Strawberry & Rose Macarons

I might be late getting this post up today. Because I had to waste my Monday morning filling out yet another DCMA form on Instagram to report someone stealing my photos yet again. Look people, I get it. You want to share a photo you like with your friends. Or you're an ass who wants to accumulate lots of followers without putting in any of your own effort. Either way, I'm still going to report you when I see you stealing my content, especially on Instagram where there is no proper way to link back to the original source of a photo. I get so TIRED of dealing with copyright violation because it is so common these days and no matter how much I repeat myself it won't stop it from happening. Some people think that crediting Google images is enough. NO. And watermarks don't stop people from cropping a lowres version of your photo, putting a shitty filter on it and posting it to their instagram feed. Wow, I'm cranky today. Sigh. For the moment I'll keep producing original content for this blog because I love doing it.

Anyway. I mentioned in my post last week that I made these lovely Strawberry & Rose Macarons at the request of my mother-in-law for her birthday last month. They matched the flavour of the cake, with a strawberry and rose water flavoured ganache and a surprise gem of rose Turkish delight hiding in the middle of each macaron. I LOVE Turkish delight and it was particularly fun watching when someone eating one of these found the surprise in the middle. I also put more of my pretty dried edible rose petals to good use as decoration on the pink macaron shells. I may have added a touch too much rose water to the ganache, but I don't think it was overwhelming.

Yeah okay, the shells were a tad bumpy. I'm no perfectionist. This was also my second batch of the night, my first batch were overmixed and didn't even make it to the oven. Macarons are one of those frustrating things to bake that you can still mess up even after years of practice. Someone asked me for an idiot-proof macaron recipe the other day. Sorry, but there's no such thing. There are easier methods, and methods that are more forgiving to small mistakes, but it's still something that can go wrong every now and then. But it's so worth the effort when you get it right.

Strawberry & Rose Macarons

(makes 15-20 macarons)

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, pink food colouring (preferably gel or powdered)

Dried edible rose petals, to decorate

Line two baking trays with good quality 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. (If you don’t have a processor just sift together with a fine sieve.) Sift into a large mixing bowl and set aside. 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 food colouring) and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

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 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 mixture in a piping bag with a 1cm round piping tip. Pipe rounds about 3cm diameter 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. Gently place a rose petal in the centre of each shell to decorate. Leave to dry for 30-60 mins, 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.

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. 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. 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

For the strawberry-rose white chocolate ganache:

100g good quality white chocolate, finely chopped

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

60g (about 1/4 of a punnet) fresh/frozen strawberries, pureed

1/4-1/2 tsp rose water

Optional: 1-2 tsp of strawberry essence, small pieces of Turkish delight

Place chopped chocolate in a bowl and set aside. 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. Use a whisk to combine mixture until it is smooth. Gradually whisk strawberry puree into the white chocolate ganache and then add rose water and strawberry essence to taste. Chill, whisking it every 5 minutes to ensure it stays smooth, until the mixture thickens but is still pipable. Cut Turkish delight into 0.75cm cubes and place in the centre of a shell. Place in  a small piping bag (ziplock bags with a corner snipped off are handy for this) and pipe around Turkish delight and sandwich with another shell. Repeat with remaining shells. Chill macarons in an airtight container overnight to allow flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.

(Don't you hate it when you love a particular photo and then you realise it's blurry? Gah! But I'm gonna post it anyway cos I still like it...just don't stare at it too closely)

Strawberry & Rose Tres Leches Cake

I'm a little worn out baking-wise. It seems to be birthday season amongst my friends and family so I have been pretty much baking non-stop for the last two weeks. I'm not complaining, I love baking birthday cakes for everyone. But now I'm very much looking forward to being able to go home after work today and not have to bake and cook dinner at the same time. Anyway this is a warning that there are lot of cake recipes this month, blame my people for all being born in the same month!

I'm particularly proud of this cake that I put together for my mother-in-law. She is a fan of sponge cakes with jam, strawberries and cream and Turkish delight. So I was trying to think of the best way to put all of her favourites things into a cake without it being overwhelming. One cake that I've always been fascinated with is the tres leches cake, but I've been a little scared to try it. Something about the idea of soaking a cake in three types of milk sounded risky. Would it be too rich? What if it went all soggy and fell apart? But a cake soaked in condensed milk, evaporated milk and cream sounded like something I would definitely want to eat.

So I bit the bullet and tried out Linda's beautiful layered recipe. I decided I wanted to keep it pretty simple, I was hesistant to mess around with the flavours too much. But since A's Mum loves Turkish delight I thought the combination of strawberry and rose would be beautiful for this cake without being too out there. I made a simple strawberry compote with a touch of rosewater mixed in to give it a little fragrance, but not too much because I know rose can be overwhelming. Rather than making one cake and cutting it into two, I split my mixture between two pans, which made it easier to soak the layers separately and then assemble the cake.

The sponge cakes soaked in three milks were sandwiched with a thin layer compote in the middle, covered in whipped cream and topped with fresh strawberry slices, cubes of Turkish delight and a few edible dried rose petals. I love how pretty it turned out! Unfortunately I can't show you a picture of the inside since it was the birthday cake, but you aren't missing out on too much. It was my first time eating tres leches cake and OH MY GOD that shizz is amazing! My first bite into that ridiculously soft cake, rich with the flavour of the milks but not the least bit soggy, my eyes went super wide and my brain went holyyy molyyy. It was love at first bite. And then I was kicking myself for not making this cake earlier. This layered version might not be anything like a traditional tres leches cake, but this type of cake worked great as an element of a layered cake. I loved it so much that I had to make another one (a more traditional sheet version with cream and fruit on top) with all my leftover milks just so I could eat more of it.

I served the cake with leftover compote and more fresh strawberries and it was definitely a winner. The strawberry and rose pairing were just right for this cake; tangy and fresh strawberries with the light fragrant rose flavours. My Mum-in-law also requested a batch of macarons to go along with the cake so I made some matching rose and strawberry macarons (I'll post the recipe for those next week).

In other random news, as well as being birthday season it also seems to be blog awards season! Last week I mentioned I was nominated for the Pedestrian Blogster awards (Vote for me please, it takes 5 seconds! If you're not sure what to do read this post.) I also happen to be nominated in Cosmopolitan Australia's Fun Fearless Female Awards in the blogger category. I probably don't stand a chance but it's nice to get a mention! If you have the time to send a vote my way here's the link: http://www.cosmopolitan.com.au/celebrity/fun-fearless-female-2013/finalist-voting/. (You have to register and then vote in all 8 categories for it to count.)

Strawberry & Rose Tres Leches Cake

(makes a 2-layer 18cm round cake, adapted from Eat Show & Tell)

For the cake:

1 cup plain (all-purpose) flour

1&1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 eggs

1 cup (225g) caster (superfine) sugar

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

1/3 cup milk

3/4 cup evaporated milk

1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/3 cup thickened (heavy) cream

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F, reduce by 10° if fan-forced). Grease and line two 18cm or 20cm (I used 18) round baking tin with baking paper. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Separate eggs. Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined. Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer on, gradually add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry. Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined, make sure there are no lumps. Pour equal amounts into prepared tins and spread to even out the surfaces. Bake for 20 to 35 minutes or until the centre of the cake springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cakes out onto two rimmed plates and allow to cool. 

Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a small pitcher. When cake is cool, pierce the surface all over with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle the milk mixture; try to get as much around the edges of the cake as you can. Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for at least 30 minutes.

For the strawberry compote:

500g (2 punnets) fresh or frozen strawberries

4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice + 2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp rose water 

Place strawberries, sugar and lemon juice and zest in a small saucepan on medium heat, stirring until it comes to a simmer. Continue to cook, stirring regularly for about 5-10 mins or until mixture thickens slightly and strawberries soften. Remove from heat and stir in rose water. Cool completely, can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for about 2 weeks.

To assemble cake:

600ml thickened (heavy) cream

2 tbsp icing sugar

To decorate: extra fresh strawberries, sliced, rose-flavoured Turkish delight pieces, chopped, edible dried rose petals (optional)

Place cream and icing sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat on high until soft peaks form (take care not to overmix). Carefully transfer one of the soaked cakes to your cake stand/plate. Cover with a thin layer of strawberry compote (too much will cause the compote to ooze out the sides of the cake). Sandwich second cake on top. Use a spatula to cover the entire cake in whipped cream and smooth. Sprinkle top of cake with strawberri slices, Turkish delight and rose petals, or any other decoration of your choice. Serve immediately with leftover strawberry compote or chill until ready to serve. Can be stored in an airtight container for 2 days.

Banana Cake with Salted Caramel Icing

I've been on the fence about blogging this recipe for the last few days. I made this beast of a cake for a friend of mine, and since his birthday was during the week I had to bake the cake on a weeknight so the only pictures I could get were some shoddy night ones and a few of it at work in my ugly plastic cake carrier. It's also quite similar to a cake I've posted recently. But it generated so much interest and requests for the recipe when I posted a sneak peak of it on instagram and facebook that I just had to write it up for you guys, even with the random mish-mash of pictures.

My friend is not a fan of the light sponge & cream cakes so I made sure to avoid anything like that (even though I personally love those sort of cakes). I used my trusty banana cake recipe and made 4 towering layers of cake, sandwiched with a LOT of salted caramel icing. Surprisingly this is my first attempt at a salted caramel icing, I've made sauces before but I have been trying to resist the temptation to put salted caramel in everything. But it's hard. This seemed like a good opportunity to use it though, the salted caramel icing was a more than suitable match for the dense but soft banana cake layers. The thick swirls of icing looked so pretty in the bowl that I opted for the lazier, swirly icing finish to the outside of the cake. I'm not 100% pleased with the texture and flavour of the icing, I think next time I might try a Swiss meringue buttercream with salted caramel instead. This particular icing is verryyyy buttery and very rich, so I probably used a little more icing than was necessary for this cake. I've pulled back some of the butter from the quantities that I used, hopefully that might fix it but let me know if you have issues.

I borrowed a trick from my genius friend Karen from Citrus and Candy and topped off the cake with some sliced bananas that I covered in some sugar and bruleed with a blow torch. I made the rookie mistake of torching them on the night so I could take photos, which meant that I had to bring the cake in and re-torch the top of the cake the next morning, which made the icing melt and butter started to drip down the sides. So if you're going to use bananas make sure you caramelise them in a separate pan and only place them on top when you're ready to serve the cake. Or just skip the bananas, the cake is pretty good as it is.

OOPS I nearly forgot to mention! I am lucky enough to be one of the finalists nominated in the Food category for the Pedestrian.TV Blogster awards! It would be great if anyone could send a vote my way. Just go to this link (http://tinyurl.com/pedestrianawards) and click on the 'Like' button next to the Yeah Blog! and that's it! If you're still confused look at the image above for help. I never win anything so it's nice to even be in the running to win this one. Thanks guys!!

Banana Cake with Salted Caramel Icing

(makes a 18-20cm four layer round cake)
Note: You can halve the quantities for the cake and icing and still make a decent sized 2-layer cake.

For the banana cake (based on this recipe):

250g softened unsalted butter (salted is fine too)

2&1/4 cups (about 500g) sugar (I used caster/superfine but granulated white sugar is fine too)

4 eggs

2 cups mashed very over-ripe bananas (about 4 bananas)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

500g (4 cups) plain flour

2 tsp bicarb (baking) soda

1 tsp salt

1&1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 tsp ground allspice

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk + 2 tsp lemon juice)

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), grease well and line the base of two 18cm or 20cm (7-8inch) round tins with baking paper. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until combined then add banana and vanilla and beat until combined. Sift dry ingredients (flour, bicarb, salt, cinnamon, allspice) together in a separate bowl. Add half the dry ingredients and half the buttermilk to them mixture, fold until just combined, then add the remaining dry mixture and buttermilk and repeat. Divide mixture between the tins and bake for 50-60 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the cake is golden brown. (If you only have one tin bake one cake after the other) Cool cake in its tin on a wire rack for a few minutes before turning out and then cool completely on wire rack. Cake can be prepared the night before assembling and refrigerated in airtight containers.

For the salted caramel icing (based on this Chow recipe):

1 cup granulated sugar

4 tbsp water

1 cup heavy cream

500g butter (4&1/2 sticks), at room temperature

1-2 tsp fine salt, adjust to taste

4 cups (about 500g) icing (powdered) sugar

Optional: 2 extra bananas, sliced + sugar to sprinkle over for decoration, or banana chips

Briefly stir together sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue cooking, without stirring, until mixture just turns dark amber in colour, about 10 minutes. Take care not to let it turn too dark or your caramel will be bitter. Remove from heat and slowly add in cream (mixture will bubble a lot), carefully whisking until completely smooth. Set aside until cool to the touch, about 25 minutes.

Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat on high with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low, add icing sugar, and mix until completely incorporated. Turn mixer off and scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add caramel. Beat icing on high speed, gradually adding salt to taste and then beat until airy and thoroughly mixed. If mixture is runny, cover and refrigerate until stiff, about 45 minutes before using, or add more icing sugar to stiffen.

To assemble cake; trim any domed tops off your cakes to level them and them carefully slice cakes in half with a long sharp knife to form four equal layers. Place your first layer on your cake stand/plate and cover with a thin layer of icing, smoothing with a spatula/offset spatula. Sandwich with another layer of top and repeat. Crumb coat outside of cake and then cover with a thicker layer of icing, swirling the outside if you wish. Refrigerate until ready to serve, remove from fridge at least 30 mins before serving to bring back to room temperature. Place sliced banana in a pan, sprinkle with sugar and caramelise with a blow torch. When ready to serve, top with banana slices (or banana chips, which are much easier) Leftover cake can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

Rhubarb & Ginger Blondies

I've had rhubarb on my mind. I know that's a weird thing to occupy someone's thoughts, but I tend to get an ingredient stuck into my head and it won't go away until I bake something with it. I realised a week or so ago that there hasn't been anywhere near enough rhubarb desserts in my kitchen this winter. This had to be rectified immediately, before winter disappears.

So I ended up with these Rhubarb & Ginger Blondies. I love me some ginger, and I made sure there was plenty of it in these blondies with candied pieces and a load of ground ginger. The spicy kick is a great match for the tart roasted rhubarb pieces that sit on top of these blondies like jewels. To cook the rhubarb I stuck to my favourite roasting method because I love the way it retains that gorgeous ruby colour in the fruit.

If you're not into ginger you can replace the candied bits with some white chocolate, or maybe some strawberry pieces. We all know how well strawberry and rhubarb go together! I love playing around with different blondie flavours. Blondies and brownies are so evil, I can eat crazy quantities of both and will still be craving more. It's great that they are so easy to make, you basically just need one big bowl to mix them up.

The hardest part for me is waiting for them to cool before cutting it up. I can never hold out! The smell of these babies baking in the oven is wonderful, and made the wait even harder. This is probably why I chopped up the pieces in all sorts of wonky sizes. I was rushing just to try a piece!

The one thing that bugs me is that I tend to overbake my blondies/brownies. I always get nervous if the middle is still a bit wet and I tend to leave it in the oven longer than I should, forgetting that it will cook through a bit more as you wait for it to cool completely in the pan. Don't make this mistake! There's nothing worse than a dried out, overbaked blondie or brownie. Luckily this time around I didn't overbake them too much, they were still lovely and soft in the middle. It seemed like the perfect way to farewell winter.

Rhubarb and Ginger Blondies

(adapted from Martha Stewart, makes 16)

For the roasted rhubarb:

1 bunch rhubarb (about 200g/7oz, trimmed weight), chopped into 2cm thick pieces

55g (1/4 cup) sugar (or more to taste)

Grated zest of 1/2 a lemon

Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). Place chopped rhubarb in a baking dish/roasting pan that will hold them comfortably. Sprinkle over sugar and zest and stir until the rhubarb is covered in sugar. Set aside for about 5 minutes, or just long enough for a little syrup to start to form. Cover baking dish with foil and roast in preheated oven for about 10 minutes. Take a peek and if the sugar isn't almost completely melted, stir the rhubarb, re-cover the pan with the foil  and roast a few minutes more.  Remove the foil and let the rhubarb roast for another 2 minutes or so, until the syrup is bubbling. Remove from oven and cool before using. Can be prepared the night before serving and chilled in an airtight container.

For the blondies:

115g (about 1 stick) butter, melted, plus more for pan

1/2 cup (about 100g) packed light-brown sugar

1/3 cup (about 75g) granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

125g (1 cup) plain/all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)

1 tbsp ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt 

2 tbsp (about 35g) candied/glace ginger, chopped into small cubes

Roasted rhubarb, prepared above 

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F), Brush a  20cm (8 inch) square baking pan with butter; line pan with a piece of baking paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Butter paper. In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugar until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla. Add flour, salt, ground ginger and chopped candied ginger; stir together just until moistened (take care to not overmix). Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top as best as you can (mixture will be quite sticky). Carefully press pieces of rhubarb into the surface of the mixture, try to avoid the very edges of the pan. Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick/skewer inserted into the center (a non-rhubarb part) comes out clean, about 30 mins depending on your oven. 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 16 squares. Can be stored in an airtight container for two days.

White Chocolate Hi-Hat Cupcakes with Sprinkles

YAY SPRINKLES. They instantly cheer me up. Isn't everything so much better with rainbow sprinkles on top? I've always wanted to try making hi-hat cupcakes, but I've been a bit terrified of anything to do with coating things in chocolate because it usually leads to mess and tears in my kitchen. But I pushed ahead regardless and made a white chocolate version.

Aren't these cupcakes so cute? I love the look of the fluffy white icing on top of the cupcakes. It was almost a shame to cover up the pretty swirls of icing with  white chocolate and sprinkles. The cupcakes are also white chocolate flavoured and had a lovely fine crumb. Even though I forgot about them while they were in the oven and over-baked them a little, they weren't dry at all.

There's a couple tricky bits to these cupcakes. First is making sure you whip your meringue until it is stiff enough. Mine was a little under mixed, so it didn't pipe to quite the glorious heights that I was hoping for. The second part is to make sure your melted white chocolate mixture is cool enough before dipping the tops of the cupcakes into it, otherwise your meringue icing will just melt as soon as it hits the chocolate. I kept my cupcakes in the freezer until they were ready to dip to make sure they held their shape.

The only thing I haven't quite worked out is the best way to eat these cupcakes. The mountain of meringue icing and chocolate coating makes it a little hard to bite into, and I haven't figured out a way to eat it without getting icing on the tip of my nose. One of my friends tried to twist the whole top half off and ended up with a melting mess of icing in his hand, which was definitely not the right way to eat it!

They're a bit more effort than a regular cupcake but so worth the extra time! I love how the coating makes it look like one of those soft-serve cones from Wendy's with the chocolate coating and sprinkles on top. I almost wish I had stuck a Kit-Kat into the side as well.

YAY SPRINKLES!

White Chocolate Hi-Hat Cupcakes with Sprinkles

(cupcake recipe adapted from Gourmet Traveller, icing from Martha Stewart)

For the cupcakes:

165g (about 1 & 1/2 sticks) butter, softened

150g (about 2/3 cup) sugar (I use caster/superfine)

4 eggs

110g (about 4oz) white chocolate, melted

150g (about 1 & 1/4 cups) plain/all-purpose flour

1 & 1/3 tsp baking powder (alternatively, use 155g self-raising flour)

Preheat oven to 180°C (350° F)and line a 12-hole cupcake tray with paper liners. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each, then add white chocolate and stir to combine. Sift flour and baking powder over cake batter and fold in until combined. Fill cupcake liners with batter until they are about 2/3rd full. Bake for 18-20 mins or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in tin for 5 mins and then cool completely on a wire rack.

For the meringue icing:

400g (about 1 & 3/4 cups) sugar

3 large egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)

In a large heatproof bowl, combine sugar, 1/4 cup water, egg whites, and cream of tartar. Place bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk regularly. Heat until a candy thermometer inserted into the mixture reads 70°C (160° F), mixture should be hot to the touch. Remove from heat and whisk with an electric mixer on high speed for about 10 minutes as mixture cools, until mixture is thick, white and very stiff. Place in a large piping bag with a 1cm round tip and pipe a high spiral of icing on top of each cupcake. If your meringue is not holding its shape then it is undermixed and needs to be whisked for longer. Place piped cupcakes in the freezer while you prepare the chocolate coating (if you don't have enough space in your freezer, place in the fridge for at least 30 mins).

For the white chocolate coating:

340g (12oz) white chocolate, chopped

3 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
To decorate: 100s & 1000s (rainbow sprinkles)

Melt chocolate and oil together in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water until smooth and combined. Set mixture aside for at least 15 mins to allow it to cool or it will melt your icing. Place mixture in a deep, narrow bowl or cup. Take your cupcakes out and dip the cupcake in the chocolate mixture to coat all the icing, allowing the excess to drip off. Sprinkle rainbow sprinkles over the top while the coating is still wet (don't dip your cupcakes into the sprinkles). Return to the freezer/fridge for 5 mins to allow the coating to set, then store in the fridge in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Cream & Lemon Curd Layered Sponge with Berries & Meringue

These type of cream and sponge cakes might look familiar since I've done a few of them in the past. But you better get used to it. I am particularly fond of eating these types of cakes, and it turns out my in-laws are as well. I brought my Vanilla Bean Sponge and Salted Caramel Apple cake to afternoon tea and it went down so well that my father-in-law requested a very similar sort of cake for his birthday. Except he loves fresh berries, so I made sure to get my hands on some punnets of blueberries and raspberries even though they're not in season yet.

(Excuse the slightly fuzzy photos, I was rushing to take these as the sun was setting.) Originally this was just going to be a two layered sponge with cream in the middle, and maybe some lemon icing on top. Then somehow the idea sat in my brain for a bit and blossomed into this four-layer sponge cake, with alternate layers of cream and lemon curd filling and topped with a lemony glaze, fresh berries and crunchy little mini meringues.

The mini meringues were a last minute addition. I had egg whites leftover from the lemon curd and I prefer it when recipes don't leave you with random egg whites or yolks leftover so I decided to use them up with some piped mini meringues for extra texture and decoration. I'm so glad that I did, they were probably the best part of the cake, the crunchy bits worked well with the softer textures of the rest of the cake. You end up with a fair few leftover meringue cookies but no one is going to complain about that, trust me.

Sometimes nothing beats a plain old vanilla sponge with cream. The berries and lemon curd add some tang and colour, and the cream ensures it's light and fluffy. My one regret was that I had to assemble the layers of this cake the night before I served it to save time, and by the next day the cream layers were a little deflated so the cake wasn't quite as gloriously tall and pretty as it was in the photos. My advice would definitely be to try and serve your cake on the day you assemble it. It will also ensure your meringues stay crunchy and there's no juice that escapes from your berries. I swear looking at this cake almost makes it feel like Spring here!

Cream & Lemon Curd Layered Sponge with Berries & Meringue

(serves 8-10, sponge recipe from Gourmet Traveller)

Note: If you are new to sponge cakes make sure you click through to the Gourmet Traveller link above for extra tips. This sponge cake relies solely on the whipped eggs for leavening and it is important you follow all the steps carefully.

For the lemon curd:
100g (1/2 cup) sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
3 large egg yolks (save the egg whites for the mini meringues)
60g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cubed

Stir the sugar, lemon juice and zest in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Beat the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl and gradually add the hot lemon mixture. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. Return to the heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. Do not allow the mixture to boil. Remove from the heat and add the butter cubes, one at a time, stirring until fully combined. Cover surface of mixture with clingfilm and refrigerate to allow it to set, at least 30 mins.

For the meringues:

3 egg whites, at room temperature

A pinch of salt

165g (about 3/4 cup) caster/superfine sugar

Preheat oven to 120°C and measure all your ingredients. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Place egg whites and salt in a large, clean mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. With the mixer on low, add sugar 1 tbsp at a time then whisk until thick and glossy (at least 2-3 mins). Pinch a small amount of mixture between your thumb and forefinger. If mixture is smooth then the sugar has dissolved, if it is still grainy, beat for a minute or so more and check again. Beat until sugar has dissolved. Place mixture in a large piping bag with a star tip and pipe small rosettes on the prepared baking trays. Place in oven and reduce oven temp to 90°C. Leave the oven on for 60-75 mins or until the meringues are crisp, then turn off oven and allow the meringues to cool completely in the oven (2-3 hours). Store in an airtight container until ready to serve cake.

For the sponge cake:

60g (about 4.5 tbsp) butter, melted and cooled plus extra for greasing tins

180g (about 1.5 cups) plain/all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

6 eggs, at room temperature

165g (about 3/4 cup) caster/superfine sugar

1 vanilla bean, scraped seeds only

Preheat oven to 180°C (350° F) (you may need to adjust to 170°C (340° F) for fan-forced). Brush two 18cm (or 20cm but layers will be thinner) round cake tins with melted butter, line base and sides with baking paper, grease paper with a little extra butter and then dust lightly with flour. Triple-sift flour and set aside. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla seeds in an electric mixer until thick, pale and tripled in volume (about 7-8 minutes). Sift over flour in two batches, folding each batch in with a large metal spoon or spatula. Fold in melted butter. Carefully pour into prepared tin and bake until light golden and centre springs back when pressed lightly with your fingertip (about 25 minutes). Pull cake gently away from sides of tin with your fingers or carefully loosen with a knife. Turn onto a wire rack, remove baking paper, turn back over swiftly and cool completely. Best eaten on the day of baking, but you can store it in an airtight container overnight and assemble the rest of the cake the next day.

To assemble cake:

600ml thickened/heavy cream, cold

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup icing/powdered sugar, sifted

Glaze: 1 cup icing sugar, sifted, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1-2 tbsp milk

Fresh berries to serve

Place cream and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and start to beat on medium speed with an electric mixer. Gradually add icing sugar and then beat on high until soft peaks form. Take care not to overmix. Carefully cut your two sponge cakes in half using a long serrated knife. Place one layer of sponge on your serving plate/stand and spread half the cream on top. Sandwich with another layer of sponge and then spread the lemon curd on top (you may need to whisk it gently to ensure it is smooth). Top with another sponge, followed by the rest of the cream (you can always adjust the amount of cream you prefer, you don't need to use all of it). Top with the final layer of sponge. Mix glaze ingredients in a bowl, only add enough milk to ensure it is a thick paste. Pour enough glaze to just cover the top the of cake and then decorate with berries and mini meringues. If you are not serving straight away then don't place the meringues and berries on the cake until you are ready to serve. P.S. Video of me assembling it here.

Chocolate Mousse Tart with Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust

This tart is FRIGGIN AMAZING. I know that it's entirely predictable of me to praise a recipe that I'm posting up on this blog but I LOVE THIS TART. I love it so much I completely broke my diet and ate three slices of this tart in the last 24 hours. It is that good. I've been having such a hard time coming up with a dessert recipe that I've wanted to bake recently, and then this tart/pie/thing of beauty came to me. A Chocolate Mousse Tart with a Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust. Oh yes.

I've wanted to try making a pie or tart with a chocolate chip cookie dough crust for a long time now. Since I haven't been able to get my hands on a decent cast iron skillet, I have yet to try making my own skillet cookies and it's something that I've always wanted to try. So this is will have to do for the moment. The tart shell really does look and taste like a giant chocolate chip cookie. It's so amazing. It doesn't require any blind baking with weights, and it is a pretty easy dough to handle. Even if it cracks as you place the dough in the tin, you just need to press it back together and it should be fine, so dont freak out like I did when I lifted my rolled dough and it cracked into about 5 pieces. I was a little worried at first because I made it quite thick (to ensure it was stable) so it was quite hard, but after a night in the fridge with the chocolate mousse filling it had softened just enough to make it fantastic to eat.

The chocolate mousse filling is a dream. It's a pretty standard chocolate mousse, which does use raw/low temperature cooked eggs so if you have issues with that you can try a heavier cooked or eggless mousse but I am a big fan of this recipe. It's so light and super smooth, it's the perfect filling for this crust. I used salted butter in both to ensure it wasn't too sweet, the salt is really important for this recipe and will make it taste more like a chocolate chip cookie.

With the cream on top it kind of reminds me of an American style cream pie, but I'm gonna keep calling it a tart for the moment. Whatever its called, I think you should try making it. You won't regret it (except for the part where you can't stop yourself from eating it and then you might curse it for being too addictive).

Chocolate Mousse Tart with Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust

(makes one 24cm tart, tart shell adapted from this recipe and mousse from this Food Network recipe)

For the choc chip cookie tart dough:

130g  (about 4.5oz) brown sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla essence

1/4 tsp salt

125g (4.5 oz/just over 1 stick) butter, room temperature

3 egg yolks

300g (10.6oz/ about 2.5 cups) plain/all purpose flour, sifted

1/2 cup milk or dark chocolate chips, or more if you prefer

With a hand or stand mixer, combine brown sugar, vanilla extract, salt and butter on medium speed. Mix only until ingredients are thoroughly combined, but by no means light and fluffy. Add in the yolks, one at a time then reduce speed to low. Add in the flour and chocolate chips all at once and mix until homogenous, add more chips if you wish. If you’re comfortable with dough and a pin, you can roll it right away with very lightly floured hands and rolling pin. Otherwise, form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate about 15 minutes to make the it easier to handle. You can refrigerate the dough for up to a week or freeze for several months. Before rolling, set the dough out and let it slowly come to room temperature over a few hours. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350° F) and lightly grease a 22-24cm loose bottomed tart tin. Dust the counter with a very, very light coat of flour. Roll to 0.75cm (1/3") thickness.Carefully set dough over the tart shell and use your thumbs to press the dough into the corners of the pan. Press the overhanging dough against the edges of the tart pan to trim off the excess and leave the dough flush with the edges. Dock tart lightly with a fork. The dough is extremely forgiving and can be rerolled two or three times, you should be able to press any cracks together to mend them or fill any defects with leftover dough by pressing it gently together. Bake for 20-25 minutes. After 10 minutes or so, check on the tart. If it has formed an air bubble; use a skewer to gently poke a small hole in the bubble to deflate it. Continue baking until the tart is golden brown and firm and dry to the touch. (It is better to slightly overbake than underbake to prevent any raw taste.) Cool in tin for about 10 minutes, then carefully remove from tin and cool completely on a wire rack. Shell can be stored in an airtight container overnight.

For the chocolate mousse filling:
(Note the amounts below will yield leftover mousse if you only fill your tart to be level with the edges. You can either pile the mousse filling a bit higher or set the extra mousse in a separate bowl. Who would ever complain about having a bit more mousse?!)

225g (8 oz) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

55g (4 tbsp) butter

3 large eggs, separated (Note this recipe uses raw/slightly cooked eggs, ensure they are fresh and be aware of any risks)

55g (1/4 cup) caster/superfine sugar

375ml (about 1.5 cups) cold thickened/heavy cream

Extra chocolate chips to top

In a large heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring. Remove from the heat and whisk until smooth. Return to the heat and add the yolks, 1 at a time, whisking after the addition of each. Remove from the heat and set aside. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks start to form. Gradually add only half (1/8th cup) of the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, beat the cream until it becomes frothy. Add the remaining  sugar (1/8th cup) and continue beating until it holds stiff peaks.

Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture until no white specks appear. Using only half of the whipped cream, gradually fold in until smooth. Spoon the mousse into the pre-baked tart shell and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Refrigerate until well chilled, tart is best served after being chilled overnight. To serve, spoon the remaining whipped cream on top and garnish with extra chocolate chips. Cut into wedges and serve. Leftover tart can be stored in an airtight container (even with the extra cream on top) in the fridge for up to two days.