So, tempted by all the gorgeous French food I have been seeing (where I got the idea to make Macarons). I decided I would make some Croissants. So I scoured the internet to find a recipe that 1. was not too confusing and 2. that wasn't too time consuming. Although the one I found took a while due to rising and chilling and what not, essentially it didn't take too much time away from me to do the rolling etc. And it turns out this recipe is Julia Childs recipe. Courtesy of mamaliga which is where I found the recipe. I did have a bit of trouble, but with this being my first time I've done them....and I stupidly forgot the egg wash... oh well another day. I also think I have messed up somewhere in the recipe, as it is not flaky as it is meant to be, must have been at the butter step.

I don't have a picture, I was leaving it to take one, and then they got eaten! In hindsight I think I will take one right away. So pretty much they were croissants that didn't look like croissants at all

As I have already said, I love baking. Not only do I love baking, but my family love me baking. I am the only one who can do it well. I mean my sister bakes, but even she admits that mine is better. So 2 days ago I made these magic mini cupcakes (although, really, they are perfect 'cupcake' size). I used a couple of strawberries to infuse into the cupcakes, I should have used more to get more taste from them, but Lucas(son) had eaten them all. He loves strawberries. So I didn't have any left to put into the icing, had to settle with strawberry essence. And in the middle of making the icing, I found that I didn't have any red food colouring, but I did have some red writing icing, I used that to get the colour. That's why it's a bit dull.

I think cupcakes are the best thing to bake, so quick and easy. And they get eaten up so quickly. There was one left yesterday morning, not even 24 hours after I made them. This really tells me how good they are.
Today, I will share the cupcake recipe with you, I just used the trusty recipe from the cookbook, it does vary a little bit from some of the recipes I have seen, but I think it's great.

Just couldn't resist

Basic Cupcake Recipe
1 Cup Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Caster Sugar
125g Butter softened
about 1/4-1/2 cup of milk

Cream butter and sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients and the first 1/4 of the milk, mix lightly together. Add the rest of the milk accordingly. Do not over mix. Bake in patty cases at 180º Celsius for about 15 minutes.


Thanks everyone. Until next time, happy cooking

Yesterday was such a good day, and put me in a really good mood. So I thought, I'm going to make something really good for tea, it's a good day, why not celebrate. And I will tell you this, nothing is better then something made from scratch. Lasagna made with (semi)fresh pasta, and homemade tomato pasta sauce was on the menu

I decided yesterday that I was going to attempt to make a tomato pasta sauce to accompany the meat in my lasanga. I already had my pre-made sheets of pasta in the freezer from my previous lasanga.

I had a bit of a look around to try and find a recipe for the sauce, but then I thought, really, it can't be that hard so I had a go. Sorry about the lack of a good photo, it fell apart when I went to put it on the plate.

Lasagna with homemade tomato sauce and pasta

Homemade Tomato Pasta Sauce
5-7 Tomatos
1 Heaped Tablespoon Tomato Paste
1 clove of garlic (diced)
1 small onion (diced)
1 tablespoon oil
a pinch of mixed herbs
about 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
Salt and pepper to season
Flour for thickening


1. Blanch the tomatos. Simmer in water until the skins are wrinkled/cracked and then put them straight into waiting cold water. Once cold peel skins off.

2. In a frying pan, heat the oil. Once heated, fry the garlic and onion until soft but not brown. Add the tomato paste and cook for one minute, constantly stirring. (this will bring the flavour out more)

3. If you want to de-seed the tomatoes do so now. If not, mash them up a bit with a masher then put them in the frying pan with the onion mix. Now is the time to add the ketchup and herbs.

4. Let it simmer down until it is thickened, use the flour to help thicken. Season to taste.

Your sauce is now done, you can use this for many different uses not just lasagna, but if you want to use it for lasagna, take it out of the frying pan, and then add your meat and brown, add the sauce back in and you are ready to go.


Happy Cooking everyone

Trying to decide what to have for dinner can be a challenging task sometimes. And although this isn't about the whole dinner itself, I decided to make an amazing tasting Garlic and Herb bread to go with it.

Garlic and Herb Bread

Garlic and Herb Bread Recipe

1 cup lukewarm-hot water
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon Yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon mixed herbs (I used dried)
1 clove garlic finely chopped (more or less depending on how much you want to taste the garlic)

Now, you can either put it in the breadmaker on the dough setting so that it does all the mixing and rising. Or you can mix and rise it yourself.
After mixing ingredients together, cover the bowl with cling film or similar and leave to rise for 45-60 minutes, knead.
Split into 2 loaves and then leave to rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size.
Cook at 180° Celsius for 40 minutes, rotating half way through.

You can leave it as one big loaf but it will just take longer to cook.


So, remember once again, laugh and love often.

Until next time, happy cooking everyone

So a little bit about me. I love to sew, bake, cook, and craft in general!I live in New Zealand, I am 21 years old, a mother to a 3 year old (yes I was young), and a full time university student, in my second year of study towards being a teacher.

So why not start it off with a beautiful Macaron recipe!

Lemon Macaron with Lemon Swiss Buttercream Filling