citrus – A True Love of Mine

New Year, Old Friends: Gin Fizz

None of what i’m about to say is ground breaking, but, consider it a hazard of the change of year. On reflection on 2014, I realise that old friends are the best. New friends are great, but its not until you reach a critical mass of late night talks, boozy weekends (or inappropriately boozy work nights) boyfriend discussions, disproportionately calorific brunches and weirdo text messages that you realise – even though as adults we see each other much less often, if I never saw this person again in my whole life, everything would just be that little bit less sparkly and a tiny bit colder.

In 2014 I got married (more about that later I promise!) and I was blessed to be accompanied down the aisle by my mum, my sister, my oldest friend, and my closest friend. These are women who have seen every side of me and still answer the phone when I call. Thank god! These women have seen me through every stage of my life and to be frank but cliched, I don’t know what I would have done without them. As time (years) and distance (sometimes states, sometimes whole continents) tries to move us apart, there seems to be a whole history of love and midnight giggles shared that cant be broken. Again, thank god.

So, to bring the soul searching and nostalgia back to a relevant point, when I was trying to think of a post to mark the new year I wanted to blog about a cocktail. I have been making so many over the year that I felt I had a plethora still to post about. None of the sparkly new concoctions seemed to fit as well as the old favourite – Gin Fizz. This baby is so refreshing and uses pantry staples so I feel as though she is steadfast and a little bit classy, a little bubbly and sweet but with a bite. If I could mix all these women into one drink, I think the Gin Fizz would be an apt one.

Another good friend gave me this little zester to aid in my cocktail making – and remind me of a timely lesson about lemons and cocktails… or is it supposed to be lemonade?

This was another brief post but one to pay a small tribute to the fabulous women in my life as I reflect on the year thats been and think about the year that is to come. I hope that they will forgive me for putting this final picture up to round out this post. Another thing i’ve learned over the years is that its better to ask forgiveness than permission! Oops!

Love these ladies <3

Gin Fizz Ingredients

2 oz dry gin

1/2 oz lemon juice

1tsp sugar

4 oz soda water

2 lemon slices to garnish

ice

Method

1. put ice, gin, lemon juice and sugar in a cocktail shaker and shake until sugar is dissolved

2. pour mix into a tall glass

3. top with ice, soda water and lemon slices

4. sit back in your silk pjamas and pretend you’re in an old hollywood film

An even better Lime Syrup Cake

So I am a little obsessed with limes. And when they get made into delicious things like…

lime syrup cakes

can you blame me? Now if you’re feeling like you’ve got a bit of deja vu, then you wouldn’t be too far off. I did post the CWA Lime Cake way back in 2010 when I began this blog. But with the second birthday of this little blog of mine swinging round, I thought i’d bring back my old favourite but with a little delicious tweak.

I saw this recipe on the beautiful Kiki’s blog after i’d scored a bag of limes ridiculously cheaply. Apart from making a Key Lime Pie and some watermelon, lychee and lime cocktails, Lime Syrup Cake was the perfect way to use these babies up. And the Women’s Weekly recipe that Kiki used intrigued me with its addition of ricotta. What I love about the CWA recipe is the beautiful light buttery texture of the cake as well as the lovely limey syrup left at the bottom. This recipe is much more dense but infinitely soft and oh-so-lime-syrupy!

I used Greek Style Yoghurt instead of ricotta because I couldn’t get my lazy ass to the shops to buy some. Oops.

But look at the cute tea cosy behind it!

If you’re currently suffering from the chilly turn in Sydney, I’m sure this hot, fresh out of the oven cake will warm you up

The super moistness and limeness of this cake comes from a little lime in the batter but mostly the lime syrup trickled over the top while it is still warm.

I recently discovered Weis Vanilla Bean Icecream. This has to be hands down the best vanilla ice-cream i’ve had so far. A few scoops of this baby cuts through the lime if you’re not such a fan of the sour.

mmmmmmmmmmmm

and an action shot, just so you can feel jealous. But better than feeling jealous, you can go get some limes and make this freakin cake! You won’t be disappointed!

So, my lovelies, do you love limes? And what do you like to eat to keep away these winter chills that are currently invading Sydney?

Lime Syrup Cake – Adapted from The Australian Women’s Weekly

Cake Ingredients

200g butter

1 tablespoon lime zest

1 cup (220g) caster sugar

3 eggs, separated

250g greek yoghurt

1/2 cup (125ml) milk

1 1/2 cups (225g) self raising flour

Syrup Ingredients

1/3 cup (80ml) lime juice

1/4 cup (60ml) water

2/3 cup caster sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180deg (160deg if fan forced). Grease a 20cm bundt pan well with extra melted butter.

1. Beat butter, rind and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy

2. Beat in egg yolks, yoghurt and milk

3. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in sifted flour.

4. Beat egg whites in a small bowl until soft peaks form

5. Fold into batter in two batches then pour into a greased 20cm bundt pan. Bake on 160 degrees for 40-50 mins. Check regularly as mine was truly cooked by then

6. Turn cake out onto a wire rack and cool for 5 mins before covering in syrup

Lime Syrup Method

1. During the last 10 mins of the cake baking, begin making your syrup

2. Stir the lime juice, water and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil.

3. Boil uncovered for 10 mins, keeping a careful eye on it! Don’t let it caramelise! In the mean time, stab your cake all over it’s surface with a skewer to help the syrup absorb

4. When the syrup has thickened a little, take the pan off the heat and pour gently over your cake.

Edible Christmas Gifts: Wicked Chocolate Orange Cookies

So i’m a twit.

Yes, I hear you saying “but Katie, we already knew that”. But did you know that im also the other kind of twit?

Thats right peeps, i’ve jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and you can follow me by clicking on the little button in the sidebar to the right or by following @atrueloveofmine

Im not a big fan of social media. Never have been. I resisted facebook until it became absolutely necessary to get an account and I have always been vocal about my dislike for twitter. But, things change and after some gentle nudging from friends at work (thanks guys!) I decided to dip my toe in the twitter pool. And I was not disappointed! As well as broadening my horizons and perspective, twitter is also responsible for broadening my waistline with a plethora of delicious recipes appearing regularly in my feed. One by the lovely Jennifer at Delicieux that particularly caught my eye was that for Wicked Chocolate Orange Cookies.

I had to go to an impromptu evening meeting where I needed to bring a plate of food. And I was really hungry. A cake was out because I wouldn’t be able to sneak a piece without anybody noticing, but cookies? These ones sounded like just the ticket. A very easy, straightforward and decadently chocolaty recipe, these babies turned out so well that I knocked up another batch a few weeks later to give as christmas gifts.

And it allowed me to vent my stress and frustration accumulated during the year

Chop chop!

While the final product looked suspiciously like many other cookies i’ve made before such as Nigella Lawson’s Ultimate Chocolate Cookie, the difference was in the delicious orange that permeated.

Are there any flavours in the world that go together as well as chocolate and orange? I highly doubt it! And if there are, please send your suggestions my way!

So, while it is extremely tempting to keep all the delicious cookies for yourself, in the spirit of the season these make excellent christmas gifts. Wrap them up in some cellophane or a small box and someone will love you forever!

You can find the recipe here at Delicieux

So, my lovelies, can you suggest any other whiz bang flavour combos to try? I’m much more of a sweets person (clearly!) but am open to savoury suggestions as well.

And before you go, have you entered the Christmas Giveaway yet? Entries close on Monday so you really should get your skates on!

Australian Pavlova Blog Hop: Chocolate M&M Pav Sundae with Orange Cream

I’m not afraid to say that i’m an ideas-woman. I have killer ideas. Ideas for TV shows, ideas for books, ideas for outfits, ideas for travel, mostly ideas for food. Perhaps I just have an overactive imagination? Anyway, with this gift also comes a curse. I’m not really what you would call a do-er. I never finish things. I rarely get things done. I see deadlines whoosh past me. Which is why, despite the best of intentions, when I heard about the Australian Pavlova Blog Hop on twitter (yes, i’m now a twit) deep down I knew I wasn’t going to make the deadline. But, im also not a quitter so when I made up my mind to make this Chocolate M&M Pav Sundae, even though it would end up being a week late, I knew I was going to get around to it.

Ok, so it isn’t the prettiest dessert but boy was it yummy!

There were lots of recipes floating around (including a particularly spacey Tardis Pav recipe by Mel from Crunchy Tiger) but I thought I would give a delicious looking chocolate pav recipe a crack. I didn’t want to do a traditional fruit pavlova, mostly because it was a bit same old same old and I wanted to do something different. But also a tiny bit because I hate passionfruit seeds and didnt want to do the chopped-fruit-with-passionfruit-pulp-on-top thing. Bah, who am I kidding, I just wanted an excuse to use…

THIS

Yes, that is 1.4 litres of Hershey’s chocolate sauce. Thank you Costco.

The other pretty big reason why I wanted to turn my pavlova into a sunday was mostly because of this:

I think that because I left it out overnight (and the outside had cracked) the marshmallowy inside disintegrated in the humidity into, well lets face it, quite a tasty pool of chocolate slush.

But all turned out well in the end and it was quite a theraputic process, cooking this baby.

And I got to use the new kitchenaid stand mixer! Yay!

The recipe called for the mixing in of some chopped up chocolate but I figured m&ms would but much more colourful and fun

Because of the extreme shadows in my oven I didn’t realise that my pav had collapsed until it the morning 🙁 boo!

so then I whipped up some cream, stirred through the rind of two oranges and some Grand Marnier, poured some Hershey’s liquid gold over the top and had myself a delicious

Chocolate M&M Pav Sundae

as if you could resist a close up of that crispy, gooey, messy, creamy, orangey, chocolaty deliciousness

So, my lovelies, what is the coolest/craziest/best idea you’ve ever had?

I make this Pavlova in participation with the Sweet Adventures: Australian Blog Hop. You can find instructions on how to join by clicking on the link below.

Chocolate M&M Pavlova Recipe – adapted from this recipe

Ingredients

6 egg whites
1½ cups (330g) caster sugar
¼ cup (25g) cocoa powder, sifted
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
100g m&ms

Method

1. Whip your egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form

2. Gradually add the sugar making sure that the sugar dissolves between additions

3. When the sugar is dissolved, fold in the sifted cocoa, vinegar and m&ms

4. Draw a 22cm circle on a sheet of baking paper and spoon the pavlova mix inside. Smooth the sides and top

5. Place the pavlova in an oven heated to 140 degrees celsius (fan forced) then immediately reduce the temperature to 100 degrees. Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until dry to the touch. Turn the oven off and cool the pavlova in the oven with the door ajar

Orange Cream Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup thickened cream

finely grated rind of 2 oranges

2 teaspoons Grand Marnier

Method

1. Whip your cream until soft peaks form

2. stir in the orange rind and grand marnier

Construction

1. Break of spoonfuls of your pavlova making sure to get a mix of crunchy outside and marhsmallowy inside

2. layer pieces of pavlova with dollops of orange cream

3. top with a slug of Hersheys Chocolate Topping and a few m&ms