Is it Christmas already?

Given it appears as though a toy shop has exploded in our living room, I think it is a safe assumption that Santa has visited and it is indeed Christmas.  Merry Christmas to whom ever stumbles across this post.  It has been a bit barren in the posting department.  Reasons one, two and three are in the shot above.

For those following along at home, the baby boys were induced at 3.00pm on the 17th of June, which is coincidentally my Mum's birthday, and arrived at 10.20pm and 10.36pm that same day.  Let's just say that a twin delivery is a production with quite a few cast members, certainly a lot more than showed up for Isaac's delivery.  I can absolutely guarantee that it will be a one time only show, because as cute as they are, they are hard work!  So it has been a bit foggy around here the past six months.  I have baked, but my mental capacity and time scarcity have not stretched to anything really ground breakingly new.  So in absence of cake photos, here are some baby photos instead.

Hard to believe that six months ago they were that little - 6 pound 5 ounces and 7 pound 2 ounces (so not so little), and they are now sitting up and stealing each others toys.

Six months - (huge exhale of breath) surely my medal is in the post?  The little assistant is slowly coming around to the possibility that they could be something other than extremely noisy things that take up time with his Dad.  When anyone asks me how it is, I just respond with "relentless" - all elements of it (especially the laundry)!  We are so blessed and we count our lucky stars on a daily basis that we were so fortunate to have three healthy and happy sons.

The little assistant was not so impressed by his new bike.  The new train set on the other hand, is a winner.
 

Anyway, I am sure that one day soon, I will be baking for real again.  I have a stack of baking books ready to go.

Macarons - Pierre Herme
Tea with Bea - Bea's of Bloomsbury

Baked in America (where I get my US flour)
Mary Berry's Baking Bible - stalwart of UK baking 



Now, if someone can let me know where on Amazon I can buy some time, then I will get right on it.





Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and long 2012 (I am sure it is not just me that feels as though the year evaporates?).

 

The Devil is in the Chocolate

Ahem.  Let's not remark about how it is nearly Christmas again.  Let's remark about the fact that I actually baked.  And then blogged about it.

The cake that finally made it past the deeply guarded barriers of procrastination was Devil's Food Cake with Midnight Ganache.  And you know what.  After *months* of procrastination about being too tired, too busy, too "overseas", too whatever, this whole baking thing didn't take too long at all.  Good to remember really.  If I had spent more time *doing* rather than making up excuses, I am sure that my cake quota for the past three months would have advanced past the solitary digit.

I baked this whilst the little assistant and his Dad were at swimming lessons (for the little assistant, not for Dad).  I even have Chris fooled as to how *time consuming* and *difficult* this cake baking is.  When they returned from swimming, Chris asked where I had found the time to bake cakes!  They had been gone maybe two hours...  Clearly I am a good excuse maker.

And this cake is pretty easy to make.  The ganache takes longer.  The devils food cake comes together pretty easily and can be prepared in stages.  Ten minutes to prepare the wet ingredients, dry ingredients, dissolve cocoa, chocolate and boiling water and pull the butter out to come to room temperature.  Then in a about an hour or so, just mix it in the right order and divide it equally between two pans and before you know it you have a couple of cakes.  Mine where baked in about 27 minutes, not the 30 -40 minutes that Rose recommends.  I definitely recommend an early check on these cakes.

The hardest thing about making this cake was coaxing the light brown muscovado sugar that it didn't needed to be in thousands of individual bits, rather than in one big solid lump.  Coaxing with the wooden lemon juicer didn't go far enough, so I had to introduce it to the food processor for a good few minutes.  Quite obviously cake baking has been infrequent around here.  Previously, sugar never sat long enough to work out how to move from grains to granite. The actual mix was fluffy and amazing.

The ganache was a bit of faff.  I declined the option to use food processor to grind my chocolate.  Weird, given I had it out to grind the faffing sugar.  I must have been channeling a bit of Raymond defiance!  Knowing how hot caramel gets, I figured out that it would be plenty hot enough to melt the broken bits of chocolate.  Also a bit weird, was that I seem to have maintained the confidence that comes from baking week in week out.  You know, the kind of confidence that results in skim reading the recipe, getting it wrong, then with a shrug of the shoulders, doing a slight adjustment and thinking it will be right!  I used 85% chocolate in the ganache (it was midnight ganache after all!!)  Anway, on my second skim, I realised that Rose had instructed 60% so I switched out some of the 85% for some lower % and called it roughly right.  So what if I was a few hours post midnight in the ganache stakes?

The caramel was a great success.  Whilst I was in Australia recently I had to consult Rose (via You Tube) on correct caramel preparation.   (How great is it to have Rose on call, whenever you need her... kind of like having your Mum at the end of the counter, except that my Mum doesn't know how to make great caramel!).     I gifted our hosts with the two Ottolenghi cookbooks and whipped up the Macadamia and Caramel cheesecake.  Except my Caramel (made on brown sugar!) was a crystallised disaster.  So I learned from Rose that you need plain old white granulated to make proper caramel.  You know what - she is right (like I should be surprised).  So the caramel of the ganache was simple - so long as you know the difference between deep amber and burnt.  Which I do.  Through bitter experience (literally!).  Not that I burned it this time.  But I have.  In the past.

After caramelising the sugar and tipping in the cream and butter, you add it to the chocolate (it doesn't need to be finely processed, chunked into rough squares is good enough if you put some elbow effort in).   I tasted it at this point and was very tempted to stop.  I could easily taste the caramel coming through the chocolate.  Divine.  But this was Midnight Ganache, not Caramel Ganache.  So onwards with adding in a shedload of cocoa mixed with boiling water.  Again, I didn't cool this as instructed because really, what was the point?  Cooled cocoa mixed with hot caramel/chocolate didn’t really make sense to me – just lengthened the process.  So I just mixed and then let it cool for a few hours.  Not the five as instructed.  More like about three.

I didn’t ice it as artfully as Rose.  I just smoothed it on and called it done.  I also didn’t bother with the macerated cherries – they too fell victim to the skim read.

The verdict on this cake?  Hmm.  I can’t say that I am sold.  The cake itself, whilst tender, is quite crumbly.  There is no way you can sneak a piece of this cake.  A friend dropped over to collect Chris for an early morning motorbike ride on Sunday and helped himself to a slice of cake.  I knew this even before I lifted the lid on the cake plate because there were chocolate crumbs all over the floor.  Granted, he is a bachelor and cake plates and forks are not his thing – especially at sparrows on a Sunday morning.  Still, it is worth noting that this is not the moist heavy chocolate cake that makes you regret even a sliver.  It is light.  It is tender.  It is a tad crumbly, or more politely worded – delicate.  That midnight ganache does ratchet down the delicate nature of the cake – I think I would have preferred it less cocoa-ey, more like it was with just the caramel and chocolate.  Chris described it as chocolate cement.  But that hasn’t stopped him having five slices in 48 hours.

I quite like the delicateness of the chocolate cake, but would pair it with a lighter whipped caramel ganache or something.  Assuming my levels of procrastination permitted, of course.

My other baking endeavor is well underway.  I can’t procrastinate my way out of that one.  Fortunately I don’t have to read any recipes or talk myself into the baking, otherwise who knows how long it would actually take me to come up with the goods.  All going to plan, two more little boys will be here by mid June.  I am fervently wishing for a longer torso, but other than that, it is thankfully, boringly normal and uneventful, if a little on the large size.  

In other news, we are moving in the next two weeks from our two bedroom gardenless flat to three bedroom small back yarded house, which, although nice, doesn’t have quite the same high quality German appliances.  Sob.  I will do my best not to add that to my list of baking avoidance excuses.

It Twas the night before Christmas

And whilst the genoise bake and the chiboust cream chills, two hands find themselves without a little assistant or husband or Christmas related faff to distract them.

It is a very long time since I was around these parts.  Almost two three months.  I am surprised I haven't had a little note from Marie kicking me out of the HCB'ers.  I do have a couple of excuses. 

These are currently referred to as Twin A and Twin B.  And far out, have they been taking a lot of my excess everything.  I have just passed thirteen fourteen weeks, and whilst I thankfully haven't been sick, I have felt a tad tired.  Hence the break in blogging.  And baking for that matter.  That strictly isn't correct, I have been baking and that stretched to a few photos on occasion, but it has all been a bit lack lustre.  Too busy being tired and excited and nervously anxious and saying "Oh my, twins!" repeatedly.  I will keep the mention of pregnancy etc to a minimum - this is a baking blog, not a pregnancy blog.

Ha! It literally Twas the night before Christmas, however, now it is quite a few nights post Christmas.  First day back at work and I feel like I have somehow missed Christmas altogether.

Anyway, a brief round up of the cakes issuing forth from the oven...

Chocolate Genoise with Peanut Butter Ganache - the genoise was a blinding success even with the eleventy hundred flour bombs littering the base and insides of the cake.  I was kind of hoping that the heat from the oven would dissolve those flour balls, but once I tested the cake with a toothpick and it came out tipped in flour, I knew that no weird chemical reaction had occurred to dissolve that flour. 

I then spent about 15 minutes excavating flour balls from the bottom (top) of the cake.  Even after 15 minutes I didn't manage to get all of them!  The pile was substantial...

I wasn't overly enamored with the raspberry syrup - the cake didn't need it at all.  I also wasn't that keen on the peanut butter ganache, however I think that might be because my tastebuds are a bit weird.  Everyone who tried it raved about the ganache; the syrup; the cake - clearly it is just my tastebuds.  It was a breeze to make and it came together perfectly.  This will definitely be on my bake again list - spectacular and pretty easy.

Next out was the Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake.  Meh.  However, it was easy "meh".  I didn't really like this cake at all.  I found it a bit dry and pretty lacking given that it followed on directly after the spectacular genoise.  I won't be making this one again anytime soon, I would prefer to spend an extra five minutes on beating lukewarm eggs to triple their volume and turn out the genoise.  To my mind, this is the cake that needed the syrup and some ganache.  I do love that tin though!

For my free choice week I baked the Swedish Pear Almond Cake - the week after it was actually scheduled.  I was a bit nervous about this - the almond comes from almond paste, of which I am not a fan.  That almond essence taste gives me the heebies - pregnant or no.  Especially since the only almond paste I could find was the rolling almond paste that is traditionally layered under hard fondant on those heavy old style Christmas cakes.  I bravely soldiered on.  I do like to stick to Rose's recipes the first time round, and then tweak afterwards.  I figure that Rose and Woody have baked a few more cakes than I and may just know their way around a recipe... plus I am not allergic to anything.

The almond paste is blended with egg, butter, sugar and then channelled into the cake, with the pear slices layered on top of the almond mix.  Then through cake magic that works for almonds and pears (and also for undissolved flour balls) the top becomes the bottom which then becomes the top again. 

 


This cake was fabulous.  Great crumb, the almond taste was discernible but not heebie inducing.  And the pear developed and further moistened the cake over the next few days.  Definitely a bake again cake.  Fantastic for a morning tea or afternoon tea.  Or dinner (ahem).  I did mention how tired I have been.  Some days it is unreasonable to expect me to cook dinner when there is perfectly good cake sitting on the bench.

I didn't make the Candian Crown.  Christmas doesn't exactly bring me out the cheesecake lover in me.  I opted instead for the St Honore Trifle.   I actually did the Rose trick of diving my hands through the batter to make sure that the flour balls were dissolved.  This was my Christmas miracle.  Two perfect genoise, with only one flour ball between (amongst?) them.

These came together perfectly.  My chiboust cream was fantastic (modest aren't I - but I claim no credit - it is all Rose!).  The strawberries (from Egypt!) weren't exactly England's best, but they were good enough not to need sweetening.  I layered it all up, debating extensively with myself about the absence of jelly.  For me, the jelly in the trifle needs to hold the fruit.  I stuck to the "Rose knows best - the first time round anyways..." rule.  And four days after Christmas I am stuck with a trifle that is more like a genoise cake filled with chiboust cream and strawberries.  The next time I make this I will take a more traditional approach.  A single genoise sponge, spread with tart raspberry jam, a layer of raspberries or strawberries suspended in a homemade berry jelly spiked with some Chambord, then a big layer of chiboust cream topped with the sweetened cream.  There was too much cake in the Rose version.  I think I have learned that Trifle is a very personal thing!

That wraps up my exploits for the past several months.  I don't know if I can promise to be more frequent around these parts.  Truthfully, the tiredness does seem to be abating, so that is promising.  And I guess I will only have a relatively small window before I can't move and my life becomes incomprehensibly chaotic.   So perhaps I should just get baking and blogging while I still can.

Hoping that you enjoyed your festive season (if applicable) and wishing you a New Year of opportunity, happiness and well being.

Many-Splendored Quick Bread

What is it with Americans and the vowel "u" (amongst others)?  I do see the point, honestly.  I mean why use two letters, when one is enuf?  I do worry for a few seconds each week every blue moon when I post, that some of you may think I can't spell.  I can barely read stalkerbook anymore because some of the spelling irritates me so (or makes me laugh so hard - a dilemma that keeps me going back for more).  Don't get me started on SMS "language" - it is so very far from gr8.  It is s2pid.

What is it I do on this blog thing again?  Apart from open myself to criticism for any spelling mistakes I may make?   People in glass houses and all...

So, yes, it has been a while.  I am embarrassed to realise that it is over six weeks since I last posted.  I have slipped to the third bottom of Marie's HCB blogger update list.  Eeek.  And whilst I have been baking a fair amount, I haven't converted that baking into blogging.  Apologies.  I will further apologise, because this post will cover off all the baking I have done in the last six weeks.  

So in order of memory retention...

This weeks' Many Splendored Quick Bread.  (Can I just say that every element of that name - besides "quick" irks me).  But I can't come up with a better name than Rose, so it can remain Many Splendored Quick Bread ... for now.  As the English say, it does exactly what it says on the tin.   Quick it is.

The most time consuming part of this recipe was finding the loaf tin - owned for years, used precisely never. 

Oh, and there was one time wasting instruction which I duly ignored - mix flour, leavening and salt in one bowl, sift into another bowl and mix in the oats.  Um.  No.  How about I sift it all into one bowl, mix it and then mix the oats in and call that one less bowl to wash up.  Each time I ignore an OCD like instruction in Rose's recipe I have a giggle about how Raymond will react to it on his post.

The UK has a health marketing program "eat 5 a day" which is the recommended serves of fruit and veg in one day.  Given this bread has zucchini (courgettes in the UK), carrots (strangely, they call them carrots here too), banana (ditto) and walnuts (I subbed pecans because that was what I had), by my calculations if you ate the full loaf, then you probably would meet half of your "five" a day quota.  Because even though it contains all those things - it is literally three quarters of one ig carrot, half a big zucchini and one banana.  Well, actually, my one banana was 8 grams shy of the target, but hey ho.

 
I love these oil based cakes.  You are never instructed to have the oil at a set temperature and everything just kind of gets bunged together until it emulsifies.  The carrot and zucchini is grated, of course, because I am yet to hear of a cake that has them either diced or sliced or left whole.  Because there is a relatively small portion of zucchini and carrot, I opted for the old fashioned knuckle grater.  Happily, because it didn't use the full amount of either carrot or zucchini I avoided adding unnecessary protein to my mix.

 

 The end product was pretty and good.  My father in law ate it like bread.  As in with lashings of butter.  The rest of us ate it virtuously.  Given it was quick and easy and didn't end in grated knuckles, I would call it a success.  And it is quite a virtuous cake.  I could tell, because this didn't improve with age - it became drier.  Don't all virtues get a bit weary with the passage of time?

Instead of the Pineapple brioche puddings, we went to Kew Gardens on one of those Autumn days where you can momentarily fool yourself that perhaps winter isn't just waiting behind the next tree.  It was a tough one, but sunshine in mid October was a definite winner.

The Chocolate Tomato cake did get a run - it should be grateful, because, trust me, that will be the last time I bake that recipe.   I baked this one mid week and took it to a company I have been working on a project with for the past six months.   They were very pleased.  But then again, I think they may have just been polite, after all, how many of their clients pay the bills *and* bring them cake? 

The cake mix was so thick and the tomato soup was barely discernible.  I would maybe bake the cake again, but to me, it just felt a bit gimmicky, so, yeah, maybe not.

The ganache with the mystery ingredient.  How such a tiny amount of tomato soup results in such bitter ganache is definitely a mystery to me.  My tastebuds are still demanding a root cause analysis with corrective action to be submitted for review.  Never. Again.  If you can't tell from the cake photo, that ganache was so grainy it looked terrible.  Especially when I compare it to the lusciousness that was the caramel ganache.  Now I know why Rose encased her cake in those cigar biscuits.  First rule of cake decorating - if it is ugly - cover it!

Oh me, oh my.  The Apple Caramel Charlotte.  How I love thee.  How my entire family loves thee (except the little assistant - he didn't at all like the texture or the hint of calvados).  This was an incredibly long recipe in the book.  And truth be told, it did take me two weeks to complete it.  I poached the apples on a Sunday afternoon, thinking I could turn it out that night.  Ahem.  No you can't.  Especially if it takes four goes to poach the bloody apples. 

First ones turned to mush.  Second ones looked weird - kind of firm on the outside but floury (how a poached apple can be floury, I have no idea), the third batch I left with my husband while I ducked out to the hairdresser, only to a return to apple sauce.  The fourth batch were grand.  Ironically the fourth batch were a generic bag of apples from Tesco.  The first three were bought from farmers markets and various organic healthfood shops.

Anyway, assuming that you can poach apples, you could probably knock this out in a few hours.  The filling is a combination of a caramel made with the apple poaching liquid combined with an italian meringue.  Capital A amazing.  

The cakey bit is just a genoise.  See how I fooled you there with pretending that genoise are easy.  Far fricking out.  Genoise has become my nemesis.  Even with the faffing Wondra flour I ended up with chewy nuggets.  But that annoyance was nothing compared to what you see in the next photo.

Yep, that is correct.  Two inches short of a cake tin.  And no, I am not talking about my mental capacity.  Those pits in the base sponge were the wondra lumps.  I had to patch the gap with some frozen whipped cream cake I excavated from the freezer.  Somehow, I ended up eating that bit of the cake, and I can tell you that nine (!!) month old frozen whipped cream cake is not nearly as delectable as even my crappy genoise.

At one point, my husband questioned whether a cake that produced as many dishes as this one, could ever be worth it.  His concern was hilarious, given that he gets to eat the cake, but doesn't ever have to do the dishes!  

The final call was that this cake is definitely worth using every single pot (more than once over) and every bowl (I have four pots, and six bowls) and countless other implements.  Especially when your wife does the dishes (yeah, I am struggling with the logic of that one too!).  This is now the requested birthday cake, along with a tiramisu and 3 dozen cupcakes to take to his office.  So there will be plenty of dishes in my kitchen this weekend!

I didn't realise it was free choice week until after we had eaten the upside down apple cake.  Um.  So the only photo I had was from above.  Happily, it was a lot more successful than the first go round, where I smoked out the house.  I do learn from previous errors (sometimes)!  I retract all negative comments I had a year ago about this cake.  It is fantastic.  Perfection.

I made the Upside Down Plum & Blueberry cake which was nice enough.  Great with a cup of tea and a trashy mag.  Though equally good with a glass of champagne and (not trashy) friends.  I did research on both pairings.  Easy to make and not completely ruined by the fact that the caramel and plums sat overnight and completely turned to mush.  So feel free to prepare the night before and bake in the morning!  It is a great breakfast cake - and has to count as one of your "5 a day".


The Marionberry shortcakes were in there too, except my camera was shotless, so no photos.  I do recall that my genoise shortcakes were a little short.  The hit of those cakes was the lightly sweetened creme fraiche.  That is definitely going into the bag of tricks.  Creme Fraiche is lower in fat than cream, so you can feel all fabulous and healthy (but only in comparison to the cream eaters, because creme fraiche at 31% fat is no lettuce leaf.)

 I did eventually get around to the Lemon Meringue Cake.  This is one of those "if it looks crap, cover it up" cakes.  And wow, meringue and some oven time do wonders to bring this cake from spotted gangling teen to airbrushed supermodel.

 I seem to have a lot of photos labeled "cake x - crap genoise".  Sigh.  Thank goodness for meringue.  And these were made with the wondra flour.  And my eggs were whipped until the requisite tripling or whatever was required.  When we HCB'ers meet up, I need a one on many genoise intervention (as in I bake the genoise and you all tell me where I am going wrong).

I even made the lemon curd from scratch for this cake.  I was a bit ho hum about the cake.  A bit too much going on for me - I think the syrup pushed it over the top.  Not the four inches of meringue on the top.  Honestly.

So, that rounds out the multitude of posts that I have forsaken, because I have been too busy working, baking and enjoying the last remnants of summer.  That amazing tractor is at the Princess Diana Memorial Playground just outside Kensington Palace.  And whilst the Little Assistant is anywhere in that playground, you are all reminded that it is most definitely "HIS".  When he is not there, you may play with it.  Maybe.  And remember that parents are in the trailer, NOT on the tractor (unless they are required to bounce any other kid who hasn't realised whose tractor it is).

I think I may be back in the mix again.  My work project has now been delivered, so it is just normal crazy, instead of crazy crazy.  With winter setting in, and days feeling about four hours long, I guess that our park time will be restricted, so more time for blogging.  Ever the optimist.

Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache

I have finally worked out why the we HCB'ers are meant to post on a Monday.  Just like all diets must start on a Monday, so too must the errant blogger re enter the fold on a Monday.  That Marie is one smart baker/blogger/re-commencer of stuff.

There has been a fair amount of baking going on, just not a lot of anything else.  Well, actually, loads of everything else except just no blogging.  Or even commenting.  Anyway, excuses are boring, unless they involve a car chase, police and a juicy piece of gossip about someone you don't actually know.  Needless to say, my excuses are very boring.

I guess I should talk about this cake.  It was quick.  I really do like the way that Rose's recipes are laid out.  The ingredients are ordered the same way as they are used in the recipe.  It has been so long since I have baked anything other than a Rose recipe that I can't actually remember if all cook books are like that?  I think not?  Anyway, this cake mixes up super quick with the ol' two step method.  I don't think I need to describe that do I?  It is my first week back after such a long time...

Rose is a big one for having her chocolate cakes based on cocoa dissolved in boiling water and then cooled.  But cocoa cake doesn't have quite the same ring to it as chocolate cake.  And really, the cocoa method does make for a very chocolaty chocolate cake.

This baked really quickly for me - it was done in 25 minutes, compared to the 30 - 40minutes.  I pulled it from the oven before the sides had shrunk in, and it looked good.  A little domed, but good, none the less.  And Rose's domes usually drop away anyway.  Right?  Technically, the dome did drop away.  It dropped away into seismic cracks.  The like I have never ever had happen ever before.  (Unless I have repressed that memory  - you know how psychiatrists say that the brain has a canny knack for protecting itself.)

That's why you should always blog your cakes - no hiding the terrible truth.  I wasn't holding out great hope for the cake at this point.  I was thinking dry.  As dry as an Australian lake.  Except without the feet.  (Not my feet, by the way.  Mine aren't nearly that tanned.)

Photo via aloshbennett

I contemplated making trifle.  The chocolate raspberry number.  But then I read that the creme anglaise would consume twelve egg yolks.  And I really really really hate throwing good eggs after bad.  Plus I thought that trifling it would be departing from the recipe a tad too much.  The final clincher was when Raymond and Mendy posted how amazing the ganache was.  A trifle with ganache and chocolate cake?  Isn't that just a messed up chocolate cake?  It was starting to do my head in, so I just went the cake route.  Figuring that if the cake looked too bad, I could just mix in some whipped cream and call it chocolate caramel mess.

Onto the caramel then.  Actually, a bit beyond caramel.  More into the "meet your local fire brigade" territory.  So, yes, maybe I did get a bit distracted - but it was a funny bit of Wallace and Grommit.  He did have a bomb in his pants.

I did wonder if I could get away with this as being deep amber.  I think it was the smoke that made me decide otherwise.  In an attempt to see if it could work, I mixed in a bit of butter, to convert it into burnt caramel.  I have eaten burnt caramel ice cream, which is amazing.  Burnt caramel with a bit of butter mixed in, is not.  It is inedible.  Fit only for the bin.

So back to the pan.  See how determined I can be?  Peer group pressure is an amazing thing.  Otherwise I would have a bowl of trifle on my bench instead of cake.  I was much more diligent with the next lot of caramel and took it to the amber stage, mixed in the cream and ended up with this.

Not sure it looks much better than the burnt stuff, but I can tell you it tasted exponentially better.  This was sugar and water mixed into scalded cream. Or in my case, scaled cream with a dash of creme fraiche (because I didn't have quite enough cream and dairy products are dairy products, right?).  It seemed to come together okay.  But I did need the Nigella whisk to get it there.  I find that scaled creme fraiche turns a bit clumpy and needs to be broken up.  I didn't bother with the food processor.  After all caramel at 188 degrees Celsius with scalded cream on top of 85% Lindt chocolate isn't going to need a whole lot of mixing before it looks like this...

It hung out in the bowl (can I say, that if you are looking for mixing bowls these are the business - indestructible) for a few hours whilst we went to the London Wetlands to interact with the bird life.

I think these ducks were from China - an amazing migratory path, all the more so given they don't have wings.

Once we got home, I composed the cake.  Far out.  Half way through the massacre, I was wondering if perhaps I should invest in a Fat Daddio.  Before I realised what was going on, I had about six pieces of cake instead of two.  Somehow I managed to cut through the cake in a weird wave like manner.  It did make for easy reassembly as there was only one way those parts could go back together.  I failed to take a shot of that.  But you know what?  That ganache is incredible.  If they made face cream like that, plastic surgeons would be out of business. 

The ganache is the business.  It is so glossy and easy to apply.  It probably helps that London has thrown itself wholeheartedly into Autumn.  62 Fahrenheit here today (17 Celsius) - clearly they weren't outside catching the "breeze".  As many of my HCB'ers have informed, this ganache doesn't hold together so well as it approaches 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).  That said, I don't hold together that well at 38 celsius, so I think it is expecting a bit much for chocolate, cream and caramel to do much better.

My in laws were over for dinner this evening, so this cake got sampled and reviewed.  I served it with clotted cream ice cream and cream.  Because, as we have already established, dairy products are interchangeable (except for skim milk and low fat yoghurt - but I don't technically classify those as dairy products).  I was really surprised that the cake wasn't dry.  Not sure if that was because the ganache to cake ratio was just shy of 1:1.  And I was surprised that I didn't want to throw up after a slice.  Not sure if that was because the cake to cream/ice cream ratio was also just shy of 1:1.   Marie wrote an amazing paragraph on the taste of this ganache : "Nicely integrated aroma of vanilla and dark chocolate. Flavors develop nicely and finish with lingering tastes of caramel and creme brulee. Rich mouth feel.".  Clearly she had quite a few glasses of wine with hers.  I still can't taste the caramel.  Nor can any of the tasting panel.  All agreed that the cake was definitely not dry.  All thought it was superb.  Or they were all being polite.  And none threw up.  Or went hypoglycemic.  Something about that caramel nicely balances the chocolate and makes the ganache a whole lot less dense than traditional ganache. 

I will definitely make the ganache again.  The cake I am not so sure about.  Yes, it was fine.  Seismic cracks and shoddy cake splitting not withstanding.  I definitely would hold to the ratio as per Rose's recipe.  The cake/ganache was perfect.  More cake and I think it would have been a bit dry in the mouth. 

Right, that is me back in the ring.  You never, know, some Monday soon, I may actually tidy up this blog, and post some of my backlog.  (I am beginning to think that blog is short for backlog).   Now given that I have posted, perhaps I should also start a diet?

Not Lemon Meringue Cake

This is the reason why there is no Lemon Meringue Cake sitting at the top of your page.  I am all caked out.  Bloody hell.  Wedding cakes are hard work.  Thankfully I now have this blog which will remind me of that fact next time someone is getting married and I think "I should make their wedding cake!".

I made the three layers, plus an extra kitchen cake, last weekend and stuck them in the freezer.  That just left the icing(s) and fillings for Friday and then assembly at the venue on Friday.  Easy.

What I didn't plan for was this man; my grandfather - Dad Maxwell, here surrounded by some of his grandchildren and all of his great grandchildren, passing away on Tuesday this week.  To say it was a shock, was an understatement.  He and my Mum were due to be visiting here in England in just over two weeks.  He was, as the saying goes, fit as a fiddle.  Except for his heart.  Which apparently wasn't playing that same tune, unbeknown to us all.  That photo hanging on the wall, in the top left hand corner, is of my grandfather in Paris.  Three years ago, when he traveled to Europe for the World Cup.  

Sadly, events conspired to prevent me from making the journey back to Invercargill for his funeral.  Instead, I penned some words and my sister read them at his funeral.  I am awed that over 800 people attended his funeral.  Now I will have to relive my memories of an amazing man, rather than creating new ones with him. 

So, it was with a heavy heart that I finished and delivered this wedding cake.  I was up until 2.00am on Saturday morning finishing the icing and attaching the chocolate pencils.  Although I have to say that chocolate pencils are a lot more forgiving than buttercream, or fondant or anything really.

 
I really should have looked at these photos as I went, because clearly, they have a bit of a lean on.  I like to think that it adds to the rustic finish.

The cake went thus - 12 inch carrot cake (HCB) with dreamy creamy white chocolate icing, 9 inch Mrs Whatsits' whitechocolate with strawberry mousseline (HCB) , 6 inch german chocolate cake with choc almond ganache and the kitchen cake was the 12 inch version of the same (Deep Chocolate Passion Wedding Cake - and filling from the dreaded Holiday Pinecone).  The icing encasing all three layers was the white chocolate vanilla buttercream.  Then around it all, white chocolate pencils.

None of it was particularly complex, just time consuming.

The wedding cake toppers were a kangaroo (the Australian groom) and a peacock (the English bride).  Strawberries and cream reflecting their attachment to Wimbledon.

I was putting the final touches on the cake as the guests ate canapes outside on the lawn.  So, yes, cutting it fine.  However, I wasn't the only one cutting it fine - the caterers were still preparing the hall.

This was the first time I had ever had a glimpse of an Indian wedding.  Amazing.  The food looked sensational, and the "Bollywood style" DJ sounded incredible as he completed the sound check.  Certainly more fun than a four piece string ensemble!  And so many of the guests were decked out in gorgeous saris.  Simply stunning.

It was strange making a cake and not sampling it - hopefully it was well received.

I have read Raymond's post on the Lemon Meringue and I have to say, as caked out as I am, this looks so tempting.  It may yet be part of my week.