Last week was Rosario's birthday, and of course I had to bake her a cake. The very sad part was that Rosario took the last working day before here birthday off work, so she was not there to enjoy her own cake. But what can you do - the cake had a sponge-like texture and would have been no good by the next Monday.
For Rosario, I chose to bake Devil's Food Cake from p133 of Vintage Cakes by Jane Brocket. It is a beautiful book that I found through a recent visit to a bookstore, and I highly recommend it.
The cake consists of two layers of light chocolate sponge, coated in devilish fudgy chocolate icing. I chose to decorate my cake with Ferrero Rocher:
The frosting is made before the cake so that it can thicken up sufficiently before being layered onto the cake. To make the frosting, you will need:
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons brown sugar
120g butter
315g chopped dark chocolate
Place the milk, butter and sugar into a saucepan and stir over a gently heat until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Take the pan off the heat and add the chocolate, swirling the pan until the chocolate melts, then whisk it until smooth. Allow the frosting to cool for about an hour before using it.
To make the cake, you will need:
120g butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup cooled black coffee mixed with 1/2 cup milk
Grease and line 2 x 8" cake tins, and preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius..
In a large stand mixer, beat together the sugar and butter until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, beating in one at a time.
Sift the dry ingredients together into a bowl. Fold in half the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, followed by half the coffee-milk mixture. Repeat with the remaining dry ingredients and liquid ingredients.
Divide the cake batter equally between the two cake tins, and bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through when tested. Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for five minutes before unmoulding onto a wore rack to cool completely.
To frost the cake, place one layer upside down (so that the flat bottom is upwards) onto a cake plate, and spread one third of the frosting over that layer. Place the other cake layer on top of it, flat side down, then spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cakes. Decorate as desired, then serve and enjoy:
Series three of Downton Abbey started here tonight - I was so excited. It was great to finally see Matthew and Lady Mary walk down the aisle. I wasn't so sure about Lady Mary's dress though - I thought it was a little too dowdy.
Hope you had a great weekend.
Thank goodness it's Friday again - my week has been out of control, and the number of rabbits being pulled out of the hat lately is ridiculous. I look forward to the weekends, when I have some control over my own destiny.
This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Fresh Orange Pork Tenderloin. I can hear the people who hate meat and fruit together moaning in disbelief, but this was actually a rather delicious dish, with strips of pork tenderloin served in an onion and orange juice sauce, with orange segments. It is fairly quick and easy to make, with segmenting the oranges being the most taxing part of the exercise.
Dorie says this dish can't be reheated successfully, but I did the next day and it tasted just fine.
I served this dish with steamed veges, and found it to be a rather nice, light meal.
To see what the other Dorie cooks thought, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.
It's Wednesday again, and this week's Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe was Shepherds Pie, chosen by yours truly. A number of people have preceded us, so you can for instance find the recipe online here.
I liked the rich, red meaty sauce topped with cheesy potato. I also liked that this is a complete meal in itself, as it contains peas, carrots and onion.
My Mum doesn't put herbs in her Shepherds Pie, so I found the thyme and bay flavours a little odd, although not unpleasant. Just like Mum, I added a dash of hot suace (Worcestershire sauce) to the mince for extra flavour.
This dish is a keeper.
To see what Kayte, Margaret and Chaya thought, visit their sites.
This week's Baking with Julia challenge is Foccacia, and our host is Sharmini of Wandering Through.
I made only a third of the recipe because I didn't want all of that bread just lying around. I sprinkled my foccacia with dried tarragon, as fresh herbs are expensive, and Persian blue salt that I bought out of curiosity at Gewurzhaus. In the end, it didn't taste any different to ordinary salt.
The author kept talking about the bubbles in the dough, and there certainly were lots of those, although the dough didn't rise much in the oven:
On day 1, the foccacia was delicious - crisp and chewy and flavoursome. However, the foccacia didn't last well, and tasted stale the next day, which was a little disappointing.
To see what the other bakers thpught of this recipe, visit the LYL section of the Baking With Julia website.
It's Friday again, and for French Friday with Dorie this week, our recipe is brown sugar squash and Brussels sprouts en papillote (ie veges in a bag).
The recipe is to chop up butternut pumpkin (I used Kent pumpkin as there were no butternuts at the supermarket) and apple, toss with Brussels sprouts, olive oil, salt and pepper, sprinkle with brown sugar, then steam in a foil bag in the oven for 25 minutes or so.
I wasn't really sure about this, but then I tasted it - and like wow - I really enjoyed this. The brown sugar and apple gave the vegetables a pleasant sweetness. I served my brown sugar squash and Brussels sprouts en papillote with salmon baked in the bag with coriander, lemon juice, lemongrass, salt and pepper.
This was a delicious dinner, and quick and easy to make.
To see what the other Dorie cooks thought of brown sugar squash and Brussels sprouts en papillote, visit the LYL section of the website.
This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe, Spinach and Cheddar Souffle, was chosen by Margaret. It comes from p8o of Modern Classics I.
As expected, this souffle contains spinach, cheddar, eggs, milk, flour, butter, salt and pepper. I substituted the butter for margarine to try and be slightly more healthy, and I used frozen spinach. I didn't have any breadcrumbs to line the ramekins in which I baked the souffles, so I used semolina instead.
The end result was nice enough, but I didn't find it very filling - it is not really a complete meal in itself. I probably won't make this again.
To see what Margaret, Kayte and Chaya thought of this souffle, visit their websites on Wednesday US time.
Francijn of Koken in de Brouwerij was our January 2013 Daring Bakers’ Hostess and she challenged us to make the traditional Dutch pastry, Gevulde Speculaas from scratch! That includes making our own spice mix, almond paste and dough! Delicious!
I have never heard of Gevulde Speculaas (stuffed speculaas) before, and I know for a fact that I have never tasted it, so I was curious as to how this adventure would turn out. Gevulde Speculaas is a traditional Dutch pastry, as Francijn, our host this month, is Dutch.
The speculaas spice mix is quite extensive, as follows:
Mandatory:
cinnamon 40 to 60 % of the total amount
ground cloves 1 or 2 parts
mace ½ or 1 part
ginger ½ or 1 part
Optional:
white pepper ½ or 1 part
cardamom ½ or 1 part
coriander ½ or 1 part
anise ½ or 1 part
nutmeg 1 or 2 parts
I used some of everything, but substituted black pepper for white pepper. If the mix sounds a little confusing, Francijn helpfully explains how to mix it as follows:
Take at least 1 or 2 teaspoons of ground cloves, ½ or 1 teaspoon of mace and ½ or 1 teaspoon of ginger.
Add to taste ½ or 1 teaspoon of white pepper, ½ or 1 teaspoon of cardamom, ½ or 1 teaspoon of coriander, ½ or 1 teaspoon of anise, and 1 or 2 teaspoons of nutmeg.
Measure or weigh the amount of spices you have now, and add an equal amount of cinnamon.
You have no idea how heavenly these spices smell together - you really should try making the spice mix for the aroma alone.
My first test was to find mace - I had all the other spices already. I could not track it down in any of the Melbourne supermarkets that I tried, and in the end by a stroke of luck, I remembered the Middle Eastern grocers near my work, which carry a wide variety of spcies. There I finally tracked down the mace.
The dough and almond paste came together pretty easily (except for the slight spillage of my precious spice mix), and I refrigerated them for a couple of days to develop the flavours, as suggested by Francijn. I did need to use about a quarter of a cup of milk for my dough to come together.
My next challenge was in assembling the speculaas. It is summer here hence rather warm inside, and dough and warm weather are not good friends. The dough wanted to stick to the paper I rolled it on, even when I refrigerated it after rolling, and the almond paste violently resisted being incorporated into the speculaas - in the end, I abandoned rolling it out and smooshed it over the top of the base dough layer.
Despite the less than smooth assembly process, I was pretty happy with the end result:
And another view which shows the almond paste filling better:
My Gevulde Speculaas smelled heavenly in the oven and tasted devine - I was a very happy girl. The speculaas smelled just like Christmas, and I believe that this speculaas would make a wonderful addition to the Christmas cookie exchange.
Thanks to our host, Francijn, for introducing this Dutch specialty to us. To see what the other Daring Bakers thought, visit the slideshow on the Daring Kitchen website once it has been loaded.
I have now been a Daring Baker for five years - scary! My first challenge was Lemon Meringue Pie - you can find my post here. I seemed to be very excited about it - perhaps it is time to make that pie again. Much has changed in my life since then, not all for the better, but it's amazing how resilient we are. What were you doing five years ago?
