Did you ever have one of those days where you just end up wishing you had never entered the kitchen and knew that the baking Gods were out to get you? I may or may not have had one of those days making this cake. Ok, I definitely had one. I needed to make a cake for my father’s birthday. I only had a couple of hours to make it and I knew he liked chocolate, so chocolate it was going to be. A SIMPLE chocolate cake.

Here’s my Dad with my little sister and me ice skating outside on a lake mid winter in central Otago. Handsome young Dad wasn’t he?

I started in on making the cake with not a lot of time to spare.

I  read the instruction in the recipe which stated - ” line your pan with parchment - because the batter is very liquid and you don’t want it to leak” and then  promptly ignored it. My problems began at this point.

“My pan won’t leak!” I confidently exclaimed to myself..
“I know this pan and I know this mixture it will be FINE”.
Guess what….?  It wasn’t fine, my pan had been taking part in a little rough housing in the cupboard with the other pans and become slightly less round and now it leaks. I ended up with batter all through the bottom of the oven .. pouring on to the lower element and giving off a lovely burnt chocolate cake smoke.

“I can fix this!”.. I thought. (still looking for the easy way out)

So I opened the oven - put some foil tightly around the base of the pan and shoved it back in the oven. I ripped the foil and batter poured out in a massive gush from the bottom of the pan.

I went into sensible crisis mode

“Right I need to change pans and line it!”
I grabbed the parchment out of the draw pulled some out and ripped it with great vigor across the sharp little cutty thing .. and sliced my finger with it. Blood began to seep out of my finger.

“It’s ok, it’s ok.., you’re ok, just fix the cake!” I rummaged about and found another pan (way too big) and hit my head on the top of the cupboard as I took it out.

I picked up the foil wrapped, batter weeping cake pan, forgot it was hot and burned my fingers - of course - I was beginning to expect it now.

I poured the cake batter into the pan with parchment on the base and tossed it back into the oven feeling victorious, even though the oven was now WAY below temperature. Then I realised that the base of the pan was lined, but the sides were not…

I cooked the cake and of course when I removed it - it was stuck on the sides. I managed to extract it without mangling it too much, it was thin because half the batter had poured on to the bottom of the oven and been charred to within an inch of it’s life. In fact I believe it actually caught fire briefly.

I decided to cut the maltesers for the top while I waited for it to cool. Half of them shattered into little bits of powder - I picked up a broken one to eat it (well come on, I was having a very bad afternoon!) and it exploded further into bits of filling and chocolate shards which all went down INSIDE my T shirt. So yes.. I had maltesers melting inside my shirt along with little scratchy bits. Sigh ……

Isaac helped me decorate it. Honestly I wasn’t going to be suprised if Isaac fell into the cake and smooshed his face in it by accident.

But all’s well that ends well - the cake was iced and given to my lovely father. He thought it was a “flash looking cake” Yay!

Happy 82nd Birthday Dad - I’m really glad you got your flash looking cake, it almost didn’t happen.

All disasters aside - if you follow the recipe you will find this is a lovely fast chocolate cake that always turns out well (yes it STILL managed to turn out well despite all the in and out of the oven and transferring pans etc). It’s from Sophie Gray and is readily available on her blog and in her wonderful books if you have them.

Here is my lovely Dad with some of his grandchildren - from front left clockwise, Isaac, Jacinta, Dad, Fynn and Oliver.

It’s been a birthday cake staple in our house for a long time and holds a rather special place in my heart. This cake was also the last cake I baked for my 9 year old son Fynn who passed away. It was his birthday two weeks before he died. This is the first time I’ve felt I could make it since then. It will always be Fynn’s cake to me.

Give this cake a whirl - I’m sure it will become a family favourite in your house too. The original recipe for the icing is on Sophies blog- but I’ve chosen to gussy this up a little today with a smooth and shiny sour cream frosting.

Chocolate Birthday Cake

Source Destitute Gourmet

• 1 2/3 cups flour
  1½ cups sugar
  2/3 cup cocoa powder
  1 ½ tsp baking soda
  1 tsp salt
  1½ cups of low fat milk
  100 g melted butter
  2 eggs
  1 tsp vanilla

Sour Cream Frosting

• 1 cup chopped dark chocolate
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups icing sugar

I halved this frosting recipe because I ended up with a single layer cake. But this amount will comfortably cover a two layer cake.

This cake can be made by hand or in the food processor, the results will be the same made either way.

Line a 20 cm (8 inch) loose bottom high sided cake pan with baking parchment. Spray the sides with non stick spray or grease with butter.  If you don’t it WILL leak - see above story if you don’t believe me. Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F

If you wish to make it by hand in a large bowl simply add in the dry ingredients first then add wet ingredients and beat with a wooden spoon

To make in the food processor - add in dry ingredients - pulse to combine and then add in wet, whizz until well mixed.

Pour into your lined cake pan and bake for roughly 50 minutes. It is done when a skewer inserted comes out clean. If you wish to bake it in a larger pan and have a single layer - then you will need to adjust cook times and cook for less time.

If you have made the 20cm/8 inch version - cool on a rack and then split in half when cool, spread jam across the center and then some of the frosting. Place top layer on and then cover the entire cake with frosting.

To make the Frosting
Place the chocolate and butter in a bowl in the microwave and heat until the butter melts. Stir the chocolate into the warm butter to melt completely. Add in your sour cream, vanilla and salt - stir well.

Add in your icing sugar a little at a time and beat well between additions until you have a spreadable consistency.

A beautiful moist cake - keep it covered in the fridge to keep it at it’s best for longer.

I’m off to make a sacrifice to the baking gods now - I’m going to go burn some cookies or something.

This post was entered in the Sweet New Zealand Monthly blogging event. It’s being hosted this month by Couscous & Consciousness. If you would like to enter something yourself you can check out the rules here for the Sweet New Zealand Blogging Event.

What? Deviled eggs with hummus - what blasphemy is this?!

I assure you it’s all for a very good cause - tastiness and waistlines.

I’m not trying to reinvent the deviled egg which is just perfect in all it’s retro goodness. This was just a spur of the moment change based on me desperately wanting to pig out on something savory without adding several inches to my waistline. Yes, there are much lower fat snacks that I could have chosen but I wanted deviled eggs.

So I went to the kitchen tossed the eggs in some water.. then reflected on my impulsive egg craving, knowing that deviled eggs were fairly high in fat and that’s fine .. if you just eat one or two .. but I had plans to eat more than that. So I decided I’d better change it up.

Deviled Eggs with Hummus

• 4 eggs
• 1 tspn of mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 Tblspns of hummus
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 tspn of curry powder ( or to taste)
• Cayenne pepper or hot Paprika/ chives to sprinkle on top.

I’m pretty sure most of you will know how to hard boil an egg. If not try this. 

Place 4 eggs in a pot of boiling water and boil gently for 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and let eggs sit in the warm water for another 10 minutes. Drain.

Peel eggs under cold running water. Avoid very fresh eggs, they are hard to peel.

Cut your eggs in half, gently remove the yolks leaving the whites in tact and place in a small bowl.

Add in the remainder of the ingredients and mix together well with a fork. You will not get this perfectly smooth because you will have little lumps of hummus through the mix.

Place the yolk mix back into the cavity the yolk came from originally. You can pipe the mix in or just spoon it. I think because the mix is textured with little bits of chickpea from the hummus the spooned in casual look is spot on. Besides, I could not find my piping bag and I just wanted to eat them.

Sprinkle with a little of the Paprika or Cayenne and some chives.

Eat - and feel less guilty because these do have fewer calories than your traditional deviled egg; but they are every bit as delicious

I trundled off to the farmers market full of anticipation for the cook off between our farmer’s market chefs Alison and Simon Lambert and the Outstanding in their Fields representatives Steve Ellwood and Tony Heptinstall.

I was not disappointed! The chefs had 35 minutes to create a three course meal with some of the beautiful local seasonal produce from the Otago Farmers market. The Race was ON!

My assignment - to re-create one of the dishes that the chefs made.

If any of the chefs are reading this - please forgive me if I have any of these dishes incorrectly described- I might have been overcome by the amazing aroma’s coming from both kitchens!

Alison and Simon started by serving olive oil infused with rosemary and roasted garlic with some of the incredibly tasty Pain au Levain from Levito Bakery lightly toasted to whet the judges appetite.

This tempter was followed by a Capaccio of Limousin Beef with a light salad of cheese, fresh lettuce and toasted hazelnuts.

Next up was a carefully pan fried sole served on roasted potatoes with a chorizo and bacon sauce.

Finally a light and airy sponge pudding of apples and tayberries and cream.

Here it all is - judging is serious business! All washed down with a nice Rose from Judge Rock Wines. I have to say .. that the wine bottle at this stage is full.. by the time judging was finished - it was completely empty! Not sure if that influenced any decisions or not!

This is the Otago farmers market mobile kitchen - we’re treated to Alison’s fantastic cooking every week!

Tony and Steve served us pan fried groper with a crispy herb crust and a white wine and mustard sauce with a fresh fennel and apple salad.

I have to say I loved the look of this dish - so much that I really wanted to recreate it at home, and I did, although I’m afraid I don’t have any photos of the homemade version - we ate it all way too fast.

Limousin beef minute steaks served with hand rolled wonton wrappers, braised leeks and carrots followed by a creamy rice pudding with a tayberry compote.

Hand making the wonton wrappers for this dish. Apparently the secret is in resting the dough. Not sure exactly how much resting it got with such a tight time limit!

Here they are bustling about creating deliciousness in the Outstanding Kitchen

Unfortunately I did not get to taste all these creations since they were snapped up by the crowd at a speed faster than light! The things I did taste were delicious and really quite stunning considering they had only 35 minutes to put these together.

I decided to recreate two of the dishes that were served. I made Tony and Steves fish with a herb crust and mustard sauce - but .. we ate it all before I could get a nice photo for you as I mentioned.  Sorry about that! I promise I will make it again though. It was very, very good.

Alison and Simon’s simple but delicious fruit sponge pudding fared a little better with the photography - since I made it when none of my family were home. Tayberries were sold out when I went to look for them but I managed to pick up some beautiful Waimate strawberries that were frozen in the peak of summer. So even if you are not sure that what you want is in season the farmers market is worth a check, they often have their off season produce in frozen form. So you are still buying a local product. Make sure you get along to a cooking demonstration near you - don’t forget to have a look at the Outstanding in their Fields website for details for your area.

This is a delicious homey dessert with sweet apples and berries with a hint of lemon to cut the sweetness.

Waimate Strawberry and Sonia Apple Fruit Sponge Pudding

Filling

• 3 large Sonia apples ( or other sweet apple suitable for baking)
• 2 cups of local berries - fresh or frozen
• 1 level Tblspn of cornflour (you don’t want it gluggy!)
• 2 Tblspns white sugar
• juice and zest of one lemon.

Sponge topping:

• 100 grams of caster/superfine sugar
• 100 grams of soft butter
• 3 free range eggs
• 100 grams of sifted flour
• 1 1/2 tspns of baking powder
• 1 tspn vanilla. 

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F

Prepare your fruit.

Peel apples  chop roughly and place in the bowl with the other ingredients for your filling - mix well, place into a large dish and put in the hot oven while you make your topping.

Beat your butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time beating well between each addition.

Add your vanilla and beat well.

Sift in flour and baking powder and mix lightly. You will have a thick but spreadable mixture.

Spread your topping over the hot fruit and bake for 45-55 minutes.

You can see once I’ve spread the topping over there are a few bits of fruit poking through - this really doesn’t matter at all.

You may need to place a piece of foil over your pudding for the last 10-15 minutes of cooking if your sponge is looking very brown. I find I do need to do this. 

Putting a skewer in to test for doneness does not work with this! In the centre of the sponge push gently with your finger.. if it feels firm it is most likely done. Just to be sure - take a knife and make a small slit in the centre and push the sponge back just a fraction to see if you have batter - or lovely light sponge. If the worst happens and you remove it and find it out it’s not done - toss it back in the oven for a few more minutes. It will still be delicious.

Dust with icing sugar/powdered sugar and serve hot with thick cream.

This is a wonderful family dessert made in a large dish - or it can be divided between individual ramekins for a dinner party look. Cook time will be less if you are making this in single serve dishes.

I really hope no matter where you are in NZ you are supporting your local producers. For those of you overseas I hope you are buying local too - it’s a good thing to be thinking about where our food comes from and how it was produced.

Kiwis remember - the Outstanding Kitchen will be coming to a farmers market near you!

The generous producers that donated produce for the demonstrations can be found on the farmers market website

Out Standing in their Fields - not literally - but figuratively speaking of course. Farmers’ Markets New Zealand, in conjuction with the REAL New Zealand Festival, is giving a national series of FREE Farmers’ Market cooking and producer demonstrations. This is a fantastic opportunity to see your local produce cooked and prepared in front of you by some very talented people. Well known chefs will be making appearances, like Brett McGregor, Jonny Schwass, Julie Biuso and Chef of the Year, David Schofield.

Make sure you check out the link to Outstanding in their Fields to see when and were you need to be to catch this treat! There are even prizes to be had! 

It’s happening in a local Farmers market near you! I plan on heading down to The Otago Farmers market tomorrow to see Alison (our regular farmers market chef) and husband Simon along with Steve Ellwood and Tony Heptinstall. I bet they’ll be cooking up a storm!

Check out the Out Standing in their Fields Blog for all the updates, videos and recipes from the road! 

After the event I’ll be cooking something based on the chef’s demonstration for those of you that can’t be there for the day. Hope to see lots of you there!

Tan Square has got to be almost at the top of the list for my favourite slices. This is called Caramel Crumb Bars if you are in the US. What’s not to like?

A thick layer of a shortbread type base, smothered in dulce de leche type creamy caramel, sprinkled with more shortbread crumbs and dotted with dark chocolate.

It’s not good for you - I have to tell you that so my conscience is clear. Although I am sure after one quick look at the ingredients list you would have worked that out on your own.

This is something that makes a wonderful treat and it makes a regular appearance in cake tins, at morning teas and as cafe fare all over New Zealand.

Tan Square - Caramel Crumb Bars

Base

• 3 cups of plain flour
• 2 tspns Baking powder
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 250 grams of butter
• 1 tspn vanilla extract

Topping

• 60g butter
  2 generous tbsp golden syrup
  1 400g can condensed milk
• 50 grams of chopped Dark Chocolate
• 1/3 of a cup of base mixture reserved.

Make the base:

Cream together the butter and sugar until light. Add in the vanilla and mix. Add in dry ingredients and mix until you have a rough crumbly mixture.

Press firmly into a 32 cm x 21 cm (13 inch X 9 inch) pan lined with baking paper ( you’ll be glad of that later) and place in the fridge while you make the topping. Don’t forget to reserve 1/3 of a cup of this mix to sprinkle over the top.

Place your condensed milk, golden syrup and butter in a small saucepan and heat gently until the butter is melted. DO stir this constantly- this will burn in a flash.

Pour over your base, sprinkle over your reserved crumb topping and sprinkle your chopped chocolate over as evenly as you can manage.

Cook in a 180C/350F oven for roughly 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on it towards the end of cooking time it will burn quickly around the edges if you are not careful. 

Let it cool completely before cutting into squares.

You can halve this recipe easily if you wish and cook it in a standard square cake pan.

A Kiwi classic.

Watch out for another post before the end of the week. There is something special happening at the Farmers Market in Otago and moving through the country starting this weekend!