Chocolate raspberry layered birthday cake

It was my birthday on Sunday. As we were travelling, I didn't have time to make a cake, and hadn't even thought about making one, until a friend mentioned it. So, here is my birthday cake. One day late, oh well!

The cake for this recipe came from my Mum; thanks Mum. But you could easily use a packet mix for this. Most of the work is with the building and decoration of the cake. 

The inspiration for the decoration came from this 'celebration cake' I found online.

The rest came from me. The combination of the lovely chocolate cake, sweet ganache, tart and creamy raspberry filling, and the yummy chocolaty bits on top was fabulous. The little people were very excited helping to make and eat this cake. I was impressed with how it turned out; very beautiful and worth the effort. Happy birthday to me!

My cake was a square shape, but you could also make it using round cakes. If you choose round, then you will need to make two cakes in two separate 20cm round tins.

What you'll need

*This is a rich cake, so you will only need a small piece to satisfy. The square cake I made would serve 6 or 8 people. If you made this with round cakes, you could serve 10 to 12 people.

For the cake

125g butter, softened

220g firmly packed brown sugar

110g caster sugar

3 eggs

300g plain flour

40g cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarb soda

170g sour cream

120ml water

For the filling

200g fresh raspberries

200g Philadelphia cream cheese

For the ganache

250g dark cooking chocolate

1/3 cup heavy cream

For the decoration

10 'Malteaser' balls

6 'Lindt' chocolate balls

6 'Rafello' balls

What to do

For the cake - preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a rectangular cake tin, approx 40cm x 30cm.

Place all ingredients in a bowl. Mix for approximately four minutes with an electric mixer on medium speed, until well combined.

Pour into pre-prepared cake tin and place in the oven. Bake for approximately 35 minutes, check it is cooked in the middle using a skewer. Rest in the pan for 15 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack.

The cake must be fully cooled before you start to cut or decorate it.

Meanwhile, make the ganache. Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a ceramic bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan, but do not boil it. Once hot, pour the cream over the chocolate, and mix with a metal spoon until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. If the chocolate doesn't melt fully, place in the microwave for 15 seconds and stir further until all melted. Set aside to cool.

Make the filling. Place the raspberries and the cream cheese into a bowl and mash/mix together. You will have a lumpy filling, but this is perfect.

 

 Assemble the cake

1. Cut the cake into four even square pieces (you will only use three pieces for this recipe). If the top of the cake is not even, use a serrated knife to cut the top and flatten it out.
2. Place one piece of cake on a large plate or tray. Spoon half of the raspberry mixture onto the cake and smooth it to the edges. 
3. Place the next piece of cake on top, squishing down slightly. Put the other half of the raspberry mixture on top of this. Top with the third piece of cake.
4. Check that the sides of the cake are even and flat. If there are parts sticking out, you can use a serrated knife to cut small parts off to even it out.
5. Use a palate knife or spoon to smooth on the cooled ganache. Start at the top of the cake and work down the sides. I did this in two parts. Once I had a mostly even coverage over the whole cake, I put it in the fridge for half an hour to help everything set. I then did a finishing top coat with the left-over ganache.
6. Remove the cake from the plate/tray (I used an egg flip for this) and put it onto a clean serving plate. 
7. Decorate with the chocolate balls and serve.
8. Enjoy. 

Sausage and potato tray bake

This was a little last minute dinner, very easily made, after I had been baking my birthday cake all afternoon. More on the cake later. Back to the sausages.

This dish took about 40 minutes to make, including preparation and cooking time. Preparation included opening a few packets, slicing some potatoes and turning the oven on; that's it! How simple.

What you'll need

*Serves four with a tiny bit left over for Dad's lunch the next day.

6 thick pork sausages, or 12 thin ones, sliced in half.
2 large potatoes, sliced into about 10 wedges each
1 cup cherry potatoes
1 cup small button mushrooms (if large slice them in half)
125g container mini mozzarella balls
1/2 cup green olives, seeds removed
1 tbs vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

Green salad to serve

What to do

Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

On a baking tray, place the sausages and potatoes. Drizzle the oil over the top and season well with salt and pepper. Mix to coat.

Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, add the olives, mushrooms and tomatoes to the pan. Place back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Add the mozzarella balls with about five minutes left in the baking time. They will be lovely and melted when you serve this dish. And the juices from all the other ingredients combine to give a lovely 'sauce' on the bottom of the baking tray.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle over the fresh basil leaves. Serve immediately with a green salad.

I serve this in the middle of the table, so everyone can help themselves. This is a really great meal for a family dinner; yummy bits for everyone.

Chicken and olive stew with polenta

We are back from a wonderful summer holiday. A week off cooking for me, so I am ready to be back in the
kitchen.

This chicken and olive stew was our Sunday night dinner, after a four-hour drive home from holidays.

There wasn't much in the fridge after a week away, and the shops are closed here on Sunday so I had to make do with what was in the freezer and pantry.

So, a frozen chook, a few tins of tomato, a jar of olives and a packet of polenta turned into chicken and olive stew with soft polenta.

This dish was lovely to eat on a rainy and cold evening in Vienna. Lots of rich tomato and olive flavours, all sopped up by the yummy polenta. Enjoy with a glass of red wine.

What you'll need

* Serves four people with some leftover.

1 whole medium-sized chicken, chopped into 10 pieces
1 x 250g tin chopped tomatoes
1 x 300g jar pre-prepared olive tomato pasta sauce
1/2 cup kalamata olives
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 cup red wine
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
2 cups water
1 tbl vegetable oil

1 cup dried polenta
3 cups chicken stock
1 tbl butter

Grated Parmesan cheese to serve

What to do

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add the oil, onions and garlic and cook until fragrant and starting to colour slightly. Add the chicken pieces to the pot, stirring to brown all pieces. Once all the chicken is browned, pour in the tomato sauces, herbs, olives, red wine and water. Stir well. The liquid should cover all the chicken pieces. If it does not, add another cup of water.

Bring to a rapid simmer, then cover the pot with a lid and reduce heat to low.

Cook for 90 minutes, or until chicken is coming away from the bone. Remove the lid for the last half hour of cooking to reduce the sauce. Season with salt and pepper towards the end of the cooking, remembering that the olives and tomato sauces will already have salt in them.

Make the polenta while the chicken is cooking.

Heat the chicken stock in a large pot. Once the water is simmering, slowly sprinkle in the polenta, and stir constantly until it is very thick, for about 10 minutes, with a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat. Add the butter and stir well to combine.

Pour the hot polenta onto a lined baking tray or large serving platter. Smooth the top and edges with a knife.
I like to have thick slices of polenta, so my polenta 'cake' is about 5cm thick. But you can make it thicker or thinner if you like.  Leave to cool and set for at least an hour. You can place in the fridge to speed up the process. Alternatively, you can serve the polenta 'fresh' while it is still runny. I prefer it set, but it is nice both ways.

To serve, slice the polenta into wide 'fingers' approximately 10cm x 5cm. Place two fingers on each plate. Spoon over the warm chicken stew. I allowed two pieces per person, with lots of sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan and serve while warm.

Sausage rolls

The little people and I whipped up these sausage rolls in 10 minutes, and dinner was on the table half an hour later.

This was 'spur of the moment' cooking. We are going away for a week's holiday, so I have let the fridge run down. I thought I had some lasagna in the freezer that I was going to defrost for the little people, but someone must have eaten it!

I had some beef mince, so I popped across the road to the convenience store from some shortcrust pastry, and there you have it - sausage rolls.

These looked impressive baking in the oven, tasted great and were a hit with the children. These would be great as a Sunday afternoon footy snack, served at the children's party, school lunchboxes, or even as an easy weekend lunch, with some salad.

What you'll need

*This recipe made three large sausage rolls, which I sliced into eight smaller pieces each, so about 24 small sausage rolls. 

500g beef mince
2 eggs
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp each dried thyme and dried rosemary
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbl Worcestershire sauce
20 g melted butter
Salt and pepper

275g packet shortcrust pastry, approximately 45cm x 25cm. Pastry sliced into three sections, 15cm wide.

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Mix mince with breadcrumbs, herbs, eggs and garlic. Season well with salt and pepper.

Lay out the pastry on a lined baking tray. Cut it into three sections, 15cm wide. Spoon one third of the mince into the middle of the pastry, then spread it out with your fingers so that you have a long 'sausage' of mince running down the center of the pastry, from top to bottom. This is a great job for little people.

                   

Fold each side of the pastry into the middle over the mince, and join at the top. I just squished the pastry together with my fingers to join it together.

Using a pastry brush, paint some melted butter into each roll to help the pastry brown. I sprinkled the rolls with some dried thyme and some salt.

Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

Once brown, remove from the oven and let cool for five minutes. Slice with a sharp knife into whatever size you'd like.

Serve with tomato sauce (of course) and some salad for a meal or by themselves for a snack.

 

Rib eye steak with chimichurri sauce

I have wanted to make this chimichurri sauce for many years, since I saw a recipe and some yummy-looking photos in a cooking magazine years ago.

The origin of this sauce is Argentinean, and I really like the beautiful colours of the the herbs and chilli and also the way it glistens on top of the steak.

The red wine vinegar brings it all together into a beautiful tangy sauce that is great with a yummy, tender steak.

I don't usually like a lot of chilli in my cooking. But I now have a chilli plant and the chillis on it are just the perfect heat for me and the man of the house. So we have been using a little bit of fresh chilli in our meals lately.

I borrowed from a 'Delicious magazine' recipe, but have tweaked it a little bit to suit what I had.

I think this sauce would be best made fresh, but it would keep for a few days in the fridge in an air-tight container.

If you 'Google' chimichurri recipes, you will find many variations to the recipe. Many include coriander, which I have a strong dislike for, so no coriander in this recipe. But if you like coriander feel free to add it to your sauce.

I forgot to add that the oregano and bay leaves (along with other herbs I used in another recipe) were provided fresh from cousin Monica's garden. I am grateful that I have a lovely garden where I can pick fresh things; so much better than soggy herbs from the shops. Thanks Monica.

What you'll need

*This makes enough sauce for 4 - 6 steaks.

1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Juice of one lemon
1 tightly-packed cup of fresh Italian parsley
1/2 cup tightly-packed fresh oregano leaves
3 fresh red chillis, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 fresh bay leaves (or use dried if you don't have any fresh ones)
Salt and pepper

4 - 6 medium-sized rib-eye steaks

What to do

Blend all the ingredients (apart from the bay leaves) until well-mixed. Season with salt and pepper.

You can make this is a food processor, in a mortar and pestle or just finely chop the ingredients.

Place the blended ingredients into a bowl and add the bay leaves.

Mix the leaves into the sauce and set aside to 'marinate' for about half an hour. Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Spoon over freshly grilled rib-eye steaks, other grilled meats or vegetables. 

  

Haloumi, chorizo and roasted capsicum salad

 

This salad was a part of the meal we ate last night with our cousin. It accompanied rib-eye steaks with chimichurri sauce. Obviously I am becoming Austrian, as the salad contains meat and cheese. But not just any cheese - haloumi - fried Greek/Cypriot cheese, what joy!

This salad would be great to serve at a bbq or you could serve it as a stand-alone dish for lunch with some crunchy bread and a glass of cold white wine. It is a big, hearty salad; nothing diet about this dish. But there is plenty of taste and texture.

I roasted my own capsicum for this recipe, but you could just buy some at the shops if you like.

What you'll need

*This salad serves six to eight people as a side dish.

For the salad

4 capsicums, roasted, skin removed and roughly chopped into slices OR 200g shop-bought roasted capsicum, roughly chopped. I used red and yellow capsicum.

3 chorizo sausages, thinly sliced

400g haloumi cheese, thickly sliced

1/2 cup fresh basil, thinly sliced

700g tinned, white beans, rinsed

For the dressing

1/4 cup olive oil

5 tbl balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

What to do

Heat a large frying pan on high heat. Place the cheese into the pan and fry until brown and crispy, turn and repeat on the other side. Once cooked, you can chop the haloumi into smaller, bite-sized pieces or leave it larger.

Heat another frying pan on medium heat and cook the chorizo until brown and fragrant. Drain on some paper towel to remove the oil.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, pour over the dressing and mix well to combine.

Serve immediately while still warm.  

Lime and ginger cheesecakes with caramelised apples

I have made about three cheesecakes in my life. I am not sure why I don't make it more often. Probably because there are so many other sweet things to cook and taste, that I forget about the humble cheesecake.

Austrian's don't eat a lot of cheesecake. It is not on every cafe menu as it is in Australia. Actually the only place I have ever seen it for sale here was at McCafe (shock horror, yes I have been there!) here in Vienna.

Not sure why I decided to cook these lovely little cheesecakes, but I'm very happy I did. They were delicious; creamy cheesecake with the spice of ginger and tang of lime, a lovely crunchy base and the soft caramel apples on the wide. It was worth the effort to make them!

And I made the cheesecakes without a food processor (as I don't have one). I don't think it effected the taste or texture but feel free to use a food processor to make yours.

The apples used in this recipe were picked fresh from the tree in Mantler's Garden on the weekend. I was so excited to cook with apples so fresh and crisp. Thank you Franz and Andrea for the apples (and the schnapps).

What you'll need

*This recipe made nine small, individual cheesecakes.

For the base
170g plain sweet biscuits (Nice or Marie in Australia, Leibniz Vollkorn in Austria)
120g melted butter

For the filling
500g soft cream cheese (Philadelphia brand)
Juice and zest of two limes
Thumb-sized chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
3 tsp powdered gelatine
2 tbl boiling water
80g caster sugar

For the caramelized apples
4 medium-sized apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
50g caster sugar
100g butter
1 tsp cinnamon

 

What to do

Well-grease a nine-portion muffin tin (or you can line the muffin pan with greased muffin cases). Alternatively, you can use individual cake pans or glass molds, as I did

Crush the biscuits until very fine like breadcrumbs. You can do in a food processor or put the biscuits in a plastic bag and whack with a rolling pin.

Put the biscuit crumbs in a bowl and pour in the melted butter. Mix until combined. Place a tablespoon of biscuit mixture into each muffin case or container. Press down either with the back of a spoon or clean fingers to compress the mixture and spread it evenly to the edges. You can make the mixture go a little up the sides if you like.

Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes.

Make the cheese filling. Add the cream cheese into a bowl and mix with the lime juice, sugar and ginger (or mix it in a food processor for three minutes). Mix until well-combined.

Make the gelatine. In a small bowl or cup add the boiling water, then pour in the gelatine powder. Mix quickly until dissolved. If the gelatine mixture is still a bit lumpy, microwave it for 15 seconds to help dissolve it. Pour this into the cheese mixture and mix well.

Remove the cheesecake bases from the fridge. Spoon approximately one heaped tablespoon of cheese mixture into each mold. Tap on the bench to settle the mixture.

Place back in the fridge and refrigerate for at least six hours to set.

Make the caramelized apples. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the sugar and stir to combined. Once bubbling, pour in the chopped apples. Cook for approximately 10 minutes until the apples are soft and starting collapsing. Set aside.

To serve, remove the cheesecakes gently from the mold or paper case. Place on a plate, spoon some of the caramelized apples to the side, and sprinkle some of the reserved lime zest onto the top of the cheesecake.
Bring the the table to 'ohhs and ahhs' from your family.

   

Lasagna

Special dinner made on Friday night to celebrate to celebrate my little boy starting school in a few weeks.

He is very excited, and now has a cool school bag, lots of stationary and new things to start this new phase in his life.

His very special favourite meal is lasagna, so I spent the day on Friday making this for him.

My Mum's side of the family is Italian, so I have been eating lasagna and various other types of pasta since before I could walk.

This recipe is my own, but the inspiration comes from my Grandmother, who loved to cook and was brilliant in the kitchen, and from my Mum, who loves to cook and is brilliant in the kitchen.

Although it takes a little while to make the meat sauce (two or three hours simmering time), making the other ingredients and assembling the lasagna is relatively quick. I usually start cooking at lunch time, and then by about 4pm, everything is done and cleaned up. You can then place the lasagna in the oven at 5.30pm for a lovely dinner.

What you'll need

* I made this lasagna in a 40cm x 30cm baking dish, which made 16 large portions of lasagna. But I suggest making a big batch, then freezing the rest in portions for later.

For the meat sauce
1kg mince, I used half beef and half pork, but you can use 100% beef if you like.
1kg crushed tomatoes
1 x 400g jar prepared tomato pasta sauce, I used olive
1/2 cup tomato sauce
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 onions, roughly chopped
2 carrots, grated
1 tbs each of dried rosemary, oregano and basil
Salt and pepper
2 tbs vegetable oil

For the bechamel sauce
250g butter
1 cup plain flour
1L milk
1 cup water
Salt and pepper

2 packets lasagna sheets, you can use fresh or dried pasta (approx 40 sheets)

400g grated cheese, I used mozzarella

What to do

For the meat sauce

Heat a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the oil and saute the onions and garlic until soft. Increase the heat and add the mince. Cook until all the mince is brown and make sure there are no large lumps of meat.

Add the carrot, tomato sauces and herbs. Stir well and reduce the heat to low.

Cover the pot and simmer the sauce for two to three hours, checking and stirring regularly to ensure it does not burn on the bottom. About half way through the cooking, season well with salt and pepper.

If the sauce becomes too thick and dry (like taco mince), add half a cup of water and replace the lid. If the sauce is very runny (like soup), remove the lid and continue to simmer for half an hour to reduce it slightly. The sauce should be wetter than a normal bolognaise sauce, as this moisture will cook the pasta sheets once the lasagna is in the oven.

Once the meat sauce is cooked, set aside to cool slightly.

For the bechamel sauce

In a medium-sized saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Once it is foamy, add the flour, and mix very well until it is all combined with a spoon. Cook for one minute, then add the milk and water.

Have a whisk ready, and start whisking the milk with the flour mixture as soon as you start to pour it into the saucepan. Keep whisking until the mixture starts to thicken. This will take about five minutes. (Do not walk away, answer the phone or pop off to check Facebook during the process or you will end up with lumpy sauce. You must stand and whisk the whole time!) During this time, you can season the sauce with salt and pepper.

Once the sauce is thick like custard, it is ready. Remove from the heat and set aside. When the sauce cools down, it will become thicker. If it is too thick (if it does not run from the back of a spoon), you can mix some warm water into it to make it thinner.

Assemble the lasagna

Place a cup of the meat sauce on the base of the lasagna baking dish and spread it to the edges. This will stop the pasta from sticking to the base.

Place a layer of pasta sheets on top of the meat sauce. I used six sheets per layer.

Spoon approximately one to one and a half cups of bechamel sauce onto the pasta sheets. Spread to the edges. Top with half a cup of cheese. Top this with another layer of pasta sheets, 2 cups of meat sauce, more pasta sheets, bechamel and cheese, pasta sheets, meat sauce etc.

I like lots of pasta in my lasagna. If you want less, you can make it with meat sauce, bechamel, cheese, pasta, then another layer meat and bechamel etc, then pasta and so on.

When you get to the top of the dish, finish off with a thick layer of bechamel and lots of cheese.

Here is a little tip for an extra yummy lasagna. Slide a small spoon down one side of the dish, between the pasta and the side of the dish. Pour in about 1/4 cup water. Repeat on the other four sides. The water will help the pasta sheets to cook and make the lasagna mesh together better.

Bake for 40 minutes in an 180 degree Celsius oven. When the top is brown and bubbling, it is ready.

Leave to sit and settle for 10 minutes before serving. Alternatively, you can leave the uncooked lasagna in the fridge overnight and bake the next day.

I freeze any left-over lasagna (if there is any). I cut it into portions and store in an air-tight container.

Bon Appetito!