Kitchen Kit Road Test & Giveaway

If you are anything like me you find yourself with a thousand and one baking pans or none. There is no happy medium. Ever. Its sort of like underwear. You have all these matching sets and then one day wonder if you can leave the house because there is nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Not even a pair of bonds and a singlet to make yourself respectable.

So I was pretty happy when I was sent a 20 x 26cm Profiline Push Pan as part of the launch of the pans with the tv show The Great Australian Bake Off. I have been using my grandmothers loose-bottom tin - I love it but I also get concerned about the over use - its one of her possessions that I hold most dearly to my heart so a new loose bottom tin was in order. And it meant I could organise a giveaway set for you lovely peeps so of course I obliged!

These tins are a little different - which is why I thought them worthy of the Kitchen Kit Roadtest. There is a silicone seal on the lose base which is very handy if you are a bit slap dash with your batter like me. None of the mixture can make its way out into the world of your oven and you can also use them to cook in a water bath without the angst of a watered down cheesecake/pudding etc etc.

What's there to say, a round cake pan is a round cake pan but this shot from Profiline does show the silicone seal so you can see how it works.
They are slate/chrome in colour - quite similar to the Chicago metal colour and have the weighty feel of a quality baking pan.

Made of heavy gauge steel with some uber fancy Swiss non-stick coating. I can't speak to it because I've never trusted a non-stick. Ever. I've worked too hard on my cake to throw caution to the wind and have half of it stuck to the sides so I'm passing the info on here rather than claiming its non-sticking wonder. Someone let me know?

Oh and the prices range from $18.95 - $35.95 so they are pretty wallet friendly. Sizes range from 12cm - 26cm. More deets at www.pushpan.com.au

They've got all the important stuff. You can throw them into the dishwasher. They'll bake at fisson inducing temperatures - up to 260C.

I've found after a few uses and goes through the dishwasher that the silicone seal tends to roll a little bit. Its an easy fix - you just have to make sure its back in place after you've washed the tin and I've found it is easiest to do this once it is just out of the dishwasher and the seal is still a bit warm and stretchy.

I used the 20 x 26cm tin to bake this earl grey crumble tea cake for my weekly Daily Life Column. The cooking time was standard and it achieved a consistent brown colouring in the tin despite the upper left hot spot in my oven. 

Earl Grey Tea Crumble Butter Cake

I am the first to ooh and ahh over the petite perfection of professionally produced patisserie, but there is something more gratifying about making, baking and tasting the more robust home baked tea cake. Tea cake, preferably with a cup of tea, fills the house with amazing smells and can make you feel everything is ok with the world in a way that very few other forms of cooking can. I’ll take cake over quinoa every other day of the week and often find myself daydreaming of a world where “everything stops at 3.30 for tea and just a slice”.

I’ve incorporated tea (surprise, surprise) directly into your standard butter cake here with a caramelized tea crumble topping – the result is light, lovely and fitting for many an occasion, from those requiring starched white napkins and funny little forks to those enjoyed over the kitchen sink with a mug of builders tea when no one is watching.

Ingredients

Topping

2 tbsp looseleaf  earl grey tea

1 cup brown sugar

¼ cup plain flour

75g cold butter, chopped

Cake

2 cups plain (all purpose flour)

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

125g butter, at room temperature

1 cup caster sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

¾ cup Greek yoghurt

¼ cup earl grey tea, cooled

Method

Preheat oven to 180C.

To make the topping place the brown sugar and flour in a bowl, add ingredients to a bowl and rub butter in with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. To make the cake, sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Place butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together. Add the eggs and tea and mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the yoghurt, mixing well after each addition. Pour the cake batter into a greased 23cm (9 inch) spring-form cake tin. Sprinkle with topping mixture and bake the cake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack, topping side up to cool. Serve with your finest brew of tea.

WIN -WIN- WIN
Just leave a comment on this post and a winner will be selected at random on 30th August. The lucky winner will receive:
4 x 12cm PushPans
2 x 20cm PushPans
1 x 26cm PushPans (this is the one I used)