Sunday, June 16, 2013

The Colour of Food, by Anne Else

I met Anne Else about three years ago, at a food blogger gathering, when there were only a handful of us in Wellington and it was a bit of a weird thing to do (at least back then when I told people I had a blog I then had to explain it and usually they still didn’t really get it!). Anne was delightful and embracing the modern despite (I hope she doesn’t mind me mentioning her age!) being a generation or more older than most of the rest of us. In fact, it has made her blog more interesting and perhaps more real in some ways – where the 20-somethings are fanciful and impractical Anne is grounded (but far from boring) and has many more stories to tell.

So when Anne announced she was writing her food memoir I was pretty keen to read it - I love biographies and they're even better when there's a personal connection. Despite looking forward to its release (and as luck would have it got a pre-release copy for review, so didn’t have to wait as long as I thought), I hadn’t quite anticipated how she would draw me in with her incredibly vivid storytelling - I ended up reading the whole thing in less than 24 hours. The meals she served up made me feel like part of her family, and starting on familiar ground (her oh-so-Kiwi-childhood in Auckland) somehow meant when she travelled to Albania with her young family I went along for the journey, even though I don't have much common ground there! Her experiences are rich and varied, she is open and honest, and the emotions - at both ends of the spectrum - reach out of the book and grab you the whole way through.

If you enjoy food and/or memoirs I definitely recommend this - and as an eBook it's very affordable. If you don't have an eReader you can read it on your laptop, tablet, or even smartphone - I read on my iPad at home and on my phone on the bus on the way home from work. The only drawback to the book being in this format is that the adorable cover photo of a young Anne is not seen so much on an eBook as it might be on a bookmarked hard copy on the coffee table!


Are you an eBook fan, or do you prefer being able to turn pages the old-fashioned way?



The Colour of Food is available in eBook format via the following links: Kobo     Amazon     iBooks

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Chocolate Carrot Cake

After a long absence, I’ve decided I need to get back into blogging. There are a lot of exciting things happening in foodland and I need to do something a little more constructive than watching mind-numbing television and something a little less expensive than constantly renovating and improving our home. And I have missed you guys! 
 
I think I needed a break, because I had gotten to a point where it didn’t matter how many gorgeous and luscious-looking recipes I saw, I wasn’t inspired to try anything new. This recipe broke that spell for me, even though I had to wade through a dodgy Google Translate version to produce it – there was a close call with the raising agent (the ingredient list said yeast, but I trusted my instinct and used baking powder), and I still don’t know if the nut content is supposed to be pecans or walnuts – but it doesn’t really matter, either will be delicious.

I was intrigued by the idea of mixing together two of the best cake flavours – chocolate and carrot – and to be honest didn’t expect too much, as I often find that the pretty (and sometimes no so pretty) pictures which do the rounds on Pinterest fit firmly in the gilded-lily category. And often less is more, even when it comes to food. But in this case – OTT works.

Everyone who has tried it has raved about it and the cake is really easy to make, being a carrot cake made with oil there’s no creaming involved. The icing, which is a little bit tricker but still definitely not rocket science, would benefit from a mixer, electric beaters or at least old-fashioned egg beaters to get nice and smooth – but is worth every bit of washing up you have to do – it is so rich, so creamy, so delicious…


Unfortunately my Pinterest-trawling must have brainwashed me a bit because apparently I forgot how to take photos for a blog - notably, no pretty-cake-at-the-end pictures (I can't decide if it's ironic that I forgot the photos when inspired by someone else's food porn, or if it's a result of the very visual inspiration). So I'm going to make it again, in the next couple of days, and update this post with a picture of the (hopefully) pretty end result then - but in the meantime, here's the recipe - and if you click the source link below you can check out the gorgeous photos which made me want to make it. 

Have you ever translated a recipe, and did the language barrier cause any puzzling moments? 

A hastily made and hastily photographed version of this cake - better than no photo but only just!

Chocolate carrot cake (adapted from Food and Cook) 
100g walnuts or pecans
340g grated carrot
1 tin of pineapple pieces, drained
4 eggs 

200g sugar
100g brown sugar

240ml sunflower or canola oil 
2 tsp vanilla essence
280g flour 

25g cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

 1/4 tsp nutmeg
Icing 
270g dark chocolate
170g cream cheese
85g butter (at room temperature) 

240g icing sugar
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp salt 

160g sour cream or plain yogurt

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Roast nuts for about 8 minutes, watching carefully to ensure they don't burn. Grate carrot and nuts and set aside with drained pineapple. 
Mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.In another bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until fluffy, then add the oil and vanilla and continue beating until well blended and light.Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix until combined, then add the carrots, nuts and pineapple and mix in. Grease two 22cm round cake tins and divide the batter between them. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
When the cakes are cool prepare the icing. Melt the chocolate, either with short bursts (1 minute then 10 second intervals, stirring in between) or over a double boiler.
Beat the butter and cream cheese together until fluffy. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa in and beat until well combined.
 
Add the sour cream or yogurt to the melted chocolate and mix to combine, then add to the butter mixture a beat well.

Spread about 1/4 of the icing on one of the cakes to form the bottom layer. Place the second cake on top, and use the rest of the icing to cover the top and sides. Store in a cool place (fridge or cool pantry) and eat within 2-3 days.
 
Notes: 
  • If you only have one tin you can bake the mixture at once to make one thick cake, but reduce the oven temperature and cook for longer, then cut in half to fill when icing it. 
  • This recipe translates well into cupcakes - bake for 15-18 minutes and pipe the icing on.  
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