Rainbow Cake? & June birthdays part 1.

 
It's been over a month since I last posted anything, so sorry to everyone (anyone) who reads this :) Anyway in the time I've baked quite a bit seeing as it was still during a school term, but now it's holidays so I should be blogging alot more!

It was Jacqueline and Andrew and Jazmina's birthdays a few days ago, and I was asked to make the cakes. For Jacqueline it was a "rainbow cake", for Andrew it was a chocolate truffle cake with a brigadeiro frosting and for Jazmina it was like Andrew's, but in mini cupcake form.

This post is gonna be about Jacqueline's rainbow one. It's actually just three different colours, so I guess it's not actually a rainbow cake, but that's what the fabulous Donna Hay called it. I've had the magazine for years (I know), but I've never been bothered enough to make anything out of it. So I thought, "hey might as well make a cake that I've never made before"!

The white and pink layers of the cake had a really eggy smell, so next time I would put in a tsp of vanilla essence. The cake itself was really sticky (crumbs stuck onto the baking paper!), but the chocolate layer was really good.

The original recipe called for a cream cheese frosting, but it was 10 something at night and all the shops were closed, so that was out of the question. I ended up filling the layers with a sweetened whipped cream (which tasted just like really good icecream) and icing the sides with a hard ganache. The whipped cream recipe comes from the same issue of Donna Hay as the cake did, but for a different recipe. For the ganache, I simply upped the chocolate and reduced the cream of a standard 1:1 ganache ratio.

My beautiful cousin Jennifer :) (who's so lovely and came over and helped!)

I discovered something while making ganache. I found out that I don't have the patience to finely chop 500g of chocolate. There's something about me that doesn't find having tiny pieces of chocolate all over the kitchen counter appealing. Does anyone else feel the same way? Anyway, because of my patience (or lack of), I finely chopped about 150g, and left the rest in pieces.The result? Huge chunks of chocolate in an otherwise quite good ganache. Not being one to put half a kilo of chocolate to waste, I heated the mixture over a saucepan of simmering water, double broiler style. It worked, but when it set, it didn't have the glossy sheen of a hard ganache, but luckily it didn't really matter if my cake was glossy or not :)

Enough with my talking, here are the recipes!

Rainbow Cake

Serves 10

From Donna Hay Magazine Issue 41

8 eggs

1 cup (220g) caster (superfine) sugar

1 1/3 cups (200g) self-raising flour, sifted

100g butter, melted

2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted

1/4 tsp pink food colouring (I used 1 full tsp)

Preheat oven to 180°C (355°F). Place the eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until the mixture is thick, pale and tripled in volume.

Gently fold through the flour and butter. Divide the mixture between three bowls. Add cocoa to one mixture and gently fold through. Add the food colouring to another mixture and and gently fold through. Spoon each mixture into a lightly greased, shallow 19cm round cake tin with the base lined with baking paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cakes are springy to touch and come away from the sides of the tins. Cool on wire racks.

Vanilla Cream

Makes enough to ice one cake, I doubled this recipe to fill and crumb coat the rainbow cake

From Donna Hay Magazine Issue 41

1/2 cup (125mL) double (thick) cream

1 tbsp pure icing (confectioner's) sugar, sifted

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Place the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whisk until stiff peaks form.

Hard Ganache Icing

Makes more than enough to ice a 19cm cake

500g dark chocolate (I used 250g Whittaker's 72%, 250g Whittaker's Bittersweet Dark), finely chopped

1 cup (250mL) thickened cream

In a saucepan, heat the cream until simmering. Pour over the chocolate, then stir with a spatula until smooth.

Crumb coated, ready to be put in the fridge

I'm actually really proud of this cake! I think it's one of the prettiest cakes I've ever made :) I piped with my new disposable piping bags (highly recommended!), but I forgot what tips I used :S the buttercream was too stiff at first, because the butter wasn't softened enough, even though I left it out for hours! So as per mum's instructions, I microwaved it, but for a few seconds too long, which resulted in a really runny consistency. So I had to freeze it for 5 minutes, and when I took it out it was really good! Anyway I leave you with photos of Jacqueline's cake. Hope you enjoy :)

Patiently waiting...

 ...Lit up...

 ...Blowing it out...

 ...Cutting it...

...Cut!

:)

Berry Yoghurt Muffins

If anything, right now would be the worst time to blog. With the first exam just tomorrow, the last thing I should be doing is baking, let alone blog about them, when I really need to study, but I let go of exams for a moment and made these berry yoghurt muffins.

They've been on my mind a while now, I had a tub of strawberry yoghurt in the fridge, and when I saw the recipe for this, I knew that it'd be perfect :) BUT. This afternoon when I took all the ingredients out to make them, I discovered (or didn't discover) the strawberry yoghurt. Luckily, I had another lonely tub hidden somewhere in my fridge. Lemon meringue pie flavour, to be exact. I simply substituted the lemon-flavoured yoghurt for the strawberry one. In the end, the lemon flavour didn't really show. There was also a slight sourness from the berries, which would be great for the not-so-sweet toothed.

I made these muffins decently healthy by using wholemeal flour, non-fat yoghurt, olive oil, adding in wheatgerm and reducing the sugar to 1/2 cup. If I were to make these again (which I probably would) I would keep the sugar at the 3/4 cup recomended. I accidentally added the sugar in with the dry ingredients (isn't sugar dry?), but I didn't really find a difference. Anyway, without further ado, the recipe!

Berry Yoghurt Muffins
Makes 12
(Slightly adapted from The Three Cheeses)

1 1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1/4 cup wheatgerm
1/3 cup rolled oats 
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
200g fruit yoghurt (I used nestle diet lemon meringue flavour)
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cup frozen berries (give or take, according to taste)

Preheat oven too 200°C. Line a 12 cupcake tin with muffin liners. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs, then add the yoghurt and oil. Add the berries to the yoghurt mixture, then add in the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Spoon the batter into the lined pan. Bake for 20 mins.

When you touch the muffins, they may seem a little soft and undercooked, but it's probably just the berries. The end result was a slightly sweet, light and fluffy yet not dry muffin which were an absolute breeze to make. In around half an hour, you can whip up, bake and clean up! These are great straight out of the oven. Enjoy!

Gordon Ramsay's Chocolate Tart

I've been promising Jennifer a chocolate tart for a time now. Finally, (a very long while and too many bookmarks later) I thought to myself, might as well make it while I've still got time before the chaotic stress of (wait for it) EXAMS. So here's how that went.

I used Gordon Ramsay's chocolate tart with a chocolate crust for the tart, which was kind of hard to find online, seeing as there weren't many actual sites (only forums etc.) that had the recipe on it. I originally used the recipe from taste.com.au (you can find the forum here), before I found out that it was kinda really dodgy and it called for you to do things with ingredients that were no longer there :S A better site to use would be this one from Times Online, even though it's slightly different and the taste one had better (Australian) measurements.

I didn't blind bake the base though, my mistake, it was in the oven before I realised what I did (or didn't) do. Because of this, the base puffed up in some places. The steam captured between the tin and the pastry probably caused the base to turn a little soggy, but personally, I don't think the base itself was that great. It lacked something, maybe it was sugar, but it just didn't seem right. Another thing I changed about the recipe was to use no-fat milk for the filling instead of whole. The recipe didn't call for full-fat milk, but I'm pretty sure it should've been that. The extra fat probably would've added a more creamier and richer taste to the filling.

I used Lindt 70% dark chocolate, combined with 30g of Cadbury's Old Gold 70% to make up the 200g for my filling. The filling was delectably rich, soft yet with a slight bite. The overall product had little white flecks speckled in the filling though, and I've got no idea what it is :S

This tart took me a period of two days to complete! I woke up bright and early on Mother's Day, made my dough, lined my tins, fridge-d it for 36 hours, made the filling, then finally baked it. Didn't seem that bad overall :)

unbaked tartlette

Anyway, here's adapted recipe! 

Chocolate Tart

Serves 6-8

(adapted from delicious magazine march 2006)

125g plain flour
1 tbs cocoa powder, plus extra to dust
60g unsalted butter, softened
60g caster sugar
1 large egg
30g dark chocolate, melted, cooled
Creme fraiche, to serve (optional)

Filling
200g good quality dark chocolate, melted
300ml thickened cream
50ml milk (preferably whole)
2 large eggs
100g caster sugar
Few drops vanilla extract

Sift flour and cocoa with a pinch of salt.

Using electric beaters, beat butter and sugar in a separate bowl until pale and thick. Mix in egg and chocolate, then beat in flour mixture and knead lightly to a smooth dough. Dust hands with flour and form dough into a flat disc. Enclose in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190°C fan-forced (210° conventional). Lightly grease a 22cm loose-bottomed tart pan.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured board or between sheets of baking paper to just larger than the size of the pan. Use to line pan, pressing into sides and trimming to fit. Chill for 15-20 minutes.

Prick base, then line with foil and fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice. Sit pan on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove weights and foil and bake for 5 minutes, then cool. Reduce oven to 150°C fan-forced (170° conventional).

For filling, brush a third of the chocolate over the tart base. Bring the cream and milk to the boil in a pan, then slowly pour onto the melted chocolate, stirring until smooth. Whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla, then combine with the chocolate cream.

Place the tart pan on a baking sheet on the middle oven shelf and pull halfway out. Pour in the filling and ease the shell back. Back for 40-45 minutes. The filling will wobble, but sets in the pan. Cool and dust with good-quality cocoa. Serve with creme fraiche, if using.

Overall verdict? The filling, definitely yes. The richness of the dark chocolate was absolutely divine. I'd pair it with a different base, however, but I'm still learning! I didn't find the need to go out and buy some creme fraiche, so I just didn't use it. I didn't find the need to, though. Also, the filling made more than the tart would probably hold, which was why I'm glad I used my new assorted tartlette moulds :)

Note: Jennifer said she really liked it, "it wasn't even bitter!", which is pretty good for her, seeing as she's much more of a milk and white chocolate eater than a dark. G (dark choc fanatic) said that the filling was really good, but the base was more biscuit-y than tartbase-y.

Anyway, I shall be back. Soon. Hopefully. With more interesting posts :) taa

Mini Mocha Brownie Cupcakes w. Coffee Buttercream

Honestly, I don't exactly know how to write a first post. Do I write about myself? Do I write about the last thing I made? How about both?

I'm a 15 year old girl, living in Sydney, Australia, who loves learning about anything and everything food related and absolutely adores baking. I go to school, but spend my weekend-nights at work, limiting my time in the kitchen.

So I've had my (very) fair share of reading food blogs, talking about food and reading cookbooks, and I've decided, maybe it was time that I started up a blog of my own. Now this isn't the first blog I've ever had, but it's the first actual food blog I've started. It might've been because of sites such as foodgawker and tastespotting that finally convinced myself to create one, but I'm as excited as ever to be doing this.

I just joined the Daring Bakers, but just missed out on the April challenge, so May challenge, here I come! I'm also in the Daring Cooks, as a way to get out of my "comfort zone" of baked goods such as brownies, cookies and cakes. It seems really hard, and I haven't heard of half the ingredients in the newest challenge, but it's a challenge for a reason.

I also love cookbooks. Growing up with a Vietnamese mum and a Chinese dad meant that whatever they cooked were usually from the top of their heads, or from year old recipes etched into their memories. I love Asian food though, and I love learning from my parents' cooking ways.

Just yesterday I purchased "The Complete Cook" by The Australian Women's Weekly, which is pretty much an A-Z encyclopedia of ingredients and recipes. From what I've read, I'm loving it and cannot wait to finish off my 687 paged baby!

I must admit, I don't usually bake/cook for myself. I love the feeling that cooking for others brings, it makes me feel all warm inside :) I love it when you accidentally "mutate" a recipe, only to discover something so much better. Which leads me to this recipe; mini mocha cupcakes with coffee buttercream. Although I didn't exactly "mutate" anything, I just lingered away from my usual vanilla buttercream recipe, which I should be posting up soon enough.

I whipped these up for a friend's birthday, she loved mocha and brownies, so I thought, hey, whynot combine them? So after a bit of googling and food blog prowling, I found this recipe from Annie's Eats (via foodgawker). Annie's Eats is a really cute site, I'm loving all her sweet recipes!

Anyway, this recipe would've made delicious brownie cupcakes, if I didn't overwhip the batter. This was probably why the brownies were so airy and "hole-y". They were really good, nevertheless. They rose dramatically within the first few minutes of baking, and when I took a tray out to swap baking levels, I accidentally hit the rail with the pan. They deflated. Just like that. In less than a second. I didn't even know cupcakes were even able to incorporate and lose so much air so quickly! D: I should've realised though, as the batter was really airy and light. The results were risen sides (overbaked thanks to my carelessness and incorrect judging of different sized cupcakes) with a  slightly sunken middle (although they don't look too bad in the photo).

 The only changes I made to the recipe were omitting coffee liqueur (due to having none on hand) and reducing the sugar by 1/4 of a cup. The recipe on the site made 12 regular sized cupcakes, and 36 mini ones. Be careful not to overbake them! No one likes hard, dry brownies :(

The buttercream is what I really wanted to talk about though. This is the best buttercream you'll ever have. Ever. That I've tried so far. Maybe one day I'll discover better recipe for buttercream, but so far, this is my no. 1. This recipe is so good I actually feel the need to post it up. I added another teaspoon of hot coffee,  made from my own very very strong bew of instant coffee and water, nuked for a couple of seconds. Keeping that in mind, make sure the consumers actually like coffee, or else they won't find it very pleasant.

The Best Coffee Buttercream
Adapted from Annie's Eats

225g unsalted butter, at room temp.

3 cups icing sugar (the soft one, not pure)

1 tbsp. instant coffee granules

3 tsp. hot coffee

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat butter on med-high speed until smooth, around 1-2 mins.

Mix in the sugar on low speed until just incorporated, then increase speed to med-high and beat until smooth and light, around 2 minutes

Mix in the coffee granules, hot coffee and vanilla extract until completely incorporated. 

Pipe onto cooled cupcakes, decorate as desired.

 Can you see how beautifully whipped the butter and the sugar are?

The coffee granules don't dissolve, so don't be alarmed when you see streaks of brown in your icing. The texture of this frosting is great as piping icing, but not so much spreading. You could try heating it up for a few seconds for a softer consistency, but I was up for piping so this was perfect. The buttercream kind of stiffens, holds it's shape, but doesn't exactly "harden". The icing doesn't attach to your finger when you touch it, it keeps it's shape really well. I simply decorated some of my cupcakes with chocolate sprinkles.

Anyway I'm off to dream about new delights I can create soon (or imagine myself creating), and to finish reading TCC.