Happy Turkey Day, Americans!

My friends and I at work are doing Thanksgiving lunch for the Americans who work with us. I made pumpkin pie, apple pie, pumkin rolls and apple crisp! Pictures soon :)

Chocolate Tarts

I made these a while back for the office, and just came across the pictures that were taken of them. These were so rich, so decadent, that you can really only eat half of one.

I used the recipe here for these - minus the blood orange, and made into mini-tarts. I prefer to use grams in recipes whenever possible, since I find it more accurate. My cheapo $5 kitchen scale changed the way I bake!

This pastry melts in your mouth so perfectly, it's fantastic. Three people at the office asked for the recipe -- always a good indicator of tastyness!


The Shells:

125 g plain flour
125 g unsalted & chilled butter
60 ml sour cream

Chop all the butter into 1"cubes. Weigh flour and put into bowl. Blend flour and butter until it resembles a large breadcrumb consistency. Add sour cream.
Turn onto a floured bench and pull together with your hands into a rectangle shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 20 minutes before rolling out and lining your tins.
Blind bake at 200C for 12 minutes. Remove the foil and weights and bake for a further 5 minutes.





Ganache Filling:

250 g dark chocolate
250 g pure thickened cream
10 g unsalted butter

Boil cream in saucepan. Once boiled pour over the chocolate to melt. Put aside for 3 minutes before stirring. Add butter to the chocolate / cream mix while still warm. Pour chocolate into pre-baked tart case and refrigerate overnight.

These are dead-easy for the result. I highly recommend them.

Chococococococonut Cake

Everyone's favourite CS manager at the office turned 32 today. Of course, I had to bake something. There was a top-secret plan to discover her favourite flavour, but unfortunately my Spy couldn't gather any intel. I had to rely on someone overhearing her say that coconut was the best thing ever.

Fortunately, chocolate and coconut actually are her favourite flavour, so it was all good.

I took Chockylit's recipe here, and modified it to be 1. cake, 2. more coconut flavoury, 3. less coconut texturey. I hate the texture of coconut, y'all.

Reviews include "That was a fabulous cake"; "You made this?"; "You should quit your dayjob and become our official baker", and my personal favourite :This is the best cake I've ever had." from the birthday girl herself. Aww.

I've never made a cake before. It was seriously time intensive. Possibly because I spent hours on the internet trying to learn how to ice corners. Apparently, you use an absolute tonne of icing. I only had 2 lbs of butter, so it was a bit see-through. Yes, only 2 lbs of butter.

The taste of this cake is phenomenal. I'm not just saying that cos I made it, it really was fantastic. Just right chocolatey, just right coconut, just.. right.

Cake (**Make 2**)
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa
2 tablespoons unsweetened fine coconut
1-1/2 cups coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, mix together: flour, baking soda, cocoa, coconut, and salt. In a small bowl, mix together coconut milk and vanilla. Set both bowls aside. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar, beat until seriously fluffy. Then add the eggs one at a time. Beat for at least 60 seconds after adding each egg. Add some of the flour mixture to the butter/egg/sugar. Add about half of the milk, and combine. Repeat. Finish with the flour mix. Pour into a baking pan and bake for about 35 - 40 minutes at 350F. This makes one layer -- you'll need two. I made them separately, because I ran out of eggs in the middle and had to go to the store again. Also I have a tiny, tiny stove, and wouldn't be able to fit two cake pans in at once even if I did have enough eggs. This also explains why I was up til three in the morning making a bloody cake.


Filling
3/4 cups butter
2 1/2 cups icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
1/4 c unsweetened fine coconut

I detest the texture of coconut, so I pureed it. You probably don't have to. Mix the ingredients together. You want it dead stiff. Use more icing sugar if you need to. I was trying to keep the EXTREME SWEETNESS down, but failed a bit. It's really, really sweet.
Icing
2 Cups of butter
1/4 - 1/2 cup coconut milk
4 cups powdered sugar

Beat the ingredients together - aim for light and fluffy.

Assembly
When you take the cakes out of the oven, let them cool a bit, then immediately unpan them. I did not know this, and fridged them while still in their pans. This apparently made them fall in love with the pan and want to never, ever leave it. Fortunately, they were the best pans ever, and the cakes came out in one piece.

Once they're cooled, fridge or freezer them. This will make them easier to handle and easier to ice. Which is really important, cos icing is dead hard.

Trim the tops of the cakes with dental floss, so that the top is flat. Spread on filling. Have a friend help you position Cake1 over Cake2. rest cake 1 gently on top of Cake2, move around so that it's centered and whatnot.

Ice the cake like in that video, above. If desired, have your company's graphic designer add a Fred Perry logo. Enjoy!