Going nuts...

This week has been a bit of a nutty one... I had a hankering for coconut during the week, so had a go at making some coconut tarts - instead of making the filling-bit as you are supposed to, I wanted to try and make them a bit less dense, so whipped up the egg whites separately - whilst this did mean that the mix did end up lighter, it wasn't quite firm enough to hold up the cherry! I was very excited when they began to foof up in the oven, though the next minute I looked, all the cherries were playing hide and seek with me! Oh well... it did mean that you get a nice cherry surprise when you bite in!A couple of weeks ago, I got myself a fantastic muffin type tin - why was it so fantastic? Well... each individual muffin "pit" was loose-base! Never seen one of those before. Have since been playing with ideas about individual cheesecakes and other mini-bake creations.

I ended up baking a batch of sponge fingers and sponge, only to realise that there was no way I could assemble the cakes inside the tins, as the diameter was just too small for the Charlotte fingers as well as the cake... Doh!

Finally, I had to assemble the actual spongey bit of the cakes inside the tin, and then adding the surround after I had popped them out of the mould. It was a bit of a slow process and probably won't make it to the fair exactly for that purpose - though they did look cute in their minature form - the chestnut and Tia Maria whipped filling was a verrry tasty combination too! I will surely try and incorporate that for the fair somehow... Maybe in a seasonal yule-tide log...!

Mini-Charlie-Chestnut goodness

Imagine a chocolatey sponge to get you into the Christmas mood... ! ( I didn't have enough charlotte fingers for more than a dozen minis, so just made a swissroll with the leftover sponge and cream!)