Monday, May 31, 2010

Homemade donuts

The restriction on the bread bake-off was that the item should be made with a dough. I thought about it for a while, and was tempted to do something excessively complex but voted for a moderately simple recipe, albeit an item I have never made before - donuts! I will admit I was definitely aiming for something sweet - to me that's what the bake-off means, and I know others (like Mr Cake, as a prime example!) will take any opportunity to make their offering as healthy as they can (he even came up with a healthy cheesecake!) so I have to mitigate that as best I'm able. ;-)


Making the dough is very easy - this recipe uses baking powder to leaven, and I suspect that yeast would get a better result but due to our localised powercut I didn't have time to let it rise.


One of the surprises for me about how donuts are made (though I did learn this a couple of years ago) was that they are rolled out and cut with cookie cutters. I always figured they were shaped like buns, since they seem so bun-like.


It's amazing how they puff up when they cook...



The biggest challenge here was definitely keeping the oil up to temperature - I made sure it was good and hot before I started, using my candy thermometer, but the temperature drops quickly, especially when you're churning the donuts through.


I love cinnamon sugar! I split the donuts 50/50 - half in cinnamon sugar and half in icing sugar (though somehow I missed taking photos of the icing sugar ones). Did I mention I love cinnamon sugar?

Easy Donuts (makes about 16 small or 8 regular donuts)
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp melted butter, cooled
2 tsp vanilla essence
1.5 L oil, for frying
cinnamon sugar/icing sugar for dusting

Method
Preheat oil to 190 C. Lay our paper towels for draining/blotting.

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix in butter. Lightly beat egg in milk then add wet ingredients, including vanilla. Mix until combined, then turn out onto a well floured surface and roll out. Cut as desired - I used a 7.5cm ring cutter and a 2cm lid to cut the donuts and holes - but improvise; cups can work well for larger donuts. They don't have to be rings, either - we were just being conventional. ;-)

Fry the donuts until golden brown, turning them over midway to cook evenly. Have a test run or two with small bits of dough before progressing to full-size donuts if you're unsure. I overcooked my first few and they were fine hot but got a bit dry when cool.

Toss in cinnamon sugar immediately or wait until cool and toss in powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Sunday, May 30, 2010

The Great Bake-Off - Bread!

Firstly I have to apologise for my absence. I did plan to post about my bake-off recipe yesterday, but we had a three-hour powercut to our building which not only took away the wondrous internet, but also made trying to create two bake-off creations tricky - Hamish had fortunately made a start in the morning so his dough had time to rise, but I had to amend my recipe to one using baking powder instead of yeast. Not only were we pressed for time making our carb-packed goodies, but our internet (and phone, as we use VoIP) didn't come back. Turns out the powercut caused a surge which fried our router, so after a trip to Dick Smith to get a new one we are finally back online (though my iPhone enabled me to suppress withdrawal symptoms ;-) ).

Anyway, excuses aside... Last night was the second edition of the Wellington chapter of the bake-off event, where a theme is chosen and everyone challenges themselves and brings something in fitting with the theme. With the theme of bread we had timed it to run over dinnertime, and there were a variety of sweet and savoury offerings. We were all impressed at how varied the options were, and it was fun and we probably all learnt something too!


Mr Cake made these delicious bagels. They were pretty popular. We're pretty sure (maybe Sylvia will verify in the comments!) that these won the 'Best Savoury' category. These are definitely going to be made again - they were pretty easy (once the power came back on!) and though perhaps not perfect still very good - and cheap.


Mark's offering was the other savoury option - he called it fuglycaccia, as he apparently didn't approve of it's looks. I don't think it's particularly unpleasant-looking, though, and anything lacking in appearance was well and truly made up for in taste. I thought this had the best leavening. It won the category of 'Ugliest bread', which was invented by Mark. Hmm...


Julia made krentebollen, which are apparently eaten by the Dutch for breakfast, sometimes with cheese, so they straddle the sweet/savoury divide. Tasty either way! They were pretty popular.


Charles and Sally brought banana bread, which was moist and delicious.


Terry and Beth made these very bakery-looking cream buns. They were exactly as a cream bun should be - a nice white bread roll, a shower of icing sugar, and filled with cream and jam that squeezes out when you eat it so it's impossible to remain dignified.


Sylvia made this fantastic cranberry and white chocolate braid. It was soooooo good - with a generous helping of white chocolate in every slice, this was definitely my favourite and won 'Best Sweet Bread', so obviously I wasn't alone. I think it also should have won the 'most eaten' award, as there wasn't much left of this by hometime!


My contribution won me the dubious accolade of 'Most Unhealthy' - not that I was aiming for high nutrition when I chose donuts. They were okay - possibly a bit dry and I had trouble keeping the oil hot enough so some absorbed a bit too much and tasted a tad greasy. I was disappointed I wasn't able to do a yeast-based version - next time, I guess.


A special mention to Sylvia and Mark for hosting - and providing this amazing homemade hummus - the top one is pumpkin and cream cheese, and the bottom one is sundried tomato - they were super tasty with my bagel!


Mark also provided this Not coke for refreshment. It provided some amusement and confusion as it really did look just like coke - but it was Mark's homebrew and Mr Cake can attest to its quality (I'm not a beer fan so leave that to him).

All in all it was a great night - if you were there please comment and tell me what I've missed/forgotten! My donut recipe will be up tomorrow, as I now need to do some ironing (yet another thing that can't be done in a powercut!).

The next bake-off will be hosted by Sally and Charles, and I'll let you know the details when they've been figured out - it'll be in another month or so - but the theme was settled on Saturday night so get your thinking caps on for creative ways to bake with (drumroll, please)... Potatoes!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

I won something!

So, I enter a lot of competitions. Not a crazy amount, but if it just takes an email, or a few clicks on a webpage I'm definitely there. I haven't won that many prizes, though. Once I won $50 worth of cereal at a running event because I knew the name of Tony the Frosties tiger.

Well, this time it's another food prize, but more exciting than breakfast cereal:


It's a box of treats from Van Dyck foods, who make Marcel's blinis. I got a phone call to tell me I'd won and that I could collect it from Moore Wilson's, so it was frozen when I got it and went straight into the freezer. It included:


Two packs of sweet crepes and two packs of plain crepes. The sweet ones are delicious warmed a bit with a few chocolate buds and some raspberry jam spread on them. ;-) I haven't tried the plain ones yet but I'm thinking quesadilla-style crepes are coming up on the menu sometime very soon.


There was this big bag of blinis (usually used for canapes - basically like mini savoury pikelets) - now I just need to have a party! Hmm, not sure I could fit enough people for 50 blinis into our apartment. Better keep thinking on that front...


There were also two bags of 24 mini hot cakes - I'm not so sure what to use these for, though I guess a very desserty canape party would be awesome.


Last but not least, there were two packs of 6 hot cakes. Well, as you can see these didn't quite last to the photo stage. Hmm... They were just too good, and too easy to pop in the toaster, spread with a little butter and jam, and - hey, where did that go?

So, what would you do with blinis, mini hot cakes, or crepes if you had a freezer full? I'm in need of inspiration!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Lentil Pasta Bake

One of our favourite dinners is this lentil pasta bake - it's filling, tasty, and healthy (well, except the cheese sauce, shh!), and also inexpensive to make. We like to make our dinners last two nights, so we only have to cook every second day (it's much easier to drag yourself to the gym when you know dinner is only a microwave reheat away afterwards, as opposed to full cook time!). This recipe definitely does that - in fact, it will probably last three nights.


The unfortunate part is that it does take a while to prepare (though you could probably squeeze some shortcuts in, and you could definitely prepare it ahead then just bake it in time for dinner) - and it uses a lot of dishes! One for the veges/tomato sauce, one for lentils, one for pasta, one for the cheese sauce, and one to bake it in. Totally worth it, though. Especially if you have a dishwasher! ;-)


Lentils are great - they add substance to this dish, make it hearty and filling - I guess they sort of fill in for meat in what could otherwise be a mince dish (not that you couldn't add meat, but you don't miss it).


Lentil Pasta Bake (courtesy of Matthew!)
Ingredients
2 onions, diced
a sprig rosemary, finely chopped
Olive oil
1 clove garlic
3 Tbsp mixed herbs
½ head of broccoli, chopped (add other veg if you like, we had some cauliflower as well)
1 bunch of spinach/silverbeet
2 tins chopped tomatoes
110g tomato paste
Salt and pepper
100g butter
5 Tbsp flour
1L milk
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
300g grated cheese
1 cup dried brown lentils
2 bay leaves
350g pasta
Grated cheese and breadcrumbs to top

Method
Cook lentils with bay leaves until tender, up to 45 minutes (depending on the type). Drain and remove bay leaves.

While lentils are cooking, fry onions and rosemary in olive oil until soft. Add garlic, the rest of the herbs and the broccoli. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring regularly, then add spinach/silverbeet until wilted. Add tinned tomatoes and tomato paste, and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste.

Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add flour, stir for about a minute, then turn heat down to low and slowly add milk, stirring. Stir in grated cheese and mustard, and season to taste.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Cook pasta, then drain. Mix tomato sauce with pasta, pour into a large baking dish, cover with the lentils, then top with the cheese sauce and extra grated cheese and breadcrumbs as desired. Bake for 10-15 minutes until browning and bubbling.


Perfect comfort food for an awful stormy day!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Baking Blitz - Ginger Kisses

Today's recipe is somewhat topical, in a punny way - my baking is slightly more affectionate but still 'ginga' - so I was amused to see 'Hug a Ginga Day' getting some negative media coverage this evening.

Anyway, back to a less controversial use of ginger - the ginger kiss. I'm not sure if these are common in other parts of the world (please inform me, overseas readers!) but they are definitely a popular item on the biscuit shelves in New Zealand supermarkets. I had never had homemade ones before, and then I spied a recipe in Alison Holst's 100 favourite cakes & biscuits, and I had to give them a shot.



My first try was over the weekend, along with some other sweets I baked to trial as potential high tea fare, but I felt they were a bit flat, and didn't have enough filling (in fact, I ended up with quite a few shells left over after filling them, as I am obviously more generous with my filling than the wonderful Mrs Holst). The recipe suggested adding more flour if they turned out too flat, so I gave them another shot today in my lunch hour, and if the response from my colleagues was anything to go by they definitely worked!



The recipe is super easy, and they bake very quickly - the trickiest bit is not letting them cook too long, and working out when to take them out of the oven - but all of mine were fine, and though I thought one batch today was a bit overcooked they were raved about for being crisp and soft all at once by two colleagues - so you really can't go wrong. ;-)


Ginger Kisses (makes about 18)
Ingredients
125g softened butter
1/4 cup + 2 tsp sugar
1 large egg
1.5 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 rounded dessertspoon golden syrup
80g or 1/2 cup + 1.5 Tbsp flour
75g or 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp cornflour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Method
Heat the oven to 220 C, with the rack just below the middle. Line a baking tray with teflon or baking paper. Put the first six ingredients in a bowl and beat until smooth and light coloured (you can do this in a food processor if you prefer).

Measure the dry ingredients carefully, directly into the bowl (or food processor). Beat or process until just smooth. Spoon mixture into a piping bag with a plain nozzle about 15mm wide, or shape small even blobs with a spoon. Each 'blob' should be about the size of a half walnut shell. They need space between them and will need two oven trays.

Place in the oven. Turn the heat down 10 C as soon as they are in. Bake for about 5 minutes, until they spring back when pressed (or you can see they are cooked through). Watch carefully to ensure they don't burn.

Mock cream filling
100g butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
about 2 Tbsp water

Beat butter, vanilla and sugar with 2 Tbsp hot water until smooth. Add about 2 Tbsp cold water gradually, while beating. You should end up with a light coloured fluffy cream.

When the biscuits are cool pipe or spoon filling onto half of them, then sandwich together (play mix and match to fit like-sized ones together). Enjoy!



What's the best homemade version of a store-bought baked good you know?

Monday, May 24, 2010

My Favourite Workday Lunch

For all I love to eat lots of different kinds of things, in most of my day-to-day food I'm pretty boring (except maybe for dessert, which is more day-to-day for me than it ought to be but that's another story). I have cornflakes mixed with bran flakes with dried cranberries for breakfast every day, and the same lunch, and we try to vary our dinners as much as we can but inevitably with both of us working we fall back on the meals that are quick, satisfying and don't require much thought.

So what's my lunch? Well, I'm ashamed to admit it's all carbs, no fruit/vege content - but it is quick, easy, cheap, and lasts me through to the end of the workday (maybe with a mid-afternoon piece of fruit, or chocolate if I can't resist).


That's right, folks - my weekday lunch, every day (except for the occasional splurge on a bought lunch) is a bagel. And I guess there's variety, right? Poppy seed, sea salt, blueberry, jalapeno cheddar...


Because I'm lucky enough to live so close to my work I come home for lunch. Our office doesn't have a break room, just a kitchen in the middle of the work area, so this is an excellent way of ensuring I actually take a break. It also means I don't have to pack my lunch in the morning - I just take a bagel out of the freezer to defrost and off I go! (by the way, the photo is from a weekend lunch - one of those bagels is a Mr Cake bagel! I could definitely not cope with two bagels in one go)


I guess it's true - I do love my bagels. Lucky Wholly Bagels is just across the road, and that they sell their bagels by the bakers dozen for $20. And that the Wellington Entertainment Book includes a buy-one-get-one-free on the bakers dozen.

Are you a creature of habit or can you not bear eating the same food all the time?

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Merchiston High Tea (Christchurch)

My family have a 130 year old villa called Merchiston (many of you who know me personally will have visited), which inevitably has maintenance needs - and currently there are a couple of big projects in the pipeline. We are all keen bakers (well, my immediate female relatives and I are), and the house is an ideal setting for a lovely afternoon tea - so to fundraise for impending work we will be hosting a High Tea on the weekend of the 3-4 July.


It will be $20 per person, and will include a tour and some history of the house. This will be followed by a luxury sit-down afternoon tea, during which we will offer all sorts of treats - all baked by our humble selves - served in style on beautiful old china.



At this stage we have two sittings planned - at 2.30pm on both Saturday and Sunday, with the potential for an earlier sitting on Saturday depending on demand. If you are interested in booking your space (or have any questions), email me - mrscake.nz@gmail.com. And if you can't make it - well, you might see some recipes sometime soon. ;-)

A Kiwi classic - Lolly Cake

Lolly cake is a bit of an institution to the young New Zealand baker, I think. Who among us didn't have the childhood joy of bashing up a packet of biscuits, cutting up eskimo lollies or fruit puffs, and mixing it all together in a messy bowl with sweetened condensed milk (only half a tin - so the other half could be left in the fridge and spoonfuls stealthily sneaked each time the fridge was opened!) and butter?

I'm not sure when I first made this but it may have been part of the baking segment for my Girls Brigade badge when I was about 7 - and this really is the perfect craft for kids that age - nothing complex, nothing you can really do wrong, you get to get your hands really messy when you shape the log - and then you can eat all the buttery, sugary mixture straight off your fingers. Not that I would ever do that, of course. ;-)


The actual creation of the 'cake' takes no time at all, but first you have to smash up a packet of malt biscuits. When I was a kid the proper method was to put them in a plastic bag and bash it with a rolling pin - but if you have a food processor you'll probably find that a bit quicker. I figured this would be a great trial for my new little blender thing:


I had to do them in a couple of batches, but it made quick, easy work of the biscuit smashing - 10/10!


The next task is chopping up the lollies. As far as I'm concerned eskimos (an NZ marshmallow-type candy - not without controversy) are the best for this, but fruit puffs come a close second and our supermarket was out of eskimos yeasterday. Mr Cake kindly cut them up for me:


You don't necessarily have to cut them up but it makes shaping the log a bit easier (especially with the longer eskimos).

Then you just mix it all together:


Roll it into a log, and coat with coconut. Easy!

Lolly Cake (recipe courtesy of Michael Adams)
Ingredients
1 pkt malt biscuits, crushed
100g butter, melted
1/2 tin/180g sweetened condensed milk
1 pkt eskimos or fruit puffs, chopped
coconut 

Method
Mix everything together in a bowl, then roll into a log. Roll the log in coconut, then wrap and refrigerate until firm. Slice into small portions and enjoy!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Giant Afghan from Enigma

I am in the midst of an awful sniffly cold at the moment - hopefully a lazy sleep-in tomorrow will help put that to rest but in the last few days I haven't been feeling much like doing much baking and suchlike. But, heading home from work this afternoon (an awful, blustery, cold southerly day in Wellington) I felt like a little pick-me-up - and there's a certain cafe pretty much on my way home (okay, I don't normally walk past it but it's a more sheltered route on a day like today!) I happen to know has lots of tasty treats in their cabinet.


Everything looks luscious and the portions are generous and the prices reasonable. I had my sights set on an afghan - I've enjoyed these before, and at $3 for an enormous cookie it's a pretty good deal. I've also tried the risotto ball ($6), and really enjoyed that. My colleagues love the coffee here - but I don't drink coffee so can't comment on that myself. ;-)


The afghan is absolutely huge - Mr Cake and I shared and both had plenty of biscuit. I'd say this is probably equivalent to about four of the ones I made. It's a pretty tasty biscuit, with the lovely crumbly texture, though it is lacking in cornflake - and the icing doesn't have anything on the "Ladies, a Plate" recipe I used when I baked mine last week. All in all, though, a pretty good dessert for two for $3! And a perfect way to finish a looong week in the office.



Enigma is located at 128-130 Courtenay Place, Wellington, ph 04 385 2905

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Great Bake-Off - Bread!

It's that time again - time for you to break out the apron, dust off the recipe books (or Google!), and get up to your elbows in flour, for the next Wellington bake-off boasts the theme of bread.

It will be hosted by Sylvia and Mark (who made the amazing cupcakes squared at the last one), and will be on Saturday 29th May at 6:30pm. 

The idea is to challenge yourself a bit, have fun baking to the theme, and then coming together to share your finished product. With this round the world is your oyster - the only constraint is that your recipe is made from a [bread] dough (cookie dough doesn't count!), so there are many, many options. Soft ciabatta, sweet cinnamon rolls, pizza bread, thick rye bread, brioche - so many options! This focaccia, for example, looks amazing:
(The recipe is here - but in Polish, so you may need a translating tool to help you make it!)

If you're keen to join the bake-off drop me a line - mrscake.nz@gmail.com - and I'll let you know where to come. See you there!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Baking Blitz - Peanut Choc Chip Cookies

I was worried my baking blitz wasn't going to work out today - I was thinking of making a microwave cake but realised this morning that I don't have anything that would make a cake-looking thing in the microwave, plus I wanted to make icing and didn't have the ingredients I wanted for that - so disorganised! Plus I moved up a notch in my job last week and am really busy (basically doing two jobs now!) so didn't have any time to think until lunchtime. So I walked home wondering if it was possible to find a recipe (which I had all ingredients for!), bake said recipe, and get back to work in under an hour - it seemed a tall order.

Well, I bargained without Alison Holst and her 100 favourite cakes and biscuits! A quick flick through and I discovered what she calls 'Peanut Plus Cookies'. I've renamed them more conventionally as she gave sunflower seeds and raisins as things to put in them and I didn't like the idea of either of those 'healthy' things cluttering up my highly unhealthy cookies!

Anyway, the recipe was super easy, and I ended up having about 15 minutes to spare - so it was about 30 minutes start to finish, once you count the time walking to and from work, and the time desperately flicking through recipe books. ;-) Oh, and all my colleagues thought they were fantastic - as did I (though I didn't have enough chocolate - next time more of that, methinks). Chewy and delicious - definitely try these!



Peanut Choc Chip Cookies (makes 24 large cookies)
Ingredients
50g butter
1/4 cup golden syrup
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips and/or peanuts (my recommendation would be 1 cup choc, 1/2 cup peanuts)
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda

Method
Preheat oven to 180 C and line or grease a baking tray. In a large pot or microwave bowl, warm butter and golden syrup until butter is completely melted. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter. Add egg, vanilla and sugars and mix until combined. Add the chocolate and/or peanuts, then sift in flour and baking soda, and mix until combined.

Use wet hands to divide the mixture into balls. Place on the tray and flatten (leave a gap as they will spread about 1-2cm each). Bake for 7-10 minutes (adjust up or down if you  make them bigger or smaller), until they begin to brown around the edges.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Tiramisu

You knew this had to be coming, after I bought that massive bag of savoiardi at the Mediterranean Food Warehouse a couple of weeks ago. ;-) I got the recipe off their website since I figured they should know their tiramisu.


Astonishingly I had never made tiramisu before - and I'm impressed at how easy it is. Beat up the egg whites...


Beat the egg yolks and sugar together...


Fold it all together with the marscapone. Dip the savoiardi into a coffee and marsala mixture (I used coffee and a bit of a leftover moscato - not the same but it worked, and just coffee, or coffee and vanilla or something along those lines would be fine if you wanted an alcohol-free version), and spoon the creamy mixture on top (more traditionally you would arrange in a line on a flat plate and do in a couple of layers):


Tiramisu (serves four, or three giant martini glass servings!)

Ingredients
3 eggs
1 cup strong coffee
5 Tbsp sweet marsala (or other liquid of choice)
250g marscapone cheese
250g savoiardi (sponge fingers)
3 Tbsp sugar
grated chocolate or cocoa

Method
Beat egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl, beat together egg yolks and sugar until well combined. Add marscapone, and fold a few times to soften a little/prevent lumps, then add the egg whites and fold together until combined.

Combine the coffee and marsala in a bowl, and quickly dip each savoiardi finger into the liquid then arrange on the plate/dish you are using. Spoon creamy topping over the top (repeat if doing layers), top with grated chocolate or cocoa powder, then chill for at least an hour before serving.

This is best eaten the same day as it contains raw eggs. Like you could save it if you tried! ;-)



Original recipe here

Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Wellington Food Show - part 2

Yesterday I showed you my favourite vendors from the Wellington Food Show - today you can look at my [reasonably poor] photos of some of the cooking demonstrations - and see just how much I toted home (I should say Mr Cake toted home, as he took most of it - after we had done a lap and visited most stalls Mr Cake headed for home, while I settled in for a couple of hours watching people flinging ingredients around and then did another lap - and he took what we'd bought home when he went (then I bought some more, but that's not the point!)).


There were some cool competitions - this one featured teams comprising two trainee chefs and a trainee server, who had to serve a meal to their 'customers' in a set time, maintaining high quality and keeping the dishes consistent for each 'customer'. Quite a cool idea, I thought.


There were also cake competitions, although the judging had already taken place when I discovered the competition area. These cakes look absolutely scrumptious...


And then there was the cake decorating category, with some very funky entrants. The winning entry was definitely my favourite, though:


So awesome! I don't even want to think about how many hours that took to make.



When we arrived Ross Burden was showing folks how to use olive oil and wine in cooking. We watched for a few minutes but empty bellies and the pull of many vendors offering free food meant we didn't have much patience - sorry Ross!


After Mr Cake abandoned me in favour of the gym I wandered back in and caught the last quarter of Richard Till's segment. I only really know him from the Countdown ads, which I don't like all that much - but he was brilliant, the highlight of the day for me. He's a bit cynical (and has a chronic case of potty-mouth), but it's hilarious. At this point he was displaying his vast tea-towel collection to the audience - he apparently battles for them on TradeMe. He also tried to let the audience taste his food, much to the chagrin of the staff, who rushed to get the food away from us lest we be struck down with food poisoning or somesuch - I bet if his mike had still been on he would have had something to say about that, too!


Next on the agenda was Peta Matthias, showing off her recipes from Marrakesh, where she takes culinary tours. The food looked yummy - the sad thing about the set-up was that it was very hard to see the food. Though they had a big screen and cameras filming the bench from either side, the cameras were not great quality and a bit too far away, so the pictures weren't great - and if you were close in the front you were below the bench so the view wasn't great from there, either. Oh well...


My last show for the day, before a quick return trip to the Lindt stall and a walk home, was the Masterchef show. Brett (who was the winner, if you don't watch TV or live outside of NZ) and runner-up Kelly each cooked a signature dish. Lauraine Jacobs, who featured on the series as well, acted as an MC while they cooked to get a commentary on what they were doing - it seemed a bit contrived, but was interesting.


I particularly liked Kelly's dish, as a) it's a dessert (!) and b) she essentially invented it. It was a raspberry version of the pineapple basket she made in the second to last week of the show, and I will try it sometime because it's easy and looks delicious. I am a bit skeptical about her proclaimed 'eating for health' mantra after seeing her load about four scoops of ice-cream into her single-serving basket, though! ;-)


So, it was a long day. I did come away with quite a lot, though - as you can see! The Lindt stall was definitely my big spend spot (their show specials are incredible - four 100g blocks for $10, when they're usually $4 (or more) in the shops. I got a couple of plain milk and a couple of plain dark chocolate for my baking shelf, and some other treats. ;-)

I got a mixed bag of fudge from The Fudge Cottage - though I actually think I would have been better off buying the normal packets, as the flavours in the mixed bag were unidentified, and I got lots of rum & raisin and coffee flavour fudge, neither of which I particularly like. The chocolate stuff is great, though.

I bought a bottle of chai syrup for Mr Cake and some caramel syrup to use for baking from Monin, and I also treated Mr Cake to a honeycomb, which he had never had before.


We went for ginger overload at Loaf, as both were exceptional. That 'explosive ginger' slice has already been gobbled up - and it was very good. The triple ginger loaf is safely stowed in the freezer for a day when we have recovered from our sugar overload!

We chose a bottle of Cienna ($12!) from Brown Brothers - very sweet and fruity, highly tolerable for a red (it's to be served chilled).


And we also bought these yoghurts and some olive haloumi from The Collective - the yoghurt is incredible, especially the apple crumble flavour (you'll notice we got two of those!). The yoghurt was $10 for all three - when we were getting the groceries today we spotted it on special for $5, so that was also pretty good value. The haloumi is likely to feature in our dinner sometime this week.

So it was a great day out - I look forward to next year! Did you go to the Food Show? If so, what was your highlight?
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