3225. VANILLA CUPCAKES with PASSIONFRUIT LIME ICING and BACON WAFERS

serves twelve

 

 

175 grams unsalted butter (very soft)

175 grams self-raising flour

1 pinch baking powder

175 grams caster sugar

1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract

3 eggs

 

Icing

1 ripe passion fruit (wrinkly skin, not smooth)

200 grams unsalted butter (very soft)

4 drops natural vanilla extract

A few drops pink natural food colouring or gel

375 grams icing sugar

Squeeze lime juice (or lemon)

2-3 teaspoons milk (optional)

 

Decoration

Jelly bean hearts

3 rashers good streaky bacon

 

Check butter (for cake and icing) and eggs are at room temperature. Pre-heat oven to 180C/gas 4. Sit 12 large paper cake cases into a 12 hole muffin tin. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Tip butter into a second larger mixing bowl. Break it up with a wooden spoon. Add the sugar and beat with a wooden spoon for 4 minutes or until pale, creamy and light. Use an electric hand whisk if you like. Keep going until it’s properly light and aerated. Beat eggs with a fork. Add to mix a dribble at a time, beating as you go during and between additions. If it looks like splitting/curdling, don’t panic. Add and beat in 2 teaspoons of the flour to bring it back together. Add vanilla extract. Add the flour. Fold into creamy mix with a large metal spoon, cutting and scooping down until just mixed in. Keep it light, minimal and don’t overwork it. Divide equally between cake cases using two spoons. Don’t pressing it down.

 

Cook: Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden, springy to touch. Close oven door very slowly if not quite done so they don’t collapse. Remove from the oven, tins and leave to cool on a rack.

 

Ice & Plate: For icing: slice passion fruit across. Scoop contents into a sieve over a bowl. Press the juice/pulp through using a spoon. Discard seeds/shell. Set aside. Sift icing sugar. Tip butter into a large bowl. Break it up with a wooden spoon. Add 2 tablespoons icing sugar. Beat to incorporate. Repeat. When half the sugar’s in, add vanilla extract and 1-2 tablespoons passion fruit juice. Continue to beat, adding sugar gradually. Taste, add more passion fruit juice and a good squeeze of lime for a slightly fizzy icing. Add a bit of milk if it’s hard to work. You want a soft but spreadable icing. Beat in a few drops of pink icing gel/colour if you wish. Spoon into an icing bag fitted with a star nozzle (mine was 1 cm wide). Pipe wide swirls to cover each cake or pile and shape it. Top with a heart sweetie or two. Grill the bacon 2 minutes per side or until crisp. Sit on kitchen paper to drain. Break into ‘wafer’ lengths. Stick them into your icing just before serving.

 

 

bacon recipe courtesy of: Sam Stern

2401. CHEWY PISTACHIO COOKIES with BACON CREAM CHEESE FILLING

serves eight


3/4 cups pistachio meat
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
tartar, 2 pinches
pinch salt
3 large egg whites at room temperature
1 drop green food coloring
4 oz. Neufchatel or reduced fat cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoons crushed cooked bacon

Blanche pistachios is boiling water for several minutes and remove any loose skins with a towel or by hand. Pulse pistachios in blender or food processor until it’s a coarsely ground paste. In large bowl, whip egg whites with hand mixer, when they start getting stiff, slowly add 3/4 cup powdered sugar, tartar and salt. Fold in pistachio paste and food coloring, making sure you break up any chunks without collapsing the egg whites. Fill a piping bag with mixture and pipe into desired shape onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 18 minutes, rotating halfway trough. To make the cream cheese filling, mix 4 oz. Neufchatel with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla using a handmixer until smooth. Fold in bacon. When cookies have cooled, gently peel them off parchment. Coat one side of a cookie with cream cheese filling and sandwich with another cookie.


bacon recipe courtesy of/adapted from: Vianessa Castaños, Sound Bites, September 3, 2011

381. BACON CHEESEBURGER CAKE

yields 20 servings


1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (13 ounce) package brownie mix
2 (12 fluid ounce) cans vanilla frosting
yellow food coloring
red food coloring
3 vanilla wafer cookies
1 large roll of red fruit leather
4 caramels, with stripes
8 yellow chewy fruit-flavored candy squares
1 (16 ounce) container chocolate frosting
1 large roll of green fruit leather
2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Preheat oven according to instructions on cake mix box; prepare mix. Grease and flour a 9 inch pan, and a shallow metal bowl at least 9 inches in diameter. Fill the 9 inch cake pan 2/3 full with cake batter; pour the remaining batter into the prepared metal bowl (this will be the top of your "bun"). Bake according to directions, remove from pans, and cool on a wire rack.

Grease and flour a 9 inch pan. Prepare brownie batter, and bake according to instructions on box. Remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack. Shave off the sharp edges of the brownie, making it resemble a hamburger patty.

Place 1/4 cups of vanilla frosting in a heavy duty plastic sandwich bag, and color with yellow food coloring to make your mustard. Repeat a second time using the red food coloring to make your ketchup. Place remaining frosting in a bowl, and color with a mix of red and yellow food coloring until you arrive at the color of a hamburger bun.

Cut the cookies in half and wrap with pieces of red fruit leather to create your tomatoes. Unwrap the caramels, and heat in microwave for 10 to 15 seconds to slightly soften. Roll the caramels individually between sheets of waxed paper to create bacon strips. Microwave the chewy fruit-flavored candy squares, place together, and roll between sheets of waxed paper to create your cheese slice; trim into a square shape.

To assemble, place bottom bun on your serving dish, and spread with some of the hamburger bun frosting. Place brownie on top of this, and spread it with chocolate frosting. Decorate edges with the tomatoes, bacon, cheese, mustard, and ketchup; use the green fruit leather as lettuce. Place top bun over this and spread with the remaining hamburger bun frosting; sprinkle with sesame seeds.


courtesy of: Kry Hanes, Mons, Belgium