I just love spring! Flowers blooming, birdsongs greeting you every day, green leaves shooting out to embrace the wonderful sun rays…
This is when I start thinking of having picnics… or afternoon teas on the balcony.
Apart from the usual picnic items like sandwiches and salads… Have you thought of pairing them with yummy cakes? Have you also thought of making sure these cakes are more sun-resistant? i.e. won’t leave messy cream everywhere
AND, as some of us girls are more conscious of our waistline since bikini season is nearing, why not ALSO make sure that these cakes are kind to our waist?
If you know me by now, I always believe eating well does not mean keeping yourself away from treats. Since I have put in some thought (or, more accurately, a lot of thought) into the important points above, I would like to share my sun-resistant, healthy cake ideas with you!
#1 Fruity and Nutty Brownies
I’m a great fan of prunes. Be they fresh, sun-dried or mixed with yogurt, this highly nutritious, rich in vitamin K fruit is a great ingredient to mix into cakes too! Here’s a favourite brownie recipe that I guarantee will win you over!
Ingredients (serves 12):
- a small cube of melted butter (for greasing)
- 60g of unsweetened stoned dates, chopped (or dried apricots if you can’t find dates)
- 60g of dried prunes, chopped
- 8 tbsp of unsweetened apple juice
- 4 medium eggs, beaten,
- 250g of dark muscovado sugar (or dark brown sugar although this will change the taste)
- 5 TS of drinking chocolate powder (unsweetened) + extra for dusting
- 2 TS of cocoa powder
- 175g of plain flour
- 60g of walnuts, roughly chopped
- 60g of chocolate chips
Steps:
- Preheat your oven to 180ºC.
- Grease and line a large square baking tin with baking paper.
- In a small saucepan, add in the chopped dates, prunes, and apple juice, and bring to boil. Once the ingredients start boiling, cover the saucepan, turn down the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes while stirring occasionally.
- After 10 minutes, stir vigorously to make it into a smooth purée then let it cool.
- Once cooled, add this purée into a large mixing bowl then mix in the beaten eggs and sugar.
- Sift in the chocolate powder, cocoa powder and flour. Beat all the ingredients together to have them mix evenly.
- Then fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Spoon the mixture into your baking tin and smooth over the top.
- Bake it for 35-45 minutes or until you test it with a skewer that is inserted in the centre and comes out clean!
- Allow it to cool on a rack before cutting the brownie up into bite-sized bars.
Tip: For better flavour, bake this brownie a day before eating. Make sure you keep it in an air-tight container to prevent the moisture from evaporating. Also, the container idea is perfect in allowing you to bring it with you on your picnic without having to repack it!
#2 Lemon Rum Cake
This recipe was improvised from a Lemon Loaf recipe from BBC Food, and my hubby loved the result! (I had to stop him from eating too much.) You can make it into a nice whole cake, OR you can bake them into cupcakes for hassle-free serving.
Ingredients:
- 5 medium eggs
- 250g of caster sugar
- 150ml of double cream
- lemon zest of 2 organic lemons (to ensure the lemon skin does not have chemicals)
- 2 ½ TS of dark rum
- a pinch of salt
- 95g of melted butter
- 250g of plain flour
- 1 ½ tsp of baking powder
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- If you’re baking this into a cake, just lightly grease your round cake tin and line it with baking paper. Greasing is not necessary if you make it into cupcakes.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs, sugar, cream, lemon zest, rum, salt and butter, and whisk them together well.
- Sift the flour and baking powder slowly into the mixing bowl while your mixer is still mixing at a low speed. Beat the ingredients into a smooth batter.
- Pour the batter into your cake tin/cupcake holders.
- Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes (or 30-45 minutes with cupcakes as they take less time to bake).
- Once baked, remove the cake from the cake tin and let it cool.
Tip 1: This cake taste better after leaving it overnight.
Tip 2: To complement the cake, you might want to try this glaze recipe that I invented. This was to use up the juice of the lemon that we used for the zest. And the idea came from a favourite local drink, Honey Lemon Tea, that I loved when I was in Malaysia.
Here’s how to make the glaze:
Ingredients:
- lemon juice from the 2 organic lemons
- 5-8 TS of honey
Steps:
- Mix both ingredients in a small bowl/container.
- Drizzle it on top of the cake right before eating to avoid a sticky mess, especially when you’re picnicking with this cake! OR if you made the cake into cupcakes, feel free to drizzle the glaze on top of the cake while the cake is still warm!
#3 Chocolate Banana Cake
This is a favourite recipe that I got from Joyofbaking.com. It’s really easy, and doesn’t need a mixer. The cake makes a nice breakfast food too!
Ingredients:
- 175g of castor sugar
- 250g of plain flour, sifted
- 80g of cocoa powder, sifted
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- 2 tsp of baking soda
- 2 pinches of salt
- 3 medium eggs
- 2 normal sized ripe bananas, mashed
- 240 ml of warm water
- 120 ml of milk
- 100 ml of cooking oil (flavorless)
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- Lightly grease your 25.5cm square baking tin and line it with baking paper.
- In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Then set it aside.
- In another large bowl, beat the egg.
- Then add the mashed bananas, warm water, milk and cooking oil and whisk together with the beaten egg.
- Make a hole in the centre of your dry ingredients, and pour in your wet ingredients.
- Stir the ingredients together gently. Make sure all the dry ingredients are well mixed.
- The batter will be more liquid than normal batter but don’t worry about that.
- Just pour the batter into your baking tin and bake it for 45-55 minutes or until your skewer test comes out clean.
Tip: This cake taste really good with coffee!
So, are you now excited about cakes for your future picnics? Give these a try and your picnic guests will love you for them!
Cover photo: www.babble.com
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