Happy Nurses Day!

International Nurses Day is a worldwide celebration to recognize the contribution of nurses in our everyday life. Coinciding with the birthday of Florence Nightingale, Nurses Day bring to light the work of these unsung heroes and their role in the funtioning of medical sevices round the clock. The theme for 2013 is Closing The Gap: Millennium Development Goals where nurses will be called upon to participate in the challenge of improving social and economic conditions in the world’s poorest countries. Especially relevant to them will be Goals 4, 5 and 6 which relate to reducing child mortality rates, improving maternal health and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases in that order.

I have been lucky to have had the support of a wonderful nursing team throughout my professional career. Special mention for the great team at JNH whom I miss lots, especially surgical, OT and casualty staff. And to all the girls from pediatrics/nursery/NICU at ABH: Working together has been so much fun, thank you for making it so special. Happy Nurses Day to all of you!

YOGURT & OLIVE OIL CAKE

Ingredients:

4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp table salt

2 1/2 cups sugar

6 eggs, separated

1 1/3 cups olive oil

1 1/3 cups plain yogurt

1 tbs vanilla extract

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 oF/ 180oC. Grease and dust a large 8-inch/ 24cm fluted cake pan with flour.
• Whip egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Add 2/3 cups sugar and beat until stiff. Set aside.

• In another bowl, combine egg yolks, oil, vanilla, yogurt and the remaining sugar until it forms a homogenous mixture.
• Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Add egg yolk mixture.

• Beat well until no streaks of flour remain. Add a third of the whipped egg whites to lighten the mixture.
• Carefully fold in the remaining egg whites into the mixture with a large metal spoon until uniform.

• Spoon mixture into prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake in preheated oven for about 1 hour till golden.
• Cool in pan for 15 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle with icing as desired.

Happy Nurses Day!

Carrot Cake – How It Should Be!

It was the perfect lazy day, sleeping early and getting up late with no definite plans of what to do next. Baking was somewhere at the back of my mind but I could not exactly picture the cake I wanted. After much deliberation, it was the plain old carrot cake that outshone all others. Easy and relatively ‘healthy’, the carrot cake gets its moist and flavourful texture from the amount of freshly grated carrots that go in its making. The few changes I made to this classic were to use pecan nuts instead of walnuts and to frost the cake with whipped cream since I’m not crazy about cream cheese. After the not-so-awesome carrot cakes I sampled from different bakeries, I’m glad I made my own.

CARROT CAKE

Ingredients:

1 cup vegetable oil

1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

3 cups coarsely grated carrot

1 cup coarsely chopped nuts

2 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp mixed spice

100g raisins, soaked

1/2 cup icing sugar

2 tsp butter, softened

1 cup whipped cream

1/2 cup finely chopped nuts

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease a deep 22cm round cake pan and line with baking paper.

• Beat oil, sugar and eggs in a small bowl with electric mixer until thick and creamy.

• Transfer mixture to a large bowl, stir in carrots, nuts and raisins. Sift over dry ingredients.

• Fold in until no traces of flour remain. Pour batter into prepared pan and level surface.

• Bake for 1 1/4 hours until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

• Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.

• Knead butter with icing sugar to form a soft paste. Tint with orange and green food colouring and shape as carrots.

• Cover cake with whipped cream. Cover sides with chopped nuts and decorate with carrot shapes. Makes 12 pieces.

Carrot in a Cake?

Key Lime Coconut Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday to Me!

This year my birthday was quite ‘grandiose’ with no less than 4 birthday cakes – a carrot cake from my staff in pediatrics, a vanilla genoise for all ABH April babies and the rest from my own kitchen. I baked my standard Bundt Pound Cake along with a small Tarte au Chocolat and dozens of Cowboy Cookies to bring to work. And my last cake cutting event was at 8pm with the family at home. Since I had no one to impress, I selected the Best Ever Sponge Cake from Australian Women’s Weekly and dressed it with loads of toasted coconut flakes [you might have noticed that I'm having something of a coconut addiction lately!] along with the refreshing flavour of key lime. To be honest, I think it was by far the best cake out of my 4 birthday treats!

KEY LIME COCONUT CAKE

Ingredients:

1 cup [150g] all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbs cornflour

4 eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup [165g] caster sugar

1/3 cup hot water

1 tsp unsalted butter

1 cup whipped cream

1 cup coconut flakes

Zest of 2 key limes

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F with rack on lower shelf. Butter and line the base of two 9-inch round sandwich pans.

• Beat eggs in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer for about 10 minutes until thick and creamy.

• Gradually add sugar, beating until dissolved between additions. Triple sift flour, baking powder and cornflour.

• Fold flour, half of lime zest and coconut flakes into egg mixture with a metal spoon. Melt butter in hot water.

• Pour the butter mixture down the side of the mixing bowl and fold into the mixture without deflating batter.

• Divide mixture between prepared pans, smooth tops and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden coloured.

• Immediately turn out  of pans and wrap each in a large towel or cloth. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

• When cakes have cooled to room temperature, sandwich them with a generous amount of whipped cream.

• Cover top and sides with more cream and sprinkle with extra coconut and lime zest. Makes 12 pieces.