Lemon Cupcakes for Cupcake Day for the RSPCA

Last Monday, 17 August, we held a Cupcake Day for the RSPCA at our work.  We had an overwhelming response from cupcake bakers and buyers alike, and we also received a donation from the business.  In all, we raised over $1,000 for the RSPCA - it surpassed my expectations, and I was so proud of our business for making this fabulous contribution to a very worthy cause.

I made 32 cupcakes all up (knowing that we were likely to have a lot more coming in from the other bakers) in three different flavours and designs.  I learned from last time I participated in the RSPCA Cupcake Day that if I wanted to make animal cupcakes, I should not make them too fussy, because it takes too long when you are doing a large batch.

My first cupcake flavour was lemon.  I chose Martha Stewart's recipe for lemon cupcakes from her cupcake book, which is also published online here.  I made sure that they tasted lemony by rubbing the lemon zest into the sugar before using it in the cake batter - this tends to make the lemon flavour more pronounced than just mixing in the zest.

To decorate my cupcakes, I chose Primrose Bakery's buttercream but flavoured it with lemon juice instead of vanilla and coloured it yellow.  I piped the icing on using a grass tip to resemble feathers.  The eyes are mini M&Ms, and the beak is an orange M&M upended on its side. I got this idea from Johanna's post here.

Stay tuned for more RSPCA Cupcake Day recipes.

Chocolate Mud Cake for Swee's Dad's 70th Birthday

It was Swee's Dad's 70th birthday celebration yesterday.  Swee asked me if I would be willing to bake her dad a cake just like the one I baked for her birthday, decorated with flowers.  Of course I said yes, and Swee and I chose the fondant together.

The recipe for the cake and the ganache are in this post on Swee's cake.

I like a step by step photo post, so here goes.   This is the cake cooling on the rack:

and the same cake covered with ganache, this time made with Lindt intense peppermint chocolate as Swee wanted a mint flavour in the cake:

and fields:

of flowers:

Put it all together and you get a decorated cake:

Here it is again, in close-up:

and don't you just love the bright yellow blossoms against the duck egg blue backdrop:

Happy birthday to Swee's Dad!

WIAFK (CB) - Salsa Cruda with Horseradish and Avocado Mousse

Our Weekend in a French Kitchen (Café Boulud) recipe this week is Salsa Cruda with Horseradish and Avocado Mousse - say what?  Yep, that was my reaction too.  I went from that to dismay when I read the recipe - it did not sound like my kind of thing at all.

However, as the whole point of being in a group is to try things that I would never try on my own, I made the recipe - and I was pleasantly surprised.  Sure, I subbed mustard for horseradish.  Sure, I left out all of the herbs except mint (simply because I did not have them).  Yeah, my mousse is not as mousse-like as it should be because I made a serve for one, which my food processor could not register, and yes, I skipped the garnishes.   However, never in a million years did I think I would enjoy a tomato, scallion, cucumber, radish and chilli salad - but I did.

I may not make it again (don't get too hasty), but this dish pleasantly surprised me, especially when the vegetables were mixed with the avocado mousse.

To see what the other WIAFK (CB) cooks, thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the Weekend in a French Kitchen website.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Mud Cake for Janet

 

Sadly, today is Janet's last day working with us.  She is moving on to another position, but we will miss her greatly.

 

I am not sure what kind of cake Janet likes, but I decided to make her a white chocolate and raspberry mud cake, inspired by the fact that at Monday's RSPCA Cupcake Day (post to come), the flavour that sold out first was the white chocolate and raspberry muffins.

 

After fruitlessly looking through six of my cookbooks for a recipe, I gave up and went online.  The recipe that I chose for Janet's cake can be found here.

 

 
The only change I made to the cake recipe was to use spelt flour instead of ordinary flour.  My reasons had nothing to do with health, but rather, the fact that I had run out of ordinary flour!

The cake smelled devine as it was cooking and cooling - sweet but not overly so.

I did not ice the cake with the white chocolate ganache.  Instead, I made my go to Primrose Bakery Vanilla Buttercream (a half batch).  For the writing, I used Queen chocolate writing icing, and suffered the usual issue that the icing gets quite firm in the tube, making it hard to pipe.  The sprinkles around the edge of the cake are Chocolate and Raspberry Crumble (a mixture of chocolate shortbread crumbs and freeze dried raspberries) from Burch & Purchese.

Here is a peek inside at my piece of cake:

Best wishes to Janet - she will be sorely missed.

EwE - Two-Minute Mango Coconut Sorbet

For Eating with Ellie this week, Chaya selected Two-Minute Mango Coconut Sorbet. 

In theory, this sounds nice - frozen mango cheeks are blitzed with coconut milk and basil to create a sorbet.  However, in practice, I could not get frozen mangoes so I used canned mangoes, and I was not a fan of the finished result, even when it set up - I found the texture a little odd and the flavour was not for me.

However, if you are looking for a relatively low fat dessert and you are a mango fan, this could be the dessert for you. 

To see what the others thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.

WWDH - Summer Fruit and Couscous Crumble

For Wednesday with Donna Hay this week, Glennis has selected Summer Fruit and Quinoa Crumble from p87 of Fresh and Light.  This crumble contains a raspberry, nectarine and peach filling (I left out the nectarines) and is topped by a gluten free crumble made from quinoa and rice flour.

I cannot eat quinoa, so I once again used couscous as a substitute. I used white rice flour instead of brown rice flour, and I used ordinary white sugar instead of coconut sugar.

 

The crumble was quite tasty - it is not as crispy on top as crumbles I am used to, and of course, as it contains no butter, it is not buttery at all.  I also found that the fruit was rather juicy, as no thickening agent was used to thicken the natural fruit juices.

That said, if you are looking for a healthier way to eat fruit crumble, this would be the ideal recipe.

To see what everyone else thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the Wednesday with Donna Hay website.

Masons of Bendigo, Take Two

A little while ago, my friend Sandra and I went on a day trip to Bendigo by train.  It was a cold, wet day, but it didn't matter much as we spent it browsing through the many antique stores in Bendigo.

We stopped for lunch at the wonderful Masons of Bendigo - my second visit and Sandra's first.

 We started off with a glass of pinot noir and a Tooberac pale ale respectively:

Masons is all about sharing dishes, so Sandra and I, on our waitress's recomendation, ordered five plates to share plus dessert.

 We started off with the pork belly skewers with spiced quince, Szechuan and lime ($10):

These were followed by the duck san choi bau spring rolls with wombok, Masons oyster sauce and lime ($9.50):

Our next pick with the tempura fried Moreton Bay bug tails with  ponzu mayonnaise, spiced cucumber and lime ($13.50):

For some veges, we ordered the steamed organic broccoli with smoked miso butter and  fried shallots  ($9.50):

Our final dish was my favourite of all, selected by Sandra - the crispy fried soft shell mud crab salad with cucumber, beanshoot & avocado salad and nam prik mayo  ($13.50):

We then moved on to the most important part - dessert!  Sandra orderd the pick of the two - a burnt butterscotch icecream  with roasted strawberries and sesame crisp ($8.50):

I ordered the deep fried black sesame seed icecream with coconut and five spiced pears ($8.50):

This is a peek inside the crispy outside of the ball:

It was quite tasty, and I was especially fond of the pears, but I liked Sandra's dessert better.

This time, we had the opportunity to check out the beautiful windows upstairs at Masons, it being housed in an old glass shop:

As always, it was a pleasure to eat at Masons, and it is a must if you are in Bendigo.

Masons of Bendigo

25 Queen Street
Bendigo VIC 3550

Ph: (03) 5443 3877