pastels & sweets

Shortbread Creams

Work has been quieter at the moment. It is the lull period when customers go on holidays, don't go past the deli on the way to work or don't go to school. So it is a great time to take a few days off and relax ourselves.

Alan and I took a few days off and just pottered around the house and did nothing much; slept in, ate more, and relaxed. We came back to work last week and are sitting tight

Banana Bread

Banana Bread is great for little hands and big hands alike. It is great for breakfast or a mid-morning snack and great for afternoon tea and supper. Isn't it just one of those treats that is sweet and tasty and almost viably healthy all at the same time!

Jemma from Little Eats wrote to me a few months ago asking if I would like to include a recipe for her newsletter. I jumped at the chance and

Hazelnut and Chocolate Shortbread Bars

I wanted to do like a poptart with shortbread. I wanted to make a hazelnut and chocolate filling and then dip it into my coffee. So this is exactly what I tried to do!

Hazelnut and Chocolate Shortbread Bars



Ingredients

250g butter
375g plain flour
125g icing sugar
1 egg
1 vanilla bean
150g hazelnuts, chopped finely
200g chocolate, chopped finely

Method

1. In your mixing bowl put the butter

Iced Vovos

I started to feel the urge to *create* a few new biscuits again. I go through fazes of creating. And this year I have my one word, create.

So, I am going through all my oldest books and going through all Nanas books again. I am more about re-creating the classics at the moment.

So going back to the Iced Vovos is just part and parcel with it.


Iced Vovos

Time: 15minutes + 1 hour (chilling

High Tea

High Tea. What a lovely thought. Sitting in a white frilly dress, sipping on tea with cream and wearing a *spiffing* bonnet. And of course eating dainty treats. Like something out of the Great Gatsby.


Image from here

I have a box of Nanas recipes, which are cut out of magazines, handwritten, and even sent from other people from today right through to 1948 (earliest I have found so far!) and

Pink and dipped in hundreds and thousands

Just before getting injured, I was crazy busy at the deli. Functions here, fruit cakes there and one fabulous little party to cater cupcakes for. Jemma asked me to make some mini cupcakes for her little girl who loves pink and some adult cupcakes for the parents!


I jumped at the chance to use our Cupcake Wrapper Co wrappers and go wild with the pink. I want to share with you how cute

Christmasy Lemon Shortbread Stars

I love these....yum....."it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!!"

Have you entered our Gingerbread House Giveaway? It will be drawn on the 15th December.....



Lemon Shortbread Stars


Ingredients

150g butter, room temperature
75g icing sugar
2 lemons, zest only
2 egg yolks
250g plain flour

Method

1. In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until it forms a paste.

miT maT Biscuits

So, keeping on with our biscuit challenge, we are up to miT maT Biscuits.

These are quite rich, so beware of the chocolatey gooey filling!






miT maT Biscuits
Ingredients
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ cup flour
¾ cup cocoa
½ tsp bicarb soda
1 ½ tsp salt
210g butter

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Fold in the dry ingredients until it forms a dough.
3. Roll out between two

The Great Biscuit Challenge - Mint Slice

Okay, I know that you have been waiting patiently for the Mint Slice biscuits, because I can see you all checking out the blog and checking out the Arnotts Challenge.....so here it is!


Mint Slice Biscuits
175g flour½ tsp baking powder25g cocoa powder110g sugar125g butter1tsp Vanilla1 tsp cold water
Method
1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. 2. Fold in flour, cocoa and

The Mum and The Chef - Rhubarb

Fellow food blogger Mish from Mish Delish and I have decided to join forces over the next month or so, and each devise a recipe with a seasonal fresh ingredient.


It will be a little like cook and the chef where Mish a very talented home cook will share her experience as a mum and a cook and I will share my experience and industry knowledge as a qualified chef and business owner. It’s going to

Pastry Tutorial - blind baking

During the week I posted a chocolate tart recipe and Melisssa from Onecraftymumma asked me more information about blind baking!

So I have put together a little tutorial on what to do and how to check you have blind baked your tart enough.

For quiche, frangipane tarts and any other tart that has to have the centre cooked for awhile I don't blind bake it. I don't because the tart shell gets too

Silky Chocolate Tart

When I was an apprentice I was on the Channel 7 tv show My Restaurant Rules. We were in the restaurant on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda (the top end of the street) and it was called Two Words and then Whisk. It was the best three months of my apprenticeship! It was hard, it was so busy and of course it was on tv. And as some of you may know that is where I met my husband. Yes! We met on a tv show.

Fairy Floss

I went to our first markets on the weekend and had such a blast!!

Here are some photos from the Fairy Floss Markets in Doncaster...





We had such a great day and sold all sorts of goodies....can't wait for the next ones....

You can catch us:

14th November - Williamstown North PS (133 Melbourne Road Williamstown)
11th December - Doncaster (699 Doncaster Road Doncaster)
3rd February 2011 -

Garibaldi Biscuits Gluten Free Style

Australians call this beautiful buttery shortbread with tiny, juicy currants "Fly cemetary" or "Dead fly surprise."

I call it Garibaldi because it is from a beautiful recipe book that my Dad bought me when he went to America.* So after fiddling with the amounts for a gluten free version I came up with this version of the buttery classic.

330g GF flour
170g unsalted butter
110g sugar
230g