Bene Bakes

They’re not donut holes, they’re not the New Orleans style beignets, they’re not amagwinya… They’re Congolese beignets, or mikate in Lingala. And you’ll fall in love at first bite. (more…)

My little babies turned five and they’ve been loving animals, so we had a farm animal-themed cake. Chick-a-doodle-doo I wanted to have various animals, so I got a few plastic toys to put onto the cake. Gotta be really careful with kids, because they may just want to eat it so I made sure to remove them when I cut the cake. I do NOT want to be the aunty who ruined the birthday! Chickens Chilling…

Ola! I swear, Latin America have got it GOING ON when it comes to the sweet treats. From Alfajores to Churros and everything in-between. I first tasted churros at the Taste Of Joburg last year, and I’m ever so grateful! Had some at a Mexican restaurant recently that I wasn’t very pleased with, so I decided to test it out myself (more…)

Fresh out the oven

A personal favourite of mine is definitely the lemon pound cake. This is a usually a lemon cake which is drenched in syrup. This is best done warm, to allow the cake to take in the moisture. When the cake has a hard crust, it’s advised to then poke some small holes into the sponge to allow the cake to soak up the syrup. Although the cake becomes nice and moist, it doesn’t get to wet and pudding-like, thankfully.

What takes this to this to the next level is the glaze! Now, you may be thinking “that’s way too much sugar”, but it actually isn’t. My lemon pound cakes are made with yogurt, and not a lot of sugar. This means that I can add syrup and glaze, as it compliments the yogurt tang really well! So, the glaze not only adds a different texture to the soft cake, it also makes feeds into the aesthetics.

Lemon Pound Loaf

Lemon Pound Bundt

So there are several ways that a lemon pound cake can be enjoyed, as long as it’s eaten! How do you enjoy your lemons this season?

Dig in!

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you’re loading up on the vitamin c in cake, heehee.

And all that sweet stuff, B.

Heya! Entering the second half of the year ALREADY! Eek! Thinking about it that way has me contemplating what I have actually done over the past six months, a necessary evaluation. That also happens every birthday… (more…)

If you’re in Johannesburg, you may have seen the amazing adverts along William Nicol. Just after the Nestle’s coffee advert is the sexiest, most distracting KitKat advert. Especially at Rosebank Union, I tell you – I was stalling at the traffic light when I first saw it and I was fixated the rest of the evening. Incredible, I tell you. If you weren’t into KitKat before, you will be afterwards.…

I’m a simple girl. I like flowers, and I like chocolate. I think I speak for many of us out there who don’t mind being surprised by these treats every now and then. Cogsworth As Cogworth says, these are the usual things. Sometimes, it’s great to incorporate the usual things into a cake  for a special lady. That’s right, a chocolate cake with some pretty flowers to adorn them. Why not kill two…

Lunch

I had called ahead of time, only to find that we were one of the only customers being served there. It felt as though we had the place to ourselves. It’s very decorated, with huge bottles of wine along the walls and textured seats. Their bathroom is gorgeous, fyi. They also have a balcony, which is lovely for warmer days. Once we placed our orders, we were told that they didn’t have any wings – even though it’s wing day. A few moments later, our waitress returned and let us know that they had just purchased some, so we could go on and order our specials. I had a cup of tea, which helped tremendously with my sore throat. However, it came in  a teapot without a lid, and a cup that didn’t exactly fit the saucer. My friend had a refreshing passion fruit and lemonade.

When the food arrived, it was very well-presented. We had a salad and fries on the side. The fries were crisp on the outside with a soft interior, but it didn’t have much flavour and getting tabasco sauce from our waitress took a while. The meats appeared well-cooked, and the ribs tested divine. The basting was sweet and sticky, and although the meat didn’t pull away easily, it was still good. The wings were also basted well, but there was no flavour past the basting. Had they prepared them before-hand, it would have marinated well. The waitress topped up the ribs as soon as we polished off the first plate, and we definitely appreciated the fact that we didn’t have to wait long for the second plate.

We finished our meal off with a chocolate brownie and ice-cream to share. I absolutely love chocolate and was looking forward to this. However, it was very much like a chocolate cake. It was fluffy and airy, and not very rich. The ice-cream, however, was delightful. Very creamy, reminded me of the soft-serve I used to indulge in as a child.

Overall, it was a good lunch. There were definitely areas where they faltered, which made me further question why the place was so empty. It’s a great space, and with just a bit more care, they could have great food. A huge thank you to Zomato for organising this for me! Any of you have tips for where I can get some great ribs and wings around Jozi?

Thanks for reading, B.

Over the recent years, Looney Toons have really stepped it up and created such a hilarious series. I now always think of Bugs whenever I incorporate carrots into my dishes. This is how subliminal messages are sent, I tell ya. Through adults watching children cartoons. I love a spicy carrot cake with a lemon glaze or cream cheese frosting. Whether it’s light or dense, loaf or round – gimme! Also,…

Having a crepe day?

See what I did there? Heehee. Having a crepe day. Dunno about you, but tasty crepes really help get my day going when I’m not feeling quite like myself. Have a crepe for when you’re feeling crap, yeah? (more…)

Hi. My name is Béné, and I am a bona-fide chocoholic. Ever since that piece of Cadbury chocolate first melted in my mouth many moons ago, I’ve been fixated. To the point where my recent lactose intolerance won’t even get me to quit. I ain’t no quitter… (more…)

I got the privilege to bake a cake for a young lady who recently turned 21. She’s in her last year of varsity, the first in her family to be going to tertiary! That’s a pretty big deal, and her mother is so proud of the young lady she’s become, so she wanted to make sure she got a special cake.

I was asked to make a “girl cake” – which could mean so many things! When I find out what she meant, I went around looking for a girl mould, which I couldn’t get my hands on. So I scoured pinterest for tips, and again – nothing. Thankfully, with the help of my sis in law, I managed to figure out how I’d make a girl cake. It was quite an adventure!

It took three cakes to make this form, and I’m really happy that it came out just as she wanted it! It was a tutti frutti cake, whose fragrance legitimately left you drooling every time you entered the kitchen. Yum. I used both fondant and buttercream for the icing, to play around with texture a bit.

Both mom and daughter were happy with the end result, as I snacked on the cake cut-offs :). Yip, just one of the perks of playing baker on these missions.

Thanks for reading!

And all that sweet stuff, B.

I’m all for simple recipes with ingredients you can find in your cupboard. But not everyone may have cloves, and you can easily replace this with “allspice” or “mixed spice”, which has really strong elements of clove.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground cloves or allspice/ mixed spice 1/4 tsp salt 3/4 cup softened butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 Tbsp water 1/4 cup honey 1/2 cup white sugar (can also use brown)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius, and line a baking tray with baking sheet.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are light and fluffy.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt.

Add the water and honey to the creamed butter mixture and beat it until well-combined. Then slowly add the dry ingredients, while consistently mixing it after each addition. You should feel the batter harden. 

Wash your hands, and start to break off small sections on the batter and roll it in your hands. It should be the size of a walnut. Roll the ball in the sugar and press it down on the baking sheet. About 1 cm high, doesn’t have to be too specific.

Bake it for about 10 minutes in the oven, before removing it and letting cool on a wire rack for about 5 – 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Ginger Cookies

Nom nom nom! Absolutely love some spicy cookies in winter. And ginger ones are quite palatable for everybody. Maybe next time I’ll take it up a notch and make some Speculoos. But for now, try this out and let me know how it goes.

Thanks for reading!

And all that sweet stuff, B.

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.” Winnie the Pooh has some of the most memorable quotes. For real. So when I was asked to bake for a Pooh-Themed party, I was pretty…

Latte-Flavoured Cake – Review

I am definitely a lover of tea, and I have my affairs with coffee on the side. I had to give up milky coffee and I’ve grown to actually enjoy it black, but I definitely miss having cappuccinos and creamy lattes! It’s probably because I’m a chocoholic, and chocolate and coffee go so well together! Coffee in chocolate cake is what makes the flavour really come to life, and just regular old coffee…

Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe

If I regularly read recipes, does that make me an avid reader? I actually spend quite some time every week just looking up recipes for meals to prepare at home, as well as tips and inspiration for my baking. Yeah – it counts as reading. Let me not digress. I wanted to share with you, a recipe I use to make my red velvet cupcakes. This classic is quite popular around here so you find many…

Instead of having crudeness topped onto the cupcake, I opted to make cookies which were inserted through the frosting. These are vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and a shortbread cookie. The colour theme was orange and purple, so we went with orange-coloured frosting.

  With the weather being unbelievably hot, I generally would struggle to keep the frosting firm – especially cream cheese. So storing it in the fridge after it’s been whipped is a good idea, and then storing the iced cupcakes in the fridge as well (as opposed to on the table waiting to be delivered/collected). I learnt this the hard way a few weeks ago.

As always, thanks for reading,

  And all that sweet stuff, B.