Amy, Amy why hast thou forsaken me? This caketh didn’t turneth outeth!

I approached this recipe with some trepidation. The first line states ” You will be putting the cake into a cold oven and then setting the temperature to 180c/350F/Gas 4 and baking for 55 minutes” which goes against most cake baking handbooks and experience where the first third or half of the time in the oven are crucial. I thought that perhaps Amy was being a bit too nutty and was playing a joke but I played along with it and placed it in the cold oven and turned it up. The cake did indeed sink in the middle in a very bad way.

Not only that, any Amy can’t fully be blamed for this, the top of the cake did not come out of the tin. The cake itself is just too soft and airy to be able to be baked in a fluted or fancy tin. I did butter and flour the tin so it should have come out just fine-should have! Another problem was that the chopped nuts sank to the bottom and even though I had filled the cake with half of the mix, the sinking meant that there was only one quarter of the cake at the top that stuck as the nut mixture sank to the bottom (ie the top).

I tried to tart it up with some cinnamon sticks and flaked almonds to distract you. So let’s pretend it was supposed to look completely rustic. Oh and if you’d like to see how the resultant cake is supposed to look like when baked in the special tin, you can see one that I made here.

But this doesn’t mean that the recipe isn’t worth making. The actual cake taste is airy and light (a result of the sour cream and baking soda) and incredibly moist. You might want to avoid the same fate as that of my cake with these tips:

1. Don’t use a fancy pants pan like I did, just a springform or loaf tin lined with baking paper. You need the paper.

2. Toss the nuts lightly in flour to prevent them sinking.

3. Preheat the oven to 180c and bake like a normal cake to avoid the middle sinking.

4. Don’t make this for a special occasion as it may cause you anxiety.

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I love giving food gifts. It might have something to do with the fact that I love receiving them. And homemade but nicely packaged always seems to do it for me. I love the tender blush of white peaches and if they’re slightly on the not sweet enough side, this method of poaching with vanilla sends them into the truly rapturous category.

I used 4 Onyx and 4 Ivoire peaches, the Onyx being paler with more creamy colour whilst the Ivoire exemplified “blushing peach”. Once stripped they looked and tasted similar, which is akin to what Michael Jackson kept signing about in “Black & White”-underneath we’re all the same. Except he is most definitely an Onyx white peach!

Vanilla Poached peaches

• 8 firm, perfect white peaches
• vanilla extract, bean or paste
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

1. Blanch whole peaches in boiling water for 1 minute until skin starts to shrink away from flesh. Remove with slotted spoon carefully

2. When cool enough to handle, peel skin off and cut in half. If you have “cling” peaches where the seed sticks to the flesh, do not remove the seed until later as it will come out easier.

3. Over medium heat, dissolve sugar in water and boil for 5 minutes until syrupy with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste. Once syrupy, add peaches in and cook for 5 minutes. Cool in syrup to infuse vanilla. Remove seed.

4. Place in clean, sterilised* jar. Serve over thick yogurt or with a good quality vanilla ice cream.

* I sterilise jars the easy way, by sticking them in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes.

I sat on this recipe for months literally, trying to find an opportunity where I would have two whole hours to make breakfast. Not surprisingly, it took a while to get a chance to do this. I have possums to either blame or thank for this. Either a possum or a small serial killer hiding in the ceiling. I was awoken at 4am by a strange scratching sound. Actually I was woken by my husband who loves to do diving triple back flips in his sleep making the bed seem like a waterbed. And whilst I was trying to get back to sleep I heard an strange scratching sound which scared me. It was definitely in the house so I woke him and he went to investigate without a weapon despite me trying to give him one (ok a laundry basket won’t offer you much protection). The alarm was still on and after a lot of investigation, we concluded that the scratching was coming from the ceiling cavity.

I was most definitely awake.

And what I like to do when I am woken at ungodly hours is bake. I feel I should at least get a food reward for being up so early. And so I did, with a bit of a false start where I had difficulty dissolving the yeast in the milk. I ended up needing more milk than the 2 tablespoons specified in the recipe and I threw out the greying lump of yeast that I had managed to make and started again with 1/2 cup of milk. The rest was fairly smooth sailing especially once I starting greasing the egg rings. If you eat them straight away, they’re divinely fluffy and gorgeously although once they cool they become a bit more traditional crumpets although much fresher. And instead of dripping honey on them, I used a chestnut syrup, made when I did my 4 day stint in foodie rehab, making Marron Glaces. My husband happily wolfed down 10 of them before bypassing lunch.

On a related note, we had possums in our previous house, as my father, in a streak of brilliance (not!) stored the bird seed in the ceiling cavity. Yes, seriously.

If you’re interested in a bit of background knowledge on Crumpets, Vogue forum member Pinyata who works at the Tip Top factory that makes crumpets had this to say:

I’m working at Tip Top at the moment. And I do believe that Tip Top is the only company to make crumpets in Australia. I’m not really sure why, but there doesn’t appear to be anyone else that I can think of.

Now here’s a story for you, I’m not sure if it’s 100% true, but I’m prepared to make bet that it is. As I mentioned crumpets are notorious for going mouldy very quickly, and this is because they are only partially cooked. Unlike all other baking processes, the top surface of the crumpet isn’t heated above 60degC, so it doesn’t kill off all the bugs and bacteria that is living in the batter. And to make matters worse, since they are heated, it creates a warm moist environment, which is perfect to harbour the growth of bacteria. So by the time it’s packed it already has elevated bacteria levels, and so it doesn’t take long for there to be an outbreak, which can be seen as the mould.

This means that they have a very high return rate of mouldy product, which costs the business money. So they put their noggins together and tried to come up with a way people could have the taste and texture of crumpets, but also cook them fully so as to alleviate the mould issue. And this is when the crumpet toast was born. They don’t make it on this site, but I think it’s made in the NSW site. One of our engineers commissioned that plant, so I’ll ask her.

Now the reason why the crumpet toast is the solution, is because as you can see, it’s more like a baked loaf of bread. This means that it has been through the ovens and heated to over 60degC and all the bacteria is killed off.
So over the last few years the food technologists would have been scratching their heads and experimenting with a way to come up with a batter that could be baked, and have the same taste and texture as a normal crumpet. I personally think they have done a very good job, since it’s very close.

So that’s my belief as to why the crumpet toast was invented. Purely to extend the shelf life of the product so that it becomes more profitable.

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I picked up a recipe card from Wheel and Barrow years ago drawn to the purple cupcake liners and the purple flowers atop. Having shunned purple for years as it was the unofficial colour of the alternative world of which I am not really part of (have you noticed all “new age” shops are purple and smell of incense?), I came around when I met my family in law, the ultimate alternative family and designers started using purple in dresses and my love of purple grew from there.

Earl Grey is my favourite tea, followed closely by Lady Grey. Not just because Nigella advertises both, my like for this tea leaf preceded her Twinings ads. My friend Nic, finds it “soapy” and whilst I do agree that it has a certain floral fragrance to it like lavender, I nevertheless find it relaxing. And give me a cup of tea over a coffee anyday.

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I think the first sign of a food blogger’s madness is seeing a recipe that takes 4 days and delightedly rubbing your hands with glee. Which is exactly what I did (ok perhaps I did not rub my hands with glee, that seems a little old school villain) but when I saw this recipe for these sweet candied little chestnut morsels I had to try and make them. I am not foolish enough to think that mine will turn out as perfectly as Clément Faugier’s but I was happy to give it a go and see how it would turn out. I was also working from home this week so the requisite 4 day cooking time was no problem.

I used a hybrid of different recipes and the biggest problem I had was shelling them and I think I perhaps boiled them for too long (one recipe specified 20 minutes which I think is too long, they became too soft and break up). So all in all, I only got about 12 whole marron glaces and a whole lot of tiny pieces. However this is not a complete loss, the broken up pieces are delicious served in a Mont Blanc style dessert served as they are on top of a mountain of whipped cream. Trust me, this is heaven. And don’t discard the chestnut flavoured syrup, it’s a wonderful alternative to maple syrup on pancakes or ice cream. In fact I ate it with home made crumpets and my husband concurred that it was a fabulous combination.

This is my last chestnut recipe for this season, I am departing soon to warmer lands for a holiday where chestnuts are out of season. So I shall say a sad goodbye to chestnut and will await your return next Winter!

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