Mother's Day Cupcakes

We're making the trek to Canberra this weekend for Mother's Day. (Also I need to see my beautician and hair dresser and one or two other extremely important people...)

This year we're taking the easy option of going out instead of cooking, and will be going out for yum cha on Sunday morning with our mothers, our Godmother and various siblings in tow. When invited, our Godmother quickly flagged champagne drinking as a staple of Mother's Day (even at 10.45am!), noting that she couldn't possibly drink green tea. My mother went one step further and suggested that the champagne drinking should start the day before. (Notice a theme here...)

So to sop up all the champagne, I have a few treats in mind. First, I'll be making the chocolate chestnut cake I tried earlier this week. It's so good that any excuse will do to make it again, including pre-Mother's Day festivities. Second, I thought a batch of old-school cupcakes might do the trick.

This is a recipe very like the one my mother taught me as a kid so it's apt that I make it this weekend. It's a basic vanilla cake recipe; it's quick, easy and works every time. It's not too sweet, as Tim pointed out, and it doesn't have that plastic sort of taste to it that you can get with over-engineered or shop bought cake. It turns out quite robust and makes a substantial snack, although it's not quite a muffin.

Ingredients
2 cups self raising flour, sifted twice
1/2 cup caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 180ºC

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each. Add the vanilla and yogurt and mix well. Add the flour and milk and mix on high speed for two minutes.

Spoon into patty pans. Bake for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden.

This makes 12 large cupcakes.

Happy Mother's Day Mum xxoo

Gluten free chocolate chestnut cake

In the past, Tim's seemingly constant twittering used to drive me so nuts that on one occasion I physically removed his iPhone from him and threw it away. (He couldn't understand why I objected so vehemently to him tweeting people he didn't even know while we were out to dinner, in bed, or on our wedding day.) He doesn't have time for it as much these days which is excellent, and there have been far fewer phone related incidents in our home as a result.

I actually do have a twitter account. It's a fairly recent thing and I joined up initially to see what all the fuss was about. My personal experience is that it's something to do to take a break from other tasks or when I'm procrastinating from study. You can steal a moment on Twitter and read about the second-to-second happenings of people you don't know, or post your own. For example: 'Kitchenmade is bored and needs another coffee.' Thrilling stuff.

All of that aside, if you can get past the inanities, tantrums, spruiking of products and people who tweet every five seconds, there is some good stuff to be found via Twitter. It turns out that there are a lot of like-minded people out there who just love food and cooking and sharing their recipes and knowledge. For me, it's been a good way of keeping up with what's going on in the foodisphere.

The point of all of this is that a few days ago, I was on Twitter and I saw a post that caught my eye with two key words: 'chocolate' and 'chestnut'. Following the link, I found a recipe that I just couldn't go past for a gluten free chocolate and chestnut cake. I've been wanting to do something like this for ages and this looked simple and delicious. It got extra ticks because it's gluten free and because chestnut is the best nut you can eat due to it's zero fat content. In fact, as far as chocolate cakes go, this is about the healthiest I've ever seen without compromising on taste. The result is a smooth, moist texture, and just enough sweetness to make it rich without being sickly. I honestly cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a cake so much.

Now as always, I deviated slightly from the original recipe. First, I added rum. Second, I didn't have a spring-form square tin so I lined a small tray with baking paper and it worked just fine. However, I'm making this again for a dinner party on the weekend and it will be in regular round tin form. I also used a slightly different method which I've described, below. Finally, I glazed it with a dark chocolate-butter-coffee combo, but I wouldn't do that again because you just don't need it.

Ingredients
425g chestnut puree (I used a full 439g tin)
250g 70% cocoa chocolate (I couldn't get it so used 63% which was fine)
125g butter (I used unsalted)
6 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp rum
60g caster sugar
25g brown sugar

Preheat oven to 180ºC

In a food processor combine chestnut puree, butter, egg yolks and vanilla.

Melt the chocolate and let it cool slightly. Add it to the chestnut mixture, making sure it's well combined. You might need to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally. When done, place the mixture into a large bowl.

Whisk the egg whites until doubled in volume and fluffy. Add the caster sugar bit by bit and continue to whisk until you get a glossy, stiff mixture. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top and stir through gently. I just turned the electric mixer down low for this bit.

Add the meringue mixture to the chestnut mixture a little at a time and fold through gently. I used a hand whisk. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes.

When it's cool, remove from the tin and dust with cocoa, icing sugar or glaze if you really want to.

See the recipe in its original form at: http://www.frillsinthehills.com/2010/05/sunday-baking-projectgluten-free.html

[Oh, and if you're wondering why the photo quality is so different this time, it's because I only had the compact camera on hand]

Pretty patty cakes

Yet another weekend has passed, but what a productive one! We've seen just about everyone we know, the house is sparkling clean and I now have a freezer full of dinners, including a dozen doggie dinners. Good stuff! In the middle of all of this, I thought some pretty little patty cakes might be the go. Tim didn't disagree.

Now I'm not a regular reader of Woman's Day, but the other day I was in line at the supermarket (trapped, you might say) and this week's copy caught my eye. No, not because Simone's taken Shane back again, but because of the neat little cook book glued to the front as a freebie - The Women's Weekly "Baking Favourites." I couldn't resist. It turns out to have been a an excellent purchase and one that made buying the magazine worthwhile. I've already made two things out of it this weekend and I'm pretty happy with both. I'm also up to date with all the celebrity gossip.

The first is Patty Cakes with Glace' Icing. This is quite a traditional cake mix, and I just added a little more vanilla. You could also add some lemon zest for a bit of zing. They cakes came out light and fresh and fragrant.

I used some cute little papers I found in a fantastic kitchen store in Bowral a week ago. There's pastel blue, pink, yellow and white in the one packet. I topped them with glace' icing and sweet little sugar flowers I found in the same store. These cost about eight bucks for 20 pieces, and they're very fragile, but so cute and perfect for a special occasion! They made it back to Canberra with only about two broken. Then of course I dropped one and broke off a petal. But I still had enough.

About the glace' icing, I found this looks good but you have to work quickly because it dries very fast. I kept it over the hot water but occasionally added a few more drops of water when it became too thick. You could just use a water and icing sugar mix though.

Ingredients

125g butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 (165g) cup caster sugar

3 eggs

2 cups (300g) self-raising flour

1/4 cup (60ml) milk

Glace' icing:

2 cups (320g) icing sugar

20g butter, melted

2 tbsp hot water (approx)

Preheat oven to 180º C/ 160ºC fan forced. Line 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases.

Place ingredients in a medium bowl; beat with electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium; beat about 3 minutes or until mixture is smooth and paler in colour.

Divide mixture among cases. Bake about 25 minutes. Stand cakes in pan 5 minutes before turning, top side up onto wire racks to cool.

Meanwhile, make icing: sift icing sugar into small heatproof bowl; stir in butter and enough of the water to make a firm paste. Place bowl over small saucepan of simmering water; stir until icing is spreadable. (I actually just threw everything in a bowl and stirred over the simmering water)

Birthday cake

Yesterday was my birthday. It wasn't very exciting. Not that I was really expecting it to be, especially when it became clear that if we were going to have birthday cake, I'd have to make it myself.

To put this in perspective, I've been cooking ever since I was a kid and I can't actually remember many occasions when I haven't made my own birthday cake. There was the time when I was about eight that my cousin made something with lots of cream and blue icing. And another time mum made a M*A*S*H themed cake with a helicopter on top. But that's about it. I suppose the up-side of the arrangement is that I do whatever I feel like on the day.

Yesterday, I felt like chocolate and rum should be combined in some fashion. At the same time, I didn't want a really heavy, nut-meal based cake that wouldn't rise very much or would be too rich. I felt like your basic type cake. I haven't had one of those in many years.

I used a white spelt flour to achieve the basic style cake, although you could just use a normal self raising wheat flour and forgo the baking powder. I liked it and since people asked for seconds, I think it was a winner.

Ingredients

2 cups white spelt flour

200g dark chocolate

125g butter

3 eggs

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 - 1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp rum

1 tbsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180º C.

In a bowl over a saucepan of hot water, melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring as it melts.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture looks pale and thickens slightly. Fold in the chocolate and butter mixture until well combined. Add add the sour cream and rum and combine well. Sift in the dry ingredients and add 1/4 cup milk. Fold in gently or use the slow setting on the electric mixer. The mixture should not be overly runny, but if you feel that it's too stiff, add some more milk.

Line a spring form baking tin and spoon the mixture in. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. At 45 minutes, test whether it's cooked by stabbing it with a skewer. Push it in right the way to the bottom of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done.

I iced this with a plain white icing spiked with melted white chocolate and topped off with little pink hearts. I enjoyed it, including for breakfast today.

Oh, and I've carefully cut myself out of this photo and left the much more photogenic Layla in as the face of the evening.

Mother's Day Morsels

Is Mother's Day another Hallmark special? I don't know and I couldn't be bothered Googling it's origins. Whatever it is, I reckon it's about best of a bunch of thinly veiled commercially motivated occasions. We all have mothers, after all. Mine happens to be the best. She really is. No competition. Actually I often wonder how she stayed sane with five kids and my particular brand of father. She's the best mother-in-law too, according to Tim, whose catch cry whenever there's any sort of family debate is "you're either with Christiana, or you're against her." It's just that simple. Anyhow, I won't rave about my mum any longer. She's great.

Needless to say, it's a special day for a lot of us and a chance to express love and appreciation in whatever form works for you. I choose Oil of Ulan (yes, I know it's Olay now, but when I was a kiddie it was Ulan and will forever be known as Ulan to my mum) and baked goods. It's what I do best.

Mum's not a great sweet-tooth but she loves friands. I got up early this morning and made her favourite kind -  double-chocolate and cherry friands. (Photos and recipe in the next post). Yesterday I also made these little morsels. They're just tiny vanilla cakes, baked in a mini-muffin tin and iced liberally with drippy pink icing and a raspberry lolly. So simple, so pretty, so mum.

Happy Mother's Day!

Filled mocha cake

One night last week, something caught my eye on my bookshelf. It was a compilation of recipes clipped mostly from magazines and newspapers, held together in a cut-down manila folder and tied with a piece of string. I found it years ago in my mother's garage, apparently inherited from a late relative. 

I'd never used anything in it before, but could never bear to throw it away. I guess I see it as a sort of time capsule representing the efforts of some distant person, long gone, in their personal culinary journey. I can imagine them sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and scotch-finger biscuit, kids at school, cleaning done. Finally time for leafing through the latest woman's magazine, a real treat, and scissors nearby in case they found anything interesting or that was bound to come in handy.  Presumably, only the most worthy clippings made it into the folder. 

When I think about it, it's not so different from the scrap books of recipes that I keep. And there's the link. But that's where it stops. 

The recipes are fairly ordinary stuff, befitting their era.  There are recipes for salmon mornay quiche,  noodle and sausage casserole and Montana Mom's Dynamite Cheesecake, amongst other horrors that were no doubt considered very sophisticated throughout the 70's and early 80's. 

There are even some handy hints stashed amongst the recipes. For example, Mrs Gladys.S. of Merrylands writes "if you crochet face washers and hand towels around the outside, not only will they look pretty, but they will last twice as long." Or Mrs W of Kranton's pearl of wisdom:"save the plastic egg-shaped containers that pavlova mix comes in. They make excellent gift containers for birthdays or Christmas." Hmm.....

The compiler of this collection must have sent away for a few promotional pamphlets too, like one from the Bingo Custard Powder company or Bourneville Cocoa. It was something on the cocoa pamphlet that grabbed me - a recipe for spiced cheese cake that you're meant to either use a fancy ring tin for or a slab cake tin and cut into diamond shapes. (!)

I decided the filling sounded good, so I'd do something around that. I came up with a mocha-ish cake,  based on the Bourneville cake recipe. I used a sour cream mocha icing and praline coated  walnuts to top it off. I've always thought that coffee and walnuts go together really well. I know the extra sugar in the praline probably isn't necessary, but it's so very good, I recommend going that further step. As usual, I see no problem with swapping the spelt for regular flour. 

I really like this one for a change. It's been ages since I haven't used proper chocolate in the cake, so it's not as sweet as the last few cakes I've made.  The walnuts make up for it and the slightly burnt sugar taste works beautifully. The sugar isn't actually burnt, it just has that deep flavour to it. The cheese filling in the middle is an excellent contrast - light, very slightly tart, and spiced with cinnamon. Tim is certainly happy with the result. He has asked me outright to hide it, lest it disappears overnight. Not a bad endorsement.

Ingredients:

Cake:

125g butter, room temp

3/4 cup soft brown sugar

3 eggs

1 cup spelt, sifted with 2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp cocoa

2 tbsp coffee powder

Filling:

250g soft cream cheese (I used Philly 60% less fat)

2 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp cinnamon

Walnuts:

1/2 cup walnut pieces

1/2 cup caster sugar

Cake: Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the egg, one at a time, mixing in between.  Then add the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. 

Filling: Blend all the ingredients until smooth.

In a round spring-form cake tin, spoon in half the cake mix and spread over the bottom of the tin. Spread the cheese mixture on top. It doesn't have to be totally even, but be a bit gentle because it's probably best that it doesn't hit the bottom of the tin. The spread the remaining cake on top. Bake for about 1 hour at 180ºC. When it's done, let it cool completely on a wire wrack. 

Walnuts: heat the sugar in a pan, stirring until it becomes liquid. Take it off the heat immediately and working very quickly, mix in the walnuts and then pour or spoon the mixture onto a lined baking tray. Let it cool and harden and then chop into rough bits. Be really, really careful when working with molten sugar. It's the worst kind of burn. I got the tiniest drop in my finger and it hurt. A lot. 

Frosting:  I admit I didn't take down the icing ingredient quantities at the time, but here's what I did: I based it on a very basic butter cream icing recipe, but instead of any water or milk, I used sour cream. I threw probably about 2 cups of pure icing sugar in the mixer and mixed it dry to get rid of the lumps. (I was feeling lazy.) I then threw in about a tablespoon of butter and then about two tablespoons of lite sour cream. Add more icing sugar if it's too runny, or more sour cream if it's not. You'll figure it out. Once you get the consistency right, add a couple of tablespoons of cocoa and one of powdered instant coffee.

Ice the cake and sprinkle the walnuts on top liberally. 

Chocolate Gingerbread

My first week back after four weeks off work was salvaged only by the discovery of the last piece of chocolate gingerbread in the fridge. I ate it by myself on the back step while reflecting quietly on the previous month, shivering a little from the Autumn chill in the air and ignoring the searching gaze of Ladybug. Of course, this happened on Tuesday night and the week rapidly descended into a the daily grind that I hadn't missed at all in the preceding weeks.

Although I was greeted with very genuine exclamations of 'thank God you're back' on my return to work, I wasn't convinced that I was ready to get back to the salt mines. Sigh... I really could have gotten used to a life with no sleep deprivation, reading for fun and cooking with chocolate more than once a week. Or perhaps not. (I weighed myself this morning for the first time since before the wedding when I couldn't stop losing weight if I'd tried (which I did try after the final dress fitting) and thought 'oops!')

Anyhow, along the way I made the most delicious cake/brownie I have made in a very long time. It's adapted from the wonderful Nigella's Feast (p278) and I served it as dessert at Good Friday lunch. It's now a firm favourite. I've made gingerbread, ginger cake, chocolate brownies, biscuits and cakes, but have not put the two together in a baked good. For whatever reason, chocolate and ginger baked together really, really works. 

I adapted this to my own special needs by using spelt, brown sugar and upping the ginger content slightly and I can swear by this as an easy and delectable bake that should impress anyone with functioning taste buds.

Ingredients:

175 g unsalted butter

125g dark muscovado sugar (or brown sugar)

2 tbsp caster sugar

200g golden syrup

200g treacle or molasses (I used treacle)

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger (I used 4 tsp)

1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbsp warm water

2 eggs

250ml milk

275g plain flour (I used spelt flour)

40g cocoa

175 g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170ºC and line a roasting tin or dish of approximately 30cm x 20 cm x 5cm deep.

In a decent sized saucepan (and make sure it is b/c I started off with something way too small and had to switch), melt the butter along with the sugars, golden syrup, treacle or molasses, loves, cinnamon and round ginger. In a cup dissolve the bicarb or soda in the water. Take the saucepan off the heat and beat in the eggs, milk and bicarb and water mix. It will froth up a bit at this point, hence no small pan! 

Stir in the flour and cocoa and beat with a wooden spoon to mix. Fold in the chocolate chips, pour into the lined tin and bake for about 45mins until risen and firm. It will be slightly damp underneath the set top and that's the way you want it.

Put the whole thing on a wire rack and let it cool. 

For the icing:

250g icing sugar, sifted

30g unsalted butter

1 tbsp cocoa

60ml ginger ale

In a heavy based saucepan, heat the butter, cocoa and ginger ale. Once the butter's melted, whisk in the icing sugar. Lift the chocolate gingerbread out of the tin and unwrap the paper. Pour over the icing just to cover the top and cut into generous chunks. I served with a dollop of double cream but there's no need for extras.

This is really nice fresh and soft out of the oven, but will keep for several days in the fridge. When it's cold, it has a texture more like a heavier brownie. 

Wedding cupcakes

As promised, here is one of the two wedding cake recipes I used. The photo isn't brilliant (just with my little digital compact after several champagnes) but you get the picture -  a lot of cupcakes!!! 

The beauty of the cupcake tower is that first, it's a bit different from the traditional wedding cake and it can look terrific. Second, there are no cake plating issues that sometimes attract an additional cost. People can just be given one each or invited up to help themself. Third, based on one per person, you know exactly how many you need. And last of all, if you're at all capable and organised time-wise, you can do it yourself and this is extremely helpful if you're on a tight budget. Cupcakes can range from about $2 to $15 each if you buy them. No disrespect to the pros, but they're cupcakes! In about three bites, they're gone.

I used a really basic vanilla cupcake recipe because I think vanilla is a flavour that most people like or at least take no offence from. Also, done right, vanilla can have such a dainty and yet decadent feel to it that you don't get from chocolate or fruit cake. Don't worry - there was also fruit cake for all, but this was taken home in little grease paper bags as is the tradition. And yes, the recipe for that is coming!

Ingredients

115g butter, soft but not melted

115g caster sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

115g self-raising flour

4 tbsp good quality vanilla essence

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla, and then sift in the flour. Mix  until everything is blended together, but don't overdo it.

Divide into twelve paper cases - this really does make exactly twelve perfect sized cupcakes. Bake in a 170ºC oven for 15-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and ice however you like.

I put together a very basic butter cream icing for this (icing sugar, a little water, soft butter), but instead of all water to moisten the icing sugar, I used Cointreau. Really, really good. My sister helped me do the icing the day before the wedding (simple piping) and honestly, I am surprised any of the icing made it on the cupcakes. I haven't included the icing recipe as I tend to just throw icing together. When it's the right consistency, it's done. Do try and use a good quality butter though because I think it helps the flavour. 

For the hearts, I coloured marzipan with quite a lot of pillar-box red food dye, and used a tiny heart shaped cookie cutter. When the hearts had dried a bit, I painted them with confectioner's varnish for shine. Final thing, these freeze really well. 

The Wedding Cake Saga

With less than three weeks to go until the wedding, the time has come to 'get real' as Dr Phil would say, and admit that I do not have time to learn how to do white icing for the wedding cake. I've prepared the cake without a problem and I'm fairly proud of it. It's a rich, wheat-free, fruit cake that I've been dousing in brandy once a week. However, despite my best intentions, I've come to the conclusion that icing it with the required skill is best left to an expert.

Thank goodness I found myself pondering this out aloud at work last week. Linda from my office very helpfully suggested someone she knew who has set up a business and who is apparently brilliant. We shall see, but I really do have a lot of faith. It certainly could not be any worse than my efforts which could actually be pretty awful. I just don't know and the immediate weeks before one's wedding is no time to find out!

The decoration will be simple - I found a quirky cake topper that just suits me and Tim. The rest of the cake will be cupcakes organised in a number of tiers, but that I can manage without a drama. Haven't quite decided yet on the flavour but I'm thinking some sort of chocolate would be good. I guess I'll decide on the Thursday beforehand when I actually have to make cupcakes for 72 people. (What is wrong with me???!!!)

For now, think about this - in August of last year, a slice of Princess Diana's wedding cake sold for one thousand pounds. Will mine achieve the same greatness? I think not, but it should last until either our first wedding anniversary, or first child. Whichever comes first. 

Chocolate mud cake (a food group of its own)

In one week and three days, I will be on leave for a whole month. Not that I hate my job, because I actually love it, but I am counting down the days, hours and minutes until my freedom touches down at Canberra airport on Friday night. My last day will be the longest - a day-trip to Melbourne with the boss. I can hardly contain my excitement.

Today was a particularly long and treacherous day in the office; one that required careful maneuvering to avoid prickly obstacles such as colleagues best avoided (arch nemesis getting out of the lift) and the extra work that seems to flow into our pod like maple syrup onto Tim's cornflakes. (Yes. He really does that). My stance on the matter is that I can't tidy everything up before I leave if I keep getting new stuff. So far, nobody has pressed the point. 

It was also a day that required chocolate. I was soooo good too. I turned down my favourite choc-hazelnut brownie from the deli down the street, I didn't cave when I saw a new batch of double chocolate chip gluten free cookies at the coffee shop across the road. I didn't even open the box of chocolates I have stashed for the honeymoon (don't bother looking Tim - you'll never find them) or dip into the Italian hot chocolate mix. 

Only now have I cracked and it's been in the pathetic form of four Nestle dark chocolate melts. I have officially resorted to cooking chocolate. I hang my head in shame. 

I hope to salvage some self respect by sharing why the really good, organic, $40 a kilo dark chocolate is gone. I put it in a killer chocolate mud cake for my sister's birthday. This is divine, although Tim didn't find it sweet enough, but then he does eat maple syrup on corn flakes. You can really taste the luscious, good quality chocolate and cocoa in this cake and I think it goes brilliantly with the olive oil flavour. In fact, in the past I've used virgin olive oil and I think it tastes fantastic. If you don't like the flavour, just use unsalted butter and if you don't want to use liqueur, use milk instead. 

Ingredients

375g olive oil spread (or butter), softened

1 1/3 cup brown sugar

2 cups spelt flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup cocoa powder

200g dark chocolate, melted

3/4 cup creme de cacao (or milk)

3 eggs

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about 10 minutes, or until light and creamy. Add eggs in one by one. Beat the whole thing until well combine. Fold through the flour, baking powder and cocoa. Combine well. Then fold through the chocolate and stir in the liqueur or milk. 

Spoon the mixture into a 22cm spring form tin lined with baking paper and bake in a 160º C oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until cooked - use the skewer test. Cool it in the tin. I decorated with little hand-rolled truffles, but you can just dust with cocoa or icing sugar or leave it plain. I wouldn't ice this one personally, but it might suit the super sweet-tooths to do so. 

Super-moist banana & spelt cake

Another busy weekend, another Monday rolls around.

I actually did a bit of cooking on the weekend - pancakes for breakfast, roast beef on Saturday night, and the top tier of the wedding cake. The whole house smelled gorgeous for about 24 hours and I'm pretty happy with the result. Now for about 8 weeks of drizzling it with brandy and I'll be ready to try my hand at old fashioned white icing for the first time in my life. If I think about it too much, I'll realise how insane that sounds and get discouraged. So I'll move on quickly...

Yesterday I made two banana cakes.  In this heat, everything ripens so quickly and I hate wasting food so the bananas had to go. Banana cakes are not nearly as glamorous as old fashioned rich fruit cake destined for the all-important top tier, but  they're really nice in the lunchbox and I was grateful for the sugar hit today at about 3pm. It's so moist that butter was not necessary.

This recipe makes two cakes. I had a loaf pan and a standard sized round tin on hand so that's what I used. Both work, but the loaf is probably more traditional and manageable. If you don't like or have spelt, just use regular plain flour. Or use self-raising flour, and leave out the baking powder.

Ingredients

4 medium sized, ripe bananas

4 cups spelt flour

4 eggs

250g butter, softened but not melted

2 1/2 firmly packed cups brown sugar

3/4 cup milk

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tbsp baking powder

I usually make cakes the old fashioned way that my mother taught me. That is, cream the butter and sugar first. Then in go the eggs, one by one. Followed by the baking powder, cinnamon & vanilla and half the flour. Add half the milk and once it's all mixing together well, thrown in the rest of the flour and milk. Add a little more milk if you feel the mix is too stiff. It should have some body to it, but not too much. Oh, and I use an electric mixer, but once all the ingredients are in, you don't need to beat it to death. Just combine everything really well and get some air in there.

Bake for about 45 mins to one hour at 180ºC (or 160ºC fan forced). Depending on your oven and whether you cook both at once you might need a little more or less time. Keep an eye on it and when you think it's cooked, test with a skewer - if it comes out clean, you're done. 

The inevitable

It had to happen. I had to make Christmas cake at some point. 

Fruit cake can be a truly wonderful experience. If the fruit mix is just right and not too overbearing, and there's enough room left in the batter for the cake to rise really well, rather than being weighed down by dense fruit, a fruit cake can be wholesome and comforting, and a real treat. Unfortunately, too many fruit cakes are anything but enjoyable.

For me, the thought of Christmas cake tends to conjure up visions of sultana-laden fruit mixes, containing barely discernible bits of peel and glace cherries, soaked in vast quantities of cheap sherry and plonked into a heavy, uninspiring cake batter. In my opinion, the true nightmare of Christmas involves having to graciously accept the large chunks invariably offered wherever you go, and, after struggling to swallow the horrendous stuff, the requirement that you plaster on a bright smile, convincingly tell the cook that it was wonderful and that yes, you'd love another piece. If this is too much to bear, for goodness sakes, do not go anywhere near any form of retirement community during December! 

I only ever enjoyed the lighter variety of fruit cake, and not much then. In recent years I've experimented with a few mixes, both regular and gluten free, and in the last couple of years I've been fairly successful. This year's effort is a little different - little glace fruit cakes. Another adventure into Woman's Weekly cooking. (Hey, if it works...)

These little morsels are quite sweet, so I'm told. I couldn't actually try since I made them with regular wheat flour, but I may try again with spelt. I think the fact that a dozen disappeared in about two days speaks for itself. What I can tell you is that they smell divine and look pretty  and were easy to make, which is the real cherry on top.

Two things - the health food shop wasn't open when I shopped, so I didn't get the natural looking strips of pineapple. I settled for the chunky stuff from the supermarket and nobody noticed. Second, I used only red glace cherries. Nothing untoward happened because of that either. 

Glace fruit cakes

Woman's Weekly, Christmas, p 32

Ingredients:

3/4 cup slivered almonds

90g butter, softened

2 tsp finely grated lemon rind

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup self raising flour

1/3 cup milk

4 slices glace pineapple chopped coarsely

1/3 cup red glace cherries, halved

1/3 cup green  glace cherries, halved

1/3 cup coarsely chopped glace ginger

1/2 cup slivered almonds, extra

Preheat oven to 170ºC/150ºC fan forced. Grease 12 hole muffin pan, line bases with baking paper. (I cut the bottoms out of muffin papers rather than mess about outlining, etc)

Sprinkle nuts into pan holes

Beat butter, rind and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Transfer mixture to medium bowl; stir in sifted flours, milk, fruit and extra nuts. Spread mixture into pan holes. Bake for about 25 minutes.

Now the recipe also offers a ginger syrup which you can pour over the cakes while they're still in the tin. I didn't do this, but here's how:

Take 3/4 cup water, 3/4 cup caster sugar and a 2cm piece of fresh ginger, grated. Stir ingredients in small saucepan over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves; bring to the boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered without stirring, about 5 minutes or until syrup thickens slightly. Serve hot or cold. 

Good chocolate

Is there any other kind??? Arguably not. Anti-oxidants galore, all wrapped in mouth-watering, divinely sweet, chocolatey goodness. It was made that way for a reason, so let's vote to remove the luxury tax - it's a necessity, like water or sex.

Which is why, after a helluva long day like today, I needed some. 

These days I measure the productiveness of my weekend by how much really good cooking I've managed, and how well it looks in photographs. This weekend was excellent. Gorgeous weather, blue skies, birds singing, the smell of freshly mown grass and washing on the line. And a great chocolate cake. Bliss. 

I really had my doubts about this recipe because it looked almost too easy, but mostly because it called for melting the chocolate with a minute bit of 

milk. That just turned the whole thing into a fudgy sludge and had me cursing  the waste of 250g decent dark chocolate. (Although I would have rolled it into balls and sold it to Tim as 'truffles' or something of that ilk). 

Surprisingly, the whole thing mixed beautifully, was really simple, and came out perfectly. This cake is deceptively moist, and given that there's not an ounce of butter in it, that's an achievement. Must be the 6 eggs! It means there's no heavy or greasy residue which is a plus. Also, the hazelnut meal works to give it an interesting texture and extra flavour - better than flour. Hazelnuts are like walnuts - not a fan of them au natural, but combine them in any way with chocolate, and they're pretty special.

Time to be healthy...

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

Wheat & Gluten Free, Jody Vassallo p 87

Ingredients:

250g (8oz) dark cooking chocolate chopped

2 tbsp milk

120g (4oz) hazelnut meal

1/2 cup (125g/4oz) caster sugar

6 eggs, separated

Preheat oven to 180º (350ºF/Gas 4). Line a 20cm (8in) spring form tin with baking paper.

Put the chocolate and milk into a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Put the chocolate mixture, hazelnut meal, sugar and egg yolks into a bowl and mix to combine. (I mixed everything except the chocolate mix first, and then combined it)

Whisk the eggs in a clean, dry bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and spoon into the prepared tin. 

Bake for 45 minutes or until firm. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 mins. Serve with fresh berries. Serves 8. (Or 1 x Tim)

Lamington drive

The thought of lamingtons conjurs up memories of the yearly tradition of lamington drives for school, girl's brigade, church fundraisers, senior citizens fundraisers, etc, etc, etc... I'm sure it was even more painful for parents, guilted into buying the dreaded things, and bullied into arriving at the school early on a Saturday morning to take delivery of the un-iced cakes, and spend the day dipping and boxing at the direction of the second grade teacher straight out of uni.

I remember one year, back in the days when primary school children could wander the neighbourhood, safe in the knowledge that as long as parents knew vaguely where you were and you were home by dinner, they wouldn't panic and call a full-scale search, a good friend of mine called Imogen and I set out to sell more lamingtons than any other girls brigader had ever sold in the history of girls brigaders selling lamingtons. We decided that rather than do a half-arsed job canvassing immediate relatives, next door neighbours and our parents friends who would be unable to say no, (lest our parents refuse to buy their kids' fundraising crap) we would launch a well-planned, street-by-street operation in our suburb. I think we were actually trying to knock some leader's pet off their perch, but motive didn't matter because we were raising money for some good, girls brigade approved cause. I have no memory of what that was but I know it didn't directly benefit us - unless you count the glow you get when you sell more lamingtons than anyone else. But anyway...

For two 11 year olds, we were well-organised and strategic. There were clipboards involved, and a map of our suburb, one water bottle (no fear of germs then) and Imogen's bike in case we got tired. I don't really think either of us could read the map, but we had a notion that it was good marketing for adults to see two such organised kids, even if we didn't know what marketing was either. We went on to set some kind of lamington selling record, for the sale of both cream-filled and plain lamingtons - something like 67 dozen from memory. Not bad. It was announced in the church and we were instantly forgiven for annoying far too many innocent citizens.

Anyway, Tim's had a craving for lamingtons lately and has been disappointed with the general standard of pre-packaged, pre-fabbed, pre-flavour offerings at the supermarket. Let's face it, the life of the supermarket lammo starts so long before it ever finds a home that the poor things don't have a chance! Dry sponge that doesn't resemble anything my mother ever made, synthetically flavoured with the sorriest looking coconut clinging desperately to the synthetically coloured chocolate, raspberry (try flamingo pink) or white syruped edges impersonating real icing. It's no wonder that Tim turned once again to the (so far) fail-safe pages of Donna Hay's chocolate book for guidance. (It was her or me and I wasn't in the mood.)

Tim has a theory that lamingtons are made best with slightly stale, day-old sponge. Since we didn't have any of that lying around the house, he bought a sponge cake from the supermarket. Next step, measure it up and square of the corners. Yes, I'm serious. The man had a ruler and other geometrical implements on hand so that his lamingtons would be perfectly cut. (I know) Next came the frosting. It involved A LOT of icing sugar, so he halved the quantities. But basically it's a hot, runny, cocoa icing. Totally idiot-proof. Tim did really well.

Lamington Icing

Donna Hay, Simple Essentials - Chocolate, p40.

Ingredients:

3 cups (450g/15 3/4oz) icing sugar, sifted

3/4 cup (90g/3oz) cocoa powder, sifted

1 cup (250ml/ 8fl oz) boiling water

1/4 cup (60ml/ 2 fl oz) milk

75g (2 1/2 oz) melted butter

dessicated coconut, to coat

Mix together all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Put the coconut in another bowl. Roll the sponge squares in the icing and then in the desiccated coconut. Place on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and refrigerate until set.

Nigella and I

Nigella Lawson is one of those celebrity cooks that polarizes opinions  - people either love her or don't. I'm one of the lovers. I think what I like about Nigella is that she's a true girly-girl, gorgeous and unabashed, not a professional chef and has a love of food and cooking that not all celebrity cooks/chefs exude.  And yet, I never really got that in to her show. I'm not sure why that was - perhaps tricky scheduling or lack of advertising or whatever, but I certainly love her books. My favourite is 'Feast' and was given to me by my sister and brother a few Christmases ago with a book mark in the chapter entitled 'Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame' and strict instructions that I was to work my way through this chapter for their birthdays.

Well this past weekend was my sister's birthday and I could not disappoint. I looked to Nigella's chocolate indulgences for guidance and decided on the 'old-fashioned chocolate cake.' 

I think when it comes to baking, Nigella makes it simple whenever possible. Simple as in you can do it the long way of whisking butter and sugar and eggs, etc, or you can put the whole lot into a food processor and whizz it all up until it looks like cake batter. I've seen her do this on her show to great success. I did the first, but only because I don't yet have a food processor to call my own.  It was still pretty simple!

Everything went as it was described, but then I was a bit surprised when I pulled the two cakes out of the oven as they looked quite flat, and the cake in the picture seemed a lot bigger. Silly me for doubting her! There is enough chocolate icing to put in the middle and everywhere else and this added significant bulk to the end product. I also thinly sliced up some fresh, sweet strawberries and put them in the middle with the frosting. I did this because I had about three punnets in the fridge I needed to use, (still have two left) but also because the icing is so rich that I felt it needed some freshening or risk people being unable to go on once they hit the centre.  Also, they created a lovely scent. 

Don't do what I did with the icing and be impatient for the chocolate mixture to cool. If you do, you'll have the kind of sloppy mess I first created. I saved it with some extra icing sugar but probably just could have waited for it to cool down a bit more. I live and learn...

All in all, I rate this as a simple cake to make, it turned out like the one in the picture in the book, and it went down really well with everyone. The most frequent comment was 'it's really rich' but that didn't stop people from trying for seconds. I think serving with some fresh cream would also work.

The recipe is below, but I've summarized the instructions into a less flowery form as they go over a page otherwise. 

Old-fashioned chocolate cake

p 269, Feast by Nigella Lawson

For the cake:

200g plain flour

200g caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

40g best-quality cocoa

175g soft unsalted butter

2 large eggs

2 tsp real vanilla extract

150ml sour cream

For the Icing

75g unsalted butter

175g best quality dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

300g icing sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

125ml sour cream

1 tsp real vanilla extract

sugar flowers, optional

Take everything out of the fridge so all ingredients can come to room temp. Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180C and line and butter two 20cm sandwich tins with removable bases. 

Put all the cake ingredients into a food processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter. Or do what I did and take the long road by slowing mixing things in...

Divide the batter into the two tins. Cook for about 35 minutes, although start checking at 25 minutes. You may also want to switch the two tins around halfway through cooking time. 

Remove cake in their tins to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out of tins. Don't worry about any cracks as they'll be covered by the icing later.

For the icing: melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl in the microwave or over a pan of simmering water. Go slowly either way so to avoid burning or seizing. While this is happening, sieve the icing into another bowl. 

Add the golden syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla, and when combined, add the icing sugar. This can be done in a food processor. 

Sit one of the cakes on plate or stand of your choice, domed side down. Spoon about a third of the icing on to the centre of the cake and spread it until even. Sandwich the other cake on top and spread the rest of the icing on top and over the sides. 

Decorate with little flowers or however.