dough forms a smooth pliable shape. Scatter some more flour on teh work surface and tip the dough onto the work surface. Pat it into a circular shape roughly 1 inch thick and using a round cutter (5cm diameter) cut circular shaped scones.
4. Reshape the remaining dough and repeat the process until you have between 6 or 8 scones and you’ve used all the dough. Brush the tops with beaten egg, then place onto the baking tray.
5. Bake for 15 mins until risen and golden on the top.

Devour!! You can have these fresh out of the oven with an assortment of condiments as above or whipped cream with a splash of honey which is my current favorite . Or you can save it for later…which is unlikely.

Here’s to First’s!

Here goes nothing!!

My first Life.Lights.Love blog post and probably my last one for the year of 2014!

It is that time of the year when people start listing all the things they want to change and do in the new year…ok it’s time for resolution’s. I personally am not keen on resolutions and to my memory I can’t recall actively making any. However, since I just started this blog and a new company, my “plans” feel very much like resolutions.

So instead of making resolution’s for 2015, I’m just going to write about some of the thing’s I’d like to include on the blog in the coming months:)…not resolutions…plans!

• Johannesburg, South Africa. As a resident of this golden city I really want to spend time re-discovering this city. So expect new restaurants, bar’s, parks, markets, events and as many reviews as I can manage.
• Travel – I have a small wanderlust problem and this blog give’s me an opportunity to report on my adventures in travel both locally and internationally.
• Cooking/Baking – Ok baking is my first love and not only do I love to bake I love to eat decadent baked good’s. I’ll share all my sweet and savoury escapades in the kitchen.
• Home DIY – I am a firm lover of re-purposed and salvaged furniture and homeware. I love trolling goodwill store’s and online for treasure’s. I use a lot of the DIY blogs as a guide, but I have found a lack of information locally. Thus, I thought I’d share my projects as it may help someone else.
• Finally; any experiences and challenges that do not fall under the above categories yet are share-worthy, such as new books, my escapades with Mokopu or different fitness challenges should make an appearance :).

As a newbie, I really do appreciate any comments, suggestions or follows.

Here comes 2015!! I hope this New Year brings fresh starts,  happiness, love and relentless joy!!