Chocolate

Madelamingtons

26 January 2013

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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 fact, as a frequent baker and consumer of madeleines and lamingtons, I wonder how the idea of marrying these two cakes had never occurred to me.

It was precisely this recipe in Rachel Allen’s new book, Cake, which prompted me to buy the book. Not that I really needed a recipe – I could have used my go-to madeleine recipe and the chocolate icing from my lamington recipe. But the idea of the madelamington itself was so cute that I was sold on the book.

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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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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

4 September 2012 31 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 45 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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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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Very Good Chocolate Brownies

24 April 2012 45 comments
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They say that anyone can buy a good house, but good neighbours are priceless. We happen to be blessed with the most wonderful neighbours in our whole building. Ok, it’s a small building with only 5 tenants, but it is still a wonder that we love to get together regularly for dinner, with a new [...]

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Easter Nest Cake

9 April 2012 19 comments
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This is a cake which I love to make when we have guests over, and this extra-chocolatey version is a favourite at Easter. The recipe is based on the Chocolate Cloud Cake from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Bites which has the inclusion of Cointreau for a liqueur kick and is simply decorated with whipped cream and [...]

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Le Salon du Chocolat, Zürich

1 April 2012 16 comments
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The Salon du Chocolat is the world’s largest event dedicated to chocolate and this year was the first time the event came to Zurich, Switzerland. One of the organisers of the event was Kerrin Rousset of the delightful Swiss food and travel blog, My Kugelhopf. She and her colleagues did a fantastic job in introducing [...]

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Gooey Chocolate Cakes with Raspberries & Nutella

19 February 2012 46 comments
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I have a weak spot for any recipe which contains Nutella. Although it is a welcome comfort just on its own, spoon directly in the tub, I find it equally irresistible in baked goods. Take the Madeleines with Nutella, as an example. So when I saw this recipe for Gooey Chocolate Cakes with Raspberries and [...]

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Happy Australia Day! Lamingtons …

26 January 2012 22 comments
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Happy Australia Day! Although lamingtons have an iconic status in Australia and are enjoyed throughout the year, it seems rather fitting to make lamingtons for Australia Day. Lamingtons are quite popular at bake sales, and anyone growing up in Australia will know of the lamington drives, a fundraising event (usually in schools) where lamingtons would be sold by the [...]

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White Christmas with Pistachios & Dried Cranberries

23 November 2011 16 comments
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If you are a fan of white chocolate, you will love White Christmas. I’m not sure where this recipe originated from and how the name came about, but it is ridiculously easy to make and serves well as a sweet treat throughout the festive season, not to mention that they are great as Christmas gifts [...]

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Madeleines with Nutella

2 October 2011 24 comments
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I have a real soft spot for madeleines. It could be because I have very early memories of eating these dainty little cakes, their light sponginess making them the perfect snack for little hands. The madeleines of my childhood were always plain or lemon flavoured. These days, recipes abound with countless variations of flavours for [...]

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Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

28 September 2011 17 comments
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If you are looking for THE best ever cookie recipe, look no further. Be prepared to swoon once you try these. Any recipe which calls for a heart-stopping amount of chocolate (like 500 g) is certain to provide relief from whatever it is that is causing you to seek solace in something sweet. This particular recipe [...]

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