Diamond Jubilee Petit Fours

By now it's no secret the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is coming up next week.  Over here in the UK we're in full BBQ and street party planning mode. 

To be honest, I've never actually been to a street party before - I guess they're kind of like the North American block party, although to be honest I don't think I've ever been to one of those either.  I don't think they're as popular there as they are here. 

A traditional British Street Party (Image Source)

It's being reported that there will be over 10,000 official street parties throughout England and Wales, and that's not counting unofficial parties that haven't gone through the proper approval process through local councils.

On Sunday I'm hoping to attend one of the larger parties in my area that will take place in our favourite park.  Monday and Tuesday are public holidays here, so the parties and celebrations will continue for a few more days.

In order to help make your street party look it's best all of the major stores have released their own lines of street party gear including the essentials such as bunting flags, paper plates, cups, napkins, cupcake cases, etc. 

Each of the jubilee product lines are very patriotic and obviously incorporate everything British and royal such as union jacks and crowns, but they're also very different from each other.

Lakeland was kind enough to send me some products (above) from their Jubilee range, so I've featured some of them here with my latest street party inspired creations.

My street party snacks are the perfect addition to your Jubilee table - they're patriotic, three out of the four are quick and easy, you can make them all ahead of time, they're all very transportable, and best of all they taste great!!!

I've decided to split the recipes for my Jubilee treats into two separate posts, otherwise you'd be reading this post forever!

 

First up I'll start with my Diamond Jubilee petit fours.  I've always wanted to make petit fours so when I was given some cute little London themed sugar decorations in a Waitrose goodie bag, I knew they'd be perfect to add on top.  I used the traditional Victoria Sponge recipe that I came up with last year to celebrate the Royal Wedding, but this time I replaced the strawberry jam with black current jam - something I consider very British as it wasn't something I'd really ever come across in Canada.

Diamond Jubilee Petit Fours

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp (200g) Castor Sugar 

3/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp (200g) Butter, room temperature 

4 Eggs 

1.5 tsp Vanilla extract 

1.5 Cups + 1.5 Tbsp (200g) Self Raising Flour 

1/2 tsp baking powder

Blackcurrant Jam
Vanilla Buttercream 

Ready to Roll Fondant - I used Renshaw Regal Ice White Chocolate flavour

Liquid Fondant - (I used the Silver Spoon powdered version that you mix with water)

Liquid Glucose - optional
Red and Blue gel colouring

Decorations of your choice - I used Jubilee decorations from Waitrose and a couple of left over crowns I made for my Dome cake here.

Instructions:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 350ºF (175ºC).  Line two* square 8"x8" cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.  Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (about 5-8 minutes).

*I divided my batter up, and made 6 cupcakes for another project and used the rest in a 9"x9" pan which made 16 petit fours approx 1.5"x1.5"

2.  Add in the eggs 1 at a time to ensure they don't curdle the butter and sugar mixture.  Beat well before adding each following egg.  Beat in the vanilla extract.

3.  Gently fold the self raising flour and baking powder into the butter, sugar and egg mixture until just combined.  Don't over mix.  Divide the batter equally between the two pans, making sure that the batter is as flat and even as possible.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

4.  Let the cakes cool in their pans at before lifting them out by the parchment paper. Leave the parchment paper on your cake, and wrap it in cling film before placing it in the freezer for about an hour to firm up slightly.

5.  While your cake is chilling in the freezer make your buttercream icing according to your favourite recipe. (I don't have a recipe for my buttercream - I just cream a block of butter and keep on adding icing sugar (with a nit of milk and vanilla) until it tastes right.

*The instructions below are for one 9x9 cake (as I mentioned above). If you've made two 8x8 cakes, follow the instructions below twice.

6.  Take your cake out of the freezer ensuring that the bottom of the cake is facing upwards (this ensures you'll have a perfectly flat top) and slice it in half so you end up with two layers.  I used a Wilton cake slicer, but a steady hand and knife should do the trick.  Open your cake so that the freshly cut sides are facing up.  Spread a thin layer of the balckcurrant jam on one half of the cake (remove any large currents), and a layer of buttercream on the other half (make sure it's as smooth as possible).  

Sandwich the two layers together so the fillings are in the middle, making sure that the edges are aligned.  Next, trim the edges of your cake to ensure it's perfectly square with nice sharp edges.  Spread another layer of buttercream on the top (which was once the bottom) of your cake, making sure it's as smooth ad level as possible.

Roll out your fondant so it's about 3mm in thickness.  Cut a square of fondant out the same size as your cake (you can use the bottom of your cake pan as a guide, and trim the edges later). Place the fondant over your buttercream covered cake top and smooth it out, ensuring you don't have any trapped air under the fondant.  Trim off any excess fondant so that the edges are flush, and it's exactly the same size as the cake.

Cut your fondant covered cake into small squares - once trimmed, my 9x9 cake made 16 squares.

7.  Prepare your liquid pouring fondant according to directions on the package - I added in about a teaspoon of glucose to mine to help make it spread easier.  I used Silver Spoon brand which is available in most supermarkets, but you can also buy other bands at speciality cake stores.   One 500g box was just enough to cover my 16 petit fours.

Place a 1/3 of your cake squares on a wire rack that's been placed over a baking dish.  Start by pouring a tablespoon or two of the uncoloured white fondant on the top of one of your cake squares.  Using an offset pallete knife, spread the fondant to the edges so it starts to flow down the sides of the cake.  Using the back of the knife, scoop out a bit more fondant from the bowl and spread it down each side, starting from the top.  Let the fondant run down the sides until all of the cake is covered.  

Once the cakes are covered, place a sugar decoration in the middle of each one and let the icing dry for at least half an hour.

Ignore the random white one with sprinkles!

Divide the remaining fondant icing in half an colour one half red, and the other blue.  Repeat the steps above for the rest of your cakes.

8.  After the fondant has surface dried, use your palette knife to move each cake onto a paper liner.  You can press the paper onto the fondant to help it form to the shape of the cake.

Leave your petite fours uncovered until they're thoroughly dry.  I made mine in the evening, and I don't know what on earth possessed me to cover them in a sealed container but I did, and because my liquid fondant hadn't dried completely my sugar decorations absorbed some of the moisture which discoloured them.  Obviously I wasn't thinking clearly!  

These petit fours will keep at room temperature for up to 5 days if they're properly covered with liquid fondant to prevent them from drying out.

I hope you like these petit fours - I loved them - especially with the addition of the blackcurrant jam!  I can't wait to make more of them.  Don't let all the steps detour you, because although they do take a bit of time to make them, the final results are not only pretty, but also delicious!

Check back later for my other Diamond Jubilee street party recipes!

Thanks to Lakeland for the Jubilee products (cake stand, napkins, cupcake cases and jam jar covers are featured), and to Waitrose for the Jubilee sugar decorations.

I'm Not Irish, But You Can Kiss Me Anyway!

This Saturday is St. Patricks Day, which pretty much gives you free reign to wear anything green, drink anything green and eat anything green.  To be honest, I expected St. Patricks Day to be a much bigger deal in the UK than it is in North America, but since moving here I've discovered it's the other way around - especially in the US.  Step into any American shopping mall and almost every store is decked out with green shamrocks and creepy looking Leprechauns, but not in the UK.  Don't get me wrong, they do sell the odd bit of tacky green paraphernalia here, but there's not an entire aisle devoted to it like in the US.  But the one green thing that I've heard is pretty plentiful on both continents is green beer.  Perhaps it's just because of the tension and history between Ireland and the rest of the UK (which I'll admit right now, I really don't know that much about), but in reality it's probably just because Americans love their holidays, and corporate America loves marketing them!  And you know what?  I love the fact that it's like that.  I like the fact that any excuse for a holiday also provides you with the excuse to make loads of fun crafts, special themed desserts, and dress like a total dork if you want to.

When I was a kid one of my favourite things to eat during the first couple weeks of March was the green mint milk shake from Mc Donald's that was oh so cleverly named "The Shamrock Shake."  We don't have the Shamrock Shake in the UK (and I very much doubt they have it in Ireland), but I had one last year when we were visiting Texas and it was still as creamy and minty as I remember them to be.  So when I thought about what I could make to celebrate St. Patricks day my first thought was a recreation of the Shamrock shake, but then I thought of something even better!  A St. Patricks Day Baked Alaska!  It's like Ireland and America collided to create this fantastic dessert!  

I had actually planned on making 2 versions of my baked Alaska, but that proved more difficult than I had anticipated thanks to the poor selection of ice cream available here.  I can't tell you how many stores I went to searching for "just the right" chocolate chip mint ice cream, only to come away with plain old vanilla.  You see, there's very few varieties of ice cream (or anything really) compared to the selection in the US (if you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know I have a few issues with the lack of selection in the UK).  I managed to find a few different brands that made their own version of chocolate chip mint ice cream, but most either had no colouring (UK manufactures really steer clear of artificial colours and flavourings), or were green with chocolate fudge swirls, which wouldn't work either for reasons I'll explain below.  

In the end I decided to make my own chocolate chip mint ice cream, but since I didn't have the time or ingredients to make it from scratch, I just made it using a good quality vanilla ice cream.  Making your own chocolate chip mint ice cream is really easy - you'll just need to add some green food colouring, mint extract and mini chocolate chips to some softened vanilla ice cream.

I had also planned on making an Irish Cream version of my Baked Alaska, but only a few grocery stores sell the Bailey's Irish Cream Haagen Daz ice cream, and I couldn't find it in stock at any of them.  Needless to say, I was really pleased with the way my chocolate chip mint mini Baked Alaska's turned out.  The chocolate chip mint ice cream tasted exactly the way I wanted it to (just like a Shamrock Shake!), and the marshmallowy Italian meringue top was so light and fluffy!  I can't quite believe how good these were, and how easy they were to make!

Individual Chocolate Chip Mint Baked Alaska's

(serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 tray of Brownies (from scratch or a box, it doesn't matter)

Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream or

6 Vanilla Ice Cream, plus mint extract, green food colouring & mini chocolate chips

2 Egg Whites (Large)

5oz (145g) Sugar 

2 3/4 tsp (40ml) Water

Instructions:

1.  Line a baking pan with greased foil, and prepare and bake your brownies according to your favourite recipe, or the instructions on the box.  I just used a boxed mix because I was short on time.  Cool and set aside.

2.  Soften your ice cream to soft serve consistency.  If you're making your own chocolate chip mint ice cream, put 6 large scoops of vanilla ice cream into a bowl and let soften until you can stir it (soft serve consistency).  Once softened, add 3-4 drops of mint extract, a few squirts of green colouring and a 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips and stir until well combined.  Give it a taste, and if you feel like adding more flavouring, colouring or chocolate chips, then now's the time to do so. Spoon your ice cream into 4 silicone baking cups and put them in the freezer for a few hours to firm up. 

3.  Using a round cookie cutter the same diameter as the widest part of your silicone baking cup, cut out 4 rounds from your tray of brownies. What you do with the rest of the brownies is up to you - I won't tell!  After your ice cream cups are frozen solid, peel back the silicone baking cups and pop out the ice cream.  Place the ice cream cups on top of your brownie rounds, and put them back in the freezer while you prepare your meringue.

4.  Pre-heat your oven to 450ºF (225ºC).  Place the sugar and water in a small sauce pan, give it a few stirs and then boil until the mixture reaches 240ºF (116ºC) also known as soft ball stage.  While the sugar is cooking, start whipping the egg whites in en electric mixer.  They should be at soft peak stage by the time your sugar reaches soft ball stage. Once your sugar has reached soft ball stage, turn the mixer to low speed and slowly pour the sugar into the egg whites in a slow stream. Once all of the sugar mixture has been added, turn the mixer back on to high speed and whip until the meringue has reached stiff peak stage.  They should be  shiny, and the bottom of the bowl should be no longer be hot. 

5.  Take your individual ice cream & brownie things (what would you call these?) out of the freezer, put them on a foil lined baking sheet and cover with your Italian meringue.  You can do this 2 ways: either spoon the meringue overtop of the ice cream and smooth it out with the back of a spoon or small spatula, or use a piping bag and pipe the meringues all around the ice cream and brownie.  Whichever method you choose, just make sure to fully cover the ice cream with meringue so that it's fully insulated in the oven.  Bake in the oven for 4-6 minutes until the meringues are nice and golden brown.  Serve immediately, and enjoy!

**  These individual baked Alaska's keep in the freezer uncovered for up to 5 days.  Simply take them out of them freezer and bake as instructed above.  This makes them perfect to prepare ahead for a dinner party!

Cinnamon Peach and Ice Cream Waffles

For those of you that have been following my blog since the very beginning, you may remember one of my very first posts, which also happened to be about my first entry in the Iron Cupcake London competition (which was sadly cancelled a couple months later).

The theme for my first contest was fruit, which meant that every cupcake entry needed to incorporate fruit into it in some way.  I choose to do a cinnamon and peach cupcake because the combination of cinnamon and peaches was a favorite ever since I was a little kid back in Canada.  Shortly after arriving at the Iron Cupcake competition I discovered that cinnamon and peaches weren't a very common combination in the UK, so I had convinced myself that the people there that night wouldn't like them.  Well.... I was wrong!  My cinnamon peach cupcake ended up winning the Runner Up prize for best cupcake that evening, and I was glad to have introduced so many people to the wonderful flavor combination of cinnamon and peaches.

My Cinnamon Peach Cupcake (slightly smooshed)

Peaches with cinnamon still remain one of my favorite combinations, and I look forward to peach season every year, although I do find it hard to get a nice ripe peach in most supermarkets these days.  (If you follow me on Twitter, you'll have seen me tweeting about my search for the perfect peach!) 

One of my favorite desserts that I've been making for years is my cinnamon peach and ice cream waffle.  The hot waffle with cold ice cream, cinnamon and peaches makes for a truly delicious flavour combination.  And best of all, they're incredibly easy to make!

To make this yummy dessert you'll only need a few things: peaches, cinnamon, sugar, ice cream and waffles.

Now, I'm not going to lie - sometimes I cut corners when I can, so rather than taking the time to make my own waffles (not that it's hard) I choose to use an instant waffle mix from Cost-Co that only requires a bit of added water and a tablespoon of oil.  Even though I cheated on this occasion, I'm going to include my favourite waffle recipe that I use regularly because not everyone has (or wants to have) instant waffle mix at home.  If you don't have a waffle iron you can also use store bought ones, it's totally up to you! 

Waffles With Peaches, Cinnamon and Ice Cream 

1 - 2 Peaches
1/2 - 3/4 tsp Cinnamon
1 Tbsp Sugar
Waffle (recipe follows)
Ice Cream 


1.  Since peaches have a fuzzy skin on them that's not very nice to eat, you'll need to peel them.  Peeling the skin off a peach is really simple if you use one little trick - boiling water!  Bring a small pot of water to a boil and submerge your peach in it for about 30 - 45 seconds.  Remove the peach from the boiling water and place it on a cutting board for about 30 seconds, just so it cools down a bit.

 

The skin on the peach should be very loose when you touch it.  If you gently pinch the skin between your fingers a part of it should tear upwards, allowing you to start peeling the rest of the peach.  The skin should be so loose and slippery that it peels off the entire peach with out any effort, often in one big piece.  You should end up with a juicy slippery skinless peach. 

 

Cut your skinless peach into slices, and put them in a bowl along with the cinnamon and sugar.  Stir them around and set them aside for at least 5 mins to allow a nice juicy cinnamon syrup to form.

2.  Next you'll need to make your waffle.  If you're making your own, pre-heat your waffle iron and follow the waffle recipe below (or the manufactures instructions if you're using a mix).  ** Because I add peaches and ice cream on top of my waffle I purposely fill my waffle iron only about half full so I get a smaller waffle.  Alternatively you can make the full sized waffle and only use 1/2 of it.  Now's also the time to leave your ice cream out to soften up a bit. so it's easy scoop.

3.  Once your waffle is done cooking and your ice cream has softened up a tiny bit, all that's left to do is assemble your masterpiece!  This probably doesn't need explanation, but start out by placing your waffle on a plate.  Next, add a scoop of ice cream (I prefer vanilla or something with a caramel swirl in it), and then spoon the peaches and cinnamon syrup on top.  That's it!  Really simple, but really delicious!

Waffles 

Ingredients:  

1 Egg 
1 Cup (125g) Flour 
3/4 Cup (175ml) + 1 Tbsp Milk
1/4 Cup (60ml) Vegetable Oil 
1 1/2 tsp Sugar 
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Salt 
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions:

1.  Preheat waffle iron. Beat eggs in large bowl with hand beater until fluffy. Beat in all remaining ingredients (flour, milk, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and vanilla), until just smooth. 

2.  Grease your preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the mix onto your hot waffle iron, and cook until golden brown. ** Because I add peaches and ice cream on top of my waffle I purposely fill my waffle iron only about half full so I get a smaller waffle.  Alternatively you can make the full sized waffle and only use 1/2 of it.

The combination of cinnamon and peaches is one of my favourites,  It's so good that I'll often eat a peach (or two) in the evenings with a bit of cinnamon on sugar on it, just as I described in step 1.  In all honesty, they really don't need any added extras like whipped cream or ice cream, but if you're feeling rather indulgent then adding a waffle and a bit of ice cream is definitely the way to go!

Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundaes and a Giveaway!

Yesterday was my 3rd wedding anniversary, and to celebrate I made an extra special dessert that my husband and I fell in love with while on honeymoon at Disneyland.  During our time there we took a break to explore the other areas in Disneyland and went off in search of some food.  We ended up at an ESPN Zone sports cafe (we'd never been in one, as they don't have them in Canada).  I can't remember what we got for lunch, but I sure do remember what we had for dessert.  In fact, I haven't stopped thinking about that dessert for the past 3 years, so finally decided the buy the necessary equipment to make my own mini versions of it.

The dessert I'm talking about is simply called the Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae.  It's actually a warm and gooey chocolate chip cookie that's been freshly baked in a cast iron skillet.  Just after it's taken out of the oven, and while it's still piping hot, a few scoops of ice cream are added on top along with whipped cream and chocolate sauce to create the ultimate sundae.  

 ESPN's version

The combination of a warm chocolate chip cookie along with the slightly melted ice cream and chocolate sauce makes this sundae one of the most delicious and decadent things I've ever had.  So when I came across these mini cast iron pans at TK Maxx, I just had to get them as I knew they'd be the perfect size to replicate a single serving of ESPN's Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae.  Plus they're just so darn cute!  I'm also slightly obsessed with anything mini, so I just couldn't resist.

To make these yummy little sundaes you can either use mini cast iron skillets like I did, or use a slightly larger one (like the size you'd use for a fried egg) and share it with someone else - or if you're feeling particularly sinful - just eat it all yourself!  I promise I won't tell!

Making these chocolate chip cookie sundaes couldn't be easier.  All you'll need is some chocolate chip cookie dough - I used the same Jacques Torres cookie dough I used for the cookies I made here.  Take enough cookie dough for a single cookie (or double if you're using a larger skillet), place it in the center of your cast iron skillet and cook it at 350ºF (175ºC) for about 8-10 mins (or 13-15 mins if using a larger skillet).  

When the cookie is done baking the edges should be golden brown, but the center should still be nice and gooey.  Let the cookie cool slightly - only a minute or two so your ice cream doesn't totally melt into a liquid pool.  After the minute or so, simply drop a scoop of ice cream on top of the warm cookie, and top with chocolate sauce and/or whipped cream, caramel sauce, sprinkles, nuts etc.  It's up to you, just use whatever you like. 

That's really all there is to it!  Make sure you place the pan on a heat prof surface like a pot holder, wooden cutting board or plate so you don't burn yourself, and eat immediately.  I found that baking the cookies in the cast iron skillets resulted in them having a delicious chewy caramelized edges. SO GOOD!!! Sooo good!!

Now, I understand that eating something like a warm and gooey freshly baked cookie fully loaded with chocolate, and covered with melting ice cream & chocolate sauce may get a little messy, so I've got the perfect solution for you.

The lovely ladies from Cooking Gorgeous have kindly offered to giveaway one of their beautiful aprons to one of my lucky readers.  

The entire range of aprons from Cooking Gorgeous are made in the UK, and they're also expertly designed. 

Their apron waist ties are longer than average (to tie in front or behind), the women's aprons are adjustable (to suit any décollotage) and the men's pockets are tapered (a must for manly hands).  They select high quality natural fabrics with a softness that belies their strength and retains the characteristics of natural fibers.  They don’t compromise on quality or design – everything needs to be up to the job and, naturally, cooking gorgeous. 

The apron up for grabs is from The Bottom Line range, and is valued at £31.99.  It comes in two different accent colours - pink or teal.  I think you all know which one I'd choose!  And don't you just love the cute little bow?  They really are gorgeous!  

If for some reason you'd prefer to have a different apron style other than The Bottom Line, you may choose whichever one you want provided that it is of equal or lesser value.  If you prefer an apron of a higher value you may pay the difference and choose whichever one you'd like.

To enter leave a comment below telling me what Cooking Gorgeous apron you would choose.  Additional entries can be earned by doing the following:

• Become a follower of Made With Pink using Google Friend Connect
• Become a fan of Made With Pink on Facebook 
• Follow Made With Pink on Twitter and tweet the following message: I've just entered to win a #CookingGorgeous apron from @Made_With_Pink and you can too. Enter here: http://tiny.cc/5vfgf

Links to all of the above are in the right hand column.  Maximum of 4 entries per person.  The winning comment will be chosen at random.

Open to Mainland UK residents only.  Contest closes at 11:59pm Friday July 22nd.  Winner will be announced shortly after.  

*** Please note that you MUST leave a comment below in order to be entered into the prize draw, otherwise I have no way of keeping track of who tweeted, followed etc.  If you make a comment anonymously then please leave an email address so I can contact you if you win. You should leave a separate comment for each of the 3 things listed above if you want to be entered more than once.  I will be using random.org to choose a number from all of the comments listed below in order to determine the winner. *** 

Good Luck!

Little Bites Of Heaven

The other day I bought some beautiful fresh raspberries.  I was planning on eating them just as they were, but then I came up with an idea.  Maybe it was because my mind is constantly thinking about cakes and other sweet treats, but suddenly plain old raspberries sounded a bit boring.  But raspberry cheesecake sounded good! So did raspberry lemonade.  Problem was, I didn't actually feel like baking a whole cheesecake just to satisfy one little craving, and I didn't have any lemons to make the lemonade.  BUT - I did have a package of cream cheese and a jar of lemon curd in the fridge.  Then it dawned on me - raspberries are like miniature dessert cups made by nature!

I quickly whipped up a batch of my no bake cheesecake, got my lemon curd from the fridge and put each in a piping bag fitted with a smaller star tip.  I took each little raspberry and pipped a dollop of either the cheesecake or lemon curd into them.  The end result was like a little bite of heaven!  The cream cheese ones tasted like raspberry cheesecake and the lemon ones tasted like nice tart pink lemonade!  

I just put my raspberries in a bowl to snack on, but I think they'd look super cute all lined up on a wooden bamboo skewer as a little portable snack for party guests.  

These are super easy to make.  The most time consuming thing is to pipe the fillings into each raspberry.  Just make sure not to snack on them while you're filling the remaining berries, otherwise you may end up with half as many as you thought you would!

Raspberry Dessert Bites

2 Cups Fresh Raspberries, washed 

Lemond Curd, homemade or store bought - it doesn't matter! 

No Bake Cheesecake Filling:

8oz (227g) Cream Cheese (don't use light, as it won't work the same) 

2 Tbsp + 2 tsp (37g) Granulated / Castor Sugar 

1/4 cup (60ml) Whipping Cream or Double Cream 

1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract   

Instructions:

1. Wash your raspberries and set aside.  In a medium bowl mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla using an electric mixer until nice and smooth. 

2. Whip the cream, and then fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture so it's fully combined.  Fold gently though - you don't want to loose all the air in the cream! 

3. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes to firm up. 

4.  Fill two piping bags fitted with small star tips with your fillings - 1 with lemon curd and the other with the cheesecake mixture (note: if you don't have any piping tips or bags you can put each filling into a plastic zip lock bag and snip the tips off of them).  One by one, take each raspberry and carefully fill each one with either the cheesecake or lemon filling making sure not to squeeze the raspberries too much or they'll go to mush!  Fill them all, and then snack away!

As I mentioned before, these would be a great party snack if you lined a bunch of them up on a wooden bamboo skewer.  They'd also make a great garnish for cakes, cheesecakes and cupcakes!

**I made quite a few of these, and couldn't finish them all so I ended up freezing the remaining ones to throw in my fruit smoothies!

And now for something exciting - it's time to announce my giveaway winner!  First of all I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who commented on my blog to enter the giveaway.  Unfortunately a few days into the giveaway Blogger really started acting up, resulting in my followers widget to go missing as well as the comment forms for my entire blog.  I know many of you tried to leave comments during this time, and I did have to erase a few that appeared with an error message.  Thank you to those of you who took the time to email me your lovely comments over the past few days and also to those of you who requested that you be entered into the giveaway.  I pleased to announce that the comment option is now back up and running, and I really do hope that Blogger has finally fixed all of the kinks they were having with their systems.

I have tallied up the comments and selected the winner at random..........and the winner Salter MyScale is:

Congratulations Rebecca!  I'll be in touch shortly, but if you see this first please feel free to email me your mailing details so I can arrange to have the scale shipped to you.

Authentic Belgian Waffles

Photo courtesy of Nancy Brown

Ok, I have a confession to make.  Even though I was really excited about the Royal Wedding and chose to bake a few things to help celebrate it, I wasn't even in the country to watch it!   Why?  Because I had booked a 3 day trip to Brussels instead!  In hindsight I should have booked my Brussels trip to leave a day earlier so I could be back on UK soil to watch and celebrate the Royal Wedding live with everyone else, but I choose to use my Airmiles for the flights in order to fly for free, so flight availability was a bit tight.  Instead, I recorded the Royal Wedding and watched it on Friday evening when we got home.  Didn't Kate look amazing?  And did you see their cake?? 

It turns out that we went to Brussels at the perfect time.  The weather was almost perfect (except for a torrential downpour during our day trip to Brugge - but that only lasted half an hour before the sun popped out again), there were minimal crowds, and the food was delicious. But the best thing of all were the waffles!  Oooh the waffles!  I'd always thought Belgian Waffles were just a larger thicker waffle with whipped cream & berries on top - nothing really different than a regular waffle, but boy was I wrong!  The waffles that we were eating in Belgium weren't like anything I'd ever had before. They were crispy and caramelised around the edges, and the actual waffle was chewy and yeasty and full of vanilla flavour.  As far as toppings go, we had a choice from the simple yet always delicious Nutella, or the Belgian specialty Specaloos to strawberries piled high with whipped cream.  I opted for Nutella, because after seeing the ridiculously tiny fork they give you to eat your waffle with, there was NO way I could manage eating one covered in strawberries and whipped cream.  After biting into my first Belgian Waffle I just knew I had to recreate them at home.  After getting back to our hotel room and quickly googling an authentic Belgian waffle recipe I discovered that the waffles I'd fallen in love with were actually called Leige Waffles or "Gaufres de Leige" in French - but for the simplicities sake I'm just going to continue calling them Belgian waffles ok?

See those silly little forks!

The main differences between Belgian Waffles (aka Leige Waffles) is that they use yeast as a rising agent in them, and the batter is more like a very sticky dough rather than a runny batter like North American waffles are.  They also had something completely different in them that resulted in their caramelised edges - pearl sugar!  I'd never seen or heard of pearl sugar before, and instead of looking like little pearls it actually looked more like white the white little rocks you'd find in a fancy planter or walkway.  I did manage to find some pearl sugar in a Belgian grocery store.  

I've read that it can be rather hard to find outside of Belgium, but crushed up sugar cubes can be used in place of of pearl sugar if you can't find it.  The recipe I used called for 1 cup of pearl sugar, but after making the waffles I would suggest reducing that amount down to 1/2 a cup.  I thought the pearl sugar would have melted while the waffles were cooking in the iron, but most of it didn't which did result in nice little crunchy bits in the waffles, but I thought 1 cup of pearl sugar was just too much.  I opted to top my waffle off with Nutella (my favourite), even though I did have some other specialty Belgian toppings that I brought back as well.  The waffles were delicious, and very very similar to the waffles we had in Brussels.

Belgian Waffles (aka Leige Waffles)

Adapted from Food.com

Ingredients:

1 (1/4 ounce or 6g) package yeast

1/3 Cup (80ml) Lukewarm Water

1 1/2 Tbs Sugar

1/8 tsp Salt

2 Cups (250g) Flour

2 tsp Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste

3 eggs

1 Cup (225g) Softened Butter

1/2 Cup (approx 1-2 handfuls) Pearl Sugar or Crushed Sugar Cubes

Instructions:

1.  Mix yeast, water, sugar and salt, and let develop for 15 minutes.

2.  Place flour into a large bowl and make a well in the center.  Pour in yeast mixture and vanilla and begin to knead.  Continue to knead while adding the eggs one at a time, along with approx 2-3 Tbsp of the soft butter at a time.  Make sure the dough is mixed well.

3.  Leave the dough in a warm spot to rise in the bowl until doubled - approx 1.5 - 2 hours.

4.  Gently mix the pearl sugar into the dough, and let rest for 15 minutes.  Heat waffle iron.

5.  Place about 1/3 cup of the waffle dough into the middle of your hot waffle iron and spread out slightly with a fork or spatula.  Cook the waffles on low heat for 3-5 minutes, until waffles lightly brown on top.

My waffle iron - sorry it had too many crumbs to take a photo of the inside!

6.  Serve the waffles warm with your choice of topping such as Nutella, Fruit, Whipped Cream, Specaloos, etc.

There's that tiny fork again!

I don't think I could live without my waffle iron.  Thanks to some good friends back in Canada, it was one of the first appliances we got when we moved to the UK as we got it for a wedding gift.  Waffle irons aren't nearly as common here in the UK as they are in North America, so finding a waffle iron in physical store can be kind of hard. Often if a store does carry waffle irons in stock, they will only have 1 or 2 brands or designs.  The waffle iron I have is no longer available, but if you're looking to purchase one I'd recommend the one below.