The Art of Food - Part 2

It's the last day of winter today (in New Zealand at least) and I'm rather excited to see spring is on its way with the sunshine streaming through my window. This is part 2 of my look at artists who paint high tea related subjects and I've been enjoying getting to know some contemporary artists.

In my Google searches, I stumbled upon this artist and was instantly hooked. Joel Penkman appears to specialize in still life artworks. A New Zealander by birth, he now lives and paints in the UK. I particularly loved his paintings of tea cups, it reminded me of looking into my grandmother’s china cabinet when I was younger.

But really, these posts are all about the paintings, so here are a few of my favourites that I found on his website. Check out the website for yourself here.

Blancmange

First 9 Teacups

These paintings make me happy, it's funny how art can do that.

But anyway, I'm heading out to high tea at the Heritage Hotel this weekend so watch out for that review next week. Have a fantastic weekend and enjoy the sunshine!

H xo

Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry

While I enjoy writing my blog, I also enjoy reading other blogs. One that I follow regularly is High Tea with Dragons. A while ago, the author wrote about a recipe book called Sprinkle Bakes, written by the author of the Sprinkle Bakes blog, Heather Baird. Loving the public library as I do, I requested a copy to check it out. The author is an artist who uses the medium of baking/desserts. The book is incredible; some people have so much talent! The instructions are also really good, taking you through every step so you can achieve so same results yourself (hopefully).

See the resemblance?

So inspired by Wayne Thiebaud’s ‘Neapolitan Meringue’ and armed with a copy of Sprinkle Bakes, I set about making a Neapolitan Cake for my Mum’s birthday. And I was fairly impressed with the results. My icing was a little softer than I would have liked, so it didn’t hold together as well as I would have like, but I put it in the fridge straight after icing which helped a little bit. I also had a few issues with the cake layers sliding around while I was icing the final cake, next time I would put skewers into the cake to keep it all steady. I also had a few issues with our standing mixer, this may be because it is quite an old one, but in future I think I would make the cakes separately to make it easier to handle. This would take a bit longer but for me would make the large amount of cake batter a little more manageable. But overall, it turned out well, the cakes were moist and tasted really good. Plus the three colours were really effective when the cake was sliced.

 Neapolitan Cake

Ingredients

Cakes

375 grams butter

3 cups sugar

6 cups cake flour, sifted

2 Tbsp baking powder

12 egg whites, at room temperature

2 cups milk, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla essence

½ cup hot water

85g pkt of strawberry jelly crystals

¼ cup cocoa powder

Icing

500g cream cheese

250 grams butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 cups icing sugar

The Cakes

1.     Heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line and spray three 9-inch cakes tins.

2.     Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy in a stand mixer.

3.     Sift together flour and baking powder.

4.     Beat the egg whites with a handheld electric mixer until stiff peaks form – do not over-beat.

5.     With the stand mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

6.     Gently fold the eggs whites and vanilla essence into the batter.

7.     Divide the batter into three equal parts in three separate bowls. One portion will remain. Pour the white portion into a prepared tin.

8.     Mix ¼ cup of the hot water and the strawberry jelly together in a small bowl/jug. Stir until the gelatin is almost dissolved. It is okay if a few grains of gelatin remain. Pour the gelatin mixture into a bowl of batter and mix until consistently pink. Pour into the second prepared tin.

9.     Mix the cocoa powder and remaining ¼ cup of hot water until dissolved. Combine with the remaining batter and mix until no white streaks remain. Pour into the third prepared tin.

10.  Bake the cakes for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. (Check chocolate layer after 25 minutes as it will bake more quickly due to the added cocoa).

11.  Cool the cakes in the tins for 10 minutes and then remove onto racks to cool completely.

12.  Level the cakes with a serrated knife or cake leveler (cut the top off so you have a flat surface).

The Icing

1.     With a hand mixer in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth.

2.     With the mixer on low, gradually pour in the icing sugar and mix until incorporated.

3.     Increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy. If the mixture is too thick, add a little milk to loosen it. If it is too thin, add additional icing sugar or put in the fridge to firm up.

4.     Ice and stack the cake layers.

Recipe adapted from Sprinke Bakes: Dessert Recipes to Inspire Your Inner Artist, by Heather Baird.

So if you’re up for a bit of a challenge, give this cake a go, and check out the Sprinkle Bakes cookbook or blog to find some more inspiration.

H xo

The Art of Food – Part 1

Wayne Thiebaud, Four Cupcakes, 1971

When I began to do some work on this post, my intention was to tell you about an artist whose works I first saw at the Laguna Beach Art Gallery back in 2007. However as I did some Googling to pull up some of his prints, I stumbled across another artist who was amazing. And then I remembered another artist who had painted similar subjects that I admired. And so, it went from there. This is the first part of a mini series on artists that I admire who paint high tea related food as still life subjects  (that was a mouthful!).

Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes, 1963

I am an art lover. I am the one who will go to the Art Gallery in whatever city I’m in just to check it out. And yes, that includes the high profile art galleries like The Met and MOMA in New York, and the Louvre in Paris, but it also include art galleries that are less well known. Basically, if there’s an art gallery in a city I’m visiting I will make a visit (anyone who has travelled with me will attest to this). Which is how I ended up at the Laguna Beach Art Gallery in Laguna Beach, California a couple of years ago.

Wayne Thiebaud, Neapolitan Merigue, 1986/1999

Wayne Thiebaud is an American artist who was born in 1920 in Arizona, USA. He is probably most well known for his paintings of cakes and similar objects, but also painted landscapes and other subjects. I love Thiebaud’s use of colour. That is probably the first thing that attracted me to his works. The subjects are idealized and simplified. Many people have in fact referred to Thiebaud’s work as ‘pop art’ (the same genre of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol). I’m not sure if I would agree, but I’m no art historian. For more of a history on Wayne Thiebaud, click here.

I include a few of my favourite paintings by Thiebaud, they have in fact inspired my baking plans for this weekend. Will let you know how that all goes.

H xo

Britomart Country Club

Date of Visit: 18 August 2012
Location: Britomart Country Club, Galway Street, Auckland City
Website: http://www.britomartcountryclub.co.nz/#/Home
Cost: $20 pp

Another GrabOne purchase, I recently visited Britomart Country Club for high tea. I was interested to check this high tea out because it’s a slightly unusual place to serve one (it is predominantly a bar). I have been there in the evenings, but not during the day before. Unfortunately, the general verdict on this high tea is that they should probably stick to their ventures as a bar until they are able to serve fresh food…

I came here with my brother. I made a reservation almost a month out as the initial date that I wanted was fully booked and then we were both busy for several weekends. The website stipulates that they need at least 48 hours notice when making a reservation. Parking was easy in one of the downtown car parking buildings.

There was a large selection of teas offered which were of the Dilmah variety. I drink a lot of Dilmah tea these days so was fairly happy with this. I had the Mediterranean Mandarin tea, which was ok. I got quite excited to see that the tea was served in English bone china, it really adds something to the experience. My brother, not being a tea drinker himself, went for the coffee option, which he declared to be average. A nice touch though was the water jug that had orange and mint added to it.

The table setting was attractive. There was ample space for everything, including a jar with a flower and the water jug.

I don’t like to write anything bad about places, but sometimes you have to be honest. I guess the biggest thing I was disappointed about was the food (which is quite a big thing in a high tea). There were three sandwiches in the selection, all of which were made with white bread, which was dry and beginning to curl slightly. The scones were probably the biggest disappointment of the high tea, while they appeared at first to be warm, it would seem that they had been heated rather than freshly made. The result of this was a rock hard outer scone and which was chewy and essentially inedible. To add insult to injury, the cream was over-whipped and also starting to separate. The savoury muffin was actually fairly reasonable. Luckily for the Britomart Country Club, their sweet selection improved vastly on their savouries. The highlight here was the red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing, which was very tasty. The mini cheesecakes were also quite nice, however gave the impression that they were made the day before. In fact, as my brother pointed out, all of the food seemed to have that ‘made the day before’ look to it. Some foods keep better than others.

 

Although the food was not so great, the service was quite good. The servers were attentive, checking on how we were going and providing prompt service.

I enjoyed the setting of the Britomart Country Club. It has that outdoors feel (which is essentially is), and I loved the little hedge and the artificial grass on the ground. It is quite a unique environment. It is a casual setting, but I liked it. Weather is a huge factor for high tea here. Because it is quite open (though completed covered) windy, rainy days are quite cold. We were lucky enough to have a sunny afternoon, though it did become a little cooler as the afternoon grew later.

Come here on a nice sunny day but avoid the high tea. Maybe stick to the lunch menu or come in the evening for drinks? The pizzas looked good. In terms of high tea, they are one of the cheapest options around, however, that is no excuse to serve old food. I think they do have the potential to serve a good high tea; they just really need to get the food right.

Service: 3.5/5
Food: 1/5
Tea: 3/5
Atmosphere/Ambiance:  3.5/5
Layout (of restaurant): 4/5
Setup (of table):  4/5

Overall: 3/5

Stop and Savour the Moment

Life has become a little more hectic lately, and between Uni, work, trip planning and life in general there doesn't seem to be much time to get everything done. This blog has suffered a little lately because of this, but do not fear, I'm off to another high tea on Saturday, so watch out for that review coming soon. A month or so ago I came across a segment in 'Sideswipe' that intrigued me, and I've been thinking about it every so often ever since. I post it below.


"Addicted to busy-ness
Are you feeling like you should be getting on with something else? You're probably suffering from that all-too-familiar modern day complaint of being super busy and you need to sit down, take a breath and read this insight from satirist/cartoonist Tim Kreider's book, We Learn Nothing on the subject: "It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the stock response is a kind of congratulation: 'That's a good problem to have.' Notice it isn't generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the ICU or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired. It's almost always people whose lamented busy-ness is self-imposed ... . They're busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they're addicted to busy-ness and dread what they might have to face in its absence."

Sourced from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10816906

I've been thinking about what it is about high tea that really attracts me to it. It's not just the cute, bite size afternoon tea items, or the fun of going out and drinking tea in an elegant setting. I like that high tea allows me to stop and savour the moment with whoever it is shared with. I like that high tea is a reason to stop, to reflect, to celebrate. High tea is not a ritual that cannot be rushed. I love that you can't really have high tea on your own, it's meant to be shared with another person.

So the next time you stop to enjoy a high tea, don't forget to stop and let go of all of your busy-ness and truly savour the moment and person/people you're sharing life with at that moment.

H xo

Apricot Slice and All Things Nice

One thing that I consider myself to be rather good at is procrastination. It’s that time of year when assignments are starting to pile up and on a sunny day like today, I can think of at least twenty other things I would rather be doing than working inside on the computer. One of my favourite forms of productive procrastination is baking. And yes, that half a tin of condensed milk in the fridge needed to be used up right away. Clearly, it was a highly urgent matter that I had to attend to. That said, this is one of my favourite slice recipes. It is simple and quick, requires no baking, and most importantly, is delicious! A fabulous addition to any high tea menu.

 

My main piece of advice in regards to this slice is don’t compromise on the quality of the dried apricots. They will make all the difference. We currently have some Otago dried apricots, which tasted amazing in this slice (and also very good on their own!).

Apricot Slice

100-150g dried apricots

¼ cup orange juice (I use whatever  type of juice we have in the fridge at the time)

75g butter, melted

½ a 400g can sweetened condensed milk

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup coconut

1 packet (250g) Wine or Malt biscuits (biscuits of preference: plain Girl Guide biscuits)

extra coconut

Line the base and sides of a pan about 18x28 cm with baking paper.

Finely chop the dried apricots using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife and cook them in the juice in a large pot until there is no liquid left. Add the butter to the apricots and stir over low heat until melted. Add condensed milk and brown sugar, then heat gently, stirring often until the sugar is no longer grainy, and the mixture is golden brown. (Caution, this will stick to the bottom of the saucepan if the temperature is too high or if you leave it too long without stirring.)

Remove from heat and stir in coconut and the finely crushed biscuits. Stir everything together well.

Sprinkle the lined baking paper with the extra coconut, and then tip in the mixture. Press in evenly to the depth you like. Sprinkle the mixture with more coconut, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before cutting.

Recipe taken from 100 Favourite Muffins & Slices, by Simon and Alison Holst.

And voila! You have a delicious slice that keeps for a least a week in the fridge and you can continue on with your day. Extra condensed milk disaster averted.

Happy baking!

H xo

Silent Movies and Lemon Tea

The last weekend was one that brought with it exciting news for me. On Saturday morning I found out that I have been accepted into a weeklong course in India at the end of November this year. Plans have quickly been falling into place and it looks like I’ll be heading to India a couple of days after submitting my research project, a mere three months away. My head has been spinning with vaccination requirements and itineraries for the last couple of days. And I’m getting excited about everything that I’ll get to see and do over in India (hopefully check out a high tea?), all the while trying to stay grounded in reality and how much actually has to be done before I go.

My trip to India was not the only good thing that happened over the weekend. Sunday was the last day of the New Zealand International Film Festival. And as usual, I had every intention of seeing some of the films, but didn’t actually make it to any of the screenings. Except for the last one. It was a showing of the digitally remastered silent movies, ‘Easy Street’ (directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin) and ‘Blackmail’ (directed by Alfred Hitchcock) with original music performed live by the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra. I had been a little skeptical about the whole experience given my dependence on sound in films, but actually found it to be rather enjoyable. Afterwards, my friend and I met up with some of her French friends and we went out for a drink. While the others had beer, I found myself craving a cup of tea, and felt like a bit of a weirdo when I ordered a lemon tea. However, I have no regrets, that was one good cup of tea (Lipton too, which I'm not usually a huge fan of), and the moral of this story is that one should never be ashamed of ordering a cup of tea at a bar…

Afternoon Coffee, Venice, by Cecil van Haanen (1883)

My friend and I got into Auckland city a little early and so spent some time up at the Auckland City Art Gallery in my favourite room, the Victorian art gallery. Here’s one of the paintings – the name intrigued me – Afternoon Coffee, Venice. I love the chaos of it and it reminded me of the article I posted a link to a couple of weeks ago on ‘High Coffee’.

Anyway, plans to make and baking to do. Another recipe coming at the end of this week.

H xo