Well hello there lovely people. Long time no speak (write???). Who knows if this will continue, missing some creativity in my life. It has been suggested to me a couple of times to get back into my blog. So here I am.
I have heaps of things that I have made over the many years it has been since I last posted here. However, I thought that I would start with something familiar, cake decorating.
It's 5 1/2 years since I move to the big city and I've been with the same company the whole time too. It's a pretty good work place. As much as I whine about my job at times (and it is stressful) but the majority of the people here are lovely. Amazingly, we have 3 of the people here turning 70 this year. One in May, one a last week and one in 2 weeks! I just told them that I was going to make the cakes without giving them any options. I still have one to go but thought that I would post the two I have already done.
The first one was our office manager. She's very much an accessories person so I decided that it needed to be the theme of the cake some how. I did consider doing the whole handbag and shoes cake but I kind of missed the boat in timing, so in the end I made a handbag topper (which was also make of cake) to go on a standard round. I was pretty happy with the whole thing however I found that the white Satin Ice fondant was a little dry and the Fondtastic black icing was a little soft. In fact the black fondant started to slip on the little handbag but most people thought it was supposed to be that way given it was sitting on the "floor". LOL, I went with it.
Our next 70th was a little bit more tricky, mainly because I really don't know what the big kahuna does outside of the office. There was a bit of investigating and checking with some of the "long termers" here (there's a lot of them) and came up with he likes to go walking/hiking. After doing a bit of googling and my own designs, I came up with a two tier cake with a walking track with boots and hiking poles. I was able to use the "chocolate stones" that I just had to have that would "come in handy one day" (and they did!). It was universally loved. The birthday boy took pictures of it himself to show his walking group. 😊
They were, of course, made with my regular chocolate cake. The hiking cake I alternated ganache and dulce du leche in the layers and coated with peanut butter buttercream. I had done a "snickers cake" for my birthday in June which was particularly successful so decided to go with that again. It was so amazingly delicious!
I have a plan for my 3 cake in a couple of weeks. That boss man isn't a big fan of chocolate cake, so will have to find a different base... maybe carrot. I'm not sure yet. Looking forward to it though.
Congratulations to delicious magazine on the achievement of reaching 150 issues and just look at the amazing cake on the front cover. I definitely want to make that. It may make an appearance for our next Toastmasters meeting. Even if it does take 12 eggs to make it! I mean that is a lot of eggs. However, I really do want to make it...
I am surprised by the amount of recipes in this issue that I actually want to make given how meh I have been so far this year. Although I am starting to think that has had a lot more to do with my lack of cooking mojo. Thinking back over the past 6 months and, for the most part, I have been making some pretty banal food. Nothing wrong with it, easy to do and involves little thinking but nothing to be blogging about. I am sure you don't want to read about me cooking lamb cutlets & veg or steak & veg. Plus you really can only blog lasagne once. I've already blogged the curried sausages. Hmm, there may have been a couple of interesting things in there but I can't think of anything off the top of my head. Oh, there was one really excellent roast pork belly but I have a rather dreadful out of focus picture. I guess I'll just have to make it again.
I have actually already made something else from this issue and will write about that in another post. I would also like to make Matt Wilkinson's Garlic, Ginger & Sesame brown rice, add some chicken & greens and I think it would make a fabulous dinner. His Pumpkin B'Stilla with beetroot & yoghurt sauce sounds really interesting too. I have all but the filo pastry to make it. I hate filo pastry. I can never get it to work for me. I would just use some puff pastry & roll it a little thinner. I might add that to my menu plan for some time this week...Wednesday maybe. (Hahahaha, I said "menu plan"... like that happens)
After mentioning about the endurance of dulce de leche in the fridge and how I had finally used the last of it in my snickers cupcakes I discovered that I needed some again. So I threw all the ingredients in the thermomix and off it went. I actually overcooked it a little so it is a bit more "set" than I would like it to be but all I have to do is toss some in the microwave for a minute on soften/melt function. Plus, it doesn't make any difference when sitting eating it with a spoon. lol. I really liked this banana bread recipe. The addition of the dulce de leche added an amazing moistness to it. Surprisingly it wasn't that sweet. It was welcomed with open arms at my Toastmasters meeting. I would make a few changes to the recipe though. The first is that I would leave out the chocolate chips. Only 50 g in the entire mix and it just seemed kind of pointless. I maintain that walnuts aren't all that nice of a nut so I used pecans for the nuts. I didn't have a loaf pan large enough so I put it in my 20 cm square pan. I think the 22 cm would have been better, it took a long time to cook and I had to foil the top as it was starting to darken too much. I also didn't use the coffee icing on it as we have a member who loathes coffee. I think that there was plenty of favour in it without the coffee icing. My final change would be to put the batter in the cake pan and then dollop and swirl the dulce de leche in as is really dispersed putting it in before putting in the pan.
Dulce de Leche Banana Bread
adapted from delicious magazine July 2015 pg 88
1 1/4 c (300 g) sour cream
100 ml thickened cream
1 tsp bicarb soda
125 g unsalted butter, melted, cooled
250g caster sugar
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I used 2)
2 cups (300g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup pecans, chopped (I didn't bother toasting)
1/3 cup dulce de leche
Pre-heat oven to 160 C (fan-forced)
Grease 22 cm square pan
Combine sour cream, cream & soda in a both, set aside for 10 minutes.
Mix in butter, sugar & eggs.
Mix in dry ingredients and then bananas and pecans.
Spread batter in pan and dollop dulce de leche on and use a knife to swirl through the batter.
Bake 1 hour, checking at 50 min if using the larger 22 cm pan. If using 20 cm cook about 1 hr 15 min.
Well, hello there. It has certainly been a while. However, here I am writing again. I haven't really got the cooking mojo thing happening again however I do have the urge to write again. I do have a massive back catalogue of stuff that I have cooked in the last year when I just didn't feel like writing. So I may get on to posting some of those. Might be a bit of a stretch to remember some of them though. Photos are great but they cannot always revive the tastes and smells of something in the distant past. I will try though.
I can't say if it was delicious magazine that lost me or if I was just so ambivalent about cooking etc that I glazed over a lot of very good recipes. I will go back and have a look at the last few months. I found last month's issue buried on my table yesterday with not even a page turned. The new issue came out today. I have dutifully bought it although that has more to do with the absolutely stunning cake on the front cover, oh and the fact that it is the 150th issue, than duty. Although there is a bit of duty to given that I have a standing order for it from my local newsagent and, well, I just haven't gotten around to cancelling it. They put a sticker with my name on it and everything so I just can't say no to that, lol. I do have one thing that I made from the April issue (I think) that I will get posted up next.
My first post in ages is inspired by my desire to share these cupcakes far and wide. It was my birthday last week. I'm not saying how old because, well, I don't want to be this old. Unfortunately, I didn't really have a choice. Let's just say it was one of those 0 birthdays... sigh. I did have a nice day. My boss & his wife took me to lunch, my grandparents came along too. I received some lovely flowers, a few lovely text messages, fabulous forum messages and facebook posts. Since there wasn't much of a celebration I decided that I would make myself some cupcakes as a "happy birthday me".
I loooooove snickers bars. I mean really. I don't buy them because if I do I inhale them. My doctor tells me it is okay to buy them occasionally and suggests eating them "mindfully". Ha ha ha ha. No, they get inhaled. I can plan the whole mindful thing up to the point where I open it and, well, the next thing I know it is gone. I've seen all sorts of recipes over the years for snickers cupcakes and they usually involve the use of the actual snickers bar in them at some point. But, yeah, that just isn't going to happen here. They would be inhaled before going any where near being chopped up or melted down for use in cupcakes. So I decided that I would use all the elements and see what came out. So what did I do. I made chocolate cupcakes, cut a hole in the centre and filled with dulce de leche, iced with peanut butter buttercream and then sprinkled with chopped nuts and grated dark chocolate. **drool**
I wasn't sure on a chocolate cupcake recipe. I sometimes use my regular cake recipe but it makes such a big mix. Anyway I googled and the top result was a taste.com.au recipe from an old Notebook magazine issue (I miss that magazine). They were really easy and quite tasty. Possibly not quite as chocolatey as I would have liked but they were a nice texture, slightly dense which was perfect for my purposes. I also liked that they weren't overly sweet since there was plenty of sweetness to come. I would definitely make these again, oh actually I already have.
Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 18 x 1/3-cup (80ml) capacity muffin pans with paper cases.
Combine
the chocolate and water in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook,
stirring, for 5 minutes or until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth.
Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Use
an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition, until
just combined. Add the flours and cocoa powder and stir until just
combined. Add the melted chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Spoon
evenly among the lined muffin pans. Bake in preheated oven for 20
minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove
from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Next was the dulce de leche. I had this in the fridge, I have had it in the fridge forever. I made it in my thermomix, ages and ages and ages ago. I was kind of surprised that it was still okay. There was a bit of crystalised sugar on top but not bad and it still tasted great. Plus, not dead so it was fine, lol. I cannibalised a few recipes online for this one. Good thing I scribbled it down as I went, I don't always do that.
Dulce de Leche
1 litre milk
100 g sugar
150 g brown sugar
300 g cream
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
Place all in the bowl, 45 - 50 minutes; Varoma; Sp 5.
Use the basket on lid for evaporation without splatter.
**Will keep forever**
(Oooh, I just looked at my flickr feed. The photo I took of the finished product was taken on 29/6/2013, so yeah 2 years. Um, how on earth did a pot of caramel last in my fridge for 2 years? It wasn't like I didn't know it was there. **startled face**)
Now, for snickers, you obviously need nuts and what better way to get that in than peanut butter buttercream. This turned out nice and creamy, not too sweet.
Peanut Butter Buttercream
165 g butter
3/4 c peanut butter
500g icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
Cream butter & peanut butter until smooth. Add icing sugar slowly. Add milk to get consistency desired.
Assembly:
Use a knife to cut a cone shape into the cupcake. Fill that with dulce de leche, pipe buttercream on and then top with grated chocolate & chopped nuts.
There are some recipes that are definitely winter recipes. I always make more stews, soups, and roasts in the winter. Mulled wine and mulled cider are something that comes to mind as winter recipes. Plenty of dessert recipes are winter recipes as well. Puddings, pies, crumbles, poached or baked pears and baked apples are all winter desserts as far as I am concerned.
This is a winter recipes. I have been making this since I was about 10 or 12 years old. The original recipe was from and old Women's Weekly recipe but I have changed it a little bit over the years. Mainly reduced the sugar as it was a bit sweet for me. I also reduced the flour a bit as I always found that it was a bit dry. I always end up with too much of the dumpling mixture left over anyway. This would have to be one of the desserts that I associate with a specific time of year and it really is a good one.
Caramel Dumplings
1 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/3c caster sugar
30 g butter
1 tsp
vanilla
1/3c milk
Sauce:
30 g butter
1 c brown sugar
pinch salt 1 1/4 c water
Combine flour, baking powder salt and sugar. Rub in butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Combine milk and vanilla an then add to flour and mix until just combined, if it is a bit dry add a little more milk.
In a saucepan with a tight fitting lid, melt the butter. Add brown sugar, salt and water and bring to the boil.
Drop spoonfuls of the dumpling mixture into the sauce and then place the lid on and simmer for 20 minutes.
Over on Taste forums a week or so ago someone put out a request for a Mars Bar cheesecake. There are plenty of recipes around for mars bar cheesecake, most of which involve chopping up and/or melting Mars bars into a cheesecake mix. However that wasn't what this person was looking for. Described as having discrete layers of caramel, cheesecake and chocolate all in a biscuit base so, looking for something creative to do, I thought I would give it a shot to come up with something.
The caramel layer was easy enough, I just boiled a can of sweetened condensed milk. Although unfortunately I didn't boil it quite long enough so it is a touch runny. The chocolate layer was simple enough, a softish ganache made from equal quantities of cream and dark chocolate. You could make a firmer ganache but I wanted something nice and soft. My main issue was how to make the cheesecake layer "Mars bar-ish". I looked at some chilled cheesecake recipes. I looked up nougat filling recipes wondering if I could combine the two. Discarded most ideas with the thought of them being overly sweet and decided in the end I to go with something really simple. I added a good slug of vanilla extract (paste would have been better but I don't have any at the moment) and used dark brown sugar in the mix instead of white or icing sugar. The result is, if I do say so myself, rather spectacular. It it doesn't quite have the taste of a mars bar, the tang of the cream cheese still there. You could add more sugar if you want, I hedged my bets on that last night when I was making it as I though maybe with the sweetness from the caramel it would be overpowering. For me personally it is perfect but please do it to your own taste. Out of this recipe I made 1 x 15 cm tart and 2 x 6 cm tarts, it would probably fit perfectly into a 20 cm round x 3 cm deep tart tin.
Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake
1 400 g tin sweetened condensed milk (you could also use Top'n'fill)
100 ml double cream (you could used thickened I think)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
100 ml pure cream (you could used thickened)
100 g dark chocolate, finely chopped
Method:
Simmer tin of sweetened condensed milk in a large pot of water, making sure that the water is at least 2.5 cm over the top of the tin at all times, for 3 - 4 hours. (If you let the water level drop below the tin it can explode, please be VERY careful when doing this, other methods for turning sweetened condensed milk in to caramel are discussed here or here.
Finely grind cookies in a processor or you can put them in a bag wrap with a tea towel and beat with a rolling pin or meat mallet. (The rolling pin method is particular good if you are stress or frustrated. LOL) Combine crumbs with melted butter and press firmly into base and sides of a tart tin. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Beat cream cheese in a mixer, or by hand, until light and fluffy. Add double cream and beat to combine. Add vanilla and sugar and beat until sugar has dissolved.
Spread caramel in an even thick layer in the tart tin. (I only used about 2/3 of my tin of caramel). Top with the cheesecake mixture leaving about 1/2 cm space at the top for the chocolate. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Heat cream in a small saucepan until small bubbles start to form around the edges (just before boiling point). Place chocolate in a glass or ceramic bowl and pour over cream. Whisk continuously until chocolate has melted. Allow to cool slightly and pour over cream cheese layer (I ended up with quite a bit of chocolate left over perhaps try 80g/80ml) and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
