Yorkshire pudding.

Tonight I can't be bother to cook and we have loads of leftovers from last night roast dinner. As everyone knows I am English at heart I love a rainy day, my cuppa in a nice china set and one of my favourite food is Yorkshire pudding they are so delish and super easy to make the only problem now is that I am totally addicted and I think I will have to add them to our Sunday roast menu.

I used Jamie Oliver's recipe and like always he never fails.

I am addicted to these things and I think you should too.

enjoy

Ingredients

Vegetable oil
2 large eggs
100g plain flour
100ml milk
sea salt
black pepper

How to

1.pre-heat the oven to 200c fan force

2.in a cupcake tin add a splash of vegetable oil in each compartment, pop in the oven for 10-15 minutes so the oil gets really hot.

3.beat the eggs, flour, milk a pinch of salt and pepper together until smooth place in a jug

4.carefully remove the tray from the oven, then pour the mix into the compartments.

5.pop the tray back in the oven to cook for 12-15minutes or until risen and golden.

and VIOLA!!!! they are done.

Don't thank me thank Jamie. cheers Karla

one sunny day

We had a very wet weekend thanks to Cyclone Marcia but the sun came out yesterday and what fun we had. 

We went to the end of the street to see the creek

 

We walked around and found a Bush Turkey nest, it was so high 

 

We were ready for the puddles and what fun baby munchkin had

 

we went back home to make some paper boats and.....

 

 That's when the real fun started

 

and this was our sunny day.

Roast Chicken

It's Sunday once again, something I love about Sunday is that we have a Sunday roast lunch or dinner. Today we had roast chicken, it is easy and chicken is always a winner around here.

I usually use free range or organic chicken but any type of chicken would do.

INGREDIENTS

The chicken
1 chicken
1 lemon
Sea salt
Black pepper
olive oil


Roast potatoes
8 large potatoes
fresh rosemary
fresh sage
sea salt
olive oil

Sides
200g baby peas
4 onions
4 carrots

Gravy
2 tbs plain flour
250mls chicken stock
black pepper
25g butter

How to

1.potatoes- par boil potatoes for 20 minutes then drain and set aside

2.pre heat the oven to 200c fan force

3.peel and cut in half the onions and carrots

4.rub chicken with olive oil, sea salt and pepper, squeeze the lemon into the cavity and place the lemon inside

5.rub potatoes with olive oil, fresh rosemary, fresh sage

5. place the chicken, roast potatoes, carrots and onions into a baking pan, bake for 1 hour or until chicken is well cook but remove onions at this stage place aside with aluminium paper to keep warm 

6.boil baby peas, keep in hot water and set aside

7.Gravy- mix all the juices from the baking pan with the butter and flour, whisk rapidly and add the chicken stock slowly until you get the desire texture add black pepper.

7.serve the chicken, roast vegies and baby peas in a large platter

and VIOLA!!!! enjoy. Karla

The Cupcake lady's never fail cake

I am on my way to the neighbours house for a cuppa and a chat and I thought I should bake my never fail cake, I have been baking this cake as long as I can remember, what I like most about this cake is that it never fails me and it is dead easy to make, and most importantly it brings so many smiles when people eat it.

Enjoy

The Cupcake Lady never fail cake

cake mix:
160 mls milk
2 cups self raising flour
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
160g butter

icing
125g unsalted butter
225g icing sugar

how to:

1. pre heat the oven to 180c

2. Grease and line a 20 cm cake tin

3. Beat butter, caster sugar and vanilla with an electric beater until creamy

4. add eggs and beat

5. add self raising flour and milk and beat

6. spoon the mixture into the tin

7. bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown (check with a skewer) if it's ready

8.Cool down in the tin before turning it over

9. Once it's cool decorate with the icing and a few sprinkles or just plain icing sugar either way is delish

ICING

how to:

beat butter and icing sugar with an electric beater until smooth, if it is too hard add a dash of tepid water and beat if it is too runny add some icing sugar until the desired texture)



and VIOLA!!!! make yourself a cuppa and enjoy

I dropped the cake

Alana's birthday cake

Well nearly dropped the cake I caught it in time but not before the whole icing decoration was in total ruin.

Let me start from the beginning a couple of weeks ago my intagram friend Sharon asked me whether I could make an Ombre cake for her daughter's 1st birthday, I immediately said yes after all I have made my fair share of Ombre cakes in my time.

Everything ran smoothly and I set way across town with the cake when I arrived to Sharon's home somehow I lost control of the cake and disaster happened, I started to panic so many thought rushed through my mind, I kept thinking about the disappointment for Sharon, the fact that I had ruined the party, I could not believe Sharon she was cool as a cucumber even though I imagine she was mortified on the inside, she kept saying it will be alright I know you can fix this, I know you can fix this.

I rushed to the nearest Woolies and got some supplies, I was so upset (I am still so upset) that I have caused this, anyone that knows me knows that I hate disappointing people, I couldn't stop crying I could not believe it, I still can not believe it, in all the years I have been baking this has never happened and I know it happens to people, I just didn't want it to happen to me especially not on Baby Alana's first birthday party.

I couldn't make another Ombre cake I didn't have the tools, I quickly asked Sharon if I could make a floral cake, I still could not believe how calm and collected she was she replied yes that would be fine so I started to make more icing and decorated the cake.

As I was decorating the cake Sharon's step son came to me, it was like a scene from Water for Chocolate I was crying all over the cake, he put his hand on my shoulder and told me it was fine accidents happens and the cake was looking beautiful, I could not believe a boy of maybe 13-14 years old could be so polite and thoughtful.

The floral cake photo courtesy of @Michele_judd instagram

It's then that I thought how lucky Sharon is to have such beautiful daughter and family, her whole family was so polite and nice they were all so supportive towards me, I realised that the party was not ruined because the cake was not an Ombre cake how can a party be ruined when the birthday girl has brought so much happiness to her lovely parents, brother and sister and it's going to grow up with so much love around her.

I am not going to lie I am feeling down about the whole incident but I have seen the pics on instagram and it looks like it was a fabulous day full of laughter, games and cake.

Happy Birthday Alana.

love The Cupcake Lady

Master Class with Karla the Cupcake Lady

Today my fabulous friend Amanda came over, she called me last week to ask whether I could give her a hand to make her daughter's cake.

This is the story, I met Amanda through my wonderful friend Cathy, Cathy is Amanda's mother in law and we have all been friends for a while now, I used to make Amanda's daughter birthday cakes, well that was until today when Amanda became a cake decorator herself and put me out of business.

Amanda mentioned how her dream was to make her daughter's cake and felt disappointed that she didn't know how to so of course I am more than happy to show her easy ways for a beginner to decorate a cake.

we started with the basics, Amanda bought some sponge cakes, icing fondant and some fondant shapes cutters, we spread jam between each cake layer.

 

we coloured the icing fondant sky blue and we started to roll it out to the length and width we needed, we used a combination of white icing fondant and sky blue fondant, we spread some warm jam onto the cake and we placed the fondant on top of it to fully cover the cake, once this was finished we started making snow flakes because the cake theme is Frozen, we rolled some small icing fondant into balls to cover the seams.

and VIOLA!!!! the cake is done. I had the best time decorating this cake with my wonderful friend who from now on will be making her own daughter's cake, I am not sad that I lost her business because now I have someone who lives around the corner and who shares the same passion as me.

 

Well done Amanda you have done a fabulous job.

cheers from Karla the Cupcake Lady