Double Chocolate, Double Raspberry Layer Cake

This creation was inspired by Donna Hay and designed by my girlfriend Nat and I for our good friend and birthday girl Mishy Lane
With the raspberry and chocolate being the chosen flavours we spent quite a while designing this cake and I must say, I'm quite proud of our creation.


Happy Birthday Mishy!! Hope you enjoyed it!

Chocolate Cake


37g dutch cocoa, sifted
90ml hot water
90g sour cream
175g butter, softened
247g castor sugar (just over 1 cup)
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
225g plain flour, sifted (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda


Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Place cocoa and hot water into a bowl and whisk until smooth, then add the sour cream and combine well.
Place butter, sugar and vanilla extract in an electric mixer and beat until smooth and creamy.
Gradually add eggs and beat well.
Set the mixer at a low speed and add cocoa mixture, flour and bi-carb, beat until well combined.
Place mixture into a lightly greased 20cm round cake tin (line base with baking paper).
Bake for 50-60 mins or until tested with a skewer.
Cool for 10 mins in tin, then remove and cool on a wire rack.
Cool completely before icing.


Philly Cream Cheese/ Chocolate Icing
50g butter, softened
250g philly cream cheese (original)
160g icing sugar, sifted
handful of white chocolate, melted


Combine butter and cream cheese and combine well.
Add icing sugar and combine until smooth and slightly fluffy.
Stir through the melted white chocolate.


Chocolate Glaze (Donna Hay)
150g dark chocolate
1/2 cup cream (single not dollop)


Stir in saucepan until smooth.
Allow to cool for 10 mins before pouring over a well chilled cake
Raspberry Coulis
2 cups raspberries (frozen or fresh)
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp caster sugar


Place all ingredients into a small saucepan, cook on a low heat until raspberries break down and sugar dissolves.
Blitz using a hand blender then strain out seeds


Sugar Coated Raspberries
Fresh raspberries
egg white
caster sugar


Lightly brush the raspberries with egg white.
Roll in sugar then use for decorating.


To assemble the cake.
You will need to cut the tops of the cake so that each layer is completely level.
Cut the cake into layers, use a ruler and measure to get the layers even.
Once you have the desired amount of layers you want (this cake recipe will give you 2, so you will need to make 2 cakes or double the recipe).
For each level except the top, brush the cake lightly with a pastry brush to remove crumbs, then spread a layer of coulis on base.
Add the cream cheese icing, leave about 1/2 - 1cm around the edge as it will squeeze out with the other layers on top.
Dollop on a bit of the coulis over the icing and using a skewer swirl it through the icing.
Place a few raspberries around the cake then repeat for each desired layer.
Now refrigerate the cake for at least 1/2 hour.
Once it is chilled, pour over the ganache and let it run slightly down the sides of the cake.
Refrigerate for a bit to let the ganache set.
Place the sugared raspberries on the top.


Now enjoy it!


It's truly delicious.

Strawberry Delights

Over the Christmas Holidays I was fortunate enough to experience the wonderous 'Debbie Mellett' Strawberry Jam.
This Jam- although made in a microwave is, to say the least, the most amazing jam ever!! The strawberries picked fresh and warm from the veggie garden and with a careful watch of the eye, sticky, sweet jam is created in minutes.


I was in the mood to do some baking last week and decided to use a good old recipe from none other than 'Frankie' magazine.
Basic Almond Jam Drop Biscuits were the way to go. Thank-You Frankie!!

Almond Drops with home-made Jam.


80g soft butter
80g caster sugar
2 tbsp milk
finely grated zest of a lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup custard powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
jam of your choice


Cream the butter and sugar until nice and fluffy.
Add the milk, zest and vanilla and beat again.
Add the ground almonds, then sift the flour, custard powder and baking powder into the bowl.
Stir gently until all is well combined.
Cover the bowl and put in the fridge for 15 minutes (the mixture will be quite sticky)
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Take the mixture out and roll teaspoonfuls into balls and place on a tray, leaving room to spread.
Using your thumb of base of a wooden spoon make a dent into the centre to add the jam to.
Add about 1/4 - 1/2 tsp jam into each biscuit.
place tray into fridge for about 10 mins.
Once the time is up, place the tray into the oven and bake for approximately 10 mins or until slightly golden, then remove and place on a wire rack to cool.
Let them cool before eating as the jam is like lava.
Makes about 24.

Left over Veggie Tart

For an easy dinner last week, I made a filo pastry tart with lots of left over vegetables and feta.


Ingredients:


4-8 sheets filo pastry
Olive Oil
Broccoli, chopped
Feta
Cherry Tomatoes, halved
Pumpkin, cubed
Zucchini, cubed
lemon Juice
Haloumi, cubed
Rocket
Eggs, whisked


Method:


- Roast the pumpkin and zucchini with a dash of oil
- Line a baking tin or pie dish with filo, over lapping it and rubbing a bit of oil in between sheets
- Steam the broccoli for a couple of minutes
- Put the pumpkin, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and feta crumbled onto the pastry
- Pour over the eggs to cover vegetables
- Bake for about 30-40 mins or until eggs are all cooked
- whilst the tart is baking, fry off the haloumi and pour over a bit of the lemon juice
- When tart is cooked, put the haloumi and rocket on top
- serve with a nice fresh salad


Note: You can put pretty much whatever vegetables you want in this, caramelised onion would be nice, proscuitto, chorizo, carrot etc.

Chicken Roast... it's actually quite easy and did I mention delicious!

An easy chicken roast, on a cold day (even if it's the middle of spring!)


I rubbed the chicken with smoked salt (purchased at the Prarahn Market), pepper and finely chopped garlic. I placed a lemon- cut in half in the middle of the chicken which gently infused the chicken and baked it at 190 degrees for a little over an hour. Too easy.


Served on a bed of creamy mash and steamed broccolini.

Our First Dinner Party

Last Saturday, the 12th November Nat and I hosted our first proper dinner party. With my love for Tapas there was no doubt that that would be the theme of the evening. We planned a menu based around some of our favourite dishes, some of which were made into miniatures. We shopped for all the produce (bar the cream etc) at the Prahran Markets which are conveniently around the corner from us.


We began with marinading the fruit for the sangria, the desserts were setting in the fridge (which were made on Friday night) We then slowly cooked our way through the menu.

The Menu:
Main Course-
Salt and Pepper Squid with Lime Aioli
Fennel and Pork Meatballs in Napoli sauce with fresh Basil and Garlic Bread
Chorizo and Tzatziki on Crunchy Bread
Mini Basil Pesto Burgers with Relish, Cheese and Rocket
Tarts with Cherry Tomatoes, Caramelised Onion, Basil Pesto and Bocconcini
Chicken and Haloumi on toothpicks cooked in Honey and Thyme
Ham and Cheese Croquettes

Dessert:
Mini Tim Tam Cheese Cakes with Raspberries
*Nutties with Lemon Curd and Strawberry Coulis
Chocolate Mousse with Burnt Toffee with Orange Zest

It was tonnes of fun and will definitely be doing it again soon.

*Nutties are basically Anzac Biscuits, we put them into cupcake trays to mould them like cups.

The Wonders of Pastry

When you are tired and can't be botherd cooking anything fancy one thing I love are Pastry Pizza's. They are simple and you can have a lot of fun with the toppings.

































Ingredients:
Puff pastry (approx 1 sheet per person)
Egg
Goats Cheese or your favourite soft cheese
Roasted Pumpkin
Cherry Tomatoes
Caramelised Onion
Rocket to serve
Add any of you favourite toppings
Method:
Pre-cook the pastry slightly (place another tray on top to keep it flat or just flatten it out when you remove from the oven)
Then put the toppings on and then bake for approx 15-20 mins or until pastry is cooked
Serve with fresh rocket or anything else you fancy

Sweet Tooth

It's hard living with a sweet tooth, when I lived with friends I never made desserts as I am prone to eat every bit until it is no longer. But as of late, my ability to restrain myself is overridden by my unnecessary need for sweets.


Sweet Sweet French Toast with a twist.
This one is very simple and definately a sweet tooths heaven.

Slices of older crunchy bread
Honey
Cinnamon and sugar
Apple
Egg

Slice the bread quite thick and soaked it in honey, only enough to cover it (lightly warm the honey as it spreads easier). The bread needs to be relatively solid or it will fall apart. Then let it sit for a bit. While that is resting finely slice an apple and coat it with sugar and cinnamon, then lightly cook it in a frying pan with butter. Once this is remove them from the pan and put them into a bowl. Then quickly dipthe bread into a whisked egg. Then cook it in butter in the same frying pan. Once cooked (which doesnt take long, as the honey will burn if left for too long) lightly sprinkle on some raw sugar, then place the apple on top.

It can be left like this or served with some marscapone, natural yoghurt or cream.



Visiting my Nannas place recently I was lucky enough to eat my way through one of her famous 'Apricot Pies', that is made from her home made pastry and home grown and stewed apricots.

I had some left over shortcrust pastry and was have a sugar craving, so I cooked it flat, then cut it into squares, then sliced strawberries and placed them on top and drizzled over some melted dark chocolate. Yummy, easy and a good way to use left over pastry.