The Most Diet-Unfriendly Cake You'll Find Here

...and it's all thanks to Donna Hay.

Over the years I've found Donna Hay recipes to be a tad on the sweet side for me. This then got me into the habit of messing around with the measurements and what not - which probably explains why half my baking adventures fail miserably. However, this Chocolate Truffle Cake really leaves me with nothing to complain about - except perhaps the fat content.

I am going to repeat this once again. If you are health-conscious, turn away now. Otherwise, buckle up and enjoy the ride.

This is also a time consuming cake, but it definitely is worthy of every minute spent labouring away in the kitchen.First you need to sift the flour and cocoa flour. Not once. Not Twice. But THREE times.
Do it. Or you'll be kicking yourself.
Next grab 4 eggs ad 1/3 cup of caster sugar.

I'm a strong believer of Free Range Eggs. The thought of my own garden-hogging chickens flap up when I get tempted by the price of caged eggs.

Won't somebody think of the chickens!?!
Beat the egg and sugar until light and fluffy. You'll notice your mixture growing in size. It's kinda cool like that. Next, fold in the cocoa and flour mix. I always use either a rice paddle or a metal spoon when I fold - I think the metal spoon idea came from Huey's.

Pour the mixture into a springform tin (one of the most awesomest bakeware ever). Smack the tin down on the bench gently to pop any large air bubbles which may have been trapped inside.
Pop it into an 180°C oven for 25 minutes. You may want to make the truffle filling at this point.

See, I told you it would be time-consuming and lots of hard work.
For the filling, grab about 400g of dark coverture chocolate and 2 cups of single cream. The original recipe asks for more, but I prefer this ratio. Melt it while stirring over a double boiler.

I find the Nestle Cooking Chocolate works fine, but if you're a chocolate connoisseur then by all means use high quality stuff to your liking.
It was some time here that the timer on my oven went off and I had to go rescue the cake. I know this because the ordering of photos on my camera tells me so.
I'm also going to use this opportunity to show you oven mits (?) that SK got me from the U.S. It took me ages to work out what the shape was meant to be, so I'm just gonna it leave it there for everyone to guess.
Back to the chocolate mix. Remember to keep stirring or it may just catch on the bottom.
After it is melted, set it aside and let it cool.
Next, separate six eggs. You'll need the yolks. The whites you can use for meringues or macarons. You can even make them and then stick them as decoration on the cake, or do something trippy and make it all Adriano Zumbo-esque.
Put the egg yolks with 1/3 cup of caster sugar over a double boiler. At this point I'm going to say I hope you have a power point near your stove, or you're going to need an extension cord.
Next, beat the egg and sugar over the double boiler. Make sure you scrap the bottom regularly with a spatula to make sure that the egg doesnt cook on the side of the bowl.
When the mixture is thick, put it aside and let it cool slightly for about 2 minutes.
Next, fold in the chocolate cream mixture from before. Make swift, gentle folds so that the mixture stays light.
And then place it into refridgeration for 30 minutes.
While the truffle filling is cooling, proceed to slice the cake into two. Don't be like me, cut them evenly, please.
Place the bottom half of the cake back into the springform tin. At this point I will stress that you remember to tighten your tin. Nobody likes runny truffle mixture all over the benchtop.
Pour half of the truffle mixture over the bottom layer. The mixture, at this point, should be at a consistency so that it will naturally spread itself over the layer without the need for a spatula, but it should not be so runny that the sponge cake will start absorbing it like syrup.
Put the top layer of cake on top of the truffle mixture...
...then pour the rest of the truffle mixture on top.

Easy right?
Then pop the entire thing into the fridge and leave it there for at least 5 hours. I experimented once with 5 hours, and once overnight. The overnight one was definitely more cutting friendly and was better texture-wise.

Once the cake is set, detach the springform tin carefully. It should come off quite easily without needing to run your knife around the edge.
Then just cut it up and serve!

(from Donna Hay Modern Classics Book 2)

Lemon and Orange Tea Cakes

A box of lemons randomly appeared in our kitchen a week ago (or so). It seemed like such a pity to let them go slowly to waste, so I've been picking my brain as to how on earth I was going to get through an entire box of lemons.

The first things that popped into mind were the likes of lemon butter, lemon meringue pies and lemon tarts. I'm not a fan of lemon butter, and I have not yet recovered from my epic failure in making shortcrust pastry to even consider attempting the latter two.

Eventually after much hunting and gathering, the idea of a simple lemon and orange tea cake hit me. Much like a pan to the face, except less painful.

So I got to work tonight, grating up the rind of about 4 lemons to produce 1 tablespoon of lemon rind and a pinch of orange rind.

Mmm citrus. Plenty of Vitamin C is perfect for winter.

Oh and before I forget, preheat the oven to 160°C.

Then, juice the lemons and oranges. You'll need about a 1/4 cup of orange and 2 tablespoons of lemon. This, my friends, is caster sugar. You need 2/3 cup.

Next, proceed to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Don't be like me and treat it with a little patience. I was a little agitated tonight.

Add the rind into the mix and continue beating. You want the mixture to be nice and pale. It should also smell rather citrus-y.

Proceed to beat in 3 eggs. One. At. A. Time. Please.

Fold in sifted flour and baking powder into the mix. I used bicarb soda and lived to regret the tale. Also fold in the orange and lemon juice.

*Note to self: remember to convert measures between baking powder and bicarb soda next time.
Grease muffin tin and spoon the mixture in. The mixture should be quite gluggy and sticky.

Look at the army of tea cakes. They are going to be golden babies of mine very soon.

This is the point where I emit an evil cackle of sorts.

After a slow 25 minutes...VOILA! Don't be too eager beaver and carefully take them out and cool them on a cooling rack. You need them cool, or the cream will melt.

Wait what? Cream?

Yes, cream. And orange syrup. I'll post the recipe for the orange syrup in a separate post. I wasn't happy with the photos of this batch. (i.e. something went weird with my DSLR.)

While you wait for the tea cakes to cool, proceed to whip up some French Vanilla Cream. Do as much or as little as you like.

After the cakes are sufficiently cool, carefully cut the tops off them. Cut the tops down the middle and set aside. Drizzle a teaspoonful of orange syrup into the cake, allowing the cake to completely soak it up. Don't pour too much. Nobody likes a fully drenched cake.

Spread a little cream on top of the tea cakes, then wedge the two halves of the cut-off top into the cream like a pair of butterfly wings. Serve with a little more orange syrup, or whatever rocks your boat.

Lemon and Orange Tea Cakes
Makes 12

To Buy:
175g Unsalted Butter
2/3 cup Caster Sugar
1 tblsp Lemon Rind
1/2 tsp Orange Rind
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 tblsp lemon juice
1/4 cup orange juice
Cream, to serve

To Make:

1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add eggs while beating, one by one
4. Sift flour and baking powder, add to mixture with lemon and orange juice
5. Spoon mix into greased muffin tins and bake for 25mins
6. When cooked, remove from oven and cool on rack
7. In the meantime, whip up as much or as little cream as you like with your cakes.
8. Once cake is cool, slice the top off each cake and cut down the middle of the cap which has just been cut off
9. Spoon a little orange syrup (recipe to follow) over the cake, allowing the cake to fully absorb the syrup
10. Smear whipped cream over the top and wedge in the cut pieces of cake in a butterfly shape
11. Serve with another drizzle of orange syrup
    

Request Line - GW

Move over Max Brenner. You've just met your match!

A while ago GW sent me over a recipe for Molten Chocolate Baby Cakes. I had a quick squiz at it, and while I thought it sounded great, I wasn't too sure if the recipe was going to work.

Part of the problem was that some parts of the recipe didn't make sense, and moreover, there was an ingredient missing. Namely, sugar.

So today, when I finally had some time to do a bit of recipe testing (and fill in the blanks work), I decided to give this a go.

Little did I know, that after tweaking bits and pieces here and there, the end result turned out to be almost identical to my beloved Max Brenner Chocolate Souffle! It brought tears of delight to my eyes (being Asian and all, my first thought was Hey! Now I don't have to pay 10 bucks for this stuff!)

The journey throughout this recipe though, was a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs.


This is my silicon muffin tray. I got it as a part of my 18th birthday present years ago, and till today, I've never really had a chance to use it. (Not much of a muffin person)

However, given that the recipe originally asked for 6 pudding moulds, I thought I could put this to good use. Since I'm just testing and all, if it doesn't work, well...then it doesn't work.

Note about silicon trays: I placed mine in another metal tray because the bendiness of silicon makes it very hard to move the tray without the messing up the mixture and the melts.


I also had some dark chocolate melts left in my pantry and I decided to put it to good use as well. As you can probably tell from the picture, I'm really not very neat when it comes to pouring things out.

And it's not like it really matter anyway.

Now from here until the final product, I didn't take any photos. Here's why.

1. The recipe asked for the batch to be cooked for 10 minutes. I can guarantee that it was NOT done in 10 minutes.
   
2. After an extra 10 minutes, I pulled it out, and the melts were starting to get a little burnt. I stuck a skewer in to see if it was cooked. The skewer came out gooey, but tasted good nevertheless. So I turned the oven off and pulled the tray out.
3. The mixture was way too soft for it to be removed from the tray, so I left it to cool in the tray for about 5minutes.
4. Thinking that it was the moment of truth, I gathered around a lot of of teatowels just in case everything fell apart when I flipped them onto the cooling rack.
5. I took a deep breath, and flipped it around. And to my absolute surprise, everything not only stayed in shape, but didn't even crumble! They were perfect!

I was really over the moon.

So now that the recipe is complete, it is here to be shared.



Molten Chocolate Baby Cakes/Max Brenners Chocolate Souffle
Serves: 6

Buy:
50g salted butter
350g dark cooking chocolate
4 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup plain flour
1/2 cup caster sugar (roughly. As mentioned before, this was left out of the original recipe, so it's guesswork on my part.)
6 chocolate melts
6 pudding moulds, buttered (or 1 deep, silicon muffin tray, as pictured)
Baking paper

Bake:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
2. Grease the trays (not necessary if you're using silicon) and cut out small circles of baking paper to line the bottom of each mould
3. Melt chocolate (microwave/double boiler both okay), and rest aside to cool slightly
4. Cream butter and sugar until light in colour
5. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract
6. Add sifted flour and gently fold into mixture
   
7. Add melted chocolate and fold until smooth and evenly mixed
   
8. Divide into moulds and top with a chocolate melt in the centre of each one
9. Place into oven and bake for 20 minutes (keep an eye on it after 15)
10. Remove and let it rest in tray for 5minutes
11. Tip onto cooling rack, but serve warm with cream/strawberries/drizzled chocolate sauce/ice cream -- whatever rocks your boat.

Nom it while it's hot.

Lest We Forget

Some time last week I asked my friend SL what time his Saturday Soccer game was going to be on. I told him eagerly that I was going to be making a chocolate truffle cake to bring for the team to nom on. He replied:

"Err, mate...we don't have a game next week? It's Anzac Day!"

As much as I wanted to come up with some witty comment to divert the attention away from my forgetting Anzac Day, but really the only thing that was running through my head was,

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhh!
Right."

See. I knew that? Right?
And then I just felt terrible. My imaginary tail stopped wagging instantly. Instead I thought perhaps I'll make my first batch of Anzac Cookies at home. I used to make them at our Open Days back in high school, but at the time I had fellow bakers around me doing all the mixing, moulding and what not.

I just kind of floated around the room pretending to be a wisp, occasionally letting out a "Oh that looks gorgeous!"

Truth is, I'm a TERRIBLE baker, and the idea of having to do something new in the oven discomforts me slightly.

You may wonder why I was going to make the Chocolate Truffle Cake then?

Long story. I'll explain it when I post my recipe up some time in the future. Yes, there's a story behind it. A good one too.

In the meantime I don't want another cake stealing the limelight from these delicious cookies.

Upon hearing that I was planning on making Anzac Cookies for the weekend, my boss quickly grabbed her mother SJ so that she could give me her recipe. I've tried them myself once at work before, and I must say I was an instant fan.

There's nothing like smelling freshly baked cookies at work. Seriously.

I have to say that this recipe was probably the first recipe that has been handed down to me all written on paper. (I took a photocopy of it) Sounds weird I know - it's not like my mother's never given me any of her recipes before, no - but I've never had anyone given me their own personal recipe on paper, all recorded before. All the recipes which I've stolen from my mother have all been gathered by sneaking up behind her and learning it off by sight (and she's now refusing to show me any more of her recipes because we have a bit of competition going on to see who can cook better. I'm clearly winning hands down blindfolded - Duh.)

Either way, these cookies were a real treat for me. As you'll see soon enough, the recipe is easy enough to follow (and memorize).


Except my mixture came out a little dry. I attempted to salvage the situation by adding a little more water to the mixture, but it was still a bit crumbly when I tried moulding them in my hands. This isn't stovetop cooking, so I was really out of my depth as to knowing what to do next, so I just popped them into the oven as little round balls and crossed my little fingers that they would flatten out eventually.

And yes they did - only I think the baby on the bottom right hand corner of the tray went a little too far and just decided to fall apart on me completely. I ate that one first. And boy, despite splaying itself out like a car had just run it over, it tasted like heaven nevertheless. They weren't too sweet, still a little chewy, and perfect with a glass of milk.

Except I'm not supposed to drink milk. It makes my stomach go nutters and then I just hide in the WC for the entire afternoon.

Sheila's Anzac Cookies
(Newbie-bakers-friendly)

Buy:
1 cup of Self-Raising Flour
1 cup of Rolled Oats
1 cup of Sugar (I used Caster)
1 cup of Desiccated Coconuts

1/4 lb Butter (roughly 1/2 cup)
2 tblsp Water
2 tblsp Golden Syrup
1 tsp Bicarbonate Soda

Cook:

1. Preheat oven to 180C
   
2. In a large mixing bowl, roughly mix flour, rolled oats, sugar and desiccated coconuts.
3. In a small saucepan, melt butter
4. Add water and golden syrup into saucepan, mixing gently. Bring to boil
5. Turn off heat and add bicarbonate soda. This will cause the mixture to froth up. Wait for the froth to settle a little and pour into dry ingredients.
6. Mix to combine everything.
7. With your hands, roll mixture into small round balls roughly 4cm in diameter.
8. Bake on second shelf for 5-10minutes. (I'm not too sure about the time, because there was no time on the original recipe and so I just literally watched the oven until the cookies were done. It didn't take long though.)
9. Remove cookies from oven and cool on tray for about 5minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
10. Nom it while it's warm.