Bread Baking

For more recipes and research for my book I decided it was high time I baked some bread. Freshly baked homemade bread brings back a lot of good memories for me, not just of the actual bread, but the memories that surround the process of making bread. For me, smelling and seeing the bread rise in tins over the heater at my childhood farm house is part of a happy memory.
I wanted to recreate the memory and smells in my kitchen and see if I could do it justice.
As my first attempt at bread making, I feel it went pretty well. The whole process takes quite a while, around 3 hours including resting time. Although an enjoyable task, I could have probably cut back on the size of the batch of dough I produced - needless to say I don't need to bake or buy any bread for at least 3 weeks!
Overall the experience was good, knowing that I can make the same bread my mum made sometimes when I was a kid gives me joy to know that I can create a memory for my kids later in life with the yummy smells of baking bread!

First steps of rising

After 1 hour of rising!

After 1.5 hours rising, a second kneading session and shaping into desired tins/breads

Baked Cobb Loaf

Small loaves in tins

Cobb Loaf slice... warm and YUM!

Kara-lee's 21st Cupcakes!

For my friend's 21st birthday I made her a cupcake cake for the party. I had sat and discussed with her what she wanted, what would be doable and how much.
A week or so before the party I baked some trial cakes and was quite happy with the outcome.
And so came the day to make the cake for the party!
Obviously the novice I am didn't expect it to take so long to make! However, I pushed through the 4 or so hours it took to create the cakes and I was very happy with the outcome (and so was Kara-lee!) and it was a wonderful birthday and everyone had a fun time!



The cupcakes were vanilla cake and butter cream icing with hearts that I had ordered from a cake decorating shop locally (the lady there is lovely and can make you anything that you want on a cake!)

La Mayonnaise II

Mayonnaise turned out pretty nice actually, had to tweak the recipe a bit, add more oil than it said to. But that's experimenting!

La Mayonnaise

I'm currently writing about my family's cooking history, and while I was home last my Dad gave me a little book my Great Grandmother had written (like a travel book) when she went to Europe in 1926. It's incredibly fascinating and she has written recipes from some of the people she saw or visited. The first recipe I'm going to try is when she was in France with her husband.
It's a simple mayonnaise recipe, but its real and French... so that's better? Right?!
Soon find out!....

Ladies Afternoon Tea!

Today I hosted a Ladies Afternoon Tea, I don't know why we don't do this more often! Probably because the size of our waist lines would considerably increase, and the lack of time we all seem to have on a Saturday afternoon!Besides this is was a fun day! With an array of finger sandwiches, strawberry tarts, mini sausage rolls, scones with Chantilly cream and jam, Champagne with strawberries and of course the treats that I'd prepared for the day!


The tea began around 3 o'clock and we scoffed ourselves until around 4:30! After we'd demolished a bottle of champagne as well, we were ready to relax and watch a movie!




Above are Strawberry Tarts with Creme Patisserie, with a lemon shortcrust pastry. Divine.

Full Menu:

Savoury:
Cucumber Sandwiches with Radish and Mint and Lime dressing
Chicken, celery, walnut and mayonnaise ribbon sandwiches
Mini Sausage Rolls with Tomato and Grandma's Plum Sauce

Sweet:
Macaroons with White Chocolate Ganache
Strawberry Tarts with Creme Patisserie
Butterfly Cakes with Chantilly Cream
Plain Scones with Raspberry Jam and Chantilly Cream
Vanilla Cupcakes with White Chocolate Ganache and Toffee Strands
Hazelnut Shortbread Dipped in Chocolate

Cupcakes with White Chocolate Ganache and Toffee Strands

Another item towards the Ladies Afternoon Tea I'm hosting, I had baked vanilla cupcakes ready to be made into fairy cakes when I spotted in a recipe book some cupcakes that looked absolutely amazing! (They were an Apple/Cinnamon type cupcake, with toffee... A toffee apple cupcake). However, thought I could use the idea to jazz up the cupcakes I'd made!
After my first attempt at toffee failed... Absolute disaster!! I picked myself up and said 'no, just get in the kitchen and make those cakes look spectacular!'


Basically, its sugar and water dissolved in a saucepan, then brought to the boil and then simmered until golden brown. After this process is completed, using the back of a wooden spoon drizzle the toffee over baking paper (on a flat surface) to form strands. Then once the toffee is hard and cool lift off with a spatula and structure on cupcake covered in ganache. (Ganache is easier to work with because its softer than a hardened icing but firmer than butter cream icing.)
And there you have it!

Chocolate Dipped Hazelnut Shortbread

I love nuts, all nuts.. especially hazelnuts! When I found this recipe for hazelnut shortbread I definitely wanted to give it a go.
As soon as I put the nuts in the food processor and pulsed, the smell was amazing! There is nothing like chopped roasted hazelnuts... mmm!
The shortbread recipe I halved because I really didn't want 30 biscuits! As it happened the shortbread was extremely crumbly so I added a touch more butter which brought it all together, and when rolled the dough made 14 biscuits.
After cooling, the biscuits are then dipped in melted dark chocolate. Amazing.