Swedish Chocolate Cake (Kladdkaka)

If your favourite chocolate brownie and lava cake had a baby ... this would be it.

I've been making this cake for years, it's a favourite in our house. I think I started with Nigella Lawson's recipe without the alcohol. Izy from Top with Cinnamon has a fab video for making Kladdkaka and her photos are positively drool-worthy.

It's now my go-to cake, most requested birthday cake, cheer-up cake, visitors-coming-and nothing-to-eat cake, feed-the-addiction cake.

This was a few years ago, maybe 2012? 

the whole family love Kladdkaka

It's easy to make, I mean super easy. You can literally whip this up in 5-10 mins and be stuffing your face licking the plate in 25 minutes. You don't even have to wait for the cake to cool, which is dangerous let me tell you. 

As long as you're careful with the cooking time you'll have sticky, gooey, delicious goodness every time. Crunchy outside, oozy inside. It's not failed me yet! 

Serves 8. Or 2 if you don't feel so generous ;)

Swedish Chocolate Cake (Kladdkaka)

Ingredients:
135g butter
1/2 cup (55g) cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup (300g) sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract 
1 cup (125g) plain flour
3 eggs whisked
Icing sugar (powdered sugar) to dust


Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced, 350°F or 320°F fan-forced) 

Grease a 6" to 8" (16-20cm) cake tin really well and flour. 

In a medium saucepan melt butter, remove from heat. Stir in vanilla, cocoa, sugar and flour. Pour in eggs and stir gently until all ingredients combined. 

Pour into greased cake tin and bake 20-35 mins depending on size of cake tin. This is important. Watch from 20 mins. The center should still feel gooey, don't forget it will continue to cook a little in the tin. 

I've been making this for so long and using the same 8" cake tin, so, mine takes 21 mins in fan-forced oven. 

Let cake cool a little in tin, gently run a blunt knife around the inside of the tin to loosen the cake. Turn onto wire rack. Dust liberally with icing sugar. Serve warm with cream or icecream.

Or if you can't wait or don't need it to look pretty eat serve straight from cake tin. 

Don't be impatient like me and gouge the sides out of the cake when you're loosening it with a knife.

You can eat this cold (if there's any left) but I love it just slightly warmed. 10-15 secs per slice in microwave does the trick. I think I should buy a 6" cake tin, wouldn't this look good as a big, chunky oozy cake ... ooh get in my belly :) 

Be off to the kitchen and make Kladdkaka!! 

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs.

Review: Happy Go Paleo by Irina Macri + Creamy Roasted Fennel & Tomato Soup

Title: Happy Go Paleo: Fun, healthy meals from my 80/20 kitchen
Author: Irena Macri
Genre: Cookbook
Publication Date: 23rd September 2015
Pages: 232
Book Source: Penguin Books Australia

Synopsis: A little paleo goes a long way

'Happy Go Paleo' is exactly what the name suggests: an easy-going, relaxed approach to the paleo diet. I love paleo as a lifestyle, a diet focused on whole foods, a simpler way of living, spending more time outdoors and getting fit through functional movement. I want other people to discover my 80/20 paleo philosophy and how fantastic it can make you feel.' 

In this book, internationally renowned blogger Irena Macri creates complete paleo meals to show how accessible healthy eating can be. Here are over 100 of Irena's best recipes of whole foods, good-quality protein, nuts and seeds. Fun to make, delicious to eat and using everyday ingredients, all recipes are gluten free and refined sugar free to help you craft your own paleo and healthy eating journey!

My Thoughts:

Regulars to my blog will know that this year I've been trialling gluten free/no inflammatory oils/no refined sugar/clean eating in the hope of decreasing inflammation and getting improvement in my nerve-damaged hands. Well, no improvement (worth a try) but I've come across some wonderful cookbooks and delicious recipes that anyone who loves food will enjoy. 

I love Irina Macri's 80/20 take on the paleo lifestyle. Now I still have dairy and I do not and will not EVER eat offal again (I was made to eat lambs fry and steak & kidney as a kid, a traumatising experience I tell you *gag*) and just the thought now makes me dry heave. Mind you I haven't eaten a weetbix since I left home either #40yearsweetbixfree but I digress ... 

I don't need the label but I love the paleo philosophy of whole food, nourishing food and Happy Go Paleo is a more relaxed approach which most people find easier to stick with. Rigidity is misery-making so I particularly like Irina Macri's thinking "that a little paleo goes a long way ..."

Happy Go Paleo is well set out with useful categories, the photography is droolworthy and I love the nutrition notes included for each recipe and the substitution tips. 

Breakfasts & Lunches - yum ... my type of brekky

Nourish in a Hurry - speed & ease recipes. The Creamy Roasted Fennel & Tomato Soup I made came from this category. And Baked Salmon with Homemade Sweet Chilli Sauce will definitely be on the menu at some point.

Cheap Thrills - paleo on a budget

Favourite Feasts - feast and themed meals that require a little more time and effort but don't panic they're not difficult. There's even a Game of Thrones Feast HA

Treats - hmm maybe not treaty enough for me but I'd give the Honey & Coconut Caramel Sauce a go. 

Basics - like bone broth and activating nuts & seeds 

Two-Week Meal Plan 

Might try these Barbecue Grilled Prawns next. Don't they look yum?

photo: Happy Go Paleo

I made Kefir Chicken first because it looked delicious and I've been making my own kefir (probiotic milk) since April. It's chicken marinated in kefir or greek yoghurt and garlic, tumeric, cumin, cinnamon. Sounds good right? Meh ... bland, disappointingly tasteless.  

The next recipe was a winner, I wasn't even sure I liked fennel that much but this was delicious, it even got the tick of approval from the fussy son ;)

Creamy Roasted Fennel & Tomato Soup

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 35 mins 

2 medium bulbs fennel, thickly sliced

4-5 medium Roma tomatoes each sliced into 6 wedges

1 large brown onion sliced

1/2 long red chilli, deseeded and diced 

1 tsp sea salt

4-5 tblsp melted ghee

2 cloves garlic roughly chopped

3 cups vegetable stock

1 bay leaf

pinch of nutmeg (optional) 

1/4 cup coconut milk, plus extra to serve

Preheat oven to 220°C (conventional)

Place the fennel slices on a large baking tray. Top with tomatoes, onion and chilli, then sprinkle all over with sea salt and drizzle with melted ghee. Roast for 20 minutes, then scatter the garlic over the top and roast for further 10 mins. 

Transfer the roasted vegetables, together with the juices to a large saucepan and add stock, bay leaf and nutmeg. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. 

Transfer the soup, in batches if needed, to a blender and process until thick and smooth. Alternatively, use a handheld stick blender and blend in saucepan (that's what I did, easy and less washing up lol) Add coconut milk and stir. Serve with a swirl of extra coconut milk and a few basil leaves. 

Honestly none of the recipes are too complicated. Happy Go Paleo isn't just a lovely cookbook to browse but a very usable one. 

Irina Macri has a fabulous website Eat Drink Paleo with great recipes, articles and gorgeous photography. 

Connect with Irina Macri

Website

Twitter

 Facebook

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs.

The BEST Sticky Date Pudding (and I don't like dates)

I'm a chocolate girl, don't much like dates and I wouldn't normally go for a date pudding although the caramel sauce, that's another story ...  But I was won over to Sticky Date Pudding after having it at a Daisy Chain Scrapbooks retreat and Barbi kindly gave up the recipe. 

I made it for our family get together over Easter and a few of you asked for the recipe ... so here it is. Extra bonus ... photo practice and I took one for the team after getting this photo ;)

STICKY DATE PUDDING

1 cup pitted chopped dates
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 cup boiling water
90g butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup SR Flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

CARAMEL SAUCE
300ml cream
1 cup brown sugar
90g butter
few drops vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan forced (356°F/320°F)

Place chopped dates and bicarb soda in a small bowl. Add boiling water and stir well. Set aside for 10mins. 

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. 

Sift flour. Fold half of the flour into the creamed mixture with half of the dates mix. Fold in remaining flour and dates. Gently mix in nuts (I didn't add nuts)

Pour into a 20cm square or round cake tin or ovenproof dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Stand for 10 mins. Serve warm from dish or turn out.

To Prepare Sauce
Combine cream, sugar, butter and vanilla in saucepan on medium heat. Cook, stirring until melted and well combined. Turn heat to low and simmer gently for 2-3 minutes until thickened slightly. Pour warm sauce over warm pudding.


My verdict: to-die-for :)

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs.

The Sunday Salon: Bloglovin & Chocolate

After much hoopla over the soon to be demise of Google Reader and umming and ahhing on my part (I hate change) I bit the bullet and decided on Bloglovin. I was going to test Feedly and Bloglovin extensively and make an informed decision (ha) but I'd probably still be undecided come 1st July ... so Bloglovin it is :)

  

What I was happy with:

• very simple transfer from Google Reader to Bloglovin, blog list imported at the press of a button
• all my categories transferred - Favourite Blog Visits, Australian Bloggers, Scrapbook Blogs etc
• Bloglovin app works well
• I liked claiming my blog and seeing who was already following
• Option to like a post and return to it later

Not so happy with:

• only option for a profile pic is using your facebook photo (I don't want to)
• only option for customising the layout that I can see is by Blog or Date 

And Google Friend Connect is NOT disappearing with Google Reader but it probably won't be around forever so it might pay to follow by more than one source. I keep many of my favourite visits in my blog roll but I like to give readers options - see left hand side bar.

On the state of my mental health, I needed chocolate and lots of it to post my review of Nameless by Lili St Crow so I made this 

Chocolate Brownie Pudding 

recipe from the Merry Gourmet who minimally tweaked it from Barefoot Contessa Back To Basics 2008. 

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter (or 227gm for us metric users)

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar (that's normal sugar for us not castor)

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tblsp Grand Marnier (optional) I didn't use it

Directions: 
Preheat oven to approx 160 degrees Celsius - 150 fan forced (325 farenheit) and grease a 2litre baking dish. 

Melt butter and set aside to cool.
Beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer on medium to high speed until mixture very thick and pale, about 5 - 10 mins. Whisk together cocoa and flour and set aside.

When egg/sugar mixture is ready decrease the speed to low & add vanilla, then the cocoa and flour mixture. Mix until just combined. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in cooled butter and mix until just combined. 

Pour batter into baking dish and place in larger baking pan. Add hot tap water to pan until it comes halfway up the side of baking dish. Bake 1 hour. Allow to cool slightly, serve warm with cream or icecream or both :)

Warning: This is for serious chocolate lovers. Rich, oozy chocolatey goodness. The top is crunchy and chewy and the inside is gooey and delicious. Beats therapy ;)

PS: I just found out this is actually freakin awesome cold. OMG I've died and gone to heaven

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

The Sunday Salon: 'Pinning' & Cooking & Audiobooks

I have long been guilty of disappearing into the Pinterest void, pinning like a mad woman and staring at all the pretties. In other words pinning and NOT doing. .... in a Gollum "my precious" kind of way. 

So this weekend I've blown the cobwebs from my Pinterest recipe board (yay me) while listening to The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman on audio ... beautiful!

My debut Pinterest recipe was a Penang Curry (recipe found on Pri's website Recipri)

I've adapted it slightly by using chicken breast instead of tofu, light coconut milk and leaving off the cashews as I didn't have any. The Penang paste I found in the local supermarket was very mild so an extra tablespoon could be added if you're taste buds call for extra zing. 

Penang Curry

Ingredients: Serves 4-6.

• 2 tbsp. oil
• 2 tbsp. chopped garlic
• 1 tsp. grated ginger
• 2 tbsp. Panang Curry Paste 
• 2 cans coconut milk (13.5 oz. each) approx 430ml, I used light
• 1 1/2 tbsp. palm sugar (or brown sugar)
• 1 tbsp. reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp. lime juice
• 1/4 cup roasted and unsalted cashews
• 1 cup chopped white mushrooms
• 1 cup chopped white/yellow onion
• 4 Thai basil leaves
• 4 oz. cubed extra firm tofu (I used 2 chicken breasts, chopped)
• 5 broccoli florets chopped
• 1 cup red capsicum 
• 10 snap peas (I used beans)

Method:

1. In a seasoned wok, heat oil on medium heat.
2. Once hot, add ginger and garlic and let cook until light brown.
3. Stir in curry paste.
4. Whisk in coconut milk, brown sugar, soy sauce, and lime juice and turn heat up to medium-high. Add the lime juice little by little until it’s to your taste. I used the full 1 1/2 tbsp. of lime juice.
5. Add chicken and onion, cook for minute or two then add vegetables and basil leaves and cook on medium until chicken cooked through but tender and vegetables still firm (was approx 5 mins)
6. Top with basil leaves or crushed cashews. I left the cashews out
7. Serve with steamed rice

Absolutely delicious flavour and a real hit with my family!

So are you a Pinterest junkie? Leave a link, I'd love to follow you. And if you're a fan of audiobooks, I'm keen to hear recommendations. 

Narrators can make or break an audiobook and I've been lucky enough to listen to some exquisite stories with exceptional narration. Here's a few of my favourites :)

WINTER GARDEN by Kristin Hannah

MAGIC HOUR by Kristin Hannah

THE MAZE RUNNER by James Dashner

THE CHOSEN ONE by Carol Lynch Williams

LIVING DEAD GIRL by Elizabeth Scott

SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUT by Beth Hoffman

THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK by Neil Gaiman

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.