Is this burning an eternal flame?

There are so many bad candle/flame puns to make, and limited space/patience to make them in. My shortlist for titles was the bangles or Elton John - I decided The Bangles was a lesser crime against fashion.

To celebrate the first of my friends to visit Canberra in my (shared) honour, Beach Girl and Power Ranger (another Canberra resident) requested the Candle cake. That is, this one:

Which was to be my first attempt at fluffy frosting (Italian meringue, basically). Now, I have to admit, before we properly read the recipe, I could not understand why the Power Ranger's mum had refused her requests for this cake.

I mean, look at the picture - surely it's just a cake baked in a date loaf or other pipe tin? and then covered with plain white icing?

Erm, no. No, it's a sponge roll with jam, covered in Italian meringue and surrounded by a bed of candy. Still though, we ploughed on.

Loads of candy = check.
Jam=check.
Egg whites and sugar=check
Candy thermometer=check

I have never, ever made a successful sponge before. The candle tasted ok, although it was quite dry. The jam made it nicer. Beach Girl was super-fast at rolling it up, while it was still warm:

After we (impatiently) let the rolled sponge cool (there may have been some pizza consumed during this interval), we started the process for icing the cake. While we boiled the syrup away with the candy thermometer (brilliant invention by the way - the little mark on the thermometer that said "soft ball" was so accurate!), I whipped the egg whites til stiff. Unfortunately, this is where the whole plan fell down.

If it wasn't enough that I was ready for a nap even before we put the sponge on, by the time it got to fluffy frosting stage i was ready to drop. However, we powered through - but my lack of motivation was really showcased.

I don't know if it's because my egg whites were too cold, or my syrup added too quickly, or the beaters didn't reach far enough into the bowl or what, but what came out of the bowl after about 45 minutes wasn't "fluffy", even if it was frosting.

Nevertheless, we kept going and just let the icing drip dramatically and wax-like down the upright jam roll. It didn't end up looking too different from the picture:

Although we should have put the seam at the back. You will also notice our distinct lack of live flame. This was pure laziness - it was far too fucking freezing to go out to the shops for candles so Beach Girl and Power Ranger had a flame-off - who could design the best candy flame?

In the end and because Power Ranger was busy with Robin Hood, Beach's flame (right, above) won, and we used that in place of a real fire.

Result?

E for Effort
F for Fail!

Difficulty rating: 8.5-9/10
Time taken: The course of an evening from 6pm onwards
Artistic merit: 4.5
Overall score: 4.5 for appearance and taste, 8.5 for difficulty.

Next cake is something else hard i think, Beach Girl is requesting another cake in October!

Stay tuned for the Julia Gillard bake-off - Betty, you ready???

xx Martha

Betty’s Family Table

Another late one...but worth the wait!

In an eventful week for baking, I have not only produced a Minnie mouse, but also baked a successful sponge for Grandma Betty’s 80^th birthday with Mrs Betty; and although it involved no baking on my part, enjoyed the delightful tea cakes at high tea at Melbourne’s Windsor Hotel.

The venture started on Sunday evening with Master Chef meets the Women’s Weekly; Mrs Betty recently received Julie Goodwin’s Our Family Table cookbook for Mother’s Day (from a wonderful and caring daughter) and with Grandma Betty’s 80^th birthday the following day, mother and daughter set about the ultimate baking challenge of baking a successful sponge. (A feat that neither had yet accomplished.)

The challenge reminded me of the good old days as a little tacker, when my siblings and I would be lined up standing on chairs at the kitchen bench, helping Mrs Betty with the baking of the day, usually the chocolate cake (simple, even a child can make), anzac biscuits or a favourite (because it involved food dye) rainbow cake (which was really just Neapolitan).

Julie Goodwin’s grandma’s sponge recipe seemed the perfect recipe for Grandma Betty’s b’day cake. Working through the steps precisely, we were a little confused about leaving the egg yolks in (the recipe didn’t say to separate) and set the oven timer to ensure the mixture was beaten for at least 10 minutes. Looking pretty good as it went into the oven, we had the pleasure of watching it rise in Mrs Betty’s fancy new fan-forced oven (purchased when Mr Betty somehow caused the glass to fall out of the old oven door…but that’s a whole other story). Upon delicate removal precisely 25 minutes later, we were relieved to find that the sponge hadn’t sunk and without being able to taste-test, appeared fluffy and a decent height.

On a roll, Mrs Betty suggested also baking a chocolate cake. Keeping to the Masterchef theme, Mum Goodwin’s chocolate cake was selected and mother and daughter set about creating a mixture that called for a shocking 1 ¼ cups of cocoa! Falling a little short, some Cadbury’s drinking chocolate was improvised to make up the extra ¼ cup (and I’m sure none were the wiser!)

This also went in and out of the oven without hiccups, and upon sampling a muffin sized version (later to become Minnie’s ears) was found to be richly tasty with a perfect crunch on the top. Being now well past midnight, it was time for bed for a big day ahead.

Grandma Betty’s 80^th birthday dawned a little cloudy, but this was hardly noticed, distracted by the anticipation of a special surprise planned for the afternoon - high tea at the Hotel Windsor.

A delectable selection of finger sandwiches, scones and of course tea cakes were devoured with much enthusiasm! In addition and much to Grandma Betty’s delight, a special birthday tea cake was also brought over. With stomachs full to bursting, we breezed home to Mrs Betty’s home-cooked birthday dinner and of course … more birthday cake!

The sponge, which had been decorated by Mish-Mash, looked absolutely delightful and tasted even better!

Feeling absolutely exhausted and having thoroughly overeaten, it was time to decorate Minnie. Aided by Mish-Mash now expertise at the vienna cream, I set about cutting the cake into Minnie. The muffin cakes worked perfectly as ears, while the cut-out for the nose easily fitted to become the chin.

The icing proved a challenge all round, being a little thick it didn’t stick to the cake easily. We also experienced some dramas in icing a levelled chocolate cake with white icing – cake crumbs got through the icing, resulting in Minnie with blackheads … lesson learned: either flip the cake over first, or perhaps let a thin layer of icing dry before adding the top layer…

Despite this, (and some laziness icing round the edges) Minnie was taking shape. Pink wafer biscuits were cut to shape to make her nose and tongue, while a liquorice strap (finally found in Burwood East Coles) was painstakingly cut into thin strips to make the mouth, chin line and my first attempt at eyelashes. Finally, pink jubes make the eyes, and a ribbon for her hair had Minnie complete … only to be demolished, blackheads and all by an eager RMIT ’83 graduate and fellow employees, who accepted the post-it-note-stuck-to-a-fork-stabbed-in-the-cake-and-left-in-the-mess-room invitation to ‘eat me’.


Betty x

PS. a bonus picture of my early days doing the Mickey Mouse march...

PPS. check out the hickory dickory clock post for a new pic x