Category: Recipes

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Have your cake and eat it!

Aaron has been asking to make a cake the whole week so I looked into the cupboard and found that I didnt have my trusty Moirs cake mix, I did have flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and milk so I figured I would try making a cake from scratch.  Aaron wanted a chocolate cake so I found some cocoa powder too.

I found a recipe for a chocolate butter sponge in an old International Goodwill Cookbook (7th edition).  I made a few small adjustments but it turned out really well.

Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup castor sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla ( I just poured in a splash)
  • 1 ¼ cup flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt (I threw in a ‘pinch’)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder (I use 3 teaspoons but I know in my kitchen I have to increase baking powder)
  • 1 heaped tablespoon cocoa
  • ½ cup milk
  • 45g butter

Method:

  • Beat eggs, add sugar gradually, add vanilla and beat with a hand held beater for 3 minutes.
  • Sift dry ingredients 4 times (at this point I have to ask whose socks the creator of this recipe was smoking, I sifted the flour once, straight into the wet ingredients, that was it!), and stir into egg mixture, blending thoroughly.
  • Bring milk and butter to the boil and add to mixture.
  • Mix well with an electric beater.
  • Pour into 1 large or two small tins and bake at 180°C for 40min (large tin) or 25min (small tins).
  • Allow to cool before icing.

For the icing I decided to make a ganache.  Mainly because I had some bitter sweet chocolate from Pesach and I wanted a really chocolaty icing.  Unfortunately I didnt have any cream so I used margarine (purist dont hate me, I know its not even BUTTER!!!) instead.

Ingredients:

  • 250g bitter sweet chocolate
  • 250g margerine
  • icing sugar to thicken

Method:

  • Break chocolate into pieces and place in a microwavable bowl.
  • Add margarine.
  • Place bowl in microwave for about 1min depending on microwave strength.
  • Mix the icing until the chocolate is melted into the marge.  You may need to nuke it a bit longer.
  • Once the icing is melted add a bit of icing sugar and mix.
  • Keep adding icing sugar until you reach the thickness you want.
  • This icing will also thicken/harden as it cools, so you may want to leave it to cool down before adding any icing sugar.
  • Once its ready layer it onto the cake, starting in the middle and spreading it towards the sides.
  • It may drip over the sides or you may need to spread it depending on thickness.

Eat and enjoy!

Chocolaty goodness!!
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Army Chicken, a recipe.

Julia wrote a post about learning to cook and the fact that she has never made a roast chicken and it is something she really wants to try.  I immediately thought of my brother Matthews recipe for Army Chicken.  So named because in the army it is something that is really easy to cook.

So, I decided to make it for us and blog the process.

Ingredients:

  • 1 x whole chicken (no gibblets)
  • 1 x 1kg bag of course (kashering) salt

Items you will need:

  • Roasting pan
  • Heavy duty tinfoil

Turn your oven onto 180°C.

Take your tinfoil and pull out a piece about 60cm long.  Fold the tinfoil in half and half again so you have a long thin oblong of tinfoil.  Curve the tinfoil around so that it makes a circle slightly bigger than your chicken.  Place it in the middle of the roasting pan.

Open the bag of salt by cutting the tip of one corner off so that it is easy to pour.  Very slowly pour the sat around the outside of the foil ring.  Make sure that the salt doesnt go inside the ring.  Pouring slowly helps to guide the salt in the right place.  Flatten the salt so that it is spread evenly around the foil.

Place the chicken inside the foil circle.  Now here is the really easy part… do not add any spices not even salt or pepper.  I repeat, do NOT add any spices.

Place the roasting pan in the oven for between 45 min and an hour depending on the size of the chicken.

Remove the pan from the oven and leave for 10 minutes to settle.

We added a few potatoes to the pan but usually we do it without them.

This chicken turns out to be tasty and juicy despite not having any spices added.  Also, if you look at the picture above you can see that the salt has turned a slightly brown colour.  That is all the fat that has run out of the chicken and been locked away in the salt.  So not only tasty and juicy but healthy too.

Serve with rice and vegetables and most of all, enjoy!

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Microwave Meringues

I found this recipe in an article on IOL about microwave cooking (I cant find the damn link now!)

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MAGIC MERINGUES

Makes 20-30

1 egg white

300g sifted icing sugar

food colouring (I didn’t add any colouring)

Break up the egg white with a fork, then stir in enough icing sugar to make a thick paste. Knead in some food colouring if desired.

Line your turntable with a paper towel (I used wax paper). Roll balls the size of a marble or bigger and place them well spaced onto the turntable. Cook on 100 percent power for 1 to 1½ minutes, depending on the size.

Watch in amazement as the balls puff out to make crisp meringues. Serve sandwiched with cream.

You can put only 3-4 balls in the microwave at a time.

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My first mistake was not making a paste… it was too runny and the meringues flattened as soon as I took them out.  So my suggestion is even if you follow the directions, 1 x egg white and 300gm icing sugar, if its not a paste add more icing sugar until it is 🙂

I could probably have made mine thicker but was a bit lazy.

I didnt roll them into balls but instead used a tea spoon and dropped about a third of a teaspoon of batter onto wax paper on a plate.  Make sure they are well spaced otherwise they smooch together.

I then put them in for 1min on high.

I was so totally amazed that they actually worked 🙂

The are pretty hollow inside, probably cause I didnt make them thick enough, but they taste great, Im going to arrange them on a serving platter and drizzle melted chocolate over the tops and take them to my MIL for breaking of the fast tonight! (Picture to follow, need to get the chocolate to melt over them)

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Pancakes for dinner!

Last weekend I asked Twitter for an easy pancake recipe.  Jessica and Shirley came to my rescue.  I couldnt decide which recipe to use so a merged the two together and it was yummy!!!

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What you will need:

1 x cup flour

1 x cup milk

1/4 x cup sugar

1 x tablespoon oil

1 x egg

2 x teaspoon baking powder

pinch salt

splash vanilla

Measuring/pouring jug

Heavy frying pan

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What to do:

Mix all ingredients together so that there are no lumps or bumps.

Transfer mixture to a pouring jug.

Spray&Cook the frying pan and set to a medium to high heat.

Pour in crumpet sized or larger sized amounts of batter.

Wait until the batter starts to bubble before turning over.

Leave for a minute or two and transfer from the pan to a plate.

I leave the plate in the oven on a very low heat to keep them warm.

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Tonight we are having pancakes with Neapolitan ice cream, strawberries and blueberries.

Im also doubling this recipe cause they were so yummy last time 🙂

YUMMY!

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The easiest yummiest cake recipe ever!

I have to thank my mommy-in-law for this one!

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What you will need:

Cake

1 x box/packet vanilla cake mix (I use Moirs)

1 x instant vanilla pudding (again Moirs but any brand will do)

4 x large eggs

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup oil

1 x mixing bowl

1 x Pirex or glass dish (oblong bakes more evenly than round)

Icing

1 x cup sifted icing sugar

4 tablespoons lemon juice

1 measuring jug

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How to make the cake:

Heat the oven to 180C

Pour dry cake mix and dry pudding into the mixing bowl, add the 4 eggs, add the water and oil.

Mix until smooth and there are no lumps.

Oil/butter/Spray&Cook your glass dish.

Pour batter into dish and bake at 180C for about half an hour.

Cake should be brown and springy to the touch.

While the cake is baking, sift the icing sugar into the measuring cup and add about 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and mix.

The mixture shouldn’t be too runny.

As soon as you take the cake out the oven pour the icing over the cake and spread it around so that it covers the whole cake.

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The cake can be eaten hot with custard or ice cream or if you prefer a cool cake, I suggest you make the cake a day before and let the icing sink into the flesh of the cake, this makes it sticky and gooey all the way through.

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An alternative to vanilla and lemon is chocolate and orange.  Substitute chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding for the vanilla and use orange juice instead of lemon (be sure to strain the orange juice so it is clear and free of any pulp).

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I have to choose only one?

Being Brazen is holding yet another fantastic, right-up-my-alley giveaway!

All I have to do is tell her my favourite kind of chocolate. Easy hey?

Not really…

I LOVE chocolate, especially expensive hand made types.

In no particular order these are the choccies I wouldn’t say no to:

  • Praline
  • Lindt 70%
  • Lindt 85%
  • Lindt Chilli
  • Lindt Sea Salt
  • Any and all dark chocolate
  • Good old plain Cadbury Dairy Milk
  • Top Deck
  • Lindt Creme Brulee (at R45 a slab)
  • I also love Nutella Chocolate Spread, I know, not technically a chocolate but come on!  Its sinful!