Stephen treated me to an online cooking class with Master Chef contestant, Reece Hignell. Reece lives in Newcastle, NSW, owns Cakeboi Bakery and is known for his love of baking tarts. Reece is very cute and young. His playfulness, youth and innocent wit reminded me somehow of comedian and actor, Josh Thomas.

In the online Zoom class we made his signature banoffee tart. It consisted of a short crust base, a caramel crème pâtissière, a coffee sugar syrup folded into a thick chantilly cream, banana slices, with shaved dark chocolate over the top. Yum!

The 75-minute class flew by as it was very hands on the entire time. Thankfully, I made mine in advance so that I could ask questions if I had them and could just listen and follow along. I’m glad I did because the people who were in the kitchen had a difficult time keeping up. It was very educational as I learnt about different whipped cream consistencies and the details to look for in making crème pâtissière just right. As it turns out, my whipped cream was not quite thick enough and flopped when I folded in the coffee syrup. Now I know what to look for next time. Overall, I really loved the experience. It made me feel competent about my current kitchen skills and I was able to add some new tools to my toolbox.

My family liked the tart, however, everyone found that it tasted exceptionally better the next day. The caramel was much more pronounced and the coffee flavour more subdued. Note to self to make it the day before serving – and whip that cream!