Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes for raspberri cupcakes' 5th Birthday!

Today raspberri cupcakes is 5 years old! Can you believe it? I can't. I'm pretty sure in blogging years that is a decently long time. I couldn't let an occasion like this go by without any acknowledgement, even though things are crazy in my part of the world at the moment. So of course, I made raspberry cupcakes for raspberri cupcakes. Swirly ones.

Aren't they pretty? I mixed some raspberry compote into the white chocolate icing, and also some raspberry puree into the white cupcake batter. Strangely enough the batter turned a sort of purple shade, which matched the paper liners. I thought it was appropriate since purple is my favourite.

The cakes on their own didn't taste as strong as I had hoped, so you might want to try mixing in whole raspberries if you want a bigger raspberry flavour in the cake. The icing was also a little salty for my liking, so I've switched it in the recipe below to use unsalted butter. But I loooove how the swirlyness turned out. So purdy. It helps that I invested in some nice big new piping bags so it was easy to fill it half with white and half with pink icing to achieve the perfect swirl.

It's so weird to think about how far this blog has come from its humble beginnings. I never would have imagined how many amazing experiences and wonderful friends I would get from starting this little website and I feel super lucky because of that. This blog has become part of my life and hopefully will continue to be part of my future. To those of you who read my blog, try my recipes, comment here or on facebook or instagram or write me messages or emails, thank you so much. You can't imagine how much it means to me. There have been so many times where I've had fleeting thoughts about whether it was worth the effort to keep going with the blog, and then I've gotten a sweet email or comment from a reader and it just reaffirms that it is always worth it.

So cupcakes for everyone! I wish I could send one out to each and every one of you but I can't, raspberries are 7 bucks a punnet and I would go broke. But I wish I could! Anyway I hope that I can keep doing what I'm doing, because it's been a blast. Happy 5th Birthday to my little blog!

Aaaaaannd GIF!

Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes

(makes about 20 cupcakes, cake adapted from i am baker's Perfect White Cake, icing from Cookies and Cups)

For the icing:

150g (about 1 punnet/5.5oz) raspberries (frozen or fresh), pureed and strained (about 1/2 cup strained puree)

Finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup sugar (50g)

340g (1.5 cups) butter (preferably unsalted, I used salted and found it too salty in this case)

255g (9oz/1.5 cups of chips) good quality white chocolate (min 30% cocoa solids, do NOT use baking chocolate), finely chopped

Optional: Fresh raspberries for decoration

1. Prepare the icing ahead of time as it will need to be chilled before whipping.  Place butter and white chocolate in a large saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring regularly until smooth (the solids may separate but this is okay). 
2. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes, then chill in the fridge until solid, about 3 hours. If you are impatient like me you can stick it in the freezer for about half an hour.
3. Place raspberry puree, lemon rind and sugar in a small saucepan on medium/low heat and simmer until mixture has thickened and darkened slightly, about 10-15 minutes. 
4. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes, then chill in the fridge for at least half an hour. (You can skip this step and replace this with 1/3 cup raspberry jam to save time) 
5. Before you are ready to decorate your cupcakes, remove white chocolate mixture from fridge at least 30 mins ahead of time to allow it to soften slightly.
6. Place white chocolate mixture in a large mixing bowl and beat on high with an electric mixer until very light and fluffy.
7. Place 1/3 of the mixture in a separate bowl and fold in raspberry mixture or jam until combined.
8. Prepare a large piping bag with a star tip, fill one side along the length of the bag with the raspberry icing and the other side with plain white icing and pipe over cupcakes in a spiral motion. (About 1 part pink to 2 parts white icing will work best)
9. Optional: Top cupcake with fresh raspberry for decoration.

For the cupcakes:

150g (about 1 punnet/5.5oz) raspberries (frozen or fresh), pureed and strained (about 1/2 cup strained puree) 

295g (about 2 cups + 1 tbsp) plain flour

4 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
2/3 cup milk at room temperature

6 large egg whites at room temperature

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

350g (1 3/4 cups) granulated sugar (I used caster)

4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

170g (1 1/2 sticks butter), softened but still cool (I used salted, add 1 tsp salt if using unsalted)
Optional: 50g raspberries, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line two cupcake trays with cupcake papers.
2. Triple sift flour and cornflour together in a medium bowl.
3. Make sure milk and eggs are room temperature.
4. Pour raspberry puree, milk, egg whites, and vanilla into a medium bowl and mix with a fork until blended.
5. Mix flour mixture, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter, cut into cubes and continue beating on low for about 1-2 minutes.
6. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 & 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat for about 1 minute. Optional: fold in extra chopped raspberries at this point.
7. Fill cupcake papers 3/4 full with batter (an ice cream scoop helps with this).
8. Bake until toothpick/skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in tin for 5 minutes, then carefully remove from tin and cool completely on a wire rack.
9. Pipe icing mixture above, store iced cupcakes in fridge, removing 15 minutes before serving to allow icing to soften slightly. Icing will melt if left at room temperature for too long.

Irish Cream Cheesecake

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I made a dessert at the last minute for today, so apologies that this recipe is probably going up a little too late for anyone else to actually make this year. Unless you're a big fan of Baileys and you just want to make it any time of the year. I'm not actually too keen on the stuff, but I thought it would be nice to make this for my workmates who are celebrating today. A cheesecake for Irish Cream lovers, it has a strong kick to it that might not be to everyone's tastes.

Sorry for the radio silence over the last couple of weeks, it's been a hard slog. Unfortunately things are going to be pretty nuts for the next few months, so weekly posts are becoming harder and harder. It's starting to drive me a little batty, I love baking up a storm and making a big mess in the kitchen and I start to get antsy if I haven't baked in a while.

So this weekend I made this cheesecake! It's the chilled kind, so it was really quick to make. Well it would have been really quick to make if I had made it correctly the first time. I swear everything I've made in the last month I've had to redo at least once because of a dumb mistake I've made. It's not a good precedent, especially when I'm making my first wedding cake at the end of this month. Eek! I also got a little tipsy from tasting the mixture a lot, it definitely has a kick to it. I reduced the amount of Bailey's on my second attempt, and you could reduce it even more if you want a milder flavour.

I went the an Oreo crust this time. I do love an Oreo crust. Any old biscuit crust would work great with this cheesecake, but I think the dark crumbs look nice with the fluffy, pale cheesecake mixture in.

A word of warning; do NOT put green M&Ms on this cheesecake and then put it in the fridge overnight. It will turn into a lumpy green puddle of mess. It's not pretty. If you do want to decorate it as its seen in the photos, pop the M&Ms on at the last minute. Trust me.

Baileys (Irish Cream) Cheesecake

(adapted from my Milo Cheesecake recipe)

For the crust:

1 packet (200g) Oreos (or other biscuit of your choice), including centres

50g (3.5 tbsp) butter, melted

1. Grease and line the base of an 18cm (7inch) or 20cm (8 inch) springform cake tin with baking paper (I used 18, you may want to use an extra half packet of Oreos if using 20cm to ensure a good crust thickness). 
2. Place biscuits in a food processor and blend until crushed to small crumbs, then add melted butter and blend until just combined.
3. Press mixture in an even layer on the base of the prepared tin.

For the filling:

300ml (about 1 1/4 cups) thickened (heavy) cream
340g (12oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (100g) sugar (I used caster/superfine)
150ml Baileys or any other Irish Cream
3 & 1/2 tsp powdered gelatine
Optional: Green M&Ms to decorate right before serving (I needed two large bags to get enough green ones)

1. Whip cream in a mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks (take care not to overmix). Chill until ready to use.
2. Place cream cheese in a separate large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until smooth. Add sugar and beat until combined. 
3. Place gelatine in a small separate bowl with 3 tbsp cold water to soften it.
4. Place Baileys in a small saucepan on medium heat, add softened gelatin and whisk to combine. Continue whisking over heat until dissolved. Ensure there are no lumps.
5. Add warm gelatine mixture to cream cheese and beat until smooth. 
6. Fold in whipped cream until smooth and then pour mixture over crumb layer. 
7. Chill for at least 3 hours or overnight. 
8. To serve, run a thin-bladed knife under hot water and then carefully run around the edge of the pan to loosen it. Carefully remove from pan and serve, or store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to serve. 
9. Optional: When ready to serve, decorate with green M&Ms (don't do this too early as M&Ms colour will bleed into cheesecake after a while)

Malted Milk Chocolate Brownies with Maltesers

It was the perfect weekend for baking this weekend (but not so much for photography). It was grey and dreary, it was wet and miserable. No better time to make your whole house smell like delicious, freshly baked brownies. And not just any regular brownie either, a chewy, malted milk chocolate brownie full of Maltesers (malted milk balls) to give it crunch.

Don't let their dimpled, scraggly appearance put you off. These brownies are the bees knees. The cat's pajamas. I went one step further and did a light sprinkling of Milo (chocolate malt) powder over the top before putting it in the oven, which created an extra chewy, chocolatey crust over the top. It's up to you if you want to do that, or sprinkle crushed Maltesers over the top. It seemed like opinions were divided when I floated the idea with those of you on Facebook and Instagram, so I'll leave it up to you!

Now you might think these seem over the top and super sugary, but keep in mind that I seriously reduced the amount of sugar from the original brownie recipe so it's really not too sweet at all. The original recipe is David Lebovitz's and is so amazing, it's now my go-to brownie recipe. (Link is below if you want it.)

I couldn't resist trying it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was pretty awesome.

As with any brownie, the important thing is to ensure you don't overbake them. I usually take mine out of the oven quite early because I know that they'll keep cooking a little longer as they cool inside the pan. The hardest part is always the wait as they cool. They smell SO good and all you want to do is have a taste but you must resist! They will slice much better once they are cooled. Now go make them!

Edited to add: I'm very lucky to be featured in SBS Feast Magazine this month! They were lovely enough to include five of my recipes! Make sure to grab a copy of the April issue (pictured above), which is on stands today.

Malted Milk Brownies with Maltesers

(adapted from this recipe/David Lebovitz's Absolute Best Brownie recipe)

85g (3oz / 6 tbsp) butter, cut into pieces (I used salted, add a pinch of salt if using unsalted)

225g (8oz) good quality milk chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup (50g) sugar

1/2 cup malted milk powder (or Horlicks/Milo/Ovaltine powder)

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 cup (35 g) all-purpose flour 

1 cup Maltesers/malted milk balls (about 100g)

Optional: extra Milo powder or malted milk powder to sprinkle on top, or crushed Maltesers

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), I'd recommend lowering it to 170°C if using fan-forced. 
2. Grease well and line the bottom and two long sides of a 20x30cm slice/brownie tin  or a 20cm square cake tin. Let the baking paper hang over the edges of two sides, it will make it easier to lift brownie out later. Grease the paper lightly as well.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, then add the chocolate and stir over low heat until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Stir in the sugar and malted milk powder until combined (it may go grainy at this point, but this is okay). 
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the eggs one at a time until smooth. 
5. Add the flour and stir energetically for just a minute, until the batter loses its graininess, becomes smooth and glossy, and pulls away a bit from the sides of the saucepan. 
6. Fold in Maltesers and scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and sprinkle a small amount of Milo powder over the top.
7. Bake until the center feels almost set, about 27-30 minutes. Don’t overbake. 
8. Let cool completely in the pan before lifting out the brownies using the baking paper overhang. Slice into 12 or 16 equal pieces. 
9. Store in in airtight container, can be stored for 4 days or frozen for up to a month. 

Buttermilk Cake with Sultanas

Cake. It's not a very exciting cake, but everything seems pretty boring and uncute when compared to last week's post. You can't out-cute the cookie monster macs. It's also not a very pretty cake, but is one of those throw-together on a Sunday arvo cakes that you eat still warm from the oven with a big mug of tea.

For those of you in the US, here in Australia we call raisins sultanas. We reserve the name raisin for a bigger variety of dried grape. I don't know why, but the regular ones have always been sultanas for me. Whatever you call them, I made sure to put a LOT of them in this cake.

As well as being chock-full of sultanas, this cake is made with buttermilk so it has that wonderful light but soft quality and you get from adding buttermilk to anything. It's guaranteed to stop your cake from going dry. You can also add other dried fruit to the cake mixture, or leave it out if sultanas aren't your thing and top it with some lemony icing.

Buttermilk Cake with Sultanas (Raisins)

(adapted from this Gourmet Traveller recipe)

165g (about 1.5 sticks) butter (I used salted, if using unsalted add a pinch of salt to your flour mixture), softened

220g (1 cup) sugar (I used caster/superfine)

2 eggs, room temperature

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Finely grated zest from 1 lemon

200g (about 1.5 cups) plain/all-purpose flour

100g (about 3/4 cups) self-raising flour

1/4 tsp bicarb (baking) soda

220ml (about 1 cup minus 2 tbsp) buttermilk (or milk mixed with 1 tsp lemon juice)

2 cups (350g) sultanas/raisins

1. Preheat oven to 170°C (340°F) and grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. 
2. Mix flours and baking soda in a bowl together and set aside
3. Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat on high with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. 
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating to combine. 
5. Add vanilla and lemon zest and beat to combine.
6. With the mixer on low speed add half the flour mixture, follow by half the buttermilk mixture. Repeat with remaining flour and buttermilk. Mix until just combined.
7. Fold in sultanas and pour mixture into prepared tin. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Cool in tin for 10 minutes then carefully remove and cool on wire rack before serving. Can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple days.

Cookie Monster Macarons

COOOOOOOKIE. I made Cookie Monster Macarons! It made me extremely happy. You see, the Cookie Monster is my spirit animal. It was meant to be. Even my terrible user handle stephcookie came about because I originally started writing my blog posts as The Cookie Monster, then Steph the Cookie Monster, which was just way too long so it became stephcookie. Anyway you don't care about that. LOOK AT THESE MACARONS!

SQUEE! So ridonkulously cute. They were a total pain in the butt. Mainly because I decided to make them this weekend, which turned out to be the wettest, most disgustingly humid weekend. It was not the best idea. My first batch of macarons were a sloppy, soggy mess that looked more like alien fried eggs rather than cookie monster macs. So after wasting a day of baking, I made another batch and waiting for hours for them to dry before baking. It was so bloody humid that I think they were actually less dry after all that waiting! Luckily the husband saved the day by bringing out a fan and pointing it at the stubborn macarons, and they finally dried enough for me to pop them in the oven. Success!

It was totally worth making that second batch. I want to hug them! They're not too complicated; dark chocolate ganache filling because I wanted a dark coloured filling so it would look like Cookie Monster's mouth (I was originally inspired by these awesome Elmo macarons), and plain macaron shells tinted with blue colouring (except for the white eyes) and blue sugar crystals for a bit of texture. Ooh and tiny chocolate chip cookies wedged in between the shells. If you'd rather have a less boring macaron flavour you could replace the ganache with this cookie dough buttercream. Mmm.

The cookie monster cupcake has been around forever and I love how cute they are, but these cookie monster macarons are so me and so perfect for this blog. I'm so glad I made them! For those of you who are tempted to recreate them, I would definitely not recommend them for beginner macaron makers because piping on the extra bits for the eyes makes it tricker. To make your life easier you could just bake plain blue macaron shells and use royal icing after you've baked the shells to pipe on the eyes. But I prefer when it's all part of the macaron shell, like all my other macaron animals.

So make sure you're patient if you decide to make these, rushing will only lead to alien fried egg looking things. Oh and don't pick the most ridiculously humid weather to make macarons in. It will only end in tears.

Aaand I couldn't resist making a gif. Enjoy!

Cookie Monster Macarons

(makes about 20 macarons)
Note: These macarons are a little trickier, if you are a beginner with macarons read up and practice plain macarons first. BraveTart has lots of useful advice and info on the subject

100g egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted

200g icing (confectioner's) sugar

50g sugar (I use caster/superfine)

Optional: 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary, blue food colouring (preferably gel or powdered), black food colouring or edible black ink, blue sugar crystals to decorate

1. Line two baking trays with good quality baking paper. 
2. 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. (If you don’t have a processor just sift together with a fine sieve.) Sift into a large mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt (and egg white powder) in a medium mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.
4. Add meringue to your dry mixture and mix together with a spatula, 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, which is easily done by smearing the mixture on the bottom and side of the bowl with your spatula), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated. Place 1/3rd of a cup of the mixture in a separate bowl (you can skip this step and use royal icing to pipe on the eyes after baking the blue shells). With the remaining mixture, add blue food colouring and mix until 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. Mix the plain white macaron mixture to the same texture.
5. Place blue mixture in a piping bag with a 1cm round piping tip. Pipe circles about 3.5cm wide on your prepared trays, leaving about 3cm space around each one. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles. 
6. Place white mixture in a piping bag with a narrower round piping tip (I used a 3mm wide tip). Set aside and allow the blue piped circles to dry for half an hour. 
7. Sprinkle blue sugar crystals over the top of the circles, then carefully pipe two small white circles on top of HALF of the blue circles to form the eyes. 
8. Leave to dry for about 60 mins more, until when you press the surface of one gently it does not break/stick to your finger. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs.
9. Preheat your oven to 130-150°C (265-300°F), depending on your oven (fan-forced ovens may need to be set as low as 100°C, it really depends) . You can place the sheet of piped shells on top of an upside-down roasting tray or another baking tray, for better heat distribution. 
10.  Bake for 20-25 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. 
11. 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. 
12. Use an edible ink pen or a skewer dipped into liquid food colouring to draw on eyes over the white circles.

For the chocolate ganache:
Note: can be replaced with this cookie dough buttercream 

100g good dark/semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped

75ml thickened or pure/heavy cream (min 35% fat unthickened)

Mini chocolate chip cookies, to decorate

1. Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside. 
2. Heat cream in a small saucepan on medium-low heat until it just comes to the boil and then pour over the chocolate. Leave for about 3 minutes to allow chocolate to melt. 
3. Use a whisk to combine mixture until it is smooth. Chill, whisking it every 5 minutes to ensure it stays smooth, until the mixture thickens but is still pipable. 
4. Place in a small piping bag (ziplock bags with a corner snipped off are handy for this), pipe on one of the blue bottom shells and sandwich with a top shell that has eyes, with a cookie wedged in the middle. Repeat with remaining shells. 
5. Chill macarons in an airtight container overnight to allow flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.

Rhubarb & Ginger Cordial with Mint & Raspberry Ice

I had a pretty awful week last week and it was bloody hot over the weekend, so the last thing I wanted to do was turn on my oven and bake something. I was dreaming about popsicles and icy, cool refreshments. So you'll have to excuse me for not having a dessert recipe for you this week, but instead a lovely homemade cordial that will not only make a great cold drink, but is also a fantastic cocktail mixer and will make some pretty delicious popsicles too.

A few months ago I saw David Lebovitz's fresh ginger syrup recipe and knew that I needed to make it. Anything ginger is up my alley. I've made the original recipe many times and it is fantastic as is, I totally recommend you try it. There was obviously no point reposting his version here, but this week I had a fresh bunch of rhubarb to play around with as well, so I decided to try a version with a bit of a twist.

While dreaming about my wonderfully cold drinks, I kept imagining cups mixed with fresh raspberries. It might seem a little excessive when you consider the price of fresh raspberries, but it looks so pretty and is so perfect for summer. So I made up a batch of ice cubes with fresh raspberries and bits of fresh mint leaves frozen into them. SO PRETTY. I included instructions below but it seems a bit silly to be writing instructions on how to make ice.

Yep, I couldn't resist pulling out my heart-shaped ice cube tray for this. And then I realised Valentines Day is coming up shortly, so I guess this would be a great idea for that...even though I usually tend to avoid anything heart-shaped for the day because it's so overdone and cheesy. We don't really celebrate it in my house since my husband hates the day, but feel free to use this idea for your Valentine.

Once the ice melts you have the mint which makes a great extra flavouring for the drink and you can eat the raspberries. Pretty AND helpful. I didn't have any booze in the house so I couldn't test it out as a cocktail but I imagine it would be fantastic. Rhubarb and ginger always work great together, however this is definitely a drink for people who are already a big fan of ginger (as it's rather spicy).

I love the light pink hue the rhubarb gives the drinks when you mix it up (it's quite a bright pink in its concentrated form, which is also great). I definitely think it's worth making this up with the fancy ice cubes, and it looks so pretty in my shiny new blue-green jug and glass set! This set is actually the very first thing I bought for my new house. Not something useful like a washing machine or a bed; I bought a jug with matching glasses. I was standing there staring at the pretty blue-green glass and imagining how great they would be for serving cold drinks on my sunny new porch, so I had to get them. Of course I need to get some tables and chairs for my porch and to get rid of my ridiculous mosquito situation before I can actual realise this dream, but at least I have the pretty glasses.

Homemade Rhubarb & Ginger Cordial

(adapted from David Lebovitz's Fresh Ginger Syrup recipe, makes about 2 cups/0.5L)

200g fresh ginger, unpeeled (you can peel it if you prefer, but my ginger was very young so it didn't need to be removed)

200g chopped rhubarb pieces (about 2cm thick pieces)

4 cups (1L) water

450g (2 1/4 cups) sugar

Pinch of salt

1. Chop ginger into thin slices, then run knife over the slices to roughly chop it into smaller pieces.
2. Place chopped ginger, rhubarb,  water, sugar and salt in a large saucepan. Heat to a boil, then reduce the heat to a steady simmer, and cook for 45 minutes to one hour.
3. Let cool, then strain the cordial through a fine-mesh strainer. Store the strained cordial in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use. (I kept mine in an airtight bottle) It should keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge.
4. To serve; Mix cordial with water or soda/sparkling water and a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice. Add some mint and raspberry ice cubes (directions below) if you want to pretty it up. Adjust amount of cordial to taste, I think a good ratio of cordial to water is about 1:3 depending on how sweet you want it. Will also make a great cocktail mixer or can be mixed with water to make some fantastic popsicles.

Fresh Mint & Raspberry Ice Cubes

1 punnet fresh raspberries

A small bunch of fresh mint leaves

1. In your ice cube trays (heart-shaped ones are great for this), place one raspberry per ice cube space, or a rip up a few small pieces of mint leaf. 
2. Fill trays carefully with water, you may need to gently press the raspberries down with a fork to remove any big air bubbles.
3. Freeze until ready to serve, at least 4 hours.

Brown Butter Cake with Vanilla Bean Cream and Cherries

The wonders of brown butter. Take an ordinary yellow cake and replace your regular old boring, normal butter with butter that's been heated until it goes dark golden brown and nutty-flavoured and you have something heavenly. Trust me, you want to make this cake for afternoon tea. You will make it and you will thank me for it.

There's nothing complicated about this cake, it's the type of cake that I love to eat. The brown butter is the hero of this dessert. It's topped with freshly whipped cream that is slightly sweetened and full of vanilla bean seeds, and lots of fresh cherries. If you remember my Christmas Trifle, then you know how much I love the effect of fresh cherries as a dessert decoration. So pretty, if a little impractical to eat. You could replace it with any fruit, or maybe slice the cake in half and sandwich it with jam and cream. Ooh I really want to do that now.

This cake is sitting in my fridge right now, calling to me. I think it tasted the best when it was fresh out of the oven because it was pillow soft in the middle and golden on the outside, so good with the fresh, cold cream and fruit. The fridge makes it a bit drier and harder because of the higher butter content, but it still tastes great. My advice is to serve it fresh, or to refrain from topping it with cream until you've brought it back to room temperature and are about to serve.

You want use the fancy real vanilla bean pods for this one. Definitely not a time for fake vanilla essence. You may notice that the cream layer is nearly as thick as the cake layer. Yep, that's just how it should be.

I took a lot of photos and I don't have much else to say because the cake speaks for itself. It's just one of those cakes that you can whip up at the last minute on a Sunday arvo (especially if you use whatever fruit you have or replace it with jam) and serve for tea.

Make this, eat a big slice of it with a big cup of tea. Doooooo it.

Brown Butter Cake with Vanilla Bean Cream & Fresh Cherries

150g (1 1/3 sticks) butter (I used slightly salted but unsalted is also fine)

180g (approx 1 & 1/4 cups) plain/all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
120ml (about 1/2 cup) milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste/pure vanilla extract
175g (approx 3/4 cup) granulated sugar (I used caster/superfine) 

2 large eggs

Prepare the brown butter ahead of time as you will need to chill it:

1. Place butter in a small saucepan on low heat and stir until it melts completely.
2. Continue cooking, stirring frequently until the milk solids turn brown and the butter smells nutty, about 4 minutes longer (or however long it takes for the solids to brown). Take care not to burn.
3. Scrape the melted butter and browned solids into small bowl and chill until solidified (about half an hour in the freezer, an hour or so in the fridge). When ready to make cake, remove from the fridge long enough that the butter is soft enough to be beaten with an electric mixer.

For the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease an 18cm (7 inch) round cake tin (you can also use 20cm/8inch). Line the base of tin with baking paper. 
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. Mix milk and vanilla together in a measuring jug.
3. Using an electric mixer on low speed, beat sugar and brown butter in a large bowl until blended. Increase speed to high and beat well until very pale and creamy, at least 5 minutes. 
4. Reduce speed to medium low, add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. 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, occasionally scraping bowl with a spatula. 
6. Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the outside is golden, about 35-40 minutes. Take cake not to overbake or cake will be dry. 
7. Cool in tin for 15 minutes, then carefully turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely. Best served freshly baked and cooled but can be chilled in an airtight container for a couple of days.

For the cream:

300ml (about 1 1/4 cups) thickened cream, cold

1 vanilla bean pod, split and seeds scraped (or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste/pure vanilla bean extract)

1/4 cup icing/confectioner's sugar, sifted

To decorate: Fresh cherries or other fruit

1. (Only whip cream when ready to serve and cake is at room temperature.) Place cream in a large mixing bowl with vanilla bean seeds and icing sugar. 
2. Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until it reaches soft peaks. Take care not to overmix.
3. Use a spatula to spread over the top of your cake.
4. Decorate with fresh cherries (you can pit them and remove their stems to make it easier to eat but I love the look of whole cherries), or other fruit. Best eaten with a cup of tea.