Red and White Cupcakes

The red and white striped cupcake holders prompted me to make lemon cupcakes with strawberries. Then ice them with buttercream icing and quartered strawberries.

Altered the second photo and I reckon it looks like those retro photos. Could be used in an ad for cupcakes!

Invisible Zinc Strikes Again

For the last time...

I finally found the ingredient list for Invisible Zinc ESP SPF 30+. The link is here but I shall list it here as well.

Active ingredient:

Zinc Oxide 20%

Full ingredients:

Aqua, Zinc Oxide, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Isostearyl Neopentanoate, Cyclopentasiloxane, Glycerin, Methyl Glucose Sesquistearate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Glucoside, PEG-20 Methyl Glucose Sesquistearate, Xanthan Gum, Diazolidinyl Urea, Benzyl Alcohol, Butylene Glycol, Citrus Medico Limonum (Lemon) Fruit Extract, Fumaria Officinalis Extract, Fumaric Acid, Disodium EDTA, Tocopheryl Acetate

So this pretty much confirms that it is not a natural product. I have stopped using it and found another moisturiser with an SPF of 15. It's a let down but if I am sticking to natural products, I have to be consistent. A moisturiser is one of those things that sits on my face for long periods of time.

My First Macarons!

I made my first batch of macarons today. The recipe I used was taken from Whisk Kid which in turn was taken from Tartelette. I decided to try this version as it only required 90g of egg whites (roughly equivalent to 3 egg whites). Poh's Kitchen also has a recipe here but that recipe required 420g of egg whites. I wasn't prepared to sacrifice that many eggs until I get the hang of it :-)

Anyways, here are some photos:

My macarons 'croutering' - forming a crust. This was the largest baking tray I had which actually is an oven tray. And I do realise that they aren't uniform in size or spaced apart properly. I blame that on the fact I didn't have a proper piping nozzle!

My first small batch of macarons that were taken out of the oven... it was raised then it collapsed on itself :-(

The second larger batch. I kept them in the oven for a while before taking them out and they didn't collapse as much. But you must watch them because they only take about 10mins in the oven.

Filled with buttercream

They were supposed to be lime flavoured but the flavour is subtle that they are just plain macarons.

Crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle :-P

The worst part of making these is the sifting of the almond meal. That is a very tedious task. I do recommend you follow Tartelette's advice and process your own, unless you can find a brand that does fine almond meal.

Apart from that, everything worked out which was surprising. They do taste like the ones I bought from Choux cafe - minus the flavouring.

Next time I shall try colouring and flavouring them.

Present in the Mail

The best mail are the one that surprises you.

This was from FB and I love the colours of the flowers. They may be plastic but the colours that she chose for the brooch make up for that :P There was also a gorgeous purple ribbon with that but I am going to wear this main part in my hair.

And here is here little note explaining what it was all about! (By the way- you have very neat writing FB)
Thanks so much!

Tomato Salad

I was surprised how delicious this tomato salad actually is! I found the recipe in the 'French Women Don't Get Fat' book by Mireille Guiliano. It is also very simple to put together.

The original recipe is ' Tomato Salad with Goat's Cheese' but I substituted goat's cheese with bocconcini because they looked cute and I like the flavour better than the very salty goat's cheese. But it's up to you to experiment.

The recipe serves 4 but adjust accordingly on how many people you are serving.

Ingredients:

• mixed leaf salad for 4
• 4 large tomatoes- washed and sliced
• 200g fresh goat's cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 tablespoons parsley or basil- chopped

Dressing:

• 2 tablespoon minced shallots (I didn't have this and the dressing is still nice)
• 1 teaspoon mustard - I used dijon
• 2 tablespoon vinegar - I used white wine vinegar
• 6 tablespoon olive oil

For the dressing- mix all the ingredients until smooth.

To make:

• Cover each plate with a layer of mixed leaf salad
• Place sliced tomatoes on top
• Salt generously
• Crumble goat's cheese on top of tomatoes
• Further season with salt and pepper to taste
• Pour dressing on top
• Add parsley
• Serve with a slice of country bread or enjoy alone!