"> cardamom - A Tipsy Giraffe

Orange Cinnamon and Lemon Cardamom Meringue Nests

Meringue Nests

Does this happen to anybody else ever? You have left over egg yolks so you make pudding, but then you end up needing more egg yolks than you had so you end up with left over egg whites. Now you’re just stuck in an endless cycle of using up leftover parts of eggs! It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it means you end up with super yummy meringue nests you wouldn’t have made otherwise! And aren’t unintended desserts the best kind? I’m sure they don’t have as many calories in either 😉 

Meringue Nests

When I have egg whites to use up my first thought is always meringue, it’s one of my all time favourite sweets. There’s just something about the way it crunches and melts in your mouth all at the same time that is just irresistible to me. I thought about making some meringue to crush up and put in an Eton Mess, but then I decided I should make the meringue a dessert all by itself, it deserves to be the star of the show after all! 

Meringue Nests

As a baker I always like to make sure I at least have lemons and cream in the fridge and a well stocked spice cupboard, there are few things you can’t spruce up with the right citrus and spice (plus lemons are insanely useful for so many things around the house) and cream makes everything better and more decadent. As luck would have it, I also had some oranges in the fridge. Orange and cinnamon are natural partners, their familiar dance on your tongue is traditional but still exciting as the first time. Lemon and cardamom may not be as familiar to some, but when they take to the dance floor it’s clear they were always meant to be. And that has to get an award for the weirdest metaphor I’ve written… this week anyway! So I’m no shakespeare, but I think I got my point across – these are flavour combinations made in heaven! 

Meringue Nests

So with those strange metaphors swimming around my head, I added lemon zest to half of the meringue and orange zest to the other half. Baked them and filled the lemon ones with cardamom cream and the orange ones with cinnamon cream. The food colouring added the meringue is technically optional, but I really do think it’s what makes this dessert look so fun and inviting! So unless you have an allergy or an aversion to food colourings, I would definitely keep them in! 

Meringue Nests

 

Continue reading →

Lemon Cardamom Drizzle Cake

This Lemon Cardamom Drizzle Cake is a delicious twist on the classic British cake. Fluffy, moist and full of flavour – it’s a total star bake!

Lemon Cardamom Drizzle Cake - a delicious twist on the classic British cake! Moist, light, and full of flavour, it's a real star bake!

I am starting off my Great British Bake Off challenge with a real kicker, lemon and cardamom drizzle cake! The theme for last week’s GBBO was cake of course and I knew I wanted to make a British classic and decided on lemon drizzle cake. I wanted to give it a little depth though and make it a little more interesting and I thought cardamom would do just that, so this Lemon Cardamom Drizzle Cake was born!

Lemon Cardamom Drizzle Cake - a delicious twist on the classic British cake! Moist, light, and full of flavour, it's a real star bake!

The cake is moist and crumbly with a sharp, tart lemon flavour, just like a lemon drizzle cake should be. Then the cardamom brings in a subtle undertone that really gives depth to the flavour without taking away any of the tartness from the lemon. Lemon and cardamom really do compliment each other, it’s definitely a flavour profile I’ll be using more often. 

Lemon Cardamom Drizzle Cake - a delicious twist on the classic British cake! Moist, light, and full of flavour, it's a real star bake!

 

Pancake Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting and Lemon Syrup

Are you a Lemon Lover? Check out these Pancake Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

This is a really simple recipe to do, as you want the sponge to be nice and light you start with creaming the butter and sugar together and then beating the eggs and zest. You fold in the flours by hand so you don’t over mix it, then you stir in the juices and cardamom and you’re ready to bake. The cardamom comes in pods that you have to split open to get the seeds, then you have to grind the seeds into a powder before you put them into the cake. This was a great excuse for me to buy a mortar and pestle since I didn’t already own one and have always wanted one! While the cake is baking you make up the simple syrup of sugar, lemon juice and a little more cardamom so it’s ready to pour onto the warm cake when it comes out of the oven! And thus, a Lemon Cardamom Drizzle Cake is born!

Continue reading →