In which I make a few new things, and I taste Melbourne Kit Kats together with Alisa!
The Melbourne Kit Kat Chocolatory
Mexican tortilla ‘casserole’ (discussion of my version, and the disappointing cake)
My Kit Kats:
… because what can go wrong?
Look, as an Australian I am deeply confused about the naming of this dish. Casseroles are meant to be far more liquidy (although not soupy); although it does include tortillas I think the Mexican aspect is all about the tortillas and the corn, and the suggestion of corn and coriander.
ANYWAY, I made it… or a version of it at least. Instead of going the veg option I used rehydrated dehydrated bolognese (still had some left from camping shenanigans); I used silverbeet instead of spinach; I used wraps instead of, strictly speaking, tortillas. But the final result was HECK YES I will be making this again, and I may even follow the actual recipe next time.
So firstly I made this in a round tin because I don’t have any square tins… maybe I need to invest in one. ANYWAY I made it and the tin was a bit small I think because this ended up being a remarkably tall cake. I was very excited about the custard aspect and the apple aspect; I used apples that I’d stewed with cider vinegar ages ago and froze, and custard, man. Custard. In the end the cake itself was nice enough, being quite moist; but I didn’t feel it was either custard-y or apple-y enough. I would add more of each if I made this again.
Salted caramel sesame cacao bites
I have very big issues with anything that’s advertised as ‘guilt free’ but salted caramel sesame cacao drew me in nonetheless. And the short version is yes, these are delicious and I really enjoyed them. However… perhaps it was because the only dates I had were not medjool, but there was no ‘processing until finely chopped’ – my dates didn’t get that fine. And I did not end up with a mixture that was at all smooth when I added the tahini and coconut oil; I ended up shaping the mixture into balls instead because I didn’t think that pressing it into a slice would work. I then also had problems dipping the balls into the coating (cacao powder, coconut oil and maple syrup). So they ended up looking pretty substandard, but darn they’re tasty.
In this episode, I bake! (what a surprise, I know). And Anne talks to me about preserving in a whole lot of ways for a whole lot of reasons with a whole lot of food.
Birthday cupcakes over the year.
Cheese scones and banana caramel cake.
The kimchi recipe Anne talks about: from Maangchi
Email me: acts of kitchen @ gmail dot com; leave a review on iTunes to share the lurve!
OK so not all of those ingredients together but I’ll bet that recipe exists somewhere, because internet. Instead:
Cheese scones. I’ve struggled with scones, it’s fair to say. Then I found this recipe and I decided to try it… because one GREAT BIG scone o’ cheese (250g cheese to 450g flour!!) sounds awesome. It was as I was making the breadcrumb effect of flour and butter that I realised you don’t have to make all the butter disappear, and I think this might be the turning point for me and scones. Because this scone was awesome. I did have to cook it for longer… but that’s because I didn’t knead it enough and it was a bit bigger – that is, higher, rather than being spread out – than it probably should have been. But it was a lovely texture and a wonderful taste and I will SO be making these again. Note to self: probably don’t try to double it next time; it was a bit hard to mix. Although the fact that I now have a giant cheese scone to eat and seven small scones in the freezer is pretty darn appealing.This book was sent to me by the publisher, Murdoch Books,
at no cost. It’s out now; RRP $39.99.
Elise Strachan has a website and a YouTube channel. She’s been sharing her cupcakes and baking in general with the world since 2011; this is her first book.
Some people, I’m guessing, won’t like this book because they’ll find its design too cluttered. I like it: I think it’s exuberant and joyful and lovely.
The book is divided into chapters designed around themes: celebration, Valentine’s, high tea, Halloween…. Each chapter has a huge decorated cake that’s intended to be a centrepiece; smaller baked goods and a couple of no-bake options; drinks; and DIY decorative elements. The back of the book has recipes for vanilla and chocolate cakes, mud cakes and cake pops, and a variety of icings and ganache; pretty much all of the cake options use these basics, with variations in the decoration.
I have to say that this is not the sort book that immediately appeals to me. While I love baking, I’m not much of a one for decorating – neither food nor house. My idea of preparing for a party involves tidying things up, and – maybe – putting flowers in a vase if there happen to be any in the garden. So the DIY options are really not my thing, with one exception: I am completely besotted with the idea of taking an old teacup and an old pretty plate and turning it into a cake stand. That is SO AWESOME and I will be haunting second hand shops to find the perfect pieces.
I know that each chapter is simply themed as a way of presenting different baked goods and options for decorating. But I’m a bit intimidated by seeing them all presented together, because I don’t think I will ever throw a themed party. And I’m very intimidated by the big cake! I honestly can’t ever imagine making a four- or five-tier cake – let alone decorating such. Some of the smaller things appeal, though.
I’ve made the Confetti Cupcakes – vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles in the middle – and they’re a good idea but the sprinkles I bought didn’t taste very nice. Sadly. Better were the chocolate mug brownies: they didn’t make very big brownies, which was completely fine because they were delightfully rich and not overwhelming.
I have every intention of making the white-chocolate ice cream bowls (using water balloons as a mould); cookie pots that involve choc biscuit ‘soil’ topped with a chocolate mousse and raspberries; and Strachan’s variation on trifle looks delightful. If I owned mini bundt cake tins I’d make her chocolate-filled ‘pumpkins’ in a heartbeat. And I will never, ever have the opportunity to make the Giant Peanut Butter Cup, but by golly I wish I did.
Finally, I like the opening of the book a lot. There’s a beautiful few pages laying out ‘tools of the trade’, styling essentials, and what to keep in the pantry. These insights are very useful for someone, like me, who has pretentions of awesomeness.
Thanks to this recipe, I no longer fear the sponge! Instead, I laugh in the face of sponge! Manically! Can’t be bothered clicking through? Cornflour and custard powder (and eggs and sugar).
This one is sandwiched with birthday-gift lemon curd and cream.
Here’s how they came out of the oven:
… so I was pretty happy right from the start. Although if anyone can tell me why this happened, I’d be ever so grateful:
(They left their bottoms behind. Too little greasing perhaps?)
The cake was very well received at work. It was, in fact, devoured.
So we went camping for about ten days recently, and we managed to make dinner on the fire every night. Which was ace. We’d done a lot of prep beforehand, which stood us in good stead.
We did a few pretty normal things: eye fillet and lamb backstrap on the grill. A whole lot of roast potatoes. We’d marinated some lamb with onion, garlic, and ginger and then vac-sealed it; we cooked that with a tin of peas and it was quite good! We took many tins of vegetables – easier to transport, especially when our trip involved running the quarantine regulations of travel between Victoria and South Australia. We had some that were just boiled, and they were just… average. So I decided to change it up by warming them in a pan with some butter and herbs. Herbs were courtesy of a Gewurzhaus gift from a friend and they really lifted the veg.
In terms of dessert, we did two experiments. One, I discovered that you can buy packet mug cake! Which is so wrong but so awesome. And we decided to make them in the sandwich maker and they worked brilliantly. Two, we decided to try and make a proper cake too. My beloved was convinced that we could do it in a cast-iron cauldron. I thought we should put alfoil in the bottom. And… well, the bottom burnt, which was sad, but probably not a surprise. We still ate the cake, and it was ok – I mean, it was cake in the middle of the Flinders Ranges – but it did have a burnt tang. Which was sad. Next time we might try a pot-inside-a-pot… or just take a cake tin with us. Or, easiest, just rely on mug cake packets.
Breakfast was mostly pancakes and bacon and egg wraps. There was also a lot of tea and aeropress coffee. Lunch was wraps, or occasionally using the sandwich maker for its actual purpose.
My mother has Foxtel and whenever I’m there I watch food programmes, of course. When I’m really lucky, there are episodes of Ace of Cakes to watch.
I adore Ace of Cakes.
So imagine my joy at discovering that in SBS’ baking October, they’re showing a new show with Duff Goldman: Duff til Dawn. I don’t really do cooking challenge shows, but Duff has managed to make this feel less like competition than I feared. Maybe because it’s just two groups competing, maybe because it’s happening overnight so they’re all a bit mad, maybe it’s because they’re not always referencing the clock, maybe I’m willing to put up with elements that I otherwise wouldn’t when there’s awesome cake-decorating skillz on display.
Could be all of the above.
Anyway, the premise is just what I’ve outlined: two teams of cake-decorators come in and, overnight, in Charmed City Cakes, they design and decorate a cake.
No biggie. Except that Duff always throws in a curveball at about the four hour mark – an additional element that must be included. And of course cakes break and fondant cracks and you’re doing this at three AM. In fact at 3am you have about another 3 hours to go. Because that’s not going to make anyone nuts.
They’re judged on design and taste, which makes me very happy since half the time those decorated cakes I’ve seen on other shows just seem like they’re all fluff and no substance. (The one I just watched had a Baileys Irish Cream creme brûlée buttercream. WOAH.)
I’ll be watching the heck out of this show, and dreaming of being one of the judges.
In Australia, it’s on SBS’ Food Network; episodes are available on their catch up service until the end of October as far as I can tell.
Or it hates me, who knows.
On the weekend, I supervised a sponge being made by my niece (3) and mother in law (of episode 7 fame). We used a recipe from Taste, and we weighed the eggs because homegrown eggs are larger than store-bought ones. We had to increase all ingredients by an eighth, which we did, and the result was AWESOME. Fluffy sponge! So I thought, Hey, now I know the secret! I can do this!
This was the result today of using Anneka Manning’s recipe in BakeClass. I am very disappointed. Especially since I have also been challenged to Sponge by my own mother (she of episode 1). So next time I will be making the version from the website, and if that works… well, I won’t feel like this is quite my fault.
ETA: it doesn’t look quite so bad when on top of one another. I filled it with apple butter that I made today, as well as cream (obviously).
I’m feeling a little glum.
To be fair, they weren’t complete failures – like, they were edible, eventually – but still. Sad.
First: if you crowd chicken and potato together in a too-small container, the potato doesn’t cook completely. I thought I was doing the right thing putting it close-ish together because I was roasting it all with a couple of lemons, but it turns out that nope. Bit more space is important for potatoes. NOTED. (Ended up nuking the potatoes briefly, which was a bit humiliating.)
The second was a cake failure, which WOUNDED me. It was an apple butter cake. I made the ‘apple butter’, not completely following the recipe I’ll admit – that was an accident but it didn’t turn into a failure, because it was still tasty, a very concentrated apple. Anyway I decided to make the cake in a ring pan, because that makes it easier to cut up for sharing. I tested it, and the skewer came out clean… I turned it onto a rack after a bit, and then a bit after that I noticed that it had SUNK. It was still doughy! So I put it back in the oven for a bit. It seems ok now. At least it hasn’t sunk again.
Wah.
Acts of Kitchen 