rainbowtatt

I’ve had a can of condensed milk in my cupboard for about 2 years, waiting to make this particular Lemon Meringue Pie recipe.

But I think it had gone off by the time I got around to making it on the weekend, so I had to go out and buy another can of condensed milk.

This is my Aunty Carmella’s recipe, and I think I have to make this a few more times to break the 30-minute limit. I took about 50 minutes to get this baby in the oven…

Aunty Carmella’s 30-minute Lemon Meringue Pie (serves 8)

1. In a medium bowl, combine 180g plain crushed biscuits (I used Arnott’s Milk Coffee) and 90g melted unsalted butter
2. Press into 23cm pie dish and chill
3. In another medium bowl, add 410g can skim condensed milk, ½ cup fresh lemon juice, rind of one lemon and 3 lightly-beaten egg yolks (save the whites!). Beat until combined
4. Spoon evenly into the chilled crumb crust and set aside
5. Beat the egg whites until stiff, gradually adding ½ cup castor sugar
6. Spoon or pipe the meringue on top of the filling
7. Bake in a moderate (180°c/350°f) oven for 15 minutes or until golden

postscript: my (lovely, new Maxwell and Williams) pie dish is actually 28cm, so I plan to increase the crust and meringue to suit. And maybe more lemon so I have enough to lick from the bowl when I should be washing up.

Mmm, crummy buttery goodness!

See, if I’d made a bigger batch for my bigger dish, then the crumbs would have gone all the way up the sides

Lemons smell SO DIVINE when grated, don’t you agree?

Waiting patiently for the meringue to be made

My Kenwood Chef makes the best meringue. I honestly weep with happiness every time. Please don’t laugh at me!

Remember when I tried to use malted milk to make a choc cheesecake? But it tasted all gross?

I found the stuff I should have used, near the honey and whatnot in the supermarket. Try not to notice the price:

While this is technically not a baked treat, it’s the latest in a recent trend of failed desserts by yours truly.

Malted Milkshake Cheesecake – from the AWW Cheesecake book

INGREDIENTS

200g chocolate mud cake 90g Maltesers, crushed 1/3 cup (80ml) chocolate liqueur

Filling 3 teaspoons gelatine ¼ cup (60ml) water 500g cream cheese, softened ½ cup (110g) caster sugar ½ cup (60g) powdered malt 1 cup (250ml) thickened cream 2 eggs, separated 100g dark eating chocolate, melted

Topping 55g Maltesers

METHOD

Cut mud cake into 1cm cubes; divide among eight 1 cup (250ml) glasses. Top with crushed Maltesers and liqueur.

Make filling by sprinkling gelatine over the water in small heatproof jug; stand jug in small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until gelatine dissolves. Cool 5 minutes.

Beat cheese, sugar and malt in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth; beat in cream and egg yolks. Stir in gelatine mixture and then chocolate.

Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until firm peaks form; fold into chocolate mixture.

Divide filling among glasses, refrigerate overnight.

Serve cheesecake topped with whole Maltesers.

Now, the end product turned out pretty nice-looking, but to be honest, it tasted pretty bad. The only upside was that the mud cake tasted nice… and I’d bought the damn thing from Woollies!

I substituted the chocolate liqueur for chocolate milkshake sauce, but that’s right down the bottom and not in the cheesecake-y section, so therefore not the problem.

The only thing we can come up with is the fact that I used malted milk flavouring from the Quik/Milo/Sustagen section of the supermarket. Maybe that was the wrong thing to use?? Or perhaps because I bought organic dark chocolate because it was on special and therefore cheaper?

Lesson: never deviate from the recipe on the first attempt!

I need your help – where did I go wrong?

U4JZW3ZVTNY8

I wanted to impress Jarod & Liz (.com) this afternoon with my giant cupcake skillz.

Even though it was such a success last week, I think I got a bit cocky this morning… and ended up with this:

And this is improved, because it’s at least decorated and hides the burnt outsides and the so-uncooked-it’s-still-runny insides. The nude version was UGLY. Trust me. It even needed a spatula to move it from the cake airer because the uncooked batter fused the damn cake to it.

It was easily the biggest baking disaster I’ve ever created.

Jarod and Liz picked the icing colours, and the decorations. We popped a mini cupcake (made from batter leftovers) on top in a vain attempt to minimise the horror.

Liz made chocolate hot cross buns and they were much better than my dismal attempt at baking.

I’m thinking I might branch out into the world of professional cupcaking. What do you reckon?

These babies are in the oven RIGHT NOW.

Keep an eye out for the finish product as well as the recipe on That’s Noice on Tuesday!

Last week I wrote on That’s Noice about my love of the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook and mentioned that the company had gone out of business and found there had been more than a few negative reviews about the poor-quality of the cupcakes and the bakery itself.

I’ve since discovered that they are up and running again as Crabapple Cupcakes and Supplies.

It will be interesting to see if Jennifer Graham will be able to renew the Crabapple name to its former glory. I hope she does, because those recipes in the book really are fantastic.

Remember that day I went to Cupcakes on Pitt and absolutely hated it?

You see, that day wasn’t completely wasted. Leigh and her friends took me to Max Brenner, the shop full of chocolatey awesomeness. I had a thick white hot chocolate, a hot choc of quality and awesomness not tasted since I was in the UK last year*. Seriously, this is a damn good hot chocolate that should be consumed by all and sundry.

But even better than the white hot choc (I know, is this even possible?!) was the mini cheesecake:

This cheesecake was AMAZING. Just the right amount of chocolate on top to complement the best cheesecake I have ever, ever eaten. Just looking at this photo I am transported back to that cafe and I can forget that I ever ate those crappy cupcakes from Cupcakes on Pitt.

This is where I’m going for my birthday this year. Turning 31 is reason enough for me.

* I am so glad that I can still say that I was in the UK last year; doesn’t make it seem as though it was a lifetime ago (even though it was, dammit)

If you haven’t been to Cupcakes on Pitt and have been wanting to – DON’T.

That is, unless you’re planning on being disappointed (like I was).

I’ve been strangely curious about Cupcakes on Pitt; more than a handful of friends have had half-hearted opinions of their wares and I’ve been debating for a long time if I wanted to find out for myself. But the very brave Leigh took me to the Parramatta Cupcakes on Pitt store.

I’ve never been to the Bondi store or the flagship store in the city so don’t know if it’s the norm to not have any decent seating, but I was surprised that there were only about 4 barstools in the shop, and no tables.

While I was choosing which 2 cupcakes to buy, the woman behind the counter kept yelling flavours at me. It was like I was in the middle of Paddy’s Markets or walking through Kings Cross. At least the prices were down to $2.00 from the original $3.50. All the cupcakes looked impressive but I managed to decide to buy a lemon meringue and a passionfruit.

I have to give credit to the packaging; my little bundle of cupcakes made it home in one piece after being lugged around multiple laps of Parramatta Westfield.

The cakes themselves were dry and plain. The passionfruit icing was fake-tasting and the meringue was rubbery. The nicest part was the tiny amount of lemon under the meringue.

Overall, a thoroughly disappointing experience. If you’re looking for a nice cupcake cafe in Sydney, then Cupcakes on Pitt is not the place you’re looking for!

Jam Donut Cupcakes = YUM

The batter was a bit sticky; probably needed a bit more buttermilk to make the spooning easier.

Once again, Not Quite Nigella proves her awesomeness in the food stakes.

This is what I had for breakfast at Monal Cafe on Enmore Road on Saturday morning:

Yes, that’s a Tim Tam milkshake. Perfect for PMS, stress in general, and any day ending with a “y”.

If I were on death row, this would be my final meal.