Review - Cupcakes by Paolo

I LOVE cupcakes

Recently I was contacted by Paolo from Cupcakes by Paolo who runs a made to order cupcake business. He wanted me to try some of his cupcakes. Since I love anything cupcake I gladly and gleefully said yes...yes please!! Paolo not only sells his cupcakes on a made to order basis, but his cupcakes are also stocked at Lutong Pinoy within the Footscray Market. Double score for me! Lutong Pinoy is a Philopino takeaway food store that makes some delicious Halo Halo. I do have one piece of advice though, if you want to try his cupcakes from Lutong Pinoy you better get in early, they sell out pretty fast!

So onto the cupcakes, the STAR's of the show! When we arrived we had some gorgeous cupcakes already arranged on a platter for us. Wow, we definitely got the royal treatment. I snapped a couple of photos, and then I was given an uber cute box to take them away and sample them. It was 9 am, despite my love for cupcakes, I know having a cupcake breakfast is probably not the healthiest thing in the world. So I decided to eat them a little later in the day.

First up we had the Aromatic Mocha -"A moist chocolate base with espresso buttercream icing dusted with powdered chocolate. Inhale the rich Aroma"

The cake was delightfully fluffy, a shot of coffee flavor is offered in both the frosting and the cake which ensured you get a double hit of espresso. I love the extra touch of cocoa dusted on top. In a way I wish I had eaten this for breakfast. It would be a great way to start the day. There were two Aromatic Mocha in the box for me, later that night I was meeting up with a few friends, so I skillfully dissected the cupcake into three and handed them out to my friends. They absolutely loved it, in fact one of them exclaimed "that was exactly what I needed"....I need to win lotto, but each to their own!

Next we had the Divine Orange - 'A light and fluffy orange base with orange buttercream icing garnished with a orange gummy, so orange its divine'

Nom Nom Nom. Orange in a cupcake, what else can I say! I've never experienced a cupcake that is actually refreshing. Not too sweet, and slightly tangy, I love the little extra touch of a gummy orange on top, it was great. Daz cut the cupcake in half but left the gummy intact. He ended up taking a great whopping bite out of the gummy leaving huge teeth marks. I wish I had taken a photo, it look almost violated!

Exotic Buko Pandan - "A light and fluffy pandan base with a pandan buttercream icing garnished with coconut shavings. Bring the holiday home."

Think Homer Simpson drooling over a doughnut, freeze the second where drool actually spills out of his mouth, that was me when I took a sniff of this beauty. So coconutty, so fluffy (check out the massive air holes in the cake), the intense green color of the cake and icing was completely reflected by the intense flavor that it offered. There was only one in the box, but at that very second I wished all of them were Buko pandan flavor! By far my favorite. If I had super powers, it would be the ability to instantly metamorphosize one of these into my hand....oh and xray vision! I've been told that this is the most popular flavor, I can totally see why.

Pavlova Passion - 'A light and fluffy passion fruit base with a wall of Italian meringue flooded with a passion fruit icing. Taste the passion'

Daz and I were divided by this one. He stood on the side of deadly against, and I was strongly for it. I adored the deep tropical passion fruit flavor with the marshmallowy Italian meringue, I could have eaten 3 more. But Daz instantly hated it, which is kinda strange because he usually likes passion fruit. We don't always have to agree on everything, makes life a little more interesting "awwww babes you don't want the rest of that cupcake? here I'll help, I'll eat it for you"

And lastly we had the Pineapple Crush - 'A light and fluffy pineapple base with pineapple buttercream icing dusted with pure icing sugar. Its like falling in love all over again.'

I was a little disappointed by this one, but I think that's my fault. I had left it to very last, because as you might have noticed I love tropical flavors and pineapple is just delicious. All week I had been eating dehydrated pineapple, so I was expecting the cupcake to be just as intense, sadly it wasn't. It was still a very fluffy and enjoyable cupcake, but I think the Buko Pandan cupcake has ruined me forever!

Overall I love ALL the cupcakes on offer from Cupcakes by Paolo. Its obvious that the cupcakes are baked with a huge amount of love and attention. There was no hint of dryness at all and every single one was fresh. Something that I'm slowly, but surely, getting more in tuned in recognizing. Its been about 3 days since I had a cupcake and I'm starting to get withdrawal symptoms, not even good old cake can keep the cravings away anymore. Looks like I'm going down to Footscray on the weekend!

You can purchase single cupcakes for $3.00 from Lutong Pinoy at Footscray Market within the food hall, right next to the lift.

The power of cupcake within my hand!

Cheesy Mushroom Arancini

Recently the vivacious V1 hosted a hens party for a friend of hers. As she was responsible for all the fun and frivolity on the night, she asked me to help with the catering. We made a range of things, including these Cheesy mushroom arancini and a very "special" cake which I will hopefully bring to you soon. All I'll say is it rated PG-18.

The hen had told V1 that she wanted good food, so if she was to get extremely wasted and eventually have to throw up she wanted to bring up something that tasted good. Rice balls are both delicious and soft. Great for the hens' purposes.

I usually make arancini with meat and vegies and a tomato sauce, but this time I had a real craving for Camembert and mushrooms, and besides it was good for any vegetarians in attendance. I made them with 4 different types of cheeses, just to pack in the cheesy-ness, Parmesan, tasty cheese, mozzarella and Camembert. The photo doesn't do them any justice, the mozzarella comes out so stringy and oozy its delicious, they are best eaten hot straight from the pan, but they can be kept for the next day and reheated if desired. Hmmm I'm salivating just thinking about it.

They require a little fiddling about and some deep frying, but I promise you the end result is was worth any trouble!! So here the recipe, with step by step photos on how to assemble the rice balls.

Cheesy Mushroom Arancini

INGREDIENTS

Rice needs to be cooked 1 day in advance

2 cups of medium grain rice

500 mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic, minced

4 -6 eggs

breadcrumbs

1 pinch of saffron soaked in a teaspoon of water overnight (optional)

Vegetable oil (for deep frying)

100 grams Parmesan

mozzarella, rolled up into small balls

tasty cheese

Camembert, cut into small cubes

METHOD

1. Cook rice in salted water until just cooked. Drain, let it cool and then cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge overnight. Make sure that it is tightly wrapped so that it does not dry out at all. On the next day take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature before using.

2. Dice mushroom into small pieces and saute with a little olive oil in a large flat frying pan. Add garlic and cook until mushrooms are soft, but not dry, season to taste with salt and pepper. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

3. Add saffron to rice (this gives the rice a golden color and a sweet flavour)

break two whole eggs into the rice. Add the yolks of two more eggs and place the whites in another shallow bowl. Add Parmesan and a couple of hand fulls of tasty cheese.

Using your clean bare hands mix everything together. Feel the consistency of the mixture if it is too wet add a hand full or two of breadcrumbs, if the mixture does not stick together easily, add another egg. Continue this mixing until a sticky but not too wet rice mixture is achieved.

4. Whipped egg whites until they are very frothy and firm, but not stiff. As you use the egg whites you will need to keep whipping them to get them frothy again. Place a shallow bowl of water next to the rice mixture. I find it easiest if I have a helping hand, but isn't that with everything in life?

5. Bring the mushrooms close to you, fill a bowl with dry breadcrumbs and assemble all your ingredients so they are handy including cheese's.

6. Wet the palm of your non-dominate hand with water, this prevents the rice from sticking to your hand. Wet the tips of your fingers with some water and take a generous pinch of rice and spread it on your hand to make a flat section of rice. Remember that the smaller the section of rice, the smaller your rice ball. I suggest starting big and then making them smaller as you get better.

7. Add a tablespoon of mushroom mixture, a mozzarella ball and a piece of Camembert to the flatten riced.

8. Take another generous pinch of rice in your dominate hand, with the your fingers and thumb flatten the rice to make another section of rice to place on top of the mushroom mixture.

9. Bring your hands close together and press them gently together, shape into a ball.

10. Roll in egg whites, you only need a little so I usually take a dab or two and coat it in my hands.

11. Coat ball in breadcrumbs. Deep fry them in some oil on medium heat. Make sure not to roll them around too much as they easily break. cook them until golden brown then drain them on some absorbent paper.

Some tips and tricks

- After you make your first ball is the true test of rice stickiness. If it doesn't come to together easily, add another egg to the rice mixture

- During the rolling stage if you see any filling coming out poke it back in and seal the hole with a few grains of rice. This is very important as if there is any exposed filling it is sure to burst when cooking.

- When rolling in breadcrumbs if cracks appear or the ball is in jeopardy of falling apart, roll it in generous amount egg white and then roll with a thick amount of breadcrumbs. This will form a "plaster" shell that is more difficult to break, and will mend any cracks.

- Test the temperature of the oil before dropping your first ball in. Take a grain of rice, if it sizzles than its ready. Keep a close eye on the temperature of the oil, if it becomes too hot the outer shell with brown without the inside heating up and melting the cheese.

Review - Happy Home Made Cupcakes

After my massive cupcake tour of Melbourne I was contacted by Neev from Happy Home Made Cupcakes. She runs her own cupcake business from home and was keen to get me and Daz to sample some of her delicious treats. Daz and I being the cupcake fiends that we are were never going to knock back an offer like that! So today we got the best treat ever and have an entire cupcake platter prepared for us! How lucky are we!

I must compliment Neev on really thinking about Daz and I, she had prepared a combination of regular sized cupcakes and mini cupcakes. Considering that there were quite a few flavours on offer, tiny morsels are the best to taste test without getting too full along the way. I do have to confess though, they were so good that Daz and I went back for seconds! Diet starts tomorrow!

After visiting Cupcakes by Heather and Lori in Vancouver a couple of years ago, the cupcake bug well and truly took a bite. Neev started the business in March this year after a little gentle persuasion from her daughter Ameesha. All cupcakes are proudly baked from scratch, containing no artificial preservatives. And I must say Happy Home Made is the most perfect name for her cupcakes, after meeting Neev and her whole family I can see that alot of love and happiness goes into every single cupcake.

So onto the eating right!?! Listed in order of consumption. We started with a Vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. This was Ameesha's favourite. I thought I would get some inside knowledge before diving in, and it was a good way to start. Subtle vanilla flavour with a good dose of vanilla frosting.

Then we moved onto Coconut cupcakes with meringue frosting. Daz loves anything meringue, so this one was pretty close to his heart, and I adore coconut. The crunchy intense coconut on top was a delight. You would think that anything with a meringue frosting would be overly sweet, but the sugar levels were just right. That's absolutely perfect for me, its means that I can eat more without feeling like I'm about to fly out of a room on a sugar high!

Next we had Dark brown sugar cupcakes with caramel and cinnamon butter cream frosting. This was good, real good. The kick from the cinnamon was unexpected and freakin delicious! Daz really loved this one, he was raving about it all the way back home. We were even lucky enough to get a couple to take home....they didn't last long....sigh.

We left the best to last. When I looked at the Chocolate Mud cupcakes with Caramel frosting topped with violet crumble and a drizzle of caramel I knew we were in for a treat. They looked like miniature volcanoes exploding with flavour, with a trickle of caramel magma flowing over the side. Deep, dense, intense chocolate flavour topped with subtle caramel and crunchy violet crumble. Hmmmm these were my favourite. I'm crazy about dark chocolate and there was a good dose of it in these cupcakes.

Neeve is an absolute delight and I'm so pleased that I got the chance to sample her baked goods. If you would like to order some of her cupcakes you can contact her through her blog at Happy Home Made Cupcakes or drop her an email at neevrap{AT}hotmail.com

Punch Lane

Punch lane

43 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

It was a cold August night and we'd ventured out into the wind and rain to meet up with the dynamic V's for a bite to eat. We'd left early so we could find a close park and have the opportunity to sit in the warm comfort sure to be awaiting us inside Punch Lane. I parked on Little Collins street. I was so proud of myself, I've managed to find the perfect car spot on the exact same street that the restaurant is on, how often do you get to do that in the CBD. Daz and I got out of the car and started walking up the street. "Where is it?....its 43 right...so it should be here somewhere"....."are you sure its on Little Collins street" CRAP!...wrong "Little" street!

So a slight detour and 15 minutes later we were inside the bar. The place was packed so our table wasn't quite ready, so we sat at the bar....all of us starving, cold and uncomfortable (who thought tall wooden chairs were a good idea?). Cured meats hung mockingly in front of us. I contemplated grabbing a sausage and chowing down before a waiter could notice, but the dignified side in me kicked in and stopped me just in a nick of time. My stomach soon gave way to my bladder, time for a pit stop. I don't usually mention toilets at restaurants, but this one was a doozie. I walked in, and as a women the first thing I did was look for the bag hook. I looked everywhere, and then....I looked up. The bag hook was way up on the wall, way above my head! I thought it best not to put my bag up there, just in case it fell off and knocked me unconscious while sitting on the toilet. Knowing me and my track record so far that night, that would be likely to happen.

We got to our table, and my favourite thing about any restaurant....plentiful free bread. Since there were four of us and the waitress was a class act, the bread baskets were flying at us at an incredible speed.

We each had a glass of wine and then it was time to order. There was a winter express menu on offer so we opted to go for that.

Daz started with a huge bowl of cream cannellini soup with chorizo and spinach. It looked so lovely and creamy, with crispy pieces of chorizo floating on top. Daz was so kind to give me ONE spoonful, it was warm, thick inviting and perfect for a cold wet night. I really wish I had ordered that dish for myself, atually I wish Daz was more inclined to share half his meals with me, we have a mortgage together...whats half a bowl of soup!?

The rest of us had the salted salmon, potato and olive salad, with fresee and lemon mayonnaise. The salted salmon tasted a little weird. It was originally supposed to come with salted cod, but they had run out for the night. I wondered it if would taste much nicer with plain smoked salmon. The mayonnaise was the saviour of the dish, it was tangy and refreshing, an element that was really needed to combat the saltiness of the salmon.

For mains, V2 had a confit of chicken with winter cabbage, peas and jus roti. He was bitterly disappointed, and I was for him too. Confit is one of my favourite dishes, and his tasted exactly like fried chicken...nothing special, didn't taste bad....just ordinary. sigh. I dislike ordinary.

The rest of us had braised lamb shanks with creamed carrots and swede. We hit the jackpot. The lamb was tender and juicy, exactly what a lamb shank should be. The creamed carrot and swede was delightful. It was so special, I still think of it to this day. It was fluffy but filling, the dish had a few olives dotted here or there. Your mouth would burst with excitement when you took a mouthful of mash and hidden withing was a salty little package that just made everything taste so well rounded. I had never thought to throw some olives into a mash, but I sure am going to do that now!

We also got a side of Greek salad and crispy french fries.

Overall the dinner was pretty good. I enjoyed the atmosphere and I'll definitely be going back. Hopefully next time I can try some of their cured meats, and park on the right street!

A death in the kitchen + Peanutbutter Gelato + KitchenAid = AWESOMENESS!

I started my weekend on a bad note, or as it later turned out - the best thing that has ever happened to me! While making a cake with the vivacious Ms V, my trusty - but cheap - hand held mixer finally died (You'll find out about the cake soon). While beating the frosting the motor made a funny noise, struggled for a bit and then started to smell like electrical appliance death. I shed a little tear for my dear friend and said my good byes. We had alot of fun together, the countless cupcakes we've made together, I'm surprised she didn't die on me earlier!

Today, while shopping with Daz I saw a gorgeous limited edition candy apple red KitchenAid stand mixer. We went in to check it out and low and behold it was on special! $599. Was it my birthday? nope. I've been hmmming and arrrhing about getting a KitchenAid for ages. I have an issue with purchasing things, impulse buying is not in my repertoire. Daz convinced me after offering to pay for it, not only is it on special, but you're telling me I can have it for free? GIVE IT TO ME....NOW!

I got her home, unpacked her and gave her a little kiss. Daz and I stood around for a while and just stared at it. There's something incredibly hypnotic about a shiny red piece of metal. Then came the difficult part, giving her a name. We recently welcomed Beryl to our home a couple of months ago, and shes been couriering cupcakes back and forth like a real pro. A shiny new RED kitchenaid needs a name that is sexy and sounds like alot of fun......cause we're gonna have fun together! So we decided to name her Corinna. Here are some happy snaps

Now to the second part of this post, on a recent trip to Leo's I came across some peanut butter flavoured gelato, made by Gelati Sky. I LOVE peanut butter anything....who doesn't like peanut butter? I went against my better judgement and ignored the $7.80 price tag for 1L.

I purchased it on Tuesday night, and its been sitting in my freezer since. Not because I didn't want to eat it, oh on the contrary. I wanted some good lighting to take photos before I hoed into it, so I waited until the weekend. If I know anything about myself, I know I cant resist gelato if its anywhere near me, so I'm pretty proud of myself for lasting 4 days!

Oh man was it good, it tasted like peanut butter funnily enough. The surprising part, there were swirls of chocolate through the gelato which I didn't expect. It didn't taste overly like chocolate, but it was a great flavour to contrast with the salty peanut, it actually tasted alot like a picnic bar without the crunch and caramel. It was delicious, no wonder they've won awards!

So in the end it was a pretty great weekend, I got peanut butter ice cream and I finally got a KitchenAid! Woo hoo!