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Speckled Vanilla Cake with Marshmallow Easter Egg Filling

Speckled Vanilla Cake with Marshmallow Easter Egg Filling

by | Mar 18, 2016 | 4 comments

Who else feels like their annual speckled egg consumption contributes significantly to our country's GDP?! I do. Mister Sweet should give me shares dammit. Apart from the fact that I can inhale a packet of those multi-coloured jelly chocolates in about 2 minutes flat, I can also eat my bodyweight in those addictive marshmallow eggs (which is saying a lot considering they're made mostly of air!). Which actually leads me to a public service announcement, well two, really:

1. Do not attempt to buy the giant speckled eggs. You would think bigger is better. If your logic is like mine, I think 'well instead of eating 10 little ones I'll just eat one big one'. That logic is faultless but you will be misled by it! After much research (aka eating), my friend Lee and I determined that the ratio of chocolate is disproportionate to the amount of jelly and candy coating (she even drew a graph to prove it - we were very scientific about it all because this is a serious matter, people!). Lesson: Just stick to the little eggs! Related: Woolies listened to my gajillion emails and now make bulk packs. Yes! 2. Why do they inflict such torture on us by wrapping marshmallow Easter eggs individually?! Whyyyyyyy? For goodness sake can someone just sell them in bulk without wrappers on them?! *starts typing an email to Beacon* Rant over, let's get to this drop dead delicious cake! Obviously, it's an ode to both of my favourite Easter treats - chopped mallow eggs in the middle and speckled eggs on top - because I love you both equally and could never choose a favourite! Never. Who am I kidding, speckled eggs are life!

Speckled Vanilla Cake with Marshmallow Easter Egg Filling

Serves 8 EASY 30 minutes

 

Vanilla Cakes:

185g butter, softened

225g castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs, at room temperature

200g (1 1/2 cups)  self-raising flour

185ml milk

 

To Decorate:

4 egg whites

1 cup (250ml) caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Turquoise gel food colouring

10 marshmallow Easter eggs, chopped into chunks

1 tsp (5ml) The Kate Tin Cocoa Powder

Speckled eggs and a variety of Easter eggs, to decorate

To make the cakes, preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius (conventional oven, 160 degrees celcius for fan-forced). Grease and line 2 x 15cm cake tins.  Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy and light. Gradually add the eggs one at a time and beat well. Sift the flour over and beat well. Mix in the milk. Spoon into the lined tins and bake fir 25-30 minutes or until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning out and cooling completely. To make the frosting, place the egg whites and caster sugar into a metal or glass mixing bowl and set over a pot with gently simmering water. Stir the egg whites with a whisk gently (don’t whisk vigorously) until the egg mixture is very hot to the touch (about 40 degrees celcius). Remove from the heat and whip vigorously with a hand beater or in a stand mixer until light and fluffy and stiff peaks are reached. Continue beating until cool then add 1 tsp vanilla and tint it a pale sea-green colour. Assemble the cake by layering the cake with the frosting and scattering the chopped marshmallow eggs inbetween. Finish by frosting the entire cake in the green frosting. Mix the remaining vanilla with the cocoa powder and using a clean pastry brush, splatter speckles all over the cake. Decorate with Easter eggs.

 

Image and recipe as featured in the April issue of Food & Home Entertaining Magazine

Caramel Choc Chip Hot Cross Chelsea Buns

Caramel Choc Chip Hot Cross Chelsea Buns

by | Apr 5, 2015 | 0 comments

I LOVE hot cross buns - especially when they're toasty and dripping with salted butter. They're just heavenly! But the worst thing about making them is waiting for that pesky yeast to rise - which can take anything from half an hour to half a day! And when you have a craving that is literally forever! So I've cut straight to the chase with this recipe - it's one that comes all the way from my standard 6 Home Economics class when we first made Chelsea Buns using a scone dough recipe. It's so simple, quick and delicious! With no proving, knocking down and what have you.

My buns (snigger snigger) have swirls of sticky caramel in them along with pockets of chocolate chips, candied zest and flaked almonds - which can easily be tailored to whatever your heart desires! Oooo white chocolate! Chopped Turkish apricots! Pistachios!

Although all of our focus this week is on Easter, just a reminder that it is also Fairtrade Fortnight. So the Fairtrade SA team challenged me to make a recipe using their Fairtrade chocolate, rooibos tea and a yummy energy drink. Boy, what a challenge! But coincidentally they all fitted quite easily into this recipe - chocolate chips in the buns and rooibos and the drink in the glaze. My favourite part of buying Fairtrade, is that it takes a lot of the guilt out of enjoying a slab of chocolate 🙂 Okay fine, maybe two slabs. Point is, we can make a big difference by making a small choice.

Caramel Choc Chip Hot Cross Chelsea Buns

3 cups (360g) cake flour

2 tbsp (30ml) white sugar

1 tbsp (15ml) baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground mixed spice

120g butter, cubed

300ml buttermilk

1 large egg

FILLING

½ tin (200g) caramel spread (like dulce de leche)

½ cup (50g) flaked almonds

2 tbsp mixed candied peel

1 cup (150g) chopped good-quality dark chocolate (I used Fairtrade)

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp cinnamon

TOPPINGS

1/2 cup (180g) honey, warmed

1/4 cup strong rooibos tea (optional)

1/4 cup water (I used a Fairtrade drink because of the Fairtrade challenge)

1 cup (130g) icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp (approx.) buttermilk

Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Combine the flour, white sugar, baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl and mix well.
Rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Combine the buttermilk and egg separately then add to the dry ingredients. Use a knife and cutting movements to incorporate everything until it forms a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead roughly 10 times or until a smooth dough forms. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 20cm wide on a lightly floured surface.
Spread caramel over the dough then sprinkle with almonds, peel, chocolate and spices.
Carefully roll your dough up to form a long sauasage and pinch the edges to seal.  Using a sharp serrated knife, cut slices roughly 4-cm thick and pack them together into your lined baking tin. Make sure to pack the buns together quite snugly.
Bake at 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until risen and golden. Combine the honey, rooibos tea (if using) and water and simmer until  and brush over the warm buns.

TIP  To make the crosses, mix the icing sugar and buttermilk and place in a piping bag. Pipe crosses over the tops of the buns.

Hot Cross Bun Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache

Hot Cross Bun Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache

by | Mar 21, 2013 | 0 comments

I absolutely love baking. I love how it calms my mind after a stressful day - the precision of the measuring and technique distracts me from all the worries and life's to-do lists. In the moment, it's just you and the recipe and the wooden spoon. One of my favourite things to do lately when baking, is it create hybrid desserts. It sounds sciency, but it's basically 'smooshing' two recipes together to create one super dessert. In the big food world, they call these 'Double Desserts' and I have written about them before. What's better than one dessert? Well, two. Duh. There is no logic in the world, that could find fault in that conclusion.

Now it doesn't take a genius to figure out that my favourite holiday is Easter. Chocolate AND fluffy bunnies? Who doesn't like chocolate and bunnies! But I also love hot cross buns and even though we get them all year round, I flat out refuse to eat them at any other time, except the month leading up to Easter. Toasted with oozy melty butter, thanks. This got me to thinking what else I could infuse with delicious hot cross bun flavour. So, I give you, the hot cross bun macaron!

If you have ever made macarons you will know that the experience has lots of ups and downs. It's filled with 'yay's!' and 'oh-no-what-am-I-doing's' and afterwards you never seem to remember how unpleasant the experience really was. So when I decided to concoct these, I was excited - and obviously delusional. Humming away to myself I measured out all the ingredients and got to work. Then it started; I remembered the dozens of blogs and articles I'd read as well as the comments made by fellow chefs about these little monsters and how tricky they are to get right. Not to mention how many burst or flat macarons had emerged from my own oven during my numerous recipe attempts! I was promised that this was The One; the best macaron recipe. So my optimism won - this time. I remember my grandmother always used to say a little prayer when she slid something into her oven and I used to think it completely silly until of course it came time to put my macarons in the oven. Yes, I was praying for these macarons. They not only had me praying, they had me sitting on the floor in front of my oven embroiled in a staring match with them, to make sure they rose perfectly. So not only were they making me religious, now the macarons were making me down right crazy too. Having lost years of my life during the baking process, they emerged from my oven perfectly. This recipe really makes the perfect macaron so do give it a try - despite me taking years off my life with the amount of stressing, it's very hard to flop. But just incase, say a little prayer as you put them in your oven!

Hot Cross Bun Macarons

Makes 50 A LITTLE EFFORT

 

150g almond flour

150g Natura Sugars Demerara Icing Sugar

Pinch of fine salt

55g + 55g egg whites

150g granulated white sugar

40ml water

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

 

Orange White Chocolate Ganache:

125ml cream

15g butter

zest of 1 orange

250g The Kate Tin White Baking Chocolate, chopped

Extra white baking chocolate, melted for the crosses

 

  1. Line 2 x baking trays with baking paper (not silicone baking mats).
  2. Place the ground almonds, icing sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse until fine. Sift the mixture twice and pulse any remaining lumps until they pass through the sieve.
  3. Add 55g egg whites to the ground almond-icing sugar mixture along with the spices. Do not stir. Set aside.
  4. Place the remaining 55g egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer. Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Simmer until the syrup reaches 115 degrees Celsius on a sugar thermometer. Start whisking the egg whites until they reach soft peak stage. When the syrup reaches 118 degrees, pour the hot syrup down the side of the bowl into the egg whites in a steady stream. Continue whisking until the meringue is thick, glossy and still warm to the touch.
  5. Fold the almond icing sugar mix into the meringue in two parts, using a metal spoon or spatula.
  6. Keep folding until the batter is glossy and forms a thick lava-like ribbon when dropped off the spoon (to test, drop a blob on the baking tray and tap 3 times – it should spread nicely).
  7. Place in a piping bag and pipe 5 cm rounds, leaving enough room for spreading (use my template for best results!).
  8. Tap the baking tray firmly on the work surface 3 times to remove the bubbles and for the macarons to spread slightly. Allow to stand at room temperature for 45-55 minutes or until the surface of the macaron no longer feels tacky to the touch (it shouldn’t stick to your finger).
  9. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius and move your oven rack to just below the middle rack.
  10. When the oven is ready, place one tray of macarons in the middle of the oven and bake for 12-13 minutes. They are ready when the feet feel firm. Allow them to cool on the baking tray before removing them.
  11. To make the ganache, place the chopped chocolate, butter and zest in a bowl. Heat the cream to just below boiling point and pour over the chopped chocolate. Allow to stand for 5 minutes then stir until smooth. Cover with cling wrap and allow to set at room temperature. Depending on how hot it is, this may take a few hours. You can speed up the process by refrigerating it for 30 minutes and checking the consistency every now and then. It should be spreadable.
  12.  Use the melted white chocolate to pipe crosses onto half the macarons. 
  13. Pipe a blob of white chocolate ganache on the other half the macarons and sandwich the macaron shells together.
  14. Leave them for a day after filling (refrigerated) so they absorb the moisture from the filling and become chewy.
NOTES
  1. Filled macarons freeze exceptionally well. Layer them in an airtight container with baking or wax paper in between each layer and freeze. Simply defrost and allow to come to room temperature before serving.