Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // September 12, 2014 // 63 Comments

I have been wanting to make ice cream for a long time but I don’t have an ice cream machine. Ice cream is pretty much my favourite food in the world! Finally I just went for it, ice cream maker be damned (I’m a rebel, I know) and it was the best decision ever. This ice cream is creamy and oh so tasty, I’ll be having dreams about it for years to come! And not only does it not require an ice cream machine, it only takes about 5 minutes to put together (not including freezing time, of course, that would be insane!). A big shout out to all the (what felt like) hundreds of ice cream recipes I looked at online trying to figure out the best way to make ice cream at home!

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Brown Sugar & Pecan Caramel Bundt Cake

by giraffescanbake // June 13, 2014 // 61 Comments

Oh my god you guys, Oh. My. God. It’s is Fiesta Friday #20 and I have brought something really special! This brown sugar & pecan caramel pound cake, it is amazing. You NEED to try it. It’s a pound cake but it’s so, so light and moist, and the brown sugar combined with the toffee and caramel is to die for. I will be making this cake again, several times.

Leah’s mum has been asking me to make her this cake for a while now after she saw a photo of one on Facebook and I finally got around to doing it for her. I wish I hadn’t waited so long, so many missed opportunities to enjoy this cake. Luckily for me I made enough batter for two bundt tins so I got to have one too!

There is a lot of sugar in this cake, mostly brown sugar. And it has chopped pecans nestled inside and lots of yummy heath toffee bits! Then it’s topped with a very generous helping of caramel sauce. So much sweet, caramel flavour in this cake it’s like heaven… and definitely not for the health nuts! But everyone deserves a treat every now and then right?

Father’s day is this weekend too, and if this isn’t a perfect father’s day cake I don’t know what is! Who needs hallmark when you have this much caramel to indulge in!

And the best part? It’s so easy to make! You just beat the butter, cream it with the sugar, beat in the eggs and add the dry ingredients and the milk. Stir in your pecans and toffee and bake! Then the caramel sauce is just as easy to make, just heat the condensed milk with sugar, whisk in the butter and vanilla and you’re done. You want to pour on the caramel sauce while it’s still hot as it does harden a little as it cools.

I’m not sure what else I can say about this cake that isn’t just me gushing about how much I love it! So instead I’ll let you guys try it out for yourselves. It is Fiesta Friday after all, this week’s is co-hosted by Fae and Suzanne so make sure you go check them out! And, of course, a big thanks to Angie for bringing us this wonderful party every week!

I recently updated this recipe with new photos and made it gluten free, make sure you check it out here!

[recipe title=”Brown Sugar & Pecan Caramel Pound Cake”]
Ingredients

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1 cup caster sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
1 bag heath toffee bits (8oz)
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped

For the caramel sauce:

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14oz)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 160C/325F. Grease your bundt pan(s) well.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
Beat the butter until pale and creamy. Beat in sugars until fluffy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time until combined.
Add the flour mixture and milk alternatively, starting and ending with the flour. Beat until just combined.
Stir in the toffee bits and pecans.
Spoon batter into pans and bake for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes, until skewer comes out clean. After 50 minutes of baking, lightly cover with foil to stop it browning too much at top. Leave to cool in pan for 10 minutes then transfer to wire rack.
While cake is cooling make the caramel sauce. In a medium saucepan, combined condensed milk and brown sugar and bring to the boil over a medium high heat, whisking often. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes, whisking often. Remove from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla. Leave to cool for 5 minutes
Pour the caramel sauce over the cooled cake, you want to do this while the sauce is still hot as it hardens slightly as it cools.
Garnish with more pecan halves, serve

Notes:

Make sure you grease your pan well as this is a very moist cake and it can be a bit of a pain to coax out without breaking! I use this home made pan release and it’s great.
This cake is great eaten right after you’ve added the sauce, when it’s all warm and gooey (be careful the sauce isn’t too hot, don’t want any burned tongues!)
This recipe will make one 12 cup bundt pan cake, or almost two 6 cup bundt pan cakes (I had one slightly smaller one)
Store in an airtight container for 3-5 days

[/recipe]

Happy Pancake Day Y’all!

by giraffescanbake // March 4, 2014 // 1 Comment

British Style!

Today is Shrove Tuesday which is a day observed by some Christians, it’s the day before Ash Wednesday when Lent starts. In some places it is celebrated with Mardi Gras, a carnival celebrating the last indulgence before Lent starts. In little old Britain we celebrate it with Pancake Day! Personally, I love pancakes so I think I prefer our tradition. I believe pancake day came about as a way to use up the eggs and milk you have before you start fasting, at least that’s what I was always told.

Our pancakes are a little different to US pancakes. Ours are more like crepes I guess, I’m not sure what the difference between crepes and pancakes are, I’ve never made crepes (maybe there is no difference, that’s a google for another time) . The traditional way to eat them is with caster sugar and lemon juice, it also happens to be my favourite way to eat them. American pancakes are a different matter, they are best with lots of syrup and bacon yum yum! I love both types equally. Today I had these pancakes, tomorrow we’ll be going out to the original pancake house for some fluffy American pancakes (maybe without the bacon since it’s Ash Wednesday and meat isn’t allowed).

You can put pretty much whatever you like on pancakes though, my other favourites include Nutella and ice cream! The pancake batter is just flour, eggs, milk, salt and a little butter, which means you can pair them with anything savoury or sweet making them super versatile.Let me know your favourite type of pancakes and how you like to eat them in the comments!

When I was younger, pancake day was about stuffing yourself with as many pancakes you could possible cram in, until you couldn’t move for hours. Today, I limited myself to just three like an adult! I only made a little batter since it was only me in the apartment! It’s a really simple batter to make, you just mix flour, eggs, milk, salt and a little butter together until smooth and thin and then you’re ready to go. The secret to making a good pancake is getting your pan really hot and then turning it down to a medium heat just before you pour the batter in. This is much easier to achieve when you have a gas stove (which I don’t here) but you can manage it with electric. My other tip would be to do a test pancake first to see how much batter you need (I find about 3 tbsp is good for a 10″ pan), then use a ladle or something similar to pour the batter in the pan as you want it all in the pan at once so it cooks evenly.

Have a great day everybody. If you observe lent, let me know what you’re giving up in the comments below!

[recipe title=”Pancakes” servings=”6-8 10inch pancakes”]
Ingredients

110g plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml milk
50g unsalted butter

Method

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl from a height so the flour gets a good airing. Make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Whisk the eggs into the flour.
Gradually add the milk and continually whisk. Don’t worry about any lumps, they’re disappear as you go. When all the liquid is added, scrape down the sides to make sure its all incorporated.
Melt the butter in your pan and add two tablespoons of it to the batter and whisk in. Pour the rest of the melted butter into a bowl and use it to oil your pan, using paper towel to smear it around the pan before each pancake.
Now, get the pan really hot and then turn the heat down to medium. Pour the batter into the pan, as soon as the batter hits the pan tip it from side to side to get the base of the pan all covered. It should only take a minute or so to cook, you can lift the edges up with a fish slice to see if its browning. Flip the pancake over (with your fish slice, or with your mad flipping skills if you have them!) the second side will only take a few seconds. Then just slide it out of the pan onto a plate.
Stack the pancakes with sheets of parchment paper in between, with the plate on top of a pan of simmering water to keep them warm while you make the rest
Serve immediately with the toppings of your choice.

[/recipe]

Another breakfast bake: Peanut Butter & Chocolate Rolls

Another British Fave: Viennese Whirls

Yummy breakfast: Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Black Forest Pavlovas

by giraffescanbake // January 6, 2014 // 2 Comments

Yummy single serving meringue desserts from down under!

Happy New Year everybody! I hope this year is your best one yet, I know it’s going to be mine! My first post of 2014 is going to be the dessert I made for Christmas day. It wasn’t actually eaten on Christmas day because I had work and then there were presents and dinner so by the time I finished baking it was 10:30pm! But they were enjoyed on Boxing Day.

Pavlova actually originated in Australia (or possibly New Zealand, I think they still argue over that). There are three good things to come out of Australia, they are: Heath Ledger, Chris Hemsworth and Pavlova. Since Heath Ledger is dead (sad face) and Chris Hemsworth is married, I’ll have to settle for eating pavlova! I actually only discovered that pavlova was Australian fairly recently, it’s always been a very British dessert in my head, probably because we eat it a lot and Eton Mess is basically a smashed up pavlova! This favourite dessert of mine consists of three main ingredients; meringue, fruit and cream. And it is open to so many different variations, you could never get bored with it!

Black Forest, on the other hand, is German. It started with a dessert called Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in Black Forest, Germany and eventually worked it’s way into my heart as my favourite ever cake! It consists of chocolate, cherries, cream and kirsch (a cherry liquor) and it is divine. If you’re European you no doubt grew up eating it, if you’re not European then you may never have even tried it. If that’s the case, get down to your nearest quality bakery and get something that’s black forest flavoured, you can thank me later!

While Black Forest cake is my favourite cake, pavlova is my favourite dessert. So I have no idea why it took me so long to mix the two together, perhaps I was afraid of too much pleasure at once! Either way, it was a great Christmas present to myself I must say! This is a slightly sobered version of true Black Forest though as I could not find Kirsch for the life of me. I also could not find black cherries (I swear there’s a cherry embargo on me, whenever I try to buy them in any form I can’t), I did managed to find black cherry pie filling though and it actually worked really well even if it was a bit of a cheat!

[recipe title=”Black Forest Single Serving Pavlovas” servings=”12″ time=”Approx 3 hours”]

Ingredients

For the meringue:

8 egg whites
400g granulated sugar
2 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the topping:

500m double cream
2 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder
1 can black cherry pie filling
Dark chocolate curls*
Dark chocolate shavings**

* To make chocolate curls, run a clean potato cleaner peeler down the edge of a bar of chocolate.

** To make chocolate shavings, use a microplane or fine grater

To make the meringue

Preheat oven to 220C/430F/Gas 7. Line baking sheets with baking paper.

Separate your eggs and make sure you don’t get any yolk in your egg whites as it will prevent them from foaming up properly. You also need to make sure your equipment is grease free.

Beat your egg whites until stiff. Then slowly add sugar one tablespoon at a time and add the vanilla, keep beating at a medium speed until it forms stiff peaks. If you want to test they are stiff enough, turn the bowl upside down, if they stay you’re good! Obviously be careful as you do this in case they’re not stiff enough! Sift the cocoa powder into the raw meringue and gently fold in. You don’t want to fully incorporate the cocoa powder, you want to leave streaks (or not, it’s your life man).

Now you need to get your meringues formed on the baking sheet. Personally, I like to pipe them on, I find I can get them more evenly sized and better circles. Do it however feels easiest for you though. I piped 6 rounds per baking sheet (it makes 12 total), starting in the middle and circling out. Then I use the back of a spoon to create a well in the centre for all the filling to go in. I also use the back of the spoon to rough up the tops, you don’t want them to look piped, pavlova meringue is supposed to have a messy kind of look to it.

Place meringues in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 120C/240F/Gas. Bake for 50 minutes or until meringues are starting to go slightly golden on edges (try not to open the oven if you can help it though). Turn the oven off and leave the meringues in there until the oven has cooled.

To make the filling

Beat the cream with cocoa powder until stiff peaks form. Spoon scream into the middle of the cold meringues. Spoon over the cherry filling and top with the chocolate curls and shavings. Nice and simple.

If you’d like to make your own cherry and sauce mix it’s pretty simple. You need a large jar of morello cherries or even black cherries in kirsch or syrup. Drain the cherries, saving the syrup/kirsch. Set aside the cherries. Heat the syrup in a pan over medium heat and reduce it down to a honey consistency (5-10 minutes). Stir in the cherries and heat for a couple more minutes. Spoon over the top of the cream and meringue. You can also do the the cherries and syrup separately but I prefer mine to be all kinda mushed together! If you’d like to add real kirsch, add it to the syrups are you’re heating it. If using black cherry pie filling, mix a couple tablespoons of kirsch in with it before you spoon it over the meringues.

Enjoy.
[/recipe]

This recipe was adapted from Tanya Zouev’s Black Forest Pavlova with Espresso Cream