Sample of Yesterday's baking

I have many boxes of baked goods waiting to go to DH's office this morning. Here is a sample of all the morning tea goodies.

The world could have ended last night and I'd have slept through it. Running late again today... postponing breakfast or maybe grabbing an apple to eat in the car. I hope the freeway traffic isn't too awful today.

Today I am cleaning the whole house top to bottom... wish I was feeling a bit more Stepford Wife today lol.



Feeling a bit Stepford Wife

Today I spent the day in the Kitchen baking.

 After reading at school with Mr W's classmates, I dashed home and took a quick audit of the baking staples from the pantry. I pulled out my recipes for the day and cross referenced them against what I had so I could collate my shopping list. Off to the grocery store and dashed around like a mad thing up and down every aisle. Stopped at the butcher and then at the Asian grocer for spices.

Back home I unpacked the goodies for the first thing - Raspberry Ice-cream cake. Whipped it all together in a jiffy and put it away in the freezer. Next I put Mr M's Soy Vanilla Yogurt in the freezer to partially freeze. Cleaned up and put more groceries away.


Second thing - Baked Cheesecake*. I know lots of people don't like cheesecake, I'm not sure about what is popular elsewhere but I grew up with that funny lemony one that sets in the fridge. This one is not that type... everyone loves it, and I think it was part of the reason my DH asked me to marry him. LOL. Anyway, out came the food processor and I smashed up the biscuit base and pressed it into the tin. Into the fridge and then I started the next thing.

Third thing - Nut Tartlets. Something else everyone loves. I recently made 100's of these for my brother's Japan relief fundraiser and my Step Dad's thanks-for-employing-me morning tea at his new job. I made the shortbread cases filled them with nuts and sauce and began baking them in batches of 24 (I need more mini muffin tins). While these baked I looked over the instructions for thing four. By now Mr M's Soy Yogurt was frozen so I scraped it all into a big bowl and mixed it with raspberries and put it back into the freezer in a small ring mould (I guess this is thing 1B). It looked almost the same as the ice-cream cake.

Thing four got started after I pulled out the really huge ceramic mixing bowl (my Mum just gave me it as a living bequeath-ment - she's alive, I'll get it in the will so she gave it to me now so I could use it... and I think it saves her some cupboard space) Did I say what thing four is yet??? Hummingbird Cupcakes. I drained the pineapple and removed the bananas from cyrogenic storage and got mixing it all together. I lined the large muffin cups with paper and scooped the mixture inside and cooked them with the last batch of Nut tartlets.

Back to thing two... I made the filling and popped it onto the chilled base and while I waited for the oven to empty and cool a little, it was time to wash dishes and wipe over the empty pantry shelf then start to put away all the ingredients.

Remember the spices I mentioned buying? I had been looking at some Dutch cooking for Mr W's school cultural day and thought it would be nice to make those yummy spice cookies (speculaas). After the cheesecake went in the oven and (with about 5 minutes to spare) before the school bell rang at 2:30pm I decided to make up the spice mix. It smelled so good, cinnamon, mace, ginger and cardamon... yum!

I actually heard the school bell as I raced out the door to pick up Mr W. A quick walk waddle later and we were heading back home. The cheesecake was almost ready to exit the oven. I surveyed the damage to my tiny kitchen. OMG what a mess!!! There were was baked goods everywhere!!! I did another round of dishes (two actually) and then funnelled the spice mix into glass jars. I started the cream cheese frosting for the hummingbird cupcakes. Then the phone rang and DH needed to be collected from the train station.

When we got back I took the cooled cheesecake out of the oven which had been left ajar to help slow the cooling. Then I decided to crank the oven up again to make a bonus baked goody aka thing five.

Thing five. How could I make speculaas spice mix and not use it? So for something easy I made cookie press cookies and added the spice mix to it. I have a cookie press gadget hiding in the back of the cupboard, it's been there for about 8 years but I think I've owned it for almost 20. The cookies turned out really nicely, I did consider dipping half of each one in melted chocolate but got over it fairly quickly. There are quite a few so I might do this tomorrow.

While the cookies were baking I frosted the cupcakes and added a banana chip to each one.  They turned out pretty good too. I washed up more dishes and trays (at which point I caught myself smiling contentedly - as I became aware of this I wondered if I had actually blown a fuse because I would rather walk through the local dog pound with $10 worth of sausages tied to my waist than spend a second washing the dishes). I discovered the table top again as cakes, tarts and cookies got packed into containers and I also found some vegetables I had purchased at the grocery store. So I put away all the rest of the shopping too.

Mr W came in and asked for spaghetti bolognaise (I made the tomato sauce for this a few weeks ago and just added mince to it) for dinner and I had homemade basil pesto sauce on my pasta (I try not to combine animal protein and carbohydrate in the same meal - it makes me sick).

So with a final wipe down of all the surfaces and the cooled cookies placed in boxes, Mr W helped set the table and we ate. I was starving!!!! I had not realised that I skipped breakfast and lunch today. I was running so late for school this morning so to save time I brushed my teeth (morning breath = gross) and decided to eat breakfast when I got back... but because I still had minty freshness in my mouth I thought I'd already eaten when I got home from school. I didn't intend to miss lunch either I just kept postponing it until I had done this quick thing, and then that quick thing.... Therefore the pasta tasted sooo good tonight. We all had a hummingbird cupcake for dessert... lucky that 3 wouldn't fit into the box!

We all played some hangman on a huge white board in the lounge room after dinner. Then Mr W and I took turns reading a book with silly voices and substituting silly words before he went to bed. We also recorded some funny messages on his bedroom door secret spy sensor.

I am not sure where I found the time but I also managed two loads of washing today and even a little folding got done through the course of today.

When I get up tomorrow, I just have to whip the cream and dress the cheesecake with cream and peach slices and then after school I'll drive all these goodies into my DH's office in the city. I hope his work mates enjoy their morning tea... and I hope I made enough for them to share!

So now my little batteries are running on low and seeing as I am human (and not actually a stepford wife) it is time to hit the hay. Wow a super early night for me... it's not even 10:30pm yet. I sure hope I make it into bed, I am almost certain if I fall asleep in the shower I'll wake up once the hot water runs out. Brrrr


* Sorry no recipe for the Baked Cheesecake, it clearly says in the picture it is Madeline's Secret recipe. She entrusted me with it in 1995 (I think she might have been joking about the secret bit but I'm not certain so I'll just keep on keeping the secret).

Harmony/Cultural day

Today is Harmony day at Mr W's school. All the children have been asked to dress in special clothing and to bring a plate of food that represents a country from their own heritage. That gives our family a very broad scope of possibilities, DH is part Dutch and Spanish. I have Scottish, English, and reportedly Prussian along with several other things too, but we have lived in Australia for 5 generations. My Mum's step dad was Australian Aboriginal and we also have a Japanese influence in our family with Miho, Miss D and Mr M.

I discounted my Scottish heritage because I thought the teachers wouldn't be keen on the kids eating something smothered in whiskey and rolled in oats or smoked kippers, black pudding or haggis. For a quick moment I did think of Kangaroo tail soup... but I'd need to run down my own Kangaroo to make it and I've already crashed the car once this year. I didn't think paella would go down well witht he kids and I couldn't think of anything else Spanish... of course now I realise any small nibbles could have been labelled 'tapas'. There is already a Japanese boy in class so I am sure he will bring sushi (or something else Japanese) what a shame I could have made Chicken Karaage [drool]... so that left me with Dutch.

Dutch, Dutch, Dutch.... hmmm salted licorice? Rollmops? some Edam or Gouda cheese? or gourmetten? I had no idea what to make until I remembered something my DH has told me about over and over again. The very fond memories he has of his Dad making oliebollen when he was a kid. So that is what I made. Click the link to see a photo. They are kind of like a doughnut ball containing apple and sultanas that is dusted with powdered sugar after it is fried in oil.

Save it to say I had never tried (making or eating) these before but Mr W reviewed them after dinner tonight and gave them two thumbs up.

This has made me realise I really do need to broaden my culinary scope and make more dishes from our combined heritage. I think I am going to make speculaas biscuits sometime over the next few days. Yum! And I remembered I have some kippers stashed away in the freezer... mmm... Saturday breakfast!

Kippers for breakfast will probably not make for a harmonious Saturday morning meal... DH hates them, I love them. He will eat a jar of Rollmops while I have to leave the room to avoid throwing up... DH loves them I can't stand the thought of them. This is strange because they are both basically herring, one smoked the other pickled. We are both trying to turn Mr W to our ways of thinking... currently he thinks Kippers and Rollmops are best placed on the end of a hook to catch a decent fish which he would wrap in rice and seaweed then dip in sauce... so I guess sushi wins his vote.

Romatic Dinner... for one.

Last night our son had a sleep over at my brother's house. He loves staying with his cool cousins, Aunt and Uncle. I was invited to stay for dinner but I had plans to make a really nice dinner for DH and me. I got cooking and made a delicious garlic prawn tossed with steamed broccoli with a big garden salad. Only one small problem... when the prawns we almost cooked - perfectly timed for 8:45pm when DH was expected home - he didn't arrive. I checked his work roster then I realised he wasn't due home until 11:45pm. Bummer!!! And I had cooked mini banana cakes for dessert too.

So I slopped all the prawns on a plate with way too much salad (I missed lunch) and sat in front of the TV to watch some old movies. Never mind, it tasted so good it didn't mind that it turned out to be a dinner for one... and it almost made up for missing out on Miho's Karaage Chicken (only almost). The link above is not Miho making the Karaage Chicken but it is funny and the guy enjoys making it. This video below is the same guy but an updated video so it is easier to follow and has a variation of the recipe which includes the sauce. Enjoy Karaage Chicken.

Busy weekend

This weekend just whizzed by so quickly. On Friday afternoon I took Mr W to a Karate trial. He has always wanted to do it, and really enjoyed the lesson... now we need to see if we can juggle it into his after school schedule or it we'll need to wait until the soccer season ends in August.

Saturday morning Mr W and I went grocery shopping... an entirely boring task for a 9 year old and not that much more thrilling for me either. We visited the large grocery store, then the fruit and vegetable shop and then Seoulmart (a Korean shop that also sells Japanese foods) where we picked up two packs of Natto for Miss D and a bottle of Mr W's favourite Japanese 'remon' soda drink which has a marble that seals the bottle shut. 

When we returned home I put prepared a big pot of pasta sauce and let it cook in my huge jam pan (thank goodness for stainless steel - I couldn't have done this in a copper pot) for several hours before pouring it out into 8 large pasta sauce jars that I have been saving. I gave 2 jars to Miho.

Saturday afternoon we invited Seth and Miho (and kids) for dinner. We had 4 homemade pizzas and a huge salad. Miss D (3yo) helped me cut the pizza toppings which was very nerve racking because all my knives are super sharp and we almost lost a finger tip several times. She and Mr W did very well at kneading the dough, rolling it out and slopping on the tomato sauce too. We were all starving by the time the pizzas were cooked and we happily ate them outside under the patio.

After dinner we did 'paint nails' for Miss D, she had purchased a matte purple nail polish with her Dad... it was a bit icky (in my opinion) so we did a top coat of silver and purple micro glitter polish which improved the look greatly and Miss D was more than happy to the glitter polish take home when I suggested it.

It was lovely under the patio in the early evening, we put the dogs away into the carport so we didn't have them under out feet or begging for food (a personal dislike of mine), straight after dinner we opened the gate to let them back in with us. Chilli came out but we couldn't find Shadow anywhere. My hubby and my brother eventually discovered him whimpering and stuck fast under the 4WD (think you guys in the US call it an SUV). DH must have run over some roadkill on his long journey to/from work and Shadow loves to sniff at the tyres and wheel arches... he must have ventured too far in under the car and with his old arthritic hips so he couldn't get back out again. He was fine once he had gotten a few gentle pats and been lovingly told 'Oh you silly old dog" a few times. Here they are (at least 9 years ago), when they were our number 1 fur-babies and got dressed in silly scarves... i.e. before Mr W came into our lives. Shadow is on the left and Chilli is on the right.

When I went to pay their 3 yearly dog registration in October last year the woman behind the counter casually said 'oh they sure are old' (they're almost 15 now) 'this will be the last time you need to register these guys.' While the reality of it is true, I did feel big tears well up in my eyes at this prospect. We have had them since they were puppies. They are brothers whose mum died from a snake bite during a fire, to this day they still have little areas around their legs and paws where no hair will grow. We originally just planned on having Chilli but when we returned to the pet store to buy more puppy food (after we had Chilli for a month) we saw that Shadow was all sad and alone there so we decided that if we had enough money in our bank account (it was almost the end of the pay month) we'd buy him too. Well we did, so he came home with us that day.

Sunday was spent cleaning up, doing some washing and looking after DH who came home from work (after only 2 hours) with the bad cold that Wesley and then I had over the last few weeks. We tried to stay shut up in the house on Sunday due to smoke from one of the several large fires burning around the outskirts of Perth. One fire has burnt out about 40 homes in the area where I grew up... more are expected to be lost today. Thankfully no lives have been lost... we need the winds to drop and a big dump of rain. Thank you and safe passage to all our firefighters working hard around the clock to contain these blazes. You are all heroes.

Kristy emailed me today and offered to send us some rain from Queensland... she says they've had enough of wet weather. I hope it arrives soon!

I am glad to have the distraction of temari making and cooking which are both good for my soul. I wrapped 4 new temari bases and got some stitching done. I am reworking the last pattern I made again, this time on a ball 1/2cm bigger and using 1 less row in the spindles. I'll post a pic when it is finished.

Just keep on happily stitching.

New temari

Perhaps new is a misrepresentation... This first temari is one that I unpicked the bands on not once but twice so this here is the final version. Still not 100% happy with it but I wanted to put it away so I could focus on other things.

This one is my 'disco' turtle temari. It is what I came up with from the TK stitch along. The pattern was discussed during an online hookup that I missed so I was really stitching blind, there was no final project image shown at the commencement of the project. I remember now how much I dislike stitching this way, call me a spoil sport but I'm not a big fan of mystery stitching... I am a road map person I need to know the destination and I'm happy to learn the land marks as I go. Of course having said that... I did learn some interesting pointers about not making assumptions and working from verbal (written) instructions alone is an important skill to acquire... I guess the reason I don't like it is because I'm just not too good at it. I've got a few green colours I'm going to add as a startbust onto open areas on the sides.

I am wondering what to do with my really huge C10 ball for the TC flower challenge. It is wrapped in mid green with treasure braid petite marking lines. I think I am going to outline the shapes before stitching the flower but I'm not sure what would look best. I might just go with woven pentagons to keep the framework simple in the hope that my stitching on each pole will pop. I also need to examine how to subdivide the pentagons to increase the number of centers so I can stitch multiple flowers in each section. I am either going to stitch the flowers in #8 perle cotton or KYO. So many choices!!!

Tonight for dinner I made basil pesto from the herb patch basil. It was delicious... or at least I think it was... Mr W said is was gross but I'm not sure if that was due to him having a 9 year old palate or due to me having a raging head cold which means I have few working taste buds.

I didn't use a proper measured recipe for it, I've made pesto before, so I just threw in garlic, pine nuts, romano cheese, EV olive oil a little salt and of course lots of basil. I guess I should have added pepper but I don't like it so my hubby can grind some on top if he wants to.
Tomorrow we are having a big clean up of the yard, sick or not, there is a Category 3 cyclone (named Bianca) heading down our coast line and it is expected to hit land at either Perth or Bunbury (about 2 hours south) so everything that could possibly get picked up and/or tossed about is getting secured down and moved away from window areas around our home. I really hate cyclones. We are lucky that it is rare to get them this far south, but this one is predicted to hit Perth directly... hopefully it will get downgraded to a Cat2 or Cat1 by the time it gets here. Fingers crossed!!! So here I go looking for the silver lining... ok... got it... I'll spend some time on Sunday stitching temari because the storm should hit about 10am and we wont be able to leave the house.

Jammy Jammy Jam and Oprah in Oz

We had our jam making session on Friday. Mum made apricot, Miho made plum and I made cherry. We shared them all out so I came home with 2 jars of apricot, 2 jars of cherry and a jar of plum. Miho and I also make some Japanese pink pickled ginger.

My hands are so stained from pitting the cherries... all 2.5kg of them. Mr M didn't eat too many, Miss D tried - and loved - the cherry juice (before we added the sugar of course). Mr W had apricot jam on toast yesterday for breakfast and gave it a big 2 thumbs up.  I purchased 2 more kilos of cherries today, I'm going to wash, pit and freeze them for use later on. This time I will wear gloves though!


I have been watching the Oprah in Australia shows this week. The shows really make me want to go to Australia... and then I remember that I actually ALREADY LIVE HERE!!! Lucky me!! I am amazed at how many freebies* are given away on American talk shows like this. I loved the pearl necklaces given away from Kailis Pearls. 

image from http://ultimategift.kailisjewellery.com.au/


I have been into the all the Pearl showrooms in Broome (here they grow the South Sea Pearls) when I have visited up there and the Kailis and Paspaley pearls are to die for. A lot of pearl jewellery made from Broome pearls also feature Argyle Diamonds. Pearl is my birthstone and while they used to be thought of as an 'old lady' jewel these days they are so much more modern and even considered a bit cool.

*Freebie - This is slang for something given free. Promotional merchandise, items, products, gifts given away to promote a company, corporate image, brand, or event.

Michelle asked for the pink pickled ginger recipe: I used the one from this book. We also made the apricot, plum, strawberry and raspberry jams from this too. This book 200+ pages of lovely jams, jellies, curds, cheeses, vinegars, pickles, chutneys, sauces and relishes. There are also some recipes for flavoured liqueurs.


ISBN: 9781405329545

500g Fresh Young Ginger Root
1Tbs Salt
250ml Rice Wine Vinegar
115g Caster Sugar
Peel ginger (if necessary) and slice finely (we used a thick cut peeler) and place into a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and combine well. Sit for 1 hour. Rinse and pat dry with paper towel. Pack into hot sterilised glass jars.
Place vinegar and sugar in a stainless steel pan and heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil  then carefully pour liquid over ginger while hot. Cover with vinegar safe lids and cool then keep in fridge for up to 4 months. To get the ginger to turn pink you need young ginger... I couldn't find it (of course I didn't look to hard either but the book suggests Asian grocers or specialist food stores). Miho says that not all Japanese pickled ginger is pink so not to worry.

There is no way the two of us could use this much ginger in 4 months so we just made 100g of ginger slices with half the quantity of the liquid mixture and divided it into two glass-lock containers. It tastes delicious.

My new favourite things are...

A Clover ring thimble with plate! Gotta love all things Clover!

I have long complained to my family about the constant rough patch on my palm due to temari making, it is always dry and discoloured no matter how many types of hand cream I use. Their solution is not to stitch temari... excuse me?? are they serious?? They may as well suggest I stop breathing too!

 At a class last year one of my students told me I should try a sail makers palm so I did some investigating but they all seemed a little too big and cumbersome but I did manage to stumble across this neat solution. I had never seen one of these 'in person' but my wholesaler could get them for me. So here is one on my hand... my rather berry stained hand.

I love that these are adjustable... even to fit comfortably on my great sausage-like fingers. I have tested a little stitching with this on and it is awesome... I have put some up in the shop.

Why are my hands berry stained? I spent the day with my Mum making jam at her home. I made two small batches of Raspberry and then Mum made one large batch of Strawberry with Vanilla jam. Isn't that colour  of raspberries in the pan amazing? I think my fingers got stained from washing all the dishes afterwards.

Of course we had no nice fresh bread to try the jams on so I also made a batch of scones to eat them with whipped cream.  Sorry I forgot to take a photo before we gobbled them all up. I love scones, many people dread making them because they are hard to get fluffy inside but crisp on the outside. I remember at high school we all drew recipes from a hat for our final Home Economics examination. Everyone in the room chanted to themselves 'please don't be scones' as they drew from the hat... when My turn came I drew scones but somehow I managed to score a perfect 100%. I think I've only made them 3 times in the last 20+ years. Tonight like the last times I've made them I exclaimed 'I don't know why I don't make these more often, they are so easy' and that is because they really are. 

Scones

2 cups of Self Raising Flour,

A pinch of Salt

about 3 or 4 teaspoons of Butter (No margarine)

Enough milk to bring it together (just under 1 cup).

Preheat the oven to 230C and line a try with baking paper. Whisk the flour and salt in a large bowl (yes it should be sifted at least twice but a 30 second whisk is fine). Rub in the teaspoons of butter with fingertips and then whisk gently for a second time (this makes up for not sifting and aerates the mixture a bit more) Make a well in the center and pour in almost all the milk. Use a butter knife (I just mean an ordinary knife not a meat cleaver or other sharp knife) to mix in the milk until the dry dough comes together. Turn out onto a floured board and roll out (or press out with your palms as I did tonight - I can't believe my Mum doesn't own a rolling pin!) until 3/4 inch thick and then cut into rounds and place on oven tray. Be economical with the cutting as scones don't like to be re-rolled and get tough. Brush tops with a little milk (or egg wash if you have it but milk is fine) and place in the oven but turn it down to 210C and bake for about 10 minutes ... until just lightly golden on the tops. From start to finish this recipe takes about 15 minutes to make.

Pop on the kettle and make your cup of tea while they are in the oven. Break the scones open fill with jam and whipped cream then put on your best Queen Elizabeth II accent and enjoy.

 Here are two of the jars, Raspberry on the left and Strawberry with Vanilla on the right.

I love love love Raspberry jam but had never made it before. In the preserving books I have they mentioned that Raspberry was the easiest jam to begin with.  It tasted much nicer than any store bought jam... of course I am only slightly biased. 

On the other hand I passionately despise strawberry jam, just the thought of it makes my skin crawl (bizarre because I really adore fresh strawberries) so it took some coaxing for me to try this jam but it was really nice, very nice and I'd actually eat it again without needing to be tied to a chair and forcefully fed it... I think it was the addition of Vanilla or maybe the little bit of motherly love stirred into it. I am going to look around for some nice cherries to preserve next week. Yummy!!

I hope you spend your day doing something awesome.

I've got a new temari to share next time.

Check Check Check Smile

This is my last bit of Christmas baking: Mini Pudding Cakes. These get served with Brandy Butter. Miho and I cut up all the fruit for these on Monday and I spent the day baking them yesterday 24 at a time... I must get more mini muffin pans at some stage.

Now I have finally finished all the Christmas baking My oven is switched to the OFF position for the first time in a week, I can't believe it! My kitchen is now free of bags of flour, dried fruit, nuts and sugar and all my Kitchen Aid equipment is back in the cupboard. All the gifts are wrapped, the cards sent out, all that is left is to go to the fruit and vegetable store, buy one last thing for my hubby and hang up the Christmas stockings.

We took a day off today and my Mum, Miho and I took the 3 kids to the swimming pool for a few hours. I don't usually swim, I have had a new bathing suit sitting in my cupboard for almost 3 years waiting to be worn, but I did take a dip today. I think it might have been the first time my son has every seen me swim. If we go to the beach I will often walk into the knee deep water, but never swim. I think he was impressed that I actually could swim. My Mum suggested we should make it a weekly event... I'm not sure about that but I will probably go again before the end of summer.

I am positive that someone has been stealing away days this year... it has whizzed by so fast. I can't believe Christmas is only 2 days away! In Perth we are looking at 38C on Christmas Day, the forecast keeps going up and down but my money is on being 35C at least. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a not too hot day here (and not too cold for you all in the northern hemisphere).

This is probably my last post until after boxing day so I want to wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday. I hope your day filled with love and laughter and that you get to share it with those you hold dearest.

Nut Tartlets

It was cold and wet today in Perth, totally weird for this time of year, you might recall that in my last post I was moaning about the heat melting my birthday cakes. I saw a news article about Heathrow airport being closed due to excessive snow falls.  Believe it or not it has even snowed at Mt Buller 3 hours east of Melbourne in Victoria.

Today has been nut tartlet making day. Miho and the kids all came over to help out. It was a really fun but very tiring day. We used some eggs from Miho's chickens for the caramel sauce filling in them. So yummy! I forgot to take progress pics and pics of Miho, Me and Miss D in our matching homemade aprons. Never mind I should really get a photo of us with my Mum who also has a matching apron. This is what the tartlets turned out like.

We made both macadamia and pecan varieties baked in a shortbread case and filled with a delicious caramel filling which turns into a slightly crunchy toffee when baked. The tartlets are sitting on the brandy soaked fruit which will become mini puddings tomorrow. Miss D kept stealing the nuts during the tart making and later when we were cutting the fruit I talked her into trying a dried fig... she got addicted and I had to eventually cut her off so she didn't get a sore tummy. Mr W kept sneaking the uncooked dough and I noticed several cooked tarts walking away in his pockets too.

Now I just wish the sugar plum fairy would come and do the dishes!!

Oh no my buttercream is melting!

It's hot, too hot! Too hot for butter cream icing anyway. I've spent the last two days making birthday cakes for my gorgeous niece (3) and nephew (1). I've made a banana cake with marshmallow frosting ducky pond with bulrushes and lily pads for my nephew and a butter cake with butter cream frosting fairy toadstool house for my niece. I hope we get to take some photos before they melt away in the heat at the party.

I learned something interesting, that is, butter cream will not stick marshmallows together to form toadstools even if the instructions say that it can be done. However the MacGyver in me worked out how to get them stuck together.  Put the regular marshmallow on a toothpick and using a small flame (I used a gas lighter) heat the end of the marshmallow, then quickly pull away the crusty bit and stick it to the underside of the toadstool cap shaped marshmallow. Remove the toothpick and Yip Yip Yippee it worked.

I'm so thankful for such a great husband who helped me clean up all the mess created by 2 days of cooking, but also made dinner tonight and washed all the dishes too. He also provided 'artistic support' by suggesting where to place the decorations on the cakes.

Now I just need to work out how to get the cakes to the party tomorrow without damaging them... and not forget the birthday gifts and the extra bits I need to stick onto the toadstool cake (fairies, butterflies coconut grass and cocoa to sprinkle on the mallow mushrooms).

On Monday I will get back onto the Christmas baking only the Pudding Cakes, Brandy Butter and Nut Tartlets to do now. Thankfully I have a few weeks until my son's birthday BUT I need to hope for cool weather because he wants an Echidna styled ice-cream cake.

Echidna: An Australian egg laying mammal also known as a spiny anteater. Click the link to see a picture, my favourite is the short beaked ones

Ice-cream Feast

I bake a lot at Christmas and my assigned course for our movable Christmas Day feast is usually dessert. The last few years have seen the weather in Perth get more extreme, the cold is colder and the heat is hotter so it is particularly nice to have something to cool down with during a hot Christmas Day afternoon.

Today I'm making some of my family's favourite Christmas goodies and I'm going to share them with you. These recipes are quite quick to whip up (especially if you can find skinned nuts) and they are almost always the first things I make because they can keep for weeks in the freezer.  Let's begin shall we...


Hazelnut Fudge Ice-cream Layer Cake.

 You will need:
400g Hazelnuts
150g Butter, softened
1C Pure Icing Sugar
3 Eggs
250g Dark Chocolate
1/4C Kahlua or Tia Maria Liqueur
2-3 Litres of good quality creamy Vanilla Ice-cream 


Here's what you do:
Step One:
Heat the oven to 200C and roast the nuts on a sheet tray in the oven for 10 minutes until the skins begin to loosen. Remove from the oven and place a clean tea towel over then a thick towel, this will insulate the nuts and help the skins to come off more easily. When the nuts are cool enough to hold, rub them in the tea towel until the skins come away. Roughly chop about half of the nuts.
Timesaver: Buy your hazelnuts pre-roasted and skinned.

Step Two:
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until the colour becomes pale. Add the eggs one at a time, beat well. After you add the eggs the mixture will split, but don't worry because it will mix back together when you add the chocolate and Kahlua.

Step Three:
Melt Chocolate by you favorite method (I microwave on 50% for 30 second bursts) and stir with a dry metal spoon until smooth. Stir the warm (but not too hot we don't want to scramble our egg mixture) chocolate and liqueur into the butter mix. Try not to eat all this yummy mixture.

Step Four:
Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the base of a baking paper lined spring form pan. Pour half of the chocolate mixture over the nuts and freeze for 30 minutes.  [You can use any size tin but the smallest I'd use is about 26cmX7cm round. If using a bigger tin you'll just have a thicker ice-cream layer.]

Step Five:
Stand ice-cream at room temperature until soft (I use a 4 litre tub and it takes about 15 minutes to soften on my kitchen counter). Spoon ice-cream over the chocolate layer and press down using the back of a spoon, fill until there is about 2cm of space in the tin. Pour over the remaining chocolate mixture. Freeze for about 30 minutes and then use the remaining nuts to cover surface. You may need to gently press them into the topping. Cover with foil and plastic wrap to keep out frost crystals. Freeze at least six hours before serving.

To serve: Use a platter preferably with a slightly raised edge to contain any melting ice-cream. Remove cake from freezer to counter  for 5 minutes and just before serving gently open the spring to release the pan base, peel back the paper as you slide the cake onto the serving dish. Slice with a sharp knife, serve immediately and return remaining cake to the freezer before it melts away completely. I usually store it back in the spring form tin or in an empty ice-cream container.


Raspberry and Meringue Ice-cream Cake.
 

 You will need:
 2 litres good quality creamy Vanilla Ice-cream
500g Raspberries (use berries of your choice fresh or frozen)
100g Meringue nests

Here's what you do:
Step One:
Line base of a spring form tin with baking paper. I seem to have lost yet another one of these tins so I am showing a regular cake pan lined with two pieces of plastic wrap to help the cake come out of the tin at serving time. Note: this would look nice made in a pudding tin too.

Step Two:
Scoop softened ice-cream into a large bowl. Add berries and gently crushed meringue nests. Stir until well combined. [I don't have a bowl big enough to do this all at once so I usually do this in two batches.]

Step Three:
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and press gently to smooth the top. Cover with plastic wrap and foil to exclude frost on the surface. Freeze at least six hours before serving. The last pic shows how much is left from 4 litres of ice-cream after both recipes are made.

To serve: Use a platter preferably with a slightly raised edge to contain melting. Remove cake from freezer to counter for 5 minutes and just before serving gently open the spring to release the pan base, peel back the paper as you slide the cake onto the serving dish. Slice with a sharp knife, serve immediately and return remaining cake to the freezer before it melts away completely. I usually store it back in the spring form tin or in an empty ice-cream container.

When I rubbed the skins off my hazelnuts today I made sure I saved them.  I'll add them to some rice hull for a special Christmas temari. Let me know if you try either of these recipes and what you thought.

Enjoy your day.

Gingerbread things

Over the years I've learned that perfectly Martha Stewart moments only truly exist when kids are a bit older (or possibly not actually helping). On Wednesday night after dinner and tree decorating Mr W and Miss D decorated the gingerbread house. My brother did the house frame construction and then the kids went all out covering the rooftop with as much candy as the structure could support. Here is how it turned out. The top image is Miss D's roof side. I think she ate a fair amount of her candy before it even had a chance to get stuck onto the roof.

This side of the roof is Master W's. I did try to explain that his bears would be upside down when the roof was put on the house but (almost) 9yo's know so much better than their Mother. His writing in icing is better than mine of course so maybe he does know better.

I can almost feel myself slipping into a diabetic coma from the sight of it. My brother wrote the kids initials  here on the end of the house. The 'curtains' are interesting... very jailhouse chic. The kids (young and old) all enjoyed making this gingerbread mansion... it is a fun tradition that I hope will continue for many more years.

On Thursday we made gingerbread men. I had intended to just have W and my DH making them as a family activity but somehow we ended up with 2 of the neighbourhood kids helping out too. This meant that my tiny kitchen was too full of people so hubby got kicked out. Sorry no pictures of these as they all got nibbled up before I could take pictures, just as well too because some of them turned into conversation men after Wesley and I got tired of talking about whether or not he could have another cookie. Some had 'no' others had 'yes' and one had 'please' iced on them. Here are some gingerbread snowflakes we made yesterday to use up the icing and left over dough. The one with the lime tictac stuck on top used up the very last of the icing.

Happy stitching/baking/shopping/decorating/other to you until next time!

Biscuit Boutique

I used my new biscuit cutter yesterday. For you guys in the US it's cookies.  Remember the dress cutter I purchased a while back? So this is what I made yesterday afternoon.

I haven't ever made decorated cookies before... as you can tell... but it was fun to do. I made these with rolled fondant that I coloured blue (I have a boy so it is the only Wilton colour I had on hand). I can think of a shopping list of supplies I will need to make these really good next time... oh dear... another craft... ;-)

I am glad my son and hubby have no problem eating biscuits shaped like dresses because they will all get gobbled up by people other than me.

Gotta run now... I'm off to have a girly morning tea with my bestie Claire we're celebrating her birthday from yesterday and mine, which is tomorrow.

The amazing WWW and my new favourite thing.

I think that the Internet is amazing. We use it every day with out thinking about how stupefyingly brilliant it is.  Until we are without Internet access for a few days we don't realise how much we take instant global communication for granted.

Here is an example of the amazing web experiences that I came across just a few weeks ago thanks to my connections on the www.

I am a subscriber to Martha Stewart's website and I get sent a daily email with craft projects on it.  Last year I saw a little heart soap project that got me thinking about making soap. This led me to reattempt to source soap-making supplies in my local area.  I discovered, with the help of Google, an online soap supplier which linked me to the SoapQueen blog run by Anne Marie from Brambleberry.

Now Anne Marie's other obsession is cupcakes so in her links I came across Cakewrecks and Bakerella where I found the link to Cake Journal. At this site I looked through the list of favourite blogs and came across OhSugar's blog where she features the most lovely little black dress project. Thankfully she included to link to the supplier ecrandal so off I went and made my purchase of my new favourite thing few weeks ago. (ecrandal is family owned and operated by Hubby and Wife team Eric and Jamie... if you want something special visit their store)

I got an email a few hours later to say that they we about to make my cutter and would advise me of the postage when they knew how much it weighed. It was being made by hand... just for me. A few days later it was in the post with a kind handwritten note and exquisitely package with a raffia ribbon bow to top it off.

And here it is... my very own handmade party dress cookie cutter. Sitting on top of one of my reusable self made Mors shopping bags

I almost cried when I opened the parcel. My early birthday present to myself. It is so beautiful and it is all mine and I can't wait to use my cutter.

Handmade with pride in North Carolina, USA and cherished in Perth, Australia.

Anzac Day Traditions

Today is April 25th. Every year we celebrate ANZAC Day on this day to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.  More recently it more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for Australia and New Zealand.  Many people begin this day by attending a dawn service in their local area. Other people line the streets for a parade where returned servicemen and women wearing their medals march to honour the fallen.  There is also a dawn service held at Anzac Cove, which is the small cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, the site of World War I landing of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) on April 25 1915.

This ode is read at the dawn service:

~

They shall not grow old,

As we that are left grow old,

Age shall not weary them,

Nor the years condemn,

At the going down of the sun,

And in the morning,

We will remember them.

~

The crowd then responds with:

We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

~

This is a day to give thanks to all those that gave their lives to provide us with the many freedoms we enjoy today and to celebrate and keep alive the ANZAC Spirit which is based on qualities such as endurance, courage, ingenuity, good humour, larrikinism, and mateship. The first ANZAC soldiers are perceived to have been innocent and fit, stoical and laconic, irreverent in the face of authority, naturally egalitarian and disdainful of British class differences.  Many of these qualities are the core of our Australian identity and I hope they remain so for many years to come.

There is another ANZAC tradition that most Australians know... making ANZAC biscuits (not to be confused with the ANZAC tile/wafer - biscuit recipe at the bottom of linked page).  I made a batch today (as I do every ANZAC day). I am glad I will be sharing them with my loved ones who are all safe at home with me today.

They are made using rolled oats, flour, coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, bicarbonate of soda and boiling water. Anzac biscuits have long been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) established in World War I.  It is said that the biscuits were sent by wives and mothers to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. These biscuits are an Australian favourite and are readily available in grocery stores.