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.
Butterscotch Molten Lava Cake
Way back in 2013, the hubby and I sat down and watched another episode of one of our favourite YouTube channels, Laura in the Kitchen. This particular episode was for a molten lava cake, but not chocolate in flavour as you might often see. Whilst the episode was still playing, the hubby searched the interweb to find the key ingredient, which isn’t readily available in Australia, to make the scrumptious looking Butterscotch Molten Lava Cakes.
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.
Tomato and Basil Focaccia – Daring Bakers Challenge
Since we have had our Chromecast, I am even more addicted to YouTube videos than I was before. Queuing up and watching video after video is how I spend far too much time in my day (I just convince myself, and the hubby, that I am doing “research” for the blog).
Recently on the What to Watch page, a video appeared from Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube with Gennaro Contaldo which was perfectly timed given the current Daring Bakers Challenge. So using Gennaro’s version of the recipe from the video, I decided to make Tomato and Basil Focaccia.
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.
Hash Browns
The hubby and I do love something special on the weekends for breakfast with his preference being waffles, and mine pancakes. But one thing we do agree on is nothing can beat homemade hash browns. This wasn’t the first time we have had a go at hash browns ourselves, with our first incarnation being good, but not quite good enough.
Early last year a video popped up in my YouTube subscription from the wonderful Laura Vitale, who you may remember is the source of the soft pretzel recipe, for her homemade hash browns. We finally got around to making these during my epic weekend of baking apple cake, macarons and cupcakes and needless to say we were not disappointed!
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.