An evening which didn’t quite go as planned, but there is still cake to eat.
This is a slight twist on the cherry and almond cake which I made for my friend Cheryl even though I didn’t know when her birthday was. I do know now because I did the sensible thing and asked her. And she told me.
Junior 3 is out tonight (children! they even stay out on weekdays). Thinking that I had evening alone with Mr Gochugaru, we just had re-heated leftovers of last night’s dinner plus a super fat Cornish pasty from the Ginger Pig. The idea was to spend the evening going through our Korean vocabulary. The grammar rules are quite manageable but the lack of vocabulary lets us down each time we want to make sentences. It’s not that we don’t have lists, it’s just that we don’t have the capacity for memorising words that we used to have.
The evening plans were interrupted by a request from Junior 2 to help shift her stuff from her university accommodation back home, now that her term (and indeed her university days) have come to an end. So off he flies, Mr Gochugaru in his turbo-charged car…
어떻게 ? as they say in Korean…What to do? Or what I am actually thinking: what am I going to do because learning vocabulary alone is not much fun.
Cake is always the answer. It is raining outside and we need something to look forward to at the end of unpacking a loaded, and I really mean loaded, car. If we are lucky we will still have an hour before the end of the night to look through some words.
I used my Thermomix to make the cake batter in super quick time. I think that having a machine that has an integrated weighing scale makes everything so much easier and it took just 30 seconds to whisk all the ingredients together.
For the Cake:
Glacé cherries (3 – 6 whole or halved cherries per mini bundt)
175 g unsalted butter, softened
125 g golden caster sugar
125 g self-raising flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
50 g desiccated coconut, soaked in 5 tablespoons of hot water
You will also need a six-hole mini bundt tin. I used my Thermomix, and the recipe using an electric mixer is at the end of the post.
How to Make using a Thermomix:
Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 350ºF/ Gas 4. Grease the mini bundt tin.
Halve the cherries or use whole ones: either way all you need to do is to place them at the bottom of the tin.
Place the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs and vanilla extract in the Thermomix bowl.
Beat for 10 seconds/ speed 5.
Scrape down the sides.
Beat for another 10 seconds/ speed 5.
Scrape down the sides, then add the coconut.
Beat for a final 10 seconds/ REVERSE speed 5.
Using a spatula, scrape the cake batter into a piping bag. Pipe the batter, dividing equally, into each mini bundt mould.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the cakes bounce back when touched. A metal skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
How to Make using an Electric Mixer:
Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 350ºF/ Gas 4. Grease the mini bundt tin.
Halve the cherries or use whole ones: either way all you need to do is to place them at the bottom of the tin.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until the mixture becomes pale in colour and lighter in texture.
Sieve in the flour and baking powder, then add in the desiccated coconut, eggs and vanilla extract.
Continue beating on a medium speed until everything is incorporated.
Using a spatula, scrape the cake batter into a piping bag. Pipe the batter, dividing equally, into each mini bundt mould.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the cakes bounce back when touched. A metal skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
I realise I need to finish the Boston Posts so will aim to write one up this weekend. Korean classes being on Saturday, every evening from Wednesday onward is kind of study night. Somehow we can’t get rid of this fear of facing a teacher, much in the same way as you can’t get rid of the smell of kimchee hanging in the air of traditional Korean restaurants. But we love kimchee and we love studying so we are just going to persevere.