Natalia's Cooking Adventures

Chocolate Fondants - The good, the bad and the UGLY!!

2011-08-08T10:06:00.002+10:00

After being told that chocolate fondants are so easy, and yadda yadda yadda, I decided to find a recipe online and give them a go.

On Saturday night, my mum and dad were coming over for dinner. I thought they'd be the perfect guinea pigs to try these out on. Dinner was Vegetarian Thai Green Curry (for mum, Boone and I), and coconut prawns (for Dad and Boone).

I found this recipe by Gordon Ramsay, which had fabulous reviews, and decided to give it a go.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8168/chocolate-fondant

However, I am known for having the inability to follow recipes and since my printer was not working, I just took down the ingredients and trusted myself to remember the method. (I have an almost 7 month old baby, I remember NOTHING!!!)

Soo here is what I ended up doing.

The recipe calls for 4 eggs and 4 egg yolks. I hate separating eggs, and wastage. So if I am not going to be making something else with the whites, then I always try to use recipes that call for full eggs. So instead of using 4 eggs and 4 yolks, I just put in 6 whole eggs ;)
I also had no dark chocolate, so I used milk chocolate, and added two tablespoons of my homemade vanilla extract which is made with vanilla beans and vodka. This made the fondants quite boozy!!! HIC!!!

Anyway, here is the recipe I ended up using with all my variations.

Ingredients

50g melted butter for brushing dariole molds
organic cocoa powder for dusting dariole molds
200g milk chocolate
200g organic butter
200g brown sugar
6 eggs
200g plain flour

Brush dariole molds with melted butter, and place upside down on a plate. My mix made 7 fondants. Place plate in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Take the dariole molds out, then brush with the remainder of the butter, place back in the freezer for a few minutes, then dust with cocoa, ensuring you cover all the sides and bottom of the ramekin. Tap out any excess cocoa.
Place butter, sugar and chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, and heat for two minutes on medium. (If you put it on high, you could burn your chocolate). Stir butter/chocolate/sugar mix, and heat for another minute, until mixture is all melted. Keep heating in one minute increments. Once it is all melted and combined, set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time to the chocolate mixture, until thoroughly combined.
Sift flower into wet mix, and mix completely.
Spoon mix evenly into your dariole molds.
Place dariole molds on a plate, cover with glad (saran) wrap and freeze.
When you're ready to cook these, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius in a fan forced oven.
Bake for 15 minutes, then take out of the oven, and allow them to sit/cool for a further 10 minutes. (The recommended minute (given by the original recipe) meant

THE UGLY

that I ended up with some disasters, and only the very last fondant that I unmoulded, came out perfectly. This meant that because I served myself last, I ended up with the perfect fondant, and my guests, had puddles of muck like the one below, and I got comments that I was keeping the best for myself (LOL). I have since made a few more fondants, and found that the 10 minute wait time, is perfect, as they all come out easily, without breaking, but you have to be very gentle all the same.

Run a knife around the edge of the ramekin to ensure the fondant is not going to get stuck. Turn over onto a plate, and serve with creme fraiche/yogurt/cream/icecream.

So the verdict?? well they are super easy, just gotta know what you're doing!!! According to the recipe by Gordon Ramsey, these can be frozen for up to a month. Makes desserts at dinner parties sooooo much easier :)

Capsicum and Fetta Scrolls

2011-04-21T10:14:00.013+10:00

I had a delicious capsicum dip in the fridge that needed to be used up before it went out of date in about 5 days. On it's own it will not be eaten, so I decided to try to make some tasty scrolls with it.

The recipe for the dough, is the recipe that came with the bread machine for the basic white loaf. This is super easy, and soooo delicious they should be illegal!!!!
Please note that all measurements are metric.

Ingredients
Dough
1 ¼ cups of water
2 Tbs oil (I used rice bran has it has no flavour)
2 ½ Tbs milk powder
2 tsp salt
3 ½ Tbs sugar
4 cups plain flour
1 Tbs dry yeast
Filling
1 tub Wattle Valley Capsicum & Fetta dip with Cashews

Method

Place all the dough ingredients into your bread machine, in the order listed.
Set your machine to the dough program. Mine takes 1½ hours to complete.
Pre-heat your oven to 180º Celcius
Roll out the dough in a large rectangle shape. The dough should be about 1cm in thickness.
Spread the dip over the dough, making sure you leave a 2cm band along one edge without any dip.
Roll the dough from edge towards the edge that has the dip free band. (in the direction of the blue arrow as shown above).
Cut 2cm rolls with a very sharp knife making sure you don't press the dough as you're doing it, you want to make sure your scrolls are nice and round and not squashed by your knife.
Set the scrolls about 4 cms apart on a cookie sheet covered with non stick baking paper.
Set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes to rise.
Brush with an egg wash and bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes or until nice and golden, make sure that they don't burn or overcook or they will be too dry and crusty.

My first adventure into Macaron land

2011-04-21T01:42:00.005+10:00

After seeing many people posting pictures of their beautiful macarons, and after having almond meal sitting in my pantry for what seemed like forever, I finally decided to try one of the many recipes I had saved over the past few months.

I think I really hit the jackpot with this recipe, as the macarons turned out pretty well for a first try.

I would say that I would change absolutely nothing in the recipe, I followed it pretty much to the letter, and voila!! Success!!!

I will certainly be trying more of Ms Taste's macaron recipes in the future.

Here is the recipe.

Just a few notes on my experience with this recipe.

I didn't age my egg whites for as long as recommended. I put mine in my pantry on Sunday night and used them on Wednesday afternoon. The amount of time seemed to do the trick. Some other recipes suggest aging for one night only, however I held off as long as I could ;)
My mix did not fall in ribbons. I mixed it for the recommended 30-40 turns, and didn't want to go further as I didn't want to over mix, however my mix was quite firm.
I ended up leaving them to crust for around 40-45 minutes, this is because I just couldn't get back to them whilst feeding the baby :)
My macarons did not spread at all, so in expectation of them spreading I piped them quite small, as a result, one full macaron easily fits whole in your mouth, and melts away before you've had a chance to realise what is happening. IT'S DANGEROUS!!!! They can all dissapear before you know it ;) Pipe them a little bigger if your mix turns out to be firm ;)
I used a different filling, recipe below.

White Chocolate Almond Ganache
40gms Pura Thick Cream (I use Pura because they use vegetable gums as a thickener instead of gelatine)
110gms Lindt Swiss Gold White with Almonds

Chop the chocolate finely. Make sure you do this or else the ganache won't go through your piping bag, the chocolate has whole almonds in it, you want to make sure that those are chopped well.
Heat up your cream in a small bowl in the microwave for about 25 seconds. I recommend the microwave because the amount is so small.
Add chopped chocolate to the hot cream and mix to form a thick paste, if it's runny, allow it to cool completely before placing it in a piping bag with a large round tip (I used Wilton No. 12)
Pipe a little of the ganache onto one macaron piece, and stick it together with another.
Try not to eat them all in one sitting ;)

Corazanes Dulces

2011-04-19T17:38:00.011+10:00

Corazanes Dulces, translates to "Sweet Croissants". However these little yummy morsels, are not a lot like croissants, except for their shape. These "croissants" are a lot more bready in texture. In Uruguay these are a part of a group of sweets we call "Bizcochos" and we usually eat them for afternoon tea with a nice "mate".

This is what bizcochos look like.
http://cocinerama.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bizcochos.jpg

I have never tried to make these before, but for some reason, a couple of weeks ago, I went in search of a recipe. They are normally made using lard, from beef or pork, but being vegetarian, I had to vary the recipe to use a non animal fat.

Follow this link for the recipe that I used. The recipe is in Spanish, but the ingredients for the original are as follows:

Dough
500 grams plain flour
30 grams fresh yeast
30 grams sugar
30 grams salt
150 grams lard (pork or beef, at room temperature)
200 mls warm water

Paste
70gms lard
100gms plain flour

I thought that 30grams of salt was far too much, and reduced the amount to 10gms. Also when I went to start, I realised that I didn't have enough plain flour, so I used a combination of spelt and plain flour. Also, I found that the "PASTE" which is meant to be made with the 70gms of lard and 100gms of plain flour, turned out like a dough, I guess it must be because the fat that I used had a high content of water, and therefore didn't perform like the lard. Still, I got some good results :)

I also varied the recipe by using a bread maker instead of doing it all by hand. It works well this way when you have a 3 month old baby at home ;)

These are the ingredients for the ones that I made.
Dough

250gms plain organic flour
250gms organic spelt flour (white)
150gms butterfully light (it's a butter/oil spread from Aldi, I didn't realise it was low fat till later)
2tsp dry yeast
30gms sugar
10gms salt
200mls warm water

Paste
70gms melted butterfully
100gms spelt flour
In addition to this I also used 2 tbs of butterfully and 2tbs of spelt flour.

Method

Place all the dough ingredients in the bowl of your bread maker and turn on to the dough setting.
Once the dough is complete, let it rest in the breadmaker bowl until it increases in size enough to pretty much fill the bowl, same way as your loaf of bread would. I only did this because having a baby, I didn't get back to it for quite a long time after the dough was complete ;)
Take out the dough and place on a floured bench. Roll out in a rectangle shape, your dough should be about a 1/2 cm in thickness.
Roll out the paste, in fact the paste should be able to be spread onto your dough, but because of what I explained earlier, mine didn't work out ;), so you roll it out really really thinly and spread it out over your dough, trying to cover as much of your dough as possible. Because my "paste" didn't cover the whole of my dough, I used the 2tbs of butter and make up for it. Melt the 2tbs of butter and brush it over the dough and paste, and sprinkle with the flour.
Roll up the dough the same way you would roll up a swiss roll. Then put it aside in a warm place to rise for half an hour.
First roll out the pastry roll in the direction of the blue arrows. Cut the pastry in half , and roll out in the direction of the pink arrow. Cut pieces as indicated by the dotted line, and roll up your "croissants" starting from the widest part of the triangle, towards the point.
Place them on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper and allow to rise in a warm place for about 15 minutes. Brush with a simple syrup and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 15 minutes until they're nice and golden.
Enjoy with a cuppa :)

NOTE: These turned out great and they're delicious, however they are nothing like the "Corazanes" you can buy in Uruguay in a bakery. I will try making these again, and if they're better I will post the recipe.

Mini muffin anyone??

2011-03-31T13:37:00.005+11:00

I have been trying to get some baking done for a few weeks now, but with a 2 and a half month on my hip, the spare time I have is very little. Today however, Ms Lani decided to take a few naps, and the recipe I tried out is very quick.

For a few days now, I have wanted to make a yogurt muffin. I found a chocolate recipe online which I decided to convert to a more healthy version.

I replaced the flour with spelt flour, the butter with coconut oil, the milk with soy and the sugar with agave nectar/syrup. This meant altering the amounts, and for a first go, I think they turned out pretty good.

This recipe makes 48 mini muffins. They're very moist and not too sweet, so if you prefer a sweeter muffin, you may want to add more agave or reduce the amount of cocoa used. Please keep in mind that if you add more agave you will have to reduce one of the other wet ingredients.

For these I also used mainly organic ingredients.

Ingredients
220gms Wholemeal Spelt Flour
15gms gluten free baking powder
200gms agave nectar
30gms cocoa
100gms coconut oil
1 large egg
230gms full fat yogurt (at room temperature)
1/4 cup soy milk
90gms chopped chocolate (I used dark Lindt)

Method

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celcius.
Oil or spray with cooking oil two mini muffin pans. This mix makes 48, so I used two 24 pans.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa until well combined. Add the chopped chocolate.
Melt the coconut oil with the agave nectar and soy milk. Do not boil, you want these to be just warm not hot.
Mix in the egg and yogurt. These have to be at room temperature because if they are straight out from the fridge they can solidify parts of the coconut oil and you will end up with lumps.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix in with a flat knife or spatula. Do not beat, you just want the ingredients to be just combined and no dry mix to be left over.
Spoon into pan and bake for 10-12 minutes until done.
Allow to cool and eat with a nice cuppa :)

Enjoy!!!

Zucchini Tomato & Ricotta Galette

2010-08-22T18:32:00.021+10:00

I have been thinking about making one of these delicious pastries since I saw the photo of a galette by Smitten Kitchen last week. Unfortunately work has been crazy busy, and I only just got to try it out tonight. It is amazingly delicious!!!
The pastry is flaky and the sour cream gives it such a wonderful taste.

Anyway here is my version of a galette adapted from Meals at Home

Base:

220gms Plain flour

120gms chilled salted butter

65gms sour cream

40gms fresh lemon juice

67gms chilled water

Filling:

1 large zucchini sliced into 1/2cm rounds
2 Roma tomatoes sliced into 1/2 cm rounds

250gms ricotta cheese

40gms grated Parmesan cheese
60gms grated tasty cheese
2 large eggs

1 bunch of basil chopped
1 tbs chopped thyme
1 shallot minced
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

Place flour, butter, and sour cream in the food processor and process until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Place flour mix in a bowl, pour water, and lemon juice and stir with a wooden spoon.
Knead lightly on a floured surface, once it comes together wrap in glad wrap and place in the fridge to rest.
Preheat oven to 200 degree Celsius.
Spread the tomato and zucchini slices over paper towels. This will drain the juice that will come out of them. Pat the tops with paper towel.
Mix cheeses with thyme, basil, shallot and egg. Season mix with a little salt and pepper if desired. Keep in mind that two of the cheeses already have some salt in them.
Take pastry out of the fridge and roll it out to a large circle (approx 14 inches)
Place on a flat baking tray lined with baking paper.
Place cheese mix in the middle of the pastry, and spread out evenly leaving a 4cm edge.
Start placing the tomato and zucchini on top of the cheese, each slice only slightly overlapping. Sprinkle with freshly cracked salt and pepper.
Fold the leftover edge of pastry over the cheese zucchini tomato, just to make an edge that will hold in the filling. Make sure that you press this edge onto itself, I found mine was just about to let the fillings spill out.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the egg/cheese is set.
Serve warm with steamed vegetables.

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake - Gluten Free

2010-08-15T14:47:00.007+10:00

This recipe was adapted from a recipe published in the Master Chef magazine. I just found the recipe online, and it turns out that the recipe originally came from the Lindt website. Anyhoo, here's the original recipe and my version :D

Base
200g gluten free shortbread biscuits
50g Dessicated Coconut
100g cream cheese

For the cheesecake
500g cream cheese
150g sour cream
120g sugar
1 lemon, zest only
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp corn flour
150g Fresh or frozen raspberries

BASE

Grease and line a 20cm square pan.
Place biscuits in the food processor and process until you get a fine crumb.
Add cream cheese, and coconut, and process until thoroughly combined.
Press mix into the pan, and place in the fridge until the rest of the cake is ready.

CHEESECAKE

Place cream cheese and sour cream in food processor. Process until smooth.
Add egg, cornflour, sugar, and lemon rind. Process thoroughly.
Remove about half of the mix from the food processor and set aside.
Add 50 gms of the raspberries and process thoroughly.
Pour the raspberry cheesecake mix into the pre-prepared pan, then pour the one without raspberry over it. Using a skewer, make a swirl pattern.
Decorate the top of the cheesecake with the leftover raspberries.
Bake in a water bath at 150 degrees Celsius for an hour and 10 minutes.
Chill before serving.

Pasteles Hojaldrados, made for my dad who loves them

2010-07-25T16:14:00.005+10:00

My grandmother used to make these for my dad's birthday when we lived in Uruguay. After we came to Australia, my aunty (dad's sister) made them a few times and then mum and dad got into the habit of making them for pretty much every birthday. But for many many years, no one has made these. I think it's simply because they take such a long time. (As I had suspected and discovered today)

I got bitten by the cooking bug once again, and went on a search for a recipe for these. I have never made them before, so this was a total experiment.

I found this recipe by a Uruguayan guy, which I've adapted for vegetarians. The original recipe is made with lard (beef lard) eeek!!! Still they're yum :D

http://gcastrop.blogspot.com/2008/08/receta-del-mes-pasteles-hojaldrados-de.html
The recipe goes like this

Ingredients
500gms of plain flour
250mls of hot water
80gms of butter
1 tbs of salt (I use rock salt, and thought it was too much but did it anyway, cause that's what the recipe said, the pastry was quite salty, but it works in the end, go figure!!!)
1tsp of sugar
Dulce de leche or Quince paste (Or both if you want to try making half and half)
120gms of cornflour
60gms of butter (softened)
1 litre of Rice Bran oil
Caster sugar for sprinkling the pasteles :)

Method

In a small bowl, mix the hot water, sugar, salt and 80gms of butter. Mix until melted and combined.
Place flour in a bowl, make a well in the center and pour the contents from above in, to make a soft dough.
Knead the dough until it is pliable.
Roll out the dough into a rectangle, 5mm in thickness.
Spread about 1/6th of the butter (60gms) over half of the rolled out pastry, sprinkle with corn flour, and fold the unbuttered piece over the buttered piece, press together lightly and roll out into a rectangle again. Repeat at least 6 times. (I did mine 7 times)
Cover the pastry with glad wrap and set aside to rest for 40 minutes.
Roll out the pastry to about 3mm in thickness, and cut into 8cm squares.
Place some quince paste in the middle of each square, moisten the area just around the filling, and press the pastry together, making sure that you don't seal the edges, you just want to seal the pastry around the filling.
If you're filling with two different fillings, i would recommend, as i did, that you fold them differently so you know which ones are which. :D
Fry in hot rice bran oil, making sure that you turn them over, the tend to cook well where the filling weighs them down, so you need to push them into the oil so all sides are cooked well.
Drain in kitchen paper, and sprinkle with caster sugar.
Do not throw out the cut offs, cut them into strips, fry them and sprinkle with caster sugar, they make a beautiful crunchy snack.
Best eaten cold with a nice hot chocolate. BEWARE YOUR HEART!!!! hahahahahaha

Sweet Potato Pie - Yeah it's looking like pie week!!!

2010-07-20T19:44:00.005+10:00

This pie was inspired by a pumpkin pie recipe I saw last week on Better Home and Gardens and a roasted sweet potato that a work colleague makes.

The pumpkin pie on the telly was made with skim milk, and low fat pastry. None of that here ;)

The roasted sweet potato is mashed with five spice and a strong tasting cheese. Hmmmm yum!!!

I kind of combined these two ideas to make this pie.
Once again, I used the puff pastry from Aldi.

Ingredients
600gms boiled sweet potato
50gms grated Parmesan
1 quarter (to half) of a freshly grated nutmeg
1 sheet of puff pastry
3 eggs
Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Line a gratin dish with baking paper on the bottom and grease the sides.
Line dish with sheet of puff pastry, cutting off excess.
Mash sweet potato, and mix with cheese, nutmeg, parmesan and salt and pepper.
Mix in eggs, then pour onto puff pastry.
Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes.
Serve with salad.

Pascualina - Spinach Pie

2010-07-18T19:55:00.006+10:00

Pascualina is a spinach pie which we often eat in Uruguay. It is made with spinach or silver beet, sauteed onions and a home made pastry. I cheated because I love puff pastry, so I used a bought one. I have found the puff pastry from Aldi to be the best out there. I have tried many brands and the Aldi brand really kicks the backside of any of the more well known puff pastries out there. Well that's my opinion anyway.

I also use the Aldi frozen spinach. The reason I like it is because it is really easy to defrost as it comes in 6 pieces, and it is dry. Whenever I have defrosted other brands of spinach, I find that there is a huge amount of water, so you can never just add it to the dish frozen because you need to drain it first. The spinach from Aldi, doesn't have to be drained. It's perfect :)

Ingredients
3 onions chopped finely
1kg frozen spinach (defrosted)
1/2 nutmeg freshly grated
250gms Philadelphia cream cheese
6 eggs
4 sheets frozen puff pastry
Olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Egg wash

Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees celcius.
Sautee onions until golden.
Add spinach, cream cheese, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Stir through until all ingredients are mixed together. Put aside to cool slightly.
Line a rectangular tray with puff pastry ensuring the pastry reaches right up to the edge of the tray.
Spread out the filling over the puff pastry, and with a spoon make 6 holes in the filling so you can pour in the whole eggs. Crack eggs one by one and pour into the holes.
Cover the pie with more pastry sealing the edges.
Brush pastry all over with egg wash and bake in a hot oven for 40 minutes until pastry is golden.
Serve with roasted sweet potato and steamed green beans.

Serves 6-8

Croquetas

2010-05-20T12:42:00.004+10:00

150gms arborio rice
300gms cold water
1/2 a vegetable stock cube
20gms fresh chopped parsley
20gms grated parmesan
1 small onion finely chopped
140gms rice milk
10gms pure cornflour
1/2 cup gluten free savoury biscuits (processed to a fine crumb)

Place rice, stock cube and water in a microwave proof bowl.
Set on high for 10 minutes. Stop after 8 minutes and stir thoroughly.
Finish cooking and set aside.
Saute onion in a non stick pan until caramelised, turn off heat and add parsley, stir to wilt parsley.
Add rice, combine and set aside.
In a microwave safe bowl, place milk, cornflour and cheese. Cook on high for one minute, take out and stir. Cook for a further minute. At this time the sauce should be thick.
Pour sauce over the rice mix and combine. Set aside to cool.
Form rice mix into balls and roll in crumbs.
Deep fry until golden brown and serve with salad.

Albóndigas Vegetarianas - Vegetarian "Meatballs"

2010-04-21T11:50:00.008+10:00

I was watching MasterChef yesterday and thinking that there aren't many vegetarian dishes on the show. I was contemplating how I would survive on a show such as that one, and realised that I probably couldn't survive on it very long.

There was one vegetarian girl on the show last year and she was quickly outed. From what I've seen there are no vegetarians on the show at all this year.

Anyway so I got to thinking about vegetarian cooking in general and all these ingredients came into mind and I decided to make these.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6)
500gms firm tofu (I used Pureland Organic Tofu)
1 small bunch of chives
1/4 cup chopped parsley
100gms fresh shitake mushrooms
3 tablespoons of potato flour
1 clove of garlic (minced)
1 egg
salt to taste
Olive Oil

For the sauce
1 750ml Provista Sugo Classica
2 medium onions sliced
4 baby red capsicums sliced
1 tbs dried thyme
1 medium green chili sliced
3 bay leaves
2 cups of water
salt to taste
Parmesan cheese to serve.

To make the albondigas

Saute mushrooms in olive oil, then set aside to cool.
Chop half of the tofu and set aside. Put the other half in the food processor.
Add chopped chives, garlic, parsley, egg, flour and salt. Process to a paste.
Add mushrooms and process, make sure that mushrooms are still in pieces.
Add chopped tofu and process, leaving chunks of tofu.
Form into balls and set aside.

To make the sauce

Saute onion and capsicums in a heavy pan until collapsed.
Add sugo and water and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add salt to taste, chopped chili, bay leaves and thyme.
Slowly and carefully add the albondigas into the sauce (do no stir).
Simmer covered for 20 minutes, serve with brown rice and sprinkle with chopped parsley or Parmesan cheese.

Alfajores de Maizena (Gluten Free)

2010-04-02T22:56:00.008+11:00

Alfajores de Maizena are small soft shortbread type cookies which are joined together with "dulce de leche" (thick caramel). Their sides are covered in dessicated coconut.

These are a favourite snack in Uruguay, Argentina & Chile. Some of the ones you can buy ready made, are covered in chocolate. The ones made in Chile have a much harder cookie, but are still assembled the same way.

Maizena is cornflour, and the main ingredient in this recipe.

I just love these!!

I saw some at my mum's yesterday but because of their wheat content I was not able to eat them. They have a small amount of wheat flour in them.

So I went shopping and bought 100% corn cornflour, I found a recipe which I converted into gluten free by replacing the wheat flour with rice flour and potato flour. I also replaced the cognac and lemon rind.

Now I can eat these to my heat's content (although in reality my heart would be much happier if I were eating broccoli instead!!)

Ingredients
200gms low salt margarine (you can use softened unsalted butter)
150gms caster sugar (superfine sugar)
3 egg yolks
300gms pure cornflour
125gms rice flour
75gms potato flour
2tsp gluten free baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp lemon extract

To assemble
200gms dulce de leche (Nestle Top'n'Fill works really well)
80gms dessicated coconut

METHOD

Preheat oven to 165 degrees celcius (fan forced)
Sift flours and baking powder together, set aside.
Cream margarine, sugar, extracts and yolks with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Fold in dry ingredients until it all comes together.
Place dough on a large piece of baking paper, and knead lightly.
Roll dough out to about 1/2 a cm between two pieces of baking paper.
Remove top sheet of baking paper, and cut with a round cutter.
Place on a cookie sheet at least 2 cms apart from eachother, and bake for 15 minutes.
Allow to cool on a cooling rack.
Place enough caramel on the bottom of a cookie to cover it, and gently press another cookie to it so that some caramel comes out of the sides.
Spread the squeezed out caramel all over the sides of the cookies, and then roll that part through the dessicated coconut.
Eat accompanied with a cup of tea or coffee. YUM!!!

Coconut Chocolate Mousse Cake

2010-02-15T23:14:00.005+11:00

In the last couple of years, to my dismay and disappointment, I have discovered that wheat is not my friend. I tried to fight it, but I lost.

I have bought a few books on gluten free cooking, as I just love to cook but haven't tried many recipes yet. Wheat based products, cakes, breads, pastas, are just my absolute favourite. Isn't life just cruel??

Anyway I have decided to start experimenting a little more with gluten free cooking.

I am also vegetarian, which makes it even more difficult as a lot of gluten free recipes use gelatine. :(

Anyway here is my first experiment.

Cake base is a modified version of this cake found here. I changed the flour to make it gluten free and modified the process slightly.

http://jeenaskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/08/coconut-sponge-cake-fat-free.html

Cake Base
Ingredients
100gms Plain Gluten Free Flour
4 eggs
50gms white sugar
60 gms brown sugar
60gms dessicated coconut
2tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp bicarb of soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Sift coconut, flour, soda and tartar and set aside.
Place sugars, vanilla and eggs in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer for 5 minutes until the mixture is doubled and is light and fluffy.
Fold in the dry ingredients and pour batter into a greased 9 inch removable base tin.
Bake for 40 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pan.

Chocolate Mousse
I used this recipe from Jill Harris (Vegan Chocolate Mousse)

Ingredients
510gms silken tofu
420gms dark chocolate (I used 70% Lindt)
100gms maple syrup

Method

Blend tofu in a food processor until it is very smooth.
Chop chocolate into small pieces and melt in the microwave in 30 second bursts, being careful not to burn it.
Once chocolate is fully melted add syrup and mix thoroughly.
Add chocolate mix to the tofu in the processor and blend until thoroughly mixed and very smooth.

Raspberry Topping
Ingredients
300gms raspberry puree
80gms sugar
20gms potato flour
40gms water

Method

Mix potato flour with the water, and add it to a pan with the raspberry puree and sugar.
Cook on slow heat until mixture thickens.
Set aside to cool

Assembling Cake

Cut cake in half. Place one layer of cake on the base of a pan, and pour mousse over it. Smooth mousse and place left over layer of cake. Press it down to make sure it sticks together.
Pour raspberry sauce over the top, smooth over and place in the fridge.
Allow it to set overnight.

NOTES: This cake was fully consumed at work the following day. There was mixed feedback. Generally it was good, but the mousse was very rich and firm. I loved the mousse, but indeed it was very rich, i think an extra 100 gms of tofu wouldn't go astray. I also think that making it with milk chocolate instead of the 70% I used would make it a lot less rich.

I personally loved the raspberry topping, as I thought it really cut through the richness of the mousse. Some of the taste testers commented that they preferred to have the mousse with the cake on the base, and the topping with the cake on the top. Each to their own I say :)

Next experiment should be a white chocolate mousse cake :) YUMMY YUMMY!!!

Pear and Maple Syrup Triangles

2009-10-12T18:26:00.006+11:00

This super easy dessert can be made with homemade puff pastry or ready made pastry from the supermarket. If you're in Australia, the brands of puff pastry that I recommend are, first "Pastry Chef" from Aldi, and second the "Black & Gold" brand from IGA. I find that these brands are so much flakier and light than any other brand. The IGA "Black & Gold" had been my favorite for years until I recently discovered the brand from Aldi.

Ingredients
1.5 ready made puff pastry sheets
1 large pear
1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup
6 large strawberries, washed
6 tablespoons of creamy vanilla yogurt

Peel the pear, cut it into fours and remove the core. Slice very thinly.
Place the pear in a small bowl and pour the maple syrup over it, mix well and set aside.
Cut the whole sheet of puff pastry into four squares, and the half into two.
Remove the pear from the syrup and divide into 6.
Place filling in the center of each square and fold in half, pressing the edges with a fork to seal.
Place on a cookie tray lined with baking paper, and brush any remaining maple syrup (from the bowl) over the triangles.
Bake till they are nicely colored.
Serve drizzled with a tablespoon of vanilla yogurt and decorate with a sliced strawberry.

Serves 6

Roasted Veggie Bake with Lettuce, Apple & Walnut Salad

2009-10-11T17:05:00.009+11:00

Veggie Bake (serves 6)
1 large eggplant
1 large zucchini
400gms Jap pumpkin

1 large onion chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of fresh thyme (finely chopped)
2 tbs vegetable oil
800gm of canned tomatoes (blended)

500gms firm tofu (or 500gms low fat ricotta)
3 tablespoons dry chives
salt & pepper to taste

50gms baby spinach leaves

Slice the eggplant, zucchini and pumpkin very finely, spread out each vegetable on a baking tray lined with baking paper (to prevent sticking) and brush lightly with olive oil (or spray with cooking spray. Cook on a hot oven until they are tender. Set aside
Chop onion and garlic finely and saute in the olive oil some vegetable oil. When they are see through and starting to caramelise, add the can of tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes, add thyme and salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for another 5 minutes. Set aside.
Place tofu, dry chives and salt & pepper into a food process, and blend until it resembles a cream cheese. (if using Ricotta, just blend until the chives are mixed through the cheese)
Spoon some of the cooked sauce on the bottom of a baking tray and layer with eggplant, followed by some zucchini. Place the whole lot of tofu (or ricotta) on top of the zucchini, flatten it out, and then continue to layer that with pumpkin, followed by spinach leaves. Spoon more sauce on top of the spinach leaves, then place the remainder of the eggplant, and finish off with some more sauce.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
Serve with salad

Salad
3/4 of a butter lettuce
50gms spinach
1 fuji apple
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 carrot
Dressing
1 tablespoon dijonnaise
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tsp brown sugar

Tear the lettuce roughly and place in a bowl with the washed spinach.
Peel the carrot and cut into thin batons.
Peel apple, remove core, and cut into quarters. Slice each quarter into small pieces.
Mix dressing, and pour over the lettuce. Mix in other vegetables and walnuts.
Serve immediately.

Breakfast Stack

2009-10-04T12:18:00.004+11:00

A few weeks ago hubby and I delivered a wedding cake in the morning to a venue near the city. Afterward we went to the Veggie Bar for brunch. One of the things Boone had was a breakfast stack. It looked simple enough, so I decided to try it out. So here it is. It was delicious. The hash browns I made were a little thick according to hubby, the ones at Veggie Bar were the type they use at McDonald's, and mine were homemade. I think if they were thinner they'd be crunchier, but I liked them like this.

Breakfast Stack (Serves 3)
Hash Browns (recipe below)
Mock Hollandaise (recipe below)
3 free range eggs (poached)
1 large tomato (cut into thick slices)
3 large flat mushrooms (stalk removed)
120gms Baby Spinach Leaves
Vegetable oil to cook

Make hash browns and hollandaise as per recipe below and set aside.
Cook mushrooms on a little bit of vegetable oil, these take a while to cook so I'd suggest cooking them first and setting them aside while you prepare the other ingredients (keep warm)
Poach your eggs.
Cook tomato on a non stick pan and a little vegetable oil
Sautee spinach leaves
Assemble by putting the hash brown on the bottom, follow with the tomato, then the mushroom, spinach and then the egg. Pour some of the sauce over the top. Serve warm

Hash Brown
420gms (15oz) Potato (cut into small squares)
40gms (1oz) Potato Flour
Salt & Pepper to taste
Vegetable/Olive oil for frying

Cook the chopped potatoes and set aside to cool. I put mine in the microwave for 10 minutes and they were done. I left the skins on because they were very clean and the extra nutrition never goes astray ;)
Add the potato flour and mix it through thoroughly through the potatoes. Press the mix into an egg mold on a chopping board. Move the mold to ensure it is not stuck on the bottom and unmold. The hash brown should come out intact. I used larger molds, used for crumpets. This mix made 3 hash browns in the larger mold.
Cook on a non stick pan with a little vegetable or olive oil until they are nicely colored and crunchy.

Mock Hollandaise
10gms Arrowroot
15gms Potato Flour
1 egg yolk (optional)
2tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup rice milk (soy or dairy is ok too)
1/4 tsp tumeric
Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan until thoroughly mix.
Cook on a low heat until sauce thickens. Add water if the sauce is too thick.
Season with salt and pepper.
Pour over stack.

Three Cheese Pasta & Spinach Bake

2009-07-26T10:42:00.004+10:00

Ingredients
450gms cooked pasta (tubes or spirals are great for this, I used gluten free pasta, for a gluten free dish)
350gms ricotta
120gms grated Tasty cheese
85gms grated Parmesan cheese
250gm packet of finely chopped spinach (defrosted and drained, ends up being about 120gms of spinach)
6 large eggs (lightly beaten)
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Place pasta, cheeses, spinach, salt, pepper and eggs in a large bowl, and mix thoroughly ensuring that the pasta does not break up too much.
Grease a deep non stick pan and pour mixture into the pan.
Bake for 40 minutes.

Bean, Potato & Caramelised Onion Salad
Ingredients
260gms boiled potato cubes
190gms cooked flat beans
2 large onions sliced
1/4 red capsicum
1/2 yellow capsicum
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbs sugar

Method

Place balsamic vinegar in a small pot with the sugar. Bring to the boil, and then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool. It will have a syrupy consistency.
Cook beans in boiling water, I like mine to be a little crunchy. Set aside.
Heat oil in a fry pan and cook onions until they are caramelised. Set aside.
Grill capsicums and remove skin, slice thinly and set aside.
Place all ingredients in a bowl and toss together. Serve with vinegar reduction.

Pasta Frola con Dulce De Batata - Sweet Potato Tart

2009-07-19T18:13:00.008+10:00

Pasta Frola is a tart made traditionally with quince jam. It is very common in Uruguay and Argentina. In Uruguay we also have bastardised this tart and make it with other types of jams.

We have many so called jams in Uruguay, which are so different to what is regarded as a jam in Australia. We have milk jam, tomato jam, sweet potato jam, quince jam, pumpkin jam.

Milk jam is basically a thick rich caramel which we use for many of our desserts. It is a staple in our celebration cakes which normally consist of a sponge or butter cake filled with dulce de leche (milk jam) , Chantilly cream, and sometimes pieces of peach. Mostly these cakes are covered in a beautiful cooked soft meringue.

We eat dulce de leche on bread or on our lovely "tortas fritas" (which I will blog about another time). It is delicious on creme caramel and we also use it to fill these tarts. YUMMY. But I digress, today is not about Dulce de leche.

The texture and consistency of the quince, sweet potato and pumpkin jams is very similar. They are more like thick pastes which can be cut into slices, and eaten on bread or with cheese. They are all very different in flavour but all so delicious. All of these can be used as a filling for this tart. The traditional filling for a "Pasta Frola" as previously mentioned is the quince jam or "Dulce de Membrillo".

Yesterday my mum gave me a tin of "Dulce de Batata", or sweet potato jam. I love it!! I guess it must be an acquired taste, neither mum or dad are big fans of it, but they will eat it if they must.

Today we had lunch at mum and dad's. Mum made stuffed capsicums and a pasta sauce. I brought home made egg fettuccine and a Pasta Frola which I made with the sweet potato jam.

The recipe for the Pasta Frola that I used is an old family recipe that we have had for over 30 years, and possibly my mum has had since before I was born. It came from a little booklet which came with our "Royal" which is the brand of Uruguayan baking powder.
Anyway here is the recipe for the tart

Pasta Frola
125gms softened butter
100gms white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
240gms plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp grated lemon rind
1/4 tsp salt
Filling
300gms Quince Jam (please note that I did not use quince, i used sweet potato)
2 Tbs water(for softening the jam)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Cream butter and sugar.
Add egg & yolk one at a time beating well after each addition.
Mix in lemon rind
Add flour, baking powder and salt (sifted together) to the first mix, forming a soft dough. Do not over knead or the dough will become tough.
Roll out 2/3 of the dough and place it in a 23cm tart pan.
Spread the filling over the dough and use the remaining pastry to decorate the top of the tart by cutting out strips of dough and placing it in a lattice pattern on top.
Bake at 180 for 30 minutes.

I sometimes make the recipe with margarine instead of butter, I did so today. For the filling as I specified before I used the sweet potato, I just used a whole tin like the ones pictured above, and placed the contents into the food processor. This made it really easy to get a really smooth filling.

This dough is also lovely to make cookies with, and it's also the same recipe I used for these Lime Meringue Tarts which are gluten free

It is very easy to convert this recipe to gluten free, you just swap the flour and baking powder for Orgran Gluten Free Self Raising Flour.
The recipe for the lime curd is here http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Lime-Curd-L2437.html

Fettucini and Pancakes

2009-07-17T20:59:00.010+10:00

Boone and I had dinner at an Italian restaurant last week. The main that he had was spaghetti with pesto and potato. It was delicious. He wanted me to try to make it for him.

I wanted to make fettucini instead of spaghetti and wanted to use a vegetable in the dough in order to give the fettucini some extra color to contrast with the green of the pesto.

I decided to use some carrots, but it didn't work so well for adding color, better luck next time. Anyway I put two carrots in the juicer, and used the pulp that is normally discarded to add to the dough.

Carrot & Cracked Pepper Fettucini
460gms plain flour
3 large eggs
80gms carrot pulp
Cracked pepper
Pinch of Salt

Place all ingredients into the food processor, and process until the mix resembles fine crumbs. If it has all come together into a dough, then your carrots had too much moisture and you need to add a bit more flour.

Knead mix until nice and smooth on a lightly floured surface. I like to just knead it enough till it comes together and then run it through the pasta machine a few times until the dough is at the right consistency. It really saves my arms from the kneading :)

Roll them out with your pasta machine and cut them with the fettucini cutter.

Cook in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes.

Pesto & Potato Fettucini
3 medium potatoes cut into cubes
2 bunches of basil
olive oil
60gms of butter
50gms toasted pinenuts
Crushed garlic
freshly grated parmesan
Cooked fettucini

Boil potatoes in salted water and set aside
Place basil, pinenuts, butter and salt in the food processor and process to a chunky consistency.
Heat some oil in a frypan and cook 2 cloves of crushed garlic for a few seconds, add enough pasta for one person, one heaped tablespoon of pesto mix and 100gms of grated parmesan. Toss together until the butter in the pesto is melted. Serve immediately.

Coconut Cream Strawberry net Pancakes with Chantilly Cream

Nets
1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup of coconut cream
2 tsp castor sugar
1 large egg
1/2 a cup of water
Mix all ingredients in a blender. Place mix in a sauce bottle.
Heat a non stick fry pan and using the bottle pour batter onto the pan in a net pattern. Once cooked on one side, turn net over and cook lightly on other side

Sauce
1/2 a punnet of strawberries
4 tbs caster sugar
1/4 cup of coconut cream
Blend all ingredients in a food processor. Cook for 10 minutes in a heavy based saucepan.

Chantilly Cream
300mls of thickened cream
2tbs caster sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
Beat all ingredients together until the cream is very light and thick in texture.

Assemble by placing a net on the plate, then place three tablespoons of chantilly cream in a line in the middle of the pancake. Place three sliced strawberries on top of the cream and close the net over them.
Serve with strawberry sauce.

Scones, yummy, moist delicious scones....

2009-07-15T21:59:00.006+10:00

I have spent the great majority of my life not being able to make scones. I can make all sorts of cupcakes and cakes, but scones?? Nope. They mock me, they hate me, they turn out like rocks.

Last Saturday my nephew was over and asked me if I had made the scones from Master Chef. Of course I hadn't, I suck at making scones. But Paul wanted to eat scones, so I decided to try again, for the gazillionth time. I took a look at the Master Chef recipe and it just didn't call out to me to make it. I decided to turn to Google to find a recipe.

I found this recipe. It looked so easy, there were great reviews about it. So it had to work right??

Problem was that I had no lemonade and no self raising flour. But decided to try it anyway. So I used these ingredients instead.

Easy Peasy Scones
3 cups of plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
3 tbs sugar dissolved in the juice of half a lemon
Enough mineral water added to the above mix to make one cup
1 cup of thickened cream

Sift flour and baking powder and place in a bowl. Make a well in the center.
Pour mineral water mixed with lemon mix and thickened cream into the flour, and mix with a flat knife until it all comes together. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead just enough till it comes together. Roll out to about 3cm thickness (1 inch) and cut with a floured cutter.
Bake for 10-12 minutes in a hot oven (200 degrees)

We ate a couple of these each hot out of the oven. They were delicious!!!

I decided to try them a few days later as savory scones. YUM!!

Cheese & Chive Scones
100gms of grated Parmesan
3 tbs dry chives
3 cups of self raising flour
1 cup of mineral water (not flat)
1 cup of thickened cream
Pinch of salt
Mix flour, salt, chives and cheese together, make a well in the center. Same as previous recipe.

Chocolate Chip Scones
3 cups self raising flour
100gms of chocolate chopped coarsely
60gms of unsweetened cocoa
60gms of caster sugar
3 tbs Frangelico
1 cup cream
1 cup lemonade
Mix all dry ingredients together, then process as previous recipes.

These are not too sweet and have a beautiful texture!!!! YUMMY YUMMY!!!

This recipe can be modified easily to make all different flavors. WOOHOOOO I CAN MAKE SCONES!!!!! The curse has been lifted. YAY!!!!

Polenta with Mushroom and Blue Cheese Sauce

2009-07-11T18:21:00.002+10:00

Boone and I went to dinner at Il Tempo last night. What a delightful little restaurant. In one meal (where we ordered 6 dishes, they were small ok!!) this restaurant quickly became one of our favourites.
I digress. One of the dishes we had was this one. Well not exactly this one, but one similar to it. I decided to try it at home. The polenta at the restaurant was cut as a big triangle, i decided to make rounds that i fried in olive oil. hmmmmmm

Ingredients
2/3 cup of polenta
garlic
2 tbs chopped parsley
100gms button mushrooms (cut into 4's)
45gms blue cheese (I used Castello YUM)
1/2 cup of thickened cream
salt & pepper to taste

Cook polenta as per instructions on packet. Towards the end of cooking add two cloves of garlic which have just been cut in half. Stir through the polenta which at this stage should be getting quite firm. Pour the polenta into a baking paper lined tray, and spread it to a 6ml thickness (about 1/4 of an inch), put it in the fridge to set.
Prepare your salad. (instructions below)
When the polenta is fully set, remove from the pan and using a cookie cutter, cut the polenta into rounds (6 rounds). Heat it up by frying it on both sides in some olive oil.
Sautee mushrooms in olive oil, when they are almost done, lower the heat, and add the cheese, cream and two cloves of garlic cut in half. Stir through until the cheese is melted. Remove the pieces of garlic. Add parsley.
Place three polenta rounds on each plate and pour half of the sauce over it. Serve with salad.

Side Salad
Ingredients
1/2 small red capsicum (cut into small squares)
1/2 small yellow capsicum (cut into small squares)
1/2 carrot (cut into small squares)
1 tabs lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbs olive oil

Mix all ingredients and serve with polenta

Vegetarian Dumplings

2009-07-05T12:42:00.021+10:00

I am a big fan of the chinese style vegetarian dumpling. I have Carolyn to thank for this obsession, as I had never tried them prior to her introducing me to them many years ago.

I have since tried them in a few different restaurants, and I've found that quite a few of them refuse to fry the vegetarian ones. In my opinion they're not as nice if they're not fried. You don't get the crispiness that makes them oh so good!!

So my favourites are from Shanghai Village in China Town. They cost something like $5.50 for 15 of them. They are fabbo!!! And yes, they're fried!!!

Anyway a while back I decided to try making these delightful little morsels. My main problem is that I don't know much about Chinese Cuisine (apart from eating it!!).

And of course I'm too lazy or too silly to google these things to find the right way to do them. DOH!!!

So i went out and stupidly bought won ton skins. Made the dumplings, and they were so tough!!! They took ages to cook and they still had a very rubbery horrible texture. Of course my hubby ate them anyway.

Yesterday I tried again with Gow Gee Pastry, and they were fab. I decided to make them again today with a few modifications. Apart from the shape not being a true dumpling shape, they are so gooooood!!!!

Ingredients
140gms Chinese Broccoli
140gms Firm Tofu (I used Silken by mistake, best to use just regular firm tofu)
100gms Water Chestnuts
50gms fresh Shitake Mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
5 Spring onions
1 large egg
1 tablespoon of flour
1.5 packs of Gee Gow Pastry
Salt to taste

Method

Cut off the leaves from the chinese brocolli, shred the leaves and chop the stalks coarsely. Place chopped stalks in the food processor, with the tofu, egg, crushed garlic and flour. Process till all thoroughly mixed.
Chop spring onions, mushrooms and water chestnuts, add to mixture above, and pulse a couple of times to combine. You don't want to lose the texture of the veggies, so don't be tempted to process them too much. Add salt to taste.
Fill each pastry round with about 1 tsp of filling. Moisten the edges with water and seal firmly. Set aside until you have all of them filled.
Prepare a pan with boiling water, and steam your dumplings in batches of 5 or so. Drain them and fry them right away in a small amount of oil. You only fry one side.
Serve hot with dumpling dipping sauce. I bought Lee Kum Kee Seasoned Soy Sauce for Dumpling, it is delicious. Once this runs out, I am going to attempt to make my own.

Makes about 40 dumplings

Coquitos - Coconut Macaroons

2008-12-19T16:10:00.004+11:00

I've been baking and cooking a lot lately. Also taking lots of photos. Both are very addictive. :)
Today couldn't be any different :)

Yesterday whilst looking at pictures on Flickr, I ran across some really pretty cookies made by Karen. They were Scottish shortbread and had been piped, and had a glace cherry on top.
They reminded me of the coquitos (coconut macaroons) I used to have in Uruguay when I was a child. Last night I was on a mission to find a recipe, but I wanted a Uruguayan one. And I found this one. It's in Spanish, but basically the ingredients are

6 egg yolks
150 g dessicated coconut
150 g sugar
50 g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

You basically mix all the ingredients and form the mix into balls which you roll on the icing sugar.
I don't like to use just yolks when i have no plans for the whites, so I set upon doing my own thing following the list of ingredients. So this is what I used

COCONUT MACAROONS
Ingredients
4 large eggs
250 g dessicated coconut
200 g white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs water (optional)
Method
Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. If your paste is too thick to pipe with a large piping tip, then add the water, and keep adding one tablespoon of water at a time until you get a consistency you can pipe. If your eggs are extra large, you may not need the extra water.
Bake in a medium to hot oven for 30 minutes or until done.
YUM YUM, i love these...
I don't remember ever having made them before, but they are so easy, i will surely make them again ;)

Palmiers with Passionfruit Curd - Dessert Day 8

2008-12-16T08:44:00.013+11:00

Part of today's dessert comes to you courtesy of the very talented Thérèse-Marie (Feasting on Pixels)

I made her palmiers recipe using frozen puff pastry. As I've mentioned before I use Borg's which is vegan.
I also only had vanilla sugar, so that is what I used.

The passion fruit curd recipe came from the Taste website. I modified this recipe slightly as follows.

Once your palmiers are cooked, serve with a dollop of passion fruit curd, I'm sure Boone will be adding some vanilla ice cream to it as soon as I turn around ;).

Passion fruit Curd

Ingredients

10 large eggs
360gms of white sugar
350gms of Les Verges Boiron passion fruit puree
250gms of chopped chilled butter

Method
Mix eggs and sugar until well combined, in a microwave safe glass bowl. Add butter and puree and stir.
Cook in microwave for 10-15 minutes. You must cook this mix only 1 minute at a time. You need to take it out of the microwave and stir it after each minute.
It is ready when the mix is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Thanks to Kathryn I have found out that this can be kept for up to 4 weeks in sealed jars in the fridge.

This mixture will fill up to 6 250ml jars.

Make sure your jars are sterilised. You can do this by washing them in hot soapy water, rinsing and then drying in a very hot oven.

Please don't burn yourself ;)

Day 7 Dessert - Nectarine Hearts (a very easy dessert)

2008-12-15T19:20:00.002+11:00

This was dessert for day 7

Nectarine Hearts (a very easy dessert)

Ingredients
1 sheet pre made puff pastry (I use Borg's which is vegan)
1 small nectarine sliced thinly
Icing sugar to dust
Vanilla ice cream

Method

Cut 6 large hearts out of your puff pastry using a cookie cutter.
Place three of them on a lined cookie sheet
Cover each heart with thin slices of nectarine making sure you leave a border of nectarine free pastry in order to join the top
Cut a small heart out of the center of the remaining large hearts and stick on top of the hearts on the cookie sheet
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown
Dust with icing sugar and serve with vanilla ice-cream.

Dinner Day 7 - Vegetable & Chickpea Risotto

2008-12-15T16:37:00.009+11:00

Tonight's dinner was another easy one. Risotto with chinese broccoli and almonds, followed by nectarine hearts with vanilla ice cream. Everything was a big hit with hubby who ate every last bite.

Recipe for nectarines hearts HERE

Vegetable and Chickpea Risotto

Ingredients

1/2 cup raw white rice
1 Tbs olive oil
200 g cooked chickpeas
100 g potato chopped
1/2 can tomato puree
1/2 medium zucchini chopped (200gms)
1 small fresh carrot chopped
1 small onion chopped
1 small red capsicum chopped

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin powder
6 button mushrooms cut in 6

1 tsp Zest Mama Africa Flavour

1 tsp tumeric

2.5 cups of water
1 vegetable stock cube

Method

Heat olive oil in a large pan
Sautee onion and capsicum until tender
Add vegetables and spices, and stir till it's all mixed well
Add rice and mix in till the rice is all coated in spices
Add water, stock cube and tomato puree
Simmer for 45 minutes or until vegetables and rice are done
Serve with stirfried chinese brocolli

NOTE: The potato will take a while to cook, so to ensure your rice doesn't end up overcooking, cut up the potato in small pieces (no larger than 1cm cubes)

Sunday Dinner - Day 6

2008-12-14T19:37:00.015+11:00

I took a break from cooking over the weekend. Boone likes to have vegan pies (which we buy from a vegan bakery) and cereal for breakfast on weekends. On Saturday we went out to dinner so there was no need to cook either.

Today I went back to the kitchen with a vengeance.

On Friday night whilst poring over the menus of several restaurants, (trying to find one to dine out on Saturday night) I read the description of a salad that had my taste buds calling out. It was a rocket, white peach salad with a balsamic reduction. We didn't end up going to that restaurant for dinner, we went to Kobe Jones, and the food was spectacular.

Still couldn't forget about the salad. I wasn't able to buy rocket or white peaches, ;) So I improvised with other ingredients.

Here is tonight's dinner feast :)

Stuffed Zucchinis
Ingredients
5 medium sized zucchinis cut in half (About 560gms)
1/2 a large onion chopped finely
1 Tbs olive oil
120gms grated pumpkin
1 small (90gms) red capsicum chopped finely
150gms cooked chickpeas
1 medium (80gms) grated carrot
Freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup soy milk (you can use regular milk or cream if you like)
salt
cracked pepper

Method

Using a melon baller or a spoon scoop put the flesh from the zucchinis. Put flesh aside, as it will be used for the soup.
Lay them on a tray lined with baking paper, and season with cracked salt & pepper
Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Heat oil in a non stick pan and sautee onions and capsicum
Add carrots and pumpkin and cook for a few minutes.
Add chickpeas and mash them roughly into the other ingredients
Add soy and cook until the mixture is thick
Add grated nutmeg and salt to taste
Spoon filling into zucchinis and bake for 20-30 minutes until zucchinis are tender
Serve with rice and salad

Zucchini, Onion & Corn Soup

Ingredients
270gms zucchini flesh (use the flesh leftover from the above recipe)
1/2 large onion chopped finely
1 Tbs (20mls) olive oil
1.5 cups of water
120gms fresh corn kernels
1 Massel Beef stock cube (these stock cubes are vegan)

Method

Heat oil in a pot, and sautee onion
Add zucchini, and 2/3s of the corn kernels
Add stock cube and water and simmer for 15 minutes until zucchini is tender.
Process in a blender, and place back into the pot.
Add the remaining corn kernels, and cook for a further 5 minutes
Add freshly grated nutmeg, salt & pepper to taste

Spinach & Nectarine Salad

Ingredients
80gms of baby spinach leaves
1 small nectarine (washed and sliced)
1/4 of a small onion, sliced very finely
40gms flaked almonds
4 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs olive oil
Method

Place balsamic vinegar in a non stick pan and heat until it is reduced to a thick sauce, about 1/2 of it's original volume.
Place spinach in a bowl, followed by nectarine, onion and almonds
Dress with cracked salt, balsamic reduction and olive oil

This was the salad inspired by the peach and rocket salad at Markov.
I will have to try the one at that restaurant one day, but the version I've come up with is delicious!!! I will be making this one for the family at Christmas :)

Uruguayan Fruit Salad

2008-12-13T21:06:00.000+11:00

This is a dessert that is very popular and traditional at Christmas time in Uruguay. I made the one below for New Year's Eve 2007. We normally have it all throughout the summer as it is very refreshing and also makes a few fruits go a long way.

Uruguayan Fruit Salad
1 red apple
1 large orange
1 nectarine
2 plums
1 x 400gm can of peaches (in natural juice)
1 x 150gm can of pineapple pieces (in natural juice)
1 large banana
200 gms of cherries
2 passion fruits
200 gms of any type of seedless grape
1 punnet of strawberries.
1 1.25 lt bottle of Fanta

Place canned fruit in a large bowl along with it's juice, make sure you cut the peaches into small pieces.
Wash remaining fruit thoroughly.
Place cherries and grapes (minus stalks and any leaves) in the bowl.
Cut up remaining fruit into small pieces and place in the bowl.
Cover with Fanta.
Chill and serve for dessert, lovely summer dessert, especially during the holidays when we need a stomach cool down after a heavy meal :)

NOTE: Any of the fruits above can be omitted.

Roasted Vegetable Salad - Day 5 Lunch

2008-12-12T13:40:00.005+11:00

This is a very straight forward lunch. There is a tip though, a great tip that will save you heaps of time cleaning up. Im sure lots of people know about this already, but i had forgotten about it until the other day.

The tip is to line your baking tray with non stick baking paper before putting on the veggies, this prevents sticking, your veggies come out a lot nicer, and you dont have to kill yourself scrubbing the tray afterwards.

Roast Veggie Salad with Walnuts
a piece of pumpkin
1 medium sized Beetroot
2 small washed potatoes
1 medium onion
1 carrot
6 walnuts

Peel, wash and cut all the vegetables and place on a roasting tray that you've previously lined with non stick baking paper.

Sprinkle with a little salt. Drizzle with olive oil and bake in a hot oven for 1-2 hours, the baking time will depend on how big you've cut your beetroot, this is the veggie that takes the longest.

Halfway through baking add the chopped walnuts and continue baking.

Serve with baby spinach leaves or as is. It looks pretty dull as is, but tastes yummy all the same. I had no greens to go with it. Next time i will certainly put the spinach leaves.

Turns out that after i took the photo Boone added rocket and parsley. He said it was delicious.

Lentil & Veg Patties with brown rice - Dinner day 4

2008-12-11T21:54:00.006+11:00

Lentil & Veg Patties

Ingredients
150gms cooked brown lentils
1 medium onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
150gms chopped & boiled sweet potato
1 large egg
2 Tbs plain flour
1/2 tsp Zest Mama Flavour
Olive oil for sauteing the onions

Method
Heat some olive oil in a pan, and sautee onions and carrots.
Place egg in a bowl, then mix in all other ingredients to form a thick paste.
Heat some extra olive oil in a non stick pan. I used egg rings to form the patties. Put egg rings in the fry pan and place mix into the rings to form a pattie. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side.

Asparagus & Carrot Side Dish
Ingredients
120 gms of asparagus cut in half
1 medium carrot cut into sticks
3 walnuts chopped coarsely
olive oil
1/4 tsp of Zest Fearlessly Hot spice

Method
Heat olive oil in a non stick pan, and sautee the vegetables & walnuts. Add spice and one tablespoon of tamari at the end. Serve with patties and brown rice

Paprika Mayo Serving Sauce
1 tablespoon of Hellmans mayo
1 tablespoon of Ajvar paprika relish
Mix together and serve as an accompaniment to the patties

Roll with Roasted & Fresh Vegetables - Lunch Day 4

2008-12-11T20:07:00.005+11:00

1 large baguette

Hellmans Mayonnaise
Copperpot Salsa with Capsicum & Cashews
Sesame Seeds
Marinated Roasted Capsicum

Roasted Veggies
Pumpkin sliced
2 thick slices of eggplant
1 carrot cut into sticks

Fresh Veggies
1 small firm tomato
1 small avocado
a handful of washed rocket

Roast pumpkin, eggplant and carrot after drizzling with a small amount of olive oil. Use baking paper on your tray to prevent sticking. Set aside and allow to cool completely.

Cut baguette in half lengthways and spread a generous amount of mayonnaise on one side and salsa on the other.

Layer all roasted vegetables on the mayonnaise side, then top with avocado. Layer rocket and tomato on the side of the bread you spread with salsa. Finishing with sesame seeds.

Join the two sides together and cut in half.

Serve to a very hungry person :)

Pancakes with Honey & Bananas - Breakfast day 4

2008-12-11T12:49:00.005+11:00

So today Boone got a completely different breakfast to the previous days. He didn't end up finishing it, because he couldn't resist having part of his lunch too ;)

This recipe makes 4 largish pancakes

Oat Bran pancakes

Ingredients

1/2 cup Oat Bran

1/2 cup Self raising flour

1/2 cup soy milk

1 large egg

2 tbs sugar

2 tbs water

1 banana

honey

icing sugar for dusting

Method

Mix all ingredients to make a thick batter. Cook in a frypan which has been coated with margarine or butter on medium heat.

Place on a plate and put sliced banana on top, and drizzle with honey. I heated the honey in the microwave to make it more pourable.

Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Dinner on day 3 - Marinated Tofu with vegetables & Eggplant Chips

2008-12-10T20:00:00.003+11:00

aThe idea for this recipe came from a low calorie cookbook that I've had for a long time and never used. It never occurred to me before to marinate tofu.

Marinated Tofu & Vegetable Stir Fry
Ingredients
180gms firm tofu
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs Tamari
1/2 Tbs of honey
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
100gms broccolini cut in 4s
90gms snowpeas
1 large onion cut into wedges
8 baby corn cut in half lengthways

Method
Mix the tamari, Worcestershire sauce and honey in a bowl. Place in the sliced tofu and cover with glad wrap. Refrigerate for two hours.
Drain the tofu and reserve the marinade.
Heat some olive oil in a wok or large fry pan and cook the tofu.
Remove tofu from pan. Stir fry the vegetables until they are done (i like mine to still be crunchy).
Add tofu and marinade and cook for a minute. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Serve with steamed rice.

Eggplant Chips
Ingredients
1 medium sized eggplant
salt
bread crumbs
1 lightly beaten egg
Method
Cut eggplant into chips, and salt lightly. Set aside for a few hours.
Rinse eggplant and dry well.
Dip eggplant chips in egg and then in breadcrumbs.
Deep fry and drain on kitchen paper.

Easy Apple Dessert

1 medium sized Red Delicious apple (peeled and chopped)

2 Tbs sugar

3 Tbs water

1/2 cup of ready made custard
2 sheets of pre made puff pastry (I use Borg's, the one i get is vegan)

Place apple, sugar and water in a small pan, and cook on slow heat until apple is soft.

Add custard to the mix, and cook until the custard has reduced and the mixture is thick, set aside to cool.

Cut pastry with a round cutter, and place a large tablespoon of the mix in the middle, cut another piece of the same size (decorate if you like) and place on top of the apple mix, and seal the sides.

Bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Take two on the sushi for breakfast - Day 3

2008-12-10T10:00:00.001+11:00

Yesterday's sushi were not very close to the ones that we've had at Tomodachi because of lack of ingredients. So today armed with most of the right ingredients I gave it another shot. Still used sweet potato instead of pumpkin and added the carrot, but once hubby sat down to eat them he said "We don't need to go to Tomodachi anymore"

So yeah, they were a huge hit, and OMG so delicious!!!

Sweet Potato & Avocado Sushi
Ingredients
Pre cooked Sushi Rice mixed in with
Sushi Rice Seasoning (I bought this instead of the Mirin because that is all that was available, but the Mirin is so much better)
Avocado
Kewpie Mayonnaise
Sesame Seeds (toasted)
Sweet Potato (see yesterday's recipe for preparation details)

Method
Cover your bamboo rolling mat with glad wrap (saran). Place seaweed sheet on the wrap and cover with rice, making sure you put rice right up to the edges. Press it down firmly.

Turn seaweed sheet upside down, so that your rice is now facing the bamboo mat (still covered in glad wrap)

Put some mayonnaise on the seaweed, and then place all your fillings. (i put double the amount of filling in them this time)

Roll up tightly, and then roll over some of the sesame seeds which have been pre toasted.

Cut with a sharp knife and serve with wasabi and Kikkoman soy sauce.

It's breakfast today - A different kind of sushi

2008-12-09T18:17:00.000+11:00

Last night before going to bed, i did a lot of prep work for Boone's breakfast. I cooked some rice, and sweet potato, and left all the tools I needed out so I wouldn't have to go rummaging in the morning.

The last three times that we have gone out to dinner it has been to a Japanese restaurant named Tomodachi . We love it. It is so good!!! We ALWAYS order pumpkin sushi, which consists of pumpkin tempura wrapped in rice and seaweed with a bit of avocado. It is then rolled on sesame seeds and served with mayonnaise and ginger.

I thought i would make this for Boone's breakfast but lo and behold i had no pumpkin or sesame seeds. So i rummaged through our fridge and found sweet potato. Hm that would do, wouldn't it??

So at the crack of dawn i was up frying sweet potato and assembling some sushi. These were made with the seaweed on the outside, whereas the ones at Tomodachi are done with the rice on the outside (I will try those next time :) )

They went down a treat, he loved them!!!

Sweet Potato & Avocado Sushi
Ingredients
1 cup of sushi rice raw (cooked with 1.5 cups of water or as per packet instructions)
3 tablespoons of Mirin
1 tablespoon of Cooking Sake
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 a small avocado
1/2 a carrot sliced very thinly (I use a special tool for this that gets them as thin as if they were shredded but in long strips)
50gms of sweet potato cut into sticks (Like thick chips, and cooked in the microwave for about 3 minutes on high)
3 tablespoons of flour
1 tablespoon of cornflour
2 seaweed sheets

Whilst the rice is cooking, mix the mirin, sake and sugar in a pot, and heat the mixture until the sugar melts. Set aside.

Once the rice is done, pour the mirin mix over the rice and mix it in. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Dust the cooked sweet potato with the flour and corn flour and deep fry until golden brown.

Press half of the rice mix over one of the seaweed sheets, and press down firmly. Add one piece of the sweet potato, then some avocado and some carrots. Roll up tightly and set aside. Repeat with the rest of the rice. Cut into small bit sized pieces and serve with wasabe and soy sauce.

YUM!!!

Im not fattening up a turkey for Christmas :)

2008-12-08T20:05:00.000+11:00

About 3 months ago, my husband finally stopped eating meat. He wasn't a big meat eater for a very long time, and only really had chicken and fish once in a long while. Since he gave up meat he has lost quite a bit of weight. His father saw him on Skipe the other day and asked him if he was sick because he was so thin.
We tend to eat at different times because we get home from work at different times. When he cooks he tends to be quite lazy and makes whatever is simplest, and usually makes something very boring and low on calories. Add to the fact that he usually only eats an orange or banana for breakfast, and a salad for lunch, it's no wonder he's lost weight.
Here I am struggling to lose weight, and he loses it with no effort.

Anyway I am on a mission to feed him better, and since work has been a lot quieter these days I started my cooking adventures today. This is what he got for dinner on day 1. Let's see if it works and when he gets to Thailand on Christmas day his dad no longer thinks he looks sick :)
Fingers crossed everyone!!!

Mushroom & Lentil Cottage Pie
Ingredients
350gms brown lentils (pre cooked)
1 large onion chopped
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 medium carrot chopped or grated
1/4 cup of tomato paste
Kernels from two fresh corn cobs
2 tablespoons of Zest African Mama spice
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
5 medium sized button mushrooms thinly sliced
100gms of Enoki mushrooms (separated)
1 Massel Beef Stock Cube (these are not real beef, but vegetarian beef cubes)
4 medium sized potatoes (peeled and boiled)
3 tablespoons of Nuttelex (dairy free margarine)

Method
Heat olive oil in a pan and sautee onions until they become transparent.
Add carrots, and spices and fry off a little
Add mushrooms, and lower heat.
Add corn kernels, tomato paste, lentils, stock cube and half a cup of water.
Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring to avoid the mixture sticking to the pan.
Set aside

Mash potatoes with Nuttelex and set aside.

Pour mushroom/lentil mix onto individual oven dishes, and top with mashed potato.
Bake for 20 minutes until mash becomes slightly browned. (My dishes were big enough to only get two servings out of this recipe)

Serve with brown rice and steamed or sauteed vegetables.

Yummy Asparagus

Sautee asparagus spears in some olive oil and add 2 tablespoons of Tamari and 2 tablespoons of Mirin towards the end. Serve with rice.

Father's Day - Making some of dad's favourites

2008-09-07T10:47:00.000+10:00

My dad has a couple of things that he loves eating (apart from sweets :) )
One of those is stuffed tomatoes. For some unknown reason, we only make them at Christmas. I decided to break from tradition and make them for Father's day, cause dad just loves them.
They are very easy to make

Ingredients
8-10 medium sized ripe but firm tomatoes
400gms of cooked rice
200gms of mayonnaise (approximately)
1 425gm can of tuna in olive oil (drained)
2 small onions chopped
Olive oil
5 stuffed olives cut in half.

1. Sautee onions in olive oil until they become transparent. Do not allow them to color. Remove from heat.

2. Cut out a circle at the top of the tomato, and using a spoon remove all the seeds and pulp. Rinse them and put them upside down on a piece of kitchen paper to drain.

3. In a large bowl mix in the rice, onion, tuna, mayo.

4. Using a small spoon fill the the tomatoes with the rice filling.

5. Cover the top with a little more mayonnaise and decorate with half an olive.

I don't actually eat these, as I'm vegetarian. For a vegetarian option, sautee one red capsicum (chopped) together with the onions, and then add one greated carrot, and cook until tender. Allow to cool and then add it to the rice and mayo mix.

Another of dad's favourites is canneloni. They are a variation of the italian ones. I am not sure if anyone else in the world makes them this way, in fact they're not really canneloni, but that is what we call them. They are thin crepes filled with spinach, ricotta, fresh corn kernels, sauteed onions and white sauce.

I made about 40 of these, some of them got frozen at mum's and some at home, because hubby also loves them. The filling I am going to detail below makes approximately 30-40 of them, depending on how much you fill each one.

Ingredients for Filling
1kg of fresh ricotta (i bought it still warm from the cheese factory)
400gms of baby spinach leaves (washed and drained)
2 medium onions chopped finely
Kernels removed from 4 medium sized fresh corn cobs.
2 cups of white sauce (made with flour butter and milk)
Ground nutmeg
Olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large saucepan, and sautee onions until lightly coloured.

Add baby spinach leaves and stir until they have just wilted.

Mix in ricotta, corn kernels, and white sauce, until all well combined.

Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Use aroun 2-3 large heaped tablespoons to fill each crepe, and roll up, and place in a deep oven tray so they can be heated up in the oven.

I don't have an exact recipe for the crepes. But i made about 4 or so batches of the following to make enough crepes for all the filling above

Crepe Recipe (rough recipe, not exact)
In a blender place
1 large egg
400mls of full cream milk
2 tablespoons of finely greated parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of plain flour

Blend, and add more flour or milk to form a mixture with the consistency of thickened cream. Cook on a non stick pan. I like my crepes to be very thin, but having a very thin mix means getting lots of holes, so you need to get a perfect consistency :)

Heat up your filled crepes and serve with extra white sauce and pasta sauce. We heated ours up in the microwave, but you can also heat them up in the oven :)

Pasta Sauce
1 large onion finely chopped
1 large red capsicum finely chopped
2 400gm cans of chopped tomatoes (i only use 100% tomatoes, with no added sugar or other preservatives etc)
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Sautee onion and capsicum in olive oil until tender. You can now add your tomatoes and cook it for 40 or so minutes, but I put the tomatoes and the cooked capsicum and onion in the food processor to make the sauce a little less chunky. Once it was all blended together, i put it back in the pot and simmered it for about 30-40 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Spring time in Winter

2008-07-13T23:08:00.000+10:00

After much arm twisting and strong suggestions, I finally agreed to (thank goodness!!!) tag along with my bestest buddy in the world to yet another interstate cake course this year.

This was a 2.5 day advanced sugar flowers course at Planet Cake. The teacher non other than the wonderful and super talented Greg Cleary of Sweetums. The man is the GOD OF SUGARFLOWERS. Man he's good!!!!

We left Melbourne in the wee hours of the morning of Friday 10th of July. It was freezing cold here in Melbourne. It was dark when we arrived at the airport, but by the time our flight took off the sun was shining. We arrived in Sydney at around 9.00am (I think that was the time). The sun welcomed us, and it was lovely and warm. I sat in the taxi, with the full sun on me, fealing like a happy fat seal lying on the beach.

Fran brought her own fruit cakes to the class, covered in marzipan. Fran's cake is destined as a present for her friend, whose birthday is at the end of August. The things weighed a ton, but I couldn’t help her out, because I was struggling with my bag which weighed a little under a ton. Lucky for Fran her wonderful hubby, who works in Sydney during the week, took her clothes up with him and left them at the concierge for her to pick up when we checked in. Because of this she was able to fly with no luggage.

First day at PC, we filled and covered our cakes with ganache. The cake looked nice, it was a three colour marble mudcake.

After ganaching we made the centers for our tulips, all the parts for the lily of the valley, the sweet peas, and some buds. We also covered our boards with fondant and added the ribbon trim.

Class finished at around 4.00pm, but Fran and I stayed back gas bagging with Greg, Anna Maria (AKA Madhatter Queen) and Paris (owner of PC), until about 5.00pm.

We arranged to meet Greg afterwards for dinner. We went back to our hotel, and bummed around for a bit. Greg came to meet us at our hotel in the city at around 7.30, and we just walked down the street to an Italian restaurant (La Bora) that David (Fran's hubby) had recommended. We had a very delicious dinner, and great conversation, although Fran had lost 85% of her voice, and the place was packed to the rafters, and very bloody noisy!!! It was a wonderful night, and Greg had us mesmerized with his wonderful stories. The staff at the restaurant though, were very bizzarre and made the characters from the Rocky Horror Picture Show seem tame and normal ;)

We got to sleep at around 11.30pm, woke up at 8.00am so that we could go and have brekkie at the hotel cafe before class. For some unknown reason, i was absolutely starving and had to have a full breakfast of eggs, toast and hash browns. Hmmmm Brekkie was yummy!!

We got to class and Greg had bought us a lovely treat. The night before he had been telling us about a place that he walked past every day on the way to Planet Cake, that had beautiful pastries. He bought us a delicious Lime and Almond tart, OMG, it was devine!!!

During our class we covered our cakes, and did all the petals for our flowers. We finished class at around 5.00pm on Saturday. It was a very busy day!!!

Back to the hotel again, to have a very quick shower and to get ready to go and see the Phantom of The Opera OMG can a girl have a better friend than Fran??? Nope I really really doubt it!!! She bought the tickets, so that I could go and see my very first musical. AND MAN!!! It was soooo wonderful, I was just in awe of it all. I loved it, loved it, LOVED IT!!!! Anthony Warlow is fabulous, and Alexander Lewis is gorgeous!!!

After the show, we went straight back to our hotel, we were very very tired, and tried to get to sleep ASAP because we had agreed with Greg that we would go into class at 8.00pm to get an early start on our cakes, we needed to be packed and checked out of the hotel by 7.00am.

Unfortunately, there was very loud music coming from a pub downstairs, and we couldn't get to sleep. We got into silly giggles, and I was having stupid laughing attacks over the silliest things. It was fun, but we didn’t fall asleep till waaaaay past midnight!!!!

It was very hard to get up at 6.00am, but we had no choice. Brekkie got us going a bit, and off to class again. We were lucky and managed to finish in time to head off to the airport at 1.15pm. We missed out on the group photo though.I was sooooo absolutely gobsmacked with my cake, I just could not stop staring at it. I just love it that much!!!

Greg is such a wonderful teacher. He wrote fantastic notes for us, and taught us so many great tricks. The fact that he was a florist and he has such a love for flowers really shows in his work, and his beautiful flower placement. Flower placement was something that I had no clue about before this class. I feel so privileged to know him.

Fran left her cake in Sydney to be shipped by courier, but because my cake was not destined for any particular event, I decided to just check it in as fragile luggage.

The flight was pleasant, but arriving into Melbourne, there was a lot of wind, and it was a bumpy sort of landing, quite scary really, but the pilotess got us home safe :)

Hubby, David(Fran's hubby) and D'arcy were all waiting for us at the airport. It was great to see them all.

My cake arrived in perfect condition. wooohooo!!!!
I would certainly do another class with Greg Cleary, at the drop of a hat!! No doubt about it.

Easter Cupcakes

2008-03-23T18:23:00.000+11:00

My work pays for all employees to do two days of volunteer leave.

They have organized heaps of activities that ppl can go on, and I've been attending one on a regular basis. It is only 4 hours, so on those days i only take half the leave, and then get to do 4 days per year.

Anyhoo i help out at One Umbrella which is a food rescue organization. They rescue food that is good, from restaurants, bakeries etc, that would otherwise be thrown out.

They produce about half a million meals a year all with donated goods. These meals go to different agencies that provide meals for the homeless and the needy. So this year since i had no orders around this time, I offered to make them 60 - 80 cupcakes for easter.

They were thrilled, unfortunately i got all these orders to do now, so i could only make 63, still managed to keep my promise, but i was really hoping to give them about 100. I will try again at Christmas.

Anyway 1/3 of the cupcakes are white choc coconut mud, and the others choc mud.

Instructions
Roll out a fairly thick piece of gumpaste or fondant mixed with CMC/Gum Trag/Gum Tex and cut with a long leaf cutter

Give it a bit of a bend on the end, and allow to dry overnight. Make as many as you're going to need for all your cupcakes.

Roll out the same coloured fondant, use a round cutter the same size as the top of the cupcake you're covering. Cover the cupcake and smooth over.

With a knife cut two slits a few milimeters away from the wrapper.

Insert the ears, they must be completely dry and fairly thick or they will break

Cut out two small ovals or rounds for the eyes and stick them on. Please note i didnt use any glue or water to stick any bits on, as the fondant was very soft and everything just stuck to eachother ;)

Cut out a small rectangle of white gumpaste, you can do this at the same time as you do the ears, so they can dry and it will save you time too ;)

Mark the teeth, and cut in half.

Roll out a thick piece of fondant, and cut out two small circles. Roll them into balls, and then stick them on the bottom of the face.

Roll two tiny balls of blue gumpaste or fondant and stick on the eyes.

Roll another small ball of dark pink for the nose, and flatten a little. Then two tiny balls of black for the pupils :D

Cut a slit at the front to insert the teeth, and mark where the whiskers would go with a toothpick

VOILA!!! DONE!!!!
Making the ears and teeth first will save you a lot of time.

Outdoors Madhatter

2007-10-26T18:33:00.000+10:00

My nephew JJ turned 2 on the 19th of October. Last year for his first birthday, we planned lovely big party at a park. I made some really cute invitations, I got some edible images printed for some cookies to give the guests, and planned planned an awesome cake fitting for a picnic. A big cupcake tree with bugs and snails and all cute little things suitable for a 1 year old.

One week before the party his paternal grandfather got really sick and we had to cancel the whole thing. :(
He was also sick with gastro, and couldnt even eat the tiny little two tier cake I ended up making him. Poor snookums!!!

This year after attending the course at Planet Cake, I decided that I would make JJ a Madhatter cake for his 2nd birthday regardless if there was a party or not, and regardless if anyone would eat it or not. At the time I booked in two anual leave days just before his birthday in order to get the masterpiece i had planned done.

I sketched and planned. I had seen some outdoors style cakes with lots of details, and I wanted to do something similar in a madhatter.

I baked the cakes a couple of weeks before and froze them. Two white chocolate coconut mudcakes. I wasnt able to take the Thursday off in the end because of work committments, but in the end it didnt matter. I spent all of Friday carving, filling, ganaching and covering the cakes in fondant. On Saturday i did the rest.

I made two sketches of it, but it didnt quite turn out the way I had envisioned. Im still happy with it, especially since the last part of it was done while i was feeling very ill. The last tree next to the pick up truck, doesnt have enough leaves, but I ran out of royal icing and felt too sick to make more, so there it is, half naked. JJ didn't mind, he didn't even realise.
My favourite part of this cake is the number two, it turned out a lot better than i was expecting. 2 days work for something that was completely destroyed in a few hours. It was yummy :)

Fat elephant & Submerged CROC

2007-09-15T11:57:00.000+10:00

The customer I made these cakes for was one of the best customers i've ever had. She rang me about 4 months ago, asking if i'd be able to make her a cake in the shape of an elephant eating cake for her 30th Birthday. Ok, sure no problem. She told me she had a sketch. I told her that she could come over to my place after work one evening, but she told me that it was difficult for her because she travelled by public transport (the public transport in my area sux)

So anyhoo she came to meet me at a coffee shop near my work with one of her elderly friends. She was turning 30, her friend was at least in her 70's. I thought it was sweet. So i tell her i will send her a quote by mail later (she doesnt have a PC)I send her the quote, it was quite high for this area, but lower than i would normally charge for a cake like that. She calls me and tells me that if i could possibly make another cake as well, that her nephew is turning 6 and she wants the croc cake on my website. I said no problem.So i took thursday and Friday off work in order to decorate the cakes, the cakes needed to be delivered in the afternoon (friday before 5.00pm)I didnt have any issues, and i was finished with both of the cakes (except for minor trimmings) on Thursday night.My dad came over today and said that the crocodile didnt really look like it was sitting in water, so i decide to go ahead and put the jelly i had made previously in lieu of piping jello. WTF was i thinking!!! By the time i got there the fondant underneath was melting and there was jelly all over the place. Of course this didnt happen with the previous croc i had made because i used piping jelly and it has a much lower water content. What a MORON!!!!The customer, her parents and all her friend's who were setting up the church hall for the party tonight were all oooohs and aaaaaaaahs and totally rapt with the cakes. I cleaned up Mr Croc and went on my way.Natalie (the girl) told me that Jack (her nephew) loves Steve Irwin, and that was why he got the croc cake. One of the cousin's said that when Jack saw the cake he would cry for sure. Natalie gave me a kiss and thanked me for everything. aaaaaaaaaah how nice The croc is a jaffa mudcake covered in ganache and fondant, the elephant is vanilla buttercake with coconut and caramel filling..hope they taste good. Now i can go to sleep in peace, so i can go to work at 2.00am Saturday

Bender

2007-08-16T14:30:00.000+10:00

I made this cake for an ex work colleague who turned 30 last week.

The cake was made with a 7 inch (4 inch high) dark chocolate mudcake, a 3 inch cake baked in a tomato tin and another cake baked in a round stainless steel dessert bowl.
The arms legs and hands are fondant.
Although the cake itself is not very big, because of the length the board is actually 30 inches by 13 inches.
The cake is torted and filled with dark choc ganache too. hmm yummy.
Although the head is not quite Benderish enough, im happy with the results.

Rowena's Birthday Cupcakes

2007-07-11T12:20:00.000+10:00

I made these cupcakes for Rowena's Birthday on the 1st of July. Here are the recipes for these cupcakes.

Almond Buttercake Cupcakes

100gms Margarine
200gms Castor sugar
2 large eggs
2/3 cup full cream milk (metric cup)
240gms self raising flour (sifted)
1/2 teaspoon Valencia or Almond essence.

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Beat margarine and sugar until creamy, add one egg, keep beating until well incorporated, add other egg and beat until incorporated.
3. Beat in essence.
4. Lower the speed in your electric mixer and alternate the flour and the milk until all incorporated. You will now have a thick batter.
5. Spoon into patty pans (makes about 20) and bake for approximately 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out completely clean.

Choc Hazelnut Buttercake Cupcakes
100gms Margarine
200gms Castor sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup full cream milk (metric cup) mixed with
1/3 cup of double cream (metric cup)
200gms self raising flour (sifted with)
40gms good quality cocoa
20mls Frangelico Liqueur
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Beat margarine and sugar until creamy, add one egg, keep beating until well incorporated, add other egg and beat until incorporated.
3. Beat in liqueur.
4. Lower the speed in your electric mixer and alternate the flour cocoa mix and the milk/cream mix until all incorporated. You will now have a thick batter.
5. Spoon into patty pans (makes about 20) and bake for approximately 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out completely clean.I covered these with ganache made with 600gms of Callebaut chocolate and 300gms of thickened cream. The musical notes are made from gumpaste.

A trip to Sydney, a course, and broken cakes.....

2007-06-19T15:15:00.000+10:00

After months of planning and anticipation we finally set off for Sydney for our Planet Cake course. We were going to step into the hallowed ground of one of the best commercial celebration cake suppliers in Australia.
Planet Cake is in Sydney, about 800kms(500miles) from our home in Melbourne. Three of us set off on our trip, Fran, Min and I.
The course was a two day Mad Hatter course. Planet Cake (in my opinion) makes the best Mad Hatters in the world. Yeah, big claim, I suppose it’s all up to personal taste. I was never very thrilled with the original Mad Hatters they had in their website. They were rounded but the ones they’ve been doing lately have been simply amazing, sharp edges that seem impossible to achieve in cake, let alone fondant. The secret is their newly acquired Mad Hatter queen.
Anyway, so Fran and I booked all our stuff together, our other friend initially had other plans of going visiting some other friends, so she booked her stuff on her own.
We left Saturday morning on an 9.00am flight, arrived in Sydney at around 10.30am. We were expecting to get a nice brekkie on the flight, well at least I was. All we got were these dry biscuits and a cuppa tea. YIKES!!!
We arrive at our hotel, and manage to get connecting rooms, the lovely concierge upgraded our room so that we would be able to get connecting rooms. We had a view of the Opera House from our window.
Our class was to start at 1.00pm, and it was still early, so we went to the exec club to have some nibbles (Membership to the executive club was part of the room fees).
My husband was saying before we left that the course was just an excuse to get away with the girls. To tell the truth it was a little for me, as I NEVER expected to learn soooo much on a single weekend.
After our snacks we got a taxi to Planet Cake. Their shop front is small, but very lovely and neat. The front room, which I guess is where they must see their customers, has a table with chairs all around it, and it has lots of display cakes. Every single one simply amazing.
At the back the place is huge, we get taken to the class room, which is where they make their cakes. WOW, there was a 10 tier cake there which was supposed to be a replica of Jessica Simpson’s wedding cake. My goodness, I have NEVER in my life seen a cake that big in person. It took them quite a bit of working out to get it out and into the delivery van. It was pouring down with rain at the time. The thing had piping all over it, and 300 gumpaste roses, along with all these other filler bits and pieces!!! WOW, sooo much work.
A while later we meet the owner, Paris Cutler, what an absolutely lovely lady, and then we met the master Anna-Maria Roche, an Austrian pastry chef, who is the lady responsible for the most fantastic Mad Hatters I've ever seen.
So she shows us the sample cake she made. I'm thinking NO WAY am I going to be able to pull that off in two days!!!
Our tables were all set up with equipment, aprons and cake. We got started straight away. We finished at around 5.00pm, we cut up the cake, crumb coated it and left it ready for decorating the next day.
I left in absolute awe of the Anna-Maria’s talent. We went back to our hotel, had showers, and got ready for our dinner at Forty-One.
We were starving, and our booking wasn’t until 8.30pm, so we went back to the exec club for Hours’Dourves. That was a very silly thing to do!!!
We arrived at Forty-One a few hours later, wow it was gorgeous!!! It was on the 42nd Floor of the Chiffley Tower. Just outside the lift on the 42nd floor, there is a gorgeous Japanese garden. The restaurant had a wonderfu atmosphere, the service was fantastic, and the view was out of this world.
While waiting for our meals I was still dreaming of my cake back at Plane Cake!!! Hahahaha, I was a woman obsessed!!
We chose to have a tasting menu which had 6 courses. We thought that a tasting menu would be that, tasting, small serves. OMG, by the time we had gotten to the second course we were completely stuffed!!!! By the time I got back to the hotel at around midnight, I thought I may explode!! The food was delicious, but definetly too much and too rich!!
I spent most of the night tossing and turning in a strange bed (which although was very comfortable) was still not my own.
First thing the next morning we were off to have buffet brekkie at the exec club, it was delicious, but I am still wondering how it was I could fit in breakfast after that huge dinner. Ok so i’m a PIG.
We packed our stuff, checked out, and went back to Planet Cake to finish off our cakes. Anna-Maria showed us how to apply the stripes and how to assemble the cake. We were going well, until it got to the part of making a bow. I always make bows with gumpaste, and although i'm no expert at it, I can do it usually after one go. I made my bow about 7 times, and could not get the darn thing to work. In the end Anna-Maria finished off my bow.
Fran, made her cake with colors selected by D'arcy, the cake was to go to her art teacher that was retiring from school this week.

After lots of photos, we left Planet Cake, all happy in having learnt so much, for me it was so much more than I ever expected. Also, left in awe of how absolutely lovely every single person that worked there was. How giving and willing to share information they all were.
Anna-Maria is now my new cake idol, STEP OVER Mr. Ben-Israel, hehehehehe.
The lovely folks at Planet Cake did their best to package our cakes, which were on 18 inch boards and weighed a ton, for air travel. The air travel would prove NOT to be the problem.
We arrive at the airport, all feeling exhausted, after too much food, lots of work, and very little sleep. There is a girl on the queue for check ins, that is an utter COW, she treated us like trash. We got to the counter, and the guy was lovely, he managed to get us on to a different flight, a bigger airplane, where we'd be able to have a free seat each to carry our cakes. If the flight was not over booked, those seats were ours, and if they were booked the plane still had plenty of on board storage to fit our cakes.
We proceed to security, we have to leave our trolleys behind, and put our cakes on the conveyor belt so that they can go through an x-ray machine. ARGH!!!!Red alert, red alert, I put my cake down, after Fran's, Min was behind me, as soon as I put my cake down, some old bag screams at me to move my trolley out of the way, so I have to leave my hand bag, backpack with all my possessions and cake going through the x-ray machine, and I have to go and put away the trolley. COW!!I walk through the door, and I beep, I am made to take off my shoes, and put them in the x-ray machine!!! I walk through again and all is fine. I get to the other side and find Fran beside herself, they have broken her cake, the top tier has completely fallen off. I was fuming. I turn around, and my box is still in one piece, but I look at the conveyor belt and Min's cake is coming through UPSIDE DOWN. The security people couldn't give a rat's what happened to our cakes, they didn't apologise, and looked at us like it was OUR FAULT, that they were absolute morons and killed two cakes. Min says to me, is my cake the right side up, I look inside the box and see the bottom of her board. I turn it over, and somehow the cake is still in one piece, banged up and smooshed but the tiers are still together. Fran's is not. Fran has an argument with the security guard, who goes ballistic, Fran walks away. I am just amazed that these people can be so careless, complete and utter SCUMBAGS. I explain to the security guard that was going crazy, that from the moment we stepped into the airport we were treated like trash. No one cared.
Franny's cake ended up in the bin, I tried my best, while she was talking to her husband, to repair it, I managed to put it back together, but like she later explained, repairing it at home would be very difficult, matching the colors in order to patch it up would be almost impossible. The cake was in the trash!!! ARGH!!!!
From that moment on, the whole trip home was a pit of darkness. My heart was palpitating because I was just so full of pent up rage, I just couldn't get over it.
We had such a fantastic, out of this world weekend, just for a couple of absolute, no-life morons to ruin our whole weekend in a few seconds.
My cake managed to get here in our piece, but it's no joy to have it, when both my friend's cakes, which they put so much work and love into, were completely destroyed.
After this rant, and maybe a few letters to Qantas and the Sydney airport, I am going to move on from this, and try to remember only the wonderful time we had learning from a true master, the special time we had in Sydney, before the untimely end of two very beautiful cakes.
In the group shot, Fran's cake is the second from the left, the blue, green, yellow and white one with the white polka dot bow. Mine is the brown one, Min’s is the black and white one on the left.
Luckily as well, the very clever Franny, took her super dooper camera and took pics of all our cakes before leaving Planet Cake. At least we all have wonderful pictures.