Cake baked in jam jars?!

Hello!
Scarletta Bakes just posted this delicious sounding chocolate chilli cake recipe, which she baked in glass jars. You have no idea how much this idea excites me, it's so perfect! All you need to do is put the lid on, and you instantly have cake that will travel easily. I imagine taking these cakes on picnics, road trips and to work/school for afternoon tea!  I imagine this would work well with any cake/cupcake recipe, as long as the baking time is changed (Scarletta advises that the cake will continue to cook in the jar after it's come out of the oven, so it needs to be taken out a little earlier).

The below image is from Scarletta's website, do go and check out this recipe and read about baking in jars!

Do you think this idea is as great as I do?  I want to go and buy some jars right now and take these cake jars on a roadtrip (sadly my bank account won't allow me to buy or do much of anything right now ugh).

xx
Lucy

Ice Cream Cupcakes!!

That's right, cupcakes, baked in ice cream cones.. These are seriously awesome!  I wish I had kids to bake these for, but instead I've been making them for my man (he's a toy collector so he's really more of a man-child), and my friends, and pretty much everyone really.

They're super simple to make, I found the recipe HERE (they're vegan, but don't even have soy milk in them, so this recipe won't require a trip to the supermarket for all you non-vegans out there! Plus I think any cupcake recipe could be used).

I do have to say I didn't use the icing from the recipe, as it required 6 cups of icing sugar... I find 3 cups of icing sugar in my icing too sweet, so 6 cups just screams diabetes to me!  Instead I always use a modified version of the vegan butter-cream icing found in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Actually it's about time I was really honest, my wonderful bf always makes, and pipes the icing.. So I don't really know the exact recipe he uses! But I can tell you an approximate..

Vegan Butter-cream Frosting
3/4 Cup Vegan margarine
1/4 Vegetable shortening (You can sub this for margarine if it's winter, but in summer I recommend using the shortening, as it holds up better in heat).
Approx 2 cups icing sugar added slowly
A few dashes of soy milk (we actually use oat milk these days)
1tsp Vanilla

The icing sugar and milk are pretty much added until the desired consistency is reached.. I hope that is useful to anyone like me who finds a lot of vegan icing recipes a little too sweet!

This is what the cupcakes look like before they are iced.

I hope you have as much fun as I do when you make these! (Yep, I really do find them that exciting and amazing. I love novelty stuff!)

xx
Lucy

Here & There

I can't believe I haven't posted since Easter! I've been in a bit of a foul mood the past few weeks, hence my lack of posting (lets just blame my mood on the change of seasons hehe).

Things are all better now, and here are a few pictures to update you on what I've been doing since my last post!

I made an apple Tarte Tartin, which was great, next I want to try and make a banana version with rum!

Had my head in the clouds a lot.

Had fish & chips on Mt Eden (we also saw the local Hells Angels chapter having a photo shoot here, which made me giggle).

Blurry drinks with my best friends

English high-tea to celebrate the birthday of a friend

Went to see Breakfast at Tiffany's at a local movie theatre on Audrey Hepburn's birthday, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film. I won an honorary best dressed prize in my late 50's dress & bolero (I also had cream gloves on, but must have take them off for this picture!). It was a lot of fun! The movie is screening again this Saturday & Sunday at the Academy in Auckland. You can't really see in this picture, but I did my hair in a french roll with curls coming out at the top (I ran out of hairspray so went for the soft romantic look hehehe).

By the way, I loved reading about what everyone else does for Easter, it's so interesting learning about other peoples traditions!

Hope you've all been well,

xx
Lucy

 

Scones and a new sewing project!

The other day I made some rather tasty cheese and chive scones. They weren't dry like scones often tend to be, in fact, I think they were the best scones I have ever made!!   I used the basic Edmonds recipe, with the cheese option (listed further down the page, after the basic recipe), and then instead of adding ham, I added 1 bunch of chives, and a teaspoon of smoked paprika. Oh and I actually added a little extra cheese and butter (got to counter-act my mostly vegan diet haha), and then some parmesan cheese on the top. The smoked paprika gave the scones a full, deep flavour, not un-similar to bacon (although I am not a bacon fan, it was sooo good). I totally recommend making these!

Now, my scones were actually a bit of a bribe for my friend, who drafted the collar pattern for me, as mentioned in my last post.  She was also kind enough to let me trace a pattern she made herself, which will be made out of the red fabric below.. Think sweetheart neckline with a tie-top, and a pencil skirt.. I can't wait to make it, and show you the results!

It's lucky I didn't do any sewing or baking today, because it seems like I've had one of those bad-luck days where everything that could go wrong, does! I will share that story, along with an outfit post, tomorrow!

xx
Lucy

It's Sunday Somewhere

Ok so I am a little behind schedule for my Sunday post, however I figure it's probably still Sunday somewhere in the world, so technically I'm not really behind.. Right?

I have been feeling completely un-motivated & tired lately, which I am putting down to my sugar and alcohol detox I started last Tuesday (yup that's right, no more booze and no more baking, it's so difficult! I'm aiming for 3 weeks), and it doesn't help that the Autumn is finally starting to show, the weather has been all over the place, from really humid and muggy to cold, wet and windy. Which leads to the point I was going to make, - When it rains all weekend, all I want to do is stay inside and bake!

Instead I found this great vegan food blog called Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes, which I just had to share with you all! I've only made one thing so far, but pretty much everything looks amazing and I can't wait to try out more recipes (especially the sweet stuff haha!), as an added bonus, it's not one of those vegan blogs that uses a lot of weird ingredients, so it's great for non-vegans too!


Below are a few pictures of especially delicious looking recipes which I can't wait to try!

Pasta with Chipotle Cashew Cream

Fennel crusted Potatoes

Besan Chilla (eggless omelet)

Coconut Muffins with Orange Glaze

Mmm!  This is making me want to go to the kitchen and get cooking (but instead I have assignments to do and classes to go to, boo).

Do you have any favourite cooking blogs? I'd love to hear about them!

xx

Lucy

Baking time!

I've been thinking (ok drooling) about Joy's Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread recipe she posted two weeks ago... I finally got around to making it today, and it was even better than I imagined!  Think a cinnamon brioche but with thinner layers (that literally pull-apart, which makes it fun to eat) and more cinnamon, and lots of butter. The butter and sugar actually ended up caramelising around the base of the loaf!

The only problem I had with this recipe is that my dough refused to do any rising. But it still turned out delicious, so it doesn't really matter. Check out the recipe here.

xx
Lucy

What I've been up to lately!

Spent an afternoon on Herald Island

Visited the annual lantern festival in Albert Park

Checked out a friends cute as a button new home (this was taken on her doorstep)

Went to a barbeque at my sisters (this seems to be the only decent picture I took sorry!)

Eating beautiful (and yummy!) mini cakes made by my boyfriend

Hosting afternoon tea at my place

A few pictures to make up for my lack of regular blog posts!

xx
Lucy

Christmas Part 2/3

Christmas part two was lunch on Christmas day at my house with my sister & her partner, and my father and step mother.  I got up nice and early to bake a lemon-sour cream cake for dessert.. This cake is super moist, and has a perfect balance between sweet and sour. I have given the recipe below.

Sour Cream Lemon Syrup Loaf
(Recipe adapted from a Cuisine magazine)

Ingredients
For the loaf:
125g softened butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
grated rind of 3 lemons
150g sour cream
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Syrup:
Juice of 3 lemons
1/4 Cup sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
In a food processor, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, grated lemon rind, sour cream and vanilla. Then add the flour and baking powder.
Grease either a 20 x 10cm loaf tin, or an 8inch baking tin, lining the bottom with baking paper, before pouring the mixture in.
Here the recipe says to bake for 30mins, however my cake is usually still too soft in the middle, so I tend to bake mine for about 45mins, or until a knife comes out clean.
Cool the cake for about 5mins, and then turn out onto a cooking rack.

While the cake is baking, heat the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Turn the cake upside down, and spoon half this mixture onto it, then let it stand for about 10mins. After 10mins turn the cake over, and spoon the remaining syrup on.  This step is important, as it ensures the cake is evenly soaked in syrup!

Enjoy!

Here are a few more pictures from my Christmas lunch.

The white stack at the back is Injera, a sour Eritrean flatbread. It's eaten with many Eritrean dishes and is one of my most favourite foods!

Dress: Second hand
Belt: Vintage (Christmas gift from my Aunt)
Shoes: Sportsgirl

Pink Flamingos! By the front door to greet visitors.
The tall one has been named Diego,
but the short one is still name-less! Any ideas?

xx
Lucy

Christmas Preperation

 Every Christmas, there is a selection of various traditional family Christmas cookies. A few days ago I went to my Mum's to help bake! It was great fun, although it was very hot and humid... Not ideal baking weather!

Dress: Heartbreaker Fashions
Apron: Made by me
Shoes: Melissa

Two cookie types are covered in chocolate (yum!).

Today I have been busy trying to make my own house look a little more festive.. We decided not to have a Christmas tree this year, however I have some family coming over on Christmas day for lunch, so I felt we needed at least a little bit of Christmas in the house!


With no budget, I had to make do with what I already had... So I made a wreath from styrofoam, covered it in gold crepe paper and leaves, strung some lanterns and added some crepe paper streamers. At least we have a littler bit of Christmas spirit now!

Now I must clean the house, - I somehow managed to get Styrofoam snow everywhere!

xx

Lucy