chocolate salami

I am 23 hours away from the NaNoWriMo deadline and still a few scenes away from the end, but this time I genuinely think I will manage to finish entro 30th. A full novel. I just need a few thousand words before leaving for uni tomorrow and some during my short breaks between classes, and some in train on my way there and back; I can guess I will still end up with so much to do in the evening, after 8 p.m. when I will come home, but it is good. 

I slept three hours yesterday as I stayed up making Christmas cards and thank you cards and some collage covers for poetry & prose folder I am slowly creating: the inside parts are still waiting for the words to fill them, but I didn’t want to wrap my printed with my duvet again to prevent it from being too loud. I think I will have time for that – on Saturday. Done with writing. It is hard to imagine not writing at the point where it takes 3-4-5 hours a day… I hope I will be patient enough to keep creating my little repetitive works of visual art that are all I can create, and I’m going to be happy with them, no matter how simple they are. It is soothing and fun, and that is more than I could ever ask for. 

chocolate salami

250 g butter or margarine
2/3 cup water
1 ¼ cup sugar
500 g full fat powdered milk
6 tbsp cocoa
150 g tea biscuits, crushed to medium-sized pieces
100 g raisins, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes and drained

heat the butter with water in a medium-sized pot, add sugar and cocoa when melted and mix until dissolved
add the milk powder while it’s is still warm and mix thoroughly
add raisins and crushed biscuits, mixing with a spatula until all covered with the chocolate mass evenly
put half of the prepared amount onto aluminum foil, form a long cylinder-shape that will resemble a salami, wrap tightly with the foil and roll a bit, making it round on the edges
let cool down and the store in fridge – take out half an hour before serving (unless it’s really hot) and dust the surface with powdered sugar; cut into 1 cm slices to serve

8th birthday cake

This is an order cake I made for eight-year-old girl; her mother asked for a simplest cream cake with wafer tubes and mentioned the girl liked violet. There is a flower on the top of the cake, just the same colour as the bow. I got a word that the birthday guests (a dozen of second graders) loved the cake and asked for second and third helpings until there wasn't a crumb left. 

*

I'm just a few steps away from 100,000 words of my novel (39 k in one week; my previous high score was ~50 k in 10 days) and nearing a moment where the main character is taught baking as a kind of relaxing therapeutic pastime, and I can't wait to make him bake endless cookies and golden shortcake and chocolate heaven layer cakes, and I can only hope that he will be a fast learner, since the characters do not always listen to me. I have a week, seven days to wrap it up and this time I do intent to type the last word before Nov 31st, 23:59. And I know I will, and then there will be a celebration. With cakes.

& music for today, I haven't done that for too long: Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale 

follow this recipe 

the changes I made for this order:

 - cutting the cake in 3 layers

 - colouring the whipped cream inside violet, as a small surprise

 - decoration of violet sugar and shiny golden sugar balls

chocolate sponge cake with rose buttercream

One thing I love about reading stories on the internet is that they are up to date with live languages. Not historical fiction, that is true, but when I’m reading that genre I stick to real book because there is enough amazing lectures (it’s enough to cite ‘Quo vadis’ or ‘De vita Caesarum’.) And one of my favourite expressions is, very fitting for a baker, ‘brownie points’. I don’t live in an English-speaking country and most people I spend time with everyday do not think it necessary to talk in English, so I’m often lost when it comes to words because I sometimes feel much more comfortable not speaking my mother tongue. And the whole charm of ‘brownie point’s is lost when translated. So when I read, I can’t help but smile every time I see the expression. Because it’s so nice, yes, and because I like brownies. 

So yesterday, when my dad asked me to make some cake, the only things that came to my mind besides autumn favorite, pear tart, was brownies. I went through all cupboards in the kitchen to find that there were about ten grams of chocolate in my house, but I wasn’t going to give up so easily, so I fished out a half-forgotten package of cocoa and decided to make chocolate cake. 

It doesn’t exactly qualify for what I would call brownie; the cake is moist and chewy but very light and crumbly in texture at the same time; it lacks the density though, and the strong chocolate flavor. There is more of a hint of it, thanks to the cocoa, that is not overwhelming and goes perfectly with cane sugar. It’s perfect for a snack or everyday dessert, but in this shape, looking professional, with an easy addition of buttercream that looks like ice cream, under and additional coat of melted chocolate (my poor ten grams), it makes a perfect elegant dessert for all occasions. 

And a piece from my 70 k novel, for appetite: 

They didn’t go to sleep immediately that night. Silver took out some of the supplies they got in random places on the way and prepared a small feast: there were cubed fruits and cheese and prawn cocktail sandwiches, some saltines with cream cheese and dried strawberries in yogurt coating that he has learned to love, following Sky’s obsession with them. There was even a chocolate cupcake or two for each of them for the dessert. Silver opened a bottle of sparkly raspberry lemonade they poured into plastic wine glasses. 

chocolate sponge cake with rose buttercream 

(makes 6 + leftovers) 

cake 

4 eggs 

1 cup cane sugar 

½ cup white sugar 

220 g melted butter, lukewarm 

½ cup cocoa 

1 ½ cup flour 

1 tsp baking powder 

preheat the oven to 180C 

beat whole eggs with sugar until almost white and fluffy (about 5 minutes) 

add melted butter, mix with the mixer 

soft cocoa, flour and baking powder, then add to the batter and mix delicately with a spatula, it should have mousse-like consistency 

line 20x20 cm square pan with baking paper 

bake for 20-25 min until toothpick comes out clean, leave to cool in half-open oven to prevent collapsing (it will fall a bit but that is okay) 

buttercream 

250 g butter 

120 g powdered sugar 

3 tbsp rose petal jam (if not available rose essence should do, a few drops to taste) 

pink food colouring 

beat the butter until pale, add sugar, jam and colouring and nix until well incorporated 

assembly: 

cut circles out of cake with 6-8 diameter rings / cookies cutters/ whatever works 

make a ball of buttercream using ice cream scoop, place on top of the cake 

pour some chocolate syrup / melted chocolate on top

simplest cheering sandwich

Yesterday my 50k of the novel was finished: it made me so proud, despite not being the biggest amount of text I have written in such a short amount of time (though I did other things than cycle, cook and write this time, I somehow fit it between my classes at uni.) It’s not even half of the plot I planned, but it’s going well and I am happy. Writing always makes me so obviously happy. 

* 

In Poland we used to grow bittercress in plastic containers filled with cottonwool, back in primary school or kindergarten. In winter, since there are no herbs and no fancy lettuce I am used to eat all the time, we grow the bittercress on out windowsill. It has a bitter, pronounced flavour that not everyone enjoys, but for me it is going back in time to when I was six and we proudly cut the little pieces to put them on our food, thus the sandwich, besides being very green in the middle of leafless autumn, always makes me smile. 

simplest cheering sandwich

slices of sourdough rye bread
good quality cold butter
bittercress
fleur de sel (or other good quality salt)
white pepper

put a thin slice of cold butter onto the bread, add some watercress on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper
(repeat and enjoy!)

moist chewy brownies & success

I don’t know why the characters of my novel have not eaten any brownie yet, since it is my favourite kind of dessert and also a very easy to make one. They had pudding and mac&cheese, soufflés and scrambled eggs and nice sandwiches, even carrot cake, but the story surely lacks brownies. But all of the 37 520 words I wrote in last 11 days make only the first out of three parts of the story, so there will be a plenty of time for more sweets, especially with Sage who is an avid baker (sadly that is part three, so long days before I reach it). 

Janet chose her favorite café and he tasted vanilla cappuccino: they met before he went to the hospital and she went to work, at 8 a.m., on the purpose of preserving the tradition of the only right way to drink cappuccino: in the morning, with a sweet yeast bun, for breakfast. The coffee was indeed very good and he praised Janet for having such a great taste, but he decided that he still was not the biggest fun of the beverage. 

‘Maybe you will understand it with time. You are still too young.’ 

He inclined his head in agreement and they set the next meeting. 

Silver told her to dress nicely and she was suspicious but obliged. He took her to a fancy patisserie where they used to come with the whole family if there was a celebration, given Lora’s abysmal abilities as making anything sweet. They indulged on a tasting menu that consisted of ten different dessert and pastries, all in small sizes and looking more like jewels than food. 

‘You should take a nice young girl to a place like this, not an old woman, and especially like me, coming from lower class, I have never been to a place this fancy –’ 

‘Please’ he interrupted, smiling at her slightly. ‘This is only more of a reason to take you here. You’re amazing and you deserve it and I am happy to be here and talk with you.’ 

She blushed and beamed at him, suddenly looking at least ten years younger, and for a moment he felt perfectly happy.

  

chewy moist brownies

220 g butter, melted

1 cup warm water

½ cup sour cream

2 ½ cups flour

½ cup cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

combine all the ingredients in one bowl/pan, mix well manually

prepare a 20x25 pan, or one of similar volume: line with baking paper or grease

bake for 45-50 minutes in 180C (until toothpick comes out clean), no need to preheat the oven

panna cotta with peach mousse & writing

i have been rather busy lately and it’s a nice change. there’s been uni work and strange hours of my classes i had to get used to. spending time with family. more time spent volunteering than usually. most of all, i wanted to finish some projects i was working on before nanowrimo, and some of my little artsy things are finally done, even though i am left with one story waiting to be continued and colliding with my need to have a completely clear schedule for this year’s novel. luckily though i should have enough time to work on both at the same time.

i am sitting in my dark room now, my hair scented like chocolate from the shampoo, with a cup of raspberry tea and pumpkin bars waiting in the kitchen; i am at 6,000 words and some more to be written tonight, and i am happy that i can say i am enjoying myself more than ever. 

(even though it would be much nicer if it was warm, summer-like warm, so i made some panna cotta with peaches to remind me of the sweet sunlit hours.) 

panna cotta with peach mousse 

(4 portions) 

200 ml milk 

400 ml whipping cream 

2 tsp sugar 

vanilla essence 

gelatin, according to packaging 

1 ripe peach 

soak the gelatin in milk for a few minutes 

bring the cream with a splash of vanilla and sugar to boil, turn off the heat 

heat the milk with gelatin until the gelatin dissolves, stirring constantly helps, do not bring to boil 

mix the two liquids and pour into ramekins (the size i used, which is pretty common, is 150ml) 

let cool and put in a fridge for at least 4 hours 

before serving, prepare the mousse: simply peel the skin and blend the peach adding some sugar to taste if it’s not sweet enough 

pour some mousse over each serving, optimally decorate with mint leaves and mini choux fingers or another cookie of your choice