Happy Birthday, Baby Girl

Chai Spice Cream Cake

Recipe from Donna Hay Magazine. Delicious.

Ruby's Birthday Cake

I can't believe my cute little niece is 1 already!
I used the white chocolate mud cake recipe from Exclusively Food , but made it gluten free by replacing both plain and self raising flour with gluten free flour, adding baking powder to compensate for the self raising flour, and adding almond meal to help keep in nice and moist.
For the icing, I used the ganache recipe from my macaron class several years ago.

Unfortunately the chequerboard effect didn't work properly, but it still looks pretty cool.

Gingerbread

Lammas Bread

Brazilian Stout Cake

From Saved By Cake by Marian Keyes. It smells a bit like gingerbread. And I might not even get to taste it because it's heading off to work with Andrew.

Biscuits in a Jar

Somehow always look much more classy than in a plastic container.

Cake

 Mum liked the pumpkin and walnut cupcakes so much she requested them for her birthday

And I made Nigella's chocolate olive oil cake.

Pumpkin and Walnut cupcakes

From Taste.com.au magazine. Sadly, not very pumpkiny. Mostly they taste of cinnamon and the lemon icing.

Baby's first apple pie

 Okay, so it's more like a pastie because that's easier for her to hold. And there's no sugar except what's naturally in the apples. But I think she liked it.

Honey Crunch Creams

In search of an eggless biscuit recipe, because the chooks are off the lay, I came across these. They're supposed to be made with Greek honey, whatever that is, but I used the orange blossom honey that I had in the pantry. They're quite tasty, and I think I'll make them again. I'm considering a version where I replace the orange rind with lemon, and add a little ginger.

Marinus' Chocolate Crackles

 My parents' neighbour turned 60 on Sunday. They have been neighbours since I was a kid, and he used to drive me to high school. So we have a long standing tradition that I make him chocolate crackles, which he loves, for his birthday. These ones are just a little bit sparkly.

Apple Pie

 Made from Marnie's recipe (except the gluten free pastry for the mini ones) from our home grown apples

This year's gingerbread houses

Brownies

I used this recipe with Crabbie's Orange Spiced Ginger Beer, and one of our blood oranges. I'm a bit disappointed - they're not very chocolatey, but you can't taste the other flavours either. On the upside, I made them gluten free, and that worked fine.

Coke Layers with Cocoa Buttercream

Recipes from Baked In America. I love that book, but one day I have to make a cake I don't have to take anywhere, so I can actually use all the layers, and not have a whole 'leftover' cake! This one was baked for Nephew1's 9th birthday.

The Gingerbread Houses

A Christmas surprise for our neighbours, and for my best friend and her family (who conveniently live around the corner from our new place!) I did the baking, which may have been the easy part. Andrew did the construction and decoration. And he delivered them, early Christmas morning.

Modern French Eclairs

 Vanilla and Choc Hazelnut

On the weekend, I spend 6 hours learning how to make eclairs. I'm a big fan of the classic cream filled chocolate éclair, but I've never tried to make them. I'm glad I had a professional teacher for learning to make choux pastry - there's definitely an element of 'feel' to it that you couldn't get from a book.

 Choc Hazelnut, Chocolate and Lemon

The fillings were easier, basically being flavoured custards and lemon butter, but there's an art to the glazing too, and to decoration.

Vanilla filled Profiteroles

They're all pretty tasty though, regardless of what they look like!

Chocolate Stout Brownies

One of the advantages of reading cozy mysteries is that they come with little bonuses, like recipes. And sooner or later, you have to test those recipes. This Chocolate Stout Brownie Recipe comes from Death by the Dozen by Jenn McKinlay, the third in her Cupcake Bakery Mysteries series.
It's rather more cakey than I like my brownies, but it's a good rich cake. Being that it contains stout (a dark kind of beer) it may be best served to adults only. Possibly with cream, and maybe berries for those who like them.

Challah

 I got this recipe from a friend in the Ankh-Morpork Knitter's [sic] Guild. Challah (basically don't pronounce the 'c') is a traditionally Jewish, eggy bread. I'm told to officially be Challah it must be an egg rich dough, braided/plaited, with an egg glaze.

 And with inspiration from the same group, I used some scraps to make these cute little Demon Buns.

This is the first time I've made bread that has been eaten before going stale.