Here's to the men in our lives!

There’s one man in my life who I can’t imagine living without – though, sometime I have to admit I do fantasize about life without the clutter he makes! He has an enthusiasm for life like I’ve never seen, he’s always thinking and questioning but most of all he has a childlike zealousness for all things dorky.

Today is my dad’s birthday, no it’s not a significant one but there’s no reason it can’t be special. In the midst of a hectic week with numerous assignment due, overseas guests arriving, a lunch for mum’s birthday (next week) I’ve relished the excuse to get away from the pressures of university by making dad’s birthday cake.

Dad is an engineer and has a fascination with structure, objects works and, well, anything that involves tinkering so this cake had to have some a little more construction required than a normal cake. Given this is the first cake I’ve made in almost a year I erred on the side of caution and kept it simple yet stunning.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo outside and while it’s not set up as I’d have liked the chocolate edge melted before my eyes within 20 seconds of getting outside, however I’ve included this to show you that the top was even!

I found I only needed 100g of chocolate for the wrap, and, I'm not sure if it's just me but I didn't know what a 3dl was, it's 3 decilitres aka 300ml.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as we did, I was worried when making it that it would be too dense but if you're careful when incorporating the egg whites I promise you can have a normal sized piece without feeling over-chocolated. Is that a term? It is now! 

Finally, the recipe says it serves 10, there were 6 of us and we didn't get half way through so this is a great cake if you're expecting a number of people and want something with wow-factor that you won't have to slave over for days.

Lightly adapted from Jungle Frog Cooking, Blue Chocolate Cake.

Ingredients

300g dark chocolate

4 tbs strong coffee

250g butter (unsalted)

225g cane sugar

8 eggs (split)

50g plain flour

25g cocao powder

1 tsp baking powder

250g ground almonds

100g meringues (ground)

500g blue berries and strawberries

Ganache

300ml double (whipping) cream

300g dark chocolate

Chocolate Wrap

100g dark chocolate

Method

Preheat over to 180 C, grease two 20cm baking tins.

Melt the chocolate and coffin in a bain maire, leave to cool. Cream the butter and sugar and add egg yolks one at a time beating between additions. Sieve flour, baking powder and cocoa power together and fold into butter mixture. Fold in melted chocolate, ground almonds and meringues. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into batter. Split the batter between the tins and bake for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. You may need to cover cakes with foil after 30 minutes if they look as thought they're going to burn. 

Ganache

Chop chocolate finely and place in a bowl. Bring cream to the boil and pour over the chocolate, let it stand for a minute and then stir until an even consistency. 

Assembly

Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for 10-15 minutes then remove and let them drop to room temperature. Stack the cakes onto of one and other with the ganache in the middle (I like to put the second one on upside down as it gives a flat surface for the berries). I then put this in the fridge overnight.

Chocolate Wrap

Measure the circumference of your cake and the height of it. Tear a piece of baking paper the same length as the circumference of the cake and cut it so it is slightly higher than the cake (I added 1.5 inches to the final height of my cake). Place this baking paper over more baking paper allowing for easy clean up. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie and pour over the measured baking paper creating a thin layer of chocolate. Now wrap this around the cake and leave in the fridge for 20 minutes before carefully removing the baking paper and pilling with fruit.

Jungle Frog cooking has a wonderful video showing this step here.

Muesli Bars

I was doing the supermarket shopping with mum on the weekend and I decided to try the healthiest looking muesli bars I could find. Having decided (by looking at the packaging - incidentally, bad idea) I proceeded to wander the aisles reading the nutritional information. I was staggered to see that a simple muesli bar that had not been roasted, had no chocolate added and the packaging of which boasted various health claims could be so packed full of sugar and trans fats. They were rather expensive so mum and I decided to put them back and make our own. 

And here they are!

These bars were wonderful, nice and chewy, easy to make and very adaptable. The original recipe came from Australia Food which I found through Taste Spotting but (as always) I’ve altered the recipe to suit what I’ve got. Do you see the theme developing here? I sure do!

We’ll start with the down side, these didn’t set quite hard enough to enjoy if you were on the run. I had to lift them carefully out of the tray an even then they could crumble. To prevent this from happening I put them in the fridge and all was well. Next time I make them (and believe me there will be and next time, and probably and next and a next ...) anyway, next time I’ll be using a smaller tray so that they’re thicker and hopefully they’ll stick together. Secondly, I’ll experiment with the butter levels as I found these ones too buttery. Though it did give a depth of flavour I found it too much and it somewhat detracted from the healthy image I had in mind. 

Now onto the positives, there’s a lot. The bars were delicious!! They were inexpensive to make, can be altered as you wish and didn’t take long to prepare or set. The bars were sweet (but not sickeningly so), chewy and looked stunning. You can make them healthier by changing the fruit, for example instead of using dried fruit which can high in sugar you could use fresh fruit and dehydrate them yourself. Try cutting some apple, pear, apricot, nectarine, plum, cherries, fig or any other fruit that’s in season and drying them in an oven or in a dehydrator. The combinations are only limited by your green grocer ;)

I wonder how a little passionfruit would would go with nectarine for a summer one ... Anyway before I fall into a dreamlike state I need to finish this :D

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup poppy seeds

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup currents

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup dried cherries

1/4 cup sultanas

1/4 of flax seeds

100g butter 

1/2 cup honey
1/8 cup brown sugar
* If you wanted to make these vegan simply substitute coconut butter and maple syrup for the honey.

Method:
- Line square or rectangular baking tin with grease proof paper. Set aside.


- Combine oats, coconut, sesame seeds, poppy seeds in a fry pan over low heat. Stir every few minutes for 8 minutes or until golden. Be careful not to burn the mixture. Transfer to a bowl to cool. Stir in the fruit and flax seeds.


- In a small sauce pan stir the butter, honey and sugar over a medium heat until the sugar has melted. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to low. Simmer, without stirring, for 4-5 minutes. Add butter mixture to dry ingredients. Stir well until combined.


- Spoon the mixture into the tin. Use a large metal spoon to press the mixture down firmly and evenly. This must be firmly compacted otherwise bars will fall apart when being held. I put a layer of grease proof paper over the top of the semi compacted mixture, then placed a heavy book on top and used that to smooth out the contents. 


Allow to cool and then cut into squares or rectangles. The bars can be stored in a foil-lined airtight container for up to a week.

Granola

I've been following Sami from A Teenage Gourmet since she began her blog and I have to say that she's wonderful! Her recipes are generally low calorie and very healthy but without omitting ANY flavour which can be a real life saver some days. The following is her granola recipe, which was adapted from Bon Appetit. This is perfect in the morning with some milk or sprinkled on top of yoghurt or even as a mid day/night snack. I recently went to Queensland for a holiday with some friends and I brought a snap lock bag of this with me - they loved it and we sat for at least 10 minutes feasting. 

I’ve altered her recipe further to work with what ingredients were in stock. You can leave out the chocolate if you want to go healthier, personally I leave it in as it will clump together this way providing more variation in the texture.

Ingredients:

3 cups oats

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (I've changed this to almonds and cashews which both worked well)

2/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut 

3 tablespoons brown sugar

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/3 cup honey

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup assorted dried fruit (I use raisins, currants, cranberries and sultanas)

Method:

Preheat oven to 150°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a bowl. Stir honey and oil in saucepan over medium-low heat until smooth. Pour the hot honey mixture over dry ingredients, toss to coat oats in the honey as evenly as possible.

Spread onto baking tray. Bake until golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes, for roughly 30 minutes.

What can I say, incorporating the chocolate wasn't working too well with the spatula so hands were resorted to :P

Place the tray on a wire cooling rack and stir granola, allow to cool. Mix in fruit. If you’re adding chocolate do so when it come out of the oven, you can either chop VERY finely or melt an individual dark chocolate bar, I tend to use about half a packet (50g) of dark chocolate and toss it through the hot mixture once it’s left the oven.

This will stay at it’s best if kept for about a week in an airtight container.