Just a quick post. It does seem like I have neglected this blog, but quite honestly, I haven’t. I’m working behind the scenes to re-develop and re-launch into something bigger and better.
So please, bear with me and stay tuned. Melonqueen.com will be getting better and the proper love it deserves 
<3 MQ
Wow, so who would have thought a year later I’d still be making cakes? Normally my hobbies falter and fade after a while, but the cakes are still going strong! So I decided to put myself through the stresses of the Royal Show again this year and enter 2 cakes. Very luckily, I had plenty of annual leave and took the week off to work on them! The results have since come out, and neither of the cakes placed, but I was extremely proud of how the came out. I feel like I have come a long way in the last year, since I made my first ever decorated cake which was also a show entry (the Ms Pacman cake).
Entry #1 - Novice Novelty Cake Category - iPhone 4 cake
Entry #2 - Novice Birthday/Anniversary Cake Category - Super Mario Themed Birthday Cake
For larger and extra detail pics, visit My Flickr.
<3MQ
As you can probably guess, it has been a big weekend in the kitchen for me! I’m trying to take that extra step and spend more time experimenting with different foods in the kitchen. And it’s not just sweets that I’m playing with, but expanding my knowledge of savoury foods, too.
About two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to meet and cook with Jimmy Seervai from MasterChef season 2 at Coles The Glen. While there, he had pita bread recipes using his own brand of flour. Arta Wholemeal Atta Flour is made using 100% Australian whole wheat, which means it is better for you than plain white flour.
Today I gave Jimmy’s pita bread a go. First time making a bread outside of what I’ve made at Coles, and definitely first time making a flat bread. Follow my journey with atta pita bread…
First off, started prepping the yeast. Added dry yeast to lukewarm water and stirred until it appeared creamy (lukewarm water of course being ideal to activate the yeast and get it ‘growing’):
Then mixed olive oil, honey, atta flour, more water and the yeasted water together in a bowl and let it sit covered for 20mins:
After 20mins, turned the dough out and added salt:
Then spent a lovely 10mins working out by kneading the dough:
Then popped it into the bowl and let it sit until it doubled (comparison photos):
Once the dough had doubled, I then divided it into 8 balls and let it sit under a damp tea towel for another half hour:
Once the dough had rested for that final time, I then took each individual ball and using my trusty wooden rolling pin, rolled it out flat:
Now, Jimmy’s recipe calls for cooking on a baking stone in the oven. I don’t own a baking stone, so I just used my grill tray. It also said 260C for 5mins, but my oven only goes up to 250 
But, even taking that into account, the 5 minute baking time was dead on. It was amazing to sit there and watch the bread puff up in the oven!
So going with the Indian theme, I served up the pita with Outback Spirit’s Mango and Native Mint Chutney
Great, simple recipe with delicious results. As I was eating it warm, I was actually thinking that it would taste nice with some garlic butter melting into it, which I might try next time I make it.
Atta Flour Pita Recipe
Follow Jimmy on Twitter @Jimmys_SpiceK
Get updates about Arta Flour on Twitter @ArtaFlour
Or follow me on Twitter @melonqueen
<3 MQ
On Friday, I put a call out on Twitter for ideas of something I could make this weekend. @ameltoe came up with the idea of making a Key Lime Pie, inspired by Dexter. Seeing as I had just gotten my hands on a whole bunch of limes, I went with it!
Key Lime Pie is a quite popular American recipe, and is named after the key limes that are widley available in the Florida Keys. Key Limes aren’t too easy to find in Australia (at least I’ve never really spotted them!), but there are plenty of variations on the recipe using regular limes. I picked up a recipe on Taste.com.au which seemed really easy and yummy!
First up, I had to blitz the Granita biscuits in the processor to a fine crumb. I really love using my Sunbeam StickMaster Plus for this. As you can see from the photo, it’s really great at annihilating biscuits into crumb!
Then came the addition of ground almond, sugar and butter, which was then blitzed with the crumb to created the biscuit base:
The base is then pressed into a 20cm springform pan along the bottom and 3cm up the sides. I was quite happy with my biscuit base, considering I’d never made one before!
The base is then placed in the fridge while making the filling. The filling itself consists of egg, cream, condensed milk, lime zest and lime juice. My arms were a bit sore after zesting and juicing 4 limes! And I really need to remember to wear gloves while doing that, I can have dry and cracked skin sometimes and the citrus juice does nothing to help that! The mixture before and after mixing:
This is a really good time to stick your (clean!) finger in and taste the mixture. I just melted over the gorgeous and refreshing citrus flavours. Pour the filling in the crust.
Bake at 170C for 40-45mins or until the filling feels set. Once cooled, I garnished mine with lime slices and some extra lime zest.
This was so yummy! Next time, I’ll probably eat it with a bit of whipped cream on the side. The flavours were just so refreshing and it was a light dessert. I am such a big fan of citrus!
Key Lime Pie Recipe on Taste.com.au
Follow me on Twitter! @melonqueen
<3 MQ
I come from an Italian background on my mum’s side. In fact, although I was born in Adelaide, I was born with a dual Australian and Italian citizenship because my mum was born in Italy. So quite often, I feel I want to add a twist of traditional Italian into my cooking. Most of it comes from the way Nonna makes things, and I have her pasta and gnocchi recipes handwritten in the box with the ravioli set she gave me.
So one thing most Italian kids growing up in Adelaide would know is St George’s Cakes & Gelati. Known over the city for supplying beautiful continental pastries like cannoli, rum babas, naps, eclairs and many more. It was always great to finish up my shift on a Saturday at my local Coles and stock up on these pastries for $1.00 each and take a whole assortment home to share with my family.
Since moving to Melbourne, I haven’t been able to find a decent cannoli that makes me melt the way St George’s in Adelaide do. I may just be living in the wrong areas (Glen Waverley and Bayswater aren’t exactly European-centric suburbs), plus I have had friends who live more out Greensborough, Coburg, Carlton way tell me of great places out there, but who wants to fight Melbourne traffic on a Saturday just for a cannoli? So I decided I need to make my own one day.
One day finally came last week when my copy of Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia by Buddy Valastro arrived in the mail. Written by the famous boss of Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, NJ and star of the show Cake Boss, this book is not only the story of how Carlo’s Bakery came to be the booming business it is today, but is also packed full of recipes from the bakery. The first thing to catch my eye was the cannoli recipe. Actually, I lie. The first was the lobster tail recipe, but probably not the best recipe for a home baker. One big thing I noticed was that this is a ricotta filled cannoli recipe, not a custard, like I am used to. But that’s ok. Different regions of Italy produce their own variations on traditional recipes. This recipe can be traced back to his great-grandfather’s bakery in Sicily.
Now, without further delay, I present my very first cannoli making experience:
First up came making the dough. Was my first time using the dough hook attachment on my Breville BEM800 mixer, so that just added to the excitement for me (yes, food geek!). The dough was quite simple and had a 1/4 tsp cinnamon in it, which added to thhe flavour and aroma:
After the mixing, the dough had to be wrapped and left to rest at room temperature. According to the book, this allowed the dough to soften and make it less elastic:
To make the dough a uniform thickness, Buddy recommends using a pasta machina on the thickest setting (1). This is how I did it, but feedback from my mum is that the shell was a bit thick, so I might take it down to 2 or 3 next time I make it (we are quite used to a thinner, lighter pastry shell). I also cut the circles using a 4 inch round cutter:
I then wrapped the dough around the cannoli tubes (I got mine from House for $4.99 for a set of 4) and brushed a bit on egg on the ends to stick them together:
While all this was going on, I had my vegetable shortening heating in a pot. Buddy recommends using lard, but being a vegetarian, I opted for the vegetable shortening. I used 3 blocks of Frymasta, heated to 375F.
I fried two at a time. Buddy gives a frying time of 10 minutes, but I found this was definitely way too long, and was part of the reason my first 4 shells came out a bit dark. I ended up only really needing a couple of minutes. I made sure I used my slotted spoon to keep the cannoli moving a bit in the pot, because I did find that if they sat in one place too long, they would burn (but also part of that could have been over frying as well). When taking out of the pot, I placed the shells on a plate lined with paper towel to drain the oil.
Before frying:
After frying:
With the shells done, it was time to focus on the filling. I had just bought the normal full fat ricotta from the supermarket and via research online had discovered that it can be too wet and can make the shells go soggy. I therefore wrapped it in muslin, sat it in a sieve and left it over a bowl in the fridge overnight to strain the juices:
In the morning, the ricotta was noticeably drier. You won’t find a whole heap of liquid in the bowl, but the muslin was very wet, and when squeezed, liquid would drip down.
From then on, it was quite easy to make the filling, which involved chucking the ricotta, sugar, cinnamon in the mixer, then adding the choc chips once it was all mixed.
Using a #13 star tip, I piped the filling into the shells then dusted with pure icing sugar. I think these are perfect served with a short black!
Useful links:
Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia can be purchased here.
More info on St George’s Cakes can be found here.
My Flickr.
Until next time!
<3 MQ
So unless you’ve been living in a cage, you would most likely know that macaroons are an ‘in’ thing in the food world at the moment. No doubt the popularity was spurred by Adriano Zumbo’s macaroon tower challenge on the 2010 season of Australian MasterChef, which is a fantastic example of how MasterChef is able to set food trends in Australia today. I’ve had a few people ask me if I know how to make macaroons, but until today I’d never made one in my life. In fact, I’d never even eaten one. But I decided the time was right to give them a go, because I don’t have any cakes until July now and I was missing spending time in the kitchen baking. So I’ve documented my afternoon in the kitchen making Black Forest Macaroons!e
So this is the book that I picked up to help me along the way. Macaron by Alison Thompson. It has some absolutely gorgeous sounding recipes in there and I can’t wait to try more later on down the track:
The other thing I needed to get started was some new trays. While I did have Wiltshire trays, I have since passed them on to my mother because I found they just didn’t fit in the oven in the townhouse I’m currently renting. So until now, I have been using the griller tray for cookies. I was at the Melbourne Good Food and Wine Show yesterday and stumbled upon these while at the The General Trader stall. Wilton Recipe Right trays, $8.99ea:
And then of course, ingredients, all ready to go! First time using vanilla pods for me:
Bev, my Breville BEM800 Planetary Wizz Mixer, whipping up the egg whites:
Chocolate macaroon batter:
Batter after piping. They then sat for 2 hours to develop the skin necessary to get the ‘feet’ on the bottom of the macaroon:
Another first for me. I’d never made a sugar syrup before, but the recipe for the cherry buttercream called for it to be added to the mixture. I do think I ended up leaving it on the stove slightly too long because it as I was pouring it into the mixing bowl, it seem to turn to toffee…
And while making the buttercream, the shells were baking nicely in the oven:
Cherry buttercream. Probably one of the smoothest buttercreams I have ever made, and very unlike any buttercream recipe I have ever followed! This one had sugar syrup, egg yolks, vanilla seeds… But it was divine!
And the shells once they came out the oven. Once they cooled, I noticed they wrinkled slightly on top, so they could have gone with 15 minutes in the oven, instead of the 12 I had them in for (the recipe called for 10-12, and having never had a macaroon in my life and knowing they were meant to be chewy, I wasn’t 100% of how firm they were meant to be!):
And the finished product:
They ended up being very yummy, albeit a bit softer than they should have been. I will be trying more flavours in the future, just as something to add to my repertoire. I didn’t actually find them too difficult to make, because I have been hearing rumours about how it’s really difficult to get the ‘perfect’ macaroon. I honestly think the only problems I really had were taking them out of the oven too soon and boiling my sugar syrup slightly too long. I’m sure the next round will be a lot more successful! I think maybe people might just get a bit impatient and not let the batter set on the tray long enough and develop that skin that is such an integral part to having those ‘feet’ on the bottom of the shells.
Also because I realised I hadn’t posted them yet, my last two cakes:
Wonder Woman cake (my cake for my 24th birthday, 6″ red velvet with white chocolate ganache and 9″ caramel mud with dark chocolate ganache)
Holden Commodore VE SS cake (dark chocolate mud with dark chocolate ganache)
As always, more/full size pictures on My Flickr
Until I next have adventures in my kitchen,
Happy Eating!
<3MQ
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, it’s about 6C outside right now… But inside it’s a toasty 23.5C thanks to the ducted heating! Keep warm this winter
<3 MQ
Made this one for my mate Kylie’s birthday. Managed to get it done in two nights, including baking, ganaching and making all the gerberas.
Cake is dark chocolate mud with dark chocolate ganache. Decorations are made from gumpaste, and the bow and gerberas were dusted with various luster and shimmer dusts.
More pictures on my Flickr
<3 MQ
So I’ve had a bit of a busy last month or so with cakes. And as promised, here they are!
First up is the Sexy Builder cake for a joint 28th birthday. It’s a variation on a Debbie Brown design, and I thought that the builbers looked a bit more Bob than sexy. Having said that though, in general I was happy with it and the two girls were too! Cake is dark chocolate mud with dark chocolate ganache:
Next is a Poker cake I made for a friend’s birthday. The cake is like a poker table, with a woodgrain exterior and green velvet top, poker chips, cards, a cigar, glass of port and a figurine of my mate holding a microphone (karaoke). Cake is dark chocolate mud with dark chocolate ganache:
I did my first engagement as well. 110 mini cupcakes, 55 of them with white buttercream swirls, 55 of them with fondant discs with the initials of the couple getting engaged. Cupcake flavour is white chocolate and raspberry mud:
Last up is a two tier Irish/Aussie 40th birthday cake. The design is to show the Irish patriotism in the birthday boy, but also the fact he is very Aussie as well. Top tier is 6″ white chocolate mud with white chocolate ganache and bottom tier is 9″ Baileys mud with Baileys ganache.
I just have to share this too. This is a fondant figurine of Mario I made for my cousin’s 8th birthday cake. I had to take it to Adelaide, so I didn’t make the cake it went on, but the figurine was my contribution.
And here he is with the Cyndaquil (Pokemon) figurine I made for the cake as well:
More cakes coming up in the next month or so, including my own birthday cake towards the end of May!
More photos of these cakes are on my Flickr
<3 MQ
Here is my recent cake!
Lightning McQueen from the movies Cars, made for a workmate’s son’s 3rd birthday.
Cake is butter cake with white chocolate ganache.
I used this tutorial to help me carve the cake.
This cake also had a couple of firsts for me… First time using Satin Ice fondant, which I used for the red, and first time using Wilton Color Mist, which I used to deepen the red a bit and I used orange to create the fading effect on the numbers and lightning.
Check out all the pics on my Flickr
<3 MQ