Tag Archives: Cake

Carrot Cupcakes

24 Nov

Multicultural Inspiration from…

the world of baking!

It’s been a long few months. I’ve been adjusting to my new job and a new lifestyle, as well as working hard to get fit again and lose some weight (successful on all accounts to far…), and by my side through it all has been my very fantastic husband. He’s been there by my side, patient as ever, while I get used to all of these big changes, so I decided a thank you cake was in order. His favourite cake, carrot cake, really never makes much of an appearance in our house, because I’m just not really a fan. I don’t like the spices so much in it, so I don’t really make Sous-Jeff’s favourite cake; I generally go for the mutual favourites, like chocolate cakes, cookies, and what not. But I decided it was about time I got into the kitchen and created one of Sous-Jeff’s favourites to say thank you :) I very loosely based my mini carrot cakes on this recipe for carrot and sunflower seed muffins from Taste.com, but I did change a lot to make it a cake I knew Sous-Jeff would love.

My version of these little cakes requires…

  • 3 eggs
  • 120g tub of apple puree
  • 125ml buttermilk
  • 70g brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp peanut oil
  • 150g finely grated carrot
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1 cup toasted, chopped walnuts
  • 1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind
  • 1 tbsp finely grated orange rind
  • 3/4 cup sultanas
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped dried apples
  • 265g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp mixed spice

First up, preheat the oven to 180°C, and line two 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake cases. Then prepare all of your other ingredients – toast the walnuts, grate the carrots and lemon and orange rind.

In a large bowl, place the eggs, sugar, apple puree, oil and milk. Whisk together until it looks something like this:

Sift the flour, baking powder and all spice into the mixture, and stir well to combine.

Then, throw in everything else into the bowl…

… stir it all in…

… spoon it all into your cupcake cases, into the oven, and bake for 15 – 18 minutes!

That easy! Once they come out of the oven, let them sit for 10 minutes or so before removing them from the trays.

Out they came, all big, fat, juicy and smelling amazing…

… and beautiful, soft, fluffy cupcakes on the inside, with lots and lots of yummy fillings! Perfect!

And, you’ll note, no icing on top – Sous-Jeff hates a frosted cupcake (yes, I know, he’s insane.. but it works out well, because I absolutely loooove the frosting!). So, made exactly to his specifications, he was greeted by a big fat tray of these when he arrived home from a few days away on a work trip – and he loved them :) Success! He decided that the best way to eat them was cut in half, microwaved, and smothered with butter. I actually tried one and decided it wasn’t too bad either! The spice was still wayyyy too strong for my liking, but other than that, not bad!

Over to you guys – what is your special person’s absolute favourite treat? And do you love it too?!

Burch and Purchese Sweet Studio

14 Jul

Multicultural Cuisine of…

Desserts


 

Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio
647 Chapel St,
South Yarra
(03) 9827 7060
Visit Website

“OH MY GOD! We’re on Chapel Street!”
“Umm… yeah….??!”
“Chapel Street!!! Do you know what’s here?!”
“Umm… the Jam Factory? Where we’re going to the movies? That’s why we’re here, yeah??”
“Yeah, but now that we’re here, I can finally go to Burch and Purchese!!!! I totally forgot it was so close to the Jam Factory! Oh my God!! Please can we go and get some cake?! It’ll be amazing! Seriously! I won’t even get popcorn at the movies, I just want cake! Yes? Yeah?! Let’s go, come on!”

This was the conversation that occurred between Sous-Jeff and I, two grown adults, not a child and a parent as it may suggest. I had a rare Sunday off work, and we had absolutely not a thing planned, other than a sleep in and some gluten free, buckwheat pancakes covered in fresh strawberries and a little vanilla sugar for breakfast (delicious, by the way!). We loooove a trip to the movies, and realised that not only had we still not seen the new X-Men, but we also actually had 2 free movie tickets sitting on the fridge! Time to get out and use them! The only Sunday day time session of X-Men was at the Jam Factory, so off we went.

A few months ago, I’d heard for the first time all about Ian Burch and Darren Purchese on another blog (I can’t remember which one unfortunately…), which led me to the Burch and Purchese blog, and their magnificent dessert abilities. Not long later, I saw Darren’s appearance on MasterChef, with one of the most magnificent cakes I’ve ever seen. I knew I had to get to their studio, but hadn’t had the chance, until this fateful day, when, standing out the front of the Como centre crossing the road, I realised my close proximity to sugar land!

Bless him, Sous-Jeff knows he can’t win an argument with me when there’s cake involved, and on my side was the fact that he too had seen the cake appearance on MasterChef, and wanted to get involved in this delicious phenomenon. So, with an hour to kill before the movie, off we went!

It didn’t look like much from the outside, but I had a feeling that we wouldn’t be disappointed. “Aren’t you meant to be gluten free at the moment? Pretty sure that means no cake…” I shrugged my shoulders and decided that a quick break in the diet wouldn’t kill me, already resigned to the cakey fate awaiting me through the door..

… and I walked into my dream. Wow. It was all soooo pretty… and look, home made jams and chocolates for sale!

And, … WOW!!!! An entire wall lined with little glass jars, containing ingredients such as coconut ash, sugared rose petals, and 24 carat gold leaf… ohhh imagine the cakes I could create with this as my pantry!

The kitchen was even open, with two young ladies cooking their way around. What I wouldn’t have given to get in there are have a turn…

I hear a laugh, and turn around to see one of the lovely shop assistants giggling at me, standing in front of the glass jars, mouth wide open and eyes darting about in wonder. Sous-Jeff is laughing along with her, shaking his head and probably wondering why he agreed to this outing.

Back to the glass display cases at the front of the store, Sous-Jeff tried to hurry me on to choosing a cake for myself. He already know what he wants, but I’m torn between basically everything there. With a little more begging and pleading, and the promise that I’ll let him taste mine, I talk my way up from one cake, to two, plus whichever Sous-Jeff wants. The art of compromise is essential in marriage.

With our three pieces of heaven chosen and delicately placed into a box, with their descriptions sticky taped inside, I carefully clutch my delicious package in my cold hands, and make my way to the door. “Would you like a few spoons in case they don’t make it home?” the shop assistant asks with a giggle as we make our way out? “Yes, definitely,” is Sous-Jeff’s reply, and with cake and spoons in hand, we head back to the Jam Factory for our movie.

“Ok, open the box up, let’s go.”
“Excuse me?!”
“Yeah, we’ll just eat them while we walk back so we’re not late for the movie.”
“EXCUSE ME?!?!”
“Just give me the cake!”
“I’m sorry, I don’t think you understand. You do not just eat cakes like this on the run. No. Just no. Honestly.”

(At this point, the lady walking along behind us starts to laugh, and backs me up that they are indeed beyond amazing and should be enjoyed properly. She’s carrying two B&P boxes… lucky duck.)

We continue to argue like this for the remainder of the walk back, and settle on yet another compromise – we can’t take them home as the chocolate on top is starting to melt, and we will not be eating on the run, so we settle down in the food court in the Jam Factory, and eat them there, where I can still eat with my eyes (and take some photo evidence for you before they’re destroyed!).

The first piece of heaven to be taken from the box is the Vanilla|Pistachio|Lemon|Green Tea cake, comprising of:
White chocolate and vanilla mousse, pistachio cream, crunchy green tea meringue, lemon cream, pistachio cake, green tea macaroon and a brilliant white chocolate spray.

The macaroon is the first victim, and is absolutely gorgeous. The little bits of crunchy merigue follow… just as good! Next comes a spoonful..

… Oh wow… words cannot describe this… the most incredible, silky, smooth flavour of the white chocolate and vanilla mousse, just melting away in your mouth, hits you first. Then, a bit of punch from the lemon cream, perfectly citrusy and tangy, but also super sweet and almost creamy. Last to hit me was the pistachio cake, soft and crumbly, with a perfect pistachio flavour. Perfection in a cake!

Next cab off the rank was the Chocolate|Mandarin|Salted Caramel cake, which was made up of Kendari 60% chocolate mousse, Murray River salted caramel, burnt mandarin cream, St Clements marmalade, aerated chocolate shortbread and chocolate mirror glaze.

The gorgeous little painted chocolate square and mandarin candy on top looked too cute to eat… Sous-Jeff however didn’t really care too much and swiftly plucked them both off and took a bite, before handing what was left to me.

In fairness, I did get the first bite – I dug my spoon into the centre of the little cake, and was met with this:

Layers of silky smooth chocolate mousse and mandarin cream, with an absolutely perfect chocolate shortbread base. The saltiness was very subtle and perfectly balanced out the incredibly rich chocolate mousse. Really, really yummy.

Last out was the Dark Chocolate|Pear|Hazelnut cake, made up of Tarakan 75% chocolate and vanilla mousse, caramelised pear, hazelnut cream, B&P “Nutella,” chocolate hazelnut brownie, pear jelly, dark chocolate velvet spray and a chocolate twig on top with a little nut crumble. Unfortunately, by the time my camera got to this cake, the twig had kinda melted…

The little ball of pear jelly was first down the hatch, and it had a really interesting, almost grainy texture – very pear-y and sweet, but not too much so. Further we dug, to reveal…

The chocolate vanilla mousse, “Nutella,” and hazelnut cream were perfect together, very rich and sweet, and that brownie was just amazing! To my great delight, I discovered you could actually buy the little brownie bases from the store – yay! Upon further digging into this lovely little cake, I also discovered…

… little bits of caramelised pear!!! Yum!!

With our cakes devoured and my photos taken, we realise we’re now running late for the movie! We silently shuffle into our seats just as the lights are dimmed and the previews begin and settle in to our movie as the sugar coma beings to kick in. Although the flavour combinations weren’t overly experimental or spectacularly different, the actual taste was beautiful, they were presented flawlessly, and I can’t recommend highly enough that you get in there are give them a try!!

 

Would rate it 9 out of 10.


Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio on Urbanspoon

High Tea at Aria Bar and Lounge, The Langham

3 Jul

Multicultural Cuisine of…

England

Aria Bar and Lounge at the Langhan
1 Southgate Ave,
Southbank
(03) 1800 641 107
Visit Website


“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all just marry rich old men and be ladies of leisure and do this all the time?” comments one of my lovely girlfriends, as we make out way to the Langham Hotel. Ironic, because as we are making our way over, the wind is blowing so hard that we are trying desperately to keep our skirts down and swearing profusely at mother nature. Hardly classy ladies.

A few weeks ago, EJ was speaking to a gentleman that comes into our workplace to use the gym. They were speaking about cakes and dessert (a topic that naturally comes up in a gym), and he mentioned that he worked at the Langham Hotel, and the chef there puts on an absolutely spectacular high tea spread. That was all the convincing we needed.

EJ, Ms Em, A.Shaw and myself arrived in the very beautiful foyer of the Langham, looking not so beautiful – the wind had completely disheveled our hair and we were shivering with cold.

Up and up we climb, until we reach out destination: Aria Bar and Lounge. We are shown to our seats, and open up our beverage menu, while admiring the beautiful surroundings and giggling at the very posh and proper ladies, dripping with pearls, looking like they do this every Saturday. Our sitting is on a Saturday afternoon from 2:30 – 4:30pm, at $65.00 per person. We’re running a few minutes after 2:30 and can already see other table’s food… looks goooood!

While we await the arrival of our drinks, out comes an appetising 3-tiered tower of deliciousness…

Our first tier has a collection of gorgeous little sandwich fingers. I wasn’t such a fan of the brown/wholemeal bread – the cucumber sandwich was quite boring and bland. The egg sandwich was delicious, but the standout winner was the poached chicken sandwich – absolutely heavenly and creamy! Wish we’d said yes to a second helping now!

The bottom two tiers housed scones and all the fixings. The scones were still warm when we got to them, and we had both plain and sultana scones to choose from. I’m not much of a sultana lover, but the ladies said they were delicious.

I went with the plain scone and raspberry jam, and it was absolutely delicious! So good, I went back for seconds! Warm and soft and crumbly, it tasted perfect with the sweet jam.

Half way through all of this, out came out drinks. A bottle of Moscato to share, as well as a hot chocolate for EJ and a pot of English breakfast tea for the rest of us. And, we got real sugar cubes. Wow.

Finished with our initial three tiers, we decide to venture out into the main sugar arena. Oh my…

We decide to start with the only savoury bite, a caramelised onion and feta quiche. It was amazing. So much so, that we each ate two. Woops!

Now, time to get serious. We’ve signed up for the Chocolate Bar High Tea, and chocolate is what we want! Here’s what came next…

Chocolate Eclairs
 
Amarascata roulade with cocoa nibs
Jaffa Orange Shot
Lemon lime and bitter curd tart
Langham Torte with cherry and brandy
Valhrona chocolate mousse cake with passion fruit jelly topping
Warm chocolate chip pudding
Almond Florentines
Roasted nut and chocolate clusters
Chocolate dipped biscotti

I can’t even begin to describe just how incredible they all were… absolutely perfect! My favourites were the Amarascata roulade – the strawberry mousse was just indescribably good, and the Jaffa shot – the combination of the orange and chocolate, with the three different layers, was fabulous.

We completely lost track of time, and before we knew it we were kindly asked to settle our bill. I felt it was $65 well spent – the food was incredible, the service impeccable – they even brought out an extra three-tiered sandwich and scone tower when they realised they’d catered our table for three instead of four. It was a lovely way for us four ladies of leisure to spend our afternoon – although, now we understand why ladies of leisure must spend so much time at the gym, working it all off! If you haven’t done high tea before, I’d highly recommend it. If you have, where have you been, and how was it?

Would rate it 9 out of 10.


Aria bar and lounge (melba) on Urbanspoon

Chocolate Mug Cake

1 Jul

Multicultural Inspiration from…

family


No, it’s not a typo. Chocolate mug cake. As in, chocolate cake, in a mug. Ready in 5 minutes. No joke. Before I give you the low down on getting this together, let me tell you how this marvelous recipe came into my possession.

Wayyy back a few years ago, I got an email from Sous-Jeff’s mum. She’s usually pretty good at sending amusing, tongue-in-cheek emails, so I always look forward to receiving them for a daily giggle. On this one particular day, I got an email with the subject title “FWD: Chocolate Mug Cake” and thought I might open it up to see a funny picture of chocolate in a mug, or a chocolate cake in the shape of a mug or something to that effect. What I found was quite another story.

What Sous-Jeff’s mum had passed onto me was a recipe for a chocolate cake which is made up in a coffee mug, out of plain, ordinary, always-have-them-at-home ingredients, and takes all of five minutes to put together and “cook.” You don’t even need an oven for it! I made this one about a week ago – I’d had a rotten day and nothing was going to help except chocolate cake. You know those days? A cookie or piece of chocolate just won’t cut it – you just need cake. Well, I was having one of those days. I didn’t have the energy, patience or calorie allowance to whip up an entire batch of chocolate cupcakes, so I went to my go-to comfort food in a hurry. Here’s how to make it work next time you have one of those days…

First, grab out a coffee mug. Just an ordinary, standard sized coffee mug. Take a good look at it and admire it, for it is about to become the vessel from which your chocolate cake will spring forth from. Also, grab out a proper tablespoon with which to measure your few ingredients.

Now, take 4 tablespoons or plain flour, 3 tablespoons of caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa, put them in the mug and mix.

Next, add in one egg, and mix thoroughly…

… until it looks like this:

In with 3 tbsp of milk, 1.5 tbsp of oil (olive, vegetable, whatever you have!) and a splash of vanilla extract…

… and mix it again.

This is optional, but being the coconut addict I am, I like to add in a tablespoon of dessicated coconut at this point…

Give it all another good mix, making sure to scrape all the flour and cocoa off the bottom of the mug and mix it into everything else. Now comes the fun part… put your mug into the microwave for approximately 3 to 4 minutes, depending on the strength of your microwave. It will start to “puff” up and tower over the top of the mug – do not freak out, this is perfectly normal. I don’t know how or why, but I do know I have made MANY mug cakes, and they’ve never completely over-flown or exploded in the microwave!

You’ll know it’s ready when it’s firm to touch on top and is starting to come away from the edge of the mug.

Yes, it looks kinda holey and bizarre and almost plasticy, but I promise it’s not! Tip it out onto a plate…

… and get ready to eat! Now, you can eat this however you want, but here’s how I like to do it: grab a serrated knife and slice your cake in half down the middle.
Then slather it in Nutella and a little shredded coconut!
I’ll be the first to admit, this cake isn’t the softest, fluffiest, moistest, fanciest, prettiest cake you can make. But when you have a craving for chocolate cake and you don’t have the time, energy, ingredients or equipment for a real cake, this really is satisfying!! It’s also delicious with raspberries and icing sugar, or with a bit of peanut butter on top! Enjoy :)


Peanut and Chocolate Cookie-Cakes

14 Jun

Multicultural Inspiration from…

the world of baking!


Confession: I looooove looking at dessert blogs. I know I can’t possibly bake everything I see, because I’d eat it all and then weigh 200kg, and that’s just not safe. But I still love to look. Page after page, cake after cake, cookie after cookie. Usually, my self control is pretty good (mostly due to the fact that I don’t have half the ingredients needed to bake the beautiful recipes I see, thank goodness!), but alas, last week, my will power failed me.

I both thank and curse Anna from Cookie Madness for derailing my attempts to take a week off eating sugar-laden delights. I was doing pretty well until I saw her recipe for Macadamia White Chunk Brownies – a delectable combination of cookie and cake. I had to have them. Immediately, if not sooner. I didn’t have the same pantry of ingredients to work with as Anna, but that was fine with me because I’d planned to recreate these tasty morsels in my own way – with a peanut cookie base and chocolate fudge cupcake on top! With Kitchen Bug by my side and tub of flour in my hand, I pre-heated the over and here’s what ensued…

Before you get started, pre-heat the oven to 180°C, get out all of your ingredients (listed as follows), and line a 22cm square cake tin with baking paper. The cookie dough comes first: I had no recipe for this, just my imagination and a mish mash of recipes I’d previously used from 1 Dough, 100 Cookies. To re-create, you’ll need:

  • 90g butter, softened
  • 70g brown sugar
  • 25g granulated sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup toasted peanuts, crushed up finely

Put the butter and sugars in a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon, then beat in the egg with an electric hand mixer, then the vanilla. Sift the flour into the mixture and stir until combined. Lastly, add in the crushed toasted peanuts and stir until combined.


Leave that mixture for now – we’re coming back to it soon!

Next up, I get started on the cake mix – the chocolate fudge cupcake mixture from The Cupcake Book. You’ll need:

  • 115g plain flour
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 100ml water
  • 40g butter
  • 3 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 1.5 tbsp milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
  • 1/3 cup crushed, toasted peanuts

Heat the butter, water, sugar and golden syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until melted and smooth. Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat and cook 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool. While you’re waiting for it to cool, take the cookie batter and press it into the prepared cake tin and set aside.

Back to the cake – sift the flour and cocoa into a large bowl. Then, mix the vanilla, milk and bicarb in a small bowl until the bicarb has dissolved. Alternately pour the milk mixture and the melted butter mixture into the flour and cocoa mix, beating will with electric beaters in between each addition, until it’s nice and shiny and delicious looking. Don’t worry if it looks a little bit lumpy – totally normal and will end up just fine!

Now for the fun part – Pour the cupcake batter on top of the cookie dough! The Kitchen Bug crosses his paws at this part and prays to the powers that be that something, anything, falls to the floor for him to lick up. No such luck, buddy!

Before it goes into the oven, sprinkle that last bit of crushed peanuts over the top – yummy!

Around about 18 minutes later, out comes the cake tin of goodness. Let the cake/cookie sit in the tin for 5- 10min before taking it out to cool on a wire rack.

Once it’s cool enough to touch, whip out the knife and slice this bad boy open! Tastes great warm and cooled down, so you might as well try a little bit before it cools!
It probably could have baked for another 3 or 4 minutes, as the cookie base was still quite soft, however I prefer my cookies slightly under cooked, so it was perfect for me! Next time I make it though, I’ll probably make a little more cake mix, as I’d have preferred a thicker cake topping, but the cake itself was very soft and delicate, not super thick like you might expect a “fudge” cake to taste.
All in all, very happy with this experiment – just wish I’d made more! See, in the misguided justification of making it not as unhealthy, I took half the batch straight over (literally, still warm!) to Sous-Jeff’s family’s home so I wouldn’t be tempted later…
… luckily, because Sous-Jeff and I polished off our half a batch within 2 hours. Will definitely need to make these again! How about everyone else??! Any recipes you’ve seen on other blogs and thought “I MUST make these!”??
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