Something to look forward to...

I am addicted to food magazines. When I was packing up all of my worldly goods before moving back home to my mum's house in January, I realised that I have every Gourmet Traveller from 2007, a good couple of years worth of Delicious, Donna Hay and BBC Good Food. In October 2008, the following cover of Vogue Entertaining & Travel caught my eye. I bought every issue of that magazine until they stop publiching it (I know - I was disapointed too!) Of course as soon as I saw this in the cover, I knew that it would have to be my 24th birthday cake. Of course, time has moved on since then!
The cake was surprisingly easy to make - and that is even using powedered gelatine! I had yet to discover the wonders of leaf gelatine back in 2008. My crystalised rose petals aren't quite up to VE&T standards, but I love them all the same for the story behind how I made them. My mum had forgotten to buy pink roses for me, so on her way walking home from work, she did a very quick dash and grab from a neighbour's garden. I'm sure the roses were leaning over the footpath making them fair game :)

All in all, the cake was an incredible! There was not a single morsel left. I dreamed of this cake afterwards - it was that good! I looked for any excuse to make this cake again. Finally, an occaison presented itelf. Every year, with my girlfriends we have a Christmas lunch to celebrate another year. As none of us are big fans of the traditional Christmas pudding, I decided to give the cake another run. Again, a success! As well, as my girlfriends, my wonderful boyfriend came along to sample the dessert I had slaved over making.

He was in love with it. In fact, he still talked about this cake months and years after I made it! Which, given we are in a long distance relationship and one of the things I missed the most was cooking for him, was so lovely! One of the things I was really looking forward to was making this cake for him again.

On Wednesday night I had my chance! I adapted the recipe to make use of Belgium's famous dark chocolate and the homegrown raspberries from my boyfriend's family home. It was again a success! A bit richer this time, but given the quantity of chocolate I used in both the ganache and the mascarpone mixture, I wasn't surprised...

I'm already trying to find another excuse to make this cake again...

The recipe can be found at the link below

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/22001/stawberry+layer+cake

Vive la cuisine francaise!

I love French food! This may not come as a surprise if you look at some of the recipes I have included on this blog. For the majority of my life, I have been a serious Francophile. I love the language, food, culture, wine, fashion... In short if it is French I love it!

I took a year off university in the middle of my degree - to go and study, work and live in the French Alps. I always loved French (as interpreted by Australian restaurants!) cuisine - but it wasn't until I got over there that I disovered the full range and diversity of French cuisine.
Being based in the Alps, I learnt about cheese, saucisson and of course, more cheese! I fell in love with reblechon, ate more than my body weight in raclette and learnt a very important lesson - never drink with water with fondue, wine only of course!

During that year in France, I ventured further afield to sample the delights of freshly ground north african spices and freshly marinated olives in Antibes, oysters straight out of the water shucked by own hands, les rattes - the most delicious potato - dug from the ground minutes before being washed of and sauted in a hot pan. I enjoyed the sights, sounds and tastes of Paris on as many occaisons as I could and ventured into the southwest for my first ever taste of luscious foie gras in the Perigeux , sweet as can be fraises des boises and liquid gold in the form of Sauternes et Monbazilliac.

I could go on an on - but some of most vivid memories of food revolve around the French countryside in all it's forms. Mid- last year I returned with my boyfriend to explore the wonders of the Cote du Rhone valley and the island of Corsica... I managed to find some old favourites and some new inspiration on the way...Chestnuts, honey, herbs.... I can't wait to show how I used these once I came back to Australia. In the meantime, I will leave you with some of the great meals I had on my trip...

In Provence, we indulged in many a glass of Cote du Rhone - red, white and rose! We thouroughly enjoyed a visit to the beautifl Domaine Saint Nabor, found a beautiful farmstyle restaurant in Godargues!Simplicty at it's best!!! Fresh river trout - grilled whole with lemon, fries and mayonnaise and more of that delivious Cote du Rhone!

French champagne, a market pot-luck lunch, goats cheese and jamon fume... summer on a plate!
I can't wait to go back!!!!!