Nutella and a few of my favourite things

Yesterday was my mother’s birthday. She would have been 59 this year. I still get really down when I think of my parents and hence I try to think about the happy times we had together and all our favourite things. I suppose I am writing this because I just wanted to let anyone out there who is feeling really hurt and angry that they have lost someone that while the pain does not ever go away, there are still good things in life, there are still blessings in your life. Count ‘em, that is what I am going to do! Life is so precious and so short, I am determined to live this pursuing my loves and treasuring my relationships. My brother sent me something from Australia for my birthday. He wrote on his Facebook wall that I would either love it or hate it. Well, LOVED IT! Check it out

A wedding cake charm from Frans!

Yeah he got me Juicy Couture bling! *show off a bit can*. I really like it that it is a charm, my mother used to give both of us charms. I do not think that it is superstitious or anything, but rather as reminders. I am going to keep this little charm from my brother close to me, to always remind myself to follow my dreams and use whatever gifts I have been given by The Almighty to help all those around me. Ok I am going to lay off before all the Care bears come sliding down that monstrous rainbow thing and this becomes such a nauseating self-help post. Eww

I anticipated that I would get a little funky and cranky during the week following to my mother’s birthday; hence I decided to spend it thinking about the fun stuff I used to do as a child. My mother is much older than both my aunties (10—13 years difference). My parents hence had to take care of both my aunties and they lived with us (their boyfriends too) for quite some time. My aunties are NUTS and I think they just never ever get old. When we used to live in Denmark, we would go for walks and see beautiful fruit from other people’s trees. We would actually form like a human ladder just to steal those fruit. (Naughty right) I used to get so tickled when were doing that that I would giggle and be real slow at picking the fruit. Another naughty thing we used to do was to walk to the provision store almost every night and each buy a sachet of Nutella and just eat it using the little spreader thing it comes with. We would never eat it at home; my mum would have just screamed if she knew! I think Nutella must be everyone’s favourite treat. Ros,a friend of mine specifically requested for a cake with Nutella in it. I have created a rich and dense buttery cake with a ribbon of Nutella swirled on top. I have chosen a Mocha buttercream infused with Baileys (you can skip the Baileys if you just don’t do booze) for the frosting of the cake (Swirled with an 1M tip).

Folds of gleaming buttercream...yummy

The little balls of decoration are fondant dusted with a mauve and gold shimmer dust. Oh WARNING: This cake is real rich and is meant to be like comfort food, you know trips to the mini mart, butter pound cake for tea with Milo, so avoid it if you like light tasting cakes. If you are too lazy to make this, you can purchase it from Sugar Rocks. It is $3 per cupcake with a minimum order of 12 cupcakes. They will be packed nicely in a box and with a gift card!


Enjoy!


Recipe for Nutellen’ ya (Nutella swirled butter cake with Mocha and Baileys butter cream)
This recipe yields 12 regular size cupcakes or a nine inch loaf tin
Ingredients for Nutella swirled butter cake

1) 3 eggs (room temperature)
2) 3 tablespoons of milk (room temperature)
3) 1 ½ teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
4) 1 1/2 cups of sifted cake flour
5) 1 teaspoon of baking powder
6) ¼ teaspoon of salt
7) ¾ cup caster sugar
8) 200 grams of unsalted butter
9) 12 teaspoons of Nutella (yummy)

Method

1) Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees
2) Melt the butter in heat proof bowl (like Pyrex) and set it aside to cool
3) \Mix eggs, milk and vanilla extract in a bowl and set aside
4) Place all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar) in your electric mixer bowl (you can use a hand mixer too) and blend all the dry ingredients on low for 30 seconds. This actually helps to extract the juices of the dry ingredients to keep the cake moist
5) Add cooled melted butter into the dry ingredient mix (step 3) and blend till mixture moistens.
6) Add mixture of eggs milk and vanilla extract (Step 2) and gradually beat till all the ingredients are incorporated
7) Scoop batter into cupcake liners or loaf tin
8) Place one teaspoon of Nutella in each cupcake liner filled with batter (or 12 teaspoons in the loaf)
9) Using a tooth pick swirl the nutella so that a marbled design appears at the top of the batter
10) Bake for 22—25 minutes for cupcakes or 50-55 minutes for loaf tin
11) Cool for at least 30 minutes before frosting

You can actually just eat it as a muffin if you are not too worried about the frosting below

Ingredients for Mocha Buttercream infused with Baileys

1) Instant Mocha sachet (I used one which I bought from Marks and Spencers)
2) 3 tablespoons of milk
3) 75 grams of butter
4) 75 grams of Crisco (You can substitute this for butter, I use butter flavoured Crisco to make the buttercream more stable)
5) 1 teaspoon of Baileys (You can substitute this with vanilla extract or add more for a boozy effect)
6) 230 grams of icing sugar


Method
1) Heat up milk and empty mocha sachet Stir furiously until combined. Set aside to cool.
2) Soften butter and Crisco by beating them with your mixer for about 2 minutes
3) Gradually add icing sugar till the butter and Crisco stiffens up.
4) Add Mocha mixture (Step1) and Baileys or vanilla extract into the mixture
5) Add more icing sugar till it stiffens.
6) Your butter cream is ready when it is not gritty when you rub it between your fingers.