Ordinary joy (zomg I made a sponge cake)
Published 27 December 2010Today’s #reverb10 prompt is easy!
27 December – Ordinary joy. Our most profound joy is often experienced during ordinary moments. What was one of your most joyful ordinary moments this year?
Today we bought a convection microwave oven. As in, I can put tins in the microwave and make cakes!!
Convection microwaves are the godsend of renters – the oven in our penthouse is shithouse and beyond repair (trust me, I’ve had an oven repairer say so). Rather than fight our real estate agent (traumatic enough to send me back to therapy), we decided to upgrade our 13yo microwave to a convection microwave.
Off the bat, it’s a microwave, but press the right button and it bakes and even grills! Zomg!
This afternoon we got Margaret (a.k.a. Fulton, baking legend) up on top of our fridge and first order was to make a sponge cake – something I’ve never made before because we’ve always had shithouse ovens in our rental properties.
I used half a Donna Hay recipe. The egg/sugar mix looked pretty spectacular (thanks, Kenwood Chef with BeaterBlade!)
The recipe called for a 180 oven for 25 minutes, but the Convection Oven Calculator converted it to 150 for 25 minutes.
And WOW, the damn thing was cooked to perfection:
It was heavier than a sponge cake should be (a fault of the cold eggs, probably, and my inability to fold batter properly), but it was even throughout in texture and colour.
Today’s ordinary joy? Making Jarod stop talking so that I could enjoy my first mouthful of my first ever sponge cake. And getting to share it with Jarod and Liz (oh, and the husband!).
JOYOUS!
Nutella pizza!
Published 23 December 2010Check out what we had for dinner:
Homemade New York-style pizza dough.
And NUTELLA!
When it comes out of the pizza oven, the NUTELLA!’s all caramelised and nommy.
Very, very recommended.
Jalapeño Tex-Mex, Enmore/Newtown
Published 4 December 2010The Enmore/Newtown strip along Enmore Road has improved so much in the last year.
We finally have new alternatives to all the Thai restaurants.
Cow and Moon for ice cream, The Green Room for trendy drinkies and now Jalapeño Tex-Mex at 89 Enmore Road, Newtown (phone (02) 8094 9711).
It’s only been open a week and we’ve already eaten there twice. We tried eating there last night, but it was a wait-list to get a table.
Main meals are in the $15-$20 price range and are excellent quality. Even the critical foodie husband was impressed.
The staff are lovely, the restaurant is clean and they use our favourite cutlery (Tablekraft). The best part is the concertina windows onto Enmore Road, which really opens up the restaurant.
We’ll be going back again VERY soon, because we’ve promised to drag some friends along for the nomming experience :)
For bigger photos, click the pics to go to the flickr page.
On cupcakes and how I went feral
Published 15 November 2010My post over at That’s Noice today was made possible by the help of friends like JarodAndLiz, Scarlet and Kelley. For either sourcing the existence of the fabulousness that is cupcakes-on-cupcakes, or for sourcing mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for me.
I tried making cupcakes on Friday night, but I was a bit, well, frazzled because of a huuuuuuge moth in the kitchen. And I ruined the cupcakes.
I had tried a couple of those Peanut Butter Cups earlier that night, and I honestly think they sent me feral. And rendered me incapable of baking my cupcakes. I turned into a grumpy old hag for hours. Sooky, grumpy, stampy… that was me. And I’m wondering if the Peanut Butter Cups were to blame?
So all day Saturday I was too scared to try making more cupcakes. I’ve been without my cupcake-making mojo for at least six months and I was wondering if it would be lost forever. I mean, hello, how can I have a reputation for being a cupcake lady if I can’t even bake a basic cupcake??
BUT! Yesterday afternoon I got my courage back and they turned out perfectly. Om nom nom
It’s good to be back.
PS it’s very hard to be restrained while on a diet and making cupcakes and then photoshopping photos of cupcakes. Look at what I was dealing with last night on my PC… so hard to not try to lick the screen…
Why did Cudo.com.au ditch Ghermez Cupcakes?
Published 2 November 2010
Last month Fiona cottoned me onto Cudo and their $12-for-a-dozen cupcakes from Ghermez Cupcakes. The cupcake brand I’ve been wanting to try out for yonks. Awesome, right?
This afternoon, I got this email:
My name is Billy Tucker and I am the CEO of Cudo. I am writing to you regarding your recent purchase of cupcakes from Ghermez Cupcakes on October 19, 2010.
At Cudo, your total satisfaction is everything to us. We select the best businesses in Australia to partner with, who provide amazing offers in return. However, as we received such a phenomenal response to this offer it is proving to be problematic to meet the demand from consumers without compromising quality and standards.
To ensure every Cudo experience is always a faultless one, on this occasion, I have come to the decision to unwind the offer and, instead, refund in full every one of the members who purchased but have yet to receive their cupcakes.
We would like to apologise for the inconvenience and disappointment this may cause, and would like to assure you that offering great quality is as important to us as offering a great bargain.
We have issued you with a refund and you should have a notification of this via email.
Okay, fine, I’m getting a refund, no problemo. But what’s the deal? Is it a simple case of Ghermez not being able to keep up with the demand? Were they not keeping their end of the deal?
Curiosity is killing this cat.
Also: I could murder a cupcake right now.
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