The Sugar Bar

Just last week, we went to see the new Underworld film – The Rise of the Lycans. The boys and I are avid fans of the film and of Kate Beckinsale. Violence, vampire action, good soundtrack and a fine woman – no one can resist that, now can they! Although she doesn’t appear in this one, the prequel, we were still pretty excited about it simply by association. I enjoyed this one thoroughly since I really liked the Lycan dude anyway, even in the previous film. The army of werewolves in the film, however, somehow brought ideas of creating an army of my very own. What did I think up?

Mating Anna’s black persian cat Mortie with my cocker spaniel Fifi. That sounds like the most horrid, sick thing to do. Please don’t be offended but Anna and I pissed ourselves chatting about this and decided a cat and a spaniel will create an army of, not Lycans, but Spatz! How cool does that sound? Someone’s gonna say ‘Maybe to a stoner’. Chances are, he’s right but man, do I think my little army of Spatz will be great fun to have around. Nonetheless, this really just stays in my head. I’m really not that into inter-breeding of animal species.

So anyway. Someone turned 21 yesterday (actually 3 people I know share the same birthday on 27th Jan) and Kid Diva did her duty and baked the birthday cake. The last time I made carrot cake for a friend’s birthday was years ago and it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to. Melting in the summer heat, it was greasy, squishy and simply pathetic. This time, I truly believe I have outdone myself all thanks to Ina Garten’s recipe. This woman is a godsend! The cake was orgasmically good – dreamily moist and the flavours were fantastic. Considering I had hardly any of my bakeware from home, no sieve to sift the flour or icing sugar, ancient scruffy-looking cake tins and a shitty garbage of an oven, this cake turned out a hit. The birthday boy was grinning from ear to ear and it wasn’t strange to spot our party-goers dipping their fingers as discretely as possible into the cream cheese frosting between gulps of vodka.

The whole evening was as posh as student life can get. The recent credit crunch, however, prevented us from making a pleasant trip out into the country for a relaxed pub lunch as Sam would have wished it. Instead, we organized a nice little dinner, table cloths and all. Redecorated the kitchen, lit some candles, whacked on some posh jazz music and placed a green sign on the door that read ‘Bistro Gamper’. The whole thing was Anna’s brainchild and kudos to her. She did an amazing job preparing the pork, potatoes and vegetables, and a to-die-for redcurrant and cider gravy which I’ve already nicked the recipe of. I’ll never forget the taste of that gravy and I’m eager to give it a go myself. In fact, there’s some left in the fridge. I could possibly drink the whole bowl of it. It is that mindblowing!

Stuffed, about to pop, and feeling slightly woozy from too much food and champagne, we braved on towards pudding and the birthday song. My family’s quite the group of conservative eaters. At family meals, I’m always the only one gasping and moaning away if something tastes great. It takes quite a bit to stop me from banging on about how good it is. Last night, however, I am very pleased to say the whole table was gasping and moaning away to no end. What a fan-fucking-tastic experience that was! I am so relieved and glad that the cake was a success, thrilled that it tasted like sex and delighted that our dearest Sam is 21 and lovin’ it.

I have altered Ina Garten’s recipe just slightly – adding more spices and substituting half the amount of vegetable oil for applesauce. This was recommended by a lot people who had attempted the recipe and thought I might as well try it their way. Can honestly say this cake wasn’t greasy like the one I made years ago. It was wonderful – perfectly moist and the flavour was well balanced. I might’ve reduced the amount of icing sugar in the frosting as well. I rather enjoy tasting more butter and cream cheese then just sweetness. Come the summer, I will be making this again. It’s so beaten my infamous Guinness Chocolate Cake.

I’ve noticed a trend though. I happen to make the best cakes on days where I know I’m going to get absolutely battered that evening. I suppose alcohol doesn’t just give you a head rush huh?

Carrot Cake
Adapted from Ina Garten
Ingredients

For the cake:
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 extra-large free range eggs
2/3 cup Bramley applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2cups + 1 tbs flour, divided
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 pound carrots, grated
1/2 cup crushed pineapple

For the frosting:
300g cream cheese
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup icing sugar, sifted

For the decoration:
anything you fancy really OR
strips of carrot, peeled with a peeler lengthwise
some red chard leaves

Preheat oven to 180d Celsius.
Butter and flour 2 8″ round cake pans.

Beat sugar, oil and eggs together until light yellow. Add vanilla. In another bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Toss the raisin and walnuts with 1 tbs flour. Fold in the carrots and pineapple. Add to the batter and mix well.

Divide the batter equally between the 2 pans. Bake for 55 – 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans set over a wire rack.

For the frosting:
Beat hte butter til light in colour. Add the cream cheese and beat. Add the vanilla. Beat till just incorporated. Add the icing sugar and mix til smooth.

Assemble cake and decorate as you like it!

It’s quite difficult to find that perfect cheesecake since quite a lot of people are rather anal or picky about their cheese. When it comes to cheesecake, I’m even more fussy. What I mean by that really is that I love to eat it, that’s a given. But that I always associate really good cheesecake with one that’s been made for me by someone else because I cannot be bothered to bake a cheesecake. That’s just that. It’s (in that warped head of mine) too much of a faff in my opinion to bake cheese when you can just have it as it is. Cheese, neat. Straight out of the fridge, oh yeah. Now we’re talking. But cheese cooked is so amazing too – savoury or sweet. Nevertheless, somehow I still can’t bring myself to be bothered to bake a cheesecake.

Whilst hopping through the foodblogs I usually visit, I came across Cafe Johnsonia’s Frozen Mascarpone Cheesecake, so that really got my tastebuds into craving mode. Not one to fuss around with cheesecakes, I couldn’t be bothered to work on this Chocolate Mascarpone Fruit & Nut Cheesecake shizzle from good ol’ Delia so I decided to mash-up little bits and pieces to create my very own non-bake, why-not-use-the-freezer cheesecake. Take laziness to the maximum without forfeiting the taste factor. I admit frozen/non-bake cheesecakes hardly ever look as impressive as baked cheesecakes but Hans and I were very pleased when we were tucking into our very own slices. Tasty, rich yet light. Coupled with a raspberry coulis and you’re well on your way to a sugary cloud 9 heaven. Also, I find baked ones very heavy and filling whereas this was creamy but not too overwhelming that you couldn’t fit in another healthy slice.

Thumbs up and a big pat on my back; one too on Hans’s. Cheers to Anna for doing the taste-testing of the respective bowls of ingredients. Although I now have a bright red spot of raspberry coulis on my duvet cover (looks suspiciously like blood…geeez), it was so worth it! This coulis is absolutely gorgeous. If you don’t know what that is, it simply is a posh way of saying raspberry sauce. Quick to prepare, great colour and delicious; use it for just about any other raspberry-requiring dessert. For a cheesecake? Spot on!

I was a little pretentious with the presentation. But it was a pretty day today. Very very warm. And I was surprised to see so many bluebells growing out in the garden so I picked one, washed and dried it, then popped it atop my cheesecake for added prettiness. How adorable.

Chocolate Non-bake Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis
Ingredients

For the crust:
1 tube of ginger nut biscuits, crushed into crumbs
3 tbs sugar
5 tbs butter, melted

For the filling:
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup double cream
1/3 cup caster sugar
120g plain chocolate, melted (you can increase the amount, or use dark chocolate if you’re going for an uber chocolatey cake)

For the coulis:
1/3 cup caster sugar
3 tbs water
2 1/2 cups raspberries

Bash up all the biscuits. Add sugar and melted butter. Using a fork, toss and coat in butter until all of it is covered. Press into bottom of a springform pan and use the back of a spoon to flatten and even it out. Place in freezer for the crust to bind about 15min.

Using a wooden spoon, beat together the cream cheese, mascarpone and sugar. Over a bain-marie, melt the chocolate and be careful not to burn. In a separate bowl, using a metal whisk, whip the double cream until it can hold its shape. Do not overwhip. Add the chocolate once it’s cool enough to the cheese mixture. Finally, the double cream. Give it a good stir.

Remove crust from freezer. Pour the cheese mixture into the pan and smooth out. Cover with clingwrap, making sure the clingwrap touches the surface of the cheese and up the sides of the cakepan. Place in freezer 40-50min. Remove and place in fridge. Serve whenever after by using a warmed knife to slice.

The coulis is really simple. Over a medium fire, cook the sugar and water. Stir continuously for about 5min. It’ll start to thicken and caramelize but be careful not to let it burn. Add the berries and keep stirring. Lower fire if it bubbles too much. Break up the berries, leaving some relatively whole just so it looks better unless you want it to be as smooth as possible. Cook until it thickens. Leave to cool. Then serve by spooning loads over your cheesecake.

Warning: these cupcakes are well LUSH!

Going over the top? It did occur to me that that might happen, but I wanted to recreate the Japanese dorayaki. Sweet flat pancakes with a sweet paste filling, ranging from red bean to green tea to peanut, these pancakes were the love of my life in high school. Easy to take around with you, to sneak into lecture halls (having not a strong smell that wifts around in the air and completely gives you away) and might I say, a great fashion accessory whilst shopping in town. Rather than attempting to make authentic dorayaki in case I screwed that up, I thought of bringing the dorayaki through a cupcake. More or less its essence – that is, through the flavours you can commonly find in such a pancake. Peanut butter, sugar, ground almonds and crushed biscuits is my way of making a sweet peanut paste. I hate it when it’s too crunchy, hence the ground almonds instead of roughly chopped peanuts but to prevent it from getting too fine and texture-less, sugar and crushed Digestives are the answer to all my troubles. Top that off with some peanut butter, and you’re well on your way to peanut heaven. At least, that’s my own opinion. I’ve created this almond-peanut filling which I think eradicates any peanut dilemma and because it is quite solid rather than paste-like or creamy, it’s perfect to mould into balls or little shapes you fancy.

The Purist boys are very difficult to cook for, as you might have already picked up on from the previous posts. The chocolate cupcakes from before with the naked buttercream scored a quick goal with James, however. I’d packed Anna and James one each for their trip to Portugal and was gladly surprised to receive a text from him soon after saying it was awesome. The girls are back in town. Most of them are, that is. So I now find myself in a more relaxed position when trying out recipes and I know these will be well-received. Keep an open mind, guys, open minds. Or rather, screw ‘em Purists. I have more important matters to be baking for this time – scroll down for more details.

Peanut, chocolate and green tea is quite a nostalgic combo and I think is a favourite for a lot of the Japanese. I’m so pleased with these babies I’m definitely going to make this again and again for friends. I love the touch of matcha as well not only because I’m a big big big – bordering on psychopathic – fan of tea (and wonder why the hell I wasn’t born in a different period, decked out in pretty dresses with luxurious fabric and alot of sleeves and mastering the true art of tea ceremony, etc. – my fantasy can play on) but because my eyes get so drawn in by the green.

The better quality your matcha, the greener it will be. For really green, powerful matcha, you can often use koicha instead of the cheaper, more astringent thin matcha or usucha. Anyway, this green frosting comes at the right time, welcoming spring. Plus, it’s a big in-your-face reminder to BE GREEN. Celebrate Earth Day and support the green movement with these guys; also check out LOKO if you’d like to be a green foodie.

*P/S: If you’re a tea fan, or a health-conscious dude/dudette and would like to know more about green tea and matcha, stay tuned to this blog. I’ll be posting up very soon a “Survey of Matcha”, lol. No it won’t be that formal but it’ll include my opinions about green tea, what I like about it, in what have I had green tea and a few info-bites of Japanese tea ceremony. Watch this space.

LIGHTS OUT, KNIVES OUT
Because I think this is for a good cause and it’s fun to participate in something, I’ve submitted this recipe for LOKO which is hosted by Celine of Black.Salt! I might have cheated just slightly because this was made during the day so there wasn’t any need for switching the lights on, I’d like to say (in support of myself) that the only electricity-consuming equipment that were used were: 1)the oven, 2)laptop for this post, 3)camera operating on rechargeable batteries for the foodshots. The softening of butter for the cupcakes or the frosting didn’t involve a microwave. Butter for the frosting merely used a little of the hot air from the hot oven – left the oven door slightly ajar to cool after the cupcakes were baked. I’d switched the heating of the house off as well (big sacrifice here because if you know my house, you’ll know it’s always bloody freezing!) so the kitchen was heated just by the hot air from an oven already switched off! Thought that was pretty genius of me. All beating of ingredients, mixing and all that jazz – the whole process, has been done lovingly by hand or arm, if you like, with an old wooden spoon. As a student, I’ve lost both my electric mixers and I think that’s a sign from the Big Guy up above. Also, all the washing up – yep, done by hand. No dishwasher here for me as well which eats up a heck load of electricity and water. So, to conclude, this has been one pleasant baking day. Have loads of cupcakes to share with the boys down the road and will be taking these goodies, along with some of yesterday’s Marmorkuchen round to Alex’s for a little tea chat. Cheers to Celine for organising LOKO and hope this aids in the spread of the awareness of the need to be green.

Chocolate Cupcake recipe (yields 24 regular cupcakes)
Ingredients

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tbs coffee granules
1 1/2 cup milk (I used semi-skimmed)
2 tsp vanilla extract

This recipe was used in an earlier post Best Moist Chocolate Cupcakes inspired by Chockylit. I’ve used the recipe exactly as it is except for the sugar content – altering it to 1 1/2 cup white sugar as opposed to a combination of dark brown and white sugar. Click here for directions. It’s baked at 175d Celsius for 25min.

Almond-Peanut & Biscuit Filling (yields about 24 candy-sized cubes)
Ingredients

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup caster sugar
3 tsp whole milk
1/4 cup + 3 tbs ground almonds
4-5 digestive biscuits, crushed into nearly fine powder with some larger crumbly bits

Using a wooden spoon, beat the peanut butter in a bowl till nice and soft. Add the caster sugar and 2 tsp of milk, beat till creamy. Add the digestive biscuits, then last tsp of milk. This will starting getting quite sticky. Finally finish by adding the ground almonds. You can now roll them into balls or shape them into candy cubes which you can make before working on the cupcake batter.

Fill cups with a tablespoon of chocolate batter and then press a cube of filling into the it. Cover with 1 1/2 – 2 tablespoon of batter, this will bring the cups up to 2/3 full which is just right.

Matcha Frosting (recipe adapted from Chockylit)
Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter
8 oz cream cheese
3 cups icing sugar
2 tbs matcha powder (I have used a good quality cooking matcha, it doesn’t need to be a high quality matcha as the taste could get too strong for just a frosting)

Leave butter to soften. Beat till creamy. Add cream cheese and beat till even creamier. Add 3 cups of icing sugar and 1 tbs of matcha. Taste. Now you can add the next tbs if you think you need it. If you don’t want to ruin the taste by making it too bitter with an additional tbs, increase the sugar. I also recommend using matcha cooking sprinkles. You can easily find this from Japanese grocery shops or Oriental foodstores. They’re almost like crushed leaves, but they don’t have that intense a flavour. Nonetheless, they have a mild matcha flavour and give a great green colour.

I haven’t followed this frosting recipe exactly. Because I haven’t gotten round to getting a piping tip I wasn’t going to make this frosting a stiff one to pipe. I reduced the butter and somehow it became a really drippy frosting, which I thought was slightly odd. Tasted great still. The cream cheese really gave the matcha a whole new dimension. It wouldn’t have been the same without it. Also, because of the drippiness, these were even easier to ice. ‘Dripped’ about a tbs of matcha frosting on each cupcake and I was set. Not to worry though, when left out, such an icing will usually firm up. A winner.