So...............

you might have noticed that there was no wonderful blackberry tart!!!! Much to my disappointment!!

During the week I had changed my mind and made a blackberry cake topped with meringue that I had seen on the cover of a magazine a few months ago, I was taking it out of the tin and IT FELL!!!! There was much screaming and gnashing of teeth but there was no salvaging it as it was smuched all over the top of my gas hob!! Thankfully I had a punnet of blackberries left so Monday night was the night, I was all set to go only to find my blackberries were gone mouldy!!! More disappointment and gnashing of teeth ensued (plus cursing m&s but I have since forgiven them as they had beautiful black Bursa figs in stock and we have them baked on top of porridge this morning) and I decided to make my big come back this week instead with a book review and some baked goods out of the book.


Rachel Allen's new book was out last week (it's not out until 6th October in the UK) and I have to say I think it's her best book yet! Now Rachel (lovely name ;-)) irritates me sometimes with her slight over-exuberance but I still watch her as she's one of the better Irish tv chefs currently I think, but this is her best book yet! Entitled Bake everything in the book is baked from the most simple recipe of baked figs to puff pastry and a wonderful gingerbread house which I am so making at Christmas (I'm singing carols already in my head).

This book is a lot better presented than Rachel's previous offerings in my opinion, the paper is lovely, matt and heavy, the photography is in a different vein too still being homely but more enticing focusing more on the food than the backgrounds, with the usual gratuitous Rachel shots sprinkled throughout. I've been reading through the recipes for the last few nights at bedtime and decided I had to make the Iced Orange Cake, one of 2 orange cakes in the book as I had some gorgeous organic, unwaxed oranges that I got last week and was dying to use as they smelled so wonderful and exotic.


So here's what you'll need for the cake

100g butter
2 eggs
Finely grated zest of 1 orange (I used 1 and a half as I wanted a super orangey cake)
100g caster sugar
100 icing sugar (I used 75g as I didn't want my cake to be too sweet)
125g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180/Gas4.
Butter a 20cm springform/loose bottomed tin and line the bottom with parchment.
Melt the butter over a low heat and when melted set aside.
Mix the eggs, orange zest, caster and iricing sugar together until thick and fluffy.
Add the melted butter and mix.
Then sift in the flour and baking powder and fold together gently.
Pour the mixture into the tin and smooth the top.
Bake for 30-35 mins until a skewer comes out clean.

I glazed my cake with a honey orange glaze using 100g icing sugar mixed with 1/2 tbsp boiling water, 1/2 tbsp orange juice and 1 tbsp honey but to be honest it was gorgeous just on it's own and would be a lovely cake to have with a cup of tea in the afternoon. My cake sunk a little in the middle but it was my own fault as I just can't leave the oven closed coming up to the end of cooking time!! Twas divine though so serve with a dollop of yogurt or cream and enjoy!

Daring Bakers Challenge 5 - Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

No Daring Bakers challenge this month which was Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream
From Great Cakes by Carol Walter and I am putting the blame firmly on family and friends who love me so much they can't be without me.

Please check out the blogroll here as there are some truly gorgeous cakes out there that are too good to be missed.

Ciao rachx

Daring Bakers Challenge 3 - Opéra Cake

So here we are again, it's Daring Bakers time, and this month I really was daring. An opéra cake is something I would NEVER have made, in my wildest dreams no matter how much I would have wanted to and read the recipe. I can now make my own nut flours - I made pistachio for this. I can make a sugar syrup, which hile not the most technical of recipes is something I have never made before. I have finally found a butter cream that I like aswell.

I'm not going to post the full recipe as it's posted on plenty of other blogs and you can see it here on Ivonne's blog Cream Puffs in Venice but here's what I did that make my cake different:

• I made pistachio flour - ground pistachios pulverised with a tsp flour for each 100g pistachios - smells AMAZING and everyone should try this!!!! I will definitel be making nut flour again.

• I used rose flavouring for my buttercream so 3 tbsp rosewater in total but to be honest I could have used more, I also coloured my buttercream with some cochinelle colouring to make it the rose pink.

• I made a cardamom sugar stock which is amazing, I still have some left and keep smelling it in it's little airtight container in the fridge. Smells like pure heaven for a cardamom addict like me!!!
  

Initially, I wasn't mad about the mousse/ganache or the glaze as I thought they over powered the cake slightly on the first day, the next day however, everything blended together perfectly and the flavours had time to develop. The joconde (read cake here gor those not intiated to the opéra cake layers) had a lovely firm texture which I really liked and the pistachio flavour was gorgeous, really fresh and with the cardamom and hints of rose made me think of exotic far off places!!!


Special thanks to Lis, Ivonne, Fran and Shea for hosting this months amazing challenge - Bring on the June challenge I'm ready!!!!!

Daring Bakers Challenge - Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

So this is my very first Daring Bakers Challenge, I was due to start last month but due to a combination of time and a cat who shall remain nameless I didn't manage to complete the chanllenge of Julia Child's French Bread. So here I am a virgin Daring Baker and this month it's all about cake, cake and more cake!!! If you asked the girl I sit near at work one thing about me she'd say "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm caaaaaaaaaaake", this is a statement I come out with on a regular basis as Friday is treat day and I get myself some super fancy salad from Avoca on Suffolk Street and the most divine piece of bakewell to go with my afternoon tea, every Friday I say the same thing "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm caaaaaaaaaaaaaaake". I am all about the cake baby!!!

I loved making this recipe, I did it on bank holiday Sunday, the day before Paddy's day and it was a lovely day of relaxation, the sun was shining and it wasn't freezing for once!!! Everything about this cake went well, the making, the baking and the creating. I'm not a big fan of butter cream but decided to stick with the original recipe this being my first challenge and meringue buttercream sounded lovely to me, I'm not normally a buttercream fan and still wasn't but I enjoyed this and even more on the second day as the lemon flavours had taken hold over night and cut through the buttery flavour. I still think if I'm making this again and I'll definitely make the cake part I would would fresh cream and fresh raspberries, but this is just a personal thing.


Here's the recipe with some amendments to allow for the conversion and any changes I made:

For the Cake
1lb 4oz flour (I used tesco organic plain white flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
310ml cups whole milk or buttermilk (I used buttermilk)
4 large egg whites
3/4lb cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (I used 3 as I like a lot of lemon)
4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
8 oz sugar
4 large egg whites
3/4lb unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
Raspberry jam warmed gently until spreadable

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350/180/Gas 4. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a 1/4lb at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.



To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
Spread it with one third of the preserves.
Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.
Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).
Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake.
You can use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top if you want, I didn't as I am not a big fan of iced cakes but you'll have enough left to do this.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Many thanks to Morven for picking this lovely cake and to the DB's for the challenge, roll on next month!!!

Chocolate Ganache Cakes

So this weekend myself and the husbag were away visiting my family who live in Waterford, my cousins are a good few years younger than me so I'd promised I would cook with them and cook we did. We made my smoked haddock fishcakes on Friday night with roasted root vegetables and Italian style broccoli and green beans, homemade pasta filled with ricotta and basil with a fresh tomato sauce and these AMAZING chocolate ganache cakes courtesy of Kieran.

What can I say about these cakes, I've wanted to make them since Kieran blogged about them nin January but the diet started then so they went in my del.icio.us and I kept looking for an occasion to make them and what better time than visiting my family whose 2 children, Lol and J are complete chocoholics!!!

These were a sinch to make, there's chocolate, cream, vanilla and cognac and they are one of the most delicious desserts I've had in a very very long time. The only changes I made to the recipe, were to use vanilla extract instead of a vanilla pod as I didn't have one to hand, everything else was the same and the original recipe is here. I also wanted to use my new individual mini cheesecake tins, which I could find nowhere apart from ebay until I stumbled upon them in a fantastic kitchen shop called Cook Shop in Cork on Saturday AND they were on sale so how could a girl leave them behind?!?!? Everything will be in miniature from now on.........................

Make these and relish in their amazing chocolatey deliciousness

It's a Bill Granger Weekend Part 2 - Lemon Pound Cake

As I've been watching Bill Granger this weekend courtesy of Bill's Food on BBC and also thanks to some lovely Malaysian person on YouTube who has all of Bill's Food series 1, I was all inspired to make this lemon cake as lemon is one of my favourite flavours (along with almond and chocolate obviously). It was on Bill's Food a couple of weeks ago and looked divine in it's lemony deliciousness and best of all it can be frozen so I can pull up out again in a couple of weeks and enjoy more lemony goodness.

This is supposed to be a pound cake but it's more like a 1/4 of a pound cake as you will see from the ingredients:

250g butter, softened
250g caster sugar
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 free range eggs
250g self-raising flour, sifted

Preheat the oven to gas 4/180.
Grease and line the base of an 8 inchsquare cake tin.
Mix the butter and sugar together until smooth, I used my Kenwood but you could do this by hand pretty easily. Then add the lemon zest and vanilla and mix again.
Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each one is added.
Fold in the sifted flour, half first, mix well and then the second half and mix well until combined.
Spoon into the tin and bake for 40-45 mins or until a skewer comes out cleanly.
Cool for 10 mins and remove from the tin.

While this was cooking there was the most delicate smell of lemon from when I came half way down the stairs. The cake is moist but dense and smells lemony. It is almost like a lemon madeira but firmer and denser in texture. Definitely worth a try.

Christmas Cake, Nigella Style

As I neglected the blog last week while participating in social occasions (the ballet, a bag party and also a tummy bug) there's a good few posts coming in the next week, mostly around the christmas baking I've done thus far so ho ho ho and all that.

This cake is from one of my all time favourite baking books, How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson, I have made so many things out of this book and they never fail to turn out looking and tasting amazing.

I have never made a Christmas cake before this one and it's my baby, I am SO SO happy with it, it looks good, it didn't burn and smells drinkalicious!!!

So here's what you need for a 23cm round (20cm square) cake tin

• 700g sultanas
• 225g raisins
• 110g currants
• 110g glace cherries
• 110g mixed peel
• 120ml brandy or sherry
• 225g butter
• 195g brown sugar
  
• 1 tsp grated orange zest
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 4 medium eggs and 1 extra yolk (the original recipe uses 4 lrg eggs)
  
• 2 tsp honey (the original recipe uses marmalade but I forgot to buy this so honey seemed a better option than blackcurrant jam!)
  
• 350g plain flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp almond essence
• pinch of salt

I used dried fruit from out local fruit shop, I have never seen it in there before and was very happy I didn't have to use anything from bags but if you're making this the end result will be just the same I'm sure as my mammy (Domestic Goddess extraordinaire) never used anything but bagged fruit when I was growing up and the cake was always gorgeous.

Put the fruit into a large bowl and soak in the brandy or sherry overnight.

The next day, heat the oven to Gas mark 2 or 150C. Line the tin with a double thickness of buttered baking parchment and then outside the tin a double thickness of brown paper, this should come up above the tin about the same depth as the tin itself. Nigella's recipe uses brown paper and then baking parchment inside the tin but I grew up doing it with the parchment on the inside and the brown paper outside the tin and it worked out just fine.

• Cream the butter and the sugar and then beat in the lemon and orange zest.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after you add each one, then add the honey or marmalade. I added my salt in at this stage and the almond essence aswell.
  
• Sift the flour and spices together and add to the fruit. Mix really well so everything is combined and there's no pockets of flour left or uncoated fruit

Pour your mixture into the prepared, buttered cake tin and bake for 3-3 1/2 hours or until a skewer (read butter knife here as I had no skewers) comes out clean.

When the cake comes out, brush a couple of spoons of extra brandy over the top of the cake and wrap in it's tin immediately - this will trap heat and form steam and keep the top of the cake soft on the top. When the cake is completely cold, remove it from the tin and rewrap in greaseproof paper and foil and store.

Now, I haven't made any move to ice the cake yet but am going to top the cake following a different recipe for Certosino from the same book. This involves putting aprocot jam all over the top of the cake, then covereing it completely with dried fruits and nuts and glazing it with the remainder of the apricot jam so it looks all shiny and pretty, I will update the post at that stage