May 6, 2012

Chocolate Red Velvet Marble Cake and Half the Sky

There are two reasons why I bake, I have a massive sweet tooth, and I like to make people happy.

I like to make cookies for my flatmates, brownies for my boyfriend, cakes for my family, slices for my colleagues. On ANZAC day I had a great time making a big, brightly coloured, chocolatey cake and got to see everyone enjoy it at a dinner that night. That’s why I bake.

But I can’t bake for those that could most do with come happiness (and some calories) in the world. I have just read an amazing book called Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wundunn, it reminded me of the terrible suffering that so many women around the world go through. I am so lucky that I can feel safe walking through the city on my own, that I was able to go to school, that I am empowered to not accept violence or belittlement from those around me and that I will one day be able to have children with little risk of serious injury or death. This last part struck me the most, even though it was a lot less confronting than some of the other issues described in the book. I hate the idea that pregnancy and childbirth, something that most women go through in their lives, can be so dangerous. Every day 1000 women die due to pregnancy or childbirth, 99% of them in the developing world. This issue doesn’t seem to get a lot of notice, but there are some organisations doing great things, such as the White Ribbon Alliance, AMDD and Women’s Dignity. CARE seems to be a great organisation that focuses on Women’s rights. One of the best things we can do to help the situation is to learn more and tell others, when mothers are valued they will be looked after.

On a rather separate note, maybe you want to bake this cake. I’m sure a mother you know might like a slice next weekend. My Anzac day version ended up as an impromptu birthday cake for my lovely aunt.

Red Velvet marble Cake with Buttercream Icing

From the new Joy the Baker Cookbook

This cake is two batters, swirled together for a marble effect, baked in two pans and then stacked with chocolate buttercream icing, to incredible effect.

For the chocolate cake:

1 cup flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup coffee (as you would drink it)

1/3 cup +1 tablespoon cocoa powder

½ cup (about 120g) butter at room temperature

½ cup +2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1/3 cup caster sugar

2 large eggs

¼ cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the red velvet cake:

1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 tablespoons red food colouring

¼ cup (around 60g) butter at room temperature

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup buttermilk

1 ½ teaspoons while vinegar

For the buttercream frosting:

¾ cup (175g) butter at room temperature

½ cup cocoa powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 ½ cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup cream

1/3 cup ovaltine powder

Make sure you have two racks in the oven, one in the centre and one in the upper third.

Preheat the oven to 180ᵒ C.

Grease and flour two 9 inch (22cm) round cake pans.

Chocolate Cake:

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa and the coffee.

Using a stand or hand mixer (much easier with a stand one) beat together butter, brown and caster sugars, until fluffy (3-5 minutes). Add eggs one at a time, beating the mixture for about a minute in between each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time. Add the coffee mixture and the vanilla and beat for another minute until thoroughly combined.

With the mixture on low add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk. Stop the mixer before they are totally combined, finish off with a spatula. Set aside.

Red Velvet Cake:

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

In a small bowl, mix together cocoa and red food colouring.

Using a stand or hand mixer beat together butter and caster sugars, until fluffy (3-5 minutes).

Add the egg and beat for another minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time.

Add the cocoa mixture and the vanilla and beat until thoroughly combined.

With the mixture on low add half the dry ingredients and half the buttermilk. When almost fully combined, add the rest of the dry ingredients and buttermilk. Stop the mixer before they are totally combined. Add the vinegar and finish off with a spatula.

Add half of the red velvet mixture to each cake pan. Top with half of the chocolate mixture into each pan. Use a butter knife to slightly mix the two batters together.

Bake the cakes for 15 minutes then switch the positions of the cake.

Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, until a knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool for ten minutes, then remove from the pans and cool on wire racks until cold.

Buttercream Icing:

Using a stand or handheld electric mixer, cream butter, cocoa and salt for about 3 minutes.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the icing sugar.

Turn the mixer on to low, add the milk and vanilla, as the sugar incorporates start to increase the speed of the mixer. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, beat till smooth.

Mix together cream and ovaltine.

Turn the mixer to medium, pour the cream in in a slow and steady stream until the frosting reaches the desired consistency.

Add more icing sugar if necessary.

Refrigerate the frosting for 30 minutes to make it easier to spread.

When the cakes are cooled, spread the flattest cake with icing, top with the second cake and cover the whole thing in frosting.

Keep the iced cake in the fridge and it will last for a few days.

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April 15, 2012

Raspberry and Orange Ciambella

The last few months have swept by, including a golden Melbourne January that I won’t be forgetting. Now I am here in Sydney with a whole new little life, but it won’t be for too long and then I will be on the move again, for a much bigger adventure this time. So much change leads me to put my blinkers on a little and snuggle down into my little routines, especially in Melbourne, which I was so sad to leave behind. Sydney is such a different city, and feels much less like home, but the beauty of that harbour stops me every time and I feel lucky to be here. Baking a cake is a perfect way to settle or snuggle in.

This Ciambella cake is very easy, but the yoghurt and olive oil keep it moist and a little dense, cutting into it when it is still warm releases a wonderful orange fragrance. The two times I have made it I just added in whatever extras I had on hand. The raspberries and orange zest recommended below were perfect, however my second attempt with grated apple and raspberry took longer to cook and came out a little to brown and dry on the outside. I’m not sure if it was the additions or my oven, or just murphy’s law since I was making to take to a “meet the parents” dinner, but just to be sure I have kept the ingredient list as stated in the recipe. Perhaps experiment with it when you don’t need to impress anyone! The photos I have included were of the orange and raspberry version, baked in my lovely Melbourne kitchen. Seeing them takes me right back, I hope I will be back baking in Melbourne one day not too far off.

Ciambella Cake

Adapted from Rachel Eats

  • 125g pot of whole-milk plain yoghurt
  • 2 (yoghurt) pots of plain flour
  • 1  (yoghurt) pot ground almonds
  • 1 very generous  (yoghurt) pot brown sugar
  • 3/4  (yoghurt) pot extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 3 medium eggs
  • 2/3 cup frozen raspberries and zest of one orange. (Alternative extras:75g coarsely chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips/zest of a whole unwaxed lemon or orange plus 50ml juice/ a mashed banana/a grated apple, handful of sultanas and grating of nutmeg/ 50g coarsely chopped hazelnuts and 50g chopped chocolate.)

Set the oven to 180°C and grease a ring or bunt tin

Tip the yogurt into a large bowl.

Using the yogurt pot as a scoop, add 2 pots of flour, 1 pot of ground almonds, 1 pot of brown sugar and 3/4 pot of olive oil and the baking powder to the bowl and stir.

Break three eggs into the bowl and stir the ingredients very energetically until you have a smooth batter.

Add the additions and stir again.

Pour the batter into the ring tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for 20 minutes or so before turning out onto a cake rack.

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January 24, 2012

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week it is a year since I moved to Australia. I love it here, I love that a sunny 30 degree day is normal, I love living in a big city. Most of the Australians I have met have been wonderful people, and only some of them have made jokes about my kiwi accent.

Next month I’m moving cities, but I am glad I get to have another year here in Australia. Sydney reminds me of my grandmother and that I am actually a quarter Aussie underneath my New Zealand twang. Last Australia day I had just arrived, and didn’t really feel part of the laid back barbeque atmosphere. This year it is time to celebrate being a little bit Aussie, and I think a good way to do that would be with some Australian cookies. Beyond Anzac biscuits and attempting to homemake Tim Tams, I am not sure where to start. Any ideas?

The cookies I have to offer today are conversely Very American. Not quite as American as the similar version that included bacon, but still, there is a lot of everything bad for you in these puppies, and boy can you taste it.

They have a distinctive peanut flavour, but are sweet enough to balance the salt. Chewy in the middle with crunchy edges, they don’t look like much, sometimes I think that’s better though, unassuming awesomeness.

Salted Peanut Butter Cookies
From Orangette, originally adapted from Autumn Martin

2 cups plus 1 tsp flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp salt
275 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¼ cup, packed brown sugar
¾ cup caster sugar
2 eggs
400 grams peanut butter (I used crunchy)
2 tsp vanilla extract
170 grams chopped milk chocolate (I usually use dark, but milk is great here)

Preheat the oven to 180°C, and line several baking sheets with baking paper.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, and whisk well.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. (You can do this by hand, if you so wish).

 Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the peanut butter and vanilla, and beat on medium-low speed to blend.

Add the dry ingredients in three batches, mixing on low speed until incorporated and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the chocolate, and beat briefly on low speed, just until evenly incorporated.

Scoop dessert spoonful’s of the batter onto the baking sheets, taking care to leave plenty of space between cookies ( only 6 or 7 to a tray, they spread)

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and pale golden around the edges, but their tops have no colour. (The cookies will not look fully baked, but they are nice and chewy this way)

Transfer the pan to a rack, and cool the cookies completely on the sheet pan if you are patient enough, I kept reusing the pans so transferred them to a rack after about 5 mins. They will firm up as they cool.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Note: Apparently the dough freezes well, scoop out the dough and freeze on a tray and then cook for an extra 5 mins from frozen. Warning: I suspect these would make irresistible frozen cookie dough snacks, which is why I have avoided freezing any.

Makes about 20 large cookies

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November 26, 2011

Red Wine Chocolate Cake

So it has been ages since I posted last, life has been busy! My trip to New York was amazing, just thinking about it makes me want to be back there. I loved the raw, living feeling of the place, it was as poor and run down and grey as any other city I have been to. But yet everyone was fighting to be there to get a bit of the city’s sparkle for themselves.

I loved the bit of Williamsburg where we stayed, with the noisy crowds of guys who would hang out outside the dry cleaners across the road and the regal Jewish women in their hats who lived next door. I loved the food and the art and the beautiful buildings and parks, but most of all I loved the people. The unabashed enthusiasm I saw in people was so refreshing, they wanted to know about you, and wanted you to succeed, just as they wanted to tell the world about what made them and their city awesome. New Yorkers are so confident and honest; I hope I brought a little of that back with me.

one of the many beautiful little artworks in the subway system, each station had a different theme

I got back from New York and was still living at a New York pace, which meant lots of time for baking in amongst everything else.

On a perfect spring evening a couple of weeks after I got home I made this delicious Red Wine Chocolate Cake. While it was in the oven I sat out in our little courtyard and ate a picnic dinner.

Dessert with a little mascarpone and a glass of the red wine to match and it was pretty much a perfect evening. I think it helped to remind me that the slower Melbourne pace wasn’t too bad, at least for now.

This cake is from my favourite New York food blogger, SmittenKitchen, and funnily enough she wrote about it while I was there in her city. It’s a grown up chocolate cake, you can taste the wine, but its subtle enough that it could just be a special spice instead. I decided that the double dairy topping was a bit elaborate since I am not meant to have dairy at all, so I just used mascarpone, but you can add half a cup of whipped cream to make the topping a lot lighter.

Red Wine Chocolate Cake

Very slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Cake
85 grams butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
3/4 cup red wine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 cup good cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Topping
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Spray the interior of a 9-inch round cake pan with a nonstick spray

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes

Add the egg and yolk and beat well, then the red wine and vanilla. The batter will look a little odd and winey at this point but that is fine.

 Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together, right over your wet ingredients. Mix until 3/4 combined with the electric beater, then fold the rest together with a rubber spatula.

Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Cool in pan on a rack for about 10 minutes, then flip out of pan and cool the rest of the way on a cooling rack. This cake keeps well at room temperature or in the fridge.

Topping: Whip mascarpone, sugar and vanilla together. Dollop generously on each slice of cake. It can also be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 hours.

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September 4, 2011

Chocolate Tart

So I am sitting in my chaotic room, the place is covered in clothes and powercables and books, I even had that terrifying moment just before where I couldn’t find my passport for a second and freaked out. This is all because I am off to New York in five days! I am giddily excited about this, I will do my best to tone this back to “a little wide-eyed” before I get there so as not to ruin my street cred.

I have been baking a bit – but not sharing here! Lets fix that shall we.

Here is an amazing chocolate tart, from one of my favourite food blogs, Rachel Eats. This tart is my friend, I’ve used it to appear as a domestic goddess at dinner parties and to charm my new flatmates. Lemon tarts on the other hand, while delicious, tend to fall off the bench and onto the floor, we no longer talk.

The crust on this tart is pretty easy, I’m still getting by without a rolling pin, and I still manage to make the pastry turn out ok. I also like that it doesn’t require pie weights, I am not Martha Stuart enough to own those yet. What this tart does need it a proper tart pan, don’t even try to make this in a cake tin – I am telling you – it doesn’t work.

The filling is a dream, it starts out as a warm chocolate goop, and comes out of the oven as velvety fudgy goodness, rich as anything. I think my oven might have been a bit warm this time around, the tart doesn’t have its beautiful smooth top, but tasted just as good nonetheless.

This is a classy tart, if such a thing is possible. I think it needs to be eaten with a glass of red wine by candlelight if at all possible. But that hasn’t stopped me having a piece sitting in the kitchen on the phone to my mum yet.

Chocolate tart

From Rachel Eats, which was in turn adapted from Simon Hopkinson’s recipes for Chocolate tart and petit pot au chocolat in ‘Roast chicken and other stories‘

Makes 12 modest slices

For the pastry

  • 130g butter (at room temperature)
  • 65g icing sugar
  • 1 medium-sized egg
  • 225g plain flour

For the filling

  • 250g heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp whole milk
  • 200g dark, high quality, cocoa butter rich bitter chocolate. chopped.
  • 40g caster sugar
  • 1 medium-sized egg

To make the pastry; put the butter, icing sugar and egg in a bowl (or food processor) and work together quickly. Blend in the flour and work together into a homogenous paste. Wrap the dough in cling film or a tea towel and chill for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Roll out the pastry on a well floured board as thinly as you can and then carefully lift and tuck it into an 8″ tart tin (ideally with a loose base), the pastry will be delicate, don’t panic if you need to press and patch it a bit. Bake the tart case blind for about 20 minutes, until it is cooked through and a pale golden biscuit colour.

To make the filling;  In a small pan, warm the cream and the milk gently over a gentle flame and then add the chopped chocolate and sugar and stir until the chocolate has melted and the sugar dissolved and you have a dark thick, silky mixture.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool a little before adding and carefully incorporating the beaten egg. Pour the mixture into the tart case.

Carefully slide the filled tart back into the oven for 15 minutes or until the tart has set but still had slight wobble in the center.

Allow the tart to sit for a couple of hours before serving.

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July 31, 2011

Afghans and a visit from home

So my lovely mum went home today after a few days visiting me here in Melbourne. Highlights were the Vienna exhibit and champagne and chocolates in a 5 star hotel, and spending lots of time with her of course.

We had the most amazing meal at Hellenic Republic, which left us both happily clutching our stomachs because we were so full. Mum even tried Lord of the Fries fries, an institution in my opinion, though I keep well away from any of the vegan “meat”. The fries clearly weren’t what mum is used to as I had one accidentally thrown at me in the end! One of several insane and funny moments during her stay.

 So this afternoon when she was on her way home it was time for some cheer-me-up baking. My friend and Sez and I made a kiwi classic, afghans. These biscuits are simple and can be made from ingredients you might have in the house (always a bonus) but are also wonderfully crisp and chocolatey with tasty indulgent icing. Also the lack of baking powder or eggs makes this a perfect cookie batter to eat uncooked. What? You have to check that it is going to taste good…

I am planning to take those cookies that survived to make it into the oven into work tomorrow to fundraise a little for the East African famine relief fund with the Red Cross, maybe you feel like donating too?

Afghans

From The Edmonds Cookbook

Makes 15-30 depending on how giant you like them

Biscuits

200g butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups Edmonds, standard plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa
2 cups cornflakes

Chocolate Icing

1 cup Icing sugar

2 tablespoons Cocoa

Small knob of butter

Hot water
Walnuts, optional

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Sift flour and cocoa
Stir into creamed mixture. Fold in cornflakes
Spoon mounds of mixture onto a greased oven tray, flatten with your fingers
Bake at 180C for 15 minutes or until lightly browned and firm

To make the icing, sift icing sugar and cocoa together, add butter and then a little hot water at a time until the mixture is the desired consistency
When cold ice with chocolate icing and decorate with a walnut piece if you like.

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June 16, 2011

Late Night Shortbread

A rolling pin for my birthday?

When I have the sudden need to do some baking at 9pm on a Thursday night, there is one book I turn to. The Edmonds Cookbook is a New Zealand institution, I still have my Junior Edmonds Cookbook that I started to learn to bake from. It also has the added bonus of having heaps of really simple recipes which I can make on a whim without going shopping.

This is how I came to be making shortbread last week, and it certainly did the trick. I have made shortbread a few times before, and it has always come out as a sort of pathetic sugar biscuit, but no more, these biscuits are buttery goodness.

It’s a dough made of butter, sugar, cornflour and regular flour, which requires a bit of work to come together from crumbs. At this point I realised that I don’t own a rolling pin (I cannot call myself a baker I know!) which presented another challenge – but nothing a wine bottle cannot fix.

The recipe makes heaps of dough, you can freeze half wrapped up in gladwrap if you do not have a crowd on standby to gobble them down. With a ball of this in the freezer I will not have an excuse to give someone store bought shortbread passed off as homemade anymore !

 

Shortbread

From The Edmonds Cookery Book – 100 year edition

Makes 30-35 biscuits

250g butter (softened)

1 cup icing sugar

1 cup cornflour

2 cups white flour

Cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy

Sift cornflour and flour together, mix into creamed butter and sugar

Knead dough on a floured surface (I did this a handful at a time)

Roll out dough to 0.5cm thickness on a lightly floured surface

Cut into pieces with a knife or a cookie cutter

Prick with a fork

Bake at 150 degrees C for 25-30 minutes, or until pale gold in colour

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