This month (april) book choosen by the book club was ''Julie and Julia'', 524 recipes, 365 days, 1 tiny apartment by Julie Powell.
As many of you who might have read the book or seen the movie know that Julie powell is a secretary who lives in a tiny apartment with her husband and how she found this book in her mom's collection and her saga or journey through this book of Julia Child's Art of French CoMastering the oking, and this is how the project was born!!
Julie begins to cook everyone of the 524 recipes in the book, within the span of just one year- 365 days!!, Once she plunges herself into this project, she just thinks only about this, it just becomes a breath to her life, The life with her family, friends and work all becomes secondary in her life when she starts the project.
The book particularly I liked in it was her hard labour in trying out all the recipes to the perfection of Julia child, was quite a tedious task for somebody who knew very minimal things about cooking!!, her journey was really a tough one, as she had issues mentally with some of the things which wouldn't eat!!.
The other thing was her husband's involvement in her project was what I most appreciated, juggling between everyday work, his sickness and his wife's project, hats off to him, caring and encouraging her in every step of her project, sometimes his defensive tactic of selective hearing as julie says, made him survive with his wife's venture!!.
what I didn't like in the book was too much of the 'F' word, and talking too much about sex was what I did not like, there was not much of anything about the cooking or baking, as what I had expected!!, Nothing much about Julia child at all, The book is all about her struggling with her life and her living with her family and friends, I could see some of the names of some dishes and reading it I came to know that it is more about cooking meat and not much vegetarian cooking in it.
In the end I felt really sorry for Julie as she felt that she was not at least recognised by Julia child, but as she herself says - what it takes to find your way in the world, It's not what I thought it was, - I don't know confidence or will or luck. Those are all some good things to have no question , But, there's something else something that these things grow out of - It's Joy!!.
I do not blame Julie, being a blogger myself, I know how each one of the bloggers out there dedicate their life into blogging and how much it involves and revolves around their life, through this book I take this opportunity to give a big bow to all the food bloggers who love their bleeders and think them as part of their life.
Meryl streep as Julia child has taken the movie into an excellent setting, she just blends in with Julia child's character and feel us more rapport with that lady in name and fame. After seeing the movie 'Devil wears Prada' I am a big fan of Meryl streep and just loved her in ''Julie and Julia'' too!!.
I should say that I loved the movie than the book, Reading a lot of MAofFc in googling I came to know that this Recipe was the last in her book, as I think I am the last one to write about this book, this would be quite an appropriate choice, I really do not know if Julie or Julia would approve my cake..., but as Julie says I tried my best to bake this cake!!
REINE DE SABA (QUEEN OF SHEEBA CAKE)
INGREDIENTS:
3 Oz Semi sweet Baking Chocolate
1 oz Unsweetned chocolate
2 tbsp Strong coffee (dark rum)
1/2 cup Unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
pinch of salt
2 tbsp Granulated sugar
1/3 cup blanched Almonds (Pulverised in blender with 2tbsp of Granulated sugar)
1/4 tsp Almond extract
1/2 cup Plain bleached Cake flour (I used Self-raising flour)
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (Gas Mark 4)
In a sauce pan melt both the chocolates and strong coffee (/dark rum) by using a double boiler set over a pan of 2 or 3'' of water, combine and let chocolate melt stirring smooth and turn of heat
In an another bowl take softened butter, beat it add sugar and yolks and beat until soft and fluffy
In an another bowl beat the egg whites add cram of tartar and salt and beat until soft peaks are formed add 2 tbsp of sugar and beat until shining peaks form leaving a trial behind.
Now Blend the warm melted chocolate into the yolk mixture, then blend in the ground almonds and almond extarcts.
Immediately stir in 1/4th of egg whites, delicately and rapidly fold in the quarter of the flour, this way alternatively keep on adding the egg whites and fold in the flour until completely both of them are used up.
Then fold this mixture into the cake tin immediately and press in well with the help of spatula and bake this in the lower middle rack of a preheated oven
Bake the cake for around 25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes clean when inserted in the cake, But, You need to keep in mind the cake in the middle should be still soft or glooey, and should move when shaken.
Remove it from the tin once it is cooled and then do the Icing.
I did a chocolate Icing with :
4 oz of chocolate
A knob of butter
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of milk
I melted the chocolate, with knob of butter, sugar and tbsp of milk and made an Icing on to top it.
I had a real problem my cake tin which locks is loose came of when I lifted it to put it in the oven, came off and I felt like crying, and i tried my best to push the mixture into the tin and I had no hope that it would really bake or not !!, thank God!! it did bake and came out really well, I really wanted to show a piece of how it looked but my kids were more interested in eating it than taking photos!!, when I came back I saw that they had just left me a piece of it and as it was late in the night I dare not take any photos, As most of photos are crap !!
I used some flaked almonds to top it which I saw in one of the blogs, when I googled for this recipe, I had 3 to 4 blogs to go through for this recipe, then I decided to take the recipe from this blog and Nigella's blog which were almost similar.
I was not really very precise with the measurments as oz/gms/cups differ a little bit which is very difficult to measure so I have just rounded of and I used a little bit of more sugar, the best was the Icing I made it was really stupid of me when I melted butter and chocolate they were perfect, as my family has a sweet tooth I thought I will add a tbsp of sugar and when I added it started to become hard and then I added milk and made it little liquidy but it was curdled up so then again I added 2 more pieces of chocolate and then it gained back its shining consistency!!.
Hope you all enjoyed my post as I enjoyed this cake!! c u soon..., I think I will be on time for the next time.
will be off to see what my friends have cooked from the book... and you also my friends do check out their blogs.
Tina (PinayInTexas)
You did so well... the cake looks perfect! Glad to find you thru Baking Partners!
PJ
Well written post and a nice choice of recipe too..
Joanne
This book club sounds like so much fun and you definitely chose a classic to read this time around. The cake looks so chocolatey and delicious! I would love a large slice.
Ann
cake looks fantastic.
Pavithra
Delicious and wonderful post.. very interesting.. Good one.. Loved the cake so much..
Usha
Fabulous cake Jayasri ! Nice post about the book too, I am yet to read it, but I have heard a lot about it!
jayasri
Hi everybody, thank you for all the lovely comments.
Hi parni, thanks dear the cake was quite delicious (I increased sugar level)!!, kids wanted 2nd & 3rd servings!!
Hi simran, I really do not know if that is queen of sheba cake!! or Julia would have approved about the mess I made, that blog said adapted from Julia child's book and tried my best to wait so that the middle part is still glooey and not completely done, it tasted really nice, I had to restrian myself not to eat it!!
Thanks priya it was really rich I suppose because I used almonds inside and outside the cake
Hey Meena, r u Joking dear, not me, I thought I wrote about my saga in making chocolate frosting, I am not really good at it!!, you should check out on some blogs, they are really great than the professional bakers, I could give you a big list of them..
Thanks HChandana,thank you dear
Hi curry leaf, I should say hats of to you to choose that recipe, I did not dare to do that, I really did not know if I could coax my kids to eat it!!
Hi thanks aparna, your comment means a lot to me!, you are great at doing things like this. Meena check out her blog for wonderful baking goodies!!, she was my inspiration in baking..
Hey Rachel, I wouldn't second that, It made my day really but Julia approving NO!!
Hi thanks cooking Ninja, It really isn't worth reading, you could just bake or cook something I should say!!, and enjoy eating it, for the great Julia who brought french cooking into the limelight!!, According to the recipe the middle of the cake should be baked completely and a little bit glooey, I mean kind of wobbly!!, I think I do not know how to explain this, try googling and you might exactly know what it means!!
The Cooking Ninja
U aren't the last on the list yet. I'll be the last as I haven't even read this book yet nor bake anything out of it. LOL!
Is the cake sort of lava like? It looks and sounds super delicious. I like the idea of coffee in it. 🙂
Rachel
I bet Julia would have given you a perfect for this!
Aparna
Another lovely chocolate cake. I have seen this somewhere else too and now I must try my hand at this I think.
Curry Leaf
Delicious and Excellent cake.I agree with you.I too liked Julies Husband way of partial deafness and also encouraging her which is ahem almost rare 🙂
I wanted something different from Julia and hence chose the baked cucumber.Looks GREAT
Hari Chandana
Wowwwwwwwww... delicious cake.. Awesome post dear!!
Meena
an exquisite cake...you have an immense talent for baking!
Priya
Omg, wat a gorgeous cake, looks beautiful,rich with those nuts and scrumptious..
Simran
Wow! You made the Queen of Sheba cake. I had shortlisted this myself but couldn't get around to making it.
I was so hoping someone else would pick this recipe. Looks great, just like Julia would have liked 🙂
PranisKitchen
delicious cake..nice reading about the book and the julia story..
good one