Author's posts
Fondant Icing Recipe – Roll Out Fondant
The fondant created with this recipe is soft and pliable, with just the right amount of stretch, it is perfect for sealing and decorating cakes. The fondant will store for a couple of weeks in a sealed container in the fridge or freezer.I also use it for some modelled flowers and to model figures.For flowers, you …
Lace Mat Chocolate Mousse Cake
Lace mats have become more and more popular with cake decorators but they are a unitasker. Most of us might use them a few times a year to make edible lace, but that’s it. Kevin from Bake boss made a great video showing how to use them to create decorative patterned jaconde sponge layers. The …
Fraisier Cake
Fraisier Cake The first time I heard of this cake was when it was announced as the technical in patisserie week on The Great Australian Bake Off. I’m still sketchy about whether this fits the theme, I was expecting pastry, not cake filled with pastry cream but it does demonstrate pastry skills in terms of …
Mexican Paste – Flower Paste Recipe
Mexican paste is great for making fine flower petals. This is my favourite paste for making sugar flowers, it has a generous drying time, dries hard and is humidity resistant once dry. It’s fast to make, cheap, super reliable and lets me roll paper thin petals for flowers. *Special note: Different brands of Tylose/CMC are very different. …
Pavlova with Passion Fruit Curd and Berries
Pavlova with Passion Fruit Curd and Berries Nothing beats the classics when it comes to pavlova. I have updated my basic recipe with some tangy passionfruit curd. Fresh berries, cream, and curd are all this pavlova needs to be a perfectly balanced dessert. The one pictured here was thrown together in the space of a …
Chicken Fajitas with flour Tortilla Recipe
Chicken Fajitas I cobbled together this recipe based on a dish I had in a good Mexican restaurant. It’s even better with homemade flour tortillas, the flour tortilla recipe is included below. Makes about 8-12 small tortillas and will easily serve 3 to 4 people. Ingredients 3 chicken thigh fillets, or 2 smallish breast fillets, diced Half …
Modelling Paste Recipe (Pastillage)
The pastillage recipe after the photos is extremely simple and cheap to make. I’ve found it fairly easy and pretty reliable. The recipe is essentially an old fashioned version of pastillage. I have been using this recipe for years to create everything from sugar paste flowers to simple figurines. Best of all it is gluten free and has just three ingredients and water, all of which you can get at nearly any supermarket. This is perfect for structural pieces like the soles and heels of sugar shoes, wired centres for sugar flowers or very thin structural decorations.
Orange Dark Chocolate Mud Cake Recipe
This is a variation of the Australian Women’s Weekly mud cake recipe. 675g Dark eating chocolate – chopped, 400g unsalted butter 2 tablespoons of very finely zested orange zest, (at least 3 or 4 big oranges). 390 ml freshly squeezed orange juice 1 tablespoon of natural vanilla extract. 275g brown sugar 338g plain flour (cake flour …
Pan release
Pan release is a really handy cooking tool to keep in your arsenal of tips and tricks to make baking easier. I use pan release when cooking most of my cakes to help prevent the cakes from sticking to the tins. It works better than anything else I have ever used, it’s cheap, easy, and fast to …
Potato Za’atar Frittata
Potato Za’atar Frittata This has become a favourite because there’s not a huge amount of prep, I use a mandolin slicer, and microwave the veggies for a few minutes while mixing up the egg part. Then it’s just assemble, pop it in the oven and check back in half an hour. I love this no fuss meal …