So I’m cold, I’m tired and I’m having a massive whinge super busy this week. Therefore I’m bringing you a few posts that are a bit of a mish mash of things i’ve been doing over the last few months. On these cold cold winter nights what could warm you up better than a few gratuitous pictures of gooey, melting, rich chocolate. Enjoy!
Marbled milk and dark chocolate. The best of both worlds!
Some of my favourite ingredients. Yes, its a kilo of chocolate and a kilo of cocoa.
Milk chocolate ganache. If its not drizzling down the size, there’s not enough!
Hell, who needs ganache when you can just have melted chocolate?
I feel one step closer to a heart attack just looking at this picture…
So it seems like ages since I made anything with limes. Or anything with fruit for that matter. I seem to be stuck in a bit of a rut of only eating things from the top of the food pyramid. If its at the top it must be the most important right? Right…
So I was lured into the fruit shop by my guilty conscience, extreme sugar low and the memory of this lovely lady’s lime creation. I was also drawn in by the sight of all those bright green limes winking at me. See! I like fruit. Fruit that is incorporated into cake. I think this is a losing battle…
Time for cake! P.s. this is the first time in my entire life that i’ve ever lined a tin around the edges. Crazy!
Lime cake batter! Woooo! Its so close you could almost lick it… almost…
Yes I have made this cake before, you might remember it from this post. Thank god for the CWA! And limes. Im always thankful for limes. But I wasn’t satisfied with the original recipe. It wasn’t well, limey enough! How could I inject a concentrated shot of lime goodness into this cake?
Two magic words: Lime Syrup.
But first you need to prick the cake all over with a skewer to allow all that lovely syrup to permeate. And by ‘prick’ I mean ‘stab’. See, its a theraputic recipe!
Phwoar! Look at all that tasty syrup 😀
Drumroll please…
Hooray!
I personally think there’s nothing like a warm lime syrup cake to help you beat the winter chills. You can find the recipe for the cake here. And remember, limes = fruit = good for you. What more incentive do you need?
Lime Syrup Recipe – From Nigella Lawson’s “How to Be a Domestic Goddess”
Ingredients
4 tablespoons lime juice
100g icing sugar
Method
1. Using a small saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the lime juice over a low heat. Thats it!
Now I love chocolate cake as much as the next person. But lately, ive found the usual flour, eggs, cocoa, sugar, butter varieties a little… unsatisfying. I feel a bit like an addict. I need  something more and more chocolaty to get me through the day. Thank god for the Chocolate Mousse Cake!
This cake has been on my “to cook” list for so long that i’d forgotten it was even there. Now, be warned, I use the term ‘cake’ very loosely here. This is more a cross between a rich fudgey devils food cake and a decadent dark chocolate mousse. Not that i’m complaining!
Its important to follow the instructions to the letter. It may seem that 12 mins is not long enough for this cake to cook, but any longer and it might start to burn! Otherwise, its a pretty easy recipe and damn tasty too!
I seem to be accruing cooking magazines at an exponential rate. They come home with me, then sit on the coffee table for weeks until they get stacked on top of all the other cooking magazines in random places around the house. Under the desk, on top of books on the shelves, under the bed, in the closet… oh dear. I do flip through and ooh and ahh at the pictures thinking how i’d love to try cooking xyz. Somehow, I never seem to get my act together. Until now…
With the sudden chill factor, I couldn’t go past the rice pudding recipe in this month’s Delicious magazine (which I love!). I did think that 1.2 L milk to 1/3 cup rice was a little excessive, but, its Delicious! Who was I to question such authority? Damn right, thats what I was.
I ended up with a very tasty rice soup. Looks a bit like an omelette…
However, I do like my rice pudding more… well… puddingy! So I began to search for a good pudding recipe. Luckily, I didn’t have to look too far! I went straight to the Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook and tried their rice pudding. I substituted the cup of skim milk for a cup of cream (If you’re eating rice pudding you cant be worrying about your waistline!) popped it in the oven and crossed my fingers.
Looks good so far, no excessive liquid
Hooray! I can see the rice!
It was so so tasty, and with a little bit of cinnamon on top… mmmmmmm!
Be careful though, keep it stored with the silver foil over the top as it did develop a little bit of a skin. Im not sure if it was the cream substitution, but it still tasted good the next day so a little bit of a skin was no worry. Don’t worry Delicious! I still love you! But AWW did win this round, you’re going to have to pull something pretty special out of the bag next time…
So my lovelies, what is your favourite dessert to warm you up on a cold winters night?
Rice Pudding – From The Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbook
Ingredients
1/2 cup (100g) medium grain rice (I used arborio rice)
2 cups (500ml) full cream milk
250 ml thickened cream (you can use skim milk if you want, but why?)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
Method
1. Rinse the rice under cold water and spread on the bottom of a shallow, 1 litre baking dish
2. Combine the milk, cream, vanilla and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil
3. Pour the hot milk mixture over the rice and mix gently with a fork
4. Cover the dish tightly with silver foil, bake for 1 1/4 hours at 150 degrees celsius
