I love doing kids' birthday cakes and cupcakes. They're so colourful and fun, and you can basically be as over the top as you like and kids will love them. I also love working to a theme - like the Australiana ones and the Hollywood cake. My favourite customers are the ones who give me very little guidance and let me just go for it! These are some recent kids creations I've made - Enjoy!
My last foray back in time to the 70's Bundt revolution was such a huge hit, I thought it was worth giving it another try. This time I was after a cake which would please the masses but also welcome in the season of Autumn. The cold and wet days have come to Melbourne with a vengeance - many a tree has fallen down and many a cold nose has needed warming up via a kiss from Mum.
Autumn, to me, is the start of all those cold-weather flavours coming back from hibernation: cinnamon, cloves, wood-fired bread and heady spices like cardamom. Not yet a full-blown winter cake, this one is fabulous in that it has the warming autumnal spices yet is not so heavy as to need to be eaten under a wool blanket while wearing mittens. It does, however, go well with a cup of sweet, milky tea...but then, doesn't everything? 
Honey Spice Cake with Coffee Glaze
(from Bundt Classics, published by Nordic Ware)
1 cup hot water
1 tsp instant coffee or espresso powder
1 cup honey (golden syrup also works well)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon (an emzee addition)
Heat oven to 170C. Grease and flour a large Bundt pan. Mix hot water with instant coffee. In a large mixing bowl, mix honey, sugar, oil and eggs until very light and fluffy. All all the remaining ingredients including the coffee mixture and mix well. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in tin for 10 minutes and then cool completely before glazing.
Coffee Glaze
2 tsp instant coffee or espresso powder
3 T hot milk
2 cups icing sugar
1 T butter, softened
Dissolve the coffee in the milk. Mix the sugar and butter until crumbly. Gradually add the milk until you reach the desired consistency (wet enough to run down the sides of the cake slowly.) Mix until smooth and spoon over the top.
Notes: The glaze is not required, but for me it does add a bit of OOMPH to the cake. If coffee is not your thing, either make a vanilla glaze (by removing the coffee and using vanilla essence instead) or even a cinnamon glaze. The coffee in the actual cake can't really be tasted - it's more a way of getting that gorgeous dark brown colour.
Enjoy!
One of the more entertaining side lines to the new business is the funny or just head-scratch-worthy phone calls I get. One lady called asking for baking advice - "How do you know when a cake is done?" Several have called and asked for recipes ... ummm, yeah. I'm really going to give those away for free. Go try allrecipes.com, would you?
One guy called asking for cellophane bags so that wedding guests could take away pieces of cake with them. Cake which *I* didn't make. When I suggested he ask his cake maker, he said, "Oh. Hadn't thought of that."
Some people call and ask for toddler-sized 3D cakes and then wonder why it's more than $50, and why I say it will probably feed more than the 12 people they want to feed. Others ask for the impossible - like the lady who called at 5:15 on a Friday night wanting a cake for 8am Saturday morning, because she forgot it was her daughter's birthday the next day. (Mom of the Year award, anyone?) I *could* have done it for her - but by then I'd just finished cleaning the entire kitchen after a 9 hour marathon decorating session. So, sorry, but no.
Then there was the ancient old lady who called for a price on a wedding cake. Mud cake, to feed 100 people. Decoration? "Oh, something nice dear." Nice as in a ribbon or two, or nice as in an entire cascade of handmade sugar flowers? "Just something NICE, dear." Tiers? "I'm not sure. Perhaps 2? Is that what people do these days?" Icing type? "Oh! I can't...oh...I...well..I...I'm not sure they've thought about any of that." At this point I saw no point in discussing it further, so I gave her a price and said it's "not less than XYZ dollars." "OH! ...that much? Oh, well, that seems quite pricey." I then nicely suggested that she have the couple in question contact me to talk about the details, and ended the conversation. The poor woman is destined for a massive coronary when she calls the other Melbourne custom cake makers and finds out that what she thinks is quite pricey is actually quite reasonable.
I'm ALWAYS nice to the people who call - they're my bread and butter, after all. Plus you never know when a bit of kindness can go a long way. So if I can't help, I'll redirect them to someone or somewhere that can. Sometimes, though, I'm just left shaking my head.
Yesterday's phone call left me, literally, speechless. Now the actual request wasn't all that unusual. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Good afternoon, Three Sweeties, emzee speaking.
Customer: Oh. Hi. I need a cake for my 2 year old's birthday party, and I was wondering if you make any healthy cakes?
Me: Healthy cakes?
Customer: Yes, as in, less sugar than other cakes, not as much fat. You know, a healthy birthday cake. Maybe with all fruit or something?
Me: Um, no, sorry. Pretty much all the cakes we made are not healthy. Healthy cake goes against my cake philosophy (yes, I said that, but I laughed to soften the blow.)
Customer: Yes, well, I thought that might be the case. I've been ringing cake makers ALL AFTERNOON and they all pretty much said the same thing.
Me: I don't think you're going to have much luck on this one ....
...and then I went on to suggest some healthier options for her...
- Fruit tart (which is pastry and custard and fruit)
- Meringues (which is sugar, but no fat)
- Searching on-line for something like a zucchini cake or a banana bread or something which she could make herself
See? I was nice to the lady. Heck, she sounded totally desperate! At the end of the conversation, I hung up and found myself thinking, "Surely after calling people all afternoon, you would get the hint that cake is not generally a health food? and anyway, healthy birthday cake? For a 2 year old? Guess who's going to be needing eating disorder therapy in 10 years?!"
I am totally for kids eating healthier. I even wrote more than one article about it.
Birthday cake, though? That's SACRED. Holy. Not-to-be-messed-with. You've got a birthday ONCE a year (or in my case, twice...but that's another story.) If you can't forgo your tofu and steamed quinoa diet for that ONE day, when can you?
For what it's worth, I'd rather run around the neighbourhood naked with a lit firecracker up my ass than bake or eat zucchini cake.
But I was nice to the lady.
....90 cm/3 feet in height
....6 kilos (13.2 pounds) in red icing
....approx 12 kilos/26.4lbs in weight
....1 kilo/2.2 lbs cocoa powder
....2+ kilos/4.5+ lbs dark chocolate
....8 elephants
....more edible gold balls than I could count
....10 gold paisleys
....3 cans of gold spray paint
....2 trips to the hardware store
...1 metre/3'3" of wooden dowelling
....and one happy, gorgeous wedding couple.
....which is precisely why I love my job.
I had temporarily forgotten that this is sorta supposed to be a cooking and baking blog...but then it's a Mommy blog, too - so that's my excuse! In any case here is a recipe to keep you happy for a while.
Apple cake is not something I would normally bake in the summertime. Summer, to me, is cookies I can take to the local pool, no-bake slices, novelty baking (where I try out things I wouldn't normally bake) and baking which involves little effort. Summer is not a time for heavy, cinnamon-y apple things. However, sometimes you just bake things so you can get your hands into some dough to improve your mood. Therapeutic baking is all about the sensory experience. The slippery, shiny bright orange of a fresh egg yolk, the shhhhhhhhhh sound of sugar pouring into a bowl, the glug-glug of oil, the first taste of sweet raw batter, the squishy feel of cold butter between your fingertips. Baking is therapy without the high bills and the uncomfortable couch.
So I found myself on summer eve, with a grumpy mind and a basketful of apples which were sadly beyond their crunch-by date. Hmmmm. I reached for a cookbook I don't use all that often - Bundt Classics (published by Nordic Ware, the makers of Bundt pans!). It should be noted that this cookbook is very annoying. A vast majority of the recipes start with "one box yellow cake mix"...and we all know that NO recipe should ever, ever start that way. It's baking sacrilege! This book also has a number of savoury recipes - like Shepherd's Pie - which you can make in a Bundt pan. Now maybe it's just me, but I don't really want to see what "Spaghetti Florentine" looks like an a floral shape.
There is something very 1970's about a classic Bundt pan, isn't there? To me it just screams "orange and brown curtains in the kitchen!" and Tupperware in a variety of mustard, orange and brown shades. In perusing the book I decided (with DH's assistance) to go with an equally 70's inspired recipe - Apple Streusel Cake. Who eats struesel nowadays? Clearly, the house of emzee does. Damn, but this cake was GOOD. Neither summery nor fashionable, but one worth baking when you find yourself in need of a Prozac and with a bucketload of apples at your disposal.
Apple Streusel Cake
Courtesy or "Bundt Classics" brought to you by Nordic Ware
(Note: Recipe has been given the emzee treatment - in other words, made easier!)
Streusel
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup butter, chopped into small pieces
2 tsp cinnamon
Cake
3 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1 T baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
4 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced
Heat oven to 325 / 160. Grease your best 1970's bakeware (Bundt of course). Put all the streusel ingredients in a small bowl and mix around a bit. In a large mixing bowl, put all the cake ingredients except the apples. Stir it around with a fork for a while, until you get bored or it's all mixed together. It'll be a very thick dough. Plop a scant amount of dough into the Bundt. Layer the apples in the tin (be generous with them, and be as neat or as messy as you like. Makes no difference to the end product.) Sprinkle with half of the streusel mixture. Plop a bit more dough in, do the apple thing, do the streusel thing, and finish with whatever's left of the dough. Bake for 75-85 minutes or until a toothpick is clear or you can't stand the good smells any more and you need to eat some cake NOW.
Cool ten minutes in the pan then turn out and eat warm, so that the bottom part falls off and goes all gooey, like this:
Serve with a tall glass of cold milk, a mug of steaming hot tea, a ball of good quality vanilla bean ice cream... or do all that on the second piece. Just shove the first piece of 70's goodness into your gob right away. It's well worth it.
In this post, I talked about how I have a name. A name which is NOT "the triplet's Mom" or "the triplet lady" or anything like that. My name, for the purposes of that blog post, and my day-to-day life, is Michelle.
However (!) today, I'd like to re-christen myself. (So to speak. Jews don't do christenings.)
I hereby christen myself:
Your friend Michelle. You know, the one with the:
REALLY FUCKING AMAZING CAKE BUSINESS.
*(Alternative title for this post: If you build it, they will come.)
PS Full site coming soon....I'm busy writing content. In the meantime, enjoy the pretty pictures.
This is another one from Sue Lawrence's Book of Baking. I should have known this was not a good baking book (for me) based on my below experience but I plowed on ahead anyway! Since I've gotten it out of the library for a month, we might very well be stuck with shit recipes for a while. Blondies are not something I've baked before - they just seem so...well, wrong somehow. In any case this recipe was easy and quick - she describes it as a "doddle to make" - and I thought I'd give the book another shot.
Blondies
280g / 10oz light muscovado sugar (or caster, honestly!)
115g / 4 oz unsalted butter
2 large eggs, beaten
175g / 6oz self raising flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
100g / 3.5 oz chopped pecan nuts (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and grease a deep 23cm / 9 inch square cake or brownie tin.
2. Melt the sugar and butter together in a pan over low heat (or in a microwave) and stir.
3. Gradually add the eggs, beating until smooth. Sift in the flour and a pinch of salt. Stir through the vanilla, and then the nuts (if using.)
4. Pour into the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes or until just firm all over. A skewer inserted will have moist crumbs (but not raw batter) clinging to it.
5. Cool in the tin for about 30 minutes. Cut into squares and eat.
Review: Ehh. In this case the flavour was really, really good - all caramely and sweet without being cloying. The texture was good too - really chewy, soft, squishy brownie goodness. It ws nice, except... see the picture above? See how nice they looked? Like Madonna and Sean Penn, it didn't last. As the brownies cooled, the entire middle section got flatter...and flatter...and flatter until the outside edges were still nice and high (but texturally great) and the middle was less than 1 cm high (less than half an inch.) (texturally, not great.) We easily devoured the entire thing, but I like my brownies to stay about 2-3 cm high, not become pancakes. So other than the mysterious flattening out (and yes, the flour was fresh), they were pretty damn tasty. I might experiment with this one too - perhaps adding a bit of baking powder to just 'lift' them a bit, or cooking for marginally longer to get the middle a bit firmer. Maybe the issue is the sugar - I'm planning on trying it again with the muscovado, when I find it. Either way a good base recipe which requires more playing but failed in it's initial run. I think I'm into this whole blondie thing now, so if anyone has a good recipe, leave it in the comments and I'll give it a run.
I adore libraries. Where else can you have access to an entire bookshop, FOR FREE, which has a great returns policy, doesn't mind if you dog-ear the pages (although courtesy dictates you shouldn't), has books on every topic you're interested in, stocks best-sellers, has back issues of all the magazines you can't justify buying, and these days has high speed Internet access? Libraries totally rock. I don't love the whole shhhhhh! have to be vewwy vewwy qwiet thing, but I cope because I am among paper. With words. You know my whole M n' M procedure? I've got one for library books, too. Best I not go into that or you'll start to believe the rumours about me.
Most often I stick to the fiction section, but sitting in the "readers recommend" shelf (eg the stuff the librarians can't be bothered to put away) was a baking book - Sue Lawrence's Book of Baking. I opened it to have a look and the first recipe I came to was the one which said, "take this book home!" It incorporated 3 of my favourite pastry things - chocolate, meringue and lemon. Now I don't usually like all three together, and I'm definetly not sure about the lemon and chocolate thing, but finding this recipe first was kismet.
Chocolate Meringue Cake
115g / 4 oz unsalted butter, softened
115g / 4 oz golden caster sugar*
3 large eggs
55g / 2 oz cocoa powder
100g / 3.5 oz self raising flour
50ml / 2 fl oz milk
For the meringue:
3 large egg whites (saved from above)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
140g/ 5 oz golden caster sugar
For the lemon curd cream**:
2 heaped tablespoons (homemade) lemon curd
200g / 7oz creme fraiche
* I didn't have golden caster sugar, so I just used standard (in the US: Superfine) caster sugar and added 2 T of golden syrup. I don't really see why the golden version is necessary in the first place, so feel free to enlighten me if you know.
** I was lucky enough to have my SIL's lemon curd in the fridge. I used DOUBLE the amount of curd, and straight cream instead of creme fraiche.
1. Preheat the oven to 170C / 325F and grease two 20cm/8 inch cake tins (do not use deep ones).
2. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the yolks, one at a time, beating well between each. Gradually sift in the cocoa, flour and a pinch of salt. Pour in the milk and mix lightly until smooth. Spoon half into each of the prepared tins, smoothing out to the edges.
4. For the meringue, beat the whites with a pinch of salt and the cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Then gradually add sugar and continue whisking until thick and shiny.
5. Spoon the meringue gently over both cakes and bake for 20 minutes or until meringue is golden. Cool completely in the tins.
6. Carefully remove from the tins and place one cake, meringue side up, on a plate. Beat together the lemon curd and creme fraiche and spread over the top of the meringue. Put the second cake over this, meringue side up. Eat on the day.
...and here's the review, in pictures:
This mixture was a bit of a nightmare. It was really thick, really dense, and quite bitter - seems like a LOT of cocoa for such a small amount of batter. It took a fair amount of patient pallet knife action to get it to the edges of the tins.
I got all excited by this sight in my oven - bubbly, gorgeous craters of meringue. It didn't last.
Within mere seconds of the cakes (gently, gently) coming out of the oven, the meringue had collapsed spectacularly. Which, going by the picture in the book, is meant to happen. I was still sad about it though!
Having followed the rest of the procedure, the finished product looked precisely as it does in the book (note background below), even with decorative lemon curd dripping...As a cake though - it sucked. I like the idea of this, but the recipe in this case failed me. The cake itself was really not sweet at all, and really dry. The curd thing worked, but only because I used loads more curd than was required - and if I'd used the creme fraiche, there again would be not much sweetness. The meringue, although sweet, squashes down to hardly anything so it's not adding a lot in the taste stakes either. I also assumed that the meringue would somehow "stick" to the cake...and it didn't, really. Well, let's just say Kiki and I managed to easily peel it off the top when we got sick of eating dry cake! Overall not a fabulous cake, but I've already thought of how to re-construct this to make it better. Stay turned for the emzee version of this flavour combo...experiments await.
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.
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.
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