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GERTRUDE + SPICE

A Treacly Tart

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What are the most English of baked goods? Victoria Sponge? Sticky Toffee Pudding? Eton Mess? I needed to find a perfect one for my visiting mother-in-law’s birthday. She lives in America, but is a British expat, with a love of quintessentially English treats. (Though absolutely not of rice pudding.) Naturally, Sticky Toffee, Eton Mess, even Spotted Dick — these can be swooningly good, but not quite right for a birthday. But a tart. What is more English than Treacle Tart? Not exactly a 3-layer cake affair, but somehow appropriate for a woman with a sweet-tooth she often pretends not to have.

For those that haven’t had a Treacle Tart, it’s an absurdly sticky, gooey combination of black treacle, golden syrup, butter and double cream, poured over breadcrumbs (crazy right? What can I say, it’s English.), all on top of a lovely crumbly crust. And if that wasn’t enough, it also happened to be the favourite dessert of none other than… Harry Potter.

The tart was a great hit, and a perfect surprise. We tragically didn’t have any vanilla ice cream around, but were able to just make do with some double cream. For reference, unlike the Lamington’s which needed to be consumed practically on the same day as being made, this hardy English treat remained just as good many days later.

Treacle tartTreacle tartTreacle tartTreacle tart

Treacle Tart

5.0 from 1 reviews
A Treacly Tart
 
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Serves: 8-10 slices
Ingredients
  • PASTRY
  • 200g plain flour, plus extra to dust
  • 100g cold butter, cubed, plus extra to grease
  • pinch of salt
  • 3-4 tbsp ice-cold water
  • 1 egg, beaten with a little water
  • FILLING
  • 60g butter
  • 400g golden syrup
  • 35g treacle
  • 2 tbsp double cream
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • ½-1/4 salt, to taste
  • 140g fresh brown breadcrumbs
Instructions
  1. Pour flour and a pinch of salt into a medium bowl. Rub butter in using your hands until large crumbs form. Pour in cold water slowly, a tablespoon at a time—just enough for the crumbs to form a dough. Form the dough into a disc, wrap with clingfilm (syranwrap) and chill 30min.
  2. Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF).
  3. Grease 23cm loose-bottom tart tin.
  4. Roll pastry dough out on a floured surface until about 5mm thick. Carefully line the tin with the dough, cutting any excess.
  5. Make prick marks all over with a fork and cover with parchment paper. Pour in dried beans or rice to blind bake for 15min.
  6. Remove from oven, pour out beans and parchment paper, and brush egg all over. Place back in oven for 5minute to golden.
  7. For the filling, melt butter in medium pan, add golden syrup and treacle and heat through until just warm (NOT boiling).
  8. Carefully add cream. (If you're concerned you've heated the syrup too much, very slowly add the syrup to the cream instead of adding the cream to the syrup. This will avoid curdling.)
  9. Beat in egg, egg yolk, lemon juice and salt. Set aside.
  10. Pour the breadcrumbs into the pie base.
  11. Pour the syrup mixture evenly over the breadcrumbs.
  12. Bake for 20min.
  13. Turn oven down to 140ºC (275ºF) for 15-20minutes until the pastry is golden and the filling is lightly set.
  14. Cool before serving, then dollop with ice cream (my favourite), cream or clotted cream!

 

UX and baking and kids

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I’m currently on maternity leave, but my passion (my non-baking passion) is my work: user experience. In a nutshell, user experience (UX) is a realm of graphic design that aims to ensure that a product/service gives the most enjoyable and intuitive experience possible. Although a lot of the preliminary work may be based on intuition, experience and guesses, the only way of knowing if the premises laid out are true is to do testing. Lots of testing. Particularly useful is A/B testing, which involves creating two different experiences for the same, say, website and seeing how people’s reactions differ to the variable(s).

Let me give an analogy, as I would to my 3-3/4 daughter. Say you had a batch of cookies, but wanted to test different types of chocolate. You could make the recipe with chocolate A, eat the results and jot down the notes; then make another batch with chocolate B, eat the results, jot down the notes and compare. But it means you have to remember a fairly ephemeral and intangible experience, you’re baking for more than an hour, and you’ve filled every cookie tin you own and/or had to buy a pair of bigger jeans.

UX chocolate cookie testing | Gertrude + Spice

Much easier is to simply make a batch of cookies, split it in half (or as many times as types of chocolate being tested), and bake the variables at the same time. Then sit back, taste each option at the same time, mark your notes and declare the winner!

UX chocolate cookie testing | Gertrude + Spice

Aurelia helped me with this, err, not-so-theoretical experiment. I still levy a ‘visiting’ tax upon every visitor from the US in the form of Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate chips; there’s nothing remotely like them in the UK, where plain (dark) chocolate is the baking standard. My poor, lovely mother-in-law packs additional suitcases to help diffuse the weight of these quintessentially American morsels when she visits. And so, to cut this cord with the US and be able to find and suggest suitable alternatives here in the UK, Aurelia and I set out to work on this A/B test.

Tested were: chocolate A — Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate chips (47% cocoa); and chocolate B — Lindt Dark Cooking Chocolate 51% Cocoa.

UX chocolate cookie testing | Gertrude + Spice

Chocolate B came in large bar form, so we had to chop it up as close to ‘morsel’ size as we could (I say ‘we’ generously, given the knife). I found Choc A to be waxy at start without much taste, then quite sweet, with an unexpected, but pleasant, final taste. I found Choc B to immediately melt and be uniformly warm and rich in flavour. Aurelia preferred: ‘both’.

When incorporated in their respective portions of cookie dough, I couldn’t make out much of a difference in flavour. Aurelia liked: ‘both’.

After they were baked, we each tried each. I was surprised by how different the results were, and by how much I preferred one to the other. For me, Chocolate A (Nestlé) remained waxy and simple to taste, and unappealing to look at when bitten into as the chips kept their shape. (It should be noted that retaining the chip shape is a purposeful objective of Nestlé’s; just as M&M’s aren’t meant to melt in your hands.) On the other hand, Chocolate B was an absolute delight! When bitten into, the chocolate positively oozed out, just like chocolate does in all ads. Additionally, the act of chopping the chocolate bar (which, granted, was cumbersome) meant that many small shavings were created. These shavings diffused throughout the dough, adding even more chocolatey flavour throughout. Folks, I’d say we have a winner! But we need to know: Aurelia’s favourite?….’Both’

Who saw that coming?

UX chocolate cookie testing | Gertrude + Spice

Luscious, light, lovely little Lamingtons!

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Last week, as you may recall, I had an epic disaster with my first attempt at Lamingtons. I had intended to increase the recipe by 50%,  but had forgotten to increase the quantities of pretty much everything… accept the eggs. I used 12 eggs, and it was basically like I’d made 3 large, square soufflés.

Back on that horse.

Lamingtons are wonderful cubes of plain sponge cake, dunked in chocolate and rolled in coconut. The eggs and sugar are whipped aggressively for 5-10minutes, making the sponge as light as air.

This time I followed a recipe by David Leibovitz, who, if you aren’t familiar with, is an epically talented American-expat-in-Paris pastry chef / author / food blogger. Although Lamingtons are decidedly Australian, this recipe is decidedly Leibovitz’s own, using fewer eggs (6 rather than 8) and incorporating crazy things… like cake flour, salt and vanilla extract. His classic ingredients result in a sponge cake that is truly delicious rather than simply the tallest, lightest sponge possible.

The was a really enjoyable recipe to make, and quite easy to do once I used the correct ingredients. Doing the chocolate and coconut steps are fantastic fun to do with kids — if you don’t mind a little mess!

The Lamingtons have no filling. However, cream or chocolate fillings are apparently popular Down Under, and I’d love to play with some other variations, like cocoa dip on half with coconut on the other, or stem ginger or even perhaps sprinkles. I’m obviously straying from the nature of a Lamington, but this cake is so light and airy and yummy, and the idea of using these wonderful cubes of fun all over the place is just too much to pass up!

Make these. Like cupcakes, they take a little bit of time, but they are a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Lovely lamingtons Lovely lamingtonsLovely lamingtons Lovely lamingtonsLovely lamingtons Lovely lamingtons

5.0 from 1 reviews
Luscious, light, lovely little Lamingtons!
 
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Serves: 18 individual cakes
Ingredients
  • 6 large eggs, at room temperature
  • ¾ cup (150 g) caster sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1⅓ cup (175 g) cake flour*
  • 2½ ounces (70 g) melted unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3 cups (450g) icing (confectioner’s) sugar, sifted
  • ¾ cup (90g) cocoa powder, sifted
  • 1 cup (250ml) boiling water
  • ¼ cup (60ml) milk
  • 75g butter, melted, extra
  • desiccated coconut, to coat
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC).
  2. Butter one 9" (22cm) square cake tin, and line with parchment paper.
  3. Using a stand mixer, whisk sugar and eggs together on high for 5-10min. or until the batter drips off like a thick ribbon when pulled out. Meanwhile, melt butter and let adjust to room temperature.
  4. Add vanilla.
  5. Sift the flour and baking soda together 3 times.
  6. Carefully and slowly whisk in the flour.
  7. Gently mix in the butter — until it is fully incorporated, but only just.
  8. Pour into cake tin and bake for 30min. When done, let cool completely.
  9. Mix icing sugar, cocoa powder, boiling water, milk and butter together to make the chocolate dip.
  10. Pour half of the coconut in a separate bowl — a bowl that has plenty of excess space in it.
  11. Once sponge is cool, cut into 16 equal pieces.
  12. Using one hand, place one piece in the chocolate, ensuring that all sides are fully covered.
  13. Let excess chocolate drip off, then place in the coconut. Bounce the cake around in the bowl to ensure the cake is fully covered in chocolate. Using your other (clean) hand, put up the now fully covered cake, and place on a drying rack or parchment paper.
  14. Enjoy once set! They're best consumed same day.

 

Cavolo Nero Crostini… AKA pesto bruschetta on steroids

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Inspired by an Italian friend of ours, we’ve lately been stocking our fridge heavily with Cavolo Nero. If you aren’t familiar with this heady vegetable, it’s spinach’s stronger, darker sibling. Think of Popeye meeting the Incredible Hulk. Wham!

For Mother’s Day, Nye gave me a new cookbook: Spuntino. Within it’s beautiful pages was a delicious sounding recipe for Mozzarella & Cavolo Nero Crostini. Faced with a lack of an idea for dinner, this popped into mind. I had to give it a whirl.

Oh… yum. A darker, earthier version of pesto that is positively bursting with flavour and nutrients. It’s an absurdly easy meal (so long as you have a food processor, and no, a NutriBullet won’t cut it), easily done within 15 minutes after you’ve done it once or twice.

Do, however, be sure to get a killer mozzarella to pair with it — it’ll need to hold its own!

Cavola Nero toastCavola Nero toastCavola Nero toastCavola Nero toastCavola Nero toast

Cavolo Nero Crostini... AKA pesto bruschetta on steroids
 
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Serves: 8 pieces
Ingredients
  • about 200g cavolo nero, stems removed
  • 3-4 garlic cloves
  • good handful of parmesan, about 20g
  • sea salt flakes and fresh ground black pepper
  • 100g extra virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 8 slices of ciabatta
  • 2 x 125g balls of bulls mozzarella, at room temperature
Instructions
  1. Slice ciabatta and brush olive oil over both sides of all slices. Set aside.
  2. Heat salted water to boiling.
  3. While waiting for it to boil, wash and cut cavolo nero into 2cm strips.
  4. Get a bowl filled with ice water prepped for blanching the cavolo nero.
  5. Add cavolo nero to boiling water. As soon as the water begins to boil again, quickly drain the cavolo nero and put it into the ice water to retain its brilliant colour and flavour.
  6. Give it a minute or two to cool, then drain throughly, squeezing out all excess water by hand.
  7. Place 2 of the garlic cloves, cavilo nero, parmesan, salt and pepper into a food processor, and purée.
  8. Slowly add olive oil.
  9. Add lemon juice and mix in by hand.
  10. Toast ciabatta slices on both sides using a broiler or griddle.
  11. The moment they are toasted, remove. Rub garlic along each piece, crumble mozzarella on top, spoon the pesto over and sprinkle on some parmesan. Enjoy with a hearty wine!

 

Zucchini muffins, err, cupcakes

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There’s a weekly school bake sale at present, to drum up funds for the refugees over in Calais. It’s obviously a very worthy cause. It also — on a far, far more trivial note — means that I get to bake and not eat the entire end product. This may sound like an unfortunate result, but my jeans are getting tight. That chocolate cake — that chocolate cake — nearly did me in. Nye and I consumed 3/4 of that full-sized, 3-layer cake on our own, no joke.

The challenge of baking for a school bake sale is that the products need to appeal to kids and be easy to grab. This means lots of chocolate (this never fails to appeal), and, for better or worse, no 3-layer crumbly cakes. I decided to make Lamingtons this past week. Don’t know what these are? I hadn’t either, till I discovered them at my favourite, Aussie-owned coffeeshop. They are almost-too-big cubes of an ultra light plain sponge cake, covered on all sides with chocolate, and then rolled in coconut. They are as yummy as they sound, assuming you like coconut half as much as I do.

I’d never made Lamingtons before. And… I still haven’t. I decided on my first go to make a batch and a half, but, like a distracted idiot, I only increased the quantity of ingredients on certain items, not all. The recipe I was working off of called for 8 eggs for a single batch. EIGHT EGGS! I used a full dozen eggs to increase my recipe as planned, but, again, I didn’t increase the flour, sugar and many other ingredients accordingly. As these absurdly eggy cakes cooked, the house began to fill with a queasy smell of a breakfast cafe—eggs, eggs, eggs! The cakes came out, and I basically had 3 massive soufflés that then sank as they cooled to ultra dense, stodgy frittatas. Epic. Fail.

I didn’t have the time, inclination or egg count to redo the Lamingtons, so I turned to my fridge and grabbed some zucchini. As I said, chocolate at bake sales sell… but I’d already made chocolate zucchini bread. It was gorgeous, but I wanted to try something new for my own sake. I didn’t feel zucchini muffins would necessarily be the biggest of hits with kids (at least, to look at), but with frosting…. that’d be a different story! And it was.

This recipe is thanks to Heather Christo. And for reference, this recipe would work just as well in loaf/bread form as well.

Zucchini spice cupcakes Zucchini spice cupcakesZucchini spice cupcakes Zucchini spice cupcakesIMG_8368

Zucchini spice cupcakes
 
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Serves: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients
  • CAKE
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 ¼ cups white sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 ½ tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • 2 cups zucchini, shredded
  • 1 cup raisins
  • ¾ cup pecans or walnuts (optional)
  • FROSTING
  • 1 cup butter, room temperature
  • 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tbs milk
Instructions
  1. CAKE
  2. Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC.
  3. Line cupcake tray with cupcake liners.
  4. Grate zucchini and set aside.
  5. Combine oil and sugar.
  6. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until light and fluffy.
  7. Whilst eggs are mixing, combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
  8. Add dry mix slowly to wet mix.
  9. Add zucchini, mixing until it is only just incorporated.
  10. Fold in raisins by hand. If using nuts, fold those in as well.
  11. Spoon batter into cupcake tray, filling each cupcake liner about ¾ full.
  12. Bake approx 15min, or until only just lightly golden. Don't overcook or it will dry out!
  13. Place cupcakes on cooling rack.
  14. Whilst cupcakes are cooling, make frosting. Whip butter and cream cheese.
  15. Add vanilla.
  16. Carefully add powdered sugar and cinnamon. (Turn off to do so. Add all at once; I use a dishtowel to ensure the sugar doesn't spray out.)
  17. Slowly add milk. Whip until light and fluffy.
  18. Frost cupcakes when completely cool, and enjoy!

 

Oh me, oh my, ‘THAT’ chocolate cake

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That chocolate cake!

It seems this is the year of chocolate. Honestly, I’ve never been more excited by non-chocolate dessert options in my life, but it seems this is indeed the year I nail a few of my gustatory ambitions. A couple of weeks ago I finally — finally, finally! — made my perfect chocolate cookie — moist, rich and seriously chocolate.

This week, I turned to chocolate cakes. Why? Hmm, just in the mood. And it was my half birthday, which can’t go by uncelebrated… or at least without being used as an excuse for CAKE!

I can’t remotely take credit for this baby; it’s a creation from Desserts for Breakfast, based off the much acclaimed cake by Scharffen Berger. The single thing I amended was the quantity of sugar as I rarely feel a recipe needs quite as much sugar as it calls for.

This cake — good lord, that cake — is as light and airy as it is dense and moist. I’m not sure how it manages to do both, but it does. It does it all. It forces you to sneak a fork out when your daughter isn’t looking to shave a few bites off. It forces you to sneak a few more bites because the toaster is taking too long to deliver a somewhat more healthy alternative.

Of course, this recipe was a revision of the original Scharffen Berger creation. Mmm… mmm… I sense further exploration may be needed. (Just in the name of due diligence, of course.)

That chocolate cake!That chocolate cake!

'That' chocolate cake
 
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Serves: 3 layer 8" cake
Ingredients
  • FROSTING
  • 1¾ cups (350 gr) sugar
  • 1½ cups heavy cream
  • 7.5 oz (213 gr) unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
  • 12 Tbspn unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1½ tspn vanilla extract
  • CAKE
  • 3 cups (600 gr) sugar
  • scant 3 cups (425 gr) AP flour
  • 1 cup + 2 Tbspn (135 gr) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1½ tspn salt
  • 2¼ tspn baking powder
  • 2¼ tspn baking soda
  • 3 eggs
  • ¾ cup vegetable oil
  • 1½ cup whole milk
  • 1½ cup hot coffee
Instructions
  1. CAKE
  2. Preheat oven to 350ºF / 170ºC.
  3. Make a small pot of coffee.
  4. Grease, flour and line 3 8" (19cm) cake tins with parchment paper.
  5. If using cake strips to ensure flat layers (no bumps to later cut off), wrap them around your tins.
  6. Combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and the baking soda, and set aside.
  7. In a separate bowl (or stand mixer), combine eggs, vegetable oil and milk and mix.
  8. Add dry ingredients, and mix on medium for 3 minutes.
  9. Add hot coffee, and mix on low for another half minute.
  10. Divide batter into the 3 cake tins, and place in oven.
  11. Bake 35-45 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick is clean when removed.
  12. Let cool on a rack, and get underway with that frosting! It will take a while to cool as well.
  13. FROSTING
  14. Using a saucepan, combine the heavy cream and sugar, and gently bring to a boil.
  15. Simmer on low for 6 minutes, keeping an eye on it and whisking gently from time to time.
  16. Remove from heat and add broken pieces of chocolate and chunks of butter (if not broken down, these may not melt in their entirety).
  17. Mix in vanilla.
  18. Let cool — this will take considerable time (approx 45 min if using a refrigerator, though if doing so, be careful to not have it dip below room temperature or it won't spread!).
  19. When room temperature, start decorating!

 

Classic peanut butter cookies

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Hip hip hooray! It’s peanut butter cookie day!

I have a secret to admit. I’ve never made peanut butter cookies before… And this is only the second time I’ve ever even eaten one. EVER. What kind of an American am I?? (Answer: an expat, I know.) Seriously though, I’ve no excuse. For whatever reason — some remaining vestige of a bizarre childhood aversion — I just never went for them.

But I’m now grown up, and it’s time to make up for lost time! This recipe comes straight from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. The cookies are sensational — particularly on the day of baking and day after. Moist and a nice cross between chewy and cakey.

Classic peanut butter cookies

I might try using some brown sugar next time to see if I can keep the chewiness as what few cookies remained did dry out quickly over the next few days.

Classic peanut butter cookies

Classic peanut butter cookies
 
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Serves: 24 cookies
Ingredients
  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp. baking soda
  • ½ tsp. baking powder
  • 2 sticks softened butter (16 Tbl.)
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 cup extra-crunchy peanut butter
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350º F / 170º C.
  2. Mix flower, salt, baking soda and baking powder and set aside.
  3. In mixer (or bowl with wooden spoon), cream butter with both white and brown sugar.
  4. Add eggs, one at a time.
  5. Add vanilla.
  6. Incorporate dry mix to wet.
  7. Lastly, add peanut butter. Be sure not to overmix if you want the crunch!
  8. Roll into 2-inch balls and place on the cookie sheets. These cookies will not spread significantly.
  9. Using a fork, press down gently on the cookies, making a criss-crossed pattern on each.
  10. Bake for 10-12min, and enjoy!

 

Ultra-moist Red Velvet Cake

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Oooo red velvet! Valentine’s Day arrived, and being part of a family—and one with an infant and a child with chickenpox—Nye and I certainly weren’t going anywhere.

Instead, we bought our first ever steak and made cake. Let me repeat that for a moment: we bought our first ever steak…! I had been a vegetarian for 7 years prior to meeting Nye (he corrupted me, what can I say?), but having grown up on a farm, I have had more steak in my life than most. Yet, for the past 9 years that we’ve known each other, Nye and I have exclusively bought steak only when dining out at restaurants. It’s not really any kind of official policy, but not a bad one if we did. At any rate, we had steak, and it was mouthwatering delicious. Nye, however, was the chef of that delectable, so I’ll let you all just dream about it as I’m going to just focus on the pudding!

Ultra-moist Red Velvet Cake

I made Red Velvet cake. Well, I say Red Velvet, but really this was more of an ultra-moist not-so-red velvet cake. I am a huge fan of The Hummingbird Bakery’s cakes; their Red Velvet makes me go weak at the knees, and I even super-sized their Blackbottom cupcake recipe into my hubby’s full-sized 40th birthday cake.

But, I’m not a huge fan of food dye.

So, I reviewed a number of alternate paths people had taken, and came up with a recipe that involves beetroot. I tried to stick as closely to Hummingbird’s original recipe, but this really is pretty far removed.

To make the dye, I puréed 2 large beetroots. Simples. It turned a nice bright, incredibly permanent red, and was incredibly strong to taste. But, as I added the remaining ingredients, the colour faded (I’m going to blame my beloved cocoa powder) and so, too, thankfully, did the beety taste.

What remained was a not-so-red cake that stayed moist for days — days! — whilst the traditional Hummingbird Red Velvet would dry out in a day or two. I think it may even have improved in flavour.

Ultra-moist Red Velvet Cake

Now, typically when making cake the expectation is that the cake will be made and consumed all together, almost immediately. We made this just for ourselves, so unless we were going to make ourselves diabetic-in-a-day-full on cake, this cake was going to be savoured slowly over the week. It didn’t actually last beyond 3 or 4 days.

Ultra-moist Red Velvet Cake

I should mention that this is probably the first time I’ve ever seen sprinkles on a Red Velvet cake. But as the cake wasn’t really red, and I’ve had Molly Yeh’s Sprinkle Cake very much in my mind, and sprinkles are the best thing in the world according to my daughter—I just went with it.

Ultra-moist Red Velvet Cake

Ultra-moist Red Velvet Cake
 
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Serves: 2 x 19cm layer cake
Ingredients
  • CAKE
  • 215g flour
  • ¾ t. salt
  • 1¼ t. baking soda
  • 80g butter
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 165g pureed beetroot
  • 15g cocoa powder
  • 2 t. vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs
  • 100ml milk
  • 3 T plain yogurt
  • 2 T white wine vinegar
  • HUMMINGBIRD BAKERY FROSTING
  • 300g icing sugar
  • 50g room-temperature butter
  • 125g cold cream cheese
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 170ºC/350ºF.
  2. Line and flour the cake tins. (Don't be lazy and do this later; this recipe is very time sensitive once!)
  3. Mix together flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
  4. Using a mixer or bowl with wooden spoon, cream butter and sugar.
  5. Puree beetroot.
  6. Mix beetroot, cocoa powder and vanilla.
  7. Add the beetroot mixture and the yogurt and milk to the creamed butter, alternating between a spoonful of the dry and a bit of the wet.
  8. Lastly, add the baking soda and vinegar.
  9. Pour into tins and immediately place in oven
  10. Bake for 30min, or until the cake springs back when gently touched.
  11. Cool for 5min before removing cakes from tins.
  12. Let cool completely before frosting.
  13. While it cools, cream icing sugar and butter with a stand or handheld mixer for about 30 sec. (Do so with care! The sugar will fly everywhere; I like to carefully wrap a cloth around the mixer until everything is fully incorporated.)
  14. Stop mixer, add cream cheese, and remix for 5min. Be sure not to overmix as it will get runny.

 

Radio silence!

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Gertrude + Spice

These past two weeks have been busy ones. An outbreak of chickenpox, a school holiday and hubby’s comic convention all convened and conspired to keep me from my blog. But not from the kitchen! Spicy spinach & cheese muffins, peanut butter cookies, more ultra chocolate cookies and red velvet cake (and cupcakes)… there was plenty going on without the written documentation. I’ll try my best to catch up. Or just make them again!

Gertrude + Spice

Curried butternut squash soup

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Curried butternut squash soup

Each week we get a vegetable box from a local farm, and every few weeks it includes a butternut squash. I’m always trying to figure out exactly what to do with it. Sticks doused in butter, cinnamon, allspice and roasted are good — but not regularly. And that’s a post for a different day.

Curried butternut squash soup

My absolute favourite, go-to-butternut-squash recipe is this one, for a curried soup with coconut milk. Yummmm. Coconut milk, ginger, curry paste, and the squash — an utterly morish, healthy and hearty winter soup. Oh, and it happens to be vegan, if that’s your thing.

Curried butternut squash soup

Dollop with a bit of plain yogurt, and considering garnishing with some sweet chilli sauce.

Curried butternut squash soup

Curried butternut squash soup
 
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Author:
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 2 onions, diced
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 T minced ginger-root
  • 1 T curry paste
  • 7-8 c (1.4kg) diced butternut squash
  • 4 c. water
  • 2 t sugar
  • 1¼ t salt
  • 398ml unsweetened coconut milk
  • 2 T lemon juice
Instructions
  1. Cut squash into approx 1in cubes.
  2. Dice onions.
  3. Heat oil in a large stockpot and gently cook onions, garlic and ginger until the onions are clear (approx 5min).
  4. Add curry paste and cook 1 additional minute, stirring constantly.
  5. Add squash.
  6. Add water — just enough to cover the squash.
  7. Add sugar and salt.
  8. Simmer 30 min, or until the squash is tender.
  9. Add coconut milk, and simmer 5 min.
  10. Add lemon juice.
  11. Puree, reheat and enjoy!