raspberri cupcakes

Chinese Lantern Macarons with Jackfruit Buttercream

2012-01-23T10:00:00.001+11:00

Happy Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) everyone! I hope everyone who was celebrating with a big dinner last night had a great time and lots of delicious food. I definitely did, we prepared our usual masses of dishes including my favourite, the yee sang (I wrote about it a couple years ago if you have no idea what it is). As an extra treat I decided to make a little Chinese New Year-themed sweet, these Chinese Lantern-shaped Macarons with Jackfruit Buttercream. I have yet to try to master any of the traditional biscuits and sweets that are usually served during Chinese New Year, but I thought it might be fun to do something with my own spin instead.

In case it's not immediately obvious, I was attempting to make my macarons look like the red paper laterns that are usually hung up as decoration during Chinese New Year (something like this) It was pretty easy to pipe the basic shape of the lantern, but originally I had wanted to put a bit more detail on them by using gold glitter sugar, but that just made them look ugly and messy. So I kept them plain, and stole a bunch of little gold strings off my old Christmas ornaments (I knew they would come in handy eventually!), and some little red tassles from some other Chinese New Year decorations. I'm pretty satisfied with the result; they're quite cute and very festive, if a little plain.

I struggled a lot with choosing an appropriate flavour for these macarons. Something orange seemed like the obvious choice but it was little too boring for me. I was tossing up between lychee, mango or jackfruit and finally decided on jackfruit because it was the most unusual and strongest flavoured fruit. I have no idea if jackfruit is a good or bad fruit to serve during CNY (I've only heard that pears are a nono), for all I know I've just given myself 444 years of bad luck. But jackfruits are something that I strongly associate with going back to Malaysia to visit all my relatives, so it seemed appropriate for me. The flavour of the fruit is something that not everyone will like, it has a very strong smell that's nowhere near as pungent as durian but definitely still distinctive. I used the canned jackfruit in sugar syrup which isn't quite as strong smelling/flavoured, and I think it worked beautifully.

I added the jackfruit puree and some of the sugar syrup to my usual Swiss Meringue Buttercream, since it is capable of taking up quite a lot of liquid while still staying thick and creamy. Overnight the flavour matured well and you could really taste the jackfruit in the macaron. If that flavour of filling doesn't appeal to you or you have no idea what the heck a jackfruit is, I mention in the recipe below that you can replace it with lychee or mango. You could completely switch it up and make this pineapple jam as the filling instead. I would have loved to make the jam but I didn't have enough time, or the patience to carve the pineapples :P Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year, and sending my love to my parents and all my other relatives overseas. I would love to be in Malaysia right now eating all kinds of yummy things and receiving red packets, it's the last year I'll be able to receive them!

Chinese Lantern Macarons with Jackfruit Buttercream
(makes approximately 10-12 macarons)
100g aged egg whites (you can use fresh eggs too, just make sure they are room temperature. I always use fresh these days, and zap it in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted
200g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
Optional: 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary
To decorate: red and yellow food colouring (powdered or gel), gold string

For the jackfruit buttercream:
2 egg whites
1/2 cup caster (superfine) sugar
150g unsalted butter
1/2 cup canned jackfruit puree (about 3-4 pieces of canned jackfruit) + 1/4-1/3 cup jackfruit sugar syrup from can to taste
Note: if you don't like jackfruit or it is unavailable, you can replace with canned lychee, fresh mango or even durian if you're feeling adventurous
(If you're new to making Swiss meringue buttercream, these wonderful tutorials from two of my favourite bloggers will help)

Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and egg white powder in a medium mixing bowl until the egg white powder dissolves and it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue to your dry mixture and mix, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, be rough!), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. As it just comes together, place about 1/4 of the mixture in a separate bowl. Add yellow food colouring to the smaller amount and red colouring to the other and continue mixing until it is the right consistency. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Place red and yellow mixture in separate piping bags, the red with a wider 1cm tip and the yellow with a much narrower tip (see photo). Pipe fat oval shapes with the red mixture, and then carefully pipe smalls strips of yellow on the top and bottom of the ovals. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop to remove any large bubbles.

Leave to dry for at least half an hour to an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°C), depending on your oven. Place on top of an overturned roasting tray or another baking sheet if your sheets are not professional grade, for better heat distribution. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the buttercream; whisk together egg white and sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Clip a candy thermometer to side of bowl. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk until mixture reaches 70°C (160°F) and sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes.

With a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg white mixture on high speed until cooled and thick, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, and add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition. If mixture is runny at this point, refrigerate for 10 minutes and then continue beating until it starts to hold its shape (this can take a while). Mix in jackfruit puree and then gradually add the jackfruit sugar syrup from the can depending on how strong you want it, taste testing as you go. Spoon or pipe buttercream on to macaron shells, sandwiching them together and adding a gold string sticking out of the top of each one if you wish. Refrigerate overnight in an airtight container to allow the flavours to mature, serve at room temperature.

Green & Gold Checkerboard Cake with Milo Ganache

2012-01-16T09:00:00.000+11:00

Okay so I know Australia Day isn't for another week and a half, but I'm attempting to be a good planner/organiser this year and trying not to leave things to the very last minute. Plus as soon as I decided I wanted to make this crazy Green & Gold Checkboard Cake covered in Chocolate Milo Ganache for Australia Day, I knew I better give myself an extra weekend buffer just in case I completely effed it up on my first attempt. This cake took a bit of planning and had a lot of potential to go horribly wrong. But YAY for me, it turned out pretty good! As someone who was born in Australia and has spent the majority of my life in this country, it's important to me to have recipes on the blog that celebrate being Australian. In that same spirit you could also try my Arnott's inspired Tim Tam Cake, Mint Slice Cake or Iced Vovo Cake for any Australia Day BBQs you might have planned.

I've always wanted to try making a checkerboard cake, ever since seeing instructions for it in my Le Cordon Bleu book. It's usually done with vanilla and chocolate flavours, and to get that lovely checkerboard effect when you cut into the cake you need to create alternating layers with the two flavours so that each layer looks like a bullseye/the Target logo. It looked like a lot of work, especially since that recipe involved piping concentric circles of cake batter. A lot of recipes on the internet instruct you to use a special pan that has these circular plastic dividers so that you can bake your layers with two alternating colours, but personally that felt a bit like cheating and I don't like buying a whole new pan for one specific purpose. So I decided to do it the third way, by baking cake layers in two different colours and then cutting concentric circles out of the layers and then swapping the middle circle of the two colours so that they alternated. (It's a mouthful to explain in words but if you look at the picture in my recipe below you should be able to get what I mean.)

As for using the bright green and yellow colours for the cake rather than just chocolate and vanilla, I was particularly inspired by the gorgeous and brightly coloured Battenburg cakes that Sprinkle Bakes made. I thought it would be a great idea to use green and gold in the cake as a celebratory Australia Day cake, and that idea was enough to give me the courage to try this cake. After all, I had managed to pull off the Purple Ombré Cake pretty well (that cake still makes me smile from ear to ear), so I had a pretty good feeling about this cake. Of course, there's no reason why you can't do this cake in different colours for other occasions, you could change the recipe from 4 layers into just 3 layers and use red, white and blue for 4th of July celebrations in the US, or do red velvet and vanilla for Valentine's Day. I ended up using the same trusty yellow cake recipe from the purple cake and it didn't let me down. I even tried my best to convert the measurements into volumes for US readers but no guarantees I did it correctly since there's so much variation in cup sizes and all that (and I'm still a firm believer that if you are a baker you should invest in digital kitchen scales. David Lebovitz agrees, you should listen to him. He has much knowledge).

To hold the cake layers together, I made a quick white chocolate ganache which I spread thinly between each layer. It worked just as I expected, holding the cake together quite nicely without being too visible. I would really recommend you don't skip this step since the cake is likely to fall apart if you don't put some sort of icing/filling in between each layer, especially if you manage to crack some of the circles of cake that you have cut out. I managed to crack a few of the circles, but the ganache and the way the circles fit snugly into each other held it together. The only crack that caused me any trouble was the top outer ring of yellow, which you might be able to see going a bit wonky in some of the photos. So be extra gentle with those outer rings of cake.

Originally I was going to cover the outside of the cake with my usual salted butter icing recipe like I did for the sprinkles cake to give it that stark white exterior with the colourful surprise on the inside, but I decided I wanted something a little more Australian. I was seriously, seriously tempted to try something like a chocolate vegemite ganache, but I chickened out since I'm not a huge fan of vegemite myself. Maybe next year! So I decided to use my sexy chocolate & Milo ganache instead, because it's so tasty and Australians love their Milo. And who doesn't love chocolate malt? The texture of the icing might look a little odd in the photos because I had just taken the cake out of the fridge and it had small beads of condensation on the surface, but I can assure you that it's shiny, smooth, gorgeous and so addictive. So if you're feeling up for it try this checkerboard cake for Australia day, it's not actually too hard or complicated so long as you plan ahead. And it's so pretty!

Green & Gold Checkerboard Cake with Chocolate Malt Ganache
(makes one round 18cm 4-layer cake, yellow cake recipe adapted from Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cooking Step-by-Step)
Note: For US readers, you could also do this cake using only three layers of red, white and blue cake. I tried my best to convert the measurements for you!
355g (approx 2 & 2/3 cups) plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
225ml (about 1 cup minus 1 tbsp) milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
400g (approx 1 & 2/3 cups) white sugar (I used caster/superfine)
225g (approx 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 medium eggs
Green and yellow food colouring (I used Wilton gel colouring)

For the white chocolate ganache filling:
200g white chocolate, chopped
200ml pouring cream (min. 35% milk fat unthickened pure cream)

For the chocolate malt ganache:
Note: If you prefer a white exterior, look here for a salted butter icing recipe that you can use instead
400g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
300ml pouring cream (min. 35% milk fat unthickened pure cream)
1/2 cup Milo powder (you can increase this to 3/4 cup if you like it more malty, can be substituted with Ovaltine if unavailable)

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease whatever 18cm (7 inch) round cake tins you have (I only had one so I had to bake each cake one after the other and this worked fine). You can also use 20cm (8 inch) pans but the layers will be thinner, or use the special checkerboard cake tins that come with the circular dividers. Line the base of tins with baking paper and grease paper and dust tins with flour. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. Mix milk and vanilla together in a measuring jug.

Using an electric mixer on low speed, beat sugar and butter in a large bowl until blended. Increase speed to high and beat for 2 mins or until pale and creamy. Reduce speed to medium low, add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mix and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture (I did it by adding 1/4 of of the dry mixture followed by 1/3 of the wet mixture at a time). Beat until smooth, occasionaly scraping bowl with a spatula. Divide mixture evenly into 2 medium bowls (I did this by weighing the batter, it ended up being about 700g per bowl for me). Gently fold yellow colouring into one bowl and green colouring into another bowl until it's smooth.

Pour HALF of each bowl of batter into the prepared tins (so you end up with two yellow layers and two green layers) bake each layer for about 15-20 minutes or until a skewer into the centre comes out clean and the outside is golden. Cool in tin for 5 mins and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight. If your cake layers are slightly domed in the middle you may need to slice a little bit off the top of them to make sure they are flat. If you are not using the special checkerboard cake pans you will have to cut concentric circles out of your cake layers as shown in the photo above. For an 18cm cake, I cut a 6cm diameter circle out of the centre of the cake, then cut a 12cm diameter circle out of the centre of the remaining cake by tracing my knife around a plate of the same diameter, so you end up with one central circle and two outer 'rings'. (Obviously if your cake layers are a different size you will have to calculate the right diameter to cut your circles, mathematics is fun!) Swap the middle 'ring' of a yellow cake layer with the middle 'ring' from a green layer, and fit the cut pieces back together as shown in the bottom left photo above. Try your best to handle the cake pieces without cracking them, especially the outer 'rings'.

Prepare the white chocolate ganache, this will act as the 'cement' to hold your cake layers together. Place white chocolate pieces in a medium heatproof mixing bowl and heat your cream in a medium saucepan to gradually bring it just to the boil. Remove from heat and pour hot cream over the chocolate, leave to sit for 5 minutes while the chocolate melts. Whisk gently until the mixture is smooth, then chill until it is just below room temperature, thick but still pourable. Place one of the prepared layers, I started with layer that had a yellow outer ring, and spread a thin layer of white chocolate ganache over the top, then place a layer with a green outer ring over the top of it. Repeat with the remaining layers, so that the colours alternate. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Prepare the milo ganache; place the finely chopped chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Gradually heat the cream and milo powder together until it just starts to boil, then remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Leave to sit for 5 minutes while the chocoltae melts. Whisk gently until the mixture is smooth. If the mixture is quite runny you may need to chill it until it thickens more, it should be easily spreadable but should not run straight off the sides of your cake. If it starts to run everywhere simply scrape it back into your mixing bowl and chill for longer. Spread over the outside of your prepared cake, smoothing with an offset spatula. You can achieve a smoother finish if you dip your spatula in a cup of hot water regularly, or run it under hot water in the sink. Chill cake for at least half an hour, serve at room temperature (I find it is best to leave it sitting out of the fridge for at least an hour to allow the ganache to soften nicely). Can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.

Salted Caramel Apples with Popcorn

2012-01-09T10:00:00.003+11:00

I was feeling very selfish this weekend. It was very much a weekend full of 'me' time. I made these salted caramel apples coated in popcorn bits for purely selfish reasons. I wasn't trying to make anything interesting, original or pretty for the blog, I just really wanted to eat a toffee apple and I really wanted caramel popcorn, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I figured that if it turned into an ugly mess, I would just eat it and no one would ever have to know. Turns out they look quite pretty, so here they are. It might seem like a stupid, unnecessary or even gross combination to some people, but I wanted it. So I made it, I ate it and it was deeelicious.

In Australia we call them toffee apples, and they're usually coated in a hard, clear (or red tinted) toffee. I loved them when I was a kid, though my Mum hardly ever let me buy them because I would always eat all the toffee and throw out the apple and then run off in a sugar-high daze. It was understandable, the toffee apples were always from the supermarket and the apple inside was always an old, bruised, sad looking thing. And I really like sugar. I found it interesting that the as well as having toffee/candy apples in the US, they also have caramel apples that are covered in a creamy, softer caramel coating and sometimes dipped in toppings. I really love creamy caramel, and I decided that I needed to make these with an awesome salted caramel and then dip them in buttered popcorn.

Anything that involves boiling sugar syrup scares me, because it usually ends in me covered in burns. I decided not to take any risks, I did this salted caramel with a candy thermometer and I used David Lebovitz's salted caramel recipe. It worked perfectly, the caramel turned out beautifully smooth, dark and shiny. And I didn't get any sugar burns! It coated the apples nicely, set well and tasted amazing, with just the right amount of salt. I learnt a nifty tip where you should pour hot water over your apples and then rub them dry before you use them for caramel apples; this helps to remove any wax coating and helps the caramel stick to the surface of the apple easier. I still had a little trouble getting the caramel to stick at first, when the caramel is at its hottest it ran off the surface a little too easily. But once the caramel started to cool and thicken slightly it worked fine. I immediately ate as many of these evil apples as I could, and then wandered away from the kitchen in a familiar sugar-high daze. Unfortunately this did mean that I left a few of the leftover caramel apples on the kitchen counter and they didn't keep so well in the open, I woke up the next day and all the caramel had melted off the apples. I really should have wrapped them up in cellophane, so I will have to remember that for next time. There will definitely be a next time. P.S. Your teeth will not be happy with you because of all the chewy caramel, apple skin and popcorn bits.

Popcorn Salted Caramel Apples
(makes 8-10 caramel apples, salted caramel from David Lebovitz's recipe)
3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or bean paste
Heaped 1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1/2 cup (160 g) light corn syrup or golden syrup (I used Lyle’s Golden Syrup)
1 cup (200 g) sugar
4 tbsp (60 g), salted butter, cubed, at room temperature
8-10 small/medium apples (I usually prefer Fuji but this time I had to use Pink Lady) + wooden sticks
100g popcorn, popped and crushed into smaller pieces (I just used microwave butter popcorn as this was all I had available)

NOTE: This recipe creates a soft, chewy and creamy caramel to coat the apples. If you prefer to making a hard, clear toffee apple, this recipe from BBC good food looks decent.
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Remove stalks from apples and place in a large bowl and pour hot water over them and leave for a few seconds, then remove from the water and dry thoroughly. This supposedly helps to remove the wax coating on the apples and helps the caramel to stick to their surface better. Push a wooden stick into each apple, take care not to spear the stick all the way through. Place cream, vanilla, salt and half the butter (30g/2 tbsp) in a small saucepan and gently heat, stirring every now and then until the mixture just comes to the boil. Cover and set aside, keeping it warm while you prepare the sugar syrup.

In a medium or large heavy based saucepan fitted with a candy thermometer, place golden syrup and sugar and place on medium heat, stirring gently until the sugar dissolves. Once the mixture is melted together and the sugar is evenly moistened, only stir is as necessary to keep it from getting any hot spots. Cook until the syrup reaches 155°C(310°F). Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the warm cream mixture (take care as it will bubble up a lot) until it is smooth and even. Return to the heat and cook the mixture to 127°C(260°F). Remove the pan from the heat, lift out the thermometer, and stir in the cubes of butter, until it's melted and the mixture is smooth.

Working quickly, dip and swirl your prepared apples in the hot caramel mixture, hold it over the pan to let the excess drip off then carefully dip the caramel covered apple into the crushed popcorn. With the first few apples the caramel may be quite hot and run off the surface of the apples too easily, so you may need to leave these to set for a few minutes before coating with popcorn. If you work slowly (like me) and the caramel starts to get too viscious for dipping the apples, return it to a low heat and stir until it's runny enough. Place apples on the prepared baking tray and leave to cool completely. Serve immediately, the sooner the better as the popcorn will get soggier and the caramel will soften the longer you leave it/the longer it sits uncovered, you can try wrapping it in cellophane once they are cool to help avoid this. You can also mix any leftover popcorn and caramel together for an extra snack.

Chocolate 'Cupcake' Fudge

2012-01-02T19:30:00.003+11:00

When all else fails, sprinkles will fix everything. Sprinkles (especially rainbow sprinkles) are awesome. Sprinkles make me happy. And after a trip to the party supply store I had mountains and mountains of of them in all difference colours. I was determined to make something with these sprinkles. The first thing didn't turn out so great. It's not everyday that I have to go around asking people, "Do these unicorn horns look more like mystical penises?". Yeah.

I was still determined to make something with these sprinkles. They are just too darn pretty. So I decided to try Karen's recipe for easy chocolate fudge, it looked so freakin delicious. I just made a plain chocolate fudge, but poured it into mini cupcake papers and topped it with vanilla icing so they look just like cupcakes. All so I had something to put the rainbow sprinkles on. So cute!

There are many things I love about this fudge recipe. Karen's instructions were super easy to follow and the best part is that there is no sugar thermometer involved. There was a heck of a lot of stirring involved, my arms nearly fell off and my favourite silicon spatula snapped :( But it was totally worth it. The chocolate fudge is so tasty. And with the pink icing and sprinkles on top it looks so fun and cheerful.

The two things that usually freak me out about chocolate fudge is the risks of it not setting, or the chocolate seizing and making the whole mixture turn grainy. This recipe worked perfectly, the mixture sets pretty quickly so you have to work fast. I even kept my fudge at room temperature all day and it didn't go soft or melty at all. My first batch of fudge actually seized up as soon as I stirred in the chocolate and I completely freaked out, but I returned it to the heat and gradually added hot water to the mixture and it totally fixed it. It was like magic!

I wish I had been able to make these in time for our New Year's celebrations, the confetti sprinkles are just perfect for that kind of occasion. But these little cupcake shaped fudge bites are perfect for any party, they are nice and bite-sized, which I prefer since the fudge is quite sweet and you don't want to eat too much of it in one go. And everyone needs more rainbow sprinkles in their life.

Chocolate 'Cupcake' Fudge
(slightly adapted from Citrus & Candy's Easy Chocolate Fudge, makes 24 'cupcakes')
1 x 395g tin of condensed milk
80g butter (I used salted, but you can use unsalted and add 1 tsp salt)
200g light brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
180g dark chocolate, finely chopped

For the icing:
125g butter
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
Optional: Pink/Red food colouring, a few drops
Sprinkles to decorate

Line two 12-hole mini muffin trays with papers. Place condensed milk, butter, sugar, and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan. Stir constantly over low heat for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is glossy and sugar has dissolved (do not boil whatsoever).

Increase the heat to medium-low and bring to a simmer while stirring (there’s gonna be a lot of stirring involved here!). Continue to stir and cook for about 6-8 minutes until the mixture has thickened and it 'comes away from the sides' (check out Karen's video at the end of her post, it was a really useful reference for this part). Fudge is ready when a teaspoon of mixture forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water.

Remove from heat and working quickly, add in the finely chopped chocolate, stir until chocolate has melted (work fast otherwise the mixture might seize. Don't fret if it does, return it to the heat and add hot water 1 tbsp at a time and stir until the mixture turns molten again). Carefully spoon into prepared cupcake papers, smooth tops with a spatula and cool for 30 mins on a wire rack. Chill in fridge until firm.

Prepare the icing; remove butter 30 mins before starting. Chop up butter and beat in a large mixing bowl on high with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and gradually add sifted icing sugar, vanilla and food colouring. Increase speed to high and beat until smooth and fluffy. Peel cupcake papers away from the set chocolate fudge (I sliced a thin layer off the tops of each of them before doing this, so they had flatter tops). Place icing in a piping bag with a 1cm star tip and pipe over the top of the fudge and decorate with sprinkles. Store fudge in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Bourbon & Brown Butter Brownies

2011-12-28T10:00:00.004+11:00

As 2011 draws to a close and people make plans to welcome in the new year, I can think of nothing but brownies. Brownies are one of those things that I will randomly get cravings for every few months, and then I will make them and gorge myself to the point where I can't look at brownies for another few months. So this New Year's Eve, you could either work up the energy to make this stunning Pink Champagne & Strawberry Cake, complete with sparklers and chocolate covered strawberries, or you could take the easy route and make these incredibly quick and deliciously satisfying Bourbon & Brown Butter Brownies.

I've already gone on and on about the magic of adding brown butter to baked goods, so I knew that bit was going to be fantastic. But this time I took a leaf out of Lisa's book and boozed these babies up. These brownies are strictly for the grown ups. It's for New Year's Eve after all! The bourbon adds a wonderful depth to these gooey, fudgy brownies (extra gooey and fudgy because I doubled the amount of chocolate in them!). I was also tempted to whip up some boozy chocolate ganache to spread over the top but they tasted pretty great on their own so I decided against it, though feel free to do it if it tickles your fancy.

I hope everyone has had a lovely holidays and is ready for the new year. It's been an exciting, exhausting and tough year for me but I'm ready to take on 2012. These boozy brownies are the perfect dessert to make for any New Year's Eve dinner, serve it warm with some vanilla ice cream and everyone will love it. I am now going to eat way too many of them and will probably regret it later. See you in 2012!

Bourbon & Brown Butter Brownies
(makes 16 brownies)
250g good quality bittersweet chocolate (if you want them to be less gooey/fudgy then only use 175g)
100g butter
120ml (about 1/2 cup) bourbon
2 eggs
3 tbsp dutch process cocoa powder, sifted
75g (about 1/2 cup) plain flour
190g (about 3/4 cup) sugar

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Grease very well and line the bottom and two long sides of a 20x30cm slice/brownie tin (can be substituted with a 20cm square cake tin but you may have to bake it slightly longer as it will be thicker). Let the baking paper hang over the long edges, it will make it easier to lift brownie out later. Prepare the brown butter; place butter in a small saucepan on low heat until it melts, continue to stir over low heat but keep a close eye on it, as it begins to bubble and the milk solids separate and settle at the bottom of the pan. Stir it frequently at this point, so that the milk solids do not settle at the bottom of the pan for too long and burn. Continue until the mixture turns brown and smells nutty but take care not to leave it for too long or it will taste burnt. Remove from the heat.

Break up chocolate into small pieces place in a heatproof bowl. Heat over a saucepan of boiling water, or very carefully in 30 sec bursts in the microwave. Stir and set aside to cool for a few minutes, then add the brown butter and stir to combine. Sift cocoa powder, sugar and flour into a large mixing bowl. Add melted ingredients, bourbon and eggs to the dry mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Take care not to overmix or the brownies will be tough. Pour into prepared tin.

Bake for about 25 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs attached (start checking on it from the 20 minute mark, it is better to undercook it and have to return it to the oven later than to overcook it and let it go dry). Remove from the oven and place tin on a wire rack. Cool completely in tin before removing and cutting into 16 pieces. Can be stored overnight in an airtight container (they actually taste best the day after).

Christmas Red Velvet Snow Cake

2011-12-23T15:30:00.003+11:00

Ohhhh my god. This cake was a freaking nightmare. A messy, messy nightmare. For a few weeks now I've had this image in my head of a pristine white cake that looks like it's made of snow. I kept putting off making it because I couldn't think of the right flavour cake or the right toppings. I saw Mowie's stunning Snow Cake and nearly gave up the idea entirely because I knew I couldn't make anything near as perfect. I don't know why but a few days ago I suddenly decided I had to go ahead and make this cake. I wanted it to look like it was covered in snow on the outside by topping it with coconut, with little Snowman macarons on top and a vibrant red velvet cake with cream cheese icing hiding inside. I thought it would be the perfect dessert to bring along to Christmas lunch.

Things went pretty smoothly at first; I piped the macarons and was halfway through decorating them when I realised that I had forgotten to leave half the macaron shells undecorated for the back of each snowman. I really didn't want to have creepy double sided snowmen with faces on their fronts and backs. I managed to stop myself before I drew the faces on but they still have buttons on their backs. Then came my red velvet drama. I know I should have just gone with my trustly vanilla cake recipe and adapted it with cocoa and red food colouring, but instead I used an internet recipe and it just tasted really strange. Like it was made of playdoh. I have no idea why, it was probably because of something retarded I did. I don't think I'll be able to bring it to Christmas lunch :( So unfortunately I don't have a red velvet recipe to go with this post, but I'm sure most of you will have your own favourite red velvet cake recipe that you can use.

Then came the icing drama. I was totally impatient and didn't let my cakes cool for long enough before I started icing them. You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson on this issue by now. The icing started melting down the sides of the cake and it was a total mess. So that's why the cake isn't very straight on the sides, as A described it: 'The cake has hips'. I tried to fix it by patting the coconut on top of the icing and pushing it back up the sides of the cake, but it just made things worse. After the sprinkles mess I made with my purple ombre sprinkles cake you'd think I'd never decorate the sides of my cake with toppings again. But I did. And coconut went EVERYWHERE. At least coconut doesn't bounce as much as sprinkles do when they hit the ground. But it does stick to you. I was this scary coconut covered monster by the end of it.

Things didn't get much better the next day when I went to take photographs of it. I managed to drop that poor slice of cake twice, knocking off the poor snowman's nose. I had to perform emergency snowman surgery. And then I slipped and nearly fell into the damn cake. I'm not kidding. There was a lot of swearing. I was pretty much ready to give up on the whole thing, but look at how pretty it looks! I just had to share the idea with you guys.

My favourite part is definitely the snowman macarons. I filled them with the same cream cheese icing that I covered the whole cake in, and used orange Starburst chewy lollies to make their little noses. I know they've been done before (I think my favourite version that I've seen are from MiniCuisine), but they were just the perfect topper for this cake, along with the mountains of coconut to make it look like it was covered in snow. I really do love the bright contrast of the super red cake innards against the stark white exterior. It's definitely got a little bit of wow factor for when you cut into the cake. Of course feel free to make the macarons on their own, or you could just make the cake and icing. The cake would look just as cute topped with coconut macaroons or those white ferrero chocolates. And that's it from me for this year's Christmas baking, have an fabulous holidays everyone! Eat, drink and be merry :)

Red Velvet Snow Cake with Snowman Macarons
(makes 10-12 macarons)
2 x 8-inch round cakes, use your favourite red velvet recipe (mine was a bust unfortunately)
250g cream cheese, softened
250g unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp of lemon, or adjust to taste (you can also add the zest of one lemon if you wish)
6 cups (about 750g) icing sugar, sifted
About 125g dessicated coconut

For the macarons:
100g aged egg whites (you can use fresh eggs too, just make sure they are room temperature. I always use fresh these days, and zap it in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted
200g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
Optional: 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary
To decorate: black food colouring or edible ink pen, silver cachous and orange Starburst chews

Bake the red velvet cakes and cool completely. Prepare the macarons; Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and egg white powder in a medium mixing bowl until the egg white powder dissolves and it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue to your dry mixture and mix, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, be rough!), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Place in a piping bag and pipe snowman shapes (I piped small 2cm rounds next to 4cm rounds) on baking sheets. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles. If you wish, decorate with silver cachous for the snowman 'buttons'.

Leave to dry for at least half an hour to an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°C), depending on your oven. Place on top of an overturned roasting tray or another baking sheet if your sheets are not professional grade, for better heat distribution. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate half the macarons with the black food colouring to draw on the faces and cut a small triangle of orange Starburst chews for the nose.

Prepare the cream cheese icing; place cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until smooth and fluffy. Add lemon and icing sugar, one cup and a time, and beat until smooth. You may need to adjust the amount of icing sugar to obtain the right consistency, it should be spreadable but not runny. Spread over the top of one cake and then sandwich the other cake on top and crumb coat with more icing. Chill for about 15 mins to set the crumb coat slightly. While it is chilling, sandwich the macarons with some of the cream cheese icing and chill in the fridge in an airtight container. Cover the cake with the remaining cream cheese icing, smoothing with a spatula. Chill in the fridge for about half an hour. Place cake in a wide container/tray and carefully sprinkle coconut all over the top and sides of the cake to decorate. Top with macarons and chill in the fridge overnight. Serve at room temperature.

Green Tea & Raspberry Trifles

2011-12-19T10:00:00.000+11:00

This weekend A & I braved the crowds at the shopping centres to do our last minute gift shopping. Of course we had left it until the last weekend, like we always do. I think we came out of it relatively unscathed, the slow walkers and gift indecision left A in a very cranky state but at least we got it all done (I think). I was just happy to get home and unwind by making these gorgeous Green Tea & Raspberry Trifles. I was testing out the recipe early since I'm planning to make it for my family on Christmas day and I want it to be just right. I wanted to make a red & green trifle and green tea sponge cake seemed like the perfect choice, plus there were these amazing looking fresh raspberries available at the fruit store so I had to get them.

I really didn't mean to jump on the 'food in a jar' bandwagon with this recipe, it sort of happened by accident. Originally I was planning to present the trifles in these adorable little sundae cups from the 50s. I was running my dishwasher at the same time that I was making the raspberry champagne jellies for these trifles, and had no glasses left to pour the leftover jelly into so I grabbed a few spare jam jars in a moment of desperation. Then as I was adding the cake, fruit and custard I realised the jar trifles were just too damn pretty not to use. So forgive me if you're not a fan of the whole jar thing, but I couldn't help myself this one time.

I actually struggled to write up accurate measurements for this recipe since I sort of made it up as I went along, so feel free to deviate from the recipe as much as you like. The one thing I like about trifles is that you can mix and match ingredients depending on what you have available and what you like. Originally I had planned to use strawberries and moscato but then I realised it was very similar to these trifles I made a while back (they are also very good, make them). As much as I love green tea sponge cake, I wish the colour of the cake was a little bit brighter and greener, so I think for my next trifle I'll use a pandan chiffon cake instead. And maybe some different berries. The point is, use whatever fruit and cake flavour you prefer!

Other than the slightly dull green of the sponge cakes, I really do love the look and taste of these trifles. The slight bitterness of green tea in the sponge is such a good match for the tang of the raspberries and the sweet vanilla bean custard. Don't let the long ingredients list and instructions scare you off, trifles are pretty damn easy to assemble once you've got everything together. You can always make shortcuts here and there, by using store-bought sponge cakes from the bakery (trifles are the one instance where this isn't so criminal, it's getting soaked after all), or if you REALLY insist, you can use packet raspberry jelly to save you some time. But I think that the fresh fruit jellies are just so much more special. I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away, this year has flown by! I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holidays, hope you've got your elasticated waistbands ready for the holiday eatin'. I am hoping to squeeze in one more post before Christmas day, fingers crossed!

Green Tea & Raspberry Trifles
(makes approx 6 one-cup servings, can be adapted to make one large trifle, sponge recipe adapted from Gourmet Traveller)
For the jelly:
1 punnet (125g/4.4 oz) fresh or frozen raspberries (can be replaced with other berries), pureed and strained
350ml (approx 1.5 cups) champagne (or sparkling white wine, replace with fizzy (clear) lemonade if you don't want to use alcohol)
1 tbsp powdered gelatine
2 tbsp sugar

For the green tea sponge:
(Note: Sponges can be tricky, in fact mine didn't turn out as good as I would have liked. If you are unfamiliar with sponges, check out this article from GT for some great tips. Or if you want to save time use a green tea or pandan sponge/chiffon cake from an Asian bakery. I won't judge.)
4 eggs, room temperature
110g (1/2 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
65g (about 5 tbsp) cornflour (cornstarch)
1 tbsp green tea (matcha) powder
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g (1.75 oz) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the custard:
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
2 cups pouring cream (35% fat, whipping cream or pure cream)
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped (replace with 1 tsp pure vanilla extract if unavailable)

To serve:
1 1/2 cups pouring cream (35% fat, whipping cream or pure cream)
Fresh raspberries or other berries, one punnet (125g)
Raspberry jam (about 6 tbsp)
Green tea (matcha) powder to dust

Prepare the jellies ahead of time; Place gelatine and 100ml of champagne/lemonade in a bowl and allow gelatine to soften. Put raspberry puree and sugar in a medium saucepan and stir on medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves, then add the gelatine mixture and stir on medium heat until the gelatine has completely dissolved. Remove from heat and then add the remaining 250ml of champagne/lemonade. Pour equal amounts into 6 serving glasses and refrigerate until set, at least 2 hours.

Prepare the sponge cake; preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a 30cm x 42cm swiss roll tin with baking paper (you can also try using two square 20cm, but they will probably be a little thicker). Whisk eggs and sugar in an electric mixer on high speed until thick and pale (at least 5-6 minutes). Sift over cornflour, green tea powder, flour, cream of tartar and bicarb soda, fold in with spatula. Fold in butter and spoon into prepared tin(s) and smooth top with spatula, then bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Use a round cutter the same circumference (or slightly bigger) than your serving cups to cut out 6 rounds from the cake and press into each cup on top of the set jelly. Pour tsp of champage/lemonade over each sponge, then spread a thin layer of raspberry jam over each sponge. Top with a single layer of fresh berries and return to the fridge.

Prepare the custard; whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a bowl. Place cream and vanilla in a small saucepan and bring just to the boil. Gradually whisk hot cream mixture into egg yolk mixture until combined. Return to pan and stir continuously over low heat until mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon (watch it carefully or you'll get scrambled eggs). Strain out the vanilla bean pod and pour into a bowl, cover surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Pour equal amounts over each prepared glass, enough to cover the berries. Cover glasses with clingfilm and refrigerate until ready to serve, at least overnight.

To serve, whip cream in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until it reaches stiff peaks. Spoon a layer of whipped cream over each glass, top with more fresh berries (and some white chocolate curls if you like) and dust with green tea powder, serve immediately.

Cherry Pie Shortbread Bites

2011-12-15T09:00:00.003+11:00

When it rains, it pours. I hate to be a grump but I seem to be a bad luck magnet at the moment. I mentioned a while back that I was having a bad week, but it seems to have extended to a bad month, for every aspect of my life. I'm currently battling some kind of mystery virus and it's kept me bed-bound for the last couple of days. Also this post might not make a lot of sense since I'm on a lot of cold and flu medication. The one thing that I always feel like doing when I'm not well is to get into the kitchen and bake. It might sound weird to some people, but nothing cheers me up like freshly baked goods and since no one else in my house bakes I have to do it for myself. So last night when I was feeling like I was on the mend (false alarm), I dragged myself out of bed to make these cherry pie shortbread bites.

In my opinion it's not Christmas without shortbread, and lots of it. I know it might seem strange that I've posted two pie filling recipes in the space of one week, but it's a little more than a coincidence. I came across this fruit mince bites recipe on Taste while brainstorming ideas for Christmas shortbread but I was determined to put my fruit mince into poptarts. I did love the idea of the little shortbread cups filled with something yummy so I adapted the shortbread bites recipe to include this amazing cherry pie filling. Originally I was considering an apple pie filling similar to my apple pie tiramisu but fresh sweet cherries are synonymous with Christmas meals in Australia (one of the many benefits of celebrating it in the middle of summer), so I decided that cherry pie would be a much better option. I was right. These cherry pie shortbread bites are the perfect holiday treat and dangerously addictive.

Of course I know that not everyone is lucky enough to have tons of fresh cherries available to them at Christmas time, but frozen cherries will work just as well in this recipe as fresh ones. Plus they have the added bonus of being pre-pitted, which I realised after about 10 minutes into pitting my annoying fresh cherries. Anyway, the pie filling is lusciously thick and lightly flavoured with spices and vanilla bean. It is so so so good. It's the perfect filling for these buttery, melt in your mouth shortbread cups. While my mini poptarts may have suffered a bit from the lack of filling to pastry issue, these babies have no such problem. They are perfect. Perfect I tell you! I swear it's not just the cold and flu drugs talking.

As with all shortbread, make sure you use some really good quality butter. I always prefer using salted butter for my shortbread, it does something magical to it. These shortbread bites would be perfect for any Christmas party or just as a Christmas snack. It would be great any other time of the year, and if you're not a fan of cherry pie (in which case we probably can't be friends), you can substitute the cherries with any kind of berries or other fruit. And now I am going to lie in bed eating many of these cherry pie bites and watching copious amounts of Gilmore Girls. P.S. how cute is my vintage Quality Streets tin? I love eating tons of Quality Streets during the holiday season.

Cherry Pie Shortbread Bites
(Adapted from this recipe from Taste.com.au, makes 24 biscuits)
For the cherry filling:
300g cherries (fresh or frozen), pitted and diced
1/8 tsp mixed spice
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) + 2 tsp cold water

For the shortbread:
250g salted butter, softened
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 cups plain flour, sifted
1/3 cup rice flour, sifted
1 tsp lemon rind

Prepare the cherry filling first; place chopped cherries, mixed spice, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in a medium saucepan and place on medium heat. Stir over heat until sugar dissolves. Mix cornflour and water together in a separate small bowl then add to the saucepan and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease two 12-hole, 1 1/2-tablespoon capacity mini muffin pans. Place butter, sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until light and fluffy. Mix sifted flours together in a separate bowl and then add flours and lemon rind to the mixing bowl. Mix together, then turn mixture onto a floured surface. Lightly knead until dough comes together. Press 1 level tablespoon of mixture into 1 hole of prepared pan. Using your finger, make a hole in the centre of the mixture and fill each with about 1 heaped tsp of filling. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling. Bake for 12-15 minutes until shortbread is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes and then gently remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. Lightly dust tops with icing sugar and serve. Can be stored in an airtight container for several days.

Fruit Mince Pie Pops

2011-12-12T09:00:00.003+11:00

This year I've been completely addicted to fruit mince pies. I have had one pie pretty much every day since the start of December and I don't plan on stopping until they disappear from the shelves. It's a strange addiction, considering that I only started liking them as an adult; as a child I was freaked out by the whole 'mince' part until I realised that most fruit mince these days doesn't actually include meat like it used to. Now I can't get enough of them and I was determined to try and make my own fruit mince this year.

I'm not sure how familiar overseas readers are with fruit mince pies, but if you're not then this might be a good way of introducing yourself to them. I did a fun adaptation of them into cute mini Christmas tree-shaped poptarts on sticks. I've been wanting to make mini poptarts on sticks ever since seeing these cuties on the family kitchen. So incredibly cute. So I made them Christmas themed by being tree-shaped and filled with my own homemade fruit mince mixture. I based the poptart pastry recipe on the homemade apple pie poptarts I made recently, it's such an easy to make and easy to handle pastry recipe. The result? These cute little pastries on popsicle sticks made of thin, buttery pastry and filled with beautifully spiced dried fruits. The pastry was a tad fiddly to seal up with all the points on the christmas tree shapes, so I wasn't able to fill them up as much as I would have liked. Next time I'm going to have to get a bigger cookie cutter so I can fill them up with lots of fruit mince.

Even though I've never made fruit mince before, it was relatively simple. I basically just chopped everything up and mixed it together in a bowl and let it absorb all the delicious spices and booze for a couple of days. I had a little fun adding some of my favourite dried fruits, with some glace ginger and dried sour cherries (they both really feel Christmassy to me). The recipe is loosely based on Lisa's fruit mince, which I remembered enjoying at a Christmas picnic. I was really happy with how my fruit mince turned out, it's so lovely, aromatic and rich with flavour that I know I'll never be able to use pre-made fruit mince again (though I've only used it once when I feeling extremely lazy). I decided to skip any glaze on the top of the poptarts, going with the usual cinnamon sugar sprinkle, but they would look really cute with a simple icing glaze too. These really would make the perfect little nibbly treat at a Christmas party or picnic. And if you're not a fruit mince fan, you could try filling them with my apple pie filling, or maybe some candy cane chocolate sauce?

Fruit Mince Pie Pops
(adapted from my apple pie pop tart recipe, makes approx 30 mini pie pops)
For the fruit mince:
(You can use any fruit mince you prefer, mine is adapted from spicyicecream's, you will end up with lots leftover!)
130g dark brown sugar
150g sultanas
100g currants
25g dried dates, diced
25g dried figs, diced
25g prunes, diced
50g glaced mixed peel
1 Granny Smith apple (or any other baking apple), finely grated
Optional: 30g glace ginger finely chopped, 30g dried sour cherries, finely chopped (or any other dried fruit you prefer)
50ml port, brandy or muscat (I used port)
50g unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp mixed spice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground or freshly grated nutmeg

For the pastry:
2 cups plain flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
225g unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
1 large egg
2 tbsp milk
1 large egg, for brushing the dough
2 tbsp white sugar + 1/4 tsp cinnamon to sprinkle
Popsicle sticks

Prepare the fruit mince in advance; combine all the fruit mince ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine. Place in a sterilised container/jar and refrigerate for at 24 hours, the longer the better.

For the pastry, in the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, sugar and salt. Add the cold butter and pulse until only pea sized lumps remain in your mixture. In a small bowl, beat the egg with the milk. Add the mixture all at once to the dry ingredients and pulse until moisture is introduced to all of the flour mixture. Lightly dust a clean surface with flour and knead the dough until it starts to hold together. Divide the dough in two, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. On a well floured surface, roll the dough out to 3mm thick (it can sometimes be easier to roll between two sheets of baking paper). Use a Christmas tree shaped cookie cutter, or using a knife and a stencil, cut out Christmas tree shapes. Make sure they are not too small or you won't be able to put much filling in them. Alternatively you can cut out small rectangles, and adjust the size to your preference. Place half of the cutouts evenly spaced on three baking paper lined trays, leaving enough space for the popsicle sticks. Brush with beaten egg and then place a popsicle stick into the middle of each one. Place about 1 tsp of fruit mince filling in the middle of each and then gently press a second pieces of pastry cutout over the top and carefully press down on the edges with your fingertips or a fork. Make sure not to leave any big gaps or it will leak. Use the tines of the fork to create vent holes in each tart. Brush with more beaten egg and then sprinkle a pinch of the sugar/cinnamon mixture on the top. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Let the tarts rest in the fridge while the oven preheats. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top. Cool completely on a wire rack and store in an airtight container. Best eaten fresh and still warm but should last a couple days in an airtight container, and warmed slightly before eating.

Christmas Pancakes with Candy Cane Chocolate Syrup

2011-12-05T09:00:00.003+11:00

I've been craving pancakes. Pancakes are one of those breakfasts that seem to be a weekend/holiday treat and it's so nice to wake up to the smell of them being freshly made. I was probably a little spoiled as a child, since my Mum would regularly whip up her awesome banana pancakes, but these days I rarely have the time to make them myself. My pancake cravings were too much for me this weekend and I decided to make some festive Christmas-themed pancakes for our super-late Sunday breakfast.

I remembered seeing these awesome red & white pancakes from i am baker earlier this year and thought it would be great to do a twist on that idea to make it the perfect holiday breakfast. And so I ended up with these Red & White Christmas Pancakes with Candy Cane Chocolate Syrup. I love pancakes. I love candy canes. I also made a ton of crispy bacon to eat with it. I was a happy girl that morning.

Now I'm not quite talented enough in the pancake department to make them candy cane shaped like these amazing pancakes, but I do love the effect of the red and white stacks. I was quite impressed by how fluffy and white the ones from i am baker were, so I based my recipe on her plain pancake recipe, and then added a bit of red food colouring to a second batch of the pancake batter. It worked pretty much perfectly. Of course if you have issues with food colouring you could just leave it out, or use natural colouring. I used a gel colouring because you only need to add a little to get a great, vibrant colour. And if you're not squeamish about the colouring you could go even crazier and make a batch of green pancakes too.

The chocolate syrup is based on David Lebovitz's homemade chocolate syrup. If you have been reading my blog for long enough you will remember me waxing lyrical about this magical chocolate syrup. I renamed it Chocolate Awesomesauce and put it into oreo milkshakes. This time I modified it a little, by melting a bunch of crushed candy canes into it so that it had a nice hint of peppermint, and added some extra chocolate to make it a tad thicker since I figured most people would want something they could whip up and eat straight away for breakfast, rather than waiting a few hours for the sauce to thicken. The sauce is awesome but quite rich, I plan on making a second batch to pour over ice cream or mix into thickshakes. And of course I had to top off the whole thing with a bunch of extra crushed candy canes because it looks so pretty. But damn, peeling all that annoying plastic wrapping is a total pain in the bum. By the way, you're not a fan of the chocolate syrup you can always go with maple syrup and it will still be fantastic.

Red & White Christmas Pancakes with Candy Cane Chocolate Syrup
(Red & white pancakes adapted from this recipe from i am baker, chocolat syrup recipe adapted from David Lebovitz, makes 16 pancakes)
For the syrup:
1 cup (250 ml) water
1/2 cup (160 g) glucose (or light corn syrup, agave nectar)
Crushed candy canes, I used about 12 medium ones, about 150g
3/4 cup (75 g) unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-processed)
2.6 oz (75 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used Lindt 70%), you can also use milk chocolate if you are worried about it being too rich
Extra crushed candy canes, to serve

For the pancakes:
3 cups (about 450g) plain flour
4 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups milk (I used skim)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tsp vanilla extract
4 egg whites, whisked to soft peaks
Optional: red food colouring (I used gel colouring), green colour if you if feel like going crazy with it

Prepare the candy cane chocolate sauce first. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the water, crushed candy canes, glucose and cocoa powder. Bring to a boil over medium heat and simmer and stir until the candy canes are completely dissolved. You might want to taste test the sauce at this point to see if it in pepperminty enough for you. If you want it stronger, you can melt in more candy canes, or use a few drops of peppermint essence. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped chocolate until melted. Let the sauce stand until completely cool, which will give it time to thicken, or chill in the fridge. For the pancakes you can either measure up all the ingredients for the pancake batter in one go, split the batter in half and add the red colouring to one half, or you can measure half of all the ingredients first and cook them for the white pancakes, then measure up the other half of the ingredients and add red food colouring to that batch. I did the latter.

Place flour, sugar and baking powder in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Mix together milk, oil and vanilla in a medium separate bowl. Whisk egg whites to soft peaks. Pour wet ingredients into the well of the dry ingredients and whisk together until nearly combined. Add whisked egg whites (and red food colouring for half the batter if wanted) and fold into batter until just combined.

Place a griddle/frying pan on medium-low heat and lightly grease with extra vegetable oil. Pour about 1/3 of a cup of batter on to the pan and lightly brown on one side, until bubbles start to appear on the top then flip over and lightly brown the other side for about 3-5 mins or until cooked through.

Serve warm pancakes with chocolate syrup and sprinkle extra crushed candy canes on top (take care not to have pieces that are too sharp or too large for kids). A little bit of bacon is great with it too. Or if you want to skip the chocolate sauce, maple syrup and fruit is great too.

Spiced Strawberry Creme Brulee

2011-11-28T09:00:00.000+11:00

I'm going to be honest; this was not the recipe I originally set out to make. I was going to make some coconut macaroon tart shells and fill them with jam and cream. And it was meant to be a nice simple recipe that you could easily make more Christmassy. Because it's coming to that time of the year, my favourite time of the year, when I can finally whip out all my Christmas baking ideas. The coconut macaroon tart shells used up a few egg whites, so I thought I'd be practical and use the leftover egg yolks to make a spiced custard to fill the shells, along with some strawberry jam. It was all going smoothly, the shells were baking in the oven, the custard mixture was coming together and the jam was slightly warmed, ready to be spooned into the bottom of the shells.

And then it all went bad. The shells refused to budge out of the tart tins no matter how hard I tried, and they fell apart. Clumps of coconut were thrown against the wall in frustration. I panicked and made up a whole new batch of coconut macaroon mixture and decided to turn it into a slice, so I pressed a thin layer of it into a tray and started baking that. Then I panicked more and decided against it and pull it out of the oven and tried to make individual cookies with it but it was already too far baked and I had to throw that away too. Balls. I really didn't want to waste the custard mixture that I had already made, it was so delicious and would be perfect for the holiday season. So in my last ditch effort at saving SOMETHING, I made these; Spiced Strawberry Crème Brûlée. The custard is flavoured with golden syrup, cinnamon, ginger and all other kinds of spices, and at the bottom sits a layer of strawberry jam and a little bit of brandy. And of course that thin, glossy layer of caramelised sugar on top that makes the perfect, satisfying crack as your spoon breaks through it. It wasn't too shabby considering the crazy, messy path I took to end up there.

Of course, in my panicked state I didn't have a lot of patience so I probably underbaked these crème brûlées a little. Or a lot. And I barely chilled them, so the ones you see in the pictures are no where near as set as they should be. But they tasted oh so delightful, and all those beautiful spices made the mixture extra delicious (though the spices do make the custard look a little ugly and brown). Digging a little deeper gets you that hit of strawberry jam goodness, which would taste just as great if you substituted it with cherry jam, or marinated some freshly chopped strawberry pieces in some sugar and brandy overnight. The possibilities are endless.

So no coconut macaroon tarts, but I still somehow managed to pull off a simple recipe that feels like a good way to transition into holiday baking. Hopefully my next attempt at something will be slightly less disastrous, I still have a lot of cleaning up to do in the kitchen thanks to this debacle :( In the meantime, feel free to check out my Christmas baking ideas from previous years, which you can find in the 'Holidays' section of my Recipes Index. I'd definitely like to see a few more Gingerbread Igloos this year.

Spiced Strawberry Crème Brûlée
(adapted from this rhubarb and vanilla creme brulee recipe, makes approx 6)
430ml (about 1 1/2 cups) whipping cream (35% fat pouring cream)
1 vanilla bean, split lengthways (can be replaced with 1 tsp pure vanilla extract)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
6 egg yolks
75g (1/4 cup) golden syrup (replace with 75g sugar if unavailable)
About 2/3 cup strawberry jam mixed with 1 tbsp brandy (optional) - alternatively chop up 1 punnet strawberries and marinate overnight in 2 tbsp sugar + 1 tbsp brandy (optional)
Caster sugar for burning

Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F). Place cream in a small saucepan, scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean into the cream and add the bean, cinnamon, ginger and all spice. Bring to the boil over high heat. As soon as it boils, remove from the heat and set aside for about 10 minutes.

Place egg yolks in stainless steel bowl and use a whisk to combine. Add golden syrup and whisk for about 30 seconds, or until the syrup has combined and the mixture is pale. Pour the slightly cooled cream through a fine sieve, discarding the vanilla bean, then pour the cream into the egg yolk mixture, stirring well to combine.

Spoon about 1 tbsp of the strawberry jam & brandy mixture into the bottom of 6 1/2 cup ramekins and then add the warm custard mixture over the top until full. Place ramekins in a deep baking tray and pour in enough water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake in oven for about 45 minutes, or until just set. Remove from the oven and cool, then chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Spoon about 2 tsp of caster sugar over each ramekin and caramelise the sugar with a kitchen blowtorch, or with your grill. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Cereal Milk Mousse & Coco Pops

2011-11-24T09:00:00.006+11:00

This post is coming to you a lot later than it should be. The main reason is because I am a lazy fatty who spent the entire weekend indulging on carbs. Deeeelicious. But I really did try to make up for it by whipping up this easy dessert on Monday. And then the sun disappeared. I'm not exaggerating, anyone who has been in Sydney will understand what I mean, it has been dark and grey with nowhere near enough natural light to take photos. And so my poor blog sat there neglected for a couple of days while I stared despondently out the window at the pouring rain. So much for a quick, easy blog post for this week! But I finally decided to give it a go after work yesterday, the light was pretty iffy so apologies if it looks a bit strange.

After the crazy, over-the-topness of a 5-layer ombre effect birthday sprinkle cake in my last post, I thought it might be a good idea to take a breather and do something a little less complicated. It was also stinking hot for a lot of last week, so the last thing that I felt like doing was turning on the oven. While searching through recipes on the internet I came across the one for Momofuku's strawberry pannacotta with cereal milk mousse and cornflake crumble. While I never got fully swept up by the hype that was their crack pie, I've always been very intrigued by the idea of cereal milk. I think it's such a fabulous idea, which would invoke so many childhood memories. So I decided to finally give it a go, but with a little bit of a twist - instead of using cornflakes I would use one of the cereals I grew up with; Coco Pops, to make a chocolate cereal milk mousse that I would top off with even more cocoa pops. So it would be as the slogan goes, 'just like a chocolate milkshake, only crunchy'!

It's funny the things you find out while coming up with recipe ideas. I had no idea that not everyone knew about the whole chocolate milkshake only crunchy thing. I grew up hearing it! I didn't know that in the US they don't call them cocoa pops, they call them cocoa krispies. Which I guess makes more sense since they're cocoa flavoured rice krispies...But then in Australia we call them rice bubbles not rice krispies, argh! And they don't have them in Canada. This made me sad. Though apparently they sell something similar so I guess that's okay. Either way, I wanted to use this cocoa flavoured cereal to make a light, chocolatey dessert with a crunchy layer on top. I was a little worried the cocoa coating on the cereal would just make the mousse have a weird fake chocolate powdery texture, which it sort of seemed like it was going to halfway through making it. But after mixing in the cream it turned into this beautiful, light, completely uniquely flavoured mousse.

Take note, this is NOT a chocolate mousse. Do not make this recipe if you want a chocolate mousse. It tastes just like a bowl of cocoa pops with milk. I put a thin layer of chocolate ganache on the top of each mousse, to keep the cocoa pops on top separate so they wouldn't go soggy too quickly and it also makes up for the lack of any real chocolate in the mousse. It worked like a charm. But I did find that the cereal milk mousse was a little too firm for my liking, since the original recipe is meant to be set on top of a pannacotta. I've adjusted the amount of gelatin in the recipe so hopefully it will be a little lighter and softer. Anyway, it's a fast, fun and light dessert and if you like cocoa pops as much as I do, you should definitely make it.

Chocolate Cereal Milk Mousse & Cocoa Pops
(adapted from Momofuku's cereal milk mousse recipe, serves 4)
For the cereal-milk mousse:
3 cups cocoa pops (AKA cocoa krispies)
2 cups whole milk
1 1/4 tsp powdered gelatine
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 cup heavy cream (I used 35% fat pouring/pure cream)

For the topping:
100ml (a bit less than 1/2 cup) heavy cream (I used 35% fat pouring/pure cream)
100g dark chocolate. chopped into small pieces
Extra cocoa pops to top off

Preheat the oven to 135°C (275°F). On a lined baking tray, toast the cereal for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. In a sealable container, combine the toasted cereal and milk. Let steep for 20 minutes, then strain into a measuring cup; the mixture should yield about 1 cup of 'cereal milk'.

Place 1/2 cup cereal milk in a medium bowl. Sprinkle powdered gelatin on top. In a small saucepan, scald 1/2 cup cereal milk with the salt and sugar. Whisk hot milk into the cool milk until the gelatine is dissolved. Chill until almost set (I basically chilled mine and checked on it every 5 minutes until it was thick and almost going lumpy, at which point I whisked it until smooth and proceeded).

Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold it into the almost-set gelatine mixture. Pour mixture into 4 serving glasses. Chill in the fridge while preparing the topping. Put chopped chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Place 100ml cream in a small saucepan on medium-low heat and just bring to the boil. Pour hot cream over the chocolate and leave to sit for a minute to allow chocolate to melt. Use a whisk to mix, ensuring that it is smooth and all the chocolate has melted (if it hasn't, place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until smooth).

Leave to cool for about 5 minutes (ensure that the mixture is still pourable, otherwise you will have to reheat). Carefully pour a thin layer of the chocolate mixture over the top of each mousse glass. Sprinkle a layer of cocoa pops over the top. Chill until set, at least one hour. Best served on the same day to ensure cereal layer is still crunchy.

Edit: Oops I just realised I spent the whole post misspelling it Cocoa Pops when it's actually Coco Pops...but I can't be bothered fixing it all through the post, sorry!

Purple Ombre Sprinkles Cake

2011-11-14T14:00:00.008+11:00

Tomorrow is my birthday, and though I've reached the stage where birthdays don't excite me anymore I thought I would do a fun cake for this week since I didn't have anything else planned. I wanted to do a crazy cake that was 100% just for me, just all the things I loved and have wanted to put into a birthday cake. And that means sprinkles and lots and lots of purple. Enter Steph's crazy purple ombré sprinkles cake with salted buttercream. I've always been in complete awe of all the amazing colourful layered cakes I see on different blogs, especially the gorgeous ones that have the ombré effect. I never though I'd be able to pull off one, it seemed like something that required patience and to be neat and meticulous and I can't do any of that very well. But since this cake was entirely for me, the only person I would be disappointing is myself if I failed so I went for it.

I've had a really bad week. Really bad. At first the thought of baking while in the middle of this horrible week seemed like a terrible idea but then I remembered that baking is my happy place, my therapy. So I pottered around the kitchen and lost myself in this recipe and it really did make me feel better. I used the most reliable yellow cake recipe I knew of, from my Le Cordon Bleu cooking book. It's deliciously buttery, the batter is stable enough to deal with a lot of mixing and the texture and moisture of the cake works well for layered cakes. It's one of the first cakes I ever made while learning to bake. The original cake is for a 3 layered cake, but I split up the mixture into five layers so I could get a good range of purple shading. I only have one 20cm cake tin which meant I had to bake 5 cakes, one after the other, cleaning, regreasing and lining each tin in between. It took a while and took my mind off my crappy week. And it also reminded me once again that I need to buy more cake tins.

I used Wilton colouring gel and it worked absolute wonders. I usually find it's way too hard to to get the perfect shade of purple when using red and blue colouring so I saved myself the trouble and got some violet colouring. I am absolutely in love with the effect of the shading, and surprised that I managed to get the gradient of shading right. I did a little happy dance when I cut into the cake for the first time. And I also chortled smugly at the recent memory of someone who worked at a professional bakery telling me that to get this kind of shading between each layer would require someone to make 60 cake layers before they got it right. Haha whatevs.

I decided to use the leftover blackcurrant jam from my Ribena Cupcakes from last week. I love jam in cakes so much, it keeps them moist and gives it a nice burst of flavour. And it worked great since it was purple too. I used my favourite icing, the simple salted butter icing that I can't stop using recently. I originally was planning to do a crazy bright purple icing but decided to keep it simple and white, to give you the surprise of the bright colour when you cut into the cake. It works so well, as learnt from the epic Whisk Kid rainbow cake that is burned into my memory as the best cake ever. Originally I wanted to cover the entire cake in chocolate freckles because I recently rediscovered my love for them. But when I started to cover the cake in the freckles I realised the cake looked pretty damn ugly, like it was covered in festering warts. Lovely, I know. So I went into full panic mode and ripped off all the freckles and started slapping rainbow sprinkles all over the cake to cover up the mess I'd made. Sprinkles EVERYWHERE. I even found a sprinkle in my belly button when getting changed later. It was a mess, but my cake ended up looking like one giant freckle and that is kinda awesome. It reminded me of this amazing cake from Sprinkle Bakes. And check out the stunning Vanilla Malt Sprinkle Bark Cake Lisa made me! Sprinkles make everything better.

Purple Ombré Sprinkles Birthday Cake
(makes one round 20cm 5-layer cake, yellow cake recipe adapted from Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cooking Step-by-Step)
Note: Sorry US readers, I didn't have time to measure the ingredients in cups so I could convert the measurements for you, you'll have to convert it yourself or use some kitchen scales for this one!

For the cake:
355g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
225ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1 tsp extract and 1 tsp vanilla bean paste)
400g caster sugar
225g unsalted butter, softened
4 medium eggs
Purple food colour (I used Wilton violet gel colouring)
Jam to spread between layers, I used blackcurrant jam but you could use grape or strawberry, or double the amount of icing and use that

For the icing:
500g icing sugar sifted (easiest way to sift is by pulsing in a food processor)
275g salted butter (about 2.5 sticks)
Extra table salt to taste
Optional: sprinkles to decorate

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease whatever 20cm round cake tins you have (I only had one so I had to bake each cake one after the other). Line the base of tins with baking paper and grease paper and dust tins with flour. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. Mix milk and vanilla together in a measuring jug.

Using an electric mixer on low speed, beat sugar and butter in a large bowl until blended. Increase speed to high and beat for 2 mins or until pale and creamy. Reduce speed to medium low, add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mix and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture (I did it by adding 1/4 of of the dry mixture followed by 1/3 of the wet mixture at a time). Beat until smooth, occasionaly scraping bowl with a spatula. Divide mixture evenly into 5 medium bowls (I did this by measure the batter, it ended up being about 300g per bowl for me). Leave one bowl of batter white, then very gradually add colouring to each bowl and gently fold it into the mixture, adding slightly more colouring as you do each bowl so that the 5 bowls give you a even gradient of colour.

Pour batter into prepared tins and bake each layer for about 15-20 minutes or until a skewer into the centre comes out clean and the outside is golden. Cool in tin for 5 mins and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. Prepare the icing; remove butter from fridge 30 mins before starting and chop into small cubes. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on high with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium-low and gradually add icing sugar until combined, then increase speed to high and beat until pale and fluffy. While still mixing, gradually add any extra table salt to taste if needed.

Prepare cake for icing, you may need to trim the tops a bit to make sure they are level. Layer cakes with jam (or more icing). Crumb coat the cake with some of the prepared icing and chill for 15 mins. Cover the cake with more icing, smoothing out with a spatula (I use an offset spatula that I keep clean and warm by running under hot water to get it smoother). If decorating with sprinkles, it can get pretty messy so place your cake in a large container that will catch any of the sprinkles that will run off the cake as you try to stick them on the sides of the cake. Serve cake at room temperature, store cake in the fridge in an airtight container.

Ribena Cupcakes

2011-11-07T09:00:00.003+11:00

If this entire blog wasn't already enough of a testament to my extreme sweet tooth, I'll share another bit of information. Throughout most of primary and high school my Mum could not get me to drink plain water, no matter how hard she tried. I would only drink Ribena, I loved the stuff. For those of you not familiar with Ribena, it's a super sweet blackcurrant cordial and I used to drink buckets of it. I'm not quite sure why I stopped drinking it as much, but I think it was replaced with an addiction to apple juice boxes when I moved to Sydney. And then I remember there was all this scandal because some school students found out that ribena had something like NO vitamin C in it, but I just shrugged it off since that was never the reason I drank the stuff.

So I decided to test out a new cupcake flavour as a tribute to this super sweet drink; Ribena Cupcakes. I was a little worried since I figured the cordial was probably not strong enough in flavour to make my cake batter and icing taste distinctly of blackcurrant. But then I happened across blackcurrant jam in the supermarket (I can't believe I've never bought it before, maybe because the jar looked so similar to the blackberry jam that I passed it by) and the jam tastes exactly like a super concentrated ribena. It worked like a charm, these cupcakes taste just like ribena. And to top it all off, a blackcurrant pastille on top. Does anyone love blackcurrant pastilles as much as me? I usually force myself to avoid them because if I buy them I will eat the entire pack in one sitting and end up with a black tongue, purple lips and a crazy sugar high.

I used my foolproof cupcake recipe as the base of the cake batter, replacing the liquid with ribena and reducing the amount of sugar. That's why it's my foolproof cupcake recipe, it seems to handle whatever kind of crazy adaptations I make to it. The cake itself doesn't have a super strong flavour of blackcurrant, just a pretty purple hue. But I filled the centres with a big dollop of blackcurrant jam to make up for it. I was playing around with the idea of doing a Swiss meringue buttercream for the icing, but I realise that these days I still prefer eating a regular butter icing. And this one tastes pretty awesome. In the same way that my strawberry jam buttercream is so full of flavour, this blackcurrant icing really packs a delicious punch.

There's so much about these cupcakes that are very me. Look how purple they are! When I got the idea for these cupcakes in the middle of last week, I couldn't resist ordering these adorable papers from emerald + ella and they arrived in time for my weekend baking :) And they really do taste like ribena, even though the thing making them taste like ribena isn't the ribena haha. I'd consider it my early birthday present to myself, but my birthday isn't for another week so I still have time to make myself a crazy birthday cake if I want to...I'm not sure if I can be bothered...We'll see!

Ribena (Blackcurrant) Cupcakes
(makes 12-14 cupcakes, adapted from my foolproof cupcake recipe)
1/3 cup ribena cordial (not mixed with extra water)
2 eggs
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
1 jar blackcurrant jam

For the icing:
Note: if you are looking for a slightly lighter topping, you could either do a simple icing sugar and ribena glaze, or a Swiss Meringue Buttercream with ribena added
210g butter (about 1 3/4 sticks), chopped into small cubes
375g (about 3 cups) sifted icing sugar
2 tbsp ribena cordial
3 tbsp blackcurrant jam
Optional: Blackcurrant pastilles to decorate

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) (if fan-forced use 180°C (350°F)) and line a cupcake tray with paper cases. There are two options for preparation, either work just as well as the other. Combine all cake ingredients in a food processor and blend for 2 minutes. If you have extra time and are worried about over-mixing the flour like me, blend the ribena, butter, sugar and eggs together first for one minute, then add the flour and blend for another minute. If you don't have a food processor, cream butter and sugar together using an electric beater until light and smooth. Add eggs one at a time and beat in well. Add the ribena and flour and quickly mix until combined, avoid overbeating the flour.

Pour cake mixture in paper cases, filling them about 3/4 full. It's usually easiest to use a table spoon to scoop the batter and then drop it into your paper cases. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in tin for 5 minutes and then carefully remove and cool cakes on wire rack completely.

Prepare the icing; remove butter from fridge 30 mins before starting. Beat chopped butter in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high until smooth and fluffy. With the mixer on low, gradually add sifted icing sugar until combined, then beat on high until smooth and fluffy. Add ribena and jam gradually, you may need to add extra icin sugar to ensure your icing is the right consistency. It should be smooth but not runny. Use a small knife to cut a circle of cake out of the middle of the cupcakes. Fill the centre with a teaspoon jam (you may need to use a small spoon to dig out more cake so there is enough space) and replace the cut out cake tops. Pipe icing over the top of the filled cupcakes. Decorate with blackcurrant pastilles on top and serve immediately. Can be stored in an airtight container for several days, serve at room temperature.

Strawberry Milk Macarons with Cookie Dough Buttercream

2011-10-31T09:00:00.003+11:00

It's interesting how much of an influence my childhood has had on my favourite flavours. I grew up eating light sponges and regular yellow birthday cakes and I've never had the least bit of interest in dense mud cakes. I had a mug of hot milo before bed on most evenings, and that obsession has never gone away. Grape flavoured bubble tape and Grape Fanta has ensured my attachment to fake grape flavoured treats. And the strip of strawberry in a tub of neapolitan ice cream has locked in my intense love for all things strawberry milk flavoured. It may be artificial tasting to some people and it does tend to make me feel a little ill because I always have too much, but strawberry ice cream, strawberry flavoured milk and (I'm a little ashamed to admit it) Macca's strawberry thickshakes are my weakness. I can never resist it but I always regret it later.

Suze was telling me about the strawberry milk macarons from Cafe Cre Asion that sounded amazing and I really wanted to try. With the combination of my strawberry flavoured milk weakness and Suze's encouraging "Dooooo it"'s, I had to test it out for myself. I decided to combine it with another idea that I had for a cookie dough buttercream. It seemed kind of appropriate, I've mentioned on this blog before that I have a serious weakness for choc chip cookies. They are the one thing besides scones that I will whip up randomly just so I can be a total pig, and I can never stop at one. So this macaron flavour was full of all the things I was addicted to.

I thought about flavouring the macaron shells with Strawberry Nesquik to give it the strawberry milk flavour, and some quick searching on the internet proved to me that it should work well (see What The Fruitcake?!). I also found a cookie dough buttercream from Annie Eats which looked amazing and I had to try. Oh my god. THIS BUTTERCREAM IS ON ANOTHER LEVEL. It is so good. I insist that you try it immediately, put it on a cupcake or just sit there are eat it straight out of the mixing bowl with a wooden spoon like I did. And it has the added bonus of not having any raw egg in it. It really tastes just like cookie dough, I also used slightly salted butter to give it a little extra kick and mixed in small dark chocolate chip bits in the hope that it would help offset the super sweetness from the strawberry nesquik in the macaron shells.

I was actually surprised by how intense the flavour of strawberry came through in the macarons. It was almost too strong, it kind of overpowered the flavour of the cookie dough buttercream. I'm glad that I made sure to fill the macarons with a very thick layer of buttercream, it really needed it and it tasted so good. I've also adjusted the amount of strawberry nesquik in the macarons because I think I used a little too much in my original recipe. I'd even consider adding even more salt to the buttercream, because it still seemed a tad too sweet for my liking. But you really can taste that strawberry milk flavour in these macarons. It might not be everyone's favourite flavour, but it's one of mine and I can't say no to it.

Strawberry Milk Macarons with Cookie Dough Buttercream
(buttercream recipe adapted from Annie Eats)
100g aged egg whites (you can use fresh eggs too, just make sure they are room temperature. I always use fresh these days, and zap it in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted
150g icing sugar
50g Strawberry Nesquik
50g caster sugar
Optional: 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary

For the buttercream:
115g (1 stick) butter, at room temperature (I used slightly salted butter)
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup sifted icing sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp milk
1/2 pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini dark chocolate chips (or very finely chopped dark chocolate, I pulsed mine through the food processor to break it up)

Prepare the macarons; Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place icing sugar and strawberry nesquik in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and egg white powder in a medium mixing bowl until the egg white powder dissolves and it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar (and then add food colouring) and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue and to your dry mixture and mix, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, be rough!), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Place in a piping bag and pipe rounds of about 3.5cm diameter on baking sheets. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles.

Leave to dry for about half an hour to an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°C), depending on your oven. Place on top of an overturned roasting tray or another baking sheet if your sheets are not professional grade, for better heat distribution. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the icing, beat together the butter and brown sugar a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high until creamy. With the mixer on low, gradually add sifted icing sugar, then increase speed and beat until combined. Beat in the flour and salt on low until just combined. With the mixer still on low, beat in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended. Fold in mini chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Sandwich macaron shells with a generous amount of buttercream, I used about a tablespoon or so for each. Refrigerate overnight in an airtight container to allow the flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.

Orange Cake with Fruit Tingles Icing

2011-10-23T16:00:00.009+11:00

My fiancé A loves any food that is super sour. He sucks on lemons. This must be part of the whole opposite attracts thing, since I'm about as happy to suck on lemons as he is to eat a scone. He's very picky about his sweets, but one of his favourite lollies are Fruit Tingles. I'm not sure if anyone outside of Australia has had these, but they are these tart, pastel-coloured tablet candies, which have fizzy sherbet powder in them, hence the tingly part of Fruit Tingles. These are one of the many sweets that we have to bring along with us on any car or plane trip, in fact I recently pulled out one of my hand-luggage bags and found a fruit tingle rolling around the bottom of the bag. Also A insists that only the multi-coloured fruit tingle in the pack (there's usually only one in each pack) is THE fruit tingle, and none of the other colours should be called fruit tingles. But whatever, I crushed up all the different colours to make this Fruit Tingles Icing, isn't it pretty??? It is. It's pretty, and very tingly. That might sound a bit wrong but it tastes so right heehee...

I've been having a bit of a drought in baking inspiration recently. I'd been sort of toying with the idea of doing an orange sherbet cake but I couldn't quite figure out how to make it my own. Then Regex Man suggested that I make something with Fruit Tingles, remembering the Fruit Tingles Milkshake he once had Bells Milk Bar. It had to be done! I immediately decided to do a layered orange cake with a butter icing that had crushed up fruit tingles mixed into it. A bit of research also happened to find me these amazing fruit tingle macarons on Flickr which I think is just as awesome an idea. But I really wanted to slather an entire cake with loads of this fruit tingle icing. Don't worry if you can't get Fruit Tingles where you live, any fizzy hard candies will do. Suze tells me that the US equivalent is Bottle Caps or Smarties (not the chocolate covered candy with the same name) or SweeTarts, but since I haven't had these myself I can't say for sure that they're the same or similar enough. (Or Barratt's Refreshers for those in the UK?)

Since I know that icing a layered cake is always going to be messy and will take me ages to get it nice and neat, I was glad to have a super easy cake recipe that I could whip up in a few minutes. Stephanie Alexander's orange tea cake has got to be one of the easiest, yummiest cake recipes I've ever used. It's the same recipe that I ended up adapting to use for my foolproof cupcake recipe. You literally throw the ingredients into the food processor, whizz it up and bake it. I adapted it in this recipe so it could be baked as three separate cake layers, but you could always bake it in one deep cake tin and slice it up. I also reduced the amount of sugar since it was going to be covered in heaps of icing. I used salted butter in the icing which stops it from being so sweet that it makes your teeth hurt. But I wouldn't make this cake if you're scared of sugar or butter. There's a LOT of sugar and butter in the icing. Though if you're really scared of butter and/or sugar you probably shouldn't be reading my blog most of the time.

The icing is most definitely the star of this cake. I've been making a lot of awesome simple butter icing recipes recently, they're the ones that I love to eat on cakes and they're the easiest to get right. The little nubbins of Fruit Tingle bits give this icing that beautiful speckled pastel coloured look, and add the sour fizzy sherbet flavour that A is so fond of. It goes really well with the orange cake, and you could easily adapt this recipe into a cupcake recipe too. I am pretty sure this recipe would be a winner at a birthday party, especially if the kids (or adults) love Fruit Tingles as much as A does.

In other random news, I was lucky enough to be asked by SBS Food to be one of their Featured Foodies on their website this month. They've done great features on some of my favourite food bloggers in the past and you can see mine here.

And OH MY GOD there's even a (very old) photo of me. But at least I'm not posing with Tupperware boobies or anything, which has happened on another blog before and shall not be mentioned again. Anyway go check it out!

Fruit Tingles Cake (Orange Cake with Fizzy Sherbet Icing)
(makes one 3-layered 20cm round cake, cake recipe adapted from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion)
For the cake:
1 1/2 large oranges
3 eggs
165g unsalted butter
3/4 cup castor sugar
300g (approx 2 cups) self-raising flour

For the icing:
350g butter (I like to use salted butter for this)
750g (about 6 cups) icing sugar, sifted
4 rolls (about 140g) Fruit tingles, or any other fizzy tablet candies like Bottle Caps or Smarties (not the chocolate covered candy with the same name), SweeTarts or Barratt's Refreshers, plus an extra roll to decorate on top if you wish

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) (if fan-forced use 180°C (350°F)) and grease, line the base and dust with flour three 20cm round baking tins. If you're like me and only own one tin, you can re-use the tin and bake three cakes, one after the other. Zest and juice orange (I ended up with about 1/2 cup of juice). Combine all cake ingredients in a food processor and blend for 2 minutes. If you have extra time and are worried about over-mixing the flour like me, blend the orange juice and zest, butter, sugar and eggs together first for one minute, then add the flour and blend for another minute. If you don't have a food processor, cream butter and sugar together using an electric beater until light and smooth. Add eggs at a time and beat in well. Add the juice, zest and flour and quickly mix until combined, avoid overbeating the flour. Split the batter into three equal portions (I used a scale to measure it exactly), and pour into prepared tin(s) and smooth with a spatula. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in tin for 5 minutes and then carefully remove and cool cake on wire rack completely. (Cakes can be made a day ahead and wrapped in cling film in the fridge overnight before icing)

When all 3 cakes are completely cool, start preparing the icing by removing the salted butter from the fridge 30 mins before starting. Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth and fluffy with an electric mixer on high. Gradually add icing sugar with the mixer on medium, then when it is combined beat on high until light and fluffy. You may need to adjust the amount of icing sugar to obtain the right consistency of icing, you want it to be smooth but not holding its shape, not runny. Crush fruit tingles in a food processor or by smashing it up in a zip lock bag and beat crushed lollies into the icing until even. Sandwich the three cakes with an even layer of icing between them, and then cover the entire cake in the icing, smoothing out with a spatula or palette knife. Top cake with extra fruit tingles and chill for about 20 mins to set the icing. Serve at room temperature, can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.

Mango Milkshake with Coconut Sorbet & Sago

2011-10-17T10:00:00.003+11:00

Of all the things I like to whinge about in the sticky, humid hotter months in Sydney, one thing that I absolutely love is the massive amounts of mangoes available. Mangoes are one of my absolute favourite fruits, and I'm really glad to see them showing up in the markets more and more as the weather warms up. I felt like doing a mango shake with a twist, by adding some easy homemade coconut sorbet and sago pearls. It's actually more of a thickshake, because I prefer my milkshakes to be thick, rich and creamy. And it's the perfect way to celebrate the arrival of the warmer weather with something fresh and easy.

I've always loved sago pearls since I was little; my Mum would always make bubur cha cha (is that how you spell it? I'm never sure.), a sweet dessert soup with sago pearls, taro and sweet potato pieces and flavoured with pandan and palm sugar. We called the sago pearls 'frog eggs', because of their look and texture and while that might sound gross to some people, I've always been fascinated with them. And then on a recent visit to Universal restaurant I was totally blown away by the desserts, one of which included a gorgeous tapioca pearl cream. I ate it with child-like glee and I was immediately inspired to start using either tapioca or sago pearls in desserts as soon as possible.

Lisa managed to pick me up some beautifully ripe mangoes from Harris Farm Markets, and also these amazingly addictive roasted coconut chips. I knew I had to use them together for this dessert. I blended up the mango with evaporated milk (inspired by the mango, sago & pomelo dessert you usually have at yum cha), and coconut sorbet. I was tempted to just use store-bought sorbet, but ended up adapting Lisa's easy recipe for homemade coconut sorbet. It's so easy and takes about 5 minutes of preparation, so it's definitely worth the extra effort.

I just love the addition of sago pearls to this drink. It's definitely something that you need to drink through a straw, so that you get the little pops of bubbles, like a mini bubble tea. The drink is quite rich and thick, so you don't need too much to be satisfied. Although you could always adjust the amount of each ingredients to make it less rich and thick if you like. The roasted coconut chips that I crumbled up and sprinkled on top was the perfect topping, but regular toasted coconut flakes would work just as well. I think this shake, served in small portions in little milk bottles with paper straws would be so cute to serve to guests.

Mango Shake with Coconut Sorbet & Sago Pearls
(makes enough to serve 4-5 people)
2 medium mangoes, peeled and stone removed (about 300-400g)
1 cup evaporated milk (I used light, can also be substituted with regular milk)
Coconut sorbet (store-bought, or see below for easy homemade recipe)
30g (about 1/8 cup) small sago pearls (you can substitute with tapioca pearls but you will have to adjust the cooking method to suit the tapioca)
Optional: Toasted coconut flakes or roasted coconut chips to top off, and extra cubes of mango

For the coconut sorbet (adapted from spicyicecream):
1 x 400g coconut cream
1/3 cup water
3 tbsp caster sugar

If you're making your own coconut sorbet, prepare it the day before; Place sugar and water in a small saucepan on medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Remove from the heat and cool for 5 mins. Whisk in the coconut cream until smooth. Chill mixture for at least an hour, then churn in an ice-cream maker according the manufacturer's instructions (or freeze until frozen, stirring mixture every 30 minutes).

Prepare the sago pearls; fill a small saucepan 3/4 full with water and bring to the boil. Add sago pearls and boil until the pearls just turn completely transparent (about 10-15 mins). Make sure not to over cook the pearls or they will turn to mush. As soon as they are just cooked, drain in a sieve and run under cold water. Puree mango flesh in a blender or food processor until smooth. In a blender or milkshake maker, place puree, evaporated milk and about 4-5 scoops of coconut sorbet and pulse until smooth. You may need to adjust the amount of milk and sorbet to taste, depending on how thick you want it. Gradually add and stir in the sago pearls, depending on how much you want. I used about 2 tbsp per person. Top off with another scoop of coconut sorbet, toasted coconut and mango pieces. Serve immediately in glasses with straws.

Cocoa Nib Cookies for a Chocolate & PX Brownie Cake

2011-10-13T09:00:00.001+11:00

If someone asked me what was the best thing to come out of starting this blog, the answer would be obvious to me. The friendships I've made through blogging were an unexpected surprise at first, and some of the people I have met have become some of my dearest, closest and most trusted friends. I'd give up the blog in a heartbeat if I had to choose between it and these friends. A few years ago I would have scoffed at the idea of becoming so close to people who I had only met through the internet, but now it seems inevitable that through reading each others blogs and bantering over twitter that we would be drawn together by our similar interests and views. This post is for all the amazingly creative and wonderful people I have connected with through my blog.

In particular I want to talk about my lovely baking blogger friends Karen and Lisa. I love these two girls like they were my sisters, and even though I've only known them a few years it feels like we've known each other forever. It's incredibly special and somehow satisfying to be surrounded by people who just get you and all your quirks and weirdness. A couple of weeks ago Lisa and I were having one of our usual daily gmail chats and we were brainstorming crazy baking ideas when she came up with a pretty spectacular one. Karen's birthday was looming, and we were planning to take her out to an awesome lunch at Universal restaurant. Lisa suggested we make her an epic birthday cake as an extra present. A sexy chocolate cake. With Pedro Ximenez sherry. Slathered in an even sexier ganache. Oh and how about some salted butter & cocoa nib cookies? If you know Karen or you've ever read her blog then you would understand. She is a lover of all things chocolatey, sexy and salted buttery and is obsessed with dessert booze. We couldn't make this cake anymore like Karen unless we somehow managed to build it legs so it could go frolicking in the fields.

Full credit goes to Lisa for dreaming up and baking this incredible Chocolate & PX Brownie cake, which she carefully carried all the way over to my house (and nearly dropped on the pavement outside the door), and then slathered the whole thing in a thick layer of super luscious and very sexy dark chocolate & PX ganache. The smell in my kitchen of all that chocolate and PX was incredible. My small contribution was the cute little heart-shaped Cocoa Nib & Chocolate Chip Cookies, which we stuck on to the side of the cake and decorated with a ribbon. It was so much fun working with Lisa to come up with the final cake, and since we had some free time we couldn't resist pulling out some props and snapping a few shots, so I'll just use it as an excuse to share the cookie recipe with you and link to her amazing cake. The biscuits are pretty freaking awesome on their own though, they're a little different to my Salted & Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies as they are thin and crisp and have a great nutty flavour and crunch from the bits of cocoa nibs. They're just a little bit sexier and sophisticated. You can cut the dough thicker and bake them for less time if you still prefer your cookies a little chewy in the middle. I actually overbaked the cookies a bit so they were extra crunchy because I was worried they might go soggy once they were sitting in the chocolate ganache on the cake. The addition of the salted butter makes them so addictive, I had to force myself to give away all the leftover biscuits that we didn't use on Karen's cake or I would have eaten them all myself! Good luck trying to eat only one. And make sure you check out Lisa's incredible recipe for her Chocolate & PX Brownie cake. She's a genius.

Cocoa Nib & Chocolate Chip Cookies
(makes about 6 dozen cookies depending on how large and thick you cut them, adapted from this Food & Wine recipe)
120g dark chocolate or chocolate chips, finely chopped (I blitzed mine in the food processor to break it up)
4 tbsp (approx 35g) cocoa nibs
2 1/2 cups (approx 300g) plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt
280g (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups (approx 200g) sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Sift flour, bicarb, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Beat salted butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 mins. Add egg yolk and vanilla and beat to combine, scraping sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure it mixes evenly. Beat in dry ingredients at a medium-low speed and then fold in chocolate and cocoa nibs. The dough should be easy to handle and quite firm.

If making regular round cookies, roll dough into 4 separate logs, about 5cm (2 inches) in diameter, wrap well in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least half an hour. If cutting out heart shapes, split dough in two before wrapping and chilling. You can refrigerate this dough for up to a week, or freeze it for up to a month (defrost overnight in the fridge).

Take dough out of fridge and unwrap. If making rounds, use a sharp knife to cut rounds, about 3mm (about 1/8th of an inch) thick. If making hearts, roll dough between two sheets of baking paper to the same thickness and cut with a cookie cutter. Place cut dough on prepared baking sheets (leave about 1.5 cm space for the cookies to expand) and bake for about 20 mins, until they are golden. If you want them to be a little chewier, cut them a tiny bit thicker and then keep an eye on them after 10 mins and take them out as soon as the edges turn golden. For the heart-shaped ones in the picture I overbaked them slightly so they were very crunchy, to make sure they didn't go soggy when stuck to the cake. Leave cookies to cool on trays for 5 mins and then cool completely on a wire rack. Best eaten fresh while the chocolate is warm and gooey but can be stored in an airtight container for several days. Works great as decoration for this Chocolate and PX Brownie Cake. (I also brushed the cookies with some PX right after they came out of the oven for the cake)

Balsamic Strawberry Butter Cake

2011-10-09T14:00:00.009+11:00

This may be the girliest cake I've made. It's so PINK. My Mum is in town at the moment and we've been planning to celebrate her birthday before she heads back to KL. I'd been struggling to come up with a good idea for her birthday cake, until a recent trip to the Hunter Valley with my favourite ladies where Lisa pointed out the most gorgeous caramelised balsamic vinegar. I immediately knew what I wanted to do; a fluffy vanilla cake layered with Strawberry & Balsamic Vinegar Icing, topped with heart-shaped macarons filled with the same icing.

I love the combination of balsamic vinegar and fresh strawberries. I've previously made balsamic toffee strawberries and was completely enamoured with the flavours. Strawberries are crazy cheap in Australia at the moment, and super sweet and ripe too, which means that there's not much that you need to do to it. All I did was puree the fruit up and mix it into my regular butter icing (like the one I used for the mint chocolate chip cake) along with that amazing caramelised balsamic vinegar. The icing is ridiculously good. It's packed full of strawberry goodness, and has a gorgeous depth of flavour and a bit of tang from the balsamic. It helped that I had that beautiful sweet and thick balsamic vinegar which seemed perfect to use in desserts, but you could use any balsamic you can get and adjust the amount you add to the icing until it tastes just right.

For the cake I decided to try this wonderful looking Fluffy Vanilla Cake from Sweetapolita. I'd had my eye on that recipe ever since she posted it on her lovely blog, and it seemed like the perfect choice to go with this icing. I was having a complete mess of a day in the kitchen, I somehow managed to forget to add the sugar to the cake batter the first time around, and ended up wasting half a dozen eggs (*weeps*) and having to start over. This is why you need to read recipes carefully!! Anyway, second time around I remembered the sugar, and the cakes turned out delicious and golden but not quite as gorgeously light and fluffy looking as the ones on the original recipe. I think I may not have measured the flour quite right so it was a little bit more moist and dense than I wanted, but it still tasted great. Because there's so much detail, great tips and beautiful pictures on the original post, I'm not going to bother copying the recipe on this post and will just point you in the direction of Sweetapolita (if only because you should check out all her amazing cakes even if you're not making this recipe).

I couldn't resist piping some of my heart-shaped macarons to decorate the top of the cake. I remembered how much everyone loved the turquoise coloured macarons on the top of my triple-triple chocolate cake, so this time I decided to embrace the pinkness of the strawberry balsamic icing and made these super hot pink heart macarons. It's so bright and cute, perfect for a girly birthday cake. If anyone is curious about how exactly I pipe the heart shapes, I promised Linda that I would make a quick video the next time I made them, it's kinda dodgy ~~but if anyone really wants to have a look, let me know in the comments and I'll try to upload it~~, see the end of the post.

I've been having a weird problem with my macarons recently. The last few batches just didn't turn out right, even though it seemed like I was doing the same things I always did. The shells were extra bumpy and taking forever to bake, plus they kept sinking in the middle so they were crunchy and hollow. I was starting to freak out a little. But I did some macaron troubleshooting on the internet and figured out I might have been overmixing my eggwhites, and huzzah! Macarons were back to normal. Relief. And these macarons were so good with the balsamic strawberry buttercream. The strawberry flavour just sang. It really did! I'd be quite happy to whip up this icing to go with so many desserts, it was great with a plain vanilla cake and with plain macarons but I can also imagine it would be great with a chocolate cake, a sponge or a nice cupcake. The icing is the hero.

Balsamic Strawberry Butter Cake with Macarons
(Makes one 20cm cake, cake recipe from Sweetapolita)
For the cake:
Follow instructions to make fluffy vanilla cake here

For the macarons:
100g aged egg whites (you can use fresh eggs too, just make sure they are room temperature. I always use fresh these days, and zap it in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted
200g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
Pink powdered food colouring
Optional: 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary

For the Balsamic Strawberry Icing:
150g (a little over half a punnet) ripe strawberries, hulled
280g (2.5 sticks) unsalted butter
500g icing sugar (about 4 cups), sifted
Approx. 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, adjust to taste (I used a fantastic caramelised balsamic - a sweeter, thicker balsamic is preferable but any balsamic will do, just adjust to taste)

Prepare the cake using the instructions at the link above. You will end up with two 20cm cake layers. Make sure they are completely cool before icing.

Prepare the macarons; Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and egg white powder in a medium mixing bowl until the egg white powder dissolves and it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar (and then add food colouring) and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue and to your dry mixture and mix, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, be rough!), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Place in a piping bag and pipe rounds of about 3.5cm diameter on baking sheets. Alternatively you can pipe heart shapes using a 1cm piping tip and piping fat 'V' shapes. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles.

Leave to dry for about half an hour to an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°C), depending on your oven. Place on top of an overturned roasting tray or another baking sheet if your sheets are not professional grade, for better heat distribution. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the icing; remove the butter from the fridge 30 mins before starting. Puree strawberries in a food processor or blender (if unavailable you can chop it up and try to mash it through a sieve). Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth, fluffy and pale. While beating on medium, gradually add sifted icing sugar and then add the strawberry puree and balsamic vinegar (to taste) and beat on high until smooth and fluffy. You may need to add more puree or more icing sugar to get the right texture, you want it to be spreadable but not runny.

Sandwich macarons together with the icing and place macarons in the fridge while you ice the cake. Spread icing over the top of the one cake layer, about 1/4-1/3 of the remaining icing. Place the second cake layer on top and crumb coat the cake by covering the entire cake with a thin layer of icing. Use the remaining icing to cover the cake with icing. Smooth with an offset spatula (it helps to run the spatula under hot water often before smoothing over icing). Decorate top of cake with macarons. Chill in the fridge for about 30-60 mins before serving.

Edit: Okay here's the link to the crappy video since a couple of people asked :) Sorry it's at a crappy angle, I don't have a tripod so I just kinda balanced my camera on a baking tray. It's not the best example of how I pipe the hearts but you get the general idea, I just pipe a fat 'V' shape. I used the tip of my finger dipped in a bit of hot water to smooth the peaks after I piped them. And umm I only realised I hadn't stuck my baking sheets down to the tray after I started piping, oops. Here's the link.

Pumpkin & Brown Butter Blondies

2011-10-03T16:00:00.002+11:00

I'm still in complete denial about that fact that it's Spring already, and it seems that the weather gods are too. It's been super chilly and rainy the last couple weekends in Sydney, which has been bad for any outdoor plans, but great for baking! While I am lucky enough to have a few more chilly afternoons, I've been loving everything to do with pumpkin. We've been eating tons of roasted pumpkin and parsnip with our dinners, and I've been wanting to use pumpkin puree in all my baking.

I decided to adapt my recipe for banoffee blondies with pumpkin, spices and white chocolate chips to make these Pumpkin & Brown Butter Blondies. I'm still completely in love with brown butter with it's nutty smell and gorgeous gold colour, it's a perfect match for pumpkin. I was excited to try using the blondie recipe again, it's honestly one of the most delicious and indulgent desserts I've baked. This one is a little less sweet and rich since it doesn't have the dulce de leche and chocolate sauce, but the addition of brown butter and all kinds of spices makes this slice moreish and fragrant. It's like the love-child of a brownie and a pumpkin pie. Sounds pretty good right? Assuming you like pumpkin pie and brownies...

They turned out a little bit thinner than the banoffee blondies, maybe the puree made them slightly more dense so they didn't rise as much, so I've adjusted the recipe to use a slightly smaller baking pan. They're definitely not the prettiest things I've ever baked, the white chocolate chips go all brown on top in the oven which makes them look kinda fugly, but I love the little pops of sweetness that the white chocolate gives them.

The colour of these blondies is as gorgeous and bright as anything else I've ever baked with pumpkins. Maybe next time I might try mixing all the chocolate chips into the batter rather than sprinkling it on top so it won't have the ugly brown bumps on top. I still have heaps of leftover pumpkin puree so I think I might have to whip up some pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon butter. I must be one of the few people in Sydney who is hoping we have a few more cooler days so that I can enjoy my pumpkin desserts. For those of you in the northern hemisphere this recipe is perfect for autumn, enjoy!

Pumpkin & Brown Butter Blondies
(adapted from my Banoffee Blondies, makes approx 20)
115g (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (110g) packed light-brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pumpkin puree fresh or canned (I made fresh by steaming chopped pieces of butternut pumpkin til tender and blitzing in food processor, you won't need more than 1/4 of a pumpkin)
1 cup (about 150g) plain flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice (if unavailable just use ground cloves)
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Brush a 20cm (8-inch) square baking pan (I used a 17x27cm slice/brownie tin but found it was a tad too large) with some melted butter; line pan with a piece of baking paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Butter paper.

Prepare the brown butter; place butter in a small saucepan on low heat until it melts, continue to stir over low heat but keep a close eye on it, as it begins to bubble and the milk solids separate and settle at the bottom of the pan. Stir it frequently at this point, so that the milk solids do not settle at the bottom of the pan for too long and burn. Continue until the mixture turns brown and smells nutty but take care not to leave it for too long or it will taste burnt. Remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, lightly whisk browned butter and sugars until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla and pumpkin puree. Add cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, flour and salt; stir just until moistened (do not overmix). Fold in 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Sprinkle with remaining white chocolate chips.

Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes (25-30 mins for the larger pan). Set pan on a wire rack, and let cool completely. Using parchment overhang, lift cake from pan and transfer to a cutting board; cut into 20 pieces. Blondies can be stored for several days in an airtight container in the fridge. Serve at room temperature.

Pretzel and M&M Chocolate Cheesecake

2011-09-24T15:00:00.001+10:00

Salt. I am obsessed with adding salt to my desserts, in case you didn't already know. Salted butter seems to take a regular buttercream to another level. A dash of salt in some chocolate chip cookies makes them dangerously addictive. And even though I had inital reservations of the trend, a bit of bacon can work in the right situation. I love balancing a super sweet dish with a zing of salt.

Recently I had noticed people raving about Pretzel M&Ms. I was intrigued since it wasn't really a combination I had thought about before, but the idea of the salty pretzel flavour in the centre of an M&M was definitely worth investigating. So I grabbed myself a bag for research purposes (of course), and the sweet and salty combination of flavours really inspired me.

I started feeling a little behind on the whole salted pretzel dessert idea after a bit of googling, finding all kinds of desserts like m&m pretzel cookies and m&m pretzel brownies. I decided that I really needed to make a dessert with a salty pretzel crust. Cheesecake was the obvious choice. Now it appears that cheesecakes with pretzel crusts have been around forever, but it sounded so darn good I had to try it for myself. And so I ended up making a M&M Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake with a Salted Pretzel Crust. It's sweet, salty, smooth, fluffy, and colourful!

First of all, let's talk about this salted pretzel crust. I LOVE THIS PRETZEL CRUST. I WANT TO MARRY THIS CRUST. Shh don't tell A. I think I need to start making everything with a salted pretzel crust. The problem I always struggle with when making cheesecakes is that the filling can be rather dense and too rich, but this golden, salted base definitely helps to offset any of the richness in the sweeter layers on top. And it tastes so good, I had to resist the urge to eat the baked crust on its own like a giant cookie.

The cheesecake layer is baked, but it's as light as a cloud because of the eggwhites that are whipped and folded into the mixture, but make sure you don't underbake it or it won't be stable enough under the layer of chocolate mousse. Add the M&Ms and you have the perfect balance of textures. I was worried the mousse layer would be too rich, so I reduced the amount of egg yolks from the recipe I was using. It turned out just right, and I was really pleased that I decided to make two different layers in the cheesecake rather than just making a regular chocolate flavoured cheesecake filling. It looks so much better with two layers, especially with the M&Ms on top. And I am completely sold on the mixture of M&Ms and pretzels. It may seem slightly insane, but it totally works.

Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake with M&Ms and Salted Pretzel Crust
(serves 12, loosely based on this Taste of Home recipe)
For the crust:
200g (approx 3 cups) crushed salted pretzels
2 tbsp caster sugar
175g salted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:
400g cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (120g) caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, separated

For the chocolate layer:
175g semisweet dark chocolate, finely chopped
70g (5 tbsp) salted butter, cubed
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (60g) icing sugar
1/2 cup thickened cream (min 35% milk fat), whipped to soft peaks
m&ms, to decorate

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 20cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper. Place pretzels in a food processor and pulse to a fine crumb. add sugar and melted butter and pulse to combine. Press mixture into the bottom of the prepared tin, pressing tightly into an even layer. Bake for 10 mins or until just going golden brown on the edges. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Reduce oven temperature to 160°C (320°F). In a large mixing bowl bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add lemon juice and vanilla and beat to combine. Add egg yolks; beat on low speed just until combined. In a small bowl, beat egg whites on high until stiff peaks form then gently fold into cream cheese mixture. Pour over the crust, place tin on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at the reduced temperature for 25-30 minutes or until the centre is almost set. Cool in tin on a wire rack for an hour, then chill in the fridge until completely cool.

In a microwave in 30 second bursts, melt chocolate and butter; stir until smooth. Set aside to cool. In the meantime, place egg yolks and icing sugar in a heatproof bowl. Place bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water and whisk mixture continuously (or it will turn into scrambled eggs) until it reaches 70°C (160°F), or for about 10 minutes mixture is thick and smooth. Whisk in chocolate mixture. Set bowl in ice and stir until cooled, about 2 minutes. Fold in whipped cream. Spread over cheesecake and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle m&ms on top to decorate then refrigerate until set. Remove sides of pan before serving. Can be stored in the fridge for several days.

Oat Cookies with Coconut Milk Chocolate Ganache

2011-09-19T14:00:00.002+10:00

I always have a problem getting rid of leftover baking ingredients. My favourite thing to bake on whim when I need to use up leftover ingredients is cookies. They're so easy and quick and well, everyone loves cookies. Especially when there's chocolate involved. I had a ton of leftover coconut milk from my sticky rice and kaya macarons and had no idea what to do with it. I started toying with the idea of making a chocolate ganache using the coconut milk instead of cream and a quick google search made me realise that it's used quite a lot with dairy-free chocolate as a vegan substitute for ganache. Very interesting...Not that I was wanting to make a vegan recipe, but I was intrigued to see what a coconut milk ganache would look and taste like.

I decided to use up more of my leftover ingredients by making some delicious golden oat biscuits to be sandwiched with the coconut milk chocolate ganache. These biscuits have a light crunch, they're not too sweet and they are completely moreish. They biscuits are a bit less oaty and crunchy than Anzac biscuits but more coconutty, and quite similar in flavour to Digestive biscuits, with a bit of lovely malt flavour. They taste pretty good on their own, but they are completely addictive with the chocolate ganache.

The ganache turned out really beautifully, I found it really interesting to substitute hot cream for hot coconut milk in the recipe. The ganache was luscious and shiny, and set really well in the fridge once I had sandwiched it in the biscuits. The ganache itself tasted pretty similar to a normal ganache, maybe a tiny bit richer and only the teeny tiniest hint of coconut. I will definitely be keeping a few cans of coconut milk around the house in case I ever run out of cream and need to make emergency chocolate ganache. You'd be surprised how often I need to make emergency chocolate ganache. It can be such a pain to keep fresh cream in the fridge all the time, I always end up throwing out a lot of expired leftover cream.

I always love the combination of oat biscuits with chocolate filling. One of my favourite Arnott's biscuits is the Kingston, which is quite similar to this. I remember wanting to try baking Kingston-like biscuits ever seeing Julia's delicious-looking version. And while my biscuits look quite similar to Kingstons, they have a very unique, memorable flavour. They're just the kind of biscuits that I can polish off a plate of with a giant mug of tea on a sunny afternoon. And with the gorgeous warm weather we've been having in Sydney, these are the perfect treat to make at the moment.

Oat Biscuits with Coconut Milk Chocolate Ganache
(adapted from this Taste recipe, makes about 18 sandwiched cookies)
2/3 cup (about 140g) brown sugar
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1/3 cup malted milk powder (I used Horlicks)
1 1/4 cups plain flour (about 180g), sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup dessicated coconut

For the ganache:
1/2 cup (125ml) full-fat coconut milk
150g dark chocolate, chopped up into small pieces

Preheat oven to 160°C and line two baking trays with baking paper. Place sugar and butter in a bowl, and beat with electric beaters on high until light and creamy. Add egg and continue beating until well combined. Mix together milk powder, plain flour, baking powder, rolled oats and coconut in a separate bowl. Gradually add dry mixture with the mixer on low, beat until well combined.

Roll heaped teaspoon of dough into balls and press flat on prepared trays, leaving a couple cm for spreading. I managed to fit about 15 on each tray. Cover tray with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes (I skipped this step but had to slightly flatten my cookies halfway through baking with a spatala). Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

Prepare the ganache while the cookies cool; place chopped chocolate in a medium sized bowl. Heat coconut milk gradually on a medium-low heat in a small saucepan until the mixture just starts to bubble and steam, about 5-10 mins. Remove from the heat and pour hot coconut milk over the chocolate. Leave to sit for 5 minutes while the chocolate melts. Using a whisk, mix together until all the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Place in the fridge until the mixture starts to thicken up, about 15 minutes. Don't leave it for too long or the ganache will set hard and you will have to melt it over a saucepan of boiling water. Spoon or pipe ganache on to biscuits and sandwich together. Leave to set for about 15 minutes. Can be stored in an airtight container for several days but best eaten on the day they are baked as the biscuits will get soggier over time.

Mixed Berry Cakes, Guest Post on Poires au Chocolat

2011-09-15T23:00:00.000+10:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that I made these cute little Vanilla Bean & Mixed Berry Cakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing not too long ago, and they're now up on a guest blog post that I did for the beautiful baking blog Poires au Chocolat. These mini cakes were packed full of berries to welcome in Spring and to celebrate a birthday, so they seemed like a lovely recipe to share on Emma's blog when she asked me. And these are the only two portrait shots I took since the rest are in landscape, which was quite an interesting change for me. You can check out the photos and recipe on my guest post here. Hope you like it!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

2011-09-11T15:00:00.009+10:00

Chocolate cake and I have had a very interesting romance. I started off with quite an intense dislike of chocolate cake. I KNOW. But try not to judge me too harshly, I had many bad experiences with store-bought dry, dense mudcakes covered in grainy baking chocolate icing. So every year when I asked Regex Man what cake he would like for his birthday and every year he replied me with "Chocolate.", it usually filled me with dread. But I took on the challenge and made him a chocolate cake with salted caramel filling and the epic triple-triple chocolate cake covered in macarons. There have been many chocolate cakes since. And somewhere along the way I started to have a grudging respect for chocolate cake, which blossomed into love. Now I can't seem to stop thinking about them, baking them and eating them.

So this year for Regex Man's birthday I offered to do a chocolate cake even though he said it didn't have to be chocolate this year. I had this sudden urge to cover an entire chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip butter icing that looked exactly like the mint chocolate chip ice cream you get from Baskin Robbins. I was also incredibly inspired when I saw this cake idea not too long ago and while I was too lazy to do the chocolate ganache even though it looks awesome, I thought it would be cute to use some of the leftover icing to make 'scoops' with mini ice cream cones.

I used David Lebovitz's devil's food cake recipe again, my new favourite chocolate cake since making it for my raspberry cupcakes when I launched the new site. While making up the cake batter I misread the recipe and managed to add triple the amount of salt than I was meant to but it tasted so good that I just went with it and have included it in the recipe. It's only a small increase but it works well since I'm pairing the cake with quite a sweet icing. I even used a slightly salted butter for the icing to help stop the cake from being sickly sweet. This is seriously one of the easiest and best chocolate cakes I've ever made.

Originally I was going to arrange the scoops of icing around the edge of the cake, but I realised I didn't have quite enough icing to do that so I ended up just doing a few of them in the middle. I can't quite figure out if it looks a bit awkward but I'm happy with the way the icing itself looks. It really reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream, one of my favourite flavours. This cake is great for anyone who loves mint and chocolate together, and is easy to whip up and impress your friends with.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

(makes one 9-inch cake, cake adapted from David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake recipe)
9 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-raising, I just used plain flour and replaced 3 tbsp with cornflour/cornstarch)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
115g (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup strong coffee (or water, I used a weak coffee as I didn't want it overpower the mint)
1/2 cup whole or low-fat milk

For the icing:
280g (2.5 sticks) unsalted (or slightly salted) butter
500g icing sugar (about 4 cups), sifted
2-3 tsp peppermint essence, adjust to taste
150g dark chocolate, very finely chopped or pulsed through a food processor
green food colouring
Optional: waffle ice cream cones to decorate

Butter and line the base of a two 9-inch cake tins (I only had a 22cm springform tin which I used for both cakes) and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, bicarb soda, and baking powder in a bowl. Using an electric mixer with a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until fully incorporated.

Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients until smooth. Split batter mixture between the two prepared tins (or in my case, I used half for the first cake, baked it and then reused the tin for the other half of the batter). Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in tin about 5 mins, then place on a wire rack and cool completely before icing.

Prepare the mint icing; remove butter from fridge about half an hour before starting. Cut up butter into smaller pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on high until fluffy and smooth. Add sifted icing sugar one cup at a time, beating until combined. Add peppermint essence to taste and green food colouring. Gradually add chocolate chip pieces until you have a good distribution of chocolate bits.

Use about 1/4 of the icing on top of one of the cakes and smooth over with a spatula. Place second cake top side down on top of the iced cake. Cover entire cake with more icing, smoothing with a spatula. I used an offset spatula, running it under hot water every now and then to help keep the surface smoother. Use the leftover icing to form scoops of icing to place on top of the cake, arranged however you like. Use mini ice cream cones or chop the ends of normal-sized cones and place on top of icing scoops. Alternatively you could cover the top with extra dark chocolate chips. Can be served immediately or stored in an airtight container overnight. Serve at room temperature.

Happy Birthday Regex Man!

Sticky Rice & Kaya Macarons

2011-09-05T09:00:00.001+10:00

I am pretty excited about these macarons. These days it takes a lot to get me excited about a macaron flavour, I find myself getting weary of them. But this one is pretty special. From the moment I started baking macarons I've always wanted to make a kaya flavoured one. Anyone who has read my blog for long enough knows about my intense love of kaya, the wonderful Malaysian coconut-egg jam flavoured with pandan, which is somewhere between a coconut custard and dulce de leche. It's heavenly. These days you can buy the spread in jars from Asian groceries around Sydney, but nothing beats the homemade version. I'm especially fussy about it because I don't like even the slightest bit of graininess in my kaya, it has to be silky smooth. The only way to achieve this is to stand over a double boiler, stirring it continuously. And I mean continously. I always have a sore arm the next morning. But it's worth the effort for every delicious drop of that golden, pandan-flavoured magic jam.

So I was a little peeved to find out that the most popular way to serve kaya was already being sold in macaron form - a kaya toast macaron, with the butter in the centre and everything! I wanted to try something original, rather than doing an idea that was already out there. So my next idea was a Kaya with Sticky Rice Macaron. This is another common way of serving kaya in Malaysia, either with a big mound of plain sticky rice or compressed squares of sticky rice tinged blue with the use of blue pea flowers. The blue squares version is known as Pulut Tai Tai, you can see a great example photo of this dessert here. It's gotta be one of my favourite Malaysian kuih ever, combining my love of kaya and my childhood fascination with blue-coloured food.

So I decided to include that wonderful blue colouring in my macaron shells, by swirling some gel colouring into the macaron mixture. I would have loved to have used the original blue pea flowers to tint the shells, but I think it's next to impossible to buy it here :( So blue food colouring would have to do. I LOVE how beautiful the shells turned out with those bright swirls of colour. I even used the leftover sticky rice to make some of the actual kuih, which you can sort of see in the photo above. Hopefully anyone who knows the original dessert can immediately tell where I got the inspiration from.

The filling for these Pulut Tai Tai Macarons is a mixture of kaya, homemade with my new improved recipe, and steamed glutinous rice. It has a strong aroma of pandan, the caramelised sticky coconut jam and a little bit of bite from the sticky rice grains, sort of like the rice pudding macaron from Adriano Zumbo. It might seem like a lot of effort for a macaron filling, but you can always reduce the prep time by using store-bought kaya if you're not as fussy as I am. But personally I think it's definitely worth the extra effort. Plus you can eat all the leftover sticky rice and kaya!

Kaya & Sticky Rice (Pulut Tai Tai) Macarons
(makes about 15 macarons)
100g aged egg whites (you can use fresh eggs too, just make sure they are room temperature. I always use fresh these days, and zap it in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
110g almond meal, dried in a cool (100°C (212°F) or less) oven for 5 minutes and sifted
200g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
Optional: 2 x 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary
Royal blue gel food colouring
Kaya jam, store-bought or homemade (my recipe here)
Sticky rice, cooked and cooled - I steamed about 1 cup in a rice cooker with a fresh pandan leaf, but you can skip the pandan if it's unavailable

Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and egg white powder in a medium mixing bowl until the egg white powder dissolves and it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue and to your dry mixture and mix, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, be rough!), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Using a skewer, dip the tip into the blue food colouring and place several streaks of blue colour throughout the macaron mixture. Place in a piping bag and pipe rounds of about 3.5cm diameter on baking sheets. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles.

Leave to dry for about half an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°C), depending on your oven. Place on top of an overturned roasting tray or another baking sheet if your sheets are not professional grade, for better heat distribution. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Mix together equal portions of kaya and sticky rice, I needed about 1/2 cup of each. Sandwich macaron shells with the mixture and then refrigerate overnight in an airtight container to allow the flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.