Kiss Me Cake

I know Sonja, the owner of Kiss Me Cake, through our mutual friend Peggy Porschen. We both worked with Peggy in London (at different times though) but we had to move to the other side of the globe to get to know each other. She also worked for Konditorei and Cook in London as cake decorator and it's there where she decided to specialise in this trade.
Coming to Sydney she worked for the French cafe and patisserie "La Renaissance" in the Rocks and "Sweet Art" in Paddington.
However, it has always been a dream of hers to open her own shop and Sydney seemed to be the right place at the right time and so she started "Kiss Me Cake" in 2006.

The bakery.

Getting the order ready.

Square cupcakes - bestseller at Kiss Me Cake.

Off to the decorating corner...

Yum!

Rolling the fondant.

Homemade chicken soup

We are really blessed here in Sydney with the easiest winter one can wish for. Temperature hardly drops below ten degrees and the sky is most often blue. That's quite spectacular for someone like me who comes from the Northern Hemisphere were it's either grey in grey in winter or below zero, which sometimes leads to snow.

Funnily enough, it feels colder inside the house than outside. In fact I am sitting here, rugged up in blanket and getting cold feet and hands while typing and waiting for my chicken soup to warm up that I made yesterday. It's one of the best dishes in winter, warming and nurturing. I also add small pasta in shapes of letters and numbers to the soup. Childhood memory, in Germany we actually call this kind of soup "Buchstabensuppe" (letter soup) and that way it becomes a favourite meal for kids.

Here is my recipe for the chicken soup or Buchstabensuppe:

For the stock:

1 whole free range chicken (about 1.6kg)
 2 whole cloves

1 onion, peeled and halved
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 carrot, sliced
1 bay leaf
2 stalks parsley 

For the soup:
3 corn on the cobs, husk removed and trimmed

3 carrots, diced
200 g small pasta

100 g sugar snap peas

For the stock, rinse the chicken thoroughly and remove any excess fat. Place into a large saucepan and add enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, skimming off any scum that floats on the surface. Push cloves into onion. Add vegetables and herbs, reduce heat and simmer gently for 1 hour.
Remove chicken and set aside to cool. Strain stock and discard vegetables. Chill stock and when cold remove any fat from surface. Remove and discard skin and bones from chicken. Shred meat. 

For the soup, return stock to a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the corn and carrots and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked. Remove corn and let cool a little. Meanwhile, cook the and pasta and shredded chicken and cook for a further 5 minutes until pasta is just cooked. Cut away the corn kernels from the stem and add the kernels to the soup. Season well with salt and pepper and a little lemon juice.

Laterne, Laterne...

Laternelaufen is a German tradition for the time around St. Martin's Day. On 11 November children ,usually in kindergarten age or younger, walk along the streets holding colourful, often self-made lanterns (Laternenumzug, ‘Lantern Pageant’).

Legend has it that St. Martin, a soldier, gave a beggar the half of his soldier's coat to protect the man from freezing to death. Afterwards St. Martin became a bishop in order to help poor people.
Laternelaufen is a memorial to St. Martin and usually takes place on 11 November, in some regions of Germany (that are rather Protestant) it may take place already on 10 November, because it is mixed up with the celebration of Martin Luther's birthday (Martinisingen). In some regions there is no fixed day. In Catholic regions Laternelaufen is also called Sankt Martinsumzug (‘Saint Martin's Pageant’) focusing on the aspect of sharing.
During Laternelaufen children often sing Martinslieder (‘Martin songs’) that glorify St. Martin's act of sharing or songs about their lanterns.

Because of the different seasons here in Australia we decided to still do in winter and not so much care about the St. Martins day. It's so much fun for the kids and drafting and crafting your own lantern is great fun too. We had so many great designs I just to share them.  

Since it's held during winter, everyone gets a warming cup of Gluehwein (for the grown-ups)  after the walk and the kids will get a  snack and kid's Punsch without alcohol. 

Such great creations!

Cut open a plastic bottle and glue translucent paper on it. Lantern done.

Some soccer fans among the dads.

Going back to the community hall for some kid's punsch.

Skiing trip to Thredbo

This was our first skiing trip in Australia and I really liked it. We had a fantastic time despite the weather being quite stormy towards the end. A few colleagues said that skiing in Thredbo was not worthwhile, too expensive and not good enough snow. Expensive it is unfortunately, but that is the same in Europe. The snow was good, no complains here. I think it's cool to only have to drive 5 hours from the coast inland to be able to ski, but that is because my hometown is Hamburg which is far away from any mountain.

A bit of rain, a bit of hale and rainbows all along.

Love the clouds in Australia!

Thredboland for the kids and the rest for us.

Daring Bakers Challenge June

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

When I saw this cake first I wasn't really sure what to make of it. It looks a tad too old school for my taste but then curiosity got the better of me, and I am glad I made it. I used marzipan to wrap around and it's delicious.
 
The Battenberg cake is based on German-style of cake making and traditionally includes marzipan (love marzipan)
and apricot jam. The cake was first made to celebrate the wedding of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter,
Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and was named after her husband, Prince Louis of Battenberg.

The cake itself is like a pound cake with extra almond in it and that gives it its beautiful nutty flavour.
I blended almonds in their skin as that brings out more flavour but also means the cake will not
be as light as with blanched almonds.

Instead of pink/red food colouring I used 50g mashed raspberries to enhance flavour and texture.
The batter was quite dry and therefore I added a bit more milk which worked fine.
Since I had still vanilla buttercream left from the Bratz cake I made a day earlier I cheated and used this.
It was just enough and I was happy not to waste any leftovers.

I would also recommend to beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. I think that will give
a much better texture.

Such a cute little cake which is more like a petit fours than a cake really.

 

Traditional Battenberg:

Servings: +- 8

Ingredients
¾ cup (1½ sticks) 175gm / 6 oz Unsalted Butter, softened; cut in cubes
¾ cup / 175gm / 6 oz Caster Sugar
1¼ cups / 175gm / 6 oz Self-Raising Flour
3 Large Eggs, room temp
½ cup / 65gm/ 2 1/3 oz Ground Almonds (Can be substituted with ground rice) I used 75g of ground almonds
3/4 tsp / 3½ gm Baking Powder
½ tsp / 2½ ml Vanilla Extract
I also added 6 tablespoons milk
1/4 tsp (1¼ ml) Almond Extract - didn't use
Red Food Colouring, paste, liquid or gel - I used 50g mashed raspberries instead

To Finish
1/3 cup (80 ml) 100gm /3 ½ oz Apricot Jam - I used leftover vanilla buttercream
1 cup / 225gm / 8 oz Marzipan, natural or yellow

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/160°C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 4
2. Grease an 8”/20cm square baking tin with butter
3. Line the tin with parchment paper, creating a divide in the middle with the parchment (or foil)
- Tip: See photos or watch video above for detailed instructions
4. OR Prepare Battenberg tin by brushing the tin with melted butter and flouring
5. Whisk together the dry ingredients then combine with the wet ingredients in a large bowl and beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth
6. Spoon half the mixture into the one side of the prepared baking tin
7. Add a few drops of red food liquid/gel/paste to the remaining batter, stir until the colour is thoroughly distributed, add more colour if needed
8. Spoon the pink batter into the other half of the prepared baking tin
9. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner
10. Bake for 25-30mins until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan)
11. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack
12. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife
13. Cut each coloured sponge in half lengthways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge
14. Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible
15. Gently heat the apricot jam and pass through a small sieve
16. Brush warmed jam onto the strips of cake to stick the cake together in a checkered pattern (one yellow next to one pink. On top of that, one pink next to one yellow)
- Tip: See photos for detailed instructions
17. Dust a large flat surface with icing sugar then roll the marzipan in an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and long enough to completely wrap the cake
18. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam
19. Place the cake on the marzipan, jam side down
- Tip: Either in the middle or to the one side of the marzipan
20. Brush the remaining three sides with jam
21. Press the marzipan around the cake, making sure the join is either neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned over
- Tip: If you put the sponge to the one side of the marzipan, I found it easiest to "roll" the sponge over and over onto the marzipan instead of lifting the marzipan up onto the sponge
22. Carefully flip the cake over so that the seam is under the cake and score the top of the cake with a knife, you can also crimp the top corners with your fingers to decorate
23. Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess marzipan by trimming off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern.

Bratz cake

Just finished this Bratz cake for a girl's 6th birthday party. The Bratz is not so different to Barbies but a bit less princessy and rather funky. Apart from their awful shoe choices I quite like the idea of a more contemporary fashion doll. Rock chick versus Cinderella anyone?

The tin for the cake was a bit too small so I baked another 22cm cake to put underneath to cater for more people. Since the Bratz has a much larger head and eyes it doesn't look too awkward having a bigger body now. It actually looked quite elegant with the longer body. Nothing wrong with being long and tall.  However my daughter noticed the big bum right away;-)

That's how I've done it: You'll need a Dolly Varden or similar shaped tin and a 22cm in diameter round cake tin to bake the cakes. In this instance I didn't bake the cake but here are some tips on how to best bake the cake).
You then need approx. 2 kg of ready-to-roll fondant icing and approx. 500 g chocolate icing, cachous. I used white, black, blue and purple icing already dyed from essential ingredients.
They are around $17 per 1 kg, quite pricey but the colours are very funky. You can also just get white and dye them with food colouring yourself. Be warned thought, the more colour you put in the stickier the fondant becomes.

Invert the cake and trim the base to ensure it sits flat. Brush away crumbs. Use a palette knife to spread the top of the round cake with a thick layer of chocolate butter icing and position the body cake on top. Cut along the edges so it looks like a cone again. With the palette knife spread a thin layer of butter icing around it (crumb coating) and let set in the fridge.

Apply a second thick layer of butter icing to the cake and smooth then put back into fridge. Roll out the purple fondant icing until 3 mm think and cover the cake board, cut along the edges to get a smooth finish.

Now is the time which for me is always a bit nerve wrecking. You have to move the cake from the working board to the covered board and to place the cake in the right spot. I use a big and sturdy palette knife to lift the cake up and over to the main board. Smooth and trim icing if necessary.

Roll out white icing to 2 mm thick and cut in a shape of a large triangle. Roll out black icing and cut uneven stripe and shapes and stick onto white triangle to create an animal print (at least, that's what I tried). Stick onto cake.
Roll out blue icing to 3mm thick so it fits around the cake and drape back over the white/black icing. Carefully trim icing at the bottom.

Insert the doll into the centre of the cake and make the bodice dress part. If you don't have the half-doll topper you can use any barbie with cling-wrapped legs. You then have to cut a wider hole to fit the torso into the cake (it's a bit of an operation really- but don't tell anyone).

Now comes the really fun part. Roll out any leftover icing to style the doll with any attire you can think of. The top of the dress, hand gloves, capes, belts, bracelets, you name it. Most often I make those cakes for little girl's birthday parties so sparkles, sprinkles and cachous are always involved ;-).

The Grounds in Sydney

There is something new and very hip right now in Alexandria - The Grounds!  It's a cafe, but actually a little more than that. It's a coffee roaster (of course) as well as nursery, or is it just a garden. There's a not so hidden Secret Bar and it seems soon a stone pizza oven in the garden.

We only had toast and jam but from looking around at others people's orders everything edible comes served on a chunky wooden board. The lemonade arrived in a mason jar with handle (very trendy at weddings too) and the lights hanging from the beams are also masons jars. The sun was shining and after a few days of heavy rain it was the perfect day to hang out at The Grounds and enjoy a nice coffee and fresh sourdough toast.

Ragamuffin in Leichhardt

There is a fairly new cafe in Leichhardt where you can not only get a damn good coffee from a lever and piston espresso machine but also gluten free muffins, they have a different flavour each week.
Ragamuffin on Norton Street, check it out.
Couldn't help but hear Gentlemen music in my ears...

Jesse knows how to make good coffee.

Danii, owner and chef.

Haylea and Jesse, always a smile for their customers.

May Daring Bakers Challenge

May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

Oh I love yeast dough and therefore was very happy with this month's challenge. I added poppy seed to the mix and glazed it after baking while still warm with apricot jam - very yummy!

We call the plait or braid - Hefezopf - in Germany and  it's very typical around Easter. It's such a lovely bread spread with lightly salted butter or cream cheese and plum jam or marmalade.
It's beast eaten the day it's made but leftover slices are great for french toast or bread and butter pudding. If you can get fresh yeast try this as the flavour is so much better.  If you can't find fresh yeast in the supermarket try delis or bakeries. It's worth trying.

 

 

Easy Challah

(from templedavid.org)
Ingredients
4 cups (960 ml) (360 gm/20 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 cup (240 ml) warm water
1 package (2¼ teaspoons) (11¼ ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) package rapid rise yeast
½ (120 ml) (115 gm/4 oz) cup sugar
2 large eggs
50 g poppy seeds
1 tsp. (5 ml) (6 gm) salt
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water
Directions:
1. Measure flour, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl.
2. In a separate bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer) combine water and yeast, allow to sit 5 minutes until foamy.
3. Add 1 ½ cups of the flour mixture to the water and yeast mixture, beat until well combined. Cover with a dish towel, let stand 30 min.
4. Add two eggs to the dough, beat again.
5. By hand or with your dough hook knead in the remaining flour mixture and the poppy seed. Knead approximately 10 minutes.
6. Transfer to oiled bowl, cover, let rise one hour.
7. Punch down dough, knead approximately 3 minutes.
8. Divide dough in two. Shape each half as desired (3, 4, or 6 strand braid).
9. Place loaves on parchment covered or greased cookie sheets, cover with a towel, allow to rise one hour.
10. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
11. Brush loaves with egg wash.
12. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees, bake until golden crust forms (about 25-30 minutes).
13. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Storage & Freezing Instructions/Tips:
Once cooled, challah loaves which will not be eaten right away (or in the next couple of days) should be bagged in heavy duty freezer bags. Remove excess air from the bag before securing it tightly (tying a knot or using tape). Put the bagged loaf/loaves into the freezer as soon as possible to ensure fresh taste; frozen challah will keep approximately three months.

Bar Sport in Leichhardt

Every morning on my way to work I would drive pass Bar Sport and see all the men sitting outside having a catch up over coffee and maybe a piccolo sandwich. Sometimes when the times allows I get a coffee there and feel right in Italy somewhere. Although I am sure you'll still be able to get a latte after eleven o'clock here.

Staying true to its name it all about sport, soccer in particular, in this cosy Italian cafe with the morning sun. Still looking for a spot to watch the World Cup on the big screen? They are open for most of the games not only when Italy plays, even at the wee hours!

Rosie and Joe have run this cafe for 11 years and a lot of regulars. The coffee is fantastic but that goes without saying in Sydney. Need some lunch, grab a panini or if you're just feeling a little peckish there are lots of Italian treats on offer.
The music I had in my ears at the cafe was Paolo Conte, listen to it here on spotify.

Meet the owners: Rosie and Joe.

There is always time for chat.

Have a treat with your drink.

Italian sweets.

Such a nice atmosphere and good coffee.

It's all happening on Norton Street.

Brown's Siding Cafe in the Blue Mountains

The last days of Autumn are coming to an end and I can feel the winter fast approaching. The mornings are way cooler than normal and it gets really cold inside the house. It's time to get the heater out. Mind you the sun is still lovely and temperatures still reach 23 degrees C. The leaves are so beautiful right now and this is the perfect time for the Blue Mountains which despite their name can be quite golden and red in Autumn. We stopped at a cafe, the Brown's Siding, for some delightful lunch and coffee.

Isn't nature just wonderful?!

Bread and butter pudding vs crumble- a tough decision.

Old baking moulds adorn the walls.

Twice baked goats cheese with roasted walnut, celery and balsamic dressing. Delicious!

7x7 blog award

Thanks to my lovely colleague Cassie from Food My Friend I got my first award and I feel very honoured. Thank you Cassie!

To begin this, I need to spell out the rules first:

1: Tell everyone something about yourself that nobody else knows.

I love spaghetti! That doesn't seem to be very unusual, in fact I believe it's quite a staple food in most countries but what makes it a little embarrassing is how I love it the most. Call it a childhood memory but every time I was sick my father would make me spaghetti with tomato sauce, melted butter and cut it for me in little pieces so that I could scoop it up with a spoon, as at that time I wasn't able to twist those long strings onto my fork. No fancy cheese or truffle oil. Just the good ol tomato sauce and butter - so good! It has to be Heinz though, everything else doesn't matter, it's a kids meal after all. I have definitely  outgrown such simple pleasures but I do tend to come back to it whenever I feel for comfort food.

 2: Link to a post I think fits the following categories: 

The Most Beautiful Piece:

I think this goes to Miss Barbie Dolly Varden Cake. I made this for the daughter of a friend and it was my first Barbie cake and I must say I am quite pleased with it. My daughter got a Barbie cake as well and now wants an unicorn cake which is very challenging. I am not sure if I can do that....

Most Helpful Piece:

Maybe my Germknoedel post. It's such a typical winter dish from Austria but also not very well known outside of Austria. It's such a typical dish you'll encounter when skiing in Austria and it will warm you and bring back all the energy as it is quite filling. It's not hard to make but thought it would be easier to understand with step photos since it's quite unusual. Would be interesting to know if there are other places (apart from Austria) where it is well known.

Most Popular Piece:

 That has to be the picture I took of my cherry clafoutis. Mind you they were yummy and are so easy to make.

 Most Controversial Piece:

 My Flammkuchen post most definitely as there is such a discussion around it on whether a German Flammkuchen uses yeast or not. Well, there are yummy recipes on both sides and I have yet to try a recipe without but know it will be more like a flatbread rather than "a cake". Whatever you use as a base, it's such a yummy fingerfood and more like a German-style pizza really, most often eaten at festivals all year round. 

I went to a friends place and we made a few Flammkuchen. She used the leftover dough the next morning to make a sweet breakfast Flammkuchen with apples and cinnamon sugar - that sounded very delicious too!

Most Surprisingly Successful Piece:

My Lebkuchenwuerfel post before Christmas 2011. Living in Australia has definitely influenced me in many ways and sometimes I am way less German I used too. On the other hand when it comes to traditions and celebrations I am still very true blue German. That's why I usually bake German Christmas cookies using German spices (if I can get my hands on it, such as Lebkuchengewuerz from Schwartau).

One of those beautiful cookies, well slices in this case, are Lebkuchenwuerfel. It has cloves, aniseed, cinnamon and cardamom in it and it fills the house with a beautiful smell. Hard to resist really even in summer ;-)

Most Underrated Piece:

My Halloween post last year. I think the bats made out of toilet paper rolls look so scary cute ;-)
plus the ghost cupcakes with fluffy marshmallow frosting.

Most Pride-worthy Piece:

That has to be the Easter production I did with Corina for s'more. Our first self-produced 
Easter e-mag. 

Open publication - Free publishing - More brunch

3: Pass this on to 7 fellow bloggers:

I'd like to pass this on to Meeta K.Wolf from What's for Lunch Honey?, Spiral Style, 

Peter from Souvlaki for the Soul, Jason at Daily Condor, Deeba Rajpal from Passionate About Baking both are fellow daring bakers, Brian Samuels from A thought for Food and Beatrice Peltre from La Tartine Gourmande,