This is one of my first fondant attempts all by myself and I am super happy with how it turned out (except for the colors, more on that below). It is a four layer cake and has a white chocolate mouselline buttercream in between all layers and on the outside. The fondant is a mix of vanilla and almond. I was meant to stripe the layers but got distracted when I was assembling the cake, hahaha FAIL.

I didn’t have anywhere near enough time and as such my colors are not what I would like them to be but hey hey its here. I cut out the corner slice to take a photo and the cake is SO GOOD. So moist and rich and flavourful – and it has been in plastic for 3 days already because I knew I wouldn’t have time – how right I was!

Crap tons of photos to follow (more…)

So surprising how some things just taste so good together. Cheese and chutney, marmite and chips, tomato sauce and everything.. haha.. Feijoas and Bananas are another awesome combo. And real vanilla bean.. although you can substitute 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract if you want. Nice way to celebrate the first day of a new job… I feel like a proper grown up. Onto my second real job.. it’s all good.

10-20 feijoas, halved and scooped
1-2 ripe bananas sliced small
seeds of 1 vanilla bean
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of butter

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup oats
50g butter at room temperature

Mix fruit and vanilla seeds in an ovenproof dish. Sprinkle brown sugar over and dot butter on top.

Mix all dry ingredients in a deep bowl. Cut the butter into rough pieces and rub it into the dry ingredients with the tips of your figures until well mixed in.

Crumble this mixture over the fruit in an even layer. Bake for about 20 minutes at 180C until you can see the caramel mixture bubbling just under the crumble. Let cool slightly before serving.

• 224 g cream cheese, softened
• 58 g butter, softened
• 125 g sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 5 ml vanilla extract

beat butter and cream cheese till creamy then add remaining. makes enough for 24 frosted like icing or 12 piped on.

I have a secret love for jam doughnuts. And on a trip to Melbourne I discovered hot fresh jam doughnuts, om nom nom so good.

These are no where near the same thing, but they do bear quite a large resemblance to the jam doughnut even though they are not fried. Best as hot as you can stand out of the oven but they do heat up well in the microwave too.

Recipe after the jump… (more…)

Fluffy frosting

1/3 cup water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup sugar
2 egg whites
flavouring (1 tsp vanilla or similar)
coloring if desired

Combine water sugar and cream of tartar in a small saucepan.
Stir over low heat until mixutre is bubbly and sugar is dissolved but not colored.

Place egg whites in a clean large dry bowl and start to whip with electric beater. Add syrup in a thin stream and beat for approximately 7-10 minutes until mixture is not hot and stiff peaks are forming. Add vanilla and colouring if desired and beat through.