Bitesize

I've just been spoilt by my gorgeous friend Mellie J, who sent this pair of cook books via her Mother (who also happens to be super awesome). Apart from the petite size and droolworthy photography, these books have inspiring recipes like S'mores Cupcakes, Spiced Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Pecan Mascarpone and Manchego Croquettes. I think my cooking might be downsizing to nibbles in the near future.

Food Porn

Sam Clifford, all around good bloke tweeted this afternoon, "Hey. Hey Jo. Hey. Hey. Hey hey hey hey hey. Heeeeeyyyyyyy. Jo. Jooooooooo. JO! HEY! HEY JO! HEY JOOO!!!" At first glance I wondered it was was virus but then curiousity got the better of me so I clicked the link and out folded the most glorious piece of food porn. I don't have a soul left to sell, so I'll just have to make this Darkest Chocolate Crepe Cake myself. Stay tuned.

Black Forest Cake

Photograph courtesy of the talented Ryan Barlin

Many moons ago, I was absolutely desotted with a boy so I promised him an amazing birthday dinner: Silverbeet and Salmon Rotolo with lemon cream and Gary Mehigan's Black Forest Cake. No, not the one on the website, but the one featured in Masterchef Magazine Issue 2, and note there are a number of differences. Mainly the latter removes the need to purchase semi candied pitted cherries, which I think makes the sourcing of the ingredients easier and in my opinion the simpler presentation actually improves the look of the cake.

It's a gorgeous cake and actually quite easy to make if you start the mascarpone cream and chocolate praline mousse components a day ahead. For the chocolate praline mousse I recommend purchasing dry roasted hazelnuts as it eliminates the fussy step of roasting the nuts and removing their skins with a tea towel. Also it's important you ensure that the cherry syrup isn't over cooked or you'll end up with a strange toffee mixture that won't penetrate the sponge as you really need a viscose syrup to make the cake moist. Be generous with it and keep zen. If you remain calm you'll pull off this gorgeous creation with ease.

For those curious I did end up delivering on my promise, created a divine feast and he still left me to pursue his career ambitions in a far away town. I've never made a cake for a boy since.

Mixed Berry Crumble Cake

My brother Michael very kindly gifted me with Annabel Langbein's 'The Free Range Cook' for Christmas and since its arrival I haven't stopped recreating recipes from it. This Mixed Berry Crumble Cake is divine and to begin you need to make the crumble mixture (note it will make a bulk amount so if you are planning to just make it for the cake I would recommend cutting the quantities by two thirds). Place 2 cups of plain flour, 1 cup of ground almonds, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 2 cups rolled oats, 1 cup of slivered almonds, 2 teaspoons of mixed spice in a bowl and stir. Combine with 250 grams of melted butter.

Preheat your oven to 180°C, line and grease the sides of a 23cm springform cake tin. The beat 140 grams of softened butter and 1 cup of sugar until the mixture is pale and fluffy.

Then add 2 room temperature eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 3/4 cup of plain yoghurt to the cream mixture.

Then add 2 cups of plain flour, 3 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda. You will note the mixture is quite thick but don't be alarmed.

Smooth the batter into your baking tin, sprinkle with 2 cups of frozen mixed berries and the layer over 1 1/2 cups of crumble topping. Bake in the oven for an hour or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Allow the cake to stand for at least 15 minutes before you remove it from the tin. Then greet and enjoy this piece of beauty.

Lemon Yoghurt Cakes

You would think after taking on the Adriano Zumbo V8 Cake on the weekend that I wouldn't be back in the kitchen so soon. But here I am road testing a Lemon Yoghurt Cake recipe by 2010 MasterChef Runner Up Callum Hann. I think out of all the Australia's Biggest Morning Tea recipes this one is the most accessible as it uses pantry essentials and basic baking equipment.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Take a large mixing bowl and add one egg, six tablespoons margarine (I used butter), 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and one cup Greek yoghurt.

Quickly whisk the mixture until just combined. Callum’s recipe says to combine your dry ingredients in a separate bowl, but I chose to ignore this instruction and added my dry ingredients to the same bowl.

Add 1 ¾ cup sifted plain flour, ¾ cup caster sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon baking soda and ¼ teaspoon salt.

Fold until just combined and don’t be afraid of how thick the batter looks. Spoon into a lightly greased muffin pan. I found this recipe made 12 cakes but this will depend on the size of pan.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. I found 20 minutes was adequate.

Sadly after I removed them from the oven they started to sink but I found the gentle indent was just perfect for serving them with a little more Greek yoghurt and blueberries. The cakes are moist, dense and were well received at morning tea. If you haven't visited the Australia's Biggest Morning Tea Website then do as there are a number of wonderful recipes and it might just inspire you to host one.

Adriano Zumbo V8 Cake

Top left to right: Crème chantilly with vanilla water gel. Macaron layer added with a tiny smear of toasted vanilla brulee. Toasted vanilla brulee layer added.

Bottom left to right: Vanilla chiffon cake brushed with vanilla syrup and then topped with vanilla ganache. Vanilla almond crunch. Vanilla dacquoise base with added vanilla crème chantilly to fill any spaces.

26 years ago my Mother pressed the eject button and I was spat out into the world. To celebrate this, I decided to undertake the huge challenge of baking the Adriano Zumbo V8 Cake. This cake first appeared in the 2010 season of Masterchef and it quickly captured the imagination of the nation. It also captured mine with its layers of vanilla crème chantilly, toasted vanilla brulee, vanilla water gel, vanilla ganache, vanilla macaron, vanilla dacquoise, vanilla chiffon cake and vanilla almond crunch, vanilla syrup enclosed in vanilla glaze. Normally I would photograph every piece and talk you through it but this cake had 20 steps and took me close to seven hours of preparing, baking, cleaning and constructing. So here are some handy tips I've learnt from this experience:

• You don't need a mortar and pestle to grind the roasted vanilla beans. Pop them into a snap lock bag and use a rolling pin.
  


• I purchased gelatine leaves, vanilla beans, pailette feuillitine and fine chocolate from Black Pearl Epicure.
  


• Gellan is horribly expensive, it is $156.25 for 400g. The good news is The Melbourne Food Ingredient Depot stocks 10g packets of gellan and titanium dioxide which makes this cake much more affordable.


• I made my own miroir glaze from a recipe from Leave Room for Dessert. I wasn't quite as comfortable with Anita's almond praline paste as it used a dry caramel method so I made a simple toffee (50g sugar, 38ml water) poured it over some lightly toasted almonds and once the toffee was cold, processed the whole lot to a fine powder. Make sure you add a little water to the almond praline and standard almond paste.


• You could halve the vanilla syrup and brown sugar crumble as if you follow the instructions you will have a substantial amount left over.
  


• Before making the vanilla ganache, gently microwave the white couverture chocolate as it will be easier to incorporate all the ingredients.
  


• I used an Anonlon SureGrip - 20cm loose base square cake pan and it made removing the cake from the pan a breeze.
  


• Equipment you will need includes a mixmaster, hand held electric beaters, stick blender, brulee torch, piping bag, ruler, precision scales and a generous supply of dishes, saucepans and baking trays.

The good news is despite my fears the cake turned out better than expected. Without any pressure and no distractions the experience was extremely pleasant and a great challenge. Here are some photos of the finished product. The final image on the end is the Facebook thread, mapping the progress.

Mandarin, Polenta and Macadamia Cake

The whole pack are off to visit Carla and her little one tomorrow so I thought I would make a cake. I was looking for something no fuss and would travel well so I decided to make this Mandarin, Polenta and Macadamia Cake from the Australian Womens Weekly Bake cookbook. Before you begin you need to cover four small mandarins with cold water in a saucepan and bring them to a boil. Repeat this another two times before leaving them to cool to room temperature. Then take a large mixing bowl and add 1 cup of polenta, 2 cups of coarsely ground macadamia nuts and one teaspoon of baking powder.

In a smaller bowl whip 250g room temperature butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 cup of caster sugar until light and fluffy. Then add three eggs, one at a time.

Take your small bowl of cream and eggs and combine them with the dry mixture. At this point you are ready to preheat your oven to 170°C/150°C for a fan forced oven as it will take you a little while to prepare the mandarins. Peel your cooled mandarins, blitz them with a stick blender, strain the juice and carefully remove the seeds before adding the pulp to the cake mixture.

Here is a photo of the completed batter in a lined and grease 23cm springform pan. I then cook the cake for a little over an hour. There is some variance depending on how juicy your mandarins are.

Here is the finished product with a dusting of icing sugar. I can only hope it tastes as good as it smells!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

The lovely Kath decided to host an Easter Barbecue at her abode so I put up my hand to make dessert. I decided to make the Flourless Chocolate Cake from Australian Womens Weekly Bake. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fanforced and then grease and line a 20cm spring form pan. Take a large mixing bowl and blend 1/3 cup cocoa powder with 1/3 cup of water.

Then stir in 150g melted dark chocolate, 150g melted butter, 1 1/3 cups brown sugar, 1 cup of almond or hazelnut meal and four egg yolks. Mix until combined.

In a separate clean bowl beat four egg whites until soft peak form.

Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture in two batches.

Pour the mixture into your prepared pan and bake for an hour. When the baking is complete stand the cake for 15 minutes before removing the collar and allowing it to cool completely.

I must apologise for such an unflatting shot of the cake but I assure you it's beautifully fudgy and goes down well with a generous dollop of double cream and berries.

Date and Walnut Loaf

My first job out of the family business was working at the former Eagle Street Pier Muffin Break. Though I love the hospitality industry, you tend to feel a little mechanical in this setting as you aren't as connected to your product. So my favourite jobs were icing the muffins, making beverages or cutting up raw ingredients. Still to this day I enjoy the sensation and smell of cutting up dates and when my Mother asked me to make a cake for Ching Ming (the clear bright or tomb sweeping festival) I decided to make a Date and Walnut Loaf. Here is 100g of butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup water and 1 1/2 cup chopped dates in a saucepan set on a medium heat.

Here is the combined mixture with 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda. Looks rather unappetising.

Added 1 cup of walnuts, 1 1/2 cup self raising flour, teaspoon mixed spice and one beaten egg before spooning the mixture into a lined and lightly buttered silicone loaf tin.

I then baked the mixture for 45 minutes at 180°C. I think this loaf should have been baked another 10 - 15 minutes more as the center sunk. :(

Here is the finished result. It is an extremely fragrant and easy going cake as there is no beating and all you need is one saucepan. It's a winner if you are in a hurry to bake something for a workplace morning tea.

Super Epic Rainbow Cake

A couple of weeks ago the amazingly talented Nikki posted her attempt at creating Whisk Kid's Super Epic Rainbow Cake. From the moment I saw this confection of beauty, I knew I had to make it. However don't be deceived by its apparent simplicity, the Super Epic Rainbow Cake requires a certain degree of zen. This article is designed to catalogue the tips and tricks I learnt along the way to prevent you from rearranging the word 'dessert' into 'stressed.'

The image above is the creamed butter and sugar. I would recommend using a mix master rather than a hand beater for this project.

After completing the original cake mixture you can move onto portioning the batter into separate bowls and dying it with gel food colouring. It is important that you use gels to gain the intensity of colour and you can purchase these from Wheel and Barrow or Matchbox. I would recommend using at least two spring form pans to complete this process and lining them so the sponge releases easily. It is also important to ensure the batter is perfectly smooth as the high level of sugar in this recipe cause the sponge to burn easily.

The most interesting part of the recipe is making the Swiss Meringue Cream. I've never made a butter cream over a double boiler and had some concerns that I was going to end up with sugary scrambled eggs, but if you go slowly the butter cream will come together and the same goes for the frosting.

So here it is! The finished cake photographed by the talented Mr Barlin. Happy birthday good Sir, I hope you liked the cake!

Caramelised Apple Teacakes

My cousin Jacqui has invited me to have dinner at her place as it's been a while since we caught up, so I decided make her and Joel some Caramelised Apple Teacakes from Australian Women's Weekly Bake. Here is two peeled and 1 cm sliced granny smith apples, 80g butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar.

I then creamed 125g butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 2/3 cup caster sugar until it was light and fluffy. Then beat in two eggs, one at a time, before adding 1/2 cup plain flour, 1 1/4 cup self raising flour, 1 teaspoon mixed spice, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 cup of buttermilk and a grated granny smith apple.

With the power of the internet, here are some muffin pans I prepared earlier! I found I had enough mixture to make 15 cakes, so spoon your caramelised apples and sauce into the base before popping some cake mixture on the top. Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C, stand for 5 minutes before flipping onto a serving tray.

There is something wonderful about cooked apples and I think these will be divine tomorrow served warm with a little icecream. I love an easy going cake and these Caramelised Apple Teacakes are just so pretty.