Fit for a prince

It’s M’s birthday today! Another year older and another year wiser, or so they say. I love birthdays even if its not my own. In fact, M was just commenting that it seems I am even more excited about his birthday than he is. I mean, what’s not to like? You get to eat cake, open presents, do whatever you like and have an excuse for it, and have people celebrate you just for a day. And did I mention eat cake?

Given how many baking books I have, trying to decide what birthday cake to make for M was tricky. I thought first about making him a Chocolate Praline Mousse cake by Alain Ducasse since M loves chocolate as much as I do, maybe more even! Then I thought about other cakes that I have made in the past that he has liked such as the Devil's Food White-out Cake by Dorie Greenspan. Then inspiration struck and I decided that I would make him a cake from his home country that I know he loves – Princess cake.

I have seen Princess cakes in Stockholm before whenever I’ve gone to visit but have never actually tried it until the wedding of a friend of M’s in July this year. I guess the reason I stayed away was that I was not a fan of marzipan (or so I thought) and the cake was a strange green colour. Since at the aforementioned wedding the Princess cake was the wedding cake, I thought it would be rude not to try.

In hindsight, I’m glad I did because I was pleasantly surprised! The marzipan didn’t have that sickly sweet flavour that I remembered it having as a child and the cake was surprisingly light – probably because of the oodles of whipped cream that gives the cake its characteristic dome shape. I went back for seconds, then thirds and I also ate some off M’s plate. All in all, I must have eaten enough to feed a family of 4 in some famine-stricken countries.

Once I got the idea in my head, I started looking for recipes and was thankfully able to locate one in a Swedish cookbook that M's mother had kindly given to me the first time I visited Stockholm. Given the many different components involved, I needed a game plan in order to make the cake at home without M discovering it. The schedule I came up with in the end was this: I baked the cake layers and created the green marzipan coating on Monday night before M came home from work. On Tuesday, I made the pastry cream. The plan was then to make the whipped cream and assemble the cake on Wednesday night but I was worried that M would get home before me. It was a stroke of luck therefore when M told me that he would be having a work dinner and would be coming home late that night.


Since it was my first time working with marzipan, I was a little apprehensive when it came time to roll it out. It turned out to be pretty easy however, especially if you work quickly before it starts to get sticky. If that happens though sprinkling icing sugar on it works pretty well. I have to confess that I didn’t quite have enough marzipan so after I draped it over the cake, I realized that I would have to patch up a hole at the back. Straightening out the folds in the cake was also a little tricky and I realized belatedly that I should probably have practiced before trying to make M’s birthday cake.

Despite the difficulty and the fact that the end product didn’t look picture perfect, I was still overall pretty happy with the way it came out. M certainly didn’t mind either when I woke him up with the cake and sang him Happy Birthday. We skipped dessert at dinner tonight in order to eat the birthday cake and it was definitely worth the wait. I think we’ll be having more tomorrow before we leave for Edinburgh where I’m taking him to watch the Rugby world cup match between New Zealand and Scotland for his birthday. No sense in letting good cake go to waste right?

Princess Cake
From Swedish Homecooking

Cake base:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup hot water
2 tsp baking powder
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy. Heat the water and stir into the egg mixture.

Mix the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Fold into wet mixture. Pour the batter into a round 9 x 3 1/2 inch greased cake pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Cream filling:
1 1/4 cup whole milk
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 envelope gelatin
1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Pour the milk into a heavy-bottomed pan. Add the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch. Warm the mixture over medium low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. Add the vanilla extract. Dissolve the gelatin in a little water and add it to the mixture. Set aside, stirring it from time to time as it cools.

Whip the heavy cream. Carefully blend into cooled filling mixture

Marzipan:
14 oz marzipan
Green and yellow
Powdered sugar

Put the marzipan in a medium-sized plastic food storage bag. make a little indentation in the marzipan and add 3 drops of green food coloring and one drop of the yellow. Knead the marzipan in the plastic bag until it is evenly colored.

To assemble:
Let the cake cool and slice it into three layers. Spread raspberry jam or place fresh raspberries with a little sugar sprinkled on them on the bottom layer. The second layer gets covered with half the cream filling. Place the third layer on top and then spread the rest of the cream filling on top and down over the sides so the whole cake is covered.

Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and put the marzipan on it. Cut open a plastic food storage bag so that it is large enough to cover the marzipan, place over marzipan and roll out. This is a great way to avoid having the marzipan stick to the rolling pin.

Roll out marzipan into a thin, circular sheet large enough to drape over and cover the whole cake. Tip: trace the bottom of the cake pan onto paper, then measure the height of the cake and add it to the pan diameter to calculate the total diameter for your marzipan sheet. This way the marzipan is large enough to cover the whole cake.

Peel the plastic bag off the top of the marzipan sheet, then turn the marzipan so the plastic wrap is facing upward. Remove the plastic carefully. Pinch in the edges and trim away the excess marzipan.

Sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar.

Makes one 9-inch cake

Roasted vegetable tart

As I promised in yesterday's post, here is another recipe from the brunch on Sunday - Roasted vegetable tart. While choosing what to make for brunch, I was debating between this and a torta caprese. What ultimately tipped the scale in favour of this was that I have recently discovered the pleasures of zucchini and aubergine. This tart seemed like a lovely way to showcase them.

I haven't included a recipe for shortcrust pastry since you can easily substitute your favourite recipe here. Also, although the recipe calls for low-fat ricotta cheese, I used regular ricotta. I figured the extra 30 minutes in the gym would be worth it.

Roasted vegetable tart
Adapted from delicious.

1 small aubergine
1 red pepper, halved, seeds removed
2 small courgettes
1 red onion
1 yellow pepper, halved, seeds removed
2 garlic cloves, crushed
100 ml olive oil
375g shortcrust pastry (use your favourite recipe)
300g low-fat ricotta cheese
2 eggs
50g grated parmesan
2 tsp chopped rosemary

Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a 30 x 11cm loose-bottomed, rectangular tart pan.

Cut the eggplant, capsicum, zucchini, onion and sweet potato into 2cm chunks. Place in a bowl with the garlic and olive oil, and toss to coat in the oil. Tip the vegetables onto a large baking tray and spread out evenly. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through and slightly charred, then set aside.

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface. Line the prepared pan with pastry, then line with baking paper. Fill with pastry weights or rice and blind bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat together ricotta, eggs, parmesan and rosemary. Fill pre-baked tart shell with ricotta mixture and place in oven for 15 minutes or until set. Top with roasted vegetables, then return to oven for 5 minutes to warm through. Garnish with extra rosemary, if desired.

Makes 1 30cm x 11cm rectangular tart

That other favourite meal of the day

M and I hosted a brunch at our place yesterday for several of our friends. It was the first time that we've been entertaining properly in our new digs since it was only about 3 weeks ago that our new arm chairs arrived and completed our living room set up. It was also the first time that we've tested having 6 people around our dining room table and to our pleasant surprise, it worked quite well. It was cosy without being too crammed and in a city like London where space comes at a premium, that, in my opinion, counts as a small luxury.

As I alluded to in a previous post, brunch is one of my favourite meals of the day (that is if it truly counts as one meal, not two). When else can you get away with eating just sweets and count that as your balanced meal for the day? I'm thinking of favourites like French toast, pancakes and waffles... you get the picture. In addition, since there are so many recipes that I want to try and not enough people in this household to eat, it was also a perfect excuse to test out a few new recipes.

I spent a fair amount of time prepping for the brunch but it was well worth the effort to be able to share a nice meal with a group of great people. In fact, I hope to make the brunch a monthly event. All in all, we served:

Tomato and mozzarella salad with balsamic honey dressing

Salmon rillettes with home made wheat bread

Roasted vegetable tart

Oyster mushroom and bacon bit quiche

Fig pound cake and lemon poppy seed muffins

Altogether, I managed to test out a grand total of 4 new recipes! My favourite was the salmon rillettes and M's favourite was the oyster mushroom quiche. I plan to share all the new recipes with you but to start, here's the recipe for the quiche.

Oyster Mushroom and Bacon Bit Quiche
From Sweet and Savory Tarts

400g fougasse dough
3 large eggs
200ml heavy cream
200ml whole milk
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
100g chervil, finely chopped
350g oyster mushrooms
200g bacon bits
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

One day ahead, prepare the fougasse dough, cover in plastic wrap, and chill overnight. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs together with the cream, the milk, the chopped garlic, and the chopped chervil. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight.

On the day of baking, preheat the oven to 350F.

Line the baking pan with the fougasse dough and pre-bake for 20 minutes.

Wash the mushrooms and dry them. Arrange them in the shell. In a skillet, saute the bacon bits until they turn golden brown. Add them to the cream and herb mixture.

Pour the mixture over the mushrooms and bake for 25 minutes.

Serve hot, accompanied by a dandelion salad dressed with mixed fresh herbs.

Makes one 9 1/2 inch square or one 10 inch round tart

Fougasse dough

500g cake flour
250ml olive oil
12g salt
10g yeast
10g Herbes de Provence
5g granulated sugar
50 ml tap water

Place all the ingredients in the mixing bowl of a food processor. Knead for 10 minutes.

Line a baking tray with parchment or waxed paper and roll out the dough to a thickness of just under 1 inch. Allow to rise for 1 hour at room temperature.

Makes enough dough for 3 tarts

Honey soy fish

M and I usually eat out on Friday nights which gives me the opportunity to take a break from cooking. Not that I mind cooking so much but I do really enjoy trying new restaurants and getting inspiration for new dishes to make. Yesterday, however, M had to work late so we broke from our usual routine and ate dinner in instead.

Knowing how much M likes fish - one of his favourite dishes is miso glazed cod - I wanted to find a recipe that not only uses fish but fuses the flavours of Asia and the west. After some browsing, I settled on a Honey soy fish from this site which many reviewers had commented on as being restaurant quality. Intrigued, I decided to try it for myself.

After having read the raving reviews, I was a little thrown off by the fact that the original recipe calls for the fish to be cooked in a microwave. Microwave!? Somehow that doesn't really feel like real cooking to me so I decided to bake my fish parcels in the oven instead. As such, I had to cook it for slightly longer than called for in the original recipe. I served the fish on top a bed of stir-fried Asian vegetables but it could just as easily be served on rice or noodles.

M's late night review of the dish - he didn't come home till after 10 pm - was that it felt like eating in a restaurant. I guess the reviewers weren't lying after all.

Honey soy fish
Adapted from here

2 firm white-fleshed fish fillets (I used monkfish)

Marinade
2 tablespoons thick soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 garlic clove, crushed
5cm piece ginger, peeled, grated

Preheat oven to 175C.

Combine all marinade ingredients in a jug. Mix well. Place fish in a single layer into a ceramic dish. Pour over marinade. Turn to coat. Cover. Refrigerate for 1 hour, if time permits.

Cut 4 large sheets of baking paper. Place fish onto baking paper. Drizzle each fillet with 1 tablespoon of marinade. Wrap each piece of fish up in baking paper to form 4 secure parcels. Place fish parcels onto a baking pan in a single layer. Bake for ~20 minutes, or until fish flakes when tested with a fork.

Fish can be served with rice or a side of vegetables or both.

Serves 2

Presto Pasta Night #29: Mee Goreng Tauceo

The very first blog event that I took part in when I first started my blog only 1.5 months ago was Presto Pasta Night hosted by Ruth. I haven't submitted anything in the last few weeks so I thought it was high time I got back in the game. The first time around, I made a Penne with tuna in tomato sauce from Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie. This time, I wanted to submit something that is unique to my home country so I decided on Mee Goreng Tauceo from James Oseland's Cradle of Flavor.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this dish, it is essentially a stir-fried noodle dish made with Chinese egg noodles. In this case, the recipe calls for garnishings of shrimp and asian greens but as I was out of asian greens, I took a huge liberty and substituted tenderstem broccoli! Purists out there may think that this is sacrilege but I think that cooking should be fun. It should not be about following rules for rules sake. In this case, the purpose of the greens is to add some crunch to the noodles and I thought the broccoli served just fine.

To be honest, before I made the recipe I was somewhat sceptical about whether a recipe written by a gwailo (foreigner) could recreate the taste that I am familiar with. But the author has spent over twenty years researching the foods of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore - the result of which is the cookbook that I used - so who am I to question his authority. Indeed he probably knows the foods of Southeast Asia even better than I do. The only thing I felt was missing was a little bit of spiciness which is easily solved by serving the dish with any kind of chili sauce you like.

Mee Goreng Tauceo
From Cradle of Flavor

455g precooked fresh Chinese egg noodles
10 stalks choy sum or 5 whole small heads baby bok choy or Shanghai choy
4 tbsp peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
200g medium-sized shrimp, peeled, heads removed, and deveined
1 1/2 cups mung bean sprouts (optional)
4 tbsp warm water
2 tsp double-black soy sauce
1/4 tsp kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper (optional)

If you're using fresh Chinese egg noodles that are not precooked, cook them first, cut them in half, and set aside.

To prepare the choy sum, inspect it carefully, discarding or trimming any spoiled stems or leaves. Cut 1 inch off the base of each stalk and rinse the greens in several changes of the coldest possible water. If you're using baby bok choy or Shanghai choy, inspect the heads carefully, discarding or trimming any spoiled stems or leaves. Cut 1/8 inch off the base of each head and rinse the greens in several changes of the coldest possible water. (Take care to clean baby bok choy or Shanghai choy carefully, as it tends to have hidden pockets of sand where the leaves meet the center stem.) Cut the cleaned choy sum into pieces 2 1/2 to 3 inches long; if you're using baby bok choy or Shanghai choy leave the heads whole or cut them in halves or quarters lengthwise, depending on size. Dry the greens in a salad spinner or set them aside to dry on a kitchen towel or on paper towels. They don't need to be bone-dry; a little dampness is fine.

Heat the oil in a wok or 12-inch skillet (nonstick will work best) over medium heat. When it's hot — it should appear slightly shimmery — add the garlic and the sweet soybean paste (be mindful that the soybean paste may splatter a bit when it's added to the hot oil) and sauté, stirring constantly with a large spatula, until the garlic is no longer raw but has not yet begun to change color, 1 to 2 minutes. If the garlic starts to turn golden, take the pan off the heat to cool for a few moments before continuing.

Add the shrimp to the skillet and stir-fry just until they begin to turn pink, about 2 minutes. Add the greens and raise the heat to high. Stir-fry vigorously until the greens just begin to wilt, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the bean sprouts (if using) and continue to stir-fry vigorously for another 15 seconds.

Reduce the heat slightly and quickly add the noodles, using your hands and detangling them as you drop them into the skillet. Stir the noodles well to combine them with the greens, bean sprouts, and shrimp. Add the warm water, soy sauce, and salt and stir well to combine. Cook, stirring constantly until the noodles are hot and have soaked up all the liquid, about 2 minutes. (Note that the noodles will have increased slightly in size once they have soaked up the liquid.) Taste a noodle for salt, and add a pinch more if needed.

Transfer the noodles to a large platter or bowl and serve immediately. Although inauthentic, I like to top these noodles with freshly ground black pepper, which provides a nice layer of flavor.

Makes 3 or 4 servings as a main course