At the far end of City Walk 2 in a new area called Le BHV Marais, you will find Izu Bakery and Izu Brasserie. Located within a department store the Brasserie and Bakery are located to the left and right of the store, with a walkway and shopping display in the middle. Don’t let the location put you off, outside there are ample tables for you to dine al fresco, with a hint of a view of the Burj Khalifa in the distance. The Brasserie and Bakery are two outlets each with their own menu, but you are able to dine from both menus if you wish.
Each location has a simple one page menu, but don’t be fooled by the brevity of the menu, there’s more than enough choice to take you through from coffee and cakes, breakfast lunch and through to dinner, with the exception of a glass of anything alcoholic as there’s no alcohol license.
Since it’s the festive season, we asked Chef Izu to share with us a Festive Recipe and are delighted to present the Festive Cake – which is simple and easy to bake at home, and can be prepared ‘at the drop of a hat’ for last minute visitors or guests. Festive spices give the loaf a seasonal wintery warmness, whilst the cranberries, a typical festive fruit, add to the cake without being too heavy, as is often the case with traditional cake. The final ‘icing on the cake’ is that you can decorate your cake as you wish. Chef Izu tops his with edible festive characters but it could equally be topped with a simple dusting of icing sugar, rich walnuts, a drizzle of icing or a rich ganache, the choice really is yours!
Izu and the pastry Chef decided to choose this particular cake because it’s a very “homy” recipe that is simple to do at home with your family. Most of the ingredients are items that everybody has already at home and didn’t think about making it as a cake.
Ingredients
- 5 Eggs
- 375gr caster sugar
- 120gr crème fraiche
- 225gr Flour nr1
- 100gr unsalted butter
- 50gr raisins
- 50gr dried cranberries
- 20gr cinnamon powder
- 10gr ginger powder
- 50ml orange juice
Preparation:
- Pre-heat the oven at 160C
- Whisk the Eggs and sugar together
- Add the crème fraiche
- In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients cinnamon, ginger and flour. Add to the egg mixture and mix well.
- Melt the butter and add to the mixture
- Finish by adding the raisins and cranberries and combine well
- Cook for 40min at 160C
- Once you remove the cake from the oven add the orange juice evenly on the cake and let it soak
Decoration:
- Decorate with Christmas decorations of your choice.
Decorated with festive characters a perfect centre piece.
Served with candied walnuts on the top, simple finishing but a tasty slice none the less.
Chef Izu “Festive Cake” can be found at Izu Bakery and Izu Brasserie located at LE BHV Marais, City Walk. Available for pre order and it costs 120/aed per loaf.
[Recipe and Images provided by Izu Bakery, additional images by Debbie Rogers].