mini treat

Don’t you just love when you have some business that takes you to the part of town where your very favourite cake shop is? I am lucky this shop is not closer to where I work or I would be there every day. These little cups cakes are just divine. The Cake itself is so light and fluffy and the icing is creamy and light but not too sweet for my taste. Cupcakes on Pitt make all sorts of flavours and now that they serve them in mini sizes it means you get to try out more of the options available. I went for a six pack with the intention of sharing them with the girls I work with and as I was travelling back to the office I spent the whole journey debating which one (or two) I would keep for myself. They are all so good.

And so now to explain that I have been on holidays so the food making has been on hold recently. We have been off skiing in Whistler and having the most wonderful week of fresh air and fun on the slopes. Before I headed to Whistler I made a surprise visit back to Dublin and while I was there spending some quality time with my family we all decided we needed to trim down a little. Since we are all pretty competitive in my family we thought the most fun way to achieve this weight lose was to set some goals and but some money where are moth is. Yes, we have a wager going and I can assure you all that I will be coming out of this smiling. The End date is August 1st and between now and then you will see some different types of recipes on this here blog. We are taking healthy tasty low cal all the way baby. Bring it on. Now I must hide all those cake cookbooks for the next few months and rely on fresh quality ingredients to tempt you all.

Surprise Visit

Much as I love living in Australia there are times when I feel very far away from my family. I hate feeling homesick but it is very difficult to just hop on a plane when you live on the other side of the world. I missed out on a great girlie get together for my sisters 40th in January. It was so lovely to hear all the fun my Mum and sisters were having but it nearly killed me not being able to join them.

Then plans started to be made for my Mums surprise 70th Birthday get-together and that was it for me. I had to make it home. I had to be a part of this. I was supposed to be going to Canada around the time of Mum's birthday so I changed my plans and booked myself a round-the-world ticket and factored in a few days stop over in Dublin. My sister S, who lives in Limerick, very kindly made all sorts of arrangements to make sure she could also join in the surprise by coming to Dublin.

It was so much fun because my Mum had no idea I was coming. Usually when there is a plan to meet up in Dublin or Sydney we spend weeks counting down the days until we are going to see each other. Now there would be no count down, just me appearing at a lunch Mum thought she was having with my sister E, who lives near by. The look on Mum's face was absolutly priceless.

We had so much fun over the five days I was home. My sister did a great job of secretly cancelling all the arrangements Mum had but there was one golf day that could be cancelled as Mum is now the lady Captain of the club. While Mum was off golfing I spent the day with my sister and three of her beautiful daughters. We had a morning of baking. I would love to say I showed them my favoutire recipe for making cupcakes but the truth is we went to the shop and bought one of those packet mixes. We still had lots of fun and the girls loved the whole process of making cakes that they could then eat as fast as their little hands could get them into their mouths.

I have always loved cooking and I think it all stems from helping my Mum in the kitchen. If I could even sew the tiniest seed of that cooking bug into these girls then I will be happy.

Mille Grazia

Most people who know me now would not believe that when I was very young I was very quiet.My mum said I would sit for hours and just observe everything that was going on around me. Today while I am still very observent of what is going on around me, I am more than making up for being quiet in those early years. I'm a talker and there's no denying that. I am lucky to sit beside some great people in work but sometimes I do feel for them having me chatting away beside them all the time.

In order to keep myself in the good books with these poor souls I like to bring in some of my cooked goodies. For a while now I've been the only one bringing in cakes, buns and treats. But the other day as I was making my morning cuppa in the kitchen I was treated to one of my friends cakes. She's got a new man and she's been keen to impress him with her culinary delights. Since I've been treating her she decided to repay me with one of the desserts she has been wooing her man with.

She got the recipe for this mille feuille from here. It tasted wonderful and I just love a recipe that tastes this good and only takes a few minutes to prepare so I had a go at making it myself. I cut each serving into three to make each piece a little bit more managable to eat.

Making Amends

OK so this is not really a new post it is more a fix up of an old post. I was having a look at the stats for my blog and it seems that this post is the one that gets the most number of hits.

When I had a look at the post I realized that it had one of my least favorite food photographs on it. I had lost my camera at the time and I was trying to use my friends which I didn't do very well. I took the photo in the morning as I was rushing off to work. Basically the photograph did the cake no justice at all. Here is the photo that used to be on this post. I don't know what I was thinking. It doesn't look appetizing at all, does it?


It was always on my mind to take a much better photo of such a fantastic cake. To style it properly and make it look like you just want to cut yourself a slice of it and tuck in right now. And I Think I have done that now.

Comparing this two photos has made me realize how much I have learned about food photography over the last couple of years. I know I still have so much to learn and that why I have already signed up for my first ever photography course. F-stops and aperture here I come.

ps. I didn't want to write the name of the cake because the reason the post gets the most hits is from people googling "m@rs b@r chee$ecake" and I didn't want them coming to this post instead of the one with the recipe.

Banana man

J loves his banana bread. He's not really a sweet tooth person. Not really into his dessert unless it contains alcohol. When he is feeling like a little something sweet in the afternoon he usually heads out to the local bakery and gets himself a big slice of banana bread. A number of times I have told him that I would gladly make him some banana bread but he has refused my offer. I think he likes the chance to get a break from work.

But of course I took this as a challange to see if I could win him over to my banana bread. One of the cafe's around the corner from us the Digi Cafe recently published the recipe for their banana bread in Delicious magazine. This was my second attempt as the last recipe I tried was a little too greasy. This one was a winner. J finished the whole loaf over the weekend (with a little help from me). I even got the ultimate compliment from Banana man when I was potterering around in the garden he called out from the kitchen "This banana bread tastes better than the one I buy". Mission accomplished.

Banana Bread

125g unsalted butter
1 firmly packed cup of brown sugar
2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk for mascarpone
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 large, ripe banana, mashed
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp shredded coconut
1 ½ cup (225g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbs milk
250g mascarpone
2 tbsp icing sugar
¼ cup honey, plus extra to drizzle
Zest and juice of I lemon

• Preheat oven to 170ºC. Grease and line a 1L loaf pan with baking paper.


• Use and electric beater to beat butter and sugar until thick and pale. Add eggs, cinnamon, banana, vanilla and coconut. Beat on low speed until combined.


• Sift flour, baking powder and soda over and fold in gently, then fold in the milk.


• Pour into pan and bake for 40-45 mins until skewer inserted in centre comes out clean.


• Just before serving whisk egg yolk through mascarpone. Fold in icing sugar, honey, zest and juice.


• Serve the bread lightly toasted with butter, mascarpone and honey.

Note: I didn't have any mascarpone so I served it with ricotta. I think I would prefer the mascarpone if it is available

New Friend

Our wedding in Dublin was an intimate affair with just our two families present - with one exception. J’s best man was his friend, LJ, from England. Said best friend now has a lovely Swedish girlfriend, E, who I had never met before. I was a little nervous about E meeting my family as they can be a little mad at the best of times and throw in a family wedding and there is no hope for them. E had work commitments so only made it to Dublin on the night before the wedding. By the time she arrived the two families were busy tucking into a Chinese banquet and many glasses of wine and other assorted alcoholic drinks. Let’s just say that E's first impression of my family was a double round of flaming sambucas. We could only improve from there, hey?

The next day was the wedding and E just fitted in so well with everyone. She looked a picture of beauty in blue and seemed to be smiling every time I looked at her. She boogied the night away with all the kids and parents and seemed to be having a great time. If only I had known how well she would fit in … by the time she was leaving after only a weekend in Dublin she had made many good friends. My family were all so impressed with E they wanted to adopt her as one of their own (god help her).

After a bit of a honeymoon in Ireland we headed over to London to have our second celebration with more friends and family. While we were there we had the good fortune to stay over with LJ and E. They cooked us the most delicious 4 course meal. They are one of those lovely couples who both love to cook (but not at the same time I hear) and so we were blessed with two great cooks, competing with each other, to produce a truly wonderful dinner. E made a White Chocolate Mousse dessert and much as it tasted divine she also informed me that is was very simple to make. I made sure I got the recipe when I returned and here it is for you to enjoy. It only takes minutes to prepare and tastes fantastic.

White chocolate Mousse -
4 portions:
200 ml whipping cream
50 gram white chocolate (I always use 100g to increase the chocolate flavour)
1 egg

400g strawberries
2 tablespoons of liquid honey
1 lime - the zest and juice

1 - Whip the cream. Melt the chocolate on a low heat.
2 - Whip the egg and add the chocolate while whipping hard.
3 - Fold the cream down in the egg mix - little by little. Scoop the mousse in to glasses. Let the glasses stand in the fridge for at least an hour.
4 - Make sure you leave some of the mix in the bowl for you to eat with a spoon... :-)
5 - Process the strawberries; mix them with the honey, zest and juice of the lime.
6 - When serving, top the mousse with the berry mix.

Thanks E for the recipe and for making the wedding so much fun.

Little Tart

Phew! At long last I have a post about something I actually baked myself. These beautiful little tartlets came from my current favorite cookbook - The Golden Book of Chocolate. I am a very aesthetic person and I knew I would love this book as soon as I saw the cover. I had flicked through it a few times in different book shops and then one day I just said "feck it" and splurged out on it. I have had this book beside my bed for weeks now and I love nothing more than flicking through it's pages and imagining what all the different desserts would taste like.

Last weekend was my very favorite 2 year olds birthday party and I really wanted to make a little something for the party so I thought these cakes would be perfect ( don't mind about the Cointreau in the ingredients, there were only adults at the party, bar the birthday girl herself). So with all the good intentions I went out and bought all the ingredients the day before. I planned on getting up early and making the cakes before heading to the party at 10:00. Ah yes, the best laid plans .... It really wasn't my fault that I drank so many glasses (bottles) of red wine the night before. J has been practicing with a band for the last year and that night was their first public appearance. It's a groupies duty to be all rock and roll and drink copious amounts of alcohol. For the record I would just like to say that I did my groupie duty very well indeed. Too well some might say. There was not a hope in hell I was going to be making any cakes for any birthday party. We were pretty impressed with ourselves for even turning up for the party. We stayed for a couple of hours and then went home and went straight back to bed for the rest of the day.

Chocolate Orange Meringue Tartlets

Chocolate Pastry
200g flour
75g cocoa powder
200g butter, cut into pieces
100g caster sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Filling
350g white chocolate
2 tlbsp glucose
150ml heavy (double) cream
3 tlbsp Cointreau
Finely grated zest of one orange
2 tlbsp butter

Meringue
2 large egg whites
150g caster sugar



Place the flour and cocoa in a small bowl. In an electric mixer fitted with the hook attachment, place the flour mixture, butter and sugar and mix on slow until the pastry resembles fine crumbs. Add the egg and continue mixing until the dough comes together. Turn the pastry out onto a floured work surface and gently knead, bringing all the pastry together. Roll the pastry into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees. Grease two 12-cup mini muffin pans. Roll the pastry out to about 2mm thick on a floured work surface. Using a 5 cm round cutter, cut out 24 disks. Gently lift each disk and lay it over a muffin cup. Push the pastry into the cups, smoothing the base and pressing into the sides. Trim off and excess pastry. Line each cup with parchment paper. Fill with baking beans. Bake for 5-10 mins. Remove the baking beans and the parchments. Place the cases back in the over for 2-3 mins, to cook the base out. When the base is firm to touch, remove from the oven and cool completely.

Place the chocolate, glucose and cream in a double boiler over barely simmering water. Stir until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Remove from the heat and stir in the liqueur, orange zest and butter. Pour the mixture into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge until cool enough to pour into the cases, 30 mins. Fill the chocolate cases to two-thirds, leaving room for the meringue.

Preheat over to 200 Degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until they hold soft peaks. Then gradually add in the sugar. Spoon the meringue into a piping bag fitted with the plain nozzle and pipe onto the chocolate orange filling, bring the bag up as you pipe to form "witches hats". Place the tartlets on the prepared baking sheets and bake until lightly browned, about 5 mins.

Food that makes me exceedingly happy

I have been making an effort to eat more healthy food recently. I have been successful with this healthy eating during the week but at the weekend so many sinful temptations seem to cross my path. In the past couple of weeks I have been enjoying some of my favourite foods and I wanted to share with you what I consider to be utterly wonderful. Lets start with the cakes pictured above. These are a small selection from one of the best patisseries I have ever been in. They are from a little place in Balmain called Adriano Zumbo. All the different cakes in this tiny little shop are to dye for with interesting little names like ‘Piste as she goes’ and ‘Charlotte O’Hara’.

If everyone in the world was told to divide into two lines of “sweet” and “savoury” I would be head of the savoury line. I love my bread, cheese and pasta. In a restaurant I will usually order an entrée and skip dessert. I can give or take the whole cake thing but then I met these wonderful sweet creations. They are light creamy and full of different flavours. These are my kind of cake. I shared them with a couple of friends and we all had a little of each to taste. Wow! I wish I could make cakes that looked as good as these creations.


So as I lined up with all the other Savoury people in the world I would be very busy telling them all about my new found favourite cheese. I wish I had a photo of this Fromager Des Clarins cheese in all it’s creamy splendour but every time we eat it I am too consumed in pure delight to even consider picking up a camera to take a photo. And anyway if I was to waste time taking photos then others would have an opportunity to eat more of this amazing cheese. I was first introduced to it at a birthday meal last year at Guillaume at Bennelong and now I am completely hooked. Before my first taste of Fromager Des Clarins I would have been happy to have a selection of different cheeses on my cheese plate. Now I am more than happy to put together a cheese plate made up of Fromager Des Clarins, some muscatels and some light simple crackers. Sheer delight. Pair it with a cheeky little champagne or a rich full bodied red and you are getting pretty close to perfection.


After I tell the people in my line about this wonderful cheese I would probably start talking to the people in the sweet line (cos god knows I like to talk) about one of the most enjoyable chocolate experiences I have ever had. Suckao at Max Bremmer combines the comfort of warm milk with your choice of chocolate (dark, milk or white). Your milk is served over a little tea light to keep it warm while you melt your chocolate in it. You get to play with you food with a long metal spoon that has a hollow handle so you can suck up you warm chocolate milk. Again we’re talking sheer perfection with so many different enjoyable elements to this.

Cakes
Adriano Zumbo
296 Darling Street, Balmain, Sydney, NSW 2041
+61 2 9810 7318


Cheese
Fromager Des Clarins
GPO Sydney
The Cheese Room 1 Martin Place Sydney NSW 2000
+61 2 9229 7700

Suckao Hot Chocolate
Max Bremmer
437 Oxford Street, Paddington NSW 2021
+61 2 9357 5055

Do you Fondue?

I love a meal where there is a bit of audience participation. I’m talking about a meal which involves dipping, dunking, cooking and eating. Making your food just the way you like it. We were hosting a brown bag wine tasting at the weekend and I wanted to provide food that would not take away from the wine. Ok ,well to be honest, I did not want the food to take away from my participation in the wine tasting. I didn’t want to have to keep popping off to the kitchen to prepare food. So I decided to let my guests do the work for themselves.

We enjoyed a fabulous Fondue recently when we were in Whistler skiing. Ever since we came back from that holiday I’ve been thinking of dusting off our fondue and having some friends over. This was the perfect time to do that. I don’t like to do things by halves so I decided that the whole meal would be made up of DIY cooking. We would start with cheese fondue. For mains we would have a beef fondue where cubes of beef are placed in very hot oil and left to cook, then dipped in an array of different sauces. For dessert we would have chocolate fondue. Strawberries and jumbo marshmallows dipped in drunken chocolate.

What a meal. Most peoples favourite foods – cheese, meat and chocolate and not a vegetable in sight. Actually, that’s entirely true because I did cook up some shoe string fries just to cover that food group.

The meal was really wonderful. We started the night with some champagne just to celebrate us actually managing to get together to have this wine tasting night we have been talking about for over a year. There were six of us tasting wines (three couples) and each couple brought some of their favourite wines. The idea was for us to cover each wine bottle and number them. Then we had questionnaire sheets where we had to guess details about the wine such as varietal, year, aroma, flavour, cost. We were all very descriptive and enthusiastic about the details early on in the night. People were coming out with descriptions such as “This wine has herbaceous, fruity supple flavour with good legs and a wonderful after taste”. By the last bottle it was more like “This wine is definitely a Red”. The night was great fun - a good excuse for some friends to get together, drink some (ok, plenty of) great wine, get messy while making dinner and laugh a lot.

As the host J and I got to enjoy the whole night too as we had chopped and prepared all the sauces prior to the arrival of our friends. All we had to do was fire up the fondue and let everyone look after them selves. This meal went on until the wee hours of the morning and by the time the last couple left we were way too merry to clean up. The next morning I was never so thankful for a dishwasher. I am a stickler for using the right glass for the right wine so we ended up using champagne, red, white and dessert wine glasses. Add to that a few glasses for water and beer and you’ve got yourself almost every glass we claim to own. It was so much fun it was well worth all the washing up.


Starter
For the cheese fondue I used a basic recipe. I cut up some baguettes of bread the day before so they were slightly stale. I found that the sour dough bread worked best in the fondue. I heated the cheese mixture in a saucepan so that the fondue flame didn’t have to do too much work.


Main
I bought the best beef available and cut it up in to small cubes. I heated up some peanut all with a splash of garlic infused olive oil for extra flavour. For sauces I went for a variety of flavours. I cheated here and used store bought sauces so no recipes for this part. We had béarnaise sauce, a wasabi mayonnaise, satay sauce and finally a chilli soy sauce.


Dessert
I broke up some dark chocolate and added some cream. I heated this up in a pan and then added some Baileys and Frangelico. I served this with some strawberries and some great jumbo marshmallows.

Sweetie

I decided to give a different gift this year. J is not a big fan of sweet things so an Easter egg tends to be a little wasted on him. He is a big fan of alcohol so when I spotted this recipe for white chocolates made with a dash of rum I knew I could win him over.

These little beauties were so easy to make and you can choose your own coating. I wanted to stick with the white/gold colour scheme but you could really use anything.

The sweet gods were looking after me because no sooner had I decided to make these chocolates then I spotted some vintage chocolate boxes in the antique shop around the corner from where we live. Was it destiny or just good product placement on behalf of the shop owner? Either was I was able to present my chocolates in a quaint little box and they were very well received. Of course I had to help out with tasting to make sure they turned out ok. There were four different coatings – flaked almonds, coconut, gold sugar crystals and icing sugar. The coconut was my favourite.


480g White Chocolate
1 cup pouring cream
2 tsp white rum

Shaved coconut, flaked almonds, icing sugar and sugar crystals for decorating.

Makes 40 sweets

Put the white chocolate, cream and rum in a sauce pan and melt over a moderate heat
Pour the melted mixture into a slightly greased bowl and refrigerate for about 4 hours until starting to set
Place each of the coating in a separate bowl
Use a teaspoon of the mixture to make a little ball. Dip the ball in one of the coating. Repeat for each of the sweets.
Refrigerate for another few hours until fully set.

New Camera

Berry simple is the title and what could be simpler than Affogato. I don’t know what it is about this dessert that appeals to me most but it has something to do with the fact that you get to mix the individual ingredients exactly the way you like them. It is served as a bowl of ice cream, a shot of espresso coffee and a shot of your liqueur of choice. Luckily for me it is one of J’s favourite desserts and so when I am trying to be all virtuous and say “Oh no I won’t have dessert thanks” I at least get to share in J’s dish.

We have another friend, S, and she likes to have a bit of an affogato competition with J. The aim of the competition is to pick the most obscure liqueur. I can vouch for the fact that some crazy ass combinations have been selected in the name of this competition.

At the moment J’s parents are visiting us. There have been some really lovely meals out. The tasty looking dessert photographed here was snapped at La Ricetta, a wonderful little family run Italian restaurant in Enmore. Tonight we are taking them out to A’Mews my latest V Fav restaurant. We went there for our anniversary back in December and both loved it so much that we've decided to share the experience with as many people as we can. I will report back on the meal in the next post and hopefully, if the light is right, I can take some decent photos of their excellent food.

So I guess you can tell from all these recent photos that I purchased my new camera . I was suffering withdrawal symptoms not being able to take any photographs for the last two weeks. So yesterday I went out and picked up this excellent little camera. Now I am once again a happy little camper, snapping away left right and center. Here’s one I took of the little moster when we were out for our morning walk.

Naughty lil triangles

Ok so I know this would never in a million years be described as healthy but I did promise a photo and recipe for Mum’s delicious Toblerone Cheesecake so I felt obliged to make it myself. The very lovely neighbours were coming in to have a BBQ yesterday and so I decided to whip up the cheesecake for dessert. It’s one of those lovely desserts that takes a few minutes to put together, can be made the day before and makes everyone smile when you produce it at the end of a meal.

For the BBQ we went with something a little different from the usual steaks. While salivating at all the wonderful food in the David Jones Food court with Mum earlier in the week we spotted some wonderful Butterflied Lamb. There were a number of different marinades - we opted for the Moroccan one and it was absolutely wonderful. We roasted it over very hot coals with the lid on for about 30 minutes. I served it up with some crunchy little potatoes that I saw Nigella Lawson making on the TV during the week.

God I really love watching cooking shows on the TV. I was tempted to get cable TV just so I could watch the food channels. But there is a very good chance that I would get nothing else in my life done as I would be glued to the TV all day. While watching Nigella Feasts I liked the look of these potatoes – You cut your potatoes into quarters and then slice the quarters into four little triangular chucks. You spread the potatoes chunks out on the baking tray and add in lots of cloves of garlic (still in their skins). You sprinkle with rock salt and then pour plenty of olive oil over the lot. Bake in a hot over for about 30 minutes. These were very well received at the BBQ and looked great piled up in a big square bowl.

Right so now back to the healthy stuff. The car is off being mended at the moment but as soon as I get it back I’m off to the Fruit and Veg market to stock up on all my favourite healthy goodies.

Toblerone Cheesecake

450g Philadelphia Cream Cheese
2ozs Icing sugar
500ml Cream
300g Toblerone (plus 100g bar to cut into pieces to decorate)
1 packet chocolate coated digestive biscuits
25g butter melted

Break up biscuits in the food processor and then to melted butter. Place in spring form tin and flatten with the back of a spoon. Refrigerate for about 30 mins before adding the topping.
Beat cheese and sugar together.
Whip cream and add to cheese.
Break up chocolate in Food Processor and add to above and put into tin on top of base crumble.
Break up Toblerone into little triangles and push into topping until flush with top.
Refrigerate until set

Lazy Weekend

We have just had the most wonderful weekend of doing absolutely nothing. Those who know me know that I find it very hard to do nothing. I like to be busy and so even when I do have free time I fill it up so fast. Not this weekend. We woke late, enjoyed breakfast in bed while reading the weekend papers, which I now get delivered. What a luxury. It’s not the 2 minutes I save getting the paper from the local corner store that’s a luxury, it’s being able to stay in my jammys all morning. And that’s exactly what I did.

I had a lovely afternoon in the kitchen pottering around. I prepared a picnic for us to take down to our local park to watch the sunset over Glebe Island Bridge. There wasn’t too much cooking required as we had smoked salmon, fois gras (brought back from our trip to Paris) and blue cheese. I did bake some fresh brown bread to have with these. As a dessert I made some Baileys Crème Brulee. These tasted great. The picture I took didn’t really do it justice as my home made ramekin was not ideal. I find I get better results in the store bought thicker ramekins but I like the look of the rustic home made ramekins. Well looks apart they tasted great. We managed to consume two bottles of champagne (it was a slow sunset). These lovely bottles were gifts and have been sitting in the fridge begging to be drunk for months. This was the perfect occasion.


On the Sunday I decided to whip up some ice cream. Now when I say whip up what I actually mean is purchase and then add to. I have never tried to make my own and from reading about other peoples attempts I’m not sure I’d do a good job of it. It sounds a little tricky for me. So I got myself a litre of creamy vanilla ice cream. I let it slightly soften and then I added some crushed ginger snap biscuits, berries, berry coulis and for that little kick a splash of Kahlúa. I then poured it into two loaf tins and put it back in the freezer. Yum! This was the dessert we had topped with puréed berries for our BBQ on Sunday. I’m telling you this was my lazy weekend because BBQ means J did most of the work for dinner.

I had spotted a delicious looking recipe for cauliflower baked in a cheese sauce in last weeks newspaper supplement. I have never been a big fan of cauliflower but the photograph that accompanied the recipe just looked so good I had to try it. And I reckon that anything that’s smothered in cheese tastes great. J wasn’t that impressed when he saw that I was preparing cauliflower to accompany his gourmet steak. Apparently he’s not a big fan either. But as testament to how damn good this recipe was there wasn’t a morsel of cauliflower left on either of our plates at the end of the meal. It was delicious.

This was a wonderful weekend and I feel completely rested. I’m now ready for the five weekends of weddings and visitors we have ins store for us.

Bailey's creme brulee

Serves 6

300ml thin cream
300ml thickened cream
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
1 egg, plus 3 egg yolks
75g caster sugar, plus extra to sprinkle
100ml Baileys Irish Cream

Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Place both creams in a pan, add vanilla pod and seeds, then heat over low heat. In a bowl, whisk egg, extra yolks and sugar until light. Add warm cream and Baileys, whisking continuously. Divide among six 1-cup ramekins. Place in roasting pan and add enough boiling water to come halfway up ramekin sides. Bake for 45 minutes or until just set. Remove, cool, then chill for 2-3 hours.
When ready to serve, sprinkle brulees with extra sugar and place under a hot grill for 2-3 minutes, or use a blowtorch until tops are golden and caramelised

Cauliflower cheese

Serves 4

1 large cauliflower, trimmed and broken into flourets
25g Butter
25g plain flour
575ml milk
150g Gruyère cheese
2 tbsp double cream
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Steam the cauliflower or blanch in boiling salted water until just tender - about five minutes. Refresh and drain thoroughly.
To make the sauce, melt the butter in a medium-sized pan. Spoon in the flour and stir for about
1 minute, without allowing it to brown. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the milk, a
few spoonfuls at a time at first; then slowly add the remaining milk, whisking all the while.
Return to the heat and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Stir frequently to prevent the sauce from catching on the base of the pan.
Remove from the heat and stir in three-quarters of the cheese with the double cream and the mustard.
Season with the nutmeg, a little salt and lots of pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning, making sure that it is fairly punchy.
Pour the sauce over the cauliflower.
Mix together the breadcrumbs and the remaining cheese, then sprinkle evenly over the cauliflower and sauce. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until browned and bubbling.

Berry Icecream

1 Litre Creamy Vanilla Ice Cream
1 packet of your favourite crunchy biscuits
I punnet of berries
Splash of Kahlua

Line two loaf tins with cling film. leaving enough hanging over the edges to fold across the top of the parfait once the tin is.full.

Reserve some berries for decoration. Blend half the berries in a food processor before sieving to make a smooth coulis. ( I didn't sieve mine and hence it looks a little more like a think jam but it tastes great)

Meanwhile. place the ice cream in a large bowl to soften slightly but do not allow to melt. Roughly chop the remaining berries and add to the ice cream. Mix together with a fork. Then stir in the biscuits and half of the coulis until you have a marbled mixture. Reserve the remaining coulis.

Spoon the mixture into the loaf tins, folding the cling film over the top. Freeze for 4-5 hours or until firm. Remove from the freezer 10-15 minutes before serving. Turn out onto a plate, remove the cling film and drizzle with a little of the remaining coulis. Decorate with the reserved berries then slice and serve with any remaining coulis.

Scone but not forgotten

I love when I come across a recipe that is simple but produces great results. I was given the recipe with great recommendations years ago and I have always meant to try it out. Somehow the recipe got put aside but it was always there in the back of my mind. Recently I had some lemonade I wanted to use up and so I searched out the lemonade scones recipe.
These scones taste wonderful and they only took a few minutes to make and then 20 minutes in the oven. I think they would be a great thing to make with kids as there is nothing that can really go wrong. You mix everything in the one bowl, knead a little, cut them up and pop them in the oven.

I wanted to use up some of the strawberries I bought at the market so I heated up a punnet of strawberries with a cup of sugar for about 10/15 mins. This produced a great jam to have with the scones.

I like these best when they were just out of the oven and piping how. I shared my scones with my workmates but I reckon they would freeze pretty well too.

Lemonade scones

1 cup of lemonade
1 cup of cream
3 cups of self-raising flour

Preheat oven to very hot 220C.
Add lemonade and cream to flour, mix to form soft dough, then place mixture on floured surface.
Knead dough to a 2 cm thickness and cut with a floured cutter.
Place close together on tray, brush with whisked egg and bake for 10 - 15 minutes.

Fruity little numbers

I think if I had citrus trees like the ones in my last post I would have regular gin & tonics and caipirinhas to use up all the fruits. I did try to grow my own lemon and lime trees down the bottom of the garden. The lemon tree refuses point blank to grow and looks exactly the same as the day I bought it one year ago. I think I may need some special fertiliser. The lime tree was a slight mistake. I really should have spent more time choosing the tress. I literally ran into the garden centre and grabbed the first trees I saw. In my hast I didn’t realise that I was actually purchasing a lime kaffir tree. Not much good for making caipirinha’s but the leaves smell divine. I really need to start using the leaves more in my cooking so I don’t feel so bad about buying the wrong tree. [Note to self: try one of these]

I have now used up my little citrus stash. I whipped up some lemon sorbet and chopped up some citrus salsa to have with some steamed salmon. The sorbet was a little too tart for my liking. It tasted very like a Margarita minus the tequila. In fact maybe that was the missing ingredient I should have added. I didn’t want to waste the sorbet so I melted it down and mixed it with some lemonade and vanilla ice-cream to see if I can come up with something a little more palatable. It is freezing as I type so I will have to get back to you with a report on the new version of the sorbet.

The salsa was great with the fish and so easy to make. I was able to use the juices and some of the salsa to flavour the fish as it cooked too. I made little parcels with tin-foil for the salmon and topped each steak with some salsa and juices before sealing up the tin-foil.

Citrus Salsa

2 tomatoes, chopped
1 lemon, chopped
1 orange, chopped
1 tlbsp orange juice
1 tablesp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
¼ cup coriander leaves, chopped

Chop up everything and mix it all together in a bowl. I left it to stand for a few hours and this made the flavours even more intense. Serve with a salad and some steamed fish.

Chocolate Hit or Miss

Well I promised I'd get back to the food so I’ve come back with a very simple chocolate cake. It was easy to decide what to make - when I got back to work last week, after 5 weeks off, there were over 300 e-mails to go through. Most of them could be deleted (I hope I wasn’t a little too trigger happy with the delete button in my state of extreme jetlag) but there was one little non work related e-mail from K. Her e-mail said “I sampled a slice of this cake a week ago and it was DIVINE! (and it was made by one of my girlfriends who says she can't cook, so it actually IS a an Easy Chocolate Cake recipe!)." Well that was enough to get me hooked. Chocolate, divine and easy. My kinda cake.

I had most of the ingredients already at home so I just needed to stock up on some quality dark chocolate. I had a few friends to catch up with over the weekend so I thought it would be nice to come baring gifts of chocolate cake that we could enjoy together while drinking lots of cups of tea and catching up on the gossip. The cake didn’t take long to make and it smelt lovely while it was baking but if the truth be known I thought it was a little too dry. It did taste better when I added some cream or ice cream. It left a very dry crumby taste in my mouth. It was easy to make and lets be honest you would find it hard to go wrong with chocolate cake but I don’t think I will be making this one again. It could just have been the way I made it or my particular taste in cakes, I don’t know. If you do try this cake let me know your thoughts. Right, next ….

Easy chocolate cake

250g butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups plain flour, sifted
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 cup sour cream
250g dark chocolate, melted

Chocolate glaze
150g dark chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup cream

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease a 22cm (9 in) round time. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the eggs and beat well. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa over the mixture, add the sour cream and chocolate, and mix until just combined.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 55mins until just set. Cool in the tin.
To make the glaze, combine the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat and stir until smooth. Allow the glaze to stand for 5 minutes before spreading over the top of the cake

I love a bargain

Ever since I had the pleasure of enjoying tea at Room with Roses I have been craving good quality tea. I drink a lot of tea - but then I am Irish. My day revolves around the many cups of tea I make. When I'm with my Mum I drink even more tea and when I'm with my friend S it goes off the Richter scale.

After our lovely high tea in Brisbane I decieded to buy a tea strainer just like the one they had used. Of course, when one uses a tea strainer one must also use a silver teapot. As luck would have it, there is a little antique store around the corner from where we live and they are closing down. I popped in the other day to see if I could pick up a bargain and I bought myself a beautiful silver teapot for a measly $10. Can’t go wrong, I thought to myself as I a toddled back home with my new little bargain. Of course when I went to open the teapot and the whole lid came off. I wasn’t too surprised – what do you expect for $10. I think the hinge had fused and so someone had just cut around it so they could open the lid. No problem – I’d just keep my finger on it as I poured out the tea. I gave the pot a good clean and even warmed it like Nana used to do. I put in my fancy Kenyan tea leaves that I bought at The Tea Centre and added the water and left it to brew for a few minutes. When I came back there was a little puddle of tea around the tea pot. The bargain now had a leak. Not to worry. J is a dab hand with the wielding gun. No doubt he could sort that leak out for me. I got my beautiful tea strainer out and started pouring the tea …. no leaves appeared in my strainer. The damn bargain has its own strainer at the bottom of the spout. Foiled, I can’t use my strainer with my tea pot but it looks damn good sitting along side it.

Every good tea break needs to be enjoyed with a little treat and I had always loved the look of madeleines. I had never made or even tasted madeleines before, but they looked so cute in cookbooks, food magaizines and other food blogs. I found a very simple recipe in Bill Grangers book Bill’s Food and purchased a little madeleine baking tray at the local homewares shop. The recipe didn’t say how many it would make but let me clarify - LOTS! I think I made about seven batches of these. Lucky for me the guys in work devored them in minutes otherwise I would have had plenty of left overs. I always thought these little gems were crunchy like biscuits but these ones turned out more like a firm sponge. They were light and delicious and I will definitely be making them again when I get that leaky little tea pot all sorted out.

Lemon Madeleines

5 eggs
200 g (7 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
finely grated zest from 1 lemon
200 g (7 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
180 g (6 oz) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6). Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they are pale and fluffy, then mix in the lemon zest. Add the flour, baking powder and butter and fo1d everything together. Leave the mixture to rest for 5 minutes. Spoon the mixture into a greased madeleine tray and bake for 8 to 9 minutes or a little longer, depending on the size of the holes in your madeleine tray.

A lovely pear

I have a love hate relationship with pears. I love to eat them but I hate the fact that 90% of the time they are rock solid. I don’t know if it is just Australian pears that have such an incredibly short window when they are good to eat. For me they are either rock hard or squishy and brown. There is really only about one day when they are just right to eat. I think this makes them all the more desirable. If I could just pick one up and eat it like I do with apples then there would not be the same attraction.

There must be something in the air that is tempting people towards tartins recently because I am seeing them in magazines quite a lot and someone in work even gave me a very simple recipe for a great little Pear Tarte Tatin that her mother had made. It got me to thinking that this would be a great way to have my pear and eat it. I remembered coming across a recipe in Jamie Oliver’s Cook with Jamie cookbook for a pretty simple Pear Tarte and so that was the one I decided I was going to make. It made me smile when I read in the recipe that it required 3 firm. slightly underripe pears. Now there was an ingredient I was going to have no problem finding.

This tart is so quick and easy to make it would be perfect for a dessert to finish off a diner party especially if the other courses were a little bit tricky. Apparently it tastes pretty good when made with apples too.

Pear Tarte Tatin

100g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways, seeds removed and reserved
3 firm, slightly underripe, pears, peeled, cored and rubbed with lemon juice
20g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp ground ginger
a handful of flaked almonds, toasted
250g ready made puff pastry
1 large free-range egg
1 tsp milk
a few sprigs of fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5. Put your sugar, vanilla pod and 100mV 3.5 fl oz water into a 2Ocm/8 inch ovenproof, heavy-bottomed frying pan and bring to the boil. Simmer this syrup until it thickens to become a lovely deep brown caramel. (When making caramel it's important that you don't stir it at all as this can affect the way the sugar behaves, so don't be tempted!)

Cut each of your pears into 6 wedges. Put the pears in with the caramel and gently toss them around so they get nicely coated. Stir in the butter and reduce for a further 5 minutes until you've got a thick, buttery caramel sauce. Carefully take off the heat and sprinkle over the ginger and then the almonds.

Next, roll out your puff pastry until it's about the thickness of a pound coin and cut it into a circle about the same size as your frying pan, so it will fit snugly inside it. Mix the egg with the milk, then lay the pastry on top of the pears, tucking it in around the edges, and brush the pastry top with a little of the egg mixture. Put the pan in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown on top, then remove from the oven and put to one side to cool down. To turn out your tatin, carefully place a plate on top of your frying pan and, using an oven cloth or glove, put your hand on top. Being very careful, as there will be hot liquid caramel around, quickly flip the tart over on to the plate.
Serve straight away, sprinkling with some thyme tips. Really lovely with thick clotted cream.

Party season

I love the fact that once I reached my thirties I reset the party counter and now I go to 1 year old and 2 year old birthday parties. Of course there is still a lot of the 30ths and 40ths to attend but I love nothing more than an adult get together under the guise of a baby's birthday. Lets be honest before they can talk they can’t even tell you what they want to do to celebrate. So let me be the first to suggest popping open a bottle of champers to celebrate the fact that both the child and the mother made it through that first, very traumatic, year.

Once the children learn to talk and start going to day care they make their own little friends and then mummy’s friends no longer get invited to the party, so we have to make the most of those formative years. My very good friend H had the most beautiful baby girl this time last year and so we had a little get-together to celebrate. This was my excuse to make a cake. Initially I was thinking of something elaborate with many layers and flavours. I have recently purchased the Desserts by Pierre Herme book and there were so many gorgeous options in there. But then I thought about it and I came to the conclusion that this little one year old would much prefer a mushy, messy ice-cream cake and this honorary aunt would much prefer to make said cake in no time at all.

My sister has always made the most excellent cakes for her girls. She buys a chocolate cake and then she covers it and the plate it's on with all kinds of chocolate mini bars and sweets. This is quick and simple and is probably exactly what the kids really want to eat at their parties. I went for something along the same lines. I bought a 1 litre tub of vanilla ice cream and let it melt a little. Then I mixed in some berries and some smashed up maltesers. I put cling film in a pudding bowl and then poured the ice-cream mixture in and popped it in the freezer over night.

Just before heading to the party I put the pudding bowl in some hot water to melt the edges slightly. I then turned it out onto a cake plate and stuck maltesers all over it.

There were a few store bought fancy cakes on offer at the party but I have to say I think the ice-cream cake went the fastest. There’s nothing like a 1 year olds birthday party to bring out the child in everyone.

Note: If you're making this in Australia Peter's Ice Cream is a good choice as it refreezes without forming crystals

Pick me up any time

Here’s a little snippet of information for you – Tiramisu means “Pick me up” in Italian and was traditionally served to someone who was feeling a little low. I learnt this from my “Food of the world” cookbook. I was making a treat for a friend was has been laid up in bed for the last few weeks after a pretty serious operation on his back. Poor thing has been having a hard time so I decided to make his favourite dessert which just happens to be Tiramisu which just happens to mean “Pick me up”. That’s destiny for you. I think the idea is that the coffee and the chocolate gives you the boost that you need. But what about the lovely cream and sugar - that would have to help too.

Over the years I’ve had so many completely different versions of this dessert that it’s hard to know what it should really taste like. I’m thinking any combination of sponge soaked in coffee and alcohol and smeared with some form of cream or mascarpone and chocolate can call itself Tiramisu. I first learnt that Tiramisu was my friend’s favourite dessert when he was having dinner at my Mum's place and she had made it for him. That would be the very same Mum that made Tiramisu with me here last year. I have a feeling that my Mum likes this “Pick me up“ too. In fact I have just re-read that post from last year and that would be the same friend that was coming over for dinner too.

Here’s the recipe I used from “The food of the world. A journey for food lovers”



Tiramisu

5 eggs, separated180g caster sugar
300g mascarpone
250ml cold strong coffee
3 tablespoons brandy or sweet Marsala
36 small sponge fingers
80g dark chocolate, finely grated

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is light and fluffy and leaves a ribbon trail when dropped from the whisk. Add the mascarpone and beat until the mixture is smooth. Whisk the egg whites in a clean glass bowl, using a wire whisk or hand beater, until soft peaks form. Fold into the mascarpone mixture.

Pour the coffee into a shallow dish and add the brandy. Dip enough biscuits to cover the base of a 25cm square dish into the coffee. The biscuits should be fairly well soaked but not so much so that they break up. Arrange the biscuits in one tightly packed layer in the base of the dish.

Spread half the mascarpone mixture over the layer of biscuits. Add another layer of biscuits and then another layer of mascarpone, smoothing the top layer neatly. Dust with the grated chocolate to serve. The flavours will be better developed if you can make the tiramisu a few hours in advance or even the night before. If you have time to do this, don’t dust with the chocolate, but cover with cling film and chill. Dust with chocolate at the last minute or it will melt.

Mellow Yellow

I don’t know what took hold of me this weekend but I was on a mission to do all those little jobs that have been on my to-do list for months. One of those jobs was to clear out my condiments cupboard. I have this very impractical long thin cupboard where I keep all my sauces, vinegars, dressings and the like. I couldn’t even remember what was lurking in the back of that cupboard cos I can’t reach some of the bottles.

I decided to put some of the smaller bottles into boxes then I could slide them out when I needed to access the bottles at the back. Is all this boring you to death? I know it wasn’t the most riveting job for me either. The one thing that was good about this clean out was that I came across a couple of jars of goodies that I had forgotten I had.

One was a jar of brandied apricots that I had received as a present from J’s parents. I also came across a jar of minced fruit that was getting close to its best before date. The brandy, the apricots, the minced fruit … what else could I make but the stuffed apricots that had made an appearance last year on the blog. These take seconds to stuff, then pour a little extra brandy over them and bake in a moderate oven for 30 mins.

Pour a little cream or ice cream over and you have a very simple delicious yellow dessert.

Easter Brulée

I know over Easter I should be thinking about the resurrection of Jesus but (sorry Dad) I have become a lapsed, non-practicing Catholic since I moved to Australia. It doesn’t help to be living with a Church of England heathen. So, to be honest, there was no celebration of the resurrection in our house. There was, of course, plenty of celebration of a four day weekend. If only every weekend were four days. I love it and I especially love that there are two four day working weeks around this long weekend. What to do with all that free time? We decided to stay put this Easter and enjoy ourselves in Sydney. The weather was not conducive to being outdoors which meant there was no guilt hibernating in the house. Although, that said, every time the sun peeped out we made a dash for the park for some fresh air with the crazy dog. We even ventured to the Fish Market on Monday when the Easter Gods were good and let the sun shine for the day.

I decided to brave the pouring rain for the Food growers market. (Jen was also there and took some lovely photos). Usually if I wake up and it’s raining I forgo the market for a few extra hours in bed but this weekend I really wanted to stock up an quality produce that we could enjoy and boy did I stock up. I could barely keep the umbrella up with all the bags I was carrying. Luckily I was there with my friends and they had their beautiful baby girl with them. The poor baby had to be held by my friend so that we could put all the goodies in the pram – is that wrong?

I had plenty of time to potter around in the kitchen much to J’s delight as he got to enjoy all the fruits of my labour. One of the desserts I made in honour of Easter was from this months Delicious magazine. I made these cute little Crème Brulée Eggs. I even added a splash of Baileys to give them an extra kick. They had a great novelty value but I think I prefer the full blown version where you get satisfaction from cracking the top on the dessert. These were lovely but a little too small for my liking.

Creme Brulee Easter Eggs

~Makes 8 eggs with leftovers(or 8 x 100ml ramekins)
If you make these in eggshells. you'll need to use a kitchen blowtorch for the brulee tops, as they can't be put under the grill. You'll have mixture left over, so you can either collect extra eggshells to make more, or use the leftovers to make 4-6 brulees in ramekins. Begin this recipe a day ahead.

8 eggs
1/2 cup(110g) caster sugar
600ml thickened cream
3 vanilla beans, split, seeds scraped
1/2 cup (75g) icing sugar, sifted

Carefully remove the top of each egg using a serrated knife. Separate the egg from the yolk by passing through your fingers.(The eggwhites will keep frozen for up to 1 month). Wash out eggshells and dry carefully with paper towel. Return to the egg carton.
Place yolks in a bowl with caster sugar and beat until pale with electric beaters (try to not incorporate too much air into the mixture).

Bring cream and vanilla pods and seeds to just below boiling point in a pan over medium-high heat. Pour hot cream over the eggs, whisking constantly until combined. Wash out pan, then return custard mixture to very low heat (a simmer pad is ideal for this step). Cook, stirring constantly, for 8-10 minutes until custard is thick and coats the back of a spoon (watch very carefully towards the end or the custard may scramble).

Strain into a jug, discarding vanilla pods,then pour into eggshells, filling to top. Use the remaining custard to fill four to six 100ml ramekins. (If not using eggshells, fill eight 100ml ramekins with the custard mixture.) Chill overnight.

Just before serving, sprinkle brulees with icing sugar. Transfer eggs to egg cups, then use a kitchen blowtorch to caramelise tops until crisp and golden. (For ramekins, you can use a blowtorch or place under a hot grill for 1-2 minutes, being careful not to burn the sugar.)

My Favourite Dessert

When I was growing up the weekend dinners were always the same. Every weekend, without fail, we would have a meat filled fry up on Saturday. God, I miss those fry ups here in Sydney. I know you can get rashers and sausages here but they just don’t taste the same as back home. Although, that said, I did receive 1kg of ‘Irish’ sausages from my friend last night. She got them delivered (for free) from an Irish butcher here in Sydney so I will be very keen to try those – when my body is not going through the cleansing cycle of course. I want to invite my Irish friends over for a traditional Irish Breakfast.

Anyway, back to the weekend dinners. On a Sunday we would always have a roast dinner with a fizzy drink (this was the only day we were allowed to have fizzy drinks) and dessert. Dessert was either a chocolate mousse called Angel Delight, which the kids could make while Mum was making the dinner, or Mums delectable cheesecake. This Cheesecake was the highlight of the whole week. It’s to die for and Mum always made it to perfection. I loved every mouthful of it. My Dad would always torment us by trying to steal some off our plates. In fact, I have a memory of my sister eating her cheesecake locked in the toilet because Dad had been chasing her around the house trying to steal some. The recipe for the cheese cake is the one recipe that my Mum has handed down to all her daughters. I always thought she got the recipe from the back of a packet of Philadelphia Cream Cheese but when I asked recently she told me she made it up. She had tried some cheesecake at the restaurant in Brown Thomas and thought she could make a pretty close version of it herself. She experimented with it and came up with our favourite dessert. Not a family occasion goes by now that Mum doesn’t make her cheesecake and it’s still a success (even when eaten in the toilet).

When my guests were here I wanted to make them this cheesecake because it’s quick and easy to make and, let’s be honest, everybody loves cheesecake. I got it into my head that it would be lovely to have little individual cheesecakes for everyone, so I made one big cake and then cut out five individual cakes. I also flaked some chocolate on top and added a Ferrero Rocher for decoration. These went down an absolute treat and the best bit was that after I cut out the five little cakes there were lots of leftover bits for the cook.

Mum's Cheesecake

1 regular size packet of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (is that 200g?)
1 packet of Orange Jelly
1 small tin of Mandarin Segments
1 packet of Digestive Biscuits
30g Butter
3 tblsps of Brown Sugar
Chocolate, to decorate

Crush the biscuits until broken up into very small pieces. Melt the butter and dissolve the brown sugar in the butter. Mix it in with the broken biscuits and then press it into a 20cm springform tin. Place it in the fridge to cool.

Make up the Jelly using the juice from the tin of Mandarins. Make up the rest of the liquid with water. I usually make the jelly with slightly less liquid than the recipe calls for so that it will set firm. Put the Jelly in the fridge for about an hour. You want it to have started to slightly set.

When the jelly has slightly set put it in a liquidizer and add the tin of mandarins and the cream cheese and whooze it all up. Pour this mixture into the chilled biscuits and leave for a few hours to set.

Decorate with flaked chocolate and a Ferrero Rocher on top

Food Porn

Ok, so it's not exactly food porn but that gingerbread lady in the background is buck naked. Only in Australia do you decorate your gingerbread man with a bikini. These little men and women don’t even warrant a recipe. They were made from a packet by our Neighbour and his daughter. We had been in next door for a few hours under the guise of having a BBQ but really we were all just drinking the afternoon away. The kids were getting restless as the adults were getting louder and talking a lot of rubbish. So M decided to keep them busy with a little bit of baking.


We brought Teddy along to play with the kids and he had a very busy time running away from little B who only wanted to kiss him … all of the time. This was a great source of entertainment for B and for the adults. Unfortunately Teddy was not as impressed.

Up the Empire

My friend S, who was living with us for a while last year, is back in the UK at the moment. She is looking for a job and is filling up her spare time cooking. What better way to distract yourself? Last week she sent me a recipe for a very straight-forward Victoria Sponge cake. Since it was my friend H’s birthday at the weekend I decided I could kill two birds with one stone (or one friend with one cake, depending on how it turned out).

Now, I have to admit S’s recipe was a little short on details. I have a suspicion a few glasses of wine may have been consumed before she typed this little gem –
" Victoria sponge with secret ingredient

4 eggs - weigh them and use equal quantities of the following:
Self raising flour
Marg or butter
Caster Sugar

a splash of vanilla extract
a dash of milk
a teaspoon baking powder (not altogether read on to avoid concave flying saucer disaster)

	1. Use a hand mixer to cream butter and sugar together.
2. Add vanilla extract to beaten eggs.
	3. Add baking powder to flour.
4. Mix eggs and flour into creamed butter and sugar gradually, then add secret ingredient, splash of milk, keep whizzing.
	5. Bung into two round non-stick cake tins. Place on top shelf of pre-heated oven at 170C (gas mark 5) for around 30mins. Do not open door whilst cooking.
6. Let cool and dollop butter icing and raspberry jam in middle. Sprinkle with icing sugar. Yummo, who needs Delia, up the empire!"

Funny that she should mention Delia because that was the site I ended up checking to make sure the technique was not missing any steps. Maybe the step where you sift the flour. Or how about the one where you grease the baking tin. Then there was the old “Leave the cake for five minutes before removing it from the tin to cool”. Ahh yes, all vital steps. There seemed to be a general consensus in all the recipes that you should not open the oven door during the first half hour of cooking. So of course that’s all I really wanted to do. Love breaking rules, I do but I restrained myself this time.

I dropped the cake off at H's house while she was away for the weekend celebrating. I was tempted to try a piece but I have given a cake to H in the past that had a slice removed (for photo purposes only) so I thought I better give her this one in tact since it was for her birthday.