The Gateau de Mamiche is a rich, textured chocolate cake. Mamiche is my grandmother. This cake was one of her signature dishes, one that us, granchildren, really liked.
This cake needs to be cooled completely or almost before it is unmoulded or it will break. It is very important to have the sugar well melted with the chocolate and butter before proceeding further into the recipe. The oven temperature must be reasonably low to allow the cake to cook slowly and reduce the butter to accumulate too much on top of the cake. I have tried a few methods of mixing the ingredients, it seems that the best one is the most simple one: all in one pot type of approach.
Serve this cake as a mid-afternoon snack, a party treat or an element of dessert.
Serves 8+
Ingredients:
250 g of 70% dark cooking chocolate
250 g of butter
250g of caster sugar
250 g of flour
2 eggs, yolks and whites separated
Method:
Butter and flour a log tin. Heat up the oven on 160°C.
In a saucepan, place the butter and chocolate and allow to melt on low heat, mixing to ensure it does not burn. Add the sugar and mix until fully dissolved.
Add the egg yolks. Mix
It is now time to add the flour, mixing from the middle forming little circles extending.
Beat the eggwhites to snow and fold in gently.
Pour the batter in the tin. Place in the oven and cook for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out without chocolate.
Allow to cool the gateau de Mamiche in the tin before turning on the serving dish.
Another birthday, another cake. This time for a six years old who wanted a swimming pool party. Since we live on an island in a protected bay (no waves), why not do it close to home, rather than drive 1/2 hour to the closest proper swimming pool. It was to be a swim party in the little bay down from the house: shallow water (easy supervision) , lilos, shade, grass and fun kids who can spend their time in the water. And that comes with a swim party birthday cake!
The challenge
Resisting to heat and sun
It was a hot day, the party was at a little beach a few minutes walk. Bringing the party home for the cake was out of question of course and bringing the cake to the party meant it had to be able to suffer heat for some time: no cream based filling, no custard filling, no butter cream icing.
Swim party without the whole mermaids story taking over
The next part of the challenge was the decoration First I had only a limited amount of time available to complete the task. Then I still wanted a cake that did not hint oo much around the mermaids world but had more water features in it, think Moana if you want!
The cake itself
Here, I went for a sure value, a cake I know super well, the Reine de Saba (Sheba’s Queen), used a tall edge baking tin and this was it. Generally I would make that cake “flatter” , as a result it is lighter and more fluffy than when piled high.
Result: really good cake. Did I add a filling. No! I opted for the idea the children like simple things. The fact it was already a good chocolate cake was plenty.
The decoration
I opted for a layer of dark chocolate ganache surrounding the sides and top. This help for the next stage and add a lovely soft chocolate kick (yum). Nothing thick, that layer was maybe two millimetres thick, maybe three in places.
On top of the ganache, I used fondant icing. You know, the one you buy in packs at the supermarket and roll flat with the rolling-pin. Using different food colourants we got a pretty cool outcome. I say “we” because Ben joined me when I was starting the sides and completed the waves on the side.
On top, there were only few components: a mermaid which we had to find in the toy box late at night (it was getting late) and a clam. The pearl clam did take a little work. I am not the biggest fan of macarons (or macaroons), I find them so sweet! As a result, I never did them before. I did one trial a few weeks before and this set of macarons. Well, in the end, it is not that hard to make but you can’t really mak one or two, so make sure you have guests to help you go through the batch to avoid a sugar overdose! The coral reef was also made with the macaron mix, I just piped it in that shape which became quite handy.
The recipe of the swim party birthday cake
It can be found HERE. The recipe for macaron is not included, I will get around to do it. I did not find one that I liked in English , so used a French one. The recipe is the one used by the biggest French pastry chefs.
How to get that amazing pizza at home? The secrets of a good pizza are many but they are simple and accessible to anybody. I stumbled on them through trial and errors and input from different people, including my brother or a previous flatmate. Now I think we have nailed it! I say we, because my two daughters are now in charge of the topping and are getting pretty good at it.
We do pizzas regularly, maybe a few times per month. A pity I don’t take more photos or them, the ones last weekend were amazing! My children invariably ask for the Hawaiian pizza (ham, cheese, pineapple). Not my favourite! The “grown up” pizza is different depending what we have in the fridge: a salami pizza, a three cheese pizza, a vegetarian pizza and even a tahini based with spices mince pizza.
A variation of the traditional Hawaiian pizza, swapping ham for sausages
Here are my secrets, I expend on each further down:
The dough: keep it thin and simple
The order of the ingredient: cheese does not go on top but directly above the tomato sauce
The quality of the ingredients: good quality ingredients and please no tin food (exception of the pineapples pieces!), use fresh food!
Limit the amount of main ingredients: there should be up to 3 key ingredients above the cheese layer, no more. See the list below
The use of a hot oven and pizza tray or pizza stone: make sure your oven is super hot, same for the pizza tray. I use these large aluminium pizza tray (less than $10 each at hospitality stores, same as in pizza shops), they do a great job and are easy to handle. I prepare the pizza on baking paper which when ready I slide onto the hot tray.
Here we go in more details.
Secret No 1: the dough
Making your own dough at home is not hard nor does it require hard labour. Feel free to use a food mixer (dough hook) but if you are making just one pizza, your food mixer may be too big for the small amount of dough. For pizza, I don’t mind doing it by hand from the start.
Preparing the dough
A very large pizza (or 2 medium) will need 250 g plain flour (bakers flour if you have some), 150 g of warm water, 1/2 sachet of dry yeast (4 g), a good pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp of honey, a drop of olive oil.
Note here that honey and olive oil are not strictly necessary t the process. I find that the olive oil makes the process easier and smoother and gives the pizza base a little extra taste. The honey is not necessary to the rising of the dough, it does help accelerate it and more importantly for me, give a tiny sweet touch to the base.
It is important not to put the salt in direct contact with the yeast (it kills it).
Mix all together, if the dough is a little dry add additional water one spoon at the time (it can happen as some flours require more water). Once you have a ball, punch that ball on the counter back and forth. it is very easy if you alternate hands each time: push with the right hand to the back (and a bit left for ease), bring back, push with the left hand to the back (and right) and bring back. This move is effortless.
Last weekend, I had some friends of my young children wanting to help in the kitchen towards the end of their playdate, the 6 years old little girl did a great job while chatting away, just to show you how effortless it is.
After 5 minutes your dough will be quite soft and flexible. This is enough, let it to rest in a bowl covered with a cloth. If you don’t have much time, give it 1/2 h rest minimum, otherwise, wait until double, knock back gently, this is then ready to use.
A thin dough
Unless you train again and again to master extending the dough when suspended on the top of your fist, you need to find something that works for you. For me, I simply use a rolling pin with a little flour for dusting . I roll the dough quite thin over a baking paper. Make sure it does not stick to it, and rest for a few minutes while getting all the ingredients ready (or calling in the kids to do the topping). And don’t worry if the form tends to look like the map of Australia, even better!
Secret No 2: the order of the ingredients
The order should be:
Tomato sauce
Cheese
If I am using white mushrooms very thinly sliced, this is when I put them
Meat or vegetable
Additional item such as olives, capers, small quantities of blue or goat cheese
And finally some salt if necessary and a filet of olive oil
Secret No 3: the quality of the ingredients
If there is something I do not like it is to get tinned vegetables on my pizza, let it be artichokes, peppers or others, yuk! They taste of tin food, most of the time because they have not been rinsed.
For me, a pizza is a great opportunity to use these remaining mushrooms, or that lonely capsicum which otherwise may have to wait a little longer until I get an idea of finally chuck the all in a soup or casserole! Be creative! And if you are not the creative kind, don’t worry, planning for pizza in your shopping will at least mean no bad surprises!
Secret No 4: limit the amount and numbers of ingredients
Caution! You are not trying to replicate Mt Everest, nor are you trying to empty your fridge. If so, invite your friends and have a pizza party!
For me, a maximum of three core ingredients is like an unspoken practice. Then there are the small garnishes which can add a lot to a pizza. See the table below.
Base
Core ingredients
Additions
Tomato
red onions
fresh thyme, rosemary
salami, ham
little specks of goat cheese or blue cheese
pinapple
olives
mushrooms (white or the asian styles, which then go on top)
capers
capsicum cut in long strips
dash of olive oil
green asparagus
pressed garlic (small quantities here and there)
thinly sliced potatoes (the waxy style)
cherry tomatoes (cut in halves or full)
anchovies
fresh salmon, prawns, fish pieces, mussel and other seafood (all in raw form)
for a cheese pizza, the different cheese
bocconcini
Thinly sliced fresh tomatoes
Sour cream
Salmon (fresh), capers
olives, fresh dill (once cooked)
red onion cut in circles
Tahini
spiced mince (mix mince with 2 tbsp tomato paste and marocan spice mix)
pressed garlic
olives, rosemary, fresh herb (once cooked)
cherry tomatoes (cut in halves or full)
Asian mushrooms and asparagus. This one was a trial, it was actually quite beautiful!Hawaiian pizza
Secret No 5: the cooking of the pizza
Now, you need a super hot oven to start with and as importantly a hot base. Either you use a pizza stone or a pizza tray, up to you. The bricks of a wood fired pizza oven play a great role in getting that base cooked and crispy. If you base is too thick, you will most likely overcook the top. What temperature? I preheat my oven at 250 °C, and bring it down at 200 for the cooking.
Cooking time ? 10 minutes roughly. Just enough to prepare the side salad!
