The Bunting Cake

It was Big Daughter's 5th birthday recently. Due to maternal guilt over moving her around and taking her from her friends and depriving her of the comforts of home - come to think of it, I'm not sure if the deprivation is hers or mine - I went a little birthday preparation nuts.

While I barely slept for a week save for a few fleeting hours in between cutting out butterflies and crafting bunting flags from sugar paste, I did enjoy every minute. 

 

Despite the hat and the cold, Tilly even managed to enjoy herself for a minute or two.

I do need to mention that my sister, Kate, made the strawberries for my Cath Kidston inspired birthday cake which she and my mom made. I recycled them.

It's a Hard Life

In the past, you know those very few times I remembered to actually do it, Recipeless Wednesday was a photo and just a photo. While all this travel, as I have discovered, leaves little time for anything other than tea, I thought at least I could take pictures and tell you a bit about it. Luckily, the daughters and I have being very well cared for. Meals and laundry and comfy beds abound.

I could use a little more wi-fi access to the interweb, all available at the cafe down the road but the likelihood of accompishing anything other than a MacBook swimming in spilled hot chocolate is slim. My less optimistic visions of the mayhem involve Tilly jumping across the tables, lattes and cappuccinos spilling every which way as she shouts, 'Mine, mine, mine,' wielding a spoon reaching for the chocolate sprinkles of strangers and other terrified small children.

We started out on a high note, with our very own fashion dos and don'ts on Wills' and Kate's big day. We decided that hats are back unless, of course, they are really just nude coloured fancy Minnie Mouse ears. Not sure anyone could pull that/those off. All this royal telly watching with cups of tea to fuel the six am start.

Then we enjoyed an amazing day here where we, and our cupcake smeared gaggle of cousins, didn't venture past the dining room but, after a quick internet squizz, I am determined to go back for longer than an afternoon. We were treated to a Royal Wedding Tea Party complete with wedding cake and, more importantly, Pimm's. It was all served in idyllic English surrounds on a day straight out of July. After tea and cakes and little cucumber sandwiches delivered to the garden by icing-wired offspring, I almost couldn't bear the thought of returning to bathe and put to bed my children.

Then, there was more tea, and more cake, in the form of Annabel's Marmalade Cake, recipe and more children happily playing together while their mothers determined the best and worst dressed. I will post this in due time. I am starting to worry that this will become a blog about delicious things to eat with a cup of tea and, consequently, I'll need to let my trousers out.

Later that week, we had coffee with Rosie in Appleby. Her and her husband, Andrew, run The Courtyard Gallery. Stephen would have been most impressed with my restraint, Poppy's Deborah Hopson-Wolpe bowl almost got a mate and I could hear my cupboards crying out for Dartington pottery. Rosie makes the cakes for the gallery cafe so we were treated to a walnut cake and Tiffin squares and some other things that my children devoured before I got to try.

The next day we got to Cornwall, after a most stoic, if I may say so, eight hour car journey on my own with the girls. For that day, our gustatory experiences were enjoyed on a path of least resistance basis and somewhat limited by and to motorway service stations and coffee (lots of) with bribes of chocolate and sweets, like they hadn't been eating all that for the last ten days.

Crossing the Tamar, into Poppy's birthplace, as she'll all too readily explain, is a bit of a homecoming. It is our English home. Cornwall has brought us asparagus by the literal bucket load. Said asparagus gets itself drizzled in just shy of a bucket load of melted butter and a generous salt and peppering and calls itself supper. I have absolutely no problem with that.

Poppy has been begging for rhubarb, she has only had it once since we got here, and Eton Mess, that too has also only been had once. She has determined it is better than pavlova, it is essentially smooshed pavlova. Luckily for her, we managed to not get lost, stuck or drive the car into a hedge on some single track Cornish lanes leading to the farm shop where, as their sign four miles back promised, they had not only rhubarb, but fresh strawberries too.

We drove back to the grandparents' as fast as our out of practice Cornish lane navigating would allow and set about the yummiest of English puds and roasting our rhubarb. All the pictures and instructions to come in the first installment of 2011's Rhubarb Trilogy. All this, just as soon as I find some wi-fi.

Recipeless Wednesday

With extra sprinkles.

Hummingbird Cake

A little less than a year ago, the girls and I had the honour of attending a very special third birthday party. There were all the usual birthday party requirements including friends and family and games and a pinata. There was lots of party food including three cakes made by three generations of the birthday girl’s family.

One of the cakes had been made by her great grandmother, the traditional chocolate. One was made by her mom. And one, made by her grandmother, was her mom’s favourite. Coconut, not traditional as far as I know but I add it, and pineapple, bananas and nuts combine with cream cheese icing to make a cake far more delicious than the most perfect of carrot cakes or the moistest of humble banana muffins.

We said goodbye to this bright spark of a three year old recently on a grey day in a little church in a beautiful hamlet when I can only imagine the rainbows and sunshine and butterflies and fairy dust that were being sprinkled down on that space in the world; this little girl who has touched the lives and hearts of friends and family and so many people she didn’t even know. She has certainly caused me to cuddle my girls a little tighter and to give thanks for my blessings. Her mama has inspired me to be a stronger, more courageous person and to pack as much joy into every minute with my children as I can possibly muster.

I got back to San Diego and decided that I would make a Hummingbird Cake. I don’t have Mama B's recipe, nor could I even imagine mine would be as good but the thought of a certain little three year old eating it is food for the soul.

Hummingbird Cake (adapted from Joy of Baking)

1 cup toasted unsweetened shredded coconut (you can gently toast it in a pan over low heat, just keep an eye on it)

1 cup chopped pecans

3 cups all purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups finely chopped fresh pineapple (yes, fresh, tinned pineapple gives me itchy hands)

2 cups mashed banana

Preheat oven to 350º. Butter and flour two 8 or 9-inch cake pans.

Mix dry ingredients together.

Beat wet ingredients together.

Mix wet and dry ingredients together and pour into pans.

Bake for about 40 minutes, until a tester inserted comes out dry. It may be a bit quicker for 9-inch pans, a bit longer for 8-inch.

Let cool on a cooling rack.

Split layers, if you feel like having four layers. I do because I like to pack a little more frosting in there. If not, just use the two. Trim the tops of the layers, before splitting, if they are uneven.

Frost with cream cheese frosting, recipe follows.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/2 cups soft, room temperature butter

1 pound (450 grams, 16 ounces, 2 blocks) room temperature full fat cream cheese - Don’t even try it with the light kind, not only will it not taste as good, it will be a runny mess. Really, just don’t do it.

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/4 - 1/3 cup milk

Cream butter. Add cream cheese and cream together until smooth. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. Add milk, by the tablespoonful, if the frosting is too stiff. Add just as much as you need to for the frosting to be a nice consistency for icing the cake, think buttercream.

Upside Down Cake - all the way from Paris

I am trying to get better at my photography. More specifically, food photography. Just when I think I have the best light/angles/tricks to make sure there are no children’s fingers way to get that shot in a certain place, we pick up and move to a new kitchen where all the light/angles/tricks change and I need to learn it all over again. Alright, so maybe the tricks for the children don’t change but one quick browse through the blog will tell you that I still don’t have that one down.

(Note the child sized finger print)

One person who I think does is David Lebovitz. Not in that every shot is perfection way but in the this is what food looks like way. Not to say that his shots aren’t perfect, they are (and who am I to say). His shots are what I aspire to be able to achieve. You know, just as soon as I can drive the camera properly.

The recipes Lebovitz offers up are in the same class as his food shots, so it was to him I turned when we fancied a little Upside Down Cake. 

None of that pineapple stuff though, visions of tinned pineapple rings and glacé cherries bounce around in my head every time I hear the words. I have yet to decide whether that is a bad thing or a fond childhood food memory. I had blueberries to put to use and muffins, pancakes, sauce and cheesecake had all been vetoed.

I barely adapted the recipe, figuring that if David says it’s good I probably shouldn’t mess with it. I tweaked the fruit quantity since I was using all berries instead of something sliced. I also baked it in a pyrex dish because I don’t have a cast iron pan here. I can only imagine how divine it would be in a cast iron pan.

What I got was a very good, no surprises, just what you would expect Upside Down Cake. The cake was very tender and moist and light. The topping was fruity and saucy and sweet. 

I am pretty sure it was the first time I have made Upside Down Cake but it was so easy and the results so good, it won’t be the last. 

It also, as Lebovitz recommends (not that I would ever, even with empty fridge and bare cupboards and two screaming like they hadn't eaten in a month children, be so inclined - and if you believe that, I have a really great used car to sell you), makes a fine breakfast.

Blueberry Upside Down Cake adapted, a tiny bit, from David Lebovitz

If you have a cast iron pan, make this in there. Just cook the caramel and leave it in the pan. Cool it and start from there.

Fruit topping (bottom):

3 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 cups blueberries

Cake Base (Topping):

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature

(the original recipe called for a 1/4 teaspoon salt as well which I skipped because I used salted butter)

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Melt butter in pan, add brown sugar and stir until sugar dissolves and it starts to bubble. Remove from heat, if you are not using a cast iron pan, transfer it to your buttered 8-inch baking pan or dish.

Arrange the fruit on top of the cooled sugar.

To make the cake, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla and the eggs one at a time.

Sift the dry ingredients together and gently stir 1/2 into the butter mixture. Stir in the milk and then stir in the remaining flour mixture.

Pour on top of the berries and gently spread to cover the fruit.

Bake for around 45 minutes. The cake will spring back in the centre when you gently press down with your finger.

Serve with ice cream or custard or yogurt.

Breaking my Rules

My nephew turns seven on Monday. His passions are origami and Star Wars. I wanted to make him a cake but I didn’t want to make this. I don’t have the skills, space, staff or patience to make this. And, although this is pretty sweet, I was sure it wasn’t going to pass the taste test.

So, I broke one of my, until this point, strictest rules. I put inedible things on and around the cake. 113 of them to be exact. Paper cranes. And, I am glad I did. This was definitely the most fun I have had making a cake. 

Disclaimer: Because I wasn’t planning on posting this, I just have to because I loved it so much, the following are guidelines only. I didn’t make any notes.

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream and Raspberry Jam

The cake is my Go-To cake. I made a triple recipe (you will either need a very large mixer and a very large mixing bowl or make two 1-1/2 batches) and wound up with a 10-inch, an 8-inch and a 6-inch cake, all about 3 inches high. The cooking time needs to be increased a lot for the 10 and the 8 and just a little for the 6. It took about 70 minutes for the larger two and about 40 for the smaller one.

The icing ratio is 1 cup unsalted butter to 3-1/2 cups icing sugar plus 1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste (or the seeds of 1/2 a vanilla bean) and 1 tablespoon milk. I used 4 cups of butter and 14 cups of icing sugar but I was making a pretty big cake. An 8-inch, two layer cake would probably be fine with a 1 or 2 cup batch.

I trimmed the top of the cakes to make sure they were flat and then I sliced each of them into three layers and spread a layer of good quality raspberry jam and buttercream between each. I then crumb-coated the cake. 

Crumb coating is covering the cake with a thin layer of icing to keep the crumbs from getting into the ‘good’ layer.

I left the cakes in the fridge overnight at this point and iced them in the morning before attaching the paper cranes with royal icing.

Don't tell my daughters, but sometimes good things happen when you break the rules. And, it's fun too.

Every Now and Then, You've Got to Give it up for The Domestic Goddess

I don’t profess to be any sort of domestic goddess. I think that there is a certain level of domestic perfection that comes only from the assistance of paid help, PAs, housekeepers, nannies and/or au pairs, drivers and personal shoppers, none of which I can justify or afford. Those of us that can, are able to live in a mythical world of tidiness, beautiful food, perfectly dressed and clean children and cashmere twinsets where, even if I could, I don’t think I would fit in. I like messy kids and my boobs aren’t really twin set friendly. (Did I just say boobs on a food blog?)

Every now and then though, I find I am looking longingly at the doyenne of goddesslike domesticity, envying her bevvy of staff and wishing that, even if it was just for a few moments, I had that kind of opportunity to create perfect cakes and make men swoon and women jealous just by saying ‘butter and sugar’ through my perfectly red pout or by licking something delicious off a perfectly manicured finger.

Instead of this vision, I am usually asked by my husband or eldest child if I know that I have a banana hand print on my shirt or something in my hair or food stuck to my chin. Plus, without my make-up team and stylist, my skin isn’t so smooth and dewy and my outfit is usually more wrinkled than not and on good days, but not always, stain and spot free. So, even if I could do the voice, I would wind up looking and sounding a little more slummy mummy than yummy mummy.

But try as I might to dismiss The Domestic Goddess altogether, I can’t. She, or her team, sometimes do great food. Several cake recipes I regularly use are hers. Sure, I give them a little tweak every now and then but generally the recipes are pretty perfect and not too complex and rarely disappoint. So, it is to an old Nigella recipe that I turned when I wanted to make a cake for tea that wasn’t too heavy and tasted summery. I also had some laboriously hand-picked raspberries that I wanted to add and I remembered at the end of the recipe, which was cut out of a UK magazine at least eight years ago, that she says, in the way only Nigella could, ‘I can’t stop myself murmuring ‘raspberries alongside’ to you either.’ I decided that if they would be good alongside, they would be even better in.

Mine got a little dark around the edge, which annoyed me, but it has strengthened my determination to remember to pick up an oven thermometer and to remember to set a timer. 

I used the metric measurements given but measured it out in cups for those of you without a scale. Just use the same measurements throughout, if you start with grams, weigh all the ingredients in grams, etc.

Damp Lemon and Almond Cake with Raspberries adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe I clipped out of a magazine a long, long time ago (serves 8)

225 grams (8 ounces or 1 cup) soft butter (I used salted, the original called for unsalted)

225 grams (8 ounces or 1 1/4 cup) granulated sugar (use caster sugar if you have it)

4 large eggs

50 grams (2 ounces or 1/4 + 1/3 of 1/4 cup (1/12??) all purpose flour

225 grams (8 ounces or 2 cups) ground almonds

1/2 teaspoon almond essence

grated zest and juice of two lemons

about 2/3 pint of raspberries (a few more or less isn’t going to hurt)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line and butter a 8-9 inch springform cake tin.

Cream together the butter and sugar until almost white. One at a time, beat in the eggs. Between each egg, add a quarter of the flour until it is fully incorporated. Stir the ground almonds and then add the almond essence, lemon zest and lemon juice.

Pour half the batter into the cake tin and arrange half the raspberries, saving the nicest ones for the top. Pour the remaining batter on top of the raspberries and spread it with a spatula. Arrange the rest of raspberries on top and gently push them into the batter a bit, not too far. 

Put cake in the oven and bake for about an hour.  You may need to cover it with foil after about half an hour so it doesn’t burn. It is done when a tester comes out with some damp crumbs and the top is firm. remove from the oven and cool.

This cake will keep, and Nigella thinks it is better when it is a few days old. We ate it the next day and it was just fine.

* Sorry for lack of baking process photos. I don’t have enough hands sometimes.

My 'Go To' Cake

After my last post about a cake, I thought I had better redeem myself and try to prove that I can do good cake even better than I can do not so good cake. I have lots of cake recipes - some I have made once or twice, some sit clipped and waiting in the disaster of clippings, some have been admired in the pages of cookbooks and then there are those that just get made over and over and over. These are ‘go to’ cakes. The cake you can count on not being a mess. The cake you could almost make in your sleep. The cake that feels good.

My ‘go to’ cake is our standard birthday cake. It gets finished differently depending on recipient, where it is being made, where it is being served and to how many. Is it just us or is it for eighty hungry boat yard employees? Is the birthday boy or girl six or sixty? Are we in Canada in the middle of winter or on the beach in the Caribbean or stern to in Portofino? In other words, do I need to worry about it melting or does it need to look unbelievably fabulous? Or, do I need something a little bit decadent but still homey and something an almost four year old can help with(read: spread all over her face while having ‘just a little taste.’) Something to welcome home a recently turned forty daddy after two long and horrid months in the Caribbean.

The ‘go to’ recipe is for a chocolate cake. It originally came from the back of a cocoa container - I can’t remember which one. Over time it has been copied and recopied from notebook to notebook. 

For this occasion, I decided I would split the layers and fill them with thick caramel sauce. I discovered this while working at a restaurant called Five Doors North in Toronto. It was loud and fun and very Italian and everything was simply made and simply deliciously perfect.

After I filled the layers, I frosted it with a whipped dark chocolate ganache. This is like the filling of a truffle and truly decadent and truly not for someone who is not a fan of chocolate. After the ganache, I would top it with a small mountain of dark chocolate shards. I contemplated chocolate curls but, I had an almost four year old helper and figured I wouldn’t be nearly quick or tidy enough with my help for curls. Plus, it isn’t as heartbreaking to see the shards being eaten as quickly as you make them as it is with the curls.

Chocolate Caramel Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Cake (I almost can’t believe I am giving this recipe away)

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour (I have used cake flour, which gives a slightly lighter cake, use it if you have it, don’t worry if you don’t, the cake will be fine)

2/3 cup cocoa (I usually use some really lovely rich fairtrade stuff, use the one you like the flavour of)

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/3 cups water

Preheat the oven to 350º. Butter and flour two 9-inch baking pans or a 13x9x2-inch baking pan or 24 cupcake tins (which you could also line). I like to put a circle of parchment on the bottom of the pans, or a square depending on what you are using.

Beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla on high for 3 minutes. This should look light and creamy. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and baking powder together. Add this in four additions to the creamed butter mixture, alternating with the water. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. 

Pour into pans and bake 30-35 minutes, less for cupcakes. As usual, a tester inserted in the centre should come out clean.

Allow to cool. After a few minutes, remove the cakes from the pans onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Caramel sauce

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup water

1 cup cream

Put sugar and water in medium sized, heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat.  DO NOT STIR the sugar.  Gently swirl the pan until the sugar dissolves. Use a pastry brush with some water to ‘wipe’ any sugar crystals off the sides of the pan. After the sugar starts to boil it will take about ten minutes to caramelize, but don’t go anywhere.  Keep an eye on it. And, be really careful, boiling sugar is just about one of the hottest things you can cook with and it takes a long time to cool once it hits the skin. 

Now, if you are as much of a nerd as I am, and you care to listen, you can sort of hear the sugar start to caramelize. Of course, I can’t hear it anymore because I have a seven month old baby and an almost four year old to drown out any audible cooking clues now. Once it starts to caramelize, it will happen quickly and can go from being perfectly toastily amber to burnt and bitter in a few seconds. Be ready with your cream and a whisk. When it reaches that perfect shade of amber, add the cream, pouring away from you. It will roll and boil, so don’t get too close right away, but give it a little whisk once it starts to calm down. 

Allow this to cool.

Assembly (this can be done a day or two in advance and wrapped in cling film and kept in the fridge)

Spilt the two layers of the cake so you have four layers. Level off the tops if they have gotten too hilly in the middle.

Pour about 1/5 of the caramel sauce onto the first layer and quickly spread it around.  It will soak into the cake. Continue this with two more layers, don’t put any caramel sauce on the top layer.

Wrap it in cling film, or, if you are finishing the cake the same day, make the ganache.

Whipped Dark Chocolate Ganache

18 ounces good quality dark chocolate chopped

2 cups whipping cream

Gently heat cream until almost boiling. Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate. Continue to stir until the chocolate is melted. At this point, if you don’t want to whip the ganache, let it cool a bit and then pour it over the cake, spreading it on the sides.

Or to whip, pour into the bowl of the mixer and beat on medium high speed until the ganache is cooled and has a mousse-like stiffness.

Spread over the sides and top of the caramel filled cake.

Dark Chocolate Shards

4 ounces of good quality dark chocolate chopped.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Take care not to let any steam or water from the pan to get into the chocolate. 

When the chocolate is melted pour it onto a sheet of waxed paper. Spread the melted chocolate with a spatula into a thin layer. Cover with another sheet of waxed paper. Roll and refrigerate for at least four hours.

Remove the roll from the fridge and gently unroll it. Remove the top sheet of waxed paper and gently free the shards with a spatula. Use tongs or the spatula to put the shards on top of the cake. Touching the chocolate with your hands will melt it.  

The cake should be served as soon as possible, depending on how hot it is. If there is any left, you can refrigerate it but the ganache will harden a bit.

Birthday goodness - every time.