Pineapple Tarts

One of my favourite chinese new year goodies is pineapple tarts. I absolutely love them and could easily eat a whole box. I decided to try making my own, something I've never done before. I've never even sliced a pineapple in my life! This was a whole new learning experience but I'm pleased to report that it was a huge success (in my eyes anyway) The end result was so delicious, I ended up eating most of what I'd saved for my friends so I had to make a 2nd batch. I will post more about it later if there's anything to add as it's still in the process of being made currently. It's a really time consuming effort but well worth it in the end.
I made everything from scratch so the first step was to make the pineapple jam. I got some lovely pineapples from my local market.

what do you think? not too bad for my first time ;)

I grated the pineapple slices using a food processor and cooked it with cinammon, cloves , lemon juice and sugar. It took a few hours to cook on a low heat and this is the end result.

I left it to cool overnight in the fridge and then rolled them into little balls, well fairly large ones actually but I'll know better next time!

The pastry was simple to make as it was just a case of blending everything together - my favourite kind of recipe :) It was a really soft and crumbly pastry so I was unable to make open tarts. I made 3 different types of closed tarts - a roll with open ends, a round shape and something that is meant to look like a pineapple but actually bears no resemblance. I personally like the round ones the best and they sort of resemble a tangerine with the clove in the middle. This pastry literally melts in your mouth. I'll definitely be making these again in the future.

My fav shape

Pineapple Jam

2 pineapples

1 stick of cinammon

9 cloves

Approximately 3/4 cup sugar (adjust to taste) (I used 1/2 cup white sugar and just over 1/4 cup of brown sugar)

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Pastry

250g butter

50g icing sugar

2 egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

350g flour

50g cornflour

Eggwash

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon water

To make the pineapple jam:

• 
  
  Peel and cut pineapple into slices.
• 
  
  Grate using a grater or food processor.
• 
  
  Strain pineapple juice. Tip: It makes a really refreshing drink whilst cooking. I got a whole bowful of juice from my 2 pineapples above.
• 
  
  Cook with all other ingredients for jam over a low-medium heat, stirring frequently.
• 
  
  Continue cooking until the jam thickens and dries up. You need the jam to be as dry as possible to make the tarts.
• 
  
  Cool jam completely before using.

To make the pastry:

• 
  
  Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• 
  
  Beat in 2 egg yolks, 1 at a time and mix well.
• 
  
  Add vanilla extract and salt.
• 
  
  Fold in flour and cornflour and mix to form a dough.

To make the pineapple tarts:

• 
  
  Preheat oven to 180C.
• 
  
  Enclose jam in dough and shape as desired.
• 
  
  Brush with eggwash.
• 
  
  Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Mine took a while as they were fairly large!

Pineapple

Pineapple

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I decided to make red velvet cupcakes for the chinese new year dinner at Dave and Ruby's (see previous post) I chose red velvet as it was Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day on the same day. Red is an auspicious colour in chinese culture and red is also the colour of love. I used my favourite hummingbird bakery recipe but was a little over-zealous with the food colouring as you can see. Oops! The cake still tasted good though :) I added in a little 'surprise' in the form of a gold coin for luck for the new year. It's not a new idea (see new year post) but it works everytime.

my super red batter

with gold coins

Did I mention how red it turned out? (Love the colour though)

I think my piping skills are finally improving :)

I sprinkled miniature hearts on half of the cakes for Valentine's and left the other half plain

Cross section of the cake

Red Velvet Cupcakes (recipe from the hummingbird bakery cookbook, I've simplified the method section for this post)

60g unsalted butter, room temperature

150g caster sugar

1 egg

10g cocoa powder

20ml red food colouring (preferably Dr Oetker red food colouring)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

120ml buttermilk

150g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1.5 teaspoons white wine vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting

300g icing sugar, sifted

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature

125g cream cheese cold

• Preheat the oven to 170C
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Slowly add the egg and beat well.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste.
• Add to the butter mixture and mix well.
• Slowly pour in half the buttermilk, then add half the flour and beat until everything is well incorporated.
• Repeat until all the flour and buttermilk have been added.
• Add salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar.
• Beat until well mixed.
• Spoon mixture into paper cases until 2/3 full and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
• Leave to cool slightly before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
• To make the frosting, beat together the icing sugar and butter and then add the cream cheese in one go and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy. Be careful not to overbeat as it can become runny.

Chinese New Year Dinner 2010

Thanks Dave and Ruby for hosting a superb dinner. Unfortunately I do not have any photos of people, just the food :) (typical!) Apologies for the slightly dark photos but we had ambient lighting and I forgot to turn the flash on. To start, we had the traditional 'lo hei' or 'lo sang'

Lovely mix of colours and flavours

with the salmon

Giving it a good toss for prosperity

L to R: steamed fish, chinese mushrooms with dried scallops and spinach, sweet and sour chicken, roast meats - pork & duck

you can just see the bowl of mangetouts at the back and the clear glass bowl had udon noodles with beansprouts

Definitely a feast fit for a king! Excellent food and excellent company, what else could one ask for? Dessert of course! In my opinion, however good a meal is, it's never complete without dessert :) My contributions for the night were tiramisu and red velvet cupcakes. Recipes to follow in another post.

Happy Chinese New Year - wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous tiger year.

Langues de chat

I got a dinner invitation at the weekend (thanks T for a fab dinner!) so I thought I'd make something for my host. I was told cake was not required. As I was short on time, I decided to make a biscuit or cookie. I looked through my recipe books for inspiration. I happened to have some spare egg whites so I decided to make Langues de chat. It means "cats tongue" in French. It's really light, delicate and tasty. Why not give it a try?

125g butter, softened

125g caster sugar

3 egg whites

125g plain flour

Optional extras (choose only one of the following)

2 tsp lavender flowers/dried rose petals/fennel seeds or crystallised fruits, finely chopped

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Grated rind of 1 orange or lemon

(I used 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence for these)

• 
  
  Preheat the oven to 200C
• 
  
  Line a baking sheet with baking parchment
• 
  
  Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.
• 
  
  In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually fold them into the butter mixture.
• 
  
  Sift in the flour and gently fold into the mixture.
• 
  
  Fit a piping bag with a medium sized plain nozzle (or a ziplock bag with the end snipped off) and spoon in the mixture.
• 
  
  Pipe the mixture into 3inch long fingers, no thicker than 1/2inch wide, leaving a little space between them to allow for spreading.
• 
  
  Sprinkle with optional extras of your choice and bake for 5-8 minutes or until crispy and pale golden around the edges.
• 
  
  Allow to cool completely.

Iron Cupcake London February Challenge- Love

Well it's that time of the month again... the ICL challenge! I think they get better each month and this time definitely didn't fail to disappoint. Some of the cakes were seriously amazing in terms of taste and presentation. Check out the website for more information and photos of all the entries. Thanks to everyone who came to support me :)

http://www.ironcupcake.co.uk/

http://thecakedcrusader.blogspot.com/2010/02/icl-challenge-viii-love.html

Cakes loaded and ready to go :) Thanks for my lovely cupcake carrier (you know who you are!)cake, cake and more cake...

my 2 entriesour loot :) the aftermath!

It's a Rocky Road to Love

My second entry for the February ICL challenge was 'It's a Rocky Road to Love'. The cake was really light and spongy topped with homemade rocky road. It was supposed to be a marble cake but I had some difficulties getting the marbled effect. Dont think it turned out too badly though! It definitely tasted amazing :) (yes I know- obviously I will have a biased view) I'm not a huge fan of rocky road as I don't like marshmallows and cherries but these were yummy! I'm sure it won't be my first and last time making them.

Marble Cake

125g butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1&1/4 cup self-raising flour

1/3 cup milk

pink food colouring

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

2 teaspoons milk, extra

Rocky Road Topping

1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts

1 cup (200g) glace red cherries, halved

1 cup (100g) pink and white marshmallows, chopped coarsely

200g milk eating chocolate, melted

• 
  
  Preheat oven to 180C
• 
  
  Beat butter, extract, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy.
• 
  
  Stir in sifted flour and milk in 2 batches.
• 
  
  Divide mixture evenly among 3 bowls.
• 
  
  Tint one mixture pink.
• 
  
  Blend sifted cocoa powder with extra milk in a cup; stir into another mixture.
• 
  
  Leave third mixture plain.
• 
  
  Drop alternate spoonfuls of the mixtures into cases.  Pull a toothpick backwards and forwards through mixtures for a marbled effect; smooth surface.
• 
  
  Bake for approximately 20 minutes
• 
  
  Combine ingredients for rocky road topping in a medium bowl.
• 
  
  Place topping on tops of cooled cakes.
• 
  
  Enjoy! :)

Tropical Passion

The theme for February's Iron Cupcake London challenge is 'Love'.  I knew there would probably be a lot of chocolate, berries, champagne, rose or variations of these flavours. So I decided to be slightly different and came up with 2 ideas. The first is 'tropical passion' which is a passionfruit and pineapple cupcake with a lime and coconut frosting. I topped it with little pink glitter hearts and added a little umbrella for effect. What do you think? It was a really light and refreshing cake.

The batter smelled absolutely divine - I got some really nice passionfruit from Waitrose

Passionfruit and Pineapple Cupcake

90g butter, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup self-raising flour

1/4 cup cornflour

1/2 cup crushed pineapple (well drained)

1/4 cup passionfruit pulp (about 2 fruits depending on size)

Lime and Coconut Buttercream

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

grated zest of 1-2 limes (approx 2 teaspoons)

500g icing sugar, sifted

Handful of dessicated coconut to decorate

• 
  
  Preheat oven to 180C
• 
  
  Beat butter, eggs, sugar and flour in a small bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are just combined. Increase speed to medium, beat until mixture is pale in colour.
• 
  
  Stir in passionfruit pulp and crushed pineapple.
• 
  
  Divide mixture among cupcake cases.
• 
  
  Bake for approximately 20-25minutes
• 
  
  For the frosting - beat butter, lime juice, zest and half the icing sugar until smooth. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and beat until thick and creamy.