Vanilla cupcakes with melted Lindt chocolate ball centre

After the Christmas break, my local Target had Christmas Lindt chocolate balls on clearance for only $1.40 per a bag, so I decided to buy LOTS of them, unfortunately the chocolate didn’t like the 41 degrees Celsius weather, so I had to put them in the fridge. 

In hindsight, I think I may have bought too many bags of Lindt chocolate and I got sick of eating them after a while, so I decided that the easiest way to use them up was to bake with them, I decided to make vanilla cupcakes and put the Lindt chocolate balls into the centre of the cupcakes and I hoped that it would turn out okay.

Waiting for the cupcakes to be baked was torture, I was really worried that the Lindt chocolate balls would get burnt in the cupcakes or something else terrible like that, thankfully when the cupcakes were ready it appeared that they turned out okay.. phew! 

I allowed the cupcakes to cool down for a little bit and then I decided to cut the cupcake open to see what it looked like inside.

The vanilla cupcake looked amazing, look at that melted Lindt chocolate ball centre, I was so glad that the chocolate didn’t burn.

I took the cupcakes into work the next day and everyone loved the cupcakes, I was so relieved that they tasted so good.

I will definitely have to make these cupcakes again soon, it is so easy to make and they taste great! 

For the vanilla cupcakes I used my favourite trusted recipe from Sally’s baking addiction: very vanilla cupcakes and I used milk and white Lindt chocolate balls for the centre. 

Gelato Messina & Arnott’s Tim Tam biscuits collaboration

I love Gelato Messina, but seriously who does not? When I found out that Gelato Messina was doing a collaboration with Arnott’s Tim Tam biscuits, I was super duper excited.

The day after reading the article, I went straight to Coles at lunch time to look for the biscuits and I was so happy when I found them, they had several flavours, salted caramel and vanilla, choc mint, coconut and lychee and black forest, I decided to buy the coconut and lychee flavour and the choc mint flavour.

My friend and I ended up trying the biscuits after lunch, it was unanimous agreement that we liked the choc mint flavour, there is something really delicious about the combination of dark chocolate Tim Tam and mint filling. The coconut and lychee flavour just didn’t work because it tasted artificial and I can’t say I’m a huge fan of white chocolate type Tim Tam biscuits, this was a shame because I love the coconut and lychee gelato at Gelato Messina, it was the first gelato that I fell in love when I used to visit yonks ago. 

Today I bought some of the salted caramel and vanilla flavour and I can happily say that I liked this flavour and I think it was my favourite out of the range, milk chocolate  Tim Tam with a salted caramel and vanilla filling equals yum. I won’t be trying the black forest flavour because I do not like the taste of black forest anything really.

I think I may purchase the salted caramel and vanilla Gelato Messina-Arnott’s Tim Tam biscuits again soon.

The Gelato Messina-Arnott’s Tim Tam biscuits can be purchased from most supermarkets, I have seen it in both Coles and Woolworths.

Macaron making class with Mak Mak

Macarons are one sweet thing I am fearful of baking, they seemed too difficult to make, when I saw a Scoopon deal for a macaron making class with Carlos Heng from Mak Mak, I bought one and made a booking to join a session.

Mak Mak macarons are one of the best macarons in Sydney and you can understand why, with the owner of Mak Mak, Carlos Heng (aka Mak Daddy) being so passionate about making the best macarons and constantly experimenting with new flavours.

I had arrived at the macaron making class a tad too early, so I had a quick peep inside, Carlos and his team were busily setting up.

The macaron making class commenced at 10am and everyone had arrived eager to learn, I myself were terrified, because making macarons scared me. 

Carlos started by telling the class a little bit about himself, it was quite fascinating to hear about how he started out. After this introduction, Carlos talked about macaron basics and then got us to try their macarons so we could test and taste the textures.

The next part of the macaron cooking class involved Carlos teaching us about making macarons, from making the meringue, mixing the dry ingredients with the meringue and egg whites with food dye and then piping it onto the trays. 

After this demonstration, it was our turn, I ended having no partner to work with because everyone was paired up, this worked fine for me. 

The first parts of mixing the blue coloured dyed egg whites into the dry ingredients and mixing the meringue mixture thereafter didn’t seem that hard but it was labor intensive hehe, it was the piping of the macarons that I got stuck on, I piped some of mine too small.

After I had piped two trays of macaron shells, Carlos put them into the oven.

After 12 minutes..

Dah dah!! The baked product.. look at the feet of my shells. 

Whilst we waited for our macaron shells to cool down, Carlos taught us how to make chocolate ganache and how to pipe the ganache and peanut butter onto the macaron shells.

Now that the macaron shells were cooled down, it was time to match up the macaron shells.

The last step was piping the filling onto the macaron shells and to put the macaron together, I didn’t put much peanut butter onto my macaron shell because I do not like peanut butter much.

The finished product! They tasted yummy. 

I really enjoyed the macaron making class, I came out of the class feeling a whole lot more confident of making macarons. 

Keep your eyes peeled, I might attempt to make them myself soon.

Click on the link for further information:

Mak Mak macaron classes

*i had trouble capturing the blue colour of the macarons with my iPhone

Koi Dessert Bar

I forgot to post this.. so here it is months later 😫

Yay, I finally made it to Koi Dessert Bar, this visit was a long time coming, trying to plan a visit sans toddler is so hard. 
My friend and I decided to check out Koi Dessert Bar after overdosing on fried delights at Spice Alley, thankfully because we went on a weekday, it was not busy. 

Koi Dessert Bar is located on Kensington Street Chippendale, the dessert bar is two stories high, so there are plenty of seats available. 

My friend and I opted to sit at the bar area because it just looked so damn pretty and the scents from the flowers and fragrant oils was intoxicating.

It was such a hard choice in deciding which desserts to order because we were not hungry at all, so we decided to share two desserts, we ordered the tropical slice and the strawberry pillow.

The tropical slice was my favourite because it contained mango and I love mango flavoured desserts. 

I really am so excited for Koi Dessert Bar, this is my dream place, I cannot wait to come back soon. 

Koi Dessert Bar website

Easy homemade salted caramel sauce

I’ve always wanted to make salted caramel sauce, but most recipes required the use of a thermometer or were too complicated (I’m too lazy for complicated lol), when I saw a 4 ingredients recipe for salted caramel sauce, I decided to make it. 

The process of mixing the sugar in the pot on the stove for the beginnings of making the salted caramel sauce was the only part that I found tedious, otherwise the other processes were simple enough. Thankfully I didn’t stuff up the recipe and the recipe turned out well. 

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The salted caramel sauce was so delicious, the taste combination of the sweetness, the saltyness, the butteryness and the stickiness made this salted caramel sauce perfect! I’ve placed the sauce in a glass jar to be used later, the baking possibilities are endless! Yay! 

I can tick that one off my baking bucket list!

Click on the link below for this awesome recipe: 

Sally’s homemade salted caramel sauce