WHITE CHOCOLATE PASSIONFRUIT MUD CAKE & LINK PARTY

It's my little mans 3rd birthday tomorrow, so today I shall bake him a birthday cake. He is obsessed with chocolate be it raw, dark, milk, white! So I conjured up the image of a white chocolate and passionfruit combination in a rich moist mud cake.

INGREDIENTS

250 grams butter
150 grams white chocolate
2 cups sugar
1/2 sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla paste
1/2 cup passionfruit pulp
300 grams plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius. Add butter, white chocolate, sugar, sour cream and vanilla to a pan and on low heat melt all ingredients. Once melted stir in passionfruit pulp and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Add wet ingredients to dry and then mix in eggs. Divide mixture in half and cook each batch in a 23 cm silicone round baking dish (or prepared 23 cm baking tin) for 25-30 minutes until set. Allow to cool for 15 minutes in tin before turning out.

Melting all the mud cake ingredients together.

Ready for a long slow cook in the oven.

PASSIONFRUIT CURD CENTER

1/2 cup sugar
60 grams butter chopped
2 eggs
6 passion fruits pulp

In a small saucepan over medium heat stir together sugar and butter until melted together, turn to low and add the beaten eggs and passionfruit pulp and stir until thickened, strain and allow to cool.

One of my favourite fruits - The passion fruit.

ASSEMBLY

Sandwich the two layers with passionfruit curd and serve

Sitting in the mould ready to be turned out. 

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CHILI CHOCOLATE MACARON

This may very well be my last sweet treat post until bubba Will arrives! I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be continuing the rest of my pregnancy with gestational diabetes, and a glucose tolerance test in the next couple of weeks will confirm this. Everytime I eat something with sugar in it is hits me so hard that it's a battle for me to stay awake. But in saying that I will be hosting a 3rd birthday party and a BaByQ so I'm sure some sugar will sneak in, especially because I love am addicted to the white powder!

I made this for my husbands 30th last month, and it has taken me this long to post about it. I love the combination of chocolate and a surprise hit of chili in the back of the palette. The macaron shell is quite an easy one in comparison to some. Not too much technique, just getting your egg whites whipped to the right point, not too runny and not too stiff. weighing out all your ingredients and sifting them a couple of times. A correct oven temperature is paramount and making sure you turn the timer on is just about all the skill you need to make these beauties. This recipe makes approximately 35 macaroons

CHILI CHOCOLATE GANACHE

250 grams dark chocolate
2 vanilla beans split and scraped
3 cayenne chilies seeds removed
100 grams cream

Heat cream, vanilla and chili together until just before boiling. Take off heat, remove chili and add broken up chocolate and use a bar mix to blitz until smooth. Reserve for later.

MACARON

140 grams egg white
70 grams caster sugar
230 grams icing sugar
120 grams almond meal
2 grams salt
cocoa powder
smoked paprika

Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius. Whip egg whites and sugar until stiff and then continue to whip for 2 minutes. Sift icing sugar and almond meal twice discarding any bits that do not pass through the sieve. Fold into egg white with a metal spoon in as little folds as possible aim for less than 20. Place mixture into piping bag and pipe onto trays lined with baking paper and bang the tray down on the bench a couple of times. Sprinkle half with cocoa powder and the other half with smoked paprika and let them sit for 10 minutes before baking them in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes.

ASSEMBLY

Match up the macaron shells so that both top and bottom are even sizes. Spoon or pipe in a tablespoon of the chocolate ganache and place both halves together and enjoy!

HOMEMADE VANILLA PASTE

I have made vanilla extract on here before, and as lovely as that was at the end of the batch I was looking for other ways to preserve my vanilla beans. My beans that I had bought for that had gone hard and were almost impossible to use for cakes and other sweet treats, so after a little inspiration from a friend I decided to make vanilla paste.

I started off by boiling my beans in water for 30 minutes until they became soft. Use as many beans as you have and cover in enough water to cover and cook. Once they are soft blend, then strain. Measure out the amount of liquid and add an equal amount of sugar, cook on a low heat until it has dissolved and turned syrupy, store in clean jars in the fridge and use as you would vanilla extract.

I plan on making vanilla sugar with the waste strained beans. I dried them in a low oven until they were completely dry. Hopefully I can bribe my sister with some vanilla goodies and use her thermomix to blitz the beans and sugar together! If you do not have access to a thermomix, you can always store your spent dried beans in a jar of sugar so the fragrance can permeate through.

SOUR CREAM BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

These blueberry muffins using sour cream are deliciously light, perfect with a cup of something hot on these cool winter days, and equally perfect with a glass of lemon and mint fizz in the balmy afternoons of summer when blueberries are at their height. I used frozen blueberries which worked perfectly and are an economical choice for when they are out of season. I think this recipe base would also cater perfectly for white chocolate chips and raspberries, my favourite muffin combination. 

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean scraped

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sour cream

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup blueberries

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. 
2. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin papers.
3. Cream eggs and sugar together add vanilla
4. While whisking add oil in a thin stream.
5. Alternatively fold in flour with baking powder and sour cream
6. Carefully fold in blueberries. 
7. Spoon into prepared muffin tin
8. Cook for 15-20 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean.
9. Allow to cool slightly and then place on wire rack to completely cool

Makes 12 muffins. Preparation time 10 minutes. Cooking time 15-20 minutes.

SENSATIONAL CHOCOLATE MUD CAKE

It was my husbands 30 a couple of weeks ago, so we threw a party last weekend to celebrate! For his birthday cake he requested a macaron tower. I said no, although I made him macarons (Salted caramel butter popcorn, and chili chocolate [recipe coming soon]) I didn't feel up to the challenge of making them tower like. Too many things to go wrong, and since we were renovating until 10pm the night before to make the house somewhat presentable, and I cleaned for 7 hours straight before the party to clear away all the plaster, brick and ceiling dust from every exposed surface, I thought the challenge would be too big a one. So I made him a layer chocolate mud cake instead. It was delicious and keep really well for a week after the party until we slowly devoured it (was still lovely and moist). I will be making this again for my son's third birthday later in August and our BaByQ mid October.

INGREDIENTS
500 grams butter
300 grams white chocolate
4 cups sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
4 vanilla beans scraped
450 grams plain flour
150 grams self raising flour
4 eggs
4 tbs cocoa powder
1200 grams milk chocolate
500 mls cream
5 vanilla beans

METHOD
Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius. I used a 23 cm silicone cake tin but if you are using a regular tin grease and line it with baking paper. In a medium saucepan place butter and melt on low for 5 minutes, to that add the white chocolate, sugar, milk, cream and vanilla beans, and stir occasionally until all the ingredients have melted together. Allow to cool for 15 minutes. Sift flours into a large bowl and mix in wet ingredients, add beaten eggs. The mixture is to be divided into 4 cakes (which turned out to be approximately 5 soup ladles full), I cooked them one at a time as I only had one 23cm cake tin. Once you have cooked 2 vanilla layers, stir the cocoa powder in the batter and cook 2 chocolate layers (I much prefered the 'white' mud cake so next time I will omit this step, but it looks gorgeous in the layers.)

For the ganache, heat the cream and split vanilla beans until just before it comes to the boil. Using a bar mix blend  the vanilla and cream together and strain to eliminate any chunky bits of bean that was left over (I don't usually do this as I find the bean breaks down sufficiently, but my beans were older and harder, so do this if you beans are too.) Pour hot cream over chocolate and use bar mix to blend together until smooth and glossy. Allow this to cool for 20 minutes until thickened sufficiently so that you can spread it without it sliding everywhere.

To layer the cake spread a 1/2 cup to a cup of ganache between each layer and cover the outside of the cake with ganache. I used cadbury chocolate fingers to rim the outside of the cake with a ribbon wrapped around them to secure them in place (do this when the ganache is still pliable so that the chocolate sticks are able to stick in place.) You could also use twix, kit kats, round chocolate biscuits would look cute especially if you could find white chocolate covered ones to alternate between, the list is endless and of course you could leave it the way it is with ganache only.

Since my husband is a four wheel driving fanatic, I used the chocolate on top of the cake as a mud pit and decorated it with some new hot wheels four wheel drives (my 3 year old son was devastated at this - he came over just as I was about to put the cars on as I had been hiding them from him on purpose knowing what the outcome would be if he saw them, he asked me what they were for so I showed him and quickly drove one into the mud to get it bogged and he burst out in tears, very cute and funny, as he found it hard to wait until the next day to play with the cars. He would continually pull me over to the fridge and ask for the trucks, but was very excited when we got to sing happy birthday because that meant that he could now play with them!)

Pull the cake out of the fridge a couple of hours before you intend to serve it so the ganache can come to room temperature, I would suggest longer if it is a cold day. This is enough to serve 50-60 party guests. Slice in 2cm x 2cm slices as this is super rich and you do not need a large amount.

Heat the cream and vanilla beans for the ganache.

Gooey ganache. 

spreading the ganache over the first layer.

Placing the second layer on top

Decorated with matchbox cars 

Sliced mud cake

Head on over to market yourself monday to check out what everyone else has been creating!

NUTELLA FILLED PANCAKES

My husband turned the big three zero over the weekend. I wanted to cook him a nice breakfast but we have been a bit like old mother hubbard with bare cupboards, as I have had no time to shop. I knew I would make him pancakes, and was going to stick with his standard topping of sugar and lemon juice, but as I opened the pantry the nutella caught my eye and I came up with a brilliant idea! Nutella filled pancakes!

This is my favourite pancake recipe, they are lovely and light and fluffy due to the addition of baking powder!

2 cups plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tbs sugar
2 eggs
1.5 cups milk (or more if the mixture looks too thick, it should be the consistency of thickened cream)
nutella to blob onto the pancakes
butter to cook the pancakes in

Mix all the ingredients together, except the nutella and butter, trying to get as many lumps out as possible, letting the mixture sit for 10 minutes usually helps if you mixture is particularly lumpy. Heat butter in pan and allow to come to a medium heat, spoon some mixture in and dollop on some nutella, and then cover the dollops of nutella with more pancake mixture. Allow to cook on a medium low heat until golden on both sides and cooked all the way through. The nutella should be lovely and melty at this point. Serve sprinkled with sugar for an extra decadent hit.

Dollop on the nutella to a think layer of pancake mix.

Spoon over some more pancake mix to protect the nutella upon flipping 

Serve sprinkled with some more sugar

Lovely and fluffy and oozy!

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BLACK FOREST MACARONS

I love a good macaron, crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. I am often left disappointed when I purchase them though. Not because they don't meet that criteria but because the fillings are often somewhat insipid. That's why I love to make my own, my fillings pack a punch, they taste of what they should. And this one is no different, a chocolatey punch with a tang of sour cherry.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

40 grams cream
1 vanilla bean split and seeds scraped
200 grams dark chocolate
65 grams butter
80 grams cherries (I used frozen cherrie you could also used fresh or jarred)

Heat cream vanilla including bean and cherries until almost at the boil. Pour over chocolate and blitz with a bar mix until chocolate has melted and been incorporated, once this has happened start including butter until smooth and glossy. Please note you are supposed to include the vanilla bean when blitzing, it will break down and incorporate into the ganache. Put ganache aside.

CHERRY JELL

200 mls cherry wine (or liquor if you want a stronger punch, you could also use cherry juice if you wish to omit the alcohol although the alcohol will cook off.
150 grams sugar
1 packet jamsetta (found in the baking section of the supermarket)
90 grams glucose

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer for 5-10 minutes until thick and syrupy. Test the jelling quality by placing on a refrigerated plate and waiting for mixture to cool down. If set the mixture can be taken off the heat.

MACARON

140 grams egg white
70 grams caster sugar
230 grams icing sugar
120 grams almond meal
2 grams salt

Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius. Whip egg whites and sugar until stiff and then continue to whip for 2 minutes. Sift icing sugar and almond meal twice discarding any bits that do not pass through the sieve. Fold into egg white with a metal spoon in as little folds as possible aim for less than 20. Place mixture into piping bag and pipe onto trays lined with baking paper and bang the tray down on the bench a couple of times. Dust with cocoa powder and let them sit for 10 minutes before baking them in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes.

ASSEMBLY

Match up the macaron shells so that both top and bottom are even sizes. On one side spread the chocolate ganache and make a well in the center with a butter knife (I forgot to take a picture while filling the macarons but if you would like a picture of what I mean by making a well in the ganache and filling with the jell, I did a similar thing when making the salted caramel butter popcorn macaron and have pictures there). Fill the well with the cherry jell and then place the lid of top with a bit of a twist to ensure that it is stuck on well. Store in the fridge and serve either at room temperature or cold (the jell is slightly more chewy straight from the fridge, so you decide what you like better) and ENJOY!

Make sure you fold the almond and icing sugar into the egg whites well using minimal stokes. 

Dust macarons with cocoa powder

Allow the macarons to rest for 5-10 minutes before baking

Baked macaron shells ready to be filled

Come join us at Tuesday's Table

SALTED CARAMEL BUTTER POPCORN MACARON

The are AH-MAZE-INGLY finger licking good. Sweet and salty, crispy and chewy little pieces of cloud heaven. The macaron shell is quite an easy one in comparison to some. Not too much technique, just getting your egg whites whipped to the right point, not too runny and not too stiff. weighing out all your ingredients and sifting them a couple of times. A correct oven temperature is paramount and making sure you turn the timer on is just about all the skill you need to make these beauties. This recipe makes approximately 35 macaroons

SALTED CARAMEL

300 grams caster sugar
60 grams glucose
120 grams water
220 grams cream
5 grams gelatin leaves
125 grams butter
2 grams salt

Get two saucepans on the heat. In one place the cream and bring just to the boil. In the other place sugar, glucose and water and cook until a caramel colour. Deglaze with the cream and stir in the gelatin leaves. Cool to around 50 degrees celsius and blitz in the butter.

SALTED BUTTER CREAM

200 grams butter
100 grams salted caramel

After you have blitzed in the butter for the salted caramel, remove 100 grams and blitz in 200 grams of butter.

POPCORN

Pop a handful of popcorn in a large knob of butter and a pinch of salt. Once popped crumble the popcorn into small pieces.

MACARON

140 grams egg white
70 grams caster sugar
230 grams icing sugar
120 grams almond meal
2 grams salt

Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius. Whip egg whites and sugar until stiff and then continue to whip for 2 minutes. Sift icing sugar and almond meal twice discarding any bits that do not pass through the sieve. Fold into egg white with a metal spoon in as little folds as possible aim for less than 20. Place mixture into piping bag and pipe onto trays lined with baking paper and bang the tray down on the bench a couple of times. Sprinkle with popcorn and let them sit for 10 minutes before baking them in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes.

ASSEMBLY

Match up the macaron shells so that both top and bottom are even sizes. On one side spread the salted caramel buttercream and make a well in the center with a butter knife. Fill the well with salted caramel and then place the lid on top with a bit of a twist to ensure that it is stuck on well. Store in the fridge and serve at room temperature and the most important thing ENJOY!

Make sure you fold the sifted almond meal and icing sugar in well with minimal strokes

Sprinkle crushed popcorn on top of the piped macaroons

Allow the piped macarons to sit for 5-10 minutes before placing them in the oven.

I am often asked how I find time to cook and bake with a toddler. The answer is I get him involved, from weighing and tipping in to stirring and spooning out to playing with the dished. He loves it and I can't step foot into the kitchen without being asked  'chair over?'

The baked macarons. Allow to stand on the tray for 5-10 minutes after baking to allow to set adequately. 

Fill the macarons. This time instead of piping the filling I used a butter knife to spread the buttercream and then carved out a hole in the middle and filled it with salted caramel. The texture combination is amazing and the butter cream stops the caramel from oozing out everywhere. If you put them in the fridge the caramel goes all chewy and delicious, or at room temperature it is the perfect oozing consistency.

Please head over to love in the kitchen to see what everyone else has been upto in the kitchen!

LEMON GLUT - LEMON CURD AND LEMON CORDIAL

My husband went on his yearly men's 4x4ing weekend organised by some guys at our church and invited one of my girlfriends husbands. So we thought it was a great opportunity to catch up (but do we ever need an excuse??). She told me she had hundreds of lemons on her tree and that we should make something yummy and tried to tempt me with curd, curd my friends is my weakness! Anything curd lemon, orange, and passionfruit especially....drool (do you have any other flavours you make curd with?)! So we set upon making a large batch along with some lemon cordial to preserve the harvest.

LEMON CURD RECIPE

This makes 2.5 Liters you can quarter this recipe (quantities in brackets). This is great as it is (I love mine straight out of the jar), layered in between sponge cake, on top of pancakes, on top of a meringue, in a tart shell, made into ice-cream, layered with puff pastry, oh the list goes on!

800 mls (200mls) freshly squeezed lemon juice
740 grams (185g)
500 grams (125g)  butter chopped
12 (3) eggs beaten

Heat the sugar and lemon juice over a low heat until sugar dissolves and it's just about to boil (do not allow to boil). Crack all your eggs into a bowl and whisk together add a cup of sugar and juice mixture whisking continuously, and then add the remaining. Strain back into the pot to make sure there are no lumps and cook over low heat until it thickens. Once it has thickened turn the heat of and piece by piece stir in your butter. Place in sterilized jars and store in the refrigerator for 2 weeks (if you don't polish it off by then!).

LEMON CORDIAL

This is a lovely and refreshing cordial, dilute it with 1/4 cordial and 3/4 water. this recipe makes 2.5 Liters of cordial which makes 10 liters of cordial (or o0re if you like your cordial more diluted like me!)

1 L lemon juice
1 L water
1300 grams sugar

Add all the ingredients to a pan and bring to the simmer for 30 minutes, skim off any scum and bottle. Store in the refrigerator in sterilized jars for up to a year.

Today I am linking up with Love in the kitchen, so head on over and check out what everyone else is creating!

SPICED PEAR AND FRANGIPAN TART

These tarts are delicious and now that I have made them a couple of times I keep the master stock and freeze it so I can thaw it and use it again and again. It had been quite a while since I made this tart as I don't to repeat recipes, but this one is just delicious. This is the recipe for the tart but the pastry recipe is misprinted so I used this one instead.

YARRA VALLEY CHOCOLATERIE AND ICE CREAMERY

I had the pleasure of visiting the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery again! I love this place and it is huge! You are able to watch the chocolate being made.

And taste the delights with 3 large (I mean large) tasting bowls of white milk and dark coverture chocolate. 

There is a large variety of chocolates and truffles. The cafe serves a large selection of yummies to tempt! The ice-cream is heavenly! A lot of the produce is local. The sweets are sweet and delicious!

 It is child friendly with little drawing tables a large grassed area and a large grass spiral for the kiddies to run off their sugar high. 

I would highly recommend a visit!

TWISTED CHEESECAKE

This cheesecake was deliciously light and delicious! The best I have ever made or eaten. The combination of cheeses surprisingly work well! Give it a go an surprise yourself and your guests!

BASE
1 packet shortcrust biscuits crushed
1/4 cup melted butter

FILLING
250 g mascarpone
1/4 cup danish feta (the smooth feta) passes through a sieve (you can also use goats chevre)
300 mls pure cream
300 mls sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 vanilla beans scraped
1 tbs gelatin
4 tbs boiling water

TOPPING
2 cups frozen raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbs gelatin

Make the base by combining the biscuit crumbs with the melted butter and pressing into greased spring form tin on the bottoms and sides.

Make the jelly topping by simmering the raspberries and sugar together. once liquid add gelatin and pass through a sieve to get rid of the raspberry seeds.

Add gelatin and water together and give a stir, allow to melt. Whip mascarpone and feta with sugar and scraped vanilla bean seeds until light and fluffy and sugar is dissolved. Add sour cream and whip until combined and then the cream and gelatin. Do not over whip at this stage as you do not want it to curdle.

Pour filling over base and jelly over that and refrigerate overnight.

SOURDOUGH FRUIT LOAF

It's so nice to be sitting out in the summer sun in our backyard blogging while the little fella runs around while I have a full vantage. At the moment he is playing fetch with out dog!

I made a fruit loaf the other day with my homemade sour dough starter and it was delicious! A little bit dense still but I only let it prove for a couple of hours instead of overnight like you are supposed to with sourdough, so I think with more time to rest and rise this bread would be even better!

Ingredients:
3 cup plain or wholemeal flour
1 cup sour dough starter
1 cup mixed dried fruit finely chopped (I used dried apricots and figs)
1 tbs sugar (I used molasses sugar)
1 tsp salt
1 cups water plus more if needed

Mix all the ingredients together until you have a smooth dough, I do not knead my dough's. Place in a lightly oil bread loaf that has been dusted with flour, and leave in a warm spot until it has proved. Ideally this would be over night but 6 hours should do if you are short on time. Bake in a 220 degree oven for 20 minutes and then another 10 minutes outside of the tin at 180 degrees. Allow to cool and if you can't resist enjoy some warn with lots of butter!

Placed in the tin ready to rise

After the dough had risen for 4 hours

The baked loaf

mmmmm just add butter!