Red Velvet Cupcakes w Cream Cheese Frosting

I made these cupcakes for a family bbq on the weekend and they were awesome! Not the easiest cupcakes you will ever make, but the little bit of extra effort is well worth it. And the cream cheese frosting is delicious. I now understand all the hype about red velvet cupcakes! I got this recipe from http://www.browneyedbaker.com which has a lot of other awesome recipes! I also made dark chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting (see the photo below) and they were also delicious!! Check them out at http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/06/10/dark-chocolate-cupcakes-with-peanut-butter-frosting/. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 12 cupcakes

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Bake Time: 20 minutes

For the Cupcakes:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2½ tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons red food coloring
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk
1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1½ teaspoons distilled white vinegar

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

4 ounces butter, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2½ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard muffin/cupcake pan with liners.

2. On medium-high speed, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to high and add the egg. Scrape down the bowl and beat until well incorporated.

3. In a separate small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, vanilla extract and red food coloring to make a thick paste. Add to the batter and mix on medium speed until completely combined. You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the bottom of the bowl, making sure that all the batter gets color.

4. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk. Add half of the flour and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with the remaining milk and flour. Beat on high until smooth.

5. Again, reduce the mixer speed to low and add the salt, baking soda and vinegar. Turn to high and beat for another couple of minutes until completely combined and smooth.

6. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a thin knife or skewer inserted into the center of the largest cupcake comes out clean.

7. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove cupcakes from the pan and place them on a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

8. To make the frosting: Using the whisk attachment, whip the butter and cream cheese on high speed for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl down as necessary. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the powdered sugar until all is incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. Increase the speed to medium high and whip for a few minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as necessary.

Try the dark chocolate with peanut butter frosting! http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/06/10/dark-chocolate-cupcakes-with-peanut-butter-frosting/

 

 

 

Thai Fish Curry with Sticky Rice

Thai Fish Curry with Sticky Rice

I haven’t posted anything for ages! We have had a few good meals but the camera hasn’t been around, or I’ve been lacking in time due to study/work/sleep etc. Craig has been asking for fish curry for a while and tonight turned out to be the night. I lost one of my cookbooks in a move recently (if anyone has my Modern Asian book let me know!) and so tonight’s curry resulted in an amalgamation of several recipes found via google. We really loved the curry, it had a nice kick too it, but wasn’t too hot, was really tasty, fresh, very fast and worked perfectly with our favourite sticky rice.

It only takes about half an hour to cook, so its a great option for a midweek dinner. Let me know what you think!

Thai Fish Curry

(Prep time 10mins, cooking time 20mins, serves 6)

Ingredients:

Curry Sauce

1/2 cup fresh coriander stems and leaves, chopped

1 can good-quality coconut milk

4 green onions, sliced (including green stem)

1 thumb-size piece galangal or ginger, grated

4 cloves garlic

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tsp chilli powder (plus or minus depending on how hot you like your curry)

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp brown sugar (or more to taste)

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp shrimp paste (from an Asian grocer, if you don’t have any you can replace it with an extra tbs of fish sauce)

1 fresh red chilli or1  tsp of dried chilli flakes

Curry

1 large fillet of firm white fish ( I used Ling because it was on special at the supermarket!) – see note.

2 cups of fresh vegetables. I use sweet potato, red capsicum and green beans.

A handful of fresh coriander and lemon wedges for serving .

Sticky Rice

3 cups of glutinous/sushi rice and lots of water – see note

Method

1. Put your three cups of rice into a mixing bowl and cover with water, stir until the water becomes cloudy and drain. Repeat this process and the third time keep the rice in the water and allow it to soak for 20 or so minutes. As long as you can. If you don’t have time that’s okay, your rice just wont be as sticky.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C
3. Put all the ingredients required in the curry sauce into a food processor and pulse until it forms a smooth sauce.
4. Place the fish fillet in some aluminium foil and cook in the oven for 8-10minutes.
5. While the fish is cooking, put the sauce into a large pot or wok and bring to the boil. At this stage, drain the rice and add it to the rice cooker with three cups of water. Start cooking the rice!
6. Reduce to a simmer and add the fresh vegetables.
7. Remove the fish from the oven transfer to a bowl and break the the fish into small pieces.
8. Add the fish to the curry sauce and vegetables keep on very low heat until you are ready to serve it/until the rice is ready.
9. Serve with the fresh coriander and a lemon wedge.

Note: You can find glutinous rice, or sushi rice at Asian grocers for about the same price at regular medium or long grain rice. If you don’t have any you can pretty much you any kind of rice, it just wont be as sticky.

You can easily swap the fish for chicken, prawns or keep it as a vegetarian curry. If you want your fish in larger pieces cube it pre cooked and add it to the sauce about five minutes after adding the vegetables. Cook for a further five minutes and the fish should be ready.

Carrot and Walnut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

My Mum, Kim and sisters Camilla, Kimberley and Shanna came over for dinner on Tuesday night and we made this carrot and walnut cake. Craig is not a big desert eater and earlier that night as I was thinking about what to make for desert I had asked him if he wanted me to make carrot cake. He said only if it had walnuts in it. So, we made a carrot and walnut cake, and Craig pretty much ate all that was left for dinner the night after!

I had heaps of carrots and luckily Shan was able to stop by Aldi and pick up some cream cheese (which I pretty much never have) which turns out to be quite a bit cheaper than the other supermarkets (along with icing sugar, eggs, and brown sugar which I had run out of, hahaha)!

This is a good recipe I think. Its nice and soft, moist and the prefect sweetness with the cream cheese frosting. Also I think you feel a little better eating it because it has carrot in it……

(Prep and cooking time 60mins, serves 8)

Ingredients

2 cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 cups grated carrot (approx two large carrots)

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs, lightly beaten

Cream Cheese Frosting

125g cream cheese, softened

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Walnuts to decorate

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease a 6cm-deep, 21cm round cake pan. Line base and sides with baking paper.

Sift flour, spice and cinnamon into a bowl. Add sugar, carrot, chopped walnuts, oil and eggs. Stir to combine. Spread into prepared pan.

Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean (cover loosely with foil if over-browning). Stand in pan for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and lemon rind until smooth. Gradually beat in sugar until smooth.

Spread frosting over cake. Decorate with walnuts. Serve.

Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

For my birthday I received the Jamie Oliver 30 minute meals book. It is unlikely that I will ever actually do one of the complete meals, but there are plenty of great recipes to try. One of the first ones that stood out to me was the Cauliflower macaroni. It looked tasty and had very cheap ingredients. Considering it was part of a 30minute meal I’d say it takes about 25minutes to prepare and cook, with plenty of time for some chatting (or desert making) in the process. It tasted great, and I’d say its  good way to hide vegetables. Who doesn’t love Mac and Cheese!? The crunchy was my favourite and you could do it with or without the bacon. The original recipe had pancetta instead of the bacon, I didn’t have any and I have a freezer full of bacon which worked great instead. Also, I swapped creme fraiche for sour cream, which is pretty similar. It is so easy to buy sour cream here, and not so easy or cheap to buy creme fraiche.

I hope you try this one. Its super easy, delicious, and cheap. Oh and it makes enough to feed about 5,000 people (…8)

Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

(time: 25mins, feeds: 8)

Ingredients

6 rashers of bacon

1 large head of cauliflower

500g dried macaroni

250g cheddar cheese grated

4 thick slices of old bread

a few sprigs of fresh rosemary

2 cloves of garlic crushed

250g sour cream

Salt and Pepper and olive oil

Method

Preheat oven to 220c

Place a large pot of salted water onto the stove and bring to the boil.

Place the rashers of bacon in a large baking dish (big enough for the finished mac and cheese) and place in the hot oven. Allow to crisp up.

While the bacon is cooking, trim the cauliflower of the leaves and stalk and roughly chop into medium sized florets. Add the pasta and cauliflower to the pot of boiling water. Return to the boil and cook until the pasta is cooked but  still a  little on the firm side. Drain the pasta and cauliflower and keep a few cups of the pasta water for later.

By this stage the bacon should be done. Remove the bacon from the oven and then the baking dish and set aside. Keep the oven on. Put the cauliflower and macaroni into the baking dish.

In a food processor combine the bread, rosemary, garlic, cooked bacon and a little olive oil. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Add the cheese and the sour cream to the pasta with about a cup of the pasta water and mix through with some salt and pepper to taste. Add a little more pasta water if you think you need to cook your pasta a little more, or add less water if you pasta is fully cooked. Once combined, pour the breadcrumbs over the top and spread evenly.

Put the cauliflower mac and cheese in the oven and bake for 8-10minutes or until the breadcrumbs on top are nicley browned and crispy and the macaroni and cheese is bubbling.

Serve while still hot!

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

 

I got the idea for this from Kat Brown on Pinterest of course! There is something about being exhausted during a week of night shifts that makes me want to bake. Probably because i’m always baking comfort food. I went to the IGA down the street today and got some old bananas from the boys to make some banana bread. It was DIVINE. The cinnamon makes a beautiful difference to the original.

I did alter the original recipe slightly to suit my pan and my tastes. I prefer my banana bread not too sweet.

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

(Prep time 10mins, cooking time 40mins)

 

Ingredients:

 

For the bread

3 over-ripe bananas, smashed up

1/3 cup melted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

dash of salt

1 1/2 cups flour

 

For the swirl

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180. Butter a loaf pan. Mine was 12 x 22cm, but you could use any sort. Just keep a close eye on it in the oven, and adjust the time as needed
2. Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together. sprinkle baking soda and salt around on top of the banana mixture. Then gently stir in flour. Be careful not to over-mix!
3. In a small dish, mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
4. Add half of the batter to the loaf pan and then sprinkle half, or a little more than half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture all over the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter, and then sprinkle the leftover cinnamon-sugar on top.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Remember, if you’re using a different-sized loaf pan, be careful and keep a close eye on it.

I ate mine still warm, and walked down the street to share it with the boys from the IGA. According to them I’m an ‘absolute legend’!

Notice the steam coming off the bread in the photo!

 

However, I think It will still be delicious cold!

 The link to the original is http://www.lovintheoven.com/2010/03/cinnamon-swirl-banana-bread.html.

Leek and Zucchini Slice

Sometimes you just feel like something simple and healthy and thats how I was feeling today. I wanted lots of flavour without all the carbs, and I wanted some vegetables.

This recipe has been altered to fit leek into it and it came from an ancient recipe book I found at my mums house. Both my mum and mother in law make a great Zucchini slice, so hopefully this one is up to their level!

(Prep time 15mins, cooking time 45mins, serves 6)

Ingredients

2 medium sized zucchinis grated

1 medium leek finely sliced

3 rashers of bacon finely diced

1 large brown onion finely diced

1 lightly packed cup of tasty (cheddar) cheese grated

3/4 cup self raising flour

4 medium eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C

Add the onion leek and bacon to a lightly oiled frying pan on medium heat and cook until the onion and leek are soft but not browned, about 5-7minutes. Once soft, remove from the heat and allow a few minutes for t to cool.

In a bowl combine the grated zucchini (squeeze some of the excess liquid from the zucchini with your hands first), cheese, flour, onion, leek and bacon mixture and salt and pepper. Once combined, add the egg and oil and mix well.

Line a 18x28cm oven proof dish with baking paper and pour the mixture into the dish. Spread evenly and put into the hot oven.

Bake for 45minutes or until nicely browned on top.

Serve hot or cold!

Hugh’s Tarty Lemon Tart

 

Every time I hear the word tart I think of Hugh Laurie’s Prince George in Black Adder and it makes me giggle. Tart is definitely one of my favourite words and deserts! Craig and I both love lemons, we had lemon tart for desert the night Craig proposed and it was the one thing we requested for the menu at our wedding! This is an easy version of a classic desert!

Lemon Tart

(prep time 15mins, cooking time 30mins, serves 8)

 

Ingredients

Sweet shortcrust pastry

1 1/2 (225g) cups plain flour

125g butter, chilled and cut into cubes

1/2 cup (80g) icing sugar

3 egg yolks

1 tbs iced water

Filling

3/4 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup cream

3 eggs, lightly beaten

 

Method

Place the four, butter and sugar in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

While the motor is running, add the egg yolks and water. Process until the dough just comes together.

Turn onto a floured surface and gently bring together to form a ball, flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Roll the dough out between two sheets of non-stick baking paper until it is about 3mm thick.

Line a loose bottomed tart tin with the pastry. Trim edges and prick the base with a fork.

Line the case with non-stick baking paper and fill with baking weights. I didn’t have any so I just used rice.

Bake like this for 15minutes, remove the weights and baking paper and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the pastry is light golden.

Reduce the oven to 140 degrees C.

To make the lemon filling, place the sugar and lemon juice in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk until the sugar dissolves.

Add the egg and cream and stir for 5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Pour the mixture through a strainer into the tart shell . Bake for 20 minutes or until just set.

Allow to cool and refrigerate until completely set. I made a raspberry coulis to go with it which was quite delicious!

Kumiko enjoying some tart

Orange & Poppyseed Cake

 

I worked at a bakery when I was in high school and they made some delicious orange and poppyseed cakes. I brought them home when ever I had the chance. When I saw the recipe for this one in a Donna Hay book I instantly thought to try it. I’ve been house sitting at a friends and she has an AMAZING kitchen, so i’ve been baking all week! Hope you enjoy this one. We certainly did and the nurses at work tomorrow will get to enjoy the leftovers!

(Sorry for the bad picture – it was taken with my phone!)

 

Orange and Poppyseed Cake

(Prep time 15mins, cooking time 60mins, serves 8-10)

Ingredients 

1/3 cup poppy seeds

3/4 cup milk

200g butter, softened

1 tablespoons orange rind, finely grated

3/4 cup caster sugar

3 eggs

2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Syrup 

1 cup sugar

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1/2 cup shredded orange rind

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C. Place the poppy seeds and milk in a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.

Place the butter, orange rind and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift the flour and baking powder over the butter mixture and add the orange juice and poppy seed and milk mixture. Stir to combine and spoon into a 20cm round cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper.

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until cooked; test with a skewer.

While the cake is cooking, make the syrup. Place the sugar, orange juice and orange rind in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil for 5-6 minutes or until syrupy.

Pour half of the hot syrup over the hot cake. To serve, cut the warm or cold cake into wedges and pour over the remaining syrup.

Sultana & Cinnamon Mini Muffins

So………… I bought another cook book. But! It was only $5! It is an Australian Woman’s Weekly book called Super Diet. Foods based around certain diets. For example, the muffins made today were from the gluten-free section. My sister-in-law Holly is gluten intolerant so I am always looking for new dishes to make that are gluten free. Having said that, I didn’t use gluten free flour (Holly is in Adelaide and I’m certain all the muffins will be eaten by then) as the recipe suggests. This would be a good recipe for those allergic to dairy as it requires only milk which I substituted with soy milk. I have started using a soy milk called So Natural. It is in one word – divine. It has a delicious nutty flavour that makes everything taste better and also is nice to drink by itself – so i’m officially hooked.

Also, I’ve decided to make a taste vs ease meter. (not sure if it’ll stick). This recipe is a definite 10. The muffins were super tasty and probably the easiest I have made (other than a packet mix!) The recipe says that the total prep and cooking time is 30mins, but I made up the mixture in 5minutes and cooking time was 15 minutes. So I think the most unpracticed of bakers could do it in max 25mins!

 

(prep and cooking time 25mins, makes 30)

 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup self raising flour (or gluten free baking flour)

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 sultanas

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

 

Cinnamon sugar:

2 tsp caster sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

 

Method

Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan forced).

Line 2 12 hole (1 tbs/20ml) mini muffin pans with paper cases.

Combine flour, sugar, oats and sultanas in a medium bowl.

Whisk milk, oil and egg in a small bowl.

Stir into dry ingredients (do not overmix; mixture should be lumpy).

Divide mixture into paper cases.

Bake for 15minutes (until a skewer poked in the center comes out clean) and when done, remove from oven and turn onto a wire rack.

Combine caster sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle over hot muffins.

 

Its that easy!

 

If you care, here is the nutritional count per muffin:

2.9g total fat (0.5g saturated); 286KJ (64 cal); 8.6g carbohydrate; 1.1g protein; 0.3g fibre.

 

 

 

Iced VoVos

 

One of my favourite biscuits is the Iced VoVo (below). They have a biscuit base, two lines of marshmallow and a line of jam with a light layer of coconut on top. While watching Masterchef a couple of years ago I learnt that these biscuits are Australian, and not sold elsewhere, which means that sadly the rest of the world does not get to enjoy this delicious biscuit. Until now! So this is pretty much a giant Iced VoVo, a delicious vanilla crumbly biscuit base, a layer of jam, topped with toasted marshmallow and coconut. Seriously tasty, and pretty easy to make. Enjoy!

Iced VoVo

(prep and cooking time 45minutes – makes 9 squares in an 8-inch square pan)

 

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 vanilla bean, scraped or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 large egg yolk

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for pressing dough into pan

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon raspberry or strawberry jam

1/4 cup shredded coconut

15 marshmallows, cut in half

 

Method

Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 180C.  Line an 8-inch square pan with baking paper (leaving some overhanging paper flaps on two ends).  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat in vanilla bean scrapings (or vanilla extract) and egg yolk.  Beat until well incorporated.  Stop the mixer and add flour.  Beat on low speed until completely incorporated, (you may need to pat it together with your hands).

Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Sprinkle with flour.  With clean fingers, press the dough into the bottom of the pan.  Use a bit more flour as necessary so that the dough doesn’t stick to your fingers.  Try to make the crust as even as possible.

Bake crust for 20-24 minutes until golden brown around the edges, but still slightly soft in the center.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes.

Run a thin butter knife around edges of the pan.  Use the two parchment paper flaps to carefully remove the crust from the pan.  Run a butter knife between the crust and the paper and carefully slide the crust from the paper and onto a unlined baking sheet.

Top crust with a thin layer of raspberry or strawberry jam.  Arrange marshmallows on top of jam.  Return to the 180C oven for about 4 minutes.  This will warm and soften the marshmallows.  Remove from the oven and turn the grill onto high.  Use the back of a spoon to gently press and smash the top of each marshmallow.

Once all the marshmallows are smashed, place in the grill.  Keep a very very very very close eye on the marshmallows.  They’ll toast in seconds.  They’ll burn in seconds.

Remove toasted marshmallow cookie from the oven.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.  Cookies can be served slightly warm or at room temperature.  Cookies can be left, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days.