Weeking Cooking: February Bakes

I decided recently that I would share my baking on a monthly basis rather than doing all individual posts, or the gigantic wrap up post that I did last time. The plan is that on the last Saturday of each month I will share something about what I have made in the last month. This morning I did have the thought though that I should have done something about it being a leap year. Oh well, next time!

First though, I thought I would share the last couple of Bake It Boxes that I made. The monster cake was really the October kit but I only got to make it in January. Inside it is a marbled vanilla cake and it was delicious.

I ended up taking this next cake, the Giant Donut, to work for one of my team member's birthdays. Inside it is a brown sugar cake and the frosting has cream cheese in it. Yummo!

I still have two boxes here to make at some point which I will do eventually. I am, however, a bit devo because it appears that there might not be any more new ones to do. There wasn't one announced in January or February and now I am waiting to see if there is going to be a new one for March or not. If there are not going to be any more I have to find new ways to challenge myself. Watch this space.

I have posted before about the Queen Baking Club and this month I completed both challenges. The first one was for Best Ever Choc Chip Cookies, which were delicious and then three ingredient scones with jam and cream. Both recipes were winners!

Stay tuned for more baking next month.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Obsessed with Bakeitbox

A couple of years ago I started buy Bake It Box which is a monthly box where you get sent instructions, tools (such as disposable baking trays, food colouring and icing tips) and all the dry ingredients in order to make a bake that I would most likely never choose to make by myself.

Every time I complete a bake I put the printed instruction into a display book, and recently, I realised that my book is full! Now that means I get to start a  new book!

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A post shared by Margaret Wuestenenk (@margreads) on Jan 3, 2020 at 11:10pm PST

This week I thought I would share what I have made since starting on my Bake It Box journey. Just looking through all the photos reminds me of how delicious they all were and that there are several that I am thinking I should make again one day!

Mirror Glaze Heart Cake (Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting and a mirror glaze). I posted about making this cake here.

Pattern Swiss Roll Cake (Sponge with salted caramel cream filling)

Vanilla Custard Cake (posted here)

Marbled Sugar Cookies

Burger Cake

Lemon Meringue Mousse Cake

Elderflower and Lemon Cake

Chocolate Chess Tart

Number Cookie Cake

Spooky Ghost Yoghurt Cake (Yoghurt and Raspberry Cake)

Emoji Cookie Dough Cake

Chocolate Drip Cake

Gingerbread Wreath Cupcakes 

Pull Apart Monkey Bread

Tres Leches Cakes

Heart Pinata Cookies (see the inside of these cookies here)

Coconut and Lime Cake

Black Forest "Choc Bar" Cake

Russian Honey Cake (see the steps involved in making this cake here)

Red Velvet Santa Cupcakes

Admittedly, this is an Australian company, but I am sure there would be similar options elsewhere. I have recommended this to lots of people as something that is really fun to do!

I do still have a few boxes here to make, which doesn't stop me from still anticipating each new box as it is announced!!

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Christmas in July (in August)

I don't know if Christmas in July is a worldwide thing or if it is just something that we in the Southern Hemisphere like to partake in, or maybe even just here in Australia. Whichever it is, it is an event that seems to be gaining more and more popularity here.

What having a Christmas in July does is enables us to have some form of Christmas dinner when the weather is cold rather than slaving in a hot kitchen in the middle of summer when it is really Christmas. Having said that, in our family we do tend to do the full on traditional Christmas dinner regardless of the heat, so maybe it is just an excuse to bring people together for good food and company.


 My sister hosts a Christmas in July every second year and when she does, it is the full on traditional Christmas dinner, and there is even a non traditional form of gift giving, usually by playing Bad Santa (where you open gifts one by one and other people can steal the gift that you received if they want).

This year, we went to a work friend's apartment and everyone bought something to share. She lives right on the beach so some people were out on the balcony looking out at the bay (brrrr!!). The food varied from a really delicious chicken dish, to potatoes cooked in goose fat, cauliflower broccoli cheese and more, with panna cotta for dessert.

The date had to be changed to early August for a few reasons, so in the end we were celebrating Christmas in July (in August)

My contributions were some marbled fondant sugar cookies. This is a Bake it Box that I have had sitting in my cupboard for a while now. I knew that I wanted these to be my first bake in my new oven. The kit included a little stamp kit so you can put whatever words you like in the icing. My plan was to have some cookies that said Christmas and the rest would say August? but in the end I just had them all saying Christmas because it was getting late on Friday night.

I did, however, have the words 1st Bake and Reno in a couple in celebration of the fact that the kitchen renovation is nearly done! So close. I am planning to post about it when the last finishing touches are done. I did have a few issues getting the letters around the right way at first but I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Dinner with Friends

One of the things that I am gradually learning with the sous chef* is that cooking for others need not be too stressful now that there are two of us to take care of things. Previously if I knew that others were coming for a meal I would get stressed about what to cook, about what time to start, about what would happen if they didn't like it, if the food was going to be at an acceptable standard and so much more. I don't think I have too many disasters so I am not sure why I think like that, but I always have done.

Last week we invited some of our friends around to have dinner with us. Maybe part of the reason for not feeling too stressed about it was that I knew weeks ago what I was going to cook for dessert so it was really only what we would have for mains that was undecided. In fact, what we were having for dessert came even before I knew they were coming. It was probably more that I knew I wanted to cook the next Bake It Box and therefore I invited people around!!

We were a bit undecided about what to cook during the week leading up to the meal. We debated about beef ribs, or some version of American barbecue but in the end we decided to go with pork belly. Now this meant there were some firsts for me. I've never actually cooked with pork belly before, let alone with kalettes or fennel which form part of the cooked vegetables in this dish. In fact, I'd never heard of kalettes until we watched Masterchef recently and they were included in a recipe. Part of the reason for choosing this recipe was because I had picked up the supermarket magazine for July and this was the cover recipe. It seemed like as good a recipe to try as any.

I will say that we do look forward to picking up the Coles magazine every month. There are always lots of recipes that we think we might try. Not bad for a free supermarket magazine. You can also find some of the recipes on Taste.

We did change the vegies from brussel sprouts (bleugh) to broccoli but other than that we kept pretty much to the recipe. In addition, we made some brioche buns to have with dinner (recipe coming soon). This dish was very, very tasty, although I'm not really sure about pork belly because there just isn't that much meat. I think if we were going to do this recipe again, we would use a normal pork roast but use the herb rub which was absolutely delicious.

Crispy Skin Pork Belly with Caramelised Apples

1.3kg Pork Belly Roast Boneless
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sea salt flakes
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 brown onion, cut into wedges
1 fennel, trimmed, cut into wedges
1 cup (250ml) salt-reduced chicken stock
200g pkt Kalettes, trimmed
200g brussels sprouts, halved (we substituted broccoli cut into florets)
3 teaspoons brown sugar
3 small red apples, halved

Preheat oven to 140°C. Place pork on a clean work surface. Pat rind dry with paper towel. Brush rind with half the oil. Sprinkle with salt, fennel seeds and cumin seeds. Place the onion and fennel wedges in the base of a roasting pan. Place pork, rind-side up, over the onion mixture. Pour stock around the pork in the pan. Cover and roast for 2 hours or until pork is very tender.

Increase oven to 230°C. Uncover and roast for 30 mins or until rind is crackled. Cover and set aside for 15 mins to rest.

Meanwhile, combine the kalettes, brussels sprout, 1 teaspoon of the sugar and remaining oil in a roasting pan. Season. Sprinkle cut side of apple with remaining sugar. Add to kalette mixture in the pan. Roast at 230°C with pork, turning occasionally, for 20 mins or until tender.

Arrange the pork, onion mixture and kalette mixture on a large serving platter. Thickly slice the pork to serve.

So for dessert I made the April Bake it Box which was a Vanilla Custard Cake. This was a pretty clever cake. You make a single cake batter, but the magic is that the cake separates into a sponge top layer, a soft custard inside and a firm custard base. Very tasty! I am keen to try making it again at some point and maybe making it a chocolate flavoured custard cake.

We went from this:

To this:

This was when cake making felt a little bit like craft

The finished product

I'm very happy with how it turned out. Even my wafer paper flower didn't look too wonky, and it tasted great!

All in all a very successful evening.

* My boyfriend/partner/man have several things we enjoy doing together (no,.,I wasn't talking about anything like that!!). We enjoy cooking together. He is a much more organised cook than I am, but even so he doesn't mind cleaning up after me as I cook. He shall henceforth be known as the sous chef.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Sponge rolls

A couple of months ago I posted about my first Bake It Box adventure where I made a beautiful Red Velvet Cake with a mirror glaze finish. In that post I said something stupid along the lines of I am going to have to complete the boxes I had before I can buy more. I'm afraid I am hooked on buying these boxes, and I always have good intentions of making them, but I do now have multiple boxes here to make.

Today, I want to talk about one of the skills that I learned through making the last box that I actually did make. The May box was for a Pattern Swiss Roll Cake which was a vanilla sponge cake filled with salted caramel whipped cream. 

The salted caramel was delicious so now I need to work out what else we can do with it so I can make some more, but today I am going to focus more on the sponge roll itself. A while ago I made a Honey Log Roll which used this technique, but I hadn't done it since. Since making this one  (well technically the second attempt) I have now made several more and feel like I now have the sponge roll technique mostly down. There's always room for improvement, but they are pretty much turning out every time now.

So firstly,about the Bake it Box

The kit came with fuchsia food colouring but I had decided I was going to make it for my partner's birthday so I went and got green colouring instead. The instructions said to create dots for the pattern, and I was really happy with how it turned out, but then when I made the first sponge, I think my dodgy oven wasn't hot enough so instead of ending up with a light and fluffy sponge I ended up with flat, cooked eggs.

I was determined not to be defeated and I had plenty of the pattern mixture left, but what I didn't have was the pattern sheet, so instead of dots, we ended up with a squiggly kind of messy design (definitely not a pattern), but it tasted amazing, and he was happy with it, which is the main thing.

One thing that perplexes me is how this is a vanilla sponge cake given that there is no vanilla in, but that gives me something to ponder in the shower and other places that I do my deep thinking!!

Sponge Roll

1/2 cup (105g)caster sugar
 1/2 tbspn (5g) corn flour
1/2 cup (65g) plain flour
4 large eggs
2 1/2 tbspn (40ml) milk
Icing sugar

Pre-heat oven to 180c (160c fan forced)

Beat the eggs and sugar for at least 5-8 minutes or until it has turned pale and nearly doubled in volume

Sift in half the flours at and a time and fold in very carefully. Pour in the mile and gently fold until incorporated.

Pour the mixture into your greased and lined tray . Drop the tray a few times to burst any air bubbles. Bake for 12-14 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool for just a few minutes.

Lightly sprinkle icing sugar onto a sheet of baking paper. Whilst the sponge is still warm, run a knife along the edges and carefully flip it over the dusted sheet. Slowly peel the baking paper that you lined the tin with.

Carefully flip over the sponge and then using the peeled baking paper roll the sponge. Allow to cool completely and then fill with the filling of your choice. I have been doing strawberries and whipped cream

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Bake It Box

I don't typically spend a lot of time on Twitter anymore, but when I do I tend to see tweets from the same people. One of those people is Kaetrin from Kaetrin's Musings. A couple of months ago she posted a photo of a super impressive lemon mousse cake. It featured several layers, curd, filling and more, so I naturally said something along the lines of there is no way I could ever make that.

She then told me about Bake It Box.

This is the description from their website:

Bake It Box delivers a delicious, exciting, & new baking kit directly to your door every month. Each bakeitbox contains easy step-by-step instructions, pre-measured dry ingredients and all the decorations needed to create a standout baking masterpiece!

Now, I consider myself a competent baker. Most of what I cook tastes good, but I am not very good at making things pretty, but it's good to challenge yourself isn't it? I therefore waited for the announcement of the next box knowing that I intended to order it.  I also ordered a kit for my sister who already does a lot of cake decorating but I think this is a technique she hasn't used before.

I must confess that I doubted the wisdom of that decision when I saw that it was going to be a Red Velvet Cake with a Mirror Glaze. The red velvet part was fine. I mean, that's cake so it should be okay as long as you follow the recipe, but the mirror glaze part was far more challenging. It's the kind of technique you see on baking shows and think wow that looks amazing but I couldn't possibly do it. Part of the reason for buying this kit (and the other one I have bought but not yet made) is to challenge myself so this weekend I am finally biting the bullet and making it. There were a couple of reasons for doing it this weekend. One is that we don't have to do any moving furniture etc so there is time to do all the processes, and the other is that I have told myself that I can't buy the next box until I have made at least one of the two that I have here.

When I did decide to make it this weekend, I knew that I was going to my sister's for dinner on Sunday night, so I thought that I could take this for dinner. Ironically, she decided that she was going to make her box this weekend too so I see plenty of red velvet cake in my immediate future!

So what do you get in your box. Basically, you get your pre-measured dry ingredients, plus things like disposable cake tins and food colouring to help you with your creation. You also get an ingredient list so you know exactly what else you will need to buy, and a step by step instruction card that gives you all the ingredients so you can make the recipe again at a future date. In addition, there are resources such as online tutorials (this is the tutorial for this recipe). The instructions also tell you what the techniques are. For example, in this recipe you mix your gelatine into cold water and then mix that into hot liquid. This technique is called blooming (or so I learned from the instruction card!!)

Here are some pics from the process

 

 

 

   
I have to say I am really really pleased with how this has turned out. All there is left to do now is transfer it onto the serving board without messing it up and it will be done. Of course that might turn out to be the hardest bit yet!!

I will definitely be using the cream cheese frosting recipe in the future as it was the best I have ever made. And for all the leftover bits that we cut off to make the heart shape? Well, I think we are going to make a trifle type concoction next weekend with all the offcuts!

So, am I going to keep buying kits from Bake it Box. Absolutely!! I might even try and make them in the appropriate month too!

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.