This tart is incredible. Ginger biscuit crust with a dark chocolate filling. I had bookmarked the recipe from Smitten Kitchen a long time ago, and finally made it last week for my older Brother’s 32nd birthday. The filling has just a touch of pepper in it, which I absolutely love. I used two brands of ginger biscuits to get the speckled crust.
It was delicious and really easy to make. Will definitely go back to this one.
While I was waiting for the pull-apart dough to do it’s thing, I tried out these espresso and white chocolate cookies. I’m not the biggest white chocolate fan (it’s not even chocolate!), so I used milk chocolate as well.
They taste a lot better than they look, I swear — the perfect cookie for all the coffee and sugar addicts in my family……………….
My latest obsession is Joy The Baker. I have bookmarked so many of her recipes and I’m slowly working my way through them. A few weeks back I had family visiting so I tried the cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread. It was just as delicious as I’d hoped, and really fun to make!
Here’s a photo of the snickerdoodle cookies I made for the sweets table at Amanda and Colin’s wedding reception a few months ago. Not the most attractive cookies, but it’s what the bride wanted!
Photo by Amanda (I think…)
I love hot-cross buns. When I worked at Bakers Delight many years ago, we made hundreds a day over the Easter period. I’ve long-since forgotten the recipe, but managed to find a decent replacement online. This was the first batch for 2011 (and the first batch I’d made in 5+ years!), and the dough was so beautiful. Will be making these every year from now on, for sure.
My first ever attempt at profiteroles (also my first time making choux pastry). Custard-filled and topped with dark chocolate.
I managed to make them lactose-free for my intolerant boyfriend, and they still tasted fantastic. My brothers inhaled them!
Custard-filled shortcrust tartlets, topped with spiced apple.
A bit of an experiment using recipes and tips from a pastry class I did at James St Cooking School. The class was a lot of fun, but I was really hoping it’d be a lot more hands-on and challenging. Was a good day, though — we got to try making a few different sweets as well as spinach and feta triangles.
Anyway, these were pretty good.. the shells were a tad overbaked, though. I’m still a pastry novice so I need a lot of practice.
Flachswickel / German sweet bread.
The first recipe I tried from the cookbook that came with my Kitchenaid. These were such fun to make, and a blatant reminder of how much I miss working with dough.
A few weeks later, I tried the lemon brioche recipe that’s also in the cookbook — it was nice enough, but not really worth the five hour preparation time. The flachswickel was definitely more popular!
Some more random cupcakes!
Vanilla with vanilla or strawberry-flavoured frosting.
Coffee and walnut with coffee-flavoured frosting (no idea why I chose that sprinkle colour combination - yeesh!)
Chocolate with chocolate frosting.
Chocolate and almond biscotti. Ever since I got an electric knife, I LOVE making biscotti, and often substitute hazelnuts in this recipe. I make these if I know my dad is coming over — he’s Italian!
Caramel apple pie with crumble topping.
I usually hate serving friends and family anything that isn’t freshly baked, but this pie tastes even better the day after it’s made. Perfect to prep the night before an event or special dinner!
Super soft chocolate chocolate cupcakes. The first time I got them to look any good.
