So given the choice of making either a chocolate cake or a honey cake, my 4yo replies “Um, how about a chocolate-honey cake’. Well, why not?

The recipe for the cake is an adaptation from the UK Food Network. It produces a moist cake with a crusty exterior that you just want to break off and eat while it’s warm.

Ingredients:
180g butter, softened
375g caster sugar
2 eggs
180g mascarpone
1 tsp vanilla essence
400g plain flour + 2.5 tsp baking soda
180g melted Belgian dark chocolate
225ml buttermilk

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add eggs, 1 at the time, beating well after each addition.
3. Add mascarpone and vanilla; mix well.
4. Alternately mix in dry ingredients and buttermilk and melted chocolate, beating well after each addition.
5. Pour into paper cupcake cups and bake for 20 minutes until skewer comes out clean.
6. For frosting, beat 150g butter with 3tbs honey and about 2 to 3 cups soft icing sugar. Top with crushed, raw cocoa nibs.

Most people know it as baklava or baklawa but we call it ‘batlewa’ – a much softer sound and well suited to these sweet pastries. I’m partial to Lebanese batlewa as I find that it’s not as syrupy sweet as, say, Greek baklava. When I was first introduced to it, I would have to travel all the way to Sydney Road for pastries from either El Faiha Sweets or Balha’s Pastry. A small family-run business, El Faiha held a special place for me. Apart from the fact that I would often be handed a lady’s finger to eat on my way out, I found that their pastries were just that bit better. Balha’s is a bigger place with a wider range though and I think customers often let that sway them away from the smaller shops.

A few years ago, there was a commotion in the community when Abla’s Patisserie opened an equally large shop in Preston that also sold spectacularly decorated cakes and chocolate gifts. There was now competition for Balha’s, who then moved to a swish new location further up Sydney Road. It looked wonderful but the fact was their service was generally surly and I did not have felt comfortable walking in by myself. What a joy it was to visit Abla’s and, more recently, to have them open up a shop at Prahran Market – a 10 minute drive from me (before moving house, sob sob).

My latest venture to Abla’s in Prahran Market (after making an FB comment and winning a platter) was made last week to pick up a box of batlewa for mum to take to relatives in Malaysia – two beribboned boxes that made it safely and received gratefully. Their chocolates are not yet up to the standards of Al Baba Sweets or Patchi but, oh, the delicate crispness of the lady’s fingers (my all time favourite batlewa), mini date-filled ma’amoul (shortbread pastries) and barazi (sesame biscuits) – ahhh, heaven with a cup of tea. Now I just need to find out if they make knafe bi jibn…

Fig Tartlets

8 fresh figs – sliced thinly
1 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons flour
½ cup icing sugar
1 egg
80g unsalted butter , melted, cooled
2 tbs Pedro Ximenez sherry
zest of 1 lemon
mini tart shells

1. Mix all the ingredients (except figs and casings) together well and spoon into tart casings.
2. Layer fig slices on top.
3. Bake at 175C until tops are golden brown (around 25 minutes).
4. Serve warm or cold with cream or ice-cream

Saffron-Scented Figs

a pinch of saffron
1 tbs honey
250ml water
1 cinnamon stick
fresh figs (you can substitute dried figs)

1. Put all ingredients (except figs) into a pot and bring to boil.
2. Turn heat down and simmer until the syrup thickens slightly.
3. Add figs and continue simmering, basting figs occasionally, until figs are soft (around 15 minutes)
4. Spoon over yoghurt and serve for breakfast or snack or dessert

I’ve made a 2-egg flourless orange cake before but this one from the SBS website called for 6 eggs, resulting in an ultra-moist mouthful. I encountered one potentially horrendous error, which was not greasing the bundt tin well enough before pouring the batter in. When I turned the cake out the top layer was left sticking to the tin and I had to scrape it out and place it gingerly atop the base of the cake. Fortunately, it was not obvious once I poured the thick yoghurt icing over it. As fate would have it, I also come across a great idea for making little cars out of apple slices and grapes that week and so could incorporate his apple request.

Another party on the weekend with family came with a request for exactly the same cake, but I managed to get him to agree to a banana cake instead (and I conveniently had 6 blackening bananas in the pantry). I also carved a whole watermelon into a T-Rex dinosaur head based on a picture from the Watermelon Promotion Board site. Some great ideas that you have to make use of over summer while watermelons are in season. Messy though the watermelon carving exercise was, the delight on his face made it worthwhile.

Yoghurt Icing
1. Strain greek yoghurt overnight
2. Add a splash of lemon juice, a few drops of vanilla extract and enough icing sugar to sweeten to your liking
3. Mix and pour over top of cake, allowing it to drip down sides enticingly

We have had the most awesome family week in the lead up to the new year. We had a loose plan of the activity we would be doing each day and were blessed with perfect weather for every one of them. Last Wednesday, we took a drive up to Silvan’s U-Pick Berry Farm in the morning. It was cool and quiet when we caught the bus from the carpark to the orchard. Armed with a bucket each and a plastic container for the more delicate berries, we set off to the boysenberry patch. Avoiding the thorns, we picked carefully and ate recklessly – boysenberry-stained lips and tongues and fingers. Eventually, we moved onto the blueberries then the raspberries and finally the cherries. By the time we returned, 2 hours later, the carpark was full to the brim and there were queues of locals and tourists waiting patiently for the buses.

Back home now, I marinate 5 cups of boysenberries with 1/2 cup sugar, a squeeze of lemon, a pinch of nutmeg and 3 tbs pre-soaked sago for 1 hour. This mixture is scooped into a pie tin lined with shortcrust pastry then topped with a pastry lattice before being brushed with beaten egg. Bake at 200C for 30 minutes, then another 30 minutes with foil over the top to stop the pastry lattice from burning. Cool before eating so that the filling does not ooze out. We served it with ice cream as it was quite tart (more sugar next time).

What made it so good? Was it the buttermilk, the caramelised bananas, the addition of dark chocolate pieces? Whatever, it worked and it worked so well that I made two batches in one day. It worked so well that my son who was ‘helping’ me to hold onto his cousin’s container of muffins sneaked pieces of it while we were driving over until there were just crumbs left. All I gotta say is you HAVE to try this recipe. I know that everyone has their own best banana bread, or muffin, or cake, but really truly -this is it.

Buttermilk Banana Bread

2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 or 3 mashed bananas
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 tbs rice bran oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 and 3/4 cup SR flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
cinnamon & nutneg
80g butter
1/4 treacle or agave syrup
1/4 cup semi-dried bananas
1/4 cup dark chocolate pieces

1. Beat the sugar & butter until thick and pale, then add eggs and continue beating for a few minutes.
2. Add the mashed bananas, buttermilk, oil, treacle/agave syrup, vanilla extract, semi-dried banana and dark chocolate pieces
3. Stir in dry ingredients until just mixed
4. Bake at 175C until done (skewer comes out clean)

2 whole lemons
250g almond meal (you can substitute 50g of this with desiccated coconut)
250g caster sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp baking powder

1. Wash lemons well then cover with cold water in saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 hours then drain and allow to cool before processing into a pulp (remove pips first)
2. Cream eggs and sugar until thick and pale
3. Fold in almond meal, lemon pulp, baking powder until just mixed
4. Bake at 170C for 1 hour until skewer comes out clean
(For a short cut, you can process the lemons, then add all your other ingredients into the food processer. I found that this worked pretty well too)
5. Decorate with butter cream if you wish

Some days seem to go so slowly when you have a little baby to care for, but now I can hardly even remember what it was like to hold my newborn. He’s crawling after his big brother as fast as he can and almost ready to take his first steps. His first word, spoken this week, was ‘Bella’ – my beautiful Russian Blue cat who has just been adopted by my brother & his girlfriend.

We celebrated with family this weekend and I wanted to make a special cake for him. There was something about a robot cake that seemed appropriate, so I baked two square cakes using the Buttermilk Birthday Cake recipe from Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess and Planet Cake’s Vanilla Cupcake recipe. The buttermilk cake is a cinch to work with when you need to cut shapes out. A couple of rectangular blocks pieced together and I had the beginnings of a robot sitting down. He was propped up against the vanilla cake and I used this for the birthday message. The worst part about decorating children’s cakes is having so many leftover lollies (mine usually end up in the bin otherwise they might end up in my mouth). I wrote the message by piping melted chocolate onto baking paper and allowing it to set before placing the letters individually on the cake. This way any mistakes can easily be corrected.

I’ve been a fan of cake pops since seeing them on Bakerella’s (who has just received a kidney transplant from her mum) site. Watching her tutorial, I thought you needed candy melts to make them so I didn’t bother as I thought these weren’t available in Australia (although I have found them since). For Zac’s birthday, however, I really wanted to try making them. Out of sheer laziness, I searched for a one-pot chocolate cake to bake but ended up with this one. I used G&B’s 70% dark chocolate and wanted to devour the entire cake before it even had a chance to cool down. After crumbling the cake, I mixed in some peanut butter frosting adapted from Smitten Kitchen (which I’ve converted to metric measurements below). After shaping the mixture into even, golf ball sizes, a chopstick dipped in melted chocolate was inserted into each. These were left to harden in the fridge before being dipped entirely in dark chocolate, then drizzled with white chocolate. They looked beautiful in makeshift vases of jars and tasted like a decadent brownie. Not too messy to eat either!

Peanut Butter Frosting (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1. Beat cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy
2. Gradually add icing sugar and beat until light and fluffy
3. Beat in peanut butter until thoroughly blended

I was wondering aloud what type of cake to bake for my 3 year old’s birthday party when he suggested a strawberry cake. Not The Wiggles or a dinosaur or a car. No, he really wanted a strawberry cake.

I used the basic vanilla cake recipe from my recently acquired Planet Cake book to bake a round cake and a bundt cake. I scraped the beans from a whole vanilla pod instead of using extract and I think it it elevates the flavour to a whole new level.

After baking, both cakes were halved and sandwiched with warmed marmalade (with all the chunky bits removed) then I stacked the bundt cake on top of the round one to create a dome. The hole in the middle was filled with blueberries and black cherries before lightly whipped cream was applied and smoothed. Decorating the cake was super easy – thinly sliced strawberries spiralling from the base to a top crowned with a single strawberry and bright yellow stars piped around the base and the top. I really love the way the design has come off – stylish and elegant. Maybe too elegant for a 3 year old party?

My son’s favourite bedtime book currently is Annabel Karmel’s ‘Mummy and Me Cookbook‘ so I made the blueberry and lemon cheesecakes (minus the blueberries). Taking inspiration from these, I piped the lion’s mane then added the face with fudge icing.

My boy also loves cheese sandwiches, so I pulled out my round cookie cutters to cut out the mane from bread and the face from sliced cheese. A smear of vegemite to colour the mane then the face drawn in with fudge icing again Easy!

If you are serving popcorn cones at a kids party, be prepared to vacuum up stray kernels from the couch and carpet. Oh, and to pick them up from behind the bed and cupboards for the next week or so.

The lions would have been lonely by themselves so I made some clowns to keep them company. These featured in A’s birthday party a few years back but this time I made marble cupcakes instead of using using Nigella’s Burnt Butter cupcake recipe. I had piped the mouths the night before only to find that the gel icing ran onto the butter icing overnight. So mum cleverly and painstakingly cut little think strip from the edge of canteloupe slices to create new little smiley mouths for them. What a great job!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my little darling…

My son has been requesting that we make this for weeks now. So, out came his apron and chef’s hat, potato masher and rolling pin. Measure, pour, nibble, measure, pour, mix, nibble, mix, stuff a handful of raisins and dried apricots when you think mum’s not looking, oven, drizzle G&B 70% dark chocolate….voila!

Plate from Anthropolgie and recipe from Annabel Karmel.