Friday 30 September 2011

Hazelnut Pavlovas with Nutella Cream

I had lunch today with two lovely ladies and wanted to make a dessert with a difference.
After searching taste.com.au for a little while, i found these yummy treats.


The recipe was to make one very tall pavlova, but i decide to make 2 smaller ones.


Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
- 4 egg whites
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 2 tsp cornflour
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 300 mls thickened cream
- 1 1/2 tbls chocolate hazelnut spread
- Strawberries and flake to decorate.


1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Line an oven tray with baking paper and using a plate, trace a 15cm circle onto paper. Set aside.

2. Place hazelnuts onto a separate baking tray and bake for 5min or until golden. Remove hazelnuts from the oven. While they are still warm, wrap in a clean towel and rub vigorously to remove skins. Discard skins and finely chop hazelnuts. Set aside to cool.

3. Reduce oven to 120 degrees. Use electric beaters to beat the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until medium peaks form.
Gradually add caster sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating constantly until meringue is thick and glossy and sugar is dissolved. Add the cornflour and vinegar and beat until just combined.

4. Gently fold through chopped hazelnuts and spoon meringue mixture onto the baking tray, following the shape traced on the baking paper. Bake immediately for 1 hour and 50min.
(I turned the oven off 30mins early, after looking through the door and checking their progress. I think because I split the mixture in half, it obviously affected the cooking time) Turn off the oven and leave to cool completely before removing.

5. Beat the cream with the chocolate hazelnut spread until stiff peaks form. Spoon onto pavlova to serve. I sprinkled some cadbury flake onto the top and had some extra strawberries in a bowl for those that wanted them.  


Thursday 29 September 2011

Red Velvet Whoopies

Since I am on holidays, I thought I should be a little more adventurous with my baking, so when I saw these red velvet whoopies in the October issue of Super Food Ideas - I just had to try them.
They were really easy to make, and quite delicious.


Ingredients:
- 125g butter, softened                            
- 1 3/4 cups plain flour
- 3/4 cup caster sugar                              
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract                                
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda                    
- 2 eggs                                                
- 1/4 tsp baking powder                        
- 3 tsp red colouring                              
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar                    
- 1/2 cup buttermilk

 Cream Cheese Filling:
75g butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g cream cheese, softened

1. Preheat oven to 180 and line 4 baking trays with baking paper. Using an electric mixer, beat  butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Add food colouring and beat until combined.  Meanwhile, sift flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a large bowl.
2. Add half of the flour mixture to butter mixture and stir to combine. Add vinegar and half of buttermilk. Stir to combine. Repeat with the rest of the remaining flour mixture and milk until just combined.
3. Drop level teaspoons of mixture onto prepared trays., 5cm apart. allowing room for spreading. Bake one tray at a time, for 8 - 10 mins, or until puffed and cooked through.
Stand on trays for 2 mins, transfer to wire rack.
4. To make cream cheese filling, use an electric mixer, beat butter, icing sugar and vanilla together until pale and fluffy. Add cream cheese and beat until smooth and combined. Sandwich between cakes to make 2 whoopie pies.

Monday 26 September 2011

Tiny Cupcakes

Today marks the first official day of my holidays, so I thought I would get back into my baking groove by baking some basic cupcakes.  I used the basic cake mix from the Womens Weekly cake book and divided it into some cute purple & aqua patty pans.


I then just made a basic icing mixture and put a light drizzle on each, topping with some colourful sprinkles (as I am trying to be 'good'). Even though they a simple, they sure taste good.