A Few of My Favourite Things !

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.

Okay, so it’s a BIG claim. But I’m going to make it anyway. I have just made the World’s Best Banana Muffin. There. That’s it. Done.

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)

My little boy has turned one!

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

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.

We went to the Taste of Melbourne on a Friday afternoon again this year to avoid the crowds, and what a lovely way it was to spend a rainy afternoon. Thanks to Green & Black’s, entry was free so we just had to buy crown currency to use at the stalls. Despite concentrating solely on food and skipping all the wine stalls, we still managed to spend a leisurely three hours at the impressive and gorgeous Royal Exhibition Centre. My friends who went the next day, and did all the wine stalls as well as the HSBC VIP Lounge, stayed until they got kicked out at 4:30pm.

Onto the food then and in order of appearance:

Mezzo Bar & Grill’s organic slow braised pork cheek, white polenta, raisins and marsala sauce. So delightful that the woman standing across from us felt a need to share with us how much she enjoyed hers. Maybe it’s not a bad thing that Mezzo has gone Italian since reinventing itself after Oyster Little Bourke.

Melbourne Wine Room/Mr Wolf‘s Livornese seafood stew. Just one whiff of this could have sent me to heaven however I nearly broke my tooth on that bread stick! Such an appropriate dish for a cold, grey day so more of the broth would have been welcome. That said, it didn’t diminish our enjoyment of the stew, especially as we watched the queue crawling slowly towards The Palace for Luke Mangan’s Wagyu Burger. Being the most substantial dish and for just 10 crowns may have explained the lines, but we had been forewarned that the burger was nothing special.

Mmeh, The European’s duck tortelloni with pea puree & truffle oil really did not do it for me. One bite and I was happy to leave the rest to A. who ate it more out of hunger than desire.

Thankfully, it was a completely different story when we got to Comida Bebe. We chose to eschew the more popular Paella Fiesta for the baby chorizo glazed in cider, served on a skewer with candied and fresh apple and topped with an apple toffee sauce and boy, was it worth it! The chorizo was smokey, chewy and mouthwateringly moreish. They really should do more than just pop-up here and there.

Next door was the Libertine/Le Traiteur stall where the entire menu had my eyes popping. As I was getting quite full though, we skipped the pissaladiere feuillete and smoked duck, apple & walnut rilettes for the game consomme and truffled rabbit agnolotti – clear broth spiked with amontillado sherryl. A very delicate dish that A. enjoyed more than me.

Onto the opposite side where the (IMO) most eye-catching stalls had been set up – Longrain and Longrain Bar. Although the yellow curry of wagyu beef with cucumber relish looked tempting, I immediately wanted the salted Western Plains pork prawn sweet roll with pickled vegetables. Unlike Circa’s try-hard version of the banh mi last year, this one hit the mark and was one of my favourite dishes of the afternoon. Crackling pork skin with sweet chilli sauce – I could have had 3 of these if I wasn’t so full.

We also had their vanilla tapioca pudding with poached pears and jackfruit.

Charcoal Lane is restaurant, supported by Mission Australia, that enables Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people to obtain comprehensive hospitality training. A good enough reason to try their food and visit the restaurant, right? But what makes it better is that the food is actually well-worth tasting. We only had the seared Kingfish, red curry, puffed rice and coconut dish but it’s enough for me to want to schedule in a dinner there soon.

To finish off, we had the pistachio ‘panna cotta’ with caramel salted popcorn from Sarti. Salted caramel is really taking off in Melbourne in a BIG way but so few places get it right (I think the only place that A has give the thumbs up to is the creperie in Hardware Lane). Unfortunately, this was one of them. The popcorn did not taste of salted caramel at all but it was saved by the amazing pistachio panna cotta.

Well, we finished up at the restaurant stalls but, of course, there were a few other things we had to taste =) The original Monaco Bar was one of my favourite ice creams as a child so when I first read about Pat & Stick’s ice cream range in Gourmet Traveller about, oh, 6 years ago I knew that I had to try it. Unfortunately, their products were not stocked in Melbourne so I’ve had to wait until now for one of their sandwiches. Apparently the Caramel Pecan is one of the more popular so that’s what we got. It was good but, really, it could be SOOOOO much better. The cookie could and should have been nuttier and it reminded me of the cheap peanut cookies that you can get at Aldi. I hope the rest of the range is better but I’m more inclined to make my own next time.

Then there was the Green & Black’s chocolate fountain. A pile of skewered marshmallows to hold under the flowing river of chocolate, it was funny watching a woman tentatively reaching her skewer towards the waterfall and pulling back just before it touched. So good that I had two and would have gone back for a third before heading out the door before remembering that this afternoon was already going to mean extra gym time.

We enjoyed Dello Mano’s gourmet brownies so much last year that I made a beeline as soon as I spotted their sign. Of course, it helps when you have an owner like Bien who is passionate about their product and wants you to enjoy it as much as they do (unlike a certain fussy helper at the King Island Dairy stall).

We bought a few chocolates from The Chocolate Master but haven’t tasted them as yet as we are fairly chocolated out right now.

Who else has been and blogged (so far)? I have to slowly make my way through all these posts over the next few days…
Jeroxie
I Eat Therefore I Am
Travelling in Mary Janes
My Food Trail
Iron Chef Shellie
Green Gourmet Giraffe
Kitchen Wench
…It Pleases Us
Melbourne Gastronome
MEL: hot or not
The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua
Sweet Cherrie Pie

Did anyone NOT watch the Masterchef Finale? And did anyone NOT love both the finalists, Adam & Callum – whom both have blogs now.

Seeing as we had not done a potluck since our Neil Perry special, I decided it was time for us to have a Masterchef cook-off, the idea being to cook a recipe from the Masterchef website and bring it along for all to try. As I didn’t bother asking what anyone was making, I was a little concerned that we would end up with four desserts and one entree and we’d have to order in pizza – not that there would have been anything wrong with eating four desserts for lunch. Fairytale ending…

We started with Adam’s Prawn Scotch Eggs with a Coconut, Chilli Sambal. So good.

This was followed by George’s Open Beef Kofta and George & Gary’s Chicken Winglets, Hummus and Raw Vegetable Salad (I took the photo before the winglets were placed!)

To end the meal, we had George’s Braised Tomatoes with Smoked Chocolate Mousse – my effort – and a Fruit & Cheese Platter.

These eye-catching cupcakes were so popular last time I baked them that I decided to do them again for a 1st Birthday Party. Everyone wonders how you get the cake in the cones and the answer, of course, is that they are baked in there. Exactly the same as you would normally bake cupcakes but substitute cupcake cases for flat-bottomed cones. My dilemma came in the form of transportation. These cupcakes were top-heavy with the weight of the frosting so how could I ensure that they got to the party venue intact? Lightbulb moment! I remembered that we used to melt wax into birthday candle holders to make the little candles stay. Of course, I used something far more delicious than wax. I painted the bottom of the cones with melted chocolate and stuck them onto my cupcake tray and let the chocolate set overnight. Those cupcakes didn’t budge the next day when I was carrying them to the car but then I was beset by doubts about whether they would come off when the partygoers tried to remove them. I needn’t have worried after all. A few jiggles and the cupcakes were theirs for the tasting.

This post is very, and I mean VERY, late. This cake was baked 10 months ago for A’s birthday and since then we have celebrated Christmas, moved house, had our son’s 2nd birthday party, had a new baby and celebrated my birthday. I was reminded of this cake when someone from Green & Black’s contacted me this week with tickets to the upcoming Taste of Melbourne (more on this in the next post).

So on a Saturday night, after putting my son to bed, I finalised the preparations for the party. I had made mini burgers, and was serving them with peking duck rolls and assorted mini dim sum.

Guests started rolling in and food was rolling out. The doorbell rang and the singer that I had inadvertently stumbled upon when visiting the city library one afternoon came in to play a set for us.

Finally, the candles were lit and the cake was placed in front of the birthday boy. He chose this cake from my Alice Medrich bittersweet book after flicking through and looking at the pictures. I looked at the photo and thought ‘That looks easy enough’ and ended up having to purchase a $69 roll of plastic liner to make the the thin chocolate layer surrounding the cake as none of the stores sold smaller rolls.

We also had a smaller family celebration earlier in the evening but they didn’t want to stay for the main event. Here was the cake we had:

Strawberry Celebration Cake

Soaking Syrup
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup rum

Cream Filling:
2 cups mascarpone cheese
1 cup thickened cream
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Genoise

100g Green & Black’s Dark (85%) organic chocolate, melted

2 punnets strawberries

1. Pour melted chocolate along a strip of plastic liner that fits exactly around the inside of the cake tin and spread with spatula. Lift strip and fit ito tin with chocolate facing the inside. Refrigerate until set.
2. Combine ingredients for soaking syrup in saucepan and simmer until sugar is dissolved. Cool then add rum.
3. Combine ingredients for cream filling in large bowl and whip until the mixture is almost holding stiff peaks.
4. Cut the Chocolate Genoise into 2 layers horizontally and fit bottom layer into chocolate-lined tin. Brush bottom layer with 3 tbs soaking syrup and spread half of the cream evenly over the cake layer. Arrange and press strawberries into the cream. Cover the strawberries with a litte more cream.
5. Moisten the top later of cake lightly with 2 tbs syrup and fit it, moist side down, into the tin Press into place and moisten top of cake with the rest of the syrup. cover with remaining cream and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
6. Remove sides of springform tin very carefully and decorate top of the cake with cream, strawberries and chocolate fans. Carefully peel plastic strip off the cake and serve.

There are actually queues forming in Melbourne! We are used to seeing queues in Paris or Tokyo but today, for pretty much the first time we remember, there was a queue to get into Koko Black in the Block Arcade and the new Lindt Cafe on Collins St. The Lindt store is so new that it hasn’t made it into their website yet.

The Lindt Cafe is set in a beautiful building – high ceilings with a little balcony that runs along both sides and across the back of the second storey, book cases set along the entire length of it. My idea of heaven really – a chocolate cafe below and books above. I wonder if you’re allowed up there. Anyway, no cakes or chocolates this time as I’ve tried a few from the Sydney store. But the macarons (which they call delice) tempt me and so I ask for the hazelnut, milk chocolate and roselli. As an afterthought, I say “You should give me the broken passionfruit one too” and they do. Mmmmmmm, thin crunchy shell with a chewy interior then the creamy ganache.

I’ll make them soon, hon, I promise…

Another clipped out recipe made! This one is from Gourmet Traveller September 2008, a dessert served at The Connaught. It’s a little more complicated than your average brownie but is also well worth the effort. It consists of three layers and is definitely not a one bowl kinda dessert.

The bottom layer is a moist chocolatey brownie studded with walnuts (macadamias if you follow The Connaught), the middle is caramelised banana slices and this is all topped with a dark (milk in the original) chocolate mousse. Here’s what it looks like:

I wanted to gift a few of these to a friend whose parents are visiting from Sweden but the brown paper casing had become saturated with oil from the butter. So, I picked up some cute fabric from Lincraft to wrap around the individual cases. One cake also went to a neighbor who is celebrating her birthday this week. That leaves two one for us!

Chocolate & Walnut Brownie

200g butter
100g dark chocolate
3 eggs
210 caster sugar
100g plain flour
100g walnuts, coarsely chopped

1. Melt butter & chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.
2. Whisk eggs & caster sugar until thick & pale, fold through the chocolate mixture, then fold in flour and walnuts.
3. Spoon into individual paper cases & bake until just firm to touch (15-20 min). Cool completely

1 tbs finely grated ginger
2 bananas, sliced
100g brown sugar

1. Heat brown sugar in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until melted (2-3 min)
2. Add ginger, stir to combine, then add bananas in a single layer and cook, turning occasionally, until caramelised and tender.
3. Arrange on top of brownie, squashing to make a uniform layer & leave to cool.

2 eggs
55 g caster sugar
3/4 tsp gelatine, dissolved in small amount of very hot water
5g Pavlova Magic (or eggwhite powder)
300ml thick cream
200g dark chocolate, melted & cooled slightly

1. Whisk eggs & sugar in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until thick * can hold a ribbon (10-12 min). Remove from heat.
2. Whisk in gelatine & Pavlova Magic powder.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk cream until soft peaks form. Add melted chocolate and fold to combine then fold in egg mixture.
4. Spoon mousse over caramelised banana and refrigerate until set (2-3 hr).