Archives for the month of: February, 2013

Raspberry Sherbet Macarons

February 28, 2013 //

In my mind macarons have always been one of those things that are super difficult to make and you have to be professional and delicate and French to make them properly. Saying that, they have been on top of my list of things to learn/attempt for ages now but I’ve been putting it off for fear of total failure. After making these I can say that they are really simple and fun to make. There’s more than one way of making macarons but I decided to look around for the simplest recipe, anticipating that lots of steps, ingredients and time would be involved in the process. I chose this recipe because it seemed friendly, and it was. Only a couple of things to note: I added food colouring to the meringue, the temperature is 140°C, and they only really take about 12 minutes to bake. Oh and another thing, do not use greeseproof paper like I did on my first batch. They stick, so badly (Doh!). Use baking paper or those wonderful reusable baking sheets. Because I didn’t want to make anything too serious I chose to make raspberry sherbet flavour. I did this by sprinkling some raspberry sherbet on the macarons just after I piped them, before they had formed a skin, and then baked them. For the filling I made a buttercream with jam, fresh raspberries and more sherbet (recipe below). I put them in the fridge after assembling them which makes them taste even better. I survived my first macaron attempt and can’t wait to try some more complex combinations!

Macaron Filling

(for approx 20 whole macarons)

250g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter (room temperature)

2 tbsp seedless raspberry jam

splash of milk

a handful of fresh raspberries

2 tsp of raspberry sherbet

Beat together the icing sugar, butter and milk. Then add the jam and sherbet and mix until smooth. Add in the fresh raspberries and mix until the berries are broken up in to large pieces.

Categories Macarons, Pink, Raspberry

Lallapolosa Brownies

February 23, 2013 //

Brownies are one of my favourite things to eat. Probably because they are mostly chocolate. I also love them because you can put so many twists on them. These brownies are from the Lallapolosa Baking Company. They are delicious, rich and gooey and, as well as the amazing plain brownie they also have raspberry, peanut butter and triple chocolate. My personal favourite however was the salted caramel pecan brownie which is one of my favourite combinations and was the perfect balance between sweet and salty. I’m totally hooked on them and think I could probably eat a whole tray of them on my own. They sell these incredible brownies and other sweet treats at Farmers Markets in Surrey and you can also order them online.

Categories Brownies, Caramel, Raspberry

Peggy Porschen Academy

February 19, 2013 //

Yesterday I did a course at the Peggy Porschen Academy in London. I’m a big fan of Peggy Porschen for her amazing designs and how perfectly finished all of her cakes are. I chose to do the ‘Stripy Rose Cakes’ day course as it covered learning how to ice and cover individual cakes, make roses and some piping techniques. It was such a brilliant day and I really did learn so much. It was so nice to be surrounded by people that were equally enthusiastic about cake! The Academy was lovely with a great workspace and atmosphere. My teacher Elyse was great, she was very clear and made every step easy to follow. The part I found the hardest was making the roses, something that I have been wanting to be shown how to do for a while. It was great to learn properly and to be given lots of tips to help make them extra pretty. I think with some practice I will really get the hang of it. In the afternoon we were given a cup of tea and a piece of cake to taste. It was lemon and so delicious. I can’t recommend the Academy enough, I’m really pleased with how my cakes turned out and even happier I now have some new skills.

Categories Cake, Flowers, Pink, Rose

Valentines Marble Cake

February 13, 2013 //

I like to think that the people I love already know how much I love them. But in my opinion you can never go too wrong with giving people cake to show them just how much.This is a really simple easy cake which combines two Valentines classics, strawberry and chocolate. It’s a marble cake with part chocolate and part pink vanilla sponge, topped with fresh strawberry frosting. To decorate I sprinkled some edible rose petals. It has a lighter feel than your normal Valentine sweet treat and I will definitely be sitting down to a cup of tea and slice of this with loved ones on Thursday.

Categories Cake, Chocolate, Frosting, Pink, Strawberry

Pancake Day

February 12, 2013 //

The main reason my sister bought me the Bake it in a Cake book was for this pancake cupcake recipe. I started by making mini pancakes, some with blueberries and some with chocolate chips. I then placed them on top of vanilla cupcake batter and baked them so they were set on top of the cupcake. They were delicious with maple syrup and crispy bacon and I will definitely be eating these as well as large quantity of my Mum’s pancakes. Happy Pancake Day!

Categories Blueberry, Chocolate, Cupcake, Pancake

Cherry Pie Cake

February 10, 2013 //

This week my sister came home with the Bake it in a Cake book for me. It was such a lovely surprise and after one flick through the book, I knew I wanted to make this recipe for my Dad’s birthday cake. My Dad loves cherry pies (I made him one here) so I knew he would love to find one inside his cake. I scaled the recipe up to birthday size and used a cherry pie enough for two people so it would fit in the cake tin. If I had more time I would have made my own, but this one worked well and stayed intact inside the cake. I kind of expected the pie to sink but when he cut it it was perfectly suspended inside. I really didn’t know what to expect when making this cake and watched the oven the whole time it was in there, half waiting for it to explode. The only problems I had were that it slightly sank at the top and the cake was a tiny bit less baked around the pie. However, it tasted delicious and the frosting was amazing. It was vanilla, but flavoured using the pod instead of essence which gave it a lovely taste, almost like custard, and cute black freckles. Wanting to keep the outside simple and not give away the inside I chose to follow this tutorial and create scalloped sides which was simple to do and gave it a neat finish. Dad loved his birthday cake and I loved seeing his face when he saw the hidden pie. Happy Birthday to the best Dad x

Categories Birthday, birthday cake, Cake, Cherry, Chocolate, Dad, Frosting, Pie, Vanilla

Passion Fruit Pavlova Cupcakes

February 7, 2013 //

Yes I’m aware it’s no longer Australia Day, but I was jet lagged then and wasn’t up (off the couch) to making these. One thing I noticed while in Australia was that pavlova is on every menu. Even the McDonalds McFlurry flavour was passion fruit pavlova. To recreate this dessert in a cupcake I made this vanilla cupcake recipe, then topped it with passion fruit buttercream and a blob of homemade passion fruit jam. I then put one of these mini meringues on and sprinkled it with some edible glitter and added tiny australian flags which I picked up in a souvenir shop in Melbourne.

Passion Fruit Buttercream – for 6 cupcakes

250g icing sugar

110g unsalted butter

sieved pulp of two passion fruit

Cream the butter for a few minutes then beat in the sieved passion fruit. Add the icing sugar and mix until completely combined and smooth.

Passion Fruit Jam

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup passion fruit pulp (2 passion fruit)

50ml water

Put the sugar, passion fruit and water in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Then turn the heat up and leave on a rolling boil for 5 minutes. You can test its setting point like this. Pour in a jar and leave to cool. It only makes a small amount, to make more just scale up the recipe.

Categories Blue, Cupcake, Frosting, Glitter, Jam, Meringue, Passion Fruit