Tanghulu

Hello

안녕하세요

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

Tanghulu is a traditional Chinese street food sweet treat, it was traditionally made with tart Chinese hawthorn berries, but has been changed up to include other fruits like strawberries, grapes, mandarin oranges and kiwi.

I've been wanting to try this snack for quite a while but never come across it when out and about in London's China town. It wasn't until I decided to have a look at recipes that I thought to make them myself.

Let's get making!

Ingredients:

1lb strawberries and grapes

2 cups white sugar

1 cup water

Start off by washing and patting dry your fruit with a paper towel.

Get your fruit ready, remove the green stems from your strawberries and remove grapes from the stems.

Next arrange the fruit onto skewers. I arranged it so there were 1 strawberry and 2 grapes per skewer.

Fill a bowl with cold water and add a few ice cubes to make an ice bath.

Add the sugar and water to a medium-sized pan and bring them to a boil over a medium heat. Do not stir.

The temperature of the sugar syrup has to reach around 300F/150C. This takes around 5-10 minutes. The syrup will start to reduce and become amber in colour.

If you don't have a sugar thermometer, drizzle some syrup into the bowl of water. It should set right away and form brittle crystal threads that break easily.

Once the sugar syrup is ready, remove from the heat. You can prop the pan at an angle, so it's easier to dip the skewers into the pan.

Prepare your workstation: skewered fruit, syrup, ice bath, and wire rack or tray with baking parchment.

Take one of the skewers and quickly dip it into the mixture, making sure all the fruit is coated. Immediately dip into the ice water and lay onto a wire rack. Repeat the steps until all the fruit skewers are done.

Let the skewers rest on the rack for a few minutes

You now have Tanghulu ready to snack on and enjoy.

This takes a little time to make, but it's definitely worth it. I did burn myself a couple of times, but that's to be expected with me, if it's not on the wire rack in the oven, it's pan and my cooking.

I love the hard sugar syrup against the softer fruit. It definitely is the perfect sweet treat.

My only issue was that if they're not eaten quick enough, the sugar syrup begins to dissolve, even in the fridge. That aside, I'd definitely make them again.

If you would like to follow the original recipe, then head over to Tanghulu recipe page on the Alpha Foodie recipe page.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye

Eton Mess Cake

Hello

안녕하세요 

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは 

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

It's been such a long time that I did some proper baking and I thought what better excuse than to surprise my friend with a birthday cake and I thought making this Eton Mess cake, would give off a more mature and sophisticated bake. Some of the steps are minus pictures as I was finishing the last stages I completely forgot about taking pictures as I was in the mindset of completing it.
Lets get baking!

Ingredients:

For the sponge

280 g unsalted soft butter

280 g golden caster sugar

5 medium eggs

1 orange, zested and juiced

280 g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp milk

Ingredients:

For the syrup

3 limes, 1 zested and 3 juiced

1 orange juiced

85 g caster sugar

Ingredients:

For the filling

500 g strawberries, hulled and quartered 

2 tsp fresh chopped mint, plus torn leaves for decoration

1/2 lime juiced

5 tbsp icing sugar

500 ml whipping cream

300 g raspberries

1 x tub 16 plain mini meringues, 6 kept whole and the rest broken into pieces

Start off by pre-heating the oven t0 180C/Fan 160C/ Gas Mark 4, then grease and line 3 sandwich cake tins with baking paper.

Next in a large bowl, whisk together the butter and golden caster sugar for about 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy.

Gradually add in the eggs, one by one, whisking well between each addition.

Then add the orange zest and mix.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together. then add to the wet mixture and fold through. 

Lastly fold in the 2 tbsp orange juice and milk.

Divide the mixture evenly between the 3 sandwich tins, levelling the tops. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and springy, and a skewer inserted into the centres comes away clean.

Once the cakes are baked and out of the oven, make the syrup. In a small pan, gently heat 3 tbsp of lime juice, the zest of 1 lime, 3 tbsp orange juice and the caster sugar, until the sugar has dissolved. Bubble for 5 minutes.

Prick the tops of the cakes all over with a skewer, and brush over the warm syrup, then leave to cool. I don't have a pasty brush, so I used a spoon to pour over the cakes.

Next macerate the strawberries by placing them in a bowl with the chopped mint, lime juice and 2 tbsp icing sugar. Stir, then set aside for 15-30 minutes. Drain the juice and reserve for drizzling.

For the filling, whip the cream with 3 tbsp icing sugar to soft peaks.

Spoon a 1/3 of the mixture into a separate bowl and set aside for the topping. Fold three-quarters of the macerated strawberries, some broken and full meringues (depending how big they are) and most of the raspberries through the whipped cream.

Place your first sponge on your serving plate, and spoon half of the filling over the top. Sandwich with the second sponge and repeat the filling and place the final sponge. Decorate the top with the reserved whipping cream, the remaining strawberries, raspberries and whole meringues. Drizzle with the reserved strawberry juice and serve.

To say how time consuming this can be when it's not a familiar recipe, it was really easy and simple to make. The sponges were really soft and moist and had a bit of a tang from the lime juice, the cream with the strawberries, raspberries and meringue was divine, I think when I make it again I'll cut the mint a lot smaller.
I think this is a perfect cake if you're having afternoon tea with a group of friends or just wanting a gorgeous cake to be an edible centrepiece. It was well received all round when I presented mine, it really was delicious and can't wait to make it again.

If you would like to follow the original recipe or just want to see where I came across this cake, then you can check out Eton Mess Cake Recipe on the Tesco website.

See you soon!

안녕
(Annyeong)
さようなら
(Sayonara)
再见
(ZaiJian)

Bye