Hazelnut macaron with white chocolate chai ganache Mactweets 13

MacTweets Challenge # 13 is Falling in Love with Macarons, fall being the key word here.

Living in Sub Tropical Queensland a couple of months into spring I struggled a bit in deciding on a fall themed macaron. Nothing really jumped out at me, I toyed with the idea of a pumpkin filling but noticed a few of the other MacTweeters had already taken on that challenge.Nuts......



No, really, then I thought nuts...hazelnuts I would make a noisette macaron.

I searched around the blogiverse for a recipe but nothing jumped out at me so I decided to modify the recipe I already use. It felt a bit risky, but that's the kinda girl I am.....throwing caution to the winds I replaced some of the almond meal with toasted hazelnut meal.

How cute is this stand I bought from Sharnel Dollar Designs

and I LOVED them, more than almond macarons.

The fragrance of the hazelnuts as they toasted filled my house with a wonderful warmth and the finished macaron seemed a little heartier and less sweet.

I filled most of them with a white chai tea infused ganache which had a lovely taste but was a little bit too soft (I've modified the recipe a little to add more chocolate in the below recipe). The remainder I filled with a raspberry jam mix (just IXL shop bought) and those raspberry jam ones were the BEST.

I'm sorry I keep on using capitals but I'm a bit overexcited with these new macarons I came up with, I'm sure you'll love them too. Recipe after jump.....

Lolli-cake-pops tutorial and cake pop bouquet

By popular vote on my facebook page I am doing a tutorial on the lolli-cake-pops I made up.

But first I'm going to share the story of how I came up with these pops as Amanda asked how I come up with these ideas.

Saw some cute dagashi inspired marshmallows on the decorated cookie blog and I thought wow - they are super cute might try making some cake pops like this.

Timing was just before Halloween so I tried out some Halloween inspired ones. I considered these a big fail which is why you didn't see the pics. Will be going back to these with a new improved formula/process one day soon.

However while I was covering them in marshmallow fondant I saw a vision of lollipop cookie pops and that's how I got to these.
 

and while I was making these I came up with another great idea which if they work I'll share as well.

Yup that's me...... I see cake in almost everything I look at.

Then after I finished making them I was inspired to make a lollipop cookie pop bouquet by gorgeous photo's I've seen around of lollipop wedding bouquets.

Hint - if you are making the pops for a bouquet use real candy melts not just white chocolate like I did in my second batch as the candy melts set harder and will not smudge while your manipulating your pops around in the bouquet.

The bouquets were really cute and they would probably make a perfect little flower girl bouquet if you can stop the kids from eating them for long enough....

Oh and great news I have a cookbook being released in the US December 2011 - here is a link to Amazon, the preorder price is ah-mazing. Stacks more recipes and ideas for pops and other treats on a stick:



Anyway I know you just want the tutorial so here you go. Recipe after jump.

Cupcake pom picks from Ah Tissue Loving them

 

Thought I would share some pictures of these cute new Australian hand made cupcake pom picks from Ah-Tissue,
how gorgeous are they...... look how effortlessly they add height and colour to the cupcakes.

I was lucky enough to be able to make up the cupcakes and fondant toppers to help showcase this new product.

I sooooo love it when someone who actually knows what they are doing with a camera takes photo's of my treats they always look 100% nicer.

Cute Christmas cupcakes


sweet little ladybird topper

 Baby boy and girl perfect for a baby shower.....


and it goes without saying that I love the pink cupcake pom pick, but I think this one below is my favourite


It makes me think of a delicious neapolitan ice-cream.

Cupcake pom picks - Loving them!

Ah Tissue has a wide range of pom pom products available which are perfect for dressing up your party table


Cupcake pom pics from Ah-Tissue

Cupcakes and fondant edible toppers Bubble and Sweet

Cupcake wrappers by The Cupcake Wrapper Co

All images belong to Ah Tissue and used with permission.

Stuff I've been up to

I'm feeling very guilty at the moment and have been being a bad bad blogger.

Although I have been neglecting the blog I have been busy baking and this is a quick post to share some of the things I have been doing.

A couple of weeks back I attended a friends Girls Night in held in honour of her co-hosts late mother Eileen and I really wanted to share a couple of photo's. These ladies raised just under $2,000 to donate to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. It was superbly organised with raffles, a dessert table, auctions and more, many local business were so generous in donating goods and services.  I made some macarons (of course) some decorated sugar cookies and triple choc cookies. I had a great time, met some lovely people and even won the lucky door prize (wahoo), thanks so much to the organisers for such a great night.

As well as the girls night in, this past weekend I made up a couple of batches of cupcakes and decorated cookies for my Aunty who participated in the relay for life in her bid to raise awareness and funding for Lynch Syndrome, she and her supporters did a great job as well.

and you all know it was Halloween, well was baking up a Halloween storm, orange macarons for the neighbors, Halloween cake pops and more. In fact I entered the Little Betsy Baker Halloween pop competition and was lucky enough to win the facebook fan vote with my Betsy Witchy Poo pops pictured above.

Then I made up a batch of rainbow lollipop cookies for Faye at Giggles and Tantrums for a photoshoot, yup their the ones at the top of this post, those cookies always brighten up my day.


And created some new lollipop cake pops pictured below.......tutorial on how to make these will hopefully be up within a week.

oh and some cupcakes and fondant toppers for Ah Tissue fabulous new product shoot which will get their own posting in a couple of days.

Phew, and a bit more in between all of this ....busy busy busy.

Ladybeetle love bug cupcake toppers

OK, I'm totally in love with these little lady beetle love bugs I made today. Ever since I saw them in a new book I bought I've just been itching to try them out.

Now I'm not the best with figurines but the ones in the pics were my first attempt using the easy instructions in Debbie Brown's new Gorgeous and Gruesome cakes for Children.

Who wouldn't love this little fella and his misshapen eye...


and I thought I would try my hand at making the concept into a bee, it needs a bit of work but those lady beetles love, love, love them.

I used the instructions in the new Gorgeous and Gruesome cakes for Children by Debbie Brown...mostly.... just a little tweaking, Debbie's look way cuter of course, but I did replace the little feelers with fondant just because I have little kids and I like everything to be edible where possible.



Gorgeous and Gruesome Cakes for Children

Sorry my posts have been a bit sparse lately, I have been a little bit busy with real life. But don't worry soon I promise I'll have a tutorial for these super cute and super sweet Bubble and Sweet original Lollipop Cake Pops I made last week.

Triple Chocolate Cookie recipe - my fav chocolate cookie eva

Well today was supposed to be a Daring Bakers Challenge post, but that's not happening.

Instead I'm going to share the recipe for those rich looking cookies from Robert's birthday party, my favourite Triple Chocolate Cookie recipe.


It's based on an old Family Circle recipe with a little tweaking. Make sure you use Large eggs, not Extra Large as it will make a difference.

Try to use nice quality chocolate and cocoa I used a good Belgium brand, but whatever you like eating will probably work.

Sometimes I replace some of the dark choc chips with Macadamia nuts and they become oh so yummy triple chocolate macadamia cookies.

However you make them I hope you enjoy them they have been a favourite of mine for years.

Triple Chocolate Cookies - makes about 25 large cookies

1   1/2 cups plain (all purpose) flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1   1/2 cups soft brown sugar
180g (6 and 3/8 ounce) unsalted butter
150g  (5 1/4 ounce) dark chocolate, chopped
3 large eggs lightly beaten
3/4 cup dark choc chips
3/4 cup white choc chips

Preheat oven to 180 C (375 F), line a couple of trays with baking paper.

Sift flour, cocoa and brown sugar into a mixing bowl.

Combine butter and chocolate in a bowl and melt in microwave on short bursts at med/low mixing well between each session.

Add butter mixture and eggs to dry ingredients and mix until combined, do not overbeat.

Stir in choc bits.

Drop about 2 tablespoon for each cookie onto tray, flatten slightly and bake for 12 mins.

Cool for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

These are a few of my favourite things

I love cookbooks and have shelves groaning from the weight of the many I have collected over the years. Most of my cookbooks are specifically baking and decorating and like everyone I have some favorites, and if I use a recipe exactly as it has been written in a cookbook I don't copy it into the blog so I thought I would share a couple of my fav Baking books (that is books I use specifically for baking not decorating tips).

Whimsical Bakehouse: Fun-to-make Cakes That Taste as Good as They Look

My number 1 fav is The Whimsical Bakehouse - "fun to make cakes that taste as good as they look" by mother and daughter team Kaye and Liv Hansen

This is one book that actually lives up to it's promise. I admit I haven't tried every recipe in this book but the ones I have work every time and are completely delicious.



My favourite chocolate buttercake which I also use for cupcakes,



creamiest Italian Meringue Buttercream,



the chocolate chip pound cake for my son's recent birthday cake



and the golden buttercake I used for the Wizard of Oz rainbow cake.

I love every recipe I have tried. There are lots of colour pictures and detailed explanations on their decorating technique. Be warned however that this book does not use fondant decorations so if your looking for a book dedicated to that type of decorating grab something else.

The book is from the US so if you are Australian like me you'll need to do some converting, but I promise it's completely worth it. Just remember a stick of butter is 4oz or 114g, a US tablespoon is equal to 3 Australian teaspoons and buy a pyrex measuring cup and you should be pretty good to go.

Book I can't live without #2 is More from Magnolia "recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen"

More from Magnolia: Recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen

Yup these are the cupcakes famously featured in Sex and the City and they are simply delicious. Best vanilla cupcake and simple frosting * recipe ever....need I say more. (this is my own opinion and I know everyone has different tastes, please don't send me any hate mail, although if think you have a better recipe I would be happy for you to send me that).

OK I will say more, simple is the key to these recipes they are plain old fashioned baking, no fancy decorating tricks to deceive you, so the focus is on the taste. Other favourites from this book include black bottom cupcakes  and the Cream Cheese Crumb Buns which are a little fiddly but soooo soooo worth it.

Black bottom cupcake - chocolate cupcake with choc chip cheesecake baked on the top, I know......YUM, The pic above is modified with an Oreo on the bottom.

It also has a handy conversion table in the back for temperature and weights which is super handy for us Aussies. I only wish it had more pictures, I love pictures in cookbooks and this book only has a few colour pictures included.

Example of magnolia frosting.....

and here is a coffee version.......Mmmmmmm 

These books do sometimes use baking items that may not be easily found in your local grocery store, sometimes they use graham crakers or butterscotch chips etc, however you can just substitute a more easily accessible item. But all the recipes I have specified above and lots lots more that I use all the time are totally grocery store friendly.

*note when I make the frosting for the magnolia vanilla buttercream I reduce the milk to around 100m which seems to suit the Australian climate a little better.