RED VELVET CAKE

Posted on May 1, 2013 by

Finished cake

One of my best friends Janine, is getting married in June and last weekend we celebrated her hen party. Her sister Nataline, who was organising the weekend, asked if I could make a cake for her. The plan was for us all to meet up at the hotel and have cake and champagne before heading out for the day.

I tried to subtly find out from Jan what her favourite cake is but I kept being met with “I don’t have a favourite” or “I like most cakes”. Not helpful! Eventually I opted for a red velvet cake since it looks a bit different and then I decided to make it a little more special by making it heart-shaped. So I popped onto Amazon and bought yet another baking tin to add to my ever-growing collection.

It had to be ready by Saturday so I started baking on the Thursday night. I wanted to make a 3-layer cake so I made the first two sponges on Thursday, the third on Friday night and added the frosting on Saturday morning before heading to the hotel.

This recipe is from Annie Bell’s Baking Bible, a book I bought a few weeks ago.  This is a great book by the way, well worth a look. The ingredients below are for a 2 layer 20cm cake.  The measurements below are what I used on Thursday night. On Friday night I halved them to make my third layer.  If you’re doing a 2 layer cake, use the measurements below.

Ingredients

Cake:
120g/4.2oz unsalted butter
300g/10.6oz golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
300g/10.6oz plain flour sifted
230g/8.1oz buttermilk
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
20g/0.7oz cocoa powder sifted
about ½ tsp red food colouring, preferably paste. DO NOT use Dr Oetker! It comes out brown instead of red. I used Sugarflair Red Extra.
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Frosting:
180g/6.3oz softened unsalted butter (this needs to be REALLY soft)
150g/5.3oz sifted icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
450g/18.9oz  full-fat cream cheese (ideally Philadelphia)

Have ready 2 (or 3 if you have them) 20cm loose-bottom sandwich cake tins. Butter these and line the bases with baking parchment. (When I did this, I only had one heart-shaped tin so I halved the mixture and used the same tin twice so don’t panic if you only have one tin).  Then preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/375F/gas 5.  

Start by creaming the butter and caster sugar together for about 3-4 minutes until really light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition.

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Now add the flour in three goes, alternating it with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour.

flour

Add the salt, vanilla and cocoa powder.

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Start to add the red food colouring very gradually, a knife tip or drop at a time, until the mixture is a dramatic dusky red.  I think I used more than half a teaspoon but I really wanted it to go really red.  Sugarflair’s Red Extra was great.

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In a small bowl, mix together the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, which will fizz, and add to the mixture.

Then divide the mixture evenly between the two tins (weighing is the best way to ensure even sponges).

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Bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes or until shrinking from the sides and firm when pressed in the centre.

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Leave the cakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a rack, remove the paper and leave to cool.

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To make the frosting, cream together the butter and icing sugar then fold in the vanilla extract.

Now, it is vitally important that the butter is very, very soft.  If not, you will have lumps in your frosting, no matter how long you whisk it for.  So please remember to have the butter out of the fridge for a long time before you need it.

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Personally I whip the cream cheese in another bowl then add the whipped cream cheese to the butter and sugar mix.  Mix well until smooth and combined.

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Now its time to add the frosting to the cake.  I wanted the surface to be flat so I trimmed off the rounded surface so I had a nice flat, even surface.  Then I spread about 3 tablespoons of the frosting over the base sponge using a palette knife.

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Repeat with a second layer.

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You can coat the sides of the cake if you wish, many people like this.  Personally, I like to see the layers.  So I repeated this process until it looked like this…

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Once you’ve finished frosting it the way you like, chill for about one hour for the frosting to set.  I put it in a cake tin with the lid on and then popped it in the fridge. If chilling it any longer than this, remove from the fridge 30 minutes before serving.

You can decorate this in whichever way you wish. In this case, I sprinkled edible red glitter around the edge.  But you can sprinkle with red velvet crumbs as many shops tend to do, or you can dust it with cocoa powder, even using a stencil.

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And luckily…it turned out red and Jan, her family and friends seemed to love it.

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This is a great cake for a special occasion…engagements, hen parties, weddings, Valentines Day, anniversaries, birthdays…whatever you like.   Enjoy!

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DINNER AT DISHOOM

Posted on April 28, 2013 by

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For the last few weeks I have been hearing great reports about Dishoom, ‘a Bombay café in London’.  My friend Sal has been several times recently and raves about it each time. The more she talked about it, the more I wanted to try it out for myself.

Earlier this week, I managed to persuade my best friend Carmen to ditch the gym and come with me to try it out. So on Wednesday night, I arrived at the Covent Garden branch on Upper St Martin’s Lane at 6.45pm. It looks like most restaurants in London seem to look nowadays – black and white tiled floor, vintage-feel stained mirrors, low-hanging Edison style filament light bulbs, marble table tops etc. The only giveaway that its an Indian restaurant are the framed vintage Bollywood-style pictures on the walls.

downstairs

Unfortunately, as you are unable to book a table for parties under 6 people, I was met with a 45 minute wait. Normally I wouldn’t wait and I’d head to one of the other hundreds of restaurants nearby, but I had my heart set on Dishoom at this point and had woken up that morning excited about it. So I headed downstairs to the bar for a drink whilst I waited for Carmen to turn up and our table to become available.

Luckily, I’m happy to sit on my own as Carmen was having a nightmare leaving work. Within 40 minutes, our table was ready but still no Carmen… At this point, the incredible smell of the food wafting around the restaurant was killing me and I was ready to start chewing on my own arm! I sat at our table and ordered another glass of wine. Just as I was about to start ordering without her, she turned up. Hurray!

I had studied the menu at work that day so I knew what I was having and Carmen had been before so we were able to order straight away.

The first dish to arrive was the Skate Cheeks Koliwada, a bowl of popcorn sized, deep-fried skate cheeks served with a tamarind and date chutney (£5.20).  I didn’t think I’d like this much (it was Carmen’s choice) but it was lovely. Really light, extremely tasty and the chutney was great with it. I’m really glad she ordered it. (No photo I’m afraid)

My dish was the Murgh Malai , chicken thigh meat steeped overnight in garlic, ginger, coriander stems and cream (£6.90). (Apologies for the bad quality of my photos, it was very dark in there!)

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I loved this. As someone who can’t take any hot foods, this was mild yet full of flavour. The meat was tender and juicy and perfectly charred.  Carmen had the spicy lamb chops which are marinated in lime juice and jaggery, ginger and garlic and served charred on the outside, pink on the inside. (£11.50) Again, delicious, tender meat and a nice warm heat to them. A bit spicy for me personally but then, I’m a wimp.

We ordered the Gunpowder potatoes to accompany our mains. They are served with brown skins, smoky-grilled, broken apart and tossed in butter, crushed aromatic seeds and green herbs. I loved these and you get a decent sized portion of them too. In fact, with everything else we ordered, we couldn’t finish them.  Well worth ordering though and I’d definitely have them again.

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The Mattar Panner (£7.50) was a dish that was highly recommended to me by my friend Sal who said it was the best she’s had.

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Now, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Instead of the cheese being smooth and creamy, it was a bit crumbly. I think maybe it was just a bad night for paneer that night, as when I described it to Sal she said hers had never been like that.

The best paneer dish I’ve ever had was at Bengal Clipper on Shad Thames near Tower Bridge. Absolutely stunning but a heart attack in a bowl, full of butter and cream, so not to be eaten on a regular basis.

Back to Dishoom, Carmen ordered the garlic naan and I went for the cheese naan as I’d never heard of it, let alone tried it. It was amazing, with mature cheddar melted inside and oozing out as you took a giant bite out of it.  Yes, not exactly traditional Indian fare but my God it tasted good. But then I tried some of the garlic naan and it was the best naan I’ve tasted. I think the next time I go back I’ll have to have one of each. (They’re pretty small by the way, I’m not that greedy.)

By the end of the meal we were stuffed but I had been told how good their chai was, in particular their chocolate chai. So, too full to have a dessert, I opted for a chocolate chai which I ordered from a waiter that happened to be passing by my table at that time. It was delicious. Warm and sweet yet spicy, it tasted like Christmas.  But when our waitress who had been serving us all night walked past and saw what I was drinking she said “Oh, you’ve gone for the chocolate chai? Ok!” I replied that I had been undecided between the chocolate chai and the Baileys. Then she said “Aaaargh, why didn’t you ask me?? The Baileys is so much better than the chocolate, you’re an idiot!” So Carmen ordered the Baileys chai.  Turned out the waitress was absolutely right. As Carmen said, “This pisses all over the chocolate one”. It was one of the best drinks I’ve ever had. A good glug of Baileys topped with cool cream and chai.  Absolutely sublime.  If you go to Dishoom, you HAVE to order this. I’d happily go back, just for this.

chai

So overall, we had a great night at Dishoom, the atmosphere was buzzing, the staff were incredibly helpful and knowledgeable, the food was great and the Baileys chai was out of this world. I will definitely be going back soon.

Dishoom, 12 Upper St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9FB.

Dishoom on Urbanspoon

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TOASTED MUESLI

Posted on April 25, 2013 by

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I really notice a huge difference in my eating habits over the course of a day, based on what I have for breakfast. Sometimes I skip it, then I end up snacking on crisps by 10am. Or if I eat too early, at about 8am, I’m hungry at 10ish and I start snacking. If I’ve had a heavy night the night before, I sometimes get a McDonalds breakfast on my way into work. Yes, I know its gross but there is nothing better for a hangover than a sausage and egg McMuffin and 2 hash browns. Don’t judge me. Only problem is, I feel sick afterwards and then because I’ve been so gross in the morning I feel like I may as well continue being gross for the rest of the day.

However, if I eat something healthy, something with low GI, it sustains me throughout the morning and I don’t feel the need to snack. Now, obviously, you would think that knowing this, I would do it every day. I don’t of course. I’m my own worst enemy. It really depends on my frame of mind. At the moment, it seems that Spring has sprung in London and when it’s warm and sunny, I want to eat better. So with that in mind, I decided to make a batch of my favourite healthy breakfast…toasted muesli.

This is incredibly easy to make and can be stored in an airtight container for at least a month. The amounts in the ingredients are just a rough estimate. It really depends on how much you like each item. If you don’t like something, take it out or substitute it for something else. If you like raisins and sultanas, add them. I don’t so I use dried cranberries instead and usually dried blueberries. The other day when I was shopping I couldn’t find blueberries so I got goji berries instead.

Ingredients
300g rolled oats
125ml apple juice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
60g raw almonds
40g pumpkin seeds
100g sunflower seeds
20g sesame seeds
30g flaked coconut
30g dried goji berries
60g dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 160°C / 140°C (fan) / 315°F / Gas 2-3.

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Place all the ingredients, except for the dried fruit, in a large bowl and stir well to combine.

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Spread the mixture evenly over a large baking tray and place in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until lightly browned. (keep an eye on it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten about it and burnt it!)

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Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

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Then transfer to an airtight container. When you’re ready to eat it, add whatever fruit you like to it. In this case I added dried cranberries and goji berries. If I have some pomegranate in the house, I’ll add fresh pomegranate seeds too.

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This is a really delicious breakfast, and so good for you. The oats will provide slow releasing energy throughout the morning, keeping you full until lunch. The seeds provide iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium, arguably the four most important minerals our bodies need. The almonds are high in vitamin E, are a natural antioxidant and also come packed with a whole host of other important nutrients. They’re low in saturated fat and high in protein. In this case I’ve used goji berries which contain beta-carotene, a high concentration of vitamin C and 18 kinds of amino acids. Its a hell of a lot better for you than a McDonalds breakfast, put it that way!

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I hope you like it.

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S’MORES BARS

Posted on April 23, 2013 by

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S’mores are a very popular American treat, traditionally made around a campfire and consisting of a roasted marshmallow and layer of chocolate sandwiched between two Graham Crackers. I grew up hearing about them in American movies and TV shows and was always intrigued, but they never made it over to the UK. When I mention s’mores to anyone in the UK, they look at me blankly.

Anyway, I work in an office of girls who love their food and we got to talking about these things called s’mores that we’d heard so much about but never tasted. So we started googling images of them and we got more and more excited about them. Being one of the greediest in the office, I was willing to try making them so we could all taste them, however, there was one big stumbling block – Graham Crackers. Its very hard to find Graham Crackers here in the UK, although you can of course buy them online, for a hefty price tag. I looked online for a reasonable alternative and found quite a lot of people suggesting Digestive biscuits, but equally as many telling me I needed the real thing. Hmmm…

I decided to just go ahead with the Digestives and if they didn’t work, what harm would it do? I would still have marshmallow and chocolate in between biscuits. It may not taste like a genuine s’more, but it will still be damn good.

I wanted to put a bit of a twist on it so instead of making it the traditional way, I decided to make s’mores bars, making a cake-like biscuit base and top and using a using marshmallow cream instead of toasted marshmallows.   It turned out pretty well although I would adapt it a bit next time I make it.  But here is the way I did it last week…

Ingredients
113g/1 stick of butter, room temperature
55g/1/4 cup brown sugar
64g/1/2 cup caster sugar
4 bars Green & Black milk chocolate (not their Creamy Milk)
1 large egg
1 x 213g tub marshmallow creme/Fluff
1 tsp vanilla extract
170g / 1 1/3 cups plain flour
100g/1/2 cup digestive biscuits, blitzed to fine crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 150C Fan/180C/350F degrees and grease and line an 8-inch square baking tin.

First cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg and vanilla and set aside.

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Meanwhile, whisk together flour, biscuit crumbs, baking powder and salt.

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Slowly add flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture until combined.

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Divide the dough in half and press half it into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan.

Next place the chocolate over the dough and then spread the marshmallow creme or fluff over the top.

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Then place the rest of the dough in a single layer on top of the fluff.  This is HARD! I ended up breaking the pieces of dough into little bits over the Fluff and then dipped my fingertips into water and tried to spread each piece of dough until it joined up with the next piece.

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Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned.

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Be sure to cool completely before cutting into squares.

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This is really good, well worth doing. Very sweet but very tasty. After it cools, the marshmallow goes a bit hard so you need to warm it up in the microwave for about 20 seconds. When it comes out, its gooey and warm and smells incredible.

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The girls in the office loved them, even Harri, who normally hates anything sweet. My American friend Lisa also gave them her seal of approval. I would definitely make these again but I think I would use a chocolate spread next time as the chocolate bars didn’t melt the way I wanted them to.  I would also like to try it with toasted marshmallows next time, instead of the Fluff.  I’ll keep you posted!

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BREAKFAST AT BALTHAZAR…

Posted on April 21, 2013 by

Balthazar

Just a quickie but I thought I would mention that I went to Balthazar for breakfast on Thursday morning and it was lovely.  There have been so many negative reviews of Balthazar since it opened in London a couple of months ago, that it actually put me off wanting to go.  But I needed to go somewhere suitable for a breakfast meeting that morning and Balthazar seemed like the perfect place – central, not too noisy and I’ve had great breakfasts in the New York branch in the past.

So I walked in and found myself…well, back in New York!  It looks identical to New York’s Balthazar.

Interior

I was greeted by an extremely attractive girl at the door and shown to my table. I was unbelievably tired so quickly ordered a coffee. I had been studying the breakfast menu the day before so I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted to eat. It was between the Eggs Royale and the Brioche French toast. That morning, I really fancied eggs so that’s what I went for.

Eggs Royale – poached eggs with smoked salmon and hollandaise on an English muffin with home fries. £14

Eggs Royale

This dish was beautiful. The muffin was warm and crispy on the outside but springy inside, the eggs were perfectly cooked and the hollandaise was rich, smooth and creamy with the perfect amount of vinegary tartness to cut through the richness.  The homefries were crispy on the outside  fluffy on the inside.  It was just what I needed to get me started for the day.

Obviously I have only had this one breakfast dish there and you can’t/shouldn’t really go wrong with something like this but it really was so good that I want to go back to check out the dinner menu.

Since I was having a business meeting there, I didn’t have time to hang about afterwards to check out the boulangerie and buy pastries and bread, although the bread did look wonderful.

Bread

The restaurant itself looks beautiful, the staff were incredibly attentive and friendly, my breakfast was delicious. The only negative I could find on the day was walking out the front door and finding myself in Covent Garden and not on Spring Street.

I’ll keep you posted as and when I go back for dinner.

Balthazar, 4-6 Russell Street, London, WC2B 5HZ
020 3301 1155

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FRESH RAVIOLI – CHORIZO & GOATS CHEESE / MUSHROOM & THYME

Posted on April 18, 2013 by

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Earlier this week, my lovely friend and colleague Sal mentioned she was looking to get a pasta maker. I jumped up in a slightly over-excited manner and said I had been wanting to get a pasta maker for ages and that we should both get one that day. We started looking online for pasta makers but after reading lots of conflicting reviews, we were more confused than ever come lunchtime.

Sal decided she was going to stick to rolling out the pasta dough herself, but I decided to pop down to John Lewis in my lunch hour to get her some pasta cutters and also have a look at what they have to offer. Turns out, they had a £70 Imperia pasta maker and a Kitchen Craft one that was just £22.50! Naturally, I was sceptical about the cheaper one being good quality but it’s the middle of the month so naturally I have very little money left in my bank account and there was no way I was spending £70 on something that could potentially spend a lot of time in the cupboard after the initial flurry of excitement that inevitably happens after you buy a new gadget.

So I left John Lewis with my new £22.50 pasta maker, my brain whirring with ideas of what to make that night. I knew I had chorizo and mushrooms back at home so I decided I would make two different types of ravioli – chorizo with goats cheese and toasted pine nuts, and mushroom and thyme.

So I rushed home at 6pm, picking up some ‘OO’ flour on the way and then set about making my pasta dough. I placed 300g of the flour on a board and made a well in the centre, cracking 3 eggs into it. Generally speaking, it’s a safe bet to use 1 egg per 100g of flour.

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I beat the eggs with a fork then used the tips of my fingers to mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything was combined. (next time I think I’ll do this in the food processor as it would be a lot quicker and create less mess) Then I kneaded the dough for about 5 minutes until I had one big, smooth and silky lump of dough. I wrapped it in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest for an hour while I made the fillings. (details below)

I unpacked my pasta machine from its box, clamped it to my work surface and dusted the machine and the work surface with some more flour. Then I took the pasta out of the fridge, unwrapped the cling film and pressed it until it flattened. I set the pasta machine to its widest setting and started to roll the dough through it.

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I did this a few times, folding the pasta after each turn through the roller, just to work the pasta and get it looking silky. I then turned the dial down to the next, narrower setting and passed the pasta through again, lightly dusting the pasta with a little flour each time I ran it through. Once I got down about 3 or 4 settings, the pasta was so thin it was getting tricky to handle and I was nervous I was going to put my fingers through it so I stopped. It was silky and shiny and with ravioli you need it to be super thin as you are sandwiching two layers together when it is folded.

I laid it out on my work surface and cut out large rounds with a cookie cutter. I placed a heaped teaspoon of filling into the middle of each round, brushed with beaten egg around the filling, then laid another round of pasta on top and sealed, making sure there were no air bubbles trapped in between the layers and placed to one side. I don’t think this was the most efficient way of doing it with hindsight. Next time I’ll place spoonfuls of filling along the laid out sheet of rolled pasta, a couple of inches apart, brush with egg down the sides then fold over the pasta and then cut it out with a cookie cutter.

To cook the pasta, I brought a large pan of salted water to just below the boil and gently cooked the ravioli, about 4 at a time, for 4-5 minutes, until the pasta was al dente.

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Whilst the pasta was cooking, I melted a couple of tablespoons of butter in a frying pan, grated some nutmeg into it then added about 5 basil leaves and fried gently until the pasta was ready. I then drained the pasta, plated it up and poured the butter over it and topped it with some fresh parmesan. Perfect!

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This really did taste fantastic. The pasta was so light and the fillings worked really well. Topped with the butter flavoured with nutmeg and basil, it was the perfect meal.

I would thoroughly recommend trying this out. Its a bit of a faff for a Tuesday night, especially if you don’t get home until 7.30pm (bear in mind you have to let the pasta dough chill in the fridge for an hour), but its a great thing to make at the weekend when you have more time to knead, chill, roll, cook and then clean up!

These are the fillings I used:

CHORIZO & GOATS CHEESE RAVIOLI

First I toasted some pine nuts (about 2tbsp) in a dry frying pan until they started to turn golden, then I removed them and chopped coarsely and set to the side in a bowl.

Then in the same frying pan I fried up some cooking chorizo for about 10 minutes.  (I used Unearthed chorizo)  I knew I was just testing this recipe out so I only used about 100g chorizo just in case it didn’t work out.

Once it was done, I chopped it up and added it to the bowl with the chopped pine nuts. Then I added 100g of soft goats cheese and mixed it all together. I used an egg to bind it all together and a handful of grated parmesan. DONE!

Result: I think these were my favourite. The smoky chorizo, the creamy, tangy goats cheese, the toasted pine nuts. These popped with flavour in my mouth.

MUSHROOM & THYME RAVIOLI

In another frying pan I fried up an onion and 2 cloves of garlic in a little rapeseed oil until soft and golden-brown. Then I added about 150g of chopped chestnut mushrooms and a sprig of thyme and fried until tender and reduced in size. I seasoned and set aside to cool. Just before I added to the pasta, I stirred through some toasted pine nuts, purely because I think toasted pine nuts make everything taste amazing.

Result: These were really very good. Thyme works so wonderfully with mushrooms, they tasted so earthy and the addition of pine nuts lifted them to another level. I’m a bit obsessed with chorizo at the moment which is why that filling ‘won’ on the night but these were delicious.

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FONDANT FAREWELL…

Posted on April 16, 2013 by

I have just seen this article on the Guardian website about a man called Chris Holmes, an immigration officer for Border Force at Stansted Airport, who handed in his resignation yesterday on a cake. 

As you can see, he writes: “Having recently become a father I now realise how precious life is and how important it is to spend my time doing something that makes me, and other people, happy. For that reason, I hereby give notice of my resignation, in order that I may devote my time and energy to my family, and my cake business.”

I love this! What a wonderful way to resign!

Chris Holmes' resignation cake.

Read the full article here.  And you can visit Chris Holmes AKA Mr Cake’s website here.

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