Strawberry Mousse Chocolate Cake

This is a revised recipe of my strawberry mousse cake. I first made this cake for my mum's birthday and have since made it again for a Christmas family gathering. 

Ingredients

A) 1x 20cm chocolate sponge cake, cut into 2 even layers

B) 300g strawberry, cleaned and hulled
     ¼ cup caster sugar
     1 tablespoon water
     1 teaspoon strawberry essence

C)  300ml cream
     3 tablespoons icing sugar
     ½ teaspoon pink food colouring (optional)

D) 1 tablespoon gelatine powder 
     50ml warm water 

E)  Extra strawberries sliced and cubed (I used approx 1/3cup)

F)  100ml thickened cream

     1 tablespoon icing sugar, extra

G)  Sugar syrup glaze (optional)

H)  6 even sized strawberries, halved for garnish 

Method

1. Set aside 6 even sized strawberries for the garnish on top of the cake.
2. Dice approx. 1/3 cup strawberries and set aside.
3. Clean and hull the remaining strawberries. Add ¼ cup caster sugar and let it sit for 5 minutes. Purée them in a blender together with 1 tablespoon of water and 1 teaspoon strawberry essence then put it through a strainer. You should get about 400ml strawberry purée. Discard the strawberry seeds. Reserve 1½ tablespoons of the purée for the swirl effect on top of the cake.
4. In a chilled bowl, whip 300ml cream with 3 tablespoons icing sugar till mousse state.
5. Dissolve 1 tablespoon gelatine in 50ml warm water, whisk with a fork, let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk the gelatine again then strain it into the strawberry purée. Stir until combined. 
6. Fold the whipped cream into the strawberry mixture. Add pink food colouring, if using. Pour into a measuring jug if your bowl doesn't having a pouring lip.
7. Line the inner circumference of a 23cm spring form cake pan with plastic cake tape. Place a slice of the chocolate sponge cake at the base, cut side up and top it with approx. 1 cup of the mousse. Add in the strawberry pieces (leave a 2cm border around the cake). Press the fruits down gently if needed. Top it with some mousse just enough to cover the strawberry pieces.
8. Top it with another layer of chocolate sponge cake and pour the rest of the mousse evenly over on it.
9. Spoon teaspoonfuls of the reserved purée onto the surface of the mousse on desired positions and swirl it with a toothpick to create the swirls. I put a few teaspoons on the middle of the cake and the rest at clock position of 12, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10.
10. Cover the cake pan with cling wrap (twice). Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
11. Make the sugar syrup, then brush the reserved halved strawberries with sugar syrup. Set aside.
12. Use an electric beater to beat 100ml thickened cream and 1 tablespoon icing sugar in a medium bowl until firm peaks form. 
13. Place the cream in a piping bag fitted with a 1cm fluted nozzle and pipe rosettes around the edge of the cake. Arrange some glazed strawberries around the cake between the cream rosettes. 
14. Cut the cake into wedges to serve. 

To make sugar syrup:

50ml (1/4 cup) water

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1/2 tablespoon unflavoured gelatine powder

1. Pour water, sugar and gelatine powder into a small sauce pan.
2. Stir the ingredients to combine over medium heat until the sugar and gelatine dissolves and the water begins to simmer.
3. Remove the pan from heat and set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Brush the glaze over fruit while slightly warm.

Notes & Tips

• I lined the inner circumference of my spring form cake pan with plastic cake tape.
• You can make your own plastic cake tape using clear acetate sheets bought from an arts & craft store. Start by measuring the height of the cake pan (approx 2.5 inches) and cut a long rectangular strip out of the acetate sheet (length of the strip is the circumference of the cake + 2 cm extra).
• You could also decorate this cake with a patterned white chocolate collar if you wish
• If you can't find acetate sheets, you can use baking paper instead
• I placed my cake into a larger spring form cake pan- approx. 23cm. This way the mousse will cover the whole cake and you don’t need to cream the cake. If you don't have a larger spring form cake pan, you can trim your cake smaller.
• If you notice that you have not completely covered the cake with the mousse, you could do a bit of patchwork by using up the left over cream for the rosettes- add  ¼ tsp pink food coloring to the cream and spread/fill in the spaces and smooth it out using a cake scraper. 
• If you don't have strawberry essence, you could use strawberry flavoured gelatine powder instead
• You'll need approx. 2 punnets of strawberries for this recipe.

Piggy Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 dozen vanilla cupcakes, cooled

store bought white icing/frosting
pink food colouring
24 blue rainbow pearls (eyes)
12 white marshmallows (nose)
pink icing pen (nostrils)

12 pink marshmallows, halved (ears)

Method

1. Tint the icing with the tiniest amount of pink food colouring. Mix very, very well.
2. Spread a layer on each cupcake, making the surface smooth.
3. Place the eyes on the Piggy's using the rainbow pearls.
4. Place one white marshmallow for the nose.
5. Using the pink icing pen, make 2 dots on the nose marshmallow to make nostrils.
6. Take one pink marshmallow and cut through the centre. Pinch each end so they are pointy. Place on cupcake, cut side down as ears on the Piggy's face.

Notes & Tips

Make sure you give the Piggy a generous coating of icing so the marshmallows stick

If you wanted to make these cupcakes look more like Miss Piggy from the Muppets, you could add a set of eyelashes using a black icing pen and adding a bow (made from fondant) in between the ears

Reindeer Biscuits

I had a few packets of left over arrowroot biscuits from the Christmas Carols festival biscuit decorating stall I ran so thought I'd do my own decorating and make some reindeer biscuits for morning tea. These are also great to give away as Christmas gifts- just place a couple in a clear cellophane bag and tie up with some ribbon

Makes 16

Ingredients

1x 250g pkt Arrowroot biscuits (to make face)
1 cup milk chocolate melts
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (1 tablespoon per 1 cup of chocolate)
8 mini white marshmallows (to make eyes)
Black icing pen (to make pupils)
16 red jaffas or red Cadbury mini drops (to make nose)
8 mini pretzels (to make antlers)

Method

1. Cut mini marshmallows in half. Add a small drop of black food writing gel to the uncut side.
2. Using a serrated knife, cut mini pretzels in half 
3. Line a tray with non stick baking paper
4. Place chocolate and vegetable oil in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on medium for 30 seconds, stirring after each time until smooth. (The vegetable oil helps to make the chocolate glossy and runny).
5. Dip one side of the biscuit into the melted chocolate, allow excess to drip off. Place onto tray. 
6. Gently place 2 mini marshmallows, cut sides down onto biscuit (to make eyes)
7. Gently place a red jaffa on the bottom of the biscuit (to make nose)
8. Gently push 2 mini pretzels into the chocolate biscuit (to make antlers).
9. Repeat with remaining biscuits
10. Once all the biscuits are decorated, place the baking tray in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes, or until the chocolate has hardened.
11. Store decorated biscuits in an airtight container. Lay them flat with layers of baking paper in between each level

Notes & tips

Chocolate cools and hardens quickly after it melts, so it is best to have all your decorating items ready for assembly

Make sure chocolate is added to a dry bowl. Even one stray drop of water can cause melting chocolate to seize, or harden, ruining its texture and consistency. Seized chocolate won't melt smoothly, no matter how long you stir it.

You could create 8 reindeer with brown noses and 1 with a red nose just like in the story- Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

Turkish Rice Pilaf

There's a charcoal chicken takeaway place just up the road from where I live and I love eating the rice that is served with the chicken. Wanting to recreate the meal at home one day, I had a go at making my own Turkish rice pilaf. I'm not sure how authentic this Turkish rice pilaf recipe is but it tastes pretty similar to the take away place and was quite easy to whip up.

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice

⅓ cup risoni pasta

2 cups chicken stock

Olive oil

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon onion powder

Method

1. Drizzle 1 tablespoon or so of olive oil in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat and add the risoni when the oil has warmed up. Sautee the risoni until it browns.
2. Add the rice and combine until everything is coated with the oil and toast together for about a minute. Add the stock (there will be a sizzle and steam) and a generous pinch of salt, bring to a boil, and cover. Drop the stove to very low and let cook for 20 minutes. Do not lift the cover to stir or even check progress.
3. Once the 20 minutes has passed, uncover and stir the rice. If it still has some liquid in it, leave the cover off and keep over low heat, stirring frequently until it has evaporated. Drizzle over a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Serve.

Sesame Street Character Cupcakes

I had some left over coloured frosting from the cookie decorating stall I ran at my church carol's festival last week. Colours left over were red, green, blue and yellow. Thought I'd use it to frost some cupcakes and was wondering to self how I could decorate them and Sesame Street characters came to mind. Since my bible study was also having a Xmas party a few days later (and there would lots of kiddies present) I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to whip up the cupcakes to use the left over frosting. Having never 'decorated' cupcakes before, I was pretty impressed with my creations. Big Bird took me the longest and I was having a lot of trouble piping his feathers because I didn't have the correct piping tip and the frosting was too runny. In the end I improvised and used a mini spatula to create some texture to the frosting.

Some things I would do differently if I were to make these again:

*use gel food colouring instead of liquid food colouring to colour the frosting/icing- it gives a more intense colour and you use less to get the same colour effect. Less liquid also means the icing is less runny. I found my icing hard to work/pipe with at times. To counteract this, I would add a bit more icing sugar and put it in the freezer for 10 mins to set. I would also put the decorated cupcake straight back into the fridge to prevent the icing from melting

* Have all the face bits pre-assembled and ready to go before you start decorating your cupcakes. This makes it easier to unleash your creativity ;)

Cookie Monster

Ingredients

1 dozen chocolate cupcakes, cooled
store bought white frosting/icing
blue food colouring
24 Nestle white chocolate melts & 24 brown mini M&Ms- for the eyes
12 mini chocolate chip cookies, halved (½ per monster with a few for breakage)- for the mouth
1 cup desiccated coconut (dyed blue)- for the fur

Method

1. Add food colouring to frosting until you get to the Cookie Monster colour. This may be a lot if you are using liquid food colouring or a little if using gel food colouring.
2. Fill a piping bag with a fluted nozzle and pipe on icing. Alternatively, use a spatula to spread the icing onto the cupcake
3. Roll iced cupcake onto coconut, shake off excess
4. Place 2 white chocolate melts on each cupcake
5. Wedge cookies into the “mouth”

Notes & Tips

• There is quite a bit of food colouring in these cupcakes for the blue icing. If this concerns you, use a natural food colouring.
• To make the blue desiccated coconut- pour ½ cup desiccated coconut into a ziplock bag. Put in a few drops of liquid food colouring (not gel) and shake the bag vigorously. Spread the coconut out on baking paper to air dry for 24 hours. 
• If after adding food colouring to the frosting makes it too runny, add some sifted icing sugar or put into the freezer for 10 minutes to help firm it up

Elmo

Ingredients

1 dozen chocolate cupcakes, cooled

red frosting (fur)

24 Nestle white chocolate melts + 24 brown mini M&Ms (eyes)
12 orange Cadbury Mini Drops (nose)

6 Oreo's, halved (mouth)

Method

1. Using a grass effect piping tip, squeeze icing over cupcake to create 'fur'
2. Assemble Elmo's face. For the nose, use an orange Cadbury Mini Drop. For the eyes, place a bit of frosting on the back of brown regular M&M’s and place them onto each white chocolate melt. For the mouth, use one side of an Oreo.

Notes & Tips

I found that cutting the Oreo directly in half was too large. So cut off less than half for each mouth. Use a serrated knife and saw it slowly back and forth. (You should be able to get 2 mouths from each Oreo half.)

Prep the eyes and Oreos first, before frosting the cupcakes with the Elmo fur. You don’t want the red fur to melt or get droopy while you’re doing the cutting. ALSO, after assembling each Elmo, place it in the fridge, to help set the frosting so it will stay furry looking and not melt together. HOWEVER, if you’re using better frosting than the store bought (from a tub) you may not have any issues if you adjust your frosting consistency.

Oscar the Grouch

Ingredients

1 dozen chocolate cupcakes, cooled

dark green frosting (fur)
24 Nestle white chocolate melts + 24 brown mini M&Ms (eyes)

6 Oreo's (mouth)

brown frosting/icing pen (eyebrows)

Method

1. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a grass/fur piping tip with green frosting. Cover the surface of the cupcake to create 'fur'.
2. Top each cupcake with a pair of eyes and an Oreo mouth
3. Use a small star tip (many varieties will work) or a chocolate icing pen to pipe a brown set of eyebrows over the eyes. Don’t worry about making these neat…I don’t think Oscar is really into eyebrow maintenance. It’s Oscar the Grouch!

Big Bird

Ingredients

1 dozen vanilla cupcakes, cooled

yellow frosting (fur)

12 white marshmallows (beaks)

red icing pen (tongue)

small white chocolate melts & black icing  (eyes)

aqua & light pink icing pens (eyebrows)

Method

1. Cut marshmallows into beak shapes with a pair of scissors
2. Place a beak on each cupcake, using a small dollop of frosting to glue it on
3. Cover the marshmallows with yellow frosting. It doesn't need to be neat yet, just enough to cover them
4. Use a small offset spatula or a knife to smooth the frosting over the beak
5. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a "V" tip with yellow frosting. Make a ring of yellow feathers around the perimeter of the cupcake
6. Repeat this process, working from the outside in, until the surface of the cupcake has been completely covered by "feathers"
7. Add a set of eyes just above the beak. Pipe a thin line of aqua and light pink frosting over the eyeballs.
8. Using the red icing pen, pipe a small inverted triangle inside the beak to create the tongue.