Tuesday 23 July 2013

Guiness chocolate cake

Beer in a cake, genius! I am not generally a fan of Guiness, I wouldn't order it in a bar, at a restaurant or as my sun-downer drink. The bitterness is just not really my thing, but I have heard so much how beer can really make a foodie difference. So, for my brothers birthday I decided to roll with it and made him a Guiness Chocolate Cake.


Chocolate Guiness cake



Ingredients:

For the Sponge
  • 250ml Guiness
  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 80g cocoa powder
  • 400g castor sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 140ml buttermilk
  • 280g plain flour
  • 2 tsp bicarb
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
For the cream-cheese frosting
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 300g icing sugar
  • 125g full fat cream cheese
  • cocoa powder for dusting
Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Line and grease the sides of a 23cm springform cake tin.
Pour the Guiness into a saucepan(med heat), add the butter and gently stir until all butter has melted. Remove the pan from the heat and blend in the cocoa powder and castor sugar. Be sure that all cocoa powder has dissolved to make a smooth consistent mix. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, vanilla and buttermilk. Add this to the pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, sift together the flour bicarb and baking powder. Add the pan ingredients to the dry mixture and on a medium speed combines until your mixture is smooth. Turn down the heat of the oven to 180 degrees. Add the cake mix to the cake tin and bake for 45min. Remove from the oven and cool.

For the frosting:

Wash the mixing bowl out and dry with a  cloth. Sift the icing sugar into the bowl. Mix the butter and icing sugar together until there are no large lumps, sand-like in texture on a low speed. Add the cream-cheese and increase the speed by one, until the icing becomes medium thick. Do not over mix. With a spatula or flat knife smear the frosting over your sponge so that the whole cake is Dust with cocoa and serve.


Enjoy x x

Thursday 18 July 2013

Thai prawn Curry

I am about to wine and dine four girls tonight, and being open to experiment I am allowed to cook whatever I see fit, which is quite exciting in its own sense, there are no briefs or special requirements that need to be executed, which is just the way I like to cook. It's completely Carte Blanche.

Being naturally inspired by Thai cuisine, which is my all time favorite, I am thrilled to roll with this theme. Thai red prawn curry is on my cooks list, and I am in raptures at gnawing at a spicy prawn- soaked in sauce, and filled with fusion. I was lucky enough to get my hands on some really decently sized prawns from Food Lovers, although frozen, good- enough to make this an award winning supper surprise.

Thai red prawn curry

Prep time: 10 min    cooking time: 40 min   Serves: 6


Ingredients

  • red curry paste
  • 2 stalks lemon grass (chopped)
  • 1 red chili
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2x 400g can coconut milk
  • small bag of mange toute
  • 4 jarred red peppers in oil
  • kaffir lime leaves (dried)
  • splash of fish sauce
  • splash soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • a thumb sized piece of ginger
  • a bunch of fresh coriander
  • 12 whole raw tiger prawns (de-veined, topped and tailed)
  • 2 limes
  • Seasoning
Method:

In a saute pan, or heavy based pan, add your curry paste and fry off until the oil separates. Add the lemongrass, chili and garlic.Add the coconut milk and allow the flavors to infuse.Add the mange toute and jarred peppers with the oil, until softened. Then add the kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil. Grate the ginger before adding to the curry, then add the fresh coriander and allow to cook for 10 min before adding the prawns.cook for a further 30 min. Add the limes before serving. Season.

Serve with jasmine rice infused with green tea.

Enjoy x x