If Paradise is... oh you know the rest

Time has once again flown since I last got around the blogging. Blame Easter, blame the weather, blame the government, just don't blame me.

There has been a fair bit of baking, most importantly major developments on the macaroon front, plus Hummingbird cake and Paradise slices. With exciting recipe news on top of all this*, it has been a crazy rollercoaster ride. Or something.

To start with, a macaroon update. Nigella's recipe being a big disappointment I returned to my usual vanilla recipe and simply swapped the ground almonds for ground pistachios. This, to cut a long story short, worked like a dream. I stuck with Nigella's pistachio filling, which is really rather good, and all was well in macaroon world.

I cannot overstate how good these were. If every batch of macaroons turned out like these I would be a deeply happy person - very light yet rich, beautiful to look at, very elegant indeed. And they tasted absolutely fantastic. These actually worked well enough for some to be presented to my father-in-law as a belated birthday gift, though sadly some of the enjoyment was lost for all concerned when my dog stole them from the shelf he had put them on. Turns out she can reach places his dog can't. I can report that six pistachio macaroons with a rich filling call for a serious number of pooh bags 24 hours later. Less beautiful to look at and certainly less elegant.

I have now moved on to trying chocolate macaroons. I found a few recipes online but decided to start by trying to adapt my existing recipe again. It calls for 1 3/4 cups of icing sugar so I tried 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar plus 1/4 cup of cocoa. The results have divided opinion. I don't think the resulting macaroons are chocolately enough but the in-house judge disagrees (husband, not dog. Probably worth clarifying since their current rates of consumption are about equal). I'll be sandwiching them with a rich chocolate filling tonight so it may be that this balances things out.

Having made huge progress with the macaroons generally it is probably as good a time as any to pause and summarise the top tips to date:

- a slightly sloppy mixture works best
- tap the tray on the side after piping
- leave for at least 15 minutes to form a skin
- only one tray in the oven at a time, on the top shelf
- if the top comes away from the bottom they need 2-3 mins more
- leave to cool on the tray for five mins
- put a damp tea towel on a cooling rack then transfer the macaroons to this on their paper
- leave until completely cool before removing from paper
- put the macaroons in an airtight container in the fridge for two days before icing

All this faffing is so worthwhile as it helps to give a smooth, flat finish to the macaroon and a finished texture which is crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. Damn they're good.

So, back to the cakes.

I'd been wanting to try Hummingbird cake for a long time but never had the right ingredients (a common story due to my lack of organisation when it comes to shopping plus tendency to get distracted by shiny new recipes when I settle down to bake). It is banana, coconut and pineapple incorporated into a sponge, topped off with a cream cheese icing. The banana has to be hugely ripe to stop the cake being too heavy and dense. The pineapple has to be in syrup and crushed rather than pulped or chopped. The former was no problem but I only had a tin of sliced pineapple, which was in juice rather than syrup. Throwing caution to the winds (oh the life I lead) I pulped the pineapple anyway, using a little of the juice and substituting ginger syrup for the pineapple syrup. This actually worked surprisingly well, with a dollop of cinnamon to bring out the best in the banana. I wasn't over keen on the finished product myself, but then I'm not much of a cake person. It certainly got scarfed quickly, and not by the dog.

The real discovery has been the Paradise slice. A shortbread base (oddly, I have no problem making shortbread as a base for something else) spread with raspberry jam then topped with a sponge containing coconut and sultanas. Very Mr Kipling. Only good. Absolutely stunning and, with the exception of the macaroons, the hit of the year so far.

By special request I will be experimenting with these slices. First up will be a version with fresh raspberries rather than sultanas, to be swiftly followed by cherry jam and cherries batch. We have a foodie friend coming to stay this weekend and he and the cake eater in chief will be assisting at a charity walk I am organising, so macaroons for Saturday night and Paradise slices for the walk on Sunday sounds like a plan to me.

One final update - the filling definitely chocolates the macaroons up to a sufficient level. Whipping cream, a lot of dark chocolate, cocoa powder and some butter makes a rich, densely chocolatey filling. What were the chances?

*I have another recipe for shortbread to try. Will I never learn?