Thursday, August 26, 2010

Black Forest Cake - Dave's Birthday

Well it came to my darling's 33rd birthday yesterday and yes, he requested the Black Forest Cake that I made way back here. It was a lot of fun to make...lots of chocolate, cream, cherries...and LEFTOVERS!! 

We had birthday dinner with some friends and finished it off with a generous piece of cake each! We are now extreme dieting and not eating for a week. I'm not even joking.

All in all, I think Dave had a wonderful day and here are some photos from the day.

The recipe can be found here. Give it a go!





















Monday, August 23, 2010

Lemon Meringue Pie

This was for my sister's husband's 30th birthday over the weekend.
I love lemon flavours so when this request came in, I was stoked!







HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Chocolate Ganache, Lavender Cream and Raspberry Tart

Here are some yummy baked treats I made for my wonderful friends Danielle & Andrew - they've just moved into a new house down the road...  a good reason to whip up something deliciously wicked.







Yes that's lavender...and yes you can eat it straight off the bush!
If you can't find where to buy it, go straight to a florist. They've got tonnes.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Chocolate Cigars with Sabayon


Seeing as I've never smoked a cigar in my life, I thought I'd make edible ones instead.
Except they ended up really fat...
...and resembled spring rolls...or 'poo cigars'.

And thus after a HUGE week, I have nothing really to say except that when dipped in the creamy goodness of the Sabayon it tasted amazing to say the least, and if my metabolism hurried the hell up for once, I would have downed them all. Definitely up there in my Top 5.

This is a Masterchef Recipe <3

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Lindt Blueberry Chocolate Cheesecake

Blueberries are my FAVOURITE thing to eat so adding them to a cheesecake seemed like a perfectly delicious idea, and a tops way to spend a lazy Saturday arvo.



A certain little grommit had a wonderful time licking the bowls...
and I had a wonderful time burning it off at the gym the following day. Not.


The only catch to this recipe is, you need to buy the blueberry inflused chocolate for it to taste any good...it's only in selected supermarkets and extremely hard to find... so good luck!

Dave said it tasted better than my Black Forest Cake????? I DON'T THINK SO!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Mandarin and Walnut Tart with Chocolate Glaze

This was made for my Brother...
I think he is wonderful and deserves a million and forty chocolate tarts...

Even though he doesn't wear shoes and his jokes are lower class, I still think he's hilarious and classy in his own way. My family wouldn't be right without him.

so here's to you Brother Yun... <3






Cut up 6 mandarins and boil them for 1hr and 10mins. Before doing this include the juice of 4 mandarins and 2 cups of caster sugar. Once done tip out 1/2 a cup of the mandarin syrup and keep it for later. Also keep 1 1/2 tablespoon of syrup for later also.

You'll need to either buy pastry or make your own before hand. Roll the pastry out over the tart pan and shape to the pan. Freeze for 10mins, then bake for 25 mins on 200C. Set aside to cool.

Roast 2 & 1/2 cups of walnuts for 5 mins, then place in a blender and process until finely chopped. Place in a bowl with 1 tsp cinnamon and 4 chopped mandarin pieces (from step 1). Stir in 125g melted butter and the 1/2 cup syrup from step 1 also. Spoon mixture into shell and bake for 25 minutes.

Place 175g dark chocolate, 1/4 cup cream, 50g butter and 1 1/2 tblsp syrup (from step 1) into a heatproof bowl over boiling water and stir until smooth. Pour glaze over the top and set a room temperature.

And whola!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Bakewell Tart

I don't really have much to say about this...
Apart from the fact that it was an epic disaster.
Not only was the pastry the wrong type, but I wrote down the wrong amounts of butter and sugar resulting in an overflow situation in the brand new oven...now my apartment smells of smoke....I also managed to break my housemates KitchenAid Mixmaster in the process.
Yes I cried.

Satan is telling me to eat it all.
However I made it for my brother and his family.....so I better deliver the little devil in the morning.




The Recipe can be found here if you're game.