MiNa's Thursday Lunch: Pot Pies & Pudding

Lentil (centre) and chicken (top right) pot pie with sweet potato mash and peas.

Every Thursday at our workplace, we have what's called "Thursday lunch" where we take turns cooking lunch for all our work buddies. It's been a long standing tradition and is a great way to bring everyone together. Soon it was our turn and for weeks leading up to the day we dreamt up all these fabulous dishes that we would make...then we stopped and realised that we had to make it for 30 odd people and suddenly we decided to re-think the plans and make something that is easy to upscale yet still delicious. This is when Jamie Oliver came to the rescue! We are both big fans of his cookbook Jamie's 30-Minute Meals, so turned to this for inspiration. What would people want to eat on a cold winter's day? Steaming hot pot pies with a side of mash and peas topped off with soft-centred chocolate puddings, raspberry coulis and double cream! Perhaps this was also inspired by our recent trip to the Pie Tin.

Vanilla and Rose Water Cupcakes

For Mr Mi's recent birthday bash, Mi asked me to make a batch of cupcakes to accompany her brilliant Nyan Cat Cake. I wanted to keep it simple so I decided to make a basic vanilla cupcake with a pleasing swirl of buttercream frosting on each one. I gave the buttercream a bit of an exotic touch by adding just a hint of rose water essence. The full recipe is as follows:

Nyan Cat Birthday Cake

Mr Mi had a second birthday celebration (lucky man!) and this time I decided to move on from the Android cake and set myself a new challenge. Mr Mi loves Nyan cat, I had no idea what it was until he showed me a few months ago. Who would have thought a cat stuffed inside a poptart with rainbows coming out of its bottom would be so popular? Although I have to admit that after watching it I couldn’t get the song out of my head for days! After seeing this amazing Nyan Cat Cake from Grace Cakes, I thought I would give it a go.

For the cake, I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe with the addition of the zest of one orange. I divided the cake batter into four portions and coloured each portion red, yellow, green and blue using Wilton gel colours. Then, I gently placed each of these portions into a cake tin one at a time to create a layering effect. For the buttercream, I used Na’s recipe with the addition of the zest of one orange and 2 tablespoons of orange juice. Now, the Nyan cat took a good few hours to make…if you attempt this I suggest making it well in advance and storing in an airtight container. I traced an image from the Internet using baking paper and used this as a template to cut out the shapes from ready rolled icing. It was a fun experience, that was until I started to cut the pixels out for the poptart sprinkles…by then I was ready to have a break! It is a simple design, but don’t be fooled...cutting all those square edges out and assembling takes time! The cake turned out pretty well and was enjoyed by all. Love Mi xo

The Pie Tin

Mi and I recently went on a lunchtime adventure in search of the perfect pie. Having heard so many good things about The Pie Tin in Newtown, we knew we had to try it out. There's nothing better than a hearty pie on a cold winters day and these pies sure did put the roses back in our cheeks! There is a wide selection of savoury and sweet pies, as well as delicious side dishes. Mi ordered a lamb and rosmary pie and I got a roast pork pie with apples. We also shared some sweet potato mash and mushy peas. We smothered our pies with tomato sauce and gobbled them down. They were delicious and the pastry was PERFECT! Word to the wise...they do not provide knives here, only sporks and eating with your hands is encouraged! 

After we ate our savoury pies, we could not leave without trying a sweet one. The display cabinet was way too tempting. There was so much choice! It took us a while to decide but we finally settled on a slice of coconut and lime cream pie, which was amazing! Next time I would like to try a slice of the apple pie, which is probably the biggest apple pie I have ever seen in my life! Next time you're in the mood for a pie, try one from The Pie Tin but I insist that you treat yourself to a sweet one as well!

The Pie Tin is located at 1 Brown St. Newtown, NSW. Enjoy! Na xo

Butterfly Cupcakes

I absolutely love the smell of vanilla cupcakes baking in the oven. I've made a lot of cupcakes in my time and I still think the best recipe for a basic vanilla cupcake is equal portions of butter, sugar and flour. I got this recipe from 500 Cupcakes one of my favourite baking cookbooks. It's super easy and you can't go wrong. In fact it's very similar to Na's basic cupcake batter in her recent post Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. Just make sure the butter and eggs have come to room temperature before beating together.

Chai Cupcakes

These mini cupcakes are quite a crowd pleaser and very simple to make! I recently made a batch for a dear friend's birthday party. If you like chai lattes, then you'll love these. It's also quite fun watching people try to guess what spices are in the buttercream. The recipe is as follows:

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

What do you get when you mash together a cake with a cookie? Whoopie pie! I came across this recipe from one of my favourite food blogs, Not Quite Nigella. The first time I tried this recipe, I used rock salt thinking somehow that the granules would dissolve...well it didn't! So, second time around I just decided to omit the salt and instead of the marshmallow filling I made a peanut buttercream. I also made them much smaller, using a teaspoon instead of an ice cream scoop. They rise and expand quite a bit in the oven, you have been warned! I used Na's buttercream recipe with some slight modifications:

Peanut buttercream recipe

• 125 g unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter
• 1 and 1/2 cup of pure icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk

1. Beat the butter and peanut butter with an electric whisk
2. Add the icing sugar, vanilla and milk
3. Beat until smooth and creamy

I love peanut butter and while I thought this buttercream was pretty good, I think I would add more peanut butter next time. Enjoy! Mi xo

The Sweet Spot Patisserie

Left: Banana Royale. Right: Apple Strudel.

Once every few months, my boyfriend and I go to the beautiful, art deco styled, Randwick Ritz Cinema. It has become somewhat of a tradition to follow a movie with afternoon tea around the corner at The Sweet Spot Patisserie, which is cutely named considering it's location at The Spot in Randwick. We often have cups of Earl Grey tea and split an apple strudel, while we pretend to be Margaret and David and discuss the complexities of the film we just saw. Apart from the delicious strudel, The Sweet Spot has an amazingly wide variety of cakes and biscuits to choose from. We've tried the profiteroles, cannoli, banoffie pie and the banana royale. I've got my eye on the sour cherry and ricotta strudel for next time! So if you find yourself in Randwick, visit the The Sweet Spot and maybe catch a movie. It might become a tradition for you too! The Sweet Spot is located at 18 Perouse Rd. Randwick. Na xo