Saturday, September 19, 2009

More cooking lessons by and for #3

When I got home one night, #3 told me that she and #2 "made an ice-cream cake" for #1's birthday! I was surprised and asked how they did it. Apparently she stumbled on an old 'cooking activity book' for children and there were simple pictorial descriptions of how to make an ice-cream cake.

They used a round loose bottom pan and lined it with plastic cling wrap. They crushed some digestive biscuits and scattered onto the base of the pan. They then scooped Vanilla ice-cream into the sides of the pan and then filled in with Strawberry and Chocolate ice-cream.

The original recipe called for nuts but knowing that their eldest sister didn't like nuts, they avoided it and used Digestives instead. I thought that they were very discerning and considerate!

After that, they returned the fully filled pan into the freezer. The next day, #2 drizzled Hershey's chocolate syrup on top and served the ice-cream as a dessert. #1 was amazed and touched! This 'cake' was one of the many which came along the way in celebrating the end of #1's teenage journey and the beginning of a new horizon as a growing young adult.

Happy Birthday sweetheart!



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Lemon Curd is a hot favorite in our home. I saw lemons going for dirt cheap at the wet market and instantly bought some with the intention of making lemon curd.

Recipe/Method:

Grate the zest finely and squeeze 6-8 large lemons equivalent to 300ml of lemon juice


Cut 225 g of unsalted butter into small cubes. Add together with 575 g caster sugar and the 300 ml of squeezed lemon juice and zest.

I created a Bain-Marie from a casserole over another pot of simmering hot water and slowly dissolved the combination of butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice


Lightly beat 5 large eggs and sieve into the above combination. Stir continuously for 25 minutes over a pot of simmering hot water until it gets 'thick' and able to coat the back of a wooden spoon. #3 was patiently doing that and once again enjoyed this supervised 'cooking lesson'.



This recipe filled the various sized bottles below.


The taste and texture was awesome as previous times. "Smooth, sweet, sour and just addictive!"

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, I've never head of anyone making their own ice cream cake. How cool!

Pigs Do Fly said...

My kidlet loves loves lemon curd but I had no idea how to make it myself. Thanks for the recipe

javapot said...

well done #2 and #3!!

SL said...

hi, one question. hope you can help me with it. i tried making lemon curd before, and the results of the curd had a very "seng" (canto) eggy taste. how come? im sure the eggs were fresh..i just bought them from the market the day i wanted to make the curd.

thanks
SL

Bento Pet said...

SL: I never had that "seng" problem before. I can only guess that your proportions of eggs against lemon juice was not correct or not enough "cooking" over medium fire.

This recipe generates a mildly sweet lemon-ny taste - definitely no egg-y taste. The egg adds to the thickening of the curd.

SL said...

Hi Pat, thanks for your reply. I will try again with your recipe and see how it goes.

Thanks again.
SL

Anonymous said...

hi! i've been reading your blog for quite some time now and last weekend i decided to try your lemon curd recipe. it was a hit with my family. It was absolutely delicious!!! Thank you for sharing this recipe!!

san

Anonymous said...

hi,i have a question about your lemon curd..that is a large quantity,how long can they keep?not sure if that much can finish if i decide to make them!thanks!

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