|Dark Chocolate and Rooibos Cake|

Happy Birthday (to me)

It was my birthday not so long ago. Officially legal in every country now, the big two one. Whoop! Birthdays, in fact every holiday (except christmas), tend to be slightly anti-climatic. Im not crazy about the idea of people being forced to be nice to me on a specific day just cause its my birthday. I also tend to get extremely home-sick. 

This year, however, was by far the best birthday I've had since grade 6 and my 'epic' scrapbooking party. My amazing sister and my best friends organised a surprise party for me and my parents flew down from Durban for it. Surrounded by my closest friends and my family I couldn't have asked for a better afternoon, needless to say there were a few (okay, multiple) tears shed. Kloof Street House, thank you for supplying an incredible venue, menu and a kickass waiter. 

In celebration of me, I decided a cake was needed and I trust no-one more than myself to make me a cake. A super decadent chocolate cake; complete with marzipan, chocolate buttercream, dark chocolate ganache and a raspberry filling. Uhm... yum? This cake, understandably, didn't last very long and was gone in all of one day. Thank you to my little sister for helping me decorate it!

Dark Chocolate and Rooibos Cake with marzipan and chocolate ganache

(P.s. sorry about the photos, the lighting in the morning wasn't great and we couldn't wait to dig in - whoops)

cake:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• scant 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (shaken)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 extra-large eggs
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup rooibos tea (drawn for +/- 5min for good, strong cuppa)

buttercream:

• 250g unsalted butter (at room temp)
• approximately 2 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup cocoa (depends on how you like it)
• 1 tbsp buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp almond extract

Dark Chocolate Ganache:

• 200g good dark chocolate (min 60% cocoa solids)
• 3/4 cup cream

Filling and Decorations:

• 3 tbsp raspberry jam (more if you want more layers)
• marzipan

process:

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Start by making the cake. Combine all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the oil, buttermilk, eggs and almond extract. Slowly add the wet ingredients to to the dry ingredients, mixing to form a homogenous batter. Add the rooibos to the batter and mix until combined. Place in 2, buttered and floured, 8-inch cake tins and into the preheated oven for 35-40mins. Once a cake poker comes out clean, let the cakes cool in the pans for about 30 mins and then turn out onto a wire cooling rack. 

While the cakes are cooling make the buttercream. In the bowl of a stand mixer (if you have one - otherwise, like me, just use some arm power) beat all the ingredients together until a light, fluffy and chocolaty buttercream is formed.

You can also start to prepare the marzipan. Roll it out into roughly an 8-inch circle, and cut out any details you want to stick around the edges. 

To assemble the cake place the layer of raspberry jam on the base layer of cake followed by the round of marzipan. Smooth a thin layer of the chocolate buttercream on top of that followed by the second layer of cake. Then smooth over a thin, even layer of the buttercream over the entire cake. At this point you can make your ganache. 

Chop up the chocolate finely ready to be added to the cream. Heat the cream up until just before boiling in either a pot or the microwave. Once scalding, add the chocolate and leave to sit for a few minutes to let the chocolate melt, then fold until smooth, careful to not incorporate too many bubbles. Once fairly cool but still spreadable, smooth over the cake. (I used my excess ganache to make truffles) 

Decorate with your marzipan cutouts or anything else really. YUM!

|Funfetti|

I was told on more than one occasion today that I needed to have a baby. The problem with that statement - and there are a few problems - is that Im 20, with the minor problem of being severely single. 

My sister and I woke up early today so that we could go and babysit our second cousin. Her name is Jade. She's two. She loves to read (or be read to) and slide repetitively down a 1m slide. She's ridiculously cute. After our time with Jade we went to meet our bosses 1 week old babies. Yes, babies. His wife had twins. Little Benedict James and Fraye Isabella. Holy Moly. So tiny and precious, you cannot help but swoon when they so much as lift their fragile little fingers. Being surrounded by all these little people has got my sister begging me to have some babies, regardless of the fact thats she's 4 years older than me and at a much more appropriate time of her life to be thinking such ludicrous things, although to be frank that is a very distant future for the both of us. 

So much time and effort goes into looking after a child, talk about a full time job, and don't even think about having a social life in the first few months. Seeing this first hand has made me super appreciative of all the hours my parents must have given up to be around for us.  Mom, you're incredible, and I hope you know that when the time comes that babies may be a possibility for me, you're going to be around a lot. Perfect your parenting skills the second time around yeah?

So much cuteness needed to be complimented by a pretty cute cake. Cue Molly Yeh's Funfetti cake. Its colourful and yummy and reminiscent of your childhood. Moist, vanilla cake, with billowing vanilla buttercream. Traditional at its best. I didn't change anything for this recipe, so this is just a tribute to a beautiful cake.

Get the recipe HERE!

|Dark Chocolate and Almond Mousse|

Its the start of a new year. Clean slate. New start. Drop last years baggage and start afresh right?

People around me seem to be dropping out of relationships like flies, taking to heart the idea of 'dropping last years baggage'. That, or the idea of the looming valentines day not spent alone - like every other year - scares the shit out of them. Although I'm leaning more to the former as an explanation for the multitude of break ups happening around me recently. According to research there is a biannual purging of relationships. One is dubbed the "Spring Clean" and happens around April. The other is at the start of Christmas holidays. While we are not technically in 'break-up season', prep for the 'spring clean' is apparently underway.
Can't argue with the stats. 

If you're one of those people who has recently lost someone special, don't despair. I know its valentines day around the corner, but you can spend it with the rest of us single girls. Wine and slumber party at mine? We can watch soppy chick-flicks and gorge our faces on this chocolate mousse. Super silky, almost fudge-like in consistency this chocolate mousse is to DIE for... or to break up for? And if you're one of those unfortunate people who have to spend V-day at your significant others place, a home cooked dinner in front of you (secretly jealous, can you tell?), this would definitely make a brilliant dessert to end off a meal. It'll leave you with an appealing chocolate lining around your mouth. yum. 

dark chocolate and almond mousse
makes enough for 6-8 people

mousse:

• 200g 70% dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 170g unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
• 1/4 cup hot water* 
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 170g granulated sugar + 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp water
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp almond extract

*you can replace the hot water with a 1/4 cup of freshly brewed coffee, but then I would recommend using vanilla extract instead of the almond extract. I wasn't a huge fan of the coffee-almond flavour when I did it, but you do you boo. 

process:

Get a pot of water simmering on the stove. In a bowl put the chopped chocolate, butter and hot water (or coffee) and set of the simmering water. Stir until melted then remove from the heat and set aside. 

In a second bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar and water. Set it over the simmering water and whisk until it reaches a consistency similar to that of a runny custard. It should be a pale yellow when you're done whisking. Once its thickened take it off the pot of simmering water and put the bowl onto an ice-bath. (just stick some water and ice in a bowl and put the other bowl in that bowl, see?;) ) While its in the ice bath, keep beating it until it is cool and has thickened up some more.

Once its cool, fold in the chocolate mixture and set aside while you beat the egg whites. 

In a new bowl beat the egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Add the almond extract and sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Once done, gently fold half the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then add the rest of the egg whites and gently fold until homogenous. Be careful to not over mix it, otherwise all that beating you did will be for none. You want light, airy mousse.

Decant the mousse carefully into serving dishes, holding it close to the surface so as it not knock too much air out. Let them set in the fridge for a few hours until firm. 

|Black Forest and an Old Man|

So... my Dad turned 50. He has officially earned his status as an 'ol goat' as he is so often- lovingly- referred to as. Happy Birthday Dad!

And to celebrate this momentous occasion, I made a cake. A Black Forest cake.

Let me rewind to a few days earlier and speak about my sister. She has recently rediscovered and dusted off our juicer and decided to go on a detox. Green juice consisting of celery and kale. yum. Okay, let me give her some credit, the juices aren't that bad, quite nice really, but as I have had to explain to her, the idea of a detox is a myth. The idea that, by drinking a freshly squeezed, healthy juice, all the built up toxins from the late night drinking binges and oil-oozing fast foods can be washed out your system, when you think about it is kind of ridiculous. Sorry to destroy the illusion, but if you're currently undertaking the formidible task of having to force down cucumber and celery juice, stop. Its not doing what you're wanting (and told) it to do. By all means drink up if you actually enjoy the juice though (crazy person).

Medically speaking, the toxins in your body don't float around in your stomach and colon, so while you may be gaining the benefit of the vitamins and what not in these juices, all you're really doing is, well... drinking juice and possibly speeding up the rate of bowl movement (not appropriate for a food blog? oh well). If your body didn't get rid of those toxins itself you would be in some serious need of medical intervention. Don't try mess with your body people, it works perfectly.

Okay, back to the Black Forest. This 4 layer, 9 inch monstrosity was demolished in one day. When the cake came in, the detox was kicked out the back door, and my Dad was left looking like the happiest ol' goat you ever did see. Besides the standard vanilla cupcake, which is a regular in my oven, a Black Forest cake is one of my Dads favourites and rightly so when done right.

This cake is super moist and rich, packed with cherry goodness. Did you know; a Black Forest cake in Germany is not legally allowed to be called a Black Forest cake unless Kirschwasser is used. I'd listen to the Germans. You can obviously use other alcohols, like rum, in  the making of this cake, but the boozy cherry-ness you get from the Kirsch I think is unbeatable. Seriously, listen to the Germans.
The chocolate cake I used to make this cake is Ina Garten's ultimate chocolate cake and it is the perfect base to make this fabulous cherry monster. This cake will last a good 3 days before it starts to not taste as delicious, assuming this cake lasts that long though, which I kind of doubt.

Black Forest Cake

cake:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• scant 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cups cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (shaken)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 extra-large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

cream filling:

• 1 1/2 cups double thick whipping cream
• 250g full fat smooth cottage cheese
• 100g powdered sugar

boozy cherries:

• large jar/tin maraschino cherries in a syrup
• 1 cup kircshwasser

italian meringue buttercream 

• 100g granulated sugar
• 30g water
• 2 egg whites
• 220g unsalted butter diced 
• leftover boozy cherries, roughly chopped

dark chocolate ganache

• 50g 75% dark chocolate
• 60g double thick whipping cream
• pinch of salt

process:

Firstly, put the tinned cherries in a bowl with the Kircshwasser. My jar of cherries had a lot of syrup, so I removed (and reserved) some of the syrup so that the liquids combined just covered the cherries. Stick that in the fridge and let sit for as long as you can. Mine soaked for about 8 hours. 

Next, make the cake. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and butter and line your cake tins with baking paper. 

Sift and mix all the dry ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer. In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients, leaving out the coffee. Turn the mixer on slow and gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the coffee. With a rubber spatula, mix till just combined, scraping the bottom of the bowl to ensure it's homogenous. 

Evenly fill the cake tins and stick them in the oven for about 40 minutes. Let cool for a little while in the tin and then turn out onto a wire rack. Poke some holes in the cakes and brush over (Don't soak) the reserved syrup from the cherries then leave to cool completely. 

To make the cream filling, cream the cottage cheese with the sifted powdered sugar until smooth and light and then add the cream. Whip that until thick and it holds its shape. Stick in the fridge until ready to assemble.

The italian meringue buttercream is made by putting the sugar, water and salt in a pot and bringing to the boil. While it is bubbling away put the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer. Continuously test the syrup passes the thread stage, start whipping the eggs. When the syrup has reached the soft ball stage the eggs should be whipped to soft peaks. If you have a candy thermometer this will be a lot easier, if not, follow the links to help you determine when the syrup is ready. Once the soft ball stage is reached, drizzle the syrup into the egg whites and beat on medium-high speed until the meringue is soft and glossy. Then slowly, piece by piece, add the butter. Whip on medium-high speed until the mixture comes together and is glossy. It may take a little time, so be patient. While the mixture is whipping add the chopped cherries (reserving enough to place in-between the 4 layers of your cake). Set aside for assembly.

For the ganache, warm the cream up in a double boiler until just too hot to touch, careful not to boil it. Once hot, add the chopped chocolate and leave to melt. Once the chocolate has melted, mix together until homogenous and shiny. 

You are now ready to assemble. Cut the cakes into two equal halves, so you have 4 equal layers of cake. Place the bottom on your stand or serving plate and spread over the cream filling. Place on top of that a portion of the soaked and halved cherries and the cover with the second layer. Continue like that until you have built your cake. Next spread over a generous layer of the buttercream and smooth over the entire cake. Decorate with piped icing as you wish, if you wish. Next drizzle the ganache however you see fit, and VOILA. Easy! ;)

|A Carrot and Feta start|

Strange combination don't you think? Thats what I thought too when I saw this recipe for a 'Whipped Feta and Carrot Pesto' on the Lady and Pups blog. I have recently found this food blog. 

I am hooked. 

It is so much fun and it all looks incredible and not too daunting to make, however, I haven't got round to making much of it. Half of the ingredients are pretty foreign to me and I would have no idea where to find most of them. Luckily for me though, this particular recipe required nothing I didn't already have in my cupboard. All that was needed was a shit load of carrots. 

Now, as the self-appointed foodie in my family, I took it upon myself to take on the mountainous task of catering for my not-so-large family on Christmas day. 10 people. Not too bad right? Well it wouldn't have been if I wasn't such a perfectionist. And if Christmas wasn't such a big deal. Nothing could go wrong! The fate of Christmas day lay on my shoulders... Okay, thats a bit dramatic, but what is Christmas without a beautifully sticky glazed gammon, mounds of over the top food, some sweet, sweet bubbles that make you tipsy all too quickly, family, laughter... and this feta and carrot pesto? Nothing. It needed to be perfect.

If I do say so myself, it all went down pretty swimmingly (an apt adjective as most of the day was spent lounging in the pool cause it was a scorching hot 45 degrees Celsius). The 5 hours spent around the christmas table left me rolling around and in dire need of 'fat' pants, fit with stretchy everything. You know how a python stuffs its face in one meal and then can't eat for like a month? That was me... except my hunger returned with a vengeance the next morning. 

Now, onto my starter. It was definitely the star of the meal. Most people remember how a meal ends, the all important desert, however, by the time that part of the meal came a few too many bottles of bubbly had been popped, leaving dessert feeling a little left out. But the starters. My oh my did they go down well. Thanks Lady and Pups! The creamy, tangy-ness of the feta, whipped into an almost mousse-like consistency pairs remarkably well with the carrot pesto, which tastes only slightly like carrot. The brightness and sweetness of the carrot pesto is something you won't easily forget. Don't hate it until you try it. My mom took a lot of convincing on this one and I'm glad to say that even the avid carrot hater loved it! #winning

Try it, promise you won't regret it. 

Whipped Feta and Carrot pesto

Recipe can be found here: 

|The worst day ever... And cookies|

   

So I possibly has the worst day ever today. Let me run your through it. 

It started off with me waking up in a pretty terrible mood, just one of those days. Don't ask, I don't know why. That morning I had to go to the police station to report an attempted break in. That only took, what, 3 hours and came with extremely helpful policemen... Not. Huge waste of time! Then, I decided to try get some Christmas shopping done. Well... That was an epic fail. For those of you in South Africa, you'll know all about load-shedding. If you don't, basically it's when the electricity company turn off the electricity in an entire area for two hours. So I'm inside the mall and Bam! No lights. Grreeaat! So I ended up getting all of diddly squat for my family. After my fail of a shopping experience, I decided to go to campus to get my end of year results and what do I find? The classroom my results are in, is locked. At this point in the day I was so fed up, I even tried to pick the lock with my hair pin (don't worry UCT, I didn't manage to pry it open, despite my best efforts) So utterly defeated I decide I need to bake something, that will cheer me up right? So off home I go. Now my dad loves vanilla cupcakes, and I was going home to Durban to see my family the next day (I live in Cape Town, by the way). So I whipped up the batter and threw them into the oven, only to have the electricity go off again. Damn Eskom and load shedding for ruining my perfect batch of cupcakes. 

So, after two hours of no electricity, a sunken mess of half baked cupcake batter and possible the worst day, the only way to salvage it was to bake a batch of sugar cookies. Complete with royal icing and sprinkles. And damn were they yum. 4-o-clock in the morning and my cookies complete (with no hiccups this time), bags packed and flights home booked, I was completely ready to hit the sack and welcome a new day! Hopefully one that was not so awful. 

Seeing my family the next day after so many months away more than made up for my previous day. And seeing them enjoy my cookies (almost too pretty to eat) was well worth the late night. I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as we did!

Sugar Cookies with royal icing

Sugar Cookies

• 226 grams unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• t tsp pure vanilla extract

How To:

Cream the butter until creamy and then add the sugar and beat until smooth. Then add the vanilla extract and incorporate. Gently add the flour, cornstarch and salt to the butter and just bring together to form a dough. Flatten the dough into a disk, cover in cling film and let it chill in the fridge for about an hour.

Pre-heat your oven to 177 degrees Celsius and line your baking sheets. Flour your surface lightly and roll out your dough. Cut out your shapes and put them on your trays. Lightly flour your cookie cutter to prevent the dough sticking to it. Place the cut cookies on the trays back in the fridge to firm up so they hold their shape in the oven. Once firm (about 15minutes) bake for 8-10 minutes. To ensure an evenly baked biscuit, make sure when you roll out the dough that it is the same thickness throughout. 

I glazed my cookies, once cooled, with some simple royal icing.

mmm, yum!

|Carrot Cake with Lavender Cottage Cheese Icing|

I am a student, and as a result I don't get to read a lot during the year besides from my biochemistry and human physiology textbooks, which - surprisingly - aren't exactly enthralling. I have therefore taken a good two weeks since I finished my last exams to lock myself in my room and catch up on some well deserved me time and a good book. Great. Only, not so great. 

Every single book I read these passed two weeks - 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn, 'Me before You' by Jojo Moyes and the 'Divergent' Trilogy by Veronica Roth - have left me feeling rather unsatisfied with life. I think if you've read any of these books, you'll understand what I mean when I say that they are all, in their own right, tragic love stories, and its left me feeling pretty hopeless about my prospects. To be fair to myself, I have been cooped up in my room for two weeks, so maybe all I need is to get out and socialise a bit. Cabin fever is a real thing. 

"...sometimes life really sucks," she says. "But you know what I'm holding on for?"
I raise my eyebrows.
She raises hers, too, mimicking me.
"The moments that don't suck," she says. "The trick is to notice them when they come around.”

-Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I could, also, just eat a slice of this super moist and delicious carrot cake, it definitely counts as one of those moments that won't 'suck'. A slice of carrot cake and a good book. Kidding. I think I've had enough reading to last me for a while now. 

But, lets talk about this carrot cake. Seriously, this is the type of cake you can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, its that good. I made it for a friend who said he loved carrot cake, I told him mine could beat the best carrot cake he'd ever eaten. I may have built it up just a little. But he came back to me saying that it was so light and not stodgy like a carrot cake can so often be. Said it was one of the best he'd had. Also, as the frosting is made from smooth cottage cheese, its a lot lighter than if it had been made with cream cheese. (Don't get me wrong though, you can never go wrong with a good cream cheese frosting)

Carrot Cake with Lavender Cottage Cheese Icing

cake:

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs (room temperature)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 100g chunky chopped walnuts
• 100g chunky chopped pecans
• 550g grated carrots
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple

frosting:

• 500g smooth cottage cheese
• approximately 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 50g unsalted butter
• pure lavender extract to taste

how to:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and butter and flour 2 round cake tins. 

Combine the sugar, oil and eggs in bowl and mix until a pale yellow. Add in the vanilla and combine. 

In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Then slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until incorperated. Once it is just combined, add the chopped nuts, carrot and pineapple and fold it until homogenous. 

Divide the batter between the cake tins and bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The cakes will be a rich golden brown colour. Turn the cakes out and allow to cool on a wire rack.

In the mean time, make the icing. Beat the butter and cottage cheese together until light, then sift in the confectioners sugar and lavender extract and combine. I put it in the fridge at this stage while the cakes cooled so it could set slightly. Assemble the cakes once cooled and voila.