Today's brekky

pan fried brown soda bread, black pudding and poached egg

Cole's Celebration Mousse Torte

Last Friday we went out for a team lunch as usual, and stopped by Coles and found their Autumn magazine. After flipping through the pages I found a recipe for a Celebration Mousse Torte. It looked relatively easy, but looked indeed very pretty.

Follow the link above for the recipe but I took some snapshots (as usual!) when I made it, one early Sunday morning. It's just quite rewarding to see results :)

oreo biscuit base. i scraped the nice sweet white bits... don't ask where it went! 

melting milk chocolate + dark Lindt chocolate (85% cocoa in this case)

next in line - 1/2 cup cream, whisked into the melted chocolate after it was removed from heat;

and 4 eggs (separated); 

the yolks mixed into the chocolate mixture

the whites were whipped into stiff peaks with some sugar

...and folded into the chocolate mixture. 

it was poured on top of the oreo biscuit base.

then into the fridge to chill!

the ganache was bittersweet chocolate chips, smooth peanut butter, butter and water

melted over low heat

...and then dumped on top of the chocolate base.

I did this after just several hours of chilling.

had to smooth the top. not sure how to fully smooth it all into a level surface!

It's pretty good fun baking cakes from a photo and trying to make it look like the picture :) Just the previous Easter cake  (and yeah maybe Easter cake take 2)

Now I just need one good full day and maybe I can make Adriano Zumbo's macaron tower (I still have that magazine too!)

Hot Cross Buns

Easter is fast approaching and a classic (English) treat during this time are hot cross buns. To be honest I've only heard of these when I arrived here in Oz, growing up we would have had rice-pudding type treats during Easter :) so I thought I'd give it a go and bake some to see what they're like. 

I found a recipe from the Good Food magazine and they turned out quite nicely. 

3 cups plain white flour

1.5 tsps instant dried yeast

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 tsp ground  cinnamon

1/2 tsp mixed spice (which was made of ground ginger, ground cloves and allspice)

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

2/3 cup dried currants

1 tsp salt

150ml warm milk

50ml warm water

1 egg, beaten

50g unsalted butter

1/4 cup plain flour

2 tbsp white sugar

I just had the wonderful opportunity to mix them all together in my magical Kitchenaide, tested the consistency and texture of the dough and added a bit more flour when I found it too wet.

In the absence of this toy one can mix dry ingredients, make a well in a center and add the wet ingredients. Mix to form a dough and knead until smooth. Transfer to a clean, lightly greased bowl and let rise until doubled in size.

Place greaseproof paper on baking tray. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 balls. Shape into a  nice round and place on prepared tray, allowing some room for each rising. Using a sharp knife score a cross on top of each bun then cover with a tea towel and let rise again until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 180C. Combine remaining flour and some water to form a thick paste. 

Spoon into piping bag (I used a sandwich bag, tip snipped off) and pipe crosses on top of buns. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until buns are golden. 

While still warm, heat white sugar and about a tablespoon of water until sugar is dissolved (I just microwaved them until it bubbled). Brush over buns and serve immediately; or serve toasted the next day with a dollop of butter.

The same dough can be pretty much used for a lot of things... I liked this a lot, it's sweetly spiced buns, can't go wrong with that!

Tea Smoked Salmon

I read about tea-smoking fish a while back and made it with monk fish. This time I tried it again but with salmon. Why? I don't know, I just felt like eating something smoky :) Apparently this technique has been used in the Szechuan province in China ever since...

previous tea-smoking gig :

tea-smoked monkfish wrapped in radish leaves, 

and fresh radish dressed with a soy sauce and vinegar dressing

This salmon was served with potato starch noodles, wok tossed in a small amount of chili and onions, with red cabbage and baby corn. I also added some pickled ginger (the ones you'd get with sashimi) because I thought it would be a strong contrast to the otherwise delicate flavors of noodles and fish.

The basic 'kindlings' or smoking agents for indoor smoking are tea (I used jasmine, but I suppose any type will do), a handful of uncooked rice and brown sugar. Depending on the size of the fish it may take around 15-20 minutes. For this salmon it took around 10 minutes since the cut isn't very thick and I like my salmon still raw in the middle. In this instance I also threw in several leaves of lemon verbena for a slight citrus hint, although I didn't really quite taste it in the end. (Figured it was worth a try anyway!)

I made a bowl from foil (and just moulded it on a bowl!) 

a handful of tea leaves, a handful of rice and maybe 2 teaspoons of brown sugar

placed on pan over medium-high heat

the salmon went to a bamboo steamer lined with baking paper

noodles!

steaming contraption

they were ready in a jiffy!

juicy-licious

'the afterburn'

Easter cake is gone

I guess they didn't like it! :)

Layered Easter Egg Chocolate Cake - take 2

I wasn't too happy with the frosting on the layers on the previous cake, and I didn't have the heart to use all of the ganache and frosting in just one cake (it seemed a bit too sweet for my liking)

so I thought hey why not make another cake :)

Too easy hahaha.

Except of course I didn't have enough frosting and ganache to make the same number of layers, so I resorted to making my basic chocolate cake recipe, slicing it into two, and just sandwiching the remaining frosting between the 2 layers. There was sufficient ganache for a sexy topping, and some easter eggs left so I just followed the same approach to piling them on top. 

Now I can get over it, and move on to the next cake!!! :p

I originally made the cake for Sunday afternoon nibblies and bubblies with neighbors, so now I have another cake to take to office. I'm sure the office folks wouldn't mind having cake on a Monday. :)

Layered Easter Egg Chocolate Cake

I grabbed a copy of the Good Food magazine last week as the cover photo grabbed my attention. I especially noted the 'triple tested recipes' bit and thought maybe I ought to give that cake recipe a try....

I wasn't able to get the exact easter eggs for decor and I think my cake cutting needs a bit more practice!

the buttercream wasn't flush towards the sides too.

(no I'm not being a perfectionist....!) :p

to be honest I was just a bit impatient/too excited to finish this cake hehehe.

This one falls under the magazine's 'super easy' recipes!

225g self raising flour

275g brown sugar

250g unsalted butter, softened

75g dark chocolate, melted

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

50g cocoa

4 eggs 

ganache icing

1/3 cup cream

160g dark chocolate, chopped

buttercream filling

375g unsalted butter, softened

500g pure icing sugar

1/3 cup milk

easter eggs for decoration

(disclaimer : below is my quick-type version as lifted from the magazine so I may have omitted some words!)

Preheat oven to 180C or 160C fan. Grease and line 2 round cake pans.

Mix all cake ingredients together in a food processor and process until smooth. Pour onto prepared pans and bake for around 35minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave in tin for about 5 mins then turn out to a wire rack to cool completely. (I used slightly less brown sugar in this instance, maybe 75g less)

To make the ganache, boil the cream then pour onto chocolate. Let stand for a couple of minutes then whisk until smooth. Set aside until cooled slightly and thickened.

To make the buttercream, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until as white as possible. Alternately beat in sugar and milk, starting and finishing with a little sugar. (I didn't use all 500g of sugar here, I just find it toooo sweet).

Using a bread knife split each cake into two layers. Sandwich together all four layers with buttercream. Top with ganache and decorate with Easter eggs. Serve.

**

Now this was my interpretation :

work hazard : blade licking

ganache in the making

buttercream frosting being beaten around

the big guns got good practice for this!

that really looked like buttercream to me!

layer 1

layer 2

fast forward to finishing all the layers!

top view

it smelled great... 

can't go wrong with chocolate!