HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! This is just a little update as unfortunately I’m snowed under with life at the moment, it’s a miracle I found the time to bust this out! The thought of missing out on my very first Easter post as a blogger was beginning to upset me a little. Having a food blog is an absolute JOY as it provides an outlet to make some ridiculous stuff. Combine with this with the only time of the year we’re able to indulge in the miraculous, the stupendous Cadbury Creme Egg, and, well, the photos speak for themselves really. And if they don’t I’ll spell it out for you: YOU WANT THIS. YOU REALLY, REALLY WANT TO EAT THIS.
This is obviously a spectacular sugar hit but not without purpose; the toffee brioche sticks provide incredible crunch when coupled with a mouthful of egg goo (gross). It’s just delightul. Or potentially diabetic, I’m not quite sure which yet. Probably both. This will serve four people so get ready, it’s time to get stupid with eggs!
1. Slice bread/brioche into strips. Heat the butter in a pan and fry strips until beginning to brown. Ensure you rotate the pieces so all sides are evenly charred. Remove from pan and allow to drain on paper towels. Clean pan, return to heat and melt 1/4 cup of sugar until beginning to caramelise. Add soldiers, remove from heat and rotate once more so all strips are evenly coated. Transfer to parchment paper to cool. Repeat with remaining “naked” soldiers.
2. Remove tops of Creme Eggs with a knife. Place in egg cup and arrange with brioche soldiers.
HAPPY EASTER and I hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!! WOOOO, YEAH! ETC! Making this cake was too much fun, albeit a little rushed as I only had the morning to prepare it. My self-imposed brief was to create a cake based on his favourite desserts: chocolate, pandan (a new discovery thanks to yours truly) and maltesers. Needless to say it was going to be fantastic (idiotic) from the very start.
The look on his face was priceless when I brought it out. And there’s nothing like cutting into what seems like a chocolate cake only to find BRIGHT GREEN.
The pandan cake is my white-girl version, no authentic pandan leaf here unfortunately! I assure you it’s fantastic though and may even be a nice, celebratory cake to bust out for New Years! Just throw some sparklers and gold leaf on there or something. This recipe will make two 9-inch rounds to stack.
Pandan + Chocolate Ganache Birthday Cake
(an original recipe)
Pandan Cake
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
200 g butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp pandan paste
Chocolate Ganache
350 g chocolate, roughly chopped
150 ml cream
Pinch of salt
Assembly
1x jumbo pack Maltesers
2x Flakes
Strawberries
For the pandan cake
1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Beat butter until it begins to cream and pale. Add the sugar and continue to beat until combined and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Add the self-raising flour, butter milk, plain flour, coconut milk and pandan paste once again beating after each addition.
4. Divide between two greased 9-inch cake tins. Rap the pan by dropping it from a small height to knock out any air bubbles.
5. Place in oven and bake for around an hour or until the tops spring back when touched (don’t be alarmed if the cakes crown too much – they can be trimmed back later). Allow to cool for 15 minutes, carefully remove from tins, wrap in plastic and allow to cool completely.
For the chocolate ganache
1. Heat cream in a pan, or in the microwave, until hot. Pour in roughly chopped chocolate and salt and stir until the pieces have completely melted into a smooth, velvety ganache. Allow to cool in the fridge.
For the assembly
1. Once cakes are completely cool trim the tops so they’re nice and even. Place one on your cake stand. Pipe ganache over the top to create an even layer then top with the remaining cake. Pour some ganache over the top (the consistency shouldn’t be too runny or too stiff) and, with an offset spatula, gently encourage it over the sides of the cake. Continue this process until the cake is completely covered using the spatula to smooth around the edges.
2. Whilst the ganache is yet to set, arrange Maltesers around the base of the cake as pictured above (a three-tiered diagonal pattern), or any way you wish. Create a Malteser border around the top of the cake and adorn with broken Flakes and strawberries. Place cake in the fridge to set and once ready to serve bring to room temperature.
I’ve seen so many beautiful photos on other people’s food blog capturing a gorgeous slices of cake – there’ll be none of that here unfortunately as this is what happens when a man cuts and serves cake for everybody.
Hahahahah! Oh well. Happy Birthday, Dad! I love you.
It’s been one of those days. I’m wearing odd socks. I’ve uttered the term “IDGAF” to so many people today I am properly offending my very own sensibilities.
I demand COMFORT FOOD. And yes, anytime I type this phrase it is always in CAPITAL LETTERS ‘cos it’s kind of a BIG DEAL.
I toyed with the idea of buying a mint pattie for myself earlier today at the supermarket for a split second, a decision I would live to regret; on the way home I was flooded by a remorse so deep I may have shed a teeny-tiny tear. Ravaged by this soul-destroying guilt I foraged around the pantry and found some leftover candy canes from my gingerbread house building venture a few days ago. I was craving peppermint and chocolate so badly I was willing to cast off the shackles of soy-based-beverage oppression that so constantly plagues my delicious lifestyle. The rest, as they say, is history. Quick, easy history.
The candy cane serves as lovely stirring utensil if you’re one to take your time enjoying a mug of hugs. If you’re in the company of anyone who doesn’t particularly enjoy peppermint however (a most unfortunate affliction) the candy cane can always be omitted as it is the sole source of peppermint in this recipe.
This recipe follows my golden rule of cookery; where this is chocolate there must be salt. It’s basic ying and yang! This recipe will serve one comforting mug or two smaller shots if you’re in a generous, sharing mood.
FESTIVE PEPPERMINT HOT CHOCOLATE
(an original recipe)
3/4 cup milk
50 g chocolate (I used half dark, half milk)
pinch of salt
1 or 2 candy canes, curve removed
1. In a heat-proof bowl microwave milk until it is very hot (around one minute).
2. Chop your chocolate and once the milk is ready add to bowl and stir until melted and combined (a few flecks of chocolate may remain). Add salt.
3. Pour into glasses and adorn with can upside-down candy cane.
Now, somebody please tell my brother if he doesn’t arrive home soon I’m drinking his for him.
Hey there sugar cookie! I have such a love hate relationship with you. Sometimes you’re adorable and cute, sometimes you’re oozy and shapeless. Sometimes you’re so chewy and delicious, sometimes you’re dry and just plain nasty.
These things are so hit and miss so when I was asked to make a Movember themed thing for a bakesale I was determined to get these cookies right. With a little help from some spice and a simple freezer I present to you my no-fail recipe and tutorial to creating perfectly shaped sugar cookies! They’re perfect for holiday events or themed garnishes, or both! This is also an easy way of creating two biscuit flavours from the same batch of dough. This should make around 30 movember cookies, depending on the size.
Basic Cinnamon + Chocolate Movember Cookies
(an original recipe)
120 g butter (at room temperature)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 tbs milk (optional)
2 tbs dutch-process cocoa
1. Beat butter until it begins to pale. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and beat until combined.
2. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla and salt and continue to beat until completely combined. The mixture should begin to come together but of it seems a little crumbly add the milk.
3. Remove half of the mixture, flatten into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge.
4. Add the cocoa to the remaining dough in the bowl and mix until completely combined. As with the earlier half, flatten into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to firm.
5. Preheat your oven 160°C.
6. Remove dough, one disc as a time, and roll out to around half a centimetre thickness. Stamp out shapes with your cutter of choice, place on a tray lined with baking paper and, once full of shaped cookie dough, immediately place in the freezer for around 20 minutes. This is the most important step to ensure your shapes remain in tact once placed in the hot oven! Otherwise they’ll just ooze and end up looking like an ordinary, misshapen cookie (no disrespect to all the delicious, rustic cookies out there).
7. OPTIONAL: If you have any additional stampers or or textures to add to the cookies, do this now right before placing in the oven.
8. Place in the oven and bake for around 8-12 minutes, depending on the size. You’ll know when to remove them when they begin to brown around thr edges. After 5 minutes, remove tray and transfer cookies to a cooling wrack.
Now they’re ready to decorate! I embedded them in some buttercream-covered pandan cupcakes and added cachous for eyes to make little faces (a good idea in theory however they ended up looking like the Pringles logo in cupcake form. HOW EMBARRASSING).
And I may have had a little too much fun with them too.
I’d like to congratulate everyone who has participated and donated to such a fantastic cause this year. A number of friends took part in this and, despite a little self-consciousnes, did a really excellent job by embracing the mo’. So until next year, happy Movember!
EDIT: A few people have been asking where they can find these cookie cutters and stampers. I’m using the Munchstache set by Fred & Friends; they seem to be available all over the place so have a Google!
This post is dedicated to the Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book. Shout outs to my Australian pals!
Hopefully for those living in the great sunny land down-under this image should stir nostalgic delight within each and every one of you.
Perhaps I should explain for my international friends. This book was held precious to many families in the 90s with its simple instructions and how-tos for creating adorable cakes. It’s so popular that a commemorative Vintage Collector’s Edition was released in Februrary this year. It’s so popular it has a number of Facebook fan groups and fan pages. It’s so popular this book has barely aged; it’s incredible to see how many people continue refer to this gem of a book for fun cake ideas. It’s simply amazing.
Amongst its pages of how-tos for the Teddy Bear cake, Train cake, Piano cake and Butterfly cakes lies the most infamous cake of all – The Swimming Pool cake. It was every kid’s dream cake when I was younger, and why wouldn’t it be? Delicious cake slathered in buttercream and jelly (or jell-o for my American pals) covered in lollies and candy. It was a dream come true. I might go as far as to call this an Australian Icon.
Thankfully, however, the culinary world has evolved from using algae-green jelly and nailpolish as decorating components.
My version is a little different from the recipe listed (I didn’t use “1 packet butter cake mix”, for example) so here’s my step-by-step guide to creating this iconic Australian cake. It’s best started a day in advance to prepare the cake, and more importantly the blue jelly. I hope you have lots of lollies ready in your pantry!
Swimming Pool Cake
(Alana’s Illustrated Guide)
1. BUY LOLLIES AND CANDY. Blue jelly, desiccated coconut, Teevee snacks (or long chocolate covered biscuits), jelly babies, gummy bears, snakes, kool mints and cocktail umbrellas. GO NUTS!
2. Prepare blue jelly according to packet instructions. Place in fridge and allow to set completely.
3. Prepare a 9-inch round cake. I used my standard vanilla cake recipe and added a chocolate swirl by adding a little cocoa in some of the remaining mixture. Once baked (180°C for around 50 minutes), wrap in plastic so it doesn’t dry out and place in the fridge until your jelly is ready.
4. Remove cake from fridge. With a sharp knife trim the cake to remove the dome that has probably formed in the baking process to create a nice, flat surface.
5. With the sharp knife, cut around the top in a circle to represent the wall of the swimming pool. Hollow out the centre if the cake to form a recess for the jelly.
6. Prepare chocolate buttercream by beating 125g butter, 1 1/2 cups icing sugar, 50g melted chocolate and a tablespoon of cocoa. Spread around the cake covering the edges and around the wall of the recess.
7. Prepare green coconut “grass” by combing desiccated coconut with a few drops of green food colouring. Gently place or spoon around the rim of the cake ensuring not to spill any on the sides (a little overflow is fine though as they will be covered by the biscuits). I know it’s looking a little silly now but just bare with me, it will be worth it, I promise!
8. Create the fence of the pool by arranging the Teevee snacks (or biscuits sticks) around the edge of the cake. Be sure to leave a 1 1/2 inch gap to make room for the ladder.
9. Construct the ladder out of must sticks and thin candy strips, I used thin sour laces. Use a little of the buttercream to attach the pieces and lean against the cake.
10. Remove your set jelly from the fridge and mash with a fork to represent water. Carefully spoon into the crevice of your cake, ensuring you don’t spill any onto the coconut grass (once it sticks, it stays!).
11. It’s time for the decoration! Adorn your cake with cocktail umbrellas, jelly babies, gummy bears, kool mints for balls or anything else you like. I had my brother make create some lounging jelly babies floating in pool toys constructed from snakes. Place them in and around the pool edges!
Note: you may have a LOT of sweet treats leftover if you bought as much as I did.
It’s a sight to behold, isn’t it? It’s just so adorable taking a knife to is seems almost blasphemous…
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-
Oh well. Good night, sweet prince.
You were everything I ever dreamed of and more as a 5 year old.
Macaron Cupcakes. MACARON. CUPCAKES. Why aren’t these a “thing” on the internet yet? A dessert garnished with another dessert; genius (if I do say so myself)! I first made a dozen of these a few months ago for Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea, an annual event to raise both awareness and funds for The Cancer Council. My vague instructions were to “make cupcakes, or macarons, or I don’t know, SOMETHING” so I took it in my stride to combine the two aforementioned goods to create the absolute ~CUTEST~ cupcake known to man. They were a hit! And of course the inspiration behind the alanabread logo.
So when my friend Bayden of Packwood recently asked if I could bring something along to the accompanying bakesale at Folkraiser @ Hibernian House this weekend there was only one adorable cake on my mind.
If you’re already experienced in macaron and cupcake baking then this should be an absolute breeze, albeit a little time consuming. The great thing about this combination is that you can mix up the flavours as freely as you’d like and, with the addition of some lovely pastel colours, they’ll always look fantastic. They basically advertise themselves! And who wouldn’t want a delicious cupcake with a macaron top-hat?!
This recipe will make 12 macaron cupcakes with some extra macarons to spare.
MACARON CUPCAKES
(an original recipe)
Macaron Shells
100g egg whites, room temperature
100g almond meal
200g pure icing sugar
30g caster sugar
1 tsp powdered egg whites
Powdered food colouring of your choice
Salted Callebaut Ganache
140g Callebaut chocolate, chopped (I used half milk, half dark)
80ml pouring cream
sea salt, to taste
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
100g butter, room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
1 vanilla bean
3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup +2 tbs plain flour
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk
Cream Cheese Icing
250g cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups icing sugar mixture
Food colouring of your choice
Assembly
Mini cachous
For the salted Callebaut macarons
1. Preheat your oven 150°C.
2. Sift pure icing sugar and almond meal and place into a bowl and give it a quick stir.
3. Beat eggwhites and eggwhite powder in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Slowly add the caster sugar, beating well between each addition, until eggwhites are stiff and glossy. This process should take around 5-10 minutes.
4. Pour half of your dry ingredients into the bowl of beaten eggwhites and combine with a flat utensil, like a spatula, using “cutting strokes”. Once incorporated repeat with the remaining icing sugar and almond meal mixture. This is where things begin to get a little tricky as under-mixing or over-mixing will ruin your macarons as they attempt to rise and “grow feet” in the oven. Experts say to stir the mixture until it becomes the consistency of lava. The mixture will be sticky but you’ll know it’s ready when, upon holding your spatula above the bowl, it will begin just begin to flow freely back into the bowl. You’ll need to knock a lot of the air out of it.
5. Prepare a piping bag with the appropriate tip (around 1 cm or less), a baking tray with baking paper, and pipe small rounds (they must be small enough to balance on the cupcakes!). If there are any small lumps left from piping wet your finger and gently press them down (unlike cake batter, macaron mixture does not flatten out when in the oven). Allow tray to rest for 30 minutes.
6. Place baking tray in the oven and allow to bake for around 15 minutes (this time will depend entirely on your oven, so keep an eye on them). Within 5 minutes or so they will begin to grow feet.
7. Once ready, remove from oven, and after 5 minutes transfer to cooling racks.
8. Whilst your shells are cooling place your cream in the microwave for 30 seconds or until relatively hot. Pour your chopped Callebaut into the bowl and stir continuously until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is combined. Add sea salt, to taste, until you chocolate flavour begins to “pop” (this took me a few turns of my salt mill). Place bowl into the refrigerator to cool and thicken.
9. Prepare another piping bag with a large tip and neatly pipe rounds of ganache into half of the shells. To close, gently place its partner shell on top of the ganache and twist shut, taking care to prevent ganache spilling over the edges.
For the vanilla bean cupcakes
1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Beat butter until it begins to cream and pale. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into the butter, add the sugar and continue to beat until combined and fluffy. You should be able to see the flecks of vanilla bean.
3. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Add the self-raising flour, milk, then plain flour once again beating after each addition.
4. Spoon into a prepared cupcake tin with liners, filling each to around two thirds full. Rap the pan by dropping it from a small height to knock out any air bubbles.
5. Place in oven and bake for aound 15-20 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched. Allow to cool for 5 minutes then transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. While these are cooling, prepare your cream cheese icing by beating the cream cheese with icing sugar and food colouring until combined and creamy.
For the assembly
1. With a piping bag with a large tip attached carefully pipe cream cheese icing over cupcakes. Carefully take macarons and place at an angle on each cupcake ensuring their placed firmly enough that they won’t slip off. Sprinkle with mini cachous and place cupcakes in the fridge for the icing to firm up to ensure the macarons will stay put.
All packed up and ready to go!
If you’d like to hear more of Packwood’s tunes you can check out the Facebook page here, also the alanabread facebook page is here too. Here’s a fan-video from our friend Zohara from a show a couple of months ago (you can hear me playing piano at 5:30!):
Lessons learnt the past few days: 1) orchestral folk music is cool, 2) being a baker/musician for a night is a total dream come true, and 3) there is something strangely satisfying about baking your own logo.
Unfortunately I left my darling camera at home over the weekend so you’ll just have to take my word that splendid picnic times were had yesterday. As usual we all prepared some things to share and, to comply with the eating habits of my wonderfully diverse group, I decided it was time to venture into vegan baking.
The ‘V’ word is often a little daunting. Unfortunately many make assumptions of bland, tasteless and generally odd looking food. While this is sometimes the case true vegan cooking/baking can produce the most amazingly ingenious dishes so long as your core ingredients are substituted accurately (I have one of my favourite pals, vegan chef extraordinaire Ro, to thank for this revelation over the past couple of years).
Despite the challenges one must overcome in the absence of milk, butter and eggs this is a very simple cake to prepare as there is no beating required. A simple bowl and spoon is all you need to make these vegan chocolate cupcakes!
Decorating cakes that sit below the rim of the baking cup is a rarity for me so when I realised these cakes weren’t going to rise too much it became a fun learning exercise in decorating with glaze. Ideally I’d have used fresh cherries as a garnish, but you know, cherry season is yet to grace us.
I’ll spare you my horrendous recipe sketch covered in water and cocoa, here’s a nice, neat typed version for you to try at home. Makes 12 vegan treats.
Vegan cherry + choc + coconut cupcakes
(an original recipe)
1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup good quality, dutch-process cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup preserved morello cherries, roughly chopped
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
Vegan chocolate glaze
1/2 cup sugar
4 tbsp vegan margarine (eg, Nuttelex)
2 tbsp good quality, dutch-process cocoa
2 tbsp coconut milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
12 fresh, glacé or any other candied cherries to serve
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and prepare a muffin tin with 12 baking cups.
2. Combine your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt) into a bowl. Then add the coconut milk, vegetable oil, apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract and stir until well combined.
3. Remove morello cherries from jar and chop roughly, placing on paper towels to remove some of the moisture. Add them to your mixture as well as your desiccated coconut and once again stir to combine ensuring the cherries are evenly distributed.
4. Place mixture in baking cups around two thirds full and bake for around 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool for five minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
5. Meanwhile, combine sugar, margarine, cocoa, coconut milk and vanilla into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for five minutes then remove from heat. Stir constantly for five minutes; the glaze will begin to thicken.
6. Carefully spoon the glaze onto each cupcake make sure to bring it to edge of the baking cup. Adorn each with a glacé cherry and allow to set for 1-2 hours.
Gives these a try and I promise these will be a part of your permanent baking repertoire. Wait, actually, one of my friend’s just called me then so say that these were really great. AWW! Based on this, and my adorable animated gif, you should definitely make these right away.
Some people fall into a pit of despair so deep however they’ll go out of their way to create some ungodly concoction to cry over; behold, my peanut butter pretzel ice cream with chocolate covered salted pretzels. This, my friends, is misery personified. Mmmm, misery.
The concept is simple: make ice cream, throw peanut butter in the creme anglaise, churn, add salted pretzels shards, coat more pretzels in chocolate and assemble. ENJOY. Easy! This is ridiculously good.
Peanut Butter Pretzel Ice Cream
(an original recipe)
1 cup milk
100 g sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 cup cream
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
3/4 cup crushed salted pretzels
Chocolate covered pretzels
chocolate and whole salted pretzels (too easy!)
1. Heat milk in a small saucepan while beating your egg yolks and sugar in a separate bowl.
2. Once warmed, slowly pour the hot milk over the yolk/sugar mixture whilst stirring constantly. This is to temper your eggs.
3. Pour the mixture pack into the saucepan, add peanut butter and whisk until it has dissolved. Continue to heat and whisk until mixture has become thick like custard.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool then place in refrigerator to cool overnight, or at least 6 hours.
5. Prepare in ice cream maker as per manufacturer’s instructions – as ice cream is churning pour your pretzels into the machine.
6. Melt chocolate either in a microwave or over a double boiler. Coat your salted pretzels, dangle and allow excess chocolate to drip off (I employed the use of two chopsticks for this step) and place on baking paper to cool in the refrigerator.
7. Once everything is prepared scoop ice cream into cute ramekins and adorn with your chocolate pretzels.
Sweet ice cream, salted crunchy bits, chocolatey coating; this dessert is a walking contradiction but believe you me it may just be the most delightful comfort food you’ll make this Summer. And if this what pours out of me when I’ve had a bad week, well… maybe I should keep to my bad moods a little more often. Emotional eaters unite!
PS. I’ve started a facebook page so drop by and say hello! I might just become a little less ~emo~ if you do!
Steven is a beautiful friend of mine I miss every day. His presence in my world is testament that life can work in mysterious ways. Should he still be with us today would be his 30th Birthday – and what a day! There’s such beautiful sunshine here in Sydney inviting us into Spring.
We met a show five years ago and continued seeing shows together like the sweet indie kids we were at the time. Coincidentally we ended up working only doors away from each other so every second-or-so afternoon we would meet in a downstairs cafe, order two coffees and discuss the day’s events. To this day a cappuccino will always remind me of dear Captain Steve who is my inspiration to this lovely recipe – replicating this warming friendship via a warming beverage with warming cake . This will serve 12 lucky caffeine fiends.
Cappuccino Cupcakes for Steven
(an original recipe)
150 g butter (room temperature)
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2 shots (60 ml) espresso
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs dutch-process cocoa
Espresso Syrup
3 shots (90 ml) espresso
1/4 cup sugar
Vanilla Buttercream
100 g butter (room temperature)
2 cups icing sugar mixture
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbs milk
extra cocoa, for dusting
wafers, chocolate-covered coffee beans for decoration
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 12-cupcake pan with cupcake liners of your choosing.
2. In a bowl, beat butter for a few minutes until it begins to pale. Add sugar and eggs, one at a time. Beat until fluffy.
3. Add flour, espresso, milk, vanilla and cocoa and beat until combined and light.
4. Divide mixture between your cupcake liners – they should be around 3/4 full. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are springy to touch.
5. While the cupcakes are baking in a small saucepan combine your espresso and sugar. Allow to boil and leave on medium-high heat for 5-10 minutes without stirring until the mixture thickens to a syrup. Be wary of leaving it too long or it will become toffee.
6. As soon as your cupcakes are removed from the oven lightly prick them a few times with a fork and spoon your espresso syrups over the tops. This will take a few scoops as you must allow the syrup to slowly seep into the cake before the next. Allow to cool.
7. To prepare the vanilla buttercream beat the butter and icing sugar until just beginning to combine. Add the vanilla and slowly add milk until you reach the desired texture.
8. To assemble: prepare a piping bag and carefully ice your cupcakes. There’s no need to apply too much as the cupcakes are already quite sweet; we want to create a nice base to replicate the froth of a cappuccino. Lightly dust with additional cocoa and adorn with wafers or any other relevant candies of your choosing.
Life is precious and I’m so sorry I couldn’t make these for him sooner. Happy Birthday, my wonderful friend! We miss you.
Layer cakes. Who has zero experience in making them? ME. My first attempt at this cake a few days ago was disastrous despite it starting so well; maybe it was the kitsch silicon baking ‘tins’ I was using, maybe it was the cakes baking to thin, maybe I didn’t let them cool enough before handling, whatever the case there were cake crumbs EVERYWHERE. Oh and due to over-pulverizing and over-mixing my oreo cream cheese icing began to turn grey… this was one ugly test cake.
Using 9-inch rounds was a much better idea. The chocolate cake recipe below is adapted from Buddy Valastro of Cake Boss fame. There are a few concessions made in this recipe due to necessity (and laziness) – for example, using less sugar in lieu of the torrent of oreos, substituting buttermilk for yoghurt as I was running low and generally fixing some of the measurements for a more metric experience. It’s a fantastic chocolate cake and coupled with a whole lot of cream cheese icing with smashed oreo stirred through… this is about to get intense.
DOUBLE CHOCOLATE AND OREO CAKE
(cake recipe adapted from Buddy Valastro; makes two 9 inch rounds)
FOR THE CAKES
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup caster sugar
125 g butter, room temperature
1/3 cup good quality dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
150 g melted chocolate
1/2 cup hot water
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1/4 natural yoghurt
FOR THE OREO CREAM CHESE ICING
250 g cream cheese (Philadelphia)
70 g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered/icing sugar
1 x 150g packet of oreo biscuits
FOR THE ASSEMBLY
1 x 150g packet of oreo biscuits
1. Pre-heat your oven to 175°C.
2. Beat the butter until it begins to cream. Add flour, sugar, cocoa and baking soda and and beat until combined.
3. Pour in melted chocolate. Beat for one minute, then pour in the hot water. Continue beating until combined then add the eggs one at a time, adding the next one after the previous has been absorbed. Pour in the milk and yoghurt and beat for a few minutes until the everything is well combined, the sugar has dissolved and the batter is lovely and velvety.
4. Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by spraying with oil or greasing with butter. Divide the mixture between the two pans and bake for around 30 minutes or until the cake begins to peel away from the sides and is springy to touch.
5. Allow to cool to room temperature before turning cakes out of the pans. Refrigerate until ready to decorate.
6. Break up one oreo packet into shards, preferably by hand as to not create to much ‘rubble’.
7. Beat butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract until beginning to cream.
8. Add the icing sugar one cup at a time until incorporated and fluffy. You can add more/less icing sugar to taste.
9. Divide icing in around half – but preferably 70/30. In the larger portion stir in your oreos carefully – just enough to combine but do not overmix or the icing will begin to turn grey.
10. With either a piping bag fitted with a large nozzle or a very handy spatula, layer your larger portion of oreo icing over one of the cakes. Make sure to keep this as level as you can so the cake layers look nice and even once sliced. Place your second cake on top.
11. Take your leftover cream cheese icing and layer over the very top of the cake. Once again, break your other packet of ores into shards and scatter atop the cake. Be sure to cover all the ‘white spots’ so the cake looks dense with cookies.
This cake is now packed away ready to take to a friend’s dinner tonight, thank goodness I’m not being left alone with this hot mess of chocolate.
