Sunday cake: Halva and tahini cake.

Managed to find my old recipe book from 6 years ago.

 

To celebrate finding it and mothering Sunday made some buttermilk pancake. This absolutely my favourite pancake recipe in the world. They come out incredibly soft and fluffy. The  recipe from 2011 which seems I think it vaguely from Martha stewart. Love seeing my notes on there.

Really excited to have it back, so expect loads of baking recipes like clafouti, madeleines, biscottis and finiaciers soon.

 

 

Anyways, on a bit of bread break/rut. I have ordered some bread proofing basket so hopefully I will be back on my sourdough bread baking groove soon. In the mean time I have been doing some sunday cake baking, and found this wonderful tahini chocolate cake with halva frosting. I have modified slightly because it is a bit of a weird recipe. Well for me at least, never made sponge cake or frosting. The boiling water thing is quite weird but all in all it turned out quite well.

Ingredients:

• Cake:
  • 2 cups and 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 3/4 cup flour
  • 3/4 and 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or coconut oil
  • 6 tablespoons tahini
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup boiling water

• Forsting:
  • 400 grams butter at room temperature
  • 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 500 grams halva (of any flavor)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 185ºC
2. In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients: sugar+ flour+cocoa powder+baking powder+baking soda+salt.
3. In a small bowl whisk all the wet ingredients: eggs+vegetable oil+tahini+vanilla.
4. Mix the wet and dry ingredient in the large bowl while the water is boiling.
5. Pour the boiling water in the cake mixture. Mix well and divide the mixture evenly into 2 cake tins.
6. Bake for 30min or until cooked (when you stick a toothpick and it come out clean)
7. leave the cake to cool
8. Meanwhile for the frosting: cream the butter + sugar and then mix in the  halva+vanilla.
9. when the cakes has completely cooled, frost the top of one of the cake and add the the second on top. Then frost the cake completely. I toped it off with dried rose petal and sesame seeds.

Tadah! my frosting skills need a little work. Little side note, left over frosting can be saved in an airtight container in the fridge for about 4 days or 3 months in the freezer. Enjoy.

Tahini Bread

Just grabbed got some tahini and nigella seeds from the middle eastern store. Tahini is basically sesame butter. It is wonderful and is used from humus to halva. Ottolenghi has also few other suggestion such as cauliflower salad and burnt brussel sprouts with tahini.

Ingredients

• 770 grams  flour
• 515 grams water
• 240 grams starter
• 15 grams salt
• 50 grams tahini
• optional :
  • crushed caraway seeds
  • nigella seeds

1. mix the water and flour slowly until just incorporated – Autolyse for 30 min
   

   

   
2. Add starter +salt+ tahini+ crushed caraway seeds
3. 1st rise – oil the bowl, I used sesame oil to continue with the theme. Let it rise for 4 hours.
4. Folding and proofing – I would recommend dividing the dough in two (foolishly I did not). Let it proof for about 2 hours in a warm room (±25C). Much Longer if you have a cold kitchen like mine.
5. Right before putting it into the oven I added the nigella and sesame seeds on the top. 
6. Slash the top and Bake at 220C for about 40mins or when the internal temperature is 90C.

Taste test:

The tahini adds this sweet delicate nuttiness that is subtle. It’s really quite wonderful. I really like with a bit of olive oil.