Tea Parties...or rather, cake parties that feature tea

Over the summer I fell in love...... with tea sets. I got a bit obsessed reading articles on the proper presentation for tea parties, the kinds of delicacies served, the proper way to serve tea, the ranges of tea sets etc. So during one fateful Laura Ashley sale, I bought the Josette Tea Set: 1 teapot, 1 cream jug, 1 sugar bowl, 5 cups and saucers and 1 3-tier cake stand.

So, this month, I put it all to use and threw a tea party for a few of my fellow Chemists. And along with some Earl Grey, Lady Grey and Jasmine tea, I served New York Cheesecake with Strawberry Coulis, Lemon Sponge Cake and home-made Chocolate Truffles.

So it seems like the key to this party being a success was the preparation. On Wednesday afternoon I made the coulis, as it can keep for a few days in the fridge and although it isn't hard it is one less thing to do; on Thursday I made the cheesecake, so it would have time to firm up and let the flavours blend in; on Friday I made the chocolate truffles on a last minute urge; and on Saturday, we ate and drank tea.

Cheesecake - I made this last July and the recipe is up here on my blog. Bear in mind that I added around 10ml of single cream to the recipe this time to cater to my guests tastes. Also, I added a couple of teaspoons of vanilla extract and a bit of lemon zest. Delicious!

Strawberry Coulis - 160g washed, dried & chopped Strawberry, 60ml water, 60g granulated sugar, lemon juice & a half capful of vanilla extract.

I simply put the sugar and water in a pan, heated til it just started boiling then added the strawberries and left on a medium high heat for 10 minutes. Then I used a handblender to liquify everything and ran the liquid through a strainer twice. to remove the froth and seeds. Leave to cool for a while, and mine was left in the fridge for 3 days.

Frosted Lemon Sponge Cake - Another joyofbaking.com recipe. I halved everything as usual, mainly because I only just had to buy one block of butter for everything I was making that way. My only recommendation would be to add more lemon juice to the frosting as, otherwise, it becomes too thick and not as "drizzly." Also, I replaced some of the lemon juice with bottled lemon juice, as it stops the tang and sour being too overwhelming. The resulting cake is the perfect mix of tangy and sweet, moist and firm.

Chocolate Truffles - These are so easy to make it makes you wonder how some shops can have the nerve to sell these so expensively (though a Blegian chocolate truffle from Belgium is definitely worth the cost). To be honest with you, it is very similar to how I make hot chocolate, except using whipping cream instead of milk and with the addition of butter.

I basically melted 15g unsalted butter in 90ml whipping cream over a medium heat on the cooker, until the cream was boiling, then poured over roughly 115g chopped, plain dark chocolate. I left that to stand for 5 minutes then whisked the mixture thoroughly. For kicks, I added a couple tablespoons of the strawberry coulis I made for my cheesecake, then left the whole thing in my fridge overnight. The next morning I scooped out the now solid chocolate with a teaspoon, rolled it into a vaguely truffle-like shape and then rolled it into a bowl of cocoa powder. I did that until most of the chocolate was finished and put my truffles into the fridge to stop them melting before my guests arrived. The leftover chocolate, I poured boiling milk over, whisked and made possibly the most unhealthy hot chocolate in existence. Which also means that it was very delicious.

The Finished Product

All these separate components came together, along with some pretty china and table laying, to make a lovle tea party. The tea flowed and the cake was liberally served, the conversation was lively and varied, and I'm definitely doing it again. Here is the visual proof of the pudding.

Brownie Cake

Brownies are god's gift to women who want chocolate and want cake as well. This recipe creates what can only be the most gorgeously chocolatey gooey cake in the work. I lifted this recipe from my official favourite website ever - joy of baking. On that site they call it a Brownie Tart, however the lack of pastry in the dessert makes this name rub me the wrong way. So I shall call it......a cake!

Technicalities aside, the recipe mades one damned good brownie cake. The combination of cocoa powder, cream cheese and dark chocolate makes my toes curl, and licking the spoon clean of uncooked batter, I was reminded of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream. Speaking of, after using my mother as a (very willing) guinea pig, she suggested serving the Brownie Cake with some ice-cream, which is a brilliant idea. Something not too sweet as the Brownie Cake is quite rich.

So although there is a link to the recipe above, here are my (slightly altered) ingredients and recipe.

For the brownie cake:

85g chocolate (I used Thorntons milk chocolate from a leftover birthday chocolate slab)

200g unsalted butter (no-one said brownies were healthy)

45g cocoa powder (Asda - £1.48 for 250g)

3 eggs (I'm sure they said large for a reason but medium is just as good it seems)

85g cream cheese (Mascapone cheese)

250 granulated sugar

65g plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon vanilla essence (I only had vanilla flavouring-but it works)

(110g toasted & chopped walnuts or pecans-not for me)

For the ganache bits (posh chocolate chips really):

60g dark chocolate (I used Godiva dark with 72% cacao)

80ml whipping cream (whipping, not double, not single, not whipped)

Now for the recipe:

• Melt the butter and chocolate for the brownie cake over a pan of simmering water.
• To this chocolate mix, beat in the cocoa then the sugar. (joyofbaking lady uses a hand mixer, but whisks are easier to wash up)
• Add the eggs (the recipe says one at a time but I beat them all separately first then add a bit at a time)
• Beat in the vanilla and the cream cheese.
• Mix in the flour and salt (by hand this time, all you hand-mixer users)
• Add the nuts here if you must, but toast them first for 10 minutes in the oven at 177°C/350°F.
• Pop the mixture into a 9inch loose bottomed tin, or a 7inch tin with the leftover in a muffin tin, which is greased and the bottom lined with parchment/grease-proof paper. (Trust me this batter leaks without the greaseproof. We live and learn. However if like me you put the tin on a baking tray, then you lose very little batter).
• Put your batter into the preheated oven at 165°C/325°F and leave there for 25-30. (The ones in the muffin tea will be good and gooey if you take 'em out after 20minutes).
  

If ever there was a batter to eat raw, it is this one. OMG it is delicious-I have to admit that less of the batter made it to the oven than I had originally made. So, here is my brownie in the batter stage:

Now when they're done cooking in the oven, butter the end of a wooden spoon and poke holes in them. Then fill them with the ganache, directions for making it are below:

• Boil the whipping cream, then pour it over the chopped up pieces of chocolate.
• Mix it in and let it sit for a few minutes before putting it into the holes with a teaspoon.

And voila....Brownie Cake and Mini Brownie Cakes

So I hope you make this and have a great time eating this. I have and will. After I let it chill in the fridge overnight. Happy baking!

student_gourmand

Banana Bread

Bananas seem to be a recurring theme, but I have a bunch of ripe bananas in my fridge and my banana fritters only took care of 4 of them. Now, the fritters are a novelty for me (at least in terms of me making them myself), but I am an old hat at the Banana Bread. Here's the story:

When I was in primary school, the book van would come around maybe once a year, around World Book Day, and my mum would allow me to buy any books that caught my eye. Although I loved reading fiction, I got those books all the time, so I would inevitably end up with joke books, nail decorating kits, books about jacks and other playground games, etc. One year the book I bought was "The Kids' Round the World Cookbook." Best Cookbook in the world! I loved it. Each page devoted to a different part of the world, ranging from Africa to Wales.

The Kids' Round the World Cookbook

For the Caribbean, they covered Banana Bread and Pineapple Ice-cream. As a child very much aware of my Caribbean heritage, Banana Bread was the first thing I attempted from the cookbook (mum vetoed the icecream recipe), and even then, I showed my flair for uniqueness and independance by changing the recipe and using a muffin tin to make Banana Bread Muffins from the left over batter, as my loaf tin was quite small.

The recipe calls for:
500g bananas
250g plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder
125g sugar

125g butter
1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
4 tablespoons chopped pecans (optional)
100g raisins (optional)

Directions

• First weigh and sieve the dry ingredients - flour, salt, spices etc - into a bowl.
• Peel and mash the bananas in another bowl.
• In a third bowl, beat the sugar into the butter. Then add the egg and mix thoroughly.
• Now, alternating between the flour and the banana, add a spoonful to the egg mix and fold in. I use a rice paddle for this; a spatula will do too.
• Here is a good place to add the nuts and raisins.
• Once its all mixed in, spoon the batter into a well buttered loaf tin and bake for an hour at 170°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
• After the hour check it's cooked by sticking a knife in the banana bread. If it's done the knife should come out looking clean.

Any leftover batter makes brilliant muffins.

Personally I usually halve this recipe, but use the same egg, salt & spice amounts. If you have too much batter the banana tends to sink to the bottom. If I can be bothered I'll use 3/4 of the amounts suggested to get a bigger loaf and still have the banana evenly distributed through the loaf.

I added a teaspoon of cinnamon, and today I used 1 teaspoon ground allspice (pimenta) as I had no nutmeg. That was a new thing for me. I use allspice in my Jamaican curries and thought they smelled alike, so I hoped it would work. It really did- brilliantly so. I later did some research and found that allspice is a typical substitue for nutmeg and cinnammon. I also left out the nuts and raisins.

Another tip is to wait until the bananas start looking brown and are slightly mushy. A lot of people get squeamish when bananas look like this, but this is when they're the sweetest.

Also, DO NOT BUTTER!

Someone took the name literally once and buttered it. One word - yuck. Eat it like a slice of cake. It's delicious! Everyone loves my banana bread and I usually make & sell it when there are charity bake sales.

Happy eating,

student_gourmand

Jamaican Banana Fritters

I love bananas- they're so versatile that you can do almost anything with them. For beakfast, banana fritters; for a snack, banana chips; for dinner, boiled green bananas; for dessert, banana bread. You see where I'm going with this?

Personally, banana fritters give me the most childish joy. Mainly because, although I've never lived in Jamaica, I spent a lot of my childhood summers visiting family there. And when we had a busy, or early, day planned, someone would always cook fritters for me to eat while I was running out of the house; early mornings and I never went well together. And while they're better freshly cooked and hot, I became fond of eating my cooling dish on a bus or in the car.

Something about banana fritters which I didn't realise until too late: while Jamaicans (or at least my family) mash up the bananas before cooking, if you go into a Chinese takeaway and see it on the menu, chances are that it's gonna be a whole chunk of a banana dipped into the batter and deep-fried. Which is all very well, but it kinda made me sick when I mistakenly ordered it and decided to eat it anyway. So here is the recipe for Jamaican style banana fritters. I've never cooked them for myself before, but I got this recipe from a mix of recipes online and from altering my mum's corn fritter recipe (who isn't actually Jamaican but Antiguan).

Warning: if you're looking for crispy fritters this is the wrong place, mine end up soft and chewy and gooey.


Banana Fritters

4 bananas
8 tablespoons of plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder (though next time I'll use less)
2/3 teaspoons of cinnamon
3 tablespoons of sugar
2 eggs
160ml milk

• Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the eggs and mix in as much as possible.
• Mash the bananas in another bowl with a fork (I suppose a blender might do as well, but why make more mess?) and add the cinnamon to the mash. Leave a few decent lumps to chew on.
• Add a bit of the milk to the flour mix, and then a bit of the banana, until everything is mixed in and smooth. (It shouldn't be runny, so you might not need all the milk).
• Heat some vegetable oil in your frying pan, then when it is sizzling hot you can dash a spoonful of the mix to the pan, keeping the heat on a medium flame/setting.
• Now I like to keep turning the fritters over after a few seconds (once I'm sure the bottom is slightly firm and I won't drop batter everywhere), but you can just heat each side for a couple of minutes.
• Don't worry if it looks dark, though the colour aim is maybe a light brown. So, unless the fritter is actually crispy and black, you've not burnt it.
• Put the fritters on papertowel to soak up some of the oil. :)
  

This makes anywhere from around 10 to 20 fritters depending how big you want them. I made around 15 with the width of a can of coke. And I still have batter left in my fridge. Just put some clingfilm over the bowl for an overnight fix or store it in an airtight container. 'Cause of the egg I wouldn't recommend leaving the batter for to long, although they DO taste really good, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Serve as is, or add honey or golden syrup or maple syrup or heck, even chocolate sauce.

New York Cheesecake

Yesterday, I decided to make a cheesecake. So I bought my ingredients then realised my flatmate was the one with the cake tins. And she'd already left for the summer. So today, I popped to the hardware store and picked up a loose bottomed 7" tin.


Now cheesecake is possibly my favourite dessert. When I was little, if I went to a restaurant for the first time, I would forever judge that restaurant by the quality of the cheesecake. I blame my mother, who made awesome cheesecakes, then just stopped.


So surprisingly, this is only the 2nd cheesecake I've ever made. The first being for Food Technology at school. And it's turning out well, though it needs an overnight stay in the fridge to set. Here it is straight from the oven:






Now here is how I made it using very rough measurements as I only have a basic set of scales:

for the base:

100g biscuits (rich tea for 60p, beaten to a fine dust with the back end of a heavy knife)
60g unsalted butter (melted)
30g sugar (bog standard granulated)
a couple pinches of cinnamon


for the cheesy bit:

400g cream cheese (i.e. 2 packets of philadelphia original)
100g sugar (see above)
2 tablespoons ~40g plain flour
2 eggs
couple squirts of lemon juice
{lots of people say 40ml of cream is good here, but i don't like buying or using cream for some reason, unless its for carbonara. so I didn't bother.}


My method [no madness today]:

• Basically for the base I popped the butter in a plastic bowl in a bigger bowl of boiled water.


• While the butter was melting I bashed away at my biscuits with the handle of my breadknife; some people who live at home and not in a student flat might like to use a blender.


• I mixed the biscuit crumbs and sugar into the butter with a plastic spatula then spooned it into my cake tin which I'd greased to death with a knob of butter.


• Popped my cake tin in the fridge and prepared myself for the cheese.



• For the cheese filling I mixed the cream cheese, the flour and the sugar into a bowl.


• Then I cracked my two eggs into the mix: one at a time, mixing each one in gently before adding the next. Now this bit was weird 'cause eggs don't make the mix look pretty. I was scared it was congealing or something. Just keep mixing til it looks smooth and creamy.



• Then I took my cake tin full of biscuit and spooned in all the cheese.


• I plonked my cake tin into an oven at 175°C (~347°F for the Americans reading) and left it there for 15 minutes. After which point I turned the temperature down to 120°C (~250°F).


• I left my cheesecake in there for 1 hour and 15 minutes, and put it on the side to cool. It is still at this moment cooling, and I look forward to tasting it tomorrow.

Now for some pictures taken during the process.




On the left, my base of rich tea biscuits. On the right the cheese filling with my not very modern scales in the background

I'll post the end result tomorrow.

ta ta for now,

student_gourmand



PS Tasted gorgeous. Was a bit dense, so if you like your cheesecake fluffy and not so rich, then add the cream. Was perfect for me though. My flatmates liked it too :)
So the final result was a sweet, creamy, luxuriously rich yet simple cheesecake with a crunchy biscuit base to contrast. It went perfectly with Bon Maman strawberry preserve slathered on top.