Friday, January 14, 2011

Buttercream icing

One of my new years resolutions this years is to learn to make the perfect cupcakes so I started by baking some for my birthday. The actual cupcakes were just average but I'm quite proud of the icing so I thought I'd post the recipe. It's really good.
 
Ingredients:

2 cups  confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk or light cream

Assorted food colors (if desired)

Method:

With an electric beater beat the butter, milk, vanilla essence and food colouring until soft.

Add the icing sugar in a few batches and keep beating untill smooth and fluffy. (You might need to add a few more drops of milk)

Enjoy!

Look how pretty.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Fresh Tomato Soup

This is a great nourishing soup that is super easy and quick to make.

Ingredients:
10 tomatoes
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp dried herbs
1tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Roughly chop the onion and fry in a medium sized pot with the olive oil until soft.
Chop the garlic and add it to the pot.
Roughly chop the tomatoes (it is great if you have a couple of different kinds of tomatoes to add variety of flavour).
Add the tomatoes, the stock and the dried herbs to the pot and allow to simmer for about twenty minutes until the tomatoes are soft and breaking up easily.
Blend the mixture thoroughly with a stick blender until smooth. (If you want to be extra fancy you can pass the mixture through a sieve instead for a more uniform texture.)
Bring back up to the boil and serve immediately.
To garnish thinly slice a couple of basil leaves into ribbons and sprinkle on top.
Another great addition is to add some frozen corn right before serving.