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Dean waited all day, til after dinner for his birthday cake, so naturally only 2 spoons would do !

This is what a newly turned 3 year old looks like, who has forgone every meal that day waiting for birthday cake.

While Rick took Liam for a 5 hour return trip to the airport to collect his parents, Dean and I baked a cake for his and his grandfather's birthday.  They share their birthday, separated by 75 odd years, but otherwise twins no?

In fact, when I announced that my baby was due in January 2010, my father-in-law immediately piped up and said "hold on til 13th".  I said alright, pretty much knowing it was a done deal as the same thing happened when Liam was due.  Dad said "hold on til 2 August" and I said "alright", and so it was (this date is my parents-in-law wedding anniversary and their twin daughters' birthday).  I'm a good obedient daughter-in-law I've decided.

The cake is Nigella Lawson's victoria sponge as seen on this blog before.  I iced it in a cream cheese frosting.  The colours of the layers were chosen by Dean himself and inspiration for the cake top was Pinterest (of course!!).  It not quite the creation Rick made the year before, but I am still pleased with it.

And so it is with birthdays and gatherings, I was hot and sweaty and running here there and everywhere.  Thankfully, my gorgeous friend Shelley was on board and grabbed my camera and snapped this pics.

The birthday boys and us.  I wasn't going to include this pic here as the state of my kitchen was woeful and I was just a tad sweaty and frazzled.  But I included it because this is my family and I love them so crazily.

Beetroot Chocolate Cake :: A recipe

Hello!

I instagrammed this cake today and was asked to post the recipe.  I'm not one to keep yummy recipes to myself so I offer it up here with pleasure.

Now, if you have never had a beetroot chocolate cake, you can be forgiven for thinking EErrrrkkk.  I did, and never thought I would be baking one myself.  But as it turns out, I had a bunch of beetroot leftover in the fridge from a sad abandoned juice diet.  I really dislike feeding my bin dead vegetables (no worm farm or compost presently) and couldn't bear the idea of throwing the beets away.

A side note, I had every intention of seeing the Reboot Your Life juice diet through to the end but I don't actually have a juicer.  Mmmm, bit of a problem.  But I do have a Vitamix (high powered blender) and thought I could get away with it.  

Apple Cherry bake and Green Juice from Reboot Your Life

All was good until I made a veg juice, using the very beetroots in question and found that all the fibre in the juice too much to bear and promptly turned the juice into a pasta sauce and shelved the diet for another day.

Ok, back to the cake recipe!  I found the recipe in a Family Circle booklet "50 of the Best Cakes & Tarts".  The recipe is by Jill Dupleix.  But this is how I made it.  I had 3 beets to use but the cake takes only one large one, so the extra cooked beets were drizzled with oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and a spike of apple cider vinegar- nom nom nom.

Beetroot Chocolate Cake
serves 8
cooking time: 35 mins (fan force oven)

70g cocoa powder
180g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
250g caster sugar
250g cooked beetroot (see note at start of method)
3 large eggs
200ml sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Note: I had 3 beets.  I washed and trimmed them then cut them into quarters and placed them in a steamer until tender.  I then weighed out 250g of cooked beets which ended up being 4 quarters.  So perhaps one large beetroot will do the job!

Preheat over 165C fan force (original recipe is 180C conventional).
Line base of 20cm springform tin.  Mine is old pre dates non-stick so I lightly greased sides and floured.

Sift all the dry ingredients, except sugar, into a mixing bowl, then stir in the sugar til well combined.

Using a blender or food processor (I used my trusty Vitamix), blitz the beetroot.  Then add the eggs, oil and vanilla til smooth.  The colour is amazing at this point, and it gets even better.

Pour the wet bright purple ingredients into the dry, using a balloon whisk to lightly combine.  At this point, I wished a took a photo.  The wet ingredients awakened the cocoa into a deep brown and the bright purple created an awesome swirl against the chocolatey batter. But keep mixing till all is combined.

Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 30 mins.  Check to see if cooked.  If the testing skewer comes out wet, cover the cake with a bit of foil to stop further browning while you give it another 10 mins or so.  The original recipe says to cook for an hour but a max of 45 mins was enough for my cake.

Let the cake cool a bit before removing the sides.  We ate it hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to salve our mouths.

The question is, how did it taste?!  Well, it did taste chocolatey without being too rich and the beetroot gave it an earthy flavour, but only mildly.  In fact, I reckon if I didn't know there was beetroot was in there, I mayn't have noticed.  And it was moist, so goodly moist.

I would like to make this cake again but reduce the sugar.  Perhaps dates or maple?  I'm yet to bake with stevia but I will no doubt venture there too one day.

Have you ever baked a beetroot cake?
Or any other vegetable (besides carrot cake!)?
What do you use to cut back sugar?  Or even to replace it altogether?

xxx

Celebration in Rocket Style

Thanks Han for snapping this cutie-pie pic!

As you know, my big boy turned 4 last week.

I've gone through the classic "oh my, how quick has he grown!" response to it all.

He was the first little one to be pulled from my body and placed into my eager arms. I cradled his warm tiny form against my chest and he and I just stared at each other with the same amount of shock and "how do you do?"

Liam Raul, my first born.  The little one that made me a Mumma and turned my life on its axis.

In the four years following, we have watched him become a little boy of wonder.  While our family has been through many challenges, Liam has kept his happy-cheer, his love of people and fun times.  And we have also welcomed his little brother into the fold.  Our family is complete despite my ever longing for more children (in my moments of complete abandon of reality!!)

Liam has never asked me what the mark is on his face.

Liam has never complained about trips to the hospital.

Liam has only once spat out his medicine (was at his little brother!)

All Liam wanted for his birthday was friends and cake.  I thought I could get away this year without having a bona fide party, that perhaps he wouldn't miss what he has never had.  I just didn't realise that 4 year olds are aware of parties.  I really thought that it wouldn't be until school!

Even though he missed out on a party with his little friends, we continued our tradition of 'family parties'.  My three beautiful step-kids came with their partners/spouse and their kids/step-kids.  Rick bought a BBQ (his first ever- this man is 48 and never has owned a BBQ!), which was fired up and well used.

And the cake.  What looked like was going to be a challenge of mega sorts, turned out wonderfully.

I used my basic cup cake mix and made 3 batches, baked in a 24cm square cake tin for 20 mins each.

Rick used a round cutter and layered cake with cream cheese frosting (uncoloured) and Wagon Wheels!  The top is a waffle cone dipped in chocolate and the fins are cake covered in chocolate.  Toss in m&ms and you have a rocket cake!  I'm really chuffed.  Rick said after icing and assembling Dean's Lego cake that he wanted to make Liam a rocket cake.  And he did.  I love that about Rick.

Liam is not a good candle-blower-outerer, so he had a separate cake to catch the spray.

Liam loves his big siblings!  It was a really lovely day and has me wishing they would all visit more often.  Life is busy but at least the birthdays are well spaced so we get a good smattering of visits through the year.  It is hard when they live 1.5 hrs away and work weekends.  But we love going up there too.

Who makes the birthday cakes in your house?  If you have a blog link, I'd love to see it!

xx

Lego Birthday Cake

When you have boys especially, you need to love Lego.  I have Lego everywhere in this house it seems and my eldest is only 3.5!

On the eve of my hubby's birthday, I thought I would show you what he did for Dean, our 2 year old for his birthday a couple of months back.

I am sure you have seen this cake before.  It is from Donna Hay's Kids Special.  It looked easy.  I baked the cake and Rick, after wincing at my pallet knife skills took over putting his many years of roof pointing and rendering to good gastronomic use.  I complained at his taking over but was actually quite relieved because I really do suck at that kinda thing. I do.

I really have a great man.

While he was slaving away, I mucked about with frosting and cupcakes that needed less precision!

Dean did such a good job of blowing out his candles.  Probably was a bit agro from having is hands held back from the flames.

And then Rick could relax.

So it is Rick's birthday tomorrow.  He'll get what I promise him every year and almost always deliver . . . roast beef and yorkshire pudding.  And dessert?  Not sure, but I will think of something.

Do you have a birthday ritual in your home?

Yes Cake!

Can you have a party without a cake?  I guess you can seeing that Rick and I didn't have a wedding cake (I baked about 100 Raspberry & Coconut cakes- more about that another time) . . . but can you have a 1st birthday celebration without a special cake?  I don't think so!  It just wouldn't be the same. 

So, being brave and new, I decided that it was time that I should confront fondant and tell it who's boss.  Ok, I actually enlisted the help of my friend Jen who has made a few multiple storey fondant decked cakes for her daughter's birthdays- but asking for help is not breaking the rules!

So you start with about three of these chocolate numbers.  Don't be put off if your cake sinks in the middle because you cut them to size and lay them like bricks with a butter frosting morter.



I bought that apron in San Fransisco and love it - thought I'd let you know . . .

Then you cut your fondant, add your dye paste and knead, roll and wrap!  Jen took these photos and laid the fondant on the cake for me (I didn't have time for mistakes so she did it!)

photographer

But I covered these vanilla cupcakes.  Oops, a bit of icing powder here and there!

This is the end result.  One happy little birthday fella and his little family!

Will I use fondant again?  Yes, perhaps.  It is totally a visual thing for me as I don't like to eat it as much as I like eating a sourcream frosting or a decadent chocolate ganache (with or without the cake!!)

So, I think I can tick fondant off my list of brave and new things despite the excessive use of icing sugar. 

xxx