my button cake

maple & pear macarons

2011-08-15T20:14:00.003+10:00

It's sad to realise that for the better part of my life, I wasn't as close to maple syrup as I would have liked, and this is despite pancakes being one of the first things I learnt how to cook. I think it's fair in assuming that up until recent years, most Australian households were consuming... maple flavoured syrup. It's runnier, sweeter and sicklier. It has a funny after-taste and is just inferior. I forget the exact moment that I tasted real, thick, pure maple syrup for the first time, most likely because I was on such a sugary high that it simply didn't matter. But, I can never go back to maple flavoured syrup, even if it is about a quarter of the price. Sometimes, and often with food, quality matters. Paying extra is worth it.

Maple syrup goes so well with most fruits, but in Autumn and Winter, I try to consume as many pears as possible. So it's only natural that eventually I realised these two flavours could only be improved upon in one way: in macaron form. I would have loved to have slices of dried pear atop these macarons, but this was just one too many steps in between me and a mapley macaron. So there's a nice improvement to this recipe, if you have the patience.

Ingredients
For macarons:
150 gms ground almonds
150 gms icing sugar
110 gms egg whites, separated into 2 lots of 55 gms
150 gms white sugar
37 gms water
dash brown food colouring

For maple buttercream:
300 gms butter, at room temperature
400 gms icing sugar, sifted (approximately)
2 tbsps pure maple syrup (not maple flavoured syrup!)

For poached pears:
2 beurre bosc pairs, peeled
4 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

For the macarons shells, follow instructions as shown here.

While macarons are resting and baking, you can poach your pears. Place sugar and water in a medium saucepan, and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add the vanilla bean and seeds and your pears, covering with a cartouche to assist pears to cook evenly and to assist in reducing the liquid slightly. Simmer for about 20 minutes until just soft, and allow to cool in the sugary liquid.

Once macarons have been baked and cooled, completely, make your maple buttercream. Mix the butter in the bowl on an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, starting on a medium speed and increasing to high, until butter is smooth. Gradually add the icing sugar and maple syrup, whipping until at your desired consistency.

Pipe buttercream onto half of your macaron shells, and top with a small piece of diced poached pear. Sandwich with remaining macaron shells.

Another way to subtly change your flavours would be to add extra flavours and spices to your poaching liquid: star anise, citrus peel, cinnamon. The options and endless, really. You could also then add some of your poaching liquid into the maple buttercream... I wish I'd thought of that earlier.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Horse Feathers - Thistled Spring.

elderflower cupcakes

2011-08-07T22:26:00.000+10:00

I adore subtle floral flavours in baking: rosewater, orange blossom, lavender. So, why has my elderflower consumption up until this point been solely limited to a mixer that compliments gin (which is a pretty amazing combination, gin-lovers)?! Thankfully, I was surprised to discover not only whoopie pies, but a beautiful selection of cupcake recipes in 'Let's Make Whoopies', a fantastic and wonderfully presented book by Sophie Grey. My favourite, of course, was this attached recipe.

Elderflower is incredibly light and refreshing, and works perfectly with citrus. It's flavour is pretty subtle, so when adding it to the cream cheese, you may find you need more than what I've specified below. Sophie's original recipe suggested using elderflowers in addition to elderflower cordial in the cake mixture, so if you're lucky enough to be in a warmer climate than I currently am, give this a shot.

Ingredients (makes 12)
Recipe slightly adapted from Sophie Grey's 'Let's Make Whoopies'

For cake:
175 gms self raising flour
2 tsps elderflower cordial
125 gms butter, at room temperature
175 gms caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
40 mls milk

For frosting:
50 gms butter, at room temperature
250 gms cream cheese, at room temperature
500 gms icing sugar, approximately
3 tsps elderflower cordial (or more, to taste)
green food colouring (I use Wilton Kelly Green)

Preheat your oven to 180C. Line a 12 cup capacity cupcake tray with liners.

Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (about five minutes), scraping down the sides of the bowl regularly. Slow the speed of your mixture down, and gradually add the beaten egg, a little at a time, again, whilst scraping down the sides of your bowl. Gently fold in the flour and milk, being careful not to over-mix. Stir through the elderflower cordial.

Divide the mixture evenly among your 12 cases (just over 2 tbsps per case), and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, until golden and lightly springy to the touch. Remove from tray immediately and cool on a wire rack.

When the cupcakes have cooled, mix the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Gradually add icing sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. You may find you need more or less icing sugar than recommended - this is really up to personal taste. To pipe your mixture, it should be able to hold it's shape. Add a very small amount of food colouring before filling a piping bag with a star tip, and generously piping frosting onto cupcakes.

It seems amongst all the recent madness in my life, I have been consumed with macarons, five layer tiered cakes, and other time consuming treats that I've forgotten how satisfying making a quick and easy batch of cupcakes can be, not to mention how much easier they are to travel with! Im sorry I left you, cupcakes. Let's make up.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle.

apple & blackberry pandowdy

2011-07-31T19:45:00.002+10:00

Incase I haven't already toted on enough about how I prefer the milder seasons to an all imposing Brisbane Summer, let me bust into a monologue about desserts. Ice cream, sorbet and gelato are all wonderful. There are few things I love more than spontaneously deciding to go out for gelato at 8pm on a weeknight. But, these few things include Wintery desserts such as custards, crumbles, puddings, pies, pandowdies... Pandowdies?! According to my bible - AGT - a pandowdy is a pie whose lid is smashed (dowdied!) during the cooking process. The result is delicious jumble of pastry, berries and sweet juices making a mess all up in your oven.

This recipe uses a sour cream pastry which is so easy to make, and is wonderfully rich against apples and blackberries. Or, any other fruit, I imagine. A sprinkling of demerera (or raw, if you're desperate) sugar adds a little sweetness and crunchiness that is always welcome in my house.

Ingredients
Recipe from AGT August 2011

For pastry:
250 gms plain flour
40 gms pure icing sugar
rind of 1 lemon, finely grated
seeds of 1 vanilla bean
140 gms cold butter, cubed
120 gms sour cream (no low fat, please!)

For filling:
4 each granny smith and pink lady apples, cut into eighths
300 gms caster sugar
150 gms frozen blackberries
40 gms plain flour
juice of 2 mandarins
rind of 1 1/2 lemons, finely grated

demerera sugar, for sprinkling

For your pastry, process the flour, sugar, vanilla seeds, rind and 1/2 tsp salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter and pulse for about 30 seconds, until only small lumps remain. Add the sour cream, and pulse until mixture beings to come together. Turn the mixture out onto your bench top, and bring together with the heel of your hand. Form into a disc, wrap in plaaaastic, and allow to rest in the refrigerator for two hours.

Preheat your oven to 200C. Combine all of your filling ingredients in a large bowl before transferring to a generous pie dish.

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until 4mm thick. Brush the edges of the pie dish with water before placing pastry over the filling and pressing the rim of the dish to seal. Trim the edges with a sharp knife, and pierce a hole in the centre of your pastry. Lightly brush your pie with water and generously scatter the demerera. Bake for about 35 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.

Remove from the oven, and break pastry into pieces with a fork, pressing down into the filling. Bake until the filling bubbles over the pastry, and the pastry is dark and golden brown - about 25 minutes.

I usually have an inability to love the results of my baking unless it is aesthetically perfect, something that can be very exhausting at times. But I love the appearance of this dowdied pie, and can see myself squashing and re-baking plenty more pies in the future... It's strangely very satisfying. I can also see bakers with pie failures now feeling confident knowing their pies aren't deformed misfits, but are in fact a new and delicious addition to their dessert repertoire!

Recommended baking soundtrack: Grass Widow - Milo Minute.

happy belated birthday, heidi!

2011-07-27T22:03:00.001+10:00

About two weeks ago, my dear sister turned thirty, and all has been a blur before, during and after. Choosing a loved one's birthday cake is always something I will start months in advance. I will search for a recipe or flavour combination almost as early as the day following their birthday the previous year. I'll decide upon a favourite, and then change my mind, and then lose a recipe or two until I settle on something I hope will be perfect, and that they will love. But, it's always particularly difficult choosing a cake to make my sister, and certainly not because she's fussy-- her and I definitely share our love of all things sweet and cakey. But each year, the cakes we make for each other have to be bigger and grander than the last. Two years ago, my sister made me a Cherry Ripe mudcake that weighed more than my cat. Last year, I made her a six layer black forest cake. I imagine (and hope) this will continue until forever.

This year, it may seem as though I've toned it down a little, but when I saw Sweetapolita's neapolitan cake, I knew I'd found 'the one'. This cake is made from chocolate, strawberry and almond-y vanilla layers, and was big enough to feed all our friends and family. In my haste to get this cake finished, and in the excitement of my sister's birthday dinner, I took no real photos of the cake, much to my disappointment. So, since then I have re-created miniature versions for photographic and eating purposes. Okay, mostly for eating.

Each cake was beautiful and moist, and sandwiching them with some homemade strawberry jam was all they needed. The buttercream has strawberry extract and pure cream, which gives it a taste surprisingly close to old-fashioned strawberry ice cream. Please see Sweetapolita's blog for so many more perfect recipes accompanied by magnificent photography. But be warned: you will feel inspired to bake absolutely every recipe within.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Graves.

raspberry crème brûlée

2011-07-14T23:23:00.001+10:00

Joyeux Quatorze Juillet! Last year, I bastardized a week's worth of French sweets, and this year I've had my Bastille-Day-week all mapped out with five flavours of crème brûlée. Then both of my kitchen torches failed, time sped up, and before I knew it I was cooking my sister's 30th birthday cake over three nights after work, and not giving a damn about making anglaise and crystalising sugar.

I did manage one recipe before my sense of organisation escaped me, and I'm glad it was such a tasty one. I decided to add raspberries to both the mixture and in the bases of each serving. It's nice to get a tart surprise at the bottom of sweet custard. I love crème brûlée served in shallow dishes to maximise the amount of crunchy toffee, and these small ceramic spoons were the perfect choice.

Ingredients (makes 4 modest servings)

For custard:

500 mls pouring cream

1 vanilla bean, with seeds scraped

4 yolks

1/4 cup caster sugar

For raspberry puree:

200 gms raspberries

2 tbsps icing sugar

sugar for toffee

raspberries to garnish

For the raspberry puree, place berries and icing sugar in a small saucepan and stir, squashing the berries, over a medium heat until you have a pour-able consistency. Press the sauce through a fine sieve, and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 160C. Place the cream and vanilla in a small saucepan and heat gently until cream is almost at boiling point - small bubbles will start to appear around the edges of the pan.

Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and caster sugar in a medium sized bowl. When the cream is ready, slowly begin to pour into the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Whisk for about a minute to bring the temperature down slightly, before returning to the saucepan. Heat over a low heat until mixture is thick enough to thinly coat the back of a spoon. Stir through half of the puree.

Pour the remaining puree into the bottoms of each dish or vessel of your choise. Strain the custard, and gently pour on top of the puree. Place the dishes into a baking dish and fill the dish with enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of each. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, keeping a close eye as cooking time will vary depending on the size of your servings. The custard should look set on the surface, but still have a gentle wobble. Remove from oven and water and allow to cool completely.

To serve, generously sprinkle with sugar and caramelise with a kitchen torch until sugar begins to bubble. Serve with raspberries.

The raspberry through the custard was quite subtle, so feel free to add more puree if you'd prefer. You could also add whole or crushed raspberries, but I wanted my crème brûlée to be as smooth as possible. I think there's little room for failure with custard and berries.

Bonne Bastille!

Recommended baking soundtrack: Françoise Hardy - Et Si Je M'En Vais Avant Toi

red velvet whoopie pies

2011-07-03T19:17:00.001+10:00

While documenting my previous whoopie baking day, I came across a back shiny ball of fur in my backyard, which has been a little neglected since the weather has cooled. Scared that it was a creature, and that this creature may be dead, I sent my boyfriend down to poke and prod before I wanted to know what it was. Thankfully, it was alive, and most importantly, it was a cat! I adore cats dearly, and miss one in particular so much on a daily basis and this little (well, rather large) visitor was so much more than welcome. I spent what felt like two minutes - but what was probably more accurately about thirty minutes - sitting in my backyard patting and swooning over this handsome cat. Now, I might have been cat-drunk, but it was during those moments that I realised how beautiful my backyard had become, full of dead leaves and Winter light.

The following weekend, I re-created the experience. Same time of day, but different whoopie recipe.
I'm quite ashamed to admit that I've never made red velvet anything - cupcakes, layer cakes... nothing. And so, red velvet cake came into my life. The cat didn't come back that day, but has another time since, and that's good enough for me, for now.

Ingredients
Recipe slightly adapted from Sophie Grey's Let's Make Whoopies

For whoopies:
180 gms plain flour
20 gms cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
70 mls buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
80 gms butter, softened
150 gms brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
red food colouring (I use Wilton gel colours)

For filling:
50 gms butter, softened
150 gms cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 - 2 cups icing sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 200C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Sift the cocoa, flour and bicarb soda into a bowl. Mix buttermilk, vanilla and food colouring and set aside.

Beat the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and creamy - scrape down the sides of your bowl regularly. With the motor running, slowly add the egg and mix well until completely combined. Fold in the wet and dry ingredients with a large metal spoon, being careful to not over-mix. If mixture is too dry, add more buttermilk with caution. The mixture should be quite thick, almost the consistency of smooth peanut butter.

Place mixture in a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain tip, and pipe eight even mounds of mixture onto each baking tray, leaving plenty of space between each to spread whilst cooking. Bake for 9 minutes - they will still be very soft to the touch, so cool completely on trays.

For filling, mix cream cheese and butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, until smooth. Add vanilla, then gradually spoon icing sugar into mixture while motor is running. After 1 cup has been added, increase speed until mixture is smooth and silky. Add more icing sugar if needed, a little at a time, until you get your desired consistency - because I was piping mixture on to the tops of each whoopie, I wanted mine quite firm.

Pipe filling onto half of your cooled whoopies, and sandwich with remaining halves. Change your piping bag's tip to a closed star, and pipe a small dollop onto the top of each whoopie. Top with a sugar pearl, flower or... anything you like.

In retrospect, I probably would have put more red food colouring into the mixture, but was taken over by the need to eat them as soon as possible. I haven't added an amount to the recipe so you can be the judge of how intense you want the colour to be, especially because it will vary dramatically depending on if you're using liquid, gel or powder.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Micah P Hinson - Micah P. Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra.

rhubarb & strawberry buckle (an ode to rhubarb)

2011-06-27T07:59:00.001+10:00

Rhubarb. Oh, rhubarb. I tell people pumpkin is my favourite vegetable: your ambiguous nature means I constantly forget about you, but how I love you so.

My sister and I had a wonderful childhood in that we always ate such a beautiful variety of fresh food, but I don't remember rhubarb as a part of this. It's one of the few foods my mother doesn't eat, so it wasn't until I was in my teenage years that I remember first trying it: in a cosy restaurant in the Gold Coast hinterland, as part of rhubarb crumble swimming in homemade custard. Love. at. first. taste. So now, rhubarb and me, we're making up for lost time.

This 'buckle' is similar to a coffee or crumble cake, requiring the crunchy toping to be frozen before baking, ensuring it doesn't just melt and get absorbed into the cake mixture. It's incredibly easy to make, but has a slow cooking time, so is perfect to make on a cold Sunday afternoon.

Ingredients

Recipe from June issue of AGT

250 gms each of strawberries and rhubarb, roughly chopped

110 gms each of caster sugar and rapadura* sugar

160 gms butter, at room temperature

2 eggs

220 gms plain flour

40 gms hazelnut meal

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsps each of ground cinnamon and ginger

165 mls buttermilk

For hazelnut topping:

80 gms rapadura* sugar

40 gms plain flour

40 gms hazelnuts, roughly chopped

20 gms butter, melted

*Use dark brown sugar if you can't find rapadura sugar.

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease a 24cm round cake tin, and line with baking paper.

For the crunchy hazelnut topping, combine ingredients in a small bowl. Freeze until required - this will stop the topping from melting into the cake during baking.

Combine rhubarb and strawberry in a bowl with 1 tbsp of each sugar and set aside.

Beat butter and remaining sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then with motor running, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the dry ingredients followed by the buttermilk. Stir in one third of the rhubarb mixture, then spoon into prepared tin.

Scatter over remaining fruit mixture, followed by the frozen hazelnut topping. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours or until a skewer inserted withdraws clean. Cool cake in tin for 30 minutes before cooling on a wire rack.

This cake is delicious served warm from the oven, but surprisingly tasted better when cooled to room temperature so the rubbly topping is crunchy and sweet. With un-iced cakes, I am usually known to heat and add cream, crème fraiche and/or custard to any I possibly can, but I didn't need to with this wondrous thing! The hazelnut meal gives the cake a nice density, but by no means does it create a grainy texture like it can it larger quantities.

This cake is very resilient and although best eaten within a day or two, will easily last for a few days before the fruit starts to lose its colour. This. This is my favourite cake of the year.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo.

mocha whoopie pies

2011-06-19T19:06:00.001+10:00

Being so in love with a few favourite food magazines has resulted in a pretty high expectation from cook books. Mathematically, the ratio of recipes I quickly lust over is generally much higher per page for magazines than it is the new cookbooks I encounter. This is sad, though I'm not sure it's entirely my fault. Firstly, new issues of magazines have the luxury of being relevant to Seasons. How can I not love a Donna Hay full of stews and puddings when it's a mere 15 degrees outside?! Secondly, the wonderful people in my life that have given my subscriptions have taken away the need for me to long for new recipes. I have been utterly satisfied in my temporary cook-book-less, yet still thoroughly delicious, life. But, I really did used to pride myself in knowing almost all new baking books to hit the shelves. It was almost impossible for someone to recommend me a book of sweet treats that I had not already seen.

So, when I recently saw a friend pick up a copy of 'Let's Make Whoopies' by Sophie Gray, I knew I had lost my touch, after living with my head in the glossy pages of epicurean magazines. I love whoopie pies! I should have seen this book's release coming a mile off. So, I got hold of a copy and was so surprised in my desire to if not make, at least eat every recipe within. Seriously, I flicked from cover to cover at least a dozen times and my shortlist was still about 10 recipes. Thankfully, my better half chose this following mocha recipe, and how could I say no?

Ingredients (makes 8 whoopies, about 8cm wide)
Recipe adapted very slightly from Sophie Gray's Let's Make Whoopies

For whoopies:
140 gms plain flour
40 gms cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
70 mls buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsps espresso
80 gms butter, softened
140 gms brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten

For filling:
50 gms butter, softened
150 gms cream cheese
20 gms cocoa
80 gms icing sugar
2 tbsps espresso

For topping:
110 gms icing sugar
30 gms cocoa powder
2 tbsps espresso
coffee beans

For the sponge whoopies, preheat the oven to 200C. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarb soda into a bowl. Mix together the buttermilk, vanilla and coffee. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale. Gradually add the egg, scraping down the sides of your bowl after each addition. With the mixer on low, pour in buttermilk mixture. Fold the flour mixture through with a large metal spoon, being careful not to over-mix.

Place mixture in a piping bag fitted with a plain 1cm tip, and pipe eight even mounds of mixture onto each baking tray, giving them plenty of space. Bake for 9 minutes - they will still be very soft to the touch, so cool on oven trays completely.

For the filling, mix the cream cheese and butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the cocoa and icing sugar and mix slowly until just combine. Slowly pour in the espresso while the motor is running, and continue to mix until smooth and spreadable.

For the topping, sift together the icing sugar and cocoa. Gradually add the espresso a little at a time, mixing between additions. The mixture should be smooth and slightly runny like honey, but still firm not to run straight off the whoopie. Spread topping onto half of the whoopies and top with a coffee bean, if you like. Allow to set slightly.

Pipe the filling onto the remaining, un-iced sponges and sandwich with the iced halves.

The other chocolate whoopie pie recipe I've made stresses the importance of using vegetable shortening to achieve a soft, un-cracked whoopie sponge, so I was curious to see how this recipe turned out. Sure, they crack slightly (what cake doesn't?), but they are still incredibly moist and soft. I don't know if I could pick a favourite recipe, but it helped that I had all the ingredients in my fridge and pantry for this one. The cream cheese filling is also a great combination to the sponge, which is really quite rich.

It's also worth mentioning that Sophie includes a lot of savoury, gluten-free (and low gluten) and egg free varities of whoopies.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.

rosewater & raspberry jam filled doughnuts

2011-06-15T20:21:00.001+10:00

My current favourite breakfast involves a strong flat white and a doughnut. Don't judge me. If it's somewhat redeemable, both the coffee and doughnut come from one of my absolute favourite destinations: Brewbakers, an artisan bakery in Albion, Brisbane. These doughnuts are no ordinary doughnuts, nor do they involve smarty eyes and freddo frogs. They're made from a sourdough base, and filled with either homemade raspberry jam, custard, or chocolate.

Having only made doughnuts myself once before, the Autumn issue of Donna Hay was of course a good enough reason to be inspired to put my deep-frying goggles back on (jokes) and fry some more dough, if only to limit my Brewbaker treat consumption levels. I'd added some rosewater to a good quality store-bought raspberry jam, but of course homemade would taste worlds better.

Ingredients

Recipe slightly modified from Autumn issue of Donna Hay

2 tsps active dry yeast

1 1/2 tbsps lukewarm water

1/2 cup lukewarm milk

2 tbsps caster sugar

50 gms butter

2 1/4 cups plain flour

2 eggs

vegetable oil, for deep frying

2 cups raspberry jam

rosewater, to taste

rose sugar and dried rose petals, for dusting

Place the yeast, water, milk and 1 tbsp of sugar in a large bowl and set aside in a warm place for 10 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface. Add the butter, flour, eggs and remaining sugar to the yeast mixture and use a butter knife to mix until a sticky dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean, damp cloth and set aside in a warm place until doubled in size (about 45 minutes).

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Roll out to 1cm thick and using an 8cm round cutter, cut ten rounds from the dough. Place the rounds on a baking tray lined with baking paper and set aside for 30 minutes until risen.

Place the oil in a large, deep saucepan over a medium heat, measuring temperature of oil with a sugar thermometer until it reaches 180C. Cook the doughnuts, in batches, for 1 - 2 minutes each side, or until golden. Drain on paper towel.

In a small bowl, mix jam with 2 tsps rosewater. Taste, and add more if desired (which I did). Spoon jam into a piping bag fitted with a 0.5 - 1cm plain tip. Carefully pierce the doughnuts with a sharp knife, and then fill with jam. To ensure the jam reaches the middle of your doughnut, it's probably best to create this hole on the underside, which means you won't have a messy jam-hole showing like my doughnuts below. But, this is up to you.

Dust doughnuts with rose-infused sugar, and top with dried rose petals, if you like.

The most wonderful thing about homemade doughnuts is the lack of sickly-sweetness that I associate with the store-bought variety. The recipe shows how little sugar is really involved, and you can then pump your doughnut with as much sugar as you like depending on the type of jam you use. The draw-back is their shelf life, as they demand to be eaten on the same day they're created. Though, I think this can always be easily arranged.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Micah P. Hinson - Micah P. Hinson And The Pioneer Saboteurs.

passionfruit & dark chocolate macarons

2011-06-06T21:06:00.000+10:00

I'm finding myself in a somewhat strange situation: I'm baking so frequently I just can't keep up with myself. Banana sundae cake, s'mores macarons, apple spice cupcakes, vanilla bean bundt cake... So many opportunities to bake, to give food gifts and to celebrate have left me with little time to do this part. Thankfully, the Internet is so forgiving.

These macarons were a result of a Saturday evening dinner hosted by a very stubborn but dear friend, who would accept no help and even sent me home with the bottle of wine I brought along with me. Thankfully, she was gracious enough hold onto a box of these passionfruit macarons, and I could feel slightly better about my contribution to the evening. Because giving is all about feeling better about yourself, right?

I love macaron shells when they're sandwiched with a tart fruit ganache. When remembering eating my first batch of macarons whilst in France, I remembered how amazed I was by the pairing of passionfruit -which I really feel quite luke warm about - and chocolate. My version may not be the true French experience, but it's pretty gosh darn wonderful.

Ingredients

For macaron shells:
150 gms ground almonds
150 gms icing sugar
110 gms egg whites, separated into 2 lots of 55 gms
150 gms white sugar
37 gms water
dash yellow food colouring

For ganache:
200 gms good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped
1/2 cup cream
pulp of 3 passionfruit
1 - 2 cups icing sugar

Cocoa, to dust

For the macarons, mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together and pulse a few times in food processor to make almond meal finer, being careful not to over-process and release the oil in the almond meal. Sieve into a large bowl. Add colour and 55 gms of the egg whites to the sugar/almond mixture but do not mix in.

Place remaining 55 gms of egg whites in bowl of mixer fitted with the whisk.

Place white sugar and water into saucepan stir to combine and cook without stirring to 118C. Once the mixture reaches 115C start mixing the egg whites on high. Once the sugar syrup reaches 118C remove from heat and immediately pour in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl continuing to whisk on high. Continue to whisk the meringue on high until the side of the bowl is only a little warm to touch. The meringue mixture should be beautifully glossy.

Add meringue mixture to almond mixture and using a large spatula fold the mixture together until it starts to shine and forms a ribbon that stays visible for about 30 seconds.

Add the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe in lines onto baking trays lined with baking paper. Tap trays on the bench a few times to eliminate any air bubbles. Dust with cocoa powder.
Set aside for about 30 minutes or until the macarons have formed a skin that doesn't stick to your finger.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 140C . Bake the macaroons for around 13 to 15 minutes depending on size, they should not be browned. Remove the baking trays and immediately slide off the macarons and the baking paper onto the work surface and let cool completely before removing the shells.

For the ganache, place the chocolate in the bowl of an electric mixer. Place cream and passionfruit pulp in a small saucepan over medium heat until almost at boiling point. Remove immediately and pour cream through a strainer over the chocolate. Cover bowl and sit for a minute or two before stirring until smooth. Allow to cool for ten minutes. Begin adding icing sugar a little at a time, whilst beating, until at desired piping or spreading consistency.

To finish, pipe shells with ganache. Allow to rest for 24 hours at room temperature for the passionfruit flavour to develop, if you can. It's worth it.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Vetiver - The Errant Charm.

earl grey tea cake

2011-05-22T14:02:00.000+10:00

I adore this time of year. With the change of weather, a clear day's sky actually looks blue, in comparison to the harsh bright white sky I squint through over the Summer months. I love being able to enjoy the Brisbane sun without the humidity. And with the mornings' temperature quite abruptly dropping, it's so easy for a simple cup of tea to seem to much better than I ever remembered. So as my tea consumption hits an all-year high, I of course need a new tea cake recipe to accompany my all-time favourite beverage.

Ingredients

1 cup chopped fresh dates
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup freshly brewed earl grey tea
2 apples, peeled and grated
1 1/4 cups self raising flour, sifted
3/4 cup brown sugar
150 gms unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp ground vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease and line a 10-cup capacity loaf tin with baking paper - I used a standard sized tin and four mini loaf tins.

Place the dates, tea and bicarb soda in a bowl and set aside for 10 minutes. Using a stick blender, blend the date mixture until smooth. Alternatively, process in a blender or food processor.

Place the apple, flour and sugar in a bowl and mix to combine. Add the butter, eggs, vanilla and date mixture and mix well to combine. Spoon into your loaf tin/s, and bake large loaf for 40 - 55 minutes (small loafs for 20 - 25 minutes) until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool in tin for ten minutes before turning out on a wire rack.

This is such an incredibly quick and easy recipe, and the result is perfect straight from the oven with (or without) a nice melty patch of butter, or even toasted until slightly crispy on the edges. I've since frozen the remains of this batch and look forward to getting a mini-loaf out of the freezer each day. It's also nice to have a tea-style loaf that isn't filled with banana, given their insane prices right now.

Even our neighbourhood birds enjoyed a slice or two.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Okkervil River - The Stand Ins.

chocolate & sour cherry hot cross buns

2011-04-26T15:09:00.001+10:00

Apologies in advance: I am the reason hot cross buns are sold in January. I will buy them as soon as they're available and continue to do so until all that remains are the squashed, discounted remnants the masses of frenzied shoppers leave behind post-Easter weekend. Despite not being big on fruit peel, I love the hot cross buns' perfect balance of spice and fruit and their imperfect crosses. Yes, I realise supermarkets sell the cross-less varieties all year round, but it's not the same! And yes, I realise I could make my own at anytime of year. You have a point...

I'm a traditionalist, and have always preferred the original variety. So despite previously scoffing at those who buy fruitless or chocolate varieties, I was strangely compelled to include chocolate in my hot cross bun recipe to compliment the sour dried cherries I have finally found after so much searching. I still managed to stuff some spices into the recipe, though. How could I not?

Ingredients (makes 12 buns)

For the buns:
2 tbsps dried yeast
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups warm milk
4 1/4 cups plain flour
2 tsps all spice
2 tsps ground cinnamon
50 gms butter, melted
1 egg
1/4 cup caster sugar, extra
200 gms dried sour cherries
100 gms dark chocolate, chopped roughly.

For the crosses:
1/4 cup plain flour
1/3 cup water

For the glaze:
2 tsps sugar
1 tsp powdered gelatine
1/4 cup water

Combine the yeast, sugar and milk in a bowl. Set aside for 5-10 minutes or until bubbles form on the surface.

Place the flour, dried cherries, chocolate, spices, butter, egg, extra sugar in a large bowl. Form a well, and pour in yeast mixture. Mix with a flat blade knife until a sticky dough forms. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes or until dough feels smooth and elastic when pressed. Push in any cherries that fall out whilst kneading back into mixture - this tends to happen a lot! Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and stand in a warm place for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Lightly knead the dough again, twist to divide dough in half. Half each half, and then divide each piece into thirds. Or, less confusingly, divide into twelve even pieces. Roll each into a ball. Place in a 23cm square cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper - they will be touching, but will break apart easily when baked. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside in a warm place for 25–30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200C. To make the crosses, place the flour in a small bowl and gradually and water, stirring, until you're able to make a smooth paste. Place in a piping bag with a small round tip, and pipe crosses onto the buns. Bake for 30 minutes or until well browned and springy to touch.

Meanwhile, for the glaze, combine the sugar, gelatine and water in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir for 2 minutes or until dissolved. Using a pastry brush, brush warm buns with the glaze and eat immediately!

These are a little less resilient than the store-bought and preservative-pumped variety, and are best eaten within a day or two of making, but will freeze incredibly well if you need. They are wonderful toasted with or without butter, as the chocolate chunks go all melty and delicious. Alternatively, if you need a recipe to use the last of your buns, come back soon!

Recommended baking soundtrack: Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Skeletons Don't Have Your Back.

happy easter, internet

2011-04-25T16:57:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I was lucky enough to celebrate Easter Sunday with my family - including my adorable almost-six-month-old nephew - and share this four-tiered creamed honey cake with them. Despite not being able to consume cake, said nephew did have his first taste of chocolate custard. Don't worry Xander, there'll be plenty more opportunities for cake...

Surprisingly, I am yet to overdose on chocolate, but I still have three two more days to accomplish that feat.

I hope anyone reading has had a delightful Easter break so far.

chocolate buttermilk easter cake

2011-04-22T19:19:00.000+10:00

In terms of cuteness, Easter is surely the best holiday. Pastel colours, bunnies and chickens easily trump Santa for me. Despite all the simply gorgeous inspiration floating around, I've lately felt utterly uncreative. I feel like Easter has snuck up on me, despite having consumed many cream eggs and hot cross buns over not days, but months. I feel so many baking opportunities have passed me by...

So, wanting to make an Easter present for my co-workers, I drew ideas from both Donna Hay, and a more recent source of inspiration: Tracey Lau. Check out her blog for some absolutely wondrous photography and recipes. This cake is everything Easter is about: equal portions of cuteness and over-consumption of chocolate. My Easter baking may have come a little late, but it has arrived with great force, and I was simply smitten with the results. Isn't this the way baking should always be?

Ingredients (makes a four-tiered cake)

For cakes:

Recipe from Donna Hay
1 cup water
120 gms butter, chopped
4 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
2 cups plain flour, sifted
1 tsp bicarbonate of (baking) soda, sifted
2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp ground vanilla bean

For filling:
50 gms butter, at room temperature
250 gms cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
1/4 cup cocoa, sifted

For chocolate buttercream:

500 gms butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup cocoa

2 cups icing sugar

To decorate:

350 gms fondant

Desired food colourings and sugar decorations

Preheat oven to 150C.

For your decorations, form two-thirds of the fondant into a large ball to form your rabbit's bottom, then make a small ball for it's tail. Create two rabbit feet, using a scalpel or small knife to create his toes. Colour a small amount of remaining fondant grey - form shapes for your rabbit's feet pads. Colour remaining fondant green and slice into grass blades or various lengths and widths. Allow to dry on a sheet of baking paper.

For the cakes, place the water, butter and cocoa in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the butter has melted. Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar in a bowl, add the cocoa mixture and whisk to combine. Add the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and whisk to combine.

Divide mixture between 4 lightly greased 20cm round cake tins lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake for 40 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool in the tins for 5 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. Stack two cooled cakes on top of eachother (with baking paper in between each layer to prevent sticking) and with a small, sharp knife, cut a semi-circular hole (about 3 cms deep and 7cm wide) into the cakes - this will form the burrow for your Easter bunny. Refrigerate until needed.

For the cream cheese filling, place the butter and cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 6 - 8 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add the icing sugar and cocoa and beat for a further 6 - 8 minutes or until light and fluffy. To assemble, place bottom layer (the layer that has the base of the already cut burrow) on a serving plate and thinly spread with one quarter of the frosting. Repeat with remaining layers, then use any left over frosting to fill in gaps between layers. Refrigerate for an hour.

For chocolate buttercream, beat butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and pale. Add cocoa and beat until combined. With motor running on a low speed, gradually add icing sugar, increasing speed to high between additions. Stop when mixture is light and fluffy, but holds it's shape - you may not need all of the icing sugar.

Remove cake from fridge and very cover very thinly in a layer of buttercream. Chill for 30 minutes.

Once crumb coat of buttercream has cooled, coat cake and burrow liberally with buttercream - you can be messy with this part. Vertical strokes will make it look more tree-like, and remember to add rings to the top of the tree stump. Add roots around the base of tree. Insert bunny into the burrow, adding his tail and feet, using a paintbrush dipped in water to secure. Decorate tree with grass, flowers and Easter eggs as you like.

Standing over twenty centimeters tall, this proud, four-tiered chocolate cake means business, was incredibly heavy and could serve twenty, quite honestly. But the cake itself is lovely and moist, not overly sweet, and stores incredibly well. I made my cakes a few days in advance and kept them in the fridge for three days before decorating: you would never have known.

The original cake recipe called for two 12cm split cakes, resulting in a much smaller four tiered cake, but I have doubled all quantities. If you don't have an army of grateful coworkers or family members to consume your gorgeous cake, maybe scale it down a little. Or go overboard. It is Easter.

Have a lovely break, readers.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Sea Wolf - Leaves in the River.

fig & raspberry bakewell tart

2011-03-28T20:17:00.001+10:00

As much as I miss my dear friends and small family, there are certainly perks of living in a new, larger city. An abundance of choice of farmer's markets is one of those perks, and one that I'm not taking for granted. I know it's a much more common thing to buy directly from the supplier these days than what is was five years ago for many people. I also know that the whole city-farmers markets 'trend' has been written about to no end, so I won't go there. What I love the most is how it's changed the way I bake. I'm searching for recipes to utilise what produce I'm buying, rather than lusting over a recipe and letting it dictate what I'm buying. I don't feel as swept up in chasing ingredients. There are elements of calm in cities.

On a tangent, I must stress how much I have fallen in love one particular new ingredient, not sourced from any farmer's markets - ground. vanilla. bean. Having faith in Equagold, and experiencing low stocks of vanilla bean paste, I purchased this far superior product from a local deli. Needing only 1/4 tsp to substitute a whole vanilla bean, it's incredibly economical. It's flavour is also intense, and oh-so-perfect in shortcrust pastry. I've been putting it in almost everything I'm baking over the last few months, and am still so giddy with lust for it. If you are lucky enough to encounter it, buy it.

This recipe utilised a bounty of figs and fresh raspberries purchased at a recent farmer's market visit. It's wonderfully simple, requiring only a food processor to mix the pastry and the filling. Rasberry coulis is not essential, but you'd be crazy not to.

Ingredients
Recipe from December 2010/January 2011 issue of delicious.

For shortcrust pastry:
1 2/3 cups (250g) plain flour
40g icing sugar
1/4 tsp ground vanilla bean, or 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
125g chilled unsalted butter, chopped
1 egg yolk

For filling:

100 gms unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
100 gms almond meal
1/4 tsp ground vanilla bean or 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
1/4 cup brandy
1 cup raspberry jam
8 figs, halved
125 gm punnet raspberries, plus extra to serve
1/4 cup icing sugar
Double cream, to serve

For the pastry, place the flour, icing sugar, vanilla seeds and butter in a food processor and pulse until fine crumbs. Add the egg yolk and 2 tablespoons iced water, then whiz until the mixture comes together in a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll out pastry and use to line a 33cm x 12cm rectangular loose-bottomed tart pan, trimming to fit. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 180°C.

Line tart with baking paper and fill with pastry weights. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove paper and weights. Bake for a further 5 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool in tin.

Place butter and caster sugar in a food processor and whiz to combine. Add egg, almond meal, vanilla seeds and 1 tbsp brandy, then pulse to combine.

Spread half the jam over the base of the pastry case, then top with the almond mixture. Arrange the figs, cut-side up, on top of the filling, gently pressing down. Scatter fresh raspberries on top if desired. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the filling is set and golden. Cool slightly.

Meanwhile, blend the raspberries to a puree. Place raspberry puree in a pan with the icing sugar, 2 tbsp brandy and remaining jam, then cook over low heat, stirring, for 1-2 minutes until thickened. Cool slightly. Garnish with extra raspberries, and when ready to serve, to with raspberry puree and a dollop of cream.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Alela Diane - To Be Still.

jasmine & citrus pound cake

2011-03-27T13:26:00.001+10:00

My affection for cake is only second to one other - my love and dependency on tea. As much as I love a good coffee and newspaper combination, I never really crave coffee. I don't think of myself as caffeine dependent. But a day without tea is a long and arduous one, and no other experience comes remotely close to have an uninterrupted afternoon cup of tea in a fine cup. I like to tell myself the headaches I get from a day without tea is not a sign of caffeine withdrawals but is, in fact, a result from being away from the one I love for simply too long. As much as I love black tea, I don't like to discriminate. White tea; green tea; fruit tea; floral tea - you especially: I love you all.

This following recipe is taken from a glorious book filled with recipes to accompany tea and that incorporate tea. I love tea infused cakes, as you may have guessed from my gushing over lady grey madeleines.

Ingredients

Recipe from Tea: More than 80 Delicious Recipes

For cake:

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp loose jasmine tea

4 eggs

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup pouring cream

2 tsps finely grated lemon zest

2 tsps finely grated orange zest

2 3/4 cups plain flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

For jasmine ganache:

1/2 cup thickened cream

2 tsps loose jasmine tea

100 gms white chocolate (chips or finely chopped, good quality pls!)

1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar

1 tbsp finely grated orange zest

Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease and line a 21cm round cake pan.

In a small saucepan, heat milk until just below boiling over medium heat. Remove from heat, add tea leaves and cover, allowing to steep for about 8 minutes. Strain into a heatproof bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar and salt. Add cream, milk and zests and stir to combine. Gradually add flour and baking powder while mixing on a low speed. Add butter and stir to combine.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for 60 - 70 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. While hot, prick the top of the cake with skewer and brush with orange juice. Allow cake to cool completely in the tin before transferring to a serving plate.

For white chocolate ganache, in a small saucepan over medium heat, bring cream to just below boiling point. Remove from heat, add tea leaves, and cover, allowing to steep for eight minutes. Strain cream into a large heatproof bowl. Whisk in white chocolate, icing sugar and orange zest. Chill for at least fifteen minutes until at spreading consistency. Spread ganache generously onto cake - I had enough to cover both top and sides. Smooth with a knife dipped in boiling water, if necessary.

I recommend keeping this cake at room temperature as much as possible - the pound cake can get a little too firm and heavy straight from the fridge. And please, whatever you do, don't skip out on the icing in this recipe. It is simply gorgeous, and without it I don't think the jasmine flavour would be anywhere near as noticeable. I'll definitely be trying this recipe with some rose black tea.

Recommended baking soundtrack - Pepper Rabbit - Beuregard.

chocolate guinness cake

2011-03-17T21:16:00.003+10:00

It's far too rare that I make a simple melt and mix cake and there really is no good recent as to why. There's something about simple cake recipes that makes the result even more rewarding, especially when it's as satisfying as this cake - aesthetically and otherwise. It's as though throwing everything together one morning before work and slapping on a bit of icing without barely dirtying a bowl lowers ones expectations. I would never dare doubt a Nigella recipe, especially after stumbling across others' reviews post-tasting, but I was a little wary of the unfamiliar.

If it weren't for a hefty cooking time and the necessity to cool this cake completely before removing from the tin (and it really is a necessity - this baby is dense), this cake could be created in mere moments. Despite being unlikely to require any further convincing, I believe this to be one of the best chocolate cakes I've made, perhaps polling second position behind Bourke St Bakery's flourless variety. Tall, dark and handsome, this cake also manages to be strangely light and although it contains only cocoa and no chocolate, it's gorgeously chocolate-y. And like Nigella describes so perfectly, the stout gives it a warmness and tanginess that's similar to gingerbread, only without the spices.

Ingredients

Recipe from Nigella Lawson

For the cake:
250 mls Guinness
250 gms unsalted butter
75 gms cocoa
400 gms caster sugar
140 mls pot sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
275 gms plain flour
2 1/2 tsps bicarbonate of soda

For the frosting:
300 gms cream cheese
150 gms icing sugar
125 mls pouring cream

Preheat the oven to 180°C, and butter and line a 23cm springform tin.

Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter and heat until the butter's melted. Whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream, eggs and vanilla until combined, and then add to beer mixture. Whisk in flour and bicarb soda.

Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack.

For the frosting, lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sifted icing sugar and beat to combine. Add the cream and beat again until fluffy and light, and at spreadable consistency. Generously spread frosting onto cake.

My coworkers were the first to sample this cake, and despite them being kind with all of my creations, this seems to be a new favourite. Labeling it a very "adult" cake, it's best recommended with a strong coffee and a glass of port.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

Recommended baking soundtrack: The Smiths - s/t.

guinness gingerbread cupcakes

2011-03-16T08:20:00.001+10:00

For Saint Patrick's Day last year, I made an kitschy Irish feast for my Irish-born boyfriend - the ever predictable Irish stew, followed by Guinness & chocolate mousse. Yes, you read me correctly - Guinness mousse. I served it in a very generously sized beer glass and topped it with Bailey's spiked cream. He ate it, and then some, and I was so impressed with how Guinness can work in not only stews and cakes, but other sweet treats, too.

There's something so comforting about gingerbread and ginger flavoured things. The rich and warm spiciness always makes me happy, despite not really being able to eat nearly as much crystalised ginger as my Mum loves to. So naturally, the combination of spicy ginger and bitter stout would be a great match for this year's necessity for a somewhat-Irish recipe. And of course, David Lebovitz has a recipe for this very combination.

Ingredients (makes 12)
Recipe adapted from 'Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes' by David Lebovitz

For cakes:
125 mls Guinness
1/2 cup mild-flavoured molasses or treacle
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda
3/4 brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/3 cups plain flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsps ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup glacé ginger, finely chopped

For frosting:
125 gms cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
zest and juice of 1 lime

For candied lime peel:
3 limes, washed
2 cups water
1 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp light corn/glucose syrup

For the candied peel, remove the zest from the limes in strips with a small shard knife or vegetable peeler. Try to avoid removing the white pith as it will be bitter, but if this is unavoidable, it's easy enough to remove it by laying your strips flat on a chopping board, pith side up, and run a small sharp knife along the strip to remove it. Cut the strips of zest into matchstick size slices.

Put the peel into a medium saucepan and cover generously with water. Bring to the boil and cook until the peel is soft and translucent, about 5 - 6 minutes. Drain the peel and discard the water.

In the same saucepan, bring 2 cups water, sugar and corn syrup to the boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add the drained peel and decrease the heat over a gentle boil for about 20 minutes, or until the syrup is thick and the peel is translucent. Allow to cool. You can store any unused peel and syrup in a clean jar in the refrigerator for about 2 months.

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line a standard 12 capacity cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

For the cakes, in a large saucepan bring the stout, molasses and oil to a boil over a medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and whisk in the baking soda until dissolved - this will foam up but will quickly settle back down. Stir in the brown sugar and allow to cool until tepid.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Whisk the eggs into the stout mixture, followed by the flour mixture until just incorporated. Gently stir in glacé ginger. Divide the batter evenly among cases and bake cakes for about 22 - 24 minutes, until just set. Cool completely on a wire rack.

For frosting, beat cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth. Add 1 cup icing sugar and beat on a low speed, increasing to a high speed as powder is incorporated. Add remaining icing sugar, lime zest and juice. You may need to add more icing sugar (I just pour it in, unmeasured, as I go) depending on the humidity and your preferred consistency. Spread or pipe a small dollop onto each cooled cake. Top with cooled lime zest.

In the midst of cooling and mixing ingredients into the stout mixture, I had serious doubts-- It just smelled far too musky and malty to be delicious. But it really works, and works very well. The lime cream cheese works really well to offset the cake, and next time would make the lime as tart as I could. You could omit the candied peel if you're not feeling up to the extra step, an decorate with some more finely chopped glacé ginger.

Recommended baking soundtrack - Wooden Wand: Wither Thou Goest, Cretin.

strawberry tarts

2011-03-14T21:04:00.000+10:00

Sometimes, I have great difficulty choosing my favourite fruit. I've always been a strawberry person from a very young age. As a little girl, I would choose strawberry flavoured things over any other - milkshakes, ice creams, candy, you name it. I would be absolutely delighted when my mother allowed me to choose absolutely anything from the specialty bakery we frequented, as I would always, always choose a strawberry tart. But as I've gotten older and strawberries have gotten firmer, paler and sometimes even fuzzier, peaches, raspberries and even ugly duckling pineapple have fought and won my affections. Strawberries sometimes slipped into the back of my mind.

Last week, I bought a five-dollar punnet (obscene, I know) of strawberries and all of the reasons why I loved them rushed back to me, quickly. Each one was perfect, soft, juicy and made me wonder what I was ever thinking to choose any other. Each one cemented strawberries as my all time favourite fruit. I adore strawberries. I always will. Swoon.

Ingredients (makes 8)

Recipe from March issue of delicious

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/3 cup icing sugar

100 gms chilled unsalted butter, chopped

2 vanilla beans, split, seeds scraped

1 egg

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 tbsps red currant jelly

250 gms mascarpone cheese

500 gms strawberries

For pastry, place flour, 2 tbsps icing sugar and a pinch of salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and half of the vanilla seeds, then whiz until mixture looks like sandy crumbs. Add the egg and process until mixture comes together in a ball. Shape into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180C and grease eight 10cm wide, 2cm deep loose-bottomed tart tines. Divide dough into eight portions, roll to about 5mm thick and line tins. Chill for a further 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, for the toffee glaze, place caster sugar in a small pan over a low heat with 2 tbsps of cold water. Stir until sugar dissolves, then increase heat to medium-low and cook, without stirring, for 5 - 6 minutes until golden caramel. Remove from heat and carefully add 1/2 cup water. Return to medium-low heat, add red currant jelly and stir to dissolve. Cool to room temperature.

Remove tarts from refrigerator, line with baking paper and fill with pastry weights. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove baking paper and weights and bake for a further 5 minutes or until pastry is a deep gold and is evenly dry. Cool in tins on a wire rack.

Combine mascarpone with remaining icing sugar and vanilla seeds. Fill cooled tart cases with mascarpone mixture, top with berries and drizzle with toffee. Eat ASAP!

As I was making these and keeping them all to our household, I filled each tart shell as needed to keep the pastry fresh and crisp. The toffee mixture can be kept covered, at room temperature and the tart shells in an airtight container for a few days. It's quick and easy to make each tart up as needed and it's certainly worth it if you're serving eight people at once.

You could try this with raspberries or even cherries... but you probably shouldn't.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Beach Fossils - What a Pleasure.

chocolate & raspberry swirl ice cream

2011-02-20T08:44:00.001+10:00

I've spent too many baking ventures being trumped by the heat and humidity this summer. Macarons have spent hours drying on my kitchen table, and pastry has been quickly shoved rather than rolled and neatly pressed into tart tins. No more! I have stopped fighting it. I am now - ugh - 'going with the flow'.

I recently read a wonderful article in February's AGT, written Peter Gilmore and Adriano Zumbo, including their hilarious reviews of store-bought ice cream varieties. What I found interesting was reading about Gilmore's take on what constitutes a good, creamy ice cream, particularly in terms of cream to milk ratios and how people can achieve this at home. So, after reading that pure milk based ice creams are become too icy in home made, slow churners, I became curious with a recipe I've had bookmarked for a while. 100% milk base.

Ingredients (makes approx 1.6L)
Recipe from AGT online
750 mls milk
5 egg yolks
275 gms caster sugar
150 gms chocolate (70% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped
240 gms raspberries, plus extra to serve
2 tbsps raspberry liqueur

Place milk in a medium, heavy-based saucepan and bring almost to the boil. Place yolks and ¾ cup of the sugar in a bowl and whisk until thick and pale, then gradually whisk in hot milk. Return mixture to same pan and stir over low heat until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Do not boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate, stir until melted, then strain through a fine sieve into a bowl. Allow to cool.

Combine raspberries, liqueur and remaining sugar in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat for 10 minutes or until thick and jammy, then press through a fine sieve and discard seeds. Cool.

Freeze chocolate mixture in an ice-cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions, add raspberry mixture and swirl through ice-cream, then place in freezer and freeze until firm. Serve scoops of ice-cream scattered with fresh raspberries.

Call my taste buds naive, but I love the result of this particular recipe. Yes, it's a little icy in spots, but not very grainy at all. With a milk base, it's chocolate flavour is also very distinct and by no means does it have an oily flavour as a high cream-based chocolate ice cream might. I ended up dropping some fresh raspberries in with the coulis, which meant with every bite you'd get a pocket of tart raspberries to cut through the chocolate. It's a quick and incredibly easy recipe using ingredients most cooks would have at home. And using frozen raspberries won't matter at all.

Recommended 'baking' soundtrack: M. Ward - End of Amnesia.

happy valentine's day

2011-02-14T20:08:00.001+10:00

Happy Valentine's Day, my readers. I hope your days are filled with love.

Recommended love soundtrack: Françoise Hardy - Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp.

raspberry swirl marshmallows

2011-02-13T09:32:00.000+10:00

Valentine's Day is made for not Hallmark, but to induce motivation to bake. Or make. Of all of the rubbish the Valnetine's Day bring out in people, isn't baking what it's all about? Putting time, effort and love into creating something tasty for someone you love: now tell me there's any better gift.

The first time I made marshmallows for Chockylit's s'mores cupcakes during the height of my love affair with the little cakes that have since taken over the world. The recipe was perfect, made me a lot of new friends, and also surprised me with the miracle of the marshmallow. How so few ingredients could take on such a fluffy, sticky form only further increased my awe of sugar. This following recipe is not Chockylit's, but one from Donna Hay's Christmas section of her Dec/Jan 2011 issue. I simply Valentine's-ed it with a heart-shaped cutter.

Ingredients
Recipe from December/January issue Donna Hay

250 gms raspberries
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 tbsps gelatine powder
1/2 cup water
1 3/4 cups caster sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water, extra

Lightly grease a 20cm x 30cm cake/slice tin and cover the base and longest sides with baking paper.

Place the berries and icing sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Using a fork, crush the berries and bring to the boil, stirring, for about 10 - 15 minutes or until thick and jammy. Remove from the heat and press through a sieve, discarding the seeds. Set aside.

Place the gelatine and water in the bowl of an electric mixer and stir to combine. Set aside for five minutes or until the water is absorbed. Make sure your mixer is fitted with the whisk attachment. Place the sugar, corn syrup and extra water in a saucepan over high heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring the mixture to the boil and continue to heat until it reaches 120C.

Start the motor on your electric mixer on a low speed, and slowly pour the hot syrup into the gelatine. Increase the speed and whisk for 4 - 6 minutes until the mixture is white and fluffy and beginning to cool - it's quite incredible to watch this happening!

Spread the marshmallow into the cake tin evenly with a spatula. Pour over the raspberry mixture and swirl with a metal skewer. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for four hours, or until set - this make take longer on a humid day. When set, remove from the tin and slice/cut into shapes - my heart cutter was about 4cm wide and the mixture yielded about 15 hearts. I find it easiest to cut if your knife/cutter is sprayed lightly with cooking spray.

You can keep these in an airtight container for a few days ad they'll be fine, just don't leave them in sunlight and ensure they don't end up in the fridge.

They would be adorable in smaller versions to top cupcakes or even ice cream sundaes.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Okkervil River - Down the River of Golden Dreams.

tim tam tarts

2011-01-27T19:51:00.003+10:00

Tarts have recently become my most adored sweet treat. Let's face it - a good pastry can make almost anything more desirable. Tarts have this on their side, but I also find them slightly more attractive than a closed in pie. Where these tarts are lacking in the pastry department, they make up for it with a much adored 'Australian' staple: a Tim Tam crust.

As I was making these for my family for our small Australia Day gathering, I made the ganache filling out of 70% Valrhona, a decision I certainly don't regret... but these tarts were intense! You will definitely need a generous amount of raspberries to cut through the richness, as if this is possibly a bad thing. I do, however, think these would be amazing with milk chocolate.

Ingredients (serves four, but is easily to multiply)
Recipe from February issue of delicious

200 gms packet Tim Tams

30 gms unsalted butter, melted and cooled

200 mls pouring cream

200 gms dark chocolate, chopped

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

Raspberries, cocoa and ice cream (or cream), to serve.

Grease four 8cm loose-bottomed tart tins. Place Tim Tams in a food processor and pulse until in fine crumbs. Remove three tablespoons of the soil and set aside for when serving. Add the melted butter to the food processor and pulse to combine. Press mixture into the bases and sides of the tins - it will work out to be about 2 tbsps mixture per tin. There's really no better way to do this than with your fingers, starting in the middle and working your way to the sides of the tin. Chill for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160C. Place the cream in a saucepan over a low heat and bring to just below boiling point. Remove from the heat and add chocolate, stand for a minute to allow it to start melting, then stir until completely smooth.

Cool mixture for about 15 minutes, then add yolks and vanilla and stir to combine. Pour into the tart cases, and bake for 15 minutes until just set. Cool tarts completely in their tins before removing. If you're serving them at a later time, chill them before removing, it will make it a heck of a lot easier as they can be quite crumbly.

To serve, top with berries and dust with cocoa. Serve with the reserved Tim Tam soil and vanilla ice cream or cream.

I hope my readers had a lovely Australia Day, wherever you are.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer.

koala lamington cupcakes

2011-01-26T19:14:00.001+10:00

Summer has finally arrived, a month or two late. However, I am not saying "finally" with any sense of relief. I love warm afternoons and evenings if a fan is present, but humid days are not my cup of tea. In fact, it makes it very difficult to enjoy my cup of tea. My Australia Day celebrations - aside from including a day off work - involve no tradition or routine. This year I decided to bake some treats for my new-ish coworkers, as if I needed an excuse.

Lamingtons usually require a chocolate glaze-esque coating covered in coconut, and despite this being my intention, found my cakes a little less rounded than I would have liked. I stuck with a buttercream merely so I could make chubby charactier-ridden koala faces, rather than sad, lifeless, two-dimensional faces. You get the idea. Go with whatever works for you, your cake results and your taste-buds.

Ingredients (makes 12)

12 vanilla cupcakes (see here for recipe)

100 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup cocoa
4 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 cups shredded coconut.

12 black jelly beans
12 pink marshmallows
24 Valrhona crunchy pearls (or any other small brown chocolate/candy)

For the chocolate buttercream, whip butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until smooth. Add cocoa and about 1 cup icing sugar and beat on a low speed until combined. Increase speed and beat until smooth. Add 1 tbsp of the milk and the remaining icing sugar and beat until creamy. Add remaining milk until desired consistency - you want a smooth, fluffy buttercream.

Generously frost each cupcake with chocolate buttercream, leaving about 2 tbsps aside. Place coconut in a shallow bowl and dip each iced cupcake into the coconut to coat. Decorate with a jellybean nose and two crunchy pearl eyes.

For the koala ears, cut each marshmallow in half lengthwise. Thin the remaining butercream down with a few drops of milk, and with a small palette knife, coat the outside edges of each mallow-half in chocolate frosting and then toss in coconut. Your ears should be moist enough to stick onto the cakes, but if they have trouble sticking on, secure with a dab of buttercream mixture.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Pearly Gate Music - Pearly Gate Music.

rhubarb & rosewater upside down cake

2011-01-18T20:10:00.002+10:00

I have a new mistress. Anybody who stumbled across the December issue of Cuisine would understand. On its glossy cover was a ring shaped pavlova decorated to look like a Christmas wreath, covered in berries, cherries and "holly" leaves. After making it for my family's Christmas dinner, I was officially smitten.

Cuisine is like delicious magazine's mysterious, foreign cousin: The styling is just as gorgeous and the recipes equally as accessible, but there are also teasing reviews of New Zealand restaurants and bars and some unattainable brands not available in Australian delis. This could get frustrating, but it just adds to the allure in an always-want-what-you-can't-have kinda way. I still adore you, AGT and delicious. I just... need something difference every once in a while.

Ingredients
Recipe from September 2010 issue Cuisine

For rhubarb:
4 stems rhubarb
25 gms butter
25 gms caster sugar

For cake:
100 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature
150 gms caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, separated
150 gms plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
125 mls milk

For the syrup:
150 gms caster sugar
150 mls water
1 rhubarb stem, chopped
1 tbsp rosewater
juice 1/2 lemon

Line the base of a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper, and grease with butter. Preheat oven to 180C.

Cut the rhubarb on the diagonal into 3cm thick slices and set aside. In a small saucepan, gently heat the butter and caster sugar until the mixture begins to caramelise. Pour into the base of the tin. Arrange the rhubarb in the base and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and yolks, one at a time, beating in between. Add the flour and milk in two alternate batches, mixing until combined. Beat the egg whites until at soft peaks, and fold through the cake batter. Spoon the batter on top of the rhubarb and smooth.

Bake for 40 - 50 minutes until cake is firm to the touch. While I didn't have any syrupy rhubarb drips, it's advised to bake with a tray in the bottom of your oven just incase - things could get sticky!
Allow to cool slightly in the tin while making the syrup.

Heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan until sugar has dissolved. Add the rhubarb and cook for five minutes - the syrup should be rosy in colour. Strain through a sieve and stir through rosewater and lemon juice.

Remove the cake from the tin, firstly running a bread and butter knife around the edges. Invert onto a serving plate. Smother each slice with rosewater syrup and serve with cream.

It's recommended that this cake is best eaten on the day of baking while the syrup is still warm, but honestly, it tastes just as wonderful the following day. Just be aware that the rosy rhubarb will eventually fade to a yellow. The cake is wonderfully light because of the egg whites, yet still has a pudding-esque texture when warm. This is an important quality for me. Would taste exquisite with custard.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Fruit Bats - The Ruminant Band.

chocolate & mint whoopie pies

2011-01-03T18:48:00.001+10:00

Baking trends are a funny thing. To make cupcakes ten years ago involved a vanilla cake with buttercream, possibly including coloured sprinkles for those feeling adventurous. Few people had tasted proper French-style macarons let alone churned them out of their own home kitchen. And now, the whoopie pie. Ah, the whoopie pie... I'm not sure if this delightful cake-biscuit hybrid (also known as moon pie) has hit Australia with as much momentum as cupcakes, macarons or cake (or cookie!) pops, but there's certainly no reason why it shouldn't, especially with books out there whose sole purpose it is to teach us the very basic tricks to the perfect whoopie.

I've been put off making whoopie pies for a while now, simply because I was convinced I would eventually stumble across the marshmallow fluff suggested to make the perfect filling. This obviously didn't happen, and here I was months later, whoopie-less. Buttercream is a possibility, but just doesn't quite fit. Melting marshmallows with cream works, but just isn't the same. But! The closest and possibly even better filling is one of my favourite frostings: a marshmallow frosting that holds its shape and is very easy to inject flavour into. Of course, I chose peppermint.

One last thing before the recipe: I know vegetable shortening (Copha is perfect) seems like a funny addition to a cake that already contains butter, but it really adds lightness to the cake and makes it incredibly soft. It also helps avoid your whoopies having cracked surfaces. So please, trust the recipe.

Ingredients (makes approximately 24 whoopie pies)
Recipe adapted from Whoopie Pies: Dozens of Mix 'em, Match 'em, Eat 'em Up Recipes

For whoopies:
1 2/3 cups plain flour
2/3 cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
55 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature
55 gms vegetable shortening
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 cup full-fat milk

For marshmallow filling:
3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tsps glucose syrup
pinch of cream of tartar
2 tsps peppermint essence, or to taste

To make the whoopies (cakes), preheat oven to 190C. Line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, shortening and brown sugar on a low speed until combined, then increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy - which will take at least three minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat for a further two minutes until fully incorporated.

Add half the flour mixture and half the milk to the batter, beating on a low speed until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add remaining flour mixture and milk, beating until smooth and creamy.

Drop 1tbsp quantities of batter onto baking trays, leaving about 5cm between each whoopie, as they will spread when cooking - you will obviously need to do multiple batches, so be generous and give your first lot of whoopies (I just love saying whoopies!) lots of space to grow during the first time around. You can always squash them together a little more after some experience. Bake for ten minutes - one sheet at a time - for about ten minutes. The pies should spring back when pressed gently, like any sponge. Remove from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for about five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before filling.

For the marshmallow filling, combine the egg whites, sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and 100 mls water in a heatproof bowl (preferably the bowl of your electric mixer to save on washing up). Sit the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, and whisk quite vigorously for five minutes until mixture is light and foamy-- this will feel like a very long five minutes! Alternatively, if you you have handheld beaters, you could use these - it will save you time and sweat. Remove from heat. Add peppermint and beat with electric mixers on a high speed until stiff peaks form.

Generously pipe, spread or dollop marshmallow filling onto half of the whoopies. Allow to set for five to ten minutes before sandwiching them with the remaining whoopies. This will allow the filling to set slightly. Eat & enjoy.

These can be tricky to store, as the cake becomes very sticky quite quickly. It is suggested they are eaten on the same day as being made, but I consumed one the day after and thought they tasted even better. Just make sure you don't stack them if you can help it, and if you can't, place a layer of baking paper in between to prevent them from sticking to one another.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy.

peach melba tart

2010-12-20T18:56:00.005+10:00

I'm an unashamed Autumn/Winter-person. That doesn't necessarily mean I love extremely cold weather, given a Brisbane Winter hardly reaches below 10C. I do, however, loathe the humidity, squinting, and sunburn that Summer generally involves. As the years pass by, I think I'm becoming more tolerant and can now appreciate more daylight hours. I accept that beautifully thick rhubarb stems are less readily available. I'll even admit that lemon lime & bitters tastes better on a warm Summer's afternoon. But what I really miss during my favourite cooler seasons are raspberries. And peaches. And this Summer, haven't the raspberries been spectacular?

Ingredients (generously serves 6)
Recipe from delicious. More Please

For pastry:
1 2/3 cups plain flour
2 tbsps icing sugar
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
180 gms chilled unsalted butter, chopped
1 egg yolk

For filling:
3 ripe peaches
200 mls pouring (thin) cream
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
2 eggs, plus 1 extra yolk
1/4 cup caster sugar
250 gms raspberries

2 tbsps flaked almonds, toasted
icing sugar, to dust

For the pastry, process flour, icing sugar, vanilla seeds and a pinch of salt in a food processor until there are no lumps. Add the butter and process until sandy. Add the yolk and 1 tbsp chilled water, processing until the mixture comes together in a smooth ball. Remove pastry from food processor (kneeding a little if necessary), cover with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.

Grease a 12x35cm loose-bottomed tart pan. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to 3 - 5mm thich and use to line the pan, pressing gently into the base and sides. Trim to fit, then chill for 30mins.

Preheat the oven to 190C. Line pastry with baking paper and fill with pastry weights (or uncooked rice/beans/lentils) and blind bake for ten minutes. Remove weights and baking paper and bake for a further 5 minutes until pastry is golden and dry. Reduce the oven to 170C.

For the filling, blanch the peach halves in a large saucepan of boiling water for 1 minute. Remove, allow to cool slightly, peel, then place on some paper towel and gently pat dry.

Heat the cream and vanilla pod and seeds in a saucepan over medium heat until just below boiling point. Gently whisk the eggs and extra yolk with the sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Slowly whisk the hot cream mixture into the whisked eggs. Remove vanilla pod.

Place the peaches, cut side down, in the tart shell and scatter with half the raspberries. Slowly pour the cream mixture into the tart shell, and bake for 30 - 40mins until the custard is set. Cool slightly, then dust with icing sugar and serve with a scattering of flaked almonds.

I freaked out a little in finding that my tart had set so soon - after about 20 minutes! So please keep a good eye on it during the cooking period to avoid the disappointment of over cooked or even burnt custard. delicious also suggest using Careme vanilla bean sweet shortcrust pastry, as they do quite often throughout this book, and doing so would make this simple recipe even quicker. Sounds good to me!

Recommended baking soundtrack: Thee Oh Sees - Warm Slime.

turkish delight macarons

2010-12-07T19:34:00.001+10:00

I am by no means a health nut. I like gentle exercises: pilates, yoga, swimming... does strolling count? I do fall off the pilates wagon every once in a while and can go through lengthy periods of times without "exercise", but console my inner couch-potato by reminding myself that I have a fairly physical job. But over the weekend, I felt physically unfit for the first time in as long as I can remember... whilst folding a double batch of macarons. Due to an unintentional baking hiatus, I have lost my ability to hand-whip potatoes, whisk cream and most importantly, fold macaron batter the many times it requires to become beautiful and shiny. I pride myself on this ability. I am thoroughly devastated.

Despite my now sore right arm, these are my favourite macarons of the year, largely due to a new oven. Each are sandwiched with a rose infused, whipped dark chocolate ganache, and contain a small bite of turkish delight in the centre.

Ingredients

For macaron shells:
Recipe courtesy of Bubble and Sweet (based on a Pierre Herme recipe)
150 gms ground almonds
150 gms icing sugar
110 gms egg whites, separated into 2 lots of 55 gms
150 gms white sugar
37 gms water
dash pink food colouring

For ganache:
200 gms good quality dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
1/2 cup cream
few drops rosewater
1 - 2 cups icing sugar

About 100 gms turkish delight, chopped into 1cm cubes.

For the macarons, mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together and pulse a few times in food processor to make almond meal finer, being careful not to over-process and release the oil in the almond meal. Sieve into a large bowl. Add colour and 55 gms of the egg whites to the sugar/almond mixture but do not mix in.

Place remaining 55 gms of egg whites in bowl of mixer fitted with the whisk.

Place white sugar and water into saucepan stir to combine and cook without stirring to 118C. Once the mixture reaches 115C start mixing the egg whites on high. Once the sugar syrup reaches 118C remove from heat and immediately pour in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl continuing to whisk on high. Continue to whisk the meringue on high until the side of the bowl is only a little warm to touch. The meringue mixture should be beautifully glossy.

Add meringue mixture to almond mixture and using a large spatula fold the mixture together until it starts to shine and forms a ribbon that stays visible for about 30 seconds.

Add the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe in lines onto baking trays lined with baking paper. Tap trays on the bench a few times to eliminate any air bubbles.
Set aside for about 30 minutes or until the macarons have formed a skin that doesn't stick to your finger.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 140C . Bake the macaroons for around 13 to 15 minutes depending on size, they should not be browned. Remove the baking trays and immediately slide off the macarons and the baking paper onto the work surface and let cool completely before removing the shells.

For ganache, finely chop chocolate and place in a the bowl of your electric mixer. Place cream and rosewater in a small saucepan, and heat until it just begins to boil. Pour hot cream over the chopped chocolate, cover with a dinner plate (or saucepan lid, or... anything) and leave for 1 minute. Stir mixture until smooth, and allow to cool for ten minutes. Add 1 cup icing sugar to ganache, and whip using paddle attachment until smooth and slightly lighter in colour. Add more icing sugar until desired consistency - the mixture should just be able to hold its shape when piped, but should also be glossy-- about 1 1/2 cups of sugar should do.

Place whipped ganache in a piping bag fitted with a plain 1cm tip, and pipe half the macaron shells with a dollop of filling. Top with a piece of turkish delight before sandwiching with remaining halves.

Macarons are apparently better a couple of days after being filled, and prior to this recipe, I can't say I've really had many lying around after that point to really know the difference. I made these in the evening and had my first taste the morning after and could already taste how the flavour had developed and permeated the shell. So, if you can wait that long, fill them and leave them for at least a few hours, or a day if you are really self disciplined.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can.

fruit mince brownies

2010-12-02T18:46:00.000+10:00

When I saw the December/January issue of delicious displayed in my local newsagent, I felt both utterly elated and sorely disappointed. Elated: the cover is simply gorgeous. Disappointed: I don't have a copy! Elated: So, so many Christmas recipes and gift ideas. Disappointed: If I don't have my copy, and it's already in store, that means my subscription has officially ended. You get the picture.

Of course I bought it straight away, and have since poured over its pages repeatedly since this time last week. I love Christmas desserts that incorporate an element of Christmas cheer into my already favourite sweets. The recipe of last year was Christmas pudding ice cream (again, courtesy of delicious), and this year it's the fruit mince brownie. I plan on making my third batch in a week this coming weekend. I know what you're thinking, but just for the record, I've only had two servings though I could certainly have a lot more.

Ingredients (serves 12 generously)
Recipe courtesy of December/January issue of delicious.

200 gms good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

300 gms brown sugar

250 gms unsalted butter

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/3 cups plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup cocoa, plus extra for dusting

1/3 cup fruit mince

1 tsp mixed spice

1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 22cm square cake tin and line with baking paper.

Place chocolate, butter and sugar in a medium saucepan over a low heat, stirring until melted and well combined. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Stir in the eggs, followed by all other ingredients and mix until combined. Spread into the tin and bake for 25 minutes until just set. Allow to cool in pan, then dust with cocoa before cutting.

These are dreamily rich. If you think it will be borderline too rich (what, are you crazy?!), maybe omit the dusting of cocoa. Second time 'round, I upped the quantity of fruit mince, making it closer to 1/2 cup - maybe even more - and they still managed to set fine, but were of course even more moist. You could also increase the amount of mixed spice if you want a truly festive, spicy taste.

Now I'm dreaming of making fruit mince brownie ice cream! Aaaah!

Recommended baking soundtrack: The 6ths - Hyacinths and Thistles.

chocolate hazelnut tart

2010-11-30T19:46:00.001+10:00

Sometimes, life just gets in the way. I'm into my second week of a new job in a new city. I've reminded myself of how to utilise public transport again after I broke up with buses over ten years ago. I'm also doing surprisingly well navigating the roads without GPS! November certainly was a month of new experiences. And now a mere three hours away from December, I am left with no more excuses. So over the weekend, I finally test drove my 'new' oven. I think it's the beginning of a good relationship.

In my absence in both baking and blogging, I've still been hoarding recipes - magazines and cookbooks aplenty have been covered in post-it notes and ideas squirreled away for a moment when I finally had time to myself. One book full of many recipes such as these has been delicious' "More Please". Broken into seasons - much like another of my favourite cookbooks from the past year or so - it's overflowing with must-try recipes, both sweet and savoury... And takes a lot of wow factor for me to lust over a savoury recipe. First cab off the rank is this modest hazelnut tart.

My grandmother used to make a delicious peanut & caramel slice which I still often crave - and this tart is like a modern day version of that very slice, with the very welcome addition of dark chocolate. It's simple to make, especially if you are willing to pay a little more and buy the Careme pastry (which is truly delicious). Be aware it does take a while to set post-oven. I ended up chilling mine a little out of impatience.

Ingredients
Recipe from "delicious. More Please"

300 gm packet Careme dark chocolate shortcrust pastry (or see delicious for a basic chocolate pastry recipe)
1 cup thickened cream
60 gms unsalted butter
1/4 cup glucose syrup
1 cup caster sugar
2 1/3 cups hazelnuts, roasted and skins removed
50 gms dark chocolate

Allow pastry to thaw (approximately 1 - 2 hours at room temperature) and then roll out to 5mm thick. Line a 28cm loose-bottomed tart pan with your rolled pastry and chill for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180C.

Line the pastry with baking paper, fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice and blind bake for ten minutes. Remove baking paper and bake for a further five minutes until pastry has dried. Leave to cool while you make the filling.

Place the cream and butter in a small saucepan pan over medium heat and bring to just below boiling point. Remove from heat and set aside.
Place the glucose syrup and 1/3 cup water in a medium saucepan, then sprinkle with the sugar. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid is clear.
Increase the heat to high and cook, without stirring, until a golden honey colour. Remove from the heat, then carefully whisk the cream mixture into the toffee - it will foam up a little. Return the pan to a low heat and stir to dissolve any hard toffee bits. Add the nuts and cook for a minute. Pour the mixture into the tart shell and bake for about 20 minutes until the tart filling is firm. Remove from the oven and cool before removing from tin.

Just before serving, melt the chocolate and drizzle over the tart.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Andrew Bird - Useless Creatures.

frangelico tiramisu

2010-11-11T13:09:00.001+10:00

The past few weeks have been filled with a birth, a death, a job offer, a subsequent resignation from a six-year long job, and now packing for a move. To say I have felt overwhelmed would be an understatement. I am not one who handles change very well as it always seems to sneak up on me, violently arriving, slapping me around. I wouldn't say I'm resistant to change, but that I like to be able to anticipate it, be prepared for it - even if that preparation is merely mental. It doesn't really make any sense, but having the time to think about what's coming tricks me into believing I am then, as a result of pondering, ready and able. There are few things that console me when I'm freaking out, but routine is one of them. So how can I get a sense of routine when my whole world is blurring past at a frantic pace? I can bake.

I recently got a copy of Nigella Lawson's Kitchen, but up until yesterday, hadn't even opened it's pages. This is not like me. So flicking through it yesterday in an attempt to console myself, I found a recipe that was absolutely perfect for mood, my busy schedule, and my small amount of kitchen supplies that haven't found it's way to a taped-up box. Tiramisu. A booooozy tiramisu.

This recipe really is a breeze, barely involving any effort at all. Aside from the six hour rest period, it took me about ten minutes to make. This, in combination with my usual skepticism about tiramisu, I wasn't so certain the result would be anything but ordinary - but I was pleasantly surprised. The espresso flavour (though made slightly weaker than suggested due to a low supply of coffee!) is made even more rich by a whole cup of Frangelico. So if you do have this liqueur sitting in a cabinet, like I did, it's a great way to use it up quite quickly.

Ingredients (serves 12, or fills a 24cm square dish)
Recipe from Nigella Lawson's 'Kitchen'

250 mls espresso coffee (or 8 tsp of good quality espresso powder dissolved in 250 mls boiling water)
250 mls Frangelico hazelnut liqueur
30 (about about 375 gms) savoiardi biscuits (approximately)

2 eggs, separated
75 gms caster sugar
500 gms mascarpone
60 mls Frangelico (extra)
100 gms chopped roasted and skinned hazelnuts
3 tsp cocoa powder

Combine the coffee and 250 mls Frangelico in a jug, stir to combine and allow to cool slightly.

Beat the egg whites until frothy. In a separate bowl, beat the yolks, sugar and extra 60 mls Frangelico until sugar dissolves. Add the mascarpone, beating well to combine. Then, fold the egg whites into mascarpone mixture, mixing until well combined.

Pour half the coffee-liqueur mixture into a shallow bowl. Dunk enough biscuits to cover the bottom of your dish in the mixture - ensure they absorb some liquid but beware they will fall apart quite quickly! Pour any leftover liquid over biscuit layer.

Put half the mascarpone mixture on top of the soaked biscuit layer and spread evenly.

Pour the remaining coffee-liqueur mixture into the shallow bowl and make another, final layer of biscuits, dipping as before and layering on top of the mascarpone in your dish. Again, pour any remaining liquid over the biscuit layer, and cover with the final layer of mascarpone mixture.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

When ready to serve, mix the chopped hazelnuts with 2 tsp cocoa. Sprinkle over your tiramisu, then dust with a final tsp of cocoa powder, pushing it through a sieve for lighter coverage over, as Nigella puts it, the "nut-rubbly tiramisu". She has such a way with words.

Nigella helpfully adds that this can be kept refrigerated for up to four days in total. Alternatively, it can be kept in the freezer sans hazelnut-cocoa mix within a layer of plastic wrap and foil for up to three months! It can then be defrosted in the fridge overnight. This would be such a good idea if I had freezer space...

This is definitely a recipe I will come back to, much to the delight of my better half. It's smooth and rich, and the booze hits quite hard, in a good way. It is handy to have the liqueur laying around as I did, however, as I imagine a regular introduction of this dish would also bring a decent dent in my hip pocket. The frothy egg whites also add a particular lightness to it, which I think it really needs.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Belle & Sebastian - Write About Love.

honey & buttermilk panna cotta

2010-10-26T06:53:00.003+10:00

As much as I love cookbooks, I adore cooking magazines - my absolute favourites being delicious, Australian Gourmet Traveller (if you hadn't already noticed), and Donna Hay. Having a collection of your own personal cookbooks is obviously a necessity, but there's just something about receiving a new, shiny collection of seasonal recipes every month that gets me excited like a five year old on Christmas morning. My boyfriend usually checks the mail, and after he hand delivers me a copy of my newly arrived subscription, my reading ritual is to rip the packet open and immediately flick through the pages, just once through. I "oooh" and I "aaaah" out loud, but then put it down. It's not until I have a cup of tea, and at least half an hour to myself that I sit down and pour over the recipes. Admittedly, some issues appeal to me more thank others, but there is always one or two recipes that simply scream "COOK ME, EAT ME!". In the October/November issue of Donna Hay, the recipes in the entire magazine were all fighting for my attentions.

Out of all of the Summery recipes, Donna Hay's recipe for honey & buttermilk panna cotta has won my heart for the most immediately appealing recipe, which brings me to my third honey recipe for the week. It is so incredibly simple and quick, perfect for a weeknight dessert. Or an any-night dessert, in fact. Just remember to factor in setting time, which is really quite quick.

I dedicate this post to my dear friend Chris as, for some unexplainable reason, panna cottas always remind me of him. So Chris: Get you blog up and running already, forgoodnesssake!

Ingredients (makes 4)
Recipe from Donna Hay

1 tsp gelatine powder
2 tbsps water
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup pouring cream
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
1 tbsp honey

Sprinkle gelatine over water in a bowl, then stir to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes until the gelatine is absorbed.

Place the buttermilk, cream, sugar and vanilla bean and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat, and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the gelatine and cook, stirring for 2 - 3 minutes until the gelatine has dissolved. Strain and allow to cool completely.

Place 1 tsp honey in the bases of four 1/2 cup capacity glasses. Pour over the cooled cream mixture and refrigerate for at least two hours until set.

I love the texture buttermilk gives to cakes, but this was the first instance I'd used the gorgeous ingredient for anything unbaked. In this instance, it's perfect - the sticky sweetness of the honey lingering at the bottom of the glass is broken up perfectly by the tartness of the buttermilk.

As I previously mentioned, this is really quick recipe to whip up, which makes the final product even sweeter.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Horse Feathers - House With No Home.

lady grey & honey madeleines

2010-10-24T18:41:00.001+10:00

Trying to think of another soft, delicate recipe to take advantage of my current honey obsession, madeleines sprung to mind instantly, and of course they did-- Dainty and light as a feather, madeleines and honey are a perfect match. To make me even happier, I stumbled across a recipe that throws my absolute favourite black tea blend - lady grey - into the mix. I was in heaven.

This recipe is quick and easy, even taking into consideration the recipe's insistence that the mixture needs time to rest in the fridge for a few hours. It's still so simple to quickly whip up the batter, leave it in the fridge and slide then into the oven for mere minutes as your guests are arriving (or your stomach is rumbling). Your house will also smell absolutely beautiful.

Ingredients (makes 12 - 16)

Recipe adapted from telegraph.co.uk

70 gms unsalted butter
2 tbsps loose Lady Grey tea, or contents of 2 tea bags
100 gms plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
pinch of sea salt
2 eggs
70 gms caster sugar
2 tbsps honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp grated orange zest

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat, then mix in the tea leaves, swirling to disperse them. Leave for ten minutes to infuse, then pour through a tea strainer. Squish the tea leaves right into the strainer to get as much butter (and flavour!) out of them as possible.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer (with whisk attachment if possible), beat the eggs and sugar together until thick, light and fluffy. Add the honey, vanilla and orange zest and beat for a further minute. Gently fold in the dry ingredients by hand, followed by the tea-flavoured butter. Cover the surface with plastic wrap refrigerate for at least two hours or up to a day. This is essential to allow the flavours to develop.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Thoroughly grease a 12 capacity madeleine tin with either melted butter or cooking spray. Drop about one tablespoon of batter into each mould, not worrying about smoothing the tops as it will spread out during baking. The mixture made 16 madeleines for me, and is fine to be left at room temperature while your first batch bakes if you don't have two tins. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake until the madeleines are golden. This will take about ten minutes, but keep a close eye on them, as they brown quickly! Test them with a skewer if necessary to ensure they're ready.

Quickly tap the madeleine tin on the work surface to loosen the cakes before turning them on to a wire rack to cool slightly. Dust with icing sugar to serve, if you can wait that long.

You can really - not surprisingly by the smell of my house - taste the lady grey tea, albeit a beautiful subtle flavour. I've made some pretty fine madeleines in my time (including a spicy chocolate variety with accompanying dipping sauce) but this is surely the finest. This flavour could not possibly be any more perfect for Spring.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Best Coast - Crazy For You.

oh, honey cupcakes with marshmallow icing

2010-10-21T21:18:00.001+10:00

Lately, wherever I look I seem to find dreamy, honey inspired sweets. Naomi from hello naomi recently created an absolutely stunning bee hive cake. Linda from Bubble and Sweet made some busy bee cookies, topped with wonderful little bumble bees. And now, Donna Hay's October/November issue is filled with honey inspired desserts, including cookies, panna cotta and bundt cakes. I want in on this action.

I've used a beautiful honey cake recipe to make cupcakes topped with a fluffy, light vanilla marshmallow frosting. I credit my bees to Linda at Bubble and Sweet, though hers are much more inspirational! Don't be put off by the extra work - they are fiddly but so simple, and add so much to the otherwise rather plain looking cupcake.

Ingredients (makes 15)
For cakes:
200 gms unsalted butter, softened
185 gms soft brown sugar
3 eggs
1/3 cup honey, warmed
280 gms self raising flour

For icing:
3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tsps glucose syrup
pinch of cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
dash of yellow food colouring

For decorating:
200 gms fondant
yellow food colouring
black food colouring

For the cakes, preheat your oven to 180C. Line two standard muffin tins with 15 paper cases.
Beat the butter and brown sugar until light and cream. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Fold in the honey and flour until combined. The mixture should be beautiful and creamy.

Divide the mixture among 15 cases and bake for 20 minutes until lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack immediately and cool completely.

Meanwhile, for your bumble bees, tint roughly 180 gms of fondant yellow to make the bee-bodies. Roll small balls into oval shapes at your desired size. My bees are about 1 - 1.5 cms and this quantity of fondant made about 30 bees. Using either a fine paintbrush or a toothpick, paint stripes, eyes and a smiling mouth on each of your bees. Allow to dry. Using the remaining uncoloured fondant, squish small amounts to form wing shapes. Press two wings onto each bee, using a little water to secure if necessary. Set bees aside to dry and firm up slightly.

The make the marshmallow icing, combine the egg whites, sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and 100 mls water in a heatproof bowl (preferably the bowl of your electric mixer to save on washing up). Sit the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, and whisk quite vigorously for five minutes until mixture is light and foamy. Alternatively, if you you have handheld beaters, you could use these - it will save you time and sweat! Remove from heat. Add vanilla and beat with electric mixers on a high speed until stiff peaks form. Add the food colouring until the desired strength of yellow and beat until just combined.

Generously pipe fluffy icing onto each cake using a plain 1cm tip. Top with a bumble bee. I find it better to secure bees with a toothpick, pierced through the the cake, but this is not necessary.

These cakes were a huge hit at work today, with all 16 being scooped up before I left for the night. Perhaps next time I'll fill them with creamed honey, or even a honey infused custard. Custard makes everything better.

Stay tuned for more honey inspired recipes over the weekend!

Recommended baking soundtrack: Ola Podrida - Belly of the Lion.

strawberry meringue layer cake: a lesson in small failures

2010-10-11T13:23:00.002+10:00

A quick post and a quick recipe! Recently, I've been purchasing too many strawberries. Now, I am a huge strawberry enthusiast - they're surely one of the most aesthetically adorable fruits; they're great fresh, frozen and pureed; and are delicious in desserts, salads or eaten straight from the punnet. For me to say I have gone overboard means I have really bought too many for even me to consume and enjoy. So when myself and two of my closest friends went to visit the other member of our quartet who had recently come out of hospital, it was a great excuse to bring a cake to use up some of my strawberry supply.

As I mentioned, this cake is so easy and delicious. Who would have thought it was possible to layer sponge batter and meringue in the same tin to make what I like to call a macaron cake. It's obviously not like a macaron, but the way the sponge form a foot to a puffy, golden meringue top reminded me of the satisfaction of pulling a good batch of macarons from the oven.

Two of these beautifully light cakes sandwiched with Chantilly cream and an abundance of fresh strawberries was a huge hit, and hopefully lifted the spirits of our patient.

Ingredients
Recipe from Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson

For cake:

125 gms plain flour

25 gms cornflour

a 1/2 tsps baking powder

100 gms unsalted butter, softened

300 gms caster sugar

4 eggs, separated

50 gms flaked almonds

2 tbsps milk

2 tsps vanilla bean paste

For filling:

375 mls double cream

1/4 cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

250 gms strawberries

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line, butter and flour 2 x 22cm spring form tins.

Weigh out the flour, cornflour and baking powder into a bowl. Cream the butter and 100 gms of the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add the egg yolks and beat until combined. Gently fold in the dry ingredients, add the vanilla, and stir through the milk to thin the batter. Divide the mixture evenly among the two prepared tins.

Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, and then gradually add the remaining caster sugar. Spread a layer of meringue over the top of the sponge batter in both tins. Sprinkle almonds evenly over tops. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, until the tops of each have puffed and the almonds are golden. Let the cakes cool in their tins.

Whip the double cream with vanilla and icing sugar until smooth. Sandwich your cake generously with cream and strawberries.

Now, I should mention that I loathe my oven. Yes, it's a bit of an excuse to blame your oven for imperfections (a workman never blames his tools etc.), but I have tried very hard to work with its weaknesses and this effort is often the source of many frustrations. This cake was no exception - I burnt some of the almonds and areas of the sponge's crust :( And only after about 15 minutes of cooking time! So, be aware of a potential shorter cooking time if your relationship with your oven is anything like mine. But with time, I have been able to realise that one of the best things about baking - despite my high standards sometimes being crippling to my ego - is that the results are always edible and enjoyed by all. Even me.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People.

homemade wagon wheels

2010-10-04T16:45:00.003+10:00

As I type this, I'm seeing the first peak of sunshine we've had in four days. I was lucky enough to have a rare three day weekend to myself after a very busy couple of months, and I only had one thing planned: nothing. The rain was a nice companion to stop me from feeling guilty to stay inside, but was also a motivator to bake some cookies. "I'm going to bake some cookies", I say to my lovely boyfriend. "Oh yessssss!", he replies. You see, I never bake cookies. Well, rarely ever.

After flicking through books and magazines all morning, I had a break with a cup of tea, read some food blogs, and of course stumbled on tartelette's blog, which is a common time waster for me. Here, after trawling through many pages, I found some chocolate covered marshmallows, a recipe that came from a daring baker's challenge. What really got me excited was the pairing of chocolate, marshmallows and PEANUT BUTTER! However, I decided to stick to something familiar - raspberry jam - in an attempt to recreate and improve on one of our favourite cookies: the wagon wheel. My version is a little chubbier, and therefore more tasty. Of course!

Rather than use tartelette's cookie recipe, I've used my favourite shortbread cookie recipe. You could even do a nice chocolate butter cookie.

Ingredients
Recipe adapted from tartlette

For the cookies:
250 gms unsalted butter, softened
1 cup pure icing sugar, sifted
330 gms plain flour
1/4 cup cornflour
1 egg white, lightly beaten, for brushing

For the marshmallows:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup glucose syrup
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tbsp powdered gelatin
2 tbsps cold water
2 egg whites, room temperature
2 tsps vanilla bean paste

For the chocolate glaze:
340 gms dark chocolate
vegetable oil

For the cookies, beat butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add flour and cornflour, stirring until a soft dough forms. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, knead until just smooth and form into a disc. Cover with glad wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160C. Roll out shortbread on a lightly floured surface until 5mm thick. Cut 4.5cm diameter rounds and place on baking trays lined with baking paper. Refrigerate until firm, then prick cookies with a fork and brush lightly with egg white. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes until cookies are lightly golden, remove from oven and cool completely on trays before moving to a wire rack. Dollop a small amount of raspberry jam in the centre of each cookie (about 1/4 tsp).

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until it reaches soft-ball stage, or 115C on a candy thermometer. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix. Whisk the whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites. Add the vanilla bean paste and continue whipping until stiff. Transfer to a pastry bag. Pipe marshmallow onto each cookie, then allow to sit at room temperature for 1 - 2 hours. You want to marshmallow to begin to set, which will make it easier to coat in chocolate glaze.

Melt the chocolate and 1/4 cup vegetable oil together in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Add more oil as needed until glaze is as runny as desired. I lost count at how much I used, but am guessing it was about 1/2 cup. Adding too much runs the risk of the glaze sliding off your marshmallow peaks, not to mention your chocolate tasting oily, so add gradually and with cautio. Allow to cool for 10 - 15 mins.

Line a tray with baking paper. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the warm chocolate glaze. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Place on the prepared trayand let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

I was admittedly very nervous fully submerging the marshmallow topped cookies into the still warm chocolate, but they're very resilient! I was impatient and set mine in the fridge, as you can see by their frosty exterior, but I liked the choolate with a bit of crack. I will definitely be doing some more experimenting with this lovely recipe in the near future.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Fresh & Onlys - Play It Strange (this album is so, so good).

congratulations madelyn & brad

2010-10-01T10:57:00.000+10:00

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of being a bridesmaid and a baker for one of my dearest friends - Madelyn - on her special day. I've known and adored Madelyn for over ten years, so I felt truly lucky that I could contribute to her and Brad's wedding day. Her only request was for the cupcakes to be based on a batch that I made for her birthday the previous year, which were baked with inspiration from her all-time favourite sweet - caramel slice. And for there to be eighty of them.

The original cakes were a simple caramel mudcake, filled with caramel fudge sauce and topped with rich ganache. I did, however, have doubts at how these would look on a cupcake tower in the middle of a formal dining room.

I've baked for large formal occasions and weddings before, but baking for a close friend for their wedding brings a little more pressure than I expected. I knew she would be happy with whatever I chose to do (and she really did leave the decorating up to me!), but I really wanted these cakes to be as special as the couple Madelyn and Brad are. If you knew them, you'd understand, though I think this might be a common feeling with the marriage of friends.

So, I subtly tweaked the appearance of the cakes to make them look a little more classic-- this is always easy enough to do with a whipped (chocolate) butter cream piped on each cake. I also stamped some fondant with the happy couple's initials and topped each cake with either a 'B' or an 'H'. This was a really simple but classy way of adding the colour of our bridesmaids dresses and the accent colour of the room into the dessert.

This is also reflected in the tiered caramel mudcake that sat atop the cupcake stand for Madelyn & Brad to cut.

It was an absolutely beautiful day. Again, congratulations Madelyn & Brad. Everyone who knows you loves you even more as a married couple xo

salted peanut & caramel ice cream with hot fudge sauce

2010-09-26T11:00:00.000+10:00

There is a serious gap in the recipe-market for good, dark chocolate sauces. Ganache has its place in my heart and in desserts, but it's just no substitute for a good rich and fudgey sauce. I've tried many, from multiple sources: they may have been rich, but by no means thick, gooey and fudgey. And then at last, I found it, thanks once again to Australian Gourmet Traveller. And it was then that I discovered the secret ingredients to a good chocolate fudge: liquid glucose, and cooking time long enough for the ingredients to emulsify.

I've also neglected my beautiful ice cream maker for far too long. What better excuse could I possibly have to make fudge sauce than a need to dust off the ol' ice cream machine.

So here is the simple recipe, accompanied by another for a fantastic recipe for salted peanut ice cream. This combination, says my better half, is snickers in ice cream form. I think it's better.

Ingredients
Recipe from Australian Gourmet Traveller

For ice cream:
180 gms raw unsalted peanuts
290 gms caster sugar
900 mls pouring cream
60 gms butter, chopped
8 egg yolks
200 mls milk
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

For fudge sauce:
65 gms dark chocolate, chopped
10 gms unsalted butter
75 gms caster sugar
70 gms liquid glucose
2 tsps cocoa powder

For the ice cream, preheat oven to 180C. Place peanuts on a baking tray, roast until golden and fragrant then rub between a tea towel to remove skins. Coarsely chop and set aside.

Combine 140 gms of sugar and 50 mls water in a saucepan, stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, bring to the boil and cook until dark caramel in colour. Remove from heat, carefully add 100 mls cream, butter and 1 tsp sea salt and stir to combine. Return to heat, cook until smooth and then cool to room temperature. Stir in 40 gms roasted peanuts.

Meanwhile, whisk yolks and remaining sugar in a heatproof bowl until thick and pale. Bring milk, vanilla bean and seeds, remaining cream and remaining roasted peanuts to the boil in a large saucepan, then pour over egg mixture, whisking to combine. Return to pan, stir continuously over medium heat until mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon thickly. Strain into a bowl placed over ice, discarding any solids. Cool completely, then freeze in an ice-cream machine. Fold through salted peanut-caramel to form a ripple effect and freeze until firm. Try to chose a container that's as close to the capacity of ice cream you've made as possible - the more airspace you have in the container, the more likely ice crystals will form. - this recipe makes about 1.2 litres.

Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth and combined. Combine remaining ingredients and 80 mls water in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then add chocolate mixture. Return to the boil and cook over high heat without stirring, shaking pan to dissolve lumps until well emulsified. Set aside and keep warm until ready to serve.

This sauce does get better with age, though I haven't been able to experiment to determine exactly how long it lasts. It also reheats splendidly on the stove or in the microwave. It does this marvelous thing when it hits the cold ice cream where it begins to harden again, becoming a little chewy, which is just amazing. A winner of my heart.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Real Estate - Reality.

mint chocolate tarts

2010-09-14T20:22:00.002+10:00

To say that I love the combination of mint and chocolate would be an understatement, a love my sister and I have always shared. I adore mint slice biscuits, but something is... missing with them. I eat them in enjoyment, but could never put my finger on why I was always a little disappointed, or what I would change about them.

I have also, more recently, fallen in love with Christine Adams, responsible for the wonderful desserts at Neil Perry's Rockpool restaurants. This is mostly due to her six page dessert spread in this months Australian Gourmet Traveller, but also because she has helped me find the elusive something missing from mint slice. Ooziness. Simply put, they're not generous enough. Mint slice give you the flavour, but not in the quantity I need. I want oozy but still slightly firm mint. I want a thicker coating of soft dark chocolate. This tart, my friends, is all of these things and more, and it's such a well written and simple recipe.

Ingredients (makes 6 small, or 12 slightly smaller)
Recipe adapted from September issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller

For pastry:
200 gms unsalted butter, softened
140 gms pure icing sugar, sifted
1 egg yolk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
200 gms plain flour
30 gms Dutch-processed cocoa

For mint fondant:
200 gms fondant, coarsely chopped, softened
10 mint leaves
3 - 4 drops mint oil or extract

For ganache:
70 gms softened butter
285 gms Valrhona Guanaja (or the best quality 70% cocoa solid you can afford) chocolate, finely chopped
310 mls pouring cream

For the pastry, preheat oven to 180C. Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and creamy (4 minutes). Add yolk and vanilla and mix until combined. Sift flour and cocoa together, add to butter mixture and mix until just combined. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, then knead lightly to combine and form into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled (1-2 hours).

Divide mixture into 6 or 12, depending on size of tart tins you're using, then roll out each piece on a lightly floured bench to 3-4mm-thick and line twelve 6cm or six 9cm tartlet cases sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Trim edges, refrigerate until chilled, then prick bases and blind bake until set (10-12 minutes). Remove paper and weights and bake until for 8 - 10 minutes, until pastry is cooked on the base. Cool on a wire rack, then remove tart tins.

For mint fondant, process fondant and mint in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a heatproof bowl, cover with foil and melt over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat, add 1-1½ tsp water to thin to pouring consistency, then add mint oil drop by drop to taste. Divide among tart cases and stand at room temperature until set.

For ganache, beat butter in a bowl with a spatula until soft and creamy. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside. Bring cream to the boil in a small saucepan and pour over chocolate. Stand for a minute, then stir slowly with a spatula until melted and smooth. Add butter a little at a time, stirring gently until incorporated, then pour into tart cases over fondant. Stand for about an hour or until chocolate has set.

The result is simply beautiful-- it's so nice to get a fleck of fresh mint in the fondant, and the soft just set shiny-ganache is beautiful with the crispy shell. Keep in mind the strength of the mint has to compete with the double chocolate, so I made it quite strong for this reason, which I was very happy with. I just adore everything about this recipe, and imagine it becoming a regular rotation in my sweets schedule. I do have to share it with my sister, after all.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Benoît Pioulard - Temper.

chouquette: a review

2010-09-12T21:02:00.001+10:00

I don't usually do reviews. I feel somewhat uncomfortable about taking photos in restaurants - mostly due to my camera being so old, me never deleting photos, and the reload speed unbearable as a result of both! - and I also have a terribly sparse and sporadic memory, so by the time I sit down to write my experiences, the finer details are a little faded. Also, how many synonyms for "lovely" could there possibly be?

It's been a while since I've blogged, but not baked. I seem to have many excuses, including working on and submitting assessments coming close to 25 000 words and baking for and hosting my sister's baby shower. So today when my better half and I headed to New Farm to visit Chouquette, I figured now is as a good time to come back into orbit of the blogosphere. Ugh, I hate that word. A dear friend and coworker of mine recommended this tiny, character-riddled patisserie months back, but I've just never found the time or opportunity to visit. It took Australian Gourmet Traveller to mention in its 2011 Australian Restaurant Guide for me to make it a priority.

We arrived around 10:30am to find this little cafe bustling, all seats taken, and very shortly a line out the door after us. We were served by friendly, efficient and patient staff, and each chose two treats, which was hard only because of the variety and quality on display. We then ducked off to New Farm park to enjoy the morning and our bounty of goods. My first course: a macaron. Of course.

Chocolate macaron - $2.70

I should have placed this baby next a 50c piece to show its size - it was huge! More importantly, it was delicious - slightly crispy, chocolatey and chewy. Despite sharing a little, what impressed me most was my ability to eat it all. It wasn't sickly sweet like macarons can be.

Tarte au chocolat & Tarte au citron - $6 each

After a break, a walk and a coffee, we went halves in a tarte au citron and tarte au chocolat. The pastry on each was beautiful and crispy. The lemon tart was rich and eggy, and the chocolate ganache filling was velvety smooth. Despite my boyfriend's resistance to eating aluminium foil ("It's silver leaf!", I tell him through laughter), we were both in heaven.

I will definitely be back to Chouquette, but will plan to arrive a little during weekends. I appreciate and admire cafes and restaurants that cook a batch and simply sell out if there's high demand, rather than churning out a product en masse and have an abundance of stock in cabinets. It makes you appreciate acquiring something special. My macaroon left two lonely ones behind, and they were all out of chocolate eclairs, so if you're after something in particular best get there early.

Chouquette

19 Barker St New Farm QLD 4005

07 3358 6336

Wednesday to Saturday - 6.30am to 5.00pm

Sunday - 6.30am to 12.30pm

ginger kisses with espresso cream

2010-09-05T19:08:00.000+10:00

As a general rule, I think most things taste better homemade. Most. There are those few exceptions that, no matter how hard I try (or sometimes, simply don't!), I just can't beat the store bought experience. Until recently, doughnuts were in this category. Another: the ginger kiss. Has anyone tried the supermarket variety? How do they get the sponge so soft?! And light. And gingery! I've tried a variety of recipes, some with vanilla cream, one with honey (which actually worked really well), and reading through Philip Johnson's 'Eating In', I discovered a partnership with espresso that I simply couldn't deny. So, on this lovely rainy day, I tried to replicate that beautiful texture once more.

Ingredients (makes 24)

For kisses:

40 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature

125 gms caster sugar

1 tsb golden syrup

225 gms plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

2 eggs, beaten

icing sugar for dusting

For espresso cream:

150 gms unsalted butter

300 gms icing sugar, sifted

3 tsp hot espresso (or more, to taste)

Preheat oven to 200C. Grease and line two baking trays with baking paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and golden syrup until light and pale. In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Gradually add the beaten eggs to the butter mixture, alternating with the dry ingredients, mixing well to combine.

Pipe mixture onto trays using a 1cm plain tube - use about 1 tsp of mixture for each. Bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden, and cool completely on trays.

For espresso cream, cream the butter and icing sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and pale. Add the espresso and mix well - I ended up using about 4 tsp for a stronger taste and added some more icing sugar to balance the texture. Spread or pipe cream onto the base of a ginger kiss, and sandwich with another biscuit. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

The end result is surely the closest I've come to the store-bought variety. It's a lovely and simple recipe, and the espresso flavour is fantastic, though I added a little more than suggested. However, I will still be a frequent consumer of supermarket kisses. They're just too smooth and soft to say no to.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Lower Dens - Twin-Hand Movement.

pistacho & rose macarons

2010-08-21T15:03:00.002+10:00

It seems I'm rarely ever baking simply because I want to eat something. I'm not just baking because I'm craving choux pastry and custard, or because I've got a spare hour in a day to make chocolate chip cookies. I've always got a new product I want to try out. A new cookie cutter, piping tip or bundt tin. Today, it was a recently purchased Jane Lamerton tea set and a simple little pot of 'Kelly Green' Wilton food gel that gave me the craving to cook.

There's nothing wrong with this. I adore baking, whatever it is or whatever it's for. It's just a shame that I tend to neglect some poor recipes once I have conquered them. I should be more loyal to ones that have treated me kind.

But, today I made macarons. Of course. Rose and pistachio: a fairly safe and tasty combination. But more importantly, I just simply cannot get over how perfectly the beautiful greens of my tea set and this food gel match! I adore this colour. Forgive me if all of my creations are from this point forward 'Kelly Green'.

I figured I would also try yet another macaron recipe for this morning's project, and adapted one used by Linda @ Bubble and Sweet, based on a recipe by Pierre Hermé.

Ingredients (makes 46! depending on size)

For macaron shells:
300 gms ground almonds
300 gms pure icing sugar
220 gms egg whites, aged at least 3 days, separated into 2 lots of 110 gms
dash green food colouring (gel or powder is preferable as less is required)
300 gms granulated sugar
75 gms water
50 gms pistachios, finely chopped

For rose buttercream:
460 gms icing sugar, sifted
225 gms unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoons cream
1 tsp rosewater, or more to taste
dash pink food coloring

Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together and pulse a few times in food processor to make almond meal finer. Do not over process as the meal can become oily. Sieve into a large bowl. Add food colour ing and 110 gms of the egg whites to the sugar/almond mixture but don’t mix in. Set aside.

Place remaining 110 gms of egg whites in bowl of mixer fitted with the whisk.
Place granulated sugar and water into saucepan, stir to combine and cook without stirring to 118C. Once the mixture reaches 115C start mixing the egg whites on high. Once the sugar syrup reaches 118C remove from heat and immediately pour in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl continuing to whisk on high. The eggs whites should be at firm peaks by the time your syrup reaches this stage. Continue to whisk the meringue on high until the side of the bowl is only a little warm to touch. The meringue mixture should be beautifully glossy.

Add meringue mixture to almond mixture and using a large spatula fold the mixture together until it starts to shine and forms a ribbon that stays visible for about 30 seconds.

Add the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe in lines onto baking trays lined with baking paper. Tap trays on the bench a few times to eliminate any air bubbles. Sprinkle with pistachios.
Set aside for about 30 minutes or until the macarons have formed a skin that doesn't stick to your finger.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 140C . Bake the macaroons for around 13 to 15 minutes depending on size, they should not be browned. Remove the baking trays and immediately slide off the macarons and the baking paper onto the work surface and let cool completely before removing the shells.

For rose buttercream, beat butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sifted sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add the cream and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the rosewater, adding a little more or a little less depending on your own taste.Add a little more cream or confectioners sugar to reach the desired consistency.

Once shells have cooled, match disks into like sizes and sandwich together using the rose butter cream. I piped the buttercream on, but it could easily be spread on if you a little less sweetness. And these are pretty sweet!

I love the result of this recipe and I really hope I remember to come back to it next time I'm messing around with flavour combinations. My shells were a bit puffy, but I think I could have mixed the mixture a little more; it's always so hard to tell. But the surface and feet of each beautiful. Now what to do with close to 50 macarons...

Recommended baking soundtrack: Au Revoir Simone - The Bird of Music.

cupcake day for rspca

2010-08-17T16:58:00.001+10:00

RSPCA Cupcake Day is a wonderful event where two of my favourite things comes together: cats & cakes. Alright, cats and dogs & cakes. Admittedly, in previous years I have been too busy to make a decent effort for this wonderful cause and although this year was no different, I thought I'd give it a go.

For those of you not in the know, RSPCA's cupcake day is the largest bake-off in the Southern hemisphere, supporting RSPCA to do what they do best - running shelters for abused, injured and abandoned animals, and investigating cases of animal cruelty. A number of lovely people sponsored me online, and I was also supported by my co-workers who purchased cakes both out of a desire to assist, and maybe a little bit of pity.

The cake is a simple vanilla bean sponge with a strawberry custard filling.

Three dozen cakes all boxed up and ready to go!

If you're interested in this fantastic cause, it's not too late. You can still sponsor me, or donate to RSPCA any time of year.

mini apple pies

2010-08-16T12:00:00.002+10:00

Confession: I'm a perfectionist. Aren't we all, at something? When it comes to cooking, baking, making, I like to be neat. Organised. I like things to look fancy and fine, if possible. For this reason, I tend to steer clear of sweet treats with "character", ones that are clumsy looking, even in an endearing way. Imperfection is not an option.

Don't get me wrong, I love beautifully homemade-looking things. There's nothing nicer than a receiving a charming and imperfect cookie, an oozy piece of slice, or slightly crooked cake. I just… don't tend to make any of them very much, to the disappointment of many around me who just prefer the simple things. So, I recently made a heart-warming apple pie. Well, miniature, adorable apple pies. That still counts, right?

Ingredients (makes 6)

Recipe courtesy of August issue of Delicious

For pastry:
1 2/3 cup plain flour

1/3 cup caster sugar

150 gms unsalted butter, chopped

1 egg yolk

For filling:

1 kg green apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm cubes

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp milk

For pastry, place the flour, sugar, butter and a pinch of salt in a food processor and whiz until fine crumbs form. Add yolk and mix until mixture comes together to form a ball. Enclose pastry in plastic wrap and chill for 30 mins.

For apple filling, place apple, sugar, vanilla pod and seeds in a saucepan with 1/4 cup water. Cover and cook and a low heat for 5 - 8 mins or until apple is tender. Discard the vanilla pod. Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp water until smooth, then stir into the apple mixture for a minute until juices have thickened. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 190C. Grease 6 holes of a 12 capacity loose-bottom cheesecake pan (or a texas muffin pan). Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface until 2 - 3mm thick. Using a 12cm cutter, cut six rounds to line each hole. Divide the apple mixture among the holes.

Re-roll out the remaining pastry again to 2 - 3mm thick. Cut six 8cm rounds for form lids. Brush the edges of each tart with water before placing lids on and pressing around edges to seal. Brush with milk and sprinkle with caster sugar.

Bake pies for 30 mins or until lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool for ten minutes before removing from pan.

Although I resigned to the fact these little pies would not be perfect, I was still slightly disappointed with one or two of them, who simply refused to come out of the trays without becoming squished. What better reason than to eat them warm, straight from the oven, so I have no evidence to later remind that I'm a mere human, afterall.

Best served with cream and a dusting of cinnamon, and taste fine reheated a few days after making. I had a small quantity of apple mixture remaining after I had used all the pastry, so cut down on a few apples to a few shy of a kilo if you wish.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Horse Feathers - House With No Home.

annette's birthday bash

2010-08-09T19:56:00.002+10:00

Clockwise, from bottom: Raspberry & coconut cake, chocolate & cherry cake, white russian cake, chocolate & orange cake, ginger & honeycomb cake. Centre: Lemon & coconut meringue cake.

I had the pleasure of attending - and baking for - one of my dear co-worker's 60th birthday on Saturday evening. 60 guests, 70 gluten-free cupcakes. Two days of baking.

Annette is the perfect customer. She had all six cake varieties chosen weeks before the event, and had bought me almost all of the ingredients the week before! To make sure the cakes were as fresh as possible, I decided to do the baking on Friday, the decorating on Saturday. This meant a relaxed pace without stress, and even some room for failure. I didn't, however, anticipate running out of ingredients I simply never run out of - cream, ground ginger, caster sugar. So instead of finishing at around lunch on Saturday, I was boxing them all up five minutes before walking out the door. Despite the severe feeling of anxiety, there's something so wonderful about baking-adrenalin. What's even more wonderful is seeing a whole room full of people consuming your baked treats.

Happy birthday, Annette.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Andrew Bird back catalogue.

tiramisu cupcakes

2010-08-01T21:07:00.001+10:00

I will always, always choose tea or tea flavoured items over coffee. Because of this, I just never got tiramisu. Now, I know tiramisu is more than just coffee flavoured sponge, but it is so often done wrong you can hardly blame me. That was all until a lovely friend took me to Cafe Sopra in Waterloo. It was then and there that my opinion and affections for tiramisu changed for the better.

This little cake comes nowhere near my Sopra experience. I've seen many incarnations of tiramisu in cupcake form, but a lot are underwhelming. At the very least, this cake is just a good tiramisu should be: simple. Martha Stewart's sponge recipe originally called for cake flour, but I've substituted with gluten-free plain flour, and due to it's cornflour-ish texture, I think it works perfectly.

Ingredients

(Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart)

For cakes:

1 1/4 cups gluten-free plain flour sifted
3/4 tsp gluten-free baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

55 gms unsalted butter, chopped and softened
3 large eggs

3 egg yolks
1 cup caster sugar

For syrup:
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly brewed very strong coffee (or espresso)
30 mls marsala
1/4 cup caster sugar

For frosting:
1 cup double cream
225 gms mascarpone, room temperature
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted

Coca powder (or chocolate shavings), to dust.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until melted, and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, and discard vanilla-bean pod.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow.

Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches. Stir about 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken. This will make it easier to incorporate in into the mixture. Fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely.

One cakes have cooled, brush tops of each evenly with coffee-marsala syrup; repeat until all syrup has been used. This will take a while as you'll need to wait for each addition of syrup to be absorbed before adding the next addition. Be patient-- you really do need the full amount of syrup on each cake for it to have the right amount of flavour. After the final brush of syrup, allow cakes to sit for further 30 minutes.

With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and icing sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Dollop or pipe frosting onto cupcakes. Dust generously with cocoa powder.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele - The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele.

macaron challenge v3.0: raspberry & chocolate macarons

2010-07-27T21:31:00.001+10:00

Is it horribly self-indulgent for people to google themselves? Yesterday, for the first time, I googled myself: "mybuttoncake". Funnily, the first result was a link to twitter. Alison Thompson's twitter! The Alison Thompson who brought us 'Macaron'. This is the best thing that has happened to me all week, and despite only being Wednesday, it's been a looong week. And pastries make such weeks much more tolerable.

I had some leftover raspberry puree from my peach melba cupcakes, so thought it a perfect opportunity to make some beautiful raspberry macarons. The puree is added to the ganache - along with some raspberry liqueur - which adds a beautiful tartness to the filling. See Alison's recipe for the correct amounts of each ingredient, or experiment as you wish. How am I going to choose just one recipe from this book as my favourite when they are all so absolutely lovely?!

After filling the macarons, I piped some whipped cream onto the top of each using a star tip, and finished with a fresh raspberry. It's a mouthful, but a delightful one. Here's to Wednesday.

Thank you again, Alison.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Solex - The Laughing Stock of Indie Rock.

toffee apple cupcakes

2010-07-26T20:08:00.005+10:00

Almost all of my co-workers are currently obsessed with 'Eat Me!', a delightful culmination of cookies, cakes and slices courtesy of Cookie Girl, and with very good reason. Not only is the extended title (The Stupendous, Self-raising World of Cupcakes and Bakes According to Cookie Girl) fantastic, but it's so
refreshing to have a baking book with new ideas on cupcake flavours with no pretense or snobbery. One of which is toffee apple cupcakes.

At the age of about 7, I remember my sister and I begging and pleading with my Mum to buy us a toffee apple whilst spotting them in the produce section of the supermarket (umm, what?!). They were one of the few things that Mum, in all her wisdom, denied us during our early childhood-- the list also including nutella and roll-ups. However, I suppose all adults eventually cave into their children, and we must have caught Mum on a good day, because we were finally victorious in getting our toffee apples. I don't really remember actually eating the toffee apple. Perhaps my memories are clouded with the overwhelming joy of getting what I wanted for so long. More likely that it was so dreadfully underwhelming once I had made it through the toffee surface that the consumption simply wasn't memorable. Regardless, there's something wonderful about toffee apples, and toffee apple flavoured things. So in seeing Burch & Perchese's take on a toffee apple, I wanted to try it. Well, a much easier and more simplified version.

Ingredients (makes 12)

(Recipe adapted from 'Eat Me!' and Burch & Perchese)

For cakes:
110 gms unsalted butter, softened
110 gms demerara sugar
2 eggs
170 gm apple, peeled, cored and grated
110 gms self-raising flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder, sifted

For caramel:
200gms dulce de leche
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted

For toffee apples:
350g caster sugar
50g water
35g liquid glucose
2 granny smith apples, peeled

red food colouring, if you like

Preheat oven to 180C. Place 12 cupcake cases in a 12 capacity cupcake tin.

Cream the butter and the sugar together, bring aware that the mixture won't go as pale and creamy as usual due to the coarse grain of the sugar. Stir in the eggs, followed by the apple. Add the flour and baking powder and mix gently to combine. Divide mixture amongst cases, and bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of each cakes comes out clean. Remove from tin immediately and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the caramel, mix dulce de leche with icing sugar, ensuring there are no lumps of unmixed icing sugar. Pour onto cakes and smooth, if needed.

For the toffee apples, scoop balls from the apples with a 2cm melon-baller and place in a small bowl of water until needed. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Place the sugar, food colouring (if using) and water into a heavy-based saucepan and heat gently over medium heat. Use a pastry brush dipped in a bowl of water to brush around the sides of the saucepan, to wash down any crystals on the side of the saucepan. Once the syrup is boiling add the glucose and continue cooking until mixture reaches 165C on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat and transfer to a cool, clean pan. Working quite quickly, pat each apple ball dry with paper towel. Using a toothpick, dip each apple ball into the syrup, coating as evenly as possible. Place toffee apples on baking tray to cool.

Top cakes with toffee apple. Be aware that the toffee will dissolve, particularly any surface touching the caramel topping. Because of this, these really are best eaten within half an hour of making to ensure they taste as wonderful as possible... and they really are wonderful! Eating a miniature toffee apple is so satisfying - it's the perfect toffee:apple ratio. The sweet sticky caramel also compliments the slightly tart apple cake.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Electrelane - The Power Out.

feature: la fête nationale- crêpe suzette cupcakes

2010-07-18T21:22:00.001+10:00

Sigh. My last possible opportunity to use Bastille Day as an excuse. Honestly, I feel a tad exhausted, having also committed to other baking projects during the week. But aside from this, I still have recipes up my sleeve and painfully wish this week could be stretched out another few days. No profiteroles! No macarons! Millefeuille! Criminal, I'm aware. But on this final day, at this late hour, I bring you crêpe suzette cupcakes.

I feel a little ashamed to admit there was no flambé-action. But I did take as many of the flavours and textures of the traditional dish as I could when turning them into a cupcake-- orange, alcohol and crêpes, of course.

Ingredients

For cakes:
125 gms unsalted butter, chilled and chopped
1 cup caster sugar
4 tsps finely grated orange rind
3 eggs
125 mls milk
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

For sugar syrup and candied peel:
1 cup caster sugar
zest of two oranges, thinly sliced
1/4 cup Grand Marnier or Cointreau

For whipped cream:
300 mls thickened cream
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

For crêpe (will make about 10 crêpes):
1/2 cup plain flour
220 mls milk
1 egg
20 gms butter, melted
icing sugar, to dust

Preheat the oven to 180C. Place 12 cupcake cases in a 12 capacity cupcake tin.

Place the butter, sugar and orange zest in a small saucepan and stir over a low heat until sugar has dissolved. Transfer to a large bowl of an electric mixer. Add the eggs, flour and milk and beat until just combined.

Divide the mixture evenly among cases and bake for 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To make the lemon syrup, place the alochol, sugar and 125 mls of water in a small saucepan. Stir over a low heat until sugar has dissolved. Add the orange zest, bring to the boil, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until syrupy. Strain syrup into a heatproof bowl or jug, reserving candied rind.

Pierce each cake with a few holes using a skewer. Generously brush each cake with warm syrup.

For whipped cream, place cream, icing sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until almost stiff peaks. Just until the mixture holds its shape, but is still soft and velvety. Nothing is worse for piping on cakes than over-whipped cream. Pipe the cream onto cakes using a piping bag fitted with a large star-shaped tip.

For crêpe, sift flour into a large bowl, making a well in the centre. Whisk milk and eggs in a jug with a fork to combine. Add to flour mixture and use a whisk to stir, gradually drawing in flour to make a smooth batter. Stir in 1/2 tablespoon of butter. Cover. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Heat an 18cm (base) crêpe pan over medium heat. Brush with a little of the remaining butter. Pour 2 tablespoonfuls of batter into centre of pan and swirl quickly to coat base. Cook for 2 minutes, or until golden and lacy. Turn and cook for a further 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate. Cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter, if using, greasing pan in between crêpes. Dust with icing sugar.

Cut a crêpe (or more, if needed) into ribbon strips, about 1cm wide and 5cm long.

To finish cakes, place a few strips of candied orange peel onto each cream peak. Top with a ribbon of fresh crêpe.

My boyfriend ate two of these it one sitting. As much as he loves cake, it seems I'm always ordering him to eat more to get as many opinions as possible, and this - this eating without encouragement - is a rarity, so I take that as a compliment. I think the alcohol content in the syrup could be increased slightly. Tasting the syrup itself lead me to believe it was perfect, but when infused throughout the cake it loses a bit of its sharpness. I suppose this will always come down to individual taste, but just keep this in mind.

So this is it. The end. My apologies for brutally destroying French tradition. Avec amour.

Recommended baking soundtrack: St Vincent - Marry Me.

feature: la fête nationale - apple tarte tatin cupcakes

2010-07-16T20:59:00.001+10:00

Apple tarte tatin is such a classic, simple, but oh-so-delicious dessert. My first homemade experience was a Donna Hay recipe for individual strawberry and vanilla bean tarts, and despite requiring a criminally small amount of effort, was so unbelievably delicious that I simply can't ignore this French treat in my Bastille feature. So, mine is not quite a tart. I did consider incorporating puff pastry somehow... but I think all this baking is somehow affecting my creative ability. That or I just really wanted to go to bed last night. I think some kind of pastry decoration would really finish it off nicely, though. It needs a bit of crunch.

Ingredients (makes 12)

For cakes:
(Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart)
1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
110 gms unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
90 mls buttermilk

For caramelised apples and caramel sauce:
80g butter
4 red apples, peeled and cut into thin slices
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
160 mls thickened cream

Preheat oven to 180C. Place 12 cupcake liners in a 12 capacity cupcake tin.

Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in three additions, alternating with buttermilk and ending with dry. Scrape the sides of the bowl throughout to ensure mixture is evenly beaten.

Divide mixture evenly among cases. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of each cake comes out clean. Remove from tin immediately and cool on a wire rack.

For caramelised apples, place butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until butter is melted begins to foam. Add apples slices to pan in a single layer to ensure even caramelisation. You may have to do multiple batches if necessary, so divide ingredients as required. Cook for about two minutes on each side until lightly browned. Add brown sugar and cream to pan and stir to coat apples. Cook until mixture thickens, then remove from heat.

Arrange apple slices on each cupcake, and spoon over warm caramel sauce.

The brown sugar pound cake doesn't have a fine crumb like most cupcake recipes, but I think its thickness really works in this case. You could substitute it for any caramel/apple cake recipe if you'd prefer a more moist cake, but I back Martha on this one.

I suggest eating them warm with a dollop of cream, as you would a classic tarte tatin.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Mélanie Pain - My Name

feature: la fête nationale - crème brûlée cupcakes

2010-07-15T10:00:00.001+10:00

The quintessential French dessert. My all-time favourite dessert. Can I disappoint traditionalists twice in one week? Heck yes, I can. First in a tart, and now in a cupcake.

Ingredients (makes 12)
Recipe adapted from Indulgence Cupcakes

For cakes:
185 gms unsalted butter, softened
160 gms caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 eggs
125 gms self-raising flour
30 gms plain flour
125 mls milk

For custard:
275 mls milk
3 egg yolks
55 gms caster sugar
2 tbsps plain flour

extra caster sugar, for burning

Preheat oven to 180C. Place 12 cupcake cases in a 12 capacity cupcake tin.

Beat the sugar, butter and vanilla together in an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the eggs, onw at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift the flours together and fold through the butter mixture alternately with the milk. Divide the mixture evenly among the cases. Bake for 15 minutes until golden, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Remove cakes from tin immediately and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the custard filling, place the milk in a saucepan and bring just to the boil. Remove from the heat. Beat the egg yolks, sugar and flour until thick and pale. Gradually whisk in the milk. Return to the saucepan over a low heat and stir until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly while preparing the cupcakes to be filled.

Using a small, sharp knife, cut a hole our of each cake, leaving about a 1cm border at the edge. Discard (or eat!) cake middles. Fill the cavity of each cake with about 2 tsps custard. Refrigerate until custard is set.

Sprinkle the custard of each cake with caster sugar, and caramelise with a culinary torch until crispy and golden. Beware of the cupcake liner! If your cupcake liners sit quite high, it may be best to remove the cakes from the cases when using the torch.

Because of the relatively high egg content, these cakes are so lovely and dense, and work wonderfully with the silky custard and crunchy crust. A nice change from what people traditionally expect a cupcake to be.

These really are best eaten immediately to enjoy the crack of the caramelised sugar. Similar to the crème brûlée tarts, you can always store extra cupcakes in the fridge and caramelise when ready for consumption.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Françoise Hardy - Comment Te Dire Adieu

feature: la fête nationale - peach melba cupcakes

2010-07-14T19:34:00.001+10:00

Despite being a French creation, this dessert cupcake really isn't suited to a southern-hemisphere Bastille Day celebration. I desparately wanted to use fresh poached, blushing peaches, but you make do with what you have! Tinned peaches and frozen raspberries. Shame, really.

Named after the Australian opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba, Peach Melba was created by French chef August Escoffier around 1892. It generally consists of ice cream topped with with peaches and raspberry puree. For this cupcake version, I've taken a lovely sour cream cupcake batter and plopped a tinned peach half on top before baking. The crème Chantilly tastes an awful lot like the flavours of a nice vanilla ice cream, and the raspberry puree gives a much needed tartness. Top with flaked almonds, if you like.

Ingredients (makes 20)

For cakes:
220 gms self-raising flour
45 gms desiccated coconut
125 gms unsalted butter
230 gms caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125 gms sour cream
825 gms tinned peach halves or slices in juice (you'll need 20 peach pieces)
250 mls peach juice

For crème Chantilly:
600 mls thickened cream
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/4 cup icing sugar

For raspberry puree:
300 gms raspberries (thawed, if using frozen)
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 orange
caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180C. Place 20 cupcake liners in two cupcake tins.

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl, the add the coconut and make a well in the centre. Melt the butter and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat.

Whisk the combined and peach juice into the sour cream. Add both the butter and the egg mixture to the well in the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.

Divide the mixture evenly among the cases, and place a peach on the top of each cake. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean. Remove cases immediately from the cupcake tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.

For crème Chantilly, beat cream, icing sugar and vanilla until thick, creamy and almost at stiff peak stage. You want the mixture to be able to hold its shape, but still be velvety smooth.

For raspberry puree, process all ingredients in a food processor until combined.

To finish, pipe cream onto cakes using a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain tip. To get a dome-shape, hold the piping bag about 1cm away from the surface of the cake, and keep directly centered. Gradually move your hand further away from the cake as the dome grows.

Spoon over raspberry puree and sprinkle with some toasted, flaked almonds.

With the addition of both peach juice and sour cream, this cake recipe is beautifully moist and the coconut goes almost unnoticed. I made these with gluten-free flour for my co-workers and they turned out perfectly. My peaches also sank to the bottom, disappointingly but expectedly. If you'd like them higher in the cake, try tossing them in flour before placing them in the batter. My recipients, however, liked the surprise they discovered at the bottom of the cake.

The recipe for the puree will yield a lot more than what is required, but can be kept in a container in the fridge for a few days, or even frozen for later use.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Nouvelle Vague - Nouvelle Vague.

feature: la fête nationale - vanilla brûlée tart

2010-07-13T08:40:00.002+10:00

There's only one thing that could make a crème brûlée more desirable. Crisp, golden pastry. Thanks once again to Bourke Street Bakery, I've found something I was previously lacking in my life, without even realising it. This heavenly creation takes the concept of the classic French dessert, and enhances the experience by a delicious, dark and flaky pâte brisée, with a hit of tart strawberry puree. If you can't visit one of their bakeries to try the real thing, re-creating it at home is the next best thing.

Similar to their flourless chocolate cake, Bourke Street deliver a quite involved recipe. The benefit of this is in the results-- if you follow this recipe down to each detail, you really will come so close to their gorgeous creation, it will surprise you. It's not difficult, but takes patience and is really best if you start this more than 24 hours before.

Ingredients (makes 20)
Recipe adapted from Bourke Street Bakery: The Ultimate Baking Companion

For strawberry puree:
250 gms strawberries, washed and hulled
120 gms caster sugar
For crème brûlée:
720 mls pouring cream
1 vanilla bean, split lengthways
10 egg yolks
80 gms caster sugar

extra caster sugar, for burning

1 quantity pâte brisée (see recipe in BSB), used to line 20 8cm round fluted loose-based tart tins.

To make the srawberry puree, put the strawberries and sugar in a food processor and process until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.

To make the crème brûlée custard, put the cream into a saucepan. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean into the cream and add the bean. Bring to the boil over a high heat. As soon as it boils, remove from the heat and set aside to infuse to ten minutes.

Place the egg yolks in a large stainless steel bowl and use a whisk to combine. Add the sugar and continue whisking for about 30 seconds or until sugar has dissolved.

Pour the slightly cooled cream through a fine sieve, discarding the vanilla bean, the pour cream into the egg mixture, stirring well to combine.

Put the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl does not touch the water, and continue stirring with a whisk for about 10 - 15 mins, or until the mixture is smooth and thick, scraping down the bowl regularly with a rubber spatula. It is important to keep stirring at all times or the mixture will curdle.

Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk briskly for about 2 mins to cool it quickly. Over the next hour, whisk mixture every ten mins until cooled.

Use a rubber spatula to clean the sides of the bowl thoroughly and place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the mixture, to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate overnight to set.

Follow direction in Bourke Street Bakery: The Ultimate cooking companion to prepare and bake 20 pastry cases.

To assemble tarts, spoon about 3/4 tsp of strawberry puree in the centre of the base of each tart shell. Pipe the custard into each shell with a piping bag fitted with a plain 1cm tip. You should slightly overfill each. With a small palette knife, scrape the custard to sit flush with the top of the tart shell. Refrigerate for 4 hours.

Sprinkle 1 tsp caster sugar onto the top of the custard and burn with a culinary blowtorch until caramelised.

I caramelised half of my tarts, saving the rest of the filled tarts in an airtight container in the fridge until needed, leaving them up to a few days. The pastry will soften but is still utterly delicious. If you caramelise all of the tarts at once, it's best to eat them fresh as the lovely crack of the brûlée will soften in the fridge over time.

You'll also have a hole lot of strawberry puree remaining, so you can half the quantity if you like, but it tastes delicious on just about anything and is a very handy thing to have in the fridge. You could also freeze and use for later, if you like.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Coralie Clément - Toystore.

feature: la fête nationale - french toast cupcakes

2010-07-12T20:59:00.003+10:00

As much as I hate the term 'francophile', I love all things French, both stereotypical and otherwise. So, in celebration of Bastille Day this Wednesday 14 July, I'll be filling my button cake with a week's worth of french-inspired recipes! By saying 'french-inspired' I'm obviously leaving myself room to bastardise traditional signature dishes and avoid criticism about not being truly authentic. Please forgive me!

My first entry is definitely a perfect example of me disappointing the French, with a recipe that technically has little to do with France aside from its name. But with a name like 'french toast cupcakes' can you honestly blame me?

This recipe is adapted from a fantastic book by Xanthe Milton, otherwise known as Cookiegirl. 'Eat Me!: The Stupendous, Self-raising World of Cupcakes and Bakes According to Cookie Girl' features some positively original recipes, divided by season, for beautiful cupcakes and cookies-- her Halloween ideas are truly inspiration.

Ingredients (makes 12)
Recipe adapted from 'Eat Me!'

For cakes:
170 gms plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
110 gms unsalted butter
225 gms granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla bean paste
2 tsps maple syrup
50 mls milk

For cream cheese frosting:
165 gms butter, softened
165 gms cream cheese, softened
675 gms icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more, if you like)
brown food colouring

For french toast hearts:
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsps pouring cream
30 gms unsalted butter
4 thick slices brioche

ground cinnamon and icing sugar, to dust

Preheat oven to 180C. Place 12 paper cases into a 12 capacity cupcake tin.

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a bowl. Melt the butter and let it cool slightly.
In a large bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs together, then add the melted butter. Mix the vanilla, maple syrup and milk in a separate bowl. Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Add milk mixture, and beat until well combined.

Divide the mixture evenly amongst the paper cases, filling each to be about three-quarters full. Bake for 20 mins until a skewer inserted into the middle of cakes comes out clean. Remove cakes from the cupcake tin immediately and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the icing, beat the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth. Add the icing sugar, a third at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add the cinnamon with the last of the icing sugar, and tint icing with brown food colouring to be a subtle, warm brown.

Using a piping bag fitted with a plain 1cm tip, pipe icing onto cakes.

For french toast, beat the eggs together with the vanilla and cream. Heat the butter in a non-stick frypan over a medium heat. When butter is sizzling, dip the brioche slices in egg mixture, the place in the pan. Cook the brioche for 2 mins on each side, or until golden and crispy. Dust with cinnamon.

Using a small cutter (I used a 4cm heart shape), cut 12 shapes from french toast. Place on each cupcake, and dust with icing sugar.

I intended to make my little french toast toppers into toast shapes, but this proved far too fiddly without a cutter. Even without the french toast to top, these cupcakes still have a surprisingly beautiful french toast flavour. Best eaten as soon as possible, obviously!

Thank you to my dear friend Nicole for introducing me to this recipe.

Recommended baking soundtrack - Moriarty - Gee Whiz But This is a Lonely Town.

bourke street bakery's flourless chocolate cake

2010-07-09T17:42:00.002+10:00

Between my eleven co-workers, there are seven dietary requirements. Because of this, I'm always on the lookout for a good gluten free dessert recipe. Most of the time this means I'm relying on gluten-free flour, which though blows my options sky high, just doesn't work with all cake recipes; Layer cakes crumble too much when cutting, recipes with a heavy batter need a little something extra to hold it together, and those without a great deal of other flavourings or fillings have a slightly unexplainable aftertaste.

It seems my recent adventures in baking have been addressing some of my culinary fears. I find the idea of flourless chocolate cakes so much lovelier than they ever turn out to be. In theory, they perfectly address my need for a workplace-worthy dessert; Rich, wonderful either warm or at room temperature, and a decent shelf-life. But, I like my cakes high and proud, with perfect edges and a beautiful plateaued surface. The potential of a slightly sad, flat, shriveled and concave cake has always meant I steer well clear of flourless cake varieties. But seeing and reading about Bourke Street's recipe, and having tasted and baked a safe number of their other sweet treats, I had to give this a shot. Since then, I've made this cake twice in a mere week.

Ingredients (serves 12, generously)
Recipe from Bourke Street Bakery: The Ultimate Baking Companion

260 gms dark chocolate (55% cocoa), finely chopped
135 mls milk
40 gms full-fat yoghurt
4 eggs
105 gms caster sugar, for eggs
4 egg whites
160 gms caster sugar, for egg whites
135 ml (4 1/2 fl oz) pouring (whipping) cream (35% fat)
55 g (2 oz) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

Preheat the oven to 150C. Grease a 20 cm springform cake tin and line the base and sides with baking paper - the paper should come about 2.5 cm above the tin.

Put the chocolate in a large stainless steel bowl and set over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl does not touch the water - the bowl must be large enough to hold the whole cake mix. Allow chocolate to sit over simmering water without stirring until almost melted. Remove from heat, mix until smooth.

Put the milk and yoghurt in a saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Don't worry, you should have a curdled milk mixture.

Put the eggs and the sugar for the eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk the eggs at medium speed for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is very light and has doubled in volume. Set aside.

In another very clean and dry bowl of an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, then slowly add the sugar for the whites, whisking until soft peaks form a shinny meringue. Be careful not to overwhisk. Refrigerate until needed.

Whisk the cream until soft peaks form. Refrigerate until needed.

You should now separate bowls of melted chocolate, curdled milk, whipped eggs, meringue, whipped cream and cocoa powder. Pour the curdled milk into the chocolate and use a whisk to mix it in, then add the cocoa and whisk to completely incorporate. Fold in the whipped eggs in three batches, making sure you completely incorporate the first batch before adding more. Don't be too concerned if you can still see streaks of eggs with the following batches. Lightly fold the meringue into the whipped cream, taking care not to knock out too much air. Fold this into the chocolate mix in three batches, making sure you incorporate the first batch before adding more.

Using a spatula, scoop the cake batter into the prepared tin and tap it twice gently on the bench to even out the mix. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Do not disturb the cake for the first 45 minutes of cooking, after which time you should rotate it to ensure even cooking. You may need to cover the top of the cake with baking paper and lower the oven temperature if the top of the cake is starting to brown, but it didn't come to this for me. Test to see if the cake is baked by gently placing your hand on top of it and wobbling it a little, you should feel that the cake has set through. Remove from the oven the allow to cool for about 30 minutes in the tin before removing the sides. When completely cool, slide the cake onto a serving plate, to serve. I finished it with a dusting of cocoa.

It is best to use a sharp fine-bladed knife to cut this cake. Have a jug of very hot water, dip the knife in, and leave for about 10 seconds to warm the blade through. Dry the knife on a tea towel before slicing. Repeat this process after every slice for a perfectly clean cut.

The cake can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for a couple of days, or in the fridge for up to five days. I usually prefer all chocolate cakes warm, but this one is honestly as good at room temperature. It can be freshened up by placing it in a 150C oven for about ten minutes. Best eaten with double cream.

So this cake isn't picture perfect. It's cracked and slightly weak at the knees, but I find its ugly character utterly charming. It doesn't hurt that it tastes like heaven, of course.

And please don't let the length of this recipe intimidate you. All techniques used are simple, you just have to be organised, with plenty of bowls and a patience for strictly sticking to the recipe.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Peter & the Wolf - Lightness.

jam doughnut cupcakes

2010-06-26T14:49:00.002+10:00

I have a crippling fear of spiders, heights and baking with yeast. I understand the first two are dreadfully common and don't need justifying.

I think I'm an incredibly patient baker. I'm fine with complex, multi-step recipes. No sweat having to wait for things to completely chill, or bringing syrups to exact temperatures. Pastry is a-okay. But yeast? With all the kneading, and punching. Rolling and waiting. And waiting again. And again. I resigned myself to the fact that the only yeast products I would be consuming would be store-bought. That was, of course, until I received a copy of Australian Gourmet Traveller's June edition, featuring eight pages of doughnut bliss.

Starting simple, I've made doughnuts to sit atop some strawberry jam filled cinnamon cakes. This was no speedy process, and I did spend my afternoon in cycles of making a mess, cleaning the mess, and waiting between each step. However, I can't believe how much fun it all is! To cut that fluffy elastic dough into the cutest little rings and to later watch them swell up as they're dropped into hot oil had me in heaven. I'm already planning my next doughnut day.

Ingredients (makes 12 cakes, and roughly 24 doughnuts)

Doughnut recipe adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller

For doughnuts:

390 mls lukewarm full-fat milk

125 gms caster sugar

75 gms butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

14 gms dried yeast

2 eggs, at room temperature

700 gms plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 1/2 cups caster sugar, extra

3 tsps ground cinnamon

Vegetable oil for deep frying

For cakes:
90 gms butter, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 cup self raising flour

2 tbsps milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla bean extract

1 tsp cinnamon (more with caution if you wish)

2 tsps strawberry jam

300 mls thickened cream

2 tbsps icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

For doughnuts, combine flour, sugar, butter, yeast, eggs, half the flour and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Beat on medium speed until smooth and combined (about 4 - 5 mins). Add the remaining flour a little at a time, beating until dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticks to the bowl (about another 4 - 5 minutes). Transfer dough to a lightly buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place until doubled in size (1 - 1 1/2 hours).

Meanwhile, for cakes, preheat oven to 180C/160C fan-forced. Place 12 paper cases into a 12 capacity cupcake tins.

Place all ingredients (excluding jam) in the bowl of an electric mixer, and beat until just combined. Increase speed, and beat until mixture is creamy and paler in colour. Spoon mixture among cases. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden. Remove cakes from tin immediately, and allow to cool completely on wire rack.

For doughnuts, knock back dough, then roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1cm thick. Cut out 4 - 5 cm rounds with a floured cutter, then cut a hole in the centre of each with a large pastry tip (about 1cm). Transfer doughnuts to two light floured baking trays, allowing space in between to rise. Cover with a tea towel and stand for 45 mins - 1 hour until risen.

While doughnuts are rising, fill cooled cupcakes. Using a small sharp knife and - holding your knife at a 45 degree angle - slice a circle into the top of a cake. Set lid aside for later. Repeat with remaining cakes. Fill holes with strawberry jam and replace with lids, trimming them down if necessary so lids sit flush with cake tops.

To finish off doughnuts, combine extra caster sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Preheat oil in a deep sided saucepan to 180C. Deep-fry doughnuts in batches, turning occasionally until golden. Be careful when lowering them into the oil as oil may spit. Drain on a paper towel on a wire rack while frying remaining doughnuts. Toss doughnuts it cinnamon sugar.

To finish off, beat cream, icing sugar and vanilla until soft, silky peaks form. You want it to just be able to hold it's shape but still be velvety smooth. Spread generously onto cakes, and top with a fresh doughnut.

I know this all looks long and too involved, but I'm a convert: making your own doughnuts is incredible rewarding. These chubby little golden babies have such lovely, crispy exteriors but are so much lighter than the store bought variety. Despite being somewhat terrified of deep frying (I seriously started off wearing safety goggles), the oil doesn't spit but fizzles as you drop the batter in. It's really quite satisfying and dreadfully exciting to watch.

I imagine these doughnuts would also taste gorgeous on a vanilla malt cake. Or covered in chocolate on a mudcake for a more 'grown-up' affair. Or just mushed whole in your mouth without the cake!

Note: despite these cakes having a bit of resilience, the doughnuts are best eaten the day of making. They're obviously still edible a day after if stored in an airtight container, but the sugar will begin to break down. Worse things have happened.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Animal Collective - Feels (or their entire catalogue if you're going through the with whole recipe :/ )

blushing lemonade

2010-06-25T14:07:00.001+10:00

Every now and then, I come across a product that I love so much, I think it must have been created simply for me. Rose pashmak was the last time I felt like I'd found my soul mate. Until yesterday, in my favourite delicatessen, I found you, rose nectar.

As the beautiful bottle details, rose nectar is made from the essential nectar of the Kazanlak Rose from Central Bulgaria.

A little bit unadventurous, but to maximise on my excitement while it's still fresh, I've made a simple and refreshing drink. But I have grand plans for this beautiful nectar, oh yes. Gin. Champagne. Sugar syrup. Sorbet...

2 parts Sense rose nectar

6 parts lemonade

squeeze of fresh lemon

Pour rose nectar over ice. Top with lemonade and squeeze of lemon. Stir gently to combine.

macaron challenge v2.0: chocolate & orange

2010-06-24T17:31:00.005+10:00

So, I recently stated my plans to create all 35 flavours of macarons detailed in Alison Thompson's delightful 'Macaron'. I haven't yet decided if I was entirely serious, although I did promise my boyfriend I would be creating a new flavour approximately once per week. Despite not sticking to this time commitment (or any, in fact), I'm two flavours down with a mere 33 to go. It's a start, and a delicious one at that.

This round, I changed the ganache around a touch, using a higher chocolate content to get my desired consistency with less refrigeration time needed. Experiment as you wish.

Ingredients (makes 30 macarons, depending on the size)

Recipe adapted from 'Macaroon' by Alison Thompson

For macaron shells:

225 gms pure icing sugar

140 gms almond meal

110 gms eggs whites, at room temperature

2 tsp cocoa

For filling:

200 gms milk chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup pouring cream

1 tbsp orange liqueur

finely grated zest of two oranges

Line two baking trays with baking paper.

For macaron shells, combine the icing sugar and almond meal, and sift together twice (important!), discarding anything remaining in the sieve. This ensures your mixture won't be grainy. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites on a high speed until stiff peaks form. Add a small amount of orange food colouring to egg whites, and mix until colour has evenly spread through mixture.

Fold the sifted sugar and almond meal into egg whites, continuing to fold until the mixture is glossy and moves slowly when the bowl is tilted. Remember, it's imperative that the mixture is smooth, so don't be overly concerned with loosing air through folding. We're not making sponge, here.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 5mm plain piping tube. Pipe rounds 3cm in diameter onto the baking tray, spacing them 2 - 3cms apart. Sprinkle shells with cocoa. Tap the trays firmly on the bench a couple of times to knock out any air bubbles.

The macaron shells must now sit at room temperature until a crust forms - this will take 2 - 6 hours, depending on the temperature of the room (the warmer and drier the room, the faster the drying process will be). When they are ready, you should be able to touch the tops slightly and have no mixture stick to your finger.

Preheat oven to 150C fan-forced.

Place macaron shells into the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 130C. Bake for 10 - 12 mins, until firm to the touch but not coloured. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before carefully removing from oven trays.

For the filling, melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Pour the cream into a small saucepan, add the finely grated orange zest and bring to the boil. Stand for ten minutes to infuse. Strain the cream to remove the zest, reheat until hot, then pour it over the chocolate and stir until smooth. Add the orange liqueur and mix well. Refrigerate for about 30 mins or until firm enough to hold its shape.

Spread or pipe cooled and thickened filling onto half the shells, and sandwich with remaining shells.

These are seriously delicious. As special as my gingerbread macarons were, this flavour surpasses them for me and everyone else who was lucky enough to try both. They are surprisingly orangey, and I just think this flavour combination can't be beaten. Well, we'll see...

cranberry filled lemon cakes

2010-06-14T17:21:00.001+10:00

I've previously raved about Fiona Cairns' beautiful book 'Bake & decorate: tea time luxury'. It contains a wonderful list of cake and cupcake recipes, with beautiful yet simple decorating ideas to compliment them.

In celebration of what has been a very cold long weekend, I've created some of Fiona's adorable, wintery penguins to sit atop some snowy frosted cakes. They are really simple and fun to make, and any imperfection just adds character. Feel free to dust the final product with some icing sugar - I just didn't have the heart to snow on my penguins. I'm gosh darn smitten. I don't know how I will possibly bite into one...

Ingredients

For cakes:
90 gms butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup self raising flour
2 tbsps milk
2 eggs
finely grated rind of 1 lemon

For meringue icing:
3 egg whites
1 cup caster sugar
80 mls water

For cranberry filling:
170 gms craisins
125 mls water
1/4 cup caster sugar

For penguins:
250 gms black fondant/sugar paste/ready to roll icing
50 gms white fondant
1 egg white
250 gms icing sugar, sifted
yellow and black food colourings

For cranberry filling, add all ingredients to a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Continue to simmer for 5 - 10 mins until mixture has thickened and craisins are plump. Set aside to cool.

For cakes, preheat oven to 180C/160C fan-forced. Place 12 paper cases into a 12 capacity cupcake tins.

Place all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixture, and beat until just combined. Increase speed, and beat until mixture is creamy and paler in colour. Spoon mixture among cases. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden. Remove cakes from tin immediately, and allow to cool completely on wire rack.

For penguins, roll small quantities of black fondant into rounded cone shapes (various sizes work well. I made sizes ranging from about 1.5cm high to about 4cm high). With a pair of small scissors (or a small, sharp knife), snip out two wings on each penguin and ease them away from their bodies - using a toothpick makes this a little easier.

Make royal icing by mixing egg white and icing sugar together in a small bowl. Place some icing in a small zip lock back, and make a piping bag by snipping a very small tip off one of the bottom corners. Pipe two small eyes on each penguin.

Roll out a little ball of white fondant and squash to form the penguin's belly. Stick on using a little smear of royal icing. Tint remaining icing yellow. Pipe beaks onto each penguin using another home-made piping bag. Create eyeballs for your penguin by dipping a toothpick into some black food colouring, and dotting in the centre of each royal icing eye. Set penguins aside in a dry place.

Once both cakes and cranberry filling have cooled completely, take a small sharp knife and - holding your knife at a 45 degree angle - slice a circle into the top of a cake. The circle should be about 5mm from the edge of the cake to make it easy to cover when decorating. By holding your knife at this angle, you are creating a cone-shaped hold in your cake, and the lid you've created should come easily. Set lid aside for later. Repeat with remaining cakes.

Fill each cake with cranberries, pushing down to make them quite compact, and then replace lids. If necessary, trim the pointed end of the lids off to it sits flush when placed back onto the cake.

For snowy meringue icing, combine the sugar and the water in a small saucepan. Stir over a medium heat until sugar has completely dissolved. Increase heat and boil - without stirring - for approximately five minutes until syrup reaches 116C on a candy thermometer. Your syrup should have slightly thickened, but don't let it get any colour! Remove from heat and let bubbles subside.

Beat egg whites in an electric mixer until soft peaks form. While the motor is still running, pour sugar syrup into egg whites in a slow, steady stream. Continue to beat until mixture has cooled and is thick and glossy.

Spread cakes with snowy meringue and top with a penguin or two!

Recommended baking soundtrack: Beach House - Devotion.

golden raspberry custard tarts

2010-06-13T15:17:00.004+10:00

Early yesterday morning, when most people were still in their warm, warm beds, I was skipping breakfast (I never EVER do this), fumbling to find car keys, and driving through the cold and darkness of 6am. And now, when most people are working or resting hangovers, I'm here eating raspberry tarts. It all evens out, really.

The insane starting hour was to get to Eumundi Markets at a reasonable time before the masses do. And there are masses. A mission intended for scooping up some baby clothes for my sister turned out to be unsucessful, but quickly turned into a very fruitful food shop. It was here that I tasted probably the best strawberries I've had in recent memory, and picked up some beautiful slut red (Nigella's words, not mine!) and golden yellow raspberries.

The flavour of golden raspberries is really much the same. A little less sweet maybe? So, to use these lovelies at their very best, I've whipped up some simple tarts to make my favourite day of the week even sweeter. You can, of course, use regular raspberries. Or strawberries. Or whatever!

Ingredients (makes 12)

For pastry cases:
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1/4 cup icing sugar
185 gms cold butter, chopped coarsely
1 egg yolk
2 tsps iced water

For custard cream:
1 cup full-fat milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped)
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 tbsps cornflour
1/3 cup thickened cream, whipped

For raspberry coulis:
100 gms raspberries
1 tbsp icing sugar

2 punnets (approximately 60) fresh raspberries
icing sugar, to dust optional)

To make cases, process flour, sugar and butter until crumbly. With motor running, add egg yolk and enough water to bring ingredients together. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and then refrigerate for 30 mins.

Meawhile, to make custard cream, combine milk and vanilla (paste or whole pod and seeds) in a small saucepan and heat over a low to medium heat until it just reaches the boil. Remove from heat.

Beat egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until thick and pale. Gradually pour hot milk mixture into eggs, whisking continuously so eggs do not scramble. If using an electric mixer, simply leave motor running.

Return custard to saucepan, and gently heat, stirring continuously, until mixture thickens and starts to bubble. Pour into a large heatproof bowl, cover the surface with glad wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Grease 12 capacity cupcake tins. Roll out half the chilled pastry on a lightly floured surface until about 3mm thick. Cut out 12 x 7.5cm rounds and press rounds into holes of tin. Prick bases of each with a fork. Repeat with remaining pastry and refrigerate for 30 mins.

For raspberry coulis, puree raspberries and sugar together until smooth. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a small bowl and set aside.

Preheat oven to 200C/190C fan-forced. Bake cases for 12 minutes or until lightly golden. Stand cases in tin for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Fold whipped cream through cooled custard in two batches. Once cases are completely cooled, spoon a small amount of coulis between each. Top with custard. Decorate each tart with raspberries and a dusting of icing sugar if you fancy.

Note: A good raspberry sauce (such as Cuttaway Creek) or jam will work just as well if you don't want to make a coulis.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Horse Feathers - Thistled Spring.

chocolate, almond & pear puddings

2010-06-11T19:36:00.000+10:00

Isn't it amazing the impact food styling and photography can have on the desire to try a certain recipe? The Indulgence Series from Murdoch Books does both of these things faultlessly. With each new release in this series, I become overwhelmed. Flicking from cover to cover results in sensory overload. I feel guilty picking just one recipe to be the first one I try, but it's never the last. These books are just perfection.

There are few things more comforting to me that eating a hot pudding on a Winter's night. I've been doing this a lot lately, it seems, despite it presently being only the eleventh day of the season. This recipe will bring you all a pudding should on a cold, lazy night. It's quick to mix, quick to bake, and uses ingredients I usually always have handy in my pantry. Would also go wonderfully with a chocolate fudge sauce...

Ingredients (makes 6 individual puddings)
Recipe from Indulgence Chocolate

1/3 cup golden syrup
8 tinned pear halves
60 gms plain flour
30 gms unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp ground allspice
55 gms ground almonds
3 eggs, at room temperature
165 gms brown sugar
60 mls milk
1/3 cup golden syrup, extra, warmed slightly
double cream, to serve

Preheat oven to 180C/170C fan-forced. Grease eight holes of a non-stick giant muffin tin/s, and line the bases of each hole with a round of baking paper. Spoon the golden syrup among the holes to cover the bases. Place a pear half, cut side down, in each.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and allspice into a medium sized bowl, then stir in the ground almonds.

Beat the eggs and the sugar with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Slowly pour in the milk, then add the flour mixture, folding until just combined.

Spoon the pudding mixture over the pears. Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of each cake come out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 3 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Immediately remove the baking paper and transfer the puddings to serving plates. Drizzle with extra golden syrup and serve with a dollop of double cream.

I've kept my leftover puddings in the fridge for a couple of days, and they're still great. I imagine they would also freeze okay, but I doubt it will ever have to come to that.

Recommended baking soundtrack - Wild Nothing - Gemini.