Four Berry Cheesecake

Recently, I made a glorious berry cheesecake for no reason.  Now that I come to think of it baking for no reason is the perfect reason to bake.  I had cream cheese in the fridge which I was meant to make a carrot cake with and I accidentally bought a mix of four berries when I turned away and reached into the freezers at Woolworths to avoid immediate frostbite to the face region.  I was aiming for the blueberries.

Nonetheless, often the unplanned ones are the best. Baking stuff, that is.

Four Berry Cheesecake

Crust

300 grams of digestives or Graham crackers

150g of butter, melted

Filling

375g of cream cheese

1/2 cup of icing/confectioners sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 cup of whipping or thickened cream

3 teaspoons of gelatine (dissolved in 1/4 cup of boiling water)

Zest of one lime

Topping

100g frozen berries - whichever you prefer

1/4 cup of water

Zest of one lime

2 tablespoons of lime juice

Place the biscuits you're using in the base into a food process and blitz into a fine crumb.  Mix in the melted butter, either by hand or in the food processer.  Press the mixture into the base of a springform tin.  I pressed it up the sides as well but next time I'm definitely going for the more traditional cheesecake approach and leaving it just on the base.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes to half an hour while you're preparing the filling and the berry topping!

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla until it reaches a smooth consistency.  Make sure there are no lumps of cream cheese and that it's all really well incorporated.  You don't want to be enjoying a cheesecake and coming across a solidified blob of cream cheese that was sneaky and didn't want to be a part of a nice thing.

Once you've everything is perfectly combined, beat the cream into the cream cheese mixture on low speed.  

Mix in the lime zest and then add your gelatine mixture.  Pour the filling over the biscuit base.

For the topping, place all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook on medium heat until it boils.  Carefully place spoonfuls of the berry mix on top of the filling and then, using a skewer, gently swirl the berry mixture through the filling.

Cover and refrigerate until set, either for 3-4 hours or even overnight.

Finely grate some extra lime zest over the top of the cheesecake to serve! 

Watermelon and strawberry slushie

Today we feel like an egg left out on the pavement to cook. Broken and abandoned... Just kidding.  Temperatures here have decided to skyrocket again and so we're going to be living in 40 degree days for a bit. On the brink of heat-induced insanity, we needed to find a source of hydration and fast. Our salvation came in the form of my father knocking on the door with arms full of groceries.  Much like I mentioned in our banana and chocolate muffin recipe post, the fact that my dad can't pass up fruit on special still stands, because he walked through the door with two huge watermelons, and of course, his beloved bananas.  The conversation that occurred went a little like this:

Alexia: Hey Tash, guess what? 
Natasha: What?
Alexia: My dad just walked in the door with watermelon. He intends to eat it himself but I fully intend to sabotage his plans by turning it into a dessert of some sort.
Natasha: Bags being taste-tester.

So off we went into the kitchen to make nice things.

This, however, is why we cannot have nice things:

Cameras should come with a warning: "Objects viewed through camera are closer than they appear," to stop things like this happening.  Or maybe Alexia should just be more coordinated.  Neither of these things seem likely to happen in the near future.

Regardless of fails, this slushie is so easy, you are only three or four ingredients away from a refreshing and cooling healthy slushie thing.

Watermelon and strawberry slushie:

To every 2 parts of watermelon you use, add 1 part of strawberries and add one and half cups of ice. Whizz it all up in a blender and serve.  If you want to, you can add a sprig of fresh mint for an even fresher summer hit. Serve and enjoy!

Ice Coffee with a twist!

Whilst browsing the internet machine this morning (or stalking Adam Liaw's Twitter), I stumbled across his weird little trick to whip up an iced coffee in record time.  Seeing as we've been having an absolutely ridiculous heat wave for the past week and a half, with temperatures reaching around 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees for you Americans and others using Fahrenheit) at four in the afternoon some days (and reaching a maximum in the forties the rest of the time) we are in serious need of an ice cold glass of deliciosity to make sure we don't die.  Because a tall glass of cold water's overrated. Everybody drinks it, and we're way too subcultural to conform to the norms of mainstream society. 

Ahem.

This was the perfect time to try out this recipe. It's so delicious and refreshing and it just makes you want to cry because all the stress and the hot-and-botheredness from the past ten days is just gone with this coolness-in-a-cup. Make sure you chill a tall glass in the freezer beforehand.  The frosty glass makes it even more refreshing.

The best ice coffee ever? 

2 shots of espresso

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar (you can buy this in the shops or you can make your own, simply by infusing some caster sugar with a vanilla pod in an airtight container)

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 teaspoon of your favourite liqueur - we used Baileys 

2 tablespoons of condensed milk - this gives it a wicked foam on top 

Ice

Chuck everything into a cocktail shaker or blender and shake it all up until delicious.  Then pour it into an ice cold glass. It's that easy. If you're feeling daring, add a scoop of good-quality vanilla ice cream.

This is also the perfect time to feel awesome whilst using the cocktail shaker.  You can imagine you're in a James Bond movie, "one ice coffee, shaken - not stirred," as you proceed to do some skillful shaking, chucking it up in the air, rolling it down your arms and across your shoulders. Dropping it onto the ground, getting shocked back to reality once you realise mid-trick that you're incapable of that level of coordination and now because you were overly ambitious the only way you'll be able to judge if this is - in fact - the best ice coffee will only happen if you lick it off the walls or squeeze it out of your clothes. Yum.

Just stick to shaking it up like a normal person. I'm 100% sure you'll find this way to be much more rewarding.

Enjoy not dying from the heat and lack of fluids! (You're welcome.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing you all the best for 2013! Our New Year's resolution is to keep you posted with more sugary goodness - a promise we know we'll find easy to keep!

Lemon Layer Cake

Lemon layer cake for mum's birthday. Easy, delicious and not too sweet, just the way she likes it. The lemon flavour wasn't as strong as I had anticipated, so I recommend adding more lemon rind to the cake if your after a stronger lemony hit. This cake tastes best the next day, served at room temperature. The iced cake can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

Lemon Layer Cake

Lemon butter cake recipe by Margaret Fulton  in Margaret Fulton Baking which can be purchased here.

Lemon icing recipe by Julie Goodwin as seen in Our Family Table which can be purchased here.

Lemon butter cake

160g unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar

Grated rind of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons lemon juice

3 eggs

1 2/3 cups (250g) self-raising flour

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup of milk

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 160 if you have a fan-forced oven.

Grease and line two 20cm sandwich tins.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and gradually beat in the sugar with the rind until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs beating well after each.

Add the lemon juice and beat until it is just mixed in. Don't worry if the mixture appears curdled.

Sift the flour and salt and fold into the creamed mixture alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Take care not to over beat the mixture.

Add a little more milk if necessary so that the mixture drops easily from the spoon.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tins and gently smooth the top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Leave in the tins for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

Lemon butter icing

125g unsalted butter, softened

2 cups (300g) icing sugar mixture

11/2 Tbs lemon juice

Using electric beaters, beat the butter until light and creamy.

Gradually add the icing sugar, beating constantly.

Add half the lemon juice and beat until well combined.

Add the remaining lemon juice a little at a time until you achieve a spreadable consistency.

When the butter cakes have cooled to room temperature the cakes are ready to be iced. assembled and decorated.

Enjoy!

Lemon, Pistachio and Coconut Slice

As we mentioned in this post, we recently tried a delicious homemade lemon, pistachio and coconut slice at Tartine Cafe.  Inspired by the delicious treats we devoured, we got home and decided to recreate the beautiful citrus slice and hope that it was as good as the one they serve at Tartine. 

Our lemon trees at the moment are overflowing with big, bright yellow and impossibly juicy lemons, so the opportunity to take advantage of the fresh fruits was too good to pass up! Here is S'morish's version of a lemon, pistachio and coconut slice!

Lemon, Pistachio and Coconut Slice:

For the biscuit base - 

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1 cup of caster sugar

1 cup of desiccated coconut

125g of butter, melted

Zest of half a lemon

2 teaspoons of lemon juice

Combine ingredients in a large bowl, and mix until the mixture forms a ball.  

Evenly spread the biscuit base in the bottom of a 32x20cm slice tin til about half a centimetre in thickness. Bake the biscuit base at 160 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes or until firm and golden.

For the lemon and coconut filling - 

2 x 395g cans of condensed milk

Juice of 5 - 6 lemons depending on your personal tastes

100g of desiccated coconut

4 eggs, lightly beaten

Zest of one lemon

Mix together the condensed milk, coconut and lemon zest until well combined.
Add the lemon juice a little at a time until fully incorporated into the mixture.
Add the lightly beaten eggs a little at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Pour the filling on top of the prepared biscuit base and bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 20 - 25 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden.  Set aside to cool completely before pouring the topping on top.

For the topping - 

500g of confectioner's sugar
Juice of 3 lemons
Pistachios to sprinkle on top, roughly chopped
Zest of half a lemon

Mix together the confectioners sugar and the lemon juice, making sure there are no lumps and the mixture is smooth. Add the lemon juice gradually to make sure you get the desired consistency.
Pour the lemon icing over the cooled slice filling and set aside for 5 minutes to set slightly.
Sprinkle pistachios, lemon zest and desiccated coconut over the icing sugar and set aside to allow icing to set the rest of the way.

Enjoy and if you tried let us know your thoughts on this recipe! Til next time!

Macarons!

 

Well, it's been a while and I can only apologise, though there are other things in life that require your attention more than a blog post at times.  But, this post is about something so good that I think we can forget about the lack of posts and enjoy a stroll down the road towards diabetes together with this super sweet one.

Over this past weekend I was put in charge of making some cupcakes for a First Communion.  As soon as this was decided there was no shortage of ideas in my magnificent mind. First, I knew there absolutely had to be super rich chocolate cupcakes somewhere in this project and second: there had to be macarons involved as well. Yep. Macarons and cupcakes. Together.  A match made in heaven, seriously.

So, I took to my Zumbo book again - a little nervously - and made his macarons.  The first time I tried Zumbo's macarons - or "Zumbarons" as he refers to them - was for Easter of this year.  Let's just say that they weren't very pretty.  I didn't use a stencil to make sure each macaron was perfectly round and were all the same size like I did this time (which I highly recommend you do if you're a macaron newbie like me.  It really makes a difference) so they were as big as the palm of my hand and all weird shapes.  The chocolate ganache that I made was runny and just flooded out of the macarons, not to mention I wanted to make the macarons a lovely lime green colour but what really happened was a putty green disaster. If there's one thing I hate most in the world it's putting something you're not very proud of up in front of your family to eat and you know your creation is yuck and you know they think so too but they're too nice to say what they really think which I think is something along the lines of, "what the heck is this, you failure?! BACK TO THE KITCHEN."  So you can see why I was a bit nervous travelling down macaron territory again.  I wasn't looking forward to getting gang bashed by desserts while they screamed in my face how inadequate I was.  But it's okay. I've learned and it's in the past now.

This time round, they were glorious and I was so so happy with the small chubby macarons that I produced.  The prettiness and yummyness boxes were all ticked.

Macarons - recipe from Zumbo by Adriano Zumbo

300g of almond meal
300g of pure icing (confectioners' sugar)
110g of egg whites, room temperature (the amount of eggs you'll need will vary depending on their size)
75mL of water
Food colouring (make them pretty)
2g of powdered egg white (because I'm lazy, I didn't bother with this. It just seemed redundant and they turned out perfect without it)
110g egg whites, extra, at room temperature

Grease 3 large baking trays and line with non-stick baking paper.  I drew small circles 2cm in diameter on the back of the baking paper as a guide.  You don't want the circles to be much larger than that for small macarons because the batter will relax after you pipe it and spread a little. 

Sift almond meal and icing sugar together into a large bowl.  Put the egg whites into an electric mixer and set aside while you complete the next step.

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved (after about 7 minutes).  While you're doing this make sure to wash down the sides of the saucepan with water on a pastry brush to avoid crystallisation.  Increase the heat and bring to the boil.  At this stage, add the food colouring.  Cook until the mixture reaches 118˚C.  When it gets close to this temperature add the powdered egg whites (if you're using them) to the egg whites in the mixing bowl and whisk on medium speed until frothy. 

Once the sugar syrup is at the right temperature, increase the mixer speed to high and pour the syrup in a steady stream down the side of the bowl.  Whisk until warm, about 8 minutes.  Add the extra egg whites to the dry ingredients and then add the meringue.  Using a spatula, fold the mixture together until well combined and until it begins to loosen, softening the meringue.  When the mixture falls slowly off the spatula, you've got the right consistency to start piping. 

Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe straight down onto your prepared baking trays.  Make sure you leave a substantial gap between your macarons.  If you have the right texture, the macaron will soften again slightly and the tip on top of the macaron will drop leaving a smooth top. 

Leave the macarons at room temperature for 30 minutes or until a skin forms.  This skin will lift when they are cooking, giving the macarons their distinctive foot at their base.  Preheat the oven to 135˚C.  To test if the macarons are ready, gently touch one with your fingertip to check that a light skin has formed - the macarons should not be sticky.

Bake the macarons for 16 minutes, until they have a firm outer shell. Remove from the oven and set aside for 2 minutes, then carefully remove one macaron with a spatula to check that the base is also cooked and dry.  If the base is still slightly sticky, return the macarons to the oven for 2-3 minutes and then check again.  Cool the macarons completely on the trays.


Now that your shells are ready, you might like to match up likely pairs of macaron shells to sandwhich together before you make the ganache!  For the filling, I just made a simple dark chocolate ganache.

Simple Dark Chocolate Ganache

150g of pouring/whipping cream
200g good quality dark chocolate
60g unsalted butter, softened

Put the cream in a small saucepan and bring to the boil.  Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, set aside for 3 minutes.  Stir until the ganache is glossy and smooth.  Set aside and let cool for 5 minutes.  Using a stick mixer, blitz in the butter until smooth.  Set the mixture aside to cool until it becomes firm enough to pipe.

Pipe the ganache on the bottom of one macaron shell and sandwhich it with its pair.

Enjoy!!

If you would like to check out more of Adriano Zumbo's amazing creations (which, trust me, you do) then click here to go to his website.  If you'd like to buy a copy of his book Zumbo where this macaron recipe is from plus many many more delightful recipes click here.

Rainbow Orange Wedge Jewels

 For months I've been seeing  rainbow coloured items splashed everywhere on the Internet; Instagram, 9Gag, Facebook, Tumblr... Now I get that most of the photos of rainbow zebras are probably Photoshopped but I thought that recreating some rainbow foods I've seen around the web would be a pretty cool thing to do. So I did!

One of my favourite rainbow themed food photos I've seen are the rainbow jelly orange wedges (or Jell-O if you're from the States).  Basically they're orange wedges but where the flesh of the orange normally is, is a sparkly pretty wedge of colourful jelly looking not unlike a jewel (hence why I refer to them as orange wedge jewels. I know right? I'm brilliant).  It is ridiculously easy and seeing as how here in Australia oranges and lemons are in full force, I thought I'd use some of the hundreds of oranges growing on our trees right now and make some pretty things with some freshly squeezed O.J as a bonus.  We don't do wasteful around here!  Obviously you can do whatever colour(s) you want with this.  These are a huge hit with kids as I found out when I experimented these with my family.  Even the adults are wowed.  They'd be great for kids parties and the like, so go ahead and try these out!

Rainbow Orange Wedge Jewels

Jelly- whatever colours/flavours you want (I used six colours- red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple)
As many oranges as you want wedges

Firstly, what you want to do is cut each orange in half then juice it.  Then using whatever tools you want (not a drill) gently scoop out the pulpy flesh left inside the orange half.  I alternated between a knife and a spoon.  The orange flesh should come out relatively easily.  I was able to peel the segments cleanly away from the skin really easily.

Place the empty orange halves in a muffin tray so filling the halves is a lot easier and obviously less messy. 

Next prepare your jelly/jellies.  Pour the jelly liquid into the orange halves and refrigerate until they're set. 

Once the jelly is set, carefully cut each half into quarters with a sharp knife.  This bit can get a little tricky and messy doing it for the first time but try to do it in one fluid movement.  This way you get a clean cut through the jelly and no ragged edges, though I did get a few myself.

And that's it! Enjoy your rainbow orange wedges and freshly squeezed orange juice!

Tackling Adriano Zumbo one pear at a time...

I've  had Adriano Zumbo's book "Zumbo" for over six months and the entire time it's been in my possession it's been sitting in my room on a stand collecting dust.  To be completely honest I was slightly intimidated by epic recipes and mentions of rose emulsions and lychee caviar to try any of these recipes... until about two weeks ago when I finally decided on something to make.  Aside from his macarons or "Zumbarons" I found this recipe to be the easiest and least fiddly, which is saying something about the rest of  the recipes in his book!  I don't doubt I'll try them all eventually but for now his "Lavender Up" bar cake is entirely satisfying for a first shot...

The Zumbo Lavender Up cake is basically a pear, blueberry, lavender and coconut flavoured creation which is friggin' delicious and not nearly as weird as it may sound.  In fact I did have a taste of the mixture before I baked it and I think it's pretty fair to say that the spoon was licked completely clean.  I'm not even sorry. 

You'll need a few extras ready before you start though:

Lavender sugar:

200g caster sugar
50g dried lavender


Put the sugar and lavender into a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder.

 Simple sugar syrup:

250g caster sugar
250g water


Put the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.  Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and cool completely.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Clear neutral glaze:

250g water
10g pectin (I used Jamsetta for those of you in Australia and anywhere else that sells it)
265g caster sugar
20g liquid glucose


Place the water in a saucepan and heat to 60˚C.  Mix the pectin with 65g of the caster sugar, add to the water and stir to combine. Bring to the boil and add the remaining sugar.  Return to the boil and add the glucose. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  To use, reheat to 35˚C in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, or in a microwave.

Adriano Zumbo's "Lavender Up" bar cake 

For the caramel:

300g caster sugar
120g water
60g  liquid glucose
220g coconut cream


Lightly spray two bar tins (7.5cm x 20cm) with cooking oil.  Line the trays with non stick paper, enough so the paper extends over the sides of the tin longways.  (This makes the cake easier to turn out, as well as makes sure it really doesn't get stuck in the pan.)

Put the sugar, water and liquid glucose in a small, deep saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.  Bring the mixture to the boil and cook until the caramel is dark amber in colour.  NB: One thing the book doesn't remind or suggest you do when making the caramel is making sure you wash down the sides of the saucepan with water when you're waiting for the mixture to colour to make sure the mixture doesn't crystallise. I did this with a pastry brush (with Natasha's help while I was occupied doing other components.) 

Meanwhile, bring the coconut cream to the boil in a separate saucepan and remove from the heat.  Add this warm to the caramel once it has reached the dark amber colouring you need to deglaze. Be super careful doing this though as when the coconut cream hits the caramel it will rise a spit, releasing a lot of heat.

After you've done this, divide the caramel between the two tins.

For the poached pears:

4 beurre bosc pears
2.5kg of sugar syrup (make 5 batches)
Seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
Small pinch of saffron threads


200g fresh blueberries (I could only get a hold of canned blueberries unfortunately.)


Peel and core the pears and cut each into two even halves.  Put the pears, syrup, vanilla seeds an saffron in a saucepan and cover with a cartouche.  A cartouche is just a round of baking paper cut to fit just over the contents of the pan.  Bring to the boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the pears are tender but not mushy.  Transfer them to a bowl to cool completely.

Cut each piece of pear in half length ways and then into three wedges.  Arrange the pear pieces randomly over the caramel in the tins.  Scatter the blueberries over the pears to fill in the gaps between pears.  If I could suggest one thing though, it would be to leave the pears in their halves rather than wedge them, just for presentation reasons.

Note how the blueberries lack their beautiful blue colouring and a lot of their plumpness? DON'T BUY CANNED BLUEBERRIES FOR THIS. Learn from my mistake. They're ugly.

For the cake batter: 

150g unsalted butter
240g light palm sugar, grated
180g lightly beaten egg
310g plain flour
5g baking powder
75g cornflour
50g lavender sugar
120g desiccated coconut
100g creme fraiche
150g coconut cram
Finely grated zest and juice of one orange
Finely grated zest and juice of one lemon


Preheat the oven to 160˚C.  Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer on medium speed for 3 minutes or until pale and fluffy.  Gradually add the egg, mixing well between each addition.  Mix in the sifted flour, baking powder and cornflour.  Mix in the combined lavender sugar and desiccated coconut.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the creme fraiche, coconut cream and all the zest  and juice, mixing until well combined.



I love that you can see the little purple flecks of lavender in the mixture.


Divide the mixture between the two tins, filling them no more than 1cm from the top and place on a baking tray.  Cook for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out just a little moist. Cool the cakes in their tins and then carefully invert onto a wire rack.

To finish:

**Can I just say that I found this step entirely optional just because I saw it as another layer of sugar you could do without**

200g of clear neutral glaze


Heat the clear neutral glaze in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until it reaches 35˚C and then pour over the cakes.  Transfer to a serving plate.

A long recipe but entirely worth it! It was honestly one of the best cakes I've tasted/made.  The lavender was such a subtle flavour but made a world of difference.  It didn't taste soapy at all.  Stealing dozens of lavender flowers with Natasha from various houses in our neighbourhood definitely payed off! We just hope the owners of the houses weren't looking out their window to find two girls ripping out bunches of lavender from their bushes and running off to find the next unsuspecting bushes. Awkward...

The next time I make this cake though, I'll make a couple of changes.  First of all I think the glaze was slightly redundant, seeing as the caramel glazes the cake pretty well in the first place.  The entire thing is pretty sugar intensive  and I'd like to not give my pancreas a heart attack by adding another flavourless layer of sugar.  I might try leaving out the pear and blueberry layer next time as well and soak the cake through with some vanilla sugar syrup or the caramel, just to switch things up a bit and see what works best.  The cake in itself is quite dense but not to such an unpleasant heavy level for my tastes.  I really enjoyed the consistency of the cake but I'm thinking moistening it up with a bit of syrup or caramel would loosen the cake a tad. 

Om freaking nom.

You can find Adriano Zumbo's website at adrianozumbo.com
You can buy Adriano Zumbo's book "Zumbo" here (UK) and here (US).