Di-licious

This week Olive and I went on an eBay road trip to pick up her 'new' tap shoes. I could have just had them posted but I had an ulterior motive.  The pick-up location, although right over the other side of town, was reasonably close to my old neighbourhood which happens to be a mecca for great food and coffee. After picking up the tap shoes (and bonus ballet shoes the seller thoughtfully included) I was looking forward to lunch.  But as soon as I pulled out of the car park, the sky turned black and the rain started to pour.  Bugger.  I kissed my lovely lunch dreams goodbye and did what any sane parent of a three year old would do in the same situation - I headed for the nearest shopping centre with an underground car park. Ten minutes later I was sitting in the food court eating  ricepaper rolls while Olive got Happy (I think you know what I'm talking about).  Not quite the foodie experience I'd been hoping for. Every cloud has a silver li...

Planning a party? Don't forget the sausage rolls. Want to really impress your guests?  Make them yourself. Appealing to young and old alike, there's something about sausage mince encased in flaky pastry that just demands bottomless bowls of tomato sauce for dunking in. Originating from the UK, sausage rolls are almost a national food here in Australia.  No celebration is complete without them. Like most things, there are sausage rolls and then there are sausage rolls.  Most are lovely, some are terrible and some transcend into the realm of bl##dy fantastic! A good sausage roll will get talked about.  Some people will congratulate you, some may curse you behind their paper napkins and some will beg for the recipe. Planning ahead for Mr Di-licious' recent party, I couldn't lay my hands on my favourite sausage roll recipe (a lesson learnt - if you like a recipe, clip it or write it in your recipe notebook!) Rather than tear the house apart looking for it I...

I've been missing in action.  The winter school holidays started and all of a sudden I found myself out of the house for two weeks. Away with girlfriends, staying with family, away from my laptop and reliable internet and out of mobile phone range. Excuses, excuses! In my rush to go gallivanting around the countryside, I forgot to show off the third birthday cake I made for Mr Di-licious - the Country Music cake! It's true Mr Di-licious loves both kinds of music as well as Earl Grey Tea and chocolate - so this cake for his party at home with a few friends was the perfect opportunity for me to have a little fun at his expense. This chocolate cake (using my favourite chocolate party cake recipe) is filled with salted dulce de leche and covered in dark chocolate ganache. The blue base tile, numbers and 'wooden paling' letters are made out of fondant.  The letters are hand cut and textured with a leaf veiner. I used biscuit cutters to cut out the numbers...

Dear Muffin, Oh how you must hate me for neglecting you so! I admit I was distracted by the winsome charms of the seductive cupcake and had almost forgotten all about you. Almost. If it were not for  Bill Granger's  cheeky smile leaping out at me from the pages of his Holiday cookbook, I might never have tasted your beautiful pear chunks and crunchy pecan crumble topping. Can you ever forgive me? Di x Recipe: Crunchy-Top Pear Muffins Recipe by Bill Granger, Holiday (2007) Makes 6 large or 12+ regular muffins Ingredients 1 cup plain flour 1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour 3 tsp baking powder 2 tsp cinnamon 1 cup rolled oats 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 cup low fat plain/greek yoghurt 1/2 cup grapeseed oil 1 pear, peeled and diced Crumble 40g pecan nuts, finely chopped 1/4 cup brown sugar Method Preheat oven to 180C.  Line muffin tray with paper cases. Sift the flours, baking powder and cinnamon into a la...

We’re celebrating one year of Di-licious Cupcakes and now it’s time for me to give you your present – my Triple Chocolate Party Cake recipe. This sweet, moist chocolate cake is the perfect base for a large celebration cake , cupcakes or as this simply elegant cake with cream and ganache.  It’s truly a cake for every celebration. A hint of coffee helps to temper the sweetness of the cake and lets the chocolate flavour shine.  The semi-sweet chocolate cream and chocolate ganache makes it a show stopper (just don’t tell anyone how easy it was to make!) The cake is also perfectly happy to be baked ahead of time and frozen.  In fact it’s better if you do; it’s easier to trim and tort the cake when it’s still semi-frozen.  Likewise you can make the ganache ahead of time to make decorating a breeze. Could this be the world’s best chocolate cake?  Recipe: Triple Chocolate Party Cake Serves 4-6  Recipe adapted from Donna Hay   Recip...