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Top Ten Liquid Desserts to make

A liquid dessert is not quite the same as a liquid lunch – think delicious milkshakes, jazzed up coffee drinks and yes, a fancy cocktail or two. If you’ve never heard of the phenomenon, don’t worry, they’re easy to make and they look just as impressive as the regular kind, with a fun twist!

 1 Homemade birthday cake frappuccino

A special edition flavour from a certain coffee house, the birthday cake frappuccino is a pretty pink hazelnut flavoured liquid dessert that’s very easy to make at home, for a cold hit of sweet deliciousness on a hot day.

 2 Creamy brownie coffee

One for the coffee lovers out there. If you like sound of the dark flavours of black coffee intensified by chocolate and then sweetened by a swirl of cream, this creamy brownie coffee recipe is for you.

 3 Mudslide cocktail

The mudslide is composed of vodka, coffee liqueur and Irish cream liqueur – something like Baileys – shaken over ice. These drinks taste innocent but with three types of alcohol in there, don’t be fooled! This cocktail packs quite a punch. You can freeze the mixture for extra dessert-like decadence.

4 Burnt toasted almond cocktail

Similar to the mudslide above, the burnt toasted almond cocktail is a creamy confection with a high alcoholic kick and a great name. The addition of Amaretto into the mix gives it a lovely nutty flavour.

5 Sweet coconut soup with fruit pearls

This recipe is based on an East and South East Asian dessert soup but with a molecular gastronomic twist – try it if you want to be Heston Blumenthal for a day! If you’re not feeling the appeal of using a chemistry set in your cooking, the sweet soup alone is simple and delicious.

6 Søtsuppe – Scandinavian sweet soup

Speaking of sweet soups, they’re quite common in different parts of the world, so here’s a Scandinavian version. It’s made with dried fruits, and can be eaten for breakfast or following a meal.

 7 Creme Egg milkshake

A milkshake is possibly the most classic liquid dessert there is, and all you need is a blender and a few ingredients. Here’s a Cadbury’s Creme Egg version. Vary the flavour by substituting your favourite chocolate bar.

 8 Buttercrunch milkshake for grownups

A combination of cocktail and milkshake – could this be the ultimate liquid dessert? Here’s a great recipe for a milkshake for grown ups.

 9 Mango lassi

Mango lassi is a wonderfully filling, sweet yohurt and fruit drink which is very cooling in summer. Have this liquid dessert as a snack in its own right on a hot day.

10 Custard

Although it’s usually served with a hearty English pudding like apple crumple or treacle tart, a simple bowl of warm custard is the ultimate in no fuss comfort food.

So there are just a couple of ideas to get you started. A liquid dessert is great when you fancy something sweet but convenient – you can enjoy it walking along the street for something a bit different… and delectable.

Image credit.

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Thermomix® Lemon Drizzle Cake Recipe

Lemon Drizzle Cake

I love Lemon Drizzle Cake. I have tried so many different recipes to find one that I love, and I think I finally have it.  This recipe makes a beautiful sugary crust on top, while the cake stays moist and yummy. It’s lemony flavour goes throughout the cake, and is, quite frankly, delicious.Lemon Drizzle Cake

The benefit of doing it with the Thermomix® is that it’s fast as can be – I made this and two other cakes and two breads in 90 minutes today!

Lemon Drizzle Cake Recipe

I use a lemon zester for the skin as that’s easier for me than ‘peeling’ the lemon with a potato peeler to add the skins to the bowl. That said, I do use a peeler for a few bits for the top of the cake. I think that’s quite pretty.

If you don’t have a Thermomix®, the original recipe is here. Below you’ll find it adapted for Thermomix®, though you can do the same in any food processor, really – just use your beating fittings for the butter, and the mixing one to combine it all.

Lemon Drizzle Cake
 
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This cake can keep for 3 - 4 days, (if you can show that much discipline!) and freezes quite well.
Author:
Recipe type: Cake, Thermomix®
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • finely grated zest 1 lemon (or finely peeled skin)
  • 225g sugar
  • 225g unsalted butter
  • 4 eggs
  • 225g self-raising flour
For the drizzle
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 85g icing sugar & extra to sprinkle
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
  2. In the thermomix, add the sugar, and thin slices of peeled lemon skin and mix sp5/20 secs. (I have a fantastic zester so it's easier for me to just add the zest to the sugar than to try to peel the lemon first)
  3. Add the butterfly then add the butter and mix 1 min/speed 4 until pale and creamy - you may need to scrape down the sides half way through.
  4. Keep the blades running at speed 4, and add the eggs, then add the flour through the lid of the Thermomix® bowl while it's running - about 1 minute to add it all.
  5. Oil or line a baking tray and spoon the mixture in and level it out.
  6. Bake for 45-50 mins until a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
  7. Mix together the juice of the lemon and 85g icing sugar. Pierce holes around the cake using a fork or knife edge) then pour the drizzle over the warm cake. Make sure to cover all the cake.
  8. The juice will sink in and the sugar will form a lovely, crisp topping. Sieve over additional icing sugar if you wish for the white colouring. Top with more grated lemon.
  9. Leave in the tin until completely cool, then remove and serve.

 

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Stained Glass Window Jelly

Stained Glass Window

It was my daughter’s second birthday today, and following on from a month of absolutely no food-mojo, I didn’t prepare anything healthy for this party at all. There were fruit cups, but they were slathered in cream. Yum, but not healthy, really. Anyway, it’s a party, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. Especially when what I did make was as playful and tasty and fun as Stained Glass Rainbow Jelly.

Stained Glass Jelly

I can’t take credit for this recipe – I originally found it at Food Librarian – and considering that I haven’t had any success at all with make from scratch gelatin recipes in the past, I was dubious, but it looked perfect for a Messy Play Party, so I had to try.

Here are a few tips you don’t have to learn for yourself:

  • With the coloured jelly, you can cut them into shapes if you’ve made them into thin enough layers. I made some flowers, and it worked well. I threw the ‘unused’ bits of the jelly into the mix anyway, since the shapes are all haphazard, it doesn’t matter.
  • When you layer them, however, don’t layer the shapes – i.e. the flowers – horizontally, as when you cut it, you cant see the shapes. You need to place the shapes in your dish vertically so you can see them when they are cut.
  • If you make these two days ahead, and store in a sealed container, they are still good. I was worried making them on Saturday that by Monday they would be rubbery, but they were delicious. It takes pressure off doing them the day before and being worried they won’t set in time.

Stained Glass Jelly

We use Farmlea condensed milk so as to avoid feeding the Nestle machine.

For this recipe I used Dr Oetker Gelatin – first time I’ve used it, and my first success. Coincidence? 😉

Want something a little healthier, highly nutritious, but tasty and no-bake? Click here for ‘Chocolate Bliss Balls’!

Stained Glass Window Jelly
 
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A fun party food, easy to make, but with great impact. Everyone loves them!
Recipe type: Sweet, Desert
Serves: 40
Ingredients
  • 4 packets jelly
  • 1 can condensed milk
  • 2 packets gelatin
Instructions
  1. In four separate shallow containers, make the four jellies. IGNORE THE PACKAGE INSTRUCTIONS. Just mix each packet with one cup of boiling water. Once the jelly is dissolved, pop it in the fridge for at least four hours.
  2. Once the jelly is set, gently remove it from the shallow containers, and cut into squares or shapes.
  3. Next, pour ½ cup of cold water into a bowl.
  4. Add the two packets of gelatin and leave it to 'bloom' (absorb the water and swell up).
  5. Add 1.5 cups boiling water, mixing till the gelatin is dissolved.
  6. Add the can of condensed milk, mix it all together.
  7. Leave the condensed milk mix to cool a bit. If you pop the jelly in straight away, it my melt.
  8. Once it's cooled down (about 10 minutes) add the jelly squares and return it all to the freezer.
  9. Leave for 4 - 6 hours, or over night. Loosen the sides with a butter knife, and tip out.
  10. Cut into squares or shapes.

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Raw Caramel Slice


Rawfood, Caramel Slice
I’m super excited to welcome Charlotte as an author on Keeper of the Kitchen. I met Charlotte in Perth, Australia, and I’ve always been so inspired by her adventures in raw food preparation. She makes it look so good, and I’m really chuffed that she’s agreed to share her recipes with us!

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This is a raw, dairy free, vegan (if not using honey!), gluten free caramel slice alternative. I say alternative but for me there is no question which one I would rather eat. This still has high calories like a regular caramel slice but they aren’t empty calories. With nuts, coconut oil and raw cacao powder full of healthy vitamins and minerals there is no reason not to eat this delicious slice. I like to cut it up into little squares and freeze it, perfect for that 3pm sweet craving or to have ready for unexpected guests.

I make it in the Thermomix®, but you can make it in any high powered blender.

Raw Caramel Slice
 
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Just to taunt you for now - recipe will be up shortly - is this raw, dairy free, vegan (if not using honey!), gluten free caramel slice alternative.
Author:
Recipe type: Desert, Sweets, Raw
Cuisine: Raw
Serves: 15
Ingredients
  • Base
  • ½ cup Medjool dates
  • 1 cup almonds
  • ½ cup cashews
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • Caramel
  • ½ cup tahini
  • ½ cup maple syrup or raw honey
  • ¼ cup coconut oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • Large pinch Himalayan salt
  • Chocolate topping
  • 3 tbsp raw cacao
  • 1 tsp carob powder
  • 3-4 tbsp coconut sugar, rapadura sugar or agave syrup
  • ½ cup coconut oil
Instructions
  1. Grind pitted dates and nuts in blender. Add vanilla & blend until it’s sticky. If it’s not becoming sticky add an extra date.
  2. With a spatula or back of a spoon press mixture into a rectangular dish greased in coconut oil.
  3. Blend caramel ingredients together and pour over biscuit base and set in the freezer for 20 minutes.
  4. While the slice is setting, for the chocolate topping blend coconut oil and all other ingredients. The heat from the blender usually melts the coconut oil if it is solid.
  5. Then pour chocolate topping over slice and place back in freezer to set again.
  6. With a warm knife, cut into small squares to serve.