2009 August « Fat little dumplings

Archive for August, 2009

Daring Bakers: Dobos Torte

August 30, 2009 · Filed under Daring Bakers!, Food we made, Posted by Biff and Lexi, Recipe

We recently became DARING BAKERS (it sounds more impressive when you capitalise the name). Basically DARING BAKERS (!) is a group of people who share an interest in baking gorgeous, complicated things.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Now, did we tell you it’s complicated? Well, it is. Observe: we cooked the shit out of this baby… a Dobos(h) Torte, basically a finicky sponge cake, with multiple layers of deadly, cholesterol filled chocolate butter cream. Mmmmmmmm (but also – tooooooooo rich, so much so that we were filled with quiet dread at the thought of eating a full piece, let alone going back for seconds). Here is our finished product:

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Shaky foundations

August 26, 2009 · Filed under Food we bought, Posted by Lexi

So, Ben and I have recently gotten ourselves all revved up for re-initialising our health and fitness regime. It had been on hiatus for a while, during which we sat languidly on the lounge discussing exercise rather than doing it, and ate many lovely things, including a fair amount of stodge. This was until Ben determined that we require a THREE MONTHS OF POWER (that’s our motivational tagline) health and fitness binge, and we started over the weekend. Initially, we were going pretty well – we took a loooooooooong walk from Marrickville to Glebe (lugging a sponge cake – quite the achievement), and the cupcake day that I went to tested my inner strength, but I don’t think it broke it. I was going great guns until… the Black Star Bakery. If you are unfamiliar, it’s on Australia Street in Newtown, next to Oscillate Wildly. I had garnered support to visit the bakery by telling Ben I just wanted to “check it out”, you know, see what kind of stuff is in there, that kind of thing. Unfortunately, the shop is little, and as soon as you enter the people working there are all over you with expectant faces so… I caved. Looking back retrospectively, there was really no way that I would have ever entered such a place and walked away empty handed. Unfortunately, I came away with not one, but two tarts:

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Cupcake day!

August 23, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Biff, Recipe

Today we attended an RSPCA fundraiser hosted by our good friends Cathy and Andy. What a day for us! So many great cupcakes to be tasted, and Lexi with such a tenuous grip on the diabetes free life. Doctor says he’s gonna take her foot if she don’t stop eatin’ sugar! Cathy made some spectacular cupcakes and we foolishly did not get a picture of them – but they were sugary and delicious. Here is a link to Cathy’s blog: http://www.friendswithcandy.com/blog/

I made Lemon Lime Meringue cupcakes. They were very tasty and looked good (if a little burnt on top).

The recipe is from ‘500 cupcakes’ by Fergal Connolly (a great book!).

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes

225g Unsalted butter, softened

225 g Caster sugar

225g S.R flour

4 Eggs

1 Tsp Vanilla essence

For the filling

75 ml Lime Juice (I used half lemon half lime)

400 g tin condensed milk

For the Meringue

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

75 g granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 175’C. Place all cupcake ingredients together in a bowl and beat until smooth and pale (about 2-3 mins). Spoon the batter in cases and bake for about 20 mins. Remove tins from the oven and cool for 5 mins – then remove cupcakes and cool on a rack. For the filling combine the juice and condensed milk in a bowl. Remove the top of each cupcake and hollow out a small hole. Spoon the filling into the hold and replace the top. For the meringue, beat the eggs and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Add one third of the sugar and beat for 1 minute. Repeat until all sugar has been added. Increase the oven temperature to 230’C. Spoon or pipe the meringue on top of the cupcakes. Bake for 5 mins until golden (be careful here – mine were almost burnt within 3 mins). Store for no more than a day in an airtight container.

Tom made white chocolate and strawberry cupcakes (from the same book). Lexi and I decorated some of these with a cream cheese and strawberry icing (which was ace).

Mostly they looked ok, and the cupcakes were very tasty (good work Tom!) – icing very well executed by Lexi.

Tom decorated some as well, this one is a Cthulhu. Apparently a Cthulhu is a Lovecraftian horror from beyond time and space. This doesn’t look horrible though. Tom made excellent use of Pashmak Persian fairy floss, a house favourite.

This is another “Tom special” – an Evil Dead cupcake! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

White chocolate and strawberry cupcakes (also a recipe from ‘500 cupcakes’ by Fergal Connolly)

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

225 g unsalted butter, softened

225 g caster sugar

225 g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1 tsp strawberry essence

100 g white chocolate chips

For the icing

200 g cream cheese, softened

175 g icing sugar, sieved

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Strawberries, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 175’C. Place 18 paper baking cases in muffin tins. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs and strawberry essence in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric whisk until light and creamy. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the cases, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the tins from the oven and cool for about 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes to cool on a rack.

To make the icing, beat the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and butter together until smooth and creamy. The longer you beat the mixture, the lighter and creamier it will become. Ice the cupcakes, and decorate with strawberries.

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Sponge cake: SUCCESS!

August 23, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Lexi, Recipe

Oh, how good it is when something actually pans out and is edible! I’ve been honing my sponge cake making skills lately, and this latest one turned out awesomely – it actually rose in the oven, which is not something I can say for past sponge cakes, and it tasted gooooooooooood. Success!

This sponge cake recipe is actually my Gran’s, although I made a few changes. She can’t really be arsed separating her egg whites, and she generally fills her sponge with mock cream (gaaah! why would you bother making “cream”, when you can buy real cream, and it actually tastes good!?), and she also uses apricot jam instead of strawberry. I actually really like the flavour of apricot jam in Gran’s sponge, but I really can’t pass up the strawberries and cream alternative when I make my own. Strawberries are really the tastiest of all berries. Read the rest of this entry »

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Past Success: Alien Cake

August 17, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Past successes!, Posted by Biff

Cakes are my favourite way to celebrate a birthday (well, ok, it’s maybe my third favourite, coming right after beer and dangerous, slightly obscene, bruise leaving dancing). This cake was made to celebrate the combined birthday of Ben and Lexi – better known as Bexi. They requested an Alien cake, which they chose from The Women’s Weekly cake book (this book is absolute gold!).

Ta Da!

It was so much fun to make, and the lurid green icing really set if off. Naturally it was washed down with beer ++

Underneath all of that is a chocolate cake made from my gran’s recipe. It has scotch in it, which is another real drawcard (makes it lovely and moist)

This was my first attempt at a novelty birthday cake, and it got me hooked! I can’t wait for a course that I’m doing soon with my friend Angela at Planet cake – we’re learning how to make a circus tent cake

Check out Lexi enjoying that cake!

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All hail the eggplant, most glorious of all vegetables

August 17, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Lexi

I don’t care if Ben hates it, I love eggplant, and I think it’s the bestest! It can taste like spongey poison if you don’t cook it right, but when it’s all tender and juicy and soft, it’s a winner. Tonight we made stuffed eggplants, and then baked them in our oven for what seemed an eternity. We wanted the eggplant to sort of shrivel down, so it would be nice and juicy. The best way to describe the look of a well roasted eggplant is to say that it has gone “fump!” as it collapses in the oven. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaanway, we chopped up some vegies and cooked some rice, then flavoured it with a chilli, turmeric, ground coriander, and Moroccan seasoning. We noticed that the rice was still a bit bland town before we put it in the eggplants, so added some pine nuts, and a big knob of blue vein cheese. The cheese made it lovely and creamy, and lessened the need to add a huge amount of salt. It also made it less healthy though, as we have added a big amount of saturated fat to our previously joyless vegan dinner. Oh well, these are the sacrifices we must make. The stuffed eggplants were very tasty, and went fump! in the oven rather well.

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Mmm, cupcakey goodness

August 16, 2009 · Filed under Food we bought, Posted by Lexi

Ben and I have just returned from a few days away in the Blue Mountains, where we mostly at things, and drank wine. On the last day of our stay, we hit Katoomba Street, and I picked up some uber tasty cupcakes for the trip home. Check these bad boys out:

They’re from a cupcake shop called “Cupids Cupcakes”, and they were fantastic: apple crumble flavour, strawberries and cream, chocolate mint and strawberry. Read the rest of this entry »

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Celebration pie!

August 16, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Biff, Recipe

This week was an exciting week because Biff got a new nephew, Samuel, who was born on Thursday. Every birth has to be celebrated, and this one was celebrated with Apple Pie. Here is a picture of the pie:

I attempted to write Sam’s name in the top of a the pie crust with a skewer. It worked reasonably well. Overall the pie was tasty and well received, a fitting way to celebrate a very happy event. Welcome Sam! Read the rest of this entry »

Christmas in July (in August!)

August 16, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Biff

Last night we hosted a pot luck dinner party with a group of good friends. We were celebrating Christmas in July, but due to being terribly busy and important people, we were running a month late. Oh well.

Our contributions to the night were:

Cleaning our house (done by Lexi)
Slaving over a hot oven to make Apple Pie. This was from Biff’s mum’s recipe and we gave it a little Christmas twist. Ben suggested making holly out of pastry and using food colouring to dye it. Here is the result:

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Meringues: EPIC FAIL

August 16, 2009 · Filed under FAIL!, Posted by Lexi

For some reason, I feel compelled to make meringues whenever I have leftover eggs whites. They have never turned out well, but I am terribly dogged. Yesterday, we used 6 egg yolks to make brandy custard, so I was left with the egg whites, and determination to make the best meringues ever, and ensure that nothing was going to waste. Behold, my creation: