Tropical Hibiscus Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Mum!

For about a year Mum has been putting hours and hours a week into planning, building and planting a display garden adjacent to her plant nursery and the results are pretty amazing. She has created a garden paradise of winding paths, beautiful tropical plants, ponds and little siting nooks, available for anyone to freely wander around and enjoy. 

For Mum's Birthday I wanted to celebrate all her efforts and encourage her to stop and enjoy the beautiful space she has created, something she rarely has time to do.

It took me quite a while to come up with a theme for Mum's birthday, but as soon as I decided to hold it in the gardens the ideas came easily. I settled on a tropical theme to compliment the style of plants, with hibiscus flowers (one of Mum's favourites) as the main feature.

Sticking with the theme, I made desserts with fresh fruity flavours. The Birthday cake was a lemon lime white chocolate mudcake, with a super yummy lemon lime white chocolate ganache, decorated with fondant hibiscus flowers. The cake recipe is one of my favourites, I blogged about it back in April and was very happy for a reason to make it again. On the table there were also pink and yellow hibiscus sugar cookies and some mini coconut and pineapple cheesecakes, I'll share the recipe for them a little later in the week.

The mango white chocolate and macadamia balls were a great find from the Noosa Chocolate Factory stall at the Jan Powers Farmers Markets. I actually had to go back to the markets for these two weeks in a row  because we ate all the ones meant for Mum's Birthday.

My little niece was a big fan of the hibiscus cookies and she thought the mango white chocolate balls were pretty delicious too. 

Most Importantly Mum loved everything too.

If you are interested in the nursery or just want to take a look at the gardens, please do. The latest project at Lagoon View Nursery and Gardens is a cute little cafe, something I'm very excited about, It will be opening in a few weeks time. Feel free to bring a picnic or if you'd like to have your own party in the gardens just give them a call.

Lemon Lime White Chocolate Mudcake

I started this year with the best intentions, way back at the start of January I sat down with a calendar and wrote down all those 'must try one day recipes' floating around my head. I had this Lemon Lime White Chocolate Mud Cake written down for January thinking its flavours would make a yummy summer cake. I acutally made this cake a couple of weeks ago and learnt something, this is not just a summer cake its a cake I would happily anyday or everyday even.

It baked perfectly forming a nice domed shape top, with a super moist inside. The lemon and lime flavor in the cake was nice without being to strong, but the real winner is the ganache. I love white chocolate so really fell for the ganache, with the subtle coconut, lemon and lime flavours it was amazing!

For the Lemon Lime White Chocolate Mudcake 
(for full recipe scroll to end of the post)
250 grams butter
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 teaspoons lime zest
180g white chocolate
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup self-raising flour
2 eggs lightly beaten

To make the Mudcake- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees c. Grease a round 20cm cake pan and line the base and sides woth baking paper, leaving a 2cm overhang at the top.

Add the butter, lemon, lime, chocolate, sugar and milk to a medium sized saucepan. Stir all the ingredients over a low heat until smooth. Transfer in a large mixing bowl and allow to cool.

Add the sifted flours and the eggs to the butter and chocolate mixture, stir until combined.

Pour the cake mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, until cake tests done. Allow the cake to cool in the pan.

While the cake is cooling make the coconut ganache.

Turn the cake out of the pan top side up, cover with the white chocolate coconut ganache.

For the Coconut White Chocolate Ganache
140ml can coconut cream
360 grams white chocolate
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lime zest

To make the Ganache- Finely chop the white chocolate, combine the chocolate, lemon and lime  in a medium bowl.

Pour the coconut cream into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until smooth.

Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for about half an hour. Stir the mixture occasionally until spreadable.
Spread over the cooled cake.

Enjoy!

Lemon Lime White Chocolate Mudcake 
(based on recipe from Womens Weekly, Cakes Biscuits and Slices)
250 grams butter
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 teaspoons lime zest
180g white chocolate
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup self-raisin flour
2 eggs lightly beaten

To make the Mudcake

• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees c. Grease a round 20cm cake pan and line the base and sides woth baking paper, leaving a 2cm overhang at the top.
• Add the butter, lemon, lime, chocolate, sugar and milk to a medium sized saucepan. Stir all the ingredients over a low heat until smooth. Transfer in a large mixing bowl and allow to cool.
• Add the sifted flours and the eggs to the butter and chocolate mixture, stir until combined.
• Pour the cake mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, until cake tests done. Allow the cake to cool in the pan.
• While the cake is cooling make the coconut ganache.
• Turn the cake out of the pan top side up, cover with the white chocolate coconut ganache.

Coconut White Chocolate Ganache
140ml can coconut cream
360 grams white chocolate
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lime zest

To make the Ganache

• Finely chop the white chocolate, combine the chocolate, lemon and lime  in a medium bowl.
• Pour the coconut cream into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until smooth.
• Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for about half an hour. Stir the mixture occasionally until spreadable.

Mini Lemon Meringue Tarts

Lemon Meringue Pie is one of boyfriends favorite sweets, these were a special request from him. I think he was expecting a big pie all to himself so was probably a bit disappointed at the miniature size of these little tarts, but they were yummy all the same. Personally I loved the smaller size of these mini lemon meringue tarts, I really enjoyed the higher crust to filling ratio and to be honest am a sucker for anything in miniature.

Pastry

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/4 cup caster sugar

125 grams cold butter (roughly chopped)

1 egg yolk

Lemon Filling

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

2/3 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoon lemon zest (finely grated)

75 grams butter (roughly chopped)

2 egg yolks

Meringue

2 egg whites

1/2 cup caster sugar

To make the pastry- add the flour, sugar, butter and egg yolk in the bowl of a food pocessor, process until all the ingredients are combine and the dough comes together slightly.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly flowered surface and give it a bit of a knead until sooth. Wrap the dough in clingwrap and place in the fridge for half and hour before using.

To make the tarts- lightly grease a 12 hole cupcake/muffin pan with butter and preheat oven to 200 degrees c. Roll out the chilled pastry dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 5mm thick .

Cut out 12 8cm circles from the dough, re-rolling as needed. Press the pastry rounds into the cupcake pan and prick the base and sides with a fork.

Place the tart bases in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans. While the bases are cooling make the filling.

To make the Filling- add the sugar and cornflour to a small saucepan, stir in the lemon juice and the water.

Continue stirring over a medium heat until the mixture boils and gets thicker, turn the heat down to low and continue stiring the simmering mixture for a minute. Take the pan off the heat and quickly stir in the egg yolks, butter and lemon zest. Set the lemon filling aside for 10 minutes to cool.

Spoon the lemon filling evenly between the cooled pastry cases then place in the fridge to set for about one hour.

To make the Meringue- preheat the oven to 240 degrees c. With an electric mixer beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until they form soft peaks. Gradually add the in the sugar, continue beating until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture forms firm peaks. Spoon the meringue gently into a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip.

Roughen the surface of the filling on each tart with a fork, pipe a swirl of meringue onto the top of each tart. Bake the tarts for about 3 minutes, until the meringue is lightly golden.

Enjoy them, they're delicious!!