Fresh Cream Torte - Sponge cake Recipe!

This has to be my favourite sponge recipe!

It has such a light fluffy texture and tastes great. Even better... It is super easy!!

Ingredients

5 eggs
100g sugar
100g flour plain

whisk eggs in cake mixer.
gradually add sugar.
whisk on high for 10mins
 while it is whisking prepare a lined tin with baking paper.

IMPORTANT:Be gentle when handling and taking  the mixture out of the bowl to ensure you do not break any air created during whisking!

 Sprinkle flour over whisk beater and fold through using whisk beater. Get rid of any obvious patches of flour. Cut and fold with spatula.
put in your lined greased tin.
 bake at 205degrees for 5min then 190degrees for 15-20mins

I Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

If you have any questions feel free to ask :)

Brit xx

Bite sized food

A small collection of the latest canapes I have made in training :) 

Marinated scallops served in chinese spoons

Devils on horseback
-these a super easy to make! I definitely recommend trying these if you haven't :)

  

Sushi 

stuffed rolled Asian vegetables wrapped in rice paper

-these had an amazing flavour. yummy!

Venison with caramelized onions on homemade puff pastry. (garnished with roasted capsicum)

- Another simple canape to make that tastes great to please your guests!

Healthy salad!

Bacon, pear and walnut salad

This salad is seriously going into my favourite recipes book! It was so quick and easy to make,  it tastes so good and the best bit is that it is healthy!

It is called pear and walnut salad. Personally i am a big fan of putting fruit in salads. I feel as if it gives that extra bit of freshness and sweetness. It can also provide a great texture 

The ingredients in this salad are,

Mesculin salad

Roasted walnuts

Pear

Bacon

Parmersan cheese

Served with an aoli and vinaigrette.

We also garnished this with kumera shavings but it isnt essential.

I definitely recommend trying out this salad next time your stuck for a meal idea. An even better idea is to make extra to pack for lunch the next day :)

Hot and Cold Cocktail Food Lesson 6

This lesson was all on cocktail food!

I loved this lesson because I love making small bite sized food to take to events or to serve at home when family and friends are over :)

Today we made,

-Spring rolls
-Wontons
-Chicken Kebabs
-Goujons of blue cod
-Corn fritters with salmon gravlax and mango salsa
-Brushette with oven roasted tomatoes, grilled courgette, marinated mushroom and feta
-Filo cases filled with Asian Beef salad

Corn fritters with salmon gravlax and mango salsa

Spring rolls

Goujons of blue cod

Filo cases filled with Asian Beef salad

Poultry Lesson 4

This lesson we made


-confit of duck 

-Chicken ballontine with a kumera rosti 

-ostrich and asian salad





Confit of duck
A slow cooking method poached in duck fat
This was served with peppered havarti gnocchi, fennel and orange salad and a white wine and bay leaf foam.

I love the colours of this dish, I think it is gorgeous to look at. 

I had never eaten confit of duck before. Now I know why I commonly see it on restaurant menus!
This slow method of cooking makes the meat so tender and we finished the cooking off in the oven out of the duck fat to crisp it up.

Black rice-crusted Ostrich with watermelon salad

Chicken Ballontine with veal, chicken and herb farce. Kumera rosti garnished with oyster mushrooms, carrot and courgette ribbons with a chasseur sauce.

Easy Bread products to make this weekend! + Kiwifruit Jam!

One of the great things about the cookery course I study is the diversity in food products we learn to make!

Basic and complex bread products are part of my course.

Here are some of the bread items I have made

Bagels

Celebration Wreath

This is finished with a glazed icing which is the prefect finishing touch!

Wholemeal rolls

2x topped

2x Glazed

2x Cuts

2x Knots

Croissants 

This was my first time making croissants. Surprisingly they were easier to make than I thought! However they take a long time to make!

6 Braided plait
This was my first attempt at making this. It turned out well apart from the lack of colour :(
Just needed slightly longer in the oven!
The 2nd time I made this it turned out much better. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo :( 

Kiwifruit Jam

This jam was easy to make and was soo tasty!

Hope you enjoyed this post, let me know if you would like any recipes :)

Have a great day!

Brit :)

Sensational Soups!

After a good 4 week break from my chef course, it's time to get started again.

Following my level 3 course that I started in February, I am now onto level 4.

The first lesson was breads but today I'm sharing my first soup lesson.

We made:
Oxtail consommé
Crab Bisque
Borscht
Seafood Chowder

Oxtail consommé
A consomme is a clear soup. To make the soup clear and 'grease free' there is a strict process throughout the making of the soup. You must constantly skim the 'skum' off the stock when you are reducing it down with the oxtail bones. This is so the stock is as clear as possible when you serve it. 
The 2nd process for getting the clear soup made is to make a raft from mince. For this we mixed egg whites with mince and finely chopped vegetables and placed them in our strained oxtail soup. Bring this to the boil and simmer once the raft of mince has risen. It is important at this stage not to stir it and break up the mince raft. Then you must carefully strain out the liquid soup from under the mince.
I love making this soup as it is a very cleaver way of getting a clear soup. It also brings out the perfectionist side of me to get the clearest soup possible!!




Crab Bisque
This soup has ALOT of flavour. and as a big seafood fan, I LOVED this soup. Unfortunately there were no crabs available in the area at the time so we used whole prawns and crab meat. We broke up the prawns with there shell still on and all. I'm guessing this is what gives the soup a great flavour! Luckily the shells are all strained out at the end :) so no crispy shells in your soup..!

Borscht 
To my understanding Borscht is a popular soup around Eastern Europe. There are lots of different versions of this soup that all slightly differ from the other. The main ingredient in this soup is the beetroot which gives it a vibrant bright red. Our version used spanish onions and red wine. We garnished this soup with sour cream, soft boiled egg wedges, and chives.
I had never made this soup before but I found it interesting but definitely an enjoyable soup! Very healthy too :) Its great to get colours in the diet!



Seafood ChowderYum!
Like I mentioned above, I'm a big seafood fan. So I loved this chowder. We put shrimps, blue cod, salmon, mussels,  clams, cockles and smoked blue cod into our chowder.It is very easy to make and I highly recommend it to all seafood lovers out there!