The Sugar Bar

My Sundays, apart from catching up on lost sleep and reflecting on my week, come in useful for healing the soul and body. And this time, it’s healing the body mostly. After working manically for weeks both at my store and on my dissertation, I have caught a cold. My body has been feeling a little more rundown. It was a shock to realize yesterday that I’d lost 2kg (although it does not feel or LOOK like I have) and a sure sign that I haven’t been taking care of myself. Thankfully a cold is nothing serious but it sure is true that once the adrenaline stops, your body starts to crash!

Friday was my last day at American Apparel. It was a bittersweet farewell. I hate saying goodbyes anyway so the best way was to turn the bad into the good. To go out with a bang. To milk it for all it’s worth. On a quiet Sunday, my flatmate all moved out and flying home to India, all the good times the bad times are meshing together in my memory. My flat definitely feels the loss of my flatmate’s presence and knowing that I won’t return to work is a little depressing. But the friendships made and sealed? I know some of them can last forever. It is never truly a goodbye forever. There are no endings. Only beginnings. At least, that is what I believe.

I have not, and cannot, regret my time at work although I do regret the ridiculous amount of clothes I have accumulated. I am sure my parents will agree with me on that one. With regards to my clothes and shoes, they can sum it all up in one word: unlimited.

My last shift concluded with a leaving cake and a surprise bottle of red from a mate who’s like a brother, no actually a dad, to me. A chocolate hazelnut mass of fudgy gloriousness topped with chocolate macarons (also a mess after we started tucking into it) and a little raspberry dark chocolate tart just for me! The latter was the better of the two I’ve decided. Anything berries drives me absolutely crazy. I died and went to heaven. Yea mate yea mate, I did!

Have occasion? Eat cake!

Now you’re asking, was that all? Nah, course not. The Diva doesn’t just eat up and leave. We partied. We partied good and hugged, laughed, cried, etc. The whole shebang if you get my drift. And I came home to find yet another nice surprise in my letterbox. I’ve kept this a little hush hush as requested by PositScience but now I can finally unveil some good news to you all.

The Cookbook
I was part of an exciting project with PositScience’s Thinkfood Cookbook – a cookbook of 50 recipes for brain fitness. They include recipes for snacks, appetizers, main courses, salads and sides, and desserts too. Every recipe, contributed by truly amazing foodbloggers, features an ingredient that is brain healthy. The photographs are beautiful and each recipe comes with a little blurb (and portrait) about the foodblogger and how to find him/her on the world wide web! You can find the full list of contributors here as well as sign up for PositScience’s weekly newsletter.

Giveaway
Enough said about the book. I am giving away this cookbook to a random commentor on this blogpost. If you’d like to win, drop me a comment about a time you had to say farewell and how you celebrated it (if cake’s involved, would love to hear what you had! ) by Friday 10 September 2010 (London time if you please). I’ll post back the winner, selected by a random number generator, on Twitter and on the comments list here.

Good luck! For all others, you can purchase the book from PositScience or Amazon if you like.

As you all know, my time on the blog has gotten very much shorter and the time to try new recipes and invent chocolate truffle combinations has been almost obliterated by the massive workload I have to complete. If I intend to save my degree, it’s all got to be done and The Sugar Bar has, unfortunately, to be placed on the backburner for a while. Nevertheless, I will update regularly (as much as I can) with some interesting pictures and places/little bits to eat. I won’t be gone completely of course. You see me on Twitter way too much.

The lovely Naomi, of BakersRoyale, noticing my struggle was very kind enough to suggest guest-posting for me and created a beautiful bit of heaven in the shape of a mini cake, all in the essence of a person with limited time and kitchen space.

I met Naomi, or actually I found her, through one of the cake posts she submitted to Foodgawker and boy, did I gawk. Her cakes are stunning, little bits of art to be honest and all so meticulously put together. And I bet they taste as divine as they look – always quivering on my laptop screen, tempted to plop right out of it straight onto my dessert plate. She’s truly inspiring and such an easy-going person, we got along straightaway! In fact, sometimes I do wonder if she’s actually a twin of mine. We’re on the same wavelength. But enough of my chitter-chatter, let me give you Naomi! Here’s what she said:

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SoNo’s No Bake Cheesecake ~ A no bake cheesecake dressed up in a pistachio crumb and topped with some fresh raspberries.

This famous cheesecake is from John Barricelli’s SoNo Bakery in Connecticut and is featured in his SoNo Bakery book. After trying several no bake cheesecakes, this is hands down the best-period.

The bits of lemon and orange zest give the cheesecake a citrus balance that will refresh your palate with every bite. Add the pistachio crumb and the raspberries and this cheesecake moves from delicious to heavenly.

Aside from taste, the other reason I love this version of a no-bake cheesecake is John Barricelli’s use of gelatin to help set it. Now while he describes the finishing mixture as a mousse, I find the finishing mixture more similar to a baked cheesecake. No-bake versions tend to be very light and where this recipe not only has the velvety texture of a baked cheesecake, but it also has enough weight for every bite to be well tasted, rather than submitting and dissipating on contact.

I miniaturized this dessert into two inch mini cheesecakes the original recipe calls for a 9 inch pastry ring. If you don’t have one, a springform pan will work just as well.

SoNo’s No Bake Cheesecake
Ingredients

Crust:
1 1/2 cup crushed graham cracker
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
7 tablespoon unsalted butter(melted)

Cheesecake:
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
2 ¼ cups heavy cream
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature (at least six hours)
2/3 sugar
1 teaspoon coarse salt
Grated zest of orange
Grated zest of lemon
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¾ sour cream

For assembly
1 cup pistachios, shelled and finely chopped
2 cups raspberries

For the crust:

1. Combine graham cracker crumbs with sugar.
2. Add melted butter and blend until combined.
3. Press into pan. Set aside.

For the cheesecake:

1. Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in the bottom of a double boiler. Sprinkle water over gelatin and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Using a spatula scrape the softened gelatin and place it into the top of the double boiler. Set it over simmering water and heat until the mixture becomes liquid. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, beat the cream to medium peaks. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
4. Replace whisk attachment with a paddle. Wash out bowl. Add cream cheese, sugar, salt, lemon and orange zest and lemon juice in mixer bowl and beat on medium high speed until the mixture is smooth, about 5 minutes.
5. Add a dollop of cream mixture to the gelatin and fold with a rubber spatula. Return the gelatin mixture to the remaining cream cheese mixture and fold together.
6. Scrap the new mousse mixture into pastry rings or springform. Smooth the top and cover with plastic. Freeze for at least four hours or overnight to set.
7. Remove cake. The cake will have a slight sunken center. Using spread sour cream on top as if icing a cake to even out the top.
8. To remove from pastry ring, use a hot towel and wrap it around the ring. You may have to do this twice.
9. Don’t worry about the uneven sides as it will be covered with the pistachio crumb.

To assemble:

Cover sides with pistachio crumb and garnish top with raspberries.

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Hope you liked Naomi’s post as much as I did! If you want more, jump over to her blog here.

If anyone’s been wondering where I’ve been, or why I haven’t been as ‘sociable’ on Twitter and blogs, please do not be offended. I’m at the moment rushing one last paper that was given to us over the Easter break and it’s been taking up more time than I expected. The arguments are in my head but we’re sort of getting nowhere. Ideas aren’t transforming into words which is a real pain as you writers out there will know. Pen’s bleeding all over the paper but I’m as eloquent as a duck. It’s not even writers’ block really. What would you call this – writers’ constipation?

I promise I’ll be back on the game give another week. Paper’s due on 6th of May and thereafter, I’ll be back with twice the enthusiasm, banter and general nutter-ness as per usual. Have a great weekend everyone and Happy May Day!

Here’s a little something to keep your eyes busy – one part of a new lunchbox I bought from Paperchase yesterday (about time I got a cute one over the functional clip-and-lock bollocks I’ve got in the pantry cupboard) – seasoned rice with sansai vegetables, pickles and sakura denbu. Yes the latter’s the pink fluffy powder you see there and it’s made from codfish. Brilliant, no?