Christmas Gingerbread Bundt Cake

It has been 9 months since my last post but it might as well have been a lifetime ago! Since my last post we have welcomed our gorgeous little girl into the world and the months have just flown by. Life is so full and hectic and magical with a little one. It has been the most incredible experience watching her grow and become a little person. And now all of a sudden Christmas is here!

Christmas is a million times more fun with a kid isn't it? For our first Christmas as a family of three we decided to go with a living Christmas tree! The idea is that we will get to watch the tree and our little girl grow up together.  New traditions for our brand spanking new family.

Speckled Easter Egg Cake: Chocolate cake with whipped vanilla buttercream frosting

Happy Easter everyone!

My goodness, looking back it has really been a wee while since I last posted.  To be honest the last couple of months have been a bit of a blur. I was working silly hours at the hospital and not getting time to do much else - no baking, no prepping for baby related things, barely any sleeping.

Then it all came to a screeching halt when I started having a tricky time with my pregnancy.  It was pretty scary and things have been touch and go for the last little bit, but now we are finally on the home stretch! I've stopped work and have been doing lots of resting interspersed with scrambling to get our house and lives ready for our little one's arrival.

And I had some time to finally do some baking ... this Speckled Easter Egg Cake for the Baking for Hospice Easter Round.

Foux de Petite French Lemon Cream Tarts

Jermaine: Je voudrais une croissant
Jermaine: Je suis enchante
Jermaine: Ou est le bibliotheque?
Jermaine: Voila mon passport
Jermaine: Ah, Gerard Depardieu
Brett + Jermaine: Un baguette, ah ha ha, oh oh oh oh
~ Flight of the Conchords, Foux de Fafa

Have I raved to you about how much of a francophile I am yet?

It might have started when I first read Madeline as a kid and I've been obsessed ever since. I took French all the way through school. Went on language exchange there when I was 15.  I've watched Le Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain 14 times.

It's gotten to the point that when I hear strangers speaking French on the street I have to fight the urge to creepily follow just to hear them talk.  Not weird at all right?

{via weheartit}

But let's be franc, what's not to love about the land of romance, cheese, wine, and glorious buttery pastries?  And those accents... As Brett and Jermaine so cleverly illustrate, anything sounds good when you say it in French.

So I was chatting to someone yesterday who had just come back from a trip to France and it got me a) jealous and b) reminiscing about France and the amazing food and irresistible pastries those clever French have invented.  I gained 8 kgs in just 5 weeks living over there.  All happy weight.  All thanks to gloriously sweet and butterific French pastries just like these Petite French Lemon Cream Tarts.

Crazy bout choux: Pink Ribbon Mini Eclairs for Breast Cancer Awareness

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.  ~Frank A. Clark

I wish I had exciting stories to tell you about what I did in the last month, like that I had travelled to tropical climes sampling exotic cuisine, or that I'd been whisked away on a baking boot camp run by a cantankerous celebrity chef but, alas, reality is far less delicious.  I've had exams which basically means I've spent the last four weeks huddled over a desk cramming info into my brain and coffee down my throat.  Boo.

And how I've missed you, dear readers!  I thought about you often and wished constantly that I could be back in the happy world of blogging where there are no neural pathways to decipher or anatomical tomes to memorise. 

But we are now finally on the other side of exams and I am back on the blogging bandwagon!

Ok, it wasn't all doom and gloom over the exam period, I do have one piece of exciting news - I am now a Wellingtonian!  Moved up last week and Capital City has been as windy as it has been wonderful.  This weekend I got to celebrate the end of exams, my birthday, and the end of our long distance days.  Lots to be stoked about!  Although now the long process of hunting for a summer job begins...

What have you been up to?  How are your summers going?  It has been far too long!

I've got loads of posts on the back log to catch up on but I thought I'd start with these Pink Ribbon Mini Eclairs.

When brûlée goes bad: Lemon Coconut Cheesecake Bars

Amélie Poulain cultive un goût particulier pour les tous petits plaisirs. Elle aime plonger sa main au plus profond d’un sac de grain... briser la croûte des crèmes brûlées avec la pointe de la petite cuillère... et faire des ricochets sur le Canal Saint-Martin. ~ Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain.

Amelie cultivates a taste for small pleasures. She likes dipping her hand into sacks of grain, cracking crème brûlée with a teaspoon and skipping stones at St. Martin's Canal ~ Amelie

These were meant to be brûlée bars.  I wanted them so much to be brûlée bars.

Like Amélie (my fav movie of all time!) that first crack through the caramel sugar layer on a crème brûlée never fails to give me tingles down my spine.  It's magical.   Truly one of life's little pleasures.

But despite what people tell you, you just can't brûlée properly in the oven.   Instead of getting that perfectly golden brown, snap crackle caramel coating on the top, you end up with burned edges, melted sugar, and gooey melted cheesecake.  Boo.  One does not simply brûlée without a blow torch.

{is it kinda pyro asking for a blow torch for christmas?}

So I just topped the rest of the Lemon Cheesecake Slices I made for our Baking for Hospice Fifty Shades of Yellow round with crunchy toasted coconut making them Lemon Coconut Cheesecake Slices.  But don't get me wrong, the dud first brûlée attempts may not have looked that flash, they tasted amazing.  That caramel crunchy top was perfect with the creamy tangy cheesecake filling.  Mark my words, once I get my hands on a sweet blow torch, I'm definitely gonna go brûlée crazy with these puppies.  Watch this space. 

Paper Anniversary: Chocolate dipped amaretti cookies

In the weekend, C and I celebrated our paper wedding anniversary so I really wanted to start this post with some inspiring quote or fun fact about how awesome paper is.  But alas, all the quotes out there seem to be about the fragility and tearablity of paper.  Even the myth that it is impossible to fold a piece of paper more than 8 times was not worth the paper it was written on as that has been thoroughly debunked.

So to paper over the fact that a first wedding anniversary is represented by flimsy old paper, let's concentrate on it also being the eighth anniversary of our first date! Yay eight years!  Hold up...eight years?!  When did we get so old?! Oh my, how time flies when you're having fun.

Paper puns aside, it was actually really lovely reminiscing about our special day a whole year ago.  One's mind boggles at how a whole year has manage to pass us by when it feels like it was only yesterday that we were walking down that aisle, surrounded by the smiling faces of all of our favourite people, making vows to love and cherish each other as long as we both shall live.

One of the many happy memories of the day was getting to nibble on the delicious treats after the ceremony made by our amazing friends and family.  In particular, the Chocolate Dipped Amaretti Cookies made my darling friend Lisa and her lovely momma Sharon were total crowd pleasers.

Sticky Date & Dulce de Leche Cupcakes with Homemade Dulce de Leche

He has fallen from the donkey, but has found a date ~ Iranian Proverb

Like the man who finds a date on the ground (2 minute rule right?) I also completely subscribe to silver linings.

Take this weekend for instance.  I was up in Auckland briefly to visit my husband.  The weather was gorgeous: sunny and warm, we had all these grand plans of doing lots of exciting things and eating yummy food but alas, I ended up with the nasty head cold making its rounds in Dunedin and spent most of the weekend in bed with a box of tissues.

The silver lining however was having my darling husband and his family look after me and keep me all snuggley and warm and topped up with paracetamol and decongestants.  Sooooo much nicer being sick when surrounded by loved ones than alone in freezing Dunedin and having to walk to the pharmacy for meds.   I'm beginning to see why men are tempted to pull out the man flu.

The recipe in this post however, has nothing to do with colds or donkeys, but everything to do with dates.  Dates and Dulce de Leche to be precise with these Sticky Date & Dulce de Leche Cupcakes with Homemade Dulce de Leche which I made as part of my cupcake renaissance.  

Now I know I tend to gush about things I like but seriously, these cupcakes are spectacular.

They are quite simply, amazingness in a cupcake.

Remembering Sendai: Sakura Cherry Blossom & Lemon Palmiers

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I've always wanted to make palmiers.

These crispy buttery heart shaped cookies are oh so chic and call to my inner francophile.  So when it came time for our Baking for Hospice Summertime Round I knew I had to make Sakura Cherry Blossom & Lemon Palmiers.  Although technically the arrival of the blooming gorgeous cherry blossoms herald the start of spring rather than summer, it was the perfect excuse to use the bottle of Sakura or Cherry Blossom sugar that my brother's lovely girlfriend brought back for me from Japan.  Merci beaucoup!

I sat down this evening to post about these pretty palmiers and was just about to put fingers to keyboard when I heard over the news what day today was.  March 11, the one year anniversary of the devastating Sendai earthquake and tsunami.

{sakura sugar}

I remember the evening vividly.  It was the eve before my grandma's funeral and we were at the funeral home when we received news about the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami just the coast of Sendai.  An earthquake so powerful it shifted the earth off its axis and created a tsunami over 30m high.  It floored us, my brother especially.  My brother's girlfriend was living and teaching English in Sendai, the city that got the brunt of the tsunami.  Try as he might he couldn't get in touch with her.  My brother texted and called late into the night, his eyes never leaving the devastating footage on TV.  He stayed up all night watching the carnage unfold and eventually, in the early hours of the morning, he got finally through to Winsy.  She was safe.  Thank God.

But not everyone was so lucky.  So my heart, thoughts and prayers tonight go out to all those who one year on are still, recovering, grieving, and remembering.

{massive thank you to my cousin-in-law susy for these pretty as a picture cupcake wrappers xox}

White chocolate eggnog fudge

Last Christmas, my White Chocolate Eggnog Truffles went down a treat so this year I thought I'd stick with the winning flavour combo but in fudge form: White Chocolate Eggnog Fudge. 


Following the raging success that was the Salted Caramel Fudge, I felt like a fudge ninja.  I was on a fudge making roll.

Candy cane mint chocolate cupcakes

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire 

Jack Frost nipping at your nose 

Yuletide carols being sung by a choir 

And folks dressed up as Eskimos ~ The Christmas Song

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give ~Winston Churchill

C and I were discussing what our favourite Christmas carols were the other day.  It was a surprisingly difficult decision to make.  Do you pick the well known, often sung "Jingle Bells" or "Rudolph"; the local carol "Te Harinui", an oldie but goodie: "Feliz Navidad", hippy fav "Happy Christmas (War is Over)" or a pop anthem like "All I want for Christmas"(Yes, I'm a Love Actually groupie, loud and proud).

In the end I went with the classic: The Christmas Song.  Maybe it's because I grew up down under where Christmas time = summer time so we don't get white Christmases, but there's just something awfully romantic about spending Christmas curled up next to a roaring fire.  Sigh.

But whether you are celebrating a winter or summer Christmas in your part of the world, the season of giving is universal.

Baking = Love.  Giving = Joy.

And it was an absolute joy last week for Baking for Hospice to start baking for Totara Hospice South Auckland.  As a test run last Sunday (the main run being this Sunday),  we delivered baking for their Volunteers' Christmas Morning Tea and as my contribution I indulged my mint and choc obsession and made Candy Cane Mint Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting.

 

Lemon madeleines for Baking for Hospice and writer's block

The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it....And as soon as I had recognized the taste of the piece of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime-blossom which my aunt used to give me .... immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like a stage set to attach itself to the little pavilion opening on to the garden which had been built out behind it for my parents... and with the house the town, from morning to night and in all weathers, the Square where I used to be sent before lunch, the streets along which I used to run errands, the country roads we took when it was fine...so in that moment all the flowers in our garden and in M. Swann's park, and the water-lilies on the Vivonne and the good folk of the village and their little dwellings and the parish church and the whole of Combray and its surroundings, taking shape and solidity, sprang into being, town and gardens alike, from my cup of tea. ~ Marcel Proust from 'Remebrance of Things Past'

I made these Lemon Madeleines for our last Baking for Hospice spring themed round a whole week ago and for the whole week I've been writing, re-writing and re-re-writing this post but I just haven't been happy with anything I put down.  It's like Proust did such a good job writing about madeleines that my brain is refusing to encroach on his territorry.  There aren't even any good puns about madelines.  No puns = no fun.

Or maybe it's something to do with all the electioneering going on on tv in the last little bit.  All that politician prattle is frying my brain.

So I'm sorry if this post is a bit of a lemon.
 
Urgh writer's block, get thee gone!

{my gorgeous madeleine pan from my lovely law ladies}

All Black Sesame Macarons with Coconut Buttercream for Baking for Hospice

Rugby is a wonderful show: dance, opera and, suddenly, the blood of a killing ~ Richard Burton

I'm baaaaaack! It was study break last week and I was up in Auckland spending lots of quality time with family.  A happy sad week, witnessing the beginning of a brand new life and the twilight of another.  Reliving old memories, making new ones.  Lots of laughs, lots of tears.  It might look like I abandoned the blog for a bit but I was baking up a storm so watch this space for all the baking shenanigans I got up to!

Well, if you're in New Zealand, unless you've been living under a rock, you will know that little old NZ is hosting the Rugby World Cup 2011.

It's kind of a big deal.

Rugby is our national sport.  Kiwis live and breathe rugby and the All Blacks are national heroes.  But despite the All Blacks being favourites to win practically every Rugby World Cup since it's inception, we unbelievably haven't won or hosted the prestigious Webb Ellis Trophy since the very first RWC in 1987.

But this year is THE year! I can feel it in my bones.

So naturally, to show our support for our men in All Black, the Baking for Hospice theme this round was The Rugby World Cup round.  And for my contribution I made All Black Sesame Macarons with Coconut Buttercream.

Go ABs!

{Paint the town black, all black}

Homemade Oreos for Baking for Hospice

 

Procrastination is the thief of time. ~ Napoleon Hill

I'm supposed to be writing a genetics essay that's due this Friday but instead I looked up quotes on procrastination for this blog post.  Ironic.  The quotes are mostly all gloom and doom about how procrastination is bad yada yada yada but what the quotees have completely missed is this: Procrastination is fun.

I could've been looking up journal articles but instead I spent many a happy hour browsing Asos, Street Peeper, The Superficial, Tastespotting, not to mention all the food, fashion and design blogs I follow.  And now instead of essay writing, I am blogging.  Incidentally, blogging a post that I should have blogged about ages ago since the Baking for Hospice round I baked these Homemade Oreos for was waaaay back in July.

Yes, I am procrastinating by blogging about a recipe I have been procrastinating posting.  Poetic really.

Weddings weddings weddings and a lemon raspberry & yoghurt roses cake with cream cheese frosting

Goin' to the chapel and we're 

Gonna married,

Goin' to the chapel and we're
Gonna get married
Gee, I really love you and we're
Gonna get married
Goin' to the chapel of love   

~ Dixie Cups

Wedding fever is in the air.

Now go on, admit it, you watched The Wedding too didn't you?

I swear I wasn't going to.  I was going to resist the hype.   But then, like millions of others all around the world, I got totally sucked in.  The outfits! The hats! That dress!  It's the water-cooler topic of the year.  Everyone has an opinion, from the Pippa vs Kate debate to that hat worn by a certain princess.  It is everyone's fairy tale and a bright happy moment in these tumultuous times.

For me, I have a double dose of wedding fever.  Not only was there the Royal wedding to obsess about but my own wedding is in *eek!* two and a half weeks so I most definitely have wedding on the brain.  I'm sleeping, eating and breathing wedding.  There is just so much to do!  So many decisions to make!  It's like the proverbial eight headed monster - you tick one job off the list and two more sprout in its wake.

So seeing as getting married is what all the cool kids are doing these days, it made sense to have a wedding-ey theme of Love & Marriage for the last round of Baking for Hospice.  For Round 15, I made Lemon Raspberry & Yoghurt Roses Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - it's an incredibly moist tangy lemon cake dotted with bright bursts of raspberries and covered in cream cheese frosting roses.  The rosettes idea is so gorgeous and so easy to do, had I not already baked my own wedding cake (sneak peek to come), I would have been happy to have one just like this on the big day. 

White chocolate eggnog truffles for Baking for Hospice

Ahhh Christmas time.  I am a total Christmas nut...lurve the whole shebang.  Yip, I am one of those people.

I love the tinsel, the tree, the presents, the goodwill and peace on earth.  And I adore Christmas food...Christmas pudding with lashings of custard, gingerbread men, champagne ham, mulled wine, and eggnog.

For those of you who have never tried eggnog, boy are you missing out! It's the creamy spicy tipple that has gotten many a people in trouble at work Christmas functions. I like to think of it as a Christmassy version of Baileys.  Yum!

So to celebrate the annual Christmas Round for Baking for Hospice I made White Chocolate Eggnog Truffles.

Baking for Hospice: Matcha Green Tea Shortbread

This was my second lot of baking for the All About Dads round for Baking for Hospice.

My dad absolutely LOVED shortbread.  I could never understand why. I mean, I like shortbread: you can't really beat it for its buttery crumbly goodness but it was never my first choice out of those Assorted Biscuits tins we used to always get for Christmas from relos.  I'm all about the glamour cookies - the chocolate coated ones, the choc chippies, the ones with the creamy filling, the malt ones.  But there was no other cookie as far as my Dad was concerned.  It was shortbread or nothing.  He could mow through whole bags of Farmbake shortbread all by himself.  Even when he was staying at the hospice, a piece of shortbread dunked into a milo was his daily afternoon tea.

So seeing as the theme was All About Dads, I just had to bake shortbread.  No two buts about it.  I knew that a couple of other bakers were making shortbread for the B4H round (perks of doing the organising :P), so I thought I'd mix it up a little and make Matcha Green Tea Shortbread.  I'd seen recipes for Matcha Sables or Green Tea shortbread doing the rounds on tastespotting and I just couldn't resist trying a batch myself.

Baking for Hospice: Black Forest Rocky Road

 Last weekend was Round 12 for Baking for Hospice and the theme was All About Dads.

As you know, my Dad's fav cake was black forest gateau, but since I've only just made Black Forest Cupcakes a couple of posts ago and I was too lazy to make a full out black forest cake I went with a variation of my fav Cadbury chocolate bar: Black Forest Rocky Road.

Rhubarb, earl grey and vanilla rose cakes for Baking for Hospice

Round 11 of Baking for Hospice was the weekend before last and the theme for this round was: Winter Wonderland.

Now I had the best of intentions to bake to theme but I also really wanted to use my brand spanking new rose pan - how to combine the two? 

Roses, as I found out, do not flower in winter.  Crap.  Looked like my the winterness was going to have to come from else where.

That's where I hit upon the idea of using rhubarb since I always associate rhubarb with winter and crumbles and puddings and rhubarb rose cakes would be oh so pretty.

However, a quick google search told me that rhubarb is in fact not actually in season in winter....go figure.

But now I had my heart set on baking with rhubarb and if rhubarb is not all that wintry, then how bout using earl grey too? A cup of tea indoors on a blustery day is sort of winter themed right??

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it because for the Winter Wonderland round I made Rhubarb, Earl Grey and Vanilla Rose Cakes.

Zebra Cheesecake for Baking for Hospice

For the June round of Baking for Hospice, our theme was Mothers.  My mum's favourite dessert of all time is cheesecake.  I remember we used to go to Robert Harris cafe for lunch in the school holidays when mum and dad had their travel agency in town and every day mum would pick a piece of cheesecake to go with her sandwich and cup of tea.  So, in my B4H baking tribute to my mum, I made Zebra Cheesecake.