Photographer: Margaret Paola Minero
Welcome to my blog centred around baking with delicious and interesting flavour combos as well as textures to uncover unusual bakegood gems. In addition, this blog discovers traditional sweet treats, opening up taste buds to different cultures and flavours from all over the world.
Marshmallow Peanut Caramel and Chocolate Bread Pudding
What do you do when you are tasked to make the most delectable bread and butter pudding?
I don’t know about you but I took this as a challenge to do some experimenting with scrumptious, over-the-top but still delightfully tasty flavour pairings (any excuse to experiment and I’m there with bells on)!
After ideating on a few flavour ideas I landed on 3 varying flavour profiles all as rich as each other, being; a rocky-road influence combo, black forest inspired and a Jaffa guided taste.
I must say all combo’s were tasty, I’d happily eat any of them for dessert, however, the rocky-road influenced combo (Marshmallow Peanut Caramel and Chocolate Bread Pudding) was the stand out winner….A far cry from the traditional cinnamon and sultana recipe!
Ingredients:
Extra:
Method:
NOTE: If the pudding starts to drop/slide in shape after step 13 place back in the oven for a further 5-10 minutes.
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Step 17
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Tiramisu Cottage Cheese and Yoghurt Ice-Cream
I’ve dabbled with using frozen fruits, yoghurts and varying cheeses as base alternatives to the usually high fat and sometimes not even dairy ice-cream in the past.
So I decided to combine my favourite dessert, Tiramisu, with my 3 go to ice-cream alternative products.
After a bit of trial and error I landed on banana for the fruit (unsurprisingly), natural yoghurt (not Greek, this won’t work with the flavour mix) and cottage cheese (Ricotta was a close second).
The outcome – this recipe is a must for all Tiramisu lovers that want to indulge but want low fat. In fact, apart from a little chocolate and sugar this recipe is natural, satisfying and super healthy.
Ingredients:
Method:
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Glazed Grapefruit Brownie Slice
This recipe delivers on a zingy tasty delight that is a mix between a slice and brownie.
I wanted to make something really simple, quick, flavoursome and all about Grapefruit.
Grapefruit is an ingredient that I have dabbled with but never come up with a recipe that solely features the fruit while not being too tangy or sour.
I have posted a Grapefruit Pistachio Rose and Ginger Syrup Cake in the past, however this cake had Grapefruit as a flavour in a mix pairings, not featuring the fruit itself as front and centre.
Ingredients:
Glaze:
Method:
Notes:
Ingredients
Step 5
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Step 11
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Popcorn Peanut and Protein Custard Ice-cream
I have recently been inspired by the old fashion way of making ice-cream, in which entails a thick and creamy custard base. These days vegetable oil has become the base, which is unhealthy, and 100% fat!
As the traditional method actually delivers on rich and scrumptious dairy goodness I decided I would take this theme and make a tasty ice-cream that has minimal processed elements that is packed with body loving protein. I also wanted to make sure the recipe was super easy and can be done really quickly.
Now this is actually quite a lot that the recipe will need deliver on so I created 4 different versions with differing volume ratios of ingredients and varying flavor combos.
After a bit of trial/error and testing/learning I found the recipe I was looking for.
The custard uses custard powder, meaning it takes a whole of 5 mins tops to make. Protein powder and peanuts/peanut butter provides the high protein kick with only natural good oils, while the sweetness has been delivered via natural honey. The only really naught element here is the small amount of caramel on the popcorn.
A really tasty and satisfying treat that takes only minutes to make with minimal effort!
Ingredients:
Custard:
Ice-cream:
Method:
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Date Bourbon and Chocolate Cakes
Believe it or not dates and bourbon actually have a similar flavour profile. However, they do have a big difference that is quite notable.
One ingredient is sweet as well as holding an earthy profile, while the other is strong in earthy sour smokiness. Put them together and the sweetness balances out the sourness and you are left with an interesting earthy flavour.
Add a hint of satisfying rich chocolate and you have chocolate cake with a satisfying unique tasty flavour twist.
Ingredients:
Cake:
Icing:
Method:
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Step 12
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I have always loved the flavour of blue heaven and decided that I wanted to make a cake out of it. The only way I could really think of putting this flavour into a cake was by using jelly crystals, thus the cake types I could actually experiment with were limited – making a cheesecake the most obvious option.
If I used the jelly in a cheesecake I wouldn’t need to bake the cake as the jelly would help set the cheesecake to the perfect consistency.
To play to the blue heaven child-hood flavour I added blue food colouring to really make this cake pop and look like it belonged in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
The outcome was exactly as I was hoping for, the flavour reminds me of when I was a child, its super creamy and a satisfying must if you were a fan of blue heaven spiders as a kid!
Ingredients:
Base:
Filling:
Jelly layer:
Method:
Note: Using electric beaters I whipped up 100ml of thickened cream, 1 tbsn sugar and 1 tsn of vanilla essence to decorate the cake as well as a few raspberries.
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Natural Rice Almond and Coconut Muffins
Gluten free, process-free, butter-free and natural sugar…sound too good to be true? OR too good to taste delicious? Think again.
Processed flour is not even missed in this recipe as the almond meal and rice flour produce just as good a result.
The honey and dates provide a scrumptious sweetness, while the yoghurt adds some lovely creaminess.
Add to the flavour coconut with a pinch of cinnamon and vanilla and you have yourself a moreish, nutritiously healthy, satisfying, tasty treat that can be eaten anytime throughout the day.
Ingredients:
Method:
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Thiples
Thiples are a Greek traditional thin-sheet pastry (also known as Diples), usually made for special festive occasions. Similar to Cannoli’s shell texture and crunch Thiples are fried pastry that is soaked in a honey lemon syrup and sprinkled with a sesame and nut cinnamon mix for the extra crunch and flavour.
Think Baklava syrup and Frappe (aka Cioffe…aka Italian deep fried bow-tie cookies).
This is not the easiest of desserts to make, the pastry needs to be super super thin, but the outcome is addictively moreish – I can see why these are a Greek dessert treasure!
Dough:
Syrup:
Extra:
Method:
Step 5
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Chocolate Top-Deck Tiramisu Cupcakes
Tiramisu is my ultimate all-time favorite dessert ever. The only thing with traditional Tiramisu is that its not the easiest thing to eat – a bowl/plate as well as a spoon is a must. Unlike a slice or cupcake Tiramisu can really only be eaten sitting at a table.
So I decided that I would come up with a recipe that tastes like the traditional treat but as a cupcake.
For the cupcake recipe, I modified my never fail white chocolate and dark chocolate wedding cake recipes with the coffee and marsala flavor combo, as well as staying true to the traditional mascarpone cheese for my ‘icing’.
Though I have included the mix of white and dark chocolate in this recipe, in which is not traditional for this dessert, the chocolate batter works flawlessly with the traditional flavors.
Ingredients:
White chocolate layer:
Dark chocolate layer:
Syrup:
Icing:
Method:
Step 3
Step 5
Step 6
Step 9
Step 11
Step 15
Step 16
Step 18
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Green Tea and Pistachio Éclairs
This recipe came to me when I was looking at pairing two strong, similar and complimentary flavours together, these being Green Tea (a core Asian slightly bitter tea) with pistachios (core Middle East staple nut).
To balance out the savouriness on the palette I then introduced the integration of white chocolate.
Though the mix of Asian, Middle Eastern and French (the origin of Eclairs ) palettes sounds bazaar and all over the shop this little treat is super tasty, delighting all that experience its uniqueness.
Ingredients:
Éclair:
Filling & Icing:
Method:
Notes:
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Step 7
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Step 10
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Step 21
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