Amour

after a recent trip into the city with my partner, we went out to a french restaurant for dessert and they had a special of French Onion Soup and i had already had dinner :(

so i thought that being winter it would be a perfect mid week dinner.

French Onion Soup:

100g butter- chopped

2kg onions- sliced thinly

1Lt beef stock

4 thyme sprigs

3 parsley stalks

1 bay leaf

8 slices of bread stick/ baguette- lightly toasted

250g Swiss cheese

*finely chop the onions, melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the sliced onions, cover and cook. stir occasionally for around 20 mins or until they are really soft.

*remove the lid and cook the onions on a medium heat for around 40min - 1hour or until they begin to caramelise and very soft.

* add 1/2 cup of warm beef stock and simmer for a 3-4 mins or until most of it has evaporated.

repeat this process until 2 cups of the stock has been added.

*tie all of the herbs together with kitchen string. and add to the pot. season with salt and pepper to taste, and add all of the remaining stock.

*bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30mins or until thick, remembering to stir and scrape any caramelised bits of the base.

*lightly toast the slices of bread under the grill. then turn the oven on to 200.

*ladle soup into oven proof bowls and put them onto an oven tray.

*put a small amount of cheese into each bowl in the middle, sit the bread onto of that and then put more cheese onto of bread until covered.

*place in the oven for 5mins or until the cheese has melted.

this soup was sooo yummy but oh soo very rich and we all could only eat a small amount.

also if i was to make this again, i would not put the bread in the soup then in the oven, i would just serve the soup with the bread toasted.

but all in all a perfect winter warmer! YUM :)

enjoy

xoxo

Little Miss Cupcake

Ohhh yeah...

We also baked some chocolate brownies to take to the tattoo shop today as well.
it was the first time that i had made brownies.. and for making them at 1am last night i have to say they turned out better than i expected!
and as an added bonus they were super easy to make :)

Chocolate Brownies:
200g unsalted butter
100g milk chocolate
100g dark chocolate
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup plain flour
2 tbs cocoa powder

*heat oven to 170, line a 5cm deep 18cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.
*heat butter, chocolate and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly until melted and smooth.
*put into a bowl to cool down.
*add eggs and vanilla to cooled chocolate mix. mix well.
*sift in flour and cocoa over mix , stir until combined.
*pour brownie mix into the lined cake pan and bake for 20mins or until just set.

i also decided to pipe some chocolate ganache to the top of each pieces once it was cut into pieces. ganache that i use is a 1- 2 ratio basically;
100ml cream
200g chocolate
boil cream and add chocolate, stir until smooth and lump free.
if the mix is still lumpy then microwave for 20 seconds at a time on a low heat.
i like to make ganache in large amounts and freeze the leftovers. it freezes perfectly and can be used over and over. :) very handy!

they were all a big hit with the tattoo crew :)

enjoy
xoxo
Little Miss Cupcake

Off to a good start.

after such a late night last night i finally finished the treats to take to the tattoo shop...

basically every time that we go there for more work i bake them some yummy treats to say thanks! any they love it... so much so that thats where i got my nick name "Little Miss Cupcake"

adams tattoo artist Nick is a vegan so this time i made him some vegan choc chunk cookies.

they were very simple and super yummy (especially straight from the oven!)

Vegan "Butter" Cookies:

250g vegetable spread/nuttelex

1 cup icing sugar

2 1/2 cups plain flour

*Beat butter and sugar together in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth and lighter in colour.

* stir in the flour 1/2 at a time.

*turn the mix out onto a lightly floured bench and knead together until smooth.

* divide the mix into two, roll each half into a long sausage and wrap with glad wrap.

* set mix aside in fridge for 1 hour or until firm.

*heat oven to around 160 fan forced, line baking trays with greaseproof paper.

*unwrap dough and cut into approx 1cm slices

*bake for around 15mins or untill slightly golden. cool.

i altered this recipe and added some vegan chocolate which you can find at the supermarket in blocks. i cut up around 80g of both white and milk chocolate into smallish chunks and added at the kneading stage.

its a really simple recipe and you can use normal unsalted butter too..

Enjoy

xoxo

Little Miss Cupcake

1am

Ive had the idea to start a food blog for a while now but haven't had the time.

well currently im unemployed and find quite a bit of time on my hands, so what better time than now to start!

at the moment it just after 1am and im waiting for a few things to come out of the oven... i have a really bad habit of always starting a cooking project WAY to late at night!! but considering my partner usually finishes work at around 9:30 at night, and always wants to help thats the only time i have to do anything!

anyway... i love to cook especially for my friends and family and i always love to try new things. im a qualified pasty chef and a trained cake decorator for my profession and my partner is a chef. because of that you'd think that after work the last thing that we would want to do is cook, but its the opposite! we both love to cook the things that we don't get to make everyday.

anyway thats enough for now but ill be back with some exciting food adventure stories shorty!

Enjoy :)

xoxo

Little Miss Cupcake