salty sweet passionfruit crisp sandwiches

salty sweet passionfruit crisp sandwiches

16 Mar 2026

When preparing last year's Christmas cookie box, I tried out 2 new recipes and both recipes failed. I couldn't use those cookies so this year I'm going to audition potential Christmas cookies in advance, hopefully avoiding the same situation. 

I thought I'd make some passionfruit crisp sandwich cookies adapted from a  recipe from Natalie Paull's book, Beatrix Bakes: Another Slice. The original recipe was for salty sweet lime crisp sandwiches but with a few passionfruit lurking in the crisper I decided to make a passionfruit version. The filling recipe is very generous and makes enough for 2 batches of cookies so the leftover filling is now in the freezer.

I cut the dough in half and placed one half back into the fridge. It's quite warm in Sydney at the moment and I found the dough softened very quickly making it almost impossible to handle. I managed to get about 10 cookies onto the tray but I needed to use a lot of bench flour in the process. Not wanting to admit defeat I pulled out a couple of sheets of baking paper and rolled out the rest of the dough between the 2 sheets of paper. This was so much easier and for the second batch of cookies, I just placed the piece of baking paper with cookies in situ onto a baking tray. I used a 6cm cutter to make the cookies because that's what I had in my kitchen and cut out a little peep hole in half the cookies, to expose the passionfruit filling.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 10-12 cookies. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Salty sweet passionfruit crisp sandwiches – makes around 12 filled sandwiches

Lime cookies

100g unsalted butter

30g good extra virgin olive oil

zest of 1 lime or lemon

200g plain flour

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 egg

80g caster sugar

cooking oil spray

Sweet salty sprinkle

30g caster sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt flakes (lightly crushed)

Passionfruit frosting filling

30g passionfruit pulp

240g icing sugar

60g unsalted butter (very soft and squidgy)

15mls olive oil

1/4 tsp sea salt flakes

Lime Cookies

Melt the butter (microwave or stovetop), then add the oil and cool completely — warm butter will make a greasy, seized dough. Add the lime zest, then set aside to cool.

Weigh the flour, salt and baking powder together into a small bowl. Stir with a whisk to combine, then set aside. In a large bowl, hand whisk the egg and sugar energetically for around 30 seconds until it just turns a shade paler yellow. No need to whip in lots of air. Whisk in the cool butter/oil/zest. Switch to a stiff plastic spatula and stir in the dry ingredients until the mixture forms a thick, mashed potato–like paste and the bowl has clean sides. Scrape into a piece of plastic wrap and chill for a minimum of 3 hours, or ideally overnight, before rolling out.

Preheat the oven to 160°C, conventional. Line a shallow baking tray with cooking oil spray and baking paper. Give the dough, still wrapped, a few firm pushes against the work surface to encourage it to yield to the rolling pin. Unwrap the dough then roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper. Roll to around 30 cm × 30 cm (12 in × 12 in) — around 4 mm thick. Stamp out as many cookies as you can with a 6 cm fluted square cutter, making sure you stamp hard to cut through any zesty bits lurking along the cut lines. Lift the cut cookies onto the baking tray, only slightly apart, as they won’t spread at all.

Collect the scraps, squeeze together lightly and roll again. Try to avoid rolling a third time, but do it if you have to. No need to chill again — these can go straight in the oven to bake for about 40–50 minutes until firmly set (when you can easily lift one up). They should look dry, not gummy, and the colour will be a honey gold hue.

Remove from the oven, make the sweet salty sprinkle by mixing the sugar and salt in a small bowl and dust over the cookie tops while they are hot. Place the trays on a wire rack to cool completely for 10–15 minutes before filling, or cool in the oven overnight. If the oven temperature is any higher or you dust the raw dough with the sprinkle pre-bake, the cookies will start to contract and dome, making them a bit funny looking, and tricky to fill without overloading the curved space with excess frosting. If they are still warm, flatten with a heavy tray on top. The edges may crack a little.

Make the passionfruit filling while the cookies are baking and cooling. Place the passionfruit into the bowl of a stand mixer and add the remaining ingredients on top. Beat with the paddle attachment on speed 4 (below medium) for 10 minutes until the frosting is fluffy, pale and ultra-creamy. if the filling is looking a bit dry then add a squeeze or 3 of lime juice. Scrape the bowl sides down twice. The frosting should hold its shape and not be melty or slack. If the frosting does slump, take the bowl and paddle off the mixer and chill for 30 minutes. Return to the mixer and keep beating until cool and fluffy.

To fill the cookies, swipe a heaped teaspoonful of frosting on one cookie, smooth out evenly with an offset spatula, then swipe the spatula against the edges of the cookie to make a sharp finish. Sandwich the top on and give it a tiny squeeze together. Run your pinky finger around the sides to neaten up any oozy bits. 

For cakeshop pro filling, scrape the frosting into a piping (icing) bag with a small sized tip (#3). Lay half the cookies, top side down, on a clean tea towel (dish towel) to prevent slipping. Pipe an outline of frosting, then fill it in. Sandwich the top cookie on.

Baked and filled the cookies will keep for up to 2 weeks, airtight and chilled. They soften a little over time.

They tasted as you would expect - a crisp biscuit that's equal part salty and sweet sandwiched together with a passionfruit cream filling. 

Next week is Passover Week where I'll be sharing 5 Passover friendly bakes with you. I must get cracking though because I have 2 more bakes to prepare and photograph by next week.

See you all again next week.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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the french bastard's pain aux raisins

the french bastard's pain aux raisins

9 Mar 2026

When I visited Paris in 2023 my favourite pastry by a long shot was the pain aux raisins from The French Bastards. Rather than raisins or sultanas the snail was filled with currants and it was delicious. You can imagine how delighted I was when the bakery published a recipe book, 'The French Bastards, Modern Pâtisserie Classics from Paris's Cult Bakery' in 2025, which contained their recipe for the pain aux raisins. 

I copied the recipe then studied it. The recipe was obviously a scaled down version of a commercial batch of pain aux raisins. The recipe was very short on detail and some of the measurements didn't appear to be correct. I bought some high fat content butter and set to work. I struggled on aided by multiple google searches for pain aux raisins recipes plus suggested resting and cooling times during the lamination process. 

The end result didn't look too dissimilar from the original but I could have rolled the dough more tightly to get another swirl. My lamination skills definitely need work. It was 26°+ C the day I made the dough and despite using ice blocks to chill the surface and regular rests in the fridge and freezer, my butter block melted a bit during the rolling process. The quantity of pastry cream in the recipe wasn't very generous and although I increased the quantity a little I think you need at least 50% more. However the quantity of syrup was super generous and probably double what you need but any leftovers can be stored in the fridge. 

The dough was also very dry so I had to add another 40-50 mls of water before it came together. Then finally, the recipe suggested baking the snails at 150°C, conventional for 25 minutes. All the other recipes I consulted suggested baking the snails at 180°C-200°C, conventional which is what I ended up doing.

Here's the original recipe for you from The French Bastard's cookbook, without my suggested changes, which makes 6-12 snails. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to see a demonstration of a double/single fold mentioned in the recipe I've attached a link here, with l.architecte.patissier expertly showing how the turns are performed.

The French Bastards Pains aux Raisins - makes 6 
Preparation time: 1 hr * cooking time: 25 mins * resting time: 2 hrs 15 mins

For the pastry cream
112g whole milk
21g caster (superfine) sugar
10g custard powder
4g egg yolk
22g whole egg

For the croissant dough
141g pastry (sponge) flour
141g fine soft wheat flour (e.g, Italian 00 flour)
6g salt
11g fresh yeast/4g dried yeast
14g unsalted butter, cold
42g caster (superfine) sugar
7g cold water
110g whole milk, cold
169 g unsalted dry butter (84% fat)

For finishing
600g currants

For the syrup
150g caster (superfine) sugar
150g water

Pastry cream
Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Combine the sugar and custard powder in a bowl, add the egg yolk and whole egg and mix well. Pour in half the hot milk, stir to combine, then return the mixture to the pan with the remaining milk. Bring back to the boil, then remove from the heat. Allow to cool.

Dough
In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine all the ingredients for the dough, except the dry butter. Mix on the lowest speed for 5 min to form a dough, then knead on speed 2 for 8 minutes. The dough should be smooth.

Shape the dough into a rectangle on a baking tray (pan). Cover with cling film (plastic wrap), allowing it to be in direct contact with the dough and rest for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and use it to encase the dry butter. Make a double turn and roll out the dough to a thickness of 8 mm. Next, make a simple turn and roll it out to a thickness 8 mm, then roll out the dough to a thickness of 4.5 mm. Trim the edges of the dough to form a regular rectangle. Press the lower edge of the dough with your fingers.

Using a spatula, spread the pastry cream over the entire surface of the dough. Scatter the currants evenly over the cream. Starting at the top, roll the dough into a sausage, then cut it into six slices. Lay the slices on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and leave to rise for 2 hours.

When they have doubled in size, preheat the oven to 150°C, conventional and bake for 25 minutes. In the meantime, make the syrup. 

Syrup
Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Allow to cool. Remove the pains aux raisins from the oven and brush them with the cold syrup while still hot.

Would I make pain aux raisins again? I'd like to improve my lamination skills, so the answer is 'yes' but I'd use a different recipe. Perhaps this one.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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pillowy peach polenta tart

pillowy peach polenta tart

2 Mar 2026

I've had this pillowy peach polenta pie recipe bookmarked for quite some time.  The recipe (s) came from Natalie Paul's first cookbook, Beatrix Bakes, which I borrowed from the library then photocopied the recipe. Once peach season  arrived I fished out the recipe and discovered I didn't have the recipe for the custard filling. When I copied the recipe I hadn't realised there were 4 separate elements to the recipe and I'd only copied 3 of the 4 components. In the end I decided to use a different custard filling from Natalie's second book, Beatrix Bakes Another Slice, which I whipped up in the microwave.

Although I do own a 24cm round tart tin, I just love my rectangular tin. It's so easy to cut the finished tart into neat slices but it's smaller and I have to scale the recipe down to 2/3 of all the ingredients. If you'd like to make the 24cm round tart, you'll need to roast a kilo of peaches and prepare 50% more of the polenta pastry recipe. The amount of custard should be sufficient.

Here's the recipe for you, adapted from Natalie Paull's recipe for pillowy peach and polenta pie, which makes a 10 x 35cm oblong tart. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

Pillowy peach and polenta tart - serves 7 

Citrus-roasted peaches
750g ripe peaches (approximately 6 peaches)
150g/ml orange juice (or juice from other mid-acidic citrus, such as mandarin or tangelo)
40g caster sugar

Polenta crust
160g plain flour
65g fine (or instant) yellow polenta
65g caster sugar
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
100g unsalted butter, cold and diced
1 egg yolk (25g)
15g/ml cream
½ tsp vanilla paste
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Vanilla pastry custard 
50g caster sugar

20g cornflour

pinch sea-salt flakes

40g cream

40g egg yolk (from 2 eggs)

200g/ml full-fat milk
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

To assemble

1 egg white, lightly beaten
icing sugar for dusting

Citrus-roasted peaches 
Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan forced/180°C, conventional. Have ready a large non-reactive roasting tin that will hold the fruit, when halved, in a single layer.

Remove any stems and cut around the natural seam of the fruit. Twist the sides to release the halves from the stone - do this over the roasting tin to catch any juice. If the fruit shows resistance, switch to carving the lobes off with a small-serrated knife. Put the fruit in the tin.

Pour the orange juice over the fruit and scatter over the sugar. Place a piece of baking paper on top and press down lightly to meet the fruit. Cover tightly with foil. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Peel the foil back and lift the paper carefully to avoid nasty steam burns. You are looking for the fruit to retain their shape, but for the flesh to feel yielding to the touch when squeezed lightly and for the raw appearance to diminish. If the fruit are just on the cusp of cooked when you take them from the oven, employ the resting technique; keep them covered with foil to retain the heat and leave them to rest to doneness.

Cool to warm, taking the foil off but leaving the paper on to prevent discolouration. If the skins slip off easily, peel away. If they are obstinate, leave the skins on, as removing the skin can tear the flesh away and that's too precious to lose. Store the fruit in their syrup in the fridge.

Polenta crust 
Put the flour, polenta, sugar and salt in a wide mixing bowl. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients just until the butter lumps are the size of small peas and the flour has taken on a yellowy hue. When tossing through your fingers, it should feel like silky ground almonds with a little polenta grit interspersed with buttery lumps. These small butter lumps are going to melt during baking, creating a little steam, which will help flake the pastry apart.

Lightly combine the egg yolk, cream, vanilla and lemon zest in a small bowl, then add to the buttery flour. Keep mixing with your hands, lightly squeezing the dough together. The mix will look crumbly at first and then will come together like stiff play dough. Loosely wrap the dough in plastic wrap, then press the dough into a 2 cm thick disc, gently squeezing around the edge to smooth out any cracks. If the dough is not too warm, you can start rolling now. Or if it feels sticky, chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes - just ensure that the dough is nicely pliable before rolling.

Divide the dough into two pieces: two-thirds and one-third (280g and 140g). The larger portion is for the base of the tart and the smaller portion is for the top. Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and press it out a little with the palm of your hand to ease it into the start of rolling. Roll out the dough to into a rectangle about 4-mm thick. Trim, then gently lift and flop the dough into the tin.

Working in sections, tuck the dough right into the edge and against the side of the tart tin to prevent air pockets, then roll off the excess with a rolling pin.

Add the offcuts to the smaller dough portion wrap in plastic wrap and chill until needed. The pastry can be a little pesky to roll, so ensure it isn't too warm before you start. It will happily be lightly kneaded again for a second or third attempt at rolling.

Freeze the tart shell for at least 1 hour before blind baking. Make the custard while the tart shell is chilling.

Cold start vanilla custard
Place the sugar, cornflour and salt into a medium heatproof bowl. Mix in the cream and the egg yolks and stir until well combined. Stream in the milk and vanilla bean paste and mix until smooth.

Place the bowl into a microwave oven and cook on high for 2 minutes, stirring after each minute. Cook for another 30 seconds on high, stir and then microwave for another 30 seconds. As the custard thickens it will look lumpy but just whisk hard and it will all come together into a thick paste in 30 second to a minute. Return the bowl to the microwave and cook for another 30 seconds if not quite thick enough.

Once cooked, scrape the custard into a plastic container and press a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the custard to prevent a rubbery skin forming. Chill for an hour. If, after chilling, the custard appears sloppy, it was undercooked. Simply return the custard to the microwave and cook for another 30 seconds to 1 minute or until thick.

Prebake the crust
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), conventional. Cover the frozen dough with a piece of aluminium foil, tucking it snugly into the edge of the tin. Fill the lined tin with sugar or baking beads and bake for 20 minutes or until the crust has just set and there is a whisper of brown on the edges. The pie will be filled and re-baked, so the crust is only baked until pale. Cool for at least 15 minutes before filling.

Meanwhile, remove the remaining portion of dough from the fridge to soften for rolling. Get the citrus-roasted stone fruit ready. Pull the peaches out of the syrup (you will have some fruit and syrup left over, so freeze them for another baking adventure) and dry between paper towel. When the crust has cooled, smooth the vanilla pastry custard over the base using an offset spatula. Place the peaches on top, cut side down.

Roll out the dough to a rectangle large enough to cover the tart. Carefully brush a light coating of egg white on the crust edge and a little on the peaches, to encourage the top pastry to adhere. I like to roll the top pastry just before baking so it settles effortlessly over the filling and is pliable enough to seal well. You can roll it earlier and keep it chilled: just ensure it returns to a floppy state before it goes on top.

Place the pastry top over the filling
To do this, shimmy a spare tart tin base or a thin flat board under the pastry and slide the pastry into position on the peaches. Do this carefully, as the egg wash will adhere it to the top immediately. (This step didn't work for me and the pastry cracked into pieces. I cut the rectangle into 3 separate pieces and placed each third separately, overlapping each piece slightly which seemed to work out fine). Push the top pastry down to meet the cooked pastry on the side and pinch the excess off with your fingers. Use a knife to poke a few steam-release vents in a pretty pattern over the pastry top.

Bake in a 190°C (375°F) conventional oven for 45 minutes until light golden and a little puffed. You want to preserve the golden glow of the polenta, so don't over-brown. If a few cracks form on top, they will settle upon cooling. Cool the pie for at least 2 hours before dredging with icing sugar and slicing into generous wedges.

The end result - beautifully soft roast peaches, and a vanilla custard filling encased in a crunchy polenta pastry. Who could not love this combination. The pastry is a bit tricky though so I'm wondering whether I could polentarize my almond shortcrust pastry recipe, which is much easier to deal with. Watch this space.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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kopi cake with peanut honeycomb

kopi cake with peanut honeycomb

23 Feb 2026

I requested Helen Goh's book, 'Baking and the Meaning of Life' from my local library. It was very popular and there were many people ahead of me in the queue. After waiting patiently for 2 months without any luck, I decided to buy my own copy. 

I promptly bookmarked at least 30 recipes I needed to make, some sweet and some savoury.

I am not a coffee lover but I do love peanut brittle so when I saw the photo of the kopi cakes topped with peanut honeycomb I knew I had to make them. Rather than making mini cakes I decided to make one larger loaf cake and I used my own coffee icing recipe as I didn't have quite enough condensed milk. If you'd like to make the smaller cakes or Helen's icing, the link to the recipe is below.

Here's the recipe for you in Helen's own words, which makes a small loaf cake. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C

Kopi Cake with Peanut Honeycomb - makes 1 loaf
Cake
180 g self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp fine sea salt
180 g unsalted butter, cut into roughly 6 pieces, then left at room temperature
100 g caster sugar
80 g soft dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
10 g instant coffee powder, dissolved in 20 ml water from a recently boiled kettle

Coffee Icing
1 tsp coffee powder dissolved in 2 tsp boiling water
½ tsp vanilla paste
60g room temperature unsalted butter
60g mascarpone or cream cheese at room temperature
20g milk powder
generous pinch sea salt flakes
125g sifted icing sugar

Peanut honeycomb (optional)
70 g caster sugar
30 g golden syrup or honey
1 15ml tbs water
70 g roasted peanuts
pinch of fine sea salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Cake
Grease and line the base and sides of a 1 standard loaf tin (approximately 1 kg capacity, roughly 20 x 10 cm) with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 160°C fan-forced/180°C conventional.

Sift the flour, cinnamon and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Place the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until light and creamy-about 2 minutes.




Reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the base and sides of the bowl after each addition. The mixture will look curdled at this stage, but don't worry - it will come together at the end. Add the sifted dry ingredients and the coffee, then mix on medium-low speed just until it is combined.

Scrape the batter into the prepared tins and bake for about 50-55 minutes for the loaf tin - a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean. Place the tins on a wire rack and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before turning the cakes out to cool completely. While the cake is in the oven, make the icing.

Icing
Place the coffee in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over. Stir well to combine, then set aside to cool to room temperature.

Place the cooled coffee, vanilla, butter, mascarpone or cream cheese, milk powder and salt in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Sift the icing sugar over the top. Beat with the paddle attachment for 10 minutes on speed 4 (below low) until pale, and fluffy. Store covered in the fridge until needed. If the icing is too firm , you may need to re-whip it or soften in 10 second bursts in the microwave.



Peanut honeycomb
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Combine the caster sugar, golden syrup (or honey) and water in a small saucepan. Place over low heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Without stirring, bring to a low simmer and cook until the mixture has just turned golden brown and reached 149°C (hard crack stage) on a candy thermometer (about 3-5 minutes). Add the peanuts and salt, stir to combine, then quickly stir in the bicarbonate of soda. When it foams up, pour the honeycomb onto the lined baking tray, then set it aside to cool completely.



When you are ready to serve, break the honeycomb into smaller pieces and place it in a ziplock bag. Roughly bash the bag a few times with a rolling pin to lightly crush the honeycomb.

Spread (or pipe) the icing thickly on top of the loaf then sprinkle with the peanut honeycomb. Serve at room temperature.



Preparation Tip
The peanut honeycomb is gilding the lily somewhat, so don't feel you have to make it, but for textural crunch, it adds another dimension to the cake. It can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

I did have a few little hiccups with the cake. My instant coffee powder just wouldn't dissolve properly; I misread the recipe and didn't add enough bicarb soda to the peanut honeycomb so it became peanut brittle and the cake sank spectacularly in the centre. Memo to self - don't bake when you're sick with the flu and have spent most of the weekend in bed because it never works out well. In the end I filled the crevasse with sweetened whipped mascarpone cream into which I folded some of the finely chopped peanut brittle (a Schitt's Creek reference, IYKYK) and the people to whom the cake were served, declared it delicious.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen, hopefully error free.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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treacle and vanilla salt tart

treacle and vanilla salt tart

16 Feb 2026

I have some shortcrust pastry in my freezer, leftover from other baking projects. As I don't like to waste food I've been looking at tart recipes both online and in my recipe books. Many of the recipes I found seemed to be riffs on the classic British treacle tart. As I've never had treacle tart before I thought I better make one first.

There are so many treacle tart recipes out there but I liked the sound of Heston Blumenthal's recipe. The recipe wasn't very clearly written though and made a huge tart. I've made a few Michael James recipes in the past and they're pretty reliable so when I discovered this Michael James recipe, which looked similar to Heston's, that's the recipe I decided to use. 

I used my leftover pastry but I've linked to the original recipe if you'd like to make Michael's pastry recipe. You'll need to start this recipe the day before serving as the filling gets an overnight sleep. The vanilla salt and the pastry can be made ahead of time and the tart case can be pre-baked.

Here's the recipe for you which makes an 18-cm tart. For a larger tart please refer to the linked recipe. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Treacle and vanilla salt tart - makes an 18-cm tart

Almond shortcrust pastry

45g icing sugar

25g almond meal

200g plain flour

pinch salt

110g cold unsalted butter, diced

1 egg

cold water, if needed

Treacle filling

1 egg 

20g thick cream

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

227g golden syrup 

45g unsalted butter

45g sourdough breadcrumbs

3 tsp lemon rind

35mls lemon juice

Vanilla salt

½ vanilla pod, seeds scraped

1 tsp sea salt

To serve 

clotted cream or crème fraîche, 

Shortcrust pastry

Combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. 

You’ll only need about half of the pastry dough to make an 18-cm tart. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. 

Treacle filling 

Whisk together the egg, cream and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside. 

Brown the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, leave it until it starts to brown – you will know it’s ready when it stops spitting and bubbling, and produces a wonderful nutty aroma. This means the water has evaporated and it’s close to burning. Strain through a fine sieve to remove the solids, and weigh 30g into a medium sized bowl.

Add the golden syrup to the butter and mix to combine. Stir this into the egg mixture, then add the breadcrumbs, followed by the lemon zest and juice, stirring well between each addition. Chill the mixture in the fridge overnight to allow the breadcrumbs to absorb all the liquid.

Day of baking

On a lightly floured bench, roll the pastry out into a large disc, 4mm thick. Lightly grease a 18-cm round tart tin with butter, and gently lay the pastry over it. Press the pastry firmly into the base of the tin. Trim the excess with a knife, then place the tart shell in the fridge to rest for an hour. Retain the excess pastry to patch the tart should cracks form as it bakes.

Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan forced/180°C, conventional. Line the rested pastry case with baking paper or foil and fill with dried beans, rice or baking weights. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and bake the tart shell for a further 10 minutes, until lightly golden. Set aside to cool in the tin and patch any cracks that have formed with some of the excess pastry.

Vanilla salt

Rub the vanilla seeds and sea salt together. You will have more than you need, but it keeps for ages in a small jar, so you can save it for later.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 155°C, fan forced/175°C, conventional. Take the breadcrumb mix out of the fridge. It will have separated slightly, so mix it with a spoon until it comes back together then pour it into a jug.

Place the tart shell on a flat tray lined with baking paper. Place the tray in the oven, then gently pour in the treacle mixture. Fill the pastry case to just below the rim, as it will expand a bit in the oven. Bake for 45–50 minutes, until just set. The filling should be just firm on the edges and have a bit of wobble in the centre, like a jelly.

Place the tart on a wire rack to cool, then remove the tart from the tin and transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the top with the vanilla salt, and serve with a dollop of clotted cream or crème fraîche, if desired.

I was expecting a somewhat bland tart so I was surprised by the intensity of the lemon flavour. Next time I'd use less lemon rind and perhaps a little less juice. The filling is quite sweet so I think the cream or crème fraîche toppings are necessary, not optional extras. Now I can't wait to make the other tarts. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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little queenie - strawberry buttermilk sponge cake

little queenie - strawberry buttermilk sponge cake

9 Feb 2026

February 14 was always a special day in our household, not because it was Valentine's Day but because it was my Grandma Edie's birthday. Grandma and I would go shopping together and for a treat we would have morning tea in the McDonnell and East cafe, secreted in the Ladies Department and we always had a slice of sponge cake usually topped with passionfruit and cream. Grandma is long gone but in honour of her birthday, I thought I'd bake her a cake and of course it had to be a sponge cake. 

Nadine Ingram is the owner of Flour and Stone, a cult Sydney bakery. Last year I borrowed a copy of Love Crumbs, her second book, from the library. The cakes all looked lovely, but many of the recipes were very complicated with multiple steps or required hard to find ingredients. 'Little Queenie' caught my eye because at it's heart it's a sponge cake filled with berries and cream. Honestly, is there a better cake partnership than that? Little Queenie does require some special ingredients such as freeze dried strawberries, pink peppercorns and hibiscus flowers. Freeze dried strawberries are sold in my local supermarket but the pink peppercorns and hibiscus flowers used to flavour the strawberry compote are not. In the end I found and purchased them both online. 

Here's the recipe for you, written in Nadine's inimitable style, which makes a 17-cm cake. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make a towering 20-cm cake, then double the ingredients for the cake and you'll need 50% more of the compote, filling and decorations. 

Little Queenie - strawberry buttermilk sponge
Buttermilk sponge
3 eggs, separated
90g caster sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar
75g plain flour
15g cornflour
1/2 tsp baking powder
12g unsalted butter
50ml buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla paste

Strawberry compote
¾ tbs dried mint
Scant ½ tsp pink peppercorns, crushed
4 cardamom pods, cracked
65g caster sugar
1 lemon, zested
3 dried hibiscus petals
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
250g ripe strawberries, hulled

Mascarpone filling
50g room temperature cream cheese

100g mascarpone
125g cream
60g Greek yoghurt
40g caster sugar
¾ tsp vanilla paste

To decorate
1 fresh egg white 
6 mint sprigs
50g caster sugar
½ tbs crushed cardamom pods

15g freeze dried strawberries

1 tsp cracked pink peppercorns 

5 dried hibiscus petals

Buttermilk sponge
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line 2 x 17 cm cake tins with baking paper and set them aside. I prepare all the ingredients before I start whipping the eggs for the sponge, that way, folding the sponge can happen swiftly and there is no delay in putting the sponge in the oven.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, but don't start whipping just yet. The egg yolks can be set to one side in a small bowl next to the stand mixer, just give them a little whisk with a fork for now. Combine the caster sugar with the cream of tartar in a small bowl and set beside the mixer. Sift the flours and baking powder together twice then set them to one side, being sure to leave the sieve nearby also.

Melt the butter in a saucepan then turn off the heat. Add the buttermilk and vanilla paste, allowing them to warm slightly in the residual heat of the pan.

Now you can whip the egg whites. Begin on high speed to create volume until you see soft ribbons starting to form, then reduce the speed to medium. Gradually add the sugar mixture to the meringue, 1 tablespoon at a time, leaving 10 seconds between each addition until all the sugar has been incorporated. Beat the meringue for a further 1 minute to allow the sugar to dissolve fully and create a more stable meringue base for the sponge. This will ultimately contribute to the height and fluffiness of the finished sponge, so be patient here.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and, while still beating, trickle the egg yolks directly into the bowl, scraping the last of the egg yolk out with a spatula. Increase the speed to medium until you can see that all the egg yolk has combined with the meringue. This will take no longer than 10 seconds. Remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a spatula, make a couple of folds through the meringue, scraping all the way to the bottom of the bowl to ensure the eggs are fully incorporated. 

Sift half the flour evenly over the top of the sponge and fold through gently until all the flour is combined, then sift in the remaining flour and fold it through. Add approximately 1/3 cup of sponge batter to the saucepan with the buttermilk mixture, then gently fold them together using a spatula. This will create a fluffy cloud of buttermilk. Then fold the buttermilk cloud back through the sponge until everything is well combined and hopefully still lovely and fluffy.

Divide the sponge between the prepared tins and smooth the tops ever so slightly with a palette knife. Place the tins immediately into the centre of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Check the sponges at 18 minutes; they will be ready when the middle springs back slightly when pressed with your finger. Remove the tins from the oven and allow them to sit for only 2 minutes before slipping the sponges out onto wire cooling racks. This step prevents the sponges from shrinking around the edges.

Strawberry compote
Locate a deep baking tray in preparation for roasting the strawberries. While the sponges are cooling, combine the mint, peppercorns and cardamom together in a bowl. I find the most effective way to do this is in a spice grinder, but you could also use a pestle and mortar. Add this to the sugar along with the lemon zest, hibiscus petals and the seeds from the vanilla bean. Toss the strawberries in a large bowl with the sugar mixture and spread evenly over the base of the baking tray. Add the scraped vanilla bean and roast in the oven for 20 minutes, giving the tray a little shake halfway through to distribute the syrup. Remove the strawberries from the oven and allow to cool in the tray.

Mascarpone filling
Place the room temperature cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until smooth. Swap the attachment to the whisk and add the remaining ingredients to the bowl. Beat everything together to combine. Using a spatula, scrape down to the bottom of the bowl to check that all the cream cheese has been incorporated, then give one final whip until the cream is thick and fluffy. Remove the bowl from the mixer and set to one side.

To decorate
Lightly whisk the egg white, then brush the mint sprigs with a little egg white on both sides. Toss the leaves in the caster sugar and sprinkle with ground cardamom then place onto a baking paper lined plate. Leave out on the counter for the mint to dry then store in an airtight container. 

To assemble
Place one sponge onto your chosen serving platter, then spread half the mascarpone filling evenly over the top of the sponge all the way to the edges, or use a piping bag fitted with a #11 plain nozzle. Press half the strawberries from the compote into the surface of the filling bearing in mind that when you put the other sponge on top, the strawberries shouldn't protrude too high and prevent the sponge from sitting flat. Spoon some of the roasting syrup over the strawberries and trickle a little over the sides. Place the second sponge on top, then spread the sponge with the remaining mascarpone filling and remaining strawberries. Add the dried strawberries, hibiscus petals and mint, then finish with a few twists of cracked pink peppercorns.

This sponge, as with all sponges, should be eaten on the day it is baked. The filling and the strawberries can be prepared the day before, but the sponge must be baked the same day you are celebrating. There is no journey so arduous that a sponge should suffer being baked yesterday for.

We followed Nadine's advice and ate the sponge cake the day it was baked and the cake was a triumph!

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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