Knee Deep in Cakes.....

Yeah, this past week has been cakes, cakes cooking and more cakes!
After finishing my grandmother's cake on Saturday, I made Brownies for my son to take to kindy on Tuesday for a fancy dress party they held. Then his Birthday was yesterday, 15 November and I made him a Chocolate Cake to take to kindergarten to cut and share with his friends and teachers.

Last night, I made him a Pasta dish and then this evening I baked his 'fancy-smancy' Birthday cake to cut tomorrow at his 'party'. I haven't finished decorating it yet though but I'm going to leave that till tomorrow. So I really feel like I'm knee deep in cakes.

I guess I should also explain why I say "party in inverted commas". Well, this is simply because we had decided that we were NOT going to throw him a party this year. I would make a nice cake for him to cut and we would just cut it among ourselves. However, dear old Michael insisted that his grandparents come along as well. Then he asked if his cousins could come. To cut along story short, we are having quite a few people over BUT we are not throwing a party and we are NOT cooking loads and loads of food like we normally do.

There is his cake of course, and the lovely wife is making fruit tarts. More like the shells coz the custard part is my job. We've also ordered some fried noodles while the lovely wife and I are planning on making currypuffs as well. There's really no telling what else we may decide to cook tomorrow, but tomorrow is another day, so I'm going to get a good nights sleep and think about the cake and everything else tomorrow.........

Pomelo Salad

Pomelo's are widely available in Malaysia, and are particularly famous in Ipoh, Tapah and Bidor. On a recent (end Oct) work related trip to Ipoh, I was instructed by not only my wife but my son and daughter as well - "Make sure you buy some Pomelo's on the way back."

I've learnt that safest thing to do is to do as I am told. Especially as far as my children are concerned!

I'm not a big fan of the Pomelo but the lovely wife and kids love it. For those that don't know what a Pomelo is, it's like a large lime. Perhaps a better way to describe it would be like an Asian Grapefruit? The peel is thick while the flesh inside is sweetish with a slide bitter aftertaste.



The picture above doesn't quite give an idea of how large a Pomelo is. The picture could simply be a magnification of a lime for all you know. So... compare the Pomelo to the head of an almost 4 year old. Yes, this is a pomelo next to the head of my 4 year old (going on 52!!) daughter, Sarah.



The lovely wife and kids polished off one whole pomelo at one sitting and then on the weekend my wife decided to make a pomelo salad. Basically, its the flesh of the pomelo placed in a bowl.



Then seasoned with some fish sauce, lemon juice, chopped shallots, chopped chillis and some peanuts.



Easy Peasy! Lovely on its' own or as a side dish.

100th Birthday Cake

How many of us are fortunate to know someone that is a 100 years old? How many of us that have kids still have our grandparents around? I'm fortunate enough to have a Grandmother that is a 100 years old!

Yes! I kid you not. My dear Grandma celebrates her 100th birthday TODAY. This very day, the 11th of November 2007, my grandmother Ruth Gwendoline Maude Ponnama Navaratnam turns 100. Happy Birthday Grandma!!

A thanksgiving service was held in Church this morning and tonight, there is a dinner party for friends and relatives. I was given the task to bake the cake. Task is not the right word surely - I was given the Honour of making the cake. Yes, it was truly an honour to make the 'official' birthday cake for my Grandma.

I'm not terribly experienced at decorating cakes. Sure, I've done a few for my kids birthdays, but thats really the extent of my decorating skills. And with making your own kids birthday cakes, you know that however good or bad it turns out, the kids will still love it. This was going to be a little bit more difficult as there would be a lot of people at the dinner party. That also meant a Huge Cake!

The picture doesnt quite reflect the size of the cake so let me give you an idea. The cake board had to be specially ordered to accomodate the cake. The board measures 2ft square. The cake itself was about 22 x 18 (inches) and in total weightwise (including the icing) about 7 kilos! Indeed, I had quite a time baking, decorating and icing the cake.

I wanted the cake to be original, simple yet classy. So this is what I decided to do. Firstly, I decided I would create a Monogram to go on the cake. Since my Grandma's first name is Ruth and since everyone knows her as Aunty Ruthie, a Monogram 'R' seeemed the logical choice.

Then I decided on a large '100' in the centre of the cake. That I figured I could do quite easily. For some ideas, I spent one morning at the local Wilton shop and ended up buying stencils for borders and corners. I also bought a lettering stencil because heaven knows I cant write neatly let alone pipe neatly using freehand! I also found some nice sugarpaste flowers at the local baking goods store.
So I had the plan all worked out in my head and I had the supplies. It was time to make the cake.

I started two days earlier with the Monogram 'R'. It's made out of chocolate, slowly piped layer upon layer to make it thick. Once I knew it would set and hold firm, I chucked it in the freezer.

Early Saturday morning (yesterday) I woke up early to bake the cakes. I made two large butter cakes and joined them together. I let the cakes cool and then later covered the entire cake with buttercream icing. I had printed out a large '100' from my PC and I used this as a stencil, marking out the outline with a toothpick on to the firmed up icing. With the '100' done it was now time to rest a while and I also had been invited to my Boss' Hari Raya Open house together with the family.

Later at night, it was time to ice the borders. I used the stencil I bought from Wilton to make indentations on the icing and then piped in the pattern. Then I piped stars all around the top of the cake and shells along the bottom of the cake.



Next, I fished out the chocolate Monogram 'R' and piped a layer of white buttercream on top to give it contrast.


The monogram was placed in the centre of the cake and then the Orange flowers at the side. I realised at that point that the letter stencils I had were a bit too large and there wouldn't be enough space to spell out Happy Birthday.

I had a plan though. I would get some ready made sugarpaste letters after the church service from the Wilton shop. Alas, it was Sunday and the shop was closed. But of course, the lovely wife had another idea. Why not get a cake shop (bakery) to just pipe out some icing on marzipan and stick in on the cake. I knew there was a reason I married the lovely wife!!! :)

We managed to get one shop to pipe out Happy Birthday on to a strip of white chocolate and we placed that on the cake.



The following is to be said in a Yoda like voice. For those too young to
appreciate this, my apologies....

"Hmmmm.... Complete now that cake is. Deliver it we must...."

And so the cake was delivered to my grandmother's house and my aunts, uncles and other relatives that were there thought it was a lovely looking cake. My Grandmother insisted on seeing the cake too and she was delighted.

I hope it is just as warmly received at tonight's dinner party and I hope it tastes as good as it looks!!


But it doesnt quite matter how good it tastes or how well it is received. Not many people get the chance to bake a Birthday Cake for their Grandmother let alone the chance to bake the 100th Birthday Cake for their Grandmother. That in itself is something very, very special!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Nutella Madness and a homemade recipe

One of the many foods that I have had a long love affair with is Nutella. As a kid, I used to eat Nutella by the bottles. In those days, Nutella was sold in tall patterned glass tumblers. In fact, once washed, these tumblers became nice glasses. Everyone used to wonder where we bought our drinking glasses from!

Nutella, these days, doesn't come in those nice tumblers anymore, otherwise I would have a nice collection of glasses! However, my parents still have a large stock of these tumblers that always brings back fond memories of my younger days gobbling up Nutella.

Now one thing I've learnt is that this world can be a rather fascinating place. Who would have thought that my food blogging would one day lead me to find a fellow foodie and web friend who has links to the makers of Nutella?

Yes! It's true! I now have a friend who has a connection (albeit unproven but yet highly likely) to the Ferrero family who are the makers of Nutella as well as Ferrero Rocher. How cool is that! How did this happen? Well, said friend, Dolores, used to leave comments on my blog and one day I noticed her surname - Ferrero. I jokingly asked her if she was related to the chocolate spread makers and the answer was 'most probably' and she gave me this link to her blog Culinary Curiosity to read up on which I reproduce for you.

That was rather exciting. I also learnt that tic-tacs are made by Ferrero too. Never knew that. Bet you didn't either. Now you do. And so do I!

Anyway, since I ove Nutella so much, I decided to troll the web and look for a homemade recipe for Nutella. Did I mention that I was going to buy this HUGE manufacturing plant, modify it and retrofit it so that it can manufacture Nutella and put Ferrero out of business?

Yeah, Yeah I jest. But it would be a fun thing to do!

Anyway, ignoring my little aside, I found that there were a number of different recipes available ranging from using butter to cream but the one that seemed most 'genuine' was this recipe below.

Strangely enough there are two people that claim credit to it and since the recipes are so remarkably similar, I credit them both.
Stephanie Gallagher of healthycooking.suite101 and
Jessica Su of Sugoodsweets.com

Homemade Nutella Recipe
2 cups chopped hazelnuts
3/4 cup to 1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1/8 to 1/4 cup canola oil
Place hazelnuts in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process until nuts start to clump together in a ball. This will take some time (about five minutes), so be patient. Add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder and process again for 2 to 3 minutes, until the mixture turns dark and the ingredients are well combined. Now, slowly drizzle in enough oil to make a spread.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 weeks.


I halved the recipe and I roasted the hazelnuts in the oven first and peeled off the skins. Then I processed the nuts till the oils started to come out. I must admit that my food processor is a little old and so the nuts didn't grind up as fine as I would have liked. No matter. I added in the sugar and the cocoa as per the recipe but found that more sugar and cocoa was required to get it more like the authentic Nutella taste.



I couldn't wait to try it and neither could my daughter. She loves Nutella too. So we both slathered it on thick on to slices of bread and munched away.


It was good. Vey good! Aside from the spread being a little grainy
due to the nuts not being ground well enough, the taste was definitely Nutella!! Yes, yes, definitely not as good as the original but a darn good home recipe nonetheless. I also realised that its cheaper to buy Nutella than to make the homemade version simply because Hazelnuts are expensive over here and I could buy a jar of Nutella for the same price as just the hazelnuts.

It was fun being able to make my own Nutella though and I'm going to keep this recipe just in case I end up some place where I cant get my supply of Nutella.

Now I wonder what I can make in that new manufacturing plant of mine......(One can dream right?!!)

Lamingtons

Cricket, Midnight Oil, Aussie Rules and barracking for the Roos, Cold Chisel, Vic Bitter, Meat Pies n a can o'coke, Salt and Vinegar chips.......

These are some of the things I experienced and that now form extremely fond memories from the time I was a student in Australia. Yeah, in many ways, I was a True Blue Dinky-Di Aussie!

Something else that I used to thoroughly enjoy were Lamingtons. You could say that this is something typically and uniquely Aussie as I have never found it anywhere else. Some even go so far as to claim the Lamington as Australia's National Cake.

A Lamington is basically a small cube of white sponge that is coated in chocolate icing and then covered in dessicated coconut. Some versions are filled with cream or strawberry jam. In my uni days, I always loved Lamingtons and used to frequently pop down to the nearby Milk Bar (local mini grocery store) to pick up a lamington or two to stuff my face with.




Recently, a relation brought some lamingtons down from Oz and my son declared that he liked them - a lot! So..... I decided I would try to make them. After all, not only do the two of us like Lamingtons, the lovely wife likes them as well.

I used the lamington recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly Old Fashioned Favourites. It goes like this

Ingredients:
6 eggs
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup cornflour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup self raising flour

4 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
15 g butter, melted
1 cup milk
2 cups dessicated coconut.

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 20cm x30cm Lamington pan. Line with baking paper, extending paper 5 cm over long sides.
Beat eggs with electric mixer for about 10 minutes till thick and creamy. Beat in the sugar, dissoliving between additions. Fold in triple sifted flours.
Spread mixture evenly into pan. Bake for about 35 mintues. Turn cake immediately ontoa baking paper covered wire rack to cool.
Meanwhile make icing. Sift icing sugar and cocoainto medium heatproof bowl. Stir in melted butter and milk. Set bowl over medium saucepan of simmering water. Stir until icing is of coating consistency.
Cut cake into 16 pieaces. Dip each square in icing. Drain off excess. Toss the squares in coconut. Place lamingtons on wire rack to set.


The cake turned out fairly well although I felt it was a little bit too airy. The lamingtons I am used to have a firmer, less airy texture. Perhaps I didn't fold the flour in quick and smoothly enough.

The icing was also a little runny and it was kind of hard to coat the cake pieces with it. However, it seemed to set up nicely and looked fine once the coconut covered the cake.

It tasted pretty yummy though! I still think I prefer the lamingtons I used to get at the milk bar but for a first attempt, this was pretty darn good! Michael liked it too so all in all, I consider this a success.



.....I loved my time Down Under, but one thing I never, ever liked was Vegemite - and that's Fair Dinkum mate!

Bostini Cream Pie

It's Daring Bakers time again! Yeap, this months challenge was hosted by the wonderful Mary of Alpineberry and the challenge she chose was a Bostini Cream Pie.

Just like Mary said, there was no typo error. This wasn't a Boston Cream Pie but rather a variation of the same. Now I've heard of a Boston Cream Pie but I've never ever seen one much less tasted one. So telling me that this months challenge was a variation of something I had never seen didn't do me much good. It's like me telling you how wonderful a Durian tastes even though it has a funny smell and looks funny too. If you've never seen a Durian much less tasted one, you would have no clue what I was talking about.

I really must try and stop digressing so much.....

Anyway, I'm the sort of guy that likes to know things. I like to do research and get background information on anything and everything. Other than increasing my general knowledge, I can nod my head knowledgeably whenever someone talks about something. Most importantly, it enables me to filter out the 'pretenders' (read Bullsh*t Artists) from those that actually know something. One thing I dislike is people who pretend to know something when they actually dont.

And so... I turned to the web to research both the Boston Cream Pie as well as the Bostini Cream Pie. This is what I learned:

Firstly, the Boston Cream Pie is more a cake rather than a pie. Basically, it's a sponge cake that is split in half and filled with cream and then covered in chocolate. The lights began to glow in the brain - so this is why donuts with cream filling and covered in chocolate are called Boston Creams!!

So that begat the next question. If it's a cake, why is it called a pie? Apparently, in days of yore, pies and cakes were baked in the same tins. There were no separated cake tins and since pies were baked more frequently than cakes, the baking tins were called pie tins.

So then what has Boston got to do with it?? According to the Joy of Baking

the story began when a New York newspaper in 1855 published a recipe for a 'Pudding Pie Cake'. This recipe was similar to the Boston Cream Pie recipe of today except that it had a powdered sugar topping. From there we go to Boston where a man named Harvey D. Parker opened a restaurant called the Parker House Restaurant. On the menu was a 'Parker House Chocolate Pie', the recipe to which was similar to the New York newspaper recipe except a chocolate glaze had replaced the powdered sugar topping. We are not sure how it was renamed to 'Boston Cream Pie', but Bo Friberg in his book 'The Professional Pastry Chef' thinks "the name stems from the original title (in the New York paper) combined with the reference to Boston."

Now that I was armed with sufficient knowledge of the Boston Cream Pie, I turned my 'research' to the Bostini Cream Pie. This is what I learned:

The dessert is a layer of custard with an orange chiffon cake on top that is then covered with chocolate glaze. Sounds yummy indeed!

The dessert was created by Donna Scala and Kurtis L. Baguley of Bistro Don Giovanni

This dessert was voted by the Food and Wine staff of the Los Angeles Chronicle as the hands-down winning recipe for 1996.

So now, I could nod my head knowledgeably and proceed to make the dessert!

I decided to make the challenge on Saturday 13 October as we were having some friends over for a dinner party. Now would be a good time to mention that my son wakes up extremely early on Saturday mornings. On weekdays, when he has to go to Kindy, there is some grumbling, groaning and general malaise. But on Saturdays, he is up and cheery and often wakes me up as well!

However, on this Saturday I was up bright and early and managed to whisk up the chiffon cake and bake it. I made 8 small cakes in my muffin pan



and the remaining batter went into a log pan.




The cakes turned out lovely - and the smell of orange was strong and filled the kitchen. I had just taken finished removing the cakes out of the oven when my son and daughter came bounding down the stairs into the kitchen.

"Can I help you, Dads?" They both asked almost simultaneously. I'm never one to turn down my kids offer to help and on the contrary, always encourage it. I explained that I had already made the cake and that they could help with the custard. So my son and daughter plonked themselves at the work table and Michael started studying the recipe and reading out what needed to go in.



Next, we measured in the milk and corn flour and Mike blended them all together. He was really serious about it!



Next both kids helped to whisk in the whole egg and yolks, beating until smooth. You can see how much fun Sarah is having with this.




I then sent them packing out of the kitchen as I started to make the custard. I had to use a large cooking pot for the custard since there was quiet a bit of liquid - no surprise really seeing how many eggs were used. The custard cooked up quite easily although a little began to stick on the large pan. In hindsight, I should have cooked the custard in my usual smaller pan, but in two batches. I half filled 6 cocktail glasses with the custard and then let them cool before placing them in the fridge. Interestingly enough, I had never used these cocktail glasses before!



There was a lot of leftover custard so I filled another 2 ramekins as well as a larger bowl and put those in the fridge to chill.

So with the cake done and the custard completed, I took a break before preparing the rest of the dishes for our Dinner Party that night. Part of taking a break included cutting the log and tasting the Orange Chiffon Cake. It was light, it was spongy and it was full of orange goodness. Yummy!

Dinner went off very well and while the guests were enjoying my wife's Pomegranate Shots ala Jamie Oliver, I was busy in the kitchen melting the chocolate and butter.
My son insisted on helping too and he helped stir the chocolate and butter. It was now time to assemble the dessert and serve it.

I placed the cake on top of the custard and it held up. I was afraid that the custard would be too runny but although soft, it still held the cake up. I then poured the chocolate all over the top and carried the dessert out to the awaiting guests.


My wife did the honour of telling the guests what the dessert was called and at the same time doing a plug for the Daring Bakers. Everyone commented how wonderful the dessert looked. As they each took a mouthful, there was nothing but silence....

Then suddenly, there were oohs and ahhs! The combination of flavours was fasciniating and each flavour complemented the other. My daughter was thrilled with the dessert and gave it her seal of approval!


My wife really liked the soft custard and one of our dinner guests requested for a second serving of the custard. I loved the dessert as did everyone else. I mean, really, whats not to like? Chocolate - Good. Orange Cake - Good. Custard - Good! Just put it all together and Aaahhh! What a truly wonderfuly dessert!



The next afternoon, my parents came over for lunch and they had some of the leftover Bostini Cream Pie for dessert. They loved it too. Later that evening, on the way home from dinner, my kids asked if there was any more Bostini. I was actually quite amazed that they remembered the name of the dessert (albeit the abridged name). There was only one bowl of custard left so Michael ate it....


but not without sharing some with his sister...


There was still some cake and chocolate glaze leftover and so I pigged out. The chocolate with orange cake reminded me of the Jaffa Cakes (actually more of a biscuit) that I used to enjoy in my student days in Melbourne.


This was a truly satisfying challenge and a lovely dessert to enjoy. Thanks Mary!

If you'd like to see how the rest of the Daring Baker's fared, or if you'd like information on the Daring Bakers, please visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll


This is the recipe

Bostini Cream Pie
(from Donna Scala & Kurtis Baguley of Bistro Don Giovanni and Scala's Bistro)
Makes 8 generous servings

INGREDIENTS:
Custard
3/4 cup whole milk
2 3/4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 whole egg, beaten
9 egg yolks, beaten
3 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 vanilla bean (EDITED: vanilla extract is okay)
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar

Chiffon Cake
1 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 1/3 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup beaten egg yolks (3 to 4 yolks)
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup egg whites (about 8 large)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Chocolate Glaze
8 ounces semi or bittersweet chocolate
8 ounces unsalted butter

INSTRUCTIONS
To prepare the custard:

Combine the milk and cornstarch in a bowl; blend until smooth. Whisk in the whole egg and yolks, beating until smooth. Combine the cream, vanilla bean and sugar in a saucepan and carefully bring to a boil. When the mixture just boils, whisk a ladleful into the egg mixture to temper it, then whisk this back into the cream mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain the custard and pour into 8 large custard cups. Refrigerate to chill.

To prepare the chiffon cakes:

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Spray 8 molds with nonstick cooking spray. You may use 7-ounce custard cups, ovenproof wide mugs or even large foil cups. Whatever you use should be the same size as the custard cups.

Sift the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add the oil, egg yolks, orange juice, zest and vanilla. Stir until smooth, but do not overbeat.

Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gently fold the beaten whites into the orange batter. Fill the sprayed molds nearly to the top with the batter.

Bake approximately 25 minutes, until the cakes bounce back when lightly pressed with your fingertip. Do not overbake. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. When completely cool, remove the cakes from the molds. Cover the cakes to keep them moist.

To prepare the glaze:

Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Place the butter in a saucepan and heat until it is just about to bubble. Remove from the heat; add the chocolate and stir to melt. Pour through a strainer and keep warm.

To assemble:

Cut a thin slice from the top of each cake to create a flat surface. Place a cake flat-side down on top of each custard. Cover the tops with warm chocolate glaze. Serve immediately.