Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All the Way!!

Dear all,

Christmas is here and New Years is just around the corner!

I've been busy but took some time to make some Christmas treats!

Still have no idea what to bring to the Christmas party? 

Why not bring.....

Christmas Peanut Butter Chocolate Bon-Bons 

Make bon-bons yourself! It's EASY-PEASY!

(adapted: Nigella Lawson)

All you need:

Base

50g soft dark brown sugar

200g icing sugar

50g butter, softened

200g peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

Topping

300g chocolate (dark or milk or both)

Decorations

Any sprinkles, gold buttons, anything you want. Sprinkle right after you've put the chocolate layer, just before it sets.

All you need to do:

1) Put all the ingredients in a food processor or mixer. Mix until sandy texture.

2) Line 36-48 mini cupcake liners.

3) Press some mixture down to the bottom half of the paper liner.

4) Melt it and spoon it to coat the top part of the bon-bons.

5) Put the bon-bons in the fridge no more than 15minutes to set the chocolate. Keep in air tight container out of the fridge.

Print this recipe!

And I also made these!

Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes

Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! :) 

2nd Birthday Giveaway - Winner Announced.

I have the winner for my 2nd Birthday Giveaway!

Congrats! 

The winners are Lateraleating & MichVee. 

Please email me your postal address - passionatemae@gmail.com so that I can send them over to you!

Thanks everyone who took part! Try again next time & look out for future giveaways!

Happy Friday! :)

Kitchen Tea Party!

This is my first big order! 

These desserts are for a Kitchen Tea Party, and every single dessert has been personalised. 

Chocolate Cake Pops

Macarons with Chocolate Ganache

 Strawberry Sponge Gateau with Chantilly Cream

Vanilla Cupcakes

I also threw in a few....

Mini Lemon Curd Tartlets

Happy Day! :)

Moist Chocolate Banana Muffins

What a great way to start the day! 

.... with some fresh out of the oven moist Chocolate Banana Muffins.

They are super duper easy to make.

All you need is a bowl and a wooden spoon!

Ingredients

*adapted from Nigella Lawson

2 very ripe bananas

60ml vegetable oil

1 egg

50g soft brown sugar

113g plain flour

1.5x 15ml tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Method

1) Pre-heat oven to 200degrees Celcius. Line muffin tray.

2) Mash bananas with a fork, add oil, egg and sugar, mix.

3) Mix in flour, baking soda and cocoa powder until just combine.

4) Divide into 6 muffin liners equally - 3/4 full.

5) Bake for about 17 minutes.

Print this recipe!

Enjoy! :) Have a great day! 

2nd Birthday Giveaway!

Remember that I've mentioned in my Birthday post that there will be a surprise giveaway?!!

FINALLY, IT'S HERE! :)

Thanks to my lucky readers, I will be giving out 2 free copies of The Salt Book (I've wrote about it here) worth $34.99! There's all kinds of recipes, tips, information about salt, history, where to buy and so on.
These copies are sponsored by Arbon Publishing.

To win:
All you've got to do is like my Facebook Page and leave a comment below, also state where you're from and share with me what do you want to see/read more when you visit Passionatemae.

You can also follow me on my twitter to get the latest updates and happenings - Passionatemae .

This giveaway is open to all my readers worldwide, as long as I am able to post the books to you!

Two lucky readers will be chose randomly.

Giveaway closes 4th December 2011 11.59pm Sydney time.
Do check back after closing date to see whether you've been chosen.

So hurry hurry!

p/s: I know I'm pretty much a month late...but I do apologise as I've been really extremely flat out with everything else. I'm in my last week at Pastry School. 

Will update more often..promise!

Enjoy! :)


Thanks for entering everyone, this giveaway has now closed. I will be announcing 2 lucky readers here soon!

Passionatemae turns 2!

Hip Hip Hooray!!

Passionatemae turns 2 today!

So much has happened over the past year. 

Thank you so much to everyone who have been loyal readers and supporters of Passionatemae.

I've supplied desserts to the Australia's Biggest Morning Tea event at St George and Pharmacare to help raise funds for charity, as well as donated all bake sale proceeds to the recent unfortunate Japan victims.

I've championed the Cupcake Mondays at my part time job, where I have been supplying desserts, mainly cupcakes to the office every week. And I am proud to say it has been a huge success!

Passionatemae's personalised home orders is slowing growing as well.

To those who are still waiting to check out Passionatemae's Online Bake shop, my apologies as the feature isn't up and running yet, but you are still able to order by dropping me an email to passionatemae@gmail.com .

There will be a Blogiversary Birthday giveaway as well, please look out in the next post.

Meanwhile, if you enjoy reading Passionatemae, please don't forget to LIKE me on my Facebook Page and you can also follow my tweets @ Passionatemae

Have a lovely week! :)

How to make good Meringues?

How's your week so far?

The long weekend is coming up...What will you be doing? I'm sure it's something fun. I've got some tips to share with you if you're planning to bake - and you're using whipped egg whites (meringues).

 Pix by dustyburritos

There are so many goodies that are made out of meringues...like Macarons, Meringues, Bombe Alaska, Pavlovas, Sponge, waffles, Mousse and so on.

So it is important that you know how to do so to avoid any pitfalls.
1) Ensure that your egg whites are at room temperature. The egg whites will not whip properly if it is COLD.
- If your egg whites are cold, just break the eggs into your whipping bowl and put it over a bain marie or warm bowl of water. The temperature of the egg whites should be the same temperature as your finger (where you will neither feel it's hot or cold when touched).

2) Make sure that the bowl and tools that you're using are CLEAN and is not contaminated by any GREASE.

3) Whip your egg whites only when you're about to use it. It shouldn't be whipped and left sitting on the counter.

4) Egg whites can be kept for a very long time, covered in the refrigerator.

5) Add a pinch of cream of tartar, it helps to strengthen it's structure.

6) Make sure that you add the sugar in only when it starts foaming. Gradually add in sugar and not all at once. It is important for the egg whites to have enough time to absorb all the sugar.

Have a good day! :) 

Bake Off Day with Green Cilantro!

How it all started? Long story short....

Julie introduced us. Viv and I found out we were living close by and we both love baking. So we decided to set a time and day to have a bake off session!

Our theme was BANANAS! 

We started off with making pie crumbs out of Chocolate Ripple Cookies and butter. We took the short cut instead of making short pastry dough. 

Our version of Banoffee Pie!

We also used another ingredient...

 to make....Chocolate Peanut Butter Orange Pie

and ...what about Chocolate Banana with a layer of Peanut Butter?

And we were pretty adventurous! We made a Green Tea (Matcha) Japanese Cotton Cheesecake too!

It was such a fun time, that if we did not run out of time, Marshmallows and cookies were on our minds too! We looked through baking books, and just had crazee ideas on what should we make next!

We had such a great time, that we decided to meet up many more times! :)

Have a wonderful weekend! :)

Lesson 18: Gateau Fraisier

What's a Gateau Fraisier?
It's genoise sponge with strawberries and creme patissiere. Remember in Lesson 16, where we learnt about genoise and conventional sponge? This is exactly the same recipe.

Have you made Creme Patissiere before? It's custard!
When making creme patissiere, it is important to...
* make sure the eggs do not scramble, time to move that arm of yours, whisking continuously.
* to boil out the starch.
* remove it from the heat immediately once it's ready, do not leave it in the pan, otherwise it'll continue to cook.
* Pour it out onto a flat tray/dish to cool it down completely, glad wrap directly on the surface of the custard.

Creme Patissiere is also used in many desserts such as Mille Feuille (future lesson), custard tarts and so on.

Here's my Gateau Fraisier. It is a very traditional French dessert!

Next lesson on Tarte Bourdaloue Aux Poire, another classic French dessert! :)

Lesson 17: Rich Fruit Cake & Madeira Cake with Lemon Fudge Icing

I hope you did not beat yourself up too much on master the technique of making light fluffy sponges...

Today we learn how to make a Rich Fruit Cake and Madeira Cake.

Everyone knows what is a fruit cake!

A fruit cake is the opposite of a sponge. It is dense and a very heavy cake. It's simple to make and keep for a vvvvvvery long time! That is if you store it properly!

Fruit cake is usually sold and eaten during the Christmas period. And it is sold by weight. The heavier the fruit cake, the more costly it'll be.

It is important to soak the dried fruits in Rum a week before you're going to make the fruit cake. This will ensure that the dried fruits soaks up all the flavour from the liquid.

Here's what you need to make a fruit cake.

A madeira cake is basically a simple butter cake. We made some cupcakes and one in a cake. The batter is very light therefore, we bake them in higher temperature at a shorter time.

You might already know that Madeira cake is sometimes used in a Trifle.

Here's my Madeira Cake with Lemon Fudge Icing

 See you next lesson! :)

Online Bake Shop coming soon!

I've got NEWS for you!

I've been working on this project of mine and I'm so excited! I can't wait to share it with you all.

Soon, you'll be able to order treats through my online bake shop!

And I can't wait to be baking these yummy treats just for you...

Meanwhile, to ensure you don't miss out on new happenings and promotions, don't forget to like Passionatemae's Facebook Page

with love,

Passionatemae's Kitchen

Happy Birthday to me!!

Thanks everyone for all the Birthday wishes and pressies!

Thanks for making my special day SPECIAL! 

Hope you all had as much fun as I did!

xx

Stained Glass Jelly (Broken Glass Jello)

When I first saw these colourful beauties, I knew I had to make it myself!

Food blogger Not Quite Nigella had also made these.

I shall show you how easy it is to make it! It is a great dessert for parties.

All you need:

4-6 packets of Aeroplane Jelly 

4-6 plastic containers

Baking Mould/Tin

Boiling water

Cold Water

2 Envelopes of powdered Gelatin

1x395g Sweetened Condensed Milk

Non-stick Oil Spray

All you need to do:

1) Spray each container with non-stick oil spray. Set aside.

2) Dissolve each Aeroplane Jelly packet with 1 cup of boiling water over the stove, whisking briskly so that all crystals are dissolved. Pour in a container. Repeat until you've finished all the Aeroplane Jelly.

3) Set aside to cool before covering with lids to put it in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight to set.

4) Sprinkle the gelatine powder into 1/2 cup of cold water, once the gelatine blooms, add 1 cup of boiling water to dissolve. Mix the sweetened condensed milk with the dissolve gelatine liquid, stir and cool.

5) Once the jellies are set, chopped them into small cubes and gently mix it in the prepared mould.

You can use any kind, shot glasses....

6) Once the condensed milk is cool but still pourable, make sure to pour them into the moulds with the coloured cubed jellies.

7) Let it set properly overnight in the fridge before serving or removing it from the mould.

Print this recipe!

....dessert wine glasses....

....even a flower mould like I did!

It looks so pretty doesn't it?!

This is such a simple dessert to make! 

Enjoy! :)

Lesson 16: Genoise Sponge & Black Forest Swiss Roll

After learning all about chocolate and how to temper (if you've missed the chocolate classes, click here), we move on to preparing and producing cakes.

Yes, learning about sponges! Making sponges is the most basic skill any Pastry Chef should know how to make. It is the basis of most cakes.

We made a genoise sponge cake and a Black Forest swiss roll.

Do you know what are the difference between a conventional sponge and genoise sponge?
Conventional Sponge - made from eggs, sugar and flour.
Genoise Sponge - made from eggs, sugar, flour and butter.

Genoise Sponge is definitely richer in taste and texture.

The more eggs that you put in making a sponge, the higher and richer in quality it'll be.

Making sponge is really simple once you've master the technique of folding the flour into the batter without beating out too much of air.

We were taught to use a whisk, spatula and a scraper. There's no right tool to use when folding the flour in, it is what you're most comfortable with.
*note - do not use the whisk to whisk but rather using it like a spatula.

I hope this is not all too confusing for you.

Here's what I made....

Genoise Sponge topped with Meringue, Strawberries, Sugared Almonds

Black Forest Swiss Roll

Let's move on to making more cakes shall we! :)

Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

How was your Sunday?

Mine was filled with Nigella Lawson videos! Yes, I have been watching her videos the whole day. Drooling all over my laptop.

I've watched her videos many many many times, I can't stress how many times I've seen it over and over again. But I just can't seem to get bored of watching her cook and bake!

So, instead of eating healthily to look good for my birthday next weekend, yes, next Sunday the 21st August! As a treat, I've decided to make some Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies that is to die for! And I got this lovely delicious recipe from Nigella! You might have already made this many times, but I believe that this is just too good not to share it with you all. Aaaaand....it's totally CRISP too! 

(Makes 40 cookies)

All you need:

125g dark chocolate, 45% cocoa 

150g plain flour

30g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

125g unsalted butter, softened

75g light brown sugar

50g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg, COLD

2 x 230g dark/milk chocolate chips

All you need to do:

1) Pre-heat oven at 170°C.

2) Melt 125g dark chocolate. Cool, set aside.

3) In a separate bowl, put all dry ingredients together (flour, salt, baking soda). Set aside.

4) Cream butter and both sugar.

5) Mix the cooled melted chocolate into batter.

6) Beat in COLD egg and vanilla extract to mixture.

7) Mix in all dry ingredients until just combined.

8) Fold in chocolate chips.

9) Scoop out cookies using an ice-cream scoop onto baking tray lined with grease paper.

10) Bake for 17minutes. Allow to cool in tray for 4-5 minutes before cooling it completely on a cooling rack. Cookies will harden a little as they cool.

*Store in air-tight container.

*Cookies can be kept for a week.

Print this recipe!

Happy Baking! :)

My Wish List

I have been eyeing on these items for a while now..

1) Marc by Marc Jacobs 13" Laptop Case (Peony Colour) - Shopbop

really love this colour, don't you agree with me?

2) Marc by Marc Jacobs Classic Q Karlie Crossbody Flap Bag (Yellow Colour)

anyone know where I can get this colour and this model? been looking everywhere..

3) Flour by Joanne Chang (Bookdepository)

after taking a peek at this book, i need it!

4) Marc by Marc Jacobs Classic Q Lil Ukita Satchel (Peony/Yellow Colour)

Black is a little boring..I want colours.

5) The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz (BookDepository)

heard loads of good reviews on his ice-cream recipes.

6) Bake Essential Companion by Alison Thompson

just because I love how the cover looks!

SOLD 7) Magimix Food Processor 3200XL Matt Chrome (Everten)

8) Marc by Marc Jacobs Daisy

love the new daisy! it's fresh!

pretty obvious isn't it that I'm such a Marc Jacob's fan!! LOVE their STUFF!

Have a great day! :)

The Salt Book

Advertorial

It was very nice of Felicity from Arbon Publishing to send over a copy of the Salt Book to me. This book has all the information on Salt.

Have you had any problems with knowing how much salt to use when cooking or baking?? Do you often get confused with what type of salt to use? 

Don't fret about it anymore.

Now you can find all the answers from The Salt Book by Fritz Gubler & David Glynn, with contributions by Dr Russell Keast!

It promises to answers all your questions from...

how to salt?

when to salt?

which salt?

why salt?

salt trends

salt facts

salt recipes

salt techniques

chefs on salt

salt at table

There are tons of recipes in this book too from the basics, savoury, desserts and so on. You've got to buy the book to see find out more!

Quick purchase one for yourself, simply click on the banner on the right hand side or here.

By clicking on that link, it also helps me earn commission on the books you've purchased!

Enjoy! :)

Cash giveaways to all my lucky readers!

Advertorial

Hello all,

What a great weekend! The weather was terrific!

I am sure you weren't looking forward to Monday morning blues today. 

Here's something I hope would cheer you up. 

I've got a lovely prize for all of my lucky readers!

How to enter:

Say hello in the comment below and simply click on this link $20giveaway and don't forget to refer your friends too (just give them the link, otherwise it will not work)!

Prize:

$20 cash discount automatically added into your basket when you purchase $200 or more at Le Domaine. Yes, you can use it immediately. How great is that?!

Terms and Conditions:

1) NONE!

Can't wait to hear from you all :) ! 

Sponsored by:

How to use Demerara Sugar?

The answer:

Pix: Naturewithlove

Sprinkle some Demerara sugar on top of your goodies before before it goes into the oven.

You can use it when you're making....

Croissant Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Hot Cross Buns Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Cinnamon Browned Butter Pull-Apart Bread

Peanut Butter Pillow Puffs

Demerara sugar gives you better flavour too compared to normal sugar. 

You can buy Demerara sugar from any supermarket. I get mine from CSR! 

Enjoy! :)