Easter baking: no bake Caramel Tim Tam cheesecake with toffee

April 13 2014
4 Comments

tim tam cheesecake
Tim Tams.  Are they available in lots of other countries other than Australia?  You’re missing out if they’re not!  Tim Tams have gotten me through many a break-up and Swotvac week in my teens and 20s and I’ll always be fond of them.  There are all sorts of fancy flavours these days but my favourite is the original chocolate.  That said, caramel Tim Tams were on sale at Woolies so I had to use those for my epic Easter cheesecake.

I’ve made a Tim Tam baked cheesecake before, although not posted on here; the top cracked and it looked sort of hideous but was so amazingly sweet and delicious I thought I’d give it another go, but instead made it a classic no-bake affair to makes things simpler.  You can use low fat cream and cream cheese in this obvs, but really, what would be the point?  It’s so delicious and fattening, you may as well enjoy it

And enjoy it you will.  An almost pure chocolate base, creamy, velvety filling with crunchy bits of caramel and chocolate biscuits throughout (you can really taste the Tim Tams).  Oh, and I did a fancy cheffy thing and made crunchy toffee shards for the top – they were really easy and look fabulous although I overcooked mine a bit as you can see.

I really hope somebody makes this for Easter because I don’t think it’ll disappoint!

Read more

Easter at Biome

April 11 2014
Leave a comment

So it’s Easter soon!  Chocolate and bunnies and all things delicious can be found from my sponsor Biome and some of my favourites are below (not a sponsored post at all, just some lovely things I thought people might like).  Just a reminder also that Biome is an ethical alternative for Easter, offering vegan and environmentally sound treats.

1. Chocolate gingerbread Easter bunny biscuit – egg free, all natural
2. Animal Hats knitting book
3. Banjo the Carob Bunny easter egg
4. Silicone chocolate mold
5. Loving Earth caramel raw vegan chocolate 100g
6. Fair trade chocolate organic Easter Bunny – milk
7. Fair trade Easter egg – organic milk chocolate
8. Alpaca Easter chicks in hats

 

Removable wallpaper (and a cool way to brighten up a kitchen splashback)

April 9 2014
2 Comments

Quite a few design blogs have been featuring removable wallpapers recently and I love this idea.  For renters, short term home owners, kids rooms, nurseries, or people who might be a bit fickle with their home décor tastes, this trend is not only a gorgeous way to brighten up your home but is also really practical.

Our two bedroom flat needs a new paint job yet neither of us can bring ourselves to do this just at the moment since we’re not planning on staying long-term.  Some pretty wallpaper might be just the thing, and might even be a selling point down the track.

I also found a really clever idea; printed film for kitchen splashbacks – you adhere your chosen print to reinforced glass and have it placed over your original splashback.  Since we’re looking at doing up our small kitchen as cheaply as possible, this seems like a brilliant idea and I’m seriously considering it;  here’s a how-to video.

Some of my favourite wallpapers I spotted around are as follows (click on the images to get to the original source):

All images belong to the original sources which can be seen by clicking on the images.

Creamy lemon strawberry macadamia crumb bars

April 6 2014
7 Comments

I spotted these lemon crème crumb bars from Cooking Classy via Pinterest the other day, and thought how delicious they looked (and sounded! There’s just something about the word crème).

This slice is really gorgeous.  A creamy, decadent filling with crunchy, sweet topping and a base which is reminiscent of ANZAC bikkies and also, so so easy to make.  It’s very hard to stop eating actually!  If you’re dieting while making these, all good intentions will fly out the window.

And as usual (#neverlearn) I took it out of the fridge before it was set properly because I didn’t want to wait before I took photos … or taste tested it.

You don’t absolutely need the strawberries, the slice would be just as wonderful without them however I had some leftover in the freezer and thought I’d throw them in; they added a lovely, fresh flavour and strawberry and lemon make a great pair anyway.

lemon cream bars

lemons

lemon cream bars5lemon cream bars

lemon cream bars

Read more

1980s playlist

April 5 2014
1 Comment

1980S PLAYLIST

The 80s!  The era of the power ballad, rock, girl bands, punk and pop music.  The era of sitting around endlessly discussing Morrissey, the Pixies and Joy Division with our mates but then going home and secretly dancing in our bedrooms to Wham! or pretending we were Whitney Houston or Madonna.  And who hasn’t sung along really super loudly to Bon Jovi while driving in the car?  Who’s with me people?!  Er, anyway, carry on.

And it wouldn’t be the 80s without our very own rockers Midnight Oil, ACA/DACA, Chrissy Amphlett and INXS.

Also, be aware that some songs might not be safe for work listening *cough*Violent Femmes, Dead Kennedys*cough*

See also my 1970s playlist!

Swedish meatballs

March 30 2014
4 Comments

swedish meatballs

I don’t know how Swedish these actually are so if anybody from Sweden is reading, apologies!  They are, though, creamy and flavourful and pretty easy to make however I will say, you need to use a non-stick pan to sauté meatballs (I always forget and they stick like crazy).  You could use any type of mince you like, beef, pork or chicken or even a mixture but I’ve been getting into delicately flavoured and textured minced turkey lately as it tastes great, is really versatile and healthy.

These meatballs are total comfort food; crispy and browned on the outside with subtly sweet all-spice flavour and a luscious, creamy sauce.  They’re great served with basmati rice but even better with fluffy mash – I just so happened to make some recently and it was a perfect pairing.

You could also slice off a decent piece of a baguette and use this as a filling for an epic meatball sandwich if that’s your thing.

swedish meatballs

Read more

Watercolour effect (Maverick & FotoSketcher)

March 29 2014
4 Comments

I’ve been suffering from app envy lately.

Let me just say, I have no desire to own an iPhone (or any kind of smart phone) ever, and love to make my own simple filters in Photoshop although ….. I do occasionally get jealous of some of the filters smart phone folks get to use.  I spotted the watercolour effect recently which I immediately loved, so Ant found two great online tutorials and filters for me (see the links below) which I had fun using today; the results are so pretty, you get to be far more creative than if you just used an app and also support those nice people who offer cool things for free online.

Maverick has a tutorial and filter for Photoshop users
FotoSketcher is an application you download to your computer, can have an icon on your desktop and there are heaps of styles and editing choices (drawing, watercolour, oil painting just for starters)

So here are some of my photos dressed up as watercolour paintings (not to detract from genuinely talented artists who paint proper paintings either, it’s just a bit of fun):

Happy Friday (let’s dance!)

March 28 2014
Leave a comment

Woop!  I’d love to go out dancing this weekend.  Hope everyone has a great one.

tumblr_n2skrbf7031qhub34o1_500

ed395850-951f-11e3-8033-193ee2c8ab26_Footloose-Nike

Images belong to:
The Summer of Love via: OAK
GIF of the movie Footloose, 1984, USA, via The Tonight Show
Summer Solstice via: Wikipedia
The movie Dirty Dancing, 1987, USA, Great American Films Limited
The movie Saturday Night Fever, 1977, USA, Robert Stigwood Organisation
The movie Flashdance, 1983, USA, Paramount Pictures
GIF of the movie Footloose, 1984, USA, via Yahoo
The movie Pulp Fiction, 1994, USA, Miramax Films