Merry Christmas

Well this is likely to be my last post for 2007 as I'm on vacation as of NOW - yippeeeeeeeeeeeee. I'm back to work on the 7th of January 2008 and probably won't have much computer time. Hopefully I'll have baking and photographing time galore.

I'm spending part of my vacation in the sunny Bay of Plenty region - Mt Maungaui specifically and to work off my Christmas excesses(like the photo below of the shared morning tea we had at work this week) I'll be taking a walk UP "the mount" as it's known by the locals. It's very hard work but worth the views.


You want me to walk up that???


The view on the way up


Looking down towards the city/residential area


Aren't the pohutukawa trees pretty


I hope you all have a wonderful festive season whatever you are celebrating and I look forward to sharing my adventures (culinary or otherwise) in the new year.

Dare to be great in 2008!

Oranges Poranges

I'm channelling Witchiepoo today (and showing my age!). Let's all sing together...

Oranges poranges, who says,
oranges poranges, who says,
oranges poranges, who says?
there ain't no rhyme for oranges!

Back in September I posted about a whole orange cake that involved simmering an orange, cooling it, removing the pips, etc etc etc. Some of my readers commented that the cake sounded nice but the method seemed like a whole lot of faff and faddle. Well here's the solution - a very easy whole orange cake that you make in the food processor. Even better, it's an un-iced cake - my favourite kind to make being the lazy baker I am.

The recipe is from a great little New Zealand site called Foodlovers and the forum there is a wonderful place to visit if you are searching for an elusive recipe or wondering what to do with that glut of fruit or unusual ingredient. You can find the orange cake recipe here.


Being Christmas time I decided to be a little creative with the recipe and add some frozen cranberries (about a cup) to the mix. Frozen cranberries are relatively new to New Zealand groceries and I've not had a lot of experience with them. They were whole cranberries and I worried about them being too tart in the cake so I added them early and let the food processor cut them up a bit - probably a little bit too much but at least I'll know for next time. That's the nice thing about experimenting.

This cake is very moist and has a nice texture. It has just a hint of bitterness on account of the peel but it's pleasant and not overwhelming. This is one of those good for breakfast cakes but then again isn't any cake breakfast food???

Chocolate Cafe Cake

Why is it that chocolate products are so UNphotogenic? Or is it just my photographic skills? No - don't answer that one.

Much as I adore chocolate in its confectionary form (milk chocolate preferably) I'm not a big fan of chocolate cakes and would never order one at a cafe or restaurant because they are usually dry, spongey things lacking in flavour and texture. If I volunteer to bake for people I'm often asked for a chocolate cake and this is the recipe I use. It's dark and dense but not too rich and has a really good chocolate flavour. Best of all it is great with just a dusting of icing sugar and the method is pretty much melt and mix. If you are looking for a quick and easy chocolate cake this is it baby!

Anna's Chocolate Cafe Cake
Original source unknown but likely from a supermarket magazine

Ingredients
2 ¼ cups flour
¾ cup cocoa
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ cups white sugar
1 ½ cups (375ml) warm milk
3 tbsps vinegar
150 grams (a little over 5oz) butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
Icing sugar

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
Line base of a deep 23 cm round tin with baking paper (I actually use a bundt tin because it looks prettier as an un-iced cake)
Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and sugar into a bowl
Combine milk and vinegar then stir in melted butter and vanilla essence
Pour into dry ingredients and mix thoroughly
Turn mixture into tin
Bake for 45-55 mins or until the cake tests done
Leave in tin for 15 mins then turn onto a rack to cool
Dust with icing sugar

Note
Do not have your milk too warm or else the vinegar will coagulate with the milk and you will end up with a big lump of casein. Ask me how I know!