Left Over Cake

What to do with left over cake?  There are a million and one different things that you can do, but this one would have to be one of my family’s favourites.  I often have trimmings left over from my sculpted cakes, and after events like the Annual Nana Glen Market Day, I usually have a heap of left over cupcakes (over catering is in my blood!)  Sometimes I freeze them for the girls’ school snack or afternoon tea, other times I make cake balls, but now that the weather is cooling down, cake pudding is well and truly back on the menu!  It is super easy, super yummy, and microwaves up a treat for breakfast if I  really feel like spoiling the kids!

First of all, preheat your oven to 180oC, then grease a deep baking dish.  Next break up all your left over cake into chunks.  If it is plain cake, I like to throw in chocolate chips or jam dollops to really make it delicious!

Now all you need to do is make a quick baked custard mix.  I do this by whisking together 4-5 eggs, 3 tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla and a pinch of salt.  Once they are mixed in really well and the sugar is almost dissolved, add 900ml milk.  Mix it in thoroughly then pour it over the cake.

Finally, take a larger baking dish and put a tea towel or cloth in the bottom, place the dish with the cake inside, then pour boiling water into the larger dish until it comes halfway up the sides of the smaller dish to make a water bath.  Place them in the oven and bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until the custard has set.

 

All that’s left to do now is serve it up and tuck in!  It is especially yummy with whipped cream or ice cream!  The bits on top that are poking out of the custard go all crispy and crunchy while the rest of it is a beautiful pudding consistency.

 

Super quick, super easy, and super yum!

PS Sorry the photos aren’t very good, but it was late on a school night and I was rushing!

What is your favourite way to use up left over cake?

Raspberry Mousse

This Raspberry Mousse is absolutely divine!  It is sweet, yet tart and the most gorgeous colour!  The Raspberries can be replaced with juice or puree of any fruit you like. I have also made it with both lemons and limes, both of which were just luscious!  Anyway, without further ado, here is this week’s recipe.







Ingredients:



Part 1:  Italian Meringue



¼ Cup Sugar

½ teaspoon Glucose

20ml water

1 Egg White





Part 2:  Raspberry Mousse



550g Raspberries (fresh or frozen)

1 ½ teaspoons Gelatine

10ml Raspberry Liqueur

200ml Cream





Procedure:



Part 1:  Italian Meringue



Combine sugar, glucose and water in a small pan.
Heat gently, stirring until sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil and stop stirring.
Continue to boil until liquid reaches 16oC.
Remove from heat and allow bubbles to subside.
Meanwhile, beat the egg white to stiff peak.
Slowly add hot sugar syrup to egg white while beating on low.
Continue beating until the bowl has reached room temperature (approx 5 minutes)



Part 2:  Raspberry Mousse



Bloom gelatine in 1 teaspoon of water.
Heat raspberries until they liquefy.
Pass raspberries through a sieve to remove the seeds.
Return raspberries to pan with liqueur and heat to just below boiling.
Add gelatine and mix thoroughly.
Cool.

Fold raspberry mixture into Italian Meringue.
In a separate bowl, beat cream to soft peaks.
Fold raspberry mixture into cream.
Chill.

Foodie Fights!!! Peaches and Tarragon

Peach and Tarragon Verrine with Tarragon Flecked Tuilles

If you've been following my blog, or even only read a post or two, you have probably realised a couple of things by now:
1.  I love food
2.  I love to cook
3.  I love a challenge; and finally
4.  I spend far too little time doing housework, and way too much time surfing the net looking at pictures of food!
Once you've taken all of these things into consideration, they kind of come together in the various challenges that I have partaken in so far.  I guess it was only a matter of time before I came across Foodie Fights.  Needless to say, my interest was immediately piqued, so I put in my application to participate in the next challenge.  I was very excited to see my name on the list of 10 participants for this fortnights challenge - Peaches and Tarragon.  Hmmm, this was indeed to be a challenge!  We are amidst the throws of winter here (although you wouldn't know it today...being 35oC!!) so fresh peaches are not exactly available.  Added to that, I'd only ever eaten them fresh - never cooked.  Then there was the Tarragon.  I knew it was a herb, often used in French cooking and usually paired with chicken?  I think????  So now I had to come up with a tasty recipe using an ingredient that I couldn't get with an ingredient I had never used, let alone tasted.  The announcement was out on Wednesday which gave me a few days to ponder my predicament.  Inspiration hit me at about 2am on Saturday morning.  Peach icecream with tarragon tuilles.  I have made icecream before - the old beater and freezer method as I don't have an icecream maker, and have wanted to make tuilles for ages after reading various peoples entrants in the a previous Daring Bakers Challenge.  However, we ended up with a really busy weekend and I didn't even get a chance to get in to town to buy ingredients until this morning, so I had run out of time for icecream.  Helene of Tartelette to the rescue!!  She is my absolute idol.  Amazing cook, fantastic food stylist, and unbelievable food photographer.  I jumped on her recipe for Mango and Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Pannacotta.  Perfect.  This looked yum and I figured I could adapt it easy enough, and still use my tuilles as a garnish.  I made a few changes to the original recipe, so here is what I did:

Peach and Tarragon Verrine

1 cup pureed tinned peaches (thank god for the canning process - I used 8 halves of peaches in natural juice!!)
3/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh tarragon
1 tablespoon water
1 3/4 teaspoons powdered gelatin
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream (extra)
3/4 cup full cream milk

Puree the tinned peaches with half of the finely chopped tarragon and divide among 4 glasses, being careful not to spill any excess on the inside of the glasses.  Place the glasses in the freezer.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let it bloom.

In a medium saucepan, heat the 1 cup of cream with the sugar, remaining chopped tarragon and vanilla until the cream is just about to boil, stirring occasionally to make sure the sugar dissolves completely. Remove from the heat and stir in the gelatin until completely dissolved.

Let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes then add the extra 1/4 cup of cream and the milk. Allow to cool to room temperature. You can speed up the process by placing your saucepan over a bowl filled with ice but keep and eye on it as it will thicken faster. Once the cream is cooled, slowly pour it over the frozen fruit and let set in the fridge, at least two hours, preferably overnight.

Tarragon Flecked Tuilles

65 grams softened butter

60 grams sifted icing sugar mixture

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork - I use duck eggs for baking)

65 grams sifted plain flour

1/2 teaspoon finely chopped tarragon

Preheat oven to 180C or 160C fan forced.

On low speed, cream together butter sugar and vanilla until just combined.  Gradually add egg whites and beat only until combined to a smooth batter.  Be careful not to overmix.
Line a tray with baking paper.  If using a stencil, place it on the paper

and hold down with one hand while using an offset spatula with the other to gently smooth the batter over the stencil.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/3851368295_53abcba21b.jpg
You want a thin but even layer of batter.  Now, very carefully remove the stencil.  I found it easiest to start at a corner and pull the stencil up on the diagonal.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2444/3851368409_70640c597d.jpg
Make 3 more in this way then place in the oven for 4-5 minutes until lightly browned around the edges.

As soon as they are cooked, remove from the oven and shape over a folded piece of cardboard.  You have to do this really fast before they cool and set.

This is why you only want 4 biscuits at a time on the tray, otherwise they snap when you try to bend them.  Mind you, the kids think it's a good thing because they get to eat all the broken ones!!  Allow them to cool completely before removing them from the card to a SAFE PLACE away from curious little fingers!  (Like I said, the kids like to eat the broken ones - they don't care who breaks them!!!)

When ready to serve, place one or two of the tuilles on top of the cream mixture in the glass, then sit back with a spoon and enjoy!!

So, what did we think of the taste??  Yum yum yum!  The kids both loved it, and Matthew said it is a definate must next time we have people over for a meal.  I was feeling really dubious about it, having never combined fruit and herbs like this, and not being a great fan of pureed anything as it just looks like regurgitated baby food to me, but this blew me away!  The peach puree was lovely and cold and refreshing, and the tiny bits of tarragon through it added a lovely extra "note".  The cream layer set into a beautiful, silky concoction which delicately melted away with a creamy, but not fatty mouth feel.  The coolness of the fruit perfectly balanced the mousse-like texture of the cream.  The little tuilles on top were a cute finishing touch with a lovely vanilla taste and soft bite.  The tiny flecks of tarragon in them left a really pleasant aftertaste, which also tied them in with the main part of the dessert.

I am definately going to make this dish again, and can't wait for the arrival of summer so I can make it with fresh juicy peaches.  Thanks Helene for the inspiration and thank you also to Foodie Fights for pushing me out of my comfort zone to find a new favourite dish!  Definately a success!!  Now I've just got to go and plant some tarragon in the garden......

Oh yeah, and if you like the looks of this, please head on over to Foodie Fights and vote for me (Nana Glen Mum).  thanks heaps!

Thomas the Tank Engine Cake Tutorial - Part 1- How I did it.

Well, here I go.  Miss M turned 4 at the start of the month, and like any unconventional little girl, opted out of fairies and princesses for her birthday cake and insisted on Thomas the Tank Engine.   No great surprise since she lives, eats and breathes Thomas.  I have to buy her underwear in the boys’ section because sh

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e insists on Thomas undies like her friends (boys) at preschool.  She wears Thomas pyjamas to bed and Thomas t-shirts to preschool.  Everyday she plays with her Thomas train track (talk about value for money mind you!!) and so on it goes, I’m sure you are getting the picture!  The surprise for me though came when she SAID NO TO CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!! and insisted on CARROT CAKE! I kid you not!  You could have knocked me down with a feather!  Anyway, here is how I went about it…

I had read that it is easier to carve your cake if you freeze it first.  I’m guessing it depends on the type of cake.  The carrot cake turned out hard as a rock (and I have very sharp knives) and was very difficult to cut.  My suggestion would be to cut the cake and then freeze it before icing to stop crumbs getting into the cake.  I’ll try that one myself next cake and let you know how it goes.  I have to make a Lightning McQueen this week for Miss M’s friend.

I baked the cake in a square slab pan and cut it into two equal rectangles.  I contemplated baking it in 2 loaf tins but decided against it as loaf tins tend to have sloping sides.  I then put one half to the side for later.

Step 1

With the half I was working with, I cut it in half laterally to make it lower ie cut

the top half off the bottom half so it looked like this:

After that, I just pretty much broke Thomas down into a series of squares and a circle at the front at stuck them all together with buttercream.  Here comes a photo series of what I did.  I tried to get a couple of pictures of each stage from various angles.  Hope it’s not too boring or repetitive.

Step 2

From the half I had put to the side, I cut it in half lengthways ie front to back and placed on half on top, aligned at the back.



Step 3

Using a circle cutter, I cut a round and placed it in front of the piece from Step 2.



Step 4

Using a circle cutter, I cut a second round and placed it in front of the piece from Step 3.



Step 5

From lower cake half, I cut a strip and placed it on top of the large block, again aligned at the back.



Step 6

From the higher remains, I cut another block, but lowered it slightly and placed it in front of the piece from Step 5.



Step 7

I put small squares beside the first round.



Step 8

I cut 2 1/4 circles and placed them in front of the squares from Step 7.

Guess what…all done!  Not to hard at all eh?  Now it’s your turn – be sure to send me photos!



I didn’t take photos of how I iced the cake.  As we live out in the country, I can’t buy fondant so I have had to make my own.  I found an excellent recipe at Gingerbread House Heaven.  I used their Professional fondant recipe and had great results even though our relative humidity was excessive – we were actually flooded in for 3 days while I made the cake!  Luckily the water dropped and the roads opened in time for the party!  I did the blue first and worked my way forwards.  I made the wheels a few days earlier and dried them out completely so they were nice and hard, and then just stuck them on with a bit of left over buttercream.  I sat the entire cake on a foil lined biscuit tin lid to raise it slightly off thecake board so that the wheels looked about the right level.  As for the face, I had read another great tutorial over at Thomas the Tank Engine Tutorial

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and was going to try and sculpt the face myself, but wimped out because my sculpting skills are very very ordinary!  I got some oven bake polymer clay and made an imprint with one of Miss M’s toys.  She has a puzzle that has plastic pieces that make a front on view of Thomas.  I took the face piece, pushed it into the clay and baked the clay to make it hard.  When I was ready to make the face, I coloured it grey, then pushed a big piece over the mould and rolled it slightly with a rolling pin for even pressure.  When I pulled the fondant off the clay, I had a wonderful 3 dimensional face!  I used a round cutter (the same one I used for the circle pieces of cake so they were a perfect fit) to cut the face out, and then just added in the coloured details.  It actually turned out to be quite a simple exercise once I broke it all down.

So now you know how to cut up the cake and put it back together again, you'll be ready to ice it.  Here is how I covered the cake in Part 2 of the tutorial.

Anyway, I hope you have found this helpful, and if you actually know what you are doing, I would love to hear about how I can improve my cake decorating – especially getting my fondant nice and even – it always has lots of lumps and bumps.