It is a given that chocolate is one of my favourite things in this world and it is no surprise that it is the key ingredient behind one of my favourite desserts to make and eat, going by the name of chocolate mousse. In my eyes I have the most perfect recipe, which I have made a thousand times over, and one of the ingredients is vanilla sugar. After becoming annoyed at buying the small bottles of it from the supermarket, which frankly aren’t the best tasting, I decided I would try my hand at my very own homemade vanilla sugar.
The New Recipe Archive
You may have noticed an ever so subtle button has appeared on the right hand site of my blog encouraging you to Visit Cath’s Recipe Archive. It is something I have been wanting to put together for a long time and as I recently had a few weeks leave, and I managed to stumble upon a post talking about what I had been looking for, it was the time to get my act together. So with one mornings work, I have created a recipe archive so you have a central point to search through all of my recipes.
Crème de Menthe Marshmallows
I still have half a bottle of crème de menthe sitting in cupboard which is slowly being used up since making the Purple Corset Cake. One day the hubby came across a recipe for chocolate dipped crème de menthe marshmallows on the interweb and encouraged me to make them. I didn’t have the right amount of gelatine required in that particular recipe, so I turned to my copy of Marshmallow Madness by Shauna Sever (where the Chocolate Malt Marshmallows came from) and lo and behold there was a recipe for Crème de Menthe Marshmallows so I got to work.
Oreo Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
One of my favourite flavour combinations in this world happens to be “cookies and cream”. Generally, if there is something cookies and cream flavoured I will try it at least once, whether it is chocolate (Hershey’s is my top pick), ice cream (Connoisseur is the ONLY brand as far as I am concerned) or as a cupcake.
Now I have tried a lot of cupcakes and am still yet to find my favourite so I thought it would be an opportune time to attempt my own Oreo cookies and cream cupcakes.
Tasty Food Photography eBook Giveaway
It is time for my first ever giveaway! Are you excited? Well I am. Today I am hosting a giveaway for a copy of the updated version of Tasty Food Photography created by Lindsay over at Pinch of Yum.
I purchased this book a while ago and it certainly has helped me understand my camera more each day as well as how to make my photos more appealing. I have recently built my own light box as well to help me get the best photos possible. It is certainly a work in progress, but thanks to Lindsay I am getting there.
Fruit Tingle Macarons
The hubby and I were off to spend a few days with friends and as the hubby was taking some of his home made beef and pork jerky for P (the boys love their jerky), I thought I would take something sweet for B seeing as how sugar is our weakness. Given it has been a while since I last made macarons I thought it was a good time to whip up one of the varieties that I had on my macaron Pinterest board for a while now.
Steph from Raspberri Cupcakes, a blog I have been following for years now and was the inspiration for the Checker Board and Honeycomb Cake as well as the Snowmen Macarons on my White Christmas Cake, has used a fruit tingle icing for an orange cake and then also used it to top some passionfruit cupcakes, with the leftovers being used for some macarons. I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them and knew that the upcoming trip would be the perfect opportunity to make some fruit tingle macarons of my own.
How Do I Stay Up To Date With Posts After Google Reader Retires?
Well I am very glad you ask that question my friend. I am grateful for all of you who subscribe to my blog and I would like to let you know of the methods you can continue to subscribe if you currently use Google Reader.
As you have probably heard Google Reader retires on 1 July so now is the time to switch to another option to stay up-to-date with all of my creations. There are a few to choose from so please select the one, or a few if your heart desires, that best suit you.
Buttermilk Scones
Given all the red velvet goodies that I make, there is always buttermilk left over that I need to find a use for. Recently, I strayed from my tried and true scone recipe and found a recipe for buttermilk scones on Taste.com.au to try with very pleasing results.
Luckily for me the official scone tester, my father-in-law, was coming around to help the hubby with a couple of projects and he is always willing to be a guinea pig for my cooking. Especially when it comes to scones.
Belgian Waffles
Man v. Food has to be one of the shows that I like and hate all at the same time. The hubby on the other hand absolutely loves it and drools with envy for every bite that Adam Richman takes. In one of the episodes of Man v. Food Nation (Season 1, Episode 17 for those of you playing at home), Adam visited a food truck in New York by the name of Wafles and Dinges where they serve traditional Belgian waffles topped with everything under the sun including a pulled pork combination which immediately won the hubby’s heart.
Hence we borrowed my mother-in-law’s waffle maker and for the first time used the mancake recipe for the batter. They were delicious, but a little heavy so the hunt was on for not only a waffle maker for us, but for a traditional Belgian waffles recipe.
Roast Pumpkin Soup
Winter for me means soup and one soup I make every winter, and occasionally at other times during the year, is Roast Pumpkin Soup. Pumpkin has to be one of my favourite vegetables, with butternut pumpkin by far my favourite variety. I could eat roasted butternut pumpkin until the end of time but I would probably start to look like one after a while so best not.
You can certainly make this soup with any pumpkin you have on hand, and on this particular day I had a large Jarrahdale pumpkin that we had been given by a local farmer as I was saving the butternut he had also given us for a vegetable lasagne.