Mini Austrian Gugelhupf

While on holiday in Vienna at Christmas, I was very enchanted by the lovely Gugelhupf cake we tasted a couple of times while we were over there. A really yummy, simple cake that also looked so pretty - I was smitten!

I was also very excited to read in my guidebook that the Gugelhupf was apparently the favourite cake of Sigmund Freud! He must have been a man of taste...

So, of course, I went out in search of the mould to make the circlular-shaped cake. I found one but was pretty sure that I'd seen something like it on sale in Ikea in Manchester... So I thought to get something a bit unusual that might be more difficult to get back home - a tray a bit like a cupcake one but for making mini Gugelhupfs!

I decided what better occasion to have a go at making the Gugelhupfs than a New Year's Eve visit to the Doyles' house. We cracked them out after dinner not long before midnight and enjoyed them with a nice Irish coffee. The cakes turned out really nice - quite dense and sweet like our favourite one in Austria. I was really pleased that everyone liked them and said they were good.

So, as they were such a big hit, I made another batch for Hayley's birthday yesterday and took them into work for her. She was really pleased and it made me smile when I gave them to her and she instantly opened the box, took one out and bit into it before saying, "They are fit."

Recipe:
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
120ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
255g butter
130g icing sugar
6 eggs
150g granulated sugar
56g dark chocolate

Begin by preheating the oven to 200 degrees C. Spray the Gugelhupf moulds with a little cooking spray. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Mix the milk and vanilla together in a jug. Set aside. Beat the butter until smooth in another large bowl. I cheated a little by giving it 20 seconds in the microwave before doing so! Add the icing sugar to the butter and beat that in too.

Separate the eggs. Place the whites in another large mixing bowl and add the yolks to the previous bowl along with the butter and icing sugar. Beat until smooth and set aside.

Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, before adding the granulated sugar and whisking them in too until glossy like meringue mix.

Now take the mixing bowl containing the beaten butter, icing sugar and egg yolks. Add to this a quarter of the egg whites to this and mix. Then add half of the milk and mix, followed by half of the flour and mix. Repeat until all the milk and flour has been added to the bowl.

Finally, carefully fold in the remaining egg whites. Melt the chocolate and carefully fold it into the batter. No need to mix it completeley, just sort of swirl it around a bit.

Add around three teaspoons of the Gugelhupf batter to the each of the mini moulds in the tin.

Place in the oven for around 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

Then, turn the mini Gugelhupfs out and place them the other way up on a baking tray and allow to brown on top for a little longer.

Place on a serving tray, sprinkle with a little icing sugar and serve! Freud-tastic!

Bistro 1847

Determined to break the pyjamas-and-sitting-around tradition that is the period between Christmas and New Year, Bailey and I planned ourselves a nice night out for the 30th of December. "Dinner and a movie" to be precise. The location for our meal? Bistro 1847 - a restaurant I had come across through the realms of Twitter.

Bistro 1847, so-called to commemorate the year the Vegetarian Society was established in Altrincham, seemed to be the perfect restaurant for us - highly recommended by food-lovers around the city and with a fancy menu of veggie treats. We decided to go in early to take advantage of the Taster Menu - two courses and a drink for £15. A bargain!

There was a lovely relaxed atmosphere in the restaurant as we arrived and we were actually quite surprised at how many people were there at 6:30pm the day before New Year's Eve. One of the friendly, chatty waitresses told us we could choose where we felt like sitting which made a nice change so we got ourselves settled before putting our orders in for the Taster Menus and a nice glass of booze each.

As part of our Taster Menu, Bailey and I were both presented with a little selection of 1847's starters. This comprised a teacup of the Soup of the Day (Tomato and Lentil for us), little cubes of Salt and Pepper Tofu with Soy Sauce and a little strip of Homemade Flatbread with a blob of Caramelised Onion, Rosemary and Bean Paté. It was beautifully presented and I couldn't wait to tuck in.

And what a yummy starter! The soup was delicious and we both commented that the texture of the soup was perfect as it wasn't too smooth. My only complaint was that I found some little stalks in mine. The tofu was great too - it was really crispy and when dipped in the soy nice and salty. Bailey was a little disgruntled to discover that two of his four bits of tofu were cold though! The Homemade Flatbread was my favourite - beautiful, soft bread and a gorgeous hit of rosemary to the smooth paté. A good start, particularly considering Bailey rated it when he doesn't even like tofu or lentils.

Our mains, which arrived after a breather of the perfect length also looked lovely. Bailey had gone for the Beer Battered Halloumi with Fat Chip Stack with a nice portion of peas and pickles.

I had actually been nosying at a couple on a nearby table and the bloke had actually ordered this main. I had witnessed the moment he first bit into his halloumi and had actually made such a big "crunch" sound that I had heard it from where I was sitting, so I knew Bailey was in for a treat. The halloumi was scrumptious and the batter light with wonderful flavours. Bailey thought the chips, although tasty were perhaps a bit too soft, but I thought this went well with the super crunchy halloumi batter.

My main was the Cornish Yarg Soufflé with Sweet Potato Gratin. It was all nicely presented with a little pile of sprouts but I was a bit worried about the soufflé which looked like it had a little too much colour on it. However I tucked in and it was all great. The soufflé was light, cheesy and delicious and went really well with everything else on the plate. It was the gratin that really blew my socks off - just divine, really tender potatoes, a lovely creamy sauce with a gorgeous nutmeg flavour. A fab main - I have to say, a nice bit of everything together on the fork just tasted a-mazing!

After such a great two courses, I'm afraid I had to give into a pud but really couldn't decide which one. I really wanted either the Affogato or the Marmalade Cake, but Bailey thought the Hendrick's Gin and Tonic Cake with Cucumber and Black Pepper Granita sounded fascinating, yet I didn't really fancy it.

I decided I would request the expertise of the lovely waitress, who had been chatty and approachable throughout the meal. She said without hesitation that the G&T Cake was really nice and that it was the "signature dessert" of the restaurant, so G&T Cake it would be.

Well. It makes me a little bit sad to think that I nearly did not experience the wonders of the Hendrick's G&T cake as I have to say it was the most exciting dessert I have ever had. As soon as it arrived I was hit right up my schnoz by the aroma of fresh cucumber coming from my pot of granita. How curious!

So I decided to have a little taste of the granita and yes, I was hit by the crisp coolness of a most cucumbery flavour. So next I got my spoon and fork in there and got a nice bit of the cake and the granita in my mouth together and... WOW! Taste sensation, party in my mouth with everyone invited! Bailey found it quite hilarious to see the expression on my face. I cannot really describe the intense zinging my taste buds were experiencing but it made me think of when Greg Wallace goes wild after eating incredible desserts on Masterchef. The waitress asked me what I thought of her recommendation and I honestly told her: "Amazing... one of the most exciting things I've ever eaten!"

So, what can you say about such a fab meal - I cannot recommend Bistro 1847 enough. The food was almost faultless and the dessert mind-blowing. There was a great atmosphere in the restaurant and it was plain to see why there were so many people in on what I'm sure is one of the quietest nights of the year. The service was perfect and the waitresses seemed to genuinely like their job and weren't pretentious or 'cool' at all as per what I've sadly come to expect from trendy veggie places. I would suggest all of you veggies and non-veggies too make 1847 one of the places you visit in 2012!

Roy Morris' Paella

Roy's Paella is very famous in the Morris household. He is an expert at making his delicious traditional Spanish Paellas packed with yummy and healthy ingredients and has been making them for parties and dinner events for as long as I can remember.

So important is the Morris Paella tradition that when my parents had their kitchen done they had a special cooker fitted with a massive middle ring to accomodate a traditional Spanish Paella dish, allowing the heat to be evenly distributed for perfectly cooked Paella.

Roy is very particular about how his Paella is made, and has several little tips for success - such as chopping up and preparing all the ingredients before starting any of the cooking. Roy actually lost all respect for Gordon Ramsay one day when he saw him on the telly stirring his Paella after the rice had been added - a huge no-no in Roy's book!

While we were in Vienna celebrating Christmas, we were lucky enough to have a lovely Paella night organised by Roy in which he made not one, not two but THREE different Paellas.

I tried the seafood and the veggie ones and they were both very lovely. The main Paella was a chicken, seafood and chorizo one that everyone said was amazing. Very kindly, Roy agreed to give us the recipe and show us how his famous Paella is made for us to share with our readers. Thanks Roy!

Recipe (serves 8):
1 spicy chorizo
500g chicken breast
5 cloves garlic
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 tin chopped tomatoes
8 mushrooms
1 packet frozen seafood
1 and a half cups of rice
3 cups of vegetable stock
2 tsp colorante (or tumeric)
2 handfuls frozen peas
3 lemons
Olive oil

Start by preparing all the ingredients. Defrost the seafood. Chop the chorizo into bitesize chunks. Cut 24 strips from the pepper - 12 of the red, 12 of the green and put aside for decoration. Chop up the rest. Finely chop the garlic and slice the mushrooms. Give the chicken a quick frying in a frying pan - enough to enable you to break the chicken up into chunks, and put to one side.

Take the paella pan, place over the heat, add a glug of olive oil and fry the garlic, chopped peppers and chorizo for 5 minutes while stirring regularly. Add the chicken and fry for a further 5 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and fry for another five minutes. Add the tin of tomatoes, seafood, peas, stock and colorante and bring to the boil.

Once the liquid is at a rolling boil, sprinkle in the rice evenly. Move the rice around with a spatula to ensure an even spread, but after this point the rice MUST NOT be stirred again - cook's note - "in spite of what that philistine Gordon Ramsay demonstrates on television!"

Neatly place the pepper strips on their sides in concentric circles around the paella to decorate.

Cook the paella at a medium heat until the rice is evenly soft all over - it may be necessary to add more water.

During this final stage, it is important to ensure however inappropriate your heat source may be, that all the rice receives an equal amount of heat. This entails moving the pan around and ensuring everywhere gets evenly. Decorate the top of the paella with wedges of lemon, cover with a clean cloth and leave to rest for 10 minutes. Serve to your impressed guests!

Café Diglas

As our festive Christmas break in Vienna was coming to an end, we realised there was a real danger of us leaving Austria without having paid any visits at all to its famous traditional Kaffeehausen!

So one afternoon Bailey, Steve and I took ourselves off in search of a lovely Kaffeehaus and eventually decided on the gorgeous looking Café Diglas near the scenic Stephansplatz.

As soon as we went inside the beautiful, cosy Kafeehaus, I was smitten. It was a feast for the eyes - very traditionally decorated but with a few quirky, modern twists such as the twinkly fairy light curtains and the teacup chandeliers.

I felt like I was back in the 1920s particularly when the soothing sounds of live piano music washed over me - the icing on the cake!

The selection of cakes and strudels that greeted us at the door from behind the bar was also enough to make anyone's mouth water.

The three of us got ourselves a little table and had some fun rehearsing what we were going to order with our limited German.

We decided we would order a few cakes that were quite different to eachother so that we could try as many things as possible. Having our cake and eating it, if you will.

We decided to get one slice of Gugelhupf - a bit of an Austrian signature cake, one slice of Strudel (when in Rome) and one slice of a really chocolatey cake (to be honest what I had in mind was Claire's German Chocolate Cake we'd had at the Clandestine Cake Club meeting at Red House Farm but there didn't seem to be anything as luscious!)

I went up to the front and found a very friendly member of staff who told me how to say the various cake names and we put in our order for three Melanges (kind of like a Cappuccino) and the cakes.

The coffee was fab and was perfect to go with a nice bit of cake. The strudel was really lovely - lots of soft apples and currants with a nice crispy pastry. The chocolate cake was delicious too - very light with layers of soft cake and creamy mousse. The Gugelhupf I was very disappointed by - it was rather dry - quite possibly stale - and you had to have a good glug of Melange to get it down the throat!

Having said that we did hoover up every crumb so it can't have been so bad!

We really enjoyed our Kaffeehause trip and would urge anyone visiting Vienna to hunt out a nice looking traditional one (not a modern one, they look rubbish) and to do the same. Although we felt the cakes didn't really blow our minds as much as we expected (it might be worth finding one of the locals - who are all SUPER nice in Vienna - and asking them where the best cakes can be found), the experience itself was a fantastic one.

Next time we are in Vienna I think I will aim to visit one Kaffeehaus every afternoon!