Book goodness September 4, 2009
Posted by Sarah in Craft, baking, book, bread, butter, cake, chocolate, gift, sewing, soap.5 comments
Oat bran, Manuka honey and Camomile flower soap September 3, 2009
Posted by Sarah in cake, flowers, health, home made, soap.1 comment so far
Batch 002
Ann’s birthday cupcake July 22, 2009
Posted by Sarah in cake, fabric, felt, food, gift, home made, sewing.add a comment
Self employed July 20, 2009
Posted by Sarah in baking, bread, cake, cheese, chocolate, food, vegetables.5 comments
I did my first paid catering gig last week. The company requested round food to go with their theme of “The Wheels on the Bus”.
Rosewater meringues, chocolate brownies, chocolate cupcakes.
Oatcakes with blue and cheddar cheeses.
Falafel with yoghurt dipping sauce, and lamb meatballs with tomato dipping sauce.
Chicken and watercress crositini, and tomato and dijon tarts.
My business cards are ready and so am I!
Photos by my good friend Elizabeth Clarkson.
Buttermilk peach cake November 15, 2008
Posted by Sarah in baking, cake, dining in, food, recipe.1 comment so far
For breakfast!
Today I woke up with the knowledge that there was a small container of buttermilk in the fridge that had to be used today or thrown out. But I also knew that I had used the last of the eggs yesterday, and whatever I cooked first today had to be something I could do in my pyjamas. I sat down at our trusty computer and searched for eggless buttermilk recipes and eventually found this recipe. I was all excited and about to get up and start creating when I found that the recipe did in fact have eggs! Upon scrolling through the comments I found that there was indeed an eggless substitute, one that a commenter had left on the site. The recipe goes like this:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 cup berries
Sift dry ingredients together, add melted butter and buttermilk. Pour into a tart dish and top with berries. Bake at 180 degrees celcuis for 45 mintues.
I melted the butter and then let it cook for a few mintues longer to caramelise. I strained it before I added it to the cake batter. Heidi’s origional recipe calls for wholewheat flour but I used white flour and it came out fine. I used half white sugar and half brown sugar, because that’s what I had on hand.
I went to the markets specifically to buy peaches for jam yesterday (4kgs infact!), so they became the topping in place of the berries. Before baking I sprinkled the top with pink salt and brown sugar.
I just happened to have some peach jam in the fridge that I made yesterday, so I used that to glaze the tart/cake.
Delicious! I still can’t decide if this is a tart, or a cake, or a pie. I think when it cools it will be quite a different beast.
Long overdue photos of a lovely thoughtful gift September 24, 2007
Posted by Sarah in baking, cake, food, gift, home made.add a comment
A lovely little lady from here made me some beautiful little cupcakes as a thank you gift for lending her some cookbooks. They looked and tasted so good! I took them to work and shared them with Hannah and Liv at work. If only you could have heard the squeals of delight when they opened the box and saw what I had for them. Thanks Ann – you’re a star!!
Mum’s 60th Birthday present September 10, 2007
Posted by Sarah in baking, cake, cosy, food, gift, home made, knitting.1 comment so far
I can finally write about the present I made for Mum for her birthday this year. Mum reads this blog so I didn’t want to ruin the surprise by writing too soon. I made her a shawl from this great yarn I got from the Craft Show. Mum just loves the shawl and wanted to wear it all the time when I was home. I love the way the blue colour really looks good on her.
The other part of her present was a small blanket. I knit this on size 13 needles with two really thin strands of yarn at the same time. This made a really bouncy stretchy blanket – perfect for one person to snuggle up under when reading. The blue blanket in the second picture is one that I made for myself. It’s the same size as Mum’s blanket and it accompanies me everywhere around the house.
The guests at Mum’s party were each treated to a Lemon Meringue Cupcake. I made 54 of these babies! They looked so cool and I thought they were so much nicer than just making one big cake. Much more work, but it was worth it. Mum is worth it :)
Cooking myself towards my holiday July 31, 2007
Posted by Sarah in baking, cake, dining in, food, home made, organic, recipe.1 comment so far
Today I’m home from work, with one day between now and our holiday! I’m so looking forward to going home, it’s going to be great! There is a slight dilema with going away for three weeks though, and that is what to do with the few items of food you have left in the house. This is really a domestic bragging post, i’m just showing off how very 1950’s housewife I am. I even ironed Joh’s shirt for him last night :P
Anyway, this is what I had to use up:
4 onions, 2 organic tomatoes, a huge bunch of parsley, 1kg of organic potatoes, 1 cup of buttermilk, 7 organic eggs, a knob of ginger, rosemary, thyme, 5 apples, half a bottle of cranberry juice.
And this is what I’ve done. We don’t have any ‘raw’ ingredients left now, just the next 5 meals cooked and ready to go. And something in the freezer for us to defrost and have when we get back to Sydney in three weeks. Genius.
I peeled, cored and sliced the apples, and put them in an oven dish. I covered them with the cranberry juice and cooked them for half an hour in the oven until the apples were soft and the juice mostly evaporated. These are now sitting in the fridge ready to be eaten on muesli, or with yoghurt, or on top of the coconut cake.
I used the buttermilk to make a Coconut Buttermilk Cake, which also used up the last of the butter in the fridge, and used an egg. This will be great for Craft Night tonight.
I used two onions and the potatoes and rosemary to make a delicious potato soup. This also used up 1 litre of home made vegetable stock from my freezer.
And I’ve made a soup with canned organic tomatoes, organic barley, red lentils, ginger, onions and the parsley. This will freeze well if we don’t eat it all tonight.
With the remaining eggs I made a frittata, and added lots of parsley, thyme and the tomatoes. It also has a little bit of roasted red onion from last nights dinner. Yum!
And I made a chana dhal to put in the freezer for us to have as an easy meal on the night we get from NZ.
Happy holidays to me! Happy holidays to Joh!
Crafty gifts! July 31, 2007
Posted by Sarah in cake, gift.add a comment
Saturday night I had a party for my upcoming birthday. I had such a fun night, thank you to everyone who came and made it so special. I really feel so lucky to have such an amazing group of friends. And an extra special thanks to Joh, you really make every day so much fun.
I can’t blog about the present I’m taking home to NZ with me for Mum yet. It’s her birthday on the 9th, so I’ll let you see it then :)
It feels a bit silly writing a post about presents, but they’re just so special I had to share it with you. And it’s my birthday so I can do what I want :P
I didn’t get any good photos of my new ceramic knife that the boys gave me, but it rocks my world. And my chopping board.
This cake was given to me from the lovely Brian and Helen! So tasty! They also spoilt me completely with a fantastic new book and a pair of awesome new stockings. Spoilarama!
This is a traditional sake jug that has been fired in a Japanese kiln for 7 hours. My friend Tan made this! See – it’s even signed by her.
The lovely Jackie brought this hand made woolen bag back from Mongolia for me! How special is that? I really love the design on the front, I’m going to move into it this afternoon :)
This owl necklace was a gift from Hannah. It’s made from perspex and sterling silver. She knows me so well, I love red, and I love owls. She also got me these cute little wooden guys, i love them!
Kate and Neil gave me these awesome kitchen goodies! I can’t wait to try out the new pizza cutter – i’m a bit afraid of cutting myself on it so I’ve left the plastic shield on it for now. We will have to wait till we’re back from holiday to try it out. I’ve already made a coconut cake in the tin, it’s such a nice heavy metal tin, and the cake just slid out of it when it was cooked. Now I just have to wait till craft night tonight to sample the cake!
Lindt Chocolate Cafe June 30, 2007
Posted by Sarah in cake, chocolate, dining out, food.add a comment
We left the Craft Show grumpy, tired and hungry. What to do… what to eat… Chocolate of course!
Neither of us had been to the Lindt cafe before so expectations were high.
It was raining outside, the automatic doors wouldn’t close, and we had to wait for 10 minutes to be seated. Good start.
Once we were seated we were presented with a menu consisting of chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. I actually was feeling like a little bite of something savoury first, but they had run out of sandwiches. Cake it is then.
I ordered the Black Forest Cake and a Lindt Hot Chocolate. The cake arrived about 30 seconds after we ordered, before our drinks. It wasn’t a very exciting cake. It tasted of tinned cherries, cheap cream and overly sweetened chocolate icing. And at $11 I was expecting something a little more tasty. The hot chocolate was very nice though, and as I looked around the restaurant I noticed plenty of people who had ordered just a hot chocolate. Smart. $5.50 for the hot chocolate but its enough for 3 cups, they give you a little jug of melted chocolate (your choice – milk or dark), and about 500ml of hot frothed milk. They could have swapped the prices around – cake $5.50, hot chocolate $11 and I would have been happy.
My buddy ordered a mocha ($5), which came with real chocolate in the glass and sprinkled on top. It was declared the best that she’s had in Sydney! Profiteroles ($11) were three tiny cream filled balls, covered with chocolate ganache, sitting on a disk of pure chocolate. I think the disk of chocolate was what made this a winner.
Verdict – go for a hot drink and a chocolate, but give cake the flick. You can have mass-produced cakes anywhere in Sydney.
