cake and clothes

Spring wedding cake

2010-11-28T16:02:00.000-08:00

hello everyone, i feel like spring is finally here when we made this cake, even though its rainy and 19 degrees outside. This cake will be the final one for this year unfortunately since i'm off to europe and elective until next february. Exciting for me but so many cakes had to be rejected.

So i actually learnt alot making this cake, which has been the source of alot of stress for the last few months. It is a massive cake with 4 tiers, 15", 12", 9" and 6". The 15" was the biggest cake i had ever covered in fondant! I couldn't have done it without Joseph who drilled the boards, Amy, Gen and Jenny for helping me with the sugar roses and Warren and Mat who moved it for me (it weighed about 30kg).
The lessons i learnt were how to make sugar roses (which still look a little like gardenias but thats ok cause i still love gardenias). The sugar roses took us about 4 nights since each layer of petals had to dry overnight before another layer could be added. The second lesson was in regards to my airbrusher, i knew i wanted a hot pink filler flower however i couldn't find the colour anywhere. So thanks to the lovely people at cake decorating central (castle hill and campbelltown) plus a few blogs, i learnt you could make your own, by mixing cake decorators alcohol with wilton colour gel pastes. The risk is, it clogging up your airbrusher however this is easily fixed by passing hot water though it. Anyways i didn't have any problems and the result was perfect since i could get the colour to match the band on the bottom tier. I must also credit planet cake since this was designed based on one of their creations.
So this cake is caramel mud and choc mud with dark choc ganache and fondant. I really hope the bride and groom like it, its so hard since when other clients pick up the cake i can gage their reaction but when i have to drop it off at a venue, i don't know what they think! Let me know what you guys think...

Finally this cake was a small project for my cousin Gen's brother in law's engagement. It was inspired by a faye cahill cake, however i must say the faye cahill cake is 100 times better than mine. But all in all i have learnt from my mistakes in this cake and i hope i can improve on it in the future. Liam and shannon were still very happy with it, which is the main thing. The theme of the engagement was pink paris so i thought this cake fulfilled the brief to a T.

In study land, i have an exam on thursday which is a little stressful since all i can think about in europe! I can't concentrate on any study, so i really hope i pass, otherwise i will be on a jet plane back to remediate (that would really suck). But after that i'm free as a bird, eating macarons in paris, shopping in london and skiing in austria. Just 3 more days...

But i will miss blogging about cakes while i'm gone! So if anyone tries to contact me and i'm MIA, its ok, i'll be back in February hopefully with more cake stories and more cakes to do (oh and passing my degree complaints).
xoxo

1 week 3 cakes

2010-11-01T03:37:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, well the mammoth cake week is over and i have serious withdrawals. I found i got really possessive over the cakes, more than normal!
The cake week started wednesday and finished on friday when all the cakes were delivered.
This cake was for Jenny's sons baptism, it was a banana cake with chocolate ganache finished with a thin layer of fondant. The cube was 8 inches made from 2x 8 inch square banana cakes.

This cake was for my friend Jacki's sister Cath's engagement on the central coast, the eiffel tower is significant to the couple since this was were they got engaged. This was a carrot cake with white chocolate ganache and a thin layer of fondant. THe flower is my terrible attempt at a peony, i really need to learn how to make this flower, its my favourite and it always looks great as a statement flower.

Finally the american flag cake made for Jenny's friend Mez's 30th birthday, which had an americana theme. This cake was a chocolate mud cake with chocolate mud ganache and fondant.

Over all the week was a big success, however i couldn't have done it without my trusty helper Gen who was there every night, and of course my partner in crime jenny who helped on the friday night.
I would also like to say that we have a facebook page called 'i heart cake' so if you haven't already had a look, please check it out and say you like it!
Well in other news i'm doing a psychiatry block at uni which has been a lovely break after the exams. SO this was the planned time to make all these cakes and desserts!
Furthermore europe is only 5 weeks away. I cant wait to eat macarons in paris and pastry's in austria. I tried to book some cooking classes but the timing was never right, which was a shame. However i thought i'd share some good classes which i would have liked to do...
Paris- lenotre school do desserts and macaron classes and they have a very good reputation
London- squires kitchen is the ultimate cake decorating school, i really wanted to go to this kitchen, Eddy Spence who is the ultimate piper (he piped on lady dianna's wedding cake) teaches here, even anna maria at planet cake looks up to eddy spence since he's such a good piper
London- Peggy Porschen's cakes and schools also looks amazing!

i think i may have to come back to europe to attend all these classes. I also saw the Le cordon bleu class in paris which has a professional baking and pastry class. I really think i want to take a year off to learn to bake from the best (and live in paris).

I also booked into planet cake classes for next year which are out. It's better to book early since there is a 10% discount on some of the courses. I can't wait for the springtime cake which i've been talking about for 2 years, and the time has finally come when i get to attend the class! I feel very nervous since this is the class where students have cried, it may be me (crying from excitement).
Anyways more cakes to come, please email me if you want a cake for a special occasion.
xoxo

alice in wonderland cupcakes

2010-10-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

hello everyone, i thought i'd share these cupcakes which i made today. They are for my cousin in law's sister's bridal shower which has an alice in wonderland theme. I actually got the designs from planet cake's class called alice in wonderland cupcakes http://www.planetcake.com.au/courses/classes.php.
I would definitely recommend this class since it is soooo fun and you get to take home 20 amazing cupcakes! Not quite Nigella did this class and you can read all about her experience on her webpage:
http://www.notquitenigella.com/2010/05/05/alice-in-wonderland-cupcakes-10-tips-for-cupcake-decorating-from-planet-cake/
The different cupcakes are:
- alice falling into the hole
- white rabbit
- clock
- mad hatters hat
- teapot
- love hearts
- eat me cupcake
- toadstool
I hope you like them! I used planet cake's vanilla cupcake recipe with white chocolate ganache and bakels fondant.
Well the exciting cake week is coming up, i'm so excited but so nervous at the same time. I will post the results next week, if i'm still able to look at cake.

Well my life is finally back to normal now that exams are over and i hope to be posting alot more frequently (because i hope to be making a lot more cakes). Thanks for reading my blog and i hope you like the pictures! (i really need my boyfriend to start taking the photo's, my old iphone takes pretty bad pictures)
xoxo

its been too long...

2010-10-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

hello everyone, everyone? anyone? since its been so long i hope there is still at least someone who reads my blog.
Well life is so good at the moment, i passed my exams and i can finally bake and decorate again, since these activities have been put on hold for ummm about 6 MONTHS.
So to get everyone up to speed here are a few cakes Jenny, Gen and I have made. Oh i forgot to mention in the time when i was away i started a business with Jenny and Gen, called "I heart cake"
So here is what we have done so far...

Just a note about this cake, its an engagement cake for 2 keen snowboarders and Jenny and I had never made figurines that stand before so it was a challenge! I think they turned out well, go team!

So as soon as the exams finished, my life changed for the better, i went to the snow, the hunter valley for s spa retreat, saw friends again, went shopping, saw movies etc etc
I finally got to do the things that make me happy. I was in such a bubble of exam land, i remember thinking where are all these people going, shouldn't they be studying? oh wait not everyone is studying!
Anyways enough exam talk... more cake talk!

We have 3 cakes coming up which are amazing! An engagement cake for a great friend's sister, Jenny's son Jasper's christening cake and the mighty 4 tiered wedding cake in november with a cascade of sugar roses! I'm actually scared of this cake and i really hope i can do it justice, since the client is an old school friend.

Anyways I will be back soon, since there are so many challenges that face me... croquembouche tower, snow egg and macaroon tower, all this before the 2nd of december when i go to europe!
See you all soon (really soon i hope) xoxo

warren's- pretty vintage cupcakes

2010-06-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

hello everyone, hope all is well. So much is happening today- first mat and i are going to yum cha (zilver in chinatown) this is one of my favourite yum cha resturants. Then i have my hoc mai interview! Hoc mai is a foundation that works between vietnam and australia to provide medical learning between the two countries. They offer scholarships for students, allied health and doctors to travel between these two countries for medical training. I really hope i get a scholarship to do my elective in vietnam, so anyways thats what the hoc mai schorlarship interview is today! Finally my day will end with a drive back to lithgow for more GP learning. But in more interesting news- i made cupcakes last night with gen for her boyfriend warren!
We hope the ladies at ING direct like them! let me know what you think...
I always love making pretty cupcake and i think the gold really saved these cupcakes because before we made them gold they didnt pop. Furthermore the lace piping was a nightmare! it was so time consuming and they didnt look nice until we painted it gold. anyways until next time, i wonder what i can make next?

wine bottle cake

2010-06-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

hello everyone, well there was sucess, we made a 3D wine bottle cake! before anything more is said, i must thank my trusty cousin and excellent helper genevieve, and my new found cake buddy sharon wee (from sharon wee creations http://www.sharonwee.com.au/) who is an amazing commercial cake decorator.

Here's the story of how the wine bottle cake almost gave me a heart attack...

The first difficult decision was how big the cake was going to be, in the end the cake stood 20 inches high and 5 inches wide. this was very difficult for transportation from earlwood to helensburgh!
I ended using 2x choc mud and 2x orange blossom cake to make the bulk of the bottle, the top was carved out of styro. Each cake was ganached individually then stacked with a centre pole and dowels then reganached to smooth any rough edges. Black fondant was used (which i officially hate, no more cakes in black or red, i know how many times have i said that?) which was then airbrushed black and glazed with tart glaze. Then the label was printed on edible paper with edible ink and the cap was made from red fondant also.

The cake was for my boyfriend mat's brother michael and dad- fred's birthdays. It was a hit, everyone loved the cake and i was pretty pleased with all the hard work gen and i had put in (9 hours in total from bake to finish).

Let me know what you think...

until next time... i'm making some cupcake this weekend, so lets see how they turn out!

xoxo

My dream come true and a toolbox cake

2010-06-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! well so much cake and so little time, really there is not enough hours in the day to make cakes and study, so i always chose make cakes! Over the last 2 weeks i've made 2 cakes- a toolbox and toolbelt for a carpenter and a twilight cake for mat's nieces (twins).

The toolbox cake was designed for my friend kylee who i haven't spoken or seen since high school, but thanks to facebook she was able to track me down and look at previous cakes i'd made. Her brother's 30th was the occasion for the toolbox cake. All the tools were made out of chocolate then painted silver and red fondant was used to create handles.

I actually really wish i could make kylee's wedding cake but she's getting married in bali, which will be beautiful!

The biggest challenge with this cake was creating a wood look with the fondant. It's very effective and i found if you marble the fondant first then brush it over with brown, it really looks like wood.

The other challenge with this cake was the red colour, i promised after this cake i would only ever make white or ivory cakes since i think i hurt my shoulder kneading all that icing. Furthermore the icing was then very soft and hard to manage. To make red or black i actually make it a few days before i need to use it, this gives it some time to harden and even after i did this, the icing was still very soft and difficult to manage. I used 50% bakels RTR fondant mixed with 50% cake art colour sausages plus wilton colour paste and icing sugar to get the bright red and black colours. There is a lot of kneading. But i must admit, red does look amazing. So after swearing to never colour icing again, my next challenge was a twilight cake which was black!

The day mat's sister asked me to make the twins birthday cake was the day my dreams came true. I am a twi hard looking for an occasion to make a twilight cake! what better occasion than a 14th birthday party for twins!

I love this cake, the inspiration came from the twilight book covers, the apple from twilight, the parrot tulip from new moon, broken ribbon from eclipse and the board and chess pieces from breaking dawn. I really enjoyed making this cake and i really wish i could make it for my birthday but i think it's more age appropriate for a 14th birthday rather than a 25th birthday!

Once again colouring icing hurt my shoulder- this time i had to take nurofen. I really hate dark colours! At least i always have help- my trusty helper genevieve. I really couldn't have made these cakes without her. I've decided decorating is much more fun with a friend, even if it's just for moral support.

I also got to use my airbrusher for this cake (on the parrot tulips) and i just love airbrushing!

So apart from making cakes, i also talk about cakes. Today i went to a planet cake focus group to provide feedback on their courses. All i could say was how much i loved their courses and they are the best decorating school i've been to. I always love going to PC even if i'm not in a course. I am looking forward to my next course, i want to do the novelty castle. I'm also waiting to do springtime- i love this cake. Check out the PC website for course details, you wont regret it!

So apart from making and talking about cakes, i've been feeling very guilty about study. So i better go and try and do some before bed... oh what a lie i'm going to bed, i'll do some study tomorrow!

Next cake challenge is next week, i wonder if i can make a 3D wine bottle... stay tuned (and wish me luck)

xoxo

planet cake lace piping and basics 104

2010-05-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

hello everyone, well so much has happened in the world of cake decorating for me in the past few weeks. Firstly i attended planet cake's basics 104 which as always was the best day of my life! We made the 3 tiered cake with orchids and a twist. It was a great class since we learnt so much such as how to set up a centre pole and how to make sugar orchids. Here is my cake...

A few weeks later i was back at PC for specialty lace piping. This was by far the best course i have taken at PC. I learnt so much and definitely left, feeling like i could pipe on a wedding cake! So if anyone needs a wedding cake with piping, please let me know, cause i really really want to make one now!

We worked on many skills in this course such as transferring an image to a cake, brush embroidery, pressure piping, colouring and making royal icing, covering styrofoam (the cake is actually styro), making a monogram but above all the most valuable lesson was confidence in myself that i could do it!

Here are a few things i piped. Let me know which one is your favourite.

All in all i had such a great time, the last photo is of my class, everyone's cake was amazing! It was so much fun and i really love piping. I always thought piping is a skill which only practice can make prefect. I also think it separates good cake decorators from amazing cake decorators. There are so many tricks to avoid piping, but in the end piping makes for such a nice cake. I can definitely do with more practice but maybe in about 30 years (time for loads of practice but before the geriatric shakes come) i can be as good as anna maria (my PC teacher and piping goddess).

More cakes, more clothes and 3 birthday's

2010-05-11T02:47:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, well so much has happened since i am so lazy and update this blog every 2 months! I wish i was like liebe and updated every few days, but med doesn't permit it (oh who am i kidding, it's not like i'm studying, instead i've been baking and shopping!)

So this first cake was a carrot cake with white chocolate ganache, made for my friend annaleise for her 30th birthday. I wanted to make a contemporary but pretty cake, so i opted to attempt hand painted swirls. The effect was nice however i still need to find a way to make it look neater and more like a printed finish rather than clumsy.

These birthday cupcakes were for my cousin and best friend amy. The 50's inspired ice cream parlor cupcakes with fondant cherry's were inspired by hello naomi's designs which are very girly and retro. Hello Naomi is a company out of newcastle who make really cute cupcakes for all occasions, i highly recommend her, her designs are like no other and very cute.

The third birthday is my own! These pictures were taken at high tea at the observatory hotel, kent st sydney. The observatory high tea was the best high tea i've had in sydney. It beats the tea room in QVB and the victoria room in darlinghurst. I loved the atmosphere, the staff but the best thing were the sandwiches, i even asked for more! For $49 per person, high tea was served with 3 finger sandwiches, fruit and plain scones, cupcakes, pannacotta, chocolate layer cake, fruit tart the list goes on. Furthermore i asked for an iced tea (since it was a very hot day) and got the best iced tea ever, the lady made it for me (it wasnt even on the menu) but it was amazing.

Finally there are these 2 dresses which i love. Both are 3.1 phillip lim, i ended up getting them from the LA store since they are ridiculously expensive in sydney. I love the sequins on this dress and the style was very flattering, it actually looks much better on a person than on the rack.

The first one will be worn at my birthday party this weekend, i will post up more pics and cake pics then, since i am doing planet cake 104 this weekend. I am so excited, i feel like i haven't been to PC in ages. The second dress was just for work and weekends, i love the scalloped edging on the sleeves, they remind me of when chloe did scalloped shorts and blouses. I love phillip lim but sorry phil chloe is still my favourite designer. If only i could afford it...

Anyways just a quick post since i have a sticky date pudding in the oven and some butterscotch sauce won't make itself.

Until next time,

xoxo

ps do people read my blog?

Jenny's baby shower cake

2010-03-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

hello everyone, yesterday was my cake buddy jenny's baby shower and i had the privilege of making her baby shower cake. We decided to go for a 2 tiered (9" round and 6" round) orange and poppyseed cake with dark chocolate ganache covered in a thin layer of fondant. The design was inspired by my favourite cake decorator- faye cahill (http://www.fayecahill.com.au/Childrens/childrens.htm). If you haven't seen her website yet, i definitely recommend it, she has the most amazing cakes and classes also. I want my wedding cake from faye. Anyways here is my attempt (which is no were near as good as what you can buy from faye cahill), but i was happy with it and i know jenny loved it- which is most important.

I've decided the thing i love most about cake decorating is people's reactions towards the cake. I love making them also but it's the people who i share the cake with, which make me enjoy it the most.

In total the cake took me 7 hours to decorate (not including baking time).

The lesson i learnt from this cake were the polka dots. I always thought polka dots were randomly dotted onto a cake, however even randomness needs planning. To get the polka dot effect i marked where the dots would go with my quilting ruler (which marks out 1 inch squares). It was really important to do this to get the polka dots looking nice and in the right place.

I have 2 more cakes coming up which i am very excited about- one for my cousin's girlfriend which is a tiffany box cake and the other for my friend annaleise's 30th birthday. There is just so much happening in the land of cake decorating!

venetians- possibly better than arnotts

2010-03-24T01:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone it's been so long since i've posted, sorry if there is anyone out there who follows by blog- please be someone...

Anyways last night i decided i really wanted to try this recipe from the womens weekly called vanilla and current cookies with a frosting. I then realised they were my favourite biscuit in the world (well favourite packet biscuit which are arnotts venetians). The other reason i decided to make them was because they remind me of broken hill (especially of min who also has a love for venetians). So here is my recipe (actually stolen from the womens weekly and since it was so perfect- i didn't modify them). The only thing i would have done differently was to make then thinner so they are cruncher rather than a soft cookie (which is what happened to mine).

Christines (stolen from the womens weekly) venetians:

Ingredients:

Cookie:

125g butter softened

splash vanilla essence

165g castor sugar

1 egg

300g self raising flour

40g desiccated coconut

40g dried currents

Icing:

240g pure icing sugar

splash vanilla essence

1.5 teaspoons butter softened

splash of milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius fan forced, line a cookie tray with gladbake.

Cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla essence till light and fluffy in a mixer.

Add flour and mix with a wooden spoon till incorporated- it will look like a cookie dough.

Add coconut and currents and mix to combine.

Roll into small balls (about a tablespoon) and flatten onto tray (make then quite thin if you want them crispy and thicker if you want a chewy cookie).

Bake for about 12 minutes or until lightly brown.

Prepare icing:

Add the butter and vanilla to the icing and mix with a fork till it looks crumbly. Add milk until a very thick paste forms.

Using a double boiler technique (like melting chocolate), melt the icing till its spreadable.

Spread over cookies and let the icing set and the cookie cool.

Enjoy them with a cup of tea or coffee or on its own as i did!

Anyways i plan on posting a lot more since i am making a baby shower cake this weekend for my cake buddy jenny (pressure's on since she is an amazing cake decorator also). So stay tuned for me baby shower cake which i am very excited about.

I also thought i'd post pics from christmas of the gingerbread house i made and the christmas cupcakes which were a red velvet cupcake with white chocolate ganache covered in thin fondant. It was so much fun making the gingerbread house but for next time i will remember to make it shorter (since it almost toppled over- the first thing i said on christmas morning was 'is it still standing'). The recipe for the gingerbread was perfect for the house since it was a firm cookie from bourke st bakery's cookbook. Oh how i loved christmas...

The aftermath- once kids see sweets...

The cupcakes-

The Lava Cake Challenge

2010-02-01T03:00:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, i'm back from holidays and already back at uni. So as you know i am very good at blogging when uni is back since blogging is a great form of procrastination. So instead of reading up on medical things i decided it would be my (and my friend lauren's) mission to perfect the lava cake (aka fondant cake, chocolate souffle etc). It all started not so long ago (last night) when lauren told me about the most delicious dessert ever called the Lava Cake. She has been trying to perfect this recipe also with the main problems being:

1) over or under cooking the cake

2) the cake being stuck to the ramekin

3) it being so delicious the baker would eat the batter raw hence there would be nothing to bake

So i warn you, bake this recipe a few time before presenting it at a dinner party since everyone's oven is different and the times can definitely vary. For example we tried this recipe last night in jacki's oven and after 10 mins it was too runny it oozed all over the board, so we ended up scrapping it up and rebaking it (which worked surprisingly). We baked it for another 10 mins to have it overcooked. The other reason i take this challenge is- even if the cake is under or over baked it is still delicious, therefore it is never a let down.

So tonight i tried again and after 2 attempts i think i am closer to the perfect lava cake.

Attempt number 1 was foiled because i bought milk instead of dark chocolate (really silly mistake), then to add salt to the wound i overbaked it (again). The second attempt was much better, my lovely boyfriend went to woolworths to buy me the right chocolate (dark) and so begins attempt number 2. Here is the recipe for attempt number 2...

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate

120g butter (unsalted) at room temp and diced

3 eggs

70g castor sugar

60g plain flour

Method:

Preheat over to 190 degrees fan forced. Over a double boiler melt the chocolate. Add the butter to the chocolate and stir until it is mixed in and smooth.

Beat 3 eggs and the sugar in a mixer until the mixture is light in colour and texture. Add the plain flour to the egg and sugar mixture. Ensure the chocolate mix is cooled and add it to the egg mix.

Stir with a spatula to combine and pour into moulds. I used silicon molds and i found they were great (once you go silicon you can't go back), however lauren's dad and lauren both use ramekins and they swear by ramekins, so i guess it's personal preference. I baked 6 at a time for 10 minutes then i let it stand till it was cool, before removing from the moulds. Cut and watch the oozing lava flow then enjoy.

This is what they looked like when i took them out of the oven, they seem very undercooked but if you let them cool in the moulds they continue to cook to perfection (hopefully).

This was the one perfect lava cake (1 out of 6) (lauren this ones for you)

So this recipe is really easy the hardest part is the baking, you want the cake to be cooked on the outside but raw on the inside (to be the sauce). It's tricky since if it's overcooked it's just a cake (no lava) but if it's undercooked it won't come out of the moulds in one piece. It might be easier to make it a big cake (as in bake it in a cake tin) since it's harder to overbake it (kind of like a raw cake which we've all done). Anyways mine are still far from perfect, i only had one perfect one out of 6 so there is still plenty of work to be done!

Until next time xoxo

bourke st bakery sausage rolls

2009-12-22T01:26:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, hope everyone is well. Holidays have been great, my life has consisted of friends, gossip girl and baking. Having said that christmas shopping has sent me broke and a japan trip is fast approaching. So after trying the bourke st bakery in marrickville (i think it's quite new, it opened on mitchell st) i decided to attempt this recipe from the bourke st bakery baking bible. This cookbook has changed my life, i love everything about it from the delicious recipes to the handy hints, even the pics are mouthwatering. This recipe is for pork and fennel sausage rolls and the first time i ever had them was at danielle's kitchen tea (my partner in crime Tors made them). They were amazing so i then went to the actual bakery and the rest is history (ie i made them). Here is the recipe i used (i am ashamed to say i did not make the puff pastry- i know, i feel guilty but pampas is good and puff pastry is a nightmare).

Pork and fennel sausage rolls

Ingredients

6 garlic cloves through a garlic crusher

40g fennel seeds chopped

4 thyme sprigs

150g onion chopped finely

150g celery chopped finely (boiled till soft)

150g carrots chopped finely (boiled till soft)

1.2kg pork mince

40g bread crumbs

20g salt

15g white pepper

puff pastry

egg wash for brushing- 1 egg and milk

Method

Heat some oil in a frying pan and brown the garlic, onion, thyme and fennel seeds. Add the cooked celery and carrots to the frying pan. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

In a large bowl add the mince, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and cooled vegetables.

Cut the pastry in half and put the meat into a log in the middle, fold the pastry over and secure tightly (you can use some egg wash to secure it). Cut the log into smaller pieces and egg wash the top (this ensure it will turn a lovely brown colour). Line a baking tray with foil (or baking paper) and bake in a 190 degree oven for 20 mins (or until the tops are brown and "oozing with goodness")

The dress i am wearing is by Florent. I bought this dress in kyoto japan last year and i still love it. I know every dress i write about is "my favourite" and "i love it" but this one has been my favourite for the longest time and i really do love it! There is a Florent store in tokyo, we tried to go last time but they were closed over new years, so this trip will definitely involve a post about florent.

Other things that have happened this week include a wedding- my friend danielle's. It was the first time i was a bridesmaid and i had such a lovely day- tiring but lovely. Danielle looked amazing and Ian was so proud. Danielle's dress was by Steven Khalil in Paddington sydney. The dress was made of fine tulle with polka dots. The cake was made by sweet art and was amazing- i hope to be that good one day. The bridesmaid dresses were created by Leonie Grace. It was a perfect day for danielle and i think the wedding was completely her- elegant and contemporary.

Congratulations danielle and ian, xoxo

Halfway to an Alannah Hill catalogue

2009-12-04T23:54:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone sorry it's been so long since my last post, silly exams took over my life but now they are over and i am ready for a summer of blogging, shopping and baking. To finish stage 2 there was a halfway dinner which i helped organise with my trusty friend Sam. The night was a complete success with 170 guests at the tea room QVB.

We celebrated the end of an era since we've all split up now into our allocated clinical schools. The best thing about stage 2 for me was my study group (which are the girls featured in these photo's). I really couldn't have passed osce (and hopefully barrier) without them. My biggest piece of advice to anyone starting med at sydney university is to find a good study group, they will become your best friends and remind you, you're not alone even when you feel like you're the only one who has given up life for med. So here are the pictures, i hope you enjoy them, all 3 girls are dressed in Alannah Hill and i am dressed in my 500 days of summer dress.

The 500 days of summer dress was in the wedding scene when summer attend's Millie's wedding. In the movie it was made by western costume, but i had it made by Ophelia Belle in Enmore. She did and amazing job i was so happy with it, it's my own perfect summer dress!

My 3 greatest friends are wearing Alannah Hill dresses, Bek and Jac also have on alannah hill shoes while Lauren is wearing mollini. We all got our hair done at elevation hair in Glebe, on Glebe point road.

Picture of the high ceiling in the tea room QVB. They are such a wonderful company, so professional and everything ran so smoothly. The food was also amazing, would be a great venue for a wedding.

So the plan for this summer is to bake and shop, bake and shop! I have the Bourke St bakery cookbook at hand and i will be attempting croissants next week, so make sure you stay turned to see how they turn out! Furthermore japan and china is coming up (we leave on the 1/1/10) so i will be sure to post all my purchases (modeled hopefully like liebemarlene).

I would also like to thanks Topshop and Incu since i won 2 tickets to london for shopping at Topshop about Incu on oxford st sydney. Topshop is a UK brand which has finally reached our shores thanks to Incu (my other favourite shop). So i'll have alot of fashion to talk about in the coming year!

Yay i feel so free, it's finally hit me that exams are over and i have just under 2 months to do other things i really enjoy- like blog, bake and shop.

merry christmas, i love it when they start putting up trees and christmas lights

xoxo

Me and Matty

Danielle's Kitchen Tea

2009-11-08T02:38:00.000-08:00

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

Cath's Tiffany box cake

2009-11-01T00:11:00.000-07:00

Hello again, sorry it's been so long since i've posted anything but the jacaranda's are out and that can only mean one thing- exams!

However amongst all the stress of the big barrier, jack, em and i were able to find some time to make a cake for jack's sister Cath. We decided on a tiffany box, which has always been my favourite cake to make and eat! We used a carrot and walnut cake with white chocolate ganache and covered with fondant.

Studying is the perfect time to fill your brain with lots of useless knowledge since google is a great tool for procrastination. I learnt all about new TV shows i'd like to watch, what's new at modcloth, urban outfitters and of course i check liebemarlene's blog religiously. My friend bek and i decided after studying so hard, we should reward ourselves with a modcloth shipping, we love mail (especially from modcloth), i will post pictures when we receive it. So some of my recent purchases have been a lovely dress with velvet hearts against a shear navy, but my most exciting purchase which will soon be complete is my 500 days of summer dress which i'm getting made!

Ophelia Belle in enmore is amazing and she is going to replicate the 500 days of summer dress that Summer wears to Millie's wedding. I was so excited, since i fell in love with this dress at first sight! I have a calico fitting next saturday so i'll be sure to let you know how it goes. I have spent alot of time googling this dress (37 pages of google images on numerous occasions)! I love it!

So another way to procrastinate is to make invites for a kitchen tea! My friend danielle is getting married in december and together with Tors we are going to hold the perfect kitchen tea. Here are the invites i made, with a cute little key ring whisk! The idea actually started when i googled kitchen tea invites and found some really cute ones which were wrapped around a miniature rolling pin, however the crap shop i went to didn't have mini rolling pins so i opted for the whisk option. The paper is from amazing paper in newtown which is another one of my favourite shops which i can spend hours in. This place is truely amazing and a nightmare for indecisive people such as myself! woolworths is also an indecisive person's nightmare (maltersers of peanut m&m's????)

Anyways better run, damn you neuro, i wish i could bake, blog and shop all day, that would really be the perfect life, oh well it just means i get to enjoy it even more in december after the barrier!

xoxo (i also love gossip girl)

breakfast in the Hunter

2009-10-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

Lovely scenic pictures of the hunter valley, just outside the best winery- scarborough's (well according to my friends anyways, considering i didn't try any!)

The BEST study group ever (and the best friends ever, lauren should also be in this picture)
The boys and the girls on john's farm.

I was very lucky last weekend when i was invited by a few friends to a farm in the hunter valley. The hunter is an area full of wineries and cheese but more than that, it's picturesque. I took so many pictures, got to feed cows and ride on a quad bike (this was the highlight of my trip).

My friend jacki driving a quad bike in a blazer, such city people, feels like flying.

This is me feeding C5 (named by Tim), these are angus beef cows.

I must admit i was a little hesitant to go since i don't drink nor do i eat cheese, but i am very glad i went since we made a breakfast fit for a king! With the help of my trusty friends bek and jack, we whipped up some corn fritters and pancakes. The corn fritters were inspired by bills in sydney. Ours weren't quite as good but i think they came pretty close (i find that with a lot of my recipes). So here is the recipe for the corn fritters which we served with smoked salmon or bacon, baby spinach and an avocado, tomato salsa.

Ingredients for corn fritters:

4 cobs of corn

2 rashes of bacon (chopped finely)

1 onion (chopped finely)

1 cup self raising flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon baking powder

salt to flavour

Method:

Boil the corn to cook it.

Remove the kernels from the cob using a knife.

Pan fry the bacon and onion until golden and crisp.

In a bowl, add the flour, baking powder, eggs and milk, whisk together. Add the cooked corn, bacon and onion and mix until combined.

Heat a frying pan, ensure it is non stick or use oil. Pan fry the fritters, similarly to a pancake. Keep them all in the oven till they are ready to be served.

Salsa: chop up avocado and tomato's finely, mix with some lemon juice and sea salt.

Serve the fritters with smoked salmon or crispy bacon, salsa and baby spinach.

Yi's (vietnamese for aunty's) chicken ragout

2009-10-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

Hello again, sorry it's been a while between posts, uni has started up again. This recipe is a traditional vietnamese recipe with a big french influence. I am vietnamese and i decided it was time to learn some of the recipe's i grew up eating such as this ragout. It's quite a watery stew with chicken, carrot and potato mainly in a tomato based soup. I hope you try it out, it is very easy and delicious for dinner, make a bit extra and have it for lunch also cause it heats up perfectly. I think as with most stews, it will taste better the next day when the ingredients have really had a chance to mesh and marinate. Here's the recipe

Ingredients:

10 chicken drumsticks (cut into half, remove skin)

garlic (crushed)

2 onions (diced)

4 large potatoes (peeled and chopped)

2 carrots (peeled and chopped)

400ml coconut juice

4 tablespoons tomato paste

300mL chicken stock

salt and pepper

chicken stock powder (optional)

Method:

Marinate the chicken with garlic, chicken stock, salt, onion and pepper. Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes-1 hour.

In a pan, fry half the garlic and 1 chopped onion until it smells nice. The add the marinated chicken to seal the chicken (it doesn’t have to be cooked yet, just sealed). Add the tomato paste and the coconut juice to the chicken and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

In another deep pot, fry the rest of the garlic and onion, then add the potatoes and carrots. Pan fry for about 5 minutes until the potatoes are sealed then add the chicken stock.

Add the juices from the chicken to the potato pot and let the potatoes cook for 20 minutes until they are soft.

Add the semi cooked chicken to the pot and simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes (check to see the chicken and potatoes are both cooked). Add salt and pepper to taste (shouldn’t really need much as the chicken stock is already salty and the coconut juice is already sweet). If there is not enough juices add more chicken stock. Simmer for another 10 minutes with the lid of, redo a flavour check may need more salt, pepper).

Serve with crispy toast or rice.

It's a very versatile recipe since you can add whatever vegetable you fancy, it's even nice with beans! I hope you try it and let me know what you think. xoxo

bakeathon on labour day- oatmeal sandwich cookie and craisin, white choc and coconut slice

2009-10-05T01:27:00.001-07:00

Today was a public holiday in sydney so i decided to take a day off from study and bake! With the help of my trusty cousins- Amy and Linh we baked oatmeal sandwich biscuits with a cream cheese frosting and craisin, coconut, white chocolate slice (it is similar to a brownie). The recipes we used were modified from annies-eats.com (a US blogger who i hope to be like one day, she is already a doctor and has a successful food blog). The oatmeal sandwich cookie was inspired by buppa's bakehouse's credit crunch cookie which is hands down my favourite cookie, please go to this bakehouse in newtown (king st) it is amazing. They specialise in homestyle american treats. Their credit crunch cookie is still better but mine are still delicious! here is the recipe

Oatmeal sandwich cookie with cream cheese frosting

ingredients

250g butter (cut up into cubes)

1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

dash of vanilla essence

1 and 3/4 cups of plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup crushed walnuts

1/2 cup white choc bits

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Beat together butter, sugar till creamy. Then add eggs and vanilla essence and beat till smooth. In another bowl sift flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix till combined. Fold in rolled oats, walnuts and white choc bits. Use your hands to mix until well combined, roll into balls and press onto baking paper lined baking tray. Balls should be about the size of a golf ball (like a meatball), make sure there is plenty of room on the baking tray since they will melt down and spread out, if they are too close together they will become one big biscuit. Bake for 8-10 minutes, allow to cool before you move them as they will crack. If you want they chewier bake them for less time, if you want harder biscuits bake them for longer, for the sandwich cookies i think they should be baked for 10 minutes, this makes it easier to sandwich them.

Cream cheese frosting: this is to go between the cookies to make the sandwich

In a food processor, blend 250g cream cheese (like Philadelphia cheese) until smooth, add 1 bag of icing sugar (500g), and blend well, add a dash of lemon juice (to your liking) and process it all in the food processor till smooth. Most recipes will tell you to sift the icing sugar and you probably should but i'm lazy and hate sifting so i just added it straight from the bag, it was still smooth (maybe beginners luck!).

Once the cookies have cooled spread the cream cheese frosting and sandwich the cookies.

I hope you try these and let me know how i can improve on them but i really love them, they are the closest thing to the real buppa's bakehouse credit crunch cookie!

Craisin, white choc and coconut slice

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour

pinch of salt

8 tablespoons of melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

dash vanilla essence

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup craisins

1/2 cup white choc bits

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius. Line a baking tin with baking paper.

In a large bowl combine combine the flour and salt. In another bowl beat sugar with melted butter till mixed then add egg and beat till lighter in colour and smooth. Add the vanilla essence and mix. Add the flour mix to the butter mix and stir to combine. Add the coconut, craisins and white chocolate bits and mix till combined. Transfer to the baking pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, do not over bake, the mix will still feel soft to touch but maybe golden in colour.

Once it's cooled drizzle with melted white choc and cut into slices.

This recipe is modified from annies eats under the chewy coconut chocolate chunk blondies, but we made it with white choc and added craisins. Thanks annie!

All in all today was a successful day of baking which ended with a movie. We rented 'the quiet' possibly the worse movie ever, we should have known when we rented it, even the rental shop owner said he'd never heard of this movie before! There is a reason, it was crap! But the cookies and slice made the movie durable. Enjoy, xoxo

ps the dress i'm wearing is my new marc by marc jacobs emi dress in smoky amethyst from saks fifth ave (they post internationally!), it was inspired by 500 days of summer. My favourite colour is now blue and the eyelet lace is beautiful in this dress. It is so simple but perfect for baking and hospital days. I loved the frill neckline and the little puffy sleeves. The other picture is zooey deschanel from 500 days of summer, the inspiration for this dress.

planet cake pretty cupcakes

2009-10-02T19:23:00.001-07:00

Thursday was the best day ever at planet cake. I did a pretty cupcakes course and it was amazing, so relaxing with an amazing end product. The class was $400 for the day which includes lunch and was held at the planet cake showroom in balmain sydney. This was my 6th planet cake class and i think it was my favourite- perfect for beginners (as my friend emily was) or the more experienced decorator. Here are some pictures of my cupcakes! I really hope someone's birthday is coming up so i can make more cupcakes!

It really would be a dream of mine to own a shop selling cakes and clothes but i have chosen another path, maybe when i'm older and have done the whole med thing and wanting to retire with cakes and clothes! (even though by then i think i'll own an old ladies shop). It's so difficult to know what to do for a career since you have so many choices and they all seem amazing, let alone all so different. I think thats why life is so long, then you can do everything!

I hope these cupcakes inspire you to go bake and maybe do a planet cake course, i went from no hobby to addicted to cake decorating! It's a really good distraction from study, speaking of which better go study now, speak soon xoxo

raspberry brownies from donna hay

2009-10-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

Hello again, 2 nights ago i had an urge to bake and since i was at my boyfriends house (which has no cookbooks) i decided to buy the donna hay books. They had an amazing recipe for brownies which i decided to add some raspberries to. I followed the recipe exactly and and it was looking good till i burnt them! i way overcooked them so they became more like a dry cake than moist, fudgey brownies. My boyfriend ate them none the less and said he loved them! there you go donna hay rules (even when they're burnt!), i must say i burnt them since i overcooked them, the recipe would have been perfect otherwise. here are some pictures of the end result. i don't know what's come over me, maybe it's a big process of procrastination but i love to cook! It's been a really good holiday and before uni starts again i think i'll let myself slide into a no study vacation! But as soon as i get back things will change.

picture of my cakes so far

2009-09-30T03:51:00.000-07:00

these are my cakes so far!

welcome to my blog

2009-09-30T03:37:00.000-07:00

Since reading so many great blogs i decided to start this one to talk about my love for baking, cake decorating and of course clothes. At the moment my style icon is zooey deschanel (along with many other bloggers), i loved 500 days of summer and apart from the storyline which i loved, the wardrobe, hair and her apartment were amazing. Recently i have posted many items for sale on ebay to make room for my shopping from the US! can't wait i think i love shopping online cause i love getting mail! anyways tomorrow is pretty cupcakes at planet cake and i'll be posting pictures of that soon.

A bit about me, i live in sydney which is a lovely city but sometime i feel like it's so small in the scheme of the things, i would love to move to a larger city one day such as london or new york. I am currently studying at sydney uni to be a doctor and i find cakes and clothes are my distraction from study! Don't get me wrong i love that i'm going to be a doctor in a few years it's just nice to know there are other things i enjoy in life such as baking and shopping!

So stay tuned and i'll keep you posted on cakes and clothes!