Chocolate Cupcakes for Mark's Birthday

It is my boss, Mark's, birthday today.  As a birthday surprise, I made him chocolate cupcakes and brought them into work on Friday.  The surprise was on me, as he wasn't there.  Accordingly, they are still living in the fridge at work in the hope he is back on Monday.

I used the chocolate cupcake recipe for The Primrose Bakery's Cookies and Cream Cupcakes, and chocolate "fudge" icing from The Crabapple Bakery cook book.  I then topped the cupcakes with chocolate rocks - they look pretty good, if I say so myself.

I then boxed them up like so:

 

Here's a peek inside (the recipe made 16 cakes and I only needed 12):

To make the cakes, you will need:

• 115g dark chocolate
• 85g unsalted butter
• 175g soft brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 185g plain flour
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• pinch of salt
• 250ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your  oven to 190°C.  Line 2 x 12-hole muffin trays with 16 cupcake papers.

Melt the chocolate and leave to cool slightly.

Beat the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer until creamy. Separate the eggs (reserve the whites in a separate bowl), add the egg yolks to the butter and sugar, and beat well. Add the melted chocolate and beat to combine.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl and stir together.

Combine the milk and vanilla extract. Add the flour  and milk alternately to the batter, beating well after each addition.

Whisk the reserved egg whites until they form stiff peaks, then fold the eggs whites into the batter until combined.

Spoon the mixture equally into the cupcake papers, and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes. Leave the cupcakes to cool in the tin for ~ 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

For the icing, you will need:

4 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
100 g softened butter
3/8 cup milk
1 tbs vanilla extract

Sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter for 1-2 minutes, then add the milk, vanilla extract and half of the icing sugar mixture, and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat again until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Spoon icing into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe onto the cooled cupcakes.  Top with chocolate rocks or whatever decoration you desire.

FFWD - Almond-Orange Tuiles

Today's French Friday with Dorie is an "oh dear" moment.  No, not because of Blogger's penchant for rotating photos at ridiculous angles with no mechanism for reversing it.  It is because the recipe is Almond-Orange Tuiles - and things really did not go well.

I made a half batch using almond meal (misinterpreting "finely cut almonds" for almond meal).  Do not try this at home - the tuiles won't spread.  When I turned up the oven to see if that would make them spread, it burned the bottoms of them.  Into the trash they go!

On the next night, take two; that is when I read "finely chopped almonds" as "put almonds in a food processor and chop finely, but do not pulverise".  I also skipped the resting in the fridge part for the dough, thinking that this may actually have stopped batch one from spreading.

Success, in that the tuiles spread and resembled what they should have this time.  Followed by epic fail - the tuiles stuck to the egg lifter I used to get them off the trays, they fell off the rolling pin and tore, and those that did hang around never set - they were too soft and lost their shape immediately after leaving the rolling pin.

Don't get me wrong - these biscuits tasted good (what's not to like about nuts and butter) - but they just didn't do what they were supposed to for me.  I subbed OJ for lemon juice as I didn't want to waste a whole orange for a few tablespoons of juice.  However, they were too much of a pain in the behind for me, so never again.

To see if the other Doristas had better luck, visit the LYL section of the website.  

Celebration Fruit Cake - Australian Womens Weekly recipe

I made my Christmas Cake in September this year to give it some time to mature.  The recipe that I chose is from the Australian Women's Weekly Christmas Food and Craft, dubbed "Celebration Fruit Cake".  You can also find the recipe online here. 

I liked the fact that there were no nuts in this fruit cake recipe, as the nuts tend to make the cake crumble when you cut it.  I intend to ice the cake with marzipan and fondant and cut it into pieces as part of my annual Christmas gift boxes.

When I opened the cake up for the first time this week, it smelt very reassuringly boozy, so I hope that is a good sign.  I haven't been "feeding" the cake as the recipe does not require it.  I am also very happy with the colour - I like my fruit cake to be dark.

I also decided to ice my cake with marzipan and fondant, decorated with fondant stars and dusted with gold lustre dust:

I did an Italian Christmas baking course at Gewurzhaus last weekend, which has given me some other Christmas baking ideas.  We made these two tone shortbread stars:

and mini panettone:

among other things.

Are you making food as gifts this year?  And if so, what are your favourite food gifts to make?

WWDH - Sweet Potato Soup with Goat's Cheese

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is Sweet Potato Soup with Goat's Cheese, chosen by Chaya.  The recipe is online here.

I was not a fan of this soup.  It was a little thin for me,  andit seemed to need some spice.  The goat's cheese added flavour, but seemed to sink into the soup.  Unfortunately, this is not a repeat for me.

To see what Chaya, Kayte, Margaret and Sarah thought of this soup, visit their websites. 

Piermont Restaurant, Swansea

While in Tasmania, Tim and I stayed at Piermont Retreat in Swansea, a charming place with stone cottages, a private beach and rolling grounds.  If you want to get close to nature, then Piermont Retreat is the place for you.  In the evenings, possums, wrens and rabbits abound.

Of course, it would have been remiss of us not to dine at the restaurant at the retreat, unsurprisingly called Piermont Restaurant.  It is open every night except Wednesday, and sits in a prime position overlooking the grounds of the retreat. The restaurant serves local food and wine in a fine dining atmosphere.

There is a degustation menu, but we decided to dine a la cart.  I started off with a glass of sparkling rosé: 

The amuse bouche was mushroom arancini:

Our meal was accompanied by delicious complimentary rye bread:

For entrée, we ordered lamb with crushed peas to share:

To accompany my main meal, I ordered a glass of refreshing Kelvedon (local winery) Pinot Gris:

For my main meal, I ordered the Tasmanian market fish with crumbed mussels and seafood chowder:

while Tim ordered the beef cheek, mashed potato and baby beets:  

 

 

 

On the side, we ordered rocket, pear and parmesan salad:

 

 

and roast chat potatoes, rosemary and garlic:

The potatoes were the highlight - I could have easily eaten them all myself.

To finish off our meal, we shared a white chocolate and raspberry brulee  served with what could only be described as toast fingers:

Although the toasts  topped with raspberry powder were presumably for dipping in the brulee, I found them rather odd.

Overall, the food was good, and the location was spectacular.  It was definitely worth going, although pricey (mains ~$36).  If you are in Swansea, do check out this restaurant.

Piermont Restaurant
12991 Tasman Highway

Swansea, Tasmania 7190

Ph:  (03) 62578131

Great Gatsby Christmas Party

On Saturday night, we had our office Christmas party at the Park Hyatt in Melbourne.  The theme was The Great Gatsby, which suited me to a T.

On the menu, for entrée, there was onion tart:

 
or prawn cocktail:

 
I had the prawn cocktail, which unusually had potato salad in the middle.  I liked it.

Main was either lamb:

 
or chicken:

I scored the chicken, which suited me.

Dessert was "petit fours" - actually, mini desserts in the form of chocolate mousse, lemon curd tart, a raspberry macaron and pannacotta with lemon grass jelly:

It was a fun night.  The music was definitely not Gatsby era, so that we could all dance the night away.  Late into the evening, there was even a staff band!

If you are curious as to my outfit, I went for a late 1920s bias cut dress that I already owned, and accessoried it 1920s stylee:

If you like 1920s fashion, do check out my photos from Miss Fisher's Costume Exhibition at Rippon Lea House here.

Pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving

It was Thanksgiving on Thursday in the US.  We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia, but I thought it would be fun to celebrate by making a season-appropriate dish. I chose to make pumpkin cheesecake.

The recipe that I based it on is Sprinklebake's Sweet Potato Pecan Praline Cheesecake Bars,  but by making it as a round 10" cheesecake rather than bars, and substituting the sweet potato for a cup of mashed pumpkin.  For the base, I used 1 1/2 cups crushed gingernuts mixed with 1/2 cup melted Nuttelex, baked for 10 minutes at 180 degrees.  I baked my cheesecake for around an hour, and skipped the praline.

Here is the finished result:

I think crowd reaction speaks for itself - I put it in the kitchen for any takers, and came back 10 minutes later to find it was all gone.  I thought it was delicious, but then again, I love cheesecake!

I hope that all who celebrate American Thanksgiving had a lovely day on Thursday.