Well hello there lovely people. Long time no speak (write???). Who knows if this will continue, missing some creativity in my life. It has been suggested to me a couple of times to get back into my blog. So here I am.
I have heaps of things that I have made over the many years it has been since I last posted here. However, I thought that I would start with something familiar, cake decorating.
It's 5 1/2 years since I move to the big city and I've been with the same company the whole time too. It's a pretty good work place. As much as I whine about my job at times (and it is stressful) but the majority of the people here are lovely. Amazingly, we have 3 of the people here turning 70 this year. One in May, one a last week and one in 2 weeks! I just told them that I was going to make the cakes without giving them any options. I still have one to go but thought that I would post the two I have already done.
The first one was our office manager. She's very much an accessories person so I decided that it needed to be the theme of the cake some how. I did consider doing the whole handbag and shoes cake but I kind of missed the boat in timing, so in the end I made a handbag topper (which was also make of cake) to go on a standard round. I was pretty happy with the whole thing however I found that the white Satin Ice fondant was a little dry and the Fondtastic black icing was a little soft. In fact the black fondant started to slip on the little handbag but most people thought it was supposed to be that way given it was sitting on the "floor". LOL, I went with it.
Our next 70th was a little bit more tricky, mainly because I really don't know what the big kahuna does outside of the office. There was a bit of investigating and checking with some of the "long termers" here (there's a lot of them) and came up with he likes to go walking/hiking. After doing a bit of googling and my own designs, I came up with a two tier cake with a walking track with boots and hiking poles. I was able to use the "chocolate stones" that I just had to have that would "come in handy one day" (and they did!). It was universally loved. The birthday boy took pictures of it himself to show his walking group. 😊
They were, of course, made with my regular chocolate cake. The hiking cake I alternated ganache and dulce du leche in the layers and coated with peanut butter buttercream. I had done a "snickers cake" for my birthday in June which was particularly successful so decided to go with that again. It was so amazingly delicious!
I have a plan for my 3 cake in a couple of weeks. That boss man isn't a big fan of chocolate cake, so will have to find a different base... maybe carrot. I'm not sure yet. Looking forward to it though.
Well, hello there. It has certainly been a while. However, here I am writing again. I haven't really got the cooking mojo thing happening again however I do have the urge to write again. I do have a massive back catalogue of stuff that I have cooked in the last year when I just didn't feel like writing. So I may get on to posting some of those. Might be a bit of a stretch to remember some of them though. Photos are great but they cannot always revive the tastes and smells of something in the distant past. I will try though.
I can't say if it was delicious magazine that lost me or if I was just so ambivalent about cooking etc that I glazed over a lot of very good recipes. I will go back and have a look at the last few months. I found last month's issue buried on my table yesterday with not even a page turned. The new issue came out today. I have dutifully bought it although that has more to do with the absolutely stunning cake on the front cover, oh and the fact that it is the 150th issue, than duty. Although there is a bit of duty to given that I have a standing order for it from my local newsagent and, well, I just haven't gotten around to cancelling it. They put a sticker with my name on it and everything so I just can't say no to that, lol. I do have one thing that I made from the April issue (I think) that I will get posted up next.
My first post in ages is inspired by my desire to share these cupcakes far and wide. It was my birthday last week. I'm not saying how old because, well, I don't want to be this old. Unfortunately, I didn't really have a choice. Let's just say it was one of those 0 birthdays... sigh. I did have a nice day. My boss & his wife took me to lunch, my grandparents came along too. I received some lovely flowers, a few lovely text messages, fabulous forum messages and facebook posts. Since there wasn't much of a celebration I decided that I would make myself some cupcakes as a "happy birthday me".
I loooooove snickers bars. I mean really. I don't buy them because if I do I inhale them. My doctor tells me it is okay to buy them occasionally and suggests eating them "mindfully". Ha ha ha ha. No, they get inhaled. I can plan the whole mindful thing up to the point where I open it and, well, the next thing I know it is gone. I've seen all sorts of recipes over the years for snickers cupcakes and they usually involve the use of the actual snickers bar in them at some point. But, yeah, that just isn't going to happen here. They would be inhaled before going any where near being chopped up or melted down for use in cupcakes. So I decided that I would use all the elements and see what came out. So what did I do. I made chocolate cupcakes, cut a hole in the centre and filled with dulce de leche, iced with peanut butter buttercream and then sprinkled with chopped nuts and grated dark chocolate. **drool**
I wasn't sure on a chocolate cupcake recipe. I sometimes use my regular cake recipe but it makes such a big mix. Anyway I googled and the top result was a taste.com.au recipe from an old Notebook magazine issue (I miss that magazine). They were really easy and quite tasty. Possibly not quite as chocolatey as I would have liked but they were a nice texture, slightly dense which was perfect for my purposes. I also liked that they weren't overly sweet since there was plenty of sweetness to come. I would definitely make these again, oh actually I already have.
Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 18 x 1/3-cup (80ml) capacity muffin pans with paper cases.
Combine
the chocolate and water in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook,
stirring, for 5 minutes or until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth.
Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Use
an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition, until
just combined. Add the flours and cocoa powder and stir until just
combined. Add the melted chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Spoon
evenly among the lined muffin pans. Bake in preheated oven for 20
minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove
from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Next was the dulce de leche. I had this in the fridge, I have had it in the fridge forever. I made it in my thermomix, ages and ages and ages ago. I was kind of surprised that it was still okay. There was a bit of crystalised sugar on top but not bad and it still tasted great. Plus, not dead so it was fine, lol. I cannibalised a few recipes online for this one. Good thing I scribbled it down as I went, I don't always do that.
Dulce de Leche
1 litre milk
100 g sugar
150 g brown sugar
300 g cream
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
Place all in the bowl, 45 - 50 minutes; Varoma; Sp 5.
Use the basket on lid for evaporation without splatter.
**Will keep forever**
(Oooh, I just looked at my flickr feed. The photo I took of the finished product was taken on 29/6/2013, so yeah 2 years. Um, how on earth did a pot of caramel last in my fridge for 2 years? It wasn't like I didn't know it was there. **startled face**)
Now, for snickers, you obviously need nuts and what better way to get that in than peanut butter buttercream. This turned out nice and creamy, not too sweet.
Peanut Butter Buttercream
165 g butter
3/4 c peanut butter
500g icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
Cream butter & peanut butter until smooth. Add icing sugar slowly. Add milk to get consistency desired.
Assembly:
Use a knife to cut a cone shape into the cupcake. Fill that with dulce de leche, pipe buttercream on and then top with grated chocolate & chopped nuts.
I don't think I will be able to catch up on posts with all the different cakes, so one post with all of them up to now.
I wish I could have found a more rounded glass for the top.
This was supposed to be sprayed with lustre spray, well it was but it splattered out instead of a fine mist. No one else knew it wasn't supposed to be like that. I was annoyed though.
Happy 2nd birthday to my little blog! I forgot the first birthday last year but I was determined not to forget this year. I am so pleased that I started up blogging. I know that did blog as much last year as I did in my first but I am hoping to do more this year. I am trying to keep on top of my diet this year. I did manage to lose 15 kg last year which I was so very pleased with but I still have plenty more weight to lose. I do refuse, however, to starve and/or seriously deprive myself. I know myself too well and know that if I do those things that I just rebel. So will I hope to have more healthy and lighter recipes on here this year there is still be some desserts and indulgent and luxurious meals too.
For a birthday you just have to have a lovely dessert and this one is a wonderful one. I had made it before about 3 or 4 years ago and just love it. I had a bbq with friends on the weekend and it was requested that I bring a dessert. Actually I am always requested to bring a dessert, lol. Not that I mind at all, I so love to make desserts. This one was a huge hit, everyone just raved about it and pretty much every one had seconds. The first time I made it I topped it with sliced mango and shaved fresh coconut. I think it was better with the strawberries, blueberries & kiwi fruit.
Coconut Tres Leches Cake
Ingredients
6 eggs, separated 3/4 cup sugar 1 cup plain flour 400 g can sweetened condensed milk 1/2 cup evaporated milk 1/2 cup coconut milk 1 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 cups cream Fruit to top (eg berries, kiwi fruit, mango, passionfruit) Shaved coconut (optional)
Method
Heat oven to 160 C (140 C fan-forced).
Grease 32 cm x 22 baking dish.
Beat yolks and sugar on high speed until pale yellow and fluffy.
Whip egg whites to peaks. With rubber spatula, stir about 1/3 of egg whites into yolks and then gently fold in remaining whites.
Sift
flour over egg mixture and using a rubber spatula to gently fold in
until there are no more white flour streaks being careful not to over
mix.
Bake until puffed and golden and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan, 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove
from oven and place pan on a wire cooling rack. With a toothpick, poke
holes all over the cake. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.
In a jug
combine the milks and vanilla and then pour mixture evenly over cake.
Continue to cool cake for another 45 more minutes and then cover tightly
with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Turn cake out onto a
serving plate, you may need to use a spatula to lift around the edges
and then tap on the bottom of the pan, it will eventually come out. (I
had the centre of the cake stick but I just lifted it out and stuck it
back in place...shhh)
Whip cream and cover cake with it then top with desired fruit and coconut, if using.
