baking – Page 11 – Baking with Gab

Mini chocolate mint cupcakes and December

Hello my lovelies. Christmas is creeping closer and I’m buzzing with excitement. So many things are happening – December always seem to run at such a frantic pace. My younger brother’s birthday was yesterday, friends and I are going for a wee sojourn to Mudgee this weekend, my birthday is edging closer, the Boy’s parents are coming to visit from England, and I’ve got a teapot competition to wrap up oversee (check out this post to find out how to win!)

This is all before Christmas.

And this isn’t counting the numerous feasts that friends are planning in the days before Christmas. I need to invest in some stretchier fat pants, the Christmas season is far too kind to my belly! Continue reading “Mini chocolate mint cupcakes and December”

Caramel filled cinnamon men and little things:

Today was one of those days where small tasks were accomplished. I had to stay at home because a cabinet fitter spent all morning fitting a wall unit in our lounge room, so I pottered about, baked and did little jobs that usually get overlooked in favour of Christmas shopping/preparations at this time of year.

Somewhat inspired by the small tasks, I made small gingerbread men… except they aren’t gingerbread men, they’re cinnamon men.

Cinnamen?

I think I’ll stick with Cinnamon men, I like the repetition. Continue reading “Caramel filled cinnamon men and little things:”

Vanilla Christmas biscuits and festivity

I’ve been trying to resist posting Christmas recipes for about a fortnight now. I adore Christmas, but I dislike how it seems to creep earlier into our consciousness each year. In my family, we don’t buy our tree or decorate ANYTHING until December first (and there are two birthdays in the family to focus on before December 25^th rolls around anyway.)

This year, however, I have caved; the combination of abundant free time and having the blog as an excuse to create delicious Christmas things means that I’m allowing myself a bit of a head start this year.

And what a start it is! These biccies are simple and adorable…and they don’t have to be Christmas themed if you don’t want!! I chose a star shaped cutter because I thought my family would scoff at my if I’d gone for the candy cane or Christmas tree shapes. The good thing about a basic biscuit mix like this is that it lends itself really well to any shape you want! Continue reading “Vanilla Christmas biscuits and festivity”

Double chocolate biscuits and salted caramel

These biscuits are divine. They’re like little bites of cake; they’re just the right amount of chocolateyness and they have these perfect seams of chocolate running through them… topped with the salted caramel, these may just be the answer to every first world problem you can think of.

Internet stopped working? Have a biscuit.

Significant other not texting back? Have a biscuit.

Wasted your study time perusing Pinterest? Pin this recipe, then have a biscuit. Continue reading “Double chocolate biscuits and salted caramel”

Gluten free garlic parmesan pull apart bread and Wintery weather

The weather in Sydney is consistently wet. It has been six days since I last posted a recipe, and the only excuse I have is the weather! Weather like this makes me want to cook and eat.

And repeat.

Blogging took a back seat while I busied myself baking (and eating) delicious Wintery foods that I thought I’d have to wait until next year to post.

I also got the chance to use some gluten free flour I was kindly given by Well & Good. I’d never baked with gluten free flour before (to be honest, I was pretty apprehensive!), but the result was perfect. The bread rose perfectly and crisped nicely. The gluten free flour seems to result in a slightly different tasting bread – not a bad taste, just slightly different to regular flour. Continue reading “Gluten free garlic parmesan pull apart bread and Wintery weather”

Mini mushroom tarts and lady beetles

A lady beetle was the highlight of my morning.

I opened a bag of baby spinach to put in a breakfast smoothie and she was there. I stared at her for a second, because it’s not what you expect of baby spinach. When you buy unwashed greens you sometimes encounter slugs or a teensy snail, or something equally squeamish…but mainly they’ve just got a little soil clinging to a few leaves.

She was so still and curled up that I assumed she was dead. I contemplated how long this gorgeous little beetle had been alive before she landed on the wrong leaf and was packaged up, shipped and refrigerated. Continue reading “Mini mushroom tarts and lady beetles”

Norman and superstardom

The moment has arrived. The blog is going to take off.

Norman has been immortalised.

He is now bound for superstardom. He will, no doubt, shed me once he’s famous enough to do a solo Norman act. For now I’ll ride on his coattails.

I’m sort of kidding. Norman would never leave me, just as long as I promise to keep feeding him off-cuts of pastry and brushing him so his fur stays unmatted.

And he has been immortalised. Unfortunately it wasn’t because he was scouted on the street and noticed for his handsomeness. I requested he have his likeness made into a cupcake topper. Continue reading “Norman and superstardom”

Peanut butter cups and surprise outcomes

I intended to make something using mint today. Our garden is overgrowing with gorgeous, fragrant mint, and I had every intention of making some choc-mint creation to take advantage of it.

But I didn’t.

I got distracted and I washed Norman (check him out, bathing and being regal post-bath!) and my mint remained untouched. Continue reading “Peanut butter cups and surprise outcomes”

Chocolatey chocolate tart and leftover egg yolks

Egg yolks have so much potential.

I hate to waste a good egg yolk because of this potential. I also hate the idea of letting good food go to waste!

This is a great way to use up egg yolks after you’ve made meringues. I made some pretty spooky meringues for Halloween (as you may or may not have seen on my Instagram) so I had five egg yolks to play with. This recipe didn’t use them all up, but it got rid of four and Norman enjoyed lapping up the final yolk!

I took the meringues and this tart to a Halloween party. I say party, but it was better than that – it was a group of my friends watching Hocus Pocus and eating yummy food. The tart works with out without meringue ghosts, in case you were wondering. Continue reading “Chocolatey chocolate tart and leftover egg yolks”

Ghostly meringues and a bloody Halloween

This is my final Halloween post and it is a super easy one! This recipe is simple enough to do with kids but fun enough for adults too…my only warning is that it can get a little messy.

For these ghosties to work you need a decent meringue recipe. I make my meringues using the same recipe that I make swiss meringue buttercream with, except that I stop at the sugar and egg whites part of the instructions.

Line two baking trays with baking paper and preheat the oven to 120C.

Once you’ve got your meringue forming firm, glossy peaks, pop the mixture into a piping bag with a round nozzle on the end of it. If you don’t have a piping bag, just put the mixture in a snap lock bag and snip the end off.

For the ghosts, pipe out a fat circle as the base, then pipe out two more fat circles, making them slightly smaller each time. They may look a little bit like a white poo – this is okay, they’ll still be super cute. I Instagrammed mine once they were baking because I was pretty in love with them. See them here!
Continue reading “Ghostly meringues and a bloody Halloween”