Daring baking! Chocolate Eclairs!

Second time lucky with these eclairs!! I found the dough a little tricky the first time, despite having made choux pastry a couple of times before. It seemed to be a denser dough this time and didn't rise as much. It appears that many of the other daring bakers found this too.

I used leftover chocolate pastry cream and glaze from the previous batch for my second batch, and I found the chocolate glaze a lot easier to deal with when it had been cooled. It was still pretty gooey, but that added to the deliciousness as they were wonderfully messy!

These were delicious, I'd definitely consider making them again. I filled half with just whipped cream and these were probably my favourite.

I also took a few and filled with scrambled eggs and bacon and topped with mozzarella as a special treat for my husband who isn't interested in sweet things, he was very happy with these little treasures!

They definitely worked a lot better piped onto parchment than waxed paper, the first batch all stuck to the paper, which was frustrating. I also ignored the tricky instructions about keeping the oven door open, it was hot enough as it was without an open oven door!!

Thanks so much to the lovely Meeta and Tony, who devised the challenge for this month. It was a fun challenge and nice to do something that wasnt terribly time consuming but involved some tricky techniques!

Wilton classes, last class of part 1

This one was a tricky one, I was really exhausted after a very busy week. The rose was the main purpose of the class and I was making a pigs ear of it. I think it made it harder that the icing was a bit too stiff so it was hard to pipe, but I was very frustrated with myself. The cake didn't look too bad as the final product, but I wished I'd done some hand exercises as training before I attended the class!

I highly recommend attending these classes at Michaels, its a total steal! I cant wait to use all the interesting techniques I learned, although I'm not sure I'll be sticking with the Wilton Crisco frosting!!

As usual I bent the rules, making a delicious caramel cake with caramel frosting, which came out a creamy beige color. I colored it pink to go with the 'wilton way' and did white roses instead of the reverse.

Tina was enjoying a little rest up high away from us and andy snapped a picture. Bless!

Mama's Kitchen-Giving something back

After finishing my bike ride, and raising lots of money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, I was trying to think of something I could do to help the community.

Mama's kitchen seemed the perfect opportunity. Its an organisation that feeds people who are affected by AIDS or other critical illnesses. They make up a meal and put it in a food parcel that volunteers deliver to people who cant cook for themselves three times a week. It seemed like a wonderful idea, to be able to help people with healthy nutritious food.

I did my first shift today, I didnt manage to stay long as I had to rush off to work, but it seemed like a really nice atmosphere amongst the volunteers and I already met some really nice people. I think this is going to be a very rewarding experience.

This time I was helping to add fruit to bags, and carefully bagging up a mixture of greens and tomatoes. Hopefully one day I'll get to help with some cooking, but we'll see!

This is a really nice way to give back to people in need and make some new friends. I'm sure they are always looking for people to help with the food parcels(mon, wed, fri 8.30-) and to help deliver food, and to collect food on the various food drives. All you need to do is attend an hour long orientation, fill in a form with a couple of references, and then you're ready to go.

Poppies for Poppy!

I'm a very proud aunt to the delightful little Poppy, who is just a few days old. My brother and sister-in-law are just chuffed to bits with her, if a little spaced out from lack of sleep.

Its a little surreal thinking of my little brother being a daddy, but I think it will be a change for the better, he'll make a wonderful caring father.

The whole family is just so excited for them and I thought a fitting tribute would be to make some lemon poppy seed cupcakes with poppy decorations.

What a shame they are so far away in Melbourne, Australia! I think I'll have to bite the bullet and buy an insanely expensive ticket to see them all in the New Year.

I recently caved and bought Hello Cupcake! which is just such a fun little book with lots of tips on making creative cakes, I cant wait to try some of the super cute cupcakes!

This time I just wanted a nice little cupcake with a fluff of frosting and a poppy on top. I had some colored marzipan, so I shaped the petals with that and piped some chocolate frosting in the middle, scoring with a toothpick to get the trademark poppy center. The marzipan isnt quite as forgiving as maybe fondant would be but it certainly tastes better! The poppies wilted a little overnight.

They came out pretty good. The 7 minute frosting is very common, so it was good to give it a try. Very similar to a buttercream, but it just misses out the last step of adding a ton of butter to it. I think it needed something to temper the insane sweetness. Maybe I should have tried adding the juice of a lemon to tart it up a bit.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes (from Hello Cupcake) makes 12

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

2 oz cream cheese

2 oz butter (or 1/2 stick, 4 tbsps)

3/4 cup sugar

grated zest of 1 lemon

2 med/large eggs (I found the smallest from my pack of large eggs!)

1/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350f, line 12 muffin tins with cupcake liners

Combine sugar and lemon zest in the mixer and mix up to release zest. Add butter and cream cheese and beat until light and fluffy

Meanwhile, mix together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between. Beat until fluffy again.

Add half of the flour to the bowl and just mix until combined. Add the milk, mix a little, then the rest of the flour and mix just until incorporated.

Divide between the 12 cups and bake for 15-20 mins, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack.

Seven Minute Frosting (from Hello cupcake), makes 4 1/2 cups

1 stick (8 tbsps butter)

1 cup sugar

2 tbsps corn syrup

2 tbsps water

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Set a saucepan onto boil. Place the ingredients in a heat proof bowl (I used my kitchenaid bowl) and whisk vigorously over gently simmering water until very warm. Transfer to the mixer and whip until light and fluffy. This should take about 7 mins! Serve the day it is made.

Scary Clowns!

Its week two of the Wilton class, I was instructed to bring another white cake with white frosting. Of course I rebelled again. I'm currently going through a phase of being obsessed with red velvet cake. I'm not sure why, that amount of red color just gives me the creeps, but I cant get it out of my head. I decided to use the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, she's always doing delicious things.

I did try a 'crumb coat' for the first time, which was very good and very worthwhile, I also dipped the spatula in boiling water and smoothed it and was very happy with the finish I got.

I took it to class and we made the scary clowns, which are easier than I thought, deeply disturbing that they are! I had a piping malfunction with a hole in a bag, which I decided would be very cute as silly string!

Please see Smitten Kitchen for the recipe, I followed it exactly and I'm very happy with the outcome, its a delicious cake! My colleagues were also very appreciative!

As you can see, even Tina was quite interested, I guess the cream cheese frosting smelled nice to her.

I'm still hellbent on trying to find a natural colour, I hope I can succeed with beetroot, maybe even replacing a cup of oil with a cup of cooked blended beetroot.

Almond Peach and Cherry Teacakes

I still had some egg whites and almond flour left and I wanted to try another take on the adorable tea cakes that I found on fresh from the oven. As I mentioned, they were a little on the salty side, and they were also a little too decadent for an every day snack with the butter and almonds, so I lightened them up a little, I loved the cherries in them but didnt love the pits in there, so I pitted them and added chopped peaches. Delicious and healthy!

They would be perfect for a picnic, I'll be taking them to bookclub.

Mini Cherry & Almond Tea Cakes adapted from Fresh from the Oven
Makes 24 mini muffin sized cakes and 6 regular ones, or around 18 larger cakes.

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cups almond flour (the kind with the skins still on.
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tsp baking powder
5 large egg whites
8 oz non-fat milk
1/2 tsp almond essence
30 sweet (Bing) cherries (pitted or not)
2 chopped peaches

Preheat the oven to 350f
Grease a mini muffin pan and 6 holes in a regular muffin tin
Whisk together the dry ingredients
Whisk together the milk, eggs and almond essence until frothy.
Combine the two, put the batter into the muffin pans until about half-full, add a cherry to each and a couple of pieces of peach.
Bake for 10 mins for the smaller cakes and around 15 mins for the larger. When a toothpick comes out clean they are done!

Celebrity Food Show, Anaheim

Matt from Mattbites was kind enough to give out some free tickets for this event, so I thought it would be a fun day trip. I got there just as it was opening, enjoyed my acai berry beverage, then checked out the cake competition. It was really fun to see all the students working hard. It was unfortunate that some of the spectators couldnt give them enough space to work. Oh well.

I then checked out the stands, some more exciting than others. The 'jesus cookie' stand was completely baffling. Apparently they are choc a bloc with jelly beans, each of which represents a part of the bible. Apparently everyone wanted the yellow forgiveness, but I was lucky enough to get red, the blood of christ. Crikey!

I also saw a very cool chocolate company from Laguna Niguel, Downeys. They had delicious salted caramels dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt. I think I'll probably return there at some point to visit a class soon.

There were a lot of 'healthy foods' with antioxidants and stuff in, and some very dubious sweetners. The most disturbing was dr grandmas, a very odd flavor and name!

I also met a very nice lady who runs a cookie company and has landed a deal with Wholefoods. She was so inspired by last years show that she decided to set up a company. Wow! Its a tempting idea!
I then watched a couple of cooking demos with lipton tea, and found myself done with the show at about 12.30. I'd snacked a little but I wanted something real so I made my way to Lee's Sandwiches for a delicious vietnamese sandwich. I chose the veggie of course, which was lovely, it had all crunchy vermicelli, carrots and tofu, and some salad in there with a couple of jalapenos and a bit of cilantro. I also had a vietnamese coffee, which was pretty strong, good to keep me going.
I drove through little saigon, did a spot of shopping, and then stopped off at the enormous South Coast Plaza for a little retail therapy on my way home. A fun day out!