Peach Upside Down Cake

 

Yesterday was the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final Day in Melbourne.  Fremantle (the Dockers) played Hawthorn (the Hawks) on a rather vitriolic Saturday afternoon, when it rained and shined in equal measure, and strong winds buffeted everything.  The Hawks won to the delight of some and the disappointment of others.  I felt for the loyal Freo supporters who had bussed it all the way across the Nullarbor to see their beloved team play in their first Grand Final, only to see them pipped at the post by 15 points.

 

I will confess to being agnostic when it comes to the AFL, as I am from Queensland, and during my childhood, the AFL was known in our house as "Victorian football" - only played in that far off place called Melbourne, and receiving little or no airplay on Queensland television sets.  However, the AFL has wisely since gone national, and each State has at least one team.

 

While the drama of the Grand Final was being played out, I was preparing for a dinner party with four friends last night, details of which I will provide later.

 

This leads me on to my latest cake - a Peach Upside Down Cake, from a recipe by Julie Goodwin,  that I made primarily to use up the tinned peaches in my fridge which are currently outside the scope of my diet.  It ended up being a rather lovely cake: 

 

 

Unfortunately, I could only desperately taste a small offcut, not even a slice, so that I stay true to my diet mission.  From that taste, I gathered it to be a light and airy cake with lovely caramelised peaches on top - even if half of the brown sugar ran out of my springform pan in the oven!  (I should have lined that pan.)

If you happen to have some tinned peaches and want to trump peaches and icecream for dessert, you can't go wrong with making this lovely cake.

FFWD - Rice Pudding with Caramel Apples

French Fridays with Dorie this week is a dessert - Rice Pudding with Caramel Apples.  You can find the recipe online here.

I always love desserts, but at this point in time, it is a little naughty for me to be eating them.  Accordingly, I only made a quarter of the recipe and cut down on the sugar and cream.  This meant that my dessert was not as sweet as it otherwise should have been, but it meant that I was not breaking the rules of my diet as badly.

I quite liked this, but I liked the rice pudding component the best.  I have always liked rice pudding - Mum used to make for us as kids, and I still ask for it when I go home.

I'd make the rice pudding again, but probably skip the apples.

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

Fortnum and Mason Gingerbread with Prunes and Ale

A recent delicious bake from Tea at Fortnum and Mason was Gingerbread with Prunes and Ale.  The title of this recipe had me immediately - I adore ginger, gingerbread and prunes.  Ale I can take or leave, but I know that it gives a lovely rich flavour to baked goods.

This gingerbread is dense and moist, and the glaze adds a touch of sweetness to the soft, spicy cake beneath.  I loved this gingerbread, and would make it again in a heartbeat.

If you are tempted to make it, you will need:

100ml dark ale
100ml freshly brewed tea
75g chopped prunes
125g butter
125g dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons treacle (I used golden syrup)
250g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 beaten eggs
2 balls stem ginger, chopped

150g icing sugar
water sufficient to make an icing

Put the ale, tea and prunes in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, and leave to soak for 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 190°C. Grease a 20 cm square cake tin and line with baking paper.

Put the butter, sugar and treacle in a saucepan and melt over low heat. Allow to cool slightly.

Sift the flour, baking powder, ground ginger and cinnamon into a bowl, then add the butter mixture with the eggs, stem ginger, prunes and ale and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into the greased tin, and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then unmould onto a wire rack to cool completely.

When the cake is completely cool, ice the cake with the prepared icing. Cut the gingerbread into pieces to serve. Enjoy!

WWDH - Seared Salmon on Coconut Spinach

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay pick is Seared Salmon with Coconut Spinach, chosen by Chaya from Off the Shelf.  You can also find the recipe online here.

I used baby spinach instead of English spinach, and instead of chilli paste, I used curry paste.

This was pretty good - I wasn't sure about the spinach, but the chilli/curry paste combines with the coconut cream to make a very tasty sauce.

The star with the salmon was the grated fresh ginger - it pan fried into a crispy, zingy coating for the fish - adore!

To see what Chaya, Kayte, Margaret and Sarah thought of this dish, visit the website.

No. 35, Melbourne

For my recent birthday, Tim took me to No. 35 Restaurant in the Sofitel, Melbourne.  It is called "No. 35" because it is on the 35th floor of the hotel.

Our meal commenced with some complimentary sour dough bread rolls:

They are served warm with garlic butter.  The winner was the seeded roll, which had a lovely nutty flavour.

For entree, I ordered the half dozen freshly shucked oysters with Bloody Mary and cucumber sorbet ($25):

I enjoyed these, but I felt that the natural taste of the oyster was obscured by the Bloody Mary flavour.

Tim ordered the smoked salmon with avocado, lemon cream, asparagus and shallot ($23): 

He was very pleased with his choice, so I gather that it tasted good.  I did get a taste of the salmon, which was moist and delicious.

For main, I ordered the roasted chicken with asparagus, morels and parsley and garlic emulsion ($39):

This was rather tasty, especially as I love asparagus and received 4 long spears.

Tim ordered the pork belly with black pudding, pork fritters and apples and prunes ($39):

This looked intriguing and again met with Tim's approval.

We ordered two sides - fennel and witlof salad with blood orange and macadamia ($9):

and spiced cauliflower with green chilli and pomegranate ($9):

My favourite was the cauliflower, which had a bit of spicy kick, but not so much as to leave you reeling. The highlight of the salad was the crunchy macadamias, which added both flavour and texture.

For dessert, Tim ordered the raspberry cranachan ($15):

 

This seemed to be a large raspberry fool with an oaty biscuit to dip in it, and included whole raspberries as well as raspberry syrup.  Tim cleaned this up pretty quickly.

I couldn't help but go for the unusual - chocolate and avocado with coffee gel, pumpkin icecream and berry glaze ($16):

 

The four brown cubes seemed to be brown bread, and they were rather weird; however, the dessert minus those bread cubes really worked.  The chocolate was a generous strip of solid chocolate  ganache, and everything else was either perched on or balanced around it.  I enjoyed it for something completely different, but it's not on my list of "must have" desserts.

We ordered various wines to accompany our meal from No. 35's ample wine list.

The service was prompt and attentive, and the atmosphere was fabulous - we had almost 360 degree views of Melbourne, including out to the Parisian tower of the Arts Centre, of Government House, to the football ground and various points in between.  It makes for quite a spectacle at night, with the dark sky providing a perfect canvas for the twinkling city lights.

I really enjoyed our dinner at No. 35 - it was a wonderful birthday treat.

No. 35 Restaurant

Level 35, 25 Collins St

Melbourne VIC 3000

Ph: +61 3 9653 7744

Primrose Bakery Orange Cake

On Friday last week, one guy in our office had a birthday, and another was having his last day before starting a new job.  From my perspective, this was a perfect opportunity to make cake!

I didn't want to buy special ingredients, so I chose my cake based on what I already had readily available in the house.  I landed on the Primrose Bakery Book's Orange Cake.  You can find the recipe online here. 

Don't be put off by "golden caster sugar" - I just used plain old white sugar; or "self raising flour" - I never buy it anymore and just convert my plain flour to self raising flour using this conversion. 

I was almost not going to make the glaze and just use buttercream, but believe me, it was worth it and not very time consuming to make both the buttercream and the glaze: 

You end up with different textures and flavours which add interest to the lovely buttery orange cake.

The cake was a hit, even if the birthday boy was away on the day and missed out.  It is definitely a "keeper". 

Fortnum and Mason's Date and Nut Loaf

On a recent shopping excursion with my friend Sandra, I found the cutest little book called Tea at Fortnum and Mason at Wilkins and Kent.  Its cover is in signature Fortnum and Mason duck egg blue and gold, and it has some of the loveliest teatime recipes you will ever see.  I want to make all of them!

I decided to start off with Date and Nut Loaf (well, actually Date and Walnut Loaf, but I used hazelnuts instead) from p109 of the book.  It involves soaking dates in tea, then mixing them into the cake batter with nuts, and lo, you have a delicious cake:

My cake did sink a little in the middle (only the second time in my life that has happened) - it may have been because I added too much baking powder as I guess-timated how to convert my plain flour into self raising flour, and maybe it rose just a tad too fast.  No matter - the end result was delicious (this was pre my low carb diet), and no-one at work complained. It has a deep caramel flavour, with depth added by the tea and some crunch from the nuts.

To make this lovely cake,  you will need:

125 g butter
100ml freshly brewed tea (I used my friend Camilla's wedding guest gift tea) 
50 g dates, pitted and chopped
175g dark brown sugar
2 eggs
75g wholemeal flour
125g self raising flour (I used 100% plain white flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
zest of 1 orange
100g chopped nuts
1 tablespoon Demerara sugar

Preheat your oven to 180⁰C. Grease a 900g loaf tin and line it with baking paper.

Pour the tea into a small bowl and allow the dates to soak in it for 20 minutes or so.

Cream the butter and brown sugar using a stand mixer, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Fold in the flours, baking powder, orange zest, dates and the tea and 75g of nuts. Pour the mixture into the prepared  loaf tin and sprinkle with the remaining walnuts and Demerara sugar. Bake for 1 hour or until cooked through.

Remove the cake form the oven and cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy with your favourite cuppa!