The cooking, eating and travel blog of a hungry blogger from Sydney, Australia featuring original recipes, interviews and articles on all things food @Not Quite Nigella

Category Archives: Romantic

Romantic recipes

Ispahan cupcake

Like an abused pet that is shown signs of kindness, I approached macaron making again with a little nervousness and trepidation. I’d had a semi successful attempt with a Nigella recipe after a few terrible attempts with a Martha one so I was given a little encouragement. Not enough to make me cocky, far from it in fact. But enough to make me give the recipes a shy, sidelong look every now and again and even think to myself “that would be wonderful in a macaron” (although I’d never say that out loud, that would err on the cocky side, or at least confident side, which I am not on).

I even stocked up on supplies to make them, purchasing a 1kg bag of almond meal. This meant that I was either thinking of making multiple batches of macarons or making friands. As I don’t have a friand tin, all evidence points to the former. So urban-cavewoman style, I brought home my big bag of almond meal like a fresh kill and set it down on the counter proudly, like I had picked the almonds and ground them myself.

This is a fiddly cupcake, I’ll make no bones about it. You need to make the macaron to top it and then make the cupcake base and the rose cream and slice up berries and lychees to fill it and top with a rose petal. But the overall effect is quite spectacular. I made the macaron top first as I knew that if I wasn’t successful at that, then I wouldn’t bother making the rest. You see, I’m still slightly scarred by my failed attempts. I also chose this cupcake recipe as it sometimes gives a macaron crust on the top of the cupcake, I say sometimes, when I make this as sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. Cakelaw found that she got the macaron crust on top here but I didn’t get it for this particular lot of cupcakes. Must be something to do with science…

I suspect that Pierre Herme, the creator of the Ispahan would be quite horrified at the idea of his lauded creation being turned into something as cute and kitsch as a cupcake, indeed I saw not a single cupcake in all of my travels in Paris. However it’s not exactly like an Ispahan in that the base is a strawberry rose cupcake and the filling is buttercream and not a buttercream and custard creme anglaise combination (I only have so much patience). Also being Mid Winter in Sydney meant that only strawberries and some blueberries make an appearance so I had to improvise and use strawberries rather than raspberries.

I hope you will find these a fitting homage to the Ispahan, the taste of these are ambrosial and well worth the effort.

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33 comments | August 5th, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella

Nigella Lawson – Strawberry meringue layer cake from Forever Summer

Someone stop me. Stop me from using these heart cake pans again. I am addicted to using these tins and even though the recipe below specifies to use round springforms, I took them out, then took out my heart pans and well you can see which ones I chose to use. I did warn you that I was obsessed with hearts so I feel that did pre-warn you of my sickness

They were shallower than regular springforms so I had to make sure to put some high barrier baking paper on he sides and of course, removing them was not as easy requiring a delicate touch, which I almost certainly don’t have. Strawberries and cream is a wonderful combination, I could easily every day for dessert (or lunch or afternoon tea). I confess though, that I liked the meringue, strawberries and cream best and the sponge, whilst nice and vanilla-ey, was more an easy and decorous way of transporting this combination to my hungry mouth.

Strawberry meringue layer cake

Ingredients

125g plain flour
25g cornflour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
100g very soft unsalted butter
300g caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
2 tblspns milk
50g flaked almonds
375ml double cream (I added 2 tablespoons of sugar as sometimes strawberries aren’t as sweet as you want them to be)
250g strawberries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line, butter and flour two 22cm springform tins.|

2. Weigh out the flour, cornflour and baking powder into a bowl.

3. Cream the butter and 100g of the caster sugar in another bowl until light and fluffy.
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks into the butter and sugar, saving the whites to whisk later. Gently fold in the weighed-out dry ingredients, add the vanilla, then sir in the milk to thin the batter. Divide the mixture between the two prepared springform tins.

4. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add the remaining 200g caster sugar. Spread a layer of meringue on top of the sponge batter in each tin and sprinkle the almonds evenly over.

5. Bake for 30-35 mins, by which time the top of the almond-scattered meringues will be a dark gold. (I turned down the temperate to 180C as my oven is fan forced and the top was a little too cooked so perhaps turning it down even further would be better)

6. Let the cakes cool in their tins, then spring them open at the last minute when you are ready to assemble the cake.

7. Whip the double cream, and hull and slice the strawberries; that’s to say, the bigger ones can be sliced lengthways and the smaller ones halved.

8. Invert one of the cakes on to a plate or cakestand so that the sponge is uppermost. Pile on the cream and stud with the strawberries, letting some of the berries subside into the whipped whiteness. (I should have added more strawberries as I had a lot leftover). Place the second cake on top, meringue upwards, and press down gently, just to secure it.

9. If you’ve got any more strawberries in the house, hull and halve them and serve them in a dish to eat alongside; it gives the cake a more after-lunch, less afternoon-tea kind of a feel, but it’s hardly obligatory.

Serves 8.

By Nigella Lawson from Forever Summer

15 comments | July 22nd, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella

“Catch The Bouquet!” Bridesmaid’s Citrus Bundt cake

I love Weddings. It has been 2 years since our wedding and one of the many, many traditions is the Bouquet Toss. Since most of my guests were already already married or older or simply not interested in catching a bouquet (too close to sport) I didn’t think do a Bouquet toss. This beautiful citrus scented cake is an alternative to a Bouquet toss to be served at a Kitchen Tea.

The idea is simple, attach 1 piece of ribbon to the centre bouquet with the rest of the lengths of ribbon unattached. Whoever picks the ribbon attached to the bouquet “Catches the Bouquet”! No clawing or scratching at others or people falling over to catch the elusive bouquet and no boobs falling out of dresses (I’ve seen pics where women jump up to catch the bouquet and their dress doesn’t follow). You can also attach “wishes” or a prize to the ends of the ribbon or even names depending on the age and interest of your guests.

I’m one of those odd people that don’t like fresh oranges cut up (I always bypass the orange pieces served for dessert at Chinese restaurants) but I do love orange in things, especially orange rind. I could’ve, or should have, dusted it with icing sugar but I only thought of that once it was served and cut. You could certainly match the central bouquet with the brides bouquet and ribbon according to the colour theme of the wedding. Yes lads, that’s right, there probably was a colour theme to your wedding, you just didn’t know it

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15 comments | May 25th, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella

Crab with Saffron Linguine

I attempted, in all seriousness, to replicate the way that Heston Blumenthal served up his Spaghetti Bolognaise in one of his books “In Search of Perfection” which involves twisting it around a large carving fork.

I bought some Motto pasta and the inner price checker in me said why would I choose a regular flavour when I could choose the saffron or porcini version? I mean who chooses vanilla when there is saffron or macadamia to choose from? One of my ex boyfriends faced with that very ice cream decision chose vanilla. I couldn’t believe that he would pass up all of the other 49 flavours to choose vanilla so I drilled him about it. He said that he crumbled in the face of such a decision and chose the simplest and safest and thus I linked it to a kind of performance anxiety. Which is precisely what I felt when I was trying to do a Heston Blumenthal with my pasta I suppose.

Thankfully the shape took place and held. The taste was one straight from heaven. The delicate crabmeat was never overwhelmed by the other ingredients and the light lemon flavour was the perfect for marriage for this divine seafood.

Crab with Saffron Linguine

An original recipe by Not Quite Nigella

Ingredients (serves 4)

400g fresh linguine (I used a 200g packet of Motto’s Saffron dried linguine)
1 tbs olive oil
400g raw crab meat
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs verjuice or white wine vinegar
2-3 tbs finely grated parmesan
250ml cream
Salt & freshly ground pepper
Chopped fresh parsley

Method

1. Cook linguine in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and keep warm.

2. Heat pan and add oil. Add crab meat and garlic, and cook for 3-4 mins until cooked but not browned.

3. Add lemon juice, verjuice or vinegar and the parmesan.

4. Pour in cream and reduce to sauce consistency. Add drained linguine to the sauce, season and serve topped with parsley.

5. To make the pasta shape as pictured, twirl pasta around large carving fork and lay horizontally against plate and carefully slide off fork.

Adapted from Fresh Living – May 2005 , Page 49
Recipe by Andre & Sandy Shannon (My Restaurant Rules) and presentation hint from Heston Blumenthal’s “In Search of Perfection”.

12 comments | April 10th, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella

Chocolateria San Churro at Glebe, for Valentines Day

After our Hooters exploit, Queen Viv, Miss America and my husband and I needed to go somewhere a little more on the beaten track to debrief on our experience out in the Wild West. We needed somewhere quieter that did not involve fried chicken. Walking past San Churro a week or so ago, I was immediately drawn to the gorgeous shiny black facade and windows-if I had a shop it would look like this.

I spied their Valentines Day special in their window: For $25 you get your choice of any two drinks (non alcoholic), a tapas plate and 4 boxed truffles. Considering the tapas plate is $15.90 and drinks are around the $4-$5 mark, its not bad value, you’re basically getting the boxed truffles for free and there’s probably more than we need for the four of us so tonight we order this with a traditional spanish hot chocolate and a Mango shake. We could also choose the type of chocolate for dipping (I chose milk from a choice of milk, dark or white) and the truffles (Pasion and Dulce de Leche Caramel).

Its understandably busy tonight as its Valentines Day and where else should you go but a Chocolateria? Still, as promised, the Churros are cooked to order, as all deep fried food needs to be. It seems not only is Valentines day the day for chocolate, but for us this year, its the day for deep fried.

Tapas plate, part of Valentines Day package, usually $15.90