The best sponge recipe

For our Christmas Day  dessert I settled on a new trifle recipe from House & Garden Issue No. 256 December 2015, it looked fabulous!
Not wanting to use a bought sponge I decided to have another go at making my own sponge.
A couple of years ago one of my dear friends, Bernice, said she had a 'never fail' recipe that had been handed down to her through generations of bakers. It sounded like my kind of recipe and I filed it away.
A few weeks ago I finally got around to making it.
I was told to use a large roasting pan (greased with dripping, and floured) but decided to just butter and line the tin with baking paper, leaving out the dripping!
The result was absolutely the best sponge I have ever produced. 
Once slightly cooled, and with some trepidation, I removed my sponge from the tin, cut it in half, wrapped it in cling film and placed it in the freezer to make the trifle on Christmas Eve.
A sponge was always something my mother used to make with ease! And to honour her memory this Christmas I had hoped to create a fabulously soft perfect sponge. (In a few days time it is the 5th anniversary of her death, I will always miss her).
In previous blogs I have attempted a sponge roll which have all cracked, but this recipe rolls beautifully (apparently).
Bernice says 'take this sponge straight out of the oven and while still hot, remove from tin and turn out onto a damp tea towel. At this point spread with jam and roll it up. When cool unroll the sponge and fill with cream, and roll up'. Mmmmmmm, easier said than done.
I will let you know how I get on in another blog post.
Anyway, back to this great sponge recipe.  It is so simple, it's ridiculous....and so very tasty.
Cream Sponge  
 5 eggs
1 level cup of sugar
Beat together until thick and creamy
Gently fold in sifted
1 level cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder 
Lastly fold in 1 tbsp of boiling water
Pour batter into a greased floured pan ( I lined mine with baking paper to be on the safe side!)
Bake 180 degrees C  for 10-15 minutes on fan bake.
Watch it doesn't over cook, it should spring back a little when you gently press the top.
It can be cut in half and filled with cream and whatever summer fruit you may have. And ass Bernice has said, it will feed a crowd nicely.

It's so soft and tasty!

This is the final result using a House and Garden recipe from Dec '15 Issue 256

.  It's fab!

Unbaked Christmas cake

I love collecting recipes, especially those from friends with a bit of a personal story.
I have made many, many friends through my volunteering. Said friends have a habit of enjoying a morning tea break or lunch time together. Around the table (as you can imagine) we talk about all sorts of things and invariably we end up talking about food and recipes.
This recipe came from one of those friends. I will not embarrass her by naming her, lets just call her B.
She is an amazing woman, always ready for a challenge. Inspirational, caring, kind, interesting and fun to volunteer with. She is in her latter years but her energy and enthusiasm for life would shame many people half her age.
I have printed the email when she sent the recipe and will always treasure a couple of personal comments she included in her message.
Unbaked Christmas cake ( from B's repertoire)

Place in a large saucepan -

250g butter

1 cup sugar and melt

Add to this hot mixture 2 beaten eggs – remove from stove

Add two packets of crushed (not too small)  malt biscuits. Add 1 tsp of Rum, brandy, almond lemon or vanilla essence.

Add 3 cups of mixed dried fruit such as currants, sultanas, raisins, papaya (lovely for colour), cherries, peel, ginger and cut up brazil nuts.

Press mixture immediately into a large flat baking tin and cover with slivered almonds and put in fridge to set.

Cut into small pieces and place in an airtight container and keep in fridge.

Keeps well, excellent to have on hand to serve with coffee etc. at Christmas time. It is nice and sweet so a little goes a long way.

 

Chocolate Anzac cookies

  Sometimes you have to give into something, and I am not talking about these delicious biscuits. I am referring to the fact that I have not been very well over the last week or so. It started with a sore throat that went away, came back and morphed into a thick throat and a voice that made me sound I was on my last legs!
  It was probably the sleep deprivation that really got to me in the end. On going to bed I couldn't decide if I was hot or cold. Or if I wanted to lie down or sit up. Or creep out of bed so as to not disturb the man. Or stand beside the bed wailing (to wake the man up, with the aim of getting some sympathetic, soothing words!). The only upside to all of this night time activity was that I finished two books in record time.
  I did not have time to be sick. I had a couple of events I wanted to attend during the week, so I 'soldiered' on, swallowing Panadol, immune boosters, lemon drinks etc etc. (You get the picture). Which actually ended up making me feel a bit queezy in the tummy as well. Honestly, give me a break!
  In the end I just gave up, and succumbed to it all!
  I stayed in my dressing gown most of the day, and went to bed for nice Nana naps in the afternoon when I felt a little drowsy. For some reason I rose early most mornings. Perhaps because I decided it felt better standing up, with all the 'toxins' draining downwards my feet. It is now a week later, and I am feeling a lot better. With more energy and enthusiasm for life.....
  During this awful time, I turned to my batch of Chocolate Anzac cookies I had made a few days before all of the above started. They tasted pretty good, no matter what the hour!
  I have posted my best Anzac biscuit recipe before, but this one is lovely with chunks of chocolate and a nice texture. You would have heard of Alice Arndell, she appeared in the NZ Hottest Home Baker series last year. She has since published a cookbook called 'Alice in Baking Land'. Her recipe appeared in the 'Life' supplement of the Dom Post a few weeks ago.
Note: I didn't have the orange infused oil on hand so I just used the zest of an orange stirred into my oil. I also topped up the dark chocolate (I had already eaten over half of it!), with chocolate bits.
My mixture was a little dry and didn't form balls very well, not sure why. But I just added a little more oil to the mixture and they turned out well.

Early morning, nice cuppa and Anzac biscuits (not one but two) while reading the paper

Orange olive oil and chocolate Anzac biscuits 

 Makes about 24

1 ½ c self-raising flour

1 c brown sugar (firmly packed)

2 c rolled oats

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp golden syrup

125g butter

1 tsp Baking Soda

250g dark chocolate (Whittaker’s is best) roughly chopped

 

Preheat oven to 180°C and line baking trays with baking paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together, flour. Sugar, oats and salt. Set aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, heat golden syrup and butter until butter is melted.

Stir well, stir in baking soda.

Make well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in melted butter and orange oil.

Stir until combined, stir in chocolate pieces.

Take a generous spoonful and roll into a ball.

Flatten slightly onto prepared trays, leaving about 3cm of space between biscuits.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden.

Cool on trays for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.

Armenian Nutmeg Cake

 I had a quick trip to the dentist a month or so back, and while waiting I flicked through a magazine and found this lovely cake recipe. Actually it was the photo that caught my eye. It was such a lovely shot,with the cake in a dark setting (with candlelight I think), with beautiful pink rose petals scattered across the top. That did it for me, so romantic and so clever. I really aspire to being a decent sort of photographer but I am a true novice when I see shots like that!
 I used my phone to take a photo of the recipe. And I am sorry I didn't note down the name of the magazine  (or the name of the recipe creator) - it may have been an overseas magazine. I got called into the dentist before I had finished uploading what I needed.
 The cake is gorgeous. It is quite different in its construction. Looking 'on line' there are lots of variations of Armenian Nutmeg cake. Some use walnuts or pecans. From the magazine article I seem to recall you can use orange blossom water instead of the orange zest, or rosewater to add a different flavour (hence the rose petal decoration I suppose). And in spite of having a full box of nutmeg spice in my pantry, I stuck to the recipe and bought whole nutmegs for this cake.

 The pistachio nuts had to be shelled and of course were a little salty. The cooks assistant remarked that might not work, but it did, thankfully. In fact I liked the slight salty, sweet taste of the topping and so did my friends.
 I am not sure if this is a 'traditional' cake. But it is obviously a great cake to finish off any Middle Eastern meal. I would definitely bake again.

Armenian Nutmeg Cake

1 ½ c flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 ¼ c brown sugar, firmly packed

½ ground almonds

125g butter

1 tsp baking soda

½ c milk

½ c natural unsweetened yoghurt

1 egg

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

½ c pistachio nuts, chopped

Method

Heat oven to 180°C.

Grease and line the base of a 20cm round spring-form or loose bottomed cake tin.

Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl and mix in brown sugar and ground almonds.

Using fingers, rub in the butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Press a third of the mixture firmly into the base of the prepared cake tin.

In a separate bowl, mix baking soda with milk. Add egg, nutmeg and orange zest, and beat to combine.

Fold into the remaining flour mixture, combining thoroughly.

Pour batter over base in tin. Sprinkle chopped pistachios over the top, and bake 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

(Watch the topping does not burn, cover with tinfoil to protect if necessary)

Allow cake to cool at least 30 minutes before removing from tin.

Serve with a little yoghurt or cream

My friendly Tui kept me company while taking shots!

Brandy balls and cake stalls

I love cake stalls, and I love 'working' on them. You meet nice friendly people who are really happy to part with their money for a good cause. This week I baked for Bellyful. The tables were laden with wonderful homemade baking and sweets. They looked a treat. And not surprisingly, everything flew off the table!

Wonderful cup cakes - this baker is so clever!

I enjoy volunteering for Bellyful. The women are fun, enthusiastic and best of all, have a great community spirit. They are always willing to give their time to help Mums and families with newborns and/or sick children, every week cooking and delivering meals for them. Let's face it, most of us have experienced similar exhausting times and remember wondering..... can we get through this! A little bit of help is a godsend.

Items ready for sale

For the cake stall I offered to make a fruit loaf, a carrot cake, and some Brandy Balls. I thought Brandy Balls might be something a little different. I had made them a few weeks earlier (for the adults at a children's party), and they all went in seconds!!
When I went down to help at the stall, I noted only one bag of my Brandy Balls were left. It made me smile, thinking that my baking might not be appreciated (recall my earlier post about lamingtons).

The last bag of Brandy balls

I recalled the story my lovely husband told me not long after I had met him. When he was a young boy, for a Scout 'do', his Uncle Jack kindly made date sandwiches (with lovely wholemeal bread). Everyone else bought pies, cream cakes, sausage rolls etc (you get the picture) and it became clear to him that his sandwiches were not at all popular with the other scouts.
He went on to tell me he only got a meat pie about once a year, and while he would have preferred to chomp into one of the many 'unhealthy' items on offer, he felt he had to eat as many of his sandwiches as he could... to show his appreciation for Uncle Jacks efforts. Like M's mother, he was also a vegetarian.... they were somewhat few and far between in the 50's.
Both times I have made my Brandy balls, I've been so focused on the task, no photo was taken, so my apologies for the copy from the Edmonds Cookery Book. I can assure you mine looked (almost) identical. They are really easy to put together - but allow a bit of time - rolling the balls and dipping into chocolate hail can be a little time consuming.
They are wonderful with coffee, and lovely to give as a little thank you gift. And as one lady who bought them from the cake stall said, 'they will be perfect for my mid winter dinner tonight'.
Brandy balls – Edmonds Cookery book (Pub. 1998)
Ingredients

250g pkt Vanilla wine biscuits – crushed

2 tbsp currants – finely chopped

2 tbsp finely chopped walnuts

1 egg

¼ c castor sugar

1tbsp cocoa

1 ½ tbsp brandy or sherry - you could use pure essence but the real thing is better!

125g butter, melted

Coconut or chocolate hail

Method 

Place crumbs in bowl, add currants and walnuts

Stir to combine

In another bowl beat egg with a fork, add sugar and cocoa, stirring until thoroughly mixed.

Add brandy, pour this mixture into crumb mixture.

Add melted butter, stirring until well combined.

Measure tablespoons of mixture and shape into balls.

Roll in coconut or chocolate hail.

Chill until firm.

Makes about 20.

(I made a single mix the first time and the balls were perfect. I doubled the mixture for the cake stall but made the mistake of adding extra currants. The mixture needs to be quite sticky in order to cover with chocolate hail easily, the extra currants made the balls a little less sticky.)

Copied from Edmonds Cookery book

Lamingtons and sponge making

I am a lover of books. Any sort of book. I can be quiet as a mouse flicking through most sorts of books but especially recipe books, ooohing and aaahing and drooling over the ingredients and photos, while always on the lookout, of course, for new ideas.
While visiting Elaine I was handed a copy of  the book 'The Mackenzie Muster - A Century of Favourites" published in 1989 and reprinted many, many times. It is a real beauty, clearly a classic that has stood the the test of time. Full of interesting farming recipes, tips for cooking for big, hungry country folk and catering for crowds. It kept me enthralled for ages. Some of the recipes were pretty 'out there', for example - lamb on a rope! ( If you have a yearning to cook this dish let me know and I will send you the recipe).
So I found myself searching in the book for a good sponge recipe as I had offered to make a few dozen of the classic Kiwi Lamingtons for a local fund raising event. I don't recall having ever made Lamingtons before. But I thought it might be a good idea to make chocolate and strawberry Lamingtons from scratch.... "no store bought sponge for our customers", says I.
I found an easy recipe in the previously mentioned book - 'a big sponge for shearers'! My thinking was, it had to be the 'perfect never fail' sponge, something that has been alluding me for sometime now.
I adore the countryside and love the smell of fresh farming air etc but I can honestly say I have never had to cook for shearers or any farming folk for that matter. In fact you couldn't get a woman more 'city like' than me. But I imagined hungry shearers were pretty hard to please so decided to give the recipe a try.
I am sorry to say I still haven't perfected sponge making and my attempt at baking the 'big shearers sponge' was an utter failure. Not to waste anything, said 'cake like' sponge was dispatched to the freezer for later use in a large trifle.
Six eggs down and back to the drawing board. I turned to Donna Hay's Chocolate recipe book and managed to produce one smallish sponge that I considered almost acceptable but not perfect. But unfortunately it was clearly not big enough to make dozens of Lamingtons.

My attempt at a sponge

By this stage in the morning I was completely 'sponged out' so resorted to asking dear hubby to pop down to the supermarket and buy one large unfilled sponge.

My conclusion through all of this is experience -  making Lamingtons from scratch was a real test of sponge making skills. It was also very time consuming, requiring a lot of patience and a lot of careful dipping and rolling in coconut. (I found the chocolate coating originally too thick and caused the sponge 'cube' to actually fall apart - not helpful.)
I used a Taste recipe for the strawberry Lamingtons and a good old reliable Edmond's recipe (slightly watered down) for the chocolate ones.
Once all the 'issues' were sorted out I considered all the effort absolutely worth it.

Result: They were really nice after all the drama! I was on the morning shift at the stall and my Lamingtons were (thankfully) slowly disappearing to happy customers for $2 each.
My mother always made wonderful sponges, I really wish I had noted down her secret to the perfect sponge. I will just have to keep on trying......

Chocolate Roulade - a challenge

As promised here is an update on my post about Sponge (Swiss) Rolls. I don't recall ever attempting to make a sponge roll before, so failure last month (at the first attempt) was no real surprise to me.
However, I am extremely keen to master the perfect sponge roll. My goal is to make a Chocolate Roulade just like the one that appears on the front cover of the Cuisine November 2013 edition.  And..... and I want to win a case of Daniel Le Brun bubbles for the best entry in their Christmas recipe competition.
One month on I am still trying to get a Chocolate Roulade to roll without cracking and/or splitting. My husband thinks I am getting a little obsessive about it and he is over testing Chocolate Roulades! I followed the recipe carefully. So why is it so hard and why doesn't it look like the one on Cuisine cover? Hummmphh!
I went to my foodie friends and family bakers asking for their tips on 'how to get a sponge to actually roll' without splitting into three pieces.
This is the advice I garnered
Use a bigger/longer tin
Don't use a fan bake oven
Don't cook any longer than 10 mins at 180 degrees C
It should be cooked when you press your finger in the middle and it 'bounces back'
Let the roll cool slightly (what is slightly?), turn onto a damp tea towel, roll up
Turn it out onto a damp tea towel as soon as it is out of the oven, roll up asap
Cool slightly! Turn out onto a dry tea towel dusted with icing sugar - it will roll perfectly
Hubby's suggestion -Roll it long ways, the other way is across the grain - ummm I don't think it has a grain!
My idea - get a new shiny red Kitchen Aid - that will help - it didn't! But I am loving my new cake mixer just the same.
There is more to the perfect sponge roll than I realised!
I have taken all their expert advice on board - to no avail! My latest roll still cracked/split big time when I tried to roll it up. But I am not giving up! Further research on the web suggests to me I need to buy a different tin ( I was not aware tin size depended on how many eggs you used) and to use cornflour instead of flour (thinking about it, that's what my mother used for her sponges). Both tips are worth pursuing and I am going to have another crack at it (excuse the pun). Chocolate Roulade number four is coming up!
The good news is the end result still looks amazing, tastes wonderful and when the rolls are covered in chocolate you don't really notice the splits or,  that it is layers of slabs wrapped in cream.
I will nail the challenge as I love this recipe for its chocolaty richness and hazelnut flavours.
And it will have pride of place on my Christmas 2013 table.

Chocolate Roulade with Hazelnut Cream and Croquant - attempt # 3

Chocolate Roulade attempt # 2 - more like a slab!

Left over Chocolate Roulade for morning tea!

I love my new cake mixer

Apricot and almond slice

This is one of those decadent slices that can be a little addictive. All the ingredients (on their own) are quite yummy as snacks but combined into a slice it is heaven in a slice tin!
The recipe comes from the Brown Sugar Café in Taihape and was requested by a Dominion Post reader in October 2012. (I can't remember the last time I passed through Taihape but clearly this cafe knows their stuff when it comes to baking).

I filed it away for future reference and looking for inspiration (and something to use a part opened tin of condensed milk) on a wet Saturday afternoon I decided it was time to try it. It's great. I like that it is simple to make. It's a lovely mix of sweet, chewy and crunchy and of course all those fruit and nuts must be good for you. Just forget about the butter and sugar!! 

The crushed malt biscuits gives the slice a nice flavour too. I remember as children (in Winter) we lined up in the kitchen, mouths opened wide, for our weekly dessertspoon of sweet sticky malt extract. My mother kept the tin high up in a kitchen cupboard, I wonder why?
I certainly did not give it to my children when they were little. But according to 'The Telegraph" in 2011, it was having a bit of resurgence. (Interestingly it is still made here in New Zealand under the brand name Maltexo). It comes from a by-product of the brewing process, contains a large amount of sugar and a bit of Vitamin A and riboflavin and is described as 'a tonic to boost general well being'. At one time it was very popular for parents to give to their post-war children. Being a baby boomer we just caught the edge of the wave for such treatments!

Anyway the hint of malt brought back some lovely childhood memories for me. It also reminds me of those sticky MacIntosh sweets - the dangerous ones that can remove your fillings/teeth in a flash - I no longer indulge in those either!
This slice will now be a regular in my 'baking for a special treat repertoire '.

Apricot and Almond Slice – Brown Sugar Café in Taihape  (as in Dominion Post October 2012)

Melt together

125g butter

¾ cup brown sugar

Mix in

½ packet crushed malt biscuits

½ packet crushed vanilla biscuits

Press into a lined slice tin

Base ready for pressing into tin

Place on base, in order:

½ cup chocolate chips

½ cup chopped apricots

½ cup coconut thread

½ cup sliced almonds (I used unsalted roasted)

Drizzle over 1 tin condensed milk

Bake at 30 minutes at 150°C

Final layering

Condensed milk drizzled on top

Cooked ready to cut

The best Chocolate Chip cookies

This month there seems to be a bit of a theme with my blogs - chocolate and cookies.
Chocolate -  since the Chocolate Festival I have slowly worked my way through all the lovely samples (and yes, unfortunately I had to share), i.e. bar one called Christmas, made by Shoc Chocolates. I'm saving that one for Christmas because.... well it is called Christmas. The small sample taste at their stall tasted like Plum pudding and Christmas cake so I'm really looking forward to devouring it at the appropriate time.
Cookies - actually we call them biscuits in New Zealand but in the United States (their) biscuits are more like our scones. Most people I know call a biscuit a biscuit and a scone a scone, but have I noted a cafe trend  of labeling biscuits cookies, perhaps it is for American visitors (so they don't think it is a scone???)
This week I've been having fun baking cookies, ok biscuits. This recipe is by far the best chocolate chip biscuit I have made and it comes from the iconic New Zealand 'Edmonds Cookery Book', the 1999 edition.
In a past blog I posted a Flat Biscuit recipe (which contained chocolate chips) but this recipe is by far superior and does not include eggs, handy if you have no eggs in the fridge at the time of baking or if there is an egg allergy that needs to be taken into consideration.
Yes, it involves creaming the butter, sugar and condensed milk but that's easy done with all the fancy appliances we have in our kitchen now. When I use to help my mother in the kitchen - my job was to use the hand held electric beater and stand while it mixed for about ten minutes! Great for young hands, not so great when you get older. Make sure you grease the tray otherwise you may have to chip them off (excuse the pun!).

Ready for the oven

Watch your oven temperature, I needed to turn my fan oven down a bit and the cooking time was more like 15 minutes. After all your hard work you don't want them to burn.
They keep nice and crisp in an airtight tin, great for school lunches and supper with a cup of tea!
They also freeze well. I doubled the recipe (made two full trays) and they were still perfect.

Cooling before moving to a rack

Chocolate Chip Biscuits (from Edmonds Cookery Book, 1999 Edition)

125 grams butter

¼ cup sugar

3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

Few drops of vanilla essence

1 ½ cups standard plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ cup chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Sift flour and baking powder together.

Mix sifted dry ingredients and chocolate chips into creamed mixture.

Roll teaspoons of mixture into balls.

Place on a greased oven tray and flatten with a floured fork.

Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes.

Makes about 25

Oops! couldn't resist a taste!