The Little Larder

“Cool, calm and collected. TLL is infused with a down-to-earth charm. Using local produce, made with love and offering the best all-day breakfast, fresh smoothies and great coffee.”
-The Good Guide: The best of Fortitude Valley & Surrounds 2011 Booklet

Photo taken from thethousands.com.au as I didn’t get a photo of the place!

While up in Brisbane Simon and I headed to The Little Larder for brunch as Simon had been here before and was keen to return.  We were lucky as we waltzed up and grabbed the last seats available.  This cafe gets so busy that they actually take bookings on the weekend and as soon as we were seated newcomers were having to wait 10 – 15 minutes for a table.  They did wait though, so that has to be a sign of just how loved The Little Larder really is.

The service here is fast, friendly and helpful.  I had their Pesto Scrambled Eggs which was pretty damn tasty and really quite filling.  Simon ordered the Baked Beans and a mocha.  I indulged myself in two glasses of different fresh fruit juices; man they were delicious and so very refreshing on what was a super hot day.  I wish more cafes in Auckland would make fresh fruit juices.

So, if you are in Brisbane I would recommend popping in here for a bite.  You might want to book in advance though to avoid waiting in a queue for a table because this place does get that popular.

The Little Larder
76 Moray Street, New Farm 4005, Brisbane
Ph: 07 3358 2024
Open 6am – 4pm daily

Max Brenner – A Chocolate Lover’s Heaven

Simon and I have recently been on a trip to Australia to visit my grandparents who live on the Gold Coast.  We were so disappointed at the lack of good cafes and restaurants; nothing really popped out at us.  The place is definitely more about getting tourists when they aren't lounging on the beach to spend their money at the theme parks or on souvenirs - everywhere you go photos are taken of you which cost $20 a pop to purchase!

However, we still had a great time and we discovered Max Brenner which is an Israeli Chocolate Shop chain.  The fist branch we saw was in the Robina Town Shopping Centre but we had just eaten!  So, we vowed to come back one night for dessert; how could we not after seeing two massive vats of melted chocolate with pipes running straight to the counter?  We found another Max Brenner in Southbank while we were up in Brisbane but when it is midday and super sunny a hot chocolate isn't what you're after.  We went back later at night and the place was packed - queues out the door.  We would try our luck back on the Gold Coast.

We ended up going back to the Robina branch one night, it was super busy but we were kinda expecting that after seeing the line at the Southbank store so we sucked it up and waited.  This was horrible because it meant more delicious treats kept catching my eye - I swear I changed my mind about my order at least a dozen times.  I ended up getting one of their fudge brownies which comes heated and drizzled in melted chocolate and one of their hot chocolates that comes in a hug mug – it is designed for a chocolate drinking ceremony and so called is the perfect shape to cup and warm your hands with.  Simon ordered some kind of strawberry shake which came in a cute 'Alice Cup' and some pancakes.

If I could visit this place again I think next on my 'to try' list would be the Chocolate Fondue or one of the Chocolate Molten Cake Pots.  Max Brenner has stores in all the major Australian cities as well as in America, the Philippines, Singapore and Israel.  Check out their website for locations and to take a look at their tempting menu.

As well as being a cafe, you can buy chocolate products here - truffles, gift boxes, the specialty mugs they use in store and so on.  Simon bought me some of their powdered hot chocolate mix to make me hot chocolates at home :)

Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man
Check out their website for store locations and opening hours.

Mere Bear’s Black Forest Brownie

I got this recipe from my sister Meredith, aka ‘Mere Bear’ – I thought with it’s dark colour and ‘Black Forest’ as the special ingredient it would be the perfect treat to enjoy while we watch the ALL BLACKS who are playing in the World Cup final, kicking off in about an hours time!

Ingredients:
200 grams butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
1 cup cocoa (sifted to remove lumps)
3 eggs
½ cup standard white flour
200 gram block of ‘Black Forest’ chocolate cut thinly – almost grated looking

Method:
Preheat your oven to 150°C and grease and line a 20x20cm square baking tin.
Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar then add the cocoa and continue to beat for 3-5 minutes until creamy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Stir in flour and fold gently before adding the finely cut chocolate.
Transfer mixture to a greased and lined 20cm square baking tin.
Bake at 150°C for 1 hour or until the surface of the brownie appears cracked. The centre should appear almost uncooked.
Cool in the tin.
Cut into squares. Just before serving, dust with icing sugar.

The brownie is decadently rich and delicious! You can taste the jelly bits from the chocolate throughout the brownie giving it a unique taste. Fingers crossed that the AB’s win the cup tonight and you can all give these a go as celebratory baking.

GO THE ALL BLACKS!

Inspiration: Halloween Treats

Halloween is coming up in 10 days – a good excuse to bake up some sweet treats. Halloween has only started to be recognised in New Zealand over more recent years (there is something a little weird about about sending your kids out to ask strangers for candy), will you be celebrating it this year?

I just loved some of the images google spat out for me when I was looking for inspiration so had to share some of my favorites, the Nightmare Before Christmas cake is amazing, the flooded cookies make me think about trying to master that skill again and I recognised the cake pops straight away as Bakerella’s work, you can find out more about them here. I have actually made some little spider cupcakes before you can check them out here and last years Halloween baking can be found here.

I am really liking the little meringue ghosts and am tempted to give that a go but we will see. Be sure to check back after Halloween to see what I whipped up and if you want to share your creations why don’t you get in touch through our facebook page.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Berry Buttercream

This recipe also came from the latest issue of Foodtown magazine (Oct/Nov 2011) – I would recommend getting your hands on a copy, it is packed full of awesome cake recipes (which I plan on working my way through) as well as lots of other meal recipes and ideas.

Ingredients:
100 grams butter (softened)
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs (beaten)
1 cup plain flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup cocoa
½ cup sour cream

Berry Buttercream
150 grams butter (softened)
2 cups Chelsea pink berry icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons hot water
Berry lollies to decorate

Method:
Preheat your oven to 170°C (fan bake). Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases.
In a large electric mixing bowl , beat together the butter, brown sugar and eggs for 2-3 minutes until creamy.
Sift the flour, baking soda and cocoa into the wet mix, folding the two together lightly before adding the sour cream. Beat the mix for 2-3 minutes until smooth and fluffy.
Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until the cupcakes are puffed up and spongy to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
To make the buttercream, beat butter until smooth and pale. Gradually add the berry icing sugar half a cup at a time with enough hot water to keep the mixture creamy, beating the mix well between each addition.
** I found the the berry icing wasn’t as “pink” as I expected it would be, because of the pale yellow colour of the butter it was more peach than pink so I added a small drop of pink food colouring – I tested the icing sugar by adding water to it and rest assured it was a lovely pink colour.

 
When the cupcakes have cooled completely pipe or spoon on butter cream and top with a berry lolly.

I think mine resembled what was in the magazine pretty well, but you can judge for yourself by taking a look at the photo below. The cupcakes themselves were very nice. Give them a go and enjoy!

Cheese and Chive Muffins

I whipped these up for morning tea with Melissa this morning, it is a very quick and easy recipe from ‘The Muffin Bible’.

Ingredients:
1 egg (beaten)
¾ cup water
1 cup self raising flour
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups grated cheese
1 tablespoon fresh chives
coarse sea salt (optional)

Method:
Preheat your oven to 190°C. Spray one muffin pan with oil (or line with muffin cases).
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together until combined.
Spoon into well greased muffin pan and sprinkle with the sea salt.
Bake at 190°C for 15 minutes.

There you go – quick easy and yummy!

Decadent Chocolate Celebration Cake with Swiss Buttercream

The picture above is of a recipe featured in the current issue of ‘Foodtown’ magazine.  Upon seeing it I instantly fell in love and had to make it!  I had the perfect excuse as it was time to make a cake to celebrate Max’s ‘eight month birthday’.  I envisioned a cake just like the one in the magazine except with duck egg blue frosting and a cute mint green teddy bear sitting on top instead of a rose.  However, it didn’t quite work out as I had planned; the frosting was fantastic (albeit a little too sweet/buttery for my palette), the colouring on the other hand was more green than blue (and yes I definitely used blue colouring but as I wanted a soft blue I didn’t use enough) and the cake tasted fantastic but was a wee bit of a disaster – with a collapsed middle :-(

I think I know why that happened and can give you pointers on how to avoid it.  For starters the recipe calls for you to divide your cake batter into three 15cm round cake tins or one 22cm tin, which is what I did.  I would recommend taking the 15cm option as I found using the 22cm tin meant the cake was becoming overcooked on the top and sides.  It also rose a little too high and started to collapse and although my skewer removed cleanly after the recommended cooking time it was a little fudgey in the middle.  This resulted in a two layer cake as opposed to three after levelling it off because of it collapsing.  If I decide to make this again I will get my hands on some 15cm tins.  If you want to use a 22cm tin I would drop the oven temperature by 10°C and cook the cake for 70 minutes.

Ingredients:
Cake:
spray oil
cocoa for dusting
60 grams of 70% dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup hot water
1 ½ cups flour
1 ¼ cups cocoa
1 ½  teaspoons baking soda
½  teaspoon baking powder
½  teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 ¼ cups caster sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
¾ cup butter milk

Swiss Buttercream:
1 ½ cups caster sugar
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
300 grams butter (soft but not runny)
colouring and decorations of your choice

Method:
Preheat your oven to 160°C.  Line and spray the bases of three 15cm tins (or one 22cm tin with baking paper.  Spray with oil and dust with cocoa, tapping off the excess.
Place the chocolate and hot water into a bowl and stir until the chocolate is melted.  Set aside to cool.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a separate bowl and set aside.
Place eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on a medium-high speed for 3-4 minutes until pale and thick.  Gradually add in the sugar, oil and vanilla essence.  Beat well.  Add the buttermilk and beat until combined.
Fold in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Add the chocolate and gently fold together, be careful not to over mix.
Place batter into the prepared tin/s.  Bake in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes (or until your skewer removes cleanly) – the recipe recommends baking a 22cm cake for an hour (see my notes in the introduction to this recipe).  Once cooked, set aside to cool in tins.

To make the buttercream, place the sugar and egg whites into a heatproof bowl and place it over a pan of simmering water (do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water).  Stir continuously until the sugar is dissolved, about five minutes.
Remove the bowl from the heat and place the egg white mixture into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on a medium-high speed until the mixture is cool, thick and glossy white.  Add vanilla essence.
Gradually add the butter, mixing well after each addition until it has been absorbed into the egg white mixture.  Add a few drops of colouring and mix until combined.  The buttercream should have a whipped cream consistency of whipped cream.

To assemble, cut each cake into three layers.  Spread or pipe the buttercream between each layer and top of your cakes with decorations of your choice.

The cake batter, my collapsed disaster, the meringue base for the frosting, cake done, teddy bear topper.

My favourite part of the cake was actually the teddy bear topper.  I used this video tutorial to learn, although I made my teddy a little bigger.

And for those who are interested – here is an updated picture of my little monkey, enjoying the spring weather with his Mumma!

Banana Crumble Muffins

These are a step up from basic banana muffins as they have this delicious crunchy cinnamon topping :)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
¾ cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
⅓ cup butter, melted
⅓ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 190°C. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or a tray line with muffin papers.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter.  Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until just combined.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon.  Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles a coarse crumb.  Sprinkle topping over muffins.
Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Donna Hay ipad App

I received an email yesterday informing me that the Donna Hag Magazine app is now available for the ipad.  I installed it this morning and had a quick play around - it's pretty cool.  Through the app you can download their 10th Birthday edition for free and I quite like the features it has.

One thing I quite like is that you can view the recipes in 'cook mode'.  This breaks the recipe down into parts and only displays a segment on the screen.  The cool thing about this is that it also has a little list of the ingredients you need for the step being displayed.  I reckon this is pretty cool as I quite often use the ipad to display recipes on when I am cooking, but if you are quite far down the recipe you have to scroll back up to see the ingredients and quantities which can get quite annoying.

Another feature that sets it apart from the print magazine is that some recipes have videos.  In my quick look this morning before work I found that instead of reading through the Macron recipe in the magazine you could simply watch Donna Hay make them and talk you through how it is done.  I reckon this is pretty awesome as it gives you more of an insight into things such as how you want your mixture to look at each step of the recipe.  For example, in the Macron video she tells you that you need to whisk your eggs to beyond stiff peaks and then shows you what this looks like.

So, if I can pry the ipad away from Simon on our plane flight to Aussie (as he will want to watch movies) I have my in-flight reading and viewing sorted.  Unfortunately I'm probably not going to be able to explore future issues using this app as we have been borrowing (or, you could say we took it and then keep accidentally on purpose 'forgetting' to return it) the ipad from Simon's grandparents and they are expecting it back once we return from our holiday :(  

Baking a difference for Blind Week

Blind Week 2011:

• Blind Week runs from Tuesday 25 October until Monday 31 October this year.
• The funds raised will enable the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB) to continue providing essential blindness services to its members.
• Only one-third of their operating budget comes from government sources, so public support is vital.
• To find out how to get involved in fundraising for Blind Week call 0800 120 BLIND or visit blindweek.org.nz. To make a donation please call 0800 DONATE.

The Bake a Difference Campaign:

• This year the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind are launching a nationwide fundraising event called “Bake a Difference for Blind Week” in which they are asking New Zealanders to organise their own baking-based fundraisers for Blind Week.
• Why? Baking is a classic fundraiser that has proved time and again to be successful.
• They want as many people as possible to Bake a Difference by baking delicious goodies and offering these to others for a donation.
• You could bake for friends and family, a community group, club, or coffee group you attend, or perhaps for your workplace, church or school.
• For more information or to register visit blindweek.org.nz or call 0800 120 BLIND.

Some info about RNZFB:

• The RNZFB is New Zealand’s main provider of sight loss services to blind and partially sighted people.
• They have more than 11,500 blind and partially sighted members nationwide.
• Each year nearly 1,100 New Zealanders who have become blind or experienced serious sight loss register as RNZFB members.
• They equip their members with the adaptive skills, technology and resources they need to overcome the barriers they face to participating fully in society and leading independent lives.

Rabbit Hole Café

Man it feels good to have time to blog again!  I’ve been so busy making our school yearbook that I have turned into an anti-social recluse at home and have only been on my computer for work.  Boring!  Simon treated me to brunch on Saturday morning to give me a bit of a break and I chose to go to the Rabbit Hole café as I have had it on my list of ‘must try’ places for quite a while.   I like being able to tick things off my lists :)

Located in Herne Bay, this little café takes its decor inspiration from ‘Alice in Wonderland’.  There’s lots of mismatched chairs and the place makers are playing cards.  Simon and I popped ourselves down in these velvet throne-like chairs near the window seated around a cute chess board table.  On a sunny day (it was stink weather in Auckland on Saturday) I reckon it would be pretty blissful to sit out on their deck and if you have little kids with you they have quite a selection of toys out there to keep them entertained.

I built my own breakfast and had scrambled eggs with a side of kumara rosti and haloumi.  It was delicious and my accompanying hot chocolate was rich and flavourful.  Simon had the Salmon eggs benedict which I avoided as I don’t like salmon :P 
Our food came out quickly and with a touch of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ whimsy in the form of mismatched vintage plates.

There looked to be a good selection of little sweet treats up at the counter too.  I didn’t go investigate though as my meal was more than enough and the place was pretty chocka.

I really enjoyed my visit to The Rabbit Hole and would stop by again.  If you want even more of a treat for yourself you could stop for a bite here, then head up the road to Icing on the Cake and get a cupcake for dessert :)

Rabbit Hole Café
203 Jervois Road, Herne Bay, Auckland
Ph: 09 360 0755

Warriors Grand Final Baking

 League ball cookies, Jersey cake, Max – future Warrior (as delicious as any baking), Warrior cupcakes

Today was an exciting day in our household - the NRL Grand Final day always is – but this year it was very special because the Warriors were playing for the second time since since the club formed in 1995 (their first grand final was in 2002 and I was there!). We had triple the reasons to be excited this year as all three Warriors sides were playing (the Vulcans and the Under 20’s as well as the first grade side), while the Vulcans and Senior team lost the Under 20’s won back to back titles. To celebrate I baked some of these biscuits in the shape of league balls and made this chocolate cake (making one and a half times the mixture) to make the jersey cake and cupcakes.

You could use these for any sports party by changing the colours to those of the team you support – might be a fun idea for a Rugby World Cup Party

11 for 2011 – the best year in Warrior club history. For a birthday cake you could put the age of the birthday boy or girl.

The cupcake picks are really easy to make, find an image you like and print, use folded over cello tape  to stick a tooth pick in the middle of the back of your image and then add a matching image on the backside.

The jersey was a really simple shape to make, I cut it free hand and just used a star tip to pipe on coloured buttercream frosting, I used the same buttercream frosting on the cupcakes. To get the swirled two tone effect on the cupcakes I placed the two colours side by side in my piping bag.

Even though I didn’t get the result I wanted from the game I had great fun and hopefully have given you some fun ideas for a sports party – or maybe a Rugby World Cup party in the coming weeks!