Sydney – Baking with Gab

Mooberry review and waffles

I’ve been putting off writing this post for a while. Not for any sinister reasons , it’s just that this blog post hinges around waffles. Or the making of them.

I have been searching and searching and searching for a waffle maker so that I could post a recipe to accompany the review of Mooberry Neutral Bay which inspired me to make waffles in the first place.

I have had approximately zero luck finding a reasonably priced waffle maker! I thought I might be able to pick one up easily at Kmart or Target, but I have not had any luck. How is this? The few that I have found are either massive or too expensive. Where are the reasonably priced waffle irons that will fit in my small rental kitchen?

So this post has two parts – one part is telling you how awesome my Mooberry experience was. The second part is to implore you to help me find the waffle iron my dreams. Suggestions and donations welcome!

I was invited to sample Mooberry’s delights through my blog. I said yes, assuming that I’d get some froyo, which I love. I didn’t realise that Mooberry have so much more to offer than just frozen yoghurt!

I took the Boy along and we had a Mooberry date. It was so cute. The lovely Jamie, who took care of us, started us off with some froyo. The Boy got salted caramel with Maltesers, M&Ms and Tim Tam. It was the ultimate chocolate dessert.

He’d never had froyo before that day (because he thought it would be gross) and I think it’s safe to say that this serving changed his mind.

I got passionfruit with fresh strawberries and kiwi and lychee pearls. Those little pearls were unreal. They were like little bursts of summer. So you’d think that was it. Mooberry is predominantly a frozen yoghurt place.

YOU’RE WRONG! Perusing the menu I realised that they offer delicious, even healthy brekkie options. I didn’t sample any of these though, I focussed on the sweet things! The Boy and I devoured a hot chocolate each (go Belgian chocolate every time, it’s glorious) and split a waffle and churros.

Everything is drizzled in chocolate. It is basically my idea of heaven.

Jamie explained that they currently have their waffles delivered, but they’re experimenting with making their own. I will definitely be back to try out their house-made waffles, because if they’re better than the current ones, they’ll be divine.
It’s too bad I can’t try and replicate them. Who knew that finding a waffle iron would be so difficult?!
Mooberry Neutral Bay is friendly and funky. There are stag heads and faux grass on the walls, fairy lights adorning bannisters and Instagram pictures on the wall upstairs.

banana It’s a pretty photogenic place, as you may have seen, I insta-spammed my followers while I was there! The staff are sweet and super helpful, the Boy and I had a lovely time.

House warmings and Instagram spam

I’ve been absent from blogging a little bit recently. Work is keeping me away from baking and I’ve had so many things to do recently. I apologise.

So today’s post won’t have a recipe, which is most unusual. Think of it as more of a catch up. Feel free to comment below and let me know what you’ve been doing this weekend. Continue reading “House warmings and Instagram spam”

Cake Bake and Sweets Show 2014

The last 48 hours of my life have been amazing fun. In case you missed my Instagram/Twitter/Facebook frenzy, I was at the Cake Bake and Sweets Show at Olympic Park. I’m so excited to share everything with you that I’m not even posting a recipe today!

It’s still food-related, so that counts, right?

Not only was I able to sample a million different little things, I was able to chat to people who are passionate about their food – it was just lovely. I was super strict about what I bought because I already have a ridiculous amount of baking paraphernalia, and I still had a good time. Maybe all the sugar from the free samples tainted my view…the 6 pack of macaroons I purchased probably helped too. Continue reading “Cake Bake and Sweets Show 2014”

Coconut raspberry cake with passionfruit glaze (and a big baking prize!)

Baking with Gab has its benefits. It gives me an excuse to cook and devour ridiculous amounts of delicious baked goods, it’s introduced me to the fantastic blogging community and it’s also created an outlet for my crazy dog lady tendencies.

And then there’s free stuff. It’s not very often that I host a giveaway, so when I do, I get pretty excited about it! The delightful people from the Cake Bake and Sweets Show have offered me a one day double pass to give away to one of my fabulous readers!

The Cakes Bakes and Sweets Show will be on at the Sydney Showground, Olympic Park on March 21-23, the winner can go on whichever day they want. Chef Duff, Dan Lepard, Adriano Zumbo and Eric Lanlard will all be there – you could be too!

There will be live demonstrations, fabulous stalls to buy baked goods and baking related products, and free tastings. FREE TASTINGS.

The ticket allows you entry into the live demonstrations – there are so many options I literally cannot choose which demos I want to go to.

To celebrate my excitement about the Cake Bake and Sweets Show, I threw a little tea party, because that’s what I do best! The coconut, raspberry and passionfruit cake is sweet, moist and perfectly suited to a nice black cuppa.

Coconut and raspberry cake:

1 cup coconut cream
¾ cups caster sugar
2 eggs
1 ¾ cups self-raising flour
1 cup of desiccated coconut
½ cup frozen raspberries

Sticky passionfruit glaze:

¼ cup sugar
3 passionfruit
2 tbsp water

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Grease and flour a 21 cm cake tin.

Mix together the coconut cream and caster sugar until the sugar has started to dissolve. Add in the eggs, flour and then coconut and mix until combined.

Gently fold in the frozen raspberries so that their colour doesn’t bleed out too much.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and pop in the oven for 40-45 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

As soon as the cake is out of the oven, pop the sugar, passionfruit and water into a small saucepan and heat over a low flame until the sugar has dissolved. Keep stirring to ensure that the mixture doesn’t burn.

When the cake has cooled slightly, run a knife around the edge of the tin to free it up, then turn it onto a cooling rack. Turn the cake the right way up, poke holes about ¾ of the way into the cake with a skewer and then spoon the passionfruit mixture over the top, spreading it as you go.

You want the cake to still be warm when you’re pouring the passionfruit glaze over so that it seeps into holes. Aside from the taste, the great thing about the passionfruit glaze is that you can cover up the holes you poked in the cake earlier.

Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.

How to win:

To win the tickets, you must like Baking with Gab on Facebook and then email bakingwithgab@gmail.com, telling me which part of the show you want to see most and why. Have a look here to see what the Cake Bake and Sweets Show has to offer.

Entry is open to anyone, but you must be able to make your own way to the show. Competition close Thursday March 13^th at 11:59pm.

Looking forward to seeing your answers!

Chocolate cardamon pear cake and Autumn

I’ve still got a crazy amount of pears to work my way through. And it’s glorious. I wrote about being given too many pears last week and I’ve not yet run out of things to bake with them!

The weather in Sydney turned pretty dismal this week, so I’ve been poaching and baking and snuggling up with Norman at every opportunity.

It’s also the first day of Autumn today! This cake is perfect for Autumn because it’s not quite heavy enough for a Winter’s pudding, but it’s not too Summery either because of the almondy hints and the caramel notes created by the brown sugar. The chocolate and cardamom mingle beautifully to create warm, rich little mouthfuls, while the pear brings a lovely moistness to the cake.

Best served sprinkled with icing sugar, as it needs very little accompaniment. If you’re feeling especially indulgent on a dreary, rainy day, serve warm, with a dollop thick cream.

Chocolate cardamon pear cake

180g butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup almond meal
1 cup self-raising flour
¼ cup milk
1 tsp ground cardamom
100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
2 pears

Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease and line a 21cm cake tin.

Cream together the butter and brown sugar until pale. Add in the eggs, followed by your almond meal. Sift in the self-raising flour and add in the milk to thin out the mixture. Mix the cardamom into the batter thoroughly, then fold the chocolate chunks in as well.

Peel and core your pears, then cut them into thin wedges. Arrange the wedges around the cake in whatever fashion you like, pressing them in slightly. I tend to organise them so that they fit neatly into slices once the cake is cooked.

Pop the cake in the oven for 50 minutes. Remove when a cake inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool before removing from the tin – this cake is delicate, so needs a little extra care.

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”

Chocolate berry tarts and sluggish weather

The weather in Sydney got a bit rubbish overnight. The Boy and I went to a Mexican themed birthday bash (check us out, we dressed up and everything!) and it started to rain as the night wore on, unfortunately. The company and food was good, despite the weather’s best efforts to dampen things.

Torrential rain is perfect indoor weather, which means I crave sweets. Comfort food.

If you’re anything like me, however, the wet weather also means that you’re lazy. I’m currently writing in my pyjamas and enjoying the sound of the rain. I had intended to go to the gym this morning, but as soon as I heard the rain I excused myself because rain. Continue reading “Chocolate berry tarts and sluggish weather”

Scale apron giveaway ends soon!

Hello fellow bakers!

No recipe in this post – just a reminder that my scale apron competition closes at 5pm Sydney time today! Norman has taken a serious liking to it, he would have entered by now if he could! All you have to do to be in the running to win is like Baking with Gab on Facebook, like the most recent post and then email bakingwithgab@gmail.com with the subject “Scale Apron Giveaway” – that’s it!

The apron was donated to me for the giveaway by Ria from Zambella Gifts and Homewares – check out her shop, she has some lovely items!

Choc coconut bites and election day

It’s election day in Australia! At some point I have to tear myself away from baking and vote, but for the moment I’m busying myself making peanut butter cupcakes for a friend’s housewarming! That recipe will be posted tomorrow – get excited!

These glorious little coconutty bites are moist and crumbly in perfect proportions. With only six ingredients, they’re the perfect morsel to throw together when you have people drop in unexpectedly, or when you want to make something fun and nutritious for the kids. Continue reading “Choc coconut bites and election day”

Vanilla cupcakes with elderberry and elderflower icing

As promised long ago in my weekends away post, here is a recipe using the local produce that I foraged for in Orange. I chanced upon a shop called A Slice of Orange (which was completely adorable, given we were in Orange in NSW) and found an array of locally sourced foods. They ship all across Australia as well, which could be dangerous for my bank balance!

The purchase I was most excited about was the Elderflower and elderberry cordial! Having only learned that elderberries existed when I lived in England three years ago, they still have a shiny novelty factor for me. The boy’s mother spoke of making elderberry wine and picking elderflowers – to my knowledge, Sydney-siders miss out on these delightful escapades! Continue reading “Vanilla cupcakes with elderberry and elderflower icing”