Raspberry Meringue Cake with Rosewater Cream

The month of May is a busy month for birthdays in my family. This May was extra special as my husband turned 50 and his sister from London who also had a birthday a day before his was with us to celebrate it. Uber special! I really wanted to make a cake for dear Linda and I wanted it to be different and beautiful and just yummy. After all London is a long way away and the fact she came with her husband was cause for celebration enough but to have a birthday with us as well was too fab!

One of Linda's favourite fruit is raspberry so I wanted to showcase raspberries. I love raspberries with cream and with these 2 ingredients in mind I knew I had to make her a meringue cake. I wanted it to be a little more than just raspberries and cream though so I added rosewater to the cream and can I say, those 3 together, raspberries, cream and rosewater .. OMG! The plan to take the cake to another level was to add crushed pistachios between the layers with the rosewater cream but I ooopsied and forgot. So if your memory is better than mine add some for that crunch, it'll be delish.

Raspberry Meringue Cake with Rosewater Cream
2-3 punnets of raspberries
4 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/4 cup caster sugar
500ml cream
2-3 tablespoons icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons rosewater
1 cup crushed pistachios (optional)
red food colouring (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 120 degrees.

2. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and draw 3 circles (I used a saucer).

3. Beat egg whites on low speed until frothy then add cream of tartar. Beat on high until peaks hold.

4. Add sugar a little at the time whilst beating to firm peaks.

5. Pour mixture into drawn circle making sure it's not too thin.

6. Bake for an hour and turn off oven. Loosen meringue discs with a spatula just to make sure the bottoms are not stuck. Leave in oven to cool and dry.

7. Beat cream and icing sugar until firm. Add rosewater to taste and just a drop of food colouring for a tinge of colour.

8. To assemble simply place cream on a disc of meringue. Sprinkle raspberries and pistachios (optional) and then sandwich with another disc. Repeat for the next layer. Then garnish the top however you like.

Strawberry Sponge Cake

Hello hello hello! We've been on a gorgeous Malaysian holiday over the Xmas and New Year break but it's back to the grindstone now. This is my first cake of the year. It's summer and hot and strawberries are in abundance so it was easy to decide what to showcase in this cake. My friend made a very scrumptious looking Strawberries and Cream sponge the other day and I was inspired to give it a go.

I've never really been a fan of sponge cake but this recipe seemed so full of air and lightness that I had to try. Thanks Donna Hay. It's a super hot day and my cake has to be made in advance due to time constraints so instead of whipped cream I opted for a more robust buttercream - just so it wouldn't melt in the drive to where we'll be partaking in this cake. It will be shared at twingroup later so fingers cross it'll taste as good as it promises to be. So here's my attempt.

Strawberry Sponge Cake 

For cake
1 1/4 cup plain flour
6 eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
60g melted butter

For buttercream
250g soft butter
3 cups icing sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
a pinch of salt

For filling
1 punnet of strawberry
strawberry jam

1. Beat eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for about 10 minutes. You want the mixture to be pale and full of air. It will triple in quantity.

2. Sift the flour at least 3 times. I think I did 5 just because I could. Then sift flour into egg and sugar mixture. Don't be aggressive in the folding as you'll beat the air out.

3. Fold in melted butter in the same fashion - try to keep as much air in as possible.

4. Pour batter into 2 x 20cm round tins or 1 big one. I opted for the 1 big as I do not have 2 identical tins (note to self : must go shopping for more cake tins)

5. Bake in a preheated 180 degrees oven for 25-30 minutes.

6. Allow to cool on wire rack and start on the buttercream.

7. For the buttercream beat soften butter and icing sugar. Add the other ingredients and mix well. If you want the icing runnier add more milk a tablespoon at the time. If you want it thicker add more icing sugar a little at the time.

8. Decorate which ever way you please. I chose to cut my cake into 2 and layered it with strawberries and jam. I then covered the entire cake with buttercream and decorated with strawberries and drizzles of toffee swirls and shards.

Pavlova

The Queen of all Australian desserts has got to be the amazing Pavlova. Just like the ballerina it was named after it is delicate and fragile and sweet and so pleasing to the eye.

This is one of those desserts that I find is easy and quite fuss free as you make it, it goes in the oven and it can stay there cooling for hours out of sight until you're ready to dress it and shove in face. It's definitely one of the desserts from my repertoire of desserts that gets made often.

I am posting this blog in honour of my sister and my soul sista who have asked me for the recipe. So here you go ladies. This is a Margaret Fulton recipe, can't go wrong. Give it a go. As my rascally twins say "paf ro va is yummy for the tummy"

PAVLOVA

6 egg whites (MUST be room temperature)
a pinch of salt
2 cups caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the topping
200-300ml cream (depends how much you love cream)
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
fruits of your fancy, anything goes

1. Preheat oven. If it's a gas oven preheat to 230 degrees Celsius and if it's an electric oven preheat to 150 degrees Celsius.

2. Beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Then add sugar a tablespoon at a time making sure it's mixed well between each addition. Once all sugar is in and is well incorporated you may stop when the peaks are stiff.

3. Fold in vinegar and vanilla.

4. Pile mixture into your dish of choice or on foil. You may use either a greased china flan dish or a greased springform tin or just draw a circle about 20cm on baking foil on a tray. Pile mixture high and use a spatula to shape.

5. If baking in gas oven turn heat down to coolest and bake for 1.5 hours. If using an electric oven bake for 45 minutes, turn oven off, keep door shut and leave for 1 hour. Then remove from oven or leave it there with door slightly ajar.

6. For cream topping whip cream, sugar and vanilla. Then top the cooled Pavlova and garnish with whatever you like.

                                      

Strawberry Custard Tarts

It was twin playgroup time again and I was tossing up between making either this or cookie pops. After a rather hectic week and not really wanting to load the twins into the car and drag them (or rather them drag me) through the shops for 1 item I made these tarts. Always fun to make and certainly a winner among the kids. They just love anything with strawberry in it. Also the price of strawberries are coming back down again so I had several punnets just looking fat and sweet calling at me "eat me, eat me". You only have to tell me once.

The recipe that I used is from Taste.com.au with a little tweak. I doubled the custard ingredients as the original recipe only made enough custard for 12 mini store bought pastry cases and I wanted more. Also I made my own tart cases. I did not make the pastry from scratch but by all means if you can please do. I used ready made shortcrust pastry and also some dark chocolate shortcrust pastry. Here's a thing I learnt from using the chocolate pastry - taste SO crazily yummy as is without baking. All the remnants from the cut outs ... ate them :)

Strawberry Custard Tarts
3 sheets shortcrust pastry (I used 2 normal, 1 chocolate just because I could)
4 egg yolks
4 tablespoons caster sugar
2/3 cups thickened cream
strawberry jam
1 punnet strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Cut out pastry and shape into muffin trays. I made 24 minis and 6 large muffin size ones.
3. Dock the pastry by piercing it with a fork several times so that it doesn't rise and get too puffy or you won't have room for lots of custard.
4. Bake in oven for 10 minutes, set aside to cool and start on custard.
*** pastry will shrink a little when baked so when you cut out pastry to make tart cases do not cut out pieces that are too small ***
5. Whisk yolks and sugar until all sugar is dissolved. Then add cream and mix. Don't whisk too much or the final product will be bubbly and not smooth.
6. Put a small dollop of jam on the base of each tart and add a piece of strawberry. How big the piece of fruit is up to you and also it has to fit the size of tart.
7. Pour custard into tart case around the strawberry and try not to overfill.
8. Bake for approx 15 minutes until custard is set.

Lemon Curd Cream Filled Strawberries

I wanted to make dessert for my husband today as we celebrated our wedding anniversary. Problem is he is not that keen on sweets - crazy I know! On the rare occasion that he does have any dessert he would always lean towards something with a tang. So after thinking about what to make and realising I really did not have a lot spare time to make it with I decided to steal the idea from another recipe I have. There is a summer berry tart that I make called Creamy Lemony Summer Tart that is quick and easy and it's fruity and tangy so it made sense that I'd use the filling from that tart for our dessert tonight.

Dessert tonight was quite simple strawberries filled with a tangy lemon curd cream. Hardly any time needed and very little cooking. Here's how to make it.

20 strawberries
4-5 tablespoons cream cheese (softened)
2-3 tablespoons lemon curd (I use store bought)
1/3 cup sugar
4 tablespoons water

1. To core the strawberries simple use a sharp knife and cut a cone shape out from the centre. The more you take out the more you can fill so do take out as much as possible.
*Be careful not to go too deep and make a hole at the bottom*
**I use an egg carton to hold the strawberries in for ease when filling**
*** don't waste the core, it's delicious!!***

      

2. Mix lemon curd and cream cheese. You want a nice thick consistency.
*if filling is too runny add more cream cheese or too thick ad more lemon curd*

store bought is fine

3. In a small saucepan make toffee by boiling sugar and water. Once the bubbling sugar changes colour to a lovely golden brown turn fire off.

4. Use a spoon and drizzle toffee on baking paper. You want to make a random pattern of webbing or netting. Have some thin strains and some big thick drops so that you have some crunchy bits and some lovely big chunks. Make it random and it looks quite pretty.

5. When toffee cools remove from paper and simple break shards for garnish.

6. Fill strawberries with lemon curd filling. Garnish with toffee shards.

7. Try to stop eating all of it by yourself!!