An Australia Day icing explosion

Australians are known for our 'have a go' attitude so what better time to try rolled fondant icing for the first time than Australia Day. It was one of those baking techniques on my 'must do' list. It seemed quite a feat to master until I watched a Planet Cake video online and it seemed a cinch. Wrong! My first hunch was right.

Firstly, I made a double batch of Donna Hay's melt-and-mix white chocolate mud cake. Started daydreaming and looked at the plain flour quantity when putting in self-raising flour. Bad start. Managed to scrape a lot out and replace with plain flour but not before I could see the mixture frothing! Got right back on track.

Once cooled, the cake was filled with Donna Hay's white chocolate fudge icing, similar to a whipped ganache and then covered with a basic white chocolate ganache recipe. Cursing myself for not having two round tins of exactly the same shape. I can already see the cake is whacky at this point but boy does it taste good when I cut a few bits off to "even it up"!

As per Planet Cake advice (and because there are only so many hours in an evening) I left it overnight to set. In the morning, I had a nice solid surface to work with but there is one piece of advice I skimmed over and that was to make a really smooth surface. I should have dipped a knife in hot water and smoothed the cake's surface. I assumed that thick fondant would cover all manner of sin.
 

Rolling out the Orchard icing was pretty straightforward using a rolling pin and cornflour. It's durable and didn't tear. Using the rolling pin to drape it over the cake, making a ghostly shape in the process, was pretty fun.

Then I tried to rub in circular motions to smooth it from top to bottom just like the Planet Cake people. The rubbing technique did not make up for the lumps of white chocolate peeking through. At this point I told my husband I had made a volcano. I needed to get to the office and I was feeling disappointed.

What the heck I thought, I'll chuck another layer on and see if that looks any better. Planet Cake did not advise me to do this, I'm sure it breaks all sorts of rules but sometimes us amateurs are just stuck in these tricky little situations and we need a quick-fix, however unorthodox. I don't know if it looked better, but I felt better so I pinned on some ribbon, stuck in a little flag and voila, Bob's your uncle. When swivelled around to its less favourable side, the cake on the plate even looks like an Akubra. Hey True Blue?!

 My first attempt at rolled fondant wasn't all smooth sailing but it was a good learning experience and my workmates were very obliging and gracious taste testers at our Australia Day morning tea.

We enjoyed it with lamingtons, chocolate teddy bear biscuits, Vegemite sandwiches, fairy bread and sausage rolls.

It wasn't perfect of course, but my Aussie spirit was telling me that "she'll be right". Nothing's perfect.

Wishing you all a very enjoyable Australia Day. I've found myself a BBQ to attend while listening to the Hottest 100 countdown on Triple J and brushing up on my Aussie slang. Beaut.

Throw me a cake ball

The sense of control felt while baking can be a little therapeutic. I know a lot of non-bakers will disagree but hear me out. In life, so many things are out of our control and we just have to learn with roll with it. Sometimes, it's nice to know that if you do X you will get Y. It's nicer still to know that you can take a set of ingredients that aren't that enticing on their own and whip them into a frenzy to create something irresistable.

And just secretly, there must be a control freak lurking within me as I love starting with a clean bench, lining up all the ingredients along with all the required tools and following the steps until I've got a finished product that somewhat resembles the picture in the recipe book. Nigella would be proud of me!

When getting through other projects seems impossible, it's comforting and fulfilling to start and finish something in a few hours or less. Life often throws us curve balls but I choose to throw cake balls out into the universe and hope I'll get some scrumptious cake balls thrown back my way!

For a nephew's birthday last month, I decided to make some cake balls - better known as cupcakes - decorated as sports balls. I'm not sure if 14 is too old for decorated cupcakes, but I figured they'll be a definite no-no for future birthdays so I'd get in while I can still get away with it.

My cake balls were inspired by a recipe and photo in the September 2010 issue of Super Food Ideas magazine. However, these cupcakes were made for a 14-year old connoisseur so the magazine's suggestion of packet buttermix just wasn't going to cut it. Instead, I made a batch of the white chocolate mud cupcakes from taste.com.au recommended by my friend Ros (who is now, incidentally, a very proud maman to a beautiful baby boy!). This recipe includes white chocolate icing (mmm!) that I split into several portions and dyed with Queen food colouring. The lines and dots on the balls were done with Queen writing icing and writing fudge. The 'grass' on the serving plate was made by shaking coconut in a resealable snap lock bag with a few drops of green food dye. Fun!

I was quite proud of my creations and thought they must have turned out well when a little cousin asked for a second. When I suggested that this gorgeous 3-year-old try a basketball, she replied "that's not a basketball, silly." She'd told me a similar thing when she took her first one, but as that was the more unusual baseball, I wasn't too fazed. But again? I'll have to improve my cake decorating skills, I thought. Then she announced "this is a cake!" It was hard not to laugh in delight. Cake indeed.

The beauty of birthdays and baked delights

How sweet it is to be surrounded by friends who can cook! There's nothing like biting into something baked for you to brighten your day, as I found out while celebrating my birthday last month. So here's my promised low-down on all the delicious offerings that were piled on my plate.

Above is a photo of the melt-in-your mouth white chocolate mud cupcakes from the kitchen of the talented Stacie who I reckon knew how to cook from the time she was in utero. She's a dab hand in the kitchen and often makes things without a recipe. She says it's because she is hopeless with recipes. I say it's because she doesn't need them, a sure sign of a culinery talent.

The white chocolate mud cake recipe can be found on taste.com.au. The pink icing made from the recipe is to die for but the chocolate icing from a supermarket tube added the personal touch.

Stacie also made some roti rolls inspired by a ladies' night out at Jack's Satay Bar in Moonee Ponds (recommended for fresh, tasty Malaysian). We had all enjoyed the marinated chicken fillets, cucumber and tomatoes wrapped roti bread and served with spicy peanut dipping sauce so Stacie set about re-creating them. Here's how she did it.

To make the spicy peanut dipping sauce, blend the following ingredients until smooth:

1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon red curry paste
1 shallot, peeled and roughly chopped

For the chicken, marinate chicken strips overnight in:

1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 shallot, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon lime zest
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger and chili

Bake in moderate oven until cooked through (20 to 30 minutes).

The roti wraps were purchased from the freezer section of Stacie's local grocer. To assemble, fry the wraps and then place thinly sliced cucumber, tomato and cooked chicken in the centre before rolling them up and cutting in half. Yum.

My darling work mates presented a smorgasboard of home-bakes delights to get me through a birthday at work. Unfortunately, I didn't take photos. Corky's spendid carrot, almond and orange cake based on a Stephanie Alexander recipe will be made again, all going well, and copious photos taken for your salivating pleasure. As seen above, I have re-created Rozzie's chocolate and roasted hazelnut slice because she let it out that it contains 'cheats caramel' from a tin and is quick and easy to make if you ignore the instruction to rub the skins off the roasted nuts. Our resident office cooking advisor tells us it's not necessary. Very good news but making a batch was bad news for me, or at least my hips. It seemed to call 'eat me' from the Tupperware container. Whoever thought of the hazelnut and chocolate combo should be knighted. So should people who bake things with hazelnuts even though they don't eat them! Again, the recipe can be found here on the trusty taste.com.au. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Step 1: Cook the base

Step 2: Spread with Top N Fill caramel

Step 3: Top with hazelnuts and chocolate

Step 4: Offer a slice to everyone you know to save yourself from eating every last crumb!

Finally, here is a photo of the Botanical hamper we ate at my surprise birthday outing to see a Midsummer Night's Dream plus a list of the contents.

Starlight hamper

French Baguette with French Butter
Confit Duck Terrine with Pear Chutney
Proscuitto San Danielle
Cured and Honey Poached Pork neck with Pickled White Cabbage
Marinated Olives and Pickles
Fresh raspberries and strawberries with Volhohna chocolate dipping sauce

The Botanical
169 Domain Road, South Yarra VIC 3141
03 9820 7888

Merci à mes amis magnifiques. Bon appetit!