A magical pinterest find comes to life

This week whilst trawling through a very colourful and inspiring pinterest feed, I came across a little jem of cake which immediately caught my eye.  It had a long name but every word of it's title made me drool just a little until it was almost unbearable...

vanilla bean salted caramel swirl cheesecake cupcakes

photo credit: barefootinthekitchen.blogspot.com.au

I mean, really, they had me at vanilla, but to team that with salted caramel and put it in a mini cheesecake is like a little taste of heaven I'm sure.  So we set out to recreate this decadent little delight this afternoon.

As it happens, we needed to make a few changes, nothing to detract from the original recipe though, so I won't bother typing it out again.  Head over the barefootinthekitchen.blogspot.com.au and check out the amazing recipe, as well as the absolutely scrumptious vanilla bean salted caramel sauce.  Ah, but check out our yummy photos first...

the biscuit base all ready to take the cheesecake filling

making sure the swirls are just right

perfection!

The recipe says that you should let it set in the refrigerator for 4 hours, but we couldn't resist the need to sample.  Here is the little taste tester, drizzled with warm sauce ready for the tasting...

And the verdict?  "I want this taste in my mouth all the time"

I think that's a winner!

~ Nicole ~

Custard Tart

Custard Tarts have to be one of my very favourite deserts. I have fond memories of when I was little going to a bakery with my Dad and he would always buy us Custard Tarts as a treat or he would bring them home for us. 

When I cook, I've had to be inventive and find different substitutes for sugar so everyone can enjoy my baked goods. I'm in love with Coconut Palm Sugar, it's low GI, low calorie and has a beautiful caramel taste to it unlike other sweeteners. I found that using it to make the custard filling gave it a great taste. 

I also used half buttermilk and half cream as that was all I had in the fridge, it turned out surprisingly well, it was a bit tangy but beautifully creamy. 

Ingredients

Pastry

1 cup wholemeal flour (150g)

2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar

1 tablespoon custard powder

20g butter

¼ cup cold water (60ml)

Filling

• 2 tbsps custard powder
• 2 tbsps coconut palm sugar
• 1 and a 1/2 cup of cream
• 2/3 of a cup of buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• Nutmeg (dust)

Method: 

1. Preheat oven at 160 degrees Celsius. Place flour, sugar, custard powder and margarine in large bowl of food processor; process until combined. With motor operating, add enough of the water until mixture just begins to form a ball. Knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth. Cover; refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out dough until 5mm thick. Place into four deep 10cm fluted flan tins. Line each pastry case with a piece of baking paper, filled with dried beans or rice; place on oven tray.

2. Bake for 10 minutes then remove baking paper and rice/beans and bake for a further 10 minutes until golden brown.

3. Whisk custard powder, sugar and 1/2 a cup of cream together until combined.

4. Bring remaining cream & buttermilk to the boil in a saucepan. Then take off heat & add custard,sugar & cream mixture. Stir for 5 minutes on heat until thick.

5. Pour into cooled pastry case, dust with nutmeg and bake on 150 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes until firm in the middle. 

                           ~Jess~ 

A delicious Banana Zucchini bread

I had a hand of sad looking bananas in the fruit basket this week... they were just crying out to be turned into something amazing.  So I heeded their cry for greatness, and mashed them into this delightful Banana and Zucchini Bread.  

It really is an easy, and delicious bread to make.  If you need to watch your sugar intake, you can use 1 cup of honey in place of the sugar.  The bananas do add sweetness to this bread, so you might even be able to reduce that amount to your liking.  I plan on making a gluten free version soon, stay tuned for an update (once it's successful!)

In the meantime, get your sad bananas into a bowl and make some yummy bread... almost good enough for breakfast perhaps?

Banana Zucchini Bread

Makes two loaves

Ingredients:

3 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup oil (vegetable oil, or other preferred light flavoured oil)

3 eggs

1 cup of honey OR 11/2 cups rapadura/coconut palm sugar

1 tbs vanilla

2 cups mashed banana (about 3 medium bananas)

2 cups shredded zucchini (unpeeled - about 3 medium)

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Grease and flour two loaf tins, and preheat the oven to 180 degrees

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and baking powder in a mixing bowl and set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat together the oil, eggs, sugar and vanilla.  Stir in the banans and zucchini. Add this mix to the flour mixture and stir until just moistened, or until no more flour lumps can be seen.  Stir through the nuts if using.

Pour into prepared loaf tins and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the bread comes out clean.

Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing from tins and cooling completely on wire racks.

Slice thickly and enjoy!  It's really good toasted the next day with a nice slathering of butter too.

* Thermomixers!  I haven't made the whole cake in the thermomix, as it makes a lot of mixture, but you can use the Thermomix to help you along the way.  If you are using a thermomix: shred the zucchini on speed 5 for a few seconds.  Remove from the bowl and set aside (no need to wash the bowl).  Mash the banana, again using speed 5 for a few seconds.  Then you can add the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix on speed 3 until well combined.  Add the zucchini back into the bowl and mix together for a few seconds on speed 3.  Continue as above.

~ Nicole ~