Tag Archives: chocolate

My 24th Birthday Cake

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As I mentioned in my last cakey post, Easter weekend was my birthday. I ended up making three cakes that weekend, which is probably some record for me. This was the one I made for my birthday.

I seem to have such a lack of inspiration for cakes lately. The month leading up to my birthday, I just could not figure out what I wanted to do. Even as I began making it, I had little direction. It's those unplanned cakes that usually come out the worst for me, so I wasn't expecting great things.

Strawberries will make everything better…

Juke Kartel Cake

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Last weekend, one of my favourite Melbourne bands, Juke Kartel, returned home to Australia over Easter and decided to treat us with a little tour. Amongst the gigs was an exclusive houseparty scheduled on the same day as my birthday. I really couldn't think of a better way to spend my first night as a 24-year-old, so I grabbed tickets straight away.

The invite said to feel free to bring a plate. Plate… cake… same thing, yeah? Besides, there's some unwritten rule about birthdays involving cake, so I really was fulfilling my duty in bringing one along.

If life gave you one day…

Easter Nest Cake

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I hope you all had yourselves the most fantastic Easter imaginable, filled with love, great company, and of course – chocolate.

One of my favourite excuses around Easter is the ability to bake the most indulgent desserts. And when it comes to indulging, you can't go much further than this mudcake.

I've baked this flourless chocolate cake a few times. You've seen it for Father's Days and for Birthdays. This cake is so delicious and so loved I'm constantly looking for excuses to revisit and reinvent it.

I've done the Basket thing for Easter quite a lot, so I decided to step away from that and go for a nest instead.

Would you care for an egg?

Pirate Dreams

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Were you ever one of those kids who used to sneak-read?

Your parents would tell you lights out and you'd pretend to sleep until you could hear they were out of range. Then you'd sneak a torch, or any handy light source, under the covers and get stuck into a novel, heart beating from the adrenaline at the thought of getting caught.

And just sometimes, you'd be so into the book that you'd fall asleep. Still engrossed in the story, your dreams would follow suit — you lived the story with eyes wide shut as you dreamed the hours away. That's exactly what happened to this little boy…

Turn the page…

White Christmas Cake

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Wow, Christmas was an eventful one this year. I spent three days baking the week before Christmas then froze everything while I was away on holidays. I came home on the 24th and proceeded to decorate the defrosted goodies and prepare all the canapés for my annual Boxing Day feast and fell into bed at 4am with a whole list of things yet to be done. Spent a relaxing lunch with the boyfriend's family then came home to visit my dad.

Then the storm hit. Amidst the biggest hail storm anyone in the area can remember, me and my boyfriend drove to my house to rescue my puppy who was outside in it. He was thankfully not seriously hurt. But when we attempted the drive back to my dad's in time for dinner we found the roads flooded. People were swimming on the road, cars were abandoned after people had tried to drive through them and shorted their cars, trees snapped clear in half and most people were standing out on the street in awe of the swampland that had been clear in the light of a beautiful summer's day only hours before. Apparently there was even a small tornado right near my house, though we never saw it through the hail. Thankfully we found one road in that hadn't been flooded and made it back in time. Phew!

Melbourne. She is a crazy place to live.

So it was a bit odd the following day when I had mine and my boyfriend's family over for lunch and everything was normal again. As always I made far too much food and filled up every corner of stomach present in the house. It was lots of fun to make everything and lovely that everyone was so appreciative.

I have so much to show you guys. Today I'm going to start with this.

Some months ago I had an idea for a Christmas cake I really wanted to try. I had no idea how to do it or if it could work as I'd never seen it tried before. Oh well, only one way to find out!

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…

Chocolate and Sherry Cherry Gift Box Cake

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Christmas is not that far away, and I am getting so excited conjuring up ideas for my Boxing Day feast. But before we tuck into the feast, first we have to unwrap the goodies bequeathed unto us by Santa! And what better gift than one involving chocolate?

This one was conjured up from a competition by Harris Scarfe. The task was to cook one of 6 different recipes, from the sweet to savoury. I, of course, had to go the sweet route.

Unwrap the gift…

Frozen Chocolate and Berry Chequerboard Parfait

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I said that I wanted to bake my way through this chocolate cookbook, and I totally mean it. The cake recipe used for both the gateau forestiere and the jungle cake was from that book, as is the following recipe. It's wonderful.

I prepared this mixture in advance, but we ended up having a super hot weekend and so on the night I constructed this for dessert, the vanilla layer began melting all over the place. So there went my grand plans of having a perfectly chequered parfait. But what it's lacking on the aesthetic side it certainly made up for it in taste.

This recipe gives you the freedom to choose your favourite berry. I used strawberry for both the parfait and the sauce. I also sieved out the seeds for a nicer texture. Alternatively, you could prepare two berry layers (such as raspberry and blackberry) if you want a multi coloured/flavoured parfait.

Recipe and assembly instructions…

Gateau Foresteire

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Baking is fun at the best of times, but when it’s for charity it is so much more fulfilling. My boyfriend works for IBM, and currently he is on a project in an ANZ office. One of the ANZ offices he is located at decided to host a Big Cake Bake fundraiser for the Red Cross. I was more than happy to oblige when asked to do a cake, and more than happy for the excuse to make a cake I’d been wanting to do for a while.

Take a walk through the forest…