Chocolate Fruit Cake

Nearly forgot about this cake! I took the pictures with my phone and not the camera, so it was forgotten until I was updating my Great Bakes blog awhile ago that I remembered. I was baking so many rounds of the Traditional Rich Fruit Cakes in December for Christmas that I honestly was bored with them. Don't get me wrong, my recipe for the traditional Christmas cake is two thumbs up and the cake is moist with plump fruits and full-bodied. There's no cheating when it comes to baking fruit cakes. A month of soaking the fruits in brandy (or rum, or whiskey, even had X.O one year) and 5 hours of low temperature baking (time would depend on size of your cake, mine's 9x9 inches). This chocolate Christmas cake isn't very chocolatey to start with, in case you don't fancy steering far from the traditional flavour of fruit cakes. It just has enough chocolate flavour in it for you to think, "Oh, there's chocolate somewhere in here!". The cake is also very moist and I like that it doesn't taste brandy-ey like most fruit cakes do. With Tia Maria or Kahlua, these coffee liqueurs add depth and wholesomeness to the cake. I had a small slab or two every evening with Mulled Wine. Bliss. By the way, I can't remember which book did this recipe come from. I'm pretty sure it's Nigella Lawson's but I can't recall which one. It could be Feast but I can't find it, so far ....hmmm. Wait! Found it! It is from Feast.

Cranberry Bakewell Tart

So, the jam's cooked and I cooled it overnight in 2 sterilised jars. I got started with making the pastry. Since I started using the food processor for my pastries years ago, I've never needed to sought for another alternative nor any reason to not make my own pastry. The tedious part of pastry-making has always been rubbing cold butter into the flour. With a food processor, I first dump all the dry ingredients and pulverise them, then pour in the mixed liquid ingredients to combine them. Take it out and form it into a disc and chill. You can always do this a day in advance and keep it in the fridge until you need to use it. The frangipane filling is also an easy and versatile filling. In this tart, it was a necessary secondary filling. The cranberry jam sits on the pastry case and the frangipane filling on top of it. With the frangipane, much of the cranberry tartness is countered. Least, we don't cringe with every bite. In Feast, Miss Lawson royally mixed some instant royal icing and spread them over the tart when it was completely cooled. That's too much sugar for me. I settled for sprinkling handfuls of flaked almonds on the frangipane filling before putting the tart into the oven. It was a beautiful tart. Tasted divine and highly addictive. The buttery, yet crisp almond pastry was perfect and both filling complemented each other exceptionally.

Cranberry Jam

Like Nigella Lawson has put it aptly, "If it's Christmas, it must be cranberries...". I would have shy away from cooking any jam because by looking at the recipe ingredients, I'd have turned the page when I see the word "pectin". Pectin is a thickening cum gelling agent that can be commercially-found in supermarket aisles (apparently...) but we don't find them here. The mentality here is basically, why bother cooking jam when you can buy a good jar organic preserve for only US$10 or a St Dalfour for only US$2.99 during sale? I agree in that sense but you see, pectin is actually a naturally-occurring substance from fruits if you cook it long enough, continuously stirring at low heat with sugar. This labourous effort of standing next to a hot stove,  getting splattered with hot jam while you're stirring is quite a put-off and it does take a long time. The pectin occurs when all the vitamins have been cooked out of the fruit and then will it start to thicken. So, if you use a pre-prepared pectin, you'll have your jam thicken in a much shorter time and use a lot less sugar.
The reason why I cooked this jam was because cranberries are pectin-intense. The pectin is released (as in jam will start to set) once the berries have burst. So, it didn't take as long. Sure, it's still a hot stove (I use a flame stove) and there were quite a bit of hot splatters when the berries started bursting but it wasn't a tiresome experience. Though I used equal amount of sugar to cook the cranberries with, the tartness of these berries still ruled the main flavour of the jam. And I loved the insanely rich and festively red of this jam!

Snow-Flecked Brownies

Hi!!! I'm back...I think. I've been consumed by new school routines at the start of this year and I don't see how that's going to slow down in the coming months or years for the matter. I've been neglecting my much loved hobby of cake decorating since January, taking orders only to fit around my schedules. It's a tough call but my family commitments are priority. That also means that I've not given up sneaking in time to bake for the children and the MOTH. There's only that many days they (or I,) will tolerate bread and cheese or cereal and milk. I'll be writing about those little trysts I've had with my Kenwood later on...AFTER I finish the 2012 Christmas posts!

Snow-Flecked Brownies- Think I baked these for my visiting nieces and nephew a couple of days before Christmas. The lot came over for a pre-Christmas brunch and I cooked up an Italian spread for starters and mains, and chose an American brownie and British dessert pie for dessert. The base recipe for these brownies is the same as the one from Nigella's HTBADG. Straightforward melt-and-mix formula with an extra cup of white chocolate buttons. The children loved it to the last crumb but as you would know by now, with my aversion to white chocolate, I found that addition to be an overkill. I'm prejudiced...I love them dark and handsome, not in white shiny armour.

Star-Topped Mince Pies

It's Christmas already, and the potluck party invitations are in. I'm always having so many dishes I want to bring, only to find myself pressed for time. I love baking and cooking for friends and families during the festive season but it is also one of my busiest season with Great Bakes. My poor oven runs daily and on some days, for hours straight...just the fruitcakes will take 4-5 hours to bake in very low temperature. So, I have to plan very accurately. This year, I planned for Mince Pies. First up is the Star-Topped Mince Pies. This recipe is available in both Feast and How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson. Mince Pies are very easy to do especially if you can buy a good jar of mince instead of cooking it yourself. Not that cooking mince is difficult, it really is easy especially without suet. I'll do it next year just to prove it...remind me. The pastry is relatively easy to mix and all you have to do is roll 'em, fill 'em, star-top 'em and bake 'em. Doesn't even take long to bake them. Just 10 minutes. I'll give it to you if your fingers are a little large because you do need to gently place the fine pastry into the miniature tins. But these babies are beautiful to look at and to eat. Pop-in-the-mouth sizes. My kind of mince pies...I can't stomach large mince pies :-p

Chocolate Cheesecake

We love cheesecakes and we love this Chocolate Cheesecake from Nigella Lawson's Feast. My only gripe is the recipe calls for a couple more ingredients to make up the filling. But then again, it may not be as yummy if it didn't have those extras. Compared to the version from How To Be A Domestic Goddess, this one's smoother and the chocolate flavour is much more intense with a good balance between the sweetness and tang from the sour cream. The two obvious things I did, which probably contributed to its sophistication are (1) using Oreo cookies (no cream) for the base instead of digestive biscuits and (2) Callebaut Dark Chocolate, which reminds me...... I'm out of it!!

Marble Cake

The MOTH finally agrees to this Marble Cake! Over the years, whenever a slice of Marble Cake is presented to him, he'd look at it with disdain. You see, he has very little regard for Marble Cakes...remind him of tuck shop cakes - dry, character-less and plain sweet, just so they can call it a cake. I tend to agree at some point because it really is just a two-colour Madeira Cake where you divide the batter in two and colour one with a tablespoon of cocoa. But this version from Nigella Lawson's Feast is different. Using her moist Madeira Cake as a base, she also gave a small but significant twist to each colour. Citrus zest to add some zing to the plain batter and a little coffee to perk up the chocolate base. The cake is moist, flavourful and you won't stop at one slice. A real comfort cake. No wonder it's in the "funeral" section of that book!

Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake

We had this for breakfast on Monday. What's with the "quadruple" you ask? Well, Nigella Lawson explains that this cake is made up of cocoa, chocolate chips, chocolate syrup and grated chocolate. Love this cake for its simplicity to bake the loaf. Put everything into the food processor , blitz and pour. Easy-peasy. BUT...cooking the chocolate syrup is a whole other thing. You want the syrup to be syrupy, not just melted sugar with cocoa. For that, you'll need to stir consistently over low heat for the liquid to turn caramel-y...if there's such a word. Easy if it's just sugar and water but with cocoa added, looking for the colour change is impossible. Doesn't help that it's simmering. It basically has to reduce to turn into this yummy thick syrup. Anyway, if this is going to be daunting, forget it. In my opinion, the syrup didn't really enhance the loaf nor did the flakes of chocolate on top. Purely aesthetic, I feel. The top did look shiny and chocolate flakes inviting but other than that, the loaf itself was to die for. Rich, moist and flavourful. Maybe it was the Valhorna Manjuri cocoa I used and the 75% dark chocolate chips? Well, Young Master's mates wiped out whatever that was left from breakfast for tea, so I didn't get a second slice to have it 'dance in my mouth' - quoting Manu Fidel.

Big Pasta with Mushroom, Parsley, Garlic & Thyme

I know...the title itself is a mouthful. I would have just called it plain Vegetarian Baked Pasta. This recipe came from Nigella Lawson's Feast and it ensues the baked rigatoni for meat-lovers from the previous page. Our family love butter-sautéed mushrooms with garlic on toast. So, baking this for Sunday lunch was a no-brainer. But working out the right quantity was a lot of brain. Nigella's recipe was to feed 16! I halved the béchamel and mushroom mixture recipes, and used only one 500gm packet of pasta (recipe called for three). I ended up baking the pasta in a 20cm dish and six large ramekins. If you're going to do this, make sure you have a large party or freeze the rest (like I did) for a weekday lunch. Cooking the white sauce may be a bit daunting for beginners but you have to start sometime because lots of comforting food involves béchamel...and even better, cheesy béchamel. Always get the roux right first. Set the stove on low fire, melt the butter and add the flour. Sprinkling them into the pan while constantly whisking helps. When you see a nice paste, add the milk. Never stop whisking. No need for vigorous whisking just a gentle and steady hand will do. Increase the heat a bit and continue whisking till it thickens. Let it come to a boil but not over-flowing it and take the sauce off the heat. You'll have a beautiful sauce for your pasta. The other thing I changed here was using three cheeses to top the pasta mixture instead of one. Less salty with less parmesan, richer with cheddar and great browning with stringy mozarella.

Hot Cross Buns

Baked this lot for Good Friday a couple of weeks ago with a recipe from Nigella Lawson's Feast. This book features recipes for every celebration and I always love the baked goods from this book. The buns are a bit dense compared to store-bought ones but that's always expected from home-baked breads. We don't use bread improvers or dough softeners, so we'll hardly get those absolutely light and airy-kind of bread or buns. They are nonetheless, tasty and real stomach-fillers. Instead of fruit peels, I used sultanas. Best eaten straight out of the oven.