Some Like it Cold

Some of you may remember the friend I posted about not so long ago who left our consulting firm to start up his own ice-cream business, Mr Tat Wei. He recently finalised the brand and company name, and has been making waves in the desserts and treats loving community of KL (that's Kuala Lumpur, the big city of Malaysia). A few bloggers have already started reviewing his new flavours, and have done a great job of providing the technical background of his flavour and skills. So as I don't pretend to know a lot about food (except to know what I like) I'm going to jump right onto that delicious bandwagon by showing the different ways you can enjoy Forty Licks Ice-cream! Everyone, dessert lovers, overheated people of Malaysia, I hope you throw out your half-eaten cartons of whatever store bought ice-cream you currently have sitting at the back of your freezer, and order yourself a carton (or be like me and get 3!) of handcrafted, extravagant ice-cream from Forty Licks, cos one lick is never enough ;) 

Congratulations again, Tat, you know that despite my slight envy that you're doing exactly what you're passionate about at the moment, I'm also incredibly happy for you and so excited to watch the business grow into everything you dream it to be. I love your ice cream, and love you, Tat! You know that we all know you can totally rock this!

I thought to celebrate this landmark achievement with one of my personal favourite flavours by him: Earl Grey tea. This flavour and I have history, as I like to believe that I inspired him into crafting this flavour to go with my Earl Grey cupcakes (though he already mentioned it before LOL).

This time, I'm going to pair his ice-cream with lemon sugar cookies fresh from the oven. Imagine the freshly made ice-cream sitting in between two soft, hot, crumbly cookies. Mmmmm what a way to spend a Saturday evening! 

If you're going to have Earl Grey, you had better do it properly and have it with lemon. 

Lemon Sugar Cookies

Recipe from Life and Kitchen

• 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 1 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Shallow bowl of caster sugar, for rolling (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line baking trays with parchment paper
2. Whisk the flour, soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar with the paddle attachment until fluffy
4. Beat in the zest, egg, vanilla, and lemon juice
5. Roll tablespoon portions of the dough into balls and into the sugar before popping them only the baking tray
6. Bake for 10 minutes, remove and leave to cool completely on a tray, THEN scoop out an appropriate amount of Forty Licks' Earl Grey ice cream and sandwich it in between two cookies. Eat immediately. 

It's been so long since I've enjoyed an ice-cream sandwich, and having it fresh from the oven with homemade ice-cream from a good friend is even better! I was babysitting my siblings this afternoon while playing in the kitchen, so I obviously called them in to be my minions. We had so much fun making these neat little ice-cream sandwiches, then racing to eat them before the ice-cream could melt. The lemon flavour in this cookie is strong too, though in future I might not roll it in sugar to counter the sweetness of the ice-cream. 

Back to Tat Wei's ice-cream, friends in KL, if you're going to make Earl Grey cake or lemon cookies, I recommend that you order a pint of Forty Licks' Earl Grey and go all out. He's got a range of amazing flavours, most of which I have tried, though my personal favourite is the Salted Caramel. My mum is a huge fan of his Honey ice cream, my dad loves his Earl Grey, and my brother goes nuts for the Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter. 

He also does sample individual-serve cups, so you can order a variety of flavours to test. This is something new that I haven't tried yet, as I already know which flavours I dig so I just go and get a whole pint. But for my dad's upcoming birthday, I may be ordering some individual cups to give out to guests, and also something for me to whip up a fancy dessert with. 

Coming up, a special recipe incorporating Forty Licks' Pistachio ice-cream! 

To order or gush over Forty Licks if you're already a follower (I make it sound like a cult, which it kind of is in our office), check out his facebook page, bookmark his upcoming website (it's in construction, so watch that space), and follow him on twitter if you're a proper addict:

Forty Licks Facebook Page
Forty Licks Ice Cream official website 
@xFortyLicks on Twitter
018-383 1840 
tat@fortylicksicecream.com

All the best, Tat Wei, and hope you don't forget us little people when you  reach the top. 

xx Nabs

Earl Grey Tea Buttercream

The word Posh is often mistakenly believed to be derived as an acronym of the term "Portside Out, Starboard Home" referring to the first class cabins in ships back in the olden days when people travelled by sea. Posh is alo most commonly related to Victoria Beckham, one of our favourite Spice Girls (girl powah!).

Whenever I drink Earl Grey tea with a wedge of lemon, and have a pot of proper Devonshire Clotted Cream at hand to slather on my scones, I also like to poke my pinky finger out in the air to milk the posh-ness of the situation. Over the weekend, I definitely up-ed the posh metre in my house with pots of tea, warm scones and these beautiful babies...

For the cake and cupcakes, I simply made two batches of this Earl Grey tea cake recipe I made before. For the cupcakes, I baked at 180C for 20 minutes, and the cake for 45 minutes in an 8-inch round pan.

Earl Grey tea Buttercream

• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 113g butter, softened
• 2 bags Earl Grey tea + 4 tbsp scalding hot water (steep for 20 minutes) 

1. Cream the butter and sugar, then gradually beat in the tea and beat for another 3-5 minutes until a smooth consistency is achieved
2. Scoop the icing into a piping bag and pipe away! 

 

According to my very fussy, incredibly anti-buttercream brother, Adam, this was his favourite frosting on any cake I've made thus far. So I figured it must mean that it's good. Also, one batch of this frosting can cover 20 regular sized cupcakes and 1 8-inch round cake.

Earl Grey tea cupcakes

On every family holiday, my father allocates a minimum of TWO days for shopping, which is a very smart system so we don't go nuts on the first day, and also so we don't waste time in shops on the non-shopping days. On the latest holiday to NZ, I went to TOWN in Stevens, Albany Mall. Talk about a dream come true!

See, we don't have shops like that here in Malaysia, and what shops we do have, have (am I the only one who despises using double words like that?) limited supplies and are far too expensive for a poor, entry-level consultant like myself. I bought at least 12 items (including stuff from Living & Giving) for under NZ$100!

Granted, it was also during the Boxing Day sales *snickers*

One of the things I bought were these super cute silicone teacup cupcake molds, and I've been thinking about them ever since. What flavour should I make them? What toppings? When? I decided to go literal and make earl grey tea flavoured cupcakes, with a basic cream cheese frosting (mostly cos I'm lazy...). Oh, for those interested, you can order the molds online here.

I found this brilliant recipe from objetivo cupcake (thank R'hllor for auto translate!) which doesn't require using tea-leaves, straining and so on and so forth. It's quick, easy and doesn't yield very much batter, which is a blessing sometimes as I've already got a backlog of desserts in my fridge and mum's none too pleased about it.

It's been a while since I last typed up a blog post, so I'm a little rusty and the words aren't flowing. Let's just get on with it!

Earl Grey tea cupcakes
Yields 12 large cupcakes

• 125 ml skim milk (use whatever type you prefer)
• 4 bags Earl Grey tea
• 110g butter, room temperature
• 225g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 245g all-purpose flour, sifted
• 2 tsp baking powder

1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until nearly boiling
2. Remove from the heat, infuse the teabags for half an hour, in this time, enjoy a cup of tea and an episode of Friends
3. Preheat the oven to 180C, prepare your cupcake molds
4. Sift the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside
5. Beat the butter and sugar with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, or until the mixture is light and fluffy 
6. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Be sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure all the butter mixes with the eggs
7. Add 1/2 of the flour to the butter mixture, beat at medium speed until fully incorporated
8. Add 1/2 of the milk/tea, beat at medium speed until just combined
9. Repeat steps 7 & 8 until you're done (which means you only repeat each step once, duh, Nabs)
10. Fill your cupcake liners 3/4 of the way up, bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer poked through at an angle comes out clean

Then kick back, and enjoy a cupcake with it's best partner: a cup of Earl Grey tea, and just chill out. Tea solves all problems, doncha know? 

The texture was amazing, slightly denser than the average cake, which is great for a cupcake as it doesn't crumble as much. The flavour of the Earl Grey tea was full-blown and it made for this perfectly citrusy, fragrant aftertaste. The cake on its own without frosting is fab, but with frosting is decadent! I actually gobbled up an entire cupcake sans frosting around midnight last night... bad Nabs.

x Nabs