Maple and Walnut Layer Cake - and Puppy Love

In my humble opinion there is nothing better in this world than some puppy love.

Especially when that puppy love means my Molly is able to jump up on the couch (even though she isn't technically "allowed" up there) all by herself, despite her three-leggedness.
Oh I know, she just hates it!

Something that might come close to the beauty of Molly kisses is this Maple and Walnut layer cake, adapted from 'The Hummingbird Bakery: Cake Days' by Tarek Malouf and the Hummingbird Bakers.
Life in all its glorious, messy, hurtful, exciting cycle sometimes requires that one make layer cake to just celebrate the luck that we have in being here. Today was one of those days, and thus this cake was brought forth into the world.

Maple and Walnut Layer Cake(s)
Adapted from 'The Hummingbird Bakery: Cake Days' by Tarek Malouf
Makes one three layer cake


Ingredients:
120 grams butter
400 grams raw caster sugar (you can use white if this is what is available)
360 grams plain flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
350mL milk
3 tablespoons maple syrup
3 eggs
100g walnuts, chopped

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and wipe the inside of three 8 inch cake tins with butter and line the bottoms with baking paper.
2. In the large bowl of a stand mixer place the butter, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and mix on low speed until the combined mixture resembles fine crumbs.
3. Place milk, maple syrup and eggs in a small bowl and combine. Then with mixer on low speed add the wet ingredients to the dry and beat until well combined.
4. Add walnuts and stir in by hand.
5. Divide between the tins and place in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cakes are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed on top.
6. Let them cool in the tins on a wire rack for about 10 minutes and then take cakes from tins to cool completely.
7. When cakes are room temperature sandwich together with the amazing frosting recipe below!

Maple Frosting


Ingredients:
200 grams butter
750 grams icing sugar
50mL milk
1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
Finely chopped walnuts to decorate

Method:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine icing sugar and butter until they resemble fine sand.
2. In a separate jug lightly mix maple syrup and milk. Add this liquid to the icing sugar preparation and then beat frosting until light and fluffy.
3. Lick the beaters, seriously, before you even think about putting any on the cake.
4. Frost cake and then store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
5. Lick the frosting bowl. Yes, you may enter sugar coma but it is worth it.

My workmates will adore a two layer cake so I made these little mini cakes for Mum and Dad to enjoy for dessert!

Super Baking Sunday and Sweet Strawberry Galette

Amy....
Amy come and play...
I heard the voice calling me as I lay awake in my bed on Sunday morning.
Amy...you don't need to sleep any more...come and play with us....
In my dream like state I wandered out of my bedroom and found the source of the saccharin siren's song.
My kitchen.
In all it's empty Sunday morning glory, ingredients in the fridge and a stack of bookmarked cookbooks on the bench it was like I had landed in the middle of my very own Disneyland.
So I rolled up my sleeves, put my apron on, grabbed my spoon and cosied up with my stove to have some Sunday fun.

First of all, there were the 'Black-bottomed Cupcakes' from 'The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook'. These disappeared to Mum's work this morning and I hope the girls and guys enjoyed the creamy cheesecake topping with a dense brownie base. I might have to make a batch especially for the household sometime soon.

That's right, a brownie base with chocolate chip cheesecake on top.
Bake with sighs of pleasure...

Martha Stewart called out to me next from the bookshelf and amid the pages of her 'Cookies' book I stumbled across 'Marbled Coconut Brownies'. The recipe can actually also be found on line as well.
Not tempted to follow the link?
Let me share some photos with you...

Sunday mornings don't get any better than this.

Whisk it all with love...

So pretty going into the oven. Coconut swirls and dense chocolate.

Even prettier coming out of the oven. This smelt like heaven.

The crackles on top are the best part. Welcome to brownie mountain.

Did you manage to read to the end of the post or have I already lost most of you?
People?
Anyone?
No....

Thank you for rejoining me!
After all this baking for others (the brownies went to Dad's work) I decided that we needed something chickpea friendly for dessert. As I shared on Friday we recently discovered a strawberry farm a very reasonable proximity from our house. We made the required pit stop there on Saturday after the farmer's market and so I had some lovely fresh ruby berries to play around with!
I decided on a galette as it truly showcases the amazing toppings and allows the natural beauty and sweetness of the berries to come through.

Before baking.

I doubled the recipe for the galette crust from  this recipe by La Tartine Gourmande. I had never baked with millet flour before and whilst the dough was a little bitter before baking when it was coupled with the sweet strawberries and baked it provided a lovely backdrop contrast to the fruit.
I just gently combined the sliced strawberries (about 500g) with three tablespoons of caster sugar and about two tablespoons of cornflour (to thicken the juices) before arranging them on top of the base.

Emerging from the oven.

Just a slice of heaven...

Unfortunately after this it disappeared quite quickly so there are no pretty plated up photos. All I can say is that not even the crusts were safe.
Case in point, the little chickpea, my sister Jess.

Should it be pastry then ice cream, or ice cream and then pastry?
Decisions, decisions....

How about both at the same time!!
Happy little chickpea!

Two more happy chickpeas! Casey and I in the kitchen pre- galette apocalypse

So that was my sweet Sunday. A beautiful way to end the week!

Also an update on Molly my beloved special athlete.
After a few weeks of recuperation, a lot of well wishes from all my blog friends, plenty of smooches from Dad and a steady diet of banana bread and honey on toast....
Well, you can see for yourself! Good as new!

Oh Amy, come on one more muffin, please....

I hope you all had a sweet Sunday too!

Running for Molly

This Friday is one of tumultuous emotions, in fact if someone could find the elephant that seems to have taken up residence in my stomach and return him to the wild I would be most appreciative.

I am a talker so I’m just going to use this space today to air a few of these emotions and hopefully this pesky pachyderm will leave me alone.

Firstly, my nerves are a little on edge because of the half marathon on Sunday. My poor loved ones are probably sick of hearing about how nervous I am, and I am possibly making it worse for myself by focusing on the nerves but that is just how I am reacting to the anticipation of that starting line. Once I start out I know that I will be okay, it’s just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other, and repeat, for 21 kilometers. So on Sunday at 9am when it’s all over, expect a blog post on how silly I am feeling for being nervous.

Then this afternoon after having sushi for lunch with my half marathon buddy, the gorgeous Lauren, I received a call that Molly has had to go back into surgery. After being hit by a car on my Mum’s birthday and breaking her leg we thought she was on the mend and dealing quite well with the plate the vet had attached to her broken femur. However, somehow last night she twisted and the plate has come undone inside her leg and her leg is re-broken. So this afternoon they are removing her leg. Molly will officially now be an amputee athlete. I know that it is all for the best and in about a week and a half the vet has told us that she will be running around like she is training for the Iditarod and outrunning me again.

It’s just a little sudden, that’s all and I hate seeing her suffer. It's hard because you can't explain to her why these things are happening and that everything will be okay.

Seeing this all in writing now has really put everything into perspective. A few little nerves are nothing compared to what Molly is going through.  

Molly I’m going to do those 21 kilometers for you on Sunday.

Then I’m going to come home and we can recovery eat together.

Yoghurt and granola for me, honey on toast for you.

Yes, you can have extra honey.

Speaking of honey, today is my beloved’s birthday.

Happy Birthday Darling!

I wish I could be there to celebrate, but it won’t be long now until I am over the other side of the Pacific Ocean watching the sunset with you.

I apologise for the lack of Fallen in Love With…Friday and for using the blog as a therapy couch today, but this has really helped put everything in perspective.

This weekend: birthdays, broken legs and bittersweet chocolate muffins

When it comes to the 'good news first or bad new first' debate I have long sat on the side of bad news first and then good. For me it makes sense; you rip the bandaid off and then get the kiss better, you eat your cauliflower before you get to have your cupcake, and so I present the events of this weekend in the order of unpleasant before pleasant. No, it is not chronological in any way, shape or form, but this is the way my mind is digesting the course of events that unfolded over the past 48-72 hours. 
Here comes the bitter:
Our new beautiful puppy, Molly, who you may remember from here, escaped from our backyard and was hit by a car. Thankfully she is going to be okay but she has had to undergo some pretty intensive surgery today and will be in recovery and rehabilitation for the next three months. This unfolded on Saturday afternoon, on my Mum's birthday so it put a little cloud over our celebrations but luckily we have some great friends who still managed to make it a great night for us, and we know that Molly will be fine in the end.



Let's skip back a few hours shall we?
Saturday was Mum's birthday! This wonderful lady is being celebrated the world over (well, my world over) for everything that she brings into people's lives. My Mum is a born nurturer, she radiates comfort like the sun, she is the warm earth in which all things flourish and are coddled until they are ready to bloom on their own. So on Saturday we celebrated the start of another year in this wonderful lady's life. I am sure I can never tell you I love you as many times as you have whispered it to me through out my short time here so far, so in case I don't tell you enough, I love you Mum. Happy Birthday. Here is to many more cups of tea shared in the evening, countless bags of confectionary that appear at exactly the right time, and thousands of hugs on the couch. 
We booked lunch at a great Moroccan/ Middle Eastern restaurant in Fortitude Valley called Mecca Bah which Mum and I had enjoyed dinner at a few months ago. The location is fantastic, nestled inside an apartment complex that wraps around an array of dining establishments and fine shopping stores and the menu is filled with Middle Eastern delights including tagines, Turkish bread and fantastic salads.


Me and my Mama, and my cousin Grace.



My sister snuggled up with her fiance.



My cousin Grace and I.

I chose the beetroot, rocket and yoghurt salad as I had eaten this before and it definitely did not disappoint on round two. So fresh with a kick of spice and sweetness from the beetroot. To accompany my salad I chose the Morroccan vanilla tea which was heady and sweet and so delicious that I had to order two pots.

I love Morrocan tea glasses, but I always forget to use mine at home. Aren't they pretty?



After lunch we headed home where I started preparing for Mum's birthday feast (14 people, 1 kitchen and a whole lot of cupcakes). Unfortunately while I was prepping and chopping and roasting the Molly incident occured and so I don't have any photos of food as I needed all hands on deck to get dinner on the table as guests were arriving. My thanks to the wonderful people who I count as friends who helped to make finishing up dinner a whole lot easier, and to my beautiful sister for handling a lot of the clean up.

I can however offer a picture of the flowers that decorated the table.

Anyway I couldn't help but feel that this weekend warranted some baked goods after that, and so the Bittersweet Chocolate Muffin was born.
Warning: this is not a sweet cupcake kind of muffin but more a solid cocoa base with chunks of dark chocolate flecked through the batter. Great by themselves with a cup of coffee or tea, or warmed and spread with some berry jam.

Bittersweet Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients - dry
1 3/4 cups wholemeal plain flour
3/4 cup sugar
8 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt

Ingredients - wet
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
2 eggs
1 cup soy milk (you could use dairy if you prefer)
1/3 cup canola oil

3/4 cup chopped dark chocolate

Method
This is why I love muffins and quick breads, the ingredients list can be nearly as long as you like but the method is always so easy.
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line 2 muffins pans (I yielded 17 muffins out of this recipe but this depends on the size of your muffin tray, mine is a 1/2 cup capacity).
2. Using a whisk mix together dry ingredients, ensuring there are no lumps and that everything is nice and aerated.
3. In a separate bowl beat together wet ingredients.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
5. Fold through chopped chocolate
6. Spoon mix into muffin tins, filling each cup about 3/4 of the way up.
7. Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before removing from tray to cool completely on a wire rack.
If you can't eat all of them within a day or two these muffins also freeze and defrost wonderfully.

Hopefully the next post will be more on the sweet side of life but for now I am grateful that Molly is going to be okay. I think I'll have to bake her some special get well dog biscuits....