Category Archives: Cooking

May 18, 2010

Flashing my boobs

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, who is SOOO old today.

After my Craft Room cupcake class, I had the stupid idea that I would make him some cupcakes to take to work. A lot of cupcake designs are very feminine though, what could I make for a bloke? BOOBS of course. Classy no?

So have been practising and preparing all week. Of course I left it till last minute as usual, and was up till midnight last night, and gave up after 16 LOL My hands are now stained every colour of the rainbow for the next week, and I have eaten enough fondant to sink a ship *blush*

After many attempts at getting a good colour, the end result wasn’t too bad.

He said he didn’t want all boobs, he’d feel bad making the ladies at work eat them. So had to come up with some other design, which I wasn’t overly pleased with the result. Guess lots of practise still needed. Need to watch some more youtube vids.

Emily’s birthday coming up in a few weeks and she has already put an order in, so maybe some more girly designs will be easier.

April 25, 2010

Noice-ities- What’s your fav winter recipe?– also posted in Blogging

So this weeks Noice-ities theme is What is your fav winter recipe?

Hmm, this is a tough one for me, as most of my cuisine comes from a packet *hehe*. I love looking at food blogs, tastespotting and Food gawker. I am often buying food mags, but generally its all just to look at the pretty pictures, because I never get around to making anything from them. I really need cooking lessons or something.

My pantry is a little over run with packet mixes. I sure its equal parts lack of cooking skillz and just lazy that has me hooked on the packet mix. So, if we can include favourite winter recipe bases, mine would be (not pictured here) Masterfoods Slow cooker Farmhouse chicken casserole. Gotta love the slow cooker, perfect for the lazy, less skilled cooks

Ok, so if I have to play properly with a for reals recipe that wasn’t from a packet, it would be this. Potato bake is manpets all time fav. I, on the other hand am not keen. So it takes some bribery for me to make it.

Saw this recipe on Huey one day and thought I’d give it a try. Apparently he stole it from Donna Hay. It is super yummy, everyone loves it (which is rare, there is always at least one person that doesn’t like something)

Potato and ham high pie

3 large potatoes, peeled
olive oil
2 large onions, sliced
cooking oil spray
shortcrust pastry sheets
250 gm sliced leg ham
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
5 large eggs
1 cup cream
sea salt & freshly ground pepper
¼ cup milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C fan forced (200°C normal).

Cook the potatoes in boiling water until just tender. Then drain well and, when cool enough to handle, slice thickly.

Heat a little oil in a pan and gently sauté the onions until softish.

Lightly oil a springform cake tin, line with the pastry and arrange one-third of the potatoes on top.

Then layer with one-third of the onions, the ham, parsley, thyme and seasoning. Repeat the process a couple of times finishing with a layer of ham.

Whisk 4 eggs with the cream and then carefully pour over the ham (keeping the liquid in the pastry). Top with another sheet of shortcrust, tuck in the edges and crimp the sides a bit.

Beat the remaining egg with the milk. Cut a small hole in the centre of the pastry and brush all over with the egg wash. Then cook in the oven for about 1 hour until golden brown (covering with foil if browning too much).

I haven’t made it for awhile ( to be honest, I had forgot how till I hunted down the recipe for this post LOL)

So come join in over at That’s Noice, and let us know your fav winter recipe?

September 26, 2009

A little bit of cake with your frosting?

I LOVE cream cheese icing, it’s my favourite kind. I don’t know about you, but for me, cake is just the holder..the icing is the best bit!

Had a craving for cream cheese icing a few weeks ago, and thought I would make manpet his favourite..carrot cake. Never made it before, so put a call out on twitter for an idiot proof recipe. The lovely Lisa from Spicy Icecream came to the rescue with her favourite carrot cake recipe. Check out her recipe, very noice!

Much to my disgust, manpet doesn’t like real carrot cake with proper icing..pfft what does he know. We loved it!

The urge came again this week for more cream cheese icing. So thought I would give banana cake a go this time. Found this recipe on Taste, that site is awesome for the domestically challenged like me. Surprisingly, he didn’t like this one either. Same that..more for me!

July 6, 2009

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Have had this on the to bake list for quite awhile. Finally got around to it last week, when I was trying to coming up with goodies to give the new mixer a good work out.

I am the packet mix queen…yes, I can hear you gasping and fanning yourself. Packet mixes..the outrage! Was once even told (by a loon on AFW who has since been deleted) that you aren’t a real parent if you use packet mixes..pfft what a load of shit!

Up until about 2 weeks ago, I have never made anything from scratch before! And while yes, some packet mixes are utter crap. There are some good ones, if you use good ingredients and the proper steps they are just as good! Don’t go buying a cake mix that you just add water to..eeew, you’re asking for trouble! Mixes where you add some butter, eggs and milk are the ones I try to pick.

First we make the cupcakes. So for this, I used a Greens Vanilla cake mix. Mix the room temp egg and butter together, then milk..now you add the packet in. It does make a difference, so don’t be lazy and bung it all in at once! Then baked till..well, they are cooked..duh!

Once they’re cool, cut little holes in the top for the Lemon curd. I just used some stuff from a jar (not the cheap stuff eww) but you could make your own I guess..if you were so inclined.

Then comes the fun! I wanted some of that spiffy soft and fluffy meringue, not that boring regular stuff. So I found myself a recipe for Italian Meringue at Gourtment Traveller. Took awhile to track down a candy thermometer.

So you will need..

• 200g Caster Sugar
• 200ml water
• 5 egg whites
• Pinch of cream of tartar (which I didn’t have, asked google and it said i’d be still right without it. But I probably wouldn’t be taking my advice )

First, combine the sugar and 200ml water in a small pan and bring to the boil while continuously stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Then, Reduce heat to medium and brush down sides of pan with a clean, wet pastry brush to remove sugar crystals. And you’ve got your candy thermometer in there..right?

So you now cook until the syrup reaches 115c on your trusty thermometer, which takes about 15mins. Once you get there start whisking your egg whites with cream of tartar in a clean, grease-free bowl of an electric mixer until soft peaks form.

Still cooking your sugar while your whisking away ( so you will need a stand mixer or a helper monkey) till your sugar reaches 121c.

Increase the speed to high and while it’s running, gradually pour syrup into meringue. Beat at medium speed until cooled to room temperature and meringue is thick and glossy (15-20 minutes).

You can pipe it or just spoon it on, which I preferred the rough look and you could fit more on.

The meringue is already cooked, but a little browning is nice. I stuck them under the grill for a bit. A blow torch would be ideal for a nice even brown.

Super nom-a-licious they were much better than those I have had else where!

June 23, 2009

Lattice biscuit Vanilla Slice

Got a new mixer last week to mix dough for our new pizza oven. Thought I would try it out on some other goodies. Being the packet mix queen, this was honestly the first thing I have ever baked from scratch (not that it was too hard) I was so pleased with the results, I made a batch of lemonade scones that were just as awesome!

I remember having a slice made from lattice biscuits as a kid, didn’t quite remember exactly what it was so went in search of a recipe. Spotted this one and thought I would give it a try. Next time I would like to try a cheesecake type filling.

Everytime I look at this picture, I try to wipe the vanilla seeds of the screen LOL

• 1 x 200g pkt Arnott’s Lattice biscuits
• 300ml milk
• 300ml thickened cream
• 4 tbs caster sugar
• 1tbs vanilla bean paste (I also added a splash of vanilla extract)
• 6 egg yolks
• 3 tbs cornflour
• Icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Line a square cake tin with baking paper. Put down a layer of the lattice biscuits, you might need to cut them depending on your tin size.

2. Whisk the egg yolks, cornflour and 2tbs sugar in a medium bowl until smooth.

3. Then put your milk, cream, 2tbs sugar and your vanilla paste/extract (or vanilla bean if you prefer) into a medium saucepan. Place over medium-low heat and bring just to the boil. Remove from heat.

4. Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture until the custard thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Return to pan. Place over medium-low heat and cook for 2-3 minutes until the custard is very thick.

5. Pour the custard over the biscuit base and smooth the surface. Arrange the remaining biscuits on top, cutting to fit. Put in fridge for 2-3 hours or until set. Cut into slices and dust with icing sugar to serve.

Source: Good Taste – July 2009