Top pavlova tips.

I had an amazing weekend. I spent some time with my mumma, for the first time in... I have no idea it's been that long. We had fish& chips for lunch in Vic Park, watched The Runaways, grocery shopped and made pavlova :)

Neither of us had ever attempted it before. The first batch of egg whites and sugar didn't even make it to the tray and oven stage, but the second was perfect despite following the recipe to a tee both times. The difference? Googling the secrets to pavlova (I keep typing pavolva. lol)...

1. Make sure the eggs are room temperature.

2. Clean and dry all your equipment prior to starting to ensure there is ZERO oil on anything.

3. Use half a lemon and cover the bowl and beaters in the juice.

4. Once the timer dings, turn the oven off and let it cool completely. Don't open the door until that time.

I shall be making this for Christmas Day since I'm in charge of desserts. I just love pavlova. But not near as much as I love hanging with my mum :)

Carrot & Orange Cupcakes

Recipe from Women's Weekly 'Cakes' cook book.
Total time: 50 minutes - Makes: 12

What you need:
2/3 cup (160ml) of vegetable oil
3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon finely grated orange rind
1 1/2 cups (210g) firmly packed coarsely grated carrot
1 3/4 (260g) self-raising flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 teaspoon of mixed spice (we've forgotten this both times and it has still turned out nummy, so don't stress if you don't have/can't find this)
For the orange glace icing:
2 cups (320g) icing sugar
20g butter, melted
2 tablespoons orange juice


What you do:
1. Preheat oven to 180º/160ºC fan forced. (That's 356ºF for you Americans!)
2. Put 12 patty pans in a muffin tray.
3. Beat oil, sugar, eggs and rind in small bowl with electric mixer. (We used a little handheld whisky thing) Do this until thick & creamy.
4. Transfer to large bowl; stir in carrot and then sifted dry ingredients.
5. Spoon mixture into paper cases and bake for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool on rack.
6. Start on your icing after about 5-10 mins; sift icing sugar into small heatproof bowl; stir in butter and enough juice to make a firm paste. Stir over small saucepan of simmering water until spreadable :)


Again, you could probably skip the bowl over heated water, it would just mean the icing would be thicker and you'd probably have to make more. *Simple trick* Use a heated knife (run it under hot water) to spread your icing. We also just dipped a few cupcakes into the icing and twisted, that seemed to work too!

And yes, I'm wearing that Sportsgirl dress backwards Kate :p I put it on that way and decided to wear it like that all day. Hehe.

Breakfast cupcakes...

Okay maybe this is old news to you guys but until I was browsing food blogs this morning and came across Dine & Dish, this way of cooking eggs was completely unknown to me. They turned out so darn tasty, I just had to share exactly what I did.

1. Pre-heated the over to 175 degree celsius (350 degrees fahrenheit)
2. Got out my muffin tin and greased the cups with a little butter.
3. Cut the bacon and placed it around the sides of the cup only. (It doesn't have to be one long strip either, I cut a wide piece into strips and just overlapped them a little.)
4. Cracked an egg into the middle of the bacon. Broke the yoke and mixed with a fork.
5. Added some pepper, salt and  mound of cheese on top.
6. Popped them into the oven for 20 mins (you can put them in longer if you want crispy bacon)
7. Scooped them out with a large spoon and enjoyed straight away :)



It's like quiche but healthier because you don't have all that pastry. Will definitely be having these again, they were light & fluffy and meant minimal dishes!
Any other epic ways of eating eggs that I don't know about?