Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in September

Isn't it amazing how quickly a month goes by. Or does it sound like a shorter period of time if I say 4 weeks? Either way, it's  time to share the goodies I baked this month. I started doing this monthly post earlier this year because otherwise every Weekend Cooking post would be about something sweet, which might be a bit much.

It does feel like I haven't cooked a lot this month to be honest. I have been crazy busy with work, and that looks set to continue for quite some time. Here's what I did make:

Almond Amaretti - These little biscuits were so delicious and really quick and easy to make. My husband loved them so I expect we can make these again at some point. Interestingly, he then bought a pack from the shops which he liked a lot more than I did. I wasn't a fan of the shop bought ones!

Two ingredients cake - Earlier in the month I did take a Friday off as we were meant to be going to Uluru for the weekend. As I was laying in bed, someone mentioned two ingredient cake and I was intrigued! How can you possibly make a cake with only two ingredients?

The two ingredients are a packet of cake mix, and a can of soft drink/pop/soda. It just so happened that we had a couple of packets of vanilla cake mix which my husband bought at the beginning of the pandemic just in case. We also had some passionfruit soft drink in the cupboard so a vanilla passionfruit cake was my first  attempt.

My first attempt was not successful because I mixed it for way too long in the mixer (maybe a case of have machine will use it) and so it came out flat and rubbery, and couldn't really be saved even with the addition of cream. It did taste okay but the texture was all kinds of wrong

The second attempt was more successful. It was a chocolate and Coke cake, which I literally mixed with a whisk until just combined. It looked like a cake, and tasted good but there was a kind of squidginess to the centre.

So the verdict on the two ingredient cake....fun to experiment with but we would rather eat real cakes made from scratch.

Italian Peach cookies - I have lamented before about the fact that Bake It Box just disappeared from the face of the internet at the beginning of the year. I enjoyed the fact that the boxes were a way to challenge myself. I did have two boxes sitting there undone, so last weekend I decided that it was time to do on, so I chose the Italian Peach cookies. These don't taste of peach (although you can use peach juice as the base for the colouring if you choose but I didn't have any) but they are meant to look like peaches. They are soft cookies that are hollowed out and filled with pastry cream and then dipped in yellow and red colouring to make them look peachy. I was pretty happy with how they looked and tasted

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake - The last thing I made is more of a work in progress rather than a completed action. It was my son's birthday so I decided I would make him this cake. I just had to make the ganache and pour it over the top which would take 10 minutes and it was done. However, we had pizza for dinner last night (his choice) and both he and my husband announced that they had no room for cake, so I will have to do that today instead! So instead you get a short video of the mix because I love the way this batter looks when it is mixing - totally mesmerizing and so delicious! We will have a photo of the finished product next month.

Saturday: Kransky with bubble and squeak (made using leftover mash)
Sunday: Thai Pork Burgers with slaw
Monday: Steak, mushroom, broccolini and peas
Tuesday: Pork chop, cauliflower mash and beans
Wednesday: Hainanese Chicken and rice with chinese broccoli, ginger and spring onion sauce
Thursday: Grilled pork chop with black pepper sauce and singapore noodles
Friday: Takeaway Friday - pizza

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.