Pavlova

I have a few items that I really dislike baking and pavlova is one of them. Making pavlova scares me because it always looks so complicated, I felt inspired to make one after finding a recipe by Adam Liaw.

The last time I made a pavlova it went quite brown and it was quite flat, I felt so deflated after that, so I decided to give up. Then one day I saw a Instagram post from Adam Liaw promising that his recipe will help make the perfect pavlova, so I decided to be brave and give it a go.

After reading the recipe it seems that the main reason that my pavlova might have failed is the fact that I did not mix the egg whites/sugar long enough and that my oven was too hot. This time around I followed those steps carefully and thankfully my pavlova looked much nicer.

For the garnishing I put mango, whipped cream and shredded coconut. I was so proud of my pavlova, look how high and white it looks. 😍

The pavlova tasted really nice and the additions of mangoes instead of the usual strawberries was a nice change. I might have put the same garnishes as Adam’s if I had the ingredients.

Looks like I might be making a pavlova again soon, I’m crossing it off my baking nemesis list.

Adam Liaw’s recipe:

Pavlova

My dessert favourites

I’ve been eating way too many sweet things lately, I’m trying to convince myself that I deserve to eat them. I blame stress for making me eat sweets. Lol

Here are 7 of my current dessert favourites, that you must try :

1. Chocolate chip cookie from Fossix Coffee

I discovered this place after blogger Simon posted some photos of the cafe. The chocolate chip cookie from Fossix Coffee is seriously what dreams are made of, they use so much callebaut chocolate, the cookie is crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. I really do think this chocolate chip cookie is the best that I’ve eaten in the Sydney CBD. 

2. Strawberries and cream sponge cake from The Grounds of the city

The strawberries and cream sponge cake at The Grounds of the city is seriously what I’ve been craving since falling in love with the sponge cake at Gumnut Patisserie. I have been obsessing over sponge cake for so long and I was over joyed to find a good one in the Sydney CBD. The sponge cake is so fluffy and moist, the cream filling is real fresh cream and the strawberries are divine. Heavenly! 

3. Ultimate chocolate cake from Zokoko

I’ve been a huge fan of Zokoko for such a long time and I still love their ultimate chocolate cake, it never disappoints. The ultimate chocolate cake is dense, moist and chocolately, the use of Zokoko chocolate makes it perfect. I don’t think I’ve ever had a chocolate that tastes better than this. 

4. Australian sea salt and honey crueller from Shortstop Coffee and donuts

What’s not to love about this sweet and salty combination ? The crueller is crispy yet chewy and it tastes like a Chinese fried donut. The balance of the sweet and salty flavours is perfect. I’ve really fallen in love with Shortstop’s donuts, more so now that I’ve found some favourites. The maple walnut donut is my other favourite.

5. Ferrero Roche croissant from Top Impression Bakery

 I really love a good pain au chocolat, this croissant was next level of amazement. The croissant was flaky and buttery and the amount of chocolate ganache filling was insane! I was actually defeated by this croissant, I couldn’t eat it all. 

6. Buttered toast donut from Grumpy Donuts and Butterbing cookie sandwich from Butterbing

Even though I’ve tried virtually every flavour of donut from Grumpy Donuts, I still love their buttered toast donut. A donut with delicious brown butter frosting and brioche crumbs, a very delicious combination. 

7. Lamingtons from Jillian’s Cakery

I love the lamingtons from Jillian’s Cakery, their lamingtons are not overly sweet and the lamingtons are so moist. Their lamingtons are definitely my favourite. 

Honourable mention go to Lexie’s cheesecake, but sadly they’ve since closed down. 

What are your favourite desserts? 

Best sponge cake ever at Grounds In The City!

Just a small PSA to tell you all that Grounds In The City sells the best sponge cake ever, it is even better than my favourite from Gumnut Patisserie! 

Today I went to Town Hall for a walk and I decided to go visit Grounds In The City, I knew it existed, but I kept forgetting to go visit. The place looked amazing from the outside. 

As I had such a little amount of time to spare this morning, I decided to make a beeline for the cake cabinet.  In the cabinet there were so many different types of cake, I decided to buy a slice of strawberries and cream sponge cake because it’s my favourite. 

Cake slices cost $9 a slice and they slice it fresh for you, the slice that I bought was HUGE, it was so big that I had to share it with my friend. 

My friend decided to eat the cake straight away, the strawberries and cream sponge cake tasted so amazing, the sponge cake part was firm, but soft and fluffy, the cream filling was made with real fresh cream and was so delicious. The strawberries and cream sponge cake was heaven in each mouthful, I may have accidentally screamed “omg” whilst eating it in the office. Oops.. 😳

There are so many other cakes for me to buy at Grounds In The City, I really do want to buy them all. Shame that I’m supposed to be on a diet.. hmmm. 

Grounds In The City is located at:

The Galeries of Victoria (on the same level as Jimmy’s). 

Vanilla and sour cream cupcakes

When I go to the supermarket, my bad habit is buying so many different things to use for baking because I have grand plans to bake something fabulous with it and then weeks later I forget about it. Yesterday I looked in my fridge and realised that I had forgotten to use the sour cream and it was due to expire next week, so I decided to find a recipe that I can use it in, I finally settled on a cupcake recipe because it looked easy. 

This recipe for vanilla and sour cream cupcakes was perfect for me, because it only required one bowl and I didn’t have the energy to make anything too complicated. When making the cupcakes, it was the first time in a long time that I had to use my hand mixer to mix the batter. 

The cupcakes were baked in only 17 minutes and they looked so golden brown and delicious. For the icing, I decided that I would use my usual buttercream recipe and make a two toned icing. 

The cupcakes tasted really good, I was so relieved that it tasted so moist and buttery because I can never can tell how well a new recipe will turn out and it kind of makes me feel nervous.

Maybe “accidentally” buying too many ingredients for baking is a good thing because it encourages me to explore different recipes.

 I’m super excited to be adding a new cupcake recipe to my list of favourites. 

The recipe for these cupcakes can be found here- Vanilla and sour cream cupcakes 

*note: I added a touch of vanilla bean paste to the recipe 

5 ingredients Spanish Churros

Today I am stuck at home feeling sick and of course this is the time in which I’m having a craving for everything that is not within my reach, today I just wanted Spanish churros, but I’m feeling too sick to go to San Churro, so I decided to make my own.

When I first made Spanish churros, the experience was so frustrating, that I never made them again. This time I happened to stumble upon a recipe by Recipe Tin Eats and it looked so easy, only 5 ingredients used for the batter, I was of course immediately sold. 

The churros batter was SO easy to make that it was dangerous, dangerous because it meant that I could easily whip these up anytime and quickly! (Uh oh.. there goes my diet).

The one thing that I used differently, was this time I used my wok to cook the churros , it is such a great idea and easier to work with than a pot, less splash with the hot oil.

The churros only took three minutes to cook and they were ready to eat.  For the chocolate sauce, I used Lindt chocolate and I did not add the thickened cream because I like my chocolate sauce thick.

The churros tasted so delicious, it took me a lot of resistance not to eat them all. My husband who doesn’t like sweet things liked them too.

I feel so much better now that I’ve got my Spanish churros fix, now it’s back to bed for me, so I can get better. 

Recipe Tin Eats Spanish churros recipe can be found on her website Recipe Tin Eats Spanish churros 

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. 

Banana cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Once again my mum went crazy and bought us too much fruit and we never got around to eating it, in particular we still had a bunch of over ripe bananas left over, so I decided to bake banana cupcakes.

Instead of using the same old recipe that I usually use, I decided to Google a new recipe and found a great banana cupcake recipe by this great blog called What Jessica Baked Next , I only just discovered her blog and I already love it.

The recipe was pretty easy to follow, the only thing that I did not want do was to use a mixer and as you know I hate using mine, so I ended up using my good old wooden spoon and a whisk, it was certainly a good arm work out.

I ended up baking the banana cupcakes for 14 minutes rather than the 18 minutes that the recipe required and the banana cupcakes turned out really well. Making the icing was so much hard work without a mixer, but the icing really looked great when it was finished. When the banana cupcakes cooled down, I piped the cream cheese icing onto the cupcakes. The banana cupcakes looked great and I was so pleased.

After decorating the banana cupcakes, I put the cupcakes in the fridge and then took them into work the next day. My work colleagues said they really liked the banana cupcakes, they said the banana cupcakes tasted really moist and delicious. I had a taste of one and I too really the banana cupcakes, the texture of the banana cupcake was really moist, the addition of cinnamon was perfect and the cream cheese really was a delicious addition to the cupcakes.

I will definitely make these banana cupcakes again soon, I might search through her website to see what other recipes I can use.

Banana cupcakes with cream cheese icing recipe can be located on this website:

What Jessica Baked Next- Banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Eggy and yolky egg custard bun from Chef’s Gallery

Today I went to Chef’s Gallery at Macquarie Centre to meet my friend for lunch, I was so happy to see that they had the Eggy and yolky egg custard bun on their menu. 

I have been eyeing off the Eggy and yolky egg custard bun ever since I saw it advertised online. My friend and I ordered one plate of them, they come in twos.

When the Eggy and yolky egg custard buns arrived, I could not believe how cute they looked. 

   
 Of course I could not wait to push the bun down so the egg custard came flowing out, it was both hilarious and disturbing. It looked like the bun vomitted. 

 
The Eggy and yolky egg custard bun tasted so delicious, the bun wasn’t too sweet and the egg custard filling was warm and so delicious. 

Given the opportunity, I could’ve eaten two of them. 

Eggy and yolky egg custard buns are available from Chef’s Gallery.  

Chef’s Gallery website: 

http://chefsgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/chefs-gallery-food-menu.pdf

Knafeh Bakery

For a while now, I have been following Knafeh Bakery on Instagram and drooling over their delicious freshly baked knafeh. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to visit one of their pop up stalls because I’m busy with my baby, last week I found out they were going to be at Parra Lanes in Parramatta, so I finally decided to go.

  
On the Wednesday, I managed to finish work heaps early and I arrived at Knafeh Bakery’s pop up stall at 5pm. The gorgeous bearded bakers told the crowd that they wouldn’t be baking until around 5:20pm, so I placed my order and then went for a walk and came back later.

When I arrived back to pick up my order, all I could smell was the intoxicating scent of freshly baked delicious knafeh. Lucky for me, I was the first person to receive my order and I was so excited and couldn’t wait to eat my freshly baked knafeh.

  

The knafeh was basically a deliciously baked creamy cheese topped with a crunchy semolina crust, pistachios and drizzled with a sugar syrup. Eating this was like a million delicious sensations at once, the knafeh tasted essentially like a warm cheese pudding and it was amazing. The knafeh wasn’t too sweet and I loved the semolina crust. 

Unfortunately I rarely get time to visit them when they travel around Sydney, hopefully one day I get to eat one again. In the meantime my friend has given me her mother in law’s recipe, so watch this space. 

Information regarding Knafeh Bakery can be found on Facebook and Instagram @knafehbakery

Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies

I think I may have to go to Brownies Addicts Anonymous, because I can not stop baking brownies. I spend my spare time Googling new brownie recipes and I also try to think of new brownies flavours that I can make whilst I sleep. Today I decided I would bake Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies.

I Googled many Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies recipes and none of them seemed to work for lazy old me, so I decided to use my existing easy favourite chocolate brownie recipe and add the cheesecake filling. The recipe ended up working out really well.

The Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies tasted so delicious, I think the addition of the cheesecake filling made the brownies taste even more moist. The cheesecake filling was also not too overwhelming either. The combination was a match made in heaven. My only wish would be to have added more cheesecake filling.

I may have to  find one more brownie recipe and then move onto baking something else. I do not think I will ever buy chocolate brownies ever again, baking them myself is just too easy.

The base chocolate brownie recipe can be found on this website:

http://www.inspiredtaste.net/24412/cocoa-brownies-recipe/

Cheesecake filling recipe

Mix together 250 grams of spreadable Philadelphia cream cheese, 1 egg and 1/4 cup of caster sugar. Add spoonfuls of the filling on the brownies and then use a knife or a skewer to get the marbling effect. Bake for 30 minutes.