SILWOOD KITCHENS AND YOUR FAMILY MAGAZINE

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AN ARTIST IN THE MAKING

I studied at the prestigious Silwood Kitchens Cordon Bleu Cookery School in Rondebosch in the late 1980s. It was a great adventure. The school was smaller in those days, with space for only 34 students, some from as far afield as Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho. Silwood was a fantastic foundation, encouraging me to specialise in food styling and writing and I soon found myself working for one of the leading cookery magazines in South Africa at the time.

At Silwood, we had a wonderful cake decorating teacher called Mrs Henderson. She taught me how to bake the most amazing wedding cake. I always called it Mrs Henderson’s fruitcake, but the recipe was actually passed down to the legendary Mrs Faull, from her Irish mother. Such a legend is this cake that Silwood students have been baking it at the school and beyond for some 35 years now. Me included.

A few years ago my brother’s and cousin’s weddings took place a mere two weeks apart and I rolled out the famous cake well in advance and slowly nurtured it to life with brandy – a tedious process. Eventually the time came to decorate. Late for an art exhibition out of town, I left the six layers of cake wrapped in foil on the kitchen counter and rushed out.

Slight panic set in on Monday when I returned and could not find the cakes. Running out of places to look for it, I eventually called Primrose, my domestic helper. She had only been working for me for a week. ‘Primrose, have you seen those silver things that were on the counter?’ ‘Yes Ma’am,’ she replied, ‘I thought you said I could take them home.’

She had mistakenly taken the cakes instead of apples I had given her, and was too shy to ask to make sure. There were tears all round, but eventually everything ended well. Emergency chocolate wedding cakes were ordered from local bakeries and Primrose sent a telegram to the reception that read: ‘Graham and Dorei Barnes, Congratulations on your Wedding Day. Sorry I ate your cake. Primrose Mthembu.’

A true story. Sadly Primrose passed away not long afterwards. But I never bake fruitcake without thinking about her.

Howard’s apple pie

This is my favourite Silwood recipe, named after Captain Howard Owen, who was the public relations officer for the city of Cape Town in 1964, the year Silwood started. He was a frequent visitor at the school and adored the apple pie so much it was eventually named after him as a sign of appreciation for his love and support of the school.

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Pastry

Filling

Topping

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease a 22 cm pie dish.
  2. To make the pastry, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and flour. Mix until well combined. Press pastry into the prepared pie dish. Set aside.
  3. To make the filling, core and peel the apples and cut into quarters. Place the apples in a medium-sized saucepan and add the sugar, vanilla essence, salt and butter. Stir over low heat, gradually adding the wine. Cook until the apples are soft, around 10 minutes.
  4. While the filling is cooking, mix all the topping ingredients together. Pour the hot filling over the uncooked pastry base, spoon the topping over the filling and lightly press down to cover. Bake for 35 minutes or until light golden brown.
  5. Serve hot or cold with cream or ice cream.

Serves 6.

TIP

This filling works best with Golden Delicious apples. It is not advisable to use canned apple pieces because this pastry requires a hot filling and canned apples will cook down to mush.

Mrs Henderson’s boiled fruitcake

This fruitcake has formed the basis of all celebration cakes baked at Silwood Kitchens for the past 35 years. The recipe originates from Ballinrobe in County Mayo, Ireland and came to South Africa with Lesely Faull’s mother. The recipe has changed very little over the years and the only difference nowadays is that the fruit is plumped with water and not ale!

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PREPARING THE TIN

You will need foil, brown paper or newspaper, and cotton string. Take the string and place it around the circumference of the cake tin to determine the length of foil that needs to be cut. Cut the string at the mark and measure against the foil. Cut the foil. Fold the sheet of foil in half horizontally. Smooth it out. Then fold the bottom half up by one-third to form a collar. Cut the collar at the bottom diagonally, creating 5 cm long slits all along the collar at intervals. Ease the collar into the tin like a fan, smoothing out any wrinkles. Prepare the base. Place the cake tin on top of a second piece of foil and draw around the tin on the foil with a pen. Cut out the shape neatly, then fit it into the tin and smooth out.

Fold double sheets of brown paper in half horizontally. Fold a collar that is one-third of the paper, and place around the tin. Secure with string. Trim the foil and paper together – the foil should not extend more than 5 cm above the rim of the tin.

  1. Bring the water, butter, salt and sugar to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the currants, raisins and sultanas and cook for 20 minutes. Three minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the chopped peel, nuts, dates, crystallised fruit and cherries. Stir well to incorporate. Remove from the heat, stir in the bicarbonate of soda while still warm and leave to cool for 30 minutes.
  2. Preheat the oven to 150 °C. Line a 20 cm round cake tin as described above.
  3. Stir in the eggs, but be careful at this stage not to over beat the mixture as this causes the fruitcake to crumble when cut. Add the sifted flour, baking powder and spices. Stir in the brandy. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin. (If using a square tin, ensure that you smooth the mixture into the corners.) Bake for 1 hour, then lower the oven temperature to 120 °C and bake for a further 1–11⁄2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean. Some larger cakes may take longer.

TIPS

• For a more economical cake, use 5 × 250 ml (5 C) of fruit cake mix and 125 ml (1⁄2 C) chopped dates instead of the individual fruit and glacé fruits specified in the recipe. Never leave a fruitcake in the tin in the oven to cool overnight. It will become bone dry. Always remove from the oven and cool in the tin on a wire cooling rack overnight.

• Wash glacé cherries and dust them with flour before adding to any cake mixture. This prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

• If you are maturing the cake with brandy, don’t be tempted to pour more than 50 ml at a time over the cake, or this will cause it to crumble when cut. It is best to do a little each week for between six weeks and three months.

• Store the cake for up to three months wrapped in foil inside a metal or plastic cake container. Keep in a cool, dry place; never store in the fridge.

Brandy snaps

I seem to remember that I became very good at baking brandy snaps while at Silwood. We often catered for outside functions and I was usually a part of the brandy snap team. After 500 or so you become a pro. This is the famous Silwood recipe.

To serve

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease two large baking trays well.
  2. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in the flour, ginger and salt. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
  3. Place teaspoonful-sized balls of the mixture onto the prepared baking trays, pressing down lightly with your fingertips to flatten them. Do only four at a time, allowing enough room for them to spread.
  4. Bake for 8–10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 1–2 minutes before using a spatula to lift a brandy snap from the tray. Work quickly while the mixture is still hot and wrap the warm circle around the handle of a wooden spoon. It will set almost immediately. Leave to cool and harden around the handle. Remove the brandy snap as soon as it is hard.
  5. Repeat until all the mixture has been used.
  6. To serve, whip the cream, and then stir in the sugar and brandy. Pipe the cream into the ends of each brandy snap.

Makes 24–30.

TIPS

• I find it easiest if you have two trays, placing the second tray into the oven as you are removing the first. This way you can get a production line going. It also helps to have more than one wooden spoon to wrap the brandy snaps around while setting. The final result should be a cigar-shaped tube no thicker than your index finger.

• To make brandy snap baskets, simply remove the circle from the baking tray and place it over an upside down ramekin or small teacup. Gently nudge the circle into shape. Leave to cool.

• Store unfilled brandy snaps in an airtight container with layers of baking paper in between. Keep them in a cool, dry place away from light. They will stay crisp for up to three days.

Big bake cake

I worked at Your Family magazine for many years as a cookery editor. In those days there were three of us: Wendy Silver, Kim Wessels and myself. We had an enormous test kitchen and worked very hard, but we laughed a lot and had great fun writing, testing and styling food all day long. I wanted to include a recipe from the test kitchen in my book. This big bake cake was one of mine.

Mocha icing

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease a large ovenproof dish or roasting pan well.
  2. Sift the flour, sugar and salt together. Make a well in the centre. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and water together over low heat. Pour the butter mixture into the well. Stir in the eggs and mix thoroughly, but do not over beat.
  3. Mix the buttermilk, bicarbonate of soda and essence together. Stir this into the flour mixture and mix well. Divide the batter in two and add the cocoa powder to one portion. Pour the two batters in alternate rows into the prepared dish. Draw a metal skewer across the batter to form a marbled pattern. Bake for 30–40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
  4. To make the icing, cream the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add the coffee and cocoa powder. Mix well.
  5. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the dish. Once completely cooled, spread the icing over the top.

Makes 1 large marbled cake.

Rich almond fudge cake

This fantastic, rich chocolate fudge cake recipe was my winning entry for a competition in Women’s Value magazine. I won a Kenwood Chef for being creative with the whisk! Women’s Value has long since been rebranded to Ideas magazine, but with their blessing I am able to share this recipe with you.

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WHAT IS RIBBON STAGE?

Ribbon stage is a term in cookery we use to describe the consistency required to whisk egg yolks and sugar until very pale and extremely thick. The term ‘ribbon’ is from the test you need to do to see if the mixture is thick enough. Simply dip the whisk into the mixture, and then trail it across the mixture in the bowl in slow motion. The ribbon should be consistent and run down from the whisk onto the surface of the mixture in a steady stream without breaking, forming a ribbon-like pattern that sinks back into the mixture.

To decorate

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease a 23–25 cm springform tin.
  2. Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler or heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
  3. Whisk the egg yolks and castor sugar together until ribbon stage and the mixture is thick and creamy. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff but not dry.
  4. Fold the nuts and melted chocolate into the egg yolk mixture, and then fold in the egg whites. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 45–55 minutes. Remove from the oven, even if the cake looks a little undercooked, then cool completely in the tin.
  5. To decorate, melt the whole nut chocolate in a double boiler or heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir in the cream. Spoon the chocolate mixture over the cake and leave to set.

Makes 1 large cake.

TIPS

• The cake will look slightly undercooked when you remove it from the oven but will set as it cools down.

• Use dark chocolate for a richer flavour.

Rose petal jam

This is another great recipe from my Silwood days. Many flowers, such as roses, violets, marigolds, geraniums, lavender, camomile, calendula and nasturtiums, are edible and make magnificent cake decorations and additions to modern recipes. It is important to note, however, that commercial flowers are heavily sprayed with insecticide and if the flowers are not washed properly these insecticides can find their way onto your plate. Never stick a flower stem directly into a cake. Rather cut a small circle of clear cellophane to cover the cake before arranging your posy on top. Do not eat the stems or leaves, only the petals.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Roses are used extensively in cooking in Iran. Rose-water, which is used in Turkish delight and nougat, can be found in the baking section of most large supermarkets or speciality food stores.

  1. Combine the rose petals and sugar in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the rose-water and lemon juice and slowly bring to the boil over low heat. Cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent the mixture from sticking. Simmer until the jam has reached setting point on a sugar thermometer (the reading should be 105 °C) or it has passed the set point test (see tips below). Remove from the heat and give a gentle stir. Pour into warm sterilised jars and seal at once. Store in a cool, dry place.

Makes about 2 medium jars.

VARIATIONS

TIPS

• Freeze rosebuds in ice cubes for display in drinks, or freeze rose petals and buds in an ice bowl to be used as an ice-cream serving dish. To make one of these, use two plastic bowls where one can fit inside the other. Add a few crushed ice cubes to the larger bowl. Add rose petals and fresh mint leaves. Place the second bowl on top. Place a heavy object inside to secure and tape the sides together to form a mould. Pour cold water in the gap between the two bowls. Freeze until solid. Remove the bowls by briefly holding the container under running hot water. Return the ice mould to the freezer for 15 minutes before using.

• Use darker rose petals to give jam colour. Lighter shades cook down to a brown colour and don’t look appetising.

• You can halve the recipe if preferred: 250 g rose petals is the equivalent of a very large bunch of roses from the supermarket.

• Rose petal jam is wonderful stirred into plain yoghurt.

• If you don’t have a sugar thermometer and want to see if the jam is at setting point, place a saucer with a little water on it in the fridge until cold. Then remove and place a teaspoon of jam on the saucer. If it forms a single jellied ball that wrinkles up when you push it gently with your fingertip, the jam is ready.