The first Saturday of the month is when I share all the things that I baked in the previous month.
I just had a look at last month's post and I note that it looks very similar to this one in that there was a chiffon cake and a self saucing pudding. In my defence, they were both new recipes to me.
First, I made Butterscotch self saucing pudding. This one was really good, but if I had to pick a favourite out of the ones I have tried so far, it is still the Spicy Apple and Ginger self saucing pudding recipe that I shared a couple of years ago.
The other thing I made was another variation on a chiffon/angel food cake, this time it was a chocolate chiffon cake. It was oh so good! Beautiful and light but also very chocolatey.
Yes, I am still mildly obsessed with making these kind of cakes. I do think that maybe it is time to try and challenge myself to making something different in the next month, but the question is what. I have several cookbooks out from the library so I should surely be able to find something new to challenge myself with.
I am sharing this post as part of In My Kitchen, hosted at Sherry's Pickings
Weekly meals
Saturday - Beef Pepper Pot Pie
Sunday -
Monday -
Tuesday - Anniversary dinner
Wednesday - Chicken tenders with chips
Thursday - Loaded beef tacos
Friday - Takeaway
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. 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. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
This month's choice for Cook the Books is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It is such an interesting choice for Cook the Books as it isn't necessarily a book that you would consider foodie, but it is absolutely full of food references. It was also a fun read to revisit as an adult, especially when you consider that the book itself is over 150 years old, and yet it is timeless.
Reading this again reminded me of the White Night event that was held in Melbourne back in 2015. In honour of the 150th anniversary of the book being published, one of the themes for the event was Alice in Wonderland, with many of Melbourne's building being transformed into giant canvasses for projections. Here are a few of the Alice related pictures I took that night.
The adventures that Alice has after she follows the white rabbit down the rabbit hole are zany, and yet apart from the fact that the game of croquet is something that kids today might not be familiar with, pretty much everything else is still easy for us to understand. Although, I did tend to skip through the poetry but I do that in books like The Lord of the Rings too.
The most well known food reference is probably the mad hatter's tea party, but there were so many others, and I had several ideas of what to make. I ended going with something that wasn't directly related to the story. If you google for ideas there are so many elaborately decorated items - topsy turvy cakes, giant tea pots etc. Unfortunately my decorative skills do not extend to such skilled designs. I do taste good, not necessarily looks amazing!
Some of the ideas I considered were a big cake surrounded by small cakes to represent the food that Alice ate that had the effect of either making her grow big or small. I also thought about making a treacle tart or an onion tart. There were so many options.
So what did I make? We were having our first guests here for dinner at the new house, so I wanted to make something dessert worthy. I also love making chiffon cakes, so once I found my tin in one of the still packed boxes, I decided to make an Earl Grey Chiffon Cake, inspired by all the tea references in the book.
I ended up adapting a recipe which was made with French Earl Grey tea. I only had a couple of bags of French Earl Grey, and I really wanted to use just normal Earl Grey (British I guess) tea instead. The original recipe also called for orange to be included but I didn't have any. I also took some inspiration from a couple of other recipes that I found online by including some of the tea leaves in the cake mixture.
I do love making chiffon cakes (also known as angel food cake). I have made a lemon flavoured one before and a coffee cream cake that isn't called chiffon cake but uses exactly the same techniques. I might try to make a chai flavoured one next. (editted to say....the next one will be a vanilla one as per my husband's request)
The flavour might have been stronger had I used more teabags, but you could definitely taste it, particularly on the second day. There wasn't a lot left for the second day as all the family loved it, especially my nephews who both came back for seconds!
A couple of important things to note when making these kinds of cakes. Firstly, you do not butter the cake tin. You want the cake mixture to stick. It is important that the cake is left to completely cool whilst still upside down. This prevents the cake from collapsing in on itself and ensures that the texture is extremely light.
Earl Grey Tea Chiffon Cake
4 Earl Grey teabags 160ml ( ⅔ cup) boiling water 185g (1¼ cups) self-raising flour 30g (¼ cup) cornflour 1 teaspoon cream of tartar ½ teaspoon salt 6 eggs, separated 200g caster sugar, plus 110g (½ cup) extra 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 100ml vegetable oil Icing sugar, to dust
Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Place an ungreased 21cm angel food cake tin on an oven tray. You can also use a bundt tin.
Place the tea bags in a small jug, pour the boiling water over and set aside to infuse until the water is warm.
Sift the flour, cornflour, cream of tartar and salt.
Whisk the egg yolks and 200g caster sugar on high speed until thick and pale then whisk in the vanilla.
Squeeze the tea bags so that you get as much flavour as possible into the water.
Cut one of the teabags and add the leaves to the egg and sugar mixture.
Add 125ml ( ½ cup) of the tea to the oil. The tea should still be warm but not hot. Add the oil mixture to the egg mixture and whisk on low speed until well combined.
With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and whisk until just combined. Set aside.
In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Add the remaining caster sugar and whisk until thick and glossy and the sugar has dissolved. Add about a third of the egg whites to the yolk mixture and use a large metal spoon or spatula to fold through until well combined. Add the remaining egg white mixture and fold until just combined.
Spoon the mixture into the ungreased tin and gently smooth the surface with the back of a metal spoon. Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Immediately turn the cake upside down still in the tin so it is suspended, for a minimum of 2 hours. If you are using a bundt tin for this, you can invert the cake over the top of a bottle to have the same effect.
When the cake is completely cool, run a small knife around the side of the tin to release.
Dust with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream and strawberries.
I have also linked this post up with Foodies Read hosted at
Weekly meals
Saturday - Out for dinner
Sunday - Roast Pork
Monday - Beef Chilli with sweet potato wedges
Tuesday - Hainanese Chicken with bok choy and rice
Wednesday - Chicken enchiladas with rice and beans
Thursday - Out for dinner
Friday - Prawn Paella
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. 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. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
We are all familiar with the old saying about when life gives you lemons make lemonade but I am here to suggest that there are so many other options. In fact, I think I have only attempted to make lemonade once, because to me,
I have had this post in mind for quite some time because when I look out at my garden there is a tree with a profusion of lemons on it. We weren't always sure that would be the case, because a few years ago now we did a very, very hard prune. There were quite a few occasions where we stood on the deck and looked at the stump and contemplated whether we had gone too hard. Here is the evidence:
I do love lemon as a flavour. It is up there with chocolate as a favourite. Another favourite is white chocolate and raspberry, but that, and other flavours, aren't as accessible to me as chocolate and lemon are.
Over the years I have made a lot of different lemon flavoured treats
Lemon Syrup Cakes - This is a firm favourite in our house, and I have made them many, many times, most recently a couple of weeks ago.
Lemon Thins - I have made these once, but I do often think about making them again.
Lemon delicious - Last year I went through a phase of making self saucing puddings, so it was only natural that I made a lemon version.
Lemon Crunch Cake - I made this Hawaiian cake after reading about it in the Lost Pearl by Emily Madden.
Lemon Mousse Cake - I have made this a couple of times, but I have also used the mousse that is one of the components of this cake.
Lemon tart - I've made this a couple of times. Most recently I added meringue kisses to the top to make a fancy lemon meringue pie
Lemon meringue pie- I have also made the more traditional version of lemon meringue pie.
There are more, but I think the above represent how much we enjoy lemon in our house.
Today, I am sharing the recipe for the Lemon Angel Food Cake, which is a Mary Berry recipe. I have made this before, and ended up giving part of the cake away before I tasted it, which I realised as soon as we did taste it, because it was so light and airy and so delicious.
I am making it again today to take to a family dinner tonight, our first opportunity to come together as a family since July since our lockdown has finally been removed. There are still some restrictions for those who are not double vaxxed.
Last time I made this, I used the lemon curd to make a delicious lemon mousse, and I will be doing the same again today. What I don't include is passionfruit as this is a flavour that I do not like.
Lemon Angel Food Cake - Mary Berry
For the cake
125g/4½oz plain flour 300g/10½oz caster sugar 10 large free-range egg whites 2 large lemons, grated zest only 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp cream of tartar ½ tsp salt
For the lemon curd (this recipe makes more lemon curd than you need)
10 large free-range egg yolks 400g/14oz caster sugar 4 large lemons, juice only (approximately 200ml/7fl oz) 2 large lemons, grated zest only 175g/6oz unsalted butter, cubed 2 passion fruit
For the topping 300ml/10fl oz whipping cream ½ tsp vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 (fan 160C) and arrange an oven shelf in the bottom third of the oven. Sift the flour and 100g/3½oz of the caster sugar together in a bowl and set aside.
Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl with an electric hand whisk or mixer on a high speed for one minute until frothy. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, cream of tartar and salt and continue whisking for 2-3 minutes, or until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl. Increase the speed and add the remaining 200g/7oz of caster sugar, one tablespoon at a time to form firm, but not stiff peaks.
Sprinkle over one-third of the flour mixture and fold gently to combine. Repeat with the remaining two-thirds of the flour mixture folding gently to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.
Transfer the batter to a 25cm/10in angel food cake pan. Gently run a knife through the centre of the batter to remove any pockets of air. Cook for 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and immediately turn upside down onto the tin’s cooling legs, or place over the neck of a wine bottle. Leave to cool for at least one hour.
Run a knife around the inner and outer edges of cake to remove it from the pan. Invert onto a plate. Carefully use a palette knife to separate the cake from the base of the pan. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
For the lemon curd, mix the egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest together in a large pan. Cook over a low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir the sides and base of the pan. Cook for 5-7 minutes, or until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Pass through a sieve into a large jug. Fill two 350g/12oz glass jars with the lemon curd and seal with lids. Cover the remaining curd with cling film and leave to cool.
For the topping, whisk the cream and vanilla extract in a bowl until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed. Spoon the topping over the angel food cake and, using a palette knife, coat the top and sides of the cake, smoothing as you go.
Cut the passion fruit in half and scoop out the seeds. Stir the passion fruit into the reserved, cooled lemon curd and drizzle over the angel food cake before serving. You may want to use just one of the jars of lemon curd to serve with the cake and save the other to eat separately.
Weekly Meals
Saturday - Pork chops with potatoe and cauliflower bake
Sunday - Roast beef rolls with gravy
Monday - Zucchini, tomato risotto
Tuesday - Lasagne
Wednesday - Pork Nachos
Thursday - Chicken kebabs, baked potato, salad
Friday - Takeaway
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. 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. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
When I posted What I Baked in July post a couple of weeks ago There were lots of comments about the coffee cream cake that I made.
As I mentioned in that post, we were watching one of the Bake Offs and the bakers were asked to make something that was coffee flavoured, and Robert started reminiscing about a coffee cream cake that his grandmother used to always have and so I went and found a recipe that sounded similar and made it for him. He was very happy with it and said it came very close to what he remembered. I even heard him talking to his parents about it and how it bought back memories of his grandmother.
It's a pretty retro cake, but it did taste delicious, even for me who is more of an occasional coffee drinker rather than a coffee addict. I did reduce the coffee a fraction in the cake recipe.
That has made me think about the things I remember about my grandparents, and the foods I associate with my memories of them. I have posted a few times about things I remember about my cheeky grandfather. He always had licorice allsorts in a bowl next to his chair, and a packet of Kool Mints in the car. He was definitely a meat and three veg kind of guy, to the point that he didn't particularly like chicken, so would only ever eat the chicken wings. I do, however, have a memory of having a lot of family in their dining room having a big feast of KFC which at the time was the height of luxury for me.
I do also remember a story that I heard about him and my grandmother. The story goes that she used to regularly make steak and kidney pie. After 20 years apparently he finally gathered the courage to tell her that he didn't really like it.
I also think of them on the odd occasion when I have a cappuccino. When my grandfather was in his 70s or 80s he developed a taste for cappuccino that I don't remember before that, and so they used to head off to the Kmart cafe and he would eat the froth off the top and we would all pretend to be horrified! And that would happen every time! It makes me feel emotional thinking about this today.
As for my grandmother, she was apparently a very good cook (which is impressive given that most of her life she had to cook on a wood stove), but unfortunately my strongest memory of her cooking related to cooking dog food. She also used to breed Australian Silky Terriers quite successfully, and we used to have to help her clean out the dog kennels at the end of each day. It was a horrible job but we all used to do it. She used to cook up big batches of dog meat so it was either cooking away on the stove or was sitting there waiting to be used. It had a certain kind of smell and occasionally my mother cooks savoury mince that smells just like it, and I struggle to eat it!
Anyway, before I got distracted by those memories, I thought I would share the recipe for the Coffee Cream Cake, seeing as so many people were interested in it. The recipe said to make it in a tube tin but I didn't have one of those at the time (I do now!) so I just made a round cake.
I found this recipe at RecipeLand. I made it pretty much as stated although we don't have any coffee flavoured liqueur or whole coffee beans so I didn't use either of those. I was also quite surprised to see chocolate at the end of the recipe. I didn't use that either!
The other thing that I just realised when I am posting this is that this recipe is a variation on the chiffon/angel food cake that I made last weekend, given that it does call for the tube tin and for the cake to be cooled in the tin but inverted. This is me connecting the dots!
Coffee Cream Cake
Cake
5 large eggs room temperature 1 cup sugar ½ teaspoon instant coffee powder 3 tablespoons water, boiling 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted 1 teaspoon baking powder
Frosting
2 cups heavy whipping cream 2 tablespoons sugar ¼ cup coffee very strong 2 tablespoons liqueur coffee flavor, such as kahlua walnuts chopped, toasted coffee beans, whole chocolate
Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃).
Separate eggs.
Combine egg yolks and 1 cup sugar in large bowl and beat until thick and lemon colored, about 5 minutes.
Dissolve coffee powder in boiling water. Blend in vanilla and dissolved coffee powder.
Combine flour and baking powder and blend into batter.
Beat egg whites until stiff.
Fold into batter. Turn into ungreased 10-inch tube pan.
Bake 30 minutes. Invert onto rack and let stand until completely cool.
For the frosting, whip cream with 2 tablespoons sugar until soft peaks form. Add cold coffee and liqueur and beat until stiff.
Slice cake crosswise into thirds. (I only did halves!)
Use about ⅓ of cream frosting to fill layers and remainder to frost entire cake (save some frosting and pipe rosettes over top for garnish, if desired).
Chill until whipped cream is slightly firm. Press nuts onto sides of cake and arrange coffee beans atop rosettes, if desired.
Chill 4 hours before serving.
Weekly Meals
Saturday -
Sunday - Pork and cabbages steaks
Monday - steak baked potatoes
Tuesday - Sausages mash gravy
Wednesday - Spag bol
Thursday - Honey Chicken
Friday - takeaway
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. 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. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
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