Zucchini and Pecan Cake

Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!

The challenge was supposed to be a wonderful opportunity for young mothers to make their children eat veggies in a form of a dessert. For me, however, it provided a great opportunity to feed my husband!

He is not a great fan of vegetables but he definitely has a sweet tooth (well, who doesn’t?) Ironically, once I’ve made a vegetable-based dessert. It was a cauliflower and white chocolate ice cream (by Matt Moran from one of Masterchef Australia master classes). My husband refused to try it when he learnt what it was made of. But when I finally convinced him into trying it, he was amazed and confessed that it was really yummy.

So, as I’ve chosen to make a zucchini cake for this month challenge, I made up my mind to keep the list of ingredients in secret. I presented the dessert as just “another cake”. And my husband was absolutely happy to have it. He enjoyed every single piece of it – and was quite shocked afterwards, when I revealed the secret ingredient of the cake.

I loved the cake myself as well. It was super moist due to zucchini and had a nice spicy note. I’ve a made a sour cream frosting – not an American-style one with lots of icing sugar (which I find to be way too sweat) but a Russian-like (more creamy and less sweat). The cake couldn’t have a better frosting and – topped with the nuts – served as a healthy and amazing dessert.

Yum, yum, yum!

Strawberry and Orange Battenberg Cake – Daring Bakers June 2012

        Mandy of What the Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

        This cake – especially its traditional yellow and pink checkered pattern – looks very girlish and (as Mandy has noted) makes one think of Alice in Wonderland. Despite its “cartoonish” appearance the cake was actually created in 1884 as a wedding cake for Princess Victoria and Prince Louis of Battenberg; the yellow and pink squares representing the four princes of Battenberg.

         I was impressed by the look of the cake and decided not to change it. I only played a little bit with the flavours – added some orange zest to the batter and “glued” the stripes of sponge with the strawberry ganache. The outer part of the cake is covered with orange jam and wrapped in home-made edible “cover”. A few pieces of decoration – and here’s a cake from the Wonderland. Welcome to tea at Madhatters’!

Blue Mondays

            When I first looked through "Zumbo" book with an amazing collection of his creations, I especially loved a chapter dedicated to bar-shaped cakes, and one of it – a chocolate cake with raisins, walnuts and blue cheese (!) stroke a core in my heart. I wanted it to be the first recipe that I would try from the book; it turned out, however, that I cooked almost a dozen other Zumbo-ish things before I finally made this “gateau de voyage”.  There were a few reasons for the delay; one of it was that my husband is not a big fan of cheese and he especially hates those pungent varieties with the blue veins. No wonder, when I finally made this extraordinary cake, I suggested we should take it to the office and share with our colleagues who are more tolerant to this dairy product.

               So, the box with the cake got into the office (should I say that it was Monday or is it pretty obvious anyway?) and my husband took the first piece during the coffee break.  The cake smelled delicious and the blue cheese insert together with the chocolate custard made it look mouth-watering. “Honey, – can we take it back home? It’s way too good and should be eaten by me alone!”

               Of course, we couldn’t take it back home – other people were quick to help themselves to the cake as well. Which was too good – my husband was absolutely right about it. Probably, he’s gonna change his attitude towards blue cheese now…at least when it is served in a form of a dessert!

Summer in March: Chocolate Hazelnut Gateau with Strawberry Jelly and Creme Brulee

         They say, dessert, being the last course of the meal, can be of a crucial significance: a bad one ruins the whole dining experience while a good one transforms even an average meal into a memorable one. No wonder, when I was preparing the menu for the farewell party that we organized for our collegues, I paid a special attention to the dessert.

         I didn’t want to use a recipe from a cookbook; instead, I felt like creating something new that would reflect both my attitude towards Kolkata and the experience (mainly – the culinary one) that I’d gained there. An idea of a multi-layered gateau came by. Indeed, I started to make such sophisticated desserts only about a year ago (thanks to the influence of Adriano Zumbo and other pastry chefs – professional and amateur ones) and it was a time to demonstrate what I’d learnt. When I thought of the flavours, I decided upon chocolate as the main one, with a hint of vanilla (can you do without it in a good dessert?). Then I choose strawberries – simply because they were still in season and I wanted to include a fresh, juicy, a bit sour element in the cake. Hazelnuts was not a very obvious choice since they are way too difficult to find in Kolkata; ironically, that was the reason why I bothered to take them as well: I wanted to create a flavour profile that would be a bit surprising and not so conventional for the people who had been living in the place for a long time.

         I was very happy with the result (and so, it seems, were our colleagues). There was only one question left: how I should call this chocolate and hazelnut gateau with strawberry jelly and crème brulee? At this point I remembered the conversation I had with one of my Indian friends about a year ago:

 – Are you going away from the city this summer? – I asked her.
 – No, – she replied. I have exams till the end of May. But in June I’m planning to travel abroad.

        The thing is, I have forgotten that in India the seasons are different; you have summer from March to May, and monsoon from June to August. It is very unusual for a European!

        My gateau was very unusual as well (you have fresh, not imported, strawberries there and hazelnuts which, as I mentioned, are not so readily available in Kolkata) that’s why I decided to name it Summer in March. I guess, each time I will be looking at the photo of it, I will feel the warmth of that days and the amazing time I had during my stay in that country!

Sticky Tape the Date

         One of the most popular Australian desserts is date pudding. It’s a delicious treat, especially when served with some butterscotch sauce or plain caramel. What happens, however, when a whimsical pastry chef (as Sidney-based Adriano Zumbo is) takes this combination as a starting point for creating a new delight, can be described only by the most enthusiastic words. 

        “Sticky tape the date’ – when I saw this cake in “Zumbo” book, I was impressed by the way it looked – a row of date logs, covered in coconut “snowflakes” and a glimmering caramel glaze. And! There is much more inside the gateau: the strips of date gel and caramel chew which compliment the overall flavour of the chocolate cake batter, enriched with dried apricots and dates. The chocolate caramel (!) which goes in the bottom of the baking tin, has a beautiful aroma and that mouth-watering caramel maison that covers the whole cake is sinfully more-ish.

Toasted Lammyjammit

             When I think of typical Australian dishes, only a great range of desserts comes to my mind: sticky date pudding, light Pavlova, anzac biscuits and lamingtons. The latter ones are actually small cakes coated in toasted coconut; I have heard about them for the first time when I was watching Masterchef two years ago.

         Two months ago, however, as I finally got my “Zumbo” book from Melbourne, I saw an extraordinary variation of a traditional dessert: a big bar cake coated in what seemed to be chocolate coconut. The cocoa coconut and a sleek strip of chocolate on top were so appealing that I couldn’t but decide to make this cake at home!

Pineapple, Coriander and Coconut Bar Cake

      The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

     When I learnt that we are supposed to make either a sweet or a savoury loaf this month, I was more than happy. Since I got my “Zumbo” book in January, I got absolutely addicted to it, especially to the chapter dedicated to “Gateaux de voyage”– the bar cakes, or the loaves, or whatever you want to call them. I started to cook a new cake before we finished a previous one; and despite the fact that there are posts only about two of them in the blog – Lavender Up and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes – believe me, I have cooked much more from the book!

      I felt like making another amazing loaf from Zumbo collection for the challenge but there were two major problems. First, Lisa stated that it shouldn’t take us more than an hour and a half to prepare the cake and bake it through. All cakes from Zumbo, however, have a lot of  “surprise” or hidden elements (like gel, caramel or custard) which, of course, need extra time to prepare. The second problem was, I realized that I won’t be able to share the recipe from the book – there are restrictions on copying the material without the publisher’s permission.

     I found the solution when I remembered that one of the members of our Daring Kitchen –  Lorraine Elliott from notquitenigella.com had once attended a masterclass with Adriano Zumbo where they cooked quite a simple “gateau de voyage” – pineapple and coriander bar cake. It was a perfect opportunity to test the recipe in my kitchen!

     The loaf was really quick and easy to make and turned out to be not as sweet as I expected (well, more like some sort of a bread, really!). I have put some pineapple rings at the bottom of the tin – just for presentation, and increased the amount of pineapple pieces in the cake itself. I have also added shopped cilantro stems to the batter – their freshness beautifully counterbalanced the tanginess of coriander powder and sweetness of shredded coconut. In general, it was more than a nice loaf and I am happy that I managed to try yet another recipe from Adriano Zumbo – at the Daring Kitchen this time!

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

        When I brought my “Zumbo book” home, it turned out that I didn’t have an opportunity to study it properly and my husband, who came home for lunch, was the first one who looked through all the recipes featured there. One of the desserts that really stroked him was the one called “Attack of the Killer tomatoes” – a chocolate cake with cherry tomatoes and raspberry caramel. After making “Lavender Up” I asked him what I should cook from the book next and he remembered about this quirky cake. To say true, I was quite skeptical about it – mainly because of my husband who is very conservative when it comes to food. But since he himself expressed the desire to taste it, I could but find enough culinary courage to put tomatoes in the caramel! 

        When the cake was cooked and I tried the first slice of it, I was really astonished as it came out to be beyond any expectations! The tomatoes softened after baking and imparted their flavour to the caramel which was beautifully counterbalanced by a very rich, yet extremely moist, chocolate cake that had a tempting raspberry aroma. My husband’s verdict on the second “traveler cake” from the book was: “Zumbo rocks! And so do you, honey!”

V8 Cake

        I guess every cook has a dish that is on top of his “wish-to-prepare” list. For me it has been V8 – a multi-layered cake created by an Australian pastry chef Adriano Zumbo. It stroke a chord in my heart once I saw it – more than a year ago – in Masterchef TV show. The following day I found the recipe in the Internet but had to admit that for me it was next to impossible to reproduce this pattisserie masterpiece. However, I kept opening the webpage with the recipe and kept studying it avidly – with the hope that one day I will eventually be able to make this cake at my kitchen. Pretty soon I found myself hooked to the idea: indeed, even when I saw a 20cm square tin in a shop half a year ago, I bought it only because I knew that V8 is assembled in such a tin and a few months ago I couldn’t but buy small silver balls as I realized that they would serve as a perfect decoration for my future cake! 

Lavender Up

       

        My favourite part of the “Zumbo” book (compiled by a great contemporary pâtissier Adriano Zumbo) is the one called “Gateaux de voyage”. There this Australian pastry chef gives the recipes of bar-shaped cakes which as he claims are very popular in his shop in Sydney. He calls them “traveller cakes” because they are easy to transport and can be brought as a gift when going to somebody’s house to visit. All of these cakes are astonishing (well, as all of Zumbo’s creations, of course!) so it was very hard to decide which cake I should make first. The dilemma was solved when I had to open a can of blueberries (for my signature “Blueberry cosmopolitan’ cocktail) – it became obvious that the following day I would be able to make a pear and blueberry cake from the book. The girl (who helped me to finish my Cosmo) expressed the desire to taste it and I promised to send her a piece.

            However, as I started to make the cake, I became overwhelmed with doubts and hesitations. For me, it seemed to be way too much. First, there’s a coconut caramel (I love coconut milk and cook a lot with it but I hate coconut cream which goes into the caramel!). Second, the pears are poached in saffron syrup (I don’t have anything against saffron, but it imparts its strong aroma to the food, doesn’t it?). Last, the cake batter itself is made with jaggery and contains my not-so-beloved coconut cream and a big heap of grated coconut. Wait, there should have been lavender sugar in it as well (that’s why the cake has such a name) but since I didn’t have any I substituted it with vanilla sugar (made in the same way – combining freeze-dried powder with normal sugar) – for me, even without the lavender, there were too many flavours in the cake already. My husband suggested that we should first try this doubtful cake ourselves before sharing it with anybody.

When the cake was finally cut, we didn’t have to solve the problem “to share or not to share” any more: we simply couldn’t stop eating it! It came out to be so unbelievably good, with all the flavours complementing each other, that my poor friend didn’t have a chance to get even a small piece of it! I guess, I will have to make up for it – with some more Cosmos and a new cake from Adriano Zumbo!

Chocolate Mousse Cake with Apples and Caramel

           In Russia we celebrate New Year twice: on the 1^st and on the 14^th of January (according to the Julian calendar used by the Orthodox Church). There are a few good things about it: first, we are still in a holiday mood when everybody else are already stuck in the routine; second, we can keep a Christmas tree for three weeks in our house (decorating it before the Western Christmas) and, finally, we have much more opportunities to create a feast on a dining table.

Tanzanie Cake

         A couple of months ago I have accidentally learnt that Adriano Zumbo, an extraordinary Australian pâtissier, had released a book. A recipe book, with his Willy Wonka style creations inside! The whole day I was trying to figure out how to get this magical book and (lucky me!) in the evening I was at the party where I met a friend of mine who was going on a trip to Melbourne. I told her about my new obsession and she saved me from loosing a good night’s sleep by promising to bring me the book.

While I was patiently waiting for it to come, I saw a post at a popular Russian food blog niksya.ru with a recipe from it - the girl from Saint Petersburg somehow managed to get the book and had already started to replicate Zumbo-ish creations in her kitchen!  As I looked through the recipe (11 pages long, by the way…ok, 10 without the introduction part of the blogger) I told my husband: “I know what we are gonna have this New Year for dessert!” He estimated the size of the folder with the printed recipe and gave me a skeptical look: “Are you sure?” “Totally!” – I tried to sound as convincing as possible…

No doubt, it was not that easy: there are nine elements in the cake, after all, and the assembling is quite tricky as well. At the same time, I wouldn’t label this dessert as “impossible to make”. It’s just…time-consuming. However, it’s great to spend time in such a way: as you work with chocolate gel and salted chocolate flakes, you can’t but feel enthusiastic about expanding your culinary horizons and stepping into unknown, other-worldly realm.

Fraisier Gateau

           

          The name “Fraisier” comes from a French word which means “a strawberry bush”. Indeed, this classical gateau is all about these bright and juicy fruits. And since the strawberry season is at full swing in India now I’ve got a strong resolution to make the most of it by cooking as many yummy and versatile dishes as possible, making “Fraisier” seems to be more than logical (I would even say “inevitable” in this case!).

            Actually this cake has always appealed to me: not because of any complicated technique involved in its preparation but because of its simple yet elegant look. In fact, it’s quite an easy cake to make since there are only two elements: a sponge and a mousse – and it is possible to squeeze the preparation even into the busiest schedule. The result is a stunning dessert: a “crown” of ruby strawberry halves embracing an airy mousse, with the layers of light, orange-scented sponge on the bottom and on the top. Gorgeous, isn’t it? A piece of delight with a true French flair!

Ispahan Yule Log

       I love Christmas time, with decorated trees, carols and, of course, seasonal sweets. The bakery shops and confectionaries and full of Stolen bread, ginger cookies, light fruit and rich plum cakes and, to the top of it, the most beautiful yule logs. In fact, there are two types of yule logs in France: traditional Christmas ones – also called Bûche de Noël – which are made with chocolate and buttercream; and plain yule logs – also called entremets – which resemble a multi-layered ice cream and have no particular connection with any holiday. One of entremets – Ispahan – got my attention a few months back as I was looking for inspiration for my “Golden key” cake. I saw it on “Not Quite Niqella” blog and, to say true, I was obsessed with the idea of making it since then. No wonder, when the question of cooking something special for the Christmas was raised up, I got an answer to it: Ispahan! Trust a cold dessert fanatic not to love the idea of making an ice cream even in winter! And who cares that it’s not a traditional Bûche de Noël? In the long run, when you live in a country with tropical climate, choosing lychees and fresh berries for a Christmas treat sounds quite logical. So, as I eventually got all the ingredients for Ispahan and what seemed to be the right occasion to cook it, I headed to my kitchen to make this rose-scented, lychee-licious miracle. Should I tell you that the Christmas day lunch ended with a showstopper dessert?

“Golden Key” special occasion cake

          It was a kid’s sixth birthday and I was entrusted with an honorable task of making a cake. The theme of the party was Pinocchio, or, to be more precisely, the Russian version of this story in which a wooden boy with a big nose gets a magic key that opens a door to the secret room. So, I had a clear idea about the decoration of the cake right from the beginning and only had to make a decision about the cake itself. I didn’t want something ordinary: taking a time-tested recipe and simply making a good version of a traditional cake was not an option for me – I felt like coming up with something new, elaborate, specially created for the boy!

            With the strongest confidence in my creativity, I took a piece of paper and a pencil and started to draw a sketch of my cake. After looking through a few cookbooks and magazines (well, when it comes to pastry, you cannot merely rely on your own talent – you need a solid support of trustworthy selection of basic recipes) I got really inspired by Ispahan French Yule Log which is a multi-layered cake consisting of rose-scented dacquoise biscuit, lychee mousse, crème brulee, ganache, feuillete crisp insert and icing. Having taken it as a starting point, I gave full freedom to my imagination and pretty soon I got the draft of my future cake in front of me:

“Manqué” with Bailey’s Crème au Beurre

          There is a French gateau called “manqué” (“failure”). It was created by a pastry chef who made a mistake while whipping egg whites for his sponge and decided to add almond flour and butter to save the mixture - which ultimately resulted in creating a new cake.

            Once I’ve cooked my “manqué” as well. However, it was not an almond cake. I just decided to name it so because initially I was planning to make another type of gateau as well but, because of some flops, ended up having a completely different dessert on a serving plate.

            It all started with the idea of making a soufflé-stuffed cake. And, as my sponge was already cooling down on the wire rack and my custard was cooked almost to perfection, I was about to proceed to my next step: dissolving gelatin for the cream and – oops! I discovered that there was no gelatin left! Actually it’s not very typical of me to run out of ingredients as I tend to keep an eye on my home pantry and to refill it when it is necessary. Anyway, after rummaging twice through all the cupboards and kitchen shelves I had to admit that I should change my cooking plans.

Gingerbread house – Halloween style

As soon as we got an invitation to a Halloween party, I instantly knew who I wanted to be this year – a chef, of course! In the long run, I’ve got this wonderful white hat in my wardrobe (that looks huge but is somehow a bit narrow for me) and a long white apron (which, on the contrary, is way too big for me), so I bothered to order a chef’s jacket (wow, my own one! with the title “Executive Party Chef” written in italic font) to pair with the hat – let the apron wait its time on the shelf! There was one more element of the costume that had to be made: it would be natural for guests at the party to ask: “Where is the food, chef?” – so I couldn’t show up with empty hands. I wanted something cute and impressive, tasting delicious (of course!) and at the same time spooky and scary, fitting the mood of the party. A haunted edible house seemed to be the perfect choice. To say true, making a cake in the form of a house was in my “things-to-do-list” for a while (I even had this crazy idea of replicating Taj Mahal once) so I felt that the right time for it has come.

“Olga” – Inspired Gateau

       

            There’s a cake with a wonderful female name Olga. It consists of two layers of an apple cake which embrace the filling – cherry jam, marshmallow and whipped cream; the cake is covered with melted chocolate and decorated with cherries. I remembered about it as I rummaged through my home pantry and discovered a box of marshmallows. Yum! I instantly felt like opening it and grabbing a piece of a light and spongy treat. The problem is, if you don’t finish the whole box straight away (which, I figured out, would be an impossible task even if I recruited my husband as an assistant in accomplishing it) the marshmallow pretty soon becomes unpleasant to eat. So, I’ve made a decision to disguise it in a cake and recruit half of the office as assistants for finishing it the same day (believe me, it’s easier to talk people into eating a good-looking cake rather than a box of plain marshmallows). So, the cake was made (with some not-so-little derivations from the original recipe), decorated (to make it more appealing than a carton box of marshmallows) and – eaten the same day. There was only one question left to be sold – how should I name this cake now? Ann? Helene? Or probably Mary?

Apple Upside-down Cake with Orange Sabayon

One of the most popular cakes in Russia cooked for family get-togethers is a simple apple upside-down cake which by a mysterious reason is always referred to as Charlotte. The actual Charlotte the rest of the world is familiar with is made of pieces of Swiss roll or ladyfingers that are used to line a mould and a thick fruit mousse as a filling; and even its variation – Charlotte russe – has nothing to do with apples. But never try to explain it to any Russian – they will still call their favourite tea-time cake with a fancy French name.

…This year during the first pressure test the contestants of Masterchef Australia had to cook a trio of Maggie Beer desserts: a frangipane tart, a lemon curd tart and an apple rosemary cake. The amateur cooks were given 2 hours to prepare the dishes and I was a bit surprised to see that some of them ran out of time, while others struggled a lot. I thought: it can’t be that difficult! – and decided to challenge myself and to see how long it will take me to make the cake (the tarts wouldn’t have probably been a problem). So, I took the recipe from the Internet and went to the kitchen. 20 minutes to prepare and cook the apples, 20 minutes for the batter, 20 minutes for sabayon. The cake, of course, was still in the oven but theoretically I had this second hour which, I reckon, would be enough to make a shortcrust pastry, frangipane (while the pastry rests in the fridge) and lemon curd (while the tarts bake). Anyway, this post is a praise not to how disciplined I was that day in the kitchen but to how flavoursome Maggie Beer’s cake was! Of course, I can’t compare it to my mum’s “Charlotte” (which is strongly associated with waking up on Sunday morning with the sweet cinnamon smell!) but it’s definitely worth making! Again and again!