blueberry & lemon cake with sour cream glaze

"Hey, Alanna, will you put up that recipe for the lemon and blueberry cake?"

"Why, yes, Sally. Yes, I can."

You know it's a good thing when people ask for the recipe. If you're not convinced just by the demand, my question to you is this: how delicious would you like your house to smell? 100 deliciouses? Okay. Now bake this cake. It is one of those fragrant, buttery, homely cakes that you'll want to eat out of the hot tin with a fork. But don't do that, because it needs to cool down and be turned out to be iced, and everyone (especially my mother) knows that icing is the best part.

whipped dark chocolate ganache

I was baking wedding cakes with my friend Hanna the other day and we were stacking some {secret} caramel mud cakes with layers of white chocolate ganache when we realised the ganache we had made was far too runny to support the weight of the cake. "Oh well, we'll have to make some more", I thought; right as Hanna declared "It's okay, I'll just whip it."So she whipped it... and it was amazing!

Whaaaaaa? I didn't know that was a thing!

Anyway, now I do, and now I want to use it on every cake because it is rich, fluffy and oh so spreadable. I thought I should share it with you, in case any of you lovely people have missed this little phenomenon as well!

little citrus cakes & browned buttercream

It is no secret that I am obsessed with browned butter. I truly believe it is the best form in which butter can exist. This is one of my all time favourite recipes, I've shared this browned butter pecan pie recipe with you, and I've even written a patronising post on how to brown butter for those who are yet to discover this culinary delight. So simple, so rewarding.

I don't know why the thought hadn't occurred to me - to turn it into icing - but when I stumbled upon it during a casual internet food blog trawl, I discovered that it was an actual thing that people have been doing for years. It is difficult to describe the taste - nutty, caramel-y, a much deeper flavour than your average buttercream. It is very easy to make, and particularly shines when paired with citrus fruits. Try it with some little citrus cakes!

fig tart & a new adventure

I have two very exciting things to share with you today. Number one, I made a delicious tart out of figs and pecans and maple syrup. Number two, I've totally levelled up in the blogesphere game by becoming a guest blogger! (ha, I'm such a dork.)

But seriously, over the last few months I've had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know a whole bunch of creative, blogging geniuses across Sydney. One such lady goes by the name of Nia Neve, and she is proving to be just as cool as her name sounds. She has the most lovely blog and is the mastermind behind the whole #postaparcel operation that has taken instagram by storm. (If you want to learn more about postaparcel click here, here & here.) Little did I know that while I was busy putting a parcel together, Nia was stalking this blog and hatching a plan for me to become a regular contributor to Life & Co. I was seriously so blown away by her proposition and am so excited to work with her.

So, voila! The guest blogging begins with a warm, gooey, autumnal fig tart that is sure to please fig lovers and fig doubters alike. Head on over to Life & Co for the recipe and more pictures!

strawberry & rose petal jam

Strawberries are crazy cheap in Sydney at the moment! 

I grew up in Asia, where we did not have access to any of the colder climate fruits (think berries, peaches, nectarines...). We could eat all the mango, honeydew melon, and coconut we wanted - but berries were not an option. No, berries were the things of fairy tales, the things you ate once you'd travelled the long journey home to the far-off land of Australia. As a result some part of my brain still thinks of strawberries as an incredibly luxurious fruit, bought only in small proportions for special occasions. I've been back in Sydney for twelve years already and I still can't shake the feeling that turning a whole bowlful of beautiful fresh strawberries into a little jar of jam is doing them an injustice! 

But it isn't! Because when the strawberries cost less than a jar of store bought jam, and the jam tastes this good - justice is served in the berry kingdom. This jam is thick, sweet and caramel-ly and would make a great spread for some sourdough toast, but should probably be eaten with whipped cream on some lemonade scones. 

spiced pear & ginger crumble

I love winter.  Oh boy, do I love it. I love a serious, committed winter, where the snow sticks to the ground and it is an invigorating kind of cold that makes your cheeks go pink and makes you wonder whether you still have all ten toes. But at the same time I love winter in Sydney because the breeze is cool and brisk but the sunshine is so warm. You get to sleep under a big cozy doona and wear clunky old ugg boots. It makes running much more pleasant and means you can sit by a fire and drink tea cups full of mulled wine.

And you get to turn winter fruits into crumble. Delicious. I've made a bazillion many apple crumbles, which are always the classic cinnamon-y, caramel-y kind of crumble that is a sure crowd pleaser. But when I was asked to make a crumble for a dinner party, I wanted to make something a little more interesting. 

Behold, the spiced pear and ginger crumble. I was told by guests that it tasted warm and spicy and even a little middle-eastern. All good things. It's up to you if you want to be a little less heavy handed with the spices.  

Have you worked with fresh ginger before? It is ugly. It's covered in this papery bark and comes in all kinds of strange shapes and sizes. Don't be intimidated, it isn't at all difficult to work with. All you need it a vegetable peeler.

panna cotta with raspberry and thyme

Sometimes food is better in single serves - do you agree? 

When I have to share food I often get a case of food anxiety. I feel like I have to eat really quickly if I'm going to get my fair share and end up stressed. I dread the moment when you sit down for dinner in a restaurant and someone in your party says "how about we get a few plates to share?"

No, no, no. I want my own meal, on my own plate, so that I can eat in my own weirdly organised way (I have this thing about piling food neatly on the back of my fork which can be ... time consuming). Just let me be! Okay, the truth is I don't always feel this way. There is definitely something lovely about having a long table of old friends sharing a classic family style feast - but let's just make sure we each have our own plate, why don't we?  

Phew. Lucky for freaks like me this particular dessert is best made in single serves, that way you'll have the best chance of having a panna cotta that will hold its shape. Or you can be lazy, like me, and not even bother turning it out - just eat it right out of the mould. I served these at my mother's 50th birthday and they went down a treat. 

Spiked with real vanilla bean and covered in tangy, herbed raspberries, this panna cotta is easy to love and very easy to make! 

mojito birthday cake

I woke up the other day remembering that it was a friends birthday. I would be seeing her in two hours and would be a bad friend if I didn't bring her a birthday cake, so I frantically filed through the 'cakes-to-make' list in my head and chose one that I thought was achievable in the short time that I had. Settling on a mojito cake, I dragged myself out of bed and whipped this cake up in no time... And somewhere between adding the single egg, pouring the mixture into a smaller-than-normal tin and seeing the end result I realised that something had gone wrong.

The cake was TINY. It was embarrassingly small for the group of 8 people that were supposed to be consuming it. Not small enough that it could be a joke but definitely not big enough to properly feed everyone. Sigh. Somewhere amid my freak out I checked the recipe book one more time to see what I had done wrong, and there it was, right in the heading, the recipe was for teeny, tiny, mini Mojito cupcakes.

Okay, so it wasn't that bad. We did all get a slice of cake even if it was a tad smaller than the standard sized slice. It was delicious, (like, stupidly delicious) so that made up for it! 

simple rosemary sugar syrup

I love to cook. (Obviously.) But sometimes the urge to cook is just as easily satisfied by making something as simple as a humble sugar syrup.

You can do anything with this kind of syrup. Make a sweet lime and rosemary cocktail, pour it over a butter cake to give it an unexpected twist of flavour and stickiness, or just drizzle it over some fresh fruit. I mixed it through some stawberries to dress up a pavlova.

Directions: Bring 1 cup of water to the boil. Add 2 cups of sugar and 3-4 rosemary sprigs. Stir until the sugar has completely disolved. Allow it to simmer for about 5 minutes giving it time to reduce and infuse, but don't over cook it or you'll end up with syrup that is too thick to drizzle.

perfect banana & raspberry bread

My mum is afraid of browned bananas.

Personally I don't care that much for bananas on their own. I love them in a smoothie or baked into things, but the thought of just peeling a banana and eating it makes me shudder. It's the same feeling as someone running their fingernails along a blackboard. Something about the texture has me convinced that God created them to be eaten by babies who have no teeth, or old people who have lost all their teeth.

So when the bananas in our fruitbowl start to brown, mum tells me to hurry up and bake something with them before she throws them away. This banana and raspberry bread is my go-to recipe.

(also, how cute are these loaf liners? I found them in a random store in adelaide last year.)

summer cocktails

I have found myself in a post-christmas black hole... It is like people forget that there are whole, entire days between christmas and new years and so don't make any plans for these days. I am very, very thankful for this and for the time to recover from singing the exhausting descant lines in all the carols. Humans weren't made to sing that high.

These days have been filled with glorious sleep-ins, endless board game marathons and fruity cocktails thanks to the family's new blender.

 

This one is a strawberry, lime & mint daiquiri. I'm not going to post a recipe for it - they are too easy to invent! Use whatever fruits, liquors, and herbs you've got lying around and see what you can come up with!

old fashioned caramel popcorn

My friend Sarah had never had caramel popcorn before I introduced it to her - now she is addicted. All she can talk about now is caramel popcorn.

"How was your day, Sarah?" "Terrible, I didn't have any caramel popcorn today"

"What would you like to do tonight, Sarah?" "Eat all the caramel popcorn." 

This recipe is entirely to blame. Follow this recipe and you'll end up with a crunchy, buttery, thoroughly addictive caramel popcorn. It is a party food if ever there was - pack it up in little bags and tie it up with some twine and you've got a real crowd pleaser, perfect for a new years eve bash!

spiced honey biscuits

It's getting dangerously close to christmas. It is only one week away. ONE WEEK. Uh-oh. 

In my mind Christmas is long, warm nights singing carols in a sandstone church. 

Christmas is a mix of relief that exams are over and panic that the quartet item isn't sorted. 

Christmas is making gingerbread houses like a pro.

Christmas is still, warm-white fairy lights - none of these flashy, coloured lights, please.

Christmas is wearing stupid little paper hats and shamelessly listening to Celine Dion's christmas album. (okay, there is a little shame) 

Christmas is pavlova and family fights over Nan's cheesecake.

Christmas is baking in mass and sharing the love! 

salted florentines

Whenever I bake something I like to have it tested before bringing it out in public. Yes, yes, I can (and do) test everything myself, but I also like a second opinion or two before putting things out there. This usually results in me force-feeding my brothers who honestly couldn't tell the difference between a lavender bud and a rose petal (not true... but kind of true).

The conversation goes like this every time:
me: "try this"
boys: *slowly and reluctantly take, eat, chew, swallow*
me: "what do you think?!"
boys: "it's fine"

It's fine. Really? That's it? Do they know that that is not a compliment? 'Fine' is what they call the weather when it isn't a particularly nice day but it's not going to hail. 'Fine' is what you say when people ask how you are and you can't be bothered explaining your problems but know it would be lying to say 'good'. Sigh.

So- you can imagine how nice it is when people compliment your baked goods using any of the other twelve thousand adjectives that are available in the english language! These salted florentines received many such adjectives. Delicious, awesome, best. In fact, after bringing them to church one night they were mentioned during the intro to the sermon as one of the "best things ever".

Highest praise if ever I've heard it!

sugared blueberries

It is spring time down under at the moment and we are celebrating the sunshine and picnic dresses and luscious, flowering herb gardens. Nothing says spring more than the plummeting price of berries, the best of which (I think) are blueberries. Cover them in a little bit of sugar and, oh my, they become the most irresistible little gems. They are quite easily the best things I have ever eaten.

No, really. I know, you're thinking, 'how can something as simple as blueberries and sugar be the best thing she's ever eaten?' - trust. Just trust. These are so simple to make and can be piled atop almost any baked good to make it a thousand times tastier!

malteser cakes

Sometimes you've got to resort to novelty baked goods to make people feel loved. There is a time and a place for these kinds of cakes. For example: when a boy loves lollies more than cakes you've just got to bake him cakes with his favourite lollies inside - in this case, maltesers.

These may look like harmless cupcakes, but they are seriously sweet and indulgent. They definitely fall under the 'special occasions' category but are still pretty easy to make.

coconut, caramel & walnut slice

Look, I know we eat with our eyes, but if I tell you that something is absolutely worth making even if it is not the prettiest of baked goods... will you do it? Will you actually get up and get into your kitchen and make it? I really hope so. For your sake, I hope so.

Trust me when I say that this slice is delicious. 

Buttery, chewy, caramel-y, delicious.

I make it often for when people come over or when I have to bring something to a picnic. For the first little while they just sit there, all stacked up on the plate trying too look pretty... but they're just not that pretty. But then, some lovely sympathetic person will try a piece of the ugly slice and die from how delicious it it, and then they just can't stop themselves from going back again and again for more. Soon enough, the plate will be empty and you'll be in huge trouble from the one person who singlehandedly devoured the entire plate of buttery goodness. They'll be mad at you for how much butter you just "made" them eat, but they'll still ask for the recipe!

Brown sugar is the hero of this slice - it is the hero of pretty much all things caramel. So make sure you're always well stocked! 

pretty petals: country garden

My kitchen table often looks like this:

Why? I'm not sure, really. Because I love flowers? That'll do.

As per my birthday resolutions, I'm working on learning the names of all the flowers. All the flowers. Okay, no, not all of them. But all the ones that I would expect to find growing in the local flower market.

If you need to make 35 bunches of flowers for $2 a bunch - you'll need to stick to daisies and chrysanthemums. Apart from how delightfully cheap they are, aren't the just so cheery?

spring macarons!

I have been terrified of macarons since I first heard about them. If there hadn't been such hype around them I think I would have fearlessly tried baking them long ago. Instead, I've avoided making them at all costs... no-one likes to fail.

So you can imagine my delight when I saw that my macarons rose without cracking and had feet! I bounded into the lounge room, "Mum, they have feet!"

Mum: "I have no idea what that means."

"My macarons have FEET!"

Mum: "Biscuits don't have feet"

But you understand, don't you, dear reader!?

I had to play it safe the first time around so I stuck with the plain cream coloured shells. I'd read so many different things about colouring the shell mixture and I just got too scared. Coloured icing, however, I can do. And look at those lovely spring pastel fillings!

chocolate beetroot cake

Chocolate and beetroot cake has been making the rounds in the food blog world over the last couple of years - I just resisted trying it because I hate, hate, hate beetroot.

I know, I know, this makes me a terrible Australian.

I'm glad I did try it - the beetroot adds a wonderfully moist texture and can't be tasted at all. How convenient! The icing is a vanilla-chocolate buttercream that is coloured with rose food colouring which was softened with the brown colour of the cocoa powder, you could, however, use the beetroot juice to colour it.