Learning Something New . . . Works for Me Wednesday

I did not make this cake:


You see, decorating cakes is not my forte.  Exhibit A and B.

But, you're never too old to learn, right? RIGHT?!?

Have you heard of MyCakeSchool.com?  It is a beautiful site filled with videos and tutorials all about making gorgeous cakes.

Melissa, the owner of My Cake School, is a natural teacher. Watching her videos makes me think, "Hey, I can DO that!"  It's like having a personal instructor right in your very own kitchen.  (Even though, I think I'd trade my kitchen for hers.) 

For $30 a year, members have access to 100's of videos (don't take my word for it; here's a list).  Learn everything from a basic crumb coat to gumpaste to buttercream flowers.

The video on scrollwork alone opened up a world of possibilities!
 
(And I can't wait to learn to make a pretty ruffle cake. I've been thinking about Amanda's ruffle cake since December!)

Guess what?  Melissa is offering TWO Bake at 350 readers year-long memberships!  Yay!  Come learn along with me! 

To enter: 

giveaway closed! Congrats to Rachel & Chelsea!!!

• Leave a comment with a technique you would really like to learn (here's a list with some ideas)

Let's make some pretty cakes together! Works for me!

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Food with Flares

Cheese Fondue

When it came to celebrating my husband's 40th a 70's "disco" party was the obvious choice. It ticked all the boxes - excuse to dress up in psychadelic gear and flares: check, dance around listening to cheesy disco music: check, justify purchase of a mirror ball: check and of course, delicious nostalgic 70's hors d'oeuvres (as they used to call them!): check!

Beef Wellington

It was with this last item on the party list that I was most excited! Being a food blogger and showing my food off to the world via the blog has it's disadvantages. All the guests somehow had high expectations of the feast that I would be presenting so my original idea of cheese cubes and tinned pineapple on toothpicks skewered into a half grapefruit, with a bowl of twiglets, just wasn't going to cut it. I had to think a bit more adventurous and impressive!

 Vol au Vents

Friends were guessing what they might taste, and all of them were looking forward to prawn cocktail, expertly prepared by our chef friend Neil, who lent a hand in the kitchen, and devils on horseback (juicy prunes wrapped in bacon  and grilled)! Cam prepared a chicken liver pate, and we had some prosciutto wrapped melon, reminiscent of our family favourite starters! Most guests also guessed the appearance of a 70's classic, a gruyere cheese fondue, which was as popular as it was in its heyday!

The Cake(s)

The chicken and mushroom vol au vents were a hit, and we really tucked into Gary from Masterchef's delicious Beef Wellington - perhaps not quite meant for canapes but fabulous tasting, and worth licking your fingers for!

Finally, we had black forest cup-gateaux and Cam's favourite - individual Margarita Lime Cheesecakes, courtesy of LivLife's fantastic recipe!

 Food fit for a fortieth with flare(s)!

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Tuesdays At The Table - Skinny Key Lime Pie

Howdy, chickies! Did everyone get to enjoy their long weekend?  Spend time with family and friends?  BBQ something delicious?  And - most importantly - thank a soldier (or veteran) for their service?  I hope you answered a resounding YES to everything.  :-)

I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend.  Saturday, I got a little extra cuddle time with my pups.  Then an afternoon Kristin (my cousin and one my favorite people) and her son.  We did lunch, a trip to Lowe's (where we both made out like bandits on 2 for $12 geraniums), a craft store that is closing (again, making out like bandits) and a local farm/ice cream stand.

Sunday was filled with little errands and household chores.  Monday...well, I missed a friend's cookout because my asthma is acting up.  I miss everyone, but I know they understand that almost 90 degree heat and humidity just isn't good for this girl. Instead, I spend the day with mom (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!) and reading.

This week I'm sharing a "skinny" key lime pie.  Truth be told - it's one of the few pies that I like.  :-)

Skinny Key Lime Pie

1 ready-to-fill cookie crumb or graham cracker crumb crust
1 tablespoon plain gelatin
1/3 cup fresh lime juice or key lime juice
1 cup boiling water
Sugar substitute to equal 1/4 cup
13 ounce can cold evaporated skim milk
1/4 cup cold water
4-serving package instant vanilla pudding
1/2 teaspoon of lime zest, optional
Light or fat-free whipped topping
Thin lime slices for garnish, optional

In a blender container, combine plain gelatin and fresh lime juice. Wait one minute until softened, then add boiling water. Cover and blend on high speed until all gelatin granules are dissolved. Add sugar substitute, evaporated skim milk, water, pudding mix and lime zest. (Note that you can also use a hand mixer on "high".)

Cover and blend smooth. Chill in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes until mixture begins to set. Spoon into prepared pie shell and chill several hours until firm. Top with dollops of whipped topping and garnish with lime slices, if desired.

What's cooking in your kitchen?

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YumTable Launch at St Jude's Cellars

A few weeks ago, I was invited along to the launch of YumTable. It's a new free iPhone app that offers last-minute restaurant deals and bookings via iPhone, and searches for nearby restaurants based on your location - no need for advance planning, pre-paying for coupons, or whipping out vouchers.  For the launch of the app, we had a relaxed dinner at St. Jude's Cellars, and met the founders of YumTable Niv Novak and Craig Winkler.  (Craig was also the creator of MYOB - which I thought was super-cool because I once studied bookkeeping, hehe.)

St. Jude's Cellars

389-391 Brunswick Street

Fitzroy 3065

Ph: (03) 9419-7411

Website

Ever since my Barossa-trip, I love checking out wine selections!

The launch was split up over 2 nights, and included a mix of bloggers and other media.  Joyce and Thanh attended a separate dinner the night before, (and had a different menu!), so head on over to their blogs to check out the food.

I hadn't been to St. Jude's in ages (2 and a half years ago, in fact), and the menu seems quite different from the last time I visited.  We enjoyed a set menu, served family style in the centre of the table.

Charcuterie and chef's selected appetisers

I love a good charcuterie board, and this one had a lot of lovely and unusual different tastes.  My favourite was the freshly cracked walnuts wrapped in double smoked bacon with apple - not something I would have thought to try before, but they were delicious!

Salad of butternut pumpkin with Urban Honey labna, lemon, pickled chilli and red lentils

The labna in this dish was smeared across the plate, under the pumpkin.  Totally a "Sarah" dish - I'll have to try recreating this at home!

Chopped salad with capers, radishes and celery

Brandade with aioli, boiled egg, steamed leeks and olive tapanade croutons

Mmm... just look at those perfectly boiled eggs!  I actually think this dish would make a good breakfast or brunch dish, if you can handle strong flavours in the morning.

Hazeldine chicken with a tuscan cabbage mash, bitter salad and roasted figs

The chicken was fabulous, very tender and moist, sitting atop a very creamy, buttery mash.  I like to think that the addition of Tuscan cabbage made it healthier. *Ahem*.

Smoky eggplant

I enjoyed the eggplant, but it was incredibly, incredibly smoky, so perhaps a bit confronting if you weren't expecting the smoky hit.

Prime Plains Paddock Lamb with tomato, white wine, Meredith Ash Chevre and zucchini

The lamb dish was my favourite of the night - I loved the chunky slices of rare lamb and the intensely flavoured jus!

Nashi pear, quinoa, green chilli and hazelnuts

The quinoa salad was, again, a "must try at home" dish.  I don't eat a lot of salads, but I do love the chunky meal-in-a-bowl type!

We also got to have a play with the app that night.  Despite being quite new, there were quite a few good restaurants who'd already signed up to the app: St Jude's Cellars (duh) and Flower Drum are both on board!  Having looked at the app over the subsequent few weeks, there always seems to be a good range of specials from a variety of restaurants: things like "25% off the total bill", discount cocktails, complimentary glass of wine and so on.  The restaurants themselves seem to be mainly casual dining (Groove Train, Richmond's Public House, Ghurkas Prahran), as well as some cafes and bars.

Yeah! I haz iPad2!

We finished off the night with a lovely plum and frangipane tart, served with a vanilla-flecked custard.

Ruby Plum Frangipane tart

Many thanks to Craig, Niv and the team from Spark Communications for a delicious, fun and informative evening!

Sarah and Sandra dined as guests of YumTable, with thanks to Craig Winkler, Niv Novak and Spark Communications for the invitation.

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DIY Coke Icee

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, there was only one flavor of Icee for me: the Coke Icee.  No cherry...and don't even get me started on the Blue Raspberry flavor.  It was Coke Icee or nothin'.

So, when I saw this recipe in the little booklet that came with my new ice cream maker, I had to try it.

You'll need: 4 cans of cold Coke and an ice cream maker.

Pour the cold Coke into the frozen bowl and process for about 20 minutes.

Have your glasses and straws ready.

Ta-da!  That's it!

Now, I think they might add a little something else to Icees, because it tastes close, but not exactly like the real thing.  But hey, Icees at home? I'll take it! 

{The little recipe booklet says you can make this with any soda, as long as it's not made with artificial sweeteners.}

So, if you're having people over for Memorial Day (or any day for that matter), give it a try.  I think I'm going to try Ginger Ale Icees next!

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Reality? NOPE!

It's been one heck of a week.

I'll have some news for you lovely ladies next week.  But I'm going to bath in the joy of a long weekend, wine, friends, glorious weather and a full DVR schedule with my pups right now.  :-)

And...I blame credit the fabulous Jessica Renee for pointing out awesomeness that is Bluntcard.

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Oatmeal Waffles with Burnt Butter Vanilla Apples

I love waffles!  And last Saturday I actually got up early enough to make a proper weekend breakfast!  I've been craving waffles since I read this post about oatmeal waffles on the lovely Sophia's blog.  Actually, let me correct myself - I constantly crave waffles, but after reading Sophia's post, I was craving oatmeal waffles! Hehehe.

The waffle recipe comes from allrecipes.com, and differs from a plain waffle dough in that it contains quick oats (I just whizzed some normal oats in the food processor), cinnamon and a bit of brown sugar.

Sophia served hers with blueberry flavoured maple syrup, but I was in the mood for something a bit fancier, so I sautéed some apple pieces in butter with some castor sugar and a scraped vanilla pod.  (Inspired by Nigella's recipe for sauteed apples with sweetheart croutes, from Nigella Express).  It also helped me to use up the 2 apples that had been sitting, unloved, on the kitchen counter for a good week.  Oops.

Ta-dah!

The dough was perfect for my waffle iron - yay.  You may remember that my waffle iron has deeper ridges than a normal one, and I've found that my standard Roux Brothers waffle recipe tends to leak out the side, rather than rising and filling the iron.  I once made plain waffles using the recipe from the instruction booklet, but they were way too doughy (and this is coming from a girl who LOVES dough and stodge!)  This recipe, however, was perfect.  The dough spread and rose to fill the waffle iron completely, without leaking - making beautifully square waffles with crispy edges.

I loved the wholesomness of the waffles, with their toothsome oaty pieces and cinnamon aroma.  A word of warning though - these waffles are very substantial, and just one waffle makes a big, filling breakfast.  

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More Muttis

That is Muttis' crispy-roast pork hock, served with apple sauce, house-made horseradish, mustard, and a caraway seed & dark beer jus.  Absolutely beautiful!

Muttis
118 Elgin Street
Carlton, 3053
Ph: (03) 9349 5008
Website

We took my parents to Muttis a couple of weeks ago to celebrate my Dad's birthday and welcome them both back from Japan.  They'd never been to Muttis before, and we thought they'd appreciate a tasty, hearty meal.  I absolutely adore Muttis, and I think they've gotten even better since my last visits!  They're certainly busier than I previously observed - on the Friday night we visited the dining room was pleasantly full and with a buzzing atmosphere. Yay!

We started with some beer, glühwein and pretzels.  (Being aware of the big portion sizes, I steered my parents away from ordering any entrees).  The pretzels were warmed and crispy - yum yum.

Schöfferhofer 300ml - $6.50; Gluhwein - $6.50

Pretzle - $4 each

Muttis does great spaetzle, and these little twirls of doughy goodness were swathed in a creamy veal mushroom sauce.  (Again, something else I need to learn how to make! I can already make schupfnudeln, so spaetzle shouldn't be too hard, right?)

Hungarian Veal Paprika – Slow braised, milk fed Veal, served with buttered Spätzle, forest mushrooms, broccoli and baby spinach - $27

One of two vegetarian options, the slow cooked baby pumpkin was an extremely generous serving: a whole baby pumpkin, stuffed with polenta and served with Paradeiser (AKA tomato) sauce, pumpkin seeds and rocket.

Slow cooked baby Pumpkin, served with lemon polenta, roasted baby tomatoes, Paradeiser sauce, salted pumpkin seeds and finished with Austrian cold pressed pumpkin seed oil - $25

My mum ordered this one, as she loves pumpkin (which you may remember from my Magshop post!)

It was delicious, but very filling - she only managed to eat about half.

And now - ta-dah! - I present to you the fabulous pork hock that my dad and I shared.

Crispy roasted free range Pork Hock, speck fried cabbage salad, Bratkartoffeln, mustard, horseradish and a caraway seed & dark beer jus (serves two) - $27 per person

The pork was perfectly done: juicy and tender flesh surrounded by crispy, crispy crackling.  (It totally puts my PORKTOBERFEST pork hock to shame.)  I really need to get Chef Thomas to teach me his recipe!

Apart from the sauces and condiments, the hock came with bratkartoffeln and a cabbage salad.

bratkartoffeln

The cubes of potato were crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, sprinkled with little pieces of bacon, and totally addictive.

speck-fried cabbage salad

Yet more bacon! Love it.  The cabbage salad had a sharply astringent dressing, and loads of chives and bacon for extra flavour.  It was a great contrast against the heavier meat and potatoes.

Plate of perfection

We also ordered a plate of rotkohl to share between the four of us - not that we needed any extra food, but everything tastes better with rotkohl!

Red wine braised cabbage - $8

Even between the two of us, we couldn't finish the pork hock (it would have easily fed three, in my opinion), so we actually doggy-bagged it home.  Ordinarily I wouldn't go the doggy-bag route, but the food was too good to leave behind!  And I actually made a wonderful soup with the leftover hock later in the week, so nothing went to waste.

The super-nice manager Ulrich happened to recognise me from my previous reviews, and came over to our table to say hi and have a chat.  Chef Thomas also came out to say hi, and shared a raspberry schnapps with my dad for his birthday. Prost!

We weren't intending to order dessert at all, but when Ulrich came to our table with three desserts for us to share (his shout!), well, we couldn't say no!  (Not that he would have had to twist my arm, hehehe).

Muttis Apple Strudel - served with crème chantilly - $12

Crunchy, warm, and full of apples.  Need I say more?

Sweet Pretzle served with Chantilly Cream & blueberry jam - $12

I generally wouldn't have thought to order a sweet pretzel, (I'm used to the plain salty ones), but this was truly fabulous.  Warmed up, and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, it was kind of like a bready doughnut, made even more delicious by the addition of cream and blueberry jam.

Eis Palatschinken - thin crepes served with a dark beer & chocolate sauce, vanilla bean ice cream and roasted almonds - $12

The final dessert, Eis Palatschinken, was my favourite of the night: thin crepes were wrapped around creamy vanilla ice-cream, covered in a beer-infused dark chocolate sauce and sprinkled with crunchy almond flakes.  The beer gave the chocolate sauce an intriguingly bitter edge, which tempered the sweetness of the dessert overall.

My dad loved the dinner - success!  I'm definitely looking forward to going back soon.  They're coming up with a new winter menu at the moment, which I'm sure will be great.  We saw a few tables having the special that will be on the new menu: a choucroute-style dish with sauerkraut, sausages, kassler, potatoes and more, served on a big platter.

I really think Muttis is a hugely underrated restaurant: the food is fabulous, hearty and well priced, and the service is great (even before Ulrich introduced himself).  Our waitress was really nice and very efficient, and we were never left searching for help - she was topping up waters, re-taking our drinks orders and clearing our plates before we even had to ask.

And a big thank-you to Ulrich and Thomas for the schnapps and desserts!

You can read about my previous visits to Muttis here and here.

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