Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate & Coffee Buttercream

Tiramisu

Happy Mother's Day to all the mummies out there! This year marks my very first Mother's Day!! My mum who lives interstate came to visit us on the weekend and I wanted to make something delicious for her...it also had to be something relatively easy that I could make in advance and whilst wearing a baby. :) A while back Miss T made us some yummy tiramisu and so I asked her for the recipe. This recipe can also be found here. I pretty much followed the recipe, except added 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the mascarpone mixture for extra flavour. I also took the advice from reviewers' comments and whipped the cream for a bit longer until soft peaks formed (but not all the way). I used a 19 x 19 cm square dish and about 30 sponge fingers (savoiardi) or 3/4 of a 400 g packet. As I had some leftover biscuits and coffee/marsala mixture, I constructed two mini-tiramisu in a glass (see photo below). The layers can be seen more easily when sliced as seen above, although mine did not look quite as neat as the original image...I like to think of it as rustic. The mini-tiramisu was used as a taste tester, it definitely tasted better the next day when the flavours had time to soak through the sponge. Overall, a good recipe that was super-easy to make and delicious! Mi xo

P.S. For those who are super-observant, yes, the side of the glass has "Eels" written on it. They belong to Mr Mi!

Coffee and Walnut Layer Cake

It's no secret that I'm a tea lover. Having said this, I sure do love my coffee when it comes in dessert form! I came across this recipe for coffee and walnut layer cake while flipping through one of my favourite cookbooks; Kitchen by Nigella Lawson. In the book, Nigella reflects back to when she was a child. She made this coffee cake every year for her sister's birthday so I thought, if a child could make this, I can too! Basically, all the ingredients go into a food processor and are blitzed till a smooth batter forms. The batter is then divided into 2 sandwich tins so that you end up with 2 perfect layers for the layer cake! This was great for me because I'm hopeless at cutting a cake perfectly in half.  I then made the delicious coffee buttercream and decorated the cake with walnuts. If you would like this simple recipe, pick up a copy of Kitchen. I think it's Nigella's best book so far! Na xo