A Chocolate Cake with a Lot of Extras

It's a colleague's birthday last Friday and since we were not in office, a cake for Monday was in order. This guy has an extremely tooth (or teeth) and having witnessed how he likes his sweet stuff, the best candidate would be a chocolate cake. With some sweet extras.

The cake base is a previous tested recipe (the chocolate and guinness cake), but this time I split the batter into two tins (one of which I eventually broke as I was trying to get the cake out of it). I baked it at 180C for around 35minutes, and let the cakes cool.

After the cakes have cooled, I took one cake, flipped it over and slathered the flat bottom (which is now the top) with homemade plum jam. This version still has a bit of a tart kick to it, which I thought would be good to offset some of the overall sweetness.

After that I placed the other cake, upside down, over the jam covered cake. This is to ensure I have the level bottom as the top part again.

I also made a chocolate ganache (one of the 'extras') by heating 150ml cream and pouring it over 75g bittersweet chocolate, whisking constantly to melt the chocolate. While it is cooling a bit, I brushed the excess crumbs off the cake, and then poured the ganache on top, letting some slide down the sides. Into the fridge it went for 5 minutes. This is my 'crumb coat'. I could have covered the rest of the sides but didn't... 

After 5 minutes in the fridge I took it out and poured some more (2nd layer, another extra!). I used some ready made Lindt chocolate as decoration (easy assembly - and the final 'extra') as I know the birthday boy could easily eat all these pieces.

 I hope he shares it with the rest of the gang!

Thai Basil Seed Drink

I could spend a full day just looking through foreign food and ingredients sold in a specialty store, for instance,  asian stores, butchers, indian markets (you get my drift). I find it very interesting and I think it's always great to try something new, and opens up options for the next edible experiment.


This weekend involved a quick trip to the newly opened Asian shop around the corner (a dream come true, although there really is no scarcity of Asian shops in this neighborhood, but for it to be just right at your doorstep - bliss!). One of the things that came home with us was a bottle of Thai Basil Seed Drink.

So what is it?


It's a drink made of sweet basil seeds, which look like ordinary black seeds until they get wet after which they look like frog eggs. :) Probably not the best picture to paint for something that you're supposed to drink - but I think it could be an interesting party cocktail with just a couple more additions. Apparently you can buy the basil seeds and make your own drink at home, made sweet with either sugar or honey. If I do get my hands on some, I won't mind creating my own version, as this bottled drink came in too sweet for me.

So to down play the sweetness I added a glug of tonic water and a shot of vodka.

nothing like a bit of alcohol to spice things up a bit!

Another Lily?

I'm not quite sure what it's specific name is, but it looks like a lily to me (or they all look like lilies to me?!). One day it just showed up on a patch of soil on top of our mailbox. It was a pleasant surprise, just like this other beauty that bloomed at the side garden.

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Well, yes we're back. Had been out and about for the past week. There are some photos posted up on the photogrraphy page or just check out this Flicr link.

Couldn't sleep

Plum Jam

For someone who thinks she is physically and mentally tired....

... She ends up making jam at 3am. WTH?

Old Fart

the Old Fart meets Stewie

 A clear amber ale with a creamy head. Not too bad, I'd say. Easy drinking, great on a summer's day. This was a trial version.  Wouldn't mind getting a bunch of this though. However I did forget how much it was. Hehe!

Previous venture on drinks here

An Afternoon Treat

Sometimes, the simplest things can be quite sensational, especially for  fresh ingredients that need no special treatment.

We had some tomatoes from the garden and I thought I'd just make a quick salsa made of the tomatoes, parsley and spring onion, with a bit of salt, pepper and olive oil. I made soda farls (griddled, unleavened bread made of wholemeal flour, salt, bicarb and buttermilk - they are the simplest bread to make!) and opened a tin of wild salmon. And some cheese. And Guinness.

Made an otherwise lazy afternoon a lazier one. :)

PlantPower

I used to receive a constant supply of flowers on Valentines Day, sometimes (or most of the time) for no reason at all, but after moving into the house on the hill, the need for florists had diminished due to our own constant supply of flowers all year round. 

The funny part is although we both agree that the 14Feb celebration is 'corny', we still end up getting each other gifts. Last year, I got this gorgeous  tagine. This year, I had plants to add to my little garden :) I was requested to select from a wide variety of options at Bunnings and while there was a fig tree that looked irresistible (it can really grow big - and we have plenty of big trees already) I managed to snatch these pretty things instead :

passionfruit - a vine/climber, good against the fence, with vibrant flowers

(left) pomegranate (a shrub) and lemongrass

sugar plant

now this one is very interesting

You can probably guess that the Sugar Plant is from the herbs department, and may be named as such because it tastes sweet, but you would be really surprised at how sweet it can be! I had a little sneaky taste of the leaf prior to the purchase, and it was simply amazing. After a quick google, I found more information, and it's actually a member of the sunflower family, with really really spectacularly sweet leaves. You should try it to believe it.  

So, passionfruit. sugar leaf, a red-colored fruit in the guise of pomegranate.... and who thought Valentines Day was corny?

(ps : the lemongrass was a replacement for a bunch that died during that hot summer)