Queen’s Birthday Weekend Baking Inspiration: High Tea

Who doesn't love a high tea?! Here at BMTB we think they are fab, if you are a long time reader you will know that we have thrown a few. Queen's birthday weekend is only days way and I think it is the perfect excuse to do some baking and round up a few friends to enjoy a traditional high tea.

To throw a great high tea you need to prepare a mix of savoury and sweet treats, bite sized and finger foods are best as they are tidy to eat. At our high tea picnic last year I made some delicious apple and pork sausage rolls, Mel made some little mince pies and feta and spinach pinwheels, of course petite sandwiches are also a must!

There are so many sweet treats on the blog suitable for high tea, some of our favourites are passionfruit and lemon tarts with white chocolate ganache, raspberry melting moments, strawberry champagne cupcakes are great for special occasions, mini bundt cakes, caramel brulee slice, tan slice and lemon cheesecake slice are all divine and of course you need scones with cream and jam - it wouldn't be high tea without them.

If you do host a high tea we'd love to hear about it and we love to see your pictures, our friends at Food TV would also love to see your high tea pictures, in fact if you share your pictures with them through their facebook page it will put you into the draw to win some great prizes as part of their 'We Want Your Food' competition, which starts any day now! So go on get baking and then sit down and enjoy a cuppa while you enjoy the spoils of your hard work.

Christmas Baking Ideas 2012

Wow, it’s December already! It was at about this time last year we shared some Christmas baking inspiration with you made up of things we had previously posted.

You can find that post here, it contains links to the recipes pictured in the above collage and more.

Last year we added few new things to our Christmas baking repertoire. I just love these Candy Cane Cookies Mel made last year!

These Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Santa Hats were a real hit:

These Christmas Tree Cupcakes are so simple but effective!

The Sand Art Brownie Jars are gorgeous gifts and the brownies produced by its contents are divine!

Mel and I are already in the Christmas spirit, I was at her place today and she has the cutest DIY tree up! I have a few new recipes to share with you over the next few weeks and we are incredibly excited about our Christmas baking class next weekend.

Have you got any Christmas baking lined up yet? Are you trying something new this year or sticking with the old faithful's?

Halloween Inspiration 2012

October is upon us already! Scary how fast the year is going… At the end of the month is Halloween, Mel and I have a whole heap of spooky new treats lined up to share with you over the next month that will be just perfect for trick or treaters or a themed party. If you can’t wait for them are are planning your party right now, maybe you could check out last years Halloween inspiration post or consider some of these options previously featured on BMTB.

Midnight cookies, they look and taste sinfully good and the name has a Halloween feel to it!

Ghost cupcakes! They are so easy to make and are sure to look boo-tiful on any dessert table.

The orange cupcakes Mel posted the other day are the perfect colour for Halloween…

You could easily make them more festive by using toppers like these on my cupcakes from 2010…

Make sure you check out The Pretty Baker’s website, they are one of our fab sponsors! They have a great buy two get one free deal on Halloween sprinkles, awesome skull and cross bone doilies to complete the look for your dessert buffet or to make your own bunting out of and this too cute witches broom cookie cutter that I may just have to purchase!

Keep an eye on the blog throughout October for plenty more Halloween inspiration – think brains, fingers, bones and creepy crawlies! Mel has our first themed post coming your way tomorrow.

Time To Party

Max is turning 1! This is an updated picture of him smashing his 11 month cake, I snapped it on my phone at a cake smash photo shoot we did with Andie who has guest blogged on here before. Of course we are throwing a party to celebrate, it is also doubling as a leaving party since our family has relocated to Taranaki (from Auckland) as of a week ago – which means a trip up to Auckland, the first of many to come I am sure.

I started looking for ideas for Maxie’s party when he was about 5 months old and and decided on a robots and rockets theme to match the bedroom theme we picked before he was born, after settling on the theme I created this little inspiration board…


I have had lots of fun coming up with decorating ideas and planning lots of yummy food. Since we don’t have a house in Auckland to have the party in we have hired a venue at the botanical gardens, I will only have half an hour set up time so I have to have all my decorations ready to go and the food has to look and taste delicious but easy to transport. Below are my two updated inspiration boards and a sneak peek at some of the goodies I have collected!

   
I will be sure to share all the yummy goodies with you after the party and I am sure I will be testing out my new kitchen once we are properly settled in our new home, I’m having serious baking withdrawals!

Inspiration: Neenish Tarts

One thing I want to attempt to make before my school holidays are up and I have to go back to work are some Neenish Tarts.

I love them but I haven’t eaten one in a super long time.  My Mum is a creature of habit and does her grocery shopping on Wednesday night each week.  When I lived at home it used to mean that we would have something easy that night for dinner, usually burgers (while she was out we would actually have a bet on what we thought the meal would be).  She also used to bring home a slice or something sweet for us to have after dinner and I think that is how I was introduced to Neenish Tarts.

They look quite fiddly and time consuming which is a bit off putting.  However, now that I’ve declared that I want to make them hopefully I will feel obliged to follow though and actually do it :)

Christmas Baking Ideas

No doubt you will see some more Christmas themed baking up here before the 25th, but I thought I would write up a summary of the recipes we have previously shared incase you are already in the mood!

It’s always nice to put the time and effort in and make something as a gift for someone else.  Baking is also a great gift idea for kids teachers too!  Courtenay used to always put together packages of shortbread for our colleagues at work, which went down a treat!

For a twist on traditional shortbread, I quite like this recipe which includes pecans.  It tastes delicious.

Courtenay has also tried making Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread :)

If you want to make biscuits but aren’t keen on Shortbread you could always make some cookies and decorate them in Christmas colours, like the ones pictured above – this recipe yields quite a few biscuits.

Or, give baking some Cranberry and White Chocolate Biscuits a try.  They look quite festive with their flecks of red and white.  One of our readers has suggested swapping the pecans with pistachios to add in some green!

Something else that would make an awesome gift are these Mini Chocolate Christmas Puddings.  They are marshmallows covered in chocolate, which are super yummy and easy to make. Also, I think they look super cute!  Courtenay made something similar using my Mint Chocolate Truffle recipe (which would also make an awesome gift without the jazzing up).  Yum!

You could always make some fudge (try my caramel fudge – super easy; no sugar thermometers or fancy ingredients needed) or coconut ice (pictured above with the Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread) too.  Wrap it up in some festive coloured cellophane finished with a bow.

Red Velvet is the perfect colour for this season – make some cupcakes, a cake or whoopie pies.

Speaking of whoopie pies, try decorating the Double Chocolate ones that I’ve put on the blog to suit the season – add white icing to the top with red and green sprinkles to make them look like mince pies or roll the sides of them around in crushed candy canes.

And, if you want to give some baking as gifts but don’t have the time, put together some beautiful jars of Sand Art Brownies ready for someone else to make!

Keep checking back for more Christmas recipes.  In the mean time, I hope this post gives you some ideas and inspiration.  Merry Christmas!

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.

Ruffle Cake

I just think these are the most beautiful cakes and have been keen to try my hand at one for a while now but needed a reason. My sister Georgina left for Dubai to work for Emirates in March and was back on a layover for 24 hours, she is a real cake person, so I thought it would be perfect! I watched a few youtube videos to learn the technique and found this one the most helpful.

However, on the day I was pushed for time and had a very grumpy, clingy baby to contend with along with a phone that did not stop ringing (always the way isn’t it?). Then to top it off I couldn’t find my piping bag so had to do with a makeshift ‘Glad Bag’ and I ran out of icing to do the top! So my first attempt was no where near as perfect as the ones in the above collage (the ‘original’ Martha Stewart cake on the top right was my inspiration) but it still tasted good (that’s what counts I guess…) and I will definitely be giving it another go when I have more time and another special occasion.

Inspiration: Whoopie Pies

So, I have two weeks of holiday starting at the end of this week.  I've already said that during that time I want to make a tart.  I'm tossing up between a lemon or a chocolate one, but I do really like Alison's (from Pease Pudding) comment about making both.  I've got two weeks so I could do one each week.
During my holidays I also want to try making Whoopie Pies.  I've never eaten one in my life but they look so delicious, all cake-y and icing and cute!

Inspiration: Tarts

I want to attempt making a tart during my upcoming school holidays.  I can’t decide if I make a lemon one or a chocolate one.  Your thoughts?

Inspiration: Christmas

Christmas is just around the corner!

Inspiration: Magazines

Told ya I have a lot of magazines, haven’t I?  Well, the picture above represents just the tip of my magazine iceberg.  I am bout to go trawling through them to find a recipe to make soon as I am hosting the Monday 6th December edition of Magazine Mondays for Cream Puffs in Venice. 

To take part find yourself a recipe from a mag, make it, post it to your blog and email to let us know.  I’ll mention you in Monday’s post.  Either that, or check back on Monday to see what the other participants and I have managed to whip up :)

Inspiration: Christmas Gift Ideas

 
Basically I have made this collage because I would be happy to receive any of the products highlighted in it.  If you can’t find anything to get me for Christmas from the Donna Hay website as mentioned in my last post, then get something from the collage above :)

There are heaps of new cookbooks out at the moment.  Kiwi cook’s Annabel Langbein and Jo Seagar have new titles out; called ‘The Free Range Cook’ and ‘It’s Easier than you Think’ respectively.  Donna Hay has a new book coming out this month titled ‘fast, fresh, simple.’  Also, I’ve always wanted Nigella Lawson’s cookbook ‘Nigella Express’ because I liked watching the TV show, but the book is quite expensive.  She has also recently released a new cookbook called ‘Kitchen: recipes from the heart of the home’.

Then I have chucked in a picture of a recipe organiser from Kikki.K – I don’t really need one, I just like their products.  I love the funky colours of the Joseph Joseph Elevate kitchen utensil set.  Finally, I lust after a KitchenAid stand mixer and have kitchen envy of all who have one.

Top left to right: KitchenAid Stand mixer, ‘fast, fresh, simple.’ by Donna Hay, ‘The Free Range Cook’ by Annabel Langbein.
Bottom left to right: ‘Nigella Express’ by Nigella Lawson, Kikki.K baking recipe organiser, ‘It’s easier than you think’ by Jo Segar, Joseph Joseph Elevate 6pc kitchen utensil set.

Inspiration: Lemons

I love sweet lemon treats.  Every time that I go to the garden centre cafe near work I buy a piece of their lemon slice.  Every time I go to a coffee club shop I purchase one of their lemon tarts.  At the moment, in my kitchen, there is a bag of lemons just waiting for me to make something delicious out of them.  I am looking forward to it very much.

Inspiration: Pecan Pie

I made this collage just for me.  I love Pecan Pie and I want to give making one a go, but I am a little scared.  They look complicated.

Inspiration: Romantic Breakfast

Inspiration: Ice cream

I know it isn't baking, but I desperately want it to be summer again in Auckland.  Hence the inspiration collage this week is of ice cream so I can stare at it longingly whilst dreaming of days filled with sand and salt air.  I hate that it is dark and cold when I wake up, that my car is covered in a layer of ice when I need to leave for work, and I hate that I wore my coat (although my coat is quite awesome) all day.  Bring back the beach going heat please.

Inspiration: Macarons

  All pics found on weheartit.com

I put this together for you Courtie because you keep saying you want to make them.  Look at how cute they are!  Pretty :)

Inspiration: Cupcake Couture

Courtenay and I have been running a fashion class at school over the past three days, hence this post...

 

Inspiration: Kids TV Characters

All pics found on weheartit.com