Ladies for a Day! Hilton Adelaide High Tea

I am the girl that likes to stay in pyjamas all day, sipping a cup of tea whilst watching one of my nerd shows. However sometimes I like to dress up and be a lady. I was fortunate to win a High Tea at the Hilton International Hotel through the Good Food and Wine Festival. It meant that five of my friends and I could dress up all nice and pretty and be ladies. According to my friend N, this means changing our names to Metsy and Betsy.

Overall, the High tea was an enjoyable experience. Would I of actually paid for it, all my friends and I agreed with no. Although everything was adequate, for $39 a head, I personally think you should be able to choose what you want on your high tea platters.

 I liked that I ate out of my comfort zone today, I tried caviar for the first time and pate. I must say, I think I am a girl of simpler tastes. There may have been a bee-line to the prosciutto- does anyone else just eat it out of the deli packet, maybe if the boccincini is in hand grabbing distance I will go between the two. Wow, my eating habits are mmm interesting. 

My favourite food from the High tea would have to be the strawberry and rose cake. It was light, fluffy and did not leave that heavy feeling that I feel from most cake. I think I am going to try and recreate this cake...Anyone work at the Hilton and want to get me the recipe? I'm serious, I'll pay you in cake. Not that cake though, that's mine. 

Now, a food blog wouldn't be right without some pretty pictures.

I just would like to say a quick hello to my wonderful lady friends that came to the High tea, you made my day and the burritos and frozen margheritas that we had afterwards were even more special. 

O-O-OREO! cheesecakes

Who doesn't like oreos's? Ok, if you say that you don't get of this page, I mean how can you not! You basically have permission to play with your food. Twist, Lick, Dunk!

These cupcakes also featured at my brother engagement. I loved the squeals of delight when people realised there was a whole oreo at the bottom. You hear me, a WHOLE OREO!!  Now, I have to admit, I am not a huge chocolate cheesecake fan, I would prefer a chocolate mousse, or just plain chocolate. FYI do not let me buy a jumbo bag of nestle chocolate chips, I have now gone to that stage where I don't have enough to actually make the intended chocolate chip cookies I was going to make. 

To the cheesecakes, make them,then you will make lots of friends. 

These cupcakes have been on the blogging scene for a while but I used this recipe from Handle the Heat. I did not change the recipe one bit, oh i might of added a few more oreos in the mixture..... there are left over oreos, save me!

These make 30-36 depending on cupcake patty pan size. 

Ingredients:

42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, 16 coarsely chopped

Room temperature 1 kg of cream cheese, I used Philadelphia 

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, 

1 cup sour cream

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 135 degrees (I was surprised about how low this was, but apparently its some cheesecake science). Fill each cupcake hole with a patty pan, then place a whole oreo cookies in each hole...this may include your mouth. I may have been using the one for the tin, one for the mouth technique. Total sugar high!

 Beat the cream cheese, making sure not to combine to much air into the mixture (they can explode- who knew!). Keep beating the mixture whilst gradually adding the sugar, and then the vanilla. Keep on beating whilst adding each egg make sure each one is incorporated before adding the next one. Then add sour cream and salt, and keep in beating! Time to stop that beating and stir in those cookie crumbs.

 Grab a big spoonful of cookie cheesecake mixture and feel each cupcake tin almost to the top. Bake for 22 minutes, TURN THE CHEESECAKES AROUND HALFWAY THROUGH (22 minutes). Cool the cheesecakes completely, then refrigerate for up to 4 hours (overnight is ok). Try to keep the cheesecakes in the cupcake containers till serving. 

Caramel Cake

Prepare to grab your cookie pants, this week I will be posting numerous desserts that I made for my brothers engagement party. Congratulations Allan and Emma! They are the cutest couple, so in love.  To see my brother love and care for one of the most wonderful girls in the world make me incredibly happy.

I feel sorry for Emma as I bombarded her with ideas, and she willingly agreed to most of them!

The flavour of the cake was a delicious caramel, which is my brothers favourite flavour.

As a very very novice cook, I was extremely scared to tackle a) the cake itself, and b) home made caramel! I like making cupcakes for a reason, they generally don't sink on me. Cakes are another story, they like to be evil and burn, or dry out, or sink to the size of a pancake. It was a very stressful few hours.  I searched the internet for hours and even did a trial cake on the boyfriends family.

The cake was a success! My brother, the extremely fussy health eater loved the cake! I have officially been hired as the wedding cake maker, although they are waiting for me to do a few cake decorating classes first.

I trusted the recipe from Annie Eats, Annie is a wonderful food blogger and she was the first food blog that I got addicted to. Her recipes have never failed me and she is my go-to girl for any recipe that I need. I converted her yellow cake into a caramel cake. 

INGREDIENTS

Caramel  cake:

1 cup room temperature unsalted butter

1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting pans

1½ cups cake flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1¾ cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp. caramel extract

1¼ cups milk

Caramel:

1/2 brown sugar

1/4 water

3 tblsp of milk

1 c icing sugar

Frosting:

500mL of thickened cream

4 tablespoons of caramel

METHOD

This recipe makes two 9 inch cakes, it is designed to be a layer cake. 

Fisrtly, preheat the oven to 180 degree, grease and line both your cake tins.

In a bowl, mix both flours, salt and baking powder. Blend the mixture well. 

If you have an electric mixer (you can use a hand held one, just prepare for the Arnie guns) combine the butter and sugar. For 4 minutes beat the butter and cream till light and fluffy, the mixture should turn a bit paler. 

Mix one egg at a time, making sure that each one is combined before you put the next one in.   Blend in the vanilla. 

 Turn mixer on low speed, in three alternate additions add the flour then the milk, keep beating.

Get a spoon and eat mixture...

 Or

Half the batter between the two cake tins. Now, this is when your own oven takes over, my cake took 40 minutes, however Annie's took 30-35. I find that if you open the oven before the 20 minutes mark the cake will sink-- so don't (I might of jumped on my dad when he tried to!) Insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is ready to eat!

Let the cake cool for 20 minutes and remove from tin. 

To make caramel, combine 1/2 brown sugar and 1/4 cup of water. Let the caramel go amber, it will slowly change colour, when hot add a dash of milk and stir. In the electric mixer beat in icing sugar, just let it going till icing sugar is combined. This will make the caramel extremely sweet, you can avoid this step if you want to maintain the caramel taste.  Let it stand till cool. 

To make the frosting, whip cream till stiff peaks forms. Slowly, fold in one tablespoon of caramel at a time. This is when your own personal taste come in. I wanted my cream to be quite pale, by adding the caramel which is quite dark you will change the colour. So add as much caramel as you like, this is taste and colour that you have to determine. 

When layering the cake, make sure that any concave bits are cut off, otherwise it will not sit well. On the top of the 1st cake spread a layer of caramel, and a layer of frosting. Place the second cake on top of it and spread frosting all over the cake. Do this as neatly or rustic as you like. Decorate to your liking.

 Place in refrigerator whilst waiting to serve. Or just get a fork, right now and eat it. It was soo good! 

Super Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

Did you know that I have been craving the smell and taste of apple and cinnamons. What is wrong with me, its bordering on the Australian summer. However, we are in that in-between area, I am desperately waiting for mangos to come in season and the bananas to drop in price still. I will seriously gorge myself on summer fruit and when stone fruit come in, I will be in state of constant bliss...

So these muffins are for those in-between periods. When you are waiting for something,  when the wind wants to gush cold air at you and when you need something quickly to eat.

I will tell you if you are not used to wholemeal flour, these muffins are dense, they are not as light and fluffy as white flour. However they make for a fantastic morning snack and breakfast. Furthermore the batter does not look good, but even ugly things deserve second chances.

They come through on a sweet, cinnamon apple flavour. The best thing about these muffins, is they make 24 muffins, and freeze great, just individually wrap one, zap it in the microwave and you have a quick snack that will get you through three-thirtyitis.

RECIPE

2 1/2 c of plain Wholemeal flour

1 c of oats

1 c of greek yogart

1 c of juice (orange, or apple)

3 tbls of cinnamon

1 tbls of all spice

1/2 c honey (Make sure it's runny- heat it up in the microwave for 40 seconds)

2 eggs

2 tbls of baking powder

Stewed Apples

1/2 c of brown sugar

1/2 cups of water

3 apples (cut into small cubes)

Get one saucepan, plonk the brown sugar and water, stir and let the sugar dissolve Add the apples, let them simmer down till all the liquid has absorbed, the apples should look a little sticky.

Let them cool down whilst you are making the mixture.

Preheat oven till 180 degrees, prepare cupcake pans, I will warn you these do not need muffin or patty pans, the mixture sticks to it :(

Add all the dry ingredients - flour, oats, cinnamon, all spice, baking powder and stir till combined. Use a spatula from now on and fold the ingredients- This will allow the muffins to be a little bit more airy. Add the juice, honey, yogart, juice, eggs. Fold ingredients together. Add the stewed apples, fold the mixture till combined.

Fill cupcake patty pans 3/4 full.  Cook for 15 minutes.

NOTE: Cooking times vary between ovens, cook till golden brown and the knife comes out clean.

Spread some butter and enjoy!

Adelaide Food and Wine Festival

I am a self-confessed food nerd. I love all thing food, wine and anything in between. So when I heard about the Adelaide Food and Wine festival coming to Adelaide, there was no stopping me. As soon as you arrive you are immediately met by smiles and a strange woman giving out coopers stratchies! FYI Coopers, thanks for the four free key rings and the two stubbie holders!

I had to immediately get my bearings, its a big venue, filled with many different components, from the giant celebrity venue to the wine and beer education lounge and the stalls upon stalls of lovely food and wine. Every stall that I went to I was utterly impressed with. The quality of food that Adelaide produces astounds me.

There were a few stand outs that I feel the need to point out. These stalls have not paid me in any way and this is my own personal opinion. I may be over dramatic with my description but that's the food nerd in me.

PANGKARRA

There website can be found here.

I love pasta, what I don't love is the increasing butt size. I was extremely fortunate to be able to taste a sampler of their wholegrain pasta, note the whole grain, not wholemeal factor. This pasta is extremely nutty. It should be the hero of this dish, so please for the love of god do not smother this beautiful, delicate pasta with a carbonara sauce. The ladies at the stall simply served it with garlic, oil and broccolini. Simple, delicious and I might of bought a packet. Whole grains I wanna kiss your butt friendly goodness.

HONEY LADY

Do you guys ever eat nutella out of a jar, you know that feeling of OMG this the sweet goodness I need. Well Honey lady and her honey's do that to me, it's liquid gold! I was so happy to see her at the show, she is a regular stall holder at the Adelaide showground markets and the Willunga markets, immediately upon seeing me she got out her cinnamon honey (Yep, she's my own personal Santa Claus) and gave me a tasting. I would like to say that  I have had many, many tastings of her honey's.

However, it's her cup gum honey that gets me. A honey that isn't sickly sweet, melts in your mouth with out leaving any residual bitterness that I personally find with raw honey. I bought the 700gram cup gum honey and have been looking up recipes to truly make this honey shine (secret recipe coming soon). Or, you can just make my wholemeal banana bread, because banana and honey are two best friends. Her facebook page can be located here. I implore you to go visit her at one of the markets though for generous tastings.

GELISTA

A day would not be complete without gelati. I love mango gelati, in the dead of winter it reminds me that summer is near and I can gorge myself on the beautiful summer fruits. Gelati makes me insanely happy, I tend to not really taste it but gulf it down. This beautiful stall had some wonderful passionate ladies who were just wanting to show their product through free samples. Hey, if they want to give me a free sample of gelati I will never say no. Oh, the gelati itself was creamy, it had that mango flavour punch and was extremely edible.

Other notable stores was Beerenburg, they had a fantastic 3 for $10 dollar sale on their products. The hardest part was choosing which ones to buy but we settled on the Blueberry jam,  Coopers Ale BBQ sauce and the Sticky Rib sauce. 

Mountain Fresh Juices, I am a big fan of their juices, I was lucky to try the apple and lemon juice that they are currently trying out. I can imagine this with some vodka and soda water. The perfect summer cocktail

LIQUEURS

I was surprised with the amount of liqueurs they had on offer at the show. Yes, I tasted them all, No, I cannot remember what half of them tasted like... I had a nice little buzz though. From memory, the flavours were:

St. Germaine- Elderflower, extremely good in a summer cocktail.

Pama- An amazing pomegranate liqueur that did not have that sickly red cordial taste.

Hypnotiq- I have to say I can't remember what this liqueur was, it was my last liqueur I tried. 

Also, the Coopers beer appreciation class was fantastic, for someone like me who has no clue about beers, I learnt a lot and really enjoyed the beers. Oh, the fact that there were six or seven coopers beers including there vintage ale kind of helped- Did I mention that was free.

The Vintage Ale was the best, although, I have know realised I love malt beer.

The coopers Bar was also a nice place to get away 

from all the hustle and bustle of the show. A mellow band was playing and you go to enjoy the wonderful beer, wine and food outside. Just a note on the food- this is what take-away should be. Healthy, fresh and one of the best burgers I ever had. The meat was juicy and succulent, the tomato and lettuce, was extremely crisp. They also had oysters on offer, but I was that full I had to split the burger.

This show was amazing, if you are going , Saturday 8th or Sunday 9th. Please visit the celebrity chefs, from what I heard they were funny and endearing. Manu will be there for you ladies, so just soak in his French accent.