Black Forest Cake

Remember about a year ago when I said I was going to post a Black Forest Cake and then I didn't do it? I ended up making that cake between midnight and 2am for a function the next day and was so rushed I didn't take photos or anything. I know.  I'm kinda flakey sometimes.  Sorry.


But then it was Mum's birthday yesterday and my brother (very accurately) posited that she would want a Black Forest Cake.  I had already volunteered to make the birthday cake, so I got a second chance!  I used a different recipe this time, taking one from the BBC website.  And wow! Wowowowow.  The thing that made this cake amazing was, in my opinion, the quality of the actual cake.  And the thing that made the cake so amazingly dense and chocolatey was the calibre of the cocoa - proper Dutch cocoa.  I am not usually a massive bowl licker, but this cake mix was so delicious that I scraped it clean with my finger and then my tongue.

So that is my advice to you.  Make this cake with the best cocoa you can find.  Clean your finger and flex your tongue.  You won't be sorry.


Ingredients - for the cake:

• 340 g unsalted butter
• 340 g castor sugar
• 240g self raising flour
• 100g cocoa
• 6 eggs

For the filling and icing:

• 1 tub cream
• 1 large jar morello cherries in syrup
• Big splash of Kirsch
• 100 g dark cooking chocolate

Heat the oven to 170 degrees, and grease and line a 20cm cake tin.  Using the right size tin is important, as you want the cake to have enough height to be able to slice it into layers later on.

With beaters, cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs one at a time.  Sift the flour and cocoa and using a metal spoon, fold into the mixture.

Scoop into the cake tin.  This mixture is so moussey and thick it will sit in the tin, so take a spatula or knife and spread it evenly into a cakey shape.  THEN LICK EVERYTHING THE COCOA HAS TOUCHED.

Place in the oven.  The original recipe said bake for 35 or 40 minutes, but at 40 minutes my cake was still super wobbly.  I ended up cooking it for just over an hour, and moved the rack to a higher position after about 50 minutes.  Next time, I'll set the timer for 50 minutes and check it every five minutes until it's perfect.  Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for five minutes.  Then continue to cool on a cake rack for another five to 10 minutes.

While the cake is baking prepare the ganache icing.  Pour half the cream into a saucepan and scald until almost boiling.  Then put the chocolate in the cream and take off the heat, stirring continuously until mixed through.  Then put in the fridge to cool.

Next pour out about 3/4 cup of syrup off the cherries into a saucepan and add a generous splash of Kirsch.  I didn't want my cake to taste too boozy so I cooked off a little of the Kirsh for a few minutes. Then put this aside to cool too.

Once the cake is cooled on the rack, slice into thirds.  Then spoon the cherry syrup mixture evenly over the three cake slices.  Then allow the syrup to sink in while you prepare the remaining cream by whipping it with a tablespoon of icing sugar and a few drops of vanilla essence.

Now for the assembly!  Spread half the cream over the base of the cake.  Then take half the cherries, squeeze out any excess juice and spread them over the cream.  Then place the next layer of cake on and repeat the layering.  Once you've placed the top on the cake, press down gently on the whole cake with your hands to firmly set it all together.

Take the chocolate mix from the fridge and stir it up with a knife, then spread this over the cake too.  Finally, grate some remaining cooking chocolate over the ganache, and place the cake in the fridge for the icing to set.

Mum will approve.

Sausage, lentil and silverbeet stew

 I have discovered the most delicious pork and fennel sausages at my local butcher.  I now buy them every couple of weeks and have been exploring new ways of cooking them.  In a bid to lower the stodge quotient involved in sausagy meals (due to the large quantity of mash, roast potatoes so on that often go along) I decided to make a hearty stew with vegetables, and some of the lovely green lentils I have a stockpile of at the moment.


Ingredients:

• 6 pork and fennel sausages
• 3/4 cup green or puy lentils
• 1 bunch silverbeet
• 2 tins crushed tomatoes
• 3 cups of vegetable stock
• 1 brown onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 quill of cinnamon
• olive oil
• Fresh crusty bread, or garlic bread, for serving

 Heat the oven to about 170.  Chop the onions and garlic and saute in the oil, in a heavy, oven proof dish.  Shred the silverbeet, removing the large stalky bits.  Add the lentils and beet to the pot and stir through the oil and onions. 

 Add the two tins of tomatoes and the stock, cinnamon and bay leaves, then the sausages.  Bring to a simmer, cover and put the entire dish in the oven for anywhere between 40 minutes and an hour, until the lentils are cooked.  When it's done take the sausages out and chop them, then return them to the stew, juices and all.  Serve with the crusty bread, or garlic bread. 

One pot wonders for the win, as they say on the internets.

Lemochocricot Slice (or Lemon, Apricot and Chocolate slice)

After being stranded in Perth (Perth! The most isolated and over-priced city in the world!) due to the Qantas ignominy this weekend, Leith came home last night.  I wanted to make him his favourite treat as a welcome home gesture, and this meant making lemon slice.  But then the part of me that likes to overdo things, and over-commit, and fix what isn't broken, decided that regular lemon slice was too easy.

I decided to take a regular lemon slice and gussy it up with dried apricots and chocolate.  It still has that essential lemon slice quality, but with extra bits! The apricots add a slightly fuller flavour, and the dark chocolate adds crackle and - dare I say it - offsets the sweetness of the slice.  Yep, that's the kind of slice we're making; one that needs chocolate to provide contrast to sweetness.


Leith has dubbed in Lemochocricot Slice, and so it shall be named.


Ingredients:

• 1 packet plain biscuits (like Arnotts Marie or Milk Coffee)
• 1 tin sweetened condensed milk
• 2 lemons
• 1.5 cups desiccated coconut
• 1 cup dried apricots
• 250g dark chocolate
• 2.5 cups icing sugar

Blend the biscuits in a food processor for just a few seconds until it's a mix of finer crumbs and some slightly larger chunks.  Finely chop your apricots, and grate the rind of one lemon.  Place your biscuit pieces, 1 cup of coconut and apricots in a large mixing bowl.

On a very low heat, mix the juice of one lemon and the condensed milk and lemon rind.  The mixture will curdle slightly, but that's ok.  Keep stirring to ensure it doesn't burn.  Once mixed through, add to the dry mixture and stir thoroughly.

Press the mixture in a lined, low and wide dish, and press down firmly with your wooden spoon to compact it in an even layer at the height you want your slice to be.  Melt your chocolate.  I do this in the microwave, checking at 10 second intervals, and completing it by stirring once it's about two thirds melted to prevent any burning.  Pour the chocolate over the slice and spread it evenly across.  Then place the slice in the fridge for at least an hour.

Finally, prepare the icing with the juice of your second lemon and your icing sugar.  Spread this over the slice, and dust with coconut.  Return to the fridge to set.  Then serve in small squares.  Even with the chocolate it's still pretty sweet.

Pavlova roll with an almond crust and strawberry cream

I've failed to post once in this month of October.  I have also failed to cook more than the most perfunctory food to cram in my gob.  I've been having another of those work and study frenzies you see.


But now I'm going to make it up to you with this amazing, decadent, easy-peasy Pavlova roll.  My Mum has always made this for dinner parties and when I was little I thought it was super fancy (and who am I kidding, I still do!).  The recipe for the Pav has come from my Nanna and it is a fail-safe, perfect-every-time kind of a number.

Then there is the deliciousness factor.  The Pavlova is fluffy and moist, the crust is light and crunchy and the berry cream filling is fresh and luscious.  All together it's utterly divine.  I don't know why Pavlova tastes better in a roll.  It just does.

Ingredients:

• 6 egg whites
• 225g castor sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• cream
• table spoon of icing sugar
• strawberries
• 1 cup flaked almonds

 Heat the oven to 180 degrees and turn it down to about 160 when you put the pavlova in. Line a wide, shallow baking dish - like a swiss roll tin - with baking paper.

Beat the egg whites with the salt until soft peaks form, and add the sugar, beating until stiff and dissolved.  With a large spoon, gently fold in the vanilla, vinegar and cornflour*.  Pour into your tray and smooth out the surface so that it's more or less even.  Then scatter the flaked almonds over the top.

 Put in the oven for about 30 minutes (check regularly to see the top doesn't burn).  Remove immediately and turn onto a clean tea towel.  Roll up in the tea towel and leave it to cool.  Ideally it will roll around itself like a Swiss roll, but my Pav was so successful and fluffy that the most I could manage was a tiny amount of overlap. 

When you're ready to serve it, whip your cream with an extra spoon of icing sugar and a drop of vanilla.  Slice your strawberries very fine.  Unroll the Pavlova (it may crack a little - this is okay as you can patch it up when we roll it again) and line with the strawberries, then the cream.  Roll back up gently and place on a serving tray with extra strawberries.  Voila!

When serving, cut it into inch-wide slices. This is one of those dishes that is astoundingly easy but never fails to impress.  And I've never met anyone who didn't love it!  Pavlova: it's better in a roll.

*To make a regular round Pavlova, spread the mixture into a circle and make the edges a little higher, on a lined tray.  Bake for 30 minutes but leave to cool in the oven before removing it.