Easter Cake Anyone? - Recipe

After a visit to Panasonic head office last week I was feeling inspired to cook up a storm in the kitchen with my Panasonic Combi Oven.

By storm I do of course mean cake... Cake has become a very popular choice of food in our household since this machine arrived in our midst back in December, and I thought with Easter on the horizon that this really would be the perfect accompaniment to our Easter Sunday.

I followed the recipe for the Easter Bunny Cake on the Ideas Kitchen, I find many very tasty recipes here and I love how they are all adapted to cook up in the combi oven. 

What you will need

2 x 18 cm (7″) greased cakes tins

Your toddler is not essential....

The Recipie

- 175g butter

- 175g caster sugar

- 3 eggs

- 175g self raising flour

- 200g icing sugar

- 2-3 tbsp water

Leo and I often cook up cakes together, and it is a activity that Leo has begun to love. Cooking up a cake mixture means that there will soon be a bowl full of 'yum' to munch up and plenty of spoons to lick clean (if he can get there before Daddy does!) 

With Leo sat in his booster seat ready to help me cook, we prepared everything we would need to get started. 

Firstly we pre heated the combi oven on CONVECTION 180°C.

Leo watched as I creamed the butter and sugar together until it was pale and fluffy. (This can get messy, I do advise to have a sink full of warm soapy water to wash your hands promptly after!)

I cracked the eggs into a separate bowl and mixed them together. Then Leo and I added the egg a little bit  at a time beating thoroughly with the electric whisk after each addition.

We folded the flour in to the cake mixture a little bit at a time to avoid any lumps and then took the electric whisk to it once again to get a lovely fluffy mixture.

With the cake mixture ready to cook up, we spooned it into the two prepared tins and leveled off with a knife. Our tins were not identical but I simply spooned the mixture alternatively into each tin to ensure that they both had the same amount inside. 

Once the tins are ready with the cake mixture you can pop it into the oven. If like me you are using a combi oven you can leave it in for around 20-25 minutes or until cooked. If not you can use this as a guide and just keep checking the cake until it looks ready and check by putting a knife through the centre. If the cake leaves mixture on the knife it needs a little longer.

Once the cakes are cooked and have cooled down you can take them out of the tins and sandwich them together with cream and jam. Then it is time to whizz together the icing sugar  (follow the instructions on the box) - what you want is a spreadable paste that you will apply all over the top of the cake. 

Here is where we deviated slightly to.the recipe, instead of putting an Easter Bunny on the cake Leo and I decided that some Spring time flowers would look perfect dotted around the edge of the cake. And of course we could not forget some Cadbury's Mini Eggs. So in true Easter style we out a handful of eggs in the centre of the cake and a few around the outside.

And VIOLA a finished Easter Cake, that I have to say tasted just as good as it looked.

I think it must of been down to Leo's help! And of course because the Panasonic Combi Oven is fool proof. 

Happy Easter

Laura & Leo

x

Panasonic Combi Ovens

Last year I told you all my exciting news about being picked as a Panasonic Intelligent Living Mum. Back in December we had our second meeting, so all 10 of the chosen Living Mum’s descended upon Bracknell to visit the Panasonic Head Offices.

It was fantastic to see everyone again and having now met everyone once before it gave us more time to jump straight into the task at hand, and on this occasion it was Microwave Ovens.

Now up until this visit to Panasonic I thought a microwave could simply heat up food and savage the meat you are trying to defrost, or that could just be the microwave that we inherited…. However my view on microwaves has now well and truly changed, and for the better!

The session was very hands on and we all got assigned different recipies to cook up in the combi ovens, there was roast chicken, brownies, mince meat and a vegetable curry! I did ponder how we were going to achieve some of these ambitious recipes in a microwave, it is just didn’t seem possible. But roast a chicken they did, and bake brownies…they did!

Using the combi technology of the convection oven, grill and microwave the chicken roasted in a mere 50 minutes and was succulent, crisp and juicy. It had come out perfect. Straight out of the microwave!

My job was to cook up a cheats Bolognese, and it could not have been any easier. If you are in need of a quick dinner then the sheer convenience factor is well deserved.

Cheats Mince

- Chop up an onion

- Add the mince to a mixing bowl

- Add the sauce and the onion

- Add water

- Cover the bowl and place in the microwave on high for 10 minutes.

- Take out and stir, re-seal and place on medium microwave for 10 minutes.

Viola…Dinner is served. The preparation time was minutes and the finished results were incredibly tasty, even if it was cheating!

I have to say that I was completely oblivious to how far microwave technology has come in the last decade, I had of course heard of these new fancy microwave ovens but I had never seen or had the opportunity to try one out personally. I went in completely sceptical but after seeing exactly what these microwaves can do, I am completely converted.

I arrived home and excitedly told Luke all about these fantastic machines, he looked at me like I had lost the plot, and maybe I had. However Luke is now completely on side, he has seen first hand exactly what can be achieved with a combi oven. Ever since Panasonic sent us our very own NN-CF771 to try out, I have used it everyday.

Most days I don’t even need to turn on the oven, as I can do absolutely everything with my combi, and I do. It is so easy to use and I would go as far as calling it fool proof.

I will be sharing some of the yummy recipes that I have been cooking up off the Panasonic Ideas Kitchen over the next couple of weeks as I try out new things.

Disclaimer: I had my travel costs covered to be in attendance, however all views and opinions expressed are completely honest and my own.