cherry Archives - Sugar et al

Chocolate Cream Tartlets

28|01|2016

I notice a connection between tarts and Australia Day in my house. Whether simple or complicated, I seem to be making a tart/tartlets every year on this holiday. I think its because tarts are a great way of serving and eating summer fruits. Last year I made an Ice Cream Tart with an Anzac crust and was pleased with myself for coming up with a make-ahead dessert that took away a lot of stress from my lunch menu. This year I wasn’t as planned or organised after returning from my holiday so I decided to keep things really simple and make these Chocolate cream tartlets.

Using store bought tart shells, I filled them up with a chocolate whipped cream first thing in the morning. They were in the refrigerator until lunch time and I added cherries and raspberries just before serving along with a sprinkling of finely chopped almonds and pistachios. I was surprised that they went down a treat. To be honest I was feeling guilty and expecting everyone to be disappointed that there wasn’t something more exotic on the table. There were cupcakes too that I’ll post next but then again cupcakes are not considered dessert at my place.
These tartlets are not just simple to put together, but also egg free and no bake.

Well, I love Australia Day for many reasons! This is a country I have been in love with since the day I stepped foot into it. It is also the first holiday of the year and right in the middle of a spectacular Australian Summer. In recent times, this day stands as a reminder that it’s time to get ready for school, holidays are officially over and the little munchkins will be on their way to another New Year filled with exciting adventures. So school reopened today! Yay…I have the house to myself…yet this empty feeling.

Will I ever outgrow this feeling in the years to come…I wonder!

Chocolate Cream Tartlets (chocolate cream adapted from Joy of Baking)
Serves 6

6 small tart shells (store bought)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 – 4 tablespoons castor sugar (or as per taste)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch processed)
1 cup cold whipping cream
fresh raspberries, cherries, grapes or other fruits
finely sliced pistachios and almonds, to dust

Place your mixing bowl and wire whisk in the freezer for about 15-30 minutes. Place the vanilla extract, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and cocoa powder in the cold bowl. Stir in about 2 tablespoons of the cream to form a thick paste (this will dissolve the cocoa powder).
Then add the rest of the cream and beat just until stiff peaks form. If not using immediately, cover and refrigerate. Makes about 2 cups (480 ml) whipped cream.
Fill up the tart shells by using a spoon or by piping the cream into it. Store in the fridge until ready to serve. Serve with berries, cherries and stone fruits. Sprinkle with nuts.

Dark Chocolate Cake with Milk Chocolate and Cherry Buttercream. And a Second Blog Birthday!

20|02|2015

Long long ago I wanted to become a pastry chef. Perhaps I didn’t know the term but I knew I wanted to make sweet things all day, running around the kitchen with flour on my clothes and smelling very much of vanilla and chocolate. I imagined what it would be like to live in Paris and work in a lush patisserie. I pictured myself rising before the sun and baking bread, making choux pastry, separating hundreds of eggs and making the glossiest of Italian meringue. Garnishes would get my special attention and I would make sure every dessert looked pretty. The plates would go out to my customers with a smear (you know, the classic smear) of berry coulis, quenelles of the most exotic mousse and fancy dots of citrus curd. Then on top would be my prettiest chocolate curls or sugar decorations resembling art work. They would obviously have fancy names. Like ‘beauty and the beast’ and an all green dessert plate called ‘spring’.
On the contrary, I joined a bank.

The job was great..it paid well and I had an amazing team to work with. Everything was perfect and I loved my job. I forgot all about my dreams. Once in a while when we went to a fancy restaurant and ordered dessert, I could feel something tug at my heart. But life was busy and I was having a ball of a time growing in my role and getting noticed for my work.
Then, many years later my husband walked in home one evening and exclaimed ‘This does not look like our house anymore. It looks like a pastry kitchen’ I was working on a recipe for the blog and there were bowls and whisks everywhere, I had piped designs on the table to practice, props were scattered on the floor. I looked up and suddenly the truth in those words hit me. My dream. My pastry kitchen. I did not even realise that this little blog of mine brought me so close to living the dream I once had. I am nowhere close to being a pastry chef but I am doing what I love to do the most every single day.

I love my precious corner of the Internet so much that if you ask me about the last two years I will be talking about recipes, photos, disasters, delayed meals, fresh produce, beautiful friendships, touching comments, features and all of that. As if my whole life revolves around this besides my family and nothing else. Thank you so very much my lovely friends and readers for making these two years such a happy time for me. Thank you for visiting my blog, give me your valuable time and keeping me on my toes. You make me live my dream, you give me a reason to smile everyday. You make me feel like an important person (a self-proclaimed pastry chef) who has to work on recipes all day, as if I am shouldering a huge responsibility. I know, I am. I hope I never let you down. I hope you find what you come looking for.

Between the last blog birthday to this one, Sugar et al. has seen many highs which I should probably share with you in a different post. I have been working very hard behind the scenes, focusing on my photography, another subject I am very passionate about.
Moving onto this cake, it is a dark chocolate cake with a cherry buttercream filling and frosted with a milk chocolate buttercream. The cake is dense and fudgy with a slight nuttiness from the hazelnut meal (ground hazelnuts). The cherry frosting is flavored with fresh cherries which goes well with the rich cake. Swiss Meringue Buttercream is my favourite frosting on cakes as it is easy to handle, light and fluffy and not too sweet to taste.

Here’s to another year of sweet sweet things!

Dark Chocolate Cake with Milk Chocolate And Cherry Buttercream
Serves 10-12

200 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup, firmly packed brown sugar
200 g dark chocolate, melted, cooled
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup hazelnut meal (grounds hazelnuts) or any other nut meal
1/2 cup) buttermilk
1/4 cup) cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (140 degrees C for fan forced) Grease two 18 cm round cake pans with melted butter. Line the base with baking paper.

Use electric beaters to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Beat in the melted chocolate and eggs. Fold in the flour, hazelnut meal, buttermilk and cocoa until well combined. Divide equally between the prepared pans and smooth the surfaces. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside in the pan to cool slightly before transferring the cake to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Milk Chocolate and Cherry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 egg whites
1 cup castor sugar
300 g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla essence
120 g milk chocolate
8-10 fresh cherries, pitted and smashed with the back of a spoon

Place the egg whites and sugar in a large bowl that is placed over a saucepan of simmering water (over low heat), and whisk continuously, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the bottom of the bowl is warm to touch

Remove the bowl from the heat, add the vanilla essence and whip on high speed until meringue holds stiff peaks and looks glossy
Add the butter, a tablespoon at a time, until thick and fluffy. If it begins to look curdled, continue to whip until it comes back together, before adding in remaining butter.

Remove about 1/2 cup of the buttercream aside for the cherry buttercream. To this, add the smashed cherries with the juices and mix till blended.

To the rest of buttercream, add the melted milk chocolate and fold in till smooth.

To assemble: Place one layer of the cake on a cake stand or serving tray. Spoon the cherry buttercream on top and smooth out with a spatula. Sandwich with the other layer of cake. Frost the top and outside with the milk chocolate buttercream. Decorate with fresh flowers or chocolate curls.

Cherry, Banana and Muesli Muffins

13|01|2015

I made these muffins yesterday in persuit of a few healthy and delicious lunchbox recipes that are going to frequent my kitchen soon. It involved quite a few good healthy ingredients so I was keen to find out if the recipe worked. More importantly, I hoped the little people for whom this was meant liked it. In our home, fortunately we have had very little issues with picky eating and such. So far so good! I’ve thought about it several times. Are my children any different than others?…maybe they are unable to voice out….maybe they are too sensitive to their Mum’s feelings…or maybe they haven’t yet explored too much outside my cooking…could I be such a versatile cook that my food appeals to two different palates at the same time? Actually, none of this is true. I try, like anybody else. I teach, by not being picky myself. We talk a lot about food and I encourage them to join me in the kitchen doing small chores and they always seem excited at the prospect.

I think the truth is that offset each other well. Could be to do with twin-hood. Children are inclined to do things in a group that they might not do as an individual. Since I have a sweet lover and another savory lover for children, it works in my favour. They probably eat everything because at least one of them would generally like what I put on the table. The other one follows. It will be interesting to see how things change (if they do…hopefully not) this year when they step into a slightly bigger world.

Coming back to the muffins, these are great. They are wholesome, filling, tasty and totally flexible. They are made of part wholemeal flour, part plain flour and part muesli. Then there is banana, yogurt and plenty of fruit inside. I used cherries which can be replaced with blueberries, strawberries, apples, peaches…basically all or any of your favourite fruits. I did not add nuts as the muesli I used had a bit of nuts and seeds in them but there is no harm in adding more. And there is a hint of spice (cinnamon) to elevate the flavours. They are moist inside and crunchy on top due to the addition of extra muesli like a streusel topping. The predominant flavour is of sweet bananas and juicy cherries. This would make a great on-the-go breakfast or snack for adults as well.

Cherry, Banana and Muesli Muffins (minimally adapted from here)
Makes 12 regular sized muffins

1 cup self-raising flour
3/4 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cups muesli (home made or store bought)
60 g butter, melted
1 large banana, mashed with a fork
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cherries (pitted and roughly chopped)
1/2 cup extra muesli (for topping)
1 tablespoon honey

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (18 degrees c for fan forced).
Grease or line a muffin pan (12-hole) muffin pan with paper liner.

Combine the flours, sugar, cinnamon muesli in a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Whisk butter, banana, yogurt and eggs together in a jug. Pour into well. Using a large metal spoon, stir until just combined (don’t over-mix). Fold in the cherries.

Spoon mixture into the prepared muffin pan. Combine honey and extra muesli in a bowl. Spread muesli mixture over muffins. Press on lightly to secure. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of 1 muffin comes out clean. Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Serve.

Cherry and Cashew Nut Streusel Cake

27|07|2014

Fridays have fascinated me all my life. Like a lot of people, It has remained my favourite part of the week since I was a child. At different stages of life though, the interpretations varied. Before the twins came, I was employed with a bank where I worked for several years. I handled various roles and though the nature of work and work load were different, Fridays were always a treat. Most of the times, it meant long lunches at new restaurants each week with colleagues and friends. I had a printed list pinned on the board next to my cubicle and would tick away as we explored places, old and new.

After the birth of my boys, Fridays brought relief. The promise of a weekend. Of support and respite. It meant eating at the table. Eating food on a plate ,while my husband shared the responsibility of dealing with two infants who needed to be fed, consoled, carried, changed at a tiring pace. Time flew. The children grew up and help was outsourced in the form of Child Care. They would go twice during the week and Friday was one of them. Precious hours that I had all to myself, I would want to do things that made me happy. Like bake cakes. Sometimes one, sometimes more. The prospect of eating cake throughout the weekend made the twins excited as well. Win win. So Fridays turned out to be Cake days. It became a ritual.

Cakes were my blank canvas to play around with flavours, textures or look and my favourite subjects to photograph. I belong to the group of people who believe that with eggs, butter and sugar, there is little that can go wrong. The rest is left to one’s personal taste and creativity. For me, the best cakes are full of texture. And the simplest way to achieve that is to substitute the flour component, completely or partly with a nut meal (ground nuts). There are so many nuts to choose from. Fruits to go with them. The options are unlimited. As much as I love frosted cakes, the simplicity of a nutty and fruity cake freshly baked and served warm with a dollop of whipped cream on the side has a greater appeal. In this cake, along with ground cashew nuts, the texture is enhanced in the form of a crispy sweet crumble.

Cherries have started to show up at the markets. Although they are not exactly cheap at the moment, they are tempting. Since I love them so much, it was hard to go past them without buying a punnet. These were not very sweet but they were perfect for the cake. Cashew nuts have more bite to them than hazelnuts or almonds (which I use more often) so if you are nuts about nuts, this is a cake not to be missed. However, any nut or fruit would work.
The recipe uses egg whites but does not need to whipped up. In other words, this is a one bowl cake that takes minutes to put together. I have used a tart pan (with a non-removable base) to get a large but shorter (in height) cake. You can go with a 20 cm cake pan instead for a regular sized cake. In that case the baking time will need to be increased.

Do you have a favourite day in the week? Do you have a ritual that you would never like to miss?

Cherry and Cashew Nut Streusel Cake
Serves 8-10

200 g cherries, pitted and roughly chopped
6 egg whites
170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
50g (1/2 cup) plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
125g ground cashew nuts
3/4 cup castor sugar

For the streusel topping

1/2 cup plain flour
50 g butter, chilled and chopped into cubes
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup cashew nuts, roughly chopped

To make the crumble topping, place all the ingredients in a bowl. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the mixture until the mixture contains large and small crumbs.

Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a 23 cm round cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Place the egg whites, butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon and ground cashew nuts hazelnuts in a bowl. Mix gently until just combined. Spoon into tin, scatter with half the crumb topping, then cherries, then remaining topping. Bake for 35 minutes or until firm. Cool in tin for 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.