The Sweetest Kitchen

Apr 13

Teriyaki Beef Sushi And Green Tea Meringues

Wow, a whole seven days without a post, what am I coming to? I have been a little busy over the Easter holidays and while I haven’t quit baking, I have had less time to spend on the computer. Now that the holidays are over, I hope to resume some sort of normality. To make up for my lack of posting, I did a makeover on my “About” page by adding a lot more information about myself, so have a read over that if you’re curious.

To get back in the swing of things, I have a sort of Japanese-theme for this post. We’ll start off with teriyaki beef sushi. If you read my new “About” page, you will learn that sushi is my ultimate favorite food. I love sushi with raw salmon the best, but this recipe that I found in the March 2010 issue of Australia’s Recipes + is pretty good too.

I’m really sorry for the poor quality of the photo. The sun had already set and lighting was dim in the house. I keep saying it’s time to make my own lightbox, but haven’t gotten around to that yet.

Apr 6

6 Comments

Coffee And Nutella Macarons

I have always been intrigued, fascinated and mystified when it comes to French macarons. I believe I first saw them on Flickr, in an array of colors and flavors. I looked up how to make them myself and was quickly discouraged because they looked so tricky and I was sure I would fail with my own attempt and waste precious ingredients. So instead of making them, I made a Tumblr blog to keep track of my favorite macarons, which is sort of a sister-blog to my Tumblr cupcake blog.

Making my own macarons have always been on my to-do list anyhow, because I had never even eaten a macaron. I guess that’s what I get for living in Indiana. Soon after I moved back to Sydney with my family I visited a cupcake shop in Chatswood, Cupcakes On Pitt, and tried two of their macarons, a blueberry one and a chocolate one (my pictures here and here). They were chewier than I had imagined they would be, but they didn’t taste like anything special. I was quite disappointed. Later, however, a friend told me that Cupcakes On Pitt’s macarons were a very poor example as to how macarons should taste.

And still I hadn’t made my own macarons. I was just dying to, but was still too frightened. A couple of weeks ago, Samantha of Sweet Remedy mentioned on Twitter that she was scared of making macarons as well. I had earlier befriended Samantha when we were in a throwdown for October 2009′s Cupcake Hero competition. So I casually mentioned to her that I was scared as well, and from this we decided to have our own macaron challenge; we would make them “together”. Well, as “together” as we could anyway, with Samantha being on the other side of the world from me!

Mar 26

7 Comments

Faux Hot Cross Buns

The closest I’ve ever came to a hot cross bun while growing up was reciting the nursery rhyme, “Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns”. I never actually knew what a hot cross bun was. I grew up in a cornfield in Indiana, after all, so I didn’t know very much of the world!

Later on, I came to realize that a hot cross bun is a sweet, golden bun speckled with raisins and marked with a cross on top, and sold at Easter time. The cross is supposed to symbolize the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Or at least that’s what Wikipedia tells me about hot cross buns.

Whatever the original meaning of hot cross buns, it is obvious that they have evolved over the years. Hot cross buns can now be found studded with chocolate chips instead of dried fruits, and I recently even tasted a mocha-flavored hot cross bun.

Mar 25

1 Comment

Illustration: Matcha Strawberry Cupcakes

Recently I was emailed by Lisa Orgler of The Lunch Box Project; she is a wonderful artist that I am very fond of and she is drawing green tea foods for the month of March. I was delighted that she contacted me and asked if she could draw my matcha strawberry cupcake, which is one of the best cupcakes I’ve ever made (in my opinion). I told her she could most definitely draw my cupcake and I was looking forward to seeing it in her illustration.

Around a week later, Lisa emailed me again to tell me she had finished drawing my cupcake. I hurried over to The Lunch Box Project and saw her amazing drawing:

Absolutely beautiful! Thank you, Lisa!

If you’re as interested in Lisa’s work as I am, you can find her at The Lunch Box Project, Etsy, Facebook and Twitter.

Mar 23

2 Comments

Chocolate And Apricot Chip Cookies

Do you like baking with your kids? Generally, I do not. I really want to let them help, to get them interested in baking and to experience the fun of turning a few simple innocent-looking ingredients into something amazingly tasty. But they’re too messy, and while I’m trying to keep them from pouring a whole bottle of vanilla extract into the butter/sugar/egg mixture, I lose track of how much baking powder I just added to the flour mixture! So I generally try to occupy the kids with something else while I bake.

However, while my daughter was at preschool last week, I decided to enlist the help of my 2-year-old son to help me make an interesting-looking recipe on the back of a bag of dried apricots. The recipe was for chocolate and apricot chip cookies; like a chocolate chip cookie with chopped dried apricots.

Mar 17

2 Comments

Mango Chicken Wraps

I’ve been trying to expand into other types of recipes, other than just sweets. I realize this is The Sweetest Kitchen, but I figure that I should include some tasty savory recipes as well, to counteract the sweetness, just a bit. So I’ve been visiting the library and borrowing some recipe books. One of my latest ones is the Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics. It is a huge book.

In The New Classics cookbook is a variety of recipes, some of which you’ll find on Martha’s website, including the one I’m going to show you today. I’ve copied quite a few recipes that I hope to share with you, actually!

Today’s recipe from The New Classics cookbook is chicken wraps with mango, basil and mint. This one was the first recipe that stood out at me while skimming the book. It sounded very interesting, and on top of that I just love wrap sandwiches!

Mar 12

9 Comments

Chocolate Chip Chai Cupcakes

Shortly before I left the US I got really interested in loose leaf teas. I had entered a Twitter contest that Rishi Tea was hosting and won a big tin of Earl Gray Lavender tea. It smelled and tasted fantastic and I often replaced my morning cup of coffee with this tea. I still had a bit over half of the tin left when I left the US, so I gave it to a tea-loving friend of mine, so I knew it would go to a good home.

I can’t get Rishi Tea in Australia though, so I needed a replacement. Luckily for me, there is an awesome tea shop at my local shopping center called T2 Tea, and right next door to the tea shop is the T2 Tea Teahouse which not only can make you a cup of any of their teas, but also sells a variety of delicious foods. You can get something savory made up for you, but hey, you know me, I’m more interested in the sweets and they have a tantalizing variety of those, including some beautiful cupcakes.

Well, unfortunately, on the day I went there, they didn’t have any of those cupcakes. I decided on a chocolate chai cake instead. Pictured above is said cake, a tall glass of iced chocolate tea, and a sample of gundpowder green tea. All were very delicious.

Mar 10

5 Comments

Orange Pasta

We all try to feed our children healthy foods, but I’m pretty sure that most moms would have to admit that just sometimes we let the sweets get a little out of control. We keep a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables in the kitchen and luckily my 4-year-old daughter loves fresh, raw fruits and vegetables. My 2-year-old son hates vegetables, yet loves fruits! Occasionally he’ll eat some cucumber or carrot or peas, but you’d mainly see him with a banana, apple or a handful blueberries.

I try to feed my kids healthy foods, but there are those evenings when there’s only time for a frozen pizza, or French fries, or chicken nuggets. And of course, if I’ve made cupcakes we’ll have those for dessert. I always feel guilty about it, but if I look over the course of a week or so I realize that they’ve gotten plenty of other healthy lunches and dinners and I don’t feel so bad. Besides, I’m a firm believer in having a treat every so often!

When it comes to fruits and vegetables, my kids prefer them raw. If I’ve taken the time to cook any vegetables, they’ll usually always think it’s disgusting. So you’ll find a lot of chopped cucumber, celery, carrots, apples, etc. in the refrigerator along with various dips such as hummus, or avocado. Most of the time I remind myself to not waste time cooking the vegetables, but sometimes I’ll find a recipe that just looks too interesting to pass up.

Mar 8

5 Comments

Blogiversary Giveaway Winner

I’ve been so excited to announce the winner of my one-year blogiversary Bake It Pretty giveaway. I made chocolate salted dulce de leche cupcakes and have been enjoying them immensely as I read each of your entries and comments on the post.

I am very happy now to announce the winner of the $50 Bake It Pretty gift certificate. I know that she’s going to be very, very happy and I can’t wait to see what she’ll decide to get with it. So, congratulations…

Amanda! You have won! Be sure to let me know what you decide to get from Bake It Pretty! :)

Mar 3

196 Comments

Cupcakes & A Giveaway!

The giveaway is now over and any comments left after 7PM on March 7, 2010 as recorded on the comment will not be counted. The winner will be chosen tomorrow so check back then to see if you have won!

The Sweetest Kitchen hasn’t always been The Sweetest Kitchen. I started out blogging about cupcakes in late May of 2008 at Blogspot; my blog was then called The Cupcake Review. As I started to expand and blog about more than cupcakes I knew that I needed to switch to my own domain. After much thought, I finally decided on the name The Sweetest Kitchen in late February of 2009, and launched the new domain on March 3. It’s now been one year and my blogging experience has been such fun. The Sweetest Kitchen has became more popular than I ever expected it to – I’ve almost reached 500,000 page views!

My most famous post, with at least 30,000 page views so far, was the zombie Halloween cupcake I made for Iron Cupcake: Earth and Cupcake Hero in October 2009. However, my personal favorite of anything I have ever baked since beginning this blog is the pumpkin dulce de leche cupcake. Everyone who has made these has raved about them, and I’m so happy about that!

Today I’ve made some cupcakes in celebration of The Sweetest Kitchen’s 1-year anniversary. They are actually very similar to the pumpkin dulce de leche cupcakes, but instead of the pumpkin cake, I used a chocolate cake and sprinkled the frosting with sea salt.

Feb 25

6 Comments

Half-Birthday Cupcakes

Babies are cute. I oughta know, I’ve had three of them. My latest installment was a baby boy, six months ago. His name is Miles. He’s been the sweetest, cutest and most patient of my three. He smiles and giggles at anything and sleeps mostly through the night. You couldn’t ask for much more out of a baby other than that he sleeps through the night, trust me. Sleep-deprivation is not fun.

I have breastfed my babies exclusively for the first six months of their lives (and weaned at 18 months), and on their six-month birthdays I have given them their first tastes of solid foods. Yesterday, the 24th, was Miles’ six-month birthday and we had a great day.