Sunday Brunch is ...

my favourite meal of the week. And one of our favourite places to go is Oxford St in Bulimba, a street filled with dozens of cafes, restaurants, quirky fashion boutiques and the Balmoral cinemas (our local).

Today we went to the Riverbend Teahouse, a gorgeous bookshop and cafe that is pretty well known in these parts. We arrived just after 10am and the place was buzzing. They were totally full but we managed to grab a couple of seats at the bar overlooking the street. I actually preferred this to being seated in the midst of heaps of people.

N always has a something sweet when we go out for breakfast whereas I'm the opposite. I can't handle too much sugar first thing in the morning, and I also like to choose things I wouldn't normally make at home. Today N chose a waffle stack with apple and sultana compote, poached peaches and marscapone. Delicious! (No photo of this one).

I had a poached egg (on the way out we noticed the menu said there were supposed to be 2 eggs?) on a spinach and fetta muffin with verjuice hollondaise. It was divine. The muffin was crumbly and salty and contrasted beautifully with the softness of the egg and smooth hollondaise.


We also had a 'jungle juice' each - I had orange, pineapple and mint, N had apple, cranberry and ginger. Both were delicious!

If you're in Brisbane I highly recommend checking out Riverbend. Just remember to book!

Riverbend Books and Teahouse

Peach and Cardamom Trifle

Are you sick of cake and cream yet? I nearly am and that's saying something!

I made this trifle for a Christmas in July dinner with the family this weekend. Trifle was always my favourite dessert when I was little - filled with bought jam roll, lots of red and green jelly and artificially yellow custard. These days I have (slightly) more sophisticated tastes.

This trifle is built around homemade sponge cake with a filling of dried peaches and orange slices which are poached in a sugar syrup subtly spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and brandy. Yum! The kitchen smelt absolutely divine with this bubbling away on the stove. And quite Christmas-y too I think.

It also gave me a chance to use one of our gorgeous wedding presents - a Krosno glass salad bowl - which works really well for this. (Thanks Beth!)

Sponge Cake
From Modern Classics Book 2 by Donna Hay, p75

1 1/4 cups plain flour
6 eggs
3/4 caster sugar
60g butter, melted

Preheat oven to 180 deg C (I did 160 deg fan forced).
Grease two shallow 20cm (8in) round cake tins and line the bases with baking paper.

Sift flour 3 times and set aside.

Place the eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until thick and pale and tripled in volume.

Sift the flour over the egg and sugar mixture and gently fold through using a metal spoon. Then fold through the melted butter.

Pour half the mixture into each tin and bake for 25 minutes or until the cakes are springy to touch and come away from the sides of the tin.

Cool on wire racks. Decorate as desired (I would normally fill them either jam and cream or lemon curd and dust with icing sugar). Serves 8-10.




Peach and Cardamom Trifle
Recipe from Notebook Magazine, Sept 05, p158 (as seen on Taste.com.au)

1 plain unfilled sponge cake (in 2 layers)
200g Dried Peaches, cut in slices
1/4 cup (60ml) brandy
3 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp orange rind, finely grated
1/2 cup (125ml) orange juice
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
2 oranges, peeled, sliced
500g Pauls Premium Vanilla Custard (or any custard you like - I would have made it myself but we had run out of eggs)
flaked almonds, toasted

Place one cake layer in the base of a 2-litre (8-cup) capacity glass serving bowl.

Place the dried peaches in a medium saucepan with brandy, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, orange rind, orange juice, sugar, and 3/4 cup (185ml) water. Place over high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until peaches soften. Add orange slices and then set aside for 10 minutes to cool.

Spoon half the peach mixture over the oranges and top with vanilla custard. Repeat layering with remaining cake, orange slices, peach mixture and custard.

Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight to develop the flavours.

To serve, top with lightly whipped cream and sprinkle with toasted flaked almonds.


(Sorry for all the condensation on the bowl - it doesn't make for great pics!)

The taste test ...

Overall it got a big thumbs up from everyone. I think next time though I will make double the syrup and simmer the spices in it before adding the fruit. The cinnamon and cardamom flavours weren't as pronounced as I hoped they would be. But it was still delicious and a great end to the meal.

Cupcake Hero: Red, White & Blue

Wow, another first!

This post is my first ever entry to Cupcake Hero, the brainchild of Laurie at Quirky Cupcake. This month's theme was chosen by Nikki and Clara. As soon as I saw what the theme was I had an idea of what I would do but the 'blue' element threw me a bit. While it seemed like a bit of a cop-out to go with blueberries, I am very anti food colouring and honestly there's nothing else blue! Even blueberries are actually purple. Oh well.

Basically I wanted to keep it simple, so I chose a snowy white angel food cupcake covered with sweetened whipped cream, luscious red strawberries and topped with a blueberry!

Angel Food Cupcakes
Recipe from Not Quite Nigella
Ingredients are unchanged but I did change the method slightly. You can find the original recipe at the link above.


5 egg whites at room temperature
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup pure icing sugar, sifted
1/2 cup plain flour

Preheat oven to 180°C (I did 160°C fan forced)

Line cupcake tray with paper liners (I had enough mix to make 7 jumbo sized, but you would easily make 12-14 normal sized cupcakes)

Beat egg whites and lemon juice together until frothy. Add vanilla and cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sifted icing sugar until stiff peaks form.

Sift flour 3 times, then gently fold it into the egg white mixture using a metal spoon until just combined.

Spoon into prepared cupcake trays. They will not rise during cooking so fill as high as you want the cake to go. Smooth the tops with knife.

Bake for approx 15-20 minutes (I did 20 minutes – they were golden brown and had shrunk in from the sides. I noticed they still sank a little while cooling but they were perfectly cooked)

Decorate however you like!


I also did one a bit differently - I cut out the centre piece of cupcake and filled it with a mixture of whipped cream and pureed strawberries. I replaced the top piece of cupcake then covered it with cream and a drenching of dessicated coconut. And of course another blueberry on top. This was actually delicious! The coconut gave it some textural interest and the pink cream in the middle was really pretty.


I'm looking forward to next month already!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Pudding

Ok so i'm not an official member of Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) but I've been following along for a while now. To be a member you not only need a food blog but you need to own the cookbook the group is based on, Baking: from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. We received a ton of gorgeous cookbooks for our wedding a few months ago so I really can't justify splurging on another one right now!

This week's TWD is hosted by It's Melissa's Kitchen. But I'm lucky enough that this week's recipe for Chocolate Pudding is already online at Dorie's own website. We're not supposed to publish the recipe so just click here to find it.

Having never made pudding before I wasn't totally sure what to expect. For most Australians 'pudding' can mean just a dessert in general, or something like a self-saucing chocolate pudding or steamed pudding that you would enjoy at Christmas time with lots of custard. Yum!

To me this chocolate pudding is like a firm chocolate mousse or chocolate custard. It is made with milk and eggs like a traditional custard, just with a few more ingredients.


I made one hell of a mess preparing this as you can see from the photo below. Next time I might streamline the process a bit and hopefully use fewer pots and pans. There was also a lot of in and out of the food processor that was a bit fiddly. Apart from that it's really simple to make.


The taste test ...


Well what can I say? It was absolutely sublime! Smooth, silky and incredibly chocolatey. I used Lindt Intense Mint chocolate for the pudding which added a different dimension of flavour. I topped them with some pure whipped cream and a shaving of Lindt 70% chocolate over the top.

I would definitely make this again.

Next Tuesday we will be making Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler. N loves rhubarb so he'll be happy!

Beginnings

This is my first post and I'm not quite sure how to begin. Basically this blog will be a place for me to record my recipes and my thoughts, both mundane and momentous, in what is already a pretty significant year (more on that later). So without any fanfare, welcome to food.baby!

As today is Bastille Day, here is my take on Palmiers which are flaky and delicious French pastries.

Palmiers

2 sheets ready made Puff Pastry (I may progess to homemade at some point but not today!)
1/2 cup raw sugar
2 ts cinnamon

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl then sprinkle a quarter of the mixture on a chopping board or bench roughly in the shape of the puff pastry. Place 1 sheet of the pastry on top and press to make the sugar mixture stick. Sprinkle another quarter of the sugar mix on top and coat thoroughly.

Now to shape them. Starting with the left hand side, gently roll up the pastry into a log but only as far as the middle. Then roll the right hand side in towards the middle. Using a sharp knife cut the log into 12 even pieces. Turn each individual piece on its side (cut side facing up) and flatten slightly. Repeat with the other sheet of pastry.

Arrange on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 deg C for 15 minutes, turning each one half way through.

Golden puff pastry with caramelised sugar and cinnamon ... what could be better!