Author Archives: cakecrumbs

Mini Pavlovas with Kiwifruit Sorbet

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It took me quite a while to decide what to pair the kiwifruit sorbet with. I had one of those moments where you're lying in bed, trying to sleep but the cogs in your brain are ticking overtime. Amongst the jumble of other thoughts about everything from the housework to what data analysis should I be using for my Zoology experiment, jumped out a single word: Pavlova.

Pavlova? Pavlova! Seriously, I will jump at any excuse to make a pav. Given we're in winter now, there's not the same lovely variety of fruit to top them with, so this sorbet fill the gap nicely.

Break one open…

Cook Book Challenge: Week 22

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Unlike last week, I was really looking forward to delving into this week's cook book. Second on the list is Stephanie Alexander's "Kitchen Garden Companion".

This is a really neat book. The book deviates from the usual entrée/main/dessert structure of cookbooks. Instead, it works its way alphabetically through a list of garden ingredients: herbs, spices, fruit and vegetables. The header of each recipe features the name of the ingredient that starts in the dish. Not only is it unique, but I find it really handy for when you have something you need to use up, but can't think of a good use for it.

I had so much fun flipping through the book that I became spoilt for choice…

Meringue Tutorial

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Meringue is one of those Achilles' heel things for a lot of bakers. So many people have trouble with it or flat out avoid it because they are afraid of it. I'm here to tell you that it doesn't have to be scary. It's actually a really simple thing to make.

All of us bakers have something, or sometimes many things (guilty), that trip us up. I guess I was lucky in that I took to meringue pretty quickly. I had it collapse on me once and I knew why and made sure never to make this mistake again. Let me share with you the tips and tricks to getting a perfect meringue every time.

Meringue step-by-step + Swiss Meringue Tutorial…

Happy Birthday Pupcakes

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Have you guys met my son? He's fluffy, has 4 legs and is often seen hovering in the back of my dessert photos desperately trying to guilt me into sharing with him. He's a Siberian husky and his name is Tobias.

This is what he looked like when he became mine 22 months ago:

I've always been a bit of an animal person. Animals are my life, more than anything else in this world. My love for them is why I'm now a Zoologist. I love the wild critters, but I have a great fondness of the domesticated ones, too. I've not lived a second of my life without having a pet of one kind or another. I'd feel lost without their company. For most of it, I've lived with a virtual menagerie of them, thanks to all the rescue cases we've inherited. But right now, it's just me and Tobias. And the aquarium.

Today is his second birthday.

He's quite a lot bigger…

Cook Book Challenge: Week 21

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For the next 10 weeks of the challenge, I'll be going through this Mini Cookbook Collection. This set of books was a collection released by The Herald Sun. I don't read that propaganda paper, but my dad is a big fan of it. So he picked up the collection for me.

It features a bunch of recipes from these cook's actual recipe books, meant as a teaser to encourage you to buy the real thing. At $2 a pop, it was hard to resist the little taste test,

First cab off the rank is Jamie Oliver’s "Jamie Does…"

Strawberry Cookies and Cream Cakes

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Last week while I was grocery shopping I was heading down my favourite aisle (baking!) when I passed a giant wall of Oreos at the end of the aisle. They were on sale for $1 each. Score. I'm sure normal peoples first thought would have been, "Yum, Oreos". Mine was, "Yay, cupcakes!" I grabbed a box of the strawberry ones and chucked them in the trolley.

It took me a while to decide on what I wanted to do. My initial thought had been cupcakes, perhaps buttercakes baked with fresh strawberries inside. But in the end I went for something a little different.

First you twist it…

Cook Book Challenge: Week 20

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Cheesecake is one of my boyfriend's favourite things, but I don't make it very often. I'm always forgetting to grab cream cheese when I do the shopping, and when I finally do I often fall short of inspiration and forget to use it. I was wondering around the supermarket picking up some random items when I came across some savoiardi sponge biscuits on special and recalled this cheesecake I'd been intending to make for a while. So I grabbed some cream cheese and some mascarpone cheese and headed straight home to whip this up.   

This cheesecake comes from one of my all time favourite books: The Australian Woman's Weekly's "Cupcakes, Cheesecakes and Cookies". It combines their three separate books into one, and as a bonus is cheaper to buy than buying the other three books separately. It's full of delicious recipes. I've baked so much from this book, whether it be the whole recipe or just a portion of it. One day I will bake it cover to cover. 

Cut yourself a slice…

Back To Basics :: Kitchen Tips and Tricks #4

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In the last Back to Basics post, I tackled some of the conversion issues that arise due to us all being separated by a common language. Now I'm going to cover the ingredients I get asked about a lot.

The amount of American visitors to this blog outnumber the Australian 3:1. I always use Australian terms for ingredients, which can be confusing for those not familiar with Australian recipes. Here's a few of the ingredient questions I get asked all the time:

What is…?

Bunny Birthday Tier

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Cake commissions are one of my most loved and most hated things. I love making something inspired by the ideas of someone else, of taking a concept and running with it. But it's also terrifying. I'm the worst decision maker in the world and want to double-check every tiny aspect with the person, which is difficult as half the time the person wanting the cake doesn't even know what fondant is. I spend the whole time fretting about doing it wrong.

This cupcake tier was commissioned for a 21st birthday party. The brief was for fondant covered mudcake cupcakes, coloured hot pink and white with 21s and playboy bunnies.

Follow the white rabbit…