Christmas!

I said I'd show you more recipes right? 

Well I am just glad to say I won't disappoint.

Today I'll be posting the delicious treats I made for my GiftBaskets which included: 

Vanilla Sugar, A very sweet Pear and Cardamom Mermelade, Vanilla infused Marshmallows with Chocolate fudge, and finally delicious Vanilla bean cupcakes with... wait for it... FONDANT! yeah! I made fondant! Made it, knead it, cut it, coloured it, and used it to decorate my ultra delicious cupcakes. 

Some GiftBasket, right? 

Keep tuned for my exquisite Christmas Dinner at Grandma's house. 

(who by now ya'll know is the best cook alive!)

Check out the preview! 

Oh yeah, Fancy Chocolate Cake, Shrimps AlMojodeAjo, Prawns and of course Turkey a la Jaime! 

But today ah today I am presenting you the gift bags: 

The Mermelade: 

The Marshmallows covered in fudge: 

The Vanilla Sugar: 

And the Fondant cupcakes! 

I know I know, they aren't exactly the most beautiful fondant decorated cupcakes you've seen. 

But give me a break guys! It was the first time I ever worked with fondant and I guess that it went pretty good considering... I am actually quite proud of they ended up. 

Plus the pleasure I get when everyone says yum when they eat them. And frankly that's what's important to me. 

So let us start: 

First the Marshmallows: 

Recipe calls for 4 packages of gelatin. I used 2... but I truly recommend you use 4 since my marshmallows came out a little too softly. Like peeves that have been under the sun for a while. 

1/2 cups of Water. 

2 cups of Sugar.

1 1/2 cups of corn syrup. 

1 tablespoon of Vanilla Essence. 

1 pinch of Salt. 

All right. First sprinkle the gelatin over 1/2 cup of water. Pour the sugar in the remaining water on a saucepan until its warm at touch. 

When warm add the gelatin to the syrup you've just made and stir until gelatine is fully melted. 

Pour the gelatin-syrup mixture into a bowl and with your mixer start mixing and add the corn syrup and vanilla and begin beating at high speed. 

Continue beating until the mixture cools and increases in volume and forms soft peaks. 

Work quickly and transfer the mixture to your mold dusted with icing sugar and place wax paper too so it is easier to unmold it. 

When the mixture has set, unmold it and proceed to cut. 

(you may need more icing sugar since it will be quite sticky. Just rub it on the sides. 

Deliciously Sweet!

I took the recipe from: http://edible-moments.blogspot.com/2010/02/marshmallows.html

amazing blogger! 

Now for the Fudge. 

It's quite easy actually and soo delicious. 

1 cup of heavy cream.

6 tablespoons of butter.

1/2 cup of corn syrup.

12 ounces of chocolate. Recipe calls for semi-sweet chocolate but I used milk chocolate because I like it better. Or you could use a bag of chocolate chips. 

Melt cream, butter and corn syrup in a saucepan until barely boiling. When melted, remove from heat and add the chocolate and stir until melted. Cool to lukewarm. 

To make the Marshmallows covered in Chocolate Fudge: Just pour some chocolate over the marshmallows and wait for it to cool. 

Next the Mermelade. 

Pear and Cardamom Mermelade.

Cut some 4 ripe pears in big chunks and place them in a saucepan  with 1 cup of water. Add 4 lightly crushed cardamom pods and let the pears cook until they are translucent. The time depends on how ripe your pears are. 

Next crush the pears with a potato masher ( I used the bean masher mom uses for the beans) and mash the pears you want small bits of pear to remain. Add 1 tablespoon of honey.

Let the mixture simmer for almost 1 hour or until thickened. 

This is gloriously delicious with natural yoghurt and a drizzle of honey. Best breakfast. I must warn you it's quite addictive! 

Now for the Vanilla Sugar!

Scented Sugar is so easy to make. 

Just add some sugar to an bowl or something that has a lid (so you can close it) add a Vanilla sprig (without the beans, use the beans for cupcakes or the marshmallows) and keep the sugar closed for a few weeks. 

And you are done. 

Yeah and now the cupcakes. 

Okay so truth be told I wanted to make a pretty Christmas tree as the decoration for the cupcakes but my green food colourant magically disappeared... I blame it on the Christmas Goblin.

Anyway, 

A few words on Fondant. Oh My God! It is hard as it is (searching for a word...) Addictive-ly fun! 

I had never worked with fondant, I had read about it but I had never ventured to do it until now. 

I thought it would be loads harder and I made a hell of a mess in the kitchen. And to be the first time I work with fondant The result wasn't that bad. 

I did have a small tantrum because of my missing green colourant and the fondant kept sticking on the table... but I made it through and cleaned afterwards which is unheard of. 

Of course I had some help. My awesome baby sister helped me make the ribbons. n.n 

The recipe for the cupcakes was (as always) adapted from the Hummingbird cookbook. 

You need: 

120g of flour. 

170g of sugar.

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder.

A pinch of Salt. 

40g of butter. 

120ml of milk 

1 large egg. 

Beans from a Vanilla sprig 

First put all the dry ingredients plus the butter and beat until the mixture comes together. Add half of the milk and beat until you get a sort of cookie dough. Mix the egg and the milk together and add it a little bit at a time. 

Mix until batter is smooth. Add the vanilla beans and beat until well combined. 

Bake for about 20-25 minutes. 

For the fondant? 

n.n 

How about I tell you that later?

Hope you enjoy the pics n.n 

Christmas Dinner 2010

I think it's a very common tradition everywhere. When you are planning on spending Christmas elsewhere, but you want to spend some quality time to celebrate the joy of the season with other special people; you organize a "Christmas Dinner". 

**This is us, and the glasses we used to toast back when we were "Junior High/Secondary" Graduates. By this I mean to say this glasses are 5-6 years old**

Ours was this last Thursday n.n and woah... I hadn't had that much fun in a long time. I guess with uni and me not-being-a-wild-party-person any more we haven't seen each other in long periods of time. I am of course talking about the two other girls I am ever so proud to call my friends. Like my actual friends. Like the two girls I want my kids to call Aunts. 

It's odd I know, but our dinner party was just for the 3 of us. No boyfriends, no new friends. Just us 3. And personally I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Dinner was great. Although it got cold way to soon! Damn the cold! 

And I do hope with all of my heart that we get together more often just to talk. Have dinner parties and stuff. Some with boyfriends included others just us girls. 

I would like that, not only cause I realized just how much I had missed them, but because it would be an awesome opportunity for me to cook more XD and that is always a good thing. 

But enough with all the yadda-yadda let me show you the deliciousness.

We all brought a dish to dinner, I was in charge of the main course, Alma was in charge of the salad and pasta and our host Sofi of the dessert.

This is my Mustard Chicken.  

This are some potatoes I made whose name I can't recall, but were really good.

 Here is the exquisite salad and bellow the pasta Alma made. 

  And here is our dessert n.n which was very very good too. 

A zucchini-cheesecake.

Breakfast to love

I am not a breakfast fanatic myself. I normally wake up, drink some coffee maybe eat some cookies and that'll be that. But today I woke up feeling... "breakfast-ish" and this image of Jaime Oliver came into my mind and him saying some delicious stuff about some pear pancakes and I was all "Well all right". 

Lately with the whole cold issue going on, it's been pretty hard for me to go downstairs... but I was all "Fight the cold lady! Fight it! FIGHT IT!" And sure enough, by the time I was cooking the pancakes I began feeling less cold and more anxious, not to mention... hungry! 

Take a look at that!

Didn't I tell you prettier pictures? 

And the best thing about this recipe is that is so damn simple and so utterly delicious it's insane! 

First of, you need a cup... coffee cup or your regular tea cup or a cup okay? Just a regular cup. Fill that cup up with either self-raising flour or normal four and pour it in a bowl (if you are using regular flour like yours truly, add about half a tablespoon of baking powder to the mix) then fill that same cup with milk and add it to the mix. Next grind an entire pear into the mix. And an egg. Mix well and then add a couple of teaspoons of sugar. 

Mix again and then on a previously heated skillet add a knob of butter and pour you pancake mix and wait for it to cook. 

When your pancakes are done, serve them with some natural yoghurt and drizzle some honey on top and I am telling you. BEST BREAKFAST EVER.

Don't be expecting a really sweet kind of pancakes because it won't happen. The honey, I think, adds all the sugar you can possibly need and the yoghurt just adds freshness to an already, relaxed pancakes which are a joy to eat. 

Please, give it a try! I know what I am talking about! 

Trust me for once, yeah? 

I AM BACK

I know I know... I have been a terrible awful blogger u.u 

But I am forever glad to say that I am back and this time I will bring you more recipes, better photos and more me. I've recently got new cooking books (Jaime's Italy, Jaime's 30 min. meals, The Baking Bible, Planet Cupcake and The British Food Bible.) So expect a lot of new dishes! Plus... CHRISTMAS IS COMING! 

Yaaaay!

This is synonym for more and more recipes; such as cookies and cupcakes and delicious desserts that OMG will be great! Also I'd like to announce that The Owlery Bakery web-page is half way done! So soon you'll be able to take a look at my menu and my cupcakes and maybe order some!

Oh and yes yes yes... I said better photos! Because people... I GOT A NEW CAMARA!

Double Super YAY! 

My boyfriend (who as I've said is simply the best ever) bought me a new sweet beautiful orange camara that has loads of pixels and stuff that will allow me to take prettier pictures so I can finally stop using photoshop to enhance my mobile photos n.n (no disrespect to the pics my mobile has provided though,) but how awesome is that? Pretty Awesome I'd say. 

And... for this 2011 I am planning on making a tribute to Mexican Cuisine. I still don't know if I'll be adding the recipes to this blog or if I'll be opening a new one featuring 100% Mexican Food, and it's kind of a big dream of mine, but I would totally love if this little tribute could be in small quick videos so you see the ingredients as well as the techniques and stuff... still don't know and I'll let you know as soon as I know. 

So okay, to sum it all up: 

I am back

With new recipes. 

Christmas recipes. 

And this 2011 expect a revelation on Mexican Cuisine as told by yours truly lovable amazing beautiful me. 

WITH AWESOME PICTURES!