MasterChef Lolly Bag Cake by Evil Genius Bernard Chu

Australian MasterChef was all about kids this week.  Not only did the show appeal to the younger audience but it also managed to tap into the inner child in a lot of us adults too, especially the ones that grew up with corner shops and lolly bags... like me.  So when I found out that there was going to be an elimination challenge and the contestants were to create a lolly bag cake I started to get excited. MasterChef you had my curiosity, but now you've got my attention.

A childhood favourite - Red Skins.

Lolly Bag

Red Skins, Bananas and Spearmint Leaves in lolly bags plus 100s & 1000s.

If you're familiar with my macarons then you would already know that I've made musk macarons inspired by the iconic Australian musk stick and I've made Adriano Zumbo's Strawberry Bubblegum macarons using Hubba Bubba bubblegum.  But what I've not told you is that our local milk bar still has an original 1960's lolly counter and yes you can still buy bags of lollies.  Prices are a tad different instead of 10c and 20c bags they cost one or two dollars.  It doesn't stock all of the lollies I was familiar with when growing up but it's not bad.  A plethora of sweets is still available; cobbers, bananas, mint leaves, chico babies, freckles, strawberries & cream, pineapple gums, chocolate coated pineapple chews, red skins, milko, milk bottles, strawberry clouds, raspberry clouds, racing cars, snakes, wizz fizz and pop rocks.  When I'm grocery shopping I often give the kids a couple of bucks and they run flat to the boards to the milk bar to get their sugar hit.  Not so good for their teeth and the dentist is making a fortune but I enjoy giving them the same type of memories that I had when I was a kid.

I reckon that the MasterChef Lolly Bag Cake challenge was awesome and if you tuned into social media a lot of others thought the same and it certainly created a buzz of excitement.  

After the challenge was done and dusted and Christina completed the most amazing cake ever in a mere 3 hours, I knew that I wanted to make it but I also knew that I didn't want to make one that costs a bomb.  If you go through the recipe and start doing some simple addition you quickly realise that oh, shit you're up for about a hundred odd bucks for chocolate, popping candy, isomalt, paillette feuilletine, powdered food colouring and the like and that's only the start.

Even though I'm not going to be posting any cakes today, I will show you how to make the mandarin puree, hazlenut paste and the Paillete Feuilletine, which are probably the most difficult ingredients to source.  I've also included some info about prepping some of your own popping candy.  I plan to make the full recipe.  No idea whether it's going to turn out or not but I'll certainly try.  If all goes well I'll post the pics, if not I'll just sulk in silence.  I'm going overseas in just over a week so will probably make it when I get back but in the meantime at least I can get some prepping done.

If you were to buy a kilo of Boiron Mandarin Puree it would cost about $27 AUD.  It just so happens that mandarins are in season so if you want to save yourself some money try making your own.  

  
Concentrated Mandarin Puree
6 x Imperial mandarins
caster sugar

Peel the mandarins and remove as much of the white part as possible and remove any seeds.
Place the mandarin segments into a bowl and weigh them - mine weighed 277g - then blitz them with a mini chopper or pop them into a food processor.  
Sieve the puree into a small saucepan and add 10% of the weight of your mandarins in caster sugar i.e. 27.7g caster sugar.
Bring the puree to a boil and simmer until it has reduced by more than half and becomes a thick paste.  
Allow to cool.  Store either in the fridge or freezer until required - I'll be freezing mine.
Tip: You can easily make a bigger batch of mandarin puree, just add as much fruit as you think you need and, if you want a bit more zing you can also add some zest.

Hazelnut Paste   
125g hazelnuts
15g vegetable oil (approximate)

Roast the hazelnuts for 10 minutes on a baking tray lined with parchment paper at 180 degrees celsius or until light and golden.
Using a tea towel remove the skins whilst the nuts are still warm.
Blitz in a mini chopper or a food processor using enough oil to make a smooth paste. 
Tip: If you need to make more you can easily increase the quantities for this recipe or if you'd rather cheat you can also use a hazelnut spread such as 'Nutella'.
Adapted from a recipe in Adriano Zumbo's book "Zumbo".

Paillete Feuilletine

30g butter

30g flour

30g caster sugar

120ml milk

1 small egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, gently heat the milk, butter and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar and egg.  Whisk until smooth and it's free from lumps.

Pour the flour mixture into the milk mixture in the saucepan whilst still on the stove and whisk continuously until it starts to thicken and looks like crepe batter. When ready, remove from heat.

If the batter has developed a few lumps, strain the mixture through a sieve back into a clean bowl.

Place a couple of teaspoons onto a Silpat mat or silicone mat, smooth out with a pastry scraper or palette knife and bake on 150 degrees celsius for about 8 minutes or until the crepe is golden and looks a bit like lace.  When cooked, either use a spatula to fold the crepe or simply break it up into pieces and allow to cool.

When finished turn off the oven.  Place all of the cooked crepe batter back onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper and leave in the oven for an hour to an hour and a half until brown and crispy.  Store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 5 days.  I've put mine in the freezer in an airtight container surrounded by some paper towel to absorb any moisture. When I need them, I'm going to put them back into the oven whilst still frozen to crisp them up again instead of allowing them to defrost. This recipe makes about 60g of Paillete Feuilletine.
Adapted from recettes-bretonnes  

The flour, sugar and egg mixture. 

A gorgeous crisp Brittany lace crepe (otherwise known as crepes dentelles or gavottes) before it's broken up into pieces to make Paillete Feuilletine.   Not bad for my first ever attempt.

Homemade Paillete Feuilletine 

100s & 1000s, Popping Candy, Pink Murray River Salt & Paillete Feuilletine 

Popping Candy

If you love the idea of popping candy (also known as pop rocks) but you don't like the idea of spending $33AUD on a 200g tub try preparing this too with the store bought variety.  I found a great article here about coating popping candy with chocolate.  Alternatively, you could buy some pure raw organic cocoa butter (Brand: Cacao Power), melt it and when cool use it to coat them.  Make sure though that the cocoa butter is really cool as any heat will activate the pop rocks.  Doing it this way will also add to the theme of the lolly bag cake as you'll get the added flavour of yet another lolly.  If you couldn't be bothered going to the trouble of prepping popping candy however, you could always just take a risk and throw it in when you're making the Freckle Crunch.  

Isomalt
I plan to decorate my cake with Isomalt.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get clear or red but managed to buy pink. Google Isomalt and you can buy it online.  If you don't want to spend the money you could always try spinning some sugar.  I made some to decorate an ice-cream cake - you can find the recipe here.  To make invert sugar you can follow this link. 

If you're after moulds make sure that you contact Jess and her team at Ecotelasia as they shipped my moulds out super fast and the whole team is absolutely amazing! You can also buy them at Savour School.

If making the ingredients for the lolly bag cake seems a bit too labour intensive you can always buy the ingredients from the Melbourne Food Depot  or from Savour School.

For my international readers you can order all of your Australian lollies here as they deliver world-wide.

If you need to access the recipe visit http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/masterchef/recipes/lolly-bag-cake

To see my journey making the cake visit my post on Not Quite Bernard Chu.

Potato and Rice Croquettes

Potato and Rice Croquettes
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups Coles Italian Arborio Rice
2 large baking potatoes (I chose the ones still covered in dirt, washed them but didn't bother scrubbing them)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 large rashers of bacon finely chopped
1/2 cup Coles Finest Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio Dop (Aged for 36 months) finely grated
2 tablespoons finely chopped continental parsley
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Maldon sea salt
Ground black pepper
1/2 cup La Molisana 00 Farina flour for coating
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Method
Boil the Arborio Rice for about 12 minutes, drain and store in the fridge until cold.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and bake the potatoes in their skin for about an hour. When ready split them open and scoop out the fluffy potato.  Place into a bowl and store in the fridge until cold.
In a large bowl, mix the potato, rice, egg, bacon, parmesan, parsley and garlic and the desired amount of salt and pepper until well combined.
Cup your hands and mould into 7 cm long torpedo shaped croquettes.
Gently dredge in the 00 Farina flour shaking off any excess and deep fry in oil heated to about 180 degrees celsius for 3-4 minutes.
Serve with Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio Dop grated on top and a sprinkle of parsley and a drizzle of lemon juice.  My gorgeous girls absolutely love them!
Adapted from Womans Day. 

Great Gatsby inspired Pink Champagne Macarons - "Extravagance"

The Glitz and Glamour is yet to come.

My latest creation 'Extravagance' pink champagne macarons are inspired by the glitz, glamour and luxury in Baz Luhrmann's film 'The Great Gatsby'.  I haven't seen the movie yet but can't wait to see it on the big screen in 3D.

Jewel Tone Sugar Syrup

Look at the colour of the gorgeous head scarf and pink pearls.
Source: http://feliciafbaby.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/121365-review-great-gatsby.html

Gold Dust & Spun Sugar

Extravagance just got more decadent!

Source: www.aceshowbiz.com Warner Bros. Pictures The Great Gatsby

Pink Champagne Macarons -  'Extravagance'
To make these macarons follow my basic macaron recipe but divide the quantities in half and colour them pink.  To make the champagne ganache use 250g white couverture chocolate to 110g cream and 15g pink champagne in addition to a pinch of pink powdered food colouring.

Ice Cream -  'Decadence'
If you're up for a challenge and want to be a bit more creative, make the ice cream below and freeze it in a fancy mould.  When ready unmould it and decorate it with the pink champagne macarons and spun sugar.

Orange Blossom, Vanilla & Violet Ice Cream - 'Decadence'
600ml pouring cream
1 litre milk 
300g caster
7 egg yolks
3 tablespoons orange flower water
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
1 tablespoon violet syrup 

Place a third of the cream, orange flower water, vanilla and violet syrup in a large bowl over ice and set aside.  This is the reserved cream.  Combine remaining cream with milk and a third of the sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stir to dissolve sugar and bring just to the boil.  Whisk yolks and remaining sugar in a heat proof bowl for 4-5 minutes until pale.  Pour the cream mixture over the yolks and whisk to combine.  Return to the saucepan and cook stirring continuously until mixture thickly coats a spoon (6-7 minutes).  Strain into the reserved cream, stir to combine and set aside to cool completely. Pour into a fancy silicone mould and freeze for a minimum of 12 hours.
Adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller

Spun Sugar Icicles
1 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons glucose/ corn syrup
Place all ingredients into a small saucepan and boil until the syrup turns a light golden colour. Line the kitchen sink with parchment paper and use either a whisk or 2 forks to spin the sugar onto the parchment paper. Use for decorating macarons and/or cakes.

Dried Strawberries

Dried strawberries are super easy to make.  Preheat the oven to 80 degrees celsius and line a baking tray with parchment paper.  Thinly slice the strawberries and place them on the tray. Sprinkle with icing sugar and bake for 1 hour then take them out and turn them over.  Bake for another hour.  When cool, store in an airtight container.

 

 

 

 

These have an amazing texture and are great as a snack or used as a topping on cupcakes or your favourite dessert.

Fat Rascals

Fat Rascals - curiouser and curiouser!  Their origin is from Yorkshire, England but their history is somewhat obscure. Nonetheless, intrigued by the name I absolutely had to make them.  If you're a tad on the skinny side I'm sure these lovely biscuits will fatten you up in no time given the amount of lard in the recipe!  

Fat Rascals
450g plain flour
70g brown sugar
100g lard, chilled
125g unsalted butter, chilled
100g currants
150ml milk
Extra caster sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius (conventional).
Place the flour, sugar, lard and butter into a large bowl and mix together with your finger tips until it resembles bread crumbs.
Add the currants and enough milk to form a lovely soft dough.
Lightly flour your bench top and rolling pin and roll out until 1/4 inch thick.
Using a biscuit or scone cutter, cut out circles and place on a tray lined with parchment paper.  Sprinkle with the extra caster sugar and bake for about 12 minutes or until your gorgeous fat rascals are nice and golden.  Allow to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes then pop them onto a cooling rack.

Recipe adapted from Feast Magazine

Fancy Rose Geranium Dainties

Fancy Rose Geranium Dainties
Ingredients
195g pure icing sugar
75g plain flour
155g almond meal
2 eggs
180g unsalted butter, melted gently
6 drops rose geranium essence

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Grease a mini cupcake silicone mould in a fancy pattern with butter. Sift sugar, flour and almond meal into a bowl.  Make a well then add the egg, butter and essence. Combine.  Using a small palette knife fill the mini cupcake moulds with the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.   Allow to cool in the silicone moulds before removing.  Simply dust your fancy dainties with icing sugar or drizzle with lemon icing.  Tip: don't overfill the moulds, make sure the  batter is level. If the cakes start to brown but still aren't cooked place some kitchen towel on top.

Icing
The juice of lemon (gently warmed in the microwave) mixed with sufficient icing sugar to drizzle over these little dainties. 

Vintage Baking - Quince Honey from 1909 turns into Prince of Azerbaijan

It was a tad chilly this morning, minus 3 degrees celsius to be exact.  I could of easily pulled my duvet up over my head and had a bit of a sleep in but instead I decided to get up early and head off to the Farmer's market.  I giggled as I shut the front door as I'd managed to escape the house without the kids waking up.... woo hoo!   I don't often skip but today I did... all the way down our front path to the garage in fact.  Could I manage to get the car out and down the driveway without the piercing screams of little ogres?  You know, the ones that  magically turn into angels as soon as their heads hit the pillow.  My youngest gorgeous girl is watching me now as I type and as I read aloud word for word she starts to look at me in horror and starts to growl - oh no, I'm really scared as she looks like she's just about to turn into a werewolf!  Now, we're both in fits of giggles.  Where was I?  That's right, Quince Honey.  Sounds mysterious doesn't it. Quinces have been around forever and were plentiful at the market today so I bought a couple of kilos worth and decided to not only make a Quince Tagine for dinner and travel to Morocco (flying on the magic carpet under our dining room table of course) but to also attempt a vintage recipe that dates back to 1909 and earlier for Quince Honey.  Not one to always follow recipes I started out with this:

Quince Honey (1)
Ingredients. - 5 large quinces, 1 pint water, 5 lb. sugar.
Boil sugar and water well, then add the quinces, which have been grated. Boil 15 minutes.
Source: Home Cookery for Australia, Third Edition 1909

And, ended up with this:

Prince of Azerbaijan (Your genie in a Jar)
Ingredients. - 3 large quinces, 300 ml water, 1250 grams sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon Monin Rose Syrup, 4 drops rose essence, 1 pinch citric acid

Boil sugar and water until it becomes a thick, clear sugar syrup (about 15 minutes).  Cut, core and grate the quinces.  Add the quinces, lemon juice, lemon zest, rose syrup and essence to the sugar syrup. Boil uncovered for about 15-20 minutes then add the citric acid.  Stir to combine then bottle into sterilised jars. 

Prince of Azerbaijan is the magic genie in your pantry... whenever, you need something a bit exotic remember to reach for this and you'll instantly be transported to magical faraway places.  If you can't afford to travel at least we can pretend.

Vintage Baking - Cockles from 1912

Cockles
Quarter of a pound of flour, 1/4 lb. cornflour, 1/4 lb. sugar, 1/4 lb. butter, 1 small teaspoon of baking powder, a pinch of salt.

Beat butter and sugar together; break in 2 eggs one by one; mix well, add other ingredients. 

Drop in small teaspoonfuls on a buttered tin, and bake in a quick oven.  Stick two together with jam.
Recipe from The Goulburn Cookery Book 1912 Edition

Tips and Conversions:
1/4 lb. equals 125 grams
Use 2 small eggs or 1 large egg (I used one large egg).
The mixture needs to be quite stiff.
Cook on 180 degrees celsius in a conventional oven for 15 minutes. 

I omitted the jam and flavoured my cockles with lavender and dusted them with icing sugar.

What started out as cockles, cockles by the sea shore ended up more like a walk in the English countryside picking narcissus.  As much as I love cockles, I think flowers look much prettier and I thought that it would be lovely for my gorgeous girls to open up their school lunch box tomorrow to find cute edible flowers that tasted of lavender.  I used a mini silicone narcissus cup cake mould.  For this recipe, small teaspoonfuls of batter should be put onto a flat baking tray.  The mixture spreads and you end up with cake type biscuits that look like cockle shells.  They are sometimes sandwiched together with jam.  My gorgeous girls decided that they didn't want the jam, these cake type biscuits are perfect just the way they are!

Vintage Baking - Queen Cakes from 1912

 Queen Cakes is a recipe from 'The Goulburn Cookery Book'.  According to the Southern Tablelands History Matters website, The Goulburn Cookery Book was compiled by an Irish lady by the name of Mrs William Forster Rutledge of Gidleigh, Bungendore. She gave the copyright to the Church Society of the Anglican Diocese on 2nd October 1899, and for thirty years the cookbook brought in a steady income to Church funds, selling 205,000 copies in thirty editions.  By the thirty-sixth edition in 1936, the book had been reprinted almost every year with either 5,000 or 10,000 copies.  There were three more editions, the last in 1945.  I have the Twelth Edition from 1912. The pupils of the Goulburn Public School Cooking Class contributed several recipes, and three are from the National School of Cookery, London. 

Girls living in the country were brought up to manage a household and to be self-reliant.  There was much work to be done to provision a country house.  Milk from the dairy was set in flat open pans and skimmed for cream.  Butter was churned by hand, the surplus clarified and used for cooking.   

So lovely ladies apply your brightest red lipstick, pop on your tiara, a pretty dress and a retro apron and let's get baking.  I made my Queen cakes miniature size.  They look absolutely gorgeous when served up on a vintage plate for afternoon tea.  Guaranteed, when you eat one of these little darlings you'll feel like royalty!

Queen Cakes
Half a pound of flour, 1/2 lb. sugar, 6 oz. of butter, 1/2 lb. of currants, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 4 eggs, a little salt, 1 teaspoon brandy.

Beat the butter and the sugar to a light cream; add the yolks of the eggs; sift in flour and baking powder; add whites of eggs, beaten till stiff, add the currants.  

Blending the currants & stiff egg whites into the cake batter.

Put into buttered patty-tins and fill half full. Bake from 15 to 25 minutes, according to the heat of the oven.  These cakes are nicer if the baking powder is omitted; but in that case the mixture must be beaten for an hour.  The brandy may be omitted.

Ready to be popped into the oven.

As a six generation Australian, I am sooooo proud to say that I can still buy products in the supermarket that were around over a hundred years ago! 

White Wings Flour Australian Owned & Milled for Over 100 Years!

Since 1926 Sunbeam Australian Grown Currants

Australian Western Star Butter since late 1800's

Anchor Since 1854 Baking Powder Proudly Made in Australia

Now you may be wondering... mmmm, how much is half a pound or how much is 6 oz?  Worry no more as I've included conversions and tips below :)

Half a pound is equal to 250 grams
6 oz is equal to 180 grams

Tip:  I decided to make miniature Queen cakes so took the chance of omitting 2 eggs to obtain a stiffer cake batter.  Luckily, they turned out just perfect.  I cooked them at 170 degrees celsius in a conventional oven for 15 minutes. The only problem I had was trying to prevent my gorgeous girls from eating them before dusting them with icing sugar!