Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Baking for Nightshift- Salted Caramel Bundt Cake

My final post for this flurry of posts (especially difficult because I have only had 30 mins sleep since yesterday afternoon!), is this cake. I made this for my first night shift on Friday night. I love anything caramel and anything salted caramel just elevates it to a more sublime level. This cake had a tender crumb and the icing just made it even better. I have to say it wasn't overly caramel but I think that was ok as it wasn't too too sweet which can be a little overwhelming with caramel sometimes. I got a few cupcakes out of the mixture too and I can tell you that this cake keeps very very well. 

Of note I made 1 1/2 times the recipe so I got a bigger cake out of it and it definitely increased well. Make sure you pour the icing over as soon as you make it as it sets on the cake quickly (as you can see) but it doesn't set hard so you break your knife cutting the cake! I thought my icing looked better than the one in the recipe I found as it seemed to have more colour to it...this could be because the sugar there is different to the sugar here? Also for the syrup I used glucose syrup instead of corn syrup but you could probably get away with not using it at all. You can find the recipe here.

Millionaires Shortbread

This last weekend was pretty full on and a very busy one for us as our son Harry had his much anticipated big end of the year ballet show. Harry does ballet and tap at a lovely dance academy called Rhythm n Steps in Glen Eden. If anyone is looking for a fantastic dance school with a great family vibe and lots of great dance options for themselves or their children, then I would wholly recommend this academy. We started for just a little bit of before-school-starts fun with Fairy dance when Harry was just 4 years old. Now it's a huge part of our lives as Harry is totally committed and absolutely LOVES dancing. In fact it's all he seems to do all day and every day. The big show at the end of the year showcases all the dancers and dance styles in the school. There are two shows and I was parent help for one of them helping the children to get into costume and making sure they looked the part before they went on stage. However the day before I thought I would whip up a couple of treats for the parent helpers....in fact a few others had the same idea so we were well stocked with treats. I made afghans and this slice. Anyone who knows me will know of my love for all things caramel therefore me making this slice was always going to happen. However, while I have a sweet tooth, even I found this pretty sweet. I think I prefer some of my other caramel slices over this one and I definitely prefer a caramel slice without chocolate on top. Anyway if you want to make this super sweet and decadent slice you can find it here.

Salted Caramel Sauce

I have just realised how many photos I have off things I have yet to blog about....I think I have been a little bit slack for the last few months! So I'm going to try to hammer these out over the next few days. It's a pity because while I know where some of the photos have come from, I can't remember where I got the recipe from. So frustrating but my own fault. Anyway the dialogue will be short and sweet so I can get onto all these posts. 

For those caramel lovers out there you will either love me or hate me for posting this recipe because this is AMAZING!!! I have some fleur de sel salt sitting in my fridge from when I made salted caramels ages ago. This is the perfect salt for this kind of caramel. Whatever you do DO NOT use table salt! It will taste awful. I found my fleur de sel salt at the French cafe Pyrenees in Mt Albert so if you have trouble sourcing it try there. The best thing about this caramel is what you can use it for. So far I have used it as a topping on a plain cheesecake, as a hot caramel sauce on ice cream and to sneak spoonfuls of when no one is looking. As it is stored in the fridge it thickens up so I think it would be perfect as a cupcake filling. Yum yum yum!!!! 

You can find the recipe here.

Baking for Nightshift- Ripe's Esmeralda Slice

Ripe is a fantastic Deli-like cafe located in Grey Lynn. They specialise in amazing homemade baking and beautiful salads and takeaway meals as well as the usual coffee. Awhile ago the owner Angela Redfern put out a cookbook which, for those of you who don't have it, is well worth the purchase if only for the salads and slices alone. This recipe, however, is not in the cookbook. Like many other passionate home cooks and one who love recipes, cooking magazines and cookbooks,I have (or had) and enormous pile of cut out recipes all piled into a box. I dragged that box out the other week and left it on the dining room table knowing that if it was there I was more likely to get onto the task of sorting them all out. Well I finally did get around to it. An enormous pile was ruthlessly thrown out and the recipes I knew I was likely to make now fit into the previously overflowing box. As well as that I managed to find a couple of recipes I had made and loved and then lost again. This recipe I cut from a newspaper of some sort and then had stashed it away in the bottom of the recipe box. 

Well today I made it and I think it will be perfect for my night shift tonight. If you like coconut and caramel this is the recipe for you. It is most certainly NOT low fat...in fact I think any cardiologist might have a small MI looking at the ingredient list. But hey, surely night shift is as good an excuse as anyone could want or need for a little indulgence.... It is easy to make and makes a good amount of slice. Make sure you use your larger slice tin for this recipe.

Ripe's Esmeralda Slice

Base
250g soft butter
2 Tbsp golden syrup
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 c dessicated coconut
1 tin caramelised condensed milk (either make your own or buy a tin as I did)

Cream the butter, golden syrup, vanilla and sugar together. Add the flour, baking powder and coconut and mix until well combined. Press into a lined slice tin.

Spread the caramelised condensed milk over the uncooked base.

Topping
2 c dessicated coconut
2 eggs
6 Tbsp condensed milk
4 Tbsp melted butter 
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and spread over the base and caramel.

Bake at 170C for about 40 mins until puffy and golden.

Gooey Caramel Anzac Slice

Just a quick post as I seem to have a real backlog of things to post about...and my friend Adele from work will hassle me until I catch up (so this is for you Adele ;-)). All I'm going to say about this recipe is to make it. It's delicious, rich and has that Anzac vibe about it. I actually made it for the family picnic we had on Anzac day so that was a while ago but it went down very well. 


Gooey Caramel Anzac Slice (Foodtown magazine)


Base
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c brown sugar
140g butter, melted


Caramel
1x can of condensed milk
2 Tbsp golden syrup
50g butter


Topping
1/2 c each: thread coconut (I used desiccated), rolled oats, brown sugar
30g butter


Preheat the oven to 175C and line the base of a 19cm x 30cm slice tin with baking paper.


Make the base by combining the flour, baking powder and brown sugar together then adding the melted butter and stirring well until it's combined. Press evenly into the tin and bake 10-12 mins until pale golden and just set.


Make the caramel by melting over a medium heat and stirring until the mixture thickens and is golden. Cool about 5 mins while you make the topping.


Make the topping by combining everything and mixing well.


Pour the caramel over the par baked base and carefully sprinkle over the topping pressing it into the caramel lightly. Bake 10-15 min until golden and bubbling. Cool before cutting.

Tan Slice....The Redemption

SO after the disasters of the previous post I am happy to give you THIS recipe. I also made this slice as I had wanted to take a couple of things to work that night. I was so glad I did. This Tan Slice is fantastic and this was the star of the night. I love all things caramel but I'm not so keen on the caramel slices with chocolate on top. The good thing about this, aside from its sweet decadence, is that you can use dark or milk chocolate chips and if you wanted to you could put in more than the recipe states for a stronger chocolate hit. This recipe also differs from similar slices in that the base isn't precooked. I think this adds to it's squidgy richness and makes it even more luscious. SO here is the recipe to redemption.

Tan Slice


180g butter
½ c White Sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ c chocolate chips

Caramel1 tin condensed milk
75 grams butter
2 tablespoons Golden Syrup


Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and line a 25cm x 15cm (or thereabouts) slice tin with baking paper.

Cream butter and sugar, then add in vanilla.  Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix until combined. Press two thirds of the mixture evenly into your baking paper lined tin and set aside in the fridge. 

To make the caramel melt together the condensed milk, golden syrup and butter in a small pot until it is lightly golden and slightly thickened (don't overdo this as it will cook more once it's in the oven). Stir constantly as it can catch and burn reasonably quickly.  Pour the caramel over the base.


Mix the remaining base mixture with the chocolate chips and crumble over the caramel.

Bake in your pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven when the top of your slice is golden and leave in the tin to cool completely before slicing into squares.

Chocolate Caramel Weetbix Slice

The other day we got the awful news that my lovely, sweet brother-in-law Kiwi's dad Jim had died suddenly. It's a huge shock as he was only 64 years old, was a very hard worker and one of those guys who was always around to lend a hand and help out where ever he could. At any family event he was always helping to prepare the food, cleaning up, digging the hangi pit (or bringing up the food), washing the dishes....pretty much if it needed doing then Jim was there doing it. He helped out with various moves, building of decks or fences etc etc etc. He and Fiona had been married for 42 years. I can't even begin to imagine how it feel to lose the partner you have slept next to every night and been with for all those years. It must be truly horrific. 


Of course food was prepared by lots of people and these were part of my contribution along with a huge Banana and Coconut cake with cream cheese frosting. I doubled the recipe and if doing it again would make 4 times the caramel recipe. I did double it along but I think quadrupling it would have been even better...well for those of us who love caramel. Even so with the amount of caramel on it, it still tasted fantastic. I'll definitely be making this again. You can find the recipe here.

So rest in peace Jim...he always hated having his photo taken so here is one of the only ones I have of him....trying to hide of course xxx

Hokey Pokey Cupcakes with Rich Caramel Frosting

In every country there are certain things that are considered to be 'iconic'. We have many of these in NZ including Pavlova (yes Aussies it OURS), jandals, sheep, no.8 wire, and of course Hokey Pokey ice cream (amongst loads of others). Hokey pokey is a caramelly, crispy sweet most NZ-famous for being in Tip Top's Hokey Pokey Ice Cream which is like a vanilla ice cream with little bits of HP through it. So as soon as I saw this recipe in Tamara Jane's 'Divine Cupcakes', I knew I had to make them. Although it has taken ages to get there I finally made them on Sunday for Harry's playdate with his little friend Johanna. I made only half the recipe and got 13 cupcakes so I'll give the full recipe here in my blog. The frosting is really good too and I found that half the recipe made enough for all the cupcakes with a reasonable amount left over to freeze. 


Hokey Pokey Cupcakes


415g flour
3 tsp baking powder
230g butter
230g brown sugar
1/2tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1/2c sour cream
1/2c milk
2 large Cadbury's Crunchie Bars, crushed


Preheat the oven to 170C and line the muffin tins. 
 Beat the butter until creamy then add the sugar gradually beating until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla then add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.


Combine the sour cream and milk, and in a separate bowl sift the dry ingredients. Add flour mixture alternately with the sour cream and milk mix beginning and ending with the flour (I did it in 3 lots). Do  not overmix. Stir in the Crunchie bars. Divide the mix between the cases. Bake about 18 mins. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.


Rich Caramel Frosting (I made half this)


100g butter
125g brown sugar
75g golden syrup
125ml cream
1kg icing sugar


Combine all ingredients except for the icing sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Turn the heat to high and boil 5 mins. Cool to room temperature.


Add half the icing sugar to the caramel mixture and beat until light and fluffy. You may need some extra milk to get the right consistency. Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat until spreadable (or pipeable). I needed extra milk to get this to where I wanted it to be.


Sprinkle the cupcakes with some extra crushed Crunchie bars.

Baking for Nightshift- Lemon Marshmallow Slice and a Caramel Slice

See how the topping slides...

The 'by-default' Caramel Slice

So after the last post on Ginger Crunch I got to thinking about those old nostalgic things we used to bake and which were part of the everyday housewives repertoire. Having said that, while my own mother baked sporadically, we were not the kind of family who had their baking tins filled every Sunday in preparation for the long week ahead. My mum was a good baker but not a committed one. She would go in fits and starts generally making the same things which we all loved and adored. These included Afghans, Ginger Crunch, Marshmallow Slice (made with jelly crystals as mum is allergic to eggs so the egg white method was a big no-no in our house), Anzac biscuits and so on...but her all time favourite to make would be Chocolate Fudge and Coconut Ice.


I well remember those lazy Sunday afternoon when my mum would send me up to the dairy to get a big bottle of Coke (in the glass bottles which we used to be able to sell the empty one back to the dairy...fantastic recycling idea), a big bag of Bluebird Potato Chips, and on occasion a big bar of Chocolate (always Cadbury's and always Plain, Crunchie or Caramello). To put this into perspective, we weren't a well-off family and so these days were a rare treat which we all loved. They were usually accompanied by TV and a rainy outside meaning we had to stay inside. If money was a bit tight, or if my mum had the urge she would whip up a batch of fudge or coconut ice. She was the best at these! Her fudge was creamy and delicious and was always set in my Poppa's battered, old, blue enamel dish to which we would be able to grab a piece almost at will. That dish, over the years, got a real working out. To this day it is the one thing I would have really loved to have in my own kitchen for when I make my own fudge but I think it long since died... no doubt from overuse. Amazing how some things really get the wear out making them most likely to be the cheapest thing you could have ever bought.


Anyway I digress with this nostalgia. My mum made amazing Marshmallow Slice and to this day it remains to be the one thing I have hardly made and am still in search of the ideal recipe. In an internet search for one, I found this recipe on the Chelsea Sugar website. The idea of the lemon layer really appealed. I did look at the ingredients and method for the marshmallow topping and I did wonder if it would work. BUT when I cook or bake I almost always make the recipe as it is then make my adjustments with it the next time. In this case I should have trusted my instincts and gone with a different topping. While the base and lemon filling were lovely, the topping was too set and as you can see in the photo above was able to be slid off all too easily. You can find the recipe here but as I have said look for a different recipe for the topping.


When I initially made the base I made it in a tin which was too small to hold the lemon topping so I whipped up some caramel, covered it with chocolate and called it Caramel Slice. This was actually quite good as the base was soft and cake-like so was quite different to the usual Caramel Slice recipe where the base is more crunchy and dense. Regardless both went pretty quickly at work last night so they couldn't have been too bad to eat.

Gluten-free Caramel Slice and a visit with Michelle and Elijah

My lovely friend Michelle has just had her third baby...a beautiful little boy called Elijah...(one of my most favourite names). So the other day I went for a visit to get an Elijah-fix. And this little boy is a fix! He is snuggly and delicious and very very kissable. I didn't get to see his big sister Charlotte (who I call little Miss Lotts), but by all accounts she is pretty amazing with her new little brother. I did see Michelle's other baby Sammy who is fantastic with Elijah and very tactile and snugly...as you can see in the photos which are to follow. 


Anyway my friend Michelle is a real doer. She never relaxes and chills out instead using her free time when the baby is asleep to do housework, cook and generally make things happen. Therefore I wanted to make her some food to maybe take the load off for a night. As she is reluctantly gluten-free it needed to be something that she could eat so I made a couple of lasagnas with one having gluten-free pasta and the other with normal pasta and the cheese sauce made with cornflour instead of the normal flour/butter roux. Of course something 'treaty' had to be in order too and as one of Michelle's favourite things to indulge in is caramel I knew it had to be a caramel slice. This is very easy to make gluten free or to keep 'normal'. I did add macadamia nuts to the topping as the recipe suggested but I think it was a waste as the thick caramel just hid the flavour of them instead just giving the slice a bit of a crunch. Next time I would leave them out altogether. By all accounts Little Miss Lotts liked the slice too so it obviously didn't have a distinctive gluten free flavour to it (I find as someone who isn't gluten-free that the flour can have a funny texture to it).


Michelle's Gluten-free Caramel Slice



Base
1 c Healthries Simple wheat & gluten free Baking mix
½ c desiccated coconut
½ c soft brown sugar
125g melted butter

Filling
60g butter, extra
¼ c golden syrup
1 X 400 g can sweetened condensed milk
70g macadamia nuts, chopped (I wouldn't use these again but go for it if you to add them)

Topping
200g chocolate melted

Preheat oven to 180º C. 

Combine the flour, coconut, brown sugar and butter. Press into baking paper lined 26 x 16cm slice pan and bake for 12 -15 minutes or until golden brown. 

Heat extra butter and golden syrup in a saucepan until butter has melted and add condensed milk. Stir over a medium heat for about 3-5 minutes or until caramel is becoming golden brown in colour. Pour over the prepared base and bake another 10 mins until it is gloden brown (but don't overcook it). 

Melt the chocolate and stir until smooth.Spread over the caramel and refrigerate to set before slicing.

And here are some photos of a slightly jaundice-looking Elijah mostly being held by big brother Sam...

Sammy and Michelle