Rainbow Cake!!

Rainbow Cake!! 

This was the cake i made for my mums 45th birthday! This doesn't really seem like a 45th birthday cake but i wanted to make it colourful and exciting and seeing though we were going to morning tea at my aunty's with all my little cousins this seemed appropriate. As i am gluten free i wanted to make the cake so i could eat it of course! I just substituted in gluten free flour for usual wheat flour when making the cake. I made 6 separate cakes in all the colours of the rainbow. Unfortunately the yellow cake sunk in the middle for unknown reasons and was too small so go on the cake so i left that out. My mums favourite colour is pink and i didnt have a pink cake so that was the colour of the icing under the fondant. Vanilla is my favourite flavour and i hope that other love it as much as me of both the cake and frosting was vanilla! The fondant was tricky because the cake was so high i was worried it would crack and as one of many i dont eat or like the taste of the fondant so i didnt want it to be really thick. But i made it work and here are the photos:

More Macarons and Meringues!

More Macarons and Meringues!

I know this is one of the most common things that i post but i just love making macarons! They are so small and pretty and colourful, so many different things you can do to change them. These are just blue and pink with vanilla flavour and filling! I made them for my mums dinner party with pink swirl meringues with rose water cream! All 12 people at the party gave great comments on the desserts so i was very pleased! I had never made rosewater cream before but had seen it in a magazine and though i would give it a go. I whipped cream and added rosewater essence, vanilla essence and icing sugar! 

Gluten Free chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate chip cookies!!

These are a favourite of mine and i also hadn't got around to making them in a gluten free version. So as a study break this afternoon i decided it was time. I didn't use my usual recipe because you can just substitute wheat flour for gluten free but its just not the same. Instead of normal wheat flour the recipe had a mix of gluten free baking mix, coconut and ground almonds and i have to admit they were good straight from the oven still warm with gooey chocolate, cant imagine they will last long in my house. Here is a link to the recipe i used http://www.chelsea.co.nz/baking-and-recipes/1812/chocolate-chip-cookies---gluten-free.aspx. Although i only used 1 cup coconut instead of 1 1/2 because we had run out so i topped the ground almonds from 1/2 to 1 cup to make it up. However i think i would prefer them better like this because there was just a nice balance of coconut and i think if there was more it would be to much. I also couldn't be bothered measuring out 230g chocolate chips but it seemed like a lot to me so i used about 3/4 which was plenty!

Ingredients

1¼ cups lightly packed Chelsea Soft Brown Sugar
2 extra large eggs
1½ cups gluten free plain flour
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
1½ cups desiccated coconut
½ cup ground almonds
230g dark chocolate chips
Method
1. Preheat oven to 200°C conventional (180°C fan forced). Line 3 oven trays with baking paper.
2. Beat butter and brown sugar until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at a time beating between each addition.
3. Sift flour and baking powder together. Add sifted flour, coconut, almond meal and choc chips to butter mixture. Mix until well combined.
4. Roll tablespoonsful of cookie dough. Place 5cm apart on prepared trays. Flatten slightly with hand. Bake for 12-15 mins, cool cookies on tray.

185g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

Salted Caramel Macarons!

Salted Caramel Macarons! 

 Decided to make these salted caramel macaroons after watching Adriano Zumbo make them! And here is a link http://nz.lifestyle.yahoo.com/video/watch/2d3df882-cf52-32aa-9e49-df88978f3122/salted-caramel-macarons/.  I used a vanilla macaroon recipe and coloured it with gold gel to make it look like caramely colour and filled it with whipped cream, tin caramel and rock salt!

Raspberry Chocolate Brownie!

Raspberry Chocolate Brownie!

As i am currently gluten free this is my version of chocolate fudge brownies with raspberries! I have tried using gluten free flour with my usual brownie recipe and its sadly just not the same soo i have got around to getting a gluten free cook book and of course these are the first things i have made! Currently cooling in the tin over night ready to be cut in the morning!

Pastel Swirl Cake!

Pastel Swirl Cake:

I made this pastel swirl cake a while ago and never got around to uploading a photo so here we are. Inspiration from this cake was from one of my favourite food blogs http://sweetapolita.com/ Everything she makes looks amazing and this was my attempt! Just a traditional vanilla cake with butter cream frosting but i just love all the colour!