Annabel (and Robyn's) Ultimate Chocolate Cake

Okay, maybe this blog should have been called "OUR" Journey with Annabel!  Here is Annabel's Ultimate Chocolate Cake made by my gorgeous friend Robyn!  It looks amazing and those who were lucky enough to try it said it taste as amazing as it looked!  Hopefully Robyn will post a comment on how she found the recipe was to make and then we can know if there was anything tricky that she came across.  The ingredients are quite simple; SR Flour, sugar, vanilla extract, cocoa, baking soda, butter, milk (or yogurt  - which did you use Rob?), eggs and coffee.  The topping is Annabel's beautiful Chocolate Ganache which I am looking forward to making. 

This weekend I made Annabel's Sticky Buns for the kid's school lunchboxes.  They were a hit in the house - even took some up to Grandma and Grandpa for afternoon tea yesterday!  Grandma commented (more than once!) that they were lovely and "very professional", she thought they'd retail for at least a couple of dollars in a shop!  I'll post more photos of how the Sticky Buns went once everyone has had a good chance to digest Robyn's magnificant chocolate cake!
Catherine

Lemon Preserving continued...

I sliced the lemons and put them in the freezer last night ready to be bottled.  Annabel tells me that by freezing the lemons first, it breaks down their cell structure which speeds up the preserving process.  The first recipe I'll use the preserved lemons in will be Annabel's Chermoula Marinade.  The marinade she uses in her Spicy Chicken Skewers and just by adding sour cream or Greek yogurt to the marinade it makes a beautiful sounding dipping sauce - think I'll do both!

Once the lemons have been pickled for about a weeks Annabel says they'll be ready to use but they will improve over several months so maybe I'll wait to make the Chermoula Marinade until later in the year, a summer BBQ perhaps.
I bought these funky preserving jars at The General Trader today.  They are prefect for the preserved lemons and I bought a couple of smaller ones to make some of Annabel's Lemon Curd.
So in the jars I put the frozen lemons, lemon juice, bay leaf, salt and grapeseed oil.  Lids are on and they're ready to be left to use later in the year - can't wait!

Challenge One - Preserved Lemons

The Lemons.  As a little girl I remember the lemon tree in my Granny's back garden.  Right in the center of her big yard the tree had bird baths and feeders hanging from it and always seemed to be in fruit.  The lemon tree Mum and I planted at least 10 years ago in my own back yard has been a bone of contention in our house!  Planting it fairly close to the house was quite intentional on Mum's part (a magnificent gardener by the way) as it was going to hide an ugly corner. By keeping the back of the tree pruned it would bush up nicely and be the perfect tree in our sparse back yard.  For years the poor thing never even looked like it was going to fruit, whenever a little bud appeared it was either knocked off by a basketball or just shriveled up and fell off.  The man of the house was convinced it wasn't fruiting because of it's poorly situated position in the backyard, but..... in the past 12 months it began to blossom, and really blossom!  No amount of basketball practice was going to knock off the hundreds of buds that just kept coming, and I think all the rain we have had may have contributed as well!  Now our magnificent tree is laden with fruit and I have decided my first recipe of Annabel's will be preserving some of these perfect lemons I have grown and picked myself - Annabel would be proud!

Getting from there......to here!

Annabel Langbein was introduced to me by friends who gave me her book, "The Free Rage Cook" for my birthday.  I had only seen her show on TV once but was impressed with how she lived and fell in love with her garden and produce.  

On a recent girls weekend away, relaxing without the hubbies and kids, we watching the movie Julie and Julia.  Although I missed some of it (very tired after a long week at work!) I got the general idea of the story and even though it won't go in the "Top 5" of my most favourite movies, the bits I saw, I enjoyed!

As well as Julie and Julia we were treated to the viewing pleasure of the entire series of "The Free Range Cook" on DVD.  It was perfect, wonderful friends sitting around the fire in beautiful Fish Creek, surrounded by the majestic rolling hills of the dairy country in South Gippsland, glass or two of bubbles, a few nibbles with us oohing and ah-hing over what Annabel created.  The recipes I had flicked through in the book in prior weeks seemed to come to life and I felt inspired to slowly make my way through the book, having a go at all the recipes just as Julie had done with Julia's!

As a busy working Mum with 3 gorgeous kids, I thought it unrealistic to give myself a time frame to get through Annabel's recipes.  Instead I will do my best to make everything in the book, White Bait Fritters and all!  So I invite you to take the journey with me.  There will be successes and probably some failures but I expect this journey to be one that is both satisfying and fulfilling in more ways than one.  I will learn a lot on the way and plan on sharing the fruits of my labour with treasured family and beautiful fiends, I will log my travels to all those who choose to follow my blog.  
Catherine