Upside Down Plum Cake

Last night Michael & I went to the lovely Dr Megs for dinner. It was wonderful to actually go out at night time for a civilized sit down dinner, its not very often we do this nowadays as (a) our friends don’t invite us over for dinner anymore now that we have a baby, (b) up until recently it was just all too hard with the lovely young Chloe demanding 110% of our attention & (c) the whole restaurant scene is not very welcoming to people with prams although we do find that pubs are much more accommodating & we love a good dinner in a beer garden with Chloe now that it is daylight savings, The Edinburgh Castle in Brunswick, our new local has a great menu & atmosphere & Chloe loves to stand around babbling & just generally keeping anyone amused as long as you bribe her with a piece of bread or cheese first.

Anyway back to dinner, as always when invited to dinner or lunch or just anywhere that I have the opportunity I stuck my hand up & volunteered dessert, another chance to test the new oven. I tried out this upside down cake from Bill Grangers, Simply Bill. As I have mentioned before, I love plums & am always trying out new recipes featuring them when they are in season. I didn’t read the recipe properly so was surprised when I came to make it that it was actually cooked much in the same way as a tarte tartin, ie making a caramel with the fruit in a frying pan first, then pouring over the cake mixture & baking in the frypan in the oven before turning out onto a serving plate, the difference being that it was a cake mixture & not pastry. The oven did really well with this cake, I cranked it up about 30c higher than the recipe asked to try & get the temp in my oven right for & it was cooked perfectly in the right amount of time, I think the fact that it was in an already hot frypan helped. I really need to buy me a thermometer of some sort to test out my ovens temp, sure you must be able to buy them in kitchen stores.

As I made this very early in the morning when Miss Chloe was sleeping I couldn’t serve hot out of the oven as suggested, instead serving at room temp with some double cream. Everyone had 2 big helpings which I think was a pretty good indication that it was a hit, the recipe is definitely a repeater & as always Bill didn’t let me down with this cake, soft cooked plums, sugary caramel on the top with a beautiful moist cake underneath & mmm of course I woke up wishing I hadn’t left the rest of the cake with Megan, though my body is thanking me. And a huge thanks to Megan & Andrew for a fantastic dinner, especially their first ever fresh pasta making effort of salmon filled ravioli - a big winner.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Yesterday was a double celebration. Firstly it was my brother Rob’s birthday & secondly Michael & I bought a new house in Brunswick so I was very, very excited as you can imagine. To celebrate the birthday I decided on Nigella’s Chocolate Guinness Cake from Feast as it sounded very manly & to celebrate the house purchase I had just the tiniest bit of bubbly! The cake was excellent, firstly it was huge, rising quite high, it was also lovely & moist. You couldn’t taste the Guinness itself though I suspect it was what gave this cake its lovely velvety smooth taste along with the whole pack of butter. The cream cheese icing topped it off perfectly. As for the bubbles, I am dreaming of the day when I can celebrate something with a whole bottle (or 2!). 60 day settlement & then I can start on my dream garden though it will be the middle of summer so most of the planting might have to wait a season or so. When the gardens in then it will be lots of cooking of fresh herbs, veggies & fruit in my dream kitchen, which I also have to build/renovate along with half of the house. It will take a while but sure it will all be worth it & in the meantime better start packing

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Cake:
250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter
75g cocoa
400g caster sugar
142ml sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 ½ teaspoons bicarb of soda

Icing:
300g Philadelphia cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double of whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 180c. Butter & line a 23cm springform tin.

Pour the Guinness in a large wide saucepan, add the butter in slices & heat until the butter is melted, whisk in the cocoa & sugar. Beat the sour cream with eggs & vanilla & then pour into the mixture & then whisk in the flour & bicarb.

Pour the batter into the tin & bake for 45 mins to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack before turning out. When the cake is cold make the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth then sieve over the icing sugar & then beat together. Or do it in a processor, putting the icing sugar in first, blitzing to remove lumps then add cheese. Add the cream & beat again until the mix is a spreadable consistency. Ice the cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Chocolate, Coffee & Hazelnut Cake

This week I had a visit to Megan’s in the diary so I got to break out the Kitchen Aid again to bake a cake, I think I was starting to have baking withdrawal DT’s. I chose this cake which was more of a torte really, I just love a rich dark chocolatey cake & the hazelnuts make a nice change from almond meal or flour for that matter. Megan had a nice bowl of strawberries & blueberries which worked really well served alongside with the cream too.

Chocolate, Coffee & Hazelnut Cake

200g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
150g unsalted butter, chopped
2/3 (150g) caster sugar
1 tablespoon whisky
1 tablespoon strong black coffee
5 eggs, separated
¾ cup (100g) ground hazelnuts
cocoa, to dust
thick cream, to serve

Preheat oven to 180c. Grease & line the base of a 20cm springform pan.

Place chocolate, butter, sugar, whisky and coffee in a heatproof bowl. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water on low heat. Stir for 4-5 minutes, until chocolate melts & mixture is smooth. Remove from heat.

Whisk in egg yolks, one at a time, until smooth. Fold through ground hazelnuts. Using an electric beater, beat eggwhites until firm peaks form. Stir 2 tablespoons of eggwhites into chocolate mixture. Gently fold in remaining egg whites.

Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes, until firm. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with cocoa & serve with thick cream,

Chocolate Espresso Cake with Caffe Latte Cream

This is the elegant after dinner cake that I made for my Dad for Fathers Day last weekend. It is another Nigella recipe from her Chocolate Cake Hall of fame in Feast. Calling it an after dinner cake is just my thing as the intense coffee flavour seems to suit the late night piece of cake with coffee or even a nice Muscat more than say an afternoon nibble but I’m sure it would be delicious at any time of day. My cake came out really well, for some reason after I poured over the liqueur & let it cool, the top went crisp & didn’t sink at all. I could have eaten a lot of this but for once showed restraint & only had one piece then left the rest a t my mums so temptation was not in my path. I have a holiday to Noosa coming up in 2 months & have been very slack about getting rid of the baby belly, in Winter it hardly seems worth the effort. So now, I’m not going so far as to diet but I am baking less (trying anyway) & only making for visits to other people so I at least only end up eating a bit (and bowl licking of course which is my downfall) but I just cant bring myself to cut out baking altogether. Hopefully my daily walks in the gorgeous spring weather will help & I wont have to intensify my modified eating plan just yet.

Chocolate Espresso Cake with Caffe Latte Cream

Cake
150g dark chocolate, chopped
150g butter
6 eggs
250g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g plain flour
5 teaspoons instant espresso powder
4 tablespoons Tia Maria or other coffee liqueur

Caffe Latte Cream
75g white chocolate, broken into small pieces
375ml double cream
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder

Take anything you need out of the fridge to bring to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 180c. Butter & line a 23cm springform tin. Melt the chocolate & butter & set aside to cool slightly. Beat the eggs, sugar & vanilla together until thick, pale & moussey. They should have at least doubled in volume, even tripled. Gently fold in the flour & espresso powder & finally add the chocolate & butter mixture, folding gently again. Pour into the tin & bake for 35-40 minutes until the top of the cake is firm. Immediately pour over the liqueur & then cool completely on a rack in the tin before releasing from the tin.

For the cream, melt the white chocolate & let it cool. Fold in the cream & espresso powder, whipping together to thicken a little. Dust the cake with cocoa & serve with the cream alongside.

Chocolate Malteser Cake

Here is a very Kingly looking cake with its lovely malty crown which I thought was fitting for Fathers Day celebrations. The malty flavours running through the cake & icing, topped with the maltesers really gave this cake a unique flavour which seemed to go down very well with all, it was lovely & not too sweet or heavy. The recipe comes from Nigella's feast. For Michaels first Fathers Day, Chloe showered him with gifts & we had a lovely day out at his sisters in Laurimer, which is a lovely estate out in what to me feels like the country, around Whittlesea way. They have a huge house on a humungous block that is really very nice though I can’t imagine living that far away from it all in such isolation from my beloved Brunswick with its unique mix of people, parks, cafes & shops that provide endless hours of walking & entertainment for Chloe & I, especially now that the weather is getting to be just how I like it, sunny & happy! So for now I will stick to my little house that I love so I can be where the action is & dream of the day I can afford a big house in Brunswick with a big backyard so I can have my veggie patch, fruit trees & grass for the kids to play on, who knows I may just get my dream one of these days if I can be patient a little while longer (note patience is not my strong point!).

Chocolate Malteser Cake

Cake
150g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
3 eggs
175ml milk
15g butter
2 tablespoons horlicks
175g plain flour
25g cocoa, sieved
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Icing
250g icing sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa
45g horlicks
125g soft unsalted butter
2 tablespoons boiling water
2 x 37g packets maltesers

Take anything you need from the fridge out & allow to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 170c. Butter & line two 20cm loose-bottomed sandwich cake tins with baking paper.

Whisk together the sugars & eggs while you weigh out the other ingredients. Heat the butter, milk & horlicks in a saucepan until the butter melts, and it is hot but not boiling. When the sugars & eggs are light & frothy, beat in the horlicks mixture and then fold in the flour, cocoa, baking powder & bicarb of soda. Divide the cake batter evenly between the two tins & bake for 25 minutes, the cakes will spring back when touched when ready. Let them cool on a rack for 5-10 minutes & then turn onto a rack to cool completely.

Put the icing sugar, cocoa & horlicks in a food processor & blitz to remove any lumps. Add the butter & blitz again. Stop, scrape down the sides & start again, pouring the boiling water down the funnel until you have a smooth buttercream. Sandwich the cakes together with half the mix & put the rest on top then finish off with a ring of maltesers around the edge.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

Here is a recipe for a fantastic no fuss, no cook cheesecake from my favourite desert man Bill Granger from Bills Food. I know I have been a bit slack in the posting lately but it seems that I can’t quite muster much enthusiasm for blogging lately, I have gone from one extreme to the other. I am still cooking up a storm & eating lots of fantastic food, I'm just keeping it all to myself for now, sorry…

White Chocolate Cheesecake

100g plain sweet biscuits
50g butter, melted
250ml (1 cup) cream
250g cream cheese
250g mascarpone cheese
125g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
500g white chocolate, melted
Passionfruit pulp

Process the biscuits in a food processor until they look like breadcrumbs. Add the melted butter, process briefly, then tip the mixture into a 20cm (8 inch) springform tin lined with a disc of baking paper. Press firmly into the base of the tin, then place in the fridge until needed.

Using electric beaters, whisk the cream, cream cheese, mascarpone, sugar & chocolate together until smooth. Pour onto the biscuit base & put back in the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight. Serve drizzled with passionfruit pulp & cut into wedges.

Finally my new toy arrives!

After my old cake mixer kicked the bucket a few weeks back I have been umming & aahing over various mixers with the Kitchen Aid being at the back of my mind the whole time. I wasn’t satisfied with any of the other brands in the shops & figured that if you’re paying a few hundred why not add a couple extra & get your dream tool, especially as I can easily justify it by pumping out a couple of cakes a week. So I ended up convincing myself that I had to have the Empire Red beast of mixers but there was no talking Michael into buying it for me even after I produced such a beautiful baby for him earlier this year, my birthday & mothers day came & went & still I was tool-less. Luckily a nice break on my tax return meant that I had the means to make the purchase myself & here it is, everything I dreamed of & more (sorry if I am sounding a bit over the top but it is a Kitchen Aid after all!)

So yesterday was the big day, I had bought it online for a discounted price that none of the other stockists would match so it arrived at my door which was much easier than dragging a 5 month old child through the rain to the shops, not to mention pushing a pram & lugging the box at the same time, would not have been easy. I was visiting the lovely Megan today who also popped out a beauty of a baby a few days ago so of course I had the perfect excuse to bake my first ‘Kitchen Aid’ cake. As it was an earlyish visit I chose this delicious but easy cake of Bill Granger’s from Bill’s Food. Once again he did not let me down & the cake was very yummy & I didn’t even make the custard that he suggested would go well with it. Oh and yes the mixer lived up to it expectations, it purred through the creaming like a dream & left me in no doubt that the right choice had been made.

Pear and Vanilla Cake

80g (3oz) unsalted butter
185g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
grated zest from 1 lemon
185ml (3/4 cup) cream
165g (1 1/3 cups) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
4 pears (I only used 2)
20g (3/4 oz) unsalted butter, melted
60g (1/4 cup) raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 180c (350f/Gas 4). Cream the butter & sugar together in a bowl until light & fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla & lemon zest & beat for another minute. Add the cream & mix until smooth. Sift the flour, baking powder & salt & beat until smooth. Pour into a 24cm (9 inch) non stick springform cake tin & smooth the surface.

Peel & core the pears, cut into 3mm (1/8 inch) slices & arrange on the batter in two concentric circles. Brush the pears with the melted butter & sprinkle with the raw sugar. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean & te pears on top are lightly browned. Remove the side from the cake tin & slide the cake onto a plate. Cool slightly before serving.

Caramelised Pecan Tart

For Mothers day I made a couple of cakes to take along for the family lunch. One was a black forest cake which tasted great but was a bit of a disaster in that the top sort of fell apart so I wont be giving that recipe. The second offering was this pecan pie at my mum’s request. She had recently tried making one which didn’t quite work out so this was another recipe, this one from a recent Delicious Magazine, the original recipe also came with bourbon ice cream which I have skipped. Also I used normal everyday supermarket caster sugar as I have no idea what ‘golden’ caster sugar is. It was really very yummy & my mother has also approved, sorry about the crap photo taken very hurriedly on the paper plate before scoffing!

Caramelised Pecan Tart

225g plain flour, sifted
150g chilled unsalted butter, cubed, plus 120g for the filling
300g pecan halves, broken into pieces
150g runny honey
100ml thickened cream
2 tablespoons (40ml) bourbon or whiskey
5 egg yolks
150g golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg

For pastry, combine flour with a pinch of salt. Use your fingertips to rub in cubed butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (or whiz in a food processor). Add 2 tablespoon of iced water & stir with a knife (or whiz again) until pastry forms a ball. Knead briefly on a lightly floured surface until smooth, then roll out & use to line a 24cm loose bottomed tart pan. Prick base with a fork & chill for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200c. Line pastry with baking paper & fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove paper & weights. Bake for a further 5 minutes or until pastry is a pale biscuit color.

Remove pastry case from oven & reduce oven temp to 190c. Spread nuts on a tray & toast for 5-6 minutes. Meanwhile warm honey, butter, cream & bourbon over low heat until butter melts. Beat yolks in a bowl, then stir in honey mixture, nuts, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg & a pinch of salt. Pour filling into pastry & bake for 40 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Happy Birthday Michael!

Happy Birthday Michael aka Daddy! For the man who is not that into cake I let him choose his own cake, ie I read out a huge list of cakes from my books & he picked the one he liked best – he didn’t actually look through my books & do the hard work himself. So that is how we ended up with this very festive looking cake from the Kiddiefeast chapter of Nigella Lawson’s Feast. It looked fantastic, and tasted great even though it was very, very sweet. The buttercream filling is very rich & the chocolate icing just tops it off so you really can only have a small slice or risk feeling ill from sugar overdrive. I can imagine this one would go down well with the kiddies.

Birthday Custard Sponge

Cake
200g plain flour
3 tablespoons Bird’s custard powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 eggs
225g soft butter
200g caster sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk

Make sure everything you need is at room temperature before you start. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180c, and butter and line two 20cm sandwich tins.

Put all of the above ingredients except the milk, into a food processor. Process to a smooth batter, and then add the milk a tablespoon at a time to make a soft dropping consistency. Divide between the two cake tins & bake for 20 minutes. The cakes will have risen & feel puffy, this is because of the cornflour in the custard powder.

Let the tins sit on a cooling rack for 5 minutes & then turn them out on to a rack, peeling away the paper & cool completely.

Buttercream Filling
125g icing sugar
4 teaspoons Bird’s custard powder
75g soft unsalted butter
1 ½ teaspoons boiling water

Process the icing sugar & custard powder to get rid of any lumps, and then add the butter, processing again to make the buttercream come together. Feed the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running to make the filling easier to spread. Then sandwich the cooled sponges together with the cream.

Chocolate Icing
60ml water
2 tablespoons golden syrup
125g caster sugar
175g dark chocolate
1 pot hundreds & thousands

Combine the water, syrup & sugar in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve over a low heat. Let it come to the boil & then take it off the heat. Break up the chocolate into small pieces then add to the pan, swirling it around to cover in the hot liquid. Leave to melt for a few minutes, and then whisk the icing to make it smooth & shiny. Pour over the buttercream filled cake, letting it drip down the sides, and then sprinkle generously with the hundreds & thousands before the icing sets.

Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon & Mustard Dressing

Another breakfast from Bill Granger, this one from Bill’s Food. As I absolutely love potato pancakes of any description, even the ones from Macca’s when I have a hangover though of course it has been a long time since one of those was present, ahh those were the days! Anyway I thought that I would try this recipe of Bills even though I thought it sounded like an odd combination, you never know until you try right? The pancakes were good but I hate to admit that I don’t think they worked too well with smoked salmon & most of all not with the mustard dressing but who knows some of you might love these 3 together, all elements were great alone, they just didn’t do it for me as a mix, you decide.

Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon & Mustard Dressing

3 large potatoes (about 700g)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
60g butter, melted
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil

Mustard Dressing

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
60ml (1/4 cup) canola oil

To serve
8 slices smoked salmon

Preheat oven to 150c. Grate the peeled potatoes & squeeze out any excess liquid. Put the potato in a bowl & add the chives, butter & a little salt & pepper.

Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan over a medium to high heat. For each potato cake, spoon 1 ½ tablespoons of mixture into the pan & fry until golden on both sides. Drain on paper towels & keep warm in the oven until all the potato cakes are made.

Meanwhile to make the dressing, whisk the mustard, sugar, salt & vinegar together in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved, then whisk in the oil in a thin stream.

Put two potato cakes on each plate, top with salmon & drizzle with dressing

Jam Roly Poly & a letter from the past

Yesterday my mum was over for the day to help out & hangout with Chloe. To amuse me she brought over some of my old school essays & other mementos that I hadn’t seen in years, in fact I can’t even remember writing any of them. They all had me in stitches, stories of running away from home, robbing the town snobs & setting up house in the Hilton Hotel to a plane crash in Columbia where I met Scott Carne (for those of you who remember he was the lead singer of Kids in The Kitchen & my first love!) & lived happily ever after with him. Amongst these treasures was this letter to my parents declaring what I wanted for Christmas, I found it hysterical & had to share it, I was in about grade 5 or 6 when I wrote it, I hope you find it amusing too.

Anyway all of this reminiscing reminded me of the Jam Roly Poly that I learned to make in home economics in Year 7 & which I used to cook up for dessert all of the time when I was a teen, I don’t think I’ve made it since I left home 15 or so years ago so of course it had to be done, with some adjustments – I added fresh strawberries which gave the syrup a berry flavour & changed it quite a bit, either way is great. And as you can see I did start my love of cooking early, in fact in one of the papers my mum brought over I declared cooking to be my favourite subject at School & she also had my old primary school black & white photography license & what do I do in my spare time now, funny how things end up isn’t it?

Jam Roly Poly

Scone Dough
1 cup self raising flour
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of butter
½ cup milk

Syrup
1 Cup water
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup
juice of half a lemon

Strawberry Jam
Strawberries, hulled & cut in half (optional)

Sift the flour & salt into a bowl & rub in the butter with your fingertips until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the milk to form a dough & roll into an oblong.

Meanwhile bring to the boil all of the syrup ingredients.

Spread jam on the dough & top with fresh strawberries if desired. Roll up lengthways & place roll into a cake tin. Pour over the syrup & bake in the oven at 200c for 35-40 minutes. Serve with custard.

Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake

I made this fabulous cake for Rach’s birthday. It comes from Nigella’s ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’, a book I have been trying out a lot lately, the recipes are all great & usually pretty simple too, I have bookmarked heaps to try out. The theory behind this one is that it can be whipped up in 5 minutes using things you already have in your cupboards or if not then the corner store, this may be a little more true for Brits as I don’t know if every cupboard or corner store in Melbourne stocks marmalade, luckily I had a nice jar of tangelo marmalade sitting in my pantry just begging to be put to use. My cake turned out a little thin as I used a bigger tin than the 20cm specified, no problems other than the thickness & the cooking time didn’t change. The cake is beautifully moist & chewy (in a good way) thanks to the sticky marmalade & of course the flavours are amazing, choc orange always works doesn’t it? Suggested variations are for any jam of your choice, raspberry, apricot, prune puree or I think cherry would work really well here too.

Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake

125g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g good, thin cut marmalade
150g caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150g self raising flour
20cm springform tin, buttered & floured

Preheat the oven to 180c. Put the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan & put over a low heat to melt. When it’s nearly completely melted, stir in the chocolate. Leave for a moment to begin softening, then take the pan off the heat & stir with a wooden spoon until the butter & chocolate are smooth & melted. Now add the marmalade, sugar, salt & eggs. Stir with your wooden spoon & when it’s all pretty well amalgamated, beat in the flour bit by bit. Put into your prepared tin & bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester or skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out.

You can eat this warm with perhaps some crème fraiche or double cream or even ice cream would go beautifully. It tastes just as good cold.

over the top. Serves 4.

Chocolate Berry Torte

To finish off the bbq on the weekend & to celebrate James birthday, of course I had to finish with a cake. Today I chose this wicked chocolate Torte from Green and Black’s Chocolate recipes. It was sensational, note the small amount of flour which resulted in a thin intense cake which was rich, smooth & a perfect blend of chocolate and berries, as well as the suggested whipped cream I also served it with a berry coulis but forgot to serve with the extra berries!

Chocolate Berry Torte

Torte
25g plain flour
5 teaspoons cocoa powder
75g dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
25g unsalted butter
5 teaspoons double cream
4 egg whites
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons caster sugar
250g fresh blueberries or raspberries
125ml whipping cream, to serve

Icing
100g dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
50g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons double cream
1 teaspoon icing sugar

Preheat oven to 140c. Butter and line a 18-20cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Sift together the flour & cocoa & set aside.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over barley simmering water. Remove from the heat, add the butter & the cream, and stir well until the mixture is quite liquid.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, add the sugar & continue to whisk until thick & glossy. Beat together the egg yolks & then gently fold in the flour & cocoa mixture. Add the melted chocolate & mix well. Spoon a few dollops of egg white into the mixture, stir, then gently fold in the remainder of the egg whites.

Gently pour half the mixture into the prepared cake tin, dot half the berries evenly over it, then pour the rest of the mixture on top of the berries.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes and unmould on to a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove from the heat, stir in the butter, cream & icing sugar. Immediately pour over the cake to coat it completely, smoothing the icing using a palette knife. Leave for 1 hour to harden.

Serve with whipped cream & remaining berries.

Madeira Cake

Here is a recipe for Madeira cake, a nice change from my usual rich offerings, this cake is beautiful in its lemony, buttery goodness, try some. The recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’

Madeira Cake

240g unsalted butter, softened
200g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
grated zest & juice of 1 lemon
3 large eggs
210g self raising flour
90g plain flour
23 x 13 x 7 cm loaf tin, buttered & lined

Preheat oven to 170c. Cream the butter & sugar, add the lemon zest. Add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of the flour for each. Then gently mix in the rest of the flour and, finally, the lemon juice. Sprinkle with caster sugar as it goes into the oven & bake for 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack & let cool in the tin before turning out.

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

The other day I had people in and out so I baked this pleasing cake from Jamie Oliver’s Cook with Jamie. Whilst it turned out very nice in the end it wasn’t without some drama. Firstly I have an electric fan forced oven that usually cooks perfectly as per recipe instructions or if anything faster so I was surprised when after cooking for a bit over the recommended 50 minutes and a skewer coming out clean, I left it for 10 minutes then went to turn it out & it started dripping out!!! Maybe I should have left for 5 seconds as recommended, I thought he was just being fussy in the recipe. I was not happy so I quickly turned the oven back on & stuck it in for another 20 minutes or so by which time it was finally cooked. After all of that fussing it did break in half when turning out but I managed to patch it back together with the very yummy icing which tasted just like cheesecake & a not too sweet one at that. I also had heaps of icing left over & I iced the sides too.

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

285g unsalted butter, softened
285g light brown soft sugar
5 large eggs, separated
zest and juice of 1 orange
170g self raising flour, sifted
1 slightly heaped teaspoon of baking powder
115g ground almonds
115g shelled walnuts, chopped, plus a handful for serving
1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
285g carrots, peeled & coarsely grated
sea salt

Icing
115g Mascarpone cheese
225g full fat cream cheese
85g icing sugar, sifted
zest & juice of 2 limes

Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease and line a 22cm square or round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Beat the butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, and add the orange zest & juice. Stir in the flour & baking powder & add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices & carrot & mix together well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them in the cake mix. Scoop the mixture into the prepared cake tin & cook for about 50 minutes until golden & risen. Check to see if cooked by poking in a cocktail stick, remove after 5 seconds & if it comes out clean the cake is cooked. If sticky it needs a bit longer so put back in the oven. Once cooked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn onto a wire rack to cool for at least an hour.

Mix all the icing ingredients together & spread generously over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts & serve.

Banana & Raspberry Loaf

A quick & healthy mid week snack, that’s right it has fruit which is good for you & brown sugar & anything brown is healthy right? Ok, well that is what I tell myself anyway & really it’s not as bad as some cakes. Delicious & you can really taste the raspberries which give the flavour a great zing. Note I don’t eat it with butter as I don’t find it’s needed at all. The recipe is from the September 2006 Australian Table magazine.

Banana & Raspberry Loaf

Butter, to grease & serve
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 large ripe bananas, peeled, mashed
¾ cup (165g) brown sugar, firmly packed
¼ cup (60ml) vegetable oil
1 ½ cups (225g) plain flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon bicarb of soda
1 ¼ cups (190g) frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 160c. Grease a 14 x 21cm loaf tin. Line base & sides with baking paper.

Combine egg whites, banana, sugar & oil in a bowl. Sift in dry ingredients & fold together until just combined. Fold through raspberries. Spoon mixture into prepared tn & bake for 1 ¼ hours or until skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Slice, toast if desired & serve with butter.

Upside-Down Cake with Apple & Cinnamon

Finally I have used the last of the Granny Smiths so all of my leftover apple recipes (of which I still have quite a few), can for the most part be put away until next years crop. The lucky recipe to score the last lot was this luscious & wicked (see butter & sugar content) cake from one of my favourite sweets men, Bill Granger of course, from Bills Sydney Food. It was delicious as usual, a few steps to get through so not quite as simple as some but well worth the effort. Looking fwd to making something wicked with chocolate next week now that the apples are gone….

Upside-Down Cake with Apple & Cinnamon

Topping
100g unsalted butter
100g large firm apples, peeled, cored & cut into 1cm slices
juice & zest of 1 lemon
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Cake
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 ¼ cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pouring cream, to serve

To make the topping, place the butter in a non stick frying pan over medium heat & melt. Toss apples with lemon zest & juice in a bowl & add to butter. Cook apples gently for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar & vanilla & cook for 5 minutes longer.

Remove apples from the pan with a slotted spoon and arrange in the bottom of a greased & greaseproof paper lined 23cm spring form cake tin.

Increase heat & boil remaining liquid in the pan for 5 more minutes until a rich caramel forms. Pour caramel over apples in base of tin.

To make the cake, preheat oven to 180c. Place butter & sugar in a bowl & cream until light & fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla. Gently fold in the sifted flour, baking powder, salt & cinnamon.

In a small clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Fold through cake mixture with a large metal spoon. Spoon evenly over apples & caramel & smooth out with a spatula. Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove cake from oven & leave in the tin for 5 minutes. Remove sides from the tin & place a large serving plate on top of cake. Turn cake over onto serving plate, remove base & greaseproof paper. Serve warm with cream.

Apple & Blueberry Shortcake

Yesterday to use up even more of the Granny Smith’s I tried out this recipe from Bill Granger, Bills Food. I love his recipes, especially breakfast & sweets, I find them a bit different to a lot of stuff in my other books & no matter how strange they sound or nervous they make me that they wont work so far I haven’t failed to bake a winner. This was no exception, delicious straight from the oven with some fresh whipped cream, very fruity & the shortcake was lovely & light, don’t worry if when you’re rolling it, it sort of falls apart as it all melts into place when cooked.

Apple & Blueberry Shortcake

4 large Granny Smith Apples
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons sugar
125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
1 egg
185g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
155g (1 cup) blueberries
sugar, for sprinkling

To serve
Whipped cream

Peel the apples, remove the cores & cut each apple into about 16 slices. Put the apples, lemon zest, sugar & 2 tablespoons of water into a medium saucepan, then cover & stew over a low heat for about 10 minutes, until the apples are soft but not mushy. Allow to cool.

Cream the butter & caster sugar together in a bowl until fluffy & smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and stir until combined. Turn onto a lightly floured surface & knead until smooth, Divide into two 7 refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180c. Roll each half of cake dough into a round approximately 22cm across. Press one round into a 24cm non-stick springform cake tin. Spread the apples over the dough, leaving a small border around the edge. Sprinkle with the blueberries. Place the other round of dough on top & press the edges together. Brush with water & sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, then allow to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before removing. Serve with whipped cream.

Welcome Baby Chloe - Quick Apple Cake

For those of you that follow this page you are probably guessing that the reason I haven’t been around for a week or so is that yes I finally made it to the hospital & now have a gorgeous baby girl – Chloe. Both Michael & I are over the moon & loving every minute together as a new family. Today she is one week old & to celebrate I thought baking a cake was only due. As I haven’t really been up to any cooking yet, only having got back home on Saturday I kept things very simple & made a bit of an apple cake using yet again more Granny Smiths from the tree out the back.

This recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander’s ‘The Cooks Companion’. Very easy & was in the oven before Chloe cook utter a whimper of neglect. A nice cake to have with an afternoon cuppa.

Quick Apple Cake

2 cups peeled & chopped eating apple
2 tablespoons apple brandy, brandy or rum
140g unsalted butter
160g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
120g caster sugar

Soak fruit in spirit for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 200c. Butter a 24cm ring tin or 22cm round cake tin. Melt butter & allow to cool. Sift flour & baking powder. Beat eggs & sugar until thick & fluffy & fold in flour mixture gently. Drizzle in melted butter, then fold in. Fold in apple & any juice. Spoon into tin & bake for 40 minutes until ckae is golden brown & tests clean.

Apple Charlotte

For a lovely Valentines day dessert (using apples of course) I turned yet again to Nigella for this classic British recipe from Nigella Lawson’s Feast, it falls under the Wedding Feast chapter which is close enough to Valentines day for me. Now this is no ordinary Apple Charlotte & therefore I had to do a bit of shopping before I started this one. Firstly the recipe called for Calvados which I had never heard of before so looked it up using good old Google to learn that it is a fine apple brandy coming from the Normandy region in France, so off to Dan Murphy’s & now have a whole bottle of the stuff which is quite tasty by the way. Next I needed a brioche or challah loaf. Living in Brunswick I had no clue where to find a challah so instead went in search of a brioche. I tried 5 bakeries before I was successful, ended up buying it at Dench's Bakery Cafe, 109 Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy which by the way looks like a lovely place & think I will be back there for a coffee soon. Normally I would just substitute with the ingredients I had but wanted to make this special for a change & of course to see how good the original recipe is. The end result was nice though as you can see from my picture I didn’t quite get the bread to hold together, don’t think it impacted on the flavour though. The buttery goodness of the brioche definitely stood out over using ordinary bread too. I served this with a bit of double cream though don’t think it really needed anything with it, in fact I enjoyed it plain & cold the next day even better than warm out of the oven when freshly baked. So all in all it was nice to try something different though I found it quite fiddly & probably wouldn’t bother to go to the effort again.

Apple Charlotte

75g golden sultanas (or normal ones)
3 tablespoons Calvados
about 8 Cox’s apples-I used Granny Smiths from my tree (approx 1.35kg)
175-250g unsalted butter, (depending on the staleness of bread)
75g caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 brioche or challah loaf, sliced as thinly as possible & left to become dry but not hard
3 egg yolks (retain the white separately of one of them)
2-3 tablespoons Demerara Sugar

Preheat oven to 180c and at the same time slip in a baking sheet to heat up – or wait to do this while the apples are cooling if you prefer. Put the sultanas and calvados into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, then turn off the heat & leave the fruit to plump up in the liquid while you get on with the puree.

Peel & core the apples & cut each in half, then each half into 6. Put the apple into a pan with 30g of the butter, 60ml water, the caster sugar & the cinnamon stick. Cook over a fairly high heat with the lid on for about 10 minutes or until the apples are soft, then give a good beating with a wooden fork or spoon and transfer the rough puree to a bowl to cool.

Melt the remaining butter and paint the bottom & sides of a 21 or 23cm springform tin. Line the bottom & sides with dry sliced bread, painting it with butter first to mould into a neat jigsaw puzzle of pieces with no gaps, save some slices for the top. Paint the joins with the egg white to help it adhere well & stick together.

Beat the egg yolks and plump sultanas into the cooled apples & then fill the bread lined cake tin with them. Layer the top with buttered bread slices & then butter the top again, before sprinkling over the demerara sugar. Cook on the preheated baking sheet for about 30-40 minutes until the top & sides are crispy & brown.

Remove to a wire rack, and leave to reach the warmer end of room temperature before springing open. Or even safer, unclip in on your serving plate.

Nigella suggests to serve with custard or crème fraiche.