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Easy Ingredient Swaps When You're Out of These Kitchen Staples

By,
Gourmandize
Star Anise 24/30

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Star Anise

Star anise has a distinct, fragrant, licorice-like aroma that's especially ubiquitous in Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines. In American cooking, we use it to flavor everything from baked goods to pickles or as a fragrant infuser for broths, marinades, soups and stews. It's not meant to be eaten whole, so you should always remove it before serving, unless it's ground up. If you need it for a recipe but don't have any on hand, you can substitute 1 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder (it contains star anise) for 2 tsp ground anise. To replace whole star anise, you can also sub anise seed, but in double the quantity because it's milder in flavor. Other more distant but acceptable alternatives include a combination of fennel seeds and anise seeds (again increased in quantity because their flavor is less powerful), allspice with a bit of sugar, or cloves. 


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Ingredients

  • 2 large water or soda bottles (empty)
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 sticks butter
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 4 tbsp cocoa powder

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Ready 2 large plastic bottles, cleaned and dried.
  3. Add 1 cup of flour to each bottle.
  4. Add 1/2 cup of sugar to each.
  5. Melt butter, then add equal halves to each bottle.
  6. Add 6 eggs, 3 in each.
  7. Add 1/2 tbsp of baking powder to each.
  8. Add 1/2 cup of heavy cream to each.
  9. Shake the bottles thoroughly until the contents are well mixed.
  10. In one of the bottles only, add the cocoa powder.
  11. Beginning with the cocoa powder mixture, add a dolop of batter to the center of a circular
  12. baking tin. Do the same with the other mixture, placing the dolop directly in the center of the previous one.
  13. Continue with alternating additions of each mixture until all batter is used and the tin is full.
  14. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
  15. Serve and enjoy!