Tag Archives: white chocolate

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry and Macadamia Frosting

25 Sep

Multicultural Inspiration from…

the world of baking!

This is mighty belated, but a month ago one of my best friends celebrated her birthday! We’ve known each other since we were 13 years old, starting high school together. Actually, back then, we really didn’t like each other very much. We didn’t like each other at all actually. I can’t really remember why this was, but I do know that within 12 months, we’d gotten over whatever we hated about each other, and have been best friends ever since. When ever times got tough, she was there for me. We were each others family when we felt alone, she’s been like a sister to me for the past 12 years. So, when we caught up a few days before her birthday for a Wabi Sabi lunch date, and she asked me to be her personal trainer, I was thrilled! Even more exciting was being asked to make her a cupcake tower for her birthday!! Yayy!! She had three requests for the cakes: 1. berries, 2. white chocolate, and 3. nuts. With that in mind, I dropped by the supermarket on my way home and got to work on these little pieces of heaven.

For the cupcakes, I made just a standard white chocolate mudcake, using the same recipe I used for Mum’s birthday cake, minus the raspberries. Once those were all set, it was time to make the frosting (AKA the best bit). For this, I used my trusty Donna Hay’s Simple Essentials: Chocolate book, and the white chocolate fudge icing recipe. You’ll need:

  • 250g good quality white chocolate, broken up into pieces
  • 1/2 pouring cream
  • 70g butter

Place all the ingredients into a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, and melt, stirring until smooth.

Remove from the heat and let it cool completely – then, beat with electric beaters until thick and fluffy. I also decided to add in about 3/4 cup of icing sugar as well, to get it a little thicker.

Beat again until it’s super thick – see below.

Now, throw in a 250g punnet of strawberries – I washed them, hulled them, and ran them quickly through the food processor first.

Mix it all up and try not to lick too much from the spoon. Seems like a simple enough step, but it’s actually the hardest part.

That easy! Just spread the frosting over the cakes, sprinkle some toasted, crushed macadamias on top, and decorate as desired :)

The cakes baked perfectly in my gorgeous little cases from the very cool Confectioners Favourite, and they looked beautiful too!

The whole batch (almost… ok, so maybe I ate 2 or 3 of them…) made it over to the party safely, and were met with an approving, and somewhat inebriated audience (thank goodness!). The birthday girl was pretty happy with them too, and I was very glad to trade in the cupcake tower for a nice big glass of punch on arrival!

We stayed around the bonfire out the back, keeping us toasty warm on an otherwise pretty cold night. Their gorgeous little dog did a few rounds, trying to get his nose into as many beverages as possible, while we devoured punch, margaritas, M&M cookies, Smarties, corn chips, jelly babies, and of course, cupcakes!

They turned out soft, fluffy, moist, and delicious… the frosting especially, was just completely incredible! White chocolate + strawberries + macadamias = it just works!! And I was very excited to receive the highest compliment from the birthday girl’s husband – “These are the best muffin type things I’ve ever eaten!” Yup, the best. Muffin type things. :)

Oh yeah, and the ultimate compliment of all – Kitchen Bug managed to steal a wrapper from the bin, and guarded it with his life!

Over to you guys – have you been asked to provide the birthday cake for a good friend? And what did you create for them?!

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

White Chocolate and Coconut Ice Cream

11 Jul

Multicultural Inspiration from…

family  


  
“I feel like ice cream.”
“We don’t have any.”
“I know… I could make some..?”
“It wouldn’t freeze in time to eat it tonight.”
“I know… I could make some for tomorrow night…?”
“Do you even know how to make ice cream?”
“I could Google it…”
This was the conversation that went on between Sous-Jeff and I on Friday night. Ice cream cravings are a killer. And they must be dealt with swiftly. On goes the computer and I click onto Google.

Dad discovered the ice cream attachment to mum’s Kitchen Aid last summer, and has been making the most amazing ice cream ever since. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the ice cream attachment, or the patience to make dad’s super chocolate. I do, however, have some standard Kitchen Aid attachments, a spare $10, and just enough energy to get down to the super market and back. I also had possession of a recipe that would produce a batch of ice cream quite quickly and with minimal effort and ingredients. This, I had to try.

I adapted my ice cream recipe from this one found on the recipes.com.au website. I looooove the combination of any chocolate with coconut, and have really been enjoying the white chocolate lately, so I decide to stick with that combo.

All I needed to make it was:

  • a 395g tin of sweetened condensed milk
  • 600ml cream (I used 300ml light cream and 300ml standard cream)
  • 1/4 cup coconut rum
  • 1/4 cup dessicated coconut (I used 1/2 cup dessicated, 1/2 cup shredded – I told you I like coconut!)
  • 1/2 packet Nestle white chocolate melts, melted (I may have used 3/4 of a packet… and broke the rest of the packet up into smaller pieces to add in later…)

All you need to do is melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water…

… combine the creams, condensed milk and rum in a bowl…

… and then I put the flat beater attachment onto my Kitchen Aid, but I’m guessing you could just do this part with electric hand beaters (it’d just take a bit longer).

I also decided that putting the guard on would be a good idea, having an inkling that this process could get messy (and it did)…

… and I just left the Kitchen Aid to do it’s thing for 15 minutes or so, until it was nice and thick like this..

Add in the melted white chocolate, white choc chips and coconut, and gently fold in..

… until it looks something like this…

… and pop it into a plastic tub and into the freezer over night!

With the ice cream freezing away, Sous-Jeff and I put on a dvd and fall asleep, almost forgetting about our little creation… Until about 10am the next morning when I simply cannot wait any longer and absolutely MUST try some!

I had my concerns, with this not being a “real” ice cream, made in a “traditional,” proper fashion, but upon tasting a scoop of this creamy, sweet goodness, all of my concerns vanished.

It scoops out relatively easily, and has the beautiful silky, creamy taste of the condensed milk (which I love), complementing the coconut and chocolate perfectly. I may have put a little too much chocolate in there, but that didn’t bother me too much! Sous-Jeff on the other hand thought that it detracted from the ice cream a little.

I also discovered another fabulous add in to my ice cream – I had some left over egg whites from something else I’d made the afternoon before, and whisked them up with some sugar and some more coconut, baked them in the oven for 20 minutes or so, crumbled them up and added my newly made coconut macaroons to my ice cream – YUM!!!

Over to you lovely readers – if you could make any flavour ice cream, what would it be? And what would you top it with?

Raspberry and White Chocolate Mud Cake – Happy Birthday Mum!!!

10 Jun

Multicultural Inspiration from…

family


It was my beautiful mum’s birthday yesterday :) My mum is my biggest inspiration in the kitchen. She’s the person who inspired me not only to cook, but to write too. Mum’s a fantastic writer, she’s been writing forever; I remember finding a book of poems she wrote when I was younger, and sitting on the floor of her bedroom and reading them. She’s very smart and well read, with hundreds of books lining the bookshelves in her bedroom. This is a trait I’ve taken on too – now, in my own home, I have my own big bookshelves lined with books. But what’s really impressive is mum’s cook book collection. I could (and do) spend hours in her kitchen just flicking the pages and letting my imagination run wild.

I remember being a little kid and helping mum in the kitchen. I got to stir the cake batter, messily spoon it into the cupcake cases, and then best of all, I got to lick the spoons and beaters! My mum and my grandmothers taught me to cook. We’re a big Italian family and cooking is in our blood. As the oldest daughter in the family, I think it was expected that I learn to cook. Luckily, I loved it and took on everything I was taught.
And, as the good, Italian woman my mother is, each time one of her family members has a birthday, she takes is upon herself to cook a feast of our choosing for our family birthday dinner. And there’s always a magnificent cake to end the feast. And yes, on her birthday, she usually still does all the cooking (and cleaning). This year, I decided we needed to do something different. 6 days before mum’s birthday this year, my grandmother (and mum’s mother) went to hospital for some pretty serious surgery, to remove a large brain tumour. We didn’t know how the surgery would go, or how Nonna would get through it and recover, so Sous-Jeff and I decided to host mum’s birthday dinner at our house. Mum’s birthday still needed to be celebrated, perhaps more importantly than ever. Over the last week (and in fact years since my grandmother was initially diagnosed and first operated on), mum has been tirelessly driving her to and from hospital and doctor appointments, signing medical forms and translating medical instructions to her and my grandfather (their English isn’t awesome). So, at 6:30pm last night, with Nonna recovering well from her operation, mum, dad, my two sisters and their boyfriends arrived at our home to a perfectly cooked and prepared birthday feast to celebrate mum!

They arrived to slices of homemade potato and rosemary soda bread fresh out of the oven, with assorted dips and sundried tomato meatballs to get started. Sous-Jeff popped the bubbly and Kitchen Bug promptly retrieved his tennis ball for a game of fetch with dad.

Next out was my cranberry and pine nut chicken pilaf with roasted veggies and crispy, buttery smashed potatoes. (Next time I make the pilaf, I’ll blog it, I promise!)

But the pièce de résistance was the birthday cake. A big, heavy, raspberry and white chocolate mudcake. Coated in white chocolate frosting. With berries on top. Resident chocoholic dad’s eyes lit up when he saw it upon arrival, and it was worth the wait!

Recipe is courtesy of Donna Hay’s Simple Essentials: Chocolate book, with a little experimentation and addition of raspberries. Here’s what happened in the kitchen to create the masterpiece…

  • 250g butter, chopped
  • 200g white chocolate, chopped
  • 495g caster sugar
  • 375ml cups water
  • 300g plain flour
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

Preheat the oven first, to 120°C and grease a 22cm round cake tin or a similarly sized square cake tin like I did.

Place the butter, chocolate, water and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat and stir until melted and smooth. Then, pour the mixture into a large bowl.

Whisk the flours into the mixture, then the eggs and vanilla. Once combined, stir in the raspberries, and pour into the cake tin.

Into the oven it goes, for around 2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean…

… and out it comes, smelling mouth-wateringly good, and it sits in it’s tin to cool for 15 minutes or so. Once the tin has cooled down enough to touch, gently and carefully remove it and place on a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

Now, for the icing. The recipe for the white chocolate fudge icing recommended by the book cannot be made as I don’t have any cream. So instead, I make it up as I go along. I put the remainder of the white chocolate (approximately 200g) and 4 tablespoons of milk in a metal bowl over simmering water and melt it down. I figure without cream, milk might be my next best option. Once it’s melted, I mix in something like 250g of icing sugar – I basically just keep sifting and mixing it in until the icing thickens. And it tastes pretty darn good! I let it cool slightly before slathering it all over the cake, letting it drip down the sides….

Finally, post dinner, it’s birthday cake time. Sans candles, we sing an impromptu round of happy birthday, and finally we can’t wait anymore – I look at dad, get the nod, and slice it open!

Tragically, I only had defrosted frozen raspberries to work with, not fresh ones, so the juice started running down the icing… but I kinda liked it like that! It was just the way a mud cake should be – moist, dense, rich and more-ish. The combination of white chocolate and raspberries is always a winner, and even more so when me, dad and Sous-Jeff took our pieces to the microwave – you simply cannot beat warm mudcake!

We scrape our plates, with Sous-Jeff and I going back for more, and put a third of the cake on a plate for the birthday girl to take home, along with a bag of the homemade bread and her presents. With Sous-Jeff and I left with a bit of cake, I think, “great, dessert tomorrow!” But here we are, 4:30pm tomorrow, and Sous-Jeff has just polished off what was left of it after my day off. Luckily there’s something else already in the oven :)

Happy birthday, mum :) xo


Sous-Jeff’s Cookies!

3 Jun

Multicultural Inspiration from…

the world of baking!


Sous-Jeff is a good man. He puts up with my constant baking and attempts to make him fat, my crash diets to lose the few kilos I put on while going through my crazy baking phases, my semi-attentiveness while he’s speaking as I flick through a recipe book, and my insistence that he goes and grabs just one egg from his mum’s fridge because I need one right now to finish these cupcakes! He’s very patient, and very kind when it comes to my baking and cooking exploits. He’ll try anything once, and is full of nothing but praise and admiration for my creations. He manages to make even the most pedestrian of my dishes sound like a Michelin-Star plate. He even cooks a little himself, but mostly just the standards like pasta and Mexican (he makes fantastic Mexican food!).

So, you can imagine my excitement when, curled up on the couch watching Master Chef a few nights ago, he says “I want to bake something for you. A cake or cookies or something. Coz you always make amazing desserts for me, and I want to try and do something for you.” Wow… I feel super special and super proud that I’ve inspired him to try his hand at some baking!

Sweeter still, he admits he has no idea where to even start with baking a batch of cookies – he doesn’t know what half the ingredients are or what they look like either. He’s picked out a recipe and shows it to me, and asks me to give him a “cookie master class” – no physical help, no touching the mixture, no pulling ingredients off shelves, just verbal instructions. As much as I adore my husband, he’s about as delicate as the proverbial bull in the china shop. He’s a big, strong, athletic, footballer of a man, not a delicate pastry chef. But I’m so excited that he wants to give it a try that I don’t care about the potential kitchen mess that’s about to happen!

He’s chosen a recipe from the Mrs Fields Best Ever Cookie Book, for a batch of Nutty White Chunk Cookies, and they’re re-created with a few alterations given that we don’t have all of the ingredients listed. Here’s what went down…

  • 2 1/4 cups plain flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup slivered almonds (toasted)
  • 2 Milky Bars (100g total), coarsely chopped

Because men aren’t fabulous multi-taskers, I take the role of “recipe reader” and begin reciting the steps to Sous-Jeff. First, preheat oven to 160°C and line a baking tray with paper.

Now, grab the plain flour (no, that’s self-raising, the other tub. Yup.) and measure it out. Ok, pop it in a bowl and add in the bicarb soda (not the icing sugar. Yes I know they look the same).

Grab a large bowl and put in there the butter and sugars. Beat well with an electric mixer to form a grainy paste. Next, add the eggs and vanilla, beating at a medium speed until light and fluffy.

Add in the flour/soda mixture, beating on a low speed until just combined. Mix in the nuts and chocolate until just combined – don’t over mix.

Drop rounded tablespoons onto the tray with approx 3cm gap between, as they will flatten and spread out considerably. Bake for 20 minutes, or until just beginning to turn golden brown.

Sous-Jeff pops them in the oven, carrying the kitchen timer back to the couch with him while he anxiously awaits the cookies to bake. 20 minutes later, out they come, and they smell delicious. We wait the mandatory few minutes before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to cool.

Nothing can wipe the smile off Sous-Jeff’s face, and I couldn’t be prouder (or hungrier!) – it’s his first batch of un-aided cookies! And they taste fantastic! We wolf them down pretty quickly; before they all get eaten, I make sure I pack one for my lunch the next day.They’re soft and squishy, and the toasted almonds contrast magnificently with the sweetness of the chocolate. Sous-Jeff is already thinking of more chocolate/nut combinations for another batch – it seems that my enthusiasm in the kitchen is finally rubbing off on him! And I can’t wait till his next kitchen adventure!




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