Lemon Delicious

LEMON DELICIOUS

This is not a muffin post, finally! Though I still plan on making more and more muffins. But it felt like time for an easy dessert. This one came about because I had made dinner for my lovely boyfriend and wanted to make dessert as well. I still had some lemons laying around, so this seemed the perfect thing to make. Plus I wanted to do it while I was TV, it needed to be easy. Super quick, and super tasty. I even had two left over which I covered in glad wrap, refrigerated and microwaved the next day; and they still tasted super awesome.

I served this with some whipped cream, but would work just as well with ice cream, vanilla would be best. You can make with a big tray, or do what I did and use little brulee pots. And just remember after they are baked they are meant to be all gooey, runny and delicious under the cake part. Enjoy this one and share it with your family. 

 INGREDIENTS:

150 grams Unsalted Butter, melted
2 teaspoons Lemon Rind, finely grated
1/3 cup Lemon Juice
1 1/2 cups Caster Sugar
3/4 cup Self Raising Flour, sifted
1 1/2 cups Milk
4 Eggs, separated
Icing Sugar, to serve

 DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat oven to 180°c and grease 4 small brulee dishes/

2 - Place butter, lemon rind and juice, sugar, flour, milk and egg yolks in a bowl. Whisk to combine.

3 - Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form.

4 - Using a metal spoon, fold one quarter of the egg whites into the lemon mixture. Gently fold in a remaining egg whites.

5 - Spoon mixture into the prepared dishes. Place dishes in a large baking dish. Pour boiling water until it reaches halfway up the side of the dishes.

6 - Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and set.

7 - Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Enjoy.

Wayne
xx

Lemon Poppyseed Biscuits

LEMON & POPPYSEED BISCUITS

Poppyseeds are such a cool ingredient. I've always loved when it's paired with orange or lemon in muffins. I was directing a student show at the beginning of the year and wanted to make some delicious treats for closing night. I had some lemons and looked for some recipes to go with it. When I found lemon poppyseed biscuits, I knew I had to make them. They were delicious and went straight into my recipe pile. Last week I was rehearsing my new play, "Six & Out" and wanted to make some biscuits for the cast. Again I had some lemons left over and made these. The cast loved them, and so did my workmates when I took the leftovers to work. In fact, they went so fast not everyone got one.

Lemon is pretty subjective. I put in extra lemon juice and thought it could have done with some more. However the girls at work thought it had the right amount. So if you like things a little more sour, don't be afraid to add a bit more lemon. These are quite light and very nice to eat. I've been so busy lately I've only been baking simply. I'll have to pull out some bigger recipes soon. Give us all a challenge for some baking!

INGREDIENTS:

150g Unsalted Butter, softened
1 cup Caster Sugar
1 Egg
2 cups Plain Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 tablespoon Poppyseeds
1 tablespoon Lemon Rind, grated
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat oven to 180°c and line trays with baking paper.

2 - Using  mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy.

3 - Add egg and beat to combine.

4 - Sift flour and baking powder over butter mixture and add poppyseeds, lemon rind and juice. Stir to combine.

5 - Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls. Place balls, 5cm apart, on trays.

6 - Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

7 - Serve and enjoy!

Catch you again soon with some more sweet treats!

Wayne
xx

Lemon & Lime Shortbread

LEMON & LIME SHORTBREAD

So here's my final installment of baked goodies from my recent party for my idol, Madonna. First there was the great birthday cake, then the Wagon Wheel slice (which coincidentally has quickly become one of my most viewed blogs); and now, here's the great Lemon & Lime Shortbread. Down the bottom I have also included a picture of the sausage rolls I made for the night. They were pretty simple, but oh so tasty. I made mulled wine for the first time too, both will be made several more times!

These shortbread biscuits are quite delicate and have a nice little tang. These are perfect for nice afternoon with a friend, a cuppa tea and the latest gossip. They are quite easy to make, but really make sure you rest the dough in the fridge before rolling out and cutting. It needs that chill to firm up and be easier to roll and cut. There a few stages to this, but it is worth it as they pretty divine.

Go forth and bake my friends. I'll be heading back to some of my old favourites for the next few blogs.

Recipe originally found at: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/8021/lemon+and+lime+shortbread

INGREDIENTS:

250g Unsalted Butter, softened
1 cup Icing Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 cups Plain Flour
1/2 cup Cornflour
2 Lemons, rinds grated
1 Lime, rind grated and juiced
1 cup Icing Sugar
90g Unsalted Butter, softened

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Line baking trays with baking paper or biscuits liners, I ended up using 3 trays.

2 - Using electric beater, cream butter, sugar and vanilla until pale.

3 - Add flour, cornflour and the rind of the lemons and lime. Stir to combine.

4 - Turn onto a floured surface and knead gently until smooth. Shape shortbread into a 20cm rough circle and wrap in baking powder. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

5 - Preheat oven to 160°c.

6 - Roll shortbread out between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Using a cookie cutter (simpler shapes are best). cut out biscuits. Press remaining together and roll out, cutting more shapes. Repeat process until you are out of dough. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until firm.

7 - Bake shortbread for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden and firm to touch. Cool on trays.

8 - Using an electric mixer, beat icing sugar and butter until pale. Add a tablespoon of fresh lime juice and beat for a further 30 seconds.

9 - Spread icing over the half of the shortbread and sandwich with another shortbread piece.

10 - You can dust with icing sugar if you like.

11 - Enjoy.

Catch you again soon,

Wayne
xxx

Bakes from my birthday - a love letter to Raspberri Cupcakes

BAKES FROM MY BIRTHDAY - A LOVE LETTER TO RASPBERRI CUPCAKES

So it was my birthday recently, 38. Yes, I'm getting old. I had a few friends round to help celebrate which was wonderful. As a former Sydney boy who's only been in Melbourne 2.5 years, I feel very blessed to have made such great friends. Especially generous ones, the presents were incredible - including a brilliant new coffee machine that I'd marry if I could. And it was very lucky my Mother was able to make the trip down. She has not been very well at all. Loved having Mum here and was extra happy I was able to share with her my newish baking skills and how they've evolved.

Now baking is a really Melbourne thing for me, I have a bigger kitchen than I did in Sydney. (Any Sydney friends will know how small my Newtown box was). Part of my evolution as a baker has been about getting baking crushes on other bakers through their blogs. My favourite is definitely Steph from Raspberri Cupcakes. Her bakes are divine and I have been making her stuff for a while. A few I often get requests for are the Spiced Blondies with Chai Infused Ganache, the Cherry Shortbread Bites and the Malted and Salted Choc-Chip Cookies. I knew I wanted to make some of her bakes for my birthday, so I did. I'll share with you what they are. Now her recipes are so good I never need to change ingredients. I don't want to steal from her, so instead I'll post links to the recipes. Plus please check out all her recipes and amazing pics. She is a Baking God and you will be salivating. Friends, I will take requests if you want me to bake more of her stuff.

Now the first one was the birthday cake. My good friend Hannah said I shouldn't make my own cake, but I really wanted to. Mostly to make this great cake. Steph's original recipe was a purple ombre cake, but I decided to make a rainbow cake instead. Gay much? The recipe was the same, all I changed were the colours and I made 4 layers like she suggested in the recipe. Now the sprinkles task was difficult, especially when I only had a few minutes till people started arriving, but it was worth it. It looked amazing.

Here's the recipe link:

http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2011/11/purple-ombre-sprinkle-cake.html

Next up are the Neopolitan Melting Moments, or Yo-Yo's as they are called here in Melbourne. I had been wanting to make these for a while. I love how the melting moments, melt in your mouth. Hence the name. And the different flavours in these just sounded wonderful, and they were. Yes, they took a while to make, but were worth it. Out of all my birthday baked goods, these were the ones I was keenest to try. I changed nothing, the recipe was spot on.

Here's the link:
http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2010/06/neopolitan-melting-moments.html

Finally there was the lemon meringue cheesecake. I made this for my boyfriend's birthday this year. It's the trend to make a cheesecake for him for his birthday, he loves them. Last year was the apple pie cheesecake, this year was the lemon meringue one. Mum loved the sound of it and asked me to make it for her when she was down. Of course I couldn't say no to my favourite person, and happily made it again. Plus, it's bloody tasty. The combination of lemon meringue and the cheesecake is a perfect match. I highly recommend this for your next dinner party. Again, I changed nothing from the original Raspberri Cupcakes recipe.

Here's the link:
http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2009/05/lemon-meringue-cheesecake.html

The party was a success, as were the baked goods. There were a few other things I made I may share soon too. But I really want to write this blog to say thanks to Steph at Raspberri Cupcakes for inspiring me and pushing my baking to new heights. I look forward to seeing more of your amazing creations.

Back on Monday with the red velvet cheesecake my friends have been asking me to share.

Wayne

xx

Easy Lemon Tart

So I've been feeling pretty confident about my baking, almost untouchable. I could bake anything. Then I came crashing down to earth. I've become a massive fan of all the Bake Off shows and can't wait for the Australian version to begin. My favourite is the original, The Great British Bake Off. They had an amazing challenge with a lemon tart by Mary Berry, one of the judges. I watched her make it in the masterclass and was sure I could do it. Made the pastry, blind baked it, made the filling, baked it. The end result, fail. Burnt the pastry at the top, still raw down the bottom (a soggy bottom is a no-no on Bake Off) and the filling looked like I had scrambled the eggs. The taste was still nice but it looked awful. I was due to go to my partner's sister's place with dessert and now only had a few hours to spare. I went on line looking for an easy replacement, and hopefully a cheap one! The result was this easy recipe using condensed milk, which is often on sale and is so easy to use. So here's the recipe, you can make it fast and it is so super tasty. So tart, loving lemon lately!

EASY LEMON TART (Thanks to All Recipes)

Ingredients:
200g sweet biscuits (Nice are best, I used Milk Coffee but added a little caster sugar)
70g unsalted butter, melted
1 (395g) tin sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
3 lemons, zested and juiced

Directions:

1 - Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2 - Crush the biscuits in a food processor and then add the melted butter and mix. Line the bottom of a pie dish by pressing the mixture onto the dish with the palm of your hand. Then place the pie dish in freezer while you prepare the filling.

3 - Pour the condensed milk into a bowl and then add the eggs and mix well. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest, folding in until mixed well.

4 - Place the tart in the oven and then pour the lemon mixture into the tart shell. This will ensure you don't drop any on your walk to the oven.

5 - Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until you see it wobble in the middle.

6 - Cool to room temperature and then place in fridge to cool completely.

7 - Serve with icing sugar sprinkled on top. Best served with vanilla ice cream.

Now finally, a friend made my first recipe, the Oreo Cheesecake for her boyfriend's birthday. Thanks Bella. Here's a photo of the result:

So please send in any pics if you make any of these fun and tasty desserts!

wayne@tunks.com.au

Happy Baking!

LEMON SPONGE (TROLL FEAST CAKE)

The very talented playwright extraordinaire, Van Badham, put a challenge out on the net. On June 10, make a troll themed cake for #trollfeast, a day dedicated to fighting internet trolls. Trolls are those nameless people who like to just write rude things at people, usually with unintelligent rants and name calling. The thing I always find interesting is that they never have their real name or photo on their profiles, so they feel like they can say anything they like. And boy do they!

The challenge was made and I gladly accepted, making this hate cake with love. I made a lemon sponge with lemon buttercream icing. I coloured it blue, the colour of twitter, and also so you could see my black and white icing pens. It was fun writing all the words that I, or people I know, have been called. I am directing a play for my teen drama class about bullying called, "The Words of Others", so this seemed fitting.

I put it on line, Van retweeted it and then suddenly there was an audience, and naturally trolls. I put up a cake to fight the name calling and got called names myself. There was one rant I didn't quite get, maybe I was too dumb, maybe he was insane. But there was another one. I have posted what she said below:

This woman would put a dog down? In Van Badham style, I had to answer back. I don't get why people need to send anonymous people vile messages? Maybe I'm just getting too old for this shit. Anyway, the cake was super tasty and the lemon really lifted the taste of the cake and the icing. Feel free to make a normal version without the vitriol and hopefully without the hate that follows. Keep baking my friends.

LEMON SPONGE CAKE RECIPE:

Ingredients:
250 grams of unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups of caster sugar
4 eggs
2 1/4 cups of self raising flour
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
3 tbsp milk
Squirt of lemon juice

Directions:
1 - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line 2 round cake tins, or if like me, 1, and then use it again after you make the first one.
2 -  Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
3 - Add the eggs individually, beating well after each addition.
4 - Sift through the flour and fold in completely with a metal spoon.
5 - Fold in the lemon rind, juice and milk gently and evenly.
6 - Spoon half the mixture into the prepared pans (mixture will be quite thick), and evenly spread across the bottom of the pan.
7 - Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and springy to touch.
8 - Cool completely on wire racks before icing.

LEMON BUTTERCREAM ICING

Ingredients:
500 grams of unsalted butter, softened
150 - 200 grams of icing sugar (rough estimate, keep putting in until it reaches a thicker consistency)
Juice of 1 lemon
Food Colouring (I used blue, you can use yellow)
Writing icing pen

Directions:
1 - Cream together butter until pale and creamy
2 - Add icing sugar gradually until you are happy with the thickness, shouldn't be too runny and will be easy to spread.
3 - Add juice gradually. 1 whole lemon juiced makes it quite tart, so keep tasting flavour to see how tart you want it.
4 - Finally add colour and beat until through completely.
5 - Place icing all over top of 1 sponge and then sandwich second on top. Ice whole cake and place in fridge for 15 minutes to make sure icing firms up.
6 - Grab your icing pen and have fun writing whatever you like.
7 - Share with friends and enjoy

So here was my #trollfeast cake, time for you to make one.