Sweet tooth fairy

I love a food blog as much as I love Wednesday nights on the couch with Farmer Wants a Wife on telly. Possibly even more.

On my usual Pinterest stalking adventures the other night, I came across a fabulous Pin by Miss Brown Button herself . . . an iced vovo cake.

I followed the links through and found myself at what only could be described as Heaven.

Raspberri Cupcakes is my new favourite blog. I have an unhealthy obsession with it. The strange bit is that I'm not much of a sweet tooth, yet the pics of these masterpieces have been drooling on my keyboard.

Stephanie's very clever recreations of chocolate bar and biscuit classics have me most impressed. Whether it's the Tim Tam cake or Rolo cake, she manages to reinvent a family favourite for the fussiest of cake lovers.

I think I'd like to put in an order for that trifle next year. The only one I know who'd be up to it is Anna.

Do you accept the challenge, Miss P?

xo

Pics from here

The best things in life are {dairy} free?

After a beautiful couple of days in Hobart (I promise to post pics soon!) I was looking forward to some downtime at home. That normally involves lots of time in my kitchen.

I couldn't wait to head over to my godson's place for morning tea with his fam on Saturday morning and promised to take some treats. 

I've admitted to the fact that I'm not much of a baker before. It's no secret, I love to eat sweets but I'm more partial to cooking savoury goodies. So I wanted to keep it simple . . . I was thinking scones with jam and cream or a tea cake or something . . . until his Mum said she's trying dairy free for a couple of weeks.

Eeeeeekkk!

Dietary requirements, I do not do!

I turned to trusty google to find something suitable and was freaked out by some weird ingredients and complex techniques many dairy free recipes called for. 

Then I found an oh-so-simple dairy free chocolate cake that seemed too good to be true.

They were deliciously moist (the sort that stick to the roof of your mouth and get stuck in your gums between your teeth) and really really easy to make. I went for the cupcake option, but I'm sure the full sized cake would be yum, especially if served for dessert with cream. Oh whoops, what was that I said about dairy free!?

Dairy free chocolate cake

Serves 12

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups plain flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

1 tspn salt

1 tspn vanilla essence

1 Tbspn white vinegar

1 tspn bicarb soda

1/3 cup olive or canola oil

1 cup water

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 12 hole muffin tray or round cake tin
2. In a mixing bowl, place the sugar, then sift in the flour and cocoa. Place the bicarb on top and add the vinegar, essence, salt, oil and water
3. Use a balloon whisk, stir all ingredients until well combined. Do not overmix
4. Pour mixture into cake tin or muffin tray. Bake the cake for 35-40 mins or the muffins for 20 mins

NB. It's quite a runny batter, so I recommend mixing in a jug or bowl with a lip so that you can pour it straight into the tray. I made up a simple icing of icing sugar, cocoa and water and then topped with store-bought flower decorations.

Recipe from here

How time flies . . .

. . . when you're having fun!

Last Friday we celebrated my Mum's birthday and then four days later, it's my turn in the spotlight.

Tuesday 3 May 2011 - nothing special, just another day on the calendar . . . but any excuse for cake!

It's a sad state of affairs though when your friends and family are busy doing other things and you're up til all hours of the night baking your own birthday cake for work tomorrow!

I have tried a new recipe - Little Lemon Meringue Cakes from a random promo cookbook I found in Mum's cupboard (I'm housesitting yet again so relishing in the opportunity to search through Mum's cookbooks. Not happy that she and Dad are away for my birthday though!).

Complete fluke but one of the best cupcake recipe bases I have ever used.

I do a mean meringue, if I do say so myself!

And having doubled the recipe, I had lots left over so made some mega sized ones for lunch tomorrow - will treat Jourdanne to dessert after our birthday lunch date.

So, now for the recipe . . .

Little Lemon Meringue Cakes

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

3/4 cup caster sugar

150g butter, softened

3 eggs, lightly beaten

4 Tbspn milk

juice and zest of 2 lemons

lemon curd (I cheated and used shop bought)

1.  Preheat oven to 175C. Prepare 12 paper cases.
2. Place first six ingredients listed above into a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Spoon mixture to 3/4 fill cases. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool
3. Once cold enough to handle, cut out a large cavity from the top of each cupcake and discard or eat (NB. This is where I went wrong - I started to eat the spoonfuls of cake I scooped out and sitting here at 11.55pm on my birthday eve, feeling severely ill!)
4. Fill cavity with lemon curd. Spoon or pipe small mounds of meringue on top of lemon curd. Bake for 10 minutes further to set meringue.

Meringue

2 egg whites
1/2 cup caster sugar 

1. Whisk eggs whites until soft.
2. Add 1 Tbspn sugar and whisk until incorporated. Whisk in remaining sugar until mixture is glossy.

What is Blagetti?

Blagetti (noun)

1. a gathering of friends to discuss {bl}ogs; m{ag}azines; {et}sy; and favourite foods such as spaghet{ti}
2. an excuse to catch up with friends
3. our version of book club

What do you get when you combine the creative minds of White & Wander, Brown Button and Tres Dodgeois? Throw in a try-hard foodie (me) and a blogger in waiting (Miss Andie) and you've got 'Blagetti'.

Blagetti is the brain child of dear Pip who inspired us all to consolidate our love of all things pretty and dedicate one night per month to indulging in our passions.

Pip had the first Blagetti last month (I'm yet to post about it, whoops! Will have to do it in a flashback!) and this month was my time to host the little gathering. Each host can tailor their shindig and I (rather indulgently!) decided to put the girls to work and earn their meal!

I'll reveal the fruits of our labour in another post, but let's focus on the brunch for now . . .

First of all, we started with miniature versions of bircher muesli - served in cupcake wrappers and topped with flaked almonds, strawberries and cinnamon. Yummo.

The prosciutto wrapped asparagus was ah-mazing. To quote Emma "I could live on these for dinner every night". I'll take that as a compliment!

Mini ham and cheese croissants followed, with cheese and tomato versions for Pippa. See, I'm a very considerate cook!

Blueberry pikelets with whipped cream and lemon curd were a yummy dish and a pretty little picture all lined up in a row!

In honour of Kimberlee's birthday, we celebrated with red velvet cupcakes. Oh. Em. Gee. So good, I will never get sick of them.

Very cute on their little makeshift cakestand!

Always with an eye for detail, Emma added a beautiful rose to top it off.

And she was impressed, that cream cheese icing is the bee's knees! For drinks, we sipped on Chandon (okay, I think I had the whole bottle to myself, minus the half glass that Emma finished) and water with mint, plus beautifully styled bottles of Bundaberg's blood orange, pink grapefruit and lemon, lime and bitters fizzies.

Such a cute addition to a table with their white straws tied to the side (thanks Emma, you style guru!).

Oh, we also had sausage rolls with sweet chilli sauce that I dug up from the freezer - perfect for those carrying the burden of a big night, ahem, Kimberlee! Then there were the CC's which always work a treat in times of great need (along with Frozen Cokes from McDonalds)! Stay tuned for pics of our Blagetti workshop - I made the girls work hard for their meal, that's for sure!

Happy brunching xo

Yummingbird Bakery . . . oops, I mean Hummingbird Bakery!

My biggest achievement over the Christmas break would have to be mastering the art of the perfect cupcake. They've always escaped me, they've been as solid as bricks, heavy as lard or kind of wet to touch and attach to the roof of your mouth - not in a good fairy floss kind of way.

Emma at work is the Cupcake Queen and has always impressed with her perfect batches. Me? I prefer to head over to BTS to buy a dozen that I know will knock everyone's socks off.

So, when Mum presented me with the cookbook of my FAVOURITE bakery in London, I was hesitant to try any recipes for fear of ruining the dream. That final red velvet cupcake on Portabello Road will live with me forever - bliss!

A friend of mine took the plunge and brought a batch to our Ladies Grand Final Lunch at Michelle's place last year, so with time up my sleeve and looking for that killer 'x' factor dish for my BBT party, I decided to give it a whirl.

And alas, they were perfect! The texture, the colour, the taste - even the icing (thanks to my Mum's tupperware piper thing). I made my smaller than what is recommended, but everyone agreed they were the perfect bit - and meant you didn't feel guilty going back for a second!

Enjoy!

Hummingbird Bakery Red Velvet Cupcakes

Mix all the ingredients well so that the sponge has an even colour and texture. To make a red velvet cake instead, double to quantities below, divide between three 20-cm cake tins and bake for 25 minutes at the same oven temperature. Frost with two quantities of Cream Cheese Frosting.

Ingredients

60g unsalted butter at room temperature

150g castor sugar

1 egg

10g cocoa powder

20mL red food colouring

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

120mL buttermilk

150g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

Icing

300g icing sugar, sifted

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature

125g cream cheese, cold

1. Preheat the oven to 170C.
2. Put the butter and the sugar in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed.
3. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red rood colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste.
5. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula).
6. Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk.
7. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour, and beat until everything is well incorporated.
8. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added.
9. Scrape down the side of the bowl again.
10. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture.
11. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the salt, bicarb soda and vinegar.
12. Beat until well mixed, then turn speed up again and beat for a couple more minutes.
13. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
14. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
15. When the cupcakes are cold, spoon the cream cheese frosting on top.

Icing

1. Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.
2. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated.
3. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed.
4. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least five minutes.
5. Do not overbeat as it can quickly become runny.

Makes 12 cupcakes

*Recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf. Check out other delights and treats here.

Brown Button Trading does Christmas with Kate!

Susie Q's truffle tree. Ah-mazing!

Hummingbird Bakery Red Velvet Cupcakes that I made myself. Simply divine - recipe will follow soon!

Nice work Alice with the close up photography!

Guilty - I forgot to take pics at the start of the part, so please excuse the scraps halfway through!

Gorgeous Brown Button Trading treats

The goodies table

Where have the weeks gone? It feels like I was only just gearing up for a hectic festive season and now it's all over! I just love Christmas and desperately need to find a new focus to get me through this holiday hangover! I'm back at work, feeling seven years older (and looking it too!).

Time to renew my passion for Polkadot Pantry!

Now, you may remember my excitement at the prospect of hosting Miss Kimberlee and her treats at a BBT Christmas drinks party. Well, it seems like weeks ago now, but I finally have some pics to show you of the lovely afternoon. Kimbo was fabulous - complete with gorgeous Arabian nights face paint for her work Christmas party!

I was so disorganised (and enjoying the Bird in Hand a tad too much) that I forgot to take pics of the girls and the special guest herself, but dear Alice salvaged some photos and took charge where I failed.

So much fun and thanks a bazillion to Kim for her enthusiasm and patience!

Cupcake connection

Have you actually ever seen anything cuter than these little gems? A friend of mine from school has just started her own little business from home (on top of a full time day job, mind you! Talk about busy!) and she's kicking goals with the best cupcakes in town.

Like all wonderful things in the world, Kim is based in Adelaide and is developing quite the corporate following with her delectable little treats.

The baby shower cupcakes are just heavenly. Gush!

For more info, contact her at bandkadams@bigpond.com