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Pie filling

Easy apple fruit mince filo tarts dusted with icing sugar on a white bench.

Easy Apple Fruit Mince Filo Tarts

Seven golden brown fruit mince tarts surrounded by festive decorations.

Christmas Fruit Mince Tarts

On a white marble bench, a white ceramic bowl holds homemade fruit mince, surrounded by Christmas decorations.

Homemade Fruit Mince

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Cooking for two? Here’s how to get two nights of

Vietnamese-style Pork and Chicken Meatloaf Bánh Mì

Week of relaxing with Ellen and Ben in beautiful H

Week of relaxing with Ellen and Ben in beautiful Hanalei Hawaii - quiet - great coffee and donut ‘trucks’ - beautiful sunsets - quiet bay - no crowds - great hikes.

Here’s my styling mood board for my upcoming trio

Here’s my styling mood board for my upcoming trio of Southeast Asian-style recipes.

The recipes include:
•Vietnamese-style Pork and Chicken Meatloaf Bánh Mì
•Korean-style pork Burger and Fresh Nashi Kimchi
•Thai Flavoured Crispy Potato Waffles with Prawns and Maple Chili Oil

And I’m blaming the backdrop, ‘Robust’ by @errer.backdrops, for sending my props collection in a whole new direction. Collecting that may more recently have been unjustly referred to as ‘hoarding’ by some.

While things, possessions, can’t love you back — they can make you smile. This collection does that for me.

Starting from the top left, highlights include:
•‘Fig’ Amuse Bouche plates and dip bowls @casacunia
•Fork and knife gifted to me by the waiter at a restaurant in Colorado. They came wrapped in the napkin I had asked if I could ‘steal.’
•Dark stained wooden serving board — TK Maxx — always unexpected finds to be had.
•Charcoal potholder — hand crocheted — crediting myself.
•Small Acacia wooden serving board 40% off at Spotlight. I have several — perfect size — this one painted charcoal by me (again).
•Large black serving board from Walmart (somewhere USA). Cracked and discounted to $5.
•Unglazed handmade dinner and salad plates by unknown Japanese artist. Found in an upmarket San Francisco design store. You know the ones where you feel judged as soon as you walk through the door. I think I stood and stared at the price tag (feeling judged) for about an hour. Too beautiful not to buy — suppressed my hubris. Now on my ‘most treasured’ shelf.
•Charcoal linen napkin — matched online and stunned when it was the perfect shade of grey. Thank you @cultiver_goods.

#foodstylingandphotography #darkandmoodyfoodphotography #foodstylingprops

Fresh strawberry and basil gel - a perfect filling

Fresh strawberry and basil gel - a perfect filling for my White Chocolate Chiffon Cake.

The strawberry and basil gel I’ve used in my botanical chiffon cake recipe utilises a professional technique to create what’s known as a fluid fruit gel. Strawberry puree, sugar and lemon is set firm with agar-agar. The blocks of set agar agar are later blended with sweet basil into a thick but fluid gel. Fresh strawberries are finely chopped and then folded into the gel.

This technique was a key element of my showstopper bake — a Strawberry and Basil Macaron Stack — during International Week of the Great Australian Bake Off Season 6 @bakeoffau. But you don’t have to be in the Bake Off shed to use it. This fresh strawberry gel works just as well in a no-bake strawberry tart or piled on top of a pavlova.

Swipe for the gel technique, my showstopping Strawberry Basil and White Chocolate Chiffon Cake and the Bake Off showstopper that started it all!

Full recipe available at the link in my bio.

#strawberrycreamcake #strawberrydessert #strawberryandbasil #cookingislikelove

My Strawberry Basil White Chocolate Chiffon Cake p

My Strawberry Basil White Chocolate Chiffon Cake pays homage to two pillars of my childhood: my favourite packet-mix birthday cake—the Angel Food cake—and my mother’s version of a strawberry shortcake.

We ate seasonally when I was a kid in Canada in the 1970s. Summer meant an abundance of locally grown strawberries and these were often transformed into Mom’s shortcake. She used packaged mini sponge cakes, which were essentially just a vehicle for the syrupy goodness of the macerated fresh strawberries. While she was happy to take a shortcut with the cake, my Mom absolutely drew the line at aerosol whipped cream. Ours was always freshly whipped and piled impossibly high onto the fruit-soaked sponges.

For this recipe I’ve chosen a vanilla chiffon over an angel food cake. While my memories of Funfetti birthday cakes are fond, adult Sandra simply won’t allow me to bake a cake where sugar is the primary ingredient.

I’ve filled these chiffon layers with a punchy strawberry and basil gel and frosted the lot with a whipped white chocolate ganache. It’s a modern botanical take on those childhood memories—a cake that respects the memory of Mom’s shortcake but has graduated from the packet-mix era.

Swipe for ingredients. Full recipe available at the link in my bio.

Cake stand by @ecologyhomewares - love this sage colour! Had to have all three sizes!

#strawberrychiffoncake #chiffoncakes #chiffoncake #strawberrydessert

Yoghurt Coeur à la Crème with Grapefruit and Straw

Yoghurt Coeur à la Crème with Grapefruit and Strawberry Compote

Swipe for ingredients and method images.

Coeur à la crème is a classic French dessert—it’s an easy no-bake dessert that translates to ‘heart of cream’.

Traditionally, it’s a mixture of cream cheese, heavy cream, and sugar, strained through a heart-shaped perforated mould. I’ve dialled the fat content back by using Greek yoghurt as the main ingredient, along with some mascarpone. Don’t get stuck on not having a mould, you just need cheesecloth to create some freeform individual coeur à la crèmes.

The grapefruit and strawberry compote is the perfect acidic counterpoint to the cream, along with the citrusy pop and floral heat of pink peppercorns. They’re a purposeful addition, as I’m hoping you’ll be inspired to bake some of my Pink Peppercorn Grapefruit Shortbread to serve alongside.

Full recipes available at the link in my bio.

⚠️ A serious note regarding tree nut allergies: pink peppercorns belong to the Anacardiaceae family (cashews and pistachios). They contain similar proteins that can trigger an allergic reaction. If you are preparing this for someone with a known nut allergy, omit them.

All fresh produce, pink peppercorns, and even the Baby’s Breath (Gypsophila) and super cute miniature glass bottles sourced from my favourite @thestandardmarketco

#cookingislikelove #greekyoghurt #pinkpeppercorns #nobakedessert

Pink peppercorn and grapefruit shortbread Swipe

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