Cake Decorating - The Carousel Cake

I thought that I would share my latest cake with you all. My best friend's daughter turned 6 last week and we had a lovely party on the weekend. She is horse crazy so this year I made a carousel cake for her. They cake is my standard chocolate cake which I have posted about before here. The horses are made from sugar cookies from over at Joy of Baking which were then covered with fondant. The mane, tail and hooves are done with Kopykate decorating pens. The flowers, hearts and dots were all made with gumpaste in a FMM Sugercraft mould and then painted. I purchased some pre-coloured pink fondant, however it was a bit bright so I mixed it out with some white fondant to tone it down a bit. I bought way too much so have a lot of pink fondant left over. I was unable to find the right cookie cutters here in Australia so got a set of horse cutters from the UK. The top layer is a foam dummy covered in fondant but everything else (excluding the ribbon) is edible. I placed the cake on lazy susan, which I got cheaply from Spotlight and I am sure that it will come in handy in the future, so that it could be turned. I had so much fun making it all the decorations and putting it altogether. The birthday girl was very excited and every one else loved it too. I hope to get some decorating work out of it. 

October 2010 - Harissa chicken wings with preserved lemon marmalade

It is hard to believe that it is the end of October already. This year seems to be just flying by. I will admit to being really tired tonight and my foot is hurting so I just want to get this final post for the month done and head off to bed. 

The cover recipe, Asparagus and goat's cheese tarts look fantastic but I was more taken with Jill Dupleix's Harissa Chicken wings with preserved lemon marmalade. I do have a jar of preserved lemon that I haven't gotten around to using and thought that this would be a good recipe to use it in. I also have a jar of beautiful harissa paste that I have been using as much as possible because it is just so good. I ended up making the chicken wings as it was so easy but I didn't make the marmalade to go with it. This was mainly because I was avoiding doing too much early on with my injury. The wings were really good and I will do them again and next time to the marmalade sauce. I served with spicy potato & sweet potato and steamed zucchini. 

Harissa chicken wings with preserved lemon marmalade

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp harissa (Tunisian chilli paste)
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 
• 12 chicken wings, tips removed (I used wings that had been jointed)
• 6 preserved lemon quarters, flesh and pith discarded, rind cut into thin strips
• 2 tbsp caster sugar 
• 2 tbsp orange marmalade 
• 1/2 cup each coriander, basil and flat-leaf parsley leaves 
• 2 tbsp roughly chopped dill 
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method: 

• Mix oil, juice, harissa, garlic and 1 tsp salt in a large bowl. Add chicken wings and turn to coat, then marinate in the fridge for 10 - 15 minutes (I left mine overnight). 
• Place lemon rind, sugar, marmalade and 100 ml water in a pan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes until a jam-like consistence. Cool. 
• Pre-heat oven to 180 C, spread wings out on a baking tray and bake in oven for 20 minutes. (Jill used a char-grill pan on the stove but I prefer to bake chicken wings.) 
• Meanwhile, to make a herb salad, toss the herbs and olive oil together in a bowl. 
• Place chicken on a platter and scatter with salad. Serve with the marmalade. 

October 2009 - Asparagus & Lemon Risotto

Well, my foot is starting to heal up but it still hurts and makes life difficult. I attempted to use my computer chair in the kitchen so that I could just roll around rather than hobbling. This was initially very successful and made life a lot easier. That was until my butt slid forward in the seat and when I reached for something the chair slipped out from underneath me and I ended up on the floor....ugh. Thankfully I didn't hurt myself any further but I did decided that the rolling chair just wasn't worth it. I have still be using it at the table though but it sits on carpet so it is not as dangerous.

I had on my monthly menu plan to make Neil Perry's Stir-Fried minced chicken with chilli and coriander. While it looks really good I am not actually sure why I chose it. It is very similar to the pork dish that I did a while ago but it is full of coriander. I mean it is even in the title. I know that I have mentioned this before but I loathe fresh coriander and substitute it in any recipe. I normally avoid recipes where it is an integral part of the dish as it can just be too difficult to substitute and if I think that the recipe will be lacking if it is substituted. So, after further reflection I decided not to make this. It was also a case of not having all the ingredients and since I was cooking from this issue only the day after I hurt my foot I wasn't in a position to be going and buying ingredients. 

I did have all the ingredients to make Lizzy Kamenetzky's Asparagus and Lemon Risotto which turned out to be very fortunate indeed. I love risotto and this one was terrific. I even love spending time at the stove stirring it. This was prior to the chair slipping out from under me so I was sitting for the cooking time which made it easier. I used my beautiful Swiss Diamond sauté pan to cook it and it was so simple. It was lovely and creamy. The lemon in  it was wonderfully tangy and really brought out the flavour of the asparagus. I truly believe that lemon and asparagus should always go together. I normally make either a pumpkin risotto or pea & mushroom risotto but this one will go into the mix now when I am looking for something easy to make for dinner. 

October 2008 - Thai Beef Salad

SNAKES.... my cat brought a snake into the house yesterday morning. **shudder** Since I hurt my foot I had just been leaving the back door open for them to come and go as they pleased so I didn't have to get up and down all the time as they have a tendency to want in and out every 5 minutes. I was in the kitchen making coffee and toast, I turned to take my coffee to the table and Missy ran in the door with a snake in her mouth. **shudder** She proceeded down stairs and dumped it on the floor. It was still ALIVE and crawled under the coffee table where Missy proceeded to play with it. **shudder** Since it was 9:30 am on a work day (but my day off) and not knowing exactly what to do in my panicked state I rang my boss (my terrific boss). He came up but my Missy had killed it by that time. He did take it out side and get rid of it for me though. So there is no more open doors for my cats to come and go as they please. They will have to prove that they have nothing before being allowed inside. Oh, and I am getting someone to come and mow the lawn and clean out the weeds down the side of the garden shed asap.

I really wanted to make Tom Kime's Kebab bi Karaz (Lamb meatballs with sour cherry sauce). The picture looked so good and it just sounded really good. I couldn't get the dried sour cherries locally. I did look for them online however they were outrageously expensive. When I went for my MRI I looked in a couple of stores in that town too but I couldn't find them there either. I did consider using the bottled sour cherries however I figured that they would break up too much and would end up turning to mush in the sauce as they are already pretty soft. Another option I considered was using cranberries however all of the dried cranberries that can be bought are sweetened and I wasn't sure if that would work. So I decided to make something else. 

I was looking for something to make for lunch one day, something fairly easy given my current predicament. I also needed a recipe that I had all the ingredients for already as grocery shopping certainly isn't easy when on crutches. I decided on the Thai Beef Salad from the Tuesday Night Cooking section. It was so easy but so full of flavour. I just loved it. I did add some extra stuff to it like capsicum and sprouts and the lettuce came from my garden. I also added some freshly grated ginger to the dressing. I loved the dressing using sesame oil. I had never used it as the oil for a dressing before but will definitely be doing so again it was perfect. I just loved this and would definitely recommend it for a lunch or easy dinner.

October 2007 - Tuna Tomato & Olive Pasta

A quick recipe for a quick post. I have been meaning to post for a week now but I just haven't felt up to it. Last Wednesday I was coming out of a shop and missed a little half step and came crashing down. My left foot hurt right away but I finished doing what I had to do and then came home and took some pain killers. After 30 minutes when they hadn't helped at all I took myself off to the hospital, thank goodness for automatic cars. After x-rays they didn't think there was a problem and sent me home. However I got a call a few hours later to say that they had looked at my x-rays again and there was an undisplaced fracture. There was nothing that could be done about it but I have to stay off it and give it about 3 - 4 weeks to heal. Needless to say I have been feeling pretty sore and sorry for myself over the past few days. I have been pretty doped up on pain killers to. The swelling has started to go down and it wasn't hurting nearly as much but today until I went and dropped my stainless steel travel mug on my foot and now it is really hurting again tonight. Even so, I decided that I just had to get going on these last few posts or I wasn't going to get them done. 

I was looking for something quick to make one night and came up with Sue Sheppard's Tuna, Tomato & Olive Pasta. It was really easy to make and very tasty too. I really love tomatoey pasta dishes. In fact I am a fan of almost any pasta dish, although will admit that I have come across a couple that I haven't really liked for this blog. One of these days I would like to start making more of my own pasta. I am hoping to save up for the KitchenAid Pasta Press which someone I know has and it is incredible. Hopefully I will be able to buy it before the Australian dollar goes back down as it is way too expensive in Australia. Getting it shipped from the US about half the price. I used tuna in springwater for this dish as that was all I had and I added a bit of chilli oil. I also added in some capers as I thought that the combination necessitated them. It was a wonderful blend of flavours and one make for me to get a fish meal in. 

Tuna, Tomato & Olive Pasta 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 250 g spiral pasta (I used shells) 
• 1/3 c (80 ml) olive oil 
• 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced 
• 2 bacon rashers, rind removed, finely chopped 
• 1/2 pitted black olives 
• 1 red chilli, thinly sliced
• 425 g can tuna in oil, drained
• 2 tomatoes chopped. 
• 2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• 2 cup grated parmesan

Method: 

• Cook pasta in boiling water as per packet directions. 
• Meanwhile, heat half oil cook bacon, garlic, olives and chilli for a couple of minutes. 
• Add tuna and tomato and cook until tomato is slightly soft. 
• Add pasta, parsley and parmesan. 
• Season with salt and pepper and serve.