Monday, March 25, 2013

Pear Parsnip and Fig Cake

As winter starts to settle upon us in Melbourne town the days are starting to get shorter and the weather more gloomy. I am saddened by the knowledge that for everyday that it is cold outside it will be at least ten degrees colder underground in the pastry kitchen I am working in. Some days I feel I live my whole existence going to and from my job and all my spare time is spent organising functions and cooking for the hotel. Last week I started to feel like the cold was seeping into my bones and no matter what I did I couldn't get warm. I tried going for a run. I tried eating lots of cake. I tried drinking lots of wine, but nothing would pull me out of the gloom that had descended upon both me and the city.

This sounds a little serious yes, but last week I felt serious. I had so many moments of wondering what I was doing working my life away and missing out on all the sunshine. "This," I thought to myself "Was never the plan." I was meant to be making cakes to change the world and make people happy, not simply to pay the bills and supply me with cocktail money. When did these ideals shift? When did I stop writing? When did I stop having dinner parties? When did I get so damn serious?

I invited a beautiful boy over for dinner the other night and spent an hour fighting with him over the most trivial of trivial things........and this is when I realised things had to change. The moment I stop simply cooking for the people I care about in favour of arguing with them is the moment that I know life is out of whack.

So this is what I did.......I threw a dinner party for some of my favourite ladies, and it reminded me of how supported I am. I baked a cake for a beautiful artist, to remind him that I'm not just a crazy argumentative girl. I put on my prettiest dress and sat in a cafe to write and I spent the good majority of one day in bed.

These things are beautiful, but they still didn't remove the chill from my bones, because the thing I realised is, it doesn't matter how wonderful your friends are, or how beautiful the boy sitting next to you is, or how much cake you eat......unless you view these things with gratitude.

This is the only thing that will remove winter chills......thankfulness.

So this week Im going to try to be so incredibly grateful for all the small and all the significant things in my life.....and then I'll go about baking some more cakes. 

Here is a cake Im grateful for having made....because it was delicious... I hope you like it to. The recipe is from a beautiful book


Parsnip, Pear and Fig Cake

You will need:

  • 250g of a mix of grated pear and parsnip. 
  • 100g of dried figs diced finely 
  • 20 grated fresh ginger
  • zest of one lemon
  • juice of one lemon
  • 150g of spelt flour
  • 1tsp of mixed spice
  • 1 tsp of baking powder
  • 150g of almond meal
  • 3 eggs
  • 150g of brown sugar
  • 125ml olive oil
Frosting:
  • 125g butter (softened)
  • 200g cream cheese
  • 250g icing sugar
  • 1 tsp of vanilla essence.
What to do:

1. Mix together pear, parsnip, figs, ginger lemon and lemon juice in one bowl.
2. In a separate bowl mix together flour, spices, baking powder and almond meal.
3. In an electric beater beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale. This will take about 5 minutes. While the motor is still running slowly drizzle in the olive oil and whip of another 3 minutes.
4. Fold in the dry ingredients.
5. Fold in the vegetable and fruit mix.
6. Place the mix in a oiled and lined cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180 for half an hour or until a squire inserted in comes out without looking wet. The recipe that I adapted this from said half an hour but realistically I think it probably took over an hour....just keep an eye on it.
7. To make the cream cheese frosting beat together the butter and cream cheese until incorporated. Add icing sugar and vanilla and beat again.
8. Once cake is completely cooled spoon the icing on top!   

1 comment:

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