Sunday, November 27, 2011

Afghans and Bathrooms

A large part of the reason I've been a bit infrequent with my blog posts lately is a family project that has consumed quite a lot of my time for the last two months. If you've been reading for a while you might already be aware that my family have an old home, Merchiston, in Christchurch - it was built in 1879, and has been in our family for over 80 years. It's a rather unique situation, as the house is in a trust and is used for family, church and community events.

The kitchen, before and after

A couple of years ago the family banded together to do a big kitchen renovation, which solved some ongoing issues with a leaky roof as well as bringing the kitchen up to a level where it's very easy to use for the various groups who come in, and easier to keep clean (key when lots of people pass through!). Shortly after that we started talking about doing the same for the main bathroom - we even ran some fundraising high teas to get some money in the (always sparse) kitty. That was July; in September Christchurch started shaking, and that changed all the priorities.

Between September and February the house suffered quite a lot, though it is still standing and will hopefully remain so for at least another couple of generations. Unfortunately, like many others in Christchurch, waiting for insurance means we can't work on remedying earthquake issues just yet (and though we'd like to be able to fix quake damage we are fortunate in that no-one needs to seek alternative accommodation while we wait, so we are better off than many). The bathroom wasn't affected by the quakes, though - and Baby Sister Cake will be having her wedding reception at Merchiston in March, so it seemed like a good time to freshen things up.

The family are all very involved in the house, so there was lots of discussion around how to best combine practicality and heritage, and the final product represents a bit of everyone - one cousin suggested the colours for the walls and ceiling; another suggested the toilet be shifted away from the window, where it can be slightly unsettling if someone walks by; my aunty picked out accent colours to pull the room together and spoke up for the stunning old shower rose (some of us thought it had seen better days but it cleaned up amazingly!); my electrician uncle gave practical advice on wiring (and more importantly, did it!); Mum located a mirror which used to hang in my great-grandparents bedroom to go over the basin; Sister Cake pointed out that wrought iron would go really well with the leadlight window; Dad did the hard yards breaking up ancient concrete to redirect the plumbing. Everyone was involved in some way!

The bathroom, before and after

It turned out to be a huge project - I went to Christchurch for two weekends to help out, and I was completely exhausted on arriving back in Wellington after both - I'm way too soft to be a labourer! Anyway, hard slog requires some good snack food - Dad is a hard taskmaster and works long days, but don't you dare get in the way of his morning and afternoon tea breaks. ;-)


Afghans are possibly my favourite biscuit - they're pretty quick to throw together, rich and chocolatey, crunchy and dangerously moreish - so I made some to take down on one of my trips. I've previously shared my afghan recipe with you, though I did add a touch more butter this time and think they're better this way (of course they are, adding butter always makes things better!).


For the icing, if you want a nice glossy pool atop your biscuit it's important to make it a bit ahead of when you need it. After it has cooled give it a quick whisk to smooth it out before spooning it onto the biscuits, and if it's too stiff you can apply a little heat, but if you make it when you plan to ice them it will be too runny (you can also add icing sugar to help with this, but I prefer not to as that can make them a bit sweet).

I also mixed things up a little with the topping - traditionally a walnut half sits proudly atop each biscuit, but alongside the walnuts in my pantry were some coffee beans I was given - and I don't drink coffee. So for a more adult twist I topped half of my afghans with two or three coffee beans, which I can definitely recommend and others seemed to enjoy as well. Feel free to make them either way, or, if you prefer leave your biscuits naked - they'll still taste good!


Definitely a favourite - and full of energy, to aid you with whatever exhausting projects you have on your agenda.

Are morning and afternoon tea compulsory break stops in your life, or reserved for special occasions?


Afghans (makes 12-14)
Ingredients
180g butter, room temperature
1/2 cup/100g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence or extract
1.5 cups/180g flour
3 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups/60g cornflakes
Icing
3 Tbsp water
45g butter
45g caster sugar
1 1/2 cups/190g icing sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa
walnut halves or coffee beans

Preheat oven to 180 C. Line a cookie sheet with baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla, then sift in dry ingredients and mix together. Use your hands to crumble the cornflakes into the bowl so they are in smaller pieces, then mix in with your hands.

Form into balls, place on baking sheet and flatten (either with the palm of your hand or a fork). Bake for 12-14 minutes.

While the biscuits are cooking, mix together the water, extra butter and caster sugar in a saucepan. Heat until butter is melted then simmer for a minute to form a syrup. Add the icing sugar and cocoa and whisk to combine. When cooled, ice the biscuits with a dollop of icing (it should sort of pool on top - if you need to warm it slightly give it 10 seconds in the microwave) then press a walnut half or 2-3 coffee beans into each one.



Sunday, November 20, 2011

For the Love of Food!

To emphasise the super-busy element of my life I signed myself up for the first ever New Zealand food blogger's conference - aptly titled "For the Love of Food." Actually, I managed to be the very first ticket holder, by virtue of seeing the tweet announcing tickets were up and leaping straight on to reserve my place. I guess I've become accustomed to the world of "Sevens tickets sell out in four minutes" and "Buyers queue for 16 hours to buy iPhone 4S" which is perhaps not quite the case in the food blogger realm yet. ;-)

Tickets did sell out, though - in fact, there were only originally going to be 25 spaces but 26 places were booked. I flew up late on Friday night, and the lovely Mairi (from Toast) hosted me, along with three other Wellington bloggers for the ultimate food blogger slumber party. ;-)


The conference part was held at The Tasting Shed in Kumeu, so we roused ourselves nice and early on Saturday, battled for the shower, and got on the road, travelling in convoy (we picked up another blogger + car on the way).


On arrival we were presented with amazing goodie bags, and I do mean amazing! Some seriously generous sponsors meant that those of us who had skipped breakfast in favour of a little extra sleep did not go hungry. I had my Kokako brownie (I've met this delicious creature before, so it was an easy decision to hone in on it first), which definitely spurred me on to, uh, the next brownie at morning tea time.


Meeting all the bloggers I've been following for ages was fantastic - it's a funny thing, because it is all very easy and you feel like you've known each other for years, despite never having met before. Quite a great way to be - and the cause of some amusement when Jaco Swart, who presented on social media, asked who had met someone through social media and then met them in real life.

The content was also amazing - I expected great things from the conference, but I was thinking mainly in terms of enjoyment and fun, rather than learning. We covered all sorts of topics, including web design, social media, writing for different media, and photography. It was really full on, though we did of course have breaks for morning tea, lunch and a wine tasting, as well as the mingly canape dinner - but definitely very educational.



The Q&A after lunch (which was delicious by the way - notable mention to the braised and rolled pigs' head - so tender and tasty) was probably the most interesting part for me, because learning what drives other people to write, where their focus is, and where they'd like it to lead is not something you can read up on. The more formal segments taught me new things too - my biggest learning curve was definitely the photography session, with lots of tips and tricks from the wonderful Bron Marshall.


Dinner was at Cook the Books, which is a fabulous bookstore and cooking school in Grey Lynn. It was a very casual affair, which was perfect, since we'd all been dying for the chance to chat to those we hadn't sat with during the day, and the food was great - very flavoursome little morsels, including some amazing pulled pork. I have to confess, though, that as is often the case with these things, I peaked waaaaay too soon and was feeling pretty stuffed by the time the pork was wheeled out. I absolutely found space for it, though, and for the Kohu Road mango sorbet (oh how I love Kohu Road!).


Eventually we made it back to slumber party central, but the night was still young, and Mairi knew that we would not regret a trip to The Bramble, where we indulged in stunning cocktails to finish off a marvellous day. Mine was tiramisu, and it was fantastic - as close to the real thing as you can get without needing a spoon. The perfect ending!

A big thank you must go to the amazing Alli, who organised the conference, and to all those who helped out. Also to the sponsors, without whom a) it wouldn't have been possible and b) we wouldn't have come home heavily laden with delicious things to try. ;-)

The sponsors:

Cook the Books | Kohu Road | Gu Puds | Teza | I Love Pies | Mad Millie | Pacific Harvest | Whittaker's |
Kokako | Gravity Coffee | Bell Tea | Annies | Photo & Video International | Coopers Creek | Loaf | Cuisine | Hubbards | New Holland Publishers |

The bloggers who attended were:

Alessandra | Alli | Andrea | Bron | Carmella | Christina | Christy | EmmaJaco | Jemma | Julie | Kristina | Ingrid and Vanessa | Lesley | LouiseMairi | Mika | Moira | Rosa | Rowan | Sasa | Shirleen | Sue | Viviane |

Other blog accounts of the conference:
Alessandra | Alli | Andrea | BronCarmella | Christina | Jemma | Julie | Kristina | Lesley | Mairi | Shirleen | Viviane |

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Sparkle & Style, Maginnity's, Wellington

Christmas is sneaking up on us, and my first festive event of the season was Sparkle and Style on Saturday. Though not strictly Christmas-themed it had a definite festive feel, and is well-timed to inspire those of us who like to plan such things as table settings.

The event is an annual affair, and brings together a refined high tea menu with spectacular centrepieces. Each creation is sponsored by a local business, and is themed accordingly. For example, the Zealandia table boasted a "Deck the Halls with Nature's Finery" theme.


On arrival we were offered a glass of bubbles, and to help ourselves to the chocolate fountain (strawberries! chocolate! Life is good). Judging sheets were offered, and we all wandered about ranking the tables before being seated to enjoy our afternoon tea.


I was at the Glitz and Glamour table, which I agreed with my fellow diners was the best, for its generous use of colour. I love bright and cheery, and though there is definitely also a place for understated glamour we all thought our table was pretty fabulous.


The other favourite (which was probably the most popular overall) was the Wellington Fantasy Gingerbread centrepiece, featuring gingerbread cookies of Wellington landmarks like the Beehive and Old St Pauls, painstakingly (and beautifully) decorated by the very talented Michael Gray of Nada Bakery.

Much better than my own photo above but doesn't show the cookies properly!
And you won't be surprised to hear I also really liked the Bohemien chocolate display, with edible decorations (though we all exercised excellent self-control and left this intact).


Once we were seated we didn't have to wait long before afternoon tea was served - an amazingly generous offering, with (yes, I counted) 12 items for each person.


That's a lot of eating - fortunately, that is something I happen to be quite good at. Everything was lovely, with special mention to the perfectly fluffy scones, and the beautifully rich brownie. I did try everything though (purely for research, you understand), and there weren't any duds. ;-)




We were also very impressed at the range of gluten-free goodies the kitchen assembled for one of the ladies at our table - this is the assortment shown above left, and believe it or not that's all for her!


We were able to choose two pots of tea per table, though most of our table were fairly unanimous in wanting to try the Turkish apple flavour, which was amazing - the teapot still had bits of apple steeping, and the tea was fragrant but not overpowering - perfect with sweet little afternoon tea treats and dainty teacups.


While we were completing our demolition of our afternoon tea the lovely Donna, who runs these every year, announced the winning table setting - and our table took out the prize! A perfect ending... Or was that the delicious gingerbread cookie offered to us all before we took our leave?

I got some fun ideas for table setting - I like making things look just so and do put some thought into that sort of thing, so it's good to have inspiration, and for those without the DIY bent (or who simply don't have the time), some of these arrangements are available for hire, or in the case of the cookies, able to be replicated to order.

The Sparkle and Style Facebook page has loads more photos of the events in case you're curious - check them out, some are stunning! Are you a planner and decorator when it comes to your festive tables, or do you prefer to keep it simple?


Mrs Cake attended as a guest of Sparkle and Style. Some photos were provided by Sparkle and Style. For information on hiring or recreating the centrepieces please contact Donna McCormack on 04 934 3753, events@sparkle-and-style.com, www.sparkle-and-style.com.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

How to Pipe Icing Roses

First of all, sorry for my long absence. Real life has been pretty busy, between work, avoiding rugby, having wisdom teeth removed, sickness, and bathroom renovations (long story) - and unfortunately the blog loses out when I run out of hours and/or energy. However, I am back! With a decorating technique which you may remember from my Grandmother's 80th birthday rainbow cake.

This is my favourite decorating discovery in quite a while - probably since I figured out how easy it is to pipe cupcake swirls and impress everyone. All you need to make this cake is a bit of control over a piping bag - actually, if you don't have it when you start have a few practice goes then scrape the icing off and start again. Even if you're a complete icing novice you should be able to do this!

Unfortunately a cake covered in rose-like swirls isn't appropriate for every occasion, but there are still opportunities and if there aren't make your own. I made this cake (which, incidentally, is kumara and ginger cake, very yummy!) for my dentist, who I don't imagine is much a fan of swirly roses but who needed a cake on account of removing five teeth from my mouth with relatively minimal discomfort and generally being a good sort. Most people are accepting enough of cake that they will eat it regardless of the decoration. ;-)


To ice a cake this way, you need a few things;
1. A cake
2. Icing soft enough to pipe but firm enough to hold its shape
3. A large piping bag
4. A large open star piping tip (Wilton 1M or equivalent)
5. A spatula
6. Gel colour and a paintbrush (optional)

For icing, buttercream is the easiest to get the correct consistency, and any recipe will do - generally, if it's not stiff enough add a little more icing sugar. I frequently use cream cheese icing, though cream cheese and icing sugar can do strange non-Newtonian liquid type things so make sure you use butter as well. Ganache also works but you'll want to whip it so that it's not too heavy and pipe it soon after.


The dual-colour effect is optional, but pretty simple to achieve - paint a stripe of gel colour (your accent colour) down one side of the piping bag before filling it (if you need to refill the bag, which you probably will, do this again each time).


The icing on one side of the bag will be tinted by this, and the rotation of the bag as you pipe will naturally swirl the colour through each rose. The saturation of colour will diminish as you go (i.e. the first couple will be darkest) so you might want to pipe in a semi-random order rather than progressing around the cake.


Getting down to business; piping the rosettes is really easy, and (bonus) you really can scrape the icing off and start over (just don't put crumb-infested icing back in with pure icing - use it for filling your next cake instead, or just eat it off a spoon) so there's no need for stress.

Scoop icing into the piping bag, filling it no more than two-thirds (if you over-fill it the icing will squeeze out the top end when you're not looking). Try to squeeze any air out, then twist the top of the bag and grasp it firmly in whichever hand feels more natural - probably your writing hand.


Squeeze a bit of icing out into the icing bowl to get any air out of the tip and get it flowing. Position the piping tip where you want the centre of the first rose to be, apply firm, even pressure, and move the tip in a close spiral out from the centre point, allowing the icing to lay on the cake. When the rose is large enough (size is up to you), release the pressure so the icing stops flowing, then pull the icing tip away. Voila!


Repeat this to cover the cake. Once you get the hang of it it's pretty speedy.


Try to arrange the roses so there aren't huge gaps, but you can fill the holes by piping semi-circles as needed. Use the same technique but just run the nozzle along the gap you need to fill. When the cake is complete these bits will just blend into the overall picture.


To do the sides the technique is the same, just make sure you get the nozzle nice and close to the cake so the icing sticks on, since gravity won't be on your side. Again, swoopy semi-circles will fill large gaps. 


If there are small holes between roses (i.e. measurable in millimetres; too small to pipe into) use something small (the end of a teaspoon, as I did, or a skewer) to poke into the holes - you'll be able to push the icing around a little until it joins up. Sort of hard to explain but just give it a go - it will make more sense when you're doing it!


And that's that. You have a cake worthy of a dentist... Or a grandmother... Or another deserving person or occasion. And the dentist loved it. Would you give your dentist a cake? What's the most unusual occasion you've ever applied cake to?

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