recipes
Happy birthday to my best friend and hooray for Oreo cupcakes.16. May 2013
On Monday night I threw my Shane a small surprise Rumdayillovo party. It’s his birthday today which means it’s pretty much impossible for us to go out because of Howl, so with Doug’s help I made prego rolls and potato wedges, hung up balloons with steamers, set-up a poker game and had our Rumday Illovo family over to surprise him. He was ALMOST surprised. Boo. He arrived home literally 10 minutes before everyone else arrived to shout the big ‘S’ word, but he appreciated it anyway.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SHANE, you are my best friend and I love you so so so much.
I also, for the first time attempted to make Oreo cupcakes. They were actually pretty easy to make and they turned out really good, well that’s what everyone told me. I always feel weird saying things tasted good, like I’m blowing my own horn, but they were really nice. The Oreo after being baked in the cake batter turned out really soft and yummy, so when you bit into the cupcake everything was super soft and sweet. I made a simple cocoa buttercream icing for the tops, which complimented them nicely, it also made them look cool, white on the outside and brown on top, sort of like an Oreo.
Anyway here is the recipe for the cupcakes, the buttercream icing I just made up as I went along, but next time I’m totally making this recipe because it sounds amazing and who wouldn’t want the most amazing icing on their cake? Not me.
Vanilla Cupcakes
125g butter
150g castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs.
200g cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
125ml milk
Directions
Cream the butter and sugar together Add the vanilla essence and mix well Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl well after each addition Add the flour, baking powder and milk to the mixture and beat well Pour a small amount of the mixture into the cupcake holders then place a Oreo cookie on top of the mixture before covering it with more batter. Fill the cupcake tin holes just under 3/4 of the way. Bake at 160° for 20 minutes or until the tops of the cupcakes are slightly golden brown. Once they are cooled you can ice them with whatever icing takes your fancy. Like I said I made some cocoa buttercream icing, but next time I’m using this recipe (below) but I’ll add some cocoa.
Fluffy Buttercream Frosting
1 1/2 cups butter, at room temperature (3 sticks)*
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (use clear if desired)
Directions
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, using the paddle or whisk attachment whip butter on medium high speed (if using whisk attachment whip on high speed) until nearly white and very fluffy, about 7 – 8 minutes, frequently scrapping down the sides of the bowl. Add in powdered sugar, heavy cream and vanilla extract and mix on low speed until blended, then increase speed to medium and beat until very light and fluffy, about 5 – 6 minutes, frequently scraping down the sides of the bowl. Immediately spread over cooled cake or cupcakes.
Typography cake. Now. I want it now.15. May 2013
Good Lord, look at this amazing cake! My friend Clint always finds the coolest things like this and then mails me the link (he found Eyescream and Friends). He is the best at finding stuff that makes me want to backflip off a roof. I’m so so so going to try make this cake and when I do I will blog about the results, but for now check out these cool photos and read about how to make it. Here is a link back to the genius who actually made this in the first place – Victoria I’m sending you a virtual high-5, because your face and this cake flipping rule.
- To make the cake you will need; 1 box cake mix, any flavor (we used white), edible dough (any color), mini alphabet cookie cutters (these will vary in size, make sure they are small enough that when your word is spelled out, it will fit in your pan), a 9×5 loaf pan (or any cake pan in which your message can fit; a bundt pan is a fun one to use), rolling pin, and confectioners sugar.
Take your edible dough and knead it into a workable, pliable consistency. Then sprinkle a little confectioners sugar on a clean surface and roll out the dough to your desired thickness. Cut out the shapes of the letters you want to use in your message. For the cake in this tutorial, I used a whole package of edible dough and cut out the letters Y and A to spell YAY.
Make cake batter according to instructions on box. Grease your pan and pour enough batter in the pan to cover the bottom. Take your cut-out letters and place them in the batter, spelling out your word or message. Repeat this until you have crossed the length of the pan. Make sure the letters are lined up and straight.
Place the rest of the cake batter into a measuring cup (or piping bag if you want to really be careful) and pour batter slowly over the top of the letters, until they are covered and you have used up all the batter.
Bake cake in a 350F oven for about 40 minutes; check for doneness with a toothpick. Allow to cool before using a sharp knife to slice into the cake and reveal the surprise message.
This lady knows how to speak my language. Damn.01. May 2013
I have only just discovered this blog and I’m so super flipping happy I did. By the looks of it this woman can cook like a mother-fer and she’s not bad with a camera either. I have spent the last hour on her blog clicking through stuff, literally talking to myself while I stare at my screen wishing I was in a pair of fat pants in this woman’s kitchen taste testing EVERYTHING.
Why does she have to live so far away (Pennsylvania)? Why can’t she be my best friend and live on Corlett Drive? Why world, why?
Anyway I have pulled some things off her site that made me want to punch myself in both eyes so I wouldn’t be able to see/crave them anymore. But if you like cooking and baking, definitely check How Sweet It Is out, there are 162 pages of food magic on there.
Chocolate chip cookie peanut butter s’mores (…with the easiest vanilla bean marshmallows)
Peanut butter cream filled donuts
Four cheese baked skillet rigatoni
Fresh strawberry cupcakes with coconut frosting
Roasted red pepper + bacon goat cheese truffles
Banana carrot cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting
Fontina and spinach baked eggs with garlic brown butter breadcrumbs
Sweet potato quinoa cakes with blackberry salsa
Toasted marshmallow coconut milk ice cream
Grapefruit sorbet
Sweet pins24. April 2013
I have pinned quite a few amazing looking baked/sweet goods over the past few days. Sometimes I wish I could just slap my computer screen on a plate and eat it with a knife and fork. All these things look so damn good, now just to find some sucker to make them for me.
All the recipe links are below the photos. Karen there is even a vegan one for you xx
Dark chocolate almond butter cups
Carrot Cake with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
Chocolate bonbons with caramel sauce
Chocolate chip cookie peanut butter s’mores
Nutella and meringue tart – Holy crap!
Chocolate and salted butter caramel macaroons
Macaroon time.10. April 2013
There is a lovely little local blog called Whisking It that is run by a lady named Lexi. She bakes and cooks all sorts of things and what I like about her site is she rates the recipes out of 10 so you know what you are getting yourself into. Her blog is just starting out but I think it’s very very sweet. Lexi if you need a guinea pig mouth to feed all your stuff into, i’m your pig.
I have never made macaroons before, but I checked them on Lexis blog and I think I’m going to give them a try. I will let you know how they come out, hopefully they will look something like hers below.
Ingredients:
3 egg whites
6 tablespoons superfine (castor) sugar
1 cup finely ground almonds
1 1/2 teaspoons finely ground almonds
1 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 320 degrees F (160 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
Whisk egg whites in a clean metal mixing bowl until thick, about 5 minutes; whisk the superfine sugar into the egg whites until thick, glossy, and the mixture holds stiff peaks, 5 to 8 more minutes. Place a sieve over the bowl containing egg whites and sieve both amounts of almond meal and confectioners’ sugar into the egg white mixture. Gently fold the almond meal and confectioners’ sugar into the egg whites, retaining as much air as possible.
Separate the meringue into separate bowls to flavor and color, if desired. Spoon the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a 3/8-inch tip. Pipe 1-inch disks of meringue onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between cookies.
Let the cookies stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes to form a thin skin. Pick up the baking sheets and let drop from several inches above the work surface to adhere cookies to the baking sheets.
Bake in the preheated oven until tops are dry, about 15 minutes; let cool completely on the baking sheets before peeling off the parchment paper.
Fillings:
Beat 150 gr cream cheese with 50 gr butter and vanilla essence and 1.5 cup of icing sugar
Vanilla (Blue) macaroon: Added vanilla essence to the cream cheese mix and iced the blue macaroons.
Strawberry (pink) macaroon: Added pink food colouring to the vanilla/cream cheese mix then iced the pink macaroons. I also added a bit of strawberry jam to the macaroon after the cream cheese icing for more flavour.
White (chocolate) macaroon: Added a cup of cocoa to the remaning pink cream cheese mix and iced the white macaroons.
Here are some other recipes of hers I want to try:
Happy birthday dad.13. February 2013
Today is my dad’s birthday and him and my mom arrived yesterday from Zimbabwe to spend a few days with me in JHB. Last night I decided to bake him a chocolate cake for his birthday. He hasn’t seen it yet, I hid it away because I knew if he saw it last night he would want to cut into it right then and there. My dad is just like me when it comes to cake, he can’t ever resist. Ha.
Anyway I thought I would try out a new chocolate cake recipe, I had pinned one just yesterday by What Katie Ate that looked delicious so I gave it a try. The cake came out really nicely and it’s not a very fussy recipe to follow, which is nice but next time i’m definitely going to double the ingredients to get a slightly bigger cake.
I have never made icing quite like this before either, it called for melted chocolate and coffee which is then poured into beaten butter and caster sugar. The result is a very rich, glossy, smooth icing that is flipping delicious but I’m betting super bad for every single artery in your body. I think after a slice of this cake your insides are going to be running around like a Ritalin deprived child.
All in all I think Katie’s Chocolate Fudge cake is a winner, I mean it has the words chocolate and fudge in the title how bad can it be?!
Chocolate fudge cake
1 and 1/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp butter (melted)
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 large tbs blackberry jam (sieved & pips removed)
3 eggs
1/2 cup of milk
For the icing:
170g good quality 70% chocolate
1 & 1/4 cups unsalted butter
1 & 1/4 cups of icing sugar (sifted)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp pre-made instant coffee
Cake:
In a bowl combine cocoa, sugar, flour, vanilla, melted butter and jam. Add the eggs and milk then mix until batter is smooth. Place mixture into a round grease tin (app 9″diameter) and bake in a 160° oven for 40 minutes or until cake is just cooked, remove from oven. After 10 minutes turn onto a wire rack and allow to cool./ When cake is cool slice in half horizontally to make 2 layers.
*My cake came out quite small so next time i’m going to double this recipe to make a higher layered cake.
Icing:
In a bowl beat the butter and caster sugar until smooth and creamy. In a separate bowl melt the chocolate the chocolate (in the recipe it says to do so over a a pot of lightly simmering water, I just melted mine in the microwave a bit at a time and it came out fine). Add the vanilla and the coffee to the melted chocolate mixing them together, the mixture will start to go a bit lumpy, don’t worry, just add this to the butter and caster sugar and beat gently until glossy and smooth. (I guess if you are going to double the cake recipe, you should double this one too for more icing).
Use a spatula to decorate the cake, spreading icing in between the layers and then all around the outside of the cake.
