As I was catching up on my YouTube subscriptions, this little cake appeared in the list for one of my favourite channels, Cupcake Jemma. The hubby happened to be around at the time and watched it with me then requested I make it immediately. Unfortunately for him, there were no blueberries in the house, but the next day I headed to the shops to pick up some to make this ridiculously delicious Blueberry Crumble Cake.
Banana Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Scrolls
Usually when I have bananas that are reaching the end of their life I make banana bread or a banana cake but this time I wanted to do something different. I also was in the mood for making some scrolls and knowing that Sally from Sally’s Baking Addiction has some amazing scrolls (or rolls as they are sometimes called) on her website, a quick search resulted in a recipe which met my needs.
So for your viewing and eating pleasure, I present Banana Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Scrolls.
Chocolate Charlotte Russe – Daring Bakers Challenge
I was a little late this month checking out what the Daring Bakers Challenge was for June, but I am sure glad I checked as this little number turned out to be super delicious. Thankfully we were having visitors this weekend which meant I could make this dessert to share so the hubby and I wouldn’t have to eat it for the next week, not that either of us would have minded I suppose.
We were asked to create either a Charlotte Royale or a Charlotte Russe. A Charlotte Royale is made in a bowl lined with swiss roll cake slices (similar to the Southern Bombe) where the Charlotte Russe is assembled in a loose bottom pan lined with ladyfingers. I decided to go for the latter as when looking for inspiration I came across an all chocolate version which was just calling my name.
Chocingtons (Triple Chocolate Lamingtons) – Daring Bakers Challenge
When this months Daring Bakers Challenge was announced, I was pretty excited as lamingtons were on the menu. You have seen me make these delightful little morsels before when I made the standard lamington covered in coconut as well as the colourful sprinkletons.
This time, I decided to go with chocolate as the main, and only, flavour and whipped up these Triple Chocolate Lamingtons which I have dubbed Chocingtons.
Vanilla Sprinkle Cake (Gluten-Free)
A couple of years ago a tutorial from The Cake Blog appeared in my Pinterest feed for a DIY Rainbow Sprinkle Cake. Of course I pinned it straight away, but in true Cath fashion, it has taken a couple of years to actually have a go at it.
I did not make the cake in rainbow colours as Kate from The Greedy Baker did in the tutorial as I was going to have five macaron colours to match the cake (however in the end, I only ended up with two) but as there would be a few gluten intolerant folks consuming this cake I converted my favourite vanilla cake recipe into a gluten-free version so no one was left out.
Monte Cream Biscuits
“The Book Man”, as we like to call him, comes to our office every few weeks to drop off another container loaded with books, and sometimes other random items (such as a bath mat which looks like it is made out of two-minute noodles) that he has for sale. In most cases there are cook books and despite already having a collection of over 100-and-something, I tend to increase my collection and on this occasion there was a book by Anneka Manning called Mastering the Art of Baking.
Anneka’s book covers everything including cakes, muffins, breads, pastries and desserts with all of the recipes including a few step-by-step pictures in addition to the “basics” section at the beginning of the book.
I was in a biscuit mood on one particular weekend so for the first recipe to be made from this book, I decided on the Monte Cream Biscuits which are a homemade version of a popular store-bought variety.
Milk and Cookies Cupcakes
Quite a while ago, 2nd July 2012 to be exact, a very cute post appeared in my feed reader for some cupcakes. The post was by Steph from Raspberri Cupcakes, who inspired the Fruit Tingle Macarons, for her Milk and Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes.
I tend to decorate my cupcakes quite basic with my favourite rose swirl piping technique, but there are quite a few different cupcakes on my Pinterest board decorated with mini pancakes, various flowers, cream puffs and mini versions of baking equipment that I hope to try. These cupcakes are quite cute and really easy, plus you cannot beat this classic combination so I present these Milk and Cookies Cupcakes for your viewing pleasure.
Cinnamon Sweet Bread – Daring Bakers Challenge
I don’t know if I could live in a world without bread. Whether it be the smell of freshly baked bread or admiring the endless shapes and flavours it can assume, bread really is one of my favourite foods. And I must confess, some days you still really can’t beat butter and vegemite on a piece of fresh white bread, which in winter I usually enhance by putting it in the microwave for 20 seconds to get all warm. Mmmmmm….
But back to this months Daring Bakers Challenge which was to take bread and shape it into something a little fancy. If you follow me on Pinterest, you will see on my bread board I have a few fancy shaped breads which are on my “to do” list. For this challenge, I stuck with one of the provided recipes which was for a cinnamon sweet bread as you know how much I love cinnamon.
Éclairs
After making my first ever batch of crème pâtissière, I obviously needed something to use it for. My first thought was to make my own version of the toffee choux pastries from our local patisserie which is a favourite of the hubby and I, but I decided I didn’t want to play around with hot sugar on this particular occasion so that idea was scrapped. I did want to stick with making choux pastry as I haven’t made it for quite some time so I settled on making éclairs instead.
Crème Pâtissière (Pastry Cream)
I was watching an episode of the of the Great British Bake Off recently and one of the challenges was to make a Fraisier Cake chock full of crème pâtissière, or pastry cream as it can be known as. Not long before I saw this episode, I came across a recipe for crème pâtissière on The Little French Bakery so all signs were pointing to me making some.
Crème pâtissière is obviously French and features in a number of pastries such as profiteroles, Napoleons, éclairs and tarts and although it is usually vanilla in flavour, you can mix it up with addition of liquors, infusing the milk whilst it is heating with ingredients such as cinnamon, dried (culinary) lavender or coffee beans. If you are interested in a chocolate version, you can add some chocolate near the end of the cooking whisking until it is all melted.