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Only the greediest will survive...
Sunday, 17 August 2008
Coming soon....CakeFest II: This time it’s personal
Dig out those elasticated waist trousers...CakeFest II is coming...
Only the greediest will survive...
Only the greediest will survive...
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
CAFTA
Today’s winner of a CAFTA (Cake’s Achievement in Film and Television Arts) award is for most heartbreaking storyline and comes from Office Space. The film had me at its tagline of “work sucks” but then provided a scene to strike fear and heartbreak into any cake lover.
Let’s set the scene. It is Bill’s birthday and, as he’s the boss, he has this rather lovely looking birthday cake:
Let’s set the scene. It is Bill’s birthday and, as he’s the boss, he has this rather lovely looking birthday cake:
The cake is cut and passed around to the staff. Milton starts to tuck in...:
.. .and is promptly told off:
Nina (on the right): Now Milton, don't be greedy, let's pass it along and make sure everyone gets a piece.
Milton: Yeah, but last time I didn't receive a piece. And I was told...
Nina: Just pass.
Milton doesn’t want to pass and then utters the line that still has me waking up in terror in the middle of the night:
Milton: The ratio of people to cake is too big.
But he’s made to pass. Eventually everybody but Milton gets a piece:
Poor Milton. I never want to be in a situation where the ratio of people to cake is too big – surely there could be nothing worse?
Final thought: what particularly pleases me about the cake in this scene is that it is cut and eaten. It’s not there for decoration and nothing awful befalls it such as being thrown at someone or abused in some way.
CAFTA needs your help - please email me (with photos) your CAFTA nominations.
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Buttery golden syrup cake
Although a plain cake i.e. no icing or buttercream, this packs a lot of flavour. The combination of butter, brown sugar and golden syrup is rich and deep and...wonderful!
I know I often say that a cake is easy to make, but this one really could not be simpler. The recipe caught my attention because of its few ingredients and the inclusion of golden syrup – I think this is one of my favourite ingredients as it just makes everything delicious!
The CCB (Caked Crusader’s Brother) described this cake perfectly. It tastes like when you’re lucky enough to have some leftover steamed golden syrup pudding and have it cold the next day – all the sugar and syrup flavour has intensified coupled with a wonderfully moist texture.
Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature and chopped
220g dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon golden syrup
225g self raising flour
125ml milk (whole or semi skimmed)
Optional: icing sugar, to dust on the cake before serving
How to make:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Line a 20cm springform cake tin.
- Place all the ingredients in your mixing bowl and mix until well combined and smooth (I advise using an electric mixer, if you do it manually your arm might fall off!). The batter should be an even dark brown colour.
- Spoon mixture into tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly. Mine took 1 hour.
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.
- Dust with icing sugar before serving.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.
I know I often say that a cake is easy to make, but this one really could not be simpler. The recipe caught my attention because of its few ingredients and the inclusion of golden syrup – I think this is one of my favourite ingredients as it just makes everything delicious!
The CCB (Caked Crusader’s Brother) described this cake perfectly. It tastes like when you’re lucky enough to have some leftover steamed golden syrup pudding and have it cold the next day – all the sugar and syrup flavour has intensified coupled with a wonderfully moist texture.
Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature and chopped
220g dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon golden syrup
225g self raising flour
125ml milk (whole or semi skimmed)
Optional: icing sugar, to dust on the cake before serving
How to make:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Line a 20cm springform cake tin.
- Place all the ingredients in your mixing bowl and mix until well combined and smooth (I advise using an electric mixer, if you do it manually your arm might fall off!). The batter should be an even dark brown colour.
- Spoon mixture into tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly. Mine took 1 hour.
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.
- Dust with icing sugar before serving.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.
Cambridge burnt cream
I thoroughly enjoyed Marco Pierre White’s recent television series “The Great British Feast” in which he travelled around Britain and produced classic and modern dishes that best represented our glorious isles.
One dish in particular caught my attention: Cambridge burnt cream.
Surely this is crème brulee, I hear you ask – well, yes it is. Only this is the original recipe. As Marco found out, this recipe dates from Trinity College, Cambridge’s records of 1630. The earliest recorded date of crème brulee is 1691. I suspect that this isn’t the actual recipe of 1630 as I once read that vanilla was not introduced to Britain until the early 1700s but it’s a very welcome addition.
The recipe says to use brown sugar for the caramelised topping; this resulted in a much darker (but just as delicious) caramel than usually seen:
My entire family are custard obsessives. It’s one of the rare food stuffs that we all agree to be divine. Therefore, this was a particularly delicious dessert after Sunday lunch – the silky smooth, fragrant vanilla baked custard topped off with a crisp and sinful sugar crust. Yum.
Probably not one for the diet conscious what with the nine egg yolks and almost a litre of cream, but if you’re having a day of comfort food this recipe is a must!
One dish in particular caught my attention: Cambridge burnt cream.
Surely this is crème brulee, I hear you ask – well, yes it is. Only this is the original recipe. As Marco found out, this recipe dates from Trinity College, Cambridge’s records of 1630. The earliest recorded date of crème brulee is 1691. I suspect that this isn’t the actual recipe of 1630 as I once read that vanilla was not introduced to Britain until the early 1700s but it’s a very welcome addition.
The recipe says to use brown sugar for the caramelised topping; this resulted in a much darker (but just as delicious) caramel than usually seen:
My entire family are custard obsessives. It’s one of the rare food stuffs that we all agree to be divine. Therefore, this was a particularly delicious dessert after Sunday lunch – the silky smooth, fragrant vanilla baked custard topped off with a crisp and sinful sugar crust. Yum.
Probably not one for the diet conscious what with the nine egg yolks and almost a litre of cream, but if you’re having a day of comfort food this recipe is a must!
When making custard, never skip straining the mix otherwise yucky bits like this will ruin the texture:
One final warning – I have given the oven settings as per Marco’s recipe. However, my custard would never have set at this temperature. After an hour I upped the temperature and, checking the custard every 10 minutes, eventually got it to set. Next time, I’ll start out with the oven at the higher temperature set out in my notes below – and there definitely will be a next time as this was simply the most wonderful custard ever; to eat it was to know happiness!
Ingredients:
175g caster sugar
9 egg yolks
4 vanilla pods
100ml milk (whole or semi skimmed)
900ml double cream
50g Demerara sugar
How to make:
- Preheat the oven to 120°C/fan oven 100°C/240°F/Gas mark 1/4 [however - note my comments on temperature below].
- Stand 6 large ramekins in a roasting tin, put to one side.
- Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and golden.
- Split the vanilla pods in half and scrape out the seeds.
- Put the milk, cream and vanilla (pods and seeds) in a large saucepan and bring to the boil very slowly. The slower you bring to the boil, the greater the time for the vanilla to infuse the cream/milk.
- Pour the boiling cream mix through a sieve onto the eggs and sugar and mix until well combined.
- Pour through a sieve again to catch any little eggy bits that will make the custard a nasty texture.
- Ladle into the ramekins and then pour hot water into the roasting tray so that it comes approximately half way up the sides of the ramekins.
- Bake until set. This can take anything from 30 minutes up. However, mine would never have set at this temperature so I raised the oven to 160°C/fan oven 140°C where, after 40 minutes it did set. You want the custard set but still with a quiver if you gently shake the roasting tin.
- Remove from the oven and let the custards cool. When cool, refrigerate until required.
- Before serving, heat the grill to maximum heat.
- Sprinkle the Demerara sugar on the top of each custard and then place under the grill until the sugar melts and turns golden– or use a blow torch if you have one.
- Allow the sugar to set hard.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.
One final warning – I have given the oven settings as per Marco’s recipe. However, my custard would never have set at this temperature. After an hour I upped the temperature and, checking the custard every 10 minutes, eventually got it to set. Next time, I’ll start out with the oven at the higher temperature set out in my notes below – and there definitely will be a next time as this was simply the most wonderful custard ever; to eat it was to know happiness!
Ingredients:
175g caster sugar
9 egg yolks
4 vanilla pods
100ml milk (whole or semi skimmed)
900ml double cream
50g Demerara sugar
How to make:
- Preheat the oven to 120°C/fan oven 100°C/240°F/Gas mark 1/4 [however - note my comments on temperature below].
- Stand 6 large ramekins in a roasting tin, put to one side.
- Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and golden.
- Split the vanilla pods in half and scrape out the seeds.
- Put the milk, cream and vanilla (pods and seeds) in a large saucepan and bring to the boil very slowly. The slower you bring to the boil, the greater the time for the vanilla to infuse the cream/milk.
- Pour the boiling cream mix through a sieve onto the eggs and sugar and mix until well combined.
- Pour through a sieve again to catch any little eggy bits that will make the custard a nasty texture.
- Ladle into the ramekins and then pour hot water into the roasting tray so that it comes approximately half way up the sides of the ramekins.
- Bake until set. This can take anything from 30 minutes up. However, mine would never have set at this temperature so I raised the oven to 160°C/fan oven 140°C where, after 40 minutes it did set. You want the custard set but still with a quiver if you gently shake the roasting tin.
- Remove from the oven and let the custards cool. When cool, refrigerate until required.
- Before serving, heat the grill to maximum heat.
- Sprinkle the Demerara sugar on the top of each custard and then place under the grill until the sugar melts and turns golden– or use a blow torch if you have one.
- Allow the sugar to set hard.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.
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