Friday, 31 May 2013

Rhubarb Quark Crumble!

Rhubarb quark crumble

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There’s scarcely been any cooking in my selection of quark desserts this week but in this one you will actually need to use the oven.
The good news is you will have some chunky crumbly bits left over to top any other desserts in the days following.
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Start off by cooking chunks of rhubarb in a scant amount of water (it’s amazing how much liquid comes out of rhubarb) with demerara sugar to sweeten. When the rhubarb is cooked, drain any excess liquid (you can drizzle it over porridge) and set aside to cool.
Then mix the ingredients for a standard crumble (try my mini apple crumbles in this post) but instead of topping the fruit, simply bake the crumble on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. It will only need ten minutes or so and without the wet fruit underneath, watch it doesn’t dry out and burn.
Let the cooked crumble mix cool down and when it’s cooled completely decant layers of the rhubarb compote, some vanilla quark and crumble mix into glasses.
I used gluten free flour to great effect. You could mix up the flavours here by making different fruit compotes and adding spices to the crumble. You could also try a streusel-y oat topping and eat it for breakfast.
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Since rhubarb is in season, I’m sending these rhubarb quark crumbles to Ren’s Simple and in Season event.
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This is one of four recipes I’m publishing this week using Quark, a naturally fat free dairy product. Come back and see the others over the next few days!
quark quark mousse quark
with thanks to maison cupcake!

Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Pretty in Pink

My First Castle Cake

Another Scrummy Low Fat Pudding!

Raspberry quark “mess”

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Those little tubs of dry meringues you get in the supermarket can come in very handy. I’ll never forget wowing the mums at my son’s 1st birthday party by serving them in dishes of strawberries drizzled with molten chocolate. My sleep deprived friends with babies of their own seemed to think I was some kind of culinary genius just by assembling 3 things that taste nice on their own all together.
It’s a bit like this raspberry mess. Traditional Eton Mess has proper cream but you get the same effect here just by using naturally fat free quark. If it gets me off the hook of cooking too much for convenience, may I redeem myself by telling you these are home grown raspberries albeit out of the freezer from last year’s crop.
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Simply crush some raspberries into some plain quark and decant into dishes. It looks nice to leave a whole raspberry and drizzle red berry juice on top. Then just crush up a mini meringue and serve. You can make them ahead in the fridge but the meringue is best added at the last moment otherwise it dissolves.
Other ways to try this include with strawberries or blackberries. I think some toasted almonds on top would work very well too.
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with thanks to maison cupcake!

Monday, 27 May 2013

Low Fat Quark Chocolate Mousse!

Egg free quark chocolate mousse recipe

quark mousse
Usually making chocolate mousse involves folding whisked egg whites into a chocolatey custard type mix and if I’m honest, it’s not something I do very often.
When you can get a chocolate dessert that looks as good as the one above, why would you bother?
Quark is one of those ingredients you hear about but can rarely find in the supermarket.
You think you’re going to find it amongst the cream or yogurt but it tends to be sold alongside the cheese. Previously I’ve only seen plain varieties so I was interested to hear that the Lake District Dairy Company had brought out some quarks under their own label with vanilla or lemon flavours too.
It comes in 300g tubs and keeps in the fridge for a similar length of time to buttermilk. You can use it in a similar manner to fromage frais but it has a creamier texture. Quark is naturally fat free which is surprising since it looks the same colour as full fat cream. It’s far less rich though!
Having been sent a couple of tubs to try out I was awash with serving suggestion ideas and have not yet even begun to cook with it.
This quark chocolate mousse couldn’t be easier, simply fold cooled molten chocolate into it until evenly coloured. I made this batch up with 50/50 ratio but it was surprisingly dense so I reckon you could get away with 30/70 chocolate to quark for a lighter results.
It’s that easy. There are no eggs, no added sugar. Nothing else.
Well okay you could ring the changes with some orange zest or maybe some cinnamon. But it’s really very easy, mix molten chocolate and quark together. This is what you get.

with thanks to maison cupcake!

Fantastic Low Fat Puddings!

Lemon “cheesecake” using quark and speculoos

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Some day or another I’ll get around to making a bona fide cheese cake that you bake in the oven – but for the time being I’m happy to cheat with stuff like Philadelphia and today, lemon flavoured quark.
You get all the joy of lemon flavour, biscuit base but the “cheesy” bit is naturally fat free quark. And there’s no cooking.
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This is more serving suggestion than recipe. I have my stash of speculoos crumbs in a jar AKA Lotus biscuits and pour a couple of centimetres of these into a glass. If you like you can stir in a dessertspoon of molten butter to make the biscuit base solid again.
Decant layers of lemon quark and lemon curd on top. Sprinkle over more speculoos crumbs and dunk in a whole Lotus biscuit. Ta-dah!
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This is one of four recipes I’m publishing this week using Quark, a naturally fat free dairy product. Come back and see the others over the next few days!
Rhubarb quark crumble
Fat free quark raspberry mess.
quark quark mousse quark
With thanks to maison cupcakes

Thursday, 23 May 2013

Shiny New Mixer!!! :-)

So THIS is my birthday present! :-) im in LOVE!!!!

Hen Party Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes Finished! :)

So here they are guys! Felt alot of pressure making these for my boss! I hope shes pleased with them!



Hen Party Cupcakes!

Its my birthday today but because i like my manager so much i agreed to make these cupcakes for her. She at a Hen Party this weekend! Just cooling the Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes and Icing! Ill post a picture when they are all finished :)

Saturday, 18 May 2013

Are Cronuts the New Cupcakes??

Sarah Trivuncic (@MaisonCupcake) tweeted at 8:13 AM on Sat, May 18, 2013: Are cronuts the new cupcakes? Croissant-donut hybrid causing a frenzy with New York ... http://t.co/89ffmk6uHl via @MailOnline (https://twitter.com/MaisonCupcake/status/335654263629950977) Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

My First Three Tier Cake!

I was asked to make this cake for an Engagment/Wedding Party! Let e know what you think...


LEFT OVER BUTTER CREAM TRUFFLES!

These are delicious and brilliant to make if you have left over butter cream! :) Give it a go, they are great as little gifts too!




Monday, 13 May 2013

Sweet Trees!

Ok so Ive seen this craze become more common recently and i thought id give it ago, these are my first four Sweet Trees and i love them! The novelty idea is amazing and any sweet is possible!

Please visit my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/NannyGladsCakes for more information and to place an order!

Or visit my website http://www.nanny-glads-cupcakes.co.uk/

Thankyou :) <3





Thursday, 9 May 2013

Savoury Cupcakes Experiment Day!

So today i have been trying new savoury flavours! Never made savoury cupcakes before but i think they look pretty good and i must admit my kitchen smells amazing! I made three flavours, Sundried Tomato and Garlic, Feta, Olive and Rosemary and Bacon! I hope the guys at work appreciate them when i take them in later! :)




Cakes by Me :)

Here are some more cakes i have made...

Please follow me on Twitter @NannyGladsCakes

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/NannyGladsCakes

Website http://www.nanny-glads-cupcakes.co.uk/