Home-made Pretzels: Cinnamon and Choc Chip varieties

The inspiration for making pretzels came from the oddest of places. I was reading the beautiful story of a young kid called Anthony Smith. He suffers from Mosaic trisomy 22 and as such has no hearing in his left ear, and only minimal hearing in his right. At 4 years of age, he refused to wear his hearing device, a blue ear, because superheroes didn't have to.

His mother contacted Marvel comics asking for help. Not only did they reply, they sent Anthony comics of Hawkeye from the 80s when he lost his hearing and had to wear a hearing aid. They then sent him a drawing of a superhero they created just for him, called Blue Ear, who uses a listening device to hear trouble. Amazing. He took the pictures to school and his school threw a superhero week for him. Anthony now uses his Blue Ear and is improving rapidly in school with its use.

I loved the story so much I started looking for videos. In one, there were a few feel-good shots of Anthony and his mother were making pretzels together. They looked so delicious instantly I had the overwhelming urge to go make some.

I'm a little weird like that.

Twisty goodness after the jump…

Majora’s Mask Cake

This is something I'd been wanting to do for ages, but with final assignments and exams and field work to be done, baking was just not something I had time for – let alone cake decorating.

Last week I finished my final assignments and finally got time to do this. If you are a fan of the Zelda franchise, or even just a Nintendo64 kid, you'll know what this is.

This is Majora's Mask from the Legend of Zelda game of the same name. It is a powerful, ancient mask that harnesses a great, evil power. It was used by an ancient tribe in their hexing rituals until they sealed it away because of this power. It was recovered by a mask salesman, then subsequently stolen from him by a mischievous imp, called the Skull Kid, intending only to have a bit of fun with it. He is quickly consumed by the mask's power and, through the Skull Kid, Majora seeks to destroy Termina by bringing the moon down upon it.

For a lot of Zelda fans, this is their favourite game. It's not mine – I was too disappointed at the time that they re-used so much from Ocarina of Time to be completely blown away by it the same way I was with OoT. But that's not to say I didn't, and still don't, love every minute of playing it. I was sold at getting to ride Epona as a foal. But really, what's not to love?

Eventually, I plan on making my way through all the masks of the game in cupcake form. The final products will be irregular thanks to my research and the impending thesis I need to write, but I'm determined to finish this project in its entirety.

For now, here is the most important mask from the game.

Lots more Majora, with progress pictures…

Joconde Imprime with Bumble Bee Mousse Entremet

I've been wanting to try a joconde imprime for years. I'd always been a bit intimidated by it, so I filed it under O for "one day" and never gave it any serious thought. But when this months theme challenge on was "layers", I knew it was high time I gave this a go. I'd been looking for an excuse to do another honeycomb topper anyway and had been searching for the perfect dessert to do it with.

I knew I wanted the joconde to be patterned with chocolate stripes, but it was the entremet I couldn't decide on. There were just so many options. I'd tried a dessert with chocolate mousse and layers of honeycomb before, but the honeycomb dissolved and the beautiful layers I'd imagine became one disjoined, albeit delicious, mess. I was chatting to my boyfriend about this first world dilemma when he said, "What about bumble bee mousse?"

I felt like I was in my very own Old El Paso commercial. 

Genius

He’s not just a pretty face…

Trio of Custard

After making the mini pavlova, I had 6 egg yolks to cull. So I made a carbonara for dinner and turned to custard for dessert.

A couple weeks ago when shopping for something else, I found this cute little platter set on sale for $15. I was dying to use it for something, so it seemed the perfect excuse.

I love me some crème brûlée, and my boyfriend is a custard-loving fiend, so I decided to have some fun with our various favourites.

Three times the deliciousness…

Cook Book Challenge: Week 20

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…

Cherry Ladybirds and Honey Bees…

Yesterday was the Zoology Department's Annual Bake-off. It's a fundraiser run by the social club every year and attracts quite a list of bakers. I'm not sure how long it's been going for as I've only been a post-grad since last year, but my impression is that it's usually a free-for-all. Last year I made the Dragon's Lair Cake for it and walked away with both Judge's and People's Choice awards. But this year the theme was limited to cupcakes and cookies. 

It took me ages to think of something different to make. Eventually I came up with this idea for the bees, and everything fell into place from there.

Heaps of pictures of the cupcakes and chatter about the winners under the cut…

White Chocolate Crème Brûlée

One of my biggest kitchen dilemmas is working out to do with the leftover halves of the eggs when a recipe requires only one part of it. Egg whites aren't as bad as you can freeze them, but egg yolks only last a few days and don't survive the freezer so well.

After making the Pavlova Roulade, I had 6 of them to use up. The easiest way to use a large amount up, other than giving them to my puppy, is to make something custardy. I also had plenty of cream leftover from party baking so I decided a crème brûlée was in order. I'd made a chocolate one before, but I've never even so much as seen a white chocolate crème brûlée before.

Time to experiment. 

Crack the toffee open…

Chocolate Crackle and Peanut Caramel Slice

Chocolate crackles have such a power over me. They're one of those food items that can reduce me to giggly fits of glee at the thought of making them. You're never too old to enjoy that simple treat, but this slice offers a way to deliver them with a little more class than usual. 

I've been waiting for the perfect excuse to make this. So when I threw a get together this weekend just gone these were the first thing on my list of party food. 

Much more on these spheres of crackley heaven…

Chocolate Flower Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how I created the flower used for the topper on my birthday cake. This technique is so unbelievable easy that anyone can do it. And I mean anyone

This makes use of an age-old technique that has been used in craft projects to create a whole plethora of hollow, spherical objects. Most of us have used this to create papier-mâché creatures or ornaments at some point in our lives, so translating this process to the world of edible creations is a small step.

This technique can be used not just for flowers, but also for making edible dessert cups.
Time for a photo-spammy tutorial…