5 Minute Pink Coconut Tarts

Today I bring you another "5 minute tart."   You may remember my five minute chocolate tarts. This recipe is just as easy!

If you love coconut like I do, then you'll love these. All you need to make these tarts are: a box of ready made tart shells (or some pretty shortbread cookies), 2 cups heavy cream, one box Jello Coconut Cream instant pudding & pie filling, some sweetened coconut flakes, and if you want pink tarts then you'll need some pink food gel.               

In a chilled bowl with chilled beaters, beat the heavy cream, jello pudding, and pink color gel until firm peaks. Put mixure into a piping bag, and using any tip you choose (I used Wilton 2D), pipe swirls into or onto your tart shells/cookies. Just make sure that the your tip is large enough to let the pieces of coconut in the mix go through. I tried a different tip at first because I wanted a "ruffled" look, but the mixture wouldn't go through the tip. 

Then, just sprinkle the tarts with some coconut and serve! A lovely addition to any girly function!! Thanks for visiting!!

 

Mini Raspberry Pavlovas

My fascination with little pastries continues here at Pink Piccadilly Pastries and today I bring you some delicious Mini Raspberry Pavlovas. They are similar to the French Bonbons I made recently, but are even better! They have a pound cake base in the form of a mini cupcake, topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream, topped with a meringue cookie disc, and finally finished with a drizzle of Raspberry Coulis, fresh raspberries and a sprinkling of powdered sugar!! Phew!! But seriously, they are not difficult! Really! You can do this! 

My success with my French Bonbons gave me courage to try this recipe, which appeared in Hello Magazine (see photo from magazine below.) Since their recipe doesn't tell you how to make the cakes or meringues or raspberry coulis etc, I had to pretty much come up with a new recipe myself.

The most difficult part of this recipe for me was making the raspberries stay put!! My raspberries were on the large side, and it was difficult placing three on top. I could have gone with one raspberry, but it wouldn't have looked as nice.

So now I'll show you how to make these yummy pastries!

The first thing I did (actually the night before) was bake the mini pound cakes. (photo above shows baked cakes) Not really knowing what I was doing, I decided to go easy on myself and use a box mix! I've never made a pound cake from a mix, but this really turned out perfect for the recipe I was doing. This is the mix I used......

First I placed mini cupcake papers in 2 mini muffins pans. Next I went right by the directions for the pound cake mixture, then used my mini cookie scoop to drop the mixture into the papers. (fill about 2/3 full)  Since the directions don't come with baking time for mini cupcakes, I guessed at the time and 14 minutes was just right.

While the pound cakes are baking, start making the meringue discs. The photo above shows the meringues after piping. Since they had a little tip on the top, I pushed those down using a damp finger. I used the same recipe/technique as I showed you in my French Bonbons post. And again, I used my ever so helpful template to help me pipe the discs. Just make sure to remove the template before baking. I have actually used my template for my last three posts! I placed a cooked pound cake on the template to get an idea how big the discs should be piped. When piping these, you want discs, not mounds. You need a flat surface to set your raspberries on.

Here are what the baked meringues look like. After you bake your pound cakes and meringues, let them cool completely while you make the raspberry coulis. And for this, I used Martha Stewart's recipe. Raspberry Coulis just sounds like something that's going to be difficult to make, but it's not! All you need are some raspberries and sugar!

Just cook the raspberries and sugar down until you have a nice syrupy mixture, let it cool, then strain it. (I meant to show you a photo of the syrup but forgot to take the picture!)

OK, you've got your cakes, meringues and coulis cooling (coulis cooling!), now you going to whip the cream! Using a chilled bowl with chilled beaters, beat one pint heavy cream and 1/3 cup powdered sugar until stiff peaks. Now we're going to begin to put the pastries together. First, fill a piping bag with some of the cream (use any type of plain round tip) and pipe a circle of the whipped cream on top of the pound cakes. (photo above)

Next, place a meringue disc on top of the whipped cream. 

Then drizzle a generous teaspoon of raspberry coulis on top of the meringue discs. This will help the raspberries stay put. Also, if you waited to drizzle the coulis after the raspberries were placed on top, the berries would be wet and your powdered sugar would melt.

Now you're going to top the meringue discs with three raspberries, (Hopefully small ones), then sprinkle some powdered sugar over the tops of the raspberries. How pretty are these?! They taste even better than they look!!

This isn't a very good photo, but you get the idea! Yum! They are like a wonderful little raspberry shortcake topped with a meringue cookie! My kids loved them! If you would like to try these, just click on the links for my meringue recipe and Martha's Raspberry Coulis recipe, and make the cakes using the directions on the box. If you have any questions, just leave me a comment and I'll get back to you! Hope you enjoyed! Have a great day!

 

I'm sharing my pastries with Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage for Teatime Tuesday! I think these Raspberry Pavlovas would go lovely with a cup of tea, don't you?!

 

Meringue Rosettes

Today my daughter and I made pretty little meringue rosettes. She absolutely adores meringues and will eat every last one if not watched! 

The cookies here look pretty enough, but not as pretty as they started out.

Peach was not the color I wanted, Pink was! Here at Pink Piccadilly Pastries, we like our Pink! (lol) I evidently had the oven too hot. I baked the meringues for one hour at 275 degrees. I guess next time I'll have to go with 250 degrees. The photo below shows the pre-baked meringues.

I lined my baking sheet with parchment paper and placed my handy dandy template under it so that the rosettes would be about the same size. (see previous post to get your template) If you're using a template, make sure to remove it prior to baking. I fiddled around with lots of different recipes for meringues, and this is the one that we like the best. Here's what I did: I take 4 egg whites, bring them to room temperature, put them in my mixer and beat them (with the wire whisk attachment) on medium speed until they become foamy. This doesn't take long. Then I throw in a pinch of salt, turn the speed to high, and beat the egg whites until stiff peaks. Now I begin adding my sugar (1 cup total) one tablespoon at a time.

I wait about 15 seconds in between the spoonfuls and keep going until I've added all the sugar. I beat just a couple of minutes more until the sugar is dissolved and then I add my food coloring. Next I fill my piping bag with the mixture, and using my Wilton 2D tip, I pipe little rosettes around the circles of the template. Going counter clockwise, you begin with your tip in the middle of the circle, make one small circle around, then another circle around the first one. Make sense? 

I had some pretty little royal icing flowers, so I put one on each rosette. Unfortunately, the little royal icing flowers faded in the heat as well! I'm not sure they are really meant to be able to withstand the heat of the oven, but I didn't know how I would attach them after baking, except to make a batch of royal icing just for glue!

So, we ended up with cute little vintage looking peach colored meringues, which didn't bother my daughter one bit. They tasted delicious! Just make sure to put them in a sealed container or plastic bag after they have cooled because they go soft really fast in humid weather! This recipe will make about 5-6 dozen small meringues. I know I sound like a broken record, but wouldn't these be adorable for a tea or shower? They're inexpensive, easy to make and you can color coordinate them to fit your party! I just love meringues!! Have a lovely day!!

 

French Bonbons Ooh La La!

Wow, it's been too long since I posted!! But I hope you'll forgive me when you see what I'm going to share with you today! These pretty little pastries are called French Bonbons, and I'm going to show you how to make them! 

I suspect that these pastries are just called french because they are such fancy little affairs, but they really have New Zealand origins! The recipe for the French Bonbons comes from Alexa Johnston, author of the New Zealand Cookbook Ladies, A Plate. The Bonbons have a sponge cake base, a meringue cookie top, and whipped cream and jam in between! The recipe involves several steps, but each step is not difficult. It's the sort of recipe that would be so pretty for a bridal shower or tea, and the extra effort would be so worth it!

The recipe for the French Bonbons isn't in the book, but you will find a treasure trove of vintage New Zealand recipes just like Grandma used to make. The recipes include Lamingtons, Cream Filled Sponges, Ginger Kisses, Custard Squares, and Chocolate 'Eclairs to name a few!

OK, are you ready to make them? Let's get started!  We'll begin with the sponge cake base. First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Next, bring your eggs to room temperature. (The quickest way to do this if they are in the fridge is to put them in a bowl, and cover them with hot water from the tap, and leave them for 10 minutes.) Sift together your flour and baking powder. Put your egg, egg yolk and cold water into a bowl with the sugar (recipe calls for caster sugar which is extra fine granulated sugar such as the Dixie Crystal brand.) Beat these ingredients with an electric beater for at least 5 minutes until they are pale yellow and fluffy. The mixture should fall in ribbons from the beaters and remain on the surface for a few seconds before sinking. (see above photo)

Next, sift the dry ingredients onto the egg mixture and fold through carefully using a metal spoon.

The next step is to drop the mixture in very small circular spoonfuls onto the prepared trays, trying to keep them all the same size. You could also use a piping bag with a plain circular tip, which is what I did. **A tip that I want to pass along to you is to use a template. Click this link for the template. I use this template for making french macarons and I found it extra handy for making this recipe as well! Just print it out on your printer and place it under your parchment paper. Then pipe your sponge batter onto the circles. You will use it for piping your meringue cookies on as well. That way, the top and bottom of your pastries will be about the same size. *Be sure to take out the template before baking.

Pipe your mixture onto the baking sheet into tiny mounds. This is how your sponge cakes should look after piping. Then bake for 5-6 minutes until just golden.

Leave on the tray for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack. (mine were not as golden as they should have been but I did bake them the full 6 minutes.)

Next we're going to make the meringues, and this is where my recipe is a little bit different than the original. The original recipe uses one egg white to one cup of sugar. I tried twice making the meringue batter that way and it just didn't work for me. The batter was really flat and I just think it was too much sugar for the one egg white. I poured the first batch out. I did bake the second batch, but after baking, the meringues were way too sweet. So, what I did was use 2 egg whites, room temperature, no water. Whip egg whites to a foam, add a pinch of salt and beat on high with a wire whisk attachment until stiff peaks. Then begin adding your sugar one spoonful at a time until incorporated and you have stiff shiny peaks.

Then fill another piping bag with the meringue mixture and pipe circles onto your other parchment lined baking sheet (with the template underneath.)

Sprinkle meringues with a few sliced almonds (because the meringues were so small, I actually chopped the sliced almonds a bit.)

These are the almonds I buy - Sam's Club.

Bake the meringues at 275 degrees (original recipe says 300) for one hour, then cool completely on a wire rack.

Now we begin to put it all together! Place your sponge cakes, topside down, into some paper cases. I got mine from Wilton, I think they are called candy cases.

Then whip the heavy cream, remembering to use a chilled bowl and chilled beaters. Now, you can do two things at this step. The original recipe says to put a small spoonful of jam or honey onto each sponge cake, then top that with whipped cream. Another version of this recipe here says that you can instead just whip the jam or honey together with the heavy cream. That's the version I used. I had some strawberry jam, so I used it, and since the mixture wasn't as pink as I liked, I add one drop of pink food gel.

I used a third piping bag (always with the same tip) and piped circles of my whipped cream onto the sponge cakes. Then you top the whipped cream with a meringue cookie, sprinkle tops with some powdered sugar and your done!!

They are so pretty, don't you think?

For the recipe, just click on the link! I'll be joining Sandi from Rose Chinz Cottage for Tea on Tuesday. Please join us! Thanks for visiting!!

Plum Puffs and Raspberry Cordial for an Anne of Green Gables Tea

I'm so excited today to be participating in a progressive Anne of Green Gables tea party hosted by Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage. I have to apologize that I'm posting a bit late today. 

Today I made Anne's Plum Puffs, which, according to my recipe from a book called The Anne of Green Gables Treasury, is a cream puff, with plum jam and whipped cream! Doesn't that sound delightful? I'm sure, though, that Marilla made her own Plum Jam and didn't purchase the Smuckers brand from the local Kroger!!

I also made Anne's infamous Raspberry Cordial! I think that's one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Anne was having her best friend Diana over for tea. Poor Anne had never tasted raspberry cordial before and picks up a bottle of Red Currant Wine instead. She serves it to Diana, who proceeds to drink not one, but three large glasses of it and gets very tipsy indeed!! So cute! I got the recipe from here if you would like to try it. (The cordial, not the red currant wine lol).

So welcome to my part of the tea party! Please get a glass of rasberry cordial and a plum puff.....

and have a seat at the table and enjoy yourself! While you're having your refreshments, I thought I would show you how I made the Plum Puffs.

The first thing you do is heat a bit of water and butter in a saucepan until boiling, then turn heat to low and add your flour and sugar. Just stir with a wooden spoon until mixture leaves the sides of the pan - usually only takes a minute. What I do next is transfer my mixture to a bowl of a mixer and let it cool about 5 minutes before adding the eggs. Add your eggs one at a time and beat each time until mixture becomes smooth. Thats it! Now drop dough by spoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet. I use my small icecream scoop and it works just great. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. The recipe didn't say this, but what I do next is to take them out, poke a hole in each with a toothpick, turn the oven off  and place the puffs back in. Let them dry out about 5 more minutes in the oven.

After the puffs have cooled, split them open to get them ready to fill.

Next, whip your heavy cream and sugar in a chilled bowl with chilled beaters and whip till stiff. Then either fill a piping bag with the cream or just plop some on the puffs with a spoon.

Here's a closeup of the puffs with cream. Doesn't it make your mouth water?!

Then you just place a spoonful of plum jam on top! Yummy! You could also combine the cream and jam and whip together. I think you might get a pretty shade of pink if you did! I think Anne would like that version as well!

I had fun setting the table today. I used a vintage tablecloth from my collection and some vintage glasses that I bought at an antique store.

I think Anne would approve! 

Thanks so much for coming today. I hope you enjoyed yourself. Have a great day!