Mumbo Jumbo cakes!

I'm still on track with my new years resolutions and to date have managed not only to update my blog regularly, but also get myself to the gym, and focus more on what i moved out for!

In this post i'm going to pay my respects to (in my and many others opinions) one of the most talented and influential pastry chefs of the century, Pierre Hermé



Pierres elegant take on the archetypical French "Macaron" is what i believe shot him to notoriety! For those of you who do not know what a Macaron is just Google it and wait for the visual feast of colors.

Like all geniuses Pierre began at a young age. At 14 he began his career as an apprentice to Gaston Lenôtre, a prolific baker who sadly die a few years back. From here onwards Hermé went from strength to strength, eventually opening his first shop in Tokyo in 1998. Since then he has opened several other venues and written numerous recipe books and biographies. His work in the pastry kitchens is absolutely phenomenal.



The flavor combinations are themselves incredible, but what really is appealing with his creations are their appearances.. Hermé manages to bring the most simple of recipes to life with a variety of twists and tweaks.



Simply fantastic.... Ok Enough gushing haha!

This week i tried my hand at some classic flavor combinations with my own tweaks. its been a while since i did a recipe, but here goes!


Double chocolate cashew butter frosted cupcakes (kinda)



Ingredients:

~Cake base~
225G Butter (either salted of unsalted, depends on your taste)
225G Sugar
4 Medium Eggs
250G Milk Chocolate
225G Self Raising Flour
3Tbspn Milk
1Tspn Vanilla essence
3Tbsn Coco Powder
Salt to taste

~Frosting~
300G Smooth Peanut butter
180G Butter softened
1Tspn Vanilla essence
200G Chopped Cashew nuts
400G Icing Sugar



Method:

BEFORE ANYTHING PREHEAT THE OVEN TO Gas Mark 4 (180c degrees)

1. Combine all of the frosting ingredients in a bowl and make sure they are fully incorporated into the mix. Then set aside in the fridge or a cool place.

- Grease whatever tray you plan on baking the cakes in. i have one designed to make 12 brownies, 3x3 inches, this recipe makes about 15 of these sized cakes. -

2. In a large bowl combine the cake butter with the castor sugar and cream them together.

3. To this mixture add, 1 at a time, the eggs. make sure to fully incorporate the eggs before adding the next one.

4. Once the eggs are mixed in add the vanilla essence and the milk and mix in.

5. Mix in the Coco powder and the flour until fully incorporated.

6. Finally add the chopped chocolate and fully combine all the ingredients.

7. Place in the preheated oven for roughly 20 minutes, checking after 20 minutes to check with a skewer whether or not they are fully cooked through. If the skewer comes out wet then place them back in the oven for a further 5-10 minutes.

8. Once fully cooked through remove from oven and leave to cool, and then decorate with icing and garnish when cooled.

And thats it!

Complete! They arent Pierre standard but these were actually really good, i brought them into work and they were gone within a few minutes.

Enjoy.
See you next time \(^_^)/