baking challenge #2: vanilla muffin birthday cake

One of the ladies at work is having her birthday tomorrow and we’ll both be working the weekend, so I decided it would be nice to whip up some vanilla birthday-themed muffins tonight to serve at morning tea. This was a first, as I’ve never made a cake for a colleague before, and also never made icing that was any good before (let alone figure out how to use a piping bag without destroying it!!). It was also an important hurdle to jump in terms of cooking the muffins without burning them.

I used the same ingredients and method from the blueberry muffin recipe I made last week, but omitted the blueberries, and added about 2-3 times the amount of vanilla essence. I also added a couple of teaspoons of maple syrup to the mix. I topped them with two icings - one made from butter, icing sugar, vanilla essence, lemon juice and a few drops of chocolate essence, and the other from butter, icing sugar, vanilla essence, lemon juice, and the tiniest drop of almond essence. I iced half the muffins with the chocolate, half with the almond, sprinkled them with some 100s & 1000s, and then piped details on them with the opposing colour icing. The result? A beautifully fluffy, vanillery, and scrumptiously buttery muffin. I’ve arranged them all in a container, with a little extra icing piped on the centre muffin and a ‘Happy Birthday’ flag added for decoration. Lined up like this it looks a bit like a birthday cake in itself, but all portioned up neatly ahead of time! (Meaning no slicing and less dishes for us lazy people! )

To make the flag, cut a small piece of paper and fold it in half. Write the greeting on the front. Opened up and brush the inside lightly with PVA glue. Line up a toothpick in the crease, and close the paper over it. Press to seal. This dries quickly & can be used pretty much immediately.

All packaged up, it’s ready to go! Now I just hope I didn’t go too overboard with the vanilla essence…

blueberry muffins for mum and me

I received a Mother’s Day -themed newsletter from recipezaar today, which featured a fantastic looking picture for “Melt in Your Mouth Blueberry Muffins”. I followed the link trail to find the recipe, and was stoked to see that it was really really simple. I generally suck at baking, and my oven burns pretty much everything that goes in it, so my baking mantra is ‘the simpler the better!’

I haven’t ever made blueberry muffins before, but I’ve eaten them now and again at cafe’s and the like. They are always a bit sticky and gooey for me, and as such a bit on the heavy side. For this reason I have to admit I’ve never found them that appetizing. They’re often also either too sweet or too bland. These are all reasons why I’ve probably never made them.

This recipe is amazing though. It goes to show that the best things in life are often the most simple. I am so impressed. I made this batch tonight to test them out, with the plan to make some more on Saturday to give to our Mums on Sunday. I’m glad I decided on doing that now, because it turns out that in an attempt to brown the tops a little bit more, I left the grill on too long and they got a bit tooo brown. I was sitting right in front of the damn oven, too, but our oven doesn’t have a glass window on the door, so it’s hard to monitor what you’re baking without letting the heat out.

Anyway, although I was sure they were burnt, they actually aren’t. They’re just well coloured!

The consistency is absolutely beautiful, you take a bite and its all melty and perfect, and the blueberries are sooo good. It doesn’ stick to your teeth like most blueberry muffins do; but its not too dry or bready either. It’s hard to explain - it’s just perfect. I will definitely make these again - and perhaps alternate what berries I put in now and then, for some variety.

So do try the recipe out - you won’t be disappointed! Great served with a cuppa

whittakers chocolate preoccupation

It started off with this, for under $2:

I was impressed. Big, chunky peanuts, not little broken up ones. Thick creamy chocolate, but dark enough to be flavoursome. Only problem being there’s 3, so sharing is tricky - chocolate never breaks in half equally for some reason…

Then I tried this, under $3 from Coles:

Fruit and nut chocolate is my favourite. Whittaker’s take on the classic combo definitely delivered. SO good. Then we tried cashew:

Just like the peanut slab, but in block-form and with big chunky cashews… Mmmm…

Then we saw this today on special:

And I have to say, for plain milk chocolate it’s pretty damn good. It almost has a coffee-like flavour. Again, very yummy.

I find it amazing that this stuff usually costs less than Cadbury’s chocolate, and yet the quality is really really good. Especially compared to Cadbury’s - that stuff is yuck. I like the retro packaging too

I just checked out the website and they have heaps more flavours, including 72% Dark, Almond Gold, Bittersweet Dark, Brazil Nut, Coconut, Dark Ginger, Dark Orange, Hazelnut, Kiwi Fruit, Macadamia, Peanut, Raisin, Rum & Raisin, White Chocolate, and White Macadamia. And that’s just their ‘block’ range.. they have toffee milks, slabs, santes, squares and kbars too.

As you can see, I have a lot more to get through!!

I reckon the Kiwi’s put magic in their food or something.. everything I’ve tasted from there reminds me of my childhood. Which in turn reminds me of Noshtalgia.

homemade almond biscotti

I’ve always wanted to make these but never really got around to it. I found a recipe for biscotti today on the Kenwood Chef website though that seemed simple and do-able, so I gave it a try using my trusty old 70s machine. Turned out pretty well I reckon! As usual, I altered the recipe somewhat to suit my pantry contents, and the method was also tweaked a bit because of my temperamental oven. I also doubled the recipe because I’m a) a greedy-guts, and b) too lazy to make more once I’ve devoured the first lot! I’m pretty happy with the outcome overall, tho if I had more almonds and some pistacios I would have added them. I also wish I could find a substitute for baking powder so that desserts like this don’t have that dry-mouth feeling when you eat them.. if anyone has any ideas let me know! Here’s the recipe…

wildschwein’s easter eggnog

Our chooks are laying like mad at the moment, meaning we have a HUGE surplus of eggs to get through! Lastnight it was on the chilly side, and I felt like something warm and sweet, so I pulled out the Kenwood Chef and whipped up this creamy and slightly addictive batch of eggnog. Was so proud that it worked out!!!

This recipe was inspired by one of Alton Brown’s, available on the Food Network website, however I’ve made a few alterations to both the ingredients and method, which probably produced a slightly different result. I also doubled the recipe so I would have plenty of leftovers to refrigerate (and also to use up more eggs!!). My altered recipe is below!

semolina upside-down fruit salad cake

There’s nothing worse than wanting cake but having no flour! On this occasion we did however have some semolina in the cupboard and decided to use it as a substitute. The result was actually pretty damn good. The semolina gave the cake a slightly grainy texture, but this was in no way a bad thing. The fruit melded with the base to create quite a moist, but not overly sweet, dessert. I’ll be using semolina again in this way! The recipe follows…

food blog of the week #17

Well, this isn’t really a blog I guess… but it’s still a noteworthy food-related website worthy of a review, so welcome to the 17th installment of food blog thingo of the week!

I’m not quite sure how it was that originally I stumbled across Road Food, but it has to be one of the most interesting places on the web - even if you live outside of the U.S.

What is roadfood, you ask? On the website it’s summed up as “Great regional meals along highways, in small towns and in city neighborhoods. It is sleeves-up food made by cooks, bakers, pitmasters, and sandwich-makers who are America’s culinary folk artists. Roadfood is almost always informal and inexpensive; and the best Roadfood restaurants are colorful places enjoyed by locals (and savvy travelers) for their character as well as their menu.”

To be completely honest, some of the dishes featured on the site make you feel grateful you don’t spend much time on the road. Indeed, some make you think your own diet - albeit in need of improvement - isn’t actually too bad in the scheme of things. But the occasional meal actually makes you feel quite envious that in the U.S. you can be fed so well for so little money. - Particularly if you’re Australian and you’re used to an on-the-road diet of pricey yet well-aged chicko rolls, cornjacks, dim sims, chips and toasted sandwiches - i.e. most things that contain bread, breadcrumbs or batter and can be fried in large amounts of stinky old reused oil. Even the more substantial meals are generally pretty boring, not to mention low quality and value for money.

Looking through the different food-logs of the different states it also seems that more road meals in the U.S. seem to be made from scratch compared to over here. Yes, the fried components are still very common, but there are more one-pot type meals like stews and broths, and more sauces. What you get generally reflects how much you spend, too, which I think is quite fair compared to here. It also just looks yummier (well, sometimes, anyway - I’m pretty open minded, but stuff like this, this and this makes me wonder!) Here are some great examples!

Large plate of wedges, US$3

 

12 Chicken wings, US$8

 

Halibut & chips - US$14

Taco salad - US$6

California Breakfast - US$9

 

 Chicken pot pie - US$5

 

Onion rings - US$3

Chicken and dumplings - US$5

Belgian waffle - US$4

Zip Burger & fries - US$5

Lemon cheese pie - US$2

And violin-playing ’schwein’s to boot!

What donut are you?

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you’re a total pushover and completely soft. You’re a traditionalist, and you don’t change easily. You’re likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it’s sold out.

What Donut Are You?

I generally think online quizzes are stupid, but I was impressed by the concept of the Boston Cream Donut and, having never had one, thought I’d keep the picture so I remember what they look like next time I’m in the vacinity of a donut shop. I haven’t had a donut in over a decade, but that one looks yum! Anyone tried one? I’d love a review!

The description on Wikipedia sounds delicious:

“A Boston cream doughnut is a local name for a Berliner filled with vanilla custard or crème pâtissière and topped with chocolate icing.”

Sounds kind of like an even more corrupt version of an eclair or profiterole.  …Mmmmmmmmm…..

food blog of the week #16

Welcome to the 16th installment of food blog of the week!

This week I want to introduce you to the fabulous blog What’s for lunch? Maybe its the romantic French setting.. or perhaps the wonderfully crisp and evocative photography… or maybe it’s simply the fabulous mouth-watering food? Whatever the reason(s), I find this blog utterly captivating. Everything shown inspires me to save up for a trip to France, if only to dine at one of the bakeries! The care put into such simple, everyday food is astounding compared to the standards you find here in Perth. The quality of the ingredients is also amazing - check out and drool at this picture, for instance! And if that’s not enough, look at this!

If you’re looking for a good dose of food porn definitely check out What’s for lunch? It will have you booking that trip to Europe in no time!

If you’d like to see other foodie websites that we like, visit our links page.

Enjoy!

the best trifle i’ve made

Yes, it looks a bit like spew, but it’s in fact a deliciously moist Christmas trifle. This was my first ever attempt at making a trifle and I was happy to find out that they are pretty difficult things to stuff up. I didn’t even follow a recipe per se - I just asked family and friends what their own methods were and compiled them. The following ingredients and method that resulted made us a gigantic 3-4 litre trifle. The quantities could of course be decreased or increased according to how many mouths you’ll be feeding and whether you want leftovers! I definitely think that the jelly quantities should be kept the same, though, regardless of the size trifle you’re making. You can never have too much jelly!!