Little and Friday: Celebrations

A couple of weeks back Mel and I received copies of Little and Friday: Celebrations (we have had a hard time waiting for the release date to be able to share this with you!), it is the beautiful follow up to the incredibly successful Treats From Little and Friday. Author and Little and Friday cafe owner, Kim Evans, is a self taught baker who knows the recipe to success, the Celebrations book which hits shelves today will have you plating up perfection no matter what the event.

Mouth-watering miniature tarts and cakes, savoury galettes, breads, biscuits and decorative cakes cater for simple gatherings, such as a summer picnic, birthday lunches and Mother’s Day. There are chapters devoted to making kids’ parties, Easter, Christmas, weddings and 21st’s occasions to remember forever. All beautifully photographed Tamara West, each turn of the page will get your creative juices flowing and leave you feeling excited and inspired to host your next event.

We are very fortunate today to be able to share with you one of the 100+ amazing recipes from the new book! But trust me, you will want to try more than just this one. Little and Friday Celebrations is available from all good bookstores from today – Friday 18 October, 2013 with an RRP of $45.

Chocolate, Beetroot and Salted Caramel Cake
This flavour combination is sensational

Ingredients:
Cakes
5 eggs
2½ cups caster sugar
300ml canola oil
250g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
2 cups flour
1 cup good-quality cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
100ml milk
1 cup grated raw beetroot
3 cups Chocolate Ganache, to decorate

Salted Caramel
1½ cups caster sugar
300ml cream
½ tsp sea salt

Chocolate Ganache
½ cup cream
200g good-quality dark chocolate, grated

Method:
This recipe makes one 23cm triple-layer cake
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line three 23cm round cake tins with baking paper.
2. Using an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar on medium speed until mixture is pale and creamy and tripled in volume. With mixer on medium speed, slowly drizzle in oil and combine.
3. Melt chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Add chocolate to egg mixture. Stir to combine.
4. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl. Using a large metal spoon, fold a third of the dry ingredients into chocolate mixture. Add a third of the milk and combine. Continue in this way until all combined.
5. Fold grated beetroot through chocolate mixture.
6. Spoon mixture into prepared tins. Bake in centre of oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in tins before turning out.
7. To assemble, use a serrated knife to cut the domed tops off the cakes. Spread ½ cup Salted Caramel over the top of two cakes and stack to form one triple-layer cake Sandwiched together with caramel.
8. Spread a thick layer of Chocolate Ganache over top and sides of cake using a palette knife.

Salted Caramel - Makes 1½ cups

1. Place sugar in a small saucepan and just cover with water to achieve a wet-sand consistency.
2. Bring to the boil but do not stir. Using a wet pastry brush, remove any sugar crystals from sides of saucepan. Continue to boil until mixture turns amber. Remove from heat.
3. In a small saucepan, heat cream to boiling point. Gradually add to caramelised sugar, stirring constantly until smooth. This takes a while but eventually combines. Season with salt.

Chocolate Ganache – Makes 1 cup
In a saucepan, heat cream to just below boiling point. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until melted and smooth. Allow to cool and thicken before using.
Kitchen Notes
The ganache can be made a day in advance and stored in a cool place. Do not refrigerate.
You can increase this recipe by using the same ratio of cream to chocolate. For 2 cups use 1 cup cream and 400g chocolate. For 3 cups use 1½ cups cream and 600g chocolate. For4 cups use 2 cups cream and 800g chocolate.

Reproduced with permission from Little and Friday Celebrations by Kim Evans. Published by Penguin Group NZ. RRP $45.00. Copyright © Kim Evans, 2013.Copyright © Photography Tamara West, 2013

Miss Melicious Cupcakes Book!

Miss Melicious Cupcakes is the debut cook book by Miss Melicious (Missy) and it is out in stores today! Now you can recreate all your favourite Miss Melicious treats at home!

This quirky little book is filled with distinctive Miss Melicious flair. It boasts recipes for a large variety of cupcake flavour combinations sporting names such as Cherry Bomb, Beet Box, French Toast and Fuzzy Navel. There are also cookie and whoopie pie recipes adding to the deliciousness. Each recipe has a fun photograph accompanying it, styled to reflect the ‘personality’ of each sweet treat.

We were lucky enough to be invited to the book launch, an event which suited the book to a T. There was body paint, burlesque dancers, a drag queen, balloon animal creations, boozy slushies, jugglers, and of course, towers of cupcakes to try.

The cupcake book is available now at all good bookstores, so get your hands on a copy. While you are out shopping, why not visit Miss Melicious (Missy) in person at her Auckland store!

In the mean time, here’s a recipe from her book…

Audrey
Simple and elegant but full of flavour. Our ‘star’ of vanilla cupcakes!

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
125 g butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 ½ cups plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
edible pearls, to decorate

Preheat oven to 180 ºC (160 ºC fan-forced).  Line a cupcake pan with liners.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Add egg and vanilla and beat well.
Combine dry ingredients. Add to batter in thirds alternately with milk. Begin and end with dry ingredients. Mix well after each addition.
Fill liners two-thirds full and bake for 18–20 minutes or until tops spring back when touched gently.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely before frosting. Decorate with edible pearls.

Vanilla Butter Cream:
125 g butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
a few drops teal gel paste

Beat butter and slowly add icing sugar until crumbly.  Slowly add milk, vanilla and gel paste until the desired consistency and colour is reached. Add more milk if required.  Beat for 3–5 minutes until light, fluffy and creamy, but still firm enough to pipe.

My very own ‘Audrey’ cupcake, which I took home for the boys to share.

*Recipe reprinted with permission from Miss Melicious Cupcakes, published by Penguin Group NZ, RRP$30.00. Copyright © Missy Fleming 2012
Image copyright © Shadbolt

PIE: 80+ Pies and Pastry Delights

Who can resist a steaming-hot home-baked pie?  Whether it’s savoury or sweet, humble or gourmet, individual or family-sized, a tasty pie is an enduring Kiwi favourite.  Particularly good in winter, there is nothing more satisfying than eating a piping-hot, freshly baked pie, tart, quiche or even sausage roll which has just come out of the kitchen oven, brimming with various fillings enclosed in a buttery pastry. - Dean Brettschneider

I have to say, I agree with the above sentiments.  Doesn’t that little bit of gravy oozing out of that perfect golden pastry on the book cover make your mouth water?  Every time I look at it I wish I could smell or taste that pie. PIE is the newly released book by Dean Brettschneider, who you probably know as one of the judges on New Zealand’s Hottest Home Baker.

PIE is a beautiful book; hardcover and full of nice thick pages.  The photography by Aaron McLean is stunning.  I mean, pies are mostly brown in colour, yet every picture in the book looks different and appealing to the eye.

The book is not all meat pie recipes either.  It begins with a history lesson on the origins of pie and pie making in New Zealand.  Then comes the recipes.  There’s your classic Mince and Cheese and Bacon and Egg pies, then there are some more unusual offerings like a Coriander Chicken and Yoghurt Curry Pie or Shepherd’s Pies but cooked in jars.  PIE also contains a section called ‘not-quite-a-pie’ which covers recipes such as Sausage rolls and Cornish Pasties.  And, as I said, not all the recipes are for meat dishes either.  There is a huge selection of sweet treats to make ranging from whoopie pies to tarts and shortcake. 

Towards the back of the book is a ‘basic recipes’ section which includes recipes for a variety of different pastries.  Did you know you there was such a thing as Gingerbread Puff Pastry?  Well now you do and you can make it too.

Head on over to the Penguin website for a squiz at a few more recipes from the book (I’m thinking I need to try making the Bacon, Carried Egg and Ricotta Pie - it sounds delish!).  We’ve published one for a Roast Pear and Blueberry Pie below – it sounds like the perfect recipe to make on a cold Winter’s night.  Penguin are also running a competition on their Facebook page – bake something from the book, post up a photo and you can win an awesome prize.  Check out the entries and vote, or why not enter yourself?

Roast Pear and Blueberry Pie

Makes a medium sized pie, serving 4 – 6 people

Pastry
1 quantity of Sour Cream and Lemon Pastry (Recipe on page 195 of the book)

Filling
6 ripe but firm pears, peeled, cored and cut into 2cm cubes
30g unsalted butter, melted
50g brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
juice of 1 lemon
200g blueberries

Glaze
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water,for egg wash
1 tablespoon raw sugar, for sprinkling

Make a quantity of Sour Cream and Lemon Pastry ahead and rest it as required. Divide pastry into two portions (two-thirds for base and one-third for top). On a lightly floured surface, roll out the larger portion to approximately 3mm thick to line a 22cm × 15cm pie dish (5cm deep). Lightly oil pie dish and line with pastry, allowing a little overhang.
Roll remaining pastry for the top of the pie so it’s just larger than the pie dish. Cut small holes in the top of the top pastry, 5mm apart. Place on a baking paper-lined oven tray. Refrigerate pastry base and top until chilled (30 minutes).
Put cubed pear in a bowl and add butter, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice, tossing well to combine. Transfer to a baking dish that holds them snugly.
Bake in a preheated 180°C oven for 20–30 minutes or until pears are softened but still holding their shape. Remove from oven and transfer to a bowl, adding the blueberries while the pears are still warm. Mix well. Allow to cool slightly (20 minutes), then drain through a sieve to remove excess liquid.
Take pastry from refrigerator and spoon fruit mixture into the lined pie dish. Brush the rim of the pastry case with egg wash, then drape remaining pastry over the pie dish. Trim, then press pastry edges firmly together to seal. Crimp the rim using your forefinger and thumb.
Brush the pastry with egg wash, then sprinkle with raw sugar.
Bake in a preheated 180°C oven for 35–40 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden-brown in colour.

Reproduced with permission from Pie by DeanBrettschneider. Published by Penguin Group NZ. RRP $54.99. Copyright© Dean Brettschneider, 2012. Copyright photography © Aaron McLean,2012