Midnight Cravings - Moin Moin (Bean Cake)

I have been up since the crack of dawn and terribly sleepy. As I try to will my brain to focus on what I need to do tomorrow,  it shows me pictures of moin moin  and reminds my taste buds of how delicious it was the last time I had it.

To get this brain of mine to focus on the tasks for tomorrow, I get up and soak a cup of peeled dried black eyes beans in cold water. I just hope that tomorrow, this cravings still exist!

After 10 hours (over night soaking) this was the outcome:

Ingredients

1-½ cups of peeled black-eyed beans (soaked overnight)

3 hard-boiled eggs (chopped)

2 medium size pieces of mackerel (shredded)

2 red peppers

1 bulb of onions

3 tablespoons of corned beef

3 fresh chilies, scotch bonnet preferably (depends on how hot you want it)

3 Knorr cubes (start with two and taste to see if you need more)


Directions
Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Blend the beans, red peppers, onions, fresh chilies and 2 Knorr cubes in a blender until you get a smooth texture. You may need to add some water to the mixture for ease of blending. Make sure you don’t add too much as you don’t want a watery texture. 

Pour the bean mixture in a large bowl; add the chopped eggs, shredded fish. Using your fingers, break the corn beef into tiny pieces into the bowl containing the beans mixture. Taste the mixture (you don’t have to swallow!) to see if you need to add the third Knorr cube.

Pour the mixture into foil bowls (as seen in the picture below), cover them with their appropriate lids and place them in a large ovenproof tray or bowl. A large turkey foil tray can also be used. Pour cold water to fill half of the large oven and place it in the middle of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. After 15 minutes check to see if it’s cooked with a fork inserted in the middle of the bean cake. If it hasn’t cooked through, cook for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Red Velvet Cake

I love baking cakes especially with Kofo but my only issue is the presentation. I can guarantee that my cake will taste nice but I cannot guarantee that it will look very pretty. With layered cakes I find that as I butter the layers, the cake tends to lean to one side. And when it comes to icing the whole cake it just looks a right mess. There are some cakes that are so well presented that they look too good to eat. That's what I want my cake too look like. I guess I need to keep practising.

I was asked to bake a cake for a send off party for a few friends leaving Aberdeen last week and I decided to bake a red velvet cake. I was a bit worried about the presentation so I came up with a solution. To distract the cake eater from the messy look, I take a very thin slice off each  cake layer, chop them to make fine crumbs and mix in a little butter cream and the paste it all over the cake. It looks like this:

I also bought a new camera this weekend. I baked another red velvet cake to test my new camera and also test my new cake trick. What do you think.? Did I pull it off?