Lemon cupcakes with lemon curd

I made some lemon cupcakes last night. Somehow I forgot to put the milk in, so today they are a bit dry, but boy are they tasty! Lemon is such a great flavour.

I got the recipe from an old Donna Hay magazine whilst searching for a Chocolate Cheesecake recipe (which I still haven't found...). You will need:

125gm butter, softened
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 tspns finely grated lemon rind
3 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups plain flour
1 and 1/2 tspns baking powder
1/4 cup of milk

For the lemon curd you will need:
45gm butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 egg

Now the recipe is actually for "lemon meringue cupcakes", so if you want to do that step you will also need:
2 egg whites
1/3 cup caster sugar


Preheat the oven to 180c.

I made the lemon curd first because it needs to cool. Melt the butter over low heat. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and egg, and stir until smooth. Continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly for about 5-7 mins or until thickened. Refrigerate.

Beat the butter, sugar, lemon rind, eggs, flour, baking powder and milk with an electric mixer until smooth.

Spoon into muffin pan lined with patty cases, and bake for 20 mins (test with a skewer). Cool.

To make the meringe, beat the egg whites until frothy. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the meringue is thick and glossy.

Cut 2cm diameter holes in the centre of the cooled cakes and fill with the lemon curd.

Pipe a swirl of meringue over the lemon curd and place the cakes under a preheated hot grill for 1 minute or until golden. Makes 12.


I actually topped the cupcakes with a lemon cream cheese topping. I just mixed some cream cheese, icing sugar and 2 tspns lemon juice together til smooth.



Enjoy!

Chocolate, Icecream and Espresso

My new laundry would have to be the tastiest sounding laundry around. The floor tiles are Chocolate, the wall tiles are Icecream and the bench top is Espresso. Yum!

Yes the laundry is almost finished, just a couple more small things to go. Here are the photos. I love it!

Hottest 100 of all time

Triple J are running a poll for the hottest 100 songs of all time. I would really like to vote, if only for the chance to be in the winning for tickets to the Reading Festival in the UK. But I'm afraid I take these music polls way too seriously...

You can only vote for 10 songs. How is that possible? It would take me days to come up with all my favourite of favourites, let alone whittle it down to ten! But the other day I thought "just vote for any", I mean, what does it really matter. So I started a list of songs I would possibly vote for. I didn't get very far before I gave up completely.

So, here is a completely dodgy list that I may or may not use to vote for songs before the poll ends this weekend. I should note, that the list doesn't contain anything too recent, but it should, because songs like "Empire of the Sun's - Walking on a Dream" or "Little Birdie's - Brother", I think will definitely be on my list in years to come.

The Shins - New Slang or Gone for good
Prince - When doves cry or 7
INXS - Never Tear us apart
Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing
Sinead O'connor - The Emporer's new clothes
Tori Amos - Cornflake girl
Peter Gabriel - Solsbury hill
Elliot smith - Waltz #2
ABBA - Super Trouper
David Bowie/Queen - Under pressure (and cover two artists with one song)
Bob Dylan - Lay lady lay
Radiohead - High and dry or Fake plastic trees
The Verve - Bittersweet symphony
U2 - I still haven't found what I'm looking for
Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Scar Tissue
Joni Mitchell - Both sides now
Ben Harper - Burn one down (or pick any random song from the Ben Harper collection)
Kate Bush - Running up that hill
Blondie - Atomic
Crowded House - Don't dream its over (or anything at all by Crowded House...)
Madonna - Like a prayer
Hoodoo Gurus - My girl
Hunters and Collectors - Throw your arms around me
Johnny Nash - I can see clearly now
Midnight Oil - Blue sky mine
Neil Diamond - Beautiful noise
Paul Kelly - To her door
Bee Gees - Spicks and specks
REM - What's the frequency, Kenneth? (or pick any random song from their collection)
Silverchair - Anthem for the year 2000
Violent Femmes - Blister in the sun
The Church - Under the milk way
The Waifs - London Still
The Beach Boys - God only knows
Kylie Minogue - Can't get you out of my head or Did it again
Wendy Matthews - Day you went away
George Michael - Freedom 90
Blur - Boys and girls
Chirs Isaak - Wicked game
Nirvana - Come as you are
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
The Cranberries - Zombie
Fastball - The Way
Hole - Celebrity Skin
Alex Lloyd - Amazing
The Bangles - Walk like an Egyptian
Damien Rice - Blower's daughter
Eskimo Joe - From the sea
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
The Pogues - Dirty old town
Gotye - Heart's a mess
Four Seasons - Oh what a night
Jebediah - Leaving Home
Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Jack Johnson - Flake

Yeah, I won't be going to the Reading Festival.

Rocky Road

The only Rocky Road worth eating is the one you make yourself. That way you can put the best quality ingredients into it. Authentic Turkish Delight, your favourite nuts (macadamia for me), and the best marshmallows.

I'm going to Belinda's house tonight for a BBQ and she asked that I bring along my Rocky Road. So I made a batch last night. You don't really need a recipe... I just chop up the ingredients, melt the chocolate, (I also added some rice bubbles to this lot) mix it up and pour into a slice tray that has been lined with glad wrap. Refrigerate.



Enjoy!

Old Laundry

Some ridiculous hours are required at work at the moment, so this blog is definitely being neglected. However, the laundry renovations have started at my place, and so the upside to the hours I have been putting in at work means I don't have to look at the state my house is in for the duration.

Here are shots of the old laundry which has been completely demolished:

Retaining wall

The work on my retaining wall is almost complete. And what a pleasure it is to look outside my kitchen window to see a decent brick wall, instead of one that is falling apart.







Next.. the laundry!

Moonta & Wallaroo

On the weekend me my friend M and her daughter, went away to the Eyre Peninsula. We rented a cabin at the caravan park at Wallaroo. I had never been to the Copper Coast despite having lived only an hour and half away (from Port Augusta or Adelaide). And, I can't believe how much I enjoyed it. I came away from the weekend feeling extremely ignorant in my knowledge of the region's history. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was a booming region where people were given free passage from the Cornwall area in the UK to work in the copper mines. There was an incredible museum at Moonta that use to be a school. I can't believe how many relics of times gone by remain. Worth a visit for sure. Here are some of my photos from the weekend.


Marina at Wallaroo








Note the 'mounds' on the ground behind the plaque...so tragic. The plaque says "To the memory of the children who fell victims of epidemics due to insanitary conditions in the early mining days. 1969."