Gingerbread House, from scratch!

Ho ho ho! Is it Christmas yet? No? Well, I'm already in the festive mood thanks to the Gingerbread House which I spent the past two days constructing. It nerve-wracking at times, and yes, I did get powdered sugar everywhere, but when I beheld my finished opus magnum sitting jauntily atop the kitchen counter, in a position visible to all that walks in the front door, I must say that it was well worth the effort!

Okay, not exactly in the same league as Bill Yosses, but this was my very first gingerbread house and I am damn proud of it! Especially considering how I'd already psyched myself up beforehand, imagining the multitude of ways disaster could strike: the gingerbread overbaking and burning, the walls crumbling from being too hard/soft, the royal icing (oh my goodness, the stuff of nightmares; more on this later), and whether I could stop myself from sticking every piece of candy within a 10-mile radius onto it.

Finding the right recipe for the actual gingerbread took much longer than I anticipated. I sifted through blog after blog, website after website in search for a recipe that would produce a 1) delicious and 2) sturdy gingerbread cookie. Ultimately, I chose the basic recipe for gingerbread dough given at Gingerbread House Heaven, a website that is literally a treasure trove of information pertaining to all things gingerbread. The recipe makes enough dough for one gingerbread house (like mine) measuring roughly 15cm x 15cm x 22cm, as well as 30-35 gingerbread people (being politically correct). I guess I could have made my house a bit larger, but I was using the template given on the website.

The dough, flattened into tiles and chilled until hard.

The recipe called for molasses instead of water. I've made gingerbread before using water, and I believe that the molasses make the gingerbread taste much better. It also adds a great colour to the house. So do use molasses and dark brown sugar if you can get your hands on it. The dough was a cinch to mix together. Once the dough had been chilled, I rolled it out, and cut out the pieces using the template.

One thing that troubled me was how the baked gingerbread appeared to progressively get softer as time went on. I assume it was because the gingerbread was sucking in the moisture from the surrounding air. By the time I was ready to assemble the house, the pieces all felt a bit floppy.

The front and back walls of the house, after baking.

Thankfully, the 'mortar' icing that I concocted really was some powerful stuff indeed, and once I stuck the pieces together, there was no way they were going any place else. So, about royal icing. Ever since I tried whipping up a batch a few months ago using powdered egg whites (which was a major, expensive disaster), I've been reluctant to have another shot at it. This time, I took the controversial route and used fresh egg whites. I'm well aware of the fears concerning salmonella, but I reasoned that 1) I've been eating runny yolks for ages and never once had a tummy upset, so the whites should be even safer and 2) these were for me and my family so it's not like I'm gonna get sued...right? xD

About to stick on the final panel. Fingers crossed!

I used two different recipes for the decorating royal icing, and the icing I used as mortar. I made the decorating icing first, and it was obvious straight away that that stuff would never work as 'glue'; it was just too runny, soft, and slippery. It did a fine job used for piping, though. Check out the details on the windows!

It was also good for making the fish-scale pattern on the roof. I used some mini M&Ms for colour:

For the mortar, I simply increased the icing sugar : egg white ratio, so that the consistency was a lot stiffer from the outset. It dried really quickly, so I had to work fast. I sacrificed a tissue box because there wasn't anyone around to hold up the pieces for me while I applied the icing. Next time (if I do decided to repeat this madness again!), I will be more careful and judicious when piping the icing, so that the mortar will be less obvious.

17, one of my favourite numbers!

The board on which I put the house looked a bit sad and empty, so I got to work adding some little details. The pile of logs sitting near the front are actually chocolate-coated finger biscuits (found lying around the cupboard). I chopped up two mini candy canes for the doorframe:

If only trees really were made from chocolate...

I attempted to create a cobblestone path out of chopped cashew nuts, but the dimensions were all wrong and it didn't really look like a path...so I turned it into a sandstone border for a lovely, green lawn instead:

The grass was green-tinted royal icing.

And, for good measure (and because we are in Australia after all!), I threw in a pool, lined with Jelly Belly jelly beans. The rocky path leading to the pool is made from sugar-coated white chocolate pieces, made to resemble, you guessed it, rocks!:

And here are some of my decorated gingerbread people:

One final picture of my edible villa:

C is for Celebration...and Cake!

HELLO!!! Guess who is finally done with her exams?! I was starting to suffer from major BURN-OUT towards the end of it. The first thing I did after my last exam was take a long walk around the CBD, just taking in the sights and sounds of life. Life essentially gets put on hold during times like those, and all one finds the energy for (apart from studying) is sleeping, eating, and maintaining one's basic bodily functions.

Enough depressing talk. It's all over now, and I, for one, am ready to do some celebratin'! Starting with baking a cake. An orange and poppy seed pound cake, to be exact.

For those not in the know, the designation "pound cake" comes from the fact that the cake is made from a pound of each of its core ingredients: flour, butter, sugar and eggs. Whoever came up with this original, golden ratio was an effing genius. This was the best cake I've ever baked, texture- and taste-wise. The crumb was dense and moist (helped by the substitution of half the butter with 250g of cream cheese, no doubt), and the flavour from all that butter was present, but not to such a degree as to overwhelm the added fragrances of the orange essence. The poppy seeds gave it a great crunch factor.

Basically, I've pretty much decided after tasting this pound cake that this will be my go-to recipe from now on for all "Western-style" cakes, buttercream, fondant and all. This cake slices really neatly, and holds its shape well.

And, best of all, there are so many ways to tweak the recipe for different flavours. Along with the orange extract (purchased from Life Organic in Newtown), I also bought a bottle of hazelnut extract. Ferrero Rocher in pound cake form, anyone? Yes please!

Haha, the goose fat didn't go into the pound cake, do not worry! I found it at the Harris Farm Markets in Broadway. I have plans to use it for roasting chicken henceforth.

Unfortunately, I overmixed the batter slightly so that my cake was had some minor "tunneling" issues (explanation of this term available at Baking Bites). I could tell while I was mixing the batter that gluten was starting to develop, because the batter had taken on an elastic quality reminiscent of the dough I once made for some Asian-style soft breads. You can see some of the "tunnels" in the picture below:

Fortunately, I don't think the texture was affected that much by the overmixing. The use of cream cheese may have had something to do with the moistness retained.

And, just in case it wasn't obvious already...these photos are the result of another (dodgy) attempt at food-styling and photography. I love looking at the beautiful photos of food placed "just so" over at Foodgawker and Tastespotting, but it always makes me so envious of the talent of the amazing people behind the cameras. These photos were taken on my iPhone, and the spotted backdrop happens to be one of my old shirts. Lol. Think I may need to enroll myself in one of those photography courses. And get a camera that doesn't come with internet and a keypad.

Recipe for Orange and Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Adapted from Elizabeth's Edible

Ingredients

Makes 1 10-inch cake

250g butter (I used salted), softened to room temperature

250g cream cheese

3 cups white, granulated sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tsp good quality orange essence or extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius

2. With an electric beater or mixer, beat together cream cheese and butter at medium speed until creamy.

3. Gradually add the sugar, continuing to beat until light and fluffy.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time. Mix until incorporated.

5. Sift together the flour and salt. Add to the butter mixture gradually, folding it in with a rubber spatula. Be careful not to over-mix, to prevent gluten formation (which will make your cake tough and dry).

6. Pour cake batter (which will be very thick!) into a greased and floured 10-inch Bundt pan, or chiffon/angel cake pan. Smooth the top of the batter with a spatula to make it flat.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour and 40 minutes, or until cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Take out of oven, and cool in the pan on a wire rack until it can be removed from the pan without giving you third degree burns. Slice, and enjoy with a cup of tea!

C is for cake, and that's good enough for me!

Random round-up!

Still in the throes of preparing for some great, big exams *stresses*. So here's another quick quickie post :D

Firstly - Pappa Roti opened in Strathfield yesterday! There's a special offer for a free bun with any drink purchased.

Very nice piping 

Sick of studying, I ventured out under the blazing sun and brought back one of the fluffiest buns I've ever seen. The smell was absolutely incredible. 

Despite trying to spend every waking minute cramming useless knowledge into my brain, I find the time to do some therapeutic baking. I made Portuguese egg custard tarts:

As well as my very first quiche, loaded with bacon, cheese and caramelised onions. Yum! I was supposed to take it to a revision session with some uni friends, but since the date passed and I didn't hear from any of them, I was - ahem - forced to eat most of it by myself.

The quiche got me in the mood to do some more fancy cooking. I don't know if this constitutes as "fancy" to other people, but for a rookie cook like myself it seemed quite involved. Those eggs Benedict from 2042 Deli & Cafe left me craving eggs for breakfast for the next few days, and I took it upon myself to replicate a cafe-style brekkie at home:

Pan-fried eggs with smoked trout, cream cheese, and sauteed baby spinach.

Last but not least, a trip to Balmain led to an impromptu visit to Adriano Zumbo's Patisserie...oh, who am I kidding. I drove to Balmain for the very purpose of acquiring some macarons. Or Zumbarons, as they're now apparently called. I gawked at the cake display:

And came away with three 'Zumbarons': 

Must. Go. Study. NOW!

So, recently...(the Reader's Digest version)

Salutations! As much as I would love to sit down and type out a long and detailed recount of all my fabulous eats over the past few weeks, I still have two huge exams to get through before the holidays. Despite being basically house-bound in the weeks leading up to my first exam, I did manage to squeeze in some nice yummies. I find eating to be quite a good coping mechanism (not to mention procrastination device xD). It's like: oh, stuff it all, who cares about [insert complex scientific concept], I'm gonna get me a big ol' slice of CHOCOLATE MUDCAKE.

Chocolate mudcake from Pasticceria Papa



And another one -

Chocolate mudcake from Pasticceria Sulfaro

Believe it or not, I actually acquired both of these on the same day, to be eaten on the same day. Let's just say I was in a very self-destructive state of mind at the time; blame it on all those disease flowcharts I had to cram into my limited brain space!

While we're on the topic of chocolate, I developed an addiction to Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa last week. I admit to having a weird obsessive-compulsive personality where I get fixated on one kind of food for a period of time, where I would keep eating it day-in, day-out, until I get sick of the taste. Don't be shocked by this next picture - they were on sale at Woolworths! In the week leading up to my second exam, I (no joke) ate a whole bar every. single. day. It was very liberating...

Note: only the 85% bars were on special; I bought the 99% ones from the Lindt cafe in Martin Place. They're half the size and double the price of the regular bars, so I couldn't afford to develop an addiction to them!

Being a good big sister, I somehow managed to bake and ice 165 cupcakes for my sister to take to her grade at school as part of her birthday celebration. There I was, smothering vanilla cupcakes with thick, buttery icing in semi-darkness, with only my iPad screen (showing my study notes) as the only source of illumination. Good times.

Ahem, yes, I was inspired for the design of these from a well-known cupcakery in Surry Hills...

What else, what else? Ooh, that's right - I turned 21 years old! I celebrated it with a dinner out with friends and family. My birthday cake was a whole ricotta cheesecake from Pasticceria Papa (my goodness, do I love that place or what?)

More recently, I went and had brunch at 2042 Deli & Cafe in Newtown with an old friend who happened to be in Sydney (she studies interstate). It was a delicious affair, and the joy of her company made the food taste all the better.

Perfectly poached eggs in 2042 Deli & Cafe's Eggs Benedict.

Okay, I can no longer stand the voice in my head screaming at me to "GO STUDY", so this is where I will end the entry. Will write in more detail once these exams are over! (soon...soon...)

Masterchef LIVE, 2011

Greetings, all! Yesterday, I attended Masterchef LIVE (I don't know why I keep capitalising it; well, that is the way it appears on all the promos :D) at Hordern Pavilion in Sydney. It was a fun, fun, FUN day, filled with exciting and educational demonstrations, lotsa free food samples (FREE FOOD FTW), and celebrity-chef sightings. Oh, and a delightful face-to-face encounter with the charming Vincent Gadan, pastry chef of Patisse, which left me blushing and flustered for the next half an hour.


Star-struck by Luke Nguyen:

Managing to seize a photo opportunity with Luke Nguyen, of Red Lantern, before he was rushed off to his next demonstration.

Getting to Hordern Pavilion was simple enough. For those friends travelling in by public transport - just take the train to Central Station, cross the road to the bus stands on Eddy Avenue, and take the 391, 339, 374 or 376. Ask your helpful bus driver when to get off to reach Hordern Pavilion, or simply follow the continuous tide of people making their way there :D

There was some initial lining up, but I managed to get in in time for the first session of the Cheeky Food Group Flambe School.

This was one of the Masterclasses that was relatively easy to get into, mainly because it was so early in the day. I was not able to get into any subsequent Masterclasses due to the limited spaces available and the ginormous queues; more on this later. For now, check out my Flambe work station!

We pan-fried some chorizo sausage over high heat, then added the sherry and set the whole pan on fire! Too bad I was busy trying not to BBQ my face to take a picture of my glorious flame. No need to be scared - there's a professional literally holding your hand during the whole flambe. We added in some kumato, parsley and sun-dried veggies once the alcohol had burned off.

The final product, which we got to eat! Pretty good :D

Unfortunately, this was the only Masterclass I attended on the day. Getting into any of the other ones (especially cake-decorating with Vincent Gadan) proved to be near impossible. I overheard the staff member overseeing the Patisse Masterclass saying that some people, including mothers juggling young kids, waited in line for more than 2 hours just so they could get a ticket into one of the later sessions for the day. As a result of this, all the sessions were booked out way before the actual session times. Whilst I understand the logistical difficulty of organising enough places in the classes for every single person that comes to Masterchef Live on the day, I have to say that I was very peeved at the fact that the Masterchef LIVE website made minimal mention of the limited spaces available. For example, I was under the impression that the bread-making sessions would accommodate a lot more people than it did.

Oh well. No used crying over spilt milk. All the free time gave me the opportunity to roam around more, and try more free food samples. Here are some of them:

Absolutely loved this pumpkin bread made from spelt flour, courtesy of Agape.

Black sesame ice cream from Serendipity. Wow, this was so creamy. Wish I'd brought home a tub.

A slice of VERY cheesy pizza from Dr. Oetker.

A ricotta-filled pastizzi. Apologies to the stall I got it from - I didn't note down the name!

Appletiser.

Coffee from Caffe Moda.



There was heaps more to drool at. The pastries and cakes from Patisse and Croquembouche Patisserie, for example!

"Food porn cabinet" from Croquembouche Patisserie :D

Macarons, also from Croquembouche Patisserie.

This is going to make me sound like a total cheapskate, but due to filling up on all the sourdough and cake samples, I only ended up purchasing two food items, hehe. I got a small tub of Mini Melt ice cream:

And satay chicken and coconut rice paper rolls from MissChu to take home for dinner:

Hmm, what else? Oh, that's right, the celebrity chef sightings! There was Dan Hong, of Ms. G's and El Loco fame:

Jay and Michael from Masterchef Australia 2011:

VINCENT GADAN!!!:

I was blushing badly, can you tell? :P

Mr. Adriano Zumbo:



And, of course, Luke Nguyen, demonstrating how to make fish sauce-based dressings and assisted by Dani Venn of Masterchef:

Overall, this was an awesome experience. Never mind the missed Masterclasses; just walking around and being surrounded by amazing looking food made this foodie a very happy lass. And, I shall leave you with a picture of the gorgeous cake creations from Sweet Art:

(And one more picture of Vincent Gadan):