The show-stopping Dobos Torte

I always believe that if you're going to make a comeback, it better be good. I'm embarrassed to say that I've been away from this blog for more than two months. And before that, my posts have been sporadic to say the least. 

I'm not going to list down my excuses for being absent - nobody really wants to read about excuses. But I've found a perfect cake to bounce back on - the Dobos Torte, a Hungarian seven-layer sponge cake, with chocolate buttercream and a caramel layer on top. 

Doesn't that sound divine. Sponge, chocolate, caramel. Layers and layers of sponge, chocolate and finally ... caramel.

Being a TV freak, it isn't surprising that the idea to try this cake came from a TV show - the Great British Bake Off (season 5, ep 6). As soon as the show ended, I went online and started reading up about this decadent cake and bookmarked two sites: Joe Pastry and Smitten Kitchen. 

A traditional Dobos Torte is round and has seven layers but I kinda liked the non-traditional rectangular cake made by Smitten Kitchen and I added a couple more layers. So it's a derivation from the classic (of which there are apparently over 100 variations), but the flavours are the same. Well, kinda. The chocolate buttercream is more of a ganache but heck, it's delicious so I'm certainly not complaining.

I was psyched. I read through both recipes and checked to see if I had all the ingredients - apart from the standard flour, sugar (confectioner's sugar), vanilla extract, chocolate and butter, you will also need eggs. A lot of eggs. About 13. 

Check, I had them all.

I decided to start it on a Saturday morning, bright and early because this cake takes at least three hours to make, from start (assembling the ingredients) to finish (frosting the cake and photographing it).

In all honesty, it's not a complicated cake to make but it takes time, some patience, attention to detail and ... did I say patience already? But the recipes on both Joe Pastry and Smitten Kitchen are fabulously precise and clear which made it a lot easier.

But let me warn you, there's an awful lot of washing up to do. 

That's only half the equipment you'll use. 

But, do try it. No, seriously. Try making it and then try eating it. And then try stopping yourself from eating it all at one go because it tastes even better the next day, all chilled.

I'm not going to include the recipe in this post as you'll get a better idea of the process on Smitten Kitchen's website (she has gorgeous photos of the process - I was too stressed to stop and photograph each step. Heck I didn't even know if it'd turn out) but I will point out a few of details/technicalities you will have to be prepared for.

Not to scare you from making it or anything, just to prepare you.

1. There are lots of eggs to separate. About 13. And you will be left with 3 egg whites to use elsewhere. I made an egg-white omelette and felt really healthy (even after two large slices of the torte).

2. You will have to bake seven layers of thin sponge, each for about 6-7 minutes (which means you really can't leave the kitchen for about an hour). Achieving almost the same thickness for all seven layers was the hardest part about making this cake - you can weight each portion but I just winged it and it turned out pretty fine, although my sponges were a little thin - perhaps I should have stuck to seven layers. Next time. 

3. You will have to clear some kitchen space as you will need to lay each layer out to cool before even thinking of assembling the cake. I inadvertently cleaned my kitchen in the process, so I guess it was a bonus.

That's about it really. The rest are pretty standard baking protocols.

Daring Bakers: Whoopie Pies

The December Daring Baker's Challenge had us all cheering. The lovely and talented Bourbonnatrix of Bourbonnatrix Bakes was our hostess and challenged us to make fun, delicious and creative whoopie pies! Delicious little cake-like cookies sandwiching luscious filling in any flavours we choose... what else is there to say but "Whoopie!".

Incidentally, that was exactly how this cake-biscuit treat got it's name. Apparently, according to the ever reliable (?) Wikipedia, Amish women used to sneak this into their husband's lunch boxes every now and again. When the men opened their lunches and discovered the treats - after a long morning's work - they let out a "whoopie"!

This is my first attempt at making whoopie pies. I've eaten them before but have never gotten around to actually making them. I like me a big old cake rather than mini cookie cakes ... they just require so much more work. 

But this was fun because while I chose the very basic chocolate for my pies, I experimented with the filling a little and settled on this yoghurt, lemon and coconut cream cheese filling. Whoa, that's a mouthful.

Chocolate and coconut go together well, no doubt about that. I didn't want a really rich filling like buttercream or marshmallow simply because I don't have a sweet tooth. Yoghurt, though, I love. And lemon? Double love. 

The filling was definitely luscious but also a little too soft. It didn't hold together all that well which proved a little messy when handling the pies. I chilled them and that made it a wee bit better.  I think perhaps it could be because I opted for low fat cream cheese which is a little softer than the full fat version. 

Also, because the tops of the pies are curved, they are a little wobbly when set on a plate or surface. Oh heck, let me just say they toppled. Well, some of them did. I should have consulted the daring baker's forum for tips because only after I'd assembled my pies did I see Agos of Sabor Pastel's top of weighing half the pies down with a baking tray once they're out of the oven so they'll have a flatter base. Genius! 

Nevertheless, loved the challenge and the pies. Especially the filling!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

11/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1tsp vanilla extract

113g butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp instant espresso (optional)

1 egg

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda together and whisk in the salt. 

Mix the vanilla extract and buttermilk.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix till incorporated. With the mixer on low, add the flour and buttermilk, alternating between the two until the batter/dough (it's a thick batter) is well combined.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Using a table spoon, drop mounds of dough on a lined baking sheet, about 1.5 inches apart as they expand slightly.

Bake for 11-12 mins. 

FIlling

1 cup Greek yoghurt

113g cream cheese

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup dessicated coconut

Cream the cream cheese, yoghurt and sugar till light and well combined. Add the coconut and mix. Chill until the pies have cooled and you're ready to fill them. 

Apple Lemon Cake

I made an apple cake today. I think I fell in love with apples all over again while in Germany. It seemed as if there were apples, apples, apples everywhere we went (to eat): from the delicious apfelkuchen (apple cakes) sold in the bakeries near our hotel in Frankfurt (which my husband, R, had for breakfast on three consecutive days!) to the red cabbage cooked with apple sauce (I could have this every day!) which accompanied a hearty Bavarian feast in Munich and the delicious apple pastries we had for tea.

So, yes, I suppose it isn't surprising that I bought a bag of apples the day after I arrived home. 

I'm still working on making a great apfelkuchen, which is perhaps best described as a yeasted apple cake with a crumb topping. Sounds delicious, right? It is. But I haven't yet got it quite right. Thankfully, the good thing about apple desserts is even the imperfect versions are delicious to eat!

In the meantime, I decided to blog about this simple apple cake which is really just the perfect coffee cake. Apple desserts usually have cinnamon and/or nutmeg in them but I decided to make this one without either and used just lemon (juice and zest) as a flavour enhancer.  I marinated the apples in a lemon and sugar emulsion for an hour. Then, I thickened the marinade to use as a glaze once the cake was baked. I also added some lemon zest in the batter.

This cake is moist. The milk AND buttermilk in the batter make for a really tender crumb in which the chunks of cooked apples nestle in quite comfortably. Oh, just looking at the cake feels so comforting.

A word of warning though: the acidity of the buttermilk does tend to make the protein in the eggs coagulate slightly - what this means is your batter will look a little curdled. DON'T throw it away. It isn't spoilt, it's just a reaction to the buttermilk. 

Apple and Lemon Cake

5 red apples, skinned, cored and sliced lengthwise.

juice of 1 lemon

150g butter, softened

1 cup castor  sugar

zest of 1 lemon

3 eggs 

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g milk

150g butter milk

275g flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Marinade the apples in lemon juice and 2 tbsp sugar for about an hour. 

Heat over to 170C.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.

Cream the butter and remaining sugar until pale and light. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat to incorporate the ingredients well. Add the zest and then add in the flour gradually. Finally, add the milk and buttermilk into the batter and mix to incorporate.

Pour the batter into a greased 10-inch springform pan. Arrange the sliced apples on the top of the cake. Pack as much of the apples as you can in. 

Bake for 50-55 mins or until the a tester comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, heat the lemon marinade until it thickens into a syrup. Once the cake is done, spoon the syrup over the cake.

Cool, dust with icing sugar (yeah, so very old fashioned ... but I love it) and serve.

Lemongrass Butter Cupcakes

My grandfather used to faithfully fly the Malaysian flag outside his house every year when Hari Merdeka (Malaysia's independence day) approached. He was a patriot, my grandfather - having lived through the Japanese and British occupation in Malaysia, he valued the country's independence and was never remiss in reminding himself (and us) how precious freedom is. My grandfather passed away just months short of his 100th birthday and he used to, until the final years of his life when he wasn't too well, correspond via snail mail to the country's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, who hailed from Kedah, the same northern state as my grandad. He was extremely proud of the fact that the statesman actually replied his letters a couple of times. 

I don't fly the flag outside my house nor on my car (as many of my countryman/women do). But to celebrate Merdeka this year, I decided to eat an array of my favourite Malaysian dishes! Why not? After all, food is one of the many reasons I love living in Malaysia. 

Listing out the food fest I had over the weekend would be embarrassing. Suffice to say I haven't eaten so much in a long while and am thoroughly guilt-ridden now. 

But I do want to highlight these cupcakes I made which were infused with a lemongrass syrup and topped with strawberry and lemongrass compote.

Lemongrass is one of my favourite Malaysian ingredients and though it is used primarily in cooking curries and savoury dishes, it lends a nice flavour to desserts and drinks too.

For the cupcakes, I used a basic butter cake batter that was flavoured with lemon zest and extract.

Once baked, the cakes are then infused with a lemongrass syrup which soaks into the cupcakes making them not only moist but giving them the unmistakable punch of the lemongrass. 

The strawberry compote is also flavoured with lemongrass: I cooked the fresh strawberries in water and some of the lemongrass syrup that I used for the cake. I wasn't sure if strawberries and lemongrass go well together but I am happy to report that they do :)

Lemongrass infused Butter Cupcakes
For the cake
175g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
175g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 lemon, zested and then sliced

For the syrup *
180ml water
200g sugar
3 stalks fresh lemongrass, crushed and cut into pieces
3 slices lemon

For the compote
1 cup strawberries
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup syrup*

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and keep aside.

Rub the lemon zest into the sugar until the lemon is well infused and the sugar is fragrant. Cream the butter and the lemon-flavoured sugar until light and creamy. add the eggs (one at a time) until well incorporated into the butter and then add the lemon extract.

Add the flour mixture in three installments, making sure it is well combined before adding more.

Remove and spoon the batter into the cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 mins or until a tester comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, make the syrup. Put the water to boil and then add the sugar, lemongrass and lemon slices in. Once the mixture boils, turn the heat low and allow to simmer for about 15 mins.

Once the cakes are done, use a toothpick (I didn't have any so I used the small, sharp end of a chopstick) and poke holes all over the surface of the cupcakes. Spoon the syrup carefully over the surface, allowing it to seep into the cupcakes through the holes.

Leave to infuse for 10 mins and the repeat.

To make the compote, hull and cube the strawberries. Add the strawberries, the water and the syrup in a small saucepan and cook, under low heat, until the berries start to soften and the mixture starts to thicken.  Spoon the compote over the cupcakes once they are cool.

Orange Macaroon Cake

Orange and coconut. The minute I saw the combination of these two ingredients in master baker Dan Lepard's recipe, I knew I had to make his Orange Macaroon Cake. I have fast become a Dan Lepard fan simply because his recipes  - whether for bread of desserts - are truly, subliminally delicious and uncomplicated. 

While there is really no reason to tweak a Dan Lepard recipe - why mess with the best, right - I had to deviate a little from this one because whether in cooking or baking, I love using fresh coconut in place of desiccated (air dried) coconut, especially since we have such easy access to fresh coconut here.  When I was young, my mum used to make me grate coconuts for cooking and it was a tedious task. And sometimes, if I day dreamed too much while doing it, I'd end up scraping my palms. I'd then make a big fuss to try and get out of the chore (the plan hardly ever worked, of course). These days, all I have to do is go to my neighbourhood grocer and buy freshly grated coconut whenever I want. So easy. 

So, why fresh coconut? Well, apart from the moisture it brings to the cake, the one thing fresh coconut has that is missing from desiccated coconut is the slight sourness that accompanies the sweetness of the flesh. I love that. I also love the texture fresh coconut brings to the cake ... the slight chewiness from the shards of grated coconut. You can't see the coconut but you definitely bite into it amidst the softness  of the cake. 

I added more coconut that was recommended in the recipe because I really wanted a full coconut flavour to accompany the strong flavour of the orange (Lepard says that when baking a orange/lemon cake, you want it to taste "resoundingly" of orange and lemon).  I was afraid the addition of more coconut may affect the texture of the cake but it came out really well. 

To intensify the orange flavour, Lepard adds not only orange zest into the batter but also some orange liqueur - Cointreau or Grand Marnier. I added the zest but didn't have the liqueur so I improvised and added some orange juice in rum instead (I didn't want to leave out the alcohol altogether!). 

Lepard's recipe is layered - two layers with a glaze in the middle and on top but I stuck to making two single layer cakes).

And, to top it all off, the glaze - orange juice + zest + icing sugar. Of course, I added some fresh, grated coconut too! I love a glaze that captures the essence of the cake and this one does exactly that. Love it!

Orange Macaroon Cake ( Dan Lepard Recipe from Short and Sweet; my notes are in red).

3 large oranges

175g unsalted butter, softened (I used salted butter)

175g caster sugar

3 large eggs

50g desiccated coconut (I used 100g fresh coconut + 2 tbsp for the glaze)

150g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

75ml Grand Marnier/Cointreau (I used 40ml rum + 20ml fresh orange juice)

125g icing sugar 

Line the base of two 18cm sponge tins with a disc of baking parchment and preheat the oven to 180C. Finely grate the zest of two oranges into a bowl with the butter and sugar and beat until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then beat in the coconut. Sift the flour and baking powder together that beat half into the butter mixture, followed by the Cointreau (rum/juice), then fold through the remaining flour. 

Divide between the tins and bake for 25-30 mins. 

Leave to cool in the tin, then remove and peel the parchment off the bottom. Finely grate the zest of the remaining orange into a bowl. Add the icing sugar and beat with a few tablespoons of orange juice until spreadable. I mixed in the 2 tbsp of fresh coconut at the end. Pour and spread the glaze over the two cakes when cool. 

Daring Bakers: Battenburg Cake

I've been watching episodes of The Great British Bake Off (a competitive baking show for British home bakers) almost non-stop this past month and have been so inspired by the delicious bakes the contestants of the show were challenged to create. I am also in LOVE with English baker and "cake queen" Mary Berry. She's delightful. One week, she challenged the contestants to bake her famed Battenburg cake, a basic sponge in two colours, arranged in a checkerboard pattern and then wrapped in marzipan. It was such a pretty cake and I wanted to jump right up and march into my kitchen and join the challenge myself. 

Well, I didn't. I remained in the lounge chair watching the episode and then another two after and then I went to bed. Oh well. 

And then I logged on to the Daring Baker's site to see what our challenge for July was. In a "celebration" of past Daring Baker and Daring Cook challenges, Lis challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we'd like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try. 

I knew immediately what recipe I wanted to try: the Battenburg cake, of course! This was originally a challenge posed by Mandy of What the Fruitcake? last June. Mandy provided some neat tips on the techniques and flavours for making a beautiful Battenburg cake, referring to Mary Berry's recipe.

I dove right in.

Battenburg Cake

175g softened butter

175g sugar

175g self-raising flour

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup coconut, freshly grated

pink colouring

To assemble

5 tbsp apricot jam

200g marzipan

The first step is to prepare the baking tin: a 8" X 8" cake tin which is divided in two parts with just parchment paper. What? here's how.  First, grease the base of the baking tin with butter. Next, cut a sheet of parchment paper that is twice the length of your tin (so, 16"). Make a crease in the center and then fit the left and right sides of the parchment to fit the tin. Because of the butter, the paper will stick to the bottom and you will be left with extra paper in the middle. Perfect, fold this up to form a divider between the right and left sides of the tin. 

Next the batter. The cake is a basic sponge with equal amounts of butter, sugar and flour. Mix all ingredients together. Yup, you don't have to cream the butter and sugar together first and then add the eggs and flour. You can chuck everything in and mix them all together from the start.

Divide in two.

I flavoured one part of the batter with ground ginger (and no colour) and the other with fresh coconut and a drop of pink colouring (I coloured this batter pink, reminiscent of the coconut candy desserts that my mother used to make).  

Fill the batters into the separated sections of the tin and bake for about 30 mins.

Once the cake is done, allow to cool in the tin for 10 mins and then rremove them gently onto your cutting board, allowing them to cool completely. Both sides should be equal but if, like me, you divided the tin slightly unevenly with one side slightly larger than the other, you need to gently trim the cakes to size. Cut off uneven edges too. If one cake has risen a little more than the other, gently press the one that's taller so that they are equal in height.

Cut each cake in half, lengthwise. 

So now you have two long strips of pink and two long strips of yellow. 

Place the one strip of pink and one strip of yellow side by side and once again, make sure they are identical in length and height. Keep the pink one of the right and the yellow on the left. 

Heat the apricot jam until it thins out. 

Using a brush, spread the apricot jam on the side of one log and then bring then two strips together. The jam should act as glue and with a little pressure the two strips should join as one. Perfect. Now, repeat with the remaining strips, this time put the yellow on your right and the pink on your left. Brush with jam and join them together. 

Now you have two pairs. Brush the top of one pair with jam and gently lift the other pair and place it on top of the jammy surface. Gently press together so they are stuck. You have your checkerboard cake!

Now for the marzipan. I didn't have 200g of marzipan. I thought I did but it turns out I only had about 100g - I'd apparently used the other 100g for another recipe some time back and forgot all about it. Sheesh. I therefore had to cut my cake in half and wrap only one portion, thus creating mini Battenburg cakes. Boo hoo hoo. 

So, knead the marzipan so it's soft and easy to work with. Dust the cutting board with icing sugar and roll the marzipan out: it should be oblong and big enough to cover the sides and top of the cake. 

Brush the top of the cake with jam and then gently place the cake, jam side down, on the sheet of marzipan. Brush the remaining three sides with jam and gently fold the marzipan over the cake, making sure the seams are either along the sides or at the top of the cake. 

Now, flip the cake so the seams go to the bottom. My seaming was rather untidy but I will do better next time :)

Using a small, sharp knife, score the top surface of the marzipan so you get a square (or diamond, if you like) pattern and decorate.

Chill the cake and then cut and serve :)

Tarts, tarts, tarts

For our monthly Don't Call Me Chef column which is published in Star2 today, we decided to derive inspiration from nursery rhymes. My nursery rhyme of choice was The Queen Of Hearts rhyme made popular by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. 

The Queen of Tarts she made some tarts

All on a summer day

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts

And took them quite away

I like this rhyme but more than that, I love tarts. It's my go-to party dish at the moment. For dinner, tea or breakfast/brunch, I'm surely gonna make you a tart should you come by my way.

For the column, I made a Dark Chocolate Rum Tart inspired by master baker Dan Lepard's Pecan Crust Bourbon Chocolate Tart which you can view in his post in The Guardian some time back. 

Let me tell you: it was delicious! Decadent! You won't be able to stop at one. You may not want to share it with your guests! 

I made a few minor adjustments: he uses bourbon, I used rum; he uses cane sugar I used palm sugar and I also added some sea salt into the chocolate. I also made a chocolate-walnut crust (adding more cocoa than Lepard uses) instead of a pecan crust. 

You can check out the recipe for the Chocolate tart I made here.

Yesterday I made another tart: a Lemon Mascarpone Tart with a Rosemary crust and sour cream topping. 

Like most lemon tarts/slices, this one is tangy and very lemony. It's also creamy because of the mascarpone. The sour cream topping helps soften the tartness of the lemon filing - especially if you're not a huge fan of lemons. 

The filling is not cooked and thickened to form a curd. Though slightly runny, the cheese helps it set quite quickly. 

The recipe was inspired by one I saw in the food section of The Telegraph's site. I added the rosemary (because at the moment, rosemary and lemon is my favourite couple) and the sour cream.

The tart is best eaten chilled.

Lemon Mascarpone Tart with Rosemary Crust

For the pastry

100g plain flour

50g icing sugar

70g ice cold butter, cubed

1 sprig rosemary, chopped fine

pinch of salt 

4-6 tbsp ice cold water/milk

Filling

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

juice and zest of 2 lemons

125g mascarpone cheese

100g castor sugar

3 tbsp sour cream

First the pastry. Whisk the flour, salt and rosemary together. Add the cold butter and with your fingers or a mixer, rub the butter into the flour until you end up with a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs. Add the cold water a little at a time and work quickly to form a dough. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 mins.

Once chilled, roll the pastry on a floured surface until about 2mm thick. Lift the pastry carefully and fit into tart tin (I used an 8-inch tin). Prick the bottom and sides of pastry with a fork and blind bake in a 180C oven for about 12-15 mins or until the base has hardened slightly. 

Remove. 

For the filling, beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture gets pale and creamy. Add the mascarpone and the lemon juice and zest and mix to incorporate all ingredients together.

Pour the filling into the half-baked crust and put it back in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the filling is set.

Remove from oven and let cool. Once cool. spread a thin layer of sour cream on top.

Rosemary Lemon Cake with Sea Salt

Salt isn't an ingredient that is usually associated with desserts. Sure, practically every cake and pastry recipe includes the customary pinch of salt which is supposed to enhance and awaken inherent flavours. Try making a chocolate cake WITHOUT salt: it really does taste quite flat. Add a pinch or two of salt, about a teaspoon, and the chocolate comes alive.

Salt is essential in desserts but with a pinch, we don't actually taste the salt.

What if we add more than a pinch? What if we want to taste the salt to contrast against the sweet? Salty desserts are nothing new: salted caramel desserts have become the rage over the last couple of years, but Asian desserts have long played up the salty/sweet contrast: one of my favourites is Tau Sar Piah, a deliciously flaky pastry stuffed with a sweet/savoury mung bean paste. Another is the Thai sticky rice and mango pudding: the sweet and salty sticky rice that's drenched in coconut milk and eaten with sweet mango? Oh ... so delicious. 

A while ago at a food fair I participated in with Jane of The Wayward Oven and Sree, another friend (we sold sliders - nothing sweet about them!), I had the chance of sampling a Rosemary and Maldon Sea Salt yellow cake baked expertly by the fabulous baker boys of Just Heavenly. The cake literally blew me away. I didn't ask for the recipe, of course, but I've been thinking about it ever since that fateful day last September. Yeah, that's a long time to be thinking about one cake!

Last week, I decided to try adding the same flavours in a lemon butter cake. 

The cake turned out super! 

I had to make it twice to get the right amount of rosemary and salt to balance the sweetness of the lemon and the richness of the butter. The first time around, I didn't quite use enough rosemary: I stinged as I was afraid the strong taste of the herb might overpower the cake. It didn't. It was barely discernable and so I doubled the amount, using two sprigs instead of just one. 

The flavour of the rosemary is subtle, giving the cake just a little kick with its of fresh, piney taste while the salt not only gives you an unexpected hit but also cuts through the richness of the butter in the cake. 

Texturally, sprinkling the sea salt on the cake adds not just flavour but texture to the crust... and who doesn't love a delicious crust on a butter cake? I used the Fleur de Sel de Camargue which Ivy (The Hungry Caterpillar) bought for me from Europe some time back. I've been using it sparingly but this recipe called for the best. But, Maldon sea salt flakes (readily available at most big grocers here) works as well. Sea salt works better than table salt as it has a softer flavour that is more brine-y, less salty.

Rosemary Lemon Cake with Sea Salt

250g butter, softened

250g Castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

310g self raising flour

2/3 cup milk

zest of 1 lemon

2 sprigs rosemary

sea salt to sprinkle

For the glaze

1 lemon

1/2 cup icing sugar, sieved

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Line a loaf pan with grease proof paper and lightly rub the paper with butter.

Heat the milk, lemon zest and rosemary until the mixture begins to simmer. Take it off the heat and leave to cool, allowing the rosemary and zest to infuse into the milk (for at least 15 mins). When cool, strain the mixture and keep only the milk.

Cream the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the extract and the eggs, one at a time and beat (on a lower speed) till incorporated. 

Add the flour and the milk, alternating between the two in three installments.

Pour the batter into the lined pan, smoothing the top and dropping the pan on the counter a couple of times to remove any air bubbles.

Sprinkle the top with sea salt.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Once the cake is out, prepare the glaze by just mixing the sugar in the lemon juice till smooth. Drizzle the glaze on top of the cake while it is warm.

Sprinkle a wee bit more sea salt on the glaze and leave to cool before removing from the pan.

Chocolate Covered Red Velvet Balls

These chocolate-coated red velvet cake balls (what a mouthful!) were the result of a kitchen accident. Honestly. I know cake pops (cakes that are crumbled, rolled into balls, impaled on lollipop sticks and coated in chocolate or candy) are all the rage,  but  personally I don't see the allure of eating cake on a stick. I mean ... won't it be messy? What if, after one bite, the whole ball of cake crumbles, falls off the stick and unto my lap? Embarrassing.

Thing is, that's quite likely to happen to me. I have  earned  quite a reputation for being a klutz. Just last week, I was eating at a restaurant with my husband and a couple of friends and I dropped my knife three times. Three times. I don't know how it happened (my husband has some theories, particularly about how careless I am) but I was so embarrassed, I ended up cutting through my meal with just my fork. 

And then there is the accident with this cake. 

I baked a two-layer red velvet cake for my sister in law last Saturday. The cake turned out well and my frosting work on the cake actually looked pretty decent. I added some sugar hearts on the cake and was about to put it in the fridge to chill. 

So, picture this: I had the cake in one hand and was walking towards the fridge -- just three steps and I would have made it too except I saw a stray heart that had fallen off the cake onto the floor. I decided to bend down and pick the heart up to thrash while still holding on to the cake in one hand.

Mistake? Hell yes! The next thing I knew, the top layer of the cake was on the floor. Splat! All over the flour and over my feet. 

I wept. My husband laughed. Bah. 

Long story short, I cleaned up the mess and transferred what was left of the cake (the bottom half and most of the frosting) into a container to go in the fridge. I then proceeded to make another cake for my sister in law. I was more careful this time and didn' t try to multitask. 

Yesterday, I took out the salvaged cake that was in the fridge to make cake balls.

Cake balls are quite different from cake pops. They may not be as charming as the pops (who isn't tickled by a lollipop cake?) but they are definitely sturdier -- you hold them securely as you bite into them. No chance of anything falling.

Taste-wise, these cake pops are amazing. The slightly bitter dark chocolate coating complements the sweet, rich and creamy cake (imagine the red velvet cake and the icing mixed into one moist ball of heaven) so well.

Texturally, the crunch of the chocolate that has set and is chilled contrasts against the moist and soft cake.

Visually, it's even more stunning. Imagine the dark chocolate against the deep red which is streaked with the white from the cream. Beautiful.

 I certainly don't recommend that anyone destroy a cake on purpose to make these balls but they'd be the perfect solution for leftover cake.

There isn't a recipe for this post but I have some tips on making cake balls. If you want to make this red velvet cake, check out my older post here.

* It only works with cakes that have some kind of icing or ganache as the icing/ganache serves as a binder. The cake should be slightly sticky. 

* The mashed cake has to be chilled before they are rolled. Once rolled, they have to be chilled again (at least 30 mins) before coating. This will keep the balls together. Once coated, they must be chilled again for the chocolate to set.

* For the coating, add some fat (butter/shortening) in with the chocolate when you melt it so the consistency is thin enough to coat the balls nicely. Mine was a little thick and therefore not satiny smooth. The butter also makes the chocolate coating shiny. I melt my chocolate on a double boiler (placing a bowl over a pan of boiling water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water) but a microwave would work as well. 

* Before coating, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the coated balls on the paper: they will come of easier without the chocolate breaking. 

* Speciality bake shops sell cake pop pans or moulds but seriously, you don't need them. It's ridiculously easy to roll the balls yourself. Just make sure you have enough icing to bind the cake together but not too much that the cake becomes too soggy. Add the icing in gradually and test the consistency. 

* If you want to sprinkle coloured sugar crystals (or any other fancy cake decorations) on the chocolate, do it before it has set. 

Postscript: the popularity of cake pops seem to go bake to Bakerella otherwise known as Angie Dudley, a blogger from Atlanta in the United States. If you are a fan of desserts, particularly novelty desserts that look as pretty as they are good to eat, check out her site bakerella.com.  Amazing stuff!

Rainbow Cake

This cake has been taunting me for over a year. I think it's been about that long since the rainbow cake took over the cake world (kinda like how cupcakes did some years ago). It seemed like everywhere I looked I was confronted with them: at parties, in magazines, in blogs ... everywhere. Told you, the cake was taunting me.

To be honest, I love the look of the rainbow cake. Even though it has blue and purple layers; green even -- I mean who eats blue cake? But it's a pretty cake. Who isn't cheered by a rainbow, right? Yup, the cake is a show stopper, no doubt about it.

I resisted making one until now for several reasons.

First of all it looks like it entails a whole lot of work. Also, the amount of food colouring required to create the bright, colourful layers is frightening. To top it all, seven layers of cake makes for a mighty large cake and in a house of two people and a dog that has been put on a diet, this cake could well last forever!

But when a friend gave me a set of all-natural food colouring some weeks ago, I buckled and got down to making my first (and probably last -- but more on why later) rainbow layered cake.

Was it a lot of work? Well, yeah. For six layers of cake (yeah, mine is not quite a full rainbow), I had to make two batches of my favourite vanilla cake recipe. And, two batches of frosting too.

The batter had to be divided into six equal portions and then coloured: I only had the four primary colours (red, yellow, green and blue) and so I had to mix them to get the shades of orange, purple and aqua. That part was fun.

When that was done, each individual layer had to be baked separately for 20 mins or so each. (Mine is a small oven and so baking two 8-inch cakes at a go was not an option).

Then, the multiple layers had to be chilled (to make it easier to frost and stack).

Next comes the stacking: each layer had a thin coat of frosting on top before the next layer is stacked on it. Most bakers use Swiss meringue frosting but I used plain butter cream.

Finally, the entire cake is coated with the same frosting. If you're thinking that's a whole lot of frosting, you're spot on. Sweet doesn't begin to describe this monster of a cake (all done, it measured about 8 inches and I needed a bread knife to cut through the layers!).

All in all, the cake was beautiful once done. I was happy with my effort and could not wait to photograph it ..... photographing takes precedence over eating it even! Unfortunately, my camera chose this day to malfunction. The shutter jammed up for some reason and I had to resort to my phone camera to capture these images, hence the less than mediocre images. Sigh. 

Why universe, why???

Nevertheless, the cake tasted delicious. It's a vanilla butter cake recipe which I've made before: you can get the recipe here. 

Equipment needed

Two or more identical sized 8-inch baking tins, round or square is up to you

food colouring/gels in red, blue, green and yellow

Rainbow cake

1. Mix batter for Butter Cake  (make two batches)

2. Divide the batter (both batches) into six or seven equal portions (the amount is enough for seven thin layers or six slightly thicker ones. I'd go for seven as thin layers are easier to eat!)

3. Add the colouring for each batch.

    For the deep purple, you need 1 drop of blue for every 3 drops of red. (You'll need to multiply this at 

    least by 6 to get a vivid purple).

    For the orchid/light purple layer mix 1 drop of blue for every 4 drops of red.

    For the orange, mix 1 drop red for every 2 drops of yellow.

    For the Aqua, mix 2 drops green for every 4 drops of blue.

4. Line and grease the baking pans. Bake each layer for about 20 mins in a preheated oven (170C) or until a tester comes out clean.

5. Let the layers cool once they are out of the oven and then chill them for at least an hour. 

6. Once chilled, lay the deep purple layer on your cake board first. Spread a thin later of butter cream icing (recipe below) and stack the light purple layer on top. Frost again, lightly and then follow with the blue, green yellow and finally orange layer. Once the final layer is on top, chill the cake again for 30 mins before icing the entire cake. 

7. Chill before cutting. 

Butter cream frosting (enough for layers and to cover the cake)

[If you have a large mixer, you can make two batches of this recipe together]

360g butter, softened

840g icing sugar, sifted

50 ml milk

1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)

2 tsp vanilla extract

Cream butter till light. Add sifted sugar and gradually and the meringue powder and mix on high speed until fluffy, about 3 mins. Add the milk and extract and mix for a further 5 mins until the frosting is almost white and very light.