chocolate chips....

well after much delay i finally made my first cupcakes of the year and as promised they were chocolate chip ones from martha's book! they turned out a little dense for my liking, the recipe called for egg whites beaten into 'stiff peaks' but not over beaten.... well being the novice i am i really dont know when to turn the electric beater off.... i mean stiff peaks are stiff peaks right.. you cant get any stiffer? well i think i must have as im sure the egg whites are in the recipe to keep the mixture light....?!?!

anyway they werent a complete disaster, they were edible and most who ate them didnt complain! i made some chocolate buttercream with the edition of 175g of 70% cocoa chocolate... yum! it was probably the best tasting icing i have made so far :)  i was too lazy to decorate them in any sort of impressive fashion so i just crumbled up some choc chip cookies and piled them on top of the icing...

oh and most importantly... i got a new camera! its not an SLR but next best thing i think! 10MP and 12 optical zoom for a pretty good price, im pretty pleased and hopefully it will make my blog a little prettier to look at .... this is how my cupcakes (and photos) turned out

well besides the semi failed baking we didnt get up to much in the weekend, just relaxed, cleaned the house (speaking of which, the landlord is selling! so we are going to have to find a new place to live.... im dreaming of a big kitchen!), caught up with my mum etc etc

on saturday we went to western springs in the early evening for a impromtu picnic and it was beautiful! havent been there since the end of winter when it was pretty bare and uninspiring! i managed to put my new camera to use and grab a few practice shots

ants in my pants....

i am dreaming of all the things i want to do this year and thinking i may write a things to do in 2010 list, the draft includes a lot of travel! i want to go to japan, singapore, amsterdam, paris and the gold coast... amongst others! me and my lovely are also starting up a joint bank account to save or at least to attempt to save for a house..... might be a few years off yet haha but at least its a start! we are starting off the year with a trip to the old faithful which is sydney! we are leaving in feb and i cant wait (even though i just started back at work!)

id also like to travel more of nz, after spending new years in rotorua id like to go down there again with some spare money and see lots of the attractions, especially as i have not visited them since i was young! the south island is also in my mind, i have never really liked the idea of it but it would be a shame not to explore it when its right in the backyard! im going down to christchurch with my mum in june so thats a start! would love to hire a campervan and travel around :D

MOST importantly i am going to try and get out of debt, which i know seems a funny thing to say with all this dreaming of travel.... but it has to be done

so thats just a FEW ideas i have, lets see if any of them come to fruitian!

i feel as though i havent really been in the baking mode recently but now i am back at work i am dying to get on with some cupcakes! i mentioned in an earlier post that i was considering trying out every martha stewart cupcake recipe from her cupcake book... i have no idea if this is possible but i am starting with the chocolate chip cupcakes on page 22 (the first recipe in the book) and we will see where it takes me! im going to bake them tomorrow morning so i can take them into work (as the recipe makes 30?!?!)

the other day i did manage to knock out some macaroons from nigellas book, they were ok but i had to buy HOME BRAND shredded coconut and it was revolting! it was huge big strands that were too big for macaroons so they turned out slightly dry! i have to note that i never use home brand unless i absolutely have to! i think their products are of poor quality so i try to steer clear! anyway it was the only shredded coconut on the shelves :( i am going to retry them with some higher quality coconut and dip them in melted chocolate....

they ended up looking ok though....

food photo essay....

well as promised here are just a few of the food delights i managed to experience over the last festive week (give or take a few days on either end) ... no explanations needed i dont think?

  

 

you can fit alot into a week....

well... no blog post in quite some time, i have been busy soaking up the napier sun, eating christmas food, opening presents, hosting my dad and driving the country :D

we had 6 days in napier including christmas day...

highlights included; getting all my hair cut off into a cute katie holmes esque bob and and managing to sample my favourite crumbed snapper fillets from westshore fish shop more than once! i had put in a special request to my lovely for martha stewarts baking handbook but we couldnt find it anywhere in stock, i then requested the next best thing... nigella lawson's how to be a domestic goddess! i had wanted it for quite some time and its such a well put together book with one easy/great baking recipe after another.

so the book turned up under the christmas tree with other goodies! of course i had to try one of the recipes out straight away! well... on boxing day

it was the blackberry galette on pg 115 although it said you can use any berries so i chose raspberries! it has yummy creme fraiche in it and is super easy! the only alterations i made to it were adding maybe half a tablespoon more of the creme fraiche and some sliced almonds on top, swapping the vegetable shortening (hard to find in nz) for margarine... oh and the berries of course

here is the recipe

Ingredients.....

for the pastry:

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons polenta or fine cornmeal
• 1 scant tablespoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• scant ¼ cup cold butter
• 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
• 1–3 tablespoons ice water or enough to bind

for the filling:

• 150g blackberries
• approximately 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 heaping tablespoons crème fraîche, plus more to serve

Instructions....
 
In a food processor, pulse the dry ingredients, then add the butter and shortening diced into small pieces. Pulse briefly until it resembles coarse bread crumbs, then add enough ice water to form a dough, pulsing gently to mix. Form it into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to rest for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll the pastry out into a rough circle, transfer to the baking sheet and scatter blackberries on top, leaving a good 3-inch margin round the edge. Sprinkle with 1–2 tablespoons sugar, to taste, then dollop with crème fraîche. Sprinkle a further tablespoonful of sugar over, dampen the edges with water, then wrap them over themselves to form a knobbly, ramshackle rim and put in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through.

here's what mine turned out like.....

 

i served it with custard which was a really delicious combo!

we headed back to auckland for a second christmas celebration on the 27th... more food and another galette! i baked another due to its initial success, this time with blueberries ... certainly a lot cheaper! i forgot the almonds but didnt effect it much haha

 

anyway thats about it although id thought id treat you to some pictures of the culinary delights that we experienced over the past week (in photos ....)

but you will have to wait till tomorrow as im off to watch where the wild things are!

dear santa...

oh god im addicted to twitter! i set it up to be another arm of my cupcake promotion but it has ended in me being glued to the home page looking for people im following to run competitions i can enter or looking at my @bakemycupcake page seeing if anyone has tweeted me!

give me strength! no one told me there would be daily give aways and all sorts of treats to be had on the bloody thing.....

i have won a turkey, a case of antipodes water and 50 airpoints so far... haha

my mums birthday is on the 23rd but as i will be in napier i will be missing the day of celebrations so i thought we would have a pre birthday celebration this sunday! of course i am going to bake a cake and as i seem to be on a martha streak at the moment i will doing another one of her cakes, this time a devils food cake with chocolate mint ganache! yum....... looks slightly tricky but hopefully easier than the sponge cake!

today was the last day of work which is great news! tomorrow is our end of year christmas lunch which i had to buy a new dress for :/ luckily farmers had a sale on and i got a super cute dress and leggings for $45, its going to be at a bowling club... the theme is celebrities... for some reason i hate dress up parties when they are not needed! why do we need people dressing up when we are having a christmas lunch? maybe im just a stick in the mud but i reckon it would be more fun if people just dressed up in black tie!

i know im 8 not but i still have a pretty big xmas list in my head.... so for no reason except my own titillation i thought id blog it

1.

yup its a martha book! this book is truly amazing, it has fantastic cookies in which i want to start getting the hang of as my cookies usually end up tasting ok but looking terrible


2.

ira where the wild things are toy :> to go with my max toy! these are super cute and i just <3 them so much!! (and yes i know... im not 8)

3.

this amazing collapsible cupcake holder / carrier... so cute and great for carrying the cupcakes around and eliminates the worry of them slipping and sliding around or getting squashed by an over zealous chihuahua in your car :P

4.

another toy! oh no am i turning into one of those creepy women that are obesessed with soft toys and have 20 of them on their frilly duvet covered bed?!?! i hope not :/ but when in farmers today i came across a rudolph the red nosed reindeer toy .. similiar to this but even cuter! i have put in a request with my boyfriend... it wasnt met with much of a warm response but hopefully the request MAY come to fruition?


5.

oh god im not looking very mature am i? but im desperate for this! ever since we got the ps3 i have wanted it and hopefully it will be under the xmas tree for me :>

6.

general baking paraphanalia! metal tarts cases, madeliene baking pan, collapsable cookie cutters, a decent apron etc etc


7.

a podgypanda rwar! tshirt... i have been eyeing them up since i saw these UBER cute designs at armageddon....   also on twitter


ANYWAY you get the picture, this list could go on for ever and i dont want to seem to greedy haha

oh and i handed out my little noodle boxes of xmas mince pies to their recipients at work today, they seemed to go down a treat, here are the photos from round two... sieved icing sugar and cute cut out lids made them look a little more attractive

 

 

xx

what day of christmas is this???

so its the last week of work thank god and a pleasent surprise came my way when my boss said that for the rest of the week i could start at 9am rather than 7am, it makes a huge difference (trust me)! things at work are so quiet it reminds me of the last week of school before summer holidays..... nothing is happening and everyone is pretty relaxed....

i wish i was relaxed though as apart from the 9am starts i have been pretty stressed out, my car was making horrendous noises and with a trip away scheduled for sunday to napier for the first part of the holidays impending i thought i should get it sorted.... worn break pads and rotors (?!?!?) apparently and $376 apparently! as i have splurged on christmas shopping i am broke till next pay day which happens to be NEXT thursday (christmas eve). too late to get the car fixed and too late to travel to napier! luckily my mum said she could help me out, lend me the money and hopefully we will have it fixed by the weekend.... all things going to plan

amongst all of this i have decided its time to slim down, i have put on around 6kgs over the last few months and have really started to feel it and look it! it has been consuming my thoughts for quite some time, frustrated with myself for even letting it happen! but i realised its all in my control and if i just stop eating when i dont need to (mars bars, packets of chips, biscuits etc etc) and get a little more active then hopefully i can reclaim my body!   ................  sounds easy right? i will let you know how it goes......

anyway on the topic of food i successfully made my own christmas mince pies! the first round was a trial and tonight i am going to make them again so i can give them out as presents on my last day of work to my work mates! i got an easy and yummy pastry recipe from the nestle site... it is as follows

Ingredients:

75g butter (softened)
1/4 cup of icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp cornflour

for the fruit mince meat i have to admit i cheated! it was too expensive and time consuming to get all the different fruit etc etc so i got some good old earnest adams, added 1/2 cup of dried cranberries and a few tbps of whiskey and let it soak for a day or so....

the rest of the instructions are from the same recipe as the ingredients (i left out a few things they said, like adding chocolate to the mincemeat mix etc) and they are as follows

Instructions:

preheat oven to 180°C and grease mini tartlet tins

cream butter, add icing sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. beat in egg yolk and vanilla essence.

sift flour and cornflour together and gradually stir into creamed mixture to make a smooth dough. place rounded teaspoons of dough into the tins, then press evenly over the bottoms and up the sides, making an indent in the bottom of each.

bake tart shells in preheated oven for 10 minutes. remove from oven.

fill with fruit mince meat, cut little rounds or xmas shapes for tops and pop them over each tart and return for 10-15 mins

remove from oven and allow to cool in tin.

once cooled, dust with icing sugar

now for the pictures....

they arent the prettiest of pies but they have the home made charm i guess! next time i will sieve (which i need to buy) the icing sugar over so it doesnt look so patchy and thick

noodle box lined with serviettes and a texas cupcake paper ready for the pies to be put in

pies in the box, gonna put four in each, thats all the boxes can really fit unless you want to really squash them and then risk the pastry breaking! disaster!

after closing the boxes up i thought they probably needed something christmas-y as they were just plain white boxes, so chucked a ribbon round and attached a little tree decoration with a cute paper clip and i was away laughin! a easy home made and cheap gift thats so cute i doubt anyone could resist....