Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

As Cookie Monster would say, "Chocolate Buttermilk Cake is a sometimes food".

This cake was, amazing. Also, amazing-ly rich. Make it for a special occasion.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

(as seen in The Australian Women's Weekly 'Cake Favourites')

I;

180g butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups (330g) caster

4 eggs, seperated

3/4 cup (110g) self raising flour

1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder

3/4 cup (180ml) buttermilk

Chocolate Filling

400g dark eating chocolate, melted

250g butter, melted

1/2 cup (80g) icing sugar

M;

Preheat oven to 180c/160c fan forced.

Grease deep 20cm round cake pan. Line with baking paper.

Beat butter, extract and sugar in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, until just combined.

Transfer to a larger bowl, stir in sifted dry ingredients and buttermilk.

Beat egg whites in a clean small bowl until soft peaks form.

Fold egg whites into cake mixture in two batches, pour mixture into prepared pan.

Bake cake about 1 hour. Cool completely in pan.

Meanwhile, make chocolate filling. Reserve 1 cup.

Split cake into three layers (I only did two - too scared it'd break!)
Place one layer on serving plate and spread thinly with chocolate filling.

Repeat with remaining layers and filling.
Spread reserved filling over cake.
Refrigerate 3 hours before serving.

Chocolate Filling
Combine chocolate and butter in medium bowl; stir in sifter icing sugar. Cool filling to room temperature and beat with a wooden spoon until thick and spreadable.

This cake says it serves 10, but it's far too heavy for a regular slice, so I'd say 20.

It is worth noting mine kept fresh in the fridge for 5 days before it started to dry out.

A definite sign that something good was cooking.





I wished her luck. Yes, my cakes are all assigned genders.


Relief!


I had to get M to cut it, I was too scared I'd screw it up.



Cool ganache! I was up until 12.30am waiting for this stuff to cool down.



This actually looks better than the final result.



No one said I'll get an award for food photography.

Stay well, and eat cake!
Nat x

Easy Chocolate Mousse

This past weekend M & I had my parents, my brother and his partner over for dinner for the first time. It was super exciting, for me, and I made (what I thought was) a great menu of antipasto followed by mushroom risotto and chocolate mousse. I did plan on taking lovely photos all the way through, but Mum & Dad supplied the wine and then the Grey Goose M's sister got us for Christmas came out, and, well, I forgot!

However, M did catch this proud moment on film;

My starters & I.

Oh well, it was a great night regardless of lack of photographic memories.

The night ended, as I mentioned, with chocolate mousse. I first made this chocolate mousse for M earlier in the week for Valentines Day, (the perfect excuse), as I know that, although he is not a sweet tooth, he does enjoy chocolate mousse. Being titled 'Chocolate Mousse in Minutes' on Taste made it the most attractive option in my search as I was to be cooking it along with two other courses after work that day. I was so pleasantly suprised with it's ease, flavour and, importantly to me for chocolate mousse, it's texture, that I had to share it with you.

That, and I promised my brother's partner I'd share the recipe.

Chocolate Mousse in Minutes

For Mel

As seen on Taste.com.au

I;

• 300g good-quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I used a mix of Club Dark & Club 70% Cocoa)
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
• 1 tbs good-quality cocoa powder, sifted
• 300ml thickened cream, plus extra whipped cream to serve
• Grated chocolate, to serve

M;

1. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water). Stir until melted. Remove bowl from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

2. Place eggs and sugar in a large bowl and beat with electric beaters for 5 minutes, or until mixture is pale, thick and doubled in volume. Fold in cooled chocolate and cocoa powder until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, whip cream until thickened (be careful not to over-beat). Use a large metal spoon to carefully fold the cream into the chocolate mixture, trying to keep the mixture as light as possible. Spoon into 6 serving glasses and chill in fridge for at least 1 hour. Remove from fridge 15 minutes before serving, then top with extra whipped cream and grated chocolate to serve.

Serves 6

I didn't take them out of the fridge 15 minutes before serving, but I otherwise followed the recipe to the point. It is definitely my new staple mousse as I hate the fussiness of seperating the eggs, and my old staple used twice the amount of eggs - it was delicious but far too heavy at the end of a meal!

Yes I love nutritious food and obviously, this is not. But I live very much by the motto that if you're going to do something, do it properly or don't do it at all.

Now go and make some mousse. It's probably been way too long since you last did.

Stay well,
Nat x

Sugar is Poison?

One of my favourite writers, Sarah Wilson, has been blogging extensively lately on why sugar is poison in accordance with the writings of David Gillespie in his books titled; Sweet Poison.

Though I plan to, I haven't yet read these books so my knowledge only goes as far as Sarah's blog posts. In a similar way to my reason for believing humans weren't designed to eat meat, (which I will talk about one day), it seems that David Gillespie has managed to find seemingly good reason why humans aren't designed to eat sugar, or more specifically, fructose, and why it is sugar and not fats, (we're talking avocados and nuts, not cheeseburgers), that are making us fat and causing disease.

Now I don't see anything wrong with cutting out things like lollies, chocolates, cakes and biscuits, but from what I've read in Sarah's blog, he also suggests that honey is incredibly bad for you and we should only really consume 2 pieces of fruit daily. Though I haven't read it, I have no doubt his theory also warns people off dried fruit and fruit juice, which I find hard to get my head around having not read the book.

Either way, I am inspired. Not completely, as I am a huge fruit eater and I adore the dried fruit I put in my muesli and the Jalna yoghurt I eat it with, (which I have no doubt contains fructose), but enough to make some changes. I can't commit to no chocolate or cake for months yet, that's overwhelming, but I am committing, just for the next week, to no obvious sugar. So cakes, chocolate, lollies, biscuits, jam, ice creams and all your friends, I bid thee farewell. At least for a while.

I've started by giving away the super-sweet cereals I eat for dessert almost nightly.

It's not the full hog, but it's something, and as a person who has to have at least 2 or 3 pieces of chocolate a day, and some honey in the morning to get me going, (I'm not saying I'll ban honey, but at least try not to do it), it's not going to be easy. I hate admitting it, but I am heavily reliant on sugar and carry a chupa-chup everywhere in case I get tired. Really.

Not having a little dip of a cookie in my coffee this morning was the first hurdle, but I'm hoping I'll feel some positive effects by the end of the week.

I'll report back.

Anyone else want to try this less-extreme version?

Stay well,

Nat x

Peanut Choc-Chip Muffins

Although I whole-heartedly believe in a balanced lifestyle and all the perfectly balanced meals that come with that, I believe that a big part of every balanced lifestyle should be a few meals that would be suitable for a detox, and some suitable for a re-tox. Both of which are fine in a balanced scheme of things along with what I hope is your life of mainly balanced meals.

However, this is the re-tox.

Peanut Choc-Chip Muffins

(For Casey)

Recipe from 'The Essential Vegetarian CookBook' - Murdoch Books

I;

2 cups (250g) self-raising flour

1/3 cup (80g) raw sugar

1 1/2 (240g) dark choc bits

1 egg

1 cup (250g) crunchy peanut butter

2 tablespoons strawberry jam (I used raspberry)

60g butter, melted

1 cup (250ml) milk

Icing sugar for dusting (I ignored this)

M;

Preheat oven to moderate 180c

Brush a 12 hike standard muffin tin with melted butter or oil (I sprayed olive oil)

Sift flour into large bowl

Add sugar and choc bits; make a well in the centre

Add combined egg, peanut butter, jam, butter and milk

Stir until just combined (do not over beat)

Spoon evenly into muffin cups

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean

Loosen the muffins in the pan and leave for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack

When cool, dust with icing sugar (I found them sweet enough)

Enjoy!

Stay well,

Nat x