A New (Lunar) Year

Today is the third day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. The baking was completed last weekend. As promised, the recipe for Death By Cholesterol is below. It's actually a semolina (or sugee) cake but it uses lots of eggs and butter. Most recipes call for brandy but I've found that since it uses ground almonds, Amaretto is a far better substitute. Be warned, this is not a cake recipe for beginners!

Sugee Cake
140g semolina
6 large eggs: use all of the yolks and keep only 3 egg whites
180g sugar
125g butter
30g self-raising flour
50g ground almonds (with skins)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons Amaretto
5 tablespoons milk

Dry roast the semolina in a pan over a low heat until lightly very lightly browned and fragrant. Leave to cool. Cream the butter and 150g sugar. Slowly add in the milk, half the Amaretto and vanilla extract. Beat eggs and remaining 30g sugar and later, add remaining vanilla and Amaretto. Stir in semolina and let stand covered overnight in the fridge. The next day, remove from refrigerator to return to room temperature before proceeding further. Mix in flour and ground almonds. Whisk egg whites to stiff peaks and then fold in to batter. Pour batter in a double-lined loaf tin and bake for 40 mins at 150 Celsius.

This is only one of the many cholesterol laden cakes and biscuits which I've been eating over the last few days and I think I've put on weight already. Yesterday I went to the gym and I think I will need to go 3 times this week, rather than my usual two.

It's back to work for me tomorrow and it's been nice to have this very extended weekend. What else it is I've been doing over the last few days will be in a separate post.