One mum, one son, four guinea pigs: Celebrating budget interiors, the joy of the ordinary, and cake.
We like to make things in this house... well, not all the time, we can open packets and buy pre-prepared stuff with the best of them (chicken-on-a-stick, fish-in-a-box), but when we do make things from scratch we are very proud! Exhibit A: Date loaf for school election day cake stall... Fresh... Exibit B: My mothers'…
Continue reading ➞ Edited highlights: Pancakes, date loaf and Swedish foodstuffs
Well today is Election day and I'll be going to our local primary school to vote and serve at the cake stall/sausage sizzle. This time, I didn't do the cutesy-wutesy little panda cupcakes I slaved over in 2013... ain't got time for that these days. I'm baking a date loaf, easy and quick and something…
Halloween is tonight but you've just got time to bake some last-minute cupcakes. Here are some spooky-but-cute Halloween treats from around the web if you're needing some sweet inspiration. 1. "Broken glass" cupcakes from marthastewart.com The "glass" is sugar and water. 2. Reese's Frankenstein cupcakes from yourcupofcake.com 3. Ghost cupcakes from thecomfortofcooking.com 7. Chilly ghosts…
Continue reading ➞ 7 Halloween cupcake recipes… an Alexcellent roundup.
I aways want something sweet after dinner, or sometimes in the afternoon with a cup of tea. I found this recipe in The Biggest Loser trainer Tiffiny Hall's book, Weightloss Warrior (How to win the battle within). It's full of motivational advice, exercise and recipes - it's a great book. I remember thinking that when…
Time to catch up on the past month with a series of snapshots that seem to be mostly food and floral. I snuck away from my desk last Friday (working from home means I'm just sneaking away from myself) and went to local whole foods store, About Life. I ate a raspberry and coconut muffin…
Continue reading ➞ Edited Highlights: Sugar, blossoms, cake and colouring-in
On Winter weekends I like to do what I can to improve my baking skills. This particular Sunday I decided to make apricot turnovers and a few mini chocolate croissants. If you have ready-made puff pastry in the freezer and a tin of fruit in the cupboard, you've got all you need for a yummy,…
Continue reading ➞ Fun with puff pastry: easy apricot turnovers and mini chocolate croissants
The mornings are getting chillier and the days shorter, reminding me that Winter is almost here. That means muffin season! Either as a sneaky treat with hot butter and cup of tea, or something extra in the school lunchbox, muffins are a wonderful tine in the fork of my baking adventures. I love baking muffins…
I love cake, but in my efforts to be healthier, I've been thinking about ways I could reduce the fat. No butter? Yes, it is possible to make a cake without butter. But let's not get too crazy. This cake does have some butter in it. But less than normal because today I'm substituting some…
Continue reading ➞ Baking with yoghurt: Mango and vanilla yoghurt cake with white chocolate ganache
I realise I seem to have developed a theme here in the past few weeks, namely involving snow, fake or otherwise, and chocolate. Well it IS winter! With all the bad news reports (the bad news that is additional to the constant bad news that already happens) lately, it would be very easy to be overwhelmed by it all…
Continue reading ➞ Edited highlights: chocolate pudding, snowdrops and other ordinary joys
There are many things I love about Easter: all the new-life symbolism, holidays, seeing family and friends, the first hint of Autumn weather, the Easter show, the Easter Sunday church service, the Easter-egg hunt and hot cross buns! This Easter, Sydney had the special treat of hosting Prince William, Princess Catherine, baby Prince George and his cute little squishy…
Continue reading ➞ Easter 2014: in search of hot cross buns and cross ninja-bread men
