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!

Thank God it’s Friday.

Not that it makes much of a difference, since (why?) we’re on holiday and officially worry-free from exams. This weekend, Hans and I are the only ones left in the house; so begins our crazy marathon of baking and cooking, feasting and merry-making (no innuendos there). Not only do we deserve this because of the hard work we’ve put in, but after a “WE’VE BEEN BROKEN INTO” scare, it’s only natural to need comfort food.

Have no fear. We weren’t broken into but both the front door and the porch door were foolishly left ajar and coming home to that was a bit of a shock. What a miracle we weren’t since we don’t live on one of the safest roads in Selly Oak.

Comfort food this was with that lovely sweet sauce. It is a rather thick sauce so you don’t need much for a serving of soba. Don’t expect it to be a very green tea-ish sauce either as this is made not with sencha but with green tea cooking sprinkles. I didn’t do much with the mushrooms as shiitake on their own have a very distinctive flavour.

Right then. Hans and I have to get back to what’s cooking in the oven.

Here serves 2.

Garlic Shiitake & Gari Soba with Sweet Green Tea Sauce
Ingredients

2 serving buckwheat soba
4 medium-sized fresh Japanese shiitake mushrooms
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbs gari (ginger pickle), for garnishing
olive oil, for cooking
few drops of toasted sesame seed oil

For the sweet green tea sauce:
2 tbs Japanese shoyu
1 tsp ground almonds
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sake
1 tsp honey
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp green tea cooking sprinkles
2 tsp hot water
white sesame seeds, for garnishing

The noodles take about 5-7min to cook so get started on your sauce first.
Whisk all the ingredients together, except for the green tea cooking sprinkles and hot water. Then in a heavy-based saucepan, heat the mixture and stir slowly on low heat. In a small bowl, mix together the green tea sprinkles with hot water and let it sit for about a minute. Add this to the saucepan and leave it to reduce a little for 2-3min. Then cut the heat and set aside.

Cook the soba noodles.

In a frying pan, fry the garlic till nearly golden brown. Then sautée the mushrooms. When cooked, add a few drops of sesame oil. Stir and then set aside.

When the soba is ready, drain the water and run some cold water over it to stop the cooking and keep the noodles cold. Place noodles in bowl. Place gari pickles on top, followed by garlic fried shiitake mushrooms. Drizzle about 2 tbs of sweet sauce over it and garnish with sesame seeds.

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.