Dessert Lesson #1!

Hey guys! Its sweet treat time!

This week I started Dessert lessons!

Today I Made:

Pavalova with fruit decoration

Bakewell Tart

Eclairs (choux Pastry)

 This was my pavalova

This is the pavlova after it is cooked and cooled in the oven

and another decorated picture

I decorated my pavlova with:

Whipped Cream

Kiwifruit

Grapes

Melon

Orange Zest

Bakewell Tart

 I have never tried this tart before and I wasn't sure if I would like it or not because I thought it would have too much of a strong almond flavour but I was very surprised of the outcome and the almond flavour was not overpowering! It was delicious, and everyone else thought so too! :)

Raspberry Jam in the base on pastry filled case

Frangipane Filling

Case all filled ready to go into oven once I put the pastry top on!

All ready out of the oven! :)

Choux Pastry Eclairs!

I had never make Eclairs before - mainly because they looked so hard to make!
However I was very surprised on how easier they were!
These are definitely going to be made more often in my house :)

Hope you enjoyed this post and let me know if you would like recipes!

I really recommend making these desserts! They are all so yummy and easy to make :)

Pre-packed frozen smoothies!

Yesterday I was in an 'organizing' mood, haha.

I found an idea on pinterest of pre-packed smoothies that you can store in the freezer then get them out as you need them!

Sorry for the bad lighting of the picture, but I hope you will get the idea

My bags were filled with
#1
1 chopped banana
1 Kiwifruit
Greek unsweetened yogurt
LSA powder

#2
1 chopped banana
1 pear
cinnamon
Greek unsweetened yoghurt
Almond flakes
LSA powder

#3
1 chopped banana
1 pear
1 kiwifruit
1 apple
Greek unsweetened yogurt
LSA powder

#4
1 chopped banana
Peanut butter
cinnamon
Cacao powder


As you may be able to tell, i quite like banana in my smoothies :)

When I use these I will add milk to these. 

Give these a try for yourself and let me know how you go!

Comment below what you put in your smoothies :)

Brit :)

Here is Minnie (Glamour kitty today) Sleeping on my bed. The weather is wet and cold here today so she likes to hang out in my room with me since its cosy with the heater on :)

Dessert Competition!

Hey everyone!

Incase you didn't know, I'm a full time cookery student. This year I decided to enter in a competition like I did last year!

I entered the following categories:

-Chocolate Fantasty
-Decorated Gateaux
 

Chocolate Fantasy:
In this class the criteria was that it had to be atleast 50% chocolate.

I gave my dessert a theme of:
The 3 Elements : Earth, Air and Fire
Earth: Pistachio Macaroon filled with white chocolate rested on a pistachio crumble

Air: White Chocolate Panna Cotta with homemade lemon jelly

Fire: Dark Chocolate hazelnut tart

Looking at my dessert now, I regret my portion sizes - especially for the tart! But I'm learning from my mistakes :)

Decorated Gateaux

This had to be a decorated cake that had more than one layer

My layers were:
Base: Cocoa crumb base
Dark chocolate Hazelnut ganash
 Moist Chocolate Dream cake
Berry bavarois

These pictures were taken at about 1am in the morning when I had just finished decorating the cake - sorry for the bad lighting!

Let me know what you think! Just leave a comment :)

Brit :)

What's for dinner!? - Warm Pumpkin and Chickpea Curry

Warm Pumpkin and Chickpea Curry

This Curry is so easy and quick to make with very little ingredients!

Lately it has been getting pretty cold here! Autumn is here and winter feels like it is not long around the corner!

I have a few pumpkins so thought I would use some for dinner!
You can make this curry as hot or as mild as you like (in terms of spicy-ness)

What you will need :

About half a pumpkin (Roughly 1kg)
1 can chickpeas
2 T chopped Coriander
1 cup coconut milk
1 onion - diced
1T oil

1/2 cup curry sauce ( My one is not very hot which is why I used 1/2 cup, you may want to use 1-2T of yellow curry paste instead - depending on how hot you want it)

Rice:
1 cup long grain rice
1 onion - Diced finely
50g butter
2 cups white stock (I used vegetable)


How to:
Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Chop the pumpkin (Carefully!!) and peel skin off( i find using a peeler works great)
dice into cubes

Roast off in the oven for about 20-30min or until semi tender - Note that they don't need to be completely cooked through at the moment as they will be cooked later :)


While they are cooking we can cook off the rice
Place butter and onion in a small saucepan and sweat off.

Add the rice and coat the rice in the butter

Add the white stock
Cover with a lid and bring to a boil then simmer
This is cooked once the rice is soft to bite and has soaked up all the liquid.

Back to the curry!

Place oil and onion in a large saucepan and sweat off

Add the curry sauce, coconut milk, roasted pumpkin, chickpeas and coriander,

Cover with a lid on a high simmer for about 20 minutes

Finish with cracked pepper for seasoning.

Serve with rice and enjoy!

Brit :)