Showing posts with label cocoa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cocoa. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Holiday 2012



This year we had no snow so we made it snow indoors!

How you may ask?

The secret is..................


Marshmallows!! Whether they're big or small, and even if they're a bit stale just thread them onto a fine cotton thread with a needle and hang them up one thread at a time, the more you've got the better it looks.  Keep the marshmallows at different heights and you got to do a double loupe around the marshmallow to keep it in place.

I also finally got around to using my hot cocoa nuggets, you can find the recipe here.  It really is SO Delicious especially when you sweeten with sweetened condensed milk! 









I also would like to say that these glass straws are totally amazing! This one you see is the bubble tea straw, it's very wide and great for slurpees too.  I got an Iced tea (bent) straw and 4 standard style glass straws for entertaining.   Can't wait to try them out (and will be featuring them soon - maybe New year's? )

So far we tried out the bubble tea straw and it's really great, perfect for smoothies too, not too wide and I think it's fun for kids too.





And last but not least meet our new "Christmas Cats" Two lovely girls (sisters) that we just adore! We've only had them for a little over a week but they are little treasures and we're enjoying every moment of their company!

Happy Holidays everyone!



Friday, September 23, 2011

Fresh Coconut Loaf cake



I saw this fresh moist looking coconut cake and knew my little sister would love it!

There were two versions of the cake on the original site (here) and I went with fresh, it was a lot of peeling and shaving and to be honest half of the flesh did not infuse into the milk at all (which evaporated into about 1 tbsp) so I went with the fresh flesh and canned coconut milk to make up the rest of the milk that had evaporated.

The glaze also split once, then the second batch split while on the cake (which was probably still warm) but all in all it was good, and everyone loved it!!

So for all you coconut lovers out there this is a keeper, but I would recommend adding a coconut extract for more flavour and maybe finding a good coconut tasting fresh coconut (some of them taste of nothing)
If you can buy pre shredded then you're in luck as it'll save you lots of time.

Give it a try and let me know! :)

p.s I got one loaf by halving the fresh coconut recipe but using 3 eggs instead of 2.5 as there is no point in trying to halve an egg.


Thanks to my sisters for the lovely shots, that's me holding the cake in the shots below and pigging out while they both shoot the cake.






Wednesday, August 24, 2011

A hint of cocoa and spice


This is a stew was really supposed to be a gravy, not just any gravy but the gravy my grandma taught me and the one that I've made so many times that I could make it with a blindfold on.

Problem is there is pretty much just one step to this gravy and that's browning the meat really well. Grandma always said to "forget about it" meaning not fiddling with it but I think I literally forgot about it this time!

So what to do with the beautiful batch of stewing beef? .. well I tried to turn it into a stew.

Celery, Onions, Carrots, Mushrooms went in.

Tomatoes created a red base.

To spice things up I added cinnamon, cumin, garlic, oregano, toasted crushed sesame seeds (not sure why, but it was kind of an experiment)

The secret ingredient was cocoa powder, it really added a deep rich flavour. Next time you make a stew give it a try, add a tsp or tbsp of cocoa powder! You'll be pleasantly surprised.

So all in all the meal came together, and it tasted even better the next day (which is when I served it along side my sister's mashed potatoes)

We had brownies for dessert and instead of the ordinary chocolate brownies we always make I threw in a hint of cinnamon, allspice, and ground clove, they were delicious!