Daring Bakers - Battenberg Cake - Going Batty for the Jubilee

On 2 June 2012, it was 60 years since Queen Elizabeth II was crowned as Queen of the British Empire, and unless you have been isolated from the media for the last month, you could not have missed all the celebrations that have been taking place for the Diamond Jubilee.  This month also marked the 70th birthday of Sir Paul McCartney from The Beatles on 18 June.  Accordingly, being a huge Beatles fan, I have made this month's Daring Bakers challenge both to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and for Sir Paul's birthday.

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

Battenberg Cake was first made for the wedding of Princess Victoria, Queen Victoria's granddaughter, on her marriage to Prince Louis of Battenberg.  The four checks in the pink and white checkerboard pattern represent the four princes of Battenberg.  I have never made a Battenberg cake before, although I have always wanted to try, so I went with the traditional colours (pink and white) and flavours (almond and vanilla) suggested in the recipe.

Without more ado, here are my two cakes fresh out of the oven, one pink and one white:

Here are the trimmed cakes lined up and glued together with apricot jam:

And finally, here is the finished cake with its marzipan coating and scored top:

This cake was absolutely scrumptious served with a hot cup of English Breakfast tea:

The lovely tea towel which forms a backdrop to my cake comes from Anthropologie at The Grove in West Hollywood - it is mint green with a tea set print and embroidery.  I love it!

To see how the other Daring Bakers fared with this month's challenge, take a look at the slideshow on the Daring Kitchen website on reveal day (27 June 2012).

FFwD - David's Seaweed Sables

Life often presents us with challenges, big and small, that take us outside of our comfort zone.  Sometimes, I feel up to the challenge and tackle it head on; other times, I skirt around it or duck under it or run away from it.  Much depends on the day of the week, the mood I'm in and the kind of day I have been having.  Some days, I feel invincible; on other days, just getting out of bed is a challenge.

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe provided a challenge to my culinary comfort zone, a bump in the road - the recipe chosen was David's Seaweed Sables.  Unfortunately, this recipe sounded horribly unappealing to me, as it combined nori (seaweed) and icing sugar in the same vehicle.  It seemed like a massive clash of flavours to me.  However, the recipe wasn't hard, so I decided on the "what the heck" approach and made those seaweed sables.  And you know what?  They were good. I will go so far as to say that David's Seaweed Sables are downright addictive, and I had to remove them from my office so that I would stop eating them.  I figure my colleagues must have felt the same about them, because the remaining sables disappeared in a flash.

Unconvinced?  Make them, I say, and decide for yourself.  The mysterious alchemy of sweet and salty creates a moorish mixture of flavours that cannot be resisted.  To see what the other FFwD members thought of these sables, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

To finish off, I cannot resist posting this delightful photo of a weedy sea dragon (not to be mistaken for seaweed) that lives at Monterey Aquarium in California:

Isn't he handsome?  For an interesting novel involving a convict who eventually turns into weedy sea dragon, refer to Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan.

Have a great weekend!

BWJ - French strawberry cake

I am back in Oz after spending 2 1/2 weeks on the West Coast of the United States. If you thought that I was unusually quiet, this is the explanation. I had a marvellous time on my vacation, and I will share parts of it with you in due course.  It was bright and sunny and warm on the West Coast, and I have returned to miserable, cold weather, and have already contracted a cold. I would love to go back to that beautiful weather, if only I could, but alas, it is a beautiful fantasy, and I have to resign myself to reality.    

This week for Baking with Julia, our recipe brought back images of childhood, when in summer, my mother would bake sponge cake and fill it with cream and strawberries.  Our recipe was French strawberry cake, based on a French sponge, the genoise, and filled with two layers of strawberries and cream, and smothered in more cream.  My kitchen smelt devine after I baked this!

Step by step, you start with a plain genoise:

You then split the genoise into three layers and fill them with mashed strawberries:

and lashings of freshly whipped cream:

and end up with something like this:

then smother it all in whipped cream:

And when you are ready, you cut yourself a generous slice, and admire the layers: 

To see what the other BWJ members thought of this cake, visit the LYL section of the BWJ website.

FFwD - Lime Honey Beet Salad

This week's French Friday with Dorie recipe is Lime Honey Beet Salad.  It doesn't sound like much, and to be honest, it isn't much - beet wedges are dressed with a dressing of cider vinegar (in my case, white wine vinegar), olive oil, lime zest and juice and honey.  I like beets, and the dressing lifts them to another place, but I can't really think of this as a recipe.

I was not going to cook beets because I hate dying my fingers purple in the process of peeling them, so I bought pre-cooked, canned beet wedges.  I served it alongside whatever I was having for dinner as a side dish.

To see what the other FFwD participants thought of this recipe, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

FFwD - Olive Oil Icecream

This week's French Friday with Dorie recipe is a delight that I recommend you try at least once  - Olive Oil Icecream.  To me, the sound of olive oil in icecream didn't sound that attractive, but I am now converted. 

This is the best icecream that I have ever tasted, apart from Baskin Robbins Pralines 'n' Cream.  It is smooth, creamy and oh so delicious - even in wintery weather.  It would be the perfect accompaniment to any dessert, because it doesn't have a strong flavour, but it is also very good on its own.

To see what the othe FFwD participants thought of this recipe, visit the FFwD website.

BWJ - Oasis Naan

This week's Baking with Julia challenge is Oasis Naan.  These nan really couldn't be easier to make - there's not much to them apart from flour, water and yeast, and chopped scallions, caraway seeds and salt for the topping.

They are very non-attention seeking for a bread - once the dough is mixed, it sits for 2 hours to look after itself while it rises, then it is shaped and baked on a pizza stone for around 8 minutes - done.  I only made a half recipe to get four naan.

The naan taste good, but I was disappointed because they are nothing like naan that I would get at my local Indian restaurant, which tend to be light, pillow and could almost float away.

To see what the other BWJ members thought of these naan, visit the LYL section of the BWJ website.

FFwD - Lentil, Lemon and Tuna Salad

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is a surprising salad - Lentil, Lemon and Tuna Salad.  It is a mixture of green lentils, tuna, chopped preserved lemon and chopped scallions, dressed with an unlikely combination of olive tapenade, mustard, red wine vinegar and olive oil.  But weirdly, it works - I really enjoyed it.

I was lucky in that I had preserved lemons that I had made from lemons out of my friends', Veronica and Christian, garden.  This is the first time I used them, so that made me happy.  Preserved lemons are absurdly expensive to buy, given how simple they are to make.

I ate this salad warm - it was already 3 in the afternoon, and I had not yet had lunch, so I wasn't going to wait a couple of hours for it to chill (after patiently waiting while the lentils cooked).

To see what everyone else thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.