Banana Bread (why did I wait so long?)

I hate bananas. Okay, that's not exactly true, but I really don't like eating bananas. On their own, that is. Put them in a cake, muffin, bread or a smoothie and I am first in line. I don't know how that works, but it just does. My mum, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Not only will she only eat bananas in their true form, but hers must be slightly green (whereas I want my bananas to be ripe to the point of being black). She's forever giving my her ripe bananas and I make her eat the bananas my son won't eat because they aren't ripe enough once the skin is off.

Choc Chip Cookies and Some Exciting News!

These are so hard to resist when I can see them every time I walk into the kitchen.
Yes, there were more originally.

I haven't done a lot of cooking over the last couple of months. In fact, until this week I could probably count on one hand how many times I'd cooked since the start of february (even the Apple Crumble Cheesecake was a post I'd had waiting since last year). The reality is that I just wasn't well enough to do much of anything, especially anything that involved standing around food in the kitchen. But it's not as bad as it sounds - it was just a little thing called 'morning' sickness and, thankfully, it seems to have mostly gone away. So, yes, we will be having bub number 3 in September (as long as everything goes to plan), which is very exciting! And now that I am feeling human again I am really excited to be getting back in the kitchen.

Apple Crumble Cheesecake

Sorry for the REALLY bad lighting, I took this just before it went out the door.

I am well aware of the irony of having a blog with the word 'Cheesecake' in the title, and yet hardly any cheesecake recipes at all. I choose the title partly because they were the first thing I felt that I could cook well (as demonstrated by the rave reviews and requests I received after making one) and because they are my all-time favourite dessert. That being said, they do tend to trip me up quite regularly.

I'm back! (So what did become of THAT cake?)

Now THIS is a cake!

Yes, I am back. I daresay anyone who would have read my last post would have assumed I had completely thrown in the towel and disappeared into the ether. To tell you the truth, the main reason I haven't been around is my photos. Not the quality (let's face it, I'm never going to be a blogger who people follow just for the photos) but because my computer hard drive was full and I couldn't load them from my camera onto my computer. And then I got busy. And then I kind of forgot. But I realised, I was actually kind of missing writing about my cooking, and I was still taking (slightly dodgy) photos, so now I am back!

Not a good day in the kitchen

Sometimes baking really sucks. I mean, head-in-your-hands-want-to-kick-the-oven-wondering-why-you-bothered sucks. In my case it's compounded by the fact that my catastrophe is meant to be my sister's birthday cake and is something that I have been planning for about a month, so it's really frustrating when I make silly, basic mistakes in the first stage (I'm still resisting the urge to bang my head against the wall).

Tonight I cooked the first part of the cake (that's right - there are multiple parts to this cake, can you see why I was so excited?) And it should've been the easy part - Cheesecake! A recipe I have not only cooked a number of times, but am comfortable cooking (and their aren't many of those). The problem was that I was trying to get it in the oven during the ads of Masterchef (I know, how tragic). In my haste I didn't get all the cream cheese completely smooth, something I didn't notice until I had added the eggs. So I was faced with a tough choice - leave the lumps in the mixture, or try to beat them out?

Let's move onto mistake number two, shall we? Yep, I decided to beat them out. Not only did it not work, but I managed to incorporate a whole heap of air into the mixture. I tapped the bowl like crazy but the mixture stayed thicker than normal and I just couldn't get the bubbles out. Unfortunately the damage was done so I just had to soldier on.

Unfortunately it didn't end there (can you see why I was so intent on the head banging?) - I then overcooked the cheesecakes. I had to split the mixture into two pans for the recipe, so I reduced the one hour cooking time to 40 minutes, but I didn't reduce it enough. When I checked on the cheesecakes there was no wobble in the middle and the top had already started to crack. An hour later, and despite the slightly open oven door, the small cracks had widened to ravines. I have never cooked a worse cheesecake, ever. I almost cried.

So now I have a dilemma: do I continue onwards with the recipe and hope for the best, or do I start again? Hmmmm... at the moment I'm not quite sure. Maybe when I'm not so cranky tomorrow I might be able to make a decision. Hopefully I'll manage to put a cake together for my sister's party.

What is your worst baking disaster? Did you manage to fix it?

Lemon Polenta Cake

In case you haven't noticed, I love to bake. If I could justify it I would bake a cake or a slice or biscuits everyday, but unfortunately those pesky fat and sugar do-gooders in my head keep reminding me that as a mum I really need to be serving mostly healthy-ish food to my family and so my poor KitchenAid stands quiet for most of the week. But I am always looking for an excuse to bake. A dinner invite, wonderful, can I bring dessert? Congratulations on the new job, have some biscuits! Thanks for knocking on my door - here's a cake! (Okay, I'm not quite that bad but I think you get the idea). So when we received an impromptu invite to dinner at my parents' house I instantly offered to make dessert.

Friday Baking and Passionfruit Curd Cupcakes

My mum and I bake on Fridays. It's something I look forward to every week, not only because it's a really good excuse to try a new recipe every week, but once my boys go down for their naps we have some really good chats and, dare I say it, adult time (I know, what am I thinking wanting time for myself? haha).