Archive for October, 2009
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14
Oct
2009
Back to school
My sunny little friends
I am officially a student again, with a pencil case & everything!
Last night was my first in 28 weeks of floral design school. I have a feeling it is going to be a steep learning curve, there’s text books, homework, prac work, assignments…in short a lot of non fun stuff, but I’m pretty sure it is going to be worth it in the end. There’s only 2 students in my class (including me!) so getting the most out of each lesson is going to be quite easy I expect.
Some light reading
Last night we covered preparation of flowers including stripping foliage, additives for water, refrigeration ect & some basic workplace health & safety stuff. We also learned how to wire flowers, we did a couple of gerberas & took them home! I was so exited taking flowers home now I know what to put in the water & that I have to cut them on an angle..OK so I already knew that bit, but it felt so much more important! I also learned that having nice nails is a thing of the past as they’re going to end up covered in hot glue, wire puncture marks & dirt…glamorous I know.
I now have some sunny little friends in my living area brightening up my life.
Those little kinks are called elbows..it gives the flowers room to grow, yes these ones still grow after being cut!
Oops! her little wire is poking out!
12
Oct
2009
Butter Cupcakes three ways
Maximum impact, minimal effort. This is my life mantra.
As much as I could make cupcakes until the cows come home, that wouldn’t leave me much time for important things like curling my hair, applying eyeliner & selecting the perfect pair of heels now would it? My best friend in the whole world Maggie recently moved into a new apartment & scored her dream job. That sounds like an occasion for cake to me! I was short on time so I decided to make one massive batch of butter cupcakes & give them all an individual twist so it looked like I had been slaving for hours.
Butter Cupcakes
(recipe adapted from wilton.com)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups butter room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups caster sugar
- 6 eggs
- Seeds of 1 vanilla pod
- 3.5 cups self raising flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 180°c. In mixer bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Mix flour & salt. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, starting with the flour.
Divide batter into 3 equal portions & place in the fridge until ready to add mix In’s & bake.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on rack; remove and cool completely before decorating.
Makes about 30 standard cupcakes.
Peach & Almond Crumble Cupcakes
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup of canned peaches juice drained well
- 1 tablespoon of peach or apricot jam
- 2/3 cup plain flour
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds
- 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
Roughly chop the peaches & mix with the jam. Fold the peaches through the cupcake batter & put aside. In a clean bowl combine the flour & butter & mix. Add the almonds, oats & sugar & mix with your hands until a nice crumbly consistency is achieved. If it looks a bit too wet add some extra flour.
Pour batter into cupcake liners & top with crumble mixture. Bake for 20-25 mins..
Blueberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
-
1 125g punnet of fresh blueberries
-
1 tablespoon blueberry jam
-
65g butter at room temp
-
125g cream cheese at room temp
-
2 cups icing sugar
- 3 tablespoons canned passionfruit in juice
- 3 egg whites at room temp
- 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 2/3 cup of sugar
- 1/2 cup of water
Simply add 1 punnet of blueberries & 1 tablespoon of blueberry jam to 1 portion of butter cupcake batter. Fold gently to combine & pour into cupcake liners. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool completely before frosting
For the frosting place all remaining ingredients in a bowl & blend with a hand mixer until smooth & creamy. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes & top with a single blueberry.
Passionfruit Cupcakes with Meringue Frosting
Ingredients:
Gently fold in passionfruit to create a marbling effect. Pour into cupcake liners & bake for 20-25 mins.
For the meringue combine the sugar & water in a saucepan over high heat to create a sugar syrup. In a clean glass bowl whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form, add cream of tartar. When sugar syrup reaches 160c turn off heat & pour syrup in a thin steady stream into the egg whites while mixing. Continue to mix for 3 mins until smooth & shiny. The mixture is cooked by the hot syrup. Pipe onto the cupcakes & either put back into the oven for 5 minutes to toast the meringue a bit or use a kitchen torch to achieve a golden brown finish. (I used the oven because Mr Bake and Bloom thought that my bag from kitchen warehouse direct was rubbish & threw out my unused, unwrapped kitchen torch!)
The results? Crumbly crunchy peach cupcakes, blueberry cupcakes riddled with fruit & falling apart they were so soft & tart but sweet passionfruit cakes with a lovely light topping.
10
Oct
2009
Oats are amazing
As you are probably aware I am on a bit of a health kick at the moment. That doesn’t mean I am going to stop eating deliciously though. Perhaps I should learn the fine art of portion control & start making my cakes 90% smaller (I would probably just eat 90% more of them)
I am pretty sure my doctor is better off not knowing about the entire shelf in my fridge stocked with butter & eggs but here is something he would be proud of.
Does it really get any better than a warm bowl of porridge on a crisp Saturday morning? You will find no recipe here, just the suggestion that you revisit that old breakfast friend the rolled oat. Treat it as something special. I have topped mine here with blueberry syrup, chopped bananas, chopped raw almonds & coconut palm sugar.
I also often use:
- Dried apples
- Raw macadamias
- Fresh Pear
- Dried apricots
- Spices like cinnamon & nutmeg
What are your fave oatmeal toppings?
6
Oct
2009
Super healthy banana bread
Sheer terror has taken over me this week, it is the first month of Spring which means Summer is coming. I went to a vintage fashion market on the Saturday & purchased the most gorgeous navy & white 1950′s one piece bathing suit & a white scarf to keep my hair up. Only one problem, with my current back-fat & thunder thigh situation I wouldn’t be seen dead in it!
*sigh* Isn't she a beauty?
I have actually lost 10kg this year which is no small feat considering cake is practically my religion. However I could stand to lose quite a lot more. It is with this in mind that I set out to create a super healthy, guilt banishing banana bread recipe. I’m not talking marginally better for you here, I’m talking downright super food that my nutritionist would be proud of.
Hot from the oven
Be prepared.
This one has some pretty out-there ingredients. You are going to be thinking, Shannon, HOW is this going to taste good? Trust me, I love you too much to do you any wrong. I have included substitutes for several ingredients that may be difficult to procure in your area.
The first thing you’re going to think is…but it has a whole cup of oil & sugar! well, yes..it does. BUT not ordinary oil or sugar. Super healthy coconut oil & sugar. Virgin coconut oil is being touted as the low fat-fat as it has a lower calorie content than other fats & even though is it mostly saturated fat has been proven it does not raise cholesterol the same way other saturated fats do. You can find more information on coconut oil here & here. Coconut palm sugar has a really low GI & is rich in nutrients & minerals, you can find more info here.
I went a little mad & threw in anything healthy
Super healthy banana bread
- 1 cup organic coconut palm sugar (substitute = 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar or your favorite sweetener)
- 1 cup organic coconut oil (substitute = sunflower oil)
- 2/3 cup plain flour
- 2/3 cup coconut flour (substitute = 2/3 cup desiccated coconut)
- 1/3 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 cup rolled quinoa (substitute an extra 1/4 cup of rolled oats)
- 1/2 tsp each baking powder & baking soda
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans
- 1/4 cup flax-seed (linseed)
- 4 mashed lady finger bananas
- 4 med eggs
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- handful dried cranberries
- 1 tsbp pure maple syrup
Preheat oven to 180c
In a large bowl blend together the sugar & oil. Add eggs & mix until combined. Sift in flours, baking powder & baking sugar, mix & add all remaining ingredients & stir until combined.
Oil a loaf tin with coconut oil or butter & pour in batter. Bake for around 40-45 mins (it is completely useless sticking a skewer in this bread. I gave mine a bit of a shake to check if it was set & it was nicely golden)
Makes 1 loaf (about 8-10 serves)
You will not believe something this moist, flavoursome & downright tasty is good for you
The resulting bread is super yummy, it has nice little crunchy bits from the flax-seed & tart little cranberries are a nice touch but I think totally optional. I made it on Sunday too & 3 days later it still tastes really fresh (that will be all that coconut oil keeping it moist)
5
Oct
2009
Ditch the supermarket. It’s market time!
Like most people I have a pretty busy schedule that doesn’t allow as much ”me” time as I would like. Between working full time, cooking, working out, trying to maintain some kind of social life, cleaning, shopping & this blog it’s a wonder I’ve got a full head of hair!
I have managed to find a little zen amongst all the noise though by ditching my local supermarket for the organic farmers market. You can’t even imagine how big an improvement this has made on my life. The feeling of community is wonderful, talking to the growers, seeing the same friendly faces every week, children playing, touching & tasting. It gives me a feeling like “this is how life is meant to be”
Clockwise from top left: The markets, "my banana man", yummy lady finger bananas, Relish Organics stall
Shopping at the market allows me to eat fresh, seasonal organic produce quite affordably. This weeks purchases included: curly kale, broad beans, zuchhinis, navel oranges & beetroot from the “big veggie tent”. Dark chocolate & rolled quinoa (which I used in a super healthy banana cake I am posting tomorrow) from the Relish Organics stall.
Yuuuuum. The smell when I took the lid off was amazing!
Not convinced yet? here’s my top 5 reasons to swap to farmers markets:
- No enormous ques! Yes you still have to line up sometimes but not for nearly as long & if you only have one or two items they usually let you jump the line.
- You spend less money. I have almost eradicated the impulse purchase from my shopping bill. We’re all guilty of grabbing a candy bar or a magazine while we’re out shopping. Do you need it? No! I once worked out I was spending over $700 a year on impulse purchases.
- It’s less stressful. Sure you have to get up early on a Sunday to do it, but that’s a part of the beauty. Your weekend seems to go forever because you got up at 6:30am on Sunday morning to “get the good stuff” You call breeze around & pick what you like at your own leisure. It’s less crowded, you’re outdoors enjoying the sunshine, you can bring the kids & let them play outside.
- It’s better produce. It’s completely fresh, you know where it comes from & that never includes cold storage. I find it lasts longer too.
- You meet people. Can you honestly ever remember making a friend at the grocery store? I make new friends every week at the farmers market.
Greens are good
The markets are a constant source of inspiration for me. I never decide what I am going to make that week until I have been to market. Those pumpkins look nice huh? I wonder if I could make a cake out of them?
Take a little time for you ladies, it will make you happy…. promise!
