Readers, I'm sorry! Blogging again seems to have taken a bit of backseat
these last few weeks. I’ve just about managed to find some time to bake but
blogging, well that’s another story!
We did a bake sale for Macmillan earlier in the week,
raising over £200 for the charity so at
least the cake eating is for a good cause!
Yesterday my Godmother came over for lunch and I was
challenged to produce an entirely gluten free meal for her visit as she’s
coeliac. I was conscious of not making
two of everything so did a teriyaki salmon dish with rice noodles for main and
then these oh-so-cute lemon cake bars for dessert. Everyone said you couldn’t even tell they
were a gluten free substitution.
Oxo UK
very kindly sent me a batter bowl and baker’s dusting wand for review and I
thoroughly enjoyed using them in this bake.
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Image Source: oxouk.com |
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Image source: oxouk.com |
Oxo have over 200 kitchen items available in the range and
the items are designed not to hurt your
hands and be accessible to all. Genius! Spending a fair bit of time in the kitchen –
this is something I really appreciate.
Their marketing must work: having been a Oxo virgin until last week – I
bought an ice cream scoop in Sainsbury’s on Friday after saying “ooh look, it’s
an Oxo product!”
Their universal designs are perfect for lefties like
me. Oxo was founded on the principals of designing
products which work for as many people as possible. Something I really
like. Why should arthritis stop you from
having fun in the kitchen?!
I do have a big ceramic baking bowl which I use for cakes,
but I was pleasantly surprised by the batter bowl. It’s lightweight, so easy to work with, has
an easy grip handle which is great when you have a hand mixer in the other hand
and it also sits on the worktop without moving, even when you have the hand
mixer going at full pelt!
The bowl is a decent size and the high sides are great to
ensure you don’t splatter cake batter halfway across the kitchen. I made the cake bars in an 8in x 8in tin and
there was no sign of hitting the top of the batter bowl with the mix.
The mix also came away from the sides of the batter bowl
evenly and with the help of my trusty spatula was transferred to the cake pan
with ease.
I’m absolutely certain this will become a staple in the
kitchen going forward and at £13.00 is a worthwhile investment for any cook or
baker. It’s available online directly
from Oxo.
The second piece of kit I received was a baker’s dusting
wand which I used to finish my cake before serving. I forgot to take an action shot, but you’ll
see from the finished article it evenly distributed the icing sugar as a
decoration on the black plates.
I never even knew such a thing existed before last week but
now I can’t wait to use my baker’s dusting wand even more. I enjoy making bread and pasta and can see
this coming in so handy when flouring my board or my pasta dough as I need
it. Expect further reference to my
“magic wand” in future. No jokes please!
And I promise to show some action shots next time!
But for now, here’s the finished article...
Gluten Free Lemon Cake Bars
Ingredients
makes 5 finished desserts
Cake
125g gluten free self raising flour
2 large eggs
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
125g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter
Filling/Topping
250g icing sugar
75g butter (softened)
Few drops of Sicilian Lemon flavouring
30g cream cheese
Method.
1. Preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan/Gas 5.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, with a teaspoon of flour as
you go to prevent curdling.
Mix the eggs as you go to incorporate into the mix.
4. Grate in the zest of 1 lemon and mix to combine.
5. Pour in the juice of 1 lemon and mix to combine.
6. Sift in the flour and mix to combine to form your cake
batter.
7. Transfer the batter into a prepared (buttered) 8in x 8in square
silicone baking pan. Smooth out the top
to form an even cake.
8. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until golden and a
skewer inserted comes out clean.
9. Now the science
bit. Switch off the oven and open the
door slightly. Leave the cake in the oven
for now. After a couple of minutes, open
the door fully. Then, pull the oven
shelf forward several minutes later and cool half in half out of the oven for a
few moments. Then remove from the oven
and cool on a rack, in the tin for a few moments. Once the cake has firmed up, you can transfer
it to the cooling rack.
10. When cool, slice
the cake into 10 equally sized pieces.
11. Prep your topping and filling by creating a buttercream
with the butter and icing sugar. Then,
stir in the cream cheese at the end and a few drops of lemon flavouring. Top tip – grate the butter or let it sit for
a while. It makes your life much easier when making the buttercream!
12. Sandwich
together two equally sized slices with the filling, then decorate the top of
each cake with some more of your frosting mix.
Finish each with a little
decoration.
13. Serve immediately with a scoop of lemon sorbet and dust
each plate with a little icing sugar using your baker’s dusting wand.
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Disclaimer: I received the kitchenware from Oxo to review
and bake with. Any opinions expressed
are my own.
Lovely looking cake bars, Claire. I've now used my 'wand' with icing sugar and also cocoa powder, it's a nifty little gadget and does the job much better than the tea strainer I used to use! Love Oxo products, so well designed.
ReplyDeleteI'm very much new to Oxo but have been 4 really impressed by the gadgets so far. The wand is such a simple but smart invention!
DeleteRandom 4 there sorry!
ReplyDelete