A Three-Cake Birthday

Last week it was my birthday.  Not a particularly 'special' number, but it turned into a pretty special day.

I never used to tell the children in my class when it was my birthday, but then a colleague once told me that she thought we should - after all, kids get so excited about birthdays, and it also helps them to appreciate the fact that you're a 'real person' too (not just someone who lives in school!).  I thought this was a good argument, so ever since then I've not been shy about mentioning it to the kids - not making a huge thing of it of course, and making sure to emphasise that gifts are not expected (I always give them the 'homemade is best' yarn, and I do love the cards that they make!).

This year it was easy to drop into the conversation as my birthday co-incided with our year-group's Chocolate Day, officially the culmination of our book-study of Roald Dahl's classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but unofficially just an excuse to eat lots of chocolate and watch a film!

Not only was the classroom filled with chocolate (we had a chocolate fountain!) but at snack time the cake appeared...  not just one, but TWO birthday cakes.

The first was a cheesecake, from my year-group colleagues.  We have a very nice tradition of getting eachother a cake on our birthdays, and getting all 3 classes to come in and sing.  Which made me almost cry (in the nicest possible way!).

And next came an amazing Red Velvet Cake, made my one of the delightful girls in my class, with the help of her Auntie who is a professional baker.

It even came with little Red Velvet cupcakes - so adorable! 

The cheesecake was gorgeous - not too sickly-sweet, and with lots of fruit.  The Year 3 staff polished it off fairly fast.

Helped by 19 children, the Red Velvet cake didn't last too long either, but was really delicious.  Dense and with a hint of chocolate, topped with cream-cheese icing.   And made with love so very special.

Luckily we managed to leave a piece for our special visitor...

Yes, I am currently hosting my 3rd Flat Stanley from Lewknor School.  This one comes courtesy of Poppy, following the example of Polly and Hayden who sent theirs earlier this year.

After the monkey disaster with Polly's, this is as close as Poppy's Stanley has got to our neighbourhood macaques:

Once I got home I started on birthday cake number THREE - one of Ben's legendary Ferrero Rocher cakes.  I had been dying to have another one of these since Rob's birthday in May, so this was the perfect excuse.

I don't think I've ever managed that many cakes on any birthday before.  What a treat - and huge thanks to all who gave them.  I had a wonderful day.

Macarons from Ben

I'm so pleased to have met Ben - and even more so that I am now on his 'list' who receive updates about what he's baking and opportunities to buy the results.  A few weeks back (I'm a bit behind on my blogging...) he posted that he was going to make lemon tarts, and macarons.  Now I've always been a macaron fan, so I just knew I had to try some.

The lemon tart was wonderful - crisp buttery pastry, filled with a layer of dark chocolate, then a layer of pistachio sponge, and topped with the most gorgeous tart-but-creamy lemon cream (a Pierre Herme recipe no less)... but of course we ate it before I thought of taking a photo, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

But the macarons... how could I resist taking pictures?!  They are such things of beauty.

I ended up with a box that contained 4 flavours - pictured above (from top to bottom) are Chilli-Chocolate, Nutella and Coconut-Lime.  There was also a gorgeous pale lilac Cassis flavour one, but it got a little crushed so I ate it sans photo!

These macarons were as good as they looked.  I loved the chocolate ganache that Ben had used as the fillings.  I might have added a little more chili to the Chili-Choc one, but that's a personal thing and I'm a bit of a chili-fiend.

I think my favourite was the Coconut-Lime.  I asked Ben how he had made it, and he told me that he had used the juice of limau kapas, or key limes, mixed with coconut cream and white chocolate.  It was a great combination.

The shells just looked so professional, I was really impressed as I know how temperamental they can be to make.  I'm inspired to have another try myself - roll on July and my long Summer holiday!  I'm already pondering different flavour possiblities...

Ferrero Rocher Cake - Happy Birthday Rob!

Having given my new blog-friend Ben a glowing review recently, I thought I should put my money where my mouth is and give one of his cakes a try.  And what better occasion to do so than Rob's birthday last week.

Looking through Ben's list of cakes, one immediately leapt out at me - the Ferrero Rocher Cake.  Rob is a big fan of Ferrero Rocher, and they're one of the few chocolates we can buy here that are the same as the ones you buy in the UK (all the bars of Cadbury's chocolate you buy here for example are either made in Malaysia or Australia, and are most definitely not up to UK standards!).

A quick Facebook message to Ben was all it took to place the order, and we arranged a rendezvous in a local supermarket carpark to exchange money-for-cake on the day itself.  It was great to meet Ben in person after chatting on our blogs and Facebook; good to put a face to the name of this talented local baker.

I could hardly wait to try this cake so rushed home with it to wait for Rob...  annoyingly (for him even more than me!) he was about an hour late home as he had got stuck in a meeting, so we didn't have time to try the cake before heading out for his birthday supper.  Luckily we refused offers of dessert in the restaurant so we could have birthday cake instead.  And wow, I'm glad we did!  This was better than any dessert we could have bought while eating out, and definitely more pudding than cake.

 
The cake was made from layers of sponge, brushed with vanilla syrup and sandwiched together with a chocolate mousse.  The mousse was studded with chunks of crushed Ferrero Rocher, giving it a lovely nutty crunch.  The whole thing was smothered in a rich chocolate hazelnut ganache...  rather like Nutella (and that is of course a good thing, not a criticism!)

I e.mailed Ben to ask how he had made this amazing creation, and this was his reply:  I used a regular oil-based sponge cake so it stays nice and soft even when chilled though you can use a chiffon cake too. For the chocolate mousse, I used an egg-yolk based mousse as I found it to be richer than the egg white one. The other layers are hazelnut dacquoise which is basically a meringue where ground nuts are folded in and then piped in a spiral to form a flat disk, it is hard and crunchy upon baking but softens wonderfully upon chilling.

This is the kind of cake I dream of making, but I'm self-aware enough to know that it's just something I couldn't do.  Not couldn't perhaps, but just wouldn't manage to do without inordinate amounts of stress and quite probably bad language.  Thankfully there are people like Ben in this world who make complex layered cakes such as this as a form of stress-relief, and for that I'm definitely willing to pay!  This cake was $50, but provided us with 12 good-sized portions - and this cake was rich enough that you didn't need any more than a 'good-sized portion' to feel thoroughly satisfied.

Incidentally - and shhh, don't tell Rob (thank heavens he neglects to read this blog, eh?!) - I also purchased a single-portioned Salted Caramel Tart from Ben.  He had sent out a message to some of his Facebook friends saying that he was baking them, and would we be interested in buying one?  Would I ever?!  I adore salted caramel.  I picked this up on the same day as the cake, although Ben had made them a few days earlier.  I was expecting the pastry to have softened somewhat over those few days, but it hadn't suffered in the least.  It was still as crisp as ever.

The filling was layers of deliciousness, involving salted caramel and chocolatey yumminess (can you tell I forgot to ask Ben for details of this one?) and Oh. My. Word. it was incredible.  I snuck it into school to eat for my mid-morning snack...  and made it until I shooed my class upstairs to the ICT room at 7.30am before sneaking a bite...  which then of course turned into several more bites until, oops, it had all gone.  I think that having a friend like Ben might be dangerous to my waistline!

So Happy Birthday to Rob - and thanks to Ben!

Let Them Have Cake - Baking in Brunei

I love blog-world.  Most of the people who read this blog are people who I know in 'real life' - it feeds to my Facebook profile, so my FB friends can see it, various family members in the UK read it, and several of my cooking-forum friends also pop in and say hello.  However, occasionally a 'stranger' happens upon my blog, and sometimes you get to chatting...

This has happened with my new blog-friend Ben.  Ben found this blog whilst looking for information on macarons (this post to be specific), and was surprised to find that I lived in Brunei - because he is Bruneian!  He's a teacher, like me, but to escape the stresses of his job (teaching secondary - I couldn't do it!) he bakes.  He plans to enroll in pastry school one day, but in the mean time he makes - and sells - the most amazing looking cakes, cookies and macarons.

I've been really impressed to read that he always uses the best and freshest ingredients.  These things don't come cheap, and so often it's all too obvious that commercial bakeries here just don't use good quality products.  That incredible-looking cake that you bite into to find bland over-aerated sponge, sickly-sweet shaving-foam-style icing, and nasty fake chocolate - sadly a common disappointment.

But Ben's cakes?  I think they're the 'real deal'!  For any of my friends here in Brunei who might be interested in ordering that special celebration cake, or just treating yourself to something hand-made and delicious, here is a link to what's available.  Ben's phone number is also on the blog so you could make contact via text to place an order.  I'd guess he'd need some notice - he's a teacher as well as a baker.

Ben's Products and Prices.

I wish Ben all the best with this.  Good cake is hard to find here, so it's great to find someone making and selling great quality baked goods.