Entertaining – Page 6 – Baking with Gab

Lemon pistachio cake and stories

I had such a lovely day. I explored a suburb near my home called Newtown – I went with friends and we tried a new café, explored a graveyard and went antique shopping. These are all things that everybody should do more often!

I loved that Brewtown Newtown served their tea on wooden boards shaped specifically to hold the teacup, teapot, creamer and spoon. The space was off King Street (the main road in Newtown), so things were a little bit more relaxed, and we were able to stay at our table long after we’d finished our meals and swap gossip. Continue reading “Lemon pistachio cake and stories”

World Nutella day and adoration

Did you know that today is World Nutella day? No? How could you miss such an important world event? I’ve had it pencilled into my diary for weeks! I feel that I should declare that this is not a sponsored post (although I would totally be open to sponsorship by Nutella, because that would be DELICIOUS), I just really love the stuff.

The problem in my house is that Nutella tends to only last a number of hours, which means it’s rare that I get the chance to cook with it. Even if one of my family members manages to sneak a jar into the house, it is detected and devoured very quickly. We’re like truffle pigs for Nutella… Nutella humans?

I’m getting off track. Continue reading “World Nutella day and adoration”

Honey pots de creme and Valentines

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”

Citrus cupcakes and picnics

Friends and I had a post Australia-day picnic and I wanted something nice and zesty to perk people after their Australia day celebrations. The day was hot and windy, and our location at Sydney Park was perfect. I instagrammed it, obviously.

What I love about these cupcakes is that they’re so simple, but awesome – they’re beautifully moist and citrus-laden. I can’t think of more ways to explain how glorious these cupcakes are, I just love them… you should bake them!

The little cakes are moist and sweet, while the icing is mouth-puckeringly tart – the combination of the two is just gorgeous. The icing stops the cakes from being overly saccharine, while the cake softens the edges of the citrus tang; these two are a match made in citrus heaven.

Citrus cupcakes:

Makes 20

125g butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
250g (2 ¼ cups) almond meal
1 cup self-raising flour
1 orange, zest and juice

Icing:

2 cups icing sugar
1 small lemon, zest and juice

Preheat your oven to 180°C

Cream butter and sugar together until pale and smooth. Add the eggs and almond meal and mix until incorporated. Sift the flour into the bowl and mix that too.

Pop the zest and juice of the orange into the mixture and give it one final mix before scooping generous spoonfuls of batter into cardboard cupcake cases. Aim to fill them about ¾ of the way up, as this mixture doesn’t rise very much.

Bake for 20-23 minutes until the edges start to turn golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean*. Transfer cakes onto a cooling rack.

While the cakes cool, zest and juice the lemon. Combine the lemon juice, icing sugar and about half of the zest to make the icing. Reserve the other half of the zest to decorate the cupcakes with.

To ice, drop a tablespoon of mixture onto the crest of each of your cupcakes and allow It to run down the sides naturally. The icing is pretty thin, so should sort itself out – if this approach is too messy for your liking, simply use the back of the spoon to spread the icing out. Top some of the iced cupcakes with your remaining lemon zest.

*This batter can also be made into a cake – simply pop the mixture into a greased cake tin and cook for 40-50 minutes.

Vanilla slice and Australian icons

Vanilla slice is an Australian icon. I associate vanilla slices with Australianness so much that I’m currently trying to imagine how structurally stable a vanilla slice version of the Opera House would be.

My brothers and I were transfixed by the sweets section at the bakery when we accompanied mother to the bakery. Cream buns, doughnuts, lamingtons, meringues, and the vanilla slice was the king of them all. Whether the vanilla slice had vanilla icing or passionfruit, it was always the filling that was the best – that tall, cold, unusually firm layer of custard sandwiched between two teeny bits of pastry… bliss. Continue reading “Vanilla slice and Australian icons”

Berry lemonade ice blocks and Australian Summer

In keeping with my Australia-loving session (inspired by my recent trip to Cairns), I wanted to showcase a food that reminds me of my childhood.

Ice blocks. Iced lollies. Ice pops. Call them what you will, they’re a Summer favourite.

My mother used the same, primary-coloured ice block moulds for years. When it came to throwing them out (a move which was much protested by myself and my brothers), the stems of the moulds were so chewed and ~~beaten up~~ loved that they were no longer straight. Continue reading “Berry lemonade ice blocks and Australian Summer”

Blackberry jam cake and being away

This post was done in advance. I’m in Cairns and I will have been instagramming like mad (check here to see all of the photos), but I made sure I wrote up this cake recipe before I left. It is pretty divine. It’s full of spices and sweetness in just the right measures. It’s super moist too – it’s kind of like a really fragrant sticky date pudding.

I bought the blackberry jam when I was away in Mudgee recently. I still haven’t blogged about Mudgee yet, but I loved it.

Continue reading “Blackberry jam cake and being away”

Herb thins and easy food

Summer is a time for easy food. Chips and dips are de rigueur barbecues, pool parties, weekend getaways… basically any event you will attend this Summer! I split my New Year’s Eve between the 9pm fireworks with The Boy’s parents and a rental house with friends at Cottage Point, and we had chips and dips at both!

I did have a fabulous New Year’s – we had a great position at Lavender Bay for the fireworks, and Cottage Point is glorious. I could have instagrammed everything, but restricted myself to gorgeous Westhead Beach and the adorable wharf at the bottom of our house. Continue reading “Herb thins and easy food”

Delicious Pimm’s and fond English memories

I love Pimm’s. I first discovered it when I was staying in the north of England a few years ago. I asked the bartender what cocktail I should try and he recommended Pimm’s. It was the middle of Winter and I was home-sick and slightly frozen, but the Pimm’s made me feel like I was at home. The cool, refreshing drink did not match the cold English weather at all, but it didn’t matter! Continue reading “Delicious Pimm’s and fond English memories”

Christmas musings

It’s been four days since Christmas and I’ve finally worked up the energy to write a blog post. I love the laziness that the Christmas period engenders. Abundant leftovers means that dinners are cobbled together, time off work means that everyone is socialising, and said socialising and leftovers leaves people feeling pooped.

This is just a little recap of all things Christmas-related, and a hint of things to come.

In the lead up to Christmas I made dad’s famous Christmas pudding with him (it’s a yearly tradition), you can find the recipe here.

I also experienced some Swedish Christmas cooking and attended a Swedish Christmas eve party, which was delicious!

I also dropped (and broke) my computer at the same time that I was busy baking up a Christmas storm. I didn’t get to post all of my Christmas recipes as a result, but will save them for another time.

I had a recipe card done up for me by house.com.au, and am very excited about it! I hope to continue working with House in the future.

Christmas day was held at my family’s home; Norman was very festive, there was food galore, we had a Christmas tree inside, and one decorated outside as well.

Mum made a gorgeous mango and lychee salad and I promise that I’ll steal the recipe from her before Summer ends.

I consumed far too much of the glorious Christmas pudding that we’d made, and found one of Simone Walsh’s adorable pudding coins in my piece!!

The final winner of my teapot competition has been in touch, and all will be sent off tomorrow! The other three winners were announced here, but Gemma had a busy Christmas period and accepted her teapot only recently.

Gemma won the red teapot because of her enthusiastic response – she associated the colour red with “my nurses uniform – I love my career, would never do anything else! My granny shopping trolley that I had to purchase at the good food and wine show, you gotta love it for helping carry shopping up 6 flights of stairs!!!
My Harrods Christmas bauble, has set the theme for this year’s decs #obsessedbychristmas”

Christmas time is a big deal in my family, and I love sharing my recipes, decorations and experiences with my readers. I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!