Simple buttermilk cake with chocolate butter glaze

 

Birthdays always mean cake. No matter what shape and form, colour and flavour, frosted, dusted or plain.  Birthday cakes are a representation of the occasion. A symbol of the celebration.  It doesn’t always need to be elaborate and three tiered.  It can be a bunch of donuts piled up high poked with sparkling candles, or a neat stack of brownies arranged like wooden A-B-C blocks with colourful candles.  Birthdays and cakes.  Always a great combo.  Like fish to water. 

This recipe is adapted from Flo Braker’s recipe book, The Simple Art of Perfect Baking.  Hand holding instructions, simple base recipes that are for keeps.  When I made these for hubby’s birthday last month, it was truly as Zoe Bakes wrote in her blog, “Flo Braker writes as though she is teaching a class, everything is well thought out and explained so that the recipes are nearly fool proof.”   Couldn’t have said it better myself.  It is absolutely true. 

Ingredients for the cake:

250g sifted cake flour

1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda (bi carbonate of soda)

1/4 tsp salt

3 large eggs, room temperature

250ml buttermilk, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

170g unsalted butter, room temperature

300g caster sugar

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180* C.

Grease the bottom and sides of two 20cm cake pans.  Dust generously with flour, shake off excess then line the bottom with round baking paper.

 Sift the flour, baking powder, bi carbonate of soda and salt onto a sheet of baking paper, 3 times.

In a small bowl, break the eggs and whisk until yolks and whites are just combined.

 In a measuring cup, combine the vanilla with the buttermilk and stir together.

In a big bowl using a hand-held beater, or in the bowl of stand mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until lighter in colour.  

Add the sugar to the creamed butter while the mixer is on, in a slow and steady stream.  Scraping down the sides every now and then, continue to cream sugar and butter light in colour and fluffy. Takes 4-5 minutes.

With the mixer still on, add the eggs, a tablespoon at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl when needed.  Increase speed and continue to mix the batter until smooth, looks fluffy, white and increased in volume (Flo mentioned in her book that is almost resembles whipped cream cheese).

Add the dry ingredients and fold gently using a rubber spatula, alternating with a third of buttermilk mixture.  Continue adding the dry and liquid ingredients, folding gently after each addition, ending with the dry ingredients.

Spoon the batter into the pan/s and smooth out with the spatula.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or  until the baked surface springs back slightly when touched in the centre

 Place the cake/s pans on a rack and let them cool for 5-10 minutes.


Chocolate-butter glaze

168g semi sweet chocolate
84g unsalted butter

If using chocolate blocks, chop these into match-stick size pieces with a knife.

Half fill a medium sized sauce pan with water and let this simmer.

In a large bowl (that can snugly on top of the sauce pan) place the butter, then the chocolate and melt over simmering water.  Do not let the water boil.

Stir occasionally until the mixture is smooth and shiny.

Let this cool for at least an hour before using to glaze the cake.

This was the cake for hubby's birthday last month.  Alongside the traditional request of blueberry cheesecake.  A simple moist cake that's as delicious by itself, and with the chocolate frosting!  Its a keeper!  Promise!

How about you?  Do cakes adorn your dining table for birthdays and celebrations in your home? 

Snapper ceviche (Snapper Kinilaw in Filipino)

 

 

Learning kitchen skills was one of the things I looked forward to when I started my course in Kitchen10.   And filleting a fish was one of the highlights last year.  Right up there in the top 3.  Its not easy,  but with the right equipment (a filleting knife) and a lot of practice, it can be a breeze!  I’ve tried doing it at home more than a dozen times already.  But when I’m head to head with a fish, it still gets kind of intimidating!  Those nano seconds can get really entertaining, but we get on and fast forward a few minutes after, voila. We have a significant amount of flesh to consume.   So I did not completely mess the fish after all.

 

This is so easy to prepare.  15 minutes, tops!  If and when you find yourself in the Masterchef   kitchen and there's that 10 or 20 minutes pressure test, this simple, fast and furious dish should be one of those up your sleeves.  Just don't put too much chillies or it'll make George sweat up a storm.

To make this simple snapper kinilaw or ceviche, ask your fishmonger to fillet the fish for you.  Half of the job is done already.  

Fillet of 1 medium sized snapper, sliced thinly or strips

Half of red onion, sliced

2 knobs (thumb-sized) ginger, diced

1 birds eye chilli, chopped

Juice of half a lime

60ml or ¼ cup white vinegar

Salt and pepper to season (optional)

In a medium sized bowl, stir the ingredients together. Add the fish slices and stir gently to coat the fillets.  Let the fish soak for 5-10 minutes.

You can opt to serve the fish with the vinegar mixture or without it.

You can make a bigger serve of this, with a bigger fish.  Just let your taste buds guide you with the marinade.  As a rule, the vinegar should just be enough to soak all the fish, not to cover them completely.

Make this a few minutes before you intend to serve them.  As the longer the fish soaks, the more its cooked by the acid in the vinegar.  And the longer it’s soaked, the flesh gets flaky and will not be as good.

In the Philippines, the fish variety locally called “tanigue” (also known as seer fish or wahoo) is used to make this dish. But because this one is made in Australia, I’ve used whatever is the locally available white-flesh fillet variety.  I’ve never tried making this dish with other fish varieties, but in various parts of the Philippines, kinilaw or ceviche can also be prepared using fresh anchovies and oysters.

This is a Filipino appetizer, usually served where beer is on the menu.  Add some rounds of karaoke there, and you’re definitely in Pinoy surrounds.

Here’s a useful link about varieties of fish and general cooking method. 

Glazed ham, first ever attempt

Please excuse the over excitement over a simple glazed ham.  It is something traditional and ho-hum to some, but a first attempt in our little corner.  Over the years, oven baked ham that grazed our table were usually gifts or store bought.  It just seems like something too daunting to take on, like a massive DIY project.  But like all dreams and goals and things that you need to tick off your list, taking the first step and just getting on with it is the best antidote to the curiosity that eventually would have killed the cat.  And just like a DIY project, this one is massive!  7.8 kilograms of glazed pork ham bliss. Well, if you're into this kind of thing.

To make this glorious looking ham goodness, friends shared their recipes.  First stop, carefully take skin/fat off the ham.  Score diamonds on the ham then soak overnight in brine made of:

 4 liters pineapple juice

1 cup brown sugar

1 440g can crushed pineapple

1 tbsp cloves

* Use a big deep plastic bowl or container.  DO NOT USE aluminum or stainless container as the acid will ruin your pot. 

* The ham should be soaked/submerged all the day.  If you don't have a deep container, make sure to turn the ham every hour or so to make sure other parts of the ham are soaked as well. 

 

The next day, when ready to bake/roast, preheat the oven 170*C and prepare your roasting dish/pan. 

 Pat dry the ham and prepare ingredients for glaze.

600g jar apricot conserve or jam

1 can 440g crushed pineapple

 1 cup brown (half cup for rubbing, half cup for the glaze)

1/2 cup of the brine

1 cinnamon quill

handful of cloves for studs

Using a medium sized pot or saucepan, gently simmer the apricot jam, crushed pineapple, brown sugar, brine and cinnamon quill over low heat until the mixture has reduced and has a sticky thick consistency.

Rub brown sugar over the ham and stud the diamond scores with the cloves.

Using a pastry brush, glaze the ham with the apricot mixture in a patting motion, making sure all the sides and the diamond scores are covered.  Save some of the glaze for basting.

Bake in the preheated oven for 2 hours, glazing every half hour but making sure ham is not getting burned (cover with aluminum foil, if this happens).

This ham was part of our NYE feast and coming out of the oven, it raved Oohs and Aahs with just its looks!  Served with some of the left over glaze on the side, the ham took on the new year by storm.  Some of it made its way into some pasta carbonara and many omelette dishes well into the week.  

Does it have to be Christmas or New Year's eve for ham to graze the dinner table?  With its size and effort, I guess its worth it.  A smaller and leaner portion can be made with a simple glaze and kept in the fridge for those weekday sandwiches, weekend breakfasts, toasted and topped on some salad, etc. etc.  So if  making glazed at home is on your to do list, don't wait for the  next big holiday.  Make it now and invite some friends over!  A ham is definitely worth making, and sharing!