Thursday, February 24, 2011

Frisky Friday - Our first ever! And the Angry Birds Playable Cake.

G’day Chooks.

As I have mentioned in my recent posts, I have been without a working camera for some time. I am (not so) secretly longing for an SLR to call my own, but as someone who knows nothing about giant, high powered cameras I am yet to delve in that deep (help please?).

Last week was my birthday. I turned 19.. again.. for the 5th time! ;) I got spoilt, most notably by my boyfriend, Michael with the gifting of a brand new digital cannon. Hip hip hurray! Finally, I can blog properly without feeling like I’m looking at photos through a haze or without my glasses on!

It’s also interesting to note that a mere 4 days after I received this teeny, tiny camera, my beloved one year old MacBook died. Her hard drive just stopped driving and decided to take the graphics card with it. I was absoultly gutted! The wonderful Sneh and Sugarpuffi sent hugs and support my way, but unfortunately a few personal things such as photos were not backed up and hence lost into the ether. I felt like Carrie Bradshaw but with less expensive and fashionable shoes.

All my sob stories aside, I am now back online and ready for action! To celebrate, I thought I would introduce a new weekly post. My personal mantra for this blog is to focus in on, and spread the love of pretty food (..because we all like to eat food that looks good!). And being included as part of the fabulous Sydney food blogging community, I’ve been readily exposed to the most amazing, gorgeous, fun, sexy, adventurous foods that you could ever imagine. Now I plan on spreading these amazing finds onto you all.

Without further adu, I welcome you all to ‘Frisky Friday!’ Where I will gather up all the beautiful, luxurious, sexy foodie finds I have come across during the week.To kick us off I present to you 'Angry Birds The Cake' - possibly the most addictive game out there? Besides paper toss, obviously. Well, may I present possibly the most addictive cake out there. I have so many things I want to say about this cake, but I think I should just leave you all to watch the video and enjoy. Ahhhh, to be six again...

 


And here is the rest of the fun stuff, the extras, the bips and bops of it all;


Flaming fruit on alcoholic drinks!

A cookie, stuffed with.. ANOTHER cookie.

World Nutella Day means you can eat nutella and bacon. Together. Seriously.


Now I'd like to wash down that nutella/bacon goodness with a cocktail. Lucky I got me a bottle of Bacon Bourbon handy.


Oh, Don Draper. I could just eat you up. Literally. Mad Men Cupcakes!!

Be still, my beating heart.. Cake batter pancakes. 

Friday, February 11, 2011

'Cheat Sheet' Mini Pecan Pies

Recently, MummyB had a birthday. Exciting times. We went out and ate Chinese food. It was yum. I made dessert. Being a week night it was a bit hard to find time for a big, fondant covered monstrosity of a cake. Lucky for me, MummyB loves pecan pies. I’m pretty sure she’d eat pecan pies everyday for the rest of her life, if she could without the threat of obesity or heart failure. Being the fabulous daughter that I am, I used my very minimal time to create what I now call ‘Cheat sheet mini pecan pies’.


You will need;
4 sheets of frozen short crust pastry
1/2 cup golden syrup (you may prefer less syrup, this amount makes them very caramel-y)
1/3 brown sugar
½ cup melted butter (no salt)
100 - 120g pecans, roughly chopped
2 eggs
Good glug of vanilla essence!
1 big ol’ can of dairy whip! Or real cream if you prefer. My family like the Dairy Whip cause you can shoot it right into your mouth. Or each other’s face, depending on our mood.


Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Let your pastry thaw out on the bench before cutting your circles. You will need a 12 hole muffin tray and a circle cutter ( I think I used about a 10cm cutter, but have a play and you’ll find the right size. Keep in mind that the pastry will shrink a bit when cooking, so you should have a little bit of overhang).


Spray your muffin tray with cooking oil then gently mould your circles of pastry to the pan. I loathe under cooked pastry, but even though these are small pies, I still gave them a quick blind bake in the oven before filling. Because I am lazy and dread the idea of rice or baking weights going everywhere in my kitchen (I am possibly the messiest cook ever), I used scrunched up balls of aluminium foil to weight the pastry while baking. Much, much easier. Whack em’ in the oven for 5 minutes or until the pastry starts to flake slightly.
Next up, the filling. In a bowl place the golden syrup, brown sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined. Once your pie cases are out of the oven and cooled slightly, fill with pecan bits (I used quite a lot. Use your own personal discretion). Then top off with the filling mixture.
Pop them back in the oven for half an hour or until set... Grab a small plate and place the not-so-pretty-looking pies on it. Put the plate right at the front of the fridge, in plain sight, so your boyfriend is distracted by these and does not eat the nice looking pies that you will be giving to your Mumma for her birthday. Makes 12. Super dooper easy, and super dooper tasty.

*yes, I know the photos are shitty. Still no camera.
**yes, I know there were no decent photos of the finished product worth posting
***yes, I know I am a ridiculously messy cook.
**** yes, I know all this makes me a terrible food blogger. I promise to rectify this with the purchase of a new camera once I find myself with a spare weekend, void of any weddings, birthdays, family gatherings, etc.