Mt. Macedon and Surrounds

It was an absolutely gorgeous day today - the sun was out, the wind was cool, and we were out and about as we took a friend for a drive out to Mt. Macedon and surrounds.

We had an early start, and fetching B was quite an adventure in itself as we haven't been to Glenroy before. After a quick breakfast of wholemeal pancakes and maple syrup, we set off for the day....

And I have completely forgotten that B was with a Filipino family, who would always offer food to eat no matter what. Therefore, we had breakfast #2 before leaving. Fried rice, fried egg and bacon. Yum.

Anyway, we head off to the Macedon ranges and went to the Memorial Cross to start with (it was the first stopover). We then headed to Hanging Rock, had scones and coffee at the cafe, went to the winery nearby, drove around for more sight seeing, had a late lunch at Gisborne, before dropping B back to Glenroy.  

Going to wineries is an extreme sport for our credit cards so we have been very good for getting away with only 2 bottles of wine!!!

Some snapshots below. B said she had a great day!

Weekend Snapshots

Some snapshots from the weekend that passed too quickly!

Breakfast lemonade... From lemons freshly picked from the garden, honey and sugar leaves from the herb patch







Lunch was grilled george whiting. This is the bbq pack presented to the Man of the House who is responsible for the barbie (pun intended hehehe). Contents: apron with tongs, salt and pepper, fish, canola spray and ofcourse something to drink!







Saturday night in, by the fire. It was awesome.






Dinner was baked stuffed squid. The stuffing was made with basmati rice, minced onion and fennel. This was placed in the cavity of the squid and immersed into an aromatic concoction of herbs, red wine and crushed tinned tomatoes. Baked for an hour or so at 170C.






And another night time scene - at (obviously) the favorite spot lately (which is in the front garden). Freesias are fabulous - i think they are very elegant. The small plants on the left pot are sage and rosemary cuttings - they have been there for a couple of weeks so hopefully they have developed roots by now! They still look alive so it is pretty promising. At the right side, not very visible, is mint.






Anyway, that was just a quick post - off for a night cap! Hope you had a good weekend too!



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Chocolate Cake with Coffee Cream and Chocolate Curls

It was a Sunday afternoon and I just finished doing some stuff around the garden... And then I felt the baking bug bite.... And so I had to bake something!

Recalling that a colleague found a recipe from the newspaper a couple of weeks ago, I fished out the clipping from my bag and thought it might be nice to make this - it was called an Esk Valley Chocolate Cake, from 50 Fabulous Chocolate Cakes edited by Rita Erlich - except I did have a minor tweak on the whipped cream by adding coffee liquer...

Anyway, this was made from

1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup cocoa (scant half a cup)
1/2 cup boiling water
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp bicarb
1 tsp cream of tartar
Whipped cream to fill (about 150ml singe cream whipped with about 2 tbsp of Kahlua, if you like)

Icing
1/2 cup pure icing sugar
1/2 tbsp cocoa
1 big tsp butter blended with 1 dessertspoon boiling water

Chocolate curls to decorate (details below)

Method
Pre-heat oven to 180c. Grese and line a 20cm cake tin
Melt buttere, cocoa and mix with boiling water. Let cool

Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy (around 5-7 minutes on high, the color will be pale and if you life the beaters it will leave a ribbon-like trail)' then add the flour sifted with bicarb and cream of tartar. Add cooled cocoa mixture and pour into well greased tin. Bake for about 30-40mnutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

To make icing, sift the icing sugar and 1/2 tbsp cocoa. Blend with butter and water. I whisked this over a very low heat until the sugar has melted and hasa pouring consistency.

When the cake has cooled completely, split in half horizontally and fill with whipped cream.







Top with other half, smother with the icing and top with chocolate curls.

To make chocolate curls - melt some chocolate (i used a combination or dark and milk chocolate, about 70g) and spread out evenly into a 2mm thick sheet (this is what the instructions said, i'm not sure if i made it correctly, hehe). Allow to cool until set but not to hard, then draw a spatula at an angle of about 40degrees (again, this is what the instructions said!) along the chocolate. Chocolate that is too cold will splinter, too warm it will not form proper curls. It does take a fair bit of practice - as you can see some of my 'alleged curls' look like shavings!





I also made some chocolate leaves by 'painting' the back of bay leaves with the melted chocolate.

Finished product!







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Chocolate & Orange Mousse with Pomegranate Seeds

We were invited for dinner at a friend's house and i offered to bring dessert. The guy who invited us is a certified chocolate lover, so while i have an abundance of lemons, i couldn't bring myself to make anything else other than a dessert that's chocolate based.

And because they have already experienced my chocolate guinness cake, chocolate mousse cake, and chocolate fondant (yes, with the molten center!), i had to find another recipe. I needed something that i can prepare in advance since I had a lot of things to cook for this weekend!

That's when the idea of making a mousse came about- relatively quick and tasty, and should be chilled so i can make it way ahead of time.

I googled several recipes as i usually do,and then after grasping the concept i took a stab at my own recipe.

I winged it most of the time but if i remember right the mousse ended up being composed of

100 grams of Lindt touch of sea salt
75grams nestle plaistowe dark chocolate
A tablepoon of butter
150ml pouring cream
Juice of half an orange
Zest of 1 orange
Dollop of honey
2 eggs, separated
2 tsps + 1 tbsp caster sugar
Pomegranate seeds, green leaves for garnish (i used chocolate mint and sugar leave)

Melt chocolates, honey and butter ov a bain marie. Mix in orange juice and zest unti well incorporated. Set aside. Whip egg yolks with 2 tsps of sugar until pale, and fold into chocolatea while it is still slightly warm to somewhat coo the egg (not an issue if the eggs are fresh, but i just want to minimize risks!) Whip cream until soft peaks form and fold into chocolate mixture. Whip egg whites with the remaining sugar until soft peaks form. Fold into chocolate mixture until well incorporated. Spoon into individual cups and chil in the fridge until it has set, at least an hour.

Garnish with something that would help cut the richness of the dark chocolate. In this case i used pomegranate seeds, both for taste and visual impact, and mint, for a refreshing after taste. This made 4 cups filled just halfway.






Best served with port!


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Water

Pea leaves and water





Spot the difference





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Cake-a-thon

One of my colleagues at work is preparing for a double marathon this year and he aims to raise funds for a cancer foundation. To help him raise funds we have scheduled a morning tea cakefeast where willing bakers from the office woud bring a treat or two and sell it to people at work.

My contribution consists of a lemon meringue pie which proved itself to be a crowd pleaser, a chocolate brioche which i have not done before (but you gotta have something with chocolate!) And for something different, a savory muffin - carrot, parsley and onion.










The savory muffins went down surprisingly well - the lemon meringue pie was pretty much sold out early too. Recipes to be posted later!

Carrot, parsley and onion muffins

Chocolate brioche, a Donna Hay recipe

Seeing double - one for guests (had some people over that weekend!) and one for the cake-a-thon

The outcome was we raised $165.75 from these plus date slices, chocolate swirly shortbread cookies, rocky road, healthy muffins and cheesecake from the other bakers!

To donate for Ed's cause click here


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Cakes Galore

Two birthdays, two cakes. These are from previously tested recipes, but still with some substitutions due to constraints in available ingredients from the pantry!

John, the neighbor, has a sweet tooth, so there was no other way but to go for chocolate. This was based on the chocolate mousse cake recipe, this time topped with tinned cherries, drained from its sauce save for maybe around 2 tablespoons worth and some sugar, where it was reduced until the sauce became slightly thicker.





Christy specifically asked for carrot cake, so I whipped out one based on an a previous carrot cake recipe, except that the available nuts were walnuts and cashew nuts, so i substituted these instead of the almonds. The frosting was made from a packet of cream cheese, 5 heaping tablespoons of softened buter and 2 cups of icing sugar, beaten together... It was highly spreadable, and i thought it would be a crowd pleaser... Well, the birthday girl was pleased, for sure ;)







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