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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Chocolate Big Chip Muffins

When I said big chip, I meant it - this went down a treat for some neighbors over for afternoon tea.

Recipe later!