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Apricot Cake

Cake Anger.

Almost every Wednesday without fail I get it. Or rather it mounts from somewhere behind by stomach, seeps from my back-bone, and leaves me sitting at the computer with my knuckles clenched to white screaming (in my head) "WHAATTT THE HELL DO I WANT TO COOOOKKK?!!!"

That is the eternal question. Normally I have some sort of inspiration, but that inspiration is generally hampered by various problems- No muffin tin, no spring-form tin, no rolling pin, no brown sugar, no pie dish, no two cake tins alike to make layer cake and on and on and on.

I'll admit it, I need my mothers kitchen.

I get stares at the supermarket because I always buy at least 1kg of butter-but 250g doesn't even cover a bland cake, let alone a me-cake!

Mum's cupboard is mecca for cooks, and a nightmare for neat-freaks and use-by-date nazis- it could very well have Narnia behind it, but nobody would ever get close enough to the back of it to find out. Ditto for the fridge. BUT by the same token, I can't remember a time when I wanted to cook something and I had to go shopping first, or didn't have the equipment. Just the thought of returning to it in 2 months now gives me shivers! Tahini, Mi-Goreng, nuts from the South Melbourne Market, and in the fridge endless ice-cream containers of leftovers.... Bliss, Glee, they know my name.

ANYWAY rant/food wet-dream over. Time to recipe (yes I insist recipe is a verb). SO this is cake is the result of having practically nothing, and being so damn frustrated that I gave up real recipes and made for the kitchen. Results were reaaaally good, the texture of the cake is gorgeously light.

Ingredients-

2 cups of flour

50 grams of almond meal

1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of cane sugar

115g of butter

2 eggs

1 cup of plain yoghurt ( I used 0%)

1/3 cup of milk

3/4 cup of dried apricots (soaked until soft, then chopped into quarters)

1/2 teaspoon of orange zest

1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

1 teaspoon of orange essence

sprinkle of nutmeg

Method-

Preheat the oven to 180°c, then butter and line a cake tin.

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and creamy, then add one egg at a time.

Add half of the yoghurt then half of the flour and stir until combined. Repeat.

Add in the milk, the essences and zest, then stir in the almond meal.

Finally, stir in the chopped apricots.

Pour into the tin and bake for around 40 minutes.

Leave to cool, then ice with apricot jam or leave it plain if you'd like it as a breakfast cake.

Latticed Apple Pie (It IS autumn after all)

Pie. Imagine it. We all know its good. We all imagine a checkered table cloth, vanilla ice-cream and a wholesome American mom serving us endless fat wedges in a lilac twin set.... Don't we?

There is something inexplicably right about sweet pies. They are classic, they are tast

y, they aren't show off pieces but they are pretty and still need to be well-crafted. Most importantly, an apple pie absolutely screams comfort in autumn from its thick-crust base to its golden latticed top.

I feel particularly good about this little number too, because I picked the apples myself from the tree outside my window whilst singing at the top of my lungs with my family. How is that for wretched food miles and in-season cooking??

So here we are- an apple pie for which I woke myself up early to prepare, after one deliciously atrocious night out-

Ingredients-

Crust-

2 1/2 cups of regular flour

1 tablespoons of sugar

3/4 teaspoons of salt

1 cup of unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes

5 tablespoons (and possibly more) of water, chilled

Filling-

1.6kg of apples (I used the one type we had in our garden, but it can be nice to mix granny smiths and golden delicious)

1 lemon, zested and juiced

3/4 cup of castor sugar

2 tablespoons of regular flour

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of allspice

White of one egg

Note- Add whatever other spices you like, such as nutmeg, vanilla ect.

Method-

Crust-

In a large bow, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the butter, and begin to rub in between fingers, until the two come together and resemble crumbs (this takes a bit of time and effort but don't give up!).

Add the water, little by little, and knead a little to make the dough form properly (ie. uniform colour, no lumps etc.)

Gather the dough together and divide into 2 balls, then flatten into discs, wrap in plastic-wrap and pop them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Note that dough can be made two days in advance and stored this way.

When ready to assemble the pie, leave the dough for 5 minutes to soften slightly (but not too much because that makes it harder) and roll out one disc with a pin and place in a 30cm pie dish (preferably glass).

Filling-

Peel the apples and slice them into roughly .5cm to 1cm pieces.

Place the apples into a large bowl, then add lemon zest, and around half the lemon juice depending on the variety of apple you choose.

Add all of the remaining dry ingredients and fill your tart shell.

Roll out the other pastry disc and cut 1.5cm wide strips that cover the length of your pie.

Place the strips vertically in one direction and then turn you pie to be horizontal and lay vertical strips again.

Coat the top with the egg white, then bake uncovered for 25 minutes at around 210°C.

When the top is well browned, cover and cook at 180°C for a further 30 minutes or so.

Today's Realisations (Lecture on me)

Today feels kind of unreal, as though I am in fact the main character of a movie and everything happens for a reason. If I listen hard enough, I swear I have the monologue voice-over thing narrating my life. This may be due to some sort of over-sized and ever inflating ego problem (very possible) OR it may be due to some freak occurrence in which I have discovered the meaning of life (unlikely).

Nevertheless, over the last couple of days things have definitely been speaking to me.. Not in the 'my lamp just told me it hates my skirt' or 'that stuffed cat just winked at me' kind of way, but in a things falling into place type way.

I think it all may have started with my decision to stay in France, and to stay with the same family for the rest of the year. In short, very good decision, and maybe karma is giving me a little pat on the back for that (definite).

Now normally I'm not the sort of girl who backs up her statements with arguments- but today logic seems like an old friend who has always been there, rather than that obscure concept that had kind of passed me by.

1- The first day I started the school year, lots of people talked to me and I felt in place.

2- I understand my new classes.

3- I went out to a Blues concert with some of said 'people who talked to me' and found new people to talk to me.

4- Am now going out with said 'new people to talk to me' on Saturday.

5- I am taking ancient Greek lessons and love it.

6- At school today a class-mate stopped me in the corridor to tell me I was 'trés belle'... See what I mean? Does that really happen in life?

And now to the points that actually relate to this blog-

7- A new friend asked me what my 'passion' was in life, and without second thought I answered 'cooking'.

8- Whilst watching 'Julie and Julia' last night on the telly, Julia Child's husband asked her what she really loved, and she answered 'eating'. Voice-over in head quietly but firmly said 'me too'.

THUS

we are brought to TODAY'S REALISATIONS-

• I love people. Meeting them, talking to them, having coffee with them and seeing Jazz with them. I always want to have somebody by my side.
• I love languages. English is my strength, I write poems to de-stress and songs to tell stories.. To me, being able to really articulate exactly how we feel is an incredible thing.
• I will learn to speak Greek. I have conquered French in 8 months, and that only makes more impatient to uncover new expressions and vocabulary and melodies.
• I LOVE TO FOOD. Surprise! But I do, and I am now 100% going to do all I can to make it a big part of my life. SO keep an eye out, because from now on you can call me Miss Devotion, because this blog will be my one and all.

Lots of love,

Georgia

Chocolate Malibu and Coconut Cake

I'd like to start with an apology today. Sorry. Sincerely I'm sorry for having been so horiffically slack with my posts of late. I would like to be able to say I've been FLAT OUT, or that my grandma has been ill. Fact is that I'm still on holidays and all of my grandparents are dead and the reason for my dissapearance relates directly back to a canoeing incident involving my camera.

To give you all a quick breif, I'm back in France, and start school again in 2 days. And what's more I have lots of recipes I'll be sharing with you in an unusually short space of time, because despite the lack of posts, I have been really domestic goddess-ing myself mad.

Todays effort started with the lack of school for me, and the fact that everybody else actually DOES have school/work. And thus, as we all know, being left to my own devices I generally end up somewhere along this line of thought- food:cake:chocolate:alcohol:boys:lack of boys:MTV

SO I improvised a cake: a chocolate cake: a chocolate malibu cake: a chocolate malibu cake for a boy: a chocolate malibu cake because the boy can't come to see me: a chocolate malibu cake for me while watching MTV. Exhale.

Ingredients-

1 1/2 cups of regular flour

1 cup of castor sugar

1/4 cup of cocoa powder (I would definitly add more next time around- at least 1/2-3/4 cup)

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/3 cup of butter, melted

100 ml of Malibu

140 ml of water

2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

2 egg whites, beaten until soft peaks form

3/4 cup of dessicated coconut

200g of milk chocolate (for icing)

60g of butter, extra (for icing)

Method-

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees C° and grease/line a regular 20cm cake tin.

In a large bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients, then form a well in the center.

Pour in the melted butter and vanilla extract, then gradually add the water and Malibu, combining with a whisk.

Add the beaten egg whites, gently stirring with a soup spoon until its well combined.

Pour into the cake tin and bake for around 35 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean.

When the cake is cooled, melt the chocolate and extra butter in a meduim dish in the microwave (or of course you can go old-fashioned and do the whole hot water in saucepan + another bowl in saucepan shenanigans if you so please) and stir frequently until all is melted and well combined.

TOP YOUR CAKE and then eat it with your sister in fronts of MTV's '16 and mother' program comme moi...

Plum Crumble Cake

..... I have to admit it's been a while since I actually made this cake. So to summon up a witty anecdote about the tiny seed of an idea that this cake once was to me from the depths of my memory has proved itself to be difficult. In fact- Impossible. But I will write about what I actually DO remember. I LOVED IT. I love plums. I love crumble. I love almonds. And I love cake with tea.

And I did eat this cake with tea. I remember that. And I remember eating it with a maths tutor that was helping my sister. I remember not understanding anything but telling myself it didn't matter because the maths tutor couldn't make that cake. And I was right, she couldn't, and I could, and I prefer cake to equations. Thus self-esteem crisis solved. And so I give you my very, VERY good plum crumble cake-

PS. Don't worry, said maths tutor may have been able to make this cake if she had the recipe BUT always one step ahead, I write in English and not French, and as such cake will stay out of her arithmatic-stained hands.

Ingredients-

2 1/4 cups of regular flour (I used a bit more, as my dough was sticky- see how you go)

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 large lemon, zested then juiced

1 cup of castor sugar

3/4 cup of butter, cubed

3 eggs

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups of plums, sliced

1-2 tablespoons of castor sugar, extra

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Method-

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

One at a time, add the eggs then vanilla and ensure that all is well combined.

Add the flour, salt, baking powder and lemon zest and stir with a metal spoon, then combine with you hands until it comes together and can be pulled into a ball (it's here that I needed to add a little more flour to make it 'pull-together-able'). Freeze for 30 minutes.

In another medium bowl, throw together the plums, lemon juice, and extra sugar.

Line or butter a 25cm spring form pan and preheat your oven to 180°C.

Take your dough from the freezer and slice it in 2 pieces, and pat one half into the bottom of the pan.

Place the fruit on top of the dough, then seperate the remaining dough into 2.5cm 'blobs' and place them (strategically) on top of the fruit.

Bake for 30-40 minutes by which time the top should be golden and the fruit is boiling and bubbling away.

Enjoy for afternoon tea, with a nice cup of earl grey.

Salted Caramel and Peanut Butter Ice-Cream- machine free!

I'm sure its not only me who has noticed that EVERY food blog that's worth its salt seems to be posting recipes for ice-cream left, right, and centre. All well and good too, ice-cream is obviously a very post-worthy treat... Or is it? Because frankly I'm suffering from a case of food-blog anger at these masses of recipes! And do you want to know why??? Because they all need an ice-cream machine. Pft! What nonsense. Anybody with an ice-cream machine doesn't need recipes because they don't actually have to DO anything, and would have to have a peanut-sized brain not to be able to improvise the flavouring. In my opinion anyways... On top of that, I am nowhere near self-destructive enough to purchase one of these crafty boxes. No sirree. So this is to you David Lebowitz with all of your inspired and gourmet combinations- get a life and make it from scratch.
yeah!

So that's exactly what I did, using a recipe from the Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook... And no its not as flashy a book as it sounds, in fact it was published in 1950 and is so dated that the ice-cream recipes come with their own make it yourself freezer instructions because refrigerators were as sophisticated as it got!

Salted Caramel and Peanut Butter Ice-Cream

Ingredients-
2/3 of a cup of castor sugar
1/3 of a cup of boiling water
2 1/2 cups of milk
1 egg, well beaten
1/2 a teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 cup of peanut butter

Method-
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, cook the sugar by itself until it is melted and browned, making sure to stir constantly.
Add the boiled water and stir quickly until sugar is dissolved. This wont happen straight away, and don't be scared when the sugar turns hard like candy when the water is first added, it will dissolve afterwards.
Add one cup of the milk, the egg, and the salt and cook for 5 to 10 minutes stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened a little, but the milk hasn't separated.
Leave to cool, then add the remaining milk and vanilla.
Place in the freezer until partially set, and then take out to beat with a fork in order to avoid the ice crystals that will form. Continue to do this once every hour or so until you have your desired texture, then add 1 cup of peanut butter and beat it through.
Serve sprinkled with sea salt flakes, chopped nuts, and a caramel topping for a truly wicked treat.