It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

All my family and friends know that when Christmas comes around so do my Christmas pudding macarons. I have been making these macarons for a few years now and no matter how many I make there never seems to be enough. If you are giving these to children you can leave the brandy out of the buttercream or simply add less if you are not the biggest fan.

These make a thoughtful little gift or a perfect addition to Christmas dessert. If you give these a go, you are sure to impress!

It's your turn!

Christmas pudding macarons Italian meringue brandy buttercream
300g caster sugar
112g water
300g ground almonds
300g icing sugar
1.5 tsp ground mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
15g cocoa powder
1 tsp brown food colouring
2 x 120g egg whites (at room temperature)

Italian meringue brandy buttercream
300g caster sugar
112g water
120g egg whites
337g unsalted butter
30g brandy

Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil until it reaches 118°C. Add food colouring. 

When it is getting close to the temperature put 120g of egg whites into an electric whisker and whisk until frothy.

Once the sugar syrup has reached the right temperature add it to the egg whites in a steady stream while whisking. Continue whisking until warm, about 8 minutes.

Put the almond meal, icing sugar, cocoa powder and spices in a food processor and process to a fine powder, then sift into a large bowl.

Add the extra egg whites to the dry ingredients and then add the meringue and use a large spatula to fold them through until combined.

Continue mixing until the mixture fall of the spatula slowly.

Transfer mixture into a piping bag with a 7mm round nozzle, pipe 3cm-diameter rounds of mixture onto heavy baking-paper-lined oven trays. Set the trays aside for 30-60 minutes or until a light skin has formed and the shells are not sticky to touch.

Bake the shells in a pre-heated oven of 135°C for 15 minutes, until they have a firm outer shell.

Carefully remove shells from the tray after 2 minutes and set them aside to cool.

For the Italian meringue brandy buttercream Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil until it reaches 118°C.

When it is getting close to the temperature put 120g of egg whites into an electric whisker and whisk until frothy.

Once the sugar syrup has reached the right temperature add it to the egg whites in a steady stream while whisking. Continue whisking until warm, about 8 minutes.

Add small lumps of butter and continue mixing until the mixture becomes thick and creamy

Add the brandy and mix until combined 

Once the macarons are cool pipe a generous amount onto one macaron shell and sandwich with another.

Decorate with white chocolate and coloured gel. 

Enjoy! 

Eat sweet, be sweet :)

Recipe adapted from: http://www.craftstorming.com/

Oreo Cupcakes

Once again Tanya Burr has inspired another blog post. She recently uploaded a oreo cupcake recipe that was too good to ignore. The cupcake itself is just a basic chocolate cupcake recipe with a little hidden oreo surprise, and the frosting is a basic buttercream with crushed oreos mixed in. 

I changed the buttercream method a little bit to the way I usually make buttercream. I use an electric mixer and gradually add in the icing sugar as I find this allows the icing sugar to dissolve more and the buttercream is creamier and smoother. I also add a splash of milk to make it even more creamy and silky. 

These cupcakes were so easy and quick and really were tasty! They would be perfect for a party or just a little treat! 

It's your turn now!

Chocolate Cupcakes

175g butter

165g caster sugar

3 eggs

40g cocoa powder

125g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

12 oreos

Oreo Buttercream

100g butter

1 tbs milk

200g icing sugar

2 packs oreos

Preheat oven to 180°C and place cupcake cases into your cupcake tins.

Mix together your butter and sugar until the mixture is creamy and smooth.

Add in eggs one at a time and mix until combined.

Fold in all of your dry ingredients.

Place an oreo on the bottom of each cupcake case.

Spoon your mixture into your cupcake cases on top of the hidden oreo.

Bake the cupcakes for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through.

Set aside to cool completely.  

For the frosting beat the butter and gradually add the icing sugar until smooth.

Add the milk and continue mixing until creamy and smooth.

Crush the oreos by hand or in a blender and add to the buttercream.

Once your cupcakes have cooled pipe or spoon on your frosting and top with half an oreo.

Enjoy! 

Eat sweet, be sweet :)

Recipe from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGafUXzPBxk

Milk & Milo

This month in Taste magazine there were some amazing looking sweets as usual, but I was especially excited to try and make the milk and milo tart. I love the taste of milo like many people but I had never made a dessert using milo, so I decided to give this one a go.

The tart itself and the filling is not really a tricky task, however the process is quite lengthy due to the need for chilling the pastry, the filling and then the final tart. So this recipe does call for some time and patience but the final result is definitely worth it. If you are short of both of these things you could make the tart into little individual tarts which would minimise the chilling time of the final tarts. This milk and milo tart is sure to impress your friends and family at any event so give it a go!

It's your turn now!

Milk and Milo tart

375ml milk
50g milo
6 egg yolks
50g cornflour
2tbs caster sugar
50g milk chocolate, finely chopped
300ml thickened cream
1 1/2 tbs icing sugar mixture
Milo, extra, to serve

Chocolate pastry
225g plain flour
60g icing sugar
30g dark cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
150g unsalted butter, chilled, chopped
2 egg yolks

For the pastry, process the flour, sugar, cocoa and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add yolks and process until dough just starts to come together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until just smooth. Shape into a disk. Cover with plastic and place in fridge for 45 minutes to rest.
Roll out pastry on a sheet of baking paper to a 4mm- thick disc. Line a round 24cm fluted tart tin, with removable base, with pastry. Trim excess. Place in fridge for 1 hr to rest.
Preheat oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan forced. Line pastry with baking paper and fill with pastry weights or rice. Bake for 12 minutes, remove paper and bake for another 10-12 minutes or until cooked through and crisp. Set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, stir milk and milo in a saucepan and bring just to the boil. Stir egg yolks, cornflour and sugar in a bowl. Slowly add the hot milk mixture to the yolk mixture, stirring constantly until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until very thick and smooth. Stir in chocolate until melted. Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic. Set aside to cool for 1 hour and then chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
Whisk cream and icing sugar until firm peaks form. Use a ballon whisk to fold 2/3 cup of cream mixture through the chocolate mixture until well combined. Spread over pastry. Dollop and gently swirl remaining cream mixture over tart. Place in the fridge for 2-3 hours or until firm. Sprinkle with extra milo to serve.

Enjoy! 

Eat sweet, be sweet :)

Recipe from Taste Magazine  

White Chocolate and Pistachio Macarons

I have been making macarons for a few years now and I had never made pistachio flavoured ones before. I researched some recipes for fillings and found mostly butter-creams and I prefer filling macarons with ganache, so I adapted a few of the recipes in order to make a white chocolate and pistachio ganache.

The pistachios I used to make the ganache initially were in shells, so after shelling them the skin still remained which didn't allow the natural green colour of the pistachio to come through when made into butter to mix in the ganache. I added green food colouring to the ganache purely for presentation reasons, however it is not necessary if you don't want to.

Macarons are tricky, but with some practice you'll have the technique in no time!

It's your turn!

Italian meringue macarons

150g caster sugar

37g water

55g egg whites

1g egg white powder

150g almond meal

150 icing sugar

55g egg whites

Green food colouring 

White chocolate and pistachio ganache

400g white chocolate

200ml pouring cream 

60g pistachios, shelled 

Green food colouring (if needed) 

Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil until it reaches 118°C. Add food colouring. 

When it is getting close to the temperature put 55g of egg whites and the egg white powder into an electric whisker and whisk until frothy.

Once the sugar syrup has reached the right temperature add it to the egg whites in a steady stream while whisking. Continue whisking until warm, about 8 minutes.

Put the almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor and process to a fine powder, then sift into a large bowl.

Add the extra egg whites to the dry ingredients and then add the meringue and use a large spatula to fold them through until combined.

Continue mixing until the mixture fall of the spatula slowly.

Transfer mixture into a piping bag with a 7mm round nozzle, pipe 3cm-diameter rounds of mixture onto heavy baking-paper-lined oven trays. Set the trays aside for 30-60 minutes or until a light skin has formed and the shells are not sticky to touch.

Bake the shells in a pre-heated oven of 135°C for 15 minutes, until they have a firm outer shell.

Carefully remove shells from the tray after 2 minutes and set them aside to cool.

Place the pistachios in a food processor and grind until they form a paste. 

Place chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream and pistachio paste in a saucepan. Pour over chocolate and mix well until melted and combined. 

Allow the ganache to cool and become firm enough to pipe.

Fill a piping bag with a 1cm round nozzle with the ganache and pipe onto the flat side of half the macaron shells. Top with the remaining macaron shells. 

Enjoy! 

Eat sweet, be sweet :)

Macaron recipe from Adriano Zumbo 

Chocolate Overload

This month on the cover of Taste magazine was a decadent triple chocolate layer cake. I always like giving the cover recipe a go to enter into the 'cook the cover' competition. I'm not going to lie and say this cake is super quick and easy to make, because it took me a while and bits of it were quite tricky. However if you are patient and follow the recipe there is no doubt you will finish with an amazing looking and tasting cake.

I found the most difficult part being the twisted chocolate swirls on top of the cake. Take care and time filling the piping bag with the white and dark chocolate buttercream to ensure they don't mix together and of course practice before you pipe the swirls onto the cake.

If you give this one a go, make sure to enter it with #tastemagcover to be in with a chance to win the prize!

It's your turn!

Melt & mix triple choc layer cake

570g caster sugar
375ml milk
300g unsalted butter
95g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300g self-raising flour
75g plain flour
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Dark chocolate ganache
800g dark chocolate
500ml thickened cream
80g unsalted butter

White chocolate buttercream 
200g unsalted butter
250g icing sugar
1 tbs milk
180g white chocolate, melted, cooled

Preheat oven to 180°/ 160° fan forced. Grease and line the bases of 2 round, 19.5cmm cake pans.
Place sugar, milk and butter in a saucepan. Cook over medium- low heat, using whisk to stir mixture until smooth. Use a fine sieve to sift cocoa and bicarb over mixture. Whisk until well combined. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly for 5 minutes.
Add flours to chocolate mixture. Whisk until mixture is smooth. Whisk in eggs and vanilla until well combined.
Divide mixture among the prepared pans. Gently tap pans on a bench to release air bubbles. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

For the ganache, place the chocolate, cream and butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir for 5-8 minutes or until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Pour into a bowl. Place in the fridge for 3-4 hours or until thick and the consistency of peanut butter.

For the white buttercream, use electric beaters to beat butter in a bowl until pale and creamy. Gradually add icing sugar. Beat until combined. Beat in milk until light and creamy. Beat in white chocolate.
To make chocolate buttercream, combine 1/4 cup of the white buttercream with 1/4 cup of chocolate ganache.

Trim top of cakes to flatten. Use a serrated knife to cut cakes in half horizontally. Place 1 cake layer on a plate and spread with 1/2 cup of white buttercream. Top with 1 cake layer and spread with the chocolate buttercream. Repeat with another cake layer and white buttercream. Top with remaining cake layer.
Use electric beaters to beat dark chocolate ganache until soft peaks form (do not overbeat as it will become firm).
Quickly spread top and side of cake with some ganache.
Spoon remaining white buttercream into 1 side of a piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm fluted nozzle. Spoon remaining dark chocolate ganache into the other side of the piping bag. Pipe marbled swirls over top of the cake.    

Enjoy!
Eat sweet, be sweet :)

Recipe from: Taste Magazine 

Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tanya Burr has once again shared a delicious recipe that I had to try. These cookies are so quick, simple and tasty. The cookie recipe is just a simple base and you could choose to add anything you like to them like chocolate chips, sultanas, nuts etc.

I chose to add some dark chocolate chips but they would be great with a variety of chocolate. I made smaller sized cookies using a tablespoon of mixture which made 32 cookies in total. You have to give these a go for your next party or just for a little treat!

It's your turn!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

200g butter (softened)
300g caster sugar
1 egg
325g self raising flour

350g chocolate chips or whatever you would like to add

Preheat the oven to 180°
Beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Add egg and beat until combined.
Gradually beat in flour until combined.
Mix in chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
Roll 1tbs of dough and press lightly on tray. Repeat until all the dough is used.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Allow cookies to cool in the tray.

Note: cookies may still seem too soft after 10 minutes of baking, however they set perfectly after cooled.

Enjoy!
Eat sweet, be sweet :)

Recipe from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsUzi4x9m-E