A good chocolate cake recipe is absolutely invaluable – it is the easiest flavour to turn to when making a cake to be enjoyed by a number of people with different tastes. You could say that chocolate is something that brings most people together.
My standard chocolate cake recipe is fantastic – easy to make, easy to store, and tastes better with age…but there’s just one problem. It’s such a tender and delicate cake that decorating it in any way other than a chocolate ganache glaze means that it falls apart. It certainly can’t be split and filled nor covered with a fondant.
As a friend had asked for a decorated chocolate cake for her birthday, this meant that the hunt was on. The hunt for a chocolate cake which was just as intense and delightful as my standard turn-to recipe, but that was a bit sturdier so it could handle a little knife work.
You know, there are A LOT of chocolate cake recipes out there. Not even looking at the internet, at last count I had a combined total of over 60 chocolate cake recipes from my cookbooks. Now, I don’t have quite enough cookbooks to fill a book store (actually only half a bookshelf full!), but this does give you an idea of the diversity when it comes to chocolate cakes.
Which to choose, which to choose?
I ended up making a short list of recipes on the basis of authors, reputations and ingredients. I knew I wanted something that tasted similar to my usual chocolate cake so steered clear of any recipes calling for something a bit different such as grated potato or zucchini. I’m not saying that these would be bad recipes, but I wanted to err on the side of caution for this search.
After I tried about 4 different recipes, I struck gold with this one. It has a wonderfully delicate crumb and is nice and moist, yet it’s sturdy and dense enough to be split into thin layers (I generally tend to go with 1cm thin layers, though this does need the cake to be refrigerated), filled with whatever you like and iced/decorated however your fancy takes you.
It does require more time and effort than my usual recipe of choice, but considering the flavour and versatility of this recipe, I’m calling this the perfect chocolate cake recipe.
Serve it as is or get fancy and fill it with white chocolate mousse and strawberries, it’s a fantastic addition to your baking repertoire!
Perfect Chocolate Mud Cake
(from The home guide to cake decorating by Jane Price)
Ingredients
220 g unsalted butter
220 g good quality dark chocolate
6 tsp instant coffee granules
160 mL water
125g self-raising flour
125g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
480 g caster sugar
4 large eggs
7 tsp vegetable oil
110 mL buttermilk
1 x 22cm round cake tin / 20cm square cake tin
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C, then put the butter, chocolate, coffee and water in a pan and stir over low heat till melted. Remove from heat.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, cocoa, caster sugar and bicarb soda and make a well in the middle.
2. Whisk together the eggs, oil and buttermilk in a separate bowl till combined.
3. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and carefully whisk to combine.
4. Grease and line your cake tin with non-stick baking paper, making sure the collar for the sides extends 2cm above the cake tin. Slowly pour the chocolate mixture into the well in the flour mixture.
5. Mix well to combine, then carefully pour into the lined cake tin. Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes, or till a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave the cake in the tin till completely cooled.
This makes quite a tall cake perfect for being split into layers for decorating, but you can also bake this as a loaf or even cupcakes. Personally, I like to make mini cakes which make it easy to cover in a dark chocolate ganache, offset with a drizzle of white chocolate for colour and contrast 
[tags]chocolate, cake, dessert[/tags]
It looks quite a treat, doesn’t it?
A rich, unctuous pasta bake plated next to a side of blanched & seasoned spinach.
However, if there’s one rule in life which is generally a good one to bear in mind, it’s that looks can be very, very deceiving.
There is nothing extravagant or unique about this dish. It’s not going to win any competitions for looks or flavours, but it is a simple, homely comforting food that is perfect for our current Melbourne winters.
This is the kind of dinner that you make to feed a family of 4 when the budget is stretched a little thin, the weather is cold outside and you want something hearty and filling that will satisfy both the tastebuds as well as the wallet.
Beef & Mushroom Ragu Pasta Bake
Ingredients
1/2 onion
2 sticks celery
2-3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
250g mushrooms
500g beef mince
2 tbsp reduced salt tomato paste
1 x 400g tin crushed tomatoes
250mL red wine (can be replaced with beef stock)
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt & pepper, to taste
2 cups barely cooked pasta (go with a penne or fusilli to catch the sauce) – you want it al dente or a little less cooked than that!
1/2 cup freshly grated mozarella
1/4 cup pine nuts
1. Dice your onion and celery into uniform pieces and also clean and dice the mushroom into larger pieces (as mushroom shrinks as it cooks). Heat up a little olive oil in a deep frying pan and saute the celery, onion and garlic till the onion is softened and translucent. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Add the mince and cook together, breaking up any clumps that form. Once the beef mince is cooked through, add the mushroom and stir through till the mushroom has cooked.
3. Add the tomato paste and stir it through, then add the crushed tomatoes and wine or stock and bring it to a slow simmer for about 20-30 minutes, or till the liquid is reduced and thickened. Make sure to give the mixture a stir every now and then so nothing catches and burns on the bottom.
4. Pour half the sauce into a large 20cm x 30cm baking tray (or roughly equivalent size, it doesn’t make a great deal of difference), then layer the pasta in the middle.
6. Add the remaining pasta sauce on top then gently mix it all together.
5. Add your grated mozarella over the top, then scatter over the pine nuts. Place into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, then serve immediately with a side of bitter greens.
Unfortunately this is not one of those dishes that freezes well, but I have found that it will generously serve a family of 4 with one or two serves left over (depending on how voracious your diners are). And those leftover serves tend to disappear pretty quickly, so the lack of freezing shouldn’t deter you from trying this out for your family!
Unfortunately all I had on me the day I made this was lots of spinach, but lightly sauteed in some garlic-infused olive oil, it was a lovely green and homely side dish to this rather lovely pasta bake.
People often avoid various foods for any number of reasons. For example, my kid sister sat at the dinner table tonight, very carefully corralling the rather chunkily cut mushrooms to the side of her dish in anticipation of relocating them to another dish where they might be more happily welcomed.
Personally, I used to loathe the smell of celery so much that I would leave the room if I suspected it had been in the vicinity (thankfully, celery and I have now reconciled our differences and manage to coexist fairly well these days).
However, people with coeliac disease have no choice but to avoid consuming any products with gluten in them at all, which means that they have a very difficult time with cooking and eating as every label must be scrutinized. And unfortunately, majority of the gluten-free desserts that I’ve seen tend to be limited to meringues, flourless orange and almond cakes or flourless chocolate cakes.
Since coeliac disease is incurable, the idea of being limited to three desserts for a lifetime does make the sweet tooth weep. Just a little.
When I was contacted by the reps for Vitarium, who asked me whether I would be interested in trialling their product and perhaps coming up with a recipe, I jumped at the chance. Having watched a friend who suffers from coeliac disease struggle with her shopping and eating, I thought that I might as well try the product and see whether it would be one I could recommend to her.
I wasn’t quite daring enough to use a gluten-free flour to make something that requires gluten for texture, but I thought it would work quite well on a buttery, short pastry…somewhere where the development of gluten is usually kept to a minimum.
I decided to go with a tarte tatin as other than the pastry, it is relatively easy to ensure that the other ingredients and components of this dish are gluten free and coeliac friendly. Gluten free flour isn’t a necessity, but after trying it out, I can honestly say that it performed perfectly and made the most beautiful, tender, melt-in-the-mouth pastry you can ask for!
Tarte tatin with sour cream shortcrust pastry
Pastry ingredients
250g plain / all-purpose flour
200g unsalted butter, diced & cold
150g full fat sour cream
Tarte Tatin ingredients
6-10 apples (depending on the size of your pan, and golden delicious apples work well here)
150g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, split in half
1 sheet sour cream short crust pastry, rolled 3-4mm thick
22 – 25cm oven-proof frying pan
TO MAKE THE PASTRY:
1. Place the flour into a food processor with the butter and pulse till the mixture begins to form lumps.
2. Add the sour cream and pulse till the mixture comes together (this is a very buttery, extremely difficult to handle pastry. Try to avoid handling it with bare hands as much as possible).
3. Using a silicone spatula, scrape the pastry out of the food processor and onto a sheet of non-stick baking paper. Lay another sheet of baking paper on top of it, then slowly and carefully roll out to approx 3-4mm thick. Place in the fridge to chill and rest till needed.
TO MAKE THE TARTE TATIN:
1. Peel the apples, then cut into quarters and remove the core. If you feel it’s necessary, you can toss them with lemon juice at this stage to stop them browning…but bear in mind that this is a dish where the apples are cooked in brown caramel. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Scrape out the vanilla seeds from the pod and add to a heavy, oven-proof frying pan along with the butter and sugar, and cook till it becomes a lovely amber caramel.
3. Once the caramel is bubbling and light brown, remove immediately from heat and carefully arrange the apples over the top, core sides down. You want to make sure that the first layer is rather neat and tidy, as this will be the face that is on display. The second layer can be as haphazard as you wish!
4. Grab a plate which is slightly larger than your frying pan and use it as a guide to cut a rough circle from the chilled pastry, then place on top of the apples and tuck the edges around inside so they surround the apples. Cut a few steam vents into the pastry, then place into the oven and bake till the pastry is completely cooked and you can see the caramel bubbling up the sides.
Rest the baked tarte tatin in the pan for about 15-20 minutes, before CAREFULLY inverting onto a plate (taking care not to drop any of the boiling hot caramel on yourself!). Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche…or sour cream…or lightly whipped double cream…or natural yoghurt…or vanilla ice cream. Your choice
Vitarium are running a gluten-free bakeoff until August 8th, so check this link if you’d like to enter Vitarium are also offering to let 5 Kitchen Wench readers try their products, so if you live in Australia and would like to give their products a try for free then please leave a comment. 5 readers will be drawn by Sunday 18th July so you have plenty of time!
Anyone who knows me will tell you that, generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of exhibitions. The noise, the crowds, the jostling and bumping usually end up with me getting just a tiny bit irritable and needing to smoke countless cigarettes in a row to overcome my aggravation at the end of the event.
However, the one thing that I will brave this dislike for is food, and it was with a rather joyous heart that I attended this year’s Melbourne Good Food & Wine show, with the hope of having a lovely day out like I did last year.
Having attended the event last year and experienced the early queuing, this year I made sure to get there as early as possible and arrived an hour before the event started.
And was gobsmacked at the complete lack of parking and the queue that had already begun to form.
In fact, just before the doors opened, I turned around to observe the line and it had become about 5-6 people wide and stretched on for beyond 100 metres.
That is a lot of people who are eager to get their food and drink on!
I was quite glad to see a few familiar faces from the store holders and had a bit of a chat with them about how they were finding this year’s show, thankfully the show arrived just in time for me to stock up on some of the goods that I’d rather low on over the past year so I spoke particularly to some of the smaller stalls about their stockists and where I could find their produce just in case I ran out before the show came around again next year.
I did notice one fairly large difference between last year and this year, and that was mainly the fairly big increase in stall holders spruiking really average supermarket products, and I wasted no time on these stalls. In all honesty, I was at the show to experience things that I hadn’t seen or tasted before…and while I’ve never actually tasted cooked chicken in a can, I have absolutely no intention of ever handing over my money for this sort of thing.
There was also a drastic reduction in stallholders with things like deli smallgoods (pickles, antipastos, cured meats etc) and I was quite sorry about the very small number of cheese stalls there, especially when the booze corral was so large and with so many different wines to taste, the cheeses were sorely missed.
Despite all this, there were still plenty of goods to take a gander at and taste, and my friend and I left at the end of the day with our wallets considerably lighter and the car bearing the burden of our purchases.
And of course, the absolute highlight of the day was being able to watch the incredibly handsome and adorable Manu Feildel perform some of the circus tricks learnt in his youth…as well as do a little cooking onstage (some of which involved audience members being asked to feel how hard his sausage was!)
(Yes, this is indeed a picture of my best friend Vee receiving a kiss and a cuddle from Manu, backstage in the green room – jealous much?)
In an incredible spot of luck/fate/good karma, I was allowed the chance to conduct a very short 5 minute interview with Manu himself, which will be posted on the blog as soon as I figure out HOW to transfer it from my digital recorder to my PC…
But till then, here’s a teaser fact. When it comes to underwear, Manu proudly declares himself as a boxers man, with much disdain for briefs. Oh la la! (and no, I did not ask this question for myself but on behalf of someone else!)
While the Good Food & Wine Show has run it’s course in Melbourne, it’s now Sydney’s turn to experience this fantastic event! The show will be running in Sydney from July 16th – July 18th 2010, so make sure you book your ticket and you too could have a lovely day out with a friend or two (just make sure that at least one of you stays sober to be the designated driver 
)
In all honesty, I think it’s even worth attending just for the chance to see celebrity chef Pete Evans pull this magical face:
Love ya work, Pete! Love it!
To find out more information about when the Good Food & Wine show will be in your neck of the woods, be sure to visit their website, and to see more of my photos from the event you can click here
DISCLAIMER: Kitchen Wench attended this event as a guest of the Good Food & Wine Show
About a month ago, I was invited to try a few products from the range of McCormick’s Slow Cooker recipe bases, so I agreed to give them a try. Any of you who are long-time readers of the blog will know my personal feelings on premade flavour packages and instant products, but I’m open-minded enough to give any product the chance to prove me wrong.
Out of the 7 bases that I received and the 5 that I tried, this was by far the best of the bunch, but don’t mistake that for a glowing review, as it is not quite that.
I can understand the idea behind these slow cooker bases, to a certain extent. Some of my friends have confided in me that they are unable to work with spices or recipes so can never make the same dish taste the same as the last time they made it…so these sorts of products are for them:
It’s for those who are a little inexperienced with cooking and want ‘someone’ to guarantee that the end product will be edible, which also provides them with a scapegoat if it doesn’t (“Oh, it’s not my fault, it’s that product so I just won’t use it again”). I refuse to say that this line of slow cooker recipe bases are aimed at the time-poor because frankly, you still have to do all the ingredient prep anyway, to add the ground spices to the slow cooker yourself instead of cutting open and adding it from the packet would add all of 1-2 minutes of prep time.
The full ingredient list for this product is: Chick Peas (86%), Salt, Cumin, Garlic, Onion, Paprika, Flavour (contains egg & milk), Pepper, Turmeric, Sugar, Chilli, Coriander, Parsley, Soy Bean Oil, Food Acid (citric)
Think about how much this adds to the equation rather than if you added the ground spices yourself?
Anyway, the real test of the product was the taste. And I can honestly say that it wasn’t too bad. That’s not to say that it was good – I think they should add onion to the fresh ingredients list that people should add, and rethink their spice ratios as I found the broth itself to be quite bland and uninspiring, but it was certainly a passable soup and one that I can see as enjoyable for people who are used to more bland food and are unfamiliar with flavours such as cumin and turmeric.
The best description I can muster for this particular recipe base really is “Ethnic flavours for beginners”, make of that what you will.
I have no shame in admitting that I enjoy the slow food movement and that as a general rule you won’t see products like this in my shopping trolley, but if you’re looking for a nice easy dish to make in your slow cooker this winter and are unfamiliar with Moroccan flavours, then this might be one for you to try.
