Heart Patterned Cake Roll

I know what you're thinking. "This many ingredients and multiple lists of instructions? This is goin to take forever!" But don't be intimidated by my "longwinded-ness". This is a ridiculously quick and easy recipe ! I'd be hard pressed to pick the part of this recipe that is "the most difficult", but if I had to i'd probably go with making the meringue, which really is just dumping the whites into the cake mixer (such finesse, Tash) and letting the mixer do its thing.

Mixing the ingredients for the pattern really only takes a couple of minutes and piping the pattern is the only thing I'd consider time consuming in this recipe. From that point on we'll just make like speedy gonzales and presto! A pretty cake!

Prep Time: 25-30 minutes
Baking Time: 6 minutes (say whaaat?)

Adapted from Dulce Delight

Ingredients:
for the pattern:
1 egg white
30g granulated sugar
40g flour (substitute half for cocoa powder for a chocolate pattern)
20g butter, room temperature
Fruit syrup or food colouring

for the cake
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup + 1tbsp sugar
60g butter, melted
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder (substitute with plain flour if you don't want the chocolate flavour)

for the filling
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 cup heavy/thickened cream
8-10 strawberries, quartered


Directions:

1. Line a 11 x 17 inch baking tray with baking paper
2. Place the template under the baking paper 
3. Preheat the oven to 200 Celcius

For the pattern

1. Combine the egg white, sugar and flour in a small bowl and mix well with a spoon
2. Add the softened butter and mix well
3. Divide into two portions, one larger than the other
4. Color the portions to your preference. (In this recipe I used Wilton's Rose Gel color and colored the larger portion darker than the other)
5. Pour the batters into separate piping bags fitted with a #1 tip
6. Pipe the patterns onto the baking paper with the template under it as a guide
7. Place the baking tray into the freezer while you prepare the rest of the recipe

For the cake:

1. Place egg whites in the bowl of a mixer and whip
2. When the egg whites are frothy, add the cream of tartar and continue to beat
3. Once the egg whites are the consistency of shaving cream, add half the sugar a tablespoon at a time and continue to beat until stiff peaks form
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and remaining sugar by hand until pale and creamy
5. Fold the meringue into the egg yolk mixture
6. Alternately add half the melted butter followed by half the flour/cocoa mixture
7. Pour the batter onto the baking tray and spread evenly over the entire tray using a spatula (It will be quite thinly spread)
8. Drag your finger through the batter to make a border around the edges of the baking paper
9. Bake in the oven for 6 minutes until the middle of the cake is set to the touch

For the filling:

1. Whip the cream and sugar past the point of stiff peaks (It should resemble clotted cream)

To assemble:

1. Lay out a sheet of baking paper and dust lightly with icing sugar
2. Quickly over turn the baking tray so that the cake falls face down onto the baking paper
3. Immediately and gently peel the baking paper off the cake
4. Flip the cake over once again such that the pattern in face down
5. Once the cake is cool (this happens pretty quickly), spread the cream filling over the entire cake
6. Lay down two rows of quartered strawberries on the side of the cake that is on the opposite end of the pattern
7. Using the baking paper to help you along, roll up the cake beginning on the end with the strawberries

And voila! A cake that is sure to impress!

Snickers Macaron

There's nothing more exciting than trying to squish the many amazing flavors of a candy bar (or anything, really) into the tiny confines of a little macaron. So when I saw this recipe on the Tartelette blog, I was blown away!

First off, the Tartelette blog has the most beautiful pictures ever. I have never seen macarons in such a light! It just inspires you to bake, bake and bake some more (and waste time study time, not to mention.) The beautiful colors, the gorgeous layouts and the hilarious bit of chatter that comes with it. I am dying to pick up a copy of her book on food photography, but haven't been able to find it here in Melbourne.

By golly, my respect for the makers of the Snickers bar has increased exponentially. I had no idea there were this many aspects to a Snickers bar!

Macaron Shells
Use the basic recipe here, but instead of 140g almond meal, use 70g almond meal and 70g peanut meal.

Chocolate Ganache
1/2 cup milk chocolate
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan and pour over the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Whisk until it is smooth and leave to cool to room temperature.

Marshmallow Cream (like, what? I had no idea there were marshmallows in snickers!)
1 cup marshmallows
1/8 cup smooth peanut butter

In a non-stick saucepan, melt the marshmallows and peanut butter and whisk until smooth. Leave to cool to room temperature. This creates a nougat-like piece that you can pull out of the saucepan.

Salted Caramel Sauce
120g sugar
40ml water
60g butter
75ml heavy whipping cream

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and heat over a low flame until the sugar dissolves. Add the butter and allow the mixture to come to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the cream (the mixture will bubble almost violently, but fret not). Whisk to combine and return the saucepan to the low heat until it comes to a boil. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the mixture is creamy, then pour into a jar to store.

*When I attempted this, I ended up with a solid block of salted caramel! But even that didn't dash my hopes and dreams for this macaron. I scraped the solid with a teaspoon to get little crumbles of salted caramel that I sprinkled into the filling.*


To assemble:

Pipe some chocolate ganache onto the macaron shell. Add a small amount of salted caramel sauce, half a peanut and a small piece of the marshmallow cream. Sandwich and chill overnight, but allow to sit outside for 15 minutes for it to soften up before consuming.

Taste exactly like a snickers bar, but classier. Yum!

Blueberry Cheesecake Macarons

Blueberry cheesecake. Mmm, the flavors that make up this macaron bring back a flood of memories of the times where I would run off to the bakery near my college to pick up a blueberry cheese tart between lessons. Ah, how time flies.

I used the basic macaron recipe (found here), and sprinkled digestive biscuit crumbs over the top of the shells after the macarons had dried and skin had formed.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Filling

120g cream cheese, softened

150g icing sugar

2.5 tbsp blueberry jam

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1. Whisk the cream cheese until light and fluffy.
2. Add icing sugar and whisk until combined.
3. Add the jam and lemon zest and whisk until just combined.
4. Pipe onto macaron shells, sandwich and refrigerate overnight.

Just lovely!

Oreo Cheesecake Macaron

So, my marketing exam is coming up in less than a week! So what does that mean? More baking! (otherwise known as procrastination.)

As always, I use my trusty "slightly-less-sweet" recipe for fool-proof macaron shells, found here.

With these macarons, my feet were much bigger than usual as I was experimenting with "shielding" the macarons with an empty baking sheet a rack above the macarons. I did this to keep the macarons white and prevent them from browning. However, I ended up having to bake it for 22 minutes instead of the usual 15. Also, the macarons rose as they always do, but didn't sink enough to produce the dainty little feet they usually get, and so I ended up with these thick macaron shells. You have no idea how much sadness this brings me.

but without further drama, here's the recipe!

For the shells, I used this basic recipe. To decorate, I ground up the processed oreo crumbs in a coffee grinder to get a superfine powder. I then sifted this powder over the dried macaron shells that had already formed skins, shielding half of each shell with a sheet of paper to make the neat line.

Oreo cream cheese filling
125g cream cheese, room temperature
28g butter, room temperature
1/2 cup icing sugar
75g oreo biscuits, processed to crumbs

1. Cream together butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer until smooth.
2. Gradually add the icing sugar while mixing until well mixed in and smooth.
3. Add oreo crumbs and mix well.

Sandwich between two macaron shells and refrigerate for 24 hours before consuming. Enjoy!

Nutella Macarons

Having a sister with a perpetual craving for all things chocolate makes baking for her rather uninteresting. Until she discovered her love for macarons, that is! Chocolate macarons only, mind you.

But the mind of a procrastinator knows no bounds when it comes to digging up new things to occupy oneself. And so, nutella macarons it was to be.

So I made basic macaron shells (see the recipe here) but added 2 tbsp of cocoa powder to the dry ingredients.

Nutella Filling

120ml heavy whipping cream

30g dark chocolate

26g milk chocolate

3 tbsp nutella

To assemble

1. Cut the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl with the nutella.
2. Bring the cream to a boil and remove from the heat.
3. Pour the cream into the bowl of chocolate and whisk until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
4. Refrigerate the mixture in the fridge for an hour until it has thickened.
5. Pour the chilled mixture into a mixing bowl and whisk until it becomes pale and creamy.
6. Pipe onto macaron shells and sandwich together before chilling in the fridge overnight.

Enjoy, all you nutella fanatics.

Basic Macaron Recipe

How idyllic it would sound to say the love affair I have with macarons began with love at first sight. But au contraire, my first encounter with macarons ended with me washing it down with a gallon of water to get rid of the taste. What was wrong with me then, i'll never know.

It all changed however, when a friend of mine offered to teach me how to make them! My interest was piqued by my first failed batch of macarons (and my frustration with the next 3 failed attempts). Nothing like a challenge to make you want to bake multiple batches of macarons in a day.

Three months on, i'm happy to say that I've finally found a quick and foolproof recipe! No more trying to juggle all my baking equipment/ingredients with crossed fingers, hoping that the shells wouldn't turn into monstrosities once they entered the dungeon of my oven. This recipe even makes macarons that are less sweet than the usual french meringue recipes!

And, there's nothing I love more than pictures to go with instructions! Seriously, how am I supposed to know how lightly is "lightly whipped" or how pale is "pale and creamy"?


Basic Macaron Shells

Dry ingredients:
205g icing sugar
140 almond meal
Powdered food coloring
2 tbsp of powdered flavoring (see tips)

For the meringue:
144g egg whites, aged (see tips for on-the-spot aging)
72g caster sugar


Preparation

Weigh out your ingredients accurately using a digital weighing scale. If you have not aged your eggs, microwave them in a covered bowl for 20 seconds on high, checking every 10 seconds to ensure they have not cooked (they will turn opaque white).

Ensure that the baking paper sits nicely within your tray. If it folds up the sides as shown above, your macarons will become out of shape as the baking paper will lift.

Cut off the tip of your piping bag and put in a Wilton #11 tip. Stuff a bit of the bag into the tip to prevent the batter from leaking out when you fill the bag.

Place the piping bag into a cup and fold it over your hand to keep the bag clean and neat when you fill it.

Directions

1. Process the dry ingredients in a food processor until well mixed and to break up all the lumps. The icing sugar also helps absorb the oil from the almond meal while processing so that it does not clump up.

2. Sift the almond meal and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl.

3. Add egg whites and caster sugar and whisk using an electric mixer. Whisk for 2 minutes at Speed 4, 2 minutes at Speed 6, 2 minutes at Speed 8. (Kitchenaid mixer speeds)

4. Add gel coloring (if needed) to the egg mixture and whisk for 1 minute at Speed 10. The meringues will be very stiff, and almost solid-like.

5. Spoon the meringues into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula until the mixture runs off the back of the spatula and forms thick ribbons in the batter.

6. Use a teaspoon to spoon half a teaspoon of batter onto a flat plate to test if the consistency is right before you fill your piping bag. With a few taps to the bottom of the plate, the batter should flatten out until the peak almost disappears after 15 seconds.

7. Pour the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton #11 tip. Use a chopping board to push the batter down to the tip.

8. Using the template laid under a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray, pipe within the lines of the circles. Pull out the template sheet after piping.

9. Leave to dry for about 20-30 minutes until a skin forms. When you gently tough a finger to the shell, it shuold come away with no batter on your finger.

10. Bake at for 150°C for 15 minutes on the middle rack.

11. Remove tray from oven and slide the baking paper with the shells onto a cooling rack and wait till completely cool to fill.

Tips

• To flavor the shells, add 2 tbsp of cocoa powder, ground tea leaves or ground freeze-dried fruit to the dried ingredients.
• To age the egg whites on the spot, microwave them for 20 seconds. Because microwave ovens vary, check the egg whites after the first 10 seconds to make sure it hasn't cooked (it turns opaque white when it cooks).
• When attempting the "macaronage", test the consistency by spooning out some batter with a  teaspoon and dropping it onto a flat plate. The tip of the batter should settle into the rest of the batter within 15 seconds.
• If you want to sprinkle crumbs or any powder/decorations on your macaron shells, wait until the shells have dried and formed a skin before doing so. This prevents the shells from cracking when they bake.
• The type of baking tray used can affect the feet of the macaron. I have found that a thicker, more insulated baking tray gives more even and small, neat feet. I use Wilton Recipe Right Cookie Pans. A thin Analon cookie sheet that I used warped slightly in the oven and caused lopsided feet.
• Refrigerating macarons overnight after filling allows the moisture of the filling to soak into the shells so that you achieve the chewy centre of the macaron.
• The only way to make macarons less sweet is to reduce the sweetness of the filling. I have tried to vary the ratios of icing sugar and almond meal but this was the lowest I could go without getting lumpy macaroons that cracked while baking.

Mango cream pie

With summer in Melbourne, you can never count on having the perfect summer. You're practically in an oven one day where any amount of clothing feels unbearable, and then you're pulling on your sweaters and boots the next! One perfect thing you can count on having in summer however, are mangoes!

Ah, mangoes. God's gift to mankind, if you ask me. So, what better way to celebrate summer than with something light and fruity encased in the perfect crumbly pastry?

This is the easiest and quickest tart base recipe I've ever tried and it smells divine, but tastes even better! Smells like molasses and tastes wonderfully rich and buttery with that much needed biscuity crunch.

Mango Cream Tart

For the tart base:
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/8 tsp salt
113g cold butter

For the filling
1 cup thickened cream
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 mango, cut into small cubes

For the garnish
1 mango, cut into thin slices


To make the crust:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Combine all the tart base ingredients in a food processor fitted with a dough blade and process until it forms a dough (about a minute).
3. Combine the dough into a ball and press the dough into an 8 inch tart pan and prick it all over with a fork.
4. Freeze the tart base for 15 minutes, then bake for 20 minutes. (Freezing and pricking the pastry removes the necessity for pie weights when baking)
5. It should come out of the oven golden brown and slightly soft, but will harden as it cools. Place the tart pan on a cooling rack and leave until completely cool.

To assemble:

1. Beat the thickened cream and icing sugar in an electric mixer until its stiff and thick.
2. Gently fold in the mango cubes.
3. Pour the cream mixture into the cooled tart base and use a spatula to spread it out evenly such that it has a roughly flat top.
4. Layer the thinly sliced mangoes on top of the tart to decorate.
5. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour so that the cream thickens and you can slice the tart neatly without cream oozing all over.

Enjoy and don't give yourself an overdose like I did! (If that's even possible)