It’s not very often that one gets an offer of free figs. So when a very generous friend of mine messaged our group of friends offering free figs, everyone jumped at the chance. She even delivered them to our doorsteps!
Clearly she is a saint. If you’d like to see what this saint’s instagram looks like, click here. It’s full of beautiful photography and enviably delicious cooking dates with her Nonna. Continue reading “Vanilla, fig & honey cupcakes and fig deliveries”
Easter is a fantastic time of the year. No matter how much a person may dislike religious celebrations or the hype that supermarkets create months beforehand, nobody can argue with days off and an excuse to eat life-endangering amounts of chocolate.
I don’t think I could possibly rate my favourite holiday (I don’t discriminate, I love them all), but Easter is pretty great. Every year, regardless of location or participants, my family holds an Easter egg hunt. It started when my brothers and I were little – we would go to our cousins’ farm in Orange and the Easter bunny would visit in the night. Easter morning, all the kids would wake up bright and early, line up and wait for permission to begin the race, much to the delight of the adults.
My cousins’ farm was the best place for the Easter bunny to secret away little chocolate Easter eggs; there were gnarled tree branches, lavender bushes, paving stones, fence posts and garden beds. We spent every Easter at the farm pretty much from when I was born until I was about 18.
Clearly the tradition continued way past our youth, because nobody wanted to give it up.
In recent years, we’ve not been able to go to the farm, so we’ve started an Easter egg hunt in Sydney. Now, thankfully, there is a new generation of kids who can partake in the Easter egg hunt, and while I’m slightly jealous of them for being able to join in the hunt, I love their enthusiasm and wild-eyed bemusement at seeing that Easter eggs have been delivered, and scattered throughout the garden by the Easter bunny.
Last year’s Easter was adorable (I spammed my Instagram followers with all of the cuteness), I can only assume that this year’s Easter, which is going to be at the farm again, will be equally as cute.
If you’re not excited about Easter yet, maybe I can entice you with some delicious Easter-appropriate recipes.
This post came about because of an over supply of two things.
Pears and honey.
So I created a honey pear cake.
Makes sense, right?
I was lucky enough to receive another delivery of free pears last week (I spoke about the first delivery here.) I’m currently trying to find more ways to use these babies up, because I’ve eaten about 50, poached close to a dozen, given away what seems like bagfuls, and I’m still left with a bowl of them which are threatening to go bad on me. Continue reading “Honey pear cake and oversupply”
On the weekend I posted some sweet little chocolate meringue morsels and promised an even sweeter dessert to accompany them. This is what you’ve been waiting for with baited breath (ha!) – honey pots de crème.
I’m slightly in love with pots de crème. They tend to combine a whole lot of cream with other, equally bad for you delicious ingredients; kind of like a custard that you can alter to be any flavour your little heart desires.
The first pots that I posted were Nutella, and they will always hold a special place in my heart, but these honey pots are a close second. They’re a super sweet idea for your Valentine’s day dessert (if you celebrate V-Day) OR they would be great to serve if you were having Winnie the Pooh over to dinner. Continue reading “Honey pots de creme and Valentines”
This loaf came about a little bit by accident. I had delicious candles that I was given by Cate from Queen B candles and I wanted to use them to complement something that I’d baked. The candles have this faint smell of honey when you light them, so I thought I’d make something honey-based.
(Queen B also writes a blog, it’s lovely to meet fellow bloggers! And Cate’s beautiful beeswax candles can be purchased at http://www.queenb.com.au/)
I’d already posted a recipe for honey jumbles (and they were delicious, check them out here), so that was out of the question. I’d also done honey tea cakes, so I was at a bit of a loss for what to bake. Browsing Pinterest for inspiration, I found this delectable looking bread, which inspired me to come up with my own! Continue reading “Honey and cranberry loaf and baking adventures”
I’ve had one of those weeks that really inspire you to love food. I had fabulous breakfast with a friend (which I couldn’t help myself but Instagram, check it out!), I reminisced about chocolate milkshakes, I watched my mother darling throw together an amazing meal to entertain a crowd and I had an unexpectedly delicious meal last night in Newtown.
I feel as though there are times in your life where you’re more appreciative of food than others. And seeing as I’m in this deliriously food-focussed mood, I picked out a jar of honey I’ve had sitting in my pantry for months and decided to make the most of it. Continue reading “Honey jumbles and celebrating food”
Part deux of my Gatsby-inspired decadence was kind of given away in my last post. If you saw the tea party pictures, you probably spotted the little tea cakes. I’d made these once before and figured they were perfect for the Gatsby theme. They’re simple and sweet but the look luscious! I prefer them iced (because of the shine it gives to them!), but they’re just as delicious with a smidgen of sifted icing sugar on them.
If you do choose to ice them, they end up looking like gorgeous little ice-cream cones. If you’re a fence sitter like me ice one half and icing sugar the other!
Honey Tea Cake:
Preheat oven to 180°C and grease muffin tins. I used silicon molds and cardboard cases, so I didn’t need to grease mine (which is a little bit great!)
Sift the flour and bicarb soda together in a big bowl and then add the sugar. In a second, smaller bowl, mix together the eggs, cream and vanilla.
Soften your butter and add it to the dry mixture, mixing vigorously until no lumps remain. This may tak
e a little while, be vigilant. (Honestly, there were still a few lumps left in my mixture when I put them in the oven, and they seemed to disappear – this is a very well-behaved mixture.)
Add the egg mixture into the big bowl and mix until just combined.
Put your honey and water into a microwave-safe container and blitz it for about 30 seconds to soften the honey. Take it out of the microwave and mix it so it becomes syrupy. Add syrup to your batter.
Divide the batter between your muffin tins (or in my case silicon molds AND cardboard cases), you should fill them up about ¾ of the way to the top. Pop them in the oven and sit around for 18-20 minutes while they cook.
The mixture is lovely in that the cake tops rise into beautiful balloon-like forms. Once you’ve removed them from the oven you have two options –
For the icing sugar, mix one cup of icing sugar with 4-5 tablespoons of milk. The mixture should be quite thick, but still smooth. When you mix the icing it should slowly smooth itself back down evenly into the bowl. Divide the batter into three and add a different drop of colouring to each mixture. Ice as you please (be generous though!)
You should get 24 tea cakes from this mixure.
