Apple glory

I haven't check up on Mac vs PC ads for ages and oh the hilarity that has ensued this afternoon. Excuse the crap quality of my embedded YouTube vids but I had to share a couple of my favs. Check out the Apple site for the complete archive.

Incidentally, I did not know about that new face recognition software on iPhoto and I actually went, "Holy crap!" out loud when I heard that. That is so cool and so handy. I am in awe.

geek niche

"Comic Sans walks into a bar, bartender says, 'We don't serve your type.'"

Daring Bakers' Challenge #1- cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

crust
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!


This was my first Daring Bakers Challenge and I wish I had had more time to do something superfancy. There also wasn't any specific occasion to bake for, which in my mind can make choosing the variation an easier job. I therefore decided to stay fairly plain and went citrus. To the basic recipe I added finely grated rind of two lemons and one orange. For the topping I caramelized (kinda) finely sliced orange with some sugar, rum and some lemon juice.

I wanted to do some mini ones so roughly guessed amounts and spread out the base between eight cupcake paper cups and put the rest in a foil-lined small round casserole sigh we had. (I lined it with foil so that I could pull it out of the dish later). Of course the small ones cooked sooner than the large one so I couldn't cool them in the oven. Thank goodness it's warm in Brisbane! Also with this many things in the oven, I couldn't do a proper water bath so just put a pan in the bottom of the oven. It worked a charm- no cracks. This recipe is amazingly forgiving. The larger cheesecake ended up being quite deep so I was worried it wouldn't cook properly in the middle. As soon as it started browning on top, I covered it lightly in foil and that did the trick.

I will without a doubt be making this recipe again. In fact I'm pretty sure it's my new permanent always-use-it-cheesecake-recipe. I really want to try out variations that have been posted by other bakers.

Tea for two. Or more.

I've seen this mug before and can't remember if I've blogged about it but I'd been talking about the need for a Pantone colour tea cup for ages before I saw this. It's comforting to see someone else saw the need...


No explanation needed really. I do have one objection though, the link to this mug is on the website boystomengifts.com. I BEG YOUR PARDON?!!!! Do only men want cool and quirky office-esque gifts? I know many women who would find this a cool gift. Hmpf.


Oh the number of times this could have saved my bacon! Although I got very proud at being able to hold 4 mugs in one go and not spill a drop or burn my knuckles.


The only problem I can see with this mug is that it will only hold 2 biscuits. Maybe three at a squeeze but they'd have to be thin. Otherwise I think it's simply ingenious. I'd want one, that's for sure.


This isn't really a mug that will make drinking easier in any way but I worked with photographers for a while and as a themed mug, I reckon this is one of the better ones I've seen.


Here is the link to the page where I found these. Follow it to see more interesting designs and also further links to info about the cups, how there were designed, where to buy them etc. I'm just sticking to the pretty pictures for now.

teeny tiny glory

I'm a huge fan of the miniature and have a fondness for dioramas so when I came across these at cheekymagpie.com, I was lost in love. it's like a diorama in a matchbox but because you can open and close them, they're like little boxes of joy. I'm gonna be buying matches just to make me some of these. Or I could just use this link for a template to make your own matchbox. (HA! Yeah- more like put it on the list of things I want to do in my spare time. I'm afraid it has to come after updating my website, changing this blog design and doing up a coffee table I bought recently. Never mind packing on Friday, fitting in my first Daring Bakers Challenge and moving on Sunday. As well as my normal work. Could I please have 2 more days in the week thanks? I don't think 48 hours is that much to ask.

Both images from www.cheekymagpie.com

Okay so I'm writing this next bit a couple of hours later but I had to add this in. You know how once you see something somewhere you suddenly start to see it everywhere? Well this has turned into my day of matchbox stumbling and I just had to share these other gems with you.

I mean how adorable are these? And they could be adapted for so many things. Little party favours for kids, place settings, mini-pressies for ppl. They're just a really cute way to contain small stuff. Check out inchmark.squarespace.com.

Similarly, this is also another cool use for these things. Check out Little Window Shoppe.

NB- The recipe for the hot cross buns has now been added to that entry. Just click here to jump to it. Enjoy.

ladies bring a bib

You have to give it to Adidas, their marketing people are geniuses. What I would love to know is if this latest promotion for NZ rugby was devised by women or men. I know where I'd be placing my bets...



On this site, you can pick from five of NZ's best strapping lads and get them to swap shirts. It's hilarious, it's objectifying, it's gratuitous and part of me knows that I should think it's wrong but- it's got slo-mo replay. And that has to be right. I want to work for Adidas advertising, their job must be awesome.

hot cross glory

I'll admit it, I pleasantly surprised myself this year. I try to make hot cross buns every year and although they do taste good, they have previously been rather, umm.... how does one tactfully put it? Aaah yes, solid. One hot cross bun and you're full. Two hot cross buns and you wouldn't need concrete shoes. But this year- light and fluffy! I was so relieved! I don't know what was different, apart from the recipe, but I'll be sticking with this one from now on just in case that was it.

All packed into their tin ready to bake.

Closeup, it's compulsory by now, you should all know that.

Fresh from the oven, unglazed. They've even brown on the sides! I was stoked.

After the honey glaze, shiny hot cross glory.

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

HOT CROSS BUNS

INGREDIENTS
2x7g packkets granulated yeast
1/4C (55g) caster sugar)
1 1/2C warm milk
4C (600g) plain flour
1t mixed spice (I did 1/4 each of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg as that's what I had)
1/2t cinnamon
60g butter
1 egg
3/4C sultanas (I used a mix of citrus peel and sultanas)

FLOUR PASTE FOR CROSSES
1/2C plain flour
2t caster sugar
1/2C water (I added a bit more)

GLAZE
1T honey, melted with some hot water

METHOD
1- Combine yeast, sugar and milk in a small bowl, cover, stand in warm place about 10 mins until mix is frothy.
2- Sift flour and spices into large bowl. Run in butter. Stir in yeast mixture, egg and sultanas; mix to a soft sticky dough. Cover; stand in warm place about 45 mins or until doubled in size.
3- Grease 23cm square slab cake tin. (Or I just put some baking paper in and don't grease it at all.)
4- Turn dough onto floured surface, knead about 5 mins or until smooth. Divide dough into 16 pieces, knead into balls. Place balls into prepared pan; cover, stand in warm place about 10 mins or until buns have risen to top of pan. (This took longer for me, left them for close to 30 mins.)
5- Meanwhile preheat oven to 200- 220C˚ (I suggest you gauge this depending on your oven. You want it hot but when you put them in, if they look like they're browning too quickly, turn the temp down a bit or put some greaseproof paper over the top them.)
6- Place flour paste for crosses in piping bag fitted with small plain tube, pipe across buns.
7- Bake buns in hot oven about 20 mins or until well browned. Turn buns onto wire rack and brush generously with glaze. I tend to do several coats as it the glaze gets absorbed quite quickly initially.

the cook and the chef

I'm a sucker for a cooking show and even when they're crap, I seem to find it very hard to look away. Even if I can't stand the presenters (don't get me started on Nigella, I could rant on forever) but in this case, I love the show and the presenters. For those not in Aussie, you will not be familiar with The Cook and the Chef but it's great. And if you check out the website, they have videos you can watch. As a vegetarian, I'm usually hanging out for the desserts for anything I could actually make myself but I still find it fascinating to watch the meaty stuff being cooked. (And I even think that some of it looks good enough to eat!


What caught my eye tonight was Potato Dauphinoise- something I've always been a sucker for but this one is slightly different in that it's cooked in the pot and then put under the grill to brown up. Previously, I've always just put it in the oven from the get-go. I don't know if this method cooks quicker than the traditional method but I'm willing to give it a go. I've put in a screen grab of teh recipe, clicking on the pic will take you to the website.


I will also have to try this recipe for Apple Fool. I lurve just about anything with cooked apple (or indeed apple flavoured or apple scented anything...) and this is a quick and easy dessert (apart from remembering ot make it far enough in advance to chill it) but I really like the way the apple has been flavoured up as it cooked. I tend to add some lemon, some sugar, a bit of cinnamon if appropriate but this version sounds scrummy!

Brisbane Stitch and Craft Show

Bonsai in Snow by Lara Cameron

YAY!

Ink and Spindle is coming to the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show! I'm so ridiculously excited about it, they have no idea. If they did they'd be scared. I've been in love with their creations for ages now and it's just great to think I'll get to meet them and pick their brains.

In fact I'm really looking forward to the show in general. I'm hoping it'll be a great place to get ideas, find out what the Brisbane craft scene is like and hopefully make some connections. 'Craft' gets such a bad rep these days (tea cozies, knitted doilies and tissue covers) but there is some seriously awesome hand-crafted stuff out there which is, I think, what it's all about. Apart from the fact that it's the path I seem to be headed down myself, I've always liked the idea of the personal touch and I think in today's world, the key is the compromise between having that hand-crafted, personal feel to things but using elements of mass-production and modern technology to make it economically sustainable. I'm hoping the Ink & Spindle seminar on 'A Home Based Craft Business' will help with this.

cool alphabet book

I'm not even sure where I came across this link initially any more, probably design*sponge (the default for all awesome stuff I seem to come across on the web) but this is awesome and it has totally renewed my obsession (yet another one...) with pop-up books.


In other news, I'm swamped with work for the first time in a long time and although it's great, poor little Aynia Brain is a little unused to it. (Oh woe is me, blah blah woof woof.) So of course now that I have 'real' work, all I can think about is the non-paid stuff I want to do for myself. I have some projects to post and a website I REALLY need to design, I should set myself a deadline...