Birthday cakes, biscotti and fig preserve

Had a spurt of baking now that the kitchen is clear of flatmates. they are away because its august and august means everyone is on holiday in rome. half the shops around work are closed! back to the cake, this is Anne's birthday cake (a work colleague), it is her birthday tomorrow and i decided to start the celebrating early. because, thank goodness we dont work on saturdays!

used the Hershey black magic cake recipe because it is the best.

this is biscotti. i decided that since im in rome i should stop buying it and start learning how to make it myself. i know, it looks a bit strange but its going to be biscotti. i used an italian recipe and apparently traditionally it should be made without butter, only egg. and this was what i decided to do because you see i didnt have any butter left after the cake... so i used this recipe here and added lemon rind, cinnamon and roughly chopped almonds. it was very yummy

see it turned out okay

last but not least... the fig preserve.
i have been watching the fig tree we pass on the way to work everyday, for a sign of ripeness. today they were still as small as usual but i looked closer and some of them were splitting at the ends. so i picked a few and they were ripe! the tree is ina parking lot so im not sure whose property that would make the figs but theyre mine now. maybe theyre poisonous?



after reading a few recipes on preserved figs. i used some water, added some sugar, boiled it up, added some lemon pieces, cinnamon stick and popped them all in a leetle pot to stew away. stewed for a while then poured it in a jar...



and now im waiting for it to cool so that i can feast!!!

and all the while leetle diego was playing happily around my feet. little monster

cinnamon bread on a whole new level!!



yummy and cute! take the cinnamon bread recipe from my last post,
cut squares of baking paper, stuff them in muffin trays, fill them with rolls of dough,
cut the baking time in half and voila! quite presentable and portion controlled, fancy a a spot of tea?



before... and after

all cosy in their cups, look a bit like individually packaged flowers.
which they do to the extreme in rome! you see people walking down the street
grappling with a huge plastic, ribboned...lily, just one lily, dressed in italian style i suppose!

Wake up and smell the... cinnamon bread!

i know it looks a bit burnt and it is,, a bit. but in order to get the centre cooked properly, this was necessary.
i advise you try this recipe, everyone will thank you. except your thighs..

the beginnings of deliciousness! the recipe is from
www.joythebaker.com/blog/2011/03/cinnamon-sugar-pull-apart-bread
i halved the recipe which is more than enough for 3 people

sticky, sweet  yeast bread, rising in its dish

pastry heaven

Biscuits for my sisters

a school aof squirtles for alex!

bought the turtle cookie cutter cos i thought youde like it alex :)

Biscuit care bears for cle bear!

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!

hot cross buns!

so i made hot cross buns because my mom was eating them on skype the other day. i had convineintly forgotten that they existed until she reminded me! so i had to make some! i used the recipe of nhttp://www.vanielje.com/blog/2008/03/13/smyrna-fig-and-lemon-peel-hot-cross-buns/
except without all the frilly bits like symra figs and organic candied lemon peel. i didnt quite have all the spices on hand and for that reason they came out a bit bland. i would recommend making these only in desperate situations like youre in the middle of italy and noone has even smelt a hot cross bun here. they take a long time to prepare and are not as soft as the shops!

dont they look awesome! this is after the 3rd rising session, they are about to go into the oven

buns in the oven!

look at that texture! straight out of the oven they are divine, the next day they are chewy and hard and have to be toasted. im going to make a whole batch at easter for the people at work to try. if anyone can recommend other spicy easter favourites i should make, that would be fun!