Stephanie Alexander's Lemon Curd Layer Cake a la Celebrity Masterchef AUS

I am addicted to Celebrity Masterchef at the moment.  I am curious about well known people and their cooking habits and I am sometimes pleasantly surprised at how well some can actually cook.  They are brave people that put themselves in front of a whole nation and wait for judges to criticise their dishes.  I am definitely not that brave.

I think the highlight of each episode is when the celebrity guest Chef is revealed, whose dishes the contestants will try to replicate. The dish that has so far left me drooling was Stephanie Alexander's Lemon Curd Layer Cake with fresh Passionfruit.

I knew when I first saw it I had to make it.  I'm familiar with crepe cakes and I've made a couple of different versions before.  You can read a similar lemon one here and and my chocolate one here.

It's definitely VERY different replicating this recipe at home compared to doing it in the studio with a time constraint.   I was able to read and re-read the recipe as often as I liked before beginning the recipe to ensure I understood each step.  And the only judge I had to worry about was Hubby.

So here is my attempt at Stephanie Alexander's Lemon Curd Layer Cake.

I made a few changes.  Firstly I didn't use passionfruit for the topping.  Since Hubby was the judge and predominantly the one to consume it, I opted to change it and used tropical juice rather as he doesn't particularly like passionfruit.  Another change I made was I used gelatin powder as opposed to gelatin leaves.  Simply because I had powder in the pantry.

Here is the recipe for this scrumptious cake.  As someone commented at the bottom of the recipe, 2 teaspoons of gelatin powder is equivalent to 4 sheets of gelatin leaves.

I didn't find this recipe particularly hard to make.  I think the hardest part was the waiting.  Each component of this cake had to be cooled down.  The crepe batter had to sit for 15 minutes while the lemon filling had to be cooled completely before assembling the cake.  The contestants had access to a blast chiller which would have take the filling to cool in minutes.  It took me about 30 minutes or so.

I found the cake was better the next day as the gelatin was set, making it easier to slice for serving.  The cake stayed separate in their layers

I do hope people make this recipe as it's not as complicated as one might think.

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

Lattice Cheesecake Slice

Lately I've been in the mood to do a lot of baking and cooking, especially with the assistant of my 3year old.  This gives me a chance to spend some mother-daughter time with her since my attention has been mainly on our new born.  

I found this recipe for this very simple cheesecake here and thought this is a great one for us to bake.  I say bake but there's no cooking involved at all, which is great for children.  This recipe makes one large batch but I've made two smaller one simply because I wanted one for hubby and me and the other for family and friends.  It's very easy to share, (that's if you can resist the urge to eat it all yourself) just cut along each biscuit.

Thanks to Squishy this Cheesecake slice was a success with family and friends.  I will definitely make this again.  However, I'll probably change it up a little next time as Hubby is not a big fan of the Lattice biscuits but loves the cheesecake in the middle.


Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

Bread Baking at Home

So... baking bread at home is something I've tried numerous times with mostly an unsatisfactory result. I've tried different recipes but none have turned out the way I liked.

I've decided to give it another go when the day was sunny and warm'ish (to aid with the rising and proofing). Armed with information and tips from various cookbooks and from the internet and of course with the help of my 3yr old assistant, I tackled a petit pains au lait.

The recipe from "The big book of bread" (by Anne Sheasby) is for long rolls but I opted to make round rolls. By doing this I had to change the baking time to 20-25 mins.

I think this bread is best eaten straight out of the oven as the outside is crunchy and the inside is very soft. You can still eat it a couple days later but I suggest you place in a warm oven to refresh the bread.

Dry ingredients in my big bowl

After kneading, we rolled the dough into a ball, getting it ready for it to rise. (the smaller one was 3yr old's dough)

After leaving it to rise for a couple of hours. It doubled in size

We rolled them out to small rolls. As you can see, 3yr old helped because they weren't quite perfectly round.

Baked bread.

RECIPE

450g strong plain flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

55g diced butter

1 tbl caster sugar

2tsp dried yeast

About 300ml warm milk, plus extra for glazing

1. Grease or flour 2 baking sheets. Sift the flour and salt into large bowl, then rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar and yeast. Make a well in the centre, then add enough milk, mixing to form a soft dough.

2. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Shape dough into a ball then place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

3. Knock back the dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 portions and shape into 13cm long rolls and place on baking sheets, spacing them well apart. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 20-30 minutes, or until doubled in size.

4. Preaheat oven to 200c. Slash the top of reach roll diagonally several times at regular intervals, then brush with milk.

5. Bake rolls for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or cold.

I hope you try to bake bread at home not only because you know what ingredients went into your bread but also it makes your house smell wonderful!

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

New Edition

On the 27th August 2009, we welcomed Thomas Nathaniel Moore. He entered the world healthy and kicking and crying.

He also happened to be born on my birthday. He was the best birthday present I have ever received and I don't think anything can top that.

I know this isn't a food related post however I would like to introduce him to you.

It's been a busy year..

So... Here I am again. It's been a while since I posted anything on my blog. The past year has been quite busy with our Nando's store and being pregnant but I vow to get my blog up and running again... promise :)

Here's a few pics from the previous year that I managed to get pics of...

Deanna's 3rd Birthday. I baked and decorated her birthday cake. I got the idea from a book called "30 minute kids cakes". The birthday girl help decorate it.

Mooncake Festival 2009 at Queen Victoria Market. It was actually quite disappointing as there were only a number of food stalls. There weren't a lot of choices but we were all hungry so made do with what was there.

Cherry and strawberry picking in Bacchus Marsh. My family loves to go cherry picking in Summer. We used to go right across to the other side of town to Red Hill to do it, however we discovered cherry picking only 20-30mins away from us in Bacchus Marsh. Oh the joy!

Christmas Eve 2008

My rocky road snowy mountain

My parents' Christmas display.

Lobster was one of the main attractions that night

Yarra Valley Farmer's Market at Yering Station.

Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm. We make the pilgrimage every year.

Strawberry Kebab from the children's menu.

I hope to keep my blog updated with my food adventures. I hope you keep reading.

Bon Apetite,

Cherrie

Pandan crepe filled with coconut and palm sugar

This is my version of a Malay Kueh, Ketayap.

Hubby and I had dinner once at Banana Palm in Melbourne's China Town. Hubby had this for dessert and really liked it so I promised him that I will try to replicate it at home.

I don't want to offend any Malaysians (Alex) and say this is an authentic recipe because it definitely is not. I tried making this sweet dessert with what I thought the ingredients and method is. I was happy with the result and tasted similar to what we originally had at Banana Palm but I think I need to work on the method to perfect the recipe. Once I am happy with it, I will post it. So for now please just enjoy the pictures.








Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

Little One's Birthday

Little One turned two last July.... where does the time go?



To celebrate we had a party with family. It was a simple affair.

Because it was a cold winters night, I decided to cook two warming dishes.

The first was a chicken curry. I love curry but that wasn't always the case as I couldnt handle anything spicy or anything with a slight heat. Thanks to hubby, that has changed. I now cook it very often and I have fine tuned my own version.


I also cooked beef bourguignon. I got the recipe from a number of sources. I used different steps from different recipes. I like to chop and change a lot of my recipes to suit me and my pantry.



For dessert, I made a Mars Bar Trifle. Sounds delicious, doesn't it? And it was. I got the recipe from a newspaper magazine when I was in England. It's simple to make but you have to be prepared as you need to start it early (or the day before) as you need to let each layer set before doing the next step. I changed the recipe slightly. The original recipe had coffee jelly in it but since Hubby doesn't like coffee (I know, what's wrong with him, right?), I substituted it with chocolate jelly. It actually worked well and it looked great. If anyone wants the recipe please leave a comment.



The birthday cake was from Nigella Lawson's Feast. It was a tropical chocolate cake. The cake has pineapple in it however because it was pureed we couldnt taste it. I think if I make it next time, I will put pineapple pieces in it as well so we can taste it. I guess what gave it the tropical taste was the stickky coconut icing.

Since our trip to HongKong DisneyLand, the Little one is into the Disney characaters at the moment so I couldn't resist placing a Minnie Mouse on top.



Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

2008 Holiday Part 1 - Tonbridge

I've finally got around to posting some of the pics from our month-long Holiday. You can see more on the Little one's site, starting from the last day here.

After a 9 hour flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong and then a 13 hour flight from HK to London we drove to Maidstone to spend some time with hubby's Nan. That was our base for a week making it easy to get to London and our first stop of the holiday, Tonbridge, hubby's old home town.

After our stay at Maidstone we drove along the south-west along the coast to the New Forest where we spent a few nights. From there we drove to Bodmin, Cornwall for a few more nights, and then to Cheltenham via Bath and Cheddar. After a trip to Wales it was on to Blackpool via Manchester & Liverpool. We then drove up to Edinburgh for a night, and then back down to Scarborugh for a night, until finally returning to Maidstone for another week.

We went to Paris for the day before a 4 night stop at Hong Kong and some amazing food & shopping. But lets not get too far ahead of ourselves. Back to the beginning of our trip, Tonbridge...



Tonbridge Castle
Tonbridge High Street



We found this Bakery called Baker's Oven.





It brought sweet memories back to Hubby as he used to have the Swiss finger when he lived here. So that's what he had. I went for the Caramel doughnut. It wasn't really a doughnut as it was more shaped like a finger. None-the-less, it was delicious. (From what I can tell, since the Little One had most of it)




Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

2008 Holiday Part 2 - Maidstone Surroundings

Larkfield Tesco's... a major supermarket chain in the UK.

So big that that they even had a Krispy Kreme booth.


Paddock Wood...


Dunorlan Park...



In Paddock Wood, we found another Baker's Oven and bought more sweet goodies. Hubby had the Belgian bun and to be honest I can't remember what mine was called but I do remember that it was reamed filled, light and luscious.

Throughout our stay in the UK, we mostly brought our own lunch which saved us a small fortune. The food is not necessarily expensive but the exchange rate wasn't on our side. We mostly made sandwiches made with left over roast chicken, smoked hams and turkeys but we treated ourselves with sweets and snacks along the way.



I do have to say though, everyday after a tiring day of being tourists, we were very lucky to come home to Nan's home cooking. Nan's cooking was comfort food that made you forget the sore feet and the tired body. We were treated with good ol' fashioned shepherd's pies, Lamb roasts and fish and chips. Thanks Nan!

Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

2008 Holiday Part 3 - Brighton

Brighton is a seaside city in East Sussex in South East England. Brighton is famous for it's pier and The Grand Hotel, where there was an assassination attempt on Margaret Thatcher when she was Prime Minister.

Had to have fish and chips on the Pier.






Little One had Fairy floss



I had to try the local delicacies. I wasn't brave enough to give the jellied eels a go but I did have the cockles. I found them at one of the seaside booths which were scattered along the promenade.



I had mine with Malt vinegar and shallots. Very tasty.

Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

2008 Holiday Part 4 - Crown Inn & Folly Tea Rooms

Crown Inn in Lyminton, New Forest.

I found that in England, there are pubs at every corner there like we have fast food restaurants.
All were advertising "Now serving food" and how they are home cooked.

We decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at the Crown Inn which was literally around the corner form our self catering cottage.




Hubby went for the Roast shoulder of lamb with mint jus and garlic mash. The meat we meltingly tender and fell off the bone. The garlic mash was to die for too.



I opted for the Roast Cod with herb and cheese crust, which was served with roasted vegetables. We also ordered a side of steamed vegies which included new potatoes. I have fallen in love with new potatoes. We can't get them here for some reason. They are abundant in Spring and we were there just the right time. They are best cooked simply boiled in their skins and served with a little butter and seasoning.


We decided to splurge and go all out and order dessert too. I made a great choice and had the banana creme brulee. There was a layer of sliced banana at the bottom then topped with custard and then the lovely sugar crust on top. I loved the sound it made with I broke it with my spoon.



Hubby had the Lemon tart with the lemon sorbet. Lemon tarts are one of Hubby's favs and I'm glad to say that this one didn't disappoint. The sorbet was very lemony and sour and complimented the tart really well.




Folly Tea Rooms in Bodmin, Cornwall.


When in Cornwall, you cannot go past the Cornish Cream tea. This consists of Tea ( in my case Latte), scones, jam and clotted cream. The jam is traditionally raspberry and the clotted cream is always from Cornwall.



Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

2008 Holiday Part 5 - Padstow

Padstow (or as some call it PadStein) is a small seaside town in Cornwall. This once sleepy town was made famous by Rick Stein, a restaurateur and TV Chef. In Padstow he has 4 restaurants. The Seafood Restaurant, St. Petroc's Bistro, Rick Stein's Cafe and Stein's Fish and Chips. He also owns a deli, patisseri, gift shop, a cookery school and serveral B&Bs.


The Seafood Restaurant.


Stein's Patisseri

Stein's Cafe and gift shop


Stein's Deli


Stein's Cookery School



Just to show you that there were other stores and businesses in Padstow, we went here, Pasty Presto to try out a traditional Cornish Pasty.


We decided not to have lunch at a Stein establishment. We saw this quaint little fish and chip shop a couple of streets inland and had our lunch here.





Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

2008 Holiday Part 6 - England South West & Wales

Cornish Cydar Farm in Cornwall.

This was a working Cyder Farm where they produce Cyder and Jams. It was free to get in but for a few pounds you can go on a tour of the farm.

They also sold the local ice cream. Little one and Hubby shared a Raspberry and Clotted cream one.




On our way to the Cotswolds we stopped at Bath...

The Roman Baths and Pump House.


For 50p you can try the spring water that supply the water in the Roman Baths. The water was warm and tasted and smelled of sulphur. I didn't like it but at least I can say that I had some water from the Roman Baths.





Another stop on the way to the Cotswold was Chedder, in Somerset.
Unfortunately there is now only one company in Cheddar that make Cheddar. Cheddar Cheese is a semi hard, sharp tasting cheese. Cheddar is the most popular cheese in England today.



Our next stop over was Cheltenham, in the Cotswolds. We were getting tired of sandwiches and chips so we decided to have Indian for dinner one night. We found this restaurant on the main street from the town centre to our cottage. Kings Balti Palace.



We had Chicken Korma, Lamb Vindaloo ( which made Hubby sweat as it's a lot hotter than they make here at home), bombay aloo (potatoes), pilau rice, naan and poppadoms.



Tintern Abbey, Tintern, Wales.

Bon Appetite,
Cherrie