Julia Child's "Reine de Saba"

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I know.  I am ashamed at how long it has been since my last update.  I have been busy mind you, just not in the kitchen.  To see my inspiration back into the oven, I looked to a classic author and talented chef: Julia Child.  I love her recipes because they are French, but explained clearly and simply, so that whether you are advanced or a beginner you can follow the recipes at your own pace.  Unlike my experience with books such as “Sucré” from Ladurée, who although have lavish gorgeous recipes, they are not for the beginner or faint hearted (average time to prepare a cake is 2 hours minimum) and do not go the extra mile to explain how far to mix ingredients and what to look after.  So for instance, it is arrogantly assumed the reader must know what a “génoise” batter should look like. 

With Julia, you can be sure to be guided well, politely and seriously.

The “Reine de Saba” cake was easy to make.  The only tricky part was in the oven as my cake did not rise exactly as described in the writing, and I thus got a bit confused as to when was the right time to pull my cake out.  It was just slightly over done as a result, but the cake was far from ruined.

Another great point about this recipe is that there is no raising agent.  The rising is done through the eggs.

After the overly sweet confections of the Hummingbird, this French recipe is rightly balanced with a rich chocolate cake that is light and sweet enough to bring out the flavours of the cocoa.  The chocolate butter icing is simply a perfect combination and adds the creaminess to balance out the whole.

To be sure, both the presentation and delicate flavours of this cake will impress your cake eating friends and yourself!

At the end of the day, when it comes to cakes, the French know what they are talking about.

Reine de Saba (Queen of Saba) ingredients:

4 oz. plain chocolate melted with 2 tbls of coffee or rum

¼ lb softned butter

¼ lb castor sugar

3 egg yolks

3 egg whites

1 tbl of castor sugar and a pinch of salt

2 oz. pulverised almonds

2 oz. cake flour (plain)

Icing:

2 oz. plain chocolate

2 oz. unsalted butter

1 tbl of coffee or rum

DJ Cake

It’s with great excitement that this post announces my first official commission!  I was asked to make and design a special cake in the shape of a DJ mixing desk (as the birthday person in question is – you guessed – a DJ)!

The work was hard as this cake was large: 40cm x 30cm.  I had to buy a lot of equipment I could not find in my local supermarkets.  I also discovered the new world for me of sugar paste (or regalice/royal icing), which although looks like playdough behaves very much like clay but in the reverse: the more you handle it, the more it turns into mush.  So I had to work fast and needed to develop a technique to keep my shapes clean.

My advice for this post will be to make sure to practice on techniques you are unfamiliar with before heading full on making a large cake.  This cake also took me 2 days to make: one day for baking and prep; one day for decorating.  This kind of cake decorating is very time consuming and requires trial and error.  The process was new to me.

I will also share information regarding the “glue” I used between the cake and the icing.  English recipes with sponges use warmed apricot jam.  But as my cake was chocolate, I made a white chocolate ganache from a recipe and technique I found on this great youtube video.

The recipe for this cake was the same as my previous post with the quantities doubled.  I used on an average of 2.5 Kg of icing, which I dyed with a range of natural food colourings.

Chocolate and Almond Cake

This recipe is one I have created recently based on the chocolate brownie recipe from the Hummingbird (see my previous post).

I have reduced the sugar content, used a good quality 90% coco chocolate and have added ground almonds.  I have also baked the cake in an 8-inch round cake tin and increased the baking time to 45 minutes. 

The result is a rich cake very similar to a French “moelleux au chocolat” or a mock flourless chocolate cake.  The quality of the chocolate very much affects the taste of the cake and I would advise on paying the little extra in quality as it makes a big difference.

Ingredients used:

200 g Dark 90% Swiss Chocolate

175 g Unsalted Butter

250 g Caster Sugar

130 g Plain Flour

50g Ground Almonds

3 Eggs

Mrs Beeton’s Easter Simnel Cake

I have hesitated whether or not to add this post, but I want my blog to be open and honest about the process of baking.   And the truth is baking is difficult at times, and mistakes and “failures” are part of the process. 

So this post will explain a couple of mistakes I made in this round of my baking ventures.  

A Simnel cake is a classic English Easter cake.  The recipe I used was from “The Best of Mrs Beeton’s Cakes & Baking.”  Mrs Beeton is a very interesting Victorian author from London and I would highly recommend this wikipedia page for further info.  I have made several cakes from this recipe book and it is a valuable bible of time-tested English classics.  The cake is a kind of fruitcake with ground almonds.  It is baked with a layer of marzipan or almond paste in the middle.  It is also topped with an English tradition of a layer of marzipan/almond paste and royal icing.

I made Mrs Beeton’s Simnel cake for the first time last year and it turned out beautifully.  It is really delicious, especially if you are an almond lover as that taste comes through and gives a beautiful texture to the cake.  From last year’s cake I can also testify that although this is technically a fruitcake, it is not as heavy as a traditional fruitcake and tastes more like a cake with dried fruit in it (if that makes sense) than an alcoholic tinged version. 

So I know for a fact that Mrs Beeton’s recipe is a good one.  However, this Easter it went rather wrong, and I believe there were 2 important reasons for that.  I wanted to publish this post as the reasons in question are perfect examples of what not to do when baking and why it is always so important to follow instructions to the letter – or adapt accordingly.

Reason No 1: Sugar

I used unrefined caster sugar instead of the refined one.  I believe that this affected the taste of both the cake and the almond paste.  Unrefined caster sugar can work in some instances for certain recipes, but in this one it altered the taste too much and did not manage to bring out the sweetness required.  It also did not dissolve properly I believe for the almond paste.  This resulted in a more unrefined almond paste, both in texture and taste.

Reason No 2: The size of the cake tin

Last year I used the stated round cake tin size of 18cm / 7 inch.  As I did not have this size this year I used my own round tin that was larger: 20cm / 8 inch.  I was fooled to think that such a small difference would not be a big deal.  As I used the same baking time as the recipe stated my cake came out not burnt, but almost biscuit-like.  The taste was strange to say the least, and texture was bizarre.  I should have reduced my baking time by the very least.

So there it is: my mistakes are out in the open.  I will attempt to make this cake again in the near future.  Just need to save up some cash for the ingredients… But all in all it was a good learning experience.  I did like my decorations too!           

Ingredients used:

Cake

200 g Plain Flour

½ Tsp Baking Powder

¼ Tsp Salt

150 g Caster Sugar

150 g Unsalted Butter

100 g Glacé Cherries (halved)

150 g Currants

150 g Sultanas

100 g Seedless Raisins

50 g Cut Mixed Peel

50 g Ground Almond

Grated Rind of 1 Lemon

Almond Paste

450 g Ground Almonds

200 g Caster Sugar

200 g Icing Sugar

2 Tsp Lemon Juice

Few Drops of Almond Essence

2 Eggs (beaten)

 

I would like to point out that although delicious the Simnel cake is pricy as it uses a lot of ground almonds, almond paste (that you can easily make from scratch!) and dried fruit.  In addition, this is a time-consuming venture as the total baking time is 2.5 hours.

Classic Brownies Made with Swiss Chocolate

A work event induced me to make these as rumour has it everyone loves chocolate and brownies (pretty much).  The hummingbird recipe’s disclaimer that these classic brownies are known to literally fly off the shelves (selling several trays a day) also turns out to be most probably true as my brownies did not spend much time on their serving plate at work.

This was a very easy recipe to make.  The mixing of ingredients is straightforward and would be very hard to mess up.  I would certainly recommend this to first time bakers.  The trickiest bit is the baking time and finding the right timing.  I would therefore recommend a practice batch first if you are planning to serve these to friends.  I helped my boyfriend make some the week before and we left them for too long in the oven, which resulted in slightly hard edges and not as moist a cake.  You have to take the brownies out literally at the moment you see a skin forming on the top.  The tray will seem very gooey, but the batter will harden when cooling, which is why you should not leave these babies in for too long (at most 30 minutes, depending on your oven of course).

I added some decadence by using good quality dark Swiss chocolate and yes quality ingredients, like chocolate, really do make a difference.  Be warned, these brownies are incredibly addictive!

Ingredients used:

200 g Dark (70%) Swiss Chocolate

175 g Unsalted Butter

325 g Caster Sugar

130 g Plain Flour

3 Eggs

Optional: Icing Sugar to Decorate

Ross’ Birthday Cake

A friend’s birthday this weekend was a perfect occasion for this delish chocolate layer cake with white chocolate cream filling.  Even my little pooch wanted a sniff!  I think it worked a treat.

The recipe is the same as my previous post on 21 February.

Banana Two

I am so excited: this is officially my first very own recipe (I can’t believe it – a penned recipe)!  I had a little craving for banana cake this morning, so ventured on to make the banana loaf from the hummingbird recipe book.  I had loved it when I made it exactly one month ago (see earlier post), but I wanted a slightly stronger banana flavour in the dough, and I also had en “envie” for some walnuts to add some contrast texture and crunch.  For this recipe I also went on to add more spices.  The results are super yummy!  I ABSOLUTELY love this loaf!  A great banana flavor, sublte sweetness and cosy warmth with the spices.  You can see from the photo too how different the loaf looks.  I love the colour combination and the blackness coming out with the bananas and walnuts.  I am a happy baker!

Ingredients used:

270 g Soft Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

300 g Peeled Bananas (mashed)

280 g Plain Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1 Teaspoon Ground Ginger

½ Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

¼ Teaspoon Ground Cloves

1/8 Teaspoon Ground Allspice

140 g Unsalted Butter (melted)

100 g Crushed Walnuts