christmas croquembouche!!

this year i decided to make a croquembouche for christmas instead of doing a christmas cake which nobody ever eats. i didnt have a croquembouche stand (despite looking through heaps of shops for one) so after a failed attempt to make one from cardboard (which wasnt strong enough or wide enough, my croquembouche ended up being more like a profiterole stack, and it was too humid for my toffee which turned more to sugar as it hardened, but still tasted delicious!

christmas croquembouche



ingredients

choux puffs

3 cups water
225g butter
3 cups plain flour
12 eggs
4 tbsp cocoa
2 tbps boiling water

filling

900ml whipping cream
220g dark chocolate
1/3 cup icing sugar
custard (i cheated and used prebought custard because i was running out of time)

caramel

2 cups water
4 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp butter

choux puffs (can be made up to a month before and frozen, or kept in an airtight container for a week)

preheat oven to 200C
in a saucepan melt 75g butter

add 1 cup water

bring to boil, stirring until butter melts

add 1 cup of flour

stir until mixture forms a smooth ball

place dough in mixing bowl

lightly beat 4 eggs

when dough has cooled slightly, mix in the eggs a little at a time

spoon onto oven tray and bake for 10 minutes

turn the heat down to 175C and cook for a further 15-20 minutes until choux puffs are golden and crisp

repeat process - making different sized puffs means that you can fill in holes with smaller ones and use bigger ones for building blocks so don't try to make them all the same size

for the last third of the mixture to make chocolate choux puffs, mix together cocoa and boiling water

mix to make a paste

add to pastry mix after you have mixed through the eggs

spoon onto baking trays

and bake as per other choux puffs


filling (forgive me i forgot to take photos of this as it was rather messy)

roughly chop chocolate and melt with a splash of cream in a saucepan over a bath of boiling water, stirring chocolate until smooth
mix the icing sugar with the chocolate and allow to cool
in a separate bowl, whip cream
when the chocolate has cooled a bit, fold through cream and put in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight

as close to assembly time as possible, use a pastry bag to fill plain choux puffs with chocolate cream, and chocolate choux puffs with custard

caramel/toffee

place sugar, vanilla, and water in frying pan and stir over heat without boiling until sugar is dissolved
bring to boil and boil rapidly without stirring until mixture turns golden
stir through butter

assembling the croquembouche

dip the choux puffs in toffee and build stack starting from the bottom, using the biggest puffs on the bottom
when you have assembled the stack, drizzle toffee over the top

sprinkle with icing sugar and admire/enjoy!!

belated merry christmas and happy new year!

belated merry christmas and happy new year!

i have been so incredibly lazy, it is terrible. every time i come on here i think about all of the lovely things that i want to share but i seem to find a million things to distract me from it... my christmas was quiet but lovely, spending time with family and catching up with friends. unfortunately i had to work so my christmas was celebrated in between shifts at the hospital but it was very quiet, and i had a few good chats with some very interesting patients and their relatives. we had christmas with the extended family on christmas eve, and i made delicious sweet potato gnocci with burnt butter and sage sauce, and a christmas croquembouche (which ended up more like a profiterol stack but was delicious all the same). i will put up some photos and recipes when i have more time.

post christmas was my birthday, which was lovely. i managed to score the day off work, and had a superhero party with a lovely bunch of people who came to celebrate with me. unfortunately it started pouring with rain, so the party had to be moved in doors (where there was much less crime to be fought). we ended up playing guitar hero, eating cake before dinner, drinking lots of wine and playing a game similar to celebrity heads under the instruction of jedi-jeremy. it was a fantastic evening!

new years eve was an interesting evening, it started off wonderfully, drinks and bruschetta at my friend's house on a hill overlooking the ocean. played a little wii, had some delicious chocolate brownies. then some people wanted to go into town and i was voted driver (i had only had 1 drink as i had to drive home and get ready to work new years day). the night eventuated in us trying to go to the gay bar (because it was lady gaga night, and how better to celebrate the new year than with some fantastic dance moves!) but we couldn't find a park so ended up at the beach to watch the fireworks. then my friend threw up in my car and i spent the first few hours of the new year cleaning out my car and disinfecting everything. that part wasn't so fun, so i have decided that this year i will not be designated driver anymore!

well i had best be off, keep posted for photos and delicious recipes!!

much love,
frankie.pleure

paronella park

just thought that i would put some of my photos from paronella park up, it was a beautiful place to visit, and the fresh scones with homemade tropical jam were mouth watering!


umbrellas


stairs


flowers


picnic tables


waterfall


giant tree


picnic area


castle


castle again

much love,
frankie.pleure

love come and save me

check out this cute film that i found on the frankie magazine blog
i love it.

Love Come And Save Me from Bree 666 on Vimeo.

much love,
frankie.pleure

Sweet Oh Luscious Life

So somehow I managed to get three days off work in a row - am still not entirely sure how that happened but it has been so good to have a mini holiday! I have done so much cooking (but forgotten to take photos of most of it) and spent a lot of time with my favourite little miss and her lovely mama. Have also caught up on some reading and went for a swim in the pool - it is so hot here at the moment. Feels like I am melting, and I don't think that cooking is helping! Tomorrow is one of my friends and also my brother's girlfriend's birthday! I thought that would be an excellent opportunity to make cake, so when I asked JezBomb what kind of cupcakes he would like for his birthday he said chocolate. Now don't get me wrong, I love chocolate cupcakes, but they aren't that exciting so I decided to go for something new and make Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes and Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. JezBomb didn't object so hopefully he enjoys them! I love pumpkin!!!

Other things that I have made over the last couple of days: Kofta Balls and Turkish Pilaf with Pine Nuts (from my Hare Krishna cookbook - something I picked up at the Palm Creek Folk Festival after eating at their stall for three days straight), White Chocolate and Roast Cherry Tart , and delicious, simple pizzas. So I have managed to catch up on the cooking front - I will have to do some sewing now, orders for replicas of the apron that I made for my best friend's daughter have been coming in, although I am slightly apprehensive about making adult sized ones - definitely not as cute as ones for a three year old, and possibly a lot more work! I still have to come up with christmas presents for a whole bunch of people - only 18 days to go!


Before I get recipe-ing, I thought I would leave you with a photo by the lovely and very talented Miss Alice - it is a frankie.pleure tea party. Just chilling with the bearcats - getting into the christmas spirit. I would encourage you all to tea party with your bearcats too!


much love,
frankie.pleure

White Chocolate and Roast Cherry Tart
Click here for the recipe!


Simple Pizza (makes 6 slices - serves 2 as a meal, or 3 as a snack)

1 pre-made pizza base
2 tablespoons tomato paste
5 mini bocconcini cheese, sliced
about 16 1cm cubes of feta
about 6 olives, sliced
handful of basil, washed and shredded

pre-heat oven to 180C
spread tomato paste on pizza base, sprinkle on cheese, olives and basil
place on a tray and cook for 8-10 minutes or until bocconcini is melted and base is slightly brown around the edges


Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (makes 24 cupcakes)

Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup softened butter
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk (if needed)
about 2 cups pumpkin
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon


Frosting
1 tub philly cheese
1/2 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Cupcakes
Preheat Oven to 180C and line cupcake trays with patty pans
Cut pumpkin into cubes and cook in microwave with a litte water in the bottom of the container (or steam over a double boiler) until cooked through, then mash up and leave to cool

Whisk butter, then add sugar and mix until fluffy

Whisk in the eggs

Mix in baking powder and 1 cup of flour and stir through

Add ginger, vanilla, and cinnamon to mashed pumpkin

Mix half of pumpkin mixture through cake batter,
Then mix another cup of flour,
Then add the rest of the pumpkin mixure,
Then the last 1/2 cup of flour,
Then the milk (depending on how wet your pumpkin is will depend on how moist your cake mix is - if it is very thick add milk)

Spoon into cupcake papers so that they are 3/4 full

Another photo just for good measure :-)

Cook in 180C oven for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into them


Frosting
Whisk all ingredients together

When frosting is fluffy, put in the refrigerator until cupcakes are cool

Spread frosting over cooled cupcakes

and ENJOY!!

Happy Birthday JezBomb!!

ps - getting so excited for christmas! don't know what to make there are so many yummy options!!!

looking for the great escape

it feels wonderful to finally have some time to write, it feels like everything has been so busy lately - the world is moving very quickly but at the same time i have had quite a few wonderfully refreshing time out moments of late. it is wonderful now that the uni semester is over for a few months that i am able to catch up with friends and do some of the things that i have been meaning to get around to over the last few months. strangely enough this means that i haven't done a lot of cooking lately, but instead have been sewing and reading, and spending time with the special people in my life. it was one of my best friends' daughters third birthday the other day, and I got her a cookie making kit, with cute cutters and measuring spoons. for christmas i am making her a gorgeous pink apron to wear on our cookie making play dates in the future, photos will definitely follow when it is finished. i have also nearly finished making a pair of work slacks that i have had in my cutout pile for over a year, and have plans for a few dresses and tops, though am not entirely sure whether or not i will get around to them. also have been listening obsessively to patrick watson - lovely sweet but slightly quirky tunes covering a whole range of genres. it is love! the song/film clip for the great escape is definitely worth checking out (below)!



also have had some delicious restaurant meals as of late. the two that are most worth mentioning are wink in cairns, and gyo in townsville. wink is on the corner of spence and grafton streets, and the food is modern european - also known as simply devine! for entree i had tomato and strawberry gazpacho with basil jelly and bocconcini. it was sweet and smooth, and perfectly refreshing on a hot north queensland evening! one of my dining companions had a goats cheese souffle which was to die for, so i was a little jealous but rather impressed with the starters. dinner was three types of gnocci - with a lightly creamy sauce, the serving was perfectly proportioned, although i could have eaten it five times over, it was that good! and then for dessert i had a watermelon and rosewater jelly (please forgive me for not remembering the correct name), that was beautiful on the palate as well as on the plate, delicate and just sweet enough to satisfy. i even had a wink cocktail that was incredibly delicious. all in all, the meal was worth every penny and a return visit will definitely ensue (actually that is the second time i have been there, but the first was equally as impressive).

the second delicious dinner experience i had was at gyo, a new japanese restaurant on gregory street in townsville, where the sorely missed c'est si bon used to be. the food was reasonably priced, and looking around it was all presented beautifully, while not being too frighteningly japanese to frighten off the pie-loving aussies. it had a substantial vegetarian selection too, which is a rarity among townsville's dining hot spots (i have actually been to one of the more exclusive restaurants where they have balked at the idea of vegetarianism and then served me a meal with the chicken picked out of it). i had a special vegetable japanese pancake, that i couldn't pronounce or remember the name of but it was really delicious. though i thought it was more like an omelette than a pancake, stuffed mostly with cabbage and covered in what was possibly barbeque sauce and mayonnaise. it was incredible, though, a perfect mix of flavours and textures, and a fairly generous serving which was good because i was starving! it reminded me of hare krishna food that is one of the major reasons i go to festivals. we then had tempura icecream for dessert. it was possibly one of my top ten desserts. and that is a HUGE call, because i have eaten a lot of desserts in my life! it was like having a donut filled with green tea icecream, homemade strawberry jam, and whipped cream. words cannot possibly describe how incredible an experience it was! i will definitely be going back for seconds, thirds, fourths... etc! i strongly recommend that everyone try it, along with the berry berry drink, which is ginger ale and berry juice - and is definitely a good non-alcoholic companion to such a delicious meal (gyo is byo which we didn't realise until after we had got there).

i am definitely going to have sweet dreams of delicious goodies tonight, and am very much looking forward to it! like visions of sugar plums dancing in my head. goodnight!

much love,
frankie.pleure

The Butterfly Circus

Check out this beautiful short film from the Doorpost Film Project called The Butterfly Circus which was the 2009 Winner of the Doorpost Film Project.



much love,
frankie.pleure

EDIT: I can't work out how to make the page wider so the whole screen fits on, so until I can work out how to do that, you can check it out at this link: The Butterfly Circus