Danielle's Kitchen Tea

Hi everyone, today was my friend's kitchen tea which i had been organising for the last 3 days. It's been a really nice break from study (or an excellent form of procrastination since i was very busy and didn't even think of my exams). Preparation started on the thursday and continued till today, i ended up making trifle, cake, cupcakes, scones, chocolate tarts, ice cream cake and iced tea! But i think the highlight was definitely the teapot cake. The cake was supplied by mondo and i turned 2 9"round cakes into a teapot cake with chocolate ganache. The night was a success, team Tors and Christine (me) worked so well since Tors made all the savory (sausage rolls, finger sandwiches, quiche and little tartlets) while i made all the sweet!

I must admit i had a lot of help from my trusty friends jenny, gen and emily! i really couldn't have done it without you guys.

There's so much to say since these 3 days have been so busy, so sorry if this post makes no sense since i jump from one thing to another.

Scones

These scones were made based on the recipe from joyofbaking.com, it's a really good recipe for moist scones which i served with whipped cream and Hanks triple berry jam.

Actually i forgot i had clotted cream also which is still in Danielle's fridge.

Here's the recipe

ingredients:

2 cups self raising flour

50 grams caster sugar

pinch of salt

80 grams cold butter (chopped)

1 egg

dash of vanilla extract

120 ml fresh cream

Method:

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the cold butter and using your hands combine the butter through the flour so that it's a crumb consistency (like making pastry). In a separate bowl mix the egg with the cream and vanilla extract. Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix until just combined. On a floured surface kneed the dough until the dough is even (do not over kneed). Cut into circles with a cookie cutter (about 2-3cm thick). Bake in a 180 degree over for about 15 mins until they are browned and a skewer comes out clean.

Serve with whipped cream and jam

These scones can be reheated in a microwave before serving to make them super moist and warm, a must for high tea!

Chocolate tarts

These tarts are amazing, i think i ate about 10 (they are small). The finishing touch is definitely the raspberry, it cuts through the sweetness with some sourness and it's perfect. The cases were bought from southern cross suppliers in camperdown, however pampas shortcrust pastry makes a perfect tart also. The chocolate filling is so simple:

Heat 150ml cream and 150ml water is a saucepan till boiling. Add to 300g couverture chocolate (use nice chocolate, it does make a big difference) and whisk to combine, the hot cream/water will melt the chocolate and form a glossy ganache.

These tarts were definitely my favourite, if i was on ready steady cook i would make this as my quickie bag! (actually i was on ready steady cook but not as a cook so i didn't get a quickie bag but that's a whole nother story).

The teapot cake

This cake is to date my favourite cake! I love dark blue with brown. I couldn't have done it without emily and jenny, you guys are the best. Everytime i start a cake i always stress, so on thursday i was stressing, however jenny and emily were nearby to remind me it's just a cake. The best thing for me about this cake was the fact that i put a center pole down the middle. I have never done a center pole on my own and was very proud of myself for drilling and glueing! The brown snail trail is piped royal icing, the ribbon is from amazing paper in enmore. The inspiration for this cake came from the invite. I tried to make navy (which is quite difficult to make) since i ended up with teal (really stupidly, because i added all the navy blue colour to jade icing, even a 5 year old could tell you navy and green make teal!) Let me know what you guys think,

So that's enough about cakes, time to move onto clothes. This week's favourite item is my new ebay dress! I got mat to take a picture of me posing like liebemarlene, what do you think? did i get the pose right? I love the hearts on this dress!

My friend bek and i really love this girl's blog, check it out if you haven't read it, even the picture are amazing! Speaking of picture, i am a really bad photographer i can only shoot on auto (you can tell the pictures i took compared to the ones mat took)- he can shoot on manual. Anyways i look to liebemarlene and hope one day my pics will look that good, in the mean time all i can do is copy her poses.

Anyway better go to bed now, tomorrow is back to study day. The fun is over i am dead to the world until after the 1st of december, but then after that all i will be doing is baking, blogging and shopping!

xoxo