Guylian Cafe, The Rocks

Lucky me received a gift voucher to the Guylian Cafe for my 21st birthday. Ok, so my birthday was back in February, but Daddy and I had drafted this fantastic plan to gorge ourselves stupid one Sunday while Mumma B and JayB were climbing the harbour bridge (yet another birthday present..). We ending up waiting for them to disembark from the bridge and headed over to the cafe together, along with my Aunty Vickii.

My family suffers from a condition I like to refer to as ‘burrell syndrome’, our eyes are far too big for our stomach. We were all suffering from this terrible syndrome on this particular Sunday afternoon. As a result we ordered five different cakes plus a beverage each. All the cakes were amazing, my favourite being the winter of passion ($15.25), extremely light and fluffy with a yummy citrus edge. And you can go past the hazelnut torte ($15.25), chock full of milk chocolate ganache (possibly my most favourite cake filling ever!).

The Guylian Shakes were devoured by Mumma B, Daddy and JayB – I didn’t even get a photo! At 10 bucks a pop you’re probably thinking we’re insane – no amount of milk, ice cream and chocolate flavouring can amount to $10! However, I am reassured that it was extremely satisfying, and totally worth the money.

Winter of Passion ($15.25)

Winter of Passion

Hazelnut Torte ($15.25)

Hazelnut Torte

100% Pure Pleasure ($15.25)

100% Pure Pleasure

Chocolate Eclair ($7)

White Chocolate Eclair ($7)

Complementary Chocolates

Guylian Shake ($10)

Guylian Cafe, The Rocks - 91 George Street - T. +61 (02) 8274 7500

Guylian Cafe, Circular Quay - Shop 10, Opera Quays - 3 Macquarie Street -

T. +61 (02) 8274 7900

http://www.guyliancafe.com.au/

Food porn - kiss vanilla cupcakes

Keep it simple, stupid. Otherwise known as the ‘kiss’ principle. My public relations tutor was a huge fan of the kiss principle. Apply it to your media releases, media kits, academic essays... or any activity in your life. So that’s what I’m doing with this week’s post – keeping it simple with my attempt at food porn.

I am a horrible photographer, but even I was impressed with these snaps! But when you’re photographing gorgeous vanilla cupcakes with butter cream, topped with handmade royal icing roses (yes, I really did make the roses all by myself!), it really isn’t all that hard! These are the best vanilla cupcakes I’ve ever made (not kidding) and you can check out the recipe from Joy of Baking here. Enjoy. Oh and I’ve also included a few snaps of my brand new electric mixer! Hurrah! And remember – keep it simple, stupid!

The Mill and its notorious caesar salad..

I’ve decided to branch out a bit. I’m a general lover of all foods, and as a reformed vegetarian I feel I’ve come to appreciate many more culinary delights over the past year. Some however are not so delightful, but more ‘fascinating’ for the pallet. I will head back to cakes and the like after this post, but I felt this particular culinary experience needed documenting. Enjoy!

I can’t honestly remember the exact amount of people that have recommended I head over to The Mill Hotel for a drink on a Friday night. “It’s the new Oatley Pub” I’m told. Oatley Pub is THE place for young locals to catch up for Friday night drinks and a chance to rub up against one another. Before Oatley Pub it was the Revesby Workers Club.. And now, it’s The Mill Hotel.

The Mill Hotel is located in Milperra and was once upon a time the infamous Viking Tavern where the Milperra Massacre took place in the early 80’s. Up until its transformation into The Mill Hotel, the Viking Tavern was close to deserted on a Friday and Saturday night. This particular Friday night however, and I’m assuming all the rest since the hotel partially opened a few months ago, my father and I find ourselves battling with a huge crowd.

(Some of the 'funky' lighting treatments)

We head straight to the bar for a drink before heading around for a self guided tour. A schooner will set you back around $4, which is the average price for pubs around the area, and we’re surprised to find bar staff battling for customers, and not the other way round. The staff to patron ratio is close to 1:2 which ensures quick and friendly service.

Our self guided tour takes us around to the ‘beer garden’ complete with dance floor, stage and several plasma screens. There are plenty of comfy looking lounges and we find one large section of the outdoor area cordoned off for David’s 30th birthday. The decor is somewhat rustic, with sandstone brick feature walls complete with enclosed fireplaces.

As I mentioned the hotel is only partially open, with the official opening taking place around October. Luckily for us the bistro is open and functioning at full speed! We head to the bistro and at 6.30pm on a Friday night we don’t have to wait long to order. Finding an empty table is a little bit trickier as it seems more than 50 percent of tables are reserved. I am politely shuffled from one table to another by wait staff as they try to prepare another reserved table that they seem to have forgotten about.

(The outdoor bistro area)

Considering that all the tables in the bistro area are occupied, we don’t have to wait much longer than 15 minutes for our food. I’ve ordered a chicken schnitzel parmigiana (a pub classic) while Dad is having the chicken caesar salad. Now, I must admit an ulterior motive for visiting The Mill. It wasn’t because people have told me how trendy and nice the hotel is. It was because of reports about the caesar salad.

(Chicken caesar Salad $13.00)

It is more of an attempt at a work of art than a caesar salad. And tastes like what I image an Andy Warhol piece would taste like. The dressing is bland and in desperate need of some salt, and is used primarily to glue the cos lettuce ‘tubes’ to the plate. Appetizing! The precariously balanced hardboiled egg is less than appealing, and the chicken is stone cold. Call me old fashioned but I enjoy grilled chicken in my caesar salad, adding a bit of warmth to the plate.

(Chicken Schnitzel Parmigiana $16.00)

The chicken schnitzel parmigiana is rather good. The schnitzel is fresh and crispy, topped with a rich napolitana style sauce, similar to what your lil Italian Nona would make! And best of all it is topped with a generous serve of good quality mozzarella. It is served with chips and a side salad, which is a tad bit limp, and the portion size is generous but not over the top like some other pubs in the area serve up.

Even though I am quiet full after my meal (Dad however picks at my leftovers – the caesar salad is served on a plate that’s size is more suited to a bread roll!) I am tempted to try the tim tam brulee ($9.50). Unfortunately the bistro line is now 30 deep, and regardless of the amount of astute staff I can’t help but worry about my chances of getting desert before a reasonable hour.

The Mill Hotel
189 Beaconsfield Street, Milperra NSW

Phone: 9771 2722

Nina’s Low Fat Apple and Cinnamon Loaf Cake.

As promised, here it is - my recently refined recipe for Low Fat Apple and Cinnamon Cake. I tested this recipe again on the weekend with a few minor adjustments, and used my family as guinea pigs. Dads reaction, after two pieces was ‘I really like it. I mean, I really like it’. Oh, good so you do actually like it, not just saying that you like it. Funny, funny man. But yes, he did really enjoy it. And with the minor adjustments made to the first attempt recipe, I now bake this in a loaf tin. It has a very moist consistency (think banana bread) and is perfect toasted with butter.

Ingredients
2 apples (Granny Smith) peeled and grated
½ Cup of all purpose flour
½ Cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup quick oats
2/3 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarb soda
Pinch of salt
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ fat free milk
1 cup plain, fat free yoghurt
2 tablespoons apple sauce
2 egg whites

1. Pre heat oven to 180c. Line a loaf tin with baking paper.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and cinnamon into large mixing bowl. Add brown sugar, salt and oats, mix.

3. In a separate bowl whisk together yoghurt, apple sauce, milk and egg whites.

4. Gently mix wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Do not over mix.
5. Stir in apple.
6. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Nina's apple and cinnamon cake

Today is my boyfriend’s mother’s birthday. A happy birthday to Nina! When I presented her with this birthday present cake she said ‘Wow! I’ve never had a cake with my name on it before!’ I didn’t tell her that the name took me the most amount of effort with this cake, but clearly worth it. I’ve never been able to pipe, I’m all about the fondant when it comes to cake decorating (I know I’ve said it before, but it’s just like play-doh! Seriously.) Last week I had my first cake decorating lesson where we watched our teacher make the perfect royal icing and she also demonstrated a few basic piping techniques. Seems I came away from that lesson with more than I realised. I was determined to get Nina’s name right, and after a few practices on some baking paper I went for it! Three attempts later and plenty of paper towel to wipe away the mistakes I ended up with that fantastic reaction from my mother-in-law!

The cake is a low fat apple and cinnamon cake, recipe developed especially for Nina. For a low fat cake it was very tasty! And very, very moist! I think I may have put in too much apple sauce, but after a few adjustments and another test run this weekend I feel that the recipe will be blog ready.

An artistic Mud Cake!

I’m very excited because tomorrow I start my cake decorating course at Bankstown Community College! I’m going back to the basics to refine my artistic technique. Speaking of artists, last week was my beautiful Aunty Vickii’s 60th birthday and she is a very talented painter (feel free to applaud that magnificent segway- Anna Coren would be impressed).


She also happens to be obsessed with mice (Aunty Vickii, not Anna Coren). Not live mice though. The cute plastic/porcelain/material (etc) type. She has cabinets upon cabinets full of figurines. So, mice had to be incorporated into the design somewhere.
I steered clear of the cliché cheese wheel with mice running over it, and opted for a paint pallet adorned with mice. Cute!


Packet butter cake (tip: If using packet cake I always use Greens brand, it has the best flavour) topped with white chocolate ganache and chocolate marshmallow fondant!

I find some of the best recipes from the many food blogs I read daily, so I’ve decided to add to the phenomenon that is food blogs by including recipes in my blog posts.

In weeks past I headed over to my Grandparents house for Sunday afternoon tea. Sunday is my baking day. While others are worshiping in church, I am praying to the cooking gods that my latest recipe or cake design will work! So obviously for afternoon tea I came with a cake! Mud cake! My boyfriend loves mud cake. Sadly, he did not get to taste this one (much to his disgust).
After researching a few recipes on the net, and some from my trusty cake books, I came up with a recipe I liked (and included the ingredients, or lack thereof, that were currently in my cupboard).

And here it is...

Chocolate Mud Cake

· 1 ½ plain flour
· ½ cup self raising flour (most recipes called for 1 cup of each, I however only had ½ of self raising left! Lucky it was very good quality, but I would advise using 1 cup of each).
· 250 g dark chocolate
· 60 g coco powder
· ½ teaspoon bicarb soda
· 4 eggs
· 625 g sugar
· 250 g butter (always unsalted!)
· ½ cup milk
· 2 tablespoons of oil
· 2 tablespoons instant coffee (optional)

Ganache
· 250g of high quality chocolate
· 1/3 cup thickened cream

1. Preheat oven 160 C and line your baking pan (I used a deep 30cm round tin)
2. Sift flours, bicard and coco into bowl, add sugar. Mix together.
3. Combined butter and chocolate in a saucepan with ¾ cup of water, plus coffee. Stir over low heat until combined/melted.
4. Make a well in the centre of flour mix and gently stir in chocolate mixture.
5. Whisk milk, oil and eggs and add to mixture. Stir until smooth.
6. Bake for 1 hr 30 mins (depending on oven).
To make the ganache
1. Roughly chop chocolate
2. Add chocolate and cream to saucepan, stir over low heat until melted and combined
3. Set aside to cool until it is a spreadable consistency.

And there you have it! Lovely rich, moist mud cake and not that sponge-like cake that you often get from chain cake stores. And the worlds simplest ganache! If you’re short of time you can whack the saucepan full of chocolaty goodness into the fridge, alternately this recipe works well if you want to pour the ganache over the cake when almost cooled, for a gorgeous silky, shinny texture.

Let me know what you think of this recipe, or if you have any requests for upcoming recipe posts! I’m thinking something with coke and bourbon for my Daddy’s birthday.

Baz’s big birthday billiard balls

Just like mumma always said, don’t play with your food - you definitely shouldn’t play with these billiard balls.

Baz’s big birthday billiard balls. Barry, my boyfriends father, is very very amazing at pool – I suck. I always get my butt kicked. I did NOT get my butt kicked with these, though. Quite the opposite, I got cuddles and love. :)

Vanilla cupcake with a vanilla bean butter frosting. I wasn’t too keen on this recipe. The cupcakes were very heavy, not light and airy as I think cupcakes should be. But there were no complaints (my boyfriend even admitted to eating a few for breakfast the next day..)