Sour Cream Chocolate Cake with Sour Cream Icing

I love chocolate and I couldn't wait to finally make some proper chocolate cake. This is from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. I finally had an excuse to use my mum's Kenwood Chef! It was also my first time icing a cake. It was fun, if a little messy. Junior was most intrigued.

Didn't manage to follow the recipe exactly - couldn't get any golden icing sugar, so used regular icing sugar for the icing. I found the icing too sweet on its own but paired with the subtle taste of the cake, neither too sweet nor too chocolately, it was really really really good. In fact, it was good enough for me to give a few slices to my neighbour and family without getting too embarrassed. Also, I could've eaten the entire cake on my own, so I saved myself a couple of pounds by giving it away...

I found it was best enjoyed after spending a day in the refrigerator, though my husband preferred it fresh or at room temperature.

My next baking effort will be something lighter, though the chocolate recipes are really tempting!

Goin' Bananas!

Last Friday afternoon Junior and I baked ourselves some Banana Bread (Nigella's recipe). I did not need to use my Mum's Kenwood Chef, which was rather disappointing, but the recipe didn't really require much elbow grease. The hardest part about this recipe was trying to line the loaf tin. It's got this curvy shape so it took some effort.

The end result was fabulous! It was moist and had a wonderful aroma. I must confess I had to change the recipe slightly. It called for sultanas to be soaked in bourbon or rum. Not being a drinker, I didn't have any around, but, I had some DOM Benedictine

(a confinement staple) lying around, which I used. I don't know how the original recipe would've tasted, but this version is gorgeous. The alcohol had evaporated just leaving that really nice sweetness of the DOM. Unfortunately, Junior doesn't like it much coz he hates sultanas (and raisins and blueberries...). I had to pick the sultanas out for him one by one. Fortunately, he ate the walnuts (he normally hates nuts as well) as they had softened somewhat in the oven.

I would definitely try this again.

A much needed boost

My mom found her old Kenwood Chef mixer in the store-room and has wonderfully lent it to me to help me in my baking adventures. It must be at least 20 years old! I remember how she used to bake all kinds of bread - sour dough, brown, wholegrain - with it when I was little. Back then, my tastes were underdeveloped and so naturally I rejected them all! I guess she got discouraged coz the bread baking phase didn't last long...

It's a really heavy piece of equipment and lots of possible attachments. I only have 3 (the whisk, beater and dough hook). But there are optional attachments for a coffee grinder, liquidiser, vegetable chopper, juice extractor etc. etc. Wonder if the modern day attachments will fit on this 20 year old thing. 

The first time I tried using it, it gave off a burning smell and bits of grease leaked out. I suppose it shouldn't be surprising since it has been 20 years since it was last used. I might have to send it for servicing (if they have such a thing for mixers). 

Whoopee! No more creaming butter and sugar by hand!

Equipment

I decided that if I was going to bake more exciting things than muffins and brownies, I'd better have the right equipment. So yesterday I made my way down to Phoon Huat (this was baking heaven for me! But I'm still a novice in this area - does anyone know any other baking supplies shop in Singapore?) and bought 2 sandwich tins (for making victoria sponges and the like), 2 springform cake tins of different sizes (coz that's what Nigella uses for her recipes), a square tin (for more brownies), a regular cake tin, a baking sheet (for cookies), cookie cutters, a rolling pin and some pudding moulds. I probably still need to get more equipment, but I have the basics, I think, for the moment. 

What would you suggest as essential kitchen equipment for a baker? 

I've discovered baking!

I love cooking. But I've never been a fan of baking or making any form of dessert. Sure I was a fan of the products of baking, but not of the act itself. My previous encounters with it were at Home Econs class and a few other attempts as a secondary school student. It always seemed so fiddly. So precise. You must have 125g of flour, or 30 g of sugar, or 1 tsp of baking powder or whatever precise amount of whatever ingredient. And you couldn't just mix them all up as you wished. You must cream it together (whatever creaming it means) if it says to cream, or fold it in, or rub it. Otherwise all sorts of disasters would befall your creation.  And therefore you had to PAY ATTENTION. And to prove the point, I did have quite a few disasters (Val - remember the failed gingerbread? More like ginger melted thingy that hardened.)  Being a control freak, it was all too stressful for me.

Then one day, just before baby no. 2 was born, I was suddenly inspired to bake some scones or muffins for baby no. 1 to bring to school.  It just seemed rather shameful that he never had anything else but cheerios and goldfish and the occasional cracker in his lunchbox. I didn't know what his classmates had, but I imagined they had heavenly homemade delights. Actually, I was also feeling rather guilty that I didn't prepare a nice birthday celebration for him at school (ALL the other kids brought cake for their birthdays, but not mine...). So I thought I'd bake him something nice to show the teachers that I really wasn't such a bad mum. It was probably also a case of pre-delivery nesting instincts coming to the fore, because 12 hours after I bought all the ingredients for my first batch of muffins, I had delivered baby no. 2.

Anyway, while I didn't get to bake that time around, the interest had been piqued.  Long hours spent nursing baby no. 2 also afforded me the opportunity to be instructed by experts such as Martha Stewart and Nigella Lawson on TV.  Unlike my Home Econs classes (no offence to my Home Econs teachers, they were lovely, I was just a bad student), Martha and Nigella made it look so easy! They could even carry out a conversation, or flirt with the camera while at it (even if I find Nigella Lawson's habit of doing this rather annoying at times) AND the results weren't disastrous!   In fact, even if things went wrong, it was OK.  As Nigella Lawson notes on at least two occasions in her book "How to be a Domestic Goddess", that things go wrong in cooking even for her, but that it's not the end of the world.  

And so this has been my discovery. While my first few attempts (actually all my attempts), haven't been perfect, they've been pretty alright. In fact, some were quite nice. The best part of it is that Baby no. 1 gets to take part in the process. And I love that he enjoys the fruit of our labour (except when it contains raisins). 

So I've decided to name this blog in honour of Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess.  Which fits in perfectly with my larger ambition but more of that some other time.