The Hampering

Happy New Year, readers! I hope you've celebrated in style. Ladies of taste and distinction that we are, Tara and I ushered in the new year with fascinators, passion pop and a lot of rather terrible dancing. I drank, I ate, I took my shoes off and ran around outdoors, and now that those last few fateful swigs of cheap champagne are leaving my system I'm finally feeling capable of blogging again.

So, Christmas hey? Well that's done and dusted for another year. My Christmas was the usual exhausting, lovely, talk-politely-to-that-distant-relative-you-hate kind of affair. My sister, my man and I combined our vegetarian super powers to make Jamie Oliver's delicious nut roast (otherwise known as "the best stuffing my Pop has ever tasted" *sigh*) and of course we had pudding, salads, daggy christmas hats and wine. So. Much. Wine.

What else happened this Christmas? Well... I totally made hampers you guys! I gave them to people, and they were well received, and people ate and drank and were merry. You have no idea how relieved I am that the hampers were well received. Baking, jamming, truffling, macaroning, turkish delighting... I held my breath when people first tasted what I'd made, and I swear to Dawkins had someone looked unimpressed, I would've staged an almighty Christmas meltdown. I'm not saying homicide, but I have a feeling the fallout would've attracted the attention of the local media... the words "crazed" and "rampage" come to mind.

So above is a photo of my completed hamper. Chris, my tolerant and talented partner (fiancee, boyfriend, guy I like to kiss on the mouth) did all of the design work, I did all of the cooking, and together we hot-glued and folded and tied bows until what you see above was finished. Rather naively I had assumed that preparing eight odd Christmas hampers would be relatively straightforward. Hah. Flash forward a month and I was stuck in my kitchen at 2am on a wednesday night, microwaving vegan gelatine alternative and scraping almond meal from the walls. Nonetheless... I'll do it all again next year. I'm just proud as punch at how everything turned out:

Lime Jelly from here. I didn't modify this recipe at all, except to leave the lime pulp in (but not the peel).

Chocolate Truffles from here. I prepared half with the milk chocolate and sea salt, and rolled the other half in a combination of cocoa powder and cayenne pepper. The salted truffles tasted a little like caramel, and the chilli chocolate ones were warm, rich and slightly spicy.

Turkish Delight from here. I substituted gelatine for agar-agar, a nifty vegan seaweed derivative that works just like gelatine but without all of the snouts and trotters and beef skin. I'm pretty sure Turkish Delight is one of those inherently difficult to enjoy sweets. It's sickly, it smells like grandma's potpourri, and the powdered sugar it's rolled in is a choking hazard. But I got it in my head that I needed to make a Turkish Delight with the White Witch quote from Narnia printed on it. So: Turkish Delight for all!

Pfeffernüsse. I made these using this basic recipe, but I doubled the spice quantities. Apparently these babies develop their flavour over time, but given that I was baking them a day or two before Christmas I thought it best to flavour them heavily to start with.

Oh, and I made Macarons. Boy did I make macarons. I made three failed batches of Macarons, two average batches, I made a great batch really early on and then promptly ate the lot, and I made the macarons seen above in the few days before Christmas. I'll blog about the delicate art of macaroning some time soon. I'll need an entire post to dedicate to my macaron saga...

So, hampers! Burns and spills and hot glue everywhere but hampers got done, bitch. Please let me know what you think of our lovely goods! New year, new goals... I'm toying with the idea of attempting a market stall this easter.

Sometimes Food - Flourless Chocolate Cake with Hazelnut Meringue

One of my favourite lady friends just celebrated her 23rd birthday, and to ring in the beginning of her 24th year I baked her this delightfully girly cake. This recipe is perhaps a little complicated, and unless you have biceps like Agatha Trunchbull you will definitely need an electric beater, but it tastes divine and preparing it makes for an enjoyable afternoon of very busy baking! Don your favourite frilly apron (I rather like this one) and get cooking, your favourite lady friend will thank you!

My super cute new electric beater, you will need one of these!

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Hazelnut Meringue & Raspberries

What you will need:

• 2/3 cup softened unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 6 eggs, separated
• 350g good quality bitter dark chocolate (I used the 60% cocoa variety)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

For the meringue:

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts, chopped (see here for how to prepare them)
• 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
• Fresh raspberries and thickened cream to serve

What you will need to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 C and line the bottom of a 20cm spring form cake tin with baking paper. Grease the sides of the cake tin and set aside.

2. Cream brown sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until the mixture is pale and creamy. In a separate bowl melt the dark chocolate, I always melt chocolate using this method.

3. Using an electric mixer, add egg yolks to the butter / sugar mixture one at a time and beat gently until all ingredients are combined. Add melted chocolate and vanilla essence and beat well. Your batter should be like a thick chocolate mousse in texture.

4. This is where things get a little bit tricky. In yet another bowl, beat six egg whites until they begin to stiffen and form soft peaks. Make sure your bowl and beaters are clean and dry before commencing this step, any unwanted moisture will spoil your eggs! Stir about a third of the egg whites through the cake batter - you can stir this first third through the mixture quite vigorously - then carefully fold through the remaining egg whites. Be sure to fold the whites thorough gently, otherwise your cake mixture will separate and become slippery and sloppy rather than creamy. I would suggest using a spatula at this step, and try to fold the cake batter over itself rather than stirring it in a circular motion, folding is preferable to stirring as it retains the air in the eggs.

5. Pour the mixture into your greased cake tin and bake for approximately half an hour. Meanwhile, prepare your meringue. (More egg whites!) Beat four egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt until eggs begin to stiffen and form peaks, then carefully add the white sugar a little bit at a time, continue to beat until the mixture stiffens up. Your meringue mixture is ready when you can turn your mixing bowl upside down without the whites falling out. Once the whites are at this point, fold through chopped hazelnuts and chocolate. As above, I would suggest using a spatula, and fold the mixture as little as possible.

6. After about half an hour in the oven your cake should be firming up nicely, a little bit of a jiggle is ok, but make sure your cake has begun to cook through before beginning this next step. Remove your cake from the oven and spread the meringue mixture over the top of the cake. I spread my meringue mixture with a spatula and then used a fork to create some cute little swirly peaks. Return the cake to the oven and cook for a further 30 minutes, or until the meringue has hardened and is browning slightly.

7. Remove your cake from the oven and stand aside for at least half an hour before removing from the tin. Don't be alarmed if your meringue has puffed up - my cake looked like it was wearing a meringue chef's hat when it first came out of the oven - but never fear! After thirty minutes cooling your meringue should have fallen a bit. Run a knife around the edge of the cake tin to loosen the cake before turning it out. Allow the cake to cool before serving.

I served my cake with blobs of thickened cream and fresh raspberries. You can top your cake with whatever you like, but I would recommend something tart to cut through the richness of the chocolate and the sugary meringue. I must also point out that this cake is incredibly unhealthy! It is high in sugar, high in fat, and presumalby bad for one's cholesterol. In the words of the immortal Cookie Monster, this cake is a sometimes food. Still, doesn't it look lovely?

PS. Happy Birthday Sarah! I'm glad you liked your cake, now take Cookie Monster's advice and eat some healthy greens...

Cooking For Friends (I heart Jamie Oliver)

I hosted a dinner party recently, a reciprocal dinner party of sorts, to thank our guests for a delicious meal they'd cooked for The Boy and I some weeks earlier. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about cooking for said friends, the meal we enjoyed at their place was delicious Okonomiyaki and I wasn't sure I could serve anything as tasty. I thought about 'winging it' and cooking recipe free, but I really wanted to serve something perfect, and with unattainable perfection in mind, I turned to my first (cooking) love for a little help: Jamie Oliver.

I know Jamie isn't everybody's cup of tea, but I adore him. He sparked my interest in food and in cooking, and his fourth book in particular (Jamie's Kitchen) taught me how to fillet a fish, bake bread, make pasta from scratch, and really introduced me to the idea that cooking for friends is fun. And it is, when you relax, and I did, thanks to the below recipes:

Jamie's Simple Baked Lasagne

Jamie's Chocolate and Pear Tart

I didn't alter these recipes much at all. I probably used more herbs in the lasagne than the recipe calls for, and I didn't use anywhere near as much creme fraiche as is suggested either. For the pear tart I baked a pastry shell as per this recipe, it turned out well despite my opening the oven door about thirty times to make sure I hadn't burnt it, and I served the pear tart with a little more creme fraiche which I sweetened with icing sugar and a touch of cinnamon.

When you're cooking for friends who have read your recipe blog, there are certain expectations attached to any meal you prepare, the food had better taste damn good. It had better taste so good that your ceaseless photographing of the meal goes unnoticed, it had better taste so good that your friends won't post "SHE'S A FRAUD!!" comments all over your blog and expose you as an amateur, causing blogging shame. Needless to say, the entire lasagne was consumed, and the pear tart was delicious. Thankyou Jamie, you're my hero! <3

The Best Birthday Cake

About two weeks ago my little brother celebrated his first birthday, and as such I had the pleasure of heading home to Canberra to attend his very first birthday party.  The party was held on a lovely Saturday afternoon, there were balloons, presents, lollies for all, and glasses of champagne on offer for the older guests too. The younger attendees enjoyed a few giddy hours playing in the backyard with a bubble machine, while the grown ups enjoyed a very civilised afternoon tea and a relaxing drink in the sun. Birthday Boy had a fantastic day (despite being completely unaware that all of the excitement was in his honour) and I spent the day in awe of my talented little brother's new and exciting abilities. He stands up all on his own now, babbles away in a most conversational manner, and to my sheer amazement offers to share his food! Bless his little heart.

The event was a great success, in part due to my Stepmum's seemingly innate skill for entertaining, and in part due to the inaugural First Birthday Cake, prepared by my Dad. Dad is a fantastic cook, and his roast dinners, freshly caught fish, pastas and delicious deserts have fostered my love of food for as long as I can remember. Birthday Boy's cake was up to his usual standard (and absolutely huge - the photos don't do it justice!) and I'm going to share the recipe with you here. It is adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe that I *think* can be found in his first book, The Naked Chef. I haven't been able to find it online so I reproduce it for you here:

What you will need:

• 200g caster sugar
• 200g butter
• 200g flour
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds

For the filling:

• 200ml whipped cream
  
• Fruit jam or fresh berries if desired

What you will need to do:

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, flour, baking powder and cocoa and beat with an electric mixer until the batter is smooth. Finally, stir through the slivered almonds.

2. Divide the mixture evenly across two 20cm spring form cake tins and bake for approximately 20 minutes.

3. Remove the cakes from oven, allow to cool completely before removing them from cake tins. Cover one cake with whipped cream and any jam or fruits that you would like to include, then carefully place the second cake on top of the first. Refrigerate the lot for at least half an hour before icing.

Apparently the original Jamie recipe calls for a runny chocolate drizzle icing. Given that many of the attendees at this particular party were under the age of three and likely to make a mess, Dad opted for a creamy dark chocolate icing that didn't so much drizzle as meld to the cake like delicious chocolate cement. I could wax lyrical about how marvellous the cake tasted, but I think the demolition-style 'after' shot speaks for itself...

Children's birthday parties always stir in me a strange sense of melancholy. A nostalgia for barely remembered parties of the past perhaps, or maybe I'm just so hopelessly emotional that any sort of happy family moment makes me feel a little weepy. Which leads me to my musical segue for this post. Listen to these girls, they are sisters - sixteen and eighteen years old - and they are divine. Melancholy, naive, and with adorable Jens Lekman-esque accents that seem somehow at odds with their startlingly strong voices. This is the second post in a row where I've featured them -I'm ever so slightly besotted, and I think everyone should rush out and buy their new EP: Drunken Trees. First Aid Kit have stolen my heart.

First Aid Kit - In Our Own Pretty Way

First Aid Kit on Last.fm

Punky's Choc Chip Cookies

My favourite food as a child was the humble chocolate chip cookie. Give me a pile of cookies and a big ole glass of milk and I was the world's happiest camper. Although we all know by now cookies are a "sometimes food" it's not something I ever intend to grow out of. My treat for you today is my recipe for double chocolate and macadamia cookies. They're chunky, chewy, fat and full of chocolate, my requisites for the perfect cookie.

Double Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies

What You Will Need

• 2 cups plain flour

• 1/3 cup caster sugar

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 3/4 melted butter

• 1 egg and one egg yolk

• 1 tsp vanilla extract, or 1 tbs vanilla essence

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 cup dark chocolate bits

• 1/2 cup white chocolate bits

• 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, halved or quartered

What You Will Need to Do

• Mix sugar and butter with electric beaters

• And egg, egg yolk and vanilla, and blend until light and creamy

• Sift in flour and baking soda, combine
  

• Stir in chocolate chips and nuts

• Eat some of the dough. You know you want to. Just a little. A teaspoon, maybe. Or two.
  

• Time to shape your cookies. I use a loaded tablespoon per cookie. Roll dough between your hands until you have a little cookie ball and set on a tray lined with baking paper.

• Compress each cookie softly with the heel of your hand, just so it's a bit less spherical.
  

• Place in an oven preheated to 170 degrees C and bake for roughly 15 minutes, or until golden at the edges.

For me, these cookies always come with a big heap of nostalgia. In honour of this, and the fact that fact that these fine fellows are touring the country, I thought I would post some of my favourite childhood music, Simon and Garfunkel. These following tracks are childish in the very best way.

Punky's Dilema
At The Zoo
The 59th Street Bridge Song

Check the tour dates here.

Chocapocalypse!

Recently, I volunteered my services to this motley crew of designers, and signed myself up for what I'm sure, if required, is going to be a long few days of baking, decorating, and - let's face it - eating, in preparation for a delicious little fundraiser. In an attempt to raise some money in support of the first ever issue of their new publication, the kids over at Meta have determined that perhaps the most effective way of extracting money from their fellow students is by offering them something appetising, affordable, and altogether eye-catching to snack on between lectures, which is why in the coming days, and depending on other generous offers of funding, I may be called upon to bake a helluva lot of cupcakes.

For a few days now I've been bursting with enthusiasm at the idea of spending my evenings elbow deep in chocolate chips and icing sugar, but my enthisiasm changed to concern when the boy turned to me last night and posed the question "So these cupcakes - are they going to taste any good?" I realised I hadn't even decided upon a recipe yet, and in pursuit of an answer to my boyfriend's pointed question, I set about making a trial batch of enticing, sugary little offerings. After all, If I am called upon to provide baked goods for this fundraiser, I aim to be prepared! I'm not a big fan of standard vanilla cupcakes, so I decided upon a chocolate cupcake recipe that took my fancy. It originally appeared in Delicious magazine, and a torn out page bearing the recipe has been sitting in my pantry since 2005 waiting to be tried out. I whipped up a quick dozen and the things were so damned good that I have decided to share the recipe with you all. Immediately. So, without further ado:

The Best Chocolate Cupcakes in the World, or Chocapocalypse.
(Adapted from Delicious magazine, September 2005)


What you will need:

- First and foremost, 450g of good quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces
- 250ml thickened cream
- 5 eggs
- 3/4 cup caster sugar
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Just a splash of brandy (optional)

What you will need to do:

- Take a moment to come to terms with just how bad for you this recipe actually is. These things are delicious, and I daresay you will have a hard time stopping at just one, so a quick mental preparation at the outset may save you a horrendous case of the guilts further down the track. These cupcakes are fatty, they are sugary, you are going to put them in your mouth. Ok, now for the fun part.

- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius and line your muffin tin with patty pans.

- Place cream and chocolate in a saucepan, and stir over a very low heat until the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

- In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar together. The recipe advises that your eggy, sugary mix should "turn pale and double in volume" but as my electric beaters are currently out of action, I just beat them together with a whisk until they went a little fluffy. Things panned out just fine, so the doubling in volume is not necessary. (However, attempting this with a whisk may burn a few calories which - let's face it - can't hurt...)

- Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder, and pour over the cooled chocolate / cream mix. At this point I added a generous splash of brandy, because I like my cupcakes to taste of alcohol fuelled debauchery. (The recipe doesn't call for this alcoholic addition, but I think it adds a richness to the flavour without upping the sweetness.) Stir to combine.

- Divide the mixture between your patty pans, and bake for 15-20 minutes, during which time you should probably leave your kitchen, as the cooking smells are so overwhelmingly chocolatey you may resort to snacking on any leftover chocolate bits to quell your cravings, not leaving any room for the cupcakes themselves.

- Once your cupcakes are passing the age old skewer test, remove them from the oven and set aside to cool slightly before serving. Enjoy with a strong cup of coffee, and a burgeoning feeling that you don't give a shit how bad for you your cupcakes really are, the prospect of rapid weight gain just isn't bad enough to make you want to miss out on all that chocolate.

The original recipe actually includes a chocolate sauce for serving (100g dark chocolate and 1/3 cup of cream, melted together) but these cupcakes are rich enough as it is, I mean they are more like individual mudcakes, and I don't think smothering them with extra chocolate is really necessary. I served mine dusted with a little icing sugar, and I also iced a couple to see how they'll look, all dressed up and ready for the fundraiser. The icing makes them extremely sweet, but they look lovely, right?


I think it must be some sort of throwback to the children's birthday parties of years past, but I swear I will eat just about anything if it comes with pink icing and sprinkles. I'm already aware that this same strange compulsion applies to my two housemates, and I speculate the reach of this sprinkle-loving phenomenon extends beyond our household too. I mean how can you refuse a foodstuff that's just so damn cute?

And speaking of cute, check out these knitted delights that the boy gave to me as a part of my birthday present:


If you're interested in knitted incarnations of baked goods, and all sorts of other lovely things, check out Larkmade.com. All their stuff is made in accordance with fair trade practices, not to mention it is all absolutely adoreable.

And finally, something sweet to listen to:

Bandit Queen by Colin Meloy (Live)
Scythian Empires by Andrew Bird
Leaves that are Green by Simon and Garfunkel