5 Minute Lemon Curd Recipe 00:47

Found an amazing recipe for a tasty, tart, lemon curd, that takes no longer than 5 minutes in the microwave. Yep. Not a typo. 5 minutes. Great for those times when you only want a small amount, and don't feel like constantly stirring a large pot on the stove for an hour.

You can make as much or as little as you like, and you're not restricted to lemon! So far, I've made lime, orange and raspberry curds. Just substitute the lemon juice for another citrus juice, or fruit puree.

Ingredients: (makes about 200g)

• Juice from 1 lemon (approx 50g)
• 66g eggs, beaten, at room temperature
• 60g caster sugar
• 40g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1.6g gold leaf gelatine, soaked and drained.

Method:

  

Combine butter, lemon juice, eggs
and caster sugar.

1. Combine the beaten eggs, sugar, lemon juice and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Whisk by hand to combine ingredients.
2. Bloom the gelatine in cold water, and drain well. Leave in fridge.
3. Heat the mixture in the microwave on high at 20 second bursts, whisking well after each burst. Gradually, the mixture will thicken, and start to bubble.

Mixture starting to thicken and bubble.

Once the mixture is bubbling and thick (should take no longer than 5 minutes), add the bloomed gelatine and stir to combine. Leave to cool to room temperature, to form a more solid consistency.

Feel free to experiment with different flavours! Here, I made lemon, orange and raspberry curds respectively. For the raspberry, I puree'd frozen raspberries (once thawed), and pressed this through a sieve to remove lumps. Then I just substituted the lemon juice for 50g of raspberry puree. Raspberries tend to go a pale purple colour rather than red when cooked, so add a small amount of red food colouring if you want a brighter colour.

Lemon, Orange and Raspberry Curd

If the curd is still too runny after refrigeration, you can always add a bit more gelatine. Heat the mixture up again in the microwave first, then add bloomed gelatine and stir to dissolve. If the mixture is not warm enough when the gelatine is added, you'll get lumps.

Raspberry and Dark Chocolate Mousse 20:15

So I was asked to do a 50th birthday cake, and to my delight, was given no budget, and no restrictions on flavour, size or design. So I decided to experiment a little on my own flavours, rather than following recipes. The end result was this.

Dark Chocolate  and Raspberry Mousse Cake, sprayed with white chocolate.

Fresh Raspberries, glazed with raspberry jam.

Decorated with raspberries, freeze-dried strawberries,

dots of green tea ganache and lemon curd, and white

chocolate panels sprinkled with freeze-dried strawberries.

The cake consists of a chocolate shortbread base (as found in Darren Purchese's Mandarin and Salted Caramel Cake), a raspberry puree baked cream, and then chocolate and raspberry ganache. I placed small chunks of raspberry on top of the ganache, and then encased this insert in 70% Dark Chocolate mousse. 

After freezing the mousse+insert overnight, I removed it from the pastry ring and left it to thaw in the fridge for an hour. I had left-over white chocolate spray from my Green Tea and Pistachio cake, but this time I whitened it using titanium dioxide. After the cake was thawed, I heated the chocolate spray to 35-40C, placed it into my paint spray gun, and went to town. Then, it was just a matter of flicking red coloured chocolate spray over the cake, and placing the raspberries, freeze dried strawberries, lemon curd and green tea ganache around the cake. I then melted white chocolate, spread it onto an acetate sheet, and sprinkled over crushed freeze-dried strawberries before it set. Before the chocolate completely set, I scored out some panels, which I placed on the sides of the cake.

I love freeze dried fruit! The strawberries still taste like strawberries, but they're incredibly crunchy! You can find them in some health-food shops. I used an organic brand called absolutefruits. For 20gm they were $3.50, but a little goes a long way.

Pistachio, Lemon and Green Tea 23:11

I wanted to try another recipe from Darren Purchese's Sweet Studio book, so I decided on his Pistachio, Lemon and Green Tea. It was also a good excuse to try out my new chocolate spray gun. It consists of a pistachio and semolina sponge base, lemon curd, green tea dacquoise, pistachio pastry cream, and white chocolate mousse. This was then sprayed with white chocolate, and decorated with green tea and pistachio macarons, lemon curd, coloured chocolate drizzle and cacao nibs.

Although it was fun and relatively simple cake to make, I would make a few changes in the ratios of each layer. The pistachio tasted great, but it overpowered the small amount of lemon curd and green tea. I would make the green tea layer much thicker, and possibly add in an extra layer of plain vanilla sponge to break it up. This would result in less white chocolate mousse, which was a bit too thick on the top. Oh well..must practice!

From the bottom: Pistachio and semolina sponge, lemon curd,
 green tea dacquoise, pistachio pastry cream, white chocolate mousse.

Macarons, Maracons, Maracons. 06:05

Macarons have been the bane of my existence every since my first attempt two years ago, where after a few hours work ended up with nothing but sad, gooey pancakes. After a few more failed attempts, I've been procrastinating trying my hand at them again, because I hated wasting my time, and a tonne of almond meal and eggwhites.

But no longer! I finally had a batch where all of them worked. 

After scouring the internet for solutions to all my macaron problems - (lumpy batter, runny batter, no feet, cracked tops, sticking to the baking sheet, sticking to my silicon mat, over baked and hollow..the list goes on) - my salvation came in the form of yet another recipe book, recommended to me by a work colleague. The Secret Of Macarons, by Jose Marechal. I've included his basic macaron recipe below. Honestly, I haven't tried flavouring the shell itself, because it's much easier to make a large batch of the same shell, but just fill with different fillings. You can sprinkle chopped nuts, powders or drizzled chocolate over your shells to differentiate them. So far, I've only used white chocolate ganache-based fillings for my macarons, however you can use buttercream also.

Basic Macaron Shell:

Ingredients:

• 200g ground almonds
• 200g icing sugar
• 75ml water
• 200g caster sugar
• 2 x 80g egg whites

Method:

1. Put the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor, and process for 5 minutes, or until very fine. Press this mixture through a fine sieve into a medium sized bowl, and reserve.
2. Combine the sugar and water in a small heavy-bottom saucepan, and heat gently on medium heat without stirring. Using a candy thermometer, heat the mixture until 105F. While you're waiting, place 80g of egg whites into a mixing bowl fitted with a whisk attachment.
3. When the sugar syrup reaches 105F, whip the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks. Take care to monitor your sugar syrup. Once it reaches 115F, take it off the heat.
4. While the mixer is running, slowly pour your sugar syrup into the egg whites in a slow steady stream. (Do this towards the side of the bowl..otherwise your beaters will flick the syrup everywhere other than onto your meringue.)
5. Beat the meringue for about 10 minutes, or until very thick and glossy.
6. While the meringue is mixing, take your almond/icing sugar mixture and make a well in the centre. Add the remaining 80g egg whites, and using a silicone spatula, combine together until a paste forms. At this stage, you can colour this paste using gel food colour if desired. (Go brighter than you think..once the meringue is added the colour will fade considerably.)
7. Once the meringue is ready, add a third of it to the almond paste mixture and combine. You don't have to be all that gentle at this step..the aim is to loosen the almond paste mixture so it is runnier.
8. Gradually fold in the remaining meringue. This step is crucial. Be careful to combine all the meringue so there is no white streaks, however you can't over mix it. The mixture should have a final consistency of 'lava'...if you lift out your spatula, the mix should maintain it's shape at first, but then gently and slowly slide off the spatula. I like to err on the side of caution here..I would rather slightly undermix my batter than over mix. Overmixing can't be saved, and if it's a large batch, I find that as I go along filling my pastry bag and piping, the batter becomes runnier. So by the end of the batch, I have runnier macarons than at the start.
9. Gently fill a piping bag fitted with a round tip (approx 1.5cm diameter). Pipe circles approx 3-4 cm in diameter, at least 2cm apart, onto a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silicone mat. If your meringue is under-mixed, there will be a 'peak' where you pull away with your piping bag, and it wont settle into the circle of meringue. If this happens, I like to flatten out the tops with my fingers. However, you want a meringue consistency where the peak flattens out by itself.
10. Leave the macarons to dry for 30 minutes. This time can vary depending on temperature and humidity..but you want the macarons to form a 'skin', where you can lightly touch the top of the macaron without pulling away the batter on your finger.
11. While the macarons are drying, preheat your oven to 150C. Once dry, bake for 14-18 minutes. I like to check at 15 minutes - gently press down on the macaron while in the oven. If it sinks onto its feet, its not ready. There should be no give.
12. Once baked, remove the baking paper from the tray onto a cold dampened bench. This helps the macaron come off the paper more easily.

Green Tea Filling

Ingredients:

• 100g White Chocolate (chopped)
• 80ml Cream
• 1 1/2 tsp Japanese Green Tea Powder (Matcha)
• 20g butter (cut into small cubes)

Method:

1. Heat the cream and green tea powder until just below boiling, stirring constantly.
2. Pour the cream over the white chocolate, and let it sit for a minute.
3. Gently stir the cream and chocolate together until combined, Add the butter and stir until dissolved.
4. Refridgerate until pipeable consistency.

I use the same basic filling recipe for all my macarons, by just changing the flavour. For pistachio macarons, I added 3 tbsp pistachio paste instead of green tea. For hazelnuts, I made my own hazelnut praline paste, and added 3tbsp of this instead. You can do the same with raspberry or any other fruit puree. For lemon macarons, I fill mine with lemon curd - I found an amazing recipe that takes 5 minutes in the microwave. Will post at a later date.

Salted Caramel

Pistachio

Hazelnut and Poached Pear 05:12

I'm 23. This seems to be around the time when people start thinking about getting their lives together, because they've just come to the realisation that they can't stay students forever. A couple of my good friends decided to move permanently interstate, so as a goodbye present, I wanted to make them something special. Because cake makes everything better.

Since the mandarin and salted caramel cake turned out well, I decided to try another recipe from Darren Purchese's Sweet Studio: Hazelnut and Poached Pear chocolate mousse cake. I followed his recipe for the cake components, but I wanted to do something special for the decoration. In his book, he uses a spray gun to give a textured chocolate effect on top of the cake. Unfortunately, I didn't have a spray gun, so I stuck with the fool-proof recipe of his shiny chocolate glacage. (Recipe below!) I also wanted to try something using tempered chocolate...and ever since Zumbo's V8 cake episode on masterchef, I've been meaning to try to make tempered chocolate flowers. Why not?

Tempered white chocolate flowers, with ferrero rochers and crushed hazelnuts.

This cake consisted of a thin but moist chocolate and hazelnut brownie base, chocolate caramel spread, poached pear baked cream and pieces of poached pear scattered on top of the insert. This was then covered in chocolate mousse and glazed. 

The flowers themselves were surprisingly easy to do..all I did was follow a tutorial by Ann Reardon, over at How To Cook That. If you don't have time to temper the chocolate, you could probably use white chocolate melts (compound chocolate). This will set very quickly at room temperature, so you would need to work fast. 

The rest of the cake was just a matter of experimenting with what decorations I had on hand. For the ferrero rochers, I cut one in half. One half, I hollowed out so I had just the hazelnut shell left. This I used to sprinkle the crushed hazelnuts around. For the remaining half, I removed the filling, and filled it with my left-over chocolate/caramel spread, then placed a skinned roasted hazelnut inside. For the chocolate spaghetti, I just filled a ziplock bag with tempered white chocolate, and squeezed it out into a glass full of ice-cold water. This sets the chocolate instantly into interesting 3D shapes.

The hardest thing I'm finding with these cakes is to get nice smooth edges on the bottom. The glaze sets very quickly on a semi-frozen cake, so you will need to lift the cake up, and smooth the bottom using a hot palette knife before it sets.

Shiny Chocolate Glacage

Ingredients:

• 180g caster sugar
• 60g dark cocoa powder
• 140g water
• 105g cream
• 11g gold leaf gelatine (soaked in cold water, then drained.)

Method:

• Place sugar in a large bowl, and sieve the cocoa powder over it.
• Make a well in the centre, and add the water while mixing it to form a paste.
• Add the cream, and cook this paste in a saucepan by bringing it to the boil and simmering for 5 minutes to ensure cocoa is cooked.
• Remove from heat, and add soaked gelatine. Stir well and strain to remove lumps.
• Let it cool, and then either refridgerate until needed, or pour over cake at 35C. If refridgerating, I just heat it up in the microwave on short 20-30sec bursts until just melted and smooth.

Mandarin and Salted Caramel? Yes please.. 04:27

Ah. Finally. I've been meaning to start keeping a blog of all my weekend baking exploits, but I keep procrastinating with more baking.

I recently ordered a new recipe book...Sweet Studio by Darren Purchese. I very rarely order books online without at least flicking through a hardcopy first, but I immediately fell in love with his cake designs on the cover. At last! These were the sorts of cakes I had always wanted to make, and not a trace of fondant to be found. If you're in the same boat as me; sick of fondant cakes, yet slightly intimidated by words such as jaconde, dacquoise and entremet, this book is for you. All of the taste and design of a french patisserie, but simplified for non-professionals.

The first cake I attempted from the book was his Mandarin and Salted Caramel chocolate mousse cake. The first attempt turned out well enough. Although I need to work on making sure all my layers are level.

From the bottom: Chocolate shortbread base, spread with a thin layer of seville orange marmalade. Then, a disk of burnt mandarin cream, and a layer of home-made salted caramel spread. Encased in chocolate mousse.

Most of Darren Purchese's cakes consist of a layered insert (biscuit base, cream, jelly, jam, caramel or chocolate spread) that is inserted into a round pastry ring filled with mousse. From the bottom, this cake consists of a chocolate shortbread base, spread with a thin layer of seville orange marmalade. Then, a disk of burnt mandarin cream, and a layer of home-made salted caramel spread. This layered insert is then encased in rich chocolate mousse, and glazed with a dark cocoa miroir glacage, or mirror glaze. For the first attempt, I kept the decorations simple...a few tempered chocolate panels and 'spaghetti', splashed with white chocolate thinned out with cocoa butter, and coloured orange. I then skinned a fresh mandarin segment...just to be healthy? In the end, the cake tasted a bit like a jaffa...but with a hint of salted caramel.

The cake was so simple to make, and each component could be made ahead of time, with the mousse and final assembly made the night before. Then the cake was frozen, and decorated the next day.

I've attempted this cake about three times now..most recently I made a large 30cm diameter cake for a 50th birthday party. I wanted to try something new with the decoration, and this was the end result. Was a good excuse to try my hand at salted caramel macarons.