Cherry Ripe Chocolate Cupcakes

The girls and I are having a pizza & chic flick night. A rampage of emails usually fly back and forth a few days before because everyone’s excited to meet up. I personally think it’s so important for people to have their night with the girls or with the boys - depending on which company you’d prefer. Friendships are incredibly precious things to me and I’m fortunate to be surrounded by good people.

I’ve been thinking about making these cupcakes for a long time. And in Impatient Vocabulary, one week is a long time to wait. I run the process over and over again in my head and when I have a firm picture, things always go well. That’s me exercising visualization. Now, to visualize, money flowing into my account.

I am very pleased with the cupcakes as it came out fluffy and light. If you don’t have Cherry Ripe, not to worry, there is a substitute recipe. And I promise you, it’s just as good.

Cherry Ripe Cupcakes (makes about 18)
—————————————————-----------——

• 125g butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence*
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup Cherry Ripe chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1/4 cup plain flour

———————————————————–

No Cherry Ripe? Replace it with:

• *1/2 tsp coconut essence (instead of vanilla essence)
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
• 1/3 cup red glace cherries, chopped coarsely
• 50g dark eating chocolate

———————————————————–

Milk Chocolate Ganache

• 1/4 cup cream
• 100g dark chocolate, chopped coarsely

Decorations

• 150g white chocolate Melts, melted
• pink food colouring

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C / 160C fan-forced. Line muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Beat butter, sugar and essence in a bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Incorporate eggs, one at a time.
4. Fold in milk, cherry ripe chocolate (or coconut, cherries and chocolate).
5. With an electric mixer, beat in flours.
6. Divide mixture among cases and bake for 30 minutes or until skewer comes out cleanly.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Chocolate Ganache:

1. Bring cream to boil in a small saucepan; pour over chocolate in small bowl, stir until smooth.
2. Cover bowl; stand at room temperature until ganache is spreadable.

Decorations:

1. Melt white chocolate in a double boiler.
2. Tint it with food colouring according to your preference.
3. Make paper piping bags; spoon the chocolate mixture in and pipe coloured heart shapes onto baking paper-lined oven tray. Set in a cool dry area.
4. Wait for ganache to cool before setting the hearts on the cupcakes or the heart will melt from the heat.

Passionfruit Cupcakes

As strange as this may sound, I'm quite unused to blogger now that I'm working more with Wordpress (on Happee Monkee) . I know it hasn't been that long but really, there is that awkwardness when you change systems like for example between a Mac and a PC. I found when I was using Mac, it was rather difficult to switch back to a PC and vice versa. Or it's like, you taking a different route to work - and after two months you switch back - wouldn't it feel a little strange? We're after all, creatures of habit.

I should declare this week to be Cupcake Week. We seem to have a pattern here. And did I tell you that I just bought a new cookbook? All about cupcakes, cheesecakes and cookies! I love it to bits. Before I go to bed, I read it to myself like a bedtime story. Well laugh if you want, but those pictures are really pretty and I want to go to bed in a happy state of mind.

Recipe by Julie Le Clerc

Passion Fruit Cupcake (makes 12)
—————————————————————–

• 75g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 small eggs
• 1/4 cup passionfruit pulp (2 fruits)
• 1 cup plus 2 Tbs self-raising flour

1. Heat oven to 180C. Grease or line 12 muffin pans with paper cases.
2. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla together until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Stir in passionfruit pulp, then fold in sifted flour.
4. Half fill paper cases with mixture and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of one cake comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Passionfruit Cream Cheese Frosting
—————————————————————–

• 30g butter, softened
• 80g cream cheese, softened and cubed
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 2 passionfruits

1. Cream butter, cream cheese and icing sugar together. Don’t over beat the frosting.
2. Fold in pulp from one passion fruit. Mix well.
3. Swirl frosting on cupcakes. To decorate, squeeze some pulp on top.

Lemon cupcakes

I was instructed to post something pretty. So here it is.

Lemon Cupcakes

(Yields 40 2oz cupcakes at 19gms per cupcake)

225 gms self raising flour

225 gms butter

225 gms sugar

4 large eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

Rind of 1 whole lemon (or more, if preferred)

Put everything in the bowl and beat on high. Try not to overbeat it as this will cause the batter to break. You want to stop when the batter is very fluffy and stiff.

Spoon batter into cupcake cases and bake at 180 Celsius for 20 minutes or till slightly brown.

You don't want to over bake the cupcakes as it was cause the cupcakes to be dry.

Once cool, mix a batch of buttercream and let your imagination run wild.

Finally, Eat.

notes: To make sure you get batter of nice consistency, try not to use butter that has been out too long. Butter that has been out too long will cause the batter to be slightly runny.

Use large eggs to ensure that the cupcakes have enough moisture.

Happee Monkee

Hi folks, I've been working hard over the last 24 hours designing my new site: Happee Monkee.
It's now 80% done and not all the recipes on Twenty Something are there but I'm popping out my skin just to let you know about my very own slice of cyber world. :)
You will be able to view more of my work, photos and stories on Happee Monkee and trust me, there's still lots in me to be shown yet. Thank you for all your comments and support on Twenty Something, don't worry, I'll still be contributing to this site and keeping you updated about my adventures. Cheers! Mabs

Mushroom Chicken

                      

Aloha! My first post here! My mum went "Nah! Here's the ladle and the wok. The kitchen's all yours". That's how I started cooking. My family had to endured tasteless or super salty food for 2 months, but I managed to get it right after that. And that happened 9 years ago.

Yehhh... so I'm practically a veteran at cooking hurhur. But I don't know any recipes, nor do I refer to any. Too lazy. I'm a veteran at cooking simple and nameless everyday family dishes concocted with whatever ingredients available at that time. Used to cook everyday (*gasp) while I was loafing in uni but nowadays my job only allows me to cook on weekends.

So here's one of my very very simple recipes at home, Mushroom Chicken.

Ingredients (serves 4) :

1. Quarter chicken, preferably thigh and drumstick part.
2. Black Shitake mushrooms (5 pieces or more if you like)
3. A few slices of ginger
4. Soya sauce, dark sweet sauce, salt and pepper
5. Chinese rice wine

Method :

1. Soak the dry Black Shitake mushrooms for around 2 hours till they soften.
2. Chop the chicken into smaller pieces.
3. Marinate it with soya sauce, dark sweet sauce, salt and pepper.
4. Cut the mushrooms into thin slices.
5. Squeeze out the water from the mushrooms.
6. Heat up the wok and put in some oil.
7. When the oil is hot, throw in the slices of ginger and hear it crackle!
8. Once you smell the aroma of the ginger, throw in the mushroom slices and stir.
9. Pour in some soya sauce. The mushrooms will soak up the soya sauce and they will give out a nice mushroomy aroma.
10. Throw in the marinated chicken and stirfry.
11. Add in some water and close the lid.
12. Leave it to simmer for around 10 minutes. Open the lid to stir occasionally.
13. Open the lid and add 2 table spoons of Chinese rice wine and stir.
14. Off the fire and dish out to serve.

                       

Carrots and Baby Corn Porridge

What a tiring and stressful week. Both my youngest sister and my hubby are sick. Both have been sick since Tuesday. My sister was down and still is with cough and flu. And my hubby is down with viral fever, so his body temperature is going up and down like a yoyo from Tuesday till today. It freaks me out as this is the dengue season. Dengue fever dangerous it could be fatal as it reduces victim white blood cells. Fortunately, 2 doctors said my hubby does not have dengue symptom. *Phew.

My sister requested for carrot porridge. I thought that it is boring with just carrot in the porridge. So, I tested out this recipe. I add in baby corns and chinese cabbage. My hubby said it feels weird with the crunchy baby corn, as porridge should be soggy and soft. But they finished the whole pot. :)

Ingredients: (serves 5)
1 medium size carrot (peel off skin and cut into thin strips)
3 fresh baby corns (peel of the husks and cut into cubes)
3 leaves of chinese cabbage
1-2 slices of ginger (optional)
50g of thinly sliced pork or chicken meat
10 tablespoonful of cooked rice
1.5 liter of water
salt to taste

Method:

1. Add water and rice into a pot. Boil them at high heat for 10mins.
2. Add in the pork or chicken meat. Leave it to boil for 5mins.
3. Add in the carrot, baby corns, chinese cabbage and ginger. Leave it to boil for 5mins.
4. Then reduce the heat to medium - low. Continue boiling for another 30mins.
5. Constantly stir the ingredients to ensure that the rice (rice will be porridge at this point) does not stick at the bottom of the pot.
6. Depends on how thick you want the porridge to be, you can turn off the heat at your likings. Add salt to taste.
7. You can serve porridge with salted duck eggs.

Baked Chicken Parcels

I live in a pretty nice neighbourhood. We've got a few parks around; trees on the sidewalk; a healthy Botanical Garden just a couple of blocks away and it's all quite breathtaking during autumn. Sometimes I wish I had a dog to walk. Minus the responsibility having to collect it's poop. I'll get Mr. G to do that. :D

My status on Facebook is currently: 'Mable is looking for keen dessert and cake eater.'
It's not that there's anything wrong with the stuff I make. The problem is really about me packing on the extra kilos. I love food but if I'm going to look like Michellin Man, I ain't going to be a very happy monkey.

I hate throwing stuff away. I take after my momma. Actually, come to think of it, both my parents are hoarders. No one throws stuff away. We're like a squirrel family. Anyway, I digress.

Where O where can I find nice people to give my food to?

Here's a two-minute recipe:
Baked Chicken Parcels (serves 2)
-------------------------------------------------------------------

• 1kg chicken drumsticks
• 75g oyster mushrooms or shitake mushrooms
• 3 stalks spring onions (cut into 3cm lengths)
• Grease proof paper
• Ginger, thinly sliced
• Radish, sliced
• Extra spring onions, sliced thinly, as garnish

Seasoning:

• 1½ tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp white or Chinese wine (optional)
• 1½ tbsp corn flour
• 1½ tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• ½ tsp pepper
  

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 250°C
2. Remove excess fat and skin off chicken.
3. Marinate with seasoning and leave for 2 -3 hours.
4. Mix in mushrooms and spring onions.
5. Cut grease proof into 12cm x 15cm. Fold into envelopes.
6. In each envelope, spoon in 1 drumstick, mushroom, ginger and spring onion.
7. Bake in baking tray for 40 – 45 minutes.
8. Serve with fresh radish and extra spring onions.

Get paid to review my post - Read here for more details.

Pear Tarte Tin

I'm going to be a fatty but I don't care. This is mine! A-l-l mine. No one to share it with, no one to give it to. Mine! Mine! Mine! (Evil laughter in the background).

Besides it being so easy to create, this is simply delicious. The cream (whipped by hand - am so proud) blends beautifully with the acidity of the pears and the cinnamon just blows you away. You MUST eat it fresh, piping hot. Even if it meant that you had eat it all in one sitting - you must eat it just as you carry it out of the oven. Get your fork ready and GO!

Alright, alright, if you're afraid of third degree burns then wait 15 minutes if you must. After you've completely finished licking the plate, stand in front of the mirror and sing: I'm beautiful! I'm sexy! I'm strong!

Then you won't feel so fatty anymore.

Pear Tarte Tin (serves 6 or, 1, whichever you prefer)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* 100g butter, chopped
* 1 1/4 cups caster sugar
* 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 6 large beurre bosc or packham pears, peeled, cored, sliced into 12
* 2 sheets frozen ready-rolled puff pastry
* 300ml double thick cream

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease and line base of a 20cm (base) round cake pan.
2. Melt butter in a heavy-based frying pan over medium-high heat.
3. Sprinkle caster sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon over butter.
4. Add pears, overlapping slightly so they fit tightly. Reduce heat to medium.
5. Cover and cook for 3 minutes.
6. Remove cover. Gently shake pan. Cook, uncovered, for a further 20 minutes or until pears are almost tender.
7. Remove pears with a large metal spoon. Carefully arrange pears in a spiral pattern on base of cake pan, completely covering surface.
8. Simmer sauce in pan for 3 minutes or until it turns a deep caramel colour.
9. Pour sauce over pears so they are half covered. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.
10. Cut a 24cm round from each pastry sheet. Place on top of each other, gently pressing with rolling pin to secure.
11. Place over pears, pressing excess under pears (this forms a border to hold pears when you turn it out).
12. Bake tart for 30 to 35 minutes or until pastry is puffed and golden.
13. Stand in pan for 5 minutes.
14. Whisk cream, and cinnamon together until thick.
15. Turn tart out onto a 2cm-deep plate. Cut into wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature with cream.

Note: Tarte tatin is a famous French upside down tart traditionally made with apples. Serve warm with cream or vanilla ice-cream.

Get paid to review my post - Read here for more details.

Orange & Poppy Seed Cake

I always thought poppy seeds were banned in Malaysia. The version I've heard is that the country has strict regulations against substances that may cause anyone to suffer from symptoms of extreme-happiness. Poppy seeds were one of them. So for the longest time, I've never had anything to do with poppy seeds.

Of course, this could be totally fictional and Mom might have been lying to me all my life but hey, all is well. I love Mom too much to care.

The recipe is from my bible: Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2. I'd borrowed it from my former workplace. But I now take that it was a gift. Again, I believe that I'm doing it justice by having its pages covered in batter. Better batter than dust I'd say. I'm sure Donna would appreciate that too. The eggs agrees ---

Orange & Poppy Seed Cake (serves 8 - 10)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

• 1/3 cup poppy seeds
• 3/4 cup milk
• 200g butter, softened
• 1 tbsp finely grated orange rind
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

syrup

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/2 cup shredded orange rind

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160*c.
2. Place milk and poppy seeds in a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.
3. Beat butter, orange rind, and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is fully incorporated before putting in the next.
5. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture.
6. Add orange juice, poppy seed & milk mixture into the batter.
7. Spoon into a 20cm round cake tin.
8. Bake for 55 - 60 minutes or until cook when tested with skewer.

Syrup

1. While cake is baking, place sugar, orange juice and rind in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
3. Increase heat and boil for 5 - 6 minutes or until syrupy.
4. Pour half of the hot syrup over the hot cake.
5. To serve, cut the warm / cold cake and pour over remaining syrup.

Get paid to review my post - Read here for more details.

Review My Post

You want to know something weird? You get paid for reviewing a post on my blog.

It's true, you get paid - $7.50 to be exact - for writing something on my blog in YOUR blog.

I know, it's crazy isn't it?

This is a new program by PayPerPost (PPP) which I was talking about a couple days back. When you click on the badge below and sign up with PPP, you get some extra cash. Ka-ching!

What do I get? Well... I get a review from you :D

So, how do we do this again?

Get Free Money (serves 1)
--------------------------------------------------
Ingredients:

• A computer/ laptop
• An internet connection
• A blog
• Some wits
• A dog or a cat
  

Method:

1. Click on the badge below.
2. Sign up with PPP (free, and if you write about them, you get a further $20 - ka-ching, ka-ching)
3. Write a post on your blog reviewing a post on Twenty Something & Cooking (e.g. could be a recipe that you liked / disliked, something interesting I'd said... whatever)
4. In your post, please include a link to this post. (**Veryyy important**)
5. Give your dog / cat / fish a belly rub and wait for the money to pop into your bank account.

Too easy.

Click here:

The Chefs in My Life

Since the day I was born, I have always been surrounded by food. My grandmother, or ah ma in Chinese, was the matriarch of her family. She was one lady not to be messed with. Mom and the uncles would reminiscence about the days how ah ma would punish them. If a child had misbehaved, Everybody would get it. Ah ma would make grandfather climb into the room at night while everybody was asleep, unlock the doors from inside so ah ma could go in and give a lashing they'd never forget.

Those post-war days were hard and food and money was scarce. The only way a little 5-feet-something woman knew how to bring her 10 children up was to discipline them with a cane.

Fortunately, for me, she was warm and loving to all her grandchildren. I only remembered good things about ah ma. Whenever she come and stay, she'd busy herself in the kitchen and incredible smells would be oozing out from the oven/steamer/stove.

Mom and almost all her siblings took after my grandmother (Note: and maybe a little bit of her temper). My aunts would sit around and talk about cooking like they were discussing world economy. I never had any interest in it, for me, it was bird chatter. But I like to imagine, a child's mind is like a sponge and we absorb things around us anyway and all the food-making chatter planted in me 20(something) years ago has finally blossomed.

My sister was the first to put the food talk into practice. And I believe of all the children, she is the best of the best. While she used to bake for us, she now bakes for her children and their friends. Seriously, those monkeys would eat nothing but her cookies. You'd have to pry their mouth open to eat anything else. Right now, she's Mom's apprentice. Mom's training her up so her monkeys will always know Malaysian food the way we do.

The men in my family loves a good cookout themselves. Dad's allowed in the kitchen only on special occasions because Mom doesn't agree with his style of cooking. Dad can also be extraordinarily fussy with his food. Many times, before the dish is finish, they'll end up blue in the face (which they're infamously known to do - and it's funny now come to think of it hehehe). My brother, helmet head in pix {3}, used to entertain during his bachelor days. Now with a toddler in tow, he lets someone else do the job.

Yes, so food, is in our blood and it's something I, too, plan to pass on to my future children. It's a passion worth keeping in the family and probably to anyone else who cares to listen. :D

{A word of appreciation to cousin A for sending me these lovely photos that otherwise might be forgotten}

A Penny for Your Post

If you spend as much time as I do on the internet you'd start wishing for every time you logged on, someone paid you. Seriously, with all the oil prices going up, why not get paid to blog? Its good have some extra cash in your wallet to get around and get more groceries for your food blogging obsession.

I found out there was a website PayPerPost who pays bloggers for reviewing products or services. A blogger can be paid from $5 to $35 for one post. ONE POST! Isn't that fantastic? I don't know about you but I was jumping out of my pajamas when I found out (Yes, I do get excited very easily). Make your first blog post about PerPerPost itself and they will even pay you $20! (Just to give you an idea how much some of PPP's bloggers are paid, the all -time highest earners earns around $19,000 to $22,000)

I used to work in the magazine business. I never had time for myself or my family. My friends hardly saw me and well, let's just say it was a busy unremarkable life. It could be good fun and my bosses were great but when my mom got sick, it became clear to me that I could spend my entire life chasing stories and not have precious moments with my loved ones.

From then on I started looking for ways to have a fulfilling life. Life's too short to be not being there for your self, the people you care about and the miracles of life. So I chose to have time and time to spend doing things that I'm passionate about.

I love writing and photography. I certainly love food - eating and cooking it. This is what this blog is all about - following ones heart and throwing in something edible once in a while. And if someone wants to pay me to blog about my passions, wellllll... even better. :) I won't be one to complain.

Look at me. Getting all windy about my life. I got carried away like a reminiscing old granny. Anyway, go ahead and check it out. It could be for you, or it might not be. Either way, it's going to pay for my next food post :D (Apple Pie - recipe courtesy of a certain cousin).

get paid to blog

Come & Say Hi

To all our readers,
Thanks for dropping by (we know you're there). We like to hear from you so please leave a message/ comment/ feedback after you've scrolled through our posts. We loveeee to hear from you so that we'd feel encouraged to blog some more - hey, everybody likes to feel appreciated once in a while. So don't be shy and drop us a note to tell us if you like our blog, or not. We can take constructive criticisms. :D

Let us know who you are and we'll be happy to drop by your blog. Thanks for coming by again and we hope you like what you see so far.

Happy Cooking!
Monkee

Rhubarb Berry Mandarin Crumble

A friend of mine messaged me one fine morning: "I sprained my neck really badly and I can't move it. Can you take care of me for a couple of days?". I said, 'Sure.' I went off to the market and got some potatoes, meat, pumpkin and then I walked past some rhubarbs. 'Hmmm...' I heard myself think. Hmmm... rhubarbs are on the 'things-to-try' list. And after all those one days, some days, I think that one day has arrived.

I brought a bunch of rhubarb home and introduced it to my kitchen. 'You rest here tonight, tomorrow we will be busy', I said. I looked for a rhubarb recipe and thought, 'Perfect'.

This morning I got up excited just thinking about today's project. It's wonderful to try new things. It's like meeting a person for the first time and you don't know anything about them. That's how I look at new ingredients and recipes. Hopefully one day after meeting it more often, you become good friends. :)
Alas, in my haste & excitement I made so many mistakes, I want to bury my head in shame. I broke the cardinal rule of cooking. I didn't read the recipe carefully.

The recipe wrote: Sprinkle 1/4 cup caster sugar on the fruits.
What I did: Poured the full amount (1 3/4 cup ) on the fruits.

The recipe wrote: Combine eggs, flour, salt and remaining sugar (damn).
What I did: Combine eggs, flour, 2 tbsp sugar (blush) and butter.

Eventually, to rectify the mistake, I added an additional half-a-cup of flour to the mix and ended up with a doughy texture instead. The result, after 1 hour of baking, was actually... not bad. It's not exactly crumbly dry. Think, biscuit-cookie. Was it an over-kill with the sugar? Uhm... not if you add cream (like I did). It's quite good, a little watery which was probably due to the frozen berries but I kinda like it. (Note: If you like your Rhubarb Crumble the old fashion way, go here for the original recipe.)

The recipe below is only for the bold. Venture if you dare:

Rhubarb Berry Mandarin Crumble (serves 6)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ingredients

* 1 bunch rhubarb, trimmed, cut into 3cm pieces
* 1 cup mixed berries
* 5 mandarins, peeled and de-seeded
* 1 1/2 cup caster sugar + 2 tbsp
* Ground cinnamon
* 2 eggs
* 2 1/2 cups plain flour (if you're aiming for the same doughy consistency)
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 150g butter, melted

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease an ovenproof dish.
2. Combine rhubarb, berries and mandarins in the dish. Sprinkle with caster sugar and cinnamon.
3. Combine the eggs, flour, salt, butter and 2 tbsp of sugar in a bowl.
4. Scatter the mixture over the fruit.
5. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until light golden.
6. It will be soft but will become crunchy on standing.

Mascarpone Berry Tarts with Caramel Sauce

I was invited by Sophie from The Back Burner to participate in their July berry recipe contest. I served mascarpone on puff pastry last weekend and had heaps leftover. I have been aching to make tarts for some time now after that tart Mr. G and I shared months ago. It was an extraordinary strawberry tart from a local bakery and ... and ... sigh ... it tasted like a dream.


Speaking of dreams, I had a weird one last night. I dreamed that my family home became a huge swimming pool. OK, imagine Titanic but instead of a ship, it was a house. I was swimming in and underneath tables, chairs, passed the sofas and my mother. There was a lot of water. I remembered thinking in my dream, I can't swim, I should get out. Like I said, weirdddd.

Can anyone decode that?

Mascarpone Berry Tarts with Caramel Sauce (serves 3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 sheet of instant shortcrust pastry
500g mixed berries
1 cup mascarpone
1/2 cup brown sugar + 2 tbsp
25g butter
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190*c/ 375*F.
2. Place a sheet of shortcrust pastry onto tart tins. Trim any excess pastry with a knife.
3. Remove pastry from oven and sprinkle 2 tbsp of brown sugar on the pastry and return to the oven for another 5 minutes.
4. Remove pastry from oven and leave aside to cool.
5. Meanwhile, put the remaining brown sugar and butter into a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves.
   
6. When sugar has dissolved, add water and stir until combined.
7. Spread the mascarpone into the tart cases when it has cooled completely.
8. Arrange the berries on top of it.
9. Spoon the caramel sauce on top of the tarts and sprinkle with icing sugar to decorate.
10. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving Serve immediately.