Ben's birthday!



 

birthday boy and a .hersheys black magic cake with ganache icing



i think this chocolate cake recipe is the best ive ever tasted and the worst ive ever made!  as i cant find baking soda in italy, i substituted baking powder in the hopes it would work. some internet twit said it bicarb was 4 times as strong as baking powder. so tamarin adds 4 times the amount of baking powder to the mix and i think the mixture was bubbling. i know it would explode so i put in on a baking tray. it overflowed and filled the entire tray! sunk in the middle and was a bit soggy. but i slathered chocolate ganache all over it and wow ganache really works wonders :)



i also made strawberry truffles and biscuits which arent worth putting up photos of. do you know that you can only buy icing sugar in 125gr packs?! i mean really!


the birthday boy looking smart in his new tie!

Indian in Italy

since moving to rome, we have had to find an alternative to meat. lentils ar a great source of protein and really cheap! trying to get ben to eat something that looks like lentils could have been hard if i hadnt found this recipe for lentil dahl.
http://www.grouprecipes.com/19103/everyday-red-lentil-dal.html
 i love the dahl from indian restaurants so i wanted to try make some, this recipe is delicious.

had to make some naan bread to go with it but jen still wont tell me how she makes hers. it also needs a long time to rise. so i made pizza base dough instead, to make like a pita bread for the dahl. the recipe for the dough is half a block active yeast (dont know how much that will be in dried yeast), dissolved in a cup of warm, not boiling, water. a tsp of salt and
mix into enough flour to form a smooth dough, maybe 2 cups? knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.

place dough in oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap or cloth and leave in a warm place to rise. the longer you leave it, the better it will be but minimum 1 hr

my kitchen elf, peeling the garlic for the dahl

i just rolled and stretched the dough into 3 pieces of bread

bake at 200 c until they go slightly brownish ontop and knocked they sound hollow. brush them with melted butter

i know this looks like a manner of all things gross but its really delicious. i changed her recipe a bit because i dont have many of those spices, decreased the oil and the lentils i used were already soaked in a can and very salty, so i didnt add any salt. stuff you pitas with dahl and lettuce and enjoy!