Recipe: Rainbow Cake (Take 2)

Nov 022011
 

I posted about rainbow cake previously along with a recipe and instructions (which you can see here). After a couple of goes making it, I decided that while it looked amazing it didn’t taste quite as amazing. So I tried a new base recipe which is super duper tasty and the cake came out brighter than before (if you can believe it).

I have decided not to take down the previous recipe as this one resulted in a more swirly rainbow effect (as you can see above) so before making a rainbow cake, decide whether you want perfectly straight lines or a swirly effect. Personally, having tasted both, I’ll be sticking with my swirls. Continue reading »

Recipe: Choc Mint Pot Plant Dessert

Sep 122011
 

After my last TILT, it seemed fitting when I saw this amazing recipe that I try it.

I love recipes that have a WOW factor and this one certainly does. It is amazingly tasty, simple to make and the presentation! All credit for this idea goes to Phoodie and the original recipe can be found on her blog.

Phoodie used a recipe from Nigella to make the chocolate mousse that is inside these deliciously gorgeous creations and edited it, swapping out the vanilla essence for peppermint essence. When I made mine I adjusted the whole recipe to suit the size of the blocks of chocolate I bought, originally the recipe called for 250g dark chocolate but I could only find it in 200g blocks, so I bought two. Therefore I’m reblogging the recipe here with the adjusted measures. I also stuffed it up slightly (despite Phoodie’s assurances it was fool proof) so I’m going to explain the instructions in a bit more detail as well. Continue reading »

Things I Love Thursday: Mint

Sep 082011
 

This Thursday, I love… Mint

I have always loved mint. I love mint foods, mint flavours, mint shampoo, mint body wash. Have you ever tried mint shampoo or body wash? It is all tingly and amazing, I would use it every day if I didn’t have a reaction to it.

I especially love mint when combined with chocolate. In biscuit form, slice form or within ice cream. Mint is tasty and sweet but it’s also refreshing and you don’t get that yucky weighted feeling you can get from sweets.

Growing up I had a favourite ice cream and to this day I will still order it if it’s available. I know I should branch out, but I know what I likes and I likes my ice cream this way! Waffle cone (has to be a waffle cone) with chocolate then mint choc chip.

When I made macarons recently Continue reading »

Recipe: Rainbow Cake

Aug 282011
 

rainbow cake royal icing

Update 02/11/11: There is another version of the Rainbow Cake located here which tastes better and is brighter in colour, however it does not layer in straight lines.

After buying food colouring to make macarons, then failing miserably with aforementioned macarons, I decided to put them to use. So this weekend I made a Rainbow Cake. I searched the net and found a few different variations of Rainbow Cake, including the simplified version of using 2 packets of Betty Crocker White Chocolate Cake Mix for those who need to pull together a cake quickly. My favourite was the one that appears on Not Quite Nigella and I used this recipe with some variations.

Basically to make this rainbow cake you can use any dough that will come out white. Not Quite Nigella also makes an amazing Zebra Cheesecake you could easily turn into a rainbow as well. The important bit is the method of making the rainbow which, once explained, you’ll be kicking yourself you hadn’t thought of already. Continue reading »

Recipe: Pecan Pie

May 232011
 

Pecan Pie

On Saturday night my husband threw me a surprise birthday party! I was completely overwhelmed, I had not suspected it for one second. He told me we were going to a function for his work so he got me to dress up and off we went. Along the way, Peter received a phone call from a “colleague” to pick up one of his colleagues from Bravo’s at Crows Nest so we stopped there. When we walked in the waiter smiled and said “They’re all waiting for you”. I assumed he was mistaken and thought we were part of the dinner party. We went upstairs and SURPRISE! 15 of my closest friends were waiting for us in the restaurant! I was so shocked.

The point of this story (apart from my husband being awesome) is that my friend Maddie gave me a birthday present of stoneware. One pie dish and 4 small individual dishes. So for my first use of them, I decided (after a suggestion from my husband) to make Peter’s favourite desert – pecan pie. Continue reading »

Recipe: Banana Bread

Sep 062010
 

After my original disaster, I decided I needed a better recipe for banana bread. Enter my Woman’s Weekly 1000 best-ever recipes, a gift from Tegan.

Banana Bread

Ingredients
90g Unsalted Butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (220g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana
1 cup (150g) plain flour
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 180*C/160*C Fan forced. Grease 14cm x 21cm loaf pan; line base and long sides with baking paper, extending paper 5cm above long sides.
2. Beat butter, extract and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, on at a time. Transfer to large bowl; stir in banana then sifter flours, in two batches. Spread into pan. (I also like to add Cinnamon at this stage).
3. Cover pan with pleated foil; bake 40 minutes. Uncover, bake 30 minutes. Stand 5 minutes; cool on wire rack.

Prep Time: 10min
Cooking time: 1hr 10min
Makes 12 slices
Nutritional content per slice: 9.5g total fat (5.6g saturated fat); 1296kj (309 Cal); 49.7g carbohydrate; 5.1g protein; 1.7g fibre

Sorry, it didn’t last long enough for a photo, so here’s someone else’s.

Nom nom nom nom…

T.

Recipe: Banana Bread

Jun 232010
 

In a crazy attempt at being healthier, I bought a whole lot of fruit. Which sat in the fruit bowl… and sat… and sat… Eventually my bananas were looking a bit sad, going brown and getting spotty, so I decided to attempt to make banana bread!

The first thing I realised, upon looking at the recipe, is that I didn’t have baking powder or eggs, so off I went to the supermarket. While there I realised I didn’t have a bread tin either, so I looked at the dimensions in the recipe “Grease and line the base of a loaf pan (mine is 11cm x 21cm).” and bought one of an appropriate size.

Got home, only to find I’d forgotten I didn’t have castor sugar either. No matter! Substitute in regular sugar and off we go. I didn’t have a masher either, so I used a fork and my bananas ended up fairly lumpy.

Upon peeking at my banana bread while it was cooking, oh no! It was exploding over the top! I stuck a tray underneath pretty quickly, and hoped it wouldn’t go over much further. Luckily it didn’t.

Overall, it didn’t look amazing but boy did it taste good!! The chunky banana resulting from my dodgy mashing actually meant you got these nice pockets of melted banana within it, which I enjoyed. I would recommend using a bit less sugar as it was very sweet, but overall – a good recipe!



Yum!
T.