MINI MARMALADE BUNDT CAKES WITH CHOCOLATE GLAZE 

I don't think I am alone in my affinity for ring-shaped foods: Doughnuts (who can resist them?); Polo Mints (I believe they're the British version of the American candy, Lifesavers); streusel-topped coffee cakes (usually made in a plain or fluted ring pan); pineapple rings (so pretty); the Indian savoury "bangle" called ulunthu vadai, made with black gram; another South Indian sweet snack called athirasam – my favourite, which is made with raw rice and jaggery; and cheese-flavoured snack Cheezels.

Food with holes simply say fun to me, but some can look elegant too. Bundt cakes, for example, need no creamy topping to look classy. It's all down to the mould that is used. Some have elaborate designs but even the ordinary fluted ones add interest to cakes.

I thank whoever thought of shrinking bundt cake tins into mini ones. They produce delightful looking cakes that can beat the pants off cupcakes anytime! My pan is actually for 12 little cakes but I didn't want so many and made just six quarter-cup servings. 

The recipe I've provided here is in no way original – many cooking sites/blogs have something similar for marmalade cake. I simply used the baker's percentage of equal amounts by weight of flour, butter and eggs, but made adjustments with the sugar since I was adding marmalade to the cake mix.

I admit the chocolate glaze was an afterthought. The cakes looked a little pale with just a sugar glaze and I thought they needed some extra dressing. Well, chocolate and orange go well together but all I had was Nutella so that is what's on top of the mini cakes. An inspired choice if I do say so myself.

Chocolate and orange go well together

Mini Marmalade Bundt Cakes with Chocolate Glaze

Makes 6 (¼ cup) cakes

60g cake flour

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp table salt

60g unsalted butter, softened

40g caster sugar

1 medium egg

60g marmalade (store-bought or homemade)

½ tsp vanilla extract

60g icing sugar, sifted

1-1½ tbsp milk

3 tbsp Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease 6 mini bundt moulds well. 

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.

Cream butter and sugar together until pale and light. 

Add egg and beat until well combined. 

Beat in the marmalade and vanilla extract.

Fold in the flour mixture.

Spoon batter into the bundt pan. Each mould will be about ¾ full. Bake until golden and springy, 18-22 minutes. The cakes should just be coming away from the sides of the moulds.

Remove from the oven and leave bundt cakes in the pan for 5 minutes before removing and cooling completely on a wire rack. 

Stir milk a little at a time into icing sugar. Use just enough to get a thick and smooth but pourable glaze. Mix Nutella with a few drops of hot water so that it is pourable. Drizzle the mini bundt cakes with sugar glaze and then with the Nutella glaze. Fish out a strip or two of orange rind from the marmalade, snip into pieces and garnish the top of the mini cakes.

Recipes using cooking kits

Prawn and Fennel Tagine

Lime Madeleines

Handmade Ravioli

SPICED TEMPEH AND CARAMELISED PINEAPPLE SANDWICH 

Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!

I am so glad for this challenge. I have tried making the Dutch Crunch topping several times since I first enjoyed the bread last October when I was visiting my sister in California, but it's never come out right. I used recipes I found online, but it was only after reading the discussion on The Daring Bakers' forum that I found out the paste I was making all along was too runny. Thank you DBs! 

My heart goes out to all the Daring Bakers who found it difficult to find rice flour and had to make their own. Even then they did a wonderful job. See how they fared in the slideshow at The Daring Kitchen.

First batch (burnt) and second batch (pale)

Living in Malaysia, I didn't have that problem, but there were others. I left my first batch too long in the oven and it burnt. The second batch was a little pale and although my Dutch Crunch topping wasn't as vivid as I would have liked -- no tiger stripes or leopard spots or giraffe blotches :-( -- the crunch was certainly there. It tops off the soft and fluffy bread very well. I used some of the dough from the Hunger Games-inspired "fish bread”, which I posted on yesterday.

I had read somewhere that sesame oil is sometimes included in the mixture for the Dutch Crunch topping, so I added a few drops. The flavour was not intense, but I thought the aroma was rather nice.

My sandwich was made with tempeh, which I marinated overnight in a mixture comprising nine ingredients, not including salt and pepper. I can't say how much of each I put into the marinade because I simply adjusted the taste as I went along, and they are really random ingredients, but I liked how it all turned out. I started with hoisin sauce. Then there was ginger paste, soya sauce, chillies in adobo sauce, chilli oil, Indonesian kecap manis, palm sugar, jalapeño sauce, and finally honey. The marinade went on rather thick, but the next day, most of it must have been absorbed into the tempeh because there was only a thin layer of it left on the slices. The tempeh was then pan-fried, and layered in the Dutch Crunch rolls with Japanese sandwich spread, lettuce and a caramelised pineapple ring. 

What to top the spiced tempeh with but more chilli! 

The condiment was more chilli of course: jalapeño sauce and Sriracha chilli sauce with a little mayo. One can never have too much chilli. 

FISHING EXPEDITION: SALTY SEAWEED PANEM FROM HUNGER GAMES 

In my job on the newspaper I work for, I sometimes source for stories on our newswire services. Today, we ran a story from San Jose Mercury News which featured recipes from readers who were asked to deconstruct signature dishes from the movie Hunger Games (based on Suzanne Collins' novel), which was released a few days ago. (Get the story and recipes for all the winning dishes at MercuryNews.com.)

I haven't read the book or watched the film, but I thought the recipes were quite interesting, especially since they featured several for breads.

I made the District 4's Salty Seaweed Panem. What's unusual about this bread, besides the fish shape, is that it is green from food dye and there's the inclusion of nori (dried seaweed). I only made one piece of dough green just to see what it would look like. Other than fruit and vegetables, I don't think I want any of my other food to be that colour. But it actually turned out okay since I didn't knead in the colouring completely, and the mottled look was quite appealing. Matcha (green tea) powder would be a good alternative to the artificial stuff. I was apprehensive about how the nori would taste, but I could hardly taste it in the baked loaf. The green specks are pretty though.

Fishy tails

I shaped the bread based on the instructions provided in that recipe, but also made fish shapes from the other District 4 bread recipe that's featured. I think I'll do this again for the little nephews and nieces when we have our Easter Sunday lunch. They are going to find the bread quite amusing.

Some 'unusual' recipes

Harry Eastwood's Heartache Chocolate Cake

Spiced Zebra Cake

Beetroot Bread