Merry Christmas and Happy Macaron!

Howdy All! 

Well, Christmas is pretty much over for another year (although I do have 1 more christmas lunch this Sunday...) Got some good gifts, including my favourites - Adriano Zumbo's cookbook, a $100 gift voucher for Matchbox, and a boxful of Twilight goodies (ok, so I may have bought that last one myself...but I didn't open it till christmas!).

Zumbo and the other 3 cookbooks I got for christmas!

I can't wait to get in this weekend at make some of the Zumbarons! Although probably not some of the wilder flavours in the book like Kalamata Olive, Salt & Vinegar or Raspberry Beetroot...

Zumbarons are Macarons, just with some more bizarre flavours. Now, don't get Macarons confused with Macaroons, there's a whole 'O' of difference! Macaroons have coconut, Macarons do not, they are based on meringue.  But if you want a more technical definition, check it out below.

"A macaron is a sweet confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring. The macaron is commonly filled with buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies. Its name is derived from an Italian word "maccarone" or "maccherone". The cookies is meringue-based: made from a mixture of egg whites, almond flour."

- Wikipedia

 In case you haven't seen the book, the flavours in there are:

Sticky Date

Licorice

Salted Butter Popcorn

Strawberry Bubblegum

Blackened Vanilla Bean

Chocolate Mayo

Chocolate Marshmallow

Chocolate Orange

Chocolate H20

Cherry Coconut

Vegemite

Pandan Coconut

Raspberry Beetroot

Kalamata Olive

Mandarin & Tonka Bean

Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Jelly

Chocozumbo (chocolate & corn)

Salt & Vinegar

Chocolate Salt & Vinegar

Rice Pudding

Caramel au Beurre Salė (salted butter caramel)

Salted Milk Chocolate Caramel

Chocolate Banana

And don't worry, i will be taking lots of photos and let you know how they turn out. I cant wait!!!!!!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Its a fairly quiet day here as dad works away (gets home tomorrow). Went over to my Aunt and Uncles place for Brunch, which was nice, but now am back home so thought i would show you what i baked yesterday.

I had the urge to bake banana muffins, so searched the net looking for a recipe. Found this one for Double Choco-Banana Muffins. However,  must say, i was not all that happy with the results.  They didn't rise a lot and were rather dense and a bit tough....i wont use this recipe again - flavour was good though.

Here's me all set to start cooking! I got this apron when i bought a box set of Seasons 1 & 2 of Cake Boss

The recipe itself was pretty straightforward to make. A tip i have leant through baking is that instead of getting your sifter/sieve out for the flour (or buying one if you haven't already got one), just stick the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them together using a whisk. Less effort than a sifter and just as effective!

 

So instead of making big muffins, I made little cupcakes instead, with some pretty liners that were left over from a previous batch of cupcakes. Whacked in the oven, patiently wait for them to cook and then cool.

Now, normally i use a recipe for my frostings as well, which usually end up being either a buttercream or cream cheese frosting. This time i did one a little different. Now i recently discovered this fantastic Australian online store USA Foods, which as the name suggests, stocks USA foods (I know, shocker, right!?) So i had placed an order of various items, including Reese's Peanut Butter chips (like choc chips, only PB), some chocolate bars and Goober Chocolate. I also purchased a tub of Toasted Marshmallow Creme (AKA 'Fluff') for use in Whoopie Pies that i often make. I had some of this marshmallow goo left over, so decided to make my frosting from that, some cream and icing sugar, and it turned out good, pretty sweet and fairly sticky when trying to frost the cakes, but flavour was great!

I was going to take these over to Brunch this morning, so in the spirit of christmas, i made a tree! Tada! They went down a treat :)