A story in pictures
Some shrewd readers may notice that this last picture differs somewhat in quality from my usual shots. It is in fact courtesy of the customer, the very talented Alice. The original, and the rest of Alice’s flickr stream can be found here – Only Alice
Rainbow Cupcakes
December 11th, 2009Mixed Berry Marble Pocky
December 8th, 2009On every level I have always found pocky much more appealing than other biscuits and these beautiful pink specimens with their love heart adorned packaging were no exception. I can never say no to a flavour of pocky I have never seen before and these don’t disappoint. Pleasingly they look exactly like the picture on the packet – something that food all too often fails to live up to – and taste smooth sweet and yogurty. Mmmm. Love in biscuit form.
Vanilla Cupcakes with Rose Petal Jam filling topped with chopped raw Pistachios and Honey Buttercream
November 28th, 2009
When I saw a jar of rose petal jam in a gourmet shop in Inverness, I knew I had to buy it, take it home and fill cupcakes with it. The recipe itself took barely five minutes to conceive of. A honey pistachio topping based on the flavours of baklava seemed obvious. So, filled with the all consuming desire to bake immediately I gleefully purchased the rose petal jam and the rose petal salt in the picture, although I still don’t have a purpose in mind for the salt. There was however, one or two catches. Firstly, I was in Inverness and far from my home and hearth and extra large mixing bowl. Secondly, the person who would get the most pleasure out of eating a rose and baklava flavoured cupcake is my dad (Hi Dad!). So I had to wait until an opportunity arose to send freshly prepared cupcakes off to my father for taste testing. That day has finally come! Go forth my cupcakey minions!
Sweet Potato Kit-Kat
November 23rd, 2009The picture doesn’t really convey quite how yellow this Kit-Kat is. It’s very presence brightens up my desk. Taste-wise, it is an interesting experience. The overriding flavour is that of the wafer biscuit but there are creamy hints of sweet potato and another tangy flavour I can’t quite identify which prevents it from being too sickly. However, if I hadn’t seen the package, I’m not sure I would be able to guess what flavour it was. It put me more in mind of McVitie’s Gold biscuits than of sweet potatoes.
Brown Tea Mini Kit-Kat
November 17th, 2009I love tea. A lot. I’m ashamed to admit it but I really can’t get through a day without at least one cup of tea. However, I have never been a tea and biscuits sort of girl. Tea and cake, definitely, count me in, but biscuits never cross my mind while I’m waiting for the kettle to boil. That said, when I found a tea flavoured Kit-Kat, I had to try it. Upon tasting it, I am sad to say that I was disappointed. There was perhaps the faintest hint of bitter tea if you tried very very hard to taste it but otherwise it tasted exactly like a regular Kit Kat. Just as well I like regular Kit Kats then.
NOTE: Interestingly, I had a sip of water 10 minutes later and there was a faint after taste of tea.
Sweet Bean Mini Kit-Kat
November 9th, 2009I’m currently working on a red bean paste cupcake but can’t quite make a decision on the frosting. The cupcake itself is going to be a vanilla bean sponge filled with red bean paste but as for the frosting there are so many choices. Vanilla bean, red bean, dark chocolate, mango buttercream, coconut buttercream, crushed pineapple cream cheese frosting, green tea/macha . How to choose?! Perhaps the only solution is to make them all in the smallest possible batches and taste test them. One thing I have learned from this little Kit-Kat is that too much sweetness can be a bad thing. While the aftertaste is pleasantly beany , the initial flavour is cloyingly sweet with flowery undertones that I’m not too fond of. Worth trying, but I won’t miss it terribly once it has gone.
Salt Caramel Mini Kit-Kat
November 2nd, 2009I have a real weakness for anything sweet and salty from Chinese crispy seaweed to salt toffee chocolates so naturally this Kit Kat was going to be a winner and the mini size keeps the sweetness from being over powering. That said, don’t expect too much from this little biscuit. It is, after all, only a humble Kit Kat, not a Michelin starred dessert.
The Gingerbread Man Hunt
October 28th, 2009For some time now I have been fantasising about gingerbread cupcakes topped with spicy frosting and a miniature gingerbread man and I decided this weekend that if I was going to do it, I would need the perfect biscuit – I guess I just assume that after that, everything else will just fall into place, wishful thinking?
Despite the abundance of Kit Kats in this ‘blog I am not normally a big biscuit eater* and they often get forgotten about entirely until I come across a really exciting cookie cutter or want to play around with a new piping nozzle. For such occasions I have a great biscuit recipe (developed from a buttery shortbread recipe when I needed something a little more malleable) that produces fool-proof biscuits that are crisp and crumbly when fresh and still smooth and melt-in-the-mouth even after a couple of days. My initial plan was just to add a few teaspoons of gingerbread spices to this mix and leave it at that but even straight away I was worried that I was missing something essential to the gingerbread man. I remembered then that my sister has made gingerbread men since we were kids and her recipe has remained largely unchanged and unchallenged so I thought it would make a good baseline comparison for a taste test. To tell the two biscuits apart (and because I just picked up this incredibly cute cutter set on ebay) I made my gingery-biscuit recipe and cut Miffy shapes from it and made my sister’s gingerbread biscuit recipe and cut teddy bears from it. The resulting biscuits were then baked, tasted and compared. And the verdict? Well, my quick fix recipe is definitely out of the running. Everyone agreed it was a very good biscuit, but just not what we were looking for in a gingerbread man. My sister’s recipe had the fiery taste and syrupy richness that I was looking for, but didn’t quite have the snap in the texture I felt was needed. I guess the jury is still out on the best gingerbread man recipe. I suspect I could cook the teddies longer to toughen them up, but am tempted to try for a treacly recipe with even more bite to it. This hunt is far from over, gingerbread man!
*honestly! I get a real kick out of trying all these weird and wonderful Kit Kats but all I do is test a finger here, a mini kit kat there, a third of a pack of Apple pretz in the middle of the night…
Apple Pretz
October 26th, 2009So I had a serious snack attack on Saturday night and broke into the Apple Pretz without taking a picture first. An empty packet is almost as good, right? The verdict is that these things are incredibly nomable and substantial. For skinny little biscuit sticks, they pack quite a satisfying carby punch. It took three sittings to eat this pouch (yes, I could have taken a picture while there were still some left but every time I reached for the camera I just ended up nibbling on some more pretz instead). They taste a lot like a caramel apple would if it had been made with dried apple rings. There is a definite appley taste, but also a salty, buttery caramely-ness to them that is a little strange in such a dry snack, but very moreish.
Cookies Kit Kat
October 14th, 2009While I don’t really see the need for a cookie flavoured biscuit I couldn’t say no to this Kit Kat. Mostly because it is the first one I have ever come across in a rigid cardboard box. For some reason I have always had a fondness for sweets in boxes and used to buy my smarties and fruit gums packaged that way when I could – in fact, if I am honest, I don’t even like smarties or fruit gums when they are not boxed, the same goes for malteasers. I am sad to say that I was initially disappointed by the contents of this pleasing package. The ‘fingers’ are wider than average and are individually wrapped which robs you of that wonderful feeling you get when you snap a Kit Kat in two, I especially enjoy it if I can run my thumbnail through the foil first (this is the main reason I dislike Kit Kat chunkys , however, I also think the ratio of biscuit to chocolate is unbalanced). Despite being a biscuit flavoured biscuit, they do taste markedly different from a regular Kit Kat thanks to a malty layer of ‘cookie’ that gives them a cerealy taste. All in all a tasty snack, but no where near as exciting as the adorable mini Ramune flavour Kit Kats.
Cookies Kit Kat