small kitchen tales

Back from our day at the market and now the cleaning must begin....but not until we sample a few gingerbread delites. Have a great weekend ♥ ✗ ♥

It's Friday and the end of the month today. Hope you are having a good day and had a good month. We are doing alot of this today for tomorrow . ✗ ♥

We are in the middle of winter so sometimes you just need a little bit of comfort food to get your spirits back up. Mr m.e was looking a bit down the other day, must be those early dark mornings, long (sometimes unglamorous) chef shifts, riding to and back from work everyday, smelling of odd food stuffs at times, dealing with some not very knowledgeable "chefs" and coming home to 2 little cheeky monkeys that seem to have super long lasting, heavy duty batteries. Well, what can make him smile more than some yummy crème filled french sweets.. So here we are with a first and surprisingly successful attempt at Chocolate Éclairs. It does look difficult and yes there are a few steps to the process but it definitely isn't that hard and I think it's very well worth it. If not, just enjoy the pics :) Recipe from " The Food of France " Choux Pastry Ingredients 150g (5 ½ oz) butter 220g (1 ¾ cups) plain flour 7 eggs 1 tablespoon caster sugar makes 500g (1 LB...

It's been a bit cold lately....well, I guess it is still winter, but today it's a beautiful day and we are just enjoying a quiet day in the garden as we have a busy baking day tomorrow for a Saturday Market . So we are just doing a bit of this, and a little more of this, and enjoying a bit of this, Hope you are having a good day. ✗ ♥

Any mums out there will understand the need to provide good nutritional snacks for the little ones and obviously for them to like what we make for them. We don't buy any prepackaged snacks as we enjoy baking yummy things from scratch and that way the kids get to be involved in the process and they see what goes into what they are eating. As a parent I feel a little better about what they consume and about not buying unnecessary prepackaged goods. This recipe is good for their lunchbox and is a good snack for adults as well. Muesli & Sultana Bars Ingredients 3 cups Rolled Oats 1/2 cup (75g) plain flour, sifted 3 tablespoons brown sugar 1 cup (160g) sultanas 1/2 cup (180g) honey 1/2 cup (125ml) vegetable oil Method Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (320 F). Place dry ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine Place honey into a saucepan over medium heat and cook until runny, just a couple of minutes. Mix in the vegetable oil Add the honey mixture to dry ingredients and mix to combine ...

Isn't it funny when you start off on your bike ride it's gorgeous weather and by the time you are ready to head home the wind doesn't want you to head back the other way. That's what it felt like this morning, even the coffee didn't stand a chance :) Hope you had a great Sunday ! ✗ ♥

I ♥ doing markets as I get to do something I love doing, spend time with my family and meet alot of lovely people along the way. On such an occasion, I met a lovely lady who wanted some cupcakes for her daughter's 18 th and happened to stumble upon our stall and our cupcakes. The request was for Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Cheese/Sour Cream Icing so I wanted to share the recipe with you. The birthday girl also wanted some black hearts which were made out of fondant , which was coloured black and cut out. Vanilla Cupcakes (makes about 24) Ingredients 250g butter, softened 250g caster sugar 3 eggs 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract 290g plain flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 3/4 cup (185ml) milk Cream Cheese/Sour Cream Icing 115g butter, softened 250g icing sugar mixture (adjust depending on how thick you want the icing) 50ml sour cream 50g cream cheese Method Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a muffin pan with 24 patty cases Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla bean paste with an ...

We have had an abundance of eggs lately as our girls have been performing fantastically so I asked what the family wanted for dessert and it was a unanimous.."Sponge Cake please!" So here is a fairly simple sponge cake recipe which is very light and moist and the best thing is, it only has four ingredients. Sponge Cake Ingredients 1 1/4 cup plain flour 6 eggs, at room temperature 3/4 cup caster sugar 60 g melted butter Method Grease 2 x deep, 20cm round cake tins and line bases with baking paper. Sift flour three times to aerate it Preheat oven to 180C. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl on medium-high speed for 6 minutes, or until mixture is thick, pale and tripled in volume. Gradually sift flour over egg mixture, add melted butter, while simultaneously folding in with a large metal spoon until just combined. Divide mixture between prepared tins. Bake for 20 minutes, or until cakes have shrunk away from the sides slightly and spring back when gen...