tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64274008589548250242024-03-14T00:00:36.490+11:00Something I Whipped UpAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14300088557650724763noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-166755803852528092013-02-28T13:13:00.001+11:002013-02-28T13:38:59.409+11:00Make-Up Bags, Birthday Cakes and Trying New Things.Phew! I realised that my last post was just after my birthday party in October. That's a bit of a gap from then until now. In those missing months I've been busy with Christmas, New Years, a family trip to Torquay, a new (short) haircut, getting my son settled into Year 7 and my youngest daughter into routine as the only family member still in primary school. There have been lots of things baked and consumed, some great and some not so great. I've had my share of cake wrecks, and even a few triumphs.<br />
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My favourite triumph was Belinda's 10th birthday cake. I surprised her by making a Make-Up Bag cake. I spent a few nights visiting with Kerrie making some fondant ornaments to go on the cake, and then on the decorating day I convinced her to come and help me with icing the cake. She showed me how to make Swiss Meringue Buttercream which I had never done before, and then we got to decorating. This is the finished product. Belinda was thrilled!<br />
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I also painted a placemat set for my nephew's second birthday.<br />
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It was fun to paint again, but I'm struggling to find the time to fit it in. I've signed up for another Pay it Forward craft project this year and am planning on doing painting again. It will be interesting to do as I've decided to use a different medium this time. So I'll be stretching my skills again.<br />
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Today's baking was inspired by the many patterned Swiss Roll cakes that I have been seeing on Facebook lately. Some of the designs are amazing! I used the recipe and instructions that I found on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=431680703573786&set=a.366768523398338.86485.366448136763710&type=1&relevant_count=1" target="_blank">Rosie Cake-Diva</a>'s page. It's a deliciously easy recipe to make, but I hadn't planned a pattern and opted to pipe dots as I figured that it would be easiest to do while my day-care kids were eating morning tea. What I hadn't realised was that my piping tip was too wide and the cake batter was very runny. So my dots were a bit crazy before I even got to the next step. I cooked the dots for a minute as instructed, and then poured in the rest of the uncoloured batter. Disaster! All my dots were moving and smudging and stretching. I finished spreading the batter evenly and cooked it for 10 minutes as instructed. I'm not overly stressed about it's appearance as I've never made a Swiss Roll before so I was more interested to see if I could make it work and roll it without cracking. This is a great recipe as it is spongy and rolls beautifully. I filled mine with plum jam and the left over frosting from yesterday's home made Boston Bun (yummy vanilla frosting). I am looking forward to getting my kids to taste it this afternoon as they will be the judges on whether I will make it again. (I had a small slice after lunch for quality control purposes and I can vouch for it's yumminess!)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The baked Swiss Roll (inside view)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My polka dots are a little dodgy.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If I take the photo just right, you don't see most of the dodgy dots!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not bad for my first Swiss Roll.</td></tr>
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If I do try my hand at another patterned Swiss Roll I will try a couple of different things to see if I can get a better result. Obviously the first thing would be to use the correct piping tip (and don't rush it). Then it's been suggested that I should freeze the patterned batter before I bake it. So I think with those tips in mind, I might have a better chance at getting a clean pattern on the cake. I also might try baking for just less than 10 minutes as the cake is darker at the edges than in the middle. Anyway, those are all things for next time. Meanwhile, it's back to work for me now.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-14955276801399076742012-10-16T08:39:00.000+11:002013-02-28T13:39:37.692+11:00Mad Hatter's Tea Party - Kerrie's KreationsNormally my posts are about my own creations but today it is about my sister Kerrie. Last weekend was a joint 40th birthday party for Ja and myself and it was a Mad Hatter themed affair. My gorgeous sister Kerrie offered to help with our birthday cake as I wanted a topsy turvy cake with lots of character pieces on it. In the end she made the whole thing with me acting as her fondant colourist and assistant (which suited my skill set perfectly I think). I was overwhelmed by how amazing each piece was and spent the weeks before the party excitedly anticipating each piece as she sent me the next photo on my phone. <a href="http://kerrieskreations.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Here</a> is the link to her blog so that you can see for yourself how amazing her work is! Be sure to like her facebook page too. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/KerriesCakeKreations?ref=ts&fref=ts" target="_blank">Kerrie's Kreations</a> are absolutely outstanding.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-86962063093825907262012-09-30T21:48:00.000+10:002012-09-30T21:48:58.320+10:00Where has time gone?It's been a long time since my last post, but I have an excuse... I've been busy! I've come to realise that having a house full of preschoolers each day is not conducive to doing much of anything creatively. Having said that, I have tried various smaller projects over that time.<br />
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I was very pleased with my Pay It Forward projects for this year. I tried my hand at sewing and made some great little aprons for my recipients. I even made a few extra and managed to keep one for myself. The thing I loved most about the aprons was the fabric. SH and I picked it out from a quaint little quilting shop in Tauranga, New Zealand while we were on our last cruise.<br />
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Most recently I have been crafting a gift for my eldest daughter's 14th birthday. She is a huge fan of everything Harry Potter and I really wanted to make something special for her that you can't buy anywhere. I searched Google high and low, and realised that what I had planned to make would be entirely unique! I wanted to make a clock for her room in the design of a Snitch.<br />
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So with that in mind, I went ahead with my plans. I sourced a suitable bowl for the body of the clock from my sister and then had a friend who was able to give me a clock mechanism to use. I spent one day base coating it with gold paint and then another day sitting at the table with the laptop beside me for reference as I painted all the details on. Finally, my dad was instrumental in putting it all together as he attached the clock mechanism and the hook to hang it on the wall. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Base coat with gold paint</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Place outlines and add shading.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add highlights and remember to sign!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finish with two coats of varnish and add mechanism and hook.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hang on the wall!! :)</td></tr>
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As you all know, I usually post about food and I couldn't put this post up without doing just that. As my daughter was getting a Harry Potter themed gift, I also decided to make her a Harry Potter themed cake. Many months ago she jokingly asked me for a cake that she had seen on the internet. I looked at it and scoffed thinking there was no way that I could possibly make it. Well, guess what... I made it! Today I decorated her "Monster Book of Monsters" cake. And it was awesome!<br />
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Anyway, that's it from me for now. I hope you have enjoyed catching up on a bit of what's been whipped up around here lately. I've certainly had fun making them.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-28747317630800086002012-04-01T15:00:00.000+10:002012-04-01T15:00:53.971+10:00Sweet Mustard Pickles (Or "What do I do with a Giant Zucchini?)A couple of nights ago, my eldest daughter (13 yrs old) went out for her first babysitting job. She was very excited and feeling very grown up. It's just great watching her maturity and responsibility come through as she is growing up before our eyes. When I dropped her off at the house she was sitting at, I took her inside to chat with the mum. This lovely lady is one I have known through primary school and high school, and now our kids are at primary school together.<br />
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As we were talking, the mum said she had something for me. She had won an Easter raffle and sitting in the basket of eggs and chocolates was a giant golden zucchini! She knows that I love to cook and was certain that I would be able to find a use for it. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it; it was enormous and so very heavy!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We put the 30cm ruler in for comparison. It weighed 2.1kg!</td></tr>
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When I got home I started looking up recipes of things to make with it. I have become enchanted with Pinterest, so I did some searching on there and came across a couple of recipes. The first one I have just finished making, so it was worthwhile research!<br />
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I decided to make Sweet Mustard Pickles as I love relish, chutneys and pickles. I'm not particularly fussy, so long as they are sweet and don't contain anything too spicy like chilli. This recipe I found was from the ABC Tasmania website by Chef Sally Wise. You can find the recipe <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tasmania/stories/s1313383.htm" target="_blank">here</a>. It was super easy, with not too many ingredients. I've never made relish before, so it was a bit of fun. I'm not a fan of slicing all the vegetables by hand, but my mandoline slicer did the job just fine. I was going to use my food processor but the attachment left the pieces too thick for my liking. I was after a really fine slice.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love how vibrant the colours are.</td></tr>
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Once I had sliced the ingredients and placed them all in the bowl, I had to leave them coated in salt for 2 hours to take the excess water out of them. Then it was into my large pot with the sugar, vinegar, and spices.<br />
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The next step in the process was cooking it all for 20 minutes before bottling in the jars. This step made me very unpopular with my kids as they said it was very stinky. I tried to convince them that it smelled like Salt & Vinegar Chips but they weren't buying it.<br />
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Needless to say, I have to wait patiently for it to cool completely and then I can give it a taste. I got about 6 smallish jars of pickles from the giant zucchini, which is fantastic. I even have some of the zucchini left over to make the other recipe I found - Baked Zucchini Chips. I will let you know how they turn out next time.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sweet Mustard Pickles</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-25716430061939475942012-03-11T13:29:00.000+11:002012-03-11T13:40:14.890+11:00Dutch Apple TartThis is one of my favourite recipes from mum's collection of dutch treats. Taste triggers such strong memories, and this is no exception. I have great memories of going to Oma's for Christmas, Easter or her birthday when I was a kid, and now we go there with our own kids. Visits to Oma on these days are an open house affair. My mum is one of 12 children, so when they all get together, it's quite a crowd! Usually there would be upwards of a dozen people squished into Oma's small lounge room, all talking loudly and at the same time. Dutch people are very energetic, lively people. I always joke that if you made me sit on my hands, I would probably be rendered mute! <br />
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When I was younger, the aunties would usually bring a plate of something to be shared over a coffee. Oma would bake a half dozen different types of biscuits, and there would be various other cakes arrayed on the table, including the Dutch Apple Tart. This is lovely served warm with icecream, but also equally as delicious cold with fresh cream poured over it. It is such an easy recipe to make, if you like a sweet apple tart you should definitely give this a try. My favourite part of this recipe is the pastry case as it doesn't involve any rolling or blind baking. You simply press the dough into the base of the tin and up the sides. I have included the recipe in the recipe page for you too.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-52049808537707911402012-03-09T15:19:00.002+11:002012-03-09T15:19:29.507+11:00DIY Ceiling Light ShadeI have been spending some time online recently, researching DIY sites to figure out how to make my own ceiling light shades. I am impressed with the amount of information there is out there. There are some seriously talented people! Anyway, I found a few that I really liked the look of, and decided that it was something I would like to try. I don't like spending money on things like light fixtures as I think they are heavily overpriced, and at the moment, not a necessity.<br />
<br />
So with the thought in mind that I would make my own, I set off to our local op shops (Salvation Army, Vinnies, Family Life, etc) to see if I could find any preloved lamp shades or ceiling lights that I could work with. I was in luck too, as I found the perfect shade for $5 at my favourite shop! It was a tacky terracotta colour, but I looked beyond that to the perfect frame underneath.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AJGTycIjP0A/T1mBz1qevvI/AAAAAAAAAMk/MwcXcCoyaUw/s1600/IMG_0943.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AJGTycIjP0A/T1mBz1qevvI/AAAAAAAAAMk/MwcXcCoyaUw/s320/IMG_0943.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The original shade - yucky terracotta!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HFHZ7wDjFtM/T1mDeQwLSOI/AAAAAAAAAM0/vQxQ3EYypvE/s1600/IMG_0944.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HFHZ7wDjFtM/T1mDeQwLSOI/AAAAAAAAAM0/vQxQ3EYypvE/s320/IMG_0944.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After a good strip down and scrub, a workable frame for my shade.</td></tr>
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Once I pulled away the terrible original coverings and cleaned all the dried glue off the frame, I was ready to cover it. Another stroke of luck for me, my mum has cupboards full of fabric that she has bought over the years and she had the perfect piece for what I had in mind. It is white, sheer and covered in little hearts. So with the pattern from the old covering, I was able to cut out the 6 pieces I would need to make the cover. I spent the morning at mum's, cutting, stitching and then gluing with her hot glue gun. I put the sewn cover over the top of the frame, glued down the seams, and then glued them shut again on the inside of the frame. At the bottom of the shade I added a little white frilled trim for a cute finishing touch. I am really happy with how it turned out!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VXiWKPCWx5o/T1mD2cfaNSI/AAAAAAAAANU/EIWlswoGIXg/s1600/IMG_0945.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VXiWKPCWx5o/T1mD2cfaNSI/AAAAAAAAANU/EIWlswoGIXg/s320/IMG_0945.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Working with the hot glue gun, I stretched the fabric around the frame.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-md8Mst8SwJc/T1mD3GJ65TI/AAAAAAAAANc/4n1yWUT9j2Y/s1600/IMG_0947.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-md8Mst8SwJc/T1mD3GJ65TI/AAAAAAAAANc/4n1yWUT9j2Y/s320/IMG_0947.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pretty little hearts.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bh7Wt5-DxRk/T1mB0_bYmlI/AAAAAAAAAMs/aa60wygEOGY/s1600/IMG_0949.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bh7Wt5-DxRk/T1mB0_bYmlI/AAAAAAAAAMs/aa60wygEOGY/s320/IMG_0949.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finished project. Hanging in my youngest daughter's room. </td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-32834947485203351822012-03-03T18:37:00.002+11:002012-03-03T18:37:38.127+11:00Family RecipesWell we have been back from the cruise for two weeks now and life is starting to find it's rhythm again. I'm yet to start working in my new role as a Family Day Care "Educator" as they now like to call all the carers. This means that I am home alone, with no kids or job to distract me, possibly for another week still. I have been doing all the usual chores associated with being a mum of three kids, but that isn't enough to keep me from going stir crazy. Casting around for ideas for things to do, I suddenly realised that I haven't finished my photo book from albumworks.<br />
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Last May I won a competition for my photo of my <a href="http://somethingiwhippedup.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/something-went-wrong.html">Cookie Monster Cupcakes</a> and the prize included a $100 voucher to get my own photo book printed. I decided that I would use this voucher to make a cookbook/photo book of my favourite family recipes that I have been collecting over the years. These are recipes from my Grandma, Oma, mum, mother-in-law, and a few aunties. I have them all handwritten in a notebook that is well thumbed and coated in flour and fingerprints. I am hoping that this project will turn into a book that my kids will love to look through and will be able to keep as a memory of all the great food that we have baked together over the years.<br />
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Anyway, when I went to the albumworks program on my laptop and started to put together the photos and recipes that I have already taken over the last 9 months, I could see that I didn't have any where near as many photos as I thought I did. Obviously I got distracted from my goal as I know I have been doing plenty of baking and cooking - just not the "right" recipes. So I have spent the past two weeks looking over the notebook and working my way through these recipes again. I'm making good headway now and I am getting more excited about it with each photo I take. <br />
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Here are the latest photos of recipes I have been whipping up:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j1Jp5tUIlSQ/T1HJUKo756I/AAAAAAAAAL8/J1TGyPqykco/s1600/IMG_0436.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j1Jp5tUIlSQ/T1HJUKo756I/AAAAAAAAAL8/J1TGyPqykco/s320/IMG_0436.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Short stack of Pancakes with Vanilla Ice-Cream, Golden Syrup and Apricot Jam</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pg5FT9OOgEE/T1HJXjZnhSI/AAAAAAAAAME/XZJfWehUw6s/s1600/IMG_0438.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="272" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pg5FT9OOgEE/T1HJXjZnhSI/AAAAAAAAAME/XZJfWehUw6s/s320/IMG_0438.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Linda's Boiled Pineapple Fruit Cake</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-InAs3Ys_jsU/T1HJcpG4pnI/AAAAAAAAAMM/K_sDoGSMgZM/s1600/IMG_0442+%282%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-InAs3Ys_jsU/T1HJcpG4pnI/AAAAAAAAAMM/K_sDoGSMgZM/s320/IMG_0442+%282%29.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scones with Apricot Jam and Cream</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qvUPAwQ4CFY/T1HJgHUatFI/AAAAAAAAAMU/vLkmd-Vsq7g/s1600/IMG_0445.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="202" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qvUPAwQ4CFY/T1HJgHUatFI/AAAAAAAAAMU/vLkmd-Vsq7g/s320/IMG_0445.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grandma's Cupcakes</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U7vDhFfFkWg/T1HJiehiI5I/AAAAAAAAAMc/yg7vOdt9x-8/s1600/IMG_0936.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U7vDhFfFkWg/T1HJiehiI5I/AAAAAAAAAMc/yg7vOdt9x-8/s320/IMG_0936.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dutch Poffertjes</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I haven't put the recipes in the other page yet, as I'm not sure which ones I should do. If you would like one of these recipes, leave me a comment and I will post it for you. Cheers!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-26541229286149174102012-02-08T11:08:00.000+11:002012-02-08T11:08:24.676+11:00Dining with Dolphins<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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We have been onboard our cruise ship, Celebrity Century, for
9 nights so far and it is amazing. My SH and I have been on 5 cruises now,
working our way up from the boozy cruise of our honeymoon on the Fairstar in
1996 (they didn’t call it the “Fun Ship” for nothing!) to more recently the
Princess Line on the Sun and Dawn Princesses. Sailing with Celebrity is a more
mature experience. There are no activities that would interest our children,
and in fact, we are amongst the youngest passengers on the ship. There are
probably only about 30 or 40 passengers around our age group out of about 1890
passengers. Having said that, we are having a great time despite the age
differences we are encountering. We have met some truly lovely people and are
enjoying finding out about their home towns and the differences between our
countries. Most of the passengers are from the US, but there are also
passengers from the UK, Germany, Australia (although we are among the minority)
and various parts of Europe and Asia.</div>
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Our cruise is sailing from Auckland to Fremantle for 18
nights, and is called the “Bottom Circumnavigation Cruise” as it is sailing from
New Zealand around the bottom of Australia to Perth. So far we are still in New
Zealand, with tomorrow being our last day here before sailing to Sydney,
Australia. We have been to Tauranga, Akaroa, Christchurch, and Dunedin;
finishing our tour of New Zealand with a day sailing through the Dusky,
Doubtful and Milford Sounds in fjordland. All of these places have been just so
pretty and we enjoyed visiting all of them. We were saddened to see the
destruction in Christchurch that the earthquakes have caused. It is a bit like
a ghost city as it is very quiet; the silence only broken by the sound of
masonry crashing down from the terminally damaged buildings in the “Red Zone”.</div>
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Anyway, enough of all that; this is a food blog! I wish
there was some way I could let you all experience the pleasure that the food on
this ship is giving me. It is just the most amazing sensation, to be eating
food of such a high standard every night. The main dining room is at the rear
of the ship and reaches out over two levels. It is a stunning room, and our
table is at the very rear of the restaurant overlooking the ocean and the wake
of the ship. Each night we look out over the water and we can see dolphins
jumping over the waves, chasing after the ship. We have also been privy to an
albatross, with a wing span of more than 6 feet, dipping and soaring along the
wind currents behind us. The sea has held our attention almost as much as the
food has. </div>
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The Grand Restaurant serves a gourmet “a la carte” menu
every meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner). The selection is sometimes too much,
as I am struggling to choose which meal I want to have at any given moment. I
have decided that I am going to choose the foods that I have never had before,
if that is an option. With that thought in mind, I have already eaten Frogs’
Legs (buffalo style) and Foie Gras, both of which are completely new to me. I
was particularly pleased with how delicious the frogs’ legs were as I had heard
varying reviews of them. To me they tasted partly like chicken, but also a
little like fish. The foie gras is not something that I will hurry to have again.
SH chose this for his entrée, and while he did try it, he was very quick to let
me finish the dish as the consistency is… well I would say it is “tricky” to
stomach. It was very jelly like, where I had imagined it would be more like a
pate. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frogs' Legs</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Enjoying dinner at the Murano restaurant. SH has foie gras and I have the escargot.</td></tr>
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The frogs’ legs were part of our regular dining menu, but
the foie gras was actually part of the meal we were served in the specialty
restaurant onboard, Murano. This restaurant serves a menu that you might find
in a 3 star Michelin restaurant in France. It had the most amazing choices on
the menu, and the waiters and Maitre D’ Restaurant were all very helpful when
it came to making our choices. Some of the dishes are prepared at your table
side, so there is a great deal of showmanship in the evening as well. We were treated
like royalty, and they really went out of their way to ensure that we were
having a great time.</div>
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While dining at the Murano, we also both ate black truffle
for the first time. SH had a Romaine salad with black truffle vinaigrette which
he said was sublime. Perched on top of his salad was an egg “sunny side up”
with a sliver of truffle sitting in the middle. Quite an interesting flavour,
it certainly added something extra to his salad. However we both joked that the
truffle probably cost more than we had paid for the meal itself! We left our
wine choices to our Sommelier as they have paired particular wines to each
meal. This meant that I was served a Pinot from Santa Barbara, California with
my duck dish, which was actually really good. This is only the second time I
have had red wine since the Tahbilk Taste of Shiraz dinner, and I definitely
liked the Pinot better than the other reds as it wasn’t as heavy.</div>
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There are so many different food experiences available
onboard the Century. So far I have been to a cooking demonstration where they
showed off the types of dishes that are presented at the Murano. Then SH and I
went to a presentation showing us how to cook the perfect steak; and another
that was focused solely on chocolate. There are others later in the cruise to
do with desserts, pastries and so on. </div>
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Perhaps the event that excited me most so far? Being one of
10 people attending a cooking class with the Executive Chef and some of his
staff! This was a 4 hour event, that included about 2 ½ hours of cooking lesson
time, followed by lunch with the Chef enjoying the food we had created. I also received
an autographed copy of the Celebrity cook book, which has over 260 recipes in
it! I got to wear the apron and the hat and took photos of the food and the
preparation. It was so much fun! </div>
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We worked with the Executive Chef, learning as we went. He talked us through each step, and then we went ahead and did them ourselves. The entree was a smoked salmon, avocado mousse and peeky toe crab dish. I can't remember the name of the dish, but it was really pretty in the book and mine finished up looking exactly like the picture! The main was a BBQ Chilean Snapper on mash, that was absolutely delicious, and the new skill I learned while making this dish was how to flip food in a pan without using tongs. I've never done that before, so I was pretty stoked when I didn't end up with fish or mash all over the hot plate.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My entree</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chef's entree</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chef's main</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My main</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch with the Executive Chef</td></tr>
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So as you can tell, this trip is going to cause a few kilos
to take up residence on my hips – but it is so worth it! </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-36337861607562673432012-01-25T21:41:00.000+11:002012-01-25T21:41:40.414+11:00Happy Australia Day!My friend over at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rhyme-Time/43061632411?sk=wall">Rhyme Time</a> shared an idea with me for Australia Day that is from the New Idea Magazine. She knows how much I love to make and bake gorgeous food, and felt that I would love these too. Very easy to make, these Koala Cupcakes are sure to be a huge hit with my kids tomorrow. They will love their special Australia Day treat.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8SwP1I4RIic/Tx_Wj8KGvWI/AAAAAAAAAKk/oV7OiNyeYQI/s1600/IMG_9700.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8SwP1I4RIic/Tx_Wj8KGvWI/AAAAAAAAAKk/oV7OiNyeYQI/s320/IMG_9700.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
I will let you in on a dirty little secret though... I didn't make the cakes from scratch! When I decided to make these little beauties I knew that I would want to send some to my lovely neighbours next door. Their young son has a dairy allergy, so the recipe needed to be adapted to suit him too. I have had the most insane couple of weeks (I'll fill you in at the end of the post about everything that has been going on) and really really didn't feel like baking, but I also really wanted to make these for the kids. So instead, I went to the supermarket and found a packet mix that is gluten free, dairy free, nut free etc etc. Super easy to make once I used the milk and margarine that he can have, and I know that it won't make him sick.<br />
<br />
Anyway, once the cakes were made, I whipped up some buttercream frosting and coloured it with black food colouring until it made the most beautiful silvery grey colour. Then dipped them in the coconut, made the ears from pink marshmallows (cut in half, iced and coated in coconut); the eyes are mini choc chips or mini chocolate M&M's; and the nose is a black jelly bean. Add one Australiana prop and you have a True Blue, Dinky Di, Aussie Morning Tea!<br />
<br />
***********************************<br />
<br />
On a side note... The reason for the madness and mayhem at my house lately is that I have quit my job at Curves - I am instead embarking on a new career as a Family Day Care provider. Basically this means that I am my own boss, working from home caring for other people's children. This is all very regulated and official and runs through our local council. It has involved lots of work around my house getting it all up to scratch as far as safety issues go (Big thanks to my Dad for all his hard work, as he has been the one making it all happen!). I will also be going back to school, studying for my Certificate III in Children's Services. I'm very excited about all of this and hope that it works out well.<br />
<br />
In addition to all this we are madly packing for a holiday. Just before Christmas my SH entered a competition with an online Cruise magazine and he won a trip for two onboard the Celebrity Century cruising from Auckland to Fremantle for 18 nights! We have come to realise just how great my parents are as they have agreed to watch our kids (and our house) while we make the most of this opportunity. What a great start to the year!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-81613075911561984912012-01-08T21:08:00.000+11:002012-01-08T21:08:32.405+11:00Pay It Forward 2012Well folks, I have done it again! I swore that I wouldn't do another PIF project after last year and I have just committed to doing another! It was a great experience last year, but far too involved for what should have been an easy process. Painted projects are time intensive and very personal. I found the whole process very stressful and I constantly worried whether my work would be as appreciated as I would hope. I know that wasn't the point of doing the project, however my heart and soul went into each piece that I worked on, and it felt like giving a little piece of me away each time with no guarantee that the recipient would love it as I did.<br />
<br />
So that being the case, I have decided that I won't be painting anything for the project this year. I have other plans in mind! I'm going to make 6 pieces again (it's supposed to be five, but seeing that I couldn't count last year and completed 6, I'm going to do the same again this year) but this time they are all going to be the same item, just different versions thereof. The good thing with this method is that I can work in batches, so I should be able to complete them more readily. Last year I worked on the projects one at a time and began in February, finishing the last one at the end of September! Hopefully I will be able to complete these ones in a more timely fashion.<br />
<br />
Who knows, if it all works out, I might do a "Part 2" for the second half of the year! I love giving people things that I have made. Usually it's food, but in this case it's something that they can use. No Spoilers! Nearly gave it away there! You will just have to wait until I have posted them out before I will be posting photos. So... until next then, I'll leave you guessing!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-80018098909539476202011-12-18T22:00:00.001+11:002011-12-19T12:47:31.209+11:0018 Christmas Cakes & A Gingerbread HouseWell it has been a marathon couple of weeks in my kitchen. I have been baking Christmas cakes for sale as I blogged about earlier. I finished decorating the last of my cakes today and it was such a relief. I am really pleased with how it all went as I ended up with orders for 18 cakes. So far the response to the cakes has been extremely positive. The decorating went well, helped along by my awesome mum. Between the two of us we decorated 16 of the cakes in 2 hours last week. The other two cakes were still baking, and I decorated them this afternoon.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the cakes ready for decoration. We cut out boards to fit under each of them.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first six cakes decorated. My mum brought a selection of ornaments to put on top of the cakes.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All finished and ready to be wrapped in cellophane.</td></tr>
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In the midst of baking and decorating Christmas cakes I have also been baking decorated Christmas cookies, gingerbread Christmas ornaments and now today, a Gingerbread House.<br />
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My kids were given a kit of cutters to make a Gingerbread House, so we decided to use it before Christmas so that they could show their uncle on Christmas Day (he is the one who gave them the kit). I love making gingerbread and have a great recipe from my mum. We make it every year, cutting out Christmas shapes and then once they are baked, we hang them on our Christmas tree. My kids love spending the week before Christmas eating them, and it makes the house smell delicious. So this year I have made gingerbread twice, once with my neighbour and her two kids, and now again today to make a Gingerbread House. Once the house was cut out and baked we started taking photos and putting it all together.<br />
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I used a recipe for the royal icing that I found over at <a href="http://sweetopia.net/2011/12/gingerbread-house-royal-icing-video-kitchenaid-7-quart-mixer-giveaway/">Sweetopia</a>. The only thing I found was that my egg whites were very fresh and I think that affected the consistency of the icing. I needed to use almost twice the amount of icing sugar to get it right.<br />
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Once I did get the right consistency I was about to start raising the walls and putting the roof on.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raising the walls.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First side of the roof is going on.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I did decorative trim along the joins to make it prettier.</td></tr>
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Because the icing is so thick I did all the assembly work and then my kids were able to start decorating.<br />
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I have to say that I am really happy with the job they did. They worked really hard, and only ate a few of the lollies as they were going along. Most of them ended up on the house!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-58399071604264319922011-12-08T15:50:00.001+11:002011-12-19T12:46:50.620+11:00Painted PresentsMy sister and I have been busy painting again, and this week we both finished the projects we have currently been working on. We are starting to advertise our pieces for sale, and are putting together an album on our facebook page for people to look at. If you are local and would like to purchase one of our hand painted items for a great Christmas gift, feel free to pop over and browse our album at <span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.156801837722270.37738.152054851530302&type=3">Painted For You</a>. If you like what you see there, feel free to share our page with your family and friends too. We are trying to build our profile and would love it if you could "like" our page. The more the merrier, I say!</span><br />
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<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">Also, you might be interested in having a look at the new page I have created called <a href="http://somethingiwhippedup.blogspot.com/p/pay-it-forward-project-2011.html">Pay It Forward Project 2011</a> at the top of this blog. The Pay It Forward (PIF) Project was something I took part in on Facebook. It began as a status update (somewhere, by someone - I don't know who) that offered to give 5 friends something handmade if they promised to copy and paste the status as their own and offer the same to 5 of their friends; thereby paying it forward. I thought this sounded like fun, and it was a good reason to get back into painting again. I finished my first project on the 19th of February, 2011 and finished my last project on 28th September, 2011. It took an average of 8 - 10 hours to complete each project. I had great fun doing it, but won't be participating again next year. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-20681952070967447952011-12-02T19:11:00.001+11:002011-12-18T21:08:18.870+11:00Christmas Cakes by Jen"Christmas Cakes by Jen." That's what the sign on the wall at my work says. I decided a week ago that I would try to sell a few Christmas Cakes at work to make a bit of pocket money. Optimistic in my selling power, I put 12 spaces on the order form as I thought that I would be doing well to get that many. I am selling 8" Decorated Christmas Cakes for $35 each and this is obviously a bargain as in the space of a week I have have received orders for 15!<br />
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Needless to say, I am madly preparing myself to bake and decorate this many cakes. So far I have baked 5 and have another 4 ready to go in the oven over this weekend. I need to do something each day to make sure that I keep up with demand. I'm hoping to decorate them all next weekend, so they must all be baked by then.<br />
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The exciting thing about all this? I said on my form that I would be taking orders up until the 9th December. So I still have another week of potential orders! Who knows how many cakes I will end up selling by the end of the week! I am truly thankful that I said COD and pick up only, I would hate to have to deliver them all!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12304281119604524260noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-64504112899723337562011-10-24T20:53:00.000+11:002011-12-18T21:09:06.721+11:00Cookies for a Cure & Gingerdead MenI've decided that cupcakes are so last year. I have discovered decorated cookies and I love them! I think they are gorgeous and some of the ones I have seen are so intricate that they scare me. I have begun following a couple of bloggers on Facebook who do these cookies on a regular basis and I am head over heels in love with them. You can check them out here <a href="http://bubbleandsweet.blogspot.com/">Bubble and Sweet</a> and here <a href="http://sweetopia.net/">Sweetopia</a>. I am not the most confident person when it comes to working with icing, so this is a bit of a stretch for me. Luckily there are some great videos over at Sweetopia that have given me a head start on the decorating with royal icing. I also thank Bubble and Sweet for some great tips with recipes to follow and advice on using the fondant icing.<br />
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My SH and I have been trying to cut out sugar from our diets at the moment for health reasons, so I have been backing off the baking. This is all well and good, but I have to bring something to our Girls' Night In at work on Wednesday night this week. The other night I browsed the internet to find some Pink recipes that I could make that were relatively easy to make. I came up with Pink Marbled Meringues and Cookies for a Cure. Yay! I had a legitimate reason to bake some cookies now.<br />
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The first thing I decided to make was the meringues as I figured this would be an easy recipe as I make pavlova all the time with great success. I followed the recipe exactly, and they were a fizzer! The meringues took on a golden colour on the outside and they were undercooked inside. I have decided that I am never going to follow another recipe for pavlova or meringue again. Mine works, and I should have trusted myself to begin with. So saying, I made a second batch, my way, and they were awesome! Exactly how I envisaged them turning out. The recipe is the same as my pavlova with a few drops of red food colouring swirled through it. Then I dropped small spoonfuls of the mixture onto baking trays dusted with cornflour.<br />
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The cookies were next, and I used a recipe that I found over at <a href="http://bubbleandsweet.blogspot.com/2010/12/white-christmas-snowflake-decorated.html">Bubble and Sweet</a>. It is the easiest cookie recipe to make and cut. I am really happy with how well they turned out. I chose a simple design, a heart shape, covered with white fondant and then a pink fondant ribbon on top. They are super delicious too, which is making it really hard for me to leave them safe inside their Tupperware container!<br />
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The other batch of cookies I made are very different from the first batch. I don't remember exactly what prompted my online search, but I was looking at cookie cutters and came across <a href="http://www.mightyape.com.au/product/Gingerdead-Men-Cookie-Cutter--Stamper-by-Fred/18332269/">this little guy</a> and just had to have him! I decided to steer clear of gingerbread as the base for these cookies, opting instead for a chocolate sugar cookie. Again, I found the recipe on <a href="http://bubbleandsweet.blogspot.com/2011/02/chocolate-sugar-cookie-recipe.html">Bubble and Sweet</a>'s blog. I decided to use Dutch cocoa instead of the regular cocoa I normally bake with as I really wanted a dark chocolate biscuit. I am so very impressed with this recipe and how easy it is to use. These are my gorgeous Chocolate Skeleton Cookies.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The skeletons are filled in with Royal Icing.</td></tr>
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I have been very lucky this year to have some money put aside for myself. This never happens as I always end up spending it on my kids, or the garden (I love putting new plants in the garden, it's such a good feeling!). This time however, I was determined to spend it all on me. I have always dreamed one day of owning a KitchenAid mixer but the price is prohibitive. At $799 rrp ($AU) I didn't have enough to get one from a major store like Myer or David Jones, so I started researching online to see if I could get a better price. In the end I could get close, but not close enough. Which is when my SH stepped in and said that he would put in the remainder and give it to me for my birthday! Yay for Birthdays! Anyway, my Super Hubby is also a Super Shopper and he managed the best price yet from one of our local whitegoods suppliers, E & S Traders Moorabbin - $650!! I am now the proud owner of Rosie, my beautiful Empire Red KitchenAid Mixer.<br />
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I have already used it a couple of times now. My first task was to try out the chocolate cake recipe that my family all use. I have been struggling to get a cake to rise using this recipe and yet anyone else who makes it has no problem at all. I have cake envy! Well with my new mixer the cake was a success! Obviously my old mixer has been on its last legs for some time now. It is 15 years old and has well and truly worked itself into the grave. I also managed to whip up the most gorgeous Chocolate Pavlova from my Maggie's Kitchen recipe book. This was a hit with my family from a taste perspective, but the actual recipe needs to be tweaked as it spread when it was cooking and went very thin in the middle. Not at all like my pavs normally turn out. I'll show the picture here, but not the recipe until I try it again and get it right. I have spoken to someone else who has made this particular pav recipe and she had the same problem, so I know it's not my error in this case, there must be something with the recipe that is not quite right.<br />
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It still looks gorgeous though!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the pavlova mixture before I baked it according to the recipe.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finished and decorated. You can see how it has spread to the very edge of the plate.</td></tr>
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Anyway, my next post will be up very quickly as I am going to put up all the photos of my craft project that I have been working on this year, so stay tuned! <br />
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Wrong!<br />
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Sunday morning and I woke up feeling fabulous. Breakfast in bed (although I had to make it myself) with the newspaper for company. Then some lunch and some gardening, what a gorgeous Spring day it was. I took myself shopping and to the movies. Red Dog is definitely a "must see" movie! I laughed and cried along with the rest of the audience. I think I must have been high from the great day, because I came home and just HAD to bake. <br />
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I pulled out my family recipe book (the one with all the hand written recipes in it) and dug around for one I haven't made in a while. I found my recipe for Coffee Kisses, and decided to make a chocolate version instead. At least the kids can eat them then! If you get the urge to try these biscuits you won't be disappointed.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-80235081044392913302011-08-13T22:15:00.000+10:002011-08-13T22:15:05.380+10:00Cake Pops - By Request or For One Night Only?<br />
A few months ago I discovered Cake Pops. I thought they were the most adorable things I had ever seen, but had no clue how to make them. I did think that they would be far to tricky for me to tackle because they are so intricately detailed with fondant icing and fancy tricks. I even asked my local cake decorating shop if they were offering classes and the answer was "No, they are too much trouble to be worth it". Suitably put off, I consigned them to the back of my mind. Until two days ago, when a friend of mine popped up on my Facebook with a picture of some Cake Pops she had won. Her comment was "I bet you could make these Jen!".<br />
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Challenge accepted!<br />
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The first thing I had to do was figure out how to make them. I was clueless, so I went to my trusty research assistant, Google, and asked the magic question "How do I make Cake Pops". Why didn't I do this months ago? All the information was right there, and they didn't look tricky at all! Obviously the fancier ones would be too much for me, but the ones with sprinkles looked right up my alley.<br />
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(I have actually encountered some stumbling points along the way, so today's blog is going to be a bit more of a show and tell than normal. I have a number of step by step photos of what I did. Mostly because it is different than I expected. If you want to give these ago, I hope my instructions help you avoid the problems that I had.)<br />
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The first thing I needed to do was have all the ingredients ready. I've been watching MasterChef this year, and they focused a lot on the "mise en plus" which basically means everything in it's place. So this is my "mise en plus" for the cake pops.<br />
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You will need chocolate for melting to cover your cakes. Here you can see I have milk and white chocolate. You will also need Lolly Pop Sticks to put the cake pops onto. The third thing in this picture is the tub of frosting at the back. If you are using one cake, you will need about half of this tub of frosting. I used Betty Crocker Chocolate Frosting with my chocolate cake. The flavour is great! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bqx5c7acRJM/TkZY2Pb6R0I/AAAAAAAAAFI/dG9KXfsRD3w/s1600/IMG_8219.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bqx5c7acRJM/TkZY2Pb6R0I/AAAAAAAAAFI/dG9KXfsRD3w/s320/IMG_8219.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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Disclaimer: The recipe I followed was from the US. If I was making these again, I wouldn't use the same quantities. What I am going to do instead is suggest that you start smaller and work up to it. There are far too many pops to make with the quantities you see in my picture.<br />
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So, as you can see I have two cakes. You are going to need one cake. I've made our standard chocolate cake, but you could use a packet mix if you don't have a cake recipe you make yourself. It doesn't need to be a fancy cake, you are going to turn it into crumbs in the food processor anyway! Other than the cake and the food processor you are going to need a large mixing bowl and a spatula. The bowl you see in the picture would be sufficient for one cake. As you will see in my next lot of pictures, I used a different bowl because the two cakes crumbed were too much for the bowl here.<br />
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Once you have the cake crumbs and the frosting ready, you mix them together until they are a truffle like consistency. If the mixture is too dry then it won't form into balls correctly, they will crumble apart. It's very important to make sure you get the right consistency. After I had mixed the frosting through, I kneaded it to get the mix to combine completely.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ngRT1VN3dh0/TkZY26QaLDI/AAAAAAAAAFM/41sRNRIiPzY/s1600/IMG_8220.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ngRT1VN3dh0/TkZY26QaLDI/AAAAAAAAAFM/41sRNRIiPzY/s320/IMG_8220.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cake crumbs with the frosting - starting to mix them together.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ly7frNgUTs8/TkZY3tYdpfI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/SfoTnuAD2xs/s1600/IMG_8221.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ly7frNgUTs8/TkZY3tYdpfI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/SfoTnuAD2xs/s320/IMG_8221.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorry for the glare (blame the lack of photography skills). This is what the mixture looked like after some kneading.</td></tr>
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When you have a lovely mix to play with you can make balls out of it. You don't want the balls to be too large, or they will fall off the lolly pop sticks when you are coating them later. All the tips I read online suggested that you should make the balls about 1 inch in size. I found that 1 tablespoon of mixture was the right amount for me.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IFDb_yIcOOA/TkZY4biCdlI/AAAAAAAAAFU/IG42PknZIF0/s1600/IMG_8224.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IFDb_yIcOOA/TkZY4biCdlI/AAAAAAAAAFU/IG42PknZIF0/s320/IMG_8224.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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After the first couple of tries I got my rhythm going, then the balls were easy to make. I lined some trays with baking paper and managed to get 2 dozen on each tray. As I mentioned earlier, you probably won't want to make the amount that I have made. One cake will most likely generate about 28 - 30 balls.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zHQ0dGdMcPM/TkZY50gPXpI/AAAAAAAAAFc/rQreGjVRJSE/s1600/IMG_8227.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zHQ0dGdMcPM/TkZY50gPXpI/AAAAAAAAAFc/rQreGjVRJSE/s320/IMG_8227.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's a whole lot of cake balls!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HreQuHUQTb0/TkZY5HbLDsI/AAAAAAAAAFY/WpSDEjdjpXQ/s1600/IMG_8225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HreQuHUQTb0/TkZY5HbLDsI/AAAAAAAAAFY/WpSDEjdjpXQ/s320/IMG_8225.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even without the coating they look pretty yummy!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>I would recommend making the cake balls the day before you are ready to decorate them. You need to put them in the fridge after they have been rolled so that they are chilled through before the next step. If you don't, you will find them difficult to work with and they won't stay on the lolly pop sticks as well as you would like.<br />
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Next you will need to melt some of the chocolate to glue the lolly pop sticks in. Each of the balls will have a flat spot from resting on the tray. I used one stick as a guide and pressed it into each ball to make a hole halfway into the ball. Then I went back and glued the sticks in each ball.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-13DjyXtCHqg/TkZY6o31sJI/AAAAAAAAAFg/3-gaSKiFM50/s1600/IMG_8228.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-13DjyXtCHqg/TkZY6o31sJI/AAAAAAAAAFg/3-gaSKiFM50/s320/IMG_8228.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PTtr_7aQXPQ/TkZY7UukEFI/AAAAAAAAAFk/7O6p4GDYpm0/s1600/IMG_8229.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PTtr_7aQXPQ/TkZY7UukEFI/AAAAAAAAAFk/7O6p4GDYpm0/s320/IMG_8229.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Obviously my cake balls aren't perfectly round. Look at all the crazy directions they are pointing!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Then it's back into the fridge again to set the chocolate glue and let them rest before coating them in chocolate and beginning the decorating process.<br />
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I started off by melting the chocolate in a double bowl over a saucepan of water. This is where I encountered my first real problem. The chocolate was very thick and not at all suitable for dipping in. When I tried my first two cake pops, they were literally sucked into the chocolate off the sticks. It was a disaster! I know that working with chocolate can be tricky. I think my problem in this case was that the steam from the saucepan caused the chocolate to seize. I was able to save it by adding some oil to it (my sister's suggestion) and covered another few balls before it seized again.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WG4W-rYWpyU/TkZY7yxDieI/AAAAAAAAAFo/_Lms93157kE/s1600/IMG_8230.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WG4W-rYWpyU/TkZY7yxDieI/AAAAAAAAAFo/_Lms93157kE/s320/IMG_8230.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The two in the top right were the first two. They are darker and look messier. </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The next batch that I decorated was much more successful. I melted the chocolate in the microwave and added some copha to it. This meant it was much runnier and they coated beautifully. I decorated each one with sprinkles or piped melted chocolate on them. You need to move quickly as the chocolate sets really fast! I had some polystyrene which I covered in plastic wrap that I used to stand the cake pops in to set. (the plastic wrap protects the pops from the polystyrene and means that you can reuse it for next time.</div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VyEw50l_II0/TkZY8m0iJTI/AAAAAAAAAFs/sk6NbE5wjfQ/s1600/IMG_8238.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VyEw50l_II0/TkZY8m0iJTI/AAAAAAAAAFs/sk6NbE5wjfQ/s320/IMG_8238.JPG" width="294" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is my second batch. They look great!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Gsjh-ZhF14/TkZY9c79BEI/AAAAAAAAAFw/NhDypfVUIb4/s1600/IMG_8239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Gsjh-ZhF14/TkZY9c79BEI/AAAAAAAAAFw/NhDypfVUIb4/s320/IMG_8239.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Cake Pop. Ready to eat.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Probably the most important thing I found about all of this is the time needed. They really aren't difficult, but they are time consuming. You need to keep the pops in the fridge while you are working, so doing them in batches works best. You will find that half a dozen at a time would work nicely. My cake pops are fairly simple compared to some I have seen. Perhaps the best blog I found on the cake pops, and definitely the most popular, most mentioned blog is <a href="http://www.bakerella.com/category/pops-bites/cake-pops/">Bakerella</a>. If you want to see some truly amazing cake pops you should head over and check them out.<br />
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Anyway, making the cake pops has been a challenge. It has frustrated me and pleased me in equal parts. I have a great bunch of friends who gave me very helpful suggestions when I was stuck with the chocolate. So to them I say a big Thanks! Their help gave me the patience to try again, and I'm glad I did as the second attempt went so much better. As they say, if at first you don't succeed and all that. As my blog post title suggests, the jury is out on whether I will make these again or not. I know that I can. I'm not sure that I want to. I guess time will tell. Perhaps the kids will get involved next time and lessen the work load. Although having said that, kids tend to increase the work load rather than lessen it!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-47225770387891550092011-07-10T21:58:00.000+10:002011-07-10T21:58:29.223+10:00Red is the new White.A couple of weeks ago I won another competition. This time it was through one of our favourite wineries, <a href="http://www.tahbilk.com.au/">Tahbilk</a> in Nagambie. The prize was two tickets (valued at $150 each) to their Wine Club Dinner at the Comme Bar, in the city. SH was pretty excited about the prize as the dinner was actually their "Celebration of Shiraz" dinner. A four course meal, with shiraz tastings at each course. He was salivating! I, on the other hand, was more excited about the food. My dad felt that he should go in my place, and his logic was faultless... I don't drink red wine - only white wine, so it would be wasted on me. Unfortunately I had to disappoint him. There was no way I was missing out on this! I decided that if ever I was going to learn how to drink red wine, this dinner would be my chance. I can't talk about all these wonderful foods in this blog (although admittedly a lot of my favourite foods are sweet dishes) without being well rounded in my tastes. I can't spend my whole life completely ignoring red wine!<br />
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Our night began with pre-dinner drinks, glasses of Sparkling Shiraz, which were presented to us as we reached the top of the grand staircase. Half an hour of small talk later and we were shown to our tables in the Grand Room. We were seated with 7 other people, right up the front of the room. Our table was all decked out, with three glasses of Shiraz in front of each place. When I say glasses, they were tasters, so there was about 100ml in each. We were very lucky to be seated at the table with one of the Winemakers and his wife. He was a great talker, and happy to answer all our questions. It was also a plus sitting with him as he told us the order we should taste the wines in, as opposed to the order we were supposed to drink them. He smelled each wine, looked at each glass and then said "this one first" etc. When we did as he suggested, you could really appreciate what he was getting at.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MJjfG2c8JmQ/ThmRQnfXqVI/AAAAAAAAAEo/jGDjWcS9qt8/s1600/IMG_8110.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MJjfG2c8JmQ/ThmRQnfXqVI/AAAAAAAAAEo/jGDjWcS9qt8/s320/IMG_8110.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We also got to take home the Shiraz Grape Jelly!</td></tr>
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The remainder of the people at our table were great fun, and we had some very lively conversations going around them all. I found that the man sitting next to me had never drunk wine at all, he was a beer drinker, but it turns out his favourite rum is also mine - Mt. Gay. Anyway, enough about the people. I was talking about food and wine!<br />
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The menu for the evening was like something straight out of MasterChef. I was in heaven!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Entree:</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Carpaccio of venison with celeriac, Lyonnaise salad, soft cooked quail egg.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Wines: 1991 Shiraz, 2002 Shiraz, 2008 Shiraz</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x6xOdR09rTw/ThmRfzUCL1I/AAAAAAAAAEs/N7eOKb_OnxU/s1600/Entree.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x6xOdR09rTw/ThmRfzUCL1I/AAAAAAAAAEs/N7eOKb_OnxU/s320/Entree.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Main:</div><div style="text-align: center;">O'Connors Striploin, tongue and cheek with horseradish croquette, jus viande</div><div style="text-align: center;">Wines: 1999 Reserve Shiraz, 2003 ESP Shiraz, 2006 ESP Shiraz</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0kC0WbXwgqc/ThmRjswN26I/AAAAAAAAAEw/16uwCdaGY0M/s1600/IMG_8118.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0kC0WbXwgqc/ThmRjswN26I/AAAAAAAAAEw/16uwCdaGY0M/s320/IMG_8118.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "steak" is the tongue and the darker meat is the cheek. They were actually both delicious!</td></tr>
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">Cheese Plate:</div><div style="text-align: center;">Will Studds aged cheddar, parsley cream, quince and watercress</div><div style="text-align: center;">Wines: 1995 Magnum 1860 Vines Shiraz, 2005 Magnum 1860 Vines Shiraz</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mre8E1RM9MY/ThmRzWBAuJI/AAAAAAAAAE0/lnuiaOs-ndA/s1600/IMG_8127.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mre8E1RM9MY/ThmRzWBAuJI/AAAAAAAAAE0/lnuiaOs-ndA/s320/IMG_8127.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I didn't like the parsley cream, it tasted like lawn clippings!</td></tr>
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">Coffee and Petit fours</div><div style="text-align: center;">Wine: Muscat</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Our evening finished with an invitation from the Winemaker to ask for him personally when we next travel to Tahbilk. SH is very excited about it, he loves that sort of thing. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and by the end of the evening, I had come to enjoy the taste of the Shiraz too. My favourite was the 1999 Reserve Shiraz, but don't ask me why. My taste for it is still too new to really break it down for you. I will say, that I am certain I will try other red wines now. I'm no longer afraid of trying them. I might not like them all, but I am sure to like some of them!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Finally I would like to leave you with a photo of me, enjoying a glass of red. Nothing momentous for most people, but something that my family felt sure they would never see me do.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MORfRt_IeUY/ThmTmZRrY9I/AAAAAAAAAE4/aeKDOgaLA_k/s1600/IMG_8120-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MORfRt_IeUY/ThmTmZRrY9I/AAAAAAAAAE4/aeKDOgaLA_k/s320/IMG_8120-1.JPG" width="267" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-32354688084871229302011-07-05T16:47:00.000+10:002011-07-05T16:47:54.054+10:00Secret Family RecipesI am very excited about my prize for the May Foodie Competition from albumworks and am really looking forward to spending the $100 voucher on making my own photobook. I have decided to use this opportunity to make my own personal cookbook (might be my only chance!), making the recipes that have been passed down from my Grandma, Oma, and various relatives and family friends. Once I have made them, I will photograph them, same as I have been for this blog, and then put it all together into an album. I have been tossing around names for the album, and think I am going to settle on "Secret Family Recipes". Which is silly, I know, considering that I share the recipes on here anyway! It just sounds cool to me. If someone asks me how did I make my Grandma's Nut Loaf, I can say it's a "Secret Family Recipe". (yes, yes, I am that lame!)<br />
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Anyway - my family are looking forward to me doing this as they get to eat all of our favourite recipes too! It's turning out to be heaps of fun already, and I have even tried a recipe that I have never been game to do before.<br />
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It was my sister's birthday at the end of June and we had dinner at my mum and dad's house with the whole family. I usually bring a dessert along, so decided to make a cake. Looking through my list of recipes that I want to put into the album I saw that I had put a "Blowaway Sponge" on the list. I've never made a sponge before as I have heard that they can be quite tricky. So I figured that now was the time to give it a try. I have been getting more adventurous with my cooking, so I figured I was up for the task. It turned out well, with only a minor sag in the middle. I have since made another for my neighbour as a birthday cake, and will probably make a third before it makes it to the cookbook.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0yXLzAWQ70Y/ThKL50oogSI/AAAAAAAAAEg/lPWviyiXBkU/s1600/IMG_8099.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0yXLzAWQ70Y/ThKL50oogSI/AAAAAAAAAEg/lPWviyiXBkU/s320/IMG_8099.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blowaway Sponge with whipped cream, Peaches and Passionfruit.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>It's the first week of the school holidays now, and the kids are looking forward to baking with me. They love helping, mostly because they can lick the bowl, or taste the biscuit dough. Yesterday afternoon I made a batch of Oma's Chocolate & Vanilla Biscuits, a definite family favourite.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hA-lqvbRJtk/ThKygD2IeHI/AAAAAAAAAEk/PY0XdadTMhE/s1600/IMG_8107.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hA-lqvbRJtk/ThKygD2IeHI/AAAAAAAAAEk/PY0XdadTMhE/s320/IMG_8107.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chocolate & Vanilla Biscuits</td></tr>
</tbody></table>These are very easy to make, and they look great. They are absolutely delicious too. I am going to play with the recipe a bit, add some different flavours, maybe mix up the colours a bit. Whatever I decide to do, I have a ready supply of taste-testers lining up to help.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-49440711323531269432011-06-17T22:17:00.000+10:002011-06-17T22:17:51.225+10:00Painted for YouWell it's official - we are open for business! Lynette and I have created a Facebook page called <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Painted-for-You/152054851530302?sk=info">Painted for You</a> that showcases projects from our weekly painting sessions. There are some items that are ready for sale, and others that are examples of work we can do for you. I hope you come along and check out the page, remember to "Like" it so that we can keep you updated as we add more things to it. Thanks!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-74634307639839642962011-06-09T21:19:00.002+10:002011-06-09T22:25:57.553+10:00The Female PrerogativeWhen I was growing up, my dad would always say if ever any of us girls changed our minds about something that it was a woman's prerogative to do so. With that in mind, I am going to make use of my female prerogative to change my mind about the Cook The Issue competition. Basically I am wimping out of it. I have entered two of the photos that I have taken, and have cooked a further 3 dishes now. My problem is, I have looked at the gallery of other entries and it seems to me that I wouldn't have a chance in the competition as there are a number of photos that look to have been taken professionally. I just don't have the energy at the moment to try to be more than I am. I am quite happy cooking for my family and myself, for pleasure, so that is what I will continue to do.<br />
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I am very happy with my win in the albumworks Facebook competition and I am looking forward to receiving my prizes. In the meantime I have been watching MasterChef avidly on the tv, and drooling over the great recipes. Last night's episode featured Nigella Lawson and her recipes. I love her! She is such a diva in the kitchen, she makes cooking look such fun.<br />
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I was inspired by the episode and decided that I absolutely had to give her Red Velvet Cupcakes a try. Needless to say, my family were behind that decision one hundred percent! Now up until yesterday, I didn't have any idea what a Red Velvet Cupcake was. I was under the mistaken impression that it was a "hot" spicy cake, perhaps with chilli or hot cinnamon in it. I don't really know why I thought that, perhaps just that the colour is such a "hot" colour. I know now that it is a chocolate cake with red colouring, which seems pretty straight forward to me.<br />
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Thanks to my sister for sending me a link to an article that features <a href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/lifestyle/food-wine/sharing-the-love/story-e6frefb3-1226071865339">Nigella Lawson - Sharing the Love</a> which includes her recipe for these cupcakes. A quick read over the recipe and I realised I would have to go shopping as she doesn't use regular everyday ingredients. I needed to pick up Buttermilk, Cream Cheese and Christmas Red paste food colouring. Luckily we have a great cake decorating shop near us, so I was able to get an awesome "Red Red" Wilton food paste that would do the trick, and grabbed the rest of the things from the supermarket.<br />
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I spent a great afternoon painting, although without my sister as she is ill (it's not the same without her, but I managed) and after a lovely dinner with mum and dad, decided the time had come to whip up the cupcakes. So recipe in hand, I went into the kitchen. It was surprisingly easy to make, although I altered the recipe just a touch. This batch of cupcakes is for the kids, so with all the allergies we have in our family I wasn't keen to use a tablespoon of food colouring! I decided to try a third of that and see how it turned out. The recipe says it serves 24, but when I spooned it into the cases I was lucky to get 18. I think for my next batch I will make 12 decent sized ones, and I will try more colouring to see if I can get a really red cake. Today's batch were delicious, but they are a light chocolate red. I am really happy with how they turned out. They are a delicious cake and I can see myself making them again, perhaps without the red colouring, for a regular cupcake.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wz8p3-dHTgc/TfCrMP3xpmI/AAAAAAAAAEY/iPAnJTfVthY/s1600/IMG_8052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wz8p3-dHTgc/TfCrMP3xpmI/AAAAAAAAAEY/iPAnJTfVthY/s320/IMG_8052.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Decorated with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting and a sprinkle of Rainbow Coconut</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1UrYrI4SlS8/TfCrNABDlSI/AAAAAAAAAEc/WIgIJCPBzjw/s1600/IMG_8053.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1UrYrI4SlS8/TfCrNABDlSI/AAAAAAAAAEc/WIgIJCPBzjw/s320/IMG_8053.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a third of the strength of the food colouring.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-91713234253925702152011-06-02T20:57:00.000+10:002011-06-02T20:57:08.364+10:00Winner!At the start of May I received an email from my Dad suggesting that I might like to enter a competition online. It was a Facebook Foodies contest that asked for the entry of your favourite foodie photo of something you have cooked. I thought it sounded like a bit of fun and entered my photo of the Cookie Monster Cupcakes. It involved getting votes to win, so I shared it amongst my friends on facebook, and they shared it with theirs. I was interested to see how I would go, as the odds seemed to be in my favour. There weren't many entries, and I had entered at the start of the month, so had plenty of time to build up my voting base. I have a large circle of friends on facebook, but soon found that friends of friends of friends seemed to be voting for me too. I was definitely feeling the love!<br />
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Anyway, as you can no doubt guess from the title of this post, I was placed First! in this contest. I logged on to check it out yesterday and they had just announced that my photo was the winner. I am very excited about this! The prize is a $100 voucher for a photo album from the company running the competition. Also included in the prize is a 12 month subscription to the MasterChef Magazine, and Adam Liaw's <i>Two Asian Kitchen's</i> hardcover cookbook. I can't wait to receive these in the mail, and then also to choose the photos that I would like to form into a hardcover album.<br />
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Needless to say, I am immensely grateful to my dad for suggesting I enter, and to all the family and friends who have voted for me over the month. Thanks for the support! (Oh, and thank you to the Tupperware recipe page from where I got the idea in the first place).<br />
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My SH and the kids are very excited that I won, and SH has taken to calling me his personal MasterChef. He is glad that I have decided to enter the Cook the Issue competition as he gets to continue trying new dishes as I cook them.<br />
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I don't know where I am going to go with my cooking. At the moment it is something that I am doing for me (although my family are benefiting from it) so while I enjoy trying all these new things, I will continue. I am like a sponge, everything I can watch, or read about cooking, I will. I have just started reading Julia Child's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" which I first learned of in the movie "Julie and Julia". It's an old old book, but it has some fantastic knowledge in it, which is what I am looking for.<br />
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My favourite cookbook is the one I used when we were taught cooking at school "Cookery the Australian Way". I really enjoy reading a cookbook to discover the techniques that different cooks or chefs use. Slowly I am piecing these together and I think it is starting to pay off in the dishes I am able to prepare now. Where before I was a tentative cook, now I am becoming more ambitious and adventurous. I am really enjoying pushing myself in the kitchen, and I know my family are too.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-66831211908475351792011-05-30T16:01:00.002+10:002011-06-09T21:30:14.403+10:00I must be crazy!I spent the night poring madly over the Good Taste magazine, trying to decide what recipes I would like to try my hand at. I had a notebook and pen handy, so that I could note down the recipe and page number of each one. I realised quite quickly that I wouldn't be cooking everything in the magazine, there simply aren't enough days in my week to do that. Especially as I have too many after school activities with the kids, plus my own part time job and the job of being a mum/housewife. So, I have made a cut-down list, and I don't even know that I will get through all of those!<br />
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So far I have cooked two recipes (and I only bought the magazine yesterday), so I am on my way. The rest of the recipes that I would like to tackle, in no particular order, are as follows:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Beef & Guinness Pies</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Choy Sum (side dish)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pear & Frangipane Tart</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Beef Lo Mein</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pea & Ham Soup</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><strike>Smashed Roasted Garlic Potatoes</strike> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tomato, Zucchini & Capsicum Bruschetta</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Baby Beetroot & Lemon Chicken</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ricotta, Mixed Vegetable & Beef Lasagne</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chickpea & Prosciutto Minestrone</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strike><span style="font-size: small;">Chicken with Ham & Cheese</span></strike></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yaki Udon with Chicken & Mushrooms</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chicken Cacciatore</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chicken Cottage Pie</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Choc-Chip Cupcakes</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Raspberry & Lime Friands</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Spiced Fruit Scones with Maple Walnut Butter</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Choc-Vanilla Cupcakes</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><strike>Hazelnut Choc-Chip Biscuits </strike></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rocky Road Brownies</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Banana Cinnamon Muffins</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strike><span style="font-size: small;">Golden Syrup Dumplings</span></strike></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chewy Caramel Slice</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mini Baked Coconut Cheesecakes</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Beef & Potato Pot Roast</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bolognaise Pies</span></div><br />
At this point, I was 3/4 of the way through the magazine and forced myself to stop as there is no way known that I can finish these, let alone any others. Anyway, as I go along, I am going to cross out the ones I have done, and post their picture on the other page. Wish me luck!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-25928371595019955442011-05-29T16:25:00.000+10:002011-05-29T16:25:37.400+10:00Cook The Issue CompetitionI have been inspired by my dad to enter a Foodie competition on Facebook over the last month. I submitted my photo of the Cookie Monster Cupcakes as my entry and am now waiting for the month to end and a winner to be announced.<br />
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This has given me a bit of confidence and I've decided to enter another competition to see how I go. The new competition is in the Woolworths Australian Good Taste Magazine (available at your local Woolworths Supermarket) and is called Cook the Issue. Basically to enter you need to cook one of the recipes from either the June or July issues, photograph it and then submit it as your entry. You can do this for one recipe, or for as many recipes as you like. There are a couple of different ways to win, you can even try to cook every recipe! That sounds like a challenge, but the trouble is, we wouldn't eat half of the food I would be cooking. Unfortunately our family are not fans of anything with chili or curry (really hot spicy flavours) which are so popular with most people.<br />
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I have created a new page on here for all the photos of the recipes as I make them. I started today, so there is already a photo in there. I am going to make the sweets, cakes and desserts first, as I know that my family are definitely fond of those! Today's effort was a Butter Cake with Orange Icing. It was absolutely delicious with my coffee, so I will make that one again.<br />
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If you are interested in knowing the recipes, I can probably put them up too. I will just reference the page in the magazine at the moment though. So let me know in the comments if you are wanting the recipes too.<br />
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Wish me luck, I'm going to enter my first photo now!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427400858954825024.post-17900987119960040112011-05-12T20:15:00.000+10:002011-05-14T06:32:05.735+10:00Step Away from the Cook Book.These last couple of months have been all about stretching myself creatively. I have been working hard at my painting for the Pay It Forward Projects (no spoilers yet... I'm in the meaty part at the middle now) and have delivered two of them now. These have been great fun to work on, and I am doing things with them that I have never done before. I have been mixing my own colours, and in the current project I am even working on my own designs! This sort of thing terrifies me, as I am much more comfortable following someone's instructions.<br />
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This need for instruction spills over into my cooking. I love a good recipe and have a cupboard full of cook books that are well loved and definitely well used. I'm usually just not game enough to trust myself to make something without following a recipe (well unless it is a meal that I make all the time, and even then it takes me many attempts before I branch out on my own). This is particularly true of baking, because it is a science. It involves exact measures, correct ratios of liquid to dry ingredients, perfect cooking temperatures etc. My mum is great at baking, her biscuits are the best ever, and she never uses a recipe or measures anything. She just works on instinct. Did I mention that it terrifies me? <br />
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Anyway, as you have seen in previous posts, my kids love a good cupcake. I have made many different types of cupcakes this year as I have a cook book dedicated to the Perfect Cupcake (what a surprise!). I've made Lemon and Coconut; Triple Chocolate; Vanilla; Pineapple, and most recently Pear cupcakes. With the exception of the pineapple and the pear ones, these have all been made by following a recipe to the letter. However, the last two I made by altering one of these recipes just slightly. They worked ok, but really, you couldn't notice the addition of the pineapple or the pear - the flavours just aren't strong enough.<br />
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What happened last night with the Pear cupcakes surprised me though. While I was eating it, I started to think about what I could do to bring out the flavour more, or what would even be a better flavour. I thought that the pear would work really well with a ginger spice cake, rather than a regular cake. I don't have a recipe for that, so I realised I would have to wing it! My sister suggested having larger pieces of the fruit, rather than the puree that the recipe called for. So with these thoughts in mind, I whipped up another batch this afternoon. I took the base recipe, added the spices I would put into gingerbread (cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice, ginger and cocoa) and then put some roughly chopped stewed apples into it. I am really pleased with how they turned out and I have put the recipe in the other page. It was a very light spice, so if you wanted a more heavily spiced cake, you would need to alter the quantities to suit your tastes. I've put a glaze icing on them and sprinkled them with dusting chocolate. My kids had them warm as a dessert, and are looking forward to taking them to school tomorrow for their morning snack.<br />
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Being such an easy recipe, I will be sure to make them again, and might even play with some other flavours now that I am more confident. Probably the biggest highlight for me though? I made the recipe completely from memory and invention. Not a cook book in sight!<br />
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Note: It was Mother's Day last Sunday and as I said earlier, I made Pineapple and Lemon/Coconut cupcakes. What I didn't say was that I decorated them and took them to dinner. Here's what I did with them.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wx5q8IdZ66U/TcvA_kwJBlI/AAAAAAAAAEM/hEPJS-GM0Hc/s1600/IMG_7917.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wx5q8IdZ66U/TcvA_kwJBlI/AAAAAAAAAEM/hEPJS-GM0Hc/s320/IMG_7917.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1