Sticky Condensed Milk and Vanilla Seed Icing

In my opinion condensed milk is just about the best thing that comes out of a can. If you need some to disappear I'm the person you should go to... So when Marisa from The Creative Pot tweeted about condensed milk cupcakes the cogs started rolling and I came up with this icing. Let me tell you, if you don't like sweet things you should stay away from this icing, it's sticky and sweet with the creamy taste of condensed milk and the light taste of vanilla to break the hold that the sugar has on you. The icing sets to a beautiful silky matt covering with the vanilla seeds dotted throughout the surface.


I built my own light box last night so that I could take proper photos. It was actually quite easy to make, I found the instructions here, I used tissue paper for the diffusing material instead of fabric. Just need to get myself a stronger light than my bedlamp!


Condensed Milk and Vanilla Seed Icing
Enough for approximately 10 cupcakes

• 250g Icing Sugar
  
• 70g Butter
  
• 100ml Condensed Milk
  
• Seeds of one Vanilla Pod
  

1. Mix together the butter and condensed milk.
   
2. Beat in the icing sugar.
   
3. Add the seeds and mix well.
   

I heated the icing a little bit before piping it on the cupcakes. It spreads quite a bit so there is no making impressive icing towers with this one.

Wedding Cake Decorating Trials

My friend and I have a thing, a cake baking and decorating thing. We studied engineering together and we both love baking. Every once in a while (usually around birthdays) we give in to our urges and bake themed cakes. We started with decorating cakes with buttercream icing with props and sweets and things on top then moved on to experimenting with fondant cake covering and fondant decorations.


Recently one of our friends that got engaged asked us to make their wedding cake! First thoughts were "Yay, they asked us, wow!", second thoughts were "Oh crap, can we realy make a cake worthy of being called a wedding cake?". A trail run for wedding cake designs was in order. The color scheme for the wedding is white, blue and silver, we tried out a few things but the cake and cupcakes pictured won in the end. We also tried our hand at wrapping a cake with chocolate. The cake came out pretty well, just have to spread the chocolate a bit thinner next time! (the canned fruit was a last minute substitute as we realized we didn't have any fresh fruits...)

So without further ado, gaze upon the cake decorating efforts of Grethe and Jessica!











The photos were taken while everyone was standing around looking at me and waiting for the cakes to be cut, not ideal conditions but oh well!

Home-made Hummus

At the South African Food Blogging Conference in March Jeanne Horak-Druiff from Cooksister spoke about finding your blogging voice. The point that really stood out for me was that there are two types of food bloggers; a writer that likes to cook or a cook that likes to write. The more I blog the more apparent it is that I am definitely the latter (pfft, not like I didn't know that already..!).

I started blogging in the first place because I wanted all my recipes in one place, blogging made more sense in terms of data security (my laptop can fail or get stolen; blogger.com has backup servers to prevent content loss). Also, if the recipes are on the internet they are easily accessible from almost anywhere.

The second reason why I started blogging is completely unrelated to food or cooking; I am currently busy with a Masters degree which means that thesis writing looms on the immediate horizon. The main focus of Engineering really isn't on stimulating creative writing skills; I've found that a 4 year degree is really effective in undoing a lot of writing experience gained at school. In writing just like any other skill, practice makes perfect. Writing does not come easy to me so the blog is my way of practicing making the words flow easier.

Phew, enough of super long personal exposé! This is what happens when I wake up inexplicably at 1am...


My inspiration for making hummus came from the Beetroot Hummus post by Nina from My-Easy-Cooking. I never realised that it is so easy to make this super tasty spread/dip! Luckily my mom had a pot of tahini paste lying around (that stuff is expensive!); the tahini really plays a large role in the taste of your final product. For those who have never heard of tahini paste (I only found out about it recently), a quick Google search defines it as "a paste of ground sesame seeds and a flavour similar to peanut butter.".

Cooking to me is a very 'free-range' compared to baking; baking requires precision but with cooking I usually stick my fingers in stuff and taste and adjust the food until I am happy with the taste! For the hummus I suggest using my recipe as a guideline, at the end of the day you have to eat it so modify it until you like it.

In the photos I served the hummus on some fresh ciabata with roasted tomatoes marinated in oil that I bought at the Cheese Festival. Very tasty!

Hummus
Makes about 500ml of hummus

• 1 can of chickpeas, washed and drained
  
• 2 tablespoons Tahini paste
  
• Juice of 1 lemon
  
• 1 clove of garlic
  
• Plain yoghurt
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• Optional: Cumin seeds
  

1. Put the chickpeas, tahini, garlic and half of the lemon juice in a blender and blend until smooth.
   
2. Add yoghurt to thin out the mixture (other recipes call for oil here).
   
3. Add spices and lemon juice to taste.
   
4. No more, it's that easy!
   

Easy Broccoli Soup

Winter has arrived in Stellenbosch! The cold weather made me long for soup the whole day, the only question was whether I would make broccoli or butternut soup. Clearly broccoli won, but butternut soup can be made exactly the same way by just substituting the butternut for the broccoli.


Easy Broccoli Soup
Serves a lot, at least 4 ravenous people

• 2 Broccoli heads, broken into small florets
  
• 1 large Onion, chopped
  
• 2 Chicken Stock cubes
  
• Milk for thinning
  

1. In a large pot fry the onions until soft.
   
2. Put the broccoli and stock cubes in the pot, add enough water to cover about half of the broccoli and bring to a simmer.
   
3. When the broccoli is soft, put everything in a blender until the mixture is smooth.
   
4. Return the mixture to the pot, add milk until the desired consistency is reached.
   
5. Cook for a few minutes, add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!
   

Rainbow Sponge Cake

One of my friends recently returned home after living in Germany for 7 months, this event called for special cake! This cake was inspired by photos doing the rounds on the Internet of a rainbow cake that is made with all the colours of the rainbow layered in one batch. The idea is to make the outside of the cake very plain, then when you cut into the cake you are surprised with an explosion of colour!

The very vivid colours are achieved by using gel food colouring that can be found at speciality baking stores. I used a recipe for sponge cake that I found here.

Rainbow Sponge Cake
Recipe for one large square layer or two smaller round layers

• 3 eggs, separated
  
• 15ml Lemon juice
  
• 140g White sugar
  
• 25ml Warm water
  
• 140g Cake flour
  
• 5ml Baking powder
  
• Pinch of salt
  

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
   
2. Beat egg whites until stiff. Beat in the lemon juice and half of the sugar.
   
3. Beat the egg yolks and water together. Slowly add the rest of the sugar while beating.
   
4. Fold the egg yolks into the egg whites.
   
5. Sift together dry ingredients and fold into the egg mixture.
   
6. Pour into two greased 23cm diameter cake tins or one 30cm x 30cm square pan.
   
7. Bake for 30 minutes.
   

To make the rainbow layers, divide the egg yolk, egg white and flour mixtures. Colour the two separate egg yolk mixes and then proceeded with the rest of the instructions for each colour. When the batters are finished, spread the one colour in the pan first then carefully spread the second colour on top.

Creamy Simonzola & Mushroom Chicken on Butternut Mash

Recently I was lucky enough to attend the Simonsberg Day Out at Diemersdal wine estate. We started off by tasting the range of cheese that Simonsberg has to offer then we moved on to the kitchen where chef Nic van Wyk prepared some impressive dishes that incorporated Simonsberg cheese. As a parting gift we received a few cheeses to take home as well as a beautiful apron (which have both been put to good use!).


I must admit that I am not a lover of blue cheese, or rather I wasn't until I tasted Simonzola. This creamy cheese might just be my gateway blue cheese! In this dish I melted the cheese into a white sauce with some mushrooms, the flavours complemented each other very well even if I do say so myself. So without further ado, here is the recipe for my cheesy creation!

Creamy Simonzola & Mushroom Chicken on Butternut Mash
Serves 2 hungry people

• 30ml Flour
  
• 30ml Butter
  
• 250ml Milk, warm
  
• 30g Simonzola cheese (quarter of the triangle)
  
• 125g Button Mushrooms, chopped (half a punnet)
  
• 4 Chicken breasts, cooked
  
• 1 Purple Onion, cooked
  
• Equal amounts of potato and butternut, cooked
  
• Butter, milk and salt to taste
  

For the sauce:

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.
   
2. Add the flour to the melted butter, mix until well incorporated.
   
3. Heat the mixture, whisk in the milk slowly and let the sauce thicken.
   
4. Add mushrooms and cheese and let the sauce simmer.
   

For the mash:

1. Mash together equal amounts of butternut and potato with some butter.
   
2. Add milk until a smooth consistency is reached.
   
3. Add salt to taste.
   

Serve the chicken topped with cheese sauce and purple onions on the butternut mash. Enjoy!

Giant Sticky Hot Cross Buns

It seems like hot cross buns are everywhere; in stores, in tweets, in blogs! In sticking with my current yeast facination I have chosen to make yeasted hot cross buns. I found this lovely recipe on iky200306's blog. Go check out her recipe, her hot cross buns look perfect!

The recipe said the dough should be shaped into 12 balls. Not being one to disregard direct instructions I made 12 balls. What did I get? 12 GIANT HOT CROSS BUNS! The buns turned out so giant that next time I will shape the dough into 24 balls. Those crosses of mine could also do with a bit more practice!

The end product went down well with all my beta testers ("Ten out of ten for the hot cross bunnies produced in tiny oven. :-D"). The only problem I had with these buns were photographing them! Anyone have ideas on how to dress up a hot cross bun? Next time I will experiment with a bit more mixed spice in the dough.

Hot Cross Buns
Makes 12-24

• 1kg Bread flour
  
• 10ml Salt
  
• 10g Instant yeast
  
• 80ml Sugar
  
• 5ml Ground cinnamon
  
• 15ml Mixed spice
  
• 60g Butter, melted
  
• 200ml Warm milk
  
• 375ml Warm water
  
• 1 Egg
  
• 250ml Raisin & sultana mix
  

Crosses

• 60ml Cake flour
  
• 15ml Oil
  
• Enough water to make a paste
  

Glaze

• 100ml Apricot jam
  
• 200ml Water
  
• 5ml Ground cinnamon
  
• 10ml Sugar
  

1. Mix all the dry ingredients except the raisins together.
   
2. Beat milk, butter and egg together, add to the dry ingredients.
   
3. Add water gradually until the dough is soft, not sticky. (water quantity is what I used, you may need more or less depending on your location and weather)
   
4. Knead dough for 3 minutes. Add raisins and knead further for 3 minutes.
   
5. Place dough in an oiled plastic bag, leave in a warm area to rise until doubled in size (about 40minutes).
   
6. Remove dough and knock it down. Shape the dough into balls and place into a well greased dish. (12 balls were too large for me, 16-20 is probably better). Cover and leave to rise for 20 minutes.
   
7. Mix ingredients for the crosses. Pipe on to the dough just before baking.
   
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 30 minutes or until the buns are golden brown.
   
9. Boil ingredients for the glaze together until it reaches the consistency of syrup.
   
10. While the buns are cooling, brush the tops with the glaze. Glaze the tops another 2 times before digging in!