The Cupcake Odyssey: Lavender Cupcakes with Honey Frosting

So, it's been a little while. I started a post the other day, which was going to be a running commentary on a party day, but the day fell apart pretty promptly and I wasn't really in a state of mind to be blogging about it. I will finish the post at some point, but rather than a "how to put on an awesome party" post it will be a "how not to do things" post.

Anyway, the other reason I've been so quiet on the blog front is that I've been very, very busy in the kitchen, testing some new recipes. Specifically, cupcake recipes. And here is the first: Lavender Cupcakes with Honey Frosting.

Discussing lavender as a flavour at work, my boss put it best when she said, "Lavender smells lovely, but it's not the sort of thing you smell and then think, I'd like to eat that." Certainly, food isn't the first thing that the sweet, spicy scent of lavender brings to mind. But a little hint of lavender aroma can be heaven in baked goods, creating a delicacy that dough, bless it, just can't quite achieve. The honey frosting is important as it adds a silky, creamy texture which the cupcakes definitely need, and the floral notes in the honey complement the lavender beautifully.

Practical note: culinary lavender is NOT the same as pot pourri lavender. Don't just go pick some from your Nanna's garden, becuse the lovely fragrant stuff that grows in front yards is full of camphor, which really doesn't taste that great. Culinary lavender (Angustifolia) can be purchased online from lavender farms, or, for a more convenient option, Just Lavender from T2 works beautifully. Never use flowers from a florist or supermarket for cooking - they usually contain toxic pesticides. Lavender is also not suitable for consumption if you are pregnant or lactating - thanks to Van Badham for this tip.

(Photo courtesy of the Cowboy)

INGREDIENTS:
125g butter, softened
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk
pinch bicarb soda
1 1/2 tbsp lavender

200g butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar
1-2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup milk
red and blue food colouring, OR fresh lavender flowers

METHOD:
Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, then flour, milk and lavender. Beat to a smooth batter. Bake in preheated (180 degrees) oven as follows:
For cupcakes (18-24), bake 20-25 mins
In a 20cm round cake tin, bake 55 mins
In a 22cm round cake tin, bake 40 mins
Cake is cooked when golden brown on top and a butter knife comes out clean.

Using electric beaters, cream the butter until it is very pale and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and continue to beat. Add the milk, a little at a time, until the icing is a good consistency (it needs to be firm enough to create a thick layer but not so thick that it breaks the crust off the cake as you spread it on).

FOR CUPCAKES:
Mix the honey in with the icing and spread on cooled cupcakes. To frost cupcakes neatly, get a little frosting on a butter knife and smear it right in the middle of the cupcake. Turn the cupcake around in your hand as you spread the icing out toward the edges of the cake. This way you won't get icing all over the edge of the patty pans, which detracts from the look of the cupcakes considerably - and isn't the adorableness of cupcakes half the fun? Top with a fresh lavender flower to serve.

FOR LARGER CAKES:
Separate about a cup of icing and set aside. Mix honey in with the bigger batch of icing, spread liberally over cake. I love to make two cakes, frost one all over then put the other on top and frost that too, so that when you cut into it there's a lovely oozy layer of frosting sitting decadently in the middle. Also, a tall cake just looks more exciting. Mix blue and red food colouring, a little at a time, into the smaller batch of icing until a good lavender colour has been achieved. Pipe around the base and top of the cake and serve.

Note: This post has been getting more traffic than all the others put together, mostly thanks to a lovely link from Van Badham. If you like this recipe, please check out all the other cupcake posts - and if you really, really like it, why not follow me and catch new cupcake recipes as they come out!

Seven Deadly Sins

I have a few retrospective posts I need to make about absolutely fabulous parties I've had in the past that just have to go in this blog. This is one of them: the Seven Deadly Sins Degustation Dinner Party (SDSDDP).

The SDSDDP is where we introduce one of this blog's main characters, who is my partner in crime for most of these dinner extravaganzas (and will continue to be so!) Readers, meet the Cowboy. Cowboy, meet readers. Excellent.

The SDSDDP was the unholy spawn of Masterchef inspiration and drunken enthusiasm. Unlike most of the drunken ideas I concieve, the ones that the Cowboy and I come up with tend, surprisingly, to still be attractive in the harsh, hungover light of morning. This was one of the most attractive of all: we were going to throw the dinner party to end all dinner parties, starting with cocktails and going through soups and salads and sorbets with wines to match, and ending with a proper dessert wine and petits-fours. A real, old-fashioned dinner party where a certain standard of dress was required and there was a different set of cutlery for every course.  To the Cowboy and me it sounded heavenly.

The Food
 

The Seven Deadly Sins theme had actually popped up some weeks earlier while my husband and I were watching Masterchef. There was a challenge which involved contestants having to produce dishes inspired by each of the sins. We both got rather excited by this idea and immediately invented a dozen dishes which we felt would be better than the ones on the show. This produced a short -term desire to cook said dishes which fizzled out due to the insurmountable challenge of being bothered.

With the timely introduction of drunkenness however, some of these dishes were resurrected and and ended up in the magnificent menu we so lovingly constructed.

(if you want the recipes for any of these, please request them in the comments. This post will be too long already without adding seven recipes!)

The Details

Invitations were sent out in the mail and were similar in design to the menus (above). Invitations in the mail is one of my favourite parts of these things because people get so excited when they recieve them. The dress code was 'dress for dinner' and guests were advised NOT to plan to drive home.

The Cowboy and I got very excited about the decorations, as we always do! We bought a heap of black and red candles from Dusk and borrowed black tablecloths and cloth napkins from my parents. We set the whole thing up very properly with the good silverware (a set of cutlery for every course!) and carefully considered the presentation of each and every dish - even the soup was served in mismatched family mugs to represent laziness and comfort (unfortunately no-one got this).

More unfortunate than the misunderstood soup presentation was the fact that we didn't think to take pictures until the night had - ahem - progressed. Next time, we will be more organised ...

Sutherland: Future Foodie Destination?

A few years ago, Sutherland was a bit of a gastronomic wasteland. There was a decent butcher and a pretty good (if overpriced) fruit market, but apart from that there was a Franklins, a Gloria Jeans (shudder), a couple of second-rate cafes and too many dodgy Chinese takeaways.

Don't get me wrong - there is definitely a place in the world for second-rate cafes and dodgy Chinese. Not too long ago I took delight in frequenting these places with friends who lived nearby. Now all these friends have made their escape from the Shire and I am no longer able to wake up late on a Sunday morning and say, "Hey, let's drop everything and go have brunch!" I am also, sadly, no longer able to stomach dodgy Chinese.

But Sutherland has been changing in these few years. It started with White Horse, a cafe of the variety usually seen in Surry Hills or Paddington, with proper baristas, their own beans and coffee that has recently made a list of the top 10 cafes in Sydney. And let me tell you, it's damn good.

White Horse was the start. Before long, the dodgy butcher next to Franklins got bought out and refurbished and now sells a rather wonderful range of cuts and has a small but decent deli section. It's not exactly Victor Churchill but for a small suburb it's respectable. The fish-and-chips-and-chinese deep-fried salmonella factory on Flora Street closed for a few weeks and reopened with a shiny, stainless steel interior, excellent takeaway fish and chips and a window full of very fresh-looking produce. The opening of the Supabarn also widened the food horizons. Their fresh food section, although of supermarket standard, has a huge range and should hopefully encourage competitiveness in the existing fruit market. Their deli selection is impressive (ashed goat's curd anyone?) and they have a decent range of high-quality brands. 

I knew something was really going on in Sutherland, however, when I walked through the little arcade on Eton Street and found a brand-new shiny coffee haunt with coffee that nearly rivals White Horse in taste. Two amazing coffee places? In Sutherland? Hooray!

I think I should go on a mission to make Sutherland a proper Foodie destination. We already have an annual Coffee Fair, how about a weekly or monthly Farmers Market? There's great coffee, good butchers and decent fresh food, how about a good deli? Anyone looking to start a small business?

So, Shire-bound foodies, what are your thoughts?

Creme Brulee Cupcakes

"It's like creme brulee ... in a cupcake!" was the highly original (but highly flattering) comment my friend made when sampling one of these creamy little delights. These are definitely for those with a sweet tooth (and not on a diet) as they are loaded with butter and sugar, but if you want to take the edge off a little and go for a more balanced taste, you can very slightly burn the toffee which will provide a slightly bitter note to cut through the sweetness.

These cupcakes need to be made in reverse, that is - make the custard for the frosting first as it needs to be quite cold before the butter and icing sugar can be mixed in.

Frosting

1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
125g butter (slightly softened)
1 cup icing sugar (approx)

Heat a small saucepan full of water over medium heat until simmering. Mix caster sugar, flour, egg and milk in a metal bowl. Place the metal bowl over the boiling water and use electric beaters to beat the mixture until a smooth consistency has been reached and the mixture is hot (this is important as the eggs need to be cooked unless you want a salmonella risk). Cool by putting the bowl in a sink full of iced water while you make the cupcakes and toffee.

When you are ready, add the butter to the mixture and beat with electric beaters, adding large spoonfuls of icing sugar one at a time, until frosting is thick and pale. You mat reach a point where you decide to stop adding icing sugar and just keep beating it - tasting the mixture along the way is crucial (and delicious)!

Cupcakes

125g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
2tsp vanilla essence (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp baking powder

Beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs (one at a time). Add flour, baking powder and milk and mix thoroughly. Ladle into cupcake pans (you should get about 25 from this recipe - 24 if you're keen on licking the bowl!). This mixture is very liquid because of the extra egg so keep that in mind! Bake in a preheated 180 degrees (celsius) oven for 20 minutes or until golden and nicely risen - be sure to do the clean knife test before removing from the oven! Allow to cool thoroughly.

Toffee

Put 170g caster sugar and 4 tbsp water into a small saucepan and stir continuously over low heat until sugar is completely dissolved. Turn the heat up to medium-high and leave the mixture, without stirring, until it turns golden-brown. It takes a long time to start colouring but once it does, it gets there fast! you need to watch it constantly as it is very easy to burn. If you do want a burnt toffee flavour, leave it until it is just starting to look more 'brown' than 'golden'. There is a fine line between sweet toffee and edible burnt toffee so it is better to err on the side of caution here! Pour mixture onto a large, flat tray lined with baking paper and allow to cool. Once firmly set, snap into small pieces. You will need at least as many pieces as you have cupcakes!

Assembly

Once the cupcakes are cooled, top with a generous layer of frosting. This frosting recipe makes loads more than you will actually need - my solution was to freeze the leftover but until I have tried defrosting and using it I can't say for certain that's a good solution. Making a double batch of cupcakes on the other hand - definitely a good solution. Once all the cupcakes have been iced, place a piece of toffee on top of each one.

Voila! Creme brulee cupcakes.

Note - unfortunately, these cupcakes need to be refrigerated. As a general rule I am against refrigerating cake as it makes it quite stodgy, however this frosting will melt in seconds so there's not really any other option.

Did you try these yourself? Do you have another cupcake interpretation of creme brulee that you've made or would like to see made? Let me know!

Cupcakes and Dinner Parties

Because there just aren't enough food blogs in the world, I thought I'd start another one.

No, really.

This started because, although I have a full-time career, eight month-old daughter and active social life, I somehow found time to be bored. Never underestimate the insidious influence of ennui on the Gen Y mind.  My husband's suggested solution to my Emma Bovary complex was to find a hobby, which sounded remarkably like good advice.

I have had several hobbies over the years. I am always an avid reader, but was suffering from being in-between books at that time. I have tried painting in the past, but my inspiration petered out somewhat after my "spatter painting with eggshells" phase (don't ask). I'm not into sports, terrible at gardening and writing just makes me depressed as I wasn't bad at it once upon a time.

Two things which I do love, however, and am good at, are food and entertaining. I say 'food' rather than 'cooking' because I love to eat it and analyse it and think about it as much as I like to cook it.  I love to tweak recipes again and again until they are unrecognisable from their starting point. I love to make food that's inspired by different food and food that's inspired by other things altogether. And I love to entertain. I love the planning and scheming and buying and preparing and managing that go into a really good party. I'll put as much effort into having a few girlfriends around for a cuppa as I will into planning a whole wedding. (Really. I've done it.)

So, now that I have a legitimate banner under which to place the inclinations that my friends have previously labelled 'lunacy', I thought I'd find some place to gather my collective wisdom and experience and share it with anyone else who might feel as I do, or want inspiration for fabulous get-togethers, or just be plain curious.  All my food and entertainment adventures will go here, but I might as well warn you now that they mostly belong to one of two categories: Cupcakes, and Dinner Parties.