Recipes

Swedish Cinnamon Rolls

Swedish Cinnamon rolls - cardamom spiced dough is filled with a spiced filling, then rolled out and twisted into rolls. The rolls are finished with Swedish pearl sugar and baked until perfectly golden.

Swedish Cinnamon Rolls

Oooooohhh suddenly it's almost the end of the year. What. I'm not quite sure how this happened. It was March, and suddenly it's November. And Thanksgiving is on Thursday. I'm still not quite sure what to make of Thanksgiving - it's not something we celebrate in New Zealand, and i'm very unsure about all this hands up turkey butts stuff i'm seeing on Instagram Stories. It's so funny moving to another country and suddenly there is this whole new holiday you have never experienced before! I love it though - it seems to be all about family, which is my favourite part of the holidays! This year we are going to Jill's for Turkey Day - and if her regular food is anything to go by, the food is going to be next level amazing. I'm heading in tomorrow to help prep, and help out where I can. I'll most likely end up on pie duty, which isn't a bad place to be at all.

Another thing i'm planning on making for thanksgiving are these Swedish cinnamon rolls. I'm not sure about traditions, but it seems as if everyone gears up for a giant dinner, but i'm hoping I can sneak these in as a little morning tea treat, or take them as a quick and easy breakfast so it's one less thing for people to think about. Jill's family are insanely enthusiastic about cinnamon rolls, so I have no doubt that these will go down well!

The recipe for these came from one of my besties! It's her Mum's recipe, and she brought the swedish version over with her a few weekends ago, and we cozied up inside to make them. From what I have seen there are loads of amazing Swedish holiday baking recipes - so I can't wait to see what is next!

These are pretty simple - an enriched dough, spiced with a little cardamom, is rolled out thin, and filled with a spiced sugar and butter paste. You then fold it like a letter, pop it in the fridge for a quick second, then roll it out slightly more, before cutting it into strips. These strips are then twisted into pretty little knots, left to rise slightly, then loaded with swedish pearl sugar (aka the best thing ever), and baked off. The result is a lovely fluffy roll, with a delicious spiced filling swirled throughout. Quite possibly my new favourite.

A few wee tips for Swedish Cinnamon Rolls

I watched this gif of Alana's about 20 times before I gave it a go, just to help work out where my fingers needed to go when I twisted them. Basically you go around your fingers and thumb twice, then take your thumb out before you take the strip over the top and tuck it under. Watch the gif. It makes it much less confusing. Even if they get a bit messy, I promise they will still taste amazing
Want to make these for breakfast? The first proof can be done overnight in the fridge!
The swedish sugar isn't necessary, but if you can get your hands on it, it's hugely worthwhile!
If you don't have a stand mixer, no worries - you can do this by hand! Just make sure to carefully knead in the butter. It may pay to have a friend on hand too to help knead!

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Answers to your baking questions

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Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Tahini Marshmallow

I'm just going to keep it short here because November seems to be kicking me in the butt a little - there is a pre-christmas rush at the studio, a zillion things on, more foster cats, and the holidays to plan for. Maybe it's the light - it gets dark here around 4.30 now, which means I can't really shoot past 3, so maybe the days have felt a little more stressful because I feel the time pressure. It's so, so busy, but the best kind of busy. The sort of busy where you go to sleep exhausted. I have managed to keep somewhat of a routine, and getting up at 6am to have some me time as the sun rises seems to be helping a lot. I can chill out for a little bit with just me awake, and prepare myself a little for the day ahead. I have lots of exciting things coming up here so watch this space!

These cookies are ridiculous. Most things I make with Jill usually turn out to be ridiculous. We made these a couple of weeks back but didn't quite get things right. They were delicious, but ugly AF, so we tweaked them a little last week and I think we have nailed it. We used the TKO recipe from the Bouchon Bakery book, which yields super rich, not too sweet, thin crispy cookies, and we sandwiched these with a tahini marshmallow. Tahini marshmallow is every bit as magical as it sounds, and you need it in your life. It's literally just tahini folded into my regular marshmallow recipe, but it somehow cuts the sweetness of the marshies, while perfectly complimenting the chocolate. These are great. You should make them.

Jill and I actually shot these separately because we lost light on the day we made them - but pop over to her site and have a look, because we ended up with some very similar images! Great minds 😉

A few wee notes:

Make the tahini marshmallow first - this will give it time to cure while you do the cookies.
I have included in the marshmallow instructions to whip until you see strands forming round the edges of the bowl - this may seem like you have taken it too far and it will be quite stiff, but the structure is needed for when the tahini is added.
We used Honey for the marshmallow because it compliments the tahini very nicely, but corn syrup or glucose will work too!
If you don't like tahini - just leave it out.
The dough for the cookies can be made the night before if you would like - sometimes it takes more than an hour for it to really firm up.

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Chocolate Cream Pie

The best Chocolate Cream Pie Recipe. This Chocolate pie has a homemade chocolate pudding pie filling, a buttery flaky homemade pie crust, and is topped with peanut butter whipped cream. This easy chocolate pie is a great make ahead dessert.

Hi! Just popping in to share this chocolate cream pie recipe! I love making homemade pies, and this easy chocolate pie is a favourite of mine. We start with my homemade pie crust, then add a smooth chocolate pudding, then you can finish it either with mounds of whipped cream topping, or take it one step further and add a peanut butter whipped cream. Chocolate Cream Pie is a great addition to a dessert table, and is super easy to make ahead of time! You really can't go wrong with a pie with chocolate.

This is my first ever chocolate pie I've ever made! They aren't really a thing in New Zealand. And what better recipe to use than one from my lovely friend Erin's new book, 'The Fearless Baker',.

Despite only having met Erin IRL a handful of times, (2021 note: turns out we became besties, and I miss her millions!) I am super lucky to be able to call her a friend, and am so proud of this amazing book! It's full of all kinds of incredible gems to help you overcome any fear you may have in the kitchen. There's foolproof tips, and recipes for almost every baked good you can imagine. I definitely see a chocolate puff pastry dough happening very soon in my life. Congrats Erin, the book is AMAZING! If you don't have a copy already, you can get your hands on a copy here!

How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust
How to make chocolate pie filling
How to line a pan with pie dough
Frequently Asked Questions

The process for blind baking a pie crust is pretty simple. It takes a little practice to get the crimp on the crust right, but par baking is a great skill to know how to do!

The reason we blind bake a pie is for a pudding pie like this chocolate cream pie, you need the pie crust to be fully baked as it is obviously going to go in the fridge with pudding inside. Blind baking is similar to par baking, but differs in that a blind bake cooks the crust fully, whereas a par bake partially bakes it so that it is set before going into the oven at a lower temperature.

Fill with beans or weights - Prick the crust all over, then cover with a crunched up piece of parchment paper. Fill the crust right to the edges with either weights or beans.
Bake with parchment paper - Bake the pie crust for 15-18 minutes with the weights in, until the edges are beginning to golden, then remove the weights and return the crust to the oven. This second bake is just for a few minutes and will set up the crust that was covered by the paper. Bake until the crust is evenly golden brown. Do not worry if it puffs up here - it will sink back down.

You can blind bake crust ahead of time - just leave it to cool then store lightly wrapped in plastic wrap in an airtight container for up to a day.

To get all my tips and tricks for a foolproof homemade pie crust, check out my post: How to make pie crust

How to make chocolate pie filling

Once the crust has been blind baked it is time for the chocolate pie filling. This chocolate pudding pie was the first I had ever made and there's really no point in making my own chocolate pudding recipe, as Erin's is very, very perfect and super easy to make.

Melt chocolate with milk and cream. A hot milk mix is the base of this chocolate cream pie recipe. Chocolate, cream and milk are melted together. Using chocolate rather than cocoa powder gives a super intense delicious chocolate flavor.
Combine egg yolks, sugar, and starch. A game changer tip Erin taught me is to combine the sugar and the starch together ahead of mixing with the yolks. This helps remove any lumps that may be in the corn starch.
Temper the egg mixture. This is done by pouring the hot milk mixture into the egg mix, giving it time to come to temperature more slowly than if you added the egg to the milk. This helps prevent lumps - make sure that you are whisking the whole time!
Cook until thick. Pop the chocolate pudding pie filling back onto the stove and cook until thick - you want it to come to a 'first boil' which is where there are single large bubbles in the middle of the pot rather than lots of small ones. Cook the filling until it is nice and thick.
Add to the crust. Add the chocolate pudding pie filling to the blind baked pie crust. If you are worried about there being lumps, you can strain it through a sieve into the pie crust just to make sure.
Leave to chill. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the edge of the filling, and leave to set completely.

How to line a pan with pie dough

Make sure you start with nice cold pie dough - ideally it will have been chilling for at least two hours or up to overnight.

Roll out your crust - I like to use a wooden french rolling pin for pie crust but you can use whatever you like! Roll to a circle a little larger than your pie pan.
Transfer your pie dough to the pan - Flop the dough into the pan and make sure to settle it within the pan so that it doesn't slump.
Trim if needed - If you have loads of overhang, or your dough isn't a perfect circle, you can trim the edges with some kitchen shears
Fold and tuck the edges under - Tuck the edges of the crust under themselves to form an edge on your pie dough - this will be what you crimp.
Chill - At this point, pop your pie dough into the fridge just for a wee bit to allow it to chill down before you crimp.
Crimp - I like to keep this pretty basic and just do a thumb and fingers crimp, but you can do whatever you like here.
Chill again - You can freeze your crust here if you want, but I prefer to chill it for about half an hour instead, which I find helps it to keep its shape well in the oven when baking.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes. This chocolate cream pie can easily be prepared ahead of time. Make the pie dough up to two days ahead, and you can add the chocolate pudding filling the night before. Put the peanut butter filling on the day you serve.
What did you use to pipe the peanut butter cream?
I used a large french star tip - ateco #867
Can I leave off the peanut butter?
If you aren't a peanut butter person, regular old whipped cream on top would be delicious too.
Which pie weights do you use?
I have a couple of sets of these. It is important to make sure you have enough so that they go right to the edges of the pie crust. Dried beans or rice work too.

For more Homemade pie recipes, check out:

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Apple Slab Pie

It's a great feeling to come home after a long period of travelling on and off, and knowing that you have some time to just be at home. To get back into routine, and not live out of a suitcase, wearing the same things you wore on the last trip because it was easier to just wash it all and throw it back in your suitcase for the next trip. There's time to do things you have been meaning to get done for a long time, and time to organise a baking day with a friend that spans the whole day, because now there is time. There's time to take on baking projects that may span a few days, to test out new recipes, and cook from new books. And there's time to make apple pie.

I have partnered with the FeedFeed and Autumn Glory Apples to bring you the perfect Autumn pie using the new variety of apple from Superfresh Growers. The Autumn Glory apple is sweet and firm, with notes of caramel and cinnamon, which makes it perfect in a pie! I kept the filling of the pie very simple without any extra flavouring, which allowed the taste of the apple to really shine through. If you are using quality fruit in your pie, all you really need is something to sweeten the filling, a little starch to bind it together, a great crust, and you are well on the way to a delicious pie!

I decided to make a slab pie - they are quickly becoming my favourite, as they allow for a solid crust to filling ratio - if the crust is your favourite part of a pie, I highly suggest giving a slab pie a go! I have been meaning to try a herringbone lattice on a pie that wasn't round for a while now, and it worked out far better than I could have imagined! The herringbone looks tricky but as long as you have enough pastry and follow the tutorial carefully, it comes together easily. You could put whatever top you like on this pie - even just a flat top with a crimped edge would look great!

A few wee notes:

I made this in a quarter sheet pan (9" x 13") - you could definitely scale it if you wanted, but I would make it in two quarter sheets rather than one big half sheet if you did.
Because of the herringbone lattice I chose, I used quite a lot of pie dough. If you were wanting to do a different lattice with spaces between the strips, you could cut down on the amount of dough you make a little.
Pie freezes beautifully! If you were wanting to make your pie ahead of time, pop it in the freezer once you have assembled (do NOT egg wash until you are ready to bake), and allow it to freeze solid before wrapping well and storing until ready to bake. You will have to adjust the baking time a little to allow thawing time, but just transfer straight from the freezer to the oven and bake from frozen, do not thaw first.
Pie dough is best if made the night before you need it, to give it sufficient time to rest. It works best if you make it in two batches.
If you prefer your apples peeled by all means go ahead, but I prefer to leave them unpeeled, and I like to use a microplane to slice them!

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Miso Caramel Apple Pie

It doesn't feel at all like autumn, even though there are already apples and pears at the green market. The days are still hot and humid, and it's all too tempting to flick on the air conditioning and pretend that it isn't boiling outside. I am right in the middle of a bunch of travel (we leave for the Saveur awards TODAY and I am v nervous but also v excited! You can follow along on stories!), so hopefully once we make it back it will be well and truly warm clothes weather.

I head to San Fran the day after getting back from the blog awards, and then we are going to PARIS!! I am in the middle of an epic planning list, and spend my free time reading up on other bloggers who have been there, just to plan out the list of the eats. I can't wait! We used to travel heaps when I was little, but it was mainly to Canada. Europe is crazy far from New Zealand, so we are going to hopefully make the most of living on this side of the world and visit as many places as we can while we live here!

I'm just going to pretend that it's sweater weather though, because there is pie to be made! I riffed on the traditional salted caramel apple pie, by adding a little miso to the caramel. The first time I made it was when Jill and I made Claudia's miso butterscotch sauce to add to something that we were making. I was super on the fence about adding miso to caramel, but we found ourselves standing over the stove, eating it by the spoonful. The miso adds an amazing umami flavour to the caramel, which cuts through the sweetness perfectly. It goes amazingly with the apples - this is probably one of my favourite pies to date.

A few wee tips for Miso Caramel Apple Pie

Both the pie dough and the caramel can be prepared the day before you make the pie - the dough is best if you can give it an overnight rest.
Have everything all ready to go when you make the caramel, because things move quickly.
I added a braided border to the pie, and covered up the little joins by using stamp cut-outs, which are my fave way to fancy up a pie with very little effort.
I like using a wee tip that my friend Erin taught me to make the pie dough nice and smooth and easy to work with. I make the dough, shape it into two rectangles, rest it in the fridge wrapped for about an hour, then remove it and roll it out into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface. I then give it a letter fold (as you would a letter), roll out to a rectangle, letter fold again, then roll out slightly, and shape into a disc. I then re-wrap it, and leave it to rest overnight. This makes the dough more homogenous without compromising the flaky texture that you want in the pie dough, and it makes it a total dream to work with. For me, it’s a game changer.

For more apple recipes, check out:

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Answers to your baking questions

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I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Earl Grey Layer Cake with Vanilla German Buttercream

Earl Earl Grey Layer Cake with Raspberry Filling and Vanilla German Buttercream - A delicate earl grey infused cake, filled with a tart raspberry filling, and finished with a creamy vanilla bean German buttercream

Earl Grey Cake with Raspberry Filling and Vanilla German Buttercream - A delicate earl grey infused cake, filled with a tart raspberry filling, and finished with a creamy vanilla bean german buttercream

Earl Grey Layer Cake

Hiii! Apologies again for the silence - I've been doing a load of travelling recently, and it feels as if I'm only just managing to stay on top of things! I just got back from an amazing weekend in Colorado celebrating Tieghan's new book! There's a few days back in the city, where I have been recovering from mild altitude sickness (I am NOT built for the mountains), doing laundry, and hugging the cats, then on Saturday we head off again to Charleston for the Saveur Awards! I am so, so excited - I will pop as much as I can up on IG stories if you would like to follow along there!

I'm going to keep this one short - I have been meaning to share this Earl Grey cake with you for the longest time, but haven't gotten around to making it to post. This is one of my absolute faves, and always seems to wow even the most skeptical of cake eater. This cake holds a special spot in my heart - it was the top tier flavour of our wedding cake, and I made it again two weekends ago to include in a friend's wedding cake!

How to make Earl Grey Cake

The Cake itself is flavoured with an earl-grey infused milk, reinforced by ground tea leaves in the cake itself. The result is a beautifully coloured, delicately flavoured cake, which serves as the perfect canvas for whatever you would like to pair it with. For this version I actually took the filling of the vanilla cake that I made, which was a quick raspberry jam situation, and used it in this Earl Grey cake - the slight tartness of the raspberry offsets the bergamot flavour of the cake.

Vanilla German Buttercream

Creamy silky German Buttercream finishes off the flavour profile and pairs so well with the Earl Grey Cake. German buttercream is most definitely my favourite - it is pastry cream based, so doesn't have that intense buttery taste of swiss or italian buttercream. You can infuse it with all sorts of things, and it's nice and stable at room temp which makes it perfect for using in things like wedding cakes!

Decorate this Earl Grey Cake any way that you like - I had been eyeing up those pretty yellow flowers that I added to the cake every time I walked past them at the corner store, so I paired them with some rice flowers and a little greenery for a super simple semi naked finish.

A few wee notes for making Earl Grey Layer Cake

Both the pastry cream for the buttercream and the raspberry filling will need time to cool completely, so allow time for this - either make them first and cool in a shallow dish (more surface area = faster cooling), or prepare the day before.
Make sure that the cakes are completely cool before assembling - if possible I like to make them a day ahead or early on in the day so that they can have some time wrapped in plastic in the fridge before assembling.
Stems of flowers need to be taped before they touch the surface of the cake - florist tape is great for this

More Layer Cake Recipes

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Individual Steak and Mushroom Pies

Hi! I'm back! I've only been gone for two weeks, but loads and loads has happened in that time! We got back from the wedding / our road trip up Cape Cod, both of which were SO AMAZING. I had planned on getting a few posts up while we were up at the place we were staying for the wedding, but got all caught up in making an army of wedding cake / food / winery tours / catching up with everyone I hadn't seen in forever! I hauled some serious ass to get a bunch of things shot before we left (salted caramel apple babka and home-made Jelly tips, uhhhh hello!), so I have a couple of delicious recipes coming your way very soon! We got back a few days ago, but i've been having some me time / hiding from the internet for a little bit just to have a wee break!

I have been sitting on this recipe for a while, waiting for it to cool down a little before I shared it. Having your oven on for 3 hours in the middle of summer isn't the most ideal of situations, and I endured a very sweaty few days testing and re testing these when it was well over 30˚ outside. Don't do it.

While most food in the States is fairly similar to what we have back home, one of the things that they haven't seemed to catch onto very much is individual meat pies. If I asked you if you wanted a pie in NZ, this is what I would be referring to - a flaky crusted pie, filled with a savoury meat filling. You can buy pies at almost every bakery / corner store / petrol station in New Zealand, and as far as I am concerned, they are they ultimate comfort food. They are hugely popular as lunch for tradesmen / builders back home, or as a quick hungover pick me up.

You can get pies at a couple of places here in NYC, but I have found that they aren't quite the same - they don't quite hit the spot, so I set out to make something for myself! I went with a fairly simple filling - a classic steak and mushroom. The filling is totally cooked down to a meaty rich gravy situation, before being assembled along with the pastry crust and lid. These can be made in bulk and frozen, or they would be perfect for a dinner party served alongside a side salad. Enjoy!

A few wee notes:

If possible, give your pie filling time to cool completely in the fridge - it makes the assembly process much easier when everything is cold!
You will need to re-roll some of the dough to make enough lids for the pies - pop it in the fridge for 10 minutes or so before re rolling
I made this in my dutch oven which meant I could sear the meat etc on the stove and then transfer, but you can easily do it in a frying pan / casserole dish set up!
Cooked pies freeze really well, just reheat them in the oven!
I used these mini pie dishes - they are super cheap, and my fave!
This mixture would likely make 1 - 2 larger pies.

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Overnight Cinnamon Buns with Cream Cheese Frosting

These overnight cinnamon buns are made with an overnight brioche recipe. They are filled with cinnamon sugar and pecans. These Easy Cinnamon Rolls are the perfect make ahead cinnamon roll recipe.

Breakfast time is the part of my birthday that I look forward to the most. I almost always end up awake before everyone else (which is predictable when you wake up at 6am every morning anyway), and I like to take a little second with just me before everyone else gets up.

This year I popped out for a quick walk on the beach, then woke Rich up and made him come for a walk into Montauk Town to buy a rolling pin, because cinnamon rolls were the first order of the day. An hour later the house was filled with the amazing smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls, which I loaded up with cream cheese frosting as soon as they came out of the oven. We ate them straight out of the tray, as soon as they were cool enough to touch. It was an awesome start to what would be an epic birthday.

The best part about these rolls were that the dough was made the night before and left to rise in the fridge overnight, meaning that the working time in the morning was kept to a minimum. The house we were staying at didn't have a mixer, so I mixed these by hand - it took a little longer, but still worked just as well! Once they had gone to bed with the rest of us, the next morning I rolled them out, then I filled them with a simple mix, melted butter, cinnamon sugar, and a solid dose of pecans. They then have a quick rest in the pan while the oven is preheating, before being baked until they are golden brown. Total time from waking up to cinnamon rolls in your belly is only about an hour and a half. More than ideal. The dough is light and fluffy, the filling sweet and flavoursome, with a little crunch from the pecans, and the cream cheese frosting can't be skipped.

A few wee notes:

A stand mixer comes in handy, but you absolutely don't need one, plus you get a solid arm workout to boot
Leave out the pecans if that isn't your jam.
The frosting makes enough for a generous layer, and it is quite sweet, so feel free to cut back a little on it if you don't want it as intense (it's good though, you should keep it all on there)

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Answers to your baking questions

Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:

I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Salted Caramel No Churn Ice Cream

Our oven broke this weekend. Without any warning. I went to put in a batch of cinnamon rolls, and opened the oven to realise that there was zero heat in there. NOT ideal when you spend your life using the oven, but also not surprising that it kicked it seeing as how hard I work it. This is the second time it's broken this year, so I am secretly hoping the landlord offers to replace it, in which case I have a load of links ready to send him with my requests. Dreams are free. Luckily we have a little convection oven at the studio which Rich popped over and picked up (he went willingly, the man does love cinnamon rolls), so we were still able to have cinnamon rolls, and the oven got fixed today. All is well.

Ice cream is the perfect "my oven is broken" food. Ticks all the boxes. And as much as I love my Ice Cream maker, there is something extra awesome about no-churn Ice cream. I was totally blown away the first time that I made it - apart from being a bit more melty than regular ice cream, the texture and taste is pretty spot on when you compare it to a churned ice cream. It's a teeny bit sweeter, but just as easy (if not easier) to customise than churned ice cream, and definitely much less effort - you can have a batch whipped up in 5 minutes, and it will be ready to go as soon as it has frozen!

I kept it pretty simple this time around and added in a salted caramel drizzle between the layers of the ice cream. The Caramel is a super simple recipe - sugar is cooked until it is a lovely toasty amber colour, which you then deglaze with butter, before stirring in some cream, and a healthy dose of salt.

A few wee notes:

The recipe I have included for the caramel makes much more than you need, but in my opinion, if you are going to go to the effort to make caramel, you might as well make a good sized batch - it keeps for a really long time, and is so good on everything!
You don't need a stand mixer for this recipe - electric beaters work just as well, or a whisk if you are feeling energetic!
Have everything ready to go when you make the caramel, as things can move quite quickly!
Watch the sugar for the caramel very very carefully as it can turn very quickly
The Salted Caramel needs time to cool fully before you use it, so make sure you account for this.
Remaining salted caramel can be stored in the fridge - just allow it to stand at room temperature to soften slightly before using, otherwise you can microwave it in 15 second bursts to soften.

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Answers to your baking questions

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I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!

Blueberry Rhubarb Slab Pie

Blueberry and Rhubarb Slab pie - the ideal summer dessert for feeding a crowd! Flaky homemade pie crust is filled with a blueberry rhubarb filling before being topped with fun pie dough decorations then baked to perfection. #blueberry #rhubarb #slabpie #familypie #blueberryrhubarb

It was my Birthday on Monday and I couldn't think of a better way to spend it than at the beach. I've raved about Jill and her family many times before, but I honestly don't have enough words to explain how grateful I am that we have found an little family extension in this crazy city, and that I was able to spend my birthday with them! As the biggest home body, having something that feels like home and people that feel like family in a big city so far from home just means the world to me. It's hard to get back to NZ as much as I would like (it's super far away), so being able to join in on some family action every now and then is just the best ever. I had an amazing day Monday - we went to the beach and watched the eclipse, then had an amazing dinner right on the water.

Carrying on from last year's yesterbirthday pie, I figured it was only fair that we make it happen again and it become a birthday tradition! On our expeditions around the farm stands we picked up some blueberries, and I was super excited to find some rhubarb, so a blueberry rhubarb pie was definitely on the cards. I have been meaning to make a slab pie for a long time now - they are pretty quick and easy to throw together, and are perfect for feeding a crowd. We got a little fancy and added a braided edge and some stamped cut-outs, but it would be just as amazing with a simple lattice on the top. We fluffed around in the kitchen making and shooting this yesterday, then ate slices of it, still warm, loaded with vanilla ice-cream. The best. The filling was jammy and not too sweet, and set up perfectly. Deffo making more slab pies. You should too.

A few wee notes:

Apologies for being that guy who posts a rhubarb recipe so late in the summer, but it still seems to be available! If you can't get your hands on any, sub in some extra blueberries. You may have to dial back the sugar content a little.
We managed to make this with a 1.5x recipe of my usual double pie crust. It made a base, a braided edge and lots of pastry stamps. However there was a lot of re-rolling scraps, so if you would like to do a lattice top, or not have to worry about scraps, I recommend using the quantities listed here (which is a double of my regular recipe). I like to make it in two batches just to help keep things cold!
We made this in a Jelly Roll Pan (10" x 15"), but if you don't have one, a quarter sheet pan (9" x 13") will work too - just adjust the amount of filling slightly! We made the stamped cut-outs with these and these! Pie stamps are one of my fave things - quickest way to add a little fancy to a pie! I find that freezing the rolled out dough for 10-15 mins before you stamp it helps get a nice clean cut.
Pie dough is best if made the night before!
Top this bad boy however you want - with pie stamps, braids, a lattice, the choice is yours!

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Peach and Blueberry Pie

Does looking at a certain set of photos evoke certain memories for you? For me, I can look at a photo and be transported right back to the moment it was taken. Whether it be a wedding photo, a quick iphone snap during christmas chaos, or a day spent making pie in a close friend's kitchen.

When you have good fruit, making a pie should be a formula rather than a recipe. Fruit + pastry + starch + sweetener. All of these factors can be adjusted depending on the fruit - adjust the starch if your fruit is particularly juicy, tone down on the sweetness if the fruit is particularly ripe and sweet. Taste as you go, and adjust to what feels right - once you have made a few pies, you get your eye in, so you can look at the filling and know whether you need to add something to help soak up the juice, or leave some of the liquid behind when you transfer to the dish so that the bottom doesn't go soggy. I have included a recipe here, but if you are using fresh fruit, feel free to adjust both the starch level and the sweetness depending on the sort of fruit you are working with - sour berries can change the amount of sugar you need by up to half a cup. I suggest sticking with this crust though - it's a winner, my absolute fave.

A few wee notes:

Pie dough is best prepared the night before - I find that it makes it much easier to work with.
I peeled my peaches by boiling a large pot of water, and preparing an ice bath. I then scored a cross in the bottom of each peach, placed them in the boiling water for 20 seconds, then transferred immediately to the ice bath. The skins should slide right off.
Feel free to add whatever lattice / top to this you want - we went with a simple 'fattice'. (Fat lattice)

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Mixed Berry Meringue Stacks with Mascarpone whipped cream

Meringue stacks with vanilla bean mascarpone whipped cream and fresh berries. The perfect, simple, throw together dessert that can be easily made ahead and is easy to feed a crowd

We have zero space for a BBQ, which bums me out on the regular, because having people round for a BBQ is one of my FAVE things ever to do. Granted, I'm not that great at the actual BBQ part, but there's something about having people around, cooking outside, and keeping things simple. I grew up in a house which was somewhat of a railway station - there were always a few extras here and there most of the time, so grew up with communal meals happening almost more frequently than just us sitting around the dinner table. Mum and Dad have a swimming pool at their house, so in the summertime our house becomes a hub for our friends and family, and most evenings end with a bbq meal outside. Having a BBQ is one of the things I look forward to when I finally have a house one day of my own, along with grass, and a washing line.

My favourite thing about having loads of people around all the time when I was younger, was the desserts. Always an opportunity to make something to be shared. I usually just rotated through the few things I knew how to make, sometimes trying something a little different. Sometimes Mum would make a giant pavlova, topped with cream and berries.

These meringue stacks are a little nod to summer desserts and the BBQ I wish I had. The meringues themselves are super easy to make, and can be made ahead (they are actually best made ahead so that they have time to fully dry out). That way when it comes to serving, all you have to do is set out some berries, quickly whip some cream, and pop it all on the table for people to build their own desserts. It is quick and easy and relatively fuss free, while still being crazy delicious. It's a great way to use up that jar of egg whites in your fridge (maybe that's just me that always has that - I'm sure not everyone tests a custard recipe requiring 6 yolks, four times in a row), and you can tailor them to however you like, or whatever is on hand - they would be amazing with roasted or fresh stone fruit, or some quickly poached rhubarb.

A few wee notes:

Meringues can be kind of finicky - you want to dry them out rather than baking them, so low and slow is the way to go. I like to bake them the night before I need them, and leave them in the oven with the door cracked a little to let them cool overnight. Once they are done, store them in an airtight container because they will get sticky with moisture.
The meringue recipe I have used here is super scaleable - It's just 1 part egg whites to 1.5 parts sugar by weight, so to adjust it accordingly if you have a certain amount of egg whites, simply multiply the amount of egg by 1.5 to give you the sugar quantity!
This recipe (it's a swiss meringue) is enough to fill 2 baking trays with meringue - I used an Ateco #828 tip to pipe them, but you could use whatever you have on hand - or even just spoon little mounds onto the baking tray. Because you are just drying them out, rather than baking to a certain stage, you can have a range of different sized meringues on the same tray - I made mainly nests, then piped some kisses too to go alongside.

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Scones with Roasted Peaches and Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream

For notes on cheese or date scones, please see the note below the recipe in the recipe card. Separate how to on these recipes is coming soon!

I have a wee list in the back of my head that I keep adding to - the list of 'New Zealand things that have the same name, as something American, but are definitely not the same thing'. Scones are the latest thing to land squarely upon this list. When I think of a scone, I think of buttery, flaky layers, and something that isn't too sweet.

I was surprised, on arriving in America, that scones here were, in fact, nothing like what I had grown up on. They tend to have a crumbly texture, much less tender than what I would expect, and are often intensely sweet. Similar, but not really. Still yum, but just different. What we refer to as a scone probably draws more similarity to an American 'biscuit' in that the insides are tender and flaky, the result of butter being rubbed into flour until it is just combined, which produces lovely layers when baked. I am actually yet to try an American scone recipe myself

Mum makes the best scones. Hands down. They are yet another thing that she can somehow pull out of thin air to feed a crowd. This recipe is based on hers, which is very much a guideline of ingredient quantities. Hers are always super consistent, but I figured for my own sake I would put some numbers next to the ingredients so mine bear a resemblance to the batch before them.

Seeing as we are smack bang in the middle of stone fruit season, I topped these with some of my favourite things - roasted fruit, and vanilla bean whipped cream. Roasting fruit, particularly when it is at it's peak, brings out the most amazing flavour, and really allows the fruit to shine. I love to do a big batch after a visit to the farmer's market, and use it on lots of things throughout the week - over yoghurt with granola, in smoothies, and straight off the spoon. The roast peaches pair perfectly with the pillowy vanilla bean whipped cream, and stand up perfectly against the fairly savoury scone. This is a perfect morning or afternoon tea treat if you have guests - or if you like, the scones are just as amazing with some butter and good quality jam.

A few wee notes:

Roast the peaches slightly ahead of time to give them time to cool.
I peel my peaches by cutting a cross in the bottoms, then putting them in boiling water for about 30 seconds, then transferring to an ice bath - the skins should slip right off! Alternatively you can use a veggie peeler.
This recipe makes 8 large scones - feel free to cut them smaller if you would like, just make sure that you adjust the baking time accordingly.
To make cheese scones, add in about 200g grated cheese after you have rubbed in the butter. To make date scones, add in 260g chopped dates after you have rubbed in the butter.
This recipe halves super well to make 4 massive scones or 6 slightly smaller ones!

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Rhubarb Almond Crumble with Kaffir Lime Ice Cream

Hiiii from where i'm still desperately clinging onto rhubarb season! Rhubarb doesn't have a season in New Zealand - it grows year round. Mum and Dad have a big plant in their garden that kind of looks after itself, aside from getting the odd dose of sheep poo on it every now and then (makes it grow so well), and getting almost entirely trimmed back whenever I am home. It's there whenever we need it, which is mainly in the winter, when the stone fruit is long gone until the next summer, so it's always a little strange to find myself in the middle of rhubarb hysteria every summer at the greenmarket. They are still selling it in our local supermarket, so as far as I am concerned, it's still here!

One of my favourite ways to use rhubarb is to pop it into a crumble. It is quick to prepare, and it really allows the flavour of the rhubarb to shine through. This particular crumble was made with my Mum in mind - every time I go home I buy far too much almond meal with great plans of making batches upon batches of macarons. Of course I never get around to it, so she is left with a pantry full of almond meal. So Mama bear - this one is for you! The almond meal gives the crumble a lovely dense toastyness, which is a nice change from the standard oaty crumble you often see. It pairs perfectly with the rhubarb, but would also make the perfect topping for any seasonal fruit. It can easily be prepared ahead, and is the perfect adaptable year-round dessert.

The obsession with my ice cream maker continues here too. I've just come out the end of 12 weeks of obsessively following Masterchef Australia, where they turn everything imaginable into ice cream, and clearly it has rubbed off on me. I wanted something delicate to pair with the rhubarb, so turned to the kaffir lime tree that Santa brought for Richard last Christmas. I was initially unsure about the flavour kaffir would give to ice cream, but was extremely surprised to find that it was just perfect - the flavour was extremely delicate, but still held its own against the tart rhubarb. I will most definitely be making it again, as it was a huge hit. We have a tree on our balcony, but you can buy kaffir lime leaves in most asian markets - look for the distinctive double leaf. If you are in a place where you can grow your own tree I highly recommend it - they do well inside in a pot, and the leaves give such amazing flavour to all sorts of dishes, both sweet and savoury.

A few wee notes:

This crumble is fairly topping heavy, which is how we like it - if you prefer a higher fruit to topping ratio, feel free to make less topping
This would work perfectly with whatever fruit you have on hand - peaches, plums, apples and berries, etc. You may need to adjust the sugar level to suit the fruit you are using.
This can be made ahead - assemble the topping, cover in foil, and store in the fridge until you are ready to bake.
Leftovers make the best breakfast!

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Sour Cherry, Blueberry, and rhubarb hand pies

Are you a pie crust, or a pie filling person? I am a big fan of a well-filled pie. A solid amount of fruit with each bite. Richard on the other hand, is squarely in the crust camp. His favourite pies of mine are the ones with intricate lattices (and therefore more crust), or individual pies. The heavier the sugar coating on the top, the better.

That is, until I made hand pies. A great measure of how much Rich likes something is how fast it disappears. If it's earl grey flavoured he won't touch it, if it's chocolate chip cookies he will make them himself off the blog if they aren't already in the house. Zucchini and banana bread last less than a day. If only I had his metabolism. Life isn't fair sometimes. Pie he is a bit take it or leave it on, but these bad boys disappeared REAL quick - to the extent that I had to hide some to take to a friend the next day.

We have just started getting fruit from our CSA over the last few weeks. It's been mainly blueberries and sour cherries. This was my first time baking with sour cherries - they are yet another thing we don't really get in New Zealand. I was a little skeptical at first because these ones in particular were VERY sour, but they baked down and gave the filling a lovely brightness, requiring much less sugar than I thought! Much to Richard's delight, these were a little heavier on the crust than most hand pies, because I used a rectangle of dough, then added a lattice on top, unlike the folded over or pocket form that pies usually take. I held back on the filling a little to reduce leakage (they still leaked a little bit, but it was worth it for the pretty lattice!) The blueberries paired beautifully with the sour cherry. I also had some rhubarb in the fridge (I can't resist buying it whenever I see it), so I filled half of them with rhubarb and blueberry. This might be my new favourite way to use up summer fruit - they were a huge hit with everyone who tried them!

A few wee notes:

I didn't purposefully leave the sugar off half of the pies - I just forgot to add it after I egg washed. They are definitely better with a sugary crust, but it was a quick and easy way to tell apart the two flavours!
A good cherry pitter is your friend - I use this one, and it's the best ever.
I used tapioca starch to thicken the filling for these. It works really well for pies that have a juicy filling. You can substitute corn starch in a pinch, but if you make pie often it's really worth picking some up - it will last forever, and is a little less gummy than corn starch or arrowroot.
Halve the recipe if you only want 7 pies - one batch of dough, and one of the fillings. Once you're on a roll though, it's easy to make lots.
If you don't want to muck around with the lattice on the top, just cut out 14 pieces of pastry, and make plain hand pies - place the lid on, seal with a little water, and press down with your fingers.
Fill these with whatever you like! This is just a guide really - I used what we happened to have on hand. You can just all cherries, all blueberries, etc. Just taste your fruit, and adjust the sugar as needed.
The lattice top is very much a quide. Go nuts and make them however you like - re roll scraps to make extra lattice if needed. I did a huge range just to see how they all looked!

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Chocolate earl grey ice cream sandwiches

Every now and then, my little mind is blown by something food related over here. Things that we just don't have in New Zealand. Strawberry shortcake, s'mores (we sometimes make something similar ish, but it's just not the same), and most recently, ice-cream sandwiches. I had never eaten an ice cream sandwich until I moved to America. The closest we have is two pink wafers, surrounding a slab of pre-wrapped ice cream. Totally pales in comparison to what an ice-cream sandwich over here is. The weird thing is, it's not like they are tricky to make, or require ingredients you can't get hold of in New Zealand, they just aren't a thing. That goes both ways though - there are so many New Zealand foods that haven't caught on here, things like our version of shortcake, tan square, louise cake, and savoury pies. More on the pies later - I have spent the last few days fine-tuning an epic steak and mushroom filling for pies which I will share very soon. In a classic me move, I have decided to do this right in the middle of summer, which of course involves the oven on for hours at a time. Not the most ideal, but it's going to be SO worth it, because meat pies are the best, and everyone needs them in their lives. I promise. Your hangovers will never be as bad again, because meat pies are the magic cure.

More on ice cream sandwiches - specifically, these chocolate and earl grey ice cream sandwiches. These are something special. My theory is, that if you take two things that are amazing on their own and combine them, you've hit a winner. Here we take a chocolate sugar cookie. The sugar cookies are everything you ever want in a cookie - crispy on the edges, chewy on the inside, and perfectly flat. We pair them with perfect circles of earl grey ice cream - ice cream that isn't too sweet, and has a lovely subtle hit of the bergamot flavour of earl grey, and the slightly bitter tannins of tea. I have been obsessively buying the Van Leeuwen Earl Grey ice cream for a few months now (it's a great choice because Rich doesn't like it, so it's all mine!), and I can safely say, that as an earl grey enthusiast, this tastes just like it. Sandwiched between two chewy chocolate cookies, the earl grey flavour bounces off the cookies in the most amazing way. This is the dessert you didn't know you needed.

A few wee notes:

The Chocolate sugar cookie recipe I used here is from the amazing Sarah Kieffer's book, the Vanilla bean baking book. I have made these maybe 10 times already - they never last longer than a day because they are so amazing, so when it came to finding a cookie to pair with earl grey, I knew these would be perfect. If you want a book filled with solid, reliable no fail baking recipes, pick a copy up. It's THE BEST.
If you don't like earl grey / don't want to make your own ice cream / can't be bothered with any of that carry on, you can absolutely use store bought ice cream. Simply allow it to soften (you will need 1 to 1 ½ quarts, or about a litre), spread it into a 9x13 pan lined with wax paper, and freeze until hard before you cut out using a cookie cutter. Alternatively, scoops of ice cream between cookies would also work perfectly. Don't like ice cream? Make the cookies anyway. They are epic.
I used a mixture of black cocoa and regular cocoa to amp up the chocolate flavour in the cookies. Using only plain cocoa is perfect too.
The cookie recipe makes about 24 cookies, if you use a 2 tablespoon scoop. The ice cream makes about enough for 9 circles, so you will have a few cookies left over. There will be some left over - store in a freezer safe container for scooping later.
The Ice cream base needs at least 2 hours to chill completely before churning, and then an additional 3-4 hours to solidify in the pan, so allow time for this! Don't forget to freeze your ice cream bowl!

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Mini peach pies

It's finally, FINALLY bbq season! Not that there will be much of it happening at our house - our building drew us in with an 'awesome outdoor space and amazing communal rooftop' when we were moving in, only to pull the roof off and close the outdoor space within a few months of us moving in, rendering this 'amazing space' essentially just a place to put everyone's crap from the roof. Luckily we have a few friends with nice back yards and bbqs, who are yet to be opposed to us showing up to their house with food.

BBQ season means stonefruit, and stonefruit means epic pies! Peaches are hands down my favourite things to put into pie. I made a whole load of mini pies to take to a friends birthday bbq on the weekend, and they were a total hit. The fun with mini pies is that you can play around with lattice combinations, so they all end up looking a little different. They are easy to eat, and everyone loves the idea of having their own individual dessert. Next on my list of mini pies is definitely something savoury - meat pies are everywhere in New Zealand. For some reason America hasn't caught on yet, which I am always surprised seeing how terrible they are for you!

These pies are super simple, but super delicious. I went with my favourite dough recipe, then kept the filling easy - beautiful ripe peaches, just a touch of sugar, some cornflour to help the filling set up, and some vanilla bean paste. Easy as that. The pastry bakes up to be amazingly flaky, providing the perfect base for the peaches to shine through, enhanced by the teeniest bit of sweetness and fragrance of vanilla. Because I over commit to almost everything I do, I spent a fair amount of time coming up with individual lattice designs for each one, but you could easily just do a simple lattice top on all of them, or even just a plain circle lid on each one with a few vents cut in to let out the steam. I went with a mixture of lattices, cut-out tops and shapes cut out with stamps.

This recipe is part of a fun blogger collaboration organised by the lovely Annie, Ruth and Rebecca! Check out their pages for the full list of bloggers participating, or the hashtag #summerlovespeaches on Instagram!

A few wee tips:

I used these mini pie dishes to make these - they are the perfect size for individual pies. I also made two in little rectangular pans, but you can use whatever size dish you have on hand!
I also used one of these to cut my lattice - highly highly recommend. It's super satisfying and you get lovely even strips.
I didn't peel my peaches, but if you are the sort of person who doesn't like peach skin, by all means go for it.
I lined all of the pie dishes first with pastry, and kept them in the fridge until I was ready to use each one. I filled them individually with the fruit mixture as I went, and did the lattices one at a time so that the others could stay cold in the fridge. This worked quite well, but if you are going with a quick lattice on the top you could definitely fill then lattice them all at once - just transfer them to the fridge as soon as they are done so that the pastry doesn't get too soft.
Because I was filling them individually as I went, I made up half of the filling, then once it was used up, made up the second half and kept going. The reason that I did this is because as the filling sits, the fruit releases some of it's moisture, which means that it gets a little juicy in the bowl. If you wanted to cut up all the fruit at once, transfer half to a bowl, squeeze a little lemon over to stop it going brown, and store in the fridge until you are ready to go.
I tripled my usual pie dough recipe, making it in 3 batches, and there was a little leftover once I was done. I like to end up with a little bit of dough left rather than not having enough - I roll out the bottom crust, then use the rest of the fresh unrolled dough for lattice, then go back and use the extras for stamps. Just make sure that you put the extra dough in the fridge, tightly wrapped, to have a chance to firm up before you use it again.
This recipe is easily scaleable to suit your numbers! If you were wanting to make just a single regular sized pie, use the one batch quantities for the dough, and use approximately 2-3 pounds of fruit.

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Brown butter rhubarb streusel tart

I have always, always loved recipe books. Books in general, really. When I was younger, I would cycle through the huge shelf of books on my bedroom wall, starting again at the beginning once I had made my way through all of them. I would happily lock myself away for hours at a time, lost in a book. I often carried one with me wherever I went, and I used to read in the car on long trips (I can’t even look at my phone in the car anymore, so I’m not quite sure what happened there).

Recipe books were no different. I remember spending hours sitting at the kitchen table reading recipes and looking at photos. My parent’s recipe book collection isn’t huge, but the ones they do have are now hugely familiar to me. There was one in particular which had full spread photos of different types of beans, seeds, grains etc, with a key on the following page indicating the corresponding names. I would sit and learn them all, until I had memorised every type of grain, bean or chicken drumstick coating.

When I started to take food more seriously than just making and eating the recipes that were familiar to me, the recipe book obsession became more serious too. As soon as I knew that we were going to be staying in NYC for at least the foreseeable future, I slowly started acquiring cook books - buying those recommended to me, getting sucked in at book shops, or sneaking them into the amazon cart for Rich to buy by mistake, so I could deny responsibility for the purchase (if you haven’t tried this before I highly recommend, it’s great fun).

One of the early books that I got, which is still one of my favourites, was the bouchon bakery book. It’s massive, with huge pages filled with beautiful pictures and intricate detailed recipes. I use it often to refer to for basic recipes such as pastry cream, but it also has some insane pastry recipes. If you are looking for a book that challenges you a little, but also is filled with amazing recipes, I highly recommend this! The recipes are super detailed, and the recipes are measured in grams, which makes it super easy to follow. If you haven’t got a kitchen scale yet, just do it. It will change your life. Seriously.

One of the recipes I have been eyeing up since I got the book was one for this brown butter rhubarb streusel tart. The picture in the book is insanely beautiful - a thin layer of rhubarb, cured in grenadine, sits on a thin sweet short pastry. It is surrounded by a brown butter frangipane, and topped with a toasted almond streusel. The moment I saw it I knew I had to try it. And it wasn’t a fail! It turned out amazingly - the brown butter taste is super subtle, the pastry not too sweet, and the streusel rounds it all off and adds a little crunch. Although it seems like a lot of work and different elements (the rhubarb has to cure for 24 hours), most of them can be prepared the day before, meaning you can assemble all the elements and bake the tart on the day you are wanting to eat it. It is slightly time consuming, but totally worth it. I promise.

A few wee notes:

This recipe looks super intense, but with a little preparation, it is pretty easy to break up the steps. Allow yourself at least 24 hours for the rhubarb to cure and the pastry to rest
I put the rhubarb on to cure, made the pate sucree, and made and toasted the streusel the day before
I made this in a quarter sheet pan, as the recipe recommended, but if you don't have one you could most likely use a 9" x 13" baking tray. Quarter sheet pans are a great investment if you don't already have one!
I prepared the tart in the following steps:
1. Put the rhubarb on to cure
2. Make the pastry, and rest in the fridge
3. Make the streusel
4. The next day, Line the tin with the pastry, rest in the fridge, then blind bake
5. While the pastry is blind baking, drain the rhubarb and prepare the brown butter filling
6. Assemble and bake

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Apricot Shortcake

I had my first strawberry shortcake last fourth of July. I was blown away for a few reasons - one being that it was amazing, but the second being that I hadn't had it before. It's just not a thing in New Zealand. We have scones, which are different to American scones, in that they are more like a biscuit. We call cookies biscuits. It gets confusing fast. The closest we probably get to a strawberry shortcake is a scone with jam and cream, but that isn't the same.

What we refer to as 'shortcake' in New Zealand is two layers of short pastry, filled with some sort of fruit filling. Generally this is apple, and most New Zealand Grandmas have a banging recipe for it. It is drowned in icing sugar, and perfect for heroing seasonal fruit, or using up fruit that is a little worse for wear.

I have subbed the traditional apple filling for apricots, which have just started to pop up in NYC! Yaaaay for stone fruit season! Finally. Finally I can think about fruit without having to consider the over-wintered apples and pears, and start to incorporate fresh stuff into my recipes! Going to make all of the pies this year. All of them. The great thing about this recipe is that it is super versatile - i've had it with rhubarb before, and am definitely going to try it with plum or peach this season!

This is a fairly quick thing to throw together, if you don't count the 45 minutes needed for resting the dough. A quick short crust, with a hint of vanilla bean is mixed together, rolled out and placed in a pan. We then add a layer of apricots, with just enough sugar to take the edge off, and cover it with a second piece of pastry. It is then baked until golden brown, and soon after cooling, is ready to enjoy! It's the best, I hope you try it!

A few wee notes:

The pastry can seem a little fragile / crumbly. If you do get a little tear or hole in it, don't worry too much, just patch it up, it will all bake up nicely in the oven!
If your peaches aren't quite ripe, add a little more sugar in the filling. With that being said if they are very ripe, hold back a little on the sugar.
Make sure this is cooled completely in the tin before you remove it for slicing!
If you store this in an airtight container the shortbread will go soft, so if you would like it to stay a little crispy, store this out of a container lightly covered with a paper towel.

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Strawberry ripple and shortbread ice cream

Happy, happy Wednesday friends! Life has been a little quiet around here for us lately, which has actually been really nice. Quiet in that we haven't done much aside from work - caught up with a few friends, occasionally left the house, you know how how it is. We spend most of our time head down, butt up, working hard to play catch-up now that design week has finished. We are back in a nice routine - up at 6 every morning, a day of work, then in bed nice and early. Rinse and repeat. It's important for me to keep a pretty strict routine otherwise my old friend homesickness will bite me in the butt. We are also coming up on 9 weeks of fostering a mama and her 5 kittens, who are slowly being adopted out to forever homes! We got them when they were 3 days old, so to say I am attached is a bit of an understatement. It's equal parts heartbreaking and happy to see them go off to new homes! I'll miss them SO much, but it's been one of the most rewarding things ever to watch them grow from tiny little rescue worms to the cute little nuggets that they are now, ready to be big cats! I can't recommend it enough, if you have space in your home or time in your schedule to take in a foster, it's an amazing thing to do!

But let's talk about ice cream. Specifically, strawberry ripple and shortbread ice cream. I am somewhat of a newbie to making my own ice cream, but I can see how addictive it can be. The sky is literally your limit when it comes to flavour combinations, and it tastes so much better than the store bought version, particularly when you use fresh, seasonal ingredients. Strawberries are just starting to come into full swing here in NYC, so it made sense that they would be next on my list of ice cream additions! I love an ice cream that is interesting enough to be a dessert on its own, rather than just an accompaniment. So to help elevate the flavours and add a little texture, I added in some homemade shortbread. The crunch of the shortbread against the creamy vanilla ice cream base and the sweet strawberry ripple is pretty awesome if you ask me. This definitely isn't going to be the last time that I add cookies to ice cream. This would make the perfect summer dessert. Or anytime dessert. I had it for breakfast yesterday. It has fruit in it, so therefore it's healthy, right?! Right.

A few wee notes:

I used an ice cream maker for this recipe. I recently purchased it (I got the attachment for my mixer) and was slightly skeptical to begin with, but i'm totally in love with it now! Ensure that you freeze the bowl overnight before making this.
I have included a recipe for a full batch of shortbread - you only use 200g of shortbread in this recipe, so if you were wanting to only make enough for the ice-cream, I would halve the recipe, which will make more than enough. However, shortbread tends to get eaten in the space of 24 hours around here (it's really good!), so I highly recommend making the full batch. You won't regret it. Promise.
If you wanted to leave out the shortbread and just have a strawberry ripple ice-cream, that would work well too!
I like to make the custard, strawberry sauce and shortbread the day before I churn the ice-cream just to make sure everything has had a chance to cool completely.
Get the freshest, nicest looking strawberries you can. The strawberry really shines in this recipe, so making sure you have good ingredients will really help this!
I made mine in a loaf tin, which tends to work best as when it comes to assembling the ice cream, you need to layer the ice cream and the strawberry sauce.

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Peach and rhubarb crumb cake

And not just any cake. This here is a Peach and Rhubarb crumb cake. It starts with a soft vanilla cake, slightly tangy and dense from the addition of sour cream. It is then covered with a mixture of fresh peach and rhubarb, tossed in sugar, and finished off with a brown butter streusel, which is quite possibly one of the best things I have ever tasted. The fruit cooks down and lightly soaks the top of the cake, and each bite is lifted by the addition of the crunchy brown butter streusel. We ended up testing this recipe 5 or 6 times, each tweak improving the recipe slightly, experimenting with different fruit and quantities of streusel. And I think we are onto a winner here. This is going to be my go-to this summer, topped with whatever fruit is in season. It is fuss-free, you can transport and serve it from the tin that it is cooked in, and it is amazing either fresh and warm from the oven, or at room temperature.

A few wee notes:

This cake is extremely versatile - you can use whatever fruit you have on hand. I made it with frozen rhubarb as a test - keep the rhubarb frozen and adjust the cooking time slightly so that you don't lose the moisture it gives while the fruit defrosts.
If you don't have sour cream on hand you can sub greek yoghurt
It can be kind of tricky to tell when the cake is cooked, as the fruit and streusel tends to hide things slightly, and the fruit can coat your cake tester. If you notice cake batter on your tester, leave it in the oven for a bit longer, but make sure you are not mistaking fruit juice for uncooked batter.
If you are using ripe, sweet peaches, you will likely only require about 2 tablespoon brown sugar, however if they are slightly tart, adjust the sugar by adding an additional tablespoon

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Roasted rhubarb brioche doughnuts

Brioche doughnuts, roasted rhubarb, vanilla bean pastry cream, and vanilla sugar

Let's just take a moment to talk about doughnuts though. As much as I love cake, I think I quite possibly love doughnuts more. There is something about a perfectly fried dough, either glazed with an interesting flavour or stuffed with some sort of exciting filling that really gets me going. The contrast of the sweet filling or glaze against an enriched fluffy dough is the best. And I love how versatile they are - you can make an entire batch, and finish them off in as many ways as you would like.

Rhubarb season has just started here in NYC, and I almost feel a bit panicked to put it in as many things as I possibly can before it disappears from the greenmarket again. It grows year-round in New Zealand so I am used to having constant access to it, so this limited time period thing is kind of balls. I'm definitely going to make the most of it though - there are a few rhubarb recipes coming your way in the next few weeks so that you can make the most of it too! Including these doughnuts.

These doughnuts are really something else. A fluffy brioche dough, a vanilla bean pastry cream, roasted rhubarb, and then finished off with a vanilla sugar. The combination of flavours compliments each other perfectly. The sharp tart flavour of the rhubarb stands up to the sweet custardy pastry cream, and the vanilla sugar highlights the vanilla paste that is tossed with the rhubarb and stirred through the pastry cream. It seems like a lot of elements, but each one has a well-deserved place.

Rhubarb is notoriously sour, so I roasted it with a little vanilla bean and sugar to help take the edge off. It also makes it the most beautiful colour, and any leftover is perfect stirred through yoghurt, eaten with granola, or just straight up spooned into your mouth.

A few wee notes:

The pastry cream is best made the day before or at least a few hours before you begin to make the doughnuts, so that it has time to cool completely.
Rhubarb can be roasted while the doughnuts are proofing - just make sure that it is cool before you fill the doughnuts with it
I made these using a stand mixer - you can most definitely do it by hand, but it will take a serious amount of elbow grease, and you will need to ensure that the butter is extremely well incorporated when you add it in.
The vanilla sugar ideally needs a little time to dry out, so make it just after you put the brioche dough on.
Ensure that you do not over proof the doughnuts once they are cut out. The sign of a well proved doughnut is a small ring of pale dough around the middle of the doughnut.

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Cheeseboard with zucchini relish

It's happened. It almost happened overnight. New York has become a smelly, sweaty puddle of angry people, AKA summer. Yesterday I was wearing leggings and a long top (as per usual - I look like I have been dragged through a bush 90% of the time), and today I am all of the sweaty. So gross. I closed the windows and snuck the aircon on today 'for the kittens', because mama cat gets too hot and crazy stressed as soon as I even think about turning on the oven, so I gotta keep it pleasant for her. That's what i'm saying anyway. The kittens are suddenly almost 6 weeks, and have grown up so fast from teeny little squirmy sausages to the cutest things IN THE WORLD. I am low key obsessed with them, and I am already scared about saying goodbye to them. Does anyone want to adopt them? Ideally you will be ok with me coming around every day to snuggle them. I'll bring treats. I promise!

One of the only good things about this gross hot weather, aside from day drinking and excessive amounts of rosé, is cheese boards! Actually, that is a lie, cheese boards are amazing all year round, but there is something about sitting outside with friends and having an epic cheese board!

I usually have at least 5 types of cheese in my fridge at any given time, because I am often hungry when I go to whole foods and therefore have zero control, which results in excessive cheese purchasing. The number of cheese I have at any given time has only increased since I started spending time with my New York Mum, who is the cheese wizard. Every time I go around to her house I try a new crazy sort of cheese that she has, get addicted to it, and have to immediately make a special trip just to buy it. We went on a little adventure yesterday and ended up at a whole foods, where I got even more types to try! The best.

I tend to just throw whatever I have in the fridge on the board. I usually try to go for something soft, something harder, something interesting, and something goaty, and then just some interesting add-ons, something sweet, and some sort of relish. This time I went with a cumin seed gouda, a marinated sheep and goat feta that I am OBSESSED WITH and you must try immediately, and a Vermont Creamery Coupole. I had plans to also pop on a bit of sharp cheddar, but I think I got hungry and carried away, and found it on the bench after the shoot. I also added some almonds for a bit of texture, a really nice salami, and some preserved lemons, because they go on / in everything these days since I made a giant jar a few months ago. Then there was a little brick of home-made quince paste, which I inadvertently made a GIANT TRAY of back in quince season (will share the recipe this season), so we are still working our way though it 6 months later. Luckily it keeps well. I finished the board off with some crackers, a little fresh mint, and a home-made zucchini relish, which has become a total fave in our house!

The relish is a cheese board game changer. When we have guests round for dinner (which is usually 2-3 times a week because I much prefer having people round than going out), I plonk whatever cheese I have in the fridge on a board, and pop a jar of the relish next to it, so everyone can just make their own snacks. The relish is a lovely combination of sweet and tart, and is crazy easy to make. I always, always get asked for the recipe, so figured I would finally pop it up here! Provided you grate and sweat the zucchini and onion ahead of time, the actual cooking process is only about 20 minutes, and is super easy to scale if you were wanting to make a bigger batch. It's also great on sandwiches, sausages, scones, stirred into quiche, anything that needs a little lift in flavour.

A few wee notes:

If you are planning to store this, make sure that you have sterilised jars. I tend to use pint-sized mason jars, and I give the glass jars 15-20 minutes in the oven to kill any bugs. Make sure that you always use new lids - these can be bought separately.
Use a larger pot than you think you will need - this has turmeric in it, so splashes can stain easily. I like to also use plastic or metal utensils rather than wood to avoid turning them yellow.
Provided you get a good seal on your jars, this can be kept at room temperature until you are ready to use it. Once it is open, store it in the fridge.

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Carrot cake with cream cheese icing

Easter weekend!! We don't really have a huge amount planned - work as usual! We are meant to be getting some foster kittens tomorrow (!!), but they have cancelled on us so many times that I'm not letting myself get excited until they are actually here. Aside from that we might make a few photography surfaces - we are having a surface making weekend soonish with some friends, so Rich and I just want to have a sneaky wee practice first to make sure there aren't any big hurdles that we haven't thought about before we get to the real deal!

I did however make a carrot cake yesterday, which to me is the perfect easter cake! (I'm not sure why though, maybe because rabbits eat carrots? Who knows). I just went with my standard carrot cake recipe, baked into 3 six inch tins. The thing that I really like about this recipe is that it bakes very flat, so there is minimal leveling to be done once it comes to stacking time!

I also had a play around with some cream cheese icing recipes. In the past my cream cheese icing has been super floppy and soft (yummmmmm hahah), which makes it hopeless when it comes to piping and transportation. However if you add too much butter or sugar, it loses that punchy cream cheese flavour and you end up with something that tastes more like American Buttercream. So I made three different batches, each with different ratios of cream cheese : butter : icing sugar, and I think I managed to come up with a happy medium! This recipe still has a cream cheese taste, isn't too sweet or grainy, and sets up nicely in the fridge. It also pipes well, which to me is a huge win.

I was originally going to decorate this with a few blobs here and there, but once I got started I realised that it was far too fun piping the blobs, and I had icing to use up, so I went for it! Mini eggs somehow made their way on there too at some point. This method of decoration is super easy and crazy effective - I just filled four piping bags with different coloured buttercream. Each was fitted with a different size french piping tip, and from there I just piped blobs all over the cake, adding in mini eggs here and there! I used an ateco 866 tip, and three wilton tips - the 32, 4b, and 21, but you could really use any size here, these were just the ones that I pulled out of my decorating box first! You can't go wrong with this decorating method - it's a great way to use up excess buttercream, you don't have to worry too much about a super smooth under coat, and it would be a fun project to make with kids! Plus. Carrot cake and cream cheese. Can't go wrong really.

A few wee things:

I made this in 3 6-inch cake tins. I totally understand that not everyone will have these, so you could also make it in two 8-inch tins, or just do it all in one 10-inch tin and slice it in half before filling! Just ensure that you adjust the cooking time accordingly if you make it in a larger tin - approx 45 minutes for 8-inch tins, and 50-60 minutes for a 10-inch. Check it with a skewer in the centre of the cake - you want it to come out clean.
The blobs use up a fair amount of buttercream. If you were just wanting to do a standard carrot cake with cream cheese icing and not have the blobs, I have included two quantities of ingredients down below. It would also look nice with just a super rustic coat of icing, and topped with some easter eggs.
I found that the trick to a nice firm cream cheese icing which was best for piping was to use cold cream cheese, and butter that is only just at room temperature, to make sure that it stays nice and firm. I also popped it in the fridge while I was waiting for the crumb coat of the cake to chill down, and just gave it a good stir before using it again. If at any time you find it is getting too soft, just return it to the fridge for 10-15 minutes. The icing in the piping bags was at room temp for well over two hours, along with being handled, and still held its shape well though, so you should be fine!

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Earl Grey Buns

An earl grey infused dough, filled with an earl grey and brown sugar mixture, baked until caramelized, then finished with an earl grey infused glaze. A slightly different take on the classic cinnamon roll.

This week has been kinda weird. We have had three weeks straight of visitors. Which has been amazing, particularly as 10 days of that was my Dad! We had the best time ever. The downside though, is that going back to reality isn't really a whole lot of fun, particularly with Dad leaving. I am TERRIBLE at saying goodbye to him.

I have been struggling with really bad homesickness the last year or so. Like, REALLY bad homesickness. Which is kind of strange and hard to explain, because living on the other side of the world is definitely finite for us, and plans are in place to move home in the next two years or so (When the L train shuts?). Something will set me off, and it becomes a pretty quick downward spiral to being a non-productive shit. I find leaving New Zealand super tricky, and the slightest thing at home or in my life here can trigger it, which in turn triggers this weird anxiety. While staying home and hiding is the easiest option, it's not productive nor helpful for the situation. I have found that keeping busy, and sticking to a really strict routine helps. A 7am gym class that I force myself to go to regardless of how shitty I am feeling. Dinner at approximately the same time each evening. A time period that vaguely resembles a bedtime. All these little things really help to keep me grounded. And tired enough that I sleep well.

That and friends here in the city, who are always down to hang out! Living in a big city and working from home can get mighty lonely, but it seems a lot of us are in the same boat. I have met some incredible people through the food community, who have become IRL friends as well as instagram friends. Special shoutout to Jill, who has let me adopt myself into her family, and is always there with the hugs, cats, delicious food and the comfiest couch ever when it is needed. We have the best time totally trashing her kitchen, and some happy messes always come out at the end of the day!

A plus side of staying at home a lot is that you can obsessively recipe test. These buns were made in my kitchen on three different occasions throughout the week. The best. I dunno about you, but earl grey buns three times in a week is definitely something that I can get behind.

If you haven't had earl grey in a baked good / dessert before, you are seriously missing out. Unless you have a serious aversion to the flavour (mum reckons it tastes like swamp water?!?), it is a lovely addition, which takes the flavour profile up a notch. Personally I think it should be added to everything that can be infused - does it have milk or water in it? Yup? Infuse with earl grey? Does it have coffee? Yup? Sub it out with strong tea! I also like to add Bergamot extract to help enhance the flavour a little more.

I incorporated the earl grey into these in a few ways. I made an earl grey infused sugar, which went into the dough, filling and glaze. The milk in the recipe was infused with tea, which lightly coloured and flavoured the dough and glaze. I also added a little bergamot extract into the dough, which just helped pick the flavour up a notch. Even with the earl grey in all these forms, it's still not a kick-in-the-face flavour, just nice and subtle. The filling melts down to make a sticky earl grey situation at the bottom of the buns, which is just the best ever. Perfect straight out of the oven, with a hot drink.

I baked these in a 10" cast iron skillet, but they would work just as well in a lined cake tin or baking dish. I rolled out a 21 x 16" rectangle of dough, which resulted in a fairly long, skinny roll, which yielded 10 buns. If you wanted these a little bigger, I would make the rectangle of dough a little smaller (to make them a bit fatter), and cut into fewer pieces. Either way you can't go wrong.

If you were wanting to make these ahead of time, you can either do the first proof in the fridge and then roll out, fill, roll out and proof the next day, or you could get them to the filled and rolled stage, then do the second proof overnight. Just be sure to give them an hour or two on the bench to warm up slightly, and make sure they have puffed up and expanded in size before baking.

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Blood Orange Chess Pie

Far out. I am SO ready for spring. So, so done with this winter business. AND I'm totally being an ungrateful bastard, because we bailed back to NZ for the month of February, so we don't really have anything to complain about seeing as we weren't even here for a month of winter. But STILL. I can't wait for our CSA to start, and for there to be more fruit than just last year's apples, (Rhubarb!?!), and the start of fresh berry season, and just for my eyeballs to stop feeling like they are going to freeze.

The only good thing about this winter sticking around situation (apart from not having a sweat moustache on the subway), is the citrus! I was kind of worried that I had missed blood orange season while we were away, but I was so stoked to come back and see that they were still here! I love the colour of them, and the amazing flavour that they lend to whatever you put them in.

Single Crust Pie - Blood Orange Chess Pie

I had been eyeing up the lemon chess pie in the Four and Twenty Blackbirds pie book for a while (best book ever BTW), especially after the lovely Tessa made such a pretty version! I had some blood oranges that needed using, so I subbed the lemon juice in the custard for blood orange. It came out the most amazing pink colour! I was a little nervous baking it, as it was my first chess pie, but I made sure to watch it super carefully in the oven to make sure that it didn't overcook and cause the custard to split. The top of the pie went a nice golden brown colour, and underneath there was the pretty pink custard, which was lightly flavoured with the orange. So so good, and such a nice change from the double lattice pies I am used to falling back on.

The crust for this pie is par-baked before the filling is added in. I followed Tessa's tip and added a braid after the par-bake, but before the filling. I went for my usual trick and ran the dough through the pasta attachment on my kitchen aid, before doing a five-strand fishtail braid. I managed to get long enough pieces that I could do the braid all in one go, but I had to enlist the help of Rich to give me a bit of a hand! We made sure to calculate the circumference of the pie tin before we began, to make sure that we had enough braid to go the whole way around.

If you want to keep this as a lemon pie, just sub the blood orange juice for lemon! Easy as.

For more recipes with Blood Orange, check out:

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Triple Lemon Cake

Zesty lemon yoghurt cake, lemon curd, and lemon curd swiss meringue buttercream

Are you a new years resolution person? I used to be. I would carefully make myself a secret list, and then would head into the new year with great intentions and expectations, only to of course drop the ball about mid February (about the same time the gym starts to empty out after the January 'resolutioners' rush), and end up disappointed in myself. I tend to be way way too hard on myself, and end up working myself up into a big mess. This year I'm just going to try and do more of the things that make me happy. Which involves staying in on a Saturday if I want to (who are we kidding here, thats not an uncommon occurrence), and spending all day crocheting endless piles of wool while binge watching terrible shows when the need strikes. It also involves dinner parties on a Friday (possibly my favourite activity in the world), making more things, worrying less about what people think, and concentrating more on what I want. (Maybe I am still a resolution person?) I have also set myself a little goal of making an attempt to be more on time for things. I hate rushing, and somehow always end up putting myself in a situation where I am scrambling to get somewhere on time. I've started getting up five minutes earlier than I usually do, which means that I arrive at my 7am spin class with enough time to not be rushing in stressed. And damn, it is a good feeling!

This year also involves going a little easier on myself. I feel like the need to not have huge expectations of myself and the inevitable disappointment is even more important now that I live far away from home. It's a really weird feeling living a country so removed from home, and knowing that for at least the next few years, this is where you are going to be based. I've been here for two and a half years, and I feel like I'm still not used to parts of it. It's even more weird when you outstay lots of your friends - a lot of them come on one year visas, which then expire, and they head home. It's a very strange cycle of people entering your life, having an amazing time with them, and all of a sudden it's time for them to go home, and you are still here, still doing the same thing, just without those people in your life. It means that there are phases when there are a lot of people around and it is amazing, and then also phases when it feels as if theres nobody left here. Of course there are still friends here, it's just different.

Especially in winter. We all seem to just put our heads down and try and get through winter, myself included. And it gets quiet. It's when it's quiet that the homesickness sets in. I am a HUGE homebody. There's nothing I love more than hanging out with my family. We are all incredibly close knit, and I have a huge extended family who I am very very close with. I always find that during the winter when communication from home is filled with people enjoying the beach and the summer, things start to feel a little weird. Nothing seems exciting anymore, I get really really sick of the cold, and I have this underlying feeling of just wanting to be back in New Zealand. It also just happens to be a solid 25 hours of travel to get home, so it is times like that when the distance really becomes obvious. I usually end up trying to ignore it, and slowly just reverting into a little hole filled with all the things that I can find to make it bearable, followed by a minor meltdown, realising that I am homesick, and then making an effort to snap myself out of it. And then, I rinse and repeat. So this year is about recognising all of this early, and taking the steps to try and prevent the inevitable. We head home in two weeks for a good month at home, which is going to help a lot.

I am so, so lucky to have some amazing friends here though who really, really feel like family, and of course Rich, who is everything I could ever ask for. I spent the day yesterday with my amazing friend Jill. She has taken me under her wing a little and made me feel a part of the furniture at her place, and I honestly can't be more grateful. I always feel a little silly when I get upset about being far away from home (I'm 25, time to put on my big girl pants), but sometimes it just happens, and you need your Mum. Yesterday was exactly what I needed - we made pie and fluffed around in the kitchen chatting, then Rich came around for dinner with her and her family. When you are so used to a full noise family, you really miss being surrounded by people and food, and it was the most amazing feeling being back in that environment.

Cake always gives me a sense of family - I often make it to take to events. There are few things that are more comforting than providing food for others to enjoy. It's what I grew up associating with family.

This cake was a birthday present for a close friend of ours. The cake within is a dense lemon yoghurt cake that is a favourite of mine (it was the second tier of our wedding cake!) and the layers are sandwiched with punchy lemon curd, and fluffy swiss meringue buttercream which has more of the curd beaten into it, giving it a light and delicate lemon flavour. Curd and meringue based buttercream are the ultimate dream team - the curd uses egg yolks, while the buttercream uses up the whites, eliminating leftover whites or yolks that inevitably get thrown out despite your best intentions.

This recipe makes a large 8 inch cake, which would do you well for 12-14 servings, so perfect for a party. You could easily halve the cake recipe and bake the mixture in 6 inch tins, yielding a smaller cake. I finished this cake with a texture which came from an icing comb on the edge of one of my cake scrapers, but it would look amazing with a smooth finish, or with a rustic coat of buttercream. This cake actually did end up with a rustic coating - I rushed out the door with it before cooling it properly, meaning the buttercream was still a little soft, and the layers slid around a little on themselves while we were in the uber, making for an interesting re-structure once we arrived at our friend's. I managed to put it back together and gave it a quick rustic finish, and it looked like it had never had a fail!

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Gluten Free, Dairy Free Peanut butter cookies

My goodness, this week has been a shit show. Both Rich and I got hideous colds. Not just bad colds but the In bed for a week colds. THE WORST. Thankfully early January isn't too busy for us so we were able to hide away in our apartment until we weathered the sick storm. Of course now it is safe to come out it's bloody freezing outside. Can't win.

Today I finally felt better, so of course it was time to make cookies! I have made these a bunch of times but never gotten around to sharing them. bought a few sometimes from our local smoothie shop without realising that I had the recipe sitting at home. They are from the Ovenly cookbook, which is one of my faves, but I also took a lot of notes from the Queen herself, Deb of Smitten Kitchen. These cookies only have four ingredients - Peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla. You simply whisk it all up, scoop them out, and bang them in the oven and it is a done deal! They are fudgy on the inside, and a lovely level of sweetness, balanced out by flaky sea salt on the top. They also happen to be dairy and gluten free, by some sort of happy accident (which in my opinion is the best way!). THE BEST EVER AND YOU HAVE TO TRY THESE.

Ovenly suggests that you use Skippy peanut butter, which is, for those not from America, a smooth, more heavily processed peanut butter, as it helps them hold their shape well (For NZers, Kraft Smooth would work really well, otherwise any smooth peanut butter will work perfectly! I'm a big Eta or sanitarium fan)

I converted both the peanut butter and sugar measurements into grams because I dunno about you, but measuring peanut butter with a cup seems to be a recipe for disaster. If you don't have scales, I highly suggest spraying the inside of the cup measure with a little baking spray before you start so that the peanut butter slides out nicely. Trust me on this one, it makes things much less sticky. And there is far less chance of getting it in your hair (Trust me on that one too)

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Lemon and lime no bake cheesecake

One thing I am not unsure about however, is citrus cheesecake. "No bake" cheesecake is very much the standard in New Zealand, unlike the states (Or in NYC at least) where cheesecake generally tends to be baked. Both are delicious, but I just can't go past the simplicity and ease of a no bake cheesecake. You can adapt it almost any which way, it doesn't require a water bath or worrying about it cracking, it comes together incredibly quickly, and is super easy to make ahead. I am a huge fan of making dessert ahead of time if we are going somewhere or having people over, and cheesecake is perfect for this - you can make it the morning of, or the evening before.

The base to filling ratio for this is a little on the heavy side as far as the base is concerned, so if you are a thin base person, feel free to dial it back. If you don't have easy access to limes (I know they are hideously expensive in NZ), then just double the lemon quantities and leave out the lime all together. Make sure that you use full fat cream cheese to help with the stability. I used graham crackers for my base, but you can use any sweet biscuit which processes to fine crumbs. I find it easiest to make this in a spring form tin that is lightly greased, which helps hugely with serving - you can just unclip the sides and lift off the outer of the tin, and serve it straight off the bottom of the tin.

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Earl Grey Shortbread

It is unlikely that there is a recipe that is closer to my heart than the original of this recipe. It is my Grandmother's shortbread recipe, and for me, embodies everything that is the holidays. My Grandparents used to live right on the beach, and we used to go and stay with them for six weeks every summer. I am the second youngest of 18 grandchildren, and my Grandma was most definitely the head of the family. I have so many incredible memories filled with noisy family gatherings, lots of laughs, and loads of food. Coming from a big family who always had communal meals most definitely cemented in me that food was made for sharing with those who you love, and is something that will be with me for the rest of my life.

My Grandma was the biggest advocate of showing love through food. She was not only an incredible cook, but you could tell that what made her happiest was providing food to those she loved. And her shortbread. My goodness, it really was something else. There was always a big jar of it in her pantry, and it seemed that it was always full. It used to come out every time a cup of tea was had (which in my family is fairly often). It was an absolute favourite with all members of the family. An even bigger treat was being allowed to help her make it. I got some of my love of baking from her, with many many happy hours spent standing on a chair pulled up to the bench, eating as much of the mixture as I could while helping mix the bowl.

I now have my Grandma's recipe book, and it is easily one of my most treasured possessions. Most of the recipes are hand written in her loopy writing, and there is something about the way that the method is written out that means that when I read it back to myself, I can hear her saying it.

This shortbread recipe actually came from my Great Great Grandmother. I have tweaked it slightly with the addition of Earl Grey, which adds a delicate floral flavour without being too overpowering. The earl grey flavour comes from very finely ground tea leaves, accented with a little bergamot extract (which is totally optional, I am a die hard earl grey fan so love having a strong flavour in there). I initially tried infusing the butter with tea, which produced a crazy green butter, but also shortbread with a weirdly wet exterior, which I think was due to the tea absorbing the water in the butter, which changed the consistency of the butter, resulting in a strange shortbread. Ground tea and bergamot extract yielded a much nicer finish.

For regular shortbread which is just as amazing as it's earl grey counterpart, omit the ground tea and bergamot extract.

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Peppermint bark brownie cake

Its finally almost Christmas! So exciting! This will be our first one in the city, which is kind of weird seeing it is my third and Richard's fifth one in America! We always end up either spending it at home in New Zealand, meeting our family somewhere that's warmer than NYC, or going to Canada to spend it with our Canadian family when the trip to NZ is too long. I am so excited to finally be starting our own wee Christmas traditions. We are getting a tree this week, then spending the actual day with a bunch of friends who also aren't spending it with family. I can't wait.

And what better way to highlight peppermint and chocolate than with more peppermint and chocolate? I paired the bark with a super rich brownie cake, layered with Italian buttercream and crushed bark, and finished with bark shards on the top! This would be perfect to take to a holiday party or to serve on Christmas day. The richness of the brownie means that you only need to have a little bit, making this perfect to feed a crowd! (or you know, just eat by yourself!)

I went with a petal technique with the buttercream on the outside of the cake. This is simple and effective, and only requires a piping bag and a small offset spatula (or you can use the back of a spoon or a knife). You could also just give the cake a smooth layer of buttercream and it would look just as effective!

I used Italian buttercream in the recipe as I wanted something that I could make super red to reflect the red and white in the bark. I have found that the best way to make buttercream really vibrant colours is to add the food colouring to the sugar syrup that you use in the recipe. That way it is all nicely dissolved, and you don't have to worry about it not incorporating (buttercream has so much fat in it from the butter that sometimes it makes it tricky to totally mix the colouring in without it having a 'grainy' look to it). The way that I did it meant that I needed to make two separate batches of buttercream. If that isn't for you then you can just double the recipe of the white buttercream and divide and colour it after you have mixed it.

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Flourless Chocolate Cake

Damnnnnn things have been so so busy! We have been crazy busy over at the stuido - a couple of huge projects coming up coupled with general christmas rush means that we have been pulling some intense hours. All we have to do is make it through until Christmas, then January is always nice and quiet so we can have a little break, then in February we are going to New Zealand!

We have been having some fairly epic 3pm slumps in the studio, so I have made sure that there is always some sort of treat around for everyone to have a nibble on when they have a wee break from cloud land. This cake is the perfect cure for the 3pm slump - it is a straight hit of dark chocolate, mellowed out by a little butter, and held up by whipped eggs. I halved the original recipe to give a smaller, higher cake, which I think works well in comparison to the majority of flourless chocolate cakes which are fairly flat. The simplicity of this is what makes it amazing - it is literally just chocolate, butter, eggs and sugar, which really allows the ingredients to shine.

The final product of this depends entirely on your chocolate quality. I use a Callebaut 70% chocolate which is Belgian - I would recommend something that has at least 70% cocoa solids. The cake has a solid half a pound of chocolate in it, and it really stands out, so you need to make sure you use something which tastes good alone as well as in baking.

If you do choose to double this, pop it in an 8 inch pan - it should end up a similar height! I halved the original recipe because I feel as if there are far too many massive cake recipes out there - this would be perfect for having a few people over for dinner, or taking around to a friends house, or just having for a 3pm studio slump pick-me-up! It serves about 6.

I have adapted this recipe from the Mast Brothers book - weird controversy aside, their book has some bomb recipes in it for all sorts of chocolate situations, both sweet and savoury! I love it. They have a beautiful space in Williamsburg where they make (I went and watched them grinding the beans) their chocolate from scratch.

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Apple pie cake

Milk bar's Apple Pie Cake has layers of apple cake, liquid cheesecake, pie crumbs, and cooked apple. This milk bar cake is the perfect dessert for apple lovers.

Milk Bar Apple Pie Cake

My lovely friend Lisa was staying with me this week! I originally met her in a facebook group I was a part of, where we bonded over our love of all things sweet, and just food in general. We then somehow managed to become part of the best girlboss gang ever, the Sugar Hoes, comprised of both of us, and our friend Bets, who runs a badass cake shop and sweet cafe in Auckland! (They have some of our clouds there, making it the coolest cafe in NZ)

Lisa is an incredible pastry chef, and it also happened to be her birthday while she was staying! So of course, cake was a must. I must admit that I secretly felt a huge amount of pressure making a pastry chef a birthday cake, but at the end of the day I ended up roping her into helping me so everyone won!

I recently (I am aware that I am a good four years late to the party) got the Milk bar cook book, and after a failed attempt at getting peaches from the farmers market for a cake for Lisa, we ended up with a bag of apples, and this book open on the table. I had been wanting to try making something from the book for a while, but was low key intimidated by the aspect of acetate within the cake rings to help hold everything together, so figured there was no better time than when I had a trained eye helping me!

Components of Apple Pie Cake

The Apple pie cake has what feels like a zillion components to it - A brown butter cake which is cooked in a sheet pan, a cider soak to help keep the cake moist, liquid cheesecake (barely cooked cheesecake mixture), pie crumbs, then an apple pie filling. You then rinse and repeat this three times until you have a super complex looking wee stack, then top it off with some buttercream which has blitzed pie crumbs in it! What a mouthful (quite literally).

The resulting cake however, is nothing short of amazing. Everything ties together perfectly, and we ended up making six miniature 3 inch cakes rather than one six inch like the recipe, and OH MY they are too cute!! I used six three inch cake rings which we lined with strips of acetate. You layer all of the things in the lined rings, then pop them in the freezer for about 12 hours, peel off the acetate, and you have the prettiest layer cake ever! I love that you can see all of the individual components up the side!

Milk Bar Apple Cake

I pretty much followed the recipe from the book, except I skipped the apple cider soak, and in it's place used reduced cooking liquid from the apple pie filling component, thinned out with a little apple cider. I would also highly recommend making the pie crumb with brown butter - it gives it an amazing nutty taste which ties in well with the cake flavour.

Because this recipe is very component heavy, and there is also a freezing time in there (which helps to make the acetate removal nice and tidy), this is definitely something you are going to want to make the day before, and assemble the evening before you need it, so that it has time to freeze. I ended up doubling the recipe in the book to give me six teeny baby cakes, so this recipe will make two six inch cakes, or six three inch cakes. I would definitely halve it (the original recipe) if you are making just the one six inch cake - these are super sweet, and I still have three in my freezer I am slowly giving to people!

With that being said, it doesn't actually take much longer to make double the recipe, and this keeps well in the freezer, so you can definitely have some now and save some for another time! I had a fair bit of cake scraps leftover, but they are sitting in my fridge next to the leftover buttercream, ready to be made into cake pops!

One more thing - this is the sort of recipe where if you don't use a kitchen scale, now is the time to start. I am a huge fan of working in grams (Partially/extremely biased as I grew up using them and my brain is having a hard time changing over), because they give you a level of accuracy that you can't get with cups - everyone scoops a different sized cup of flour so grams help keep it all consistent.

Happy happy birthday week Lisa! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me in NYC! xx

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Lemon Soda

Homemade Lemon Soda is super easy to make and has only four ingredients. Easy lemon soda is super refreshing.

Homemade Lemon Soda
Lemon and Basil Soda
How to store Lemon Soda
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Homemade Lemon Soda

I catered the first day of school for Richard's old masters programme a month or so ago, and needed to make a non alcoholic drink that was cheap and easy, and that people could put together themselves. I wasn't too sure as to what to use, then when I was making this cake for one of our episodes of distant kitchens, I popped a little bit of the orange thyme syrup into my soda water and suddenly realised that it worked perfectly.

(I am in no way trying to claim ownership for inventing simple syrup here!) Half pissed off at myself that I hadn't thought of infused simple syrup and soda earlier and half stoked that I had found a drink I could use for the event, I played around with a couple of combinations and ended up serving a couple - a rosemary syrup, an orange thyme syrup, and this here Lemon and basil combination. They were a giant hit - I served the syrup in pour bottles alongside a big drink container of soda, and guests were able to mix up their own drinks.

Lemon and Basil Soda

There is something about herbs in drinks - I love it! The taste of the herbs gussies up boring soda water, and also offsets the sugar of the simple syrup. The possibility of flavour combinations is literally endless - simple syrup is a 1:1 sugar to water ratio. If you are infusing with a herb then add that, and if you are flavouring with a juice, sub out some of the water for the juice, and there you go!

How to store Lemon Soda

The syrup, due to the high sugar content, keeps really well in the fridge, so is great to have on hand for adding to drinks or cocktails. You only use a tablespoon or so at a time when serving, so a little goes a fairly long way. I am yet to add alcohol, but I honestly can't see that going badly.

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Blueberry Streusel muffins

These easy blueberry muffins with a streusel topping can be made with fresh or frozen blueberries. This is the perfect homemade blueberry muffin!

Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Muffins with Streusel Topping
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Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Far out this year has gone so, so fast! All of a sudden its September. Pretty sure last time I checked it was like, March or something? Goodness. However September does mean that the end to this gross humid summer weather is in sight. Just don't mention that I was complaining about the heat when its February and i'm freezing my ass off.

However we go to Canada on Monday morning, which I am SO excited about. We have family there who live on a lake on Vancouver island, which is amazing enough, but theres also going to be a wedding! Which I am making the cake for... a little bit nervous but I managed to make a monster for our wedding and have had a lot of cake practice since then so it should be fine! I hope.

These blueberry muffins are a giant hit in our house. They are a take on the blueberry muffins that Mum makes. Mum is an incredible cook. I am so lucky to have grown up in a household with amazing parents where it was standard practice to make everything from scratch.

Somehow she manages to whip them up in about 30 seconds flat, and before I know it they are in the oven and cooking. And they always taste amazing. I will never get over how she manages to just produce food out of nowhere whenever anyone even mentions coming for a visit. Its incredible. Her scones are another thing that just materialize out of nowhere, but i'll save that recipe for another day. The recipe comes from the great baking goddess herself, Alison Holst. I think the book it comes from is called "marvelous muffins" or something along those lines. She has written a zillion books on everything from bread to baking to mince, and she's like the grandmother of NZ cooking. Amazing.

Muffins with Streusel Topping

I have added a streusel topping to these, because streusel makes everything better. The recipe here makes a generous amount, so feel free to dial it back if you don't want a huge amount on your muffins, or leave it out completely. Either way these come together super quickly, theres no waiting for butter to soften, so you can pop them in the oven and have muffins in about 20 minutes! What a giant win.

A small tip with muffins - make sure that when you are incorporating the wet ingredients to the dry, you want to mix them to the point where they are just combined, and there are no more dry bits. Any more and they won't turn out as lovely and fluffy and light.

I used these cute wee Muffin moulds to make these. If you make them in a tin make sure that you give the cups a really good grease or spray with baking spray to ensure easy lifting. Sometimes I like to pop a strip of baking paper in the hole so that I can grab it from either side once the muffins are cooked and remove them easily. Or you can also use paper muffin cases in the holes, which make clean up significantly easier, seeing as washing muffin tins sucks!

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Galaxy cupcakes

Easy Vanilla Bean Cupcakes topped with Galaxy Style American Buttercream frosting. These are the perfect space themed cupcakes!

Space Themed Cupcakes
How to make Black Buttercream
Vanilla Cupcakes with American Buttercream
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Space Themed Cupcakes

I made these space themed cupcakes for a friend's studio opening and they were a giant hit. I've been asked a few times for the recipe so thought I might as well pop it up here! I had seen something similar on the internet a while back and decided to give it a try! They would be amazing for a children's birthday party, or anything space themed. You can also use the same technique with different colours for a non 'galaxy' look - I have done it with pastels before and it looks amazing!

How to make Black Buttercream

The first time that we made space themed cupcakes, Richard was given the job of colouring the icing. I didn't realise that he had gone hard on the black food colouring until everyone who ate a cupcake ended up with black teeth. Thankfully nobody minded. However I have tweaked the recipe slightly, using black cocoa powder in the black part of the icing rather than food colouring. If you can't get your hands on black cocoa powder (its just super dutched cocoa, the stuff that they use to make oreos!), you can use black food colouring, just be aware that it takes a LOT to achieve a true 'black'.

Vanilla Cupcakes with American Buttercream

I went with a vanilla cupcake and an american buttercream. Normally I would use a swiss meringue buttercream for cupcakes, but I find that it never holds really vibrant colours as well as american, and for this I wanted them bright and strong. I made two batches of buttercream - one with the black cocoa, and one plain batch, which I divided into three and coloured with two shades of blue, and purple.

Once they were piped, I covered them in flecks of white food colouring to represent "stars" - I just used my finger dipped in the colouring and flicked it on with my finger. I then sprinkled on a small amount of food safe glitter to give it a little sparkle. Make sure that you do this process somewhere that is fairly easy to clean up - the white tends to go everywhere, and the glitter is even worse. I generally turn a bowl upside down in the sink, then sit the whole cooling rack on top of it so that afterwards everything can be washed away.

I used a vanilla cupcake recipe, but these really can be made with whatever you like. I also chose to make mini cupcakes, but feel free to make these whatever size you would like!

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No churn Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

Homemade hokey pokey ice cream is super easy to make. Made with an easy no churn ice cream base and honeycomb chunks.

Homemade Hokey Pokey Ice Cream
Easy No Churn Ice Cream
Tips for Hokey Pokey Ice Cream
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Homemade Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

Do you ever find that there are things that you didn't know that you missed until you had to go without them? For us, that was hokey pokey ice cream. Its a classic New Zealand ice cream flavour, and I am yet to see something like it. It is chunks of honeycomb (which we call hokey pokey) in vanilla ice cream, and it is the BEST. Truth be told i'm not a huge ice cream eater, but you really can't beat hokey pokey ice cream on apple crumble.

It took us a good two years for me to realise that I could probably just make my own. And turns out its not that difficult at all. Plus you get to eat all the extra hokey pokey, which is one of the few situations where the intense risk of cavities is greatly outweighed by how good it is.

Easy No Churn Ice Cream

Can we also please just take a moment to appreciate no churn ice cream. SO easy. For some reason I have always been low key frightened of making my own ice cream (I honestly have no idea why, ice cream gives me a little bit of a sore tummy so maybe i'm just scared of ice cream in general?) so this is a great first step. Or perhaps it is a gateway drug to just making every sort of ice cream ever. We shall see.

I used golden syrup in the hokey pokey, because that is what I grew up using. I had to end up ordering it online, as I was unable to find it in shops here. Golden syrup is made from concentrated cane sugar juice. I am unsure if you can interchange it with corn syrup, but if anyone has tried I would love to hear your experience! Either way, its amazing made with the golden syrup, and totally worth having to ship it in.

Tips for Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

Make sure that you have everything ready before you make the hokey pokey - a lined tray or tin to pour it on, and pre-measured baking soda. As soon as you add the baking soda to the hot sugar mixture it froths like crazy and you need both your hands to stir it as quickly as possible. Try to incorporate the baking soda but don't stir it too much or the mixture will deflate.

Once you add the hokey pokey bits to the ice cream, don't be surprised if you go to eat some and they look kind of dissolved - this is meant to happen, and the dissolved bits are the best bits!!

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Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

Homemade Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie is super easy to make and can be made as one large skillet cookie or as mini skillet cookies.

Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie
Mini Skillet Cookie
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A sign of an epic cookie recipe is that it is super versatile. In this case, if it is just as good in a skillet (I may even prefer the skillet version a little more) as it is in regular cookie, form, you have hit the jackpot.

The recipe makes enough to fill three 6.5 inch skillets, about nine mini skillets (I will be very impressed if you own that many), or you could definitely put the entire thing into a larger skillet (a 10 inch or similar would work perfectly), just be sure to adjust the baking time - I would estimate about 25-30 Minutes.

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Cherry Galettes

Homemade cherry galettes have an easy homemade pie crust and are filled with a fresh cherry pie filling

Mini Cherry Galettes
Super Easy Pie Crust
Tips for Cherry Galette
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Mini Cherry Galettes

I've never really been a home made fruit pie girl until recently. And I don't know why. Its not that I didn't like them, maybe I just didn't appreciate them enough. I can happily say that I am now a changed lady! Nine times out of ten there is a block of dough in my freezer, and because I tend to go nuts at the greenmarket every time I go and buy EVERY sort of fruit ever, pies have become a semi regular thing in our house.

Even easier than pies, but still great for using up dough, is wee galettes! You literally just throw whatever fruit you would like in them, fold them up and bake them until they are golden brown and delicious! We have had a couple of types this week, but the cherry ones were our fave so far! I can imagine that there will be many more to come this summer. They are super easy to take places as they are less awkward to transport than a pie, and can definitely be made ahead and either warmed up, or eaten cold.

Super Easy Pie Crust

The pastry I use is one that is adapted from four and twenty blackbirds pie book, AKA the best book about pies I have ever read. Its amazing, super versatile, and is great if you want to make a lattice or braid, as the dough is really easy to work with. They use a little apple cider vinegar in their crust, which gives it the most lovely tenderness and flavour. You can totally use any fruit here, and fill them a little more/less than I have. I sweetened each one individually as I went so that I wasn't left with a bowl of fruity sugar syrup (all the best bits) and all the nice flavour and juice ended up in the galettes.

The pastry is best made a day ahead but if you are in a pinch you can rest it in the fridge for two hours or so. I like making a big batch and wrapping it up into portions and freezing it so its always on hand ready to go for when I overcommit to fruit!

Tips for Cherry Galette

Make sure you keep everything super cold! If the pastry gets too soft, just throw it back in the fridge to warm up. I normally work on two at a time, and keep the unrolled pastry and finished unbaked galettes in the fridge to prevent everything getting too sticky. I also like to rest the galettes in the fridge for 10 minutes or so before baking them to help them hold their shape.

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Recipe for Mini Cherry Galettes

Doughnut sprinkle cake

This super cute chocolate layer cake is covered with a vanilla bean swiss meringue buttercream, and finished with homemade royal icing doughnut sprinkles.

Doughnut Sprinkle Cake
Easy Chocolate Layer Cake
How to make Royal Icing Sprinkles
The best food coloring for Royal Icing
Tips and Tricks for homemade sprinkles
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Recipe for Doughnut Sprinkle Cake

Doughnut Sprinkle Cake

First of all, is it Donut, or is it Doughnut? I had a cheeky google, and it got my brain confused.

I hid inside all weekend because it was CRAZY hot. Apparently NYC is under some sort of 'heat dome'? Whatever that is, it sucks. Our neighbours a few apartments down from us have a pool, and I spent most of the weekend thinking up ways to introduce myself in a non-creepy way, and somehow come up with some sort of baking trade in return for the use of their pool. So far I am coming up with nothing, apart from perhaps flying Richards drone over there with a note... but even then that seems a little creepy. I guess we shall have to live with intense pool FOMO for the next little while.

Here is a cake, with little wee doughnuts on it! A while ago we spent a Saturday night in (who am I kidding, we spend most Saturday nights in) making sprinkles! I was inspired by sweet ambs, who is the queen of royal icing. Turns out I do not have quite the same skills to create teeny little fiddly versions of food, but I CAN pipe circles, pipe more circles on top, and sprinkle them with hundreds and thousands! And so doughnut sprinkles were born!

Easy Chocolate Layer Cake

I used a super light chocolate cake here, but feel free to use anything that you like! Or not even use the sprinkles on a cake. I just think that they look extra cute this way. I went with homemade swiss meringue buttercream, but like I said before, go nuts with whatever suits you! I prefer a non crusting buttercream here over something like american, as it seems to hold the sprinkles on much more securely.

How to make Royal Icing Sprinkles

The recipe for the royal icing makes enough for a LOT of sprinkles. We ended up with about 250 little doughnuts. They are pretty quick to do once you get going, and once they are dry they keep in an airtight container for a very long time, so I prefer to make a lot all at once, and have enough for multiple cakes. I used meringue powder in the recipe as it is super easy, but any royal icing recipe should work here, provided it is nice and thick. It should come off the mixer the consistency of cream cheese, and you can then water it down to piping consistency from there.

The best food coloring for Royal Icing

Gel food colouring will also be your friend here as it is more intense and will not water down your icing too much. I used disposable piping bags, fitted with a round piping tip in a number of different sizes. For the doughnuts themselves I used a wilton #5, and then for the glazes I used whatever slightly smaller sized tips I had on hand. It doesn't matter what size you use as the icing is viscous enough that it shouldn't run everywhere, but anything between a #2 and a #5 should work well. That being said, if you don't have a small round tip, you can carefully chop the tip off an icing bag and get the same effect.

Tips and Tricks for homemade sprinkles

The sprinkles do take some time to dry out before you use them, so allow either a couple of hours or overnight for this. Drying time may vary depending on your humidity.

I made a wee template on the computer to put underneath the parchment paper to use as a guide. You can either freehand it, or if you would like to use mine, you can download it here!

Have fun! I would love to see the results if you give this one a try!

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Recipe for Doughnut Sprinkle Cake

Banana cake with chocolate buttercream

This easy homemade banana cake with chocolate icing is a birthday party classic. The banana layer cake is quick and easy to make and pairs perfectly with the chocolate american buttercream.

Banana Cake with Chocolate Buttercream
The Best Banana Layer Cake
Easy Chocolate Buttercream
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Recipe for Banana Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

Banana Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

I feel as if this cake is a childhood memory for most kids that grew up in New Zealand. Homemade Banana cake, covered in what we affectionately refer to as "shitty chocolate icing". You know the stuff - icing sugar, cocoa, a little bit of butter, and then a little bit of boiling water which inevitably turns into adding too much, having to add more icing sugar, overshooting that, adding more water, etc etc. The best. We often had this as our birthday cakes when we were kids, but would have 'plain' icing instead that we were allowed to colour ourselves - I have very strong memories of managing to get half a bottle of yellow food colouring into a bowl of icing and having THE most bright yellow cake ever. It was awesome.

Turns out Rich has even more ties to homemade banana cake than I do - he went to boarding school and quite often his mum would make him a banana cake with chocolate icing to have in his 'tuck box'. Lucky for him, I tend to be useless at remembering to use bananas up before they go brown, so banana cake/bread/shortbread happens extremely frequently in our house.

The Best Banana Layer Cake

Rich also happens to not be a huge fan of buttercream. I have learnt to turn my back while he scrapes most of it off a cupcake into the bin. For this reason, (because he is the primary banana related baked goods consumer in our house), the ratio of this cake is mainly cake:not much buttercream. It is essentially two banana cakes, glued together with a teeny bit of buttercream. I like to run a line of piped buttercream between the two layers to tidy things up, then load up the top with icing sugar, pop on some rosemary, and we are away laughing. He requests it for his birthday every year, which makes life significantly easier on my part!

The cake itself is super simple. It is a great go-to. (as are most recipes from the Edmonds cookbook). If my bananas are super ripe, and I would like minimal dishes, I throw them in the stand mixer with the creamed butter/sugar mixture rather than mashing them by hand. If they aren't crazy ripe, mashing them by hand helps.

Easy Chocolate Buttercream

The buttercream is a slightly more fancy variation of "Shitty chocolate buttercream". I like using butter straight out of the fridge and 'softening' it using the mixer, as opposed to softening it before you use it. It gives you a slightly colder finished product that is easier to handle. However I haven't tried this without a stand mixer, so if you are using an electric beater, it may be easier to have the butter already soft. The recipe here will leave you with some buttercream left over, which I figure is probably helpful as most people like a slightly higher ratio of buttercream to cake than this, so feel free to spread it on the top/sides. If you make this into a four layer cake (and slice the cakes into two), doubling the buttercream recipe would be beneficial.

This is a fairly large recipe, so if you only have a couple of bananas, or are looking for something smaller, halving it will work beautifully.

Ps how great is the crown cake stand?!? My Mum got it for me the last time I was home, from a teeny pottery shop near Nelson (my hometown). Its a one of a kind, and is inspired by Max's crown from "Where the wild things are". It also turns up the other way and can be used as a bowl! I LOVE it! Thanks Mama Bear! xx

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Recipe for Banana Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

American Flag Cake

This Vanilla American Flag Cake is the perfect celebration cake. Made from a Vanilla Layer Cake and Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream, this American Flag Cake is cute and easy to make.

American Flag Cake
How to Pipe Swiss Meringue Buttercream
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American Flag Cake Recipe

American Flag Cake

Happy 4th of July weekend! To celebrate, Amy from Aheirloom (aka amazing cake stands) and I have teamed up to bring you something special, this American Flag Cake! Every time I go to visit Amy I am blown away by the new incredible things that they are working on. I used their 12" maple wedding cake stand for this cake.

This is a great cake to take to parties, or any 4th of July celebrations that you may be attending. While it looks super complicated, the thing that I love about the 'petal' buttercream method is that it only involves a piping bag, some tips and an offset spatula. It is much less fiddly than it seems! I have used Swiss meringue buttercream (based on the Bravetart recipe) because I like how smooth it is. However, feel free to use your favourite style of buttercream here

How to Pipe Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I used an 845 ateco closed star tip (Slightly larger than a Wilton 2d) for the "stars" section of the cake. Then I used an 805 ateco round tip for the 'stripes' section. I used 3 large disposable piping bags, with a coupler on one of the bags so that I could switch from the round to the star tips easily for the white color of buttercream. You could easily use whatever tips you have on hand, and play around with the sizes!

The Perfect Vanilla Layer Cake

The Cake is an adaptation of of my favourite vanilla cake from the Ovenly cook book. I have made it countless times so far and it turns out great every time. (It was even the bottom tier in our monster wedding cake). I have tried creating my own version of a vanilla cake a couple of times now, but nothing tops this one. That being said, any flavour cake will work perfectly inside this. You just want to make sure that you have two 8 inch cakes that are at least two inches tall each. This recipe can also be easily scaled if you are wanting something slightly smaller. I am sure that this style of cake would work amazingly with a 6 inch cake too! The Cake takes a while to cool so ensure that you plan ahead!

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Blood Orange Chess Pie

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