We use food to mark and celebrate the many milestones that life brings us. Birthdays come and go; anniversaries, arrivals and departures all carry their own set of rituals and conventions. Though the details of these differ, the one thing they have in common is the sharing of food. Food nourishes our bodies, but also our souls. Breaking bread with our friends is more than just sustenance, it's showing kindness, taking the time to craft a special treat for someone else.
This week it was my very great pleasure to make a cake for my colleague Wolf Just. He is a Villa legend who has taught at the school for upward of 45 years. Yesterday he told me that he was now teaching the third generation of Villa girls and many of the current staff remember him as their teacher. His teaching and story telling is legend among all those he has taught. Now 45 years is a fair while to teach English to the teenage bred and so this occasion called for a cake of some distinction. I wanted to acknowledge his subject area and also all the many thousands of photographs he has taken for the school. At the same time I didn't want the gluten free people amongst my colleagues to miss out on their helping of cake. And so I came up with the two 'book' layers of cake, the flowers and the chocolate photos and lettering. The bottom 'book' layer of the cake is Carrot and Black current. The recipe is here. I just doubled the recipe, left the cranberries out and added a handful of black currents to the mixture before baking it in a large cake tin. The top 'book' layer is a Gluten free Spiced Apple cake which I am very happy to say I adapted myself.
Gluten Free Spiced Apple Cake
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
100g butter - melted
2 large apples
1 cup bakels Gluten free flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup walnuts - chopped
Preheat the oven to 175deg. C and line a 20cm square baking tin.
Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Using a spatula, fold the melted butter into the egg and sugar mixture.
Peel, core and chop the apples into even sized pieces.
Once the apples are chopped be quick with the remainder of the mixing so the apples don't brown.
Sift the dry ingredients and fold them into the batter.
Lastly add the apples and walnuts and fold together.
Pour the batter into the baking tin and bake for about 40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Take the cake from the oven and let it cool in the tin. The cake texture is very delicate and needs to be gently handled.
I made a butter cream frosting and flavoured it with orange liqueur.
For the carrot and black current cake I made Cream Cheese frosting and added blackcurrant juice for colour and flavour.
Wolf did the cutting and speech honours in his usual witty way. Congratulations to you my friend - 45 years and still going strong.
With a great big collective sigh, the school year has come to a close and we have said our fond goodbyes and Christmas good wishes to students and colleagues alike. On Friday we celebrated with Secret Santa gifts, lovely nibbles and Christmas cheer. We said farewells to our colleagues and friends who are moving on promotion to other schools and promoting themselves to well earned retirement.
As is our custom, everyone chipped in to deliver a lovely festive lunch. To help celebrate the promotion of two of our staff I made cakes in colours that celebrate their individual personalities. Orange for Megan: her favourite colour and a match for her radiant presence in the school. Pink for Tony: famous as his least favourite colour and thus the one we have always honoured him with. On his last day as Acting Principal, the entire staff dressed in pink in his honour. Two lovely people for whom their respective schools should count their blessings to receive.
I based my cakes on an old favourite chocolate sponge and topped it off with simple butter cream frosting.
Chocolate Sponge Cake
6 eggs - separated
300g caster sugar
200g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons butter
4 heaped teaspoons cocoa
6 tablespoons warm water
Turn the oven on to 180deg. C and line a 20 x 30cm baking tin with baking paper.
Beat the egg whites until they form peaks. Add half the measure of sugar, a little at a time, and beat until the mixture holds firm peaks.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until pale, thick and creamy. Don't add the sugar to the yolks until your ready to beat of the sugar will form lumps with the yolks.
Heat the butter, cocoa and water in a small saucepan. Stir until smooth.
In a large bowl, fold the egg white and yolk mixtures together. Follow with the cocoa mix, and finally the twice sifted flour and baking powder. Try not to knock the air out of the mixture and don't over mix.
Gently transfer the mixture into the baking dish and smooth over the top.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when pressed in the middle.
Leave to cool in the tin. Once cold fill with jam and butter cream and top with either butter cream or normal icing.
If your eating it straight away it is lovely filled with fresh cream and seasonal fruit.
Butter Cream Frosting
200g soft
butter
1 cup icing
sugar
6 tablespoons warm
milk
juice of 1 lemon
Put all the ingredients into the mixer and beat until light and fluffy. The mixture should not be curdled, but smooth, pale and creamy.
I left the frosting in the centre white and spread the top layer of the sponge with raspberry jam. As you can see I halved the original large cake to form two smaller ones.
For the finished cakes, I added natural red food colouring for the pink frosting and blended red and yellow for the orange frosting.
This cake eats equally well simply topped with sifted icing sugar.
Now with all the celebrations of the closing of school over for the year, its time to move on to all the many possibilities of Christmas foods!
