Thread: Lunch ... the second course

So not meat then...one of them whitish balls has yet to pass my lips in all the decades i have been in contact with them. Like Hal and offal it just ain't happening. Now if they was real beef meatballs i'd be on it like AO on my post count.

Not the Thai white pork balls that are all flour, this was homemade boiled beef balls.

Khao Pad Spam.....not bad. The spicy vinegar is pretty good.

Originally Posted by Chittychangchang

Thai style beef balls

I've always beef suspicious of such culinary items.

If a food is better for playing table tennis with than eating, I generally pass.

For lunch today jazzed up the last two leftover beef ribs in the toaster oven. Some raw veggies alongside.



The wife made us some homemade cinnamon sweet rolls for lunch dessert.



Had two of those...

Not really lunch but definitely not dinner... more of a lunch/afternoon tea.

The daughter was upset today after the latest two puppies we'd rescued went off to their new home, so I said, 'what would you like to do to make it better?' Words I've often come to regret...

Make a cake! I don't really know how this has become yet another of my responsibilities, along with a myriad of other things, but if I don't do it, it won't happen... and then it's me daughter who loses out. I even taught her to sew on a button last week... I could go on, but what's the bladdy point.

Rant over.

We used my mum's 'Never Fail Sponge' recipe, which i think has been seriously mis-named.



There... get some of that down ya...



And in the oven for 20 minutes... and voila!



Two sponge cakes that I'm sure even Bogon would agree are perfectly golden brown... but as flat as two bladdy pancakes.

But no problem... an old trick I know. Cut the uppy bit off one cake to get an even flatter surface...



Welly a load of jam over it...



And stick 'em together! It doesn't matter if yer cakes don't rise, just stack them up!



The perfect lunch/afternoon high tea!



And look who came round to join us!

^ Looks like a huge Krispy Kreme donut. Good work.

^^ Nice

hahaha. nice one. I suspect salt, baking powder/baking soda was missing ...

^ Maybe the cardinal sin of having a quick peek whilst cooking was to blame.

When making a sponge, once the oven door opens, then the air gets in and deflates all your hopes and dreams (as well as the cake).

I was thinking it was not so much deflated, but never risen.

Originally Posted by Dillinger

^ Looks like a huge Krispy Kreme donut. Good work.

^^ Nice

Thanks... it was very nice and didn't taste 'flat'. There were little bubbles in the cake, just like in the ones from shops.



I have a few theories.

Originally Posted by TheRealKW

hahaha. nice one. I suspect salt, baking powder/baking soda was missing ...

If you look at the first pic, a tub Baking Soda is clearly visible and a teaspoon went in the mix, plus a bit extra for luck. However, I was using multi-purpose flour which I was hoping would cover the self-raising flour category, but maybe not. No salt went in... it wasn't in the recipe. Would that help?

Originally Posted by Bogon

^ Maybe the cardinal sin of having a quick peek whilst cooking was to blame.

When making a sponge, once the oven door opens, then the air gets in and deflates all your hopes and dreams (as well as the cake).

I've been reprimanded for opening the oven midway through cooking a cake before and was very mindful of this yesterday. I cooked the cake in a glass convection oven so we could watch it all the time. The only time the oven was opened was at the end, to take it out.

Originally Posted by TheRealKW

I was thinking it was not so much deflated, but never risen.

Yeah, that's my feeling. It just didn't go up. Maybe I didn't use enough mix for the cake tin? The sponge cake actually tasted quite light and fluffy.

Anyway, today it's mango upside down cake, a whole different ball game and a few steps up from my starter sponge.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Anyway, today it's mango upside down cake

Nice. Been thinking of doing one with some Aussie nectarines

Originally Posted by Mendip

No salt went in... it wasn't in the recipe. Would that help?

Yes, the baking powder is useless without.
"salt is used to activate the leavening agent in the product-like baking powder or baking soda. This means that if you omit salt all together your product won't rise as much or at all."

We did an orange mirror glaze cake for some very helpful staff over the weekend.





We received a nice thank you note yesterday, which was nice.

Originally Posted by TheRealKW

Yes, the baking powder is useless without.
"salt is used to activate the leavening agent in the product-like baking powder or baking soda. This means that if you omit salt all together your product won't rise as much or at all."

KW... I do believe you've solved the case. Thank you very much!

A small pinch of salt went into my mango upside down cake mix today... and it rose like a dream!



Turned the bugger over without mishap, and it's all ready for dinner with a scoop of ice cream.

Yeah! good job.

^^+^^^ two cracking efforts

Some fucker ate the last of my chocolate cake, so had to make do with...

^Some fucker whose name starts with D and ends in r?

Originally Posted by TheRealKW

Yeah! good job.

Yes, Mendip - it looks brilliant

Originally Posted by BoganInParasite

Not bad but I would have added slivers of Parmesen and a ceasar dressing.

What? No Capers? You Phillistine. (or bogan)

The baking on this page does look good, well done to all.

^ Cheese burger fries!

A slow afternoon so I asked the wife if she would like some caramel dumplings as a dessert to lunch. (We don't eat dinner here.) She was keen so dusted off the recipe and served it with vanilla ice cream. I added cinnamon, ground nutmeg and allspice to the dumpling batter and the flavours came through nicely.