The Cherub's Food and Craft

More ice-cream and books

2012-02-08T14:34:00.000+10:00

So I have no sewing room, talk about getting cut off at the knees, so I'm trying to find things that I can physically do that won't exhaust me, but still being sorta productive, I don't do sitting around doing nothing much well. Ask anyone ...... especially Shane.

So i've been trolling the library for books. These I had ordered in from another one, as ours seems distinctly lacking in these types.

The self sufficiency one is sorta a dud in that it's UK based, but the basics would be the same. I haven't had a chance to look at the bready ones just yet.

And last nights churn - Mango with a raspberry swirl. Mangos from a box bought at a good price, peeled,and pureed and pop into the freezer. Raspberries from the Farmer's Market. Jeni's recipe yet again.

Bread and Ice Cream

2012-02-06T19:04:00.000+10:00

Well I want to get back to more bread baking, so here it is Sunflower and Oat. I'm using the bread maker on pizza, just to mix the dough after a triple batch of pizza dough kneaded by hand nearly did me in - man am I unfit at the moment.

It's a Betty Crocker recipe for Bread Machines, but it works super, mind you I've tweaked it a bit as I found after the first time I made it, that it needed a wee bit more water. This one is 1/3 wholemeal, 2/3 white bread flower. I forgot to add in the sunflowers when I kneaded it to bread loaf shape, so they just got sprinkled on top.

And then Jeni's vanilla ice-cream with salted caramel swirl - it needs no further words.

Sunday Baking

2012-01-29T17:41:00.000+10:00

Clockwise from top left.

Ugly buns lol - i call them that, cause they are messy with melted chocolate and I dislike handling them too much. It's just chocolate bread dough with choc chips mixed through.

Gingersnaps - these are sooo good, not too gingery that the kids won't' eat them, but soft and chewy but crunchy on the edges.

Bakewell slice - Apricot as someone had eaten all the strawberry/raspberry jam and just put the empty bottle back in the fridge sigh - the recipe said use a smaller pan - yeh right and I made this cause I picked up ground almond meal for $6.95 for 500g an absolute steal.

M&M Brownies - enough said

ORange Weetbix slice - it was suppose to be chocolate cornflake slice but again I failed to realise no cornflakes in the cupboard until i had melted the butter.

Bread in the bread maker and Jeni's vanilla ice cream base cooling too.

Wonder if this lot will last a week???

Morning Teas

2012-01-26T10:45:00.000+10:00

My sis got me The Hummingbird bakery Cake Days book.

I'm slowly working my way through them, today I made

Raspberry Crumble (the book has blueberries, but you can substitute any berries)

My crumble is a bit fine, I put in a wee bit too much butter and no pecans, oops, the extra crunch would have been good.

For the Crumble, mix together to form a breadcrumb like topping, 25g plain flour, 10g unsalted butter, 25 g soft brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 20g chopped pecans or any nut. Set aside.

For the cake.

Beat together 190g unsalted butter (I actually use salted but then don't add more salt) and 190g of caster sugar. Beat until fluffy, add 3 eggs beating well after each addition.

Sift together 190g plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Mix into the butter mix together with 25ml of whole milk (i used trim)

The batter is quite a thickish one. Stir through 100g of berries of your choice, fresh or frozen. I used raspberries.

Pour into a loaf pan that has been greased and floured, or lined with baking paper. Sprinkle over the crumble top

I baked mine at 180 deg for about 50 minutes, I started checking after 35 mins.

And Gingerbread Cupcakes from the same book.

It says it makes 12 - 16 cupcakes but it depends on what papers and size you use. I'm using the stand alone papers like this I like the little size as they make more cupcakes and they are just the right size for little ones.

Beat together, 140g butter, 200g caster sugar till fluffy, add in 120g golden syrup, 3 eggs, and beat till combined.

Meanwhile sift together 1 tbsp of cocoa (i'm using home brand as it's nice and dark) 1 tsp ground ginger and 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 2 tsp baking powder.

Sift over the dry ingredients and mix, alternating with 240ml of hot milk I again used trim.

Beat together till smooth, only takes a couple of secs. The mixture is very runny compared to some cake mixes.

Bake for about 15 minutes, will depend on size of cupcakes and ice with cream cheese lemon frosting, though I think a super tart glace icing would work great too.

Sorry no pics Celena, I forgot to take some.

2012

2012-01-01T19:08:00.001+10:00

A clean slate, well that's what I'm hoping, 2011 had lots of challenges and plenty more downs than ups, but I'm starting afresh, with a positive outlook (thanks Ness)

So I have some plans for this year.

Keep up my walking, trying for 10,000 steps everyday. Make sure Shane puts rocking music on my shuffle.

Eat 2 pieces of fruit a day. I love my veges and eat heaps but fruit, I can take it or leave it.

Take a mental health day more often, walk in the park, sit and read a book, visit the museum, just a day now and then with downtime.

Take the time to say hi to my friends. They have stuck by me all year, even as hopeless as I have been at keeping in touch. They know who they are, and they are always there when I need a hug, a cry, a laugh. We are separated by just a suburb or many miles, but always there.

Take my children to the movies, the park, teach W to ride his bike, the pool, the library, just have some fun.

Continue to give my support to the handful of small charities that are always in need.

Bake more. Try making sourdough

Get the garden more fruitful and flowery.

Sew for family and friends, not just work.

Plan a wedding.

Make William a pirate room, complete with mural.

Most of all, laugh and live and have lots of fun.

Mamu Designs - Emily

2011-12-30T18:00:00.000+10:00

So I thought I would run through how I made it, as I was a little confused myself. These how to are only brief as I'm flat out at the moment, I'll expand them as i make more in the set.

I'm making the dress, with the ruffled back.

Cut two front tops on the fold - one focus fabric, one lining. Decorate the front bodice before anything else. I interfaced mine, as I didn't want the threads etc to show through to the right side. Mine is cut from watermelon pink.

Cut one front skirt. Mine is cut from pale pink.

One back skirt - I used the large ruffle piece, again in pale pink.

One back skirt - small ruffle piece - I used a stripe.

One waistband - I cut it in half, as I was only gathering up the back skirt. So where it had cut on fold, I made this my other cut edge.

Finish the bottom edge of the small ruffle, lay over the large ruffle piece and baste together at the waist.

Fold waistband in half and press.

Gather the back to skirt to fit the waistband. Stitch together, press and topstitch, I like to topstitch the top edge of the waistband as well. Insert elastic to fit (there are no measurements that I can see, so I guesstimated to fit a size 2) Baste ends of elastic in waistband so they don't go anywhere, whilst you work on the front.

Once front is fully embellished to your requirements, it's time to attach the skirt. Attached your bodice front to your skirt front. Pressing all your seams.

If you are going to add a trim to the bottom hem like I have, sew one side of your skirt back to to your completed front. If you don't have a hem trim you can attach both sides. So attach your skirt back to your front, from the hemline up - hopefully they will be the same on either side. Press the seam to the front - yes that's right the front - that's because I'm lining the bodice and we want it to sit flat at the waist. Don't' forget to finish your seam, I just used my overlocker.

I've added a hemline trim, so I sewed one side, added my trim and then matching the sides sewed up the other side, pressed my trim up and topstitched it.

Now to line your bodice. Lay right sides together of your bodice and stitch all the way around, leaving the skirt waistline seam unattached. Clip and trim seams, turn through and press. I made sure that I turned up the bottom edge of the bodice by 5mm or so, when I attached them at the sides, so that I had a neat edge to hand stitch down onto the bodice so no seams showed on the bodice.

Ta da all finished, it was pretty easy to put together, just the instructions that were confusing to my fried brain, once I had the pieces all cut, I knew what I had to do.

And the finished article, it turned out beautifully I think

and of course it has a matching nappy.

I'm blaming

2011-12-11T10:30:00.000+10:00

some gorgeous mamas for posting a link on FB and then I just HAD to follow it lol!! And then of course I had to make it.

It's the Tabitha Bag from Flossie Teacake

Now I really shouldn't be sewing because

a) it was black
b) the antibiotics and painkillers, do not lead to perfect sewing

But sewing nappies is not an option when I'm not on top of the game, there is no room for error when I sew for paid work. Plus I get bored easily, being told to do nothing, doesn't really work for me :(

I'm sure my sister's friend who this bag is made for will forgive my little oopsies. Not that there were many but it's not as perfect as I would have liked.

Anyways I found the pattern relatively easy to follow, though I do like actual photos rather than diagrams, but she was pretty clear on her pics. A couple of things I would change, would be a few more markings as you really need to have a straight edge at the top of the bag, I think I oopsed there and used the wrong piece, totally my fault I am sure but a couple of extra markings would have been good.

I used black - BIG MISTAKE - I need new glasses, and marking on black is always a pita, so remember to mark the wrong side of your fabric with the markings if using black.

I would use a slightly heavier interfacing next time, I don't think the pattern stipulated, but even a layer of iron on pellon on the lining might be enough to give it a wee bit more body - but then again the designer did use linen, which I didn't.

I would have liked a mark for the magnetic catch, it's easy enough to do at the end, but a mark would be awesome.

I oopsed on the handles cause I forgot to leave an opening to insert them, but that wasn't necessarily a bag thing, as I found unpicking and inserting them gave a neat finish.

Oh and I made the trim 1 1/2 inches wide instead of just the inch.

Other than that, I think it's a cute bag, now I just need to work out how to put a zip in is, as i'm more a zip girl than magnetic clasps :)

End of the school year

2011-12-08T05:49:00.000+10:00

Well the school year has nearly finished. Both W and K have had a fabulous year.

W's teacher is just a doll and has really made W shine. He got an excellent report and he's very excited to be moving up to year 3.

K had the most gorgeous Kindy teacher and assistant, they know her so well and she's had an absolute ball going, she's really going to miss them, but she's very excited to be going into prep. We've met her divine prep teacher already and have a uniform ready to go, she was a little disappointed it wasn't pink, but once she realised everyone wears the same, she submitted to wearing royal blue and school green.

As a thank you to the wonderful teachers, I did as always do some baking, shortbread, red and green M&M bikkies and some dark chocolate coated cherry and pecan biscotti. Plus a wee tote bag from Kekya Lou, they went together really easily and suited the teachers down to the ground.

All 3 bags with goodies.

For William's teacher Mrs B - pinks and blues.

For Katherine's Kindy Teacher Mrs M - she loves green

And for the funky Mrs F - Kindy assistance, red, yellow and black.

Next time I make them I'll leave the opening a little bigger, I think I gathered a bit too much, but it's a super quick and easy bag and it looks great.

Of course it was pouring rain yesterday, so inside photos it was as we were rushing out the door.

A gift for a friend.

2011-11-29T14:30:00.000+10:00

A little gift for a friend who loves to knit.

A project bag, some divine wooden buttons and my favourite knitting extra, a little box, that is perfect for those small objects, like stitch markers, needles and the like that get lost all over the place.

Project bag instructions from here

Pixie Handbag

2011-10-29T08:23:00.000+10:00

Not doing well in the blogtoberfest standings but I've been trying lol!

Pixie Handbag by Kekya Lou - gorgeous as always, just lovely patterns, and wonderful instructions, this one is destined for my niece so it's the small size.

Birthday Gift

2011-10-24T11:21:00.001+10:00

Katherine had her first birthday party yesterday, and she was mega excited. She was adamant that Daddy just drop her off and leave her lol! So we checked with the mama and that was fine, plus we live like 2 minutes away.

So we made little Georgia an art folder, it was inspired by some crafty mamas who made some, though I made it to fit the art block, or so I thought but not quite, but it's all good and the birthday girl by all reports loved it.

It was made with mushroom fabric from Crafty mamas along with the ribbon and lots of other fabrics from stash.

Baking

2011-10-23T11:21:00.000+10:00

Well my health has been less than stellar, which is so what I don't need, so baking has been on the back burner for ages and ages, but I promised the kids I would, so we decided scones for morning tea, cause Shane is off leaf blowing at the kindy. So he'll come home to some warm scones with yummy strawberry jam and cream.

And then Amy and Iain made pikelets as well, William after scoffing scones decided he wanted piglets and I told him, he was big enough to get his own, and so this was the result, a pile of jam as big as the pikelet lol and a mass of butter.

Strawberries

2011-10-14T08:23:00.001+10:00

A slightly belated birthday gift for a cute little 6yo girl, who loves strawberries and twirling.

The skirt is a Favourite Things pattern, I do love this skirt. With a purchased tshirt, jazzed up with some appliqué.

Hopefully it can also double as a Christmas outfit, given the colours.

Caterpillars

2011-10-13T08:23:00.000+10:00

These little ones are off to a newbie. It's an Otto pattern, can't say I was a fan, I changed quite a few things as I went, I think I would like to make it again, now that I know what I would change. It's navy denim with the Eric Carle caterpillar prints as trim, and some wee embroidered ones to boot.

Cake!

2011-10-12T08:11:00.000+10:00

My gorgeous, wonderful sister bought me this book for my birthday in August.

It has some super yummy recipes in it.

So far my favourite is the Blueberry and Soured Cream Loaf. It's dense but not too sweet, keeps for ages and tastes divine!! Perfect with some icing sugar and cream, or delightful on it's own.

It's an easy cake to memorise as well.

190g each of butter, sugar and plain flour, 3 eggs, 1 tsp baking powder 25ml of sour cream. I ditch the salt cause I use salted butter and I add some vanilla extra and a wee bit more liquid in the form of more sour cream or light milk. It makes quite a thick batter.

Now you can follow the cream the butter and sugar thingy as usual but I found it still works okay as an all in together mix. What I've been doing lately is cream the butter/sugar, add the eggs and vanilla and then stir in the flour and liquids. Then at the very end before putting it into a loaf tin is stir through a goodly portion of blueberries, I used frozen as I'm trying to clear our the freezer, but you can use any berries you like. The do tend to sink to the bottom but you can try coating them in flour first or mixing some through and them putting some on the top and that should distribute them better.

But as Miss K doesn't like the blueberries it works well here, I cut a slice she eats the top and leaves the scrummy blueberries on the bottom for moi!

And yes this is all that is left after making it yesterday - well there are 7 people who live here and I had a lovely visitor drop by as well.

Smurfalicious!!

2011-10-11T08:36:00.000+10:00

I've fallen down badly on the Blogtoberfest sigh! But I promise I'm going to be good from now on.

I made this sweet little smurf dumpling yesterday, isn't she cute as a button! I'm thinking I'll be making lots of these as little gifts in the coming months.

Following the awesome tutorial from Keyka Lou

It was quite easy, eventhough I didn't have a 14 inch zip, mine was much longer, in the right colour, so I marked the end with the zip stop as per instructions and just let the rest hang off the other end as they both get trimmed anyways.

Failing miserably

2011-10-08T11:21:00.000+10:00

With blogtober sigh!Maybe I'll start catching up soon ....... One can only hope :)

So I'm a little

2011-10-02T17:07:00.000+10:00

late to the party ........ what's new lately lol!Anyways I'm joining in Blogtoberfest thanks to TinniegirlI'm only going to do the one blog this time, last year was just a bit much, and we are suppose to be going away for a few days so that will make it interesting to blog, might have to take the ipad down to Maccas for their wireless net.

Wordless Weekend

2011-09-18T15:31:00.001+10:00

The Birthday Boy!

2011-09-17T11:41:00.000+10:00

Well it was William's birthday yesterday and man was he excited beyond belief. Every morning for the past week it was, only x number of days till my birthday. Some very late nights, and early mornings, put down to overexcitment.

Things have been kinda crazy here, so it was a very low key affair, with just family, I have promised him a big party next year and we are planning a movie visit over the holidays with his best mates.

So of course there is the obligatory take something to school - which as my little man likes consistency was skull bikkies again lol! Made in the middle of a Gossamer Dreams stocking. I know, I know nutso! But following some awesome instructions found via Sugarbelle, I could easily change from black to white icing without having to wash the icing bag, since for some reason all of them have disappeared from my kitchen drawer.

Must be like that ever exploding tupperware cupboard.

And then of course present opening. Shane was on early shift - aka leaves at 5.30, so present opening had to wait until after school, which took all the willpower W had to not tear the wrappings off everything, so it was a staggered birthday day.

This lego from his Aunty and Uncle and cousins in Rockhampton.

I also made him a birthday outfit, which he declared he loved and cheerfully put on but when it came to the photos mmmmm not so much, he was much to busy building lego, hence the cranky face. Both outfits made in the 128 size from Otto issue Summer 3/2010 - the top is Riff, without the binding on the sleeves. William is narrower width wise from the chest measurements, but next time I'll add a bigger seam allowance as it's a little snug. Thanks to Margo for the fabrics, the pirate one we found online and the orange was from stash. The pirate print is beautiful, soft and gorgeous!

The pants are Wailers from the same issue, again size 128 but I'll add a bit more for a bit more room next time. Navy twill with orange topstitching - I used the heavyweight thread from Gutterman and I'm in love, not as heavy as topstitching thread, but works a treat and you can use a regular needle, cause my topstitchers have gone walkabout. I'll make a few pairs of these, easy to pull on - you could ditch the front pockets or jazz them up with knee pads or whatever.

And then for dinner pot stickers and fried rice, his choice and then vanilla cupcakes, chocolate icing, strawberries and cream, you can't go wrong can you!!

He was enthralled with the card game Amy and Iain gave him, called Fluxx. The littlest miss though was unimpressed that she couldn't play because they wouldn't let her make up the words aka read. Lots of tears ensused and gnashing of teeth and mummy had to promise a Katherine game in the morning. Currently playing Frogs in the Bog - a bargain $5 Kmart job which she is adoring and much more her speed.

Don't you wish

2011-08-28T16:27:00.000+10:00

you were here eating this ........

I've been working like a demon for pretty much the last 4 weeks straight, with nary a break. 12 hour days are starting to take their toll. Lots of ups and down and roundabouts, so today after working for a few hours this morning I called it quits and decided to veg on the couch with a book - Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson. She's a caterer that solves crimes lol! And her books always have recipes in them.

But of course I had to be different and not bake anything from her book, but after signing up to get blog posts from Wild Yeast and spying today's Yeast Spotting I followed the link to Le Petrin.

Undaunted by the fact that the blog is in French - it does have a google translator on the page - woo hoo! I just grabbed the ingredients and away I went.

For the Brioche dough - I piled everything into the bread maker to make the dough, it could do the work today. I changed a few ingredients though.

My breadmaker likes the yeast first.

2 1/2 teaspoons of dried yeast
then I plonked in
500g bread flour
60 g caster sugar
finely grated rind of one orange
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 whole eggs
200ml of light milk
80 g softened unsalted butter.

Then I let the breadmaker do it's magic. About 2 1/2 hours later, I pulled out the dough. Knocked it down and let it rest for another 15 minutes, then rolled it out - be warned it makes alot of dough BUT it's so scrummy, there is no point in making less. I rolled it out so it measured about 2 ft long by 1 ft wide, I know, I know inches. But basically it was rolled to about 6 - 8 mm thick.

Then I spread it with

100g softened butter, 60 g brown sugar and another vanilla bean, beaten together by hand and then rolled it up. Cut it into about inch wide strips. Then let it rise again till double and baked at 200 degrees for about 16 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. It made 2 biscuit trays with about 9 or 10 rolls on them, they are a goodly size.

The dough is lovely and soft and slightly buttery, not heavy at all. Of course what's a bun without icing. So I mixed up icing sugar, butter and orange juice and just spread it over, don't ask the measurements, I just pour it in and guess.

And now back to your regular scheduled program and I'm back to sitting on my couch with a good book, a bun, a cuppa and the kids.

Sourdough!

2011-08-28T11:07:00.000+10:00

I love a good sourdough, I really do, but I've yet to find the time, to organize a culture, and then fiddle about feeding it and stuff. I really need to sit and contemplate with something like that, I just like to follow things through with a clear head.

The final baked product!

So I was delighted to find a recipe in the master chef magazine, issue 13. I enjoyed the episode where they all baked bread at Sonoma, so this was perfect to try out.

You have to start a day ahead and you need to allow 2 1/2 hours to prove. It's delicious and chewy and sour, not uber sour but I found it really yummy and super easy to boot. It's also really scrummy toasted or as French toast.

So here is the recipe.

255g plain flour though I used bread flour, plus extra to dust
1/2 teaspoon of dried yeast

Starter

200g plain flour I used bread flour
1/2 teaspoon of dried yeast
1 teaspoon of caster sugar

I didn't follow their precise instructions cause when it comes to baking, I find I get a better result following my instincts so I often do.

To make the starter, place all ingredients and 250 ml lukewarm water in a bowl. I just used a wooden spoon and mixed till smooth. Cover with cling wrap and stand at room temperature for about 12 hours. Now I start mine at about 8 pm at night and leave it till noon the next day, but it's winter and I suspect that in summer, It will either NOT work, or be more sour.

After being left overnight, lots of lovely bubbles and a bit of a sour smell, but not unpleasant

At noon the next day add in flour, yeast, 1 1/2 teas salt, I didn't add quite that much and I used vegisalt and 80 ml of lukewarm water, then I mixed it up with my spurtle. The dough is quite wet, so I found I didn't need to knead it all that much. Once mixed turn onto a floured board and knead till smooth, I just used enough flour so it wasn't unmanageable.

Turned onto the board, it's wet and not at all firm, so only needs gentle handling.

After a light knead

Shape into a ball. Place into a lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat lightly in the oil, cover with cling film. Cover with cling film and prove 1 hour or until doubled, then knock down.

First Knockdown

Rising for the 2nd time

Cover again and prove for another hour or until doubled. Knock down and turn onto a lightly floured board. I then knead lightly and leave for 15 minutes. Shape it into a rough square and then fold into thirds, pinching the raw edges together.

Shaped

Transfer to a baking tray, cover lightly and let rise for about 45 minutes or until nearly doubled.

Risen for the last time, floured and scored.

Preheat oven to maximum. Using a very sharp knife, slash the loaf a few times and sprinkle with flour. Bake 10 minutes, reduce heat to 180 degree celcius and bake a further 20 - 25 minutes until it sounds hollow when tapped.

Cool to room temperature and then slice and serve but really who can wait, it's delicious warm!!

Salted Caramel Cheesecake

2011-08-07T07:02:00.000+10:00

Well this was to be my birthday cake, but this week has been a wee bit busy, so it didn't get baked until Friday.

Unfortunately it didn't go to plan and I was more than a little disappointed in the recipe, don't get me wrong it tastes great, but the instructions were lacking imo and I was left with a soggy bottom :( With much gnashing of teeth and a fair bit of swearing, it is an expensive cheesecake to make, Shane and I manhandled it out of the tin, with it's soggy bottom and onto another baking tray and it went back into the oven with no springform base to crisp up. Which was probably good as after baking for the specified time, I found the base to be decidely uncrisp and pale.

So anyways we didn't get to eat it until last night, it was silky smooth and creamy but we all found it uber rich and I would choose the strawberry shortcake over it. The caramel sauce was delicious and I'm thinking that it will go great over waffles.

So for those that will make it, make sure that you use foil, I did but obviously not in the right way - the directions did not specify wrapping the tin in foil, hence the drowning of the base. The instructions said press biscuit crumbs into a lightly greased 22cm springform cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper.

The recipe is from Donna Hay Issue 58 - it was the cover that won me over, but to spend

Cream Cheese $7.92
Ricotta (from the Deli) $3.15
Scotch Finger Biscuits 500g $1.90
60g of pecans (recipe said almond meal) $1.80
150g Butter .70c
175g brown sugar 40c (aldi brand)
4 eggs $1.20
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/4 teas salt
2 teas vanilla
500ml of pouring cream $2.29
60g butter .30
175g brown sugar 40c

Total $20.06 plus a bit more for the other small items - and I use homebrand basics for baking.

I was left disappointed that I had to figure out a way to rectify the wet bottom.

The instructions to make it were fine, except for that part, and it does taste nice, though for me salted caramel means making the caramel - which this recipe doesn't, but as a dinner party dessert it would work well.

I myself found the base a bit thick and chunky, so I think 500g of bikkies plus nuts was a little too much. And I also found it filled the tin much higher than the photo in the magazine.

Strawberry Shortcake

2011-08-06T17:59:00.000+10:00

So I had a sewing day with my friend Margo - and since she live right near a strawberry farm, she brought me the most awesome delicious sunkissed strawberries.

So what's a girl to do but make Strawberry Shortcake - now I'm not a fan of the scone like shortcake - it's scones, I like the buttery shortbready type one, with lashing of whipped cream and strawberries oozing with juice.

So I turned to my favourite website/mag - BBC Good Food - and found this one

I used a whole egg instead of the two yolks, and it whizzed together in a flash, and pressed into the long tart pan I have, and baked it for a tad over 15 minutes, till golden and crispy.

And oh my it was DELICIOUS!!!

Sourdough!

2011-07-30T11:17:00.002+10:00

From the Masterchef magazine, it was super easy and it was beyond delicious, sour, chewy, crunchy and everything in between.

Today

2011-07-21T13:53:00.001+10:00

Today the sun is shining

Today the birds are singing

Today a very dear friend said goodbye to her gorgeous, precious boy

Today friends and family shed tears for a mother, father, sister and family

Today I lit a candle for them

Today I wished I could take away their pain

Today little Avery was lifted up on his angel wings

Today all my love, prayers, thoughts and hugs are with Kristie, Ally and Tara.

You can find more tributes to the darling, gorgeous Avery here

Whoopie !!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-07-18T14:49:00.000+10:00

For a few reasons.

I've been eyeing them off for awhile and thought hmm, just looks like a cupcake without the shape. Well I guess they are, but crispy top and bottom, not just the top like a cupcake. Recipes are similar from what I can see. Getting them nice and round, no so easy :(

But back on track - it's the littlest misses 5th birthday today and we spent all morning running about doing jobs and posting parcels and looking for a helmet that didn't come with countless accessories or cost an arm and a leg, so time ran away with me.

K's first request was a BIG CAKE like Sarah's lol! But in rainbow colours of course, purple, pink, yellow urgh and orange double urgh! Time as above was against me, so I headed towards the whoopie pie. Cake and pretty and most importantly QUICK!

So I used this recipe but from the googling I did it seems the recipes are all pretty similar. It did taste good as batter, but I'm wondering if mine were a little thick, hence the odd shapes that appeared here and there. I sandwiched mine with vanilla buttercream, rolled the edges in hundreds and thousands and a dusting of icing sugar.

They were very goooooooooooooooooooooooddd!! And yes I'll probably make them again, thinking pumpkin next time.

But of course back to the day at hand - the birthday girl. Wearing above said helmet - Disney princesses to go with the Tinkerbelle Scooter that Sarah got her - it has 3 wheels.

And then the dress sigh! Very bright, not my normal style and whilst Katherine picked the fabrics and helped me cut it out (trust me not a good idea) it went together okay, there are a few things I'd change but I'll make another one and fill you in then. Made it colours that don't do it for me that's for sure, but it's hers that is all that matters.

It's an Olive Ann pattern both that and fabrics were procured from Funky Fabrix :)

Rainbows!

2011-07-16T12:05:00.000+10:00

Well the littlest cherub loves her bright and rainbow colours, so her birthday is Monday, but since she only has Kindy later in the week, we had Happy Birthday at Kindy on Friday.

The request was rainbow coloured cupcakes. Now my week has been less than stellar, and I was fast running out of time. So it was my go to vanilla cupcake recipe with a few additions.

Rainbow sprinkles into the batter

Pink, Blue and Green Buttercream with more of the rainbow sprinkles.

I did apologise in advance to the Kindy Teacher - as I normally try and use natural food colours, but they wouldn't give me the colours we wanted, so we went with the hard core stuff.

Kindy Teacher said 10 minutes after the cake, they were running around madly and she had planned an indoor day - luckily I can easily placate her with more cupcakes :D

You should have seen the kids eyes pop when we walked in with these little beauties!!

Our gorgeous kindy teacher Linda - who Katherine told me - said your Mummy makes the BEST cupcakes she's ever tasted, which cheered me up, after my shocker week. Linda you are the most awesome Kindy teacher ever, such joy and life and love to your teaching!!

And do you recognise the cardigan?? It was made from Oleria by Tikki - size 3 with 5 length - Katherine is tall but slender. And the gorgeous wool - dyed by my lovely friend Susannah from Parrot Pants - it's lush. This the cardy that I kniited when I was laid up for nearly a week - I've barely had time to pick up a set of needles since.

And her gorgeous pettiskirt, and huggalugs that I found via a customer who posted on my wall - thank you thank you!! Katherine loves them so much. I think she's going to be a little fasionista that's for sure!!

Not quite sure what she has planned for me to make on Monday her actual birthday! But guessing it involves yellow and purple!

Swapity Swap Swap!!

2011-07-09T16:24:00.000+10:00

Well thanks to the lovely Miss Claire over at Tigernaut, I joined in The Contemporary Handmade Alliance Swap.

I got the loveliest swappee - Lindy from Ragged Blossom she makes beautiful mineral makeup which I have never tried, so I was absolutely delighted. The colours were just spot on to what I would use as well.

These are the little beauties I received, all packaged up beautifully with little bows and everything, things pacakaged up well really make my day :) I love pressies! (sorry lindy I can't take photos to do your makeup justice)

I sent Lindy a Boho Baguette from Studio Kat Designs Made up in black and white with a touch of red. The beads did my head in - next time *remember* to get beads with bigger holes, thankfully Amy came to the rescue. I did find the pattern easy to follow, no hiccups, since I was naughty and left things to the midnight hour ....... literally, that's what happens when you have visitors, surprise stockings and sick kids though. Seems I can sew at midnight lol!!

This is suppose to be the back of the bag but I like it much better as the front, it has a wee zip, and a cheeky inner red pocket.

A photo of the whole side of the bag.

The cheeky beads that had me frustrated. They were glass.

This is suppose to be the front, but next time, I'll split it I think, or embroidery it. Actually I have some gorgeous fabric from Mandy, might be able to use that!!!!!

The cheeky red pocket.

More of the dreaded beads.

The inner pocket, it holds a phone and the other pocket is for doo dads lol!!

If I make the bag again - which I probably will, I liked the size and it had long handles for over my shoulder, I'd probably add another zipped pocket or use one of the bag inserts you can buy for these patterns (you have to make it though). Might have to think how to make the bag with a zippered top, I don't think it would be too hard, as I like my bags to zip closed, so nothing falls out.

An 18th Birthday Afternoon Tea Party

2011-06-26T14:48:00.000+10:00

Sarah didn't want a big do - we aren't really big do people lol! Just a small circle of her closest 10 friends for afternoon tea. So that's what we did - after 7 hours of baking, with everything made from scratch except the puff pastry for the sausage rolls and their sauces.

Purple was her choice of colour and I think I need to invest in some purple food colouring as it's a surprisingly tricky colour to make with blue and red gel colourings. But Sarah is very happy with everything, and man it all tastes sooooooo good!

Raspberry cheesecake Brownies from AWW cheesecake book - I think it needs more a slice tin as it's quite deep but yumm delicious and it pays to read the recipe before diving in, the brownies are made differently and you need to only part cook them before adding the cheesecake baker, consequently we have a spare batch of just brownies, not a bad thing apparently.

Inspired by the divine Rose Cookies from I am Baker and using the sugar cookie recipe from September last year, I made these with a yummy smooth buttercream and piping tip from the stash, they are about 1 1/2 inches across, just a mouthful and perfectly delicious!

Lemon Tart from Masterchef Masterclass I made a double batch of the pastry as I wanted to use this tart tin and I didn't have individual ones. As it turned out I didn't need to have that much pastry, so half is now in the freezer for next time, it was a very easy dough to use. I doubled both the filling and the topping recipes and it fitted nicely, though there was some meringue left over. It's a lovely tart filling. I didn't use the blow torch *yes I have one* cause I was given it but no gas, and I just haven't gotten around to getting some, so I popped it back in the oven for about 10 minutes. Unfortunately I think that leads to some weeping which always seems to happen with this pie.

My standby cupcake recipe with pink and lavender buttercream and decorations!

Sausage rolls - soooooo yummy again from Masterchef, though I've tweaked the recipe to suit us.

And then russian caramels, though they did need to be cooked a wee bit longer, probably to hard ball stage, but delicious and sticky and I think awesome if we melted it and poured it over hot waffles.

And macaroons, I can't quite get that beautiful smooth look of the Zumbo ones, I think because I don't resift my almond meal, but they still taste delicious and they are William's favourite I think - he told me he wasn't eating the brownies but could he please have some more macaroons, they are sandwich with white chocolate ganache ... man that sucker sets fast.

There you have it - all day of baking and it was so worth it just waiting to cut into the lemon tart, so I can have a piece.

An 18th birthday

2011-06-12T09:19:00.000+10:00

Our gorgeous Sarah turned 18 yesterday - we had big plans, a scrummy dinner consisting of chicken pie and potatoe bake and an awesome cake, BUT the birthday girl fell sick like a ton of bricks, taking her littlest sister with her, so neither of them ate. Thankfully the birthday party for friends isn't for a couple of weeks, so hopefully they'll be recovered by then and I can post photos of her, she wouldn't let me take piccies yesterday.

But here is the cake as I know you want to see!!!

Recipe from one of my favourite magazines - BBC Good Food - Chocolate and Caramel Layer Cake.

I made a few substitutions as always.

The cakes went together easily, though they aren't what I would call a sponge, they rose nicely but then flattened, which makes them easy to stack, I found I needed to add a wee bit more liquid to the vanilla/chocolate ones, so I just used milk. I used Black Swan Vanilla Bean natural yoghurt.

I did pike and buy *shock horror* Nestle caramel top and fill, I've just been too busy to make it from scratch.

And the icing I did differently as well - I used a block of Cadbury Dairy Milk, broken into pieces, then I poured over 1 cup of thickened cream which had been boiled. Then mixed them together and popped them in the fridge to cool down and then whipped it up until fluffy and holding it's shape.

It's sprinkled with sugar pearls and it looked fab and tasted delicious - I bet it will taste even better today - be warned it's a big cake, and you'll need somewhere to put it since it has cream on it, but it's not overly rich.

Shane took the photos, and you can see he's not a food stylist lol!!

Meatless Monday!

2011-06-08T14:10:00.000+10:00

Okay okay I know it's Wednesday but I did cook this on Monday.

It's just a white loaf, with cheese and pistachio dukkah on the top.

and this is a variation of leek and potatoe soup. It had leeks, potatoe, sweet potatoe and cauliflower, along with a sprinkle of bacon - okay not quite meatless, but pretty much. William turned his nose up and ate left over bacon and egg pie but K had two helpings and the bread didnt' make it to breakfast.

Boiled Fruit Cake

2011-05-22T15:29:00.000+10:00

For a friend, who is just a wee bit under the gun!

It's a bit of a long post as it's a how to for Boiled Fruit Cake.

The recipe, well loved and very much used as you can see.

750g mixed dried fruit - you can use any combination, I don't like mixed peel, but my awesome bulk food place, has mixed fruit with or without peel. And we like lots of cherries, so there is 200g of glace cherries in this cake and the rest is mixed fruit, sultanas, currants and raisins. If you like the dried fruit can be soaked for a week or so in rum, but we don't have rum and I'm too impatient to wait that long anyways, makes it an awesome Christmas Cake though.

125g buter I use salted
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of apple juice, or orange or whatever you have.
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1 cup of self raising flour
1 teaspoon of mixed spice.

So pop the butter, sugar and juice in a saucepan.

Then put the dried fruit on top, stir to combine and bring slowly to the boil, to melt the butter. Stir a few times during boiling. Then boil for 3 minutes or so until .....

Your fruit is plump and lucious! Let cool for a bit - you can transfer to another bowl and let it cool right down - but again - IMPATIENT!! - I just let enough heat go out of it to not cook the eggs into scramble.

Then you need to line the tin and as fruit cakes have a longer baking time, you need more protection. So I use 3 layers of baking around the edge and then 4 layer of brown paper and one of baking on the base. I just measure around the tin and then cut into it so it lays flat.

So pop in the mixed spice, eggs and flour and stir. And yes I do it in the saucepan why make more washing up

Into the tin and level the top - and give it a couple of bangs on the bench, especially if you are going to ice it, it gets rid of the bubbles.

Just out of the oven, then I wrap the tin in some tea towels and let it cool over night, you can at this stage douse it with more rum. If you want a really rum soaked cake you can just keep feeding it wrapped in foil for a couple of months.

Cut open and ready to eat, yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

The slice I ate with a cup of tea at lunch :)

Happy Easter!!!

2011-04-24T09:39:00.000+10:00

So I was a wee bit tired of sewing and I had promised the wee ones some baked Easter goodies.

So I started by putting some dough in the bread maker to make Monkey Bubble Bread from Baked Expectations, I love this book, and I had promised myself that I would work through it from front to back, but I seem to be skipping all over the place.

I cheated with using the bread maker to mix and knead the dough but it saved me time for other things on my plate.

So into my bread maker in the following order (I have a panasonic, other breadmakers may differ)
the recipe is American so I tweaked the measurments lol!!

2 teaspoons of dried yeast I used Lowan brand
4 cups of bread making flour - though the recipes called for plain flour
4 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt, but I left it out as I used salted butter
1/3 cup full milk powder
1 1/4 cups of water - they used 1 1/4 cups of whole milk, but we don't drink whole milk, so I used the powder
1 egg
5 tablespoons (american) of butter - I just chucked in a blob of melted butter, salted.

When it was finished, I formed it into small balls about 1 - 1 1/2 inches abit bigger than a Ferrero Roche choclate, then dipped each into melted butter and then a mix of cinnamon and sugar.

Then I popped it all into a red tin - they used a bundt pan but I didn't have a big enough one and as it turned out my bread tin wasn't big enough either, as I had escaping balls of dough. I thought I smelt something burning, so checked the over and about 8 of the puff balls have puffed off the loaf and onto the oven racks and bottom, gave me a laugh though!! And they still tasted goooooooooooooooooooooooddd!!!

I baked it for about 20 minutes at 200 degree. You can tell I'm not a precise cook, I go with the flow.

Whilst the bread was mixing etc we made the sugar cookies. Recipe is on my blog from September last year it was a daring bakers challenge and we loved the biscuits it made, super easy recipe to remember as well. Just remember to not overbeat the butter as you want the dough firm, if you want to roll it out straight from mixing it up, which is what I do, I hate waiting. After cutting them and let me tell you the eggs on legs were a PITA to say the least, the legs keep breaking off :( I did put them in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking them for 10 minutes, turning them and swapping shelves after 5 minutes.

Iced with royal icing, very basically cause they are just going to be scoffed.

And again using the dough above I made hot cross buns of the chocolate variety - I forgot to add the chips early in the mixing process and so when I added them, they just melted, so they were chocolate spread throughout the buns.

The chocolate crosses, are just a mix of plain flour, sugar, cocoa and water mixed to a thick paste and piped on.

Still have bunny cake pops to make but that's for another post.

Oh and for those that asked Monkey bread can be made savory which is what we normally do - sundried tomatoe and feta, any antipasto that you have, garlic and herb whatever you like, I just roll the dough flat cut into odd shapes, dip in butter and sprinkle over the flavourings! I think it's called Monkey bread, as you just pull it apart rather than slice it, just like a monkey would!

Wanted one Stolen Handbag

2011-04-17T05:54:00.000+10:00

Keep your eye out for this bag ladies and gents! What an absolutely disgusting thing to do. I hope whomever took it, finds the decency to return it!

You can find the full story on Nicole's Blog and you can get your own button here. All you crafter bloggers out there, spread the word!!

Daring Baker's March

2011-03-27T07:00:00.009+10:00

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

FILLED MERINGUE COFFEE CAKE
Makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter
The recipe can easily be halved to make one round coffee cake

Ingredients
For the yeast coffee cake dough:

4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour
¼ cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar
¾ teaspoon (5 g / ¼ oz.) salt
1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast
¾ cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk
¼ cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)
½ cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 large eggs at room temperature

10 strands saffron for Ria’s version (Saffron might be hard to find and it’s expensive, so you can substitute with ½ - 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom or ground nutmeg. Or simply leave it plain like Jamie’s version)

For the meringue:

3 large egg whites at room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar

For the filling:

Jamie’s version:
1 cup (110 g / 4 oz.) chopped pecans or walnuts
2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (170 g / 6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate

Ria’s version:
1 cup (130 g / 5 oz.) chopped cashew nuts
2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon garam masala (You can make it at home – recipe below - or buy from any Asian/Indian grocery store)
1 cup (170g / 6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips ( I used Ghirardelli)

Egg wash: 1 beaten egg
Cocoa powder (optional) and confectioner’s sugar (powdered/icing sugar) for dusting cakes

**Garam (means “hot”) masala (means “mixture”) is a blend of ground spices and is used in most Indian savory dishes. It is used in limited quantities while cooking vegetables, meats & eggs. There is no “one” recipe for it as every household has a recipe of their own. Below, I am going to share the recipe which I follow.

4 or 5 sticks (25 g) Cinnamon Sticks (break a stick and open the scroll)
3 ½ tablespoons (25 g / less than an ounce) Cloves, whole
100 g. (3.5 oz.) Fennel seeds
4 tablespoons (25 g / less than an ounce) Cumin seeds
1 ½ tablespoons (10 g / less than half an ounce) Peppercorns
25 g (less than half an ounce) Green Cardamom pods

In a small pan on medium heat, roast each spice individually (it hardly takes a minute) until you get a nice aroma. Make sure you stir it throughout so that it doesn’t burn. As soon as each spice is roasted, transfer it to a bowl to cool slightly. Once they are all roasted, grind into a fine powder by using a coffee grinder, or pestle & mortar. Store in an airtight container and use as needed.

Directions:

Prepare the dough:

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted. Ria’s version: add the 10 saffron threads to the warmed liquid and allow to steep off of the heat for 10 minutes. This will give the mixture a distinct aroma and flavor and a yellowish-orange hue.

With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

Place the dough in a lightly greased (I use vegetable oil) bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

Prepare your filling:In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar for the filling if using. You can add the chopped nuts to this if you like, but I find it easier to sprinkle on both the nuts and the chocolate separately.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:
In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:

Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

the same day or the next day.

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks. Allow to cool.

Just before serving, dust the tops of the coffee cakes with confectioner’s sugar as well as cocoa powder if using chocolate in the filling. These are best eaten fresh, the same day or the next day.

Pannacotta and Florentines by Daring Bakers

2011-02-27T07:00:00.001+10:00

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Recipes are available here

So whilst I did follow the recipe for the Pannacotta with the slight exception of using lite milk instead of full cream, I know, I know with that much cream does it make a difference. Well we don't have full cream milk in the house, so ce la vie! It was delcious, I made a raspberry Gelee aka jelly for the top but I could have used a bit less gelatine as it set quite firmly, but it was delcious.

I wanted a crisp and crunchy biscuit with some fruit and nuts. Florentine recipes here are made with cornflakes and condensed milk - the recipe given was somewhat like an ANZAC biscuit but because it was Nestle - and I think you know our thoughts on that, I searched for something a wee bit different. I found this recipe

The biscuits were delicious, but not as crisp as I would have liked, I think I would prefer something crunchy and cracking and studded with more fruit and delcious nuts! I've just made some new biscuits recently and with the added addition of more chocolate, they would have been perfect.

Can't wait to see what next month brings, hopefully no more rain lol!!

New York Style Crumb Cake

2011-02-12T17:25:00.000+10:00

I tried to resist I really, really did but I succumbed and purchased this book - Baked Explorations

After trying the Burnt Sugar Bundt Cake which was delicious, I toddled off to look at the book and it hopped into my cart. Now I haven't tried any other recipes but the Crumb Cake yet - though the list to try is long, but the Crumb Cake is DELICIOUS plus it's a big cake which is necessary in this house and it's super easy.

And as always I tweaked it a tad - it has ALOT of sugar and butter and whilst that isn't such a bad thing right, I tried to behave and cut them both down a wee bit.

So the recipe I tweaked is as follows. Baked at 180 deg Celicius for about 40 minutes in a lamington pan.

So I mixed together

3/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed, 1/2 cup caster sugar, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon or to taste, I didn't measure oops! 180g melted butter - they used more, but I weaned it back a wee bit. 2 1/2 cups plain flour. I mixed the dry and then mixed in the butter, to make the crumb topping, it is divine!!

Then in a mixer I popped. 2 1/2 cups plain flour, 3/4 teas baking powder, 1 teas bicarb soda, 180g softened butter, 1 cup caster sugar, 2 eggs, 1 1/4 cups light milk, teaspoon of vanilla extract and mixed slowly till combined, then whizzed it up until fluffier and slightly lighter in colour.

Then pour the cake base into a lined pan and sprinkle on the crumb topping - it's delicious just out of the oven warm with ice-cream or great in lunchboxes, though a bit messy with the crumbly top!

Kitchen Swap

2011-01-31T16:04:00.000+10:00

I was part of a kitchen swap - and I made a pot holder from here and followed directions for a crochet dishcloth - my first from a booklet by Sugar and Cream and I used the yarn stipulated in a cream/brown colour way to match the recipients kitchen colours. I also picked up a a ball in lemons, blues and greens for me to have a play with.

I really enjoyed making the dishclothes and I hope to make a stash for us to use.

For Clo

2011-01-30T16:54:00.000+10:00

A gorgeous mama from a wonderful forum I frequent Crafty Mamas was asking about how to sort your stash. Now I will admit my stash is a bit more than an ordinary one, since I sew for living. And whilst my sewing room still isn't quite finished, floating floors and ceiling still to go in along with new cutting table. The storage situation is pretty well sorted. Stealing the idea from Ikea - Shane's Dad made all the boxes for me. And after having a clean up day yesterday, its' nice and tidy ...... for the moment lol!!

This is the whole back wall. Cotton prints, minky, velours, dyes, knits, and my own stash of wovens. Along with my AS&E and Inspiration collection and embroidery threads. And of course a box of junk !

The cotton print stash - sorted by colour.

Minkys and velours, trying to escape, slippery suckers that they are.

And this was last nights dinner, a favourite. Bacon and egg pie, though I pad it out with tators :)

And the little Miss - first day of Kindy :) She loves it and keeps asking if it's kindy day - sadly not till Friday. Both of us will be glad when the program kicks into full swing next week!

Daring Baker's January

2011-01-27T06:34:00.001+10:00

Biscuit Joconde Imprime/Entremet

The January 2011 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog Accro She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around and Entremets Dessert.

Joconde imprime/entremets. A joconde imprime is a decorative design baked into a light sponge cake providing an elegant finish to desserts/torts/entremets/ formed in a ring mould. A joconde batter is used because it bakes into a moist flexible cake. The cake batter may be tinted or marbleixed for a further decorative effect.

Well I've been uninspired lately, I guess a combination of the devastating events here in Australia, kids still home from school, either pouring rain, wet depressing weather, or as in the last few days hot and steamy. So I just made mine yesterday, but it looks pretty good I think.

Patterned Joconde-Decor Paste.

200g unsalted butter, softened
200g icing sugar
200g egg whites
220g cake flour
food colouring.

Now I only made 1/4 a batch of this and I had heaps and heaps of the paste, but I piped my design. If you spread it as some of the other DBs did you may find you needed more.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg white gradually. Fold in sifted flour. Tint batter as desired.

I piped mine onto a piece of baking paper within a swiss roll tin and then I froze it for about half an hour.

Joconde Sponge

85g almond meal
75g icing sugar
25g cake flour
150g whole eggs
90 g of egg whites
10g of caster sugar
30g unsalted melted butter

Beat egg whites with the sugar to firm glossy peaks

Sift almond meal, icing sugar and cake flour. Add eggs one a time until smooth and light.
Fold in one third reserved egg whites to lighten and then gently fold in the rest of the egg whites, do not overmix. Fold in melted butter.

Pour batter over jaconde paste mix.

Bake at 250deg until brown and cooked - My oven was 225deg and baked it for 5minutes, turned it for another 2 1/2 minute.

Cool slightly and turn out onto powdered icing sugar sprinkled onto the parchment paper. Trim crusty edges from the cake (and eat yummo!) line your mould and fill with whatever you desire.

My heart desired CHEESECAKE!!!!!

So beat 250g softened Philly cream cheese with 1 tablespoon caster sugar. Then beat in 1/2 cup pouring cream and then fold through a can of fruit salad yum!

Pour into the mould.

Turn out and voila!!!

Operation June

2011-01-26T14:13:00.000+10:00

Well inspired by the gorgeous Kristy at See My Footprints and the fact that I'm finding it very hard this year to find my space/light/mojo whatever you want to call it. I'm making a plan to take me to June. Hopefully we'll get a few things finished about the place. We don't know what the Cherub's will be up to come July as Shane's work is pretty much coming to an end. So organisation and doing things that we need to do to help us become a little more self-sufficient will be good.

So I'm starting small, this is what I'd like to start with.

Finish off both small ones rooms - that means those little niggedly things, like painting skirting boards, fixing curtains and just the general cleaning and sorting that comes every year as your child grows out of clothes and toys.

Ensuring our garden is up and running properly - the rain has played havoc and getting a water tank will have to take priority as well.

Finishing my gorgeous sewing/office room - it's nearly there, just floors and ceiling.

Make time for me - that means making sure that everyday regardless of how much other work I have, that I take that walk or I do my Yoga on the wii, or I just read a book for half an hour. Me time. I'm not being selfish, I need this to recharge the batteries which have pretty much run out lately.

Making sure that my darling DH looks after himself. Making sure he gets the sleep he needs with the long shifts he's been working. And that he too has his time!

And last but not least - playing with my small ones, listening to them read, watching them draw, helping them cook, helping them to learn in whatever way they need. Helping my big ones get through stressful Uni years, making sure that they get exercise, fresh air and good food. Making sure that they realise that fun is okay and necessary in those years of full on schooling.

Another late pressie

2011-01-10T09:23:00.000+10:00

oops! But seeing as it went to a bestie, I'm sure she didn't mind :)

I used the Wired Up Bag Pattern - The Lovely Lady - it was good to put together, though I would change a couple of things, but all in all, good instructions.

I think I'd like to have a stiffer interfacing next time, but I think she's very lovely!

Saturday Dinner

2011-01-09T17:12:00.003+10:00

We had roast on Friday, so what do we do with the leftovers, turn them into a yummy scrummy delicious beef pie with veges, yummo!! I like my pies to look rustic and rough, no perfect pies here :)

For once no tantrums at the dinner table.

And I couldn't resist this one either - it's a Burnt Sugar Bundt - I found the inspiration here . I think our atrocious weather is not helping the baking and it's humid and sticky - so the cakes been in the fridge which is not what I like to do, but it's still scrummy and deicious and yes I've bought the book, waiting for it to arrive :)

And please excuse the lack of gorgeous photos. This weather is enough to do anyones head in and lack of light is a big problem when trying to take delicious food pics.

Baking Day

2011-01-06T07:57:00.005+10:00

It's gloomy and overcast again, what a surprise, it's too early to do anything else, everyone is sleeping except me and the small ones, what a surprise, so I'm baking.

Inspired by Bubble and Sweet I'm making Peanut Butter Brownies. I do not like chocolate and peanut butter but the Man in the Fridge does so that's what I'm making. I'm using my standard brownie recipe, cause it's good and always works. And then I just swirled through some peanut butter. My peanut butter is a bit thick, but it will do. Recipe is from a Women's Weekly. I like it cause it doesn't go overboard with either sugar or eggs.

Melt 200g dark chocolate (I used milk cause that's what I had) with 150g butter. Beat in 1/2 cup caster sugar, then 2 lightly beaten eggs and teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix in 1/3 cup plain flour and 1/4 cup SR flour. Stir in any variety of mix ins. I used chopped walnuts and chopped white chocolate along with the peanut butter today.

Bake at 180 deg in a slice tray for about 25 - 35 minutes, all depends on your oven. You want it crispy on the outside and a just baked in the middle.

And MOTH declared them delicious!!!

Chip Chip Biscuits, makes 70.

And this is how I make them all the same size - I use a small ice cream scoop - so this is how they go into the oven.

And this is how they come out - nearly all the same.

And last but not least, divine, cinnamon scrolls. Going to do yeasty ones next time, but I didn't want to wait for things to rise.

Christmas Gifts

2011-01-03T11:29:00.003+10:00

With both the little cherubs ill in the lead up to Christmas and then the littlest cherub with a nasty chest infection over Christmas, my gift sewing is a wee bit late, but it's not so bad, as I haven't seen the giftees yet!

So here's the start of them with more to come.

An appliqued tshirt and a My favourite skirts pattern. I really enjoyed the skirt pattern and I think I'll need to make some for K.

A little gift bag - I know it's yellow lol!! from the Bagaliciou Club bags mailout no. 7. It's a cute idea, though I think I'd like them a wee bit bigger, but it's holding a special surprise inside. It's only wee about 7 x 5 inches finished.

Another appliqued tee and matching skirt - the skirt is Maddy from ModKids, I guessed on the sizing, so I'm crossing my fingers that it's right.

What to do when you are rained in!

2010-12-27T15:25:00.007+10:00

Well we haven't been home to Rocky since before Katherine was born. In fact the last time the whole family was up was for William's Christening and he was 3mths old and he's now 7. So we packed our bags out of wet and rainy Brisbane (except Amy who stayed home to man the fort and watch the pussycats) and landed in hot, sticky and humid Rocky which then turned to rain, rain and more rain!!! And yes it's still raining. I think I must be a rain maker.

Anyways small children are turning decidedly cranky and I'm going stir crazy. Have read two Sookie Stackhouses, Breaking Dawn again, have one sleeve left on my Sorello, so what's a girl to do.

Sew of course! My sister had eyed off this bag pattern for awhile it appears. It's Amy Butler's Bag Book - now I've not been overly fond of her patterns in the past, I guess it comes from writing patterns myself and I like to make them so that anyone from beginner up can make them.

But alot of patterns are made from a Quilter's point of view, which I'm not lol!! So there are always a few notes added that I've made on the pattern for next time (yes I always do this, goes for patterns and baking)

Anyways I enabled my sister to purchase the book, plus fabric, that's what sisters do right? It's a little tricky, as options are a bit limited here. They have a goodly choice of Quilting fabrics as Patchwork Paradise - and gorgeous staff to boot, but I think I need to investigate interfacings a bit more. So I'll be sussing those out when I get home.

Of course Gorgeous sister needed some mending done, so we just have two pairs of pants to hem and we are all caught up. Taking home with me a dress to finish for my niece and purloining my sister's bag book to make some up for me, before sending the book home, with possibly another couple of bags finished. If the weather continues wet and rainy there will be lots of knitting, embroidering, smocking, sewing and baking sigh! Just wonderful!!

And tiredness has resulted in a cranky little miss. Two meltdowns today necessitated a wee nap, she refused point blank, so bribery in the form of The Incredibles and a lovely snug mattress and within minutes she was in the land of nod (for 2 1/2 hours wee!!!!) She's been chasing after poor Carlise all day - he's not had a bar of it, but as you can see, he decided that whilst she naps, she makes an awesome cushion! Awwww!!!!

Daring Baker's December

2010-12-27T08:50:00.000+10:00

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

Preparation time:

The following times are approximate. I suggest you gather and scale/weigh/measure (mise en place) all your ingredients before you begin mixing.
• Approximately 1 hour first stage – then rest overnight or up to 3 days
• 2 hours to warm up after refrigeration
• 15 minutes shaping
• 2 hours proofing
• 30-45 minutes baking
Equipment required:

• Mixer with dough hook or strong arms and hands
• Mixing bowl
• Bowl to soak raisins
• Small saucepan
• Sheet of plastic or plastic wrap to cover when proofing
• Bench or pastry scraper (very handy for cutting dough and also cleaning work surface)
• Rolling pin
• Dough whisk can be handy but not necessary
• Pastry Brush
• A scale is really important to have when making bread so I strongly advise you to get one. You do not have to have one though. (would make a good Christmas gift!)
• Sheet Pan or round Pizza pan
• Parchment Paper
Stollen Wreath

Makes one large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves. Serves 10-12 people
Ingredients

¼ cup (60ml) lukewarm water (110º F / 43º C)
2 packages (4 1/2 teaspoons) (22 ml) (14 grams) (1/2 oz) active dry yeast
1 cup (240 ml) milk I used lite milk
10 tablespoons (150 ml) (140 grams) unsalted butter (can use salted butter)
5½ cups (1320 ml) (27 ozs) (770 grams) all-purpose (plain) flour (Measure flour first - then sift- plus extra for dusting)
½ cup (120 ml) (115 gms) sugar
¾ teaspoon (3 ¾ ml) (4 ½ grams) salt (if using salted butter there is no need to alter this salt measurement)
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 grams) cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (very good) vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon extract or orange extract
¾ cup (180 ml) (4 ¾ ozs) (135 grams) mixed peel (link below to make your own) I left this out
1 cup (240 ml) (6 ozs) (170 gms) firmly packed raisins I used mixed dried fruit.
3 tablespoons (45ml) rum orange juice instead.
12 red glacé cherries (roughly chopped) for the color and the taste. (optional)
1 cup (240 ml) (3 ½ ozs) (100 grams) flaked almonds
Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath
Confectioners’ (icing) (powdered) sugar for dusting wreath

Note: If you don’t want to use alcohol, double the lemon or orange extract or you could use the juice from the zested orange.
Directions:

Soak the raisins I put my fruit on the stove with the juice and boiled till plump.
In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the rum (or in the orange juice from the zested orange) and set aside. See Note under raisins.

To make the dough

Pour ¼ cup (60 ml) warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.

In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup (240 ml) milk and 10 tablespoons (150 ml) butter over medium - low heat until butter is melted. Let stand until lukewarm, about 5 minutes.

Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl and add lemon and vanilla extracts.

In a large mixing bowl (4 qt) (4 liters) (or in the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment), stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange and lemon zests.

Then stir in (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment) the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.

Add in the mixed peel, soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red!

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mixing with the dough hook) to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes (6 minutes by machine). The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn't enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge (since the butter goes firm) but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.

Shaping the Dough and Baking the Wreath

1. Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly.
2. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
3. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
4. Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches (40 x 61 cms) and ¼ inch (6 mm) thick.
Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder.
Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape.
Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough.
Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size.
Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.

Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.
Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter.
Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first.
The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar.
Let cool at least an hour before serving. Coat the stollen in butter and icing sugar three times, since this many coatings helps keeps the stollen fresh - especially if you intend on sending it in the mail as Christmas presents!

When completely cool, store in a plastic bag. Or leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly, German style.

This is a lovely tasty fruit loaf, I found it enormous however and I actually made two wreaths. I think it would be great as french toast as well. Oh and I blame the lack of photos on an insanely busy Christmas period.

Yummy treats!!

2010-12-08T15:29:00.004+10:00

Firstly yummy treats for me, from a Secret Santa swap via a forum. Absolutely gorgeous work from Mandy - Mandy does the most beautiful dyeing and dye painting.

The whole parcel, hand dyed cotton yarn, project bag, painted fabric square and cupcake soap.

A close up of the hand dyed cotton yarn - destined for an Acacia from the divine Miss Tikki and it will all fit in the gorgeous project bag I'm sure. The yarn is called 'Dawns first light' and the way I'm not sleeping lately I see it alot lol!!

A close up of the hand painted fabric panel - it called 'The Party' and depicts a party with Miss K and me - and of course cupcakes.

And just another piccie to make you drool!!

And then some teacher treats. I'm sure teachers have more coffee cups than they can poke a stick at - so I like to bake some treats, no one ever says no to treats!

From left to right, Pistachio, Turkish Delight Rocky Road, Double Choc Chunk Brownies, Shortbread and Christmas Wreaths. Yummy chocolates as well as a gorgeous card from Rose Cottage Cards

And finally some cookie wreaths that I made last night and William iced and decorated today for his classmates. I don't do candy canes, I think they are horrible things lol!! And neither did his teacher, so we made yummy bikkies instead.

s

Party Time!

2010-12-07T15:17:00.005+10:00

A few posts all in one, because we were without proper speed net service, long story but at last it is fixed. I've missed my November Daring Bakers and a whole heap of other things. So the most important things come first and that's my gorgeous children.

Amy turned 20 on Sunday - eek how did that happen, surely she should still be a wee bitty bitty bubba - So second year of Uni done and dusted, with a excellent marks. She's working at tutoring afternoons, but it's quieter of course now it's holidays.

So anyways Daddy is in charge of photos, but he fell down on the job, so I've only got a cake photo - chocolate mud cake with ganache, neither of which are in my love to make list. So I had to enlist my baby sisters help as this is what she makes. Anyways they turned out great, but I do need a new timer for baking, mine always seem to end up not working thanks to two small cherubs.

And then it was carols at school last night - very wet and soggy walking to the hall, but anwyays. Both had mama made outfits. K's was a little appliqued tshirt with a matching piecework skirt - my own pattern for the skirt and it's super twirly.

William is in an Imke tshirt, which after some unpicking went together fine. But my overlocker had to go in to have some TLC, I got the kids things done but it's a bit ragged sigh!

And he picked his own hat, he was chuffed it was an elf hat WITH EARS!!!

Miss K acting demure

And Miss K in her usual cheeky style sigh! This is 99.9% of the time. William was very annoyed with her in the photos and wanted me to put up one of JUST him, cause K was being silly with rolled eyes.

Super Twirl

Whisper Wings

2010-12-01T12:01:00.005+10:00

A special outfit for a little soon to be 2yo. Her mama has a special reason for the butterflies.

Pinafore Dress is 'Nirunaru' from Ottobre Spring 2008, in washed denim and whisper wings print, appliqued with butterflies.

And of course no outfit is complete without a matching nappy - in aqua and coral minky with front feature panel and butterflies on the back.

Lush

2010-11-30T07:58:00.003+10:00

At long last, we have a lawn. So many things got in the way of getting it done, not enough hours in the day, not enough funds to do the whole lot at once, just not enough oomph. This year has been a trial in more ways than one for a whole slew of reasons.

But now it's time to take care of us, to do the things that we like to do and not work like madmen all the time, take some time out to refresh and reflect and the garden is something that we love to do but it always gets put on the back burner.

We've been on dial up for a few days, with a few more to come and it's amazing how much other stuff you can get done, when it's not on.

Shane had a 4 day weekend, so we started on Friday afternoon and finished yesterday.

At least it wasn't muddy, but there were so many weeds it was insane. So poison was the only way to go - not something we choose to do lightly. But as you can see some of the weeds were stubborn, so Shane and Iain dug them up.

Then 3 cubic metre of decomposed granite, spread all over and levelled, boy was that hard work. But we smoothed it over, filled in the holes and gentled the small drop off. And I think it's pretty even.

Then 70 square metres of Sapphire Turf arrived from James at Horton's Turf - as it turns out 20 years ago when we had our first little house, we bought turf from Biloela Turf supplies, it was blue couch and James's family ran that, so here we are 20 years later buying it from the same wonderful people. His gorgeous wife is on a craft forum I'm on and well you can work the story out from there.

It's had a good water and a roll, which was darn hard work too. Shane and I have muscles we didn't know we had. And now we are just waiting for it to rain - I'm truly over the rain, but I can forbare for the next week for our turf needs some of that blessing to take properly.

So no bindies, no weeds, just lush and cool and wonderful. But of course Miss K in her usual style, went nuts and said I want the dirt back lol!! It's just like a big sandpit - ah well, she'll get used to it.

Next on the agenda - paving under the deck and then a chook house!

Wordless Weekend - Veges

2010-11-21T16:50:00.000+10:00

Hmmmm ..................

2010-11-19T12:59:00.002+10:00

This is Tiger, he is NOT suppose to be in my sewing room, but you turn your back and this happens.

It's quite a jump from my sewing table to the beams - and I have no idea WHY he thought it was a good idea or why he was there - but he's a boy - YOU try and figure them out lol!! Plus there is nothing on the other side of the beam - so he's sitting ona beam about 10cm wide with nothing on the other side.

He was cajoled down with food - it always wins - he is a foodaholic!

And then I go out of the sewing room to help the little miss and return to find this.

Could that box be any smaller???

And just to give you an idea of size, the box is about 20 x 30 cm and Tiger weighs in at over 5kg and is about 90 cm long - he's a BIG cat - theses were the little pussycats that Amy rescued from the Pound. The Vet thinks they are part Norwegian Forest Cat - I think I believe her.

He really is a beautiful cat - but he's NOT allowed in my sewing room, so after pictures he was shooshed out - he is not happy with me atm.

My budding fashion designer

2010-11-17T17:15:00.002+10:00

Well that might be a slight exaggeration lol!!

Little Miss K accompanied me to the local quilt store last week, whilst on an expidition for just the right wool for the Tikki mystery KAL.

After much deliberation a red wool was chosen, we thankfully bypassed the yellow lol!! I'm not doing so great so far on the KAL - it's been frogged a few times, but I'll perservere.

But of course I couldn't NOT stop in at the Quilt Store as it's right next door to the yarn store and the little miss begged and pleaded for some fabric for a skirt, so being the lovely mummy that I am I was cajoled, never expecting her combination lol!

Anyways it's purple with hot pink dots and stripes (on the waist band) which actually suffered at the hands of the overlocker run by a 4yo and had to be embellished with rick rack to cover up a wee hole.

Then of course we needed a top - and the Miss raided the rick rack stash and wanted it on a shirt. So we added a little stripey heart and some heaven forbid Yellow, Purple and Pink rick rack and ta da - there you have it - fashionistas first outfit.

It takes 4 times as long to make with a 4yo helper - does that mean it will take 5 times as long when she's 5???? She is ever so pleased with herself can you tell?

I love swaps

2010-10-31T07:00:00.000+10:00

This is an awesome swap from Crafty Mamas.

The theme was What's your best crafty trick? Is it knitting, crochet, sewing, scrapbooking? Send your swap partner a little taste of your best trick. Keep it small and simple, we don't want to overwhelm ourselves. It's a small gift a guide is to keep it to under $20 in material value. ALSO send your partner a sweet little treat!

And I got the most awesome dyed piece of fabric from Julie-Ann from Rainbow's End Studio

Just absolutely stunning and the small ones loved their treats as well. Chocolate Eyeballs and a Hallloween Lantern :D

Out of puff

2010-10-29T13:40:00.003+10:00

Trying to blogtoberfest for two blogs is just nuts lol!! But we are nearly at the end, not long now, will try and make a concerted effort to post everyday until the end!

Daring Baker's October - Doughnuts

2010-10-27T08:06:00.000+10:00

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Loved, loved, loved this one - they make the most divine, light, fluffy and not greasy at all doughnuts!!! We had a little disaster with ours, they were all made and as you can see beautifully iced, but it was the day before we got all that rain. Got up on the Monday to discover ants had gotten into absolutely everything sob sob sob!! I haven't had a chance to make another batch as my darling DH thinking he was helping one night, used my specially set aside doughnut frying oil to make roast veges and stuff and i wasn't sure I wanted roast flavoured doughnuts lol!!!

Anyways recipe is here, I didn't change a thing, my only tip was if you can make it and leave it overnight in the fridge, then the dough is easier to handle imo. Oh and it makes a bucketload of doughnuts, more than enough for a family of 7 with plenty left over!! Oh and an icing tip makes a good hole remover for the middle of the doughnut.

Yeast Doughnuts:

Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 25 minutes
Rising time - 1.5 hours total
Cooking time - 12 minutes

Yield: 20 to 25 doughnuts & 20 to 25 doughnut holes, depending on size

Ingredients
Milk 1.5 cup / 360 ml
Vegetable Shortening 1/3 cup / 80 ml / 70 gm / 2.5 oz (can substitute butter, margarine or lard)
Active Dry Yeast 4.5 teaspoon (2 pkgs.) / 22.5 ml / 14 gm / ½ oz
Warm Water 1/3 cup / 80 ml (95°F to 105°F / 35°C to 41°C)
Eggs, Large, beaten 2
White Granulated Sugar ¼ cup / 60 ml / 55 gm / 2 oz
Table Salt 1.5 teaspoon / 7.5 ml / 9 gm / 1/3 oz
Nutmeg, grated 1 tsp. / 5 ml / 6 gm / ¼ oz
All Purpose Flour 4 2/3 cup / 1,120 ml / 650 gm / 23 oz + extra for dusting surface
Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Directions:

1. Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. (Make sure the shortening is melted so that it incorporates well into the batter.)
2. Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. It should get foamy. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
4. Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer (if you have one), combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.
5. Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.
6. Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes (for me this only took about two minutes). If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
7. Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
8. On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch (9 mm)thick. (Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).
9. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch (22 mm) ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
10. Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 °F/185°C.
11. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown (my doughnuts only took about 30 seconds on each side at this temperature).
12. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

How cute are these?

2010-10-26T15:11:00.002+10:00

The view

2010-10-25T17:42:00.002+10:00

Ribbons galore!

2010-10-22T09:46:00.001+10:00

Artscape

2010-10-21T05:46:00.004+10:00

There was some interesting art for the Year 12 showcase, but this is my Sarah's.

Banana Peanut Butter Cake

2010-10-20T19:22:00.002+10:00

Anyone that knows me knows that I HATE BANANA with a passion lol!! But we had some less than happy looking bananas, so what's a girl to do - and I've managed to combine them with peanut butter and chocolate and Shane is in cake heaven.

Recipe from Family Circle Cookbook and you know me I don't follow the rules much, when baking.

So take 125g butter, mixed with 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1/4 cup honey. Beat till combined, then add 2 eggs, mixing well after each addition. mix in 1/3 cup peanut butter, the recipe states crunchy, but we only have smooth. 1 cup mashed banana *ick* and 2 cups wholemeal SR flour - I used plain wholemeal with baking powder.

Bake at 180 for 50 - 60 minutes and I iced with Chocolate Icing!

Anyone for waffles?

2010-10-19T19:41:00.003+10:00

It's a bit chilly here, we had a BBQ for dinner, lovely rib fillet, with char grilled mushrooms and asparagus and potatoe salad with our home grown taters.

But I felt like a little more and waffles won the day! They are quick to prepare, keep well, just toast them next day

So the recipe is

2 cups SR flour
1 teaspoon of bicarb of Soda
2 tablespoons of sugar.

Whisk together.

Melt 90g butter, add in 1 3/4 cup milk (I use lite milk) and 2 eggs.

Whisk into the dry ingredients.

Voila! Waffle Batter. Now I've never kept it, I just cook it up and then reheat the waffles. The recipe states stand for 10 minutes, but I've done that or not and they seem similar in taste/texture.

But of course the most important ingredient is the Caramel Sauce.

100 g of butter
120 g of brown sugar

Melted till the sugar dissolves

Add in 100ml of cream
And I like to boil it (watch it carefully, it boils over easily) for about 5 minutes.

So ...

2010-10-18T19:01:00.003+10:00

This post is just for Mel!!

It's sort of a running joke between us - she loves the sparkly vampires, me not so much give me Spike or Angel any day of the week!! Or for that matter TEAM JACOB!!! mmmmm!!!

But anyways my darling hubby has been away and this is what he brought me back lol!!! Well it was waiting in our post office box for him to pick up :D

Spider!

2010-10-17T11:37:00.002+10:00

Well I think I missed a couple of days - blaming atrocious weather and just a lack of oomp!

But today the MOTH is home, the sun is shining, their is a light breeze, though it was a bit brisk this morning.

We've slept in a little for us. Had a gorgeous breakfast out, something we never do and home again to play in the garden. There is quite a bit of mess to clean up after the wild weather of the past week. Sandpit is now drying out.

A casualty of the wind was my rhubarb :( It was laying flat on the ground, but I've propped her up with some dirt and I'll cross my fingers that she takes off again. She'll have to be there for quite a few more months yet.

And then Shane found the most ENORMOUS spider on the gate eek!!

Apple Pie

2010-10-14T18:40:00.003+10:00

Don't you wish you were here?

My favourite pastry recipes, it has cornflour and custard powder and it is lovely biskity and delicious!!

Off now to eat it with vanilla icecream with my little cherubs.

Brioche!

2010-10-13T19:08:00.004+10:00

So I've always wanted to make this and this month's issue of Donna Hay had a recipe, so kill two birds with one stone. But I'm going to say I don't really think much of the dough, it's a super wet type which I'm not always a fan of.

I didn't even put in all the butter they said and it was still super wet. I could partly blame the weather I suppose it's fairly humid.

I made the cinnamon and sugar variety and I've only eaten some crumbs and it's pretty good I must say. But I only added about 150g of the butter.

Bagalicious!

2010-10-12T17:19:00.003+10:00

Well another Bagalicious bag has arrived.

It's got English Paper Piecing which I loathe so I'll just go the good old heat'n'bond and buttonhole stitch lol!!

And it's orange, hmmm, what to do ???

And what's the flippin go with my camera they are all blurry on the left hand side, or is it me???

My favourite things

2010-10-12T07:00:00.001+10:00

Well that's what it's called, I'm hoping to make a start on it sometime this week.

Also got my bagalicious bag kit for October, piccies tomorrow :D

Just a bit of water under the bridge

2010-10-11T09:00:00.005+10:00

The raging torrent that is our local creek.

The little foot bridge about 2 minutes walk away.

The view looking towards Samford.

Opposite the Ferny Grove Tavern on the Ferny Hills Side

You can see the mangled fence and debris from the water over the road here earlier today.

You can see where the water has travelled and how wide it was. It's bucketing again now.

The footbridge from Ferny Way to the train station.

Under my deck

Looking towards the city from Ferny Way.

The view from my deck.

Well it's been a bit damp for the last few days, but it's crossed the coast now and it started really raining at 11pm last night. According to my very rough water catching device, we've had about 7 3/4 inches since 9am yesterday. Eek!

I really

2010-10-10T17:28:00.003+10:00

want to sit on my deck and do some hand embroidery - but yet again it's raining in Sunny Queensland, to be honest I'm completely over it - the backyard is a swimming pool and since we have a clay soil, it just lays theres. And I even had a picture to post of what I want to stitch, but as with everything this week, things haven't gone the way they should and my camera is out of battery, I guess you'll have to wait till tomorrow, to see what I'm stitchin.

A gift!

2010-10-09T16:24:00.001+10:00

From an absolutely gorgeous mama! I've been eyeing off her goodies for sometime and waiting patiently - okay not so patiently to be able to buy them.

But with the pouring rain yesterday and having already gotten a parcel from the post man, I didn't check the post box until this morning when I saw a yellow envelope peeking out and lo and behold there was a gift inside.

And this was what was in it - and K thinks it's divine, twirling and swirling around in it. I can't wait to see what else this mama gets up to.

(K being incredibly cheeky and please excuse the multicoloured cheeks, we've been to a Kindy open day with facepainting)

I'll let everyone know as soon as I know where and when she's going to stock.

And then I finally finished my Oleria by Tikki I oopsed at the sleeve, but managed to make the other sleeve the same in the end and it's just perfect for the little miss.

I made the size 3 with 4 length. K is teeny around but quite tall I think. I knew the GP was wrong when he weighed her I knew that there was no way she weighed that much but he can't stuff her height lol! The cotton that I used was dyed by the awesome Mandy who knows me so well and the colours are just perfect and it was a gift also.

And really and truly you can hardly tell where she's hacked at her hair, when the weather is like this and very wet and humid - it just goes to curls - looks like I got a curly locks at long last - they aren't red but at least they are curls. And she for one doesn't look like the rest, she is the spitting image of my gorgeous niece Emily.

Oops

2010-10-09T09:39:00.002+10:00

I missed yesterday - well I knew what i was going to do but it didn't get done :( So anyways this is just a whiney post instead. I'm sick of the rain, I'm sick of the mess. And the no sleep for the last couple of days. The little cherub takes advantage when Daddy is away to sneek into my bed, but she has to lay right on top of you - we have a queen sized bed, there is plenty of room, but it's no Mummy I want to share your pillow. I don't like sharing my pillow, I don't even share it with Shane.

So my plan for the next week is to tackle one room at a time and declutter them somewhat. Thinking perhaps that I rearrange the kids rooms and have K and W sleeping in the one room and the playroom in the other room, but I'm not sure how that will work?????

Back later today with some baking and the post that should have been posted yesterday.

New seedlings

2010-10-07T07:01:00.003+10:00

Well the garden was pretty bare, the Nappy Hunt takes every spare minute in September, but it was time to dig over the beds and put some new stuff in.

So in this bed we have from the front - red onions, still growing, they take 12mths and were put in in about May, they are growing nicely though.

Then we have mixed lettuce, including Cos. Then we have sugar snap and snow peas and heaven help me two varieties of Tomatoe, one a cherry sized one and the other Mortgage Lifter. They say you can get 16kg tomatoes from that one.

The other bed has the insane tomatoes that are still thriving and newly planted zucchini and corn.

Potatoes are being picked from the last bed, along with some beans and the carrots are still growing.

Our fruit trees are sparkling along and the passionfruit vine is going nuts, luckily it has a fence to run along.

The back yard otherwise is a disaster and hopefully when Shane gets back, we can start bit by bit to put it to rights and get the chooks.

So

Yummy Homegrown Goodies - Day 5

2010-10-06T07:00:00.000+10:00

Mmmmmmmm!!

Yes and yet more tomatoes lol!! Some beans and some weeny carrots which I pulled to thin the crop - they are growing beautifully straight, not something I really expected to be honest, given the soil.

And nicola potatoes - awesome for salads, so potatoe salad it is - with steak and chinese noodle salad yummo!! we have some teeny tiny ones, and some super dooper large ones. This was from one potatoe plant and we have about 20 planted, so should keep us in spuds for a time I think.

The Garden - Day 4

2010-10-05T15:02:00.002+10:00

Some of our growing goodness.

Baby Lemons

Baby Mandarins

Rhubarb - which takes 12mths to grow and we've had in since about June, so only till next June to grow.

Haircuts - Day 3

2010-10-04T09:12:00.003+10:00

Some good, some bad sigh!

Some of you may remember that following a professional photo session with the gorgeous Rachel Richter, William took the scissors to K's hair and gave her a massive haircut, lots of tears abounded mostly mine.

Well K trimmed herself a few weeks ago - but last night decided that something more dramatic was in order, so hiding in her room and using baby nail scissors, she actually managed quite a good cut, though it didn't look like that last night, I think the hairdresser will have to give her a good fringe. She requested this morning for elephant hair - eek! turns out elephant hair is a ponytail - so it swings like a trunk, heaven help me what will I do with this cherub! Too smart by half.

Her lovely pile of blonde locks - hidden under the pillow :(

And of course William took the sensible route and went to the barber for a 7yo hair cut. The spikes are courtesy of his big sis Sarah. I think he looks very handsome.

Day 2 - Melly and Me Bag

2010-10-02T17:26:00.004+10:00

This bag is from the Bagalicious Club It's a Melly & Me Sunrise Bag. It's cute and all but not really me. I would change a couple of things if I made it again. I would choose a slightly lighter pellon and I would make my pleats 1/4 inch instead of the 3/8 in the pattern, to me it has too small an opening, I like to be able to get into my bags easily, I also found with the pellon that the top of the bag was a bit bulky. So I would possibly interface the outer fabrics, then do the pleats and then cut the pellon to fit that afterwards, as it would make for a smoother edge imo.

Oh and a tip when topstitching the handles. Start on the right hand outside edge (facing you) and then stitch around, I tried it from the inside edge the first handle and suffice to say it was not a pretty sight lol!

Because it is yet again raining :( I took the photo inside looking out - soon there will be large lemon/mandarin/lime trees, but they are just babies at the moment, but the view and smell will be incredible as they grow.

I'm now only one bag behind. It's all cut and embroidered but I stuffed up the sewing it together and I need to unpick it - might do that tonight, it's earmarked for a friend, and she's visiting Wednesday and needs a pick me up - so I'll try and have it finished.

Blogtoberfest

2010-10-02T10:11:00.002+10:00

Yes I'm joining in - probably mad as a meatant but here I am

Hope you'll join in as well. Catch you tomorrow!

A giveaway

2010-10-01T16:49:00.001+10:00

On The Handmaden blog - gorgeous hand dyed fabrics - so pop along and leave a comment!

Daring Baker's September

2010-09-27T07:00:00.001+10:00

And it was just in time for my little man's birthday as well.

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

Basic Sugar Cookies:
Makes Approximately 36x 10cm / 4" Cookies

200g / 7oz / ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour
200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
5ml / 1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean I used beans of course :D Thanks Wems!

Directions
• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming
creamy in texture.
• Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during
baking, losing their shape.
• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.
• Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoid
flour flying everywhere.
• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.
• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)
• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.
• Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an
hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and
then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.
• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.
• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.
• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.
• Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.
• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.
• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
• Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.
• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in
some cookies being baked before others are done.
• Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.
• Leave to cool on cooling racks.
• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.
• Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decorated
cookies can last up to a month.

As always when do I follow directions - I didn't roll between parchment, I found the dough relatively easy to handle and just rolled and cut and then popped them into the fridge for about an hour. My oven isn't playing nice with biscuits lately, so some were over brown - I also think I need new cookie sheets, but they were scrumptious and I will stick to this recipe for cut out biscuits in the future.

We also had to pipe the cookies - and since it was William's Birthday - he picked Pirates - what a shock! So skull and crossbone cutter picked up from Baking Pleasures which fortunately or not is about 1/2 hour drive from me. Awesome service I must say. I used royal icing, making the outer a thicker black icing (a tip colour your icing chocolate first and then add the black food colouring) and then flooded the inner with white, using an edible marker for the features. They were scoffed down by a class of year 1's and their teachers. It made a nice change from cupcakes.

And this one was drawn by little Miss Katherine - who is 4!

Sticky Buns

2010-09-25T16:11:00.004+10:00

Some cinnamon scrolls - I used another from Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Cookbook - Festive Raspberry Rolls but I am making Cinnamon Rolls.

1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup water
3 tablespoons softened butter
1 egg
2 cups bread flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teas salt
1 3/4 teaspoon of yeast

I actually added 1/2 cup extra of flour and it was still a very sticky dough, but easily manipulated with a little flour. The original recipe had jam, but I wanted cinnamon, as I had a cream cheese frosting I wanted to use. So I mixed up softened butter, with cinnamon and brown sugar and mixed till fluffy and then spread over the interior, rolled up - cut it into slices with dental floss (clean of course lol) and it worked great. It did make alot more than the recipe stated of 12.

A loaf a day!

2010-09-22T12:57:00.004+10:00

Well that's what I'm going to try - yesterday was just white bread and yummo, though a bit sweeter than I liked.

Today it was Oatmeal Sunflower Bread from Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Book.

I used the 1 1/2 pound recipe. And I used Aussie tablespoons, not the US version.

So this loaf is quite tasty - it didn't rise as much as the white loaf, but I think it's a slightly denser loaf. But it is yummy and it has a slightly crunchier crust than the white loaf. I did find it browned quite a bit so next time I would change the crust to lighter on the breadmaker.

Oh and we have a panasonic with nut dispenser.

Weekend Baking

2010-09-12T10:44:00.004+10:00

Well I've been a slack blogger and baker lately. With the hunt and everything else that has happened recently, time to do any baking just fell by the wayside.

But a hubby who is not up to snuff - read - exhausted!!! Hence a need to keep small children quiet in the early morning so he could sleep - led to a mammoth bakefest.

This book - Blissful Brownies which I got for my birthday - has a goodly quantity of droolworthy items. So far I've made the classic brownies (tasty but more like a cake) Some of them made their way to Hamish and Sarah at Greenbeans as they did me a massive favour. Also dropped off a banana cake with cream cheese icing. I've also made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares (though I did need a larger tin than stated)

But today it is Chocolate Fudge Brownies, I ditched the icing in favour of melted chocolate and omitted the nuts.

And they are quite nice, but should have used the smaller tin - next time, I would double the chocolate batter - adding more cocoa and still bake in a slice tin.

Then we moved onto Lamingtons from Donna Hay - Annual 7 - the kids ones - and which I solely blame on Sara from Willow and Moo, you know I'm teasing Sara right - lamingtons are messy !! But they taste soooo good!!! Little cherub was more than a little miffed, she DOES NOT do coconut and I was suppose to leave some un-coconuted but I forgot - so I am in the bad books :(

And then from the same issue - spotty biscuits. The dots of course placed by small children. Leftover M&M's from a visit to the movies yesterday to see Despicable me - Shane and 3 small boys and 1 small cherub. It's William's birthday soon and that was his choice!!

So that's today's baking!!

Oh and I've done a weed and pulled out of the past their useby dates veges in the gardens. The zucchini's disappointingly seems to get some sort of mould whatever on them and that in turn killed them - I'm thinking they need the sunnier garden bed. So I was ruthless and all I have left growing now is the killer tomatoes (this is just today's harvest)

onions, still ages to grow. Potatoes, no flowers yet and some carrots and marigolds. I want to plant more, but should I even try with the hunt still in full swing?

Daring Baker's August

2010-08-28T15:01:00.007+10:00

And just a wee bit late oops! I seem to be running in circles atm :(

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

As always my adjustments are in red

Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup (250ml) whole milk I used lite milk as that's all we have in house these days.
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (165g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
2 cups (500ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream - I used thickened cream, hoping to avoid ice crystals as I don't have an ice-cream maker ....... yet!
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract - I omitted this as I used beans instead.

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.)

2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.

3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.

4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it without a machine. See instructions from David Lebovitz: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/07/making_ice_crea_1.html

The recipe was easy enough, I found it a little bit too creamy for my tastes, so would probably revert to using the semi-freddo recipe I have used in the past if I remade it.

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution) Basically for every cup of plain flour, remove 2 tablespoons and replace with cornflour.
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt Again I leave salt out of our baking for Shane's health.
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1.

Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.

2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.

5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

I actually didn't think I had browned the butter enough, but I think it actually worked quite well. Family was fascinated by the pan of *something* sitting on the stove and kept poking it with a wooden spoon lol!!

Meringue (For the Baked Alaska)

8 large egg whites
½ teaspoon (3g) cream of tartar
½ teaspoon (3g) salt
1 cup (220g) sugar

Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on high speed in an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in the sugar gradually in a slow stream until stiff peaks form.

I only have 5 egg whites, because the ice cream only used 5 yolks and with the ridiculous amount of eggs we go through in a week, I wasn't wasting any - I think this weeks count is 4 dozen. Time to get that chook shed built.

Now to put it altogether, you can read the full instructions on Elissa's blog. This is how I did mine. Cake was baked in a slice tray. Cut into shape with a round cutter, size 1 1/2 inch. Small balls of icecream placed on top and then covered with meringue!

I've decided making minature Bombe Alaska's was a dumb idea! I thought they would be easier, but I ended up with meringue from head to toe practically. A can of Canola oil was my saviour and I used it like a minature turntable along with a trusty crank handled palette knife.

And yes the darn things look like little aliens lol!! But oh my they tasted sooooooooooooo GOOD!!!!

Another Birthday Cake

2010-08-05T08:44:00.003+10:00

This time it was mine, and for once I didn't make it lol!!!

It was a Brown Sugar Sponge with Creme Fraiche and poached caramel pears. Shane and Sarah made it following a recipe in Gourmet Traveller. Mind you they only made 2 layers as opposed to 4 cause the thing used a gazillion eggs lol!!!

Amy and Iain made a lemon delicious but had some trouble with the cooking time, it was still uber delicious!!!

Caramel and Lemon my two favourite flavours!!!!

As you can see Shane took the photos, geez wheres the styling lol!!

Happy 4th Birthday

2010-07-18T14:10:00.004+10:00

This day 4 years ago, we welcomed the last cherub to the home. After a surprisingly to everyone but my Mum labour. Quicker than a game of soccer my hubby tells me, little Miss K made her arrival, weighing an astonishing 9lb 6oz - the doctor said no way - but there she was all cuddly and sweet and looking like a little pixie!

And now look at her, sweet and cherubic - or so she will have you believe lol!!

Stunning Redondo skirt from the gorgeous Sara at Willow and Moo

And of course yummy cupcakes - I finally after all these years made the vanilla cupcakes from the Crabapple Cupcake Book and find I still prefer mine lol!! And I made fluffy frosting, which went down a treat with everyone but the birthday girl, who had picked it out herself lol!!!

Stunning wings are from Gigi's Fairy Fashion

And the most exciting pressie for the day - a beautiful dolly from the lovely Michelle at Poppy Beans and Bloss Katherine was sitting on my lap one day whilst I browsed FB and there was a gorgeous dolly from Michelle - and K was in raptures and I'll have that one with blue hair and a pink top - and that's exactly what we got! K was ever so excited that she had undies and a belly button!! Miss Emily as the dolly is now named (guessing cause Emily is K's favourite cousin) has been cuddled and dressed and redressed countless times already.

You say Potato and I say Potatoe

2010-07-04T16:43:00.004+10:00

Yes our veges are going berserk - yah team!!! We have 3 beds now and some citrus, bit by bit every couple of weeks, more little bits pop into the garden, we work on one area at a time, as it was/is a complete mud puddle yet, it's slow going but hopefully by summer it will be in full swing and no more mud.

This is the first garden bed - planted out on Mother's Day, mostly seedlings, but we now have broccoli, the cauliflower is starting to peak out, it won't be long before the sugarloaf cabbage is picked. Masses of flowers on the Tiny Tom tomatoes and the heirloom variety have already started to set their fruit. The asian lettuce are being eaten from the garden by the little people and I've discovered you can use the Tatsoi like spinach so I'm going to give that a whirl. Masses of snow pea and honeysnap pea flowers abound, and already we have some teeny weeny peas growing. The only disappointment in the whole garden is the beans, but I guess I'll wait and see what they do.

The potatoe patch - Nicole and Desiree!

Heirloom stripey tomatoes, literally covered in flowers and going nuts!

Remember that weeny broccoli no bigger than a thumb two weeks ago - well looky here, time for eating and William was very very excited that he got to cut it off. It's up for the dinner table with shepherd's pie. Though I reckon lightly steamed, covered in Bernaise sauce and flaked toasted almonds would be awesome as well.

The 2nd garden bed from the front. Beans, Snow Peas, Spinach, Marigolds popped all over, two types of lettuce, zucchini and red onions.

And this is this weeks work, fill in the retaining wall - it was cut quite away from the house, then planted lime, emperor madarin and lemon and then some Begonias, pansies, rhubarb (yes I know weird) and a passionfruit vine. I should have just planted more veges cause as we discovered eventhough this is on the western side of the house, it gets sun even in winter from about 10am, so in summer, it will be in full sun, so will be awesome for veges.

So in the garden we have along with the above, Strawberries, marjoram, chervil, tarragon, thyme, sorrel, catmint, mint, catnip, lavender, parsley, basil, oregano and sage.

At the moment getting out into the garden is helping keep me on an even keel. We've had quite a few hiccups recently and more to come it seems, Pa is having an op tomorrow as well. Guess I'll be planting lots more in the weeks to come.

Wordless Weekend

2010-06-12T10:48:00.002+10:00

Happy Birthday Sarah

2010-06-11T18:54:00.004+10:00

Well just about 17 years and 1 hour ago, my gorgeous 2nd daughter came into the world. Nearly 4 weeks early but gorgeous and precious just as she is today.

Happy Birthday my darling Sarah and I hope you had a wonderful day!!

Her request for Birthday dinner. Chicken Pasta, Garlic bread and a cheesecake - any kind. Man these kids can't decided - so with much tooing and frooing, Strawberry Cheesecake was chosen. And if was delicious - it was a baked cheesecake for a change.

Pressies included quite a few Pandora Beads from famiy and friends, lovely hand creams and room oil wick thingys (I am hopeless trying to remember the names) skinny black jeans and chocolate cake baked by boyfriend Jack !! We still have some cupcakes to come but we are all too full from Cheesecake, so we might save them till tomorrow.

My Creative Space

2010-06-10T14:31:00.003+10:00

There are just never enough hours in the day lately sigh!

I'm trying my darndest to make some little crochet squares for a charity project and let's just say I am not going well with things, but I am trying I promise.

My bagalicious club arrived today and it's so wonderful, I love the colours it even has a stitchery woo hoo, so I am going to do this, last months Bagalicious bag is over 1/2 finished but you know me and yellow.

And I had to go and buy vlisoflix today as I needed a slightly lighter weight adhesive to the Applikay Wonder that I have been using, and of course you can't just buy vlisoflix can you - so the sweet little fabric crept into the basket and then oh no Janelle Wind's new book Pieces of Me popped in as well and I love it - I think I can make everything in the book, which doesn't usually happen, I can see quite a few birthday/Christmas Gifts in it.

You can find more creative spaces over at Kootoyoo

The first Harvest

2010-06-05T16:41:00.007+10:00

Of our home grown veges. Not much to start with, but enough for our dinner, they are a mix of asian lettuces, I'm sure some of the children *read all* will be adverse to trying them but meh! this is what we are having.

All the veges were planted on Mother's Day and are doing great. I did plant 6 beans seeds and unfortunately only 3 came up, but I'll just plant some more when i can find where I put the packet.

Shane and I spent the afternoon (with my coughing and hacking away) making two more beds, awaiting the tip truck full of dirt arriving on Monday - yeh I know you'd think we have enough dirt but nope it seems not.

Then I have to make a visit to a turf farm to procure some turf, so my backyard is not a constant quagmire of mud *read I can't stand having more pants ruined by the little miss K jumping into puddles*

Bali Bag and a Milo

2010-06-01T08:51:00.002+10:00

Well it was a friend's birthday recently and although it was a little slow making it to her, it's arrived now, so I can post piccies. It's a bali bag which came about as I was sent the incorrect fabric from a co-op, so what was I to do with strips of fabric?? Well make a Bali Bag - I'm not going to say I'm going to rush out and make a gazzilion of them lol!! But I did have fun.

And a very very late new born baby present oops!! Little Phoenix is now 4mths old, but I knit very slow lol!! Hopefully he'll still fit it. I of course never do things according to how I should (Tikki stop reading now!!) and I used thicker wool, but the same sized needles, so thanks to some help from Robyn and Ali, I managed, first time doing cables and all and the wool was such a divine colour. I *think* it came from Monster Knits, but I can't be sure.

Daring Baker's May

2010-05-28T15:22:00.001+10:00

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg - I used two whole eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla I used one vanilla bean pod scraped and added to the milk when heating.

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

I find pastry cream a bit heavy so I like to lighten it with some whipped cream. I used the pastry cream and added enough whipped to soft peaks creams until it was smooth.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.

It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet) I made a chocolate glace icing instead, it was delicious!!

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.
It was quite humid and rainy here today so the toffee didn't set as it should, still darn tasty though. Be warned it does stick to your teeth.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place – see video #4 below).

When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate. Have fun and enjoy! Bon appétit!

Now mine isn't that much of a tower, it was too wet today to make a nice tower that stuck together, so it's sorta a pile of profiteroles, but they were delicious!! As evidenced by the fact that there are NONE LEFT!!!

Sorry for the lack of pictures as you go, I've this time left everything to the last minute and just forgot to take piccies as I went, ah well next time :)

Sunday Baking

2010-05-23T08:40:00.003+10:00

And oh my I'm on time this week lol!! Well to be honest I did start them last night.

Shane and I watched 'It's Complicated' this week and there is a scene where they make chocolate crossiants and whilst getting groceries yesterday Shane asked if I could make them - well of course what a silly hubby. So here is the result.

I used this recipe I've made Danish Pastry before and this is not dissimilar - I did drop the butter back to 300g though as that was all I had and it was a trifle hard to roll out in the brisk morning, so I'm on the search for a softer dough.

But as you can see they went down a treat and look and taste delicious!!!

Sunday Baking

2010-05-18T09:08:00.001+10:00

Okay, okay so the pictures are a couple of days late, but here they are.

Pecan Brownies - the original recipe called for walnuts but I really don't like them. So I used good old Aussie Pecans.

And then Caramel Cashew slice, wasn't too keen on the caramel, I thought it could be better, but it was quick and easy to make and quite tasty.

I also made Choc chip and craisin bikkies but Katherine doesn't like them - get the pink bits out mummy, I just want the chocolate bits.

Some baking

2010-05-14T15:16:00.003+10:00

Firstly a tweaked Masterchef Sausage Roll - I used pork/veal mince and I didn't bother pureeing the veges mine eat bits lol! So they had grated carrot and cheese in them and oh yum!! I used 500g of the mince and 4 sheets of ready rolled puff pastry cut in half. So it made 8 big sausage rolls. I used poppy seeds on the top - except for K who doesn't like those black things lol!! This was enough for dinner for 6, a lunch for Shane for work and 3 lunchtime meals. They were delicious!!

And then it was cold, gloomy and dark and I needed desert after a rough day :( So Lemon and Coconut Self Saucing pudding and oh my it was delicious - ugly but delicious. Next time I think I'll make the top batter a bit runnier, it was quite thick, but nontheless tasty.

And last but not least, cinnamon scrolls, my favourite quick put together last minute morning tea.

2 cups of SR flour, rub in 90g butter and then mix in 2/3 cup of milk to a soft dough. Roll out to a rectangle to about 5mm thickness.

Then mix together 60g softened butter and 2 tablespoons brown sugar , 1 teas cinnamon and spread over the rectangle of the dough. Roll up and then cut into 2 - 3 cm slices. Place dough pieces close together on a tray and bake until golden - about 12 - 15 minutes at 210 deg.

When cool ice with Glace Icing - I use a cup of so of icing sugar, a teaspoon of butter, and enough milk to make a smooth paste, add a drop of pink colour. Mix together until smooth. Zap in the microwave for about 20 minutes and then spoon in dollops onto the cooled scrolls.

If I'm cranky

2010-05-07T15:53:00.003+10:00

then I bake. Do you have weeks where just everything rubs you the wrong way? When things just don't go according to plan. When other people are just rude? Well I've had one of those weeks sigh!! Perhaps I'm tired, perhaps I'm sore - actually I'm both and maybe that's what's making me cranky, but anyways the baking bug bites, I don't even have to cook stuff I like, but I find myself HAVING to bake. So yesterday when I was particuarly cranky I decided I HAD to make these biscuits.

Peanut Butter and Choc Chip - both of which are fine by themselves, but I don't particularly like at all lol!! But the others in the family do - so a goodly portion were scoffed by the small children and teenagers boyfriend after dinner, no ice-cream as they had an icypole after school, so the bikkies had to suffice. The recipe is from the latest issue of Family Circle, not a magazine I usually buy but the chocolate tart on the front called Shane's name in the grocery line and then I had to look at the recipes didn't I - dumb move, but anyways some awesome recipes are in the book.

These were alot stiffer than I thought they would be given the mix, so they didn't flatten like my normal choc chip bikkies do, so the first lot ended up looking like these.

When really they look better I think looking like this.

They are also suppose to have melted chocolate drizzled, but it seems that someone has eaten the cooking chocolate :( So no drizzle.

But these bikkies - Butterscotch -they are yummy and very moreish. Again from Family Circle, but try as I might I couldn't track down Green and Blacks Butterscotch Chocolate as the recipe stipulated, so a girls got to do what a girls got to do and I HAD to substitute Toblerone, oops! But OH MY, they are delicious. Mind you they are better still warm from the over, but next day they aren't that bad either. I didn't follow the instructions to the letter - heaven's above when do I ever, and I didn't put them in the fridge till cold. I just used my trusty mini-icecream scoop and rolled them into the caster sugar and hey presto - divine yumminess.

QFD Creative Giveaway

2010-05-05T18:32:00.004+10:00

I haven't as yet had the time to create any of the gorgeous tutorials from QFD Creative Team, but if you pop along here you can see what they have been up to. Some awesome goodies and they'd make super gifts if you are starting to plan for the Festive Season. So if you'd like to follow the blog - pop along to QFD Creative