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Vanilla Chocolate Fudge cake with White Chocolate Buttercream

June 10th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink

This is one of my first fondant attempts all by myself and I am super happy with how it turned out (except for the colors, more on that below). It is a four layer cake and has a white chocolate mouselline buttercream in between all layers and on the outside. The fondant is a mix of vanilla and almond. I was meant to stripe the layers but got distracted when I was assembling the cake, hahaha FAIL.

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I didn’t have anywhere near enough time and as such my colors are not what I would like them to be but hey hey its here. I cut out the corner slice to take a photo and the cake is SO GOOD. So moist and rich and flavourful – and it has been in plastic for 3 days already because I knew I wouldn’t have time – how right I was!

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Crap tons of photos to follow » Read the rest of this entry «

Rosewater and Pistachio Cake & Cupcakes

June 3rd, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

I was working from home today – by that I mean I was feeling like crap so I did 2/3rds of a day in bed on my laptop :) I was so drawn to the bottle of rosewater that has been in my cupboard for a long time I just had to make something.

So here it is. A vanilla rosewater cake, with a ground pistachio filling and a sweet rosewater glaze. The glaze tastes like roses, pretty amazing but I made it too runny and I don’t like how the photos have turned out. Oh well. I’m sure the recipient of my cake will be happy tomorrow.

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Wilton Final Cake – Course 2

May 26th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Will stick up the other pics tonight :)

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Raisin and Date Pudding with Coconut Caramel Sauce

May 12th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

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Well my husband came home slightly intoxicated tonight. First question: Do we have any more pie? Me: haha no you ate it all last night. Hubby: (standing in front of fridge) I’m going to make sticky date pudding!! Me: (staring in disbelief) um, okay? Do you want me to make you something? Hubby: (guilty look) Yes please baby!!

Haha OK that is a slightly shortened version but he is really cute. And a huge fan of toothsome desserts with fruit. So we didn’t have very many dates, and I hugely improvised this recipe with amazing success :)

Pudding:
100g dried dates (pitted)
150g sultanas – you can vary the quantities of the sultanas/dates as long as they add up to 250g.
1 tsp baking soda
250ml/1 cup water

125g butter at room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour

Coconut Caramel Sauce:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup coconut cream

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Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place dates, raisin and baking soda into a bowl. Pour over boiling water. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold through date mixture and flour until just combined.

Spoon mixture into casserole dish or cake pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Pierce holes in top with a skewer and then pour some of the syrup over the top.

To make the sauce: place sugar and water in a heavy based saucepan. Heat over medium heat until dissolved, stirring often with a wooden spoon. Once all the sugar is dissolved, stop stirring and heat until mixture turns golden brown. This will take about 8 minutes, but I looked away and mine burnt slightly.

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Once it is brown, pour in coconut cream. It will bubble and sizzle like crazy but stir it anyway for about 3 minutes until all incorporated and thickened. Remove from heat and store leftovers in a jar in the fridge.

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Pâte Sucrée – Sweet Pastry Crust

May 7th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink

Pâte Sucrée is delicious and so easy to make yourself, you will never buy it ready made again.

The only thing you need to respect is to not overwork the dough.

This recipe is not as traditional as I did not have the full measure of almonds, so I added the finely sliced zest of one lemon to make up some of the difference, and the taste comes through very strongly.

300g salted butter, at room temperature
190g icing sugar
30g ground almonds
seeds from 1 vanilla bean
2 eggs
500g plain flour
finely chopped zest 1 lemon

Assemble all ingredients before starting.ingredients

Beat butter until soft and creamy in KA or by hand.

dough

Add icing sugar, ground almonds, lemon zest and vanilla seeds. Beat until combined.

Add eggs one at a time, beating between each one until fully incorporated.

Remove from mixer if using and add all of the flour. Gently combine until dough is just crumbly but just holds together, do not overwork or it will be tough and chewy instead of flaky and crispy.

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Divide into 3 balls, flatten gently and wrap tightly in gladwrap. Chill for 2 hours before using.

The dough can now be stored in the fridge for 2 days, or in the freezer for a month (Defrost fully in fridge before using).

I have refridgerated most of this, but I had to make a special treat for hubby.. a quick messy freeform strawberry pie which by all accounts was delicious!

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freeform-pie

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