experiments A and B

Mrs. Asparagus

Giraffe

a belated merry christmas to all!

I have recently taken to water colours and have been attempting to use them without creating anything too hideous!
This was a Christmas card I sent a friend in Japan...along with a home-made panforte using my nanna's recipe (it really is delicious, if I may say so myself. Hoho!)

Panforte's are great for presents because a) they are not cheap to make, thus you are not being cheap b) they last for months and can be stored in the pantry c) you can make a really large one then divide it up, like what I have done here d) they are very christmasy and e) they taste great! Although I do have a friend who belives they do indeed taste like old man...

a merry christmas and a happy new year. xx

lavender man

some strange little drawings I did.
enjoy.

cow

poke

the lavender man

two little doodles

these arn't particularly current...but I like them and thought I might as well share them

Our year book!

ah-ha! this is my design for our high schools year book (front and back covers together)

now, the man stilling on the hill...rock? is meant to be my principal...but it didn't really work out...

oh well.

Birthday Happy

It was my father's birthday a few weeks ago... for his dinner, I cooked beef cheek ravioli (hence the card) and made a triple chocolate tart. yumyum



The chocolate tart had a double layer of ganache, a think layer of milk chocolate and a thin top layer of dark. The hazelnuts were actually meant to be a praline...but that did not turn out so well, still, they look quite nice (I think). The pastry was quite thin, which I am not big on personally, I like thick! But oh well, next time eh?

if you want the recipe just ask, but I got it from the Gourmet Traveller magazines, ah! They're fantastic

Glyn?

Just some little pictures I drew (some time ago)... hope you like them!

after the completion this picture, I had the strangest feeling that I knew the man I drew...
as it turns out, I believe it has an uncanny resemblance of a boy whom I went to primary school with.

weird.

A foolish lunch

I like chocolate, I like fudge.
Don't you just?

I made these mini cup cakes for a lunch I attended; personally, I found them very entertaining! And quite tasty (I enjoy rich cake).

Now, not that I'm pretentious about this kind of thing, but I did use fair trade chocolate for this recipe (Green&Black)... just for those of you out there who care.
But regardless, good quality chocolate for a dessert like this is pretty essential, seeing as it's all about the chocolate








I got the recipe from a magazine...and here it is!

Makes 24

100 gm	dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely chopped
60 gm	butter, finely chopped
65 gm	caster sugar
60 ml	Frangelico
1	egg yolk
55 gm	self-raising flour
20 gm	Dutch-process cocoa, sifted
Chocolate-caramel ganache
65 gm	caster sugar
½ tsp	lemon juice
150 ml	pouring cream
200 gm	milk chocolate, finely chopped

1

Preheat oven to 160C. Combine chocolate, butter, sugar and Frangelico in a small saucepan and stir continuously over low heat until smooth and combined. Remove from heat, whisk in egg yolk, then flour and cocoa until smooth and just combined. Divide mixture among 24 mini-muffin tins lined with paper patty cases and bake until cakes are just set (12-15 minutes). Stand in tins for 10 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

2

For chocolate-caramel ganache, combine sugar, lemon juice and 40ml water in a saucepan and stir to combine. Stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, then cook without stirring until dark caramel in colour (3-4 minutes). Remove from heat, add cream (be careful, mixture will spit), and stir to combine. Add chocolate, return to heat and stir continuously until smooth and combined. Cool completely, whisking occasionally until firm and cooled to room temperature (20-30 minutes), then transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 5mm plain nozzle. Pipe large peaks on top of each cake and serve. Cakes can be stored, iced and in an airtight container, for up to 5 days in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before eating.

Just some tips you might like to take on board before you try to make some adorable little cakes:

- bring everything to room temp before you start mixing everything together
- make sure the butter is soft, but not melting (melting it changes the chemical properties of the butter and could prevent your cake from rising, so only do it if the recipe specifes)
- to avoid lumpy batter scrape down your mixing bowl regularly
- beat wet ingredients with an electric mixer and stir in all dry ingredients by hand, this helps with not over working the mixure (over worked batter can result ina tough cake)
- when baking, rotate the cake/s at half time to ensure even baking (the exception to this rule is sponge cake, your oven must maintain a conistant temperature)

I hope these were of help!