S's Aunt Lil's Moist Chocolate (Cup)Cake

Once upon a time S baked a fantastic chocolate cake that became my absolute, hands-down, crazy-eyes, bonkers-for-it, favourite home made chocolate cake. This delicious, moist, soft cake covered with the silkiest, most luscious chocolatey frosting entered the gastronomy annals about the same time as Damien Pignolet's Serious Orange Cake, and has followed suit in it's evolution into a cupcake. The orange cake is equally amazing in both forms, but I think the chocolate is exceedingly more enjoyable, dressed as a cupcake. The cupcake version has better moistness throughout and, of course, my bias just might be related to the higher frosting to cake ratio. It is very unprofessional of me to share this recipe only now, when I have been enjoying this cake regularly (at S's charity) over the last six years. My bad.

Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients:
275 g butter
300 g sugar
250 g flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking soda (sifted)
75 g cocoa powder
1 1/3  cups water + 25 g coffee powder
4 eggs + 2 yolks

Method:
1) Cream butter and sugar till soft and fluffy
2) Add eggs one at a time
3) Pour in coffee mixture, alternating with the sifted flour + cocoa powder
4) Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 1 hour

Chocolate Frosting Ingredients:
3 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp cornflour
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 oz butter pinch of salt

Method:
1) Bring to boil above until smooth and thickens.
2) Pour over cooled cake.

Gü

Let me introduce you to my latest food find - Gü. This UK company makes the most divine off-the-shelf desserts. Their full product range is advertised on their UK website, but unfortunately, as far as I can tell, only eight of them are available in the supermarkets here (these and the hot chocolate melting middles). I haven't managed to take very good photos of the ones I have tried, but there are plenty of gorgeous photos on the UK and Australian Gü websites.

I actually first saw them in the supermarkets a few months ago but they were a little expensive so I wasn't in any hurry to try them. I can't remember what prompted me to try the the chocolate pudding a few weeks ago (probably the gaping holes in the supermarket shelves indicating that something is popular), but I am glad I did, and that was the beginning of the obsession with all things Gü. Based on what was sold out first, I have deduced that the local favourites are the chocolate and vanilla cheesecake and the key lime pie, neither of which I have had a chance to try yet.  

Hot Chocolate Melting Middles: I haven't managed to take a good photo of it actually oozing, but the photo on the website is an accurate depiction of the real thing. Velvety dark chocolate cake with a molten centre oozing with rich dark chocolate sauce. Divine!

Sensationally Citrusy Lemon Cheesecake: I was so seduced by the chocolate pudding that I was convinced that everything else Gü would equally amazing. The lemon cheesecake is the only one that has failed to impress thus far, and 3 out of 4 ain't bad. I loved that they served them in little glass ramekins but that's about it. My main peeve is that it was far too grainy, when it should have been silky smooth and luxurious. There was nothing memorable about the flavour or anything else. This put me off trying the key lime pie because someone told me that it is the acidity in the citrus fruit that makes it difficult to produce a smooth consistency in a cheesecake because the acid reacts with the dairy or something like that. I don't know how accurate this is, but it stands to reason that if one citrusy cheesecake is grainy, then another citrusy cheesecake from the same company could have a similar texture.

[Edit 22 June 2011: Just tried the Key Lime Pie and it is indeed deliciously tangy and citrusy. Smooth too. Much better than the lemon cheesecake IMO. Mmmm...]

Naughty Gü-ey Chocolate Rolls: Better photos here. Beautifully moist, dark, rich chocolate cake encased in a crisp dark chocolate shell. Perfect for a quick hit of decadence to perk you up in the middle of the day... or whenever.

Cheeky Little Pots of Chocolate Ganache: Better photos here. Luxuriously smooth, soft, dark chocolate ganache. I haven't tried them served hot yet, but they were so good chilled, I am not sure I'd do anything to change that. Perfect size for a rich, naughty treat. Absolutely delicious.

Go get some Gü now. Gü Gü Gü.

Tiramisu & Brownie

Critic Issue 25 – Food Column

These are a couple of my favourite, effortless, sure-to-impress recipes to satiate those sweet cravings. This blend of a Gordon Ramsay recipe and a random recipe, makes one of the best Tiramisus that I’ve ever had - sweet, luscious and creamy, with just the right chocolate and coffee overtones. Plus, it sounds fancy but is actually easily thrown together – which means that you will impress, without doing much at all. 

Tiramisu

Ingredients:

250g mascarpone

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp Marsala, brandy or Tia Maria

150ml strong coffee or espresso, cooled to room temperature

150ml single cream

4 tbsp icing sugar

Sponge fingers (savoiardi)

Chocolate shavings

Hot Chocolate powder

Method:

1. Whisk the mascarpone with the vanilla, Marsala and 50ml coffee, until everything is thoroughly mixed together. Whisk the cream with the icing sugar until smooth, then fold in the mascarpone mix. Pour remaining coffee into a wide, flattish bowl.

2. Take one sponge finger at a time and dip it in to the coffee for one second, remove and arrange at the bottom of a 2-3 inch deep, glass container. Repeat until you have a layer of coffee soaked sponge fingers.

3. Spoon a layer of the mascarpone mix onto the first layer of sponge fingers, then top with a layer of hot chocolate powder and chocolate shavings. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to make another layer.

4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer to allow it to set and flavours to infuse. Cut into squares with a soft, plastic spatula, serve and bask in the adulations.

Also, everyone needs a good, fuss-free brownie recipe for chocolate emergencies. Of all the brownie recipes that my friends and I have experimented with, this one (that C found) is by far the simplest and yields brownies that are just as heavenly, moist, chocolatey, decadent and guilt-inducing as the complicated recipes. Commit it to memory.

Brownie (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped walnuts/peacans

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 cups flour

3 whole eggs

1 cup melted butter (227 g)

1 tsp vanilla essence

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 175°C.

2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the wet ingredients and mix until combined completely.

3. Pour and spread the batter into a greased/floured or lined 9X13 baking pan.

4. Bake 25-40 minutes or until a skewer test comes out clean.

5. Scoff while it’s fresh out of the oven and still delightfully warm, with some vanilla ice cream. Also keeps well….apparently.

Gordon Ramsay's Crepes Suzette

So we were eating paella and watching two French restaurants face off on F Word. When the dessert course came up, Gordon demonstrated how to make Crepes Suzette. I think, before the 30 second clip was even over, S was already on her laptop asking Google for the recipe. And, as soon as the show ended, S hopped off the couch and announced that we were making Crepes Suzette, "NOW"! I did not protest.

I, always her humble assistant, was put in charge of segmenting the oranges - which seemed daunting to begin with but was actually incredibly easy. When the job was completed, the segments looked as though they were quite professionally done, even if I do say so myself. After everything was put together, we decided to go one step further and got the blow torch out. We thought it would be a good idea to dust the oranges with sugar and caramelise (is that the right term?) them with the torch - hence the burnt bits in the pictures. It didn't really turn out exactly the way we wanted it to (think thin crème brûlée shell, S suspects that we should have used caster rather than icing sugar), but there were still tiny bits of caramelised sugar and it still tasted great.

Wonderfully soft, light crepes scattered with lovely juicy, citrusy sweet, sauce soaked orange segments, with faintly crisp edges. Absolutely mouth watering-ly, delicious.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Critic Issue 18

NB: If you're wondering what happened to issues 16-17, I had to use some of the material already posted on this blog and didn't want to repeat myself. I have/will post the new bits that were tacked on in those articles.

I’m a big fan of FoodWishes.com. Every recipe of Chef John’s that we’ve tried has turned out perfectly, and that is not something I can say about any of the current celebrity chefs. I’ve always wanted to have a typical ‘Southern’ meal, which to me, having been influenced by pop TV, equals fried chicken, cornbread and sweet potato pie. I have never been to the southern American states and have no idea whether any of this is actually ‘southern’, but regardless, this week's theme is (loosely) Southern food. Naturally we turned to our favourite authority on American food, and found a great ‘Buttermilk Fried Chicken’ recipe. The chicken turned out beautifully with a nice crispy, crunchy coating and deliciously tender, juicy, tasty flesh. It pays to invest in a proper thermometer to get the temperature of the oil right, but not critical if you make sure the oil is very hot before frying. We also made some corn bread, which was pretty good and really easy to make, and blanched green beans, for the full southern experience. All in all, it was a really good, satisfying meal, which is the ethos of Southern food (according to my TV).

I know (or hope) you're thinking, "Where are the mashed potatoes?!!". We contemplated making stock standard mashed potatoes or trying our friend E's Parsnip and Cauliflower puree recipe, and ended up doing the latter (it's the bed that the green beans are on, in the picture). It didn't turn out as 'mashed-potato-like' as I would have liked (maybe we added too much water because the damn thing wouldn't blend properly) but it was a little too airy/watery for my liking. It had a nice garlicky flavour, but there was just no bite to it. I might be tempted to try this again (will adhere strictly to the recipe if I do try it again) if I get a flash blender sometime in the future.

If you're going to try making the corn bread, click on the link to the original recipe and read the comments from people who have tried this recipe. Most people prefer it a little sweeter (so add a bit more sugar) and some added a can of corn. We forgot to add more sugar this time around so it wasn't as good as the first time we made it. Also, if you leave it in the oven for too long, it will dry out, so don't.

Corn Bread
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar (will taste better if you use a bit more sugar, see comments on original site)
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup shortening

Method
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the milk, eggs and shortening; beat for 1 minute. Pour into a greased 9-in. square baking pan. Bake at 220˚C for 20-25 minutes or until bread is golden brown and tests done.

On a separate occasion, I had an insane craving for Lemon Bars after watching an episode of Las Vegas, where the chef made lemon bars. I had never tasted them before but I knew I had to have them, so I found the easiest recipe online and….got D and S to make them. Even though they were not exactly like I imagined they would be (I thought they would be more custardy) they were still very good – soft, sweet, satisfying, lemony filling with a nice chewy crust. This recipe is a keeper.

Lemon Bars

Ingredients:

250 g sifted all-purpose flour

120 g confectioners' sugar

225 g butter, melted

4 eggs

400 g white sugar

3 g baking powder

30 g all-purpose flour

150 ml lemon juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 175˚C. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. In a medium bowl, stir together 2 cups flour and confectioners' sugar. Blend in the melted butter. Press into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until golden. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light. Combine the sugar, baking powder and 1/4 cup of flour so there will be no flour lumps. Stir the sugar mixture into the eggs. Finally, stir in the lemon juice. Pour over the prepared crust and return to the oven. Bake for an additional 30 minutes or until bars are set. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars. Dust with icing sugar (optional).

Banana Bread

[Edit 25 May 2011: Updated recipe for perfect results!]

This has been my absolute favourite Banana Bread (or cake) recipe since C first shared it with me (Thanks C!), about six years ago. Maybe I'm just biased but no other banana bread or cake that I've tried since has surpassed it. And if that isn't enough, it is also so ridiculously easy to make it's almost idiot-proof - a deciding factor for me when selecting recipes!

Fresh from the oven, this aromatic (most baked good smell wonderful and this is no exception), mildly banana flavoured Banana Bread is deliciously soft, chocolatey, warm and comforting. It freezes well too, so you can make a few loaves, freeze them and just pop a cold (defrosted) slice in the microwave for 20-30 seconds to recapture that ‘oven fresh’ goodness. The chocolate chips will melt into heavenly pockets of goo within the lovely, soft, warm, bread/cake. Say it with me - Mmmmmmm!

The original recipe may be found here. I haven't made changes but I have edited it for brevity. I have tweaked it very slightly to my liking - this tweaked version produces the perfect banana bread IMO.

Banana Bread

Wet Ingredients:

60 - 70g softened butter

2 eggs

2 very ripe bananas

2/3 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Combine the wet ingredients above in a bowl then squish the banana with a fork and mix the ingredients together until mushy. In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients below and mix well with a whisk.

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon all spice
1/2 cup chocolate chips (Nestle's dark chocolate bits is best!)

Then combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until the ingredients are blended together. You may mix in a handful (1/2 cup) of chopped walnuts, pecans, dried cherries or apricots at this point if you prefer. Pour the mixture into greased loaf tins and bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Wartime Recipes

Critic Issue 8: Anzac Day Issue - Num Nums

Mock Goose

In keeping with the theme of this issue, I thought it would be interesting to try some wartime recipes. These were not what soldiers were fed, but rather recipes that women used, with what little rations they had, to feed their families. After some quick research, which consisted solely of entering ‘wartime recipes’ in Google, I settled for what looked like the recipes that would produce the most palatable food of the lot – ‘Mock Goose’ and ‘Honey Cakes’. Ah, the lengths that I go to for material for this column…

The ‘Mock Goose’ was horrid. Okay maybe I am exaggerating a little but it was one of those things that tasted tolerable at first but got exponentially worse the more you tasted it. It was basically made with layers of sliced potatoes, apples and grated cheese, baked in vegetable stock. In addition to that, we were instructed to season each layer with salt and pepper. The combination of the cheese, salt and vegetable stock made the entire thing far too salty for me. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if it was a side dish that accompanied a sweetish or citrusy fish or meat, but on it’s own it was AWFUL. Whoever named it ‘Mock Goose’, deceiving me into thinking of it as a main meal and thus aggravating the experience, needs to be charged for the worst misnomer crime in history.

The tasting of the ‘Mock Goose’ left us in an understandably fragile state so we were very suspicious of the ‘Honey Cake’. Luckily, although not at all cake-like, I must say that if I lived during the war and got to eat ‘Honey Cakes’, I would have considered myself quite lucky. It had a somewhat stiff exterior but the crumbly texture of peanut butter cookies on the inside. The mild sweetness and the honey and cinnamon flavours were quite pleasant and I think ‘Honey Cakes’ would be great with a hot cuppa. My obliging colleagues ended up being the unsuspecting guinea pigs for the cakes (I chose not to inflict the goose on them) and 5 out of 7 quite liked them.

Honey Cakes

I am not going to try to prove it but I don’t think it gets much better than these recipes – I avoided things like ‘Pea Puree Pancakes’ and ‘Carrot Fudge’. Obviously with rations like 1 packet of dried eggs and 100g of margarine a week, people who lived during the war had to eat and do whatever they had to do to stretch their rations and survive. I truly have a newfound respect for people who survived that era.

Honey Cakes

Quantity 16 to 20

Ingredients

1 level teaspoon sugar

2 and a half oz. margarine

2 Level tablespoons honey

6 oz self raising flour

1 level teaspoon cinnamon.

Beat together the sugar and margarine until the mixture is soft and creamy, then add the honey. Sift together the flour and cinnamon. Add to the creamy mixture with a spoon until it binds together then work it with your fingers until it is a soft smooth dough. Flour your hands, take off a piece of dough about the size of a large walnut and roll between the palms of hands until it is a smooth ball. Put onto a slightly greased tin and flatten slightly. Continue until all the dough has been used up. Bake in a moderately hot oven until the cakes are done – about 15 mins.

Killinchy Gold's Maple Syrup & Walnut Ice Cream

Food discovery of the week: Killinchy Gold's Maple Syrup & Walnut Ice Cream is delicious, especially when topped with Hershey's chocolate Shell. Mmm. I have S to thank for recommending the ice cream. I must admit I did not expect it to have such a bold maple syrup flavour - for some reason, I didn't think they would be able to capture it. But they did and did it well. The walnuts complement the maple syrup flavour well and add a pleasant variation in texture, as does Hershey's chocolate shell. MMMmmm.....(dang, if only I could insert the 'drool-face' emoticon here).

Serious Orange (Cup)Cake

This divine orange cake recipe is something that everyone has to try at least once. Even if you think you don't like orange cakes, try it. You won't be disappointed. I have written about Damien Pignolet's Serious Orange Cake once before, but did not have a good photo to go with it. This post will rectify that transgression, not that one needs an excuse to bake this cake. I must acknowledge S who, despite being incapacitated by the flu, would let nothing stand in between her and the Serious Orange Cake.

On the pretext of being too ill to go out, she sent us off to the supermarket to get a slice of cake to appease her penchant for cake that night. We were also to purchase the ingredients for the Serious Orange Cake, under the impression that she would bake it when she felt better, sometime in the next few days. When we got back, that little minx was in the kitchen with the other ingredients for the recipe already prepared - not that I have anything to complain about! If not for her cravings and her diabolical determination to satiate them, I would have gone without these ethereal cupcakes, and the opportunity to share better photos.

Before you even get to taste it, the delicious, heady, buttery, citrus-y aroma that will fill your kitchen will envelope you and tease you with the anticipation of what's to come. Imagine a light, fluffy, soft, warm orange flavoured cloud. That's what this cake is like, fresh from the oven. Each bite of this moist, delicate cake is preceded by a titillating waft as you hold it in front of your mouth. Then it crumbles and melts in your mouth, tasting subtle at first, but then surprising you with a burst of orange flavour. Di-vine. Like I said in the previous post, I don't know how, but it is light and rich at the same time.

Damien Pignolet's Serious Orange Cake recipe is the ace that you can keep in your baking repertoire for days when you need a sure-fire, satisfying, elegant cake that will wow anyone, or even just as a 'pick-me-up' for yourself.

PS: As you can see, we turned them into cupcakes rather than one whole cake, for easy access and consumption.

Damien Pignolet's Serious Orange Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 orange, weighing around 150g, washed well and diced, pips removed

200g sugar

3 eggs

150g self-raising flour, sifted

a small pinch of salt

180g butter, melted and cooled a little

Orange Syrup Ingredients:

60ml orange juice

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1-2 tablespoons Cointreau

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Grease and line a 24cm diameter springform cake tin with baking paper. Place the diced orange in the bowl of a food processor with the sugar and process until very smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between additions. Add the flour and salt and combine for 30 seconds. With the machine running, add the butter all at once. Transfer to the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes; test for doneness by inserting a bamboo skewer--it should emerge clean and dry.

While the cake is cooking, make the orange syrup. In a small saucepan, combine the orange and lemon juices and the sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Add the Cointreau to taste and simmer for 1 minute more.

When the cake is ready, remove from the oven but leave in the tin to cool for 5-10 minutes. Use a bamboo skewer to pierce the cake all over, then slowly spoon the syrup over the cake and leave until completely cool before turning out.

The Kiwi Beer Lover's Cookbook Review

The following is a cookbook review I wrote for Critic:

The Kiwi Beer Lover’s Cookbook

Recipes by Sam Cook

Publisher: Hurricane Press Ltd, 2009

Chicken Paella

Frankly, I had no idea there were quite so many ways to use beer in cooking. I knew about beer battered fish and chips but this book contains beer incorporated recipes for dips, stews, sauces, casseroles, boil ups, pies, burgers, cakes, waffles and even ice cream. According to the foreword, beer is great for tenderising meats, leavening bread and batters, as well as maintaining the moisture during baking. I had originally intended to attempt at least one recipe from each of the nine chapters in this cookbook but as time and pecuniary constraints would have it, over three weekends, the obliging cooks that I recruited for this mission and I managed to execute eight recipes from five chapters – a respectable effort nonetheless.

Shepherd's Pie

The first recipe we tried was disappointing. The Chicken Paella (cooked with Monteith’s Original Ale) turned out flat and plain and tasted just like rice cooked with store bought marinara sauce. Bleagh. Then we tried the Shepherd’s Pie recipe (incorporating a dark beer - we used Black Mac) which produced a juicy, tasty, hearty meal. Since the Shepherd’s Pie recipe was one of the ones with a photograph of the dish, I decided that we would only try the recipes that had pictures from then on. For the most part, this system worked well. The Avocado Wedges and Sesame Green Beans were made with a lager (Carlsberg) batter and fried. The results were firm avocado wedges and tender green beans that were encased in beautifully light, crispy, tasty coatings. Absolutely delicious. The dipping sauce that went with the tempura-like green beans complemented the dish perfectly and I swear, if you didn’t know the wedges were avocados, you’d think you were eating Cajun-style potato wedges *wipes drool covered keyboard*.

Sesame Green Beans

Avocado Wedges

The next recipe involved sticking a can of Carlsberg up a whole chicken’s butt and sitting it upright on the roasting pan, which of course, was the entire reason we chose that recipe. Here I feel I must give credit to the chicken which sat upright, sans props, throughout the entire process without complaining even once. Having the beer steam the insides of the chicken while it was roasting produced a most delectable, moist and tender bird. Burp.

Beer Can Chicken

From the ‘Sweet As’ chapter, we made the Triple Choc Brownie (with a Black Mac) for a pot luck party. As if the divine aroma of chocolate wasn’t torture enough, fresh from the oven, scattered throughout this decadently rich, dense and moist brownie were the most fascinating little pockets that oozed warm liquid chocolate! I think it’s a good sign when the guests ask if they can take some home and the hosts ask for the leftovers.

Triple Choc Brownie

The only other two recipes that we tried that we weren’t crazy about were the Fish in Beer & Vodka Batter and the Afghan Biscuits with Beer Icing. The beer & vodka batter, while airy and crunchy, had a bitter aftertaste. We suspect that if we had cooked the batter a little longer, the bitterness of the vodka might have dissipated, but we had no reason to do that because (at that point) the fish was cooked perfectly. The Afghan biscuits, I am sad to report, had no redeeming qualities and was completely uninteresting. The biscuit was oddly powdery and the beer icing was too squishy.

On the whole, the recipes were simple, easy to follow and flexible, which is great for people like me who prefer the ‘no fuss’ approach to cooking. Most of the recipes turned out well so try the ones you think will work best and leave or tweak the ones that look iffy.

Fudge Brownie Smart Cookie

Let me share my food ‘discovery’ of the week. On the way back from Christchurch we stopped at the Cookie Time factory shop and got a bag of the Fudge Brownie Smart Cookie. Maybe everyone already knows about this and I missed the boat on this one when it was released in 2006 but for those of you who don’t know, they’re deliciously soft and chocolate-y and they smell heavenly! They’re cookies but they smell and taste just like brownies. Mmmm.

Cookie Time Factory Shop
789 Main South Road, Templeton

Cupcakes

As promised, here are pictures of the cuppy cakes!

Icing Heaven

I have just found icing heaven! I have/had been going on and on for YEARS (Elaine can verify this) about a kind of icing that I had at a birthday party MANY years ago and I've finally found it again!!! Say it with me people... "Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....*drool face*". The first time I had it, it was a homemade cake, covered in the icing. The cake was a moist chocolate and it was absolutely delicious, especially combined with the icing. But the icing, the icing was ....."the icing on the cake" so to speak. BWAHAHAHAHAHA....pardon the pun. Sorry, I think I'm a little high on sugar. Anyway, the icing is super sweet and hard (like stiff hard, not break your teeth hard) and when you bite into it it has this stiff powdery texture (but it doesn't flake or crumble). I, obviously, never forgot it and had been pestering Elaine, the entire time we lived together at uni (2 years), to make it. Now, I will make it my mission to pester Sabrina. Aren't I lucky? Always ending up flatting with people who love to cook and bake.

Randomly, the tricky thing (at least for non-bakers like myself) about having this icing on a cake is that it must complement, not overpower the cake. A few years ago, I tried to re-create that delicious cake that I had had at that birthday party a long time ago but failed miserably. I thought it was simple enough. Combine a good chocolate cake with icing. Made sense to me! I was wrong. The cake, while always good on its own, was tasteless when topped with my concoction of the super-sweet icing (probably didn't get the icing right either). The icing, being too sweet, made the cake tasteless. That first cake that I had at that birthday so many years ago however, was perfect. I still remember it to this day. Moist dark chocolate, covered in lovely purple icing. That cake and icing was a marriage made it heaven. The cake was tasty and the icing was delicious, and neither drowned out the other. Hah! (I know, how can anyone romanticise food this much in one paragraph?!!)

Oh I forgot the point of this post. I found the icing again on a cupcake!!! And I found the cupcake at the farmer's market, being sold by a friendy (hot) guy. The cupcake itself is average. Just plain vanilla. But the icing! Aha. Cupcake guy's cupcakes are all plain vanilla, with different flavoured icing. Cookies and cream (the one I had), lemon meringue, chocolate mint and strawberry. I would post a pic of the one I had, but I can't. I forgot to take one before I started and as usually, by the time I realised that I had found THE icing, and I wanted to write about it and take a photo of it, I had chowed down the entire thing. Do not despair my friends, I shall sacrifice myself, abandon my warm, snug bed and Saturday morning sleep-in next week and brave the bitter, cruel winter, all to bring you a photo of it next week. The things I do for you....

Spiced Apple Cake

Yesterday I baked a Spiced Apple Cake myself! The only thing I didn't do myself was take it out of the oven. Luckily for me, Sab was keeping a watchful eye on me, while cooking dinner at the same time, and was prepared for my obtuseness when it comes to baking. The recipe is so simple (Thanks Michelle!) and pratically idiot-proof, yet I probably would have messed it up if not for Sab's consultation. It smelt really good and turned out okay but it wasn't as sweet as Michelle's because I skipped the topping (didn't have rolled oats). It should still be decent if warmed and served topped with vanilla ice cream.

For dinner we had a fish curry concoction. We actually had an extra bottle of Tandoori Palace Chicken Tikka Masala sauce left over from Monday that we'd accidentally opened but didn't need. The stuff needed to be used within 5 days of opening, so I thought it would be a good idea to use fish instead of meat, since we hardly ever cook fish over here. Since the fish over here is usually sold filleted and would crumble and disintegrate if thrown into a pot of curry and stirred about, I thought it would be better if we battered and fried the fish first, before putting it into the sauce. Even then, some of fish pieces still broke, but it would have been infinitely worse if we hadn't battered and fried them. We had to add quite a few things to the sauce before it was to our satisfaction, but in the end, it was pretty good. Sour, tangy, had a good kick and zero fishy taste or smell! Of course, as usual, I came up with the plan and Sab did all the work. Hey, I was baking remember?

And just because I was uploading pictures of food that we'd cooked, here's a picture (right) of the Lemongrass Chicken that we made some weeks back.

PS: I realise that the pictures all look 'orangey' but my camera doesn't take very good photos indoors and I had to take all of those without the flash, otherwise the pictures would be too hideous to share.

Moist Chocolate Cake

For her bf's birthday, S modified her aunty's already fantastic moist chocolate cake recipe and laced it with bourbon. It looked so delicious I wanted to steal a big, fat chunk and gobble it up right there and then, but I'm pretty sure S would have throttled me. She also decorated the cake with white icing, which contrasted nicely with the dark icing, making it look very pretty.

NB: I've added pictures to the previous posts as promised!

Serious Orange Cake

Last week on Tuesday we made Damien Pignolet's Serious Orange Cake. I got the recipe from ChubbyHubby, my favourite food blog (incidentally also the only food blog I read/have read).

Maybe about a couple of weeks back I had a sudden craving for orange cake. Probably because I read about it on ChubbyHubby. So I did what was the only thing to be done when one has a craving in this severely limited town; I pestered S to make it for me! Muahahahah! It's a good thing that she likes baking and trying out new foods, or else I'd be left to my own devices to satisfy my cravings and that would be disastrous.

Making the cake was simple enough. I pretended to help as much as I could; i.e. blending the oranges, using the electric hand mixer to mix the mixture, lazy stuff like that. The cake turned out BEAUTIFULLY! I don't know why, maybe we didn't have any expectations, but we were so surprised and delighted (read: squealing and jumping about) with the result. The recipe required a cooling period before the syrup could be poured onto the cake and after that the cake was to be allowed to cool completely before being taken out of the tin but we were so excited at the prospect of tasting it that we could barely wait the wait.

The cake, fresh from the oven, was warm and wonderfully soft, crumbly and delicate. The syrup had seeped through the cake making it so moist it was teetering on being mushy, but not quite! The flavour was subtle yet rich (a contradiction in terms?). You'd have to try it for yourself to see what I mean. It wasn't too sweet, had just a hint of bitterness (probably due to the Cointreau in the syrup) and the lightest orange flavour that made it just perfect! And the aroma! Absolutely heavenly! The combination of the flavour, texture and smell made for one of those 'heave a huge, melting sigh, relax completely and fall back onto the couch in a heap' moments.

[Note: Although the picture of the cake won't be very interesting, when I get it from S, I'll post it here anyway. Alternatively, go to ChubbyHubby and search for it. His pictures are all always gorgeous!]

Rafael's

We tried the pasta at Rafael's on Wednesday this week and it was mediocre. Very disappointing. We had high hopes for the pasta there because we love going to Rafael's for coffee, wedges and desserts. Their spicy wedges (pictured below, although the picture probably won't do it any justice) are always fantastic. Crispy and salted just enough on the outside, soft on the inside. Always piping hot and served with a delicious, light yet creamy, refreshing, sweetish sourish, tangy dip. The best wedges I've ever had. While all their desserts are quite good, I would say that the mud cake and the lemon cake are the best. The mud cake isn't even slathered in chocolate sauce as most other mud cakes often are, yet it's always rich and moist. I'm amazed at how they get it like this because the cake looks 'dry'. Not 'dry' as in 'dried out/overcooked'. But 'dry' as in there's no mushy, fudgy parts or layers anywhere on the cake yet when you put a spoonful in your mouth, it is JUST the right texture. Light but rich. Moist but not saucy. Big-sigh-after-each-bite + melt-in-your-mouth goodness. Totally satisfying, hits the spot and a great pick-me-up. The reasonable prices for big portions (wedges and desserts) keep us going back for more.