Best Chocolate Cake & lots of sugar

This was a bit of a long weekend for me, in that I did so much stuff! Before we go on, let me just give you some context: I have the tendency to be a hermit. People don't know this, but I'm actually an introvert; I enjoy spending time with myself, doing things I like that everybody else thinks is geeky or weird, getting lost in series of epic fantasy books, baking and blogging about it, not wearing lots of constricting clothes, or going out without planning to go out and getting myself in the mindset for getting tired and meeting people well in advance.

But after my recent reminder of mortality (ie birthday), I had to shake myself and made the decision to just have a friggin life. It's not that I don't enjoy my recluse ways, it's just that other people think I'm depressed or lonely or some such nonsense. So this weekend, I made an effort.

First of all, my dad celebrated his birthday, and while it doesn't involve going "out" out, we did have a nice dinner, for which every member of the family made an attempt to dress up and get spiffy. He's incredibly shy about being celebrated, however, so in the picture above you'll see him pretending that it's my sister's birthday.

Crazy good cheese & lemon tarts, Forty Licks ice cream, and Poached Pears in Red Wine popsicles (say whuuut?)

Then there was the Food Bites bazaar on Saturday, where I ran into quite a few old friends and acquaintances (one even remarked that he hasn't seen me in 2 years, and that he thought I'd left town again) and tried lots of good food. My friend had also set up a stall selling his Forty Licks ice cream, which was the main reason I had gone to the bazaar. Then I just stayed for the food, music and booze lol.

Alena and I catching some sun, my favourite girls, and my favourite boys x

My best friend, Jessica, and my cousin, Azie, with our Deer Society slushies at the Food Bites bazaar

And on Sunday night, my friend Alena and I decided to make pear and gorgonzola pizza! It was a bit of a disaster (note to self: read a recipe before attempting pizza dough), but we had so much fun doing it and have made grand plans to try making ravioli/jambalaya next weekend. I would share a pizza recipe with you, but that will have to wait until I've figured it out LOL.

Makeshift rolling pin, first taste of our pizza, Alena doing the honours

However, I do have a really good recipe that I am more than happy to share with you right now. It's my go-to chocolate cake recipe, given to me by my baking guru, Aunty Rosa. It's the cake she used to make for my birthdays when I was growing up, and it has always been my benchmark for chocolate cake. I did make some tiny tweaks to it to suit my tastes, but for this cake order from a friend of mine, I made it just the way she did.

Here it is, a two tier chocolate and butter cake with chocolate and vanilla buttercream, inspired by Amanda's Neapolitan Rose cake. My buttercream was giving me issues though, which seems to always happen whenever it matters. Murphy's law applies.

It has been so long since I've piped anything that it took me ages to get a hang of it again. I probably went through a good quarter of the buttercream just trying to get the pressure right. I definitely need to get back into it, just keep practicing even though I'm not a big fan of frosting on my own cakes. Mini cakes it is then!
The cake order was for a friend's parents' 40th wedding anniversary, as well as for her own birthday (the top tier is for her lol). I really do hope that the flavour was okay, and that they enjoyed the cake. It's always really daunting to make cakes for orders cos you never know how it's going to turn out.

Chocolate Cake

• 175g butter, softened
• 250 g dark soft brown sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 60g cocoa powder
• 250g all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 100ml yoghurt/sour cream

Preheat the oven to 180C, line a 9" baking tin, or 2 8" baking tins, and mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Pour into pan and bake for 35 - 45 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool completely. Serve warm with a drizzle of dark chocolate ganache :D

I usually whip up some simple chocolate icing to pour over this chocolate cake, but for the purposes of these chocolate roses, I used the same chocolate buttercream recipe that Amanda used for her cake. Next time I make this chocolate cake as I usually do, I'll be sure to snap some pretty pictures and post my favourite dark chocolate ganache recipe.
Lots of love!

Morning coffee and flowers

Throughout my life, my mother and her ladies (as her friends have always been referred to, regardless of where we live and how many times these group of people have changed) have always had their elaborate morning coffees. Twenty to thirty ladies show up to these dos, and they all take turns hosting the event.

It's always fun, and back when I was in school, and they would have their morning coffees during the school hols, I used to enjoy lurking and just watching them all fuss about.

This time around was my mother's turn to host, and she asked me to bake a cake to add to their already extensive list of refreshments. I thought that Amanda's thin mint cake sounded like the perfect cake for a brunch, and a daisy decoration would tie in nicely (lies, I just wanted to try it!).

Anyhoo, check this link for the recipe and decorating tutorial.

The cake was delicious, by the way, what a great blend of flavours. It's possibly now one of my favourite recipes.

x Nabs

Weekend in a White Garden

What do you get when you combine a simple white cake with fluffy lemon buttercream frosting?

Cellulite.

LOL just kidding (but not really), you get a cake, silly!

During the week, I find myself inexorably drawn towards cooking sites and the cooking sections of the bookstores. I now realize that what I've been doing is storing recipes and getting ideas for what I can bake during the weekends! So this week, I decided I wanted to try a simple white cake as I've never tried one that didn't come out of a box before.

I was also so inspired by Amanda's (from iambaker) rose covered cake that I decided I wanted to give it a shot. My experience with frosting is (as previously stated) very limited, and as such I don't own much equipment for decorating cakes and the such. Fortunately, last week I stumbled upon this amazing store in town called the "International Centre of Cake Artistry". This store supplies everything and anything I could possibly think of using for baking.

This, of course includes a Wilton 1M tip. Let's just leave it at that for now, I don't really feel like telling the internet (which might include my mum) what I bought.

The best thing about having a very large extended family is the fact that there is a birthday to celebrate almost every other week. This might come as a pain if you're one of those people who buy stuff for others, but it's a godsend when you just need an excuse to BAKE. So this week's cake is for the one and only Indera, my beloved cousin who turned 23 on the 18th of May (same as my brother Adam, of last week's cake). You know I don't mean that, Ind, I love you and felt I owe you cake... even if it's not the flavours you mentioned last week.

My roses didn't turn out as beautifully as Amanda's did, of course, as she is a Goddess and I am still a novice. But I had SO much fun doing this!

Basic White Cake

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (softened, do NOT let it get too liquidy)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius, grease and flour your baking tray (overdo this bit)
2. Cream together sugar and butter
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla
4. Combine flour and baking powder, add to creamed mixture and mix well
5. Stir in milk until batter is smooth and fluffy
6. Pour batter into pan
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or 10-20 minutes for cupcakes, or until you poke a stick through the cake and it comes out clean

Lemon Buttercream frosting

• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 4 cups confectioners sugar, sift and sift again
• 1 cup butter (softened)

1. Cream the butter until it's fluffy
2. Add lemon juice and zest, beat well
3. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time and continue to beat until creamy

Decorating the cake:

Once the cake is completely cooled - seriously, don't mess with this bit, you make sure that cake is NOT letting off any more heat or your frosting will just melt right off and it's gonna look fug. I had to pop my cake in the fridge for 10 minutes before I could frost mine, cos the humidity here on the Equator does not help with the cooling process. Or the impatience.

Anyhoo, once your cake is cooled and leveled (you don't have to have a very level cake if you don't want to) apply a crumb coating and pop it back in the fridge for a couple of minutes. A crumb coating is just to ensure that any stray crumbs from the cake will be stuck down so it won't come off into your final layer of decoration later.

Attach your Wilton 1M tip, or any large open star tip that you have to your decorating bag (a 16 inch bag should be okay for a 9 inch cake, but it's fine if you don't mind refilling) and fill it with your frosting. I can't possibly describe the method of decorating without sounding like a complete dork (start in the centre and go round and round til you get a cool rose), so I'll leave that to the pro: Check out Amanda's tutorial on this cake.

As you can see, I didn't do so well on the roses on the side of the cake. My first batch of buttercream frosting (yes, I realised I needed two batches for this cake) was a little under the desired consistency (smooth, yet not runny) AND coupled with the fact that it was my first time using the 1M tip and trying to create this rose effect. So the roses are a little shoddy. Also, I didn't space them very well so there's a lot of filler "petals" in there too. Still love it though!

Now I know you're probably thinking "... wait... she didn't mention cupcakes!"

(:

xx Nabs