coffee :)

There was a little surprise on my coffee this morning!! at penelopes cafe

And this one..... Fratelli Paradiso (Sydney)

 

Walnut Macaroon Galette with summer berries

For dessert tonight, I made a Walnut Macaroon Galette with summer berries. The original recipe i got from here but instead substituted the almonds with walnuts and the lemon zest with orange zest. For the berries on top, I used eldiflower cordial instead of kirsch and orange juice instead of lemon juice, I also added blackberries and raspberries to decorate. Its also nice served with plain whipped cream.

first day of summer lunch

First day of summer!!!! I had my friends around and decided to make a nice fresh healthy lunch to start off summer. I made a strawberry, cranberry, ginger, mango and orange drink and avocado, lettuce, bacon, aioli, mustard, tomato and basil sandwiches. It's all quite simple but made with fresh ingredients which I love. For afternoon tea, i made some caramel, chocolate and banana brownies. I had some left over brownie from the other day so i made some caramel icing by whipping together dulce de leche, cream cheese and icing sugar together, smeared that on top of the brownies along with some sliced banana. 

Banana, Caramel and Vanilla cake

Mini banana caramel cake with vanilla cream cheese icing 

This was for my best friend charlottes birthday, I made it buy using simple banana cake batter and baking it in cupcake tins so they were small. I then cut it in half sideways then placed a dollop of little and fridays recipe for caramel sauce in the middle, piped the cream cheese icing in a ring around the out side and then placed the other half back on top. To finish off I piped peaks of the icing on the top then drizzled some more of the caramel sauce in between the peaks of icing, finally topped with chopped toasted almonds. 

Rose and Raspberry cake

Rose and Raspberry cake 

I made this cake in the weekend for afternoon tea with my friend lily. I got the recipe from here but replaced the rose glace icing with plain vanilla butter icing and only made it one tier . I also made my own homemade raspberry jam for the filling.

caramel slice

Nutty Caramel slice with crunchy chocolate oat base

Ingredients:

For the topping:

·       120g soft brown sugar

·       70g butter

·       40g golden syrup

·       1 tsp blackstrap molasses

·       1 tbsp double cream

·       200g mixed nuts (I used almonds, hazelnuts and pecans)

·       100g ground almonds or ground walnuts (I used ground walnuts, but either are fine)

·       3 tbsp crunchy peanut butter

·        

For the base:

·       115g butter, melted, plus extra for greasing

·       225g whole meal wheat flour

·       80g light muscovado sugar

·       50g 70% dark chocolate, melted

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a long rectangular shaped tart tin.

2. To make the base, Sift the flour and sugar into a bowl, then pour in the melted butter and chocolate. Mix well, and then press evenly into the base of the tart tin. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then leave to cool slightly.

3. Meanwhile, make the topping. Put the sugar, butter, golden syrup and molasses into a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir continuously to dissolve the sugar but don't let the mixture boil. Add the cream and mix well. Add the nuts and peanut butter. Stir until the nuts are evenly covered with the sauce. Spread evenly over the cooked base and bake for a further 15 minutes or until golden on top. Set aside to cool, then slice and serve.

Macarons

Rose, Lychee and Strawberry Macarons

I made these in the weekend. They turned out well and weren't to crunchy and had a nice soft chewy center (just how I like them). The shell was made from just a simple plain recipe, coloured with pink. The filling is a white chocolate, lychee and rose ganache, made with lychee puree and rose extract. It also had a little cube of homemade strawberry jelly in the middle, my recipe called for raspberries, instead I used the same amount but with strawberries. The jelly was nice and tart, and not too sweet. I made mine quite small but you can make them as big as you want.

White chocolate, Lychee and Rose Ganache

205g white chocolate (I used Whittaker’s)
200g canned lychees
30g cream
4 drops rose essence (depends how strong you like it)

Drain the lychees.  Blend them until you get fine purée. Set aside. Chop up the chocolate and melt it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Bring the cream and lychee purée to the boil.  Pour over the melted chocolate in two batches and whisk till all the chocolate is melted.  Add the rose essence and stir.

                    

Pour the ganache into a bowl and place gladwrap over the top of.  Set aside in the freezer for the ganache to thicken and become a piping consistency.

To assemble, place a cube of the strawberry jelly in the middle on the flat side of the macaron shell. Pipe the chilled ganache around the cube of jelly then sandwich together with another macaron shell. 

Rosette cake

Pink layered vanilla rosette cake with cream cheese icing.

I made this cake for my friend Alice's birthday. Even though the flavours aren't too interesting, it nice and simple and easy to make, great for celebrations. The sponge is Mary Berry's victoria Sponge cake recipe and the cream cheese icing is from my Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. My cake had 3 layers, one the original colour of the cake, another being pale pink and the last layer being hot pink. Each colour coordinating with the colour of icing. I finished off the cake with fondant flowers, cachous and a sprinkle of edible glitter.