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!

Muffins in the Italian kitchen!



Francesco baking his first batch of delicious muffins



Stefania proudly holding the muffins



very yummy indeed



caramel popcorn

 

the best way to eat popcorn is coating it in caramel!

i make up the amounts  of ingredients everytime accoring to how much popcorn i have to cover.

for about a 5litre ice cream tub of popcorn i usually use:

70-100gr margarine/butter

1-1.5 cups normal sugar (castor sugar speeds up the time)

2 tablespoons syrup

maybe a few splashes of milk

stir until its combined and simmer until all sugar has meltd

then bring to the boil and boil until it reaches the stage where when a small amount is dropped into cold water, it produces a sort of hard, not sticky thing, which can be rolled into a ball. eat it and if it sticks horribly to your teeth, let it boil for longer.

take off heat and stir into popcorn

i know its tempting but wait until the caramel is cold otherwise you will burn your mouth!

enjoy

halloween 2010

poisoned apples! i used the toffee apple recipe from the south african a-z  cookbook. for the sticks you can use chopsticks, skewers, cut dowel sticks or even forks if youre desperate! you should use a sugar thermometer or know youre sugar stages if you want to make these. taking it off the stove too soon will result in tooth renching toffee, too long will result in fast hardening, splintering toffee. for more advice, ask me



I put balloons with and packaged the poisoned apples for the little children when they came  a' knocking




we went to the noordhoek fair in halloween, heres me in my witching hour dress, petting ben who i turned into a mini horse, cos its just cuter!



ha, happy halloween children!

these scary cupcakes we found at the fair!

Early Friday Cake

This past friday was the last early friday that our year organised, from now on it has been handed over to the 3rd years who will see it through into next year. We raffled tequila bottles for each major, obviously printmaking was the best, who wouldn't want a tequila bottle cast in concrete?! anyway, i made this cake for the last early friday, im practicing my icing skills now. (thanks Glenda for the see through icing gun, its earning its keep!) it was quite big and quickly polished off. a chocolate buttermilk cake never survives for long in any situation.