Voila! Les Macarons

I've been reading about these little fellows for a while and all I can find online is one disaster story after another. Any articles I read about macarons are followed by a string of comments such as "ohh I'd love to make these but I'm far too scared" or "I would try to make these again but I don't think my blood pressure could handle it". To be honest, I'd freaked myself out a little just by reading about them! But I had to give it a go so I psyched myself up and got down to it.

My first ever attempt at baking (and eating!) French macarons was a success! I couldn't believe it! Me? A successful macaron baker! It's a miracle! Or maybe just a little beginners luck.
One thing I did make sure of, that I don't normally do, is weigh out all my ingredients and set them in little bowls ready to be used so that there was less chance of forgetting something or weighing something incorrectly in a blind panic to get everything together in time before the sugar syrup burnt to a black goo or I over whipped the egg whites.

The only stumbling block was that they were supposed to be raspberry macarons...but I left the raspberry flavouring at home when I was packing up all my baking equipment to take to Mum and Dad's house. I was baking them there because Mum's oven is one HECK of a lot more reliable than my 70 year old piece of junk. It's brown for goodness sake. You couldn't buy a brown oven now-a-days even if you wanted to! Which you wouldn’t.

This recipe made about 60 medium sized macaron shells, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter which made 30 macarons in total.

A few important notes...

This is one recipe that you can not weigh out its ingredients with cups and spoon measures. It is imperative that you have an accurate and reliable digital kitchen scale.

You will need a stand mixer. For this I used Mum's new kitchen aid with the whisk attachment. A kenwood mixer would do the job just as well, which is what I have at home.

3 large flat baking sheets and enough parchment/greaseproof paper to cover them with 2 layers each.

A piping bag and nozzle with 1/2 - 3/4 inch round tip.

Powder or gel/paste food colouring if you want to colour them. Liquid food colouring would alter the composition of the recipe too much and you would end up with flat chewy meringues instead of beautiful little macaron shells.

Now, for the most important part. THE FEET!

All successful macarons have feet. It's true. Just below the shiny, smooth, rounded shell should be a little knobbly skirt all around. This is the foot. See diagram below of the perfect macaron...

Another little note, the majority of recipes that I read said that it was so so important to age your egg whites for up to 7 days before you plan to make your macaroons. The purpose of this was to break down the albumen in the whites, allowing them to whisk up to firm peaks, giving a crisp, dry macaron shell. I didn't bother with this and my shells are perfectly crisp! One thing I definitely wouldn't argue with is letting the piped mixture rest on the baking sheets for at least half an hour. I baked the 3 trays off one at a time and the 3rd tray was faultless. I put this down to it having that extra half hour of resting time. You want to put them into the oven when you can lightly touch the surface of the shell without the mixture sticking to your finger.

My just baked macarons, perfect!

Filling my macarons with vanilla Italian buttercream. Pipe a small amount of the mixture into the centre of one macaron shell, take another shell and press your thumb gently into the centre of it to make a shallow well. Place on top. Et voila! Les macarons c'est complete!
I’m still testing this theory, but some say that macarons which have sat in the fridge for 2 or 3 days and allowed to come back to room temperature before being eaten taste better than fresh ones. They have had time to soften in the centre and absorb some of the flavourings from the buttercream. If you can wait that long before devouring them all!


I left 10 behind at Mum and Dad's house for them to enjoy with their guests who were coming over that night and when I rang Dad earlier to ask how they went down with supper he said "they went down like nom, nom, nom, nom until they were all gone." Thanks Dad, that was very helpful!

The Graze Craze

Some friends directed me to a website which allows you to sign up for regular deliveries of snack size portions of your favourite dried fruit and nuts. Its called Graze. So I thought hey, why not?! Well I received my first graze nibble box yesterday...yummy! I've already eaten the honey covered pecans and cashews and today in work I ate the "little figgy went to market" selection which had baby figs, dried apple and cranberries. Delicious! The best bit is that with the voucher code my friend Tenneil gave me, I got the first box free and the second box half price!
Here's the exciting bit... I have one of those voucher codes for all of you to use! Just follow this link http://www.graze.com/p/JXMMW31 and get your first yummy nibble box for free! No obligation, just sign up and if you don't love it you can cancel without hassle.
I'm well chuffed with my selection! Makes my coffee break in work so much more interesting

I promise to get some more delicious baked goods on here soon to counteract all this healthy snacking I've been doing xx

Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes

Cherry-Vanilla Cupcakes

 

These cuppies really have the wow factor. So yummy!

I made these for a friend and volunteer at work, the batch made 22 so everyone at work got one and she got to take two home, one for her and one for her hubby. His description of them was "sexual" lol.

Easy enough to make, these cupcakes are a light, moist vanilla sponge filled with a rich cherry filling. Similar I suppose to a cherry pie filling, but homemade with fresh cherries. Standing pitting the cherries was a little time consuming. The cupcakes are frosted with a smooth vanilla bean buttercream infused with some of the maraschino cherry syrup from the jar. Finished with a whole maraschino cherry. I would have loved to have had the cherriest with their stalks still on, that would have looked amazing, but its very difficult to get them in the UK. Cutting the cones out of the sponge to fill with the cherry filling was a bit of a pain so I'll definitely have to invest in one of those fancy filling injector nozzles for piping filling directly into the cupcakes.

Very messy work, but all will be covered with frosting. No one would ever know!

These cupcakes travel well, they aren't too top heavy thanks to the cherry filling so they wont topple in transit. They are also incredibly moist and stay fresh for a long time. I found one squirreled away in a cupboard in work 3 days later and took no time scoffing it before anyone could stop me! Still as fresh as the day it was made. Yummy.

New Blog Name

HOLD ON! You're in the right place. This is CatsLoveCakes. It just has a spangly new title.

That is all

:0)

Apple Butter

For the apple cinnamon cupcake recipe below I used apple butter which is very difficult to get in the UK. I got mine off eBay.

Here's a recipe which you could use if you too find it difficult to find in the shops.

Apple Butter is common throughout Eastern Europe. With only three ingredients in the recipe -- apples, water and sugar -- it was an easy project for an overabundance of fruit. And busy farmwives could enlist the aid of their children in the almost-constant stirring.

Today, we have microwaves and slow cookers that take the drudgery out of keeping a watchful eye on the pot. This recipe easily can be increased. It's low in sugar, as all fruit butters are, and makes a great topping for breads, rolls, ice cream and cakes.

Makes 1 pint of Apple Butter

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 pound any variety apples, washed, quartered and cored

• 1/2 cup water

• 1/2 to 1 cup sugar

• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Preparation:

In a medium saucepan, combine apples and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to very low and simmer until apples look like applesauce, stirring occasionally.

Pass the puree through a sieve. Mix the strained puree with the sugar and spices and choose one of the following cooking methods.

• Slow Cooker: Place sweetened pulp in a slow cooker with lid partially off to let steam escape. Set at low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6-12 hours or overnight, or until thick enough so the butter doesn't run off a spoon when turned upside down.

• Microwave: Place sweetened pulp in a microwave-safe bowl and cook for 20 minutes at a time, stirring frequently until thick enough so the butter doesn't run off a spoon when turned upside down.

• Stovetop: Place sweetened pulp in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, for 1-2 hours or until thick enough so the butter doesn't run off a spoon when turned upside down.

• Oven: Heat oven to 250 degrees. Place sweetened pulp in a heatproof casserole dish or roaster. Bake, stirring only occasionally, for 1-3 hours or until thick enough so the butter doesn't run off a spoon when turned upside down.
Place hot butter in hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Cover with hot sterilized lids and rings. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Remove to counter and allow to cool before storing in a cool, dry, dark place.
If you don't process in a water bath, the butter can be kept refrigerated for up to three weeks or frozen for up to one year.

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes

These are the YUMMIEST cupcakes I have ever made.

Moist, cinnamon-y, light and fluffy. And they stayed fresh for days! Hands down the nicest batter recipe I have.

These cupcakes are made with a light vanilla sponge, injected with as much apple butter as I could squeeze in, frosted with a mildly flavoured cinnamon buttercream and finished with a generous cinnamon dusting.

For anyone who has not yet tried apple butter, it doesn't actually contain any butter. Its simply a smooth sweet apple puree flavoured with cinnamon, clove, ginger and nutmeg. Cinnamon and clove being the predominant flavours. It can be used in cupcakes and desserts or just simply spread on toast like the Americans do, hence it's name, apple butter, as it takes the place of butter on hot toast. mmmmm......

A Second Attempt At Heaven

Oh My Goodness. These are divine.

I was asked if I would bake something for work tomorrow so I thought I'd make my Golden Syrup cupcakes.

I remember the last time I made them they were delicious, but this time I thought I'd put an extra tablespoon of golden syrup into the cake mix and also into the buttercream frosting. What a plan! They are a hundred times yummier!

Here's a few snaps...

Like a tiny army of cupcake clowns