Cakes and baking isn’t really my thing. I don’t know why, but batter rarely sets, sponge goes leathery and it ends up being a fantastic waste of time. Well, not this year. I will become Ace of Cakes.
Attempt #1 this year is true to form. I blindly followed an Olive magazine recipe, much to my peril. When I was assembling it I knew something was wrong but couldn’t put my finger on it. Out came two dry, flat cakes of sponge, bland and weird. My wife quite astutely spotted it: no raising agent. I double-checked the recipe and I followed it perfectly. Plain flour, beaten egg yolks and sugar. That was it. The maddening thing is, I’ve seen this recipe printed more than once, and I’m certain there were no differences.
That aside, the icing was pretty great – but then melting chocolate and butter together is hardly going to result in a disaster, is it?!
When leftovers stare at me from the back of the cupboard, I have to use them. I was fortunate enough to get hold of both a cherry panettone and a chocolate-chip panettone this Christmas, used both in bombes, and naturally had a fair chunk of each left over. I have fond memories of black forest gateau and often default to it in times of sugary need. Cherry and chocolate bread? How can I turn it into anything else?! In just a few minutes you get this dark, sweet jammy delight which fills you with gooey indulgence. Yummy. You could make this with a traditional custard, but I find the caramel-style base gives a rich and satisfying finish.
Of course I wouldn’t usually have these two types of bread available, so I imagine normal bread / sponge dotted with chunks of dark chocolate and tinned cherries would likely achieve just as tasty results.
Black forest bread pudding:
4 slices cherry panettone
4 slices chocolate-chip panettone
2 tablespoons black cherry jam
100g sugar
2 tablespoons water
300ml milk (I used semi)
125g dark chocolate, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons kirsch
Icing sugar to serve
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
Layer the bread in a casserole dish. Spread the jam on the underside of the bread as you do this.
Melt the water and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat and allow to bubble. Meanwhile melt the milk and chocolate together in a separate pan and add a tiny pinch of salt.
When the sugar syrup starts to turn golden and the chocolate has melted into the milk, add the milk to the syrup. It will splutter and spit so be careful. After a minute’s bubbling turn the heat off and add the eggs and kirsch. Whisk vigorously to ensure the egg doesn’t scramble, and once it is incorporated pour the mixture over the bread. If the bread is a little stale you may want to leave it to steep for a few minutes to moisten it.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the top starts to turn crisp. Dust with icing sugar and serve.
When you have a bunch of people to thank for a generous baby gift, what’s better than a tray of pink-iced cupcakes?! I knew Hummingbird to be the queen of cupcakes, so I dug around and found this recipe, which is basically sugar and butter and little else. Guess what – they taste amazing!
I’ve been absorbed by the always-absurd Masterchef: The Professionals. Current professional chefs take part in elimination challenges under the bellow of Gregg Wallace and the bird-like gaze of Michel Roux Jr. It really only needs the super-intelligent yet engaging Michel, Gregg only serves to bark out a repeat of what the other guy just said.
One of the challenges for the wannabe Micheliners is to reproduce a ‘classic’ recipe under a time limit to test their skills. This week Michel announced that they would be making a ‘far breton’ or Brittany Cake. I’d never heard of this but it sounded delicious, so I set Google Chrome to work to find me a recipe. I devoured half a dozen or so to get the gist and then thought about how to make it my own. It’s a kind of yorkshire-puddingy type dessert with fruit in. I decided on mixed dried fruit (as I had it to hand) and ditched the prunes (as not enjoyed in my house) and substituted apples.
The result was very tasty, but already I’m planning my next one. It didn’t quite rise enough so I’ll return to my standard yorkie recipe, and try a different pan – my mix started to leak underneath and make battery tentacles on the baking tray! Still, nice and sweet and just right for this time of year.
Far Breton:
35g butter
70g caster sugar
Few drops vanilla essence
2 eggs
35g plain flour
Pinch of salt
Handful dried mixed fruit (raisins, sultanas etc.)
1 cooking apple, peeled, cored and diced
3 tablespoons marsala wine
Cream the butter and half the sugar together. Add in the flour, vanilla essence, eggs and salt and mix to a smooth batter. Refrigerate while you get on with everything else.
Soak the mixed fruit in water for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 200C. Fry the apples in a dry pan with the rest of the sugar until they start to become tender. Add the fruit and their water and bubble until the liquid is reduced.
Add the marsala wine and bubble fast until almost dry. Leave to one side to cool.
Mix the fruit in with the batter and pour into a greased baking dish. Bake until browned and a skewer comes out of the cake clean (about 45 mins).
Serve dusted with icing sugar. Good with custard too!
