RAS - Long Distance

This RAS (Random Act of Sweetness) was committed long distance. Sadly the recipient won't get to actually eat the product, but I was definetly thinking of him when I baked it (and subsequently ate it.) I am of course referring to Cameron. I have known Cameron for about 13 years now (yes, really Cam! Can you believe?!) but interestingly enough have spent only about a week or so being in the same geographical area as he is in. How we "met" is an interesting story in itself - his girlfriend at the time went to college with me, while he was several states away at a different college. She, being the IT/computer person and me being the clueless one, became friends and she taught me how to use email, the 'net, and everything in between. For purposes of practice, she would use his email address for me...so I'd send a "Hi, you don't know me, I'm just figuring this out!" email to him, and so on. Needless to say their relationship didn't last past that semester, but Cameron and I shared a love of food, wine, books, (eventually) technology, talking, laughing...and so on and so forth. As the years went by, it became harder and harder to maintain a relationship in person - every time it was Spring break, I'd invariably leave Colorado to go home to California a day before he came home to Colorado from Pennsylvania. As a result we learned about one another through faxes (yes, really), emails, and the odd time when we overlapped in the same city for more than 20 minutes. These days both of us are married (to other people), and we don't email as frequently as we should, but I will always consider him a great friend, a great listener, and the only person on whom blue hair actually seemed appealing.

Cameron, this one is for you. Note, when I normally make this, I stuff it full of walnuts and raisins, and throw a confetti on the top of: chopped dried apricots, pepitas, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, more raisins, dust of cinnamon, more walnut pieces, and whatever detritus yummy bits I can find in the cupboard. In this case as I knew it was going to be fed to a non-nut eater plus a bunch of "what's that yucky stuff on top?" kids, it was done plain and thus not as good as I'd have liked. The recipe, though, works well so I'm sharing it here. Feel free to increase and decrease spices as you like.

Cameron, when next our paths cross, I promise a freshly baked, thickly-iced, swoon-worthy carrot cake, complete with the glace carrot on top. Just for you. And me. And if they're very, very good, we might share some with Wife & Child. :)

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

1 cup (4 oz) self-raising flour
1 cup (4 oz) plain flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1/s tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp bicarb of soda (baking soda)
1 cup (8 oz) oil
1 cup (6 oz) soft brown sugar
1/2 cup (4 oz) golden syrup (in the US, I'd experiment with maple syrup)
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups grated carrot
1/2 cup (2 oz) chopped walnuts or pecans

Icing:
350g (12oz) cream cheese, softened
120g (4 oz) butter, softened
3 cups (12 oz) icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 160C/315F. Grease a 23cm (9 inch) deep tin and line the base and sides with baking paper. Sift the flours, spices and soda into a large bowl and set aside.

Whisk together the oil, syrup, sugar and eggs. Slowly stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until smooth. Stir in the carrots and nuts. Pour into the greased tin and bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin and then on a rack.

Icing: Bung it all in a mixer and turn it on, mix until it's smooth and scrummy looking. Try to avoid sticking your finger in it while the mixer is going.

Slice the cake diagonally across into two even pieces (bonus points: slice into three!). Splodge the icing in the middle, put the top back on, ice all over the top and sides and then go for broke decorating with yummy stuff (bonus points: marzipan carrots for each slice!) Enjoy.

RAS - CWA Scones

This one isn't really a "random" act of sweetness, as I knew well in advance that my friend the Globe Trotter would be coming over for Sunday afternoon tea. With winter upon us, and indulgence being justified by cold days and freezing toes, I decided to embark upon some scone making. Scones are not really that hard, although there does seem to be a bit of mystery about them. There are as many myths, rules and recipes for scones as there are for chocolate cakes - strange for an item which usually has less than 5 ingredients and only 1 or 2 steps. Some months ago, epicure had an article about scones. With that as my inspiration I decided to make the CWA scones for GT's arrival. After all, several thousand women in Australia's bushland can't be wrong...and as you can see from these photos, their recipe is pretty damn good.


It should be noted that I am a total sifting rebel in so far as I almost never do it. Of course, it can and does improve the texture of the final product, but the reality is I can't be farked doing it, so I don't. In this case I made the effort (having not seen GT in a while, I figure I had to impress her). So I sifted it once, even though the packet clearly said it had already been sifted three times. That's some serious siftage.



This is what they looked like unbaked. I thought this was going to be a disaster as the dough seemed quite wet, I had a bugger of a time cutting them, and in general they just didn't look all that appetizing. I was secretly glad that there were other things I could serve for afternoon tea if these went terribly, terribly wrong.


They didn't They were seriously, seriously good. We topped them with some French raspberry jam (no added sugar, basically just squashed fruit) and oceanloads of pure cream (whipped with some sugar and pure vanilla to taste.) Fresh from the oven they had a nice crust on the top and bottom, and the inside was warm and pillowy. Sheer bliss! (and GT was most impressed, having made the scones with lemonade version the day previous and not had quite as much success.)

CWA Show Scones

INGREDIENTS
3 cups SR flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cream
1-1 1/2 cups of milk

METHOD

Sift dry ingredients. Cut in cream and milk with a knife.
Work quickly into a dough on a floured bench.
Flatten into about a 1.5cm-high rectangle on a lightly floured or greased scone tray.
Cut into squares with knife or pizza cutter and place on top shelf of very hot oven (220-230C) for about 10-12 minutes.*

*Times and temperatures may vary according to your oven.

RAS Recipe of the Week - Cinnabuns

Sadly, job woes for a different friend meant that I needed to come up with something totally gorgeous and mood-enhancing for a Sunday afternoon tea. Any excuse for a RAS is a good enough one for me, although at the moment I find myself wishing I was committing RAS for more positive reasons! I wish I could credit this recipe but I can't remember where I got it - it was the result of random click-throughs from foodie blog to foodie blog! In any case, here's the picture to keep you reading this post:
....yes. That IS a picture of sticky, sweet, luscious, warm, pull-apart and lick off your fingers, yeast-risen cinnamon buns. You KNOW you want to make them ... stare at them any longer and they will virtually CALL to you, in their cinnamon-laden sing-song voices....

Cinnabuns
(Yield: 12-18)
Note: Method changed slightly, as per usual emzee lazy chef behaviour

Rolls:
1 packet (1/4 oz) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-110F)
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 cups plain flour

Filling:
1 cup packed brown sugar
3 TB cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

Icing: The original recipe has a very cake-like, thick cream cheese icing. Seemed like overkill to me (even with my disproportionately sweet taste buds). I just used a simple glaze of confectioners sugar mixed with scant amount of milk to get it runny. Presto - shine and sugar all in one.

Method:
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside. Mix together the sugar, butter, salt and eggs. Add flour and then the yeast mixture and mix until it comes together (I did this with the dough hook in my Kitchen Aid). Knead via mixer or by hand for about 4-5 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and allow to rise for an hour or until doubled in size. Make the filling my mixing the cinnamon and sugar and setting aside.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll to a rectangle shape, about 21" long and 16" wide, and about 1/4" thick. Spread the softened butter evenly all over the rectangle (I used my fingers to squoosh it about) , then evenly spread the cinnamon/sugar mixture over it, all the way to the edges. Use your rolling pin to gently press the mixture onto the dough.

Carefully roll the dough down from the top to the bottom edge. Move the log around so that the seam is at the bottom. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the dough into even slices, about 1 3/4" thick. Pick up each roll and take the 'unraveling' end. Pull it gently and stretch it so it's tucked under the roll, then place the roll on a greased baking pan. This is to keep the roll from unraveling.
Cover the trays and place in a warm place to rise gently until doubled in size. At this point you could put these in the fridge - they will slowly rise and then you can bake them in the morning. In my case I left them out for several hours in a not-so-warm place and they were fine.
Bake at 400F (200C) for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned on top - watch them as they can burn quickly due to the high sugar content. While warm, drizzle with copious amounts of glaze and enjoy with a tall glass of milk. If you have some left over, they are great for breakfast - just zap for about 15-20 seconds in the microwave and away you go. You can also freeze these (uniced). Enjoy!


Editor's Note - if you read these recipes and actually make them, PLEASE either leave a comment or email me to let me know how it went. I'd also love to know how the recipient of your RAS enjoyed it (even if that recipient was yourself, nothing wrong with a bit of self-love.) Any pictures of the final product, I'd be happy to post here, or link to from your own site.

A long overdue RAS

It has been far, far too long since I have either committed or posted about a RAS (Random Act of Sweetness). As I am now back in the cooking and baking swing of things, I decided it was time for a (non-babka) chocolate cake to give to a friend. I actually baked this cake in anticipation of a friend's DH landing a new job. Sadly, that didn't happen - but the love and affection behind this one was there anyway! I spied this easy-peasy recipe in a magazine some months ago - and forgot about it until they recently reprinted it as a 'best of' recipe. It's so easy and yummy that non-bakers could easily manage it on their own (if they don't lick all the batter first.) So without further ado, the RAS of a Melt-and-Mix Chocolate Chunk Mud Cake (recipe to follow):

Step One: Melt all the scrummy stuff till it goes gooshy gooshy

Step Two: Chuck in some more chocolate chocolate-ness

Step Three: Take a photo of your preferred vanilla to share with your blog readers. This giant one litre bottle was a gift from my parents - it comes from Mexico and is FAB-U-LOUS. Sometimes I open the bottle just to sniff it. I'm weird like that.

Step Four: Fold through some flour. Note the action shot, can you see the drippy chocolate from my spatula on the right side? This cake was already looking good.


Step Five: Pour in half the batter, sprinkle over some chocolate boulders, and pour over some more batter.


Step Six: Chuck some more chocolate boulders on top. Resist the urge to pull off a boulder, which would then be dripping with sweet, glorious, fudgy cake batter and pop it into your mouth, then swoon dangerously as you head to the oven. Fail spectacularly. Resistance is futile. Lick your fingers.

Now at this point I baked the cake, cooled the cake, and put it aside for the good news I thought I'd get the next day. I figured I'd quickly pipe a "yay you" plaque, and invite them over for after-dinner celebratory cake. Sadly, the job was not to be had and I had a spare chocolate cake on hand. In retrospect I should have delivered it to them anyway, but as I had a crowd coming to dinner I decided to serve it as dessert. I made a mental note to take a final photo of it, with a wedge cut out, artfully food designed to make an amazing, mouth watering final blog photo.

I failed to hit 'save' on my mental note. If this photo is anything to go by, I'd say this cake is worth making for a friend, as an RAS:


...and no, we didn't throw out that last nugget sitting there. It's just that THAT was when I remembered to take the damn artful last photo.

Melt and Mix Chocolate Chunk Mud Cake
(originally from Super Food Ideas Magazine, April 2007)
300g dark chocolate
200g butter, chopped
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup self raising flour

Note: I have altered the method on this cake, to make it easier and quicker - if you want the original version, email me (emzeegee [at] hotmail [dot] com)

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease a 6cm deep, 20cm based round or square tin. Garb your packet of chocolate and take a rolling pin or meat tenderiser to it. Yes, while it's in the packet. Hammer the shit outta it and try not to rip the packet. In a medium sized saucepan, melt 200g of your pulverised chocolate, butter and water until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat. Add the cocoa and stir until it dissolves. Stir in the vanilla, sugar and eggs. Mix very well (pierce the egg yolks if they just run around and around). Chuck in the flour and fold in gently. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with gay abandon half of whatever chocolate you haven't eaten yet. Pour in the rest of the batter and then sprinkle the rest of the chocolate. Bake for about 55-60 minutes or until a skewer has moist crumbs clinging to it. Allow to cool in tin.

...you can serve this with cream, ice cream, or slathered in ganache. We had it au natural and it rocked as is.