I’m Loving

It's not always smooth sailing in the kitchen, something Matt Preston knows all too well.

Matt Preston’s baking success.

NORMALLY, I LIKE TO smugly celebrate my culinary successes here. But, for the baking issue, I feel I should finally come clean about my baking fails. Here goes…

Not checking the recipe: Cooking in front of an audience can lead to all manner of disasters, whether it’s leaving the lid unsecured on a liquidiser and splatter-painting the stage, or turning out a cake and the sludgy, uncooked middle plopping on the bench. I’ve been there too – realising halfway through shooting a masterclass that the butter for my banana bread had been doubled.

And then, only recently, I was in South Africa doing a raft of demos, and drew a terrifying blank in front 1500 people when I came to my microwaved pudding. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember the first step. Luckily, my friend and delicious. regular Warren Mendes was with me, and started mixing the butter and sugar as a clue to get me started. After the show I think he might have asked, somewhat cruelly I felt, whether this was the first sign of my Alzheimer’s kicking in. Then he laughed.

He stopped laughing the next day, in another demo, when he mistakenly combined the butter and sugar for the recipe featured in this column. Later, I gave him a brochure for a nice facility for the elderly. I didn’t laugh. Ageing isn’t a laughing matter.

Ingredient mishaps: Then there was the time we were at another overseas festival and we were making my peanut butter cookies that have never failed when I’ve made them here, whether on stage, on the telly, or at home. We made them the morning of the show and they turned out like oily warm puddles of disaster. The peanut butter I was given to use was so cheap it was mainly palm oil, and the cookies melted in the oven. It took a manic rush to a local supermarket for some half-decent Kraft to sort that out.

The unlined cake pan: It only takes you once ignoring the recipe because you can't be bothered to line the cake pan (and thus ending up with half the cake left in the pan) for you to take this baking instruction seriously. In fact, I have now become quite evangelical about this. Better yet – invest in springform pans and slip-bottom flan cases for all your fancy baking needs.

The cake without sugar: Done it. Disaster! Chewy, dense, no golden carmelised edges. It also tasted pants.

I will leave you, however, with one of my baking successes – a ridiculously rich, fudgy torte recipe that does not start with creaming the butter and sugar...

BUNDY & COKE CHOCOLATE TORTE WITH SMOKED BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE SERVES 8-10

4 cups (1L) Coca-Cola

1/4 cup (60ml) Bundaberg rum

300g dark (70%) chocolate, roughly chopped 200g unsalted butter, roughly chopped 4 eggs, at room temperature

100g caster sugar

1/4 cup (30g) almond meal

1 tbs (15g) plain flour, sifted

Sea salt flakes and creme fraiche, to serve

SMOKED BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE

150g brown sugar

175ml pure (thin) cream

60g unsalted butter

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp liquid smoke (optional), from specialty stores

Place the cola in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 45-50 minutes until thickened and reduced to about 100ml. Watch at the end of this time and stir to stop the mixture catching and burning. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. In a small bowl, mix 40ml of cola syrup with the rum, reserving the remaining 60ml.

Preheat oven to 180°C fan-forced. Grease a 20cm springform cake pan and line the base and side with baking paper.

Place the chocolate and butter in a medium-sized microwavesafe bowl. Microwave for 2 minutes or until butter has melted. Set aside for 2 minutes, then stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Cool for 5 minutes at room temperature.

Add the eggs 1 at a time to the chocolate mixture, whisking after each addition. Add cola and rum mixture, caster sugar, almond meal and flour. Lightly whisk to combine. then pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until firm when pressed and just cooked through in the middle. Rest in the pan for 30 minutes at room temperature before serving.

For the smoked butterscotch sauce, place the brown sugar, cream, butter, vinegar and liquid smoke, if using, in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir with a whisk until the butter has melted and mixture is combined. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5-6 minutes until reduced slightly. Set aside.

Place torte on a large platter and drizzle with smoked butterscotch sauce and reserved cola syrup. Sprinkle with salt flakes and serve with creme fraiche on the side.