As I’ve mentioned before, summer and I are not friends. I don’t like heat, humidity, flies, insects, sweating. Obviously I shouldn’t be living in steamy Sydney but here I am. And as much as I adore baking it is sometimes just too damn hot to turn the oven.
That’s where this beauty of a dessert comes in. I found the recipe in a back issue of the wonderful delicious magazine and had, serendipitously, made meringues a few days earlier. Continue reading
So the internet is awash with chocolate cake recipes. Dark chocolate cake. Flourless chocolate cake. Fudgy chocolate cake. Full fat with whipped cream chocolate cake. Low fat chocolate cakes. Mud cake. Chocolate and fruit/nuts/booze/ cake.
In my time I have baked and eaten many, many chocolate cakes. Many are not worthy of the time or calories. Often they are insipid. Or dry. Or forgettable.
This is the chocolate cake that you have been waiting for.
I am utterly enamoured with my mini donut baking pan. The holes are teeny tiny, resulting in a fairy-sized morsel that it irresistible. Whenever the baking urge strikes I often start with the pan and work backwards, searching for a worthy recipe. I have now found my ‘go to’ recipe for mini chocolate donuts, thanks to the lovely blog mysanfranciscokitchen.com
Going through my stats recently it occurred to me that you all love Donna Hay. This makes me incredibly happy because – as you may have guessed – I too love Donna. I have mentioned it many MANY times here before so it is wonderful to see that we are in simpatico 🙂 Continue reading
With a glut of lemons beckoning from our oft-neglected but much loved lemon tree it was time to get baking. Lemon shortbread. Lemon and yogurt loaf. And this delicious cake that will make your mouth sing of all the pretty things. I discovered this recipe on the BBC site, which I find to be a wonderful resource when baking. It is from Paul Hollywood, who is quite the hero baker in his native Britain. I tweaked it a bit, switching his plain flour/ baking powder mix for straight self-raising flour and reducing the sugar. Considering the cake is finished with two different types of sugar I would even suggest minimising the amount of sugar in the recipe proper if your tooth isn’t overly sweet. Continue reading
How much squee can one dessert hold? While scientists furiously debate the matter I’ll make a punt on saying – lots. I made these oh-so-adorable desserts at a recent family gathering, where I did my usual over-the-top baking trick.
I just couldn’t resist this treat – it was so fun and as it was quick to make [using my pastry cheat] I could dedicate my time to the [many] other bakes I was presenting.
Anything on sticks has instant appeal but these little pies would be perfect presented sans stick. They are the perfect little size for a high tea or even a lunch box treat.
I bought mini paddle pop sticks for this as I had my doubts about putting plastic lollypop sticks in the oven.
I was inspired by this recipe from http://www.cookingchanneltv.com but I cheated all the way. I used frozen shortcrust pastry (home-made pastry would inevitably taste better but to quote that hilarious meme, ain’t nobody got time for that) and shop-bought jam instead of all the from scratch options.
Gather:
2 sheets thawed sweet-crust pastry sheets
Favourite jam / preserves [I used berry]
Caster sugar
Let’s get to it:
Preheat oven to 180C and line two baking sheets with non-stick baking paper.
Use a hear-shaped biscuit / cookie cutter to cut out small hearts. Place half on the baking tray.
Place a small dollop of jam into the centre of each half – do not overfill if they will explode during baking.
Place a stick into each pop then place another heart on top. Use fork to firmly press done edges, then sprinkle with caster sugar.
Bake for 11-18 minutes, depending on the size of your hearts. Allow cooling before serving.
PS – these kept for quite a few days in a sealed contained in a dark, cool place.
This is the ultimate after diner treat for those who live by the credo that there’s no such thing as too sweet.
I love Donna Hay, I love her recipes and I especially love her dessert and baked recipes. They are doable and punch way above their weight in terms of effort versus result. Continue reading
Here’s a fun fact: I dislike cucumbers but love pickles. In sorta the same vein I dislike fresh cherries but love Cherry Ripes. I’m not a massive chocolate fan [it was a different story when I was a teen] but when the choc urge strikes it just HAS to be a Cherry Ripe. The makers occasionally taunt me with a ‘limited edition’ extra dark chocolate version of Cherry Ripe but once they have been discontinued I go into mourning. Every time I’m in a $2 shop I greedily search out any left-over stock but it often amounts to disappointment and heart-break.
When I found a recipe for this easy slice that contained many of the ingredients of a Cherry Ripe I was hooked. You can find it in Family Circle’s Biscuits and Slices book, which is an oldie but a goody. This is ideal for a morning tea as it can thrown together easily and you’re likely to have most [if not all] of the ingredients in your pantry. Switch the dark chocolate for milk or even white if you like – feel free to be a rebel and mix it up. As is my wont I reduced the amount of sugar and changed a few others things too.
GATHER:
base
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/3 cup sugar
125g butter, melted
50g dark chocolate
topping
1 cup glace cherries, finely snipped
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup shredded coconut
½ cup chopped almonds [the original used pecans]
2 lightly beaten eggs
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 30cmx25cmx2cm shallow tin.
Place flour, coconut and sugar in a bowl and mix, then add butter and stir to combine.
Place batter in tin evenly.
Make topping by mixing cherries, brown sugar, coconut and almonds in a bowl. Add eggs and combine then spread evenly over batter in tin.
Bake for 8-ish minutes or until top is pale gold.
Allow to cool in tin completely.
Meanwhile melt chocolate, then place in zip lock bag, cut off corner and drizzle over the top.
Cut into squares after chocolate has hardened.
You guys, I bought a whoopie pie pan! I swore I wouldn’t coz my baking paraphernalia has taken over the kitchen. When we visited San Fran last year we went to my mecca – the three-storey Williams-Sonoma kitchenware store. I went twice in two days and lugged soooo much stuff back to Sydney [via Hawaii – my poor suitcases] but decided against buying the whoopie pie pan. Continue reading
the hungry mum 