Sugar Time

Ahhh good times. An ganache,a a buttercream, a syrup, what's not to love about an Opera Cake.

Made up of five different components: a joconde, which is a light almond sponge cake, a syrup to moisten the joconde, a rich buttercream, a ganache to top the final cake layer, and a glaze to top it all off.

This is one hot chocolate recipe you will most definitely want to try again. This is one to warm you up, and we recommend starting off with a small amount of chilli, and if you're a bit of a sweet tooth like us, you might want to add a decent spoonful of sugar to your brew. 

You will need to make a cup

Ha! Any recipe with Babycakes in the title has us. And yes, we know that chocolate moltens have been done to death, but this is by one of our fav's Nigella Lawson, and dammit, chocolate moltens taste that good.   

This recipe will serve 6 people, or 3 people can have seconds. We know what we'll be doing.

Your shopping list will need to include
     

Peaches are still hanging in there from Summer. Or so food writer Simon Thomsen said on his twitter page yesterday...sadly, apparently nectarines are out.

For the puff pastry

240g unsalted butter
100ml water
1 tsp white wine vinegar
250g plain flour 
1 tsp sea salt

For the peaches

4-5 white peaches
180g caster sugar
150ml white wine
150ml rosé wine
1 vanilla pod (cut lengthwise and seeds scraped out)
200ml water

For the pastry cream

Another recipe (how could we resist) from the talented Keiko Oikawa (link - http://www.keikooikawa.com) of Nordljus fame

Serves 4

For the elderflower mousse


2 egg yolks


40g caster sugar


120ml elderflower cordial


3 gelatine leaves (about 2g each)


300ml double cream

We're all atwitter about these petit cakes from Nordljus

Truffle honey madeleines

Makes about 15-20 regular madeleines

90g unsalted butter, plus 15g melted butter for greasing


2 teaspoons truffle honey


2 medium eggs


75g caster sugar


10g light brown sugar


a pinch of salt

Black Sesame Macaroons
From Bonbini

Thai meets French....

Ingredients:
make 30 macaroons

for the macaroon
- 80 g ground sesame
- 80 g ground almond
- 240 g powdered sugar
- 100 g egg white
- 40 g sugar

for the filling
- 50 g heavy cream
- 50 sweetened red bean paste