The Bargain Queenposted up a nifty hooded red coat from DKNY. While I’d love a full fairytale hooded red wool cape (must add that to my to-make list!), what’s so nice about this is that it only hints at the storybook so remains perfectly respectable and ever so wearable. It’s the sort of thing that brightens not only your winter day but I’d hope, anyone else with imagination who might happen to chance upon you. Would definitely snatch it up if it were in my size and they would deliver to Australia.
The thought of hoods couldn’t help but remind me of the soooo wonderful Bonds hoodie ad (by The Campaign Palace) with Sarah O’Hare/Murdoch (can’t remember which she was when they made it) with Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ “Lil’ Red Riding Hood“.
The unadulterated song…
And a cover by Bowling for Soup set to anime!
And YouTuber Brooke’s really rather rather good version (she has a website):
Discovered via Taste and Tell during the great brownie hunt of 2007, the Daring Bakers is a blogroll of talented bakers who post about their culinary exploits – not all baking but all good. It is fun to close your eyes and randomly choose a blog to visit but be warned… any one of these blogs on the list will make you very very hungry.
A friend of my boyfriend’s had a habit of whipping up brownies at her parties (usually around midnight or one am) – it was indeed a good habit to have (for us anyway). They were amazing, soft, chewy and thoroughly unhealthy tasting – an all round great tasting brownie. When I asked her for the recipe, she just told me it was in the Donna Hay cookbook. But which one? Amazon lists 69! Fortunately for me, my housemate happened to have a few of her books and pulled out a brownie recipe. It was simple (the sort one could whip up at odd times of the early morning if inclined) and it was decadent. It had to be it.
There was more than one batch of those brownies done but I stopped baking and the housemate moved to another city with the cookbook and I found myself on Wednesday night having a terrible brownie craving and no recipe. I had STUPIDLY never written the damn thing down.
I searched all over the internets and found some lovely brownie recipes including a few that were from Donna:
But no simple one-pot, no melting of chocolate bits brownie recipe. So then I had the brilliant idea of calling the ex-housie and asking her which cookbook it came from – she was after all in just a different city not a different country! It was Off The Shelf. And here is the so simple, one could almost do it blindfolded, recipe:
Mix the following ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth:
250g soft butter
1 1/3 cups plain (all-purpose – ie not self-raising) flour
2 1/4 cups sugar (I used brown sugar)
3/4 cup cocoa
4 eggs
1/4 tsp Baking powder
Spoon it into a baking tin and cook for 40-50 mins in a 170C oven. I had quite a big tin so the stuff was spread fairly thinly – I reckon I probably could have gone 35 mins for extra gooey-ness.
For an Americanised version of the recipe and a picture of them as adorable cupcakes check out Taste and Tell’s Browniebabe.
The good thing about this recipe is that because it’s so dense, it keeps moist for ages (well, if you can stop people eating them – very hard!).
Heard the Cody ChesnuTT song on the way home from work so it was in my head. The only way to get it out of there is to play it a million times on YouTube (at least that’s the theory). This is the censored version (it’s only one word that’s smudged out).
Last week was cupcake week at work – not officially, though that is an idea… – one person brought in leftover cupcakes and this inspired another to make up a wonderful batch with rosewater meringuey icing. I did my part by going past a cafe that sells my favourite cupcakes in the world (they are only mini but perfectly decorated and they taste exactly like you’d hope pretty cupcakes will). But once you start the cupcake train, you just can’t stop it and my cupcakes would have all gone at the cupcake so it meant I just had to make my own.
Now, I haven’t ever had the greatest success with cupcakes, they’ve always been perfectly edible but just never hit the particularly high mark I set for cupcakes (except for my blissfully decorated little wonders, I can’t eat store bought cupcakes). It was suggested to me that what one needs is a Kitchen Aid (or presumably another good quality stand mixer) in order to get the required fluffy-ness for that sweet sweet sponge. I’d always done them by hand or I once tried a hand held beater and it wasn’t that great either. Fortunately for me, I was the happy recipient of a Kitchen Aid mixer quite a few birthdays ago but it was gathering dust at my parents’ due to lack of space. So I promised my dearly beloved that if he made some space for the mixer, I’d bake him something. Appealing to the stomach works every time – the record player found a new home and I got my little helper back again.
So to find a recipe – I ended up just typing in “best cupcake recipe” into Google and getting some amazing sites dedicated to the versatile cupcake. There’s a whole universe of cupcakes out there. Some of them completely blow my mind. Still when it comes down to it, my favourite cupcake is just plain vanilla sponge with a good vanilla butter icing.
(Way more than) 52 cupcakeshighly recommended the Magnolia Bakery recipe (pdf) from More from Magnolia. Tried it out and was indeed very nice. The Kitchen Aid made a huge difference, I discovered textures that I’d never seen in my cupcake batter before. In the end I got a cupcake that was sufficiently cupcake tasting so I was very happy. I took them into work and they went down very well too. A word of warning, the icing is very sweet so I only put a light covering but if you want to get fancy 52 cupcakes’ Cupcake Queen describes how she gets those pretty pretty swirls:
It took a some practice, let me tell you!
Basically, I used a small icing knife. First I put a scoop of frosting on the cupcake so that it covers all the way to the side and flattened out on top. Then I put more frosting in the middle of the cupcake. Then I drag the knfe around in a wide circle (while rotating the cupcake in my other hand) that gets smaller in the center.
It makes at least 24 cupcakes but I got 33 out of it because my cupcake liners were a tad smaller. I also only used about a third of the icing so I might make another batch on the weekend. I’ve made a few small changes (made it metric and changed sugar to castor sugar and confectioner’s sugar to icing sugar).
Yummy but very sweet Magnolia Bakery cupcakes
Cupcake 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour 1 1/4 cups plain flour 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 2 cups castor sugar 4 large eggs, room temperature 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Line at least 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners. In a bowl add flours and stir to mix together. Preferably in a stand mixer, cream butter on medium until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat for another 3 minutes until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beating well after each addition. Add the flours in three parts, alternating with the milk and the vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overmix. However, don’t be too disconcerted if it looks like the mixture looks like it might curdle – it did with mine and I was worried I might have overbeat at the egg addition stage. I probably did with my excited reunion with my Kitchen Aid, but all the same they turned out perfectly fine.
Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners – don’t fill too high – 3/4 is generally suggested but I filled them to the top of the liner and it was fine. Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 15-20 minutes. Remove cakes from tins and cool on a wire rack. Top with the Icing.
Vanilla Buttercream Icing 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 6-8 cups icing sugar (eek!) 1/2 cup milk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Beat butter with 4 cups icing sugar and milk and vanilla for 3-5 mins on medium until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the remaining icing sugar beating well after each addition (approx 2 mins) until the icing makes for good spreading consistency. I would recommend not using all of the icing as it is very sweet. You can tint it all colours of the rainbow but apparently pink is the most popular. I try to keep them additive free as far as possible and the plain icing is a pretty yellow colour from the butter. I had some fairy sugar crystals and balls in pink and lavender so I relented and sprinkled them on.
Since making them, the Cupcake Queen has moved to choosing this recipe from Billy’s Bakery as her favourite. That will be next on my cupcake making list I do believe…
Today, one of the cupcake making work friends made some tasty chocolate and raspberry brownies. So it reminded me of my perfect and brilliant simple Donna Hay recipe but I couldn’t find it anywhere (it was in the cookbook of a flatmate who has since moved out). I was stunned that I hadn’t noted it down on my blog anywhere. I did a search for Donna Hay’s brownies but to no avail, I got some very complicated ones that involved melting chocolate. I knew that wasn’t my baby, so I ended up having to ring up my old flatmate. I found it and I made them, the batter was like icing – way too sinful. They’re cooked and waiting to cool, the whole house smells of brownies. It might have to be breakfast as I’m about to nod off. I won’t make the mistake of forgetting to note down the recipe, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.
So I’m a wood rabbit and according to Facebook Chinese Zodiac Horoscope app, this is my horoscope today…
You’ll do your best to secure a position where you’ll be the least
accountable to others, even though this must be done at the cost of a
lowering of your life level. You’ll discard your natural shyness and
will show audacity if circumstances demand it. The Moon will prepare
for natives of the sign more than one amorous surprise, instances of
love at first sight which will be without a future but will be amusing
and diverting. But it can also bring about a sudden and unforeseen
rupture!
Lowering of my life level? Sounds like it’s gone through Google Translator. It has a most cute picture though…
It is fun to close your eyes and randomly choose a blog to visit but be warned… any one of these blogs on the list will make you very very hungry.
