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.

Any one for a kiss!

I come across an old school friend of mine quite often these days and she works on the odd day down at the New World that I frequent often. Victoria is an avid follower of my blog and gave me a recipe to try quoting it off by heart last Monday in the wine isle.

Now I remember her facebook status a while back was that she has, after 20 years, perfected the kiss cake. A family recipe. That should have got me worried as how could it take 20 years of baking to perfect what seemed to be a very normal problem free recipe! It is Sunday morning as I write this and behind me in the oven are the kiss cakes. The timer has gone off and they look quite sweet but anemic. I got 25 of them from the mixture and one only needs to cook them for 8 minutes. Somehow I don't think they are the way they should be!!! I will find out tomorrow when Victoria does the taste test.

Yesterday (anticipating the kiss cakes might not be too good) I made a Ginger cake from the Avenues magazine that arrived in this weeks newspaper. It has the real authentic grated root ginger as well as the ginger powder so it really is a ginger cake! Took it around to friends last night to have while watching the All Blacks show Australia how to play rugby (score 49-28).

Served with a little vanilla ice cream on the side while sipping a bubbles, it was quite lovely.

Birthday Week

What a lovely week that was.

The inevitable happened and I turned another year older and with that came the celebrating. I was showered with beautiful gifts and many of them had a baking theme. I was given a great book called 'Cakes', a selection from the Australian Womans Weekly that have been triple tested for 'your success every time.' Along with a gorgeous bundt cake pan and 4 miniture bottles of Piper Heidseick complete with sipping straws! So this weekend I made a cake in the bundt pan from the new recipe book.......Passionfruit Buttermilk Cake.

As you can see from the photo above, it turned out superbly. The taste is exquisite, so light and soft to eat. The recipe required to add three eggs, yolks first, then fold in the whipped egg whites, thus resulting in a very light texture.

I found this cake to be delicious, especially when accompanied by a chilled glass of bubbles.

So if you are passing, make a point of popping in and having a taste.

(Better make is snappy as the Piper has been known to evaporate!)

A weekend in July

This weekend was to be Emma and Richard returning from their two weeks in Europe. And since I haven't seen them since 13 June, I was keen to bake for their homecoming. It was not to be as they were delayed in Singapore for 24 hours so arrival is now Monday morning 9.20am. (Fog descended on Christchurch at 8 am, closing the airport!!) As I write this, they are still not home! Due in soon though.

The cake of the week was made and has already been eaten as we just couldn't wait till they got here. ha ha

I made a Lemon Sour Cream Cake from the Waihi Cookbook. Lovely ingredients. Lemon meringue yogurt, sour cream (lite of course), a few eggs and lemons of course.

It was a very moist cake but lovely and light with a little yogurt on the side. Eaten after a beef casserole on mash with beans.

So, this morning I threw together some Tamarillo Friands from the same recipe book. If Emma doesn't hurry up and get here then they will be gone soon too.

Week or Cake 25......I'm back

Well here we are back in the land of the living and the freezing (it is July after all!) after three weeks riding through the French country side/hills and the Italian Dolomites, then walking by the five stunning villages of the Cinqueterre.

It is lovely to be home and slowly getting back in to a routine that is life. Ben was there to greet us at the airport, Emma is somewhere in Paris as we speak and Adam is speaking Spanish in Spain.

John went back to work on Friday in what seemed like a few hours after landing, Uni starts again on Monday for Ben and Gunna the dog has settled himself back in front of the fire. As for me, well I am baking a cake!

I opened a recipe book up on a random page and the cake staring at me is 'Ladysmith Cake'.

Ladysmith cake was named after the lifting of the seige of the town of Ladysmith during the Boer War. It is a vanilla butter cake in which half the mixture is flavoured with spice and put in the tin first, then a layer of jam, then the rest of the plain mixture and chopped walnuts on top.

It looks very delicious and will take it our friends Dave and Kerrys place tonight. Will be tested at half time of the All Blacks/South Africa game.

There will be plenty left though if you are passing, as it keeps beautifully for a few days in an airtight container!

Until next week......

The stand in Blogger...

In Cheryl’s absence, I have taken it upon myself in the name of continuity to submit a baking blurb. Emma her authorised offspring, did offer, but due to the fact that she “has a life’ has been unable to deliver….

My life’s baking work this week was a batch of plum and kiwifruit muffins. A strange mix? *Plums had been defrosted and were begging cooking and the kiwifruit was ripe as and ready to rhumba. *Last of the plums from the tree that had been unceremoniously removed from our neighbouring section this year.

The fruit was drained as previous batches that were too sloppy ended up soft after cooking too. The recipe was my stock standard fresh fruity muffins page 48 in my handwritten recipe book I have had for over 20 years.

As always I was in a rush to go somewhere so left the removal from the oven and muffin pans to the eldest offspring. Torn between her inexperience and my need to leave, I opted for the latter in an effort to enhance her cooking skills. It wouldn’t take much to beat mine and we returned later to some distorted, almost blackened remnants. They tasted okay but weren’t too pleasing to the eye.

I can vouch for the nutritional value but the eating pleasure was more on a, “Geez, isn’t there anything else to eat?” basis.

Come back Cheryl, I’m hungry!