La Reine de Saba or The Queen of Sheba is a beautiful chocolate cake. It is great for many occasions: morning and afternoon tea, accompaniment of a dessert cream, lunch box or parties birthday cake. I have also used it as a basis for a birthday cake (a crocodile chocolate cake).
You will find some versions of this cake which have almond meal instead of flour. It is also delicious, not as light though. I liked this one from the goodfood magasine.
Ingredients
- 150 g of white or caster sugar
- 100 g of plain flour
- 2/3 sachet of raising powder or 2/3 teaspoon if using it from the box
- 150 g of dark cooking chocolate (if you are using a 70% cocoa chocolate, decrease the chocolate quantity to 120 g, it would be too strong for children).
- 120 g of butter
- 4 egg yolks and 4 egg white beaten to snow.
Method
- Heat the oven to 180 °Celsius.
- Butter and flour a tin, or butter and line.
- Melt the butter and chocolate together.
- Mix in the sugar, then the egg yolks one at the time.
- Add the flour and raising powder together, being careful not to create any lumps.
- Fold in the egg whites (in snow) gently.
- Transfer to the baking tin and insert in the oven.
- Cook until dry in the center (20 to 30 min depending on ovens and thickness of the cake in the tin)
Shortbread cookies use the sweet short crust pastry as a base. After it is just a matter of having a few cookie cutters at home. Children can decorate them with coloured sugar balls, sultanas, nuts or fondant.
Ingredients:
- 250 g plain flour
- 125 g softened butter
- 125 g white sugar
- 1 egg
Method:
- In a large bowl, mix all ingredient together and form a ball. Over a few movements, knead it on the kitchen bench to ensure cohesion (20 seconds max). Rest for 15-20 minutes.
- Dust the kitchen bench with flour to prevent sticking. Place the dough on the kitchen bench. Dust the top similarly. Roll with the rolling-pin to 6 to 8 mm thick. Ensure the bottom is not stuck by lifting the pastry gently. Add more flour underneath of necessary.
- Using cookie cutters make the shapes and transfer them onto a baking sheet covered with baking paper.
- If the children want to decorate, use sultanas or pieces of nuts or sugar balls. Smarties work well too.
- Bake 10-15 minutes on 160 degrees Celsius until light blonde. Remove from the oven and slide the base on a cooling rack using the baking paper. Allow to cool.
This is pretty much as guilt free as chocolate cake go: no butter and pretty low sugar. What I like with this butter-free chocolate cake is that it is also much easier to digest than a traditional chocolate cake. Why? How? Simply by replacing the butter by very (like very) thinly grated zucchini (a.k.a. courgette). And if you are on a gluten-free diet, you could also replace the little flour in there by GF flour.
Before you start:
- You need a good quality cooking chocolate (in Australia, the 70% cocoa Nestle Plaistowe is suitable)
- The zucchini: 200 g of zucchini and no more (a bit less is fine). I have now done the cake a few times, trialing a few variations. The last one used 180 g of zucchini and was fine! However, if you add more (which I also did), the cake loses some of its moisture from a denser texture. Two hundred grammes zucchini is one average size piece of vegetable. You need to peel it and remove the ends. Then weight it. Grate it over a bowl and make sure to keep all the juice. I was asked the question: can you use the blender. I tried, it works, just a bit much more washing-up than the grater for little saving, your choice.
- The flour: the flour weight is only 50 g. If you go for a gluten-free option, you can either use cornflour but then you need to reduce it to 35 g as corn flour absorbs more moisture than wheat flour, or use one of the GL flour mix.
Ingredients:
- 4 eggs
- 200 g dark cooking chocolate
- 80 g caster sugar
- 200 g thinly grated zucchini (see note above)
- 50 g plain flour (see note above)
- 100 mL milk (of your choice)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Butter and flour well a 20 cm round cake tin.
- Break the chocolate in pieces and melt with half of the milk. You can either use the microwave on one minutes settings full power, repeat if not fully melted either with 30 second or another minutes (it depends on the power of your microwave). Once the chocolate is melted, stir until smooth and silky, add the remaining milk.
- In a clean bowl, separate the egg yolks from the whites. Beat the yolks with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the zucchini (juice included). Add the chocolate to the mix.
- Finally, mix in the flour.
- Beat the egg white to snow and carefully fold into the chocolate mix.
- Pour into the prepared tin. Place in the oven, reduce the heat to 160°C after 10 minutes. The cake should cook in 20-30 mn depending on ovens. Remove when the centre is no longer wobbly when gently pressed with a couple fingers. Allow to cool down in the tin for five minutes before transferring to the serving dish: turn over a metal rack and then over the serving dish.
Tip: if you have a child helping you tell them to mix in the flour and cocoa starting from the centre, always touching the bottom of the bowl , let them enlarge the circle as the centre gets darker. This technique will avoid lumps.
Tip: wondering what happens if you don’t reduce the oven? The cake will cook quicker and can lose a little moisture but not that much, it will still be quite moist.
And if you are wondering about the taste brought by the zucchini, I will tell that if people don’t know about it, they are unlikely to guess. Once you know, you will possibly note a taste a little more “earthy”, but, to be honest, nothing preventing the cake disappearing in minutes and for zucchini-advert kids to take a second or third helping!
This black and white cookies recipe is taken from the Williams-Sonoma Baking Book. It is a recipe my eight year old daughter decided to do on her own. As the recipe provides measurement in both the imperial american systems and universal metric system, there was a little confusion for her upfront on the different values. Once that was sorted out, she ended up doing the cookies pretty much on her own (I was downstairs working). With or without help from adults, this recipe is a great one to teach children some basic aspects of baking: making a shortcrust, measuring, diving, measuring, using egg yolk as a “glue”.
Makes about 40 cookies. Below is the recipe taken from Williams and Somona. The tips are my addition.
This type of cookie is made by forming dough into a log or rectangular block and chilling it thoroughly. You can also use different types of dough together (vanilla and chocolate, peanut butter and chocolate) to make patterned cookies. Cookies are then sliced off the log or block and baked. When slicing the dough, give the log or block a quarter turn after every half dozen or so slices to keep the cookies perfectly square or round.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (315 g)
- 1/2 cup sugar (125 g)
- Pinch of salt – Tip: remove if using salted butter
- 250 g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbs unsweetened Dutch cocoa powder
Tip: for the butter, you can use soft butter or half melted butter. When you rest the dough the first time, either leve it longer or use the freezer.
Method:
Tip: I am not using a food processor here as in the original recipe. I find that best learning is achieved by doing by hand and also the mixing is not really hard, so does not warrant the use of a food processor.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Then, add the butter, vanilla and egg yolks until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and eventually holds together. Divide the dough in half. Transfer one-half to a lightly floured work surface and knead in the cocoa until incorporated. If the dough is very soft, wrap in cell-wrap and place in the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Lightly dust the work surface and a rolling pin with flour. Roll out each dough half into a 8 by 21 centimetre about one centimetre thick. Trim the edges to even out.
Tip: instead of trimming the edges, you can use a dough scrapper to push and distribute the dough in a rectangle.
- Place each rectangle on a large baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 30 minutes (Tip: or 10 minutes if using the freezer). Meanwhile, in a small bowl, beat the whole egg until blended. Set aside.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Using a sharp knife, cut each rectangle into 4 strips about 2 cm wide (you should have 4 strips of each color). Arrange 2 chocolate strips and 2 plain strips in a checkerboard pattern, brushing the beaten egg between the strips and gently pressing them together. Repeat with the remaining dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and use a knife to square off the edges of each block. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 30 minutes or 10 minutes if using the freezer.
- Preheat an oven to 180°C. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line them with parchment paper. Remove the blocks from the refrigerator, unwrap and cut each crosswise into slices 6-8 mm thick. Place them 4 cm apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies feel firm when lightly pressed, about 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.
I made these gluten free porridge cookies (and the recipe) one day as I had enough of seeing left over porridge go to the compost bin.
Now, if you are coeliac, you may need to be careful, this recipe contains oats, which has a protein that can trigger an immune reaction (but not always).
Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 230 g of porridge with sultanas. If you need to cook the porridge, use 1 volume of oats for 2 volumes or water or a mix of water and milk (I prefer a mix).
- 100 g of white sugar
- 100 g of butter
- 1 tsp of raising powder
- 230 g of brown rice flour
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C
- Melt the butter and mix it with the leftover porridge to loosen a bit the mass.
- Add the sugar and the egg. Mix well.
- Then mix in the rice flour and raising powder.
- Place little mounts, about the size of a tablespoon on a lined baking sheet. Bake until light brown.
- Cool down on a wire rack.
Note: the dough is quite wet and sticky but not runny, it keeps its form when spooned on the tray. If your porridge is quite runny, you will need to increase the flour a little.
Making and eating pop cakes was an amazing experience for the children. Not only did they get to make the pop cakes and it tasted great, they also got to see them grow or “pop up” in the oven. They found that very exciting! And then they rushed to eat them!
Pop cake moulds are silicone moulds with bite size prints, the mould have a bottom part and a top part. My mould upper part is transparent, this is how they saw them rise.
I used for the base recipe a very simple cake recipe called a “quatre quarts” which you can translate as “four quarters”. 
The recipe has the same weight of eggs, flour, sugar and butter. To ensure they little shape filled up the whole space I did increase the quantity of baking powder a bit.
Once the pop cakes are ready, we dipped them in melted some white chocolate and shredded coconut (and 100&1000s).
Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- flour: the same weight as the eggs
- caster sugar: the same weight as the eggs
- butter: the same weight as the eggs
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 100 g white chocolate
- shredded coconut
- Toothpicks
Method:
- First weigt your eggs, this will be your reference for the flour, butter and sugar.
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Beat the sugar and eggs together with a whisk (or using an electric mixer) until pale and creamy.
- Then melt the butter and add it once cooled to the mix.
- Add the flour and raising powder and mix, being careful not to do lumps (best to swap the whisk for a wooden spoon and start mixing from the centre out expanding the size of the circle as you go).
- Spoon the mixture in each bottom print to the top.Place the lid and bake until ready about 15 minutesTip: the mould print with the holes is the top one (it allows for the steam to escape)
- Remove from the prints and allow to cool down on a cooling rack.
- Melt the white chocolate and place some shredded coconut in a bowl.
- Using a toothpick, pick a little cake ball, dip in the white chocolate then in the coconut. Enjoy!
Tip: if you have left over cake mix, make a couple of muffins with it! Perfect for the lunch box!
The sugar tarte, known in Belgium and northern France as “la tarte au sucre” is a tarte based on a yeasted dough, soft brown sugar and cream. It is very simple to make and you can get the kids involved all along.
Ingredients:
For the dough
- 200 g of plain flour
- 100 g of butter
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp of milk
- 1 tbsp of caster sugar
- 10 g of fresh yeast (or 4 of dry yeast)
- 1 pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
For the toping:
- 125 g of soft brown sugar
- 1 dL (100 mL) of cream
Method:
- In a large bowl, place the flour in the bowl and with a spoon, make a well (a hole in the middle of the flour in which you will place all the other ingredients).
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk.
- Add in the well, the yeast, butter, caster sugar, egg and salt.
- Mix until you obtain a nice dough.
- Transfer into a large bowl, cover with a clean tea-towel and allow to rise in a warm corner until almost double.
- Preheat the oven on 180°C.
- Butter and flour your tarte tin. Transfer the dough and using the palm of your hand, spread it gently making a little edge. in the centre spread the soft brown sugar, then randomly pour the cream.
- Bake until the edges are golden brown.
- Eat warm or cold (do not place in the fridge).
I use this hazelnut sponge cake for an afternoon tea of for the base of birthday cakes. I like the hazelnut addition which brings it a special flavour and is also slightly addictive. The recipe is extracted from Gourmet Traveller.
When you are about to make a sponge cake, you must make sure you follow these rules:
- Eggs must be at room temperature, allow half an hour out of the fridge before using (or it won’t fluff up enough)
- Follow the order exactly (I did once, by mistake, put the butter with the eggs and sugar, I can tell you it will not end up like a sponge cake)
- Use a very wide bowl and either a large metal spoon, large spatula or a very large whisk that you use as a large spatula when folding in the butter and then the flour.
- Use a tin 20 to 23 cm wide, no wider
If you want to make layers you can cut the cake in up to three layers or choose to bake several cakes of the same diameter.
Ingredients:
- 190 g of plain flour
- 50 g of hazelnut meal or hazelnuts
- 80 g of salted butter (you can use unsalted to)
- 8 eggs at room temperature
- 220 g of caster sugar
For the cream and berries filling and topping:
- 2 punnets of raspberries, 2 punnets of small strawberries, 2 punnets of blackberries and 1 punnet of blueberries
- 2 pots of 600 mL (or equivalent volume) of thickened cream
- 1/2 cup to a cup of icing sugar
Method:
- Heat up the oven to 160°C.
- Melt the butter and let to cool.
- Line the bottom of your tin and butter and flour the sides.
- If using whole hazelnuts, process them to fine meal and mix with the flour. Sift the flour and hazelnut meal (I use a fine mesh sieve and a whisk).
- For those with a food mixer, it is time to use it. If not, make sure to use your wider whisk. Place the eggs and sugar together and mix on full power until triple the size and foamy. With a food mixer, it will take about 8 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl, add the butter slowly and fold in then the flour in three batches.
- Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 25 minutes. When press lightly the top should spring back and the sides would slightly have pulled away from the sides of the tin.
- Turn over a wire rack, remove the tin and baking paper, cool completely before using.
Berry and cream filling & topping:
- Choose 1/2 cup of berries and add 1 teaspoon of icing sugar. Process in a small food processor to have a coulis
- Cut the cake in three layers with a bread knife
- Whip 600 mL of cream adding 1/4 cup icing sugar towards the end (this will fill one layer and half of the next)
- Place the lower layer of cake on the serving dish, use slightly more than half of the whipped cream making sure to not go over the edges. Place half of the coulis on top and using a fork, swirl it in the cream.
- Repeat with layer 2 (you will need to whip the second batch). Place the upper layer of the cake and the remaining of the whipped cream keeping it natural (don’t be tempted to flatten or tidy up the look) . Add berries on top randomly and generously.
Here are a few other birthday cakes made with the hazelnut sponge cake as a basis:
Walnut, Honey, Orange and Ricotta Muffins, or maybe in short the “back to school” muffin. Why? Because the flavours match the season of the first month back at school. These muffins are great for lunch boxes. They keep for a few days in an airtight container or you can freeze them.
This is one of my own recipes, fresh off the press by trying to marry the ice taste of ricotta with something that children will go for. I made another recipe that day, equally nice, the raspberry and ricotta muffin (CLICK HERE).
This is an easy recipe.
Makes 15.
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cup of ricotta
- 250 g of plain flour
- 2 tsp of raising powder
- 130 g of melted butter
- 200g of sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 very large tbsp. of honey
- Juices of 2 small oranges (1.5 if large ones)
- 1 cup of sultanas
- 2 cups of walnuts
Method:
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C
- Mix the ricotta, sugar and eggs until the mix is completely smooth (no ricotta lumps left)
- Add the honey and orange juice.
- Add the flour, raising powder, sultanas together, mix well. Then add the walnuts and mix.
- Using a large spoon, spoon mixture in muffin cases and bake until well golden.
Here is a raspberry and ricotta muffin recipe which is another great way to use excess ricotta, something different to making ricotta pancakes (which is really good too!). I made up another ricotta muffin recipe the same day, they are pretty good too: Walnut, honey, orange and ricotta muffins (CLICK HERE).
Makes 15
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cup of ricotta
- 250 g of plain flour
- 2 tsp of raising powder
- 130 g of melted butter
- 200 g of white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 cups of frozen raspberries (do not thaw them)
- Some coarse granular sugar for the top
Method:
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C
- Mix the ricotta, milk, sugar and eggs until the mix is completely smooth (no ricotta lumps left)
- Add the flour and raising powder, mix well
- Add the raspberries gently.
- Using a large spoon, spoon mixture in muffin cases. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake until well golden.
A gluten free hazelnut chocolate friand? A friand? To hard? Not at all! This one (at least) is super easy, believe me. And even better mega delicious. This recipe is derived from a recipe by Donna Hay.
It has both chocolate (chopped) and cocoa, as a result it is really indulgent on the chocolate.
Tip: if you don’t have GF flour at home, use brown rice flour or if you are not coeliac or gluten intolerant, use plain flour.
Tip: if you don’t have friands moulds, ou can use a small muffin tray.
Makes 12 friands
Ingredients
- dry ingredients:
- 1 cup hazelnut meal
- 1 2/3 cup of icing sugar
- half a cup GF flour
- half a cup cocoa
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 200 g dark cooking chocolate chopped
- wet ingredients:
and 2 tablespoons of chopped hazelnut.
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
- In a bowl place all the dry ingredients together, mix.
- Add the wet ingredients i.e. the butter, eggwhites. Mix to combine.
- Butter and flour a print mould (except if using silicone ones).
- Fill each print with one large spoon of the mix
- Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through. Cool in the pan until about cold.
Enjoy!
This quick orange cake is a loaf cake. And an easy and quick one as its name implies.
All you need for ingredient is a lonely orange and the cake core ingredients plus a good food processor. No butter here, it is replaced by oil, which makes the cake quite light. Everything goes into the food processor (or pretty much, the flour is added after in a bog bowl), whizzzz, and this is it!
The recipe is from the Australian Country Women Association. In this version I have added three generous handfuls of walnuts.
Ingredients
- 1 orange cut in quarters, skin and all kept (feel free to remove the pips)
- 1 1/4 cup of oil (sunflower for e.g.)
- 1.5 cup of caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups of self raising flour
- Here in the version pictured I have added three handfuls of walnuts roughly broken up (by hand)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and butter and flour a loaf tin
- Cut the orange in quarters, place in the food processor with the eggs, sugar, oil and mix until blended (don’t worry if there are tiny bits of oranges here and there, this will be lovely)
- If you food processor is large enough add the flour and walnuts (if adding) and mix, otherwise transfer to a bowl and mix in the flour.
- Place in the prepared loaf tin and bake for about 45 minutes or until cooked.
