7 May 2005
Cheese
I love cheese very much. I love the complexity and intensity of the flavour. Does it love me? Sometimes.
I'm slightly lactose intolerant. With cheese, this isn't a problem, as cheese tends to be low on lactose. But eat too much, and it gets to me. Cheese is also high in fat, which means it'll stick around (usually my hips).
I have a love affair with food, but mostly dairy products. Alas. Most diets tell me I should avoid dairy products (everything from Blood Type to Weight Watchers... pretty much everybody except Atkins, and I don't trust them.)
But dairy products call to me! They do! They sing my name in four-part harmony. You wanna bribe me? The true secret is to bribe me with a good cheese. I don't often share that. I'll claim my usual form of payment is chocolate,
(for I love that too), but cheerfully accept cheese. The problem with cheese is transportability. It needs to be refrigerated, whereas chocolate doesn't. You can leave chocolate on my altar, but leave me cheese in the fridge.
24 May 2005
Happy Birthday to Me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday, dear me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Yes, today is my birthday. I share my birthday with many people, including Queen Victoria and my Grandpa. I almost shared my birthday with my daughter Lady Sarah Rose, but she wanted her own instead (25 May).
Share my birthday cake with me! Since the very beginning, my traditional birthday cake has been an Angel Food Cake. I now share this Angel Food Cake recipe with you. Sure, you could buy a package mix, but if you can't get the package mix (like I can't), you can make it from scratch.
This is a fat-free food! Well, until you put whipped cream on it.
Heidi's Birthday Cake
-or-
Angel Food Cake
First of all, make sure your utensils are completely free of oil. When dealing with egg whites, any trace of fat or oil or grease will prevent the egg whites from forming the stiff peaks required to make this cake light and fluffy. Wash everything thoroughly with detergent. As a final precaution, rub lemon juice on the inside of the mixing bowl, spatula and beaters
Preheat oven to 325F/160C degrees.
Ingredients:
1 cup corn flour (that's cornstarch for Americans)
11/2 cups confectioner's sugar (icing sugar for Americans)
10-12 egg whites*
11/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sift corn flour and confectioner's sugar three times until light and fluffy. Set aside.
Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla and beat well.
Sift a quarter cup of the flour mixture into egg whites and fold in with beaters. Continue folding in flour mixture a little at a time until all flour mixture is added.
Immediately pour into a bread pan or bundt (ring pan for Australians). Slowly cut through cake batter with a knife to remove any large air bubbles.
Bake in oven for 45-50 minutes or until done. Cake should be golden brown on top.
When done, immediately invert cake pan onto rack or onto bottle if bundt pan and allow to cool completely.
Loosen edges then unmould
Serve with fresh fruit and whipped cream, or chocolate sauce. This light, fluffy and completely white cake serves itself well with all manner of light toppings. Not suitable for a heavy sugar frosting. Pretty much you can top as you would a pavlova.
*Either buy prepared egg whites or separate your own. To separate egg whites, always separate the egg over a small bowl then dump the white into your mixing bowl. NEVER separate eggs over your main mixing bowl. This is to prevent your egg whites being contaminated by yolk. Yolk contains fat which will spoil the stiff-peak effect of egg whites. I learned this the hard way when I
separated by twelfth egg into my mixing bowl and had the yolk break on me. I had to discard the whole lot.