Pretty in Pinterest: Movie Cakes

Well I got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday, three of them (I only have three because I'm a freak you see.) I have to say it was not the most pleasant process to go through. I was supposed to take some pain killers about two hours after having them removed but I could barely even open my mouth, then my body kind of went into shock as I experienced the most pain I've ever felt in my life. Ouch! Now I'm on track though, I've got a schedule of when to take pain killers (which includes waking up every four hours) and am slowly eating again, not much to brag about though, just jelly, Up and Go, yoghurt and other soft foods.

So here I am in my room, Mr S has moved our giant big screen TV downstairs so I can watch movies in bed which is the greatest! I'm about to get into some serious movie watching so thought I might share some cool movie related cakes.

Oh and while we're talking movies, yesterday was the closest I think I'll ever come to feeling like a vampire! I had blood in my mouth! (ew!) Felt a little like Bella from Twilight, too bad Mr S isn't Edward, he was quite grossed out - which is fair enough I think!

Classic Cakes and Confections: Up Cake

Erin Salerno:  The Lorax Cake

Charm City Cakes: Wall E Cake

Pink Cake Box: Corpse Bride Cake

Ban Bakes in Paris: Cinderella Dress Cake

Avengers Cupcakes

Last night Mr S and I went to the see the new Avengers movie. Needless to say it was AMAZING! If you haven't seen any of the previous Marvel movies (Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor and Captain America) I found this really great article on Flicks on all the previous movies and characters, it's great just to jog your memory even if you have seen them. Basically, the movie is based on the Marvel comic books, most of the characters have had their own movies but secretly they were all joining together to create one monster of a movie, the Avengers!

Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow,
Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye

We booked tickets to the "special screening" at Event Cinemas which was at 6pm. I originally wanted to go to the midnight session but didn't want to be tired for work the next day. Little did I know, it was a public holiday that day (ANZAC day) so it wouldn't have mattered, HOWEVER the special screening turned out to be awesome! For the same price (okay 10 cents difference) we got free popcorn, cool 3D glasses, key rings, buttons and posters then when we were seated we were told there were prizes under seats and it turned out we had a  frizbee too!

Avengers Merchandise

I had planned on making these cupcakes ever since the idea for Avengers first came out and now was the time! So I made chocolate cupcakes with a caramel centre (yum) and decorated them just for me. Not for any other reason which was qutie nice actually. Don't worry, I didn't eat them all! I took them to work today and everyone gladly gobbled them up (not before taking a million photos!)

All in all I'm VERY happy with how these turned out and tasted too! I will put up a tutorial of how to fill cupcakes with caramel very soon.

Marvel, Avenger, Iron Man, Captain America,
Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow

Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

Do you find it hard to think of a good (and easy) dessert to make when you have guests over? I think I've mentioned this a few times on my blog and if not I mention all the time out loud! It's so hard to make a dessert without planning ahead. If you want to make a pie you have to make a pastry, if you want to make something fancy and chocolatey you have to have chocolate and cream and stuff on hand, which, sadly, I don't. Don't even get me started on lemon desserts! I wish I had a lemon tree!

I had my friends over for dinner the other night and after much Googling I found a great recipe. It's off The Search for NZ's Favourite Recipe site which was originally created as a competition to...well, find NZ's favourite recipe! This one is a keeper for sure, so easy to make with ingredients you're bound to have on hand and you can eat dinner while it cooks.

Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding
Adapted from NZ's Favourite Recipe

Ingredients:
100g Butter
1C Sugar
2T Cocoa
1 1/3C Flour
4 t Baking Powder
1/4 t Salt
2/3 C Milk
1C Brown Sugar
1/2 C White Sugar
4 T Cocoa Powder
2C Boiling Water

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
• In a large bowl, melt butter then add the sugar and cocoa powder and mix.
• Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until just combined.
• Mix in the milk and vanilla then pour out into a large oven proof dish. Make sure that the mix comes to no more than a third up side because the mixture with rise HEAPS and will boil over!
• Sprinkle the brown sugar, white sugar and cocoa over the top of the mixture (LOOK at all that sugar!)
• Just before you pop it in the oven, pour the boiling water over top and gently mix it in with the sugars and cocoa on top.
• Bake for 40 minutes, you’ll know if it’s done by poking the top bit and looking inside, it should look cakey.
• Serve straight away and add some ice cream if you like!

Pretty in Pinterest: Gooey Chocolate Cakes

This week I have lots of chocolate going on, two recipes that are both desserts. One is a classic I grew up with, the other is a little on the fancy side and quite decadent so stay tuned for those delicious recipes!

I'm not THE biggest chocolate fan but I do love ooey gooey chocolate, especially when it's poured over a cake  just waiting to be eaten. Click on the links below the photos to view the recipes and give it a go yourself!

MY Nutella Cake

Smitten Kitchen: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Annie's Eats: Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Layer Cake

Simply Recipes: Chocolate Ganache Torte

Desserts for Breakfast: Oreo Olallieberry Chocolate Layer  Cake

Rugby Field Cake (aka my Last Cake!)

I've decided that I've been making myself a little too busy with cake decorating and am therefore semi-retiring and will be just doing the odd cake here and there for friends and family but not taking on every single one. I know it'll be hard for me to say no because I do enjoy decorating but for the sake my my sanity and my relationships I think it's best if I try not to take on too much!

That leads me to an exciting announcement. In case you hadn't seen it yet I bought myself a domain name YAY! I am now lydiabakes.com. It's so simple and easy to remember. No more dot blogspot dot com! Yaaaay! It also marks a new beginning for me as I'm going to be blogging less about cakes and more about general baking and kitchen tips. My friend and wonderful graphic designer, Danelle, is working on a grand blog redesign with me and I cannot wait to share it with you all!

So here it is, my (sort of) final cake. It's a rugby field cake made for my work mates son. Vanessa says that he is a big Blues supporter but upon picking it up she told me they're not playing so well (I wouldn't know I don't follow rugby really!) but her son supports them no matter what. A true fan!

Chocolate Chunk Oat Cookies

This is one recipe you do NOT want to miss out on, seriously. Tell your friends, tell your friends friends, heck! Tell your frenemies! This recipe is guaranteed to knock your socks off!

I first tasted this cookie when I went to a conference a few years back at my old work. I tasted one bite and had to ask the chef what the recipe was (if they could tell me) she told me it was a Jo Seagar recipe from an old recipe book of hers. I kept that little nugget of information packed away in my memory only to Google it two years later for a fund raising bake sale I was doing for guide dogs.

So here it is, I cannot take any credit for the recipe but you can thank me for sharing it with you later!

Chocolate Chunk Oat Cookies
Adapted from Jo Seagar

Ingredients:
250g Butter (softened)
3 T Sweetened Condensed Milk
3/4 C Sugar
1 1/2 C Flour
11/2 C Rolled Oats
1t Baking Powder
200g Dark Chocolate (roughly chopped, I used Whittakers 50%)

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
2) Beat butter for about 30 seconds then add the sweetened condensed milk and sugar. Beat until light and creamy.
3) Sift in the flour and baking powder then throw in the oats and chopped up chocolate.
4) Mix together until nicely combined then roll heaped Tablespoons full of mixture into balls and place on baking trays.
5) Flatten with a fork (I love the look that gives them!) and cook for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
6) Cool cookies on wire racks and then try not to eat them all at once, believe me, you'll want to!

Recipe Notes:
If you buy the Whittakers chocolate there's enough chocolate that you get to eat some too! Sometimes it feels like a waste to use a whole block in baking.
I stopped baking mine at 15 minutes and they were nice and a little chewy, just the way I like them! But if you're keen for something a little crispier, bake them a little longer, but keep an eye on them!

Oh and...you're welcome! (in advance)

I've submitted this recipe in Sweet New Zealand. Check out the lovely Bake Club site for the rest of the entries for this month. Sweet NZ is a great way for Kiwi food bloggers to meet each other and share awesome sweet recipes (my favourite kind!)

Savoury Sunday: Lime & Sesame Beef Stir Fry

Stir frys are one of my favourite meals to prepare. Mr S and I used to buy these packet mixes that resemble tar with a packet of frozen mixed vegetable but one day I came across a recipe on a blog (I can't find it now and it kills me!) and followed it exactly. After a while I just threw things together that I knew would taste good and started getting the hang of making delicious made-from-scratch stir fry's. I think my favourite part about making a stir fry from scratch is cutting up all the veges really tiny. Once you're finished you're left with a rainbow of veges on a chopping board just waiting to be fried up! Yum!

I came across this recipe while flicking through my mother-in-laws cookbooks and it caught my eye. I like the zesty taste that the lime brings out.

Lime and Sesame Beef Stir Fry
Adapted from Annabel Langbein Free Range in the City
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:
300g Beef, sirloin, rump or schnitzel
Zest of 1 Lime
2t Crushed Garlic
1T Soy Sauce
1t Sesame Oil

Noodles or Rice (I like to use Udon noodles)
1T Cooking Oil
1T Oyster Sauce
2T Water
2T Sesame Seeds
2T Lime Juice

1 Head of Broccoli
1 Head of Bok Choy
Handful of Snow Peas or Beans
1 Spring Onion
1 Carrot

1) Trim off any fat from the beef and discard. Slice the beef as thinly as possible and cut across the grain.
2) Mix beef with lime zest, garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil.
3) Leave this to stand while you prepare the rest of the meal.

4) If you're making rice or noodles prepare this now as per the instructions on the packet. I use the ready to go Udon noodles which I add near the end of cooking the stir fry. If making rice, serve the stir fry on top of the rice.

5) Chop up all the veges really tiny: cut carrots into tiny match sticks, the broccoli into small florets, the bok choy into slices, slice the spring onion thinly and cut the ends off the snow peas or beans.
6) Cook broccoli (and beans if using) for two minutes in a pot of boiling water then drain and cool under cold water, drain well and set aside.
7) Heat oil in a wok or large fry pan and cook meat on a high heat for a couple of minutes, add the oyster sauce, water, bok choy, snow peas and stir fry for a couple more minutes until meat is cooked and veges are getting hot.
8) Add broccoli and beans, spring onion, noodles (if you are using) and sesame seeds to the fry pan and toss over high heat to fully heat through for a couple of minutes.
9) Stir in lime juice and dish up into bowls.

Recipe Notes:
Following a recipe for stir fry is a good way to get the amounts right for the sauce but feel free to add whatever veges and sauces you like. I like also like using honey, hot Nandos sauce, ginger and bean sprouts in my stir frys. Mix it up a little and experiment with different flavours!

Pretty in Pinterest: Hunger Games

Who's got the Hunger Games fever? I know I do! A couple of weeks ago Mr S and I went to see it at the movies with no knowledge whatsoever of the movie, just knowing that it had rave reviews and the books were popular. Pretty much as soon as we walked out of the theatre I had the three books in my hands. I read the first one in three days, the second one in one day (Good Friday) then the third one in three days. WOW. That is all I can say! I'm not one to ruin movie/book endings so I'm not saying any more.

If you haven't seen the Hunger Games movie yet then stop reading my blog immediately and go watch it. Now!
If you haven't read the books then go buy them or get them out at the library (there's a ridiculously long waiting list at our library!) and read them. Now! Go go go!

Taylor Swift sings a few songs in the soundtrack that I LOVE. There's Eyes Open (my favourite) and Safe and Sound. I also found a Hunger Games styled wedding! You know a book is big when people style weddings around it (I've seen quite a few Harry Potter ones!)

May the odds be EVER in your favour...

Bake a Difference for Guide Dogs

A couple of months ago I was sent this letter from the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind with a cookie cutter! I thought it seemed very odd until I read about their next Bake a Difference appeal. This was to raise funds for guide dogs. Seeing as I have a bit of skill in the baking department (at least I like to think I do!) I like to try and use my powers for good and raise money every now and then.

Last time I did Bake a Difference I organised it at my work and got some others to help along. I made Red Velvet cupcakes with little Bake a Difference flags in them. This time I used my cookie cutter that came in the mail and made some plain cookies then iced them with Royal Icing. Since I'm not overly keen on plain iced biscuits I decided to make some fancy cookies too...but I'll leave those for another post! I asked Mr S to take them to work and he sold almost every single one of them!

If you would like to donate money for the guide dogs or the Blind Foundation click HERE for the website.

Here is the recipe for the iced cookies, I'm also going to attempt (for the first time) to write down the recipe for Royal Icing, I find it a bit hard to explain so if you have any questions please leave me a comment.

Plain Cookies
Adapted from the Edmonds Cookbook
Make Approximately 40

Ingredients:
125g Butter (softened)
3/4 C Sugar
1t Vanilla Essence
1 Egg
2 C Flour
1 t Baking Powder

1) Preheat oven to 190 degrees C and prepare two baking trays with baking paper.
2) Beat butter for about 30 seconds then add sugar and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
3) Add egg and beat well.
4) Sift in flour and baking powder and mix together until nicely combined.
5) On a lightly floured surface, roll out cookie mixture and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes then place on prepared cookie trays.
6) Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until they are a pale golden colour. Be sure to keep an eye on them!
7) Cool on wire racks completely before decorating them.

Royal Icing Recipe
Ingredients:
3 T Meringue Powder (you can get this from speciality baking stores)
4 C Icing Sugar
5-6 T Lukewarm Water

1) Make sure ALL of your equipment is completely oil free. I do this by washing everything with detergent and boiling water first.
2) Sift meringue powder and icing sugar into a medium sized bowl.
3) Add 4 Tablespoons of water to the mixture and mix on a medium speed until mixture is looking lumpy.
4) Add the remaining water and beat on high for 7-10 minutes (this is when a stand alone mixer comes in handy).
5) Once icing is done is should have lost it's sheen. This is stiff consistency Royal Icing. I usually store mine in the fridge until I need to use it then spoon some out into a small bowl and add water to get it to the right consistency.

Stiff Consistency Royal Icing
Sweet Sugar Belle

How to store Royal Icing:
Place in a small OIL FREE container and cover with Glad wrap then seal with the lid of the container. It will last for about a month..

How to Pipe Royal Icing:
Spoon out a small amount into a cup or small bowl and add some colour gel. Use a teaspoon to incorporate the colour until you get the colour you need.
Add tiny amounts of water maybe half a teaspoon at a time until you reach a consistency you can use to easily pipe with.
Place icing in an OIL FREE piping bag, making sure that your tips are oil free too. I use disposable bags for Royal Icing and I can reuse them plenty of times, just make sure to wash them thoroughly.
Pipe outlines on cookies.
You can use a damp paint brush to smooth down the parts of the icing that stick out, like the joining areas.

Cake Journal

How to Fill or "Flood" using Royal Icing:
Spoon out a small amount into a cup or small bowl and add some colour gel. Use a teaspoon to incorporate the colour until you get the colour you need.
Add a small amount of water, maybe one teaspoon at a time until it takes 10 second for the icing to go back to normal (no lines in the icing) after you pick it up and drop it on itself. This will be quite runny but the 10 second rule works so try stick to it!
Fill piping bag or squeezie bottle -both need to be OIL FREE and fill your outlined area with icing.
Use a toothpick to get the icing to stick to the outline and pop any bubbles that may appear.
Lightly tap the bottom of your cookie to smooth out the icing.
Let them dry over night and store in an airtight container, making sure they are single layer (or you'll destroy all your hard work!)

Cake Journal

I hope that all made sense, let me know if not!