Yet more cupcakes...

Mum asked me to make some cupcakes for her (male) cousin's birthday.  Cupcakes would not have been my first thought when considering what to bake for a man's birthday, but I went with it and was pretty pleased with the results.  The request was for half chocolate, half vanilla.  The vanilla cuppies were made using the usual Nigella recipe.  I have made chocolate cuppies before by substituting cocoa for some of the flour, but decided instead to make chocolate cherry cupcakes from Nigella's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'.  I haven't made these in quite some time, but they are seriously good.  I found the recipe yielded 18 rather than 12 cupcakes - no matter, more left over for us!  I used Lindt 70% cocoa dark chocolate, which made them very rich.  I couldn't get the stipulated morello cherry jam, so instead used dark cherry jam.

To decorate, I used Cake Mate frosting (the one that comes in a pressurised can) in chocolate fudge, cloud white and blue.  To decorate the chocolate cherry cupcakes, rather than use the star nozzle that comes with the icing, I decided instead to dispense the icing out of the can and use a piping bag and Wilton 1M tip, which I think makes really nice swirls for topping cupcakes.  Unfortunately, it also uses a lot more icing than a smaller star tip, and I found I was only able to ice 9 cupcakes with one can of icing, which made it a pretty expensive way to decorate.  I had intended to ice all the vanilla ones in blue, but was unable to get more blue icing.  I had enough in the cupboard to ice 6 of the 9 vanilla cupcakes I needed using the small star nozzle that comes with the can, and iced the remaining 3 in cloud white icing (I needed 9 vanilla and 9 chocolate cherry cupcakes to fill my cupcake stand which Mum borrowed for the occasion).  I would have preferred to ice the vanilla ones with the 1M tip too, but was unable to get more icing, so had to economise by utilising the smaller tip.  I do think the chocolate ones that were iced with the 1M tip look better though.   

The iced choc cherry cuppies looked so nice with their choc fudge swirls of icing, that I just left 3 of them as they were.  Another 3 I sprinkled with some tiny silver cachous.  The remaining 3 I sprinkled over Wilton blue sprinkles (blue coloured sugar crystals).  To decorate the blue ones, 3 were sprinkled with the silver cachous, 3 had chocolate sprinkles scattered over.  The 3 white cupcakes were decorated with the Wilton blue sprinkles.  On the whole, I thought it looked a tad classier than my mother's planned decoration of Smarties!

My elder son is having a fundraising day next week, where the year 10 students will be selling donated cupcakes to raise money for the RSPCA, so I foresee more cupcake making in my near future!

the completed cupcakes ready in the Cupcake Courier's trays

Cupcakes for my grandmother's 90th birthday!

My lovely grandmother, Sal, celebrated her 90th birthday on Friday 25th June.  My mum asked if I would make some cupcakes to celebrate the occasion, and I gladly complied.  I used the usual recipe (Nigella's from How to be a Domestic Goddess), and again cheated by using the Cake Mate icing that comes in a pressurised can in white and pink.  For some reason the icing didn't come out looking quite as nice as it did when I did the cuppies for DS2's 2nd birthday. 

Mum was going to make roses to decorate the tops, so all I did was load the iced cupcakes into my Cupcake Courier (the first opportunity I have had to use it!), along with some sprinkles in case we needed them.  At first Mum intended to do piped roses with royal icing because her plastic icing and gone a little dry, but she ended up only making one plastic icing rose plus some leaves, and bought some roses.  I have icing tips - I really should have a go at making some piped roses one of these days.  We didn't have enough flowers for the 18 cupcakes that my stand holds, so some cupcakes had just sprinkles on them (I used some pearlescent sprinkles in pink, white and yellow).  The overall effect looked pretty, and they tasted good too!  Thank you, Nigella! 

Baci di ricotta

This recipe comes from Nigella's book 'Feast'.  There is also a savoury version of the recipe in the book which I haven't tried, but I've made these sweet ones a few times now.  They have the flavour of donuts with the cinnamon, but I like to pretend they're healthier than donuts - the protein in the ricotta makes them healthy, right?!  I think they're also easier to make than donuts - no yeast, no proving.  I've only ever made these for my husband and kids, and it does take some time to get them done when you are only doing 5-6 at a time and you do need to pay attention with hot fat, so I am not sure if I would be game to try doing them for guests, but then again if you have someone over that is happy to chat while you attend to frying the baci, it would probably be fine.  If serving to guests, you might want to do a bigger batch, as these are pretty popular!   

Makes 30 (I only managed 22 this time - some were a little big)

• 200g ricotta
• 2 eggs
• 75g plain flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 15ml caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• vegetable or corn oil for frying (I used sunflower oil)
• icing sugar to serve

1. Beat the ricotta and eggs together until smooth.  Add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, caster sugar and vanilla.  Beat until the batter is smooth.
2. Fill a wide shallow pan with about 2cm of oil and heat until 160C (or until it sizzles when some batter is dropped in).  I normally do use a fry pan to make these, but this time I used my deep dryer.
3. Drop rounded teaspoons of the batter into the pan, about 5-6 at a time.  Cook them until golden brown (about 2 mins), then flip them over using a slotted spoon and cook the other side for around a minute until brown.  I used 2 teaspoons to try and shape the balls a bit before dropping them into the oil, but as you can see, mine are never particularly round.  Once they have puffed up and are dusted with icing sugar, I don't think it really matters much.  They taste good anyway!                                          
4. Use the slotted spoon to remove the baci from the oil, allowing the oil to drip back into the pan, and place them on some paper towel to drain.  Pile them onto a plate or bowl, and dust with icing sugar to serve.

Creme brulee

One of my friends adores creme brulee.  I have made it for her before, both a normal vanilla version and a Bailey's version.  Since watching George Colombaris demonstrate it recently in a Masterclass on Australian Masterchef, I have been tempted to make it again.  My friend and her new partner are coming over for dinner the day after tomorrow.  Perfect opportunity for some blowtorch wielding action, right?  I thought so.  The creme brulees would be served to both children and my pregnant self, so the Bailey's option was out, and I have misplaced my usual recipe for the vanilla one.  So I thought I'd give George's recipe a crack.  Then I read the comments - most people had had the recipe fail as their custards would not set (a little ironic given George was giving the recipe after the French challenge where the contestants making creme brulee had met with the disaster of unset custards).  I read through all the alterations people had tried to get their custards to successfully set - using an extra yolk, dividing the mix up into 6 ramekins instead of 4, and venting the foil covering.  Would I succeed where others had failed by using these alterations, or would I too fail?  I decided the safest option would be a trial run in advance.

I decided to research further, turning to two ever trustworthy Australian cooking icons  - Margaret Fulton and Stephanie Alexander.  Their instructions both started off with a stirred custard cooked on the stovetop.  This seemed to me less than authentic (but perhaps it isn't), and even to be cheating a little.  Nope, I wanted the cook-in-a-water-bath-in-the-oven recipe.  Many recipes had the exact same cream to eggs ratio George's recipe employs - 100ml of cream to 1 egg.  Some others had a substantially higher proportion of eggs to cream - 8 egg yolks to 500 or 600ml of cream - but wouldn't that be too eggy flavoured?  I decided to go ahead and use George's recipe, adding an extra yolk, 6 ramekins and venting the foil.  It is in the oven now, and so far is looking like a fail :( .  It has not set in the specified 30 mins, and we are now up to about 50 mins and it isn't even close to setting.  I am feeling pretty disappointed and lacking in confidence, when a baked custard has never scared me off before.  I will keep cooking it, and might turn the temp up and remove the foil top to see if that helps, but if it still won't set, I am going to go back and look at Margaret Fulton's recipe and Stephanie Alexander's recipe, and go with whichever of these sounds better and just do the stovetop method in the hope of having something I can serve to my visitors.

Hmmm... the custards are officially a fail.  After spending more than double the time specified in the recipe, and still being incredibly runny, I got sick of checking every 5-10 mins, so I took the foil off, turned the heat up to 140C, and left them to it.  They finally set, but I think I left them too long, and the custard has split a bit.  Thank goodness it was only a trial run!  Now debating whether to do the stovetop method, or make something else entirely for Wednesday...  Decisions, decisions...

Now, I was very tempted not to post any photos of my failed attempt, but I think I gave it a good shot, and there must be something missing in the recipe's instructions. Surely so many people wouldn't end up with unset custards unless there was something missing in the recipe?

 

Beaten egg yolks and caster sugar - in the segment, George says the lighter the yolk mixture, the better the custard will be, but I have my doubts about that.  I think I took this advice too far, as my custard mixture was frothy.

 

Scalded cream and vanilla beans seeds - love the speckle of vanilla bean seeds :).  I brought the cream to just under boiling point, because my understanding is if you boil the milk, you alter the proteins needed for the custard to set.

 The uncooked custard after the cream had been added to the yolk mixture - definitely too frothy, unless I was making a milkshake.

The uncooked custards sitting in their water bath.

 Covered with foil but vented over the custards - I also left the sides loose so that there wouldn't be too much steam accumulating under the foil to drip condensation back onto the custards.

cooked custard

Cooked custard - still soft in texture, and the mixture has split.

Bread and butter pudding

Bread and butter pudding is a part of many people's childhood memories.  I don't believe I ever had the pleasure of eating this dessert as a child; I don't recall my mother ever making it.  She didn't tend to make a lot of sweet things for us to have at home though.  Occasionally we were given homemade biscuits or slice for afternoon tea, but rarely did she make dessert for the family unless there were guests coming over.  I believe the first time I tasted bread and butter pudding would have been at a restaurant, where it seemed for a while to gain some popularity on restaurant menus back in the 90s, and still does appear on some.

The recipe I use is the ginger-jam bread and butter pudding from Nigella Bites.  The recipe stipulates brown bread, which is surprisingly good, and you can convince yourself it is healthier that way, but this time I have used white bread as that was what I had to hand.  You can change the ingredients around to suit yourself.  If you don't like the idea of the ginger jam, you can use whatever flavour you like.  I have done this recipe before with apricot jam, and I substituted ground cinnamon for the ground ginger in the topping, and that was delish.  If you don't want to use rum for soaking the sultanas, you could try using juice instead to help them plump up.  I particularly like the crunch the demerara sugar gives to the top.   Keep an eye on it towards the end of the cooking time - my exposed crusts were starting to get too brown, so I did cover the top for the last 5 minutes of cooking, but probably should have covered the top earlier than that.  If they are starting to brown too much and you still have some time to go, maybe cover the top and then remove it for the final 5 minutes so the top will still be crunchy.

You can find the recipe here.

Chocolate cherry coconut slice

This is a super easy slice recipe from Janelle Bloom (published in Super Food Ideas magazine, August 2003, p72), which I used to make semi-regularly for my husband and eldest son.  I haven't made it in at least 4 years, but it has made a reappearance in our kitchen by special request from my hubby.

This is very similar to the chocolate cherry slice you can buy from some bakeries.  The food colouring is entirely optional, but I am so used to seeing the garishly pink version that you can buy, that the pallid version without colouring looks strange to me.  So I content myself with just a few drops and a pale pink result.  The recipe specified cooking chocolate (shudder) - I have used normal Cadbury eating chocolate.  Also in my notes I have written for a firmer result, to use 30g of copha in the topping instead of 60g of butter - I don't have the original recipe, but I assume this was my own change to allow the slice to survive in my son's lunchbox in humid Queensland weather a little better.  I think it tastes better with butter, and this time I have used butter.  I did toy with the idea of leaving the butter out and making it with 260g of milk chocolate instead.  I think that would work okay, but it would probably be harder to slice without the topping cracking once set, but you could use a hot dry knife. 

The slice states that it makes 24 pieces, which is what I cut it into this time, though I think I used to do 20 pieces.  24 pieces does make for quite small squares of slice, but then it is very sweet, so small servings isn't necessarily a bad thing.  But if you were wanting to slice it into pieces the size a bakery normally sells, then the yield of the recipe would be more like 16-20 pieces.

Chocolate cherry coconut slice

Makes 24 small pieces

Base:

• 150g butter, melted
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1.5 cups of plain flour, sifted
• 1 tsp baking powder

Filling:

• 3 cups dessicated coconut
• 395g can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• few drops of pink food colouring, optional
• 200g red glace cherries, chopped

Topping:

• 60g butter, chopped
• 200g milk chocolate

Method:

1. Grease and line an 18 x 28cm slice tin.  Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Base: Combine butter and sugar.  Add flour and baking powder.  Mix well.  Press into pan with a metal spoon.
3. Filling: Combine coconut, milk, eggs, and colouring (if using).  Stir in cherries.  Spoon over base.  
4. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until light golden.  Cool.  
5. Topping: Melt butter over medium heat.  Reduce heat to low.  Add chocolate, stirring constantly until smooth.  Pour over coconut filling.
6. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to set.
7. Cut into squares to serve. (If you wipe the knife clean between each cut, the pieces will look much cleaner).

I used my Wilton decorating triangle to make a pattern in the chocolate.

Coffee and almond crunch cake

I promised one of my lovely workmates I would bring a cake into work today as two of my friends there had birthdays during the week (in the two days following my youngest son's birthday :) ). Of course I didn't remember until last night, so I hadn't shopped for ingredients. I thought about making pecan and coffee cake, and had all the ingredients except an orange, but I was slow to get going this morning, and then decided even if I went and purchased the requisite orange, the cake might not cool down sufficiently to ice it before leaving. So I instead settled on another coffee cake which I have made once before - this recipe is from Gordon Ramsay's 'Cooking with Friends'. I first made it when the recipe appeared in Australian Delicious magazine when his book was released, and loved the cake so much I bought the book on the strength of this one recipe. It had two advantages for me today - firstly that I had all the ingredients needed on hand, and secondly, that there was no need to ice it as it has a streusel topping, so it wouldn't matter if it was a little warm still at the time I needed to leave. I could just dust it with icing sugar when I got to work just before serving.

The one thing I hadn't considered was that some people don't like really almondy food, and this cake is quite almondy with both almond meal and almond essence. Luckily everyone at work last night were almond fans, and the cake was well received! I'll have to make this again soon...

Streusel topping

• 60g plain flour
• 40g demerara sugar or brown sugar (I used demerara because I think it gives more of a crunch factor)
• 40g butter

Cake batter

• 170g unsalted butter, softened
• 170g caster sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• ½ tsp almond essence
• 100g almond meal
• 60ml espresso or strong coffee, cooled
• 100g self-raising flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• icing sugar, for serving

Preheat oven to 150C. Line the base and sides of a 20cm springform tin.

Topping: Stir together the flour and sugar. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Put aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg a bit at a time, mixing until well combined. (The mixture will probably look curdled at this point. If you want to, stir in a spoonful of the flour which will amalgamate the mixture evenly again.) Stir though the almond essence. Add half of the cooled espresso and stir. Then sift in the flour and baking powder and fold through. Add the remaining espresso.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle over the topping mixture. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Cool slightly on a rack before removing from the pan. When completely cool, sift over icing sugar and cut into pieces to serve.

streusel topping

cake batter in pan

streusel topping sprinkled over batter

cooling