“Happiness is…finding two olives in your martini when you’re hungry.”
Johnny Carson
It’s hard to say no to an invite from Olive at the Qutab. Always the promise of a fab fun filled time out, great hospitality, innovative food and drinks, relaxed company … all that jazz! I knew I couldn’t make it. It was midweek and I don’t do late night events on weekdays, both kids were under a flu attack, there were virtual floods in the city with incessant rains. Yet Olive beckoned, and I succumbed. It was time to visit Dirty Martini!
It was a perfect night out. How better to describe the ‘prohibition era‘ of the 1920’s so well captured by the immensely innovative and talented award winning Chef Saby and his team. {As dimly lit as a bar could possibly be, my low light camera skills were severely tested. I got a million shaky blurry shots, befitting of the 1920’s! The camera was soon abandoned.}
‘The Dirty Martini”, Olive at the Qutub is a 1920s speakeasy inspired bar set in Europe. The hedonistic 1920s encouraging you to enjoy the sweet seductions of the prohibition era when cocktails were served in tea cups; and where live bands, silent cinema and floor shows marked entertainment. An era of molls and gangsters, of flappers and flamboyance.
The menu offers a combination of “speakeasy inspired” concoctions and European cocktails which are twisted, tweaked and crafted for The Dirty Martini at Olive Qutub’. The Dirty Martini is India’s first “speakeasy inspired” bar and not a “speakeasy”.
The tradition of Speakeasies is rooted in the time of prohibition in the US. They were basically illegal bars which usually had a secret back door entry through dirty alleys, tricky doors and basements and access to which was screened or through passwords. A speakeasy brings to mind a smoky bar with bluesy music, dancing to a jazz combo, aromas of comfort food wafting out from the kitchen and a fun, relaxed celebratory atmosphere. Bars where drinks were served in tea cups and the bar could be hidden at the touch of a button.
It’s a beautiful recreation, a step back in time to capture the fascinating era. We were greeted by warm cups of mulled wine in mud glasses {Chef Saby’s stamp all over}. A typical back door entry {through the kitchen}, we ‘stumbled‘ into the dimly lit quintessentially ‘speakasy‘ ambiance. Extravagant décor accentuated with lavish mirrors, art deco furniture and lamp shades, a piano … and the beautiful Olga who crooned out 1920’s music !
A Smoking Gin made it’s way over, beautifully presented, and as always, perfect to the ‘t’. Very Olive & very intriguing!! Classic and contemporary martinis, beer bottles wrapped in brown paper bags, 20’s floral cups and saucers to clandestinely serve cocktails … every detail covered!
Dirty Martini is run by a team of young talented chefs headed by Chef Dhruv Oberoi who has just returned after training with Chefs Ferran Adria and Albert Adria of the El Bulli fame! The food is inspirational .. and of course ‘eat easy’! Classic sliders, hot dogs, finger foods, the menu focuses on fresh produce and easy to eat food. Finger licking good too with inventive names that do a merry dance in the head.
Big Boss Toast which kicks the taste buds with goat cheese, chili jam and berries, a Shebeen Sandwich with Harissa, artichokes, feta pate and apricot chutney … good food, fresh and flavourful! The TDM Chicken, batter fried and yum, served with chipotle mayo. Delicious … as was the Shrimp Jammer. Another huge favourite was the Gangster Slider … perfect flavours to the tenderloin patty!
One of my favourites was the soul warming and indulgent Godfather’s Stew. Casablanca was the vegetable version – seven veggies in there, and the non vegetarian version, the Starving Mafia, a slow cooked lamb goulash that hit the ball out of the park. Both outstanding! {Sangeetamanaged to get the goulash recipe from ever obliging and large hearted Saby.}
Prohibition ended sweetly with desserts that warmed up the winter night!The Smoking Cigar … a chocolate fountain gurgled happily as ‘live churros’ were piped into a huge bowl of simmering oil. Little glassfuls of chocolate sauce were on offer. Nice, but what I absolutely loved was the Nutty Auntie ; charming little apple and walnut tarts with a drizzle of maple! ’twas a night to remember!
Thank you Saby, Astha and Dhruv for this fabulous journey back into time. No one can do it better than Olive!
“Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world’s perfect food.”
Michael Levine
Dark Chocolate & Kumquat Creme Pots … these were decadent. Delicious, bowl scraping good and soul satisfying. The season and the colours of the humble little kumquat, a sour citrus fruit that was until a few years ago just an ornamental plant, all inspire creativity. This dessert was the result of one such inspired moment!
We always referred to kumquats as Chinese oranges or tangerines. Food blogging threw up new names. So many references to a similar fruit by the name of kumquat, and then the Google Gods demystified it. These are round kumquats, the Asian cousins of the elliptical round ones that colour the web every now and then.The boughs are hanging heavy with fruit, ready for picking, and more buds and green kumquats are already showing up. My mothers shrub too is full with fruit too. This seems to be a good year for this tart citrus fruit.
I’ve done lots with these beauties this season … Kumquat & Strawberry Tiramisu Charlotte, Kumquat Marmalade, and No Bake Cheesecake Pots. My mind works overtime thinking of how much more we can do with kumquats.
I had serious dark chocolate and orange cravings one day. Two years ago I had made Dark chocolate & sour orange tartlets. My blog was hacked shortly after that and some posts disappeared. I didn’t have the time to check then. Recently when I looked for the tartlets high and low, I drew a blank on PAB.
The pictures are still firmly etched in my head. Googling led me to FoodGawker and I was relieved to see I had indeed made the tartlets, only that the recipe post has been lost forever. I have attempted to recreate it. I remember cooking the whole fruit then.If I wasn’t inspired enough by the fruit of the season, I was even more fortunate that day. Look at these beautiful little ceramic cups and single serve creamers that I got from Urban Dazzle. Adorable!! Love at first sight, it brought out the inner child in me. Took me back to when we were little girls, playing with miniature tea sets. How could I not be inspired?
There’s something about white ceramic bakeware. It holds so much promise. These little round ramekins are one of the best additions to my bursting bakeware collection. There is so much you can do in them … cream caramels, panna cotta, ice cream in summer, chocolate custard pots, lime possets. Do you have any more ideas dear readers? What would you make in these little beauties?
One look at them as I unpacked them, smooth ceramic, neat, clean edges, aesthetically designed and my imagination took wing. There was no time to bake so I took the fast track to dessert. A winning combination of sour orange and dark chocolate, topped with a light white chocolate cream sauce. We were back in business!Dark chocolate from Thorntonsmarried a bittersweet sour orange puree to make thick custard like pastry cream. A light cream chocolate sauce made with melt in the mouth white chocolate made it sublime. Candied kumquats tied the flavours together with some white chocolate garnishing. All we heard after dinner was ‘scrape, scrape, scrape’.
You cannot go wrong with good quality chocolate. The pots were bowl licking good as might be the case with the kids. They too fell in love with the little ‘baby’ creamers, so charming and so unreal in this world which is in so much of a hurry sometimes. It was wonderful to sit back and enjoy the petite servings.
In the days to come I will try and find more ways to use the bounty of nature, i.e. kumquats in full strength. Bitter Kumquat Marmaladehas been made; distributed too! I bottled some Kumquat Liqueur a few days ago in a decanter my Mum gave me. The colours are so pretty!
A few thoughts before I take you to the recipe. Do use good quality chocolate as that is what makes simple desserts like these absolutely shine! Also, if you prefer a smoother texture, you can always skip the almond meal. I just like to add ‘nuts’ in any form to my food.
This post is brought to you in conjunction with Thorntons.
[print_this]Recipe: Dark Chocolate & Kumquat Creme Pots
Summary: Delicious, bowl scraping good and soul satisfying, these no bake Dark Chocolate & Kumquat Creme Pots are inspired by fruit in season. The very tart and colourful kumquats lend deep ‘orangey’ flavour to the dark chocolate, and colour to the presentation.
Kumquat Puree {Your require a few tbsps. Store the ramainder in a jar in the fridge}
250g kumquats, halved, seeds removed
250g sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
Creme Pots
100g kumquat puree {recipe follows}
250g dark chocolate
25g raw sugar {or regular}
20g cornflour
200ml low fat cream
3 egg yolks
100ml milk 2%
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
25g almond meal
White chocolate cream
100ml low fat cream
25g white chocolate, grated
25g white chocolate for garnishing if desired
Candied Kumquats
100g kumquats, sliced, seeds removed
200g sugar
200ml water
Method:
Candied Kumquats
Place sugar, water and sliced kumqauts in a saucepan. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the kumquats become translucent Handle gently and strain the kumquats and reserve in a bowl.
Return the syrup to the pan and reduce to about 2/3rd amount. Return the sliced candied kumquats to the syrup, cool and refrigerate until required.
Kumquat puree
Thermomix:
Place all ingredients in bowl of TM, cook on 100, reverse speed 2 for 8 minutes. Blend until smooth.
Stove Top:
Place kumquats, sugar and vanilla bean in a saucepan. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until the kumquat peel is soft. Remove bean {or leave in as I did}. Puree until smooth.
Place 100g kumquat puree with the dark chooclate and melt over a bain marie, or in the microwave.
White chocolate cream
Gently heat the cream, and pour over the white chocolate. Mix until smooth. Cool.
For the pastry cream:
Thermomix:
Place 100g kumquat puree with the dark chocolate in TM bowl and run at speed 4, 10 seconds.
Place remaining ingredients except almond meal. Cook at 90C, speed 4, 7 minutes. Add the almond meal and run at speed 6 for 30 seconds.
Stove Top:
Mix together the sugar, cornflour, cream and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolks and whisk until smooth.
Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Add the milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 10-12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. {If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer}
Fold in the dark chocolate-kumquat puree, and then uniformly stir in the almond meal.
Transfer the cream to serving bowls immediately, tap gently to level out, and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate at least 2-3 hours before serving.
Assemble
Top each bowl with 1-2 tbsp of white chocolate cream, some candied kumquats and white chocolate scrolls. Serve immediately or chill until required.
“Ingredients are not sacred. The art of cuisine is sacred.”
Tanith Tyrr
It was a savoury chicken galette waiting to happen, or maybe wanting to be baked. It’s a result of blogger interactions, loads of food talk, some food cravings, events missed and repented, flavours virtually thrown into the air and talked about….I missed a picnic a few weeks ago with the Delhi food bloggers bunch. There was so much talk about food, what who was making, baking, getting, that I had pangs …not hunger pangs but pangs of missing out on something good!The Great Cookaroo threw in yolks after yolks to make her to go pastry cream from Dorie Greenspans Baking with Julia. I had the book on the shelf. A favourite from a favourite food blogger who gifted it to me from Bangalore. {Thank you again Suma!}
Then there was talk of pickled green garlic pesto which immediately threw my tastebuds in overdrive … that sounded drop dead delicious. I wanted some! My chance soon came as a bunch of us met again at the Ty.phoo Tea & Food pairing event. Sangeeta carried a bottle of pickled green garlic pesto for me.
Smothered on a toast the next morning, it had a comforting homey feel! It had all the hints of the green chutney sandwiches my dad often made … beautiful flavours that teased the palette. As I sat in the kitchen, the laundry machine whirring punishingly in the background, I reached out for Baking with Julia! The book is a winner. Read it, bake from it, drool over it, learn from it. I wanted to bake something savoury that morning, and settled for Cheese & Tomato Galette!
The galette dough was done in seconds, a Flo Baker recipe from the book. Don’t you love a dough that comes together in a heartbeat, is fuss free, smooth, pliable and uses pantry staples? I didn’t even need to rest it since it held beautifully, winter ensuring a fridge like cold kitchen. {Feedback from batch #2: An overnight rest in the fridge yields a pliable nice dough too.}
I used everything I had on hand! Pickled green garlic pesto, mozzarella, chicken salami, then some roasted onion balsamic jam, cherry tomatoes, smoked sea salt, pepper. Finished it off with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and fresh garlic greens.
The green garlic pesto was a bit spicy / chili for the younger fellow, but hit all the right spots with the daughter and husband who love everything chili! You can find the recipe for the Pickled Green Garlic Pesto{or lehsun ka achaar} on Sangeeta’s blog. Use extra virgin olive oil to get a more pesto like feel to it {as she did for my batch}, and reduce the chilies if you don’t like it too hot! BTW, Sangeeta does great personalised diet plans too, so do stop by if you need one!
You can do pretty much anything with a ‘pastry canvas’ like this. To keep the younger one happy, I made a second lot with roasted bell peppers and onions {roasting donein the Philips AirFryer, 10 minutes was all it took}, topped with sliced chicken sausages marinated briefly in a honey-mustard-garlic mix. Keep it vegetarian with roasted veggies, caramelised onion & garlic jam and feta, maybe tomatoes. It’s smooth, fun to roll out, and even more fun to ruffle over the filling to give it the characteristic galette feel.
[print_this]
Recipe: Savoury Chicken Galette
Summary: A simple, crisp and delicious pastry base which can go sweet or savoury. This savoury rustic pie can hold varied combinations of toppings, vegetarian or non vegetarian, and is great for picnics, snack boxes. The savoury chicken galette can be assembled ahead of time, or even baked ahead and rewarmed in the oven briefly. Recipe adapted minimally from Baking with Julia. Makes 4 6″ galettes.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 1 hour Ingredients:
Galette dough
80ml ice cold water
45ml buttermilk
120g plain flour
25g cornmeal [makki ka aata]
1/2 tsp salt
90g butter, chilled cubed
Suggested toppings {a combination of any of the following}
Place the flour, cornmeal and salt in bowl of food processor. Pulse briefly to mix, then add chilled butter and pulse briefly until you get an uneven mix from peas to breadcrumb size bits.
With the mchine running, pour in the buttermilk, followed by most of the chilled water and process until a soft, moist dough forms.
Remove, divide into 2, press into flat disks and chill for at least 2 hours.
Assembling
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Divide each disk into two and roll out to about 8″ circles. I cut the edges round with a pastry cutter, though you could just leave it uneven.
Line a shallow platter with the rolled out pastry hanging over the edges, fill it up as you like, beginning with mozzarella, then gently fold the edges over the filling around the sides.
Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, garlic greens etc over the filling and bake for about 30-35 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.
Transfer to a cooling rack, leave for at least 10 minutes, then slide off with a wide spatula. Serve warm or at room temperature with a scattering of garlic greens, fresh herbs etc.
“Cuisine is the tactile connection we have to breathing history.History and culture offer us a vibrant living society that we taste through cuisine.All cuisine is a reflection of the society from which it emanates … in the end cuisine is the result of culture”
Clifford Wright
It’s been a while that the Bloggers Table got together and what could have been a better, more beautiful place than Blue Ginger at the Taj Palace, New Delhi. A beautiful hotel, steeped in culture, a landmark among Delhi hotels. The interiors are enchanting, and the Private Dining Room which hosted the boisterous and chatty group of us, stunning.
Blue Ginger takes its’ design cue from the influence of the French-Colonial aesthetics that still suffuse Vietnamese society. A private dining room seating 12 is located off the main hall. The center-piece is a mother-of-pearl inlayed dining table and a beaded chandelier- amazing works of hand-crafted art in them.
It was an invite to sample a Business Bento Box Lunch, atthe Blue Ginger, the Delhi handle of a series of Vietnamese restaurants the Taj runs in India. A call to experience the brand new culinary journey of the unexplored land of Vietnam at ‘Blue Ginger’, the capitals contemporary Vietnamese restaurant.
Executive Chef Rajesh Wadhwa joined us briefly to introduce us to a lessor known cuisine. He spoke about the influences on the cuisine, local, Thai, Burmese and French of course as Vietnam was a French colony. He also spoke about the challenge of incorporating vegetarian food into the menu in India as the concept of vegetarian food is practically non existent in Vietnam.
The lunch was FABULOUS … though I definitely over ate. We expected to eat out of bento boxes, and that the portions would be controllable! However, the management decided to spoil us and took it upon themselves to have us sample everything the menu had on offer.
We ate non stop, we talked non stop, sometimes guffawing loudly, enjoying the company and the ambiance of the beautiful interiors. Just as well that we were in our own private room which meant we didn’t disturb other patrons with our incessant chatter. First to appear was the amuse bouche, a sweet little bite laced with sriracha that gladdened the heart. I chose the vegetarian first course as I am a very partial vegetarian! It was brilliant!! Fried tofu, tangy well balance fresh mango salad and spring rolls. Individual helpings of dipping sauces, lime and a chili mix were on hand and the first course went down in a second.
We reached out and dug into Sangeetas‘ peppered lamb morsels, served again in salad leaves. It was nice! The salad was common to both courses; maybe the spring rolls too. The grilled chicken was really nice, seasoned delicately and succulent. Never easy to get it so perfect, and Ruchira next to me made neat wraps of it in the lettuce it was served with, expertly dipping into the sauces … making a delicious meal of it.
The palette cleanser made us swoon … a neat soft melt-in-the-mouth sweet tamarind sorbet! Who would have thought? It was refreshing, teased the palette and was outstanding! A beautiful new sorbet flavour to consider if you ever have the opportunity. … We marched on to the main course!
The crispy lotus root was‘pièce de résistance’ ! It stood out and how. Very close to a well made ‘aloo ki tikki’, it was reminiscent of Delhi’s street food. A crisp outer coating, finger licking good flavours and a sticky sweet and sour sauce that clung on to it! Excellent and worth going for seconds!
Then came more food, and more. Lemongrass scented braised lamb shanks, a reflection of the French culinary influence, and were succulent and falling off the bone good! Then, along came stir fried lobster, edamame beans, sticky rice, noodles, spicy vegetable red cari {really nice}.
It’s never easy to develop a parallel vegetarian course from a cuisine that doesn’t offer anything ‘vegetarian’ but the chef and his team achieved it. A challenge no less, and a result quite remarkable. I think I forgot to mention the baguette! That was excellent too, one of the best I’ve eaten, and once again a reflection of the French touch!
The dessert brought forward a loud cheer, as we were served petite portions of 3 different desserts. Chocolate Bombe with Coffee Mousse with Amaretto Chocolate Sauce, Lemograss Ice-cream, and Ginger Coconut Caramel Custard. The coffee mousse was really light as air and was dug into first, and then left for the end.
I enjoyed the lemongrass ice cream too … refreshingly different and connecting well to the flavours of the far east. The caramel custard was slightly overbaked as it wasn’t wobbly and light. It was my least favourite of the three. I was happy to return to the coffee mousse.
I have always liked the concept of a bento box. I think it’s a brilliant way to offer a business lunch. With such a varied and well balanced menu, there is enough and more on offer for both vegetarians and non vegetarians at Blue Ginger. The flavours delicate, lilting, caressing and beautifully understated, yet quite intense, my first ever Vietnamese meal couldn’t have been better. Thank you Blue Ginger for hosting us.
“From morning till night, sounds drift from the kitchen, most of them familiar and comforting. On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it; it dries the wet sock, it cools the hot little brain.”
E.B.White
Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake … this was one of those meals made on the trot, rummaging through the fridge, cleaning out whatever I could use. Then came the daughters’ call to her brother, “Whatever she is making smells REALLY good“. One fork dug deep in later, “Man, this is GOOD! Wow!”
It turned out to be an indulgent, comforting meal in a bowl for days like we are experiencing. Cold Cold Cold. Temperatures nearly dipping into the freezer, 1-2° C range, no central heating, hands as cold as ice. Cooking feels good, stirring a pot over a warm fire quite comforting. Chopping is ugh; then again, there needs to be a means to the end I guess. The upside? Loads of fresh winter vegetables. L O A D S!
I’ve made the most of mushrooms, bell peppers and broccoli this season. Mushrooms are dicey though as the older teen cannot stand them, so I need to sneak them in. This time they hid under some lovely garlic butter and olive oil, then disappeared deep into Worcestershire sauce! Life does get so delicious sometimes….
This was one of those times in the kitchen when I felt like The Pioneer Woman or then the Domestic Goddess. Every pat of butter, every dribble of cream seemed justified in this incessantly cold weather. I cannot even begin to tell you how wonderful the kitchen smelt … warm, garlicky, buttery and oh-so-comforting! Sometimes that little bit of extra fat makes life so much more worthwhile.
The mushrooms were kept veggie company with bell peppers and garlic greens. I love the added flavour garlic greens lend to a dish. Mushrooms and Worcestershire sauce also make for great pairing. I didn’t know that but tasting en-route endorsed it. For that matter rosemary, buttah and chicken make for great bedfellows too.
The creamy chicken was meant to be served over pasta, but the kids woke up really late. That meant a late lunch so I figured I could bake it altogether briefly. It’s wonderful how the creamy sauce got into every little crevice of the pasta. A quick grating of mozzarella and a handsome dash of smoked paprika {from Juberfam & Mittal; excellent stuff} made us all sing out loud.
This is a good one bowl meal, warming, filling, indulgent with some oven roasted potato wedges on the side. Oh, and a warm broccoli salad too. Crisp, full of flavour and really nice. Thankfully, broccoli has ended the battle of the greens with the kids! They know 6-7 florets are ‘mandatory‘; now quite enjoy it. I am yet to win the battle of the cauliflower!
The salad plate is a classic white one from Urban Dazzle. It’s reasonably priced and one that I really really like. Aesthetically designed, slightly tilted and handy to have on hand, it beautifully doubled up as a cake platter on my recent Tea Rose Fondant Cake.
It’s got a nice rounded base which tends to hold any extra dressing juices. Keeps the salad from getting soggy.
The tilt towards the front gives it a good feel. I served a cold potato buttermilk salad in it a few days ago. That is one of our favourites and a great way to enjoy spuds! YUM!
Summary: Creamy, cheesy, indulgent and comforting, this is a great one bowl meal for cold winter days. Make ahead and bake just before serving. Maybe you can do a broccoli salad and oven baked wedges alongside. Serves 6-8
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 1 hourIngredients:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp extra vigin olive oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp chili flakes
200g button mushrooms, sliced fine
750g chicken thigh tenders, cut into bite sized pieces
Heat butter and olive oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add the chili flakes, dried rosemary and garlic. Saute until garlic turns light golden and fragrant.
Add the mushrooms, sprinkle a little salt and saute over high heat until mushrooms turn golden brown and give up all their moisture. Add the Worcestershire sauce and mix well; then add the chicken tenders. Season with salt and pepper and saute over high heat until lightly browned.
Sprinkle over the flour, mix to coat chicken pieces, and then pour in the milk. Stir continuously until the sauce thickens.
Reduce heat to simmer, add the cream and grated cheddar and simmer for 5-7 minutes.
Stir in the chopped bell peppers and garlic greens, taste and adjust seasoning, then stir in the cooked pasta.
Divide the pasta and chicken mixture into serving dishes, casseroles etc, top with grated mozzarella, sprinkle over smoked paprika and some more garlic greens if you like.
Bake at 180C for 15 minutes, allow to stand for 10 minutes and serve.
Recipe: Simple Broccoli Salad
Summary: Crisp, flavourful brocolli salad.
Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes Ingredients:
2-3 heads of broccoli, broken into florets
1-2 tsp salt and 4-5 cups water
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Dressing
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced fine
1-2 tbsp pickled red & green peppers {or jalapenos}, sliced
1 tbsp white sesame seeds
Sea salt & pepper
Method:
Blanch the florets in boiling salted water for 2 minutes, drain well and toss in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Reserve.
Dressing
Heat remaining olive oil in small saucepan, add the garlic and sliced pickled peppers. Simmer until the garlic is fragrant and light golden.
Add the sesame seeds and simmer until they turn light brown and begin popping.
Pour over broccoli, toss, grind pepper over it, throw in some sea salt and serve warm or at room temperature.
“Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”
Hans Christian Andersen
A Tea Rose Fondant Cake … inspired completely by Peggy Porschens‘Pretty Party Cakes’. I have had this stunning book by this very talented sugar craft artisit for years. It sits by my bedside and provides infinite hours of eye candy. I didn’t once think I could attempt her beautiful work; until yesterday …
I have long delayed making sugar paste at home. LONG! The one day I saw a fondant cake at The Great Cookaroo, sometime late last year, and I knew she had beaten me to it. Bah humbug! It still seemed pretty formidable to me, even though Ruchiraconvinced me it was quite easy. She made her fondant out of marshmallows.
Sugar Paste icing is a very sweet edible sugar dough usually made from sugar and glucose. It is sometimes referred to as fondant or sugar gum or gum paste. It can be used to cover cakes, mould features and create decorations for cakes and many other uses.
Then a few days ago I met a very talented Amrita at I Bake who commercially does cakes with fondant. She convinced me it was really easy to make at home. The sweet girl even offered to send a batch home for me to work with. Enough! It was time to give fondant from scratch a shot, and was promptly entered as a new year resolution; rather an update of one which has been long postponed.
Seems like flowers are ‘in season’!! A few days ago, I was asked if I’d like to host a floral giveaway for readers of PAB from the beautiful Serenata Flowers in the UK. Serenata Flowers is a gift shop where other then flowers, you can find chocolates and wine too. They are hosting a giveaway well in time for Valentines day.
The prize is a £30 voucher at Serenata Flowers, that should give the winner the chance to choose a nice gift. Delivery would only be to an address in mainland UK , the winner may live outside UK though. All you need to do is visit the site and leave a comment saying which bouquet you like best. The contest is on until the 31st of Jan, 2013, and the winner will be announced thereafter.
It was time to pair real flowers with edible ones, and also time to ‘fondant or sugar paste’! This was my first attempt at working with fondant and I have to say I loved it! The end result wasn’t perfect, creases that peeped through, yet it took me back many years. Back to those play dough times, flowers, leaves, roses …
I loved using the leftover bits to cut out ribbons etc. Later thought I could have done bees and butterflies too. Maybe the next time I feel so inspired, now that I can ‘do it’!! Fondant is therapeutic; makes you rediscover the inner child in you!
See the ‘cake’ platter? I have to confess that it’s actually a salad plate from Urban Dazzle. It’s a classic white, round platter. The interesting bit is the offset centre which gives you a slight forward tilt. It’s a great aesthetic platter to have, and happily one that doubled up as a cake plate as in this case.
Cookies, finger foods, cupcakes, fruit, candy seem like some other fun uses. Until I do salads in it, I’m enjoying its versatility! This Tea Rose Fondant Cake was the best baking beginning to my new year. I love you fondant!!
I learnt something else. Kids never grow up! You should have seen their eyes light up when they saw all that sugary sweet prettiness! I thought they were both way beyond it. Pictures of the cake furiously ‘WhatsApped‘, the urgency to have dinner done, the impatience to cut a slice, the happiness at devouring the cake {the vanilla buttermilk pound cake is wonderful on it’s own}… so worth the effort!
If you don’t want too much sugar overload you could always just do a 1 egg mini cake. The little one came away neatly and looked sweet on it’s own. The fondant recipe is minimally adapted from ‘Essential Guide to Cake Decorating’ by Alex Barker, which the kids gave me us on our anniversary 4 years ago. This was my first foray into the book … and I loved it!
So go on guys. Spread out some fondant if you are so inclined. Otherwise send someone you love a beautiful bunch of flowers from Serenata Flowers. Share some joy!!
[print_this]Recipe: Sugar Paste/ Fondant
Summary: A simple fondant recipe that was silky smooth and fun to use. minimally adapted from ‘Essential Guide to Cake Decorating’ by Alex Barker
Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes Ingredients:
3 tbsp liquid glucose, warmed {I used Solar, an Indian brand}
1 egg white {or 20g egg white powder reconstituted according to maunfacturer instructions}
400g icing sugar
Method:
Place egg white in a large bowl, whip lightly with fork and then then stir in the liquid glucose. {It tends to harden very fast in winter}
Add the icing sugar bit by bit and gradually work in with a wooden spoon until it begins to form a paste. Gently knead into a ball.
On a very clean surface, knead it until smooth and pliable. Wrap with cling-wrap if not using immediately.
To colour, take small portions, or as required, ans knead in a few drops of the colour as desired. Keep the remaining fondant wrapped in clingwrap at all times.
On a very clean surface dusted with icing sugar, roll out the fondant quite thin. Then cut into shapes with plunger cutters or hand make roses.
I fastened the flowers etc with egg white, though the book says to use royal icing.
Recipe: Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Pound Cake with Vanilla Buttercream
Summary: A lighter version of the classic pound cake, the Tea Rose Fondant Cake is sandwiched with a light confetti buttercream, and makes a delicious base for the fondant art.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes {including cooling time, and time to make fondant decorations etc} Ingredients:
Vanilla Pound Cake
240g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
275g vanilla sugar
3 eggs
130ml buttermilk {or substitute recipe below}
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
To make buttermilk substitute
Take 130ml milk at room temp; add 1 tsp white vinegar. Let it stand 5-10 minutes. When it curdles, it’s ready.
Vanilla buttercream
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
225g icing sugar
50g low fat cream
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
2 tbsp rainbow confetti {optional}
Royal icing or egg white to secure fondant flowers etc onto cake.
Method:
Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cake
Grease and flour the sides of a 7″ ring tin, or a 4″ round tin. Line the bottoms and sides with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Reserve.
Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract and scraped vanilla bean.
With beater on low add the flour and buttermilk alternately in three lots.
Divide the batter between the two tins.
Bake for 50-60 minutes till golden brown on top, and the tester comes out clean. {The smaller cake will get baked in 35-40 minutes}
Cool completely, then slice into two horizontally.
Vanilla butter-cream
Beat the butter, vanilla bean and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy.
Gradually add the low fat cream and whip to desired consistency.
You can add more {or less} depending on how stiff you want the butter-cream.
Assembling
Sandwich the cakes with a light spread of butter-cream with the confetti stirred in.
Give both cakes a thin coat of butter-cream to provide a base for the fondant.
Note: Use squeaky clean hands, counter, rolling pin etc when handling sugar paste/fondant as it is white and shows impurities very easily.
Take about 1/3rd of the fondant {If it is too hard, then briefly, heat it in the microwave wrapped in cling-wrap for 10 seconds. {Keep the remaining fondant well wrapped else it will dry out.}
Sprinkle the work surface with icing sugar, and roll the fondant out thin. {I kept it quite thin to keep the sugar intake a little lower}.
Gently transfer it onto the 7″ cake and press into place. I got a few creases but covered most up with flowers and leaves. Handle gently or it will tear. Trim the edges around the base.
Take 1/2 the remaining fondant and repeat with the smaller cake.
Place the smaller cake on top of the bigger one.
Take bits of fondant, one bit at a time, and colour them with liquid colour as desired. Using plunger cutters or your hands, make flowers, leaves, roses etc as desired.
Roll any remaining scraps and using a fluted or plain pastry cutter cut out ribbons to cover up the bottoms edges.
Use either royal icing or egg white to stick the sugar paste flowers, leaves or ribbons onto the cake.
Note: I used the microwave {10 seconds, high} quite often as the fondant kept getting hard as the weather was freezing cold at 6C.
