Baking - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Baking

04
Jul
2022

Blueberry Cake

categories: 1970's recipes, Baking, Blueberries, Cake, Good Housekeeping World Cookery

Last Friday was Canada day so it seemed like an appropriate time to leave the United States of America and head north in our journey through Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. It may also be an excellent time to leave the United States of America for Supreme Court related decisions too but that is by the by. Anyhoo, to celebrate our move to Canada I made a blueberry cake!

Now, blueberry cake is not the first thing I think of when my thoughts turn to Canadian cuisine. BUT…this chapter was fairly disappointing. Notably, the first thing I do think of was totally missing. I mean – WHO ON EARTH HAS A CHAPTER ON CANADIAN COOKING AND DOES NOT INCLUDE A RECIPE FOR POUTINE????

Ok. Let me take a few moments to do some of the deep rhythmic breathing they taught me at the conference I attended recently. Just. Breathe. Do not feel disappointed that you will not be making poutine. When you go to the office on Thursday you can buy some poutine from the very excellently named Lord of The Fries. Which may be even better than making some yourself. And breathe…

Ok, calming mantra over, let’s get on with the blueberry cake.

Blueberry Cake – The Recipe

The recipe called for lemon flavouring. We currently have a tree laden with lemons so I used the zest of one lemon and the juice of half a lemon as my “flavouring”. This added a nice hit of lemon to the cake. I found this cake to be quite dry – it very much needed a bit of cream or ice cream on the side. I had some with some homemade Mango Kufli (from Adam Liaw’s recipe) and it was divine. Mango, lemon and blueberries are a match made in heaven! I am not sure if this is because I did not have enough blueberries to half fill the loaf pan. There was a LOT of cake batter to blueberries so for future baking I might halve the batter mixture. Another variation might be to put a layer of blueberries in the middle or through the cake as well as on the top.

I think the way the blueberries bleed into the cake is so pretty!

Have a great week everyone!

03
Feb
2022

Smoked Salmon Tarts

categories: Dishiest Dish, Smoked Salmon, Starters, Tarts

Hello and welcome to my best of January post! It was not the start to the year I was looking for – the month was fraught with illness (human and canine) and a nasty car accident for the Fussiest Eater in the World from which he is still recovering. In the midst of all the misery though, there was still time for some good food starting with these smoked salmon tarts from Alimentari by Linda Jones.

These are little morsels of deliciousness. I shared this recipe with a friend of mine and, like me, they have become one of her go to entertaining snacks. So tasty, so pretty, they transport really well for picnics and other out of home occasions and if you happen to have any left (unlikely) they are delicious the following day – I ate mine at ambient temperature but you could heat them if you wanted or have them cold from the fridge.

I also used whole tom berries and not halved cherry tomatoes.

Smoked Salmon Tarts – The Recipe

Other Favourites of The Month

Reading

One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake

I cannot tell you how much I loved this book!!! Felicity Cloake is a British food writer who is also a keen cyclist. In this book, she cycles around France, eating and drinking the signature dishes in each town (Quiche in Lorraine, Provencal Fish Soup in Marseille etc). I love all things French so reading this was an absolute delight! I loved her voice and really want Felicity to be my new best friend! (There are also recipes) 💖

I also read the most recent Lianne Moriarty, Apples Never Fall. This was an audiobook and, just like last month, the narrator’s voice irritated me. Apart from that, I enjoyed the story and what an ending!!!!! 😲

Cookbook

Someone’s voice who definitely doesn’t irritate me is Diana Henry, the British cookbook writer. I bought her cookbook, A Change Of Appetite in January and I am looking forward to cooking from it very soon!

The cover is so pretty too!

Watching

We watched the The Puppet Master on Netflix the other night which was excellent. It is about a conman who has been operating since the 1990’s posing as an MI5 Agent. It is compelling viewing!

Listening

And, if you are intrigued by that story of a conman pretending to be an MI5 agent, you will be as fascinated as I was by Sweet Bobby. This is a catfishing podcast about another sociopath pretending to be an MI5 agent.

Note to self and to everyone else. Like they say in The Puppet Master… If someone tells you they are an MI5 agent, they are generally NOT an MI5 agent!

The issue of pathological lying also crops up in Apples Never Fall, so on the whole, I have spent a month immersed in liars, cheats, conmen and sociopaths!

I am on the lookout for new things to watch and new listen to, let me know your recommendations!

Playing

Like everyone else I am obsessed with WORDLE.

It is the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning. My favourite opening words have changed from CABIN to TRAIN to IRATE.

What’s your favourite opener?

Cooking

We have our Foodies meeting this week where the theme is tv shows. I am cooking from The Cook Up with Adam Liaw. I haven’t finalised what I am making but these are most likely going to be on the menu!

Shopping

My Mum and I went antiquing and I bought these gorgeous Scotch Whiskey ceramic decanters which are now taking pride of place on my bar cart.

So, you’re all caught up on my life! Here’s hoping February is a better month!

Have a wonderful week!

03
Feb
2022

It’s the Year of the Tiger

categories: Baking, Cake, Chicken, Lunar New Year

Hello and welcome to the second instalment of my Year of The Tiger special. Today we having a Tiger Skin Chicken from Adam Liaw and some little French almond cakes called Les Tigres (the tigers) from Dorie Greenspan. But first let’s have a little look-see at what may lie ahead for us in the Year of the Tiger!

Predictions for the year of the Tiger suggest that this could be a year of political and social upheaval. It is also a year of extremes, some people will boom and some will bust. Fortune will tend to favour the brave. The water element in this year of the Water Tigre will bring emotions to the forefront.

Strap in folks, this could be a wild ride!

Tiger Skin Chicken

Let me first show you Adam Liaw’s beautifully striped Tiger Skin Chicken.

Mine was not nearly as precise.

BUT, this was so delicious! I basted the chicken every 15 minutes in those buttery juices and it stayed delightfully moist. It had a slight spicy curry flavour which I thought was lovely eaten warm and also cold in sandwiches the following day.

I just need to get my squeeze bottle technique so the lines are a little thinner and maybe control the heat during the grilling of the skin a little better. I also think I should have heated my honey before mixing it in with the yoghurt as it didn’t mix in well which is why I think some of my stripes were white, they were primarily yoghurt.

Here is the recipe from Adam’s Big Pot:

Les Tigres

To end our Year of the Tiger special we are having some little French cakes called Les Tigres. I am assuming this is because they are dipped in a ganache which gives them a dark stripe against the dark gold of the almond cake. They could also be called the leopards because the inside is dotted with choc chips!

Les Tigres Recipe

The Tigres were a lovely way to finish this celebratory meal!

Best of luck to you all in the coming 12 months – let’s hope you don’t catch too many tigers by the tail but that you wake every morning with a tiger in your tank!

25
Sep
2021

Melktert

categories: 1970's recipes, Africa, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Pastry, World Cooking

My recipe for Melktert comes from the South African chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery and it is a baked custard tart. It is called Melktert because the day before the recipe for the OG Milk Tart went to print, someone broke into the printing press and stole all bar one of the vowels.

Some people would tell you that it is a dish that originated in Holland and it kept the Dutch spelling when it came to South Africa. However, we at RFFMT prefer not to allow truth to get in the way of a good story. Besides the visual image of a never say die printer triumphantly adding e’s to where the i and a had been, humming a prototypical version of The Shamen’s 1992 hit Ebeneezer Goode as he did so was too good not to share.

I pondered whether in homage to the melktert, I should also write this post using the letter e as my only vowel.

That idea lasted all of about 5 seconds – I got as far as “Here. Melktert. Sweet” and gave up.

The Melktert was delicious! Just the right amount of sweetness and the almonds on top gave a nice crunch. There was a lot of the filling mix leftover so I think next time I make it I will try a deeper dish which would also mean there would be more of the slightly cinnamon-y custard which could only be s a good thing! The recipe does state a deep pie dish!

Melktert :The Recipe

That’s all folks, nothing much else to say except:

Melktert – Excellent? Yes!

Enjoy your weekend!

25
Jul
2021

Cowboy Day – Pepsi Cola Cake with Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting

categories: 1960's recipes, Cake, Cook A Long, Cowboy Day

Yippee Ky Yay Cake Lovers, number 5 is alive!!!! This weekend, courtesy of the nicest man on the Internet, Greg Swenson, we are celebrating Cowboy Day with a Cookalong. I have chosen to bake a cake (because every celebration needs one) from Greg’s book, Recipes for Rebels: In The Kitchen with James Dean – and oh (cow)boy, what a cake it is. Pepsi Cola Cake with Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting.

You might be wondering what is the connection between a cake made from Pepsi and Cowboys? Well, hear me out here. It is a little like one of those puzzles you used to do at school where you change one letter at a time to turn one word into another…

But here me out:

James Dean played a cowboy in the film Giant
James Dean’s first paid acting job was in a Pepsi Commercial
Pepsi is a key ingredient in this cake.

Cowboy to cake in less steps than it will take you to go from bath to tubs!

Good lord, just look at that face!!! If that is not a textbook definition of impossibly handsome, I do not know what is.

Something that is most definitely not impossibly handsome is the Pepsi-Cola Cake. It is a massive brute of a thing (might one say a Giant?) that erupted like a volcano in my oven. It reminded me of the ads we used to have for Picnic bars – deliciously ugly.

I mean, ok, it doesn’t look quite as much like a pooh as a Picnic bar but at the point of removal from the oven, it did not look good.

But as the picnic ad states that’s what wrappers are for. And the wrapping on the Pepsi-cola cake is some divine Peanut Butter frosting.

I mean it’s still not the prettiest cake in the world. But, do not let it’s somewhat less than gorgeous faced fool you. Remember the delicious part of deliciously ugly? Well this cake has a ton of delicious! The cake itself is moist and fudgy, a little like a brownie. The slight slatiness in the peanut butter frosting is a perfect accompaniment to the sweetness of the cake. Beware though the Pepsi Cake is not just rich. It is filthy rich!!!

I have a sweet tooth and even I would recommend cutting what you think is a normal-sized slice of cake then cutting that in two. And bada bing bada boom that’s elevenses and afternoon tea sorted!!!!

Pepsi Cola Cake – Recipe

So, the recipe for this cake made me laugh. I love the way they ask for non-sweetened cocoa powder. I mean, when you already have 2 cups of sugar and a cup of Pepsi in your cake I guess you have to draw the line somewhere.

Here’s the recipe!

This was so much fun! I loved cooking this cake and being able to take part in the world wide cookalong to celebrate Cowboy Day 2021! Thank you Greg for organising and inviting me to contribute!

Have a great week everyone!!!!