Australia Day

Yesterday was Australia Day, an official public holiday to commemorate the arrival of the first fleet in 1788, the unfurling of the British flag at Sydney Cove and the proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia.

On Australia day, us Aussies like to hit the beach, or throw a BBQ and listen to the "Hottest 100", a countdown of the hottest songs of the year. I did the latter.

We invited friends over, it was a typical sweltering 37 degree day. We cooked a BBQ, spent hours in the pool, and guessed what song would be number one...I was correct in guessing Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire!

I also made some Lamington Cupcakes to go with the day, one of our traditional desserts. They are said to have been named after Baron Lamington, a popular governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901, there are many stories of how the Lamington came to be about, most of them amusing...typically Aussie!

Normally these cakes are square, and coated in chocolate icing, but I omitted the chocolate for some Aussie colours, oh and hilariously the only coconut I had on hand was tinged green from a previous need for green coconut grass. The first recipe I tried turned out a bit dry, so I found a slightly different one and it was much moister.

Here is the second recipe I used for those who would like to try an Australian tradition at home, its nice and simple:

Lamington Cupcakes

Ingredients for Cake:
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
Pinch salt
tsp vanilla
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup milk

Ingredients for icing:
2 cups icing sugar
1 big tablespoon butter
1/3 cup cocoa (or omit and replace with food colouring of choice)
1 tsp vanilla
approx 2 cups of coconut

Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in the flour and milk. Spoon into separate patty pans and bake for approx 15 mins on 180 C.
Allow to cool.
Icing: Mix the ingredients except coconut with boiling water until quite thin. Coat the cupcake tops in icing then immediately roll in coconut. Leave on a plate to set.

I got myself a Cupcake Courier!

I got the blue one!

I just bought myself one of these! For readers in Australia, the Aussie Cupcake Courier site is doing a little special - two single cupcake holders for free if you buy a cupcake courier before tomorrow! So now is the time to do it if you were considering it! This is going to make all my transporting of cupcakes so much easier! Woo!

Quadruple Choc Cupcakes

A couple of friends of ours, Danny & Sarah, spoilt us rotten for Christmas, if you remember my post about Christmas loot, they were the ones who gave me that giant ice cream cookie jar, the cupcake sugar bowl, and the pretty cupcake patty pans! I said to them, pick a flavour of cupcake that you would like, and I will make em for you. Sarah chose double choc.

So last night I set out to make some yummy chocolaty cupcakes. I found Martha Stewart's One-bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe, to which I added in some roughly chopped chocolate chunks. I was a little concerned at how runny the batter was at first, but it was ok, they turned out great, well risen and perfect texture.

I then dipped the cupcake tops in melted milk chocolate. Then I mixed up a batch of chocolate frosting, which had a coco and chocolate topping in it (instead of milk). Then I topped with with chocolate flakes, and a strawberry chocolate decoration. Twas fun!
I took em to our Friday movie night, Danny and Darren said they were delicious, yet to find out what Sarah thought of them.

Mocha Cupcakes

Hello, I am back and recharged after a lovely relaxing holiday at Pt Elliot, filled with sun, surf, great friends, family and fun! I wish I could have had longer! Here are a couple of little snap shots:

Friends and Family at a Pub for dinner

I bought so much at the cute little hippie stores down there, and visited not one but TWO markets and got some great buys. This colourful wrap dress being one of the purchases:

'Fruit Cup' drinks or 'Traffic lights' were the flavour of the night

I reckon I put on 10 kilos alone at the bakery, the pastry there is the best I have ever had, I brought home a doughnut the size of a dinner plate!

Photo is after a long drive home, it got a little smooshed.

Unfortunately I didn't get very many photos, I was too busy having fun!

Once I got home, I had to get straight back into work. I was excited to find on of the girls was having a birthday today, and she is definitely a coffee girl! So last night I made some Mocha cupcakes to share around.
I did another search on Google, and who's recipe should turn up first? Non other than "How to eat a cupcakes" Mocha Cupcake recipe! I was so happy with how my Ferrero Rocher cupcakes turned out I knew she was the one to trust! And rightly so they were great! I didn't do a frosting, instead I just did plain icing with coffee feathering through it, and then topped them with a chocolate covered coffee bean from Pt Elliots sweet shop on top! How perfect!

The cake itself was lovely, fluffy light and moist, with a beautiful subtle mocha flavour, the icing was super sweet (but isn't all icing?) and when you bite into the coffee bean with was a perfect POW! an extra hit of coffee that really made the cupcake special! Thank you Miss "How to eat a Cupcake" for another excellent recipe.

Woah! My Mocha cupcakes were featured on the amazing 'royalty' of all cupcake blogs "Cupcakes Take The Cake"! I am so chuffed!

Matchbox Drawers

One of the great things about Swap-bot is you can sign up to groups of common interest. My most recent swap, was one from the 'Glytter Kyttens' group. It is a fun group for people who have a liking for:

☆ nail polish ☆ fireworks ☆ plastic jewellery ☆ tu-tu's ☆ false eyelashes ☆ dressing up ☆ bright colours ☆ making a grand entrance ☆ big hair ☆ candy ☆ punk ☆ fish net tights ☆ Mardi Gras ☆ singing into your hair brush ☆ eye-shadow ☆ fairy tales ☆ feather boas ☆ cupcakes ☆ disco ☆ burlesque ☆ bright hair dye ☆ bubbles ☆ pretty girls ☆ pretty boys ☆ kawaii ☆ polka dots ☆ pop! ☆ sequins ☆ roller-skates ☆ way too much eye-liner ☆ and everything that glitters! ☆

Woo! That's me to a tee! So the latest swap was for a "Twisted Princess" themed set of matchbox drawers! A challenge, I have never attempted matchbox drawers before, there is a great tutorial here. After much fun with paint, glue and glitter this is what I came up with!

Woah you can sure fit a lot of small stuff into a tiny little matchbox you know! I filled it with buttons, earrings, stickers, hair clips, ribbons, bottle cap magnets, pins, paper flowers, candy....the list is endless! Any who I only posted this off today, so I hope my swap-partner doesn't make her way across this before it arrives!

I am going away for 4 days as of tomorrow afternoon, I will be going to the families annual beach cabin at a place called Pt Elliot, I have been going there in the same week since I was about 5. Stunning beaches, bakeries and shops, and I have a few of my best friends joining me too! So I will be back next week, hopefully with a nice picture or two to share! I will try not to suffer from internet withdrawals too much!

Birthday Boy Cupcakes

Yesterday was my boyfriends birthday. I like to make a big fuss over him on his special day, my sister and I usually go crazy decorating the place, and I go overboard with the food. This year I wanted to make him birthday cupcakes instead of a birthday cake, but I was at a bit of a loss as to what flavour I should make for him. I woke up yesterday morning and had a brain wave! Ferrero Rocher's are his favourite chocolate, and every Christmas I give him a box, heck he still hadn't even finished half of this years lot yet!

So I hopped on the glorious and ever helpful Internet and googled for a recipe. I found two recipes that I liked the look of, here and here. I went with the latter because it required Nutella instead of hazelnut extract, and they looked delicious too! I didn't even realise until after I made the cupcakes that it was "How to Eat a Cupcakes" most recent post! I just assumed it was one from the past! Her cupcakes were filled with more Nutella and a chocolate wafer, I swapped the wafer for a roasted hazelnut in the centre instead.

I didn't use "How to Eat a Cupcakes" recipe for the ganache, because I forgot to buy cream! So I made up my own recipe for Nutella butter cream frosting, which is very similar to this, except I didn't measure anything and I didn't use vanilla essence! I also put stripes of Nutella at three points on the sides of the piping bag, which gave the butter cream that nice stripy effect. I then topped the cupcakes with little bear sprinkles and a candle. (My boyfriends nickname is Bear-Mangler, after an amusing quiz we did a few years ago on "What is my viking name" told him his name is Darri Bear-Mangler, it just kind of stuck. Mine was Jordis Strong-Hawk in case you are interested!)

So anyway, almost all of a giant Nutella jar later I had created my most expensive (Yeah, the large jar of Nutella is costly!) tasty but definitely rich cupcakes to date! The only thing I would change is the time they spent in the oven, the tops came out a little more crunchy than I had planned, but I guess Ferrero Rocher's are a little crunchy chocolate treat aren't they?

Happy Birthday my gorgeous boy! <3

In other news...I had my first sewing lesson today! I learnt the basics of my machine, I can thread it now! All I need now is some inspiration on what to sew!

mmm Chocolate

My sister Caitlin and I recently visited Adelaide's House of Fine Chocolate - Bracegirdle's The cafe has beautiful decor and its shelves are adorned with chocolate delights and beautiful teapots and china. The place has a wonderful aroma too. We decided to share an "ice cream" fondue, we also got an iced fruit frappe and a peanut butter chocolate frappe.

The ice cream fondue was fun, the Belgian chocolate was oh so velvety, could have done with a bit more ice cream though, one teaspoon per cone just wasn't enough!

The frappes were delicious the peanut butter flavour just hit you after a while, it was a bit too much all together and Caitlin and I couldn't finish our drinks! I hate when that happens!

Happy New Year....Hello 2009

For the past week my boyfriend and I have been house/dog-sitting in a glorious house, recently renovated. The dog Ruby, I just love her, she has such a wonderful nature. The cat Grindle is a little bit aloof, but he can be a smooch when he wants to be. I adore looking after these two pets, we have done it several times before, Ruby is a dog I just want to take home with me, its so hard to leave!

Ruba Scuba

Darren & Grindle

I have also had the last week off work, all I focused on doing was relaxing, swimming, reading and watching sci-fi with Darren...and its worked, I do feel pretty relaxed! Unfortunately all good things come to an end, tomorrow I pack up here, have a fit of manic cleaning (I always leave the house looking cleaner than when I found it), and head on home...back to reality.
I had hoped to get some cooking and crafting done in my time off, but felt far too relaxed to do anything!
So Happy New Year to everyone! I personally don't want to make any new years resolutions. I seem to set myself up to fail as soon as I make them. I do have some goals I want to achieve...I will learn to sew with my new machine, and I plan to take a couple more cake decorating classes.
As for the loose weight, travel the world and moving out plans...they will happen slowly and steadily, I will keep up the savings, and I will address my love of food, one day...

Ruby & Me