Sunday's apple, cinnamon and berry pie ... with 'proper grown up' custard.....

Ohhh I am full. Right now I am Sizzler full.

Not 'The Cheesecake Factory Full' like when we were in Hawaii and I ate my body weight in mash potato and literally had to leave my love of shopping and go back to the hotel room for a lie down, but full enough to know better.

Today in Australia is Mothers Day, and as my family were gathering at Auntie's house, I thought I would attempt my first ever apple, cinnamon and berry pie completely made from scratch.

There was a few different recipes I was looking through and everyone was giving me their own advice too, I got to the point where I just took a bit from everyone and combined it all together.

90yr old Auntie Dawn who is a friend of our family, she gave me some perla advice. Even to the point on how to cut a cake in half with piece of cotton. So here I have spent money over the years on buying sharp knifes and special cake slicers ... and I could have just a piece of cotton and it all does the same trick.

Have a look at the pics and see what you think - personally I wasn't happy with the pastry as I had a bit of a 'My Kitchen Rule's moment as I didn't make enough pastry to actually cover the apple and berry pie. Thank Christ there are no cameras in my kitchen as there were a few choice words that came out of my mouth ... I took a moment thought ... then made some more ... crisis averted.

 Thickly chopped up 3 x granny smith apples added water and cinnamon.

Added the yummy berries

The pastry begins ... again my little hint of everyone is ALWAYS MAKE DOUBLE!!! 

Just like rolling fondant out for my cakes. Please ignore my jewellery imprints, didn't have enough time to take all my goodies off.

The realisation that I didn't have enough pastry. Bugger.

About a half hour later, we are there!!! Do you like the added touch of the stars? Bit of a Fiona special touch.

And straight out of the oven ...

Time to make 'proper custard'.

6 x egg yolks. Again, dont worry about buy expensive kitchen tools to split the egg yolk v egg white. Just ask your auntie who does it for free !!!

New concept for me. Actually whisking the custard by hand and not by the electric whizzer

Me getting a hand by Auntie when we had to combine the above and milk/cream concoction together.

Again ... mixing more in at just the right temperature so it doesn't curdle.

Cousin Kylie's job was sorting out the vanilla pod and getting all the seeds out for flavour.

Finally the pie makes it to the table ....

And not much left over at the end ....

And sometimes, we all need a bit of caramel slice ...

In Sydney the weather has turned. I suppose that's OK considering we are in May but I am one of those Sydney siders that will wear my flip flops right till the end. Must admit though that the tracky daks and uggs boots (knee high ones thank you) are on as soon a I get home ...

Anyway, when the weather turns a bit cold, I like to get in the kitchen and cook. So continuing on with my besottedness (yes this is a word in the Fiona dictionary of life) of caramel, yesterday afternoon I made a cracker caramel slice.

Just like my measurements when making a beloved vodka, lime and soda when there's a little bit of this, alot of that etc ... when making my version of caramel slice I like to do a great chunk of this, little spoonful of that and alot more of everything else. Generally this theory works!!!!

Will keep my recipe in my pink book of joy for a bit longer, just incase I enter it into the Royal Easter Show next year .. mind you am sure the hyphen hyphen judges will pick something wrong about it ... maybe cause it just tastes like PURE GOODNESS (if I can say so myself).

 Go Bertie my Kitchenaid ... never lets me down!!! Mixing the base up.

This is when you are supposed to start being precise but by this point I just want to get it all together.

Yummy!!! You ca'nt go past the smell of melting butter and golden syrup. Always reminds me of being in my Grandmothers kitchen when I was little.

Ahhh the condensed milk ...always a winner in taste, smell and touch ....

Literally have to stir for 7.5 mins (whoops, that's one of my little hints)

Just take a moment again with this chocolate. This is the pure GOLD of chocolate. The one that I can't ever pronounce but its spelt like coverture ....Another little hint is my mixture of chocolate flavours

Layer 1 - biscuit base

Layer 2 - yummy caramel

 And the pouring commences ...

Just had to add another one for effect ....

No words need to be said for this one ...

And the final result ... this was for work today ... end of the day ... only crumbs left over. Result.

Mastering macarons .......

I love caramel!!! 

From when I was little and we used to go to McDonalds ... actually who am I kidding, I still frequent McDonalds and I enjoy every part of it!!! The McDonalds at the top of the Champs-Élysées in Paris is my favourite in the world. You are asking why??? Well its in one of the best avenues in the world for shopping and you can eat a cheeseburger with hot chips in it and watch the shinanigans of the traffic at the Arc De Triomphe roundabout at the same time!!! Anyway I digress....

McDonalds caramel sundae's, caramel milkshakes (keep them away from Auntie), caramello koalas and cobbers from the 2c lolly jars (even though they wouldn't be 2c anymore) .... I love caramel!!!

So today I was trying to tick something off my list that's been bothering me for a while. I can bake cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, biscuits, slices ... etc etc, however the one thing I cannot master is macarons. So this arvo I was going to attempt salted caramel macarons.

Just like I can't tell you the difference between onshore and offshore in surfing terms or the offside rule in football (soccer) terms, I can't tell you why I can't master macarons. I have attempted them 7 times and each time they just looked miserable ... A watched macaron doesn't rise!!! I did learn that ....

UNTIL TODAY MY FRIENDS!!!! I CONQUERED THEM!!!! 

One of my favourite books is called 'Like Water For Chocolate' and its based in Mexico and its about a girl that cooks for her family and the feeling that goes into her cooking. If she was in a fouly then the food was terrible, however if she was in an awesome mood, then her cooking was fabulous. I think this counts for alot .... and I base it on alot of my cooking experiences ...

Anyway the macarons below are for 2 of my gorgeous cousins, Melinda and Josie who b'days it is tomorrow .... however since they live a little bit far away my work team are going to benefit from them .....

Take a moment!!! This is my favourite sifter in the whole wide world. I have tried and tested at least 10 different styles and this one is defo the bees knees!!! Thank you Els!!!!

Before the Oven ....

 And after the oven - woohoo!!!!

Oh yes!!!! Not perfect but well on the way. And hey if you have perfection the first time, what have you got to work towards!!!!

We all know I love a trip to Bunnings. Love it. Even if its just to play sharades with the poor unsuspecting Bunnings Staff member who has to try and decipher what I am trying to describe!!! 

The below measuring tapes coming in a variety of different colours. I nearly bought a purple one, not that I needed it but it was purple. Next time maybe ....

I found Chris in the Tools section and I was trying to describe the scraper below by calling it a shovel. He took me to the shovels section and I kept on trying to illustrate what I was trying to look for. We finally compromised (somehow) and I got the below. What I didn't show you is the variety of sizes and types of handles. All to complicated. Bless Chris. I said just pick one for me ... everyone is a winner!!!

I am doing the biggest most difficult cake to date ever (for me) at the end of July and wanted to get a bit of practise in, so have a look at a new design in cake decorating at the moment called 'Sugar Veil'. Its all edible and gives the cakes a really lovely vintage classic stylish look.

 Its still not dry enough to peel away yet but you get the idea of what its going to look like ... Wait till July ... this cake is going to be incredible!!!

And just cause its Sunday night and I can ... I made these dark choc peppermint frogs. I used real proper grown up coverture chocolate and frigg me it makes a difference in taste. Put some freckles in there too ... they taste awesome (if I can say so)

The one where our 'Kiels' gets married ....

Rightio ... Happy Easter to everyone. Not matter what your religious beliefs are for this weekend, its just nice that we can all agree to eat chocolate. No more needs to be said.

When Petrice and I at work are not discussing my distaste for black biro pens (irrational I know), we are usually playing the Big Brother game and working out who in our working environment would be up for eviction. And please, we are quite fair as we have nominated ourselves some weeks too ....

One person that would never be up for nomination and I know everyone agrees with me, is one of our Producers called Kiels. Unbeknown to us we have been pronouncing his surname incorrect for the last few years but he's OK with that. We have it right at the moment.

Anyway. Kiels and his lovely new wife Viv are over here in Australia all the way from London UK. They have settled here and I hope its for a long while. I first worked with Kiels back at SBS and now we are fortunate enough to have him sometimes working with us on the 'boys on bikes'.

When we work on one of big events we have an incredible mix of personalities that need to get on in an intense time of our lives. We work long hours over many days under stressful conditions but hey we do it because we love it at the some time. You need Kiels on your production team, he just makes the atmosphere lighter and he's had the joy of sitting next to me on a couple of flights and is nice and calm when the plane wobbles a bit.

Kiels and Viv had their wedding day last week up at the Hunter Valley. The plans all sounded lovely, nice and intimate with just them and people close to them both. Its very difficult when you are across the other side of the world away from everyone you grew up with (I lived overseas for 7 years), but it sounds like they had fabulous beautiful day.

Kiels and Viv asked me to make their wedding cake, cupcakes, cookies and gingerbreads people (see pics below) a couple of months ago and typical me said of course why not, anything to help make their day super special. I just didn't realise how hectic March was going to be.....

We have had another busy time at work and in the space of 9 x nights I had slept in 5 x different places.
13 March - Margaret River in the boys house
14-16 March - Margaret River in the Morrison family house
17 March - Row 12A on the foulness Red Eye Virgin flight from Perth to Sydney
18 March - My beloved bed
19-24 March - Hotel in Penrith. Yes lovelies, you did read that correct ... was Chiefly Towers in Penrith.

Was all more thanfine though and there was plenty of time for the cake prep once we had finished on the International Rowing Regatta.

This was our daily view at Margaret River for the surfing ... you never got tired of watching ...

Sun saying goodnight over the ocean not the city as we are used to in Sydney.

View outside my window at Penrith.... was a culture shock to go from beach to carpark ... and just accross from there is the original Krispy Kreme which I had to go through the drive thru for our German clients ... it was 0630am on a Sunday morning so thank god no one witnessed this ... and little did those cars know that in a few hours they will be completely covered in bird crap!!! It was quite amazing how much birds can crap out there ....

Now to the fun photos ....

Gingerbread people with an 'I' and a 'V" (Ian and Viv)

Vanilla cookies with patterned pink and white fondant. 

Orange and Poppyseed cupcakes with white fondant or frosting with pink roses ..

Was one of their friend's b'day on the actual wedding cake ... so an extra cake was made as a suprise

The wedding cake - this was a 2 x tier red velvet with lemon cream cheese ganache as the filling.

2013 Royal Easter Show - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

It's that time of year again ... The Sydney Royal Easter Show. Time to enter my cake into the annual competition and to try not to get disqualified this year .... Again thank you Lorraine hyphen hyphen.

Anyway have a sneaky peak .... see how many of the items you can pick out from the story.

Its a 360 degree cake as he does get through quite a bit of food ...

Think back to your pre-school days .... when life was so easy and all you had to worry about was what colour play-doh you were going to eat that day or if you wanted to do finger painting or instead of learning how to cut out shapes ....

In my family I am known for my memory. I can actually tell each of you where we first met and what you first said to me and if you are lucky, what you were wearing .... I still look back through my pre-school yearly photo and can name the majority of my friends. Would still like to question my mum though on why she thought it was acceptable to dress me in a pink skivy .... please!!!!

Anyway each day when it came around to book time, without a doubt I would always go for 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. It was my favouite. I never had it at home and the cousins didn't either so I took the opportunity whenever possible to just sit quietly (rare occurance) and turn the pages slowly and each time when the double page of all the food appeared ... I was a happy girl.

The other reason I decided on this cake was because one of my colleagues from SBS named Vitor, we nicknamed him The Hungry Caterpillar as we needed to make sure he had food around him every few hours or otherwise not much was going to get done.

Picture this. It was 2009 and Vitor the Journo, Ryan the Cameraman and me the Production Manager were travelling around South Africa for The Confederations Cup which is the comp in the lead up to the World Cup.

We were in a town called Rustenburg which is about 3 hours north of Johannesburg by car. We had a few hairy scary drives back and forth but we were getting prepped for an evening game with South Africa v Spain. We went to the supermarket to buy some food as there were not very many safe places to stop and have a snack in the towns on the way up there.

The weather was cold. Very cold. About 2 degrees literally cold. I was even wearing a beanie which I never ever do. That's how cold it was. Just quietly too, I thought I was safe and no one would catch me wearing a beanie but little did I know that when I was testing the IFB for Vitor with the SBS Sydney Studio ... the feed was actually going around the world. My friends at SNTV in London had more than great delight in telling me!!!

Anyway I gave my game ticket to Ike our driver because as mentioned, it was very cold and those bloody horn things that make the most hideous sound were driving me bananas.

Was settled in the media centre and it was about halfway through the game and I felt a tap on my shoulder. A girl about 18yrs old who was one of the cleaners asked if she could sit down and watch the game with me. Sure why not ... she was only wearing flip flops too and no winter jacket so she must have been numb. I was snacking on my usual sandwich and crisps and as I was about to take my last bite ... she asked if she could have some food too.

I didn't even think twice. I handed over Vitor's food. All of it. I thought that if she had the courage to ask me for food cause she was hungry, then who was I not share out Vitors food. Must have looked like a good site with the two of us sitting together from completely different walks of life and watching the football.

The look on Vitors face too when he asked me where his food was and I had to explain ..... it was priceless!!! Don't worry though ... as it was a Saturday, just like the very hungry caterpillar, we got Vitor a hamburger, hot chips, nuggets and even a sweet to go with it .... and he was happy!!! Peace was restored.

My poor lounge room being taken over over my the world of cakes.

All the pieces set to go ...

Settled in at the Show ... they are very particular about the photos you take out there and not supposed to get anyone elses int eh back ground ... which is a shame cause the Taj Mahal behind mine, was incredible!!!