I always have my first mug of mulled wine on bonfire night, but I’m still not willing to give Autumnal flavours up completely. Which is why these Bonfire cupcakes are the perfect transition food to ease you from Autumnal vibes into the festive spirit.
A rich chocolate cupcake, filled with a mulled wine crème pâtissière, topped with a pumpkin spice Swiss meringue buttercream and if you’re feeling really fancy, top that with a torched mulled wine marshmallow. Continue reading Bonfire Cupcakes
These tarts have a sweet shortcrust pastry, a hidden layer of homemade strawberry and champagne jam and are topped with a delicious white chocolate crème mousseline.
Continue reading Strawberry Champagne and White Chocolate Tarts
This crumble was requested by my husband. He used to eat apple and raspberry pastries with his colleagues in Paris and was keen for me to make a crumble with these flavours.
To make this crumble, I adapted an apple crumble recipe from BBC Good Food. It’s best served hot from the oven and smothered with hot custard.
For the crumble topping, I used the recipe on BBC Good Food website (here is a handy link) and added half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the crumble mix.
For the apple and raspberry filling,
Peel and core all the apples (I like to use two different types of apple so you get a bit more texture when cooked). Roughly chop the apples (not too small so they keep some shape once cooked). Toss the apples in the sugar, cinnamon and the vanilla until thoroughly coated. Mix in the raspberries and pour into the baking dish. My dish is 25cm by 17cm.
Pour the crumble topping over the top and press down lightly. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes at 180°C. The topping should be golden and it will smell delicious.
Serve immediately with ice cream or hot custard.
These meringues are classic French meringues with a generous dollop of limoncello and fresh basil cream all topped off with a blueberry syrup. This recipe would be perfect for an afternoon tea or party as all the components could be made the day before, then you can just put it all together on the day.
For the meringues,
Preheat the oven to 100°C. Line a couple of baking trays with baking paper. I wanted my meringues to be all the same size, so I drew circles with a diameter of about 6cm on the back of the paper to use as a guideline.
Whisk the egg whites in the cleanest bowl you can find (just the smallest amount of grease in a bowl can stop egg whites from whipping up correctly). Once the egg whites are foamy, start adding the sugar.
Add the sugar a tablespoon at a time, and allow each portion of sugar to be whisked in to the egg white fully before adding the next spoonful. When all the sugar has been incorporated, the egg whites should form stiff peaks. The best test is to turn the bowl upside down. If anything falls out of the bowl – it’s not ready!
Dot a small amount of meringue in the four corners of your trays to hold down the baking paper. Fill a piping bag with the meringue and pipe a spiral of meringue in each circle, then pipe an extra ring on top. Use a palette knife to rough up the edges so they looked like mini pavlovas. Make sure there is a dip in the middle of each meringue for the cream.
Bake in the oven for an hour. After an hour, turn the oven off but leave the meringues inside to cool down with the oven (taking the meringues out of the oven straight away can lead to large cracks in the meringues).
For the blueberry syrup,
Pop the blueberries in a small saucepan with the sugar and the water. Heat the mixture, stirring occasionally. The blueberries will start to shrink down and the liquid will become a thicker purple syrup. Take the blueberries off the heat and leave to cool.
For the limoncello and basil cream,
Whisk up the double cream until it is thick. Sift the icing sugar in to the cream and fold in. Take a small amount of the cream in to a bowl and add the limoncello and mix together. Pour this back in to the bigger bowl of cream and fold together. (This is an easier way of incorporating a liquid in to whipped up cream). Finally add the basil and fold in.
These can all be made the day before you want to serve the meringues, but keep them separate until you want to serve.
To put it all together, dollop a generous spoonful of cream in to the centre of each meringue. Then use a teaspoon to drop 2 or 3 blueberries on top of the cream and drizzle the syrup down the sides of each meringue. Finally add a tiny basil leaf on top of each meringue and serve.
These bananas are stuffed with a paste made of butter, sugar and most importantly rum. When baked on the barbecue, the paste soaks in to the banana and creates a pool of rum syrup. A quick and delicious after barbecue treat!
You will need,
(serves 2)
In a small bowl, beat the butter with a wooden spoon until it is soft. Add the sugar and beat together. Finally add the rum and beat the mixture until smooth.
Use a sharp knife to cut in to each banana lengthways. Try and make the cut quite deep but don’t cut through the peel on the other side. Fill the bananas with the sugar and butter paste. Sprinkle a little extra dark muscovado sugar on top and then wrap the bananas individually in foil.
The bananas need about 15-20 minutes on a hot barbecue (turn them over after 10 minutes).
When cooked, the bananas should be soft and melt in the mouth. There will be hot syrup around the base so be careful not to spill. Dig in with a spoon and enjoy!
P.s. When you are finished, lift the foil off the plate and there will be a pool of extra syrup. It was a ridiculously sweet spoonful of rum with an after taste of banana – you’re welcome!
