Cakes, Cookies & Desserts

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It has been roughly seven years since I made the bold decision to quit my job in Australia, electing to become unemployed and to take a chance at life on the other side of the world. At the time, it was one of the toughest decisions I had to make, not least because I couldn’t imagine how I could move for all of the personal possessions my twenty-something self had acquired.

I have never been one to travel lightly, so the idea of packing my life into one suitcase with a limit of 20 kg was going to be unlikely. I made my move from the land Down Under to the land of milk and honey with a half container full of cookbooks and treasured kitchen paraphernalia, all amassed during my years as a poor student and, later, a poor graduate with a ridiculously high student loan. What little spare income I had was inevitably spent at Wheel & Barrow on high-priced tableware, The Essential Ingredient for French-imported pots and pans, or even Country Road for their classy teatowels. I couldn’t imagine a future without my kitchenalia and I was prepared to pay whatever the cost to have them accompany me to my new homeland.

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Madelamingtons

26 January 2013 38 comments
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As an Australian married to a Frenchman, could there be a more perfect cake to represent the union of our two cultures than the madelamington, a French madeleine dressed up as an Australian lamington? No, I didn’t come up with this name, but I am rather disappointed that I didn’t coin this term myself. In [...]

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Chocolate Coconut Bars

22 January 2013 42 comments
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With Australia Day approaching, my thoughts have been turning to traditional Aussie cakes and pastries, and these Chocolate Coconut Bars are hard to go past. Perhaps these slices are not what one would think of eating on Australia Day (lamingtons are more common), but this classic recipe from the Australian Women’s Weekly is one which [...]

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Christmas Cupcakes to Celebrate Baby’s First Christmas

24 December 2012 39 comments
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My husband and I are delighted to announce the arrival of our first child, a healthy and bouncing little boy, in late November. He has inherited his mother’s love for sleep and eating, except, of course, his mother has been doing little of either in recent weeks In preparation for his arrival, I had lined [...]

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Apple and Walnut Cake

26 October 2012 38 comments
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Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of Irish cook, Rachel Allen. So when her new cookbook, Cake, was recently released, I promptly ordered it online and eagerly awaited its arrival in my mailbox. I did secretly wonder how it would compare to her other baking handbook, simply called Bake, which I [...]

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Scones with Strawberry Jam

21 September 2012 31 comments
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On a recent trip to London, I was reminded of my fond affection for Devonshire Tea, essentially a scone served with jam and cream. In fact, my desire for a daily scone fix made me brave enough to venture into a café on my lonesome most afternoons, just so I could sit down to a [...]

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

4 September 2012 32 comments
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In my last post, I was complaining about the bout of hot weather which we have had recently in Zurich. It seems that the weather has now turned too soon and summer has somehow disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. For all of my complaining, I miss those breezeless afternoons spent on the balcony, [...]

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Old-Fashioned Tomboy Cake

16 August 2012 46 comments
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I recently offered to help out at a kid’s birthday party and somehow ended up with the task of making the actual birthday cake. My first thought was to make Nigella Lawson’s Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake, a simple two-tiered chocolate cake covered in a thick, chocolate frosting with maybe some (shop-bought) sugar flowers for decoration. Simple. [...]

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Lemon-Syrup Loaf Cake

8 August 2012 57 comments
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Having been glued to the screen the last few months watching MasterChef Australia, I’m not sure if I should be relieved or depressed that the show is now finished. What am I going to do with all of this time now?? It is strange that, whenever I become engrossed in a TV cooking show, I [...]

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Apple Crumble Tea Cake

29 July 2012 39 comments
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I have a terrible weakness for cooking magazines. Even when I left Australia and moved to Switzerland, I couldn’t bear to give up my monthly fix of Donna Hay, Delicious and Gourmet Traveller magazines that I was prepared to sacrifice a portion of my salary to fund an overseas subscription to all three magazines (at [...]

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Twin Peaks Cherry Pie

22 July 2012 50 comments
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To me, nothing sounds more American than a cherry pie. If you have read the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich, you will no doubt be familiar with (if not envious of) Stephanie’s calorie-infused, sugar-laden diet. This bounty-hunter’s voracious appetite spans from savoury delights like Popeye’s spicy fried chicken and biscuits to an endless array [...]

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Tahini & Almond Cookies

11 July 2012 53 comments
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I was first introduced to these cookies by my work colleagues who travelled frequently to Israel to visit their friends and family. On one occasion, one colleague returned with a box of these moreish cookies to share in the office, and I was instantly hooked. To say that I helped myself to more than my [...]

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1st Blog Anniversary!

20 June 2012 77 comments
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Wow! eat, little bird is 1 year old! It is rather incredible to believe that, only one year ago, did I embark on this blogging adventure, extending my forays into the world of food by embracing new technology (WordPress, CSS and html coding were not part of my skill-set prior to the last 12 months), embracing [...]

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Rhubarb, Strawberry & Raspberry Crumble

30 May 2012 26 comments
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I think a fruit crumble would have to be my favourite dessert of all time. A simple apple crumble was one of the first things I learnt how to make in my cooking classes at school and I have fond memories of recreating this dish as a young child, faithfully following the recipe in my [...]

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