The White Rabbit Seems to Like it

Hi all!

So it's time for the Monday blog and boy do I have lots to tell you. This week has been a little bit epic ( how's that for an oxymoron?). It involved a whole lotta' baking, work and sangria.

Work this week has been abit of a whirlwind, with a loooooooong looooooong shoot that consisted of paint, spaceman suits, tired legs and a creepy motel. I've never stayed in a motel before, and it did not surpass my expectations of it being a playground for serial killers. Seriously. Think: deranged axeman on the rampage in a ghost town out in the middle of the sticks. Now with that in mind, the reality was : all of the above PLUS no tv remote, no complimentary toothpaste ( lucky I brought my own) and dark red wall paint and carpet... blood perhaps?


Anyhoo, I'M ALIVE!! I woke up bright and early for what seemed to be the longest day on earth, but results were good so everyone left happy and exhausted.

The sangria part of my weekend comes into play in celebrating Kat's 24th at Casa Asturina Spanish restaurant on Liverpool st. Yum. 5 glasses later and I was happier than the birthday girl!

The awesome birthday cake we got from Coles. Classy!

Happy birthday Kat!

But anyway, back to business. This week I had to whip something up a little earlier than usual, as I was occupied with paella and catching up with friends on sunday. So this is what I prepared earlier (always wanted to say that!)



Peanut butter and choc chunk cookies, ala Hummingbird Bakery. They were amazing. So very easy to make and very very tasty. So this is how its done:

Ingredients

• 25og unsalted butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 200g light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract ( by half, you mean 2 tablespoons right?)
• 240g crunchy peanut butter
• 340g plain flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 75g dark chocolate, chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees
2. Cream butter and sugars until mixture is light and fluffy
3. Beat in vanilla extract and peanut butter
4. Add flour, bi carb and salt and mix well.
5. Stir chocolate until evenly dispersed
   
6. Roll dough into little balls and place onto tray- make sure they're well apart otherwise they'll stick together/
7. Bake for 10 minutes and enjoy!

Production pictures by my friend Brecon

Anyway, the time is 8:25pm and I must get ready for bed. I've got to wake up at 4am tomorrow and get to play with puppies tomorrow for work. Such is the life of a production assistant hey?

x A

Blondie Is The New Black

Or should i say, 'Blondie Is The New Brownie'. ha ha ha.

Hi.

So this week I decided to try out the Blondie recipe from Hummingbird Bakery's vault of goodies. What is a blondie you might ask? Well they are pretty much opposite to the traditional brownie- having white chocolate as the main ingredient as opposed to brown chocolate. easy!

I must confess though, that I was feeling super lazy on sunday and could not be arsed to take production photos. Look okay, I had a super tiring girly sleep over on saturday night, and it was cold and rainy on sunday. And plus, I was counting on my work friend to take nice pictures of it the next day. What I didn't count on was him forgetting his camera today!!! ( Good one.) So pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.


So to start off my weekend, I had brunch at Luxe Bakery Cafe on Missenden Rd in Newtown where we were greeted by this little rascal.







It was so so so cute and playful, with it's little polka dot vest get up!

Saturday night was girly sleep over night described in word association format:

disappearing lanes, lasagna, Argentinian red wine, white wine x 2, laughing at birthday photos, falling asleep during Van Wilder, Almond Magnums at midnight, learning new strategies to being awesome at Connect Four, being a bed bully, having awesome company.

As for Sunday, it was wet, cold and miserable. Thus, pretty uneventful apart from the actual baking bit. Apologies once more for the lack of visual representation, but I can assure that it was well received by the official taste-testers in my office, as well as my sister's fiance who scoffed 3 slices fresh out of the oven. Hummingbird Bakery's original recipe contains pecans , which I didn't have, so I substituted with milk chocolate chips. I'm pretty sure there are no complaints about that though! This is how I secured my employment for another week ( other than working very hard of course):

Ingredients:

• 150 g white chocolate
• 125g unsalted butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (make that 2 tablespoons for me)
• 200g plain flour
• a pinch of salt
• However much you want in choc chips ( for me, maybe about a cup and a half)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees
2. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over saucepan of simmering water (don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water)
3. Remove from heat and add sugar and stir. Add eggs and vanilla extract and stir quickly to that the eggs don't scramble
4. Add flour, salt and chocolate chips until well combined
5. Pour mixture into a greased tray and bake for 30-40 minutes. The top should be golden brown colour.
6. Remove to cool and tuck in with vanilla ice cream!

Recipe 3 of 60 is now complete. I must say, this one was super easy and quick to bake and definitely a nice change to the ole brownie.

Until then,

x A

I think I have broken my body.

My legs hurt. My bum hurts. My back hurts.My necks hurts. My stomach hurts. All because I did one zumba class for an hour and that was yesterday.. For anyone who doesn't know, its kind of a mix between latin dance and an aerobics/cardio work out. So intense, but actually alot of fun if you can look past looking like an idiot doing it. I believe I looked like I was some sort of mix between the robot and waaacking, when really I was trying to samba... or was it salsa?




But anyway, I managed to get on with my day and got to reward myself for spending time at the gym last night with a nice dinner followed by Max Brenner. I think chocolate and strawberries is probably one of the best ways to end a hard day at work and an epic zumba class at the gym ( even if it was over 24 hours ago).

I'll leave you tonight with a motivational message from one of my favourite movies of all time: Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Thanks Kuno!




Sincerely,

x A

Chocolate Cheesecake Coma and the weekend that was.

Hi.

To start off this week's bake story, I'll share the weekend that was.

Our friends Marc and Jenny just had a baby about a week ago, and we went to visit the bub who they named Jasper. All I can say is that I never thought watching a sleeping baby could be so captivating. He is so awfully cute. I must have stood over his cot staring at him with a stupid wide smile on my face for ages, but I didn't care. I guess babies can make people stupidly happy! It left me wondering what my babies would look like some day and if I'd go broke with all the cute baby clothes that's available now days. But anyway, we all left totally in love with Jasper as I'm sure anyone would be if they saw him.

SATURDAY:



My friend Ni and I went to check this out and walked out with nothing. Noooooothingggg. Oh well!


SUNDAY:



Woke up on Sunday morning with a mission. A mission to bake a chocolate cheescake. But first, needed sustenance in the form of a yummy hot chocolate. The cafe/bakery where these can be found is called Le Pain Quotidien in Surry Hills, Cnr of Fitzroy and Bourk St (right next door to Somedays, how convenient). It has a nice relaxed atmosphere, kind of rustic in the way its quite an open space with large wooden tables and chairs in the centre. I felt like I was having my ham and cheese croissant in a fancy barn.

In the evening, I got to feast again at Christine and Matt's engageme...oops I mean't to say 'birthday party' where there is always an awesome spread. This year they had catering so I got to stuff myself silly with jellyfish salad, fried rice, seafood, hot pot and most importantly- Matt's mum's trifle. It is what rainbows would taste like I think. A wonderful conglomeration of jelly, custard, cake, fruit and cream- if happiness was tangible, it would be this trifle. Since Christine loves to bake, she got about 6 cookbooks which isn't all bad- two of them from me included:




and




But anyway, back to the Chocolate Cheesecake.




Today I induced my fellow workmates into a cheesy, sugary, buttery and chocolatey coma. Recipe # 2 that was tried and tested from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook was quite successful, which I was very happy with as it was the first cheesecake I'd ever made. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

* 900g cream cheese
* 190g caster sugar
* 4 eggs
* 200g dark chocolate
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Base

* 200g dark chocolate
* 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
* 150g melted butter
* 200g digestive biscuits

Method

1.Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees

2. Make the base first. Process the digestive biscuits with cocoa powder in a processor
until finely ground

3.Pour melted butter as the processor is running




I am very aware that it looks abit like poo, but it definitely doesn't taste like crap.


4.Remove and press into base of tin and refrigerate.




5.To make the filling, combine the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract and beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. I was abit cheeky and added about 2 tablespoons of vanilla.

6. Add eggs one at a time and beat until well combined.



7.Melt chocolate in a bowl over a simmering saucepan. Make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. This should melt in a few minutes.

8.Wait for the chocolate to cool before adding spoonfuls of cream cheese mixture to the chocolate and stir. I was impatient and added the cream cheese to the chocolate whilst it was still hot which made the chocolate go really hard and rubbery. Luckily, I knew I was going to stuff up and had extra chocolate at hand. The second time worked a treat though.




9.Pour mixture into the tin and place the tin into another tray with water. It should come up about 2/3 up the sides. Bake for 4-45 minutes. Also, the tin should be greased and lined.



10. Once baked, the cake should still be wobbly in the middle. If not, you have probably over-cooked it. Ba bowww. try again.


Yep so thats one more down: 58 to go.

Yours truly,

x A

11.05.10 Tumblr re-post

Recipe #1 of challenge :success!

ch-ch-check it out!


Didn’t I say that I would tackle the Hummingbird Bakery Blueberry cake if it’s the last thing I do? Well, it was the last thing I did last night as I didn’t finish up until 10:30pm. Now that’s dedication for you.

So after I failed miserably with my blueberry abomination, I was only left feeling more determined to get the job done and right the next time. Following the recipe correctly this time, they ended up tasting quite yummy with the cream cheese frosting on top.

Here is Hummimgbird Bakery recipe for Blueberry Cake (which- I adapted to muffins)

Ingredients:

* 350g unsalted butter
* 350g caster sugar
* 6 eggs ( confession: I only had 4 eggs left over from the other night’s cake fail)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 450g plain flour
* 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 280ml sour cream (note the cake will fail without this, refer to last post)
* 250g blueberries + extra to decorate
* 2 quantities cream cheese frosting
* icing sugar to decorate ( but you could do without, as the icing dissolves into the frosting anyway and just makes it sweeter)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170C or 325F
2. Beat sugar and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time to fluffy mixture. Be sure to scrape down the sides regularly.
4. Beat in vanilla extract, flour and baking powder until well mixed.
5. Mix in sour cream (note: this cake will fail without it, refer to last post)
6. Ensure that all ingredients are thoroughly combined in this last part. (My poor little sunbeam hand held beater was struggling at this part. I want a KitchenAid!)
7. Stir in blueberries- you will probably end up squishing some but as long as majority are intact its cool.
8. Pour batter into a greased tin, or patty cases into a muffin tray .Cakes will bake for aprox 40 mins, whereas my muffins were done after 30 minutes.
9. Remove cakes from the oven and leave to cool, and get ready to make the best cream cheese frosting. ever.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

* 300g icing sugar sifted (I was feeling lazy at this point and couldn’t be bothered to sift, so my frosting had lumpy bits in it. Listen to the people at Hummingbird Bakery- they know their shit)
* 50g unsalted butter
* 125g cream cheese, cold

Method

1. Beat icing sugar and butter together until combined.
2. Add cream cheese and beat until mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Do not overbeat otherwise frosting will become runny (Guilty! must.read.recipes.properly)



See what I mean by the squished berries? Do not try to resist too much, berries will be squished!


My advice for ensuring that the cakes are cooked? Poke the middle with a skewer. If it comes out clean its allll goooooood. But you also don’t want them to be over-cooked either, so keep track of the time ok?



Runny frosting



My verdict: preeetttyyy delicious. More advice you say? Don’t eat after 10pm- these babies are loaded with sugar and will keep you hyperactive for hours!

So thats it, one recipe down: 59 to go.

x A

p.s has anyone tried out the new flying fox at Sydney Park? I really want to give it a go.

09.05.2010 Happy Mother's Day! (oh and Happy Birthday to me as well)

Hellooo.

So this is my first post. It also happens to be my birthday today, and what better to celebrate my own birthday, than to test my first recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook- which ended in failing. Epically.

But before I start with the baking stuff, I would like to share with you how great my birthday has been as I’ve managed to successfully drag it out for the last two weeks! It has been deemed: ‘Birthday Eating Festival’.

It started off last week with a lovely dinner with my M.C gang ( will explain title later ) and new friends at Masuya Japanese restaurant in the city, where we feasted until our bellies were content and our thirsts well-quenched with blueberry and apple cocktails. We then kicked off to Red Room for a night of old-school rnb and hip hop which was definitely a nice change of scenery. Best song of the night: ‘Mysterious Girl’ by Peter Andre. Not really rnb but it definitely made the 90’s cut. Awesome start to Birthday Festival.

Masuya salmon and sushi platter



Enjoying the sounds of Peter Andre in my Alice + Olivia birthday frock





And to finally bring the 2 day birthday festivities to an end, I had lunch at possibly one of the nicest Italian joints I’ve ever eaten at- Ventuno at Walsh Bay. We started with the Dopo Lavoro antipasti platter which consisted of an array of salt and pepper calamari, meatballs, rissoto balls and bruschetta. I was quite satisfied to have that on its own, but had to force myself to save room for the Golosa pizza. I’m pretty sure this is one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten. For toppings, it had mixed ham, porcini mushroom and truffle oil which I think made the pizza so great.

5 hours later… dinner at Wagaya Japanese restaurant in Haymarket( yes Japanese seems to be very popular at the moment). Company consisted of old work friends, cousin and friends. The good thing about this place is that the service is really really quick- after 10-15 minutes of ordering from the touch screen the waiters are already at your table with the food.

We ate multiples of grilled salon, grilled eel, agedashi tofu, seaweed salad ( yuuuuuuuum) and a topped it off with a giant fruit tart and cupcakes my cousin Christine baked. She’s really into decorating and making things look nice ( unlike my own baked goods- they end up looking really ugly most of the time but still taste good) and she made them look like little ice cream sundaes. Needless to say, they were the talk of the night and everybody left happy!

http://christinescakeandclothes.blogspot.com/





So that was birthday festival in a nutshell. Now for the baking disaster that happened today….

Well I was reminded by my love for blueberries when I recently watched an episode of Everyday Italian. Giada made almond and blueberry biscuits and they looked so good, so I knew I had to bake something with blueberries in them. Flashforward to a few weeks later, I bought the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook and saw the recipe for Blueberry Cake.

About an hour and half ago I thought I’d try it out, which BOMBED. What was supposed to be a beautiful golden brown cake , ended up a big gooey mess. As I was getting ready to make the frosting I noticed that the sour cream was still on my kitchen bench. Eeep. By then the batter was already in the tin and in the oven. Crap crap crap. I thought I’d leave it and see what It would look like by the end of 40 minutes, but when I poked the cake, it was super gooey and looked a bit like moisturiser. Not good.

But fear not, will tackle it again tomorrow and get it right- if it’s the last thing i do.

x A