graham-cracker carrot cakes, cream cheese swirl + nutty seed praline

There are 2 reasons why I love carrot cake: it can be wholesome enough to be considered part of your daily veggie intake (ahem) and its cake. Cake! And these aren’t so tooth-achingly sweet that you’ll be speed dialing your dentist for a check up. Plus it has your daily fat intake (cream cheese) and even a little protein in there too (cream cheese) so really, with the carrots, we’re looking at a complete meal right here. All your food groups, wrapped up in one neat, little package. But all that aside, these just taste really good. It’s got an interesting addition of graham crackers (or granita biscuits, as we call them down under) which I’ve never tried in a cake mixture before, and while they aren’t overpowering in taste, they definitely add a little something. You won’t need any large equipment for this recipe either (unless you’d like to grate the carrots in your food processor) so it’s super simple. I’ve topped them with my favourite cream-cheese icing, a never-fail, pipeable, not-too-sweet mix which pairs well with the cakes’ earthy tones. Top it with crunchy nut and seed praline, and you’re onto a winner. Now, you just have to find your 4 other daily servings of vegetables, and you can call it a day. graham-cracker carrot cakes, cream cheese swirl + toffee praline – makes 9-10 cupcakes – can be made dairy free you’ll need… graham-cracker carrot cakes – adapted from smitten kitchen

• 1/2 cup plain spelt flour
• 50g granita or digestive biscuits, finely ground
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 2/3 cup rapadura sugar
• 100g melted butter (or oil to make dairy-free)
• 2 small, free-range eggs
• 180g finely grated carrots (peeled)

cream cheese icing – adapted from annie’s eats

• 140g cream cheese icing, chilled
• 45g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 205g icing sugar, sifted
• pinch of salt

praline

• 40g pepitas
• 40g almonds
• 40g macadamias
• 1 tsp salt
• 90g caster sugar

here’s what you do…

1. For the cakes, preheat your oven to 180C (160C fan forced). Line your cupcake tin with papers, or grease well.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, biscuit crumbs, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar butter and eggs until smooth, then add carrots. Pour wet ingredients into dry and fold in until just combined.
4. Divide batter evenly between 9-10 cupcake cases (I use this cookie scoop to ensure consistent sizing of my cupcakes). Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle. Remove immediately onto a wire cooling rack
5. For the praline, line a baking tray with baking paper. Toast the pepitas and nuts in a dry frying pan until slightly coloured and set aside.
6. Put the sugar in the a small saucepan and place over medium heat (the pan must be big enough so the sugar is one fine layer instead of a thick one). Swirl the pan without stirring the sugar, and allow it to melt and become a mahogany-caramel colour.
7. Pour the nuts into the saucepan, and working quickly, coat the nuts in the caramel and pour onto the baking tray. Place in the freezer for 10 minutes, or until hardened. Briefly pulse the praline in a food processor to break up into small pieces, or simply chop with a knife. Set aside.
8. For the icing, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add in the icing sugar and salt and mix on low for 30 seconds, then increase speed to medium-high for 3 minutes.
9. To assemble, pipe swirls onto the cakes and top with the praline.

vanilla cheesecake with salted caramel topping

Go on, wipe the drool off your keyboard – I don’t want to be responsible for your computer malfunctioning. But I do want to be responsible for the delight you’ll shreek when you make this cheesecake. It’s TDF (to die for) and even, as my uncle would say, to KILL for (because really, who wants to die when you could live and still eat cheesecake?). So, where was I…oh yeah, right. This dessert brought the house down – I didn’t have a negative or even so-so response after everyone had licked their plates clean. It came about as I asked my brother, who just so happens to share my birthday albeit 6 years younger, what type of birthday cake he’d like me to make – and he suggested a cheesecake, and I then jumped over the moon. With excitement! I thought, YES I can make that delicious creation I found on tastespotting the other day, combining my favourite, all-time flavour, vanilla, with a touch of salted caramel .

It really was the perfect end to a perfect birthday week of wining, dining and catch-ups. It’s definitely a week I save up for, as it is not only our birthday but also my husbands birthday two days beforehand. Crazy huh? But its a common thing, partners sharing similar, if not the same, birthdates…kinda cool I think. Soulmate material, for sure.

Tangent…and we’re back. So, I love chocolate, cheesecake, vanilla and caramel, and in this creation, these stars perform a fantastic show. I was going to make my own biscuits for the base, as the recipe suggests, but do you think i found the time to?! Hello Arnott’s choc ripple, you made my day!

All in all it was simple to make, just a bit time consuming, but I would do it all over again if i had the chance (and I say that because I really need a reason to make this – its just too rich to eat all on my own!). UPDATE: The filling overflowed as the biscuits didn’t come high enough up the sides of the tin – I have made this again since, and it turned out perfectly, but of course, I have no photographic proof for you!

choc-crusted vanilla cheesecake with salted caramel topping (adapted from The Former Chef)

you’ll need…

(for crust)

500g buttery, chocolate biscuits (i used Arnott’s choc ripple)

1/2 cup flour

120g butter (i found i needed a bit more to make the crust bind)

(for filling)

900g cream cheese @ room temp

1 cup sugar

4 eggs (always use free range)

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1/4 cup milk

(topping)

1 cup sour cream

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla paste

(salted caramel)

1 cup sugar

1 cup cream

60g butter

1tsp fleur de sel (or use sea salt – i finally purchased the fleur de sel and man, does it make a difference)

here’s what you do…

1. grind biscuits in food processor until nice and fine. add the flour and pulse to combine, then add butter and continue to pulse until it reaches the consistency of wet sand.

2. press the crumbs into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan (i lined mine with foil) and then up the sides to form an even crust.

3. preheat fan-forced oven to 150 C.

4. for filling, put the milk in a saucepan with the vanilla and bring just to the boil before turning off. let the milk sit for 15 minutes for the vanilla to infuse.

5. put cream cheese into a bowl (i used my stand mixer) and add the sugar, beating until combined and smooth. add the eggs one at a time, with the mixer on, stopping to scrape down the sides and incorporate ingredients. add the milk/vanilla mix and beat until free of lumps.

6. pour the filling into the pan with the crust, placing the pan onto a lined cookie tray (to catch any buttery drips). bake for 50 min – 1 hour, or until set on top but soft and jiggly in the middle.

7. while that’s happening, mix the sour cream, sugar and vanilla. when the cheesecake is cooked, let it cool for 10 minutes, leaving the oven on, then pour this mix on top and bake for another 10-15 minutes. remove, and let it cool for 1 hour before refrigerating for at least 4 hours.

8. for the topping, melt the sugar in a heavy-based pan, stirring constantly to avoid burning the sugar (i omitted water from my caramel as i found it prevented the sugar from caramelising). once it has all melted and is rich amber/mahogany coloured, pour in the cream and put on very low heat, constantly stirring to melt all the caramel that has hardened from the cream. once all melted, whisk in the butter and salt, and allow to cool.

9. the caramel will be VERY thick and sticky, and i ended up melting it a bit just to liquify it so it could be poured over the cheesecake. it will set quite quickly as it hits the cold cheesecake. then top with a bit of extra fleur de sel, but only right before serving, as the caramel will soak it up if left on there for prolonged periods. enjoy!

lime cheesecake cupcakes

goodness me, what a week of delicious food its been! so delicious i haven’t had the time to blog about it – lucky my camera has a photographic memory. so as you know, i’ve been baking cupcakes like mad, and i generally get a call from my mum around 9pm on her work tea-break aka ‘cupcake testing time’. so when the phone rang at 9pm on this fine Tuesday night, the night i sent her off with a batch of these babies, i was eager to hear what her co-workers, and in turn my new customers, thought. well…it was a resounding ‘MMM’ – they loved them! the best flavour yet. this makes me glad, as i thoroughly enjoyed making each component of the cupcake, mainly because it involved me taste testing along the way. it was also nice to deviate from the stock-standard red velvet with sugared icing-esque flavours that you commonly find (not that theres anything wrong with that or any other generic flavour, i just like a bit of individuality and experimentation).

hey there limey lime

they are a bit of work to assemble/prepare, but oh-so-worth-it, trust me, especially when you bite into the cupcake and find the little lime curd ‘surprise’ inside (quote unquote the Aussie Post employees). the simple, buttery vanilla cupcake from Magnolia, the tart lemon curd, and the cracker-crumb cream cheese frosting altogether is like a party in your mouth, and really only you are invited. i sorta mushed together recipes from all over the shop to end up with the perfect little lime cheesecake cupcake – enjoy.

i promise to include a cross section photo next time! they just got snapped up too quickly (can you blame ’em)

(for the lime curd from shemakesandbakes)

you’ll need…

-1/4 cup lime juice

-zest from 2 limes

-1 egg @ room temp

-2tblsp + 2tsp caster sugar

-60g butter, softened

here’s what you do…

1. whisk all ingredients except for the butter together in a heatproof bowl on top of a simmering saucepan of water (this double-boiler method ensures no lumps, and a smooth, creamy consistency). keep whisking until mixture thickens and can coat the back of a wooden spoon.

2. remove from heat and whisk in the butter, straining into a bowl and covering immediately to avoid a skin forming. place into the fridge to cool down.

(for Magnolia’s ~24 cupcakes – i halved the recipe and it still made around 16 cupcakes)

you’ll need…

-1.5 cup self-raising flour

-1.25 cups plain flour

-225g butter, softened

-2 cups caster sugar (give raw caster a shot)

-4 large eggs, at room temperature

-1 cup milk

-2 tsp pure vanilla paste (don’t scrimp on this part)

here’s what you do…

1. preheat oven to 170°C (my oven is new and strong – 160 was hot enough) and line your cupcake/muffin tin with liners

2. in a small bowl, sift both flours and set aside.

3. in a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. add sugar gradually and beat for ~3min, or until fluffy.

4. add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, ensuring you split the 3 additions up with the milk and vanilla mix in between (so it should go flour, milk, flour, milk, and end with flour) NOTE: do not overbeat, whatever you do! beat on low speed and only beat until ingredients are just incorporated.

5. spoon the mixture into the cupcake liners, either using a large ice cream scoop, or do what i do and measure out 3 tblsp per liner, making sure they are evenly filled. this will ensure even baking! bake until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, around 15 minutes.

6. remove the cupcakes from the tin immediately to avoid the buttery-goodness seeping through the liner and place onto wire rack to cool completely.

(for the cracker-crumb frosting from thecupcakeproject)

you’ll need…

-60g butter @ room temp

-225g cream cheese @ room temp

-2 cups pure icing sugar

-2 tsp vanilla paste

-1 1/3 cup wheaten biscuits, finely processed (or graham crackers, or any other biscuit you like as a cheesecake crust)

here’s what you do…

1. mix butter and cream cheese with beaters until light and fluffy.

2. mix in the icing sugar gradually, followed by the vanilla and then the crackers.

to assemble cupcakes…

1. using a melon baller, cupcake corer or just your everyday paring knife, cut a small section of the cupcake out from the middle, and either trim it down to replace it once the cupcake is filled, or do what we did and eat little mouthfuls of it with the left over curd/icing

2. spoon a tiny amount of lime curd into the hole you’ve just made, making sure you dont overfill as we are also piping icing onto the cupcake and you want it to stick down nicely.

3. pipe the icing onto the cupcake as you please – and top with a bit of lime zest to finish it off. voila!