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.

The Green Cake

Ok so I promised you I'd tell you about the green cake incident. I had been dating J for about a year and during this time he had been constantly raving about his Mums cooking. His parents had come over from the UK for a visit and I was going to cook for them. I was a little bit nervous and had spent a lot of time thinking of the perfect meal I could make for them. I thought it would be lovely to make a pavlova. Light, delicious and most importantly the national dessert of Australia (or is that New Zealand). How difficult could a pavlova be??? I'd done a few test runs before they came over to visit and everything worked out fine. So it's the big day and did I have everything prepared well in advance - oh no. Was I rushing around like a mad lunatic to make the dessert just hours before they arrive - oh yes. So I've a million things on my mind and I'm chattering away to J, as usual, when I reach into the cupboard to get the vanilla essence out. I'm mildly distracted as I reach for that little glass bottle and pour a few drops in but my attention screams to a halt when I look in horror at the drop of green food colouring I have just poured into my meringue mixture. For the love of God, how am I going to fix this? J very helpfully suggests that since it is March I could pretend it was a St Paddy's day Pavlova. So off I sprint to the local shop to get more eggs and sugar to try again. I'm now in a mad panic and in my deranged state try to take a few shortcuts. Again what could possible go wrong??? Well the meringue could turn out like one massive flat solid biscuit. I think this was caused by madly mixing everything together without a thought of a gentle fold. So after attempt number two we are now mere minutes away from the parents arrival. At this stage I even considered smothering my large biscuit thing with so much cream and fruit that no one will notice the disaster but even J admits this is not going to work very well.

It's at this stage that the panic reaches such a heightened state that it crashes back to normality. There is nothing for it but to calm down and start all over AGAIN. One final trip to the local shop for eggs and sugar (the shopkeeper must have thought I was making one massive cake). I decided to go for a new approach - it was the pretend-you-like-cooking-while-your-guests-are-there approach. To be honest, I really don't like cooking after guests have arrived. I much prefer to have everything as close to prepared as possible so I can sit down and immediately start into the wine without fear of forgetting something. But in this case the approach worked a treat. I was calm and managed to produce a very normal (white) pavlova that was enjoyed by The Parents. Phew!!!

Five years on and The Parents have enjoyed many a meal at our place. In memory of that green cake incident I decided to make a green cake or a lime cheesecake to be more specific. Even this little beauty was not without its incident. I made up the lime jelly and I meant to leave it in the fridge for about an hour to partially set but once again that problem with a short attention span and an easily distracted mind got in the way. I thought I would just read a few posts from a new blog that I discovered. But it was addictive and 3 HOURS later I remembered the feckin' jelly, which at this stage was well and truly set. All I can say is thank God for my little corner store cos off I went and bought another jelly. Second time round all was well. I really have to be a little more focused when I'm cooking, it would ave me a fortuen in multiple purchases of ingredients.

This zesty lime cheese cake was yet another recipe brought to me by J's Mum and can be found here

1 year old

This day 1 year ago I started this blog and it has been so much fun maintaining it. I have meet some lovely people and have taken part in a number of blog events. It has kept me busy in the kitchen and has thought me all sorts of tricks with my camera. 95 posts later and I'm still enjoying it.

I wasn’t sure if the novelty of writing about food would wear off but it obviously hasn't. I was a bit worried about the blog falling by the wayside when we bought the house and moved in. There was a lot going on but I still managed to post every now and then. I’m not too fond of our new kitchen (which is due to be renovated this year) so I really don’t spend as much time pottering in the kitchen as I used to. No doubt there will be numerous posts about the disaster zone that will be our kitchen during the renovations.

Recently a friend said to me “I really like your blog but do you mind me asking you why you do it?” He didn’t seem impressed when I said I just do it because I enjoy it. I love reading other peoples blogs so why not add my own two cents worth. People also frequently talk about how I can make money out of it. It’s like there’s no point putting all that effort in if you don’t get money for it. It’s just for the sheer pleasure of it. No need for advertising and money making schemes, just fun and food. It’s interesting because I have been reading Ximena’s post about the same point over at Lobstersquad this week.

Since the festive season ended I have been looking forward to making some great little culinary creations. I had plans for a rapturous post about a three course meal that I cooked for J last night. But alas it did not turn out as planned. As usual J was very complimentary about the food but not one of the dishes turned out as I had imagined.


I started with some stuffed zucchini flowers. I have eaten these in restaurants a number of times and they were always so delicious and light. Well not mine, unfortunately. They looked lovely pre battering and deep frying. They were stuffed with basil puree, anchovies and mozzarella cheese but once they came out of the hot oil they were shrivelled little bundles of oily flavoured nothingness. I was very disappointed. The recipe called for the oil to be at a certain temperature but since I didn’t have a thermometer I think I might have had the oil too hot. Oh well we ate them anyway. A fancy garnish and a good squeeze of lemon juice hides a multitude of mistakes.

Then it was on to the main dish. This was spaghetti with garlic prawns, squid and a herby stir through paste. It was from Bill Grangers latest book, Everyday. It was included in a section for cooking a meal for two. There is nothing I like more than “Serves 2” in the recipe. It makes the cooking process seem so much more intimate. As in - it was only meant to be for two. As opposed to those recipes that say “serves 16” and make you wonder where you are going to find 14 others to join you at such short notice. Alternatively you can divide every quantity by 8 and hope for the best. “Serves 2” just sounds right. “Serves 1” sounds even better sometimes.

I digress; this seafood spaghetti was very ordinary. I was so disappointed I didn’t even take a photo. So moving on we have dessert. I was very excited about this one because again it came from Bill Grangers book and it looked divine in the photo. It was a self saucing chocolate pudding and it seemed very easy to make. The recipe bumf said that this was very popular in his restaurants so I had high hopes for it. I followed the recipe exactly … well almost exactly … ok so maybe I used slightly smaller ramekins then he recommended but could that make such a big difference? Obviously it could because these were more like no-saucing puddings. That said, they did still taste great but there wasn’t a single smidge of sauce in them. Oh well. The photo I took just looked like brown mush so I won’t even be including that.

It’s tricky when you cook late at night to take a decent photo of the food. If anyone has any tips on lighting food when there’s no natural light to work with could you please let me know.


My other kitchen disaster was when I tried to make Roast tomatoes. I read about these great tomatoes again at Lobstersquad. I read it months ago and scribbled down the recipe in a notebook. When looking for something else I came across the recipe and thought I would give them a try. I bought some lovely ripe tomatoes. Tthey were so big and juicy I thought they would turn out lovely roasted. Again, I think that my major flaw was that I did not know what temperature to roast them at. I prepared the tomatoes and popped then in the oven at 200C. I did slightly neglect my cooking responsibilities when I headed off for a swim while they were roasting. But I left my able assistant, J, in charge of turning the oven down to 100C after an hour. Unfortunately, when I got home (1½ hours later) the lovely juicy tomatoes had turned into black burnt bumps on the roasting tray. Apparently they were even a bit burnt looking when my able assistant turned them down but he thought “I wanted them burnt” oh well he was only following instructions. I did try to salvage them but whooshing them up in the food processor with some olive oil but I could only taste the sour burnt flavour.

I am not going to let these disasters deter me. I will persevere. We have J’s parents coming to stay soon so better that I get the disasters out of the way good and early. Some day I will tell you about the first time I made dinner for J’s Mum and the pavlova turned out green !!!

The working girls treat

Everybody else seems to be out having fun in the sun while I’m busy at work. It’s very quiet in the city this week. I decided to cheer myself up with some goodies from the little IGA supermarket on the ground floor of our building. I picked up some fresh bagels, a good mix of fruit and a few pots of yoghurt. Then just as I’m heading to the cashier with arms laden, I spot a familiar packaging. In amongst the biscuits are the Belgian Jules Destrooper Cinnamon Biscuits I have been trying to pick up since tasting them in my friends place as an after dinner treat.

According to the box these little gems have been around for 120 years but they’re brand new to me. They are wafer thin cinnamon biscuits ‘enrobed’ (again according to the box) in chocolate.

I really shouldn’t complain about being stuck in the office because look at the view I have from my desk. I can sit here sipping my tea, munching my biscuits while watching the harbour in all its glory (in between bouts of productivity of course)

Divine, now many cups of tea will be consumed in the name of finishing off the box before the end of the Year

The Shopping Mantra

I don’t consider myself an impulse buyer but I do have friends, family and a boyfriend that may beg to differ. I like to think that I weigh up the cost and the need before making a purchase but every now and then my Mum’s mantra of “If you really love something, you should buy it” takes over.

Years ago I was shopping in Plenty, my favourite home wares shop here in Sydney (they don’t seem to have a website), when I spotted a miniature Bundt cake tin. I had no idea what I was going to make in the tin and it cost a fortune but all I knew was that I really loved that tin. With that magic “If you love it...” mantra in my head, I purchased the tin. I truly am a woman after my mothers’ heart because when I showed her the tin she decided to buy TWO, even though they weigh a ton and she had to cart them all the way back to Ireland.

To be honest I haven’t used this tin to its full potential. If the truth be known, I have only used it twice. The size of the cakes it produces is a little unusual in that they are about twice the size of an average muffin. I made chocolate muffins in it last year and after eating one (by myself) I felt like a stuffed little piggy so that kind of turned me off using it for a while.

Recently I was reading about the Rum Cake Fairy and it looks like this fairy uses Bundt tins too. This got me thinking about my dust gathering tin and a rum cake sounded like a great idea. I got a little sidetracked while looking for a good recipe for rum cake and before I knew it I was all set to make Apple & Cinnamon cakes.

It’s all about your frame of reference. I have now switched from thinking this tin makes individual muffins to thinking it makes little mini cakes and now I’m much happier because you share mini cakes, you don’t try to scoff them all by yourself.

I made the cakes last night and then headed down to my friends house to share the first one with her to make sure they were ok. Then I had to share one with J to see if he liked them. The remainder I shared with the guys in work. You see, it’s all about sharing. It doesn’t matter that you have just consumed half the cakes in total. The main thing is you shared them.

GERMAN APPLE BUNDT CAKE

2 cups sugar
¼ cup orange juice
1 cup oil
2 ½ tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup chopped nuts
Powdered sugar for topping

FILLING:
2 cups apples, peeled and diced
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. sugar

Beat first 5 ingredients at high speed. Sift dry ingredients, then blend with first mixture. Fold in nuts. Place 1/3 of batter in a greased bundt pan. Combine filling ingredients; put some of the filling on top and alternate mixtures, ending with butter. Bake at 55 to 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from pan while hot. Cool cake and sprinkle with powdered sugar

Nice as Pie

I had some friends over for brunch at the weekend. They wanted to check out what I had done with the house since we moved in. One of these visitors is my friend S who made this gorgeous chocolate cake before. I’d planned on getting up early and making some fresh bread in a bread maker that I’ve borrowed. I was also going to try out another of the Donna Hay cakes. But a night out at the restaurant in the very stylish Kirkton Hotel put the kibosh on that. The last time I was at this restaurant it was called Salt and was pretty good. The most memorable thing about that last meal was that J ordered Squab not knowing what it was. Little experimenter that he is, he ended up with a plate of pigeon!!! You live and learn.

Now the restaurant at the Kirkton Hotel is aptly named Kirketon Dining Room & Bar. It’s all dark wood and leather booths and the food is distinctively French. We had a divine meal. We were very generously treated to this night of indulgence by our housemate S who is leaving us after four months of fun. Was it something we said? … no, she’s off to India. We had the pleasure of enjoying some very expensive French wine but I have to say even though it cost an arm and a frogs leg we all ended up very merry and with very sore heads the next day. Of course the G&T we had before we left and the cocktails we had with all the beautiful people probably didn't help either.

And that’s my roundabout way of explaining why the fresh bread never eventuated. My hangover meant I didn’t get the bread dough into the bread making machine until 9:00. When I pressed the magic “Make it” button it told me I had 3 hours to wait until it was baked and my friends were arriving in an hour. Opps it was off to the shop for some freshly baked croissants for me. Of course S brought her own little treats with her as she is a great baker herself. We tucked into her cinnamon swirl scones and blueberry friands. I love the old fashioned food server that S brought her treats in.

Unfortunately there was no need for my Donna Hay apple tart. Not to worry though, we did manage to polish it off later. I was impressed that the apples didn’t discolour. It must have been the syrup on them. The almond and pistachio filling was particularly nice in this cake.

Apple and Almond Tart

2 x 24.5cm ready prepared butter puff pastry sheets, thawed
filling
1 cup almond meal(ground almonds)
1/4 cup caster sugar
35g unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, whisked
2 tlbsp honey
1/4 cup chopped pistachio nuts
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
apple syrup
2 cups water
2 cups caster sugar
4 pink lady apples, thinly sliced

to make the apple syrup, place the water and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for 10 mins then remove from the heat. Allow the syrup to cool completely then add the apples. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180C. To make the filling , place the almond meal and sugar in a bowl and stir to combine. Add the butter, egg and honey and stir well to combine.Fold through the pistachios and the walnuts and set aside.

Cut out 2 23.5cm rounds from the pastry sheets. Cut out a 19.5cm round from one of the rounds to creat a border and discard the centre. PLace the border on top of the larger pastry sheet. PLace on a baking sheet lined with non-stick baking paper. Spread the filling in the centerof the pastry and cook for 20-25 mins or until puffed and golden.

To serve, remove the apple slices from the syrup, place on top of the pastery and drizzle with some of the syrup.

You Tart

I love the simplicity of the Donny Hay Magazine. Everything looks so effortless and yet so beautiful. The stylists have a way of making all the dishes look so appealing. As I mentioned previously I got a present of a years subscription to this magazine and I love when it arrives. In the recent magazine there was a feature titled “Inspired Blossoms” where desserts are inspired by delicate flowers. I noticed that Chubby Hubby also did a post on one of the desserts in this section for roasted strawberry Meringues. I opted for the custard tarts as J is a big fan of these. They looked so beautiful. They were simple to make and they tasted great – my kind of dessert. Being able to buy frozen pastry makes desserts like this so easy to put together.

I made the tarts on Friday and as we were heading off on Saturday for a weekend away in the Blue Mountains (more on that later) there was no other choice for it but to finish them for breakfast before we hit the road. Not often you get a sweet treat like this to set you off for the day ahead.

My own notes on these tarts are

(a) I should pay more attention to the ingredients listed in the recipe because I used way more than 3 sheets of filo pastry but that said they still tasted great.

(b) Don't refrigerate the custard for too long or it solidifies too much and doesn't look as good when you pour it into the pastry cases

(c) The pasrty goes soft if you leave the custard in it for a while

Vanilla custard tarts

3 sheets filo pastry
50g unsalted butter, melted
caster (superfine) sugar for sprinkling

Vanilla custard
1 ½ cups (12 fI oz) (single or pouring) cream
1 vanilla bean, split (or 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste)
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour (cornstarch)
2 tablespoons water

To make the vanilla custard, place the cream and vanilla bean in a small saucepan over medium heat until the cream is hot but not boiling. Whisk the egg yolks and the sugar in a bowl until thick and creamy. In a separate bowl, whish the cornflour and water to combine. Discard the vanilla bean. Slowly whisk the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture, add the cornflour mixture and return to the saucepan. Stir over a low heat for 5-8 mins or until the custard coats the back of a spoon. Cover and refrigerate.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Brush one pastry sheet with the butter and sprinkle with the sugar and top with another pastry sheet. Continue layering the pastry with the butter and sugar.

Use a round cookie cutter to cut out circles from the pastry. Press the pastry into lightly creased muffin tins. Bake for 5-6 mins or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

To serve, spoon the custard into the cases.

One Rainy Weekend

This was a very rainy weekend here in Sydney. In fact, it really reminded of the weather back in Ireland. It was the perfect weekend for snuggling up on the couch and watching black and white movies which is exactly what we did on Saturday.

On Sunday though it was time to brave the rain and get out there. My very good friend B was coming over to check out our new house. I had planned to make a little something for brunch but my lack of movement from the couch on Saturday meant I didn’t have the necessary ingredients.