Christmas is coming...!!

With only 55 days until Christmas (not like I'm counting or anything!!) I thought I'd start stocking up on Christmas cake items......I went slightly crazy at the cake supply today and ended up spending $150......EEP!! Thank god for credit cards eh!! Not everything I bought is pictured here, that shall come at a later date :)

Cookies om nom nom

I LOVE COOKIES.

Not as much as cupcakes, but they're a very, very close 2nd.

Chocolate chip cookies are pretty damn amazing, but there is definitely one thing that makes them even better.......





m&m's!!

m&m cookies are just delicious. They really are. I'm not picky though. I'll eat most kinds of cookies. Just no sultanas thanks, cookies are for chocolate, not fruit!!

The cookies that you see above are the soft kind. I love the kind of cookie that you can bite in to and it's not all crispy and tooth breakingly crunchy. Soft cookies are much more delicious in my opinion!!

These babies are pretty heavy on the butter though - cookies are a sometimes treat ;)

150g butter
110g brown sugar
35g white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
200g mini m&ms

Preheat oven to 160c.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Sift and fold in flour and soda. Mix in m&ms (or choc chips, whichever you prefer!!) until thoroughly combined.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven (or if you prefer a firmer cookie, bake for approx 15 minutes).

Cinnamon Rolls

I love anything with cinnamon in it. It's just a warm, comforting flavour. I became big on making cinnamon rolls when I was living in London. I discovered that London have Cinnabon. I find it completely unfair that Australia still doesn't have cinnabon, but who needs to buy them when you can make them yourself right?? On a cold winters day, my flatmate and I would come home from work and fill the house with the delicious aroma of fresh, home made cinnamon rolls. So yum!!

Today I tried something a bit different - I used my bread machine to make the dough. I have always made it by hand but I thought I would try the machine and see how it went. It was fantastic!! The dough was silky and smooth, I rolled the dough and cinnamon mixture up, cut them, put them in a greased tray and let them rise and BOY did they rise!! I've always been too impatient to let my dough rise when I do it by hand but I wanted to let it and sit so I went shopping while I left them to rise!! I was so excited to see how good they looked when I got back. Popped them in the oven, the house smells amazing, and they taste amazing too!!












Ingredients (I cut the recipe in half to make a smaller batch, the usual recipe is double of what is below):

Dough:
120 ml milk
1 egg, beaten
30g melted butter
30 ml water
275g bread flour
10g white sugar
dash of salt
5g bread machine yeast

Filling:

55g softened butter
110g brown sugar
5g cinnamon


Place above ingredients in bread machine pan and select dough cycle (my machine takes 1hr 30mins on dough cycle).

When the cycle is finished remove the dough and knead for 3 - 5 minutes. Roll out to a large rectangle (about 30cm x 20cm).

Spread softened butter on dough, then sprinkle with mixed brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough in to a tight log and pinch to seal seams. Cut in to 3 - 4 cm slices and place in a greased pan. Put in a draft free place and allow to rise until doubled (I left mine for about 1 hour).

Preheat oven to 180 c and bake for 15 mins.

I don't use a recipe when I make icing, I pretty much just threw some cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and vanilla together and mixed until it tasted right!!

Red Velvet Deliciousness

Oh goodness how I love Red Velvet!!

I had the most amazing Red Velvet Cupcake from The Hummingbird Bakery in Portobello Road. It was my first encouter with this delightful cupcake, and certainly not the last. While no other Red Velvet has been as delicious as that one from Hummingbird, one has come close and it was from The Cupcake Bakery in Sydney.

Sadly, since Portobello Road is a good 24 hour flight away, The Cupcake Bakery will have to do....but I'm ok with that since they're damn tasty anyway!!

Everytime I eat a Red Velvet Cupcake, it takes me back to wandering through Portobello Road, drinking in the sights and sounds, ecclectic jazz music, trash and treasure, an array of antique tea sets, jewellery, clothing, little stalls with international food, and lovely little bookshop with only cooking related books in it......anyway, I digress.

The reason for this post is to show you the version of Red Velvet Cupcakes that I made. The craving hit and I had a little scour around the internet and found a recipe that I deemed acceptable. I'm pretty sure I used this one.

The cupcakes turned out well - moist, a hint of cocoa, tangy cream cheese.....but just not quite as good as Hummingbird!! Another thing that bothers me is that I can never get my cream cheese icing quite as 'frosting' like as Hummingbird or other bakeries. I wish I knew what the secret was, I know it sounds odd but my cream cheese icing is too smooth and creamy. I know, I know odd but whatevs, if you happen to know what I'm doing wrong feel free to correct me!!

A baby shower cake & cupcakes

OH MY GOSH I'M FINALLY POSTING!!

I'm pleased to announce that I FINALLY have the internet at home and can FINALLY upload more pictures!!

A few weeks ago I made a baby shower cake and cupcakes for a friend. White chocolate mud cake with vanilla buttercream covered in fondant with hand made decorations - it's the first time I've attempted something like this!!










I was super happy with the way it turned out, and from feedback apparantly it tasted good too which is the most important part!!

There'll be several more posts coming as I catch up with posting new stuff that I've made over the past little while that I've not been updating!!