I was once put in charge of making arancini when I was working - I've mentioned it before. Back then I had already fallen in love with risotto, so naturally arancini stole my heart instantly. I had to shape them and fry them up for a cocktail service and might have eaten a ridiculous number of them in the process. In my defense, I wasn't the only one because I had to use the deep fryer to cook them, and there was only one in the area and it wasn't anywhere close to where I usually worked. The people around were lovely enough to let me use it whenever I needed to and they oh-so-easily grabbed a few of the freshly fried arancini whenever they walked past. I never told them off for doing it and in return, they never told me off for doing the same.
I hadn't eaten arancini in almost a year now until today. I was over the moon to discover that one of my favorite restaurants had an appetizer platter with zucchini strings, calamari, arancini and cheese balls. And everything was deep fried. Now if I wasn't already sold on getting a platter of fried appetizers, the words arancini and cheese balls would have bought me straight away seeing as I was obsessed with the former and the latter was the stuff of my dreams and having them both on the same plate would not only be overkill but would probably also be my death of choice.
Sorry if that was too dramatic. But I do love my arancini/cheese balls.
When the platter arrived, I might or might not have hogged it to myself. I might or might not have licked the bowl of Alfredo dipping sauce clean and I might or might not have eaten all the fried balls of both kinds by myself while my family picked at the zucchini strings. But I did leave happy and full and dreaming of going back alone another day to order another platter..
On another note, I made a red velvet cake that might just join the brownies to be sold at the cafe. I found the recipe in a Betty Crocker cookbook and while I was really skeptical at the cooked flour frosting - I expected to taste like.. Flour ? - but it surprised me when I tasted it by being so buttery and creamy and perfectly sweet that I had to whack my own knuckles with the spatula so I wouldn't eat the whole bowl. The red velvet cake is a dream on its own, using vegetable oil instead of butter so it's soft and moist even when it's been sitting in the fridge. The red color comes through without being alarming and the layers are just tall enough so that a slice is just enough to make you feel happily content and not having you groaning in pain by the time you're done. Believe me, that is not a good feeling. I might consider adding more cocoa the next time I make it though..
But the frosting, oh that frosting. As wonderful as the cake is, the frosting is so good that you're going to want to lick it off the plate.
It looks so weird, the cooked flour and milk mixture. At first you're going to go through a brief what-the-hell-am-I-doing stage but persevere and you'll be rewarded with a Swiss buttercream-esque frosting without all the hassle.
Red Velvet Cake with Cooked Flour Frosting
For the cake:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 bottle (1 oz) red food color
2 eggs
1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the bottoms and sides of three 8 inch round cake pans and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.
2. In a stand mixer, beat all the cake ingredients on low speed for 30 seconds until the flour is moistened. Scrape down the bowl then beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Divide the batter evenly among the three pans.
3. Bake the cakes for 25-35 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding and cooling them on a wire rack. Make sure the cakes are completely cool before filling and frosting them.
For the frosting:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1. In a medium saucepan, mix the flour and milk until smooth. Cook, stirring with a whisk over medium heat, until very thick. It'll look almost like choux paste. Remove from heat and leave to cool completely. To speed up the cooling, transfer to another bowl and place the bowl in an ice bath.
2. In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the flour mixture one spoonful at a time, then once incorporated, beat in the vanilla. Turn the mixer to high speed and beat the frosting until smooth.
Assemble the cake. Place one of the layers on a turntable or cake board. Top with a generous cup of frosting and spread evenly, till the sides. Top with another cake layer and another cup of frosting. Spread the frosting to the sides and top with the final cake layer. Plop the remaining frosting on the top, then using a flat spatula, spread the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Chill for at least 4 hours before slicing and serving.
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