I am a bear

This post is dedicated to my dear friends Miss T and Miss H, I am so incredibly proud of what you have both achieved and feel so very lucky to be a part of Manly Panto! You really can't go wrong with this dark chocolate cupcake recipe and what better way to to dress it up then to add a dollop of delicious chocolate ganache, chocolate buttons and there you have it "I am a bear".  Love Mi xo

MiNaScope

The MiNaScope microscope stage with various "biological" samples.

Yes, I know it's been a very, very long time since we've posted anything. I've had this one saved in the drafts folder since August and just haven't had the time (or motivation) to finish it off. Better late than never I guess!

A few months ago, Na sent me an email about the "Great Microscopy Bake-off 2013" held at The University of Sydney. The brief was to make a science or microscopy-themed cake, cupcake or biscuit. This was right down our alley and we really wanted to make a joint submission. We brainstormed and came up with various ideas, being so like-minded we actually came up with very similar ideas so it made the final decision easy. As we are both microscopists, we felt very strongly about making something microscope-related but a microscope seemed too obvious. In the end we decided on a microscope stage and various "biological" samples, this way we could easily make the components separately and then arrange them together on the day.

The MiNaScope microscope stage was chocolate brownie on the inside covered in basic vanilla buttercream and fondant. I bought the white icing at the supermarket and black fondant at The Essential Ingredient. Na's gingerbread cookies were covered in royal icing and decorated using a feathering effect described here. The writing on the "glass slides" was achieved by using a pen with edible ink.

Anthea Leonard from Sweet Art was there to judge the cakes and we came second! How amazing is that? Mi xo

Gingerbread cookies with "fluorescent cells" made by Na.

"Bacterial plate"gingerbread cookies made by Na.

Gingerbread "glass slides" made by Na.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Ganache

A friend of ours is totally obsessed with Nutella, it has been so long since I had some. I remember as a kid spreading a thick layer of it on a fresh slice of white bread (crust off of course!) or eating spoonfuls of it straight from the jar. So when we had our baby reunion last week, I wanted to make some Nutella inspired cupcakes. I made a dark chocolate cupcake using this recipe and covered it with a Nutella ganache. It turned out pretty well, but next time I think I will have to boost the quantity of Nutella. It's a shame that she couldn't make it in the end, guess I will just have to make it again! Mi xo

Ice Cream Cake Pops

After his first attempt of no-bake cake pops my little brother, BroMi embarked on another adventure to make these super cute ice cream cake pops. He used a guide which can be found on Cakegirls. Basic instructions are as follows:

1. Melt some yellow candy melts and paint the cone area with a paint brush (see photo of cake pop mould below).
2. Put this in the fridge for 5 minutes and then go over with a second layer to cover any gaps, put in fridge again.
3. Melt the white candy and paint the ice cream area as well as going over the yellow cone area, repeat with a second layer as described above.
4. Once set, press the cake mixture into the ice cream and cone leaving a gap of about 5 mm from surface.
5. Coat the tip of a cake pop stick with candy melt and push it into the cake or I found it easier to place the stick in and put some cake on top of it.
6. Spoon more melts over the cake layer to fill it up. Even it out and place into fridge until set.
7. Once set remove from mould. Use a paint brush to put piping gel over the areas you want sprinkles and then sprinkle them on!

No-Bake Cake Pops!

I've always wanted to try making cake pops ever since Miss T created these delicious treats, but they look so tedious and the thought of making a cake just to break it up seems so backwards to me. Recently, my little brother decided to re-ignite his love for baking (yes, it runs in the family) and created these fabulous no-bake cake pops! How is it possible that they are no-bake you ask? Well, you buy a cake, crush it up, mix with ready made butter cream and roll it. And there you have it, no-bake cake pops. Then you can focus all your attentions on decorating the cake pops, which is the fun part! These ones were covered in rainbow sanding sugar from Sugar Shack. If only my brother wasn't living on the other side of the world in London, I would devour these little beauties!! Mi xo

Tiramisu

Happy Mother's Day to all the mummies out there! This year marks my very first Mother's Day!! My mum who lives interstate came to visit us on the weekend and I wanted to make something delicious for her...it also had to be something relatively easy that I could make in advance and whilst wearing a baby. :) A while back Miss T made us some yummy tiramisu and so I asked her for the recipe. This recipe can also be found here. I pretty much followed the recipe, except added 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the mascarpone mixture for extra flavour. I also took the advice from reviewers' comments and whipped the cream for a bit longer until soft peaks formed (but not all the way). I used a 19 x 19 cm square dish and about 30 sponge fingers (savoiardi) or 3/4 of a 400 g packet. As I had some leftover biscuits and coffee/marsala mixture, I constructed two mini-tiramisu in a glass (see photo below). The layers can be seen more easily when sliced as seen above, although mine did not look quite as neat as the original image...I like to think of it as rustic. The mini-tiramisu was used as a taste tester, it definitely tasted better the next day when the flavours had time to soak through the sponge. Overall, a good recipe that was super-easy to make and delicious! Mi xo

P.S. For those who are super-observant, yes, the side of the glass has "Eels" written on it. They belong to Mr Mi!

Cheesecake Brownies

I've been wanting to try this recipe for ages, it's from one of my favourites cook books David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert. Life has been a bit chaotic lately and having a little one makes it difficult to put time aside to try a new recipe, but having him sleep in a hug-a-bub wrap has really saved my life. It gave me freedom to have both my hands free to bake! And boy have I missed baking!! Anyway, I volunteered to bake something for our weekly new parent's group and wanted to make something super-scrumptious. To me, baking for someone is the best way to show them you care, nothing pleases me more than seeing someone bite into a sweet morsel of goodness and smile with content. I pretty much stayed true to this recipe, except sprinkled some extra choc chips on top just because I could. I didn't have a square tin so had to use a larger rectangular one which meant the brownies were a bit flatter - more like a choc cheesecake slice I suppose. Nonetheless, they tasted delicious and moist in the centre much like black bottom cupcakes. If you love chocolate (and who doesn't) this is the cookbook for you! Mi xo

Baking & Babies

Yet again, it’s been a little while between posts. I had a whole string of posts banked up ready to go and since then have had little time for baking as our little man arrived about 6 weeks ago! I have been wanting to bake desperately, but soon discovered that a baby actually takes up a lot of time! :) I attempted to make gooey cinnamon cake to welcome back my little brother who was visiting from London, it took me twice as long and I had to juggle preparation in between feeds...I got there in the end. Phew!  What I have found time for is making custom onesies for all the little babies from our birth class. I dug out some felt, ribbon and fabric paint from my craft box and constructed a cross between softie and iron-on transfer. It’s fun, easy to do and most importantly less time critical compared to baking. Hopefully, I will get some time to bake very soon! Mi xo

Gooey Cinnamon Cake

As soon as I saw this post from David Lebovitz's website, I knew I had to make this cake! If you love butter cake and cinnamon, this is definitely the cake for you. The smell of the cake baking in the oven is amazing and the result so moist and delicious, highly recommended. The cake is meant to be gooey, so make sure you don't overcook it! Mi xo

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream

As seen in my previous post Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting this recipe makes amazingly dark chocolaty cupcakes. This time I followed the recipe all the way and used the raspberry buttercream frosting. A perfect combination, the raspberry nicely balances the richness of the chocolate. Mi xo

Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

It's no secret that I love to bake. People often say to me that they don't know how I find the time or else they find baking too difficult and would prefer to use a packet mix because it's easier. Perhaps it's just the scientist in me, but I find as long as you follow a recipe and measure out all quantities precisely you can't really fail. In fact it's more satisfying than a science experiment as more often than not it will result in success, in science I find 9 times out of 10 things will most likely fail or else end up with unexpected results! My point is, baking should be simple and a good book for such recipes is 1 Mix 100 Cakes. Admittedly, I haven't tried all the recipes but this one is definitely one of my favourites! The original recipe is for a loaf, but I made cupcakes instead. Mi xo

Lemon Drizzle Cupcake Recipe

• 1 and 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 180 g unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Syrup

• 3/4 cup pure icing sugar
• 3 tbsp lemon juice

1. Preheat a fan forced oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Sift flour and baking powder.
3. Add butter, sugar, eggs and beat well until mixture is smooth.
4. Stir in lemon rind and juice.
5. Spoon mixture into 2 x 12 muffin size tins lined with paper.
6. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
7. For the syrup, place the icing sugar and lemon juice on the stove and heat gently until sugar has melted.
8. Prick the cupcakes with a skewer and drizzle the syrup on top.

Freckle Biscuits

I cannot take credit for these colourful beauties. My sister made them after seeing something similar in a  cafe. The classic chocolate treat "Freckles" have always been a favourite but they're so much better in biscuit form. My sister decided to make a shortbread for the base and used Lorraine Pascale's "Dreamlike Shortbread" recipe. The full recipe can be found here. Once the biscuits have cooled completely, dip the tops into some melted chocolate and then into a bowl of hundreds and thousands. Easy as you like! Na xo

Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread

I love shortbread! The soft, buttery goodness that just melts in your mouth. Last Christmas, my sister gave me David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert cook book. As I flicked through the pages salivating at all the recipes before me, I came across one for brown sugar-pecan shortbread. YUM! I had to make this. What I love about David's recipes is that they are always very simple such as the one for Coconut Macaroons and the result is pure deliciousness! Be sure to check out his website for many more amazing recipes. Mi xo

Nigella's Pecan-Plus Pie

My friend Miss T had a craving for pecan pie and so sent this recipe my way Nigella's Pecan-Plus Pie. Now, I have never made pecan pie before although do love eating it so figured that must count for something. This was really easy to make and tasted absolutely delicious, especially teamed up with a dollop of freshly whipped cream. Be warned, it is super-filling so go easy on the portion sizes! Mi xo

Wholemeal Banana Pancakes

During the holiday season I liked watching "Jamie's Family Christmas". I especially loved his no fuss pancake recipe that he made with the help of his adorable little daughters. The basic recipe is so easy to commit to memory and it goes like this...1 mug self-raising flour, 1 mug milk, 1 egg, pinch of salt, mix it all together and you're a few minutes away from delicious fluffy pancakes. Make sure that you use the same mug to measure the flour and the milk. So that's the basic recipe, which is great as is but if you want to turn them into something a little bit more special then just add some fruit to the mix. Jamie grated some pear into his mixture but I opted for banana. My wholemeal banana version goes like this...

Add 1 mug wholemeal self-raising flour, 1 mug milk, 1 egg, pinch of salt and 1 large mashed banana. Mix it all together. Melt a little butter in a pan and fry on a medium heat until golden brown. Squeeze a bit of honey on them if you like. Perfect start to a lazy Sunday! Na xo

Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting

Happy 1st birthday to MiNa's Food Adventures (well, one year and 2 days)! I can't believe it's been a year since our very first post, Christmas Cupcakes. What better way to celebrate this milestone then to post about our most favourite sweetie in the world, cupcakes!

I'd been searching a while for a really chocolaty cupcake recipe and came across this one from Two Peas & Their Pod. Thought I would give it a go and boy was I glad that I did! At first, I was a bit uncertain about the addition of Greek yogurt but the result was worth the wait - super moist and super chocolaty cupcakes. If you love chocolate, then look no further then this recipe and the best part is it's really easy to make. I was in a salted caramel mood, so decided to team these cupcakes up with a delicious buttercream from Sally's Baking Addiction. Very naughty...very YUMMY! Mi xo

Shake Shack, New York

My sister and I waited in line for half an hour for what we heard were the best burgers in New York. Even though the lines are long...the burgers are worth the wait!  I was expecting an all american, greasy, gigantic beef burger but what I got was actually quite cute and so very delicious! The chips were amazing too and crinkle cut! The original Shake Shack is located in Madison Square Park near the Flat Iron Building. I miss New York! Na xo
Photos by A.G.

Pandan & Coconut Macaroons

Well, it's been a little while between posts, no excuse really I've done plenty of baking was just waiting for some quiet time to blog. Oh and waiting for our little one to arrive! We have another 4 weeks or so until the big day, so you may get a bursts of posts in the next few weeks followed by some quiet time. I'm sure Na will have plenty of posts in the meantime.

This is one of my favourite recipes, great to make when you have lots of leftover egg whites. Yes, Mr Mi was making ice cream again, not that I'm going to complain! The recipe can be found on my Pandan and Coconut Ice Cream post or else directly from David Lebovitz's website. The only modification I made was to replace the vanilla with pandan extract which can be bought from your local Asian supermarket. The result is lovely vibrant green macaroons and the pandan paired with coconut is simply delicious! Mi xo

Rainbow m&m Cookies

Another rainbow creation for the lovely Miss T Bunny! I used the same cookie dough recipe as seen in my earl grey tea cookie post. I omitted the tea leaves and added an extra half teaspoon of vanilla extract. To get the rainbow effect, I divided the dough into five equal portions, coloured each portion with Wilton gel colours, rolled each colour into a thin log and then joined the five logs to form a large rainbow log. Chill the cookie dough in the fridge until hard (I left mine overnight), slice and place a mini-m&m on each coloured segment. Mr Mi was nice enough to sort the m&m's into single colours for me! Bake as usual until slightly golden on the edges and there you have it perfect crispy, buttery cookies with pretty colours that make people happy! Mi xo

Magnolia Bakery, New York

This bakery has been on my list of places to go for a long time now. I finally got to visit it when I went to New York City for a little holiday with my sister. It's the most adorable bakery and everything is baked and decorated by hand. They're well known for their amazing cupcakes topped with a signature swirl of delicious frosting. The baked goods on offer don't just stop with cupcakes; they have brownies, cookies and a huge range of full-sized cakes.

The bakery now occupies a few locations dotted about the city but the one I went to was the very first and is located on a quiet street in the west village. Ladies or gents who love "Sex and the City" may also recognise it, as it features in one of the episodes.

Carrie and Miranda having a cupcake outside Magnolia Bakery in Sex and the City.

The original Magnolia Bakery can be found at 401 Bleecker Street, New York. Na xo
Photos by A.G.

Rainbow Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting

Happy New Year! This post is dedicated to my friend Miss T Bunny, she loves rainbows and so I wanted to make super-special cupcakes for our NYE celebration. She is the most wonderfully gifted and generous person and is soon to embark on her own little adventure. We shall all miss you dearly! Love Mi xo

P.S. Why are there so many songs about rainbows?
P.P.S This marshmallow frosting recipe is amazing!!