ragingyoghurt

Category Archives: cake

wow. the time sure goes by.

and it’s not that i’ve got nothing to say. in fact, my camera is full to the brim of past eatings, and my head is soft with trying to figure out how to tell you about those slivers of chocolate with a saltwash on the underside.

i’ve completed my last session of comic artist rehab, a milestone of mixed emotions because i feel generally good about this handful of strips and the potential to keep going in this direction… but now that the deadlines are done with, i know i just won’t get any more comics drawn for a while. finishing up rehab means a freed-up pocket of time that i can squander away on the internet once more, with no regrets.

which will be good for the blog i suppose. um. though not right at this moment.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 27 November 2007 at 9:32 am

permalink | filed under cake, drawn

you come, day after day, and hope that i might have written about a cake or a soup or something. and instead, this chasm of disappointment keeps getting bigger. i’m sorry, and it’s not just that i have all this work to do. in fact, i do have a lot of work to do, all overdue now as of four days ago, and i’m doing my best to procrastinate, and i think i’m doing that quite well. but, so you see, i could well be using this stolen time to blog.

instead you get a painful memory about cake gone wrong. how’s that for chasm of disappointment? eh?

posted by ragingyoghurt on 22 November 2007 at 5:17 pm

permalink | filed under cake, drawn

so this is what 35 feels like: like any other day, except with all the love and virtual cake that facebook has to offer. due to unforeseen circumstances, i actually ate three zumbo cakes yesterday (which, never fear, you will hear about one of these days), so i had to consciously steer today away from the real-life cakefest it otherwise might have been. it was going quite well too, until my aunt and grandmother showed up at around 10.30 in the morning with a whole ricotta cheesecake.

my good parents had left me birthday cards when they were here in october, and i opened them to find one — from my mother — covered in an enticing cluster of gem biscuits (one of my favourite biscuits ever, and ones that i don’t actually eat enough of, because i don’t actually eat a lot of biscuits), and the other — from my father — adorned with a velvet cocktail dress and its sparkly accoutrements, as well as the phrase “paint the town red on your birthday!”. which is interesting, because now i know that my mum thinks i am five (or perhaps she cleverly surmised that i need a warm, comforting childhood memory to cling to), and my pap thinks i am a vamp. huh.

inside this somewhat unsettling card, he had concealed a crazy and unexpected amount of cashmoney, so what i did was take everybody out to lunch.

i pointed my aunt in the direction of zilver, where i’d tried — unsuccessfully — to get in once before, at lunchtime, on a weekend, when the queue was out the door and almost down the escalators. just past 11 on a tuesday morning? no problem. the usual suspects were lined up: ha cheong, wu kok, char siu sou, char siu bao, a plate of bright green vegetables with its accompanying dish of oyster sauce, a cluster of steamed scallop dumplings, and egg tarts to finish. i love that, where most dimsum places give you three piece of whatever to a serve, zilver give you four. i love the light, flaky pastry in the baked treats — clearly they are packed with shortening. sadly though, the egg tarts — quivering circles of gold in their meltaway pastry shells — numbered only three, but my aunt and grandma were happy to share.

we made it home in time for cups of tea and slices of cake, and then all too soon it was time to eat again.

last night the boy had asked where i wanted to be taken to dinner. the act of which raised all sorts of issues in my head, and not just limited to: red lantern? flying fish? tetsuya? — well, we live in hope — (glebe point diner? bodega? ottoman cuisine?…) ultimately, i knew it had to be in the neighbourhood and affordable, and so i ventured that we could try again for rosso pomodoro, which, being a half-hour walk away, really pushed the boundaries of being “in the neighbourhood”. the first time we attempted to eat here, maybe a year ago, we fronted up to the door, and the doors, though open, had clouds of construction dust billowing out of them; they were renovating that week. last month we tried to get a table for the kid’s birthday family get-together, but it was booked out. tonight, with a 6 o’clock phone call, we managed to secure a table for 7.

i was excited!

and justly so. the tomato sauce is fresh and pure, the bresaola and rocket perfect foils. the pizza bases are crunchy, then chewy. they are thin where they need to be, and puffed-up slightly where it counts. the best part is, there is just enough cheese, and no more.

[ recently, we called up another local pizza place for delivery, and made a point of asking for half as much cheese as they’d normally put on. the guy on the phone was confused. “oh, so you want 50% more cheese?” he asked. “no, no,” we said, “less cheese. less.” it took a while to make things clear. ]

but, so, rosso pomodoro. we had wonderful pizze, and we were well looked after. the charming and friendly waiter explained all the specials, flirted with the kid, brought her fancy italian strawberry juice at the start, and at the end, chose a pink plastic paddle to go with her strawberry gelato.

me? i had a fat slab of old skool tiramisu, so boozy it sagged to one side, sitting in a thin brown puddle of itself. it was great.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 13 November 2007 at 11:23 pm

permalink | filed under around town, cake, dinner, lunch

well. since we’re talking zumbo…

the plump raspberry heralds its lineage. this saucy daughter of the envie (remember? chocolate ganache and squishy raspberries in a fine pate sucree shell) goes by the name, envious. but take your cue from the bite-sized yellow macaron: yes, a passionfruit-chocolate tart. how can it be, you wonder.

as did i.

i’d take a bite, and the fleeting tang of passionfruit would be almost imperceptible. the next bite would be an intense burst of sunshine, and then the ganache would melt away, fast and chocolate, and i’d be left wondering… did i just –? and on it went.

i hear they make this by straining passionfruit pulp and stirring it through the ganache. while there are no hidden surprises in the crisp pastry shell, no squishy bits of fruit to tease your tongue, i love that the passionfruit component is not quite homogenised; you get a different passionfruit-chocolate experience with each mouthful.

today i saw a big tart, for sharing or sheer spectacle. it was festooned with many a small yellow macaron, and spears of vegetation, truly a tiny garden of eden.

next down the runway, barbados: a moulded wall of palm sugar mousse, and then sticky rice pudding, a thin layer of coconut jelly, and one of mango with bits of pineapple, all on a biscuit base.

the first time i saw this, it was a lopsided construction. i seem to remember it did not have the rice pudding (any counterboys reading today? please set me straight!), and it looked like a soft, pastry version of a soviet era factory building. i was intrigued.

the first time i ate it — a couple of months ago — i was leaning up against the counter at adriano zumbo patissier, eating spoonfuls of the velvety mousse from the cake that had just been slid across to me. the rice pudding had, by then, been incorporated into the structure, and — fine, i have come to terms with the fact that the pastrychef likes a little bite in his grains of rice, fine — and that aside, it shot right up to one of my very favourite things from the zumbo kitchen. i think it was the mousse that done it, the faint caramel flavour, the way it felt full and fat — yet light — on my tongue before it swiftly dissipated. or maybe it was the summery thrill of tropical fruit. or hell, it was the sticky rice. oh how i love it, al dente and all.

this one here, that i finally brought home with me last week, seems different again. the rice pudding tastes more complex than i remember, with shades of lime and… basil? is it possible? it’s almost savoury, certainly, and plays off the medley of sweet things in a most satisfying manner. the pastry base is a little sodden; perhaps i have left it too long before eating it, but i don’t expect it was ever meant to be the star of the show. barbados is at least two desserts in one, maybe even four! it is possible that you may feel like you’ve had an island holiday after you’ve eaten it. and like a holiday, it will make you feel like you need another one.

it is fun, is it not, being able to follow the evolution of these beautiful cakes? to see them through gawky adolescence to their final splendour? a few weeks ago, there was a row of nascent religieuses behind glass. they were somewhat garish, a little clunky, but not without charm. this afternoon i caught a glimpse of the elegant poufs they had become, all dainty, detailed piping, and a promise of roses and lychees. this religieuse exerience, i think, will be the one i have next.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 3 November 2007 at 10:12 pm

permalink | filed under cake, chocolate

beautiful, they are, like jewels.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 3 November 2007 at 4:12 pm

permalink | filed under cake

i know that you know that i know that muffins are, like, way behind cupcakes in… well, everything. for a start, there is no frosting. and most muffins i’ve had are bite after bite of dry, dense mastication. the little ones like rubbery pucks, the big ones like a workout for your jaw. so not fun.

but. yesterday, i found the best muffin in the world. sonoma make the best soy and linseed loaf in the world — with the whole soybeans? — whoulda thunk they would also sell the best muffin [note to self: double-check if they bake the muffins inhouse. edit 05/11: i have been informed, via the comments box for this post, that all pastries sold at sonoma, including the best muffin in the world, are made by zumbo. well!].

i only bought it because the kid wanted a snack as we passed by, and then sitting in the park across the road watching the monster raven skulk across the grass, i discovered the muffintop crunchy with sugar, and the moist, moist, crumbly inside with its generous — almost wanton, really — display of juicy berries.

“we’re sharing, right?” i asked the kid, but she was already off chasing the giant bird. tops.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 2 November 2007 at 10:11 pm

permalink | filed under around town, cake, kid, snacks

two recipes

1. red velvet cupcake. behold.
i figured i’d be trotting out the ol’ martha stewart one-bowl chocolate cupcake recipe yet again, but when i came across luckykat’s red velvet post a couple of weeks before the kid’s birthday, i knew that i’d have to make them. you know how it is… so hard to resist the mythological cuisine of the american deep south. more importantly though, it looked like a simple enough pair of recipes. lucky, kat had already sourced and tested them for me.

so the day before the birthday saw us two roaming the streets of balmain, buying red food colouring — pillarbox red, as artificial as you can get; raspberries — suddenly up to $8 a punnet; buttermilk — aggravatingly unstocked at the supermarket, but i tracked down the last carton on the peninsula at the local deli, for about twice the going rate. so far, so burning a hole in my wallet.

the cake recipe called for a whole bottle (just a bit more, actually) of red, into which you dissolve a surprisingly small amount of cocoa powder. the cocoa was measured with my wonderful new measuring spoons, a completely surprise present in the mail from the green bananas. look! the bowl of it is actually a miniature mixing bowl!! thanks, santos!!!

and then i chucked a few more things in the batter, and suddenly everything went like molten lava. i filled a tray of regular-sized cakes, and then another of mini ones — and ok, i overfilled so i wouldn’t have to wait for a second round of oven time, the cakes rose dramatically and i was vexed until i figured out that i could hide it all with frosting, hurrah!

this recipe yielded a voluptuous and pillowy soft frosting. there are other versions out there with half the cream cheese, which i guess gives you more definition when piping the icing on. however, i applied mine by dipping each cupcake headfirst into the mixing bowl and then slathering on quite a bit more with a butter knife. the texture was lovely and rich, perfect for licking off the beater at the very end — breakfast of champions…

… although maybe after three or four cupcakes, things go a little funny.

these were great cakes! moist, not overly chocolatey, and very, very sweet. i will definitely make them again, although i may not have to just right now, because there is a box in my freezer with three unfrosted cakes, and another box with a quantity of leftover frosting, and any day now i will complete the experiment called “does cream cheese frosting freeze ok?”. does red velvet cake? we shall see.

– – –

2. spanakopita
a few weeks ago, when spinach was $1 a bunch, i googled a recipe on the internet, and because i neither bookmarked it nor printed it out, i cannot remember where i got it from. tchk. however, because it turned out to be a really good recipe, this afternoon i fished about my recycling bin, and retrieved the scrap of paper on which i’d scribbled down these notes from the screen:

2 pounds spinach — wash, coarsely chop. 907g
2 tbs olive oil
cook onion, chopped, scallions 4
add chopped spinach, handful at time
5 mins, wilted, liquid released
cook on high until dry
stir in 1/4 cup dill
cool. squeeze liquid

large bowl:
4 eggs, beaten
add spinach
8oz feta crumbled 226g
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper

melt butter
1 pound filo
8 sheets bottom
8 top

oven 375°F 190°C
bake 45min

helpful, huh? but see, i cooked off these notes, and it was delicious. i think i may have used just three eggs, and brushed the filo with olive oil instead of butter, to no ill effect. i ♥ spanakopita.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 29 October 2007 at 10:17 pm

permalink | filed under cake, dinner, kid, kitchen

i am leaving for the beach, leaving in too few hours and not quite packed, but i just wanted to put it out there that i think i have more than redeemed myself from the unfortunate madeleine affair of a few months ago. poof! it is gone from your mind.

many cupcakes were eaten today by me and the kid. she’s three!, as she keeps reminding us, and to celebrate, my olds are taking us to the sunshine coast — golden beach, to be exact. we will paddle in sheltered waters, dig moats in the sand, eat hot chips by the bucket (and the same quantity, probably, of ice cream). we will pick strawberries, and maybe see bindi irwin. maybe.

yesterday i discovered that it is possible — just, and only because my mum made dinner and took the kid to the park, so maybe it is not possible after all — in a day, to finish off a print deadline, build a suite of kiddie ikea furniture, and bake a batch of red velvet cupcakes. if you leave the cream cheese and butter out on the counter overnight (and not think too much about the cockroaches that prowl the kitchen in the dark), it will be the right consistency to whip up a bowl of frosting first thing in the morning, for the first birthday breakfast cupcake.

see you in a bit.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 18 October 2007 at 11:34 pm

permalink | filed under cake, kid, trip

when is a post not really a post? when it’s a postcard!

but i’ve been werking. werking so intently that there has only been a break for hank moody — i only break for moody — and my right eye twitches even when i’m not at the computer.

yesterday, this postcard showed up in my mailbox, and though it wasn’t a real, live cake, it cheered me immensely.

from nellie:
“CAKE! is what i have just had in the little cafe at the back. i came to ask if they were hiring — they are not. but in the cafe in the back they had cake, walnut cake, very light, with strawberries and cream. i am always hiring for cake.”

i think i am done. done-ish, because i seem to remember that saving print-ready PDFs takes about 1400 hours longer than you expect. and normally i would say, “this calls for cake!”, or “send cake!”, but on the cards is a batch of red velvet cupcakes for the kid’s birthday tomorrow. she wants raspberries on ’em.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 17 October 2007 at 9:59 am

permalink | filed under cake, nellie

that clever simon was selling his lamps at kirribilli art and design markets today, so i bribed the kid with the promise of a cupcake and away we went.

coming out of milsons point station, we took two right turns in the direction of the colonial bakery (as documented by grab your fork) and came face to face with the cold, harsh reality of silver-shuttered windows.

the colonial bakery, folks, closed on sundays.

the kid was understandably dismayed, and truly, so was i. i’d been looking forward to an olde time cupcake (or a cream lamington) eaten on the bowling green. but the grumbling and pleading was only at a low level for now, so we made our way through the burton street tunnel, almost pretending to look at the crafty wares on display as we headed towards the foodstalls at the other end. at some point i gazed over at the other aisle, ostensibly looking for alien lamp pods, but what came into my line of sight was a three-tiered tray laden with tiny cupcakes. well, at that distance i couldn’t be certain, but i said it anyway: “LOOK! CUPCAKES!” before we continued our mosey at a slightly quicker pace. i sure hoped it wasn’t novelty soaps.

and it wasn’t! it was a table covered in actual palm beach cupcakes, every single one of them a lovely and elegant affair. the kid was immediately drawn to the big cupcake covered in pink frosting and a marshmallow flower with a little chocolate button in its centre. i really liked the look of the cake stand: three levels of bite-sized chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting (two shades!), or chocolate, or speckled-cookies and-cream.

“what is the difference between the darker pink and the lighter pink?” i asked.

“they are essentially the same chocolate and raspberry cupcake, but the darker ones have more raspberry,” was the helpful reply.

so i got one of each. delicious, and the darker one was more delicious than the other. the frosting was quite sugary, but the tartness of the raspberries balanced it out. the cake itself had a texture i had not yet encountered in a cupcake. dryish (though not unpleasantly so) with a dense but fine crumb and a deep chocolatey flavour. the frosting-to-cake ratio was about one-to-one, which is the way it should be, no?

the kid was methodical. she picked out the chocolate button, then ate the marshmallow flower, then the frosting, and then finally, the cake. not even half the cake, actually, which when i did try, surprised me with the raspberries baked all the way through, and its, hmm… slightly muffin-like texture. hmm. it tasted healthy, is what it was. that said, i was not lucky enough to eat it with frosting, so clearly, i will have to continue my study in a month.

we chased the cake with a mandarin, and then after a short wander, a bag of farm-fresh strawberries from a stall in the clearing, and then a fat sausage in a roll, and then an apple for the kid, and a laze on a sunny-shady patch of grass. and then we felt ready for another cupcake.

by this time — an hour to closing — the mini cupcakes had been reduced to $1 (from $1.50) and the regular ones $2.50 (from $3.80). you could even buy a tray of 12 assorted minis for ten bucks. and oh, how i wanted to! but instead, it was little chocolate-raspberry cupcakes all ’round, and they were just as good as we remembered them.

the luminous objects were lovely, and i was quite drawn to the bornagain books, but i didn’t end up buying any art or design. instead, having discovered that the bread merchant on these sunday markets is brasserie bread — sold out before he even had a chance to fully unpack his bounty of loaves — what came home with me, wrapped in swirly-printed tissue, was a tender sour cherry-rye-sourdough.

breakfast tomorrow is gonna be great!

posted by ragingyoghurt on 14 October 2007 at 10:57 pm

permalink | filed under around town, cake, kid, snacks

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