salted caramel macarons

I hate it when people call ‘macarons’ ‘macaroons’. One time a waiter at one of my regular cafes insisted that they’re called ‘macaroons’, which eventuated with me flinging out my arm and proclaiming ‘don’t try to out-bake me bitch’, needless to say, I won that argument. If there is any confusion about the difference, macarons are French biscuits made primarily of meringue and almond meal, and macaroons are made of coconut and extra stuff, like fruit, and are American.

Back to the topic of macarons, I filled these ones with some creamy, buttery salted caramel, and sprinkled the shells with Demerara sugar to add a caramel tone. I used the Italian meringue macaron recipe from Adriano Zumbo’s book, and only had one tray of ugly macarons, probably because I forgot to bash them against the bench and let them sit to form a skin.

princess ruffle cake

My friend Maddy is a hard-core Disney lover, she looks and acts like a princess (and I mean that in the best possible way), and she can beat anyone at Disney trivial pursuit. When she sings, woodland animals prance into her bedroom and do her hair. She is an excellent singer and I can’t wait for her to be famous.

Maddy had her eighteenth birthday recently, and had a princess themed birthday dinner. We all dressed up, leading to some slightly alarming Disney princesses, and ate cupcakes and pizza and Indian food. I contributed some beauty and the beast inspired cupcakes (which you’ll have to pick up my zine to see) and a flourless chocolate ruffle cake. Unfortunately I didn’t get to taste it as there was a small medical emergency; however Maddy ate it in bed the next day and informed me that it was delicious.

salted caramel and chocolate tarts, and strawberry and ganache tarts

When I made my mint and white chocolate mousse tart, I had way more chocolate crust than I needed, and I also happened to have a jar of salted caramel I’d made recently, and some strawberries. Naturally, the only thing to do was to make chocolate and strawberry ganache tarts, inspired by this tart from cupcakes and cashmere, and salted caramel and chocolate ganache tarts, which coincidentally were made on Masterchef later that night, does that make me a Masterchef? I hope so.

 

I made these tarts in miniature, because little food is cute, and I brought a couple to school the next day, much to my friends delight. I have since been asked to make one for a girl at school who said she’d pay for one, I’m not entirely sure what to do with this situation because I’d feel a bit stingy to make someone pay for one small tart, but if I bake her something, everyone else will want food too. Teenagers *sigh*.

 

choux puffs and a croquembouche

Choux pastry was my nemesis for a year or so. I’d made it twice, both times failing miserably, as all I seemed to be able to produce was sad, flat lumps of not-quite-pastry. I’m not sure how I managed to screw it up so badly, considering the first time I used the choux pastry recipe from the Sprinklebakes cookbook it was a raging success, can Heather Baird do no wrong?

I made choux puffs a few weeks ago without a hiccup, until I tried to make pastry cream and it was so delicious but also very runny. I then made a croquembouche.

 

my favourite cupcake recipe

I made these cupcakes for my friend Tash’s birthday, which was the same day as my year 12 formal. I did feel a bit ridiculous; carrying cupcakes around while wearing the nicest dress I own, but everyone should get food on their birthday. In the end, I forgot to hand them out at formal, so during the after party I sat on a couch with a drink bottle and a packet of chips (yes, I am very fun at parties) and offered them to slightly confused, tired and inebriated people. I made chocolate cupcakes filled with salted caramel, with half of them decorated with chocolate frosting and caramel drizzle, and the other half with caramel frosting and a dusting of cocoa powder. I didn’t write down the frosting recipe as I tend to haphazardly throw ingredients into the Kitchen Aid until the frosting is the right consistency, so you're on your own with that one.

This is my go-to cupcake recipe; it makes exactly 12 perfectly sized cupcakes, and can be adapted to any flavour. I’m not sure where this recipe came from, I found it a few years ago in my mums folder of cake recipes. I have since memorised it, and it’s so easy and that it’s the recipe I give to anybody who wants to make cupcakes; particularly people like my friend Harriet who manage to completely destroy cake mixes.

lemon meringue tarts

I have never been sure what the difference is between tarts and pies. According to The Kitchn,
the humble pie (haha) is a sweet or savoury dish with a crust and a filling. It has a crisp flaky crust and is served straight out of the pie dish; it can have a top, a bottom or both. A tart, on the other hand, is cooked in a pan with a removable bottom or a pastry ring. Tarts don’t have a lid, and the pastry is usually firm but a bit crumbly, like a biscuit. Most people tend to describe this recipe as a pie, however I have decided that it is a tart because it is topped with meringue, not pastry, and the crust is biscuity and sweet, rather than flaky and crisp.

Eating one of these is like biting into a cloud. The meringue is very light and airy, and the lemon curd was so citrus flavoured that if not for the meringue, would have been overwhelming. I felt pretty smug after making these little tarts, as the contestants of The Great Australian Bake Off made lemon meringue pies last week, and unlike theirs, mine didn’t leak, weep or crack. Although one must remember that I spent a leisurely six hours making these whilst watching Teen Wolf, and they had only a couple of stressful hours to do it. The curd and meringue recipes are from here, and the crust recipe is from here.

chocolate truffles

I wonder if you have heard of Crossfit. If this cult-like gym has taken over your life or the life of your loved ones. If these people leave the house for hours at a time, climbing into $70 shorts from Lulu Lemon, chanting ‘we don’t use machines, we become them’, jogging out the door to join their fellow crossfitters, glassy eyed as they perform pull ups, clean and jerks.

 

Perhaps it is not quite as dramatic as all that, however my sister has, in less than a year, become a paleo-eating, state-competing, die-hard cross fitter. Her boyfriend Hayden is to blame for this transformation, from Emily being a normal young lady to becoming a 152 centimetre (yes, she’s very short,) lump of muscle with shins covered in scabs from box jumps and snatches. Again, perhaps I am exaggerating, but the most upsetting change my sister has made is that now she eats the paleo diet- in summary, no grains, no dairy and no sugar. NO SUGAR. Oh how sad my life has become, I can now only force feed cupcakes to my parents! They don’t appreciate the depth of flavour of salted caramel, nor the appropriate texture of whipped chocolate ganache!