Pigs in a mud spa

It’s my partner’s birthday tomorrow so I made cake for him and, apparently, his workmates.  It’s very cute so I thought I’d share it.

 

The power of this is in the decoration.  I made chocolate beetroot cake, one of my favourite chocolate cakes.  You could make anything you like.  Any chocolate or vanilla or lemon cake, even fruit cake if you’re into landfill, would work.  The construction is the impressive part.

 

I based the bits beyond the actual cake on the one on this site: fine craft guild with personal adaptations. 

 

I’ll give you my Beetroot Chocolate Cake recipe to use if you want to.  Because of the beetroot, this is a moist cake which gets better with (a little bit of) age. 

 

Line one large or two medium sized cake tins with cooking paper and oil spray.  This is a big cake, so you can make two if you want to.  If you do that, for this particular decoration you can stack them one on top of the other, filled with ganache or something else.  I made one cake. 

 

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

 

Take a huge bowl and sift into it:

2 ½ c plain flour

2 t baking soda

½ c cocoa (use the good stuff)

1 t salt

 

Drain an 850g can of beetroot.  Set aside. 

 

In a food processor, mix together:

4 eggs

2 c sugar

1 ½ c cooking oil (I use canola)

2 t vanilla essence

 

Mix that into the flour.  In the meantime, and don’t mess abut as you don’t want the soda to get too excited before the whole thing goes in the oven, blend the beetroot to a fine slush in the food processor (don’t bother to clean the bowl of the food processor). 

 

Mix that into the flour and sugar mixture and pour into the tin(s).  Cook for 45-50 minutes for 2 tins, longer for one large one.  It’s cooked when a skewer comes out clean when poked all the way through.  Cool completely before decorating.  I cut the very top off the cake to make it a bit flatter before decorating. 

 

So for the fun, impressive decorating bit.

 

Pour 1 ½ cups of cream into a clean saucepan.  When it’s hot but not boiling, take it off the heat and stir 200g of dark chocolate into it until it’s all melted together.  This is called ganache.  Set aside until it cools. 

 

To make the pigs I used white pre-made fondant mixed with a tiny amount of pink food colouring.  The fondant needs playing with to make it pliable and mouldable.  Mould into pig shapes – anything you like.  I used these shapes:

 

 

Make sure that they’re cool and hard before you place them on the cake.

 

Once the ganache is set and spreadable, which may take a while (I chilled it in the fridge for a bit) and when the cake is cool.  Spread some ganache around the edge of the cake and and stick chocolate fingers around it to resemble a fence.  Other recipes use Kitkats.  I wonder if twix would work?  Tie a ribbon around the ‘fence’ to keep it all there.  Clearly a pink one is the best idea.

 

 

Pour/spread the rest of the ganache on the top of the cake.  The ganache needs to be quite thick at this point to ensure that it doesn’t slip through the fence.  Gently park the pigs in the most elegant poses possible and chill for an hour before serving. 

 

 

Please send me photos of yours.  I like the idea of it with frogs instead of pigs.  Are you game?

 

 

 

 

Lemon Meringue Cake of Dreams!

This week at work we have been competitive baking.  This is the cake that won (!) against some very stiff competition, notably a hazelnut torte.

The finished cake, slice removed!

I absolutely love this cake.  This is because I absolutely love lemons.  And meringue.  And Pav the boyfriend loves it too; it’s the one he requests most frequently for his birthday cake.

It’s not that hard, but it is a bit time consuming and has a couple of interesting techniques.  It is however absolutely achievable.  It’s a Julie Le Clerc recipe from issue 99 of Cuisine.  If you’re into baking, you can do a lot worse that Julie Le Clerc as your guide.

Lemon Meringue Cake

There are 3 recipes here.  All with sugar and eggs and 2 of them with lemons.  Best to give them separately, so you don’t get confused.  But you do need 9 eggs in total, and about 10 lemons to be safe.  Plus 2 and a half cups of caster sugar.  You’ll need at least 3 bowls too – or some intra-baking washing up, at the very least. 

I do the ‘chiffon cake’ first.  To me, this is the hardest part because you can mix too much and mix too little (which is possibly worse).  But take care and you’ll be fine.  Grease and line the bottom of a 20cm cake tin and heat the oven to 170C on fan-bake. 

Firstly, sift together and set aside in a bowl:
·         1 c flour
·         1.5 t baking powder
·         Pinch of salt

Then separate:
·         3 large room temperature eggs

If you need advice on separating eggs, here’s how I do it: with my hands.  Because your hands are soft, I think they’re the best tool for not breaking the yolk.  It’s fatal to beating eggs to get yolk in it, so be very careful.  Here’s my egg separating technique: over a cup (not the bowl you want to beat in) gently crack an egg.  Carefully pull the shell apart and empty the egg into you hand at the finger part.  Split your fingers a little bit and let the white run through into the cup.  Gently pass the yolk from hand to hand – always over the slightly split fingers – letting the white dribble into the cup and being sure not to break the yolk at all.  Put the yolk into a large bowl (this is the bowl which will eventually hold the whole cake batter).  So long as there is no yolk in white in the cup, pour that into a bowl for beating.  The advantage of this method (apart from using your soft soft hands) is that if you do break a yolk and get it in the white, then you only ruin one white, rather than any others that happen to be in the bowl you’re working with.  If you do ‘ruin’ a white, don’t despair. You need 2 full eggs for the lemon curd.

Right, so you’ve got two bowls, one with 3 yolks, one with 3 whites. (Three bowls if you count the flour mixture.)

Beat the whites with

·        a pinch of cream of tartar

until soft peaks form.  Then, while still beating, gradually add

·         ¼ c caster sugar

until stiff, glossy peaks are formed (about 2 minutes with an electric beater, longer by hand).  If you can turn the bowl upside down without getting egg white on your shoes, you’re good to go.  Set this aside for a moment while you deal with the yolks.

Add to the yolks:

·         Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

·         ½ c caster sugar

And beat for 5 minutes until very thick and pale.   If you do it in this order, you don’t need to clean the beater blades between the whites and the yolks.  Then gradually add (while still beating):

·         ¼ c fruity olive oil or canola oil

Then continue beating gently while alternating between adding the flour mixture and
·         1/3 c lemon juice (approx 3-4 lemons worth)

Beat only just enough to make a smooth batter.

Take the whites and stir a ¼ of them into the yolk mixture.  Then gently fold in all the whites into the yolk mixture; take care not to lose the air you’ve worked so hard to beat in.  You do need a smooth, uniform coloured mixture here.  I’ve done that wrong in the past, and it wasn’t impressive.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until top springs back when pressed with your finger.

Just out of the oven

While the cake bakes, make the lemon curd.  You can pass on this part and buy some, but you will be left with 4 yolks that you have no use for.  I reckon it’s less hassle to make the curd than it is to find a use for the yolks later!

Beat together:

·         4 large egg yolks
·         2 large whole eggs

Then add the remainder of these ingredients into a heavy-based saucepan:
·         ¾ c caster sugar
·         Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
·         ½ c lemon juice (approx 5-6 lemons)
·         125g unsalted butter in rough chunks

(It’s easier to zest the lemon before you juice it.)

Before the butter melts

Place the saucepan over a low heat and stir with a metal spoon constantly until the butter melts.  Once it’s melted stir constantly for another 7 minutes or so until the curd forms and coats the back of the spoon as shown. 

Lemon curd coating the back of the spoon and therefore done!

It will be thinner than the stuff you buy because it’s hot.  It will thicken on cooling.  Don’t walk away while making the curd as it can change texture quickly and the bottom half tends to go quicker than the top.  You need to move it around. 

Once it’s the right consistency, take the curd off the heat and continue stirring intermittently as it cools.  I think this helps with both cooling and making sure the right texture is achieved. 

By now the cake will be almost done.  Once cooked, take it out of the oven and cool on a rack. 

Once both the curd and the cake are cool, the fun starts.  Place the cake flat on a board or something else without a lip.  You now need to cut the cake into 3 or 4 rounds (I’ve only ever managed 3) parallel to the ground.  I have an ancient electric knife I use for this, but it’s fine to use a breadknife or normal knife.  Be careful, don’t rush it.  I find it helps to turn the board while cutting from the side to the middle, rather than try to cut all the way through from one side to the other. 

Now spread the bottom layer with curd, place the next cake layer on top and spread again.  Repeat with your 3-4 rounds of cake, ending with the top of the cake.  Place in the fridge to chill for half an hour.

Now for the Swiss meringue and final baking. 

Heat the oven to 200C.  In a nice clean glass bowl (must not be plastic), combine:
·         4 egg whites left over from the curd
·         1 c caster sugar
·         1 t vanilla essence

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, without letting the water touch the bowl.  

Beat for 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is hot.  Remove from the heat and beat for 10 more minutes until the mixture is stiff and glossy.  

Swiss meringue as it goes on the 3 layers of cake

Take the cake out of the fridge and place on a flat room temperature baking tray and gently pile the meringue on the cake – spread around the sides and across the top.   Do this without tearing at the cake or filling.  Make decorative swirls as you like on the meringue. 

Before baking

Place in the oven and watch like a hawk for about 4-5 minutes until the meringue starts to turn brown on the tips. 

After final baking

Remove from the oven and transfer to a plate to be proudly served.  Needs no accompaniments.  Expect spontaneous acclamation. 

Keeps for 2-3 in the fridge, but its physical beauty fades over that time.

No Knead - All Excellent - Bread

I've been fiddling around with a new recipe I discovered on the net. A lovely lady in Michigan in the US presents this recipe and frankly I can't improve upon it. I can confirm that it's as easy as she says though.

This recipe has some great advantages:

1. no need to knead
2. all the hard work is done in the fridge while you do something else. It can sit there for any time between no time and 2 weeks (I've snuck more time out of it, but don't tell)
3. it only has to sit for 30 mins before going into a hot oven (which happens to be exactly the same amount of time it takes for my oven to get to 230C, tee hee)
4. it tastes like you imagine bread used to taste before preservatives intervened
5. it's only got 4 ingredients
6. any wally can make it
7. it's chewy
8. it's crackly and crisp on top!!
   
   

I have been trying to go for a walk every morning up the hill to Vogeltown and back. The bread making fits very nicely into that routine – turn on the oven, shape the dough, go for walk, get home, sprinkle sesame seeds, put dough in oven, shower, take bread out of oven, cool it on rack, try to wait until bread is cool before eating, fail, eat, enjoy!

I know you don't always need to know my morning routine, but I thought you'd like to know how easy it is to make fresh bread in the morning. It feels like a treat every time I do it and it can be almost whatever shape I want to make it, not like those breadmaker thingys.

Salty, rosemary-y flatbread

 I hope you find a place in your life for this too.   Here's the recipe:

• 3c luke warm water
• 1.5 T instant dry yeast (I use Edmund's)
• 1.5 T salt
• 6.5c standard flour

You can do this either in a bowl, in which case you will need some plastic wrap, or a lidded plastic container. Mix all that together until it's a sloppy dough and consistent in texture. If you're using a bowl, loosely cover with plastic wrap or a teatowel. Don't seal the bowl completely. If using a plastic container with a lid do not put the lid on completely. You want to allow gases to get in and out. This is a living thing baby, let it breathe. Leave on bench/bed/windowsill/table for at least 2 hours, more if you like. No harm can come to it. Don't put it in the sun.

New dough

 (I do this in a plastic container that I just reuse. Don't wash it between batches, the leftovers make the next batch better and the one after that better again.)

After 2 hours, you can use it straight away, or store it in the fridge for later. Either way, instructions follow. You've got enough here for at least 4 decent sized loaves, more if you make smaller ones, obviously.

Dough after it's been in the fridge.  See bubbles formed.

To make bread, heat oven to 230C, including a flat oven tray in the centre of the oven and a roasting dish or similar on a shelf under the tray. This is for creating steam to crispen the crust.

Then grab a handful or two or three of the dough. Now, it is likely to be quite sticky, so you will probably want to dust you hands with flour first. The flour is just to limit the amount of dough that stays on your hands, not for making the dough drier.

Dough is quite sticky

Shape the dough into whatever approximate shape you want your bread to be. It will rise, so keep that in mind. When shaping you want to pull the parts of the dough under so that the top is stretched across it. This is what Elaine McCardel from Michigan calls a gluten cloak. The bottom will be untidy, but that's fine.

Shaped dough before it gets 'slashed'

Place this mound lovingly on a piece of baking paper or, better still, a reusable baking sheet on another baking tray or something else flat (so you can slide it all off later). Wander off (or to Vogeltown) for 30 mins. When you get back, and provided your oven is hot, sprinkle the dough with something if you want to (sesame seeds, extra flour, rosemary, salt, oil, an egg wash...) and then make some neat or not slashes in the top of the dough with a nice sharp knife. The slashes are important. Don't worry if the dough doesn't look like it's risen (mine never really does). It will do so in the oven (believe me).

Gently slice the paper/sheet and bread on to the hot baking tray. Pour a cup of cold water into the hot roasting dish to create steam. Cook for 20-35 minutes depending on the size of the loaf (until the bottom of the bread sounds hollow when tapped).

Cool on a rack. It's true that this bread's texture improves when its cooled down, but it's very hard to wait. If you don't wait, nothing bad will happen! I store uneaten bread (of which there is very little) wrapped in a teatowel in the cupboard, not the fridge. But it's definitely best on the day it's cooked.

Crispy morning bread

 According to Elaine you can experiment with different mixtures of flours. Go for it. I have been experimenting with shapes. I've made long loaves, round buns and sort-of-flat bread – flat enough to slice horizontally and fill. That last one had rosemary and salt on it, and criss-cross slashes. All were a triumph!

Dinner Rolls

Let me know how you get on.

Here's Elaine's lovely blog on this exact subject: The Italian Dish Artisan Bread

Check out the rest of her site too. It's a trea.

Edible Gifts Ahoy

Christmas time, apparently. At our place we've decided no presents, which is fine with me. So I'm reminiscing about previous food presents and thought I would share some possibilities for you.

I've also been planning our Christmas day menu. Food being the reason for the season (the season of berries, jersey bennes, asparagus, stone fruit, outdoor eating and mosquitoes). We're starting with the Riverstone Kitchens' port rillettes, the recipe for which was in the November Cuisine magazine. It's essentially slowish cooked tasty pork, shredded and mixed with baby gherkins, parsley, capers, red onions and then preserved in its own cooking juices and fat. A big tub for Christmas nibbles are now sitting in my fridge and in a happy combo I was able to turn the remainder into gifts - two jars were presented last night to some lucky (I hope!) recipients.

Picture here:

Pork rillettes, packaged for giving

A few years ago we made flavoured vodka as gifts. Simply infuse vodka with fruit of your choice – we did some with lemon peel (don't include any white pith) and some with cherries (we were in Otago at the time). Infuse for a week or so, then strain and pour the now-infused and probably prettily-coloured vodka into a clean bottle. I've heard this works with chillis and I bet it works really well with mandarin. Wrap a nice ribbon around the bottle and deliver to a friend in need of alcoholic cheer.

Chutneys of various sorts are always popular. My grandmother used to make marmalade for everyone she'd ever met, which is a pretty good policy when you think about it.

Make homemade peanut or walnut or almond or almost-any-nut butter. Simply blend freshly roasted nuts (roast skinless nuts for about 14 minutes depending on size at 180C, watching them carefully as they burn quickly – and remember they will continue to cook after you take them out as they're high in oil) in a blender with some oil if required. Usually you need oil, but sometimes you don't. Salt to taste. If you can't get oil to match the particular nut, use peanut oil as it's virtually tasteless and goes with everything. I use approximately 1 and a half cup of nuts to about 1 tablespoon of oil, but add it cautiously in case you don't need all of it. Blend to your preferred consistency. If you want it crunchy, fish out some chunky chopped bits before continuing to blend smoother and stir those reserved pieces back in towards the end.

Deliver to a friend without allergies!

Biscuits are always popular. I like to make them to fit in a repurposed Pringles can (see picture). Today it was brandy snaps:

Melt 3T golden syrup, 85g butter and 1/3 c sugar and stir in ½ c flour and 1T ginger. Bake teaspoon measurements of the batter at 130C for about 15 minutes (or a bit more, but watch carefully) on a non-stick baking tray. Small teaspoon measurements come out about the right size to stack in a Pringles tin as a gift. You can also shape baskets around the bottom of an espresso cup while the snaps are warm or, if you make them bigger, around a large wooden spoon handle or similar to make the traditional tubes. Serve the baskets filled with fruit and cream if you're not giving them away. 

My chocolate puddle biscuits here work well at this (make sure they are really cool before stacking them). 

The other thing that would make a good present if I could bear to part with it is my newest fun find: Hakanoa Ginger Syrup.  Their site is here.  We've been making cold drinks with it with lime juice and soda water. It's also great in a cider cocktail, again with lime juice and ice and mint leaves. This is likely to be our Christmas day opener! It's also a lovely marinade for fish = equal parts ginger syrup, sake/mirin/sherry and light soy. Beautiful.

(note both half finished!)

We've been using Crooked Cider for those ginger cocktails, but also drinking it straight of an afternoon. It's a lovely, old fashioned, crisp, cloudy cider made with real cider apples in the Wairarapa and we're big fans. See here for contact details.  They've also made a pear cider, which is equally delicious.   Both are available in Wellington at Moore Wilson's, Glengarry's, Regional Wines and other places no doubt. Lars is often at the City Market in the Herd St building on Sunday mornings doing tastings and sales. Go see him, he's lovely.

Both the ginger syrup and the ciders would make great presents. If you're lucky, your giftee will share them with you!

Have a merry and safe summer silly season. Please eat fresh, local, seasonal ingredients and be careful on the roads, for my sake and yours. We're off to Oamaru and Moeraki for eating, so I'll report back once I've rolled back into town.

Chocolate Puddle Biscuits

Baking is one of the best things you can do with a Sunday, or indeed any day. Because Pav and I live alone, a whole batch of biscuits or cakes can be a challenge to eat before they expire. So sometimes my lucky work mates get to experience our culinary experiments.

 This one's not really an experiment as I've made it quite a lot. For me, it's one of the ones that I can make without a trip to the supermarket, as I usually have all the ingredients on hand. That's so long as there is butter. I'm not happy with the way that butter ages so fast in the fridge. It takes on a nasty dark yellow layer around the edge too quickly. Some say it's the crappy wax paper. I'm not sure as I've given up keeping it in the fridge and now we chop it into cubes and free flow freeze it. Not perfect, but better than throwing the butter out cos it's awful.

And we always have chocolate in the house. Dark Ghana from Whittaker's is our chocolate of preference. This recipe was originally passed on by a friend, but I've adapted (of course!):

Preheat oven to 175C and line trays with baking mats or baking paper. Two trays should be about right.

Beat 140g of softened butter and 175g of caster sugar until smooth. Then beat in one egg and half teaspoon of vanilla essence. Then sift in the bowl: 175g self-raising flour and 110g cocoa (yes, lots). Use a fork to work it into a firm dough. Keep going, it will be fine.

Make balls (about 20-24) in your palms.

 Arrange on baking tray (leave room for spreading) and bake for 15 minutes or so.

When you pull them out of the oven, use a teaspoon to make a dent in each biscuit. This is where the chocolate will go, so generosity is rewarded. Leave them to cool.

When the biscuits are cool, melt 85g dark chocolate, 1 tablespoon of golden syrup and 1 tablespoon of butter together. Best to do this in a double boiler – boiling water in a pot with a bowl resting on the rim of the pot. Don't let the bowl touch the water and don't let any steam get in the chocolate mixture. When the chocolate mixture is smooth, carefully drop teaspoons of it in to the dips in the biscuits.  Leave to set.

These can be adapted into the most impressive Afghan biscuits with the addition of a handful of cornflakes in the mixture and walnuts before the chocolate sets.  Over to you!

When I took these to work, even my boss broke his diet temporarily to try one. They're that good!  I hope you impress your friends and work mates too.

Hashbrowns and baking in Miramar - Cafe Polo

It's a treat to have Pavarotti with me on a Saturday. The rain has delivered a rare Saturday together, so off for a post-yoga brunch we go. Pav said he knew where Polo in Miramar was, so he drove and took us straight there. Turns out his intensive knowledge of Wellington's football fields has its culinary advantages.

I spotted the hand made croissants within 2 seconds of arrival (they're within 2 metres of the door in a beautiful glass/wood cabinet displaying lots of baked goodies of the savory and sweet variety – more of which later!). So that was 'entree'. A delightful morsel, light but with a bit of density and chewiness, not like some of the flaky exploding varieties you can get.

There were plenty of enticing offers on the wall and written menus, but I plumbed for a favourite – jerusalum artichoke soup. Partly because they're seasonal and a 'get 'em while you can' vege in my book. And partly because I love the fact that they're neither from Jerusalem nor an artichoke. Enigmatic food names hold a definite attraction to me.

Pav had the eggs bene' after much thought – straight with the Harrington's bacon, rather than either smoked salmon or spinach variations on offer. That bacon was very salty, but mixed with the other aspects of the bene it was a fine combo. In a stroke of genius, Pav also ordered a pair of Polo's homemade hashbrowns. We're both partial to a spud, and a grated fried spud especially. These lived up to the expectation we had enslaved them with. A beautiful outer crisp protecting an internal golden hue. Spectacular. Worth the trip alone.

I'm pretty sure that the jerusalem artichokes didn't have my soup to themselves.  The grey with black flecks and the richness make me believe that it should really have been described as mushroom/jerusalem artichoke soup.  But it was smooth and earthy, capturing the special smoky nuttiness of the main ingredient(s). The accompanying slightly wholemeal bread was chewy and rewarding. Pre-buttered, which might bother some people, but personally it saves me struggling with myself whether to have the butter or not. Clearly if the chef believes the butter enhances the bread/soup experience, who am I to argue?

The baking won the day – both of us chose a treat to take home and have later – theoretically for afternoon tea, but actually in the end for dessert. Maple and walnut Schnecken (I've got a German degree so I still feel the need to capitalise german words, bless me) pastry and a 'chocolate croissant' as we insist on calling them in this country. Both of a quality to make swing past Polo just for the baking a worthwhile exercise.

Lasting impressions:

atmosphere – suburban and welcoming

food/menu – well made, tasty and worth the trip to the 'burbs from just about anywhere

coffee – fair trade L'Affare, hot and good

service – charming

kid noise factor – there weren't many there when we were there, but if there were a bunch I think the acoustics would trap the noise if you were seated in the wrong room

parking - easy

We'll be back for dinner.

Cafe Polo

82-84 Rotherham Terrace
Miramar
Wellington