Monthly Archives: March 2008

Daring Bakers: Perfect Party Cake

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Daring bakers Party Cake

[Update: the pictures were added Monday, 31 March 2008, at 8.56, Italy Time for the reasons explained below]

Oh gosh, it’s today! I though it was for tomorrow!
I was freely going around the net this morning, when I hit my FaceBook page and saw a random status message from Jean Aw, Tastespotting founder, saying “… it’s that time of month ~ the Daring Bakers have struck again…” (I think on the daring baker day she receives hundreds of picture of the same cake: must be real fun for her! ;) and I thought: oh my, is it TODAY?
Then I saw that Ivonne poked me (always on FaceBook), as to wake me up, and then it struck me: IT IS TODAY!!! and my pictures are on the other computer! F@#§*!!!
For pictures you should wait the early morning of tomorrow, which means that in some part of the eastern world will be still sunday, so I should be “safe”! :)
And if you do not believe me I made it, you can ask to my friend Sara: she ate it at the beginning of March, when I made it, and she loved it! Although she asked me repeatedly for the recipe and I was oblige to tell her that it was a secret! :P
This cake was honestly AMAZING!!!
As everybody else experienced, this cake was marvellous!
At the beginning I was a bit concerned about the fact that no yolk are used in cake base, but this trick turned out to be so clever! I had a wonderfully light and fluffy base!
And for once I turned off the fan in my oven and baked the cake with heat coming from below and the upper part, and it came out perfectly flat, not in a dome shape like all the other time I baked a fluffy base!
I was relieved I wasn’t obliged to make the buttercream: I’m in a low sugar kind of diet, so buttercream will be so wrong for me! So I decided to go for whipped cream, with little sugar.
I used blackberries jam (without sugar) for the filling and raspberries for the final touch, that as usually with me, turned out to be fairly simple, although right now I’m carving in front of Ivonne and Tartellete pictures, just to name two! :) And you can check out all the others here!
I promise, tomorrow first thing in the morning, the pictures! Wait for them!

P.S. I forgot that a shot of the cake was already on-line, in a Nigella Lawson style, with a friend holding it! :D

Daring Bakers Party cake, cut

[note to self: it's not the first time FaceBook saves my butt, so stop saying bad thing about it, ok?]

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The Recipe Writer’s Handbook

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Here I am, neglecting my blog since ages and then, what do I publish? A book review! Not even a recipe and not even a picture! Bad Sara, bad!
But my book review is more useful then anything you can think of… My book review is about a book, as you can easily understand for the title, that will change your life…
Ehm, let’s say it will change your way to write recipes, then your life, I dunno, it’s your choice!!!
I bought it when I already decided that writing recipes was too boring for me… Don’t ask me what made me push the “buy it” button on amazon. Let’s simply thank I did!
The book as a simple structure: philosophy, style, testing, terminology, preferred spelling, metrics… Ok, nothing life changing there.
The life chancing experience lays in the reading of all this.
You have to know that in Italy the concept of an handbook is not very clear: we are not a self-help society, that’s it. If we have to write an handbook, well, we use so many word to go to the point that most people get lost in between. Or at least I do.
In the The Recipe Writer’s Handbook you cannot get lost: you simply follow the trail they lay in front of you and you are on and rocking, baby!
Soon you’ll see all the wonderful flower that will blossom form my reading, and to be sure to follow them, do not forget to check out my other blog (update will soon come!).
And if you feel lonely and you miss me too much, check out my tumblr too.
and if you feel very social, well, look for me on social networks: there are many where I’m fairly active!

Kheer, Indian rice pudding

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Kheer, Indian rice pudding, the rose bud

I have recently became accustomed to Bollywood movies! They rock!!! I love them!!!
So, when my friend Sara (my Bollywood movies pusher) proposed a Bollywood night, well, I jumped in with great pleasure!!! :)
And I proposed to bring an old favourite of my husband: the Indian rice pudding.
It’s a really soothing dessert, fairly simple, but worthy to the best tables, as my friend Sara is! :)
I will never stop to thank her for her Thanksgiving turkey!!!
And as she always scold me that I should write recipes, because, at the end “you have a food blog and that’s what you should do!” (and she’s right, I know, but it’s SO boring writing recipes!!!), here’s the recipe! :)

1,2 l milk
75 g basmati rice, rinsed
100 g sugar
150 g raisins, golden and Corinth
1 piece of cinnamon
6 cardamom
2 teaspoon rosewater
Flaked almond and rose bud to adorn

Bring the milk to boil. Add the rinsed rice and stir with a wooden spoon for 10 minutes, then leave it to cook for at least one hour, stirring occasionally, on a very low fire.
Add sugar, raisins, cinnamon and cardamom and cook for another hour, stirring frequently.
At the end of the cooking time, it should look like a cream.
Far from the fire add rose water, stir and transfer everything in a serving bowl. Cover with the flaked almond, adorn with the rose buds and let it cool.
Enjoy it in front a nice bollywood movie!

Kheer, Indian rice pudding

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This is, may be, too much…

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This morning I was happily going through my March issue of Olive (courtesy of my kind friend Sarah Blow), one of the prominent British food magazine, and I found an article titled “Cheap Shots. Even Michelin-starred chef need to know how to cook on a budget. Olive reveals how the professional cut down on food bills without compromising quality”.
Well, well, well…
I began to read and after few lines I thought: “WTF (and not in David’s exception Welcome to France! ;D)!!!”
Do they really think we are all so stupid that if Jason Atherton tells us that he uses FROZEN PEAS for Maze‘s pea risotto we simply think “oh, how cute, how sensitive” and we do not make the equation: “WTF, why should I pay that ridiculous amount of money for his frozen pea risotto and they do not even have the guts to write it down on the menu they are using frozen ingredients???” I do not know in Uk, but in Italy there is a law that oblige you to do so…
And it’s not just by chance that the advertisement of the exact brand of frozen peas used by Jason Atherthon appears on the side page of this article… That’s sad, you know? That’s the lowest advertisement can get…
And Tony Singh, stating the Italian Extra-virgin Olive oil is over-priced and he prefers cheap Greek olive oil… WTF! Simply say you prefer Greek, but do not spit on one of the best products in the world (which, by the way, for its quality, it is not over-priced!)… And then he goes on saying that he uses only Normandy butter!!! Which, of course, it is not over-priced, right?
WTF! Who do you think you are making fun of???

Really, do they really think this is good publicity?
Do they really think that stating that frozen peas are used in one of Gordon Ramsay‘s restaurant will attract more people because they feel they are “frugal”???
Common… We are not THAT stupid…
Do it, but do not say it, please! We already know you do it, but we want to think that you are not proud of it…

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