Birthday Cake

Birthdays should always be celebrated by cake. Something about a birthday with no cake strikes me as a bit sad. Whether it is some store bought thing stuffed full of faux ingredients and sugar or something a bit more refined and decadent, a birthday just isn't a birthday without a cake to cut.

So, having missed out last year, I needed to get one this year and so I thought I would bake one myself.

I know.

Yes, I KNOW!!!

My experiences with baking have been.... challenging to say the (very) least.

But I had no choice. It was either buying one for myself or baking one and I thought baking one sounded a bit less sad!

Chocolate cake being my favorite, I thought I'd try the Black Magic Cake.

So while the babe was having her nap, I got the ingredients out and had the dry ingredients all mixed when she woke up with a vengeance. Crying babe in arm, I quickly threw in the wet ingredients and turned on the mixer much to her distress. I couldn't stop, my chocolate cake was at stake! I undermixed it but had to stop before the wee one went into turbo mode. Slopped the results into two pans and baked for requisite time.

Out came these slightly unevenly lumped cakes.


I debated for the rest of the afternoon regarding how exactly to put the cake together. Was it to be store bought icing or was I going to actually attempt to make some kind of frosting? I wasn't sure due to the whiny nature of the babe.

Finally I found a recipe for which I had all of the ingredients at hand, this chocolate buttercream frosting. So to more tears and screams, I whipped it up. Sadly, I was a bit too free handed with the milk so it was a bit.... melty.

Put together, it looked like... well to be frank, it looked like a big turd.

Thankfully it tasted ok if a bit too moist but then again, I never believe fudginess to be a bad thing.

The stars must have been all aligned beautifully so my turd cake would turn out edible.

Da Cheweeeeee..... oh.

I am the most unaccomplished baker I know.

However, I have spirit. Or at least greed.

I came across Alton Brown's simply named, The Chewy.

This of course, refers to the chocolate chip cookie.

I looooove chocolate chip cookies and preferably, ones that are chewy and not just crunchy all the way through. I sometimes even under cook my cookies, pancakes, etc. just slightly to get that chewy texture. Doesn't always work and as I'm the only person I know who does not like raw cookie dough (yeah, yeah, so sue me), it doesn't always succeed.

In any case, getting into the holiday spirit and all that kind of nonsense, I decided to go for it. Also, it would mask the stench of microwave popcorn before my in-laws arrived.

So I followed the recipe (Susan, are you proud of me) and made the cookies.

Here's how it looked like right before I chilled the dough:




And here's what it looked like cooked as per instructions (175 for 14 mins, checking and turning sheet after 5 mins) and after only 11 minutes:



And here's what happened after I lowered the temp to 150 and cooked for only 12 minutes.

Yup, the instructions didn't work for me.

But even though the second and subsequent batches looked better, it still wasn't chewy. It was still a bit dry and tough. Did I overwork the dough? Should I not have used the hand mixer to mix the dough? Or was it my big chocolate chunks?

In any case, I would not repeat again, just wasn't that good. Now somebody please send me a fail proof cookie recipe!!

Turkish De-yuck - Part 2

Well, I had to. After all, I did promise.

So of course, I choose a day when the boy was around the house (in case I needed to be resuscitated), and conquered my fears.

Inspired by the Sound of Music Singalong I went to on Friday (which was a LOT of fun), I began by first singing my off-key rendition of "I have Confidence" in order to summon up some courage to tackle the metallic purple horror sitting right next to my computer.


First I unwrapped it.

As you can see, it looked innocuous enough... and was covered in and smelt like chocolate. Not something I normally object to.


I cut it in half.

Ok, the dark red Turkish Delight lurked inside, insidiously daring me.


Not being that brave (nor that stupid), I cut it into tiny pieces and chose a corner piece (i.e. higher chocolate to gelatinous perfume ratio).

And for those of you who doubt that I actually ate it, I present to you exhibit D, which shows the slight gap between my two front teeth.

See? I did eat it.

And it was yuck.

I mean, it wasn't as strongly perfumed as the fancy stuff (and for that I am grateful) but it was still very much like eating some jelly-fied perfume. Ick.

I passed on the rest of the plate to the boy and decided to go in search of some Tolberone to ease my pain. To be fair, he didn't think it was very good either.

So all this to say that Turkish Delight is disgusting, no matter what my friends with taste say.

Fry's Turkish Delight - Part 1

As punishment for my lack of posts and general laziness, I have promised you a review of my food nemesis, Turkish Delight... let's just call this one the starter because...

I'm still not sure I can go through with this.

Umami, whom I hold in very high food regard, has rarely ever steered me wrong when it came to food. The canned Heinz Mulligatawny soup turned out to be very perfect for those cold winter days where you want something tasty and quick but yet not too filling. Herbal tonics for general health and her favorite restaurants. Let me just stop here and say, the woman knows her stuff. Her penchant for cherry flavored things made me pause in the past, but that's not a question of taste, its more a question of preference. Besides, I cannot say I haven't changed regarding the question of cherry.

But this.... a perfumed jelly? She recommended THIS? I'm not sure I can take it.

Besides, it's wrapped in a garish purple foil wrapper with faux Middle-Eastern font exclaiming TURKISH Delight.

Other descriptions include "As Good as Ever" and "Full of EASTERN PROMISE", which, truth be told, is hardly a description. I mean, as good as ever? If it was bad, they haven't improved is what it says to me.

And full of EASTERN PROMISE (their capitalisation, not mine)? What kind of Eastern promise is it making me? To gag?

It is mocking me.

The only thing I can say for it is that it is covered with chocolate. Now if only I can bring myself to open the packet.

I will, I will.... just let me get used to the idea first. *shiver*

In the meantime, here's their cheesy commercial, courtesy of YouTube.

*Did you see the inside? It's a bright pinky red jelly....ewwwwwww.*

4pm: Tea

I've decided that since I'm in England, I might as well adapt some of the weird quirks about the English, but mostly about the boy, that I enjoy.

One of these is the 4pm Cup o' Tea.

Now that the boy has beaten the sugar out of my cup of tea, I like it strong, with a dash a milk so its a nice caramel color. I'm picky about it because I'm not fond of too much milk and weak tea is a waste of my time.

But since the sugar has been taken away with me, I've taken to biscuits (cookies in my book) with an alarming alacrity. I figured that it balances it out nicely, no?

The everyday 4pm cup of tea is not meant to be a nice dainty affair with real china and platters of scones and sandwiches, as much as I'd like it to be, but a reinforcing cup of warmth with a biscuit (or two, or three or four....) to sustain you until dinner. I find it a perfect way to begin thinking about what I'm going to prepare for dinner and not making me so hungry that I want to bite a chunk out of the raw meat I'm preparing.

My tea of choice had been the long held favorite, PG Tips. However, as I find myself just that bit chilly all the time, and craving that hit of hot liquid, I find myself wanting to cut down on the caffeine... just a little. So when the boy brought home the wonderfully retro box of Tick Tock Tea with no caffeine, I was excited... at first. However, upon seeing it rooibos and smelling just that little bit funky, I became apprehensive.

After my sip, I wasn't exactly sold, but I wasn't put off either. Much, much weaker than normal tea, it nevertheless had a comforting aroma and flavor to it. I have surprisingly taken to it quite well and have now cut down to 1 cup of normal tea and three of the Tick Tock Tea.

I have to admit, the cheery box does help.

"Milk" Chocolate

Whenever I go to buy dairy section at my local Franprix, I'm always curious about the little Kinder chocolate bars I see there.

It's a good idea, especially in the heat of summer, to have a cold chocolate bar to melt slowly in the mouth.

These are usually packaged in a bundle and upon closer inspection, claim to be a "milk" product, which is supposedly a healthier 'treat' for the young'ns.

I had to pick one up of course. I chose Kinder Pingu. They also had Kinder Hippo but I didn't like the association. Some call me too sensitive.

It claims that it contains 26% of milk and has no preservatives and no colorings. The ingredients list milk first, then chocolate (made with cocoa butter) and then sugar. It clocks in at 136kcal per portion.

The composition is a thin genoise sponge with a milk mousse inside enrobed with a thin shell of chocolate, which also runs through the middle, for 'crunch'.

And how did it taste?

Well, not bad. Not too sweet, it was pleasant if a little bland. I don't know that I would give a whole one to a child but it wasn't as sweet or as heavy as many chocolates.

The chocolate didn't so much crunch and gently crackle and the milk mousse texture was a bit odd while the thin genoise wasn't really apparent, lending more texture than anything.

Not something I'd buy again but it was ok. I think if I was a parent, it would be a decent once in a while treat. But I'm not a parent.

So, would you buy them for your child?

Cough-fee

For Christmas I got a great many lovely things, one of which was a packet of chocolate based food items. Do my future in-laws know me or what??

One of the items kept tempting me.... a chocolate marshmallow coffee from Cocoa & Co. Blasphemous to coffee drinkers I know but if you had to sleep in the room where this little sack sat, all innocent except for the lovely fragrant scent of rich dark coffee and chocolate, I dare you to refuse its mating call.

I was good though, I waited until I got home to try it out with my somewhat leaky Bodum press. And of course, to complete the slightly trashy picture, I decided to drink it out of my fancy Krispy Kreme travel mug. I'm all klass.

And how was it?

Tasty, not too 'marshmallow-y', the scent was mainly what reminded you of the chocolate marshmallow, the taste was thankfully more coffee.

In the box were also some interesting handmade chocolate bars, including a Strawberry Black Pepper one I hope to review once I get rid of this dratted *COUGH*

Sugar High Friday #27 - Rocky Road

When I saw that David was hosting the Sugar High Friday this month, I knew I had to participate.

Not having done one of these before and quite obviously not a very good cook, I was sucked in by the theme "Chocolate by Brand". Because I am due to move, I have been trying to clear the cupboards of as much food as possible and whilst rummaging, I stumbled upon 5 bars of Cailler 74% Cacao Extreme left over from a chocolate fountain party (yes, I have a chocolate fountain!).

The recipe had to be an easy one that I couldn't mess up, that's when I thought of rocky road. I adore rocky road and often buy it from the See's Candy shop, each time kicking myself for spending so much on something so simple.

With the fragrant warmth of the roasted almonds, the slight tanginess from the dried blueberries, additional sweetness of the mini marshmallows, these dark chocolate treats were addictive and popular with my family (who begged me to stop attempting to bake cakes and only make these from now on).

Rocky Road

- 500g Chocolate (or 5 bars of Cailler in my case)
- 150g Mini Marshmallows
- 150g Almonds (or other nuts)
- 200g Dried Blueberries (or Cranberries, Raspberries or even, ick, raisins)


1 - Roast the almonds either in the oven, watching carefully and turning frequently until browned and fragrant. Cool.

2 - Toss together the marshmallows, dried blueberries and almonds and set aside.

3 - Melt approximately 350g of the chocolate on top of a double boiler (or in my case, a stainless steel bowl set on top of gently simmering water) until fully melted, then remove from heat and stir in remaining chocolate until all melted. This will have the effect of slightly tempering the chocolate and also cooling it enough to not melt the marshmallows.

4 - Pour chocolate over the marshmallow, blueberry and almond and mix with spatula until well coated and either spoon into candy holders or into a wax paper lined baking pan.

5 - Put chocolates into the fridge to cool for an hour, then remove to room temperature.

Keeps well in a tin for up to 2 weeks.

Honestly, these are so easy and versatile but yet so delicious, I'd encourage you to make them anytime you have extra chocolate lying around (as if that ever happens).

Now what to do with the other half dozen bars of assorted brands of chocolate?

Salty chocolate

Despite loving the full bitter flavor of pure dark chocolate, I have a great weakness for contrasts.
I have an obsession with dark chocolate covered candied oranges (including the non-edible but droolable blog Orangette!) or lemon peels.

I am also always open to trying other combos; chocolate mint is a good, although tricky to manage the right chocolate : mint ratio. Dunking gummi bears, pretzels and particularly plain potato chips are also the standard when I break out the chocolate fountain. Salty and sweet just seem so right together...

I have just discovered salted caramels which I have just been introduced to, makes caramels perfect in my opinion. In their true form, caramel has never been a favorite of mine, finding it too cloying, buttery and sweet but with the addition of salt, it makes its flavor more true somehow with non of the cloying sweetness.



So it was fated that I buy Genevieve Grandbois' tablette, Le Carre de Sel.





A good size tablet of thin chocolate emblazoned with "Les Chocolate de Genevieve Grandbois, it was made of 70% dark chocolate sprinkled with fleur de sel.

You'll be happy to discover (as I was) that the flakes of fleur de sel is distinct, forming little pockets of saltiness and goes perfectly with the rich smooth chocolate.


I had planned on taking it to work as a good afternoon pick me up indulgence. Truth was, by 11am, the whole tablet was gone...