Chocolate and Guinness Cake, again

Just a different take on the chocolate and guinness cake, which I've done several times - the cake base always turns out to be a winner, so the variety is really just in the cake decoration, or additional flavor... like this one's top was brushed with coffee liquer then  topped with ganache and decorated with fresh apple mint and mint leaves. And tiny little pieces of colored chocolate. Made with eggs from a colleagues' chooks too!

Black Forest Wannabe

We had a previous celebration a week ago where a friend of ours celebrated their 15th anniversary together. Now this called for a celebration cake - and having downloaded Donna Hay's latest iPad magazine app featuring celebration cakes, it wasn't very difficult to find a recipe from the list, based on the ingredients that I have.

The winner was a black forest cake. The recipe was meant to be for smaller, semi individual serves. However I didn't have the smaller cake tins, so I thought I'd dish out the same amount but use a 12" springform tin instead. And because I didn't have fresh cherries at hand, I had to decorate the top with strawberries, which are  widely available this time of the year. I did use tinned cherries, which was covered with the cake batter, before baking.

The great part about this recipe is the chocolate shards - Donna had a very elegant (i.e. not messy!) way of creating the chocolate shards. The magazine had a video to show this, my version are in the photos below.

Prepare 2 sheets of baking paper, around 3 feet long.

Melt 300g of 75% dark chocolate (either bain marie, or microwave) and spread over one piece of baking paper. Leave a couple of centimetres away from the edge.

Place the other sheet of baking paper on top and smooth it out to remove air bubbles.

Roll it out and put in the fridge to set. I used a rolling pin to make it easier although the instructions didn't say so!

When set (maybe an hour or 2 to be sure) hold one end of the bottom baking paper and unroll  the top part. This will create the shards.

I'll post the recipe later when I get the chance!

Witch's Fingers

We were invited to a Halloween party on Saturday night, and it was great to think about what costume to wear and what treat to bring! There are so many ideas available once you start googling things (there you go, google is a verb) but one thing that I chose was these witch fingers (check out this link for the ingredients) ... basically it's a shortbread base, almonds for nails and a bit of  food color for extra effect! I thought they looked sensational so I set off to make a batch of my own. 

Heeheeheehee.

I only have small bottles of red, yellow and blue food coloring in my pantry - and I guess that's the most I'll ever need for now as these primary colors can be mixed to create pretty much any color from the spectrum. So blue+yellow=green! (although I did stop to think about it hahahaha)

200 grams of room temperature unsalted butter, cubed +  1/2 cup caster sugar. Into the mixing bowl. I used a paddle attachment and whipped till light and fluffy. Add green food color and a couple of drops of almond essence (be careful not to overdo as it can be quite overpowering)

Pre-heat oven to 190C, and line your baking tray with baking paper.

Mix 1 1/3 cup plain flour, 3/4 cup rice flour and a pinch of salt in a separate bowl. Fold into butter and sugar mixture. You'll have to get in there and use your hands to lightly knead until it comes together. Grab a small handful and shape into fingers. Remember to emphasize the knuckles and the folds of the skin! I used a butter knife to press in some lines. Then lightly press a blanched almond at the tip to make the fingernail.

Line 'em all up and bake for around 10 minutes. 

When they're done and still hot (but be careful), remove the almond and tinge the 'cuticle' with red food color to make it a bit more gross! Replace the almond. Be really careful as it's a bit crumbly!

Ready for the party!

The slightly burnt ones are fingers from witches who were set on fire! Hee hee hee!

Happy halloween!

Saturday Night (cooking) Live, again

Here's another long delayed entry for one of those Saturday feeling-fancy-dining-in nights, which is basically a 3 meal course enjoyed slowly with a bottle (or two) of wine.

The starter was a grilled blue marlin with salsa verde, garnished with sugar snap peas and shoots from the garden. If my memory serves me right, the salsa verde is made of a handful of parsley, 2 sprigs tarragon, 2 sprigs thyme, 1 clove garlic, I think I sneaked in a leaf of kaffir lime as well, 2 pieces anchovy, a teaspoon of baby capers, salt and pepper, blitzed with 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil. This is best prepared ahead of time to let the flavors infuse.

For the main meal, I thought that a rack of lamb was in order as I haven't cooked one for a while! This herb crusted lamb was inspired by a Gordon Ramsay recipe.

I cleaned up the remaining sinews from the bones and wrapped it with foil. Frenching a rack of lamb after a couple of glasses of wine and Santana in the background was a pretty awesome gig :) I also scored the fat and seasoned it with salt and pepper. Meanwhile the oven was pre-heated to 200C.

After the deed is done, the lamb meat is seared on high heat with a touch of olive oil, for around 2 minutes, then it went straight to the oven for around 8 minutes. 

While the lamb is in the oven, I pulsed 3 slices of stale wholewheat bread, a handful  of parsley, a couple of sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped off from 3 sprigs of rosemary, and some olive oil.  

The lamb was taken out of the oven and seeded mustard was slathered across the meaty part. 

Then this was dredged into the herby mixture, until well covered.

It was finished off in the oven again for around 5 minutes. We like our lamb still pink in the middle so if you prefer yours well done, you'll need to leave it in there for longer!

The lamb was served with smashed swedes, rocket and silverbeet from the garden, and a mint sauce made from red wine, some sugar, and a handful of minced mint (also from the garden) thickened with a little bit of gelatin (I pretty much winged this recipe so don't ask me about the proportions, as most mint sauces I found online have so much sugar and I don't really want a very sweet mint sauce). This is also best prepared ahead of time to allow for the jelly to set. You just want it with a little wobble and not very solid though!

And last but not the least... dessert. A chocolate fondant, served with vanilla ice cream. And some left over mint sprigs! :)

This fondant is also another Gordon Ramsay recipe, and something that I've done several times, and works each time. No use altering or making my own version. And this is always a crowd pleaser. Never mind the calories - it's so good it's really worth enjoying!

After writing this I realized that I should probably rename my post to Ramsay Inspired Night!

Ok now I'm off to the gym! :)

The Irishman's Birthday Cake

Sorry it's been a while since my last post! I have been a bit pre-occupied with general stuff around the house, at work, and all over the place. Sometimes I wake up on a Monday morning thinking that another week is about to commence, and then all of a sudden it's the weekend, and before I get the chance to relax, it's Monday again! Time flies and sometimes it's not funny - I have so many things to do!

Anyway one of things that I did was to bake a cake for the birthday boy, the resident Irish Man himself. A surprise trip to Mooroolbark airport for an express helicopter flying session did the trick. He liked it! The cake base was from the coles recipe from before. I'm beginning to regularly use this as the cake base for chocolate cakes. And since there are so many ways to dress up a cake, no one can tell the difference sometimes. The frosting for this was a swiss meringue buttercream. I followed this particular recipe that I found in youtube - it looked to be the simplest, no-fuss technique compared to the other ones I've seen. And it turned out to be very good! I used a sparkler instead of a candle for an extra special touch.

Happy birthday mo stor! :)

Sunday Snapshots

Snapshots one sunny Sunday

Random flower arrangement, all harvested from the garden

 Wisteria

Out for morning coffee

Peas

Lemon Verbena

Chocolate Mint

Guess What

Tarragon, growing better than before - the peas within the pot enriches the soil by releasing nitrogen!

Coriander

Little seedlings - tomato, okra, among others!

Today's Lavender harvest

Kaka's Cake

Last Saturday was Kaka's 4th birthday celebration, and I offered to bring the birthday cake to the party which was held at Big Slide in Ferntree Gully. It was actually my first time to bake a cake for this boy, and so here it was!





The decor probably seems quite similar to Daan and Pip's cake - strawberry is cheaper this time and there is plenty around, so why not use it! I guess it is still a healthier decoration option compared to lollies!

The cake base used was from the Coles Layered Easter Cake  recipe; and I think it's a winner. Very easy too!
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Daan and Pip's Birthday's Cake

It was that time of the year again - the Dutch boys are celebrating their birthday. How quick does time fly?!

Daan's mum said that Daan would like a chocolate cake, so a chocolate cake it was!

The recipe that I used was the one from the Easter layered cake that I made back in April. The general feedback was that the cake was moist and tasty, so I figured that this cake would be a winner. The other surefire moist cake is the chocolate and guinness cake - but the alcohol is not really appropriate for a kid's party!

Instead of doing 4 layers I only did two, and used the same buttercream recipe but this time I added the zest of an orange, and juice of half an orange. Last year's cake for the boys was a bit naughty, with lots of lollies... so this year I decided not to wage war against the moms of all the kids and went for a slightly healthier decor of fresh strawberries. For some reason I felt the need to further personalize the cake, so I thought I'd write "happy birthday"... Which is nice, but I haven't really done a lot of writing on my cakes!






Buttercream with a hint of orange




Layer 1




Layer 2




And slathered with more buttercream. The ridges were made by lightly running through a little gadget with 'teeth' along the edges (forgot to take a photo!)




I melted some chocolate and poured it into a paper cornet. Now, need to practice first! This was tricky - being stuck in the office meant not a lot of handwriting! Good thing I still remember how to write!





And I was a bit nervous writing on the cake itself - didn't want to mess this up!





I think it wasn't too bad :)





Daan was pleased.




Pip liked it too










It was a good day :) at the end of it all, I said my byes to Daan, and he told me he loves me.

Priceless.


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Black Sesame Seed Crusted Salmon and Quick Pickled Courgette and Carrot

Now if you can think of a longer name than that then please be my guest!

Saturdays usually mean fish or seafood in the menu as it is something that we can get (relatively) fresh from the fishmonger. The 'quick pickled' veggies in this dish were actually thought of mid way the prep as I was originally thinking of just serving the fish with store bought pickled ginger (the ones you'd have with sashimi) - but then a meal without some form of vegetables would feel rather incomplete especially for us who have been feeding on vegetables all week this week!





The salmon was simply seasoned and encrusted with black sesame seeds, and pan fried til the skin got crispy, and finished in a hot oven for around 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, with a vegetable peeler, the small corgette and carrot were turned into thin ribbons, placed in a shallow bowl and set aside. The 'pickling brine' was made of red wine vinegar, brown sugar, salt, crushed coriander and black pepper - i didn't really measure but it was probably a couple of tablespoons of vinegar and less than a tablespoon of sugar, a teaspoon of coriander seeds and maybe less than 10 black peppercorns - just tasted my way through. This was heated up until almost boiling, then poured into the veggies, and nuked in the microwave on high for 2 minutes (I did mention "quick pickled" right?!).

Served with rice, this pickle experiment was a pleasant surprise.


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Tortang Talong (eggplant omelet)

This is a Filipino recipe that I actually have not made for quite some time. It's quick to prepare and very tasty too. Some recipes include a meat mince (usually pork) - just toss it in with the onion mixture and if that does not make it tastier, then I don't know what would!

I held off on the mince in this particular dish, as we are just easing off from a week of spring cleaning our insides (some people call it detox I think) - the past week we skipped meat, eggs, fish, seafood, dairy, sugar, flours, salt, oils, coffee and alcohol - and yep we made it despite a stressful workweek, being in a pub for a pub quiz surrounded by the smell of chips and pizza, and the traditional group lunch take away every Friday.

Anyway, on to the recipe -this one is especially documented for a colleague who loves eggplant. Thought I'd add a simple yet flavorful recipe to his eggplant repertoire!

To make this for 2 persons you will need :

2 eggplants (the long skinny ones, not the giant aubergines), so yes count 1 eggplant per person.
3-4 eggs
1 tomato
1 medium sized brown onion
2-3 cloves garlic
Cooking oil (i typically use olive oil)
Salt and pepper to taste
Tomato sauce/ketchup and tabasco, or tomato chutney, to serve

Start by grilling the eggplants. You can do this over an open gas burner or under the grill in an oven. (growing up I would have only been familiar with the gas burner approach so this is what is shown here). the intention is to scorch the skin until some parts of the skin erupt into tiny, fragrant geysers that smell of grilled eggplant. Make sure the flesh closer to the eggplant tops are also well cooked. This could take a good couple of minutes. Some people boil the eggplants but grilling them lends a smoky taste which I think is what makes this rather simple dish quite special.






When it is done it should look somethng like this :



Immerse the eggplants in a bowl with cold water to facilitate the process of removing the skins.



If the eggplants are cooked well the skins should remove easily, without any off the eggplant flesh sticking into the skin. Just leave the skins in the water, no harm done! (dipping your fingers into the water as you peel off the hot skin eases any possible burning of your fingertips!)



Dry the eggplants with a paper towel, and you're ready for phase 2.




Mince the onions, tomato and garlic. You can do this by hand (left side of the photo) or with a mini food processor if you have one bought from a tupperware party (right side of the photo).




Whisk the eggs in a wide bowl (not deep but not too shallow). Season as you go along.



Place the eggplants into the eggs and lightly flatten the flesh with a fork. This also incorporates some of the egg into the eggplant flesh.




The long shape would be transformed into a wider oblong! At this stage, a possible approach is to add the onion mixture on top of the eggplants. However, I prefer to soften the onions before doing so.



So.... Soften the tomato-onion-garlic mixture in a frying pan over medium heat, with some olive oil. You can use an ordinary kitchen implement if you don't have a funky guitar shaped flipper like the one shown below! :p yes, and again, season as you go...




When the onions are slightly translucent (or cook as you like), pile it on top of the eggplants. Don't get rid of the frying pan as it will be used again! Press the onions lightly into the flesh with the fork. Don't worry if the onion mixture spills over on to the egg mixture - it's all good.




Return the pan on to the medium heat and add a dash of oil. Slowly slide the entire mixture into the pan, retaining its shape. Cook until the bottom looks to be done (maybe around 7-10min?)



You can choose to flip the whole thing to cook the other side, or finish under the grill (which is what I did in this instance). Almost finished! You can choose to eat it all now when no one is looking, or share...




Serve on top of rice, or beside rice. Either way, it can only be served with rice from how I know it (well we eat everything with rice anyway!). And ketchup. And some tabasco. And maybe a beer to wash it all down. Can also go well with a glass of shiraz or shiraz grenache. May also be a lot more interesting with some freshly picked parsley sprinkled on top.


If you do end up trying this I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed using my new red guitar shaped flipper!



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