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

Sixty Amazing Years.

It has been a massive week in baking for me!

On Saturday, my family and I celebrated my Nan and Pop's 60th Wedding Anniversary. We hosted an afternoon tea at our place, which meant I got to bake...a lot!

After looking at various caterers, I put my hand up to make their cake. I wanted to make something super special for these two amazing people, and it gave me an excuse to try out some new techniques and ideas!

I decided on a three-tiered cake, and after much planning and research, I had the perfect cake in mind!

So...the baking began!

Two days prior to the party, I dedicated a whole day to baking the three cakes. One oven + three cakes = a whole lot of waiting around! I made a dark chocolate mud cake for the bottom layer, a vanilla cake for the middle and a lemon cake as the top tier.

I chose to place the mud cake on the bottom of the stack to ensure that the rest of the cake was supported. Mud cake is ultra dense, resulting in a strong base which won't crumble under any pressure.

The next day, I made the fillings and assembled the cake.

© For the mud cake, raspberry jam and white chocolate ganache were the chosen fillings.
© For the vanilla cake, I whipped up some mocha frosting and dark chocolate ganache.

© Finally, the lemon cake was filled with lemon curd and white chocolate ganache.

I chose these as they didn't require refrigeration, as there was definitely going to be no room for a cake the size of this one!

After assembling the cake, I crumb coated it. Crumb coating is basically a thin, rough coating of frosting. This ensures that the crumbs don't come through and make the outer layer of icing look messy.

I then did some rosette piping around the bottom and top layer, leaving the middle tier plain. This gave some definition to the cake, rather than having it look like a big, clumpy pile of roses.

To finish the cake off, I sprayed it with Wilton Pearl Colour Mist. This gave the cake a really special, glamorous look!

Overall, I was super happy with how the cake turned out. My Nan and Pop loved it, and it made the day extra special!

Keep an eye out for some other delicious sweet treats I made for the day in the coming weeks!

Until next time, happy baking.

xx

The Last Five Months in Baking.

I have been SO slack!!

My last post was over 5 months ago, and I feel terrible for that! Life has been pretty busy lately, finishing my second last semester of Uni forever! 

However, I am back to write a small post about some of the sweet treats I have baked lately. 

Mini Blueberry Pies

As some of you may know, I adore blueberries! So after a trip to the blueberry farm, I dedicated much of my cooking to these little beauties!! These pies had a crisp, shortcut pastry, and a delicious cinnamon filling. Perfect for a cold, wintry day!  

Vanilla Cupcake with a Caramel Centre and Salted-Chocolate Frosting

In the middle of my busy uni semester, I found the perfect time to procrastinate, and make these super sweet but super tasty treats! Rather than following a recipe, I made it up as I went! The salted-chocolate frosting balanced out the sweetness of the caramel, and was pretty delectable! 

Rosette Piping

I purchased a rose tip a few weeks ago, and have since become obsessed with the product! I absolutely love the look of rosette piping, as it makes everything look so pretty! 

Eton Mess

My Dad requested something 'lemony' for his birthday dessert, and I was so excited to come up with something a little bit different! Mini meringues, lemon curd, vanilla bean cream, ice cream and bits of homegrown strawberries created a taste sensation! Plus, presentation is so much easier when you can be messy! 

Mini Lamingtons

Never again do I want to attempt these! Whilst they were completely and utterly delicious,  the sheer pain of dipping and coating the cake in chocolate mixture and coconut is something which I have learnt to hate! 

Raspberry and Custard Tarts

These little treats were the perfect finish to a summer's picnic in the park! Together with a shortcrust pastry, the vanilla bean custard and tangy raspberries created a simple yet tasty dessert! 

Vanilla Bean Macarons with Nutella and White Chocolate Ganache 

I was approached by a lovely lady asking me to make black and white macarons for a kitchen tea party. Whilst at first I  was apprehensive, as I still lacked confidence when making macarons, I took on the challenge. My first batch were a mega failure! They looked like they belonged on the moon. My struggle came from the fact that they had to be black, and too much food colouring in macaron mixture leads to...well...let's just say...extremely unattractive macarons. However, after substituting colouring for some black gel, they turned out exactly as planned. These are my proudest moment to date in my baking journey!

Mini Lemon Meringue Pies

These last few months have been jam packed full of weddings/wedding related events, which in turn results in me baking...a lot! These scrummy treats were for a very special couple's engagement party, and were a very big hit! Due to their tiny, bite-sized nature, they were the ideal snack for an afternoon tea party. And for me, they were simply an excuse to use my new blowtorch..which by the way, is SO much fun to use! 

Mini Banoffee Tarts

Yes...there is a pattern emerging here. I love making 'mini' things. They look nicer and are much easier to eat, resulting in much less wastage. Every month, myself and the girls meet up at someones house for a night of talk and super sweet treats. When hosting, I created a miniature version of a banoffee pie. This is a recipe I hold close to my heart, as it was one of the first desserts I learnt to make from my beautiful Aunty. One issue I come across when making this is that the bananas go brown. I hate brown banana. So, to avoid this, i decided to slice up the banana, and coat it in dark chocolate. The girls were intrigued, and they looked pretty cute too! 

Vanilla Slice

My family love custard, so this was a bit of a no-brainer when we had a ton of eggs to use. I was actually pretty impressed at how well this particular custard set, as generally it will ooze out the sides and look prettttttty unattractive! 

Chocolate Meringue Mousse Cake

 This cake fascinates me. Whilst there are technically only two layers to this cake, upon baking it, three layers are created. A rich, dense mud cake at the bottom, a moussey layer in the middle, and a crisp meringue on top. At Easter, I make nothing other than chocolate desserts, so when I saw this gracing the cover of Donna Hay's Autumn magazine, I could not resist. Neither could each of our guests upon it's presentation at the table! 

Ok, so that ended up being a lot longer than I first thought. I guess I have actually missed writing about my baking!

Next week I will be attempting a three-tiered cake for my Nan and Pop's 60th Wedding Anniversary. Wish me luck!  

Stay tuned for a post in the coming weeks about that cake, as well as a few other layered cakes I have made lately!

Until next time, happy baking.

xx

Blueberry, Watermelon, Lime & Strawberry Icy Poles.

So it's summertime, which means one thing - frozen treats!

Last year for Christmas I was given a zoku icy pole maker. All you do is pour your mixture into the contraption and voila! Your icy poles are frozen in about 5 minutes! This makes the whole process so much easier as you don't have to wait agesss for them to set! Which means you can eat them practically straight away! Yay!

I like experimenting with different flavours when making icy poles. The options are limitless, making it all the more fun! After looking in various magazines (yes, Donna Hay), I came up with....blueberry watermelon, lime and strawberry icy poles!

Now blueberries don't have a lot of flavour when they are uncooked, so I decided to boil a cup full of them, with a cup  of water and about half a cup of sugar until they were a thickish, purple consistency. I then allowed the mixture to cool.

I chopped up about 4 large pieces of watermelon and 6 strawberries, and placed them and the juice of half a lime in the blender. I added the blueberry and blitzed it until it was smooth! The mixture was then poured into my zoku icy pole maker, and let them freeze.

They were so delish, and are the perfect guilt-free treat for a hot summers day!

Until next time, happy baking.

xx

My Christmas Table.

This is just a quick little post to share with you some piccies of my Christmas table! As I mentioned earlier, it is my job to plan and decorate the table. Every year I try to do something different, making it a bit more special for my family.

After being inspired again by Donna Hay (surprise, surprise), I knew that I wanted to do a gingerbread table. Because of this, I decided to have a natural theme with a touch of red for festivity!

I used my little gingerbread village as the centrepiece, and arranged white flowers in small milk bottles along the table. Tea light candles were scattered in between to add a little extra light, and stripy red straws added a hint of colour to the table.

On each plate setting, I tied gingerbread tags to white serviettes with twine, so that each guest had a place on the table. In their water glasses, I sat a chocolate spoon (I made these days earlier), which they nibbled on during the day. 

All in all, I was super happy with how the table turned out. Everyone appreciated my efforts, making it completely worth it!

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas!

Until next time, happy baking.

xx

Lolly Baskets.

I mentioned in a previous post that I love Christmas baking, and as some of you may be aware, last year, I made biscuit boxes for close family and friends. Whilst I vowed to never do them again, as they took me forever, I decided to make something a bit different for my loved ones...lolly baskets! Once again, I was completely inspired by a feature spread in Donna Hay's Christmas edition, where she suggested making lollies, a concept I fell completely in love with.

I began thinking about the different sweets I could make, and this is what I arrived at: 

© Honeycomb

© Cherry ripe bites

© Rocky road

© Chewy peanut caramels

© Fruit jubes

Besides rocky road, I had never attempted any of these sweets, so it's safe to say that I was a little nervous about giving them a go! I purchased a candy thermometer to make my job a bit easier (which in the end was a complete failure), and off I went! 

I began with the honeycomb, as this would stay fresh for the longest. In reality, this should be easy. But when my thermometer failed to read the temperature correctly due to the fact that it relied on being completely submersed in mixture, I was in trouble. I had to use my gut instinct to determine when to take the honeycomb mixture off the heat, and thankfully, I was spot on! The honeycomb turned out perfectly, and was likened to Crunchies (a Cadbury honeycomb treat) by both my parents! Tick!!

I went on to make the jubes, which were no hassle at all. I made both orange jubes and raspberry and blackcurrant jubes, modifying the base recipe with different fruit juices and flavourings. They were easy to cut, and looked pretty cute upon completion!

The rocky road is pretty self-explanatory. Chocolate, peanuts, marshmallows, but with the special addition of lolly snakes. I had never really considered adding in different things into the mixture, but after making rocky road with my aunty, I now do it all the time! I have just made another batch and added in sweet biscuits to the recipe, and I must say, it tastes pretty darn good!

Now, we come to the problematic lolly...the caramel peanut chews. Once again, this recipe relied on using a thermometer...awesome. I made this treat in 2 separate batches, as my pot kept overflowing when the mixture would boil up. This was the first annoying thing. The second was that I had no idea when the temperature had reached 124°C. I tried holding the thermometer in side ways to get a more accurate reading, but after several burns, I gave up on using it. Once again, I was left to my own devices. After some time, I decided to take the first pot of caramel off the heat. It began to set well, so I was happy. The second batch was a different story. Rather than being chewy, it ended up being grainy and a fudge-like consistency...oops!

The last sweet treat I decided to create were cherry ripe bites...so basically, these are baby cherry ripe balls. This entails chopping up glacé cherries, and mixing it with condensed milk, coconut and red food colouring. You roll it up into balls, and coat in dark chocolate...easy peasy!

I packaged up the lollies in jars, brown paper and cute white doilies, and assembled them in baskets. To give them an extra special touch, I baked some gingerbread tags and piped the initials of the recipients on them. All in all, I was pretty happy with how they turned out, and everyone was really chuffed with my efforts.

So there we go! A cute little gift that any one can make, and that everyone will certainly appreciate!

Until next time, happy baking.

xx