Eating in Robe and Kingston

Carrot cake slice (Robe Bakery)

I took a short little break to visit a few lovely beach towns off the south eastern coast of my state. While both Robe and Kingston may be known for their gorgeous sandy beaches and increasingly magnificent holiday homes I think their marketing people have got it wrong. Robe and Kingston should be known for their amazing bakeries.

Donut (Robe Bakery)

Vanilla slice (Robe Bakery)

Mr High Heels did not grow up touring from one South Australian bakery to another under the guise of a 'family holiday' so he still doesn't understand why we can't just drive past a bakery. Or why we have to buy several cakes, both a pie and a pasty and numerous loaves of bread. What he really struggles with is comprehending my obsession with the vanilla slice (which I inherited from my father).

Fresh finger bun with currents, vanilla icing and spread with butter (Kingston Bakery)

Two thirds of my all-time favourite junk food meal, hotdog and orange soft drink.

Lobster for tea, I now love seafood.

Plain meat pie (Kingston Bakery)

Vanilla slice (Kingston Bakery)

Cheese cake slice (Robe Bakery)

Caramela's Caramel Slice

Today is my mother's birthday.

She is a bit of a caramel queen.

Two of her many signature dishes are

creme caramel and

caramel slice.

I did not bake the caramel slice featured above and below this text.It is mum's recipe and there is no way I'd attempt it myself. It just wouldn't taste right made my anyone other than mum.

It's an easy recipe but I don't want to make my mum's signature dish.

I don't want to mess with my favourite slice of all time. As a child my heart would leap with joy upon seeing Mum pull this slice from the fridge.

She can't remember where she got the recipe from, most likely the back of a packet.

Or perhaps it was on a tin of condensed milk.

Base:

1 cup self raising flour

1 cup coconut

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 ozs of melted butter

Mix together and press into a greased flat tin approx 9 by 6 inches. Bake in a moderate over for 15 minutes.

Topping:

1 tin condensed milk

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1 oz butter

Mix together in a saucepan on low heat until blended.

Remove cooked biscuit from oven and put topping on (while both still hot) and put back into the over for a further 15 minutes.

Once completely cooled ice thinly with either melted chocolate or your favourite chocolate icing.

What do you mean it's not Christmas yet?

I love Christmas.

I love cookies.

I love planning my Christmas Cookie Exchange party.

This year will be the second time I have hosted one. I can't wait.

I've got a few cookie recipes to try out.

The first one is a cranberry and white chocolate biscuit recipe involving one of my all time favourite ingredients, condensed milk.

This recipe yields a lot of biscuits. It would work very well if you needed to bake for a school fete. They are really yummy with a semi-crisp shell but a soft and crumbly centre which is owed mostly to the condensed milk.

The cranberries and white chocolate work well together and give the biscuit a very festive look. If I go with this recipe I will drizzle each biscuit with melted milk chocolate, maybe with sugar sprinkles too.

I think a decoration trial will be in order soon too.

Multi-tasking into Spring

I am now 14 days into Spring 2009 but have just baked a classic winter warmer, apple and berry crumble. The last few days of sunny, warming weather have quickly moved on to make way for a colder temperature with even a spot of rain on the weekend. While I frantically went around the house looking for warmer clothes tonight I realised that I had no choice but to bake this crumble recipe from taste.com my favourite go-to online recipe bank.

This recipe is one of my favourite kinds to work with. I like to refer to them as 'multi-tasking recipes'. You sort out one part of the recipe and get it going (in this case cooking the apples) while you prepare the final touches (in this case the crumble topping). I always feel super efficient after following recipes like this crumble one, such a good confidence booster!

I only had mixed berries on hand but they seemed to work well with the apple and cinnamon flavours and there were certainly no complaints from the eaters. I will admit that I was a tad naughty with this recipe and actually doubled the topping. Double the amount of corn flakes and oats surely balances out double the amount of brown sugar and butter, doesn't it?

That extra topping is so worth it!


The addition of the mixed berries give the apples an extra tangy kick.

Gourmet Obsessions

Since reading about bloggers raving about Gourmet magazine a few weeks back I decided to trawl it's website. I have fortunately managed to locate a newsagent that stocks Gourmet magazine and have in my posession two copies, one being the latest A-Z issue.

Both copies have numerous pages that have gone onto my baking 'to do' list. The website has provided me not just with hours of fun but also this refreshing biscuit recipe for buttermilk cookies with a tangy hint of lemon.

Any recipe that lists buttermilk as an ingredient will always get my attention.

French Toast for Australian Father's Day

It's Father's Day here in Australia. So I thought I'd give French Toast a go. As usual I used a recipe from taste.com.au my mecca for online recipes. I left out the bacon and tomatoes. I also found that the egg/milk mixture yielded more than enough for 8 slices of thick bread. If I hadn't gotten slightly lazy I could have made 10 slices but hey, it's Sunday morning!

My father hits 65 soon and a friend remarked that perhaps he should be eating something healthier for breakfast on Father's Day. No way! I get my super sweet tooth from this man, he'll be eating voraciously for a very long time. His usual breakfast consists of a cereal of some sort, toast with his home-made plum jam, two cups of tea and a slice of whatever home-made cake my mother has in the pantry slathered with his home-made apricot jam and cream. For what it's worth dad is extremely active. You know it's either bitterly cold outside or outrageously hot if you find my father sitting down inside.

Can't stop craving coffee

The whole point of this earlier post was to cure my coffee cravings my making a coffee cake. It worked reasonably well.

Inspite of some strong cravings and the fact that on any given work day I walk past at least six establishments where I could purchase a cup, I have been off the liquid bliss for quite a while.

As a result my sinus headaches all but disappeared.

I got over-confident last Sunday morning when I found myself at a friend's house for brunch. A friend who has a fantastic coffee machine. It would have been rude to refuse a cup.

That latte was out of this world.

Did I ever pay for it though.

A few short hours later and I started to lose my sense of smell and I knew I'd pushed it too far. Just proof that coffee really isn't for me.

So I'm back on the coffee cake wagon.

Today's coffee cake version is care of Delia Smith, the merticulousy magnificant English cook.

While my list of 'favourite' chefs/cooks/food writers

is long and varied Delia will always be number 1.

I promise you, that no harm can come to your baking

or cooking when a Delia recipe is being followed.

Here is the recipe for Delia Smith's Austrian Coffee and Walnut Cake with Coffee Cream.

The only variation I made to the recipe

was to use only mascapone in the coffee cream,

I simply doubled the amount required.

Confessions of a Cheesecake

Dear Cheesecake Gods,

The taste and texture of a baked cheesecake far outweighs that of non-baked cheesecake which is why I need your help. I have made this great recipe from my favourite recipe site three times now. Each time I have the same problems: a sunken middle section combined with a big nasty crack. The taste of the cheesecake is heavenly, refreshing and very addictive.

I have tried to use decorations to distract the eye away from my baking downfalls but there must be a way to ensure I perfect this recipe. There is only so much that melted chocolate and frozen, out of season berries can do!

Is my oven temperature too night? Not high enough? Is my baking time a little off? The only substition I have made is swapping the plain biscuits for plain chocolate biscuits so that it becomes a lemon-filled chocolate-based cheesecake. Any advice you can give me will be much appreciated.

Warmest regards,

Miss High Heels

I see red, I see red, I see red

My initial interest and now obsession with red velvet cake started with this London bakery which I have the upmost respect for. On my very first visit I remember being dizzy with excitement by the neverending choices of cake on offer.

The red velvet cupcakes grabbed my attention as I vaguely recalled there being some sort of red velvet cake mentioned in the movie 'Steel Magnolias'.

Red is one of my favourite colours.

I love velvet.

Cream cheese icing has long been a favourite of mine so it was only natural that I should gravitate towards buying a red velvet cupcake.

That first bite in 2005 has led to four years of being enamoured with the look and taste of red velvet cake.

It wasn't until late 2007 that I attempted to bake my own red velvet cake. I have used several different recipes and have to say I love them all.

I can't imagine ever getting tired of baking or eating red velvet cake.

I've baked a few for different friends, cupcakes for my sister's birthday a few years ago and cupcakes for my cousin's engagement party dessert.

Red velvet cake is still such a novelty here in Australia that people get very excited when they catch their first glimpse of red.

This cake introduced my good friend Speechie to the wonder that is red velvet cake.

She was hooked on first bite!


I also got to try out my new cake decorating triangle.

Recipes Without Recipes

My tea tonight consisted of roasted vegetables, cous cous and hommus. A good friend first cooked this for me and it quickly became a favourite. It's the sort of the recipe or cooking style that my mother would refer to as 'Alleluia'. Which could be taken to mean, 'throw it all together and pray that it works out ok'. Mum's interpretation is somewhat deeper. Her 'Alleluia' cooking method is more about an intuitive understanding of food and which combinations work best.

Take any of your favourite vegetables, peel and chop them. Toss through some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add herbs and spices of your liking. I added dried chilli seeds, basil, thyme and rosemary. Cook on a moderate temperature for around 1 hour. Serve with plain cous cous and hommus to taste. Best consumed with a nice glass of red wine.

I like getting new cousins

The majority of my first cousins are either older than me or around my age.

So that meant that there weren't too many baby cousins born after about my third birthday.

Luckily my mother has a brother who is younger than her by nine years.

This uncle and his wife waited to have a family and had their three sons when I was six, ten and twelve.

I remember being more excited about each of 'The Boys' being born than I was about Christmas.

Apart from the birth of my two third cousins when I was nineteen and twenty-four, there have been no new cousins in the family for quite some time.

Thank goodness for weddings!

Over the last 18 months my first cousins have begun to marry their partners and I have so far inherited two new cousins.

Two more will join them before the year is out.

One of my new cousins celebrated his birthday a few weeks ago.

I decided to welcome him into the family by baking him this cake:

Buttercake with chocolate cream cheese icing, raspberry jam filling and licorice allsort decorations.

Vanilla Slice

Who influences your baking?

My biggest baking influences would have to be my Mother and my Nonna with one of my Aunts also providing me with lots of baking advice.

None of these ladies has ever made Vanilla Slice which is why I've always stayed away from baking them myself.

I'd always just assumed that they would be too hard, too tricky, too messy or too fidly to bake. Wrong. Wrong and Wrong!

No wonder they say never to assume things.

Since discovering the best Vanilla Slice in Australia it's fair to say I've been obsessed with learning how to bake my own.

I used a recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly Cooking Class Cookbook.

The whole process was a lot simpler than I'd imagined.

So simple that I will definitely be making these again soon.

Preparing the store brought puff pasty.

Have your tin, foil and bottom layer of pastry ready to go before you make the custard filling.

The surprisingly quick to make custard filling. As soon as it thickens get it off the stove and into the pan as it sets quickly.

After a little over 24 hours in the fridge the vanilla slice had set beautifully.

I went with super pink icing. Next time I'll use crushed berries or strawberries and make a real flavoured icing.

Two of my baking influences mentioned that they would now attempt a Vanilla Slice. I'm taking that as a compliment!

The price of hunger

What's the most expensive meal you've ever eaten and what's the best meal you've ever had?

This is the question posted this week for the blog tour group which I belong to.

At first I tried to think of what expensive restaurants I had visited but decided to look at the first part of the question differently. If I think in terms of value for money one of the most expensesive meals I've eaten would have to have been at an airport. I am always fascinated by the crazy prices which airports charge for their food. A sandwich for $12? Sure! A bottle of water for $6? Why not. What fascinates me more is the fact that I will always buy this over-priced food. The fact that the food is expensive seems to make it irrestiable to my purse strings. It goes against my normal shopping behaviour (I am by nature a bargain junkie and live for hunting down great bargains) but when it comes to food I will never, ever go without or take a cheaper option. I just can't do it.

I'm stumped on the second part of the question. Best. Meal. Ever? For someone who loves food and will eat quite a wide variety of it, I consider pretty much every meal to be my best meal ever. Seriously. A bad meal or food envy literally ruins my day. My sandwich at work on Thursday? Grilled ham, cheese, avacado and sun-dried tomatoes on wholemeal and pumkin bread. Delicious! I looked forward to it all morning and it made my afternoon trapped in front of the computer a tad nicer than usual. Breakfast this morning? Berry and banana smoothie with wholemeal toast and hard boiled eggs. I'm still smiling about it now.

Cure a Craving with Cake

I love coffee.

Whether it be made at home or a barrista is fine by me.

So long as it's not instant I'll drink it in a heart beat.

Sadly I've had to cut coffee from my life as it's been

adding to my sinus headache problems of late.

Being half Italian has made this a very difficult task indeed.

The results are worth it as my head feels better

but I'm still craving coffee on a daily basis.

I'm hoping that the coffee cake below will help me somewhat.

Melt 'N' Mix Coffee Cake

(Recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly Quick Mix Cakes)

125g butter, chopped

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup castor sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons instant coffee powder (I used ground coffee beans)

2 eggs

1 + 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Grease a 14cm by 21cm loaf pan

Combine butter, sugars, milk and coffee in medium sauce pan. Stir over low heat without boiling until butter in melted. Stand 10 minutes. Stir in eggs and flour. Pour into prepared pan. Bake in moderate over about 40 minutes. Turn onto wire rack to cool. Ice if desired.

Scandinavia to Horsham

The northern summer of 2005 I spent travelling in Scandinavia and Russia. I choose a tour that took up most of my six weeks of school holidays. I didn't know a single soul on the tour. I need not have worried so much about being a 'billy no mates' as I quickly made friends with six other hilariously funny and similarly minded girls. I was single at the time and a few of my friends back in London would text or email me asking if I'd found the love of my life on tour. I didn't. Instead I found six friends for life. We nicknamed our selves The Erectors which is a story in itself.

Four years on and five of the seven Erectors travelled to Horsham in country Victoria for our second reunion weekend. Here is the food that I sampled over the weekend:

First stop was Coonalpyn Bakery in country South Australia for a fruity Danish. Which was quite appropriate as The Erectors first met in Copenhagen, Denmark. I didn't get round to eating it in the car and it somehow disappeared from our apartment.




Next up was this super sweet mini lemon meringue pie from a tiny town called Kaniva.


It was so sweet that it actually took me two tries to eat it all. Which is pretty rare for me.


Tea on Friday night was some good Aussie nachos from Moe's. Who would have thought there'd be a Mexican restaurant in country Victoria?

I have saved the best for last. My dad is a huge country bakery fan and lives for vanilla slices. My dad and I share both a last name and a massive sweet tooth for baked goods. One of the bakeries in Horsham boasted 'Australia's Best Vanilla Slice'. I was sceptical. I am South Australian and always take the Victorians with a grain of salt. I was sceptical for no reason. These vanilla slices are the best I've ever eaten. I'm not going to gush as there are no words that will do justice to the magnificence of these vanilla slices.

Hands down the Victorians have beaten the South Australians in the vanilla slice stakes. The pasty, custard and icing were all superb.

Thank you girls for a great weekend. We missed you RR and JB!

As Aussie as Pavlova

I love pavlova.

It can't be the soft, mushy, marshmallow type.

Or the cheats type that comes from the

abnormally large plastic egg in Coles supermarket.

It has to come from a simple recipe from

The Australian Women's Weekly Cooking Class cookbook.

It requires egg whites from free range hens.

It delivers a crispy, crunchy pavlova with just the tiniest hint of mushiness.

The pavlova below was made for a very good friend

who was visiting from London, Netball Queen.

Netball Queen has spent the last 6 years in London

but maintains one of the best Australian accents I've ever heard.

She'll never lose it.

A strong, Australian accent that can survive 6 years

under the influence of the English deserves a medal, a green and gold medal that is.

Waffles are just as good as Cupcakes

The last year has seen a cupcake explosion of sorts in my little part of Australia. It seems that more and more cupcake shops are opening every week. Since late January I have been visiting different cupcake shops to do a series of posts. Today I was meant to visit the last shop on my review list. Guess who needs to check opening times a little more carefully in future? Luckily a few doors down from the cupcake place is this dessert establishment. So my outing with my sister and my 'adopted sister' wasn't wasted.

They are well known for their chocolate based desserts and drinks but have recently branched out to include light meals. My sensible sisters both ordered rolls seeing as it was lunch time.

Salmon salad roll. It was apparently quite tasty.

Turkey roll which my sources also tell me was kind to the tastebuds.

Signature hot chocolate.

I of course ordered dessert for lunch: soft yet crispy waffles with melted chocolate, strawberries and vanilla ice-cream.

With a green tea to balance it all out.

The Anti-Snob

I am not afraid to admit to liking and using store brought cake mixes. The convenience of them can't be argued. I also like them for the fact that they are great confidence boosters for beginning bakers as they are virtually fool proof.

Along with the required fat, liquid and eggs I always add a few other goodies to packet mix cakes. A very liberal dash of vanilla, buttermilk instead of milk, grated chocolate or chocolate bits.

A friend swears by adding raspberry lollies to store brought white cake mix.

Store brought cake mixes are terrific time savers too. Last weekend was hectic what with catching up with work friends, wedding dress shopping, a cousin's 30th and 'helping' the fiance write job applications. Sunday evening rolled around and I still needed to bake a cake for a colleague's birthday.

Thank goodness for packet cake mixes and store brought icing.

I love vanilla essence. Of course a second drop was added just before I poured the cake batter into the baking pan.

When a pasta lover meats their match

I could eat pasta for breakfast, lunch and tea. Every single day of the day. No joke. The fiance lives for meat. He devours steak. He craves beef. A BBQ sans the salad is his idea of a good eat. I think I've finally found a compromise. Spaghetti Bolognaise.

Recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly Italian Cooking Class Cookbook.

725grams of mince beef (as lean as you can get)

1 large onion

2 tablespoons of olive oil

400grams of peeled canned tomatoes

4 tablespoons of tomato paste

2 chicken stock cubes

basil, thyme, salt, pepper

4 cups of water (I only added about 2 cups)

pinch of white sugar (A trick that both my Nonna and mother use when making their traditional pasta sauce)

red wine

Peel and chop onion finely. Cook in heated oil until onion is golden.

Add the mince, cook well. Pour off any excess fat.

Add canned tomotoes with their liquid. I add the water element via the empty cans to ensure I get all the tomato juice out. Add in the pinch of white sugar. Add tomato paste, chicken stock cubes, herbs, salt, pepper and red wine to taste.

When sauce comes to the boil, reduce heat and cook very gently for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, uncovered or until nearly all the liquid has evaporated.

Spoon sauce over hot pasta. Top (or drench) with parmesan cheese.

Back to Basics - Butter Cake

For Bastille Day last week I wanted to bake a French version of the rainbow cake using red and blue food colouring. I started pouring over my cookbooks but couldn't seem to find a simple butter cake to use as the base. As conincidence would have it one of my favourite blogs Smitten Kitchen, had just posted a yellow cake recipe. Perfect!

My baking in honour of Bastille Day got a little lost in translation though. My fancy rainbow cake full of French meaning somehow morphed into a traditional butter cake smothered in my new favourite chocolate icing and topped with pink marshmallows.

Recipe from here.

I really like this recipe. It calls for both cake flour and buttermilk, always a good sign in my experience.

Butter and sugar compliment each other so nicely.

Adding the eggs. One at at time of course!

The cake waiting to be dressed.

The dressed cake

The eaten cake.