The Sherbet Cafe and Bake Shop

Last Saturday E and I headed into uncharted territory to try out the Sherbet Cafe and Bake Shop in Maylands. We had originally planned to have afternoon tea however we turned up with an appetite for lunch and we ordered accordingly.

The cafe had a steady stream of customers, both for dining in and take away service. We admired the cakes - beautiful cupcakes piled high with icing, towering layer cakes and other treats. There was also a small savoury section and it was from this that I chose a roasted vegetable and gruyere tart. E went with a frittata and we also ordered a slice of the red velvet layer cake to share.

The servings were very generous and E could not eat all of her frittata. I think that she was trying to save room for the cake!


The slice of cake that we were served was enormous. It was accompanied by double cream and I really that the purpose of the cream was to cut the richness of the icing!

We tried our best but in the end we were defeated by the cake. It was lovely and light with extremely rich icing.

I definitely would like to make another visit (or two or three!) and sample more of the cakes on offer. Yum!

Roasting hazelnuts

The baci semifreddo recipe I made last weekend called for roasted hazelnuts. I armed myself with a packet of hazelnuts and made a beeline for Stephanie Alexander's the cook's companion for advice on how to roast them. It is such a great reference book, with many simple tips and lots of information on all different types of foods.


Roast the hazelnuts at 180C on a baking tray for approximately 10 minutes. Rub them with a clean tea towel to try and remove as much of the skin as you can.

Put them into a sieve and shake to try and separate the nuts and skin. I ended up picking whatever skin was left off by hand.

Baci Semifreddo

After making friands the previous week I was left with a surplus of egg yolks. I considered various recipes to make use of them and kept coming back to custard. In the end I decided that the Baci Semifreddo recipe from Gourment Traveller would fit the bill nicely.

I had six egg yolks and so I adjusted the recipe accordingly.

I really like the hazelnut flavour and the crunch. The Semifreddo also met with my sister E's seal of approval. Yay! I froze this in a loaf tin and have been cutting slices as I go. If I was going to serve this as a fancy dessert I might just invest in some proper moulds...

6 egg yolks
180g caster sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
20 ml Frangelico
140 g dark chocolate, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa, sieved
400 ml thickened cream
180 g crème fraîche
110g roasted hazelnuts, skins removed, coarsely chopped

Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap.

Whisk yolks, sugar, vanilla and Frangelico in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until mixture is tripled in volume, thick and pale and holds a ribbon (4-5 minutes). I used the stab mixer that we received as a wedding present. It has a whick attachment and it was so much easier than the options of my sunbeam mixer (heavy) or by hand (laborious).

Transfer semifreddo mixture to an electric mixer and whisk until cool (2-3 minutes).

Add melted chocolate and cocoa and mix to combine.

Meanwhile, whisk cream and crème fraîche in a bowl until soft peaks form. Again, the stab mixer came in handy for whisking the dairy products.

Fold one-third of dairy into egg mixture to loosen mixture, then fold through remaining cream and hazelnuts.

Spoon into container, cover, freeze until firm (6 hours or overnight).


Notes

• The original recipe called for a vanilla bean or vanilla paste. I had only vanilla extract or essence in the pantry and so went with vanilla extract


• I bought a 125g packet of hazelnuts and ended up roasting and using the whole packet


• I forgot to adjust the Frangelico amount from the recipe! Yum

Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

The first time I made Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake I realised that my food processor did not have the grunt! In December I upgraded to a Kitchenaid Food Processor and last week I finally got around to testing it out on Nigella's cake.

This cake is so easy! Just add all the ingredients to the food processor and mix. Yum.

I have described here how I assembled the cake. If you would like the original Nigella method click here.

Chocolate Cake
200g plain flour
200g caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
40g best-quality cocoa
175g unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
150ml sour cream

Chocolate icing
75g unsalted butter
175g dark chocolate
300g icing sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
125ml sour cream
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

Chocolate Cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line and grease two 20cm cake tins.


Add all of the cake ingredients to the bowl of your food processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter.

Divide the batter into the two prepared cake tins. Spread the batter out evenly. I weigh my tins to ensure that the cakes are as even as I can get them!

Bake the cakes for approximately 25 minutes. The cakes will be cooked when a skewer comes out clean. The cakes will also start to come away from the sides of the tins.

Remove the cakes, in their tins, to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out of their tins.


Chocolate icing
Melt the butter and chocolate in a heat proof jug (or bowl) in the microwave. I started with 60 second bursts at 30% power and stirred between each burst with a wooden chopstick. As the chocolate and butter melts I reduced the time of the bursts. You can also melt it over a pot of simmering water.

Sift the icing sugar into the food processor.

Mix the golden syrup into the to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla.

Add this mixture to the icing sugar in the food processor and process until well mixed.

Cake assembly
Place one of the cakes upside down on your serving platter. Spoon a third of the icing on to the centre of the cake half and spread until you cover the top of it evenly. Leave a centimetre or so gap between the icing and the edge of the cake as the icing will spread when the top cake is placed on top of the icing.

Sit the other cake on top, normal way up, pressing gently to sandwich the two together.

Spoon the remainder of the icing on top of the cake and spread it over the top and sides of the cake.

Notes

• Nigella recommends taking everything out of the fridge to bring the ingredients up to room temperature


• If you are not fortunate enough to own a decent food processor then Nigella also gives an alternative method


• Nigella decorates the top of her cake with sugar pansies. Making these is another skill I shall have to acquire

Lime friands

My good friend M was kind enough to gift me a friand pan for my birthday this year, and I took the opportunity of afternoon tea to try it out.

I used the powers of the internet search engine to find a recipe, and settled on this lemon friand recipe for inspiration. I tweaked it only slightly to make use of the abundance of limes that we have.

I was very happy with the result, after being concerned that my batter was a bit too lumpy and unmixed. I was informed by BakingN that the lovely crust on the friands is due to the use of butter, rather than oil, to grease the tins. I shall have to remember that for future reference!

I now have to figure out what to make with six egg yolks. Custard springs to mind, or taking that a step further, ice cream. Hmmm, lime icecream sounds good...

185g unsalted butter
2 tsp grated lime rind (approximately two limes)
1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup almond meal
1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar
6 egg whites

Extra icing sugar and lime zest to decorate

Preheat oven to 200C. Grease a twelve hole friand pan with butter.

Melt butter in a large heatproof mixing bowl.

Add lime rind to the butter and sift in plain flour, almond meal and icing sugar. Mix until well combined.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat egg whites with a fork until frothy. This should take approximately thirty seconds.

Fold egg whites into the almond mixture until just combined. Take care not to overmix the batter.

Spoon the mixture into the greased friand pan. Bake for appximately 20 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and the friand starts to come away from the sides of the pan.

Stand the friand pan on a wire rack for five minutes before turning friands out to cool.

Dust friands with sifted icing sugar and decorate with lime zest.

Notes

• This recipe used the zest of three limes. I made use of one of the limes by slicing it and adding to a glass jug. The jug can be used to serve water or lemonade at your afternoon tea, depending on your fancy


• The original recipe was for ten friands, however I divided my batter into twelve