This little slice looks divine, tastes not too sweet, but somehow takes a little longer in the time department, so set the morning free to spoon and swirl in the kitchen. Just to get it right! Because it’s a little winner… It’s full of all those ‘yummy’ ingredients,coconut, treacle, butter, chocolate and the decadence of nuts, the macadamia Follow me for the recipe…
Hello Lovelies, I’ve really missed these times of creating in the kitchen, and believe it, this is my first recipe of the year. A wonderful ‘fluffy’ start to the countdown to our most chocolaty time of the year – Easter. My mind is whirling with recipes and creative threads for Easter, and time allowing I hope to show you a few in the upcoming days and weeks…It’s not long so that means for us here in the southern hemisphere our first holiday break. And I’m so looking forward to it! Marshmallow red velvet cake, smothered in mascarpone frosting, half with coconut and the other with mini white marshmallows. Served with Arabic coffee. This truly is a luscious moist velvet cake recipe…
Although some of you may well be over the Christmas Day cheers and shaken berocca’s. I end the Christmas month of December sharing with you one of my all time favourite Christmas ‘sweet’ recipes. Of course this can be made anytime of the year as walnuts are available all year round now. However, it’s our family tradition to make it over the Christmas month. Torta di Noce (Italian Walnut Cake). This was our third platter made up of Torta di Noce and Florentines for our mixed ‘sweet’ platters of Chocolate Rum Balls and Christmas Sugar Cheer. I’m also sharing photo’s of our family Christmas celebration – A Christmas Summertime in the southern hemisphere.
Sugar and spice make these Chocolate Rum Balls a decadent ultimate Christmas treat. Aromatic spices of cinnamon and mixed spice, rolled in chocolate sprinkles and coconut. One bite size of pure bliss. During Module 1 of The Art and Business of Surface Design course, we created moodboards and colourboards that we shared with all the other participants. It was four weeks of creative works and wonderful new friendships and energy, and I look forward to modules 2 and 3 in 2012. One of my boards I created was chocolate brown and red, and it’s somehow has influenced also this post. Just a little romantic touch also in my moodboard! Read on for this delicious recipe for Chocolate Rum Balls and a little more festive red and chocolate brown.
What better way to start the countdown to Christmas than sharing some festive Christmas sugar cheer. Our sugar project; prepare some Christmas treats to see around thirty smiling faces. With so many ‘little’ treats to choose from we short listed some of our favourites, and created a couple of our own. The main feature, a ‘Pandoro’ Christmas Tree. Pandoro (pan d’oro) is a traditional Italian sweet yeast bread most popular around Christmas and New Year . Typically a Veronese (someone or something from Verona, Italy) product, pandoro is traditionally shaped like a frustum with an 8 pointed-star section. Cut crossways it’s shaped like a star, and then layered usually with Chantilly cream, custard or even ice-cream. It is often served dusted with vanilla scented icing sugar made to resemble the snowy peaks of the Italian Alps during Christmas. Ours was filled with fresh whipped cream, cherry syrup jam and cherries (tinned). Decorated on top with fresh cherries and puff pastry reindeers and snowflakes sprinkled with icing sugar. These pastries are based on cream horns, see details here. …
The list is long, of all the special sweet treats that you might write on your wish list of baking for this festive season. My niece wanted to bake something and one of her all time favourites is fudge…you bet chocolate, cocoa, coconut fudge brownies. So her eyes went bounding through many of our cookbooks, which were scattered over the kitchen table and she found this easy delicious recipe. Looking almost in every kitchen shop, I finally found some snowflake cookie cutters, so I decided to cut snowflake shapes of this choc fudge. I think they look great, it does take a little extra time however, but you know me anything for a little more loving detail. Recipe: Peppermint Candy Cane Slice 125 grams butter, melted 1 cup (220grams) brown sugar ( we didn’t have quite a cup full so I added fine caster sugar) 1 egg 1/2 teaspoon peppermint essence 1/2 cup desiccated coconut 1 cup (150grams) self raising flour, sifted 2 tablespoons cocoa 3 or 4 candy canes, roughly chopped/crushed 375 gram …
It was mid November when I last posted something about my baking..I made these rhubarb pies a couple of weeks ago and on my first baking adventure the pies vanished before I got my photo’s in. So today I baked and photographed all in one. Didn’t want to miss out this time sharing with you this simple recipe…but more importantly showing you this wonderful pie mold I found. Believe me, your pies look perfect! Recipe: Red Rhubarb Pies 1 bunch of fresh rhubarb 1 granny smith apple 2 tablespoons of brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon icing sugar 4 frozen pie crust sheets 1 egg white, lightly beaten Isn’t it a beauty, take a look at what I found…It’s called a Petite Pie Mold. You can see details here. Preheat oven to 190° degrees. Take the frozen pastry sheet from freezer and leave at room temp. Cut roughly the rhubarb and granny smith apple, add a couple of drops of water, add the brown sugar and place on a medium heat until rhubarb has softened. …
I’m not sure about you, but since being immersed into the world of cupcakes, nothing is impossible, those little things once in your life are hard to get rid of. I guess we love them even more because they’re inexpensive to make, can be made in batches of twelve, our creative mind and hands can do their work and best of all they’re portioned sized…right! We take one, no more, just one and indulge in a decadence of flavours, frostings and taste sensations. All under control! I wanted to put a little pizzazz on that little cupcake…made for ‘little’ grown ups and a little surprise for those taste buds. A red velvet cupcake mix, with a surprise dash of kirsch, cream cheese frosting and chocolate Monetta luxury cream wafers. How does that sound to get your taste buds tingling! An easy entertainer…and a great eye teaser!
This month’s Regional and Seasonal Challenge from Tandy over at Lavender and Lime, is to cook with rocket. Rocket and Rucola (Italian) is also known as arugula, roquette, rugula and is popular in Italian cuisine, it’s an aromatic salad green. I love it’s peppery, mustard-like flavour, and is great just with a dash of virgin olive oil, and grated shards of parmesan cheese, settled on a tenderloin. This recipe is one of my favourites however…Rocket Pesto and Pasta Salad served with Prosciutto and a Balsamic Glaze. Recipe: Serves 4 Boil ,(as directions on packet) drain and run under cold water 250grams dry pasta, I used orrechiette, any of the spirals, or mini shells would be fine, Combine and chop 1 packet (125 grams) of fresh rocket, 1 big bunch of fresh basil, 1 clove of garlic, 6 heaped tablespoons of parmesan cheese and a handful of pine nuts, while mixing drizzle in 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. In another bowl, wash,cut into quarters and scoop out the middle seeds of 1 punnet of …
What have we been up to….children’s baking! A few week’s ago, my niece was having a farewell party at school for one of her schoolmates who was returning overseas. The decision was made to have an Australian theme. From an array of fauna and flora Australian icons, the decision was made to make those ever enjoyable cupcakes as a base and decorate them as cockatoo’s and koala’s The Sulphur-crested cockatoo can be found widely north and east of Australia, and actually right at our back door.Their distinctive raucous call can be very loud, repeat very loud. The plumage is overall white, the expressive crest is yellow. The bill is black, the legs are grey, and the eye-ring is whitish. Males typically have almost black eyes, whereas the females have a more red or brown eye. Wikipedia So, with a bit of detail, we made cockatoo cupcakes…cupcakes were a basic vanilla mixture covered in assorted lollies: banana’s,licorice,marshmallows and vanilla frosting. So, I know you’re now wondering what our koala’s looked like… Chocolate cupcakes with choc frosted …
Yvette's Twistedvines 