The Desire
Ginger orange cake with turmeric orange cheesecake, roasted yellow nectarines, salted burnt orange silk meringue buttercream, roasted almond praline.
Ginger Orange Cake
Because I love ginger in cakes. It has exactly the right amount of heat, depth of flavour and intriguing earthy notes to peak ones desire. Vanilla can be bland, We have done vanilla most of our lives, and now at 50, in peri menopause (what you are not? ….isnt everyone perimenopausal?) One needs to carefully reconsider desire. What used to work no longer works. That cheap imitation vanilla extract…. Ever taken a deeper look at vanilla? Sure…it is socially acceptable, liked by all, and easy to come by. You can put it in everything, and it can put itself in everything easily enough, but easy is not where desire is at these days. Sure it fits very well indeed into self imposed social constructs… but at 50years old, after 9 months of pandemic pandemonium, ginger is where desire is at these days. Out with the old, lets explore desire in depth. This is a moist richly spiced complex dark soft cake. Perfect dont you think?
The spices all come whole, I take a journey every so often into Western Sydney. One of the most exciting cultural places ever. I never knew when I was a north shore middle class snob what excellent things were happening in Western Sydney. The cultural food pockets blow me. Wentworthville is one such blow. Walk into the giant multi aisled supermaket there, a giant garishly lit Ganesh welcomes you. The incense, spices, sitar music and sounds of Hindi language take me right back to India for a micro second. Who needs to travel OS when we can go to Wentworthville, right? okay… making the most of an utter shitful pandemic situation, but still… we are talking Indian food from INDIA… those legumes, rice, spices, and all things nice have flown. I like to touch things that have come from overseas these days. Maybe some travel energy will rub off. Lentils do your thing, take me into travel fantasy cause my Pinterest board is not doing it for me anymore… Speaking of nice, lets get back to The Desire Cake. I gently roast them, and hand grind them (the spices!) The zest is from the oranges, and the brown sugar is dark and sticky. Treacle too, just to emphasise this sticky damn mess I am in here….
Turmeric Orange Cheesecake
Desire needs a creamy luscious double layer of orange turmeric cheesecake. It just needs soft and sweet. We all need soft and sweet. Soft, kind, slow, gentle, sensitive. Not a pushy hard thing about this one. Desire nailed.
Roasted Yellow Nectarines
Seasonal, what can I say. Fruit needs to be eaten in season. It is all about timing. Desire is made worse by bad timing, so with the fruit, I try to get it right. Spring and summer is wanting of a stone fruit, roasted in the oven until the juices flow and bubble, and little burnt tips appear on the slices. You know you have to wait all damn winter for a ripe nectarine. Do it. Wait. WAIT for gods sake, because you know, you do know… that The Desire needs patience. Dont blow it here, and dont take the can of fruit that’s throwing itself at you, you know where that leads. Sugar coated canned fruit is predictable, boring and deeply unsatisfying. You dont need that after all this wait. Hurrying here wont help The Desire. Wait for your best fruit to come into season.
Salted Burnt Orange Silk Meringue Buttercream
Creamy and delicate, not too sweet. So many old ladies love my cakes and and desserts when they are “not too sweet” (say this with a silly over emphasised old lady posh voice). Anyhow, it has suddenly dawned on me I am an old lady. I was in a burger chain the other day on a lonely road trip by myself - because divorce, ordering a frozen slushie thingy with rainbow popping bubbles (because I am mature) and the 6 year old serving me asked if I was a senior. No words. Stop laughing. Remember I could get into nightclubs underage…. looking much older than I really am has benefits….don’t be forgetting that important fact.
Anyhow, I cant possibly put less sugar in the silk meringue buttercream. It is silky, creamy and sweet. I need sweet, you need sweet, desire is sweet. Sweet is the soul food (fuck the hemp seed energy balls), sugar my dearies, is the soul food of 2020. Because 2021 is coming and nothing is going to get better. So succumb already. Do sugar. But, I must emphasise, The Desire is not really great when overly sweet, hence the salt. But we know about putting salt with sweet already, that was the 90s. No need to pontificate.
The burnt orange is because I burnt it. But tasty! so lets have a wank about it.
Roasted Almond Praline.
Well you know it now, I am out…but almonds have a very pretty shape dont you think? I prefer natural. An almond that has been overly blanched or groomed also looses its nutrients, flavour and colour. Kind of like a human who gets hair and nails done then makes it even worse by doing perfume, boob jobs and synthetic clothes. That is not desire. I am staunch on this. The Desire must be natural, as is, how it comes. Just like that. But do let’s make her a little hot, and let’s roast that natural almond, and sugar coat her with a golden caramel. Blend well so you can sprinkle throughout the cake in fine golden sprinkles. Diamonds. The Desire is strong under that soft creamy fragile sweet outer. Praline is one of the pastry chefs tricks. Made it before? Do it. Use it in things to improve everything. Dont be afraid, learn how to do new things.
Throw away the fear with gay abandon.
It will be ok. It will be the best thing you have ever done. But you must not touch the burning caramel until it has cooled. Whilst there is a furious bubbling concoction of sweet sweet sugar still in the midst of transformation, beware. Do not touch. Let it go through this process, let it transform, only then will it will be ready. Get involved when it is not ready, and dang, it’s going to hurt. It will burn you right down to your bones….When ready, the furious chaos will reduce to a soft simmer of hot energy. Pour gently over the roasted almonds. They will mix together beautifully. The pairing will be sensational, those almonds have been waiting for that sugar. The mix is beautiful. The praline also needs to be sprinkled on top after the icing has been done. That silky pale buttercream looks so cute with the tiny golden diamonds scattered randomly. Like cute freckles in all the right places. The Desire is complete. Now eat. Dont share (you know that shite dont work).
The Recipe
Gingerbread Cake:
150g plain flour
3g bicarb
3g baking powder
5g gr ginger
3g gr cinnamon
3g gr nutmeg
2g gr cloves
2 oranges zest (finely chopped)
95g dark brown sugar
place in bowl
125g milk
1 x egg
beat tog and stir into flour
63g butter
170g treacle
melt, cool, stir into cake batter till combined
cook in 2 x lined 20cm springform, 180c 20mins or until pulling away from sides.
Cheesecake:
71g sugar
2g salt
500g creamcheese
90g natural yoghurt
3 x eggs
5g turmeric
2 x orange zest (finely chopped)
2tbs plain flour
blend with a mixer or blender until lumpfree and completely smooth
cook in 2 x 20cm lined springform tins 170c 40 mins
Roasted Yellow Nectarines:
slice and seed 2kg yellow nectarines
lay on baking tray, sprinkle with sugar
roast till browned and a little crisp on edges
cool
Roasted Almond Praline:
2 x cups natural almonds on a tray and roast in oven till sfragrant (about 5 mins)
let cool on clean cookie tray
melt 2 cups sugar and 3tbs water in a saucepan bring to boil and boil until golden
pour over the top of the almonds
let cool completely before pulverising in a blender
Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
120g eggwhites
175g sugar
2g cream of tartare
2g salt
whisk together over hot water until 70c
take off heat and ballon whisk in stand mixer 5 mins until 30c and stiff peaks form
270g soft butter
add diced butter a few tbs at a time until incorporated
50g warm water & burnt orange syrup
whisk in
Burnt Orange Syrup:
Juice the 4 zested oranges and boil in saucepan until reduced to a thick paste.
let cool before using
To assemble, have all items ready and cool.
layer the cake in this order:
ginger cake
buttercream
praline
cheesecake
buttercream
nectarines
praline
buttercream (apply to underside of next layer)
cheesecake
buttercream
nectarines
buttercream
gingercake
buttercream top and sides
praline (final top layer)
Or simply ORDER the cake from me. I deliver or you can pick up by arrangement.
