Our teacher didn’t really spend too much time over the making of the batter, but I know how important it is to get it to the light and fluffy stage after having a few disasters.
Then all that’s left is to spoon the batter into the cases, with the help of an ice cream scooper. Good trick, that.
But what we were at Sparkle Cupcakery for is, of course, cupcakes. There was a delectable selection at the shop.
However we came to create them. Later, you’ll see how close we got.
Smoked meat was the sandwich theme: smoked chicken and smoked salmon to be precise. And to follow, shortbread creams.
And for dessert, my orange and almond cake with orange sauce and cream. More successful than my last effort, for sure.
Well, winter’s over, so this is the last dish of the season! I tried baking a mocha friand. It was originally a coffee one but I replaced instant coffee with cocoa powder. After baking it’s dosed with an espresso/sweetened condensed milk concoction, which makes the finished product nice and moist. It could actually do with a touch more sugar, but other than that I was pleased with the result.
Another pudding I’ve been raring to try is sticky date pudding. I’ve tried restaurant versions of this, but I think this is better, despite it not being very photogenic. This one has a quantity of walnut meal in it along with the sticky date mixture. Served with butterscotch sauce and cream, it was very moist and yummy indeed.
Lemon delicious pudding has been in my radar for a very long time. I found a recipe in my scrapbook dating back perhaps 8 years ago. I eventually got around to it last weekend by using this recipe.
It’s very yummy, although a tad too sweet for me. Next time I’ll cut down the sugar to 1 cup or even 3/4 cup.
This is becoming quite a series… Which isn’t over just yet despite the warmer temperatures in Sydney this past week.
I baked this Orange and almond slice for a weekend lunch with some friends. I actually stuffed it up (hadn’t figured out how to cream butter and sugar correctly when it’s freezing in the kitchen), but thankfully the recipe is very forgiving since it tasted gorgeous when drenched in orange syrup and served with a huge dollop of cream.
Now this was rather decadent cake to bake – a flourless chocolate cake with port! Completely luscious and pathetically easy to make as long as you know how to separate eggs, melt chocolate and use a beater. Don’t forget the cream. Some berries would be lovely, too.
This is my second attempt at making madeleines using a different recipe. This one’s much better – the cakes are much lighter. Also interesting to see the effect different pans have: the darker cakes were baked in a metal pan and the lighter ones were baked in a silicone pan. Somehow I prefer the ones from the metal pan…
Static and Silence 