In my thermomix: gluten free chocolate cherry cake

Those who know me well know that I often rave about my thermomix. It was a 40th birthday pressie fairly recently (well, maybe not that recently...) and while I don't use it as much as many owners, I can't imagine my kitchen without it. 

My favourite recipe in the basic cookbook that comes with it is easily the Torta Caprese or flourless almond cake. I've made it countless times and it has always been a huge hit. Most people are shocked when they realise it's gluten free as it is ridiculously moist and bursting with flavour. It's also incredibly simple, quick to prepare, and could easily be made by those of you unfortunate enough not to have a thermi. I've made it as is in the book, as well as adding orange zest, various liquors, and extra whole almonds to give it a different texture. 

I mixed it up again when I made it on the weekend as I was very kindly given a massive box of beautiful cherries by Cherry Growers Australia and Brisbane Produce Markets. I am a bit surprised that I had some left for baking, as cherries are amongst my favourite fruits, but even I can't eat 2kg of them on my own. Although I tried hard!

What you need

250g dark chocolate, chopped (I always use a good quality 70% chocolate)

250g almonds

200g sugar (I use raw and blitz it a bit, but you could use castor too)

150g butter at room temperature

6 eggs (59g)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp cocoa

300g cherries, pitted and cut in half (this allows for a few to be eaten) 

What you do 

• Preheat oven to 180c
• Grease a 20-22cm tin and line with baking paper
• Pop the chocolate into the thermi bowl and chop for 5-10 seconds on speed 8. Set aside in a separate bowl
• Put the almonds into the thermi bowl and chop for about 10 seconds on speed 6. Add to the bowl with the chocolate
• Place remaining ingredients into the thermi bowl and mix for 20 seconds on speed 7
• Add chocolate and almonds and mix for about 30 seconds on speed 6 until it has all come together
• Pour half the mixture into the prepared tin, sprinkle half the cherries on top
• Pour over the other half of the mixture and top with the remaining cherries 
• Bake for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Check at the hour mark. You want it to be not fully cooked, so it has a lovely fudgy centre.
• Once cooked, cool in the tin, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours. Try not to be tempted to cut it before it is completely cool. 
• Serve with more fresh cherries, cream or ice-cream

If you don't have a thermomix, you can easily make it using another type of mixer. Either hand grate the chocolate, or blitz it in a food processor, buy almond meal, use caster sugar and mix the rest as per the order in the directions above. 

Actually, if you don't have a thermomix, just go and get one. Or at least start saving!

What's your favourite ingredient to add to a chocolate cake recipe?

Disclaimer: The cherries (and a fabulous easy to re-use box and bag) were gifted to me by Cherry Growers Australia and Brisbane Produce Markets. Thank you. 

In My Kitchen November 2012

I'm an In My Kitchen newbie this month - after reading so many others for many months I decided it was time to jump in!

To break with tradition, the first pic is In My Garden - WE HAVE CHICKENS!!! Just in case you don't follow me on twitter or Facebook :)

This one is hubby doing a bit of chicken wrangling this afternoon as three of our four ESCAPED. I was not happy. They are massacring the veggie garden. Hopefully his latest trip to Bunnings will sort it all out later today!

But despite being naughty, two of our beautiful chooks are providing us with breakfast, almost every day. YAY! Hopefully the others will start to lay soon too.  All in their own time...

Mmmmm cheese. This is a few of what is currently in the fridge. Yes, I'm a bit addicted. I also have ricotta, fetta, cheddar, parmesan and a few dregs of a blue I bought in Adelaide earlier in the month - it reached the stinky-shoe-smell stage just as I arrived back in Brisbane. Pretty sure the other passengers on my flight didn't need to smell that. Olympus haloumi is a favourite, and also made locally in Brisbane. The yellow and red cheeses are from Maleny Cheese (I really must go there one day!). These three I picked up at the Good Food and Wine Show recently. The organic Brie style is a favourite I get from Woollies every now and then.

And to go with the cheese, a selection of crackers. I LOVE the Sakata wholegrain - gluten free and soooo good. I always pick up a few packs when they are on special. The ones in the box are Fig crackers - gorgeous with a soft ripened cheese like a Brie. I'm also eating a rosemary cracker from the same company which I love. The square bikkies are Kurrajong Kitchen's lavosh bites (egg and yeast free), also picked up at the GFWS recently. They are about to increase their range in IGAs and other independent stores, so keep an eye out.

A big thanks to Emma from Chobani for sending a box of one of my new favourite yogurts. I love the 2% the most, and use it for a load of savoury dishes - most recently for tandoori chicken and a cucumber and mint raita. Hubby loves the small flavoured ones. I've been a fan since tasting them in the US a couple of years ago - I love them even more now they are made in Melbourne. Check out their success story - what a man can do with a dream :)

I'm a volunteer speaker for the Heart Foundation so when I saw they had a cookbook out by Pete Evans, I had to buy it. Especially when I found out $8 from the sale of each goes to raising awareness of heart disease. It's only $20 - it would make an excellent Christmas pressie.

I love fresh garlic - this is Australian grown, and picked up the farmer's markets in Brissie last week.

Aren't these little matryoshka dolls cute? They are also practical as they are a set of measuring cups. Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for giving me these for my birthday a couple of years ago. 

Cherries scream Christmas to me. And while I am in NO WAY ready to acknowledge that it's nearly that time of year, I was very happy and grateful to receive this gorgeous box of cherries from the Brisbane Produce Markets recently. A big thanks to them and especially to Cherry Growers Australia for providing them to me. Our cherry season is far too short, so stock up now so you don't miss out. I must say I was pretty happy to discover hubby and Mr12 are not cherry lovers. More for me. YAY!

I love these preserving jars. They are some of mum's that I inherited last year. I have many childhood memories of them being used - not just for food! Mum was a keen maker of preserves and jams and sometimes pickles and chutneys. I'm determined to use them - maybe not all of them as there are over 100 of varying shapes and sizes! I've used a few so far as vases, to make fermented tomato salsa, for mango chutney and I've gifted a few (filled with food of course!) to family members who also miss mum.

Last but not least - my thermomix. Otherwise known as the wonder machine. This makes life in the kitchen SO much easier! Most recently used to make gluten free chocolate cherry brownies. Perfect for the person who loves to cook AND the person who hates cooking :)

Well, that was fun! If you want to peek into other kitchens, check out Celia's list at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.

What are you using in your kitchen this month??

Disclaimer: The Chobani yogurt and the cherries were sent to me. THANK YOU. Everything else featured I purchased or acquired as mentioned in the post.

Zumbo bake at home - And the winner is...

A huge thanks to everyone who entered this competition - the overwhelming flavour winner is clearly salted caramel. A flavour I also love!

I entered you all into a random number generator, and the winner is Jo! I'll be in touch to arrange delivery of your prize in the next few days.

I'm fairly sure your sweet tooth will love these - let me know what you think. And even with your perceived lack of baking prowess, I'm sure you'll be able to make the brownies. They are very easy!

New bake at home by Adriano Zumbo - and a competition

Everyone who knows me well knows that I absolutely hate packet mixes and am fairly scathing of most people who use them to bake a cake. Let’s face it. It’s not that difficult to mix some flour, milk, sugar, egg and butter in a bowl to get a cake. With real ingredients that taste great. Not much different from adding a few ingredients to a packet mix and, yes, you guessed it, mixing it in a bowl. Usually with added preservatives, and often a substandard taste.

So when I was asked to trial acclaimed chef Adriano Zumbo’s new bake at home packet mixes, my instant reaction was to say no. But I was intrigued. I, too, had marveled at the macaron tower on Masterchef. Stared in awe at the V8 cake. Winced in pain with Julie when she kept scalding her fingers on the caramel for the ginormous croquembouche.

So why not I thought. 

His range of four includes two macarons (passionfruit and salted caramel), chocolate brownies and the chocolate mirror cake. Now I love to bake, and consider myself to be quite competent [we don’t mention the forgotten butter incident much these days…], but as I’m not the target market for these goodies [did I mention I really don’t get the fuss about macarons?], I invited a few friends over to help. By which I mean bake. While I swanned around drinking champers and taking photos.

mmmm bubbles.... 

So a huge thanks to Fiona, Sherryl, Cathie and Brad for agreeing to take on the Zumbo challenge. 

I must say, as someone who has never made macarons, but who has heard loads of horror stories, these seemed quite easy. We did have a few glitches, generally due to the cooks not reading the instructions properly before starting to bake (not naming names here...). And the other main thing I would suggest is to whip that meringue mix to within an inch of its life. Just when you think it is finished, whip it some more. And maybe a bit more. Otherwise you might end up with something that looks a bit flat. Like a pancake. Which you don't want. 

Piping out the macarons. This technique was excellent. Maybe next time turn the paper over so you don't eat red pencil... 

A bit pancake like - needed more whipping :) 

These were an almost perfect first effort - check out the little "feet" 

The other key step is to leave the meringue mix to stand for 10 minutes. The whole 10 minutes. VERY IMPORTANT. But in the end they looked great and got 2 thumbs up from everyone - if you love sweet you will love these. 

The finished macarons - the darker yellow were the salted caramel, paler yellow the passionfruit.

One of the things I liked most about these packet mixes was the helpful "Must do's from Zumbo" tips on the back of the box. If you are a baking novice, check out the videos on his website - they are excellent. The box also has a QR code to scan for video instructions. This impressed me more than anything and is a great tip that many other companies can learn from. 

We also baked the brownies. Extremely easy, and surprisingly, very tasty. My only gripe with these was that I almost fell into a sugar coma after eating a tiny piece. Very, very sweet. I should add that I am the type of baker to reduces sugar in recipes by 25-50%, something that can't be done with a packet mix. 

The finished brownie. Loved the chunks of chocolate. Next time I'll add some pecans. mmmm 

So the overall verdict? Not something I would buy or rush to eat. Far too sweet for me, and a few too many preservatives in the pack for my preference (they make me go a bit loopy), but necessary for this type of product. BUT a GREAT idea for novice bakers who want to try the macarons in particular. 

If you are keen to try these, I've been given a great Adriano Zumbo hamper to give away to one lucky reader (in Australia only please). The hamper includes each of the packet mixes and a copy of Adriano's latest book Zumbarons.

To be in the running, let me know what your favourite flavour of macaron is in the comments below. Please also pop me an email so I can get in touch easily if you win.  

The competition closes 5pm Brisbane time, Monday 12 November 2012. 

Disclaimer: These products and the prize were provided to me by thesoup.com.au on behalf of Zumbo Baking.