Easter Biscuits

Easter Biscuits
I just love Easter baking; I think it's my favourite time of the year for baking (Christmas comes a close second). I especially love when I have the time to make biscuits and to decorate them properly. I've done them many times over the years, and I never tire of them.

This year, my son, once again, wanted to join in. I must say his piping skills, and the care he took really paid off. You can see his first bunny with the blue ribbon, and then his second the next day, with the pink ribbon. What a difference! He loved learning the technique of putting spots wet on wet, then dragging the skewer through to create the heart and feathered effects (his top two bunnies).

Anyway the key to making these biscuits and having them keep their shape, it to chill and freeze between stages. It really helps if you have multiple baking trays/cookie sheets, but it's not essential.

Also, ideally you would use proper royal icing to decorate as it sets faster and harder than what I used, but because Thomas is allergic to egg whites, he can't have that. So, I have again used aquafaba (chickpea juice) to make this version. Honestly you cannot tell the difference in taste.

When rolling out the dough I use this roller, from Joseph Joseph as it has the graduated ended so you can roll your dough out to the desired thickness evenly. This is a bit of a luxury, but before I had this, I would sometimes put out two wooden spoons or you can buy and cut dowelling to have the same effect. Consistency of thickness though, is important. (I use the red level)

One final comment, this makes a large batch of biscuits - I made 75 Easter ones. If you want fewer, you can halve the recipe.

Now, off we go!

Ingredients:

• 750 g plain (all purpose) flour
• 450 g butter, softened
• 400 g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 Tablespoon (15 mls) vanilla extract

Method:

1. In a large bowl, sift the flour. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C

2. Using the paddle attachment on your mixer, cream the softened butter and sugar together for about 5 mins until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat in the eggs, one at a time.

3. Add flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined.

4. At this stage, I start rolling out about a fifth of the mixture at a time. I cut two pieces of parchment paper to fit my baking trays, and I roll out enough dough for that tray, between the paper. This avoid it sticking to the rolling pin. I then put the tray of rolled out dough into the fridge to chill for 15 mins. I continue with the remaining dough. If you run out of trays, roll it put anyway and put it flat into the fridge. You can put it on top of each other. (Keep it between the two layers of parchment). Many recipes will tell you to split the dough in half and refrigerate, but then it is MUCH harder to roll out. This step saves you a lot of work!

5. Take a chilled tray from the fridge, cut out the shapes you want, place onto the baking tray, slightly apart, and then place into the freezer for 15 mins. I work on a rotation from now one. One tray in the freezer, the next cut out in the fridge, and then as one goes to the oven, the next to the freezer, the next being cut out and chilled. Get it??

6. From the freezer, put the tray into the oven and cook for 10-13 mins, depending on your oven. Mine is fast and hot so cooked them for 11, until they were slightly golden around the edges.

7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Egg free Icing:

90 ml aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas)

600 g icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix on medium speed until it is combined fully. You may need to add a tiny more aquafaba (or water) to loosen it slightly.

At this stage it is the right consistency for the outlining of the shapes. To then make it runny enough to flood (fill in) you need to add very small amounts of water to get the right consistency. Don't let it get too runny!

Add colour as required. I ended up with two piping bags per colour, one to outline and one to flood.

Any questions, do let me know and I'll help however I can!

 

Homemade Baileys Irish Cream

It's that time of the year again....end of the school year, 'Teacher Present Time'! My son is leaving his school at the end of this week, and moving up to Juniors. Over the last 4 years I have added something homemade into each gift time, at Christmas and end of year. They have ranged from macarons, biscuit tin selection, hot fudge sauce (that was a winner!), marshmallows, passionfruit curd and a few other bits and pieces.

This year I did booze. Who doesn't love a boozy gift? I've been wanting to make this Baileys Irish Cream for a while now. I got the idea from Lucy over at Bake. Play. Smile, a fabulous Aussie food blogger. You can link straight to her recipe, or I will add it below.

Beware: this has a bit of a kick to it. To make it less potent, reduce the amount of whisky.

Homemade Baileys Irish Cream

Taken from Bake.Play.Smile

Ingredients:

375ml (1 2/3 c) Irish or Scotch Whisky

397g tin of condensed milk

250 ml (1 cup) double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp instant coffee powder/granules

3 Tbsp chocolate sauce

Method:

1. Combine all the ingredients into the jug of a multispeed blender. Turn to medium to high speed for 20 seconds until all ingredients have combined.

If the cream starts to curdle slightly, reduce the speed and gradually build up again. Alternatively, if it has curdled, strain the liquid through a sieve, allow the strained mixture to settle and remove the froth from the top.

2. Pour into sterilised bottles, seal and store in the fridge.

3. This can stay in the fridge unopened (as if!) for two months.

Note: 

• I bought some chocolate sauce from Marks & Spencer but you could any ice cream sauce. 
• This makes about 1 litre of Baileys.
• I originally made this with double cream but when tasting it over the weekend, my sister-in-law and I decided it was a bit too thick, so I thought about changing to single cream. However after talking with another friend who DID use single cream, she said it was too thin. So my final conclusion is....keep it double, shake it before pouring and drink over ice, which as it melts will thin it slightly.

Enjoy over crushed ice or poured over vanilla icecream.

Koala Macaron Vanilla Yoghurt Cake

My lovely friends, Sarah and Lee are having a baby very soon and yesterday was their baby shower. I wanted to make two things, a cake that reminds them of their Australian roots, and a nappy cake full of essential goodies for a newborn baby.

This is the story of the Koala Macaron Cake....and perhaps a mention of the nappy cake too!

I was looking for a different vanilla cake to use for this cake. I wanted one with some good structure and considered making a madeira cake - one of my all time favourites and a good one for layering. But instead, I decided to try one I had been hearing about recently, from a fellow food blogger, Jo from Every Nook & Cranny.  Jo's Vanilla Yoghurt Cake turned out to be one of the most delicious vanilla cakes I have eaten. I made double the mixture to get four layers, but only used three, which left a whole layer for my husband and I to gorge on! We ate it plain, no deorations....and it was sooooo yummy!

The macarons are one of my favourites to make. I haven't made any macs for ages, but it's like learning to ride, once you have the technique you always remember it. I was really happy with how they turned out. I won't repeat the process for making them here, but if you'd like to give them a go, you can find the recipe here.

I filled half of them with a chocolate ganache and caramel combination and the rest I left plain to go around the cake. I needed 15 for the bottom of the cake - I had originally miscalculated 12, so I had to prise open 3 extra filled macarons to complete the circle!

 

I love this condensed milk caramel so, so much. And I have been known to eat it straight out of the tin with a spoon. On more than one occasion. :)

Anyway I made the macarons on Thursday night - they can be made in advanced, in fact they are better if made in advance and stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

On Friday night I made the vanilla and yoghurt cake. As I said, I doubled the recipe to get the height I wanted, but I will give you the original recipe here. I believe Jo has adapted her original recipe now, which I didn't realise so here is the original and here is the updated version.

Vanilla Yoghurt Cake

Adapted From Every Nook & Cranny

Ingredients:
Cake
150g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
125g plain flour
250g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bi-carb soda (baking soda)
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
250g greek yoghurt

Buttercream
250g butter, softened
500g icing sugar, sifted
2-3 Tablespoons milk to loosen the mixture
1 tsp vanilla essence

Ganache
100g dark chocolate
80ml double cream

Condensed milk caramel for filling.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C and then line the bases of 2 x 20cm sandwich tins with baking parchment.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - this will take about 10 minutes so that it is very pale. This adds essential air into the mixture. Sift the flours, baking powder and bi-carb of soda together into another bowl
3. Add the eggs, one at a time into the mixture, beating well after each one. Adding a spoonful of the flour mixture helps prevent curdling.
4. Once all the eggs are incorporated, add the rest of the flour and mix gently until it is all just combined.
5. Pour in the yoghurt and vanilla and mix slowly until it forms a batter consistency.
6. Gently measure equal amounts into the two tins, flatten it out very carefully and then cook for 30-35 mins. Check they are cooked by lightly touching the top- it should spring back. You can also insert a probe - if it comes out clean your cake is cooked.
7. Remove cakes from the oven and allow to cool slightly in the tins. Tip out onto a baking rack to cool completely.

8. While the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream by combining the softened butter and icing sugar in an electric mixer until it is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and milk as required to make it a soft buttercream.
9. Once the cakes are cooked, layer buttercream between the layers - I also added a drizzle of condensed milk caramel to each layer too. Next time I would add more - a full layer of the caramel.

10. Once filled, I did a crumb coat on the outside and the refrigerated it for an hour or over night (I do most of my baking at night time!)
11. To complete the cake I made another amount of the buttercream and iced the outside. Keep a small amount of buttercream left over to use as 'glue' to stick the macarons on with.
12. Make the ganache by finely chopping the chocolate and placing it into a heat proof bowl. Warm the cream up in a small saucepan over a medium heat until it is bubbling but not boiling. Pour it over the chocolate, mix gently and leave it to melt for a few minutes.
13. Mix to combine the chocolate and cream. If there are any lumps left, put a small amount of water in the saucepan, heat it on the hob/stove and place the heat proof bowl over the top and stir until the remaining lumps of chocolate have melted. If the ganache is looking quite thick and not drizzly enough, you can add a small amount of cream to it at this stage to thin it down a bit more.
14. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a small nozzle or just snip the end off the piping bag (small hole) and drizzle the ganache around the edge first to create the drip effect. Then fill the top.
15. Add the macarons to the top and set into the ganache. Then using the left over buttercream, place a small amount on the back of the plain koala macarons and stick them around the bottom.
16. Put the cake in the fridge to set everything well.
17. Serve and enjoy!

Notes: I am not actually a huge fan of buttercream (it's too sweet for me) so if I was making this for a more casual occasion, I would just fill it with jam and whipped cream.

And to finish off, here is the completely different cake I made this weekend! This nappy cake is full of nappies (obviously) plus all sorts of other goodies and essentials for the arrival of a newborn baby.

With the very happy 'Mums-to-Be'! Not long now, girls!

Candy Cane Crush Marshmallows

 

I have been wanting to try these for about twelve months now after seeing them in a  Donna Hay Christmas magazine. Anyway this year I took the plunge! I have made marshmallow a number of times before so I was quite confident, but I must say these were the best I have ever done, texture wise.

However, a word of warning, they looked great the day I made them and rolled them in the candy canes, but a day later, the candy canes had virtually dissolved, leaving the marshmallows very sticky. I had to do some emergency lathering in the icing sugar/cornflour mix, which was fine, but by the time I gave them to Thomas' teachers, they looked nothing like this!

They still tasted amazing though! I would recommend, making and serving on the same day for the best visual effect.

 

Candy Cane Crush Marshmallows

 

Ingredients for Basic Vanilla Marshmallow

 

1/2 c (125ml) warm water

2 tablespoons gelatine powder

1 1/2 c (330g) caster (superfine) sugar

2/3 c (230g - or 2 tubes if in the UK) liquid glucose

1/2 c (125ml) water, extra

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped (I actually used vanilla bean paste, 1 teaspoon)

 

Icing Sugar Mixture

1 1/2 c (240g) icing sugar, sifted

1/4 c (35g) cornflour (cornstarch), sifted

 

10 medium candy canes, roughly chopped.

 

Method

1. Place the warm water in an electric mixer, sprinkle over the gelatine and stir to combine. Set aside.

2. Place the sugar, glucose and extra water in a medium saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

3. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Add a sugar (candy) thermometer and cook, without stirring (for approximately 5-7 minutes), until the temperature reaches 115 degrees C (239deg F) or soft ball stage.

4. With the mixer running on high, gradually add the hot syrup in a thin, steady stream to the gelatine mixture. Add the vanilla seeds and beat for 5-7 minutes or until thick and fluffy.

5. Working quickly, spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 20cm x 30cm tin lined with lightly greased baking parchment (get this ready BEFORE you start making the marshmallow).

6. Using a spatula, smooth the top and cover with lightly greased non-stick baking paper. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours to set.

7. Place the candy canes in a food processor and process until fine crumbs form, set aside.

8. To make the icing sugar mixture, place the icing sugar and cornflour into a bowl and mix to combine. Turn the marshmallow out onto  a surface dusted lightly with some icing sugar mixture.. Dust the knife in the icing sugar mixture and cut into squares.

9. Roll the sides of the squares into the candy cane crumbs.

 

Enjoy these on the day of making if using candy canes. If making plain marshmallows, they will keep in an airtight container dusted with icing sugar mixture, in the fridge for up to a week. Be sure to take your marshmallows out of the fridge just before serving to avoid them going sticky from humidity.