Tasty Tiramisu

I invited my friends for dinner the other night. I need to make a cool sophisticated grown up dessert. So I decided on Tiramisu. My aunt shared this recipe with me and I have used it many times. It is great because you can make it ahead of time and it is super easy to make. There is no baking involved, so I say 'let's make it delicious'. 

First layer of finger biscuits

First layer of mixture

Second layer of biscuits

Second layer of mixture with cocoa sprinkled over the top

 

My friends 'stuffing' their faces with the delicious Tiramisu

Tiramisu 

(I halved this mixture, to make it for only 5 people)

Ingredients:

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites

8 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2x 500g mascarpone cheese

100ml Tia Maria/ Brandy

4 cups black coffee, cooled

2 packets finger biscuits

Cocoa

Method:

1. Blend yolks and sugar until creamy (a long time) and add vanilla, mix well.

2. Add mascarpone and fold in gently.

3. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture gently.

4. Combine Coffee and Tia Maria/Brandy.

5. Dip biscuits in coffee mix and line the bottom of the dish (about 30 x 20 cm).

6. Cover with half the mascarpone mixture.

7. Repeat layers.

8. Sprinkle cocoa over top using a sifter. Cover with a piece of plastic.

9. Freeze. Defrost for 2-3 hours.



hey I heard you were a wild one

So I have a confession to make. I got a gun. An icing gun.Well technically it is a cookie press and icing gun. It is so shiny and pretty and amazing. Most importantly I was so very excited to use it.

I got to use it when I made my sister (Vanessa) a Birthday Cake for her 25th Birthday (wow some people are growing up so quickly). I decided to make her a white chocolate and macadamia nut cake. To top it off I decided to decorate the cake in animal print. I am unsure whether is is leopard or cheetah print. Either way I made a cake suitable for a wild one.

The ingredients that make the magic happen: White Chocolate and Macadamia Nuts- YUMMY!

Fold the nuts and chocolate into the mixture.

Swiss Meringue Frosting- Too delicious for words. 

To decorate the cake I melted the chocolate and used my icing gun to 'draw' on the spots.

Then I mixed a little bit of the melted chocolate into the left over Swiss meringue frosting to make the filling for the inside of the spots. I used a miniature spatula to spread the filling in the spots.

Chocolate Malted Puffs that I used to stick around the base of the cake.

So, So, So Delicious.

White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cake:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
3 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 1/3 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla essence
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups white chocolate, chopped
1 cup toasted macadamia nuts

Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. 
2. Butter three 20cm round cake pans.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
4. Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the vanilla and then the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Add one-third of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until mixed in. Add half of the buttermilk and mix until mixed in. Continue adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk, alternating between the two and ending with the flour.
6. Fold in the white chocolate and macadamia nuts.
7. Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Level the batter with a spatula.
8. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes total.
9. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from the pans and allow to cool completely on the racks.

Swiss Meringue Frosting:
I used this recipe.

FUDGE!

I was invited to go to the drive-in the other night. Which of course meant that snacks were a necessity. After a little bit of pondering I decided that it was in fact time for me to try and make Nutella fudge. I had seen the recipe a while ago and now the opportunity to make this fudge had presented itself, and I was not going to let it slip through my fingers. So Nutella fudge it was.

The recipe told me to put the fudge in a 20 x 20 dish, but I didn't have one so I used this slightly bigger one instead which meant that the fudge was a bit thinner than it was meant to be. Also the original recipe was called Nutella fudge with sea salt, but I know that not every one is into that whole chocolate and salt mixture thing, so I decided to only sprinkle the salt over half of my fudge.

The fudge was so delicious that I was glad that I had about ten people to share it with. Otherwise I am sure I would have eaten it all on my own, and turned into a giant piece of Nutella fudge, or something like that.

Nutella Fudge Recipe

I got it from this clever site.

cake. on a stick.

Apparently cake on a stick, or cake pops, are the new red velvet cupcake. Or something scandalous like that. So I  decided that it was time for me to catch up with the current baking trends, because I don't want to be 'so last season'. After much research, I did it, I made these pops. Cake on a stick; how much more convenient can it get. I now understand what all the fuss is about, you can now eat cake on the go, while; driving, shopping, doing your nails, watching t.v., dancing, or whatever suits your fancy.

The cake crumbs

Buttercream frosting

Hardening on parchment paper

Cake on a stick, how I love you

Vanilla Cake Pops Recipe

This recipe makes about 30-40 pops depending on how big you roll them.

Ingredients:

I used my favourite vanilla cake recipe, from here. (But you can use whatever cake recipe you like.)

Buttercream frosting from here. (I substituted the lemon juice for 1 t. vanilla essence.)

400g Chocolate

Sticks

Sprinkles

Method:

1. Bake cake according to instructions.

2. Allow the cake to cool completely.

3. Crumble cake into crumbs in a bowl.

4. Make the buttercream frosting. Mix in the buttercream frosting into the crumbs. At this point i decided it was time to get my hands dirty and mixed the buttercream in using my hands. It is slightly messy, but works well.

5. Roll the cake into small balls. You can decide how big you want to make your pops.

6. Insert the stick into a ball. Don't push it too far in because it will go all the way through, or it won't be secure. Place on parchment paper.

7. Refrigerate for a few hours, until hard and chilled.

8. Melt the chocolate using a double boiler.

9. Dip each pop into the melted chocolate. I used a spoon to help me to get the whole pop covered in chocolate.

10. I placed the sprinkles into a small bowl that I dipped the chocolate pop into while it was still melted.

11. Place on parchment paper. Allow to harden.

 

when life gives you lemons... make cupcakes

So it was my Bestie's Birthday this week and she decided to have a picnic. I offered to bake cupcakes for her and asked what type of cupcake she wanted. To which she replied, 'lemon'. That's when I said 'LEMON?'. Yes Lemon. So I looked through all my recipes and found out that I did actually have quite a few lemon cupcake recipes. But the problem was I am not really a lemon person, so too speak, so I had never baked any of them or tried them out before. I was heading into uncharted waters. 

I found a lemon cake recipe that looked delicious and adapted it slightly to create these delicious cupcakes.When I tried one of the cupcakes I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. I suppose maybe I could become a lemon person.

To make the chocolate letters I melted about 80g of chocolate. I let it cool for a minute or two. I then put it into a piping bag and piper the words out onto a piece of baking paper (you can also do this on any dry, clean surface). You wait for the letters to dry and harden (I let them sit for about 45 minutes). You can then carefully lift them off the paper. I used a little bit of left over icing to 'stick' each letter to a cupcake.

TA-DA! A delicious way to send a message!

Moist Lemon Cupcakes

Makes 12

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

¾  cup sugar

3 large eggs

½ cup butter, softened

1/3  cup of milk

1 T. Finely grated lemon zest

1 ½  t. Baking powder

¼ t. Salt

Method:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Place cupcake papers in muffin trays.

2. Beat flour, sugar, eggs, butter, milk, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer at a low speed until blended. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until pale and thick, 3-4 minutes.

3. Spoon the batter into the cupcake papers.

4. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until risen or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

5. Cool the cupcakes completely on a rack.

Lemon Frosting

Ingredients:

2 cups confectioners’ (icing) sugar

3 T. Butter, softened

3 T. Freshly squeezed lemon juice

Method:

1. Beat the confectioners’ sugar and butter. You can add more or less confectioners’ sugar depending on how sweet you like your frosting.

2. Beat in the lemon juice.

3. Spread the cupcakes with the frosting.

As if I needed an excuse

So my parents returned home last week after a month long trip in America. Being the wonderfully amazing daughter that I am, I decided to bake them a welcome home cake. Okay, so the truth is I really just wanted to eat cake. I seldom need an excuse to bake one, my reasoning goes like this: 'it's Tuesday- Let's bake a cake', 'you got a haircut- Let's bake a cake', 'I want cake- Let's bake a cake'. So really it was completely understandable that my first response to my parents homecoming was 'Let's bake a cake'.

My dad loves Mickey mouse (and most things Disney) as much as I like, well, cake. So when I found these amazing Mickey and Minnie transfers, that are completely edible, and decided that this cake was meant to be.

+ 

=  

 

 

 

The cake that I made was a vanilla caramel cake that used whipped cream to frost the cake. My mother even said that it was one of the most delicious cakes that she ever tasted, and I think that I must agree with her. It was super sweet but still amazingly delicious, plus it was super fun eating Mickey and Minnie.

   

Vanilla Caramel Cake

Recipe:

I got the recipe from this site.

It was really easy to make.

Instead of making three layers I did two.

I also made a buttercream icing (that I made blue, using food colouring) to pipe the words on the cake and around the base.



coffee + coconut = cupcake happiness

I love watching 2 broke girls. But if we had to have a relationship status on Facebook it would have to say complicated. Every single episode manages to make me want to bake cupcakes. No not want to, desperately need to make cupcakes. So this week when I saw the delicious giant coffee cupcake with coconut frosting I could not stand it anymore. I had to have that cupcake in my hand and then in my tummy!!!

I searched all my recipe books and I found a coffee cupcake recipe and a marshmallow-coconut frosting recipe and decided that it was time to introduce them to each other to form the wonder that is the coffee cupcake with marshmallow-coconut frosting.

This is what happened.

 

I also wanted to bake cupcakes just so that I could use the amazing cupcake holders that I bought at Woolworths. The colours are so beautiful and I love the patterns. Plus as a bonus they sell them in packs of 100 so I won't run out of holders after one batch of cupcakes.

All the ingredients

My wonderful chocolate piping skills resulted in slightly messy zig-zags.

I was meant to wait until the chocolate had set, but I just could not control myself, I had to eat the cupcake as soon as it was done. And it was so very delicious!

Coffee Cupcake Recipe:

Ingredients:

115g self-raising flour

½ t. Baking powder

115g butter, softened

115g light brown sugar

2 eggs lightly beaten

1T. Instant coffee dissolved in 1T. Boiling water, cooled

2 T. Soured cream

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 190 c. Put 12 paper cases in muffin trays.

2. Sift the flour and the baking powder into a large bowl.

3. Add the butter, brown sugar and eggs, and using an electric mixer, beat together until smooth.

4. Beat in the dissolved coffee and sour cream.

5. Spoon mixture into paper cases. Bake for 20 minutes, or until risen, golden and firm to the touch.

6. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Marshmallow-coconut Frosting Recipe:

Ingredients:

115g white marshmallows

3T. Milk

300ml whipping cream

55g desiccated coconut

55g plain chocolate, melted

Method:

1. Place the marshmallows and milk in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave until the marshmallows have melted, stirring occasionally.

2. Remove from heat and leave to cool.

3. Whip the cream until holding firm peaks, then fold into the marshmallow mixture with 35g of the coconut.

4. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

5. Spread the frosting on top of the cupcakes. Sprinkle over the remaining coconut.

6. Spoon the melted chocolate into a small paper piping bag, snip off the end and pipe zig-zag lines over the top of each cupcake.

7. Leave to set.