It is another perfect sunny day outside but I have absolutely nothing planned for this weekend except catch up on my job searching, a lot of writing, cleaning & laundry.
I do have one baking project that I have been thinking about trying for a while and after researching it would like to attempt it this weekend.
First step is my cake. Not just any cake but a combination of 2 cake recipe experiments. I am going to attempt to combine a 2 ingredient cake recipe experiment with a 1915s Railway cake recipe experiment (both of which I found on YouTube) together.
Recipe # 1 The 2 Ingredient Cake Recipe Experiment.
On YouTube this experiment required a boxed cake mix straight off the supermarket shelf - one without any premade frosting included and a bottle of fizzy softdrink or soda which must be carbonated also straight off the supermarket shelf. Whilst there have been several different combination of flavours tested on YouTube, I am going to keep my flavour combination as basic as possible therefore I used a basic vanilla packet cake mix and a bottle of sparkling Indian tonic water from my pantry. I could have gone even more basic with sparking mineral or soda water but decided to use the Tonic water as I don't really like it because it has a bitter taste to it and will never drink it unless I make an alcoholic cocktail of some type with it.
I chose a vanilla packet cake mix and Indian Tonic water for a few reasons. 1.the ingredients in each - sometimes the best products are the most basic ones as they don't contain as many "enhancers" in their list of ingredients therefore giving better results. 2. I wanted to start with as basic a cake mixture as possible as I am going to adulterate it with the addition of a wacky flavour combination therefore don't want any dominating or competing flavours in the background of the completed cake. 3. I wanted to use what was readily available, most economical and already in my pantry where possible as it is a baking experiment with a no garantee result and therefore minimise wastage in the event of a fail.
The ingredients in the basic vanilla packet cake mix which only cost me $0.75 from Coles (an equivalent can also be found at Woolworths) and which is also available in butter or chocolate flavours are ( in order on the packet) :
wheat flour
sugar
canola oil
baking powder
raising agents (450 500 341 339)*
wheaten corn flour
natural vanilla flavour
450 = Diphosphates which are raising agents and/or stablisers. Used in baked goods they can leave an aftertaste brilliant in scones but can have dry mouth feeling. Also have an emulsifying action.
500 = Sodium carbonates which are leavening agents and/or buffers. Most commonly used in baking is sodium bicarbonate or bicarbonate of soda more commonly known as baking soda. Another raising agent sodium bicarbonate is the main constituent of baking powders with an acid such as tartaric acid will generate carbon dioxide when heated.
341 = Calcium phosphates which are also raising agents and/or free flow agents. Depending on which calcium phosphate is actually in this basic vanilla packet cake mix - Monocalcium phosphates is used as a raising agent, a bread enhancer in low gluten flours preventing bacteria spoilage - Dicalcium phosphates are used as a raising agent suited to long baking - Tricalcium phosphates are mainly used as free flow agents in powders to avoid the formation of clumps. ( probably explains why most packet cake mixes are never clumpy)
339 = Sodium phosphates Mono, Di & Trisodium phosphates.
As you can see the ingredients in the basic vanilla packet cake mix above (less the E numbers) that I used are similar to the ingredients I would normally use when I bake my cakes from scratch which is quite often. When I do use a packet cake mix I always buy the $0.75 one in chocolate as I have found this basic packet cake mixes give just as good and even better results then more expensive packet cake mixes. Some cake decorators that need a quick way of making multiple cakes at the last minute even recommend these basic packet cake mixes due to their great results which often taste ok too.
To complete my 2 ingredient cake recipe I add some Indian tonic water ( I won't explain what this is as I have blogged about Indian tonic water as a mixer for Gin & Tonic previously). In this baking experiment, to limit the amount of artifical flavours colours and natural sugars to be added to my cake, I thought this would be better then using flavoured soda which is full of artifical flavours colours and preservatives or just plain sparking mineral or soda water. Due to the wacky flavour combination I will be creating , I thought this Indian tonic water would be perfect with it's slight natural bitter sweet citrus taste which will hopefully compliment or enhance the wacky flavour combination. It is important that any sugar in the Indian tonic water is natural and not artifical. I used Schweppes Indian Tonic Water ( not the diet one) and the ingredients are as follows ( in order on the bottle ) :
carbonated water
sugar
food acid 330*
natural flavour ( orange & lemon peel extracts , citrus oils, botanical extracts)
quinine
* E numbers ( you will see why is also relavant to my 2 cake recipe experiment)
330 = citric acid or food acid derived from citrus are used as a preservative and/or flavouring and/or antioxidant.
Now that I have given a bit of a background to recipe # 1 The 2 Ingredient Cake Recipe , let's start part 1 ( that's part 1 not step 1) of the cake baking experiment.
The original directions on the vanilla packet cake mix was as follows :
Add to the contents of the vanilla packet cake mix 160 ml milk , 2 eggs & 40 g or 2 tablespoon unsalted butter and mix together to form a cake batter before placing in a lined or greased cake tin to bake.
Instead of adding any of the above to my vanilla cake packet mix, I just added 1 ingredient - the Indian tonic water. The theory behind substituting the milk, eggs and unsalted butter with just soft drink or soda is the chemical reaction between the contents of the packet cake mixture and carbonated soda will be enough to bind and "leaven" the cake. There is already enough raising agent in the vanilla packet cake mix without having to add extra raising agents such as eggs. It just needs a liquid of some type to bind it however the extra carbon dioxide that is in the Indian tonic water is meant to be an extra guarantee that the cake will rise to be light and fluffy. The cake may rise however without the addition of milk, unsalted butter and 2 eggs the cake will most likely be a little dry therefore I added some olive oil to my cake batter. The other likely problem and it has been documented is the over addition of a combination of raising agents which will cause the cake to have a "soapy" aftertaste. In this case the raising agents in the vanilla packet cake mix are competing with the carbonated water in the Indian tonic water. When I poured my initial unmeasured dose of Indian tonic water into my vanilla packet cake mix I could see the chemical reaction - the mixture just bubbled up and was really frothy and light as I mixed it. The other problem with taste I may have at this stage is whether the bitter sweet citrus flavouring from the Indian tonic water is going to clash or overpower the natural vanilla favour from the cake batter at this point of the cake baking experiment which could have been avoided by using just plain sparkling mineral or soda water. The advantage of adding the Indian tonic water is the extra sugar may actually balance the vanilla cake's flavour eventhough the vanilla packet cake mix already contains sugar.
Recipe # 2 The 1915 Railway Cake Recipe Experiment.
As you probably know I have an interest in colonial gastronomy and I came across this recipe on YouTube from 1915 that someone has tried to recreate. The recipe apparently is quite vague and the flavour combination quite strange. This railway cake apparently when recreated resembled a bread rather then a cake and it is unsure whether it was suppose to be a savoury or sweet snack. The flavour combination was carraway seeds and candied peel. Yes quite a strange combination. Because I have never tasted anything with this flavour combination I thought this might be a great flavour combination to try out with my 2 ingredient cake recipe experiment. So I bypass all the ingredients to create the 1915 Railway Cake ( there were a lot of ingredients and very few measurements to the recipe) from scratch and just concentrated on the flavour combination.
Now that I have given a bit of a background to recipe # 2 The 1915 Railway Cake Recipe , let's continue with part 2 ( that's part 2 not stage 2) of the cake baking experiment.
Ok back to my vanilla cake batter from recipe # 1 which is now a blank slate of vanilla packet cake mix, Indian tonic water and olive oil for recipe #2. To this cake batter which now has a slightly bitter sweet citrus & vanilla base, I add a whole heap of carraway seeds straight out the packet and mix in some candied peel ( not orange peel at this stage the original 1915 railway cake recipe states candied peel). These 2 additional ingredients should compliment the existing vanilla and citrus base and intensify the citrus base due to the citrus on citrus layering. The carraway seeds have their own distinctive taste and I hope I added enough to bring out their mild anise, citrus and peppery aromatics rather then overpowering the existing citrus flavour. Hopefully the citrus from the carraway seeds will add a third layer of citrus flavouring to the cake as well. In addition to the carraway seeds and mixed candied peel, I added a 4th and 5th layer of citrus with the zest of 1 large whole orange and half of it's juice and to boost the sugar content and complement the candied peel I added some glace cherries squashed to break them up so they would distribute more evenly throughout the cake batter.
After a thorough mixing of all the ingredients to ensure they were all evenly combined, the cake batter is poured into a lined roasting tray ( I didn't have any rectangular cake tins) to be baked. About 30 minutes later the below is the result . It smelt fantastic however did not rise as much as I would have liked. I ended up with a 2 -3 cm high rectangular cake probably because the tray was too large for the volume of cake batter or it could be the Indian tonic water is not a good substitute for milk, eggs and unsalted butter. The cake was not dry thanks to the addition of olive oil, nor was it dense which it would have been if I had used the original recipe # 2 of the 1915 railway cake which would have been more breadlike. The skewer test came out clean and the top crust was golden brown in colour, nice and even with very few cracks in it ie no humps - a low and slow bake seemed to have worked for this recipe.
After letting the cake cool completely it was time for a taste test. Yum, there is definitely 2 layers of flavour the anise from the caraway seeds and the citrus flavour from the Indian tonic water, mixed peel , orange zest and juice. The only thing that I was a little overpowering is there is a slight bitter after taste in the background although I could be wrong probably from the zest , Indian tonic water which contains quinine or from the pepperiness of the caraway seeds. I do taste the sweetness from the candied perl and glace cherries. I can't taste any vanilla though.
Before going to bed really late last night I was doing some research on contradictions with using quinine in Indian tonic water and ended up with find out about the origins of Indian tonic water - interesting and made sense however not quite the information I was after therefore I tried again and came across a few interesting pieces of information . Did you know that quinine is fluorescent? Well I didn't so decided to test this theory out by placing my bottle of Indian tonic water against a black background and turning the lights off - the results - nothing - either the theory is wrong or there is actually no quinine or so little quinine in my Indian tonic water to yield a positive result - may prove that sugars and other flavour substitutes have replaced the amount of quinine in original tonic water.
Fail # 1. I then looked at my cooled orange and carraway seed cake - no still no fluorescents - not enough Indian tonic water added perhaps? Fail # 2.
In my further quest for information on whether it is safe to use Indian tonic water in baking I came across a really weird recipe to make glow in the dark coloured cupcakes - what the? I know Gelato Messina created some glow in the dark mushroom cakes last year however I don't believe they used quinine to make them fluorescent. In this weird recipe the amount of tonic water in the recipe required was 375 mL and it looked like a bucket load of food colouring as well and countless other ingredients - certainly not your average buttercream cupcake recipe! The photos of the resulting fluorescent coloured cupcakes were amazing however I don't think I will be trying that recipe out. I'll stick to using the quinine in Indian tonic water as a bitter sweet citrus flavoring and a substitute and/or "vegan" raising agent in my baking experiments
Sunday 7th June 2020
I apologise to everyone reading my blog I was just about to finish my blog for today when it crashed again and lost the entire blog for Sunday 7th June 2020. Basically the above is the result of my baking experiment. The second and final stage of my baking experiment where the completely cooled cake was trimmed of its rounded edges, cut in half and a cream cheese topping was created using mascapone cream cheese, the juice of 1/2 orange leftover from yesterday and pure icing sugar topped with a punnet of rasberries. I usually make my cream cheese topping a little differently with lime juice vanilla paste and condensed milk however had to modify it due to lack of ingredients in my fridge and pantry. After tasting the final result, it was absolutely delicious. The cake was nice and sticky all the way round and not dry at all & there were no overpowering or conflicting flavours - cake for breakfast!
Not a great day outside today overcast and cold - no plans to venture out today.
By 4.30 pm today I look out my window and it's dark cold and wet - yes it's raining. I had a coughing fit earlier this morning which is just returning and my right hand began to itch about a few hours ago. The antihistamine I took early this morning is is beginning to wear off. My allergies have been so far quite accurate in forcasting rain!
Today it was just a lot of tv catching up on my blog and cleaning not much else.
Watched Masterchef but fell asleep. Looks like another catch up episode tomorrow morning.
Monday 8th June 2020
Another beautiful warm sunny day this morning. Masterchef catch up done this morning. Today is offically week 12 of unemployment. I was planning to travel North or South on a day trip by train somewhere but really don't feel like going out as I still unemployed. I am about to follow up on all my remaining applications for paid and unpaid jobs that I have applied for. I also plan to apply for any type of job particularly ones I am not particularly interested in or qualified to do just to satify the mutual obligation requirements recommencing tomorrow. I might as well as by now I consider myself unemployable.
I still haven't done my laundry or taken out my rubbish. Will do that later today.
Nothing interesting on tv and I have been avoiding the news everyday.
Today I applied for 4 more positions via Seek online and followed up via email on employment opportunities I forwarded my resume for to Myer & OzSnow. I also followed up on that volunteer position I ha haven't heard back from.
In between I also baked another loaf of no yeast no knead bread made from self raising flour, alcoholic pear cider, left over slice of cheese, fresh lemon thyme, pink Himalayan salt, fried shallot, left over mint , left over semi dried herbs , rolled oats, molasses and LSL This loaf actually rose just as high as the last loaf I made and was just as crusty. I could not wait and ate it for brunch still piping hot out of the oven with cream cheese and promite. The smell of raw yeasty bread dough proving followed by the aroma of freshly baked bread from my hot oven.
Why did I bake a loaf of bread when I just baked a cake yesterday? I managed to eat the entire cake in 2 days! Yep that 2 ingredient 1915 railway cake filled and topped with an orange cream cheese and fresh raspberries is all gone!
Watched Masterchef again and did not fall asleep . Hope to stay awake for Have You Been Paying Attention afterwards as well. It not only became dark quite early this afternoon, it has been raining again and is still quite wet outside right now. Will tomorrow be a nice day? Weather forecast was for rain again.
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