I really didn’t mean to let such a gap open up between posts – it’s been almost three months since my last recipe over here, I’m sorry. It felt like the longer it got, the more inertia there was to overcome to write something up here again. And it’s been busy. Ugh. The worst, most boring excuse in the world, I know, especially when evenings spent sleepily watching Killing Eve and Game of Thrones took priority. Six weeks in London slid past far too fast – crammed around weekdays of hospital placement were dinners out blowing any scrap of a budget I had, bargain show tickets (Nigel Slater’s Toast, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and Come From Away), Sundays spent perusing various markets and afternoons spent traversing London – walking through Kensington, Notting Hill, Marylebone, up through Hackney and the canals, round my local Peckham and Dulwich. Plus fleeting trips to Dublin and Amsterdam, the latter of which I published a travel guide on here.

I arrived back in Melbourne with a thump, straight into my next rotation, intensive care. Busy and confronting and fascinating and difficult all at once. It was (is) job application season too for next year, with CVs and cover letters to be written, documents compiled and the growing sense of incredulity that my six years as a student are all but over. And to bring you completely up to speed, I’m now spending a couple of weeks back home in New Zealand on my mid-year break. Recharging amongst lots of recipe developing (or just making an utter mess of the kitchen).

That brings me right round to this cake. It’s a whole orange, dark chocolate & almond cake, rich, fudgey and not too sweet. The chocolate is perfumed with oranges, boiled whole for almost an hour until your kitchen smells like a warm citrus orchard (or what I imagine that to be). They are then combined with olive oil and blitzed in the Vitamix jug (or alternative blender or food processor) until silky smooth. Add the eggs and dry ingredients and briefly blend again, as your sunny yellow blend turns a deep chocolate brown. Meanwhile, the base of your cake tin is lined with honey-coated flaked almonds, sweet and nutty, so when the cake is finished cooking and is flipped, the ombre almonds end up on top. It’s impressive but easy, gluten and dairy-free for anyone with intolerances, and only gets better over a few days. The high powered Vitamix blender (I have the Ascent) makes it incredibly easy with minimal dishes, and also means there is no residual grittiness of orange peel that I have previously experienced with other blenders – it blends it absolutely smooth in seconds.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this cake and I promise I’ll be back here sooner than three months time! If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see more (or less) of here please let me know.

This post is sponsored by Vitamix. I received compensation, but as always, all opinions and content are my own. Thank you so much for supporting the companies that support The Brick Kitchen.

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A tahini caramel & chocolate tart with sesame brittle, all crisp buttery pastry, vanilla and tahini caramel and rich, smooth swirls of chocolate ganache.  Jump to Recipe 

As part of most medical school programs, the final year includes a short elective rotation where you can organise to go (almost) anywhere in the world – a chance to experience a different health system from your own. I’ve just landed back in London for mine – partially an excuse for 6 weeks of restaurant hopping, weekends abroad and catching up with friends from my stint in Oxford last year. (I am actually really looking forward to the elective itself too!). It’s only been three days, but they’ve included stopping off for coffee and flaky citrus morning buns at my new local, Brick House Bakery; oat milk flat whites at the Shoreditch Grind (first time trying Oatly, not entirely convinced but also not bad); early jet-lagged runs around misty, boggy Dulwich Park, all rugged up in layers; keep-cups of Monmouth coffee (the best) and purchases of smoked Maldon salt and Aleppo chilli flakes at the Borough Market; a hearty bowl of dahl with eggplant and flatbread at 26 Grains; and gazing in at the cake displays of my dreams at Ottolenghi Spitalfields – it already feels like I barely left. I also already feel like I underestimated my food budget… (budgeting is really not a strong point over here).

I have a couple of side trips planned so far: one to stay with a friend in Dublin, and one to Amsterdam, so any recommendations for either of those places would be very much appreciated – to eat or to see!

Now to the recipe: a tahini caramel chocolate tart with sesame brittle. I made it multiple times to get it right, and each time one component struggled – once with a shrinking, crumbly pastry, the second with a far too chewy caramel, a few more times for luck – thank goodness I had family, housemates and work colleagues to feed it too (and luckily they didn’t mind/notice the flaws as much as I did). It’s a quick short and sweet pastry, buttery and crisp, blind baked and topped with a silky tahini and vanilla scented salted caramel sauce. Swoops of creamy chocolate ganache and nutty shards of sesame brittle top it off. Yes, it’s rich and intense and a bit of a sugar rush, but it’s a proper dessert, and you can always serve small pieces – a little goes a long way (though some will want seconds – i.e. me). My dad told me it was possibly the best dessert I’ve made, so I’ll take that. (Admittedly, he does love rich chocolate and caramel, so if you’re a fruit person you probably won’t agree!).

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I’m a little late to my own party, but another year has swung around and I’ve managed to hit the four years of blogging milestone. The first year was a learning curve: a mish-mash of family favourite recipes thrown in with cafe reviews (I no longer consider myself qualified to be a food critic!) along with the struggle to get a handle on the technical side – apertures, photo editing, SEO and wordpress. At the end of that first year (I wrote about a Momofuku style German Chocolate Espresso Cake), I discussed the shift from school excellence to university prioritisation, and the utmost enjoyment that running a blog had added to daily medical school life. The following year heralded the arrival of hospital placement, and a reflection on my photographic improvements and the surreal week that was a trip to the Saveur Blog Awards in New York (alongside a peach & blackberry pie topped with olive oil gelato).

Year number three came and went with lightning speed – my most stressful, high intensity year at medical school to date with final exams looming, which dictated a slow-down on the blogging front in favour of time spent cramming. Around a mass of photographs for a chocolate, cherry and coconut layer cake, I wrote about four things I’d learnt through the blogging journey. To be honest, rereading them a year later, I’m still very much continuing to learn them – knowing them in my head isn’t the same as acting out, or embodying, those lessons day to day.

I can hardly believe it’s already year number four. 2018 was a whirlwind compared to all of those previously – I left not only New Zealand but my adopted university city of Melbourne for 8 months in Oxford undertaking a research project. The consequent lack of a (high functioning) kitchen meant significantly less action over here, but I instead ate and photographed my way around cities I’d always dreamed of visiting – Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Tel Aviv, Paris. I’ve now come full circle back to Melbourne to start my final year of medical school and it feels strange – as if one half of me had never left and the other has done and seen so much more that it can’t quite slot back neatly into university life.

As for this blog? I honestly don’t know what direction I want it to go in. All I do know is that I want to continue baking outside my comfort zone (and inside it), continue to cook up feasts for family and friends alongside easy weeknight student-friendly meals, and continue to explore food and travel photography. So that’s what I’ll do for another year at least, and I hope some of you stick around for it.

I haven’t gone for a celebration cake this year – I did attempt one (which still remains a work in progress), and instead this semifreddo was such a overwhelming success and seemed to me like the utmost celebration of summer stone fruit and relaxing warm evenings. You can take the stress out of the occasion by making it up to a week before you plan to serve, and then all you do is slice and plate up gorgeous slabs of tangy, salty sweet roasted plum ice cream, topped with a generous handful of buttery shortbread crumble.

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The thesis is finally over!! 15,000 words submitted on my first day in Lisbon, in a rush of realising that I had miscalculated my word count and still had 500 unexpected words to remove. I promptly plonked myself in a cafe and refused to leave until it was handed in, even going so far as to awkwardly borrow my neighour’s laptop charger – the last thing I wanted was for it to take up any more of my time in Portugal than necessary. Still hanging over us was the oral and poster presentation day back in Melbourne, but with that all over yesterday, it is a huge relief to be finished. (Until it comes time to rewrite it for publication, at least). 

I have been living out of a suitcase ever since my last blog post 2 months ago, and there is way more to say about those months than I can do justice to in this post – first London, then the Cyclades in Greece, a week in Paris, those few days in Lisbon followed by a surf camp in the Algarve and a week in Israel – and now finally Melbourne. I am planning to collate some of my favourites from those trips in future travel posts, so watch this space for allll the coffee, restaurants, markets and photographs. In the meantime, you can find snapshots in my instagram story highlights!

One thing I have really missed this year – even more than I thought I would – is properly baking and blogging. Apart from one occasion of flaky berry galettes, a few chocolate cookies and a rhubarb pistachio slice, it has been a baking (and mostly cooking too) free zone. I have been continually inspired by what I’ve eaten travelling, at bakeries, and been cooked by friends: that sticky halva babka in Tel Aviv, the moist, syrupy Greek orange cake in Milos, sesame miso cookies in Paris and allll the warm, crispy-edged and custard-centred, cinnamon-dusted pastel de nata in Lisbon. That smoky whole eggplant served on creamy tahini and topped with chilli and grated tomato. The smashed peas served with hot, flaky panko crumbed fish and kraut. The marinated zucchini strips served simply with dollops of creamy burrata, chives and olive oil. The list on my phone where I jot down ideas is getting overwhelmingly long, ok?  There were occasions last year, while surveying a mess of a kitchen, frustrated that something hadn’t worked out and stressed about the exam revision I wasn’t doing, I wondered why I bothered – who even saw it or cared, if I was just doing it for some warped perception of success – likes on social media, for example. Well, let’s just say any lingering doubts have been erased. As much as travel photography has filled some of the void, I can’t wait to get back to cook and photograph my own recipes rather than just admire that of others. 

This honey, white miso & walnut pie is one I made right at the end of last summer. I have this thing with pies where I never fail to underestimate how long they will take from pastry to cooling, and end up cutting into straight-from-the-oven pie (whether to serve, or to photograph before it gets dark). It’s always a hot mess. This pie took a couple of tries before I managed to wait long enough to cut photographable straight slices! It’s inspired by a couple of different recipes: the salty honey pie from Four & Twenty Blackbirds (eating a slice of that pie while looking at Brooklyn Bridge remains one of my favourite memories of NYC), and a wild honey & walnut pie from La Cigale Market back home in Auckland. I’ve added miso because of that gorgeous, can’t-put-your-finger-on-it salty unami-ness it lends, and kept the fresh walnuts and fragrant honey. Slightly sticky, salty, nutty and sweet, encased in golden flaky pastry and topped with sea salt and a dollop of creme fraiche. I don’t know how else to convince you! 

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Although I generally consider myself pretty proficient in the kitchen, one recipe I can’t seem to master is the humble pavlova. Though I make valiant attempts multiple times each summer, they’re completely hit and miss. Adding to my frustration is that fact that I’m a New Zealander – pavlova originated here, or close enough. I’ve read all the advice columns and tried all the tips and tricks – heating the sugar first, using cornflour and white vinegar, wiping my bowl with lemon juice to reduce any skerrick of fat – and yet still can’t put my finger on what differentiates the pavs that stand up with a perfect crisp exterior and fluffy centre, and those that crack like paving stones, collapse into themselves and develop a faint chewiness to the crust. Is it the near constant 99% humidity in Auckland summers? My faulty oven (which, to be fair, I am pretty sure is not at the right temperature and I should really invest in an oven thermometer)? Did I add the sugar too fast or too slow, or not quite get it to fully dissolve? I once over-beat the egg whites into a grainy, separating mess – the one downside to a stand-alone mixer is the potential for distraction. Maybe it’s a combination of everything. 

I’ve almost given up on the dream of a perfectly tall, symmetric, snow-white and shapely pavlova. For a long time my loyalties lay with miniature pavlovas, more like extra-large meringues that retained some of that fluffy interior – topping them with passionfruit curd and whipped cream, or filling them with raspberries and dark chocolate (link). But sometimes you want more of a centre piece – a dessert fit for a crowd that you can bring out to impress, minus the constant worry that your lack of pavlova skill is about to reveal itself. Enter: the slab pavlova. It’s significantly more forgiving. The weight of your toppings is distributed over a thinner rectangular base, reducing the risk of collapse. It’s WAY easier to cut up and serve. It still looks great. You still get that crunchy crust, swirly edges and signature fluffy pavlova middle. I’m not going back (at least not until someone can teach me their perfect pavlova ways).

It’s a very kiwi combination: pavlova (ok, let’s not argue about the origins at this point), crunchy golden syrup-laden hokey pokey, and fragrant honey roast peaches. Pav is traditionally topped with freshly whipped cream, but I’m a fan of this creme-fraiche / mascarpone combination – thicker, with a tangy edge that goes well with the sweet topping.

 Just a warning to consider closing your windows if you’re roasting these peaches in summer –  I managed to lure about 20 bees into our kitchen and living room with the smell of the roasted honey (in fact, I think one managed to get in one of these pictures if you can spot it.). My brothers started trapping them to take outside before we realised there isn’t much oxygen for a poor bee in an upside down glass. It resulted in a flurry of google searches in an attempt to identify these as wasps or bees – we figured we didn’t want to be responsible for depleting the Auckland bee population. Anyway, the resultant peaches are gloriously tender, blistered and syrupy, and I’ll be making them again and again just to put with whatever I have on hand. 

I’m not sure if hokey pokey is as ubiquitous around the world as it is in New Zealand. It’s a classic from the Edmond’s cookbook, the kind of sticky treat you make as a kid to watch the boiling syrup froth up, tripling in size and lightening as you add baking soda. Magic, or at least a fun science experiment. It should be something like the inside of a crunchie bar, but if you don’t let it set hard or make it on a particular humid day it can get a bit sticky and gummier – try popping it in the freezer for a while if this happens. Hokey pokey ice cream is summer in a cone – vanilla ice cream dotted with small caramel dots of hokey pokey (or, in the case of my local gelateria, vanilla bean gelato with chunks of gorgeous sticky chunks of the stuff). If you’re going for something a bit less sweet, I’d try crumbled up halva or a sesame brittle instead. 

I’m also posting now as it is summer in the UK and peaches are everywhere, but usually at home this would be more of a summer Christmas thing come December. It feels counterintuitive to post a winter recipe while it’s hot, but tell me, are you from the Northern or Southern hemisphere? 

Baker’s Notes:

• Make the pavlova the evening before if you can, so you can leave it to cool in the oven overnight.
• The hokey pokey and peaches can also be prepared ahead.
• If you want something less sweet than hokey pokey, I’d recommend trying crumbled up halva or a nutty brittle, like sesame.
• Make the mascarpone cream and assemble just before serving.

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