Caramelised Pear and Whipped Cream Sponge Cake

It was a big weekend of baking last weekend and it was topped off with an extra special cake for my dad for his birthday dinner on Sunday night ... a Caramelised Pear and Whipped Cream Sponge Cake.

We had a family dinner and polished off about a quarter of this cake and 24 hours later it was all gone.  Apparently I can make this one again!

And maybe a Rose on top .......

So my lovely friend Jane asked me to make a 30th Birthday cake for one of her lovely friends.

The brief for the cake was coffee and creamy.  I haven't made a coffee cake before but I did some experimentation and and found a cake recipe that I flavored with several shots of coffee, and it tasted great.  I decided for the creamy part I would put a layer of Bailey's mousse through the middle.  I have never added a mousse layer to a cake before but again, good old google came through with the goods, and it all seemed very easy.  So, I thought, no problem I am all sorted: bake Thursday night, ice Friday and decorate Saturday morning.

That was until, those fateful words .....".. and maybe a rose on top...." were spoken.

I was doing a final confirmation about the details of the cake on Tuesday afternoon with Jane, and I casually asked if there was anything in particular that she might want on the cake for decoration.  The first response I got was : "chocolate covered coffee beans" but then .. "and maybe a Rose on top.....they are her favorite flower".  And how could I not make Jane's lovely friend a Rose - it is her 30th birthday!!

Small issue through ... a rose is not created in a day! I am sure that most people don't know how long it takes to make a petal paste rose, and I wouldn't expect you to, but let me tell you with drying time it can easily take a week, and much longer if the weather is against you!

So pulling out all the tricks of the trade I pulled together one rose for the top of my Chocolate and Coffee Ganache Covered Bailey's Mousse Cake ... hope it tastes as good as it sounds!

Food Glorious Food

I absolutely promise that I am not going to turn into one of those people who take photos of their food!! But I just had to share this!!

This was the Easter brunch that we went to.  Clearly there were other things other than desserts, however they were the only thing I was interested in! I have been absolutely inspired to try create some of these beautiful things when we get home!!

 

Jane's Cake

My wonderful friend Jane is leaving me.

She is not going far, but I won't get to spend hours of my work day chatting, gossiping and of course eating chocolate...

It is a sad day.

However to celebrate that she has a wonderful new job AND that she is not going far! we had cake.

This cake was a Jane special and as such looked great on the outside but it was the inside where the party was.

I made a layer cake inspired by the talented I am baker.

The cake had four layers:
Layer 1: Milky Way cake
Layer 2: Oreo crust
Layer 3: White chocolate cheese cake
Layer 4: Dark chocolate mud cake
All covered in a layer of Chocolate Ganache and then a layer of Butter Cream then covered with more Chocolate Ganache for decoration.

It did taste good and as the wonderful J didn't get to taste this one - I will be making another...

A sad day - but a great day for cake! 

Movember

I would like to start out by stating that I strongly support Movember.

 

I also strongly support the wonderful J in all that he would like to achieve.

What I am not so keen on is: that for the month of November I am married to someone who would be quite at home in a 70’s porn video! 

However leaving my reservations aside, in honour of the wonderful J starting his Movember quest I baked him some chocolate/hazelnut and lemon/coconut cupcakes with cream-cheese icing to take to work.

They were a hit and he is now on his way to raising some money for this fantastic cause. If you would like to sponsor him in this quest you can do so here – Thanks in advance!   

Also.

You would have noticed (if you have been following along for awhile!), that my work colleagues tend to be Guinea pigs for some of my cooking.  I had promised them awhile ago that I would take some cupcakes into work – my work colleagues have memories like elephants and as such kept reminding me about my promise! 

Now everyone is happy ..... at least for a little while!

Chocolate and Hazelnut Tarts

I finally got around to typing up the recipe for the Chocolate and Hazelnut Tart that I made for my Dinner Party a few weeks ago!   So here it is (sorry have no idea of the source of the original recipe!):

  

Chocolate and Hazelnut Tarts

Preparation time: 25 Minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes plus 50 minutes refrigeration

Tart bases:

Butter for greasing

200g hazelnut meal

125g dark chocolate

60g butter  

Filling:

25g dark or milk chocolate

100g butter

3 eggs (separated)

2 tbsp caster sugar

Tart bases:

Use butter to grease the bottom of the tart tin (you will need to use one that has a loose base).

Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over simmering water – cool slightly before adding the butter and hazelnut meal and stirring to combine.  Allow mixture to cool sufficiently so mixture can be spooned into the tart tin to line the edges and base.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until mixture is firm.

Filling:

Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water, using a metal spoon stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes before adding egg yolks and combining with a metal spoon.

In a separate bowl beat egg whites until soft peak, add sugar and continue beating until sugar has dissolved.  Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and let mixture stand for 5 minutes.

Spoon mixture into the tart bases and refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow to set.

Decorate with Strawberry’s or berries and serve with cream.

Note: This recipe is great to use for little individual tarts as well, however it is very rich, so remember for portioning: a little goes a long way!

Enjoy!

Dinner Party

Last night I had the pleasure of hosting a small dinner party with some of the wonderful women I work with.

The idea is that once a month each of us would take a turn to host a dinner.  This was meant to inspire us to cook things we had been wanting to try, as well as give others an opportunity to get some good recipe's; not to mention have some laughs!

So at 7pm on a rather wet and windy night they arrived bearing gifts of wine and flowers and we kick started what we hope will be a monthly catch up.

As I had Wednesday off work I was able to do nearly all the major cooking and preparation the day before, hence making it possible to get a three course meal to the table between arriving home from work at 5.30 and having guests arrive at 7pm!

For Entree I baked a Simple Leek and Ricotta Tart from Donna Hay's book Instant Entertaining.  These are such simple things, but a very yummy!

For Main Meal I cooked Lamb Tagine with Dates from my World Kitchen Morocco book.  This was a lovely wedding gift from one of the wonderful J's friends and we actually use if quite often.

Not to mention we were given this beautiful Targin from my lovely Auntie J and Uncle B as a wedding gift as well, so we try to use it as much as we can! 

As usual I used the recipe in the book as inspiration and as such my version was slightly different and had a few things added - but it looked the same and tasted fantastic!

For desert I made a Chocolate and Hazelnut Tart topped with fresh Strawberry's:

This is actually a very simple recipe and doesn't take long to whip up; it looks much more complex than it is!

I have promised to pass on the recipe so I will type it up post on here as soon as I can (it is currently handwritten in my recipe book and I have no idea where it came from originally!).

I had an absolutely wonderful night and haven't laughed so much in ages.  I am so looking forward to the next one!

Muffin Making

My lovely mother gave us some stewed Rhubarb a few months ago. It sat in the freezer for awhile as I couldn't think of anything inspired to do with it, and it turns out that J is actually not a fan of Rhubarb (who knew!?).

Anyway J was out for the day and I decided to make some Rhubarb muffins as I felt like a 'muffin still warm from the oven' was just the thing for a chilly Autumn morning.

I used this basic muffin recipe on that I found by googling and just added Rhubarb and lashings of Brown Sugar to the top (to counteract that sour factor!). 

The muffins came out beautifully and inspired me to grab the camera.....  

      

(The cake stand was a wedding present from my lovely cousin and her husband - I love it!)

Anzac Day

A few weeks ago it was Anzac Day and in deference to this important day, I thought it was appropriate to make some Anzac biscuits. 

I very unwisely (in hindsight) used a recipe off the back of a real estate letterbox drop. As such the biscuits themselves were more like rock cakes (so I won’t be sharing the recipe!) but they still had a really nice flavour.    

They were perfect for my visitors that dropped in throughout the day for coffee.