Brown butter cake with salted caramel Swiss meringue buttercream, dulce de leche, Maltesers and meringues inspired by Katherine Sabbath!

 

Cake.

Love it and I am suspicious of those who don't. You know those people. There is one in every crowd. They get offered cake and they say, 'No, I'm not really into cake . . . '.I usually stand there mouth agape and wonder what on earth is wrong with them.  

These days I tend to love making cakes for other people. Luckily I have two little nephews who I can experiment on and who are brutally honest with what they do and don't like. The other favourite taste testers are my buddies at work. They never knock back cake and it means that if I have a Sunday baking session, I can get rid of the evidence the next day to an appreciative bunch.

There are a few food blogs that I read voraciously (Sweetapolita, Chocolatesuze, Not Quite Nigella, Raspberri Cupcakes), but I have only just recently gotten into Instagram and discovered the wonders of Katherine Sabbath. She is a wonder.

I came across Katherine when Raspberri Cupcakes created this absolute stunner of a cake and it was inspired by one of Katherine's. From then on, I think my most searched for hash-tag on instagram is #katherinesabbath as there are so many cakes made that are inspired by her. It's like a little community. Katherine often comments on these cakes and features them on her own instagram page which I think is awesome too. Plus, I think I saw on her instagram that she is starting her own website next year with recipes. Blows my mind!I think she is the Willy Wonka of cake making. Her cakes are so original and filled with a childish joy but are very refined at the same time which is super hard to do. Creativity and restraint are two qualities that I find hard to combine. 

So, this is my first Katherine Sabbath inspired cake. I am sure there will be many more in the future. Like everything, it's a bit of a mashup of recipes from a few places.

Excuse the dodgy photos!

Brown butter cake with salted caramel Swiss buttercream, dulce de leche and Maltesers and meringues inspired by Katherine Sabbath!


Please find the recipes for the different components below, I will add my own construction advice. The beauty of this cake is that you can choose what bit to make, what bits to leave out, what to substitute and what to buy as you can't be bothered! I think it would also look great with fuschia buttercream and turquoise meringues. Next time maybe.

1.Brown Butter Cake 
(via Raspberri Cupcakes)

I made a three layer cake in three 18cm pans. I only had two 18cm pans so cooked the first two and then turned them out and cooked the third afterwards. These cakes cooked pretty evenly for me so I didn't need to trim the tops. If yours are too curved, trim them a little so they stack neater. I found the tops started to brown a little quickly on one, if this happens, just cover in foil until cooked to protect the top.

2.Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(via Sweetapolita)

I've made many a buttercream icing recipe and this Swiss meringue is the business. Not too sweet and unbelievably smooth, not heavy and buttery and gritty like some can be.

I halved the recipe and I still had some icing left over that has gone into the freezer for later. Sweetapolita's instructions are so detailed I won't add anything else. 

To make it a salted caramel flavour, I added 1/3 of a cup of dulce de leche and some sea salt to taste at the end after all the butter had been added. If you use salted butter in the recipe, be careful of how much sea salt you add.

3.Dulce de Leche

I live on the edge. I boil my sweetened condensed milk in a can for 2.5 hours et voila! Dulce de leche. Well, the Australian version anyway. My family has been making caramel in a can like this for years and years. The main thing is, keep the saucepan full of water on a simmer DO NOT LET IT BOIL DRY and don't open the can until it's cooled. There's a post here that goes into a bit more detail

4. Meringues

I have made many a meringue recipe, this one never fails. Despite this, I keep trying new recipes thinking that they will be better. They aren't!.

This is the basic recipe, feel free to use one of your own, buy them or leave them out (home made meringues that are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside cannot be beaten though . . . )

Ingredients
3 egg whites (approx 120gms)
175 grams sugar, caster or regular, doesn't matter

Directions
*Preheat oven to 120 degrees C (248 degrees F).
*Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
* Combine egg whites and sugar in a pyrex bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water, ensuring that the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. If you have a double boiler, use that.
*Whisk the egg white mixture regularly until the mixture looks white and opaque and when you rub some of the mixture between your fingers it is quite warm and you can no longer feel any sugar particles.
*Place mixture into Kitchenaid bowl and mix on a medium speed until the bowl and the mixture is no longer warm. This takes about 10 minutes and the mixture will be super glossy and thick. You could do with hand beaters also, just make sure you beat until no longer warm.
*Put mixture into piping bag with a large round tip (or just snip the end off a plastic disposable piping bag) and pipe mounds onto a baking tray. They don't spread much so you can pipe them close together.
*Put in oven and cook for around 40 mins. Test that they are cooked by taking them out and checking that the outside shell is firm and the bottom has formed a hard later. If you wiggle it and it collapses, put it in the oven longer, it really depends on the size. Once they have cooked to your preference, turn off oven and open door slightly and let meringues cool in there.

5. Chocolate ganache

I didn't really measure the ganache. I heated around 1/4 cup of cream and 100 grams of chocolate (half 70% and half milk) in the microwave for a minute with 1 teaspoon of butter.  This  was a little thick, so I added cream and stirred until it was thinner. Next time I think I will make it even thinner as when it hit the cooled buttercream it set quickly. Make sure this is at room temp, not hot, before you use it.


Construction, the fun bit.

You should have the following components

3 brown butter cakes
Salted Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Dulce de Leche
Maltesers (crushed in a bag with a jar or mallet)
Ganache
Meringues



1. Find a cake plate or a cardboard cake round to rest the cake on.  It's a lot easier if you have a turntable to rest the board on, if not, an upturned bowl with a wide base would work well to elevate it.

2. Attach the first layer of cake to cake board with a small amount of buttercream. The layer on about 1/4 of a cup of dulce de leche and smooth out. Spread about 1/2 cup of buttercream over the dulce de leche. Sprinkle maltesers on buttercream/

3. Place next cake layer on first and repeat (dulce de leche, buttercream, maltesers). Try and keep the maltesers and caramel away from the edge so that they don't go into the outside icing.



4. Place third and final cake on first two layers. Level cakes so they are stack evenly. 

5. Crumbcoat cake with buttercream (if you need any help with icing with buttercream, get yourself to CakeStyle on youtube. Awesome). Place cake in fridge to firm up.

6. Take cake out of fridge and do final coat of buttercream. Place in fridge to firm up.

P.S. This is my new favourite cake smoothing tool. $10 from Bunnings, Does the job superbly. Check out the painting / plastering section!


7. Once firm you want to place the ganache on top. I did this by smoothing it on the top with a small offset spatula and then coaxing it towards the edge to drip down. Place in the fridge again to set.

8. Just before serving you want to place the meringues on top. You don't want them on the top for too long or the meringues will go soft.

This cake tastes best when it has been out of the fridge to come to room temp and I reckon it would feed at least 16 people!

Missoni for Target Australia 2014

I am cheap. I admit it. If I think something is ridiculously priced, I will always try and find a cheaper alternative, that's why I often refurbish vintage furniture.

Something that can't really be replicated though is Missoni. So when I heard that Target Australia was going to do a collaboration with Missoni I may have squealed, just a little. . . . 

The last collaboration that Target did that I got really excited about was with Stella McCartney, I still have my lovely silk scarf. The lookbook for the Target  / Missoni collab came out a few weeks ago and I knew that the homewares were my target of choice. They don't date, you don't have to worry about sizes and you can swap them out whenever you want.

I bought a few more pieces than I was expecting, but hey . . . . . . I got them in person and the Target website has been down most of the day, so I am ok with it.

I was expecting a bit of a zoo at my local Target, but I was only one of 4 people waiting for it to open at 8am and I was out the door at 8.15am. Very successful morning.

What follows is what was adopted!

Throws - $69

This black and white throw was on my definites list. I am a monochrome girl and you can't go wrong with black and white with other pops of colour. What I didn't realise when I purchased it, was how huge it is. It is 1.3m x 1.8m so can also be easily used as a bed throw.

Then I saw this throw that I thought looked a bit meh online, but in person it asked me to be taken home,put on my lounge and petted. I obeyed.

Don't they look happy together. Ahhhhh.

The fabric knitting technique is fab.

Plates - $30 for 4

I didn't plan on getting any plates but they were quite nice in person with a nice weight to them. They are porcelain and feel to be quite good quality. 

I have different plates that are all black and white patterns with some blue and red, so these little suckers shoudl fit in well. I nearly bought some melamine picnic plates that were beautiful, but I don't really have much need for them so I was a bit sensible and said no.

Serving Platter - $35

These serving platters were also calling my name and a bit more useful than the plastic plates. The smaller platters nest into the larger one making it easy to store, which means if it doesn't take up extra space, it's not really there so the purchased doesn't really count . . .  .!

Canvas flats - $40

There were only a few pairs of shoes on offer. Some ballet flats, these Soludos style flats and some high wedges. These flats worked the best for me although I wish that I thought the wedges were comfortable as they were beautiful. These should get a heap of wear.

 Knit pleated skirt - $79

I never thought I would buy a clothing item but this skirt is me. Slightly full, knitted with a loose pleat and monochrome. The slip underneath is quite short so might need to remedy that though!

All in all, I love all my purchases and am glad that I went before work rather than relying on online purchases as that looks like it isn't working too well!

Hope it gets sorted out soon for those who are wishing to indulge!

DIY Indian Bone Inlay Drawers

  

| **Update: featured on the Cutting Edge Stencils blog here. Whoo! |

Indian bone inlay furniture is a thing of dreams for me. I drool over images online and when I visit a local store that has some pieces, I always find myself next to them in a daze, running my hands along the slightly irregular surface, turning over the price tag and .........HAVING MYSELF A HEART ATTACK.

The prices of these bad boys are significant. I can see where the value is in them as the amount of work that would go into the bone / shell inlay is enormous. If I bought one I am sure I would keep it forever, but at this stage of my life I was after the look but not the cost.

Here's a link to a whole section in Houzz with some awesome examples of bone inlay furniture.

I saw some images on Pinterest of some DIY projects using Cutting Edge Stencils and thought, that's it, I am doing it. The price was reasonable (postage was a little scary to Australia, around $25, but not too bad) so I bought it after drooling of some of the inspiration pictures. I already had 2 Ikea Rast drawers in the garage from 18 months ago that I hadn't done anything with so it was easily decided that they would be my canvas. 

The hardest part of all was deciding what base colour to paint the drawers. I was very attracted to cobalt or turquoise but thought that I might get sick of it quicker, so went with a neutral of grey, 

First step was putting together the Rast drawers (not including the handles) and priming the raw timber.

via Ikea.com.au

After priming, I put two coats of the grey base colour on and left to dry. Fast forward 3 - 4 weeks later (as my inspiration for painting temporarily left me), and I started stenciling.

The paint I used to stencil was an artists acrylic in white and off white that I mixed together.

When I purchased the stencils, I bought a three pack of stippling brushes from Cutting Edge Stencils also. I wasn't sure at that point whether I wanted to use the stippling brush or a small foam roller. Stippling gave a nice result, but it took quite a while so then I used the small foam rollers from Bunnings. Much quicker, but you had to be very careful to roll most of the paint off the roller before using it with the stencil otherwise the paint would bleed underneath.

Overall, the stenciling took about 3 hours, not counting the time between waiting for layers to dry. 

Next step, the knobs. I am super happy with them as originally I was looking at Anthropologie for knobs and those suckers are expensive if you are buying 12. I really liked these ones, but paying more for knobs than I did for the actual drawers was  bit silly. So, I hit ebay and found these for a ridiculous $1.97 each. $23 (including postage) in comparison to $96 (without postage on top). The knobs are great quality, the only complicated thing was that I had to put a washer behind the screw to make them fit the drawer properly.

All in all, I do quite like the effect. I am sure I could have taken much more time and had a much more precise result, but that's just not my style! I like how there are stronger and weaker areas of the stencilled areas, it mimics how the inlay furniture looks, it is never completely uniform.

I have placed these babies in the front doorway as a kind of console to hide little bits and pieces, in the future I can see them as bedside tables as the knobs match perfectly with my DIY bedhead.

Next project with these, stencilling a huge mirror of a friends, It's a little more tricky with all the angles of the timber, but I think it will turn out well now that I have all this stencilling practice!

Here is the mirror pre-stencil.

Stay tuned for the result . . . . 

The most delectable buttermilk pancakes . . . .a weekend tradition (only 5 and a bit ingredients!)

 I have a bad habit of being very non-committal with certain things. Hairdressers, makeup brands, recipes. I always think that once I have found something that I like that there must be something better out there so generally always try new things in the hope that I will find the holy grail of whatever I am using / making.

Pancakes are a love of mine from way back. When I was a kid, crepes were the go, but then I was introduced to fluffy pancakes at a friends house. They were very sophisticated in the 90's and had the pre-made mix that comes in a little plastic bottle and you add milk or water to it. I was enamored.

From then on, my breakfast of choice when eating out or at home has been pancakes. I used to use a Marie Claire recipe and was quite happy with that but I wanted them fluffier!



I Googled some buttermilk pancake recipes online but they seemed a little long winded for the morning so then I turned my eye to the buttermilk container and decided to try their recipe.

There is no need to test a pancake recipe any further. I have found the ultimate, and from the weirdest place, the recipe on the side of a buttermilk container! I changed the recipe a little as there were blueberries and orange zest in it (which are awesome additions but wanted something plain).

Check out the elevation on these little suckers!

Buttermilk notes: often there is a suggestion that you can make your own buttermilk by adding an acid to milk (i.e. vinegar or lemon juice). I find in this case it is better to use buttermilk that comes in a container. It makes the pancakes rise more.

So here is a modified recipe for mindblowing recipes adapted from Dairy Farmers

1.5 cups self raising flour
2 tbsp sugar
375ml buttermilk
1 egg
20gm of butter, melted
*optional - the finely grated zest of half a small orange


1. In a mixing bowl, add sugar and flour and mix with a whisk.
2. Melt butter in microwave and allow to cool slightly.
3. Add buttermilk and egg in a separate bowl and whisk lightly.
4. Make a well in dry ingredients, add in buttermilk/egg mixture and stir. Once there aren't many lumps, whisk in slightly cooled butter (and zest if you are using).
5. Heat a non-stick frying pan to a medium/low temp and melt a smidge of butter.
6. Drop 1/4 cup amounts (or however big you want them) of pancake batter in pan and cook until bubbles rise to surface, then flip. Cook for a small amount of time until the other side is golden and when you press lightly on the pancake it bounces back.

Et voila! My favourite thing to eat with pancakes is maple syrup and banana or strawberries, with lemon juice and sugar coming in a close second.

Get these suckers into your weekend rotation!

Daring Bakers Challenge May 2014 - Pao De Queijo

 This month's Daring Bakers' Challenge took us on a trip to beautiful Brazil! Renata of "Testado, Provado & Aprovado!" taught us how to make Pao De Queijo, tasty cheese buns that make the perfect snack or treat, and that will make your taste buds samb
First month of completing the Daring Bakers challenge and I was travelling to Brazil. I'm excited!

I enjoy baking but I was after a bit of direction and a challenge so decided to join onto the Daring Baker phenomenon that I have noticed on quite a few of my favourite foodie blogs.

I decided to go for the 'traditional' version of the recipe that was provided before I tried any quick versions.

It was really interesting to mix due to the tapioca flour, it reminded me of when I was in primary school and we made our own 'Gak' from cornflour and water. You know Gak, punch it and it's hard but you can poke it slowly . . . .eeekk.  If you feel like making some Gak (if you even know what I am talking about) click here!

It was quite easy to make with few ingredients. The only unusual ingredient was the tapioca flour, but this was easily found in the Asian section of Woolworths. 



I halved the recipe as it was supposed to make 80 balls. Really, what would I be doing with 80 cheeseballs? Making myself sick, that's what!

So, find below the recipe that was halved.

The daring bakers challenge suggested using the batter as a waffle or using the completed balls in a sandwich press with some ham or cheese. I don't have a sandwich press, the thought of making them into a waffle didn't really float my boat, so I used them as a kind of biscuit for some coriander and lemongrass dip. Oh. Yum.


I am excited to see what the next Daring Bakers challenge is!












Please find the recipe below, I halved this.

TRADITIONAL PÃO DE QUEIJO
Servings:
Yields about 80 small balls

Ingredients:

500 gm (4 cups) tapioca starch (If you have access to sour tapioca, you can use 250gm (2 cups) of each)
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
2-3/4 tablespoons (40 ml) (1½ oz) (40 gm) butter
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (3 gm) salt (or to taste depending on how salty your cheese is)
3 cups (750 ml) (9 oz) (250gm) Monterey Jack Cheese (or another cheese of your liking, or a mix of cheeses), coarsely grated
1 to 3 large eggs

Directions:

• Heat milk, butter, and salt in a small sauce pan until it comes to a boil. Watch closely as it may boil over. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Sift tapioca starch into a large bowl.
• Pour the boiled (hot) mixture over the tapioca and start stirring with a fork. The milk mixture will not be enough to form a dough yet. You will have a lumpy mixture, that's what it is supposed to be
• 
• Keep stirring with the fork, breaking down the lumps as much as you can, until the mixture cools down to warm.
• At this point, preheat your oven to moderately hot 400° F/200° C/gs mark 6
• Add the grated cheese to the tapioca mixture and mix well, now using your hands.
• 
• Add one egg at a time, mix with your hands until dough comes together. I suggest you lightly beat the egg with a fork and add little bits until the dough comes together into a soft but pliable dough. You only have to knead it a bit, not as much as you knead a yeasted bread. It's OK if it is slightly sticky.
• Form balls with the dough and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicon mat or lightly greased with vegetable oil. If necessary, you can oil your hands to make shaping easier. The size of the balls may vary from small bite-sized balls to the size of ping pong balls. They will puff up quite a bit after baking. I personally prefer the smaller ones.

• Bake for about 25 minutes or until they just start to brown on the bottom. You may have golden spots of cheese on the crust. Don't over-bake as they will get hard and bitter.
• NOTE: If your dough gets too soft and sticky to shape balls, you can always add a bit more tapioca starch or pop the dough into a piping bag and pipe the dough on a baking sheet.
• Serve hot or warm. Brazilians love them with a cup of coffee!

Gratuitous cute cat shot. Of course she was lying in the only spot in the house with sunlight.