Mid-Autumn heat wave and cakes.

There has certainly been a delay with blogging in the last few weeks and that is because I have found myself ridiculously busy working my 'real' job and setting out a plan for our return to Barcelona. I have to say with these beautiful and hot sunny days it is hard to imagine the winter is coming here in New Zealand, everything seems so alive! I walk out of my bedroom (garage) into the garden and all around me I am surrounded by bright bursts of colours throughout the garden. The flowers are going bonkers and the herb garden is bushy. It has been so dry but I always manage to water the garden with left over water from my nephews swimming pool (probably with 1/2 litre of his pee too, grosse I know).

Anyway - continuing on in our summer fashion we have been having many BBQ's and dinners with friends, enjoying the warm afternoon and drinking a beer or two.

Last weekend I made a classic Edmonds banana cake with Lemon & Coconut icing.

Expect this week a blog entry or two for the next BEAUTY UPDATE. I have lots of potions to make before I set off to Spain. Considering the water quality in Barcelona is so crap and full of pretty much everything I want to make sure I take some great oil mixtures and moisturisers to really protect my hair and skin.

Have a lovely week everyone!

Christmas Dinner with Friends

As you may have seen from some previous posts, Sunday was our Christmas meal together - And we got our feed ON Wolfe style! After spending the last 3 Christmas's in Spain where it is winter time it was so refreshing to be back in NZ and be able to have a meal like this with some of my closest friends on such a beautiful sunny afternoon.

Below are a few pictures of the afternoon/evening - We were lucky enough to be at Kim & Tuckers new house which looks out onto beautiful native bush. We felt so lucky!

Starters I made - all recipes can be found on my friends blog - Details below!

The aftermath..

Chilling on the deck enjoying the afternoon heat.

Roast Lamb with Kim's incredible chili & mint sauce (blog post please! I want this recipe..)

Delicious roast veges with gravy made by Tucker!

My sweetheart!

Jaimee's AMAZING pavlova 

A game of Pictionary to end the evening :)

I personally made the starters which were inspired entirely from my friend Eleanor's blog:

http://www.petite-kitchen.com/

Be sure to check it out - SO many YUMMY creations! And healthy too!

And for your knowledge we took off our yellow crowns after some strange looks from the neighbors.. Tradition people come on!

This is not related but I just wanted to wish you ALL a Merry Xmas and show you how adorable my baby nephew is :)

The Pavlova Challenge

I am proud to say that I successfully made my very first homemade pavlova for our Le Wolfe Magique Christmas celebration.

In my mind a Christmas meal is just not complete without a traditional Kiwi pav. Crisp on the outside, soft and marshmallowy in the centre then piled high with freshly whipped cream and fruit. Yum!

Ironically I used an Australian Woman’s Weekly recipe purely because you bake the pavlova on a plate. A genius idea which eliminates the potentially risky step of transferring the pav from the baking tray to the plate.

Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 teaspoons cornflour

5 egg whites

1¼ cups caster sugar

1 tablespoon cornflour, extra

300ml cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 punnet strawberries

1 punnet raspberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Grease a large, round ovenproof plate with melted butter, leaving a 3cm border. Sift cornflour over greased area.

2. In a large bowl beat the egg whites until frothy and soft peaks have started to form. Gradually add the sugar (I started with 1 tablespoon at a time until half was gone then added 2-3 tablespoons at a time), beating well until dissolved between additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Use a large metal spoon or spatula to fold in extra sifted cornflour.

 3. Pile the mixture into the centre of the prepared plate. Use the back of the spoon or spatula to spread out into a circle, making a shallow well in the centre.

 4. Reduce oven to 100°C just before putting in the pav. Bake in the lower half of the oven for 1½ hours  or until dry and crisp to the touch. Turn off the oven and let cool with the oven door ajar.

5. To serve, whip cream and vanilla together until soft peaks form. Spread over the cooled pavlova, top with strawberries and raspberries (of course you can decorate with any fruit you like).

For the original recipe, visit http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/food/8174360/classic-pavlova-baked-on-a-plate.