YArrrrr! Said the Pirate.

The weekend before International Talk like a Pirate Day was my nephew Blair's fourth birthday and when asked what he'd like for his birthday by his mother (a month previously) he said simply "I surprise party at Vaari's (grandfather) house."

So the excitement began... I had been brainstorming and new that he was mad keen on Bear Grylls Man vs. Wild and proposed BLAIR GRYLLS BOY VS. WILD! But Alas! Apparently we've moved on to PIRATES now.

My parents home is well known by local kids as the Pirate Party House. For years my brother and I had pirate birthday parties (pirate, fairies and peter-pan for me) and our big backyard meant that anyone and everyone could be invited (there was none of this 'you can bring 5 friends' business). We had the usual chocolate coins and invitations with burnt edges and tea stains, but my parents made it really special. When we awoke on the morning of our parties the PIRATES HAD LANDED!! Constructed in our front yard (in the middle of the night by some very hard-working, sleep-deprived and over-excited grown up fairies) would be a very large climbable, sailable, magical pirate ship! And to accompany this we'd have huge chests of dress-ups and a rusted old tin treasure chest filled to the brim with all sorts of gold and silver treasure - goblets, chains, mirrors, coins, you name it, if it's piratey it's in our garden!

One of the memories my mother has from these parties is the look on a child's face when her parents said 'okay, it's time to go, put the treasure back now' and my mum said 'oh no! you found that treasure - it's all yours!'. (we never needed lolly bags ;) )

So the pressure was on - could we recreate the pirate magic? You betcha!

This time the pirate ship was constructed in daylight (phew!) and with a whole lot of new materials (my parents are kicking themselves for throwing out the old cot frame and cupboard doors we used to use). We found a brilliant chest and plenty of treasure, and even manage to hunt out enough dress ups for the party.

I got cake-planning and chose to make a pirate ship with my first human figurine. The cake was to be chocolate and I flicked through my recipes and found one that I've been wanting to try - Nigella Lawson's Devils Food Cake.

What I didn't realise was that I was about to make the most delicious chocolate cake I have ever eaten or cooked in my life. Oh my. It's super rich so we served it to the kids with vanilla icecream, and I adapted the recipe to be dairy, soy and egg free as per my new restrictions (hey - i'm not missing out!). The full recipe can be found on my other blog here! The finished product may not be perfect but there's no doubt it's a pirate ship - it even sported a jolly roger flag my dad carefully painted with his large fingers for it :D

What a great success - They my be grandparents now, but boy have they still got it ;)

Adventures!

You can read more about my adventures into allergy-friendly cooking on my other blog: Dare to Go Free! Happy Baking!

Allergies! Woe is me!

Today I received my allergy testing results. Cow's milk, egg white, soya bean.
Urrrrgggg.
5 or so years ago my naturopath suggested I had a dairy intolerance so I went off dairy for 12 months and it helped my health significantly but then I got lazy... I love chocolate! However, I still avoid cheese, substitute all cow's milk with soy milk and use dairy free margarine instead of butter (still eat yogurt, and am lazy when it comes to products containing dairy).
So now I've found out that I can no longer substitute cow's milk with soy - what am I going to do?!
Oat and rice milk are very runny and sweet, I can't imagine cooking with them the same way as other milks. But we'll have to try....
My vegan relatives will be happy.

Any suggestions to great milk-egg-soy sites are very welcome!


And so, another chapter begins.

Happy Birthday Superstar!

My gorgeous niece turned 15 this weekend and to celebrate we threw a big party in our garden (I think our house has become The Party Garden - I said 'palace' but we're much more rugged than that). My gift to her was, as usual, a birthday cake.
Last year I made her a pair of Doc Martens and this year wanted to make something a little more abstract that would hopefully look better than last years haphazard work. She told me her favourite colours were dark purple and green and I decided to work with the purple.

This cake gave me reason to finally visit A Tiny Bit Marvellous, a local cake decorating shop and I am super thankful for all their help and encouragement.
The party was filled with friends and family, food and fun! The cake was a hit and (after a previous night of mayhem leaving me ready to give up cake decorating for good) I was very pleased with my (slightly off centre) creation. (Please excuse my terrible photography).

The cakes I baked were chocolate (top layer) with a chocolate buttercream and marble (bottom layer) with vanilla buttercream. I filled the centre of each cake with buttercream and a layer of raspberry jam for the marble cake.

Happy Caking!

Mother's Day Lunch

This Mother's Day we've opted to host lunch at our house to save the $$$ we spend at restaurants every year. My gorgeous, fellow-foodie aunt has been excited making home made jam to serve with freshly baked scones and honey murcott cake - yum!! Being lunch time I felt we needed something savoury, and with this freezing weather hot was definitely the way to go.
Brainstorming, I was tossing up between finger food/high tea mini-quiche and spinach dips and a warm meal when the angels above heard my call. We recently house sat for a friend of a friend and she had passed on a thank you gift for us. Last time we house sat she gave us Nigel Slater's Tender Volume 1: a cook and his vegetable patch, AND Volume 2: a cook and his fruit garden. I absolutely 150% recommend these books, they not only give delicious recipes but suggestions on how to grow, store and cook (almost all) vegetables and fruit, and which herbs, spices and other flavours bring out the best in each of them. I've used it a thousand times to pick spices for soups and roasts to give old favourites new twists, and learnt to cook with vegetables I'd never tried before. Nigel Slater: you are a god.
Anyhow.. After this incredible gift last year I was quite excited to open the gift she had sent us this time. We received a beautiful lime and eucalyptus candle (I'm not much of a candle person but this scent is incredible) and Matthew Evans' Winter on the Farm.
Now lets just recall my situation: freezing mother's day lunch coming up. Solution? Winter on the Farm!

This book is delightful. It offers mouth-watering breakfasts, heart-warming desserts, warm drinks perfect to have while snuggled under a winter rug, a selection of hearty meat dishes and a fantastic range of vegetarian soups, stews, and all the other winter delights you need to stay warm.

The recipe that captured my attention was Paprika Braised Chickpeas with Kale. This will be served to warm our fingers for lunch. It takes quite a while to make, with chickpeas needing soaking overnight and two hour long simmering times, but is definitely worth the result.

Paprika Braised Chickpeas with Kale
from Matthew Evans Winter on the Farm
500g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained

10 large kale leaves (or silverbeet if you can't find any)

1 tbsp olive oil

3 large onions, diced

2 bay leaves

1 small piece cinnamon stick

6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped (I reduced this as my grandmother isn't keen on garlic)

3 tsp sweet paprika (I used Spanish)

1 tsp ground cumin

400g tinned chopped tomatoes

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Put the chickpeas in a large saucepan, cover with water and simmer for 1 hour, or until they are just starting to become tender, but not cooked through. Drain well, reserving the cooking liquid and set aside. Strip the soft green part from above the the ribs of the kale leaves and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, bay leaves and cinnamon and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the onion starts to brown. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, then reduce the heat, add the paprika and cumin and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly and being careful not to scorch the spices. Add the tomato, kale and 500ml water and stir to combine.

Add the chickpeas and salt to the pan with just enough of the reserved cooking liquid to cover. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour or until the chickpeas are buttery soft.

Alternatively, you can cook this dish in a 140 degree oven for 2 hours.

Just before serving, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and stir in the extra virgin oilve oil. Serve warm with turkish bread.

I've been dying to use my new casserole dish so opted to make a double batch of this stew, with one in the oven for 2 hours and one over the stove. I found the one cooked in the oven (pictured) had softer chickpeas which I preferred, but both were delicious.

Then I came across Matthew's Cardamom-scented Rice Pudding with Baked Rhubarb and I knew this was the book for me. This is the recipe to highlight my Finnish roots thoroughly. Every christmas I make Finnish rice pies en masse which involves enormous amounts of rice porridge. I always enjoy any left overs warmed with prunes or jam - yummmmmmm. Finnish delicousness is often coated in cardamom, and my grandmother makes rhubarb everything - I have got to try this!

I initially considered making this for mum for breakfast but it takes a little while to cook so I chose to serve it alongside my stew at lunch time, to compliment my aunt's honey murcott cake and scones (which were amazing, by the way). We were far too stuffed after stew, tea and cake to find room for the pudding so left it aside and had it later in the evening. We didn't bother re-heating it and it tasted delicious cold.

Cardamom-scented Rice Pudding with Baked Rhubarb

Rhubarb

1 small bunch rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 3cm pieces

70g soft brown sugar

Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Arrange rhubarb in a single layer in a baking tray and spinkle over the sugar. Bake rhubarb for about 10-15 minutes, or until tender. Set aside until ready to serve. Baked rhubarb will keep stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days.

Pudding

2 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup pouring (whipping) cream - I used thickened

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

5 large cardamom pods

1 vanilla bean, split lengthways

90g raw sugar

80g short-grain white rice

Place milk, cream, lemon zest, cardamom and vanilla bean and seeds in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat and leave to stand for 15 minutes to allow flavours to infuse. Discard the vanilla bean and pour the mixture into a 20cm round casserole dish. Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves, then stir in the rice until well combined.

Bake the pudding for 1.5 hours, or until cooked (stir occasionally if you don't like the skin that forms on the top of the pudding).

If the pudding seems a bit runny let it cool and it will thicken. 

Serve the pudding warm with baked rhubarb.

Mothers Day, an absolute delight with the beautiful women in my family (and some of the men as well)!

While finding pictures of this divine cookbook I've found a link to Matthew Evans' blog: http://www.sbs.com.au/food/blog/111942/Gourmet-Farmer check it out!

Children's Birthday Parties!

Aren't they just the best?

I had an absolutely fabulous time celebrating my nephew's first birthday this weekend. After pouring rain all week the park party was relocated to my parents house which meant it was myself and ma doing the catering - making children's party food, is there a greater joy?

We made and played with playdough, bubbles, balloons. We had a fairy castle, and lots of dancing and bands jamming (for the big kids!). 

Ma and I had so much fun filling bowls with lollies, finding party pies, sausage rolls, mini hot dogs and buns, quiches, mini pizza slices and so much more! 

I had the enormous privilege of being asked to create his first birthday cake, a second to the cake being provided by another aunt. This meant busy me, so most of our other mini-child-sized food was bought but still super yum and super fun!

First birthday cake. Boy. Father is a truck driver. Is there any other option? Train cake!

It began as a disaster. I baked on Thursday night which ended in me going to bed very grumpy with a pile of mushed up cake crumbs in two containers on my table. After overflowing tins caused me to scrub my crappy oven halfway through the baking process, the cakes stuck to each of the baking dishes I used. I had little hope.

On Friday morning (thankfully classes started at 12 that day) I began shaping my train. I was holding my breath, praying that I wouldn't have to do a last minute dash to the store and shape some supermarket cakes instead - bluerrggh! But the heaven's heard: a couple of hours later I had train shaped chocolate cake. I wanted to cover the cake in a thin layer of ganache to stop any crumbs getting into the cream I planned to cover it with. Of course, I ran out of ganache half way through this process. Dad to the rescue - ran to the shop and picked up more cream and chocolate. Came back. Brought 'almond chocolate'. COME ON! 'It's the only one they had. The lumps will come out when you melt it!' he says. Oh daddy.

Anyway, stuck for options I made the almond ganache and lumpy almonds and all it worked alright.

That evening I got decorating! Then realised that my main train piece (sorry, not up with mechanisms of transport) was in the CENTRE of the tray I was using. This was not going well.. but dad came to the rescue (and this time in the right way) and suggested I use the 'lip' of the tray as a hill, and have my carriages going over the hill and onto a second tray!

So got decorating, covering bits with coloured cream and writing number ones. Of course, at this time I didn't have enough room in the fridge for two trays so the decorating of the last carriages came on Saturday morning, just in time.

I couldn't have been happier with my train! The first cake I've liked 100% :) My sister brought a Bananas in Pyjamas cake made by her friend which was also delightful!

The cake was received with continuous compliments and tasted absolutely delicious - moist, rich and super-doop chocolatey! 

To accompany the cake a lady from Registration and Licensing (how fitting) told us how to make little chocolate cars - milky bars with smartie wheels, tiny teddies and smartie steering wheels! We used sliced candy-filled licorice instead of smarties for wheels which we found to be even sweeter - tyres! They looked great with my cake and tasted the way children's party food should - full of sugar, super sweet (oh, and bite sized)!

Happy Easter!

Our first easter living away from home was full of love :)
We welcomed easter morning with a bacon and egg breakfast at home in our pyjamas before heading out to visit our families. The day before I had had my first shot of making my own hot cross buns, they're a favourite of mine and turned out quite nice! We took them to share with our families and were greeted with way too much chocolate and plenty of other delicious treats.


Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (375ml) warm milk
2 tsp (7g/1 sachet) dried yeast
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
60g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly whisked
4 1/2 cups (675g) plain 00 flour
1 tsp salt
5 tsp mixed spice
1 cup (170g) sultanas
1/4 cup (45g) currants
1/4 cup (50g) mixed peel
1/3 cup (80ml) cold water
1/2 cup (170g) apricot jam
Note: I found a packet of mixed sultanas, currents and peel and substituted the fruit with approximately 2 cups of this.


Method
1. Combine milk, yeast and 1 tbs of sugar. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 10 minutes or until frothy.

1. 2. Combine the milk mixture, butter and egg and whisk to combine. Combine 4 cups (600g) of flour, salt, mixed spice and remaining sugar in a bowl. Add the sultanas, currants and mixed peel and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre. Pour in the milk mixture and use a wooden spoon to stir until just combined, then use your hands to bring the dough together.

3. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a bowl and cover with a damp tea towel and place in a warm, draught-free place for 1 hour or until dough doubles in size.
4. Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a 23cm square cake pan. Punch the dough down with your fist. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Divide dough into 16 even pieces and shape each portion into a ball. Arrange dough portions, side by side, in the prepared pan. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 30 minutes or until dough has risen 2cm.
5. Meanwhile, mix the remaining flour and water together in a small bowl until a smooth paste forms. Place in a small plastic bag and snip off the end. Pipe a continuous line down the centre of each row of buns, lengthways and widthways, to form crosses. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 180°C and bake for a further 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through (buns are ready when they sound hollow when tapped on the base).
6. Turn onto a wire rack. Place the jam in a small saucepan over high heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until jam melts. Strain through a fine sieve. Brush hot jam over the buns.


I let my 'warm' milk get too hot, killing the yeast when I added it. This meant the milk mix did not get very frothy, and the dough didn't rise. This turned out to be just fine - I made mini hot cross buns rather than the traditional large ones, and the poor yeast just meant I had very dense, super fruity little buns!

• Great served with a cup of tea and toasted warm with a spread of butter!

Playing House

I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity to house sit with my boyfriend this month. The second time we have, and I can't help but feel like I'm 'playing house'! Our little family consists of the two of us, Lola the cat and our chickens Claude and Cairo. It's comfortable, close to everything and very exciting playing real grown ups for a month :D
The best thing about our little adventure is the cooking! We've made roasts, pancake breakfasts, soups, the list goes on. I've even had the pleasure of Matt making me his signature pasta when I'm too tired to move after work! As our time comes to an end I'm thinking about those meals that stood out. 


I've got to tell you about this sticky date pudding. I love dates, but I've never found this popular dessert appealing and when I've tasted other peoples I've never been impressed. I went on a camp recently and was cooked sticky date pudding en masse for dessert. Catering for 50 people usually means giant tubs of ice-cream and dried out pudding, but boy was I in for a treat. 
This sticky date pudding is life changing. I have been totally, irreversibly converted. I went straight home from the camp and served it the next day for dessert at a dinner party we hosted. Here is the recipe, I guarantee you won't turn back.


Life Changing Sticky Date Pudding
from Stephanie Alexander, thanks to Rob!
Serves 6 generously
Ingredients
170g dates, pitted and chopped
1 tsp bicarb soda
300ml boiling water
60g butter
3/4c brown sugar
2 eggs
170g SR flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Sauce
200g brown sugar
1/2c thickened cream
125g butter
1 vanilla bean or substitute 1tsp vanilla extract


Method
Preheat oven to 180C and grease an 18cm square cake tin.
Mix dates, bicarb and boiling water and leave to stand.
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time and beat well.
Fold in flour then stir in date mixture and vanilla.
Pour into cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes until inserted skewer comes out clean!
The top of the cake will have a thin crust, slightly darker than the inside. The centre should be soft, but not liquid.
To make the sauce mix all ingredients together in a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes.
Pour a little sauce over warm pudding and return to oven for a few minutes.
Serve pudding in bowls drizzled with warm sauce.


The sauce is to die for, the recipe originally calls for double the ingredients but I had far too much. Any sauce left over can go into a jar and kept in the fridge - it's fantastic warmed up in the microwave and poured over icecream, on pancakes or anything else you can think of!

The View

I flicked over channels and came across a show talking about a beautiful home. They went on to show viewers the 'sky deck' which allowed visitors to admire the 'stunning view'. The house was on a hill, the view was of thousands of homes underneath them.
I was quite stunned by this smoggy view of other peoples washing and rooftops. Sure it was vast, but 'stunning'? Really?
It doesn't help that I've grown up with hippy parents, but for me stunning views means untouched forests, coastline, endless ocean, natural anomalies..

I find this issue in many new houses being built today. They choose the top of a hill for the view. But the top of the hill just shows everything that is underneath it - more and more houses.
Perhaps 'view' actually means 'vast area of visibility' and all they need to get rid of is the 'stunning'. 'With A view', perhaps. Or 'with an expansive view'. This 'stunning' business is what the problem is.

Maybe I'm just bias. When I look at my window I see the trees that completely surround my yard, held together by a tall, old wooden fence. When I look beyond the trees that block out my neighbours I see the hills in the distance that have yet to be covered with houses. I suppose I'm just lucky that I have family members who wanted to make my view look like this. But others are perfectly capable of doing the same (at least to some extent)..

Am I the only person in the world who doesn't want to look at their neighbours underwear?

Road Trip!

My partner and I have decided to travel the state - I feel it completely unacceptable to discover the world before I've understood what my little island of Tasmania is really like!
We decided to tackle the East Coast this summer, however so far our plans are changing as quickly as we're making them! So instead, we've decided on a no-plan trip and are going wherever the road may take us.
Being low on cash I felt the sensible thing would be to cook a tasty, easy to eat and store, snackable food.
Unfortunately, this only occurred to me the night before we were leaving. Uh oh. That rules out anything with a rising time or anything with ingredients not already in my cupboard: no pulla, no blueberry muffins.
I did some hunting through my recipes and decided on banana bread and brownies! I'm not much of a brownie fan but I've wanted to try this recipe for a while and anything with chocolate in can't turn out too bad. And I've had some bananas in my freezer waiting for me for months.
They were both pretty tasty, my partner admitted he's not raving mad for banana bread, but mine was enjoyable, tasty. He said the brownies were too 'nutty' (aka not enough chocolate), but my brother loved them.

Moist, Travel Safe, Banana Bread
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/The-Best-Banana-Bread/Detail.aspx
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 6 bananas)
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C, line a loaf tin (9x5 inch approx) with baking paper.
Cream margarine and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, then bananas. Add flour and soda, stirring until just combined.
Pour into prepared tin and bake for about 1 hour (or until skewer comes out clean).
Remove from pan and let cool.
Note: original recipe states store in fridge or freeze, however it lasted just fine in and out of my eski while on the road!

Happy Travelling Brownies
http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/flat-belly-diet/flat-belly-diet-recipes-82
1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp (pinch) salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup choc-chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C, line a small brownie/lamington pan with baking paper.
Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Combine brown sugar, oil, egg and egg white, and vanilla in a small bowl. Whisk until smooth.
Pour into flour mixture and stir until blended.
Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
Spread batter in a thin layer in the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm and inserted knife comes out with a few moist crumbs.
Let cool completely and cut.
Note: I didn't let cool, and these travelled great!

Cupcakes!

My best friend's birthday was yesterday, and my sister's birthday is today. 'Busy?' You may ask. Nope, it's quite convenient!
I set out to make two flavours of cupcakes and split the two batches between the girls.
As a practising chocoholic and knowing they're always a hit, I made one batch of super-rich, super-dense chocolate cupcakes. These were decorated with a dark chocolate ganache and stencilled icing sugar patterns of stars and hearts. The decorating, however, was somewhat halted when after sitting for an hour the icing sugar patterns dissolved!

Knowing that children usually prefer cooking with milk chocolate (rather than dark), I usually use a combination of half dark and half milk chocolate. This time I used all 70% cocoa chocolate, with a 45% ganache as my friend Audrey adores dark chocolate.
I was very pleased to find that my 3 year old nephew adored the chocolate cupcakes regardless.


Deliciously Decadent Chocolate Cupcakes
(makes approximately 20 cupcakes which do not rise considerably)
250ml thickened cream
450g dark chocolate
5 eggs
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 cup plain flour
1 tbs cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
METHOD:
1. Pre-heat oven to 160°C, prepare patty pans.
2. Stir cream and chocolate in a bowl over previously boiling water (do not let bowl touch water) until chocolate is melted and there is a smooth, even consistency. Cool slightly.
3. Place eggs and sugar in bowl and beat with electric mixer until pale and doubled in volume.
4. Slowly add the chocolate mixture into the egg-sugar, while beating.
5. Sift in flour, cocoa and baking powder, then stir with metal spoon until combined.
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes until inserted skewer comes out clean.


Chocolate Ganache for Icing
100g dark chocolate
80ml cream
METHOD:
Place chocolate and cream into a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until chocolate has melted.
If eating immediately, remove cakes from patty pans and serve covered with sauce.
OR
Let sauce cool completely in refrigerator. Ice cupcakes when both cupcakes and sauce are cooled.


I use silicon, non-stick patty pans which require no greasing and cupcakes fall out easily. I find these cheaply in supermarkets, baking and 2-dollar stores.
Along with the chocolate cupcakes, I made Orange and Poppyseed: The ultimate Audrey delight.
My friend Audrey has a health-crazed mother, and growing up was not allowed sweets.
At school when we children were treated with muffin bars, biscuits and other sugar-filled foods, Audrey had carrot sticks or occasionally sultanas!
The darling girl told me that when we were in school together she loved coming to my house to play in particular. She admitted that a huge reason for this was the Orange and Poppyseed supermarket cakes that my mother often had in the house, that we were allowed to have. Living in a sweet-free house this was quite a treat, and remembering this I realised that Orange and Poppyseed was her flavour.


Orange and Poppyseed Cupcakes for Audrey
(makes approximately 18 cupcakes)
1 tbs poppyseeds
2 tbs milk
2 cups SR flour
1 tbs grated orange rind
1/2 cup castor sugar
125g butter
1/4 cup orange marmalade
2 eggs
1/4 cup fresh orange juice 
(orange juice and rind equates to that of one orange)
METHOD:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C and prepare patty pans.
2. Soak poppseeds in milk, set aside.
3. Place SR flour and orange rind with castor sugar in bowl and stir to combine.
4. Melt butter and marmalade in saucepan over medium heat.
5. Stir marmalade mix into flour mixture with eggs, orange juice and milk mixture until combined.
6. Spoon into patty pans, bake for 20-30 minutes, until inserted skewer comes out clean.


Lemon Cream Cheese Icing
(Ideal for Orange and Poppyseed Cupcakes)
125g cream cheese at room temp
3/4 cups icing sugar
2 tbs fresh lemon juice
(lemon juice required equates to that of one lemon)
METHOD:
Use electric mixer to beat cream cheese and icing sugar until soft.
Beat in lemon juice until light and fluffy.
Place in fridge for one hour or until icing thickens.
Spread icing over cooled cupcakes!

I coloured half of the icing with red food dye, and a portion of it yellow and used a piping bag to create the hearts.
These cupcakes should be chilled or the icing will melt!


Both girls (and their children) adored the cupcakes! 


Happy baking!

If I began conversations with "I love to bake cakes for all the people in my life!", do you think I would have more friends?

I've noticed the popularity of culinary photography on pages like facebook.
Many of my 'friends' have albums named "Culinary Adventures", "Domestic Life", or just "Food I Cooked". Today, as I baked and decorated birthday cupcakes for my best friend and sister's birthdays this week I wondered if this is because my friends have reached an age where cooking is exciting and interesting. Does this happen in every generation? When teens enter their twenties does the 'cooking' gene switch on? Or are we products of the Masterchef generation?

My mother (and many of my relatives in her generation) dislikes cooking. She has never found pleasure in it and does the bare minimum. Does she well represent the baby boomers? And if so, is this a product of the strong feminism that developed during her young life? Perhaps her removal from the kitchen is assert her difference from the housewife her mother was.
If this is the case, am I following the trend? My mother insisted she did not belong in the kitchen, so is it now my task in life to show that yes, cooking is enjoyable and women are great at it? And will my children dislike cooking, shows like Masterchef and Hell's Kitchen go out of fashion and then return as the next generation come into the world?

Or my family may be the exception.
Age 20: /cooking gene on?

Lily's Boots

My niece looooves Doc Martens. 

A month or so before her 14th birthday she told everyone about an amazing pair of Union Jack Doc Martens she had seen online. Knowing she could only have one pair for her birthday she selected her other all time favourite: a shiny cherry red pair that were available in a local store. Listening to her drool about the boots she adored online I decided to give her the next best thing: an edible pair just the same!

I selected a dense marble cake recipe I found online (unfortunately I cannot find the exact recipe I used) and tried to make marshmallow fondant like I had for my birthday cake. I left the fondant to cool and it got stickier and stickier. After two frustrating attempts to make it work it was tossed in the bin and I had to resort to supermarket bought fondant.

The dream Doc Martens are a navy blue colour with Union Jacks on the toes. The navy colour was difficult to attain and I managed a grey-navy using blue and black food dye. 

I borrowed a pair of very old Doc's from my niece claiming they were for a (very vague) 'art project' and used these for my scale.

The boots were somewhat uneven and a little over-chunky, but they tasted delicious and with the "AirFlex" tags and yellow stitching could be made out for Doc Martens.

As a perfectionist I was hoping for much more, but couldn't have been more pleased when my niece said "This is the coolest present EVER!!".

The Beginning

Inspired by photos, videos and my new found love of cooking I set out to create my first decorated cake. 


I share my birthday with my Aunt and decided that for her present I would attempt to make the fanciest, craziest cake to share with her on our special day.


I was keen to make everything from first principles - the cakes, the fondant, the decorations, the lot! However, as the big day approached the amount of work that would be required became quite daunting (preparing for my first year of university at the same time didn't help, either!). Convinced by my mother that the decorating was the important part, I cheated and bought nine supermarket cakes: 3 x chocolate mud, 3 x white chocolate mud and 3 x caramel mud cakes.


I made my own fondant following this recipe, creating pink, blue and purple fondant for each level of the cake. My mother, grandmother and I spent an afternoon creating colourful butterflies (my Aunt's favourite) with both my fondant and some supermarket bought fondant. I'm embarrassed to admit the supermarket butterflies worked much better..


A couple of days before the big party I was set up with turning table, cake board, dowel rods (thick skewers), spatulas and all the tools I'd need for my Topsy Turvy Butterfly Cake.


Following a tutorial I found online by janellscakes (youtube) I began the process:


Using my home made buttercream underneath we covered each layer and once chilled began to build..

As the top tier was added securely the cake immediately began to collapse on itself (note the creases in the bottom layer!), quickly adding dowel rods to the top layer the top two tiers were saved from collapse but the entire cake began to tilt. A lot.

Rushing to get the camera before the whole thing ended up in a pile on the floor we snapped a couple of shots to show that yes, we made it this far. 

The decorating began and the tilting continued. As I decorated my delightful mother held the cake upright.

Until we had a genius idea of a make-shift cake stand, and.. voilà we have cake!

And the real decorating could begin

After many hours into the night we created the finished product:

The cake was a hit, collapsed layers and all. While it isn't the perfect picture I had been imagining I was quite pleased with my first attempt. Both birthday girls couldn't have been happier :)