Are you a breakfast eater or does the thought of food early in the morning make you want to gag. For me I’m a real breakfast eater, as a Chef it was of my favourite times of the day to cook . Getting up super early was relatively easy and getting your mojo on for the day was quite invigorating. Scientists and medical personal all agree that Breakfast is the most important meal of the day ,it breaks your fast from the long rest of sleep through the night. Even if all you can only manage in the morning is a piece of toast and a cup of coffee make sure you eat breakfast on a regular basis as it energises you for the rest of the day.
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Cupcakes really have taken off and soared recently. what used to be a basic little treat for mainly childrens parties are now popular with all ages and decorated and made in so many ways. Basically cupcakes are the little black dress of the food world; I love doing cupcakes, you can be so inventive with styles, flavours, icings and toppings. and its great to be able todo in minature. It often takes far less time to decorate a series of cupcakes compared to decorating a large cake yet look stunning and effective very quickly.
Im now providing some restaurants with cupcakes which is just marvelous
here are some creations I have made
I just love using flowers and herbs when making baked goods. One of my favourite flavours is English Lavender, another is Rose. the flavours they impart to baked items are just wonderful . My lavender shortbread is always a popular item as is my Rose and Pistachio biscuits. These flavours are so fragrant and beautiful and just work so well with sugar, eggs, cream and flour. They make the most delicious creams, icecreams, cream patisserie,cakes and biscuits and are just wonderful in chocolates. Not long ago I made Lemon and Basil meringues which were simply delicious. Its become more popular now to add fresh herbs to sweet treats and it just goes to show how much our tastebuds have developed in the last few years and have opened our eyes and tastebuds to wonderful new experiences. Never be afraid to try new things and flavour combinations, some will work some may not but you do not know if it will until you try.
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Happy new year 2009
Well I hope you all had a good year in 2008 and if not that the year ahead is going to be even better.
Life holds so many new things for me in the year ahead. Im hoping to be a bit more on to it when it comes to posting stuff on here, so keep coming back regularly and check it out.
Went over to some freinds house last night and I cooked a 3 course low fat dinner silly blonde thing that I am forgot to take pictures of the entire meal but let me create a word picture for you. You can check out the recipes in the recipe section here.
we started off with a vegetable and dip platter
which had yellow capsicum, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms which i marinated in fresh lime juice and black pepper,courgettes, pita bread crunchy bits, with a cottage cheese and sundried tomato dip and a pea and basil dip .
The Main course was skinless chicken which was stuffed with a little of the cottage cheese dip and slices of sundried tomato, that was then seasoned with black pepper,balsamic glaze, smoked paprika, and a very small drizzle of olive oil and then bbqed ,I served this with bbqed corn cobs seasoned with black pepper and a small drizzle of olive oil again. A salad of tomato, red onions , cucumber tossed in a light balsamic dressing and minature baked potatoes stuffed with baked beans, wholegrain mustard and potato were served on the side.
For Dessert I made a low fat chocolate cake ( I got the recipe from Taste magazine see the links page)
It was a recipe from the latest issue and it had cherries in it, I switched the cherries for fresh raspberries,fresh blueberries and fresh strawberries , and added a little vanilla to it, it was incredible and with only 5gms of fat per slice, I served this with low fat custard, and low fat greek yoghurt and decorated the top with fresh berries.
My freinds just loved it , we are all doing low fat stuff so I wanted to show how we can make a meal from start to finish using all low fat products and producing great food that if you didnt know it was low fat you couldnt tell
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2008 Christmas Cakes
I made a heap of christmas cakes this year , some were orders and the rest were presents for people
silly blonde me didnt take photos of all of them but here is a link to the ones I did take
check out the 2008 christmas cakes on the right side of the page
I won another bronze medal for my fruit flan in the salon culinare 2008 I was very pleased. the flan was an almond sweet pastry with a rose and vanilla pastry cream topped with honey dew melon, papaya,plums, and black cherries and glazed with barkers glaze. Our School did so well , we took 58 medals and won the training establishment of the year for the 3rd year in a row Woooooooo Hoooooooo that is so very cool 
Congratulations to every single person that participated in the competitions be you a medal winner or not, the fact that you all participated is the most important thing.
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sugar and spice and all things nice
If you visit the links on the right side you will see
there is a collection of different goodies I have made in the last2 months or so
ranging from all different types of bread to cream brulees and caramels, to cakes ,doughnuts and many other baked tasty treats. Keep watching this space as More things are added to the list
This weekend was the regional competitions for the chefs schools
I was entered in the Fruit Flan Competition, there were 9 of us in our team and in the actual competition itself there were about 24 entries. there were about 15 medals given out, 3 silver and the rest were bronze. Our team of 9 took 7 medals , 3of those were the silver and the rest were bronze.
my flan won a bronze medal , thats two bronze medals for me now , I said to our school manager “Ive got two bronzes now Im planning on an upgrade for the salon culinare in september” :o)
This was a sweet short vanilla pastry base with a lemon and passionfruit velvet pastry cream then topped with honeydew melon, nectarines, strawberries, melon balls, oranges, grape slivers, with a melon flame in the centre. it looked like a campfire.
here are some pictures, of the flan, my medal and a school group photo.
If you need to find out more about our school “NSIA” check out the links page
We all worked so very hard and the school did very well with medals, I just loved being part of the team and all my training and hard work was worth it
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a baby fruit flan
heres a little fruit flan I made just for fun
using a sweet short paste , cream patisserie and fresh fruit