Christmas Snack Boxes.

It feels as though I haven't written a post in forever! In the last couple of months, I have finished my Uni degree, become a qualified teacher, and simply enjoying my free time with loved ones. As Christmas has just passed, I have been madly rushing around cooking and preparing various gifts for people.

As some of you may know, I love Christmas and everything that comes with it! In the past few years, I have put together biscuit boxes and lolly baskets for very special people in my life. This year, I decided to create a 'snack box'. Once again, I was inspired by something I saw in Donna Hay. In fact, nearly my entire Christmas spread was Donna Hay inspired. Obsessed, I know. 

Today's post will focus on my snack boxes. In the next couple of weeks, I plan to share a few other Christmas-y things I baked to make the day extra special! 

When thinking of goodies to include in my snack box, I narrowed my thoughts down to treats I categorise as 'snacks'. They were: nuts, truffles, chocolate, biscuits and lollies. I used these categories to decide what I was going to cook! My snack boxes comprised of:

White Chocolate Pistachio and Cranberry Bark

I actually found this recipe on an ad for baking paper in a magazine. I normally pay no attention to these ads, and complain about how much space they take up in quite often expensive magazines!! However, the picture took my fancy, and actually inspired me to make this entire snack box. Basically, all you do is melt some chocolate of your choice (I used white chocolate), and sprinkle crushed pistachio and cranberries on top. When it has set, you just roughly crack the chocolate into pieces. It's as easy as that! 

Honeycomb

As I made honeycomb last year, I wasn't going to do it again. However, my little cousin put in a special request for some, so I couldn't let her down! 

Christmas Candied Nuts

As I am not a huge fan of nuts, I don't often cook with them. However, I was keen to experiment and see what I could create. I was inspired by a recipe I saw which featured pecan nuts. As we only had a small packet in the cupboard, I added cashews and peanuts into the mix. To make these candied nuts, you simply whisk up an egg white, a drop of vanilla essence and a tablespoon of water until it's foamy. Coat the nuts in this mixture, and toss in brown sugar, white sugar and cinnamon. Bake on an oven tray for around 40 minutes.

Apricot Truffles

Apricot truffles are an old fashioned favourite, so I didn't think I could go wrong with these (Especially with the oldies)! Basically, combine crushed arrowroot biscuits, apricots, condensed milk and coconut and roll into balls. I coated some of mine in white chocolate to look a little fancier! 

Dark Chocolate and Espresso Shortbread

Shortbread is the epitome of Christmas, so I couldn't look past it at this time of the year. However, I didn't want to make plain, boring shortbread. I googled 'interesting variations of shortbread', and came up with this recipe! Essentially, this is a chocolate shortbread with a hint of espresso. I then dipped each end in white and dark chocolate. Too easy!! 

I wrapped up each box in white tulle which looked so pretty! I think my loved ones appreciated the gesture, as they knew a lot of love went into each creation! 

I hope you have had a very Merry Christmas!

Until next time, happy baking.

xx

Banoffee Pie.

Today's post is dedicated to my beautiful Aunty, who gave me so much inspiration to cook. Her ability to invent delicious dishes always amazed me, and I admired her so much growing up.

The first dessert she taught me to make was Banoffee Pie, and since then, it has held a special place in my heart. I was only about eight years old, and I remember thinking.."Wow, this is SO delicious!" To celebrate her birthday, I decided to bake something I knew she would love. And this is what I came up with. Normally, I would use a pre-baked tart base, and tinned caramel (Yes, I know I'm a cheat! But at least I admit it!) But this time, I made it from scratch! Proud? I was! Here is the recipe:

Banoffee Pie

Shortcrust Pastry(Based on recipe from Taste.com)
© 1 1/2 cups plain flour

© 125g butter, chilled, chopped

© 1/3 cup caster sugar
© 1 egg yolk

© 1 tablespoon chilled water

1. Combine flour, butter and sugar in a food processor. Process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add yolk and chilled water. Process until dough just comes together.
2. Turn pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until just smooth. Shape into a disc. Wrap in baking paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Place pan on a baking tray. Line pastry case or tin of choice with baking paper. Fill with ceramic pie weights or uncooked rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove weights and paper. Bake for a further 5 to 10 minutes or until pastry is golden. Allow to cool.

Caramel Filling 

© 2 cans of condensed milk

© 2 tablespoons butter

© 1/3 cup golden syrup
© 3 tablespoons of brown sugar 

1. Place all ingredients in saucepan and mix until combined. 
2. Bring to boil on high heat. Mix quickly for 2-3 minutes until mixture is thick and is a light caramel colour (This sounds vague, but trust me, you will know when it's ready..Your hand will start to hurt!)
3. Take off heat and leave to cool in pan. 
4. When cool, fill tart base. Smooth over with knife.

All the Other Bits

© 4 bananas (I like firm-ish bananas-they are nicer and last longer!)

© 500ml of thickened cream

© 1 tablespoon vanilla essence

© 3 tablespoons of icing sugar

© Half a block of dark chocolate 

1. Cut the banana up into small pieces. Layer them on top of the caramel, as close to each other as possible. 
2. Whip the cream using a hand mixer. I used a piping bag and a 1cm nozzle to pipe my cream on. But really, feel free to slop it on if you don't have the time or patience to go that extra step! 
3. Melt the chocolate in zip-lock bag, and drizzle it over the top. 

And there we have it! A banoffee pie from scratch. 

I was super happy with how it turned out, and I know that my Aunty would have been proud.

Happy Birthday Anne! 

Until next time, happy baking.

xx

My newest techniques.

Hello there fellow bakers!

Today's post is all about a cake I made for a lovely friend of mine. I haven't been baking a whole lot lately, as uni is becoming quite hectic! However, I can always find a bit of time to make a birthday cake!

Meringues are becoming quite popular, and I have seen many different ways to make them. I have been inspired lately by Meringue Girls, two ladies who make amazzzzzing meringues. The technique is quite simple, but they look completely fabulous! To put it simply, you whip up a meringue mixture. You then paint stripes on the inside of a piping bag with food colouring of your choice, spoon the mixture in, and pipe till your heart is content! I had a go at these little beauties, and was semi-happy with how they turned out. With practice, I am sure these could look stunning!

I also tried out a new technique of icing...ombré icing! I have seen this being done quite a bit, and wanted to give it a go myself. Once again, I was happy with my first attempt, but I am sure there is room for improvement. 

Here is a little guide of how to achieve the ombré look: 

You will need: 

© A cake (crumb coated)

© 3 batches of frosting in various shades of one colour

© A palette knife (I don't have one of these yet so I used a normal knife)

© A cake turntable 

1. Make sure your cake is already crumb coated well. This will help for a smooth effect, as well as ensuring that the frosting sticks on well. 
2. Place the cake on a turntable. These can be purchased from most kitchen stores. I bought mine from our cheap shop! If you don't have one, just use a plate. 

     

    3.  Starting at the bottom and using the darkest shade of frosting, work your way around the cake.   

    4.  Using the medium shade of frosting, ice around the middle section of the cake.

    5.  And using the lightest shade, ice the top third as well as the top surface of the cake
        (This is sounding wordy, but refer to my picture below to make sense of my instructions!)

6. Now for the fun bit! Using your palette knife (or normal knife like me), gently work your way around the cake, smearing as you go. Turn the cake slowly, and watch as the frosting blends in with the next colour. Keep going until you achieve the desired effect. 

And voilà! You have now created an ombré cake! 

I covered the top of my cake in the little meringues, which I thought looked pretty cute! 

The cake itself was a vanilla sponge with layers of white chocolate ganache, 100's and 1000's, cream cheese frosting and crushed up Kit Kat. It is fair to say we all entered a sugar coma after eating one piece each!

So there we go! A short post about some new techniques I have played with lately!

Until next time, happy baking.

xx

Australian Football League Cake.

Last week, my boyfriend told me about a competition he was entering to win tickets to the AFL Grand Final. We both love football, so I was super excited for him. The competition involved displaying the logo of the company 'Momentum Energy' in a creative way. He asked me if I had any ideas, and me being me, suggested that we make a football shaped cake. Now I haven't had much experience with creating cakes like that, so initially I was a bit hesitant. However, we decided to go for it, after all, what could we lose by trying? We followed a tutorial to get the shape right which can be found here, however made up the rest as Australian footballs are a bit different to those in America. I have written up the recipe below, so if you ever feel daring enough, you can have a go too! (Sorry about the dodgy pictures-some of them were taken at 11 o'clock at night, so the quality isn't great!)

Australian Football League Cake

Part 1: Baking the cake (This recipe makes two cakes)

Vanilla Cake (You can use chocolate cake or any other variation)

© Melted butter, to grease

© 450g (3 cups) self-raising flour

© 150g (1 cup) plain flour

© 440g (2 cups) caster sugar

© 300g butter, cubed, at room temperature

© 310ml (1 1/4 cups) milk

© 6 eggs, at room temperature

© 3 teaspoons vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C. Brush two square  cake pans with the melted butter to lightly grease. Line base and sides with non-stick baking paper.
2. Place the self-raising flour, plain flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla essence in a large mixing bowl. Use an electric beater to beat on low speed for 30 seconds or until just combined. Increase the speed to high and beat for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is thick and all the butter is incorporated. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.
3. Bake cakes in preheated oven for around an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes. 
4. Turn onto a wire rack for 2 hours or until completely cool.
   
   
   Buttercream frosting (Whilst this may seem to make a large quantity of frosting, this batch can be used to sandwich the two cakes together, cover the entire cake and make the green grass around the football). 
   
   
   © 3 teaspoons vanilla essence
   © 227 g butter, softened
   

   © 5 cups icing sugar

   © A few dashes of milk

   © Several drops of green food colouring

1. Cream all ingredients in a mixer for 3 minutes until smooth.
2. Spread buttercream icing in between the two layers of cake. 

     

      Part 2: Carving the cake

You will need: 

© An AFL Football template (found here)

© Good, sharp knives (We used a paring knife and a large kitchen knife) 

© Wooden skewers 

1. Place the template on top of the cake.
2. Place skewers through the top to ensure that the template stays in place. 
3. Using the large knife, cut around the template, leaving a small space around the edge. This is just a backup in case you cut too much off! 
4. Using the paring knife, shape the cake to the size you are aiming for. It helps to follow the tutorial I provided above.

TPB TIP: It is always best to trim off small bits at a time. You can always take cake off, but you cannot get it back! 

Part 3: Decorating the cake

You will need: 

© The carved cake (no brainer)

© The frosting you prepared earlier

© 1 KG of pre-made fondant

© Rolling pin

© A large, wooden board, big enough for the cake to sit on covered in foil. 

© Wilton colour mist or any other spray on colouring in the colours you require (red is probably important!) 

1. Place cake on foil board. 
2. Cover your carved cake in buttercream frosting. Make sure you make it as smooth as possible. 
3. Roll out the fondant to around 5mm thick. Lay on top of cake and smooth out using your hands. Be gentle, you don't want the fondant to crack! Also, save a little bit of fondant for the football laces. 
4. Using the colour mist, spray the cake until evenly covered. 
5. If you are wanting to have writing on the cake like we did, you can make your own stencil and spray that on. Alternatively, you can write on the cake using these gel decorating pens. 
6. Cut out 6 small rectangles of fondant, which are the football laces. Stick these on top of the cake. 
7. Pipe the remaining green buttercream around the football using a star tip. If you don't have one of these, it doesn't matter! The grassy effect can be made using anything really!

And there you have it! We had so much fun making it, and it has now given me the confidence to try out other special cakes! And to sweeten the deal, we actually ended up winning the competition, and in one week's time, we are off to Melbourne!! I cannot contain my excitement!! 

Until next time, happy baking.

xx

A whole lotta' caramel.

So this post is inspired by one of my favourite sweet things...caramel!

I thought I would share with you some of the most delicious treats I have baked in the past year or so which feature this amazing creation.

Salted Caramel Apple Pie

Salted caramel is everywhere. I would even go as far as to say that it is bigger than peanut butter. Yep, I went there! People all over the world are jumping on this bandwagon, and I must confess, I am one of those! So when my brother was leaving for America last year, I decided what better way to bid him farewell than to bake for him! He loves caramel, so I knew this dessert would go down a treat. The pastry was deliciously flaky, and the sauce had that perfect balance of salty sweet. All in all, this was definitely one of my favourite desserts of last year! 

Mars Bar Cheesecake

Cheesecake + Mars Bar. How can you beat that combination? Cheesecake is definitely my favourite desserts, but sadly my family don't enjoy it as much as I do. That means I don't get to bake it as often as I would like. *Insert the violins*. However, I was determined to sway them, and I thought this recipe might do the trick! Whilst yes, it was completely rich and overwhelmingly sweet, the combination of the chocolate ganache, cream cheese and salty caramel made for a taste sensation. If I am being honest, it probably isn't the best choice if you are trying to convince someone that cheesecake isn't THAT rich. However, I would definitely recommend it if you love cheesecake as much as I do. 

Choc Caramel Shortbread

Last year, my friends and I hosted a biscuit swap. Basically, each person bakes a batch of biscuits and brings them to someone's house, where they swap with one another. Together with delicious tea and plenty of chatter, this was such a lovely morning. I decided to make these shortbread as they looked super cute in the book, and not tooooo difficult! The important thing to remember with shortbread is to, in a sense, undercook it. I am a fan of the real pale looking biscuit, so I always make sure that I take them out of the oven a few minutes than recommended. 

Caramel Tarts

For my boyfriend's birthday last year, he requested caramel tarts...So that is what I made! The simple combination of shortcrust pastry, smooth caramel and a dark chocolate ganache was just what we felt like after a big lunch! 

Salted Caramel Brownie

Yes...more salted caramel! But this is a bit different, I promise! For the AFL Grand Final last year, I had friends over. And whilst Mum took care of the savoury food, I was in charge of desserts (shock horror). My lovely friend Janelle loves salted caramel too, so I wanted to try out this brownie I had seen in a recipe book somewhere. The inside was incredibly gooey, with the caramel marbled throughout. I also served it with extra caramel sauce, because really, you can never have too much! 

I could go on forever about all of the caramel things I have baked, but I think that is enough for now!

A quick recipe for caramel can be found below!

Caramel (Suitable for tarts, filling for cake, slice).
© 1 can of condensed milk
© 1 tablespoon of butter
© 1/3 cup golden syrup

1. Put all ingredients in saucepan.
2. Cook on medium heat until mixture becomes a golden, caramel colour.
3. Take off heat. 

Until next time, happy baking.

xx

Peanut Butter Shortcrust Pastry.

So this is just a very small post to share something I believe some of you may be interested in!

As you are probably aware, peanut butter is everywhere at the moment. It's in biscuits, tarts, chocolates, even milkshakes! A few weeks ago, I decided to try out a new recipe called a 'Snickers Bar'. This is a dessert which is based around the very popular peanut and caramel chocolate bar, but with a twist or two! But I came across a problem pretty much straight away! The recipe I was using called for a few random ingredients that I had never heard of, which are usually not even available in Australia. This meant that I was unable to make the peanut butter base! I didn't want to just add the peanut flavour into the chocolate mixture like normal, so I was pretty determined to find a way around this problem. After scouring the internet for a peanut butter pastry recipe, I had no luck. So....I decided to make up my own! 

Here it is: 

Peanut Butter Shortcrust Pastry (Based on recipe from Taste.com)

© 1 1/2 cups plain flour
© 75g butter, chilled, chopped
© 50g peanut butter 

© 1/3 cup caster sugar
© 1 egg yolk

© 1 tablespoon chilled water

1. Combine flour, butter, peanut butter and sugar in a food processor. Process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add yolk and chilled water. Process until dough just comes together.
2. Turn pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until just smooth. Shape into a disc. Wrap in baking paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Place pan on a baking tray. Line pastry case or tin of choice with baking paper. Fill with ceramic pie weights or uncooked rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove weights and paper. Bake for a further 5 to 10 minutes or until pastry is golden. Allow to cool.

This recipe actually worked really well. Since peanut butter has a high fat content, I felt comfortable substituting nearly half of the butter in this original recipe for it. I also baked my pastry in a spring-form tin, which allowed me to later fill it with my mousse mixture. As long as you use grease-proof paper or oil spray, you should be fine! 

Until next time, happy baking.

xx

Triple-Layer Celebration Cakes.

So it has been nearly two months since I attempted my Nan and Pop's anniversary cake, and since then, I haven't done a whole lot of baking. So sadly, I don't have much to share with you yet! 

However, I did promise you a post about some of the celebration cakes I have baked over the last few months. So here you go! 

Triple-Lemon and Blueberry Layer Cake

Filled with lemon curd and vanilla cream

My Nan adores lemon flavoured anything. Lemon slice, lemon cake, lemon tarts. You name it, she loves it. So, for her 81st birthday, I thought it would be very appropriate to create something lemony! Having recently joined Pinterest, I was super keen to try out a recipe that looked absolutely delicious. You can see the recipe here. It had three moist layers of lemon cake, with a tangy curd in between. To cut the tartness of the curd, I decided to add whipped cream to each layer as well. Plus, who really needs an excuse to add cream to anything?! 

Triple-Cookies and Cream Layer Cake 

Filled with chocolate ganache, cream and a layer of oreos, smeared with cookie frosting 

This delicious cake was created for my brother, who absolutely loves to request different birthday treats each year. This year, I was asked to make something with oreos, which was an exciting challenge! I made this one up from scratch, and it was actually quite a success. Although very rich, it was totally delectable! And as a bonus, I even got the thumbs up from the cake connoisseur himself! This cake involved three layers of vanilla sponge, with one layer of dark chocolate ganache, and another of oreos and whipped cream. I then piped on an oreo frosting using the petal technique. I have included the recipe below. 

Vanilla Cake (this was just off taste.com)

© Melted butter, to grease

© 450g (3 cups) self-raising flour

© 150g (1 cup) plain flour

© 440g (2 cups) caster sugar

© 300g butter, cubed, at room temperature

© 310ml (1 1/4 cups) milk

© 6 eggs, at room temperature

© 3 teaspoons vanilla essence

1. Preheat oven to 140°C. Position a rack on the second lowest shelf of the oven. Brush a round 25cm (base measurement) cake pan with the melted butter to lightly grease. Line base and sides with non-stick baking paper.
2.  Place the self-raising flour, plain flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla essence in a large mixing bowl. Use an electric beater to beat on low speed for 30 seconds or until just combined. Increase the speed to high and beat for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is thick and all the butter is incorporated. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 2 1/2 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack for 2 hours or until completely cool.
4. Cut cake into 3 sections (layer 1-bottom layer), (layer 2-middle layer) & (layer 3 -top layer).

Cream Filling
© 250ml of thickened cream

© 2 tbl icing sugar

© 1 tsp vanilla essence

© 10 oreos crushed (i use a food processor to blitz them)

© 1 packet of extra oreos (not crushed)

1.       Whip cream till quite thick. Add in blitzed oreos and mix until combined.
2.       Smear half of cream mixture onto layer 1.
3.       Place extra oreos on top of cream to cover the entire surface area.
4.       Set extra cream aside.

      Chocolate ganache

       © 200 g dark chocolate 

       © 100 ml thickened cream

1. Melt chocolate in microwave.
2. Mix in cream quickly until smooth.
3. Smear onto layer 2. Top with extra cream filling.
4. Place layer 2 on top of layer 1
5. Place layer 3 on top of layer 2

Oreo frosting

© 227 g butter, softened

© 5 cups icing sugar

© 2 tsp vanilla essence

© 100 g crushed oreo

© 1/4 cup thickened cream

1.Cream butter in bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, about 3 minutes.
Slowly add icing sugar, mixing on low speed for about 2 minutes.

2. Add remaining ingredients (apart from oreos) and beat on med-high for 3-4 minutes until very fluffy.

3. Add in oreos and mix for about 30 seconds.

4. Crumb coat the cake.

5. Pipe on using this youtube clip as a guide. 

      Triple-layer Kit Kat Cake
Filled with chocolate mousse and crushed Kit Kat, with a milk chocolate ganache exterior

     

        My lovely boyfriend recently turned 22, and to celebrate this special occasion, I made him a cake! Surprise surprise! A few weeks prior, I asked him what ingredient he would like to feature in his cake. His answer was Kit Kat and cookie dough, so I began my research! After some thinking time, I decided against using cookie dough in the cake. I wasn't sure how well it would go with Kit Kat, and thought that it would just make the cake way too sweet. I decided to bake a basic vanilla cake, and filled each layer with a dark chocolate mousse and crushed Kit Kat. I coated it was a milk chocolate ganache, and to top it off, I put a 'wall' of Kit Kat around the edge of the cake. This was such a delicious creation, and it finished off what was a lovely day perfectly! (Sorry about the average photo!)

      So there you go! Three-layered cakes for three very special occasions. 

Until next time, happy baking.

        xx