Going Dutch

Well this week John and I entertained 6 lovely friends with a taste of Dutch the way 'Oma used to make it.'

We decorated the house with little trinkets from the native land; a windmill here, set of clogs there, and vases of tulips, everywhere.

The food was fun to plan and prepare. Chicken noodle soup to start, with Omas secret ingredient making it authentically dutch. Beef croquettes, rookworst sausage, stumpot ( a silverbeet potato concoction), eel, (yes, eel!) gerkins, silver onions, mustard and apple sauce to accompany.

Then came the dessert.

I had to fight for supremacy in this department as John bought out all his sweet treats that he was brought up on; biscotti covered in muisjes and vlok, tai tai, spek (scrummy soft sugary marshmellow), and paperkoek, all very attractively displayed on a platter. But what about the real dessert, I exclaimed!

I decided to google dutch cakes during the week and came across a Charlotte finger cake. Kahlua coffee mousse with cream and lady fingers. I made it on Friday and it didn't come out looking very attractive at all so I was convinced I had lost my touch with these cakes after last weeks effort too!

So I headed off to the Riccarton Market on Saturday morning and went straight to the lovely dutch lady who sells all manner of dutch desserts/cakes and bought an emergency cake....apple tart.

Anyway, back to the dutch evening and the table full of guests ready to sample the Mother Maderia cake of the week. I must admit, the mousse blended in very well with all of Johns sweet delights, and the apple tart made an appearance too. Every sat with very full bellies, satiated.

The night came to a close around 2 am after demolishing a bottle of very delicious Advocaat, served with bacardi, cream and lemonade!

Tot ziens!

P.S Last weeks cake was actually made correctly the first time.....the pan it was cooked in was too big therefore the cake looked like a flop! ha ha

If at first you don't succeed......

try, then try again!

This week is the Cancer society's appeal week with Daffodil day next Friday.

The Cancer society has been selling tea towels with a daffodil cake recipe from Alison Holst on it.

So I thought that would be the cake for this week.

I made it first on Sunday morning and things didn't feel as though they were going right. Sure enough it came out of the oven looking flat and it stuck to the pan!

Then I made it again in the afternoon and things didn't feel any better and sure enough it came out flat again (ha ha) . At least it never stuck to the pan.

I have seen a photo of how this cake should look on the notice board at the Cancer society rooms in Christchurch. I'll ring them tomorrow and chat with the very capable lady that made it. I believe she is from Timaru.

So watch this space for what is was that I did wrong!

Dinner Party Dessert

We had friends coming for dinner this weekend and so the cake of the week was to be dessert. So I was looking for something with texture, not too heavy and one that could be made the day before so that I wasn't stuck in the kitchen for the entire day slaving over a hot stove.

Out came the Harbour Kitchen Celebrating Lyttelton cook book, on page 87, Italian Ricotta Cake. I was a little bothered by the fact that the entire cake was made in a food processor. (I don't like using food processors and would much prefer using the trusty beater.) But anyway, I decided on this cake and sure enough in the recipe it said to make it the day before so that it can set.

The base of the cake is flour, ground almonds, brown sugar etc and then the centre is made up of Ricotta cheese, cream cheese, slivered almonds and large chunks of chocolate with a good dollop of coruba rum. (hence the name Italian cake, rum gives the taste of a tiramisu)

It went down reasonably well at dinner. In fact, it was hilarious as one mere male asked for an axe to chop into the outside...it was that hard! So to quote the same mere male....'hard case outsides with god-like innards'. I noticed that he was the one and only who managed to eat the crust in the end.

I served this with a dollop of cream on the side (as I seem to serve all my cakes lately!)

I recommend you make this cake if you have the Lyttelton cook book. Maybe be a little more light handed on the pulse button of your food processor when it comes to mixing the crumb base, that will result in the base being softer I think.

Just a little note on last weeks blog about the pumpkin pie. I emailed Kathy in Minnesota and asked her about some of the ingredients and their equivilant here in NZ. Pumpkin comes in a can in the states so we could cook the pumpkin by baking it dry, then mash it keeping it as dry as possible. Nutmeats are a mixture of nuts like walnuts, pecans etc. A stick of butter is 113.4 grams!

So there you go for another week. I am taking suggestions for next weeks creation, would love to hear from you.

American Inspiration

I got a lovely surprise this week when I received a parcel in the mail from my very lovely friend Kathy who lives in Minnesota USA.

It was a recipe book titled 'Best of the Best from Minnesota Cookbook'. There is a recipe for everything from Witches Brew (drink), Double Decker Knox Blox (dessert), Turkey soup to Corn Spoonbread! But since this blog is all about cakes, I went straight to the cake chapter.

What else is more American than Pumpkin Pie, but I freaked out when I saw the ingredients. I will need to check with Kathy if a can of Pumpkin is the same as mashed cooked pumpkin, and yellow cake mix is a betty crocker variety and that nutmeats is similar to walnuts!!

With the rugby on again this weekend, I thought the Prairie Beer Cake would be a good choice. It was made in a Bundt pan so was always going to look attractive when it gets turned out. I used Carona since that was the only beer in the house at the time. It could have done with a more gutsy beer....next time. It has dates and walnuts in it and was very tasty at half time of the rugby, with a dollop of whipped cream on the side.

There is plenty left for those passing this week.

(Richard and Leaanne had birthdays this weekend so I made them each a chocolate slice. Richard had raspberries and a lot of dark chocolate in his, while Leaanne had milk, dark and white chocolate in hers! )

Emma has done quite a bit of research this weekend and has found a website with extremely complicated cake recipes....she thinks I need to up my game and make some more challenging and exotic cakes. Ha ha...watch this space.