Hey Guys, how are you going! I am well, I just finished a workout at the gym and now I have come home to blog while I sip on my mango chia seed smoothie and eat some avocado on wholewheat crackers. Delicious.
I have been living in a hotel suite for 1 month while I looked for a place in Vancouver. I found a place and I go pick up the key today! I am so excited!
But this is the cake I have for you today it is a gluten free vanilla Sponge cake with raspberry coulis in-between the layers, White Chocolate Ganache icing, garnishes with White Chocolate Raspberry Powder Shards and Fresh Raspberries.
I love how simple this cake looks and because of that I think it really stands out. The pink ganache is also very eye popping, its like the colour fuchsia. Raspberries I think are my third favourite fruit. 1st is feijoa, 2nd mangoes and 3rd raspberries then 4th pineapple. Oh and I forgot grapes, oh I really can't list my favourite fruit I have too many.
I used raspberry powder to decorate the white chocolate shards and I think this was super effective off the shards and will be doing this again.
So I move into my new apartment in Vancouver today. I begin work at 1pm and it is a Friday so I am going to try look really nice because I hope it is busy so I can make some money. Then after work I will try move a few things to my new place, and I will do this over two days because I also have to clean the hotel. I am so happy to have some place permanently because the last two months has been hostel jumping and hotel living.
Living in the hotel hasn't been bad, apart from the fact it doesn't have a kitchen or laundry. I just ate salads and smoothies and have been taking those to work. We only get 35% off food at work, so it's pretty pricy and not really worth it. Plus you have to tip out the kitchen, so your actually better off going and buying a donor from the corner store. They are my favourite and they have so many in downtown. I get the falafel one and it's my little treat every once in a while.
I will be very excited to have my own space and hopefully get back into some of my hobbies. I have definitely learnt a lot since being over here in Canada. I was very money obsessed when I was living in Sydney and thought since I wasn't going to university and getting a degree I needed something to hold to my name. So I thought if I had lots of money that would justify not having an academic degree.
But being here in Canada I am realising it doesn't matter how much money you have but the opportunities you take, the times you put yourself out of your comfort zone those are the times you are gonna grow and develop as a person. In the end of my Sydney time I look back on it and don't remember a lot because I was forever tirelessly working and never spent time to do anything for myself. I stopped all my passions, sports, photography and baking.
Now I am in Canada I am focusing on finding my hobbies and passions again and continuing them because one saying my brother said to me constantly throughout the years is 'you have your whole life to work and earn money' This is 100% true, you will probably be working to at least 65+ more years. So while your young I think it is so important to go learn how the world works, learn different cultures, met different people, see different places. There is something about travelling that changes you.
My best friend has just set off to Europe for 6 months to travel and I am so excited for her and I wish her the best. She has worked so hard to get to where she is today.
Anyway enough of travelling, take a look at the recipe,
Recipe
White Chocolate Raspberry Cake
Ingredients
Raspberry Coulis:
White Chocolate Ganache Drizzle:
1 cup white chocolate (good quality)
1/4 cup cream
Chocolate coloured Powders (pink)
Method:
Chop the chocolate up into small pieces and place in a heat proof bowl.
Heat the cream in a saucepan over low heat, until the mixture begins to simmer.
Sprinkle chocolate colouring powder in the shade pink over the top of the mixture. (ENSURE: that is is chocolate colouring, you can't use food colouring, it has water in it and will seize your chocolate)
Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, allow it to sit for 1 minute. With a spatula begin folding the cream and chocolate together.
Mix until the colour is uniform. Set aside and allow to set up.
White Chocolate Cake:
300g white chocolate
200g butter
240ml milk
165g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla paste
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
240g all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Method:
Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Grease 3 cake tins with dimensions 18cm. Line the base and sides with baking paper.
Chop up the chocolate into small pieces. Place the chocolate, butter, milk and sugar into a bowl.
Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir occasionally. Once all the mixture has melted, allow mixture to cool to room temperature for 15 minutes.
Add the eggs to the mixture, and mix throughly till it is well combined.
In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
Add 1 cup of sifted ingredients to the wet mixture. Mix until the flour has disappeared. Continue to add another cup of flour mixture, and mix till combined. Repeat until you have no more flour mixture. This gradual process of adding wet ingredients to dry ingredients prevents having lumps in your batter.
Pour your batter evenly between three cake tins, and smooth the tops of each batter in each cake tin.
Raise the cake tin slightly and drop onto the bench, this will get rid of any air bubbles in your batter. Place cakes in the oven.
Check the cakes 20-25 minutes, if there is a small wobble in the middle of the cake centre, pull the cakes out, that little bit will cook when its sitting on the bench cooling down.
Unclip the cake tins and let them cool on a wire rack.
White Chocolate Ganache Frosting:
White chocolate doesn't have as many cocoa solids as dark chocolate. So you need a ratio of Chocolate to Cream (2.1)
300g good quality white chocolate
150ml pouring cream
Method:
Heat the cream in a saucepan until it is simmering, bubbles floating on the sides.
Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place into a glass bowl. Pour the hot cream over the top of the chocolate. Let it sit for 2 minutes.
With a spatula stir and fold the cream and chocolate together until a nice consistency is formed.
Wrap in glad wrap and let it sit on the bench at room temperature until it thickens up.
Once it has cooled down completely, with electric beaters, beat the chocolate ganache for 30 seconds to make a nice light frosting that is easy to spread.
Assembly:
With your cooled cakes. Slice the top off the cakes, so all your cakes are levelled.
Pipe a border around the top of the cake, (a barrier for the raspberry coulis)
Place the coulis in the centre and spread it out to the boarder.
Place the next cake on top, and continue the method until all the layers of cakes are used.
Put icing on the sides and top of your cake, and perform a crumb coat on your cake.
Place the cake in the fridge to set up (1 hour I like to do)
Remove the cake from the fridge and and add a final icing layer, make sure it is super smooth.
Warm the ganache drizzle up slightly so it is at a drizzle consistency.
Break up white chocolate shards dusted with raspberry powder and decorate the bottom of the cake.
Place fresh raspberries all around the edge of the top of the cake.
Dust with icing sugar and serve!
Yum yum,
