I’ve never been a particularly adventurous person when it comes to eating. I like my tinned spaghetti, my Cadbury’s chocolate, my weetbix. Don’t get me wrong, I love to eat fancy food as well, I just don’t seem to get around to it all that often. Recently however, a switch has been flipped. I’ve found myself thinking “what’s all the fuss about xyz food?” And the food that has been pre occupying my mind was been Red Velvet Cake. When I saw this Red Velvet Recipe on the amazing Bakerella’s website I thought that this must be the time to take the plunge.
so…
Did it live up to the hype?
well… it was interesting to see the mix turn from a weird milky brown to blood red
ok so you cant really see that it’s blood red here. But you can see that I made a layer cake. Again. They’re so much fun, can you blame me? And see that filling? Its cream cheese frosting. Yummo!
And did I decorate that baby? You becha! I used these cute little hearts from Roberts Confectionery that I got at Peters of Kensington
Sometimes you just need to keep it simple. Stupid!
How good does layer cake look when you carve it up? All that cream cheese frosting…
The Verdict: well it was light and moist and my goodness, the frosting was amazing. I could eat whole bowls of that. The cake however, was not that amazing. It was nice… but I feel like its a bit of a mutant flavour. Not quite vanilla, not quite chocolate, not quite a discernible flavour of its own. Guess what cake? I want you to taste distinct! And you did not đ
So, my lovelies, what did I do wrong? Am I just not that enamored with Red Velvet or is there a better recipe I should be using? Advice please!! And are there any flavours that you have tried lately that you just weren’t that fussed about?
One of these days I think my kitchen bench is going to collapse under the weight of all my cook books. Truly. I love flipping through the glossy pages of perfectly styled pictures. I love coming across unexpected gems. I love the wonderful prose that accompanies so many cookbooks these days. Granted, Im not sure I need twenty different recipes for white sauce. But you can never have too many chocolate cake recipes! The quest for perfection never ends.
Whenever I feel guilty about how many cookbooks I have I always like to console myself with the fact that I have cooked at least something from every cookbook in my collect. At least I thought I had…
Last year my sister bought me the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. Hooray! After my excitement wore off I was quickly put out by the complete lack of understandable measurements included in the book. Does anyone outside of America know how many grams one stick of butter is? Ok, so I can google it but how would you interpret “one package of instant pudding mix”? Which packet? Much much should it make? What kind of pudding? ARGH! Everything is also in cup measurements without being accompanied by gram or ounce equivalents. This would be fine, except that the measurement for American cups are different to Australian ones… uh oh.
So there it sat. Lonely and unloved on my bookshelf. Until it was called upon, one courageous wednesday afternoon, to create a truly amazing Vanilla Layer Cake.
I decided to take the plunge and do my best with the equipment and knowledge I had. The mix looked pretty good before it went into the oven, and when it came out, it looked even better!
The mixture produced two flat but pretty tall cakes. I promptly cut their tops off to even them up, and cut them each in half. Cruel? Maybe. Thats just how I roll.
So far, so good.
The next decision was what to use for a filling. After careful consideration I went with the very original choice of vanilla buttercream. Can you blame me? It was pink!
I used my new cutters and super sweet rolling pin to cut out some fondant flowers
Then went to town!
I felt like there was still something missing from the decoration but as it was only a practice, I figured it would still be ok! And yes, my cake it a little slanty. But it was… erm… intentional?
In the end I was left with a pretty pink four layer vanilla cake! It tasted pretty good too!
And it cuts pretty stable pieces.
It also has a curious knack for disappearing incredibly quickly…
I have a theory. All food tastes better if its pink. Now, my lovelies, would you agree?
Traditional Vanilla Birthday Cake Recipe – From The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook
Ingredients
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
2. Cream the butter until smooth
3. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy (about 3 mins)
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
5. combine the flours and add in four parts, alternating with the milk. Beat well after each addition
6. Add vanilla extract and mix in well
7. Divide batter between two 9 inch round cake pans (the recipe said 3 but I only had two and it worked out pretty damn well) and bake for 20-25 mins or until a skewer comes out clean
8. Let the cakes cool in the pans for ten minutes then remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack
9. cut into however many layers you wish and fill with your choice of filling!
Traditional Vanilla Buttercream – From The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook
Ingredients
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter
8 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
Food colouring
Method
1. Place butter in a large mixing bowl with four cups of icing sugar, milk and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth and creamy.
2. Add the remaining sugar one cup at a time, until the icing is the consistency you require (you might not need to add all the sugar, its all up to you)
But oh my, it was a good dessert! This Blood Orange and Vanilla Syrup Cake was another experiment with seasonal winter fruits. I had been eyeing it off in my Seasons cookbook by Donna Hay since the mothership bought it for me last Christmas. As my weakness for all things citrusy and syrupy have been well documented on this blog, this cake was a natural progression from the basic syrup cake to a prettier, deeper flavoured dish.
Easy to prepare, this cake didn’t take long to cook and the only difficulty I had was getting the blood orange stains out of my chopping board! I didn’t realise that the gorgeous deep red juice would be so stubborn! I shook my fist at it. Then let the mothership shoot her tractorbeam of cleanliness at it.
I broke out my bundt pan for this baby
Tah Dah! Golden, puffy goodness!
Note the abundance of progress shots. The deep red of the blood oranges was so beautiful that I got on a bit of a photo taking roll! I just wish that practise made perfect in this case.
Finally, I have a pretty product to photograph. Excitement to the max.
Blood Orange and Vanilla Syrup Cake – Adapted from Seasons by Donna Hay
Ingredients – Topping
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) water
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
3 Blood Oranges, thinly sliced
Method – Topping
1. Place sugar, water and vanilla in a frying pan over medium heat and stir until sugar has dissolved
2. Add orange slices and simmer for 10-15 mins or until the orange is soft. Remove from heat and set aside
Ingredients – Cake
4 eggs
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (150g) self raising flour
150g butter
1 cup (120g) almond meal
Method – Cake
1. Place eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat until the mixture is thick, pale and triples in size (8-10 min)
2. Sift the flour over the egg mixture and fold through
3. Melt the butter and fold through the cake batter along with the almond meal
4. Line the bottom of a cake tin with the orange slices and remaining syrup. If you are using a spring form tin you might want to wrap your tin in aluminium foil or place a baking tray on the shelf below in the oven in case of any leakage
5. Pour batter over orange slices
6. Bake at 160 degrees celsius for 40 mins or until golden and firm. (I took mine out after about 30 mins)
7. Turn out onto a platter to serve with cream or ice cream.
I don’t like change. I know thats an awful thing to admit, but when things change I feel all out of my depth. A little bit lost at sea.
By now i’ve gotten used to the fact that things like the seasons must change, the weather changes and traffic lights change (thank god). But i’ve never been able to get my head around the seasonality of fruit and vegetables. I hate wanting to make something with Mangos in June, and not being able to find nice fresh juicy ones in the store đ So, in order to make the most of seasonal fruit and vege and educate myself a bit, i’ve been trying to eat and cook with things that are in season.
Enter: The Mandarin
I have been quite neglectful of the humble Mandarin over the past few years. I had forgotten how sweet and juicy its segments are. How lusciously orange its juice is.
Yummo! Mandarin Juice!
The recipe for Mandarin Syrup Cakes in the Good Living section of the paper was just what I was looking for. Why didn’t I think of it before? However, I am a little wary of newspaper recipes. They aren’t always the most reliable and something I think their writers omit a crucial ingredient or step on purpose! Who honestly wants to share their secret recipes with the nation?
Have you ever seen such a beautiful simple little cake?
I shouldn’t have worried! These little babies came out wonderfully. They slipped out of the pan and stood proudly on the plate in all their buttery goodness, waiting for the syrup. Fluffy, moist and lightly mandarin-y, they were everything you could want in a cake.
and of course, they didn’t last long!
The syrup was subtle and sweet. If you aren’t a fan of the tangy lime or lemon syrups, this is absolutely the one for you. I drizzled the syrup over the cakes after putting them on the plate. If you want the syrup to permeate deeper then I would syrup them when they are just out of the oven but still in the pan. Yum!!
Mandarin Syrup Cakes – From the Good Living Guide (Sydney Morning Herald)
Ingredients
125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
2 tsp mandarin zest
2 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mandarin juice
1 tsp orange flower water
Method
1. Beat butter, half the sugar and zest in a small bowl until light and fluffy
2. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
3. Stir in flour and buttermilk
4. Divide mixture  between 6 greased muffin holes (recipe say 180ml capacity, I just used one of those giant texas muffin pans with the huge holes)
5. At 180 degrees celsius, bake for 25-30 mins (I did mine for 20, make sure you check yours!) or until they are golden on top and feel cooked
6. Combine mandarin juice and remaining sugar in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar is dissolved.
7. Simmer for two to three minutes or until it has thickened slightly
8. Remove from heat and stir in orange flower water
9. To serve, drizzle syrup over cakes and serve with cream or icecream (original recipe also suggests greek yoghurt, whatever floats your boat!)
ok so you cant really see that it’s blood red here. But you can see that I made a layer cake. Again. They’re so much fun, can you blame me? And see that filling? Its cream cheese frosting. Yummo!
And did I decorate that baby? You becha! I used these cute little hearts from Roberts Confectionery that I got at Peters of Kensington
Sometimes you just need to keep it simple. Stupid!
How good does layer cake look when you carve it up? All that cream cheese frosting…
