what deliciousness

Bride To Be

2011-08-10T09:47:00.002+10:00

I'm slightly mortified by my lack of posting, particularly as Marley and Rod's wedding cake is featured in the current edition of Bride to Be magazine, as well as being the last thing I posted back in March.

To be honest I've barely baked a thing since then. My (weak) justification is that February, March and April were consumed by morning sickness; May, June and July by renovations; and most recently gestational diabetes has seriously diminished my interest in baking.

The good news is that our new kitchen is almost finished, which makes me think a housewarming celebration (with cake) is on order. And there are only about 9 weeks til the tiny human makes an appearance, at which time I will again be able to enjoy a gelato if I feel like it. So stick with me!

Marley and Rod's Wedding Cake

2011-03-26T10:38:00.004+11:00

Finally I am posting a few photos of the boozy whisky fruitcake I made for Marley and Rod's wedding. Room for improvement but I was pretty proud of my efforts!

My progress through the list of things to achieve by 30 is very slow, but I am happy to at least have achieved the big goal of making and decorating a wedding cake!

(Belated) Happy New Year & Cherry Bombe

2011-01-22T19:12:00.003+11:00

I have no excuse for my absence other than the laziness that comes with the Summer holidays and then the panic that comes with return to work. So I wish you all a happy new year, albeit rather belatedly. Over the last month I've had a lovely (and indulgent) Christmas, made the famous wedding fruitcake, made some resolutions about sustainable shopping and eating, and generally enjoyed the sunshine.
My family gets very excited by Christmas, very very very excited. Our Christmas menu was heavily influenced by Gourmet Traveller, particularly the dessert that Mum and I made on Christmas Eve, a spectacular Cherry Bombe. You can find the recipe here.

Believe the instructions when they say that the recipe is very involved. For us that meant a division of labour. I made the sponge cake and pitted what seemed like thousands of cherries before we made the sorbet together. Mum made the cherry ripple ice cream. I made and applied the Italian meringue. Mum blow torched it (and briefly set the bombe on fire!) So a big team effort. During the process we had some doubts over whether the end result would be worth the effort, but believe me it was.

So I'll leave you with a promise to write again soon! TTFN xx

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Christmas Stollen

2010-12-28T15:52:00.002+11:00

Stollen is one of those things you see every Christmas piled up by the checkout at the fruit shop, or even Aldi. I tend to think of it (rather unkindly) as Panettone's ugly cousin.

As it turns out, I don't mind Stollen at all. It's a fruity, yeasty bread, not dissimilar to Greek Tsoureki although less buttery and moist. The think I enjoyed the most about this challenge was watching Martha Stewart's instructional video on how to make bread in the shape of a wreath. If you are a Martha freak like I am you can have a look at Martha's recipe and the video demonstration here. I am besotted with Mrs Kostyra. She is one feisty old duck!

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

Specialty Christmas Cake Class at Planet Cake

2010-12-18T05:36:00.004+11:00

In an effort to hone my skills working with fruitcake and marzipan I signed up for a new two day specialty class offered by Planet Cake. I found marzipan to be so much cleaner than working with ganache so I will definitely be promoting the fruitcake/marzipan wedding cake option to people in the future. Sometimes a little tradition is a good thing!

Spending almost a full day making 3 elves has left me with much more confidence in making figurines. Although I am not sure that I would be able to model anybody who does not want to resemble Noddy...
It was also the first time I've used a pasta machine to roll fondant icing and believe me it was a complete revelation. The red ribbons were rolled and cut from fondant "lasagne" and the green ribbon was made from fondant fettucine. The pasta machine is also fabulous for making elf girl hair.
As usual post Planet Cake course I am thrilled with the outcome and left feeling quietly confident about the looming wedding cake decorating... stay tuned...

Red Velvet Supersized

2010-11-18T21:18:00.003+11:00

Q: What does 11 cups of flour, 2.25 cups of butter, 7.75 cups of sugar, 4 bottles of red food colouring, 9 eggs, 9 tablespoons of cocoa, 4 teaspoons of vanilla, 4.5 cups of buttermilk and 1kg of vanilla buttercream buy you?

A: A resplendent three layer red velvet cake!

For anyone interested in recreating this feat, I made the Magnolia Bakery Red Velvet Cake recipe three times, using each batch to fill one 10" cake tin. I was a bit anxious about how a triple layer 10" cake would hold up but it was gorgeous. And heavy.

Strawberry & Mulberry Jam

2010-11-13T19:10:00.003+11:00

At the markets this morning I spied beautiful mulberries and strawberries. Lately I've developed a bit of an obsession with preserving fruit and vegetables, and the discovery of the blog Saving the Season has added fuel to the fire. My desire to make jam couldn't wait any longer, which was unfortunate given that temperatures soared to 3o+ degrees today and spending time at the cooktop was less than ideal.

Still, it was worth it. Yum.

Jam also makes a lovely little housewarming gift for friends...

Strawberry & Mulberry Jam

Ingredients
750g strawberries, washed, hulled and cut in half
750g mulberries, washed and stalks removed
1.5kg sugar
125ml lemon juice
25g pectin or other jam setting agent

Method
Combine berries and lemon juice in a large saucepan and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Add sugar and cook over low heat for a further five minutes until the sugar dissolves, and then bring to the boil. Boil for 15 minutes and remove from heat, skimming any foam or gunk from the jam with a slotted spoon. Stir in pectin and then return to the boil for five minutes. Ladle the hot jam into jars, using the processing method of your choice. (Some people like to spoon hot jam into sterilised hot jars, but I prefer to use a water bath processing method because it seems somehow more 'proper'.) The jam should be left for about 4 weeks so that the flavours can develop but obviously we had to try some immediately.

Wedding Cake Baker in Training III

2010-11-05T17:45:00.005+11:00

Being a Wedding Cake Baker in Training means you have a lot of test cakes to play with and set free. I have been meaning to make my Uncle David a fruitcake with the KitchenAid he and my Aunt Sylvia gave us as a wedding gift* since, er, February. The man is a sailing fanatic which provided me with the perfect excuse to have a play with some of my favourite bits and bobs from Bake It Pretty.

Like the sail boat.
And the yellow duckie.

Not the most sophisticated effort ever but I think he'll enjoy it all the same. I kinda love it!

*How lucky are we!? Remember also the most excellent ice cream machine gifted from my Uncle Tony and Aunt Di. Lucky lucky lucky us.

Wedding Cake Baker in Training II

2010-11-04T09:05:00.003+11:00

A quick shout out to Not Quite Nigella who posted today about making a two tier wedding cake. The post answered a LOT of my lingering questions. Talk about synchronicity! Thanks Lorraine.

(In the 5 minutes since I read Lorraine's post I have developed a serious obsession with completing Faye's workshop...)

Wedding Cake Baker in Training

2010-11-03T18:30:00.004+11:00

I'm diligently working through the list of things to achieve by the time I'm 30 - don't worry, I still have a good eight and a half months to go. In January I will be making a wedding cake for my lovely friends Marley and Rod which is exciting (a) because I get to "achieve" one of my goals and (b) because I absolutely love them both.

Making a wedding cake is a little bit daunting, but oddly my biggest concern is transporting the two tiered cake up the F3 highway in the middle of an Australian summer. I have had nightmares about chocolate mud cakes filled with ganache melting and sliding around the car making a giant muddy mess. Eventually the solution to this problem became obvious. Fruitcake. It's heavy and hardy, it doesn't spoil, and it can be covered in marzipan and fondant for minimum slippage. Having never made a fruitcake before I decided to do a bit of a test run which involved 1.2kg of dried fruit and a fair whack of Chivas (thanks Rahul!)

The test cake has been baked and split into four portions - "edges" that have been cut off for Rahul to snack on, two neatly sliced and marzipan covered rectangles and one square that has been re wrapped and put in the fridge so that I can test the cake's longevity.

Covering squares and rectangles is really not my forte but I completely fluked this baby! Thankfully the wedding cake will be a two tiered round number so I can avoid 8 extra edges.

As the day draws closer you can look forward to some further installments relating to the actual cake. Wish me luck!

Daring Bakers Challenge: BOMBOLINI

2010-10-27T17:08:00.005+11:00

It’s official. I am a convert. I love doughnuts. To be more precise I love love love bombolini.

This month’s challenge was really fantastic and definitely took me a little outside my comfort zone. Until now I’ve always thought doughnuts were stale cardboard tasting vehicles for trans fats. Definitely not something I would make at home. You have to make some ASAP. Definitely consume bombolini warm if possible.

Raspberry Jam Bomboloni

Hands on prep time - 35 minutes

Rising time - 1 1/2 hours plus overnight

Cooking time - 10 minutes

Yield: About 32 Bomboloni

Ingredients

Water, Lukewarm 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon

Active Dry Yeast 3 ¼ teaspoon (1.5 pkgs.) / 16.25 ml / 10 gm / .35 oz

Honey 1.5 Tablespoon / 22.5 ml

All Purpose Flour 3 cup / 720 ml / 420 gm / 14 ¾ oz

Milk 3 Tablespoon / 45 ml

Egg Yolk, Large 6

White Granulated Sugar 1/3 cup / 80 ml / 75 gm / 2 2/3 oz + more for rolling

Kosher (Flaked) Salt 2 teaspoon / 10 ml / 6 gm / .2 oz

Butter, Unsalted 3 Tablespoon / 45 ml / 42 gm / 1.5 oz

Canola Oil 3 cup / 720 ml / (Or any other flavorless oil used for frying)

Raspberry Jam, Seedless ¾ cup / 180 ml / 300 gm / 10.5 oz (or any flavor jam, preserves, jelly)

Directions

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, mix the water, yeast, honey and 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (160 gm) of the flour. (Alternatively, whisk the ingredients by hand.) Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until foamy, about 1 hour.

Return the bowl to the mixer, fitted with a dough hook. Add the remaining 1 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons (260 gm) of flour, along with the milk, egg yolks, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar and the salt. Mix at low speed until blended, then add the butter and knead at medium speed until silky but sticky, about 5 minutes; the dough will not pull away from the side of the bowl.

Using an oiled spatula, scrape the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

In a large saucepan, heat the canola oil to 360°F/180°C. Line a rack with paper towels. Fill a shallow bowl with 1/2 inch (12 mm)of granulated sugar. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough a scant 1/2 inch (12 mm) thick. Using a 2-inch (50 mm) round biscuit cutter, stamp out rounds. The original recipe said to not re-roll the dough, but I did and found it to be fine. Fry the rounds, 4 to 5 at a time, until they are browned, about 4 minutes (mine only took about a minute each – try to go more by sight). Be sure to keep the oil between 360°F and 375°F 180°C and 190°C. Drain the bomboloni on paper towels.

Roll them in the granulated sugar.

Filling Directions:

Fit a pastry bag with a plain donut tip (or a 1/4-inch (6 mm) tip) and fill with the preserves (you can also use a squeeze bottle). Poke the tip three-fourths of the way into the bomboloni and squeeze in the preserves, pulling the tip out slightly as you squeeze to fill them as much as possible. Serve warm.

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Chocolate & Banana Cupcakes

2010-10-24T18:01:00.002+11:00

At 6 a.m. on Saturday I was inexplicably wide awake and after about ten minutes lying in bed staring at the wall I remembered the squidgy banana in the fruit bowl and I decided to start baking. This recipe is a corrupted version of Nigella's Banana Bread, is incredibly fast and easy, and makes exactly 12 cupcakes.

Chocolate & Banana Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

150g plain flour

25g Dutch process cocoa

2tsp baking powder

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

125g unsalted butter, melted

100g sugar

2 eggs

1 big super ripe banana, mashed

50g dark chocolate, melted

1 tsp vanilla

Ganache

150g dark chocolate

120g pure cream

Method

Preheat oven to 170C and line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake papers. Combine the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and set aside. In a large bowl beat together the butter and the sugar until blended and then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the banana, melted chocolate and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture a third at a time and stir well. Fill the cupcake papers 2/3 full and then bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes on a wire rack and then top with ganache.

To make the ganache chop up the chocolate into small pieces, or even better whizz it in the food processor. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it reaches boiling point and then remove from heat and pour it over the chocolate, whisking until the chocolate is melted and the ganache is thoroughly combined. It may be quite runny so continue to whisk every few minutes until the ganache is a consistency appropriate for spreading.

Daring Baker's Challenge: Decorated Sugar Cookies

2010-09-28T07:47:00.002+10:00

This month's challenge gave a bit of scope for creativity. The brief was simple - bake sugar cookies, decorate with royal icing and make sure they scream "September" to you.

I've made Peggy Porschen's sugar cookie recipe before with great results. It's a very easy recipe to work with and unlike other recipes I've used (hello Donna Hay!) it never seems to result in disaster. I originally planned to make cookies shaped like sausage dogs because I managed to procure a sausage dog shaped cookie cutter on holidays, and that seemed like the least tenuous link to the "September" theme that I could come up with. This was a total disaster because as I cut the dogs out of the raw cookie dough the tails were completely chopped off. I blame this on the poor design of the cookie cutter!! My second strategy was to make round cookies and decorate them in pinks and yellows because to me September is all about sunshine and the beginning of spring.

The trick to decorating sugar cookies is to make royal icing in a range of consistencies so that you can pipe the border of any solid shape you wish to ice.

Once the border has dried a little you use a runny royal icing to fill the shape. You should end up with a rather neat and tidy looking cookie. Once the base icing is dry the world's your oyster and you can pipe anything you wish onto the cookie.

If you haven't made sugar cookies before it's the time of year to get started. They would make gorgeous treats for under the Christmas tree and are one of the few sweets that could survive a hot and humid Sydney summer.

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

Southern Banana Pudding

2010-09-26T10:40:00.002+10:00

Southern Banana Pudding first caught my eye on Bakerella's site and due to my love of all things America I was itching to make it. Until I read the ingredients and discovered that it was primarily composed of Nilla Wafers, Jello Instant Pudding and Pie Filling, Cool Whip Whipped Topping and bananas. Given that bananas were the only ingredient I had (a) heard of and (b) had any hope of obtaining, project make banana pudding has been on hold.

In California I made it a priority to obtain the mysterious Nilla Wafers and the Instant Pudding and Pie Filling. The Cool Whip was problematic because I discovered that it lives in the freezer until you defrost and whip it. On a bus to Yosemite I tortured the six captive Americans which questions about Cool Whip and ascertained that it is some kind of completely unnatural chemical compound that resembles the mutant love child of whipped cream and marshmallow. I concluded that I would be quite happy to go to the grave without trying it.

I had two recipes to choose from to make the pudding and I ended up going with the Jell-O version because it was the most artificial and to my mind probably the most authentic. All I had to do was mix one packet of Instant Pudding and Pie Filling with two and a half cups of milk and let it sit for five minutes. Then I layered Nilla Wafers, Pie Filling and bananas in a dish and topped it with whipped cream. It reminded me a little of the classic Aussie Choc Ripple Cake. After and hour in the fridge it was ready to go.

The Pudding was tested by six brave souls. Two of them deemed it inedible. The other four of us concluded that it was good in a McDonalds/plane food kind of way. Using a ladle to serve it was appropriate.

You can't really go wrong with bananas and whipped cream. The Nilla Wafers tasted exactly like those Grimace shaped McDonalds Cookies I used to have as a kid.

The big question mark hangs over the Instant Pudding and Pie Filling which was a fluorescent yellow, sickly sweet and texturally odd custard that was just a bit creepy.

Would I eat Instant Pudding and Pie Filling again? Nope.

Am I relieved that I maintained my anti-Cool Whip stand? Yes.

I still love America.

September in California

2010-09-24T21:48:00.005+10:00

Just so you know it wasn't all Red's Java House.

Back to regular posting this weekend I promise, most probably with some kind of fabulous American style dessert.

Red's Java House

2010-09-20T20:17:00.002+10:00

So I'm back and I'm not going to recommence blogging with mouthwatering descriptions of meals at Michelin starred restaurants. Instead I'll tell you a bit about Red's Java House which is by all accounts a bit of a San Francisco institution. As you can see Red's is stuck in a time warp but in a very good way.

During our visit to the States we ate at a few and saw many more than a few retro inspired diners which all lacked the certain charm that Red's has. The menu is straightforward - burger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, fries, sodas, beers - and the food is cooked while you stand waiting at the counter. No table service in sight.

Rahul was in charge of ordering which is how we ended up with two double cheeseburgers. These were no meek little (yet trans-fat laden) McDonalds burger patties either, they were biiiiiiig and wedged into a chunk of sourdough with orange cheese and a gaggle of gherkins. The chalkboard menu proudly proclaimed 'no lettuce, no tomato' which means that these burgers are a slice of heaven for carnivores. And as much as I am set in my hippy vegetable loving ways I would be back at Red's in a heartbeat. There is no such thing as too much plastic cheese on your meat, but this maxim only applies in America!

Stars and Stripes

2010-09-01T14:02:00.004+10:00

Michelin starred restaurants beckon so I am going to be very quiet for the next few weeks. We fly into San Francisco on Friday to start a bit of a foodie journey around northern California. I've read time and time again that California is a food lover's paradise so I'm extremely excited to finally be making the trip to the Bay Area.

First cab of the rank is dinner at Coi in San Francisco, a two starred restaurant that is home to the famous inverted cherry tomato tart. We will also spend some time at the Ferry Building Marketplace where I fully intend to buy one of everything on the shelf in Miette. Believe me, that is only a very slight exaggeration. I have been ogling their Princess Cake online for months.

Brunch at Tartine Bakery is very much on the agenda. I've been eyeing off their book at the Essential Ingredient every time I'm there but I am determined to buy the book from the bakery itself (which is actually very very stupid because then I will have to lug it around on our travels. What's even more stupid is that I don't mind!)

This is a bit embarassing to admit but I figured there was a limit to how much find dining was rational and healthy in a two week period so I made a shortlist of restaurants I was interested in going to, and then culled. I was also mindful of leaving enough time for a bit of organic discovery of new exciting places rather than planning each and every day in Excel (don't tempt me!) And I knew I would really want to go to a diner or two.

Anyway, this process led to much anxiety as I discovered that most of the restaurants had complex booking policies, for example taking bookings 1 calendar month before the preferred date of booking, or 4 weeks before. And then I read that bookings for my preferred restaurants were as rare as gold dust and then 'sold out' as quickly as they opened.

Chez Panisse in Berkeley topped my list. I was absolutely elated when I (by I, I mean Rahul, I was way too chicken to ask for the rules to be bent!) managed to wrangle a booking a day earlier than the booking policy officially allowed. Apparently they like charming Australians.

A trip to California would not be complete without paying homage to Thomas Keller's empire. The big question was whether to shell out all our pennies and visit The French Laundry, arguably the best restaurant in the world and beneficiary of three Michelin stars. I have a history of high expectations. Like the time we went to Tetsuyas which I liked but wasn't blown away by. Yet I can be totally satisfied by a $10 bowl of pho in Cabramatta. It's all to do with expectation. In the end I concluded the risk of having the same kind of disappointment at The French Laundry, as well as being out of pocket somewhere in the range of $800 - $1000) was too great. So we're going to Thomas' less fancy French Bistro Bouchon.

Also on my list was Ubuntu, which I read about first on Lovely Morning. Vegetarian fine dining in Australia is limited, if it exists at all? So I'm exited to be going to a Michelin starred vegetable restaurant, as well as completely charmed by the idea that all the produce comes straight out of the restaurant garden.

So. Am I excited or what?

Brown Butter, Strawberry and Vanilla Ice Cream Cake: August Daring Bakers Challenge

2010-08-28T11:23:00.002+10:00

The 'reveal date' for the Daring Bakers Challenge is always the 27th of the month and whilst I have usually baked the challenge recipe well in advance this month I was up late into the night layering cake and ice cream and I am thanking my lucky stars that while it's now the 28th August here in America it's still the 27th...

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

Rather than make Petit Fours I decided to make an ice cream layer cake using three layers of pound cake, two layers of strawberry and vanilla jam and two layers of vanilla bean ice cream plus a layer of chocolate ganache on top. Despite using a cake ring the overall effect was quite messy but (I think) quite appealing.

The recipes given with this challenge are fantastic. I've never used browned butter before and I was amazed by the rich nutty flavour it gives to a cake. If you enjoy rich buttery vanilla cakes (hello Mum!) this is the recipe for you.

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.

2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.

5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (165g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
2 cups (500ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.)

2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.

3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.

4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker.

Rhubarb and Vanilla Tart

2010-08-22T17:50:00.002+10:00

I've often flicked through Martha Stewart's Baking Companion and admired the picture of her rhubarb tart. I've read the recipe many times and always baulk at the idea of a cream cheese filling so rather than work directly from Martha's recipe I've used it as inspiration instead.

My rhubarb and vanilla tart is comprised of a pate sucree base, a vanilla creme patissiere folded through lightly whipped cream, and rhubarb gently poached in a vanilla syrup.

The rhubarb was lovely and tart, a beautiful contrast to the sweetness of the custard filling. Really you could top this tart with any fruit, fresh raspberries and figs would be gorgeous. Or another winter fruit poached with vanilla and rosewater.

Poached Rhubarb

Ingredients
1 bunch rhubarb
150ml water
150g sugar
1 vanilla bean

Method
Place the sugar, water and vanilla bean into a medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil. Wash and slice the rhubarb into 4 cm long pieces and place it into the sugar syrup. Cover and immediately remove from heat. The rhubarb will gently poach as the liquid cools.

Pate Sucree
Makes enough for 2 x 7" pastry cases so I only used half for my tart and froze the remainder. This recipe is a lazy food processor version of Damien Pignolet's Pate Sucree.

Ingredients
25g pure icing sugar, sifted
1 egg yolk plus sufficient iced water to make 45ml of liquid
180g plain flour, sifted
1/4tsp salt
135g cold butter, cut into 1.5cm dice

Method
In a small bowl place egg yolk mixture and icing sugar and whisk to combine. In a food processor combine the flour, salt and butter and mix until crumbs form. Slowly add the egg/icing sugar mix and process until a rough ball of dough forms. Do not over mix.
Wrap the dough in glad wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Flour the benchtop and roll out the dough to 5mm thick. Fill pastry cases, leaving a 1.5cm overhang which you then fold back over into the tin, leaving a small amount raised slightly above the rim.
Line the pastry shells with foil or baking paper and freeze for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Fill the shells with pie weights and bake for 10 minutes or until the walls appear to be set. Remove the pie weights and continue to bake at 170 degrees Celsius until the shell is golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool.
Creme Patissiere Filling

Remember my favourite creme patissiere recipe? All you need to do is make a batch and fold half of it through 1 cup of lightly whipped cream. You can use the remainder of the creme patissiere to create vanilla custard and banana crepes for your beloved if you like. I did.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

2010-08-06T19:31:00.003+10:00

I know, unless you've spent some serious time in America you're wondering what on earth these things are. I can tell you that they are also known as 'gobs', 'black and whites' and 'BFO's (Big Fat Oreos!) And according to food historians, Amish women would bake these (known as hucklebucks at the time) and put them in farmers' lunch boxes. Upon discovering their lunch treats the farmers would shout 'Whoopie!'

In essence Whoopie Pies are two chocolate flavoured cookie shaped cakes stuck together with a creamy marshmallow filling. Over time the flavours have evolved to include such exotic combinations as banana whoopie with matcha buttercream and vanilla whoopie with root beer marshmallow filling.

For my first foray into making Whoopie Pies I decided to use a tried and true flavour combination - chocolate and peanut butter. I recently bought Sarah Billingsley and Amy Treadwell's book 'Whoopie Pies' which is devoted to providing an enormous variety of cake and filling recipes and encourages serious mixing and matching. The book is completely adorable, and that's not a word I'd usually use to describe a book I can assure you.

Look at the perfect peanut butter filling!

And look at Rahul enjoying the satisfaction of squidging the Whoopie Pies together! The whole exercise was really fun.

Next time I'm going to attempt a pistachio cardamom whoopie with rose filling. Or perhaps a peanut butter whoopie with banana buttercream. Stay tuned...

Afghan Biscuits

2010-08-01T18:33:00.002+10:00

This week my mum had keyhole surgery on her ankle and requested a good dose of love, affection and Afghans. Apparently Afghans are a comfort food that she'd been fed as a child by her grandmother and has an occasional hankering for. After conducting a little research I found that they are a classic Kiwi biscuit containing exotic ingredients including Kellogs' Corn Flakes and Cadbury Bourneville Cocoa. Google found me a wide range of recipes however I settled on using one that I found on Not Quite Nigella (thanks Lorraine!)

Both Rahul and the invalid deemed the biscuits a great success, and to be honest they're very simple to make so they'll definitely be added to my repertoire.

Ingredients

For the biscuits

170g softened butter
100g brown sugar
180g flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
60g cornflakes, crushed into smallish bits

For the icing

3 tablespoons of water
45g caster sugar
45g butter
190g icing sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
walnut halves to decorate

Method

For the biscuits:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line two trays with baking paper
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift dry ingredients over the butter and sugar and mix together. The batter will be in little lumps. Knead in cornflakes and then gather little balls of the mix, round them by rolling them between your palms and place on a baking tray. Press down with a fork to flatten them slightly.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

For the icing:

Heat the water, caster sugar and butter over a low heat until butter has melted and simmer for a minute to form a syrup.
Sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl and then pour in the syrup whilst constantly whisking the mixture. Add some hot water to thin out the icing. (I did this a tablespoon at a time until I was happy with the consistency.) The icing needs to be thick enough to hold its shape but thin enough to spread and set nicely on the biscuit.
Using a teaspoon place some icing at the centre of the biscuit and then decorate with a walnut half. Leave to set.
You need to use the icing straight away as it will set. I found that the bowl of icing started to set as I was decorating the cookies however this was easily fixed by adding a splash of water and giving it a good whisk.

Chocolate Truffles

2010-07-31T23:45:00.001+10:00

Okay so the title of this blog post is deceptive because while these might look like chocolate truffles they are in fact a virtuous (and vegan) chocolate truffle impersonator. Rahul was vastly unimpressed by them but I am completely hooked on both the taste and the knowledge that they're low GI and full of other good bits and pieces. I offer a disclaimer - only consider making these treats if you are a tahini loving closet hippy!

Ingredients
10 organic dried apricots
1/4 cup raw organic honey
1/4 cup tahini paste
1/2 cup dutch process organic cocoa
1/4 cup LSA mix

Method
Run the dried apricots through the food processor until they are diced up nice and small, and then add the honey, tahini and cocoa. Blend until the mixture resembles lumpy garden soil! Roll small balls of the chocolate mixture in the palm of your hand, and then dip them in the LSA mix. Refrigerate for half an hour and then eat at your leisure. The 'truffles' will keep in the fridge for 3 -4 days.

Rahul and Nigella's Nutella Cake

2010-07-22T18:29:00.006+10:00

This is Nigella Lawson's Nutella Cake. Looks good. Which is why I thought it would be a perfect 29th birthday celebration cake for little old me.

This is Rahul's Nutella Cake.

Now call me biased, but I think it's pretty darn perfect, possibly even better than Nigella's because the hazelnuts aren't roasted to the point of being black and charred. Plus Rahul was forced to work with a less than even amateur stylist taking photos as she rushed out the door at 7.12am. Plus it was Rahul's first attempt at baking. Ever.

Okay so I haven't tried the finished product just yet, it being only 6.27pm on birthday night. But the batter was amazing. And I couldn't wait to show off Rahul's newly discovered talent!

The Smith Family 12* Layer Cake

2010-07-17T18:45:00.006+10:00

I loved making this cake. And I loved feeding it to people who had no idea quite how pretty it would be when it was cut. I first read about the 12 layer cake when Bakerella made a fourteen layer version for Valentines Day and I've been waiting for the opportunity to make it ever since.

The recipe was a typical vanilla buttercake spread between 12 cake tins and each baked layer resembled a thick pancake.
The 'pancakes' then had to be stacked and layered with a heavily indulgent chocolate syrup made of cocoa, butter and evaporated milk amongst other things. It got very messy as layers tended to slide all over the place. Yes, that is a ruler in the picture. It was a very handy way of ensuring that the layers stacked evenly.

The completed stack was pretty impressive and according to the recipe could have been served as it was. I decided to add an extra layer of chocolate buttercream icing as Bakerella did in her fourteen layer version, reasoning that half the delight of the cake would be the surprised look on people's faces as I cut it.

It was beautiful! Although this poorly lit photograph doesn't quite do it justice. The problem with photographing food as it's cut and served is that hungry eaters prioritise their eating over my blog and so the quality of my photography seriously suffers!

I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of the cake because frankly the amount of butter, evaporated milk and sugar in the recipe made me wonder if I would immediately go into a diabetic coma after a single bite. The vanilla layers were beautifully moist and the chocolate syrup between the layers was delicious and slightly reminiscent of Hershey's Chocolate Sauce. I'd definitely recommend this recipe to anyone with a sweet tooth.

* Confession time. My cake only had eleven layers. Oops. According to the recipe I should have put a 'scant cup' in each pan. Obviously my cups weren't quite 'scant' enough.

Guest Post: Bookverme's Blueberry Tart

2010-07-08T22:11:00.003+10:00

One thing. I want to eat everything described in this post. Warm brioche with a salted caramel base? Yes please. Anyway, I'll leave Bookverme to tell you more about it...

Before we went away to London and France for five weeks I spent hours on the net finding THE places to eat and exactly what local specialties I shouldn't miss. Emma sent me a series of web addresses for patisseries around Paris, which I duly noted down. I sat up until late in the night to be first in line when River Cafe bookings opened in London and even managed to get my French up to a level where I could speak with the staff in restaurants - none of which had email - to make our bookings.

And eat we did, at the glorious River Cafe (strawberry Bellinis, Scottish langoustines, spring lamb with broad beans and mint, zabaglione icecream), at Chez Dumonet - Josephine (duck liver pate, beef bourgignon, Grand Marnier souffle and a bottle of something incredible), and lovely salted caramel icecream from Berthillon on the Isle St Louis in Paris. But life is full of surprises and it was the food that we didn't expect at places we'd never heard of that was the most memorable.

All over France we stumbled on gorgeous food experiences, not only in little restaurants but also in markets. We ate buttery grilled sole on the quayside in Normandy, roasted guinea fowl in a back street restaurant in a village out of Dijon, kouig aman out of a shop window in Dinan (that's a rich brioche with a warm salted caramel base), spicy home made dried sausages from market stalls all over the country and strawberries dripping in juice with a flavour so intense that I felt it couldn't be real. But the very best thing on the whole trip was this blueberry tart, made by a farmer's wife and sold in great warm chunks from her blueberry stall at the bio markets in Strasbourg. She served it straight from a portable oven and it had a sort of warm gooey sweet syrupy business at the bottom of the tart. I had wolfed down half of it before I even remembered to photograph it. Heaven.

Guest Post: Bookverme's Parisian Patisserie Photojournal (or 'why I should go to Paris as soon as possible')

2010-07-07T11:46:00.004+10:00

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven just looking at these photos. I had asked Bookverme to write a guest post about her food adventures in London and Paris which I will post tomorrow, but in the interim I thought you'd enjoy her beautiful photos of some amazing patisserie creations. All of which I would like to sample right now.

Stay tuned for Bookverme's description of her fine dining in London and Paris tomorrow!

Daring Baker's Challenge: Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

2010-06-27T22:21:00.004+10:00

I've always wanted to make a chocolate pavlova so this month's Daring Baker's Challenge was music to my ears. The recipe called for chocolate meringues topped with a mascarpone chocolate mousse and finished with a creme anglaise sauce, however I vetoed the sauce and instead opted to top my pavlovas with some fresh raspberries. Half the joy of a pavlova is the contrast between the sweet meringe, rich cream and tart fruit to finish it off so a fruitless pavlova was unthinkable.

The recipe also instructed baking the meringues until they were dried out and crumbly which to an Australian is a complete pavlova sin! So mine were crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle. The chewiness was a surprise, I expected a soft marshmallow texture but I think the addition of cocoa to the batter threw a spanner in the works.

Still, delicious all the same. I loved the end result and I'd definitely make chocolate pavlovas again. The recipe for the chocolate mascarpone mousse was particularly good and is available now on the Daring Kitchen website.

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

A MasterChef Birthday

2010-06-20T20:49:00.005+10:00

When Rahul and I were invited to Kiara's MasterChef birthday party we were happy, but when Rahul was asked to pose as guest judge Matt Preston for the event we were beyond excited. It was also a fantastic opportunity to practice my cake decorating skills so I volunteered to be the official birthday cake baker. With pleasing results I think. Kiara doesn't like chocolate so rather than following the usual Planet Cake method of chocolate mud plus chocolate ganache under the fondant I decided to make a vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream. I was apprehensive initially having read many sad accounts of buttercream gone wrong, but I found that it worked beautifully and it was much easier than I anticipated to get the 'Planet Cake sharp edges.' I wouldn't try it in summer though as it would probably melt off the cake into a buttery puddle.

Kiara is six years old and a keen MasterChef viewer, hence the MasterChef birthday theme. Ajit, her dad, even stole a MasterChef sign from Redfern Coles, social rebel that he is! The thirty (!!) guests were split into red and blue teams, given gorgeous striped aprons sewn by Kiara's clever mum Shy, and each team made an entree (fruit kebabs), a main (pizza) and a dessert (cupcake decorating.)

The parents were competitive, resulting in pirate ships constructed from fruit kebabs. But when it came to the cupcakes the kids refused parental interference and really came into their own. They had evidently never heard of the motto 'more is less'.

Matt Preston was ever present, chatting to the kids (or should I say contestants) and tasting their creations. Frankly this was brave because some of the creations were a bit alarming.

Kids apparently love to make pizza faces.

They also like to poke their fingers into pretty cakes. By the time the cake was ready to be eaten it looked positively dimpled.

What a party! After two hours we were exhausted. And Matt Preston's scalp was overheated underneath his lovely wig. Good times.

chocolate cinnamon babka

2010-06-09T18:52:00.007+10:00

I am a total weakling when it comes to kneading. So when I received my KitchenAid in all it's glory and with a dough hook attachment I decided it was time to have a go at making some yeast baked goods. I've seen babka tackled on many blogs so it was first on my hit list. I figured inadequate brioche would be redeemed by swirls of chocolate and cinnamon. (This proved strangely prophetic because as it turns out I need a lot more practice with yeast based baking! The babka did not rise as well as I'd hoped, nor was it as light as it should have been. Still very edible though, especially toasted.)

Chocolate Cinnamon Babka
(Recipe courtesy of Cooking Light)

Ingredients for dough

1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
3/4 cup warm 1% low-fat milk (105° to 110°)
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
7.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 2/3 cups), divided
5.85 ounces bread flour (about 1 1/4 cups)
5 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces and softened
Cooking spray

Ingredients for Filling

1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Ingredients for streusel

2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter, softened

Method

Dissolve 1 teaspoon granulated sugar and yeast in warm milk in the bowl of a stand mixer; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in 6 tablespoons granulated sugar, vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and egg yolk. Weigh or lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add 6 ounces (about 1 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour and bread flour to milk mixture; beat with dough hook attachment at medium speed until well blended (about 2 minutes). Add 5 tablespoons butter, beating until well blended. Scrape dough out onto a floured surface (dough will be very sticky). Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes); add 1.5 ounces (about 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will be very soft).

Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size. (Gently press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough.) Punch dough down; cover and let dough rest 5 minutes.

Line the bottom of a 9 x 5?inch loaf pan with parchment paper; coat sides of pan with cooking spray.

To prepare filling, combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, salt, and chocolate in a medium bowl; set aside.

Place dough on a generously floured surface; roll dough out into a 16-inch square.

Sprinkle filling over dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border around edges. Roll up dough tightly, jelly-roll fashion; pinch seam and ends to seal. Holding dough by ends, twist dough 4 times as if wringing out a towel. Fit dough into prepared pan. Cover and let rise 45 minutes or until doubled in size*.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

To prepare streusel, combine powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, and 1 tablespoon softened butter, stirring with a fork until mixture is crumbly; sprinkle streusel evenly over dough. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until loaf is browned on bottom and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool bread in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool bread completely on wire rack before slicing.

* Oh my God. I just realised why my babka didn't rise as beautifully as I'd hoped. I DIDN'T LET IT RISE AFTER I ROLLED IT. It just went straight in the oven. Thank goodness for this blog and it's ability to help me engage in reflective practice about my baking.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Macarons

2010-05-29T18:42:00.002+10:00

We're going to a dinner party tonight so in the spirit of being a real grown up I thought I'd better whip something up to take as a gift for our hosts.

The macaron shell recipe is Tartlette's and I think I've finally got the hang of working with the batter. The whole 'no more than 40 strokes of the spoon' advice, while excellent, had me under mixing out of paranoia when I first attempted macarons a few months ago. So my advice to you is mix just the right amount, not too much, not too little. (Bet that doesn't help at all, it's very vague Yiayia-esque cooking advice!)

The white chocolate and raspberry filling is my own creation. 200g Green and Black's White Chocolate*, 70ml pouring cream and half a punnet of pureed raspberries. Pulverise the chocolate in a food processor and put it in a bowl, bring cream to the boil in a saucepan and then pour into the chocolate, whisking. Whisk in raspberry puree and then leave to cool to room temperature, whisking every fifteen minutes or so. Fill macarons. Eat.

* Organic AND Fair Trade, which after watching Paul Kenyon's documentary Chocolate: The Bitter Truth is the only kind of chocolate to buy and cook with. If you use chocolate at all (I briefly attempted a chocolate free household but quickly learned that this may well be the quickest pathway to divorce when your husband's a chocoholic.) Lately we've been shopping at Eveleigh Markets where all stallholders must be the producers of whatever they're selling, eliminating the possibility of imported produce being the product of child labour and human trafficking. But we can't make or grow everything in this climate.

Daring Baker's Challenge: Croquembouche!

2010-05-27T07:35:00.007+10:00

I LOVED this challenge. It's been my favourite of all the Daring Baker's challenges I've completed so far. It was also the first time I have successfully achieved toffee without burning it and having to throw out the saucepan. AND I didn't burn my fingers. AND it was a lovely opportunity to socialise as we received a series of visitors all keen to see (and eat) my creation. AND I got to buy some beautiful edible flowers from the markets.

I started the recipe by making some choux pastry, however found the dough very eggy and runny. When I pulled the choux out of the oven they hadn't risen into perfect puffs but looked a little more like hamburger buns which, in search of perfection, I rejected. I do admit that they were great fillers at the end of the process when I needed to balance my croquembouche.

For the next batch of choux I used the simple choux recipe from my Masterchef cookbook which was very similar to the Daring Baker's recipe but with one less egg and no sugar. It puffed up beautifully so I was very happy.

The pastry cream recipe was the easiest and best tasting recipe I've ever tried. I made a half batch of vanilla cream and a half batch of chocolate cream. It was a great thickness for piping into the choux.

After I'd filled the choux it was time to make the toffee, and again I took the advice of my Masterchef cookbook which involved a caster sugar and liquid glucose toffee recipe. For a while I was worried it wouldn't work because for about 15 minutes it just looked like this:

Thankfully it turned into this:

Next I dipped the profiteroles half into the toffee and let them set on some baking paper.

The final steps were to fill up the croquembouche mold with the profiteroles, dipping them in a little more toffee as I went, before removing the mold and decorating the tower with spun sugar and flowers. I had no idea spun sugar would be so fun or so messy!

What amazed me was how easy the whole process was. I think I'd demonised it in my head a little after seeing the Zumbo croquembouche challenge on Masterchef last year. The sense of achievement at the end of the challenge was enormous, there was much shrieking and jumping with joy when the croquembouche came out of the mold intact and beautiful.

I'll leave you with the recipe for pastry cream because it really was perfect.

The Fabulous Pastry Cream Recipe (Half Batch)

1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk

2 Tbsp. cornstarch6 Tbsp.

(100 g.) sugar

1 large egg2 large egg yolks

2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter

1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.
Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla. Pour into ceramic or stainless steel bowl, cover with Glad Wrap touching the custard to prevent a skin forming, and refrigerate until cold.

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Caramel Cake

2010-05-16T19:00:00.002+10:00

The visual disaster that was Nigella's Gin and Tonic Jelly was intended to be a Mother's Day dinner dessert, so in light of it's 6pm failure I had to find another dessert recipe to make, and pronto. Cue a quick search of Smitten Kitchen and the discovery of this caramel cake recipe.

It's basically a vanilla butter cake dressed up with caramel topping and gosh it's lovely. I think it will become my emergency-people-are-coming-over-in-five-minutes cake to bake.

The next day I fed Dad and Rahul pieces that I microwaved for 30 seconds which came out looking just like some kind of vanilla caramel pudding and would have been perfect with a scoop of ice cream. Yum.

Pina Colada Cake

2010-05-12T19:07:00.004+10:00

This Sky High recipe has been on my baking shortlist for ages. Last weekend my friend Alice was visiting from Perth and organised a big enough gathering of people to justify making this monster cake. It was delicious and very different from my usual choices that always involve food colouring or chocolate!

The recipe involved making:

Brown Sugar Cake

Ingredients
(3 3/4 cups plain flour; 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 tsp salt; 2 1/4 cups packed brown sugar; 225g softened unsalted butter; 1 3/4 cups buttermilk; 5 eggs and 2 tsp vanilla extract)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C and butter and line three 8 inch cake tins with baking paper
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
Mix in the brown sugar and the butter and 1 1/2 cups of the buttermilk with the speed on low (be careful if you are using a stand mixer like I did, there was a wave like min explosion out of the bowl at this point because the buttermilk didn't immediately mix in! Add it gradually.)
Beat until light and fluffy (on a medium mixer speed)
Whisk the eggs with the remaining buttermilk and add to the batter in 3 additions, beating only well enough to incorporate between additions
Divide amongst the pans and bakie for 25 to 28 minutes
Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn out and cool on a wire rack

Pineapple Filling

Ingredients(1 can crushed pineapple juice with no added sugar; 1/4 cup lime juice; 1 cup sugar; 1 tsp coconut essence)

Method

Combine the pineapple, lime juice and sugar in a saucepan and warm over medium-low heat until the sugar has dissolved, about 2-3 minutes.
Raise the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the juices have almost evaporated and it has a jam like consistency
Remove from heat, add the coconut essence and cool.

Assembly

Splash each layer of cake with rum (unless you are serving to a pregnant person!) and then spread with the pineapple mixture.

Cover with Seven Minute Frosting (I used coconut essence instead of vanilla) and top with coconut. Pretty!

Epic fail: Nigella's Gin and Tonic Jelly

2010-05-07T15:05:00.003+10:00

What I can't work out is why this was such a disaster. I absolutely 100% followed the recipe to the dot. However I worked from the recipe in How To Be A Domestic Goddess which specified 8 gelatin leaves, and today during my online search for what went wrong I found the same recipe on Nigella's website except this recipe called for 15 gelatin leaves. Interesting, very interesting. I can now assume that the online freebie version is best, and the version in the book that costs money and takes effort to acquire is a dud. I have heard other people bemoan quantity inaccuracies in Nigella's recipes before but until today I had cooked away at them unscathed.

A minute after I took this photograph of my jelly it did a massive surge towards the edge of the plate and about a quarter of it oozed onto the bench. I've poured the remainder* back into the mold and it's sitting in the fridge while I work out what to do with it. I thought possibly a trifle, but then the idea of gin and tonic with lemon curd and vanilla cake sounds kind of repulsive, and that was the best combination I could come up with.

Thank the lord for my best friend Smitten Kitchen. I now have a caramel cake in the oven baking and filling the house with delicious smells. Maybe the jelly will be weekend breakfasts, which sounds like the sort of thing Oscar Wilde might have eaten before hanging out in opium dens for the rest of the day. Glamour.

*Minus a cup I had for afternoon tea because you need a stiff drink when your dessert fails at the last minute.

UPDATE: We ended up eating the jelly as a pre-dessert item, possibly what they call a palate cleanser? It was delicious delicious delicious. But extremely potent to the point that I went bright red and had to have a little lie down on the couch afterwards. But we all know I am a lightweight, everyone else was just fine.

Sonoma Artisan Sourdough Bakery

2010-05-03T18:02:00.003+10:00

I love Sonoma bread, it's earthy and delicious. Thankfully it's available fresh at both Eveleigh Markets and Orange Grove Markets, our two local haunts. I've been reading about the bakery cafe at Waterloo for some time now but never really connected the actual location with any other desirable destinations. On the weekend we were on the hunt for some wardrobe door handles (don't get me started) and found ourself in Danks Street, Waterloo, which seems to get nicer every time I venture over there. And now, after realising that Sonoma was across the street from my doorknob destination, I consider it even nicer still.

Historically I have been a bit dubious about 'bakery/cafe's' possibly going back to the days when I worked in one and dished out many dried out pies and quiches from an ageing pie warmer. And sometimes we had cheese'n'bacon scrolls on offer. Elegant.

At Sonoma there are no wrinkled pies in sight, just cabinets of delicious looking sandwiches. Chicken and tarragon is a winning combination, and this sandwich was no exception.

The coffee was good too.

We also had an eggplant, tomato and mozzarella sandwich. Eggplant can be a bit risky, often brine-y and chewy, but this was lovely and soft. The cheese was thinly sliced so as not to be overpowering.

Sonoma is definitely worth a visit. Especially if your soul needs soothing after staring at door furniture!

Ricotta and Parmesan Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

2010-04-30T18:32:00.003+10:00

Zucchini flowers are abundant at the grower's market at the moment which is total bliss for me, and at a mere $5 for 8-10 flowers there's no reason not to eat them every week.

Ricotta and Parmesan Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

Ingredients

8-10 zucchini flowers
200g ricotta cheese
A handful of grated parmesan
1 egg
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Method

A lot of people freak out about zucchini flowers because of their delicacy and the preparation involved in cooking with them. An easy rule of thumb is that the older the flowers, the more problematic the preparation. As they age the flowers start to wilt and stick together, shrinking slightly. It follows that they will therefore be more difficult to clean and stuff.

With nice fresh flowers you should be able to gently separate the petals and see a bright yellow stamen inside, which must be removed. All you need to do is flick the stamen with your fingernail and it will detach and can be gently shaken out of the flower. Be gentle because the petals will tear very easily.

Once you've removed the stamens give the flowers and the attached baby zucchini a gentle wipe with a damp paper towel to clean them.

Mix together the ricotta, parmesan, egg and some salt and pepper.

Put the mixture into a ziplock bag and seal the bag, doing your best to remove excess air. You can also use a piping bag and nozzle but I prefer the ziplock method because once you're done you just chuck it straight in the bin. So easy. Cut off one corner of the bag, insert into each zucchini flower and gently pipe in the mixture. Don't pipe all the way to the top or your zucchini flower will pop or leak when you cook it. Once it's full gently press the tops of the petals together and place the flower onto a lined baking tray. Once all the flowers have been done drizzle with olive oil and place in a 190 degree oven and bake for 15-2o minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve on a bed of dressed rocket. Devour.

Guest Post: Marley's Far Out Brussel Sprout

2010-04-29T08:32:00.004+10:00

A while ago I posted a variation of Marley's 'super awesome' chewy cookie recipe, which is still in my opinion the best and most adaptable cookie recipe around. Marley is also an avid cook of 'healthful' meals, and this midweek supper that she emailed me about is no exception.

This supper was created when I planned to make risotto but had a change of heart re: standing in the kitchen on my lonesome and stirring rice for half an hour. The risotto I had planed involved leeks, bacon, Brussels sprouts, fennel seeds and ricotta – an unusual but winning combination of flavours I came up with last Autumn when leeks and sprouts were plentiful at the Aldi. Bacon and fennel seeds (and chilli) make Brussels sprouts sing with joy, and leeks I find are a nice substitute for, or addition to, onion in a risotto.

Anyhoo. Couldn’t be arsed with the risotto, but had a small amount of risoni (rice-shaped pasta) to hand. Delicious creation ensued (served 2 greedy piglets; probably could’ve served 3 more restrained persons).

Marley's Far Out Brussel Sprout

Ingredients

2 large handfuls of Brussels sprouts. I used a whole 500g pre-packaged bag from the Aldi. (They’re good for you. Don’t be shy.)
2 teasp fennel seeds, crushed a just a little in a mortar and pestle
4-6 rashers of bacon (depending on greed) trimmed of rind and excess fat and chopped into matchsticks
1 teasp brown sugar
2-3 courgettes, chopped into chunks (make a straight cut then an angled cut then a straight cut etc – result is nice pyramid-ish chunks)
150-200g risoni (could be increased to a normal 125-150g serve per person, but using the lesser quantity means the result is less of a pasta dish and more of a ‘dish involving pasta’, which was a more unusual and also lighter result)
Zest of ½ a lemon
2 tabs ricotta (I used low fat)

Method

Score the sprouts with a criss-cross on their heads – cut as far down the sprout as you can without totally splitting it, except for giant ones, which are best split in half. Scoring the sprouts means they cook more quickly and absorb more flavours through the increased surface area. Parboil them in well-salted water – they should be softened but still crunchy at the core.

Fry the bacon and fennel seeds in a large frypan with lots of black pepper and a generous amount of olive oil. Add par-boiled sprouts – save their water, and just scoop them out with a slotted spoon or similar into the frypan. Add a splash more olive oil if necessary, and the sugar for maximum caramelisation. Shake frypan vigorously, making sure sprouts are well covered with oil and bacon and fennel seeds, and the bacon is well crisped, and the whole thing is caramelizing a little and smelling fantastic. Turn off heat when deemed appropriate/ smoke alarm going off.

Meanwhile cook the risoni in the sprouts water (speeds things up – water is already boiled, and as a bonus, has the nutrients from the sprouts). When only 5 mins remaining, add the courgettes.

Drain and add to frypan – turn heat back on for a bit if necessary, ditto add a little more olio – then add ricotta and lemon zest. Stir well.

Serve in deep bowls and HUGELY ENJOY.

I can see this becoming a weekly dish in our house. The flavours and textures were exciting, yet the overall effect was ‘comfort food’ – but without the stodginess usually associated with comfort food! Perfect! The lovely caramelised sprouts had their aniseed flavour brought out by the fennel seeds and offset by crispy salty bacon and nutty risoni, and the courgettes played a very nice supporting role as textural variety and flavour-absorbers. The ricotta brought it all together, and the lemon zest was last-minute genius.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

2010-04-23T17:38:00.004+10:00

These cupcakes are also known as bribes. We had a big workshop at work today and I thought these would be an excellent motivator for my team at morning tea time. The downside was that we all peaked after the big sugar hit and spent the latter part of the day having withdrawals.

I love red velvet cake. The colour of the mixture just makes me smile.
The colour will change a little during the baking, to a deeper more raspberry red. This did confuse a few of my colleagues who were surprised to find that the cake is really a mild chocolate and vanilla cake. Go red food colouring. If you only eat organic or have a child with ADHD this cake is not for you. I think the taste makes it worth any possible carcinogenic properties.

Magnolia Bakery's Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups plain flour
170g unsalted butter*
2 1/4 cups caster sugar
3 large eggs*
6 tablespoons of red food colouring (I use Queen Pillar Box Red)
3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk*
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Method

Line two 24 hole muffin tins with cupcake liners
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius
In a small bowl sift the flour and set aside
Cream the butter and sugar on the medium speed of a mixer (KitchenAid or hand) until they are very light and fluffy, it's almost impossible to over beat at this stage so aim for about 5 minutes
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, aim for about 1 minute per egg
In a small bowl whisk together the cocoa, red colouring and vanilla, then add to the batter and beat well
In a measuring cup stir together the buttermilk and the salt, and then beat into the batter alternating with the flour until the ingredients are just mixed. Do not overbeat at this stage or you will end up with a very dry cake.
In a small bowl mix together the cider vinegar and the baking soda and then add to the cake mixture and mix it in well. Make sure that you scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula so that all of the ingredients are thoroughly mixed in.
Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 full, this mixture will rise quite a lot so overfilling can lead to disaster
Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in tho the centre of a cupcake comes out clean
Cool and ice with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

450g cream cheese (I use light Philadelphia)*
6 tablespoons unsalted butter*
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla
5 cups sifted icing sugar

Method

In a large bowl on the medium speed of an electric mixer beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, about 3 minutes.
Add the vanilla and beat well.
Gradually add the sugar a cup at a time, beating continuously until smooth and creamy.
Cover and refrigerate the icing for 2-3 hours to thicken before using. Don't leave it any longer or it will become too hard to work with.

*Always allow cold ingredients to come to room temperature before using them (unless otherwise specified, for example in pastry recipes). It will make the whole mixing process so much easier and gives a much better result.

Moi

2010-04-21T18:15:00.002+10:00

I am besotted with Monsieur Boudin. I really identify with his sausage dawgie self. I bought this lovely card designed by Lab Partners with the intention of giving it away but now I'm inclined to frame it and put it on the wall. Is that weird?

Incidentally, Mr Boudin's Parisienne adventures along with Cakespy's amazing descriptions or Laduree, Cafe Angelina and Pierre Herme are making me want to break open the piggy bank and jump on a plane to France.

Pear and Treacle Upside Down Cake

2010-04-21T17:38:00.004+10:00

I have to stop buying pears. Every time we go to the market I admire how they're looking and then convince myself that we really will eat them for morning tea. A week later and I'm faced with an empty fruit bowl bar the pears. Pear cake is the answer. Especially upside-down pear cake. The treacle in this recipe made everybody who tried it ask if it was a type of gingerbread, but ginger haters will be glad to know that there is in fact no ginger in the cake.

Pear and Treacle Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients

2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
250g melted butter
2-3 pears cut into thick slices
1 cup treacle
2 eggs
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, sifted
2 cups plain flour, sifted
1/2 cup almond meal
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
200ml buttermilk

Method

Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced.
Lightly grease and line either a deep 23cm square cake tins, or two 7” round cake tins. I used two tins so that we could eat one cake and gift the other!
Mix together half a cup of brown sugar and a third of a cup of the melted butter and spread over the base of the pan/s. Lay the pear slices over the top of the mixture.
Place the remaining butter in a large bowl and mix in treacle, eggs, soda, flour almond meal, cinnamon and remaining sugar, and then mix through the buttermilk. Pour batter over pears. Bake for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes (for the single square tin) or 1 hour (for the two round tins) or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. It never hurts to test!
Cool in the tin for ten minutes before turning out onto a plate. The cake was lovely eaten warm with ice cream or cold later on. And you can bung a piece in the microwave for the next few days and have it like a hot pudding.

Smitten Kitchen Week

2010-04-17T15:19:00.002+10:00

I have loved reading Smitten Kitchen from the day I discovered the world of blogging. It's where I first read about Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes. It's where my Mum discovered potato kugel. Deb's recipes are fantastic.

So this week all our meals will be cooked using recipes from Smitten Kitchen. Smitten Kitchen Week. Like National Diabetes week. Only better. And not good for diabetics at all.

Today I have two hungry painters upstairs working hard so I thought it was the least I could do was kick of the week of Smitten Kitchen and whip up a Wild Mushroom and Stilton* Galette which turned out to be absolutely delicious. I will definitely make the pastry again because it was very very easy to work with and had a lovely mild sour cream flavour.

* I have to confess that I used gorgonzola instead of stilton, and my it was good.

Guest Post: A LANYC Peanut Butter Dinner Party

2010-04-15T14:29:00.003+10:00

When the lovely LANYC emailed me to share her excitement at the planning of a peanut butter themed dinner party I knew it was going to be a blog-worthy event. I am relieved to see that one of LANYC's original ideas ("I also have this bizzare desire to make a version of devils on horseback with prunes stuffed with pb, wrapped in bacon and grilled. Gross or yum?") did not end up featuring on the final menu.

The Peanut Butter Dinner Party

By LANYC

'Starters'

Peanut butter salsa

Peanut butter hummus with crudites and tortilla chips

Mains

West African Peanut stew with sweet potato and kale

Mexican peanut butter brisket (for eating in soft torilla tacos with homemade pink pickled beets, onions, purple cabbage and cilantro 'slaw)

Smoked and seared tofu skewers with coconut peanut satay sauce

Dessert

Chocolate banana peanut butter cream pie with graham cracker crust

Peanut butter cheesecake pie with oreo crust

Whew. The surprise hit was the salsa. I made this complex peanut butter mexican marinade thinger but then I decided that the menu needed more fresh tasting things so I stuck it back in the food processor with a tin of tomatos, some pickled jalapenos, ground cummin, bunch of cilantro, green onion, red onion and heaps of lime juice and salt. Whiz whiz went the blades, delicious went the salsa. The brisket was also hilariously good - I recommend giving it a go, though it's very very rich.

The pies were tweaked from Joy the Baker and the Pioneer Woman and I used ganache instead of plain melted choc for the first recipe, and made my own version of vanilla custard for the banana layer. In the second recipe - I refuse to use Cool Whip (frozen non-diary 'cream' is foulest chemical thing ever) - so substituted cream whipped with a bit of italian meringue.I'm going to have to do a second peanut butter dinner just so as I can make the sour cream cake and some of the other things I found when researching this menu. I'd still like to do a trashy dinner with elvis sandwiches and the amended devils on horseback... Perhaps peanut butter mac and cheese and peanut butter hamburgers for mains? Oh, the possiblities!

So is anybody inspired to have an 'unusually' themed dinner party any time soon?

Cinnamon Cocoa Fruit and Nut Bars

2010-04-11T12:37:00.008+10:00

In the spirit of recipe development this recipe is my own adaptation of Oui Chef's adaption of David Lebowitz's adaption of Alice Medrich's recipe. Ridiculous isn't it!

It's the kind of recipe that allows lots of flexibility and substitutions. Next time I might leave out the cocoa and add ground ginger and nutmeg and use some dried pears instead of cranberries. You get the picture.

If you're after something a bit safer then replicate the recipe below and you won't be disappointed. These bars are absolutely delicious.

Cinnamon Cocoa Fruit and Nut Bars

Ingredients

50g buckwheat flour
20g Dutch process cocoa
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
60g brown sugar
200g toasted nuts (hazelnuts, almonds, pecans and sunflower seeds)
170g dates, pitted and chopped
170g dried fruit (apricots and dried cranberries)
2 small eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Add fruit and nuts and mix well so that all the pieces separate and are coated with the dry mixture.Beat the eggs and vanilla and add to the fruit and nut mixture, coating everything thoroughly so that the mixture is well combined and glossy.

Spoon the mixture into a lined 8 inch square pan and press down with a fork so that it's spread evenly (and right into the corners.)

Bake at 160 degrees Celcius for 35-40 minutes, then remove from oven and allow to cool. Cut into 12 pieces and gobble.

Oh Martha you are good to me

2010-04-08T18:38:00.006+10:00

A few months ago I started reading The Food Librarian's blog and I think I've caught her obsession with bundt cakes. She did a whole month of bundt baking with the catch phrase 'I like big bundts' and I think I read every entry sighing over the beautiful array of bundt tins she has.

Rahul gave me a bundt tin as a wedding present (is that romance or what?!) and after filling it up with water to determine it's cup size (sounds like breasts, no?) I found that it is a 10-12 cup bund tin. Martha suggested making a Pear Spice Bundt Cake and because she never lets me down I did. The cake was a gift for friends so I have no personal account of it's taste, but I can tell you that when I licked the bowl the raw batter was mighty fine, as was the smell throughout the house as it baked.

Martha Stewart's Pear Spice Bundt Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup of sugar
5 pears peeled, cored and choppped into chunks
230g unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 and 3/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
4 large eggs
1/2 cup of milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius and butter and flour a 10-12 cup bundt pan.

In a saucepan spread the sugar evenly and cook over medium to high heat without stirring until it bubbles at the edges and begins to melt and turn golden, about 3-4 minutes. Stir slowly until all sugar has melted and the mixture is translucent and golden.

Add the pear chunks to the caramel and stir to coat, cook covered for about 8 minutes stirring occasionally. Using a potato masher mash the pears until they are broken down, then cook for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the pears cool completely.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices together in a medium bowl.

Cream the butter and brown sugar, then add the eggs one by one. Slowly add the flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the milk. Add the pear mixture and mix to combine. Be careful not to over mix.

Bake until the cake is a deep golden brown and the cake tester comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.

You can dust the cake with icing sugar to serve, or make a glaze as I did with 2tbsp milk mixed with 1 cup of icing sugar and a splash of caramel flavouring.

Tsoureki french toast with figs and cinnamon yoghurt

2010-04-06T20:32:00.002+10:00

The perfect Easter Monday indulgent breakfast. Tsoureki is essentially a Greek brioche which tends to be made at Easter time (although nothing prohibits Tsoureki bliss happening throughout the year.) This year Greek Orthodox Easter fell on the same weekend as regular run of the mill Christian Easter, and with Greek Easter comes an enormous lunch after which you leave my grandmother's house laden with leftovers and your loaf of her home baked tsoureki.
Over the years I am learning that you can do a lot with tsoureki. If you're smart you put it in the freezer and bring it out for bread and butter pudding on a cold winter evening when you're in need of the comfort that childhood favourites bring (and the accompanying belly.)

Or you can do what I did and make the woggiest breakfast ever (with the exception of the French toast concept. Which presumably is American not French. Odd.)

Rahul claims that he has loved figs ever since he saw them being eaten like apples in an episode of the Sopranos, my father likes to find a fig seller that he can spiritually connect with, it's safe to say that they are the the woggiest fruit around. Especially if you team them with Greek yoghurt with some cinnamon and brown sugar mixed through it. Top it with a drizzle of maple syrup and you're in business. It really was lovely. I'm going to mourn the end of this year's fig season.

Mustaches are dapper

2010-04-03T20:22:00.005+11:00

I bought some mustache chocolate moulds months ago when I placed my giant Bake It Pretty order. Around this time I was planning what I hope was a modern and elegant wedding for Rahul and I, but I was also harbouring secret fantasies of an alternative wedding-a-palooza. My imaginary wedding would have had single flowers in jam jars or Orangina bottles which could have been place settings for the lady guests, I'm thinking letterpress labels tied to the bottles with twine. Mustaches, flowers, you're asking where the segueway is. Here you have it. Place settings for the men would have been chocolate mustaches with little name flags tied to them. This wedding would also have had a mariachi band and a pinata. It would have been awesome.

Thankfully my moulds have not gone to waste. My brother is a mustache lover. Not so much on his face, but he has tattooed a mustache on to the inside of his index finger. Nothing brightens a dull day more quickly than a tattooed tache held to the upper lip. Pair that with a silly face and you can't go wrong. So Ben is receiving a box of chocolate mustaches in lieu of eggs this Easter. Happy Easter Bee xxx

Kourambiethes (and a couple of gratuitous 'dress' shots)

2010-04-02T08:58:00.004+11:00

See the beautiful icing sugar sprinkled crescents in the middle of the shot? They are kourambiethes, Greek almond shortbread made my my Yiayia. For years my family have been trying to record Yiayia's recipes however we are invariably foiled by her memory for recipes. She doesn't really measure, the trick is to use the 'right amount' of any particular ingredient.

At Christmas time Yiayia gave me some money to spend on a gift for myself and I thought it was appropriate to buy George Colombaris' 'Greek Cookery from the Helenic Heart'. It's a fantastic book with so many familiar recipes, even some that my Yiayia hasn't cooked in many years. And of course it has a recipe for kourambiethes.

Kourambiethes
Makes approximately 24 biscuits

Ingredients:

340 g unsalted butter at room temperature
110 g icing sugar
340 g plain flour
1 cup toasted slivered almonds
1 vanilla pod halved and scraped
Extra plain flour for dusting
Extra icing sugar for dusting
1 tsp salt

Method:

Beat butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.
Add plain flour, salt, almonds and vanilla scrapings and stir with a spoon until just combined.
Knead mixture on a floured bench until a soft dough forms, without being sticky.
Divide dough into 50g portions and roll into crescent shapes.
Space out on a lightly greased baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 165 C for 10 minutes, turn the tray and bake for a further 10 minutes until lightly golden.
Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack. Dust a sheet of baking paper with icing sugar. while the biscuits are still warm (not hot) place the biscuits on the paper and dust with icing until completely covered. Allow to cool.

And finally to continue with the wedding theme, a few totally unrelated dress shots as requested by Ms NQN!

Our wedding cake

2010-04-01T16:18:00.004+11:00

Ages ago I raved on and on about how excited I was to have Libby from Polka Dot make our wedding cake. Here it is in all it's glory... ain't she pretty?

Thinking about Easter

2010-03-28T14:32:00.002+11:00

Isn't he cute? Chicks always make me think of the Royal Easter Show. One of the best things about the show is watching the fluffy little fellows wander around under their heat lamp and go down their waterslide.

Rather than overload friends and family with chocolate this Easter I'm going to make some different sweet treats to give as gifts. For the kids* in our family I'm going to make cupcakes, and I've come up with some very sweet decorating options.

My little kitchen table workshop has been busy.

Which one do you like best? I'm a bit partial to the yellow.

* The age range of the 'kids' at family events is 16-32 so I'm not sure how long we'll keep that tag for...

Daring Baker's Challenge: Orange Tian

2010-03-27T11:54:00.005+11:00

Caramel and orange. So French. So chic. (I'm sure that's some kind of advertising catch-phrase that I'm parroting but hey, why not.)

This was a good challenge mainly because I developed some new kitchen skills. I have had a fear of making caramel for a long time, and I've never made a jam or marmalade before, so to succeed in both made me happy.

The base of the tian is a pate sable. I gave myself a mental pat on the back for freezing the leftover cinnamon almond pate sable I made for the Zumbo chocolate mousse cake.

Oranges have to be segmented and covered in an orange caramel sauce.

And then you make some marmalade. Pectin was my friend.
I haven't got any photos of the assembly of the dessert because it was too dark but the tian is assembled upside down with the oranges arranged prettily at the bottom, a cream mixture in the middle, and a circle of pate sable spread with marmalade on top.

Let them set and turn them out.

And then finish with a drizzle of caramel.

The 2010 March Daring Baker's challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse's Cooking School in Paris.

Strawberry Rocky Road Ice Cream

2010-03-21T10:17:00.005+11:00

When I was growing up my mum used to make this ice cream when she had dinner parties. I remember lurking around the kitchen in the hope of stealing a bit of rocky road or at the very least getting to try a spoonful of the strawberry ice cream.

You wouldn't know it from the recipes I've blogged recently, but ice cream is my favourite summer dessert. Rahul and I were lucky enough to receive an ice cream maker with a built in refrigeration unit as a wedding gift and this weekend we put it to good use.

The recipe is from the Bather's Pavilion Cookbook, which was published in 1995 and bears no resemblance to the book of that name currently for sale which is full of Serge Dansereau's recipes. The original cookbook pre dates Serge Dansereau, who references European, particularly French cuisine. His predecessors, and writers of the 1995 cookbook, Victoria Alexander and Genevieve Harris created a menu of fresh Asian inspired dishes including chilli spatchcock with snake bean salad, tea and spice smoked quails with eggplant and stir fried beans and venison, tamarind and tempe hot pot.

I suppose this style of cooking would be unremarkable in 2010, but in 1995 you wouldn't have seen thai beef salad on every second cafe menu.

Stawberry Rocky Road Ice Cream

Ingredients

6 egg yolks
1 cup caster sugar
500ml pouring cream (single)
2 cups strawberries
1/4 cup strawberry liqueur
Rocky Road (DIY or just buy some from the supermarket)

Heat the cream in a large saucepan until it's almost boiling. I used a thermometer to check the temperature and pulled my cream off the stove when it was about 80 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks and the sugar in a bowl until they are pale and creamy. Pour the hot cream into the yolk and sugar mixture and whisk quickly and continuously until it's well combined. If you've heated the cream too much this is where it will make trouble for you because it will cook the egg yolks quickly and causing a scrambled egg effect rather than a smooth mixture.

Put the mixture back on the stove and stir continuously over low heat. You can see the mixture is quite thin and pale initially.

Continue to stir until the mixture becomes a thick custard and coats the back of a wooden spoon. I always find this instruction a bit confusing but in essence it means that the mixture is thick enough to hit the spoon and then not immediately slide off. The mixture will become quite yellow by this stage.

Remove the custard from the heat and put it through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. This will remove any lumps that may have formed.

Leave it to cool down while you prepare the strawberry mixture which is very easy. Wash and hull two cups of strawberries and blitz them in the food processor until they are liquid.

Strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve to remove and lumps and large seeds. You should have about 1 1/4 cups of strained strawberry puree.

Get our your strawberry liqueur. I chose this brand because it proclaimed a 'wild' strawberry flavour and was slightly less lurid than some of the others available. Whether this made any difference to the final product I can't say!

Combine the custard, strawberry puree and liqueur and give it a good mix.
Put it in the fridge until it cools down. Once it's cool churn it in the ice cream maker in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

When it reaches a good consistency remove from the maker and stir through chunks of rocky road, then freeze. Keep some rocky road for decoration if you like.

I made rocky road with Lindt milk chocolate, almost slivers and Pascal marshmallows. I prefer it home made but you can use the bought stuff.

Taste of Sydney 2010

2010-03-15T18:01:00.005+11:00

16 iconic Sydney restaurants. 48 tasting dishes to choose from. 90 'Crowns' to spend. And only 4 hours to do it in. According to the organisers it was the ultimate opportunity to create your own degustation menu, and that we did.

All the food and drinks ranged from 6 to 12 Crowns, Crowns being the 'official currency' of the event. Having a booklet of coupons made paying for food easy, there were no queues or searches for ATMs. Plus it put me in a Disneyland kind of mood, with another currency we were practically on holidays.

In a moment of brilliance, Rahul and I had decided to do a spin class a few hours before arriving at the festival, so by the time we walked in the gates we were famished. I sounded like some kind of junkie, desperately telling Rahul I needed 'something to take the edge off.'

This something turned out to be the famed wagyu beef burger from Justin North's Becasse offshoot, Plan B. I've seen references to the wonder of this burger all over the print and internet media, and when Rahul went to Plan B for lunch a few weeks ago I told him he had to try it but sadly it wasn't on the menu that day.

All I can say is that it totally lives up to the hype. 12 Crowns well spent. We were also given a booklet containing some of the recipes from the day, including this burger. I was slightly alarmed to find that a four burger recipe contained not only 400g of wagyu beef, but another 100g of wagyu fat. Which brings me to another important festival feature, all of the servings were miniature versions of the real menu item.

Longrain is one of Rahul's favourite restaurants, but one I haven't been to, so I was itching to try some of their food. The yellow curry of Byron Bay Berkshire Pork with pickled mustard greens was amazing. The pork was incredibly tender and the curry strong and rich, so the pickle provided a great bitey contrast.

We also tried the Faggotini di Carne from Buon Ricordo which was a 'home made sausage bound with parmesan and truffle egg', grilled king prawns with black pepper and curry leaf sauce from Flying Fish and manchego and serrano montaditos from El Toro Loco which turned out to be a toasted cheese and ham sandwich. Quite ironic because after pondering the enormous menu we decided to try something which was outside our comfort zone, which cheese and ham sandwiches certainly aren't. In fact I think that ham and cheese toasties are a universal cuisine!

Eventually I persuaded Rahul that it was dessert time and therefore time to order a vanilla panna cotta with lavendar honey and fresh pomegranite from Jonah's. The service staff are obviously highly aware of this pudding's reputation of looking like a wobbly boobie, and gave it a good circular swing and jiggle as they served it. It was hands down the best panna cotta I've ever eaten, the combination of lavendar, honey, vanilla and pomegranite was perfect.

We took a little break from eating to do a Planet Cake cupcake decorating lesson with Handi, whom you might remember from Masterchef. We had a scintillating discussion with Handi about how he can eat lots of cake but remains trim svelte from the physical exertion of carrying giant cakes around. Hilarious. Planet Cake were running free classes five minutes apart all day, and teaching a range of cupcake designs. Rahul ate his about two minutes after the class finished, but you can still see what a top job he did despite only a half dragonfly visible below!

By three o'clock we were about ready to be rolled home, but with my few remaining Crowns I bought a Pat and Stick's Caramel Pecan Ice Cream which is basically an incredibly up market Monaco Bar. So good. I've since been scheming about how I could make one at home using mini cake rings and my new ice cream maker (more on that later!)

All I can say is bring on Taste of Sydney 2011.

High Tea at the Art Gallery of NSW

2010-03-12T17:12:00.003+11:00

Unfortunately, trying to eat healthily is very incompatible with food blogging. The more health conscious cooking regime means that sweets can be cooked or consumed in the following circumstances:

(a) if they are a gift for someone else, and therefore cannot be eaten by me
(b) for birthday, Christmas, Easter and other 'special occasions'
(c) if I'm out at a restaurant
(d) if friends come over to visit

Luckily for me last week there were two birthdays in my family, culminating in a visit to the Art Gallery of NSW for high tea. I loved the selection of food, and the coffee was fantastic.

The top tier was a sandwich selection - chicken waldorf and grilled vegetable and ricotta. No cucumber sandwiches in sight which was great because frankly the combination of cucumber and butter in enough to make me projective vomit.

The second tier was bruschetta, which I didn't try due to an overload of raw Spanish onion which gives me heartburn. I sound like a whinger today. I did eat many of the duck dumplings though, which had a perfect hint of lemongrass and a great dipping sauce.

The bottom tier was of course the highlight of my eating experience. Scones are of course a classic high tea choice, and in my eyes always a winner. Especially when they are served with raspberry jam and beautiful slightly whipped cream with flecks of vanilla through it.

The coconut, mango and raspberry cake (it had a much prettier sounding name but I can't remember it so I'll just call it how it is!) was fine, with a very moist coconut base and an airy kind of mango custardy mousse middle. The mousse part felt like it might dissolve in my mouth, but not in a good way, like a bad marshmallow. Definitely not a favourite.

Redemption came in the form of the passionfruit tart with chocolate meringue topping.

The passionfruit curd was great, and the meringue topping was like a better version of 7 minute frosting. Winner.

I'm glad the trend for high tea is back, it's like the olde English version of yum cha.

Cadbury Creme Eggs. Are you a lover or a hater?

2010-03-05T13:10:00.004+11:00

I am a lover. I thought everyone was. Recently my illusions have been shattered as Cadbury Creme Egg haters have been revealing themselves to me.

The other day I discovered something that put my love to the test. Cadbury Creme Eggs Benedict, invented by Cakespy. It's all sweet, made of doughnuts, brownies, buttercream frosting, melted Creme Eggs, pound cake* and of course butter, and this is what it looks like:

So lovers, would you try it?

* I read about pound cake all the time and I assume it's just a vanilla butter cake. Today I decided it was time to advance my knowledge. According to Wikipedia pound cake refers to a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. However, the quantity is often changed to suit the size of the cake that is desired. How cool is that!

A birthday gift

2010-03-03T17:20:00.007+11:00

What could be a more appropriate gift for a Frenchman than blackberry and chocolate macarons? I used powdered food colouring for these macarons, and what a revelation it was, it's perfect to achieve pastel rather than fluorescent tones.

Daring Baker's Challenge: Tiramisu

2010-02-27T16:18:00.001+11:00

When I first read this month's challenge was tiramusu I thought, easy, not even a challenge. Then I continued reading and discovered that it would involve making everything from scratch including the savoiardi biscuits and mascarpone cheese, plus zabaglione and pastry cream.

I should never have doubted the challenging nature of this recipe. I am sure that this doubt came back as a karmic bite in the arse when my first lot of mascarpone cheese failed dismally. I've never made a recipe that relies to heavily on getting a liquid to a certain temperature, and I learned the hard way what when a recipe says 190 degrees, heat it to 190 degrees. 170 degrees isn't the same as 190. I had to watch half a kilo of mascarpone drain through a muslin covered strainer and straight down the drain.

I also ended up making two batches of savoiardi, one to dip in espresso and layer in the tiramisu, and one to decorate the tiramisu cake I made. The second round of biscuits were better than the first, I had a better idea of the ideal texture and baking size of the biscuits.

LADYFINGERS/ SAVOIARDI BISCUITS

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
6 tablespoons /75gms granulated sugar
3/4 cup/95gms cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)
6 tablespoons /50gms confectioner's sugar,

Method: Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add granulate sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.
Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5" long and 3/4" wide strips leaving about 1" space in between the strips.
Sprinkle half the confectioner's sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.
Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.
Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.
Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.
Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

The first batch of savoiardi

MASCARPONE CHEESE

Ingredients:
474ml (approx. 500ml)/ 2 cups whipping (36 %) pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), preferably organic cream (between 25% to 36% cream will do)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Method:Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. If you do not have a thermometer, wait until small bubbles keep trying to push up to the surface.
It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.
Vera’s notes: The first time I made mascarpone I had all doubts if it’d been cooked enough, because of its custard-like texture. Have no fear, it will firm up beautifully in the fridge, and will yet remain lusciously creamy.
Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

Mascarpone before it set overnight

Mascarpone after it set, lovely and thick

TIRAMISU

Ingredients:
For the zabaglione:
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar/50gms
1/4 cup/60ml Marsala wine (or port or coffee)
1/4 teaspoon/ 1.25ml vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

For the vanilla pastry cream:
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1 tablespoon/8gms all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup/175ml whole milk

For the whipped cream:
1 cup/235ml chilled heavy cream (we used 25%)
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract

To assemble the tiramisu:
2 cups/470ml brewed espresso, warmed
1 teaspoon/5ml rum extract (optional)
1/2 cup/110gms sugar
1/3 cup/75gms mascarpone cheese
36 savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits (you may use less)
2 tablespoons/30gms unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:
For the zabaglione:
Heat water in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a pot with about an inch of water in it on the stove. Place a heat-proof bowl in the pot making sure the bottom does not touch the water.
In a large mixing bowl (or stainless steel mixing bowl), mix together the egg yolks, sugar, the Marsala (or espresso/ coffee), vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk together until the yolks are fully blended and the mixture looks smooth.
Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler or place your bowl over the pan/ pot with simmering water. Cook the egg mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes or until it resembles thick custard. It may bubble a bit as it reaches that consistency.
Let cool to room temperature and transfer the zabaglione to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the pastry cream:
Mix together the sugar, flour, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolk and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.Add the remaining milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. (If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer.)Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the whipped cream:
Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or immersion blender until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Set aside.

All the ingredients ready to go

To assemble the tiramisu:
Have ready a rectangular serving dish (about 8" by 8" should do) or one of your choice.Mix together the warm espresso, rum extract and sugar in a shallow dish, whisking to mix well. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese with a spoon to break down the lumps and make it smooth. This will make it easier to fold. Add the prepared and chilled zabaglione and pastry cream, blending until just combined.

Pastry cream, zabaglione and mascarpone

Gently fold in the whipped cream. Set this cream mixture aside.

Now to start assembling the tiramisu.
Workings quickly, dip 12 of the ladyfingers in the sweetened espresso, about 1 second per side. They should be moist but not soggy. Immediately transfer each ladyfinger to the platter, placing them side by side in a single row. You may break a lady finger into two, if necessary, to ensure the base of your dish is completely covered.
Spoon one-third of the cream mixture on top of the ladyfingers, then use a rubber spatula or spreading knife to cover the top evenly, all the way to the edges.
Repeat to create 2 more layers, using 12 ladyfingers and the cream mixture for each layer. Clean any spilled cream mixture; cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate the tiramisu overnight.
To serve, carefully remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the tiramisu with cocoa powder using a fine-mesh strainer or decorate as you please. Cut into individual portions and serve.

I made two individual servings of tiramisu in glass bowls, a very traditional way of serving them. These were topped with grated chocolate and consumed on Valentine's Day as a romantic and calorific dessert!

I decided to try and make a tiramisu 'cake' which involved layering the tiramisu into a 7 inch cake tin lined with glad wrap. I put it in the freezer and then a week later removed it in the morning, placed it in the fridge to defrost for the day, and in the afternoon set to decorating it. It was a bit challenging to plate neatly as the cream was back to it's usual consistency, but with the help of a spatula I got it centred on the plate. I used batch two of the savoiardi to border the cake and then tied a ribbon around it. It still didn't look quite complete. I think this might have been because of the awkward height difference between the biscuits and the top of the cake! See:

I had some leftover cream in the fridge so I whipped it up with a bit of sugar and vanilla and put it on top. Then I added some grated chocolate and voila! Very satisfying (emotionally and taste-bud-ically!)

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Why Rahul loves me

2010-02-25T21:24:00.003+11:00

I made him sour cream chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and chocolate peanut butter glaze for his birthday.

I first read about this cake over at Smitten Kitchen where Deb baked it for her chocolate mad husband's birthday with rave reviews. The recipe comes from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne, and after a few google searches relating to this book I knew I had to buy it.

My God, is this cake rich. It took five of us to eat just a quarter of it, so it would easily serve twenty people despite the recipe's instructions that it could do 12 or 16. Having said that, Rahul loved it and took about a quarter of the remains to work today.

If you love Reese's peanut butter cups this is the cake of your dreams.

I can't decide what to bake next. Peach Melba Cake with Raspberry Cream? Key West Cake with Mango Mousse and Ginger Lime Cream? Pina Colada Cake?

I will be on Masterchef yet...

2010-02-21T21:59:00.006+11:00

Playing in the interweb lately I have noticed a few bloggers attempting to recreate Adriano Zumbo's now infamous Masterchef Chocolate Mousse Cake, and doing damn fine jobs of it. After a raging success with my latest Daring Baker's Challenge (to be revealed later this week) I was feeling buoyed with confidence and decided to give it a go.

According to my Masterchef Cookbook (and the other bloggers who've attempted the cake!) the recipe is challenging, Zumbo scored it 10/10 on the hard to make scale.

It's true. It felt like I spent all day on Saturday making the layers, although it was probably only about four hours. My feet hurt. Chocolate was everywhere. I had caramel in my hair. So tired.

The pate sable, the mousse and the jaconde were relatively easy to make however the caramel apple layer and salted caramel not so. The caramel apple layer didn't end up all creamy and oozy like in Zumbo's dessert but it did taste good, like a runny tarte tatin. The salted caramel layer was a total disaster, it didn't really turn a rich caramel colour and even after twenty four hours in the freezer it wouldn't firm up and I ended up throwing it in the bin.

Still, the cake looked pretty special once it was assembled, and the layers looked pretty. It tasted pretty special too, although I imagine it would have been different and better with the addition of the salted caramel, much more golden and oozy. Ah well...

The cake was also pretty enormous! The feeling of satisfaction upon completion of the cake was enormous, but I can't say I'm prepared to make it again. I value my sanity. To feel my pain, or to feel proud of me, have a look at the recipe below.

Ingredients

1. Pate sable cinnamon (This is the biscuit base of the cake)

285g cold butter cubed (frozen after reading the advice of Tasted by Two)
185g caster sugar
375g plain flour
1 egg
2g ground cinnamon
1/4 scraped vanilla bean

2. Texture apple tatin insert
PART A
4 granny smith apples, peeled & diced
350g caster sugar
175g butter

PART B
3 granny smith apples, peeled & diced
10g butter
1 orange zest
6g fresh ginger (leave in large bits)
50g caster sugar
15ml calvados (I substituted Grand Marnier)

3. Salted caramel layer

300g caster sugar
60g glucose
120g water
220g cream
5g gelatine leaves
125g butter unsalted
2g sea salt flakes

4. Biscuit decor jaconde

Cigarette decor paste
50ml cream
50g egg white
50g icing sugar
30g plain flour
20g cocoa

Biscuit jaconde
60g plain flour
40g butter melted
200g almond meal
200g icing sugar
6 eggs
180g egg whites
90g caster sugar

5. Chocolate blackberry sabayon mousse
Blackberry ganache
125g blackberry pulp (Used raspberry)
12g inverted sugar
50g caster sugar
6g caster sugar
3g pectin nh
200g 64% dark chocolate
35g butter

Sabayon mousse
60ml liquid strained black tea
50g sugar
50g egg
145g blackberry ganache (see recipe above)
60g 64% chocolate
400g whipped cream soft peaks

6. Chocolate spray (I didn't make the chocolate spray, I did not own a food spray gun!!)
500g dark chocolate
350g cocoa butter
colour as directed

7. Tempered chocolate (Didn't do this either, who needs more chocolate when cherries are in season)

500g white chocolate

Method

1. Pate sable cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 160°c.
2. Add butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon and vanilla to a food processor and process to fine crumb. Add egg, mix till it comes together. Tip mixture onto bench and knead lightly. Roll out on a sheet of baking paper until 7 – 8 mm thick. Place ring mould over pastry and cut around outside edge, remove excess outer pastry.
3. Transfer pastry and ring mould on baking paper to an oven tray and bake until lightly golden.

2. Texture apple tatin insert

PART A

Dry caramelise the sugar, emulsify the caramel with the butter. Add the apples, cook until the apples are translucent and caramel in colour. Cool mixture.

PART B
1. Peel & dice the apples. Add butter, orange zest, & ginger to a pan and cook until aromatic. Add sugar & apples. Cook over high heat for 1 minute, add calvados & flambé. Cool mixture.
2. Mix the 2 apple mixtures together. Place in a silicon mould. Place in blast freezer until set.

3. Salted caramel layer

1. Heat cream. Place sugar, glucose, water in a saucepan, cook to caramel colour. Deglaze sugar with cream. Add gelatine. Cool to 50°c. Add butter and blitz.
2. Place in a silicon mould and place in blast freezer.

4. Biscuit decor jaconde
5. Cigarette decor paste

Mix all ingredients together.

Biscuit jaconde
1. Melt butter. Whip eggs, icing sugar, and almond meal together. Whip egg whites and sugar together to form stiff peaks. Fold egg whites into egg almond mixture alternating with butter & flour.
2. Preheat oven to 160°c.
3. Place cigarette paste on tray, swirl pattern with fingers. Place in freezer. Using a pastry scrape or palette knife spread cigarette paste with a thin layer about 3mm thick of jaconde. Bake until lightly golden. Cool.

6. Chocolate blackberry sabayon mousse

Blackberry ganache

1. Heat blackberry pulp in a saucepan, add sugar and inverted sugar, bring to the boil. Add extra sugar and pectin.
2. Pour mixture over chocolate in a bowl, stir until smooth. Cool to 40°c, add butter and blend with a stick blender.

Sabayon mousse

1. Place tea, sugar & eggs in a bowl over simmering water (bain marie) and whip to form a sabayon. Melt chocolate, mix in cream. Fold in blackberry ganache, gently fold in sabayon.

7. Chocolate spray

1. Temper chocolate see method below. Cool to 40°c. Add cocoa.
2. Place in spray gun.

8. Tempered chocolate

Melt the chocolate in a bowl. Add more chocolate stirring until melted, until the temperature of the chocolate reaches approximately 32°c (dark chocolate), approximately 30°c for milk or white chocolate. The chocolate should be tempered. To test, use a small square of silicon paper & dip in chocolate, place on bench (cool place), the chocolate should set at room temperature.
To temper the cocoa butter melt in pot on stove, then pour onto a clean work surface to cool rapidly (around 32°c), add colour as soon as you pour the cocoa butter on table and work with the palette knife. When cool, brush on clear plastic provided working left to right, and keep brushing until cool in same direction to obtain brush strokes. Cover in tempered white chocolate, and cut and shape to desired finish. Place on top of cake as desired.

9. Assembly
Layer of mousse in bottom of mould
Layer of salted caramel from silicon mould
Layer of jaconde
Layer of mousse
Layer of apple tatin from silicon mould
Layer of jaconde
Layer of mousse
Sable

I finally attempt macarons

2010-02-20T15:45:00.003+11:00

Hell yes, my macaron has feet!! I am pretty proud of my effort given that I've been reading all over the blogosphere about big disasters (the descriptions of which gave me some helpful ideas about what not to do!) I used Canelle et Vanille's recipe for chocolate macarons, and as a filling I tried whipped cream and strawberries, as well as a bittersweet Lindt chocolate ganache. I did intend to make peanut butter filling but I didn't have any PB in the house and I couldn't wait to try the macarons. Peanut butter is DEFINITELY on the agenda for next time, as is a raspberry mascarpone filling... mmmm...

I bought yellow and pink powdered food colourings today from the Essential Ingredient which has just opened up the street, so some coloured macarons could be in order.

Everything I've read about macarons talks about keeping the batter light, some recipes say no more than 40 strokes of the spoon when folding the eggs into the flour/almond meal/icing sugar dry mixture. My mixture looked like this:

It took a while to get the hang of piping macarons into even sized circles, but most of them matched up in the end.
You have to let the macarons sit for half an hour or so before putting them in the oven, according to my recipe it dries them out.

After 16 minutes in the oven I was overjoyed to pull these out, feet and all! Feet are the little ruffly looking bits around the base of the macaron. And feet are apparently good.

I am cross

2010-02-19T14:28:00.000+11:00

Why don't Anthropologie ship to Australia? Why?

Further forays into blog land

2010-02-17T23:21:00.004+11:00

www.minusakitchen.blogspot.com

If you're interested in the trials and tribulations of purchasing a 'renovator's delight' and then actually renovating the damn thing you might like to read my new blog.

Anybody can make soup

2010-02-17T17:28:00.004+11:00

I have never understood why people buy soup. It's the easiest thing in the world to make, a big batch can be dinner for two plus plenty to freeze for another day. And it's good for you (unlike the usual content of this blog!)

It's simple. You need some garlic and onion roughly chopped, some olive oil, some chicken stock, chopped up vegetables of your choice and a few herbs. Cook and blend.

The ingredients pictured above made a delicious spiced capsicum, tomato and pumpkin soup. I chose these flavours based on what was left in the fridge after a few chaotic weeks - three punnets of cherry tomatoes heading quickly towards their used by date, a carrot, half a butternut pumpkin, some baby capsicums and one lonely potato. It's good to have a mix of starchy heavy vegetables (potato and pumpkin) as well as some lighter higher water content veggies so that once you blend the soup it will be lovely and thick.

Simple Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
Spices of your choice (in my recipe I used cumin, paprika and ground coriander)
1.5 kg mixed vegetables* chopped into 5cm x 5cm pieces
1.5 litres of stock (I prefer chicken)
Fresh herbs and cream** to serve

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over low to medium heat
Add onion and garlic and cook until soft
Add spices and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant
Add vegetables and stock, bring to the boil and then simmer covered for 30 -4o minutes until the vegetables are softened
Cool and then blend in food processor or with hand held blender
Reheat to serve and serve with fresh herbs and/or cream

* Good (and classic) combinations are potato and leek, potato and spinach, carrot and parsnip, sweet potato, tomato and capsicum. I've also made a great pear and leek soup using very under-ripe pears.

** You can use cream, milk or coconut milk to add richness to your soup. Choose according to your vegetable combination, for example potato and leek is a classic soup that would suit cream, however a spicy sweet potato, tomato and capsicum would be delicious with coconut milk or cream.

Oaty hotcakes with caramel bananas

2010-02-14T11:45:00.003+11:00

As you are no doubt aware, today is Valentine's Day. I thought I was prepared. Knowing Rahul's passion for anything made by Adriano Zumbo I decided to beat the crowds and go to his chocolate cafe midweek to buy a selection of chocolates. The range was hilarious, he'd even done some condom-in-wrapper shaped chocolates. I chose about twenty different things, mainly salted caramels, something hilariously called a 'camel-toe' and chocolate lamingtons and fairy breads. Advised to keep the chocolates cool I hid them in the back of my wardrobe.

Yesterday morning Rahul announced that their were an army of ants marching through our bedroom. Sadly despite a Mortein defense operation it was too late. Chocolates gone.

In an effort to compensate for the disaster as a special Valentine's Day breakfast I made some hotcakes with caramel bananas. Caramel is Rahul's favourite thing in the world. And caramel with bananas is a winning combination. I like to include fruit in breakfasts that have questionable nutritional value, and this recipe also called for oats (admittedly only 25 grams but that's better than nothing.)

Bill Granger's Oaty Hotcakes with Caramel Bananas
(from Feed Me Now)

Hotcakes

185g plain flour
1.5 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon caster sugar
25g rolled oats
275 ml buttermilk (I used 1/2 cup natural yogurt and 3/4 cup milk instead)
1 egg lightly beaten
35 g butter melted

To make the batter sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together in a bowl. Stir the sugar and oats through, then make a well in the centre. Pour in the buttermilk and egg, stirring until just mixed. Add the melted butter and stir to combine.

To cook the hotcakes heat a large non stick frying pan over medium head and butter. Pour in two or three small ladlefuls being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes until bubbles start to appear, and then flip and cook the other side for a further 2-3 minutes.

Serve with caramel bananas (and ice cream if you're naughty.)

Caramel Bananas

3 bananas
60g butter
90g brown sugar
2 tablespoons of water

Halve the bananas lengthways and slice each piece into three. Put the butter, sugar and water into a large frying pan over medium heat and cook until the mixture forms a caramel and darkens. Add the bananas and toss through until well coated.

My caramel was lighter than it should have been because I substituted golden caster sugar for brown sugar.

How I manage to bake in my dodgy kitchen

2010-02-02T11:42:00.008+11:00

When Joanna asked what kitchen equipment I have I thought it was time to show you a picture of my kitchen. It's pretty basic, just what you can see above plus another little bench with a gas stove and an oven on wheels underneath. It is very very temporary. Although we've had it for 6 months now! A new kitchen depends on the success or failure of the development application that is currently lodged with Leichhardt Council.

I've found that despite it's flaws cooking and baking delicious things is quite possible in my kitchen, with the exception of decorating with fondant which requires smooth cool surfaces and a lot of them. An electric oven, a gas stove and a sink are kitchen elements that I consider critical for good cooking. And for baking there are several items that I couldn't live without.

Electric Beaters

I use electric beaters for everything. Creaming butter and sugar, making seven minute frosting, beating pancake mix, beating egg whites into submission to make perfect pavlovas. The beaters I have at the moment are four speed, and while there are newer and prettier 8 speed beaters around I find that four speeds are plenty.

Blue-Bowl-Sticky-Thing

On Christmas morning I opened up an oddly shaped gift from R and at first had no idea what it was. I still have no idea what the technical name of this thing is, or if there even is a technical name. What it does is glue a mixing bowl to the bench which sounds simple but has solved so many baking issues. Recipes constantly call for you to 'pour milk in a steady stream into the large bowl whilst beating' which really requires (a) three hands or (b) a helper, so I would end up turning off the beaters and then letting go of the bowl, pouring milk, holding bowl again, turning on beaters again... Now the bowl just grips the bench and I can pour and beat to my heart's content without meeting disaster.

I should add that I have 6 stainless steel mixing bowls of various sized and I couldn't live without those either!

A Set of Round Cookie Cutters

These are useful for everything. Cookies and shortbread, cutting sponge to form the base of little cakes, cutting fondant into spots for decorating.

Assorted Bits and Pieces

From left to right:
1. A big spatula perfect for icing cakes
2. A whisk for eggs, custard, anything that needs a gentler action than the electric beaters provide
3. A silicone spatula which gets every bit of the cake mix out of the bowl and into the tin (not recommended if you like scoffing the 'leftover' raw cake mixture
4. An offset spatula for working with ganache
5. A silicone pastry brush which is very handy for pies and pastries, so much easier to clean and hygienic than the bristle variety

Raspberry Marshmallow Rainbow Girl Cake

2010-01-28T17:00:00.004+11:00

One of our colleagues was finishing up work today and true to form when afternoon tea was discussed I offered to bring a cake. Originally I had planned to make a banana cake with chocolate cream cheese icing. Oh, said M, what's the other option?

I took the hint and tried to come up with something a bit more glamorous. There are many many rainbow cakes on the internet to take inspiration from, however I decided to keep mine in appropriately 'girly' hues.

I made an enormous quantity of vanilla cake using a Magnolia recipe, split the mixture into three parts and then coloured with yellow, rose pink and pillar box red.

The trick with layered cakes is to make the layers the night before you intend to split and fill them. Try to split a super fresh cake and you will end up with moosh. After refrigerating the layers overnight I was able to successfully split them, and then fill and stack them. The filling is Haigh's raspberry dessert sauce and a little teeny bit of marshmallow icing*. The dessert sauce was great, keeping the cakes very moist and well flavoured.

And of course it's marshmallow icing on top.

This kind of cake is not for the faint hearted. Including the icing it contains a whopping 6 cups of sugar, and it tastes like it!

* Which is also known as Seven Minute Frosting, but everyone who eats the stuff refers to it as 'that marshmallow icing'

Daring Baker's Challenge Jan 2010: Nanaimo Bars

2010-01-27T07:47:00.003+11:00

January 2010's challenge was making graham crackers, and then using said crackers to make nanaimo bars. Interesting given that I had never eaten a graham cracker, and never heard of nanaimo bars, so had no idea what these treats should look or taste like. Thanks to the interweb I had some idea, but little details like the right thickness and texture of graham crackers remained (and still remain) a mystery.

Graham cracker dough is a sticky bastard. I had some extreme moments of frustration when it persisted in gluing itself to the benchtop despite copious amounts of flour being used to prevent such sticking. I worked out that the freezer is my friend. If you blast the dough in there frequently for 5 minutes or so it seems to become less tricky.

The first batch I baked turned out to be way too thick and slightly glued together, resulting in this:

Thankfully, in a rare moment of good sense, I had decided not to roll all the dough out at once just in case something went awry. I switched to round cookie cutters and rolled the dough thinner and had some success:

These ones developed some serious crunch, making them perfect for whizzing in the food processor to become crumbs that formed the base of the nanaimo bars.

The nanaimo bars themselves were fairly straightforward to make, I've made a few slices in my time and it turns out that the American term 'bar' is what we in Australia would deem a 'slice'.

I did find the finished product incredibly sickly and sweet, so I can see why other bakers include cherries or other bits and pieces in the recipe, as it would probably cut the richness of all the butter. So I wasn't a fan of the bars, but the graham crackers are pretty lovely.

Thankfully R and the other nanaimo bar consumers thought they were delicious!

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and http://www.nanaimo.ca/.

This weekend

2010-01-24T21:00:00.004+11:00

Some eggplants began to appear in our garden.
I took a break from fondant covered fancy pants cakes and returned to a more relaxed style, icing slathered on with abandon, a few holes and gaps here and there, and lots of pretty sprinkles and decorations on top. Deliciously imperfect. And popular with my eaters! (By the way it's a three layer devil's food cake with white chocolate cream cheese icing.)

I also finished my first Daring Baker's challenge, the details of which I can only reveal on Thursday. The results of the challenge became gifts for my nearest and dearest.

R and I made 6 litres of chicken stock and froze it.

And we watched a scary amount of Grey's Anatomy on DVD.

So all up it was a pretty damn good time.

Buttermilk muffins: two ways

2010-01-23T08:17:00.006+11:00

Last weekend we had our lovely friends N & K around for brunch. Being a hot summery kind of day I thought that a perfect brunch menu would be chunks of watermelon, slices of pineapple, orange juice and some muffins straight from the oven. I found a recipe for Raspberry Lemon Muffins over at ButterSugarFlour which looked most wonderful, and it was.

Once I'd made the batter I split it in half and added a cup of raspberries and chopped 80% cocoa chocolate to one part, and a cup of blueberries and the zest of one lemon to the other.

Sadly this is the only picture of the raspberry and chocolate combination that I have left, due to some serious scoffing. What you can take from that statement is that raspberry and chocolate was the winner! Baking with buttermilk is fantastic, it adds a certain richness to cakes but without being heavy. And it keeps cakes moist.

Hurray for buttermilk!! Recipe hero(ine) of the week. (I think I might be overtired.)

Recipe 9

2010-01-16T18:47:00.003+11:00

As a kid I hated tomato. Thankfully my tastes have changed and I can now admire and consume (with pleasure) tomatoes of any kind. Our 2010 challenge is going well and we are now up to our 9th recipe, Green Tomato Pie with a Polenta Crust from the Cook's Companion. Interestingly the challenge with this recipe has been locating green tomatoes, which is odd given that every time I seek super ripe tomatoes there is always a multitude of green-reds and few juicy bright ones. So the tomatoes in our recipe consist of green cherry tomatoes (we conducted a raid on our garden) and a lovely lovely heirloom selection.

The recipe is straightforward. Make a polenta crust in the food processor, divide into two and refrigerate for half an hour. Roll out half and place it in a pie dish. You add the tomatoes in layers, sprinkling in between with a mixture of vinegar, sugar, basil and spices, and dot with butter.

Roll out the other half of the pastry, pop it on top and make it pretty.

Bake it. Gosh it is delicious!

Planet Cake Basics 102

2010-01-10T17:22:00.003+11:00

First up, square cakes are damn hard to work with. The rumours are true. I am exhausted but very proud to have turned this:

Into this:
Buttercup yellow is my new favourite colour, possibly because it is a similar hue to my coveted KitchenAid.

Basics 102 builds on Basics 101 (tick!) so layering, covering in ganache and creating smooth flat sides and good corners wasn't totally foreign to me. New skills taught in Basics 102 are covering a square cake (so many more corners, so many more edges, so many more opportunities to panic), as well as making a ribbon bow and basic figurine modeling.

As you can see below there is a lot of room for improvement - the figure has rather cracked skin (perhaps she is 90?) and appears to be chinless. With flat feet. Poor lass.

As always I really recommend the Planet Cake courses. They make scary things seem quite possible. And I got some tips on the chocolate mudcake recipe that caused me such angst back in September.

Holy heck!

2010-01-04T10:10:00.002+11:00

I discovered this morning that my Uncle David and Auntie Sylvia and their family bought us a KitchenAid as a belated engagement gift. We are seriously lucky ducks!

A year of new recipes

2010-01-03T19:18:00.002+11:00

2009 was a year in which I baked a lot of cakes and sweet treats. It was fun and my family, friends and work mates very much enjoyed all the creations. I learned how amazing the texture of a cake becomes when butter and sugar are properly creamed. And I learned how to make choux pastry. And lots of other stuff.

But Rahul and I have decided that 2010 is the year of expanding both of our repertoire and so we have made a resolution - no recipe will be cooked twice. We will have to say goodbye to some of our favourite never fail recipes which is a pretty major big call given that these recipes appear on the menu all the time. So please wish us luck.

Tonight we are cooking Penne Norma from The Silver Spoon Pasta Book. Already we have met a new ingredient, ricotta salata, plus the more usual pasta requirements of passata, garlic and eggplant. I had anticipated a struggle to locate this cheese which I'd not seen previously but Norton Street Grocer proved to be amazing and not just in relation cheese - gelatin strips, Birds' Custard Power, Karo corn syrup, walnut oil - I suspect it will be our friend on this cooking journey.

So what is ricotta salata? According to wikipedia ' in addition to its fresh, soft form, ricotta is also sold in three preparations which ensure a longer shelf life: salted, baked and smoked. The pressed, salted and dried variety of the cheese is known as ricotta salata. A milky-white hard cheese used for grating or shaving, ricotta salata is sold in wheels, decorated by a delicate basket-weave pattern.' Rahul reckons it tastes like an Italian feta. Try it.

Christmas Cooking: Little Chocolate Gingerbread Cakes

2009-12-19T14:27:00.004+11:00

Lately I've been baking largely from my Magnolia Bakery cookbook so I felt like changing direction for Christmas and baking something a little more grown up, which led me straight to Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I love Martha. It's a bit sick.

These cakes are packed full of spices and flavour - molasses, freshly grated nutmeg, ground ginger, fresh ginger, cinnamon and ground cloves. When they came out of the oven the house smelled like Christmas. They should have been nice and flat on the top so that I could turn them upside down just like Martha did.

Unfortunately they rose. Some of them a LOT.

So I had to take a deep breath and acknowledge that they would not be as sophisticated as Martha's. Instead they look like cupcakes, which they are (clever Martha disguised hers!)

They are delicious delicious delicious all the same.

Ruffles x 3

2009-12-11T12:12:00.001+11:00

I want a set of these from Cottage Chic Shop. ASAP preferably. Not that I have anywhere to put them in the crack den that is our house at present. But they would look beautiful when set up for an afternoon tea garden party that exists in my imaginary lovely back yard.

In other news there has been a Hello Cupcake! challenge put up on facebook and you can actually WIN a copy of their new book called What's New, Cupcake. I never win anything although once at the pub I was sitting next to the person who won a meat raffle. It could have been me. So if I connect the dots I can conclude that I could win a book. I just have to think of something clever.

Want to win an autographed copy of What’s New, Cupcake? Want to show off your cupcaking skills? During this baking season, show off your talents by coming up with a new cupcake design using only cupcakes, frosting, and one or all of the following candies: Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, Marshmallows, Gummy bears, Wafer cookies and M&M’s Minis

You've seen Larry the turkey so obviously I need to some up with something good to win...

Guest Post: LANYC's 'crazy ass' Halloween creation

2009-12-07T16:59:00.006+11:00

LANYC is my 'all that's good* in America' correspondent, my link to the edible delights of the land of stars and stripes. I'm very happy to bring to you one of her spectacular Halloween creations and her musings on this 'crazy ass' deliciousness. I feel great joy when I look at her pictures and see 'sticks of butter' rather than just reading about them in my cookbooks. Mainly this creation just makes me repeat 'holy crap' out loud and sigh in wonder to myself.

*By 'good' read fat and calorie laden, full of unpronounceable man made ingredients, lurid coloured and tasty

Away with my ramblings, I will hand you over to LANYC:

Holidays in America invariably involve seasonal candy*. The biggest candy-fest of them all, however, is Halloween. There's lurid yellow sugar-covered marshmallow chicks called 'Peeps'. There's variegated yellow, orange and white squishy triangles of candy corn (tasting oddly like butter and are primarily constituted of corn syrup). There's choc-covered marshmallow pumpkins. And then, of course, there's the regular candy, featuring holiday-appropriate 'spooky' colours, or just packaged with a picture of a ghost where a happy animal mascot used to be. Everyone in New York seems to be driven to be in possession of massive amounts of seasonal treats for Halloween because no one really wants to find out what happens if you take sugar-high children up on the trick part of their 'trick or treat' offer.

But the seasonal candy is actually kind of gross.

Irrespective of grossness, I hate throwing things away, so I decided to trawl the interweb in search of the magic recipe that would turn my bulging Ziploc bag of sugary Halloween fungross into just plain funyum. I found it in a Serious Eats posting by cakespy, here.

This pie was almost more fun to make than it was to eat - with all that chopping, arranging and sampling of various candy bits - but seeing peoples eyes widen as I handed them a slice of 'candy massacre pie' was great too. I based my version on cakespy's but swapped-in my own favourite crust recipe, and used the candy I had to hand (mostly M&Ms, Tootsie Rolls, mini marshmallows, fun-size Snickers, and Cookies 'n' Cream Hersheys bars). Also, I like a bit of crunch and a bit of salt with my massive doses of sweet, so I mixed Rice Crispies (A.K.A. Rice Bubbles) in with the filling, and topped the whole thing with salted pretzels. The latter addition also made the pie look considerably prettier.

Even if there's no Halloween candy where you live. Even if, actually, there's no real Halloween celebration, I'd advise you to think outside the box on this one - Christmas or Easter confectionery would work equally well, don't you think?

Eat, enjoy, and remember to cross your fingers for luck at your next dental check-up.

*After numerous heated debates following my enquiry as to what exactly the catch-all 'candy' refers to, the general consensus seems to be any kind of confectionery that isn't pure solid chocolate.

MY BAKE IT PRETTY ORDER ARRIVED!

2009-12-04T17:31:00.003+11:00

In this picture I can see:

Cactus cupcake toppers
Pink pearlised cachous
'Happy Baker' stamped tags
Old-timey paper bags
Vintage bride and groom party picks
Jumbo red heart quins
Red and pink heart twist ties
German cotton mushroom decorations
Striped baker's twine ...

and there's more underneath!!

Deliciousness from Delicious magazine

2009-12-03T18:55:00.005+11:00

I am an obsessive reader of ABC Delicious magazine to the point that I intuitively know what day it will arrive on our doorstep. It happens when I'm sitting on the light rail heading home from work, a big wave of expectation out of nowhere. Weird.

Anyway, can you guess what these ingredients do when you put them all together?

They become...TURKISH DELIGHT ICE CREAM TERRINE! I found the recipe in the November edition of Delicious and started salivating.

Pretty much I had to mix it all together and bung it in a cake tin lined with glad wrap. And freeze it overnight. And open the freezer door to look at it quite frequently. Sometimes I would also poke it with my finger for good measure.

And I had to make a rose flavoured syrup.

Unfortunately I think a full 24 hours in the freezer was a bit excessive. It crumbled when I cut it. The turkish delight glued to the hot knife I attempted to cut the damn thing with. It had weird glad wrap marks all over it.

But it looked pretty.

And it tasted like a bunch of flowers crossed with ice cream crossed with some kind of tulle skirt, which mainly means that it tasted like yum.

I'm loving this new way of icing cakes!

2009-11-30T18:13:00.002+11:00

This pretty girl is a red velvet cake with vanilla bean frosting as a hat! These days I am thinking more about presentation and love the look of red velvet in a red case. Speaking of presentation where the fook is my Bake It Pretty order?

Saturday afternoon with the Masterchef Cookbook

2009-11-28T20:03:00.004+11:00

This morning at Woolworths we were eyeing off a festive display which had the Masterchef Cookbook as a central display piece. The Celebrity Masterchef finale this week has had R dreaming and salivating over the very idea of profiteroles. The book has Adriano Zumbo's recipe. SOLD.

The choux pastry worked! The creme patissiere not so much. It was incredibly runny so as soon as I put it in a piping bag it started oozing out the tip so I held the bag back and then it began falling out the top of the bag on to the bench, on to the floor, on to my arm, in to my glass of water... ooze city. It did taste fantastic though. I almost licked the bench top, although the water custard mix was less appealing.

Finally I used a Martha recipe to make a chocolate icing. It was great. GO MARTHA!

I was proud of my final effort, despite the oozy messy look of it all. I'd love to make a croquembouche but I think I'll need a bit more practice first!

I wish we celebrated Thanksgiving in Australia

2009-11-27T12:01:00.007+11:00

Why? Meet Larry. He is the (brain)child of Hello Cupcake! Nuff said.

Actually no, I do have more. I just joined the Hello Cupcake! club which means a monthly cupcake challenge. This month it's making a pumpkin themed cupcake which I deduce is something to do with Thanksgiving rather than Halloween. The Hello Cupcake! book has some suggestions however these mainly involve orange sugar and twizzlers which appear to be strangers to our shore. Anyhoo, I've got til Tuesday to come up with something...

Can anyone think of any orange lollies? Or ways of orange-ing cake?

The Christmas Housing Crisis

2009-11-23T19:05:00.008+11:00

Apparently choosing a gingerbread house style is akin to choosing and successfully purchasing an actual bricks and mortar house. Actually no, it's more difficult. Still, I am determined to break into the market.

Should I go chic like Martha?

(Image from Martha Stewart)

Or I could have a gingerbread house that doubles up as a vase (handy!)

(image from Blog Florist)

Or I could let my dreams get seriously grandiose!

(image from AOL Canada Life & Style)

What do you think?

Cupcakes are no longer delicious when it's 40 degrees outside

2009-11-22T20:04:00.003+11:00

but ice blocks are! These are watermelon, a mango and a handful of raspberries thrown in to the blender and poured into my rocket ice block mold.

We used to eat home made OJ ice blocks when we were kids, we'd get covered in the melted juice right down to our elbows. We had a mold at our house, but at my Yaya's we'd have even more 'handmade' versions frozen in an assortment of containers with paddle pop sticks popped on top.

Thanks for the recipe Bakerella...

2009-11-19T08:33:00.003+11:00

These peanut butter and chocolate cookies taste incredible!! The cookie jar at work as been empty for days so I thought it was about time I baked something to replenish it. I suspect my workmates will be happy with the new look cookie jar! Bye bye Arnotts...

The other great thing is how simple they are to make:

1 cup of smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1 egg
200g dark semi sweet chocolate
crushed peanuts

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius
2. Put peanut butter, sugar and the egg in a bowl and mix well, then cover in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes
2. Line a baking tray with baking paper, and roll mixture into 18 balls and place on tray
3. Squish the balls down with a fork to get the line effect on the cookies
4. Bake 18-20 minutes
5. Once cooled melt chocolate, dip one end at a time into chocolate, and then dip in a bowl of crushed peanuts
6. Pop the into the fridge until the chocolate sets and then consume!!

This recipe is one of Bakerella's - for more details visit her site.

Big excitement!

2009-11-18T12:18:00.001+11:00

I just ordered a tonne of beautiful and quirky items from Bake It Pretty. And to be shipped by Priority Mail no less!

You can look forward to some prettily packaged items showing up on this blog in 8 - 10 days, or if you're lucky under your Christmas tree.

Boozy citrus upside down cake

2009-11-11T17:30:00.004+11:00

Today I took an early mark. It was very exciting. There is something thrilling about being at home at two o'clock in the afternoon on a lovely sunny day. I contemplated spending the afternoon making some Sesame Street cupcakes (inspired once again by Bakerella) but instead I scoured the pantry and the fruit bowl. My rationale was that cake isn't so bad for you if you're mainly baking in order to prevent already purchased items going off. In this case it was two rather sad looking blood oranges!

I decided to get experimental and make up my own recipe for an orange and semolina upside down cake, with saffron and grand marnier for an added bit of ooh la la.

Syrup - 1 cup caster sugar, 1/4 cup blood orange juice, 1/4 cup grand marnier and a few threads of saffron, cooked on low heat for about 10 minutes

Cake - 125g of butter, zest of 1 lemon and 1 cup caster sugar creamed together, 3 eggs beaten in, then 1 cup plain flour, 2/3 cup semolina, 1 tsp of baking powder and 1/3 cup natural yogurt mixed in.

Construction - line tins of choice with baking paper on both bottom and sides (I used a 6" cake tin and some cupcake tins to see which would work out better), place some thin slices of orange on the bottom, pour a little syrup over the top, then add batter.

Bake - at 180 degrees, time will depend on pan size so use a skewer to check.

Serve - let them cool for 10 minutes or so in their tins, the syrup gets HOT. Carefully turn upside down and slowly peel off the baking paper. Trim as required. They are delicious when warm and I think would go very will with some spiced lemon ricotta or mascarpone on the side.

I reckon the 6" cake worked out better and much neater looking. The cupcakes taste amazing but don't look as perfect and pretty as I would have liked, mainly because of oozing syrup. Next time I might use a little less baking powder as some of the cakes had to be trimmed at the bottom so that they would sit flat when they were turned upside down.

I might go and eat another one now...

I have been quiet

2009-11-09T10:54:00.002+11:00

Because I have been in Hobart on a work conference and mini holiday. They have many delicious things in Hobart, including this cupcake!

I arrived home last night and this week I'll be heading to Tumut for a few days also for work. Once that's done I can breathe a sigh of relief and spend more time at home playing in my kitchen and posting about my culinary successes and disasters!

(Belated) Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T19:27:00.003+11:00

(Attack of some not very terror inducing ghosts!)

Alana sent me a link to A Baked Creation's 'Ghosts of Cupcakes Past.' Making little ghosties is such a great idea. I baked classic vanilla cupcakes (in pale pink Wilton papers which completely lost their colour - LAME!) and made a pink vanilla buttercream. Due to the lack of giant jubes in Australia I used marshmallows topped with fondant to create the ghosts.

Ooh la la

2009-10-28T23:18:00.004+11:00

The spoils - Chocolate mousse, chocolate pistachio eclairs and pear tart tatin! The class finished approximately one hour and 23 minutes ago and most of this box has been devoured.

I got to wield a blow torch to release the mousses (mice?) from their moulds. Awesome.

The class wasn't as hands on as others I've done, lots was prepared prior to the class, but it was great to get a handle on working with choux pastry and making caramel. It was also vastly entertaining being taught French techniques by a wranger Venetian called Axle - 'now look-a at the caramelllll-a, it is changing-a-brown'!

And of course working in a commercial kitchen was fantastic (especially compared to my 'temporary' kitchen at home... big sigh...)

Our Big Kitchen

2009-10-27T14:40:00.005+11:00

One of the many perks of working for a not for profit organisation is receiving hundreds of emails each week from and about other not for profit organisations.

Today I heard about Our Big Kitchen which is a community kitchen operating in Bondi. Individuals or groups cook or bake food to donate to emergency or homeless services and also share a meal. It's a registered kitchen for emergency food providers and stock is kept on hand to ensure responsiveness to emergencies. It's available to everyone - you can have birthday parties, cooking classes, team building or school programs in the kitchen, or you can participate as a volunteer.

This is just about the coolest thing I've ever heard of.

R and I have been discussing my aversion to having a hen's night. I cannot think of anything worse than parading around with a plastic penis attached to my head. In fact I would rather eat my own foot. Lately we have been discussing having an alternative pre wedding celebration and the thought of getting all our friends together for a big cookathon is just lovely, especially given that the proceeds go towards assisting people in times of crisis. At face value weddings are about celebrating 'happy', and less obviously about sticking together when life conspires against you. And this can happen to any of us.

Good idea or am I just a shameless dirty hippy?

I had a nightmare

2009-10-27T14:24:00.004+11:00

that the canapes for our wedding consisted of platters and platters of fluoro garlic bread... at least 500 slabs of it... in the dream some of them were also topped with giant bricks of pumpkin frittata. Hardly the elegant summer soiree I had in mind - I woke up sweating.

Truth be told there are worse things than feeding people garlic bread. In fact if I had taken my Little's advice regarding the 'perfect' wedding menu we would be all dining on lasagne. After all, as Little succinctly put it, 'everyone LOVES lasagne.'

Hot melted cheese and butter. Fatty meat. Dripping oil. Not what I'd want to eat in the middle of February in Australia...

Anyway, these are pointless ramblings so I'll shut up now. Tomorrow I am going to a choux pastry making class with my mama so I should have something a little less putrid and a little more delicious to post later in the week. I am expending a lot of energy hoping and wishing that I learn how to make beautiful eclairs.

Oh. My. Goodness.

2009-10-23T16:08:00.003+11:00

My heart is beating very very fast. It must be love! Check it out.

Lollipop Workshop

2009-10-19T09:31:00.005+11:00

I saw Lollipop Workshop on Bakerella and I'm in love with all the beautiful cake toppers and cupcake candle holders they make! Somebody have a birthday please...

Marley's Super Awesome Cookie Recipe

2009-10-16T18:18:00.006+11:00

I'm part of an organisation called Side By Side Advocacy, which is participating the the Granny Smith Festival this weekend, and as such I am in the middle of a massive cookie baking mission to feed hungry festival goers. Because let's face it, if anything can lure in the crowds it's chocolate, almond and cinnamon cookies.

My friend Marley shared with me her super awesome no fail cookie recipe a few years ago and since then I've done a million variations, all of which have been amazing. Because I'm nice I'll share the love...

Marley's Super Awesome Cookies

125g unsalted butter
250g brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
225g plan flour
1 tsp baking powder
200g 'flavour' ingredients - eg. 100g chopped dark chocolate + 100g almonds + 1tsp cinnamon. I've also done white chocolate and macadamia, dark chocolate and dried cherries. Get creative!

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celcius. Make sure your butter is room temperature, and then mix butter and brown sugar together well. Add your egg and mix mix mix. Add vanilla, and then the flour and baking powder and mix it in thoroughly. Finally, add your flavours and mix then in very well.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and then use a teaspoon to make little balls of mixture, roll them in your palm until they are very round, and then place them on the tray with space between them. As a guide I do 12 per full size oven tray.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Less time means squishy centred biscuits. More time means harder biscuits. When they come out of the oven they will be squidgy so let them cool on the tray and they will firm up as they cool.

Then consume.

(Or you could just nibble on the raw cookie dough!)

Carrots

2009-10-16T12:55:00.001+11:00

I will admit upfront that I take vitamins and supplements. I worry about whether I consume sufficient vitamin B. R has a vitamin D deficiency. Our fridge if full of Ostelin, Inner Health Plus, Zinc supplements… the list goes on.

Last year I was sitting chanel surfing through all the crap that’s on our television airways when I saw an interview with Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food.

Michael was discussing carrots. He talked about how much time and energy scientists have spent in order to discover and extract the goodness of the humble carrot – vitamin A. Phew, now we can just add that to the list of supplements and not worry about nutrition. Now comes the bit that really piqued my interest – what if it’s the inherent carrot-ness of the carrot that are good for you? Sure, vitamin A is in there, but is vitamin A so wonderful when all the other great stuff about the carrot is taken away?

As a society should we be throwing out the vitamins and eating carrots with gusto?

Naturally I rushed to the bookshop to buy Michael’s book and it was great. He calls it a manifesto but it’s pretty simple really – ‘eat food, not too much, mostly plants.’ This concept kicks the but of Atkins. And the Zone. And Weight Watchers.

He also discusses the rise ‘edible food like substances’, which should be avoided at all costs. If it’s a food your great grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food don’t eat it. If it has more than 3 ingredients don’t eat it. If it has unpronounceable ingredients don’t eat it. Another good tip is to beware products that make big health claims.

Here’s a great example of this principle in action. Which one is better for you?

Harmonie Organic salted butter

Ingredients
organic cream
salt

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter

Ingredients
Water
Vegetable Mono and Diglycerides
Rice Starch
Salt, Gelatin
Lactose
Vegetable Datem
Colouring
Potassium Sorbate
Calcium Disodium EDTA
Natural Soy Lecithin
Lactic Acid
Natural and Artificial Flavour
Vitamin A (Palmitate)
Beta Carotene

Scary stuff huh?!

This week I did a Pollan style pantry audit and I’ll be honest, a few things went into the bin. Since I read In Defense of Food I’ve made a conscious effort to make sure I used the best quality ingredients in my cooking. When I cook bread and butter pudding commercially baked bread is out, Sonoma sourdough is in. Any kind of ‘spread’ is out, organic butter is in.

Sure there are times when a person craves a Big Mac, but as a general guide to cooking and shopping I think Michael Pollan’s ‘manifesto’ is awesome.

http://www.michaelpollan.com/

More stuff I want WANT want...

2009-10-13T14:15:00.003+11:00

http://www.victoriantradingco.com/store/catalogimages/1a/i15408.html

My Christmas wishlist has never been longer. Damn you internet!

Perverted lemon meringue pie

2009-10-12T23:05:00.004+11:00

What did I do with these babies on the weekend?

I love pavlova. I love mini desserts. And I love lemon curd. What I don't much like is shortcrust pastry, so a lemon meringue pie inspired mini pavlova seemed like a top idea. And very easy.

Make some meringues
4 egg whites at room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
Whisk egg whites with an electric beater until soft peaks form, and then gradually beat in sugar, and finally vanilla. Pipe on to a baking paper lined tray and bake in a slow oven (140 - 150 degrees Celsius depending on the nature of your beast) for about 30 - 40 minutes (depending on the size of the meringues - I did about 14 from this recipe and baked for about 30 minutes). Open the oven door slightly and let them cool in the oven. These (and the lemon butter) can be made the day before you want to use them, which means you can quickly assemble this dessert when it's time to be served.)

Make some lemon butter (thanks to Stephanie Alexander for this recipe)
4 egg yolks (see, these two items were meant to be made together - no leftover eggy bits!)
2/3 cup caster sugar
100ml lemon juice
lemon zest (to taste)
Whisk egg yolks and sugar until well combined but not frothy. Pour into a heavy based saucepan and add remaining ingredients. Stirring constantly bring to simmer point over a medium - high heat (about 5 minutes.) As soon as bubbles start to appear remove from heat and continue to stir for about 2 minutes. Let it cool and then put it in the fridge overnight.

Assemble
Whip some cream, chop up some fruit and then assemble. I spooned lemon butter into the meringue nests and topped with cream and chopped strawberries. Yum! The lemon butter had the same impact that passionfruit does - adds a nice tartness to offset all the sugar and cream.

Dessert tables

2009-10-10T15:10:00.005+11:00

(Dessert table by o holy sweet)

What's not to love? As I said in my post yesterday we are having a dessert table at our wedding which will be laid out based on the beautiful image above. It will be the middle of summer which to me just screams out berries, summer puddings, pavlova and ice cream. So imagine something like the collection of images below...

For more dessert table inspiration check out the wonderful work of Amy Atlas at www.amyatlas.com

Four reasons to love etsy

2009-10-09T15:08:00.008+11:00

(Cake topper by Suebeehb)

(Customised cake topper by Middelburg)

(Daschund cake topper by bunnywithatoolbelt)

(Customised bride and groom cake topper by goosegrease)

We have already met with Libby to design our wedding cake and it's going to be a stunner, a very elegant three tiered beauty inspired by our wedding invitation design. The colours will blend in with my berry themed dessert table - which will be bowls of cherries, berry trifles, mini pavlovas, mini summer puddings and nougat. Berries are summer. Who wants chocolate mousse in February... anyway, I digress... more on dessert tables later I promise.

But part of me kinda sorta really wants to get some daschund cake toppers anyway...

Pros

1.Meaningful - R and I bonded over mutual concern for daschund back pain very early in our relationship (seriously)

2. Different - not supporting wedding industrial complex (read more about that here on A Practical Wedding - http://www.apracticalwedding.com/2009/04/wedding-industrial-complex-as-it-were.html)

3. Supporting 'the arts' (vague assertion here, clearly I am desperate to find pros)

Cons

1. People might think I am a daschund owner or breeder (thus facilitating cruelty to animals)

2. I have a (sick) fantasy that photos of my dessert table will feature in Martha Stewart Weddings and poster painted daschunds would kill the dream

3. It would be in start contrast to rest of wedding which is heavily 'informed' by wedding industrial complex. I know, I know, it's sick. I say 'informed' because whilst I might check 5 different wedding blogs a day I am not yet at the point of releasing white doves or pouring different coloured vessels of sand into a single vessel (which incidentally I think is hilarious.) The fact that I even used the term 'vessel' is equally hilarious. There is a lot of wank about weddings isn't there?

I am seriously coveting one of these...

2009-10-09T09:37:00.004+11:00

You can get one of these cake stands custom made to your colour and style specifications.

SWOON...

http://www.clarafrench.com/

Or I could get one of these beautiful Whitney Smith creations:

http://whitneysmithpottery.com/

Why are all the pretty things in America?

They have some cake stands in the Donna Hay General Store, but they just don't bring on the same swoon effect...

A beautiful 50th birthday cake

2009-10-05T11:36:00.002+11:00

I wish I'd made it. Oh well, I'll just be proud of ordering it instead. Libby at Polka Dot did a wonderful job. It also tasted great - orange and almond cake!