January

Originally uploaded by fifikins

Yes, this year’s project! I have eaten very well this month!

I am finding the difference between this project and the twitter365 project of last year is that this year I am taking more photos and finding it hard to choose which one to post at times!

@scarletwords’s Peanut Butter Cup cookies

Originally uploaded by fifikins

Yep, perhaps a picture does tell a thousand words! Well a blog post can!

Remember those chain letters you got as a child… choose 3 friends and pass it on? Well I feel this is kinda like a blog version! The amazing Scarletwords got it from Married/Single Parent and now you can get it from me! But make sure you tell these two wonderful bakers that you baked it! Oh and then blog it and link it back or something. Or not! You choose!

[edit: Oh and I don't plan on eating them all! I was going to take them to a South African Braai (barbecue) tomorrow but the braai has been cancelled so we are taking them to the mental health crisis team who have to work.]

I am home, but there may be another post about that! When we arrived I was very good- I unpacked and threw all clothes into the washing machine… well I have done 2 of 4 loads! I then placed all souvenirs on the Dining Room table to sort through. I then went and got some bread, milk and tonic water and the mail.

And I got an awesome surprise– a package all the way from Finland!

Way back when (I can now say last year as it has taken me a few days to get this post done with jetlag and all) I signed up for Blogging by Mail hosted by the lovely Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness. I bundled up a package for Napur and sent it to St Louis. My packaged arrived just after we left on our trip and comes from Eeva-Maija of SUKLAASYDÄN.

And I have been truly indulged! See:

The candles are just fantastic- look at the colours and how they are arranged- a taste of Finland! The mask will really help me unwind and I hope get over this damn jetlag. The sweets are yummy and I have had to wrestle them off the kids. Now the chocolate! Wow! When I signed up I said that it was not the best time of year to be sending chocolate, but I am so glad Eeva-Maija ignored my advice. There is something about Finnish chocolate!

Finally the tea! I am not sure if Eeva-Maija knew, but MIML™ and I adore our tea! When we were visiting his family he came across a pack of Finnish tea that he had brought back over 5 years ago from visiting friends in Finland. We made a pot and it was nice, but it had, er, aged! I so cannot wait to make a pot of this tomorrow for our brunch.

Thanks again to Eeva-Maija for the wonderful package, and to Stephanie for organising it. Roll on the next one!

For some reason I seem to always bake on Good Friday! For years I have made home made hot cross buns. This year I decided to try something different- choc cross buns, but without the crosses!

I found a recipe online and tweaked it to make it my own. It was actually the bestest dough I have ever made in my kitchenaid. Once kneaded it was neither dry nor sticky and did it rise! I wish now I had taken photos along the way, but still, I have some of the finished products:

We did smilies:

And stars:

And even treble clefs:

They may look quite artisan like, but they tast damn fine!

Oh and the recipe I adapted:

2 x 8g sachets dried yeast
Pinch of salt
5 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
60g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 packet (250g) chocolate chips
1/3 cup water

1) Combine milk, yeast, salt and a pinch of sugar in a jug. Whisk together until combined.

2) Place the flour, cocoa and cinnamon together into a bowl (I used the mixer bowl.) Add 2 tablespoons of sugar (the remainder of the sugar will be used in the glaze), yeast mixture, butter and egg. With the dough hook, blend mixture together (speed 1). Increase speed to 2 and knead until dough is smooth, about 6-10 minutes. Place into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place for up to 1 1/2 hours or until the dough doubles in size.

3) Punch dough down to its original size with your fist. Add chocolate chips and knead until well combined. Divide dough into 12 even portions and shape into balls. Place into a 20×30cm pan lined with baking paper about 1cm apart. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until buns double in size. Preheat the oven to 200ºC

4) Make a paste for the top decorations. I used about 3tbs plain flour, 1tbs cocoa and enough water to make a pipe-able paste and put it in my Tupperware piping do-dad! When the buns are ready to go into the oven, pipe on the decorations.

5) Bake buns for approx. 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of one of the buns comes out clean.

6) To make the glaze, put the boiling water and 2 tablespoons sugar in a ceramic bowl and microwave for 5 minutes. This can be done on the stove, but I find the microwave easier! Brush warm glaze over warm buns.

7) Serve Chocolate Hot Cross Buns warm or at room temperature.

Happy ∏ day!

Originally uploaded by fifikins

14th March. Einstein’s birthday, something about steak and pleasing your man (google 14th March and steak!) and Pi Day!

Yes, it is American, but unless we get Irish and take 1st May as 31st April or 3rd Feb as being the 14th month of the previous year, we miss out!

So I baked Nigella’s Chicken, bacon and mushroom pies from Nigella Express. And they were awesome!

Happy ∏ Day!

It has been birthday week chez Fifikins. And that means cake. And lots of it!

We started with cupcakes on the eve of Jasper’s 8th birthday:

The freckles are meant to be like number 8s, can’t you tell? The recipe was the standard Nigella all in one recipe, trebled, but with about 3oz of flour replaced with cocoa. According to now Mr 8 they were ‘divine’ which is one of his standard words of the moment!

Next was his party! He insisted on an Alien Cake. Well he wanted a Doctor Who cake, but not a tardis, more like a darlek and I think he got what I meant by raising my eyebrows! So we went to Google Images and found this:

And yes, they did piping. Not sure what is on top of the cake. But I did this:

And it almost turned into more of a Cake Wreck than it would normally have been. You see I did Nigella’s Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake, which is a great recipe- all in one with sour cream. Makes for a lovely moist cake. Now I smeared it with Butter Cream and did it on the plate. And I did my standard trick of four slices of baking paper under the cake over the edges to catch the icing drips. And I went to pull them out and the cake pulled apart. Can you tell? Lucky I still had some more icing and green sprinkles. And he insisted on candle placement. Once again the kids chomped down the cake!

Then it is Immy’s turn! Miss legs 11! She wanted cupcakes too, but both year 6 classes work together and she said I needed to make 50! Yeah right! So we compramised and made a slab cake! Again it was Nigella’s Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake and apparently it was very well received! Oh and she sprinkled pink cachous all over!

See, pretty! I thought for her Lasertag party she would be happy with another chocolate cake, but no, it had to be a white cocolate mud cake! So I googled and cake across this awesome recipe! What a site too! So last night Immy and I set about trying it out. And we ended up with this:

She asked for the white chocolate raspberry bullets. And wow! What a cake! The recipe is available from the above link. And yes, it tasted fan-fairy-tastic! Very mud like, but also white chocolatey! There may just be a slice or so (like half a cake!) in the fridge still! Anyone for tea?

Happy birthday kids!

I am sitting in the airport lounge waiting to head back home after the most wonderful weekend! For Christmas I gave MIML™ a red box that contained information about this weekend- a trip to Brisbane for a sushi making course! We have had a ball. Caught up with one of my best friends, riden along the river on a ferry and seen the night lights from the Wheel of Brisbane.

And we have eaten well (well apaprt from McDonalds!) and we can now make sushi. And we browsed Borders and drank brown liquid at Starbucks. And I may or may not have Krispy Kremes in my posession, but they are not for me- MIML™ startrs a new rotation tomorrow and is taking them in to make a good impression! Win!

The company has been excellent and we have laughed and laughed and laughed! Over stupid things. MIML™ is made of awesome and win and I am so glad to have him in my life.

As for Brisvegas… Look it is a lovely city, but perhaps not the one I want to move to. I think Canberra is still first in the running. But they better have good cooking schools there…

Remember The Omnivore’s 100? Well here is the festive version! Again from Very Good Taste. Yes, they haz it!

Here’s what to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve tasted.
3) Place an asterisk after all the items you’ve cooked/prepared.
4) Optional: Cross out anything you never want to try, or add an exclamation mark after anything your really want to try.
You’re also welcome to post a link to your version of the list here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk.

The VGT Christmas Fifty

1. Crystallised or candied fruits
2. Egg nog
3. Bûche de Noël, or Yule log*
4. Rum balls*
5. Bebinca
6. Roasted chestnuts*
7. Cavallucci
8. Tourtière
9. Uszka
10. Port & Stilton
11. Hallaca
12. Roast goose
13. Lefse
14. Sugar plums
15. Romeritos
16. Pinnekjøtt
17. Hot toddy*
18. Christmas cake*
19. Tamales
20. Sorpotel
21. Panettone
22. Candy canes
23. Pasteles
24. Speculaas
25. Makowiec
26. Christmas pudding*
27. Stollen
28. Figgy pudding
29. Lebkuchen
30. Turrón
31. Mince pies*
32. Wassail bowls
33. Buñuelos
34. Pio Quinto
35. Marzipan fruits
36. Mulled wine*
37. King cake
38. Christmas beach barbecue (no!- and I don’t know if I ever will as it is too hot!)
39. Cola de mono
40. Lutefisk
41. Kutia
42. Pizzelle
43. Dominostein
44. Cranberry sauce*
45. Pfeffernüsse
46. Satsumas or clementines
47. Pumpkin pie
48. Smalahove
49. Nut roast
50. Brandy butter*

Giving me a score of… drum roll… 28… Seems I have some eating to do!

The gorgeous MIML™ (’man in my life’ for the acronymally challenged!) celebrated a birthday on Thursday. Last night we had barbecue for around 20 colleagues, friends and their families. It was a top night! I have that many leftovers that we will not starve for the next week or so!

Oh and the cake… well it had to be geeky and it had to be chocolaty (although I think any cake would have done!) I tossed up between Nigella’s Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake and her Chocolate Fudge cake and after a rough poll on both Twitter and Plurk, the Fudge Cake won out! I am no good with piping or such things so decided to keep it simple! And added the geeky element- binary ftw!

Bonus points if you can work out how young MIML™ is!

Oh and MIML™- thanks for letting me cook! You know how much I love it! Wishing you a lovely year and I look forward to celebrating your 100100th birthday next year with you!

I commented the other day that instead of putting in so many hours at work I would love to be baking as I use baking as a method of relaxing.

Then yesterday I was reading Orangette, the gorgeous food Blog by Molly and empathising with her about the multitude of banana bread recipes and how so many of them call to be baked. I too have a thing for baking with bananas! Whilst we love bananas, often we have some left over. I tend to freeze them and use them in smoothies direct from the freezer, but ones that don’t make it there ususally make it into some form of banana bread or cake or muffin!

The thing that struck me about the recipe posted at Orangette was that you got dry ingredients, then wet ingredients, then mixed them together before baking. Now I don’t know about you, but that just screamed muffin to me! So having leftover bananas and a limited time before starting work I went the muffin path!

Dry… including a little extra cinnamon as I was worried about so much sugar and honey…

Wet… I scored with 2 very yellow eggs as well. Love it when that happens!

Mixed together and smelling divine!

Into the oven…

25 minutes later 16 gorgeous looking muffins!

Oh… and a minute after that…

The verdict is divine! More a light cake consistency than a muffin, but they are still hot! And not too sweet either!