Pumpkin & Chickpea Curry

Just a quick little snap of what I made for dinner tonight - delicious, and easy too!!

Recipe from http://www.taste.com.au/

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs oil
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 2 tbs curry paste
• 1 kg pumpkin, cut into 3cm pieces
• 1 cup water
• 420g can chickpeas, drained
• 140ml can coconut milk
• 2 tbs chopped fresh coriander (there's no coriander in my pic - forgot to get it at the shop!!)

Heat oil in large saucepan, cook onion, stirring about 3 minutes until soft. Add curry paste cook, stirring about 1 minute or until fragrant.

Add pumpkin, stir to coat in curry mixture. Stir in water, bring to a boil, simmer, covered about 10 minutes or until pumpkin is soft. Gently stir in chickpeas and coconut milk, cook, 2 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with coriander. Serve with steamed rice.

SO easy to make - perfect for those nights when you just can't be bothered. PLUS there's heaps leftover for lunch tomorrow!!

Pink Velvet Roulade

I saw this post on foodgawker. A Pink Velvet Roulade made by Sprinkle Bakes.

SO.CUTE. Seriously - pale pink cake with swiss meringue buttercream?? YUM.

Mine doesn't look quite as good as Sprinkle Bakes.......but I'm pretty pleased with the effort. I always thought that roulade's would be really hard to make - trying to roll it up without it cracking etc........but it was actually pretty easy!!

 

 I've also never made swiss meringue buttercream before either - it's SO yum. I wish I'd made it sooner. I was a bit nervy about making it because I'd always heard it was really hard but you literally just keep beating it until it gets thick like cream. It goes a bit curdly and separates, but then all of a sudden it comes together and it's silky smooth and deeeeeeelicious!! 

You should definitely give it a go - well worth it!!

A couple of things......

I'm well aware this is a cooking blog, but it's MY cooking blog, and today on MY cooking blog, I don't FEEL like writing about cooking.

Instead, I'm going to write about some exciting stuff that's been happening at the moment, cause I think this is the kind of stuff that I need to jot down for future reflection.

So much stuff has changed - I've officially moved back home as of last night. Not entirely sure how long it will last - I'm giving it 2 months, 3 tops. Not that I can't handle living with my parents, but to be very honest after living out of home for well over 3 years, going back at 24 years of age was always going to be hard.

Yesterday I handed in my resignation. I've been working for the National Institute of Youth Performing Arts (which is the Australian Youth Choir and Australian Youth Dance Theatre) for the best part of 2 years, and it's time to move on. It's a very demanding job, LOTS of unpaid overtime/weekend work, and while I have mostly loved my time here, I've been given the opportunity to work for a company who is offering way more money, and it's closer to home too AND it's working with my bestest friend in the whole wide world. Win win!!

3rd item on the agenda........the boy. Cue heart beating faster, butterflies and a big old smile on my face. I'm the happiest I've been in a long time!! I'd like to say more, but I think I'll leave it at that for the time being.

And lastly - I bought a block of the new Cadbury Mousse chocolate today (thought I should include something food related!!) and it was DEEEEEEELICIOUS. I suggest you get yourself out to Woolworths and buy not one, but 2 blocks of it, because it's on special (2 for $5) and I guarantee you'll want more once you've tried it. It's available in chocolate and caramel.......I tried the chocolate one. I should have got a caramel one too.

Peace out xox

Hot Cross Buns

I know it's a little late, but I hope you all had a fabulous Easter!!

On Sunday morning, I woke up at my mum's house at 7.30am (apparently I can't sleep in anymore) and decided to bake some hot cross buns, because my sissy was coming over for lunch with her kidlings. I don't like dried fruit so there are NO sultanas in these - the best way to have them. So yum!! The house smelt like delicious cinnamon, and instead of boring flour/sugar/water mixture for the crosses, I let them cool a bit and piped vanilla icing on top.

Recipe from here.

BIRTHDAYS ROCK!!

TODAAAAAAAAAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!

I'm one of those people that likes to announce it to everyone - not because I want people to give me gifts or anything, just because I LOVE HAVING BIRTHDAYS!! A great excuse to eat whatever the damn hell you want to eat for the ENTIRE DAY.

So far today, I have consumed a free coffee (thanks Gloria Jeans at West Ryde - I even got a bit of a birthday song out of one of the boys!!), cinnamon and brown sugar porridge (so much win), 2 pieces of marble cake with pink icing (took me right back to my childhood - I LOVE MARBLE CAKE!!) and a cadbury cream egg........and it's not even lunch time yet!! Lucky I went to the gym this morn!! Here is the cake that my lovely boss bought me:

DELICIOUS!! 

She also bought me a travel journal (I have some wild escapades planned for next year) and some pink lacy 'pick up' undies (she knows me too well).

Tonight I'm going out with a whole bunch of my lovely friends to eat, drink and get messy - I'm looking forward to dinner, going to the local pub which always has good food - I'll show you what I eat tomorrow (if I can move that is!!) 

K xox

Scott & Fee get hitched!!

On Saturday, two very dear friends of mine got married.

I was lucky enough to be asked to make their wedding cake for them!!

I can't convey how excited I was when Fiona asked me to do it - it meant so much to me to be asked, and I couldn't possibly have charged them for the cake when they are such good friends to me, so this was their wedding present.

It seems like it was SO long ago that they asked me to make it, and now all of a sudden the wedding is over - I can't possibly imagine what it must feel like for Scott & Fee after planning for so long, and now it's all done and dusted!! I have to admit, it was one of the most stunning weddings I have ever had the pleasure of attending and I feel so lucky to have been able to be a part of their special day!!

Sooooo without further ado, here's the cake:

The cake itself is chocolate cake, and then the cupcakes are a mixture of chocolate with chocolate icing, chocolate with vanilla icing, vanilla with vanilla icing and vanilla with chocolate icing.

The most nerve wracking part about doing this cake??

Have any of you heard of a little show called 'Four Weddings'??

The one where there's 3 other brides critiquing things at the wedding like the venue, the brides dress, the food......THE CAKE.

Yup. Camera crew filming everything, brides critiquing my cake with the opportunity to slag it off on NATIONAL TELEVISION if they didn't like it!! ARGH!!

I heard nothing but good things about the cake on the day though, so I am just thrilled that everyone loved it - but the most important part is that Scott & Fee loved it. I don't give a shit if everyone else hated it, as long as they're happy, I'M HAPPY!!

What a stunning bride!! 

The wedding was just beautiful - it was held at Old Government House in Parramatta, the setting was stunning, the reception was beautifully decorated and we all had a ball dancing and drinking the night away. AND there was a photo booth - check it out!!

How awesome is that?! AND there was a dress up box in the booth - I'm not going to lie, I DO love a good dress up.............

Congratulations again to Scott and Fiona - what a perfect couple you make and I'm so happy to have you guys in my life!! xoxoxox

The things I baked this week.

I'm well aware that this is a little bit late, but these cupcakes would have been perfect for St Patricks Day!!

Chocolate Guinness cupcakes with Baileys buttercream icing. OMG so much win. I actually just wanted to sit there with the bowl of buttercream and eat that by itself. Sooooooo tasty.

I certainly could have sat there with a bowl of it too, because I had about 2 cups of it leftover. Such a shame to waste something so delicious.........and then I stumbled across a recipe for cookies made from LEFTOVER FROSTING!! AMAZING!! I literally found it the day after I made the cupcakes - perfect timing.

Mmmm I love hundreds and thousands. They make me feel all nostalgic. Oh childhood how I miss thee!!

Guinness Cupcake recipe can be found here at Annie's Eats, and the frosting cookies recipe can be found here at The Caramel Cookie.

Soooo many delicious baked goods in my house at the moment - I even took cupcakes to the guys that work at my coffee shop that I visit on a regular basis to get rid of them........I'm seriously sitting in dangerous territory with that much deliciousness in the house........must.......get.......on........treadmill!!

Just a quick one!!

Again, sorry for the shite quality - from my iPhone!! Cupcakes my boss requested for some friends of hers that got engaged - vanilla with vanilla buttercream, sanding sugar sparklies (which you can't really see from this pic) and cherry flavoured love hearts.

xx

The Wedding Cake

At the end of January, my lovely brother and his equally lovely now wife got married.

It was SUCH a nice wedding - we couldn't have asked for better weather, we were infact very lucky as the wedding was down the south coast, and the day before and after the wedding were STINKING HOT. The day OF the wedding was slightly overcast and cool in the morning, and then the sun came out for the afternoon (it was an outside wedding so this was greatly appreciated).

The theme for the wedding was hydrangeas, and this is what I came up with for their cake:

The cake was caramel mudcake, and there were 3 different kinds of cupcakes - red velvet with cream cheese icing, vanilla with vanilla icing and chocolate with vanilla icing.

I'm very, very happy with the way it turned out - I was feeling a bit stressed in the lead up to it because I was working out of a kitchen that wasn't my own and I was concerned about the heat/weather conditions, but it all turned out great in the end.

Here's some pics from the wedding:

Just call me Mary Poppins!! 

Me and my beautiful nieces. 

 

And the wedding party :) 

V-Day cookies

I realise it's been well over 2 months since I've updated, and I apologise for that.

Things have been very insane - I moved house just before Christmas, to a place where I don't have internet. I also went overseas to Thailand and then came back to Sydney for my brother's wedding, where I was a bridesmaid, AND made their wedding cake (photos of which I shall post next time).

I've never particularly been one to celebrate valentines day in a big way - if you love someone, shouldn't you show it every day of the year, rather than on a specific date?? Why should Feb 14th be the day you bring roses to your loved when?? Why can't you do it just when you feel like it, just because?? I think it would be nicer to received a bunch of roses "just because" rather than because someone dictates that it's the thing to do, and that you should.

Or maybe, just maybe, I'm bitter I didn't receive any roses myself?? Nah, kidding, I couldn't care less.

ANYWAY here are some cookies I made to give to the people I love - so pretty much, I shared them with myself, and the girls I work with.

 

Sorry about the shite quality, it's an iphone picture. 

The cookies were ridiculously easy to make, and taste AMAZING. 

Vanilla sugar cookies:

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

3 cups flour

pinch of salt

Beat the butter & sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg. Sift the flour and salt, and add to the butter mixture a cup at a time. 

Turn on to a flour surface and knead until it's just come together. Put it in the fridge for about 30 mins, and then roll out between 2 pieces of baking paper (I love this, less mess, no dough getting stuck to your counter or your rolling pin!!). Cut out and bake in a preheated oven (160 degrees) for 10 - 12 mins. 

Let cool and ice with icing of your choice (I went with royal icing and sprinkles.....too easy!!)