Last Friday was my boyfriend's 29th birthday. One of his greatest culinary loves in life is custard. So when I was brainstorming ideas for a nice-looking, fondant-free cake that pandered to his tastes, I just knew it had to involve custard.
Author Archives: cakecrumbs
Cook Book Challenge: Week 16
Unlike almost every other week of this challenge, I actually have no idea where this recipe book came from. It may have been another op-shop find from years ago, or it may have been one my mum had and never used and ended up leaving for me. It's so tiny that it was hidden amongst my much bulkier books, long since forgotten. But while digging through recipe books looking for one to try this week, I found it and decided to have a flip through.
This one is Margaret Fulton's "Book of French Cooking". After a few savoury challenges, it was time to pursue the dessert section once more.
I didn't get much further than the Mousse à l'Orange. A sweet mousse without chocolate?
I was intrigued…
Strawberry Sorbet
I've never tried to make ice cream or sorbet because I don't have an ice cream machine thinger and I'd always heard it's really annoying without one.
Turns out it's super easy.
Cook Book Challenge: Week 15
This weeks recipe comes from the second book mentioned in my CBC post last week that was full of epicness:
I've cooked several times out of this book already. I love it.
The one I am choosing to share for the cook book challenge is Chicken and Banana Squares.
Does that sound as repulsive to you as it did to me what I first saw it? Couple with the fact I hate cooked banana – why would anyone want to eat that with chicken?
It sounded so gross it made me insanely curious. I just had to try this.
The result was surprising.
Lemon Chicken in Phoenix Nest
Honey chicken and lemon chicken are both one of my favourite Chinese dishes. I often order them when I go out, but I make it much less often. Making this reminded of why I should make the effort more often.
Cook Book Challenge: Week 14
I'm not really a believer in New Years resolutions. But if I came close to having one, it was that I was definitely going to keep up to date with the Cook Book Challenge. Well, it's nearly the end of Feb and I'm yet to do it once.
I guess the reason there is that I basically haven't been home to cook. I've been so flat out that I pretty much skipped dinner in favour of sleep. My now my schedule is starting to slow down (i.e. working from home rather than doing 16 hour days on top of a 3 hour commute) so I've been able to return to cooking over the last week.
This coincided with my dad giving me yet another two books from the op-shop. Both these books had so many appetising recipes inside it really got the desire to cook returning.
Anniversary Gift
Originally I had planned on doing a regular sized cake as part of a gift to my boyfriend for our 5 Year Anniversary, but there were so many Valentine’s leftovers I thought I’d just make a little something.
It was at this same point I was trying to work out how to wrap/present his anniversary gift, when I was also trying to decide what to have the teddy holding. That was when I decided – why wrap a gift when you can put it on a cake instead?
Valentine’s Day bakerage
I've been really bad keeping up with the baking scene this year, but I definitely had to make time for some Valentine's Day baking.
Hearts. Always with the heart-shaped desserts in Feb.
My boyfriend loves two things: cheesecake and custard. So I decided to draw on his loves and combine them into four heart-shaped delectables for him to nom on Valentine's Day.
Pirate Dreams
Were you ever one of those kids who used to sneak-read?
Your parents would tell you lights out and you'd pretend to sleep until you could hear they were out of range. Then you'd sneak a torch, or any handy light source, under the covers and get stuck into a novel, heart beating from the adrenaline at the thought of getting caught.
And just sometimes, you'd be so into the book that you'd fall asleep. Still engrossed in the story, your dreams would follow suit — you lived the story with eyes wide shut as you dreamed the hours away. That's exactly what happened to this little boy…
Candy Cane Cookie Garnishes
One of my favourite things after a massive feast is a warm drink to cleanse the pallet and help digest — or to at least trick yourself into feeling so.
I love making a little something to go with the warm drinks at a party. Chocolate dipped spoons are an often revisited idea, but my theme this Christmas was to try things I had never done before. Cue brainstorming session.
The result was a resolve to try edible garnishes. My first thought was to try mini gingerbread houses. But a) that would be overdoing the gingerbread-ness, and b) I couldn't think of a way to do it that wouldn’t take up considerable mug space and result in either half filled cups or soggy cookies.
In the end I decided to alter one of my favourite sugar cookie recipes and fashion another Christmas icon out of them: candy canes.
Cakecrumbs 