The Lolly Bag Cake

 

It was my sister's 15th birthday yesterday, an occasion that called for a cake filled with memories of childhood. Therefore I present to you my attempt at the MasterChef Australia Lolly Bag Cake (here) which aired during the appropiately named kids week. 

I admit that its a little rough around the edges but I was amazed that after a day of prep and sourcing ingredients and a day of cooking and construction I pulled it off.

Here are the layers:

A base of Almond Joconde with a chocolate bottom.

Topped with a dousing of Banana Syrup made from melted banana lollies

A "Freckle" Crunch containing hazelnut paste, wafer biscuits and popping candy! Warmed slightly for stickiness with everyone's favourite kitchen tool a blowtorch

Placed gently on top of the Banana soaked Joconde

Spearmint leaves melted into a sticky mess and mix with lots of butter to make a solid Spearmint Butter Cream

Topped with Jaffa Ganache

Followed by another layer of Almond Joconde

And more Banana Syrup

A layer of "Musk"-Mallow. Melted musk sticks mixed with gelitine and egg whites to make a musk flavoured marshmallow. Absolutely Delicious.

My Sister enjoying her favourite layer.

To finish another layer of Spearmint ButterCream

Trim up the edges

And top it all with a Red Skin Glaze.

I found that the spearmint butter cream was definitely the hardest layer to prepare. The lollies when they melted were very sticky and burnt a little on the bottom of the pan. Secondly getting all the butter to mix in completely was hard, you can see in the images mine still had some lumps of butter. If you are going to attempt a butter cream, it should be easy enough if your butter is very very soft. I think that's where I went wrong. 

The "Freckles" crunch layer was very nice. I would make that by itself, and eat it like a biscuit.  Tip when working with popping candy: make sure what you are mixing it into is cool enough so that it doesn't let out all it's popping goodness before someone gets to eat it. 

Everyone that has tried this cake was very surprised at how well balanced all the different flavours are. All the layers are there for a reason and compliment each other well. If you have the time and energy give it a go. Just make sure that there are plenty of people to share it with. It's a BIG cake.

Homemade Pasta

Another one of those things that people have a preconceived idea that it's too hard to do at home. I have seen TV chefs make pasta from scratch that takes ages to prepare and lots of fancy ingredients and equipment but it doesn't have to be that way.
This post was inspired when I saw another TV chef (Matthew Evans, Gourmet Farmer) make pasta from scratch in about five minutes. He mix one egg and 100g of plain flour into a dough with a little salt, kneaded it until smooth, rolled it out to about half a centimetre thick and cut it into diamonds, plunged into boiling water for 2 minutes and it was done.
Now I like mine a little more refined than that but essentially its the same recipe. 1 egg and 100g of flour per person, season with salt. I have divided my pasta recipe into 5 steps. Dough, rest, roll, cut and dry.
In the dough step mix your eggs and flour together remembering to season then knead until its smooth depending on how much dough you have this shouldn't take very long.
Then it's time to rest, just wrap with cling film and put it in the fridge until you're ready to use it, minimum of 20mins. I make my dough in the morning then take it out in the afternoon.
This is the hard part that most people have trouble with, rolling. I was intending on getting out my pasta machine and doing this the "proper" way but it had broken and I couldn't get the gears to work. So like any self respecting women does I got a man to look at it and continued to work on my dough, the original way, by hand.
This was a lot easier than even using the machine. By the time the elected man had look at the machine, tried to fix it and given up I had already rolled out my first sheet of pasta. Here's how: Divide the dough into small manageable pieces (4 pieces for a 2 person dough should do it), flour a large surface and a rolling pin lightly and roll out the pasta into a long thin, even sheet. Getting the sheet even it the hard bit, I found that if you have your palms out flat on the rolling pin and roll backwards and forwards over small sections of the dough you get a nice even finish. This way you can go back to bit that seems thicker or where you may have torn it and join it back together. When the pasta is thin enough you should be able to just see through it, either your hands or the pattern on your bench is a good way to check. For filled pasta you may want it a little thinner. Once you have finished with one section put it somewhere where it's not going to stick together, I use the back of one of my dining room chairs. If you don't have enough chairs just fold the pasta with a layer of flour between.
That's the hard part over now it's time to cut you pasta into the width you want.  Fold your long sheets of pasta with a layer of flour between until it a manageable size. Cut into desired width. Making sure to cut through all the layers. If you are looking for inspiration for what width to cut you pasta there are lots of guides out there for what kind of pasta goes with which sauce but it's fun to make it up yourself. Also don't listen to those people who say to trim your pasta into a perfect square so that all of you lengths of pasta are the same size. If you want perfect pasta go an buy a packet.
Drying. As you finish cutting each sheet of pasta hang them somewhere where they are not touching each other and the air can circulate until you are ready to cook them minimum of 20mins. This is where my dining room chairs were also handy, but you can use a piece of dowel or rolling pin between to benches or one of those fancy pasta drying set ups from kitchen shops. Drying your pasta makes it easier to work with when cooking but isn't totally necessary.

When it comes time to cook your pasta bring a pot of salted water to the boil, pop in your pasta and bring back to the boil and it's done. Just test it to make sure it's to your liking, if yours is a little thicker it may take longer. Serve with your favourite sauce and enjoy.

Ginger Beer

Well I had my successful batch fermenting in my garage for a week now and no exploded bottles.. So far.
It's quite a simple recipe, to make 2 litres put 1 cup of sugar, juice of 1 lemon, a dash of honey, as much ginger as you like and 1/4 teaspoon of brewers yeast in the bottom of a 2 litre bottle. Then half fill with water and shake to dissolve the sugar then fill almost to the top, leaving some room for the yeast to breathe. Leave for a minimum of 2 days and strain and chill before serving.

Some things you should know. The first one is that the yeast eat the sugar to produce alcohol. It is a necessary ingredient don't feel tempted to reduce it for a healthier recipe. Another thing is that plastic bottles have more resistance to pressure than glass bottles and are less likely to explode. This may not be the case for everyone but I found that the more space you have at the top of the bottle the less alcohol and the sweeter your beer is.
This is a really cheap way to make your own alcohol for nearly no effort. Once you get started you should be able to have ginger beer on the go at all times. Happy brewing.

Bread

I have been watching River Cottage, a British TV show about living life in a more self-sufficient way and was inspired to make my own bread. The picture above was my most successful attempt. The one at the top is a plain white loaf cooked in a tin and the other is a basil free-form loaf.

There is a lot of preconceptions that making your own bread from scratch is hard but it really isn't. There are 4 main ingredients and everything else is up to you. Your bread is your own you can make it as inventive or as boring as you like.

The recipe that I started with was an old one from Jamie Oliver's very first book "Naked Chef". I then adapted it to suit what I had at the time and after 3 attempts I am really happy with this as the final recipe.

In a large bowl combine 1kg of plain flour, 10g of salt and 2x7g packets of dry yeast. Make a well in the centre and gradually incorporate roughly 600mLs of water stirring in a circular motion with the tips of you fingers on one hand letting the flour fall into the water. This dough should be fairly sticky at this stage. Turn it out on to a large clean surface and knead really well (about 10 minutes).

Just a little note on kneading, the first few times I attempted this my bread was quite dense and didn't rise any further after being placed in the oven. Kneading is incredibly important, if you don't knead long enough the gluten does not develop properly therefore your bread will not hold the air spend so much time trying incorporate into it.  The kneading technique is also important, the action should be a push and pull. Push most of the dough away from you, stretching it over the surface then pulling it back together. It's much easier to push with one hand then pull it back together with the other, this way you get into a rhythm. Once the kneading is done the dough should be elastic (when you stretch it the strands don't break) and slightly springy.

Now it's time for the yeast to do its thing. Proving. This recipe makes 2 loaves and needs to prove twice. For the first prove place in a large bowl, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for about 40 minutes.

By now it should have doubled in size. Knock it back by gently pressing on it with a fist. Divide equally in half and either place in a tin or shape. 

To flavour you dough incorporate the flavour before you shape it. Place a generous amount of your favourite herbs, spices, cheese or fruit* on top of the dough and fold the dough over it. The filling my cause the dough to burst open on the sides, this is okay just keep folding it over and it will incorporate eventually.   If you have a lot of filling you may want to do this in a few goes.

For a round shape tuck one edge of your dough underneath the loaf , turn 45 degrees and keep tucking until you have a fairly evenly shaped loaf. If you want a loaf like the ones above, tuck the top and bottom edges under first and then tuck a smaller amount of dough under the ends.

Preheat you oven to 235 degrees C. Score the top of your shaped loaves with a sharp knife 3-4 times and prove for a further 40 minutes. Gently place in the hot oven and cook for 20-30 minutes. to check if its ready tap the top, if it sounds hollow it's done. Leave to cool on a wire rack, if you can. 

I find the smell of my bread fresh from the oven irresistible. Making your own bread takes time but is thoroughly satisfying. Once you get the hang of the techniques is is very easy too. I hope this inspires you to throw away the store bought bread and taste your very own home made loaf.  

* When using dried fruit soak it in a little hot water first so it doesn't draw the water from your dough.