Aunty, are we chefs?

I had my friend's children over for a sleep over on Friday and we had so much fun. The highlight though was when we made cupcakes. It left the kitchen in a state but it was well worth it

Ingredients

• 2 very sweet and willing sous chefs :-)
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• 125g softened butter
• 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• food colouring of your choice (we used pink and blue)

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 180C. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the 2 1/2 cups milk, oil, vanilla essence, eggs. Add this to the sifted flour and mix well. It should look something like this...

Step 2

Place 12 cupcake cases in a muffin tray and spoon the batter, filling each one about 3/4 of the way. This can get seriously messy if not done right. My little helpers did very well though.

Step 3

Bake the cupcakes for approximately 15 - 20 minutes. You need to watch those puppies like a hawk (the cupcakes, that is :-))

Step 4

In a separate bowl, place butter, vanilla essence, icing sugar and 2 teaspoons of milk and cream until it's in a spreadable consistency (using an electric beater makes life much easier). Place half of the mix in another bowl. We added a teaspoon of pink food colouring to the one half and blue to the other half.

Step 5

My sous chefs iced and decorated the cupcakes and had so much fun doing so.

And the end result.... Perfection :-)

My little helpers thanked me profusely for the tutorial and really seemed pleased with their hard work. While enjoying their goodies, the little boy looked me square in the face and asked : 'Aunty, are we chefs now?'

'Yes my angel, you are now chefs!' I replied :-)

Sky high

I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie and generally have a high tolerance for the extreme. I was a little out of my depth this time though.
We had lunch in the sky this weekend. It's a global craze that apparently originated in Belgium. Diners get hoisted in the air by a crane.
 
 

 
 
There were 22 of us hovering 40 metres above Cedar square. The weather was glorious and sunny and our table was rotated occasionally, allowing us to take in all the beautiful Jozi skyline. I couldn't really sit back and relax as all I kept thinking of dropping and my insides splattering...ok.. I was really nervous.

 
 
Our first and second courses were plated before we took off. We were served chicken involtini(pan fried and rolled chicken breasts stuffed with  parma ham, smoked mozzarella and basil), crushed potato and napoletana sauce (it was a little underwhelming). Not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't great. Dessert made up for it though. My food buddy and I are allergic to nuts so they went out of their way to serve us an alternative to the tiramisu which had nut traces. We were served a beautifully moist and soft caramel cake. Put a smile on my face and made me forget all about the first course.
 
 

 
 
We spent the rest of the time in the sky having drinks and taking in the scenery. Pure bliss...:-)
 
 

info@sky-events.co.za

Measuring up

What a cool and functional way to store measuring cups. Gonna make my own some day soon.

Source:Infarrantly creative

Red hot

I finally gave in. The red velvet craze has hit me as well, albeit a few months too late. And I made a pwetty one with white petals 'n evewything! :-)

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup veggie oil
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 5 teaspoons red food colouring
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 tub cream cheese
• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C. In a large mixing bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together.
• In a separate bowl. mix the buttermilk, eggs, food colouring, vinegar, vanilla essence and oil.
• Mix the flour into the buttermilk mixture. Pour into a greased pan and bake for approximately 30 to 40 minutes
• In another bowl. mix the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence until smooth
• Ice the cake as desired
• I decorated mine with white rose petals

The recipe is from one of my favourite cake recipe books, Cakes by Calie Maritz.

Sunny side up

Today's brunch was inspired by The brunch bunch. I didn't really read the recipe but just saw the images and made it work. It's one of those meals that I could taste and enjoy in my mind looooong before even purchasing the ingredients. It was also very quick and easy to make.

Ingredients

• Ciabatta bread (sliced in half)
• 1/2 bunch spinach (washed and roughly chopped)
• 1/2 large onion
• 1 cup of rindless streaky bacon
• 1 1/2 cups brown mushrooms (washed and sliced)
• 2 cups grated cheese (I used cheddar)
• 4 eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Olive oil

Method

• Preheat your oven to 200C
• Sauté sliced onion in a frying pan until soft
• Add the chopped spinach and cook for approximately 3 minutes
• Add mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook for a further 3-4 minutes
• In a separate pan, fry bacon until crispy
• On a baking tray, place the bread and drizzle lightly with olive oil
• Place the cooked spinach and mushrooms and try to cover as much of the bread as possible
• Do the same with the bacon and grated cheese
• Place in the oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes (the cheese should melt completely and bread crispy on the sides)
• In the meantime, fry eggs in a pan, sunny side up
• Once bread is ready, slice into quarters and place an egg on each quarter

Each quarter should be more than enough for one but my food buddy had seconds... :-)

Theatre of dreams

Some of my girlfriends and I went to Madame Zingara over the weekend and what a treat that was. I don't really want to give too much info except that it's a 'dinner cirque spectacular' that's very special and over the top and well worth taking time out to experience.

The entrance to the theatre is filled with a myriad of whimsical and quirky paraphernalia that sets the tone for the rest of the evening. We bought masks, had our faces painted and took our seats. They don't allow you to take pictures during the show which means you have to experience it yourself to know what it's truly about.

What I can share is the food we enjoyed :-)


First course - yummy cheese, figs, olives with pita bread and dips. We cleaned it out not knowing that there was way more in store

Second course - a beautifully creamy butternut and cumin soup that left you wanting more.

Third course - a butternut and mushroom ravioli topped with rocket and creamy sauce. I had to stop myself from finishing it

Fourth course - chocolate chili steak with veggies. My steak was a little too chocolaty for my liking - major let down. The veggies were great though. (NO IMAGE)



Fifth course - a trio of desserts. A raspberry sponge cake, rosemary chocolate mousse (no, this isn't a typo. the mousse had rosemary) and granadilla panna cotta. This was great too (the panna cotta, that is.) The chocolate mousse and sponge cake were alright...

Sixth course - le good time :-)

It was a fun evening filled with intrigue, mystery and good laughs. Highly recommended

Images courtesy of Acanda and Khethiwe

Madame Zingara

Monte Casino

boxoffice@madamezingara.com

My new favourite barista

We had breakfast at Life restaurant in Hyde Park this morning. Breakfast is breakfast is breakfast at most restaurants and generally nothing to write home about. Today, however, was a little different. The barista takes note of everyone who orders coffee and makes the coffee drinking experience that much more special. He happened to like my hair this morning and decided to write me a letter...on the foam of my latte...

I should've high-fived him :-)