TWD: Perfect Party Cake

This is one aptly named recipe! I made Dorie's perfect party cake for a dinner party a few weeks back and it became the best one I've ever thrown! People who hadn't met before stayed chatting until nearly 2am- despite having been stuffed full of a huge smorgasboard of different recipes I had wanted to try!

It baked up pretty well- though I was at first worried about how small my layers were going to be with cutting in half- but this was no problem as in the end the fillings to cake ratio was divine!

If you haven't made this already get going! It is an incredibly forgiving cake! I discovered the best strawberry jam when making this (yes it really was worth spending £1more for it- Duchy organics if you're curious)
and the final dusting of coconut (unsweetened as its impossible to find sweetened in theUK) gives it a flawless finish that my icing would not have made-- *(why is it that I never have enough left from recipes to give a really good final coat?!)*

In any case this was a perfect party on the tongue slight lemon strawberry fluffy white cake with a nice texture of coconut to finish!
What are you waiting for?! check out the rest of the TWD blogroll and make this yourself!

ps this went pretty nicely with the peach honey ice cream!

Daring Bakers: Bakewell tart

Wow, I almost forgot this month's daring bakers challenge. The bakewell tart- having lived in the UK for 3+ years now I can say before making this I'd never had any interest in those icing sugar covered mc donald looking cherry pies from Kiplings.

This recipe thankfully produced nothing like that. First off I must give it lots of points for being very quick to put together! (I was reading though some of my fav. blogs and noticed lots of postings!)

The recipe was pretty foolproof and tasted great. The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Daring Bakers tarts!

TWD: Honey Peach Ice cream

Honey Peach Ice Cream

Please ignore that slab of cake and focus on the glorious peachy ice cream.

I recently got the ice cream attachment for my Kenwood Chef and man is it ever my favorite toy now! Making your own ice cream is pretty easy- just need to give things time to cool down and then chuck into the machine for a good freeze churn. I really liked this recipe. The honey taste was super strong - more so than the peach, perhaps due to icky British no properly ripe peaches or maybe due to the recipe putting half of the peaches in as frozen chunks. While this was good I probably wouldn't make it again, but if I did all the peaches would be pureed.

Be sure to check out the rest of the TWD blogroll!

TWD: Cinnamon Squares

TWD:Cinnamon Squares

I was so glad that this recipe was chosen this month. I've had a marker in this page ever since first buying the book and thought if it came round to it I would choose it myself. This was really simple to bake up and a delicious easy cake to go well with coffee. I highly recommend it!

Be sure to check out the rest of the TWD blogroll and see all these yummy cakes!

TWD: Chipster Brownie

TWD:Chipster Brownie

Ah.. a recipe that seeks to meld a concentrated dose of good ole American favorites into baked harmony. It made me wonder if I could just cobble together my favorite one bowl brownies and cowboy cookies as well-- but then that would be a dangerously large pan of calories for which I'm sure I would have no will power for. But what am I saying the below is a very dangerous pan of calories for which I have no will power for!- Which is why I'm pawning it off on the cello section at orchestra tonight.

This was pretty straight forward to make- especially if you (like most of us?) have made cc cookies and brownies dozens of times since you were old enough to spread flour from one end of the counter top to another.. i mean bake...

I used the fan assist setting on my oven- which might have made for a bit of a dry cookie top? or its the recipe (which seemed very sugary)

In any case a winner.. a dangerous tasty recipe from Dorie!

Be sure to check out the rest of the TWD blogroll!

Rhubarb- not in a crumble!

Our garden is awash in rhubarb these days- practically a jungle of inherited crowns that produce a bumper crop- so I was searching for a non dessert way to eat this and stumbled across this recipe which I adapted to feature tofu instead of pork. this is a fantastic marinade full of flavors. Be aware it serves a very large amount for 4!

Hot and sour rhubarb and crispy tofu with noodles- adapted from Jamie Oliver (Jamie at Home)

serves 4

Mix up your marinade

400g rhubarb

4T honey

4T soy sauce (I used tamari)

4 garlic cloves peeled

2 fresh red Chiles halved and deseeded

1 heaped teaspoon 5spice

1 thumb sized piece of ginger peeled and chopped

Combine all of the above in a blender and whizz until smooth.

Rest of the ingredients:

500-1 kg tofu cut into 3-4 cm cubes

375g medium egg noodles

4 spring onions, chopped

1 fresh red chili, deseeded and sliced

a few bags of interesting cress (i used rocked and spinach as that's all i could find!)

2 limes (I forgot this and it tasted fine)

Place the tofu pieces on a roasting tray and pour marinade over-- if you marinade seems dry add a wine glass full of water to loosen. (I let this sit overnight in fridge but feel free to experiment) Cover with foil and roast in 180C oven for approx 45 min. (just till the tofu gets a bit of color).

Pull the tofu out of the marinade and heat a wok or similar with veg oil. fry the tofu until golden. the marinade should be a nice thick sauce now- if not simmer until consistency of ketchup- put to one side. while frying the tofu- boil water and cook noodle according to package directions.

Divide noodles into 4 warmed bowls and spoon over each a good amount of the rhubarb sauce an the tofu, add a good sprinkling of spring onions chili, cresses and coriander.. finish each with half a lime to squeeze over.!

Delicious!

Daring Cooks: Ricotta Gnocchi

Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi!

The inaugural May 2009 Daring Cooks' Challenge was brought to us by Ivonne of Creampuffs in Venice and Lis of La Mia Cucina. I admit at first read I didn't think this recipe would be so interesting.. I'd made gnocchi before and usually find the overly starchy balls of potato well just not so interesting. This view held out for me until I popped the first 'test' gnocchi in my mouth. It was a pillow of heaven that landed on my tongue.

Eagerly I declared to my fiance that he was about to have some of the most delicious dinner yet! The trick seems to be 2 days of draining and paper towel changing on the ricotta to try and get it as dry as possible- then add a couple fresh eggs and a smidgen of Parmesan and ever so lightly roll little gnocchi-lets in flour. I had a bit of trouble with sticking. After I rolled them all out and placed on floured silicone mat they were a bit hard to remove intact! but I persevered and served them with a lovely fresh sage burned butter sauce!