All cookies should be pink

I saw this recipe on Design*Sponge and had to try it. I've always loved the look of macarons and was surprised that they weren't as easy to make as I had thought. My first batch fell flat - I realize now that I overmixed them - but my second batch turned out pretty well. The shells are made of almonds, icing sugar and egg whites (whipped with sugar until firm). Baking time is only 10 minutes but I left them out to set for an hour beforehand, as the recipe instructed.


The ganache filling is amazing - and for good reason. Bittersweet chocolate, toffee and heavy cream are never a bad combo. I have some left over that I am hoping to use in another recipe this week.


I just need to work on getting them all the same size next time!

The last cake

Our last cake was a quick one. Decadent Chocolate cake batter includes bittersweet chocolate, butter, flour, sugar and eggs (separated, with the whites and a bit of cream of tartar whipped into firm peaks). Baking time is 15 minutes and the cake needs to be cooled completely in the fridge before being glazed. The glaze (chocolate, butter and corn syrup) is heated over a water bath and then drizzled and smoothed over the cake (mmmm....). We used heated white chocolate to pipe a variety of designs on parchment paper, which were peeled off after the chocolate had cooled and set. Mine resulted in an, um, interesting design which I'm calling 'abstract'.


This is a super-rich recipe so servings sizes should be small. You could also use this recipe to make molten chocolate cake. (Which I will be trying - I've always wanted to make those!) Simply fill some ramekins 3/4 full with the batter and place a Lindt chocolate in each one and top up with more batter and bake. I have a month off before The Art of Pies starts so am planning to try making those, as well as macarons - they seem like the perfect spring-like thing to make.

I heart cheesecake!

Finally! Cheesecake is my favourite dessert ever so I was excited to make this Baked Raspberry Chiffon version. It was all I could do not to grab a knife and fork and eat this for dinner. But I shared - because it's nice and because consuming this much cheese in one sitting would not end well. The graham cracker crust was what you'd expect: graham crumbs, butter, ground almonds and sugar. The filling included a lot more ingredients than I've seen in a cheesecake before, some of which were: Baker's (Quark) cheese, egg yolks, sugar, vegetable oil, bread flour and butter milk. Whipped egg whites were what gave it a light, fluffy texture.

The raspberry topping was made by boiling frozen raspberries, water and corn starch. Cheesecake should be baked at a low temperature for a long time (this one was baked at 325 degrees for 20 minutes and then 20-25 minutes at 300 degrees). I will definitely be making this recipe again.

Chocolatey goodness

This week's Chocolate Mousse cake was my favourite so far. There were three steps: biscuit, mousse and glaze. Melt this over a water bath...boil that...I love complicated recipes. We baked Japonais biscuit, which is similar to meringue and includes egg whites, white sugar, icing sugar, ground almonds and corn starch. The biscuit was cut and layered into the dark chocolate mousse (!) made of butter, dark chocolate, water, gelatin, sugar, eggs and cream. Our cakes were then frozen (had we been at home they could have been refrigerated overnight) and released from their pans.


We then poured a shiny glaze made of couverture chocolate (more expensive because it includes cocoa butter), coating chocolate (cheaper), cream, water, sugar and glucose over our cakes. We had piped some little circles with the leftover biscuit batter earlier, so stuck these to the sides of our cakes. The grand finish was piping melted white chocolate across the top and using a paring knife to create the wavy patterns you see on top.


Needless to say this all smelled SO good!

Espresso + cake = delicious

It was Tiramisu week! We made a creamy (and not low-fat) filling with mascarpone cheese, whipping cream, eggs, sugar and gelatin (passed on the brandy).


Instead of baking the lady fingers as individual cookies, we piped a small sheet tray full of cookie dough (eggs, sugar, corn starch and bread flour = delicious) and cut the baked sheet into strips that wrapped around the outside of our cake. The cookie crust was brushed with a mixture of espresso and simple syrup. The filling was poured in and the cake was popped into the freezer to set.