When I was very young, whenever we would visit my paternal grandmother, I would be look forward to it with utter excited anticipation. I loved visiting her because, no only did she have a huge dog whom I adored, but she also had a beautiful parrot. I don’t remember the parrot’s name but I do remember the time he bit my finger. Above all of that though, I remember my gran’s house smelling of granadillas (passion fruit). This was due to the fact that she had a few granadilla trees her in backyard and in Summer, the aroma would be almost overwhelming. To this day, whenever I smell granadillas, I…
Simply Delicious
A general food and cooking blog. I like to experiment and try all different types of cuisine and I have a passion for food photography and styling.
Archive for the ‘Dessert’ Category
There are few desserts/pastries that are sure to impress like a well-made Frangipane tart. I am beyond in love with the subtle almond flavour the Frangipane cream filling adds. Add some tart, juicy berries and a thin, crisp crust and you have pastry perfection. I’ve made Frangipane before but used Nectarines and although this is an equally delicious way of making this tart, the raspberries add an incredible dimension of flavour that can only be achieved with slightly sour fruit. I decided to spread a thin layer of good quality raspberry preserves on the pastry before adding the filling to pump up the raspberry flavour. I served this as…
I am not usually the sappy type. And neither is my husband. We don’t do PDA’s (well no more than a sincere hug, thigh-squeeze or kiss). And I don’t like to get too schmaltzy on my blog or my social networks. I mean, we don’t even celebrate Valentine’s Day. But recently, I have fallen so deeply in love with the man that I met 10 years ago and wanted to dedicate this post to him. You see, these past two months my C and I have worked together closer than we ever have before. Yes, sure, we’ve shared office space for the last 3 years and we’ve worked…
I love January in South Africa. It’s no secret that we have some of the World’s best fruit here and in January fruit is available in abundance. Stunning, juicy nectarines and peaches, sugar-sweet watermelon and the most delicious berries. I try to take full advantage of berry season and I buy copious amounts of it when I can. I use it to jazz up ice cream, to add prettiness to lemonade or iced tea and to wow in delectable desserts like this one. I made these tarts using my favourite pastry recipe to date. I just played around with the ratios and found a pastry that I will from…
Every year, without fail, my gran made us a giant bowl of traditional trifle for Christmas. Layers of Madeira cake, jelly, custard, tinned fruit and cream would be layered in a large glass bowl and served as a finale for our Christmas lunch. As a child, I loved it. As an adult, I ate it with a smile on my face while wishing I had something slightly more sophisticated to eat. I loved it because my gran made it but after the third person dished their portion, the trifle would become a mish-mash of dare I say, grossness. There’s not much about mushy cake, lumps of jelly, custard and…
Around Christmas, I find my consumption of chocolate goes up by, well, a lot. And even though I love a good square of dark chocolate or a truffle, sometimes I need chocolate in dessert form. I’ve wanted to make chocolate cream pie since I saw it on Julie & Julia and thought, what better dessert for Christmas than a silky smooth, delectable chocolate cream pie? I decided to use a cookie crust made from Tennis Biscuits (a coconut flavoured cookie). What makes this dessert so magical is that you can make it entirely the day before. All you need to do before serving is top them with whipped cream and…
If you have space after, what is bound to be, quite an enormous Christmas meal, I have three fabulous desserts for you that are all relatively easy to pull off and are all guaranteed to impress your guests. The first is this fabulous pavlova. I don’t know why but Pavlovas have become quite synonymous with Christmas for me. Perhaps because we have such beautiful berries in abundance at this time of the year which adorn the snow-white pavlovas so beautifully. What I also love about serving pavlova for dessert on a day where things can get quite hectic in the kitchen, is that it can be made a few days before…
During summer, we all look for delicious desserts which can offer a source of nutrients while still tasting good, and so, when Special K asked me to come with a fabulous recipe I thought this one would be just perfect. An added bonus is that tart requires no cooking. Simply assemble in little time. I decided to use the Special K and make a tart shell from it. I combined the crushed Special K with a little melted butter and sugar and pressed it into tart cases before allowing it to set in the fridge. When you are ready to serve, you pop the Special K tarts out of their tart cases and fill them with…
People often ask me why I bake (why I cook as well but, well, I like to and need to eat so that’s easily answered). But baking is different. Yes, of course I like to eat baked goods. There are very few people on earth (if any) who don’t. But baking awakens something inside me. I always say that baking makes me feel like a true domestic goddess. You see, I loathe all other domestic duties, other than shopping and cooking. I can clean if I’m forced but I truly hate every second of it. I can wash and iron clothes but never, ever do it with any enthusiasm and…
The first time I saw Hummingbird cupcakes was on the Martha Stewart website. They were gorgeous and I loved the idea of a cupcake filled with banana, pineapple and coconut as I just adore these tropical flavours. That was almost 2 years ago. I finally decided to give them a whirl this week and I was not disappointed. I adapted the banana cake recipe from my new book and the end result was a beautifully moist, incredibly flavoured cupcake. I used tinned crushed pineapple (with all its liquid) which kept everything moist and the coconut added just the right amount of texture. I topped the cupcakes with a lemony…
