Best Chocolate Tart too good NOT to share

Oh. My. F-ing. Goodness.

This Tim Tam Tart, yes you read that alliteration right, this Tim Tam Tart is simple, decadent, delicious, fool-proof, rich, tasty, melt-in-your-mouth amazing.

A tasty tart

Bake Test: Hummingbird Bakery's Peaches & Cream cupcakes

Would you believe my sprightly Nonna only turned 70 last week.

I truly admire both sets of my grandparents. My young Nonna has led a brace life. In her late thirties she relocated the whole family from Italian's snow-capped mountains to a place where she doesn't know the language, is polar opposite in everything from lifestyle to the weather and of all places chose Kununurra to live in.

She's a force to be reckoned with and my friends were frightened of her, but she melts hearts (and bloats bellies) with her melt-in-your-mouth food.

What do you give a lady who doesn't care for material things, but just wants her family to be around her, happy and healthy. Cupcakes.

Bake Test: Hummingbird Bakery chocolate muffins

When I lived in London Hummingbird Bakery was the must pit-stop at Portobello Market.

Those fluffy little cakes with an equal portion of sugary, cream cheese icing were the rush we needed after a sleepless night out.

So I was pretty excited when a friend brought me the recipe book for my birthday a few years.

I've tried time and time again to recreate their cupcakes, but I seem to always do something wrong. Maybe it is the drier, warmer weather in Perth that stops the cakes from rising? Maybe I'm making excuses.

Determined to get it right, number 69 (he he) on my 101 in 1001 is to cook every single cupcake and give them away to others (that second part was for my hips).

To treat my dad and say thank you to my sister for looking after him for the week, I made the chocolate cupcake.

One of the problems I have with every single recipe I've ever made from this cook book is I can only get six cupcakes. Without fail. The recipe clearly says you can make 12 normal cupcakes. No. I can make 12 mini cupcakes, but six normal sized cupcakes. Or is miniature normal in the UK?

I was once again consistent in getting only six cupcakes out of the mixture.

As I put them into the oven I realised I had a brain burp moment... I had forgotten the baking powder. But it didn't seem to change the end result. The cakes were still fluffy and rose ever so slightly. Go figure.

The hero of this recipe was the chocolate icing. I had never made it before and am kicking myself. It was sugary, it was chocolaty, it was damn good icing. I brought nice, fancy cocoa and I think it did the trick.

My bake test score... six cupcakes out of ten (since it is all I can create!)

Bake test: Zumbo's Salted Caramel Macaroons

Australia was wowed by Adriano Zumbo's macaroon tower on Masterchef and since then the French biscuit has become the treat of choice when impressing guests.

So of course it featured in my 101 in 1001. Number 67 - learn to make macaroons.

Cooking something that requires attention, finesse and delicacy is impossible with a four month old who keeps you guessing - is this an hour nap or 15-minute cat nap? All I can manage is a 'throw it all in and hope for the best' slow cook meal or a 'throw food around and hope for the best' Jamie Oliver 15-min meal (my godsend).

During a sleep deprived stagger through Woolworths I thought I saw a mirage. Could it be true? Zumbo has created an equivalent to the pancake shake and bake for his famous French treat? And it's on sale? Sold!

Zumbo has a small range of add two ingredient packets and, hey presto Masterchef, you have an instant dessert. 

 

Mad for mandarins: Flourless Chocolate Mandarin Cake

Nonna's mandarin tree is the tree that keeps giving. This week we picked three buckets and there's more to come.

Looking to create a citrus treat, I found a gluten-free chocolate cake. Every workplace now has someone who won't have gluten. It's the 'vegetarian' of years gone by. And I've always wanted to make a gluten-free dessert.

Flourless Chocolate Mandarin Almond Cake

 

I adapted a Flourless Chocolate Mandarin Cake to take away some of the tartness. It felt odd blending the entire mandarin, skin and all, but it gives the cake a nice moistness (I know people hate that word) and bitterness, which the nuttiness of the almond offsets. The chocolate and honey give it that hint of sweetness.

It's a really light cake that works great warm or cold with a side of mandarin flavoured cream (beat the cream with the juice of one mandarin).
 

You can boil the mandarins (peel and all) the day before.

Flourless Chocolate Mandarin Cake
8 mandarins
2 tablespoons honey

500g almond meal
12 eggs
500g caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup dark cooking chocolate

1. Place mandarins in a heavy based saucepan, cover well with water and bring to the boil. Boil for about 2 hours, drain and set aside to cool.
2. Grease and line 28cm cake tin. Set oven to 180°C.
3. Chop and seed mandarins and place in food processor with the honey. Transfer to another large bowl and add eggs, sugar and baking powder. 
4. Melt the chocolate and fold into the mixture with the almond meal.
5. Bake for approximately 1 hour or until firm to touch (in my oven I baked it for two hours).

NOTE: The purée can be made the day before.

The disappearing cake.