baking – Page 5 – Bakerholics Anonymous

Carrot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Published on April 2, 2015March 14, 2016 by Elise BLeave a comment

I love this cake, it’s so quick and effortless to put together and is absolutely delicious (also, because it contains carrot it’s basically a salad, right?!). It’s great at any time of year but is particularly good as a treat around Easter for someone who doesn’t like chocolate or for people who are chocolated out!

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Ingredients (serves 8-10)
1 ½ cups grated carrot (lightly packed)
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 cup plain flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
¾ cup vegetable oil
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
40g (1 tablespoon) softened butter
60g cream cheese (e.g. Philadelphia)
1 teaspoon lemon rind
1 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted

To decorate (if desired):
Extra chopped walnuts
The thin end of a small carrot cut into 2 halves
4 sprigs of coriander

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Method
Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced).

Grease an 8″ round cake pan with margarine and line the base with baking paper.

Combine eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla & sifted dry ingredients in a large bowl & beat on low speed.

Stir in carrots & walnuts. Mix well.

Pour mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for approx. 40 – 45mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes, before placing it on a wire rack to cool completely.

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To make the cream cheese frosting, beat butter & cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Add in the lemon rind and icing sugar and beat until smooth. Spread evenly over the top and sides of the cake.

If desired, decorate by placing the finely chopped walnuts around the edge of the cake and the carrot pieces in the centre of the cake with two coriander sprigs above each carrot. Enjoy!

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Recipe from Aunty Cynth

Key Lime Pie

Published on March 14, 2015March 14, 2016 by Elise BLeave a comment

Happy Pi Day everyone! And what an exciting one it is (3.14.15).
This pie is perfectly seasonal – being both a pie (for Pi day) and a fabulous shade of green which is appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day next week 🙂
It’s also very easy to make and a delicious way to take advantage of the abundance of limes we are lucky to have at this time of the year.

Ingredients (serves 8-10)
135g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
60g caster sugar
75g butter, softened
1x 400g can sweetened condensed milk
125ml fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons grated lime zest
2 eggs, separated
Green food colouring (optional)
300ml thickened cream

Method
Preheat oven to 170°C. In a shallow 20-23cm pie dish, press combined biscuit crumbs, sugar & butter into the base and up this sides, making a small rim.

In a medium bowl, whisk condensed milk with lime juice, zest and egg yolks until the mixture thickens. Add 1-2 drops of green food colouring.

In a small bowl with electric mixer on full power, beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Gently fold into lime mixture.

Pour lime filling into the biscuit crust and smooth the top.

Bake the pie for 15-20 mins or until lime filling is just firm.

Cool pie in this dish and then refrigerate until chilled, approximately 3 hours.

Whip cream in a small bowl until stiff peaks form. Pipe a border of cream around the edge of the pie and top with h lime wedges if desired. Enjoy!

Adapted from Mary Berry’s ‘Key lime Pie’ in Step By Step Desserts and Confections.

Chocolate Mint Fudge

Published on March 11, 2015March 14, 2016 by Elise B1 Comment

St. Patrick’s Day is almost upon us and so I am all about the green in my baking at the moment! This fudge is super quick and easy – taking only a few minutes cooking time from start to finish. I love this fudge as it isn’t too sweet (the major issue I have with most fudge), and I’m a sucker for the mint/choc combination.

Feel free to omit the chocolate drizzle on top if you wish, and if you prefer a marbled finish you can make the 2 fudge layers at the same time, and swirl them together in the tray instead of layering them.

Ingredients
1 ½ cups dark chocolate melts
400ml can sweetened condensed milk
1 ½ cups white chocolate melts
Green food colouring
Peppermint essence
Approx. ½ cup dark chocolate melts (melted) to drizzle on top

Method
Line a rectangular baking tray with baking paper (a small tray will give you fewer pieces of thick fudge, larger will give you more pieces of thinner fudge – it’s up to you!).
In a small saucepan over a low heat, melt the dark chocolate melts with half of the condensed milk, stirring occasionally.

Spread evenly into the pan and chill in the fridge.

While the chocolate layer is chilling, melt the white chocolate and remaining condensed milk on the stovetop on a low heat.

Add peppermint extract to taste (I used 1 teaspoon) and a drop or two of green food colouring.

Spread evenly over chilled chocolate layer.

Put in the fridge to set.

After approximately 10 minutes in the fridge, melt the remaining dark chocolate melts and drizzle over the fudge.

Leave in the fridge until set and then cut into small squares. Enjoy!

Note: can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a fortnight.

Adapted from ‘Choc Mint Fudge’ on Grab Your Spork.com.

Giant Vanilla Cupcake

Published on February 6, 2015March 14, 2016 by Elise BLeave a comment

I haven’t made a giant cupcake for about 18 months but I’m so glad I found my giant cupcake cases again because they’re so much fun to make (and eat!) They’re also really easily adaptable as you can make them any flavour you like and decorate them in a million different ways. This time I’ve used buttercream roses but you could ice it as simply (or complexly) as you like – there’s a link to my fondant ‘soft serve’ icing instructions at the bottom of the page.

Ingredients (serves 10-12):
Cake
375g butter, softened
375g caster sugar
6 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
375g self-raising flour
3 tablespoons milk

Cupcake Case
375g white chocolate melts or Wilton candy melts

Buttercream icing
250g butter, softened
800g icing sugar
1 ½ tablespoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons of milk
Food colouring

Method
Spray silicone giant cupcake pan liberally with canola oil and preheat oven to 160°C fan-forced.

Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla and then eggs, one at a time, ensuring that each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. Add in half of the flour followed by two tablespoons of the milk, and then add remaining flour and milk. Mix until just combined.

Fill the giant cupcake pans, starting with the cupcake top. Fill until approximately 2cm shy of the top of the pan. Then fill the bottom pan with the remaining batter.

Bake in the oven for between 40-70 minutes, checking regularly. Note: the cupcake top will bake faster than the bottom so take it out before the bottom is done. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Leave cakes in their pans for at least 20 minutes before gently peeling the silicone off and allowing the cakes to cool completely on a cooling rack.

jan-proj3-041-Copy — Image credit: The Pink Whisk

While the cakes are cooling, wash and dry the bottom cupcake pan ready to make the cupcake case. Melt half the chocolate/candy melts and pour into the bottom cupcake pan. Spread evenly up the sides using a pastry brush. Refrigerate for 20 minutes and then repeat with the remaining melts. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then gently peel off the silicone mould.

tumblr_inline_mmyiwlTG1X1qz4rgp — Image credit: She Who Bakes

tumblr_inline_mmyixnTdp41qz4rgp — Image credit: She Who Bakes

tumblr_inline_mmyj0njISG1qz4rgp — Image credit: She Who Bakes

Using a serrated bread knife, trim around bottom cake so all crunchy edges are removed. Level top (of base) and then cut base in half. Cut off bottom layer off top piece. Level base (of top).

Make buttercream by beating all ingredients but the food colouring until light and fluffy. Set half aside for the crumb coat, and then add the food colouring to the remaining buttercream.

Put a 1cm thick coating of the uncoloured buttercream between 2 bottom layers of cake and then between the base and top (ensure level – cut if necessary). Then put a thin layer of buttercream on the inside of the chocolate case and gently ease cake into it. Cover top of cake liberally with buttercream to form a protective barrier against crumbs.

Put the coloured buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 2D nozzle (to make roses) or equivalent, and pipe icing in a rose swirl pattern, starting from the bottom of the cake and working your way up.

Decorate with icing flowers, sprinkles, silver cachous, glitter… basically whatever you like!

Alternatively, if you’d prefer a soft-serve, fondant look. Halve the buttercream recipe to only make the crumb coat & then follow these directions: https://bakerholicsanonymous.wordpress.com/recipes-2/cakes/giant-cupcake/

Recipe adapted from ‘Vanilla Giant Cupcake Recipe’ by The Pink Whisk

Tiramisu Ice Cream

Published on January 22, 2015January 8, 2022 by Elise BLeave a comment

This ice cream is easy, light and utterly delicious. It is quite sweet, more like a Vietnamese iced coffee than a traditional coffee, but works beautifully with the tartness of raspberries. I’ve chosen to serve mine in individual glasses here, but it works well as one large ice cream cut into slabs too – I’ve included the instructions for both.

Start this recipe at least 7 hours ahead of serving.

Ingredients (serves 6)
2 tablespoons instant coffee (I use decaf)
⅓ cup boiling water
2 tablespoons Tia Maria (or equivalent coffee liqueur)
400g can skim condensed milk
550ml cream
¼ cup milk
1 x 300g packet sponge finger biscuits
Raspberries & dark chocolate curls or chocolate covered coffee beans (to decorate)

Method
Combine coffee, water & Tia Maria and set aside until cool.

Combine condensed milk and cream in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until thickened. Beat in half of the coffee mixture.

To make 6 individual servings, prepare 6 medium sized glasses. Split the cream mixture equally into 3 bowls. Divide the first bowl’s worth of cream mixture evenly between the glasses.

Combine remaining coffee mixture with milk. Cut 6 sponge finger biscuits into halves and dip into this coffee mixture until evenly coated. Fit two half biscuits in a single layer into each glass. Cut approximately 2-3 additional biscuits into 5 small pieces and dip into the coffee mixture. Use to fill the gaps so you have a fairly full layer of biscuits.

Evenly divide the second bowl of cream mixture between the glasses. Repeat the previous sponge finger process.

Finally, top each glass with an even share of the remaining cream mixture. Freeze until set.

Serve with raspberries and chocolate curls.

To make one large ice cream, line a 20cm square cake pan with aluminium foil. Spoon half of the cream mixture into the tray.

Combine remaining coffee mixture with milk. Dip 12 sponge finger biscuits into this coffee mixture until evenly coated. Place in a single layer on top of the ice-cream mixture in the tray (you may need to cut some sponge fingers to make it fit).

Top the sponge finger biscuits with the remaining cream mixture and freeze until set.

To serve, cut into rectangular slices and serve with raspberries and chocolate covered coffee beans.

Recipe adapted from Good Taste magazine.

Red Velvet Christmas Cupcakes

Published on December 17, 2014April 3, 2016 by Elise BLeave a comment

Wow! Only a week and a day until Christmas 🙂 It’s warming up around here which means that having the oven on and heating the house isn’t ideal and so I’ve had a couple of organised baking spells to try and minimise the amount of oven time.

I made these cupcakes yesterday for an afternoon tea with friends and they’re easy and delicious (and still soft & moist today).

For decorations, go as crazily festive as you like. There are plenty of cute Christmas sugar icing decorations that are cheap and readily available, you could make up a range of different coloured icings and pipe a wreath on them or something along those lines (if you can be bothered), or do as I did, and cut out some holly out of ready-made fondant icing.

Of course, these cupcakes aren’t reserved just for Christmas time, they would work equally well as birthday cupcakes with piped icing and candles!

Ingredients (Makes 24)
Cupcakes
150g softened butter
⅔ cup caster sugar
2 tspns vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 ⅓ cups self raising flour, sifted
4 tblspns cocoa, sifted
½ cup buttermilk
1 ½ tblspns of good quality red food colouring (I use Wilton’s, you may need to adjust the amount depending on the brand you use)

Cream Cheese Icing
500g cream cheese, chopped
100g butter, softened
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 ½ cups icing sugar
2 tblspns milk

To Decorate
Ready made white fondant icing
Red food colouring
Green food colouring
Holly leaf cutter (or stencil)
Sharp Knife

Method
Preheat oven to 160°C fan-forced. Place butter, caster sugar and vanilla into a large bowl and beat with electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, beating until well combined. Add the flour, cocoa, buttermilk and food colouring and beat on a low speed until just combined.

Divide mixture into cupcake tins lined with (green) patty pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes (depending on your oven) or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the largest cupcake comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

While the cupcakes are cooking and cooling, divide half of the fondant icing into 2 and colour one lot vibrant red, and the other a deep (holly-ish) green. Roll out the green fondant with a rolling pin and cut out 48 holly leaves. Then, using a sharp non-serated knife, mark out a leaf pattern by running the knife through the centre so that it leaves an incision but does not cut through. Then cut diagonal incisions from the centre out so that it looks like the veins of a leaf (see picture below).

Pull small pieces of the red fondant off and roll into 48 small balls to make the holly berries.

Once the cupcakes are almost completely cool, start making the cream cheese icing. Place the cream cheese and butter into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 8-10 minutes. Add the icing sugar and vanilla and beat for a further 5 minutes or until completely smooth. Add the milk and beat until just combined.

Ice each cupcake with a generous amount of icing and top with 2 leaves and 2 berries. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Donna Hay’s recipe ‘red velvet cupcakes with sugared cranberries’.

Chocolate Reindeer Tartlets

Published on December 13, 2014March 14, 2016 by Elise BLeave a comment

Only 12 days until Christmas!! I LOVE Christmas time (and I mean LOVE) and have been madly baking and decorating along to Christmas tunes ready for the big day. I have also been joined by a little puppy, Bailey, who has made baking more of a challenge but has by no means curbed my enthusiasm for it.

These adorable reindeer tartlets are delicious and so easy to make – a perfect recipe to involve the kids in and to take to the multitude of Christmas functions where you need to ‘bring a plate’. If you don’t want all the reindeer to be Rudolphs, feel free to swap the jaffas for brown m&ms 🙂

Ingredients (makes 20)
1 packet Butternut Snap Biscuits (or equivalent)
65g butter, chopped
⅓ cup cream
200g dark chocolate melts
Approximately 10 white marshmallows, halved
20 jaffas or equivalent red lollies
20 white mini marshmallows, halved
Chocolate writing icing (or black icing pen, or additional melted chocolate applied with a toothpick)
1 packet of pretzels

Method
Preheat oven to 160°C fan-forced. Place 1 biscuit per hole in a 12-hole, round-based tartlet tin. Bake for 2-3 minutes or until soft. Remove from oven. Carefully press softened biscuits into tin to mould into a cup shape (use a spoon to make it easier if you like). Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a plate and repeating with remaining biscuits.

Heat butter, cream and chocolate in a saucepan over very low heat. Stir constantly for approximately 5 minutes or until melted and smooth. Pour into a clean, dry bowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes or until cool but not set.

Fill biscuit cases with 1 heaped teaspoon of chocolate mixture. Refrigerate until set.

While the ganache is setting, carefully cut pretzels in half and trim so it looks like a lower case ‘f’ for the antlers (I seem to break as many as I successfully cut so that’s why I recommend allowing a full packet!!)

Gently press 1 marshmallow half, sticky side up into each tartlet.

Attach 1 jaffa to each marshmallow.

Attach 2 mini marshmallow halves above nose, cut-side up, to form eyes. Use an icing pen/or a spot of chocolate ganache applied with a toothpick to create the pupils.

Place 2 pretzel pieces above eyes. Press to secure. Serve & enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Arnott’s ‘Chocolate Butternut Snap Tartlets’ recipe.

Pumpkin Pie

Published on November 27, 2014March 14, 2016 by Elise B3 Comments

Pic from Inspired Taste.net (mine got eaten too quickly!) — Pic from Inspired Taste (mine got eaten too quickly!)

Even though Thanksgiving isn’t really a holiday celebrated here in Australia, this year my family decided to get in on the action anyway as a number of us will be away over Christmas (and we like to party with or without good reason). So, in keeping with tradition, I made a pumpkin pie for dessert. I had no idea what to expect having never tried one before, but gave a highly rated recipe I found online a go and was really pleased with the result. If I didn’t know there was pumpkin in there (and it wasn’t orange) I wouldn’t pick it because it’s really the vanilla and spices that come to the fore, with the pumpkin providing a creamy, sweet back note. Pumpkin-y or not it was delicious and I’ll probably make it again when pumpkins are in season.

Ingredients (serves 8-10)
Pastry
1 ½ cups plain flour
3 tspns icing sugar
140g cold butter, chopped
1 egg yolk
2 tblspoons water

Filling
2 cups pumpkin puree (made by roasting pumpkins, scooping out the flesh, blitzing it into a smooth paste in a blender and then putting it in a sieve for an hour or so to remove the excess juice)
3 large eggs
½ cup sugar
⅓ cup brown sugar
¾ cup cream
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
A pinch of salt
1 quick grind of pepper (i.e. a really small amount, sounds odd but it works!)

Method
To make the pastry, put the flour, icing sugar, butter, yolk & water into a food processor and process until it just comes together. Press into a ball, knead gently on a floured surface until smooth & then refrigerate, covered in clingfilm, for 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 200°C fan-forced. Lightly grease a 23cm flan tin or pie dish.

When the pastry has chilled, roll dough on a floured surface until large enough to line the tin (I often have a bit left over). Lift pastry into tin, ease into the sides & then trim the excess.

Cover the pastry with a sheet of baking paper and fill with pie weights or uncooked rice. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs and sugar until smooth. Add the pumpkin puree, cream, vanilla and spices and stir until all incorporated.

Pour mixture into pastry case (obviously remove the baking paper and pie weights first!!) and smooth over the top. I ended up having a bit of pumpkin filling left over that I might use in muffins or something (if I don’t eat it all first :P)

Bake pie in the oven for 10 minutes before reducing the heat to 160°C fan-forced for around 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let cool completely before transferring to a serving platter and then serve at room temperature with whipped cream or ice cream. Enjoy!

Pumpkin-Pie-Recipe-13 — Pic from Inspired Taste (mine got eaten too quickly!)

Pastry recipe from the Australian Women’s Weekly Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe & Filling Recipe from Inspired Taste.net

Celebration Sponge Cake

Published on November 18, 2014March 18, 2017 by Elise B5 Comments

I made this sponge cake over the weekend for my Grandma’s 80th Birthday. I really wanted to make something special as it is widely accepted that my Grandma is one of the most amazing humans on the planet (really, she’s exceptional). This cake looked amazing, tasted delicious and is very adaptable – you can use any fruit that’s in season to put on top, and fill it with anything you like. If I was in a rush I would even be inclined to buy a sponge cake, cut in half and decorate it to get the effect with minimal time and effort.

Ingredients
For the sponge:
3 eggs, separated
1 cup caster sugar
½ cup cold water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup plain flour
1 tbsp cornflour

For the sweetened, thickened cream:
500ml thickened cream
Icing sugar (to taste)
Vanilla extract (to taste)

For the jam: https://bakerholicsanonymous.wordpress.com/recipes-2/frostings-icing-condiments/raspberry-jam/, alternatively you can use store bought (but it is likely to be sweeter)

For decorating:
2 punnets fresh strawberries
1 punnet fresh raspberries
1 punnet fresh blueberries
1 pomegranate
Fresh mint

For the macarons: https://bakerholicsanonymous.wordpress.com/recipes-2/cookies-biscuits-macarons/raspberry-macarons/ (with the raspberry jam to sandwich)

Method
Make the raspberry jam according to instructions.

If desired, make the macarons according to instructions. Sandwich with some of the jam.

For the sponge:

Preheat oven to 160°C (fan-forced). Grease two 20cm round, shallow tins and line the bases with baking paper.

Use electric beaters to beat the egg yolks, sugar, water, and vanilla for approximately 10 minutes, until very pale and thick. Wash the beaters and then, in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and baking powder until stiff peaks form.

Fold the sifted flours into the yolk mixture and then gently mix in the egg whites.

Divide evenly between the tins and bake for 20 minutes or until springy in the centre and the cake has come away from the sides of the tins.

Gently turn cakes, face up, onto wire cooling racks with clean tea towels on them (this stops the wire from denting your cakes). Leave to cool entirely.

For the Cream

Add cream, icing sugar (to taste) and vanilla extract (to taste) into a large stick blender/master container (or bowl) and blend until the cream is very thick.

To Assemble

Lay one of your sponges top-down on your serving platter.

Spread with raspberry jam (or desired filling).

Spread a generous layer of whipped cream on top.

Top with strawberry slices, chopped evenly.

Gently place the other sponge, top-side up onto the cake.

Top liberally with cream and spread it evenly, right out to the edge (but not down the edge, you still want to see the cake).

Top with fruit and mint leaves (the more the better often for aesthetics – and flavour!) And, if desired, place macarons with a blob of cream and a raspberry on top, evenly around the cake.

Enjoy!

Recipe from Grandma

Raspberry Jam

Published on November 16, 2014April 3, 2016 by Elise B1 Comment

Wow, what a year! It feels a bit premature to be saying that as it’s only November but I have now officially finished my uni year and am two-thirds of the way through my undergraduate degree! I’ll still be working throughout my three month uni break but now that it’s heating up, the cricket is on, the jacarandas are in full bloom, and Christmas carols are being played in stores, it’s starting to feel like the year is coming to a close 🙂

Today’s recipe is very versatile. I am making it to serve as a macaron filling for some raspberry macarons I’ve made to decorate my Grandma’s 80th Birthday cake for this evening but it could also be used sandwiched between two sponge cakes for a Victoria sponge, between biscuits to make monte carlos, or on toast.

It is a vividly berry-coloured, clear looking jam (or jelly for those of you in the US), with an intense raspberry flavour and tang. I particularly like it as it’s not too sweet and it takes very little time and know-how to make.

Ingredients (makes about 2 small jars worth)
175g caster sugar
300g raspberries (fresh, or defrosted frozen)
Juice of half a small lemon
30g jam setting-agent (I use jamsetta)

Method
In a medium saucepan, dissolve the sugar in 100ml of water and bring to the boil.

Once the syrup has been boiling for 2 mins, add the raspberries, lemon juice and jamsetta.

Bring back to the boil, squashing the raspberries with a spatula while stirring, and let boil for 1-2 more minutes before removing from the heat and pouring into sterilised jars.