{ Mélanger :: to mix }

I cannot believe baby Mélanger is now officially O-N-E.

It has been a big year, and so much to look forward to in years to come — the many cakes, cookies, sweets and pastries in my birthday party organising future!

Although this birthday was a simple celebration for three, I wanted to experiment with a few pink themed ideas that are sure to show up in future birthday celebrations.

So, I hope you enjoyed the little selection showcased for this current theme, ‘Kids Party’ month.

Next month, I hope you agree the choices will really kick start your day!  But until then, here is a round up of this month’s goodies.

  { ‘Coconut ice’ doughnuts } Coconut ice is popular at birthday parties, so I decided to put a spin on an old favourite to create a coconut ice flavoured doughnut.  Essentially, a condensed milk based sweet bread dough, topped with sweet icing and coconut.  Pretty delicious in my book!   { Read more here … }

  { Turkish Delight, Marshmallow and Pâte de Fruit } I could almost guarantee that every kids party I attended as a child included a mix of lollies.  So summoning up a little nostalgia for my next installment, I include a selection of homemade lollies.  These are some of my ultimate sugar ladened sweets.  { Read more here … }

  { ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ cookies } This recipe uses a basic sugar cookie dough.  Once the dough is chilled it can be cut into any desired shape.  The topping is a simple (coloured) royal icing, but made with pasturised egg white powder as opposed to the traditional fresh egg whites.  A healthy dose of playful hundreds and thousands (nonpariels) finish them off.  { Read more here … }

  { Mini marble bundt cake } This four cup cake is very small, and would be perfect for a small afternoon tea, or other intimate celebration.  The sour cream adds a lovely tang to the cake (particularly when combined with the chocolate), and overall it is a very light and fluffy cake.  Very easy to eat!  { Read more here … }

  { Fig and raspberry hazelnut cake } A play on a Dorie Greenspan favourite.  This little fig cake is injected with ground hazelnuts, and the figs were matched with a handful of raspberries. The overall result was a very easy to make, moist and flavoursome cake that is perfect not only for autumn, but any day of the year really.  { Read more here … }

{ Strawberry Ice Cream with Lemon Coconut Macaroons } This is a refreshing ice cream with the addition of the sweet fruit of the strawberry.  I wanted to pair this with a little zesty biscuit and it was quite some time until I thought of the simple coconut macaroon.  A little grating of lemon rind cuts some of the sweetness and is a nice little tasty treat with the ice cream. { Read more here … }

{ Almond Berry Slice } This little nutty fruity sweet was the very first thing I baked after bringing Nina home from the hospital.  Chosen for its speed of assembly (only minutes to prepare!), and simplicity of ingredients.  There is nothing fancy or chic about this humble slice but it sure is wholesome and soul feeding – particularly knowing it is very likely to grace the lunchbox my baby daughter in years to come.  { Read more here … }

{ Cherry Macarons } Some kirsch soaked cherries and a heaping of ultra rich chocolate praline mousse fill these macarons shells.  The result?  The nuttiness of the rich chocolate praline mouse paired wonderfully with the almond based macaron shell.  The overall flavour rounded out by the juicy cherries.  An accidental combination, but a delicious outcome.  { Read more here … }

{ Linzer cookies } Savour the flavours of Christmas in one bite?  A light, buttery hazelnut pastry weaved with cinnamon, cloves, and lemon, then sandwiched together with raspberry jam?  This spicy cookie includes all the essential ingredients for Christmas.  And with a healthy sprinkling of confectioners sugar to finish, certainly look the part! { Read more here … }

{ Treacle Jumbles } These happy coloured biscuits are really easy to make.  They are egg free and only use the smallest amounts of butter.  The subtle spicy dough is a delight!  And I think they are adorable with the bright coloured icing.  Perfect for little sweet yums at a kid’s party?  Right next to the fairy bread!  { Read more here … }

{ Strawberry sorbet with vanilla tuiles } Little tuiles are the perfect accompaniment to sherbet, ice cream and fruit desserts.  In this case, Philippe Rochat recipe for my Strawberry Sorbet.  Philippe Rochat is famous for his sorbet, and the emphasis on this recipe is high quality, sweet strawberries.  The strawberries provide the beautifully sweet taste, not mountains of sugar.  { Read more here … }

{ Rose macarons with raspberry cream } These blushing delights are the ideal sweet solution for any baby shower, wedding, special occasion, or simply as an afternoon treat!  The bold pink colour is paid off with a mouthwatering raspberry white chocolate ganache centre.  { Read more here … }

{ Raspberry lemon frangipane slice } The sweet bread dough base is much lighter than its tart dough or biscuit base counterparts, making it a more delicate sweet indulgence.  The flavours of raspberry and lemon are a classic.  The subtle almond flavoured frangipane helps retains a level of richness and moistness.  The arrangement altogether, is one very easy to eat treat.   { Read more here … }

{ Raspberry cream cookies } Sometimes I get the urge to bake something simple.  Mostly because I really want to bake but do not have the time for something overly elaborate.  I think these homemade cookies fall into that category.  They are lovely and simple, but not too complicated.  { Read more here … }

Picturing it in my head, the cake had multiple layers.  Standing tall on an elegant cake stand, it would attract interest, surprise and curiosity from the little baby girl who had just turned one.  I imagined it would be frosted with a glossy Italian meringue or a gloriously silky chocolate glaze.  And, most certainly, sandwiched together with oodles of rich Swiss buttercream.

But it was none of those things.

When it came down to actually plan out the cake for baby Melanger’s 1st birthday, I realised this cake was not simply to celebrate a birthday.  But more importantly, to mark the our first year together as a newly expanded family.

The year has been bittersweet.  Full to the brim of many happy and joyous moments, but for me, personally, a time where I faced the darkest point of my life.

So it was not a time for elaborate flourishes, baking fanfare, or sweet decadence.  It was a time to reflect with something understated, simple, and comforting.

This cake is symbolic of our first year as a family.  Dark and light.  Sweet and bitter.  Intimate and personal.  With a celebration limited to the three of us.

This cake is a slight departure to the pink, girly, fun sweet goodies showcased so far in this month’s theme.  Originally I was not going to include this cake in the line up, but as my blog is such a personal journal of my baking, how could it not?  And besides, I selfishly wanted to share an image of baby Melanger enjoying her hit of sugar!

{ Mini marble bundt cake }

This four cup cake is very small, and would be perfect for a small afternoon tea, or other intimate celebration.  The sour cream adds a lovely tang to the cake (particularly when combined with the chocolate), and overall it is a very light and fluffy cake.  Very easy to eat!

* Ingredients *
85g unsalted butter
130g caster sugar
2 eggs
130g sour cream
200g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt
50g melted dark chocolate (I used 70%)

* Directions *
Preheat the oven to 160C, and butter a 4 cup bundt tin and set aside.  In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl either in the microwave (about 30 seconds) or over a double boiler.  Once melted, set aside to slightly cool.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time.  Then add in the flour mixture little by litte.  Remove around 2/3 cup of the mixture and add the melted chocolate to the mixture left in the stand mixer bowl.  Mix to just blend.  Spoon mixtures alternatively into bundt tin.  Bake for around 30-40 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly before turning out.

Serves 4-6

It is good to have a back up plan when things go awry.

I was fooled into believing that us folk in Brisbane were enjoying a delightful spring.  But it seems we have skipped spring and gone straight to summer.  (Not happy.)  Not only because I am not a fan of summer (apart from being furnished with juicy, fresh stone fruit) but because my next planned dish for Kid’s Party month was best prepared in temperatures, let say, under 30C (~90F).

This past weekend I was ready to put together a new recipe for a soft cookie ice-cream sandwich.  (One of Mr Mélanger’s favourite treats.)  The ice cream was made.  Check.  The cookie dough had been chilled, rolled and baked.  Check.

But then it came to assembly.

Despite working on a cool marble surface, the surrounding warm air melted the ice cream almost instantly as I tried to cut wedges out.  An initial very neat 8cm square chunk quickly became a 6cm, then 5cm, then 4cm fuzzy round type shape thing.  It was all a bit of a disaster, so I decided to abandon the cause.

On the up side, given the fact baby Mélanger’s birthday will always be at an unfriendly-baking-temperature time of year, it is probably best to realise it would not be sane to try to turn out a couple of dozen homemade ice cream sandwiches for a party celebration in the future.

So, enter plan B.

With a cookie concept still on my mind, but sans the pesky ice cream prone to melting, I opted to whip up a batch of hundreds and thousand cookies!  A healthy dose of playful hundreds and thousands (nonpariels) was originally planned to decorate the edges of my ice cream sandwich.  So why not pop them on a cookie instead?  The popular store bought version of the hundreds and thousand cookie was my inspiration, showcasing the perfect pink hue, just the thing for this month’s theme.

{ Homemade hundreds and thousand cookies }

This recipe uses a basic sugar cookie dough.  Once the dough is chilled it can be cut into any desired shape.  The topping is a simple (coloured) royal icing, but made with pasturised egg white powder as opposed to the traditional fresh egg whites.  Also, to keep things simple, I created only one consistency of royal icing – no separate versions for outlining and flooding.  Hence the ‘rustic’ finish!

* Ingredients *
Dough
225g plain flour
85g unsalted butter
75g sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoon vanilla

Royal icing
115g icing sugar
1 teaspoon egg white powder
3 teaspoon warm water
3 teaspoons lemon juice

* Directions *
For the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.  Preheat oven to 160C and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Remove one half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1 cm. Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to baking sheet. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to chill the dough.  Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes (depending on size) or until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost with royal icing, if desired.

For the royal icing:  In the bowl of a mixer beat the icing sugar, egg white powder, water and lemon juice until combined.  Then beat on medium speed until glossy and stiff peaks form (about 5 minutes). Add food coloring, if desired.

Makes about 18 cookies, depending on size

As a child, I had a voracious appetite for squishy and gummy lollies.  Fruity, sugary, chewy.  Any type.  There was no discrimination in my book.  My little hand was happy to place any amount of sugar into my mouth.  So much so I am sure I had a stash lollies hidden away in my childhood bedroom.  I had quite a sweet tooth.  (Still do…)

I could almost guarantee that every kids party I attended as a child included a mix of lollies.  Sitting back reflecting on those parties, I could imagine even if I was not close friends with the birthday girl/boy, I was happy enough to attend the little gathering just to graze the sweet food table.

So summoning up a little nostalgia for my next kids party month installment, I include a selection of homemade lollies.  The choices probably reflect personal bias, as these are some of my ultimate sugar ladened sweets.

When the time really comes for me to whip up a selection of party lollies for baby Mélanger, I am sure her little friends will be happy with fluffy marshmallow and fruity jellies.  But I would question how well a group of pint sized people would enjoy the subtle rose flavour of Turkish Delight.  Though remembering parents often attend these celebrations, the slightly more sophisticated flavour of this sweet may appeal?

Either way, the beauty of this sugary trio is that they only take about 60 minutes to put together.  And once done, you end up with over 150 pieces combined.  Surely enough to satisfy the collective sweet tooth of even the largest party crowd?

{ Turkish Delight } Adapted from Australian Women’s Weekly

I was originally planning to make Claire Clark’s Turkish Delight recipe.  It was the only hard copy I had on hand of a more authentic version which is made without gelatin.  But when push came to shove, I knew I needed an hour to make Claire’s recipe, so opted for the short cut version here.  You do get what you pay for, so to speak.  This recipe produces a Turkish Delight that is not as soft as what you get when spending an hour stirring over the stove, but it is a pretty good substitute.

* Ingredients *
45g gelatin
60ml water
660g caster sugar
500ml water, extra
110g cornflour
2 tablespoons glucose
1 teaspoon rosewater
Pink food colouring
110g icing sugar, sifted

* Directions *
Grease a deep 20cm square cake pan.  Sprinkle gelatin over water in a small jug, stand jug in a saucepan of simmering water.  Stir until gelatin dissolves.  Combine caster sugar and 3/4 cup of the extra water in a saucepan, stir without boiling until sugar dissolves.  Bring to a boil without stirring until syrup reaches 116C.  Simmer for 5 minutes without stirring.  Remove pan from heat.  Meanwhile, place cornflour in another medium saucepan, and gradually blendin remaining extra water.  Bring to a boil, stirring until mixture thickens.  Gradually stir hot sugar syrup, gelatin mixture and glucose into cornflour mixture.  Bring to a boil, stirring.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and whisk in rosewater, and tint.  Strain mixtures through sieve into cake pan.  Allow to stand uncovered overnight.  Turn onto board dusted with icing sugar, and cut with knife into cubes.  Roll pieces into remaining icing sugar.  Store for up to two weeks in airtight container.

Makes 48 pieces

{  Pink Marshmallow } Adapted from Claire Clark, Indulge

* Ingredients *
350g caster sugar
150ml glucose
4 teaspoons gelatin
250ml water
2 medium egg whites
200g icing sugar
Pink food colouring, optional

* Directions *
Grease a 30x20cm baking tray, then line with parchment.  Grease well.  Put the sugar and glucose into a pan and stir well.  Place over allow heat and stir until melted.  Stop mixing, and turn up the heat until the sugar reaches 118C.  As soon as the sugar has started, start to prepare the other ingredients.  Put the water and gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes.  Then add the egg whites and star the machine on medium speed.  Whisk until egg whites form soft peaks.  When the sugar has reached the correct temperature, turn down the machine and pour in the hot sugar into the whites.  Beat again for 2 minutes, then increase to high and beat for about 10-15 minutes.  Towards the end, add the food colouring if desired.  Spoon the mixture int the prepared ray, and leave to set uncovered overnight.  Cut the mixture into cubes using a knife dipped into warm water.  Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and toss the cut marshmallow in it to coat.  Leave on tray for a few ours to form a skin.

Makes 80 pieces

{ Raspberry & Strawberry Pâte de Fruit } Adapted from Claire Clark, Indulge

* Ingredients *
350g strawberries, cleaned and hulled
350g raspberries, cleaned
500g sugar
70ml glucose
150ml water
45g liquid pectin
1 teaspoon lemon juice
100g granulated sugar

* Directions *
Lightly grease a 20cm square baking tin, and line with cling film.  Put the berries in a food processor then pass through a sieve.  Weigh the fruit, you will need 500g finished weight.  Stire 50g of the sguar into the puree.  In a large suacepan, mix the remaining sguar with the glucose and water.  Bring to the boil stirring only until the sugar and gluocse have dissolved.  Boil without stirring until the sugar reaches 130C.  In a small bowl, mix the puree with the pctin.  Once the syrup as reached the termpature, add teh puree and stir to combine.  The termpatuer will drop. Bring it back to 103C.  Do not stir.  Add the lemon juice and continue to cook until 106C.  Stir the fruit mixture once or twice just berfore you put it into the tin.  Leve to cool and set overnight at room termpuatre, uncovered.  Cut the jellies into cutes and place into a bowl of granulated sguar to coat.  Leave on a tray to dry for an hour.  The jellies will keep in an airtight container for 3-4 weeks.

Makes 40-50 jellies

As a child, I adored achingly sweet food.  For me, coconut ice was the pinnacle of sweetness.

How could a kid not love condensed milk (laced in buckets of sugar!), mixed with even more sugar and oodles of sweet coconut?

I am sure this little square confection is popular at birthday parties, so I decided to put a spin on an old favourite to create a coconut ice flavoured doughnut.  Essentially, a condensed milk based sweet bread dough, topped with sweet icing and coconut.  Pretty delicious in my book!

These doughnuts are baked, so if you feel a little guilty with the amount of sugar you are consuming, just remember these have not been deep fried!

{‘ Coconut ice’ doughnuts }

For this baked doughnut, I adapted my standard sweet dough recipe switching out some of the milk for condensed milk to create a softer and richer dough.

These are best when straight from the oven, but like most breads, they freeze well.

For the batch I created, I topped one half with the coconut ice inspired topping and the other I brushed on melted butter and sprinkled a healthy dose of cinnamon sugar for more of an old fashion doughnut flavour.

* Ingredients *

For the dough
100g condensed milk
150g whole milk
7g dried instant yeast
45g caster sugar
60g eggs, about 1 large
5g salt
500g bread flour
75g unsalted butter, diced

For the topping
100g icing sugar
15g whole milk
Pink food colouring, optional
Desiccated coconut

*  Directions *
Warm the condensed milk and milk to 37C (lukewarm).  Add to a bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment along with the yeast and allow to sit for five minutes.  Add the sugar, eggs and salt.  Add in half of your flour and start to mix on a low speed for a few minutes.  Then add a further quarter of your flour and mix again for a few minutes.  Stop mixing when there is no dry flour in the dough.   Then start to add the butter gradually piece by piece.  Mix the dough for a few minutes once all incorporated.  Lastly, add in the remaining flour and mix until dough comes together into a ball and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl too much.  It should be smooth, soft, elastic and slightly sticky.   Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise at room temperature until doubled – anything between 60-90 minutes.  In the meantime, prepare two baking trays with parchment paper. When the dough has risen, sprinkle a pinch of flour on it and knead to deflate the dough.  Divide the dough into 18 even pieces.  Like you are preparing a bagel with the roll and loop method, roll into a rope about 10-15cm long.  Form each rope into a circle and join the ends, pressing well to seal.  Place on the baking trays cover with a towel and leave to prove again for 20-30 minutes and preheat the oven to 200C.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden.  While baking preparing the icing.  Simply mix the icing sugar with the milk and add food colouring if desired.  Once baked, allow to cool for a few minutes, then top with the icing and sprinkle on with desiccated coconut. These are most delicious eaten when warm, but are also great to freeze.

Makes 18

:: Yeastspotting ::

I am submitting these ‘Coconut Ice’ Doughnuts to Yeastspotting.

It seems like only yesterday I announced, “It’s a girl!”  Believe it or not, this month, baby Mélanger celebrates her first birthday.  My little baby girl turns one!

But what is a birthday, without a birthday cake?  Formulating the flavour, shape and style of her very first cake has been a preoccupation over the recent months (yes, of course I started thinking about this early).  But while doing so, I became giddy with excitement at the realisation of all the many cakes, cookies, sweets and pastries in my birthday party organising future.

This birthday will be very low key, but there will be many celebrations over the years.  To mark the occasion of reaching our first year as a family, and baby Mélanger’s great milestones of turning one, join me in ‘Kids Party’ month.

I hope to experiment with a few pink themed ideas that are sure to show up in future birthday celebrations.  I hope you enjoy this month!