Tag: cakes

Cold Smoked Tasmanian Salmon Cake

This cake is best eaten within 24 hours of making and best served fresh raspberries and a tbsp of good quality Greek yoghurt.

Ingredients

  • 1 pack of five or ten sheet puff pastry
  • 1.25 kg Philadelphia cream cheese
  • 2 lemons
  • 1 bunch chives
  • 1 punnet of raspberries
  • 175 gram of capers
  • 250 gram of flaked almonds
  • 1 kg high quality Tasmanian Smoked Salmon. (Depends on $'s so discuss with your vendor re brands)
  • 1 bunch of Dill
  • 100 grams of Aspic Powder (optional)

Equipment

  • 1 Food Processor
  • 3 baking trays
  • 1 oven
  • 1 can of Pure and Simple
  • 1 Palette Knife
  • 4 small bowls
  • 1 Spatula
  • Piping bag
  • 5 star nozzel (small)
  • 1 sharp cooks knife
  • 2 cake plates
  • 1 spray bottle (optional)

Method

  1. Pull out pack of frozen puff pastry sheets and divide into 5 sheets when defrosted and return other 5 sheets when defrosted and return other 5 sheets of puff pastry back in the freezer ready for next time
  2. Preheat oven to 175C
  3. Pull out cream cheese from refrigerator and cut into 4 pieces and leave at room temperature till soft
  4. Cut aroumd a plate the desired size of cake with a sharp knife to form a circle and place on greased trays with just a sprinkle of water on the tray to make steam to help make the puff pastry rise due to the water steam. 
  5. Make and bake 5 circles till golden brown (about 10 minutes) and allow to cool completely before making cake
  6. Prepare ingredients for cake while waiting for circles to cool (steps 7 to 28)
  7. Bake flaked almonds on trays in oven at 175C till golden brown. CAUTION: Watch carefully as flaked almonds burn very quickly.
  8. Allow flaked almonds to cool down to room temperature before using
  9. Chop chives very finely with a knife. Note: Food processor won't be able to cut them evenly.
  10. Wash Raspberries very carefully and dry carefully on absorbent paper
  11. Grate Lemon Rind very carefully making sure to leave the pith (white part) on the Lemon and not in the Rind. (The zest of the lemon is the yellow outer part only, no white). The white part tends to make the end product bitter.
  12. Squeese the lemon removing pips and add to the freshly grated lemon rind
  13. Squeeze the Capers till dry and chop very finely and place on absorbent paper to dry further
  14. Always start with the Lemon Cream Cheese to save on washing food processor bowl after each step
  15. Puree 250 grams of Cream Cheese with the Lemon Rind / Juice mix till smooth with no lumps.
  16. Season with salt and pepper
  17. Remove from food processor and put aside in a small bowl
  18. Puree 250 grams of Cream Cheese with the Chives and mix till smooth with no lumps.
  19. Season with salt and pepper
  20. Remove from food processor and put aside in a small bowl
  21. Puree 250 grams of Cream Cheese with the Capers and mix till smooth with no lumps.
  22. Season with salt and pepper
  23. Remove from food processor and put aside in a small bowl
  24. Wash the Food Processor bowl out before making the Raspberry Cream Cheese. 
  25. Puree Cream Cheese first till soft and lump free
  26. Slowly add 1 Raspberry at a time till mixture is a nice pink colour.
  27. Season to taste
  28. Wait until all parts above are cold. 
  29. Select the 2 best pieces of puff pastry circles. These will form the top and bottom of your cake
  30. Using a plate as your base, place 1 hand picked puff pastry circle on this plate and using  2/3 rds of your caper mix and your palette knife, place caper mixture onto puff pastry evenly till about 8-9 mm thick
  31. Place smoked salmon evenly on top of this caper layer with any brown salmon flesh on the inside of the cake and not pointing to the outside edges
  32. Add another smear of caper cream on top of the Salmon. This will keep the cake together when cutting and serving.
  33. Place next puff pastry circle on top of this and gently and evenly push the puff pastry circle down
  34. Using  2/3 rds of your Lemon Cream Cheese mixture and your palette knife, place Lemon Cream Cheese mixture onto puff pastry evenly till about 8-9 mm thick
  35. Place smoked salmon evenly on top of this Lemon Cream Cheese layer with any brown salmon flesh on the inside of the cake and not pointing to the outside edges
  36. Add another smear of Lemon Cream Cheese mixture on top of the Salmon. 
  37. Place next puff pastry circle on top of this and gently and evenly push the puff pastry circle down
  38. Using  2/3 rds of your Raspberry Cream Cheese mixture and your palette knife, place Raspberry Cream Cheese mixture onto puff pastry evenly till about 8-9 mm thick
  39. Place smoked salmon evenly on top of this Raspberry Cream Cheese layer with any brown salmon flesh on the inside of the cake and not pointing to the outside edges
  40. Add another smear of Raspberry Cream Cheese mixture on top of the Salmon.
  41. Place next puff pastry circle on top of this and gently and evenly push the puff pastry circle down
  42. Using 2/3 rds of your Chive Cream Cheese mixture and your palette knife, place Chive Cream Cheese mixture onto puff pastry evenly till about 8-9 mm thick
  43. Place smoked salmon evenly on top of this Chive Cream Cheese layer with any brown salmon flesh on the inside of the cake and not pointing to the outside edges
  44. Add another smear of Chive Cream Cheese mixture on top of the Salmon.
  45. Place puff pastry circle selected for the top earlier on top of this and gently and evenly push the puff pastry circle down
  46. Fill in the gaps on the sides of your cake with the Chive Cheese mixture with your palette knife as you would decorating a cake till the sides are level with the top
  47. Holding cake carefully on hand, place and push a handful of flaked Almonds on the side and fill in all the sides of the cake with an even covering of the baked Almond flakes. This is done best with a larger plate underneath to catch falling Almond flakes.
  48. Using remaining Lemon Cream Cheese mixture, top cake with this mixture and place final layer of Smoked Salmon on top of cake
  49. Fill piping bag with remaining Raspberry cream cheese and pipe 12 small rosettes on the edge of the cake. This is done to give a guide while cutting.
  50. Channel lemon and cut into small moons length ways and then cut into 12 perfect slices.
  51. Place on each of the Rosette with a small sprig of Dill
  52. Optional: Glaze with Gelatin using the spray bottle
  53. Wrap cake carefully in glad wrap and store in refrigerator for 24 hours

If you would like one of our expert Chef's to help you create this and any other lovely dishes for your next function, send us a note using the contact form below with your details and requirements and we'll be happy to get back to you.

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Rich Fruit Cake

This cake recipe is perfect for a wedding cake or a decorated Christmas cake. We are currently decorating 3 different cakes for Xmas and we will post pictures of the finished products once ready!
From all the staff at Cheffing Around we would like to wish you all a very merry Xmas and a bright and prosperous 2014!

Wedding Cake - Cheffing Around

Wedding cake by Cheffing Around managing director Adrian Grant

The fruit mix – ingredients

  • 2.25 kg Sultanas
  • 600 gram Fruit Peel
  • 750 gram Dried Apricots (chopped)
  • 750 gram Prunes (chopped)
  • 600 gram Currants
  • 600 gram Walnuts (chopped)
  • 750 gram Raisins
  • 600 gram Glazed Cherries (chopped)
  • 600 gram Tinned Pineapple (chopped)
  • 3 grated apples
  • 3 carrots (grated)
  • 6 cups Brown Sugar
  • 3 Tea Spoons Cinnamon
  • 3 Tea Spoons Nutmeg
  • 3 Tea Spoons Mixed Spice
  • 6 Table spoons Honey
  • 2.25 cups Sherry
  • 2.25 cups Port

Tip: Dried fruit best purchased at a Cash and Carry as we found this reduces the cost of the cake.

The fruit mix – Method

Marinate all the ingredients in a very large bowl (45 cm) for at least a week covered with 2 layers of glad wrap. You need to stir this up every day during this period.

The cake – Ingredients

  • 1.25 kg of Girgar butter (melted)
  • 18 eggs (beaten)
  • 8.25 cups plain flour (sifted)
  • 3 cups self raising flour (sifted)
  • 3 spring form cake tins (1 x 24 cm, 1 x 26 cm, and 1 x 28 cm)

Note: This mixture will make 4 cakes as it's best to have a spare just in case, and you can always use the fourth for something else if not needed 🙂

The cake – Method

  1. Grease and line the three cake tins with baking paper.
  2. Mix the cake ingredients into the fruit mix making sure it's mixed well.
  3. Flatten with a fork
  4. Bake for 140 minutes at 145C and then finish of at 130C for 125 minutes or until the center is cooked and skewer comes out clean.
  5. Allow to cool in cake tin over night before removing from tin
  6. Wrap in foil once cold

The icing – Ingredients

  • 3 kg Royal Icing
  • 11 packets of 250 gram Marzipan
  • 1 kg of Apricot Jam

The icing – Method

  1. Fill in any holes in the cake with apricot jam to get a smooth surface
  2. Marzipan on top and sides till the cake is level, even and smooth
  3. Leave dry for 3 days
  4. Turn cake over and make a bridge for the bottom and make sure cake is level with sides and bottom (no gaps)
  5. Leave dry for a further 3 days
  6. Try and do these next steps (to step 11) in the early morning or late at night when the temperature is cooler to prevent cracking.
  7. Roll out Marzipan on dusted bench with icing sugar till about 1cm thick and will visibly cover the entire cake in one layer.
  8. Boil up 1 cup of apricot jam with a little water
  9. Brush entire cake with apricot jam / water mix
  10. Cover the cake from the top with the Marzipan using a pin to remove air bubbles.
  11. Gently ease the Marzipan down to the bottom of the cake and trim evenly at the base
  12. Repeat this for all three cakes
  13. Let dry for a week
  14. Repeat steps 6 through 13 but with the Royal Icing instead of the Marzipan. Remember this is the presentation layer so take extra care.
  15. Once dry, adhere cakes to a cake board using apricot jam as the glue

Stacking and Ribbons

  1. Measure circumference of the cake with ribbon
  2. Cut evenly
  3. Position ribbon using small pins with heads the same colour as the ribbon.
  4. Use pieces of thick wooden dowel for the stands
  5. Cut the dowel to length making sure each on is exactly same length
  6. Make a cross in the cake exactly where the stands will go
  7. Using a knife, make a cross fully inserted to the bottom of the cake and careful remove any excess cake
  8. Gently force the dowel into cake until the cake board is level and straight

You can use any decoration you like for the finished product. We used doves and some fresh African Lilies with stems removed as the centerpiece of the cake. Most cake shops have centerpieces to buy or order if you don't have the time to make it.

Would like a Chef to make this for you?

If you would like one of our expert Chef's to help you create this and any other lovely dishes for your next function, send us a note using the contact form below with your details and requirements and we'll be happy to get back to you.

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