Baking

Step-by-step video on how to make macaroons

Macaroons are a little French dessert, which primarily consists of meringue combined with almond flour and icing sugar. It is flavoured with essence, coloured with powder and sandwiched together with a filling (usually ganache but sometimes buttercream, curd, Nutella or even preserves). 

In the video below I demonstrate how to make macaroons, using a hot method recipe, and navigate the intricacies of perfecting these little meringue-like biscuits. 

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I've enjoyed making it.

Please take a minute to like the My Views Facebook Page and feel free to Like and Leave a Comment on the video as well. 

Happy Baking,

Imtithaal

Red Velvet Cupcakes

red velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting

I first came across this recipe on the Food Network's website. It is by Terry Wahl and was one of the recipes used in a Throwdown with Bobby Flay, so you know it's going to be absolutely awesome! Red velvet cupcakes are all the rage at the moment. I've found this recipe extremely easy to execute and it yields the most deliciously rich, red cupcakes that are light and fluffy. I've discovered that a paddle attachment works best for mixing these velvets together as you could run the risk of over-mixing with an electric hand mixer. I've made some amendments to the cream cheese frosting though, from experience I've found that I need less ingredients. So watch my step-by-step video below on how to execute this recipe to perfection. I'll post the full recipe below.

Ingredients

435g plain flour
1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
360ml vegetable oil
375g caster sugar
300ml buttermilk
3 eggs
40ml red food colouring
1 1/4 tsp vinegar (white or apple cider)
1 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
30ml water

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two muffin trays with 24 paper baking cases.
2. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cocoa powder into a bowl and set aside.
3. In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix the oil, sugar and buttermilk until combined. Add the eggs, food colouring, vinegar, vanilla and water and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix on low, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Mix until just combined; do not over mix or the cakes will come out tough.
4. Divide the batter between the paper baking cases and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Ingredients for the cream cheese frosting:

125g of unsalted butter, at room temperature
230g of cream cheese, I use the Lancewood brand
3 - 4 cups of icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp vanilla essence

Directions for the cream cheese frosting:

1. Whip the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until creamed.
2. Gradually add the icing sugar to the mixture, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
3. I pipe the cream cheese frosting onto the cupcakes and decorate with some daisies and edible glitter.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

I often say in jest that I married my husband for this recipe, which I was told was a family secret prior to our nuptials. Little did I know that it was a popular recipe baked and enjoyed by many in Cape Town :) Be that as it may, this is a deliciously light and fluffy chocolate cake and is virtually flop-proof.

I’ve dabbled with my first-ever video demo for step-by-step instructions on how to execute this recipe and I’m delighted to share it with you (see below). I’ll also be posting a lot more demos in future.

Thanks for reading and watching!

Happy Baking,
Imtithaal

Ingredients:

9 large eggs
½ cup Canola oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 cup of cake flour
4 teaspoons of baking powder
3 heaped tablespoons of cocoa
1 cup of sugar
¾ cup of hot water

Directions

1. Separate the egg whites and yolks. Whisk the egg whites with 1 teaspoon of baking powder until soft peaks form.
2. In another bowl, which yolks, vanilla essence and oil.
3. In another bowl, mix sifted flour, 3 teaspoons of baking powder, cocoa and sugar.
4. Add hot water to sifted dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
5. Add the chocolate mix to the egg yolk mixture and blend together for 1 minute until fully incorporated.
6. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
7. Pour the mixture into your chiffon cake tin. Make sure that you don’t grease the tin!
8. Bake for 45mins at 180 degrees Celsius
9. Once baked, hang the cake upside down in the tin until it is completely cool before you frost it.

Chocolate ganache

Ingredients

2 x 200g Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Slabs
1 small tin of Nestle Dessert Cream

Directions

Melt the chocolate in the microwave until it is completely smooth. Briskly stir in the dessert cream until it is thoroughly combined.

I usually cut the cake in half and spread a layer in the middle before sandwiching back together and then frosting the entire cake with the rest of the ganache. I also choose to decorate it with a crushed Flake and some edible glitter.

You can even add Ferrero Rochers or Woolworths chuckles. Go wild!

Chocolate éclairs

This little dessert is known by many names, profiterole (French), cream puff (US) or choux à la crème, but here in Cape Town it’s renowned as a chocolate éclair. According to Wikipedia, it is a choux pastry filled with some sort of cream and topped with a chocolate or caramel sauce.

I came across this recipe in the Boeka Treats Compilation published by Boorhaanol Islam Movement.

straight from the oven

Ingredients:

1 cup of water

½ cup of oil – I use canola oil

1 cup of cake flour

3 eggs

Directions:

1. Allow the water and oil to come to a boil in a saucepan.
2. Remove it from the heat and stir in the cake flour.
3. Carry on mixing over very low heat until the paste forms a ball and the sides of the saucepan are clean.
4. Place the ball in a mixing bowl and allow it to cool.
5. Once it has cooled, beat in the eggs one at a time (mixing well with an electric hand mixer after each addition)
6. You can either pipe or spoon the mixture onto some baking paper on a baking sheet (I use a teaspoon to measure out equal portions of pastry, this will yield between 28 – 34 éclairs)
7. Bake for 45 mins in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

Filling

caramel and cream filling

250ml fresh cream

1 x Nestle Caramel

With an electric hand mixer, whip the fresh cream until it is nearly set, then add half a tin of Nestle caramel  (you can choose to use more or less, it depends on how sweet you want the filling to be)and whip it until it is combined. A good measure is that once combined, the filling should be a light caramel colour.

filling the éclairs

I cut the éclairs in half and scoop a generous amount of filling in the centre (which you’ll notice is a bit hollow) and I add a slice of banana.

Ganache

100 – 150g Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate

1 small tin of Nestle Dessert Cream

Melt the chocolate in the microwave until it is completely smooth and add small amounts of dessert cream. The topping should be a smooth consistency and not too runny. You can spread it on the éclairs using a rubber spatula.

chocolate ganache

You can sprinkle some edible glitter on the decorated éclair for some added elegance.

The finished product.