definatalie.com » Baking

Morning tea with Charlie Mayfair

Natalie — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:37:56 +0000

This morning four of the five lovely members of Charlie Mayfair came over for tea and cake. I thought I’d break out some lemon sour cream cake (it’s so good that this is the SECOND cake I’ve made in the last few weeks!) and for the first time ever the red polka dot tea set Mum gave me!

After chatting about people wanting to eat their CD, pets with human names and Muse’s astronomical live show budget the guys went and fetched some instruments and serenaded Nick and I in our lounge room with a NEW song. What an excellent Sunday morning!

Some people have asked me if they can buy Charlie Mayfair’s debut EP online, and now you can! Go listen, it’s lovely music.

Thanks Nigella, food is pretty awesome!

Natalie — Thu, 13 May 2010 06:33:34 +0000

When you talk about hard issues, like body image and being fat and feminism, it’s nice to have a refuge. Somewhere to recoop lost Sanity Points. A little place where you don’t have to justify why you have the right to take up space, or field the same old tired questions. Nigella Lawson is one of my happy people who makes a happy place where I can revel in foodie delights and appreciate good food without the guilt that usually accompanies cooking shows.

As a Type 1 Diabetic, I can tell you a few things about food guilt. A serve of carbohydrate ought to be as big as one’s balled up fist, low hypoglycemic foods better serve one’s blood sugars and fizzy, sugary drinks are to be avoided. One should eat small meals every couple of hours and manage one’s blood sugar levels by finger prick tests and the administration of insulin, by another needle. One must also be prepared to be asked, “Should you be eating that?” when one is eating regular meals, and especially when one is suffering a hypoclycemic attack (when one needs carbohydrates to recover!) When T1D guilts start playing with the food guilt at large in the world, one’s brain gets quite muddled. For a long time I saw food as fuel only, and didn’t cook much because the whole concept of “food” overwhelmed me.

I’ve only really started cooking in the last couple of years, and it’s been because of my involvement in the fat acceptance movement. A lot of people might nod and think, “Ah yes, because Teh Obese People want to raise the green flag on food! They just want to eat without sanction!” however it’s a little more complex than that. And a little less scare-mongering too. I wasn’t surprised to read that poorer people were more likely to be obese, because genetics aside, it’s HARD to nourish yourself when you’re time and/or cash poor and especially if you’re confused as to what is actually nourishing. And when brands like Biggest Loser (the Australian TV series) and Domino’s join up, it’s a thoroughly brain melting combination.

Not being in charge of my meals really destroyed any kind of confidence I had in nourishing myself. I ate what other people suggested, and didn’t listen to what my body wanted. This year I figured out, after having my consciousness raised by the concept of intuitive eating, that my body doesn’t digest meat in an especially comfortable way, so I became vegetarian. In the last few months the bloating and bowel pain I’d suffered most of my life largely disappeared, and only reappeared when I ate a small portion of meat (yes, to test myself – very scientific!)

As a result of my brand spanking new vegetarian requirement, I started cooking a hell of a lot more, and discovered that I LOVED it. All of a sudden you could find me mixing my own spices, creating new dishes and making noodles from scratch. It’s honestly been like a series of revelations for me – I feel a slowly growing sense of confidence as I become more connected to myself and so much more nourished. I mustn’t avoid the topic of digestion here because it’s been so core to my altered outlook on food, and sorry if you’re sensitive to such matters, but since removing a food group that was causing me such distress (while supplementing my iron and protein of course!) I’ve found I’m poopin’ more regularly with no pain! Yep, I went there – but I’m all for normalising completely NORMAL body functions, naturally.

So, back to Nigella Lawson who I last saw devouring a cupcake dipped in raspberry sauce in the chiaroscuro light of a refrigerator. Thank you for serving your foodie talk with dollops of care and compassion while never failing to address the psychological aspects of eating. I find Nigella’s attitude refreshing, and much more ideal than the confused mess and mayhem of ideas towards food in the real world. Food really isn’t an enemy when I watch her show.

Friday Fance: Ye Olde Fance

Natalie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:06:23 +0000

So you dyed your hair purple in the 90s to piss off your parents? You weren’t the first one. This hairstyle won first prize at the Hairdressing Fashion Exhibition in London 1935!

This is the candy cupboard that belongs to Such Pretty Things. I think my diabetes got diabetes! But still, it’s a joy to look at – I think if I could decorate cupcakes with a quarter of this stash I’d be very happy.

The designer in me was in raptures; the fan in me danced; and the feminist in me applauded! I have got to get my hands on the 12″ Pop Goes The World release. I hope somewhere in Australia has this fantastic sleeve art!

Do you like vintage ephemera as much as me? Then you’ll probably love the Letterheady blog on tumblr. My favourites are the ones with incredibly ornate line work and shading, natch :P

And while I’m on the topic of being envious of line work and shading, please peruse the flickr of Lady Orlando. Her work is just beautiful.

Super tangy lemon pudding

Natalie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:18:23 +0000

I was craving something with a citrus tang last night so I cobbled together a recipe for a microwavable lemon self-saucing pudding.

Ingredients
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 small lemons, rind finely grated (you can substitute any citrus on hand, really)
60g butter, melted, at room temperature (I used olive oil spread)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 egg (replace with apple sauce to veganise)

Sauce
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (again, substitute this for any citrus on hand)
1/2 cup boiling water

Instructions
You’ll need a microwave-safe bowl with at least a 6 cup capacity. I use the big bowl from my Tupperware red stack cooker set.

Combine flour, sugar and rind in the bowl. Whisk together butter, juice and egg in another small bowl then stir into the flour mixture until well combined. Flatten the surface with the back of a spoon.

To make the sauce place sugar, juice and boiling water into a microwave-safe jug and stir to dissolve the sugar. If the sugar hasn’t dissolved, put jug in microwave for short bursts and stir until sugar dissolves. Pour sauce over the back of a large spoon to evenly cover pudding.

Put pudding in the microwave and cook, uncovered, on 50% power for 8 to 9 minutes or until a skewer inserted around edges comes out clean but centre is still a little sticky. Cover tightly with foil. Stand for 5 minutes or until centre is no longer sticky.

Serve with ice-cream, yoghurt or eat it plain and enjoy the tarty bitterness!

(You’ll notice that the bowl I served it in is also Tupperware, I am such a Tupper-tragic!)

Totes houseproud

Natalie — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:02:13 +0000

The weekend means mystery flowers from the market! The sign in the bucket said “Lizzies $5 or 3 for $10″, so I bought three for a very plump looking arrangement. I did a bit of a google for Lizzy/ Lizzie flowers but the image search results turned up some flowers that didn’t look like these at all. Apparently Lizzies are part of the Impatiens family, and there are quite a variety of flower heads within the genus so they could well be Lizzies… who knows?! Do you?

Here’s a closer shot so you can have a look at the buds and flowers.

The other week I was introduced to the wonder of kumatoes: small and round tomatos with a brown or striped skin. They taste crisp and sweet, perfect in salads if you want something crunchy and fresh in summer!

I love colourful foods, they make life so much nicer.

These muffins look better than they taste unfortunately. I didn’t have any buttermilk and I forgot to whisk the egg. ALWAYS WHISK THE EGG! It makes things much fluffier.

And now… I must do laundry. Fancy’s on weekend :P

Sweets for my sweets

Natalie — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:26:19 +0000

Today was a busy day! This morning I had breakfast to celebrate my uncle’s birthday and this afternoon we had an epic dessert picnic for dear Kathleen’s birthday tomorrow. We all brought something, so there was too much food. Too much delicious, lovingly made food! Cupcakes, slices, brownies, biscuits and cakes – I’d never seen so much dessert in my life and I’ve been to High Tea! There was also a macaw at the park, apparently his owner brings him down often. He was flying all over the place, swooping people and landing on them but he was generally well behaved. Shortly after the above photo was taken (by Kiki) he landed on my back and started pecking at my hair!

Dutifully reporting in with my OOTD for today! I changed shoes after I went to breakfast though.

Cardigan: City Chic
Dress: Yours Clothing
Tights: We Love Colors (I snipped the feet off)
Thongs: Who knows!
Earrings: Random store in Fortitude Valley
Sunglasses: Valley market vendor

Most of the lovely people.

So. Much. Food.

The zebra cake I made.

What amazing colours!

New Farm Park has a lovely rose garden too :D

Delicious savoury muffins!

Natalie — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:44:34 +0000

I wanted to bake some savoury muffins for my husband to take to work and for general snacking noms, because I think I have just about hit my strawberry limit (Queensland seems to be having some kind of strawberry explosion at the moment). This recipe is super flexible: you can swap veges in and out and probably even reduce the amount of butter too. The amount of muffins it yields is totally dependent on your muffin/ cupcake tray and how much you fill each hole up, but I got 18 last night!

Click to go to the flickr page – hit “All Sizes” to get the original sized jpg to print out.

Lemme tell ya something about muffins, toots. They’re delicious. They’re delicious and I won’t hear a word against them!
/film noir

Enjoy!

Fanciful Friday

Natalie — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:32:02 +0000

I’ve been slaving away over cupcakes which turned out to be complete duds after I left out the eggs, so I have baking on the brain. Today’s Fanciful Friday is going to be a baking edition!

• A hootie cake! This gorgeous owl cake was made by lady_lala “for a nice boy”. Awww man! I really want to make cupcake owls!

• Superhero groom’s cupcakes! I’m not quite sure what the tradition is with groom’s cakes because I’ve never heard of it before, but these look amazing! There are heaps more if you go over to lookcupcake‘s flickr!

• I love how these cupcakes by Sugar & Meringue are all decorated differently… it makes me think that not all cupcakes need to be uniform and precisely like each other, especially when they could all have cute designs like these!

• Bakerella always deserves a mention when it comes to baking… and these apple cake pops look fantastic! I’ve never even seen coloured candy melts in Australia, but I want to try these one day. I wonder if you can make the cake balls out of an apple sponge cake? I think I’d really crave the apple flavour if I tried to make these.

• Panda cakes! These were made by Coco Cake Cupcakes.

• I’ll leave you with the emo slice I made for my brother. I’ve realised that the red velvet recipe I posted here a few months ago is missing something crucial… the bit where you add eggs! I’ll amend the recipe eventually – I hope I haven’t completely ruined anyone’s cupcake snacking plans! Basically what I did to salvage this is mix a bunch of cream cheese into the crumbled cupcakes, spread it over a slice pan and then ice it. The “Emo Bigotry” design is an in-joke ;)

Don’t forget! If you like baking stuff, you can follow our Eat, Sleep, Cupcake tumblr blog.

Fanciful Friday

Natalie — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:25:50 +0000

• Animated gifs that are fancy! Go see this full screen – so awesome it will make your nose bleed.

• Amy Winehouse – Me and Mr Jones. I love Amy Winehouse without shame, she is an incredible vocalist who writes the most poignant lyrics. This song is one of my favourites just to belt out randomly at any given moment and because of that, it’s fancy.

• Directors Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura and Masayoshi Nakamura developed one of the most inventive video clips I’ve ever seen for Sour by using the band’s fans to create the video. It’s so finely choreographed – now that’s thinking with your fancy!

• Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland – fancy by name and fancy by nature. This lady is one of my heroes, and I’ve never read any of her books. I just love her incredible countenance, and I hope to grow up to be just like her.

• Ice cream cookie sandwiches! I’m not a huge fan of ice cream, but Makia sent me a link to Bakerella’s blog on Twitter and I had to post it because Bakerella’s food photography is so edible.

• I found this video the other week because I was on the hunt for calligraphy demonstrations, and I was stunned at the confidence in this artist’s hand. Letterarte does some beautiful work, and you should check out his channel for more!

• This. Just because it’s hilarious.

What a tart! or, How food and I are mending the rift

Natalie — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:42:00 +0000

I’ve never been very big on cooking, and since being diagnosed with juvenile diabetes I developed a strained relationship with food. It’s a bit of a chore, really. Gorging on a delicious treat needs to be calculated against the amount of insulin or exercise I will need to do in order to bring my blood sugar down to an acceptable level. A low blood sugar means I have to force feed myself even when I’m not hungry. I guess it’s because of this strange and forced friendship with food that I never really got into cooking… which doesn’t really make sense but it’s something I’ve just realised in the last 6 months or so.

When I first started learning about Health at Every Size principles I realised that my relationship with food would have to change. In order to eat intuitively I’d have to actually drop my food defences and think about the things my body wanted me to eat. A part of my self motivated “food counseling” has been taking photos of the things that I make. I’m also a big fat perfectionist, so I find myself making really fiddly things instead of just slopping stuff on a plate. Maybe I should work on that too :P

I started by making cupcakes, because everyone was making them and I wanted to join in. They’re fun and it’s easy to do pretty and creative things with them, but I think I’ve almost exhausted the humble cupcake. It was by making cupcakes that I discovered the joy of sharing food – something I have never really experienced until I started baking. Some people assume that I make these cupcakes just for myself, but they don’t see how I share them with my friends and family whenever I go visit!

In the next few months I want to learn more and more recipes, and take photos along the way of all my results. I find that when I take a photo of something I can properly document it and pat myself on the back! It might sound like a very simple sort of thing to most people, but I really struggle with food sometimes and I’ve found that cherishing my meal has helped me so much. Maybe a similar approach can help other people who feel similarly… but at the very least you can make pretty things to eat, share and reflect on!