Carrot and Orange Cupcakes

And so the baking begins... More thesis writing means more baking! This time, carrot and orange cupcakes from a little cheapie I picked up in a Myer sale.


Ingredients:
115 g butter, softened
115 g light brown sugar
juice and rind of 1 small orange
2 large eggs, beaten
175 g carrots, grated
25 g walnuts, chopped (I doubled this)
125 g plain flour
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Beat the butter, sugar and orange rind until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Squeeze any excess liquid from the carrots and add to the mixture with the walnuts and orange juice. Mix well. Sift in the flour, mixed spice and baking powder then fold into the mixture. Spoon the mixture into 12 paper cases. Bake at 180 degreesC for 25 minutes.


For the icing:
280 g mascarpone cheese
4 tbsp icing sugar
grated rind of 1 large orange

Beat all the ingredients until well mixed. Spread icing on cold cupcakes.

These cupcakes are a little on the small side but deliciously moist and the creamy icing is divine!

Mango Bread

Having gotten the idea in my head to make mango bread, I hunted down a recipe from the interweb and found one on the ABC website. I used slightly more than one cup of mango puree and also drained it somewhat as the mangoes were really juicy and I didn't want the bread to end up soggy. I also left out the sultanas.

The result was a deliciously moist and springy bread with a subtle mango flavour. Next time, I probably would add a bit more mango to boost the flavour and maybe add some passionfruit as the two go so well together!

Bread Bake-a-thon

Our friend Patrick has recently gotten himself hooked on bread making. So much so that he invited me over for a bit of bread making 101. The thing is, I've always been a bit scared of making bread. I mean, yeast is alive! True, I play around with bacteria all day but cooking with yeast is an entirely different story! So after several hours of kneading, rising and baking, this is what we ended up with:

Bread #1: Flax Seed Wheat Bread (2 loaves)
This first one was quite easy and a good one to start off with. It basically required all the ingredients to be mixed together without too much kneading. We used slightly more water than stated in the recipe and the loaves turned out beautifully! The bread was surprisingly fluffy, despite the fact that the loaves didn't rise very much.


Bread #2: Pain de Provence (1 loaf)
The second bread was absolutely delish! It was essentially a crusty herb bread (we used rosemary and oregano) that was deliciously fragrant on its own or in a sandwich.



Bread #3: Mixed berry cream cheese braid (4 braids)
This last one was the most fun to make. The original recipe used blueberries but we replaced them with mixed berries. The bread had a subtle sweetness that contrasted well with the tartness of the berries and cream cheese. The best part about this one is that we can play around with the fillings now that we know the basic recipe works so well. Hmm... the possibilities...



We also planned to make banana bread (and a mango version because I don't eat banana) but we ran out of time because of dinner plans. Saving it for next time! Looks like I got over my fear of break making though! :)

Devil's Food Cupcakes

Another goodie from the cupcake bible... despite the name, these are actually quite light and fluffy and incredibly rich. Also wanted to try out a new product I found at the supermarket this week - Multix disposable piping bags and nozzles. No washing up - woohoo!!


For the cupcakes:
225 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
225 g light brown sugar - I used 200 g but you can probably get away with 180 g as they are quite sweet
225 g unsalted butter, softened - I used 200 g
2 eggs, separated
100 g dark chocolate, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence
115 ml milk

Sift flour and baking powder and set aside. Cream the sugar and butter then add egg yolks and beat well. Add melted chocolate and vanilla and mix. Add the flour and milk alternately, beating after each addition. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form and gently fold into the batter. Divide into 18 paper cases and bake at 170 degrees C for 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto rack to cool completely.


For the icing:
115 g unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp milk
115 g dark chocolate, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence
90 g icing sugar, sifted

Cream the butter, add milk and beat until smooth. Stir in chocolate and vanilla. Beat in the icing sugar until thick and creamy. Spread over cupcakes. Being a noob at cake decorating, I road tested the piping bag with just a few blobs :).

Chocolate Creme Brulee and Cherry Friand Slice

Two seemingly unrelated desserts but it will make sense...

This is an incredibly easy recipe for creme brulee (chocolate is optional):


Whisk together 2 cups of cream, 5 egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tbsp vanilla essence. Divide into ramekins and place in baking tray filled halfway with hot water. Bake at 180 degrees C for 45 min-1 h until set. Chill in fridge overnight. To serve, sprinkle with sugar and caramelise with blowtorch for a sugary crust.

For a chocolate version, heat chocolate and cream over a double bioler until melted then mix in other ingredients when chocolate/cream has cooled a bit.

So this brings me to the second part... what to do with all the egg whites after you've used the yolks for the creme brulee? Friands! Or this slice version (from AWW cakes biscuits and slices)...


Mix together 4 egg whites (1 left over!), 100 g melted butter, 1 tbsp milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence, 1 cup almond meal, 1 cup icing sugar (sifted), 1/3 cup self-raising flour (sifted) and the seeds from 1 vanilla bean until combined. Pour mixture into slice pan and sprinkle with 100 g frozen cherries, roughly chopped. Bake at 170 degrees C for 30 minutes. Serve dusted with icing sugar.

Of course you can freeze the egg whites for later but where's the fun in that?

Peanut Butter and Choc Chip Cupcakes

One of the recipes from the 500 cupcakes cookbook (of course). The original recipe was for peanut butter cupcakes and this was one of the variations - like I've said, can't really go wrong with chocolate. Although from the looks of the split open cupcake, there doesn't seem to be enough! :O


Used one of the nozzles from the cookie gun set to pipe the icing - soo much fun! And easy too!

Roast Pumpkin, Onion and Feta Tarts

Found this recipe in the cafe food book that came with this months Delicious magazine. Being a huge fan of pumpkin, I'm always willing to try out new pumpkin recipes.

To start off, pumpkin and onion was roasted with some thyme, cumin and olive oil. The tart shells were made from puff pastry baked in a muffin tray until puffed and golden. The tart shells were filled with the roasted pumpkin and onion and some feta cubes. A mixture of egg, cream and chives was added to the tarts and baked until the egg was set.


The pastry stuck to the tray a bit (arrghh!) but the rest was ok. The tarts were served with tomato chutney and a side salad.

Chocolate Jaffa Tart

What to do on a rainy afternoon when work does not look appealing? :)

Flipping through my Wicked Sweet Indulgences cookbook, this chocolate jaffa tart recipe caught my eye. Looked easy enough and you really can't go wrong with chocolate, cream, sugar and eggs.


A bit of mess later, I had a rich chocolatey tart finished off with a silky ganache layer. Definitely one I'd make again.

Bacon Muffins

Who says you need a reason to bake? :)

Choc-Cherry Mud Muffins

Just had to use up some frozen cherries left in the freezer so I made these...


Chocolately... muddy... muffiney...Hmm...

My New Kitchen Gadget: Cookie Press and Icing Set

Having an appreciation for food means that I'm an obvious candidate for receiving food-related gifts for Christmas. Last year I got an Avanti cookie press and icing set from my Secret Santa and it has been sitting in my kitchen cupboard until last weekend when I decided to give it a test run.

The set includes a piping gun and a plethora of attachments for piping icing and making different cookie shapes - very swish!



Following the recipe included in the set, I made half a batch of buttery cookie dough which was used to fill the piping gun. Using several different cookie moulds, bits of shapely cookie dough were ejected onto baking paper for baking. This was incredibly fun to do.


The result: perfectly shaped cookies (that are even better dipped in chocolate).