Awesome ways to use Beer!

Beerfest is in a couple of weeks, and with beer so wildly loved in this hot, hot state of ours, we put on our (still sober?) thinking caps for the 5 Best Uses for Beer:

1) Beer Spa

Detoxification, purification, relaxation and rejuvenation - beer bath enthusiasts can't get enough of submerging into vats of beer - especially when the medical benefits run a mile long on the spa websites. And of course you get your very own beers to chug while immersed in the beer barrel. Let's hope that isn't where the used beer from the earlier beer spas goes :)

> Some of our feel-pretty desserts:

- How to make a high heel topper

- Ombre swirl cookies

- Fairy tale weddings

- Sugar & spice

2) Spicy Food

Mugs up if you're ever chased mad spicy food down your belly at the hawker center with ice cold beer, I know I have! Something strangely effective about cold beery bubbles nuking the chilli burn, highly recommended.

> Homey foods: Sesame matcha cupcakes, Zingy ginger crunch

> 'Healthy' foods: Fruity cakes & shakes  

> Rustic food: Red velvet cake

3) Polishing Pots

When you've got a bit of leftover beer (how and why that would ever happen, we don't know), don't throw it out. Grab your nearest copper pot, pour on the leftover beer, let it sit for a while and wipe off. Viola, spiffy shiny pot is born. That's what the Idaho Brewing Company claims anyways. 

4) Beer Shampoo

Pour another... for your hair. Yet another way alcohol seems to aid beauty - enterprising personal care companies have kicked beers up a notch and brought them into the daily bath routine with beer shampoos. Silky shiny hair, with beer run-off so conveniently tasty while rinsing off, what's not to like?

5) Guinness Cake

There's ALWAYS a good reason to bring dessert into the picture. Beer + cake = perfect sense. The Chocolate Guinness Cake is velvety heaven on a plate, with a very subtle hint of the alcoholic brew. Nigella has an excellent recipe for an inky black cake, that has a place in every celebration.

The secret to a fantastic Guinness cake: good ol' malted
Guinness and sour cream. That's right, sour cream - it
lifts the cake, injects airiness, and is
responsible for the tender crumb and moist bite.

I love edible science experiments.

The bubbly brew wells up under the chocolatey
egg mixture, giving it lift and lightness.

This next step isn't in Nigella's recipe, but you'll need to sift
the flour well, or you'll end up with little flour craters
that won't break up well because of the beer's airy bubbles.

You can't taste the beer per se, so don't be
 disappointed if you don't get hit with a huge
 slug of Guinness. Its role is in lending texture
and a slight hint of the brew's dark tang. 

Nigella does a beautiful cream cheese
frosting in her recipe, I've swopped mine
out for a rich Bailey's irish cream frosting
 which upps the indulgence level.

To make the frosting: Beat 450g butter in mixer
 till light and fluffy, add 2 cups confectioner's
sugar + 4 tbsn Bailey's, beating for a few min
till fluffy again. This should be enough to
frost and top an 8" cake generously. 

I like to tuck in a bit of surprise when I can,
and this cake has a hidden layer of crunchy
chocolate balls and crushed oreo biscuits to
give it more texture when you bite in.

Style the cake any way you want, the frosting
is a forgiving canvas. Chill the cake to let the
frosting set, bring it out about 20-30 min
before eating - perfect texture.

Experiment and play around with shapes and
sizes, I made some cute tiny sunflower cups
 with the cake batter. They took almost no time
at all to bake (argh yes, I forgot to time them so
I don't have an exact bake time for you), and
taste gorgeous even on their own with no frosting.

More chocolate desserts: 
> 4 Melt-in-your-mouth decadent chocolate treats
> Chocolate cake, 10 years young
> Curious George (sorta!) cake pops
> Chocolate Minion cupcakes

It's Food Revolution Day!

Food options and life choices are pretty much the same, to me at least.

Just as important, just as empowering.

Many of us are fortunate to be served the world - with an uncountable repertoire of sweets, savories, soups, frieds, greens, locals, homegrowns, imported.

But even more of us are struggling from meal to meal, each more precarious than the last.

And while we're so blessed to have so many food options to choose from, it's nice to take time to appreciate what we're eating, to think a little about what food means.

Which is what Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day (FRD) is all about.

His mission to inspire change is well documented.
He believes in investing in the future, and I love the glorious exhilaration of FRD's slogan "Let's Get Kids Excited About Food".

I'm not saying we go all crazy gluten-free, no-sugar, all-organic-only.

That's just no-fun.

Eating well can still be a ton of play and excitement, and I wanted to share a couple of fantastic inspirations for kids' food I came across:

Picky Palate

I love Jenny's philosophy towards food - a cookie in one hand, a salad in the other. Something I completely agree with. One of the sections on her site is aptly named Skinny Palate. While it's not targeted at kids, Picky Palate is about food that even the pickiest eaters will love - someone say kids! Green Eggs & Ham Scramble, Honey & Orange Creamsicle Slushy Chocolate Banana and Peanut Butter Milk... she's got it going.


Super Healthy Kids

This isn't just one mom's blog, but the collective wisdom of an entire team including a trainer and nutritionist. Their focus is on fruits and vegetables, and they have fantastic ideas for better health for kids. Sports nutrition, keeping kids fit, how to introduce food groups to your kids - where were these guys when we were young??

In case you're thinking they sound like health nazis (they are a little!), they do have fun too with recipes like the Raspberry Cheesecake and Sugar Snap Bugs and Butterflies.


Meaningful Mamma

Anyone who can make fruits look this adorable, needs to be mentioned. Jodi started the site as a way of sharing her parenting experiences and giving back, and it's now expanded to include the cutest food ideas. Not all her food recipes are health-based (her site does focus on Character Development after all), but she's got a few gems that are adorable and creative. Check out her Owl Strawberries and Butterfly Snack Packs.


Eat well everyone, let food make you smile, and be thankful for life!

To participate and donate to FRD, click here.

Bee-do, bee-do, get ready for some Minion cuteness!

They were never meant to be such a big part of the movie, creators thought they'd be a fun little something-on-the-side for a bit of a laugh.

But their indecipherable babble and staccato tottle and skips were so endearing, they upstaged the stars and will now have their own movie.

Bellooooo Minions!
That's 'Helloooo Minions' for you.

Yes, Minion-ese apparently exists, a language with Spanish, Italian, Korean, Japanese and Filipino influences created by the Despicable Me director.

Yellow fever hit everywhere (I'm guilty of a certain banana-song ringtone!), and these highly excitable creatures with very little self-control were in hot demand - even as desserts.

Read about:
> Another yellow birthday: A day at the construction site
> Another fidgety creature that can't sit still: Bunnies!

Cupcakes are a great backdrop for the Minions, you could create different personalities for each.

The gang waiting to surprise Karlye!

Before they got to Karlye, these 4cm tall tic-tacs-on-steroids had to
spend some time in the workshop dressing up and getting some eyeballs

Running amok uncontrollably, as they do in real life

Kevin - impulsively (as all minions are) overtaken
by the Saturday Night Fever

Dave (right) - slightly appalled that he has to
stand next to Stuart in that green frock 

What's a minion got to do to get that banana??

Poopaye = Goodbye, an apt farewell gift for a wild Minion fan

Couldn't resist finishing off with the adorable Minion bubble wand
I spotted at the party favor shop next to my physiotherapist's office

Another little boy was celebrating his birthday with the Minions, and this time I went with some cheeky 2D faces:

Minion - deconstructed

Fun fact: Minions love bananas and apples, and the mere
sight of either of these fruits can cause complete chaos.
Low maintenance friends, what's not to like? ;

The birthday boy in the background, grinning as widely as his minions!

Other themed desserts:
> The Very Hungry Caterpillar
> Hello there, Kitty!
> Never too much red with Elmo!
> A Rilakkuma birthday

Busy day at the construction site

This has got to be one of my favorite cakes by far. 

• Tell story with cake - check
• Freeform landscaping ie. any shapes and sizes I like - check
• It's messy, and it's alright - check
• Plenty of cute details - check

So. Much. Fun.

After playing architect/baker and planning and designing for a week or so, I started building my construction site birthday cake:

I like using toys on themed cakes, kids get to keep and play with them after. 

Laying foundations: chocolate cake with lemon filling, covered with a layer of crushed graham crackers for sand, and smashed oreos for road rubble.

It's messy and if you crush by hand like I do, your fingers will be seriously cramping up by the time you're halfway through construction destruction. At this point, you have some options:

1) Employ child labour and let the kids in the house do the smashing (my fave method!).

2) Do finger crunches to build up stamina - but I can tell you from first hand experience, that if you're doing the crunches at the time you're making the cake, it's too late. Give up already.

3) Seal the biscuits up in a ziplock bag, throw it repeatedly against the wall. You'll have to do another round of crumbling the pieces further by hand after, but the wall-smashing is superbly satisfying. Highly recommended.

Big pieces go in first - toys, big sign plates. They anchor the landscape, and we fill in the smaller bits after. Stones, pebbles, rocks, stop sign, u-turn signs, barriers, construction cones. Go wild.

There are a lot of details to this cake, but it's the details that make cakes come alive. The teeny tiny pieces take some time and planning, and it's all worth it when it comes together, and you see the birthday boy's giant grin. Time to dig in!

Hello there, Kitty

I'm not at all a fan of cats.

They strike fear in me. I don't know why...

Hello Kitty is probably the only exception to my lifelong nemesis.
Perhaps it's the lack of a mouth and fangs (yes, they DO look like fangs to me).

Her cute little red ribbon perched askew might have something to do with making her less feline scary, too.

Check out more of our red desserts:
> Sweet, sweet strawberries
> Rich red velvet cake
> Red Santa hats
> Poppin' red cherries, even the jackpot ones

Whatever the case, she's the only kitty I'm gonna be friends with.

Ever.

I drew inspiration from cake pop goddess Bakerella, with just a few minor modifications. She's got the most amazing imagination, and has the superhero power of visualizing uses for any piece of candy.

Start off with regular cake balls, shape them into ovals and flatten them a little.

Then it's off to the details:

Minute oval balls for her  black eyes and pert lil' yellow
nose - these were barely 1mm each, soooo teeny tiny!

Uh-oh... she has SIX whiskers each... that's a whole of
ant-sized rods to make by hand. I lost count of how
 many I broke along the way, they were so fragile.

Just make sure you make tons of extras, they'll break
every step of the way. Oh. and don't freak out if they're not
perfectly shaped, animal parts are never symmetrical anyways :)

I had these sweet little confetti hearts that
were perfect for her signature bow

A cheeky lil' Hello Kitty towel to top the birthday basket off

Mission completed - my kitty litter is born!

More character cake pops:
> Never too much red with Elmo around
> A Rilakkuma birthday
> Curious George... almost!

'Nekkid' series: Sweet, sweet strawberries

I'm quite in love with strawberries.

Hokkaido has the best ever. Sweet, alluring, beckoning, juicy.

Strawberries sing of spring.
Ooh, almost got a whole line of alliteration in there.

Strawberry jam. Strawberry ice-cream.
Mmm-mmm good ....

My strawberry epiphany happened in Phuket. Strange... yes, I think so too.

As a child, I had not-so-tasty King's strawberry ice-cream and chucked strawberries in the 'ulgh' part of the food spectrum. Won't miss that for sure.

On a steaming hot Phuket afternoon about 7 years ago however, we were seeking sun refuge at a cafe. We sat down, and I was drawn (I could not look away, I kid you not) to a mountain of strawberry ice-cream piled high at the next table. A little boy was polishing it off with extreme gusto, his dripping shirt pulled back around his head, a temporary hairband as he tunneled through his mission.

The ice-cream beckoned. It called my name. It singled me out.

I caved.

It was such excellent ice-cream, I tasted meadows and happiness.
I'm serious.

I'm now a strawberry-holic, and proud of it.

Ok, that was a long intro for this post.
I'd meant to talk about two strawberry desserts I'd made recently - Chocolate Strawberry Cake, Classic Cheesecake with Strawberries.

Maybe too much strawberries makes you forgetful.

I'm willing to risk it.

Oh yes, back to the desserts. 

Chocolate Strawberry Cake

Start with a rich chocolate cake,
doesn't matter if it aian't too pretty yet...
make sure it tastes good though!

Mix up a batch of strawberry happiness,
also known as strawberry frosting. 

Pile on frosting, lick fingers,
stack on strawberry mountain.
All done.

Need some help with the recipes?
> Fantabulous chocolate cake from IAmBaker
> Strawberry frosting that actually tastes GOOD - I just swapped the raspberry for strawberry in IAmBaker's awesome recipe 


Classic Cheesecake with Strawberries

Assemble your classic cheesecake. Make sure there's plenty
 of crust (double's a good place to start) cuz everyone loves crust.
Me and my greedy family and friends can vouch for that.

Whip up fluffy cream cheese topping. Feel free to make
a little extra, just for you and anyone who walks through
the kitchen when you're working on the cake.

It takes steel will to resist the wafting smells of freshly baked
cheesecake, you WILL need that extra frosting.

  

Crown with strawberries - the key to making any cake look delicious!

The cheesecake recipe I used came from one of the many baking books on my shelf, so it's a little hard to teleport that here. 

But no fear, I will lead you to my Cake Oracle - Bakerella! 

She can do no wrong, and you're in good hands with her cheesecake recipe.

Other crimson bakes:

> Red Velvet cake

> Red Santa hats

> Never too much red with Elmo around

> Baked with love

Sit back, smell the strawberries and enjoy!