daring bakers - fresh from the oven!

this month we were baking a bread with the daring bakers. well, not just any bread... it was julia child's french bread (yep, a white bread! yum!). when i first saw the recipe i couldnt believe it - oh that was a long, long list of things to do (but dont let it put you off doing the recipe, yourself - looks like more work than it acutally is - here is the recipe). it's such a basic but wonderful recipe - you end up with such a silky dough - its just heaven in a bowl, when it sits there and rises.
i am a sucker for white bread. i do believe it's your white bread that tells if you are a good baker or not. like a baguette. there is no other bread with a better crust... the structure of the bread - the crisp - the taste - oh i just love it.

i was planning to make baguettes (especially since i was thinking about eating this with it, good job tartelette - we share the same childhood memories!) but then of course i had to move things round and do the bread in a dash (which isnt really possible, since it needs to rise and shine a couple of times) - so i made one round loaf instead.
with the smell of freshly baked bread still in the house i start to think what to eat with it. and i really cant help but only think about a decent swiss milk chocolate and a glass of milk. it just doesnt get any better than that!

a naughty cake - devils food cake

when i bed with flu you should probably eat healthy stuff. kiwis, oranges - drink loads of tea to flush all the bad stuff out of your body system. i believe that when in bed with flu you are entitled to eat all the stuff you love the most. marshmallows, crisps with tomato ketchup and a decent piece of cake. if we are talking about "a decent piece of cake" here, there is really only one that deserves the title: devils food cake. a naughty rich and fabulous cake that tastes great and is so rich and buttery, that it keeps long enough in the fridge that it feeds you through the entire time you are in bed with a heavy flu, angina pectoris, pneumonia or any other nasty bug one can catch. - enjoy! and get better you fellow sneezing noses out there.

RECIPE (adapted from linda collisters chocolate)

110g plain chocolate, finely chopped
125 ml sour cream
175g muscovador or other brown sugar
300g plain flour
a good pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
115g butter, room temperature
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs, separated
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
175ml water, room temperature

ICING

520g chocolate, finely chopped
300ml sour cream
2-3 teaspoons vanilla essence

sugar flowers, to decorate


butter and line 2 sponge tins of 23 cm diameter & set aside.

put the chopped chocolate, sour cream and muscovado sugar into a heavybased saucepan and set over very low heat. stir from time to time until melted and smooth, dont let become hot. remove from the heat and set aside.
sift flour with the salt & cocoa & baking powder and put into a bowl.
put butter into a bowl and, using a wooden spoon or electric whisk, beat until creamy. gradually beat in sugar. beat well, then beat in the egg yorlks at a time, followed by the vanilla. mix in the flour mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, alternately with the water. when thoroughly blended, work in the melted chocolate mixture. spoon the mixture into the prepared tins, to fill evenly, then bake in a preheated oven at 180 c° for about 30 minutes. the cakes are cooked when they spring back from the sides of the tins. let cool for 5 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack, remove the lining paper and cool completely.

to make the icing and filling, put the chocolate into a heavyproof bowl set over a saucepan of steaming but not boiling water and leave until melted. remove the bowl from the heat, stir in vanilla & mix gently until smooth, then whisk in the cream. leave until very thick and spreadable.

set one cake aside and spread icing on top of the remaining cake. sandwich the layers together, with the plain one on top. spread the top and sides of the cake with icing, decorate with sugar flowers. keep in a cool place until ready to serve.
best eaten within 5 days - uniced cakes can be frozen for up to 1 month.

first signs of spring - centre piece of the month february

pick whatever flowers you get at the supermarket to make this little basket filled with flowers. ranunculus are my favourites and available all over the place at the moment, so i chose to put them into this flowery centrepiece. the orchid is quite fancy but you just really need one to pimp this up (and it keeps for ever!). a rose or two, some ivy and green leaves from the forest and you are all set.


to get started line a basket with some foil and trim on the edges. soak some floral foam in water and place in the basket, when soaked wet (can be really, really wet - it will have to work as a vase to the flowers), eventually cut and trim the floral on the edges, so that it resembles an arch. trim flowers and green leaves and stick into pot. start doing so on the bottom of foam, working upwards until you have an even flowery centrepiece.
make sure foam stays moist - adding some water from time to time.

i used a little basket, you could use just about any container that looks cute and can hold some floral foam. fruit bowls, small or large terra-cotta pot, soup bowl - go crazy!
head over to whistlestop cafe cooking - to check out all the other centrepieces of the month!

salmon cake with dill

while the week is filled with loads of work and all that other stuff you have to do to make a living, my weekends are filled with sleeping / reading / cooking / baking / eating and drinking (i dont always follow the order and start with the drinking instead of the sleeping...).
here is a little cake that goes wonderfully with a glass of white wine or something sparkly. a salmon cake - soft and airy... since the salmon is a quite "fatty fish" the cake is very moist, too.
i like to bake it as a small "gugelhupf" but you are free to fill the batter into a muffin tin (shorter baking time!) and bake small salmon cakes instead. serve with some cream cheese or ricotta that you season with some lemonjuice and chive.

RECIPE

180g flour
15g baking powder
3 eggs
100ml sunflower oil
100ml milk
120g gruyere cheese, freshly grated
120g smoked salmon, cut in small pieces
1 generous hand full of fresh dill, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of pink pepper, ground (use a mortar)
salt and freshly ground pepper


heat the oven to 180 °c.

butter a gugelhupf- or cake tin (25cm) generously or line with parchment paper.
mix eggs, milk and oil in a bowl. mix flour with baking powder and grated cheese and put in another bowl. add salmon, dill and pink pepper. add liquid and mix, then season with salt and pepper.
fill into the prepared cake tin and put in the middle of the oven. bake for about 50 minutes, then let cool for about 10 minutes, then turn over onto a cooling rack.
slice and serve.