Thursday, 26 January 2012

Just some words...

I have been just so busy, having no time to spend baking delicious treats, which makes me super sad :-(
But I promise this weekend an effort will be made to produce yummy treats for all to enjoy…

Here are just some inspiration posters for today!





Friday, 13 January 2012

Inspiration...

Today I feel all weird...so i thought this little poster makes sense...


Thursday, 12 January 2012

Recipe time...Toffee Tumbles




Almond Buttercake



150g butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon almond essence

2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup (50g) self-raising flour

1/2 cup (75g) plain flour

1/2 cup (60g) almond meal
/regular flour
1/2 cup almonds chopped

Choux Pastry
60g butter

3/4 cup (180ml) water

3/4 cup (105g) plain flour

3 eggs, beaten lightly



Vanilla Custard


1 1/4 cups (310mls) milk

1 vanilla bean, split

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar

1/4 cup (40g) cornflour



Toffee


1 cup (220g) caster sugar

1/2 cup (125ml) water



Make choux pastry; make vanilla custard. Preheat oven to moderate (180oC/160oC fan forced). Line 12-hole standard pan with paper cases. Beat butter, essence, sugar and eggs in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in sifted flours and almond meal, in two batches. Divide mixture among cases; smooth surface. Bake cakes about 20 minutes. Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool. Cut a 2cm deep hole in the centre of each cake, fill with custard; replace lid. Spread tops of cakes with a little more custard. Top with a layer of puffs. Stack remaining puffs on cakes dipping each in a little custard. Make toffee; drizzle over puffs.
Choux Pastry

Preheat oven to hot (220oC/200oC fan forced). Grease oven trays, line with baking paper. Combine butter with the water in medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Add flour, beat until mixture forms a smooth ball. Transfer mixture to small bowl, beat in egg with electric mixer in about six batches until mixture becomes glossy. Spoon mixture into piping bag fitted with 1 cm plain tube. Pipe about 300 tiny dollops of pastry (about 1/4 level teaspoon), onto trays; bake 7 minutes. Reduce oven to moderate (180oC/160oC fan forced), bake for a further 5 minutes or until puffs are crisp. Repeat with remaining mixture.



Vanilla Custard



Bring milk and vanilla bean to a boil in small saucepan; discard vanilla bean. Meanwhile, beat egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in small bowl with electric mixer until thick. With motor operating gradually beat in warm milk. Return custard to small pan; stir over heat until, mixture boils and thickens. Cover surface of custard with plastic wrap; cool.

 Mmmm most delicous custard I have made!

Toffee

Combine sugar with the water in small heavy-based saucepan. Stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves; bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, without stirring, until mixture is golden brown. Remove from heat; stand until bubbles subside before using. Mine took a while to get going and to turn that caramel brown colour.

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Blog lovin...now on it...yeah!




Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Toffee tumbles…tumbled…


I thought to myself this weekend, push yourself. Make a cupcake that really challenges you. And what happened…Not only was it the hottest day I have experienced, but I now know why there are people like the naked chef…hehehe! I thought fine Choux pastry, homemade vanilla custard, toffee, almond cupcakes, how hard could it be?

Let me tell you something I nearly died, but at least I learned some new skills, and I must say to myself but that vanilla custard…mmm is to die for. I even got some request that there should have been more custard. So after some blood, sweat and fears, I made these toffee tumbles and I was impressed. 300 little choux pastry balls, is not for sissies. I even made beautiful sugar shards to place on top. The cupcakes looked beautiful. So I put them in a container, popped them in the fridge and awoke the next morning to disaster.

I took them out of the fridge, left them on the counter, quickly got ready for work and low and behold when I opened the container, the toffee and the sugar shards had melted, even the custard melted, making them tumble. I was like "DISASTER". But all in all they tasted really good. I injected each cupcake with extra custard, and put some almonds in the batter and some almond essence as well. The flavors were really strong…mmm just the way I like it!

So give it a crack. It’s really beautiful cupcakes, hard to eat and a lot of effort, but if you have the cupcakeness in you, why not…

Recipe to follow tomorrow!


Inspiration day...

Motto for today...and maybe just the rest of my life!!!


Friday, 6 January 2012

Could this be love...

OMW I am in love...these Cupcake nail art is just to die for. I couldn't believe it. This beautiful artform, I have not seen anything like this in South Africa. 

WOW! ( p.s. if anyone in SA can do this for me, Cape Town area, I would jump at the chance)

This to me is cupcakeness, yes cupcakeness. This is dedication to the cupcake, the love of cupcakes, the joy that cupcakes can bring to your life. The colours are just right, the feeling they creat, but i'm afraid i would be tempted to lick my fingers the whole time...hehehe!




Please Cupcakes: Cherry delights recipe!: As promised… have some fun, create, make, bake.. Cupcakes (16 medium sized) Ingredients: 225g butter (softened) 200g ca...

Cherry delights recipe!



As promised… have some fun, create, make, bake..

Cupcakes (16 medium sized)

Ingredients:

225g butter (softened)
200g caster sugar
200g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
4 large eggs
2tbsp Maraschino cherry juice

Pre heat oven to 180 °C.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Line a cupcake pan with liners (I used cherry ones)
Fill cups half way, place a cherry (without stalk) on top.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pans after baking and leave to cool for 5 minutes, then place on rack to cool further.

Frosting:

400g icing sugar (sifted)
225g butter
pinch of salt
pink food colouring (a drop)

Beat the butter until smooth. (I like using white butter) add icing sugar slowly and mix with electric mixer. Add a few drops of pink food colouring and beat until well combined. (Here you can also add some cherry oil, but it might be overkill)
Spread  or pipe the icing onto your cupcakes.

Decorations:

12 maraschino cherries with stems
red sugar crystals

Place all these goodies on top…and there you go, final Cherry delights for your satisfaction.

Thursday, 5 January 2012

Say hello to cherry delights...


mmmmmm...
Imagine a cherry explosion, you're mouth dripping with a trickle of delight, a hidden surprise, red bursts of love! That’s my cherry delights, a cupcake made with cherry everything. So if you're the cherry on top, this one is for you. 

This is an adaption from a recipe in a book I got for Christmas, called Cupcake heaven. I added a few things here and there (can never seem to follow a recipe completely), and I got this delectable Cherry delight. Recipe will follow tomorrow.

The recipe calls for dozen large cupcakes or 1 half dozen for medium sized cupcakes. (I love large cupcakes, they make me happy and make the cupcake enjoyment time so much more) Anyway after filling 12 cupcakes liners with a yummy batter, there was one lonesome number 13 cupcake. So I left this little one to rest until the batch was completed. She looked so beautiful sitting there on the counter, waiting to be cuddled up in a warm oven, getting to rise to the top. Then I covered her with the last bit of icing and popped that cherry on top, added a few sugar crystals and she look the best of them all.

Cupcakes seem to have a special place in my heart these days, it’s all I can think about. I might be turning into a cupcake freak…





Inspiration day!

Today i'm feeling all inspired. I realised that if I look at enough beautiful cupcake ideas, I just want to see more. So i'm trying to fill my fruity tooty brain with cupcake dreams and inspirations all the time. Here are some beautiful ideas for cupcake liners. So go ahead, have some fun, create, make, bake...


Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Cookie Recipes as promised

Here they are. Knock yourself out. 

A little advice...i like my cookies on the soft side, so all my times for baking are minimal, but if you like a nice hard cookie, just increase your time by 5-10 minutes. That will do it. Either just ask me if you are unsure and I will be happy to help.










Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

So 2012 is here…finally. This year will be a change for me. I’m going to pursue my dreams, believe more in myself and make a few changes, or that’s what I’d like to believe. To start off this year’s blog, lets bring in the old from last year.

I showed everyone the preview to the boxes and here they are. Beautifully done up with pretty ribbons and delicious cookies inside. I must say I hope everyone enjoyed the cookies, and yes I learned a few things and maybe would of done a few things differently, but hey that’s what new years are for. Everything is a learning curve. The recipes will follow shortly…so you can enjoy the deliciousness of chocolate all sort cookies.

Cookies are no joke people, it’s a lot of hard work, but if done with a little love (anything made with a little love is always good) it is worth the while. 


The boxes!

 recipes are included...

The delicious chocolate delights!

mmm...