GrabOne - Britomart Country Club 2 for 1 - Today Only

Another GrabOne deal. Be in quick - they sell out really fast!

http://www.grabone.co.nz/auckland/britomart-country-club-3

Enjoy!

H xo

Marshmallow Goodness

Growing up in New Zealand, my favourite store bought biscuit was by far the Mallowpuff. How can you resist the amazing combination of marshmallow, biscuit and chocolate? It’s so good. I guess that’s why I love s’mores as well. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the s’more, you are missing out! Traditionally made around a campfire, it consists of a fire melted marshmallow sandwiched between two chocolate biscuits (Chocolate Girl Guide Biscuits to be precise). In the US I believe they use graham crackers and Hersheys chocolate rather than chocolate biscuits.

I was flicking through another recipe book from the library when I came across ‘Marshmallow Teacakes’. To me, it looked just like a homemade Mallowpuff. I was excited to say the least, and had dreams of miniature high tea Mallowpuffs. So when I finally had some extra time to test out the recipe I jumped at the chance.

My final product was not as aesthetically pleasing as the recipe book, but I am pleased to say, they were quite good. I changed the recipe slightly to suit what I wanted to do and my own tastes. Next time I might use a milk chocolate as the dark chocolate was quite a strong flavour (but it is also a lot sweeter).

Marshmallow Teacakes

Biscuit base:

110g plain flour

1/8 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

60g butter, softened

60g castor sugar

2 egg yolks (save the whites for the marshmallow)

½ tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp milk

Marshmallow filling:

2 egg whites

100g castor sugar

1tbsp golden syrup, plus 1 tsp

Pinch of salt

½ tsp vanilla essence

Chocolate topping:

200g 70% cocoa chocolate

1.     Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius and line a baking tray with baking paper.

2.     Sift first four ingredients of the biscuit base together in a bowl and set aside.

3.     In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add egg yolks and vanilla essence and mix well. Beat in milk. Add flour mixture and mix with a spoon until combined (don’t over-mix).

4.     Place small balls of biscuit dough onto baking tray – I had about 18, but it depends on how big/small you want to make them. I would squish them down slightly with a fork as they don't spread very much. Bake for about 10 minutes or until slightly golden around the edges (cooking time will vary depending on the size of your biscuits). Remove from oven and allow to cool.

5.     While the biscuits are cooling, put all of the marshmallow filling ingredients into a saucepan. (The original recipe suggests using a double boiler, but I found it easier to do it straight in the saucepan – you just have to be extra careful it doesn’t catch!). Whisk continuously by hand until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture becomes frothy and slightly opaque (10ish minutes). Remove from heat and beat with an electric handmixer until the mixture is the consistency of meringue. Once it is white and thick and holds it shape it is ready to go. Put the filling into a piping bag fitted with a large plain round tip (I used the Wilton 12 Round Tip).

6.     Pipe generous amounts of marshmallow onto each biscuit and put aside to set.

7.     Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave for 30 second bursts on medium, stirring between each time. You do not need to fully melt the chocolate in the microwave, you will find that once it is half melted you are able to just stir it until smooth.

8.     Spoon the chocolate over each marshmallow cover biscuit. Let the chocolate set completely before serving (can take up to an hour). Eat on the same day as making (but this shouldn’t be a problem). This may seem rather quick, but when I ate one of the last ones only two days after making them, the biscuit had started to become a little soggy with the marshmallow, and it tasted a little old.

Recipe adapted from  Peyton and Byrne: British Baking.

This recipe is fairly labour intensive, but I enjoyed making them as marshmallow is not usually something that I make. It's definitely on the list to remake.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Cupcakes, although not included in your traditional high tea, have gained huge popularity over the past couple of years. I consider myself to be a bit of cupcake purist – there is nothing I like better than a vanilla cupcake with a swirl of buttercream on top. One thing I really dislike is a beautiful looking cupcake where the cake is dry – it’s a bit of a disappointment. One of my favourite cupcake shops is Petal in New Market. The cupcakes are delicious; they’re so moist and almost melt in your mouth and offer a variety of flavours.

This is my go-to recipe for vanilla cupcakes. I like it because it’s really hard to get wrong and you can mix everything in one bowl.

Vanilla Cup Cakes

 

Ingredients

5 oz (150g) Butter - softened

5 oz (150g) superfine (castor) sugar

6 oz (175g) self-raising flour

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1.         Pre-heat the oven to 180oC.

2.         Line a 12 cup cake pan, with cup cake papers.

3.         Crack the eggs into a cup and beat lightly with a fork.

4.         Place all the ingredients in a large bowl.

5.         Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, until light and creamy.

6.         Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases.

7.         Bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and firm to touch.

8.         Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

9.         Allow to cool fully before icing with a buttercream icing.

Credit to one of my friends who sent me this recipe probably four years ago now. It’s from a website but I have no idea which one now…

Chai Lattes

On cold days like these there is nothing I like better than a hot drink and curling up next to the fire at home. One of my favourite hot drinks is a chai latte, and I am currently loving the Chai Latte made by Lipton. All you have to do is add hot water and stir and you have a hot, creamy drink to sip. Some people would say that it’s a bit sweet, but I like a sweet chai. Now I know this isn’t tea, but my ultimate high tea would probably involve a chai latte and/or a citrus green tea.

I recently found a recipe for Chai Latte cupcakes, which I will be attempting soon – will let you know how it goes. I’m quite excited because it combines two of my favourite things – chai lattes and cupcakes.

I spent the last weekend down in Wellington, which apart from being freezing, was fabulous. There are some very cool shops in Wellington and I spent a lot of time wondering around different shops, from op shops to boutiques. I found some gorgeous costume earrings at a shop on the end of Willis Street (I think it was called Retro Room?), which were very ‘high tea’ elegant to me. It’s amazing what you can find when you stop shopping at chain stores. We stayed at the James Cook Hotel in central Wellington, which happens to offer high tea. Given time constraints and the reasons that we were in Wellington there wasn’t any time to check this out, but while we were having lunch at the restaurant I saw high tea being served by the windows on the 16^th floor. Presentation appeared fairly standard and I wasn’t so sure about the atmosphere, it didn’t seem as engaging as some of the other places that I’ve been to. Further trips to Wellington are in order to scope out the high teas (and shopping!).

Keep warm! Til next time,

H

Friday is the day before Saturday

Another Friday has come around, I'm so excited for the weekend. Saw this article online this week about a high tea challenge that is coming up, sponsored by Dilmah. I imagine we'll hear more about it in the future. Coming up on the blog soon, I'm going to a high tea sponsored by Twinings at the Langham. Also hoping to check out Britomart Country Club high tea soon too. Also, watch out for some more recipes in the next couple of weeks.

http://www.voxy.co.nz/lifestyle/professional-challenge-put-real-high-tea/5/128267

Have a fabulous weekend.

H xo

Mini Cake Baking Tin

Recently, I have discovered an easy way to make mini cakes (not cupcakes). After a trip to the UK, my Mum came home talking about loose bottomed, straight-sided mini cake tins. I hadn’t really heard of them myself, but investigated online and found them at Milly’s Kitchen. As Mother’s Day was coming up at the time, I forwarded the link to my brother, who bought one for Mum. Given my love of baking, I jumped at the chance to test it out, and so made mini carrot cakes. They looked really cute, especially when iced. I guess the only thing I didn’t like was that they had too much ‘edge’ on the cake. I don’t know about you, but the edge of a cake is the part I like the least. I’m looking forward to making mini-cheesecakes in the tin though – the loose bottom will make it super easy (I hope).

I’ll share my carrot cake recipe in the future – it’s one of my favourites, always moist and tasty and pretty much a never fail (unlike my sponge cake experiences). I’m still unsure of my opinion on this cake tin – is it just another baking ‘knick knack’ or does it have genuine usefulness in the kitchen? It still has novelty value with me however, so I’ll keep experimenting with it for now. If you have any ideas of what to make in it, feel free to share them. I’m always up for a baking/high tea challenge.

H xo

Mini carrot cakes

High Coffee is the New High Tea??

This week has been rather hectic for me and I'm exhausted! So today I leave you with a news piece on a 'High Coffee' in Sydney, Australia. Personally, I feel like I need a coffee right now! It sounds intriguing, but I'm not sure that it will become as popular High Tea. I guess we'll see if it catches on...

http://au.totaltravel.yahoo.com/news-opinions/news/a/-/14077867/high-coffee-is-the-new-high-tea/

Have a fabulous weekend.

H xo