Mamma Bake Cupcake Decorating Class

A lot of you may have noticed that I am certainly far from being the best at baking / decorating cakes. As a matter of fact, I almost dislike making desserts. Is that weird? I love EATING them, and when I do decide to make desserts I do enjoy how pretty they look, but if I had the choice to spend 2 hours in the kitchen to cook whatever I want... I would not choose to make a dessert. I am most definitely more a savoury cook.

That is why I've decided that yes, I will go to a Mamma Bake Cupcake Decorating Class hosted by my friend Katherine. I mean, why not? I get to hang out with the girls, and be baby-free for 2 hours, and hopefully learn some useful tips on decorating cupcakes in which I have NEVER had the chance to do... I'm serious! Yes, I'm all food blogger and all but I have never been taught the basics of cupcake decorating! Food blogger fail? I hope not. Well, after today's class I am no longer a failure and actually quite confident with my piping skills thank you very much! :p

I had so much fun during the class today, it was very informal and light-hearted and we shared lots of laughs as we all tried our very best to keep up with Jules (our instructor) and create some magic patterns with the piping bag and various tips. I learnt so many helpful tips today, some were so easy and simple and made so much common sense, we all went "now why didn't I think of doing this before?" or "why hasn't anyone else shown us how to do this?!"

Arranged from left to right my 1st attempt right through to the 5th attempt at piping roses.. lol.

I especially love learning the technique of piping flowers and roses, I have always wondered how people did that! And now I know... (and you will know how to as well if you host a party with Mamma Bake, and I will tell you how at the end of this post). It is actually simpler than it looks!

Mamma Bake prides themselves with using only natural ingredients and teaching us how to make perfect additive free cakes - so they are better for you and your family!

I never would've thought I'd be able to create such intricate looking cupcakes, so I really owe the team at Mamma Bake a huge thanks for teaching me very valuable lessons in cupcake decorating, lessons I will always, always use the next time I decide to bake my own cupcakes. Thanks to Mamma Bake, I think I WILL bake a little bit more often now just to show off my new skills!

To host a Mamma Bake class for you and your friends, log on to www.mammabake.com.au for all the information you need. Also, don't forget to Like Mamma Bake on Facebook to see what others have created at their parties!

Week 2: Grilled Cajun Prawns with Sweet Potato Mash & Holy Trinity Veg

This blog post is part of my Jamie Oliver's 15-Minutes, 15 Recipes, 15-Week Challenge.

First and foremost let me just say, this is more like it! This recipe is simple, easy to follow, easy to prepare, delicious and only took me ACTUAL 15 minutes from prep to serve! Yes, I was going as quickly as possible and it got a bit chaotic in the kitchen as I raced to beat time, but I got there in 15 minutes on the dot! If this was a MasterChef pressure test I would've excelled haha.

The recipe required me to firstly start off with boiling the sweet potatoes, so I quickly put a pot of boiling water on, chopped the sweet potatoes skin off into large squares because who has time to peel, chopped them into even smaller dices and off they go into the pot to be left alone for the next 10 minutes.

Then I was off to just toss the raw tiger prawns with olive oil, Cajun seasoning, crushed garlic (I left my garlic whole because I couldn't be bothered crushing them when I can get the same roasted garlic flavour squeezed onto the prawns when served anyway!) and thyme sprigs.. and off to the oven they go in a single layer. Too easy!

Then I was off to chop up the veggies, which is actually pretty simple considering there's only a few green peppers (or capsicum in Australia), some spring onions, celery, fresh red chilli and frozen sweetcorn which needed no prep work! Toss them all in a pan with a bit of olive oil and 1 tsp of sweet smoked paprika, cook through and I'm done!

By this stage, the prawns were not quite ready but the sweet potatoes were, so I quickly drained the water, gave the potatoes a bit of a mash around and added Cheddar cheese. 

Even by this stage, the prawns were not quite done but I can start plating up! I chose to "plate up" on a chopping board because it looks really nice that way and it's large enough to fit everything! I served up the mash, scattered the veg on top, chopped up some lemons into wedges, grabbed the prawns from the oven and served them up last.. and VOILA! All done! 

The prawns were finger lickin' good, so delicious and so naturally tasty with just a bit of Cajun flavours. Everything else went so well with them. So pleased with myself, so pleased with Jamie. Until next time!

Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Week 1: Sticky Kicking Chicken with Watermelon Radish Salad & Crunchy Noodles

This blog post is part of my Jamie Oliver's 15-Minutes, 15 Recipes, 15-Week Challenge.

To kick off my Jamie Oliver challenge, I've decided to try a seemingly simple dish which required very common ingredients which I mostly already have in my pantry. The recipe itself looked simple enough, consisting of three main components - the meat, the salad and the dressing. I made sure I read the recipe over and over again many times to familiarize myself with the processes to make sure I work as quickly as possible.

Not surprisingly, it did not take me 15 minutes to come up with this meal. Let's try just over an hour. Of course it is easy for Jamie to do this, he preps like a machine and he tends to make a mess in the kitchen which other people would probably end up cleaning up after. I tend to tidy up as I cook, and I do not chop up ingredients at the speed of light - although I have to say I am not the slowest cook either. So, as Jamie would suggest, I would suggest having ALL the ingredients prepped and ready in front of you before you start timing yourself. But really what's the point of that, I have a handful of other dishes up my sleeve that are just as tasty and requires far less effort to prep.

Here are a few comments on what I think of each component of this dish:

The chicken is absolutely beautiful and the simplest of all to prepare and cook. I will definitely be cooking up this chicken again and again. All it takes was to rub Five Spice Powder, Salt and Pepper onto the chicken thigh fillets, grill them, and then return to pan and add sweet chilli sauce and sesame seeds. So simple and delicious!

P/S: The roast potatoes in the photos are not part of Jamie's recipe, I just decided to add them to complete my version of the meal.

The salad had an interesting combination of flavours. I like the use of watermelon in the salad, I'm not a big fan of radish but it seems to go well with the salad. I enjoy the rice noodles as it numbs the spicy kick from the dressing, but I do not like the fried and crunchy version of the rice noodles. Rice noodles when cooked to a crunch does not deliver the right type of crunch in my opinion. Sure, it looks good on top of the salad as a garnish but had a rough chewy texture that almost makes it inedible. Next time, I will probably substitute that crunchy rice noodle with a packet of pre-fried crunchy noodle for salads.

The dressing had really strong intense flavours of ginger, garlic, coriander & spring onion, with a combination of different sauces to give it some balance in flavour. I added some sugar into the dressing even though the recipe did not list sugar, but I kinda prefer a dressing that had a slight sweetness to it especially when it was so spicy and kicking. I like the dressing, but next time I will definitely reduce the amount of ginger and garlic - it was too intense!

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Jamie Oliver's 15-Minutes, 15 Recipes, 15-Week Challenge

Over the next 15 weeks, I will be featuring my take on 15 recipes from Jamie Oliver's "15-Minute Meals" cook book. If you are like me, you love to cook but time is always against you. That is why I have purchased Jamie's cookbook and hoping to be inspired to try new dishes that are delicious, healthy, and especially simple, easy and quick to make. 

I will be reviewing his recipes and sharing with all of you 1) How easy is it to make yourself at home aka did it really take 15-minutes give or take? 2) How commonly sourced are the ingredients features in those recipes aka can I realistically make this dish on a regular basis using ingredients that are easily available from my local supermarket? 3) Most importantly, how DELICIOUS is this dish? I will be rating those recipes out 5 stars based on my personal preference for taste.

I will NOT be publishing Jamie's recipes in this series due to copyright reasons, however if the recipe is available online on his website I will definitely post a link. I would also like to maybe invite you to take up this challenge with me! Grab a copy of Jamie's book (currently On Sale at Big W for only $28 instead of RRP $49.99), let's try these recipes together, and then exchange our opinions and share it with all the other readers!

So, if you trust my judgment and humble cooking capabilities at home to be able to provide a series of recipe reviews that will be relevant to you, please stay tuned!

SBS Cooking Titles - Luke Nguyen's Greater Mekong 2 + Giveaway

In the second installment of this SBS TV series acclaimed chef, Luke Nguyen, ventures deeper into the Greater Mekong region to discover the food cultures of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

Luke Nguyen is a chef and owner of Sydney’s award-winning Vietnamese restaurants, Red Lantern and Red Lantern on Riley. He is also a bestselling author.

Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam Series 1, Series 2 and Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong are also available on DVD.

This series not only has mouthwatering recipes, but also offers a great travel experience for the viewer. I personally enjoyed how I was taken on a journey across these South Asian countries just in the comforts of my living room! I also enjoyed how Luke chose some odd locations to demonstrate his cooking in the series, it was very entertaining to watch him try and cook and defy Mother Nature. In one of the episodes, Luke sets up his cooking station (portable gas stove) right at the beach when the tide was actually coming in, so Luke frantically tries to finish cooking his dish before the tide got too high! It was very funny, he got soaked and water was splashing onto his ingredients!

Luke overall is a very entertaining presenter and I really enjoyed watching every episode of the series. I loved how he made his dishes seem so easy to cook (and yes they were pretty easy!) but with a great range of amazing ingredients which makes those amazing  flavoursome dishes Luke is famous for.

Luke begins his culinary journey in Laos’ capital city, Vientiane, with its bounty of hidden foodie gems. He then journeys north to Laos’ ‘food capital’, Luang Prabang, before travelling south to the fishing mecca, the 4000 Islands. Luke crosses the Mekong River into Cambodia, beginning in the ancient city of Siem Reap, where locals teach him how to cook traditional Khmer dishes. He then travels south to the bustling capital, Phnom Penh, where he gets a new take on street food. Heading further south, Luke explores the seaside towns of Kep and Kampot, famous for their crab and pepper. Finally, Luke returns to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. He seeks out the foodie wonders of border town, Chau Doc. He cooks with his parents on a houseboat in Cai Be, and explores the coconut islands of Ben Tre.

Presenting the best in local and international cuisines, SBS is home to a who’s who of the food scene – along with Peter Kuruvita, Maeve O’Meara, Tetsuya, Matthew Evans, Adriano Zumbo and many more, Luke Nguyen is just one of the SBS chefs and personalities whose great shows are available on DVD.

Visit www.madman.com.au/sbsfood to see the entire SBS Food DVD range and enter the competition to win the entire collection of 34 DVDs!!

DVDs are available at Dymocks and Sanity stores nationwide (RRP $29.95).

Giveaway: I have 15 x DVD packs consisting of Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong Series 1 & Series 2 to giveaway to 15 lucky readers! All you have to do is tell me:

“Why would you like to have Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong 1 & 2?”

So what are you waiting for? Leave a comment and don’t forget to leave an email address so I can contact you if you win! Please submit all entries for this giveaway before the 31^st of March 2013.

This blog post was sponsored by Nuffnang. Terms & Conditions apply.