Snookers and Snookers Birthday Cake | Dr Seuss
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Peppermint cucumber sausage-paste butter!-Happy Birthday To You!, Dr Seuss
I’m starting this off with a huge thanks to Angela. See, Facebook is wonderful. We get to all connect over one of our favourite things, food in literature :). My brain couldn’t think beyond the word ‘cake’, but she saved me with not only the suggestion of creating a savoury cake, but a list of ingredients that would work.
‘Peppermint cucumber sausage-paste butter!’
So here’s the break down. The peppermint and cucumber butter is the tzatziki, the ‘sausage’ we interpreted as lamb mince and used as the cake base.
I know someone’s going to eye up my photo suspiciously and go, ‘there’s no cucumber on there…’ Yeah, I scooped it off for the photo. For serving I’d probably ‘ice the cake’ as shown, but place a big bowl of the tzatziki on the side to scoop on.
This is served cold, and work nicely with a salad.
- 1 medium onion or ¾ of a large onion, finely chopped
- 1kg (2.2lb) lamb mince
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp dried marjoram
- 1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
- 2 cups breadcrumbs
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- sprinkle of salt
- sprinkle of black pepper
- spray oil
- spreadable cream cheese
- tzatziki (store bought is fine and in fact I recommend. It has a smoother, thicker consistency).
- 2 cups natural yogurt
- 1 medium cucumber, finely chopped into cubes
- 6 mint leaves, finely chopped
- 4 tsp minced garlic
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- gelatin (or other thickener like xanthan gum)
- coffee filters
- salt
- Preheat oven to 325F or 160C.
- In a large bowl, mix together by hand the lamb, onion, garlic, marjoram, rosemary, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and beaten eggs.
- Spray the cake pan so the meat doesn't stick.
- Press a small handful of the meat mixture into the base of the cakepan, pressing down so all the edges are filled. Continue with each layer of the cakepan until full.
- Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, then remove from the cake pan by flipping onto a baking tray.
- Place back in the oven for 10-15 minutes until browned on top.
- Set aside to cool.
- Spread your first layer of cream cheese around the cake. Pop into the fridge for 20 minutes to harden, then continue with more layers until you can no longer see any dark meat parts.
- Place in the fridge for another 10-15 minutes, then spread tzatziki around the 'cake'. In the case of this photo, I scooped out the cucumber chunks, however placing them on the top of the cake would've have make it a nice finishing touch.
- You can also serve the tzatziki on the side.
- Before you start mixing, take coffee filters, place them into a wide mouth jar or glass (like an ice cream glass) and place the yogurt in the filters.
- Leave for around 2-3 hours in the fridge, continuously checking to empty the liquid that collects.
- Meanwhile, place in a bowl the finely chopped cucumber, and sprinkle generously salt on top. This will 'sweat' the cucumbers, drawing out the moisture.
- Set aside for 30 minutes, then dab the moisture off with a clean tea towel.
- When the yogurt and cucumber is ready, place in a bowl, with the garlic, lemon juice and mint leaves.
- I recommend adding in a thickener, so follow the instructions for your choice. If using gelatin, I used 2 tsp with 200ml of hot water. Mix together, pour into the bowl, stir, then place in the fridge overnight.
NOTES: Make the tzatziki a day or two in advance for the flavour to infuse together/strengthen.
Recipe adapted from Food Network
