Neapolitan cake

There's so much more to Neapolitan than the ice cream we grew up with as kids. Back in the day, vanilla and chocolate were the predominant flavour options. We hadn't heard of cookies and cream, goodie goodie gum drops or salted caramel yet. Neapolitan added a touch of exoticism, even if we didn't really like it. Hokey pokey was another whole level of excitement for kiwi kids.

Birthday time calls for a special birthday cake. I wanted to use my Fresh As freeze dried strawberry powder to bake with and Neapolitan cake came to mind. After unsuccessfully searching for Neapolitan cake recipes, I decided to double and modify the standard Edmonds Cookery Book butter cake recipe. It's incredibly versatile and produced three layers for turned out to be a very large cake once assembled and decorated.

Neapolitan cake

Ingredients

• 300 g butter, softened
• 3 t vanilla essence
• 330 g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 420 g flour
• 2 T baking powder
• 375 ml milk
• 1 t freeze dried strawberry powder
• pink food colouring
• 2 T cocoa

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease and line three 20 cm sandwich cake pans.
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence together until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down sides of the bowl and beating well after each addition.
4. Sift flour and baking powder together. Fold into creamed mixture.
5. Add milk gradually to give a soft dropping consistency.
6. Divide mixture into three equal portions (about ~568 grams each) as follows.
   Vanilla cake: Pour one third of the mixture into a prepared pan.
   Strawberry cake: Pour one third of the mixture into a separate bowl. Add freeze dried powder and enough pink food colouring to achieve your desired colour. Pour into second prepared pan.
   Chocolate cake: Add cocoa to remaining mixture and combine thoroughly. Pour into third prepared pan.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cakes are cooked when a skewer comes out clean and cake shrinks a little from the edges. Cool for 10 minutes in pans, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Assembly
Assemble cake layers with chocolate on the bottom, vanilla in the middle and strawberry on top. Spread buttercream in between each layer before icing and decorating the whole cake.

Decorating
Decorate any way you choose. I made 700 g of strawberry buttercream by adding one tablespoon of freeze dried powder and food colouring to a standard buttercream recipe, then decorated the cake with fondant ruffles in the same order as the cake's layers. The finishing touch was fondant roses using my new easiest rose ever cutter.

Neapolitan cake with fondant ruffles

Strawberry, vanilla and chocolate layers

Wellington Regional Sugarcraft Competition 2016

Just next to one of the most popular Pokémon Go hunting spots in the Hutt, the Dowse Museum was once again host to the annual Wellington Regional Sugarcraft Competition and Exhibition this weekend. The exhibition is a great source of cakespiration and a celebration of the many hours of hard work that go into cake decorating.

I really enjoyed this year's 1950s rock and roll theme. Think juke boxes, diners, music and lots of dancing. It allowed for bright colours, black and white themes and a kind of design simplicity that really appeals to me.

Here's a selection of my favourite cakes from this year's competition. They weren't necessarily category winners but caught my attention in one way or another.

At the diner

Angry bird
made by an 11 year old
My nephews would love this.

A celebration of Grandparents Day
These figurines are beautifully detailed.

A funky handbag
made by an 11 year old

A celebration of music
I love the effect achieved using just black and white fondant.

Realistic cakes usually freak me out
but this one wasn't so scary.

A celebration of rock and roll
This is my people's choice nomination.

Shouldless days

I recently started listening to the Death, Sex & Money podcast by Anna Sale. The premise for the podcast is that it openly talks about the topics we think about a lot but usually leave unspoken.

One of the many episodes I enjoyed was Ellen Burstyn's lessons on survival. I have to confess to not knowing who Ellen Burstyn is before listening to it but I was taken by one particular piece of advice. Ellen is a fan of shouldless days, when you do what you want to do and not the things you think you should - the epitome of guilt-free.

This got me thinking. I'm very much a should person. I should do this and I should do that and I should get around to doing the things I haven't done yet and so on. I'm also a should have person, whereby I relive the guilt of not doing the things I should have done at the end of each day. Does this sound familiar?

In an ideal world, Sundays would be shouldless days for me. It's not just about being lazy and achieving nothing. Sometimes this describes my Sundays perfectly, but there is usually an element of guilt about the things I should have done. This is definitely something I need to work on.

As for what I'd do on my shouldless days, well, I imagine this would be different every week. It's likely to involve coffee, baking, brunch, music, home, new places, sunshine, a book, a walk, making plans, having no plans, good company, no company ... all of the above, some of it or none at all.

What would a shouldless day look like for you?

House rules for cruising with friends

So you're going on a cruise! For two weeks! With friends, no less! A girls' only trip! Leave the boys at home!

It all sounds wonderful – and certainly is. Imagine: two and a half weeks of lying by the pool, eating heaps of yummy food, sipping endless cocktails, partying all night and throwing in a spot of duty free shopping every so often. Except it's not quite so wonderful if these activities aren't your idea of what you should do every day on holiday, or you want to try something different for a change, or even do something quiet by yourself occasionally.

Our group knew from the outset that one particular person was at risk of not returning. It was just a matter of who would do it, when and how. I'm pleased to report that we did survive the duration of the cruise, thanks to employing some survival tactics. It was tough at times to remain calm and patient but we can now repeat the wise words our cruise ship captain announced after each shore excursion, "all the souls are accounted for" – just.

House rules for cruising with friends

• Choose your cabin mates wisely. The cabins are very small and two weeks is a long time to spend with others in a confined space.
• Realise that not everybody has to or will want to do the same things at the same time – and that's perfectly ok. Desirable, even.
• Know who in your group is an extrovert, who the introverts are and have a plan for keeping everybody alive. Not as simple as it sounds.
• Realise that everyone has a different idea about what being on holiday means. For some it's drinking endless cocktails on a pool lounger. For others, it's having time out to quietly read a book or spending some time alone to recharge their energy.
• Have an understanding that if people get separated or want some time out that you'll meet up at a regular activity or meal. For us, it was the daily quiz at 5 pm or dinner at 7.30.
• Bring headphones and use them just like you would in an open plan office. They're a great way to carve out some personal space or even just to show others that you're not going to be part of this conversation.
• Let stuff go. Remember that you're all away for a break and a good time. Your holiday will fly by and you'll be back to reality before you know it so enjoy it while you can.

High tea on the high seas

High tea on the high seas? Don't mind if we do! I couldn't resist booking a fancy afternoon tea towards the end of our cruise. $A20 for eleven high tea items, coffee and bubbles was excellent value and a special ladies' treat.

I love the way high tea was presented on an oval art deco style stand.

High seas high tea

We were advised to start in the middle row with five different sandwiches including shrimp, chicken, salmon, pork and beef. Then, hot scones with jam and cream were served before we let loose on the sweet layers: raspberry macaron, marscapone tart, florentine, chocolate lamington and more.

The restaurant wasn't able to cater for special dietary requirements for high tea so our friend with a nut allergy sat this one out. The sandwiches were also all non-vegetarian and contained quite a bit of seafood, so I was fine but the other two in my group were less happy. We were allowed to take the leftover sweets back to our room and enjoyed them as a late afternoon snack.

I think the Pacific Ocean is my most exotic high tea venue to date. How will I top this experience?

Feeding a cruise ship

Almost everyone has asked me one common question since I got home from my cruise: "How was the food?" Honestly: it was excellent. Given that the Pacific Pearl is a three star ship and I'd read so many conflicting reviews before leaving, it was hard to know what to expect, but the overall standard of food and service in the Waterfront restaurant was fantastic and certainly a highlight of the cruise. They also catered for special dietary requirements. One of our group is allergic to nuts so she was brought the next day's menu in advance and her selections for breakfast, lunch and dinner were cooked separately.

They say that you board a cruise as a passenger and leave as cargo. It's entirely probable as the food is plentiful and you’ll never be hungry. This is both a good and bad thing. An almost continuous buffet with meals and snacks and an a la carte restaurant is included in the cruise fare. The menu changes daily and there are also themed menus each day such as Swedish, Italian, Greek and so on. You can order extra vegetables, something we started to miss, or extra fries or fruit on the side for most meals if you feel like something else. I got into the habit of ordering a plate of watermelon (five small pieces) to gorge on with breakfast and lunch.

It's worth checking out some of the specialty restaurants on board (these come with a surcharge) and the treats you can purchase from the cafes are worth trying at least once. While it's tempting to start each three course meal with the bread brought to your table (or pastries and toast for breakfast), I decided to pace myself and was even crazy enough to only have one course for lunch. Sometimes.

Fruit and marscapone tart

As one comedian on board pointed out, there are two days that you'll go to the gym: the first day as you try to establish a good routine and the last day when you try and undo all the eating in between. My Fitbit kept me honest most days and I managed to maintain or exceed my 10000 daily step goal, thanks to the walking track on the top deck and walking up copious flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator.

So what does it take to feed a cruise ship? Here are some shopping list stats for average food consumption during a 10 day cruise:

• 2900 kg flour
• 2200 kg watermelon (I probably ate 200 kg of this alone)
• 9800 l milk
• 110 kg espresso beans (I also helped out here)
• 1500 kg tomatoes
• 1250 kg French fries
• 2800 dozen eggs
• 700 kg oranges
• 850 kg apples
• 3200 kg chicken
• 2200 kg rice 

To serve all this food, 32000 plates, 13000 glasses and 30000 pieces of cutlery are washed every day. Here's a glimpse of the ship's galley (kitchen). We were lucky enough to catch a walk through tour on our second to last day at sea.

Kitchen assembly line, where meals are plated for serving

A row of gigantic refrigerators

Look at that mixer!

Apart from our vegetarian former chef friend, who was disappointed with aspects of almost every dish (either how they were made or the ingredients she expected they'd use), we were really impressed with the quality and variety of food. I enjoyed watching cooking demonstrations by some of the chefs and was really glad that menu was not based entirely around deep fried wonders like I'd worried they would be.

According to my calculations, we probably got our money's worth from the food alone, let alone travel, accommodation and entertainment - and that's with pacing ourselves and not getting carried away at each meal or in between. And my net damage? 1 kg down. Woo hoo!