The Pavlova

The legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova inspired this dessert when she visited New Zealand in the 1930’s. The billowing, soft centred meringue was created to imitate the shape and lightness of hr white tutu. The dessert was named in her honour pavlova.

Tips on how to make the perfect meringue:

·         Always use a glass, metal or ceramic – plastic ones often retain grease.

·         Before you start, wash and dry the bowl and the whisk thoroughly to remove every trace of grease.

·         Make sure you remove every speck of egg yolk and shell from the egg whites or they won’t whisk up into a large volume of foam.

·         It’s important to get the stiffness right – under whipped or over whipped meringue  can result in heavy, soggy centres and weeping cases.

·         Don’t leave meringue standing around long before you cook it – the mixture will start to separate.

·         The lower the oven temperature, the whiter the meringue. For best results set oven at 110°C.

To get a pavlova recipe follow the following link:

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Pavlova-L428.html

 

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The Buttermilk rusks fiasco

My boyfriend love’s buttermilk rusks! So two weeks ago I decided that he deserved a nice treat. After getting his mother’s recipe for buttermilk rusks, I head to the shops to get all the ingredient that I would need.

It was as if something was out to get me that day. To make buttermilk rusks you need 4 eggs. The seconded egg I broke an added to the milk mixer was rotten. The smell that came out of the rotten egg was nauseating. This al meant that I had to start all over again. I was not impressed with myself, every baker knows that when you use eggs you first break it in to a bowl and then you added it to your baking mixer.

The seconded bump in the road was that the rusk’s had burned at the bottom. This was due to the fact that the oven I used is one of those mini ones that look like a microwave oven. So I had to cut the bottom bit of the rusks before I could cut the rusks into bit size piece.

The oven is so small that I had to dry the rusk’s out in two batches. The first batch I dried out over night in a 90⁰C and a open oven door. It dried out perfectly. With the seconded batch I was not so lucky. After putting it in the oven at 90⁰C and leaving the door open.

My boyfriend thought that the oven was to low so he turned the oven up to 200⁰C and closed the door. I don’t have to tell you what happened next. Needless to say I won’t be baking rusks any time soon again. Too much went wrong the first time.

This is how the oven looks like that I used to bake the rusks:

Mad about the cupcake

Many moons ago I was surfing the internet looking for new and more adventures cupcake recipes. I was bored with my more traditional way of preparing cupcakes. Let me tell you there are some very interesting one’s out there.  I found recipes for all sorts of cupcakes, from mouth watering dark chocolate cupcakes to rich cinnamon and honey cakes that melt in the mouth. 

You must know not all of the recipes sounded so inviting to eat. There was a handful that sounded like a true “Hilda form 7 de laan” concoctions. Just the idée of baking them made my stomach turn the wrong way. The most horrific recipe that I found was one for a burning hot wasabi and caramel cupcakes.  I mean really who would eat that?

So when I finally found one that blew me out water. I could not wait for the weekend to bake and try out my new recipe. It was as if I was waiting for my birthday to come. My whole body was filled with anticipation.

After what felt like ages it was weekend and let me tell you this recipe was definitely worth the wait. It was the most delicious banana cupcake ever. Nice and damp and good to eat.

I uploaded a few pictures that I founded on Google to inspire you to bake some cupcakes. The first and last pictures are examples of banana cupcakes. The link is to the recipe that I used and trust me it really is the best thing since popcorn. :)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-cupcakes/

This is me

I am a 21 year old 3 de year education student and when I got this assignment to start my own blog. My first thought was; “What nonsense are they giving us do to! It is a total waste of time. I have better things to do with my time.” Luckily after completing my mind map about blogging a became to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Blogging when done right can be great and fun tool of communication between you and your learner in your classroom one day.

Now you may think way does a student studying to become a teacher start a blog about baking simply because it is my second passion in life.  When I was in primary school I used to love eating any kind of food. I just could not stop eating. Whenever I felt sad, worried or stressed I would run to the baked goods and stuff my face. So as you can imagine I was quite a porky when I was young.

My whole world came crashing down when puberty hid me at age 13. Being ft was just not going to work anymore. I decided that thing had to change. I had to lose the extra eight and I did after some time at past. I converted my love for food into a love for baking. So now when I am worried, sad or just feeling down instead of eating a grap my cook books and start baking. Truth be told it really makes me feel better and it is so much better for my waist line. Baking makes me truly happy.

My blog will be about sharing my passion for baking plus a few handy tips to create some heavenly  treats yourself.