Tim Tam Birthday Cake

 

I came across this  fabulous cake on one of the many blogs I follow and couldn't resist. Raspberricupcakes has some pretty amazing idea's from cakes made to resemble Tim Tams or Twix bars to a cheesecake made with M & M's and pretzel's. I made this for my brother in laws birthday during the week as Tim Tams are one of his favourite biscuits and I thought this was the perfect excuse to make it.

Rasperricupcake uses two layer's of chocolate sponge but I preferred to use a simple chocolate cake recipe. Then a layer of chocolate icing was whipped up and slathered on, followed by your choice of crushed up Tim Tams (I went with caramel).

This was sandwiched together with another layer of chocolate cake and evenly trimmed.

I placed the cake on a cake board lined with baking paper strips and drizzled over the semi-set milk chocolate ganache. Then I used a palate knife to create the chocolate rippled effect.

A cookie cutter was used to cut a 'bite' out of the cake to reveal the lovely layers and then the baking paper was removed leaving a clean cake board.

Overall the Tim Tam cake was a winner at our house, it tasted delicious and was fairly easy to make. I would recommend adding more milk to the filling to make it lighter as mine was on the firmer side rather then soft and creamy like the biscuit. For Raspberricupcakes Tim Tam cake recipe and many more fun yummy treats go here.



Chocolate Coffee Cake...Without Coffee

It's a Baked Sunday Morning again and this week the challenge was Chocolate Coffee Cake. For those that are new to my blog every two weeks there's a group of bloggers that bake the same recipe out of Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito's Baked Explorations cookbook.

This week I wasn't going to do the challenge as I'm not too fond of butter cream and only a few people in my family enjoy the flavour of coffee, but then I thought I'd soldier on and make my own version. For the recipe go here, Baked Sunday Mornings.



The recipe called for a Classic Chocolate Cake but when it came to assembling I did away with one of the three layers of cake as it was getting to high for my liking. Next came the Coffee butter cream minus the coffee & with an addition of more vanilla. Not being a fan of butter cream I only made half the amount to layer between cakes.

Then I made a rich ganache using equal amounts of thick cream and dark chocolate. I like a rustic homemade look so I doused the cake in semi-set ganache and swirled it with a palette knife until I was happy.

To finish it off I sprinkled it with caramelised cacao nibs dusted in gold shimmer. These two little monsters look impressed!

The cake was lovely and moist, the butter cream gave it an extra hit of flavour and the ganache turned it into what all chocolate tortes should be, deliciously decadent.

 And uhh, little Livy Lou enjoyed herself to!

Tea Time at The Berry Tea Shop

 



Some of the yummy treats on display, what will I choose?

Driving through the picturesque country town of Berry on the South Coast of NSW it's hard to pass up a visit to The Berry Tea Shop. I first heard of this little gem about a year ago from a friend who knew I loved all things TEA.

There's teapots and tea sets,

'Tea-books' and Tea Canister's,

Tea to take home,

More tea -ware!!

Tea cosy's & gorgeous gift cards

So now my decision is made...

One giant fluffy Date Scone and a pot of Madame Grey Tea.

And I couldn't resist trying something new, tea-blossoms are going home with me, after all there's always time for tea!!

The Berry Tea Shop, shop 1/66 Albert street, Berry NSW 2535

ph: 02 4464 1218