Celebration cake: Toasted marshmallow and ginger cake

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This cake was served at midnight on New Year’s eve covered with sparklers. This was our second wedding party with our friends and after the decadent meal we had I needed to finish off the meal with fireworks! This cake feels very wintery with the heavy ginger flavour, and perfect for celebrations with the blow-torched marshmallow icing. It is one of my husband’s favourite cake and it was a real hit with our guests.

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This recipe is from my BBC Good food magazine and is now online here. This recipe produces a cake too small for our 20 guests so I decided to go for a two-tier cake. This recipe just filled my 15cm round cake tin, and I doubled it for the bottom 23cm cake.

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The recipe asks for 4 stem ginger balls for the buttercream. The first time I made this cake I didn’t have time to hunt for this ingredient and decided to make my own so I’ll have the confit ginger and the syrup at the same time. It takes a bit of time but it is very easy.

Peel 3 big chunks of fresh ginger and chop it into small bits (or use a food processor). Simmer the ginger for 45 minutes in half a litter of water until it softens. Fish out the softened ginger and set aside. Measure the liquid left and add double the amount in granulated sugar, then put it all back in the pan and mix well to dissolve the sugar. Let it simmer until it thickens, then add the ginger back in the pan and here you have confit ginger with ginger syrup. You can fill clean jam pots to the top with the hot mixture, close the lid and turn it upside down. Let it cool and you can store it for months!

I love the spiciness of ginger and really wanted to give a kick to my buttercream so I used lots of this confit ginger while mixing the buttercream. Constantly taste your buttercream until you have achieve the desired level of heat.

For tips to build up a two tier cake, have a look here at my previous wedding cake post.

One tip for the marshmallow icing: Do not leave it too long at room temperature before blow-torching it as it might slide off the cake. As soon as you it is blow-torched, the marshmallow will keep its shape and the cake can be stored at room temperature until served.

Kaiseki by Kitchen Theory

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We are renovating the bathroom at the moment so our little flat is covered with dust and no way I am baking or cooking in this mess. Luckily, our foodie friend Wenying invited me to the House of Wolf on Wednesday for the first night of Kaiseki by Kitchen Theory. It was so incredible that I had to share it with you.

To put it straight: 9 courses of japanese classic dishes cooked by 2 chefs who worked in Michelin-starred restaurants (Fat Duck, Helene Darrozze, Sketch, Inicio and more….) lasting more than 3h in a beautiful room with an amazing service showing incredible attention to detail. All of this for £55! (Drinks not included)

Be aware the pictures and descriptions might be a bit of a spoiler… but if you want to try it and not sure what this is all about, scroll down and have a look at these wonderful plates of food. Yes yes, you have to go!

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We started by watching a 15 minute film with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a bowl of salty popcorn. For me that was something between me and my dinner and therefore unnecessary, as I am not an arty person in the slightness. But then came the first course and what a sight! Each table got served at the same time, each dish was explained in detail and at no point did I feel rushed or intruded upon, the service was simply perfect.

The first course called Hassun- ‘Night garden’ selection of appetizers was one of my favourites. It shows the different phases of the moon formed by cauliflower panacotta topped with roasted quinoa. The confit garlic dust was incredible and I will never forget the earthiness of the 2 mochi stones filled with Jerusalem artichoke purée. This dish was accompanied by a tapioca and aloe vera cocktail topped with smoke from wheatgrass dry ice. Very molecular and very theatrical!

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The second dish called Mukozuke-Sashimi with smoked dashi pearls is also at the top of my favourite list. The sashimis were blow-torched in front of us while the dish was described to us. It was very fresh and colourful and we loved the salty smoky dashi pearls as a replacement for boring old soy sauce.

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The third dish was Owanomono- Mushroom consomme with an ‘eternal life’ Tofu noodle, a good way to wish happiness and a long life to us all. Again, very theatrical with someone pipping the tofu noodle into a delicious mushroom soup. I loved our little spoonful of extras to add to the soup ourselves.

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The 4th course was Yakimono- Selection of Yakitori grills. Very simple and very delicious. We thought the emphasis was a bit too much on the nori than the beef, and I would have preferred a bigger piece of beef and a smaller one of tofu. I am not a fan of tofu at all but I really enjoyed this dish and the previous one. The honey/plum infused tofu had such a creamy texture like I’ve never had before, it reminded me of a creme brulée. The mackerel was the hit of the plate for both of us, perfectly cooked with a glaze of soy and mirin.

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The next dish was Sunimono- Seaweed salad. It was refreshing and we welcomed back some colours after our brown plate of yakitoris, but it was more of a bean salad for me topped with a few seaweed leaves than an actual seaweed salad. The pink fish-stock coral didn’t really work for us as it didn’t bring much to the dish.

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The 6th and 7th courses were served together. I will forever remember that pickled rhubarb, what a kick! I must admit I am not a big fan of tempura vegetables, but the batter was light and crispy, and I loved the lotus root tempura. Wenying promised she would take me to a chinese place where they do lotus root soup, apparently the best way to cook these crunchy roots.

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Another star for me, the last savoury dish Gohan- uruchimai (Japanese rice) squid ink risotto. Superb flavours, shocking black colour in the only white plate of the night. The scallop biscuit floating like a boat on the black sea of rice rescuing the prawn. A Life of Pi food scene! A surprising dish yet comforting, I could eat this everyday!

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Mizumonno- ‘Land of the rising sun’ dessert or Glory to Rhubarb. Do not make the same mistake as me by watching this beautiful plate too long or the rhubarb granita will melt away and you’ll have to ask for a spoon to finish it off! (which is what I did). Rhubarb tapioca pearls, rhubarb granita, rhubarb jelly, almond crumble, yoghurt meringue and vanilla cream, simply yummy!!

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Custom-made placemats from a recycled window blind

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This window blind inspired me to make placemats and when we decided to renovate the spare bedroom, I just couldn’t trow it away. I have that problem for many many things and I accumulate lots of useful bits (my husband would call them by another name…), which sadly seem to fill up our storage cupboard too quickly. But isn’t it worthy!

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To make these placemats you’ll need:

    • a woody window blind like mine (see picture above)
    • a pair of scissors
    • a pair of secateurs
    • a lighter and a candle
    • Optional: a little cat helper (Vegas, our kitten, poses for the photo and helps, a bit)

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IMG_1233I cut away the top and bottom of the blind and removed any damaged area. Cut a rectangle MUCH TALLER than the one you’ll use for your place mats because you need to remove quite a few woody sticks to have the string long enough to tie a knot. See pictures on the left, I removed about 6 sticks to have a comfortable length of string to work with, but it obviously depends on the kind of blind you have. Then make a double knot using 1 string from the top and the one opposite to secure the last woody stick to the rest. To seal the knot and make sure your place mats doesn’t fall to pieces light a candle and place the knots on the flame to melt the knots together.

To adjust the width of the placemats I use a pair of secateurs to give a nice edge to the woody sticks! And check out how good they look with our tropical meal! I can’t wait to use them this summer on the garden table for a BBQ night! I have some left overs that I might use to do some glass mats….