Raspberry Friands

I've had a little bit of a baking drought lately, just been busy with life and haven't had the time to make anything. Last night, it was my turn to bring along some food to share with everyone at choir rehearsal with so little time to prepare I decided to make something that was easy to whip up yet delicious and satisfying. Raspberry friands are kind of my thing, I always make them and it seems to please everyone. I started off using the recipe from my favourite little 500 cupcakes recipe book, the only thing is it uses 6 egg whites which isn't a problem when Mr Mi feels like making ice cream which uses the 6 egg yolks but we don't always have time to whip up both! So I tried to source out another recipe that uses whole egg. I'm quite fond of this recipe, the egg yolks gives the friands extra richness. I had to use patty cases to line the tin, as my friands always got stuck. Try this recipe out, it's super-easy and tastes really good. Mi xo

Chocolate and Walnut Oat Cookies

I had a hankering for a biscuit that incorporated oats and chocolate so I tinkered with my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe and came up with this! They're slightly crispy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside, which is just how I like them!

Hong Ha

I've eaten a few vietnamese rolls over the years but my absolute favourite comes from a little bakery called Hong Ha in Mascot. I always get the chicken roll with chilli and it never disappoints! They also offer pork rolls, chicken and cheese rolls and other delicious baked goods. When you arrive at Hong Ha, expect a queue that goes out the door but don't be discouraged as this usually moves quite quickly and it will be worth it!

Hong Ha is located at 1151 Botany Road, Mascot, NSW. Na xo

Muppet Cupcakes

Photography by G.P.

A group of us went to Miss T's house over the weekend for a "Muppet Cupcake Extravaganza". Our quest was to re-create these amazing hand cut and hand painted edible Muppet cupcake toppers. When Miss T first proposed the idea, I have to admit...I thought to myself these are going to be really tricky but I was ready to take the challenge. Miss T led the team by baking a batch of delicious vanilla cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes. My task was to assist with all things sugary, Na's basic buttercream and the fondant! I printed out some pictures and we traced them onto baking paper to help with cutting out the shapes, although some of the characters such as Beaker made by Miss T's mum was cut free hand! After a few hours of colouring the fondant with Wilton gel colours and painstakingly cutting out tiny little fondant shapes, I think the results speak for themselves - twelve lovely too-cute-to-eat Muppet cupcakes. We were very pleased with our efforts! Needless to say, I had a bit of a sugar-ache that evening (and the next morning!). I wonder what our next cupcake project will be? Love Mi xoxo

Photography by G.P.

Flourless Orange Cupcakes with Candied Orange

Mr Mi loves the little flourless orange muffins from Luxe Bakery (and I love them too)! So I decided to try and make these sweets treats for him. After some searching, I came across this great recipe from Citrus and Candy. I followed the recipe exactly as written, except instead of using a cake tin I used muffin tins to make 22 cupcakes and reduced the baking time to 20 minutes. To decorate, I made some candied orange slices using this recipe, replacing white sugar with raw sugar resulting in a nice caramel syrup. The cupcakes were lovely, moist and the candied orange finishes it off nicely. Mr Mi gave it a 10 out of 10 and thumbs up, he especially loved the candied orange. Try it out, you won't regret it. Mi xo