bakingwithgab – Page 15 – Baking with Gab

Chocolate berry tarts and sluggish weather

The weather in Sydney got a bit rubbish overnight. The Boy and I went to a Mexican themed birthday bash (check us out, we dressed up and everything!) and it started to rain as the night wore on, unfortunately. The company and food was good, despite the weather’s best efforts to dampen things.

Torrential rain is perfect indoor weather, which means I crave sweets. Comfort food.

If you’re anything like me, however, the wet weather also means that you’re lazy. I’m currently writing in my pyjamas and enjoying the sound of the rain. I had intended to go to the gym this morning, but as soon as I heard the rain I excused myself because rain. Continue reading “Chocolate berry tarts and sluggish weather”

Raspberry Mint Iced Tea and abundance

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, there is too much mint in my garden. The mint has gone wild. Not literally, but it’s pretty abundant. So I’m going to use it up, even if it means that my family complain about the repetition of flavours.

And they probably will.

I’m going to try and switch it up though, keep them on their toes so they don’t know whether they’re going to be eating or drinking it, or whether I’ll serve it to them in sweet or savoury dishes. I’ve got to keep myself entertained somehow. Continue reading “Raspberry Mint Iced Tea and abundance”

Peanut butter cups and surprise outcomes

I intended to make something using mint today. Our garden is overgrowing with gorgeous, fragrant mint, and I had every intention of making some choc-mint creation to take advantage of it.

But I didn’t.

I got distracted and I washed Norman (check him out, bathing and being regal post-bath!) and my mint remained untouched. Continue reading “Peanut butter cups and surprise outcomes”

Chocolatey chocolate tart and leftover egg yolks

Egg yolks have so much potential.

I hate to waste a good egg yolk because of this potential. I also hate the idea of letting good food go to waste!

This is a great way to use up egg yolks after you’ve made meringues. I made some pretty spooky meringues for Halloween (as you may or may not have seen on my Instagram) so I had five egg yolks to play with. This recipe didn’t use them all up, but it got rid of four and Norman enjoyed lapping up the final yolk!

I took the meringues and this tart to a Halloween party. I say party, but it was better than that – it was a group of my friends watching Hocus Pocus and eating yummy food. The tart works with out without meringue ghosts, in case you were wondering. Continue reading “Chocolatey chocolate tart and leftover egg yolks”

Ghostly meringues and a bloody Halloween

This is my final Halloween post and it is a super easy one! This recipe is simple enough to do with kids but fun enough for adults too…my only warning is that it can get a little messy.

For these ghosties to work you need a decent meringue recipe. I make my meringues using the same recipe that I make swiss meringue buttercream with, except that I stop at the sugar and egg whites part of the instructions.

Line two baking trays with baking paper and preheat the oven to 120C.

Once you’ve got your meringue forming firm, glossy peaks, pop the mixture into a piping bag with a round nozzle on the end of it. If you don’t have a piping bag, just put the mixture in a snap lock bag and snip the end off.

For the ghosts, pipe out a fat circle as the base, then pipe out two more fat circles, making them slightly smaller each time. They may look a little bit like a white poo – this is okay, they’ll still be super cute. I Instagrammed mine once they were baking because I was pretty in love with them. See them here!
Continue reading “Ghostly meringues and a bloody Halloween”

Chocolate coconut slice and decadence

This slice is not for the faint of heart. It’s not hard to make, despite being split into three parts – the making it is the easy part… the problem is that this slice is decadent and delicious and pretty addictive too. So when you find yourself slicing of a little slither before breakfast, don’t act like I didn’t warn you!

If chocolate was at all appropriate to give to dogs, Norman could have used some of this slice yesterday. It was super windy here and he was scared. He moped around the house for so long that I had to force him to go outside and be adventurous for ten minutes. He mostly just hid behind shrubs, trees, flowers – whatever he thought might shield him from the wind. He was not a happy pup! Continue reading “Chocolate coconut slice and decadence”

Wormy jelly and healthy Halloween

What I love about Halloween is the opportunity that it presents for you to pair food in ways that you wouldn’t usually. Chocolate cupcakes and jelly eyeballs, cheesy pastry twists with capsicum fingernails, biscuits and dinosaurs… orange jelly and worms.

This isn’t the first time I’ve used these little squishy worms in preparation for Halloween – the ones I used in this recipe were left over from when I made worms in mud cupcakes. I figured rather than waste them, I should utilise them in some ghoulish way.

So Wormy Jelly was born! Continue reading “Wormy jelly and healthy Halloween”

Worms in mud cupcakes and more Halloween ideas

Last year for Halloween I made spooky cupcakes. There were ghosts, spider webs, grave yards, brains and mummies. I couldn’t find any photos of them, except for this one on Instagram. I’m an Instagram tragic, I know.

I really enjoyed making the tombs look like they were in dirt…mainly because I adore chocolate sprinkles. So I used them again! This time I created worms in mud cupcakes – they’re about as gross as I want to make my food look. They’re still pretty cutesy, but more importantly, they taste delicious!! Continue reading “Worms in mud cupcakes and more Halloween ideas”

Spooky spider cupcakes and witches

Even though I’ve never trick or treated, or had clusters of kids roaming my streets in dress-ups, I love that there are parts of the world which are neighbourly enough for this to happen! I’ve got some pretty decent neighbours, but I know that there are a few grinches on the street as well… my brothers and I used to think that one elderly woman who lived next door was a witch!!

We’re yet to see evidence to prove us wrong.

She used to hoard our tennis/bouncy/basket/cricket balls when they went over her fence – she’d line them up so that we could see them from the top of our steps, as though goading us into knocking on her front door. Then when we ran out of balls, we’d play scissors, paper, rock to determine who would knock on her door. Continue reading “Spooky spider cupcakes and witches”

Earl grey poached pear muffins and thriftiness

These lovely little muffins are gorgeous and packed with floral notes. They’re the perfect afternoon pick-me-up because they’re full of pears and they’ve not got too much butter or sugar in them; the sweetness in the mixture mainly comes from the vanilla bean and the earl grey tea. They’re also great because there is no wastage! You make use of the poaching liquid and the pear peel, so they’re super thrifty! Thriftiness is in at the moment, thank you Macklemore!

I bought my tea from a fabulous little tea supplier I stumbled upon at the Marricvkville organic markets, but you can use whatever type you want. The Ttotaler tea that I used is particularly special because it’s bursting with rose petals, which give the mixture a beautiful fragrance and a pop of colour as well. Continue reading “Earl grey poached pear muffins and thriftiness”