Quick Entree or Dinner..? Tasty Bruschetta

This week has been absolutely hectic at my new workplace. Although this was only my second week there, I have been flat out! I even stayed back until 7 pm on one day.. I've only ever worked back 2 times in my LIFE! I've been pretty much dumped into the deep end and had to figure out stuff for myself.

Anyways after that venting.. I've been trying to come up with some quick and yet tasty meals this week, I haven't really made anything blog worthy as it has mostly been savoury mince and McNuggets topped off with some sugar free ice cream.

Mr. BB texted me at work telling me he had a craving for Bruschetta.. (jokingly I asked if he was pregnant :p) So I swung by Coles at the Barracks to pick up some lovely fresh ingredients to make some for my poor starved Emo :D

Bruschetta

Sourced from various memories

1 Long Sour Dough Bread Stick

2 Vine Ripened Tomatoes

1/2 Red onion

2 Cloves of garlic

1 Large handful of fresh Basil

Bocconcini Cheese

4 thin slices of prosciutto

Fruity extra virgin olive oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Finely slice your onion and tomatoes to approximately the same size. Very finely chop the garlic and add to a bowl. Mix in some olive oil, optional balsamic and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Slice bread stick on an angle and sprinkle some olive oil onto both sides. Toast under the grill.

Finely slice or tear your basil and add to the tomato mixture. Arrange tomato mixture onto toasted bread. Place strips of prosciutto and sliced bocconcini on top.

Garnish with more olive oil, balsamic and basil sprigs. Serve Immediately.

Enjoy!

Ravenous hunger after the flu? Here is how I solved it :P

After my first week at my new job I became ill with the flu.. As if starting a new job isn't stressful enough, I had to get sick on my weekend. Anyways on the sunday when I was feeling marginally better and after using 200 post it flags on Margaret Fulton's Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery, I was ravenously hungry.. it was that type of hunger after the 48 hr famine.

I had already gorged on some Doritos, a hot chocolate and bits of this and that, then I remembered this recipe for Sticky Asian Pork Ribs. I had sourced this from a SFI magazine about a year back and is my favourite way to prepare pork ribs, so simple and with tasty results!

This picture was taken a while back when I first prepared them, they came out sooo sticky, decadent and more-ish. I didn't grab a photo this time around as I had some really badly cut meat and it looked terrible, but still hit the spot!

Sticky Asian Pork Ribs

Ingredients

800g Pork Ribs

1 tbs Peanut Oil

1 tbs Chinese 5 Spice

1/2 cup firmy packed brown sugar.

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Combine peanut oil, 5 spice and brown sugar in a bowl, pat ribs dry with paper towel.

Rub ribs with sugar mixture. Place into baking pan and bake for approx 20 mins or until well cooked.

Cut between the bone and serve with rice or buttered green beans.

Enjoy!

50th Post! Uncollected Mocha Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream

Firstly, I apologise to my readers for barely commenting on your blogs this week, I've just started a new job and have been EXHAUSTED and not to forget I can't slack off like I used to! But I think I've caught up on all of your posts now :)

The other day I'd offered to make a cake for a friend for an anniversary, just so that I can practice making something without eating it in the end...

I went to the trouble of spending 3 hrs on making this cake AND ruined my fresh manicure to later reveal that they weren't going to collect it, or even let me know that they weren't coming.. Don't know what the story was there but I was stuck with this cake.. So long story short.. I decided to eat it lol. I was proud of my creation. Pity that the other 3/4's are in my freezer waiting for me to binge on it. *Epic sigh*

SO if you want to make this cake for yourself or for someone else, here is there recipe. I sourced this from here via foodgawker. Enjoy!

Mocha Cake- I doubled this recipe to make 2x 17cm round tins.

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, at room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg, at room temp

Preheat to 350°F. Line cake pan.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a measuring cup, combine the milk and brewed coffee.

In a stand mixer, using a flat beater on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined. Slowly add the flour mixture, alternating with the coffee mixture, ending with the flour mixture.

Fill cake tin about 2/3 full. Bake for about 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean. Let cool before frosting.

White Chocolate Buttercream Icing

1 c. butter, softened

2 c. confectioner’s sugar

6 oz. white chocolate, melted and cooled

3-5 Tbsp. of whipping cream or half and half

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add white chocolate. Add whipping cream 1 tbsp. at a time until it is the desired consistancy.

Makes 3 1/2 cups

This cake also gave me a chance to practice some buttercream roses.

And mucked around with some piping tips

Cake cracked because I am always too impatient and didn't let it cool yet and flipped it onto the cake stand without trimming the top. Buttercream patched it up nicely though.

Hope you enjoyed this post!!

Princess Cake- 5th Birthday Cake

One of my friend's little daughter's had just turned 5 and I was asked to help with making a cake for her party this afternoon.. She is really into princesses so Tish and I created this baby. Took a little while and I sacrificed my perfectly healthy back as we spaced the making process throughout the day, but it turned out beautifully.

We had used a regular yellow vanilla butter cake recipe and iced it with yummy strawberry buttercream icing. The little details on the flowers were made with gel icing.. nom nom.

I know there are a few imperfections from icing this in a poorly lit room, but are you all proud? :p

My Review on Pizza Miltonio & What happened when I had a craving for anchovies but didn't want to Carb Load

I've decided that it is time for a career change & tomorrow is my last day at my work. I've just been to another staff member's farewell drinks and I came home a little bit tipsy and with the worst cravings for anchovies. I looked around the cupboard and couldn't even find anything remotely close to them to try and substitute and I didn't want to carb load after eating some wedges as a snack..

Result? Having Miltonio only around the corner on Baroona Rd Milton deliver me 2 large pizzas :).

Since moving to our new house we have become regular customers of this place. The pizza is fantastic! Even our housemate claims that the pizza is better than what he has tried in Italy. I wouldn't go that far, but they do come close.

When the delivery man arrived at the door I pretty much threw my money at him, grabbed the pizzas, slammed the door shut and ran to eat it in bed to watch Iron Chef America :).

The pizzas were thin, but not too thin and have just the right amount of toppings on them. I'd ordered the seafood to combat the anchovies cravings and a BBQ Chicken which is one of my favourites, but I'd ordered that to keep seafood hating Mr. BB at bay when he comes home from his Car Owners Club.


BBQ Chicken

The seafood pizza had only prawns, clams, anchovies and garlic as a topping. I was a little bit let down from the mini shrimp on the pizza and tiny clams, but the anchovies were sufficent. I didn't get a photo until slightly more sober BB realized that I should blog about this..

I was pretty full after devouring an entire pizza, but I still did sneak a piece of the BBQ chicken. I already knew what it would taste like but I had to have it, it's just sooo tasty.. and I had to ensure that I wasn't telling my readers lies.. :) The toppings were chicken and bbq sauce but they were both great on their own.

I bet you're still wondering about the non-carb-loading? Well here is what happened :)



No offence to Miltonio, but as tasty as your pizza in it's entirety is, I really didn't want to put on any weight eating this at 9pm at night.

Recommend this Pizzeria!

Miltonio
Shop 17, Centro Shopping Centre
36 Baroona Rd
Milton, QLD
4064
Ph: 07 3368 2144


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Ferrero Rocher Rich Fudge Brownies

As you can tell, I have been a bit over cupcakes. I was hankering for something a little bit sweet to take on a picnic at Mt. Cootha today and had an excess of Ferrero Rocher's after stocking up at a clearance sale at Target.



So, I made brownies! I used my favourite brownie recipe from www.taste.com.au
They always turn out rich, tasty, fudgy and sooo good! Definitely my go to recipe that I can adapt to suit any flavour I want to add.

They went down a treat. Made the walk down to the gold mine harder. They made me tired! But here are a couple snaps I took on the way..



Skitso Magpie what was insistent that it was going to have some of our risoni salad



Mr. BB racing ahead.. Apparently whilst taking in the scenery, I was going too slowly

Bridge used to cart over gold



Mine Shaft.. had no gold lol

Fererro Rocher Brownies
Adapted from taste.com.au

200g unsalted butter, chopped
200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup gluten-free plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
12 Ferrero Rocher chocolates
4- Ferrero Rocher's chopped
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or hazelnuts.


Method

Preheat oven to 190°C. Line a 5cm deep, 18cm (base) square cake pan with non-stick baking paper.

Prep your chopped Ferrero Rochers and walnuts.

Heat butter, chocolate and sugar in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Set aside to cool slightly.

Add eggs and vanilla to chocolate mixture. Mix well. Sift flour and cocoa over chocolate mixture. Stir to combine. Mix in chopped Ferrero Rochers and walnuts.



Pour brownie mixture into pan. I have added the Fererro Rochers into the batter just before baking

Bake for 20 minutes or until just set. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, lift out. Wrap in plastic wrap. Place into an airtight container. Stand for 1 day. Cut into pieces. Serve.

Fauxtess Cupcakes

So I'd mentioned in my last post that I was home to take my kitten to the vet to be desexed.. Well whilst at home I was almost sick with worry.

Since the vet mentioned that for her it is major surgery I was nervous for her. So to keep myself busy at home I decided to make some fauxtess cupcakes.. They seemed to be a bit more tricky than regular cupcakes so I gave them a go.

I found that these cupcakes were nice and dense. The batter wasn't as good as my faithful devils food cupcake recipe, but I think the rich cake is a nice change.

Fauxtess Cupcakes
Sourced from Beantown Baker

For the cupcakes - I doubled the recipe and got about 17 instead of 24.
1 cup plus 4 tablespoons cake flour
2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup plus 4 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons water

For the cream filling (Seven Minute Frosting):
This made more than enough to greedily fill the cupcakes and top them.
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract- I used vanilla bean paste as I ran out of extract

For the ganache- I doubled this
1/2 cup cream
200 grams dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 180 and line 2x 12 capacity muffin pans with paper liners. I love these polka dot ones. I got them from ebay a few months back and have been dying to use them.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together egg yolks, canola oil, 1/2 cup sugar and water until well combined. Add the dry ingredients and stir by hand just until combined.


It looked like it wasn't going to come together, but just needed a bit of elbow grease


In a clean medium bowl, beat egg whites at high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and beat until stiff and glossy. Beat one quarter of the whites into the batter to lighten the mixture. Add remaining whites and gently fold the mixture together until no streaks remain.

Evenly divide the batter between the wells of a 12 cup muffin tin coated with nonstick spray (they will be about one-half full). Bake until the cupcakes spring back when lightly touched in the center, about 13 to 16 minutes. Remove and let the cupcakes cool slightly before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.



While waiting for cupcakes to cool, combine filling ingredients with a pinch of salt in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and beat with a handheld electric mixer at high speed until frosting is thick and fluffy, 6 to 7 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat until slightly cooled. Reserve 1/2 cup of the filling to use for piping the swirls on top of the cupcakes at the end.



Once cupcakes are completely cooled, use the cone method (reserve tops and cut off excess cake) to fill with filling.



Once all cupcakes are filled, make the ganache.



In a small saucepan, heat cream until steaming. Remove from the heat, add chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes. Add the butter and stir until smooth. Transfer the frosting to a small bowl and dip the top of each cupcake to thoroughly coat.

Spoon the reserved filling into a pastry bag fitted with a very small plain tip and pipe swirls across the center of each cupcake. Refrigerate the cupcakes for 10 minutes to set the frosting.