I love weekends! Especially productive weekends when I have something to show for my efforts at the end of it. I was born with this creative bent and that means I have to be constantly creating and to have an end product to gaze in wonder at. Not that everything I create is worthy of wonder but I give it a good shot. The strange thing is that my creativity is usually poured into my non-work hours. I have never had a particularly creative job while working for someone else though there have often been small elements of each one where I could express a little creativity. But when you work for someone else, you have to follow the company lines and that feels like wearing shackles. Hence, I am creative in my spare time and this blog is a great fit. I have such fun cooking, then styling and photographing the food. But having said all that, I think one of my careers had its own creativity even though there was no end product I could touch. I taught English as a second language for … [Read more...] about Lemon Curd Cupcakes – I got to use the excess berry cream cheese frosting
cream cheese icing
From Ugly to Pretty – Orange, Chocolate & Coconut Cookies
I found this recipe at one of the blogs I visit regularly, Anja's Food 4 Thought. I made a few minor changes and increased the quantities since we needed enough to last a week. When the cookies came out of the oven (see below) they were super ugly and I had to think long and hard about how to make them photogenic. I had all that berry cream cheese frosting left over from the beetroot cake I made so I stiffened it up with more icing sugar and piped it on top. With this intervention they were starting to look prettier. I then melted a little dark chocolate and drizzled a little over each one. Now we had something worth photographing. I pulled out over-the-top props like the wreath of red roses and the bunch of berries I bought in Italy for a euro and photographed the result. By the way, the cookies taste great and Anja's cookies looked a whole lot better than mine in the raw state. This is not a low Fodmap recipe. Orange, Chocolate & Coconut Cookies Print … [Read more...] about From Ugly to Pretty – Orange, Chocolate & Coconut Cookies
A beetroot cake? Yes, and for a 5-year-old’s party too.
I saw this chocolate beetroot cake on a favourite blog I follow and decided to make it. For the recipe, zip along to Sarah's blog called Thyme. If you have never visited her blog, you are in a for a delightful experience. She is a dedicated home-schooling Mum of two very lucky teenagers. Some of you might know that I home-schooled Dario for nearly all but the last two years of his schooling and so I know all about the choice she has made. Sarah writes about the ups and downs of such an endeavour and the challenges faced when confronted by naysayers. I have been there and done that so feel for her every step of the way. There are some incredibly inflexible, rude people out there who think the choices they made are the only choices worth making. But Sarah's blog is not just about homeschooling, it is predominantly a place for her to share a great collection of recipes. She writes beautifully and takes the most amazing photos and check out her videos as well. They have inspired me to try … [Read more...] about A beetroot cake? Yes, and for a 5-year-old’s party too.
Mini Carrot & Zucchini Cupcakes
I am still trying to lose weight for our holiday in Italy at the end of September hence these wee baby cupcakes. It does work, you know. There's no need to completely deprive oneself of all the joys of eating, but this keeps it under control. I must say, these are very little so you might want to nibble at them or you will find them gone in a mouthful. And then you will feel deprived. I am using the trick these days of eating slowly and thoughtfully so the experience lasts longer. Sometimes, you are eating something delicious but talking your head off to someone and suddenly the food is gone and you can't remember eating it. So sad. A couple of years ago, I was standing at Machu Picchu in Peru in the pouring rain with a sick son and a needy American girl. And I could have thought, dang it all, here I am in this amazing place and it's all ruined or I could have just thought, here I am in this amazing place. I chose the last one. The American girl had got up at some ungodly hour to … [Read more...] about Mini Carrot & Zucchini Cupcakes
Carrot Cake Cupcakes – can’t beat these classic favourites
My favourite cake of all time, even beyond chocolate and caramel, is carrot cake. I made and blogged about the carrot cake cookies I made a while back and today I returned to this great classic in the form of cupcakes. These don't just have carrot, they have grated apple and raisins as well. I remember many years ago when I was on Weight Watchers (after a particularly long renovation without a kitchen and many takeaway meals later) that they told me a piece of carrot cake equates to a full day's calories when on a weight-loss diet.. By the way, also a McDonald's Big Mac is a day's calories. Just in case you wanted to know. Anyway, I have never been able to look at carrot cake quite the same again. And I never touched any McDonald's food again, Big Mac or otherwise. But, carrot cake does have carrots and therefore can't be all bad, surely. And if you add apple and raisins then maybe that balances out the calories. Or perhaps not. You could look at it this way. Either you can … [Read more...] about Carrot Cake Cupcakes – can’t beat these classic favourites
Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Filling – Weekend Baking
I'm a little over cupcakes for the moment so I decided to make my very favourite cake - carrot cake. However, I didn't want to make a full cake. Luckily I found this great recipe for carrot cake cookies sandwiched together with cream cheese icing on the cravingchronicles.com blog. I remember seeing somewhere that if you eat a slice of carrot cake with cream cheese icing, that is basically your calorie allowance for the day if you are not wanting to gain weight. A rather daunting thought but hey, I only bake in the weekend and I have people to help me eat them. There's also something therapeutic about baking and sharing it around. [print_this] Carrot Cake Cookies Ingredients: 3/4 cup golden raisins BUY HERE 1 1/4 cups flour 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ginger pinch of cloves 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 114g unsalted butter, softened 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar BUY HERE 1/3 + 3 tablespoons cup granulated sugar 1 large egg 1/2 … [Read more...] about Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Filling – Weekend Baking