Week 15 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Muffins. I decided to try and make muffins with ingredients I already had in the house because I couldn’t be bothered going to the shops. I therefore didn’t have a lot of choice in what recipe to use, so went with carrot and coconut muffins from my Marie Claire Comfort book. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease 12 holes of a standard muffin tin...

Week 13 of the Cookbook Challenge, the theme is Love. Love for me is a good chocolate cake, I tried out a recipe from a cookbook called Sweet Treats. Ingredients: 250g dark chocolate, chopped 225g unsalted butter 1/2 cup sugar 2 tbsp brandy or orange liqueur 5 eggs 1 tbsp plain flour (I used almond meal) icing sugar for dusting I also added some grated orange zest Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease a...

Week 12 of the Cookbook Challenge, the theme is Eggs. One of my favourite foods, they can be so healthy and can also be so naughty…this recipe is a naughty one. Zabaglione is one of my favourite indulgences – this is however the first time I’ve ever attempted making it properly. In the 1980s there used to be a lot of gelatarias that made Zabaglione gelati and now it’s so hard to find…am...

Week 9 of the Cookbook Challenge with a theme of Berry. I went with a very imaginative Berry Crumble from one of my Christmas presents, a book that I have been eyeing off since it came out – Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion – half cook book half gardening book. Now I just need to get a place with a garden! Ingredients 50g unsalted butter 400g rasberries, blackberries, mulberries...

I think I need to change how I choose my recipes – I tend to choose things that look pretty easy enough but end up being a lot more complicated and as a result, never look anything like what they are supposed to! This was one of those recipes. Week 8 of the Cookbook Challenge had the theme of Sweet so I turned to one of my Christmas presents, Movida Rustica, which is full of beautiful Spanish recipes....

Week 7 of the Cookbook Challenge – the theme is ‘Soft’ and the first thing that came to mind were souffles. I consulted my encyclopedia of French cooking that I have had on my shelf for over 10 years now and I can count on one hand how many times I’ve cooked a recipe from it! Ingredients 175g plain chocolate, chopped 150g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, cut in small pieces 4 large eggs, seperated 30ml...

Week 6 in the Cookbook Challenge and I’m quite late in posting this review! I’ve been on holidays for the past 2 weeks. The theme for week 6 was ‘Christmas’…Christmas seems like such a long time ago… I decided to attempt a Chocolate Fudge Swiss Roll from one of my favourite cake cookbooks, Gorgeous Cakes, with a slight adaptation when the roll didn’t quite look like...

This weekend was a long weekend in Melbourne (for lucky people who took Monday off) so naturally there needed to be some desert making involved…I decided to make some creme caramel. Ingredients For the caramel: 2/3 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup water For the creme: 2/3 cup milk 3/4 cup cream 2 eggs (whole) 4 more egg yolks 1/3 cup caster sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees...

I love almond shortbread (also known as Greek Shortbread, but most other European cultures also have a version of this recipe) but I’ve never tried making them gluten free. At the gluten free show there was a stand promoting Lupin Flour and they had some shortbread – it was divine so I’ll have to give it a go. Below is the recipe from Irwin Valley Lupin Flour and you can order the flour online,...

Mmmmm…fudge – one of the most decadent and naughtiest things you can make, but it tastes so so so good! This recipe is really easy and can be adapted to include pretty much whatever flavour you want – whatever type of chocolate, you can add your favourite flavouring or alcohol to make it a bit different. Ingredients: 100g unsalted butter 1 and 1/4 cups brown sugar 400g condensed milk 100g dark...