Archive for Food we made

Biff’s birfo cake

December 26, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Lexi, Recipe

Hey dudes! Happy day after Christmas! hopefully everyone’s Christmas days were awesome, and not at all stress filled, as they have a tendency to be. After solemnly swearing last year that we would never host a Christmas event again, Ben and I found ourselves hosting Christmas at our place this year. How did THAT happen? It seems that the practice we got last year had us in good stead for this year though, and we managed to churn out some garlic prawns, roast lamb with potatoes, vegies, trifle, etc with a minimum of stress. Thank Christ. We even managed to enjoy our lunch, and scored some help from Ben’s mum with the washing up afterwards, so we weren’t up until 11pm doing tedious kitchen chores like we were last year. All in all, a success. I didn’t get any pictures of the festivities, apart from one of the trifle (and lets face it – you see one trifle, you’ve seen them all), so I’ve decided to bang on about the birthday cake I made for Biff earlier this month.

Biff turned 28 you see, and to mark the occasion, he decided to regress to his childhood, and go to the park to eat ice creams. He lives such a wild life. Just out of the blue, and completely unrelated to Biff’s birthday celebrations, I purchased an ice cream maker recently, and decided it would have its maiden run making some ice cream for the birthday festivities. I found a recipe for mascarpone ice cream in the Good Living section of the Sydney Morning Herald, and it looked so bloated and decadent I just had to try it. I can highly recommend making it too, especially if you are new to making ice cream, because there is no need to make a custard (which I find extremely fiddly, and so vexing if I get it wrong!), and it tastes pretty awesome.

My ice cream was an accompaniment to the “cake” I made, which I think is actually more of a flan or a slice… or a torte, as the recipe refers to it as. It’s a VERY easy recipe to make, and it looks rather impressive… I give you STRAWBERRY ALMOND TORTE!

DSC01970

Oooph! Just look at all of those little strawberries, all lined up like Stonehenge… or penguins at a meeting on an ice berg. Or just strawberries on top of some mascarpone spread over an almondy cakey base. Super easy, which really appeals to the lazy arse in me. If you too would like to emulate the super easy glory, read on…

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment »

Wedding cake: the prototype

December 9, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Lexi

Well I am certainly setting a record for being prolific, two blogs in one week seems pretty satisfactory. While I was on my non-internet enforced sabbatical, Biff and I actioned some special cake making. I am getting married you see, to our tech support, the lovely Mr Ben, and in a fit of tight arsery and over exuberance, have managed to strong arm Biff into agreeing to make the wedding cake with me. I’ve chosen a recipe that looked pretty tasty, and also sufficiently special (without being covered in marzipan crap, and without the words “mud cake” in the title… I can’t STAND mud cake!) The recipe is for a white chocolate cake, and it featured in a Woman’s Weekly recipe spread about Julie Goodwin (for the non-nerds, that’s the winner of Australian Masterchef). I don’t really read Woman’s Weekly (I don’t, I swear!), but I saw it at Ben’s Nan’s place and managed to cajole her into giving the copy to me. The cake itself is a monument to over indulgence, it has over a kilogram of chocolate in it, plus a hell of a lot of butter and sugar. I’m sure it will be awesome.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (2) »

And I’m back!

December 6, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Lexi

After quite the lengthy hiatus (sans internet for TWO MONTHS, due to a range of different and tedious problems) one half of the Biff n Lexi duo is back online, and feeling fine! To be specific, it is I, Lexi, who is typing this right now. Due to a mixture of slackness and stinginess, Biff has lagged on getting internet connected at his place, so it might take him a while to get back on the bloggin’ horse.

Anyway, I can assure you all that I have been uber crafty during my break away from the computer. I made a dress (very inexpertly!), and I’ve been cranking out various tasty treats. I managed to score a copy of the Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook (it’s awesometown!), and it has inspired me to make pastry from scratch (a fairly long and tedious process, but the end result is rather enjoyable). As Ben is a big fan of lemon and lime tarts, I decided that my first efforts at being a Bourke Street worthy baker would be lemon curd tarts… TA DAAAAAAAAAA!:

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (3) »

Daring Baker’s September challenge: Vols au Vent… like tiny pastry dishes*

September 28, 2009 · Filed under Daring Bakers!, Food we made, Posted by Biff and Lexi, Recipe

The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Well! We’ve never really felt the compulsion to make puff pastry, but we thought, why the fuck not? We have to. And… voila!

Emma Flod's birfo 205

We consider this to have been a sufficiently puffy effort. Unfortunately, we scoffed at the recommended amount of salt to add (one tablespoon), and only put a few twists of our twisty salt stick into the mix, thus ensuring one BLAAAAAAAND pastry. Praise be (!) that the challenge required us to shape our pastry into vols au vent – little flavour delivery systems. The flavours we chose to deliver were chocolate mousse brulees (slightly melted by the heat of our firestick), and custaaaaaaaaaaard (with strawberries).

Check out the end result:

Emma Flod's birfo 216 Emma Flod's birfo 224

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (9) »

Epic Fail: Biscuits. Blame the baby.

September 26, 2009 · Filed under FAIL!, Food we made, Posted by Biff

“I’m cooking for the little one” (like that dude in the “perfect Italiano” ads).  I was cooking with my daughter who is eighteen months old.

For father’s day I was given some cookie cutters, and so I thought they should be put to use straight away.  Usually I only make Anzac biscuits, but this time I tried to branch out with a new recipe.  I shouldn’t have.

I got the recipe off a random website:

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Easy-Biscuits-L924.html

Here’s how they turned out.

Emma Flod's birfo 189

Basically the biscuits expanded and melded into one another.  That was the first batch.  The second batch were ruined because I got distracted playing with “the little one”.

They tasted ok (apart from the charred bits), and I will cook them again – but need to space them out a bit more.  I wasn’t ready for how much they would spread.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (7) »

What a day for us! Emma Flod’s birthday celebrations bitches!

September 14, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Biff and Lexi, Recipe

Rather than go out and drink ourselves into the gutter last Friday night, we elected to stay in and bake.  Oh, what a night for us!  We were baking, of course, to celebrate the birth of one of Newcastle’s most artistic residents, Mz Emma Flod (of Emma draws a circle).  To mark this auspicious occasion, we made (successfully) Bailey’s cheese cake brownies, and (less successfully) Hazelnut sponge cake with chocolate raspberry cream.

We got the recipes for the Bailey’s cheese cake brownies from a blog we came across, Domestic Goddess in Training, and they were terribly decadent, and oh-so moreish. If you fancy making them, the recipe is on Domestic Goddess’ site. We found them pretty easy to make, but struggled a bit with marbling the cheese and chocolate together – it ended up looking a bit murky. Check it:

Emma Flod's birfo 195

Lexi took this photo. Doesn’t it have artistic merit? We are both VERY basic people, so we take an inordinate amount of pride in taking a picture that doesn’t make food look like shit on a plate. Verdict? Success!

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (4) »

Do these pickle your fancy?

September 3, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Past successes!, Posted by Biff

Once again I am resting on my laurels, and posting something I made about a year ago.  These pickles used a recipe from ‘Nan’ – not actually my Nan – but my cousin’s Nan (obviously these technicalities are very important to everyone, you are so interested i’m sure).  It’s a tasty, basic pickle recipe, which was good given that this was my first foray into the world of pickles.  I haven’t been back into that world yet – but have been fanatically stockpiling glass jars in the hope i’ll be inspired to ‘create’ more pickles.  The inspiration is yet to come, but it is fun to watch Lexi, who for some reason seems annoyed at my jar collection.

Blogging pictures 164

I gayed up the presentation of these big time with gingham.  Another way I embrace my inner Nanna (and much more successfully than my abortive attempts at knitting).

They are Choko pickles with capsicum, seasoned with curry powder, tumeric and cayenne pepper (and there’s lots of vinegar in there).

I thought they were pretty good, and they made for some easy presents too.

Next is to find a use for the jars – maybe more pickles, or we are tossing up if we could do gauva jam (nice!).

Comments (2) »

Daring Bakers: Dobos Torte

August 30, 2009 · Filed under Daring Bakers!, Food we made, Posted by Biff and Lexi, Recipe

We recently became DARING BAKERS (it sounds more impressive when you capitalise the name).  Basically DARING BAKERS (!) is a group of people who share an interest in baking gorgeous, complicated things.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus:  Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Now, did we tell you it’s complicated? Well, it is. Observe: we cooked the shit out of this baby… a Dobos(h) Torte, basically a finicky sponge cake, with multiple layers of deadly, cholesterol filled chocolate butter cream. Mmmmmmmm (but also – tooooooooo rich, so much so that we were filled with quiet dread at the thought of eating a full piece, let alone going back for seconds). Here is our finished product:

Blogging pictures 004

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (2) »

Cupcake day!

August 23, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Biff, Recipe

Today we attended an RSPCA fundraiser hosted by our good friends Cathy and Andy.  What a day for us!  So many great cupcakes to be tasted, and Lexi with such a tenuous grip on the diabetes free life.  Doctor says he’s gonna take her foot if she don’t stop eatin’ sugar!  Cathy made some spectacular cupcakes and we foolishly did not get a picture of them – but they were sugary and delicious.  Here is a link to Cathy’s blog: http://www.friendswithcandy.com/blog/

I made Lemon Lime Meringue cupcakes.  They were very tasty and looked good (if a little burnt on top).  Blogging pictures 132

The recipe is from ‘500 cupcakes’ by Fergal Connolly (a great book!).

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes

225g Unsalted butter, softened

225 g Caster sugar

225g S.R flour

4 Eggs

1 Tsp Vanilla essence

For the filling

75 ml Lime Juice (I used half lemon half lime)

400 g tin condensed milk

For the Meringue

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

75 g granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 175’C.  Place all cupcake ingredients together in a bowl and beat until smooth and pale (about 2-3 mins).  Spoon the batter in cases and bake for about 20 mins.  Remove tins from the oven and cool for 5 mins – then remove cupcakes and cool on a rack.  For the filling combine the juice and condensed milk in a bowl.  Remove the top of each cupcake and hollow out a small hole.  Spoon the filling into the hold and replace the top.  For the meringue, beat the eggs and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.  Add one third of the sugar and beat for 1 minute.  Repeat until all sugar has been added.  Increase the oven temperature to 230’C.  Spoon or pipe the meringue on top of the cupcakes.  Bake for 5 mins until golden (be careful here – mine were almost burnt within 3 mins).  Store for no more than a day in an airtight container.

Tom made white chocolate and strawberry cupcakes (from the same book).  Lexi and I decorated some of these with a cream cheese and strawberry icing (which was ace).  Blogging pictures 145

Mostly they looked ok, and the cupcakes were very tasty (good work Tom!) – icing very well executed by Lexi.

Blogging pictures 139

Tom decorated some as well, this one is a Cthulhu.  Apparently a Cthulhu is a Lovecraftian horror from beyond time and space.  This doesn’t look horrible though.  Tom made excellent use of Pashmak Persian fairy floss, a house favourite.

Blogging pictures 140

This is another “Tom special” – an Evil Dead cupcake! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

White chocolate and strawberry cupcakes (also a recipe from ‘500 cupcakes’ by Fergal Connolly)

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

225 g unsalted butter, softened

225 g caster sugar

225 g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1 tsp strawberry essence

100 g white chocolate chips

For the icing

200 g cream cheese, softened

175 g icing sugar, sieved

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Strawberries, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 175’C. Place 18 paper baking cases in muffin tins. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs and strawberry essence in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric whisk until light and creamy. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the cases, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the tins from the oven and cool for about 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes to cool on a rack.

To make the icing, beat the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and butter together until smooth and creamy. The longer you beat the mixture, the lighter and creamier it will become. Ice the cupcakes, and decorate with strawberries.

Comments (11) »

Sponge cake: SUCCESS!

August 23, 2009 · Filed under Food we made, Posted by Lexi, Recipe

Oh, how good it is when something actually pans out and is edible! I’ve been honing my sponge cake making skills lately, and this latest one turned out awesomely – it actually rose in the oven, which is not something I can say for past sponge cakes, and it tasted gooooooooooood. Success!

Blogging pictures sponge

This sponge cake recipe is actually my Gran’s, although I made a few changes. She can’t really be arsed separating her egg whites, and she generally fills her sponge with mock cream (gaaah! why would you bother making “cream”, when you can buy real cream, and it actually tastes good!?), and she also uses apricot jam instead of strawberry. I actually really like the flavour of apricot jam in Gran’s sponge, but I really can’t pass up the strawberries and cream alternative when I make my own. Strawberries are really the tastiest of all berries. Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (3) »

« Previous Page — « Previous entries
Next entries » — Next Page »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.