Baby Cupcake Towers

So I've just quit retail (dear god how does anyone do that for life) and gone back to working for a cafe chain, and while waiting for my cafe to be build so we can open, I've been helping at another cafe, where one of the girls is pregnant. She's just had her baby shower, so much pink and so many awwww's. Since she will be coming to my cafe after her maturnity leave I decided to make her some onsies cupcakes, I'd normally make her a cupcake tower ( see above) like I do for all my friends, but I haven't had the time nor do I know her very well

I got a little excited she was having a girl as all of my friends have boys ( honestly girl baby stuff is so much cuter)  so I brought a selection of onsies and some cute socks

See so freakin' cute, then I rolled them up around a sock to make the "cherry" on top of the "cupcake"

put them in muffin cases and into a cupcake box, and added pretty pretty ribbon ( I really like ribbon)

And yes it gots lots of awws and ooohs ....

Hopefully the biscotti I'm taking in tomorrow to say good bye gets just as many ooohs,

BBQ Nights...

Having recently got rid of the Loser Moth Boy, who's been my on again/off again soul mate for the last 5 years, not to mention all those so called friends who decided that since they were engaged and I wasn't, I couldn't be included in anything. Both really long stories and the point is I miss having people to cook for, so when my friend Lauren ( Molely) suggested we have a BBQ tonight I got a little excited...

So amongst all the meaty goodness the boys will be cooking on the grill, Molely's potato bake, and salad, there will be my Garlic Bread scrolls... an idea I found on pinterest, using crescents rolls (I'm assuming their an American thing) which aren't available here in Australia so I made my own bread, just using a basic dough recipe rolled with garlic butter and topped with cheese. I'm also so excited I'm making three different flavours of whoopie pies for dessert, but that's going to be a separate blog

 

 

They look good huh? they smell pretty amazing too... all warm and buttery which since the weather has decided it doesn't want to act like it's spring and it's freezing today is a really good thing

 

Garlic Bread Cupcakes

 

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons yeast

1/4 olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

50gs butter

2 cloves of garlic crushed

parsley

 

Step 1) Activate your yeast in the water and sugar, add it to the flour with the oil and salt mix into a dough, knead lightly

Step 2) Leave dough in a warm place to rise

Step 3) roll dough out to a couple of cms thick, in a small bowl mix butter, garlic and parsley

Step 4) spread butter mix over rolled out dough and roll up into a log, cut in to even slices. Place each slice into a greased cupcake pan

Step 5) bake at 160degrees for 15-20 mins until to golden

 

 

Biscotti....

Biscotti, always looks so good in cafes, and always seemed so complicated, after all biscotti is italian for twiced baked ( or so I was told once, that could be wrong) but you do have to bake biscotti twice which opens up over cooking/burning issues. I've always wanted to try making it so a few months back I was reading the paper and I found a Donna Hay recipe for Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti, and decided to try it. I'm not a huge Donna Hay fan, I think that calling yourself a celebrity chef if most of what you do is opening packets, is a bit of a joke but she does have some good recipes (yes I know I'm judgemental, but she annoys me) and the best part of this recipe it's easy, has few ingredients and adaptable.

So I made the biscotti, which became an instant family and friend favourite and it goes so well with my tea addiction, I now make it all the time in various different flavours. As I said recipe adapts really well, Apricot and Maccadamia or almond and coffee  work well.

My friend Roni, loves the biscotti so I've made it for her as a house warming gift with a serving platter she could keep and since she is sick and I'm still trying to work my way through the 40 eggs my chickens have produced this week I decided to make her some more biscotti, and I had a new flavour to try, Walnut and Fig... only I didn't have any figs, the tree seems to have buds on it so I'm guessing it's the wrong season for them. I did have some date in the fridge though so I substuited.

 

So here's my Walnut and Date Biscotti

Yummy, right? but I'm guessing now that you've read my babbling you probably just want the recipe so you can make your own, so here it is

Walnut and Date Biscotti

2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla esscence
1 teaspoon citrus zest
1/2-1 cup walnut halves
1/2 cup dates
1/4 cup choc chips

Pre Heat Oven to 160c

Step 1) Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl mix to combine, then in another bowl lightly beat the eggs, with the vanilla esscence  then add them to the dry ingredients, mix to make a dough, it may need a little kneading on a floured surface to combine  (told you it was easy)

Step 2) Shape dough into 2 logs and place on a baking tray, bake for 30-35 minutes, allow to completely cool, you can pop the logs into the freezer to speed this part up

Step 3) Slice each log into thin slices with a serated knife, arrange slices back onto the baking tray and place back into the oven for another 10 minutes until crispy and golden....

That's it, super easy and everyone will think you're a genius, so sit back with a cuppa, some fresh biscotti, some good company and enjoy the compliments

 

Caramelise Onion and Olive bread

So I've spent all week flat out at my new (old) job, and loving every minute, but now on my day off I want to bake, but I'm feeling a little lazy so I'm going to make a very basic but very yummy bread...

I never bother to measure when I'm making bread except the yeast and sugar, everything else is just thrown in and hoped the best will result... So I start my yeast developing in some warm water about 1/4 of a cup with 1 teaspoon of sugar disolved into it and 1 tablespoon of dried yeast... set it aside and it will do it's frothy rising thing.

In a small pan I caramelised a small onion with half a clove of garlic in butter, and I also diced some olives...

Then in a bowl I put a handful of whole wheat flour and two or three of plain flour, mixed the olives and onions through, followed by the yeast which was nice and frothy, and a little olive oil to make a dough, knead it until it forms a smooth consistancy, then find a warm spot for it to rise, I covered mine and left it on top on the spa cover to rise, while I feed the chooks and let the dog practise herding (she failed and the chooks escaped but they are back in their pen now)

                                                           Sara failing as a farm dog

                                           Hermione and Luna (Ginny pictured above)

Once the dough had doubled in size, I took it back inside and shaped it in to a log on a baking tray. Topped off with some extra caramelised onion, sliced olives and the other half of the garlic clove finely sliced. I covered it again and placed it back on the spa, until it had risen again... bake at 175c for 15-25 minutes and viola bread....

Serve it with some extra olives, feta, salami and fresh tomatoe and you have a great snack plate

Bannoffee Cake!

 

I've been wanting to start a food blog for a while, and since my cupcake business is yet to take off (I am still working on world domination with cupcakes) my cooking and baking has expanded in to other tasty delights, which I thought I would write about and share with all of you

Today happens to be one of my sister's birthdays (Happy Birthday Lill) and she loves Bannoffee pie but isn't to keen on cream so I made her a Bannoffee Cake, all that great Toffee-Caramel- Banana flavour not so much cream...

 

I started with a base Banana cake recipe, I'm a kiwi girl so I used the Edmonds Cookery Book's recipe www.edmondscooking.co.nz, of course I needed to add some caramel flavour, so I made some butterscotch sauce, which I added to the mix just before cooking saving some of decorating and making butterscotch frosting....

Banana Cake

125g butter softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
3-4 mashed ripe bananas
 (I only had 2 banana's on hand so I added 2 tablespoons of apple sauce)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons hot milk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Cream butter and Sugar until light and fluffy, I always find it easier to soften the butter with the sugar in the mircowave, it seems to stop the butter turning into liquid, once creamed add the eggs one at a time. Add Banana and mix through. Heat milk then add soda, it should froth up, this is important otherwise your cake won't rise, then add it to your cake mix. Sift in remaining dry ingredients, and fold through.Pour mix into a greased 20cm tin, swirl through a couple of tablespoons of butterscotch  sauce then bake at 180C for 50 mins, or until cooked

Allow Cake to cool Completely! I left it over night, then cut it in half so you can fill and ice it.

Filling

Butterscotch sauce (I make my own but store brought is fine)
Whipped Cream
Banana

on the bottom layer of cake place a generous amount of butterscotch sauce top with sliced banana and whipped cream, then carefully place the top layer of cake on top.

Icing

Butterscotch Frosting,
150g Butter
1 cup Butterscotch sauce
175g of Icing sugar

Beat all ingredients together until fluffy, you may need more icing sugar

Now the fun part decorating the cake, I made chocolate dipped banana slices for the top and a toffee shard, I also found some cute white chocolate letters at the supermarket. I basically just iced the cake and layer the banana slices on top, but do whatever you feel like, it's your cake