Apple and Cinnamon Cake

Happy Birthday Helen!  Well it's obvious that in our home Helen is the pâtissier.  However this year I decided to try my hand at baking for her birthday.  So far as I recall this is the first cake I've ever made ...and thankfully it was a success!

Raspberry Chocolate Macarons

My first solo attempt at macarons, plain almond meringue shells sandwiched with a raspberry chocolate ganache.  They turned out quite well considering my oven light blew out and I was literally cooking in the dark!  The batter took forever to dry due to the cold, rainy weather and I had to bake them in a couple of batches as I couldn't fit them all into our tiny oven.  The first batch was a little overcooked, as evidenced by the slightly toasty colour to some of them, but gauging from the reaction of the hungry hoards in the office at morning tea the next day they were still a hit!  Can't wait to try another flavour.

Cocktails + Caprese

One of our lovely friends was once a professional bartender working at a number of large clubs in London before he relocated to Brisbane.  We invited him and a few other good friends to dinner and he kindly offered to make us some of his favourite cocktails to sample...  

 Enough said all the cocktails tasted delicious... and how beautiful do they all look?

Watermelon Martinis... yum!

The colour and flavour of this pomegranate cocktail was amazing! 

Some of the side dishes we served at dinner... my favourite salad of all time, the Insalata Caprese!  The best tomatoes and olive oil you can find is an absolute must...

James ending the evening with an Espresso Martini... just for that extra perk! It was a fantastic night!

ANZAC Baking

Anyone who loves to bake will know what I mean when I say "I love my perfectly clean oven!".  It took a fair bit of elbow grease though to scrub it to sparkling!  We watched the ANZAC day commemoration ceremonies on TV while I cleaned the oven... so I could bake a big batch of ANZAC biscuits in a pristine oven!  They turned out beautifully and we had them with a cup of tea as we watched the rest of the ceremonies... the speeches and music were so moving... 

Pink Cupcake

Latest cupcake concoction... it was to have red buttercream icing with white chocolate shavings.  Has anyone tried to make serious red icing?  It's almost impossible to get it to a pillar box red!  I gave up at hot pink!  The chocolate cake was the perfect texture though...

Cherry Season + Panna Cotta

I'm always a little sad when the cherry season comes to an end here.  I love their flavour and colour but the weather in Brisbane means that cherries don't last very long before they start to deteriorate.  My parents gave us a batch of them earlier this year, more than we could eat quick enough so I decided to make cherry compote with the rest of them.  The flavour of the compote is just beautiful, especially over some greek yoghurt for breakfast.  I made clove panna cotta with the compote and also served it with some Dello Mano brownies Ruen gave us, yum!

Weekend Musings

A few photos from around the apartment over the previous weekend... our December Christmas gift table has morphed into a permanent perch for bits and pieces I don't know what to do with yet...

Yeah, it's pretty bright around the place at the moment... I like it...

Oh, it was also our anniversary... exciting!  The most enormous concoction of blooms to celebrate from James... he knows I like my flowers bright of course.  They were so beautiful, I couldn't take my eyes off them all weekend.

The simple setting for dinner with a couple of friends.  I've been meaning to light these pineapple candles for ages but forgot so they stood silently unused over dinner... doh!  I do like a bit of pineapple paraphernalia, so tropical!

James slaved over a hot oven to get this melty pork belly dished up.  Almost four hours and a bottle of white wine later it was plated with much anticipation... it did not disappoint.  Jamie Oliver, thank you very much indeed... accompanied by roasted leeks and cauliflower, tasty!

 I enjoyed bashing up the spice mix for for the cauliflower in our gigantic new mortar and pestle... fun!

I made a dessert of clove panna cotta served with black cherry compote but the photos didn't turn out. It was from a trusty Women's Weekly dessert recipe so how can you go wrong... it did not disappoint either.  I've made another batch chilling out in the fridge so might attempt to take a snap again.

All in all it was a very satisfying and indulgent Saturday.

Australia Day 2012

I hope everyone enjoyed a fantastic Australia Day!  We certainly had lots of fun being invited to Caroline and Vini's beautiful home for a backyard barbeque.  It was a fun mix of Australian and Brazilian style!  I brought along sunflowers and helped tie flag bunting to the fence, another friend made lamingtons, Triple J's Hottest 100 was the soundtrack...

The rain held off for us to enjoy the yard... their garden is so lovely and green at the moment and they have a frangipani... one of my favourite flowering trees!

I think Lola enjoyed lounging in the sun the most... so cute! 

As promised the barbeque was in true Brazilian style... it was delicious!  All that wood coal does something amazing...

To top it all off was this scrumptious chocolate mud cake from Pearl Cafe.  Apparently you can order any of their cakes and they bake it for you fresh... good to know!  It was also very delicious...

Thanks to C+V again for such a fun day!  

Good Friends at The Chelsea

My lovely friend Ruen is in town for one last tour around before he relocates back to Singapore for a while.  We went out to The Chelsea at the Barracks for dinner.  The food was so fresh and flavoursome. It was so great to catch up and laugh about lots of silly things together!  I'm going to miss Ruen a lot...

Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

I have been baking cupcakes for a long time now and must have made several hundred of them over the years for everything from high teas, picnics and birthdays to charity events like RSPCA Cupcake Day.  I've practically made every kind of cupcake flavour there is!  However, baking the perfect vanilla cupcake has eluded me.  The recipe I have been using never seemed to come out the way it looked in the recipe book.  It would always be a bit heavy tasting or not rise perfectly or be the wrong shape on the top... until this batch!

I have finally experimented with subtle tweaks to the recipe enough to find that I now have the perfect vanilla cupcake, light and fluffy on the inside with the loveliest vanilla buttery flavour and texture.  Happily I also matched it with a perfect batch of vanilla buttercream icing, almost mousse like in consistency.  I'm usually a little impatient and don't spend enough time beating the icing until enough of the sugar dissolves but this time I was patient and got it just right.  I only hope that I'll get them exactly like this every time now!  This batch was made for a picnic in the park at West End...

This was the batch that came very close leading into Christmas but a little more tweaking was needed... for a work barbeque at New Farm Park.

I decorated them with orange sherbet icing and crushed Fruit Tingles, being inspired by the Fruit Tingle layer cake I had made recently and all... I have found that I prefer it best to keep it simple with vanilla buttercream... not that anyone complained, they were definitely tasty!

And for good measure here is a bunch of brownies I made to take to A+O's for dessert last weekend.  They came from a recipe in Bake, given to me by Geneve and Joe for my birthday last year.  They tasted delicious.

I find baking to be so comforting and relaxing, that it involves making something and getting a beautiful result is very rewarding and takes my mind off the daily stresses... lucky for James he is a very happy taste tester and I have plenty of people and occasions to share it all with!

Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Makes 24

1 cup plain flour

1 3/4 cups self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

200g softened unsalted butter

1 3/4 cup castor sugar

4 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 170oC and line two 12-hole cupcake trays with cupcake papers.

Sift together the flours and baking powder into a bowl.

In a separate large mixing bowl, cream the butter for 2 minutes. Add the sugar a third at a time beating for 2 minutes after each addition.  After the last addition beat until the sugar has almost dissolved and the mixture is light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract until combined.

Add a third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined.  Add half the milk and beat until combined.  Repeat this process.  Add the last third of the flour and beat until combined, being careful not to over-beat as this will toughen the mixture and the cupcakes will not be light and fluffy.

Spoon mixture into prepared tins filling to three-quarters full.  Bake for 18 - 20 minutes or until a fine skewer comes out clean.  Remove cupcakes from tray immediately and cool on a wire rack before icing.

*make sure eggs are at room temperature prior to adding to the mixture

** the milk should not be cold straight from the fridge but close to room temperature

Summer Days

Hello!  It's been a long time between posts I know.  It's been difficult coming back to hectic work life in the city after too short a break in my opinion!  Here are a few pics from our holidays over the summer.  Kirra at dusk after a day on the beach...

We visited Caroline and Vini at Wategos for lunch and a swim.  We sipped on Mojitos at their family beach house overlooking the ocean.  What a perfect day that was!

We invited Ron and Leonie over for dinner and enjoyed simple summer seafood... yum!  I love eating prawns over summer, they always seem to taste especially good...

A visit to Bangalow during our Byron Bay stint.  It was a rainy day, perfect for a wander around the beautiful stores.  Has anyone been to One Fine Day?  It has lovely bespoke paper crafts and handmade products, so pretty...

James looking all pensive....

We stayed at Bangalow Guesthouse and spent time reading and contemplating the rain and the garden.  It's such a beautiful Queenslander home with lovely verandahs and all furnished with Coco Republic, very Hamptons... 

I wish it was always summer holidays!  Why I'm not still at the beach I'm not sure...

Celebratory Dinner

Last weekend we invited some friends over for dinner to celebrate the coming holidays, my graduation and birthday.  We agreed that as birthday boy I would choose the menu and be chef du jour for the main course; lamb loin with couscous and capsicum chutney.  Meanwhile Helen prepared the entree and the all important birthday cake.  Earlier in the week Cathryn had directed me to a recipe for Fruit Tingle cake (the Fruit Tingles, otherwise known as Lifesavers, are the round sherbet lollies on the top, recipe from Sydney baking blog Raspberri Cupcakes).  The recipe called for three layers of orange cake with butter cream icing infused with crushed up fruit tingles.  Thankfully Helen was keen to try the recipe so now I have my own one. Yum!  It was a great evening shared with good friends.

Sharing with:
A Beach Cottage

Cake Days

It was James' birthday on Friday and we have been busy making cakes all week!  James and I put in a team effort on Thursday evening to whip up this coffee walnut layer cake to take in to the office for birthday morning tea.  I loved the way it looked with the coffee buttercream, chocolate shavings and fresh strawberries.  It definitely tasted very decadent!  Another cake to follow shortly...

Manly Marina and Afternoon Tea

A few weeks back we met up with Dad and Leonie for lunch and sweet treats.  The week prior had finally signalled the end of our studies for the year so we had no guilt in eating, drinking and chatting the afternoon away.  We headed down to the William Gunn Jetty at Manly Marina for a seafood lunch before returning to the family home to continue celebrations over afternoon tea and plenty of sparkling wine.  The bay is so beautiful on a bright sunny day.