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.

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.

vanilla glazed doughnuts

In a previous post, I have outlined my love of cinnamon doughnuts, and although they will always hold the highest position in my heart, I cannot ignore all other flavours, that would be unethical. I decided to make some vanilla glazed doughnuts, and as I never follow recipes when making icing, they didn’t turn out quite how I expected.

 

I was aiming for a thin, pastel glaze in blues and pinks, and instead managed to way over pour the food colouring and ended up with very dramatic looking doughnuts. Although they weren’t what I was aiming for, I was still pleased as they just looked so pretty!