And that's the way the Blueberry slice crumbles =p

It's sad... no more work catering for the rest of the year. Although there is one more seminar at work I will unfortunately be away (on holiday~~~). However that doesn't mean I'm not blogging or baking =p Actually I haven't been baking as much as I would like to recently.. busyyyyyy...=___= Well I did bake some macarons for an order.

Anyways decided to bake this BLUEBERRY CRUMBLE SLICE for fun :) and wanted to test this recipe out anyways ^^ The crumble wasn't as "crumbly" as I would have liked when I sprinkled it on top of the slice, but after it was baked it was nice and crispy ^^ It's also not too sweet ~

BLUEBERRY CRUMBLE SLICE
Recipe adapted from My Kitchen Snippets

Ingredients
6 tbs butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tbs sour cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups frozen blueberries (or if you have fresh even better!

Crumble topping
3 tbs butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup plain flour

1. Grease and line square baking tin (8" x 8"). Preheat oven to 180oC.
2. Place crumble ingredients in small bowl and mix until resembles course breadcrumbs.
3. In separate bowl, beat butter, sugar, vanilla and sour cream with electric beater until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one and at time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Sift in flour, salt and baking powder and mix until combined.
5. Spread batter evenly into baking pan. Cover the top of batter with blueberries (pressing berries slightly into the batter). Sprinkle the crumble topping over the blueberries.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool in pan before removing and slicing up.

Golden crumbly topping~~

This would taste AWESOME fresh from the oven with a scoop of vanilla icecream! <3

Slice =D =D

Taking on the ZUMBO!!!!

I'm not a firm believer in packet mixes... much rather do it from scratch.. however there are some exceptions =p So excited to see that Adriano Zumbo now has his own cake packet mix.. including his famous MACARONS!!! :D 

So what do you get in the box you ask?
1. Meringue mix (all you need to do as add water!!)
2. Almond mix (probably a mix of almond meal and icing sugar)
3. Passionfruit filling (it's like a GEL! so yum! I could eat this on its own!)
4. 2 pipings bags
5. Macaron stencil - to trace a perfect circle!

Contents of macaron mix

Piped macarons.. not as "round" as I would have liked...

*pop* macaron feet!

filling the macarons!!

Haha! just like the store bought!!! ^___^ 

So my verdict!!! Definitely worth it! The flavour was intense! As soon as I opened the packet mix I could smell passionfruit! The gel filling was awesome too!!! :D It took me a third of the time I would normally make macarons. The only downside would be that they were a little soft (but just for my liking...). I really want to try the salted caramel flavoured one now :D

NOW SELLING @ BakingTray $5 per box of 5. See "macaron menu" for ordering details.

Work catering week 5: Yo! have a Yoyo!

This week for work catering, I made Yoyos! a.k.a. Melting moments a.k.a Ladies kisses (in Italy =p). They are usually quite big when sold in cafes/bakeries but this time I made mini ones ^^ The two flavours I made were lemon and chocolate.

Yoyos
Recipe adapted from BlueBakeBlog

Ingredients
Biscuit
175g butter, softened at room temperature
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain flour 
1/4 cup custard powder
*1/4 cup cocoa powder (for chocolate yoyos)

Lemon buttercream
50g butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon

Chocolate buttercream
50g butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup icing sugar
50g melted chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Beat butter and icing sugar with electric beater until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat well. Sift flour and custard powder into mixture and mix well. (add in cocoa powder for chocolate yoyos)
3. Roll teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls. Place on tray and flatten with a fork. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
4. For buttercream, beat butter and sugar. Add lemon juice or melted chocolate and beat.
5. Sandwich two biscuits together with buttercream

plate of yoyos ^_^

close up of yoyos

I also made some Butterscotch brownies with a fun marbled topping :) 
You can find the recipe here.

chocolate swirly topping~~

cut up into squares

BITE sized

Close up of brownies

Hmmm.. almost running out of ideas >.< maybe I can recycle some =p

Work Catering Week 4: Slices!

Skipped a week last week because there was no seminar... however..this week I'm going back to slices!!! Similar to brownies I made 3 weeks ago. I've realised slices are really easy for catering because you can make a big batch and then just cut up into the number of pieces you need =D

The Chocolate hedgehog slice was really easy to make because it required NO BAKING =D gotta love that ^^" and its chocolate! Well just in case there are some people who don't like chocolate, I also made a raspberry coconut slice :) 

CHOCOLATE HEDGEHOG SLICE

Recipe adapted from http://food.ninemsn.com.au/recipes/ichocolate/8349791/chocolate-hedgehog-slice

Ingredients
350g Marie biscuits, coarsely chopped (1 1/2 x 200g packet)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
250g butter, chopped
1 1/4 cups caster sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
250g dark chocolate, melted
1 tsp vegetable oil

1. Grease and line baking tin (20cm x 30cm). 
2. Combine biscuits, nuts and coconut in large bowl.
3. Place butter, sugar and cocoa in a medium pan and stir until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and whisk in egg.
4. Pour chocolate mixture over biscuit mixture. Mix well. Press into prepared pan. 
5. Melt chocolate and vegetable oil in a heat proof boil over a double boiler. Spread melted chocolate onto slice. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Like my "home-made" sign? =p a bit of a rush job...

RASPBERRY COCONUT SLICE

Recipe adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients
100g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup raspberry jam
1 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line baking tin (20cm x 30cm).
2. Beat butter and 1/2 sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 egg.
3. Sift in flours and stir to combine. Stir in buttermilk.
4. Press mixture into prepared baking tin. Spread raspberry jam over base. 
5. Whisk remaining sugar and 2 eggs in large bowl. Stir in coconuts. Sprinkle mixture over jam.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until light golden colour. Allow to cool before slicing.

may have overdone the top .. a little ><

Ready to eat :D

So I wasn't actually there for the seminar but heard that the slices went quickly ^^ which is nice to hear :) Got some great feedback especially for the chocolate hedgehog slice :D just like the ones in the shop =D great confidence booster! hehe.. and AFTER... I even got an offer to bake cakes for people's birthdays! WOooo =D great way to spend my birthday!! Oh oh! i should show you all the CAKE that I got :P Here's some photos!

HUMMINGBIRD cake :) with my FAVE cream cheese frosting! thanks J!!

cupcakes =D =D they look sooooo good! thanks PS :D

YES YES YES YES!!! THAT IS LADUREE!!!! =D =D =D =D!!!

MACARONS!! ALL THE WAY FROM FRANCE!!!! THANK U SO MUCH L and A!! <3 <3 <3

Cookie cravings...

My brother had cravings for cookies the other day. 
He asked me "Do you want to make something?" 
Me: "Something... like what?" 
Bro: "Cookies?" 
Me: "What flavour?
Bro: "Hmm... something white chocolate? macadamia nuts?"

But that day I was quite tired and didn't feel like baking xD haha!! But the next day I had a bad lunch experience ><" So needed to go home and bake something delicious! hehe.. I recently saw a post by DailyDelicious for some chewy choc chip cookies! So I used that recipe and made my own flavour~ 

This recipe did not need to cream the butter and sugar (BONUS!) so it was easy and didn't take much time at all! :) 

Raspberry, white chocolate and macadamia cookies
Recipe adapted from dailydelicious

Ingredients
300g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled until slightly warm
180g brown sugar
90g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
150g white chocolate chips
1/2 cup macadamia halves
1/4 cup frozen raspberries, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Whisk together melted butter and sugar until fully combined.
3. Stir in eggs and vanilla.
4. Sift in flour and baking powder and stir to combine.
5. Fold in chocolate chips, macadamia nuts and raspberries into the batter.
6. Place spoonfuls of dough onto baking trays - making sure to leave room for cookies to spread.
7. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool before removing from tray.

When these first came out of the oven.. they were hard.. but after they were cooled they were nice and soft =D Brought some to work and they were nearly all gone by the day's end :) 

Cookies cooling on trays~~ ^_^

Work Catering Week 3: Whoopie pies!

After visiting Whoopie Pie bakery in Camberwell a few weeks ago, I was inspired to make some for this week's catering for work ^_^

Blueberry and almond whoopie pie

Raspberry and white chocolate whoopie pie - top looks bigger than the bottom XD

I went for 2 flavours: Red velvet and Carrot & Walnut! Red velvet - for the bright red colour! and Carrot and walnut for a healthier option. It also made it easier to make one filling for the 2 flavours: CREAM CHEESE FROSTING! my favourite!

I didn't have a whoopie pie pan but read you can use mini-muffin pan and just fill them 1/4 full. They rose slightly too much.. so instead of sandwiching two little cakes together, I cut each one in half and sandwiched them with the frosting. 

Red velvet whoopie pies
Recipe adapted from taste.com.au
Ingredients
125g butter, softened at room temp
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs 
3 tsp red food colouring
1 3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease 4 mini-muffin pans. 
2. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until light and fluffy. 
3. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add food colouring, beat until combined. 
4. Sift flour, cocoa, bicarb soda and baking powder into a large bowl. Add half the flour mixture to butter mixture. Stir to combine.
5. Add vinegar and half the buttermilk. Stir to combine.
6. Repeat with remaining flour mixture and buttermilk until just combined.
7. Place 1/2 tsp mixture into muffin holes. Bake for ~6-8 minutes or until cooked through. (because they are small it takes no time at all!). Allow cakes to cool before removing from pan.
8. When cooled, either sandwich two cakes together with cream cheese frosting or cut cakes in half and spread with cream cheese frosting.
Recipe for cream cheese frosting here.

Carrot and walnut whoopie pies
Recipe adapted from taste.com.au
Ingredients
125g butter, softened at room temp
160g brown sugar (1 cup, lightly packed)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 cup coarsely grated carrots (~2-3 carrots)
45g (1/3 cup) walnuts
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
375g (2 1/2 cups) plain flour
330ml (1 1/3 cups) buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 190oC. Grease 4 mini-muffin pans. 
2. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until pale and creamy. Beat in egg.
3. Stir in bicarb soda, carrots, walnuts and cinnamon. 
4. Fold in flour and buttermilk in alternating batches, until just smooth. Mixture should be a bit stiff. 
5. Place 1/2 tsp mixture into muffin holes. Bake for ~6-8 minutes or until cooked through. (because they are small it takes no time at all!). Allow cakes to cool before removing from pan.
8. When cooled, either sandwich two cakes together with cream cheese frosting or cut cakes in half and spread with cream cheese frosting.

I'm happy with the red colour! maybe need to have more filling......

Ok.. they aren't the best of shapes ><"

Comments were that they looked cute ^_^" just like little burgers and I'm not sure which one was more popular... personally I like the red velvet ones =p I think next time I shall try making larger ones and pipe/spoon them straight onto a lined baking tray :) Also to pipe the filling so it's pretty ^^" 

I think I already know what I'm going to bake for next week!!! excited!! =D I'm going to try some slices again... =p 

Work Catering Week 2: BROWNIES!

Week 2 of catering and I decided to make BROWNIES =D I didn't have heaps of time to bake so these brownies were a one pot wonder (and also less dishes to wash =p). I've made these berry and nut brownies before but this time they were thicker =D I also added pecans for a nice crunch :) 

Big tray of brownies! yum yum!! I ate the edges =p

You can find the recipe here. I just doubled it for a thicker brownie. These were definitely a HIT and got many nice comments (thanks everyone ^^).

Trying out some food photography xD

Ready for catering~

To cater for non-chocolate lovers and to balance out the sweetness I also made Lemon and Coconut "brownies"... that's what the recipe called them but I would rather call them a slice because they weren't "brown" and didn't contain chocolate =p I guess they use the same method as brownies e.g. melting butter in pot and stirring in eggs... 

anyways! I halved the amount of sugar (as per the comments made) and added more lemon zest and juice. I think you can increase the lemon for a tangier flavour.

LEMON and COCONUT SLICE
Recipe adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients
250g butter
1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
zest of 3 lemons
70ml fresh lemon juice
icing sugar, to dust

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Line a 20 x 30cm pan with baking paper.
2. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar. 
3. Add eggs, 1 at a time and stir until mixture is thick and glossy.
4. Sift in the flour and stir till well combined. Stir in coconut, lemon zest and juice. Pour into prepared pan.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool then dust with icing sugar.

Close up of lemon and coconut slice.. lovely and golden~~

I love hearing all the comments and seeing all my food gone =D Can't wait for next week... still thinking about what to make.. hmmmm~~

Calculator cake! - for all those accountants out there~

Here's another post to add to the decorated cake collection! My friend made this calculator cake for her friend's birthday! 

Birthday Calculator cake~

She used white and black fondant icing and mixed the two to get a grey colour. So much detail gone into the decorating! Each of the buttons and the labels. Fondant icing looks so fun to play with =D And it's such a creative idea! So just thought I'd share it :)

CASIO brand ^^

Do you know the MUFFIN man?

Yes I know the muffin man .. He lives in Drury lane~~ =p

Here's the recipe for RASPBERRY and WHITE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS that I made for work the other day :) Great easy recipe which tastes delicious!
Recipe adapted from That's life

Makes 12

Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
50g butter, melted
1 cup frozen raspberries
180g white chocolate (chips or chopped)

1. Preheat oven to 190oC and line 12 hole muffin pan with patty cases. 
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and sugar in large bowl.
3. In small bowl/jug whisk eggs, milk and butter together. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients along with raspberries and chocolate and mix until combined (do not overbeat!)
4. Spoon mixture into muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until skewer comes out clean and muffins are golden.

For my Banana and Walnut muffins, I added 1/2 cup brown sugar in place of 1/2 caster sugar. Added 3 bananas, mashed and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts to replace raspberries and white chocolate.

my FIRST work CATERING =D

Hi guys... I'm so excited to anounce I just had my first WORK CATERING experience!! I guess you're wondering how it came about.... WELL.. a friend was helping to organise lunch time seminars at work however lunch wasn't provided.. as it didn't fit in the budget >< Although there were snacks such as chips, biscuits etc. I just wondered what the budget actually was .. and found out I could actually do quite a bit with that money! So I just asked the person in charge of the food if I could help cater =D

Packing the muffins in their carry boxes ^_^

All the muffins ready to go =D

So... my first work catering experience was today! I made muffins - something nice and simple and that I could make a lot of without spending too much money! After asking others for flavour suggestions I ended up deciding on Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins.. and Banana and Walnut muffins - both simple classics~ If you get it right. The recipe is here :)

So.. did I get it right? =p You will have to ask my colleagues about that XD I took a risk and used a recipe that I hadn't tested... but thank God I think they worked out ok :) Made a total of 48~ and didn't take that long either! So maybe this is the beginning of something BIG for BakingTray! Watch this space ;P

Baking at night~~ raspberry and white chocolate muffins

Banana and walnut muffins

Plated up and ready to serve :)

Like the signs? hehe

Any suggestions on what I should make next week? =)