Great cakes!

Triumph/Transcendent
Can't quite decide whether these were a triumph or transcendent - on the border, so will give both ratings!

Great cakes!

So I have been cooking this year, just not posting. With autumn and winter approaching - my favourite seasons for food - I'll try and post more. 

But I can post on a couple of recent triumphs, both cakes. Baking cakes is something I've always found cathartic, and given a rather frustrating week at work, I felt the need to bake two. 

I decided to make one for a friend's birthday party I was invited to, and then another when I realised a colleague who complains he doesn't get cake in his office would be in town just before his birthday. 

Then the hard question of what to make. I have so many cook books and recipe scrapbook volumes, that I haven't looked into even half the recipes. Then I found two I had never made before that were easy, simple to make, and - more importantly - sounded delicious. 

For my colleague-who-never-gets-cake, I settled on melt-and-mix white chocolate cake with a dark chocolate glaze from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2. Ms Hay is the queen of quick, simple cakes that taste delicious and this one was no exception. 

Melt-and-mix white chocolate cake

The sweet white chocolate and vanilla cake perfectly contrasted the slightly bitter dark chocolate glaze. The cake itself was not too dry, but did take a little longer than expected to bake. 

It was definitely a hit with all of my colleagues though, with some going back for seconds afterwards and there being none left at all by lunch the following day. 

The other cake I chose for the birthday party was a lemon and raspberry loaf cake. This came out of one of my recipe volumes, and I think it's from the cooking section of an edition of Perth's Sunday Times newspaper.

Although the recipe called for frozen raspberries, fresh ones are currently in season here in Switzerland, so decided to use those instead. It was a good choice, as I think the juice from the fresh berries made it delightfully moist. 

Lemon and raspberry loaf en fete

The flavour of tart lemon and raspberry complemented each other well, with the lemon coming through in the icing on top. Interestingly, several friends had a hard guess trying to pick the fruit that was in it (I hadn't told them), which I was a little surprised by; looked fairly obvious to me! At any rate, comments of 'great cake!' were backed up by the cake having been polished off with nothing left at the end. 

I think of the two, I preferred the taste of the white chocolate cake, but found the lemon and raspberry one easier to make (all done in Betty, my Kitchenaid) and it also turned out more moist, which is something I like in a cake. Thumbs up for both, and they'll definitely go into my list of tried, tested and trusted cake recipes.

Cold comforts

Triumph 

Home-made stock and two simple, yet tasty soups that will comfort the coldest of nights

Cold comforts

So I haven’t cooked anything worth posting lately, mostly because I don’t really get into summer food. With the cooler weather and autumn definitely here, it’s time to start cooking my favourite foods – winter comfort food.

The ultimate comfort food: chicken noodle soup

With liquid stock non-existent in Switzerland, I used last Sunday’s cold weather as a good excuse to stay indoors and make some, plus that quintessential winter comfort food, chicken noodle soup. I’ve used this Donna Hay recipe a few times and I love it; it’s so easy to make by just throwing in a whole uncooked chicken, carrots, celery, garlic, onion, bay leaves, peppercorns and water. You end up with clean, home-made chicken stock, poached chicken for sandwiches, and chicken noodle soup.

The chicken soup is simple, delicious, wholesome and, of course, comforting. I use my favourite soup pasta, ditali (which I’ve discovered, with delight, that I can buy at my local supermarket), and simply add some of the poached chicken, stock, carrots, celery and season with salt and pepper. It tastes even better once it’s been frozen and reheated for lunch at work or a quick dinner at home.

Spicy barley and lentil soup will clear out
the stuffiest of noses

With Emperor D battling the flu during the week, I decided he needed something that is comforting but has a bit of a kick to clear out his stuffy head and nasal passages. One of his favourites is spicy barley and lentil soup, which I found in an issue of Men's Health magazine, but actually comes from The Low GI Handbook. Finely diced onion gently fried with spices, including some chilli, then adding water, a couple of cups of chicken or vegetable stock, some tinned tomatoes, pearl barley and red lentils and voila – a tasty, hearty soup with a decent enough kick  to knock out the worst colds and flus.

The great thing is I now have a freezer full of soup and stock for lunch and dinner for the next two weeks – until it’s time to make some more!

Douze points for Italian Eurovision feast

Triumph

Great flavours and textures make the Italians a winner in my kitchen

Douze points for Italian Eurovision feast

I did promise in my last post that I would get cooking soon. I had my first opportunity last night, when I hosted a Eurovision Song Contest party. I love Eurovision; it’s broadcast in Australia every year, but the day after, so by the time I get to watch it, I know who’s won. It doesn’t matter though, as it’s so kitsch and tacky that it’s loads of fun. Although in the last couple of years Australia has sent its own commentators over, I’ve heard the rather witty BBC commentator before and it was amusing to listen to him again last night.

Tomato and basil crostini

I’d invited some friends over who hadn’t seen Eurovision before, so I thought I would cook dinner. I decided on a bit of an Italian feast, which was rather appropriate as it turned out, as Italy returned to Eurovision for the first time since 1997 and, having entered with a great jazz-pop song (which I voted for), ended up coming second (to Azerbaijan!). I settled on crostini with three different toppings from Jamie Oliver’s Italy and paper bag seafood linguine from Donna Hay, which I’ve made and blogged about before.

Fig, prosciutto and mint crostini

Buffalo mozzarella and chilli

For the crostini, I decided on three different toppings; traditional tomato and basil; fig, prosciutto and mint; and mozzarella and chilli. It’s pretty easy – simply grill the bread, rub with a piece of cut garlic and place your toppings on top. The tomato and basil speaks for itself – just drizzle with a little good quality olive oil and season with salt and pepper. The fig, prosciutto and mint one I had to slightly deviate with as I accidentally bought dried figs, not fresh (with fresh figs apparently not in season at the moment). But they still turned out great, with the salty prosciutto contrasting nicely with the sweetness of the figs. And the mozzarella and chilli was a slice of texture heaven, with the crunchiness of the bread a nice contrast to the soft squidgyness of the buffalo mozzarella.

The last time I made Donna Hay’s paper bag seafood linguine, I had issues getting the right ingredients. I used calamari instead of vongole (clams) that time, but it still turned out good. This time around I used vongole and it turned out great. I think the saltiness of the vongole adds to the flavour and there’s something fun about using your fingers to pick the vongole up while you pull out the meat.

Paper bag seafood linguine

A real highlight of the night was what I did with all the dirty dishes afterwards – put them in the dishwasher. Usually after a dinner party, I leave the awful task of washing all the dishes until the next morning. This time I could just put the dishes in the dishwasher as we finished with plates and cutlery, and the entire lot was done before my friends even left. Now that’s the way to end a dinner party on a clean note.

The proof is in the pudding

Triumph

Bill Granger’s Self-saucing chocolate pudding – easy to make, easy to eat

Trusty

Lemon pudding – great taste, but need another run as they were a bit dry

The proof is in the pudding

Sorry to use such an old cliché, but for the title of this week’s post, it’s rather apt; Bill Granger’s Self-saucing chocolate pudding and Donna Hay’s Lemon pudding. I made these a few weeks ago now when it was decidedly winterish; this last week we’ve definitely seen the four seasons, including a day where it was 37 degrees (that’s 99 for those of you using Farenheit!), so it’s no longer such weather for puddings.

Self saucing chocolate gooey-ness!

The Bill Granger self-saucing chocolate puddings are ones I’ve been making for a few years now. They’re so easy to make, and if there’s only two of you, this is an extremely easy recipe to halve. Because I never had ramekins – until recently, that is – I had use to my delicate, platinum-plated, but oven safe, good tea cups. Well, they don’t get used for tea, so may as well use them for something! I think halving this recipe might be just a fraction too much for the tea cups, because as you can see, the batter spills over.

It doesn’t matter really, because they taste divine. The nice, sweet, cake-y texture on top gradually gives way to gooey, chocolate-y richness down the bottom. The challenge is to dig down so you end up with a spoonful of both textures – soft cake, with gooey batter. I love to eat this with some really good ice cream; while Betty can make ice cream (although I don’t have the attachment yet), Connoisseur’s Vanilla ice cream is among the best commercial stuff you can get.

Although it’s no longer really the weather for puddings, I’m sure I’ll find one night where I can try the chocolate puddings in the new 1 cup ramekins I bought a few weeks ago. I christened these with a new recipe I hadn’t tried, lemon puddings from Donna Hay.

Lemon delicious!

This recipe wasn’t as easy to halve, and consequently I think it might need some adjusting if you’re baking for just two. It had a great, lemony taste, but the texture was mostly cake and not enough goo. I think I added either too little water or too much batter. The ramekins worked a treat though; they’re the perfect size for this recipe. I’ll try these ones again soon as well, taking into account the need for more gooeyness down the bottom.

On another note, I'm currently on the look out for a new camera. I loathe my current Pentax point and shoot digital one, so I'm looking at DSLRs. Suggestions welcome, but I think I might go with a Canon Eos 500D. I want my food that I make to be food porn, not food forlorn. Hopefully, this will be among the last posts with crappy pictures.