Neglectful.

Dearest blog. I'm so sorry I've been so neglectful over the past almost 2 months.

My life feels like it's been turned upside down - lots of stuff has been happening, I'm moving house in to a completely new area close to the centre of Sydney with a complete stranger almost, the silly season has been in full swing with many a party to go to and many a vodka to be consumed......infact, TOO many a vodka being consumed I think. I manage to get myself in to all sorts of crazy situations without even trying......my life is interesting to say the least.

But it's not about to slow down.

I hope I have time to post a couple of things before Christmas, but that might not happen. I'm going to Thailand on boxing day and am not back until 10th January......so maybe the next post will be about my darling brother and his fiancees wedding cake which I am making (and just quietly, shitting myself about!!).

Love to you all my darling readers and lurkers x

Josh & Nadia's Engagement!!

A couple of weekends ago, 2 very good friends of mine had their engagement party.

It was suuuuch a windy day, and it was held outdoors, but it was SO nice in the sun.......summer is slowly but surely on its way!!

So Nadia & Josh asked me to make their engagement cupcakes/cake. I immediately said yes - I felt quite chuffed that they'd even asked me to do it!! 120 cupcakes and a small cutting cake later........:

By all accounts they were delicious - I didn't eat one, I've been doing quite well resisting most kinds of temptation, I keep reminding myself about a) impending trip to Thailand where I'll have to be on the beach wearing little clothings and b) my brothers wedding in January!! ARGH!!

Oreo Cheesecake.....nom.

Oh my goshhhh I love cheesecake.

This hasn't always been the story though.

I remember when I was little, probably about......actually, it was so long ago I can't remember how old I was, anyway that's irrelevant, I just remember staying at my sisters house one time (she's almost 18 years older than me!!) and her asking me if I wanted some cheesecake - my little brain just couldn't comprehend that. A cake. Made of CHEESE?! Eww, no thanks. Of course, I thought it was made from cheddar cheese........she failed to tell me that it was actually made from the delightfully delicious cream cheese!!

Anyway, I la la loooove cheesecake now, and what could make an already awesome dessert even better??

Oreos of course!!

YUM!! I WANT I WANT I WANT!! Can't have.

Adapted from the oreo cheesecake recipe from the Philidelphia Website.

• 1 cup cream
• 1 cup crushed oreo cookies (I bought a packet of normal sized cookies and took the cream out of the middle and crushed the biscuit bit)
• 100g oreo cookies crushed (I used 1/2 a pack of normal oreos (with the cream in the middle) and also some mini oreos)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 teaspoons gelatine, dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 500g block Philidelphia Cream Cheese, softened (I used about 350g)
• 50g butter, melted

Combine the melted butter & crushed oreos and press in to the base of a lined springform tin. Chill the base.

To make the filling, beat the cream cheese & sugar until smooth. Add the gelatine mixture and fold through. Add lemon juice & cream and beat until fluffy. Mix in the normal & mini oreos and pour in to the chilled base. Put it in the fridge and let it set for about 2 hours. I piped some cream on and put mini oreos on top of it after it was chilled. YUM!!

Ginger sponge cake with strawberries & cream

Today I went to a bbq at a friends house and I wanted to take something with me. Something pretty. I remembered seeing a cake in the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook that I thought was stunning, so I flipped it open and found what it was - a ginger sponge cake (it was meant to be filled with apple sauce, but I decided cream and strawberries was the way to go.)

Oooh so puuuurrrrdy!! So it's 2 layers of sponge, with strawberries and cream in the middle, cream and strawberries on top and sprinkled with ginger nut biscuit crumbs and then surrouneded with sponge finger biscuits. It's SO easy to make, and looks good too!!

Ginger Sponge Cake (from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook):

1/3 cup self raising flour
1/3 cup cornflour
3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons cocoa
5 eggs, separated
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup

Preheat oven to 190. Grease two 20cm round cake tins (although I only used one and then cut the cake in half cause I only have one).

Combinthe flour, spices and coca and sift together three times.

Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, beating after each addition until the sugar is dissolved. Add the egg yolks and golden syrup and beat until well combined.

Using a slotted metal spoon, fold the sifted flour mixture in to the egg mixure until just combined. Be careful not to overbeat otherwise all the lovely air will go out of the mixture!!

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until the sponge has come away from the side of the tin.

Decorate it however you like!! I loved the pink ribbon around it, and I loved the strawberries and cream instead of the apple sauce filling, it worked deliciously!!

Dulce De Leche Cheesecake Blondies.

The baking bug struck me last night.

Lately, I've been making HEAPS of cupcakes for people, but nothing blog worthy as they're all similar to things I've posted before.

But last night, all I could think about was the leftover philidelphia cheese and dulce de leche I had sitting in my fridge. Just longing to be baked with. And then I thought about blondies. Buttery, brown sugary goodness. With cheesecake......and dulce de leche. PERFECT!!

Ooooh yum, can you see the swirlies of cheesecake and caramel?? Deeeelicious, although they did kind of turn out a bit more cakey rather than a brownie like texture. But that's ok with me, they still taste great!!

Adapted from "More from Magnolia" Blondies with Cream Cheese Swirl:

Cream Cheese Filling:
4 Ounces Cream Cheese
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp all purpose flour

Blondies:
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar (I used half light half dark because that's what I had in the cupboard)
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
150g dulce de leche

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and lightly flour a 13x9 inch baking pan.
To make the cream cheese filling: in a medium size bowl, bet cream cheese & sugar until smooth. Add the egg yolk and flour and beat well. Set aside.
To make the blondies: In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
Drop the cream cheese mixture and dulce de leche by teaspoonfuls over the batter. Swirl the cream cheese and dulce de leche into the batter. Bake for 35 minutes. Enjoy. 

Almost married cake!!

Last week, my old boss requested a cake for a very good friend that I used to work with. You might remember I made some cupcakes for my friends engagement. Well, that friend is getting married next weekend!! So my old work put on a lunch for her today, and asked me to make her an "almost married" cake. Check it out!!

It was a white chocolate mud cake with white chocolate ganache - and by all accounts everyone loved it!! I was so glad that my old boss asked me, because it made making this cake all that more special for my lovely friend!!

Congrats again Georgie - love you lots xx

30th b'day cake

Hi lovelies, just a quick one today!!

30th birthday cake I did this week:

Vanilla 3 and a chocolate 0. Pretty tasty!!

Fresh, homemade pasta!!

I <3 Pasta. I really do. I think I should have been Italian. Give me pasta and bread and I'm happy!!

Today, I decided I wanted pasta for dinner. But not just store bought pasta. Fresh, homemade pasta. I have had a pasta maker for god knows how long, and I've never used it. Tonight was the night to pick it up off it's shelf, dust it off and use that bad boy!!

The dough, after much kneading - my arms are so tired!! 

When I first started rolling it, it was all crumbly.....I think I didn't let it sit long enough. I'm pretty impatient. 

Fettucine!! 

Extra sharp parmesan cheese.....omnomnom

Served with garlic bread. My life is complete. 

So making this pasta was actually easier than I thought it would be. 

ingredients:

2 1/2 cups plain flour

pinch of salt

4 eggs

Sift your flour and salt on to a clean, dry surface. Make a well in the middle and crack in your eggs. This bit proved to be the most difficult for me, because apparently, my well wasn't big enough. And the eggs kinda leaked a bit. My hands came in handy (who would have though!!) for that bit. 

Slowly mix the flour in to the eggs with your fingertips (fingertips were used not so much, but rather my whole hands). Knead the dough for about 10 minutes......seriously tiring work people. Your end result should be smooth and elastic. 

Divide the dough in to 4 even parts and cover with a damp cloth (to stop it from drying out) and let it sit for about 20 minutes (this helps to make the pasta more pliable because it gives the gluten a chance to work its magic baby). 

Once it's sat for 20 minutes, take a portion and flatten it in to a rectangle and roll it through your pasta machine and cut in to fettucine. 

It's seriously that easy. Enjoy it with your favourite pasta sauce - a bit fave in my household is creamy, but healthy!! I know right, bit of a contradiction there - secret is carnation light milk. It's SO good, tastes like cream and has a trillion (not really, 95% or something like that) less fat than cream. 

A little lie.

Remember that time I told you that there was only one recipe you'd ever need for scones??

I lied.

Sorry. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes I proclaim something to be the best thing I've ever had/made/seen/eaten......and then something else comes along and blows it right out of the water. And to be honest, I've made these little delights before and just kind of forgot about the recipe.

Anyway, tonight I felt like scones. And I was actually just going to go buy some from woolworths (GASP!! I know right......I feel guilty, but I actually REALLY like the scones from woolworths.....and I feel really ashamed to admit that too). Well, woolworths didn't have scones. I actually really hate woolworths, they never have anything I need, and I kid you not the last FOUR times I have been to woolies to get cucumber, they haven't had any. And cucumber is not something unusual, so WHY DON'T THEY HAVE IT?! Sorry, getting a bit off track here.....but no cucumber makes me a bit angry!!

So I collected ingredients for the most simple scone recipe I could remember. It's so so so simple and it turns out the most fabulously light and fluffy scones. Read on, dear friend, for what I can promise IS the best scone recipe, EVAH!!

Ingredients:

3 cups self raising flour
Pinch of salt
1 cup sugar free lemonade (I like sugar free lemonade better than normal. Feel free to use normal)
1 cup thickened cream

Preheat oven to 200c.

Sift flour & salt in to bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour in lemonade and cream and fold in to flour until it just comes together. Don't over mix it, you want a few bits of flour still showing. Turn it out on to a generously floured surface and lightly pat together in to a circle.

Cut out as many scones as you can from your first batch, because they won't turn out as nicely from the second one. Place them on to a tray lined with baking paper and brush the tops lightly with milk (so that they brown nicely!!). Pop them in the oven and turn it down to 170 - 180c. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

Look at how fluffy they are!! 

Seriously, they're delicious. Especially with peppermint tea and chantilly cream.

Cupcakes!!

Sorry I've been a bit quiet of late.

I've just been having a really hectic few weeks.

At the moment, my place of employment (Australian Youth Choir & Australian Youth Dance Theatre) are recruiting for children aged 7 years and up to join our Choir or Dance Theatre for 2011 (I hope you don't mind me doing a bit of spruiking here!!). We run a fabulous Choral & Dance education programme for kids where they come to us once a week at one of our many reharsal venues across Sydney or Newcastle and they practice lots of really fun songs, or dances, and they perform in 3 concerts a year at the Sydney Town Hall and it's REALLY fun. So if anyone happens to be reading this and has a child aged 7 or above that is interested in singing or dancing, give me a call on 9808 5563 and you could book a time for your child to come and audition!!

Anyway, the reason I have been so quiet is because of our recruiting!! What this involves is calling thousands of schools all across Sydney and Newcastle, booking times to go and visit them, and then visiting each classroom from years 2 - 6 and talking to the kids, singing a song with them, and hand out information. I don't normally visit schools, but lately I have been because we have SO many schools to visit and not enough audition staff to go out and make the visits. As a result, I've been busy and exhausted from repeating our speech/song routine up to 40 times in one day. As well as our concert that was on at Town Hall last weekend. As well as working late at the office.

Subsequently, I haven't had the time or energy to cook which makes me SAD!!

However, I have had HEAPS of cupcake orders as of late, so I've been busy baking lots of cupcakes, but nothing new for the blog for a while :(

Here's an order I did for today, 24 mini cupcakes. They're all vanilla cake, with chocolate, vanilla & strawberry icing. Sweet!!

And while I'm on the spruiking bandwagon, here's a sneaky little link to my facebook page :) 

A little bit naughty.

One of the girls I work with requested some cupcakes for a hens party this weekend.

Penis & boob cupcakes to be exact.

Sure, why not!!

Hehehehehe!! 

All packaged and ready to go. 

Fun to make and a little different to your regular cupcake order!!

SeaSweet Patisserie, Parramatta

On Saturday, I met up with a friend for lunch. I had been out the night before, was slightly hungover and decided that a huge all day breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, hashbrowns and cheese fries from nut'n'fancy was appropriate. I regretted that when I remembered about SeaSweet - I should have saved my stomach.

We headed up the street after our lunch and walked in to what is a treasure trove of baked goods. I didn't have my camera with me (I blame that on the alcohol....I just didn't think to bring it.....what a shite food blogger I am!!) so unfortch I don't have a photo of the actual place.

It's been there for ages, infact I think it opened there when I worked just 1 block away from it, but I never went there.......god only knows why. They have a massive range of cakes, pastries, chocolates, biscuits and lebanese sweets too.

Tart strawberry - $4.50

This was delicious. Smooth, creamy custard, crisp buttery pastry and the strawberries had the BEST flavour.....you know how sometimes on tarts, the strawberries can be not so fresh and a bit flavourless?? These were plump and juicy and fresh and had a really strong flavour. 

White forest cake $4.50

This was quite nice - vanilla sponge cake with sweet cream and fruit. The sponge was maybe a tad bit dry, but had a nice flavour. The cream was taaaaaasty, I firmly believe that there is no such thing as too much cream. I have to say though, the fruit was a bit disappointing.....it was of the canned variety. I still enjoyed the cake though. 

Choux a la creme chocolat - $4.50

Non soggy choux pastry is always a win in my eyes. It was filled with delicious chocolate cream and it was generously filled. I would have taken a photo but.....well I just wanted to eat it ahahaha but it was filled to the brim with chocolate cream. Rich, sweet, chocolatey goodness. 

Tiramisu - $4.50

Boyfriend ate this because I'm not the worlds biggest tiramisu fan. He made grunting noises though, so I can only assume that meant it was awesome. 

Petit four chocolates - 250g for $13.95

These are little shortbread bases, ultra buttery, topped with a ganache and coated in crisp chocolate. The marble one in the background is my favourite, it's got white chocolate ganache and pistachios inside it. So yum. 

I'll have to go back soon because they have indoor & outdoor seating (with heaters) and I'm sure they would make delicious coffee so I want to eat in next time!! 

SeaSweet Patisserie

Shop 4, 354 Church Street

Parramatta 2150

Ph: 1300 90 80 70

www.seasweet.com.au

Cupcake cake

Sorry blog. Sorry for ignoring you like that.

I've been a bit busy recently.

Last week I had a 3 day workshop with the Choir & Dance kids I work with and it was 3 loooooong days of having children follow me around. I felt like the pied piper.

On Saturday, I went to the Good Food & Wine show. It reminded me of a big version of the Woolworths Dome at the Easter Show. I love the Woolworths Dome. I bought some good things at the show - I shall do a post on that at a later date.

On Saturday night, my brother, his fiancee, their 2 fur children and I drove down to Shellharbour because we were going to a bridal expo the next day (because I'm one of their bridesmaids, it was nice for me to tag along too). It was an absolutely gorgeous day - clear blue skies, warm, sunny, and right by the water too. We ate at a Brewery and I wish I had taken my camera with me, the view, food and company was fabulous.

Anyway, that's why I haven't given you your cake yet blog, because I've been very busy. But I still love you:

Happy Birthday, blog!!

Dearest blog,

Happy 1st Birthday.

I baked you a giant cupcake cake, but my memory card is in my car downstairs, and it's too cold and I'm too tired to go and get it.

I still love you though and I hope you had a fabulous day.

I'll give you your cake tomorrow.

Love,

Kat xx

T2 Cafe at Macquarie Centre

Today I had afternoon tea with my mum, brother & his fiancee, both my sisters, and their children.

That's 10 people all together.

And I didn't think to make a booking. Infact, I don't even know if they take bookings.

My sister and I arrived at the same time and to my dismay the place was full. Packed. It didn't occur to me that it would be busy on a Monday afternoon at 2pm. But it's school holidays (I forgot). After moving around from table to table after people left, we finaly got a good table with an awesome couch at it to boot - check it out!!

Purrrrty!!

I ordered a pot of chai tea, and some scones ($11 - I think it was $4.50 for the tea and $5.50 for the scones). The scones came with some reaaaally smooth, thick cream. It was delish. And the scones were really nice and fluffy on the inside and a bit crisp on the outside (just a thin layer of crispness) and they were slightly warm too. They usually come with jam but ummmm I don't really like jam.......hehe so no jam for me thanks!! The tea was really aromatic, very enjoyable with just a dash of milk.

The pretty cup & saucer for my tea

My mum ordered sandwiches and a pot of russian caravan tea ($14). The sandwich flavours were smoked salmon, ham & cheese, cucumber and......something else I can't remember. Whoops. 

My brothers fiancee ordered some scones too, and a pot of goregous geisha tea. It was SO nice I had a taste of it and I could smell the strawberry in it as I put the cup to my mouth. It was just slightly sweet with the strawberry flavour and very refreshing. It was served hot, but you can serve it cold in the summer too. I can imagine it would be very nice on a hot summers day.

The ambience in T2 is also really beautiful - it's dark, mysterious, has a very oriental feel to it, and is a little bit quirky too. Vintage patterned china, beautiful lanterns, old world furniture. Just beautiful. Very calming.

It was a nice little afternoon tea, and was really nice to be with my family - today's a bit of a sad day for my family. 14 years ago, my mother, father and I were in a car accident and my father passed away as a result of it. Every year, I miss him more and more, and it was good to be surrounded by people who love me <3

T2 Teahouse
Macquarie Centre
Shop 413
Herring Rd (Cnr Waterloo Rd)
North Ryde 2113 NSW
Phone: (02) 9888 3665

Homemade Churro Win!!

I'm SO not in to frying things.

Infact, I'd go as far to say that I hate it.

These churros were no exception - I hate having to stand there, monitor the oil, make sure it's not burning, make sure I don't burn myself (fail) etc etc......but the end result was kinda worth it.

These churros were aweeeeeesome!! I've been obsessed with churros ever since I was about 8 years old. I went to Disneyland in USA with my sister and mum and ate this long, soft, sugary, cinnamony piece of dough. And it was deeeeeeeeelicious. Nothing like it in Australia at all - not until a few years ago at least.

I walked past san churro today with my boyfriend and I was like OMG CHURRO WANT!! But I was full from lunch and also broke.

So I came home and made my own.

My kitchen, hair, clothes and infact my whole apartment smells like oil.....but again, it was worth it. If only I had some chocolate on hand to dip those bad boys in......*sigh* it was good enough with cinnamon sugar though!!

This churro recipe was the whole reason I bought this book. I opened it up at the bookshop and the churro recipe was staring at me. I didn't even look at the other recipes - I was sold!! The other recipes do look good though, and I will defo be trying more of them!!

Churros from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O'Connor

1 cup water
1/4 light olive oil (I used vegetable instead, I didn't have light and it said not to use extra virgin)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups of plain flour, sifted and then measured (meh I'm not that precise. I just measured and sifted - cause I'm a rebel like that ya know....!!)
4 large eggs (I used 3 because I got sick of beating them in lol)
Peanut or canola oil for frying (I used vegetable)
Sugar & cinnamon for rolling

Combine the water, olive oil and salt in a medium heavy bottom non aluminium saucepan (uhhh.....idk, I just used a saucepan!!). Bring to a full, rolling boil over high heat. Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once. Stir briskly until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and fathers in a clump around the spoon. Place the pan over medium heat and stir the batter for 30 - 60 seconds. This gets rid of any excess moisture and also the raw flour taste from the dough.

Line a work surface with foil and turn the dough on to it. Pat the dough in to an 8 inch circle and let cool for 5 mins. Return to the pan and beat in eggs one at a time until the dough smooths out. It should be smooth, slightly sticky, and malleable but firm enough to form soft peaks and be piped or scooped and hold its shape.

Pour oil to a depth of 3 inches in to a saucepan and heat to 365c. Fit a pastry bag with a large star tip (couldn't find my big one.....used a small one instead) and pipe strips of dough into the oil. Fry until golden brown and when cooked transfer to paper towel to drain and then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

They were gooooood - crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. And in my boyfriends words "why does everything you make turn out so fucking good?!"

:)