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Sweet Fusion

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The journey starts with the love of food, childhood nostalgia, curiosity and a willingness to experiment and create. Baker Gatherer brings these all together in a baking blog that inspires and engages your senses with photos and recipes that will encourage you to follow along on your own journey of sweet fusion.

My name’s Dane McGregor, your recipe maker and content creator here at Baker Gatherer. In essence Baker Gatherer is a food blog featuring recipes that I love to make, experiment with and see others enjoy.
I’m based in Hamilton, New Zealand and have degrees in graphic design as well as teaching. I’d like to consider myself a bit of a foodie at heart and enjoy spending a decent amount of time in the kitchen and thinking about what I’m going to eat next.
Others may disagree, but I admit I’m an amateur baker and am constantly learning and trialling new recipes and techniques. When something works for me I want to share these successes here on Baker Gatherer and see if others can give it a go. So let’s take this journey together and see what we can come up with.

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*Fill in the blank* Weekends are for eating and _ *Fill in the blank*

Weekends are for eating and _____!
TGIF, what do you have planned for this weekend? TGIF, what do you have planned for this weekend?
💥 Happy New Year to all my current and new swee 💥 Happy New Year to all my current and new sweet toothed Gatherers, let’s do a round of introductions.

My name’s Dane from Hamilton in New Zealand, and I’m the treat obsession face behind Baker Gatherer and am solely to blame for all these delicious posts and recipes.

I started the Baker Gatherer website in late 2015 as a place for me to experiment with baking and share recipes. I then started a Facebook page as a place to share those recipes and engage with other like minded foodies. After that I started this Instagram, which I consider my visual library full of cacti, flatlays and sweet treats galore.

Now, I’d like to take this opportunity to get to know you all a bit better. So feel free to introduce yourself in the comments below, let me know your favourite treats, your baking successes, your glorious fails, or simply ask me any burning questions.

I realise I can be a bit of a mystery (because I’d rather focus on the food), but let’s try and change that for 2023.

Six Quick Facts!

1. I’m a Virgo ♍️
2. I don’t do small talk 🙅🏽‍♂️
3. Watermelon is my favourite fruit 🍉
4. I’m obsessed with all things Space 🪐
5. I have a teaching and graphic design degree ✏️
6. I’m a perfectionist. Even my facts run shortest to longest ✔️
What are your 2023 baking aspirations? What are your 2023 baking aspirations?
Do you love marshmallow? Turns out lots of people Do you love marshmallow?

Turns out lots of people do. So here’s a quick and easy marshmallow recipe that I use. Give it a go this week, take a photo and tag me!

—-

Easy Fruit Marshmallow

200g Caster Sugar
125ml Boiling Water
1/2 Tablespoon Gelatine
20g Freeze Dried Fruit Powder
30g Cornflour
30g Icing Sugar

1. Line a 20x20cm square tin with baking paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl or using a free-standing mixer (attached with a balloon whisk), pour in the boiling water and sprinkle with gelatine, mix to dissolve.
3. Once dissolved, add in the sugar and beat at high speed (either with a hand-held beater or free-standing mixer) until thick and fluffy, approximately 10 minutes.
4. Add freeze dried fruit to the marshmallow, once again beating for a minute or so until well combined.
5. Pour into prepared baking tin, smooth surface, sprinkle with some crushed freeze dried fruit pieces and place in the fridge to set for about an hour or so.
6. When set, lift baking paper and marshmallow out of tin, slice into desired squares and roll though a mixture of cornflour and icing sugar.
7. Easy fruit marshmallow, done!
I know I’m not alone when I say the year has flo I know I’m not alone when I say the year has flown by, so I thought I’d return to my top 9 posts here on Instagram for 2022.

These 9 posts alone reached over 360,000 people, and 8 of them were shared in December of this month (the lead up to Christmas must be my sweet spot), and finally it was nice to see some cactus photos in this line up.

So, let’s go through my top 9 posts of 2022. Starting left to right, top to bottom.

1. ToffeePops Challenge - Back in May, @griffinsbiscuits challenged me to recreate the iconic kiwi ToffeePop at home in partnership with TVNZ 2’s Snack Masters tv series. I won’t lie, this was quite the challenge, and I’m glad I wasn’t being filmed live on the show haha. Not only did I learn a bit more about myself, I picked up a couple new skills too.

2. S’mores Trifle - For this recipe I teamed up with @bakelshomebaking to create a Christmas dessert using their Chocolate Brownie baking mix. I brainstormed some fun festive ideas and ended up with this S’mores Trifle. It was also great to see people recreating this dessert over the Christmas period as well, because it is delicious!

3. Lolly Log Cheesecake - This recipe was first shared on my website back in 2015. A fun twist on kiwiana, this cheesecake has been made by countless people, cafes and food trucks since it’s inception, and gets discovered by new foodies each time I re-share the recipe.

4. Cactus 1 - This photo was posted right after Christmas, asking what desserts everyone enjoyed over Christmas. Funny thing is, no one commented, however this post still strangely reached a lot of people. No complaint here!

5. Pinky Pie - I created this recipe when I was going through a Pinky Bar-inspired treat faze. Being 1 of 2 themed recipes created during that period, this Pinky Pie is a delicious chilled dessert that should be tried ASAP.

Jump into the comments where I’ll share more about post 6, 7, 8 and 9…

What have been your favourite moments, posts or recipes from 2022?
Before any wild resolution ideas kick in, how abou Before any wild resolution ideas kick in, how about some last minutes cookies before New Years…

Try my Small Batch Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies, which makes about 9 cookies. They’ll go down a quick treat.

———

Small Batch Chocolate Cheesecake Cookie

✏️ Cookies
180g Plain Flour
60g Caster Sugar
30g Cocoa Powder
100g Butter - Room Temp
60g Cream Cheese
1 Egg Yolk
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

✏️ Icing
60g Cream Cheese
170g Icing Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Teaspoon Milk

———

✏️Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and set aside.

2. Using a hand-held beater, beat the butter and cream cheese for a few minutes until light and fluffy.

3. Add the sugar, egg yolk and vanilla. Beat again until well combined.

4. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, along with a pinch of salt. Fold through until dough starts to come together. Tip out onto a clean and floured surface and lightly knead into a ball. Flatten slightly and wrap with cling film and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

5. Remove chilled and rested dough from the fridge. On a clean and floured surface roll out dough with floured rolling pin until 5mm thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut into desired shapes, place on baking tray and bake for 10-11 minutes or until cooked through, but still soft to the touch. Allow to cool.

6. For the icing, beat the cream cheese with a hand-held beater again.

7. Slowly add sifted icing sugar while still mixing on a low speed.

8. Add vanilla and milk and beat on a higher speed until smooth. Note: Add more or less milk, depending on consistency you like.

9. Pipe or spread icing over top of cooled biscuits and enjoy.

———
Makes approximately 9 cookies
If only we could share photos through Instagram co If only we could share photos through Instagram comments, because I’d love to see all of your Christmas dessert photos. 

But since we can’t, we might just have to use our words. So, tell me in the comments below the desserts you had on your festive table this year?
Merry Christmas to my Gatherers, foodies and frien Merry Christmas to my Gatherers, foodies and friends out there. May your season be filled with everything Christmas should be (for me, that’s food, family and naps!). 

P.s. Did anyone make a gingerbread house this year?
Today is the last day to dot those i’s, tie thos Today is the last day to dot those i’s, tie those bows and get that dessert in the fridge!
Can you believe it’s Christmas this weekend, tha Can you believe it’s Christmas this weekend, that’s nuts!
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Peo It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. People are hugging their best wishes and farewells until the new year, the traffic is starting to feel a little frantic AND I just placed my online Christmas supermarket delivery order. Hello food!
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WELCOME TO BAKER GATHERER, THE LONE JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF SWEET FUSION

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*Fill in the blank* Weekends are for eating and _ *Fill in the blank*

Weekends are for eating and _____!
TGIF, what do you have planned for this weekend? TGIF, what do you have planned for this weekend?
💥 Happy New Year to all my current and new swee 💥 Happy New Year to all my current and new sweet toothed Gatherers, let’s do a round of introductions.

My name’s Dane from Hamilton in New Zealand, and I’m the treat obsession face behind Baker Gatherer and am solely to blame for all these delicious posts and recipes.

I started the Baker Gatherer website in late 2015 as a place for me to experiment with baking and share recipes. I then started a Facebook page as a place to share those recipes and engage with other like minded foodies. After that I started this Instagram, which I consider my visual library full of cacti, flatlays and sweet treats galore.

Now, I’d like to take this opportunity to get to know you all a bit better. So feel free to introduce yourself in the comments below, let me know your favourite treats, your baking successes, your glorious fails, or simply ask me any burning questions.

I realise I can be a bit of a mystery (because I’d rather focus on the food), but let’s try and change that for 2023.

Six Quick Facts!

1. I’m a Virgo ♍️
2. I don’t do small talk 🙅🏽‍♂️
3. Watermelon is my favourite fruit 🍉
4. I’m obsessed with all things Space 🪐
5. I have a teaching and graphic design degree ✏️
6. I’m a perfectionist. Even my facts run shortest to longest ✔️
What are your 2023 baking aspirations? What are your 2023 baking aspirations?
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