Category Archives: Cakes

Cake recipes

Avocado Pound Cake

avocado pound cake

I was at home one weekend afternoon when I went into our bathroom to have a shower. I stripped off and climbed into the shower only to face the new neighbours who were on their balcony, just metres away. They looked at me wide eyed, I looked at them even more wide eyed, we both smiled at each other tentatively and I slowly, gingerly shut the window a frozen smile plastered on my face.

So my neighbours have seen me naked now…don’t you just love close quarter apartment living in Sydney?

That weekend afternoon it seemed as though every one of our neighbours were out on their balcony. I looked outside my kitchen window and three groups of neighbours faced me and of course I had my new “friends” (I think we’ve started dating after the flashing incident) across from the bathroom window and a group of kids were playing in the garden downstairs.

avocado pound cake

My first instinct was of course to close the window and pull down the blinds and have a bit of privacy and silence but I soon forgot about the neighbours once I set about making the avocado pound cake, a recipe I had been dying to try ever since I saw it on Leah’s site The Home Empress site. Not only did it sound delicious and simple but I had some perfect avocados brought back from Ticoba Berries on the mid north coast.

Click here to read the full story

Chocolate Crunch Cake & Making Your Own Xmas Hamper

chocolate crunch recipe

A few days ago I woke up with a start, let out a strangled “Arrrrrrgghhh”, partially woke up Mr NQN and then scrambled out of bed as if I had found a horse’s head in it.

Do you ever have those times where you forget about things? I just realised that in the chaos of the last few months I had completely forgot to put the Anthony Bourdain Medium Raw copies up for auction as promised! “How on earth did I let that slip?” I wondered chewing on my bottom lip urging my computer to turn on. But then sage, half asleep Mr NQN suggested that now was possibly a better time than any because people could buy them as Christmas gifts. So I took photos and here they are, your very own copy of Medium Raw, signed by the man himself during his recent time in Australia for the Sydney Writer’s Festival, all proceeds going to Tony’s charity of choice, Médecins Sans Frontières! Click here to bid on any of the copies. 

The other thing that I almost forgot was Christmas. Well I couldn’t forget it completely, after all there were the telltale decorations everywhere but I was being forced at gunpoint or spousal sad face point into using google calendar after about a year of resisting. I love my paper calendar and although this means that I have to bring said paper calendar with me when I make appointments inevitably garnering some odd looks, I am still quite  beholden to it. Mr NQN promised me something good in my Christmas stocking if I stuck to an online calendar (it’s like bribing kids to do their homework). I was flicking through the calendar, which he had populated for me deciphering my messy scrawl, and then I realised that we only had about a month to go until Christmas which necessitate another strangled “Arrrrghhhh”!

chocolate crunch recipe

Click here to read the full story

Simple No Bake Snickers Pie

snickers pie recipe

When we were little my parents rarely gave us dessert. Dessert was a piece of fruit or nothing and I recall keeping Christmas or birthday sweets for months afterwards hanging them up in a big up at the end of my bed and taking one piece out very occasionally and savouring its taste and feeling the sugar hit course through my body. When I would get a tiny bit of pocket money, even 10 cents I would go straight to the corner store and stand in front of the display chewing my lip and biting my thumbnail deep in thought as to how best spend my hard begged ahem I mean earned money. Red frogs were always a good choice but I also liked Redskins and Toffee Apple bars because they seemed to last forever.

snickers pie recipe

One day when my parents went to visit one of my mother’s friends. I found most adults quite strange and creepy and they would always lean down and cluck “She’s becoming a big girl isn’t she! But so skinny!” and I would recoil and feel slightly nauseous at the thought. I didn’t want to grow up and I certainly didn’t want to be examined as if I were on a sample on a petri dish by my parent’s friends. It felt icky and they always said it in a way that gave me the heebeejeebies as if it were planning to cook me and eat me.

snickers pie recipe

Anyway, one of my mother’s friends was one of the adults that I liked. And do you know why? Well, she owned a corner store and one day my parents popped in to see her with my sister and I. This woman also refrained from commenting about how big I had grown (and therefore wasn’t likely to eat me) plus she uttered the very best words my sister and I could have ever heard. “Help yourself to anything that you want girls” she said smiling. She must have seen us looking around her store wide eyed devouring the sweets and ice creams with our eyes and our glance settling on row after row of colourful packaging. She seemed to stock everything and the boxes of treats reached up to the ceiling to the heavens.

snickers pie recipe

Click here to read the full story

A True Blood Dinner Party!

true blood dinner party

I am pretty sure that the pharmacy near Mr NQN’s work knows me by now. I am the woman who rings up frantic at around 5pm and asks for 10 bottles of her favourite produce to be put aside to be picked up by her husband after work. One afternoon’s request was a little odd.

“Hello, could you please put aside a packet of fake nails and some denture glue for me? My husband will come and pick it up tonight.” I say breathlessly.

“Sure what brand of nails and denture glue would you like ma’am?” the polite man at the other end of the phone asks.

“Any kind! I don’t know!” I reply flummoxed at the question. I hesitate before answering “they’re umm… to make vampire fangs…”

“Ahh I see…” Well the pharmacist does work on Oxford Street so I’m sure people have done this before ;)

true blood dinner party

I had been planning this True Blood dinner party for months. The timing was of course to coincide with the end of the current season of True Blood, a show that I had become wholly and completely besotted with. Mr NQN was outnumbered that evening by giggling ladies because of course the show has the best looking male cast on television i.e. a family assorted packet of man biscuits with a guy for every taste. Mr NQN of course still refers to it as “that zombie show” but I could not be deterred in my love for it. The idea for the dinner was inspired by season three’s dinner party which involved three courses of blood:

First course: “Chilled carbonated blood. Cruelty free, all willingly donated. Note the citrusy finish? This one ate only tangerines for weeks.”
Second course: “Carlo bring me that Thai boy.”
Third course: “Warm blood bisque infused with rose petals.”
Dessert: Blood Gelato

true blood dinner party

Of course the idea of serving up blood to my dear friends wasn’t going to happen. I mean they put up with a lot, the photo taking, the traipsing off to far flung restaurants in the name of a meal but serving blood to them might stretch the friendship so I decided to do a blood themed dinner party instead. Invited were my True Blood loving friends because of course we would be watching episodes of the show afterwards.

true blood dinner party

Although I do like kitsch I wanted it to be an elegant dinner party because of course vampires have a lot of money as they can glamour people into giving them their worldly goods. We used some stunning Waterford crystal in blood red and a John Rocha black cut centrepiece filled with red fruit and vegetables to carry through the bloody red theme. Just because I thought that Bill as the King of Louisiana might have these in his house.

true blood dinner party

So there were nibblies in the form of caviar topped blinis, a bloody red spicy tomato soup, a symbolic oxtail and beetroot pie with an equally symbolic black savourine salad. Plus dessert of course, in fact two, with a pre dessert of raspberry sorbet and a molten blood chocolate cake served with raspberry ripple ice cream.

true blood dinner party

I did have a bit of a True Blood encounter myself, not so much of the vampiric kind but of the Jason Stackhouse kind. Ryan Kwanten is in Sydney shooting his latest film “Not Suitable For Children” written by Australian writer Michael Lucas and one day I found myself within breathing and touching distance of him. I did breathe but I did not touch him (although I wanted to, not in an inappropriate way, well kind of…). Of course I wanted to invite him to this party but I refrained from embarrassing myself and getting a certain rejection and instead chose to admire his divineness from where I was standing. And I was a little too scattered and excited to ask for a photo (silly me!).

Click here to read the full story

Melting Nutella Cake & Not Quite Nigella Turns Four!

melting nutella cake

So about four years ago, I started this blog and never did I think ever that it would become not only a job but the best job in the world. This month, I celebrate my four year blogsoversary and today I celebrate my 1,477th post. I must admit I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary because sometimes it feels like my life is out of the ordinary and I daren’t upset the fine balance. But don’t let me get all philosophical on you… now where was I? Oh yes cake!

melting nutella cake

Cake is an item that I always think of when I celebrate. Cake has much more meaning than the combination of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. It means friends, it means happiness and it means giving and it means love. I mean who ever gave a cake to someone that they hated? Cake also means relief or a sugary repast with stopping in the afternoon for a much needed break and it always present whenever something fun or wonderful happens. I first saw this cake on Vicky’s lovely gluten free site Sweets by Vicky and she adapted the recipe from Willie Harcourt-Cooze from Willie’s Chocolate Bible. She made it to celebrate her 100th post and I though it fitting to make it to celebrate the blog’s four year blogsoversary. And not just because I wanted to eat it I promise ;)

melting nutella cake

The cake itself is a gorgeously moist and chocolate gluten free concoction filled in the centre with Nutella. The whole shebang is then drizzled in chocolate sauce and served with whipped cream or ice cream. It is a gloriously decadent cake but portion limited in size which is a measure designed to allow you to enjoy it and not go too overboard and it became an instant favourite in our household. Not only that but it is really quite easy to make too and you could have this ready and on the table in about 30 minutes. The only warning I will issue is that you will be asked to make this again. Repeatedly. I know of no human that can resist the lure of melted chocolate. And if like me, you’ve had some issues turning out these gloriously molten centred cakes, you could always serve them in the ramekins (and that way you can make sure that they’re appealingly gooey in the centre).

melting nutella cake

So where we we? Oh yes the four year anniversary. In these four years there have been a lot of posts. The lovely Anna from The Hospitality Guru tagged me to reveal seven posts for seven reasons so I thought now was as good a time as any to do it.

Click here to read the full story