Silver Bodgie Choux Buns When drafting a dessert for Bob Hawke, Kitchen Cabinet recipe guru Wendy Sharpe and I had many factors to consider. He doesn't have a super‐sweet tooth, for starters. Plus it had to be transportable. And ‐ I'm not going to lie to you ‐ we were hoping to pay tribute in some way to the famous Hawke coif. So the Silver Bodgie Choux Buns were born. Brilliantly bouffant, with a rich custard filling and a shiny chocolate ganache hat, enlivened with dehydrated berry chips. Enough to make anyone weep with delight! Pastry
220mL water
85g butter, cubed
100g plain flour
3 small eggs, or 2 large at room temperature
Pastry cream
60g caster sugar
500mL milk
4 egg yolks
20g plain flour
20g cornflour
200mL of thick cream
Icing
200g dark chocolate, grated
10g unsalted butter
Dash of thick cream
Freeze dried strawberries
For the choux
Sift the flour twice and have a wooden spoon to the ready.
Then, in a small saucepan, heat the water and butter over a gentle heat. When it has all
melted, turn up the heat to bring the mixture to just boiling.
Turn off the heat and add the flour, all in one go. Now whisk your mixture vigorously for
about half a minute.
While your mixture is cooling to about body temperature, break your eggs in to a jug and
whisk briefly.
To the cooled mixture, add the egg, little by little, beating well in between. Add as much egg
as it takes to achieve a smooth mix that will drop very slowly and grudgingly from a spoon,
Keep in mind that your mixture will need its shape in a ball, and not spread out too much.
Cool in the fridge for at least 30 mins or up to a day.
To cook the choux, spoon rounds just smaller than a golf ball on a lightly greased non-stick
baking tray. Smooth any rough peaks with a wet finger. Cook at 200C for about 25 mins. Or
until they are a deep golden colour.
Pierce the base of the buns with a small knife to create a vent for the steam to escape and
return them to the oven for 5 minutes, bottom side up. This helps dry the buns out as much as
possible.
For the pastry cream
To make the pastry cream that will fill your buns, heat the milk to just boiling.
Then, mix egg yolks with sugar with an electric whisk (or with us much elbow grease as you
can muster) for about a minute.
Add flour and cornflour to the egg yolks until a paste forms.
Add the hot milk to the paste in a slow trickle while whisking.
Return your mix to the pan and stir over low heat until it thickens to consistency of custard.
Leave to cool before filling.
Just before you want to serve the choux buns, use a piping bag to fill the buns with the pastry
cream.
Icing
For the icing, use a double boiler to gently heat the cream and butter, then add the chocolate
and stir very cautiously to combine. Take care to not expose the chocolate to too much heat.
Place the filled buns on a plate and drizzle with the chocolate icing and sprinkle with freeze
dried strawberries, or similar.
We're talking to Andrew Robb and Mary-Jo Fisher about politics and mental illness, so I wanted to
bake a cake of optimism. And the classic hummingbird cake is just a happy, happy sounding baked
good, isn't it? This one, thanks to the inventive genius of Kitchen Cabinet recipe guru Wendy Sharpe,
has nuts, seeds and the customary tinned pineapple but also has the secret humectant punch of
tinned peaches. And on top - in honour of Mary Jo Fisher's now-famous Hokey Pokey Senate dance,
are some crunchy shards of hokey pokey - homemade honeycomb, to you and me.
Hummingishbird cake
Cake
250g plain flour
200g sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
200ml oil
100g of a mix of coconut, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts
(I did 25 coconut, 25 pumpkin, 25 sunflower, 25 walnut this time, because I had everything
on hand).
2 very ripe squishy bananas
1, 240g tin peaches, drained very well, then chopped roughly to a lumpy puree.
100g tinned pineapple (about 3 rings), chopped roughly to small pieces
50 g dried apricots (about 10), chopped into small slithers
Icing
200g cream cheese
50 g butter
100g icing sugar
Method
Preheat your oven to 170C; line and grease as many 20cm cake tins as you have (up to 3).
Sift the flour, spices, baking powder and bicarbonate together in to a large bowl or jug.
Stir in the sugar to the dry mix.
Add the eggs, oil, mashed banana, peaches and pineapple and mix until just combined.
Fold in your nut/seeds/coconut mix and the dried fruit.
Divide the cake mixture in to 3 equal parts to cook in 3 tins. Bake at 170C. The layers will be
quite thin, so the cake will cook quickly - check at 15 minutes whether a skewer comes out
clean.
Have the icing ingredients at room temperature and mix together like crazy until you have a
smooth and slightly runny icing.
Assemble the cake with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting between each layer and then a
final layer on top. Decorate with toffee shards.
It's not every single episode that we resort to recipe puns, but the Leader of the Opposition seemed an ideal candidate ‐ and Lo! The Strawberry Shorten Cake was born. It's based on a German Daatschi cake, that delicious strudelly bizzo with a cakey, shortbread base and a crumble topping. We used fresh strawberry in the middle, which cooks down to a rich and lovely red. Strawberry Shorten Cake
For the base 340 g plain white flour
175g white sugar
½ Tbsp baking powder
170g butter, cubed at room temperature
2 eggs
40g poppy seeds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
750g of strawberries (three punnets)
For the topping 150g plain flour
160g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or essence
100g butter
METHOD
Make the base *Blitz the flour, sugar, baking powder, poppy seeds and cinnamon in a food processor for a
few seconds.
*Add the butter and and pulse until the mixture looks like crumbs
*Add eggs, one at a time, processing to combine between each addition. Your mixture should
look like biscuit dough – not as dry as a traditional shortcrust pastry.
*Grease a 22x33 or similar baking tray. If you would like to be able to take the cake out of
the tin, lay a sheet of baking paper along one length, leaving enough paper at the ends to act
as ‘handles’ to lift the cooked cake from the tin.
*Scrape the mixture in to the middle of the greased tin and use your fingers to push the dough
in to all corners. You don’t have to have a perfectly smooth and even surface. Put the tin in to
the fridge while you prepare the next stages.
Prepare the fruit *Wash and pit the strawberries, then place cut side up, cheek by jowl, in smart lines on the
base. Gently push the strawberries to embed them slightly in the dough. Cram in as much
fruit as you can.
Make the crumble topping *Mix together the flour and sugar in a bowl with a spoon.
*Melt the butter over a gentle flame, then mix in the vanilla paste.
*Pour the melted butter, a little at a time, through the flour and sugar, using a knife to
combine it into a mixture that could be best described as sandy lumps. Once all the butter is
in, use your fingers to work in any final bits of dry flour.
*Sprinkle the crumble over the fruit.
Bake in a 170 degree oven for about 40 minutes. When cooked, the crumble should be golden
in parts, the edges of the base should be quite firm (if you have used baking paper, you can
use your handle to lift the cake up to take a peek at the base). Serve with pouring cream or a vanilla custard sauce. Mathias Cormann, Finance Minister, is a Belgian‐born chap who has latterly become famous for his cigar habit. I was obsessed with the idea of creating a gentlemen's‐club vibe for his dessert, and Kitchen Cabinet recipe monitor Wendy Sharpe eventually came up with something perfect. It's a jelly‐stack! Almond and vanilla jelly on the bottom, and muscat jelly on the top, served in an elegant stemless wine glass. In the episode, I take a little something extra for presentation too. Almond and Muscat Jelly
For the almond jelly
400mL almond milk, unsweetened
100 g jersey double cream
1 tsp vanilla paste
60g caster sugar
*Gelatine leaves to set 500mL
For the muscat jelly 200mL dark muscat
200mL water
50g caster sugar
*Gelatine leaves to set 400mL.
METHOD
Start with the almond jelly; set the gelatine leaves in cold water to bloom for a few minutes.
Heat the almond milk and dissolve the sugar, then take off heat and add the cream and vanilla
paste, stir to combine.
Pour almost all of the almond mixture into a jug. Wring as much water as you can from the
gelatine leaves and then dissolve them in the hot liquid in the pan. When it is dissolved, pour
the almond milk mixture back in to the pan and stir to combine.
Let it cool a few minutes and then pour into your serving glasses.
Refrigerate for a few hours and then get started on the muscat jelly
Set the gelatine leaves in cold water to bloom.
Dissolve the sugar in water over heat
Add the muscat just to take off a tiny bit of the alcohol (or turn up the heat if you need to
evaporate all the alcohol if you are serving to teetotal guests).
Pour almost all of the wine mix into another jug. Wring the gelatine leaves, add them to the
warm pan and stir to dissolve.
Add the bulk of the wine mixture back to the pan. Then stand to cool for 5 mins so that the
mixture is not too hot when you pour it on to the set first layer.
You will need to plan your making of this jelly out over at least 3 hours. You will need to
leave the almond layer in the fridge long enough for it to set firm enough to take the next
layer of muscat jelly.
*Gelatine strength varies wildly between brands, so it would only lead to trouble to give
exact amounts in the recipe. Instead, follow the guidelines on the back of the packet you buy.
Anna Burke is a very accomplished bulk chef - she comes from a big family which may
explain why she manages parliament with aplomb. For her, we came up with a chocolate
sheet cake with hidden healthy ingredient - beetroot! Don't panic, you can barely taste it - the
beetroot adds a moistness and sweetness that makes this cake a real winner.
Chocolate Beetroot Cake
Cake ingredients
250g cooked beetroot (not pickled!!)
300 g sugar
150g tasteless vegetable oil
120 mL Butter milk [120mL of milk with half a tablespoon of lemon juice - let it sit for 2
mins, stir, then the milk is curdled and ready to use.]
2 large eggs or 3 small.
225g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Icing ingredients
200g milk chocolate, grated (or a mix of milk and dark also nice)
100mL cream
100g white chocolate
Note: This cake is quick and easy to make…if you have a food processor. Apologies to those
who don’t have that piece of kit; you could try the longer method of passing the beetroot
through a vegetable mill, and then mixing the other ingredients in by hand. Precooked
vacuum-packed beetroot would simplify the process, or if starting from scratch peel the
beetroot, wrap in foil and bake at 160 ºC until soft.
METHOD
For the cake
Preheat your oven to 170ºC.
Puree the beetroot in a food processor until completely smooth.
Add sugar and remaining wet ingredients (oil, buttermilk and eggs) to the beetroot and blitz
again.
Sift the dry ingredients (flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cocoa) together and then
add them to the beetroot mix and blitz a few times, just to combine.
The mix will look quite wet and a nice very deep reddish colour.
Pour in to a greased and lined-in-one-direction 20x30cm baking tray.
Bake for around 35 minutes (this cake cooks more quickly than you would think), but check
that a skewer comes out clean from the middle.
Leave to cool completely before icing. If you are going to be serving the cake at home, use
the ends of the baking paper lining to carefully lift the cake on to a serving board. If you are
going to be transporting the cake, you could ice it in the tray and serve it in squares directly
from the tin.
For the icing
Heat the cream gently and take off the heat before adding the grated chocolate. Stir to make a
ganache. Pour/spread on to the cake.
While the icing is still warm, gently melt white chocolate and then scrape in to an icing bag.
Pipe lines, as straight as you can, down the length of the cake. Then use the end of a wooden
skewer, or similar, to drag lines at 90 degrees to the white lines. You should end up with a
feathered effect. Don’t worry if your lines are not straight and your feathering imperfect –
messy is charming. Or, you can pretend that your 7 year old did it.
Ideally, let the icing set for an hour or so before serving.
Warren Entsch is a man of surprises ‐ a big boofy fellow representing a great big Far North Queensland seat. Yet he is also a champion of surprising causes ‐ like equal rights for same sex couples. His dessert is a teeny‐tiny little etched glass of lemon verbena posset. Do not dismiss this dessert! It is simple and delicate, but the taste ‐ powered by lemon verbena leaves and the zest of ruby grapefruit ‐ is absolutely a revelation. The dessert of the series, in my opinion! And Wazza loved it too. Lemon Verbena Posset
500ml double cream
110 g caster sugar
15 lemon verbena leaves
Juice of half a ruby grapefruit and about a tsp of its zest
Juice of 1 lemon (altogether I used 115mL of juice - 80 from the grapefruit and rest from
lemon)
METHOD
Chop verbena leaves and add to saucepan with cream. Bring to JUST boiling, then leave for
at least 30 mins to infuse.
Make a syrup with the sugar, a dash of water and the juice.
Bring the cream back to hot, same with syrup, then combine, whisking all the while.
Strain the result through a fine sieve in to a jug. Then, pour this in to glasses and refrigerate
for at least 3 hours before serving.
Clive Palmer’s Coconut Sandwich
(A liberal reinterpretation of the original dessert served in Second Class on the
Titanic)
190g egg whites (about 6 eggs’ worth)
65g caster sugar
140g icing sugar
30g almond meal
130g dessicated coconut
fresh banana, mascarpone and dulce de leche* for serving.
Method
Preheat oven to 150 degrees.
Beat eggwhites until soft peak stage – add caster sugar and beat the hell out of it till
it’s stiff and glossy. Whack the almond meal, icing sugar and coconut all together into
a bowl and stir them together so they’re evenly mixed – then fold the lot into the egg
whites. Do it gently, so as to retain as much air as possible.
Spread the resultant mixture evenly in a rectangular shape on a baking tray lined with
baking paper. I ended up with a rectangle about the size of an A4 sheet of paper.
Bake this for half an hour, then cool.
Cut out rounds of the meringue with a cookie cutter. I used a round one, but if I’d
been in a more literal frame of mind I could easily have done a T-Rex.
When you’re ready to serve, make your sandwich – spread mascarpone on the bottom
layer, then a nice layer of banana slices, then spread a good whack of dulce de leche
on the other half and gently smoodge it on top. Dust the lot with icing sugar for effect.
* You can make dulce de leche – caramel – easily by cooking condensed milk. Many
methods are searchable on the Internet. However, I just bought some in a jar, because
I am bone idle.