A Farewell Feast

I should point out that I'm not 'farewelling' this blog - after less than six month's efforts! This post is about the farewell morning tea that I held a couple of months ago when I left my previous job. I'm well overdue for a post, and I've been meaning to share the shots and recipes of what I made then, so here goes!

Always trying to be classy, I designed a high-tea-like feast centred around sugar! I wanted to use my recently-aquired fondant skills and buttercream designs to get more practice and please a crowd, so I planned three cakey items: a buttercream rosette-decorated chocolate cake, a simple white choc-iced carrot cake, and rhubarb cupcakes with floral fondant decorations. For the 'extras', I had a failed attempt at macaroons (however, you may have noticed that I do not equate 'fail' to 'inedible' so I served them up as meringue bites anyway!) and made a successful batch of fig and ginger slice.

Recipe-wise, I once again leaned on the vast experience and creativity of Rosie at Sweetapolita for her delicious and attractive cakes. Her chocolate cake recipe with Swiss Meringue butter cream that I've blogged previously (and special post on making this butter cream yourself coming soon!) was three layers of decadence which I covered with rows of rosettes in graduated peach colours. For making butter cream rosettes, you need a large, 'open star' type of piping tip such as the Wilton #1M, fitted to a large piping bag. You start at the centre of the rosette and apply an even pressure to release the butter cream while moving the tip away from the centre in a tight spiral. Check out the photos below, taken by the j-amazing James for the detail...

I orientated the rosettes in each row in the opposite direction to the ones below them (i.e. I piped in the opposite direction) because I think that it emphasises the slight colour intensity change - and I like to add interest :-) To get the 'ombre' colour change, you start with a small portion of buttercream coloured as dark as you want to go, use it for the bottom row of rosettes, and with (hopefully!) the last bit of that icing, add a whole blob of uncoloured icing and mix to get your next shade lighter. 

You'd be amazed at how little coloured icing you start with for each consecutive row - colouring goes a long way! I used Wilton's gel colouring in 'creamy peach'. The lighter shades look more orange-y due to the natural yellow of NZ butter! This can be fixed a bit by using a shortening (Crisco, Kremelta, Chefade, etc) to replace some of the butter in the icing.

Cake number two was an interesting but delicious one: ginger carrot cake with white chocolate icing (also of Sweetapolita). Although it took FOREVER to cook (and even then wasn't quite done, as I found out when I cut it...), it was definitely tasty, and a nice change to raisin-and-walnut-ified carrot cake.

I wish I'd been able to take some shots of the inside of these cakes, but I was pretty busy being farewelled and all...

The macaroons, well, I'm probably not the expert on those. I had two goes, being careful with everything from ingredients to macaroonage (the technique for folding all the ingredients together), so I have no choice but to blame my tools and say that my very basic oven could not hack it. The one other time I have made macaroons they were perfect, and I wasn't nearly as careful but I DID have a fan bake oven to use at the time. Meh. People still ate them, and they were gluten-free. I used Christine's recipe from her inspiring blog, 1001 Makron - yes, that is my question in the comments for her base recipe post; it's really nice to have some interaction in the cold, hard world of blogging (hint hint!!! ;-)

These cupcakes were a bit too numerous for all the other baked goods on offer, but they were eaten up as leftovers (who knew that rhubarb was a favourite of architects!). I adapted Julie Le Clerc's vanilla cupcakes recipe by adding some rhubarb - a couple of cups, chopped and 'marinated' in castor sugar in the fridge. The icing is the simple buttercream recipe used here and the fondant flowers I covered in this post. 

I think that's all - oh wait! The ginger fig slice! I LOVE ginger slice, with a love that probably (just) tops my love of brownie. All I did was use the Edmonds Ginger Crunch recipe (which Chelsea Sugar appear to have permission to publish in that link!) and added a cup of chopped dried figs. Crystallized ginger would also go nicely in the topping. When I make ginger crunch, I at least double the topping ingredient quantities and use a good quality butter (so that it sets well), and sometimes halve the base quantities using a margarine instead (so that it doesn't set so well!). Goes nicely in a high tea set-up :-)

Mmmm... my mouth waters at the memory! When you have to say goodbye, sometimes cake is the only way to say it ;-)

By the way... you may have noticed that I've started to watermark some of my images with the blog's URL. I'm doing this in particular for the one-of-a-kind, special items that I make (not many at present, but hopefully a growing number) after reading this interesting post about copyright for images. Since my blog is being accessed around the world (hi overseas friends!) I'd love to have people come back to the source to check out where the random images spinning around the web come from. And if one day I ever want to make a dollar out of this, that's the way to play the game.

Happy baking, irrepressible ones! xo

Choccy Rocky (and Roll-y) Road

I've always been a fan of big blocks of the lolly, marshmallow and nut-studded chocolatey mess that is rocky road. Recently one of my work colleagues produced some absolutely delish rocky road that set me on a spin for the stuff. So when a noticed a supermarket flyer with a recipe for it that I'd once stuck to the fridge, the writing was on the wall... (er, close enough!)

This version took me a little by surprise - it seemed to be a (slightly) healthier take on the treat masquerading as Christmas fare. While I would scoff at such a 'calorie saver' during the silly season, for the rest of the year we don't eat silly amounts of certain foods so a less calorific option is more welcome ;-) In this recipe marshmallows stay (they are fat-free after all...), and some freshly roasted peanuts were welcome, but over-sweet chewy lollies are replaced by dried cherries. Of course, we can't do much about all the chocolate that's needed.. 

The original recipe is here along with a lovely picture demonstrating how you could package yours and give it away as gifts (some of mine went to the students in our home group who were studying hard for exams). I found that there was definitely not enough chocolate compared to the other ingredients, and I 'finished packets' of some things, so ultimately I probably increased the recipe by about a third. But who's going to complain for more and thicker slices of this treat?!?!

Rocky Road Slice

750g dark chocolate buttons (two packets - buy the cheapest kind of choc bits!)
200g dry-roasted nuts (peanuts, brazil nuts, whatever you like)
200g glace cherries, or other fruit if you prefer
200g shortbread biscuits (I used Scotch fingers)
150g mini marshmallows

Line a 20cm x 30cm pan or dish with baking paper.

Place the chocolate in a bain-marie (small metal bowl above, but not touching, a saucepan filled with a small amount of simmering water). Stir the chocolate with a fork until melted and smooth.

[A word for the wise: I took a risk and didn't bother with a small bowl above the water - and subsequently burnt the chocolate!! All was not lost - I added milk until it went smooth again but it wasn't quite the same as if I hadn't burnt it in the first place. Alternatively you can melt the chocolate in the microwave but you will have more control over it by slowly heating it over the stove.]

After burning it, the chocolate returned to a smooth consistency by adding milk

If you have raw nuts, roast them for 15 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius in single layer spread over the base of a roasting dish, stirring occasionally; cool for half an hour before using. If you are using brazil nuts, roughly chop them before placing in a large bowl. Halve the cherries (if whole) and add to the nuts. Give the shortbread biscuits a few hits with the rolling pin so they break into pieces about the size of your thumbnail (leave them in their packet or place them in a plastic zip-lock bag first). Stir the biscuit pieces and mini marshmallows in with the nuts and cherries.

Pour the melted chocolate into the bowl of ingredients. Stir gently until everything is well coated in chocolate.

Pour the rocky road mixture into the prepared pan and smooth down with the spatula. Refrigerate until set (between half an hour to an hour, depending on how much of a hurry you're in to try it!), then cut into small squares to serve.

This recipe makes 30 to 40 pieces, depending on how generous you are with your servings! Happy mid-winter Christmas, perhaps!?!

Celebrating 1,000 page-views with Instant Pudding...Biscuits??

Happy 1,000 page-views to the IBS blog!!! I still can't believe anyone bothers to read what I have to say about baking (or any topic...) but thank y'all for your kind contributions to making this 'milestone' in blogology :-) Yes, there is a counter that I see when I go behind-the-scenes and write posts, and yes, I do keep an eye on it...but a better measure of 'success' is your feedback in person (or comment!) - and it's much more encouraging, too! So feel free to drop me a line under any post, or if you're on Google + go ahead and message me (my profile is linked on the right-hand side of this page). 

Ok, that's it with the plugs, now onto the noms...

Biscuits (/cookies) as they should be: large, soft and choc chunk-filled.

Well, admittedly they can be other flavours but chocolate was all I felt like. Although I was trying to think of a post worthy of the 1,000 view mark, I couldn't get past the humble biscuit. That, and they were all I baked the entire weekend, after a not-so-subtle hint from the husband!

I looked in my trusty, 'if it can be baked it'll be in there' cook book, the NZ Rally Cook Book 2, and out popped this crazy-sounding recipe: Instant Pudding Biscuits. Because of my afore-mentioned desire not to break copyright, I trawled the internet and easily found replications of this recipe to reference. 

In the depths of the pantry I had stashed a packet of instant dessert mix for a 'rainy day'...

Chocolate was a good start, but several recipes online - including the one from the Greggs website - suggested adding things like nuts. But why add nuts when you can have more chocolate?! Although choc chips go with cookies like...well, I go with cookies, I'd run out and they tend to be at least a dollar more expensive for a smaller packet compared to baking buttons. And chopped up buttons are way more decadent, giving that bought-cookie choc-chunk texture...ooohhh I'm salivating now!!!

Add some sugar, flour and an egg, and you have instant(ish) happiness! Here's the recipe based on the one from a site claiming to speak into the quintessential Kiwi recipe...

Instant Pudding Biscuits (Cookies)

175 grams butter
1 cup sugar
1 packet instant pudding (approx. 70g)
1 & 1/2 cups plain flour
3 Tablespoons cornflour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate buttons

Cream butter and sugar until butter is pale yellow and fluffier. 

Before and after - thanks to my ninja Kenwood handbeater!

Add egg and beat until combined, then add instant pudding and beat until combined. Sift flours and baking powder into mixture and stir with a spoon until just combined. Add your chocolate chips/chunks and stir through.

It even looks like instant pud at this stage!

Roll into small teaspoon-sized balls for small biscuits or tablespoon-sized balls for larger ones, place approx. 4cm apart on lined baking trays and flatten each ball slightly with a fork.

It should be noted: when I used the recipe book, the quantity of flour was given by weight and I underestimated it, as well as the butter quantity being more. So I couldn't really roll my mixture and it was very sticky. 

Bake 190 degrees Celsius  for approximately 10 minutes (keeping an eye on the bottom tray, even switching trays in the oven when cooking timeis halfway through, to avoid burning).

This recipe makes between 30 and 50 biscuits, depending on whether you want big or small ones. An addition half a cup of flour (2 cups total) will make the mixture easier to roll, but produce more solid cookies; this recipe makes lovely soft ones that spread as far as you'll let them!

I really think chocolate is unbeatable, but admittedly the instant pudding mix doesn't make much more of a difference than some cocoa and a bit more sugar would. Tasty alternatives could include using butterscotch pudding mix with butterscotch chips (I hear they exist?!), or strawberry pudding mix with dried fruit. Enjoy!

Long Weekend Baking: Brownie Galore and Memorial Day Cupcakes

What better use for a long weekend than some time in the kitchen, baking up a storm. There are few things that make me happier! However a poorly-timed cold/flu took me down during the week so I've been trying not to go crazy with baking, let alone blogging about it. 

('Poorly-timed' because a) when is a cold ever welcome, and b) it was my BIRTHDAY, plus my parents were visiting from out of town. The cold sent my tastebuds AWOL and so I couldn't taste much of the two birthday dinners that I had :( ). 

But..............................................................................................

...would I be an 'irrepressible' baker if I could be stopped?!?!? In addition I have been reminded by a certain faithful reader (my MIL :) that I am overdue for a new post. I've been working myself up to posting about Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting/icing, but obviously I haven't reached the motivation threshold for that yet. So here's a 'filler' til then - albeit a delicious one!

While Monday (yesterday) was a holiday in NZ known as Queen's Birthday, I hear that those in the States are celebrating Memorial Day around about this time. The main reason I know this is because a friend of ours, an expat American married to a Kiwi lass, had his birthday party this weekend and it was M-Day themed. So we decked out in red, white and blue and I turned out these wee Red, White and Blue Berry Cupcakes.

I used Julie Le Clerc's delicious and super-easy Vanilla Cupcakes recipe from this post, adding about a cup and a half of mixed berries to the batter just before dividing it between cupcake cases. It gave a lovely red and blue tinge to the batter. 

The cupcake/patty pan cases were the closest I had to red, white and blue! The ones with babuska dolls I just couldn't say no to...

Although these cupcakes didn't rise as much as they would have without the addition of berries, they were beautiful and moist.

I iced them with a half-quantity of the regular buttercream (using my favourite margarine as I didn't have any butter softened at the time) from this post by filling a piping bag attached to a size #1M Wilton (large open star) piping tip, and topped with some sweets in suitable colours :)

~~~~~~~~~~ } ~ { ~~~~~~~~~~

Now for her Majesty the Queen, the very best must be presented. The obvious choice (to me) was brownie. What could be more cakey than cake, more chocolatey than chocolate, more decadent than decadence itself?!? Few things in the world can make me happier than a perfectly gooey, yet fully-cooked, fudgey bite finished with a crisp top and chewy underside. I can't imagine a heaven without brownie.

And brownie was also what I promised to make my colleagues at work for my (delayed) birthday morning tea 'shout'. I'm hoping they'll enjoy my efforts with these two amazing flavour combinations!

Bring on the brownie: Peanut Butter & Caramello Chocolate and Raspberry Dark Choc brownies

All I seem to get as gifts these days are recipe books (not that I'm complaining!), and for this birthday just gone my mum got me the fabulous Whittaker’s Passion for Chocolate recipe book. Both my sovereign-worthy brownie recipes were inspired by this fantastic publication.

NB: My conscience has recently been checked in the area of copyrighting. As a result, my general rule will be, if a recipe (that's not my own original - ha!) isn't available on the net/to the general populace by the author themselves, I shouldn't be taking the credit by putting it out there. However...if someone else has already put it there...ahem, may I present, incredibly scrumptious and drool-worthy Peanut Butter Chocolate and Caramel Brownie. 

The recipe is faithfully produced by those links belonging to the 'someone else's (not me!), but I have a few hints for making it:

1. Make sure you dissolve all the sugar in the butter and vanilla over the heat at the start, so that you don't find granules in the bottom of the cooked brownie. I did this before adding the peanut butter chocolate so that the chocolate only *just* melted and maintained its gooey peanut buttery nomminess... (sorry got carried away salivating)
2. Take the chocolate mix off the heat and let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes before adding the eggs. This is more a precautionary step that stems from a childhood nightmarish baking memory of mine, which involved eggs scrambling themselves inside cooked brownie...*shudder-worthy*
3. If you can't be bothered with (or are a little hesitant about) making your own caramel, you could do as I did and chop up a block of Caramello or other caramel-filled chocolate. I've had (other) bad baking experience where my caramel wouldn't set and my choc-caramel slice failed...so a block of Caramello gifted for my birthday by a thoughtful brother-in-law was the perfect alternative here!
4. If your oven tends to singe baked goods, make sure you put another tray or container underneath your brownie tray while it's baking to prevent the bottom from burning.

Cadbury and Whittakers, co-existing peacefully

Dark cocoa for seriously dark and decadent brownie

Someone should really stop that chocolate thief...not that I can blame her...er, them...!

All the ingredients (bar the caramel) mixed together.

Caramello dotted through the brownie batter

The delectable final product - fudgey, rich, decadent! Surely fit for a Queen :)

Brownie Number Two: Raspberry and Dark Chocolate. I've heard that this recipe is the 'best in NZ' but I shirked the 7 eggs it takes (although it probably feeds an army - let me know if you ever try it out!). So instead I tried the NZ Women's Weekly version (4 eggs) and it worked a treat :-) No shortcuts this time!

Raspberries dotted on top - attractive, healthy and oh-so-tasty!

The perfect dessert - brownie, brownie and more brownie (how could her Majesty not approve?!)

Hope you had a great long weekend and that you got some time to bake up some celebratory treats - or even to have a right royal rest! 

xo Claire

[I Can't Believe It's So Easy] Fun with Fondant Art - Floral Edition

I have much to learn. That's generally the conclusion of any PhD student, and while I don't have the stomach for such a qualification, I'm beginning to feel that way about the world of cake decorating. Thankfully, learning is rarely achieved alone, and I'm grateful to have lovely friends and inspirers to teach and encourage me along the way! This post is one of a series (of two, at least...) where I will share my recent 'I can't believe it's so easy that I can do it myself' baking discoveries. This first one details my introduction to fondant art.

Let me introduce D - she's a great gal with a lot more experience than me (zero experience prior to this post) with fondant decorations, in particular flowers. So while all I generally want to do is smear buttercream everywhere, I realised her skills would be super-handy to add appeal to any baked item!

Baking chat - the best kind! Spot the sweet rations sustaining us :)

D and I scheduled in an afternoon of fondant-garden fun for me to learn the ropes of the craft. See for yourself how it went... photo credits to the j-amazing James :D

We picked bold red, pastel yellow and green for our tiny s-petal-acular creations (har har!). D showed me how to add a few drops of gel colour to a lump of plain icing and knead it until the colour evened out. We then rolled our icing into the thinnest sheets possible, pressed in the dainty cutters, and the little shapes would fall out onto our palms.

So cute and tiny!

Poor Sad Flower - it didn't make it past the flower press...

Shaping and moulding flowers happened in the palms of our hands with some clever tools, then we plopped the little guys onto a bed of clingwrap spread over specially designed plastic trays (or ice cube trays if you've got them) to dry them out in semi-up-turned positions.

I recently learned that melted chocolate is an excellent adhesive to use for attaching fondant flowers to cakes, although you might not need one if you're sticking them to freshly-piped buttercream. Here's a rough ingredients list and a more detailed description for replicating the fondant flora that we made.

Fondant Shapes (flowers, leaves, etc)

• 50 grams of white royal icing per colour that you wish to make (we used pre-made Pettinice)
• A selection of gel colours (water-based food colourings make the fondant take longer to dry)
• Icing sugar - preferably in a shaker/sieve

Equipment: 

• a range of flower and leaf-shaped cutters in different sizes
• a smooth rolling pin
• a smooth plastic chopping board
• toothpicks
• fondant shaping tools (especially one with rounded/ball ends)
• a palette knife (optional, for scraping fondant shapes off of surfaces)
• a fine-tipped paint brush
• ice cube trays covered loosely with cling wrap

For each lump of icing that you would like in a different colour: add a few drops of gel food colouring to the lump of  royal icing and knead together until all the icing is a uniform colour (you may want to add more gel colouring for a bolder colour; and yes, it will get all over your hands...!). 

Sprinkle icing sugar onto your plastic chopping board. Using your smooth rolling pin, roll out the icing on the board until it is approximately 2mm thick. Position a fondant cutter over the icing and press it into the board. 

If you're using a leaf (or other decorative cutter) with an indentation pattern, press to indent. Drop the fondant leaf onto the cling wrap-covered ice cube tray, so that it sits above the centre of one cube hollow - it should curl slightly upwards from its centre.

If you're using a flower cutter, sprinkle icing sugar onto your palm before sliding the cutter off the board (hopefully with the fondant shape inside it!) and dropping the fondant shape onto your palm. Use the rounded end of a fondant shaping tool to smooth the petals, moving from the centre of each petal to the edge. This will take some practice until you know what sort of shape you'd like to create. 

Tools of the trade: shaping tools, fine-tipped paintbrushes and a selection of cutters.

Drop the shaped flower onto the centre of one cube hollow of the cling wrap-covered ice cube - try to ensure that the petals curl upwards. Using a paintbrush, apply a tiny amount (less than a drop) of water to the centre of the flower. Roll some of another colour of icing into tiny balls (each approximately half the size of a pin head) and drop them into the centre of the flower.

Using a toothpick, you can prick the centre of a solid-coloured centre to add texture.

The fondant shapes will dry naturally, uncovered, however they will dry faster if left in front of a fan or in an area with good ventilation. The less food colouring and water added, the faster they will dry. When dry and hardened, store in an airtight container and keep in a cool place. 

It all comes together!

Two Cupcakes For The Price of One: Chocolate Berry Cupcakes x 2

After a bit of time off work over the Easter break (largely spent without my computer!) I'm now tidying up some blogging ideas that didn't quite get polished off before the holiday. 

At one point recently I made around 200 cupcakes within one week - in fact, it felt like I did little else in that week... So here are some of the recipe ideas that inspired me for these tasty treats!

Two types of chocolate plus two types of berries equal two delicious varieties of cupcake: (Dark) Chocolate Mixed Berry Cupcakes and (White) Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes. 

The dark choc/mixed berry type were the basis for the Easter cupcakes below that I made for an after-church morning tea.

Jacquot jelly eggs and some pastel-coloured hundreds and thousands make the perfect Easter decorations

This is Annabel Langbein's recipe for One Pot Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes which is both delicious and easy, and has a decent cupcakes-per-egg ratio (my personal test for money's-worth-iness!). For variations in the past, I've added half a cup of jam to the batter, used mixed berries instead of only raspberries, and used coconut milk to make up some of the yoghurt/buttermilk. It's quite important to let the mixture stand for a few minutes before filling the paper cases if it's runny, as this helps it to thicken. The cream cheese in the icing MUST be full-fat (see Baking flail post to demonstrate why...) and doesn't set particularly well so make sure you can keep them refrigerated and transport them in trays without stacking. 

The white choc/raspberry cupcakes were the personal favourite of a bride-to-be friend, and served as birthday cake at her combined hen's do and birthday party. White choc ganache swirls on top look and taste great!

The recipe for the white choc/raspberry cupcakes was Cravin Cake's recipe for White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with White Chocolate Ganache. It's actually a white choc mud cake recipe - soooooo decadent but sooooo good!!! You have to fill the paper cases quite full because the cupcakes don't rise very much while cooking. You might see that I mixed the berries into the batter so that they were berry nice... ;-)

Two types of choc, two types of berry, two delicious cupcakes - tried and tested by yours truly! 

And that's your inspiration-station for a cupcake nation ;-) 

(don't worry, I'll stick to my day job and NOT become a poet!)

Delicious girly brunching fun!