Sooo, I have no ninth day of Christmas as I thought yesterday was day ten and I took this photo so I don't really have anything to put in day nine! Sorry guys!
Saturday 22 December 2012
On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... ten vanilla bean panacotta with raspberries.
Sooo, I have no ninth day of Christmas as I thought yesterday was day ten and I took this photo so I don't really have anything to put in day nine! Sorry guys!
Thursday 20 December 2012
Wednesday 19 December 2012
On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... seven gingerbread Christmas trees
Have a look at other's seventh day of Christmas...
Little Adelaide Kate
Tuesday 18 December 2012
Monday 17 December 2012
The Gingerbread House
So, Mr T's work was having a morning tea today and he was asked to bring something to contribute and, of course, he said "I'll get my girlfriend to make something". I decided to do a gingerbread house as I have never made one before and it's been on my list of things to do for a while. It took me ages to decide but I chose Martha Stewart's Swedish gingerbread house template (there is no roof cut out so you will need to cut out a rectangular piece of paper that is 19 x 16.5 cm) for the house and I decided to use the Women's Weekly gingerbread recipe as I had made if before and it turned out really well. I also cheated and used packet royal icing as it is tedious to make but I will add a recipe for it anyway. This is what I came up with...
Front view
Side View
The gingerbread recipe is the easiest recipe to make and it makes so much! I had enough for the gingerbread house plus 24 Christmas tree biscuits and some left over in the fridge still to bake...
Gingerbread House (From Women's Weekly Cook)
4.5 cups self raising flour
3 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1.5 tsp ground clove
1 tsp ground nutmeg
185 g butter, chopped
220 g dark brown sugar (or 1 cup firmly packed)
180 g (1/2 cup) treacle
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Boiled lollies, crushed (optional)
Assorted lollies for decoration (I used curly wurlys, jubes, raspberry Twisters, sour straps, sour ropes, mini candy canes, spree lollies, Smarties and a giant lollipop)
Royal icing
2 egg whites
~500 g pure icing sugar (it is important that you use pure icing sugar and that it is sifted)
Mix 1 tablespoon of icing sugar into the egg whites at a time ensuring they are combined before adding more. Keep mixing in icing sugar until you get it to the consistency you require- it should not run freely off the end of a spoon but should leave a big drip on the end. Cover with glad wrap and ensure that when not in use it is covered at all times as it can dry out easily. Some people like to cover it with a damp towel to ensure it does not lose moisture.
1. Process flour, spices, and butter until crumbly. As you can see, there's a lot to fit in your food processor so do it in two batches if you need.
Pretty full food processor
Crumbly texture after processing
2. Mix in sugar, treacle and enough egg to combine.
Mix it all up!
3. Knead until smooth then cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Dough will be quite crumbly while mixing but persist and it will get smooth and lovely.
Smooth dough
4. Preheat oven to 180oC (160oC for fan forced). Roll out gingerbread to about 5 mm on a piece of baking paper, place the templates on the dough and cut out the shapes. I used a big knife so that I could just do one cut instead of slicing and potentially causing tears and cracks in the dough. Cut out the windows and, if desired fill with crushed boiled lollies for the stained glass effect. I also used a ruler to press indentations into the dough to make it look like bricks (I saw this on Brave Tart's blog for her Haunted Mansion, have a look it's amazing!). I left the pieces on the baking paper I rolled them out on to minimise handling and prevent breakages. Bake for 12 mins.
Front and back and door ready to be cooked
Baking the sides
5. Once out of the oven, place the template over the gingerbread and trim to ensure it is still the right shape. Please be careful as you will have to do it while it's hot as the gingerbread hardens as it cools. Don't burn yourself!
Trim the pieces- it's amazing how they can change shape
6. (Optional) I wanted the house to have red bricks and to look magical so I dusted the gingerbread with food colour and lustre dust to give it the shiny magical look I wanted- another trick from Brave Tart.
"Magical" bricks! :P
7. Put the house together. I took minimal photos of this as it is quite hands on. First stick the front and back pieces to one of the sides with the royal icing (pipe a line of royal icing on the edge of the piece that you are sticking on and sandwich the two pieces together). Then stick the other side on ensuring both the front and back pieces are aligned properly with the sides. Position the house onto your board and use the royal icing to fix it in place. Also use royal icing to reinforce the inner joins to ensure the house doesn't fall apart. Allow the icing to set for around 30 mins.
8. Pipe icing along the edges of the gingerbread on the front of the house and carefully place on one side of the roof. Reinforce the inner joints with royal icing once again. Allow to set for 45 mins- 1 hour. You will need something under the roof piece to hold it in place so it doesn't slide off, as you can see I used a Keen's curry powder jar with a piece of gingerbread to make it a bit taller (it's all about improv).
9. Pipe royal icing along the edges of the other side of the house and also along the top edge of the other piece of roof. Put plenty of icing on this time as you won't be able to reinforce it on the inside any longer. Place something under the roof piece to hold it in place and allow to set for 1 hour. Put together the chimney and then glue into place with royal icing, reinforcing with only small amounts around the edges. I was impatient and made my Christmas tree while I was waiting but I do recommend waiting to do decorations until after you have covered the board with your "snow" (or royal icing). The Christmas tree is just a mini waffle cone with green royal icing "stars" piped around it and a yellow sugar paste star on top.
Allowing it to set
10. Using a palette knife or small spatula, cover the board with royal icing (this will give it the snowy look and allow you to stick on fences etc). I did mine bit at a time spreading on one side and then placing the fence and then going onto the next side, this was to make sure the icing didn't set before I came to placing the fence. Once the board is covered, you can place all your items to be stuck in the yard (ie. a path to the door etc), use extra royal icing to keep everything in place. Also, don't forget to stick on the door. I found that I had to stick it on closed as the shape of the house does not allow an open door. If you cut the door it may be possible to have it ajar or open but I didn't try this.
It's all coming together...
11. Now comes the fun part- decorating! Get creative decorate it with whatever lollies or chocolates you like. I used sour straps as roof tiles (an idea from a friend which I thought was pretty cool!). Have fun and get creative!
12. Enjoy! Watch as people slowly demolish it....
Have you ever made a gingerbread house? What lollies did you use?
On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me.... Five unoccupied crosstrainers
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... Four chocolate desserts!
on the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me... Three sugar stars
Saturday 15 December 2012
On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... Two delicious truffles!
Two delicious truffles! One is cookies and cream and the other is hazlenut praline flavour- nom!
Catch the other bloggers' second day of a camera Christmas here:
Recipe for the cookies and cream truffles....
3 packets of Oreos
250 g Philadelphia cream cheese
15 Hershey's cookies and cream snack size bars
200 g Cadbury dream chocolate
1. Process oreos until they are fine particles.
2. Mix in cream cheese. Roll 1/2 tbsp of mixture into balls and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Melt cookies and cream bars and dream block in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time.
4. Dip Oreo balls in the melted chocolate and place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Refrigerate for 30 mins.
5. Enjoy!
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me... One giant cake!
So, I am joining in on the twelve days of Christmas photo challenge (follow the link for more info) with a bunch of other bloggers. I am running a bit late so will try to catch up today.
The giant cake in question is the second trial for the second layer of Mr Grinch and Dr L's wedding cake and it is giant (25.5 cm diameter and 10 cm high without the frosting). I think the modelling chocolate was good to put the pattern on the side although, the one I used was too hot so looks a bit squiggly but I think it'll turn out good if I do it properly. I have worked out the right amount of batter required for this cake which is a bonus (and comprises 1 Kg each of butter, flour and sugar and 400 g of chocolate- oh dear! I hate to think how much the biggest layer is going to require). The next cake to try will be either the top layer or the third layer just so I can make sure I know how much batter I need for each of these. I don't think I'll do a full practice run as it's going to take waaay too much time and chocolate and who is going to eat all that cake?! As long as I know all the ingredients I need, it should all be swell- in theory that is!
Check out the other bloggers' twelve days of Christmas photo challenge photos here:
Sunday 2 December 2012
The wedding cake saga part I: The beginnings...
Two of my good friends (good friends as in I'm the maid of honour) are going to be getting married in March next year and I have been given the job of making the wedding cake. Hopefully it'll turn out amazing and spectacular. As you can imagine, there is heaps of stuff to do to plan for said wedding cake ie. flavour, cake sizes and design. I also decided that I'd make the cake topper. So that is where I started. Mr T had this great idea of doing the cake topper with the bride and groom sitting on the couch as when we visit they are usually sitting on the couch with their puppies so I decided this would be a good picture for the top of the cake.
Gum paste model of the bride and groom
The Challenge.....
Dr L decided on a three tiered mudcake with a chocolate raspberry mud cake as the base, a caramel mud cake as the middle and a chocolate marshmallow cake as the top. She also chose French buttercream to ice the cake and wanted a pattern like the one above. We did some research and decided that using 10, 12 and 14 x 4 inch round cakes should give us enough cake for the 140 people to attend the wedding. I booked in for morning tea at work on Thursday so that I could practice one of the cakes but having only one of the sized cake pans I could only make the top chocolate marshmallow cake and only in half the height as my tin is only 2.7 inches high. So, what happened was that the marshmallows all dissolved whilst the cake was cooking so there's really no point in doing that so it will now be a plain chocolate cake. I used a recipe that I got here (swapping the raspberries for marshmallows) and it turned out amazing so that will definitely be the recipe that I use for both the plain choc and the choc raspberry layers. I wasn't entirely happy with the cake so took no pictures of it but below is a pic of the leftovers after we cut it up...
Marshmallow cake trial
Not having the correct cake pans, I ordered in the right ones and picked them up yesterday. While I was at the shop, I decided four tiers looked way awesome and Dr. L agreed so we changed the cake to four tiers 8, 10, 12 and 14 x 4 inch cakes. Here's what the pans look like, the cake will be over a foot tall. We also now need to decide on a new flavour of cake...
The cake tins- they are ginormous!!!
The buttercream frosting recipe came from brave tart- my favourite food blogger. If you have time, have a look at her site, there is heaps of stuff about macarons and other delicious things on there. The French buttercream uses egg yolks, sugar, salt and butter. The only problem I had with it was that it was quite yellow as you'll see in the above photo, the photos on the Brave tart website show a lovely white buttercream. This has happened before with buttercream recipes from bravetart and it was frustrating but I read an article the other day that explained it all. it's the difference in the butter, specifically on what the cows were fed. In Australia, cows are usually pasture fed which gives the butter a high carotene content which is responsible for the yellowness of the butter. In Europe (and I presume America too due to the lack of yellow in their butter), cows are usually fed mainly on hay and grains which gives their butter a lower carotene content and hence a less yellow colour. The breed of cow can also contribute to the colour of the butter. Yesterday I went to Costco for the first time and I found 4 pounds of butter for $9 so I bought it. This butter was imported from America so I thought I'd compare it to the Australian butter I already had at home. The colours were obviously different (see below) and the flavours were also different with the American butter having an almost cream cheese type flavour and aroma it was also not as creamy and delicious as the Australian butter. The difference in flavours could be due to the American butter being cultured butter which is supposed to give a different flavour and tang to it.
American butter (left) vs Australian butter (right)
So, this week I learnt a lot and made a few decisions on the cake. Next time I'll hopefully have another experimentation with the cake to show you all. Hopefully I'll get the first two layers made so I can get your opinion.
What flavour of cake do you think I should make for the top layer?
Saturday 24 November 2012
Cob loaf dip for Mr 100 Skulls
Today's recipe is a request by Mr 100 Skulls. This appetizer is easy and delicious to make for any party. When Mr T (my boyfriend) and I moved out together we had a small get together with our old house mates and I made this dip. When the party first started, it just sat there as though no-one knew what to do with it, it wasn't until one of the boys asked "what's this?" and gave it a taste that it began to be eaten and no-one else ate anything else until the whole cob was gone! Ever since, Mr T's BFF (Mr 100 Skulls) has asked me for this recipe, so what a better way to give it to him without him losing it than putting it right here?!
This recipe is super cheesy and super bacony- nom nom nom! Feel free to cut down the cheese as it may be too much for the weaker cheese eaters.
So here we go...
Cheese and Bacon Cob Loaf Dip
250 g bacon (diced) - you can use the bought bacon pieces instead if you're lazy! :P
1/2 an onion (diced)
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp crushed garlic (optional)
250 g Philadelphia cream cheese
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup tasty cheese + extra for topping
1/4 parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 200oC. Cut top off the Cob loaf and pull out the insides, spray with olive oil spray and place in oven for 10 mins.
A cob loaf in case you can't remember what it looks like ( I used a multigrain sourdough)
Pull all the guts out of the loaf and place it on the tray.
Fry the bacon, garlic and onion in the oil until the onion is translucent and tender. Add the sour cream and make sure you scrape up all the bacony goodness that may have stuck to the bottom of the saucepan. Add the cream cheese, tasty and parmesan and stir over heat until combined and cheese is melted. Pour the cheese mixture into the cob loaf and top with extra tasty cheese.
Loaf is full of cheesy goodness.
Bake for 15 mins or until the cheese is browned. If the cob insides are toasted enough take them off the baking tray prior to baking the cheese-filled loaf and set aside until needed.
Yummo!
Sunday 18 November 2012
I got a candy thermometer!
I have always wanted a candy thermometer and despite them only costing around $10 to purchase, I never got around to buying one...until yesterday. So, what is the logical thing to do when you have just purchased yourself a new shiny candy thermometer? That's right, make candy! I actually wanted to make torrone which, as most of you would know, is an Italian nougat. The reason why I didn't make this delicious treat is that I wanted to make it for gifts at Christmas and it's best to make torrone within two weeks of eating it. So, I searched for a longer lasting candy treat and found taffy, now, I have no idea what taffy is meant to be like being Australian and all but the definition of taffy is:"a candy similar to toffee made from sugar or molasses and pulled until glossy" (from Google dictionary). Looking at recipes, it sounded easy enough and the pulling part sounded like a bit of fun so I thought "let's give it a go"! I decided on a butterscotch taffy as my partner loves butterscotch a lot more than peppermint. The recipe I used was based on the ehow.com recipe.
My new candy thermometer! Yay!
Now, the first time I made the butterscotch taffy, it turned out really hard and was almost impossible to pull (my partner and I played tug-O-war with it for a bit and it was really tough). The resulting taffy was delicious but was rock hard and basically inedible. I also had the great idea to wrap them in cellophane which turned out to be terrible as the taffy stuck to the cellophane and would not come off. So, with this knowledge, I tried again. The original method I was following took the taffy to the "soft crack" stage (135 C or 275oF) which, I think, was the main problem and the reason why the taffy ended up so jaw breakingly hard so the second time I only took it to the "hard ball" stage (125oC or 260oC) which resulted in a softer, chewy taffy. Using the lower temperature also allowed for more pulling which turned out to be quite fun and actually a bit of a stress release, it also gave the taffy a nicer more melt-in-your-mouth texture.The second time around I wrapped the taffy in a strip of baking paper and then wrapped it in a square of cellophane to prevent sticking you can just wrap the whole thing in baking paper or waxed paper but I thought it looked nicer with the cellophane. The second batch was delicious, chewy and exactly what I had imagined taffy would be like, it was well worth the re-try.
After making the taffy, I found that my hair smelt like butterscotch all day so be prepared to smell delicious for the rest of the day if you makes this!
After making the taffy, I found that my hair smelt like butterscotch all day so be prepared to smell delicious for the rest of the day if you makes this!
So, here we go...
This recipe made about 80 1 cm x 2.5 cm pieces.
What you need:
50 g (4 tbsp) corn flour
400 g (2 cups) brown sugar (firmly packed)
90 g (4 tbsp) butter
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup glucose syrup
1.5 cups water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1. Put a large flat baking tray into the fridge to cool.
2. Mix corn flour and brown sugar in a medium saucepan. Add butter, glucose syrup, salt and water and mix until well combined. As I put in the glucose syrup I tasted some (surely it's just like a sugar syrup right?) but it surprised me and did not give me that woah-this-is-crazy-sugary feeling. Glucose syrup is actually a fair bit less sweet than normal sugar. The reason for this is that normal granulated sugar is made up of sucrose disaccharides and sucrose is actually 20-30% sweeter than glucose- just an interesting fact for you all. At this stage it looks like a mud puddle! :P
Looks like a mud puddle with butter in it!
3. Place the thermometer into the pan and heat the mixture on medium stirring until the butter is melted. Simmer the mixture until it gets to the "hard ball" stage (125oC) after the mixture has reached 100oC stir continuously, (it can take quite a long time for the mixture to reach 125oC (~30 mins), so I used that time to cut out the wrapping). At around 100oC the mixture will start becoming quite thick and will look darker in colour and by 135oC the mixture will be quite "gummy" as in it looks like chewing gum as you mix it (that is, if you take it to 135oC but I highly recommend only going to 125oC).
At 100oC, thick and dark in colour
At 135oC, gummy and blowing bubbles, very thick
4. Once the mixture has reached 135oC remove the saucepan from the heat and add the vanilla extract (it will bubble a fair bit so be careful).
5. Pour the mixture onto the cooled flat baking tray and allow it to cool so that you can handle it without burning yourself.
It's very thick to pour and quite stretchy.
6. Grease your hands and pull the taffy, stretching it and folding it over itself several times until it becomes too difficult to go on. You will see the taffy becoming porous and less glossy and you may also see air bubbles being incorporated into the mix, this is what you want.
7. Pull the taffy into a long rope with ~2 cm diameter and cut with scissors into 2 cm portions. Leave these on a non-stick tray for approximately 30 mins before wrapping in your wrapper of choice (baking paper or waxed paper is recommended) and twisting the ends to close.
8. Store the taffy at room temperature in an air tight container. It will last 2 months.
9. Enjoy!
Have you ever tried taffy? What is your favourite flavour? Do you like soft or hard taffy?
Stay tuned for next week which will be part one of the wedding cake saga...
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