Can you resist a warm pastry? Neither can I… What about if it was filled with a smooth, vanilla-infused custard…I know! Impossible to resist. Well, his is the decadence that is the Portuguese Custard Pastry, the incredibly dreamy Pastéis de Nata!
I thought it would be intimidatingly difficult to create but nope, not when you have ready-made puff pastry and this is so easily available these days, introducing Woolworths and our wonderful smaller businesses like Farmstyle Pastry.
A fresh, hot churro dunked in a velvety chocolate sauce just sounds like heaven, right?
Churros have definitely become increasingly popular in South Africa, but to find the perfect one in Cape Town is somewhat rare. Instead of hunting for it, I opted for the easier route and whipped up a batch yesterday, using the recipe below.
An all time favourite for kiddies parties are cupcakes, simply because the decorative options are endless and can be adapted to any theme.
I’ve made A LOT of cupcakes in my lifetime and this has by far been the best recipe! Quick and easy to make and just the perfect crumb texture and moistness – nothing worse than a dense and heavy cupcake!
I think I’ve made cookies every weekend for the past month and I have a number of excuses lined up but the truth is, I’ve been constantly craving a good cookie. Is it just me, or is it incredibly tough to find a delicious choc-chip cookie in Cape Town?!
If you think so too, I may soon be answering your prayers as I’m planning to start selling some of my baked goods, which includes cookies (the most delicious recipes I’ve conjured).
For now, here is the recipe for the choc chip and marshmallow cookie I whipped up today. This is the sort of cookie recipe you could throw anything into really, I just happened to have some marshmallows in the cupboard, staring at me… 🙂
Happy New Year! Wishing each and everyone a fabulous new year, may the year ahead navigate us all to be the best versions of ourselves!
During the holidays, I must say, I didn’t bake as much as I thought I would. However, at the very start of my vacation, I gave this banoffee pie a go and wow it’s delicious, decadent but I must warn you that it is quite rich and therefore a modest slice will completely hit the spot. Continue reading
Doughnuts…warm, soft and smothered in chocolate…this is definitely one of life’s greatest pleasures.
The doughnut culture has also recently fast tracked in South Africa, with the major names like Dunkin Doughnuts and Krispy Kreme and quite a few independent stores popping up all over the country.
This is the first time I attempted to make doughnuts and I will definitely keep experimenting with New recipes and variations because this like cookies is dependent on what your preference is, i.e. soft or doughy, etc.
Ingredients
Recipe credit: Indian Delights
Method:
Happy Friday everyone! It’s been one of those crazy weeks, leaving me terribly excited for the weekend. The thought of just sitting down and staring at a blank wall for unexplainable amount of time has got me excited 🙂
One of my first posts was the Chocolate Brownie, which you can view here. As you can see it’s more of a cake/pudding type of chocolate brownie, served with chocolate sauce and preferably some generous scoops of ice-cream. Whenever I go to really good bakeries, I see these really divine chocolate brownie squares, my new-found addiction is the Lindt double chunk chocolate brownies which are sold at the Thursday Earth Fair Market in St Georges Mall…oh my they are heavenly! To combat my constant craving for these delicious blocks of love and goodness, I decided to attempt some sort of version myself.
To make things a tad bit more interesting for this classic brownie recipe, I added a generous handful of roughly chopped milky bar, taking the chocolatey-ness (yes that’s a word in my dictionary) to the next level.
I wish I could have taken some gorgeous pictures of them, but I promise you, before I knew it they were all swiped up….which is always a good thing!
Wishing you all a great weekend and even better Heritage/Braai Day on Tuesday!
Ingredients:
– 250g chocolate (I used Lindt milk chocolate)
– 60g flour
– 60g cocoa powder
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– pinch of salt
– 300g caster sugar
– 250g softened butter
– 4 eggs – 3 whole eggs plain and 1 egg yolk
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line a 23cm square baking tin with paper.
2. Melt 200g of the chocolate and set aside to cool slightly. Roughly chop the remaining chocolate.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
4. Beat the sugar and butter together until it is pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, together with a tablespoon of the dry ingredients. Beat in the melted chocolate, and then fold in the remaining dry ingredients and the chopped chocolate pieces. This is the opportunity to get creative and add nuts, more chocolate, etc.
Now isn’t that just fluffy!
5. Pour the mixture into the baking tin and bake for about 30-35 minutes.
6. Cake tester inserted in the middle of the cake should come out sticky but not with raw cake mixture attached to it. The cake will also continue to cook as it cools.
Isn’t it just amazing weather in Cape Town?! It’s been forever since I’ve defrosted 🙂 This beautiful weather has inspired me to finally post the utterly divine triple chocolate chip cookie recipe.
I attempted these yummy babies two weekends ago when I had a little baking frenzy. They are delicious and even warranted a comment “Aunty Saadiyah, you make such nice things” from my adorable nephew Zaydaan 🙂
If you have kids, this is the perfect recipe to make with them as it’s simple and a visual feast. They’ll just loooooove throwing in the various types of chocolate and watching it whizz away. As with most of my posts, this is the answer for any chocoholic (note to self, I really need to curb myself with the chocolate in take).
If you’re looking for a place to purchase these different types of chocolates, I bought them at Value Baking Supplies – It’s a bakers heaven and I find their prices are much better than most of the competing baking supply stores.
Aaaaaand here you go:
Ingredients:
Method:
3. Add egg and vanilla mixing until well combined. Add flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt, mixing to combine
4. Add all chocolate chips and mix to combine.
5. With a medium ice cream scoop, scoop dough onto baking sheet, spaced apart and bake for 12-15 minutes, until baked through.
6. Let cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Then it’s time to devour 😀
What a weekend it’s been, I’ve definitely baked to my heart’s content and have made up for my creative baking lull…well I’d say. On Saturday I whipped up I chocoholics ultimate cookie…triple choc chip! Keeping in tune with the chocolate theme, I mixed it up a bit and made a salted caramel chocolate cake. On Sunday I tried to steer away from chocolate, not that you could ever overdo it 🙂 and I attempted a banoffee roulade, which turned out great until I tried to roll it up – I killed it…literally! Poked holes into it which lead to caramel oozing out, it wasn’t pretty but it still tasted good! The final item on my weekend baking to-do list was a cinnamon roll pull apart bread….oh my goodness, what a perfect little treat for those wintery evening sweet cravings. My family seems to think it tastes like Cinnabon 🙂 I’d take that as a stamp of approval, right? Continue reading
With Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour out the way and everything mellowing down, life is finally beginning to settle down. To say that I’ve been busy at work is an understatement, it has been absolutely manic, but thoroughly enjoyable (aside from being constantly exhausted 😉 ). Watching the thousands of cyclists lining up at the start line and basking in the infectious atmosphere from start to finish has definitely stung me with the cycling bug. Completing a Cycle Tour is definitely on my bucket list – stop laughing…I can do it! 😀 109km’s piece of cake…ok maybe I should just stick to the cake… Continue reading
Working mom of two little girls with a deep love for baking and all things delicious. Join her as she shares, recipes, tips and all-things-foodie related reviews!
Sadie's Bubble of Yum 