Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone, I hope you have spent the day gorging yourselves on chocolate.

I made these easter nest cupcakes a few days ago for my little cousins.

Very simple to make: just use your favourite chocolate cupcake recipe. Decorate them with a chocolate buttercream frosting mixed with some smashed up Shreddies  to give it that "nest" look and then place a few mini eggs on top. Cute!

Here's a few snaps of them gobbling them up!

Dark Chocolate-Dipped Nutty Shortbread

This recipe is really adaptable. You can use any variety of nuts you want, I had a selection of hazelnuts, pecans and walnuts. I used brown sugar to give the shortbread a more interesting caramelized flavour, but the traditionalists among you may choose to use caster sugar instead. I wouldn't if I were you though because the flavours of brown sugar and toasted nuts complimented each other beautifully.

The addition of chocolate is also entirely optional. I think that the biscuits looked more attractive without it, in my opinion, everything is better with chocolate!

Pre- vs. post-dipping!

Continue for recipe

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Rhubarb, Orange and Ginger Crumble

Rhubarb is a thing of beauty and in my opinion is the superior crumble filling.

I don't like to mess with the classics too much, so I kept things fairly traditional. Orange is a common enough pairing with rhubarb in crumbles but I decided to add some ginger as well (ground ginger in the crumble and small chunks of crystallized ginger in the filling).

These flavours worked well together because the sharpness of the rhubarb and orange cut through the strong spiciness of the ginger. Served with vanilla ice cream it was a real treat!

Continue reading for recipe!

Chocolate and Salted Caramel Soufflés

I made these soufflés last night for no particular reason other than I felt like it.

As you can see from the picture, they weren't the most aesthetically perfect soufflés ever made. They were quite delicious though.

I adapted the recipe slightly from David Lebovitz by salting the caramel, which you can easily omit if you're not a fan of the salty/sweet contrast.

The soufflés are made in two parts, first a caramel pastry cream and then the soufflé mix. You can easily make the pastry cream a day or two in advance and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.

Continue reading for recipe!

Black Forest Gateau Cupcakes

I love black forest gateau, I think it's a wonderful dessert and I believe it's in need of a bit of a revival.

I am so passionate about this that I even asked for a bottle of kirsch for Christmas, which I used to make a festive black forest roulade.

The next installment in the project are these cupcakes and yet again, the flavour combination didn't disappoint. 

There is fresh cream on them, so I would recommend eating them on the day they're made.

I would encourage everyone to buy a bottle of kirsch and get involved in this revival!

Keep reading for recipe!

Lemon and Ginger Crème Brûlée

I was never really a creme brulee person. I always thought it was a bit of a boring dessert.

I had been coming round to the idea of them of late though, and my Mam loves them so I decided to give them a go and I wasn't disappointed. Not only is it really fun to use a blow torch, they also tasted like little pots of heaven!

I adapted a Lorraine Pascale recipe, which included mascarpone cheese along with the cream. I think that this made the creme brulees even richer and creamer than usual, which can only be a good thing!

The recipe calls for grated fresh ginger, which you steep in the cream and cheese mixture for a few hours, along with the lemon zest, so that the flavours can infuse. I left mine for about 4 hours but if you want a really strong flavour then you could leave them all night.

Continue reading for recipe and more pictures!

Hatch and Sons Irish Kitchen

I went for brunch with my family yesterday to Hatch and Sons Irish Kitchen.

It's on Stephen's Green underneath the Little Museum of Dublin, which it is connected to.

Everything in the café is based on an old Irish kitchen, from the décor, to the cutlery, to the menu.

I know it sounds a but touristy, particularly because of its link with the museum but I think that they have struck a good balance between kitsch and quality that will attract both locals and tourists alike.

The menu is not particularly big, offering an all day breakfast that includes favourites such as a traditional Irish fry, lunch time sandwiches and salads and hot meals such as beef and Guinness stew.

There is also a nice selection of wines and Irish craft beers (it was a bit to early for this when we went for brunch!)

The food was really well executed and everyone wolfed down the food when it arrived.

My Dad and Gran had the baked eggs, sausage, bacon and roast tomato, pictured below. 

Although there is nothing particularly original about this dish (or anything on the menu, really), all of the ingredients were of a high quality, making it a cut above most fries I've encountered.

 I had the spiced beef sandwich, served with coolea, onion relish and rapeseed mayo. It was absolutely delicious and I would definitely get it again.

I ordered a slice of carrot cake with my tea. I find that when I have carrot cake in a café it is often quite dry and generally disappointing. This was not.

The cake was perfectly spiced and was topped with a generous layer of cream cheese frosting. Delicious.

I was really impressed with my meal in Hatch and Sons. Every plate of food offered up to us was really well executed and of a very impressive quality for the price. I would encourage everyone to go and try out this (fairly) new eatery, but be prepared to wait for a table as there were people queueing up as we were leaving.

Hatch and Sons Irish Kitchen,

15 Stephen's Green,

Dublin 2.

Mothers Day Orange Blossom and Cardamom Scones

Happy Mothers Day to any mothers reading this post! I hope you're all having a wonderful day.

I made these scones last night as a surprise to bring up to my Mam for her annual breakfast in bed.

I got a bottle of orange blossom water for Christmas and I haven't been able to find a use for it until now! There's a lovely café in town called Brother Hubbard and they serve all their scones with butter that's been infused with orange blossom water, which is what inspired me. Then I looked up general recipes using the ingredient to see what other people were pairing it with and cardamom kept coming up so I decided to go for that and I'm glad that I did! The flavours went really well together- the cardamom gave the scones a warm spicey quality and the orange added a citrussy sweetness. 

I often find scones a bit too dense and filling so I decided to make them small. I rolled the dough out to less than a cm in thickness and I used a 6cm cutter. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from using a bigger cutter and rolling your dough out thicker, however you won't get as many scones.

Keep reading for the recipe!

Orange and Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

Hello everyone, sorry for the brief hiatus in blog updates. I had a Mexican dinner party in my house last weekend. I had planned to write a post all about it but unfortunately, I was far too stressed to take any pictures on the night and if you're anything like me, you won't be interested without the accompanying images. Maybe next time I will be a bit more organised!

These cinnamon buns are delicious. I included pecans in the filling and orange juice and zest in the topping but you can use whatever flavours and ingredients you want (e.g. walnuts, raisins, lemon, vanilla etc.) I used to be quite apprehensive about baking with yeast for some reason, but really it's incredibly easy. You just have to make sure to plan ahead so that you can incorporate time for the dough to rise.

If you're making these for breakfast or brunch you can make cover them, uncooked, in clingfilm and chill them overnight and then bake them the following morning once they are brought back to room temperature. Continue reading for recipe!