Coffee Achiever

The unthinkable has happened.

I can and now do drink coffee on a regular basis. I started off with mochaccinos, but now I can handle a long black. My favourite tea-break food consists of chocolate-coated Scotch fingers dipped in hot black coffee, such that the chocolate melts and the biscuit part softens while taking on a coffee taste. Strangely enough, one of my friends at the lab likes the exact same thing. (The difference is that she throws out the coffee post-dipping, while I drink it.)

I suppose I'm going to get married even later now.

I got to try out Lindt's newest offering: dark chocolate with a few salt grains thrown in. It is actually and surprisingly very good. It works the same way as the M&Ms with peanut butter: the salt accentuates the flavour and texture of the chocolate. However, the salt is not homogenous; it is left as crystals embedded in the chocolate. Some people may like it that way, crunchy with little bursts of flavour, but personally I'd rather have some peanut butter M&Ms.

On the further subject of food, I could really go for some marinated goat's cheese with olives right now.

Almond Orange Halva Cake

Yeah, totally not twenty-one anymore. Still, a birthday is a birthday.

With that, the recipe for the second cake I brought in today! This one was very popular, even more so than the Sacher Torte. I've had this one for my birthday every year, since the age of, uh, three maybe?

Almond Orange Halva Cake

125 g butter
2 1/2 tsp grated orange rind
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup semolina
1 cup ground almonds
3 tbs orange juice

Syrup
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp brandy

Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a deep, round 20 cm pan.

Cream butter, rind and sugar with an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well-combined.

Mix together the baking powder, semolina and almonds. Stir in half of the dry mixture into the butter mixture with 1 1/2 tsp of the orange juice, then stir in the rest of the dry mixture and the orange juice.

Pour cake mix into the pan and bake for 40 minutes. Turn out cake, upside-down, onto a wire-rack, over a tray. Brush the top and sides with half of the hot syrup. Return the cake to the oven on the wire rack and bake for a further 5 minutes. Overturn the cake again and return it to the original cake pan. Brush the top with the remaining syrup. Cover and stand for 12 hours before serving.

Syrup

Combine orange juice and sugar in saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat, without boiling, until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Stir in brandy.


Additional notes

Some people like this cake slightly burnt. If you want to cater to them, bake at 200°C.

Almond meal can also be used for this recipe; the cake will have a finer texture. If almonds are too expensive, other nuts can also be substituted. My mother likes to use cashews.

Choose your oranges and orange juice carefully! For oranges, they must have a bright colour and have a slight citronella scent, so that the rind will be good. I used fresh pulpy orange juice with no added sugar, but the best orange juice is the kind you squeeze yourself from a fresh orange.

Cherry brandy flavouring is a good non-alcoholic substitute for brandy in this recipe.

For a lemon version, double the amount of sugar for the cake and prepare the syrup using 1/2 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice and 1/2 cup pineapple juice.

Two Down

Guess what I managed to do!

In an incident involving my left little finger and a soup can... Yeah. It isn't very serious, but it does hurt a lot. Apparently, I have to keep away from sharp objects in kitchens. All sharp objects. Or possibly wear gauntlets.

So, uh... Eight-Fingered Scientist?

Let's see which one is the next to go! I'm betting that the cheesegrater will be involved, and it'll be an index finger.

Google Pac-Man!

This is the greatest Google Doodle I have ever seen. Or the greatest anything, really.

Go to the Google homepage (now permenantly archived here) and play it, now! Click on "Insert Coin" to play, arrow keys or mouse clicks control Pac-Man, and click on "Insert Coin" again to load a two-player game with Mrs. Pac-Man, who can be controlled with the WSAD keys. (I had a ton of fun controlling both Pac-Man and Mrs. Pac-Man at the same time with both hands. It's also great for playing co-op with  a friend, especially since the Google maze is a little larger than the regular one.) It has sound effects and everything - so completely cool!

Thanks for making this, Google! And happy 30th birthday to Pac-Man!

Objects in Mirror

I looked myself in the mirror today, and really took a look. As in not "Do I look presentable?" but rather "Oh hey, that's me."

The way I look doesn't match what I am inside. Or maybe it does, but I spend entirely too much time in my own headspace and not enough in the real world. There's a curious dissociation between ME me and the me presented to the world. It's like inner me is an underachieving loser, outer me has a happy and fulfilling life, and the two never meet. Even though they occupy the same body.

I'm always startled when I realise the two are the same, and in fact, that happy and fulfilling life is mine.

I'm not sure I deserve it.

Sacher Torte

100 g Cadbury Old Gold dark chocolate
50 g Lindt Excellence milk chocolate
1 tbs water
155 g unsalted butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
Extra 2 tbs caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 cup plain flour, sifted
2/3 cup apricot jam

Icing
100 g Cadbury Old Gold dark chocolate
25 g Lindt Excellence milk chocolate
125 g unsalted butter

Grease a round non-stick cake pan (I use a flexible sillicone pan). Preheat oven to 200°C.

Chop or break chocolate; melt over a double boiler, or in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, until smooth. Stir in water and allow to cool to room temperature. The chocolate will have a paste-like consistency.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks one at a time. Stir in the chocolate mixture, and then the sifted flour.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with the electric mixer, until soft peaks form. Gradually add in the extra caster sugar, beating until dissolved after each addition. Fold gently into the cake mix.

Spread half of the cake mix into the pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow the cake to stand for 5 minutes, then turn it out of the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the other half of the cake mix.

While the cakes are cooling, heat up the apricot jam in a double boiler, until liquid. Strain the jam (if you like the jam with some chunks, just remove the bigger pieces). Once the cakes are completely cooled, overturn one of the cakes and spread hot jam over the top surface. Place the second cake on top and brush the top and sides with the remaining jam. Allow the jam to set. To finish the cake, decorate with icing (see below) and allow to set at room temperature. Serve with unsweetened whipped cream.

Icing

In a double boiler, slowly melt the chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Cool at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until it reaches a spreadable consistency (this may take 1-2 hours). This icing can be piped.


Additional notes

I use a combination of dark and milk chocolate, although pure dark chocolate was used in the original recipe. If you're willing to splurge on the chocolate, Valrhona is an excellent brand to use, as the chocolate is of a high quality and has subtle fruity notes. The cake is meant to be rather dry, which is why it is served with whipped cream, but if you want it a little more moist, heat it up before serving.

This cake recipe was originally published in The Australian Women's Weekly, i.e. it works perfectly if your kitchen is in Australia, less so elsewhere in the world. You may have to refrigerate or heat things up to get the recipe right.

This was the first cake I ever tried making - wasn't I an ambitious child? Needless to say, it didn't go so well, so I'm pretty pumped about getting it right this time.

Next challenge: griddle scones!

The Competent Sequel

Just came back from watching Iron Man 2, and I think it's best described as a competent sequel. It falls a little flat - none of the hook of the first movie, which just dragged you into the plot. If Transformers 2 had too many explosions, I think Iron Man 2 didn't have enough, or rather, they were not as well-placed. The battle with the main enemy was just bland Although we know he's going to be defeated in the end, it would be nice if there was a big struggle first, instead of him just falling over after a few hits. It was just... not epic.

On the other hand, it was hardly bad. The story was solid and believable, and the acting was excellent. You really feel that you're looking at real people interact, not some characters from a Marvel comic book. I especially liked the dynamic between Stark and Rhodes - you can tell they're good friends, with the arguments, bantering and utter lack of discomfort with each other that such a friendship entails. Also, the humour was top-notch. It flowed naturally, the dirty jokes were kept subtle, and the silliness never undermined the more serious messages.

Also, we find out what Stark does if he needs to go to the toilet while in his suit! (It involves one of the most hilarious facial expressions I have ever seen on film.)

In other words, a decent movie and worth watching, if only for the high-octane Grand Prix scene, but don't expect the thrill of the first movie.

So that was fun! Back to work tomorrow, of course.