We're Up For Sale!

We finally bit the bullet and put our gorgeous home up for sale. It will be sad to say goodbye as it is certainly the most beautiful home we have ever lived in, but it is just too far for DH to travel to work (120km) with the price of petrol going up so much.

Here is a little glimpse...

I'll start with my favourite room in the house - the kitchen! It is only about 18 months old as we put it in when I started Orara Valley Cakes. Compliments of my crappy shoulder, I've had to give up my dreams of a super yummy cake business, but now the kitchen is there for someone else to make their own. I love, love, love the induction cook top. I am DEFINATELY putting one in my next house! For someone who absolutely swore by gas, I never thought I'd like an electric stove, but they are truly amazing. No more double boilers, yep, I can melt chocolate straight in the pan, and water comes to the boil faster than in the kettle!

The big work bench is awesome, and having the tempered glass panel on the benchtop is great. I can cut straight on it, roll out dough and use a dough scraper, use metal cookie cutters and not have to worry about making any scratches or chips in the bench surface. Pretty important if you had of seen the mess I made to my last counter top! It also doesn't stain if you spill food colouring!

Down the other end of the kitchen I have my double fridge space - big enough for 2 full size fridges, 2 full size wall ovens so I can be cooking 2 things at different temperatures at the same time, more bench space and storage, and best of all, 2 pantries!

I am REALLY going to miss my big walk-in pantry!

The glass splashbacks, I have decided are an absolute must too! No more grout getting gungy, and it is so easy to keep clean. Everything just wipes off without staining - even bolognaise sauce! I chose the red because DH has planted waratahs all along the front of the house, so when they are in flower, the red colour carries through from the kitchen out the window and into the garden.

Tune in tomorrow to check out the swimming pool and the living areas....

Super Moist Chocolate Cake

This particular cake is also known as Devil's Food - I'm guessing because it is so wickedly delicious!!!

 

Super Moist Chocolate Cake

#ratingval# from #reviews# reviews

Print

Recipe Type: Cake

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 24

Ingredients

• 2 cups Sugar


• 1 teaspoon instant coffee


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 3/4 cup Cocoa


• 2 cups Gluten Free Plain Flour


• 1 teaspoon Gluten Free Baking Powder


• 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda


• 250ml Hot Water


• 250ml Milk


• 250ml Oil


• 2 Free Range Eggs


• 5ml Vanilla Extract

Instructions

1. Place sugar, salt and coffee in a mixing bowl. Add sifted cocoa, flour, baking powder and bicarb. Add water, milk and oil. Mix on slow to wet the ingredients, then increase speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes.


2. Add eggs and vanilla, mix on medium for a further 2 minutes


3. Place into cupcake cups and bake for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.


4. Cool on a rack. Enjoy!

Google Recipe View Microformatting by Easy Recipe

2.1.7

 

Cupcake Cuties

Have you heard of Pinterest? It is an awesome site full of cool pics. You can create your own virtual "pinboards" with pictures you find on the net. It is a great place to go for inspiration, but also just as a "happy place". I love it. Today I thought I might share a few cute cupcake pics I found on there.

This one makes me want to get out in the garden and start digging!

Source: img580.imageshack.us via Orara on Pinterest

Talk about elegance plus!

Source: flickr.com via Orara on Pinterest

These definately bring out the inner child!

Source: etsy.com via Orara on Pinterest

Now THAT'S what you call an apple for the teacher!

Source: google.com via Orara on Pinterest

I WANT!! I WANT!!! I WANT!!!!

Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com via Orara on Pinterest

Kiss me honey!

Source: williams-sonoma.com via Orara on Pinterest

What cool cupcake finds have you stumbled across lately?

Harmony Day 2011

Having spent 9 years of my childhood living overseas in various countries, multiculturalism is a subject very close to my heart.  I was fortunate to grow up with friends from all over the world, many of whom I still keep in touch with today.  At the International Schools that I attended, United Nations Day was one of the biggest and most anticipated celebrations of the year.  We all wore national costume (there were almost 70 nationalities at the schools) and the parents set up stands with traditional foods from their own countries for all us kids to try.  (Funny how few people actually enjoyed our vegemite sandwiches though!)  Now that I have 2 young children of my own, I work hard to instil empathy and appreciation of other cultures in them.  I really think that understanding other cultures helps to prevent cultural disharmony, and I think that food is one of the best vehicles to cross the divide.

Two years ago when my youngest daughter was at the Nana Glen Preschool, I was introduced to Harmony Day when they put on a special lunch.  The Mum’s were asked to bring in a plate of food from their own heritage.  Not having grown up on traditional Aussie tucker, I decided to take in mini cupcakes each with a different coloured person on top, in keeping with the Harmony Day posters.  Being cake, and brightly coloured, they were a big hit with the kids.

This year, I was lucky enough to be able to provide the Coffs Harbour Library with mini cupcakes for their Harmony Day Family Morning Tea and Story Time.  Also, a very dear friend of mine who works at Southern Cross University invited me to be involved with their celebrations.  Another big fan of cupcakes (let’s face it…who isn’t!) she thought that cupcake decorating would be a great way to bring people together.  So, I baked 100 chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, made a mountain of icing and we went and bought a stack of lollies and sprinkles.  We set up a couple of big tables and let the students go for it.  It was fantastic!  They all had a ball.  It was such a hit in fact, that we made the local news with NBN reporter Clare Deligny even decorating a cupcake for the camera!  Check out the video here!

I took lots of photos of all the marvelous cupcake creations and their artists, so if you were there on the day, have a look here for your photo and feel free to send a link to all of your friends!  Also send me your name and I’ll tag you in the photo.

Happy Harmony Day everyone!

SCU Harmony Day Cupcakes VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Yes, I love cake!

Okay, I admit it, I love cake.  I’m not a big cake eater, but I am still a cake lover.  They are such beautiful things to look at and I love to dream about all the different flavour combinations out there.  They are lots of fun to make and can be decorated in a gazillion ways.  I’m guessing I’m not alone in my passion, whether you love cake to eat, to look at, or to bake, use cake lovers come in all types!

Look what I found by Easy Cake Ideas!  The perfect way to declare your love to the world!  You can choose from t-shirts, bags and aprons and they have heaps of cool sayings too, like “A Life Without Cake is No Life At All”, “Save The Earth, It’s The Only Planet With Cake”, “Love, A Temporary Insanity Cured With Love”, “Is Life Worth Living?  It All Depends on The Cake” and “Nothing Great Was Ever Achieved Without Cake”.  Or, you can keep it plain and simple with

 

Which one is your favourite?

Raspberry Mousse

This Raspberry Mousse is absolutely divine!  It is sweet, yet tart and the most gorgeous colour!  The Raspberries can be replaced with juice or puree of any fruit you like. I have also made it with both lemons and limes, both of which were just luscious!  Anyway, without further ado, here is this week’s recipe.







Ingredients:



Part 1:  Italian Meringue



¼ Cup Sugar

½ teaspoon Glucose

20ml water

1 Egg White





Part 2:  Raspberry Mousse



550g Raspberries (fresh or frozen)

1 ½ teaspoons Gelatine

10ml Raspberry Liqueur

200ml Cream





Procedure:



Part 1:  Italian Meringue



Combine sugar, glucose and water in a small pan.
Heat gently, stirring until sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil and stop stirring.
Continue to boil until liquid reaches 16oC.
Remove from heat and allow bubbles to subside.
Meanwhile, beat the egg white to stiff peak.
Slowly add hot sugar syrup to egg white while beating on low.
Continue beating until the bowl has reached room temperature (approx 5 minutes)



Part 2:  Raspberry Mousse



Bloom gelatine in 1 teaspoon of water.
Heat raspberries until they liquefy.
Pass raspberries through a sieve to remove the seeds.
Return raspberries to pan with liqueur and heat to just below boiling.
Add gelatine and mix thoroughly.
Cool.

Fold raspberry mixture into Italian Meringue.
In a separate bowl, beat cream to soft peaks.
Fold raspberry mixture into cream.
Chill.

Cool Gadgets–Measuring Spoons

Okay, I know what you are thinking, what’s so cool about measuring spoons?  They’re just spoons right?  Not any more!  Measuring spoons have entered a whole new dimension!  They’re not just the white Tupperware spoons thrown to the back of the draw any more, they have become a fashion statement in their own right!

Now like shoes and handbags, a girl can never have too many sets of measuring spoons.  I only have 2, but I need more.  You need 2 because how often are you measuring out one ingredient and it sticks to the inside of the spoon (yeast and turmeric ALWAYS do it), so it has to be washed before you can measure out the next ingredient.  Only problem is, you can’t dip the now clean but wet spoon into the next food, so you dry it with a tea towel which brings in static, making the next ingredient cling too!  And so on, and so forth!  I have a metal set and a plastic set.  I find that things tend to stick less to the metal spoons, but I don’t like using metal for acidic ingredients.  Plus my plastic ones are a really pretty pink.

The fact that I like my pretty pink measuring spoons, brings me to the next subject – how cool have measuring spoons become?  Uber cool I tell you!  So cool, they are even being made out of sterling silver to hang around your neck!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62713152/sale-the-original-baker-charm-necklace?ref=sr_list_10&ga_search_query=kitchen%2Bjewelry&ga_search_type=handmade








Check out these other super cute finds.  Which are your favourites?  Do you have a cute set of measuring spoons to share?



http://madalinesthemagnificentmayhemmaker.blogspot.com/2009/12/friday-feature-bread-and-butter-kitchen.html












http://www.thisnext.com/tag/pinch-and-dash/















http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=873436&catId=HOME-KITCHEN&pushId=HOME-KITCHEN&popId=HOME&navAction=top&navCount=18&color=mul&isProduct=true&fromCategoryPage=true&subCategoryId=HOME-KITCHEN-GADGETS












http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=974263&catId=HOME-KITCHEN&pushId=HOME-KITCHEN&popId=HOME&navAction=top&navCount=18&color=011&isProduct=true&fromCategoryPage=true&subCategoryId=HOME-KITCHEN-GADGETS












http://douglasandhope.blogspot.com/2008/03/measuring-spoons.html















http://blisstree.com/eat/heart-measuring-spoon-set/












http://www.thisnext.com/show/item-images/E083734B/5D3AA8C2/